Partikkelikokojakaumamenetelmän testaus INCA Feature

Tässä työssä testattiin partikkelikokojakaumien analysoinnissa käytettävää kuvankäsittelyohjelmaa INCA Feature. Partikkelikokojakaumat määritettiin elektronimikroskooppikuvista INCA Feature ohjelmaa käyttäen partikkeleiden projektiokuvista päällystyspigmenttinä käytettävälle talkille ja kahdelle eri karbonaattilaadulle. Lisäksi määritettiin partikkelikokojakaumat suodatuksessa ja puhdistuksessa apuaineina käytettäville piidioksidi- ja alumiinioksidihiukkasille. Kuvankäsittelyohjelmalla määritettyjä partikkelikokojakaumia verrattiin partikkelin laskeutumisnopeuteen eli sedimentaatioon perustuvalla SediGraph 5100 analysaattorilla ja laserdiffraktioon perustuvalla Coulter LS 230 menetelmällä analysoituihin partikkelikokojakaumiin. SediGraph 5100 ja kuva-analyysiohjelma antoivat talkkipartikkelien kokojakaumalle hyvin samankaltaisen keskiarvon. Sen sijaan Coulter LS 230 laitteen antama kokojakauman keskiarvo poikkesi edellisistä. Kaikki vertailussa olleet partikkelikokojakaumamenetelmät asettivat eri näytteiden partikkelit samaan kokojärjestykseen. Kuitenkaan menetelmien tuloksia ei voida numeerisesti verrata toisiinsa, sillä kaikissa käytetyissä analyysimenetelmissä partikkelikoon mittaus perustuu partikkelin eri ominaisuuteen. Työn perusteella kaikki testatut analyysimenetelmät soveltuvat paperipigmenttien partikkelikokojakaumien määrittämiseen. Tässä työssä selvitettiin myös kuva-analyysiin tarvittava partikkelien lukumäärä, jolla analyysitulos on luotettava. Työssä todettiin, että analysoitavien partikkelien lukumäärän tulee olla vähintään 300 partikkelia. Liian suuri näytemäärä lisää kokojakauman hajontaa ja pidentää analyysiin käytettyä aikaa useaan tuntiin. Näytteenkäsittely vaatii vielä lisää tutkimuksia, sillä se on tärkein ja kriittisin vaihe SEM ja kuva-analyysiohjelmalla tehtävää partikkelikokoanalyysiä. Automaattisten mikroskooppien yleistyminen helpottaa ja nopeuttaa analyysien tekoa, jolloin menetelmän suosio tulee kasvamaan myös paperipigmenttien tutkimuksessa. Laitteiden korkea hinta ja käyttäjältä vaadittava eritysosaaminen tulevat rajaamaan käytön ainakin toistaiseksi tutkimuslaitoksiin.

Can future systemic financial risks be quantified?: ergodic vs nonergodic stochastic processes

Different axioms underlie efficient market theory and Keynes's liquidity preference theory. Efficient market theory assumes the ergodic axiom. Consequently, today's decision makers can calculate with actuarial precision the future value of all possible outcomes resulting from today's decisions. Since in an efficient market world decision makers "know" their intertemporal budget constraints, decision makers never default on a loan, i.e., systemic defaults, insolvencies, and bankruptcies are impossible. Keynes liquidity preference theory rejects the ergodic axiom. The future is ontologically uncertain. Accordingly systemic defaults and insolvencies can occur but can never be predicted in advance.

Just how capitalist is China?

In this paper, we review old and modern conceptions of "capitalism" and then we evaluate how "well" China fares on three touchstones of capitalism: competitive markets, generalization of wage-labour, and private ownership of the means of production. While we accept that China has come a long way under the first two criteria since the 1980s, we do not deem China yet to be a full-fledged capitalist economy for the State still wields great power through the allocation of massive state resources and control of large and highly profitable state enterprises, which dominate key sectors of the economy.

