Visual customer segmentation and behavior analysis : a SOM-based approach

Ett ämne som väckt intresse både inom industrin och forskningen är hantering av kundförhållanden (CRM, eng. Customer Relationship Management), dvs. en kundorienterad affärsstrategi där företagen från att ha varit produktorienterade väljer att bli mera kundcentrerade. Numera kan kundernas beteende och aktiviteter lätt registreras och sparas med hjälp av integrerade affärssystem (ERP, eng. Enterprise Resource Planning) och datalager (DW, eng. Data Warehousing). Kunder med olika preferenser och köpbeteende skapar sin egen ”signatur” i synnerhet via användningen av kundkort, vilket möjliggör mångsidig modellering av kundernas köpbeteende. För att få en översikt av kundernas köpbeteende och deras lönsamhet, används ofta kundsegmentering som en metod för att indela kunderna i grupper utgående från deras likheter. De mest använda metoderna för kundsegmentering är analytiska modeller konstruerade för en viss tidsperiod. Dessa modeller beaktar inte att kundernas beteende kan förändras med tiden. I föreliggande avhandling skapas en holistisk översikt av kundernas karaktär och köpbeteende som utöver de konventionella segmenteringsmodellerna även beaktar dynamiken i köpbeteendet. Dynamiken i en kundsegmenteringsmodell innefattar förändringar i segmentens struktur och innehåll, samt förändringen av individuella kunders tillhörighet i ett segment (s.k migrationsanalyser). Vardera förändringen modelleras, analyseras och exemplifieras med visuella datautvinningstekniker, främst med självorganiserande kartor (SOM, eng. Self-Organizing Maps) och självorganiserande tidskartor (SOTM), en vidareutveckling av SOM. Visualiseringen anteciperas underlätta tolkningen av identifierade mönster och göra processen med kunskapsöverföring mellan den som gör analysen och beslutsfattaren smidigare. Asiakkuudenhallinta (CRM) eli organisaation muuttaminen tuotepainotteisesta asiakaskeskeiseksi on herättänyt mielenkiintoa niin yliopisto- kuin yritysmaailmassakin. Asiakkaiden käyttäytymistä ja toimintaa pystytään nykyään helposti tallentamaan ja varastoimaan toiminnanohjausjärjestelmien ja tietovarastojen avulla; asiakkaat jättävät jatkuvasti piirteistään ja ostokäyttäytymisestään kertovia tietojälkiä, joita voidaan analysoida. On tavallista, että asiakkaat poikkeavat toisistaan eri tavoin, ja heidän mieltymyksensä kuten myös ostokäyttäytymisensä saattavat olla hyvinkin erilaisia. Asiakaskäyttäytymisen monimuotoisuuteen ja tuottavuuteen paneuduttaessa käytetäänkin laajalti asiakassegmentointia eli asiakkaiden jakamista ryhmiin samankaltaisuuden perusteella. Perinteiset asiakassegmentoinnin ratkaisut ovat usein yksittäisiä analyyttisia malleja, jotka on tehty tietyn aikajakson perusteella. Tämän vuoksi ne monesti jättävät huomioimatta sen, että asiakkaiden käyttäytyminen saattaa ajan kuluessa muuttua. Tässä väitöskirjassa pyritäänkin tarjoamaan holistinen kuva asiakkaiden ominaisuuksista ja ostokäyttäytymisestä tarkastelemalla kahta muutosvoimaa tiettyyn aikarajaukseen perustuvien perinteisten segmentointimallien lisäksi. Nämä kaksi asiakassegmentointimallin dynamiikkaa ovat muutokset segmenttien rakenteessa ja muutokset yksittäisten asiakkaiden kuulumisessa ryhmään. Ensimmäistä dynamiikkaa lähestytään ajallisen asiakassegmentoinnin avulla, jossa visualisoidaan ajan kuluessa tapahtuvat muutokset segmenttien rakenteissa ja profiileissa. Toista dynamiikkaa taas lähestytään käyttäen nk. segmenttisiirtymien analyysia, jossa visuaalisin keinoin tunnistetaan samantyyppisesti segmentistä toiseen vaihtavat asiakkaat. Visualisoinnin tehtävänä on tukea havaittujen kaavojen tulkitsemista sekä helpottaa tiedonsiirtoa analysoijan ja päättäjien välillä. Visuaalisia tiedonlouhintamenetelmiä, kuten itseorganisoivia karttoja ja niiden laajennuksia, käytetään osoittamaan näiden menetelmien hyödyllisyys sekä asiakkuudenhallinnassa yleisesti että erityisesti asiakassegmentoinnissa.

