Successful deployment of carbon nanomaterials in many applications, such as sensing, energy storage, and catalysis, relies on the selection, synthesis, and tailoring of the surface properties. ...Predictive analysis of the behavior is difficult without detailed knowledge of the differences between various carbon nanomaterials and their surface functionalization, thus leaving the selection process to traditional trial-and-error work. The present characterization fills this knowledge gap for carbon nanomaterial surface properties with respect to chemical states and functionalization. We present an overview of the chemical trends that can be extracted from soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) spectra on an extended set of nonideal carbon nanomaterials as a function of sp2 bonded carbon and bond ordering. In particular, the surface chemical state, the presence of long-range order in the carbon matrix, and a qualitative estimation of the amount of oxygen and nitrogen and their respective functional group formation on the material surface, together with the detailed material fabrication parameters, are reported. The results expand our understanding of carbon nanomaterial functionalization, which can support material selection in practice, provided that the specifications of the application are known.
Persons with intellectual disabilities benefit from participating in the modern information society, especially the World Wide Web, social media and Internet-mediated communication services. Although ...several computer-based prototypes and commercial systems have been introduced for accessible in-person communication, currently few applications and services exist to support synchronous remote communication for this user group. We introduce SymbolChat, a software platform that supports the creation of multimodal communication applications utilizing picture-based instant messaging. End users and their support personnel can customize the input and output features of the application based on their individual needs and abilities. The interaction is based on touchscreen input and speech output using speech synthesis technology. The SymbolChat platform was developed together with the prospective end users and practitioners in the field of special needs care.
We evaluated the prototype application in a field study with nine users with varying degrees of intellectual and other disabilities. The results clearly indicate that the participants were able to express themselves in spontaneous communication using a large-scale picture-based vocabulary (around 2000 symbols) even without prior training in the use of symbols. This finding was supported in the constructive feedback gathered from professionals working in the area. We also successfully applied methodology from other settings, such as child-computer interaction to evaluate interaction in this challenging context.
Overall, the results show that social inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities can be improved with customizable communication tools. The implemented communication platform forms a solid basis for further improvements and new communication services. In addition, we found that users with motor impairments would greatly benefit from alternative input and output methods for symbol browsing and selection.
Nuorisotyön luonteen pohtiminen on alan pysyviä kysymyksiä. Eurooppalaisessa nuorisopolitiikassa nuorisotyön on kuvattu olevan non-formaalia tai arkioppimista. Oppimisen käsite on kiistanalainen ja ...kritisoitukin. Sosiaalipedagogiikassa on tyypillisemmin käytetty kasvatuksen tai sivistyksen käsitteitä nuorisotyöstä puhuttaessa. Empiirisiä tutkimuksia oppimisesta nuorisotyöstä on vain vähän huolimatta käsitteen käytöstä nuorisopolitiikassa. Kysymme artikkelissamme, miten nuorisotyöntekijät käsittelevät oppimisen tavoitteiden asettamista ja miten he kuvaavat oppimista yksilöllisenä ja ryhmätason toimintana. Tutkimusaineisto koostuu Helsingissä vuosina 2019–2020 käytäntöperusteisessa tutkimushankkeessa tuotetun aineiston otoksesta, johon valikoitiin 13 yksilöhaastattelua ja 15 ryhmäkeskustelua. Tulosten mukaan oppimisella nuorisotyössä on joukko tavoitteita, jotka useimmiten on asetettu väljästi ja joita ei aina aukaista osallistujille. Lisäksi nuorisotyön prosessi tuottaa tuloksia, jotka eivät ehkä näy osallistujille ja jotka eivät perustu ennalta-asetettuihin tavoitteisiin. Nuorisotyöntekijät korostavat, että nuori on myös oppiessaan jonkin yhteisön tai ryhmän jäsen. Näiltä osin nuorisotyötä voidaan hahmottaa sosiaalipedagogisena toimintana, jossa tavoitteena on, että jokainen pääsee liittymään vuorovaikutuksellisiin suhteisiin ja voi kiinnittyä hyvinvointinsa kannalta olennaisiin toimintaympäristöihin.
