Machine Learning and Clinical Text. Supporting Health Information Flow

Fluent health information flow is critical for clinical decision-making. However, a considerable part of this information is free-form text and inabilities to utilize it create risks to patient safety and cost-­effective hospital administration. Methods for automated processing of clinical text are emerging. The aim in this doctoral dissertation is to study machine learning and clinical text in order to support health information flow.First, by analyzing the content of authentic patient records, the aim is to specify clinical needs in order to guide the development of machine learning applications.The contributions are a model of the ideal information flow,a model of the problems and challenges in reality, and a road map for the technology development. Second, by developing applications for practical cases,the aim is to concretize ways to support health information flow. Altogether five machine learning applications for three practical cases are described: The first two applications are binary classification and regression related to the practical case of topic labeling and relevance ranking.The third and fourth application are supervised and unsupervised multi-class classification for the practical case of topic segmentation and labeling.These four applications are tested with Finnish intensive care patient records.The fifth application is multi-label classification for the practical task of diagnosis coding. It is tested with English radiology reports.The performance of all these applications is promising. Third, the aim is to study how the quality of machine learning applications can be reliably evaluated.The associations between performance evaluation measures and methods are addressed,and a new hold-out method is introduced.This method contributes not only to processing time but also to the evaluation diversity and quality. The main conclusion is that developing machine learning applications for text requires interdisciplinary, international collaboration. Practical cases are very different, and hence the development must begin from genuine user needs and domain expertise. The technological expertise must cover linguistics,machine learning, and information systems. Finally, the methods must be evaluated both statistically and through authentic user-feedback.

Color ad spectral image assessment using novel quality and fidelity techniques

The ongoing development of the digital media has brought a new set of challenges with it. As images containing more than three wavelength bands, often called spectral images, are becoming a more integral part of everyday life, problems in the quality of the RGB reproduction from the spectral images have turned into an important area of research. The notion of image quality is often thought to comprise two distinctive areas – image quality itself and image fidelity, both dealing with similar questions, image quality being the degree of excellence of the image, and image fidelity the measure of the match of the image under study to the original. In this thesis, both image fidelity and image quality are considered, with an emphasis on the influence of color and spectral image features on both. There are very few works dedicated to the quality and fidelity of spectral images. Several novel image fidelity measures were developed in this study, which include kernel similarity measures and 3D-SSIM (structural similarity index). The kernel measures incorporate the polynomial, Gaussian radial basis function (RBF) and sigmoid kernels. The 3D-SSIM is an extension of a traditional gray-scale SSIM measure developed to incorporate spectral data. The novel image quality model presented in this study is based on the assumption that the statistical parameters of the spectra of an image influence the overall appearance. The spectral image quality model comprises three parameters of quality: colorfulness, vividness and naturalness. The quality prediction is done by modeling the preference function expressed in JNDs (just noticeable difference). Both image fidelity measures and the image quality model have proven to be effective in the respective experiments.

Digital social media: An interactive technology incorporated as a competitive advantage for business

In a more transparent and dynamic world, in which consumers trust other consumers more for advice and recommendations on products and services, the continuity of organizations appears to be associated with socialization, the sharing of interests and the interaction with the audience. This is associated with the incorporation of digital technologies to business, specifically the use of social media. Consequently, it is timely and interesting to explore the phenomenon of virtual socialization, although it is a littlestudied field and what is needed is an innovative and theoretical approach based upon theories of marketing and communication. Expertise in these areas is present in all organizations and their performance is important for appropriate development of them. This work is a qualitative analysis about the behavior, reactions and attitudes of individuals to organizations, in order to understand the social factors that contribute to sustainable competitive advantages of organizations which can support strategic and future actions. We conclude that relevant factors associated with the tacit knowledge of the organization, specifically to learning and social interaction of the organization and their knowledge of virtual communities. The higher the coexistence of factors, the more difficult is the replication and greater will be the hypothesis of sustainable competitive advantage.

