Making Data Accessible: An Overview of Interactive Data Visualization Using D3.js as Applied to a Scientific Dataset : Making a Static Visualization Interactive

Technology is moving at a very fast pace, but data is still represented as tables, static graphs and infographics that do not create an impact on the population at large. Excluding the scientific and educational communities, to the common individual information should be displayed in an entertaining manner. This project set out to fulfill this goal by using known technologies from D3js, design guidelines, CSS3 animations, and HTML5 elements to real scientific data from the United States National Climate Data Center. The final product is a one page web application displaying 3,000,000 years of global temperatures in a visual format. The data was plotted using D3js, made interactive with JavaScript and laid out using Twitter Bootstrap. What can be concluded is that it is possible to create interactive content with current technologies, but the process is still only achievable after extensive study of the technologies involved. Further development has to be made for data interactive tools to become easier to use and to produce large-scale interactive web applications involving data display and analysis. The advancement of interactive visualizations are also relevant as studies have shown that engaging lectures lead to a statistically significant higher average on unit exams compared with traditional didactic lectures. This could be hypothesized to be the same for interactive data and this was confirmed by a small questionnaire

A Mobile School in the Digital Era: Learning Environment Ecosystem Strategies for Challenging Locations and Extreme Poverty Contexts

This paper reflects on a major contemporary challenge concerning the delivery of educational services and school facilities in complex non-traditional contexts largely afflicted by poverty, like remote rural and troubled city areas, disaster areas, nomad cultures, or crisis contexts and refugee camps. Extreme poverty is to be found in many developing regions of the world but also in some developed countries. Education empowers individuals, families and communities, addresses the intergenerational transmission of poverty, creates access to economic opportunities and promotes the achieving of a range of sustainable development priorities. In 2000, as part of the Millennium Development Goals, UN and UNESCO set itself the target of ensuring that every primary-age child in the world would be in school by 2015. However, alarming statistics today illustrate a persistent worldwide lack of opportunities to quality primary education, a huge wasted potential of human capital. In 2014, 57 million primary-age children are reported to be still out of school, another 250 million children are not learning the basics by fourth grade due to poor quality of schools, and 175 million youth are unable to read a single sentence. 200 million young children lack early learning opportunities, at the age most critical to brain development. 28.5 million out-of-school children are marginalized in complex, conflict-afflicted parts of the world, in crisis contexts, war zones, refugee camps, predominantly in the poorest countries and regions. Furthermore, research finds that stressful events and poverty in early childhood affect and alter the development of the brain. However, interventions and strong early childhood programs from the first 1000 days can help disadvantaged children to overcome effects of adversities and poverty on brain development. While investing in human capital through education is a powerful instrument in addressing the intergenerational transmission of poverty, conventional models of schooling have not proved to be able to scale up rapidly enough to serve unprivileged children in a reasonable timeframe. However, digital technologies open up new perspectives to improving educational access, equity and quality. Mobile technology promotes learning independent of time, place and distance -even independent of teachers. This calls for new strategies and school formats, and challenges aid providers, governments, schooling designers and architects to create more relevant educational ecosystems in challenging and poverty afflicted contexts. As an illustrative case, this paper refers to a disruptive re-locatable ‘mobile’ school format, my project InnoSchool Learning Lab, presented at Venice Biennale 2014 ‘Time Space Existence’ exhibition

Political areas of competition in Southwest Finland : A cluster analysis of parliamentary election data from three levels of aggregation

Peer reviewe

Ryhmästä enemmän ¬– ryhmänohjauskoulutus. Ikäihmisten voimavaralähtöinen toimintakyvyn tukeminen

