”Mutta kyllähän se hevonen on se juttu”:monilajinen etnografinen tutkimus ratsastusterapian vuorovaikutuksesta

Tiivistelmä. Tämän pro gradu -tutkielman tarkoituksena on kuvata monilajista vuorovaikutusta ratsastusterapiassa. Tavoitteena on tarkastella ratsastusterapian jokaisen osapuolen — hevosen, ratsastusterapeutin ja asiakkaan — vuorovaikutuksen tyylejä ja osapuolten välistä vuorovaikutusta. Tutkielma on toteutettu kevään 2020 aikana monilajisena etnografisena tutkimuksena. Aineistonkeruumenetelminä ovat ratsastusterapian osallistuva havainnointi sekä ratsastusterapeuttien etnografiset haastattelut. Ratsastusterapia on koulutetun ammattilaisen ja hevosen yhdessä toteuttamaa toiminnallista terapiaa. Ratsastusterapia on tavoitteellista, yksilöllistä ja suunniteltua toimintaa, jonka tavoitteina voivat olla fyysiset, psyykkiset tai kasvatukselliset päämäärät. Ratsastusterapia perustuu asiakkaan, ratsastusterapeutin ja hevosen väliseen kolminaiseen vuorovaikutussuhteeseen. Monilajisen vuorovaikutuksen vuoksi ratsastusterapia tarjoaa sopivan tutkimuskohteen eläinihmissuhteen tutkimukselle. Ratsastusterapian jokaisella osapuolella on omat vuorovaikutuksen tehtävänsä. Hevosen ja asiakkaan välisessä vuorovaikutuksessa hevonen peilaa asiakkaan psyykkistä ja fyysistä olotilaa. Ratsastusterapeutti tulkitsee hevosen elekieltä ja käytöstä, jonka perusteella hän saa arvokasta ja monipuolista tietoa asiakkaasta. Tulkinnan onnistumiseksi ratsastusterapeutin on tunnettava oma työkumppaninsa, jotta hän kykenee tulkitsemaan hevosen eleitä ja reaktioita. Kun ratsastusterapeutti ohjaa asiakasta sanallistamalla tulkitsemaan hevosen eleitä ja reagointia, asiakas kehittää vuorovaikutustaitojaan, oppii tulkitsemaan omaa kehollisuuttaan ja emootioita huomaamalla konkreettisen vaikutuksen hevosen elekielessä omaa toimintaansa muuttamalla. Hevosen ja ratsastusterapeutin luottamuksellinen vuorovaikutussuhde taas tarjoaa asiakkaalle mahdollisuuden siirtovaikutuksen avulla oppia luottamaan myös muihin aikuisiin. Asiakkaalle hevonen tarjoaa kiintymyksen kohteen ja hoivan antamisen mahdollisuuden, hyväksyen asiakkaan omana itsenään

UV albedo of arctic snow in spring

International audienceThe relevance of snow for climate studies is based on its physical properties, such as high surface reflectivity. Surface ultraviolet (UV) albedo is an essential parameter for various applications based on radiative transfer modeling. Here, new continuous measurements of the local UV albedo of natural Arctic snow were made at Sodankylä (67.37° N, 26.63° E, 179 m a.s.l.) during the spring of 2007. The data were logged at 1-min intervals. The accumulation of snow was up to 68 cm. The surface layer thickness varied from 0.5 to 35 cm with the snow grain size between 0.2 and 2.5 mm. The midday erythemally weighted UV albedo ranged from 0.6 to 0.8 in the accumulation period and 0.5?0.7 during melting. During the snow melt period, under cases of an almost clear sky and variable cloudiness, an unexpected diurnal decrease of 0.05 in albedo soon after midday, and recovery thereafter, was detected. This diurnal decrease in albedo was found to be asymmetric with respect to solar midday, thus indicating a change in the properties of the snow. Independent UV albedo results with two different types of instruments confirm these findings. The measured temperature of the snow surface was below 0°C on the following mornings. Hence, the reversible diurnal change, evident for ~1?2 h, could be explained by the daily metamorphosis of the surface of the snowpack, in which the temperature of the surface increases, melting some of the snow to liquid water, after which the surface freezes again

Diurnal variations in the UV albedo of arctic snow

The relevance of snow for climate studies is based on its physical properties, such as high surface reflectivity. Surface ultraviolet (UV) albedo is an essential parameter for various applications based on radiative transfer modeling. Here, new continuous measurements of the local UV albedo of natural Arctic snow were made at Sodankylä (67°22'N, 26°39'E, 179 m a.s.l.) during the spring of 2007. The data were logged at 1-min intervals. The accumulation of snow was up to 68 cm. The surface layer thickness varied from 0.5 to 35 cm with the snow grain size between 0.2 and 2.5 mm. The midday erythemally weighted UV albedo ranged from 0.6 to 0.8 in the accumulation period, and from 0.5 to 0.7 during melting. During the snow melt period, under cases of an almost clear sky and variable cloudiness, an unexpected diurnal decrease of 0.05 in albedo soon after midday, and recovery thereafter, was detected. This diurnal decrease in albedo was found to be asymmetric with respect to solar midday, thus indicating a change in the properties of the snow. Independent UV albedo results with two different types of instruments confirm these findings. The measured temperature of the snow surface was below 0°C on the following mornings. Hence, the reversible diurnal change, evident for ~1–2 h, could be explained by the daily metamorphosis of the surface of the snowpack, in which the temperature of the surface increases, melting some of the snow to liquid water, after which the surface freezes again