Identification of research trends in the field of separation processes. Application of epidemiological model, citation analysis, text mining, and technical analysis of the financial markets

Choice of industrial development options and the relevant allocation of the research funds become more and more difficult because of the increasing R&D costs and pressure for shorter development period. Forecast of the research progress is based on the analysis of the publications activity in the field of interest as well as on the dynamics of its change. Moreover, allocation of funds is hindered by exponential growth in the number of publications and patents. Thematic clusters become more and more difficult to identify, and their evolution hard to follow. The existing approaches of research field structuring and identification of its development are very limited. They do not identify the thematic clusters with adequate precision while the identified trends are often ambiguous. Therefore, there is a clear need to develop methods and tools, which are able to identify developing fields of research. The main objective of this Thesis is to develop tools and methods helping in the identification of the promising research topics in the field of separation processes. Two structuring methods as well as three approaches for identification of the development trends have been proposed. The proposed methods have been applied to the analysis of the research on distillation and filtration. The results show that the developed methods are universal and could be used to study of the various fields of research. The identified thematic clusters and the forecasted trends of their development have been confirmed in almost all tested cases. It proves the universality of the proposed methods. The results allow for identification of the fast-growing scientific fields as well as the topics characterized by stagnant or diminishing research activity.

PDM system functions and utilizations analysis to improve efficiency of sheet metal product design and manufacturing

This study will concentrate on Product Data Management (PDM) systems, and sheet metal design features and classification. In this thesis, PDM is seen as an individual system which handles all product-related data and information. The meaning of relevant data is to take the manufacturing process further with fewer errors. The features of sheet metals are giving more information and value to the designed models. The possibility of implementing PDM and sheet metal features recognition are the core of this study. Their integration should make the design process faster and manufacturing-friendly products easier to design. The triangulation method is the basis for this research. The sections of this triangle are: scientific literature review, interview using the Delphi method and the author’s experience and observations. The main key findings of this study are: (1) the area of focus in triangle (the triangle of three different point of views: business, information exchange and technical) depends on the person’s background and their role in the company, (2) the classification in the PDM system (and also in the CAD system) should be done using the materials, tools and machines that are in use in the company and (3) the design process has to be more effective because of the increase of industrial production, sheet metal blank production and the designer’s time spent on actual design and (4) because Design For Manufacture (DFM) integration can be done with CAD-programs, DFM integration with the PDM system should also be possible.

‘Just how (re)usable is Research Data? A legal perspective’ - A poster summarizing the recommendations of the OpenAIRE legal and licensing study.

Poster at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Automatic traffic sign inventory- and condition analysis

This thesis researches automatic traffic sign inventory and condition analysis using machine vision and pattern recognition methods. Automatic traffic sign inventory and condition analysis can be used to more efficient road maintenance, improving the maintenance processes, and to enable intelligent driving systems. Automatic traffic sign detection and classification has been researched before from the viewpoint of self-driving vehicles, driver assistance systems, and the use of signs in mapping services. Machine vision based inventory of traffic signs consists of detection, classification, localization, and condition analysis of traffic signs. The produced machine vision system performance is estimated with three datasets, from which two of have been been collected for this thesis. Based on the experiments almost all traffic signs can be detected, classified, and located and their condition analysed. In future, the inventory system performance has to be verified in challenging conditions and the system has to be pilot tested.

Biomass Utilization in PFC Co-firing System with the Slagging and Fouling Analysis

Master’s thesis Biomass Utilization in PFC Co-firing System with the Slagging and Fouling Analysis is the study of the modern technologies of different coal-firing systems: PFC system, FB system and GF system. The biomass co-fired with coal is represented by the research of the company Alstom Power Plant. Based on the back ground of the air pollution, greenhouse effect problems and the national fuel security today, the bioenergy utilization is more and more popular. However, the biomass is promoted to burn to decrease the emission amount of carbon dioxide and other air pollutions, new problems form like slagging and fouling, hot corrosion in the firing systems. Thesis represent the brief overview of different coal-firing systems utilized in the world, and focus on the biomass-coal co-firing in the PFC system. The biomass supply and how the PFC system is running are represented in the thesis. Additionally, the new problems of hot corrosion, slagging and fouling are mentioned. The slagging and fouling problem is simulated by using the software HSC Chemistry 6.1, and the emissions comparison between coal-firing and co-firing are simulated as well.