Ennaltaehkäisevä vanhustyö on osa vanhuspalveluiden kuntouttavaa työtä. Kuntouttavalla vanhustyöllä on suuri merkitys ikäihmisten toimintakyvyn tukemisessa ja ylläpitämisessä. Laissa ikääntyneen väestön toimintakyvyn tukemisesta sekä iäkkäiden sosiaali- ja terveyspalveluista todetaan, että palvelut on toteu-tettava niin, että ne tukevat iäkkään henkilön hyvinvointia, terveyttä, toimintakykyä, itsenäistä suoriu-tumista ja osallisuutta. Tämän opinnäytetyön tavoitteena oli Kiiskinmäen päiväkeskuksen henkilökunnan ryhmänohjaustaitojen vahvistaminen. Ajatuksena oli tuoda lisää laatua ja voimavaralähtöisyyttä Kiiskinmäen päiväkeskuksen ryhmätoimintoihin. Opinnäytetyön toimeksiantaja oli Mikkelin kaupungin sosiaali- ja terveystoimen kotihoidon vanhuspalvelut. Opinnäytetyö oli Mikkelin ammattikorkeakoulun ja Kymenlaakson ammat-tikorkeakoulun yhteinen projekti. Opinnäytetyö toteutettiin toiminnallisena. Toiminnallisen opinnäytetyön prosessiin kuului yhtenä osana ryhmänohjauskoulutuksen suunnitteleminen ja toteuttaminen Kiiskinmäen päiväkeskuksen henkilökun-nalle. Koulutus sisälsi neljä aihekokonaisuutta ryhmänohjauksen eri puoliin liittyen. Lisäksi toiminnalli-sen opinnäytetyön prosessiin kuului henkilökunnan omat ohjausharjoitukset vertaisarviointeineen ja yhteinen palautekeskustelu. Keräsimme palautetta henkilökunnalta koko prosessin ajan. Haastattelimme myös päiväkeskuksen asiakkaita. Toiminnallisessa opinnäytetyöprosessissa nousi esiin seuraavia asioita ryhmänohjaukseen liittyen: ryh-mäkoko on oltava riittävän pieni, ryhmän etukäteissuunnittelu on hyvin tärkeää, käytettävän tilan on oltava ryhmälle sopiva ja ohjaajan ääni on oltava kuuluva ja selkeä. Ohjaajan on huomioitava ikäihmisten ryhmän erityispiirteet. Suhtautuminen ryhmänohjaukseen osoittautui asennekysymykseksi: osa henkilö-kunnasta koki ryhmänohjauksen irralliseksi omasta työstään, osa omaa työtä rikastuttavana. Osa henki-lökunnasta koki saaneensa lisää valmiuksia ja rohkeutta ryhmänohjaukseen liittyen. Kannustava vertais-tuki henkilökunnan kesken koettiin tärkeäksi.Preventative eldercare is part of rehabilitative work with the elderly. Rehabilititative work with the elderly holds a significant role in supporting and maintaining one’s performance. It is said in the law that that the services must be performed in such a way that the services support the wellbeing, health, performance, independence performance and involvement of the elderly. The aim of this thesis was to strengthen the group leading skills of the employees of Kiiskinmäki day centre. The idea was to bring more quality and assets to group functions of Kiiskinmäki day centre. This thesis was assigned by the elder work services of the social and health care in the City of Mikkeli. This thesis is a shared project between Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences and Kymenlaakso University of Applied Sciences. This thesis was executed as an operational thesis. The process of operational thesis included planning and ececuting of group leading training for the employees of Kiiskinmäki day centre. The training included four different aspects of group leading. The operational process also included the group leading practices of the employees, peer reviews and a common feedback conversation. We collected feedback from the employees throughout the thesis process. We also interviewed the clients of Kiiskinmäki day centre. The operational thesis process showed many results about group leading. The group size has to be small enough. Planning the group in advance is very important. The space used in group activity has to be suit-able for the group. The voice of the group leader has to be audible and clear. The group leader has to take into consideration the characteristics of the group of the elderly. The reactions towards group leading turned out to be a matter of attitude: part of the employees considered group leading disconnected from their own work, part of them considered it enriching their work. Part of the employees felt they received more readiness and courage to group leading in the future. Supportive peer support was considered essential

