Finnish Education Professionals’ Thoughts on Adaptive Learning Technologies

With the rapidly increased use of digital technologies in education due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to discuss these technologies’ impact on the teaching profession. Using thematic analysis and epistemic network analysis (ENA), we analyzed 114 social media posts by Finnish education professionals commenting on an opinion piece about technology partly taking responsibilities usually attributed to a teacher. Out of the analyzed posts, 32 were supportive, 30 ambivalent, and 52 critical towards the presented scenario. The epistemic network analysis graphs showed some differences between posts with a different attitude. Supportive posts, on average emphasized technological capabilities and their connections with teacher workload and self-directed/self-regulated learning. In comparison, the critical posts on average emphasized human presence and its connections with pupil diversity and technological capability. Our findings both reveal the relevant themes in the discussion about technologies’ impact on the teaching profession and underline the differences in supportive and critical argumentation.Peer reviewe

Negative Ion Positive Ion Coincidence Yields of Core Excited Water

We report yields of mass-resolved negative ions and positive ions measured in coincidence after core-excitation of water molecules. The analysis of negative-ion/positive-ion and negative-ion/positive-ion/positive-ion coincidence events provides new information on pathways leading to negative ion production, enhancing the present understanding of the dissociation processes of the water molecule. Dissociation following (resonant) Auger decay dominates negative ion production, but radiative decay is shown to contribute above the O 1s ionization threshold. A peak in the H-/O+ yield above the O 1s threshold is attributed to decay from doubly excited states

S 2p photoabsorption of the SF5CF3 molecule: Experiment, theory and comparison with SF6

The S 2p core excitation spectrum of the SF5CF3 molecule has been measured in the total ion yield mode. It resembles a lot the analogous spectrum of SF6, also recorded in this study, displaying intense transitions to the empty molecular orbitals both below and above the S 2p ionization potential (IP) and weak transitions to the Rydberg orbitals. The S 2p photoabsorption spectra of SF6 and SF5CF3 have been calculated using time-dependent density functional theory, whereby the spin–orbit coupling was included for the transitions below the S 2p IP. The agreement between experiment and theory is good for both molecules, which allows us to assign the main S 2p absorption features in SF5CF3

Blood Pressure and Fibrinogen Responses to Mental Stress as Predictors of Incident Hypertension over an 8-Year Period.

BACKGROUND: Heightened blood pressure (BP) responses to mental stress predict raised BP levels over subsequent years, but evidence for associations with incident hypertension is limited, and the significance of inflammatory responses is uncertain. PURPOSE: We investigated the relationship between BP and plasma fibrinogen responses to stress and incident hypertension over an average 8-year follow-up. METHOD: Participants were 636 men and women (mean age 59.1 years) from the Whitehall II epidemiological cohort with no history of cardiovascular disease and hypertension. They performed standardized behavioral tasks (color/word conflict and mirror tracing), and hypertension was defined by clinic measures and medication status. RESULTS: Of participants in the highest systolic BP reactivity tertile, 29.3 % became hypertensive over the follow-up period compared with 16.5 % of those in the lowest tertile, with an odds ratio of 2.02 (95 % CI 1.17-3.88, p = 0.012) after adjustment for age, sex, grade of employment, body mass index, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, follow-up time, subjective stress response, perceived task difficulty, perceived task engagement, and baseline BP. Similar associations were observed for diastolic BP reactivity (odds ratio 2.05, 95 % CI 1.23-3.40, p = 0.006) and for impaired systolic BP post-stress recovery (odds ratio 2.06, 95 % CI 1.19-3.57, p = 0.010). Fibrinogen reactions to tasks also predicted future hypertension in women (odds ratio 2.64, 95 % CI 1.11-6.30, p = 0.029) but not men. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that heightened cardiovascular and inflammatory reactivity to mental stress is associated with hypertension risk, and may be a mechanism through which psychosocial factors impact on the development of hypertension

Associations of coffee drinking with physical performance in the oldest-old community-dwelling men The Helsinki Businessmen Study (HBS)

Background: Habitual coffee drinking has been associated with lower risk of various chronic diseases linked to poor physical performance. Objective: We explored cross-sectional associations between coffee consumption and physical performance among oldest-old community-dwelling men in the Helsinki Businessmen Study (HBS). Methods: A random sample of HBS survivors (n = 126, mean age 87 years) attended a clinic visit in 2017/2018, including measurements of body composition, physical performance [Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB)], and cognition. Coffee consumption was retrieved from 3-day food diaries. Results: Coffee consumption was positively associated with higher gait speed (p = 0.003), SPPB score (p = 0.035), and chair rise points (p = 0.043). Association of coffee with gait speed remained after adjustment for age, waist circumference, physical activity, pulse rate, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein. Conclusion: Higher coffee consumption was independently associated with better physical performance reflected as faster gait speed in oldest-old men

Angle-resolved Auger spectrum of the N₂ molecule

Angle-resolved Auger electron spectra of N2 have been measured with good statistics at photon energies corresponding to the π* resonance and the σ* shape resonance, below and above the N 1s threshold, respectively. Angular anisotropy is observed in both cases, but disappears as expected far above threshold. Satellite Auger transitions also show some angular anisotropy close to the N 1s threshold. This is attributed to the creation and decay of conjugate shakeup initial states, which have non-ground-state symmetry

Tuloksenjärjestely suomalaisissa pörssiyhtiöissä analyytikoiden tulosennusteisiin pääsemiseksi

