Expert Identity in Development of Core-Task-Oriented Working Practices for Mastering Demanding Situations

The point of departure in this dissertation was the practical safety problem of unanticipated, unfamiliar events and unexpected changes in the environment, the demanding situations which the operators should take care of in the complex socio-technical systems. The aim of this thesis was to increase the understanding of demanding situations and of the resources for coping with these situations by presenting a new construct, a conceptual model called Expert Identity (ExId) as a way to open up new solutions to the problem of demanding situations and by testing the model in empirical studies on operator work. The premises of the Core-Task Analysis (CTA) framework were adopted as a starting point: core-task oriented working practices promote the system efficiency (incl. safety, productivity and well-being targets) and that should be supported. The negative effects of stress were summarised and the possible countermeasures related to the operators' personal resources such as experience, expertise, sense of control, conceptions of work and self etc. were considered. ExId was proposed as a way to bring emotional-energetic depth into the work analysis and to supplement CTA-based practical methods to discover development challenges and to contribute to the development of complex socio-technical systems. The potential of ExId to promote understanding of operator work was demonstrated in the context of the six empirical studies on operator work. Each of these studies had its own practical objectives within the corresponding quite broad focuses of the studies. The concluding research questions were: 1) Are the assumptions made in ExId on the basis of the different theories and previous studies supported by the empirical findings? 2) Does the ExId construct promote understanding of the operator work in empirical studies? 3) What are the strengths and weaknesses of the ExId construct? The layers and the assumptions of the development of expert identity appeared to gain evidence. The new conceptual model worked as a part of an analysis of different kinds of data, as a part of different methods used for different purposes, in different work contexts. The results showed that the operators had problems in taking care of the core task resulting from the discrepancy between the demands and resources (either personal or external). The changes of work, the difficulties in reaching the real content of work in the organisation and the limits of the practical means of support had complicated the problem and limited the possibilities of the development actions within the case organisations. Personal resources seemed to be sensitive to the changes, adaptation is taking place, but not deeply or quickly enough. Furthermore, the results showed several characteristics of the studied contexts that complicated the operators' possibilities to grow into or with the demands and to develop practices, expertise and expert identity matching the core task. They were: discontinuation of the work demands, discrepancy between conceptions of work held in the other parts of organisation, visions and the reality faced by the operators, emphasis on the individual efforts and situational solutions. The potential of ExId to open up new paths to solving the problem of the demanding situations and its ability to enable studies on practices in the field was considered in the discussion. The results were interpreted as promising enough to encourage the conduction of further studies on ExId. This dissertation proposes especially contribution to supporting the workers in recognising the changing demands and their possibilities for growing with them when aiming to support human performance in complex socio-technical systems, both in designing the systems and solving the existing problems.

Evaluation of driving ability of the disabled persons in the context of the psychological activity theory

In the future the number of the disabled drivers requiring a special evaluation of their driving ability will increase due to the ageing population, as well as the progress of adaptive technology. This places pressure on the development of the driving evaluation system. Despite quite intensive research there is still no consensus concerning what is the factual situation in a driver evaluation (methodology), which measures should be included in an evaluation (methods), and how an evaluation has to be carried out (practise). In order to find answers to these questions we carried out empirical studies, and simultaneously elaborated upon a conceptual model for driving and a driving evaluation. The findings of empirical studies can be condensed into the following points: 1) A driving ability defined by the on-road driving test is associated with different laboratory measures depending on the study groups. Faults in the laboratory tests predicted faults in the on-road driving test in the novice group, whereas slowness in the laboratory predicted driving faults in the experienced drivers group. 2) The Parkinson study clearly showed that even an experienced clinician cannot reliably accomplish an evaluation of a disabled person’s driving ability without collaboration with other specialists. 3) The main finding of the stroke study was that the use of a multidisciplinary team as a source of information harmonises the specialists’ evaluations. 4) The patient studies demonstrated that the disabled persons themselves, as well as their spouses, are as a rule not reliable evaluators. 5) From the safety point of view, perceptible operations with the control devices are not crucial, but correct mental actions which the driver carries out with the help of the control devices are of greatest importance. 6) Personality factors including higher-order needs and motives, attitudes and a degree of self-awareness, particularly a sense of illness, are decisive when evaluating a disabled person’s driving ability. Personality is also the main source of resources concerning compensations for lower-order physical deficiencies and restrictions. From work with the conceptual model we drew the following methodological conclusions: First, the driver has to be considered as a holistic subject of the activity, as a multilevel hierarchically organised system of an organism, a temperament, an individuality, and a personality where the personality is the leading subsystem from the standpoint of safety. Second, driving as a human form of a sociopractical activity, is also a hierarchically organised dynamic system. Third, in an evaluation of driving ability it is a question of matching these two hierarchically organised structures: a subject of an activity and a proper activity. Fourth, an evaluation has to be person centred but not disease-, function- or method centred. On the basis of our study a multidisciplinary team (practitioner, driving school teacher, psychologist, occupational therapist) is recommended for use in demanding driver evaluations. Primary in a driver’s evaluations is a coherent conceptual model while concrete methods of evaluations may vary. However, the on-road test must always be performed if possible.

