Proper manual handling techniques to prevent low back pain, a Cochrane systematic review

Training and provision of assistive devices are considered major interventions to prevent and treat low back pain (LBP) among workers exposed to manual material handling (MMH). To establish the effectiveness of training and provision of assistive devices in preventing and treating LBP an update of a Cochrane literature review was performed to November 2010. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and cohort studies with a concurrent control group (CCTs) were included. Nine RCTs (20.101 employees) and nine CCTs (1280 employees) were included for prevention: six more than in the previous version. No study on treatment was found. None of the included RCTs and CCTs provided evidence that training and provision of assistive devices prevented LBP when compared to no intervention or another intervention.     

From monocultural to intercultural educational research

In this article, the author looks at the Swedish educational system and the consequences that the Swedish multicultural society has had for this system. The author especially focuses on the consequences that multiculturalism has for research into educational issues and how research itself needs to become intercultural.     

Amazonian Native Youths and Notions of Indigeneity in Urban Areas

The indigenous presence in urban areas of Amazonia has become more visible as Indian populations have negotiated their own spaces and acted in new contexts previously reserved for the dominant society. This article looks at ways in which today's young Indians in an urban area define and interpret their new cultural and social situations, drawing from research conducted with Apurinã, Cashinahua and Manchineri youths in Rio Branco, a city in Acre state, Western Brazil. These young people occupy a variety of “native” and “non-native” habituses and develop their notions of indigeneity within complex social networks as part of their strategy for rupturing the otherness associated with indigeneity. The text contributes to the discussion on the theory of practice and identity politics, as well as embodiment. Young Indians in urban Amazonia constitute their agencies in multiple ways and use various embodiments based in the practices and knowledge of their native groups and those of urban national and global society. The young natives break with the image of Lowland South American Indians as peoples uncontaminated by urban influences and help promote new interactions between native populations in the reserve and the city.     

Role of motives and attributes in consumer motion picture choice

The study focuses on consumer motion picture motives and choice criteria. Its purpose can be specified into the following objectives: (1) to examine the motivational basis of cinema attending. (2) to examine the predictive ability of movie motives and consumers' attribute importances in preference regressions of four types of movie, (3) to carry out a motion picture choice analysis by predicting audience membership with discriminant analysis. The data is based on a convinience sample of Finnish consumers (N = 228) attending one of the following types of movie: adventures/ thrillers, human/ social dramas, sex movies, entertainment movies.The results of a group of multivariate analyses (factor analysis, canonical correlation, preference regression, and discriminant analysis) indicate that consumers attending different types of films have distinctly separate motivation bases, as well as attribute importance profiles, underlying their movie choices. Each movie type had a specific preference structure, expressed by the regression coefficients. Finally, the discriminant analysis suggests that the general motive and attribute variables are effective also in predicting motion picture choice. On balance, the results were mutually supportive and exemplify the managerial usefulness of quantitative consumer analysis also in the case of such abstract leisure products as motion pictures.     

Exposure diversity as a design principle for recommender systems

Personalized recommendations in search engines, social media and also in more traditional media increasingly raise concerns over potentially negative consequences for diversity and the quality of public discourse. The algorithmic filtering and adaption of online content to personal preferences and interests is often associated with a decrease in the diversity of information to which users are exposed. Notwithstanding the question of whether these claims are correct or not, this article discusses whether and how recommendations can also be designed to stimulate more diverse exposure to information and to break potential ‘filter bubbles’ rather than create them. Combining insights from democratic theory, computer science and law, the article makes suggestions for design principles and explores the potential and possible limits of ‘diversity sensitive design’.     

An analysis of internationalisation and intercultural outlook in Swedish teacher education

Foucault's discourse concept provides an instrument for the critical examination of internationalisation and, respectively, inter‐cultural education in Swedish teacher education. Three different discourses concerning internationalisation are treated in the article: solidarity with developing countries, immigrant knowledge, and integration within the EU. Attention is focused on the analysis of intercultural teaching upon those visions that governed implementation of the concept in teacher education, and on reality as it appears in evaluations of teacher education. The question is whether a dilemma exists for teacher education in realising the goals of intercultural education, or whether these goals merely act as teacher education's false banners? The article concludes with perspectives on the future of the development from immigrant knowledge to intercultural learning.     

Critical factors of intensive family work connected with positive outcomes for child welfare clients

Mechanisms producing positive change in troubled families were analysed. The study aimed to answer the questions: What kind of case and client outcomes does intensive family work (IFW) produce for child welfare clients? From the perspective of family workers, what kind of critical factors for positive child, parent and family outcomes can be identified? The study used child welfare case files of 35 families with 93 children from one social office and interviews with 20 family workers and IFW managers in 5 municipalities in Finland. The shades of worries scale was used in evaluating the change in each family's situation. The case outcome measures for children included changes in the child's status in open care, short-term placement or foster care. During IFW, positive changes took place in 23 families out of 35 (66%). Twenty-seven children from 16 families did not continue as child welfare clients. Eleven children were placed into foster care during IFW and two years after it. The critical processes for outcomes included time, trust building and engagement, practical help, facilitating communication and guaranteeing the best interest of the child. IFW was considered effective for positive outcomes for the majority of families with complex needs.     

Societal innovation at the interface of the state and civil society

The need to adapt to economic globalization and “wicked” problems such as climate change and poverty presents enormous challenges to modern developed societies. These challenges call for new solutions, not only in the form of technological or business innovations, but also through society-wide reform and renewal. In this paper, we outline a societal innovation framework to better understand the stage on which these societal challenges are being played out. Our approach builds on the classical view that considers innovation, an (radical or incremental) improvement that is both novel in its context and deployed by people. These societal innovations change the interface of the state and civil society for stakeholder benefit.     

Becoming International,becoming European: EU Research Collaboration at Finnish Universities

This article analyses the significance and consequences of the exceptionally extensive mobilization of Finnish researchers into EU-funded research from the perspective of university research. The focus is on the views of university researchers and heads of departments and research units concerning such questions as the quality and relevance of EU projects; the relationship between EU collaboration and other international collaboration; and the future attractiveness of EU-funded research. The study shows that Finnish university participation in EU collaboration is moving from an exploratory stage towards a more established stage in which collaboration is becoming more selective. In order to increase the appeal of EU projects among academics, EU programmes should give more space to curiosity-oriented research and become more flexible.