”Luontoon digitaalisesti”:virtuaalisen eläinmuseon kehitystyö suunnitteluantropologiaa hyödyntäen

Tiivistelmä. Oulun yliopiston eläinmuseon näyttely suljettiin vuoden 2017 lopussa. Alkuperäinen näyttely haluttiin tallentaa virtuaalitodellisuusteknologian avulla 3D-muotoon, ”virtuaaliseksi eläinmuseoksi”. Virtuaalista eläinmuseota käytetään VR-lasien avulla. Siinä on näyttelysalin lisäksi kaksi luontoympäristöä, joista toinen on keinotekoinen ja interaktiivinen sovelluskehittäjien luoma luontoympäristö ja toinen on Oulun seudulta kerättyä 360 asteen kuvamateriaalia sisältävä luontoympäristö. Tämän pro gradu -tutkimuksen aiheena on tarkastella kokonaisvaltaisesti niin kutsutun virtuaalisen eläinmuseon kehitys- ja suunnittelutyötä. Tutkimuksen aineisto on kerätty suunnittelutyöhön osallistuneilta eri asiantuntijuuksien edustajilta: Oulun yliopiston eläinmuseon henkilökunnalta, Jokapaikan tietotekniikan tutkimusyksikön tutkijoilta ja Oulun yliopiston opiskelijoilta. Olen hyödyntänyt tutkimuksessani erityisesti suunnitteluantropologiaa ja osallistavan suunnittelun menetelmiä, joihin olen yhdistänyt aistietnografista otetta. Kenttätyöni koostuvat haastatteluista, työpajasta ja virtuaalisen eläinmuseon läpikävelyistä. Tutkimusaineisto on nauhoitettu ja litteroitu sekä osaksi videoitu. Suunnittelutyössä olen tarkastellut eläinmuseon merkitystä kaikille tutkimukseen osallistujille. Lähestulkoon kaikki toivoivat eläinmuseon näyttelytoiminnalle jatkoa fyysisessä muodossa. Selvitin digitaalisen teknologian, erityisesti virtuaalitodellisuusteknologian, ja luonnon merkitystä osallistujien arjessa, mikä loi pohjan virtuaalisen luonnon tarkastelulle. Virtuaalisessa eläinmuseossa nähtiin paljon mahdollisuuksia: se mahdollistaa esimerkiksi uudenlaisten ominaisuuksien, kuten eläinten ääninäytteiden ja erilaisten vuorovaikutuksellisten elementtien, lisäämisen. Virtualisointi aiheutti kuitenkin huolta sen suhteen, saadaanko museoon mallinnettua tarpeeksi eläimiä ja olisiko mallintamisen laatu riittävän tarkkaa. Alkuperäinen näyttely oli päiväkoti- ja alakouluryhmien suosiossa. Virtuaalisessa eläinmuseossa pystyy kuitenkin olemaan vain yksi käyttäjä kerrallaan, ja VR-laseilla on usein ikäraja. Tämän vuoksi virtuaalisesta eläinmuseosta päätettiin tehdä myös internetselaimessa toimiva 2D-versio. Virtuaalisesti kuvattu luonto koettiin kiinnostavana ilmiönä, mutta sen ei ajateltu korvaavan fyysistä luontoa. Erilaisten digitaalisten teknologioiden koettiin etäännyttävän ihmisiä ympäröivästä maailmasta ja siten myös luonnosta. Samanaikaisesti virtuaalisen eläinmuseon potentiaalina nähtiin kuitenkin se, että se voisi lähennyttää ihmisiä luonnon kanssa. Lähennyttääkseen ihmisiä luonnon kanssa virtuaalisen eläinmuseon tulee sisältää riittävästi asianmukaista tietoa ja olla elämyksellinen paikka. Se ei saa kuitenkaan erkaantua konseptina liikaa eläinmuseosta, ettei sen alkuperäinen ydintavoite eli ympäristökasvatus unohdu. Tutkimuksen yhtenä tarkoituksena oli myös kehittää virtuaalista eläinmuseota sen potentiaaliset käyttäjät huomioiden. Tätä varten tutkimukseen on koottu kehitysideoita virtuaalisen eläinmuseon jatkokehitystä varten. Tiivistetysti virtuaalista eläinmuseota jatkokehittäessä on tärkeää ottaa huomioon museon eri käyttäjäryhmät suunnittelussa ja panostaa kokonaisvaltaiseen läsnäolon kokemukseen virtuaaliympäristössä. Visuaalisuudella on tämän tutkimuksen perusteella suuri merkitys, mitä ei voi ohittaa. Se ei kuitenkaan yksistään riitä luomaan onnistunutta