Fostering product innovation by learning through exporting in Eastern Europe

This study discusses the importance of learning through the process of exporting, and more specifically how such a process can enhance the product innovativeness of a company. The purpose of this study is to investigate the appropriate sources of learning and to suggest an interactive framework for how new knowledge from exporting markets can materialize itself into product innovation. The theoretical background of the study was constructed from academic literature, which is related to concepts of learning by exporting, along with sources for learning in the market and new product development. The empirical research in the form of a qualitative case study was based on four semi-structured interviews and secondary data from the case company official site. The interview data was collected between March and April 2015 from case company employees who directly work in the department of exporting and product development. The method of thematic analysis was used to categorize and interpret the collected data. What was conclusively discovered, was that the knowledge from an exporting market can be an incentive for product innovation, especially an incremental one. Foreign customers and competitors as important sources for new knowledge contribute to the innovative process. Foreign market competitors’ influence on product improvements was high only when the competitor was a market leader or held a colossal market share, while the customers’ influence is always high. Therefore, involving a foreign customer in the development of a new product is vital to a company that is interested in benefiting from what is learned through exporting. The interactive framework, which is based on the theoretical background and findings of the study, suggests that exporting companies can raise their product innovativeness by utilizing newly gained knowledge from exporting markets. Except for input, in the form of sources of learning, and product innovation as an output, the framework contains a process of knowledge transfer, the absorptive capacity of a firm and a new product development process. In addition, the framework and the findings enhance the understanding of the disputed relationship between an exporting experience and product innovation. However, future research is needed in order to fully understand all the elements of the framework, such as the absorptive capacity of a firm as well as more case companies to be processed in order to increase the generalization of the framework

Vuotovesien merkitys jätevesihuollossa

Yleisimmät viemäröintijärjestelmät ovat erillisviemäröinti ja sekaviemäröinti. Erillisviemä-röinnissä jäte- ja hulevedet johdetaan omissa verkostoissa. Sekaviemäröinnissä kaikki viemä-röitävät vedet virtaavat samassa verkostossa. Vuotoveden osuus jätevesiviemäriverkostossa virtaavasta jätevedestä on keskimäärin yli 30 prosenttia. Vuotovesiselvityksen avulla pyritään selvittämään vuotoveden esiintymisalueet ja mahdolliset vuotokohteet. Mallintamalla laadittu selvitys tarjoaa mahdollisuuden tarkastella verkostoa kokonaisuutena ja erilaisissa käyttötilan-teissa. Tämä työ perustuu Joensuun kantakaupungin viemäriverkostosta mallintamalla laadit-tuun vuotovesiselvitykseen. Työssä on tarkoitus selvittää vuotovesistä aiheutuvan lisäener-giantarpeen ja kasvihuonekaasupäästöjen kasvua sekä pohtia verkoston omistussuhteiden, sään ääri-ilmiöiden ja taajuusmuuttajien vaikutuksia vuotovesien hallintaan. Lisäksi selvitetään voidaanko tuloksista tehdä valtakunnallisia yleistyksiä. Joensuun viemäriverkostossa jätevesien pumppaukseen käytetystä energiasta noin 43 prosent-tia kuluu vuotovesien pumppaukseen. Siitä aiheutuu vuosittain 480 MWh:n lisäenergiantarve, joka johtaa 106 tonnin hiilidioksidipäästöihin. Lisäenergiantarpeesta aiheutuva hiilidioksidi-päästö on pieni liikenteen aiheuttamaan päästöön verrattuna. Saneerauksilla voidaan saavuttaa 60 prosentin vähennys vuotovesimäärään. Tavoitteeksi tulisi asettaa keskusta-alueella olevien sekaviemäreiden korvaaminen erillisviemäreillä esimerkiksi lähimmän 10 vuoden aikana ja vuotovesimäärän yleinen vähentäminen koko verkoston alueella. Ilmastonmuutoksen myötä yleistyvät rankkasateet lisäävät vuotovesimäärää etenkin sekaviemäröidyillä alueilla. Tämä korostaa sekaviemäröidyn verkoston korjaustoimenpiteiden tärkeyttä. Taajuusmuuttajien yleistyvä käyttö tasaa haitallisia virtaamapiikkejä. Optimaaliseksi säädetty pyörimisnopeus pienentää merkittävästi pumppujen energiankulutusta. Työstä saadut tulokset ovat valtakun-nallisella tasolla suuntaa antavia. Tarkemmat yleistykset vaativat useista erikokoisista verkos-toista tehtyjen vuotovesiselvitystulosten analysointia.

Using stimulus equivalence to teach monetary skills to school-age children with autism

The present study evaluated the use of stimulus equivalence in teaching monetary skills to school aged children with autism. An AB within-subject design with periodic probes was used. At pretest, three participants demonstrated relation DA, an auditory-visual relation (matching dictated coin values to printed coin prices). Using a three-choice match-to-sample procedure, with a multi-component intervention package, these participants were taught two trained relations, BA (matching coins to printed prices) and CA (matching coin combinations to printed prices). Two participants achieved positive tests of equivalence, and the third participant demonstrated emergent performances with a symmetric and transitive relation. In addition, two participants were able to show generalization of learned skills with a parent, in a second naturalistic setting. The present research replicates and extends the results of previous studies by demonstrating that stimulus equivalence can be used to teach an adaptive skill to children with autism.

