Low-cost portable text recognition and speech synthesis with generic software, l

The final publication is available at link.springer.comBlind persons or people with reduced eyesight could benefit from a portablesystem that can interpret textual information in the surrounding environment and speakdirectly to the user. The need for such a system was surveyed with a questionnaire, and aprototype system was built using generic, inexpensive components readily available. Thesystem architecture is component-based so that every module can be replaced with anothergeneric module. Even though the system makes partly incorrect recognition of text in aversatile environment, the evaluation of the system with five actual users suggested that thesystem can provide genuine additional value in coping with everyday issues outdoors.Peer reviewe

Late Svecofennian leucogranites of southern Finland : Chronicles of an orogenic collapse

Leucogranite magmatism occurred in southern Finland during the later stages of the Paleoproterozoic Svecofennian orogeny. The leucogranites are considered to have formed from pre-existing crustal rocks that have undergone anatexis in the extensional stage of the orogeny, following continental collision and resultant crustal thickening. The leucogranites have been studied in the field using petrographic and mineralogical methods, elemental and isotope geochemistry on whole rocks and minerals, and U-Pb geochronology. On outcrop scale, these granites typically form heterogeneous, layered, sheet-like bodies that migmatize their country rocks. All of the leucogranites are peraluminous and rich in SiO2, but otherwise display significant geochemical variation. Their Nd isotope composition ranges from fairly juvenile to very unradiogenic, and the Hf isotope composition of their zircon shows a varying degree of mixing in the source, the zircon populations becoming more heterogeneous and generally less radiogenic towards the east. The leucogranites have been dated using U-Pb isotopic analyses, utilizing thermal ionization mass spectrometry, secondary ion mass spectrometry, and laser ablation multicollector ICP mass spectrometry on zircon and monazite. The results show that the granites were emplaced between 1.85 Ga and 1.79 Ga, which is a considerably longer period than has traditionally been perceived for these rocks. The rocks tend to become younger towards the east. Single crystal data also display a wide array of inherited zircons, especially in the eastern part of the leucogranite belt. The most common inherited age groups are ~2.8 2.5 Ga, ~2.1 2.1 Ga, and ~1.9 Ga. Magmatic zircon and monazite usually record similar ages for any one sample.Thermobarometric calculations indicate that the leucogranites in the Veikkola area of southcentral Finland were formed from relatively low-temperature melts, and emplaced at 17-25 km depth, i.e. at mid-crustal level. It is likely that these conditions apply to the Svecofennian leucogranites in general. Large differences in the Hf and Nd isotope compositions, emplacement ages, and distributions of inherited zircon ages show that these granites were formed from different types of source rocks, which probably included both sedimentary and igneous rocks.Valtaosa Suomen kallioperästä on syntynyt kahdessa eri vaiheessa: Karjalainen pääalue Itä- Pohjois-Suomessa arkeeisena aikana n. 2,8 2,5 miljardia vuotta sitten, ja Svekofenninen pääalue Länsi- ja Etelä-Suomessa varhaisproterotsooisena aikana n. 2,0 1,8 miljardia vuotta sitten. Etelä-Suomen poikki suunnilleen itä-länsisuuntaisena kulkee myöhäis-Svekofenninen leukograniittien vyöhyke. Leukograniitit ovat syntyneet vuorijononmuodostumisissa eli orogenioissa, kun mantereet törmäävät toisiin mantereisiin tai saarikaariin. Nämä samat tektoniset prosessit toimivat nykyäänkin, esimerkiksi Himalajan ylängöllä on käynnissä vastaavanlainen orogeeninen ekstensio, joka varhaisproterotsooisena aikana vallitsi Etelä-Suomessa. Tässä tutkimuksessa on selvitetty Etelä-Suomen Svekofennisen vuorijononmuodostuksen myöhäisvaiheen leukograniittien synnyn ikää, muodostumisolosuhteita ja lähtöainesta. Tutkimusmenetelminä on käytetty radioaktiivisten isotooppien hajoamisnopeuteen perustuvaa uraani lyijy -iänmääritystä, lutetium hafnium- ja samarium neodyymi-isotooppigeokemiaa, kokokivigeokemiaa ja mineraalikemiaa. Etelä-Suomen leukograniitit ovat syntyneet n. 1.85-1.79 miljardia vuotta sitten 60 miljoonan vuoden kuluessa, mikä on huomattavasti pitempi aika, kuin tähän asti on ajateltu. Tämä on myös poikkeuksellisen pitkä aika yhteen törmäysorogeniaan liittyvälle leukograniittimagmatismille, ja onkin mahdollista, että kyseessä on sarja useamman mikromantereen törmäyksiä. Joka tapauksessa leukograniitteja on muodostunut lähes koko edellä mainitun 60 miljoonan vuoden ajan, joten selvää rajaa mahdollisille eri tapahtumille ei voida vetää. Kaikki maan kuoriaines on alun perin erkaantunut sen alapuolisesta vaipasta. Samarium ja lutetium rikastuvat maankuoren muodostuessa ylävaippaan. Näiden alkuaineiden radioaktiiviset isotoopit hajoavat neodyymiksi ja hafniumiksi, joiden isotooppikoostumukset kuoressa ja vaipassa siten erkanevat toisistaan ajan myötä. Sekä neodyymi- että hafniumisotoopit viittaavat siihen, että Etelä-Suomen leukograniitit ovat syntyneet suurelta osin jo olemassa olevasta maankuoresta, jonka malli-iät ovat n. 2.0-2.1 miljardia vuotta, joskin viitteitä myös vanhemmasta kuoriaineksesta on. Mineraali- ja kokokivigeokemian perusteella nämä leukograniitit ovat syntyneet n. 17 25 kilometrin syvyydessä melko alhaisissa lämpötiloissa. Paksuuntunut maankuori on tuolloin sulanut osittain joko vaippaperäisen tai radioaktiivisten aineiden hajoamisen tuottaman lämmön johdosta. Graniittien sisältämän perityn aineksen ja koostumusvaihteluiden perusteella on ilmeistä, että osittaisten sulien lähteenä on ollut sekä sedimentti- että magmakiviä

