Design and characterization of large area position sensitive radiation detectors

Planar, large area, position sensitive silicon detectors are widely utilized in high energy physics research and in medical, computed tomography (CT). This thesis describes author's research work relating to development of such detector components. The key motivation and objective for the research work has been the development of novel, position sensitive detectors improving the performance of the instruments they are intended for. Silicon strip detectors are the key components of barrel-shaped tracking instruments which are typically the innermost structures of high energy physics experimental stations. Particle colliders such as the former LEP collider or present LHC produce particle collisions and the silicon strip detector based trackers locate the trajectories of particles emanating from such collisions. Medical CT has become a regular part of everyday medical care in all developed countries. CT scanning enables x-ray imaging of all parts of the human body with an outstanding structural resolution and contrast. Brain, chest and abdomen slice images with a resolution of 0.5 mm are possible and latest CT machines are able to image whole human heart between heart beats. The two application areas are presented shortly and the radiation detection properties of planar silicon detectors are discussed. Fabrication methods and preamplifier electronics of the planar detectors are presented. Designs of the developed, large area silicon detectors are presented and measurement results of the key operating parameters are discussed. Static and dynamic performance of the developed silicon strip detectors are shown to be very satisfactory for experimental physics applications. Results relating to the developed, novel CT detector chips are found to be very promising for further development and all key performance goals are met.

Vääräkosken kartonkitehdas - sata vuotta ähtäriläistä pahvia

Ähtärissä Hyvölänjoen varrella oleva Vääräkoski oli teollisen toiminnan keskuksena pyöreät sata vuotta. Kosken partaalle vuonna 1898 perustetun kartonkitehtaan toiminta päättyi vararikkoon vuonna 1998. Vääräkosken kartonkitehdas luokiteltiin valtakunnallisesti arvokkaaksi kulttuurihistorialliseksi ympäristöksi Museoviraston ja ympäristöministeriön julkaisemassa selvityksessä ”Rakennettu kulttuuriympäristö” (1993). Tehtaan rakennukset ja laitteet suojeltiin rakennussuojelulailla vuonna 2002. Siirtyminen lumpun käytöstä puumassaan merkitsi metsäteollisuuden murrosta 1860-luvulla myös Suomessa. Muutos merkitsi puuhiomoteollisuuden syntymistä. Pahvinvalmistusteknologia kehittyi 1890-luvun lopulla teknisten keksintöjen seurauksena. Käsityövaltaisesta, monta erillistä vaihetta vaatineesta pahvin valmistuksesta voitiin siirtyä koneelliseen prosessiteollisuuteen. Ensimmäinen kartonkikone hankittiin Saksasta 1897 Inkeroisten tehtaalle. Vääräkosken kartonkitehtaalle vuonna 1901 tilattu kartonkikone oli järjestysnumeroltaan viides Suomessa. Vääräkosken kartonkitehdas oli maan mittakaavassa pieni ja sen toiminta pysyi suunnilleen samansuuruisena aina päättymiseensä asti. Tuotanto keskittyi kartonkiin, jota tehtaan ainoa kartonkikone valmisti 1000–4000 tonnia vuodessa. Vääräkosken tehdasympäristön arvo perustuu monipuolisuutensa säilyttäneeseen tehdaskokonaisuuteen, lähes alkuperäisinä säilyneisiin rakennuksiin ja laitteisiin, joista kartonkikone on teollisuushistoriamme ainoita yli satavuotiaita. Tämä inventointiraportti julkaistaan, jotta Vääräkosken kartonkitehtaasta jäisi edes jotakin luettavaa historian kirjoihin.

