Obstruction of drippers as a result of application of moisturized whitewash in irrigation water

Plug dynamics of non compensate drip tubes were evaluated, by the precipitation of moisturized whitewash [Ca(OH)2], which is used in the fertigation for the bulb pH control of the trademarks Azud, Amanco, Naandan, Netafim, Petroisa, Queen Gil, with flow rate varying between 0.4 to 3.0 L h-1 usually used in the country. For this matter, increasing doses of Ca(OH)² were applied in the irrigation water, from 0.01 g L-1 to 1.84 g L-1. The flow rate of each drip tube was measured in intervals of time initially of 7 days, later of 15 days of system operation, totaling a time of 100 days of operation, corresponding to nine applications or 432 hours. The coefficient of variation (CV), and relative rate flow (Qr) were evaluated. The results pointed differences among the evaluated emitter regarding the occurrence of the clogging, and the models G2 and G5 presented the smallest levels of flow rate variation comparing to the models G6, G7 and G9.

Mellom tradisjon og spel : didaktikk for tekstil folkekunst

Denne avhandlinga er resultatet av eit behov for å forske på og utvikle ein didaktikk for tekstilfaget ved Folkekunststudiet, Institutt for folkekultur, Høgskolen i Telemark, Noreg. Studiet med folkekunst som fagfelt er eit relativt ungt studium på høgskolen, som vart etablert i 1984. Problemstillinga i denne avhandlinga er korleis ein kan utvikle ein forskingsbasert didaktikk der dei grunnleggjande prinsippa som særmerkjer den tradisjonelle folkekunsten, vert tekne vare på. I arbeidet med avhandlinga har eg prøvd på å klårgjere problemstillinga ut frå ulike perspektiv. Forskingsarbeidet har fokus på kommunikasjon og arbeidsmåtar i ljos av ulike teoriar. Det er ei hermeneutisk tilnærming som er vald for den didaktiske forståinga. Det fyrste drøftingstemaet har søkjeljos på kommunikasjon og dialog ved vidareføring av tekstil folkekunst. Både estetiske, teoretiske, praktiske og sosiale aspekt er nedfelte i læreplanen for studiet og skal utgjere grunnlaget for kommunikasjon og arbeidsmåtar. I den skapande og kopierande prosessen er det utvikla språklege reiskapar for både den sosiale og den estetiske sida der den teoretiske og praktiske faktoren er integrert. Møte med døme på tekstile tradisjonar så vel som praktisk forming av tekstilar har ført til refleksjon og dialog som involverer kontemplasjon, korrespondens og imaginasjon. Det andre temaet som er drøfta, er vidareføring av tradisjonelt visuelt formspråk. Her er merksemda retta mot kva som har skjedd formalt med ei gruppe tradisjonelle formelement i tekstilar i den institusjonelle vidareføringa over eit lengre tidsperspektiv. Resultatet syner at mange tradisjonelle formelement er borte frå den institusjonelle produksjonen. Formelementa kan ha fått ei meir naturalistisk utforming, eller dei er overførte til andre tradisjonelle tekstilteknikkar enn dei som var utgangspunktet. Rombeforma i den institusjonelle produksjonen er utført i færre variasjonar og kombinasjonar enn i den tradisjonelle produksjonen. Konklusjonen på drøftingstemaet er at spelereglar og spatialitet i høve til den formale komponenten i utvalet med tradisjonelle tekstilar ikkje er vidareført i alle gruppene av institusjonelle produkt. Resultatet kan få innverknad og fylgjer for utforming av ein framtidig didaktikk for faget. Arbeidsmåte og erfaring frå vidareføring av tekstile tradisjonar er det tredje temaet som er drøfta i avhandlinga. Kopiering og skapande prosessar er arbeidsmåtar som er brukte ved studiet i dag, og dei utgjer grunnlag for drøftingar i relasjon til vidareføring og erfaring. Konklusjonen er at i den skapande prosessen korrigerer tradisjonen utforminga, medan i kopiprosessen er eigen stilvilje og improvisering resultat av prosessane. Personar som deltek i prosessane, har sett seg sjølve og si historiske forankring inn i spelet, der visuelt og verbalt språk er resultat av integrasjon av tradisjonar. Dei tre drøftingstemaa utgjer grunnlaget for at didaktikk for folkekunst og tekstil kan bli intersubjektiv forståing av kva ein didaktikk for vidareføring av folkekunst med vekt på tekstil kan vere i utdanninga i dag. Indre og ytre dialog i skapande og kopierande prosessar femner om estetiske, materielle og tekniske faktorar sett i høve til spelereglar, spelerom, spatialitet og samspel i møte med tekstile tradisjonar. Samla utgjer det ein forskingsbasert didaktikk for faget der den overordna intensjonen er samtykke mellom tradisjon og spel.