Intercomparison of erythemal broadband radiometers calibrated by seven UV calibration facilities in Europe and the USA

International audienceA bi-lateral intercomparison of erythemal broadband radiometers was performed between seven UV calibration facilities. The owners calibrations were compared relative to the characterisation and calibration performed at PMOD/WRC in Davos, Switzerland. The calibration consisted in the determination of the spectral and angular response of the radiometer, followed by an absolute calibration performed outdoors relative to a spectroradiometer which provided the absolute reference. The characterization of the detectors in the respective laboratories are in good agreement: The determination of the angular responses have deviations below ±4% and the spectral responses agree within ±20%. A "blind" intercomparison of the erythemally weighted irradiances derived by the respective institutes and PMOD/WRC showed consistent measurements to within ±2% for the majority of institutes. One institute showed slightly larger deviation of 10%. The differences found between the different instrument calibrations are all within the combined uncertainty of the calibration

A Novel RSSI Prediction Using Imperialist Competition Algorithm (ICA), Radial Basis Function (RBF) and Firefly Algorithm (FFA) in Wireless Networks

This study aims to design a vertical handover prediction method to minimize unnecessary handovers for a mobile node (MN) during the vertical handover process. This relies on a novel method for the prediction of a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) referred to as IRBF-FFA, which is designed by utilizing the imperialist competition algorithm (ICA) to train the radial basis function (RBF), and by hybridizing with the firefly algorithm (FFA) to predict the optimal solution. The prediction accuracy of the proposed IRBF–FFA model was validated by comparing it to support vector machines (SVMs) and multilayer perceptron (MLP) models. In order to assess the model’s performance, we measured the coefficient of determination (R2), correlation coefficient (r), root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE). The achieved results indicate that the IRBF–FFA model provides more precise predictions compared to different ANNs, namely, support vector machines (SVMs) and multilayer perceptron (MLP). The performance of the proposed model is analyzed through simulated and real-time RSSI measurements. The results also suggest that the IRBF–FFA model can be applied as an efficient technique for the accurate prediction of vertical handover

Sosiaalipedagogisen hevostoiminnan mahdollisuudet

Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selvittää, mitä on sosiaalipedagoginen hevostoiminta ja millaisia vaikutuksia sen käytöstä tukimuotona on saatu lasten ja nuorten kohdalla. Työssä perehdytään sosiaalipedagogisen hevostoiminnan teoreettiseen viitekehykseen eli sosiaalipedagogiikkaan. Sosiaalipedagogiikan käsitteen moninaisuuden vuoksi on käsiteltävä myös teorian taustaa, jotta käsitteen määritteleminen on kattavampaa. Sosiaalipedagoginen hevostoiminta määritellään ja sen tausta selvitetään sekä esitellään Suomessa käytettäviä hevosavusteisia kuntoutus- ja hyvinvointipalveluita. Työssä perehdytään myös hevosen ominaisuuksiin kuntoutuseläimenä. Sosiaalipedagogisen hevostoiminnan tehtävänä on sosiaalisten ongelmien ja syrjäytymisen ennaltaehkäisy sekä ihmisen hyvinvoinnin kokonaisvaltainen lisääminen. Toiminnan peruselementit — toiminnallisuus, yhteisöllisyys, elämyksellisyys ja dialogisuus — pohjautuvat suoraan sosiaalipedagogiikkaan. Sosiaalipedagogisessa hevostoiminnassa hyödynnetään tietoisesti hevosen kanssa tapahtuvan vuorovaikutuksen eheyttävää ja voimauttavaa vaikutusta sekä sosiaalipedagogiikan ajatteluperinteitä. Yksi yhteiskuntamme merkittävistä ongelmista on lasten ja nuorten pahoinvointi sekä syrjäytyminen. Hyvinvoinnin tueksi on viime vuosina alettu kehittää useita vaihtoehtoisia hoitomenetelmiä, joissa eläimet ovat osana kuntoutusprosessia. Eläinten kautta luottamusprosessi vahvistuu ja keskustelu helpottuu. Sosiaalipedagoginen hevostoiminta on yksi esimerkki syrjäytymisen ehkäisyyn tähtäävästä ja korjaavasta toiminnasta. Toiminta ei ole terapiaa, vaan sosiaalipedagogisessa talliyhteisössä toteutettavaa kuntoutus- ja kasvatustyötä. Sosiaalipedagoginen hevostoiminta on yhä melko tuntematon kuntoutusmuoto ja alalta puuttuvat vielä täysin luotettavat ja yleistettävissä olevat tutkimustulokset. Toteutettujen tutkimusten ja projektien kautta huomattiin kuitenkin, että sosiaalipedagoginen hevostoiminta vaikuttaa positiivisesti lasten ja nuorten käyttäytymisen ja tunteidensäätelyyn, vahvistaa minäkuvaa, elämänhallintaa ja motivoi. Tutkimustulokset tukevat muita tuloksia hevosavusteisen toiminnan hyödyistä kokonaisvaltaisen hyvinvoinnin tukijana

