Scanning Electron Microscopy in Oral Mucosal Research: A Review

This review paper highlights some aspects of the contribution of SEM in the field of oral mucosa research. These include 1) different preparative techniques, 2) structure of the oral mucosa and its role in normal function, 3) advances in oral microbiology, 4) development of the oral mucosal epithelium, 5) pathological diagnosis and 6) morphometry. There are four main ways to study the oral mucosa with SEM; biopsy (autopsy) samples, smears, replica technique, and cell culture techniques. The structural studies can be divided as studies of the surface structure of the superficial cells of the oral mucosa and studies of the interactions between epithelium and connective tissue. Colonization and the morphology of micro-organisms are easy to see with SEM. Morphometric techniques have been used to determine the density of connective tissue papillae and to analyse surface structures of epithelial cells. In this paper, computerized image analysis systems for use in SEM research are presented

Control of potato late blight by caraway oil in organic farming

Caraway (Carum carvi) seeds contain biologically active essential oils, which have shown potential in controlling Phytophthora infestans (P.i.). An attempt is being made to develop a P.i. control strategy for organic farming based on caraway oil

Cyber Security Education and Training: Delivering industry relevant education and skills via Degree Apprenticeships

The rise of Digital Transformation, global pandemics, and AI, have made Cyber skills crucial in today’s world. Organisation flexibility can only be achieved when they have a strong foundation of Cyber professionals that can look after vulnerabilities and protect their systems. A multitude of evidence suggests that the economy is being held back due to a skills gap, particularly in the Cyber Security discipline. In seeking to reduce this gap, the UK government has extended a long established ‘apprenticeship’ programme to include degrees. Higher Education Degree Apprenticeships offer a cost-effective route for employers to upskill their staff and for apprentices to access free education (and a degree) whilst being paid. Each of the Degree Apprenticeships has an associated framework that defines core learning requirements – devised and created by a collaborative effort of industry and academia. How this framework is implemented however is very much up to individual institutions. This paper presents an implementation of the Cyber Security Analyst degree apprenticeship undertaken at a UK Institution. Amongst the first in the UK to operationalise the standard, the approach has pragmatically dealt with a wide range of issues to create an academically rigorous yet commercially viable solution for industry. The paper presents the approach, demonstrates the academic rigor through mapping to industry-accepted standards, and discusses the collaborative role of the employer and University in providing a holistic and complete learning experience. The paper concludes by offering a critical discussion on challenges and opportunities and suggests ways employers and professional bodies can collaborate further with Higher Education in developing Degree Apprenticeships that will only be about skills, but also lifelong learning

History teaching in Finnish general upper secondary schools: Objectives and practices

In Finland, the trend towards a new kind of history teaching emphasizing the understanding of historical knowledge and historical thinking skills began in the mid-1990s, when history teaching objectives were defined much more broadly in the curriculum than previously. In this article, we examine how, in over twenty years since the changes in curriculum objectives were made, general upper secondary school teachers have come to value the curriculum objectives of history teaching and how these have impacted on their teaching. The data for this article were collected by a semi-structured survey in 2016. Using counts, percentages, means, standard deviations and medians, a descriptive exploration was made of history teachers’ perceptions of the essential objectives in teaching history and how often they were put into practice in related student activities. To investigate the balance between the objectives the teachers emphasized as the most essential and the teaching methods they actually used, we applied the Kruskal–Wallis test and the Friedman test. According to the results, what the teachers considered essential for teaching history did not correlate with their teaching methods. In addition, according to the results, this state of affairs is still undergoing change; old traditions and new objectives of history teaching are creating tensions. The results were interpreted in the light of the cultural viewpoints of Finnish teaching, the position of matriculation examinations in Finnish general upper secondary schools and the challenges the curriculum is setting for history teacher

Predilection Muscles and Physical Condition of Raccoon Dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) Experimentally Infected with Trichinella spiralis and Trichinella nativa

