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Forestry is a hazardous industry globally. Physical conditions, legal frameworks and cultural norms can vary from country to country leading to different approaches to site safety management. There are international, national and regional legislation and guidelines which outline normative approaches land managers can utilise to protect forestry machine operators and the public from accident or injury. In this study, the approaches the health and safety management in forestry operations are assessed in two countries within the European Union –Scotland (as part of the UK member state) and Finland. While both countries practice sustainable forest management, it is shown that this is carried out under different legal frameworks leading to differences in approach to site safety planning. Other factors are shown to have an effect including cultural factors and land ownership patterns.

Tutkielmassani analysoin kirja-arvosteluita ja niissä esiintyvää arviointia. Tarkoituksena on näyttää, mistä osista internetissä julkaistavat kirja-arvostelut koostuvat eli minkälaiset piirteet ovat tyypillisiä kirja-arvosteluista koostuvalle genrelle sekä ammattikriitikoiden että harrastelijoiden keskuudessa. Tämän lisäksi vertailen ammattikriitikoiden ja harrastelijakriitikoiden kielen käyttöä. Tutkimuksen teoria perustuu genreanalyysiin, erityisesti Paltridgen (1995) esittämään analyysimalliin, ja kielessä esiintyvän evaluaation analyysi keskittyy kirja-arvosteluissa käytettävään vertailuun, subjektiivisuuteen sekä kirjoja arvottaviin ilmaisuihin (Thompson & Hunston: 2000). Tutkimuksen materiaali koostuu ammattikriitikoiden ja harrastelijakriitikoiden kirja-arvosteluista. Ammattikriitikoiden kirja-arvostelut kerättiin kahden sanomalehden The New York Timesin ja The Guardianin verkkosivuilta, kun taas Goodreads ja LibraryThing toimivat harrastelija kirja-arvosteluiden lähteinä. Yhteensä materiaali sisältää kaksitoista ammattikriitikoiden ja 48 harrastelijoiden kirja-arvostelua. Harrastelijoiden arvosteluja on käytettävässä materiaalissa enemmän, koska niiden välillä on enemmän eroja ja ne ovat lyhyempiä verrattuna ammattikriitikoiden kirja-arvosteluihin. Analyysin perusteella kirja-arvostelut muodostuvat kahdesta tärkeästä osasta. Ne sisältävät kirjaa kuvailevan osan, johon sisältyy esimerkiksi juonen ja kirjailijan esittely, ja kirjaa arvioivan osan, johon kuuluu esimerkiksi kirjoitustyylin tai hahmojen arvostelua. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat myös, että ammattikriitikoiden ja harrastelija-arvostelujen väliltä löytyy niitä erottavia piirteitä. Osa harrastelijoiden kirja-arvosteluista ei sisällä kirjaa kuvailevia osia, vaan ne koostuvat ainoastaan kirjaa arvioivista osista. Ammattikriitikoiden kirja-arvosteluissa taas on enemmän kirjailijoita koskevaa informaatiota ja muutenkin enemmän kirjojen sisältöihin liittyvää tietoa. Ammattikriitikoiden arvosteluista löytyy myös enemmän vertailevaa kieltä harrastelijoihin verrattuna. Kirjojen positiivisia ja negatiivisia piirteitä tuodaan esiin esimerkiksi vertaamalla niitä toisiin teoksiin. Ammattiarvostelijoihin verrattuna, harrastelijat puolestaan ovat subjektiivisempia kirjoja arvioidessaan. He käyttivät esimerkiksi enemmän minä-pronominia kertoessaan, mitä he tunsivat kirjaa lukiessaan ja mitä he pitivät kirjasta.

