Separation of Gas Bubbles from Circulation Waters and Pulp Suspensions in Open Channel Flow

The objective of this thesis was to study the removal of gases from paper mill circulation waters experimentally and to provide data for CFD modeling. Flow and bubble size measurements were carried out in a laboratory scale open gas separation channel. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique was used to measure the gas and liquid flow fields, while bubble size measurements were conducted using digital imaging technique with back light illumination. Samples of paper machine waters as well as a model solution were used for the experiments. The PIV results show that the gas bubbles near the feed position have the tendency to escape from the circulation channel at a faster rate than those bubbles which are further away from the feed position. This was due to an increased rate of bubble coalescence as a result of the relatively larger bubbles near the feed position. Moreover, a close similarity between the measured slip velocities of the paper mill waters and that of literature values was obtained. It was found that due to dilution of paper mill waters, the observed average bubble size was considerably large as compared to the average bubble sizes in real industrial pulp suspension and circulation waters. Among the studied solutions, the model solution has the highest average drag coefficient value due to its relatively high viscosity. The results were compared to a 2D steady sate CFD simulation model. A standard Euler-Euler k-ε turbulence model was used in the simulations. The channel free surface was modeled as a degassing boundary. From the drag models used in the simulations, the Grace drag model gave velocity fields closest to the experimental values. In general, the results obtained from experiments and CFD simulations are in good qualitative agreement.

Yritysmuodon vaikutus verotuksen edullisuuteen, case Lahden Betonilattiat Oy / Tmi MR-Rakennus & Remontti

Suomessa verotuksen tarkoituksena ei ole vaikuttaa yritysmuodon valintaan. Yritystä perustettaessa kiinnitetään kuitenkin usein erityistä huomiota verotukseen. Yrityksen ja omistajayrittäjän verotukseen vaikuttavat monet eri tekijät. Yleispäteviä saantoja yritysmuodon vaikutuksesta verotuksen edullisuuteen on mahdoton antaa ja siksi harkinta täytyy tehdä aina tilannekohtaisesti. Tärkeintä verotuksen edullisuuslaskelmissa on kokonaisrasituksen mittaaminen. Tutkimuksessa on vertailtu kahden samalla toimialalla toimivan pienyrityksen yritysmuodon vaikutusta verotuksen edullisuuteen. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on ollut selvittää omistajayrittäjille jäävän nettotulon määrä. Tutkimuksen kohteena olevat yritykset ovat Lahden Betonilattiat Oy ja Tmi MR-Rakennus & Remontti, joista ensimmäinen on yritysmuodoltaan osakeyhtiö ja toinen yksityisliike. Tutkimusongelman ratkaisemiseksi tutkimuksessa on perehdytty yritysten kirjanpitoon ja tilinpaatostietoihin. Niiden avulla on laskettu yritysten nettovarallisuus, tulonmuodostus ja verot. Siten on saatu konkreettinen tulos siitä, kuinka paljon on ollut omistajayrittäjien kokonaisverorasitus ja käteen jäävän nettotulon määrä. Tutkimuksessa on oletettu tilikauden voiton otetun kokonaisuudessaan osakkaan käyttöön. Lisäksi on tutkittu miten tilanne muuttuu voiton ja nettovarallisuuden kasvaessa. Tutkimuksen tulosten perusteella todetaan yksityisliikkeen olevan verotuksen kannalta osakeyhtiötä edullisempi vaihtoehto. Yritysten voiton ja nettovarallisuuden kasvaessa havaitaan yksityisliikkeen lähes aina olevan osakeyhtiötä edullisempi yritysmuoto. Osakeyhtiö on yksityisliikettä edullisempi vaihtoehto ainoastaan silloin, kun sen nettovarallisuus on huomattavan suuri ja paljon yksityisliikkeen nettovarallisuutta suurempi.

