Diffusion of Administrative Innovation: TQM Implementation and Effectiveness in a Global

The main objective of this dissertation is to create new knowledge on an administrative innovation, its adoption, diffusion and finally its effectiveness. In this dissertation the administrative innovation is approached through a widely utilized management philosophy, namely the total quality management (TQM) strategy. TQM operationalizes a self-assessment procedure, which is based on continual improvement principles and measuring the improvements. This dissertation also captures the theme of change management as it analyzes the adoption and diffusion of the administrative innovation. It identifies innovation characteristics as well as organisational and individual factors explaining the adoption and implementation. As a special feature, this study also explores the effectiveness of the innovation based on objective data. For studying the administrative innovation (TQM model), a multinational Case Company provides a versatile ground for a deep, longitudinal analysis. The Case Company started the adoption systematically in the mid 1980s in some of its units. As part of their strategic planning today, the procedure is in use throughout the entire global company. The empirical story begins from the innovation adoption decision that was made in the Case Company over 22 years ago. In order to be able to capture the right atmosphere and backgrounds leading to the adoption decision, key informants from that time were interviewed, since the main target was to clarify the dynamics of how an administrative innovation develops. In addition, archival material was collected and studied, available memos and data relating to the innovation, innovation adoption and later to the implementation contained altogether 20500 pages of documents. A survey was furthermore conducted at the end of 2006 focusing on questions related to the innovation, organization and leadership characteristics and the response rate totalled up to 54%. For measuring the effectiveness of the innovation implementation, the needed longitudinal objective performance data was collected. This data included the profit unit level experience of TQM, the development of the self assessment scores per profit unit and performance data per profit unit measured with profitability, productivity and customer satisfaction. The data covered the years 1995-2006. As a result, the prerequisites for the successful adoption of an administrative innovation were defined, such as the top management involvement, support of the change agents and effective tools for implementation and measurement. The factors with the greatest effect on the depth of the implementation were the timing of the adoption and formalization. The results also indicated that the TQM model does have an effect on the company performance measured with profitability, productivity and customer satisfaction. Consequently this thesis contributes to the present literature (i) by taking into its scope an administrative innovation and focusing on the whole innovation implementation process, from the adoption, through diffusion until its consequences, (ii) because the studied factors with an effect on the innovation adoption and diffusion are multifaceted and grouped into individual, organizational and environmental factors, and a strong emphasis is put on the role of the individual change agents and (iii) by measuring the depth and consistency of the administrative innovation. This deep analysis was possible due to the availability of longitudinal data with triangulation possibilities.

