Thematic Review: School Design and Learning Environments in the City of Espoo, Finland

This report presents the main findings and recommendations resulting from a review of education infrastructure investments in the city of Espoo, Finland, carried out by the CEB’s Technical Assessment & Monitoring Directorate. The objective of the review was to examine the links between school design and learning environments. The report provides Espoo officials with recommendations for enhancing the effectiveness of the education investment and identifies good practices that could be shared with other countries. The City of Espoo and the Finnish education system are internationally recognised as top performers for learning outcomes and one of the most equitable. However, rapid population growth, increasing numbers of children and foreign-language residents, and general tightening of the public budget pose challenges to service delivery just at a time when education infrastructure is expected to adapt to new learning curricula. Notwithstanding these challenges, the commitment to education remains very high on the part of all the stakeholders met in the city of Espoo. This commitment is reflected in the strategy for the City, the continuous financial support provided to the sector over the years, and the deep value and trust placed in their highly educated teachers. The eight schools visited by the review team already reflect some elements of the vision promoted by the new curriculum introduced in 2017, including the presence of differently sized learning spaces, heightened transparency and increased flexibility. The average learning space per child tends to be more generous than in other countries, given the use of spaces such as corridors and common areas for learning activities. The review team identified a series of key themes to encourage further discussion and exploration by Espoo teachers and city officials in their search for effective strategies to guide investments in the education sector. These include: • the need to find the right balance between cost-effectiveness and the promotion of effective learning environments; • the value of systematically involving the school community in the design process; • the importance of providing the necessary support for teachers to transition into new learning environments, by developing and implementing an Effective Spatial Professional Development programme. Ultimately, the effectiveness of any investment depends on how well it is used. In this regard, international research is unanimous in identifying teachers as the factor that correlates most strongly with student achievement. Thus, as part of any build, investing in teachers’ effective use of spaces must be a priority and an important component in the budgeting process

Quantified Morphology of HI Disks in the Universe

he upcoming new perspective of the high redshift Universe in the 21 cm line of atomic hydrogen opens possibilities to explore topics of spiral disk evolution, hitherto reserved for the optical regime. The growth of spiral gas disks over Cosmic time can be explored with the new generation of radio telescopes, notably the SKA, and its precursors, as accurately as with the Hubble Space Telescope for stellar disks. Since the atomic hydrogen gas is the building block of these disks, it should trace their formation accurately. Morphology of HI disks can now equally be quantified over Cosmic time. In studies of HST deep fields, the optical or UV morphology of high-redshift galaxy disks have been characterized using a few quantities: concentration (C), asymmetry (A), smoothness (S), second-order-moment (M20), the GINI coefficient (G), and Ellipticity (E). We have applied these parameters across wavelengths and compared them to the HI morphology over the THINGS sample. NGC 3184, an unperturbed disk, and NGC 5194, the canonical 3:1 interaction, serve as examples for quantified morphology. We find that morphology parameters determined in HI are as good or better a tracer of interaction compared to those in any other wavelength, notably in Asymmetry, Gini and M20. This opens the possibility of using them in the parameterization pipeline for SKA precursor catalogues to select interacting or harassed galaxies from their HI morphology. Asymmetry, Gini and M20 may be redefined for use on data-cubes rather than HI column density image.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, proceeding of the conference "Panoramic Radio Astronomy: Wide-field 1-2 GHz research on galaxy evolution", June 02 - 05 2009, Groningen, update after small edit

An exactly solvable coarse-grained model for species diversity

We present novel analytical results about ecosystem species diversity that stem from a proposed coarse grained neutral model based on birth-death processes. The relevance of the problem lies in the urgency for understanding and synthesizing both theoretical results of ecological neutral theory and empirical evidence on species diversity preservation. Neutral model of biodiversity deals with ecosystems in the same trophic level where per-capita vital rates are assumed to be species-independent. Close-form analytical solutions for neutral theory are obtained within a coarse-grained model, where the only input is the species persistence time distribution. Our results pertain: the probability distribution function of the number of species in the ecosystem both in transient and stationary states; the n-points connected time correlation function; and the survival probability, definned as the distribution of time-spans to local extinction for a species randomly sampled from the community. Analytical predictions are also tested on empirical data from a estuarine fish ecosystem. We find that emerging properties of the ecosystem are very robust and do not depend on specific details of the model, with implications on biodiversity and conservation biology.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures. To appear in Journal of Statistichal Mechanic

Quantified HI Morphology II : Lopsidedness and Interaction in WHISP Column Density Maps

Lopsidedness of the gaseous disk of spiral galaxies is a common phenomenon in disk morphology, profile and kinematics. Simultaneously, the asymmetry of a galaxy's stellar disk, in combination with other morphological parameters, has seen extensive use as an indication of recent merger or interaction in galaxy samples. Quantified morphology of stellar spiral disks is one avenue to determine the merger rate over much of the age of the Universe. In this paper, we measure the quantitative morphology parameters for the HI column density maps from the Westerbork observations of neutral Hydrogen in Irregular and SPiral galaxies (WHISP). These are Concentration, Asymmetry, Smoothness, Gini, M20, and one addition of our own, the Gini parameter of the second order moment (GM). Our aim is to determine if lopsided or interacting disks can be identified with these parameters. Our sample of 141 HI maps have all previous classifications on their lopsidedness and interaction. We find that the Asymmetry, M20, and our new GM parameter correlate only weakly with the previous morphological lopsidedness quantification. These three parameters may be used to compute a probability that an HI disk is morphologically lopsided but not unequivocally to determine it. However, we do find that that the question whether or not an HI disk is interacting can be settled well using morphological parameters. Parameter cuts from the literature do not translate from ultraviolet to HI directly but new selection criteria using combinations of Asymmetry and M20 or Concentration and M20, work very well. We suggest that future all-sky HI surveys may use these parameters of the column density maps to determine the merger fraction and hence rate in the local Universe with a high degree of accuracy.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, accepted by MNRAS, appendix not include

