Training Finnish and English Speakers to Produce Non-native Vowels

The subject of this thesis was the acquisition of difficult non-native vowels by speakers of two different languages. In order to study the subject, a group of Finnish speakers and another group of American English speakers were recruited and they underwent a short listen-and-repeat training that included as stimuli the semisynthetically created pseudowords /ty:ti/ and /tʉ:ti/. The aim was to study the effect of the training method on the subjects as well as the possible influence of the speakers’ native language on the process of acquisition. The selection of the target vowels /y/ and /ʉ/ was made according to the Speech Learning Model and Perceptual Assimilation Model, both of which predict that second language speech sounds that share similar features with sounds of a person’s native language are most difficult for the person to learn. The vowel /ʉ/ is similar to Finnish vowels as well as to vowels of English, whereas /y/ exists in Finnish but not in English, although it is similar to other English vowels. Therefore, it can be hypothesized that /ʉ/ is a difficult vowel for both groups to learn and /y/ is difficult for English speakers. The effect of training was tested with a pretest-training-posttest protocol in which the stimuli were played alternately and the subjects’ task was to repeat the heard stimuli. The training method was thought to improve the production of non-native sounds by engaging different feedback mechanisms, such as auditory and somatosensory. These, according to Template Theory, modify the production of speech by altering the motor commands from the internal speech system or the feedforward signal which translates the motoric commands into articulatory movements. The subjects’ productions during the test phases were recorded and an acoustic analysis was performed in which the formant values of the target vowels were extracted. Statistical analyses showed a statistically significant difference between groups in the first formant, signaling a possible effect of native motor commands. Furthermore, a statistically significant difference between groups was observed in the standard deviation of the formants in the production of /y/, showing the uniformity of native production. The training had no observable effect, possibly due to the short nature of the training protocol.

Magnetophotoresistance in Pr 1–x CaxMnO3 Thin Films

In this work, a colossal magnetoresistive (CMR) Pr1−xCaxMnO3 (PCMO) man- ganite thin films and polycrystalline samples were studied with the main focus on the properties of the insulator to metal Mott phase transition. The polycrystalline PCMO samples were fabricated with the solid state reaction method. The polycrystalline sam- ples were further processed into the epitaxial thin films with the pulsed laser deposition method (PLD). The structural and magnetic properties of the samples were systemat- ically investigated and the thin films samples were further investigated with magneto- transport measurement where the thin films response to illumination was also studied. After the successful synthesis of polycrystalline PCMO samples with varying x = between 0.0 - 0.5, the magnetic characterization of the samples showed rich magnetic properties having the signatures of the magnetic phase coexistence of antiferromag- netic (AFM) and ferromagnetic (FM) ordering and cluster glass behaviour. With the increased doping concentration from x = 0.3 to 0.5, the AFM charge-order (CO) phase started to form up being strongest on the sample x = 0.5. This AFM CO phase could be melted with the high external magnetic field at temperatures below Neel’s tempera- ture TN inducing an irreversible first order metamagnetic AFM to FM phase transition. The strength of the AFM CO phase decreased with decreasing Ca concentration and increasing temperature. The polycrystalline PCMO samples with Ca concentrations of 0.3 - 0.5, showing metamagnetic behaviour, were selected for the fabrication of the thin film samples. The films were grown using two different in situ oxygen treatment temperatures at 500 ◦C and 700 ◦C in the PLD system. The films with x = 0.4 and 0.5 showed weaker AFM CO phase with greatly reduced melting fields when compared to polycrystalline samples. Also, the robustness of the AFM CO phase was further decreased in thin films with the lower oxygen treatment temperature of 500 ◦C. The magneto-transport measurements made on the thin films showed that the melting of AFM CO phase was connected to CMR effect where the increasing magnetic field induced an insulator to metal phase transition, which reduces the resistivity of the film around nine orders of magnitude. The use of illumination during the magneto-transport measurements showed a vari- ety of intriguing phenomena including magnetophotoresistance. The illumination had a huge effect to the insulator to metal transition (IMT) reducing the transition magnetic field significantly. Moreover, by magnetically biasing the thin films with the constant external magnetic field, the IMT could be induced by switching on the illumination.

