”Toki ikävät viestit menevät edelleen ihon alle, koska epäilen vielä usein itseäni opettajana”:vastavalmistuneiden luokanopettajien kertomuksia kodin kanssa tehtävässä yhteistyössä ilmenneistä haasteista ja niihin saadusta tuesta

Tiivistelmä. Tämän pro gradu -tutkielman tarkoituksena on selvittää, millaisia haasteita vastavalmistuneet luokanopettajat ovat kohdanneet tehdessään yhteistyötä kotien kanssa. Tutkielmassa perehdytään myös siihen, millaista tukea vastavalmistuneet luokanopettajat ovat saaneet kohdatessaan haasteita kodin kanssa tehtävässä yhteistyössä. Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan myös miltä eri tahoilta tukea on saatu. Tuen saaminen on tärkeää, jotta vastavalmistuneen opettajan siirtyminen työelämään sujuisi mahdollisimman joustavasti. Tutkielman teoreettisessa viitekehyksessä tarkastellaan opettajuutta vastavalmistuneen opettajan näkökulmasta. Tutkielmassa käsitellään työelämään siirtymistä, opettajan ammatillista kasvua sekä kollegiaalisen tuen merkitystä vastavalmistuneen opettajan kannalta. Kodin ja koulun välinen yhteistyö muodostaa toisen osan teoreettisesta viitekehyksestä. Tämän osalta tutkielmassa avataan kasvatusvastuuta ja kasvatuskumppanuutta, yhteistyön merkitystä lapsen kehitykselle, yhteistyön edellytyksiä ja haasteita sekä yhteistyötä vastavalmistuneen opettajan näkökulmasta. Tämä pro gradu -tutkielma on kvalitatiivinen tutkimus, jossa tarkastellaan aihetta narratiivisen metodologian avulla. Aineistona tutkielmassa on yhdeksän kirjoitelmaa, joita käsitellään narratiivien analyysin avulla ja pyritään ymmärtämään kertomusten välittämiä kokemuksia. Tutkielman tulosten perusteella vastavalmistuneet luokanopettajat ovat kohdanneet monia erilaisia haasteita kodin kanssa tehtävässä yhteistyössä. Haasteita on ilmennyt sekä jokapäiväisissä vuorovaikutustilanteissa että erityisemmissä tilanteissa. Vastavalmistuneiden luokanopettajien saama tuki kodin kanssa tehtävään yhteistyöhön on ollut hyvin vaihtelevaa, mutta tärkeää. Aineiston perusteella on nähtävissä selvästi ero käytännön tuen ja henkisen tuen välillä. Erityisesti henkisen tuen merkitys on tärkeä vastavalmistuneen luokanopettajan oman jaksamisen kannalta. Ajankohtaisena ja mielenkiintoisena tuen muotona kirjoitelmissa mainittiin myös sosiaalinen media

Shape constrained kernel-weighted least squares: Estimating production functions for Chilean manufacturing industries

In this paper we examine a novel way of imposing shape constraints on a local polynomial kernel estimator. The proposed approach is referred to as Shape Constrained Kernel-weighted Least Squares (SCKLS). We prove uniform consistency of the SCKLS estimator with monotonicity and convexity/concavity constraints and establish its convergence rate. In addition, we propose a test to validate whether shape constraints are correctly specified. The competitiveness of SCKLS is shown in a comprehensive simulation study. Finally, we analyze Chilean manufacturing data using the SCKLS estimator and quantify production in the plastics and wood industries. The results show that exporting firms have significantly higher productivit

Changes in species composition and diversity of a montane beetle community over the last millennium in the High Tatras, Slovakia : Implications for forest conservation and management

Montane biomes are niche environments high in biodiversity with a variety of habitats. Often isolated, these non-continuous remnant ecosystems inhabit narrow ecological zones putting them under threat from changing climatic conditions and anthropogenic pressure. Twelve sediment cores were retrieved from a peat bog in Tatra National Park, Slovakia, and correlated to each other by wiggle-matching geochemical signals derived from micro-XRF scanning, to make a reconstruction of past conditions. A fossil beetle (Coleoptera) record, covering the last 1000 years at 50- to 100-year resolution, gives a new insight into changing flora and fauna in this region. Our findings reveal a diverse beetle community with varied ecological groups inhabiting a range of forest, meadow and synanthropic habitats. Changes in the beetle community were related to changes in the landscape, driven by anthropogenic activities. The first clear evidence for human activity in the area occurs c. 1250 CE and coincides with the arrival of beetle species living on the dung of domesticated animals (e.g. Aphodius spp.). From 1500 CE, human (re)settlement, and activities such as pasturing and charcoal burning, appear to have had a pronounced effect on the beetle community. Local beetle diversity declined steadily towards the present day, likely due to an infilling of the forest hollow leading to a decrease in moisture level. We conclude that beetle communities are directly affected by anthropogenic intensity and land-use change. When aiming to preserve or restore natural forest conditions, recording their past changes in diversity can help guide conservation and restoration. In doing so, it is important to look back beyond the time of significant human impact, and for this, information contained in paleoecological records is irreplaceable.Peer reviewe

Late Glacial and Holocene records of tree-killing conifer bark beetles in Europe and North America: Implications for forest disturbance dynamics