Social competence and loneliness during the school years - Issues in assessment, interrelations and intergenerational transmission

Väitöskirjassa tarkastellaan kouluikäisten lasten ja nuorten sosiaalisen kompetenssin ja yksinäisyyden mittaamista, yhteyksiä ja periytyvyyttä vanhemmilta heidän lapsilleen. Alakouluikäisten lasten tutkimusaineisto (n=985) koostuu lapsilta itseltään, heidän luokkatovereiltaan, opettajiltaan ja vanhemmiltaan vuosina 2000 - 2004 osana Merkitystä etsimässä – tutkimusprojektia (M. Vauras) kerätystä aineistosta. Mukana on itse-, toveri-, opettaja- ja vanhempien arviot lasten sosiaalisesta kompetenssista, seuranta-aineisto lasten yksinäisyydestä, opettajien arviot lasten motivationaalisesta orientaatiosta, standardoiduin testisarjoin arvioidut akateemiset taidot sekä lasten äitien ja isien arviot omasta yksinäisyydestään ja koetusta kyvykkyydestään toimia vanhempana. Yläkouluikäisten nuorten (n=386) aineisto koostuu vuosina 2006 – 2007 osana Sosioemotionaalinen oppiminen ja hyvinvointi yläkouluyhteisössä (P. M. Niemi) kerätystä nuorten yksinäisyyden, sosiaalisen ahdistuneisuuden ja sosiaalisen fobian seuranta-aineistosta. Mitattavuutta (päätavoite 1) tutkittiin erityisesti monitahoarviointien rakenteiden yhtenäisyyksiä, subjektiivisten arvioiden ajallista pysyvyyttä sekä mittareiden validiteettia ja reliabiliteettia testaamalla. Sosiaalisen kompetenssin ja yksinäisyyden keskinäisten yhteyksien lisäksi tarkasteltiin näiden yhteyttä alakoululaisten oppimiseen sekä yläkou¬lulaisten psykososiaaliseen hyvinvointiin (päätavoite 2). Kolmantena päätavoitteena oli selvittää yksinäisyyden mahdollista periytymistä vanhemmilta lapsille. Osana ensimmäistä päätavoitetta kehitettiin Monitahoarviointi sosiaalisesta kompetenssista (MASK) -arviointimenetelmä (artikkeli 1). Konfirmatorisen faktorianalyysin tulosten perusteella nelifaktorinen rakenne (prososiaalisuus sisältäen yhteistyötaidot ja empatiakyvyn sekä antisosiaalisuus sisältäen impulsiivisuuden ja häiritsevyyden) sopi sekä lasten itsensä, heidän luokkatovereidensa, opettajiensa että vanhempiensa tekemiin arviointeihin. Eri tahojen arviointien väliset korrelaatiot olivat tilastollisesti merkitseviä, joskin suhteellisen matalia, ts. eri tahojen näkökulmat lapsen sosiaalisesta kompetenssista ovat toisistaan eriäviä. Täten eri arvioitsijatahojen käyttäminen on kokonaisuuden tutkimisen kannalta tärkeää. Toisena mittaamiseen liittyvänä tavoitteena oli validoida Hozan, Bukowskin ja Beeryn (2000) sosiaalisen ja emotionaalisen yksinäisyyden mittari suomalaisille lapsille (artikkeli 3) ja nuorille (artikkeli 4) soveltuvaksi sekä tutkia, ovatko lasten ja nuorten arviot omasta yksinäisyydestään ajallisesti pysyviä. Alakoululaisten lasten osalta yksinäisyys, erityisesti sosiaalinen yksinäisyys osoittautui suhteellisen pysyväksi, mutta vahvistui entisestään yläkouluikäisten nuorten aineistoa tarkasteltaessa. Huomionarvoista sekä ala- että yläkoululaisten aineistoissa oli poikien kokema vahva emotionaalinen yksinäisyys. Molempien mittareiden osalta sekä validiteetti että reliabiliteetti todettiin hyväksyttäväksi ja niitä voidaan suositella lasten ja nuorten sosiaalisen kompetenssin ja yksinäisyyden arviointimenetelmiksi. Toisena päätavoitteena oli rakenneyhtälömallinnuksen keinoin tarkastella sosiaalisen kompetenssin ja yksinäisyyden yhteyksiä sekä keskenään (artikkelit 2 ja 3) että suhteessa lasten oppimiseen (artikkeli 2) ja nuorten psykososiaaliseen hyvinvointiin (artikkeli 4). Alakouluikäisten lasten osalta sosiaalinen kompetenssi oli yhteydessä pait¬si yksinäisyyteen myös opettajien oppilaistaan tekemiin motivationaalisen orientaation arvioihin sekä standardoiduin testien arvioituihin akateemisiin taitoihin. Yläkouluikäisten nuorten osalta yksinäisyys oli yhteydessä sosiaaliseen ahdistuneisuuteen ja sosiaaliseen fobiaan. Täten sosiaalisen kompetenssin voidaan katsoa olevan koululaisten hyvinvointia ja oppimista vahvistava, ja toisaalta yksinäisyyden nuorten psykososiaalista hyvinvointia heikentävä tekijä. Viimeisenä päätavoitteena mallinnettiin yksinäisyyden mahdollista periytyvyyttä. Ensimmäisessä vaiheessa periytyvyyttä tarkasteltiin koko perheen sisällä, vanhempien tai lasten sukupuolta erottelematta (artikkeli 2). Tässä rakenneyhtälömallissa vanhempien kokema yksinäisyys ennusti heikompaa kyvykkyydentunnetta vanhemmuudesta, joka edelleen ennusti lapsen heikompaa toveriarvioitua sosiaalista kompetenssia koulussa ja tätä kautta vahvempaa yksinäisyyden kokemusta. Toisessa mallissa eroteltiin äitien ja isien sekä tyttöjen ja poikien aineistot, jotta periytyvyyttä voitiin tarkastella äiti-tytär, äiti-poika, isä-tytär ja isä-poika dyadisuhteissa. Rakenneyhtälömallinnuksen tulosten perusteella sekä äitien että isien kokema yksinäisyys ennusti