In this paper, we describe our all-titanium microelectrode array (tMEA) fabrication process and show that uncoated titanium microelectrodes are fully applicable to measuring field potentials (FPs) ...from neurons and cardiomyocytes. Many novel research questions require custom designed microelectrode configurations different from the few commercially available ones. As several different configurations may be needed especially in a prototyping phase, considerable time and cost savings in MEA fabrication can be achieved by omitting the additional low impedance microelectrode coating, usually made of titanium nitride (TiN) or platinum black, and have a simplified and easily processable MEA structure instead. Noise, impedance, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) characterization were performed to our uncoated titanium microelectrodes and commercial TiN coated microelectrodes and were supplemented by FP measurements from neurons and cardiomyocytes on both platforms. Despite the increased noise levels compared to commercial MEAs our tMEAs produced good FP measurements from neurons and cardiomyocytes. Thus, tMEAs offer a cost effective platform to develop custom designed electrode configurations and more complex monitoring environments.
We introduce a multimodal picture-based communication platform for users with intellectual disabilities, and results from our user evaluation carried out with the target user group representatives ...and their assistants. Our current prototype is based on touchscreen input and symbol and text-to-speech output, but supports also mouse and keyboard interaction. The prototype was evaluated in a field study with the help of nine users with varying degrees of intellectual and motor disabilities. Based on our findings, the picture-based approach and our application, SymbolChat, show great potential in providing a tool for users with intellectual disabilities to communicate with other people over the Internet, even without prior knowledge of symbols. The findings highlighted a number of potential improvements to the system, including providing even more input methods for users with physical disabilities, and functionality to support the development of younger users, who are still learning vocabulary and developing their abilities.
Product lines should be based on the business reality in the selected market segments. Since the success of the product line is determined by the success of the resulting products, it is essential to ...guarantee that the key requirements of each identified market segment are satisfied. A critical issue for any company pursuing product line development is the competitiveness of their products against products from other manufacturers. The competitiveness can be realized by carefully managing the differentiating requirements during the initial analysis of the product line requirements. For industrial scale product lines, the number of initial requirements can be large, seriously hindering the analysis. In this paper, we first discuss the economic foundation of differentiating requirements. Then we show how to identify the key requirements for a product line and in which way we can reduce the set of requirements that needs to be discussed during the analysis. Finally, we demonstrate our approach with a worked example where we analyze the key requirements in terms of differentiation among the products.
Evaluating the multidimensional and dynamic nature of IT business value is a continuous challenge. This paper examines how system dynamics can be used in evaluating IT business value in a company ...level. We approach IT business value as a web of impacts, where benefits and sacrifices are ultimately evaluated against company earnings logic. This study is based on an action research and covers a pilot project within two co-operating companies. System dynamics was utilised to construct a value creation model for an existing Gaming Management System. This value creation modelling covered two dimensions: 1) structural evaluation of IT impacts with cause-and-effect models, 2) dynamic evaluation and simulation of value realisation over time. As a result, value creation modelling was able to provide a visual overview of how IT impacts were linked to business value through value paths, and how much and when value was realised. Value creation modelling enabled prototyping of value realisation that can provide value based insights for development activities like requirements elicitation and analysis. The examined approach proved its potential for providing a common language for technology and business parties, thus improving IT business alignment.
Usability and requirements engineering both provide means for discovering, analyzing, and fulfilling users' needs. In practice, it is difficult to manage and control user-centered design and system ...development processes separately. Based on a case study conducted in two software product companies, we have aimed to understand the role of usability specialists in the requirements engineering (RE) process. Our findings indicate that usability is still often seen as user interface design instead of a more comprehensive characteristic of a software product. Therefore, usability specialists had difficulties participating in early RE activities. To integrate usability as a natural part of the RE process, the usability teams have started to organize training in their companies. The main purpose of the training is to ensure that usability is not relying solely on the work of specialists but becomes a common responsibility for the whole product development organization.
Under today's fiercely competitive conditions, companies are seeking new means to develop innovative products that satisfy customer and user needs. In order to understand how requirements engineering ...(RE) can support innovations, we observed RE activities in six Finnish companies. Our observations indicate that RE can play a vital role in the development of innovative products. We identified three main opportunities for innovations: 1) discovering hidden customer and user needs, 2) inventing new product features that satisfy these needs, and 3) supporting feature development with an innovative technical solution. Based on our observations, as well as on existing innovation and business-management literature, we have concluded that RE research can gain significant results by investigating how to discover and model hidden customer and user needs. We believe that this would allow RE to much better support those innovation practices that provide real competitive advantage.
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