virtuaalitodellisuuskokemusta.Abstract. The University of Oulu Zoological Museum exhibition was closed at the end of the year 2017. The original exhibition was transformed into 3D form with virtual technology, as “The Virtual Zoological Museum”. The Virtual Zoological Museum can be achieved with a virtual headset. In addition to the original exhibition, the Virtual Zoological Museum contains two nature environments besides the virtual exhibition hall. These are an artificial nature environment with interactive characteristics and a 360-degree photo environment based on photos from the Oulu region. The aim of this thesis is to comprehensively examine the design process of the Virtual Zoological Museum. The design process engaged participants from different areas of expertise: staff from the University of Oulu Zoological Museum, researchers from the Center for Ubiquitous Computing and students from the University of Oulu. I have used design anthropology both theoretically and methodologically with participatory design methods and combined all that with sensory ethnography. The fieldwork consisted of interviews, a design workshop and the user testings of the Virtual Zoological Museum. The research data was recorded, transcribed and partly videotaped. At the start of the design work, I examined what was the meaning of the original exhibition Zoological Museum to all of the participants. Nearly all of the participants wanted that the museum’s exhibition would continue in physical form in the future. Then I studied how digital technology, especially virtual technology, and nature is seen in the everyday life of the participants, which created a basis to examine the concept of virtual nature. The Virtual Zoological Museum was considered to have a great potential. It makes it possible to add new kinds of features, like animal sounds and interactive elements, into the museum experience. The virtualization caused concern about whether enough animals could be added into the museum and whether the animal models would be visually accurate enough. The original exhibition had a lot of visitors from preschools and primary schools. In the Virtual Zoological Museum, there can be only one user at the time, and there is usually an age limit for most VR headsets. That is why it was decided to also develop a 2D version for web browsers. The virtual nature was considered an interesting topic, but the participants didn’t think it could replace the physical one. The participants thought that different digital technologies did diverge humans from the world around them and, therefore, from nature. At the same time, and perhaps contradictorily, the participants thought that the Virtual Zoological Museum could bring humans closer to nature. To achieve that, it should include enough relevant knowledge and be an experiential place. However, it is important that it won’t diverge from the original museum and its core aim: environmental education. Another aim of my thesis was to develop the Virtual Zoological Museum, taking into account its potential users. To do that, I put together ideas for future development. In short, when developing the Virtual Zoological Museum, it is important to engage different user groups into the design process and invest in the overall experience of the present moment in the virtual environment. Based on this study, visuality is of paramount importance, which cannot be dismissed. However, visuality alone is not enough for creating a successful virtual experience

