Creating visual aids with graphic organisers on an infinite canvas : the impact on the presenter

Instead of the traditional set of slides, the visual aids of a presentation can now be graphic organisers (concept maps, knowledge maps, mind maps) on an infinite canvas. Constructing graphic organisers has a beneficial impact on learning, but this topic has not been studied in the context of giving a presentation. The present study examined this issue by having 199 students prepare a presentation. The control sample created visual aids that are similar to a deck of slides with text and pictures. In the first experimental condition, graphic organisers were inserted in this deck of slides, and in the second experimental condition, visuals aids with interconnected graphic organisers were produced. There were no significant differences in self-reported self-efficacy related to giving a presentation and in motivational variables. To detect if the presentations met the principles set by the conditions, the participants’ products were coded qualitatively, but this analysis also yielded no differences in variables. Further research should therefore explore the interaction between software and presenter

Natural hybrids in <i>Pseudo-nitzschia pungens</i>: genetic and morphological evidence

Hybridization between genetically distinguishable taxa provides opportunities for investigating speciation. While hybridization is a common phenomenon in various macro-organisms, natural hybridization among micro-eukaryotes is barely studied. Here we used a nuclear and a chloroplast molecular marker and morphology to demonstrate the presence of natural hybrids between two genetically and morphologically distinct varieties of the marine planktonic diatom Pseudo-nitzschia pungens (vars.pungen and cingulata) in a contact zone in the northeast Pacific. Cloning and sequencing of the rDNA internal transcribed spacer region revealed strains containing ribotypes from both varieties, indicating hybridization. Both varieties were found to also have different chloroplast-encoded rbcL sequences. Hybrid strains were either hetero- or homoplastidial, as demonstrated by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, which is in accordance with expectations based on the mode of chloroplast inheritance in Pseudo-nitzschia. While most hybrids are probably first generation, there are also indications for further hybridization. Morphologically, the hybrids resembled var. pungens for most characters rather than having an intermediate morphology. Further research should focus on the hybridization frequency, by assessing the spatial and temporal extent of the contact zone, and hybrid fitness, to determine the amount of gene flow between the two varieties and its evolutionary consequences

Gender awareness in student teachers at the University of Turku

The aim of the study was to map gender awareness in student teachers in the teacher education program at the University of Turku. In 2014 the new Finnish national core curriculum added the inclusion of knowledge and understanding of gender diversity to the basic education curriculum, furthermore, according to renewed legislation, a plan to include gender equality must be in place in all educational institutions. Therefore, this study focused on the perceived knowledge and understanding of gender sensitivity, gender stereotypes and biases of students teachers, as well as what has been taught in their teacher education on gender awareness. For the mapping of gender awareness, the development of a new questionnaire was needed, in combination with semi-structured interviews with participants to explore the aforementioned topics on a deeper level. The findings of this study revealed strong subscales in the questionnaire that measured gender stereotypes towards students and teachers, gender sensitivity in the classroom and gender awareness in teacher education. The participants in this study revealed to not possess too much of a stereotypical thinking except in regards to the behaviour of boys and reported the belief of male student teachers being more appreciated in the teaching profession. Furthermore, participants presented an intention to act in a gender sensitive manner in the classroom though they reported a lack of education on gender issues that should be offered in the teacher education program. Within the teacher education program, if gender was addressed in courses, this was often done in heteronormative and gender stereotypical ways. Lastly, teachings on transgender and gender non-conforming issues were reported to be non-existent in the program. As a result, recommendations towards the education on gender issues are provided, as well as further research into the perceptions of teachers towards different genders. In general, the complexity of research into gender awareness should not be underestimated and was corroborated by the findings of the underlying patterns in answers to the survey

A GIS-based methodological framework to identify superficial water sources and their corresponding conduction paths for gravity-driven irrigation systems in developing countries

The limited availability of fresh water is a major constraint to agricultural productivity and livelihood security in many developing countries. Within the coming decades, smallholder farmers in drought-prone areas are expected to be increasingly confronted with local water scarcity problems, but their access to technological knowledge and financial resources to cope with these problems is often limited. In this article, we present a methodological framework that allows for identifying, in a short period of time, suitable and superficial water sources, and cost-effective water transportation routes for the provisioning of gravity-driven irrigation systems. As an implementation of the framework, we present the automated and extensible geospatial toolset named “AGRI’’, and elaborate a case study in Western Honduras, where the methodology and toolset were applied to provide assistance to field technicians in the process of identifying water intake sites and transportation routes. The case study results show that 28 % of the water intake sites previously identified by technicians (without the support of AGRI) were found to be not feasible for gravity-driven irrigation. On the other hand, for the feasible water intake sites, AGRI was able to provide viable and shorter water transportation routes to farms in 70 % of the cases. Furthermore, AGRI was able to provide alternative feasible water intake sites for all considered farms, with correspondingly viable water transportation routes for 74 % of them. These results demonstrate AGRI’s potential to reduce time, costs and risk of failure associated with the development of low-cost irrigation systems, which becomes increasingly needed to support the livelihoods of some of the world’s most vulnerable populations

A Mobile Query Service for Integrated Access to Large Numbers of Online Semantic Web Data Sources

From the Semantic Web’s inception, a number of concurrent initiatives have given rise to multiple segments: large semantic datasets, exposed by query endpoints; online Semantic Web documents, in the form of RDF files; and semantically annotated web content (e.g., using RDFa), semantic sources in their own right. In various mobile application scenarios, online semantic data has proven to be useful. While query endpoints are most commonly exploited, they are mainly useful to expose large semantic datasets. Alternatively, mobile RDF stores are utilized to query local semantic data, but this requires the design-time identification and replication of relevant data. Instead, we present a mobile query service that supports on-the-fly and integrated querying of semantic data, originating from a largely unused portion of the Semantic Web, comprising online RDF files and semantics embedded in annotated webpages. To that end, our solution performs dynamic identification, retrieval and caching of query-relevant semantic data. We explore several data identification and caching alternatives, and investigate the utility of source metadata in optimizing these tasks. Further, we introduce a novel cache replacement strategy, fine- tuned to the described query dataset, and include explicit support for the Open World Assumption. An extensive experimental validation evaluates the query service and its alternative components

Hypnos: a Hardware and Software Toolkit for Energy-Aware Sensing in Low-Cost IoT Nodes

Through the Internet of Things, autonomous sensing devices can be deployed to regularly capture environmental and other sensor measurements for a variety of usage scenarios. However, for the market segment of stand-alone, self-sustaining small IoT nodes, long term deployment remains problematic due to the energy-constrained nature of these devices, requiring frequent maintenance. This article introduces Hypnos, an open hardware and software toolkit that aims to balance energy intake and usage through adaptive sensing rate for low-cost Internetconnected IoT nodes. We describe the hardware architecture of the IoT node, an open hardware board based on the Arduino Uno form-factor packing the energy measurement circuitry, and the associated open source software library, that interfaces with the sensing node’s microcontroller and provides access to the low-level energy measurements. Hypnos comes equipped with a built-in, configurable, modified sigmoid function to regulate duty cycle frequency based on energy intake and usage, yet developers may also plug in their custom duty/sleep balancing function. An experiment was set up, whereby two identical boards ran for two months: one with the Hypnos software framework and built-in energy balancing function to regulate sensing rate and the other with fixed sensing rate. The experiment showed that Hypnos is able to successfully balance energy usage and sensing frequency within configurable energy ranges. Hereby, it increases reliability by avoiding complete shutdown, while at the same time optimizing performance in terms of average amount of sensor measurements