Improving content authoring user experience in the lovelace learning environment

Abstract. This thesis provides the analysis, planning, execution and evaluation of a new back- and frontend prototype of the online learning environment Lovelace created by the project group. The pre-requisite for the prototype was to utilize the same technologies as the current live version, and the project groups first major task was to investigate, comprehend and execute them. In addition, the project group was advised not to review the code of the live version to ensure fresh perspective into execution of the new version. The design takes influence from other sources such as Moodle. This thesis covers the process of the design from first sketches and analysis of the set-out requirements. These requirements include extracting the current editing functionality from separate administrator page to the easily accessible lecture pages editing widget, the static website contents caching, support for the existing Lovelace markup text and many others. The implementation phase starts by following the plan created in the design part which made the process more streamlined. Technical aspects of the development are handled in the implementation part of the thesis. Polymorphism, the way the content is rendered to the viewer, explanation and representation of how content forms and caching works are explored here. The evaluation of the finished prototype was executed in form of measurement of websites load times with addition of an expert evaluation meeting with experienced user of the live version of Lovelace. The meeting consisted of different test cases which the attendee had to complete on both old and new versions. These tasks were all timed and the results were vastly better with the project groups prototype. All of the tasks completed with less time with the prototype, and in some cases even twice as fast. Comparing the end result with the pre-requisites, the requirements were met well, and the improvements were proven to be a success.Tiivistelmä. Tämä tutkielma sisältää verkko-opintoympäristö Lovelacen uuden prototyypin suunnittelun, toteutuksen, analyysin sekä evaluaation vaiheet. Prototyyppi on projektiryhmän tuottama uusi front- ja backend toteutus, jonka esivaatimuksena oli hyödyntää samoja teknologioita kuin alkuperäinen versio. Tämän johdosta projektin keskeisin tehtävä alun kannalta oli tutkia ja opiskella näitä teknologioita perusteellisesti. Lisäksi projektiryhmää ohjeistettiin olemaan katsomatta alkuperäisen version koodia ja toteutusta, jotta projektia lähestyttäisiin täysin uudesta perspektiivistä. Suunnitteluvaiheessa projekti ottaa vaikutteita muista oppimisympäristöistä kuten Moodle:sta. Tämä tutkielma käsittelee suunnitteluprosessin vaiheet mukaanlukien käyttöliittymän luonnokset ja esivaatimusten analyysin. Vaatimuksia ovat editointitoiminnallisuuden siirtäminen erilliseltä ylläpitosivustolta luentosivulta helposti käsiteltävään editointipienoisohjelmaan, välimuistin implementointi latausnopeuksien nopeuttamiseksi, tuki Lovelacen ”markup” -tekstille sekä monia muita. Projektin tekninen puoli, kuten polymorfismi, sisällön renderointi sekä tarkempi välimuistin ja sisältölomakkeiden toiminta käsitellään implementointiosiossa. Valmiin prototyypin evaluointi suoritettiin latausnopeuksien mittauksilla sekä asiantuntijan arvioinnilla. Kyseinen asiantuntija oli kokenut Lovelacen käyttäjä ja hänelle annettiin kolme erilaista tehtävää, jotka hänen kuului suorittaa sekä alkuperäisellä että projektiryhmän versioilla. Nämä suoritukset ajoitettiin sekuntikellolla myöhempää data-analyysia varten. Tulokset prototyyppiversiolla olivat menestyksekkäitä. Tehtäviin kulutettu aika oli jokaisella kerralla lyhyempi prototyyppiä käyttäessä ja joissain tapauksissa jopa kaksi kertaa lyhyempi. Kun kokonaiskuvaa lopputuloksesta verrataan alkuvaatimuksiin, niin huomataan, että vaatimukset tavoitettiin ja uudet toiminnallisuudet paransivat todistetusti käyttäjäkokemusta

Pure and Sb-doped ZrO2 for removal of IO3- from radioactive waste solutions

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Boreal carabid-beetle (Coleoptera, Carabidae) assemblages along the clear-cut originated succession gradient

http://www.elsevier.com/locate/issn/01681605We examined the occurrence of carabid beetles along a forest succession gradient in central Finland (forest age classes: 5, 10, 20, 30 and 60 years since clear-cutting). Species richness of carabids was higher in the two youngest age classes, while no clear differences were detected in carabid abundance. The high species richness in the young, open sites was due to invasion of open-habitat species. Many forest species were absent from or scarce in the young sites and became gradually more abundant towards the older forest age classes. The catches indicated a drastic decrease and assemblagelevel change in concert with canopy closure, i.e. 20–30 years after clear-cutting. Some forest specialists with poor dispersal ability may face local extinction, if the proportion of mature forest decreases further and the remaining mature stands become more isolated. We recommend that, while harvesting timber, connectivity between mature stands is ensured, mature stands are maintained close (a few tens of metres) to each other and the matrix quality is improved for forest species by green tree retention