Dealing with numbers : Nurses informing doctors and patients about test results

Nurses need to adapt to various interactional situations and design their talk for different recipients. One essential communicative task for nurses is to transmit information on test and measurement results both to the patient and to the physician. This article examines how nurses design their talk on numerical values according to the recipient and the activity. The nurse can deliver the information either plainly through numbers or by formulating some type of qualitative description of the value. The data consist of 7.5 hours of video-recorded interaction in a Finnish hospital. Using conversation analysis, we demonstrate how the institutional roles and the ongoing activity sequence affect how nurses formulate their talk. When nurses discuss results with their patients, they typically use qualitative descriptions, whereas when they talk with doctors, the typical turn involves numeric information. It will be demonstrated that nurses construct their professional identity involving both care and medical expertise through their linguistic-interactional choices.Peer reviewe

Student-initiated language learning sequences in a real-world digital environment

Language learning that occurs outside the traditional classroom has become an important area of research. However, it is not self-evident how to combine the activities of the outside world with the pedagogical objectives and practices of (formal) language teaching. In this article, we approach this question by investigating data from a real-world digital language-learning environment, which merges language learning with cooking. Our research question concerns how participants initiate and construct language-learning sequences without being guided by a language teacher, and how they navigate between language learning and cooking activities. Using Conversation Analysis (CA), we demonstrate how learners transform their cooking environment into a language-learning session that is based on their own needs and interests. The key factors in the process include the material, semiotic and interactional resources offered by the cooking ecosystem, as well as the peer interaction as a means of knowledge-construction and interaction management. This analysis contributes to the current discussion on how different pedagogical contexts enhance student activity and self-regulation.Peer reviewe

Orientation to language learning over time : A case analysis on the repertoire addition of a lexical item

This article explores language learning as the speakers' microlongitudinal project in interaction. Using conversation analysis (CA) as a method, we present a single-case analysis on how a change occurs in the linguistic repertoire of 2 learners of Finnish. We discuss the challenges that the temporal aspect in learning poses within CA, such as the difficulty in documenting a change on the one hand, and on the other hand, the risk of losing the emic perspective of the participants if they do not orient to the change. By illustrating a complete learning project, which begins when the participants encounter a need to use a certain (for them, unknown) word and ends when they use the word independently in interaction, we will demonstrate how a change in the linguistic repertoire of the participants occurs, as a result of their own actions and orientations, without compromising CA's emic perspective. It will be argued that the unique capacity of CA to recover the participants' sense-making practices in interaction gives us a lens to not only document change but also to understand its internal dynamics.Peer reviewe

Correcting medical decisions : a study in nurses’ patient advocacy in (Finnish) hospital ward rounds

During daily hospital ward rounds, medical teams, led by doctors, assess the progress of an individual patient's health. It is widely reported in the research literature that nurses play a relatively passive role during these rounds, because although they may have valuable information about the patient's condition and progress, and indeed their role includes advocacy on behalf of their patients, nurses nevertheless can experience difficulties in participating during case constructions. Here we report an instance from a (gastro-surgical) ward round in a Finnish hospital, in which nurses played a key role in reversing a consultant's initial decision to discharge a patient. They did so not by directly challenging the consultant's opinion, but by employing indirect means to introduce their discrepant perspective: they provide descriptions and ask questions that draw attention to information that results in the doctor coming to a different assessment than theirs of the patient's condition, and a different decision about what should be done (the patient was not discharged from hospital). The encounter reported here is taken from a corpus of ward round discussions in a Finnish hospital. The method of our study is Conversation Analysis.Peer reviewe

Kakkoskielistä vuorovaikutusta ja oppimisen mahdollisuuksia

[Niina Lilja: Ongelmista oppimiseen. Toisen aloittamat korjausjaksot kakkoskielisessä keskustelussa

Apologizing in Elementary School Peer Conflict Mediation

We analyze apologizing as part of the institutional agenda of school mediation in Finland. When primary school teachers intervene to mediate a dispute, the children orient to apologizing as a ritualized, expected, and recognizable action that resolves the matter. Teachers build, step by step, a sequence that, when preconditions are met, results in the parties involved in the dispute producing the uniquely explicit apology exchange "I apologize"-"apology accepted." We discuss the action of apologizing as involving an interdependence and tension between sincerity and rituality. Data are in Finnish with English translation.Peer reviewe

Extending sequences of other-initiated repair in Finnish conversation

Peer reviewe