A Critical Assesment of Occluded Fronts

The aim of this work was the assessment about the structure and use of the conceptual model of occlusion in operational weather forecasting. In the beginning a survey has been made about the conceptual model of occlusion as introduced to operational forecasters in the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI). In the same context an overview has been performed about the use of the conceptual model in modern operational weather forecasting, especially in connection with the widespread use of numerical forecasts. In order to evaluate the features of the occlusions in operational weather forecasting, all the occlusion processes occurring during year 2003 over Europe and Northern Atlantic area have been investigated using the conceptual model of occlusion and the methods suggested in the FMI. The investigation has yielded a classification of the occluded cyclones on the basis of the extent the conceptual model has fitted the description of the observed thermal structure. The seasonal and geographical distribution of the classes has been inspected. Some relevant cases belonging to different classes have been collected and analyzed in detail: in this deeper investigation tools and techniques, which are not routinely used in operational weather forecasting, have been adopted. Both the statistical investigation of the occluded cyclones during year 2003 and the case studies have revealed that the traditional classification of the types of the occlusion on the basis of the thermal structure doesn t take into account the bigger variety of occlusion structures which can be observed. Moreover the conceptual model of occlusion has turned out to be often inadequate in describing well developed cyclones. A deep and constructive revision of the conceptual model of occlusion is therefore suggested in light of the result obtained in this work. The revision should take into account both the progresses which are being made in building a theoretical footing for the occlusion process and the recent tools and meteorological quantities which are nowadays available.

Fyysinen varhaiskasvatusympäristö päiväkotien varhaiskasvatussuunnitelmissa

The National Curriculum Guidelines on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Finland says that ECEC is developed holistically through observing children´s and the educator community´s activities and the ECEC environment. The background of this research was that assesment should be based on commonly agreed principles, which are recorded e.g. to unit-specific ECEC curriculum. The objective of this research was to investigate how unit-specific ECEC curriculums have descriped the physical indoor environment in day-care centres. According to the National Curriculum Guidelines on ECEC, there are four ways of acting that are peculiar to children: playing, physical activities, exploration and artistic experiences and self-expression. The descriptions of physical environment in unit-spesific curriculums were observed through above mentioned four ways of acting. In addition to that, the descriptions of four ways of acting were compared to each other, in order to find out, which are the main differencies and similarities in relation to physical ECEC environment. Research material was build on unit-specific ECEC curriculums from 18 day-care centres of Helsinki. Target of the research were the descriptions of physical indoor environment in curriculums.The method used in the research was theory-guided content analysis. The analyses were mainly qualitative. The descriptions of psysical environment varied widely both quantitatively and by substance. All curriculums contained mentions of playing and artistic experiences and self-expression, but mentions of physical activities and exploration were noticiably fewer. All four ways of acting were mentioned in research material in relation to premises and instruments. Also, principles related to the use of premises and instruments and other more common priciples were mentioned in relation to all ways of acting. Instead of that, children were not mentioned even once as an upholders or innovators of physical activities environment and children were mentioned only once regarding to exploration environment. All ways of acting included scenarios of e.g. that environment must provide possibilities of particular way of acting, and both materials and instruments must be available for children. Anyhow, research material did not include any principle or scenario that relates to physical environment that would have occurred in every unit-specific curriculum.