Memoria virtualis - death and mourning rituals in online environments

The main objective of this work has been to understand the ritual aspect of how private people use the Internet to mourn and honor their intimates in various online environments. The research material was compiled in 2007–2013 through ethnographic and autoethnographic observations in social media applications, online memorial websites, one shared virtual environment (Second Life) and one massive multi-player online role-playing game (World of Warcraft). The research material consists of – in addition to the ethnographic observations – three online surveys with 153 respondents (mainly from Finland, the United States and the United Kingdom). In addition, the researcher conducted 38 longer online interviews (i.e. via email, an avatar). The theoretical framework is derived from ritual theory, hermeneutic-phenomenological anthropology and discourse analysis. The research questions are as follows: Why are death rituals practiced in online environments? How are virtual memorials created in various online environments? What kind of systems of meanings are virtual memorials constructed from? The results indicate that online mourning and honoring is appropriated in addition to the “traditional” offline rituals. In online environments the bereaved can choose, where, when, how and with whom they share their grief and loss. Memorials are created in the web intentionally and unintentionally, where the latter refers inter alia to the Facebook profile of the deceased where his/her intimates gather to mourn and honor immediately after the death. The first refers to intentionally memorialized online places spaces via different service providers. Virtual memorials are a way to construct the identity of the deceased, as well as the bereaved in multiple ways. They also re-enforce and create a sense of communality both privately and publicly, and enable one meaningful online place where all the intimates of the deceased can gather together to mourn and honor despite the geographical or time distances. Tämä väitöstutkimus tarkastelee miten nykyiset kuolemanrituaalit ovat digitalisoituneet verkkoympäristöihin. Tutkimus on suoritettu verkkoetnografisin sekä autoetnografisin menetelmin sosiaalisen median sivustoilla, virtuaalimuistomerkkipalveluissa, yhdestä virtuaalimaailmassa (Second Life) sekä yhdestä reaaliaikaisessa verkkopelissä (World of Warcraft) vuosina 2007–2013. Tutkimusaineisto koostuu etnografisten havainnointien lisäksi kolmesta verkkokyselystä, joissa vastaajia on yhteensä 153 pääasiassa Suomesta, Yhdysvalloista sekä Iso-Britanniasta. Kyselyjen lisäksi tutkija on tehnyt myös 38 laajempaa verkkohaastattelua eri ympäristöissä (esim. sähköposti, avatar virtuaalimaailmassa). Teoreettinen kehys koostuu rituaaliteoriasta, hermeneuttis-phenomenologiasta sekä diskurssianalyysista. Tutkimuskysymykset ovat seuraavat: miksi kuolemanrituaaleja harjoitetaan verkkoympäristöissä, miten virtuaalisia muistomerkkejä luodaan verkkoon, sekä millaisista merkitysjärjestelmistä virtuaaliset muistomerkit muodostuvat? Tutkimustulosten mukaan verkkosureminen ja muistaminen ovat tulleet perinteisten kuolemanrituaalien rinnalle, jolloin sureva itse voi päättää miten, missä, milloin sekä kenen kanssa suree läheistään. Muistomerkkejä verkkoon luodaan suunnitellusti (intentional) sekä suunnittelemattomasti (unintentional), jolloin jälkimmäinen viittaa esimerkiksi edesmenneen Facebook profiiliin, missä hänen läheisensä kokoontuvat muistelemaan ja suremaan välittömästi kuoleman jälkeen. Ensimmäinen taas viittaa suunnitelmalliseen muistomerkin luomiseen, jota varten löytyy useita palveluntarjoajia. Virtuaalimuistomerkit ovat keino rakentaa sekä edesmenneen että surevan identiteettiä, vahvistaa ja luoda yhteisöllisyyttä niin yksityisesti kuin julkisesti, sekä luoda yksi yhteinen aina ja kaikkialta saavutettavissa oleva merkityksellinen paikka verkkoon, missä kaikki läheiset voivat ajasta ja paikasta riippumatta muistella ja surra läheistään.

