Finnish Colleagues Research Articles

Mycobiota of the Maksimjarvi Planned Protected Area (Republic of Karelia, Russia)

This paper is a first report on the results of macrofungi studies in the planned protected area (PPA) Maksimjarvi, situated in the middle part of the Republic of Karelia, near the Finnish border. The forests there are predominantly north-boreal pine stands with a smaller proportion of spruce stands. The data were gathered during the fieldwork carried out in 2022 by O. Predtechenskaya and A. Ruokolainen and combined with data from Finnish colleagues carried out in 2012 and 2016. The records are supported by specimens deposited in the herbarium of the Karelian Research Centre RAS (PTZ) and Botanical Museum of the University of Helsinki (H). The current checklist for the Maksimjarvi territory includes 196 species of 121 genera, 57 families, 14 orders of aphyllophoroid, agaricoid and gasteroid fungi. The records include the first finding of Phellodon secretus in the Republic of Karelia, and 3 fungal species (Botryobasidium laeve, Peniophora septentrionalis, Phellodon secretus) were found for the first time in the biogeographic province Karelia pomorica occidentalis. Surveys of the Maksimjarvi PPA revealed 17 fungal species listed in the Red Data Book of the Republic of Karelia (2020). The area is known to harbor indicator and specialized fungal species of biologically valuable forests. The need to designate it as a conservation area is substantiated with regard to the ongoing formation of the PA system of the Green Belt of Fennoscandia and the Republic of Karelia.

History of Tribology in Finland 1881 – 2023 and the Finnish Society for Tribology 1977 - 2023

The field of Tribology defined as the “science and technology of interacting surfaces in relative motion, that is friction, lubrication and wear” was introduced to the scientific community in a UK governmental report 1966. UK experts and scientists introduced this new approach to solve industrial problems in engineering design, material technology and lubricant chemistry to Finnish colleagues in the late 1970s. The foundation of the Finnish Society for Tribology 1977 boosted academic and technological activities in the area. Tribology as a topic was introduced in the Finnish universities. Investments were made in collaborative research activities with universities, research centers and industry involved. The international collaboration expanded and the Finnish tribologists initiated and started the 1st NORDTRIB regional tribology conference series in Tampere 1984 and hosted the worldwide 5th EUROTRIB International Tribology Congress in Helsinki 1989. The Finnish Journal of Tribology was established 1982. Large joint research activities were generated especially with the Nordic and European countries, Soviet Union and China. Internationally recognized top research groups were initiated and flourished in Tampere and Helsinki on the topics of abrasive, slurry-erosion and fretting wear; engineering ceramics; thin coating tribology; biotribology; computational modelling in tribology; and calculations on global economic and environmental impact of tribology. This article is modified from the report which the Finnish Society for Tribology contributed to the project “History of Science in Finland” by The Federation of the Finnish Learned Societies (Tieteellisten Seurain Valtuuskunta, TSV).

Differentiated Embedding and Social Relationships Among Russian Migrant Physicians in Finland: A Narrative Socio‐Analysis

Migrants’ processes of (dis)embedding in local and transnational social networks have received growing attention in recent years, but most research focuses on low‐skilled migration. This study explores the affordances and challenges that Russian physicians, as a high‐skilled migrant group in Finland, experience in these processes in work and non‐work domains. Based on semi‐structured biographical interviews with 26 Russian physicians, the study employs Bourdieu’s socio‐analysis to analyze their narratives. The results reveal that Russian migrant physicians negotiate and experience differentiated embedding across work–life domains in local and transnational contexts. They mostly develop collegial relationships with Finnish colleagues and benefit from fulfilling professional relationships in the work domain. However, alongside time and efforts needed for building social ties, various factors often impede friendship making and socialization with locals beyond the work domain. These physicians cope with individual life circumstances through their enduring and supportive relationships with their Russian relatives and colleagues–friends. These results indicate that high‐skilled migrants have a greater opportunity to connect professionally with locals than low‐skilled migrants, but experience similar challenges to the latter in building close personal relationships.

In memoriam: Paolo Sassone-Corsi.

In memoriam: Paolo Sassone-Corsi.

Response to the Critics by Pekkanen etal.

Our original study entitled “Moist and mold exposure is associated with high prevalence of neurological symptoms and MCS in a Finnish hospital workers cohort” has raised a lot of interest. It has been criticised by our Finnish colleagues. [ 1 ] In fact, this critic towards our work depicts the current situation in Finland. Opinions different from the official guidance have been censored during the recent years.