Suorituskyvyn analysointijärjestelmän implementointi ammattikorkeakoulussa

Ammattikorkeakoulu on asiantuntijaorganisaatio, joka tietointensiivisenä organisaationa muodostaa haastavan mittausympäristön. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli rakentaa ammattikorkeakoulun koulutusohjelmille suorituskyvyn analysointijärjestelmä. Tutkimuksen toissijaisena tavoitteena oli suorituskyvyn mittaamisen avulla luoda perusta oikeudenmukaiselle ja tasapuoliselle palkitsemisjärjestelmälle. Tutkimuksessa käytettiin pääasiassa konstruktiivista tutkimusotetta, mutta tutkimusote voidaan nähdä vahvasti myös toiminta-analyyttisenä. Tutkimuksen teoriaosassa käsitellään suorituskyvyn analysointijärjestelmän suunnittelua ja käyttöönottoa asiantuntijaorganisaatiossa. Lisäksi perehdytään suorituskyvyn mittaamisen teoriaan ja asiantuntijaorganisaatioita käsittelevään kirjallisuuteen. Tutkimuksen käytännön osassa suorituskyvyn analysointijärjestelmä rakennettiin ja implementoitiin kolmeen case-organisaation koulutusohjelmaan. Kehitetty suorituskyvyn analysointijärjestelmä koostuu kuudesta mittausnäkökulmasta: uudistuminen ja työkyky, opetus, kansainvälisyys, T&K ja maksullinen palvelutoiminta, talous ja vaikuttavuus. Suorituskyvyn analysointijärjestelmän mittausnäkökulmiin määritettiin 16 kriittistä menestystekijää ja niitä mittaamaan valittiin 25 mittaria. Lisäksi tutkimuksessa löydettiin koulutusohjelman ja henkilöstön oikeudenmukaiseen ja tasapuoliseen palkitsemiseen soveltuvia mittareita.

Harmonized performance measurement system for basic industry's service centers

The objective of this study is to create measurement system that is capable to measure performance in basic industry’s service centers. First it is examined what is performance and how it can be measured. The study also introduces commonly known measurement frameworks. After theory the study investigates how companies in the field of basic industry measure their operations in practise. The investigation is done examining three case examples and by analyzing survey results from basic industry companies. On the survey results focus is on what meters and measurement systems companies use. It is also viewed what measurement problems companies have faced. In the applied part of the study harmonized performance measurement system is created. The framework of the measurement system is introduced and measurement system for the target company is created. The target company felt that the harmonized performance measurement system has good potential and continues to develop it further.

Creating a Performance Measurement System for Accounting Services of Large Paper Company

The main objective of this research is creating a performance measurement system for accounting services of a large paper industry company. In this thesis there are compared different performance measurement system and then selected two systems, which are presented and compared more detailed. Performance Prism system is the used framework in this research. Performance Prism using success maps to determining objectives. Model‟s target areas are divided into five groups: stakeholder satisfaction, stakeholder contribution, strategy, processes and capabilities. The measurement system creation began by identifying stakeholders and defining their objectives. Based on the objectives are created success map. Measures are created based on the objectives and success map. Then is defined needed data for measures. In the final measurement system, there are total just over 40 measures. Each measure is defined specific target level and ownership. Number of measures is fairly large, but this is the first version of the measurement system, so the amount is acceptable.

Esimiehen ydinkompetenssit tuloksen ja työtyytyväisyyden selittäjänä – Case S-market

Työn tarkoituksena on kehittää suorittavalle esimiestasolle työkalu, millä voidaan mitata esimiehen kompetensseja. S-market esimiehen ydinosaamiset työssä jakautuvat kahteen kokonaisuuteen vuorovaikutus- ja ketjuyksikön johtamiseen. Työn tavoitteena on myös tarkastella millä esimiehen ydinosaamisella on merkitystä työtyytyväisyyteen ja yrityksen tulokseen. Tutkimus on kvantitatiivinen ja sen aineisto on verkkokyselylomakkeen avulla kerätystä 129 vastauksesta. Verkkokyselylomakkeen väittämät ovat rakennettu esimiestyön kompetensseista, jotka pohjautuvat tutkielman teoriaan. Verkkokyselyn, työtyytyväisyyden ja tuloksen lukuarvot on analysoitu tilastollisella tulostenkäsittelyohjelmalla, SPSS:llä. Työtyytyväisyystulokset ovat koottu tutkimukseen osallistuneen viidentoista S-marketin työtyytyväisyystutkimuksen tuloksista vuodelta 2008. Tuloksen mittareina tutkielmassa on käytetty samojen S-markettien työtehokkuutta ja toimintakateprosenttia vuodelta 2008. Työn tulokset vahvistivat sen, että esimiestyöllä on suora syy-seuraussuhde työtyytyväisyyteen ja tuloksellisuuteen. Tutkimustuloksien perusteella esimieskäyttämisen vaikutus työtyytyväisyyden kokemiseen on vahva. Hyvällä vuorovaikutusjohtamisella tuloksien perusteella oli vaikutusta työtyytyväisyyteen. Tuloksista kävi ilmi, että työtyytyväisyyteen esimiehen kompetensseista eniten vaikuttivat yksilöllinen huomiointi, tavoitteisiin kannustaminen ja motivointi sekä asiakaslähtöisyys. Tuloksen mittareihin eniten vaikutti tulos- ja tavoitejohtaminen. Tuloksellisuuteen vaikuttavat tutkimuksen mukaan esimiehen jämäkkä ja vaativa tavoitteisiin ohjaava toiminta sekä päätöksenteko ja organisointikyky. Tarkempien ja täsmällisimpien S-market esimiehen kompetenssien löytämiseksi kehitysehdotuksena tutkielmassa on laajemman tutkimusaineiston käsittely neljän faktorin avulla.

