Experiences among primary school teachers in Tanzania

The overall aim of the study was to explore primary school teachers’ experiences of constraints to their work, and actions taken for improvement after undergoing in-service courses in the Education Quality Improvement through Pedagogy program. The research interest was thus to deepen the understanding of teachers’ experiences of constraints to their work and experiences of actions taken to improve classroom actions. In order to achieve this ambition, the study was conducted with primary school teachers in Shinyanga district-Tanzania. Two research questions guided the study: What do teachers experience as constraints to their work? The second: How have teachers improved their classroom actions after undergoing professional development courses? The theoretical framework of the study is centred on limiting and enabling frames on teachers’ work and professional development. In order to understand the classroom situations, qualitative research was designed applying a phenomenological approach with semi-structured interview, observation and videotaping to collect data. Forty experienced primary school teachers from ten primary schools participated in the study. The results of the first research question indicate that teachers face many constraints in their work. Three categories identified as interactional, environmental and professional role constraints. The most critical experienced by all teachers is teaching in large classes and inadequate teaching and learning materials. The results of the second research question show that teachers’ actions taken for improving their work were influenced by professional development activities. Three main categories including expanded interaction, expanded use of environment and expanded professional roles were identified. Generally, the knowledge generated is relevant for viewing teachers’ experiences of the challenges they encounter in teaching and the importance of professional development beyond the sampled respondents. The results suggest that constant provision of teachers’ professional development could improve teaching performance.

Critical infrastructure protection against cyber threats

A postgraduate seminar series with a title Critical Infrastructure Protection against Cyber Threats held at the Department of Military Technology of the National Defence University in the fall of 2013 and 2014. This book is a collection of some of talks that were presented in the seminar. The papers address origin of critical infrastructure protection, wargaming cyberwar in critical infrastructure defence, cyber-target categorization, supervisory control and data acquisition systems vulnerabilities, electric power as critical infrastructure, improving situational awareness of critical infrastructure and trust based situation awareness in high security cloud environment. This set of papers tries to give some insight to current issues of the network-centric critical infrastructure protection. The seminar has always made a publication of the papers but this has been an internal publication of the Finnish Defence Forces and has not hindered publication of the papers in international conferences. Publication of these papers in peer reviewed conferences has indeed been always the goal of the seminar, since it teaches writing conference level papers. We still hope that an internal publication in the department series is useful to the Finnish Defence Forces by offering an easy access to these papers.

Critical steps in the early evolution of the isocortex: Insights from developmental biology

This article proposes a comprehensive view of the origin of the mammalian brain. We discuss i) from which region in the brain of a reptilian-like ancestor did the isocortex originate, and ii) the origin of the multilayered structure of the isocortex from a simple-layered structure like that observed in the cortex of present-day reptiles. Regarding question i there have been two alternative hypotheses, one suggesting that most or all the isocortex originated from the dorsal pallium, and the other suggesting that part of the isocortex originated from a ventral pallial component. The latter implies that a massive tangential migration of cells from the ventral pallium to the dorsal pallium takes place in isocortical development, something that has not been shown. Question ii refers to the origin of the six-layered isocortex from a primitive three-layered cortex. It is argued that the superficial isocortical layers can be considered to be an evolutionary acquisition of the mammalian brain, since no equivalent structures can be found in the reptilian brain. Furthermore, a characteristic of the isocortex is that it develops according to an inside-out neurogenetic gradient, in which late-produced cells migrate past layers of early-produced cells. It is proposed that the inside-out neurogenetic gradient was partly achieved by the activation of a signaling pathway associated with the Cdk5 kinase and its activator p35, while an extracellular protein called reelin (secreted in the marginal zone during development) may have prevented migrating cells from penetrating into the developing marginal zone (future layer I).