A phonological and tonal analysis of Samue using Optimality Theory

The topic of the present doctoral dissertation is the analysis of the phonological and tonal structures of a previously largely undescribed language, namely Samue. It is a Gur language belonging to the Niger-Congo language phulym, which is spoken in Burkina Faso. The data were collected during the fieldwork period in a Sama village; the data include 1800 lexical items, thousands of elicited sentences and 30 oral texts. The data were first transcribed phonetically and then the phonological and tonal analyses were conducted. The results show that the phonological system of Samue with the phoneme inventory and phonological processes has the same characteristics as other related Gur languages, although some particularities were found, such as the voicing and lenition of stop consonants in medial positions. Tonal analysis revealed three level tones, which have both lexical and grammatical functions. A particularity of the tonal system is the regressive Mid tone spreading in the verb phrase. The theoretical framework used in the study is Optimality theory. Optimality theory is rarely used in the analysis of an entire language system, and thus an objective was to see whether the theory was applicable to this type of work. Within the tonal analysis especially, some language specific constraints had to be created, although the basic Optimality Theory principle is the universal nature of the constraints. These constraints define the well-formedness of the language structures and they are differently ranked in different languages. This study gives new insights about typological phenomena in Gur languages. It is also a fundamental starting point for the Samue language in relation to the establishment of an orthography. From the theoretical point of view, the study proves that Optimality theory is largely applicable in the analysis of an entire sound system.

Making home rules for mother tongues : the legal implications of linguistic diversity in the design of autonomy regimes

Principen om nationalismen där det politiska och det nationella är samspelt kan vara av markant betydelse för uppbyggande av autonomiska regimer. Likaså tillåter decentralicering och delegering av befogenheter för språk och utbildning (officiellt erkännande av språk, standardisering av språk, undervisningsspråk och relaterade läroplaner) formning av identiteter inom dessa autonomiska regimer. Resultatet är en ofullkomlig cirkulär relation där språk, samfund och politiska institutioner ömsesidigt och kontinuerligt formar varandra: lingvistiskt mångfald prägar och formger autonomiska ordningar och vice-versa. De juridiska implikationerna av territoriella och icke-territoriella former av autonomi är dock av en annan art. Emedan territoriell autonomi bygger på idéen om ett eventuellt inkluderande hemland för lingvistiska grupper, vars vistelseort är avgörande, förstärker den icke-territoriella autonomin idéen om ett exclusivt samfund bestående av själv-identifierade medlemmar som är kapabla till självstyre oavsett territoriella gränser. Denna avhandling utgör an analys av sådana juridiska implikationer genom komparativa och institutionella analyser. Avhandlingen föreslår som resultat en serie av normativa och pragmatiska rekommendationer inriktade på att främja demokratiseringsprocesser i linje med principer om multikulturalism.

Development and Effect Analysis of the Asteri Consultative Auditing Process - Safety and Security Management in Educational Institutions

The Finnish legislation requires for a safe and secure learning environment. However, the comprehensive, risk based safety and security management (SSM) and the management commitment in the implementation and development of the SSM are not mentioned in the legislation. Multiple institutions, operators and researchers have studied and developed safety and security in educational institutions over the past decade. Typically the approach has been fragmented and without bringing up the importance of the comprehensive SSM. The development needs of the safety and security operations in universities have been studied. However, in universities of applied sciences (UASs) and in elementary schools (ESs), the performance level, strengths and weaknesses of the comprehensive SSM have not been studied. The objective of this study was to develop the comprehensive, risk based SSM of educational institutions by developing the new Asteri consultative auditing process and study its effects on auditees. Furthermore, the performance level in the comprehensive SSM in UASs and ESs were studied using Asteri and the TUTOR model developed by the Keski-Uusimaa Department for Rescue Services. In addition, strengths, development needs and differences were identified. In total, 76 educational institutions were audited between the years 2011 and 2014. The study is based on logical empiricism, and an observational applied research design was used. Auditing, observation and an electronic survey were used for data collection. Statistical analysis was used to analyze the collected information. In addition, thematic analysis was used to analyze the development areas of the organizations mentioned by the respondents in the survey. As one of the main contributions, this research presents the new Asteri consultative auditing process. Organizations with low performance levels on the audited subject benefit the most from the Asteri consultative auditing process. Asteri may be usable in many different types of audits, not only in SSM audits. As a new result, this study provides new knowledge on attitudes related to auditing. According to the research findings, auditing may generate negative attitudes and the auditor should take them into account when planning and preparing for audits. Negative attitudes can be compensated by producing added value, objectivity and positivity for the audit and, thus, improve the positive effects of auditing on knowledge and skills. Moreover, as the results of this study shows, auditing safety and security issues do not increase feelings of insecurity, but rather increase feelings of safety and security when using the new Asteri consultative auditing process with the TUTOR model. The results showed that the SSM in the audited UASs was statistically significantly more advanced than that in the audited ESs. However, there is still room for improvement in the ESs and the UASs as the approach to the SSM was fragmented. It can be assumed that the majority of Finnish UASs and ESs do not likely meet the basic level of the comprehensive, risk based the SSM.