Seasonal stability in parasite assemblages of the Brazilian flathead, Percophis brasiliensis (Perciformes: Percophidae): Predictable tools for stock identification

A comparison of the composition and structure of parasite communities of the Brazilian flathead, Percophis brasiliensis Quoy et Gaimard (Perciformes: Percophidae) among seasons during one year was carried out in the Argentine Sea. A total of 195 fish specimens were examined and 25 parasite species were found. Parasite communities in seasonal samples showed a high degree of homogeneity in taxonomic composition and infection levels. Similarity analysis showed that the seasonal stability within and between samples was constant in both the composition and community structure throughout the year. Parasites can, therefore, be considered predictable markers for fish stock identification, independently of the season of capture, at least on an annual scale. © Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre ASCR.Fil: Braicovich, Paola Elizabeth. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Biología. Laboratorio de Parasitología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata; ArgentinaFil: Timi, Juan Tomas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Biología. Laboratorio de Parasitología; Argentin

Ennakoivan kunnonvalvontatuotteen suunnittelu Hydroline Oy:lle

Opinnäytetyössä perehdytään tuotesuunnitteluprosessiin Hydroline Oy:n ensituotteen suunnitteluprosessin näkökulmasta. Työssä vertaillaan geneeristä tuotesuunnitteluprosessia todellisiin, toteutuneisiin prosesseihin ja käydään läpi tuotekehitysprojekti askel askeleelta.This topic of the thesis is about product development process of the first product for Hydroline Oy. The study compares the generic design process to the actual real-life process and goes through the process step by step

Book Review: Financial Counseling

This full-service book provides a historically-situated, systemic introduction of the financial counseling profession and an overview of the financial counseling process. The 14 chapters are a compilation of articles written by 26 of the best minds in financial counseling, therapy, planning, as well as psychology and consumer economics. These experts in practice, education, and research take turns chiming in on poignant topics that range from the history of the profession to client communication, and from self-care for counselors to theoretical and practical tips. This book review overviews highlights of this book

Weighing Ultralight, User interface evaluation of a mobile photo editing application

Ultralight is a photo and video editing application developed for iOS devices. The speciality of Ultralight is its intuitive user interface where the edited photo can float behind the editing controls to allow a full editing experience on a small mobile screen. In this Master’s thesis, I study the iterative design process and research practical and lightweight user testing methods to conduct an evaluation of Ultralight’s design. Based on the findings I design a new update to the Ultralight. Ultralight is an ongoing solo-project which is fully designed and developed by myself. In the core of the iterative design process is the aim to design, analyse and refine the work in small cycles to constantly learn how well the design functions in reality. This is especially important when working with interactive applications, where the digital platforms allow incremental design, continuous change and improvement. There are different ways to collect data to analyse the performance of digital products, but in this thesis, I focus on fast and efficient user testing methods to collect qualitative data of how the participants use and value Ultralight. I use the evaluation as a design tool to improve the current state of the user interface and analyse the iterative design process through concepts of user experience design, user-centered design, usability, lean and agile methods. Doing design work in iterations and user testing in-between helps to improve the understandability and quality of the design. Doing user testing is usually thought to be cumbersome and take a lot effort. However, there are many easy and fast methods to conduct user testing in practical manners. In this thesis, I formulate an efficient and easy method for user testing, which can be conducted remotely with the help of the new screen recording feature on the iOS 11 operating sys-tem. The iterative design process aims to improve the quality of the design but it is also a crucial tool for the designers to improve their skills by collecting real feedback from their own work.Ultralight on kuvien ja videoiden käsittelyyn kehitetty sovellus iOS-laitteille. Ultralightin erikoisuus on sen intuitiivinen käyttöliittymä. Käsiteltävä kuva voidaan suurentaa koko ruudun kokoiseksi niin, että käyttöliittymä jää kellumaan muokattavan kuvan päälle. Tämä mahdollistaa koko näytön hyödyntämisen pienellä puhelimen ruudulla. Tässä maisterityössä käsittelen iteratiivista suunnitteluprosessia ja tutkin käytännöllisiä sekä kevyitä tapoja tehdä käyttäjätestausta Ultralightin käyttöliittymän evaluointia varten. Tekemieni havaintojen pohjalta suunnittelen uuden päivityksen sovellukseen. Ultralight on täysin itseni suunnittelema ja kehittämä sovellus. Iteratiivisen suunnitteluprosessin keskiössä on tavoite suunnitella, analysoida ja parantaa suunniteltavaa työtä jatkuvasti pienissä osissa, sekä oppia miten sovellus vastaa käyttäjien tarpeeseen todellisuudessa. Tämä on erityisen tärkeää suunniteltaessa interaktiivisia sovelluksia, jotka ovat osa suurempaa digitaalista ekosysteemiä, jossa on mahdollista jatkuvasti päivittää ja parantaa sovelluksia. On erilaisia tapoja kerätä tietoja ja arvioida digitaalisten sovelluksen toimintaa.Tässä työssä käyn läpi yksinkertaisia tapoja kerätä kvalitatiivista tietoa käyttäjätestauksen avulla. Keskityn siihen miten osallistujat käyttävät ja arvioivat Ultralight-sovellusta. Käytän käyttäjätestausta työkaluna nykyisen käyttöliittymän ja käyttäjäkokemuksen parantamiseksi. Lisäksi käsittelen iteratiivisen suunnittelun eri keinoja ja käsitteitä. Iteratiivinen suunnittelu ja käyttäjätestaus auttavat parantamaan suunniteltavan työn ymmärrettävyyttä ja laatua. Usein käyttäjätestauksen ajatellaan olevan hankalaa ja aikaavievää, mutta on olemassa monia käytännöllisiä käyttäjätestauksen keinoja. Muodostan tehokkaan ja helpon tavan käyttäjätestaamiseen etänä uuden iOS 11 -versiossa esitellyn ruudun nauhoitustyökalun avulla. Iteratiivisen suunnitteluprosessin hallitseminen on tärkeää suunniteltavan työn ymmärrettävyyden varmistamiseksi, mutta myös suunnittelijoille itselleen. Oikean palautteen kerääminen on loistava tapa kehittää omia taitoja käyttäjäkokemusta suunniteltaessa