Spin Polarization and Normal Reflection at Nanoscale Point Contacts

This thesis presents point-contact measurements between superconductors (Nb, Ta, Sn,Al, Zn) and ferromagnets (Co, Fe, Ni) as well as non-magnetic metals (Ag, Au, Cu, Pt).The point contacts were fabricated using the shear method. The differential resistanceof the contacts was measured either in liquid He at 4.2 K or in vacuum in a dilutionrefrigerator at varying temperature down to 0.1 K. The contact properties were investigatedas function of size and temperature. The measured Andreev-reflection spectrawere analysed in the framework of the BTK model – a three parameter model that describescurrent transport across a superconductor - normal conductor interface. Theoriginal BTK model was modified to include the effects of spin polarization or finitelifetime of the Cooper pairs. Our polarization values for the ferromagnets at 4.2 K agree with the literature data, but the analysis was ambiguous because the experimental spectra both with ferromagnets and non-magnets could be described equally well either with spin polarization or finite lifetime effects in the BTK model. With the polarization model the Z parametervaries from almost 0 to 0.8 while the lifetime model produces Z values close to 0.5. Measurements at lower temperatures partly lift this ambiguity because the magnitude of thermal broadening is small enough to separate lifetime broadening from the polarization. The reduced magnitude of the superconducting anomalies for Zn-Fe contacts required an additional modification of the BTK model which was implemented as a scaling factor. Adding this parameter led to reduced polarization values. However, reliable data is difficult to obtain because different parameter sets produce almost identical spectra.

Rigorous development of safety-critical systems

Nowadays, computer-based systems tend to become more complex and control increasingly critical functions affecting different areas of human activities. Failures of such systems might result in loss of human lives as well as significant damage to the environment. Therefore, their safety needs to be ensured. However, the development of safety-critical systems is not a trivial exercise. Hence, to preclude design faults and guarantee the desired behaviour, different industrial standards prescribe the use of rigorous techniques for development and verification of such systems. The more critical the system is, the more rigorous approach should be undertaken. To ensure safety of a critical computer-based system, satisfaction of the safety requirements imposed on this system should be demonstrated. This task involves a number of activities. In particular, a set of the safety requirements is usually derived by conducting various safety analysis techniques. Strong assurance that the system satisfies the safety requirements can be provided by formal methods, i.e., mathematically-based techniques. At the same time, the evidence that the system under consideration meets the imposed safety requirements might be demonstrated by constructing safety cases. However, the overall safety assurance process of critical computerbased systems remains insufficiently defined due to the following reasons. Firstly, there are semantic differences between safety requirements and formal models. Informally represented safety requirements should be translated into the underlying formal language to enable further veri cation. Secondly, the development of formal models of complex systems can be labour-intensive and time consuming. Thirdly, there are only a few well-defined methods for integration of formal verification results into safety cases. This thesis proposes an integrated approach to the rigorous development and verification of safety-critical systems that (1) facilitates elicitation of safety requirements and their incorporation into formal models, (2) simplifies formal modelling and verification by proposing specification and refinement patterns, and (3) assists in the construction of safety cases from the artefacts generated by formal reasoning. Our chosen formal framework is Event-B. It allows us to tackle the complexity of safety-critical systems as well as to structure safety requirements by applying abstraction and stepwise refinement. The Rodin platform, a tool supporting Event-B, assists in automatic model transformations and proof-based verification of the desired system properties. The proposed approach has been validated by several case studies from different application domains.

Critical analysis of autoregressive and fast Fourier transform markers of cardiovascular variability in rats and humans

The autonomic nervous system plays an important role in physiological and pathological conditions, and has been extensively evaluated by parametric and non-parametric spectral analysis. To compare the results obtained with fast Fourier transform (FFT) and the autoregressive (AR) method, we performed a comprehensive comparative study using data from humans and rats during pharmacological blockade (in rats), a postural test (in humans), and in the hypertensive state (in both humans and rats). Although postural hypotension in humans induced an increase in normalized low-frequency (LFnu) of systolic blood pressure, the increase in the ratio was detected only by AR. In rats, AR and FFT analysis did not agree for LFnu and high frequency (HFnu) under basal conditions and after vagal blockade. The increase in the LF/HF ratio of the pulse interval, induced by methylatropine, was detected only by FFT. In hypertensive patients, changes in LF and HF for systolic blood pressure were observed only by AR; FFT was able to detect the reduction in both blood pressure variance and total power. In hypertensive rats, AR presented different values of variance and total power for systolic blood pressure. Moreover, AR and FFT presented discordant results for LF, LFnu, HF, LF/HF ratio, and total power for pulse interval. We provide evidence for disagreement in 23% of the indices of blood pressure and heart rate variability in humans and 67% discordance in rats when these variables are evaluated by AR and FFT under physiological and pathological conditions. The overall disagreement between AR and FFT in this study was 43%.