Supply management capability

The objective of this thesis is to define supply management capability. The thesis study what factors consist of supply management capability, and which of those factors are critical to achieving competitive advantage. One objective is also to study how firms can measure their supply management capability. This study is a qualitative research. The thesis examines the literature regarding to supply management and the context of capability and there are used Delphi panel to examine the current and future insights of supply management professionals concerning of supply management skills and capability. The empirical data of the thesis was collected by interviews. The Delphi panel was used in data collection and analysis and for prioritization of the factors of supply management capability. The thesis includes lists of factors of supply management capability. Main findings of the study were that there is no one clear, generally suitable set of supply management skills which bring competitive advantage for all firms and the most important factors of supply management capability, according to the experts, are total cost analysis, customer focus, general business view, market knowledge and supplier relationships. In this study the supply management capability is defined as organization’s overall capacity and ability to achieve a holistic understanding of purchasing needs, manage its suppliers and collaborative partners, and conduct its internal tasks, routines and responsibilities in a way that achieves desired results. The results of this thesis show also that Finnish firms need more right kind of supply management knowledge.

Objective Evaluation of Nasal Dimensions in Children with Acoustic Rhinometry

Aims: This study was carried out to investigate the usefulness of acoustic rhinometry in the evaluation of intranasal dimensions in children. The aim was to define reference values for school children. In addition, the role of the VAS scale in the subjective evaluation of nasal obstruction in children was studied. Materials and methods: Measurements were done with Acoustic Rhinometry A1. The values of special interest were the minimal cross-sectional area (MCA) and the anterior volume of the nose (VOL). The data for reference values included 124 voluntary school children with no permanent nasal symptoms, aged between 7 and 14 years. Data were collected at baseline and after decongestion of the nose; the VAS scale was filled in before measurements. The subjects in the follow-up study (n=74, age between 1 and 12 years) were receiving intranasal spray of insulin or placebo. The nasal symptoms were recorded and acoustic rhinometry was measured at each control visit. Results: In school children, the mean total MCA was 0.752 cm2 (SD 0.165), and the mean total VOL was 4.00 cm3 (SD 0.63) at baseline. After decongestion, a significant increase in the mean TMCA and in the mean TVOL was found. A correlation was found between TMCA and age, and between TVOL and height of a child. There was no difference between boys and girls. A correlation was found between unilateral acoustic values and VAS at baseline, but not after decongestion. No difference wasfound in acoustic values or symptoms between the insulin and placebo group in the follow-up study of two years. Conclusions: Acoustic rhinometry is a suitable objective method to examine intranasal dimensions in children. It is easy to perform and well tolerated. Reference values for children between 7 and 14 years were established.

