CowLog

We have developed CowLog, which is open-source software for recording behaviors from digital video and is easy to use and modify. CowLog tracks the time code from digital video files. The program is suitable for coding any digital video, but the authors have used it in animal research. The program has two main windows: a coding window, which is a graphical user interface used for choosing video files and defining output files that also has buttons for scoring behaviors, and a video window, which displays the video used for coding. The windows can be used in separate displays. The user types the key codes for the predefined behavioral categories, and CowLog transcribes their timing from the video time code to a data file. CowLog comes with an additional feature, an R package called Animal, for elementary analyses of the data files. With the analysis package, the user can calculate the frequencies, bout durations, and total durations of the coded behaviors and produce summary plots from the data.

CowLog

We have developed CowLog, which is open-source software for recording behaviors from digital video and is easy to use and modify. CowLog tracks the time code from digital video files. The program is suitable for coding any digital video, but the authors have used it in animal research. The program has two main windows: a coding window, which is a graphical user interface used for choosing video files and defining output files that also has buttons for scoring behaviors, and a video window, which displays the video used for coding. The windows can be used in separate displays. The user types the key codes for the predefined behavioral categories, and CowLog transcribes their timing from the video time code to a data file. CowLog comes with an additional feature, an R package called Animal, for elementary analyses of the data files. With the analysis package, the user can calculate the frequencies, bout durations, and total durations of the coded behaviors and produce summary plots from the data.

Rate Control State-of-the-art Survey

The majority of Internet traffic use Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) as the transport level protocol. It provides a reliable ordered byte stream for the applications. However, applications such as live video streaming place an emphasis on timeliness over reliability. Also a smooth sending rate can be desirable over sharp changes in the sending rate. For these applications TCP is not necessarily suitable. Rate control attempts to address the demands of these applications. An important design feature in all rate control mechanisms is TCP friendliness. We should not negatively impact TCP performance since it is still the dominant protocol. Rate Control mechanisms are classified into two different mechanisms: window-based mechanisms and rate-based mechanisms. Window-based mechanisms increase their sending rate after a successful transfer of a window of packets similar to TCP. They typically decrease their sending rate sharply after a packet loss. Rate-based solutions control their sending rate in some other way. A large subset of rate-based solutions are called equation-based solutions. Equation-based solutions have a control equation which provides an allowed sending rate. Typically these rate-based solutions react slower to both packet losses and increases in available bandwidth making their sending rate smoother than that of window-based solutions. This report contains a survey of rate control mechanisms and a discussion of their relative strengths and weaknesses. A section is dedicated to a discussion on the enhancements in wireless environments. Another topic in the report is bandwidth estimation. Bandwidth estimation is divided into capacity estimation and available bandwidth estimation. We describe techniques that enable the calculation of a fair sending rate that can be used to create novel rate control mechanisms.

Sedimentary zooplankton remains as indicators of lake ecological quality and trophic structure

To protect and restore lake ecosystems under threats posed by the increasing human population, information on their ecological quality is needed. Lake sediments provide a data rich archive that allows identification of various biological components present prior to anthropogenic alterations as well as a constant record of changes. By providing a longer dimension of time than any ongoing monitoring programme, palaeolimnological methods can help in understanding natural variability and long-term ecological changes in lakes. As zooplankton have a central role in the lake food web, their remains can potentially provide versatile information on past trophic structure. However, various taphonomic processes operating in the lakes still raise questions concerning how subfossil assemblages reflect living communities. This thesis work aimed at improving the use of sedimentary zooplankton remains in the reconstruction of past zooplankton communities and the trophic structure in lakes. To quantify interspecific differences in the accumulation of remains, the subfossils of nine pelagic zooplankton taxa in annually laminated sediments were compared with monitoring results for live zooplankton in Lake Vesijärvi. This lake has a known history of eutrophication and recovery, which resulted from reduced external loading and effective fishing of plankti-benthivorous fish. The response of zooplankton assemblages to these known changes was resolved using annually laminated sediments. The generality of the responses observed in Lake Vesijärvi were further tested with a set of 31 lakes in Southern Finland, relating subfossils in surface sediments to contemporary water quality and fish density, as well as to lake morphometry. The results demonstrated differential preservation and retention of cladoceran species in the sediment. Daphnia, Diaphanosoma and Ceriodaphnia were clearly underrepresented in the sediment samples in comparison to well-preserved Bosmina species, Chydorus, Limnosida and Leptodora. For well-preserved species, the annual net accumulation rate was similar to or above the expected values, reflecting effective sediment focusing and accumulation in the deepest part of the lake. The decreased fish density and improved water quality led to subtle changes in zooplankton community composition. The abundance of Diaphanosoma and Limnosida increased after the reduction in fish density, while Ceriodaphnia and rotifers decreased. The most sensitive indicator of fish density was the mean size of Daphnia ephippia and Bosmina (E.) crassicornis ephippia and carapaces. The concentration of plant-associated species increased, reflecting expanding littoral vegetation along with increasing transparency. Several of the patterns observed in Lake Vesijärvi could also be found within the set of 31 lakes. According to this thesis work, the most useful cladoceran-based indices for nutrient status and planktivorous fish density in Finnish lakes were the relative abundances of certain pelagic taxa, and the mean size of Bosmina spp. carapaces, especially those of Bosmina (E.) cf. coregoni. The abundance of plant-associated species reflected the potential area for aquatic plants. Lake morphometry and sediment organic content, however, explained a relatively high proportion of the variance in the species data, and more studies are needed to quantify lake-specific differences in the accumulation and preservation of remains. Commonly occurring multicollinearity between environmental variables obstructs the cladoceran-based reconstruction of single environmental variables. As taphonomic factors and several direct and indirect structuring forces in lake ecosystems simultaneously affect zooplankton, the subfossil assemblages should be studied in a holistic way before making final conclusions about the trophic structure and the change in lake ecological quality.

