Parenting for a digital future: Finnish imaginaries and realities

Finland has previously been considered to be technologically hostile, advocating for old-style children’s play at the risk of not preparing children for a digital future, argues Kristiina Kumpulainen from the Playful Learning Center in the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Helsinki, Finland. But this is about to change…

Operationalising Intercultural Competence for Translation Pedagogy

This article discusses intercultural competence in the context of translator training. It looks at the way this competence is incorporated and defined in the overall translation competence models, moving on to introduce two models that focus on intercultural competence in particular and serve to operationalize the concept for pedagogical purposes. Making this competence more explicit in translator training is considered vital: in the light of results gained from a survey into the current pedagogical practice (PICT 2012), translator trainers’ and translation students’ understanding of the nature and extent of (inter)cultural training do not match. This calls for re-evaluation of teaching practice which, in turn, presupposes a detailed, comprehensive account of the various dimensions of intercultural competence a translator is to possess. This article discusses these dimensions and provides exemplary scenarios on how to address them in translator training

Aspects and directions of internal arc protectio

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The complexity of freshness and locality in a food consumption context

The life cycle of food trends have shortened considerably, but freshness and local origin seem to retain their appeal. These two concepts are often discussed in academic as well as consumer contexts, but they lack generally accepted definitions. Local food is typically bound to information that include cues such as place of production or farming practices. The concept is similar to freshness, which is not verified using only the senses, but also product-related information. Freshness and local food are often referred to as being desirable, but the true appeal to consumers requires further study. The supply chains for fresh and locally produced food are constantly developing, but the main focus is on solving practical issues rather than providing new input for academic discourse. The overall aim of the thesis was to study freshness and locality as valueadding factors in the food consumption context, as well as examining the similarities and differences between these concepts. For both of these concepts, models were constructed to broaden the academic perspective, and thus enabling more thorough research on the subject. This study investigated the role of sensory properties on the experience of freshness (fresh and cooked), the effect on the experienced quality of information on food origin, and the effect of personal value orientations. In this work, both locality and freshness added value to the product. The results indicated that the effect of freshness can also be perceived in the cooked product, and not only, as is usually considered, when it is uncooked or in a raw state. The appreciation of freshness was seen to be more relevant to individuals valuing good sensory qualities, while the appreciation of local food was related more closely to personal value orientations. The concept of local food is based on expectations of desirable product attributes, because the locality cannot be standardized. Personal values explained the preferences based on product origin, but the effect was dependent on product type and demographic factors. Freshness is more often seen as a token of good quality and safety, which may be more appealing especially to hedonistic individuals. Even though the two concepts overlap, they do not describe the same concept, as local food has stronger ties to ethical conduct, which is not typically connected to freshness. This work provides a starting point for conceptualizing freshness and local foods, and the link between them, by introducing models. Despite the two concepts being separate, the similarity between them in certain areas infers an existing link that should be considered in the future

Bridging dichotomies between children, nature, and digital technologies

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Selkokielinen palvelusuunnitelma

TIIVISTELMÄ Kumpulainen Anu. Selkokielinen palvelusuunnitelma. Diak Pieksämäki, kevät 2015, 39 s. 2 liitettä. Diakonia ammattikorkeakoulu, Sosiaalialan koulutusohjelma, Sosionomi (AMK). Opinnäytetyö toteutettiin toiminnallisena opinnäytetyönä. Opinnäytetyön tavoitteena oli laatia palvelusuunnitelma selkokielelle. Selkokielisen palvelusuunnitelman tarkoitus on parantaa kehitysvammaisen asiakkaan mahdollisuutta tulla kuulluksi ja ymmärretyksi itseään koskevissa päätöksenteoissa. Tarve selkokieliselle palvelusuunnitelmalle nousi Oulunkaaren kuntayhtymän vammaispalveluista. Selkokielinen palvelusuunnitelmalomake vastaa työelämän tarpeita ja on helppokäyttöinen työväline, jonka avulla parannetaan asiakkaan itsemääräämisoikeutta ja mahdollisuutta osallistua itseään koskeviin päätöksiin. Jatkotutkimushaasteena voisi selvittää käyttäjien kokemuksia selkokielisen palvelusuunnitelmalomakkeen vaikuttavuudesta käytännössä. Asiasanat: toiminnallinen opinnäytetyö, vammaisuus, kehitysvammaisuus, palvelusuunnitelma, selkokieli, itsemääräämisoikeus, osallisuus.Kumpulainen Anu. Plain language service plan. Diak Pieksämäki, Spring 2015, 39 pages, 2 appendices. Language: Finnish. Diaconia University of Applied Sciences. Degree programme of Social Services, Degree: Bachelor of Social Sciences. This thesis was a functional thesis and the purpose was to the draw up a servi-ce plan in plain language. Plain language service plan is to improve the handi-capped person’s opportunity to be heard and understood in the decision making process. The need for this plain language service plan came from Oulunkaari federation of municipalities concerning services for the disabled. The plain language service plan meets the needs of working life and it is easy to be used as a tool that will help to improve the customers’ self-determination and opportunity to participate in decisions concerning them. Future studies could find out about the users’ experiences of the effectiveness of plain language service plans in practice. Keywords: functional thesis, disability, mental retardation, service plan, plain language, self-determination.