Search Interfaces on the Web: Querying and Characterizing

Current-day web search engines (e.g., Google) do not crawl and index a significant portion of theWeb and, hence, web users relying on search engines only are unable to discover and access a large amount of information from the non-indexable part of the Web. Specifically, dynamic pages generated based on parameters provided by a user via web search forms (or search interfaces) are not indexed by search engines and cannot be found in searchers’ results. Such search interfaces provide web users with an online access to myriads of databases on the Web. In order to obtain some information from a web database of interest, a user issues his/her query by specifying query terms in a search form and receives the query results, a set of dynamic pages that embed required information from a database. At the same time, issuing a query via an arbitrary search interface is an extremely complex task for any kind of automatic agents including web crawlers, which, at least up to the present day, do not even attempt to pass through web forms on a large scale. In this thesis, our primary and key object of study is a huge portion of the Web (hereafter referred as the deep Web) hidden behind web search interfaces. We concentrate on three classes of problems around the deep Web: characterization of deep Web, finding and classifying deep web resources, and querying web databases. Characterizing deep Web: Though the term deep Web was coined in 2000, which is sufficiently long ago for any web-related concept/technology, we still do not know many important characteristics of the deep Web. Another matter of concern is that surveys of the deep Web existing so far are predominantly based on study of deep web sites in English. One can then expect that findings from these surveys may be biased, especially owing to a steady increase in non-English web content. In this way, surveying of national segments of the deep Web is of interest not only to national communities but to the whole web community as well. In this thesis, we propose two new methods for estimating the main parameters of deep Web. We use the suggested methods to estimate the scale of one specific national segment of the Web and report our findings. We also build and make publicly available a dataset describing more than 200 web databases from the national segment of the Web. Finding deep web resources: The deep Web has been growing at a very fast pace. It has been estimated that there are hundred thousands of deep web sites. Due to the huge volume of information in the deep Web, there has been a significant interest to approaches that allow users and computer applications to leverage this information. Most approaches assumed that search interfaces to web databases of interest are already discovered and known to query systems. However, such assumptions do not hold true mostly because of the large scale of the deep Web – indeed, for any given domain of interest there are too many web databases with relevant content. Thus, the ability to locate search interfaces to web databases becomes a key requirement for any application accessing the deep Web. In this thesis, we describe the architecture of the I-Crawler, a system for finding and classifying search interfaces. Specifically, the I-Crawler is intentionally designed to be used in deepWeb characterization studies and for constructing directories of deep web resources. Unlike almost all other approaches to the deep Web existing so far, the I-Crawler is able to recognize and analyze JavaScript-rich and non-HTML searchable forms. Querying web databases: Retrieving information by filling out web search forms is a typical task for a web user. This is all the more so as interfaces of conventional search engines are also web forms. At present, a user needs to manually provide input values to search interfaces and then extract required data from the pages with results. The manual filling out forms is not feasible and cumbersome in cases of complex queries but such kind of queries are essential for many web searches especially in the area of e-commerce. In this way, the automation of querying and retrieving data behind search interfaces is desirable and essential for such tasks as building domain-independent deep web crawlers and automated web agents, searching for domain-specific information (vertical search engines), and for extraction and integration of information from various deep web resources. We present a data model for representing search interfaces and discuss techniques for extracting field labels, client-side scripts and structured data from HTML pages. We also describe a representation of result pages and discuss how to extract and store results of form queries. Besides, we present a user-friendly and expressive form query language that allows one to retrieve information behind search interfaces and extract useful data from the result pages based on specified conditions. We implement a prototype system for querying web databases and describe its architecture and components design.

Tukkivannesahojen teräpyörien bombeerauslaitteen kehittäminen

Diplomityössä kehitettiin kannettava työstölaite, jolla voidaan bombeerata tukkivannesahojen suuret teräpyörät omilla laakereillaan paikoillaan sahalinjoissa. Teräpyörät kuluvat käytössä, jolloin ne joudutaan työstämään uudelleen muotoonsa useita kertoja vuodessa. Nykyisin pyörien kehäpinnat hiotaan haluttuun muotoon lähes sadan vuoden ikäiseen keksintöön perustuvalla menetelmällä. Menetelmän suurimpina ongelmina ovat saavutettavan bombeerausmuodon heikko tarkkuus, työstötapahtuman hitaus ja puutteellinen työturvallisuus. Kehitetyn bombeerauslaitteen ja -menetelmän avulla parannetaan kaikkia kolmea merkittävää puutetta. Työssä kartoitettiin kattavasti erilaisia mahdollisia työstömenetelmiä, joita voitaisiin käyttää teräpyörien bombeeraukseen. Parhaaksi vaihtoehdoksi osoittautui sorvaus, jonka avulla teräpyörien kehäpinnat saadaan työstettyä tarkasti, nopeasti ja varmasti käyttämällä tavallisia sorvin työkaluja ja uutta ehdotettua kannettavaa sorvia.

Brain imaging studies in severe somatization

Somatization was described 4000 years ago but the pathophysiology of the, phenomenon is unknown. The aim of this investigation was to explore whether central nervous system (CNS) pathology is associated with severe somatization which was operationalized as somatization disorder (SD) and undifferentiated somatoform disorder. The study sample consisted of severely somatizing people who were included into the study after a multi-phase screening procedure in order to exclude psychiatric comorbidities and physical illnesses. Diagnosis of somatization disorder or undifferentiated sofatoform disorder were set according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th ed. (DSM-IV). The first study explored the regional cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (rCMRGlc) in severely somatizing females and found it to be reduced in several regions of the brain compared to healthy controls. The second study observed brain morphology with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) based on the findings from the first study and showed enlarged caudate nuclei in somatizing women compared to healthy volunteers. The third study investigated temperament factors and brain metabolism, and their association with severe somatization. Low caudate and putamen metabolism, low novelty seeking as well as high harm avoidance were found to be associated with severe somatization in women, reduced caudate metabolism having the strongest association. The last study is a report of man with left-side gradient of multiple symptoms of unknown origin in the body. The examination revealed a hypermetabolic nucleus putamen on the contralateral side. All the main results reported in these four articles are original findings. The results suggest that CNS pathology is involved in the pathophysiology of severe somatization.