Transfer learning for mobile robots

Abstract. In this project transfer learning can be defined as transferring previously learned knowledge to a new environment and making use of it to avoid obstacles. The feasibility of transfer learning was studied in a situation where a robot is given a task to navigate to a user-defined location in a virtual environment without hitting walls and utilizing reinforcement learning to teach the robot, which means that the robot will receive rewards according to the way it moves in the environment and how close it is to the goal location. In this project everything is done and tested in simulation. First the robot is trained in a standard environment, which is a simple hallway. It requires around 4000 iterations for the robot to learn better practices and reach the goal more frequently. When the training is done, the robot is moved to a test environment, which is otherwise similar to the standard one with the exception of a slanted floor, a ramp, in the beginning of the hallway. This proved to be an obstacle that the robot could not overcome without the help of sensor spoofing. Sensor spoofing in this case means inputting fake values to the robot’s laser sensor, which is responsible for detecting obstacles around the robot. The major target in this research was to transfer the previously learned data from the standard environment to the test environment and utilize sensor spoofing to help the robot overcome the slanted floor and eventually analyze if transfer learning helped the robot perform better. The performance can be compared by looking at the rewards received by the robot, since the robot receives highest rewards when reaching the goal location in the environment and negative rewards when crashing into walls. If transfer learning is beneficial for the robot, the robot should reach the goal point more frequently when making use of previously trained data from the standard environment and sensor spoofing in the test environment, compared to how it performs without them. This was also the result achieved. Even though the performance was not as good as it was without the ramp since without the ramp the robot reached the goal point every time after training around 200 episodes, the performance was better than it was without the trained model and sensor spoofing being used. As a result, transfer learning can be applied in virtual environments for mobile robots under certain restrictions. It can also be utilized in many other cases, this project is just one example. The codes and files used for this project are available on GitHub at https://github.com/lperala/Transfer_learning_for_mobile_robots.Tiivistelmä. Tässä projektissa oppimisen siirtäminen voidaan määrittää aiemmin opitun tiedon siirtämisenä uuteen ympäristöön ja sen hyödyntämisenä esteiden välttelyyn. Oppimisen siirtämisen toteutettavuutta tutkittiin tilanteessa, jossa robotille on annettu tehtävä navigoida käyttäjän määrittämään sijaintiin virtuaalisessa ympäristössä osumatta seiniin hyödyntäen vahvistavaa oppimista robotin opettamiseksi, joka tarkoittaa että robotti saa positiivisia palkkioita sen mukaan miten se liikkuu ympäristössä ja kuinka lähellä se on tavoitesijaintia. Tässä projektissa kaikki on tehty ja testattu simulaatiossa. Ensin robotti koulutetaan standardiympäristössä, joka on yksinkertainen käytävä. Robotti tarvitsee noin 4000 toistoa koulutusta, jotta se oppisi liikkumaan paremmin ja saavuttamaan tavoitesijaintinsa useammin. Kun koulutus on tehty, robotti siirretään testiympäristöön, joka on muuten samanlainen kuin standardiympäristö, mutta sisältää kaltevan rampin käytävän alussa. Tämä osottautui esteeksi, jonka yli robotti ei kyennyt liikkumaan ilman sensorin huijaamista. Sensorin huijaaminen tarkoitti tässä tapauksessa tekaistujen arvojen syöttämistä robotin lasersensorille, joka vastaa esteiden havaitsemisesta robotin ympärillä. Suurin tavoite projektissa oli siirtää aiemmin opittu data standardiympäristöstä testiympäristöön ja hyödyntää sensorin huijaamista auttaakseen robottia ylittämään ramppi ja lopulta analysoida oliko oppimisen siirtämisestä hyötyä robotin suoriutumisen kannalta. Suoriutumista voitiin tarkastella vertaamalla robotin keräämiä palkkioita, koska robotti saa isoimmat palkkionsa saavuttaessaan tavoitesijaintinsa ympäristössä ja taas negatiivisia palkkioita, mikäli se törmää seinään. Jos oppimisen siirtäminen on hyödyllistä, se tarkottaisi että robotti saavuttaisi tavoitesijainnin useammin kun se hyödyntää aiemmin opittua dataa kuin jos se suoriutuisi ilman opittua dataa. Tämä oli myös tulos johon päädyttiin. Vaikka suoriutuminen ei ollut yhtä hyvää kuin ilman ramppia, koska ilman ramppia robotti saavutti tavoitteensa jo 200 koulutusepisodin jälkeen, suoriutuminen oli parempaa kuin se oli täysin ilman koulutusta ja sensorin huijaamista. Tuloksena, oppimisen siirtämistä voidaan hyödyntää virtuaalisissa ympäristöissä mobiileille roboteille tiettyjen rajoituksin. Sitä voidaan myös hyödyntää monissa muissakin tapauksissa, tämä projekti on vain yksi esimerkki. Projektissa käytetyt tiedostot ovat saatavilla GitHubissa osoitteesta https://github.com/lperala/Transfer_learning_for_mobile_robots