The effects of computer assisted interactive fiction on the development of reading comprehension in grade five students

This study was undertaken in order to determine the effects of playing computer based text adventure games on the reading comprehension gains of students. Forty-five grade five students from one elementary school were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups, and were tested with regard to ability, achievement and reading skills. An experimental treatment, consisting of playing computer based interactive fiction games of the student's choice for fifteen minutes each day over an eight-week period, was administered. A comparison treatment engaged the control group in sustained silent reading of materials of the student's choice for an equal period of time. Following the experimental period all students were post-tested with an alternate form of the pre-test in reading skills, and gain scores were analysed. It was found that there were no significant differences in the gain scores of the experimental and control groups for overall reading comprehenSion, but the experimental group showed greater gains than the control group in the structural analysis reading sub-skill. Extreme variance in the data made generalization very difficult, but the findings indicated a potential for computer based interactive fiction as a useful tool for developing reading sl

A sequential analysis of therapist scaffolding and child concept formation in narrative therapy

Narrative therapy is a postmodern therapy that takes the position that people create self-narratives to make sense of their experiences. To date, narrative therapy has compiled virtually no quantitative and very little qualitative research, leaving gaps in almost all areas of process and outcome. White (2006a), one of the therapy's founders, has recently utilized Vygotsky's (1934/1987) theories of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) and concept formation to describe the process of change in narrative therapy with children. In collaboration with the child client, the narrative therapist formalizes therapeutic concepts and submits them to increasing levels of generalization to create a ZPD. This study sought to determine whether the child's development proceeds through the stages of concept formation over the course of a session, and whether therapists' utterances scaffold this movement. A sequential analysis was used due to its unique ability to measure dynamic processes in social interactions. Stages of concept formation and scaffolding were coded over time. A hierarchical log-linear analysis was performed on the sequential data to develop a model of therapist scaffolding and child concept development. This was intended to determine what patterns occur and whether the stated intent of narrative therapy matches its actual process. In accordance with narrative therapy theory, the log-linear analysis produced a final model with interactions between therapist and child utterances, and between both therapist and child utterances and time. Specifically, the child and youth participants in therapy tended to respond to therapist scaffolding at the corresponding level of concept formation. Both children and youth and therapists also tended to move away from earlier and toward later stages of White's scaffolding conversations map as the therapy session advanced. These findings provide support for White's contention that narrative therapists promote child development by scaffolding child concept formation in therapy.

A Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm with Side Effect Machines for Motif Discovery

Understanding the machinery of gene regulation to control gene expression has been one of the main focuses of bioinformaticians for years. We use a multi-objective genetic algorithm to evolve a specialized version of side effect machines for degenerate motif discovery. We compare some suggested objectives for the motifs they find, test different multi-objective scoring schemes and probabilistic models for the background sequence models and report our results on a synthetic dataset and some biological benchmarking suites. We conclude with a comparison of our algorithm with some widely used motif discovery algorithms in the literature and suggest future directions for research in this area.

Detectives and Superheroes: A Pilot Study Teaching Flexible Thinking in Social Situations to a Child with High Functioning Autism

Complex social-cognitive deficits are common in individuals diagnosed with high functioning autism and Asperger syndrome. Research on effective and evidence-based social interventions is needed for this population. This study focused specifically on the challenges these individuals face with respect to flexible thinking and related flexible behaviour in social situations. Madrigal and Winner's (2008) Superflex curriculum - targets social flexibility, however at the time of this study no published research had been conducted to determine the effectiveness of this approach. This study was a pilot study, which sought to examine the impact of the Superflex curriculum within a 10-week training program in teaching one individual with high functioning autism how to think and behave flexibly in social situations. Multiple measurement tools were utilized, and analyses within and across the measures revealed inconsistencies, especially with respect to generalization. Although preliminary, this study provided valuable information for subsequent research.