Tiivistelmä. Tämän pro gradun tarkoituksena on selvittää, järjestelevätkö suomalaiset pörssiyhtiöt tulostaan harkinnanvaraisia muuntoeroja käyttäen, jotta analyytikoiden tulosennusteet voitaisiin saavuttaa. Aiheesta on tehty paljon tutkimusta erityisesti Yhdysvalloissa. Aiemmissa tutkimuksissa on havaittu, että sellaisilla yrityksillä, jotka pääsevät analyytikoiden tulosennusteisiin, on keskimäärin enemmän harkinnanvaraisia muuntoeroja tilinpäätöksessään. Tutkimustulokset ovat osoittaneet tulosyllätysten jakaumia tarkasteltaessa myös, että hieman nollan negatiiviselle puolelle tulosennusteesta jäävien havaintojen määrä on epätavallisen pieni, kun taas vastaavasti juuri nollan positiiviselle puolelle pääsevien määrä on poikkeuksellisen suuri. Tämän tutkimuksen hypoteesit on asetettu aiempien tutkimusten perusteella. Tämän tutkimuksen aineisto koostuu suomalaisista pörssiyhtiöistä vuosilta 2008–2018. Aineisto analyytikoiden tulosennusteista ja yhtiöiden tilinpäätöstiedoista on kerätty Thomson Reutersin Datastream -tietokannasta. Tässä tutkimuksessa harkinnanvaraisten muuntoerojen estimoimiseksi käytetään Jonesin (1991) alkuperäistä mallia, jota on käytetty laajasti aiemmassa tutkimuksessa. Harkinnanvaraisten muuntoerojen ja sen suhdetta, kuinka monta kertaa yritys onnistuu tilikauden aikana pääsemään tulosennusteeseen, tarkastellaan tutkimuksessa tilastollisten tunnuslukujen ja jakaumien avulla. Saadut tutkimustulokset eivät tue asetettuja hypoteeseja. Tutkimustulokset eivät anna vahvistusta sille olettamukselle, että pörssiyhtiöt Suomessa järjestelisivät tulostaan analyytikoiden tulosennusteisiin pääsemiseksi. Aineiston perusteella ei myöskään voida sanoa, että yritykset erityisesti välttelisivät negatiivisia tulosyllätyksiä, sillä graafisesti esitettynä pienten negatiivisten tulosyllätysten kohdalla ei näytä olevan laskua havaintojen määrässä. Vastaavasti myöskään pienten positiivisten tulosyllätysten osalta jakaumassa ei ole merkittävää kasvua. Tuloksenjärjestely on aineiston yritysten keskuudessa enimmäkseen tulosta pienentävää, riippumatta siitä, kuinka monta kertaa tulosennusteeseen päästään tilikauden aikana. Suomalaisten pörssiyhtiöiden tuloksenjärjestelyn tarkempaa analysointia varten olisi mielenkiintoista jatkotutkimuksin selvittää, mitkä tulostavoitteet suomalaisissa pörssiyhtiöissä koetaan keskeisimmiksi, ja kuinka tuloksenjärjestelyä ilmenee suhteessa näihin tavoitteisiin

Association of attrition with mortality: findings from 11 waves over three decades of the Whitehall II study

BACKGROUND: Attrition, the loss of participants as a study progresses, is a considerable challenge in longitudinal studies. This study examined whether two forms of attrition, ‘withdrawal’ (formal discontinued participation) and ‘non-response’ (non-response among participants continuing in the study), have different associations with mortality and whether these associations differed across time in a multi-wave longitudinal study. METHODS: Participants were 10 012 civil servants who participated at the baseline of the Whitehall II cohort study with 11 data waves over an average follow-up of 28 years. We performed competing-risks analyses to estimate sub-distribution HRs and 95% CIs, and likelihood ratio tests to examine whether hazards differed between the two forms of attrition. We then applied linear regression to examine any trend of hazards against time. RESULTS: Attrition rate at data collections ranged between 13% and 34%. There were 495 deaths recorded from cardiovascular disease and 1367 deaths from other causes. Study participants lost due to attrition had 1.55 (95% CI 1.26 to 1.89) and 1.56 (1.39 to 1.76) times higher hazard of cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular mortality than responders, respectively. Hazards for withdrawal and non-response did not differ for either cardiovascular (p value =0.28) or non-cardiovascular mortality (p value =0.38). There was no linear trend in hazards over the 11 waves (cardiovascular mortality p value =0.11, non-cardiovascular mortality p value =0.61). CONCLUSION: Attrition can be a problem in longitudinal studies resulting in selection bias. Researchers should examine the possibility of selection bias and consider applying statistical approaches that minimise this bias

Core Hole Double-Excitation and Atomiclike Auger Decay in N₂

Core hole decay spectra of the free N2 molecule show evidence for hitherto unobserved molecular resonances both below and above the K-shell photoionization threshold. Based on earlier calculations they are assigned to doubly excited neutral states which could not be seen below threshold in recent high resolution absorption spectra because of the more intense core-to-Rydberg excitations. By calculating the Auger spectrum of core-excited nitrogen atoms, we show that the features are atomiclike

Synchrotron radiation photoionization mass spectrometry of laser ablated species

The present paper describes an experimental apparatus suitable to create and study free clusters by combining laser ablation and synchrotron radiation. First tests on sulfur samples, S, showed the production, through laser ablation, of neutral Sn clusters (n = 1–8). These clusters were ionized using synchrotron radiation at photon energies from 160 eV to 175 eV, across the S 2p core edge. The feasibility of such combined ablation–synchrotron radiation experiments is demonstrated, opening new possibilities on the investigation of free clusters and radical