The predilection muscles of Trichinella spiralis and T. nativa were studied in 2 experimental groups of 6 raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides), the third group serving as a control for clinical signs. The infection dose for both parasites was 1 larva/g body weight. After 12 weeks, the animals were euthanized and 13 sampling sites were analysed by the digestion method. Larvae were found in all sampled skeleton muscles of the infected animals, but not in the specimens from the heart or intestinal musculature. Both parasite species reproduced equally well in the raccoon dog. The median density of infection in positive tissues was 353 larvae per gram (lpg) with T. spiralis and 343 lpg with T. nativa. All the infected animals had the highest larvae numbers in the carpal flexors (M. flexor carpi ulnaris). Also tongue and eye muscles had high infection levels. There were no significant differences in the predilection sites between these 2 parasite species. Trichinellosis increased the relative amount of fat, but not the body weight in the captive raccoon dogs. Thus, Trichinella as a muscle parasite might have catabolic effect on these animals

Oikeuttava arvopuhe sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon yritysten vuosikertomuksissa

Tiivistelmä. Tutkielman tarkoituksena on kuvata Suomessa toimivien sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon yritysten oikeuttavaa arvopuhetta legitimaation rakentamisen näkökulmasta. Aineisto koostuu kahdeksan yrityksen vuosina 2015–2017 julkaisemista vuosikertomuksista. Tutkielma toteutetaan laadullisella sisällönanalyysillä. Keskeisimpänä teoreettisena työkaluna hyödynnetään Boltanskin ja Thévenot’n oikeuttamisen teoriaa ja siihen kuuluvia kahdeksaa arvomaailmaa. Analyysin avulla muodostetaan kategorinen jäsennys yritysten legitimaation rakentumisesta, ja tarkastellaan erityisesti arvopuheessa ilmenevien keskenään ristiriitaisten arvojen välistä dynamiikkaa. Tulosten mukaan sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon yritykset rakentavat arvopuheessaan legitimaatiota tyypillisesti siten, että markkinoiden ja kansalaisuuden arvomaailmojen kautta määritellään toiminnan tavoitteet, joiden saavuttamiseksi tarvittava keinovalikoima pohjautuu verkostojen ja teollisuuden arvomaailmaan. Asiakaslähtöisyys ja yhteiskunnan eduksi toimiminen ovat tärkeimpiä markkinoiden ja kansalaisuuden arvomaailmojen mukaisia tavoitteita. Joustava yhteistyökyky sekä tehokkuus ja laatu ovat puolestaan tärkeimpiä verkostojen ja teollisuuden arvomaailman mukaisia keinoja. Laatua korostetaan lisäksi itsenäisenä teemana ja toiminnan päämääränä. Selkeistä sisällöllisistä painotuksista huolimatta vuosikertomusten oikeuttavassa arvopuheessa on paljon arvomaailmojen keskinäistä ristiriitaisuutta. Eri arvomaailmojen väliset rajat ovat myös usein häilyviä ja monissa tapauksissa keskeistä oikeuttavaa arvomaailmaa on vaikea paikantaa. Tulosten perusteella sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon yritykset joutuvat ainakin sidosryhmäviestinnässään sovittamaan yhteen keskenään yhteensopimattomia arvoja, tavoitteita ja keinoja. Yritysten arvopuheen painotukset kuitenkin vastaavat sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon kehittämisen yleisiä tavoitteita. Johtopäätöksenä voikin esittää, että yritysten arvopuhe on sinänsä johdonmukaista, mutta yritysten toimintaa koskevat yhteiskunnalliset odotukset ovat ristiriitaisia.The justifications for private social and health care in Finland : an analysis of annual reports. Abstract. The purpose of this study is to analyse the ways private social and health care in Finland legitimates itself through rhetoric justifications. The research material comprises annual reports published between 2015 and 2017 by eight companies operating in Finnish social and health care sector. The material is analysed with qualitative content analysis. The key theoretical framework used in the analysis is Boltanski and Thévenot’s model of justifications with eight separate domain worlds. Through examination of the justifications, a categorization of the private social and health care legitimation is formulated. Dynamics between conflicting values are also scrutinized. The key findings demonstrate that the private social and health care legitimation is typically constructed with rhetorical goals based on market and civic worlds and with rhetorical means based on project and industrial worlds. Consumer-directed care and societal efforts are the most important goals emerging from market and civic worlds. Ability to cooperate adaptively and to function both effectively and with high standards are the main means in achieving the goals. High standards also appear as an independent theme and goal. Despite of the clear focus areas of content, there are many incoherencies between the worlds appearing from the justifications. Justifications typically consist of blurry value claims in which the dominant world is not easily identified. According to the findings obtained, the companies in the social and health care sector combine conflicting values, goals and means when communicating to their stakeholders. However, the ways in which the companies construct their legitimation are comparable to the policies concerning Finnish social and health care. The private social and health care justifications are therefore coherent with the policies, but the societal expectations towards private social and health care are the ones that are conflicting

