Mitochondrial genetics of alloplasmic male-sterile Brassica napus lines

Reliable and economical production of hybrid (F1) varieties requires efficient means to control pollination. The predominant system for pollination control of most field crops today is cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS). Since CMS is a consequence of disturbed nuclear-mitochondrial interactions, the CMS trait is maternally inherited. A common way to produce CMS plants is to combine the nuclear genome from one species with the mitochondria from another; plants of such origin are described as alloplasmic CMS. This thesis describes the production and molecular characterization of a novel alloplasmic CMS system produced from rapeseed (Brassica napus) (+) Arabidopsis thaliana somatic hybrids. A population of 170 B. napus (+) A. thaliana somatic hybrid lines was backcrossed to B. napus and 22 lines with male sterility and/or aberrant flower morphology were found. Nine of these were analysed for RFLP and found to contain nuclear and plastid DNA from B. napus, whilst the mitochondrial genomes were frequently recombined containing both B. napus and A. thaliana DNA. Besides the male-sterile trait, the majority of the lines displayed homeotic conversions of anthers to carpeloid organs. Vegetative growth was reduced to some extent in some of the lines. One CMS line segregated both fertile and sterile plants. Fertility co-segregated with molecular markers from A. thaliana chr III. By a dihaploidisation strategy we produced plants with a disomic addition of A. thaliana chr III, which had a stable inheritance of the fertile phenotype. Global mitochondrial mRNA expression was analysed in the fertility-restored line, the corresponding CMS line, B. napus and A. thaliana. Run-on experiments showed that transcriptional activities were highly variable between B. napus and A. thaliana and that in the CMS line transcriptional activity was reduced for several ribosomal protein genes and increased for orf139. Steady-state levels were more homogenous in comparison to transcriptional activities showing that RNA turnover is an important regulatory mechanism. Increased transcript abundance of several genes was observed in the CMS line, often correlated with presence of longer transcripts. Transcripts of three A. thaliana loci, orf139, orf240a and orf294 accumulated in the CMS line, but with reduced levels in the restored line. The orf139 and orf294 transcripts accumulated differentially in a tissue and genotype-specific manner, while orf240a was constitutively expressed throughout the plant. Both orf240a and orf294 transcripts can be polyadenylated, thus providing an explanation for their post-transcriptional regulation. Segregation analysis of sterile and fertile alloplasmic lines indicates that orf139 and orf240a are less likely candidates to be responsible for the male-sterile phenotype, whereas the orf294 can be CMS-associated. However, it is likely that more than one locus in the A. thaliana mt-DNA could encode CMS in the nuclear background of B. napus

Computing Permutation Encodings

We consider some encodings of permutations of the first N natural numbers, discuss some relations among them and how one can be computed from others. We show a short proof of an existing efficient algorithm for one encoding, and present two new efficient algorithms for encoding permutations. One of these algorithms is constructed as the inverse of an existing algorithm for decoding, making it the first efficient permutation encoding algorithm obtained that way

On computing the fixpoint of a set of boolean equations

This paper presents a method for computing a least fixpoint of a system of equations over booleans. The resulting computation can be significantly shorter than the result of iteratively evaluating the entire system until a fixpoint is reached.Comment: 15 page

The Dafny Integrated Development Environment

In recent years, program verifiers and interactive theorem provers have become more powerful and more suitable for verifying large programs or proofs. This has demonstrated the need for improving the user experience of these tools to increase productivity and to make them more accessible to non-experts. This paper presents an integrated development environment for Dafny-a programming language, verifier, and proof assistant-that addresses issues present in most state-of-the-art verifiers: low responsiveness and lack of support for understanding non-obvious verification failures. The paper demonstrates several new features that move the state-of-the-art closer towards a verification environment that can provide verification feedback as the user types and can present more helpful information about the program or failed verifications in a demand-driven and unobtrusive way.Comment: In Proceedings F-IDE 2014, arXiv:1404.578

Learning of Research Methods in Psychology: The Influence of Affective, Behavioural and Cognitive Factors