Опыт государственно-частного партнерства в сфере развития современного деревянного жилищного строительства в Финляндии

This paper studies the experience and algorithm of public-private partnership in the development of modern wooden housing in Finland. Are view of the state of modern wooden architecture in the general context of architectural activity in Finland was carried out by analysing governmental programmes aimed at developing wooden housing and environmentally sustainable constructionpractices,in particular the "State architectural policy of Finland" adopted in 1998. The materials of a seminar on constructing modern wooden housing held in Irkutsk by Finnish specialists are presented. The ex-perience of Finnish colleagues was considered in terms of its expediency for the construction industry of the Angara region. It is established that the organizational and economic effectiveness of projects in the sphere of wooden housing construction and environmentally sustainable construction processes should be based on a close and comprehensive cooperation of state construction organizations with private construction companies and public organizations. Specific forms of public-private partnership in the field of wooden housing construction are described, along with the roles and positions of all the par-ticipants. Special attention was paid to the Finnish experience of holding housing fairs, which are aimed at promoting wooden housing construction in different cities of Finland. The Finnish experience in the development of wooden housing construction is currently one of the best in the world, and its applica-tion in the construction industry of the Angara region is expedient.

Diabetes Prevention in Australia: 10 Years Results and Experience.

Clinical trials have demonstrated the efficacy of lifestyle modification for the prevention of type 2 diabetes mellitus but it was achieved at higher cost than can be sustained in routine health services. The first clinical trial to report was the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study. This paper describes how Australia worked with Finnish colleagues to adapt the findings of that study to achieve a statewide diabetes prevention program. Small evaluative, effectiveness trials have been conducted in a number of countries to see if the results of the clinical trials can be replicated in routine health services. The Australian evaluative trial, Greater Green Triangle Diabetes Prevention Program is described in detail to demonstrate the ingredients for success in moving a program from one country to another. Few countries have managed to scale up from evaluative trials to statewide or national programs. The Australian experience is described in detail including lessons learned about what reduced the effectiveness, particularly the need for policy makers in government, people from the implementing organisation and researchers to work together from the start of the evaluative trial and throughout the first 5 years of a national program.

The ABCs of Clinical Trials in Cuba.

In 1981, Cuba's biotechnology sector was born when Cuban scientists, trained by Finnish colleagues, successfully isolated large quantities of human leukocyte interferon alpha. Within a decade and following a $1-billion dollar investment by the Cuban government, 52 scientific research institutions were established in and around Havana to develop vaccines, therapies and other medical applications to meet demands of the national health system.

Treatment Professionals' Basic Beliefs About Alcohol Use Disorders: The Impact of Different Cultural Contexts

ABSTRACT Background: The treatment of alcohol abusers in different cultural contexts does not depend only on the methods used but also on the ways in which treatment providers perceive the problem and relate to their clients. Objectives: This study compares treatment professionals' basic beliefs about alcohol use disorders in two culturally different European countries to find out to what extent these ideas are shaped by the respondents' socio-cultural context, profession, and other background variables. Methods: Similar postal surveys were conducted among professionals working in specialized addiction treatment units in Finland (n = 520) and France (n = 472). The data were analyzed by descriptive statistical methods and logistic regression analysis. Results: Consistent cultural differences were found in almost all the questions asked and they remained significant even after controlling for the other background factors. The French professionals emphasized the addictiveness of alcohol more than their Finnish colleagues. They also believed less in the chances of recovery and attributed more responsibility for the problem to external factors, while the Finns emphasized individual responsibility. Profession, gender and some other background variables also modified beliefs about specific questions. Conclusions: Cultural factors shape the ways in which alcohol use disorders are perceived more pervasively than the other background variables. The French professionals' low trust in treatment and the Finnish professionals' lack of concern for the addiction potential of alcohol and stronger tendency to regard the person as responsible for the problem could be seen as potential impediments to effective ways of helping alcohol abusers in these countries.

The ABCs of Clinical Trials in Cuba.

In 1981, Cuba's biotechnology sector was born when Cuban scientists, trained by Finnish colleagues, successfully isolated large quantities of human leukocyte interferon alpha. Within a decade and following a $1-billion dollar investment by the Cuban government, 52 scientific research institutions were established in and around Havana to develop vaccines, therapies and other medical applications to meet demands of the national health system.

The Development of Intercultural Relationships at Work Polish Migrant Workers in Finland

This article offers an interpersonal communication perspective on relational processes in a workplace affected by the international flow of labor migration. We investigate how temporary migrant workers and their foreign colleagues perceive developing interpersonal relationships with each other through an analysis of in-depth interviews with employees of a Finnish recruitment agency and Polish metal workers it has recruited. The recruitment agents talk about their relationships with the recruited Polish workers; the Polish workers also describe their relationships with their Finnish colleagues at the customer company. The context under investigation emerges as rich in relational processes. The development of intercultural workplace relationships is analyzed in terms of motives for and against engaging in relational growth, as well as behaviors enacted to develop or not develop relationships.

