Tartu Research Articles

Mining Educational Data to Predict Students' Performance through Procrastination Behavior.

A significant amount of research has indicated that students’ procrastination tendencies are an important factor influencing the performance of students in online learning. It is, therefore, vital for educators to be aware of the presence of such behavior trends as students with lower procrastination tendencies usually achieve better than those with higher procrastination. In the present study, we propose a novel algorithm—using student’s assignment submission behavior—to predict the performance of students with learning difficulties through procrastination behavior (called PPP). Unlike many existing works, PPP not only considers late or non-submissions, but also investigates students’ behavioral patterns before the due date of assignments. PPP firstly builds feature vectors representing the submission behavior of students for each assignment, then applies a clustering method to the feature vectors for labelling students as a procrastinator, procrastination candidate, or non-procrastinator, and finally employs and compares several classification methods to best classify students. To evaluate the effectiveness of PPP, we use a course including 242 students from the University of Tartu in Estonia. The results reveal that PPP could successfully predict students’ performance through their procrastination behaviors with an accuracy of 96%. Linear support vector machine appears to be the best classifier among others in terms of continuous features, and neural network in categorical features, where categorical features tend to perform slightly better than continuous. Finally, we found that the predictive power of all classification methods is lowered by an increment in class numbers formed by clustering.

Rebenenud linn. II maailmasõja linnamaastikud Bernard Kangro Tartu-tsükli kolmes viimases romaanis / A Ruptured City: Cityscapes of World War II in the Second Trilogy of Bernard Kangro’s Tartu Cycle

Rebenenud linn. II maailmasõja linnamaastikud Bernard Kangro Tartu-tsükli kolmes viimases romaanis / A Ruptured City: Cityscapes of World War II in the Second Trilogy of Bernard Kangro’s Tartu Cycle

Evaluation of Physical Fitness, Body Composition, and Adherence to Mediterranean Diet in Adolescents from Estonia: The AdolesHealth Study.

Unhealthy lifestyles, low levels of physical fitness, and adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD) are associated with bad quality of life and the development of a wide range of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The current study aimed to evaluate the level of adherence to the MD in physical fitness performance and body composition parameters in children and adolescents of Estonia. Therefore, 413 adolescents (56% boys) from the city of Tartu completed the Mediterranean Diet Questionnaire (KIDMED) for analyzing the adherence to MD and performed the Alpha Fitness Test for measuring physical fitness and body composition. A 41.67% of low, 44.05% of average, and 14.28% of high adherence to MD was detected, without difference between genders (p = 0.747). In the Alpha Fitness battery, a higher performance was observed in all tests for boys vs. girls (p < 0.05). In relation to body composition, higher height, weight, and waist values were observed in boys (p < 0.05) and a lower body fat percentage (p < 0.01) without differences in body mass index (BMI; p = 0.906). The adherence to the MD is classified as average/low. Gender significantly influences all variables of the Alpha Fitness battery and anthropometrics measures excepting BMI. According the levels of adherence to the MD, no statistically different prevalence was observed for Non-Overweight (N-Oweight), Non-Overfat (N-Ofat), or Non-Overwaist (N-Owaist). Still, a risk factor for Overweight (Oweight) in boys with low adherence was observed in comparison to those with a mid-level of adherence to the MD.

TALENT RETENTION, ATTRACTION AND THE REQUIRED FUTURE SKILLS FOR EMPLOYEES IN WINNING CITIES IN RURAL REGIONS

TALENT RETENTION, ATTRACTION AND THE REQUIRED FUTURE SKILLS FOR EMPLOYEES IN WINNING CITIES IN RURAL REGIONS

The prevalence of primary headache disorders in the adult population of Estonia

To estimate the one-year prevalence of primary headaches, most importantly migraine and tension type headache, but also other primary headaches, in Estonia. A population-based random sample of 2162 subjects in Tartu City and Tartu County were interviewed by telephone or face to face using a previously validated questionnaire. Of the 2162 contacted participants, 1215 (56%) fully completed the study. Of these, 502 (41.3%) reported headache during the previous year. The prevalences adjusted by weighting by age, gender, education, marital status and habitat were the following: All headaches 41.0%, all migraine 17.7%, all tension-type headache 18.0%, trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias 0.4%, other primary headaches 2.5%, and chronic headaches 2.7%. The 1-year prevalences of primary headache disorders in Estonia are comparable to the previous findings in other European countries.

