Variability and polarization in the inner jet of 3C395

We present new results on the parsec-scale jet of the quasar 3C395, derived from VLBI polarization sensitive observations made in 1995.91 and 1998.50 at 8.4, 15.4 and 22.2 GHz. The observations show a complex one-sided jet extending up to 20 mas, with a projected magnetic field essentially aligned with the radio jet. The emission is strongly dominated, in total intensity and polarization, by the core and the inner jet region (of ~3 mas length). We have studied the details of this dominant region finding clear structural variations during this ~2.5 years period, in contrast with the apparent quietness of the jet structure inferred from lower resolution VLBI observations. We observe the ejection of a new component from the core and variations in the degree of polarization of the inner jet components. We estimate a high Faraday Rotation Measure close to the core, with a strong decrease along the inner jet.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, A&A in pres

Pohja-kvarkillisen mesonin hajoaminen ja standardimalli

Tiivistelmä. Tutkielmassa kerrataan hiukkasfysiikan standardimalli sekä sen puutteita. Lisäksi tutkielmassa esitellään hiukkasfysiikan tutkimuksessa käytettäviä mittauslaitteistoja. Erityisesti leptonien yleislaisuuteen liittyvien mittausten osalta. Tutkielmassa esitellään tutkimus, jossa on saatu standardimallista poikkeava tulos. Lopuksi pohditaan mahdollisia syitä, joista tämä poikkeava tulos voi johtua

Pedagogiikan määrä ja koulutuksen tuoma ydinosaaminen varhaiskasvatuksen koulutusten opetussuunnitelmien kurssisisällöissä

Tiivistelmä. Lastentarhanopettajina toimitaan erilaisilla koulutustaustoilla. 1.9.2018 voimaan astuneen varhaiskasvatuslain myötä voimaan ovat tulleet uudet ammattinimikkeet, jotka ovat varhaiskasvatuksen opettaja ja varhaiskasvatuksen sosionomi. Varhaiskasvatussuunnitelman perusteissa (2016) lastentarhanopettajan ydinosaamisessa korostetaan pedagogista asiantuntijuutta. Tämän tutkielman kohteena olivat kaksi hyvin eri tavoilla painottunutta koulutusta; yliopiston kasvatustieteen kandidaatin tutkinto ja ammattikorkeakoulun sosionomitutkinto. Varhaiskasvatuksen kentällä molemmilla koulutustaustoilla toimitaan samassa tehtävässä varhaiskasvatuksen opettajina. Käytämme tässä kandidaatintutkielmassa varhaiskasvatuksen opettajista ammattinimitystä lastentarhanopettaja, koska kaikki kunnat eivät ole vielä ottaneet uusia ammattinimikkeitä käyttöön. Tämän kandidaatintutkielman tavoitteena on ollut selvittää vastaavatko varhaiskasvatuksen kandidaatin tutkinnon ja sosionomitutkinnon opetussuunnitelmien sisällöt pedagogiseen ydinosaamiseen varhaiskasvatuksessa. Tarkastelimme opetussuunnitelmien pedagogisia koulutussisältöjä sekä kvantitatiivisesti määrällisellä sisällönanalyysillä että kvalitatiivisesti kirjallisuuskatsauksena hyödyntämällä oppilaitosten asiakirjoja, lainsäädäntöä ja tutkimuksia. Aikaisempi tutkimus aiheesta on Hujalan, Lujalan, Heikan ja Korkeamäen vuonna 2003 tekemä selvitys varhaiskasvatuksen ydinosaamisesta. Yliopiston kandidaatintutkinnon vahvalle varhaiskasvatuksen pedagogiselle osaamiselle nähdään tarvetta varhaiskasvatuksen kentällä. Sosionomikoulutuksen sosiaalisesti painottuneelle koulutusosaamiselle on kuitenkin paikkansa hyvin moninaistuneessa varhaiskasvatusympäristössä. Tämä kandidaatintutkielma osoittaa uudet ammattinimikkeet varhaiskasvatuksen kentällä hyvin perustelluiksi muutoksiksi