Planktonic diatoms in lotic and lentic environments in the Lago dos Tigres hydrologic system (Britânia, Goiás, Brazil): Coscinodiscophyceae and Fragilariophyceae

A floristic study of Coscinodiscophyceae and Fragilariophyceae in the Lago dos Tigres hydrologic system is presented. Phytoplankton samples were collected with a plankton net (25 µm mesh) at 11 sampling stations, three in lotic areas and eight in lacustrine zones. Eleven species of Coscinodiscophyceae and eight of Fragilariophyceae were identified; descriptions, comments, their geographic distributions for the midwestern region of Brazil, type of environment (lentic/lotic), and illustrations are provided. Among the taxa found, 13 were recorded for the first time in midwestern Brazil: Aulacoseira alpigena, A. distans, A. granulata var. angustissima, A. granulata var. valida, A. muzzanensis, Discostella stelligera var. stelligera, Fragilaria capucina var. fragilarioides, F. delicatissima var. delicatissima, F. javanica, Pleurosira laevis, Staurosira acutirostrata, Staurosirella crassa, and Ulnaria ulna.

Vitamin D3-induced calcemic and phosphatemic responses in the freshwater mud eel Amphipnous cuchia maintained in different calcium environments

Vitamin D3 (100 ng 100 g body weight-l day-l) was administered intraperitoneally (ip) to the freshwater mud eel Amphipnous cuchia kept in artificial freshwater, calcium-free freshwater, low-calcium freshwater (0.2 mmol/l CaCl2) or calcium-rich freshwater (13.4 mmol/l CaCl2) for 15 days. Analyses of serum calcium and phosphate levels were performed on days 1, 3, 5, 10 and 15 after the beginning of the experiment (six eels from each group at each interval). Administration of vitamin D3 elevated the serum calcium [maximum elevation occurred at day 10 in artificial freshwater (vehicle: 10.55 ± 0.298, vitamin D: 13.90 ± 0.324), low-calcium freshwater (vehicle: 11.17 ± 0.220, vitamin D: 12.98 ± 0.297) and calcium-rich freshwater (vehicle: 11.24 ± 0.373, vitamin D: 14.24 ± 0.208) whereas it occurred at day 5 (vehicle: 8.42 ± 0.253, vitamin D: 11.07 ± 0.328) in calcium-free freshwater] and phosphate levels [maximum elevation at day 15 in artificial freshwater (vehicle: 4.39 ± 0.105, vitamin D: 5.37 ± 0.121), calcium-free freshwater (vehicle: 4.25 ± 0.193, vitamin D: 5.12 ± 0.181), low-calcium freshwater (vehicle: 3.93 ± 0.199, vitamin D: 5.28 ± 0.164) and calcium-rich freshwater (vehicle: 3.77 ± 0.125, vitamin D: 5.46 ± 0.151)] of the fish maintained in the above mentioned environmental media, but the responses were more pronounced in the fish kept in calcium-rich media

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.

Semantic and fuzzy modelling for human behaviour recognition in smart spaces : a case study on ambient assisted living.