The thesis is a comparative study of capital systems and protection of creditors. This comparative study was conducted on legal systems of two Member States of the European Union – the Slovak Republic and Finland. Difference between the capital system of these two countries is so extensive, that it makes a perfect ground for comparative problem oriented study of creditor protection. My goal was not to analyse the capital doctrine under the Capital Directive as (i) the minimum legal capital rules are negligible if we are taking into consideration substantial companies, (ii) if the company falls into insolvency the minimum legal capital will definitely not fulfil the claims of creditors and (iii) this legal capital is not locked on a separate bank account as it is possible to use it for the business after incorporation of the company. Thus, my analysis was focusing on the structure of capital systems of these two countries – the Slovak Republic having the traditional capital system with nominal value of shares and Finland, which introduced a capital system with shares without nominal value in 2006. Finnish reform of company law in 2006 circumvented the traditional capital system with shares with nominal value, as the legislator used the concept of accountable par under Article 8 of the Capital Directive in a unique way. This reform restructured the concept of capital system in Europe with a direct impact on the level of creditor protection. Hypothesis of the study was formulated as following: Capital system with shares without nominal value that allows flexible allocation of equity and distribution, and efficiently maintains the solvency of the company is the key element of the creditor protection as it mitigates the conflict of interests between shareholders (by allocating the equity flexibly) and creditors (by keeping the company solvent). These are the following research questions, which were discussed in the thesis: (i) Why do creditors need to be protected?, (ii) How can creditors be harmed by shareholders?, (iii) What kind of protection is provided to creditors through different capital systems?, (iv) Is there any correlation between capital systems and level of creditor protection? Thesis consists of eight chapters. Chapter 1 is an introduction to the thesis, which stipulates the topic and the research questions of the thesis. Moreover, this chapter deals with the scope of the thesis, theoretical framework, methodology of the thesis and importance of the research. Chapter 2 of the thesis elaborates the research question “Why should corporate law deal with creditor protection?” This chapter elaborates the specificities of the agency problem between creditors and shareholders. Moreover, this chapter analyses the reduction of agency problems via covenants and especially imperfections and drawbacks of covenants. Chapter 3 of the thesis deals with the capital systems in the European Union under the Capital Directive. This chapter elaborates the issue of capital system on these two main notions: price of shares and equity. These notions are analysed under the light of concepts of restricted and unrestricted equity in both of the capital systems – capital system with nominal value of shares and capital systems with shares without nominal value. Chapter 4 of the thesis deals with the regulation of the legal capital, especially formation of legal capital and minimum amount of capital. This chapter serves as a quick excursus into the main concepts of legal capital doctrine under the Capital Directive. Chapter 5 of the thesis analyses the distribution of assets from the company. It focuses mainly on the mechanisms of distribution of restricted and unrestricted equity under the both capital systems. Moreover, this chapter deals with a disguised distribution of assets, which is harmful for creditor. Chapter 6 examines the rules regulating the maintenance of the capital, especially the balance sheet test and solvency test. Additionally, rules on specific protection of creditors, when restricted equity is distributed, are examined as well as actions in a serious loss of capital. Chapter 7 elaborates the unlawful distribution of assets and its consequences. This chapter focuses on the liability issues in connection with unlawful distribution of assets from the company. Liability concepts are crucial for well functioning creditor protection within the capital system. Chapter 8 stipulates conclusions of the conducted research. First of all, the main outcome of my research is that the unique application of the accountable par concept under the FLLCA offers a flexible allocation of equity. Secondly, distribution of assets from the company is connected under the FLLCA with solvency test. This test secures the basic interest of creditors – keeping the company solvent. Moreover, this test is directly linked to strong liability consequences, which makes it an effective tool. Thirdly, due to flexible allocation of equity (which favours the shareholders) and keeping the company solvent (which favours the creditors) agency problem between shareholders and creditors is effectively mitigated.

