Applying Qt to programming courses

Työn tavoitteena on sovittaa Qt opetussuunnitelmaan. Työ sisältää Qt:n lyhyen historian sekä katsauksen sen nykytilaan. Nykytilakatsaus sisältää kolme näkökulmaa: miten ja missä Qt:ta voidaan käyttää, sekä sen käyttötarkoitukset teollisuudessa ja opetuksessa. Työn tuloksena syntyy luentodemonstraatiota varten pieni ohjelma, joka on luotu C++:n ja Qt Designerin avulla ja käyttää olennaisia käyttöliittymäkirjaston olioita. Toisena tuotteena työssä syntyy luonnos Lappeenrannan Teknillisen Yliopiston ohjelmointikursseista, joissa Qt:ta voitaisiin käyttää avustamaan opiskelijoita näkemään, miten graafinen ohjelma luodaan sekä valmentaa heitä ymmärtämään viitekehyksien ja graafisten kirjastojen tuomat edut.

Opportunities, constraints and constrained opportunities – A study on mothers’ working time patterns in 22 European countries

The aim of this study was to analyse mothers’ working time patterns across 22 European countries. The focus was on three questions: how much mothers prefer to work, how much they actually work, and to what degree their preferred and actual working times are (in)consistent with each other. The focus was on cross-national differences in mothers’ working time patterns, comparison of mothers’ working times to that of childless women and fathers, as well as on individual- and country-level factors that explain the variation between them. In the theoretical background, the departure point was an integrative theoretical approach where the assumption is that there are various kinds of explanations for the differences in mothers’ working time patterns – namely structural, cultural and institutional – , and that these factors are laid in two levels: individual- and country-levels. Data were extracted from the European Social Survey (ESS) 2010 / 2011. The results showed that mothers’ working time patterns, both preferred and actual working times, varied across European countries. Four clusters were formed to illustrate the differences. In the full-time pattern, full-time work was the most important form of work, leaving all other working time forms marginal. The full-time pattern was perceived in terms of preferred working times in Bulgaria and Portugal. In polarised pattern countries, fulltime work was also important, but it was accompanied by a large share of mothers not working at all. In the case of preferred working times, many Eastern and Southern European countries followed it whereas in terms of actual working times it included all Eastern and Southern European countries as well as Finland. The combination pattern was characterised by the importance of long part-time hours and full-time work. It was the preferred working time pattern in the Nordic countries, France, Slovenia, and Spain, but Belgium, Denmark, France, Norway, and Sweden followed it in terms of actual working times. The fourth cluster that described mothers’ working times was called the part-time pattern, and it was illustrated by the prevalence of short and long part-time work. In the case of preferred working times, it was followed in Belgium, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Besides Belgium, the part-time pattern was followed in the same countries in terms of actual working times. The consistency between preferred and actual working times was rather strong in a majority of countries. However, six countries fell under different working time patterns when preferred and actual working times were compared. Comparison of working mothers’, childless women’s, and fathers’ working times showed that differences between these groups were surprisingly small. It was only in part-time pattern countries that working mothers worked significantly shorter hours than working childless women and fathers. Results therefore revealed that when mothers’ working times are under study, an important question regarding the population examined is whether it consists of all mothers or only working mothers. Results moreover supported the use of the integrative theoretical approach when studying mothers’ working time patterns. Results indicate that mothers’ working time patterns in all countries are shaped by various opportunities and constraints, which are comprised of structural, cultural, institutional, and individual-level factors.

Nonconventional amide bond formation catalysis: programming enzyme specificity with substrate mimetics

This article reports on the design and characteristics of substrate mimetics in protease-catalyzed reactions. Firstly, the basis of protease-catalyzed peptide synthesis and the general advantages of substrate mimetics over common acyl donor components are described. The binding behavior of these artificial substrates and the mechanism of catalysis are further discussed on the basis of hydrolysis, acyl transfer, protein-ligand docking, and molecular dynamics studies on the trypsin model. The general validity of the substrate mimetic concept is illustrated by the expansion of this strategy to trypsin-like, glutamic acid-specific, and hydrophobic amino acid-specific proteases. Finally, opportunities for the combination of the substrate mimetic strategy with the chemical solid-phase peptide synthesis and the use of substrate mimetics for non-peptide organic amide synthesis are presented.

Developing an introductory object-oriented programming course

The state of the object-oriented programming course in Lappeenranta University of Technology had reached the point, where it required changes to provide better learning opportunities and thus the learning outcomes. Based on the student feedback the course was partially dated and ineffective. The components of the course were analysed and the ineffective elements were removed and new methods were introduced to improve the course. The major changes included the change from traditional teaching methods to reverse classroom method and the use of Java as the programming language. The changes were measured by the student feedback, lecturer’s observations and comparison to previous years. The feedback suggested that the changes were successful; the course received higher overall grade than before.