Human activity recognition in everyday environments is a critical, but challenging task in Ambient Intelligence applications to achieve proper Ambient Assisted Living, and key challenges still remain to be dealt with to realize robust methods. One of the major limitations of the Ambient Intelligence systems today is the lack of semantic models of those activities on the environment, so that the system can recognize the speci c activity being performed by the user(s) and act accordingly. In this context, this thesis addresses the general problem of knowledge representation in Smart Spaces. The main objective is to develop knowledge-based models, equipped with semantics to learn, infer and monitor human behaviours in Smart Spaces. Moreover, it is easy to recognize that some aspects of this problem have a high degree of uncertainty, and therefore, the developed models must be equipped with mechanisms to manage this type of information. A fuzzy ontology and a semantic hybrid system are presented to allow modelling and recognition of a set of complex real-life scenarios where vagueness and uncertainty are inherent to the human nature of the users that perform it. The handling of uncertain, incomplete and vague data (i.e., missing sensor readings and activity execution variations, since human behaviour is non-deterministic) is approached for the rst time through a fuzzy ontology validated on real-time settings within a hybrid data-driven and knowledgebased architecture. The semantics of activities, sub-activities and real-time object interaction are taken into consideration. The proposed framework consists of two main modules: the low-level sub-activity recognizer and the high-level activity recognizer. The rst module detects sub-activities (i.e., actions or basic activities) that take input data directly from a depth sensor (Kinect). The main contribution of this thesis tackles the second component of the hybrid system, which lays on top of the previous one, in a superior level of abstraction, and acquires the input data from the rst module's output, and executes ontological inference to provide users, activities and their in uence in the environment, with semantics. This component is thus knowledge-based, and a fuzzy ontology was designed to model the high-level activities. Since activity recognition requires context-awareness and the ability to discriminate among activities in di erent environments, the semantic framework allows for modelling common-sense knowledge in the form of a rule-based system that supports expressions close to natural language in the form of fuzzy linguistic labels. The framework advantages have been evaluated with a challenging and new public dataset, CAD-120, achieving an accuracy of 90.1% and 91.1% respectively for low and high-level activities. This entails an improvement over both, entirely data-driven approaches, and merely ontology-based approaches. As an added value, for the system to be su ciently simple and exible to be managed by non-expert users, and thus, facilitate the transfer of research to industry, a development framework composed by a programming toolbox, a hybrid crisp and fuzzy architecture, and graphical models to represent and con gure human behaviour in Smart Spaces, were developed in order to provide the framework with more usability in the nal application. As a result, human behaviour recognition can help assisting people with special needs such as in healthcare, independent elderly living, in remote rehabilitation monitoring, industrial process guideline control, and many other cases. This thesis shows use cases in these areas.

Survival competencies in SMEs in changing business environments

The thesis examines the competencies that enable business survival in changing business environments from the perspective of Russian and Finnish micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises in the field of forest industry. Additionally, it studies the competence transformation necessary in SMEs for successful continuation of business operations when a firm considers transferring its business to another industry. The dissertation builds a holistic firm-level view of survival competencies for SMEs facing changes in their business environments. The holistic firm-level view of competencies includes both the individual-level and the firm-level perspectives, regardless of the position of the person in a firm. The findings highlight the importance of high-level individual competencies and the ability to perform versatile tasks in a firm. In addition, continuous business environment scanning, self-evaluation of personal competencies, willingness to renew and change, open-mindedness, and a readiness to network, are competencies that belong to and need to be taken care of by everybody – employees and employers - in a firm. In addition to previous competencies, an ability to manage every-day business also needs to be embedded in SME owners/managers. Furthermore, Russian SMEs seem to be more proactive in change situations, when compared with Finnish SMEs, which are used to operate in a more stable business environment. In conclusion, it can be said that the thesis adds to SME literature by introducing the concept of ‘SME-level competencies’, a combination of previously discussed organisational and networking competencies which are needed in order to survive through change. Furthermore, the thesis concludes with new competence classifications, such as operational and change competencies, which offer new information concerning the required competencies by which a firm may reduce the resistance to change that can hinder business renewal. For SME practitioners, the study suggests proper preparation and proactive operations in their business to reduce the influence of endless changes, and reminds SME owners/managers that changes are, however, a significant source of new business opportunities. For educational players, the study suggests upgrading educational and training systems by improving the training as regards attitudes towards work, and especially training in the comprehensive working abilities needed in SMEs to master diverse tasks. Finally, for public actors the study suggests providing stronger support to entrepreneurs by boosting SMEs entrepreneurial conditions and the existing business possibilities in change situations. This can be done by encouraging a legislative and entrepreneurial climate that responds better to the demands of SMEs.

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.