Auditory - Visual Matching in Learning Disabilities : Intervention Studies from Finland and Sweden

The present thesis discusses relevant issues in education: 1) learning disabilities including the role of comorbidity in LDs, and 2) the use of research-based interventions. This thesis consists of a series of four studies (three articles), which deepens the knowledge of the field of special education. Intervention studies (N=242) aimed to examine whether training using a nonverbal auditory-visual matching computer program had a remedial effect in different learning disabilities, such as developmental dyslexia, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Specific Language Impairment (SLI). These studies were conducted in both Finland and Sweden. The intervention’s non-verbal character made an international perspective possible. The results of the intervention studies confirmed, that the auditory-visual matching computer program, called Audilex had positive intervention effects. In Study I of children with developmental dyslexia there were also improvements in reading skills, specifically in reading nonsense words and reading speed. These improvements in tasks, which are thought to rely on phonological processing, suggest that such reading difficulties in dyslexia may stem in part from more basic perceptual difficulties, including those required to manage the visual and auditory components of the decoding task. In Study II the intervention had a positive effect on children with dyslexia; older students with dyslexia and surprisingly, students with ADD also benefited from this intervention. In conclusion, the role of comorbidity was apparent. An intervention effect was evident also in students’ school behavior. Study III showed that children with SLI experience difficulties very similar to those of children with dyslexia in auditory-visual matching. Children with language-based learning disabilities, such as dyslexia and SLI benefited from the auditory-visual matching intervention. Also comorbidity was evident among these children; in addition to formal diagnoses, comorbidity was explored with an assessment inventory, which was developed for this thesis. Interestingly, an overview of the data of this thesis shows positive intervention effects in all studies despite learning disability, language, gender or age. These findings have been described by a concept inter-modal transpose. Self-evidently these issues need further studies. In learning disabilities the aim in the future will also be to identify individuals at risk rather than by deficit; this aim can be achieved by using research-based interventions, intensified support in general education and inclusive special education. Keywords: learning disabilities, developmental dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, specific language impairment, language-based learning disabilities, comorbidity, auditory-visual matching, research-based interventions, inter-modal transpose

Efficient Content-based Routing, Mobility-aware Topologies, and Temporal Subspace Matching

Event-based systems are seen as good candidates for supporting distributed applications in dynamic and ubiquitous environments because they support decoupled and asynchronous many-to-many information dissemination. Event systems are widely used, because asynchronous messaging provides a flexible alternative to RPC (Remote Procedure Call). They are typically implemented using an overlay network of routers. A content-based router forwards event messages based on filters that are installed by subscribers and other routers. The filters are organized into a routing table in order to forward incoming events to proper subscribers and neighbouring routers. This thesis addresses the optimization of content-based routing tables organized using the covering relation and presents novel data structures and configurations for improving local and distributed operation. Data structures are needed for organizing filters into a routing table that supports efficient matching and runtime operation. We present novel results on dynamic filter merging and the integration of filter merging with content-based routing tables. In addition, the thesis examines the cost of client mobility using different protocols and routing topologies. We also present a new matching technique called temporal subspace matching. The technique combines two new features. The first feature, temporal operation, supports notifications, or content profiles, that persist in time. The second feature, subspace matching, allows more expressive semantics, because notifications may contain intervals and be defined as subspaces of the content space. We also present an application of temporal subspace matching pertaining to metadata-based continuous collection and object tracking.