Impact of Surface-Active Guanidinium-, Tetramethylguanidinium-, and Cholinium-Based Ionic Liquids on Vibrio Fischeri Cells and Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine Liposomes

We investigated the toxicological effect of seven novel cholinium, guanidinium, and tetramethylguanidinium carboxylate ionic liquids (ILs) from an ecotoxicological point of view. The emphasis was on the potential structure-toxicity dependency of these surface-active ILs in aqueous environment. The median effective concentrations (EC50) were defined for each IL using Vibrio (Aliivibrio) fischeri marine bacteria. Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) liposomes were used as biomimetic lipid membranes to study the interactions between the surface-active ILs and the liposomes. The interactions were investigated by following the change in the DPPC phase transition behaviour using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Critical micelle concentrations for the ILs were determined to clarify the analysis of the toxicity and the interaction results. Increasing anion alkyl chain length increased the toxicity, whereas branching of the chain decreased the toxicity of the ILs. The toxicity of the ILs in this study was mainly determined by the surface-active anions, while cations induced a minor impact on the toxicity. In the DSC experiments the same trend was observed for all the studied anions, whereas the cations seemed to induce more variable impact on the phase transition behaviour. Toxicity measurements combined with liposome interaction studies can provide a valuable tool for assessing the mechanism of toxicity.Peer reviewe

Harvesting Icebergs and Space Rocks: Small Scale Resource Extraction Entrepreneurship in Areas Beyond National Jurisdictions

New opportunities for small-scale, but potentially highly profitable, extractive industries either arise or have the potential to grow, both in the Arctic and in outer space. In the Arctic, icebergs which have broken off from Greenland’s glaciers and which have been transported south through the Davis Strait by the water currents are being harvested off the coast of Canada. The perceived purity of the water and the exotic origin make this risky endeavor commercially interesting. Iceberg harvesting has been undertaken for some time and is likely to become more important: along with increased melting of Greenland’s ice sheet and calving into icebergs, also the Arctic sea ice is melting rapidly due to climate change. Icebergs are an attraction in cruise tourism, too, but also pose threats particularly in the uninhabited sea routes where rescue preparedness is low and distances to help are long. Also Arcticrelated products and services are gaining the attention of consumers and investors from outside the region, in particular when high-priced luxury items and services are concerned. It therefore seems a fair assumption that iceberg harvesting off the coast of Canada is likely to remain relevant for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, outer space is becoming the latest frontier for extractive industries, not only for the minerals and metals found on celestial bodies but also regarding water and materials which will be needed to give human activities there some degree of permanence

Graft Neutrophil Sequestration and Concomitant Tissue Plasminogen Activator Release During Reperfusion in Clinical Kidney Transplantation

Background. Inflammation, coagulation, and fibrinolysis are tightly linked together. Reperfusion after transient ischemia activates both neutrophils, coagulation, and fibrinolysis. Experimental data suggest that tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) regulates renal neutrophil influx in kidney ischemia and reperfusion injury. Methods. In 30 patients undergoing kidney transplantation, we measured renal neutrophil sequestration and tPA release from blood samples drawn from the supplying artery and renal vein early after reperfusion. tPA antigen levels were measured using a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. For each parameter, transrenal difference (Delta) was calculated by subtracting the value of the arterial sample (ingoing blood) from the value of the venous sample (outgoing blood). Results. Positive transrenal gradients of tPA antigen occurred at 1 minute [Delta = 14 (3-46) ng/mL, P <.01] and 5 minutes [Delta = 5 (-3 to 27) ng/mL, P <.01] after reperfusion. At 5 minutes after reperfusion, a negative transrenal gradient of neutrophils was observed [Delta = -0.17 (-1.45 to 0.24) x 10E9 cells/L, P <.001]. At 1 minute after reperfusion, neutrophil sequestration into the kidney (ie, negative transrenal neutrophil count) correlated significantly with tPA release from the kidney (ie, positive transrenal tPA concentration), (R = -0.513 and P = .006). Conclusions. The findings suggest a proinflammatory role for tPA in ischemia and reperfusion injury in human kidney transplantation.Peer reviewe

