Metropolitan Helsinki Research Articles

Connectivity, land use, and fish presence influence smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris) occurrence and abundance in an urban landscape

IntroductionUrban areas are challenging environments for wetland species with complex habitat requirements and life cycles. However, even semiaquatic species, representing such complex wetland groups, can be provided with adequate conditions through thorough understanding of their habitat requirements coupled with comprehensive wetland management.MethodsWe studied the occurrence and abundance of the smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris), a widely distributed amphibian, in an urban landscape in metropolitan Helsinki, Finland. We classified 50 randomly selected urban wetlands based on their connectivity by applying isolation scores counted using principal component analysis (PCA) and measured the occurrence and abundance of smooth newts in these locations.ResultsOur analyses showed well-connected wetland sites to differ significantly in smooth newt occurrence from both isolated and partially connected sites. Additionally, smooth newt abundance in well-connected wetlands differed from isolated sites. A PCA model with residential buildings (negative effect) and aquatic vegetation (positive effect) best explained smooth newt occurrence and total and male abundance, and female newt occurrence was best explained by a model also incorporating forest and natural open areas. Predation pressure by fish negatively influenced both smooth newt occurrence and abundance.DiscussionTighter networks of constructed wetlands and stricter management guidelines for urban wetland planning and fish community management could increase the suitable habitat for smooth newts in urban landscapes. Managing such areas for the common smooth newt offers potential broad benefits to the conservation of other semiaquatic amphibians and reptiles in urban wetlands and to urban wetland biodiversity in general. Our results show that smooth newt presence may indicate sustained wetland connectivity in an urban landscape and could even be used to signal successful urban planning.

Effects of urban infrastructure on aquatic invertebrate diversity

Wetlands are one of the world’s most important, economically valuable, and diverse ecosystems. A major proportion of wetland biodiversity is composed of aquatic invertebrates, which are essential for secondary production in aquatic and terrestrial food webs. Urban areas have intensified the challenges wetlands encounter by increasing the area of impermeable surfaces and the levels of nutrient and pollutant overflows. We investigated how urban infrastructure affects the aquatic invertebrate fauna of urban wetlands in metropolitan Helsinki, southern Finland. We measured riparian canopy cover, emergent vegetation coverage, and various land cover and road variables. Recreation area, forests, and open natural areas were the most important landscape features positively influencing aquatic invertebrate family richness, whereas buildings and roads had a negative effect on family richness and abundances of many taxa. Recreation area and the various forest types also positively affected the α-diversity indices of wetlands. On the other hand, fish assemblage did not affect either family richness or abundances of the studied taxa. Furthermore, trees growing on the shoreline negatively affected the diversity of aquatic invertebrate families. Invertebrate family diversity was greatest at well-connected wetlands, as these areas added to the regional species pool by over 33%. Our results show that connectivity and green areas near wetlands increase aquatic invertebrate family diversity, and our results could be utilized in urban planning.Graphical abstract

Work Burnout and Engagement Profiles Among Teachers.

The focus of the current study was to examine teachers’ well-being in terms of work engagement and burnout by using a person-oriented approach. The participants (n = 149, 70.5% female) were subject-matter teachers from 22 schools from metropolitan Helsinki area in Finland. The first aim was to examine the kinds of profiles we can identify based on work burnout and engagement among teachers. The second aim was to study how the identified profiles differed in job-related demands and resources and personal resources in terms of resilience. Based on the demands-resources model, we expected to find profiles that differ in terms of key resources and demands. The sample was acquired as a convenience sample and the data was collected using online self-report questionnaires. The measures were work engagement, work burnout, work demands/resources (workload and control) and resilience as the personal resource. In addition, changes and effects of the economic circumstances were accounted for with two binary variables assessing the effect on class sizes and material resources. We identified two profiles among teachers: engaged (30%) and engaged-burnout (70%) profiles. We found that those in the engaged profile group had more job and personal resources, such as control and resilience, whereas those in the engaged-burnout profile group experienced more work demands, such as workload.

Kick Scooter Injuries in Children and Adolescents: Minor Fractures and Bruise.

