MEASURES OF RACETRACK PERFORMANCE WITH REGARD TO BREEDING EVALUATION OF TROTTERS

Trotting records on the Finnish Horse were divided into two subsets: the total data set, with 13,000 race records on 554 horses by 206 sires, and the summary data set, with 1,378 records summarized annually for each horse. The purpose of the study was to determine whether these data could be utilized in a simple, yet useful way for the assessment of breeding value. A total of 24 measures of performance based on time at finish, money won and rank at finish were studied in the summary data set. The total data set included four traits compiled from records made at ages of 3 through 6 years. The proportion of horses that started races and at the end of a race year had records different from those of unraced horses, i.e., different from zero, was 95, 82 and 40 through 77% for measures of performance based on time, money and rank, respectively. Simple correlations between best and average time for a year were in excess of .90. Repeatabilities for time at finish during a year were about .70. Both estimates imply that time records are relatively consistent over an entire year. Estimates of heritability for best time were about .30, whereas those for money and rank traits were small or even negative. The results from this study support the concept that best time in a year is the most useful measure for assessing sire breeding values based on progeny records

Unintended consequences of changes in the regulatory landscape on the statutory audit processNie

We examine the effect of changes in the regulatory environment on the conduct of financial statement audits in a European setting. These changes include the adoption of risk-based auditing, new Audit Risk Standards and increased scrutiny of audit quality by a new, co-ordinated oversight body in each Member State. We investigate this by analysing the audit hours and fees and their determinants for clients of Big N audit firms in Finland in 1996 and 2010. Our results show that audit fees and audit effort by senior auditors were generally higher for high risk clients in 2010 than in 1996. Second, we find that the relationship in 1996 between the client being owner-managed and lower audit hours for both senior and junior auditors is absent in 2010. This supports our argument that the increased auditor scepticism has increased audit effort for owner-managed firms. Third, we find that the average number of junior staff hours increased between 1996 and 2010, but the variance across engagements declined. In contrast, senior auditor hours (and total audit hours) decreased, but the variance across engagements increased. This supports the view that risk-based auditing has increased the efficiency of audits. However, it suggests that the general increase in regulation and the tightening of audit standards, reinforced by the new quality inspections, have led to less emphasis on processes requiring professional judgment and more emphasis on compliance with rules. These unintended consequences should be of interest to the auditing profession and policy makers

Face Detection with Effective Feature Extraction

There is an abundant literature on face detection due to its important role in many vision applications. Since Viola and Jones proposed the first real-time AdaBoost based face detector, Haar-like features have been adopted as the method of choice for frontal face detection. In this work, we show that simple features other than Haar-like features can also be applied for training an effective face detector. Since, single feature is not discriminative enough to separate faces from difficult non-faces, we further improve the generalization performance of our simple features by introducing feature co-occurrences. We demonstrate that our proposed features yield a performance improvement compared to Haar-like features. In addition, our findings indicate that features play a crucial role in the ability of the system to generalize.Comment: 7 pages. Conference version published in Asian Conf. Comp. Vision 201

Carbon dynamics in a Boreal land-stream-lake continuum during the spring freshet of two hydrologically contrasting years

We studied in 2013 and 2014 the spring carbon dynamics in a Boreal landscape consisting of a lake and 15 inflowing streams and an outlet. The first year had weather and a hydrological regime typical of past years with a distinct spring freshet connected with the thaw of the average snowpack. The latter year had higher air temperatures which did not permit snow accumulation, despite similar winter precipitation. As such, there was hardly any spring freshet in 2014, and stream discharge peaked in January, i.e., the conditions resembled those predicted in the future climate. Despite the hydrological differences between the years, there were only small interannual differences in the stream CO2 and DOC concentrations. The relationship between the concentrations and discharge was stronger in the typical year. CO2 concentrations in medium-sized streams correlated negatively with the discharge, indicating dilution effect of melting snowpacks, while in large-sized streams the correlation was positive, suggesting stronger groundwater influence. The DOC pathway to these streams was through the subsurface soil layers, not the groundwater. The total amount of carbon transported into the lake was ca. 1.5-fold higher in the typical year than in the year with warm winter. In 2013, most of the lateral inputs took place during spring freshet. In 2014, the majority of inputs occurred earlier, during the winter months. The lateral CO2 signal was visible in the lake at 1.5 m depth. DOC dominated the carbon transport, and in both years, 12% of the input C was in inorganic form.Peer reviewe