Osallistuminen ja läpinäkyvyys kuntatasolla : tapaustutkimus Nicaraguasta

In this Master's thesis I go through the principals of the good governance. I apply these principals to the Nicaraguan context and especially in two rural municipalities in Chontales department. I clarify the development of the space of participation in Nicaraguan municipal level. I start my examination from the period when Somoza dictatorship ended and first open elections were held, and I end it to the municipal eleccions held in November 2008. These elections were robbed in 33 municipalities and because of this there started a crisis in Nicaragua and among the actors of development cooperation. As a methods of research I use two types of interview in the thesis, the interviews for the citizens and interviews for the experts. These interviews answer to my questions of the methods of participation. I also review the level of the trust of a citizen to an authority by asking if s/he voted in the municipal eleccions in November 2008. Furthermore, I define the work of municipal government in the point of view of the citizen. I also find out if a citizen wants to take more part in the decision making in her/his municipal. I have classified the types of citizens by the interviews I made. Due to this classification I explain how many people actually have opportunity to participate the dialogue of the municipal decision making and how many can follow the activity of the municipal governance. The result is that after the elections in November 2008 only one typed group can freely take part in the dialogue. This does not apply the principals of good governance, especially in subterms of participation and transparency. The incidents after the municipal elections have affected strongly on the co-operation of Finland and Nicaragua. Because of the fault of the elections Finland like the other co-operative countries brought down the directly paid budget support. This has caused a great economical crisis in Nicaragua which the covering will take a long time. The Master's thesis is a case study of two rural municipalities called Santo Tómas and Villa Sandino. Santo Tómas has a sandinista municipal government which is not legitimate. In Villa Sandino the government is liberal and legitimate.

Water quality estimation by optical remote sensing in boreal lakes

In lake-rich regions, the gathering of information about water quality is challenging because only a small proportion of the lakes can be assessed each year by conventional methods. One of the techniques for improving the spatial and temporal representativeness of lake monitoring is remote sensing from satellites and aircrafts. The experimental material included detailed optical measurements in 11 lakes, air- and spaceborne remote sensing measurements with concurrent field sampling, automatic raft measurements and a national dataset of routine water quality measurements from over 1100 lakes. The analyses of the spatially high-resolution airborne remote sensing data from eutrophic and mesotrophic lakes showed that one or a few discrete water quality observations using conventional monitoring can yield a clear over- or underestimation of the overall water quality in a lake. The use of TM-type satellite instruments in addition to routine monitoring results substantially increases the number of lakes for which water quality information can be obtained. The preliminary results indicated that coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM) can be estimated with TM-type satellite instruments, which could possibly be utilised as an aid in estimating the role of lakes in global carbon budgets. Based on the results of reflectance modelling and experimental data, MERIS satellite instrument has optimal or near-optimal channels for the estimation of turbidity, chlorophyll a and CDOM in Finnish lakes. MERIS images with a 300 m spatial resolution can provide water quality information in different parts of large and medium-sized lakes, and in filling in the gaps resulting from conventional monitoring. Algorithms that would not require simultaneous field data for algorithm training would increase the amount of remote sensing-based information available for lake monitoring. The MERIS Boreal Lakes processor, trained with the optical data and concentration ranges provided by this study, enabled turbidity estimations with good accuracy without the need for algorithm correction with field measurements, while chlorophyll a and CDOM estimations require further development of the processor. The accuracy of interpreting chlorophyll a via semi empirical algorithms can be improved by classifying lakes prior to interpretation according to their CDOM level and trophic status. Optical modelling indicated that the spectral diffuse attenuation coefficient can be estimated with reasonable accuracy from the measured water quality concentrations. This provides more detailed information on light attenuation from routine monitoring measurements than is available through the Secchi disk transparency. The results of this study improve the interpretation of lake water quality by remote sensing and encourage the use of remote sensing in lake monitoring.