Influence of Link Structure on Search Engine Result Pages of Online Nursery Shops

The primary objective of this thesis is to assess how the backlink portfolio structure and off site Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) elements influence ranking of UK based online nursery shops. The growth of the internet use demanded significant effort from companies to optimize and increase their online presence in order to cope with the increasing online competition. The new e-Commerce technology - called Search Engine Optimisation - has been developed that helped increase website visibility of companies. The SEO process involves on site elements (i.e. changing the parameters of the company's website such as keywords, title tags and meta descriptions) and off site elements (link building and social media marketing activity). Link Building is based on several steps of marketing planning including keyword research and competitor analysis. The underlying goal of keyword research is to understand the targeted market through identifying relevant keyword queries that are used by targeted costumer group. In the analysis, three types (geographic, field and company’s strategy related) and seven sources of keywords has been identified and used as a base of analysis. Following the determination of the most popular keywords, allinanchor and allintitle search has been conducted and the first ten results of the searches have been collected to identify the companies with the most significant web presence among the nursery shops. Finally, Link Profiling has been performed where the essential goal was to understand to what extent other companies' link structure is different that the base company's backlinks. Significant difference has been found that distinguished the top three companies ranking in the allinanchor and allintitle search. The top three companies, „Mothercare”, „Mamas and Papas” and „Kiddicare” maintained significantly better metrics regarding domain and page authority on the main landing pages, the average number of outbound links for link portfolio metric and in number of backlinks. These companies also ranked among the highest in page authority distribution and followed external linking.

”Du sköna sång, vårt bästa arv” - kanonisering av en sångskatt ur ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv

Songs have the power to get through to people. When lyrics are combined with a tune, the result is an entity where the first few notes of a melody can evoke emotions of recognition and belonging. A song treasury consists of such songs that are part of a canonized song tradition. The process where certain songs become part of an established song treasury is long, and many other aspects than the tune itself influence the forming of a song treasury. By examining the characteristics of a song tradition, the history of an ethnic group can be illuminated. In this study, music, pedagogy, and the sociocultural context are merged into a whole where a common song tradition, the song treasury, is in focus. The main aim of this study is to deepen the understanding of a song treasury, its development and contents. This understanding is accomplished by analyzing the musical and lyrical characteristics of 60 songs, which have been sung in schools, homes, and communities, thereby becoming popular among the Swedish-speaking Finns during the 20th century. The songs have been chosen by combining three song lists, of which two lists are closely related to school curricula. The third song list is a result of a survey on favourite songs, according to the situation around year 2000. The songs are examined in their notated versions, a number of song books and text books (n = 29) forming the empirical material. In this study, a hermeneutical approach is applied, content analysis being the method. The analysis is based on three perspectives: the sociocultural perspective, the music-pedagogical perspective, and the musico-analytical perspective. Within each perspective, two aspects are studied. This results in a hexagonal model which forms the structure of the study as a whole. The first two perspectives form the background; a historical context where nation, education, home country, and homestead are regarded as highly important. A common song repertoire is considered to be an effective means of building collective identity within ethnic groups, the common language and the cultural heritage being used as rhetorical arguments. During the early 1900s, choir festivals become an educational platform where conceptions of a common belonging are developed and strengthened through religious, patriotic, and poetical expressions. National school curricula in singing and music have similar characteristics, cultural heritage and values education being in focus. The song lyrics often describe nature and emotions, and they also appear to be personal and situated in a given time and place. Patriotic expressions and songs about music are also fairly common. The songs generally express positive attitudes, which are intensified by major tonality, rich and varied melodies with stable rhythms, and a strong tonal base. The analyzed details of the studied aspects are merged into a thick description, which results in an interpretation pattern with three dimensions: a song treasury can be considered an expression of collective identity, cultural heritage, and values education.