Regional brain morphometry in patients with traumatic brain injury based on acute- and chronic-phase magnetic resonance imaging.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is caused by a sudden external force and can be very heterogeneous in its manifestation. In this work, we analyse T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) brain images that were prospectively acquired from patients who sustained mild to severe TBI. We investigate the potential of a recently proposed automatic segmentation method to support the outcome prediction of TBI. Specifically, we extract meaningful cross-sectional and longitudinal measurements from acute- and chronic-phase MR images. We calculate regional volume and asymmetry features at the acute/subacute stage of the injury (median: 19 days after injury), to predict the disability outcome of 67 patients at the chronic disease stage (median: 229 days after injury). Our results indicate that small structural volumes in the acute stage (e.g. of the hippocampus, accumbens, amygdala) can be strong predictors for unfavourable disease outcome. Further, group differences in atrophy are investigated. We find that patients with unfavourable outcome show increased atrophy. Among patients with severe disability outcome we observed a significantly higher mean reduction of cerebral white matter (3.1%) as compared to patients with low disability outcome (0.7%)

Human Serum Metabolites Associate With Severity and Patient Outcomes in Traumatic Brain Injury.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of death and disability worldwide, especially in children and young adults. TBI is an example of a medical condition where there are still major lacks in diagnostics and outcome prediction. Here we apply comprehensive metabolic profiling of serum samples from TBI patients and controls in two independent cohorts. The discovery study included 144 TBI patients, with the samples taken at the time of hospitalization. The patients were diagnosed as severe (sTBI; n=22), moderate (moTBI; n=14) or mild TBI (mTBI; n=108) according to Glasgow Coma Scale. The control group (n=28) comprised of acute orthopedic non-brain injuries. The validation study included sTBI (n=23), moTBI (n=7), mTBI (n=37) patients and controls (n=27). We show that two medium-chain fatty acids (decanoic and octanoic acids) and sugar derivatives including 2,3-bisphosphoglyceric acid are strongly associated with severity of TBI, and most of them are also detected at high concentrations in brain microdialysates of TBI patients. Based on metabolite concentrations from TBI patients at the time of hospitalization, an algorithm was developed that accurately predicted the patient outcomes (AUC=0.84 in validation cohort). Addition of the metabolites to the established clinical model (CRASH), comprising clinical and computed tomography data, significantly improved prediction of patient outcomes. The identified 'TBI metabotype' in serum, that may be indicative of disrupted blood-brain barrier, of protective physiological response and altered metabolism due to head trauma, offers a new avenue for the development of diagnostic and prognostic markers of broad spectrum of TBIs.European Union FP7 project TBIcare (Grant ID: 270259), GE-NFL Head Health Challenge I Award (Grant ID: 7620), EVO (Finland), Maire Taponen Foundation, National Institute for Health Research, National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre Cambridge (Neuroscience Theme; Brain Injury and Repair Theme)This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2016.07.01

Global economic drivers in the development of different industrial hubs in the European Arctic

publishedVersio

Application of mild autohydrolysis to facilitate the dissolution of wood chips in direct-dissolution solvents

Wood is not fully soluble in current non-derivatising direct-dissolution solvents, contrary to the many reports in the literature quoting wood 'dissolution' in ionic liquids. Herein, we demonstrate that the application of autohydrolysis, as a green and economical wood pre-treatment method, allows for a massive increase in solubility compared to untreated wood. This is demonstrated by the application of two derivitising methods (phosphitylation and acetylation), followed by NMR analysis, in the cellulose-dissolving ionic liquids 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([amim]Cl) and 1,5-diazabicyclo[4.3.0]non-5-enium acetate ([DBNH][OAc]. In addition, the non-derivitising tetrabutylphosphonium acetate ([P-4444][OAc]) : DMSO-d6 electrolyte also allowed for dissolution of the autohydrolysed wood samples. By combination of different particle sizes and P-factors (autohydrolysis intensity), it has been clearly demonstrated that the solubility of even wood chips can be drastically increased by application of autohydrolysis. The physiochemical factors affecting wood solubility after autohydrolysis are also discussed.Peer reviewe