Transforming Maritime Safety Culture. Evaluation of the impacts of the ISM Code on maritime safety culture in Finland

The purpose of the METKU Project (Development of Maritime Safety Culture) is to study how the ISM Code has influenced the safety culture in the maritime industry. This literature review is written as a part of the Work Package 2 which is conducted by the University of Turku, Centre for Maritime Studies. The maritime traffic is rapidly growing in the Baltic Sea which leads to a growing risk of maritime accidents. Particularly in the Gulf of Finland, the high volume of traffic causes a high risk of maritime accidents. The growing risks give us good reasons for implementing the research project concerning maritime safety and the effectiveness of the safety measures, such as the safety management systems. In order to reduce maritime safety risks, the safety management systems should be further developed. The METKU Project has been launched to examine the improvements which can be done to the safety management systems. Human errors are considered as the most important reason for maritime accidents. The international safety management code (the ISM Code) has been established to cut down the occurrence of human errors by creating a safety-oriented organizational culture for the maritime industry. The ISM Code requires that a company should provide safe practices in ship operation and a safe working environment and establish safeguards against all identified risk. The fundamental idea of the ISM Code is that companies should continuously improve safety. The commitment of the top management is essential for implementing a safety-oriented culture in a company. The ISM Code has brought a significant contribution to the progress of maritime safety in recent years. Shipping companies and ships’ crews are more environmentally friendly and more safety-oriented than 12 years ago. This has been showed by several studies which have been analysed for this literature research. Nevertheless, the direct effect and influence of the ISM Code on maritime safety could not be isolated very well. No quantitative measurement (statistics/hard data) could be found in order to present the impacts of the ISM Code on maritime safety. In this study it has been discovered that safety culture has emerged and it is developing in the maritime industry. Even though the roots of the safety culture have been established there are still serious barriers to the breakthrough of the safety management. These barriers could be envisaged as cultural factors preventing the safety process. Even though the ISM Code has been effective over a decade, the old-established behaviour which is based on the old day’s maritime culture still occurs. In the next phase of this research project, these cultural factors shall be analysed in regard to the present safety culture of the maritime industry in Finland.

Kuntouttavan työn kehitysmahdollisuudet ja taloudelliset vaikutukset metsäteollisuusyrityksessä

Metsäteollisuudessa henkilöstön keski-ikä on monen muun toimialan tavoin noussut merkittävästi viime vuosina. Samaan aikaan työt ovat monipuolistuneet, ja henkilöstöä on vähennetty kustannustehokkuuden nimissä. Osittain näiden tekijöiden seurauksena sairauspoissaolot ovat nousseet, ja niiden aiheuttamat kustannukset ovat vuosittain hyvin merkittävät. Lisäksi työkyvyttömyys- ja tapaturmaeläköitymisten kustannukset ovat keskimäärin nousseet uuden maksuluokkajärjestelmän käyttöönoton myötä. Sairauspoissaolojen alentamisen ja eläköitymisten ehkäisemiseksi on vuosien varrella hyödynnetty erilaisia käytäntöjä ja toimintamalleja, joiden vaikutusalueet vaihtelevat työturvallisuudesta työhönpaluun tukemiseen. Erilaisia uudelleensijoituksia ja työtehtävien räätälöintejä on mahdollisuuksien mukaan pyritty toteuttamaan, mutta näiden esteenä on pääosin ollut yhteistyön ja tiedon puute, haastava ajankohta, sekä erilaiset negatiiviset asenteet. Kuntouttavalla työllä tarkoitetaan eri osapuolten kanssa yhdessä sovittua, määräaikaista ja normaalista poikkeavaa toimintaa, jolla pyritään vähentämään osatyökykyisen työntekijän pitkiä poissaoloja sekä poistamaan mahdollinen varhaisen eläköitymisen uhka. Tämän tutkimuksen aikana kehitetyn kuntouttavan työn uuden toimintamallin tavoitteena on edelleen lisätä tietoisuutta ja yhteistyötä eri osapuolten välillä sekä vaikuttaa omalta osaltaan työnantajan sairauspoissaolojen ja eläköitymisten aiheuttamiin kustannuksiin.