Future prospects of short distance rail based passenger transport in Northern Europe

The worlds’ population is increasing and cities have become more crowded with people and vehicles. Communities in the fringe of metropolitans’ increase the traffic done with private cars, but also increase the need for public transportation. People have typically needs traveling to work located in city centers during the morning time, and return to suburbs in the afternoon or evening. Rail based passenger transport is environmentally friendly transport mode with high capacity to transport large volume of people. Railways have been regulated markets with national incumbent having monopoly position. Opening the market for competition is believed to have a positive effect by increasing the efficiency of the industry. National passenger railway market is opened for competition only in few countries, where as international traffic in EU countries was deregulated in 2010. The objective of this study is to examine the passenger railway market of three North European countries, Sweden, Denmark and Estonia. The interest was also to get an understanding of the current situation and how the deregulation has proceeded. Theory of deregulation is unfolded with literature analyses and empirical part of the study is constructed from two parts. Customer satisfaction survey was chosen as a method to collect real life experiences from the passengers and measure their knowledge of the market situation and possible changes appeared. Interviews of experts from the industry and labor unions give more insights and able better understanding for example of social consequences caused from opening the market for competition. Expert interviews were conducted by using semi-structured theme interview. Based on the results of this study, deregulation has proceeded quite differently in the three countries researched. Sweden is the most advanced country, where the passenger railway market is open for new entrants. Denmark and Estonia are lagging behind. Opening the market is considered positive among passengers and most of the experts interviewed. Common for the interviews were the labour unions negative perspective concerning deregulation. Despite the fact deregulation is considered positive among the respondents of the customer satisfaction survey, they could not name railway undertakings operating in their country. Generally respondents were satisfied with the commuter trains. Ticket price, punctuality of trains and itinerary affect the most to customer satisfaction.

Socially Competent Leadership - predictors, impacts and skilling in engineering

Earlier management studies have found a relationship between managerial qualities and subordinate impacts, but the effect of managers‘ social competence on leader perceptions has not been solidly established. To fill the related research gap, the present work embarks on a quantitative empirical effort to identify predictors of successful leadership. In particular, this study investigates relationships between perceived leader behavior and three selfreport instruments used to measure managerial capability: 1) the WOPI Work Personality Inventory, 2) Raven‘s general intelligence scale, and 3) the Emotive Communication Scale (ECS). This work complements previous research by resorting to both self-reports and other-reports: the results acquired from the managerial sample are compared to subordinate perceptions as measured through the ECS other-report and the WOPI360 multi-source appraisal. The quantitative research is comprised of a sample of 8o superiors and 354 subordinates operating in eight Finnish organizations. The strongest predictive value emerged from the ECS self- and other-reports and certain personality dimensions. In contrast, supervisors‘ logical intelligence did not correlate with leadership perceived as socially competent by subordinates. 16 of the superiors rated as most socially competent by their subordinates were selected for case analysis. Their qualitative narratives evidence the role of life history and post-traumatic growth in developing managerial skills. The results contribute to leadership theory in four ways. First, the ECS self-report devised for this research offers a reliable scale for predicting socially competent leader ability. Second, the work identifies dimensions of personality and emotive skills that can be considered predictors of managerial ability and benefited from in leader recruitment and career planning. Third, the Emotive Communication Model delineated on the basis of the empirical data allows for a systematic design and planning of communication and leadership education. Fourth, this workfurthers understanding of personal growth strategies and the role of life history in leader development and training. Finally, this research advances educational leadership by conceptualizing and operationalizing effective managerial communications. The Emotive Communication Model devised directs the pedagogic attention in engineering to assertion, emotional availability and inspiration skills. The proposed methodology addresses classroom management strategies drawing from problem-based learning, student empowerment, collaborative learning, and so-called socially competent teachership founded on teacher immediacy and perceived caring, all constituting strategies moving away from student compliance and teacher modelling. The ultimate educational objective embraces the development of individual engineers and organizational leaders that not only possess traditional analytical and technical expertise and substantive knowledge but are intelligent also creatively, practically, and socially.

Role of Capabilities in Purchasing and Supply Management Performance

The objective of this thesis was to study the role of capabilities in purchasing and supply management. For the pre-understanding of the research topic, purchasing and supply management development and the multidimensional, unstructured and complex nature of purchasing and supply management performance was studied in literature review. In addition, a capability-based purchasing and supply management performance framework were researched and structured for the empirical research. Due to the unstructured nature of the research topic, the empirical research is three-pronged in this study including three different research methods: the Delphi method, semi-structured interview, and case research. As a result, the purchasing and supply management capability assessment tool was structured to measure current level of capabilities and impact of capabilities on purchasing and supply management performance. The final results indicate that capabilities are enablers of purchasing and supply management performance, and therefore critical to purchasing and supply performance.