Kick scooters are popular among children in both transportation and recreational activities. The aim of this retrospective study was to assess the incidence of and injury patterns associated with kick scooter accidents in school-aged children and adolescents. All 171 patients at the age of 7-15 years who were treated for kick scooter-related injuries in the metropolitan Helsinki area, Southern Finland from January 2008 to December 2013 were included. Electronic medical records were reviewed and Pediatric Trauma Scores and Injury Severity Scores were utilized to assess the injuries. The annual number of patients increased from 7 in 2008 to 55 in 2013. Almost all patients (94%, n = 161) were injured after a fall from their own height. Most patients (n = 118; 69%) were diagnosed with a fracture but only 26 patients (15%) required surgical procedures under general anesthesia. Pediatric Trauma Scores were low and only one patient had an Injury Severity Score > 15 which can be considered major trauma. Most injuries acquired from kick scooter injuries were easily treatable fractures and bruises. Considering the background population of 105,000 in the respective age group and the 6-year period of data collection from tertiary care, scooting seems a safe means of increasing the physical activity levels of school-aged children and adolescents.

Clean energy systems as mainstream energy options

Solving the energy and climate challenges ahead will require introducing massive amounts of clean energy such as renewable energy (RE) sources, in particular, in urban areas as these dominate the energy use and emissions. Variable RE sources such as solar and wind are interesting mainstream energy options in this context. However, their use may cause major problems with the power system calling for more advanced strategies to enable optimal integration and bridging of the new and old energy system. Here, we demonstrate the usefulness of electricity-to-thermal conversion and RE linked to e-mobility strategies to increase the RE share much beyond the traditional self-use limit of power. For example, the Metropolitan Helsinki (Finland) region could in this way derive up to 60% of its electricity and 30% of its heat from wind power, without any major energy storage arrangements. In sunny climates, the use of photovoltaics could be increased by a factor of 2–3 over the self-use limit of power through such strategies. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Demographic factors, temperament and the quality of the preschool environment as predictors of daily cortisol changes among Finnish six-year-old children

A young child's stress-sensitive neurobiological system is immature and open to being shaped by experience. When children enter preschool, external demands on them to adjust are different from the demands they experience at day care. In Finland, the last year before children transfer to the comprehensive school is called preschool. The preschool year is far more academically demanding than earlier day care years, emphasizing school-like activities along with age-appropriate social and cognitive challenges. The first aim of the present study was to study whether the preschool year (six-year-old children) has an effect on the children's cortisol reactivity. To examine the changes in stress regulation, cortisol reactivity was investigated both in the autumn and in the spring. The second aim of the study was to explore whether demographic factors, temperament and the quality of preschool environment have an effect on the daily variation of the cortisol level among the participants of the study. Five day care centres in metropolitan Helsinki, Finland, participated in this study and 91 six-year-old preschool children served as participants. Our results showed that the children displayed typical cortisol reactivity during the autumn as expected, whereas their cortisol values were significantly higher in the spring. The autumn measurements revealed a significant relationship between the cortisol effects and the temperament characteristics of sadness, anger/frustration and perceptual sensitivity. These characteristics were not as evident when measured during the spring. Additionally, the results indicated that quality of learning environment affects changes in children's cortisol reactivity.

Birthplace predicts risk for prehospital sudden cardiac death in middle-aged men who migrated to metropolitan area: The Helsinki Sudden Death Study

Background. Eastern-born male Finns, irrespective of their place of residence, have high mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD), and half of such deaths are sudden.Aim. To study whether eastern birthplace alone or combined with life-style factors predicts risk for prehospital sudden cardiac death (SCD) in the new (west) low-mortality area of residence.Method. Prospective case-control autopsy study of all (700) out-of-hospital deaths of men aged 35–69 years in metropolitan Helsinki during 1981–82 and 1991–92. Data on CHD risk factors were obtained for 405, of whom 149 died of SCD (cases) and 256 of other causes (controls).Results. A birthplace-by-age interaction with SCD (P=0.024) and with myocardial infarction (P=0.005) appeared. Men ≤54 years born in the east were more often victims of SCD (odds ratio 2.99, 95% confidence interval 1.38–6.49, P=0.006) than were men born in the west, independently of CHD risk factors. SCD was predicted also by alcohol consumption, age, smoking, and hypertension. Amongst older (>54 years) men no association with birthplace was any longer evident, but alcohol and socio-economic status predicted SCD.Conclusions. Birthplace-based risk for SCD suggests the contribution of early life environment or genetic east-west differences, reflecting Finns’ two-phase settlement history.