Biotransformation and endocrine disruptive effects of contaminants in ringed seals - implications for monitoring and risk assessment

Marine mammals are exposed to persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which may be biotransformed to metabolites some of which are highly toxic. Both POPs and their metabolites may lead to adverse health effects, which have been studied using various biomarkers. Changes in endocrine homeostasis have been suggested to be sensitive biomarkers for contaminant-related effects. The overall objective of this doctoral thesis was to investigate biotransformation capacity of POPs and their potential endocrine disruptive effects in two contrasting ringed seal populations from the low contaminated Svalbard area and from the highly contaminated Baltic Sea. Biotransformation capacity was studied by determining the relationships between congener-specific patterns and concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and their hydroxyl (OH)- and/or methylsulfonyl (MeSO₂)-metabolites, and catalytic activities of hepatic xenobiotic-metabolizing phase I and II enzymes. The results suggest that the biotransformation of PCBs, PBDEs and toxaphenes in ringed seals depends on the congener-specific halogen-substitution pattern. Biotransformation products detected in the seals included OH-PCBs, MeSO₂-PCBs and –DDE, pentachlorophenol, 4-OHheptachlorostyrene, and to a minor extent OH-PBDEs. The effects of life history state (moulting and fasting) on contaminant status and potential biomarkers for endocrine disruption, including hormone and vitamin homeostasis, were investigated in the low contaminated ringed seal population from Svalbard. Moulting/fasting status strongly affected thyroid, vitamin A and calcitriol homeostasis, body condition and concentrations of POPs and their OH-metabolites. In contrast, moulting/fasting status was not associated with variations in vitamin E levels. Endocrine disruptive effects on multiple endpoints were investigated in the two contrasting ringed seal populations. The results suggest that thyroid, vitamin A and calcitriol homeostasis may be affected by the exposure of contaminants and/or their metabolites in the Baltic ringed seals. Complex and non-linear relationships were observed between the contaminant levels and the endocrine variables. Positive relationships between circulating free and total thyroid hormone concentration ratios and OH-PCBs suggest that OH-PCBs may mediate the disruption of thyroid hormone transport in plasma. Species differences in thyroid and bone-related effects of contaminants were studied in ringed and grey seals from low contaminated references areas and from the highly contaminated Baltic Sea. The results indicate that these two species living at the same environment approximately at the same trophic level respond in a very different way to contaminant exposure. The results of this thesis suggest that the health status of the Baltic ringed seals has still improved during the last decade. PCB and DDE levels have decreased in these seals and the contaminant-related effects are different today than a decade ago. The health of the Baltic ringed seals is still suggested to be affected by the contaminant exposure. At the present level of the contaminant exposure the Baltic ringed seals seem to be at a zone where their body is able to compensate for the contaminant-mediated endocrine disruption. Based on the results of this thesis, several recommendations that could be applied on monitoring and assessing risk for contaminant effects are provided. Circulating OH-metabolites should be included in monitoring and risk assessment programs due to their high toxic potential. It should be noted that endogenous variables may have complex and highly variable responses to contaminant exposure including non-linear responses. These relationships may be further confounded by life history status. Therefore, it is highly recommended that when using variables related to endocrine homeostasis to investigate/monitor or assess the risk of contaminant effects in seals, the life history status of the animal should be carefully taken into consideration. This applies especially when using thyroid, vitamin A or calcitriolrelated parameters during moulting/fasting period. Extrapolations between species for assessing risk for contaminant effects in phocid seals should be avoided.