Chance of psychiatric morbidity amongst recently diagnosed cancer outpatients attending a chemotherapy unit

The prevalent rate of psychiatry morbidity amongst patients with cancer reported in various studies ranges from 5 to 50%, a variation that can be attributed to differences in sample size, the disease itself and treatment factors. The objectives of the present study were to determine the frequency of psychiatric morbidity amongst recently diagnosed cancer outpatients and try to identify which factors might be related to further psychological distress. Two hundred and eleven (70.9%) female patients and 87 (29.1%) male patients from the chemotherapy unit of the Cancer Hospital A.C. Camargo (São Paulo) completed a questionnaire that featured data on demographic, medical and treatment details. The Self Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20) was administered to the patients to determine their personal psychiatric morbidity. Seventy-two patients (25.8%) scored > or = 8 in the SRQ-20, the cut-off point for a patient to be considered a psychiatric case. When the low and high scoring groups were compared no differences were detected regarding age, marital status, tumor site, sex, or previous treatment. Nonetheless, patients in the lowest social class and those who were bedridden less than 50% of the time had a significantly higher probability of being a psychiatric case. Regarding help-seeking behavior in situations in which they had doubts or were frightened, about 64% of the total sample did not seek any type of support and did not talk to anyone. This frequency of psychiatric morbidity agrees with data from the cancer literature. According to many investigators, the early detection of a comorbid psychiatric disorder is crucial to relieve a patient's suffering.

Modelling the super-equilibria in thermal biomass conversion : applications and limitations of the constrained free energy method

Bioenergi ses som en viktig del av det nu- och framtida sortimentet av inhemsk energi. Svartlut, bark och skogsavfall täcker mer än en femtedel av den inhemska energianvändningen. Produktionsanläggningar kan fungera ofullständigt och en mängd gas-, partikelutsläpp och tjära produceras samtidigt och kan leda till beläggningsbildning och korrosion. Orsaken till dessa problem är ofta obalans i processen: vissa föreningar anrikas i processen och superjämviktstillstånd är bildas. I denna doktorsavhandling presenteras en ny beräkningsmetod, med vilken man kan beskriva superjämviktstillståndet, de viktigaste kemiska reaktionerna, processens värmeproduktion och tillståndsstorheter samtidigt. Beräkningsmetoden grundar sig på en unik frienergimetod med bivillkor som har utvecklats vid VTT. Den här så kallade CFE-metoden har tidigare utnyttjats i pappers-, metall- och kemiindustrin. Applikationer för bioenergi, vilka är demonstrerade i doktorsavhandlingen, är ett nytt användingsområde för metoden. Studien visade att beräkningsmetoden är väl lämpad för högtemperaturenergiprocesser. Superjämviktstillstånden kan uppstå i dessa processer och det kemiska systemet kan definieras med några bivillkor. Typiska tillämpningar är förbränning av biomassa och svartlut, förgasning av biomassa och uppkomsten av kväveoxider. Också olika sätt att definiera superjämviktstillstånd presenterades i doktorsavhandlingen: empiriska konstanter, empiriska hastighetsuttryck eller reaktionsmekanismer kan användas. Resultaten av doktorsavhandlingen kan utnyttjas i framtiden i processplaneringen och i undersökning av nya tekniska lösningar för förgasning, förbränningsteknik och biobränslen. Den presenterade metoden är ett bra alternativ till de traditionella mekanistiska och fenomenmodeller och kombinerar de bästa delarna av både. --------------------------------------------------------------- Bioenergia on tärkeä osa nykyistä ja tulevaa kotimaista energiapalettia. Mustalipeä, kuori ja metsätähteet kattavat yli viidenneksen kotimaisesta energian kulutuksesta. Tuotantolaitokset eivät kuitenkaan aina toimi täydellisesti ja niiden prosesseissa syntyy erilaisia kaasu- ja hiukkaspäästöjä, tervoja sekä prosessilaitteita kuluttavia saostumia ja ruostumista. Usein syy näihin ongelmiin on prosessissa esiintyvä epätasapainotila: tietyt yhdisteet rikastuvat prosessissa ja muodostavat supertasapainotiloja. Väitöstyössä kehitettiin uusi laskentamenetelmä, jolla voidaan kuvata nämä supertasapainotilat, tärkeimmät niihin liittyvät kemialliset reaktiot, prosessin lämmöntuotanto ja tilansuureet yhtä aikaa. Laskentamenetelmä perustuu VTT:llä kehitettyyn ainutlaatuiseen rajoitettuun vapaaenergiamenetelmään. Tätä niin kutsuttua CFE-menetelmää on aiemmin sovelluttu onnistuneesti muun muassa paperi-, metalli- ja kemianteollisuudessa. Väitöstyössä esitetyt bioenergiasovellukset ovat uusi sovellusalue menetelmälle. Työ osoitti laskentatavan soveltuvan hyvin korkealämpöisiin energiatekniikan prosesseihin, joissa kemiallista systeemiä rajoittavia tekijöitä oli rajallinen määrä ja siten super-tasapainotila saattoi muodostua prosessin aikana. Tyypillisiä sovelluskohteita ovat biomassan ja mustalipeän poltto, biomassan kaasutus ja typpioksidipäästöt. Työn aikana arvioitiin myös erilaisia tapoja määritellä super-tasapainojen muodostumista rajoittavat tekijät. Rajoitukset voitiin tehdä teollisiin mittauksiin pohjautuen, kokeellisia malleja hyödyntäen tai mekanistiseen reaktiokinetiikkaan perustuen. Tulevaisuudessa väitöstyön tuloksia voidaan hyödyntää prosessisuunnittelussa ja tutkittaessa uusia teknisiä ratkaisuja kaasutus- ja polttotekniikoissa sekä biopolttoaineiden tutkimuksessa. Kehitetty menetelmä tarjoaa hyvän vaihtoehdon perinteisille mekanistisille ja ilmiömalleille yhdistäen näiden parhaita puolia.

