Search results for "FINLAND"
showing 10 items of 1724 documents
Reliability and validity of the Finnish version of the Visual Analogue Scale Foot and Ankle (VAS-FA).
2018
Background: There have previously been no validated foot and ankle-specific patient-reported outcome measures in Finnish. Methods: The Visual Analogue Scale Foot and Ankle (VAS-FA) was translated and adapted into Finnish. Thereafter, 165 patients who had undergone foot and ankle surgery completed a questionnaire set on two separate occasions. Analyses included testing of floor-ceiling effect, internal consistency, reproducibility, and validity. Results: Minor linguistic differences emerged during the translation. Some structural adjustments were made. The mean (SD) total VAS-FA score was 74 (23). In the three subscales, maximum scores were noted in 2-5% of the responses, and internal consis…
Hilliness and the Development of Walking Difficulties Among Community-Dwelling Older People
2018
Objective: The objective of this study is to study the associations of objectively defined hilliness with the prevalence and incidence of walking difficulties among community-dwelling older adults, and to explore whether behavioral, health, or socioeconomic factors would fully or partially explain these associations. Method: Baseline interviews ( n = 848, 75-90 years) on difficulties in walking 500 m, frequency of moving through the neighborhood, and perceived hilliness as a barrier to outdoor mobility were conducted. Two-year follow-up interviews ( n = 551) on difficulties in walking 500 m were conducted among participants without baseline walking difficulties. Hilliness objectively defin…
Genetic and Environmental Influences Underlying Externalizing Behaviors, Cigarette Smoking and Illicit Drug Use Across Adolescence
2012
We investigated genetic and environmental influences common to adolescent externalizing behavior (at age 12), smoking (at age 14) and initiation of drug use (at age 17) using the FinnTwin12 cohort data. Multivariate Cholesky models were fit to data from 737 monozygotic and 722 dizygotic twin pairs. Heritability of externalizing behavior was 56%, that of smoking initiation/amount 20/32%, and initiation of drug use 27%. In the best-fitting model common environmental influences explained most of the covariance between externalizing behavior and smoking initiation (69%) and amount (77%). Covariance between smoking initiation/amount and drug use was due to additive genetic (42/22%) and common en…
Incidence and risk factors for back pain in young floorball and basketball players : A prospective study
2018
The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence of back pain in young basketball and floorball players under 21 years of age. The secondary aim was to examine risk factors especially for low back pain (LBP). Nine basketball and nine floorball teams (n = 396) participated in this prospective follow‐up study (2011‐2014). Young athletes (mean age 15.8 ± 1.9) performed physical tests and completed a questionnaire at baseline. The follow‐up lasted 1‐3 years per player. During the follow‐up, back pain reported by the players was registered on a weekly basis and verified by a study physician. The exposure time (AE) on team practices and games was recorded by the coach. Altogether back pain …
Marketing communication strategy of Finnish and Japanese mobile game developers and publishers
2017
Both the marketing communication strategy of mobile game industry and the industry itself have been drastically evolving in the past years since the development of computation, data transfer and communication technology on mobile devices. Marketing communication has been considered a significant part in marketing strategy, but the marketing communication strategy, activity and channels were not well investigated so far. In this study, 9 SMEs Finnish and Japanese mobile game developers and publishers provided their experience on how they built up marketing communication strategy for their targeting markets, which marketing communication channels they have used and how they chose the channels…
Continuous mobile banking usage and relationship commitment – A multi-country assessment
2015
Although conducting banking transactions via mobile phones, smart phones and tablets has become popular in many countries, major gaps exist in our understanding of those who use this technology, particularly how experienced users perceive mobile banking. Drawing from the literature on mobile banking adoption, continuous usage behavior and post-adoption of technology behavior, the authors shed light on the nature of experienced mobile banking users’ relationship commitment (RC) with their bank and personal finances. The study reveals changes in commitment and shows that mobile banking offers substantial added value to users. Overall, this research will help managers better understand the imp…
Internationalization pathways among family-owned SMEs
2012
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to increase understanding of the internationalization of family firms; to investigate how the framework by Bell et al. on the internationalization patterns of firms could explain the internationalization pathways taken by family‐owned small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs); and to identify typical patterns and features in the various pathways taken by family‐owned SMEs.Design/methodology/approachThis paper reports findings from an in‐depth multiple case study with eight Finnish family‐owned SMEs.FindingsThe ownership structure had the most important role in defining the internationalization pathways followed by the family‐owned SMEs: a fragmented owners…
Internationalization of knowledge-intensive SMEs: The role of network relationships in the entry to a psychically distant market
2009
Abstract Current research emphasizes the role of extant network relationships in the international development of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Inevitably, these relationships are there, most likely, to provide linkages with and facilitate entry into psychically and geographically close markets. But what of firms entering psychically distant markets, for strategic reasons, as is usually the case with knowledge-intensive SMEs? Will existing network relationships remain important, and will they operate in a similar way. In this exploratory case study, in which eight Finnish software SMEs enter the Japanese market, the decision to enter these markets is found to be for strategic …
The predictability of helminth community structure in space: a comparison of fish populations from adjacent lakes
2002
Patterns in helminth community structure can suggest that various processes are acting to shape parasite communities into organised, non-random assemblages of species. It is not clear, however, whether a pattern observed in one host population at one time would be observed again at another time, or at the same time in a different but comparable host population. Here, we test the repeatability of parasite community structure in space, and to a lesser extent time, with data on helminth parasites of two fish species, perch Perca fluviatilis and roach Rutilus rutilus, collected in different seasons from four adjacent lakes in Central Finland. Since populations of the same fish species harbour t…
History teaching in Finnish general upper secondary schools: Objectives and practices
2019
In Finland, the trend towards a new kind of history teaching emphasizing the understanding of historical knowledge and historical thinking skills began in the mid-1990s, when history teaching objectives were defined much more broadly in the curriculum than previously. In this article, we examine how, in over twenty years since the changes in curriculum objectives were made, general upper secondary school teachers have come to value the curriculum objectives of history teaching and how these have impacted on their teaching. The data for this article were collected by a semi-structured survey in 2016. Using counts, percentages, means, standard deviations and medians, a descriptive exploration…