The DARTS tool for assessing online medicines information

The use of the Internet as a source of medicines information is increasing. However, the quality of online information is highly variable. Equipping Internet users to distinguish good quality information is the aim of a new five-item quality assessment tool (DARTS) that was developed by the Working Group on Information to Patients under the Pharmaceutical Forum established by the European Commission. The objective of this study was to investigate how people with depression assess the quality of online medicines information and to study their opinions about the DARTS tool in assisting in this process. Focus group discussions with Internet users were conducted in metropolitan Helsinki, Finland. Six focus group discussions (67-109 min duration) were conducted with people with depression (n = 29). The DARTS tool was used as a stimulus after open discussion in relation to the evaluation of the quality of Internet-based medicines information. The focus groups were digitally audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were thematically content analysed by two researchers. Focus group participants were generally critical of the information they retrieved. However, few participants systematically applied quality assessment criteria when retrieving online information. No participants had knowledge or experience of any quality assessment tools. The DARTS tool was perceived as being concise and easy to use and understand. Many participants indicated it would allay some of their concerns related to information quality and act as a reminder. While several participants felt the tool should not be any more extensive, some of them believed it should include a more in-depth explanation to accompany each of the quality criteria. The DARTS tool may act as a prompt for people with depression to assess the quality of online information they obtain. The five DARTS criteria may form the basis of a systematic approach to quality assessment and the tool may also act as a reminder of quality issues in general. Further studies are needed to assess the actual value of the DARTS tool as well as its value in relation to other quality assessment instruments.

Finlands svenskspråkiga ungdomars dryckesvanor i Österbotten och huvudstadsregionen: En jämförelse med finskspråkiga ungdomar

There is some research evidence which suggests that drinking habits among Swedish-speaking Finns differ from those of Finnish-speaking Finns. The limited literature on this subject routinely lumps the minority of Swedish-speaking Finns into one single group. The assumption is that drinking habits in the Swedish-speaking population are less damaging to health than drinking habits in the Finnish-speaking majority. In this study we use data from the nationwide School Health Promotion Study, which in principle covers all pupils in the 8th and 9th grade of comprehensive school and the 1st and 2nd grade of upper secondary school. We chose to focus on two areas with a sufficiently large number of Swedish-speaking residents and, by tradition, different drinking habits, i.e. Ostrobothnia and the metropolitan Helsinki area. All in all, the data consist of 5,698 Swedish-speaking and 29,708 Finnish-speaking adolescents aged ca. 14–18. The results show that when the populations from the two areas are taken together, there are indeed differences between the two language groups. The almost ten-year downward trend in youthful drinking in Finland is clearly attributable to Finnish-speaking youth. This is also true for the reductions seen in frequent drinking and binge drinking. In a comparison of Ostrobothnia and the metropolitan Helsinki area, it turns out that the differences between Swedish-speaking youngsters are considerable: abstention, less frequent drinking and less binge drinking are clearly more prevalent in Ostrobothnia than in the Helsinki area. By comparison, the Finnish-speaking adolescents in the two regions differ less clearly from each other. Conspicuous subgroups within the Swedish-speaking minority are the binge drinking upper secondary students in the Helsinki area, the abstaining girls from comprehensive schools in the almost exclusively Swedish-speaking Ostrobothnian municipalities, and the abstaining youngsters from the “bible zone” in Ostrobothnia. In contrast to earlier findings, we found that in Ostrobothnia the drinking habits of the two language groups are quite similar.

What makes a location attractive for the housing consumer? Preliminary findings from metropolitan Helsinki and Randstad Holland using the analytical hierarchy process

What determines the attractiveness of a location within a given housing market? The study reports some preliminary cross-country evidence on housing consumer preferences, based on expert elicited preference profiles generated by an analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The findings indicate fundamental differences between the two housing market contexts: metropolitan Helsinki (in 1998) and Randstad Holland (in 2003). In Helsinki housing quality and a spacious environment are always taken for granted. Therefore, an important choice criterion is location, particularly two aspects of it: accessibility and ȁ8pleasantnessȁ9. The latter aspect characterises a pluralist consumer preference formation; it is based on various individual and idiosyncratic lifestyles that depend on value orientations. In Randstad Holland the situation is somewhat different. There, for most housing consumers, the functionality and spaciousness of the house matters more than its location. Furthermore, the tangible ȁ8hardȁ9 characteristics have more weight than the intangible ȁ8softȁ9 ones when it comes to evaluating the physical surroundings. The image of the municipality does not matter as much as the neighbourhood factors. The difference is particularly evident for new developments in suburban areas. This has potential implications for the building industry when deciding on the most feasible strategy for production.

Somali youth in the context of schooling in metropolitan Helsinki: a framework for assessing variability in educational performance

This article presents a framework that emphasises the multiplicity of factors explaining the educational performance of second‐generation immigrants. The framework is illustrated by an example taken from the Somali‐speaking population of metropolitan Helsinki. The multivariate framework, which is probabilistic rather than deterministic, acknowledges a multitude of factors that interact in a complex manner and affect the school performance of students. Each factor may prove to be a resource or a challenge for educational performance. The various combinations of variables are claimed to produce segmentation in the acculturation paths both within and between ethnic groups. Judging from ethnographic data, many challenges are present in the case of Somali‐speaking students.