A Floor Control Server in a Distributed Conference Service

The conferencing systems in IP Multimedia (IM) networks are going through restructuring, accomplished in the near future. One of the changes introduced is the concept of floors and floor control in its current form with matching entity roles. The Binary Floor Control Protocol (BFCP) is a novelty to be exploited in distributed tightly coupled conferencing services. The protocol defines the floor control server (FCS), which implements floor control giving access to shared resources. As the newest tendency is to distribute the conferencing services, the locations of different functionality units play an important role in developing the standards. The floor control server location is not yet single-mindedly fixed in different standardization bodies, and the debate goes on where to place it within the media server, providing the conferencing service. The thesis main objective is to evaluate two distinctive alternatives in respect the Mp interface protocol between the respective nodes, as the interface in relation to floor control is under standardization work at the moment. The thesis gives a straightforward preamble in IMS network, nodes of interest including floor control server and conferencing. Knowledge on several protocols – BFCP, SDP, SIP and H.248 provides an important background for understanding the functionality changes introduced in the Mp interface and therefore introductions on those protocols and how they are connected to the full picture is given. The actual analysis on the impact of the floor control server into the Mp reference point is concluded in relation to the locations, giving basic flows, requirements analysis including a limited implementation proposal on supporting protocol parameters. The overall conclusion of the thesis is that even if both choices are seemingly useful, not one of the locations is clearly the most suitable in the light of this work. The thesis suggests a solution having both possibilities available to be chosen from in separate circumstances, realized with consistent standardization. It is evident, that if the preliminary assumption for the analysis is kept regarding to only one right place for the floor control server, more work is to be done in connected areas to discover the one most appropriate location.

Essays on corporate governance, stakeholders, and restructuring

This dissertation consists of an introductory section and three theoretical essays analyzing the interaction of corporate governance and restructuring. The essays adopt an incomplete contracts approach and analyze the role of different institutional designs to facilitate the alignment of the objectives of shareholders and management (or employees) over the magnitude of corporate restructuring. The first essay analyzes how a firm's choice of production technology affects the employees' human capital investment. In the essay, the owners of the firm can choose between a specific and a general technology that both require a costly human capital investment by the employees. The specific technology is initially superior in using the human capital of employees but, in contrast to the general technology, it is not compatible with future innovations. As a result, anticipated changes in the specific technology diminish the ex ante incentives of the employees to invest in human capital unless the shareholders grant the employees specific governance mechanisms (a right of veto, severance pay) so as to protect their investments. The results of the first essay indicate that the level of protection that the shareholders are willing to offer falls short of the socially desirable one. Furthermore, when restructuring opportunities become more abundant, it becomes more attractive both socially and from the viewpoint of the shareholders to initially adopt the general technology. The second essay analyzes how the allocation of authority within the firm interacts with the owners' choice of business strategy when the ability of the owners to monitor the project proposals of the management is biased in favor of the status quo strategy. The essay shows that a bias in the monitoring ability will affect not only the allocation of authority within the firm but also the choice of business strategy. Especially, when delegation has positive managerial incentive effects, delegation turns out to be more attractive under the new business strategy because the improved managerial incentives are a way for the owners to compensate their own reduced information gathering ability. This effect, however, simultaneously makes the owners hesitant to switch the strategy since it would involve a more frequent loss of control over the project choice. Consequently, the owners' lack of knowledge of the new business strategy may lead to a suboptimal choice of strategy. The third essay analyzes the implications of CEO succession process for the ideal board structure. In this essay, the presence of the departing CEO on the board facilitates the ability of the board to find a matching successor and to counsel him. However, the ex-CEO's presence may simultaneously also weaken the ability of the board to restructure since the predecessor may use the opportunity to distort the successor's project choice. The results of the essay suggest that the extent of restructuring gains, the firm's ability to hire good outside directors and the importance of board's advisory role affect at which point and for how long the shareholders may want to nominate the predecessor to the board.