The Family Game: A Parent Education Intervention to Increase Positive Parent-Child Interactions in Parents with Learning Difficulties

Children of parents with learning difficulties (LD) are at risk for a variety of developmental problems including behavioural and psychiatric disorders. However, there are no empirically supported programs to prevent behavioural and psychiatric problems in these children. The purpose of the study was to test the effectiveness of a parenting intervention designed to teach parents with learning difficulties positive child behaviour management strategies. A multiple baseline across skills design was used with two parents, who were taught three skills: 1) clear instructions, 2) recognition of compliance and 3) correction of noncompliance. Training scores improved on each skill and maintained at a 1-month follow-up. Scores on generalization cards were high and showed maintenance, but improvements in parenting skills in the naturalistic environment were low at posttest and follow-up. Increases were seen in child compliance at posttest and 1-month follow-up. Results of pre-post social validity measures were also generally positive.

Network Similarity Measures and Automatic Construction of Graph Models using Genetic Programming

A complex network is an abstract representation of an intricate system of interrelated elements where the patterns of connection hold significant meaning. One particular complex network is a social network whereby the vertices represent people and edges denote their daily interactions. Understanding social network dynamics can be vital to the mitigation of disease spread as these networks model the interactions, and thus avenues of spread, between individuals. To better understand complex networks, algorithms which generate graphs exhibiting observed properties of real-world networks, known as graph models, are often constructed. While various efforts to aid with the construction of graph models have been proposed using statistical and probabilistic methods, genetic programming (GP) has only recently been considered. However, determining that a graph model of a complex network accurately describes the target network(s) is not a trivial task as the graph models are often stochastic in nature and the notion of similarity is dependent upon the expected behavior of the network. This thesis examines a number of well-known network properties to determine which measures best allowed networks generated by different graph models, and thus the models themselves, to be distinguished. A proposed meta-analysis procedure was used to demonstrate how these network measures interact when used together as classifiers to determine network, and thus model, (dis)similarity. The analytical results form the basis of the fitness evaluation for a GP system used to automatically construct graph models for complex networks. The GP-based automatic inference system was used to reproduce existing, well-known graph models as well as a real-world network. Results indicated that the automatically inferred models exemplified functional similarity when compared to their respective target networks. This approach also showed promise when used to infer a model for a mammalian brain network.

Prime Rational Functions and Integral Polynomials

Let f(x) be a complex rational function. In this work, we study conditions under which f(x) cannot be written as the composition of two rational functions which are not units under the operation of function composition. In this case, we say that f(x) is prime. We give sufficient conditions for complex rational functions to be prime in terms of their degrees and their critical values, and we derive some conditions for the case of complex polynomials. We consider also the divisibility of integral polynomials, and we present a generalization of a theorem of Nieto. We show that if f(x) and g(x) are integral polynomials such that the content of g divides the content of f and g(n) divides f(n) for an integer n whose absolute value is larger than a certain bound, then g(x) divides f(x) in Z[x]. In addition, given an integral polynomial f(x), we provide a method to determine if f is irreducible over Z, and if not, find one of its divisors in Z[x].

An Abstract Algebraic Theory of L-Fuzzy Relations for Relational Databases

Classical relational databases lack proper ways to manage certain real-world situations including imprecise or uncertain data. Fuzzy databases overcome this limitation by allowing each entry in the table to be a fuzzy set where each element of the corresponding domain is assigned a membership degree from the real interval [0…1]. But this fuzzy mechanism becomes inappropriate in modelling scenarios where data might be incomparable. Therefore, we become interested in further generalization of fuzzy database into L-fuzzy database. In such a database, the characteristic function for a fuzzy set maps to an arbitrary complete Brouwerian lattice L. From the query language perspectives, the language of fuzzy database, FSQL extends the regular Structured Query Language (SQL) by adding fuzzy specific constructions. In addition to that, L-fuzzy query language LFSQL introduces appropriate linguistic operations to define and manipulate inexact data in an L-fuzzy database. This research mainly focuses on defining the semantics of LFSQL. However, it requires an abstract algebraic theory which can be used to prove all the properties of, and operations on, L-fuzzy relations. In our study, we show that the theory of arrow categories forms a suitable framework for that. Therefore, we define the semantics of LFSQL in the abstract notion of an arrow category. In addition, we implement the operations of L-fuzzy relations in Haskell and develop a parser that translates algebraic expressions into our implementation.

Non-Deteriorating Choice

We analyze an alternative to the standard rationalizability requirement for observed choices by considering non-deteriorating selections. A selection function is a generalization of a choice function where selected alternatives may depend on a reference (or status quo) alternative in addition to the set of feasible options. A selection function is non-deteriorating if there exists an ordering over the universal set of alternatives such that the selected alternatives are at least as good as the reference option. We characterize non-deteriorating selection functions in an abstract framework and in an economic environment.