Stock index funds' impact on stock prices associated with changes in stock market indices

Siirretty Doriast

Low-achieving students’ participation to collaborative learning and group-level regulation

Abstract. The aim of this thesis was to first explore low-achieving students’ participation to collaborative group learning interaction. Second, the thesis explored low-achieving students’ participation to group-level regulation of learning. Students who regulate their own learning process, individually and in groups, have been found to achieve higher learning outcomes. In collaborative groups, students engage in interactions to negotiate strategy and construct shared knowledge. To regulate their learning, student groups actively direct their efforts, and exercise agency by controlling their learning, strategic choices, learning goals, and task engagement, rather than relying on instructors to do it for them. As such, students take an active role in their own learning, and in doing so, demonstrate a high level of self-efficacy and motivation towards learning. In this study, 31 students, nine of which low-achieving in a physics individual examination, were selected to explore and compare low-achieving students’ collaborative activity through coding and analysis of video data. Through two research questions, this thesis aimed to explore: 1) how low-achieving students participate in small group collaborative interaction, and 2) how low-achieving students participate in group-level regulation of learning. Results suggest that some students regardless of achievement level appear considerably inactive in group-level regulation. This thesis also found that initiating regulation does not seem to be distributed evenly between group members, but rather that an individual member often has the lead in initiating group-level regulation. It also appears that low-achieving students may be less active in metacognitive interaction and less likely to take a lead role in group interaction and regulatory activities. However, larger samples of low-achieving students are necessary for generalizable results on achievement groups. Future research should look to explore the factors influencing individual low-achieving student activity in collaborative learning and regulation of learning. The main implications to teaching should be to aim to develop effective solutions for identifying and supporting low-achieving students who are consistently inactive in collaborative learning and regulation of learning

The impact of nutrient and biodiesel amendments on the biodegradation of hydrocarbons in contaminated soil