Conditions for EFL learning and professional development : Finland-Swedish learner and teacher perspectives

Engelskans dominerande roll som internationellt språk och andra globaliseringstrender påverkar också Svenskfinland. Dessa trender påverkar i sin tur förutsättningarna för lärande och undervisning i engelska som främmande språk, det vill säga undervisningsmålen, de förväntade elev- och lärarroller, materialens ändamålsenlighet, lärares och elevers initiala erfarenheter av engelska och engelskspråkiga länder. Denna studie undersöker förutsättningarna för lärande och professionell utveckling i det svenskspråkiga nybörjarklassrummet i engelska som främmande språk. Utgångsläget för 351 nybörjare i engelska som främmande språk och 19 av deras lärare beskrivs och analyseras. Resultaten tyder på att engelska håller på att bli ett andraspråk snarare än ett traditionellt främmande språk för många unga elever. Dessa elever har också goda förutsättningar att lära sig engelska utanför skolan. Sådan var dock inte situationen för alla elever, vilket tyder på att det finns en anmärkningsvärd heterogenitet och även regional variation i det finlandssvenska klassrummet i engelska som främmande språk. Lärarresultaten tyder på att vissa lärare har klarat av att på ett konstruktivt sätt att tackla de förutsättningar de möter. Andra lärare uttrycker frustration över sin arbetssituation, läroplanen, undervisningsmaterialen och andra aktörer som kommer är av betydelse för skolmiljön. Studien påvisar att förutsättningarna för lärande och undervisning i engelska som främmande språk varierar i Svenskfinland. För att stöda elevers och lärares utveckling föreslås att dialogen mellan aktörer på olika nivå i samhället bör förbättras och systematiseras.