Persistence of Trichinella spiralis in Rat Carcasses Experimentally Mixed in Different Feed

Trichinella spiralis infected rat carcasses were incubated for 6 weeks in several animal feeds to assess how long Trichinella can present a risk for an outbreak in contaminated feeds. In groups of 6, 24 infected target rats were placed in silage, grained barley, propionic acid-preserved feed, and also into simulated pasture conditions. Test environments were sampled after one-, 2-, 4-, and 6-week-incubations. Trichinella larvae were recovered by digestion, and their infectivity was evaluated in rats. A two-week incubation reduced the number of recovered larvae, but still after 6 weeks low numbers were isolated from all feeds except from the experimental group simulating pasture conditions. After 2 weeks storage, the larvae were infective in all storage environments. However, up to 4 weeks, they survived only in the propionic acid-fermented feed and there in small numbers with reduced reproductive capability. This indicates the possibility of farm animals to get infection from rats or other infected material being hazardously mixed with hay or other feed. If silage is stored for at least one month before use, however, the risk from this forage appears to be minimized

Analysis of nucleation events in the European boundary layer using the regional aerosol-climate model REMO-HAM with a solar radiation-driven OH-proxy

This work describes improvements in the regional aerosol–climate model REMO-HAM in order to simulate more realistically the process of atmospheric new particle formation (NPF). A new scheme was implemented to simulate OH radical concentrations using a proxy approach based on observations and also accounting for the effects of clouds upon OH concentrations. Second, the nucleation rate calculation was modified to directly simulate the formation rates of 3 nm particles, which removes some unnecessary steps in the formation rate calculations used earlier in the model. Using the updated model version, NPF over Europe was simulated for the periods 2003–2004 and 2008–2009. The statistics of the simulated particle formation events were subsequently compared to observations from 13 ground-based measurement sites. The new model shows improved agreement with the observed NPF rates compared to former versions and can simulate the event statistics realistically for most parts of Europe

x509-free access to WLCG resources

Access to WLCG resources is authenticated using an x509 and PKI infrastructure. Even though HEP users have always been exposed to certificates directly, the development of modern Web Applications by the LHC experiments calls for simplified authentication processes keeping the underlying software unmodified. In this work we will show a solution with the goal of providing access to WLCG resources using the user's home organisations credentials, without the need for user-acquired x509 certificates. In particular, we focus on identity providers within eduGAIN, which interconnects research and education organisations worldwide, and enables the trustworthy exchange of identity-related information. eduGAIN has been integrated at CERN in the SSO infrastructure so that users can authenticate without the need of a CERN account. This solution achieves x509-free access to Grid resources with the help of two services: STS and an online CA. The STS (Security Token Service) allows credential translation from the SAML2 format used by Identity Federations to the VOMS-enabled x509 used by most of the Grid. The IOTA CA (Identifier-Only Trust Assurance Certification Authority) is responsible for the automatic issuing of short-lived x509 certificates. The IOTA CA deployed at CERN has been accepted by EUGridPMA as the CERN LCG IOTA CA, included in the IGTF trust anchor distribution and installed by the sites in WLCG. We will also describe the first pilot projects which are integrating the solution.Peer reviewe

Using discriminant analysis as a nucleation event classification method

More than three years of measurements of aerosol size-distribution and different gas and meteorological parameters made in Po Valley, Italy were analysed for this study to examine which of the meteorological and trace gas variables effect on the emergence of nucleation events. As the analysis method, we used discriminant analysis with non-parametric Epanechnikov kernel, included in non-parametric density estimation method. The best classification result in our data was reached with the combination of relative humidity, ozone concentration and a third degree polynomial of radiation. RH appeared to have a preventing effect on the new particle formation whereas the effects of O₃ and radiation were more conductive. The concentration of SO₂ and NO₂ also appeared to have significant effect on the emergence of nucleation events but because of the great amount of missing observations, we had to exclude them from the final analysis