PhD ThesisThe effect of nutrient, biodiesel and biochar amendments on the biodegradation of pollutant hydrocarbons was investigated in soil spiked with crude oil and coal tar over periods of up to 180 days. Biodiesel was chosen as an amendment for increasing the bioavailability of hydrocarbon pollutants because of its good solvent properties but low toxicity. Results from laboratory microcosm experiments on soil spiked with weathered and un-weathered tar showed that after 60 days, the concentrations of the potent carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) were significantly reduced by 92 and 81%, respectively, in the biodiesel amended samples compared to the 17 and 26% reduction in the controls, and 8 and 34% depletion observed in the nutrient-only amended microcosms, respectively. The 3-ring PAH anthracene was also almost completely biodegraded in all the biodiesel amended experiments. However, phenanthrene degradation was significantly inhibited in these samples as only 0-2% reduction occurred after 180 days as opposed to the losses (>70%) observed in the control and the nutrient amended experiments. Apparent increases in concentrations were observed for some 4-ring PAHs, while the degradation of other 5 and 6-ring compounds was enhanced in the biodiesel amended samples probably due to their increased solubilisation by biodiesel. A stepwise treatment approach conducted on tar spiked soil revealed a higher reduction in BaP (98%) in the biodiesel amended microcosms compared to the control (29%) and phenanthrene depletion was also enhanced by 51% after 60 days of adding biodiesel to soil initially treated with nutrients. A similar trend in PAH degradation was observed for the crude oil spiked soil, but in these experiments the removal of the n-alkanes was significantly enhanced by nutrient amendment alone, while degradation of the branched alkanes was increased in the biodiesel treatments. Toxicity assays showed that biodiesel amended microcosms stimulated phosphatase enzyme activity and exhibited a lower toxic response to Microtox Vibrio fischeri. In this study, biochar amendment did not significantly reduce residual pollutant concentrations. Overall, the pattern observed in the removal of the PAHs using biodiesel, suggests the cometabolic action of ligninolytic fungi, probably via lignin peroxidases, as also evidenced from the visible growth of moulds after 7-14 days of amendment. The enhanced removal of carcinogenic PAH and the reduced toxicity observed in soil after biodiesel amendment, indicates that this bioremediation technique has potential for full scale field trials.Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) Scholarship Scheme, Nigeri

Changing Cultural Landscapes around the Jostedalsglacier (West Norway), from Cultural Landscape Management to Cultural Landscape Governance – a Future Path?

Study Aim The present research focuses on the question how to design future cultural landscape management and cultural landscape dynamics. Cultural landscape change, as it takes place in West Norway, gains increased rapidity and displays partly irreversible processes. Driving factors (such as climate, demographics, sectoral change and agricultural production) substantiate the change and transform over centuries grown summer farming cultural landscapes based on a vertical land use gradient in the vicinity of the Josetdalsglacier. Admitting large fiscal expenditures and political attempts to manage the summer farming landscapes, the successive overgrowing ('gjengroing') advances and impairs visibility. A local identity anchor and immense potential for tourism and regional development are at stake likewise. Theory and Methods The study combines institutional, commodity and governance theory to constitute local cultural landscape identity, communication and action arenas on the example of Briksdalen, Bødalen and Erdalen in Stryn Municipality. There, a cultural landscape governance can take place. Governance describes the process, where the state is resigning from its monopoly functions regarding cultural landscape management and integrates non-governmental participants. Cultural landscape history, change of cultural landscapes, driving factors, stakeholders and cultural landscape institutions are investigated. Document search and guideline based expert interviews comprise the empirical fundament of such a governance based access. To examine a possible correspondence between a reflexive-discursive approach in science to normative policy and planning strategies, the data corpus sustained institutional, discourse and governance analysis. Results The inquired cultural landscape history refers to a unique cultural landscape pattern in the close vicinity of the Jostedalsglacier (identity arena). Formal institutions (such as acts, regulations and financial allocation systems) signify the basis for sectoral policies (agriculture, cultural heritage, nature protection, tourism, spatial planning and rural development) of contemporary care-taking, safeguarding and management efforts regarding the cultural landscapes on-site. They define cultural landscape management rules in manifold ways. The primary sector materialises as the principal cultural landscape management operator. In various cases, the top-down organised institutional framework reinforces the cultural landscape change on-site. Conflicts, dilemmas, paradoxes and discourses about the present management, the future development, the use and the valorisation of cultural landscapes emerge (communication arena) among three logics of action (hierarchy, market and solidarity). Non-administrative stakeholders’, who perform active cultural landscape management are, in contrary to administrative stakeholders, mainly driven by informal institutions (e.g. ontological settings, reifications and values). A compatibility intolerance of cultural landscape management is detected. Conclusions Several governance modes, such as revitalising old traditions (goat farming) and the introduction and branding of the toponym 'Inner Nordfjordscape' are forthcoming promising accesses for future cultural landscape management approaches (action arena) to contain the 'gjengroing' in the case study valleys. Present efforts in tourism and nature conservation mark the fundament of such governance attempts. Successive overgrowing occurs as a window of opportunity to widen cultural landscape management concepts