When did the tribute of Dorpat appear?

When did the tribute of Dorpat appear?

Avangard: a forward-looking kolkhoz is seen as part of the past

Äksi is a small settlement near Tartu in Estonia. The typical Soviet era blocks of flats overlook Lake Saadjärv and the view is met on the other side by large open fields. Back in the Soviet time it was a kolkhoz known as “Avangard” (or “avant-garde”). The name, of course, symbolised the forward-looking new Estonian Soviet state and its accompanying modernisation of the rural landscape. Today the layers of history in the settlement and the landscape around it are visible in the white brick houses built in the early days of the kolkhoz and in the favoured choice of trees planted in the same period but now all grownup. Some of those houses are not in such a great shape anymore, some continue to be used in a similar way they used to be, after the end of the kolkhoz. For example, the workshop building now hosts a company that makes dolls and the piggery has survived despite the change of owners. There are many stories to be shared by those who were part of it all. To gather those memories, and to understand how the starting of new lives for young adults of that time, interviews were carried out using the go-along technique, where the interviewed subject can recall the memories in greater detail, as they walk down the same streets as some decades ago. Although the landscape has visually changed and over two decades have passed since the ending of the Soviet regime, the mind map in peoples’ heads remains vivid. The interviews revealed particular places, views, activities and memories of young adults who came here to start their independent lives, to build a future for them and for the kolkhoz at the same time at the peak of the Soviet era.

One-year longitudinal study found a bidirectional relationship between physical activity and sleep disturbance in teenage Estonian girls.

Studies have shown that physical activity (PA) declines during adolescence, especially among girls. We examined the relationship between changes in PA and sleep disturbance over the school year, including any bidirectional relationship between these two factors. This longitudinal study focused on teenage girls who had a mean age of 13.2 ± 0.2 years at baseline and were drawn from five randomly selected schools in the city of Tartu, Estonia. Sleep disturbance and PA were subjectively assessed using the self-reported 3-Day Physical Activity Recall and the Insomnia Severity Index, at four intervals throughout the school year. Latent growth curve analyses were used to evaluate longitudinal and bidirectional associations between PA and sleep disturbance. Assessments were carried out at three-monthly intervals from September 2015 to June 2016. Sleep disturbance increased and PA decreased over the school year. At baseline, higher PA was related to lower sleep disturbance. Changes in PA corresponded with changes in sleep disturbance. A negative bidirectional relationship between sleep disturbance and PA over time was also found. These results suggest that increasing PA may be an effective strategy for improving the quality of sleep in girls during early adolescence.

Moonakast kodanlaseks, kodanlasest terroristiks: Hans Heidemann ja tema tegevus 1920. aastate alguse Eesti pahempoolses poliitikas [Abstract: From farm hand to bourgeois, from bourgeois to terrorist: Hans Heidemann and his activity in Estonian left-wing politics in the early 1920s