Conservation Genetics of Exploited Finnish Salmonid Fishes

Genetic diversity is one of the levels of biodiversity that the World Conservation Union (IUCN) has recognized as being important to preserve. This is because genetic diversity is fundamental to the future evolution and to the adaptive flexibility of a species to respond to the inherently dynamic nature of the natural world. Therefore, the key to maintaining biodiversity and healthy ecosystems is to identify, monitor and maintain locally-adapted populations, along with their unique gene pools, upon which future adaptation depends. Thus, conservation genetics deals with the genetic factors that affect extinction risk and the genetic management regimes required to minimize the risk. The conservation of exploited species, such as salmonid fishes, is particularly challenging due to the conflicts between different interest groups. In this thesis, I conduct a series of conservation genetic studies on primarily Finnish populations of two salmonid fish species (European grayling, Thymallus thymallus, and lake-run brown trout, Salmo trutta) which are popular recreational game fishes in Finland. The general aim of these studies was to apply and develop population genetic approaches to assist conservation and sustainable harvest of these populations. The approaches applied included: i) the characterization of population genetic structure at national and local scales; ii) the identification of management units and the prioritization of populations for conservation based on evolutionary forces shaping indigenous gene pools; iii) the detection of population declines and the testing of the assumptions underlying these tests; and iv) the evaluation of the contribution of natural populations to a mixed stock fishery. Based on microsatellite analyses, clear genetic structuring of exploited Finnish grayling and brown trout populations was detected at both national and local scales. Finnish grayling were clustered into three genetically distinct groups, corresponding to northern, Baltic and south-eastern geographic areas of Finland. The genetic differentiation among and within population groups of grayling ranged from moderate to high levels. Such strong genetic structuring combined with low genetic diversity strongly indicates that genetic drift plays a major role in the evolution of grayling populations. Further analyses of European grayling covering the majority of the species’ distribution range indicated a strong global footprint of population decline. Using a coalescent approach the beginning of population reduction was dated back to 1 000-10 000 years ago (ca. 200-2 000 generations). Forward simulations demonstrated that the bottleneck footprints measured using the M ratio can persist within small populations much longer than previously anticipated in the face of low levels of gene flow. In contrast to the M ratio, two alternative methods for genetic bottleneck detection identified recent bottlenecks in six grayling populations that warrant future monitoring. Consistent with the predominant role of random genetic drift, the effective population size (N_e) estimates of all grayling populations were very low with the majority of N_e estimates below 50. Taken together, highly structured local populations, limited gene flow and the small N_e of grayling populations indicates that grayling populations are vulnerable to overexploitation and, hence, monitoring and careful management using the precautionary principles is required not only in Finland but throughout Europe. Population genetic analyses of lake-run brown trout populations in the Inari basin (northernmost Finland) revealed hierarchical population structure where individual populations were clustered into three population groups largely corresponding to different geographic regions of the basin. Similar to my earlier work with European grayling, the genetic differentiation among and within population groups of lake-run brown trout was relatively high. Such strong differentiation indicated that the power to determine the relative contribution of populations in mixed fisheries should be relatively high. Consistent with these expectations, high accuracy and precision in mixed stock analysis (MSA) simulations were observed. Application of MSA to indigenous fish caught in the Inari basin identified altogether twelve populations that contributed significantly to mixed stock fisheries with the Ivalojoki river system being the major contributor (70%) to the total catch. When the contribution of wild trout populations to the fisheries was evaluated regionally, geographically nearby populations were the main contributors to the local catches. MSA also revealed a clear separation between the lower and upper reaches of Ivalojoki river system – in contrast to lower reaches of the Ivalojoki river that contributed considerably to the catch, populations from the upper reaches of the Ivalojoki river system (>140 km from the river mouth) did not contribute significantly to the fishery. This could be related to the available habitat size but also associated with a resident type life history and increased cost of migration. The studies in my thesis highlight the importance of dense sampling and wide population coverage at the scale being studied and also demonstrate the importance of critical evaluation of the underlying assumptions of the population genetic models and methods used. These results have important implications for conservation and sustainable fisheries management of Finnish populations of European grayling and brown trout in the Inari basin.