Data fusion and matching by maximizing statistical dependencies

The core aim of machine learning is to make a computer program learn from the experience. Learning from data is usually defined as a task of learning regularities or patterns in data in order to extract useful information, or to learn the underlying concept. An important sub-field of machine learning is called multi-view learning where the task is to learn from multiple data sets or views describing the same underlying concept. A typical example of such scenario would be to study a biological concept using several biological measurements like gene expression, protein expression and metabolic profiles, or to classify web pages based on their content and the contents of their hyperlinks. In this thesis, novel problem formulations and methods for multi-view learning are presented. The contributions include a linear data fusion approach during exploratory data analysis, a new measure to evaluate different kinds of representations for textual data, and an extension of multi-view learning for novel scenarios where the correspondence of samples in the different views or data sets is not known in advance. In order to infer the one-to-one correspondence of samples between two views, a novel concept of multi-view matching is proposed. The matching algorithm is completely data-driven and is demonstrated in several applications such as matching of metabolites between humans and mice, and matching of sentences between documents in two languages.

Accumulation of point mutations and reassortment of genomic RNA segments are involved in the microevolution of Puumala hantavirus in a bank vole (Myodes glareolus) population

"The genetic diversity of Puumala hantavirus (PUUV) was studied in a local population of its natural host, the bank vole (Myodes glareolus). The trapping area (2.5x2.5 km) at Konnevesi, Central Finland, included 14 trapping sites, at least 500 m apart; altogether, 147 voles were captured during May and October 2005. Partial sequences of the S, M and L viral genome segments were recovered from 40 animals. Seven, 12 and 17 variants were detected for the S, M and L sequences, respectively; these represent new wild-type PUUV strains that belong to the Finnish genetic lineage. The genetic diversity of PUUV strains from Konnevesi was 0.2-4.9% for the S segment, 0.2-4.8% for the M segment and 0.2-9.7% for the L segment. Most nucleotide substitutions were synonymous and most deduced amino acid substitutions were conservative, probably due to strong stabilizing selection operating at the protein level. Based on both sequence markers and phylogenetic clustering, the S, M and L sequences could be assigned to two groups, 'A' and 'B'. Notably, not all bank voles carried S, M and L sequences belonging to the same group, i.e. SAMALA or SBMBLB.. A substantial proportion (8/40, 20%) of the newly characterized PUUV strains possessed reassortant genomes such as SBMALA, SAMBLB or SBMALB. These results suggest that at least some of the PUUV reassortants are viable and can survive in the presence of their parental strains."

Empirical Studies on Labor Market Matching (summary section only)

This thesis analyzes how matching takes place at the Finnish labor market from three different angles. The Finnish labor market has undergone severe structural changes following the economic crisis in the early 1990s. The labor market has had problems adjusting from these changes and hence a high and persistent unemployment has followed. In this thesis I analyze if matching problems, and in particular if changes in matching, can explain some of this persistence. The thesis consists of three essays. In the first essay Finnish Evidence of Changes in the Labor Market Matching Process the matching process at the Finnish labor market is analyzed. The key finding is that the matching process has changed thoroughly between the booming 1980s and the post-crisis period. The importance of the number of unemployed, and in particular long-term unemployed, for the matching process has vanished. More unemployed do not increase matching as theory predicts but rather the opposite. In the second essay, The Aggregate Matching Function and Directed Search -Finnish Evidence, stock-flow matching as a potential micro foundation of the aggregate matching function is studied. In the essay I show that newly unemployed match mainly with the stock of vacancies while longer term unemployed match with the inflow of vacancies. When aggregating I still find evidence of the traditional aggregate matching function. This could explain the huge support the aggregate matching function has received despite its odd randomness assumption. The third essay, How do Registered Job Seekers really match? -Finnish occupational level Evidence, studies matching for nine occupational groups and finds that very different matching problems exist for different occupations. In this essay also misspecification stemming from non-corresponding variables is dealt with through the introduction of a completely new set of variables. The new outflow measure used is vacancies filled with registered job seekers and it is matched by the supply side measure registered job seekers.