Drug use: the new generation

Drug use increased in the 1990s also in Finland. The article describes the results of a postal questionnaire survey in Finland in autumn 2002. The population of the survey consisted of Finnish people aged 15–69. A total of 2,541 persons took part in the survey, giving a response rate of 63 per cent. This can be considered reasonably high. A comparison of the results with the figures produced by surveys conducted in the same way in 1992, 1996 and 1998 provides a good indication of how the situation has developed over the past ten years. In the 2002 survey, 12 per cent of the respondents said they had tried or used an illicit substance at some point in their life. The majority reported that this had happened one year ago or earlier. Three per cent reported drug use during the past 12 months, one per cent that they had used drugs during the past 30 days. A comparison with earlier studies reveals trends in both directions. The numbers who indicated that they had sometimes tried or used drugs have increased, over the past four years particularly among women. The figures describing recent use in 2002 do not seem to have changed since 1998. The sharpest increase in the numbers trying drugs was seen in the age group 20–29. In 2002, around one in three men and around one in four women in this age group reported having tried cannabis at some stage in their life. In the age group under 40 the use of amphetamine and extacy also showed a statistically significant increase. The figures describing non-medicinal use of medical substances had also increased. In the metropolitan Helsinki region and in larger cities with a population of more than 100,000, drug use was more common than elsewhere in the country. The analysis presented in this article shows that the second drug wave during the 1990s in Finland is a generational phenomenon. The new drug users and experimenters come from age groups who were born in the 1970s and 1980s. It seems that the new party culture has, in accordance with international trends, arrived in Finland and the use of stimulants that is associated with nightlife have gained an increasingly firm footing in our country.

Somali Women and Daily Islam in the Diaspora

Somali asylum seekers started migrating to Finland in 1990. Today, the number of Somalis, Finland's largest Muslim group, is around 7000. The author examines immigrant Somali women as religious agents, who in an active way follow Islam in their daily life and construct their identities as Muslims. Islam features as a practical and moral guideline, which helps Somalis to manage in a new religious and cultural environment, but which may also heal the sufferings of the civil war. In the diaspora, Somali women have started to actively redefine the essence of their religion. As is shown in what follows, possession cults known in Somalia are often rejected as non-Islamic. The article is based on ethnography carried out around metropolitan Helsinki.

The Generation In-between: Somali youth and schooling in metropolitan Helsinki

Somali students faced many barriers in their schooling during the period when Finnish society and its institutions were adjusting to a new situation in the face of increasing immigration in the 1990s. This ethnographic account describes how inflexible, monocultural practices challenged the students and threatened their identities in one particular classroom (in the Forest Hill School). Simultaneously, the cohesion of Somali families was under threat by acculturation stressors and, consequently, support and control provided for the younger generation by adults was often limited. The age of students upon their arrival in a host society is claimed to be a critical factor in their school attainment. The sample of Somali youth in the present research is characterized as representing a unique sub-population among immigrant youth: "the generation in-between". This generation of immigrant youth faces specific challenges.

Distribution of Streptococcal Inhibitor of Complement Variants in Pharyngitis and Invasive Isolates in an Epidemic of Serotype M1 Group AStreptococcusInfection

Streptococcal inhibitor of complement (Sic) is a highly polymorphic extracellular protein made predominantly by serotype M1 group A Streptococcus (GAS). New variants of the Sic protein frequently appear in M1 epidemics as a result of positive natural selection. To gain further understanding of the molecular basis of M1 epidemics, the sic gene was sequenced from 471 pharyngitis and 127 pyogenic and blood isolates recovered from 598 patients living in metropolitan Helsinki, Finland, during a 37-month population-based surveillance study. Most M1 GAS subclones recovered from pyogenic infections and blood were abundantly represented in the pool of subclones causing pharyngitis. Alleles shared among the pharyngitis, pyogenic, and blood samples were identified in throat isolates a mean of 9.8 months before their recovery from pyogenic infections and blood, which indicates that selection of most sic variants occurs on mucosal surfaces. In contrast, no variation was identified in the emm and covR/covS genes.