Onttojen puiden lahopuukovakuoriaiset — kolmen pyydystyypin vertailu

Vanhat ja ontot puut ovat tärkeä elinympäristö monelle lahopuusta riippuvaiselle eliölajille. Onttoihin puihin on erikoistunut suuri määrä myös vaarantuneita ja harvinaisia hyönteislajeja, jotka elävät puun onkalon seinämillä tai onkalon pohjalle kerääntyvässä orgaanisessa aineksessa, ns. mulmissa. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää, mikä kolmesta pyydystyypistä (ikkuna-, vuoka- ja kuoppapyydys) soveltuu parhaiten onttojen puiden lahopuukovakuoriaisten pyyntiin. Lisäksi tavoitteena oli kartoittaa hyönteisnäytteiden ensimmäiseen laboratoriokäsittelyyn vaadittua aikaa. Tutkimuksessa oli mukana vanhoja rungostaan onttoutuneita lehmuksia, tammia ja vaahteroita pääkaupunkiseudun puisto- ja kartanoalueilta. Puiden onkaloiden sisään aseteltiin ikkuna-, vuoka- ja kuoppapyydyksiä, kaksi kutakin tyyppiä ja ne tyhjennettiin kolmen viikon välein touko-heinäkuussa 2006. Pyydyksiä oli siis yhteensä 90 per pyyntijakso. Kun näytteistä eroteltiin halutut hyönteislahkot (mukaanlukien kovakuoriaiset) niiden käsittelyyn käytetty aika kirjattiin ylös. Aineistosta tunnistettiin yhteensä 3825 kovakuoriaisyksilöä ja 212 lajia, joista lahopuusta riippuvaisia oli yhteensä 3398 yksilöä ja 121 lajia. Ikkunapyydyksissä esiintyi yhteensä 1639 yksilöä ja 140 lajia, vuokapyydyksissä 1506 yksilöä ja 134 lajia, kuoppapyydyksissä 680 yksilöä ja 111 lajia. Näytteiden käsittelyaikojen keskiarvot olivat 48,3 minuuttia ikkunapyydykselle, 65,5 minuuttia vuokapyydykselle ja 34,1 kuoppapyydykselle. Lajistokoostumuksen huomioiva ?-diversiteetti erosi huomattavasti pyydysten välillä, se oli 36,5 % ikkuna- ja vuokapyydysten välillä, 13,1 % ikkuna- ja kuoppapyydysten välillä ja 14,2 % vuoka- ja kuoppapyydysten välillä. Ikkuna- ja vuokapyydysten välillä ei havaittu tilastollisesti merkitsevää eroa saproksyylilajien (p<0,05), -yksilöiden (p<0,05) tai käsittelyaikojen (p<0,05) keskiarvoissa. Ikkuna- ja vuokapyydyksillä saatiin keskimäärin selvästi enemmän saproksyylilajeja ja –yksilöitä kuoppapyydykseen verrattuna. Kuoppapyydyksellä saatiin kokonaisyksilömäärään verrattuna suhteellisesti vähemmän saproksyylejä (59 %) kuin ikkuna- (69 %) ja vuokapyydyksillä (71 %). Ikkunapyydykset olivat tehokkain pyydystyyppi vertailtaessa pyydysten keräämää saproksyyliyksilömäärää suhteessa aineiston käsittelyn vaatimaan aikaan. Tehokkuus (yksilöä minuutissa) ikkunapyydykselle oli 0,74, vuokapyydykselle 0,43 ja kuoppapyydykselle 0,21. Ikkunapyydyksiä ei ole aikaisemmin käytetty puun onkalon sisällä hyönteisiä pyydettäessä vaan ne ovat aikaisemmissa tutkimuksissa roikkuneet onkalon ulkopuolella. Ikkunapyydykset kuitenkin toimivat erinomaisesti myös onkaloiden sisällä. Ikkuna- sekä vuokapyydys toimivatkin selkeästi paremmin lahopuukovakuoriaisten pyynnissä verrattuna kuoppapyydykseen, jonka poisjättäminen olisi kuitenkin tuottanut huomattavasti lajiköyhemmän aineiston. Mahdollisimman monimuotoisen onttojen puiden lahopuukovakuoriaislajiston keräämiseksi tulisi käyttää ikkuna- tai vuokapyydyksiä yhdessä kuoppapyydysten kanssa.