This thesis compares the extent to which instruction and assessment in the Finnish National Curriculum (FNC) and International Baccalaureate (IB) at one Finnish high school align with the pedagogical approach to language instruction recommended in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR; Council of Europe 2001, 2018). Comparison of the two curricula will be used to inform curriculum development at the school, where the aim is to combine pre–Diploma Program (DP)—i.e., instruction of first-year students who have been provisionally accepted to the DP program—and FNC instruction in the first year of high school. Action-oriented language is envisioned in CEFR as a pedagogical approach that (1) treats language as a tool rather than an object for mastery and (2) recommends the instruction, assessment, and learning of the broad range of social contexts in which communication occurs. The first point draws largely on Focus on Form (FonF) approaches, developed in SLA research, while the second point draws largely on task-based language teaching (TBLT), developed in pedagogical research. While CEFR is regularly used today for benchmarking student language mastery, its uneven application in curriculum, course instruction, and course and exam assessment in the IB and FNC leave much to be desired, calling into question whether CEFR benchmarking can really be used for EFL students graduating from the IB and FNC. This thesis uses a school in Espoo, Finland as a case study to compare the IB and FNC instruction of first-year students, the assessment practices of EFL teachers based on the marking of a common essay and a subsequent interview, and quantitative analysis of IB and FNC exam results and essay scores for first-year pre-DP and FNC students in academic year 2019–2020. The mixed methods research (MMR) approach of the thesis is designed to account for the broad set of data (i.e., curriculum, European language policy, academic literature, local needs) that are taken into consideration when developing curriculum at the school level. The results of this thesis indicate that FNC assessment is more closely aligned with CEFR but that both FNC and IB in Finland, especially pre-DP education, are still lagging behind in implementing the framework developed already two decades ago. At least some of this lag, as indicated in the qualitative data, seem to originate from the continuation of outdated practices of language assessment (esp. in its focus on language mastery rather than action-oriented language use) regardless of changes in CEFR and the Finnish curriculum. In the case of assessment in FNC, the mixed use of continuum criterion-referenced assessment of written production in an exam designed for mastery norm-referenced assessment is an already imperfect combination that is further undermined by lack of transparency around how to apply criterion-referenced assessment to written production as well as how essays marked by teachers have been moderated by sensors. While the IB is much better at enabling communication between moderators and teachers, EFL instruction in the IB offers a very limited set of communicative language activities, partly due to the broad language profile of students in the international program. For the purposes of students in Finland, however, especially at the school studied, EFL instruction in IB omits an alarmingly wide range of communicative activities in course and exam assessment, an absence that should threaten to invalidate CEFR benchmarking of students graduating from EFL courses, given that most communicative language activities are never taught or assessed. Many of the issues that arise in this thesis are indicative of systematic issues in the curriculum and examination process, which have a negative washback effect on instruction and assessment at the school level. Nevertheless, some suggestions are made at the end of the thesis for how teachers can mitigate problems with validity in the FNC and IB curricula, though changes in FNC assessment is difficult without transparency from the Finnish Matriculation Board. The results of the thesis also indicate that areas of action-oriented language missing in one curriculum are often well explored in the other, such that serious consideration should be given to closer alignment of pre-DP and first-year FNC English instruction at Finnish schools that offer both programs, an effort towards which this master’s thesis is intended to contribute. The comparative weaknesses of EFL instruction and assessment in FNC discussed in this thesis can also be used to inform curricular development of the FNC.

With the increased usage of machine learning models in various tasks and domains, the demand of understanding the models is emphasized. However, often modern machine learning models are difficult to understand and therefore do not provoke trust. Models can be understood by revealing their inner logic with explanations, but explanations can be difficult to interpret for non-expert users. We introduce an interactive visual interface to help non-expert users to understand and compare machine learning models. The interface visualizes explanations for multiple models in order to help the user to understand how the models generate predictions and whether the predictions can be trusted. We also explore current research in explainable AI visualizations, in order to compare our prototype to comparable systems present in research. The contributions of this paper are a system description and a use case for an interactive visualization interface to compare and explain machine learning models, as well as providing an understanding of the current state of research in explainable AI visualization systems and recommendations for future studies. We conclude that our system enables efficient visualizations for regression models unlike the papers covered in our survey. Another conclusion is that the field lacks precise terminology.

Agriculture is emitting ~6.2 Gt CO2-Eq. annually, which accounts for ~12 % of the total annual net anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally. Agriculture emits N2O and CH4, and it is responsible globally for ~79% of N2O emissions and ~40% CH4 emissions. These emissions are vital since N2O and CH4 are 273- and 27-times greater GHG than CO2, respectively. There are many different food production systems developed to reduce these emissions. One of the most promising systems is agroforestry. Agroforestry is a complex system where trees and/or shrubs are interacting with crops and/or animals. Agroforestry is an old practice which can provide plenty of advantages, e.g., increased yields, increased biodiversity, and increased carbon sequestration. Therefore, the interest towards it has been increasing in the last decades. In this master’s thesis the different maize production systems in Zambia were studied. The comparison was conducted between low-input maize monoculture where only external input was maize seed for sowing; high-input maize monoculture where mineral fertilizers and seeds for sowing were used; and maize-Faidherbia albida agroforestry system where only external input was maize seed for sowing. The goal of this master’s thesis was to find out, which production system is having the lowest climate change potential in the Central Province of Zambia. To conduct this study, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) -method was used. Two cases were used in LCA, i.e., Case 1 with functional unit (FU) of 1000 kg d.m. maize grain, and Case 2 with FU of 3 ha maize field. Also, four sensitivity analyses were conducted. The result from this study indicates that agroforestry system had the lowest climate change potential in both cases, and in most of the sensitivity analyses. Only exception was found in the sensitivity analysis where above-ground biomass of F. albida was substituting hydropower. In this sensitivity analysis the monoculture without external inputs had the lowest climate change potential. Since the food production in Zambia must increase in the future to reduce the hunger, the high-input system or agroforestry system are more favourable options as they produce higher crop yields. When taking the climate change potential into account, according to the results of this thesis, the agroforestry system provides more benefits. The results of this thesis can provide new knowledge which could be used in the future decision-making processes. Yet, in the future studies, more complex agroforestry systems with more sustainability pillars should be considered to provide improved information for decision-making.