Multi-party Private Set Operations with an External Decider

A Private Set Operation (PSO) protocol involves at least two parties with their private input sets. The goal of the protocol is to learn the output of a set operation, e.g., set intersection, on the parties' input sets, without revealing any information about the items that are not in the output set. Commonly, the outcome of the set operation is revealed to parties and no one else. However, in many application areas of PSO, the result of the set operation should be learned by an external participant who does not have an input set. We call this participant the decider. In this paper, we present new variants of multi-party PSO, for the external decider setting. All parties except the decider have a private set. Parties other than the decider neither learn this result, nor anything else from this protocol. Moreover, we studied generic solutions to the problem of PSO in the presence of an external decider.Peer reviewe

Swap Bribery

In voting theory, bribery is a form of manipulative behavior in which an external actor (the briber) offers to pay the voters to change their votes in order to get her preferred candidate elected. We investigate a model of bribery where the price of each vote depends on the amount of change that the voter is asked to implement. Specifically, in our model the briber can change a voter's preference list by paying for a sequence of swaps of consecutive candidates. Each swap may have a different price; the price of a bribery is the sum of the prices of all swaps that it involves. We prove complexity results for this model, which we call swap bribery, for a broad class of election systems, including variants of approval and k-approval, Borda, Copeland, and maximin.Comment: 17 page