Issues in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: A critical discourse analysis

Negotiating trade agreements is an important part of government trade policies, economic planning and part of the globally operating trading system of today. European Union and the United States have been active in the formation of trade agreements in global comparison. Now these two economic giants are engaged in negotiations to form their own trade agreement, the so called Transnational Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The purpose of this thesis is to understand the reasons for making a trade agreement between two economic areas and understanding the issues it may include in the case of the TTIP. The TTIP has received a great deal of attention in the media. The opinions towards the partnership have been extreme, and the debate has been heated. The purpose of this study is to introduce the nature of the public discussion regarding the TTIP from Spring 2013 until 2014. The research problem is to find out what are the main issues in the agreement and what are the values influencing them. The study was conducted applying methods of critical discourse analysis to the chosen data. This includes gathering the issues from the data based on the attention each has received in the discussion. The underlying motives for raising different issues were analysed by investigating the authors’ position in the political, economic and social circuits. The perceived economic impacts of the TTIP are also under analysis with the same criteria. Some of the most respected economic newspapers globally were included in the research material as well as papers or reports published by the EU and global organisations. The analysis indicates a clear dichotomy of the attitudes towards the TTIP. Key problems include lack of transparency in the negotiations, the misunderstood investor-state dispute settlement, the constantly expanding regulatory issues and the risk of protectionism. The theory and data does suggest that the removal of tariffs is an effective tool for reaching economic gains in the TTIP and even more effective would be the reducing of non-tariff barriers, such as protectionism. Critics are worried over the rising influence of corporations over governments. The discourse analysis reveals that the supporters of the TTIP have values related to increasing welfare through economic growth. Critics do not deny the economic benefits but raise the question of inequality as a consequence. Overall they represent softer values such as sustainable development and democracy as a counter-attack to the corporate values of efficiency and the maximising of profits.

Asleep or not asleep? Evaluation of the Quality of Patients’ Sleep in Critical Care Nursing

Sleep is important for the recovery of a critically ill patient, as lack of sleep is known to influence negatively a person’s cardiovascular system, mood, orientation, and metabolic and immune function and thus, it may prolong patients’ intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital stay. Intubated and mechanically ventilated patients suffer from fragmented and light sleep. However, it is not known well how non-intubated patients sleep. The evaluation of the patients’ sleep may be compromised by their fatigue and still position with no indication if they are asleep or not. The purpose of this study was to evaluate ICU patients’ sleep evaluation methods, the quality of non-intubated patients’ sleep, and the sleep evaluations performed by ICU nurses. The aims were to develop recommendations of patients’ sleep evaluation for ICU nurses and to provide a description of the quality of non-intubated patients’ sleep. The literature review of ICU patients’ sleep evaluation methods was extended to the end of 2014. The evaluation of the quality of patients’ sleep was conducted with four data: A) the nurses’ narrative documentations of the quality of patients’ sleep (n=114), B) the nurses’ sleep evaluations (n=21) with a structured observation instrument C) the patients’ self-evaluations (n=114) with the Richards-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire, and D) polysomnographic evaluations of the quality of patients’ sleep (n=21). The correspondence of data A with data C (collected 4–8/2011), and data B with data D (collected 5–8/2009) were analysed. Content analysis was used for the nurses’ documentations and statistical analyses for all the other data. The quality of non-intubated patients’ sleep varied between individuals. In many patients, sleep was light, awakenings were frequent, and the amount of sleep was insufficient as compared to sleep in healthy people. However, some patients were able to sleep well. The patients evaluated the quality of their sleep on average neither high nor low. Sleep depth was evaluated to be the worst and the speed of falling asleep the best aspect of sleep, on a scale 0 (poor sleep) to 100 (good sleep). Nursing care was mostly performed while the patients were awake, and thus the disturbing effect was low. The instruments available for nurses to evaluate the quality of patients’ sleep were limited and measured mainly the quantity of sleep. Nurses’ structured observatory evaluations of the quality of patients’ sleep were correct for approximately two thirds of the cases, and only regarding total sleep time. Nurses’ narrative documentations of the patients’ sleep corresponded with patients’ self-evaluations in just over half of the cases. However, nurses documented several dimensions of sleep that are not included in the present sleep evaluation instruments. They could be classified according to the components of the nursing process: needs assessment, sleep assessment, intervention, and effect of intervention. Valid, more comprehensive sleep evaluation methods for nurses are needed to evaluate, document, improve and study patients’ quality of sleep.