A major part of learning in psychology concerns research methods. Research methods provide a basis to the vast majority of both transferable and subject-specific skills required in a psychology degree, and research methods core modules are required in all British Psychological Society (BPS) accredited psychology courses in the UK. Existing literature acknowledges that university students find courses in research methods particularly challenging. However, most of the research to date has focused on evaluating the outcomes of research methods learning, with few studies addressing the development of research methods learning. In a series of three studies, this thesis applied a holistic approach to explore how affective, behavioural and cognitive components shape students' research methods learning journeys. As little research has explored the role of affect in the learning of research methods, a particular emphasis on emotions was placed, with the control-value theory of achievement emotions (Pekrun, 2019) being at the core of the thesis. Study 1 was a mixed-methods study consisting of two surveys (N=106) and two focus groups (N=7) exploring students' expectations, experiences, and feelings towards research methods at the beginning of their journey. The results suggested that learning approaches, motivations, self-efficacy, and a range of emotions can have important influences on students' learning processes and supported the need to explore these components together. Study 2 built on these findings and explored students' learning journeys through the research methods curriculum longitudinally across three-time points within two academic years. Drawing on both observational (N=239) and self-reported (N=158) data from the same learning experience, this study examined the influence and development of achievement emotions, learning approaches, motivations, self-regulation, self-efficacy, activity in Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and attendance on the learning of research methods. The findings supported the application of the control-value theory, with emotions seen as crucial to learning and deactivating negative emotions (boredom and hopelessness) appearing especially detrimental to students' research methods learning trajectories. The study highlighted the usefulness of VLEs as a learning tool with online engagement explaining 13% of the variance in research methods grades. Lastly, Study 3 provided deeper qualitative insights into students' learning by interviewing 15 students at the end of their journey, with three learning typologies identified: (1) Learning by interest and understanding, (2) Learning by guidelines and practice, (3) Apprehensive Learning Attitude. This study's results indicated both differences and similarities in psychology students' learning journeys, with students differing in their approach and attitudes while sharing similar struggles. Taken together, this research showed that many affective, cognitive and behavioural variables influence research methods learning journeys. The influence of emotions is highlighted as especially crucial to learning, with the predictive role of VLE engagement and activities also emphasised. This thesis offers proposals on how the literature on achievement emotions and the emerging field of learning analytics (Siemens, 2013) could be combined and applied in higher education. Further recommendations apply to the design of teaching and learning environments that combat specifically deactivating negative emotions and incorporate active learning tools and technologies

Hepatiitti B -rokotusohjelman arviointi

Selvityksen mukaan kohdennettu hepatiitti-B -rokotusohjelma toimii Suomessa hyvin. Väestön yleinen riski on vähäinen, ja osaksi rokotusohjelman, osaksi muun muassa neulojen ja ruiskujen vaihto-ohjelman ansiosta tartunnat myös riskiryhmissä ovat vähentyneet. Akuuttien tapausten määrä on laskenut viimeisen vuosikymmenen aikana neljännekseen. Suomalaisperäisessä väestössä hepatiitti B:n kroonisia kantajia on noin 0,22 % (11 500 kantajaa) ja ulkomaalaisperäisessä väestössä laskennallisesti 4,2 % (6 400 kantajaa). Tähän sopien myös löydetyistä kantajista yli puolet on ulkomaalaisperäisiä henkilöitä

Formalizing and Verifying a Modern Build Language

CLOUDMAKE is a software utility that automatically builds executable programs and libraries from source code—a modern MAKE utility. Its design gives rise to a number of possible optimizations, like cached builds, and the exe-cutables to be built are described using a functional programming language. This paper formally and mechanically verifies the correctness of central CLOUDMAKE algorithms. The paper defines the CLOUDMAKE language using an operational semantics, but with a twist: the central operation exec is defined axiomatically, making it pluggable so that it can be replaced by calls to compilers, linkers, and other tools. The formalization and proofs of the central CLOUDMAKE algorithms are done entirely in DAFNY, the proof engine of which is an SMT-based program verifier

