Uskumuste ja soovide kommunikatiivne tähtsus

Kui me mõtleme, mida teised usuvad või tahavad, läheb see meile enamasti korda. Kui ma olen teadlik teise inimese mingist uskumusest, saan ma sellega nõustuda või mitte. Kui ma arvan, et teine tahab midagi, siis on mul võimalik seda soovi kas heaks kiita või halvaks panna. Selliste esmaste reaktsioonide olulisusest uskumuste ja soovide omistamise juures on senini vaimufilosoofias suuresti üle vaadatud. Tähelepanu all on ennekõike olnud hoiakute omistamise ennustav ja seletav roll. Väitekirja esmaseks eesmärgiks on täita see lünk ning avada nende mainitud reaktsioonide – nõustumise ja mittenõustumise, heakskiidu ja halvakspanu – asendamatu tähtsus sotsiaalses tunnetuses. Selle käigus näitan ühtlasi, et nendest reaktsioonidest lähtuvad ka juba edasised võimalikud käigud inimestevahelises suhtluses: manipuleerimine, läbirääkimine või isegi omistatud hoiaku omaksvõtt. Teiseks väitekirja eesmärgiks on selgitada, mis uskumustest ja soovidest mõtlemise juures teeb just sellised reaktsioonid võimalikuks. Kuna nõustumine või mittenõustumine on kohased reaktsioonid nii uskumuste kui ka väidete suhtes ning heakskiit või halvakspanu nii soovide kui ka käskluste suhtes, siis argumenteerin, et uskumuste ja soovide omistamist tuleb mõista vastavalt väidete ja käskluste kaudu. Kui me mõtleme, mida keegi usub ja tahab, on ta meie vestluspartner, kuna me kohtleme tema uskumusi kui teatavat tüüpi väiteid ja soove kui käsklusi. See kehtib isegi siis, kui ta vastavat väidet või käsklust ise pole sooritanud. Ühesõnaga, neil hoiakutel on kommunikatiivne roll. Kui me seda silmas peame, on edasiseks küsimuseks, millele uskumuste ja soovide omistused tuginema peaksid, et nad oma eriomast rolli sotsiaalses elus mängida saaks. Väidan, et nad peavad arvesse võtma tõsiasju isikute käitumise ja heaolu kohta ning nendes tõsiasjades seisneb ka uskumuste ja soovide loomus.When we think about what others believe and want, we are usually affected by what we know about their attitudes. If I’m aware that another person believes something, I have an opportunity to agree or disagree with it. If I think that another person wants something, I can endorse or disapprove of her desire. The importance of such reactions to attributed beliefs and desires has thus far been overlooked in philosophy of mind where the focus has been on explanatory and predictive roles of attitude attribution. The primary goal of this thesis is to fill this lacuna and to articulate the indispensability of such reactions – agreement/disagreement and endorsement/disapproval – for social cognition. In the process of doing it I also show how these initial reactions ground certain further possible responses in intersubjective communication: manipulation, negotiation and adoption of attributed attitudes. The second aim of this thesis is to explicate what is it about belief and desire attributions that makes the responses I’ve described possible. Because one can agree or disagree both with beliefs and assertions and endorse or disapprove both desires and requests, I argue that we should understand belief attributions in terms of assertions and desire attributions in terms of requests. When we think what someone believes and wants, we treat her as a conversation partner because her attitudes call for the same responses as speech acts do, even if she hasn’t made any explicit assertion or request herself. In short, beliefs and desires have communicative significance. Given such significance, we can also see what one needs to take into consideration when attributing these attitudes to another. My answer in the thesis is that belief and desire attributions have to be grounded in facts about the behaviour and well-being of attributees and that these facts also constitute the nature of beliefs and desires

Customer support gateway built as lean software

Tihtipeale e​ristab s​tartup’​e ehk idufirmasid suurfirmadest kiire tegutsemine ning sagedaste tagasisidetsüklite itereerimine. Kiire õppimis- ja kohanemisvõime annavad olulise konkurentsieelise. Toote või teenuse lõpliku edu määrab kasutajakogemus. Seetõttu pööravad firmad suurt tähelepanu oma klienditoele, mis moodustab suure osa kogemusest. Käesolevas töös tutvustatakse viise, kuidas kiirendada tarkvara tarnimist. Selleks vaadatakse lähemalt L​ean tarkvaraarenduse põhimõtteid, ehita-mõõda-õpi tsüklit ja minimaalset valmistoodet. Järgnevalt defineeritakse kliendiabi probleemid TransferWise’​is, analüüsitakse alternatiivseid lahendusi teistelt teenustelt ning implementeeritakse edukas lahendus püstitatud probleemidele.Operating fast and iterating with tight feedback loops often differentiates startups from large corporations. Having the ability to adapt and learn rapidly from the market gives an adaptive advantage. The final success of a product or a service often depends on user experience. Therefore companies put a lot of effort into their Customer Support which is a big part of the experience. In this work, we looked into ways to quickly deliver a piece of software with principles of Lean Software Development, Build-Measure-Learn cycle and Minimum Viable Product. We defined the problems with providing help to TransferWise customers and implemented a successful solution for the stated problems after analysing the alternative solutions from other services