Opiskelijalähtöinen opetus kadettien koulutuksessa : ilmavoimien 91. kadettikurssin koulutus konstruktivistisen oppimiskäsityksen mukaan

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää, millä tavalla konstruktivistinen oppimiskäsitys ilmenee kadettien opetuksessa. Tutkimuskohteena olivat ilmavoimien 91. kadettikurssin upseerin perusopintojen yhteiset opinnot. Tutkimuksen tavoitetta lähestyttiin tutkimukselle muodostetun teoreettisen viitekehyksen ja tutkimusasetelman kautta. Tutkimuksen viitekehyksen pohjalta muodostui kolme tutkimusongelmaa: 1) Miten konstruktivistinen oppimiskäsitys ilmenee ilmavoimien kadettien upseerin perusopintojen opetussuunnitelmassa? 2) Miten konstruktivistinen oppimiskäsitys ilmenee kadettien opetuksessa käytännössä: millaisia ovat kadettien kokemukset opetuksesta? 3) Mitä merkityksiä kadetit antavat konstruktivistiselle oppimiskäsitykselle, ja miten arvostettu oppimisteoria konstruktivismi on. Tarkastelun perusteella tutkimukselle muodostui seuraavia teemoja: miten kadettien kokemusten mukaan kadettien opetuksessa ilmenevät – itseohjautuvuus ja oppimisen yksilöllisyys – tiedon rakentuminen – oppimaan oppimista korostavat opiskelumuodot (opetusmenetelmät) – oppimista tukevat monipuoliset oppimisympäristöt – oppimisen sosiaalinen vuorovaikutus – palautteen merkitys oppimisen ohjaamisessa? Teemojen tarkoituksena oli rajata tutkimuksen ongelmanasettelua siten, että tutkimusongelmia pystyttiin lähestymään useasta eri näkökulmasta.

Urakoitsijan virhevastuusta rakennusalan vakiosopimusehtojen YSE 1998 (RT 16–10660) mukaan

Rakentamisen laatutasoon liittyvät kysymykset ovat nousseet viimeksi kuluneiden vuosikymmenten aikana Suomessa tasaisin väliajoin otsikoihin. Oman osansa kritiikistä ovat saaneet niin rakentajat, suunnittelutoimistot kuin rakennusalaa sääntelevät usein varsin tiukat ja yksityiskohtaiset viranomaismääräykset, -ohjeet ja standardit. Koska rakennuksissa havaittuihin laatuvirheisiin liittyy usein merkittävänä pidettäviä kansantaloudellisia ja -terveydellisiä haittoja, on tulevaisuudessa syytä kiinnittää enenevässä määrin huomiota korkealaatuisen rakennustoiminnan edistämiseen sekä rakennusvirheiden kustannustehokkaaseen ennaltaehkäisyyn. Em. tavoite korostuu erityisesti silloin, kun vaativat ilmasto-olosuhteet asettavat rakennusten kestolle ja käyttöiälle merkittävänä pidettäviä haasteita. Edelleen rakennustoiminnan tehokkaamman laadunvalvonnan ja rakennusprosessin kokonaisvaltaisen valvonnan kiristämisen puolesta puhuvina seikkoina voidaan mainita muun muassa rakennuksilta lähtökohtaisesti edellytettävä pitkä käyttöikä kestokulutushyödykkeeksi lueteltavien ominaisuuksiensa johdosta. Johdantokappaleen jälkeen tutkielmassa keskitytään tarkastelemaan rakennusurakan työnjaollisia periaatteita sekä urakoitsijan työntuloksen saavuttamisen kannalta keskeisimpinä pidettäviä velvollisuuksia. Rakennusaikaisen vastuun osalta merkittävässä asemassa ovat urakoitsijan selonotto-, huomautuksenteko- ja reklamaatiovelvollisuudet. Rakennusurakan kumpaakin sopijapuolta velvoittavista periaatteista voidaan mainita muun muassa lojaliteetti-, myötävaikuttamis- ja yhteistoimintaperiaatteet. Urakoitsijan virhevastuuta käsittelevässä kolmannessa luvussa esitetään urakoitsijan sopimusoikeudellisen vastuun pääkohdat sekä keskeisimmät tilaajan käytettävissä olevat oikeuskeinot, silloin kun urakoitsijan työntulosta on pidettävä virheellisenä. Tutkielman neljän-nessä luvussa tarkastellaan urakoitsijan virhevastuuta takuuaikana havaituista rakennusvirheistä. Urakoitsijan takuuajan jälkeistä vastuuta käsittelevässä viidennessä luvussa tutkitaan muun muassa urakoitsijan mahdollisuuksia rajoittaa virhevastuutaan sekä urakoitsijan vastuuta käyttämistään aliurakoitsijoista ja muista täytäntöönpanoapulaisistaan. Tutkielman päättävässä kuudennessa luvussa esitetään yleisiä huomioita rakentamisen laatuvirheiden ehkäisemiseksi.