Outbreaks of conifer bark beetles in Europe and North America have increased in scale and severity in recent decades. In this study, we identify existing fossil records containing bark beetle remains from the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (~14,000 cal. yr BP) to present day using the online databases Neotoma and BugsCEP and literature searches, and compare these data with modern distribution data of selected tree-killing species. Modern-day observational data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) database was used to map recorded distributions from AD 1750 to present day. A total of 53 fossil sites containing bark beetle remains, from both geological and archeological sites, were found during our searches. Fossil sites were fewer in Europe (n = 21) than North America (n = 32). In Europe, 29% of the samples in which remains were found were younger than 1000 cal. yr BP, while in North America, remains were mainly identified from late Glacial (~14,000–11,500 cal. yr BP) sites. In total, the fossil records contained only 8 of 20 species we consider important tree-killing bark beetles in Europe and North America based on their impacts during the last 100 years. In Europe, Ips sexdentatus was absent from the fossil record. In North America, Dendroctonus adjunctus, Dendroctonus frontalis, Dendroctonus jeffreyi, Dendroctonus pseudotsugae, Dryocoetes confusus, Ips calligraphus, Ips confusus, Ips grandicollis, Ips lecontei, Ips paraconfusus, and Scolytus ventralis were absent. Overall, preserved remains of tree-killing bark beetles are rare in the fossil record. However, by retrieving bulk material from new and existing sites and combining data from identified bark beetle remains with pollen, charcoal, tree rings, and geochemistry, the occurrence and dominance of bark beetles, their outbreaks, and other disturbance events can be reconstructed

Postglacial succession of caddisfly (Trichoptera) assemblages in a central European montane lake

The Bohemian Forest lakes, situated along the Czech-German-Austrian border, were strongly affected by atmospheric acidifi- cation between the 1950s and the late 1980s. The subsequent chemical recovery of the lake water should precede and enable a biological recovery, including changes in caddisfly (Insecta: Trichoptera) assemblages. Nevertheless, local pre-acidification data and detailed knowledge of the lake district history are missing, making evaluation of lake recovery difficult. We performed high-resolution analysis of caddisfly remains in a 2.2 m long sediment profile from Prášilské Lake covering the complete history of the lake-catchment evolution. Caddisfly larvae are good indicators of environmental conditions and their subfossil remains are well preserved in unconsolidated waterlaid sediments. A total of 10 caddisfly morpho-taxa were found providing a record from 11,400 cal. yr. BP to the present. With the exception of Athripsodes aterrimus, all identified species are currently present in the Bohemian Forest glacial lakes or their inflow streams but not all of them are documented in Prášilské Lake. The caddisfly fauna consisted of acid-resistant, acid-tolerant and eurytopic species since the Early Holocene. Based on our results, the acid, dystrophic state of Prášilské Lake has been occurring since the lake formation. We conclude that the first signs of natural acidification appeared not later than during the Holocene onset in the Bohemian Forest region. Furthermore, we did not detect any abrupt changes in the species composition connected to the period of anthropogenic acidification during the twentieth century. This study provides for the first time a record of postglacial succession of caddisfly assemblages in a central European mountain lake

Is eco-efficiency in greenhouse gas emissions converging among European Union countries?

Eco-efficiency refers to the ability to produce more goods and services with less impact on the environment and less consumption of natural resources. This issue has become a matter of concern that is receiving increasing attention from politicians, scientists and researchers. Furthermore, greenhouse gases emitted as a result of production processes have a marked impact on the environment and are also the foremost culprit of global warming and climate change. This paper assesses convergence in eco-efficiency in greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union. Eco-efficiency is assessed at both country and greenhouse-gas-specific levels using Data Envelopment Analysis techniques and directional distance functions, as recently proposed by Picazo-Tadeo et al. (Eur J Oper Res, 220:798–809, 2012). Convergence is then evaluated using the Phillips and Sul (Econometrica, 75:1771–1855, 2007) approach that allows testing for the existence of convergence groups. Although the results point to the existence of different convergence clubs depending on the specific pollutant considered, they signal the existence of at least four clear groups of countries. The first two groups are core European Union high-income countries (Benelux, Germany, Italy, Austria, the United Kingdom and Scandinavian countries). A third club is made up of peripheral countries (Spain, Ireland, Portugal and Greece) together with some Eastern countries (Latvia and Slovenia), while the remaining clubs consist of groups containing Eastern European countries

Eco-efficiency measurement and material balance principle:an application in power plants Malmquist Luenberger Index

Incorporating Material Balance Principle (MBP) in industrial and agricultural performance measurement systems with pollutant factors has been on the rise in recent years. Many conventional methods of performance measurement have proven incompatible with the material flow conditions. This study will address the issue of eco-efficiency measurement adjusted for pollution, taking into account materials flow conditions and the MBP requirements, in order to provide ‘real’ measures of performance that can serve as guides when making policies. We develop a new approach by integrating slacks-based measure to enhance the Malmquist Luenberger Index by a material balance condition that reflects the conservation of matter. This model is compared with a similar model, which incorporates MBP using the trade-off approach to measure productivity and eco-efficiency trends of power plants. Results reveal similar findings for both models substantiating robustness and applicability of the proposed model in this paper