Nuoren fyysisen terveyden arviointi ja terveyteen liittyvä riskikäyttäytyminen HUS/HYKS Nuorten päihdepsykiatrian poliklinikalla

Mielenterveyden ongelmat lisäävät tarttuvien ja ei-tarttuvien tautien riskiä ja näin vaikuttavat tahattomasti tai tahallisesti vaurioihin. Mielenterveys on yhteydessä fyysiseen terveyteen ja päinvastoin. Nuorten kohdalla ei ole juurikaan tutkittu fyysisen terveyden piirteitä samanaikaisesti ilmenevän mielenterveys- ja päihdehäiriön rinnalla. Nuorilla kausiluonteiset allergiat, ihotaudit ja astma esiintyvät fyysisistä sairauksista useimmin samanaikaisesti jonkin mielenterveyden häiriön kanssa. Ja toisinpäin jokin mielialahäiriö, jokin ahdistuneisuushäiriö ja jokin käytöshäiriö esiintyvät mielenterveydenhäiriöistä useimmin jonkin fyysisen sairauden kanssa. Mielenterveyden oireita kokevat nuoret määrittelevät fyysisen terveytensä useammin huonoksi kuin oireettomat. Kehittämisprojektin tarkoituksena oli lisätä tietoa päihdepsykiatrian poliklinikalla hoidettavien nuorten fyysisestä terveydestä ja siihen liittyvästä riskikäyttäytymisestä sekä kehittää kokonaisvaltaisen hoitotyön osaamista poliklinikalla. Kehittämisprojektin tavoitteena oli luoda Nuorten päihdepsykiatrian poliklinikalla hoidettavien nuorten fyysisen terveyden ja siihen liittyvän riskikäyttäytymisen erityispiirteet huomioiva tietoa antava posteri. Kehittämisprojektin tutkimuksellisessa osiossa käytetiin sekä määrällisen että laadullisen tutkimusperinteen mukaisia menetelmiä toisiaan täydentäen. Aineisto (n = 27) kerättiin lomakehaastattelun avulla potilasasiakirjamerkinnöistä ja analysoitiin tilastollisin menetelmin sekä sisällön analyysia soveltaen. Suurin osa nuorista arvioi fyysisen terveytensä olevan hyvä eikä kukaan nuorista kokenut terveytensä olevan huono. Haastatteluhetkellä, päihdepsykiatrisen tutkimusjakson alussa nuoret eivät siis liittäneet päihteidenkäyttöään, itsetuhoista käyttäytymistä, tappeluihin joutumista, pahoinpitelyyn osallistumista, suojaamattomassa sukupuoliyhteydessä olemista tai rattijuopumusta tekijöiksi, jotka vaikuttaisivat fyysiseen terveyteen sitä juurikaan heikentäväksi.Mental health problems also increase the risk of communicable and non-communicable diseases and thus contributes to unintentional and intentional injuries. Mental health is connected to physical health and vice versa. However, in the case of adolescents, the discussion of the physical health of persons with the co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders is rare. Adolescents’ seasonal allergies, skin diseases and asthma are the physical diseases that most frequently co-occur with any mental health disorder. And the other way around, an affective disorder, an anxiety disorder or a conduct disorder are mental disorders that are most often in the context of a physical disease. Adolescents who are suffering from mental health symptoms are experiencing a poor physical health more often than adolescents without mental health problems. The aim of the study, conducted as development project, was to increase knowledge of the physical health and health related risk taking behaviour of adolescents in a psychiatric unit for adolescent with substance use problems. The study was performed by using the methods from the qualitative and quantitative research tradition, complementing each other. The data (n = 27) was collected form patient record forms of EuroADAD interviews and background information and analyzed by statistical methods as well as using the content analysis. The purpose of the project was to create a scientific poster that describes the physical health and related risk behavior of the adolescents’ of the clinic. The majority of adolescents rated their physical health to be good and no one experienced their physical health to be poor. Adolescents didn’t combine the substance abuse, non-suicidal self-injury, involvement into physical fights or assault, unprotected sex or driving while intoxicated would affect the to the physical health as debilitating factor