The Evolution of English as the Business Lingua Franca

This study questions the conventional view of the indirectness of Chinese communication. Drawing on qualitative interviews with Finnish and Chinese business professionals, the authors examine the effect of cultural identity on the directness of the communication of Chinese professionals who work for internationally operating Finnish companies located in Beijing and Shanghai, China, and who use English as the shared language with their Finnish colleagues. Three components of cultural identity (i.e., vocation as an international business professional, fairly young age, and the use of English as the business lingua franca) are particularly relevant in the participants’ professional communication and stimulated its openness and directness. The study finds that the evolution of English as the business lingua franca can be detected in the signs of convergence identified in Chinese and Finnish professional communication.

Vegetation relations in the border regions of NE Finland and Russian Karelia: a review of Wainio (1878)

E. A. Vainio (Wainio) defended his doctoral thesis, “Vegetation relations in the border regions of NE Finland and Russian Karelia” in 1878 at the age of 24. This was the first biological dissertation published in Finnish. In his work Vainio presented relations between plant species in his study area, and identified factors that increased or decreased the dominance of different kinds of vegetation and distributional limits for different species. Vainio expressed the early idea of site-type classification based on vegetation patterns: “Plant species tend to grow in certain clusters which occupy bigger or smaller surfaces, which offer them similar kinds of physical–chemical conditions”. He defined the concept of plant topography, clarified which plant species clusters were present in his study area, what chemical–physical conditions defined them and the reasons for their existence. A. K. Cajander developed these ideas further in his classical forest and mire site-type classifications in the early twentieth century. Although Vainio's work was ahead of his time since he not only described plant communities but also tried to explain their existence with a site-ecological approach, his Finnish colleagues did not cite Vainio's study during his lifetime, mainly for political reasons. His life demonstrates that a person's influence may be hidden because of personal and/or political causes.

From psychoanalysis to epidemiology: autobiographical notes

From psychoanalysis to epidemiology: autobiographical notes

“Are you Hungarian or Romanian?” On the Study of National and Ethnic Identity in Central and Eastern Europe

A personal note frames this essay. In recent years I have travelled with my Finnish colleagues from the University of Tampere to a number of international seminars and conferences organized in various European locations. While socializing with the other participants, my self-identification as Romanian has, on several occasions, prompted the question “are you Hungarian or Romanian …?“ No other options were ever offered, even though Romania has a quite sizeable Roma minority and a number of Saxons, though ever declining, still live in the country. At the same time, the ethnicity of my Finnish colleagues has never been questioned. True, Finns describe their country as a homogeneous place, yet Finland is a country with two official languages—Finnish and Swedish—ever praised for the treatment of its Swedish-speaking minority. And some other ethnicities—for instance, Roma and Sami—also live in Finland. Nobody interested? Or maybe there is more to it than simply a question of curiosity (or a lack of it). That the ethnicity of the Finnish participants was deemed irrelevant, whereas my ethnic identity seemed a topical issue for informal discussions during coffee breaks or conference lunches elicited my interest in the issue of national and ethnic identity. I have started to ask how collective identities, and especially national and ethnic identities, have been conceptualized and how those theoretical concepts have been deployed in the study of Central and Eastern European identities. Are there any differences in how Central and Eastern European identities are studied compared with Western identities?

Enterprise resource planning competence centres: a case study

PurposeTo describe the establishment of a Swedish enterprise resource planning (ERP) competence centre (CC), with assistance from Finnish colleagues and modelled on their CC.Design/methodology/approachBy outlining the input of Finnish colleagues and using the concept of the Finnish ERP CC, develops the history of the establishment of the Swedish model during 2001‐2003.FindingsFollowing a European IT consultancy company building a new Baan CC in Sweden brings new lessons from the field. Reasons for failure were shown to be: a dropping market, high entry barriers and an underestimation of resources needed for building a new ERP CC. Barriers preventing success in the ERP business were found.Practical implicationsCorporate templates, migrated sites combined with aggressive competitors and demanding price conscious customers have changed the ERP maintenance business and made the organisation hierarchical. Difficulties for new entrants in the ERP service business where customers pick and change supplier.Originality/valuePresented a unique case study that outlines and discusses the mentorship between Swedish and Finnish ERP CC initiatives.