Structure-function studies of the peroxisomal multifunctional enzyme type 2 (MFE-2)

Abstract Multifunctional enzyme type 2 (MFE-2) catalyses the second and the third reactions in the eukaryotic peroxisomal β-oxidation cycle, which degrades fatty acids by removing a two-carbon unit per each cycle. In addition to the 2-enoyl-CoA hydratase 2 and (3R)-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase activities, mammalian MFE-2 has also a sterol carrier protein type 2-like (SCP-2L) domain. In contrast, yeast MFE-2 has two (3R)-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenases, one 2-enoyl-CoA hydratase 2 and no SCP-2L domain. The physiological roles of yeast (3R)-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenases (A and B) were tested by inactivating them in turn by site-directed mutagenesis and testing the complementation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae fox-2 cells (devoid of endogenous MFE-2) with mutated variants of Sc MFE-2. Growth rates were lower for fox-2 cells expressing only a single functional domain than for those expressing the Sc MFE-2. Kinetic studies with purified Candida tropicalis MFE-2 and its mutated variants show that dehydrogenase A catalyzes the reaction more efficiently with the medium- and long-chain substrates than dehydrogenase B, which in turn is the only one active with the short chain fatty acids. The structural basis of the substrate specificity difference of these two dehydrogenases was solved by X-ray crystallography together with docking studies. Protein engineering was used to produce a stabile, homogenous recombinant protein of C. tropicalis dehydrogenases in one polypeptide. The heterodimeric structure contains the typical fold of the short-chain alcohol dehydrogenase/reductase (SDR) family. Docking studies suggest that dehydrogenase A binds medium chain-length substrates as bended, whereas short chain substrates are dislocated, because they do not reach the hydrophobic contacts needed for anchoring the substrate to the active site, but are instead attracted by L44. Dehydrogenase B has a more shallow binding pocket and thus locates the short chain-length substrates correctly for catalysis. Thus the data provide clues for structural basis of the different substrate specificities. The molecular basis of the patient mutations of MFE-2 (DBP deficiency) was studied using the recently solved crystal structures of rat (3R)-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, human 2-enoyl-CoA hydratase and SCP-2L. The predicted effect of the mutations on protein structure could in several cases be explained, and these data supported the conclusion that a genotype-phenotype correlation exists for DBP deficiency

Vertical handoff and mobility — system architecture and transition analysis

Abstract The contemporary information age is equipped with rich and affordable telecommunication services. In the future, people have even more flexibility when true wireless Internet and real-time multimedia are provided seamlessly over heterogeneous wireless networks. Optimally combining the capacity and services of the current and emerging networks requires a holistic view of mobility, resource and service management. This thesis contributes to the research and development of these hybrid systems with three main contributions. Firstly, a system architecture for vertical handoff in location-aware heterogeneous wireless networks is proposed. The proposed architecture enables the mobile node to prepare for approaching vertical handoffs and wake-up a hotspot interface. The needed communication procedures are discussed, and inter-related issues of mobility and geolocation information are considered in proportion to usability, advantages and limitations. Secondly, a framework for the analysis of vertical handoff algorithm sensitivity to various mobility parameters including velocity, handoff delay and dwell time is introduced. Handoff smoothing with a dwell-timer is analyzed as one potential scheme for optimizing vertical handoff locally. It is compared to a power based algorithm to find out its sensitivity to the changes in effective data rates, velocity of the terminal and the amount of handoff delay. The analysis focuses on the transition region, having case studies on both moving-in and moving-out scenarios. An optimal value for dwell-timer is found through simulations, showing a performance gain over power based algorithm as a function of mean throughput. The analysis is extended also to a multiple network scenario. Thirdly, experimental results on the behaviour of protocols used in wireless IP networks are presented. Prototype systems demonstrate results of using Mobile IP with a fuzzy logic algorithm for vertical handoff in a heterogeneous network environment and the role of IPv6 when using a voice application in a wireless LAN environment. Latest contributions include developing plug-and-play middleware functionalities for Symbian mobile devices, extending the use of the earlier results to state-of-the-art mobile devices