”I did not really get anything out of it”:a nexus analysis of non-gamer perspectives regarding video games

Abstract. The growing status of video games as a form of entertainment is evident in multiple sectors in today’s culture. However, their influence and points of access to gaming are rarely investigated from the perspective of non-gamers and what they think about video games. Their perspectives are important to take into account as an addition to the video game discourse for what factors video games may be considered unappealing and to deter non-gamers from wanting to play them altogether. This thesis will approach this issue by interviewing a group of non-gamers individually and analyzing their ideas with nexus analytical tools to find out what constraints they face from engaging with video games. As a secondary source, the interviewed non-gamers’ perspectives are contrasted with Yle news network articles about video games for broader understanding of the nexus of practice non-gamers situate video games in. The online articles add further illustrative examples of video games as an influential phenomenon for how they appear in a growing number of contexts and are, contrary to early perceptions of them as juvenile and wasteful activity, considered to be exciting and newsworthy. The interviewees consider video games to not be necessary to engage with because of their prior experiences with games having been too demanding of their skills, requiring too much time to get properly engaged with them and not having easily recognizable benefits form the act of playing them. While the interviewees do not see video games as personally beneficial for them, they acknowledge their potential to be a source of many good things and experiences if their implementation and moderation are taken sufficiently into account. The findings suggest that non-gamers mostly view gaming as unimportant for themselves, but they equally recognize their value in other contexts and are aware of their effects.”En saanut siitä mitään irti” : neksusanalyysi pelaamattomien näkökulmista videopeleihin. Tiivistelmä. Videopelit ovat kasvaneet viihteen muotona monella sektorilla näkyvillä olevaan asemaan nykykulttuurissa. Tästä huolimatta pelien vaikutuksia ja keinoja päästä pelaamisesta mukaan harvoin tutkitaan niitä pelaamattomien näkökulmasta, ja mitä he ajattelevat videopeleistä. Heidän näkökulmiansa on tärkeä ottaa huomioon täydentävänä osana diskurssia videopeleistä, mitä asioita he kokevat videopeleissä epämieluisiksi, ja mikäli ne estävät heitä haluamasta pelata ylipäänsä. Tämä tutkielma lähestyy tätä aihetta haastattelemalla yksittäisten haastattelujen kautta pelaamattomia ja analysoimalla heidän ideoitaan neksusanalyysin periaatteiden mukaisesti. Tällä tavalla selviäisi, mitkä rajoitteet estävät heitä kiinnostumasta videopeleistä. Lisäksi haastateltavien pelaamattomien näkökulmia verrataan laajemmin Yleisradion verkkoartikkeleihin videopeleistä, jotta pelaamiseen liittyvät diskurssit tulisivat laajemmin ymmärretyksi, ja millä tapaa pelaamattomat suhtautuvat peleihin. Verkkoartikkelit täydentävät havainnollistavien esimerkkien kautta videopelien roolia vaikutusvaltaisena ilmiönä, kun ne ovat esillä yhä useammassa aiheyhteydessä. Varhaisiin ajatuksiin verrattuna, kun videopelit nähtiin lähinnä lapsellisena ajanhukkana, videopelit koetaan jännittävinä ja uutisoimisen arvoisina. Haastateltavat eivät koe videopelejä vaivannäön arvoisiksi, koska heidän aiemmat pelikokemuksensa ovat olleet liian vaativia, pelaamisen opettelu ja niistä kiinnostuminen vievät liikaa aikaa, ja he eivät tunnista pelaamisesta saatavia hyötyjä helposti. Vaikka haastateltavat eivät koe videopelien olevan hyödyllisiä heille itselleen, he tunnistavat pelaamisen sisältävän monia etuja, ja antavan hyviä kokemuksia, kunhan niiden käytön valvonta otetaan huomioon riittävän vahvasti. Tutkimustulosten mukaan pelaamattomat enimmäkseen kokevat videopelit mitättömiksi heille itselleen, mutta he tunnistavat niiden arvon muissa aiheyhteyksissä ja ovat tietoisia niiden monista vaikutuksista

