The general and comparative biology of terrestrial organisms under experimental stress conditions Semiannual report

Biology of terrestrial organisms under stress conditions produced by ultraviolet radiation in Mars environmen

An expert botanical feature extraction technique based on phenetic features for identifying plant species

In this paper, we present a new method to recognise the leaf type and identify plant species using phenetic parts of the leaf; lobes, apex and base detection. Most of the research in this area focuses on the popular features such as the shape, colour, vein, and texture, which consumes large amounts of computational processing and are not efficient, especially in the Acer database with a high complexity structure of the leaves. This paper is focused on phenetic parts of the leaf which increases accuracy. Detecting the local maxima and local minima are done based on Centroid Contour Distance for Every Boundary Point, using north and south region to recognise the apex and base. Digital morphology is used to measure the leaf shape and the leaf margin. Centroid Contour Gradient is presented to extract the curvature of leaf apex and base. We analyse 32 leaf images of tropical plants and evaluated with two different datasets, Flavia, and Acer. The best accuracy obtained is 94.76% and 82.6% respectively. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed technique without considering the commonly used features with high computational cost

Distributed D3: A web-based distributed data visualisation framework for Big Data

The influx of Big Data has created an ever-growing need for analytic tools targeting towards the acquisition of insights and knowledge from large datasets. Visual perception as a fundamental tool used by humans to retrieve information from the outside world around us has its unique ability to distinguish patterns pre-attentively. Visual analytics via data visualisations is therefore a very powerful tool and has become ever more important in this era. Data-Driven Documents (D3.js) is a versatile and popular web-based data visualisation library that has tended to be the standard toolkit for visualising data in recent years. However, the library is technically inherent and limited in capability by the single thread model of a single browser window in a single machine, and therefore not able to deal with large datasets. The main objective of this thesis is to overcome this limitation and address possible challenges by developing the Distributed D3 framework that employs distributed mechanism to enable the possibility of delivering web-based visualisations for large-scale data, which also allows to effectively utilise the graphical computational resources of the modern visualisation environments. As a result, the first contribution is that the integrated version of Distributed D3 framework has been developed for the Data Observatory. The work proves the concept of Distributed D3 is feasible in reality and also enables developers to collaborate on large-scale data visualisations by using it on the Data Observatory. The second contribution is that the Distributed D3 has been optimised by investigating the potential bottlenecks for large-scale data visualisation applications. The work finds the key performance bottlenecks of the framework and shows an improvement of the overall performance by 35.7% after optimisations, which improves the scalability and usability of Distributed D3 for large-scale data visualisation applications. The third contribution is that the generic version of Distributed D3 framework has been developed for the customised environments. The work improves the usability and flexibility of the framework and makes it ready to be published in the open-source community for further improvements and usages.Open Acces

Finnish teachers’ educators’ conceptions about incorporating academic acceleration in primary education

Abstract. This thesis scrutinizes Finnish teachers’ educators’ understanding of incorporating academic acceleration within basic education. The study is interested in enabling Finnish educators to reflect on how diverse students’ needs are met. For that reason, this study adapted phenomenographic methodology to makes sense of how Finnish educators perceive academic acceleration through their teaching profession in Oulu/Finland. Therefore, five educators have been interviewed in January and February/2019. Based on this study, to best provide support and appropriate instruction for the student in order to be granted an accelerative entry. The zone of proximal development and scaffolding instruction have constituted the theoretical framework. This study introduces academic acceleration as an adequate pedagogy to serve students’ diverse needs. Parallel to that sustaining the primary principle of inclusive education. Therefore, three different conceptions regarding academic acceleration have created the outcome space of this study. All the different conceptions are keenly linked to qualitatively serving students’ diverse needs. The first conception, which expresses the majority, views academic acceleration as unwanted pedagogy by highlighting the adverse influence of academic acceleration on students’ growth. In which enrichment was represented as more desirable, since it boosts students’ academic development, as well as personal competencies. While the second conception places a strong emphasis on utilizing academic acceleration since it provides an opportunity for some students to excel in a more challenging curriculum, based on their needs, the third conception is related to teachers’ role aligned with the previous two conceptions. In which reflect differences regarding teachers’ responsibility to address academically able students’ needs in order to serve them. However, there is intent for this study to recommend a discussion in teacher education about gifted programs, since controversies among educators exist