MinMax Radon Barcodes for Medical Image Retrieval

Content-based medical image retrieval can support diagnostic decisions by clinical experts. Examining similar images may provide clues to the expert to remove uncertainties in his/her final diagnosis. Beyond conventional feature descriptors, binary features in different ways have been recently proposed to encode the image content. A recent proposal is "Radon barcodes" that employ binarized Radon projections to tag/annotate medical images with content-based binary vectors, called barcodes. In this paper, MinMax Radon barcodes are introduced which are superior to "local thresholding" scheme suggested in the literature. Using IRMA dataset with 14,410 x-ray images from 193 different classes, the advantage of using MinMax Radon barcodes over \emph{thresholded} Radon barcodes are demonstrated. The retrieval error for direct search drops by more than 15\%. As well, SURF, as a well-established non-binary approach, and BRISK, as a recent binary method are examined to compare their results with MinMax Radon barcodes when retrieving images from IRMA dataset. The results demonstrate that MinMax Radon barcodes are faster and more accurate when applied on IRMA images.Comment: To appear in proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Visual Computing, December 12-14, 2016, Las Vegas, Nevada, US

Korkeakouluopettajien näkemyksiä oppimismotivaatiosta ja sen tukemisesta etä- ja hybridiopetuksessa

Tiivistelmä. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selvittää, millaisia näkemyksiä korkeakouluopettajilla on oppimismotivaatiosta, sen merkityksestä opetuksessa ja sen tukemisesta etä- ja hybridiopetuksessa. Tutkimus oli osa LearnHybrid-hanketta ja se toteutettiin hankkeen tarjoamaan hybridiopetuksen täydennyskoulutukseen osallistuville opettajille. Opettajien käsityksiä oppimismotivaatiosta ja sen tukemisesta erityisesti etä- ja hybridiopetuksessa ei ole aiemmin juuri tutkittu. Tutkimuskysymykseni olivat: 1) Millaisia näkemyksiä korkeakouluopettajilla on oppimismotivaatiosta ja sen merkityksestä etä- ja hybridiopetuksessa? 2) Millaisia näkemyksiä korkeakouluopettajilla on opiskelijoiden oppimismotivaation tukemisesta etä- ja hybridiopetuksessa? Tutkimuksen aineisto kerättiin haastattelemalla täydennyskoulutukseen osallistuvia opettajia kahtena haastattelukertana marraskuussa 2022. Aineisto koostui viiden täydennyskoulutukseen osallistuvan opettajan haastatteluista ja jokaista opettajaa haastateltiin sekä ennen että jälkeen koulutuksen. Haastattelut keskittyivät opettajien ajatuksiin oppimismotivaatiosta, sen merkityksestä ja tukemisesta etä- ja hybridiopetuksessa. Tutkimusaineiston analyysi tapahtui aineistolähtöisen sisältöanalyysin keinoin. Tulokset osoittivat opettajien hahmottavan motivaation pääasiallisesti sisäisenä ja ulkoisena motivaationa. Motivaation rooli nähtiin suurempana etä- ja hybridiopetuksessa, ja erityisesti sisäisen motivaation merkitys korostui vastauksissa. Opettajien mukaan motivaatio oli yksilön sisäisten tekijöiden summa, johon kyettiin kuitenkin vaikuttamaan ulkopuolelta. Motivaation tukemisen keinoista opettajat nostivat esille aktiivisten opetusmenetelmien ja materiaalien käytön sekä sosiaalisen vuorovaikutuksen merkityksen. Tutkimuksen tulokset tukevat käsitystä, jonka mukaan etä- ja hybridiopetuksessa opiskelijan oma aktiivisuus ja vastuun ottaminen korostuvat. Myös esille nousseet motivaation tukemisen keinot ovat linjassa yleisesti tunnistettujen motivaatioon vaikuttamisen mahdollisuuksien kanssa. Tutkimuksen tulokset avaavat opettajien tapaa hahmottaa motivaatiota osana etä- ja hybridiopetusta ja mahdollistavat täten etä- ja hybridiopetuksen kehittämisen