Tiering Effects in Third-party Logistics: A First-tier Buyer Perspective

This doctoral dissertation takes a buy side perspective to third-party logistics (3PL) providers’ service tiering by applying a linear serial dyadic view to transactions. It takes its point of departure not only from the unalterable focus on the dyad levels as units of analysis and how to manage them, but also the characteristics both creating and determining purposeful conditions for a longer duration. A conceptual framework is proposed and evaluated on its ability to capture logistics service buyers’ perceptions of service tiering. The problem discussed is in the theoretical context of logistics and reflects value appropriation, power dependencies, visibility in linear serial dyads, a movement towards the more market governed modes of transactions (i.e. service tiering) and buyers’ risk perception of broader utilisation of the logistics services market. Service tiering, in a supply chain setting, with the lack of multilateral agreements between supply chain members, is new. The deductive research approach applied, in which theoretically based propositions are empirically tested with quantitative and qualitative data, provides new insight into (contractual) transactions in 3PL. The study findings imply that the understanding of power dependencies and supply chain dynamics in a 3PL context is still in its infancy. The issues found include separation of service responsibilities, supply chain visibility, price-making behaviour and supply chain strategies under changing circumstances or influence of non-immediate supply chain actors. Understanding (or failing to understand) these issues may mean remarkable implications for the industry. Thus, the contingencies may trigger more open-book policies, larger liability scope of 3PL service providers or insourcing of critical logistics activities from the first-tier buyer core business and customer service perspectives. In addition, a sufficient understanding of the issues surrounding service tiering enables proactive responses to devise appropriate supply chain strategies. The author concludes that qualitative research designs, facilitating data collection on multiple supply chain actors, may capture and increase understanding of the impact of broader supply chain strategies. This would enable pattern-matching through an examination of two or more sides of exchange transactions to measure relational symmetries across linear serial dyads. Indeed, the performance of the firm depends not only on how efficiently it cooperates with its partners, but also on how well exchange partners cooperate with an organisation’s own business.

Carotid Surgery : A posse ad esse non valet consequentia

According to a large body of evidence, carotid endarterectomy (CEA) can prevent strokes, provided that appropriate inclusion criteria and high-quality perioperative treatment methods are utilised with low complication rates. From the patient s perspective, it is of paramount importance that the operation is as safe and effective as possible. From the community s point of view, it is important that CEA provision prevents as many strokes as possible. In order to define the stroke preventing potential of CEA in different communities, a comparison between eight European countries and Australia was performed including 53 077 carotid interventions. A more detailed evaluation was performed in Finland, the United Kingdom and Egypt. It could be estimated that many potentially preventable strokes occur due to insufficient diagnostics and CEA provision. The number of CEAs should be at least doubled in the Helsinki region. The theoretical power of CEA provision in stroke prevention varied significantly between the countries. Delay from symptom to surgery has been identified as one of the most important factors influencing the effectiveness of CEA. In 2008 only 11% of CEAs in Helsinki university central hospital (HUCH) were performed within the recommended14 days. Registered data of 673 CEAs in HUCH during 2000-2005 was analyzed. There was no systematic error that would have changed the outcome analysis. However it is important that registers are audited regularly and cross matching of different registries is possible. A previously unpublished method of combining medial mandibulotomy, neck incision and carotid artery interposition was carried out as a collaboration of maxillofacial, ear, nose and throat and vascular surgeons. Five patients were operated on with a technique that was feasible and possible to perform with little morbidity, but due to the significant risks involved, this technique should be reserved for carefully selected cases. In stroke prevention, organisational decisions seem far more important than details in interventional procedures when CEA is performed with low complication rates, as was the case in the present study. A TIA clinic approach with close co-operation between the on-call vascular surgeons, neurologists and radiologists should be available at all centres treating these patients. Patients should have a direct and fast admission to the hospital performing CEA.