Desiccation tolerance of Tapirira obtusa seeds collected from different environments

This study was aimed at evaluating the desiccation sensitivity in seeds of the tree Tapirira obtusa (Benth.) J. D. Mitchell collected from three different environments and subjected to two distinct drying speeds. Seeds were collected from a rocky area, in the "Cerrado", and in a riparian forest area, in the region of municipality of Lavras, State of Minas Gerais. The seeds were subjected to drying with magnesium chloride (slow drying) or silica gel (fast drying), into closed environment, until moisture contents of 40%, 30%, 20% and 10%, considering as control, the percentage of germination at the initial moisture content in each environment, which varied from 47% to 50%. Percentages of germination and normal seedlings as well as germination speed index were assessed. For the three environments studied, there was no effect of slow drying on seed germination. Seeds from area of Cerrado, however, have shown a slight reduction on germination when subjected to fast drying. Oppositely, seeds from rocky area had germination increased when subjected to fast drying. Seeds from riparian forest area had no reduction on germination percentage, independent of drying speed. Results suggest that seeds of T. obtusa are not sensitive to desiccation.

Business modeling in turbulent environments

This study presents an agile tool set for the business modeling in companies, entering the turbulent environment. The study’s aim is to explore business modeling techniques and their tooling by utilizing a case study of a Finnish media monitoring company, expanding to the Russian market. This work proposes a tailored “two-approach” of business modeling development that analyzes both the past and future conditions of two key factors of business modeling for companies – internal and external environments. The study explores a case company by investigating the benefits and disadvantages of firm’s present business modeling tools, developing a new tooling and applying it to the case company. Among primary data utilization, such as interviews with media monitoring industry analysts and representatives of the competing companies, and academic experts, study leans up on the comprehensive analysis of Russian media monitoring niche and its players. This study benefits the business modeling research area and combines traditional analysis tools, such as market, PESTLE and competitor analyses, in a systemic manner, with the business modeling techniques. This transformation proceeds through applying of the integrated scenario, heat map and critical design issues’ analyses in the societal, industrial and competitive context of turbulent environments. The practical outcome of this approach is the development of agile business modeling tool set, customizable by company’s requirements.

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.

A narrative journey of teacher reflexivity and authenticity in technological environments /

This qualitative narrative inquiry was driven by my desire to further explore my personal discovery that my utilization of educational technologies in teaching and learning environments seemed to heighten a sense of creativity, which in turn increased reflective practice and authenticity in my teaching. A narrative inquiry approach was used as it offered the opportunity to uncover the deeper meanings of authenticity and reflection as participants' personal experiences were coconstructed and reconstructed in relationship with me and in relationship to a social milieu. To gain further insight into this potential phenomenon, I engaged in 2 conversational interviews with 2 other teachers from an Ontario College in a large urban centre who have utilized educational technologies in their teaching and learning communities and I maintained a research journal, constructed during the interview process, to record my own emerging narrative accounts, reflections, insights and further questions. The field texts consisted of transcriptions of the interviews and my reflective journal. Research texts were developed as field texts were listened to multiple times and texts were examined for meanings and themes. The educational technologies that both women focused on in the interview were digital video of children as they play, learn and develop and the use of an audible teacher voice in online courses. The invitation given to students to explore and discover meaning in videos of children as they watched them with the teacher seemed to be a catalyst for authenticity and a sense of synergy in the classroom. The power of the audible teacher voice came through as an essential component in online learning environments to offer students a sense of humanness and connection with the teacher. Relationships in both online and face to face classrooms emerged as a necessary and central component to all teaching and learning communities. The theme of paradox also emerged as participants recognized that educational technologies can be used in ways that enhance creativity, authenticity, reflection and relationships or in ways that hinder these qualities in the teaching and learning community. Knowledge of the common experiences of college educators who utilize educational technologies, specifically digital video of children to educate early childhood educators, might give meaning and insight to inform the practice of other teachers who seek authentic, reflexive practice in the classroom and in on line environments.