Perceived competition in private dental practice in Finland

A questionnaire study was conducted among 350 private dentists in Finland to investigate their perception of competition and how this associated with practice characteristics. The questionnaire comprised 46 questions dealing with perceptions of competition, marketing, and collegiality, respondents' personal and practice characteristics, including age, sex, area of main practice location, weekly hours in private practice, functioning in solo or in joint practice, cooperation with other dentists, and whether practicing in more than one location. The majority of these private dental practitioners perceived much competition between themselves. Almost all (96%) of those feeling much competition today expected it to be more intense after 5 years, compared to 60% of those not perceiving much competition today (P < 0.001). Private practitioners perceiving much competition also felt it from public health centers significantly (P < 0.001) more often (46%) than others (24%). Logistic regression models revealed that those with a practice in more than one location were over 7 times more likely not to perceive competition. Those practicing outside metropolitan Helsinki area had 3.6 times the odds of not perceiving competition, and for women overall the odds ratio was 2.5. Increasing competition in private practice is a widely felt concern, and it may diminish the willingness of new graduates to attempt penetration of the market and establish their clinics.

The use and availability of legal and illegal drugs among Finnish 15-year-old students

The article presents some Finnish results from a comparative survey (ESPAD) conducted among 15- to 16-year-old students in 1995 in 26 European countries. The focus is on the prevalence of the use of alcohol and other drugs, and on the relation between availability and use. In addition, the differences between metropolitan Helsinki and Finland as a whole are analysed. The Finnish results are compared with those of the neighbouring countries and the United Kingdom, where the prevalence of alcohol and substance use was among the highest in all ESPAD countries. The lifetime prevalence of drunkenness was very high (77 %). There were no differences between boys and girls. Metropolitan Helsinki students did not differ from students living elsewhere in their alcohol use. Boys re ported that they had consumed more alcohol on their last drinking occasion than girls. Mixing alcohol with pills was more common among girls than boys. A quarter of all girls had at least sometimes mixed alcohol and pills. The prevalence of illegal substance use was low (5 %). In metropolitan Helsinki there were markedly more girls who had used alcohol and pills together (32 %) and taken tranquillisers or sedatives (14 %) than in the whole of Finland (25 % and 6 %, respectively). The reported use of marijuana and hashish was more common in metropolitan Helsinki (14 %) than on average (5 %). The respondents found it very easy to get alcohol. The availability of a beverage was easier the wider its distribution network and the lower the minimum age for buying it. Of the other substances, inhalants (48 %) were assessed as the easiest to obtain, followed by tranquillisers and sedatives (21 %) and then by marijuana and hashish (14 %). Finland, together with the United Kingdom and Denmark, belongs to those ESPAD countries where the prevalence of drunkenness is highest, whereas the prevalence of illegal drug use in Finland is very low. The prevalence of mixing alcohol and pills was on the same level in Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Effects of supplemental beta-carotene, cigarette smoking, and alcohol consumption on serum carotenoids in the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study

We determined whether serum carotenoid or retinol concentrations were altered by beta-carotene supplementation in the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study and whether such effects were modified by alcohol consumption or cigarette use. Participants in this substudy were 491 randomly selected men aged 58-76 y from the metropolitan Helsinki study center [237 receiving supplemental beta-carotene (20 mg/d) and 254 not receiving such supplementation]. Dietary carotenoids, retinol, and alcohol, and serum beta-carotene, alpha-tocopherol, retinol, and cholesterol were assessed at baseline. After an average of 6.7 y of supplementation, serum was collected and carotenoid, retinol, and alpha-tocopherol concentrations were determined by HPLC. Serum carotenoid fractions were highly correlated with each other (P < or = 0.0001). Compared with the unsupplemented group, the beta-carotene group had significantly higher serum concentrations of beta-carotene (1483%), alpha-carotene (145%), and beta-cryptoxanthin (67%) (P < or = 0.0001). Retinol concentrations were 6% higher (P = 0.03) and lutein was 11% lower (P = 0.02) in the supplemented group. Serum lycopene, zeaxanthin, and alpha-tocopherol did not differ according to beta-carotene-supplementation status. Although these beta-carotene-group differences were not significantly altered by amount of alcohol consumption, higher consumption (> 12.9 g/d, median) was related to lower (10-38%) concentrations of carotenoids, particularly beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, and beta-cryptoxanthin, in both the supplemented and unsupplemented groups. Smoking status did not significantly influence the supplementation-related differences in serum carotenoid and retinol values but concentrations of carotenoids were generally highest in participants who quit smoking while in the study and lowest in current smokers of > or = 20 cigarettes/d. This study showed that serum concentrations of non-beta-carotene carotenoids are altered by long-term beta-carotene supplementation and confirms the adverse effects of alcohol and cigarette smoking on serum carotenoids.