Introducing the concept of critical Fo in batch heat processing

The determination of the sterilization value for low acid foods in retorts includes a critical evaluation of the factory's facilities and utilities, validation of the heat processing equipment (by heat distribution assays), and finally heat penetration assays with the product. The intensity of the heat process applied to the food can be expressed by the Fo value (sterilization value, in minutes, at a reference temperature of 121.1 °C, and a thermal index, z, of 10 °C, for Clostridium botulinum spores). For safety reasons, the lowest value for Fo is frequently adopted, being obtained in heat penetration assays as indicative of the minimum process intensity applied. This lowest Fo value should always be higher than the minimum Fo recommended for the food in question. However, the use of the Fo value for the coldest can fail to statistically explain all the practical occurrences in food heat treatment processes. Thus, as a result of intense experimental work, we aimed to develop a new focus to determine the lowest Fo value, which we renamed the critical Fo. The critical Fo is based on a statistical model for the interpretation of the results of heat penetration assays in packages, and it depends not only on the Fo values found at the coldest point of the package and the coldest point of the equipment, but also on the size of the batch of packages processed in the retort, the total processing time in the retort, and the time between CIPs of the retort. In the present study, we tried to explore the results of physical measurements used in the validation of food heat processes. Three examples of calculations were prepared to illustrate the methodology developed and to introduce the concept of critical Fo for the processing of canned food.

Effect of the implementation of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) prerequisite program in an institutional foodservice unit in Southern Brazil

The aims of this study were to investigate the hygienic practices in the food production of an institutional foodservice unit in Southern Brazil and to evaluate the effect of implementing good food handling practices and standard operational procedures using microbiological hygiene indicators. An initial survey of the general operating conditions classified the unit as regular in terms of compliance with State safety guidelines for food service establishments. An action plan that incorporated the correction of noncompliance issues and the training of food handlers in good food handling practices and standard operational procedures were then implemented. The results of the microbiological analysis of utensils, preparation surfaces, food handlers' hands, water, and ambient air were recorded before and after the implementation of the action plan. The results showed that the implementation of this type of practice leads to the production of safer foods.

Hygienic-sanitary working practices and implementation of a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan in lobster processing industries

This study aimed to verify the hygienic-sanitary working practices and to create and implement a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) in two lobster processing industries in Pernambuco State, Brazil. The industries studied process frozen whole lobsters, frozen whole cooked lobsters, and frozen lobster tails for exportation. The application of the hygienic-sanitary checklist in the industries analyzed achieved conformity rates over 96% to the aspects evaluated. The use of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan resulted in the detection of two critical control points (CCPs) including the receiving and classification steps in the processing of frozen lobster and frozen lobster tails, and an additional critical control point (CCP) was detected during the cooking step of processing of the whole frozen cooked lobster. The proper implementation of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan in the lobster processing industries studied proved to be the safest and most cost-effective method to monitor each critical control point (CCP) hazards.