The ideologised treatment of history in the Soviet period celebrated communists who had perished or been executed in the interwar Republic of Estonia as martyrs. They fit in to the narrative of class struggle and its victims. Monuments were erected in their memory and memorial articles appeared in the press on anniversaries of their birth. One such communist featured during the Soviet period was Hans Heidemann (1896–1925), a trade unionist and member of the parliament of the Republic of Estonia, and also an underground Estonian Communist Party activist. He was arrested as one of the ringleaders in the attempt to overthrow the government on 1 December 1924 and executed in 1925 as a spy for Soviet Russia by decision of a military district court.&#x0D; This article relies primarily on archival materials from the Estonian National Archives. It is an attempt to write a political biography of Hans Heidemann that for the first time aims to more closely examine the course of the life of this individual who has been ideologised many times over. His room for manoeuvring and his possible influences in the space in which he operated are reconstructed. The article examines how this man of modest background but with a relatively good education, a veteran of the Estonian War of Independence who served as a staff clerk, became an activist in the trade union movement, a communist, and eventually an organiser of a coup d’état. It also considers why Heidemann was the only one at the subsequent major trial of communists in 1925 to be sentenced to death.&#x0D; An important context for Heidemann’s rise in politics is the struggle for control in the trade unions that took place in the early 1920s among Estonia’s left-wing parties. While the communists dominated the trade unions of industrial workers in the cities, they had to compete with social democrats and independent socialists for control in unions of rural workers. Southern Estonia and the City of Tartu formed a more problematic operating region than the average district, as in 1920–21 the Security Police had liquidated many large communist networks there. Heidemann was a member of the Party of Independent Socialists but when in 1922 the party was taken over by its communist-oriented left wing, he started gravitating towards the underground communists. At that time, the communists needed able organisers in order to regain their positions in Southern Estonia and it seems that they pinned their hopes on Heidemann. In 1922 Heidemann rose to leading positions in the trade union organisations of both Tartu County and the City of Tartu, and also became one of the leaders of the left wing of the Party of Independent Socialists. It is not clear, however, whether Heidemann had officially joined the Estonian Communist Party, or functioned as its legal operative.&#x0D; In January of 1924, when the Security Police arrested many trade union leaders and political activists associated with the communists, Heidemann went underground. Over the next eight months, he attempted to obtain weapons for overthrowing the government and to form combat squads mainly on the basis of youth organisations. He was unable to participate in the attempted communist coup d’état on 1 December since he had been arrested two months earlier in Tartu. But his trial was held under changed conditions after the failed coup. By that time, the Protection of the System of Government Act had been passed and the communists had been expelled from parliament. Even though Heidemann had been charged with working as a leader of the local organisation of the underground Communist Party and forming combat squads for the planned coup, he was sentenced to death and executed on the grounds of the charge for which there was least evidence. According to this charge, he had allegedly gathered military information for the Soviet Union as a soldier in the War of Independence six years earlier. Different sources suggest that this charge was questionable and unconvincing. It seems that there was a wish to convict Heidemann as the head of the regional communist organisation no matter what, and to punish him as harshly as the actual participants in the failed coup were punished, which the other counts of indictment did not allow.

Training research-minded social workers: experience from Estonia

ABSTRACTSocial work education in its modern sense started to develop after Estonia regained independence from the collapsing Soviet Union. The aim of this article is to introduce good practices of teaching research-mindedness, this being one of the main principles in teaching social workers-to-be in the University of Tartu in Estonia. We have been inspired by the academic tradition of university teaching in general, the new international definition of social work and, not least, the realisation of social workers in practice of not being able to apply academic knowledge to everyday social work practices. This article revisits the term research-mindedness and examines how it has been integrated into the university level teaching process. Our purpose is to discuss the methods students of bachelor’s and master’s programmes can learn to ‘translate’ social issues into research questions, critically appraise the findings and ‘translate’ them back as new research evidence for social work practice.

The utilisation potential of urban greening waste: Tartu case study

In light of climate change and the increasingly limited availability of energy resources, any form of renewable raw materials that can be used for energy production should be accounted for. One of the most promising renewable sources is considered to be that of lignocellulosic feedstock. In urban forestry and greening, millions of tons of lignocellulosic waste is produced every year but that biomass mostly goes unused. The aim of this research project was to investigate the utilisation potential of this very form of waste biomass using a medium-sized town as a sample for the work (Tartu in Estonia, with a population circa 100,000). Woody and non-woody vegetation representing greening waste from different seasons was investigated: spring and autumn leaves, and mixed waste from urban greening which contained grass, twigs, and leaves. BMP assays were conducted to estimate the biogas production potential and the three step bio-ethanol production process was used to estimate the bio-ethanol production potential. In the bio-ethanol production process, an N2 explosion pre-treatment was used, followed by enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation. Map analysis was used to assess the area that was manageable by urban forestry and greening in the city of Tartu in order to estimate the amount of greening and forestry waste that was available for bioconversion and the volumes of biofuel that could be produced.