Operative Treatment of Ovarian Cancer and Borderline Tumors in Different Hospital Categories in Finland

Surgery is the cornerstone of ovarian cancer treatment and maximal cytoreduction is important. In the early 1980’s primary surgical treatment of ovarian cancer was performed in over 80 hospitals in Finland. The significance of the operative volume of the hospital, of the training of the surgeons and of centralization of surgical treatment has been widely discussed. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the outcome of surgical treatment of ovarian cancer in different hospital categories retrospectively and prospectively, and to analyze if any differences are reflected in survival. The retrospective study included 3851 ovarian cancer patients operated between 1983 and 1994 in Finland. The data was analyzed according to hospital category (university, central, and other) and by quartiles of the hospital operative volume. The results showed that patients operated in the highest operative volume hospitals had the best relative survival. When stratifying the analysis by the period of diagnosis (1983-1988 and 1989-1994), the university hospitals improved their performance the most. The prospective part of the thesis was initiated in 1999 and included 307 patients with invasive ovarian cancer and 65 patients with an ovarian borderline tumor. The baseline and 5-year surveys used a questionnaire that was filled in by the operating surgeons. For analysis of the 5-year followup data, the hospitals were divided into three categories (20 patients operated in 1999). The effect of the surgical volume was analyzed also as a continuous variable (1-47 operations per year). In university hospitals, pelvic lymphadenectomy was performed in 88 %, and para-aortic lymphadenectomy in 73 %, of the patients with stage I disease. The corresponding figures ranged from 11 % to 21 % in the other hospitals. For stage III ovarian cancer patients operated by gynecological oncologists, the estimated odds ratio for no macroscopic residual tumor was 3.0 times higher (95 % CI 1.2-7.5) than for those operated by general gynecologists. In the university and other hospitals 82% of the patients received platinum-based chemotherapy. Platinum + taxane combination was given to 63 % of the patients in the university and in 49 % in the other hospitals (p = 0.0763). Only a minority of the patients with tumors of borderline malignancy were staged according to recommendations, most often multiple peritoneal biopsies and omentectomy were neglected. FIGO stage, patient age, and residual tumor were independent prognostic factors of cancer-specific 5-year survival. A higher hospital operative volume was also a significant prognostic factor for better cancer-specific survival (p = 0.036) and disease-free survival (p = 0.048). In conclusion, ovarian cancer patients operated in high-volume university hospitals were more often optimally debulked and had a significantly better cancer-specific survival than patients operated in other hospitals. These results favor centralization of primary surgical treatment of ovarian cancer.Munasarjasyövän ja borderline tuumoreiden leikkaushoito eri sairaalaluokissa Suomessa Kirurginen hoito on munasarjasyövän hoidon kulmakivi ja jäännöskasvaimen kokoa pidetään vakiintuneena ennustetekijänä. Munasarjasyöpäleikkauksia suoritettiin yli 80:ssä eri sairaalassa Suomessa 1980-luvun alkupuolella. Sairaaloiden leikkausmäärän, leikkaavan lääkärin koulutuksen sekä kirurgisen hoidon keskittämisen merkitystä on pohdittu laajalti viime vuosina. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli arvioida munasarjasyövän kirurgisen hoidon toteutusta eri sairaaloissa sekä retrospektiivisesti, että prospektiivisesti. Lisäksi analysoitiin, heijastuvatko kirurgisen hoidon erot elossaololukuihin. Retrospektiivinen työ koostui 3851:stä vuosina 1983 - 1994 leikatusta munasarjasyöpäpotilaasta Suomessa. Aineistoa käsiteltäessä sairaalat luokiteltiin yliopistollisiin-, keskus- ja muihin sairaaloihin sekä sairaaloiden leikkausmäärää kuvaaviin kvartiileihin. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittivat, että niillä potilailla, jotka leikattiin suurimman leikkausmäärän omaavissa sairaaloissa, oli korkeimmat elossaololuvut. Kun analysoitiin ajanjakson vaikutusta tuloksiin jakamalla tutkimusaika kahtia (1983-1988 ja 1989-1994), hoitotulosten todettiin parantuneen eniten yliopistosairaaloissa. Prospektiivinen tutkimus sai alkunsa vuonna 1999 ja koostui invasiivisen munasarjasyövän vuoksi leikatusta 307 potilaasta sekä 65 borderline-tuumorin vuoksi leikatusta potilaasta. Sekä peruskartoitus, että viiden vuoden seurantatutkimus tehtiin leikanneen lääkärin täyttämän kyselykaavakkeen tietojen pohjalta. Viiden vuoden seurantatutkimuksessa sairaalat jaettiin kolmeen ryhmään leikkausmäärän mukaisesti (20 leikkausta vuonna 1999). Vuosittaista leikkausmäärää tutkittiin myös jatkuvana muuttujana (1-47 leikkausta/vuosi). Yliopistollisissa sairaaloissa pelvinen imusolmukkeiden poisto suoritettiin 88 %:lle ja para-aortaalialueen imusolmukkeiden poisto 73 %:lle levinneisyysasteen I potilaista. Vastaavat prosenttiluvut muissa sairaaloissa vaihtelivat välillä 11-21 %. Gynekologisen onkologin leikkaamalla levinnäisyysasteen III potilaalla oli kolme kertaa suurempi (95 % CI 1.2-7.5) todennäköisyys päästä makroskooppisesti tautivapaaksi ensimmäisessä leikkauksessa kuin yleisgynekologin leikkaamalla potilaalla. Yliopisto- ja muissa sairaaloissa 82% potilaista sai platina-pohjaista solunsalpaajahoitoa. Platina + taksaani - yhdistelmähoitoa annettiin 63 %:lle potilaista yliopistosairaaloissa ja 49 %:lle potilaista muissa sairaaloissa ( p = 0.076). Vain pienelle osalle borderline-tuumoria sairastavista potilaista suoritettiin asianmukainen staging-leikkaus, peritoneumbiopsioiden ja omentektomian ollessa useimmiten laiminlyötyjä toimenpiteitä. Taudin levinneisyysaste, potilaan ikä sekä jäännöstuumorin määrä todettiin riippumattomiksi ennustetekijöiksi munasarjasyövän 5-vuoden elossaololukuihin. Sairaaloiden suuremman leikkausmäärän todettiin olevan tilastollisesti merkitsevä ennustetekijä sekä munasarjasyövän tautivapaalle ajalle (p = 0.036) että elossaolo-ajalle (p = 0.048). Yhteenvetona voidaan sanoa, että suuremman leikkausmäärän omaavissa yliopistollisissa sairaaloissa leikatuille potilaille tehtiin useammin täydellinen kasvaimen poisto ja heillä oli merkitsevästi paremmat elossaololuvut kuin muissa sairaaloissa leikatuilla potilailla. Tuloksemme puhuvat näin ollen munasarjasyövän ensivaiheen leikkaushoidon keskittämisen puolesta.Siirretty Doriast