Teknologinen kehitys hyvinvointivaltiossa

Tämän diplomityön tavoitteena on luoda poikkitieteellinen katsaus teknologisen kehityksen vaikutuksiin hyvinvointivaltion perusrakenteille, kuten työnteko, yrityskulttuuri, peruskoulutus sekä innovaatiopolitiikka. Työ pyrkii osoittamaan myös hyvinvointivaltion roolin Suomen kilpailu- ja innovaatiokyvyn kannalta. Työn viitekehys rakentuu teknisten-, yhteiskuntatieteiden, sosiologian sekä tämän päivän heikkojen signaalien varaan. Työ yhdistää erilaiset näkökulmat yhdeksi kokonaisuudeksi, josta myös lukija voi luoda oman näkemyksensä. Johtopäätöksinä työssä huomataan hyvinvointivaltion roolin suuruus puhuttaessa suomalaisesta innovaatio- ja kilpailukyvystä. Tasa-arvoinen peruskoulutusjärjestelmä, tulonsiirrot sekä sosiaalinen turvaverkko ovat olleet luomassa pohjaa nykyiselle hyvinvoinnillemme sekä kilpailukyvyllemme. Kuitenkin nämä järjestelmät ovat jäämässä ajastaan jälkeen, sillä niitä ei ole suunniteltu kansallisvaltioiden väliseen kilpailuun. Yksityistäminen ja globaalille kilpailulle avautuminen ovat nähty maailmalla ratkaisuna tähän ongelmaan, kuten Englannissa tehtiin 40 vuotta sitten. Yksityistämisen vaikutukset hyvinvointivaltioon ovat kuitenkin arvaamattomia, sillä hyvinvointivaltio on vielä varsin tutkimaton käsite. Teknologinen kehitys on ollut luomassa kilpailuetuamme ja siitä voidaan olettaa myös luovan tulevaa kilpailuetua. Suomeen on saatava uudenlainen johtamisen- ja yhteiskunnallisen ymmärtämisen kulttuuri, joka huomioi myös globalisaation mukanaan tuomia muutoksia. Se yhdistettynä teknologian kehitykseen ja innovaatiopolitiikkaan saattaa olla Suomen tulevaisuuden kannalta ratkaiseva innovatiivinen kilpailuetu.

Luottamuksen rooli sidosryhmäyhteistyössä - Case: uuden teollisen yrityksen perustaminen

This study examines the role of trust in collaboration between stakeholders when establishing a new industrial company in Finland. Small and medium size company has been established about four years ago and nowadays it employs some tens of employees. Company is handled in this study as anonymous. Growth of the company has been fast, which means that stakeholder collaborations have been successful. The aim of the study is to examine what is the relation between trust and risk while establishing a new company. Secondly, the study examines what are the key expectations of the trust of new company. Third aim of this study is to examine how founders could build up trust among stakeholders The theoretical part of this qualitative research was done by using the theme interviews. The empirical material consisted of theme interviews of 8 persons, who are representing stakeholders of the new industrial company. The results of this study suggest that, when establishing an industrial company with aggressive growth plan, process is vulnerable and trust is having an important role. Stakeholders made some risk studies comparing to trust. Stakeholders were dependent of each others. Founder team consisted of trusted persons, which helped to have success in establishment process. Members of founder team have created all the elements of trust: honest, technical competence and attitude & behavior.

World Heritage of the Kvarken Archipelago : Echoes of the Ice Age

The Kvarken Archipelago is Finland’s first Unesco Natural Heritage Site. The story of the Kvarken Archipelago began about 10.000 years ago when the melting of the continental ice sheet as it retreated gave rise to this unique archipelago. The land once forced down by the mass of ice is now gradually rising and continuously creating new landscapes. People, animals and plants have learnt to adjust to their changing conditions in exceptional ways. The Ice Age may be over in Kvarken, but the drama still continues to unfold.

Osaamisen johtaminen ja kehittäminen asiantuntijaorganisaatiossa - case Itä-Suomen yliopiston opinto- ja opetuspalvelut