Tartu ülikool kui eestlaste mälupaik [The University of Tartu as a memory site for Estonians

Tartu ülikool kui eestlaste mälupaik [The University of Tartu as a memory site for Estonians

Textualities of the city – from the legibility of urban space towards social and natural others in planning

‘Text’ has been a frequent notion in analytical conceptualizations of landscape and the city. It is mostly found in analyses of textual representations or suggestions concerning a metaphor of “reading” an (urban) landscape. In the Tartu- Moscow School of Semiotics the idea of the text of St. Petersburg has also been applied in analysing particular cities as organizing topics in literature and in culture more widely, but it has not happened to an equal degree in studies of actual urban spaces. The understanding of text as a semiotic system and mechanism is, however, more promising than revealed by these conceptions. Some potential can be made apparent by relating this textual paradigm to a more pragmatic understanding of the city and its planning. My project in this paper is to uncover an analytical framework focusing on the concepts of ‘text’, ‘textualization’ and ‘texting’ in studying the planning of urban environment. The paper observes the case of the urban planning process of the Tartu city centre in Estonia during 2010–2016, and is particularly concerned with the roles that urban nature has acquired in the process of this “textualization” of the local environment, societal ideals, practices and possible others.

Urban Structure, Energy and Planning: Findings from Three Cities in Sweden, Finland and Estonia

Transforming energy use in cities to address the threats of climate change and resource scarcity is a major challenge in urban development. This study takes stock of the state of energy in urban policy and planning and reveals potentials of and constraints to energy-efficient urban development. The relationship between energy and urban structure provides a framework for discussing the role of urban planning to increase energy efficiency in cities by means of three in-depth case studies of medium-sized cities in Northern Europe: Eskilstuna in Sweden, Turku in Finland and Tartu in Estonia. In some ways these cities go ahead when it comes to their national climate and energy policies and aim to establish urban planning as an instrument to regulate and influence the city’s transition in a sustainable way. At the same time, the cities are constantly facing goal conflicts and limitations to their scope of action, which creates dilemmas in their strategic orientation and planning activities (e.g. regional enlargement and increased commuting vs. compact urban development). Finally, considering urban form and spatial structure along with the policy context as well as regional drivers and functional relations is suggested as a suitable approach for addressing the challenges of energy-efficient urban development.

Accuracy of Orthomosaic Generated by Different Methods in Example of UAV Platform MUST Q

Development of photogrammetry has reached a new level due to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). In Estonia, the main areas of use of UAVs are monitoring overhead power lines for energy companies and fields in agriculture, and estimating the use of stockpile in mining. The project was carried out by the order of the City of Tartu for future road construction. In this research, automation of UAV platform MUST Q aerial image processing and reduction of time spent on the use of ground control points (GCP) is studied. For that two projects were created with software Pix4D. First one was processed automatically without GCP. Second one did use GCP, but all the processing was done automatically.As the result of the project, two orthomosaics with the pixel size of 5 cm were composed. Projects allowed ensuring accuracy limit of three times of the pixel size. The project that turned out to be the most accurate was the one using ground control points to do the levelling, which remained within the error limit allowed and the accuracy of the orthomosaic was 0.132 m. The project that didn't use ground control points had the accuracy of 1.417 m.

Perceived restoration scale method turned into (used as the) evaluation tool for parks and open green spaces, using Tartu city parks as an example

Estonian parks are well known for their history and dendrology. Usually, city maps show no nuances of the green areas, they could be for example abandoned areas, parks, green squares, usable/non-usable areas for the community. In this study ALL 92 parks and urban open green spaces (UGS) of the Estonian city Tartu are explored using a PRS method tool for evaluating open green spaces. Due to the densification of cities, which is also a current issue in Estonia, it is important to provide a variety of knowledge of UGS to support the everyday life of city dwellers. We know a lot about the connections between nature and human well-being, but how do we really evaluate the greenery? Tartu’s parks and UGS were analysed by an expert in the summer of 2013, by using the Perceived Restorative Scale (PRS) through tools like Being away, Fascination, Coherence, Compatibility. PRS method is used to evaluate the green areas along these lines: 0-do not exist, 1-low existence, 2 – medium existence, 3-high existence. The study includes 92 UGS, of which 24 are located in the city center, 11 in Tähtvere borough, 8 in Ihaste and Annelinn, 3 in Jaamamõisa, 2 in Ropka and Ropka industry division and 1 in Veeriku, Vaksali area and in Supilinn. There were no UGS in Ränilinn. Description of green spaces is based on detailed level of item question correlation results and CAD MAPS are created by average results of one subscale question (described in detail on method part). The main results are as follows: Item of Fascination ‘This place has fascinating qualities’ and item of Being away ‘Being here is like an escape experience’ correlate (r = 0.760, p < 0.05) in areas BS, AM, AK, CO, CL, CP, CN, O, BJ, AR, AE, BÕ (See Figure 1. Item of Fascination ’My attention is drawn to many interesting things’ correlate with items of Being away ‘Being here is like an escape’ (r = 0.689, p < 0.05) and ‘This place makes it possible for me to rest from daily routine’(r = 0.771, p < 0.05). Both correlations were highly esteemed in areas BS, AÜ, AK, CL, CP, CO, O, CN, AR, BÕ (See Figure 1/Group III.) The outcome: A CAD-file showing where the different qualities are located in the city. Based on the results the authors can confirm that such UGSs as the Toome Hill and Kassitoome Park can be considered the model parks of the city of Tartu.