A family of thermostable fungal cellulases created by structure-guided recombination

SCHEMA structure-guided recombination of 3 fungal class II cellobiohydrolases (CBH II cellulases) has yielded a collection of highly thermostable CBH II chimeras. Twenty-three of 48 genes sampled from the 6,561 possible chimeric sequences were secreted by the Saccharomyces cerevisiae heterologous host in catalytically active form. Five of these chimeras have half-lives of thermal inactivation at 63°C that are greater than the most stable parent, CBH II enzyme from the thermophilic fungus Humicola insolens, which suggests that this chimera collection contains hundreds of highly stable cellulases. Twenty-five new sequences were designed based on mathematical modeling of the thermostabilities for the first set of chimeras. Ten of these sequences were expressed in active form; all 10 retained more activity than H. insolens CBH II after incubation at 63°C. The total of 15 validated thermostable CBH II enzymes have high sequence diversity, differing from their closest natural homologs at up to 63 amino acid positions. Selected purified thermostable chimeras hydrolyzed phosphoric acid swollen cellulose at temperatures 7 to 15°C higher than the parent enzymes. These chimeras also hydrolyzed as much or more cellulose than the parent CBH II enzymes in long-time cellulose hydrolysis assays and had pH/activity profiles as broad, or broader than, the parent enzymes. Generating this group of diverse, thermostable fungal CBH II chimeras is the first step in building an inventory of stable cellulases from which optimized enzyme mixtures for biomass conversion can be formulated

Cavitation inception of a van der Waals fluid at a sack-wall obstacle

Cavitation in a liquid moving past a constraint is numerically investigated by means of a free-energy lattice Boltzmann simulation based on the van der Waals equation of state. The fluid is streamed past an obstacle and, depending on the pressure drop between inlet and outlet, vapor formation underneath the corner of the sack-wall is observed. The circumstances of cavitation formation are investigated and it is found that the local bulk pressure and mean stress are insufficient to explain the phenomenon. Results obtained in this study strongly suggest that the viscous stress, interfacial contributions to the local pressure, and the Laplace pressure are relevant to the opening of a vapor cavity. This can be described by a generalization of Joseph's criterion that includes these contributions. A macroscopic investigation measuring mass flow rate behavior and discharge coefficient was also performed. As theoretically predicted, mass flow rate increases linearly with the square root of the pressure drop. However, when cavitation occurs, the mass flow growth rate is reduced and eventually it collapses into a choked flow state. In the cavitating regime, as theoretically predicted and experimentally verified, the discharge coefficient grows with the Nurick cavitation number

Multilayers of Renewable Nanostructured Materials with High Oxygen and Water Vapor Barriers for Food Packaging

Natural biopolymers have become key players in the preparation of biodegradable food packaging. However, biopolymers are typically highly hydrophilic, which imposes limitations in terms of barrier properties that are associated with water interactions. Here, we enhance the barrier properties of biobased packaging using multilayer designs, in which each layer displays a complementary barrier function. Oxygen, water vapor, and UV barriers were achieved using a stepwise assembly of cellulose nanofibers, biobased wax, and lignin particles supported by chitin nanofibers. We first engineered several designs containing CNFs and carnauba wax. Among them, we obtained low water vapor permeabilities in an assembly containing three layers, i.e., CNF/wax/CNF, in which wax was present as a continuous layer. We then incorporated a layer of lignin nanoparticles nucleated on chitin nanofibrils (LPChNF) to introduce a complete barrier against UV light, while maintaining film translucency. Our multilayer design which comprised CNF/wax/LPChNF enabled high oxygen (OTR of 3 +/- 1 cm(3)/m(2).day) and water vapor (WVTR of 6 +/- 1 g/m(2).day) barriers at 50% relative humidity. It was also effective against oil penetration. Oxygen permeability was controlled by the presence of tight networks of cellulose and chitin nanofibers, while water vapor diffusion through the assembly was regulated by the continuous wax layer. Lastly, we showcased our fully renewable packaging material for preservation of the texture of a commercial cracker (dry food). Our material showed functionality similar to that of the original packaging, which was composed of synthetic polymers.Peer reviewe