The effectiveness of short-term literacy skills intervention on children at risk of reading and writing difficulties in Tanzania : a study of grade one children with dynamic assessment approach

The aim of the study was to create and evaluate an intervention programme for Tanzanian children from a low-income area who are at risk of reading and writing difficulties. The learning difficulties, including reading and writing difficulties, are likely to be behind many of the common school problems in Tanzania, but they are not well understood, and research is needed. The design of the study included an identification and intervention phase with follow-up. A group based dynamic assessment approach was used in identifying children at risk of difficulties in reading and writing. The same approach was used in the intervention. The study was a randomized experiment with one experimental and two control groups. For the experimental and the control groups, a total of 96 (46 girls and 50 boys) children from grade one were screened out of 301 children from two schools in a low income urban area of Dar-es-Salaam. One third of the children, the experimental group, participated in an intensive training programme in literacy skills for five weeks, six hours per week, aimed at promoting reading and writing ability, while the children in the control groups had a mathematics and art programme. Follow-up was performed five months after the intervention. The intervention programme and the tests were based on the Zambian BASAT (Basic Skill Assessment Tool, Ketonen & Mulenga, 2003), but the content was drawn from the Kiswahili school curriculum in Tanzania. The main components of the training and testing programme were the same, only differing in content. The training process was different from traditional training in Tanzanian schools in that principles of teaching and training in dynamic assessment were followed. Feedback was the cornerstone of the training and the focus was on supporting the children in exploring knowledge and strategies in performing the tasks. The experimental group improved significantly more (p = .000) than the control groups during the intervention from pre-test to follow-up (repeated measures ANOVA). No differences between the control groups were noticed. The effect was significant on all the measures: phonological awareness, reading skills, writing skills and overall literacy skills. A transfer effect on school marks in Kiswahili and English was found. Following a discussion of the results, suggestions for further research and adaptation of the programme are presented.

Emancipating and developing learning activity: Systemic intervention and re-instrumentation in higher education.

The central theme of this thesis is the emancipation and further development of learning activity in higher education in the context of the ongoing digital transformation of our societies. It was developed in response to the highly problematic mainstream approach to digital re-instrumentation of teaching and studying practises in contemporary higher education. The mainstream approach is largely based on centralisation, standardisation, commoditisation, and commercialisation, while re-producing the general patterns of control, responsibility, and dependence that are characteristic for activity systems of schooling. Whereas much of educational research and development focuses on the optimisation and fine-tuning of schooling, the overall inquiry that is underlying this thesis has been carried out from an explicitly critical position and within a framework of action science. It thus conceptualises learning activity in higher education not only as an object of inquiry but also as an object to engage with and to intervene into from a perspective of intentional change. The knowledge-constituting interest of this type of inquiry can be tentatively described as a combination of heuristic-instrumental (guidelines for contextualised action and intervention), practical-phronetic (deliberation of value-rational aspects of means and ends), and developmental-emancipatory (deliberation of issues of power, self-determination, and growth) aspects. Its goal is the production of orientation knowledge for educational practise. The thesis provides an analysis, argumentation, and normative claim on why the development of learning activity should be turned into an object of individual|collective inquiry and intentional change in higher education, and why the current state of affairs in higher education actually impedes such a development. It argues for a decisive shift of attention to the intentional emancipation and further development of learning activity as an important cultural instrument for human (self-)production within the digital transformation. The thesis also attempts an in-depth exploration of what type of methodological rationale can actually be applied to an object of inquiry (developing learning activity) that is at the same time conceptualised as an object of intentional change within the ongoing digital transformation. The result of this retrospective reflection is the formulation of “optimally incomplete” guidelines for educational R&D practise that shares the practicalphronetic (value related) and developmental-emancipatory (power related) orientations that had been driving the overall inquiry. In addition, the thesis formulates the instrumental-heuristic knowledge claim that the conceptual instruments that were adapted and validated in the context of a series of intervention studies provide means to effectively intervene into existing practise in higher education to support the necessary development of (increasingly emancipated) networked learning activity. It suggests that digital networked instruments (tools and services) generally should be considered and treated as transient elements within critical systemic intervention research in higher education. It further argues for the predominant use of loosely-coupled, digital networked instruments that allow for individual|collective ownership, control, (co-)production, and re-use in other contexts and for other purposes. Since the range of digital instrumentation options is continuously expanding and currently shows no signs of an imminent slow-down or consolidation, individual and collective exploration and experimentation of this realm needs to be systematically incorporated into higher education practise.