21 tapaa, sanaa ja tekoa yrittäjyydestä

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

Dam safety guide

A new Dam Safety Act (494/2009) came into force on 1st October 2009 and a Government Decree on Dam Safety (319/2010) on 5th May 2010. This Dam Safety Guide replaces the Dam Safety Code of Practice (Publication of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry 7/1997), removed from circulation on 1st October 2009. The Dam Safety Guide is not binding on the dam owner; the purpose is to complement and elucidate the relevant law and and decree through examples and descriptions. The Guide takes up questions concerning dam design, for instance hydrological dimensioning and technical safety requirements, dam construction and use, the dam break hazard analysis and the dam owner’s emergency action plan, maintenance, use, monitoring as well as the annual and periodic inspections. Dams are classified according to the hazard they pose into class 1, 2 or 3 dams. The classification is not needed, if, according to the dam safety authority, the dam poses no danger. The owner of a classified dam must prepare a monitoring programme, to be approved by decision of the dam safety authority. To establish the hazard caused by a dam, the owner of a class 1 dam must prepare an analysis of the dam hazard to humans and property as well as to the environment. The dam safety authority may also require a dam break hazard analysis for a dam other than class 1 dam if deemed necessary for classification. The owner of a class 1 dam must prepare a plan of measures in case of emergency or operational failure. The plan shall present the dam owner’s state of preparedness to act on their own initiative in the situations described above. In each case, the rescue authorities make a separate assessment for the need to prepare a plan as set out in the Rescue Act. The dam owner must provide the information specified in the Dam Safety Decree to be entered into the dam safety information system. The dam safety authority and the owner of the dam must keep up-to-date printouts in their own dam safety files from the information system for each dam as well as other important documents connected with dam safety to ensure that these are readily available in case of disturbance.

Dammsäkerhetsguide

Den nya dammsäkerhetslagen (494/2009) trädde i kraft 1.10.2009 och statsrådets förordning om dammsäkerhet (319/2010) 5.5.2010. Denna dammsäkerguide ersätter anvisningarna för dammsäkerhet (Jord- och skogsbruksministeriets publikationer 7/1997) som togs ur bruk 1.10.2009. Dammsäkerhetsguiden är inte bindande för dammens ägare. Avsikten är att komplettera, och att genom exempel och utredningar förklara, det som lagen och förordningen föreskriver. Guiden tar upp dammplanering, bland annat den hydrologiska dimensioneringen och dammens tekniska säkerhetskrav, dammbygge och ibruktagandet samt riskutredningen, dammägarens säkerhetsprogram och dammens underhåll, drift, kontroll samt årlig och återkommande inspektion. Dammar indelas på basis av skadekonsekvenserna i klasserna 1, 2 och 3. Klassificering krävs inte om dammsäkerhetsmyndigheten anser att dammen inte medför fara. Ägaren till en klassificerad damm skall utarbeta ett kontrollprogram som lämnas in till dammsäkerhetsmyndigheten för godkännande. I syfte att klargöra den skaderisk som dammen medför ska ägaren till en klass 1-damm göra en utredning om den skaderisk för människor och egendom samt miljön som dammen medför. Dammsäkerhetsmyndigheten kan besluta att en riskutredning ska göras också för andra än klass 1-dammar, om detta behövs för att klassificera en damm. Dammägaren ska göra upp en plan för åtgärder vid en olycka eller störningar vid en klass 1-damm. Säkerhetsprogrammet för en damn ska innehålla en redogörelse för dammägarens egen beredskap i ovan nämnda situationer. Räddningsmyndigheten bedömer från fall till fall behovet av en åtgärdsplan enligt räddningslagen. Dammens ägare ska till dammsäkerhetsmyndighetens datasystem lämna de uppgifter som avses i dammsäkerhetsförordningen. Dammsäkerhetsmyndigheten och dammägaren ska för varje klassificerad damm förvara uppdaterade utskrifter ur datasystemet samt andra handlingar som är av betydelse med tanke på dammsäkerheten på så sätt att de är lättillgängliga vid eventuella störningar.

Social Solidarity and Fear of Crime - Community and Individual Approaches in Responses to Mass Violence after School Shootings