Latitudinal distribution and magnetic signatures of magnetospheric substorms

Abstract. The Earth’s magnetic field shields the Earth from the solar wind, forming a magnetic cavity inside the solar wind called the magnetosphere. The magnetosphere is a highly dynamic system, constantly interacting with the solar wind. One of its dynamic features is called the magnetospheric substorm, when the magnetosphere unloads energy from the solar wind. Substorm expansions happen in the nightside of the Earth, as the inner magnetic field lines of the magnetotail reconnect and dipolarize closer to the Earth. During this process, magnetospheric currents are redirected along the magnetic field lines, flowing to the Earth’s ionosphere, where they connect to the westward electrojet. The westward electrojet enhances during each substorms, depressing the Earth’s magnetic field. The magnetic disturbances caused by the westward electrojet are the main subject of this thesis. The magnetic disturbances are studied with ground-based magnetic field measurements. For this purpose, a geomagnetic index called the IL index is formed using the IMAGE magnetometer network to describe the absolute amplitude of these disturbances. The IL index is also used to identify substorm expansion phase onsets. The substorm onsets are identified using an implemented algorithm. A list of substorms is created with these methods for years 1993–2020. This list holds information of the total number of substorms and the duration and amplitude of each substorm. This allows us to study the solar cycle and seasonal variation of these substorm properties. A subset of eleven IMAGE stations is used to study the latitudinal distribution of the substorm properties and the average magnetic signatures using superposed epoch analysis. Also, the solar cycle and seasonal variation of different latitudes is studied. The magnetic signatures show how the westward electrojet descends to lower latitudes if it is enhanced prior to the substorm onset. The magnetic signatures show positive bays at substorm onset at the three southernmost stations of the subset (62.25◦ N, 60.50◦ N and 58.26◦ N). However, these positive bays become less distinct if the westward electrojet is enhanced prior to the onset. The latitudinal distributions give better understanding of which IMAGE stations find more substorms, and how the solar cycle and seasonal variation of the IL substorm properties are strongly affected due to the majority of substorms found by IMAGE stations at higher latitudes (74.50◦ N, 69.76◦ N and 69.66◦ N)

A remotely accessible USB hub:software design and testing

Abstract. Remote use of USB peripherals has been identified as useful for Aava Mobile customers. Therefore, the commercial feasibility of an accessory that allows accessing USB devices remotely was studied at Aava, and a prototype device was built. The software in this accessory was required to transfer data securely, be automatically detectable on a local network, and operate autonomously. It is explored in this thesis how remote USB sharing and the requirements could be implemented using open-source software components. New USB remote use programs that support the required capabilities were created as part of this thesis. These applications run on Linux-based operating systems and make use of the existing open-source USB/IP tool protocol. The new client program uses the existing Linux USB/IP virtual host controller driver, and the server is implemented in user space. After the software work was concluded, measurements were performed for evaluation purposes. Optimal encryption ciphers for the prototype hardware were also selected. It was verified by testing that network delay causes major performance degradation. Other significant performance concerns were network adapter speed, the use of encryption, USB port speed, and the user space server implementation. However, while these aspects reduced the performance of the prototype, they were not determined to be critical. The accessory was not intended for high-performance use cases, and therefore the use of cost-effective components can be justified

Multimedial ways of learning languages:how online communities promote English learning

Abstract. Research on the effectiveness of online interaction and the tools available for English learning is a relatively new domain in the current field of linguistics. Various acts from building one’s identity, creating a sense of community and getting to a common understanding through negotiation and meaning-making processes, contribute to users developing English skills in several ways in an online landscape. Learning groups in many networking sites demonstrate how English can be learned through an active membership in such a community. Learning methods do not limit to learning new words since learning groups may provide their users with other societal benefits, like identity construction, that further promote language learning. Media sites differ on their interaction styles, which is why an analysis of the activities taking place on such sites is vital to understand online interaction. Three sites, Facebook, Twitter and Discord, are researched in order to compare findings, methods and their effectiveness comprehensively. This thesis will investigate these social networks and how they help users improve their English skills.Tiivistelmä. Tutkimus englannin kielen oppimiseen verkkoympäristöissä tapahtuvien keskustelujen ja välineiden kautta on suhteellisen uusi tutkimuskenttä lingvistiikassa. Monet aktiviteetit identiteetin, yhteisöllisyyden ja yhteisymmärrykseen saapumisesta neuvottelemisen ja merkitysten luomisen kautta vaikuttavat englannin kielen oppimiseen monella tavalla verkkoympäristössä. Englannin oppimiseen keskittyvät ryhmät verkkosivuilla osoittavat, kuinka englantia voi oppia niiden jäsenyyden yhteydessä. Oppiminen ei rajoitu uusien sanojen oppimiseen, sillä oppimisryhmät voivat tarjota jäsenilleen yhteisöllisiä hyötyjä, kuten identiteetin käsitteellistämistä, jotka edelleen edistävät kielen oppimista. Mediasivustot eroavat vuorovaikutustavoiltaan, minkä vuoksi niissä tapahtuvien toimintojen analysointi on olennaista verkkovuorovaikutusten ymmärtämiseksi. Kolme verkkopalvelua, Facebook, Twitter ja Discord, on valittu tutkittavaksi voidaksemme vertailla tuloksia, menetelmiä ja niiden toimivuutta kattavasti. Tämä opinnäytetyö tutkii näitä sosiaalisia verkostoja, ja kuinka ne auttavat parantamaan niiden käyttäjien englannin kielen taitojaan