Dr. Dalton and Colleagues Reply

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Letter to the EditorFull AccessDr. Dalton and Colleagues ReplySUSANNE OKSBJERG DALTON, M.D., Ph.D., THOMAS MUNK LAURSEN, M.Sci., LENE MELLEMKJAER, M.Sci., Ph.D., CHRISTOFFER JOHANSEN, M.D., Ph.D., and PREBEN BO MORTENSEN, M.D., Dr.Med.Sci., SUSANNE OKSBJERG DALTONSearch for more papers by this author, M.D., Ph.D., THOMAS MUNK LAURSENSearch for more papers by this author, M.Sci., LENE MELLEMKJAERSearch for more papers by this author, M.Sci., Ph.D., CHRISTOFFER JOHANSENSearch for more papers by this author, M.D., Ph.D., and PREBEN BO MORTENSENSearch for more papers by this author, M.D., Dr.Med.Sci., Copenhagen, DenmarkPublished Online:1 May 2005https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.162.5.1024-aAboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail To the Editor: We introduced the healthy parenthood effect as a proposed explanation for the observed change in results according to which comparison group was used in our study of cancer risk in the parents of schizophrenic offspring. We compared the cancer rates in the parents of schizophrenic offspring (exposed group) to those of other parents, which we consider to be the most correct, and found no difference in cancer risk. When we included persons who had not had any children and used the general population rates of cancer as the comparison, a method similar to that of Dr. Lichtermann and colleagues, we also observed a reduced risk of several forms of cancer, in line with the findings of our Finnish colleagues. It is unlikely that our results were biased by the choice of start of follow-up because we followed up from the time of birth of the schizophrenic offspring in the exposed group in both analyses. We do not think that the results published by our Finnish colleagues are specific to the parents of schizophrenic patients but more generally to being parents. The healthy parenthood effect denotes selective processes that lead to the forming or initiation of a family and, second, to the maintenance of a relatively regular and healthy lifestyle when living a family life. This would probably mean that parents, compared to all adults, smoke less, drink less, exercise more, and so forth. The results that we highlight from the literature in our article as supporting the notion of a healthy parenthood effect include mainly cancer forms with a large environmental component. To the best of our knowledge, there have been no studies of the risk of cancer in parents in general and, as Dr. Lichtermann points out, most studies of cancer risk in cancer families will reflect the high-risk nature and report the higher risk of some forms of cancer with a large familial component. However, the study by Westergaard et al. (1996)—apart from reporting a high risk of testicular cancer in the fathers and brothers of testicular cancer patients—did indeed also find a reduced risk of overall cancer, a reduction mainly carried by reduced lung cancer and gastrointestinal cancer risk. The differences in cancer risk based on whether the exposed group is compared to only other parents or the total population in Denmark must somehow be connected to parental status, making the healthy parenthood effect a plausible explanation. FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited byPsychiatric disorders among cancer patientsBritish Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 190, No. 2 Volume 162Issue 5 May 2005Pages 1024-a-1025 Metrics PDF download History Published online 1 May 2005 Published in print 1 May 2005

Attitudes of Primary Care Physicians Toward Older Drivers: A Finnish-Swedish Comparison

Finnish and Swedish general practitioners'(GPs) activities, knowledge, and attitudes related to aging and driving were compared using a mail survey to evaluate the effects of the two countries' different driver licensing policies. The hypothesis was that the existence of an obligatory medical screening system in Finland would make the Finnish GPs more active or knowledgeable concerning aging and driving than their Swedish colleagues with no experience of such a system. The survey was sent to a random sample of registered GPs who worked in primary health care centers in Sweden ( n = 1,500) and in Finland ( n = 1,527); 1,682 respondents completed the form and were included in final analysis. The results did not support the hypothesis: The Swedish GPs reported more activities than did their Finnish colleagues. The level of knowledge was similar in both countries, but the Finnish GPs had higher confidence in their diagnostic competence and more restrictive attitudes than did the Swedish GPs. The existence of an obligatory medical screening system hence did not make the Finnish GPs more active or knowledgeable concerning aging and driving compared to their Swedish colleagues. In contrast, it may contribute to the Finnish GPs' unrealistic confidence in their own assessment skills and in the adequacy of the present screening system in Finland.

Attitudes of Primary Care Physicians Toward Older Drivers: A Finnish-Swedish Comparison

Finnish and Swedish general practitioners'(GPs) activities, knowledge, and attitudes related to aging and driving were compared using a mail survey to evaluate the effects of the two countries' different driver licensing policies. The hypothesis was that the existence of an obligatory medical screening system in Finland would make the Finnish GPs more active or knowledgeable concerning aging and driving than their Swedish colleagues with no experience of such a system. The survey was sent to a random sample of registered GPs who worked in primary health care centers in Sweden (n = 1,500) and in Finland (n = 1,527); 1,682 respondents completed the form and were included in final analysis. The results did not support the hypothesis: The Swedish GPs reported more activities than did their Finnish colleagues. The level of knowledge was similar in both countries, but the Finnish GPs had higher confidence in their diagnostic competence and more restrictive attitudes than did the Swedish GPs. The existence of an obligatory medical screening system hence did not make the Finnish GPs more active or knowledgeable concerning aging and driving compared to their Swedish colleagues. In contrast, it may contribute to the Finnish GPs' unrealistic confidence in their own assessment skills and in the adequacy of the present screening system in Finland.

Maternity Care in Developing Countries

Maternity Care in Developing Countries