Lumen sulanta ja huleveden laatu

Tiivistelmä. Hulevesi on rakennetuilla alueilla virtaavaa sade- tai sulamisvettä, joka ei pääse imeytymään maaperään läpäisemättömien pintojen vuoksi. Tämä vesi johdetaan hulevesiviemäreitä ja ojia pitkin pois rakennetulta alueelta, ja lopulta se päätyy suurempiin vesistöihin. Huleveteen päätyy ja se huuhtoo mukaansa haitta-aineita, jotka kulkeutuvat sen mukana alapuolisiin vesistöihin, joissa haitta-aineet voivat aiheuttaa erilaisia ongelmia. Tämän työn tavoitteena on tarkastella huleveden laatuun liittyviä tekijöitä. Työssä pyritään selvittämään, mitkä ovat merkittävimmät hulevesiin vaikuttavat haitta-aineet, mistä näitä haitta-aineita kulkeutuu hulevesiin ja mitä vaikutuksia niillä on joutuessaan ympäristöön. Työssä myös käydään läpi lumen sulamisen mekanismeja ja sulannan aikaista hulevettä sekä sen eroavaisuutta muusta hulevedestä. Lisäksi työssä tarkastellaan huleveden määrään liittyviä vaihteluita. Hulevesiin joutuu haitta-aineita monesta eri lähteestä. Liikenteessä syntyy mm. pakokaasupäästöjä sekä öljyvuotoja. Teollisuuden ravinne- ja raskasmetallipäästöt putoavat maahan laskeumina. Rakennusten pinnoilta kuluvat materiaalit huuhtoutuvat sateiden mukana maahan. Lumen sulannan aikaan huleveden määrät kasvavat suureksi, ja haitta-aineiden pitoisuudet vaihtelevat verrattuna sulannan jälkeisen ajan hulevesiin.Snow melt and quality of urban runoff. Abstract. Urban runoff is caused by rainwater and snowmelt in urban areas. It flows through the streets because the impervious surface will not absorb it like it would in the nature. This surface runoff is directed to sewers specifically made for it or via ditches which then transports it out from the city towards larger bodies of water. Urban runoff carries these harmful substances to bodies of water, where the impurities can cause harmful effects. The aim of this thesis is to go through the different kinds of factors which affect the quality of urban runoff. To navigate the most influential substances that deteriorate the quality of runoff, to pinpoint the sources from which these harmful substances come from and to find out the effects these substances to the environment. In addition, the mechanisms of snowmelt, the quality of urban runoff created by it and the way it differs from the quality of other seasons is under inspection. Harmful substances enter urban runoff from various different sources. Traffic creates e.g. emissions and oil leaks. factories release nutrients, like phosphorus and nitrogen, and heavy metal compounds which then come down as a fallout. The rain washes buildings taking deteriorating materials with it to the ground. During snowmelt the amount of runoff is typically high, and the concentration of harmful substances can vary between before and after snowmelt period

Surface reconstruction of wear in carpets by using a wavelet edge detector

Carpet manufacturers have wear labels assigned to their products by human experts who evaluate carpet samples subjected to accelerated wear in a test device. There is considerable industrial and academic interest in going from human to automated evaluation, which should be less cumbersome and more objective. In this paper, we present image analysis research on videos of carpet surfaces scanned with a 3D laser. The purpose is obtaining good depth Images for an automated system that should have a high percentage of correct assessments for a wide variety of carpets. The innovation is the use of a wavelet edge detector to obtain a more continuously defined surface shape. The evaluation is based on how well the algorithms allow a good linear ranking and a good discriminance of consecutive wear labels. The results show an improved linear ranking for most carpet types, for two carpet types the results are quite significant

Multi-resolution texture classification based on local image orientation

The aim of this paper is to evaluate quantitatively the discriminative power of the image orientation in the texture classification process. In this regard, we have evaluated the performance of two texture classification schemes where the image orientation is extracted using the partial derivatives of the Gaussian function. Since the texture descriptors are dependent on the observation scale, in this study the main emphasis is placed on the implementation of multi-resolution texture analysis schemes. The experimental results were obtained when the analysed texture descriptors were applied to standard texture databases

Upper-flow regime bedforms in a subglacial triangular-shaped landform (murtoo), Late Pleistocene, SW Finland: Implications for flow dynamics and sediment transport in (semi-)distributed subglacial meltwater drainage systems

We know less about subglacial meltwater flow properties in distributed inefficient and semi-efficient systems in comparison to those of ice marginal eskers and proglacial environments. While previous studies have indicated the overall common presence of upper-flow-regime (UFR) bedforms in glacigenic settings, facies expressions of subglacial meltwater flows remain poorly documented. Three ca. 3 m deep and up to 70 m long trenches excavated across a triangle-shaped subglacial landform called a murtoo in a Lateglacial to Holocene meltwater route in SW Finland provide a detailed window into sedimentary structures presumably formed ca. 40–50 km away from the coeval subaqueous margin of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet (FIS). The aim of this paper is to document small-scale bedforms, which formed subglacially by meltwater flow and to characterize the proximal and central parts of the studied murtoo during its early evolutionary phase. We defined seven main facies types that characterize the depositional processes of the unit. Overall, the studied deposits reflect increasing meltwater delivery through time and are characterized by abrupt lateral changes in sedimentary structures and grain size. While the initial deposits are dominated by massive and horizontally laminated silt with sand lenses interpreted as lower-flow-regime deposits, the latter sediments are characterized by sinusoidal stratification, sigmoidal cross-stratification and scours with backsets or chaotic fill interpreted as deposits of antidunes, humpback dunes, chutes-and-pools and cyclic steps of the upper-flow regime. The upper-flow-regime bedforms developed on a 1 m high and 15 m long bed slope and are associated with the formation of a short-lived enlarged water-filled cavity or pond, where supercritical density flows allowed for the deposition of upper-flow regime bedforms. The final coarse-grained murtoo head-bar development, characterized by planar-cross stratified gravel and pebbly sand, indicates avalanche processes that were controlled by grain size. Our results confirm that the core of the murtoo is depositional and meltwater processes played a key role in its deposition. Despite the subglacial setting with a subaqueous ice-sheet margin, the meltwater flow was not permanently characterized by pipe-flow conditions. Overall, the findings contribute to the understanding of semi-distributed subglacial meltwater systems during the retreat of a continental ice sheet (FIS) in a rapidly warming climate