The Twin--Jet System in NGC 1052: VLBI-Scrutiny of the Obscuring Torus

NGC 1052 offers the possibility to study the obscuring torus around a supermassive black hole, predicted by the standard model of active galactic nuclei, over a wide range of wavelengths from the radio to the X-ray regime. We present a detailed VLBI study of the parsec-scale structure of the ``twin-jet'' system in NGC 1052 in both total and polarized intensity and at multiple frequencies. We report the detection of linearly polarized emission from the base of the eastern jet at 5 GHz. While the radio spectrum in this region might be still consistent with synchrotron self absorption, the highly inverted spectrum of the western jet base represents a clear sign of pronounced free-free absorption in a circumnuclear torus. We observe an abrupt change of the brightness temperature gradient at a distance of $\sim 0.2$ pc to 0.3 pc from the central engine. This might provide an observational signature of the edge of the central torus, where the transition from an external pressure-dominated jet regime to a more or less freely expanding jet takes place. We determine the absorbing column density towards the western jet core to be $\sim 2.2 \times 10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$ in good agreement with the values derived from various X-ray observations. This suggests that the nuclear X-ray emission and the jet emission imaged by VLBI originate on the same scales.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, needs aa.cls, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, note that the resolution of figure 2 has been decreased in comparison to the journal versio

Methanotrophs contribute to peatland nitrogen

EGU2016-2949201

Metaanin hapettajat – suon hiilen ja typen kierron kaksoisagentit

Tieteen tor

Pre-pregnancy overweight or obesity and gestational diabetes as predictors of body composition in offspring twenty years later : evidence from two birth cohort studies

Background. Global prevalence of overweight/obesity and gestational diabetes (GDM) is increasing. In pregnant women both conditions affect offspring's later health. Overweight/obesity is a risk factor of GDM; to what extent maternal overweight/obesity explains long-term effects of GDM in offspring is unknown. Objective. To evaluate effects of maternal pre-pregnancy overweight/obesity (BMI ⩾25 kg/m2) and GDM, occurring together or separately, on body composition among adult offspring. Methods. Participants include 891 individuals aged 24.1 years (s.d. 1.4) from two longitudinal cohort studies (ESTER and AYLS). Adult offspring of normoglycemic mothers with overweight/obesity (ONOO, n=153), offspring of mothers with GDM (OGDM; n=191) and controls (n=547) underwent anthropometric measurements and bioimpedance analysis. GDM was diagnosed by oral glucose tolerance test. Data were analyzed by linear regression models adjusted for confounders. Results. Compared with controls, ONOO-participants showed higher BMI [men 1.64 kg/m2 (95% confidence interval 0.57, 2.72); women 1.41 kg/m2 (0.20, 2.63)] and fat percentage [men 2.70% (0.99, 4.41); women 2.98% (0.87, 5.09)] with larger waist circumferences [men 3.34 cm (0.68, 5.99); women 3.09 cm (0.35, 5.83)]. Likewise, OGDM-participants showed higher fat percentage [men 1.97% (0.32, 3.61); women 2.32% (0.24, 4.41)]. BMI was non-significantly different between OGDM-participants and controls [men 0.88kg/m2 (-0.17, 1.92); women 0.82 kg/m2 (-0.39, 2.04)]. Also waist circumferences were larger [men 2.63 cm (-0.01, 5.28); women 3.39 cm (0.60, 6.18)], this difference was statistically significant in OGDM-women only. Differences in body composition measures were stronger among offspring of women with both GDM and overweight/obesity. For instance, fat mass was higher among OGDM-participants of overweight mothers [men 4.24 kg (1.36, 7.11) vs controls; women 5.22 kg (1.33, 9.11)] than OGDM participants of normal weight mothers [men 1.50 kg (-2.11, 5.11) higher vs controls; women 1.57 kg (-3.27, 6.42)]. Conclusions. Maternal pre-pregnancy overweight and GDM are associated with unhealthy body size and composition in offspring over 20 years later. Effects of maternal pre-pregnancy overweight appear more pronounced

What can eye-tracking tell us?