Tutkielman tavoitteena on luoda kokonaisvaltainen kuvaus osaamisen johtamisesta ja kehittämisestä tutkielman kohdeorganisaatiossa. Lisäksi halutaan selvittää, millaista osaamista kohdeorganisaatiosta löytyy ja mikä motivoi asiantuntijoita oman osaamisen kehittämiseen. Teoreettinen tarkastelu pohjautuu kolmeen keskeiseen käsitteeseen: osaamiseen, osaamisen johtamiseen ja osaamisen kehittämiseen. Kirjallisuuskatsauksessa pyritään myös selkeyttämään näiden käsitteiden määritelmien kirjavaa kenttää. Tutkimus toteutettiin kvalitatiivisena tapaustutkimuksena. Empiirinen aineisto kerättiin sähköisten kyselylomakkeiden avulla. Tutkielman kohdeorganisaatio on kokenut muutama vuosi sitten suuren organisaatiorakenteen muutoksen, mikä on tuonut omat haasteensa osaamisen johtamiseen ja toisaalta korostanut sen tärkeyttä. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että kohdeorganisaatiossa on vahvaa monialaista osaamista ja oman osaamisen kehittämiseen motivoituneita työntekijöitä. Kuitenkin useimmilla osaamisen kehittäminen jää päivittäisten työtehtävien varjoon, joten kouluttautumiselle ja työssä oppimiselle toivottiin lisää mahdollisuuksia.

Anti-predator adaptations in aquatic environments

Predation is an important selective force that has led to the evolution of a variety of fascinating anti-predator adaptations, such as many types of protective coloration and prey behaviours. Because the evolution of life has begun in the aquatic environment and many anti-predator adaptations are found already in relative primitive taxa, it is likely that many of these adaptations evolved initially in the aquatic environment. Yet, there has been surprisingly little research on the mechanisms and function of antipredator adaptations in aquatic systems. To understand the function of anti-predator adaptations and natural selection imposed on prey appearance and behaviour, I have investigated how protective coloration can be used, either as such or together with behavioural adaptations, to manipulate predator behaviour and decrease predation risk. To this end I conducted a series of behaviour ecological laboratory experiments in which I manipulated the visual appearance of artificial backgrounds and prey items. In paper I of this thesis, I investigated background choice as an anti-predator strategy, by observing the habitat choice of the least killifish (Heterandria formosa) between pairs of artificial backgrounds, both in the presence and absence of predation threat. It has been suggested that prey could decrease their risk of being detected by predators either by preferring backgrounds into which they blend or by preferring visually complex backgrounds. The least killifish preferred a background that matched their patterning to a background that mismatched it, showing that they are able to respond to cues of visual similarity between their colour pattern and the surrounding environment. Interestingly however, in female least killifish visual complexity of the background was a more important cue for habitat safety and may override or act together with background matching when searching for a safe habitat. It is possible that in females, preference for visually complex backgrounds is associated with lower opportunity costs than preference for matching backgrounds would be. Generally, the least killifish showed stronger preference while under predation threat, indicating that their background choice behaviour is an antipredator adaptation. Many aquatic prey species have eyespots, which are colour patterns that consist of roughly concentric rings and have received their name because they for humans often resemble the vertebrate eye. I investigated the anti-predator function of eyespots against predation by fish in papers II, III and IV. Some eyespots have been suggested to benefit prey by diverting the strikes of predators away from vital parts of the prey body or towards a direction that facilitates prey escape. Although proposed over a century ago, the divertive effect of eyespots has proven to be difficult to show experimentally. In papers II and III, I tested for divertive effect of eyespots towards attacking fish by presenting artificial prey with eyespots to laboratory reared three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus). I found that eyespots strongly influenced the behaviour of attacking sticklebacks and effectively drew their strikes towards the eyespots. To further investigate this divertive effect and whether the specific shape of eyespots is important for it, I tested in paper III the response of fish also to other markings than eyespots. I found that eyespots were generally more effective in diverting the first strikes of attacking fish compared to other prey markings. My findings suggest that the common occurrence of eyespots in aquatic prey species can at least partly be explained by the divertive effect of the eyespot shape, possibly together with the relative simple developmental mechanisms underlying circular colour patterns. An eyebar is a stripe that runs through the eye, and this pattern has been suggested to obscure the real eyes of the prey by visually blending parts of the eyes and head of the prey and by creating false edges. In paper III, I show that an eyebar effectively disrupts an eyelike shape. This suggests that eyebars provide an effective way to conceal the eyes and consequently obstruct detection and recognition of prey. This experiment also demonstrates that through concealment of the eyes, eyebars could be used to enhance the divertive effect of eyespots, which can explain the common occurrence of eyebars in many species of fish that have eyespots. Larger eyespots have been shown to intimidate some terrestrial predators, such as passerine birds, either because they resemble the eyes of the predator’s own enemy or because highly salient features may have an intimidating effect. In papers II and IV, I investigated whether the occurrence of eyespots in some aquatic prey could be explained by their intimidating effect predatory fish. In paper IV, I also investigated the reason for the intimidating effect of eyelike prey marks. In paper II, I found no clear intimidating effect of eyespots, whereas in paper IV, using a different approach, I found that sticklebacks hesitated to attack towards eyelike but not towards non-eyelike marks. Importantly, paper IV therefore presents the first rigorous evidence for the idea that eye mimicry, and not merely conspicuousness, underlies the intimidating effect. It also showed that the hesitation shown by fish towards eyelike marks is partly an innate response that is reinforced by encounters with predators. Collectively, this thesis shows that prey colour pattern and the visual appearance of the habitat influence the behaviour of fish. The results demonstrate that protective coloration provides numerous distinctive ways for aquatic prey to escape predation. Thus, visual perception and behaviour of fish are important factors shaping the appearance and behaviours of aquatic prey.