The Role of Design in Picturebooks: Meaning, Image-Making & Typography

This thesis investigates the role of design in producing unique experiences through the medium of contemporary picturebooks. The nature of the picturebooks format, in which text and image are combined, lends itself well to a design analysis. Furthermore, examining picturebooks through the lens of design adds a critical new perspective to current work in the field. Award-winning picturebooks were selected for a visual analysis, focusing on the formal elements, design principles, and compositions of the books and their affect on the meaning of the text and the readers experience of the visual narrative. Additionally, through a series of design experiments, the relationships between typography and imagery in picturebooks is explored. Through this research, this project investigates the designed form of the picturebook and the impact of design decisions on the overall visual narrative. This research demonstrates how the careful consideration of design principles can inform and benefit the process of creating picturebooks, and could lead to more practitioners in the field adopting a design-oriented approach to picturebooks

The strategic importance of supply chain management in small and medium sized enterprises :a case study of the garment industry in Sri Lanka

PhD ThesisThis research concerns SMEs in the Sri Lankan garment manufacturing and export industry and explores success factors in managing their supply chains. The overall aim of the study is to better understand successful supply chain management (SCM) practices which have been implemented by SMEs in the Sri Lankan garment exporting industry and the obstacles faced in their implementation. Eight telephone interviews were followed by 20 in-depth, face-to-face interviews with senior managers in Sri Lanka. Documentary evidence was also collected and analysed. Combined with a literature review on manufacturing operations, the data collection led to the development of three criteria for the selection of cases for the research: 1) maintaining direct contacts with foreign buyers, 2) shorter lead times and 3) high value added of products. Based on these three criteria, a sample of six cases: three firms that exercised 'more successful‘ SCM strategies and three characterised by 'less successful‘ SCM strategies were selected. Data were analysed using NVivo10 software with a combination of theoretically derived codes and indigenous codes as the coding strategy. Successful SCM strategies and constraints on improving SCM performance were identified based on each factor considered: lead time, value added and direct contacts related. While both macro and micro-environmental factors influence SME performance, the micro-environmental ones (in particular the lack of strategic business thinking, a weak resource base, resistance to business risk and low profit marginal niches) were far more salient. Further to this, the lack of a fabric manufacturing base within Sri Lanka is a common barrier for both 'more‘ and 'less successful‘ companies while company-specific successful strategies and constrains also were evident. The absence of direct contact with foreign buyers is critical for 'less successful‘ companies as it has led these companies to work with intermediaries. Critical supply chain decisions have to be channelled via buying offices, which leave these companies at risk. The findings add to a growing body of literature on the role of international buying offices and their impact on the implementation of SCM strategies‘ by exporting SMEs

PHYSICAL DORMANCY IN SEEDS, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO GERANIACEAE: MORPHO-ANATOMY, DEVELOPMENT, PHYSIOLOGY, BIOMECHANICS AND CLASSIFICATION OF WATER-GAP COMPLEXES

The primary aims of this dissertation were to (1) identify and characterize the water-gap complex in seeds of Geraniaceae, (2) investigate its role in physical dormancy (PY) break and (3) develop a new classification system for water-gap complexes in seeds of angiosperms. The winter annuals Geranium carolinianum and G. dissectum were selected as the main representative species for the study, and seeds of an additional 29 species from the Geraniaceae were used to compare the water-gap complex within the family. A new classification system for water-gap complexes in species with PY was developed by comparing the morpho-anatomical features of PY seeds and fruits of 16 families. The water-gap complex of G. carolinianum was identified as a micropyle-hinged valve gap complex, and only a slight morpho-anatomical variation was observed within the family. Ontogenetic studies of the seed coat of G. carolinianum revealed that the water-gap region of Geraniaceae develops as an entity of the micropyle. The timing of seed germination with the onset of autumn can be explained by PY-breaking processes involving (a) two-temperature-dependent steps in G. carolinianum, and (b) one or two moisture-dependent step(s) along with the inability to germinate under high temperatures in G. dissectum. Step-I and step-II in PY-breaking of G. carolinianum are controlled by chemical and physical processes, respectively. This study indicates the feasibility of applying the developed thermal time model to predict or manipulate sensitivity induction in seeds with two-step PY-breaking processes. The model is the first and the most detailed one yet developed for sensitivity induction in PY-break. Based on the morpho-anatomical features, three basic water-gap complexes (types I, II and III) were identified in species with PY in 16 families. Depending on the number of openings involved in initial imbibition, the water-gap complexes were subdivided into simple and compound. The new classification system enables the understanding of relationships between water-gap complexes of taxonomically unrelated species with PY