Family Language Policy: A Qualitative Case Study on the Implicit and Explicit Practices in a Finnish Multilingual Family

The present study is a qualitative case study on a Finnish multilingual family’s implicit and explicit family language policy, and the factors that have affected its formation. The purpose of the study is to shed light on the research in the fields of sociolinguistics and family language policy by examining implicit data in addition to the explicit data. Only recently the importance of implicit material has been acknowledged in both fields. The implicit data refers to the family members’ ‘invisible’, natural speech practices, whereas explicit data refers to the manner in which the family members describe their speech practices themselves. The participant family of the study lives in the Southern Finland. Three languages are spoken in the family: Finnish, English and Portuguese. The family members include a Finnish mother, a Brazilian father and their two sons. The study was conducted by examining the family’s recorded spontaneous conversations, as well as interviewing the family members at their home. The following research questions were established for the study: 1. What kind of language practices occur in the everyday interaction of the family? 2. How do the family members describe the FLP and what kind of ideologies have affected its formation? and 3. How does the implicit language policy correspond to the explicit one?. The data was analyzed taking into account Bernard Spolsky’s (2004) theory on the three interrelated components of language policy: practice, ideology and management. According to the analysis, the family’s speech practices follow an OPOL strategy – thus, the children speak a different language with each parent. Comparison of the interview and recorded conversations demonstrated that the family’s implicit and explicit language policies correspond to each other. Examining the language ideologies revealed positive attitudes towards both multilingualism and the family’s languages. English was considered the most prestigious language, which had affected the formation of the family language policy significantly. The effect of the parents’ attitude on the family language policy is in keeping with the findings of previous studies: the more positive views a parent has on the concept of multilingualism, the more probable it is for them to raise their children multilingual. Since the present study is a case study, its findings cannot be generalized. In order to gain results that offer a broader insight into family language policy in Finnish families, more families should be included in the study

Picturing voice: Visual Methods and Children’s Voices in Finnish Education

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