MPLS Inter-Autonomous System

Suurten yritysten nopea laajentuminen maailmanlaajuisesti on johtanut MPLS- tekniikoiden kehitykseen. MPLS Inter-AS -tekniikkaa hyödynnetään, kun yritysten toimipisteet sijaitsevat eri palvelujentarjoajien toiminta-alueilla. Palveluntarjoajien on nykypäivänä pystyttävä toimimaan luotettavasti toisten palveluntarjoajien kanssa. tämä on johtanut eri MPLS Inter-AS -optioiden kehittämiseen. Opinnäytetyössä hyödynsimme SimuNet-verkkoa, joka on tietoverkkojen kehitys- ja testausympäristö Kymenlaakson ammattikorkeakoulussa. SimuNetin tärkeimpänä tarkoituksena on simuloida nykyaikaista operaattoriverkkoa pienemmässä mittakaavassa. Työn tarkoituksena oli suunnitella ja rakentaa SimuNetin kaltainen verkko Kymenlaakson ammattikorkeakoulun ICT-laboratorioon ja luoda verkkojen välille toimiva Inter-AS-yhteys. Käytännön toteutuksessa luotiin MPLS Inter-AS -yhteys ICT-laboratorion ja SimuNetin välille käyttäen Inter-AS optio B:tä. Kuvitellun yrityksen tietoliikennettä ohjattiin näiden operaattoriverkkojen läpi. Tilannetta simuloitiin kytkemällä kaksi kuvitellun yrityksen toimipistettä eri palveluntarjoajien asiakkaiksi. Tässä tapauksessa palveluntarjoajina toimivat SimuNet ja ICT-laboratorio. Työn tuloksena saatiin rakennettua ja konfiguroitua toimiva SimuNetin kaltainen operaattoriverkko ICT-laboratorioon. MPLS Inter-AS -yhteys todettiin toimivaksi optio B:n osalta, mutta Inter-AS Hybrid -tekniikan suhteen ei päästy haluttuun lopputulokseen.The fast globalization of large companies has led to the development of MPLS-technologies. MPLS Inter-AS –technology is used when the company offices are located in different service provider’s operating areas. Modern-day service providers have to be able to work reliably with other service providers, this has led to the development of different MPLS Inter-AS options. In this study the SimuNet network was utilized, which is a development and testing environment for networks. It is located at Kymenlaakso University of Applied Sciences. The main purpose of the SimuNet is to simulate modern-day operator network in a smaller scale. The purpose of the study was to design and create a working Inter-AS connection between two different service providers. In the empirical part MPLS Inter-AS connection was created between ICT-laboratory and SimuNet by using Inter-AS option B. The dataflow of a fictional company was forwarded through these operator networks. The situation was simulated by connecting two offices of the company to different service providers. In this case service providers were SimuNet and ICT-laboratory. As the result, a working operator network was built and configured to ICT-laboratory similar to SimuNet. The MPLS Inter-AS connection was found to be functional for option B, but the Inter-AS Hybrid –technology did not reach the desired outcome

Social information processing in children: sequential relations and syndrome specificity

This study examined social information processing as a function of level of depression, anxiety, aggression and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children. Multiple informants were used to identify symptoms of depression, anxiety, aggression and ADHD in 141 fifth grade children in an Iowa middle school. 91 of these students were randomly selected to be interviewed with an instrument consisting of six vignettes depicting social situations relevant to this age group. Four stages of social information processing were studied: (a) interpretation of cues, (b) goal clarification (i.e., goal generation and evaluation), (c) response generation and (d) response evaluation. The role of affect was also studied within the social information processing model. Students generated goals and responses within seven categories: (a) aggressive, (b) assertive, (c) withdrawn, (d) purely affective, (e) getting more information, (f) forcing the behavior of others and (g) other goals and responses. Self reported symptoms of depression predicted a tendency to interpret social cues with a depressogenic attributional style and a bias toward attributing hostile intent within the social situations in the vignettes. Self reported depression also predicted generation of aggressive goals. Self reported anxiety also predicted a depressogenic attributional style and a hostile intent bias. Unlike the depressed students, anxious students reported more feelings of being sad and afraid. Teacher reported ADHD predicted endorsing revenge as a good goal. Peer reported aggression predicted evaluation of aggressive responses as easy. Implications for possible intervention are discussed