Self-Assessment Report for International Accreditation - Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes in Environmental Technology

Ympäristötekniikan kandidaatin ja diplomi-insinöörin tutkinto-ohjelmien itsearviointiraportissa käsitellään tutkinto-ohjelmien osaamistavoitteita ja niiden saavuttamista. Raportissa käydään läpi myös käytössä olevat resurssit sekä tutkinto-ohjelmiin liittyviä tunnuslukuja. Itsearviointi on toteutettu kansainvälisen akkreditointijärjestön kriteerien mukaisesti (ASIIN ja EUR-ACE).

Focusing on the quality of learning processes

S. 327-333

Self-Assessment Report for International Accreditation - Chemical Engineering

Kemiantekniikan kandidaatin ja diplomi-insinöörin tutkinto-ohjelmien itsearviointiraportissa käsitellään tutkinto-ohjelmien osaamistavoitteita ja niiden saavuttamista. Raportissa käydään läpi myös käytössä olevat resurssit sekä tutkinto-ohjelmiin liittyviä tunnuslukuja. Itsearviointi on toteutettu kansainvälisen akkreditointijärjestön kriteerien mukaisesti (ASIIN ja EUR-ACE).

Evaluation of bursal lymphoid depletion: comparison between the conventional histology method and digital lymphocyte depletion evaluation system

Abstract: Fifty-five bursa of Fabricius (BF) were evaluated by optical microscopy for three different avian histopathologists (H1, H3 and H4) to determine the degree of lymphoid depletion. One histologist evaluated the same slides at two different times (H1 and H2) with four-months interval between the observations. The same BFs were evaluated using the system of Digital Lymphocyte Depletion Evaluation (ADDL), being performed by three differents operators of the system, not histopathologists. The results showed was a significant difference between the histopathologists and between the scores established by the same expert (H1 and H2). However, there were not significant differences between the scores with the ADDL system, obtained using ADDL. The results make clear the fragility of the subjective lymphocyte depletion score classification by the traditional histologic method, while the ADDL system proves to be more appropriated for the assessment of the lymphoid loss in the BF.

Integration of learning supportive applications into the development of the e-portfolio construction process

The portfolio as a means of demonstrating personal skills has lately been gaining prominence among technology students. This is partially due to the introduction of electronic portfolios, or e-portfolios. As platforms for e-portfolio management with different approaches have been introduced, the learning cycle, traditional portfolio pedagogy, and learner centricity have sometimes been forgotten, and as a result, the tools have been used for the most part as data depositories. The purpose of this thesis is to show how the construction of e-portfolios of IT students can be supported by institutions through the usage of different tools that relate to study advising, teaching, and learning. The construction process is presented as a cycle based on learning theories. Actions related to the various phases of the e-portfolio construction process are supported by the implementation of software applications. To maximize learner-centricity and minimize the intervention of the institution, the evaluated and controlled actions for these practices can be separated from the e-portfolios, leaving the construction of the e-portfolio to students. The main contributions of this thesis are the implemented applications, which can be considered to support the e-portfolio construction by assisting in planning, organizing, and reflecting activities. Eventually, this supports the students in their construction of better and more extensive e-portfolios. The implemented tools include 1) JobSkillSearcher to help students’ recognition of the demands of the ICT industry regarding skills, 2) WebTUTOR to support students’ personal study planning, 3) Learning Styles to determine students' learning styles, and 4) MyPeerReview to provide a platform on which to carry out anonymous peer review processes in courses. The most visible outcome concerning the e-portfolio is its representation, meaning that one can use it to demonstrate personal achievements at the time of seeking a job and gaining employment. Testing the tools and the selected open-source e-portfolio application indicates that the degree of richness of e-portfolio content can be increased by using the implemented applications.

Integrating Student Learning into the Repository Ecosystem

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Open Preservation: Community Approaches to Ensuring Long-Term Access to Digital Collections

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014