What attracts people to inner city areas? The cases of two post-socialist cities in Estonia and the Czech Republic

Since the 1990s the inner city residential areas of CEE post-socialist cities have experienced substantial physical and social transformation. Previous studies have recorded a gradual rehabilitation of inner city housing stock and the displacement of lower status groups by middle and higher social status residents, but they have also shown that diverse social groups continue to live in the inner city. The scholarly emphasis on identifying the macro-scale factors that influence inner city change has resulted in a lack of studies considering micro-scale processes. We therefore herein attempt to address this gap in the literature by providing qualitative insight into the drivers of inner city dynamics at the level of the individual actors concerned. Our study is based on an investigation of two second-tier cities: Tartu in Estonia and České Budějovice in the Czech Republic. We found that, besides supply side factors which emphasise the conditions of urban spatial fabric, relocations to inner cities can best be explained by a combination of household socio-economic, life course and lifestyle factors. We also provide a typology of relocators to post-socialist inner cities, based on our findings.

Preferences Toward Neighbor Ethnicity and Affluence: Evidence from an Inherited Dual Ethnic Context in Post-Soviet Tartu, Estonia

In the post-Soviet era, cities in Central and Eastern Europe inherited a rather undifferentiated sociospatial urban landscape that contrasts with the highly segregated cities in Western Europe and North America. In the Soviet era, ethnic segregation emerged as migrants were prioritized in public housing allocation. The dissolution of the Soviet Union, however, changed the economic and political position of those in-migrants. This study explores how inherited segregation patterns have evolved in the city of Tartu, Estonia. We use data from (1) 1998, 2008, and 2013 municipal surveys about stated preferences with regard to residential settings for the two main ethno-linguistic groups in Estonia (the Estonian majority and the mainly Russian-speaking minority population), and (2) the 2000 and 2011 national census that allows us to track changes in actual segregation patterns. We study two dimensions of preferences and segregation—ethnicity and neighbor affluence—and apply bivariate probit regression for the analysis of stated preferences. We detect a stronger preference among the majority population to live in its own language environment compared to minorities. Minority avoidance attitudes were strongest immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union and restoration of Estonia's statehood; by the end of the 2000s the preferences of the two groups toward neighbor ethnicity converged. Members of the majority population, however, prefer affluent environments more than minorities do. Despite converging preferences, the actual levels of segregation have increased in Tartu. This suggests that socioeconomic differences drive patterns of ethnic segregation even when preferences with regard to ethnicity have become more tolerant.

New Estonian records and amendments: Lichenized and lichenicolous fungi

Two species of lichenized fungi, Rhizocarpon ferax and Umbilicaria hirsuta , and one species of lichenicolous fungi, Opegrapha physciaria , are reported as new for Estonia. Another very rare species, Parmelia submontana , is additionally recorded. Cited specimens are kept in the lichenological herbarium of the Natural History Museum, University of Tartu (TU) or in the lichen herbarium of the Euroacademy (ICEB).

ESTONIA AND THE CLASSICS

Earlier this year I received an official invitation to give lectures during May in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Tartu in Estonia. I was most fortunate to have Mike Truu (an Estonian by birth) as my guide and interpreter during my two-week stay in Estonia.