Defensive Metabolites from Antarctic Invertebrates: Does Energetic Content Interfere with Feeding Repellence?

Many bioactive products from benthic invertebrates mediating ecological interactions have proved to reduce predation, but their mechanisms of action, and their molecular identities, are usually unknown. It was suggested, yet scarcely investigated, that nutritional quality interferes with defensive metabolites. This means that antifeedants would be less effective when combined with energetically rich prey, and that higher amounts of defensive compounds would be needed for predator avoidance. We evaluated the effects of five types of repellents obtained from Antarctic invertebrates, in combination with diets of different energetic values. The compounds came from soft corals, ascidians and hexactinellid sponges; they included wax esters, alkaloids, a meroterpenoid, a steroid, and the recently described organic acid, glassponsine. Feeding repellency was tested through preference assays by preparing diets (alginate pearls) combining different energetic content and inorganic material. Experimental diets contained various concentrations of each repellent product, and were offered along with control compound-free pearls, to the Antarctic omnivore amphipod Cheirimedon femoratus. Meridianin alkaloids were the most active repellents, and wax esters were the least active when combined with foods of distinct energetic content. Our data show that levels of repellency vary for each compound, and that they perform differently when mixed with distinct assay foods. The natural products that interacted the most with energetic content were those occurring in nature at higher concentrations. The bioactivity of the remaining metabolites tested was found to depend on a threshold concentration, enough to elicit feeding repellence, independently from nutritional quality.

Content and Language Integration as a part of a degree reform at Tampere University of Technology

Tampere University of Technology is undergoing a degree reform that started in 2013. One of the major changes in the reform was the integration of compulsory Finnish, Swedish and English language courses to substance courses at the bachelor level. The integration of content and language courses aims at higher quality language learning, more fluency in studies, and increased motivation toward language studies. In addition, integration is an opportunity to optimize the use of resources and to offer courses that are more tailored to the students' field of study and to the skills needed in working life. The reform also aims to increase and develop co-operation between different departments at the university and to develop scientific follow up. This paper gives an overview of the integration process conducted at TUT and gives examples of adjunct CLIL implementations in three different languages.

English as a medium of instruction in teaching other languages: attitudes and practices

Internationalisation of HE and emergence of English as a global academic lingua franca used by people who share neither a common native tongue nor cultural and educational background have not only offered more opportunities but also raised challenges. According to recent European surveys, the percentage of pupils attaining the level of independent user in English varies from 14% to 82%, which evidences the potential and the complexity for English as a medium of instruction at tertiary level. This study aims to present the model of foreign language instruction at Vytautas Magnus University where one third of 30 languages are taught through English. It investigates the attitudes and practices of teachers in delivering their English-medium language courses by discussing the questions whether teaching other languages through English is psychologically, culturally and educationally preferable for teachers and students, whether it can limit the content taught and require a special methodology, how the teaching process changes with multiple languages used in the classroom and what level of English is necessary for teachers and students to ensure high quality of English-medium language teaching. The study is based on qualitative methodology with 12 language teachers participating as respondents. The results reveal areas in need of improvement.

Variations of plasmid content in Rickettsia felis.

BACKGROUND: Since its first detection, characterization of R. felis has been a matter of debate, mostly due to the contamination of an initial R. felis culture by R. typhi. However, the first stable culture of R. felis allowed its precise phenotypic and genotypic characterization, and demonstrated that this species belonged to the spotted fever group rickettsiae. Later, its genome sequence revealed the presence of two forms of the same plasmid, physically confirmed by biological data. In a recent article, Gillespie et al. (PLoS One. 2007;2(3):e266.) used a bioinformatic approach to refute the presence of the second plasmid form, and proposed the creation of a specific phylogenetic group for R. felis. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In the present report, we, and five independent international laboratories confirmed unambiguously by PCR the presence of two plasmid forms in R. felis strain URRWXCal(2) (T), but observed that the plasmid content of this species, from none to 2 plasmid forms, may depend on the culture passage history of the studied strain. We also demonstrated that R. felis does not cultivate in Vero cells at 37 degrees C but generates plaques at 30 degrees C. Finally, using a phylogenetic study based on 667 concatenated core genes, we demonstrated the position of R. felis within the spotted fever group. SIGNIFICANCE: We demonstrated that R. felis, which unambiguously belongs to the spotted fever group rickettsiae, may contain up to two plasmid forms but this plasmid content is unstable.