Exposure to glycols and their renal effects in motor servicing workers

Ten car mechanics frequently exposed to glycol-based cooling liquids were followed during a workshift. Airborne ethylene and propylene glycol concentrations in the car mechanics' environment were measured. The car mechanics gave urine samples after the workshift and their excretion of ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, oxalic acid, calcium and ammonia was analysed and compared to that of unexposed office workers. Urinary succinate dehydrogenase activity and glycosaminoglycans were also measured in both groups. Airborne ethylene and propylene glycol concentrations in the car mechanics' environment were negligible. Urinary ethylene glycol excretion in exposed workers was significantly higher than that in unexposed workers, but propylene glycol excretion was at the same level as in controls. In the exposed group, the excretion of the end metabolite of ethylene glycol, oxalic acid (47 ± 11 mmol/mol creatinine, mean ± SD, n= 10) differed slightly from that of controls (36 ± 14 mmol/mol creatinine, mean ± SD, n= 10). Urinary excretion of ammonia was higher among exposed workers than office workers. The excretion of calcium did not differ from that of controls. A marginally decreased urinary succinate dehydrogenase activity was found in the exposed men. The excretion of glycosaminoglycans was significantly lower in exposed workers. Therefore, it seems that ethylene glycol is absorbed by skin contact. The internal body burden is associated with oxaluria and increased ammoniagenesis typical of chronic acidosi

ENERGETIC PARTICLE DIFFUSION IN CRITICALLY BALANCED TURBULENCE

Observations and modeling suggest that the fluctuations in magnetized plasmas exhibit scale-dependent anisotropy, with more energy in the fluctuations perpendicular to the mean magnetic field than in the parallel fluctuations and the anisotropy increasing at smaller scales. The scale dependence of the anisotropy has not been studied in full-orbit simulations of particle transport in turbulent plasmas so far. In this paper, we construct a model of critically balanced turbulence, as suggested by Goldreich & Sridhar, and calculate energetic particle spatial diffusion coefficients using full-orbit simulations. The model uses an enveloped turbulence approach, where each two-dimensional wave mode with wavenumber k ⊥ is packed into envelopes of length L following the critical balance condition, Lk –2/3 ⊥, with the wave mode parameters changing between envelopes. Using full-orbit particle simulations, we find that both the parallel and perpendicular diffusion coefficients increase by a factor of two, compared to previous models with scale-independent anisotropy

Drift induced perpendicular transport of solar energetic particles

Drifts are known to play a role in galactic cosmic ray transport within the heliosphere and are a standard component of cosmic ray propagation models. However, the current paradigm of solar energetic particle (SEP) propagation holds the effects of drifts to be negligible, and they are not accounted for in most current SEP modeling efforts. We present full-orbit test particle simulations of SEP propagation in a Parker spiral interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), which demonstrate that high-energy particle drifts cause significant asymmetric propagation perpendicular to the IMF. Thus in many cases the assumption of field-aligned propagation of SEPs may not be valid. We show that SEP drifts have dependencies on energy, heliographic latitude, and charge-to-mass ratio that are capable of transporting energetic particles perpendicular to the field over significant distances within interplanetary space, e.g., protons of initial energy 100 MeV propagate distances across the field on the order of 1 AU, over timescales typical of a gradual SEP event. Our results demonstrate the need for current models of SEP events to include the effects of particle drift. We show that the drift is considerably stronger for heavy ion SEPs due to their larger mass-to-charge ratio. This paradigm shift has important consequences for the modeling of SEP events and is crucial to the understanding and interpretation of in situ observations. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.