Enrichment of barley beta-glucan by milling

Pääosa ohrasta käytetään rehun ja maltaan raaka-aineena. Ohrassa on kuitenkin teknologisesti ja ravitsemuksellisesti arvokkaita komponentteja. Tutkielman kirjallisuusosassa selvitettiin ohralajikkeiden yleisiä ominaisuuksia ja ravintoainekoostumukseen vaikuttavia tekijöitä beetaglukaani-, proteiini-, tärkkelys- ja tuhkapitoisuuksien näkökulmasta. Erityisesti huomio kohdistui beetaglukaaniin, sen terveysvaikutusten ja varsinkin elintarviketeollisuuden kiinnostuksen vuoksi. Jyvän koostumuksen vaikutusta ohralajikkeiden hionta-, jauhautuvuus-, ja ilmaluokitteluominaisuuksiin tutkittiin beetaglukaanipitoisuuden näkökulmasta. Kokeellisessa osassa tutkittiin kymmenen ohralajikkeen ravintoainekoostumuksia ja jauhautumisominaisuuksia. Lajikkeet jaettiin todennäköisimmän käyttötarkoituksen mukaan erikois-, rehu- ja tärkkelys- sekä mallasohratyyppisiin lajikkeisiin. Jauhautumisominaisuuksia seurattiin sekä seulomalla että analysoimalla partikkelikokojakaumia jauhetuista kokojyväjauhoista. Lisäksi kokojyväjauhoista erotettiin karkeat jakeet ilmaluokittelun avulla. Erikoisohratyyppisten lajikkeiden beetaglukaani-, proteiini- sekä tuhkapitoisuudet olivat muihin lajikkeisiin verrattuna korkeimmat ja tärkkelyspitoisuudet vastaavasti matalimmat. Rehu- ja tärkkelysohratyyppisissä lajikkeissa beetaglukaanipitoisuudet olivat hieman korkeammat verrattuna mallasohratyyppisiin lajikkeisiin, joilla puolestaan oli korkeimmat tärkkelyspitoisuudet. Jyvien pintakerroksesta poistettiin hiomalla 0–25 %. Jyvien hionta vähensi ytimien tuhkapitoisuutta ja lisäsi beetaglukaani- ja tärkkelyspitoisuutta ytimissä noin 15 %:n hionta-asteeseen asti. Tämän jälkeen tärkkelys- ja beetaglukaanipitoisuudet eivät juuri muuttuneet. Kun jyvistä hiottiin 15–20 % massasta ja ne jauhettiin hienojauhatusmyllyllä jauhoiksi, osoittivat ilmaluokittelun jälkeiset karkeat jakeet beetaglukaanin, proteiinin ja tuhkan rikastuvan karkeaan jakeeseen erilaisin saannoin roottorin pyörimisnopeudesta riippuen. Tärkkelyksen havaittiin puolestaan rikastuvan hienoon jakeeseen. Korkein beetaglukaanipitoisuus saavutettiin beetaglukaanirikkaassa erikoisohralajikkeessa D, jonka alkuperäinen beetaglukaanipitoisuus oli 9,4 %. Tässä lajikkeessa beetaglukaani pystyttiin rikastamaan pelkän hionnan avulla 11,4 %:iin. Kokojyväjauhon ilmaluokituksella saavutettiin 13,5 %:n ja hiottujen ja jauhettujen jyvien jauhon ilmaluokituksella 15,5 %:n beetaglukaanipitoisuus. Raakaaineen beetaglukaanipitoisuuden todettiin olevan merkittävin tekijä rikastettavan jakeen beetaglukaanipitoisuuden osalta, mutta oikeanlaisella jauhatuksella ja luokitusolosuhteilla oli suuri merkitys rikastuksen onnistumiseen.Most barley is used for animal feed or malting. However, barley contains technologically and nutritionally valuable components. The compositions of different barley cultivars as well as the factors affecting the concentrations of different nutrients (beta-glucan, protein, starch and ash) were surveyed in the literature part of this Master’s thesis. Special attention was paid to beta-glucan as it has attained significant interest in the food industry due to its positive health effects. In addition, the effect of grain composition on the pearling, milling and air classification properties of barley were surveyed. The nutrient composition and milling properties of ten different barley varieties were examined in the experimental part of the thesis. The varieties were divided into four subgroups based on their potential end usage: 1) speciality barley, 2) feed barley, and 3) starch barley, and 4) malting barley. The milling properties were analysed by sieve analysis and volumetric particle size distribution from the whole grain barley flours. In addition, coarse fractions were separated from the whole grain flour by air classification. These fractions were also analysed by the abovementioned particle analyses. Beta-glucan, protein and ash concentrations were usually higher in the speciality barley varieties and their coarse fractions. Starch concentrations were lower in these varieties and fractions. Feed and starch barleys had somewhat higher beta-glucan concentration compared to malting barleys, which respectively had the highest starch concentrations. Zero to 25 % of the grain’s outer layers was removed by pearling. Compositional analyses revealed that pearling decreased the amount of ash and increased the concentration of starch and betaglucan until about 15 % of the grain was pearled off. Starch and beta-glucan concentrations did not change significantly after this pearling level. Pearled barley flour was manufactured by pearling off 15–20 % of the grain’s outer layers, and milling the remaining pearled grains with a fine impact mill. Flour was then air classified to give fine and coarse fractions. The coarse fractions contained enriched concentrations of beta-glucan, protein and ash. However, their concentrations and yields were dependent on the speed of the classifier wheel. By contrast, starch was enriched in the fine fractions. The highest beta-glucan concentration was obtained with the beta-glucan-rich speciality variety D, which initially had 9.4 % beta-glucan. The beta-glucan concentration was enriched up to 11.4 % by pearling. Air classification of whole grain flour resulted maximally in 13.5 % and air classification of pearled grain flour in 15.5 % beta-glucan concentration. Based on the results, the beta-glucan concentration of the raw material seems to play the most important role in the enrichment. However, proper milling technology and air classifier settings are of utmost importance

Privacy-friendly Discovery of Common Friends in P2P Networks

Peer reviewe

Privacy Preserving Shortest Path Queries on Directed Graph

Trust relation in this work refers to permission that is given to a user at source-host to access another user at target-host through an authentication key with a unique fingerprint. We form a directed graph out of these trust relations, such that user-host pairs are considered as nodes and fingerprints as arrows. We present a novel protocol to query the shortest path from node A to node B, in a privacy preserving manner. We would like to use a cloud to perform such queries, but we do not allow the cloud to learn any information about the graph, nor the query. Also the database owner is prevented from learning any information about the query, except that it happened