Effective Teaching Techniques to Engage Students: ACUE Course Reflection

The Association of Colleges and University Educators (ACUE) course in Effective Teaching Practices, was offered by the Teaching Resource Center (TRC) at California State University, San Bernardino. The course consisted of 25 modules designed to enhance teaching techniques for both face to face and online instruction. Every ACUE on-line learning module provided clarification on some common challenges and misconceptions associated with teaching techniques designed to connect with students. Scenarios that required faculty to observe and analyze video(s) depicting developing practice, facilitated a discussion of peer pedagogical approach to teaching in similar situations. Summary discussions prompted individual faculty to reflect on their teaching experiences and learn from the experiences of others. The feedback from peers and facilitators were remarkable. They provided a forum to thoughtfully confront teaching traditions, reflecting on our individual thought processes and facilitated a willingness to learn new teaching practices. The instructional practice reflection at the end of each module helped to bridge the gap between what I already knew and what I needed to know or improve on. This learning experience was useful in reconstructing my classroom ideals and creating a more supportive learning environment with the implementation of teaching techniques from the ACUE course. Dr. Rerhime Uku, Adjunct Faculty, Department of Nursing, participated in this certification program from Fall 2019 – Spring 2020 with an early end due to COVID-19 pandemic. Sample reflections and implementation strategies are included in this publication

Pigment and fatty acid profiling reveal differences in epiphytic microphytes among tropical Thalassodendron ciliatum meadows

Tropical seagrasses support abundant and diverse epiphytic microalgae that form the base of seagrass food webs. To help better understand the influence of structural variability of tropical seagrass meadows on associated microalgal epiphytes, we quantified the relative abundance and distribution of epiphytic microphytes in subtidal meadows of Thalassodendron ciliatum with varying seagrass canopy structure, using pigments and fatty acid (FA) profiling. We observed significant differences in microalgal epiphytic communities (diatoms and Rhodophyta) among four seagrass meadows, which was best explained by seagrass leaf surface area. Contrary to expectations, seagrass meadows with lower leaf surface area supported higher relative epiphytic microphyte abundance than those with higher leaf surface area. These results increase understanding of how spatial variability of structural components in seagrass meadows can influence their functional components, with implications on the availability to primary consumers

Adaptive Vocal Random Challenge Support for Biometric Authentication

Käesoleva bakalaureusetöö eesmärgiks oli arendada välja kõnetuvastusprogramm, mida saaks kasutada vokaalsete juhuväljakutse tarvis. Programmi eesmärgiks oli anda üks võimalik lahendus kõnepõhilise biomeetrilise autentimise kesksele turvaprobleemile – taasesitusrünnetele. Programm põhineb vabavaralisel PocketSphinxi kõnetuvastuse tööriistal ning on kirjutatud Pythoni programmeerimiskeeles. Loodud rakendus koosneb kahest osast: kasutajaliidesega varustatud demonstratsiooniprogrammist ja käsurea utiilidist. Kasutajaliidesega rakendus sobib kõnetuvastusteegi võimete demonstreerimiseks, käsurea utiliiti saab aga kasutada mis tahes teisele programmile kõnetuvastusvõimekuse lisamiseks. Kasutajaliidesega rakenduses saab kasutaja oma hääle abil programmiga vahetult suheldes avada näitlikustamiseks loodud demoprogrammi ust. Kasutaja peab ütlema õige numbrite jada või pildile vastava sõna inglise keeles, et programmi poolt autoriseeritud saada. Mõlemat loodud rakendust saab seadistada luues oma keelemudeleid või muutes demorakenduse puhul numbriliste juhuväljakutsete pikkust.The aim of this thesis was to develop a speech recognition application which could be used for vocal random challenges. The goal of the application was to provide a solution to the central problem for voice-based biometric authentication – replay attacks. This piece of software is based on the PocketSphinx speech recognition toolkit and is written in the Python programming language. The resulting application is composed of two parts: a demonstration application with a GUI interface, and a command line utility. The GUI application is suitable for demonstrating the capabilities of the speech recognition toolkit, whereas the command line utility can be used to add speech recognition capabilities to virtually any application. The user can interact with the door of the GUI application by using his or her voice. The user must utter the correct word corresponding to the picture in English or say the sequence of digits in order to be authenticated. Both of the applications can be configured by generating language models, or by changing the length of the random challenges for the demonstration application

Tsentraalse tolerantsuse eest vastutavad transkriptsioonilised protsessid tüümuses

Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsiooneImmuunsüsteemi üheks alustalaks on T-rakkude võime eristada haigustekitajatest pärinevaid („võõraid“) valke kehaomastest („omadest“) valkudest. Selle eristusvõime tagab immuuntolerantsuse mehhanism, mis jaguneb tolerantsust tekitava keskkonna põhjal kaheks: tsentraalseks ja perifeerseks tolerantsuseks. Tsentraalse T-rakulise tolerantsuse tekkepaigaks on südame ees asuv organ, tüümus ehk harknääre, kus arenevaid T-rakke „õpetatakse“ vältima immuunvastust „omale“. Selles protsessis on keskne roll tüümuse epiteelirakkudel ja neis rakkudes avalduvatel valgufaktoritel, nn transkriptsioonifaktoritel, mis reguleerivad teisi geene ja mille osalusel tehakse kahjutuks „oma“ valkudega reageerivad T-rakud. Üheks oluliseks transkriptsioonifaktoriks on Autoimmuunsuse Regulaator (Aire), mille mutatsiooni puhul T-rakud reageerivad „omale“ ning patsientidel tekivad mitmeid organeid mõjutavad autoimmuunsed haigused. Seega aitab tüümuses avalduvate transkriptsioonifaktorite uurimine paremini mõista immuunsüsteemi haigusi, kus „oma“ ja „võõra“ eristamine on häiritud, nagu autoimmuunhaigused ning iseeneslikud raseduse katkemised. Käesolev töö keskendus tüümuse epiteelis tsentraalse tolerantsuse ja seega immuunsüsteemi terviklikku toimimist mõjutavate geenide regulatsiooni uurimisele. Tuvastasime imetajate genoomis geenidevahelise piirkonna, ilma milleta ei ole Aire avaldumine tüümuses võimalik. Leidsime ka, et tiinuse ajal muutub tüümuses olevate epiteelirakkude arv ja geenide avaldumine sedavõrd, et väheneb võime meelitada tüümusesse T-rakkude eellasrakke ning suunata nende arengut. Käesoleva töö viimases osas leidsime, et lisaks Aire-le on tüümuse epiteelis teine transkriptsioonifaktor, Irf4, mis otseselt mõjutab tüümuses T-rakulist tolerantsust.A functional immune system is capable of reacting to antigens from invading pathogens (non-self) and maintaining immune tolerance towards autologous (self) and beneficial or benign foreign antigens. Immune tolerance is divided into central or peripheral tolerance depending on the time and site of induction. One of the two sites for central tolerance induction is an organ called thymus, where maturating T cells are taught to avoid reaction to self-antigens. The maturation of all T cells depends on thymic stromal cells, especially thymic epithelial cells that express a protein called Autoimmune Regulator (Aire). Aire regulates the expression of genes that help to eliminate T cells that consider self to be non-self. Mutations in the gene responsible for Aire protein are sufficient to cause a complex autoimmune syndrome affecting multiple organs in the body. Characterizing the mechanisms by which thymic transcription factors induce tolerance helps us to understand conditions such as autoimmune diseases and spontaneous abortions where the immune system is incapable of differentiating between self and non-self The current thesis concentrates on transcriptional processes in thymic stromal cells that enforce central tolerance and therefore immune system as a whole. We identified an intergenic region critical for the expression of Aire in thymic epithelial cells. We also found pregnancy to affect the numbers and gene expression profiles of thymic stromal cells in a way which renders these cells suboptimal in attracting T cell progenitors into the thymus and directing their maturation. In the last part of the thesis we identified a transcription factor Irf4 to be one of first factors besides Aire that regulates T cell tolerance in the thymic epitheliu

Mental State Attribution for Interactionism

Interactionists about folk psychology argue that embodied interactions constitute the primary way we understand one another and thus oppose more standard accounts according to which the understanding is mostly achieved through belief and desire attributions. However, also interactionists need to explain why people sometimes still resort to attitude ascription. In this paper, it is argued that this explanatory demand presents a genuine challenge for interactionism and that a popular proposal which claims that belief and desire attributions are needed to make sense of counternormative behavior is problematic. Instead, the most promising conception of belief and desire ascriptions is the communicative conception which locates them in the context of declarative and imperative communication, respectively. Such a communication can take both verbal and non-verbal form

Ülevaade psühhiaatrilise diagnoosiga hospitaliseeritud patsientide venoosse tromboosi riskidest ja selle ennetamise võimalustest

Antipsühhootikume on seostatud suurenenud tromboosiriskiga. Risk on suurim esimese kolme kuu jooksul pärast ravi alustamist ning esimese põlvkonna ja teise põlvkonna vähem tõhusate ravimitega, mille määramisel tuleks seda arvesse võtta. Antipsühhootikume saavatel hospitaliseeritud patsientidel tuleb võimalikku suurenenud tromboosiriski arvestada, seda regulaarselt hinnata ning vajaduse korral planeerida profülaktiline ravi kas ravimite või mittefarmakoloogiliste vahenditega. Erilist tähelepanu tromboosiriski korral vajavad ohjeldatud patsiendid

Project and Quality Management

E-kursuse "Project and Quality Management" õppematerjalid. Project and Quality Management course offers Master of Science in Engineering students a basic understanding of both fields through theoretical background and a team effort of compiling and presenting a project proposal of implementing an innovation: a given quality management system at a fictional organization