Through the lens of race, otherness, and belonging this research investigates how Muslim Americans are represented in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal between January 2016 and January 2017. By employing content analysis, this research analyzes and compares different tones, frames, messages, and topics used by these two newspapers to create a better understanding of the representation Muslim Americans receive. Through these methods, my research found that there is little difference in the representation of Muslim Americans between two publications with differing political tendencies. Further, the representations given to Muslim Americans in both publications are highly negative with a focus on terrorism and U.S. politics.

Suomesta tavataan kaksi majavalajia: alkuperäinen euroopanmajava (Castor fiber) ja vieraslaji amerikanmajava (Castor canadensis). Euroopanmajava metsästettiin sukupuuttoon 1800–luvulla ja viimeinen euroopanmajava ammuttiin tiettävästi Sallan Eniönjoesta vuonna 1868. Vuonna 1935 aloitettiin majavien uudelleenistutukset 17 Norjasta tuodulla euroopanmajavalla. Vuonna 1937 Suomen majavakantaa vahvistettiin seitsemällä Amerikasta tuodulla amerikanmajavalla. Tahallisesta vieraslajin tuomisesta ei kuitenkaan ollut kyse, vaan vasta vuonna 1973 todettiin Castor-suvun koostuvan kahdesta eri lajista. Alueilla, joille istutettiin molempia lajeja, on jäljellä ainoastaan amerikanmajava. Syyt ovat edelleen epäselviä. Molempien lajien kannat ovat edelleen keskittyneet alkuperäisten istutusalueiden läheisyyteen, ja amerikanmajavakanta on muutamia poikkeuksia lukuun ottamatta saanut kasvaa ilman euroopanmajavan kilpailun vaikutusta. Jos lajien elinympäristövaatimukset ovat samat, eivät lajit voi esiintyä rinnakkain. Näin ollen on tärkeää tuntea molempien lajien elinympäristön käyttö mahdollisemman tarkkaan aluekohtaisesti ja ennakoida, johtaako majavalajien kohtaaminen kahden lajin rauhaisaan yhteiseloon vai mahdollisesti euroopanmajavan häviämiseen läntisestä Suomesta. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli vertailla lajien elinympäristön vaatimuksia ja sitä kautta tuoda lisätietoa euroopanmajavan suojeluun. Tutkimusalueeksi valikoitui keskinen Pirkanmaan alue, missä lajien välinen etäisyys on ainoastaan 11 kilometriä linnuntietä. Aineisto koostuu vuoden 2013 Luonnonvarakeskuksen koordinoimista valtakunnallisten majavalaskentojen pesätiedoista sekä erilaisista paikkatietoaineistoista. Elinympäristönkäytön mallin muuttujat on tuotettu CORINE Land Cover 2012 (CLC2012), vuoden 2011 Valtakunnallisen Metsien Inventoinnin (VMI) ja Maanmittauslaitoksen maastotietokannan digitaalisiin paikkatietoaineistojen avulla. Alueelle luotiin 60 satunnaispistettä, jotka kuvaavat tarjolla olevaa elinympäristöä. Lajien elinympäristöjen käyttöä analysoitiin kahden logistisen regressioanalyysimallin avulla, joista ensimmäisessä tarkastellaan ydinaluetta (50m) ja toisessa elinpiiriä (1km). Analyyseissä verrattiin lajeja keskenään sekä satunnaispisteisiin. Ennen regressioanalyysejä tarkasteltiin muuttujien kolineaarisuutta Variance Inflation Factor:in (VIF) avulla, jonka jälkeen tarkasteltiin aineiston yhteensopivuuttaa mallin kanssa Akaiken informaatiokriteerin (AIC) avulla. Pienin AIC ilmaisee parhaan mallin korkeimman selitysasteen ja mallin yksinkertaisuuden (parsimonisuuden) kompromissina. Ydinalueella ei havaittu merkitseviä eroja elinympäristön vaatimuksissa lajien välillä. Majavien elinympäristönkäyttö ei kuitenkaan ollut satunnaista. Kuusen tilavuudella oli positiivinen vaikutus euroopanmajavan esiintymiseen ja lehtipuiden tilavuudella oli positiivinen vaikutus amerikanmajavan esiintymiseen verrattuna tarjolla olevaan ympäristöön. Elinpiirianalyyseissä lajien välillä havaittiin merkitseviä eroja, joissa euroopanmajava esiintyi alueilla, missä kuusen tilavuus ja sekametsän osuus oli suurempi verrattuna amerikanmajavan elinpiiriin. Kasvavalla kuusen tilavuudella, sekametsän osuudella sekä vesistöjen määrällä oli positiivinen vaikutus euroopanmajavan esiintymiseen ja rakennetuilla alueilla negatiivinen vaikutus euroopanmajavan esiintymiseen verrattaessa tarjolla olevaan ympäristöön. Amerikanmajavan elinympäristön käyttö ei poikennut satunnaisesta. Tulokset saattavat heijastaa rantavyöhykkeen metsäsukkession eri vaiheita, mutta on huomattava, että lajien välillä oli merkittäviä eroja. Elinympäristön muuttujat selittivät huomattavasti enemmän euroopanmajavan esiintymistä alueella verrattuna amerikanmajavaan. Toisin sanoen euroopanmajavan elinympäristön vaatimukset ovat spesifimmät/tarkemmat/ominaisemmat. Tulosten avulla on mahdollista ennustaa niin amerikanmajavan leviämistä alueella kuin hyödyntää tietoja euroopanmajavalle tärkeiden elinympäristöjen suojelussa.