Dynamic model development of adiabatic compressed air energy storage

The share of variable renewable energy in electricity generation has seen exponential growth during the recent decades, and due to the heightened pursuit of environmental targets, the trend is to continue with increased pace. The two most important resources, wind and insolation both bear the burden of intermittency, creating a need for regulation and posing a threat to grid stability. One possibility to deal with the imbalance between demand and generation is to store electricity temporarily, which was addressed in this thesis by implementing a dynamic model of adiabatic compressed air energy storage (CAES) with Apros dynamic simulation software. Based on literature review, the existing models due to their simplifications were found insufficient for studying transient situations, and despite of its importance, the investigation of part load operation has not yet been possible with satisfactory precision. As a key result of the thesis, the cycle efficiency at design point was simulated to be 58.7%, which correlated well with literature information, and was validated through analytical calculations. The performance at part load was validated against models shown in literature, showing good correlation. By introducing wind resource and electricity demand data to the model, grid operation of CAES was studied. In order to enable the dynamic operation, start-up and shutdown sequences were approximated in dynamic environment, as far as is known, the first time, and a user component for compressor variable guide vanes (VGV) was implemented. Even in the current state, the modularly designed model offers a framework for numerous studies. The validity of the model is limited by the accuracy of VGV correlations at part load, and in addition the implementation of heat losses to the thermal energy storage is necessary to enable longer simulations. More extended use of forecasts is one of the important targets of development, if the system operation is to be optimised in future.

Digital Transformation of Municipal Services in Finland

Digitalization has been widely adopted by private organizations of all sizes. As customers we are starting to expect a certain level of digital services from businesses and these expectations are evolving to consider the public sector services as well. Moreover, the Finnish municipalities are under pressure to cut costs and make their operation more efficient. This research aims in exploring the field of municipal digitalization in Finland with three main questions to answer: what are the motivations for municipalities for digital service transformation, what the main benefits of this transformation are and what are the challenges for the transformation. The research starts with examining the characteristics of municipal operation and reviewing some of the relevant digital service opportunities. In the empirical part of the research, 11 professionals related to the municipal field were interviewed using a semi-structured interview design. These interviewees were chosen from three important groups for the change: the service provider, municipal administration and municipal employees. The data gained from the interviews was first summarized according to the main topics chosen from the literature and then reflected on the digital services opportunities presented in the research. The motivations discovered in both the service provider and the city of Porvoo interviews were: tightening resources combined with increasing expectations, transparent structuring of information, supporting the shift into mobile and providing new channels for customers to participate. The benefits discovered in all groups were: efficiency, customer experience, transparent structuring of information, reducing manual input and responding to customer needs in service development. The challenges perceived by multiple groups were: change resistance, innovating new with no best practices and defining the scope and new operation model. The results of this research suggest that even with some challenges along the way, digitalization is a likely future for the Finnish public sector. The business case for the transformation is becoming increasingly evident on both municipal- and governmental levels.