The aim of this study was to examine community and individual approaches in responses to mass violence after the school shooting incidents in Jokela (November 2007) and Kauhajoki (September 2008), Finland. In considering the community approach, responses to any shocking criminal event may have integrative, as well as disintegrative effects, within the neighborhood. The integration perspective argues that a heinous criminal event within one’s community is a matter of offence to collectively held feelings and beliefs, and increases perceived solidarity; whereas the disintegration perspective suggests that a criminal event weakens the social fabric of community life by increasing fear of crime and mistrust among locals. In considering the individual approach, socio-demographic factors, such as one’s gender, are typically significant indicators, which explain variation in fear of crime. Beyond this, people are not equally exposed to violent crime and therefore prior victimization and event related experiences may further explain why people differ in their sensitivity to risk from mass violence. Finally, factors related to subjective mental health, such as depressed mood, are also likely to moderate individual differences in responses to mass violence. This study is based on the correlational design of four independent cross-sectional postal surveys. The sampling frames (N=700) for the surveys were the Finnish speaking adult population aged 18–74-years. The first mail survey in Jokela (n=330) was conducted between May and June 2008, approximately six months from the shooting incident at the local high-school. The second Jokela survey (n=278) was conducted in May–June of 2009, 18 months removed from the incident. The first survey in Kauhajoki (n=319) was collected six months after the incident at the local University of Applied Sciences, March– April 2009, and the second (n=339) in March–April 2010, approximately 18 months after the event. Linear and ordinal regression and path analysis are used as methods of analyses. The school shootings in Jokela and Kauhajoki were extremely disturbing events, which deeply affected the communities involved. However, based on the results collected, community responses to mass violence between the two localities were different. An increase in social solidarity appears to apply in the case of the Jokela community, but not in the case of the Kauhajoki community. Thus a criminal event does not necessarily impact the wider community. Every empirical finding is most likely related to different contextual and event-specific factors. Beyond this, community responses to mass violence in Jokela also indicated that the incident was related to a more general sense of insecurity and was also associating with perceived community deterioration and further suggests that responses to mass violence may have both integrating and disintegrating effects. Moreover, community responses to mass violence should also be examined in relation to broader social anxieties and as a proxy for generalized insecurity. Community response is an emotive process and incident related feelings are perhaps projected onto other identifiable concerns. However, this may open the door for social errors and, despite integrative effects, this may also have negative consequences within the neighborhood. The individual approach suggests that women are more fearful than men when a threat refers to violent crime. Young women (aged 18–34) were the most worried age and gender group as concerns perception of threat from mass violence at schools compared to young men (aged 18–34), who were also the least worried age and gender group when compared to older men. It was also found that concerns about mass violence were stronger among respondents with the lowest level of monthly household income compared to financially better-off respondents. Perhaps more importantly, responses to mass violence were affected by the emotional proximity to the event; and worry about the recurrence of school shootings was stronger among respondents who either were a parent of a school-aged child, or knew a victim. Finally, results indicate that psychological wellbeing is an important individual level factor. Respondents who expressed depressed mood consistently expressed their concerns about mass violence and community deterioration. Systematic assessments of the impact of school shooting events on communities are therefore needed. This requires the consolidation of community and individual approaches. Comparative study designs would further benefit from international collaboration across disciplines. Extreme school violence has also become a national concern and deeper understanding of crime related anxieties in contemporary Finland also requires community-based surveys.

Varareittisuunnitelma Pohjois-Pohjanmaan ELY-keskuksen alueen itäosan kantateille : Kantatiet 75, 76, 78, 81 ja 89

Pääteillä esiintyvien häiriöiden, kuten onnettomuuksien, tietöiden, tapahtumien ja poikkeuksellisten ruuhkatilanteiden varalle tarvitaan varareittejä, joille liikenne voidaan häiriön sattuessa ohjata joko kokonaan tai osittain. Varareitit ja niiden opastus tulee olla ennalta suunniteltuja, jolloin niiden käyttöönotto sujuu häiriötilanteessa mahdollisimman vaivattomasti eri viranomaisten yhteistyönä. Häiriötilanteiden hallinnassa paitsi suunnitellut varareitit ja niiden liikenteen ohjaus, myös tiivis yhteistyö eri viranomaisten välillä on oleellista tilanteen sujuvan hoitamisen kannalta. Tässä raportissa on esitetty Pohjois-Pohjanmaan itäosan kantateille liikenteen häiriötilanteissa käytettävät varareitit, häiriöpaikalla tapahtuvan liikenteenohjauksen periaatekuva sekä varareittien liikenteenohjaussuunnitelmat. Suunnittelualueella on, kuten pääsääntöisesti koko Suomen tieverkolla, varsin vähän lyhyitä ja aina kaikelle liikenteelle soveltuvia varareittejä. Tämän vuoksi suunnitelmassa määritettiin varsinkin raskaan liikenteen tarpeita ajatellen myös pidempiä varareittejä. Pidemmille varareiteille liikennettä ohjattaessa korostuu tiedotuksen ja liikenteenohjauskaluston tärkeys. Varareitin aktivoinnissa ja liikenteenohjauksen järjestämisessä korostuu yhteistyö liikenneviraston tieliikennekeskuksen kanssa. ELYkeskus vastaa kustannuksista, urakoitsijan kanssa tehdyn sopimuksen mukaisesti, jotka syntyvät urakoitsijan toiminnasta häiriöhallintatilanteen purkamisessa