Litteratur och livskunskap : modersmålslärarens berättelse om undervisningen i årkurs 7-9

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Det planlagda och det som visar sig : klasslärarstuderandes syn på undervisning i teknisk slöjd

Sloyd as an activity concretizes man’s ability to, with the help of mind and body, reshape materials into objects and change her conditions for survival. The sloyd actor outside school works when the spirit moves her, while the pupil in school is expected to sloyd regardless of motivation. Subject teachers become experts on sloyd in educational settings, while the qualification requirements may set the class teachers’ voluntariness within parenthesis. All class teachers qualify to teach all core subjects of the national curriculum in Finland from preschool to grade six. The aim of the current thesis is to deepen the knowledge on how the science of sloyd education can support class teacher students’ future teaching in sloyd. In the empirical part of the study, Swedish-speaking Finnish class teacher students’ views on technical sloyd as one of their future subjects for teaching are examined. The class teacher’s qualifying skills in teaching technical sloyd are expected to take shape during only a few ECTS study points. The teacher students’ experience of the subject from the pupil’s perspective is supposed to move into a budding teacher subject. In a research-based teacher education, self-reflection and reflection as a dialogue are extended aided by research results. Intuitive thinking interplays with rational thinking during this time. The teacher student’s approach to make use of the autonomous free space in teaching is, in the current thesis, as considerations where the individual weighs the pros and cons in relation to various phenomena in sloyd and the school overall. The basis for an individual autonomy is shaped and is expected to interplay on the common arena of autonomy. In the exercise of their profession, the class teacher teaching sloyd is expected to oscillate between the sloyd educational practice and theory. The first step in this movement within the teacher education is the coverage of a selection of theories during the studies. The empirical part of the study is carried out at two separate occasions with directed open-ended interviews with fifteen class teacher students in the beginning and end of their first year of study. The data was analysed with a hermeneutic approach and a qualitatively oriented approach to content analysis. The results are mirrored against theory within the science of sloyd education. The results show that class teacher students have a versatile view of educational sloyd. The overall results overthrow parts of the researcher’s pre-understanding. The viewpoint of the students seems to broaden from a merely manual activity to seeing sloyd as an educational activity. In order for the results to gain significance in the teacher education of the future, a line of reasoning is conducted in order to recommend an extended dialogue and thirteen possible themes for enriching discussions are put forth as a result of the present study. The extended dialogue focuses on that teacher education should make conscious ventures to create opportunities for the students to take part in effective discussions on the subject of sloyd, complementing the existing dialogue between the teacher educator and the students. This thesis lends support to reflections on the following aspects of educational sloyd in these dialogues: the reasons for why the sloyd subject exists, the ambitions of the subject, the content and organization of the subject for students as well as for the teacher educators.

POP UP & LEAN START UP - yrittäjyyden opetusmallin kehittämishanke toisen asteen koulutuksessa

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tarkastella ammatillisen koulutuksen yrittäjyyskasvatuksen käytännön opetuksen toteutusmahdollisuuksia. Tarkasteluun vaikuttaa vuonna 2015 voimaan astuva ammatillisen perusopetuksen opetussuunnitelmauudistus. Käytännön opetuksen toteutuksen viitekehykseksi valittiin synteesi pop up ja lean startup liiketoimintamallien viitekehyksistä. Tutkimuksen kohteena olivat viralliset opetussuunnitelmauudistuksen asiakirjat ja liiketoimintamalleja käsittelevä kirjallisuus. Tutkimusmenetelmänä käytettiin integoivaa narratiivista kirjallisuusanalyysiä. Aineiston analyysissä käytettiin Atlas-ti ohjelmistoa. Tutkimuksen tuloksena muodostui kuva työelämälähtöisistä uudistuvista opetussuunnitelmista, missä yrittäjyyskasvatuksen rakenteet eivät todellisuudessa muutu entisestä merkittävästi. Sen sijaan, uutta tulevat olemaan opetuksen toteutukselle asetetut haasteet: yksilöllistetyt opintopolut ja opiskelumallien monipuolistamisen merkittävä kasvu. Yrittäjyyskasvatukselle asetetaan Suomessa yhteiskunnallisesti korkeita tavoitteita. Se, miten niihin päästään ja millaisella pedagogiikalla, jää eri ammatillisten oppilaitosten ratkaistavaksi paikallisesti. Pop up ja lean startup liiketoimintamallit tarjoavat tulevaisuuden kannalta merkittäviä mahdollisuuksia yrittäjyyden käytännön opetuksen viitekehyksiksi. Lisäksi ne sopivat nopeatempoiseen ja ajallisesti tiukkarajaiseen opetuksen viitekehykseen hyvin uudenaikaisina asiakaslähtöisinä innovaatio- ja liiketoimintamalleina.