User-Centered Design Gymkhana

The User-centered design (UCD) Gymkhana is a tool for human-computer interaction practitioners to demonstrate through a game the key user-centered design methods and how they interrelate in the design process.The target audiences are other organizational departments unfamiliar with UCD but whose work is related to the definition, cretaion, and update of a product service.

User Centered Desing in E-Learning Environments : from Usability to Learner Experience

The advent of the Internet had a great impact on distance education and rapidly e-learning has become a killer application. Education institutions worldwide are taking advantage of the available technology in order to facilitate education to a growing audience. Everyday, more and more people use e-learning systems, environments and contents for both training and learning. E-learning promotes educationamong people that due to different reasons could not have access to education: people who could nottravel, people with very little free time, or withdisabilities, etc. As e-learning systems grow and more people are accessing them, it is necessary to consider when designing virtual environments the diverse needs and characteristics that different users have. This allows building systems that people can use easily, efficiently and effectively, where the learning process leads to a good user experience and becomes a good learning experience.

Capturing user behavior in e-learning environments

Peer-reviewed

Metadata for describing learning scenarios under European Higher Education Area paradigm

In this paper we identify the requirements for creating formal descriptions of learning scenarios designed under the European HigherEducation Area paradigm, using competences and learning activities as the basic pieces of the learning process, instead of contents and learning resources, pursuing personalization. Classical arrangements of content based courses are no longer enough to describe all the richness of this new learning process, where user profiles, competences and complex hierarchical itineraries need to be properly combined. We study the intersection with the current IMS Learning Design specification and theadditional metadata required for describing such learning scenarios. This new approach involves the use of case based learning and collaborativelearning in order to acquire and develop competences, following adaptive learning paths in two structured levels.

Security and Privacy in a Ubiquitous Information Screen

We expose the ubiquitous interaction between an information screen and its’ viewers mobile devices, highlights the communication vulnerabilities, suggest mitigation strategies and finally implement these strategies to secure the communication. The screen infers information preferences’ of viewers within its vicinity transparently from their mobile devices over Bluetooth. Backend processing then retrieves up-to-date versions of preferred information from content providers. Retrieved content such as sporting news, weather forecasts, advertisements, stock markets and aviation schedules, are systematically displayed on the screen. To maximise users’ benefit, experience and acceptance, the service is provided with no user interaction at the screen and securely upholding preferences privacy and viewers anonymity. Compelled by the personal nature of mobile devices, their contents privacy, preferences confidentiality, and vulnerabilities imposed by screen, the service’s security is fortified. Fortification is predominantly through efficient cryptographic algorithms inspired by elliptic curves cryptosystems, access control and anonymity mechanisms. These mechanisms are demonstrated to attain set objectives within reasonable performance.

Threat Simulation- The Function of Dreaming?

Dreaming is a pure form of phenomenality, created by the brain untouched by external stimulation or behavioral activity, yet including a full range of phenomenal contents. Thus, it has been suggested that the dreaming brain could be used as a model system in a biological research program on consciousness (Revonsuo, 2006). In the present thesis, the philosophical view of biological realism is accepted, and thus, dreaming is considered as a natural biological phenomenon, explainable in naturalistic terms. The major theoretical contribution of the present thesis is that it explores dreaming from a multidisciplinary perspective, integrating information from various fields of science, such as dream research, consciousness research, evolutionary psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. Further, it places dreaming into a multilevel framework, and investigates the constitutive, etiological, and contextual explanations for dreaming. Currently, the only theory offering a full multilevel explanation for dreaming, that is, a theory including constitutive, etiological, and contextual level explanations, is the Threat Simulation Theory (TST) (Revonsuo, 2000a; 2000b). The empirical significance of the present thesis lies in the tests conducted to test this specific theory put forth to explain the form, content, and biological function of dreaming. The first step in the empirical testing of the TST was to define exact criteria for what is a ‘threatening event’ in dreams, and then to develop a detailed and reliable content analysis scale with which it is possible to empirically explore and quantify threatening events in dreams. The second step was to seek answers to the following questions derived from the TST: How frequent threatening events are in dreams? What kind of qualities these events have? How threatening events in dreams relate to the most recently encoded or the most salient memory traces of threatening events experienced in waking life? What are the effects of exposure to severe waking life threat on dreams? The results reveal that threatening events are relatively frequent in dreams, and that the simulated threats are realistic. The most common threats include aggression, are targeted mainly against the dream self, and include simulations of relevant and appropriate defensive actions. Further, real threat experiences activate the threat simulation system in a unique manner, and dream content is modulated by the activation of long term episodic memory traces with highest negative saliency. To sum up, most of the predictions of the TST tested in this thesis received considerable support. The TST presents a strong argument that explains the specific design of dreams as threat simulations. The TST also offers a plausible explanation for why dreaming would have been selected for: because dreaming interacted with the environment in such a way that enhanced fitness of ancestral humans. By referring to a single threat simulation mechanism it furthermore manages to explain a wide variety of dream content data that already exists in the literature, and to predict the overall statistical patterns of threat content in different samples of dreams. The TST and the empirical tests conducted to test the theory are a prime example of what a multidisciplinary approach to mental phenomena can accomplish. Thus far, dreaming seems to have always resided in the periphery of science, never regarded worth to be studied by the mainstream. Nevertheless, when brought to the spotlight, the study of dreaming can greatly benefit from ideas in diverse branches of science. Vice versa, knowledge learned from the study of dreaming can be applied in various disciplines. The main contribution of the present thesis lies in putting dreaming back where it belongs, that is, into the spotlight in the cross-road of various disciplines.

