LUKIOLAISTEN MOTIVAATIO OPISKELLA FYSIIKKAA: ONKO TÄSSÄ EROJA MIESTEN JA NAISTEN VÄLILLÄ?

Viime vuosina fysiikan ylioppilaskirjoituksiin ilmoittautuneiden määrä on lähes kaksinkertaistunut ja naisten suhteellinen osuus kasvanut. Aiemmasta tutkimuksesta tiedetään, että motivaatio opiskella fysiikkaa on sukupuolittunutta. Tässä tutkimuksessa selvitettiin lukiolaisten motivaatiota fysiikan opiskeluun ja mahdollisia sukupuolten välisiä eroja. Tutkimus toteutettiin kyselytutkimuksena fysiikan syventäviä kursseja opiskeleville. Keskimäärin miesten sisäinen motivaatio opiskella fysiikkaa ja koettu fysiikan väli- nearvo olivat korkeampia kuin naisilla. Fysiikan opiskelun kustannuksissa tai fysiikkaan liittyvissä kykyuskomuksissa ei ollut eroja sukupuolten välillä. Avokysymyksessä naiset kuvasivat useammin fysiikan opiskelun syyksi opiskelusta saatavan hyödyn esimerkiksi ei-luonnontieteellisille aloille jatko-opintoihin hakeutumiseen kuin miehet. Tulokset tuo- vat uutta näkökulmaa viimeaikaisille muutoksille fysiikan lukio-opiskelussa – onko mahdollista, että naisten kasvanut osuus fysiikan kirjoittaneista kertoo enemmän pisteytysjärjestelmästä kuin kasvaneesta kiinnostuksesta fysiikkaan

Genomics of asthma, allergy and chronic rhinosinusitis : novel concepts and relevance in airway mucosa

Funding Information: The study was supported in part by research grants from Finnish Medical Foundation, the Finnish Society of Allergology and Immunology, the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (TYH2018103, TYH2019322), Paulo Foundation, the Tampere Tuberculosis Foundation, the Väinö and Laina Kivi Foundation, the Finnish ORL-HNS Foundation. Acknowledgements Publisher Copyright: © 2020, The Author(s).Genome wide association studies (GWASs) have revealed several airway disease-associated risk loci. Their role in the onset of asthma, allergic rhinitis (AR) or chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), however, is not yet fully understood. The aim of this review is to evaluate the airway relevance of loci and genes identified in GWAS studies. GWASs were searched from databases, and a list of loci associating significantly (p <10(-8)) with asthma, AR and CRS was created. This yielded a total of 267 significantly asthma/AR-associated loci from 31 GWASs. No significant CRS -associated loci were found in this search. A total of 170 protein coding genes were connected to these loci. Of these, 76/170 (44%) showed bronchial epithelial protein expression in stained microscopic figures of Human Protein Atlas (HPA), and 61/170 (36%) had a literature report of having airway epithelial function. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) annotation analyses were performed, and 19 functional protein categories were found as significantly (p <0.05) enriched among these genes. These were related to cytokine production, cell activation and adaptive immune response, and all were strongly connected in network analysis. We also identified 15 protein pathways that were significantly (p <0.05) enriched in these genes, related to T-helper cell differentiation, virus infection, JAK-STAT signaling pathway, and asthma. A third of GWAS-level risk loci genes of asthma or AR seemed to have airway epithelial functions according to our database and literature searches. In addition, many of the risk loci genes were immunity related. Some risk loci genes also related to metabolism, neuro-musculoskeletal or other functions. Functions overlapped and formed a strong network in our pathway analyses and are worth future studies of biomarker and therapeutics.Peer reviewe

Women Scientists Who Made Nuclear Astrophysics

Female role models reduce the impact on women of stereotype threat, i.e., of being at risk of conforming to a negative stereotype about one's social, gender, or racial group [1,2]. This can lead women scientists to underperform or to leave their scientific career because of negative stereotypes such as, not being as talented or as interested in science as men. Sadly, history rarely provides role models for women scientists; instead, it often renders these women invisible [3]. In response to this situation, we present a selection of twelve outstanding women who helped to develop nuclear astrophysics

Genomics of asthma, allergy and chronic rhinosinusitis: novel concepts and relevance in airway mucosa