A nonlinear quantum model of the Friedmann universe

A discussion is given of the quantisation of a physical system with finite degrees of freedom subject to a Hamiltonian constraint by treating time as a constrained classical variable interacting with an unconstrained quantum state. This leads to a quantisation scheme that yields a Schrodinger-type equation which is in general nonlinear in evolution. Nevertheless it is compatible with a probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics and in particular the construction of a Hilbert space with a Euclidean norm is possible. The new scheme is applied to the quantisation of a Friedmann Universe with a massive scalar field whose dynamical behaviour is investigated numerically.Comment: 11 pages of text + 4 pages for 8 figure

Early Contrast Enhancement: a novel Magnetic Resonance Imaging biomarker of pleural malignancy

Introduction: Pleural Malignancy (PM) is often occult on subjective radiological assessment. We sought to define a novel, semi-objective Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) biomarker of PM, targeted to increased tumour microvessel density (MVD) and applicable to minimal pleural thickening. Materials and methods: 60 consecutive patients with suspected PM underwent contrast-enhanced 3-T MRI then pleural biopsy. In 58/60, parietal pleura signal intensity (SI) was measured in multiple regions of interest (ROI) at multiple time-points, generating ROI SI/time curves and Mean SI gradient (MSIG: SI increment/time). The diagnostic performance of Early Contrast Enhancement (ECE; which was defined as a SI peak in at least one ROI at or before 4.5 min) was compared with subjective MRI and Computed Tomography (CT) morphology results. MSIG was correlated against tumour MVD (based on Factor VIII immunostain) in 31 patients with Mesothelioma. Results: 71% (41/58) patients had PM. Pleural thickening was <10 mm in 49/58 (84%). ECE sensitivity was 83% (95% CI 61–94%), specificity 83% (95% CI 68–91%), positive predictive value 68% (95% CI 47–84%), negative predictive value 92% (78–97%). ECE performance was similar or superior to subjective CT and MRI. MSIG correlated with MVD (r = 0.4258, p = .02). Discussion: ECE is a semi-objective, perfusion-based biomarker of PM, measurable in minimal pleural thickening. Further studies are warranted

Looking At the Distant Universe with the MeerKAT Array (LADUMA)

The MeerKAT (64 x 13.5m dish radio interferometer) is South Africa's precursor instrument for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), exploring dish design, instrumentation, and the characteristics of a Karoo desert site and is projected to be on sky in 2016. One of two top-priority, Key Projects is a single deep field, integrating for 5000 hours total with the aim to detect neutral atomic hydrogen through its 21 cm line emission out to redshift unity and beyond. This first truly deep HI survey will help constrain fueling models for galaxy assembly and evolution. It will measure the evolution of the cosmic neutral gas density and its distribution over galaxies over cosmic time, explore evolution of the gas in galaxies, measure the Tully-Fisher relation, measure OH maser counts, and address many more topics. Here we present the observing strategy and envisaged science case for this unique deep field, which encompasses the Chandra Deep Field-South (and the footprints of GOODS, GEMS and several other surveys) to produce a singular legacy multi-wavelength data-set.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of IAU Symposium 284, "The Spectral Energy Distribution of Galaxies" (SED2011), 5-9 September 2011, Preston, UK, editors R.J. Tuffs & C.C.Popesc

Dynamical Vacuum in Quantum Cosmology

By regarding the vacuum as a perfect fluid with equation of state p=-rho, de Sitter's cosmological model is quantized. Our treatment differs from previous ones in that it endows the vacuum with dynamical degrees of freedom. Instead of being postulated from the start, the cosmological constant arises from the degrees of freedom of the vacuum regarded as a dynamical entity, and a time variable can be naturally introduced. Taking the scale factor as the sole degree of freedom of the gravitational field, stationary and wave-packet solutions to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation are found. It turns out that states of the Universe with a definite value of the cosmological constant do not exist. For the wave packets investigated, quantum effects are noticeable only for small values of the scale factor, a classical regime being attained at asymptotically large times.Comment: Latex, 19 pages, to appear in Gen. Rel. Gra

Oscillatory oblique stagnation-point flow toward a plane wall

Two-dimensional oscillatory oblique stagnation-point flow toward a plane wall is investigated. The problem is a eneralisation of the steady oblique stagnation-point flow examined by previous workers. Far from the wall, the flow is composed of an irrotational orthogonal stagnation-point flow with a time-periodic strength, a simple shear flow of constant vorticity, and a time-periodic uniform stream. An exact solution of the Navier-Stokes equations is sought for which the flow streamfunction depends linearly on the coordinate parallel to the wall. The problem formulation reduces to a coupled pair of partial differential equations in time and one spatial variable. The first equation describes the oscillatory orthogonal stagnation-point flow discussed by previous workers. The second equation, which couples to the first, describes the oblique component of the flow. A description of the flow velocity field, the instantaneous streamlines, and the particle paths is sought through numerical solutions of the governing equations and via asymptotic analysis