Mikrokontrolleriohjaus led-ryhmälle

Luonnonvarojen ehtyminen ja ympäristön saastuminen on luonut kysyntää uusille, energiaa säästäville ja ympäristöystävällisille teknologioille. Valaistuksessa tällainen teknologia on led-tekniikka. Led-tekniikalla on useita etuja verrattuna kilpaileviin tekniikoihin kuten pitkä elinikä, ympäristöystävällisyys ja mekaaninen kestävyys. Ledejä käytetään nykyään laajalti erilaisissa erikoissovelluksissa, erityisesti jos vaatimuksena on valon värillisyys. Näihin päiviin asti ledien hinta ja heikko valontuotto ovat rajoittaneet led-valaisimien yleistymistä hehkulamppujen ja muiden valaisintyyppien korvaajina. Tekniikan nopea kehittyminen on tehnyt led-tekniikasta varteenotettavan vaihtoehdon myös yleisvalaistukseen. Uusimpien valkoisten ledien valotehokkuus on 2 - 5 -kertainen hehkulamppuun verrattuna. Led-tekniikassa on vielä paljon käyttämätöntä potentiaalia, tulevaisuudessa päästäneen 10 - 15 -kertaiseen valotehokkuuteen hehkulamppuun verrattuna. Työssä suunnitellaan mikrokontrolleripohjainen ohjausjärjestelmä valkoista valoa tuottavalle led-valaisimelle, jonka värisävyä ja kirkkautta käyttäjä voi säätää. Valkoinen valo synnytetään sekoittamalla neljän erivärisen led-rivin valoa. Mikrokontrolleri ohjaa kutakin led-riviä väriensekoitusteoriaan perustuen. Mikrokontrolleriohjaus huomioi myös ledien optisten ominaisuuksien muutokset lämpötilan suhteen. Mikrokontrolleriohjauksen suorituskyky todetaan käytännön mittauksilla.

Kolmen vapausasteen akseliston ohjaaminen mikroprosessorilla

Diplomityön tavoitteena on tehdä lasertyöasemalle liikkuva kolmen vapausasteen akselisto liikuttamaan laser-laitteiston skanneripäätä. Liikkeen tarkkuus ja tarkka toistettavuus ovat tärkeitä. Moottoreiden liikkeen nopeus sekä kiihdytys- ja jarrutusparametrien täytyy olla määriteltävissä jokaiselle moottorille erikseen. Kolmen vapausasteen akselisto muodostetaan käyttäen kolmea askelmoottoria ja lineaarivaihteistoa. Akselisto liikkuu vaaka-, pysty-, ja syvyyssuunnassa. Työssä kehitetään C-kielinen ohjelma käytettävälle prosessorille ja suunnitellaan ohjainkortti lopullista prototyyppiä varten. Moottoreiden ohjaus ja hallinta toteutetaan AT91S256-prosessorilla, jota ohjataan tietokoneen avulla RS-232 -väylää käyttäen. Vaatimuksena on myös mahdollisuus ohjata askelmoottorin sijasta servomoottoreita samalla ohjelmalla. Tietokoneen käyttöliittymä suunnitellaan erikseen.