Background: Early development of neurocognitive functions in infants can be compromised by poverty, malnutrition and lack of adequate stimulation. Optimal management of neurodevelopmental problems in infants requires assessment tools that can be used early in life, and are objective and applicable across economic, cultural and educational settings. Objective and design: The present study examined the feasibility of infrared eye tracking as a novel and highly automated technique for assessing visual-orienting and sequence-learning abilities as well as attention to facial expressions in young (9-month-old) infants. Techniques piloted in a high-resource laboratory setting in Finland (N=39) were subsequently field-tested in a community health centre in rural Malawi (N=40). Results: Parents' perception of the acceptability of the method (Finland 95%, Malawi 92%) and percentages of infants completing the whole eye-tracking test (Finland 95%, Malawi 90%) were high, and percentages of valid test trials (Finland 69-85%, Malawi 68-73%) satisfactory at both sites. Test completion rates were slightly higher for eye tracking (90%) than traditional observational tests (87%) in Malawi. The predicted response pattern indicative of specific cognitive function was replicated in Malawi, but Malawian infants exhibited lower response rates and slower processing speed across tasks. Conclusions: High test completion rates and the replication of the predicted test patterns in a novel environment in Malawi support the feasibility of eye tracking as a technique for assessing infant development in low-resource setting. Further research is needed to the test-retest stability and predictive validity of the eye-tracking scores in low-income settings

Signaled night awakening and its association with social information processing and socio-emotional development across the first two years

Study objectives: Night awakening is common in infancy, and some infants continue to have signaled night awakenings throughout early childhood. However, the influence of signaled night awakening on children's social development is less explored. In the present study, longitudinal associations between signaled night awakening, social information processing, and socio-emotional development were measured within the CHILD-SLEEP birth cohort in two groups formed based on parent-reported night awakenings. Methods: At 8 months, there were 77 infants in the waking group (≥3 awakenings) and 69 infants in the nonwaking group (≤1 awakening). At 8 and 24 months, social information processing was measured as children's attention to neutral and emotional faces, and at 24 months, parent-reported socio-emotional behavior was measured with the Brief Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment (BITSEA) questionnaire. Results: The two groups showed different patterns of attention to emotional faces. The waking group had a more pronounced attentional bias to fearful vs. happy faces, whereas in the nonwaking group, attention to fearful and happy faces did not differ. In addition, at 24 months, the waking group had more dysregulation problems and lower social competence than the nonwaking group, but no clear differences in internalizing or externalizing problems were found. Conclusions: Our results contribute to the literature by showing that during the first two years of life, signaled night awakening is associated with social information processing and socio-emotional behavior.Study objectives: Night awakening is common in infancy, and some infants continue to have signaled night awakenings throughout early childhood. However, the influence of signaled night awakening on children's social development is less explored. In the present study, longitudinal associations between signaled night awakening, social information processing, and socio-emotional development were measured within the CHILD-SLEEP birth cohort in two groups formed based on parent-reported night awakenings. Methods: At 8 months, there were 77 infants in the waking group (≥3 awakenings) and 69 infants in the nonwaking group (≤1 awakening). At 8 and 24 months, social information processing was measured as children's attention to neutral and emotional faces, and at 24 months, parent-reported socio-emotional behavior was measured with the Brief Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment (BITSEA) questionnaire. Results: The two groups showed different patterns of attention to emotional faces. The waking group had a more pronounced attentional bias to fearful vs. happy faces, whereas in the nonwaking group, attention to fearful and happy faces did not differ. In addition, at 24 months, the waking group had more dysregulation problems and lower social competence than the nonwaking group, but no clear differences in internalizing or externalizing problems were found. Conclusions: Our results contribute to the literature by showing that during the first two years of life, signaled night awakening is associated with social information processing and socio-emotional behavior.Peer reviewe