Backpacker 2.0 - Contemporary backpackers and their use of social media as an information and communication platform

Long-term independent budget travel to countries far away has become increasingly common over the last few decades, and backpacking has now entered the tourism mainstream. Nowadays, backpackers are a very important segment of the global travel market. Backpacking is a type of tourism that involves a lot of information search activities. The Internet has become a major source of information as well as a platform for tourism business transactions. It allows travelers to gain information very effortlessly and to learn about tourist destinations and products directly from other travelers in the form of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). Social media has penetrated and changed the backpacker market, as now modern travelers can stay connected to people at home, read online recommendations, and organize and book their trips very independently. In order to create a wider understanding on modern-day backpackers and their information search and share behavior in the Web 2.0 era, this thesis examined contemporary backpackers and their use of social media as an information and communication platform. In order to achieve this goal, three sub-objectives were identified: 1. to describe contemporary backpacker tourism 2. to examine contemporary backpackers’ travel information search and share behavior 3. to explore the impacts of new information and communications technologies and Web 2.0 on backpacker tourism The empirical data was gathered with an online survey, thus the method of analysis was mainly quantitative, and a qualitative method was used for a brief analysis of open questions. The research included both descriptive and analytical approaches, as the goal was to describe modern-day backpackers, and to examine possible interdependencies between information search and share behavior and background variables. The interdependencies were tested for statistical significance with the help of five research hypotheses. The results suggested that backpackers no longer fall under the original backpacker definitions described some decades ago. Now, they are mainly short-term travelers, whose trips resemble more those of mainstream tourists. They use communication technologies very actively, and particularly social media. Traditional information sources, mainly guide books and recommendations from friends, are of great importance to them but also eWOM sources are widely used in travel decision making. The use of each source varies according to the stage of the trip. All in all, Web 2.0 and new ICTs have transformed the backpacker tourism industry in many ways. Although the experience has become less authentic in some travelers’ eyes, the backpacker culture is still recognizable.

Kestomagneettitahtikonekäyttöjen erot

Permanent magnet drives with nominal power over 10 kW were not a cost-sufficient system 25 years ago due to high material expenses. The improvements in motor drives, the rise in competition and the tightening of standards and regulations have caused that the PM-drives are more and more common in the over 10 kW nominal power range. The goal of this thesis is to research the performance in relation to nominal power of a PM-drive technique that is vastly increasing its popularity in fan related devices. The studied motor technique brushless direct current drive (BLDC) consists of a voltage source inverter, permanent motor and six-step-control. The reference drive is a brushless alternating current drive (BLAC) which consists of a VSI, PM and a hysteresis control. As a conclusion there are no major obstacles that would impede the BLDC-drive technique from expanding to larger power stages. The following factors must be taken into consideration when designing a BLDC-drive: motor’s current change rate, inverter switching frequency, motor’s nominal electric frequency, phase inductance and the current handling capability of the inverter. The fluctuating material costs create instability to the end prices of PM-motors that can in the worst case lead to diminished interest towards BLDC- and PM-drives in general.