Feature selection using Fuzzy Entropy measures with Yu's Similarity measure

In this study, feature selection in classification based problems is highlighted. The role of feature selection methods is to select important features by discarding redundant and irrelevant features in the data set, we investigated this case by using fuzzy entropy measures. We developed fuzzy entropy based feature selection method using Yu's similarity and test this using similarity classifier. As the similarity classifier we used Yu's similarity, we tested our similarity on the real world data set which is dermatological data set. By performing feature selection based on fuzzy entropy measures before classification on our data set the empirical results were very promising, the highest classification accuracy of 98.83% was achieved when testing our similarity measure to the data set. The achieved results were then compared with some other results previously obtained using different similarity classifiers, the obtained results show better accuracy than the one achieved before. The used methods helped to reduce the dimensionality of the used data set, to speed up the computation time of a learning algorithm and therefore have simplified the classification task

Generalized Differential Evolution for Global Multi-Objective Optimization with Constraints

The objective of this thesis work is to develop and study the Differential Evolution Algorithm for multi-objective optimization with constraints. Differential Evolution is an evolutionary algorithm that has gained in popularity because of its simplicity and good observed performance. Multi-objective evolutionary algorithms have become popular since they are able to produce a set of compromise solutions during the search process to approximate the Pareto-optimal front. The starting point for this thesis was an idea how Differential Evolution, with simple changes, could be extended for optimization with multiple constraints and objectives. This approach is implemented, experimentally studied, and further developed in the work. Development and study concentrates on the multi-objective optimization aspect. The main outcomes of the work are versions of a method called Generalized Differential Evolution. The versions aim to improve the performance of the method in multi-objective optimization. A diversity preservation technique that is effective and efficient compared to previous diversity preservation techniques is developed. The thesis also studies the influence of control parameters of Differential Evolution in multi-objective optimization. Proposals for initial control parameter value selection are given. Overall, the work contributes to the diversity preservation of solutions in multi-objective optimization.

Käyttöpääoman sitoutuminen ja kiertoajat lääkejakeluketjussa

Työn tavoitteenaan oli selvittää suomalaisen lääkejakeluketjun rakenne sekä saada selkeä kuva ketjun toiminnan tehokkuudesta käyttöpääoman sitoutumisen ja kiertoaikojen osalta. Työn alussa käydään läpi teoriaa ja tutkimusta käyttöpääomasta ja sen erien kiertoajoista sekä erityisesti niiden huomioimisesta arvoketjussa. Lisäksi esitellään Suomen lääkemarkkinoiden toimintaa sekä sen toimijoita. Työn empiirinen osa suoritettiin kahdessa päävaiheessa. Ensin analysoitiin Voitto+ -ohjelmasta saatuja valittujen lääkejakeluketjun yritysten julkisia tilinpäätöstietoja ajalta 2005- 2011. Analysointi perustui käyttöpääoman sekä sen erien myyntisaamisten, ostovelkojen ja vaihto-omaisuuden kiertoaikojen laskemiseen. Ketjun yrityksiä vertailtiin toisiinsa ketjun osien keskimääräisten kiertoaikojen osalta ja saatiin selville niiden suhteellinen sijoittuminen toisiinsa nähden. Työn toisessa päävaiheessa haastateltiin esimerkkitoimijaa käsitellyn lääkejakeluketjun jokaisesta osasta: lääketehdas, tukkujakelija ja apteekki. Työssä huomattiin, että käyttöpääoman kiertoaikaan lääkejakeluketjussa vaikuttaa ensisijaisesti ketjun osan toiminnan luonne ja käyttöpääoman hallinnan tehokkuus lääkejakeluketjun toimijoiden välillä vaihtelee osaamisen ja resurssien mukaan. Ketjun eri osissa painottuvat eri käyttöpääoman erät ja ketjun toiminta on optimoitunut aikojen saatossa hyvin stabiiliin tilaan, jota ketjun jäsenillä ei näytä olevan halua muuttaa. Lääkejakeluketjun käyttöpääomaan hallintaa voitaisiin tehostaa varastonhallintaa parantamalla sekä informaation jakamisella saattamalla kysyntätiedot nopeammin koko ketjun tietoon.