The use of virtual reality learning environments is rapidly expanding in various disciplines. However, there are only a few comparative studies in education. This thesis explores the effectiveness of a virtual reality (VR) and a physical learning environment on students’ learning outcomes and motivation by comparing the virtual reality and the physical learning environment during one day of studies. The participants were fourth-year mechanical engineering bachelor students (N = 14) at a university of applied sciences in Finland. The intervention was implemented as part of the course module, where students learned the structure and the functioning of the harvester head engine, which was part of a logging machine. A quasi-experimental design was set up, and in the morning, one-half of the students started their studies in virtual reality and the other half in the physical learning environment. In the afternoon, student groups switched learning environments. Motivation and learning outcomes were measured by pre-test and post-test questionnaires. Additionally, students’ learning outcomes were measured by completed study tasks during the interventions and by observing. The teacher assessed the data related to learning as grades. The one-way repeated-measures ANOVA was conducted to analyse the effectiveness of the learning environments on motivation and learning outcomes. The development of learning outcomes was statistically significant (p < .00) in both learning environments during the morning and the afternoon. No difference was observed between the learning outcomes gained in the two learning environments. There was an interaction (p < .01) between intrinsic motivation and learning environments in the morning. While in the afternoon, intrinsic motivation developed positively (p < .01) in both environments. The results suggest that studying in two different learning environments maintains interest and helps to achieve significant learning outcomes during the one-day studies. When studying began in a physical learning environment, intrinsic motivation developed positively throughout the day.

While the effects of agricultural land use on biodiversity are beginning to unravel in Europe and North America, Africa remains poorly studied. Biodiversity in a broad sense provides ecosystem functioning and services, whose importance has become obvious to humankind in the quickly changing modern world. In Ghana, the practice of mango farming continues to grow in popularity due to suitable climate and potential source of livelihood. With increased demand and production of mango, natural habitats, namely savannahs, are being converted to plantations. The effects of such habitat conversion on local biodiversity are unknown for most taxa, thus providing an interesting study system for biodiversity research. Given the direct relation between functional diversity and ecosystem services, in this work I compare the taxonomic and functional diversity of ground-living spiders between mango orchards and savannah. I chose spiders (Arthropoda; Araneae) as model organisms as they critically contribute to several ecosystem services, such as biological pest control and nitrogen cycling, while being ubiquitous and abundant, thus easy to collect in the field. Spiders were captured with pitfall traps from six mango and four savannah areas in the Northern region of Ghana. A total of 424 individuals and 53 (morpho)species were identified and counted. Additionally, six morphological and four ecological traits were quantified for each (morpho)species. With these data, I calculated taxonomic richness and evenness, functional richness, dispersion, and evenness, and beta diversity of the different assemblages in the R environment. These metrics were then compared between spiders collected from mango orchards and savannah. Mango orchards showed lower taxonomic and functional evenness than savannah, contrary to all other alpha diversity measures. The two habitat types share many of the same diversity of ground-living spiders, but species and traits are distributed less evenly in mango orchards due to incomplete niche differentiation between species. Both taxonomic and functional beta diversity were significantly different between habitat types indicating that mango orchards sustain a similar richness of species as savannah, but the species composition is different. In conclusion, mango orchards have the potential to conserve some aspects of the original diversity, but species composition and the way species interact are substantially different. We should strive to find the best practices to produce mango without radically changing the natural biodiversity patterns.