Genome wide association studies (GWASs) have revealed several airway disease-associated risk loci. Their role in the onset of asthma, allergic rhinitis (AR) or chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), however, is not yet fully understood. The aim of this review is to evaluate the airway relevance of loci and genes identified in GWAS studies. GWASs were searched from databases, and a list of loci associating significantly (p < 10(-8)) with asthma, AR and CRS was created. This yielded a total of 267 significantly asthma/AR-associated loci from 31 GWASs. No significant CRS -associated loci were found in this search. A total of 170 protein coding genes were connected to these loci. Of these, 76/170 (44%) showed bronchial epithelial protein expression in stained microscopic figures of Human Protein Atlas (HPA), and 61/170 (36%) had a literature report of having airway epithelial function. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) annotation analyses were performed, and 19 functional protein categories were found as significantly (p < 0.05) enriched among these genes. These were related to cytokine production, cell activation and adaptive immune response, and all were strongly connected in network analysis. We also identified 15 protein pathways that were significantly (p < 0.05) enriched in these genes, related to T-helper cell differentiation, virus infection, JAK-STAT signaling pathway, and asthma. A third of GWAS-level risk loci genes of asthma or AR seemed to have airway epithelial functions according to our database and literature searches. In addition, many of the risk loci genes were immunity related. Some risk loci genes also related to metabolism, neuro-musculoskeletal or other functions. Functions overlapped and formed a strong network in our pathway analyses and are worth future studies of biomarker and therapeutics

The science case of the FRS Ion Catcher for FAIR Phase-0

The FRS Ion Catcher at GSI enables precision experiments with thermalized projectile and fission fragments. At the same time it serves as a test facility for the Low-Energy Branch of the Super-FRS at FAIR. The FRS Ion Catcher has been commissioned and its performance has been characterized in five experiments with 238U and 124Xe projectile and fission fragments produced at energies in the range from 300 to 1000 MeV/u. High and almost element-independent efficiencies for the thermalization of short-lived nuclides produced at relativistic energies have been obtained. High-accuracy mass measurements of more than 30 projectile and fission fragments have been performed with a multiple-reflection time-of-flight mass spectrometer (MR-TOF-MS) at mass resolving powers of up to 410,000, with production cross sections down to the microbarn-level, and at rates down to a few ions per hour. The versatility of the MR-TOF-MS for isomer research has been demonstrated by the measurement of various isomers, determination of excitation energies and the production of a pure isomeric beam. Recently, several instrumental upgrades have been implemented at the FRS Ion Catcher. New experiments will be carried out during FAIR Phase-0 at GSI, including direct mass measurements of neutron-deficient nuclides below 100Sn and neutron-rich nuclides below 208Pb, measurement of β-delayed neutron emission probabilities and reaction studies with multi-nucleon transfer.Peer reviewe

Ydin­fy­siik­kaa, jot­ta ym­mär­täi­sim­me mi­ten al­kuai­neet ovat syn­ty­neet täh­dis­sä

Ihmisiä on aina kiinnostanut, miten maailma on syntynyt. Kalevalassa kerrotaan maailman saaneen alkunsa kuudesta kultaisesta ja yhdestä rautaisesta munasta. Nykytieteen perustella toki tiedämme, ettei näin ole.nonPeerReviewe

Thinking model and tools for understanding user experience related to information appliance product concepts

The aim of this dissertation work is to develop thinking models and tools that would help in understanding user experience (UE) related to information appliance (IA) product concepts. A product concept is understood in this dissertation as a rough description of the technology, functionality and form of a product or a service, which is created during the very first phase of the product development process by a multidisciplinary design team. The dissertation provides answers to five research questions through constructive research. The first question discusses distinctive features of UE with terms that would be useful in practical design work. Several approaches explaining UE were found in literature but none of them looked at UE in the holistic and dynamic way, which was necessary in usercentered product concept design (UCPCD). According to the presented conceptual model UE is a result of a motivated action in a certain context. The user's previous experiences and expectations influence the present experience, and the present experience leads to more experiences and expectations. Moreover, there are two different kinds of user needs: motivational level and action level. The second research question discusses methods that can be used in user research to understand user needs. Two kinds of methodologies are discussed: those that reveal motivational level needs, and those that can be used for studying action level needs. Several different kinds of techniques should be used to discover narratives on user needs. The answer to the third question of generating product concept ideas discusses four different methods that could be used among designers or together with users while generating product concept ideas. The results of all techniques were use cases which could be presented in a narrative form. The fourth question is about the evaluation of UE probes during the UCPCD process. It became clear that traditional usability testing is not a suitable method for evaluating UE probes because in traditional usability testing use cases are given to the users and not created by them during the testing session. In UCPCD the users should be given only probes that enable them to create their own ways of using the product concept. Probes include both low-fidelity prototypes that are presented to the users in a laboratory setting parallel with use scenarios, and high-fidelity prototypes that can be tested in the users' own environment. Finally, the fifth question describes the phases and activities of UCPCD process that take UE into account. It was discovered that the form of narrative is common for all activities of the process. Moreover, user research should be done twice: first to study motivational level needs and then action level needs. Also prototyping is useful to do twice during this iterative, user-centred process: first with low-fidelity prototypes and then with high-fidelity prototypes that can be tested in the users' own environment.reviewe