Embedded Service Bus for Internet of Things Interoperability

Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are developing rapidly, and therefore there exist several standards of interconnection protocols and platforms. The existence of heterogeneous protocols and platforms has become a critical challenge for IoT system developers. To mitigate this challenge, few alliances and organizations have taken the initiative to build a framework that helps to integrate application silos. Some of these frameworks focus only on a specific domain like home automation. However, the resource constraints in the large proportion of connected devices make it difficult to build an interoperable system using such frameworks. Therefore, a general purpose, lightweight interoperability framework that can be used for a range of devices is required. To tackle the heterogeneous nature, this work introduces an embedded, distributed and lightweight service bus, Lightweight IoT Service bus Architecture (LISA), which fits inside the network stack of a small real-time operating system for constrained nodes. LISA provides a uniform application programming interface for an IoT system on a range of devices with variable resource constraints. It hides platform and protocol variations underneath it, thus facilitating interoperability in IoT implementations. LISA is inspired by the Network on Terminal Architecture, a service centric open architecture by Nokia Research Center. Unlike many other interoperability frameworks, LISA is designed specifically for resource constrained nodes and it provides essential features of a service bus for easy service oriented architecture implementation. The presented architecture utilizes an intermediate computing layer, a Fog layer, between the small nodes and the cloud, thereby facilitating the federation of constrained nodes into subnetworks. As a result of a modular and distributed design, the part of LISA running in the Fog layer handles the heavy lifting to assist the lightweight portion of LISA inside the resource constrained nodes. Furthermore, LISA introduces a new networking paradigm, Node Centric Networking, to route messages across protocol boundaries to facilitate interoperability. This thesis presents a concept implementation of the architecture and creates a foundation for future extension towards a comprehensive interoperability framework for IoT.

Open source solutions for multiplatform graphics programming

New emerging technologies in the recent decade have brought new options to cross platform computer graphics development. This master thesis took a look for cross platform 3D graphics development possibilities. All platform dependent and non real time solutions were excluded. WebGL and two different OpenGL based solutions were assessed via demo application by using most recent development tools. In the results pros and cons of the each solutions were noted.

Perceived effectiveness of alternative programming : a case study /

The topic of this research was alternative programming in secondary public education. The purpose of this research was to explore the perceived effectiveness of two public secondary programs that are aJternative to mainstream or "regular" education. Two case study sites were used to research diverse ends of the aJtemative programming continuum. The first case study demonstrated a gifted program and the second demonstrated a behavioral program. Student needs were examined in terms of academic needs, emotional needs, career needs, and social needs. Research conducted in these sites examined how the students, teachers, onsite staff, and program administrators perceived that individual needs were met and unmet in these two programs. The study was qualitative and exploratory, using deductive and inductive research techniques. Similar themes of best practice that were identified in the case study sites aided in the development of a teaching and learning model. Four themes were identified as important within the case study sites. These themes included the commitment and motivation of teachers and the support of administration in the gifted program, and the importance of location and the flow of information and communication in the behavior program. Six themes emerged that were similar across the case study sites. These themes included the individual nature of programming, recognition of student achievement, the alternative program as a place of safety and community, importance of interpersonal capacity, priority of basic needs, and, finally, matching student capacity with program expectations. The model incorporates these themes and is designed as a resource for teachers, program administrators, parents, and policy makers of alternative educational programs.