Thalassemia intermedia as a result of heterozygosis for ß0-thalassemia and aaaanti-3.7/aa genotype in a Brazilian patient

We report a case in which the interaction of heterozygosis for both the ß0-IVS-II-1 (G->A) mutation and the aaaanti-3.7 allele was the probable cause for the clinical occurrence of thalassemia intermedia. The propositus, a 6-year-old Caucasian Brazilian boy of Portuguese descent, showed a moderately severe chronic anemia in spite of having the ß-thalassemia trait. Investigation of the alpha-globin gene status revealed heterozygosis for alpha-gene triplication (aaa/aa). The patient's father, also presenting mild microcytic and hypochromic anemia, had the same alpha and ß genotypes as his son, while the mother, not related to the father and hematologically normal, was also a carrier of the aaaanti-3.7 allele. The present case emphasizes the need for considering the possibility of alpha-gene triplication in ß-thalassemia heterozygotes who display an unexpected severe phenotype. The ß-thalassemia mutation found here is being described for the first time in Brazil.

Different stress modalities result in distinct steroid hormone responses by male rats

Since both paradoxical sleep deprivation (PSD) and stress alter male reproductive function, the purpose of the present study was to examine the influence of PSD and other stressors (restraint, electrical footshock, cold and forced swimming, N = 10 per group) on steroid hormones in adult Wistar male rats. Rats were submitted to chronic stress for four days. The stressors (footshock, cold and forced swimming) were applied twice a day, for periods of 1 h at 9:00 and 16:00 h. Restrained animals were maintained in plastic cylinders for 22 h/day whereas PSD was continuous. Hormone determination was measured by chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay (testosterone), competitive immunoassay (progesterone) and by radioimmunoassay (corticosterone, estradiol, estrone). The findings indicate that PSD (13.7 ng/dl), footshock (31.7 ng/dl) and cold (35.2 ng/dl) led to lower testosterone levels compared to the swimming (370.4 ng/dl) and control (371.4 ng/dl) groups. However, progesterone levels were elevated in the footshock (4.5 ng/ml) and PSD (5.4 ng/ml) groups compared to control (1.6 ng/ml), swimming (1.1 ng/ml), cold (2.3 ng/ml), and restrained (1.2 ng/ml) animals. Estrone and estradiol levels were reduced in the PSD, footshock and restraint groups compared to the control, swimming and cold groups. A significant increase in corticosterone levels was found only in the PSD (299.8 ng/ml) and footshock (169.6 ng/ml) groups. These changes may be thought to be the full steroidal response to stress of significant intensity. Thus, the data suggest that different stress modalities result in distinct steroid hormone responses, with PSD and footshock being the most similar.

Making home rules for mother tongues : the legal implications of linguistic diversity in the design of autonomy regimes

Principen om nationalismen där det politiska och det nationella är samspelt kan vara av markant betydelse för uppbyggande av autonomiska regimer. Likaså tillåter decentralicering och delegering av befogenheter för språk och utbildning (officiellt erkännande av språk, standardisering av språk, undervisningsspråk och relaterade läroplaner) formning av identiteter inom dessa autonomiska regimer. Resultatet är en ofullkomlig cirkulär relation där språk, samfund och politiska institutioner ömsesidigt och kontinuerligt formar varandra: lingvistiskt mångfald prägar och formger autonomiska ordningar och vice-versa. De juridiska implikationerna av territoriella och icke-territoriella former av autonomi är dock av en annan art. Emedan territoriell autonomi bygger på idéen om ett eventuellt inkluderande hemland för lingvistiska grupper, vars vistelseort är avgörande, förstärker den icke-territoriella autonomin idéen om ett exclusivt samfund bestående av själv-identifierade medlemmar som är kapabla till självstyre oavsett territoriella gränser. Denna avhandling utgör an analys av sådana juridiska implikationer genom komparativa och institutionella analyser. Avhandlingen föreslår som resultat en serie av normativa och pragmatiska rekommendationer inriktade på att främja demokratiseringsprocesser i linje med principer om multikulturalism.