Finnish game developers’ perception on public and private funding sources: a survey analysis

The aim of this study is to find out how game companies perceive the three traditional funding sources and how well their opinions and needs are reflected on the choices they make. To accomplish this, 20 game companies were questioned about multiple topics with the help of Tekes and Neogames. The results of this study show that game developers clearly differentiate the three major funding sources and the public sector ends up being the most significant source of external funding. This study also points out that most game companies are indeed facing issues in acquiring funding as well as various other resources.

Integration of Torrefaction with Steam Power Plant

Torrefaction is one of the pretreatment technologies to enhance the fuel characteristics of biomass. The efficient and continuous operation of a torrefaction reactor, in the commercial scale, demands a secure biomass supply, in addition to adequate source of heat. Biorefinery plants or biomass-fuelled steam power plants have the potential to integrate with the torrefaction reactor to exchange heat and mass, using available infrastructure and energy sources. The technical feasibility of this integration is examined in this study. A new model for the torrefaction process is introduced and verified by the available experimental data. The torrefaction model is then integrated in different steam power plants to simulate possible mass and energy exchange between the reactor and the plants. The performance of the integrated plant is investigated for different configurations and the results are compared.

Kaasupoljinohjeen toteuttaminen hybridilinja-auton säätöjärjestelmälle

Sähkö- ja hybridiajoneuvot yleistyvät tiukentuvien päästömääräysten seurauksena, koska sähkömoottoritekniikan avulla ajoneuvon kokonaishyötysuhdetta on mahdollista parantaa merkittävästi. Akkujen kapasiteettiin, kokoon, painoon ja latausaikoihin liittyvien ongelmien vuoksi sekä nestemäistä polttoainetta että sähköä hyödyntävä hybriditekniikka on toistaiseksi pelkkään sähkökäyttöön verrattuna usein toimivampi toteutus. Vanhojen hyötyajoneuvojen hybridikonversiot saattavatkin yleistyä, jos voidaan osoittaa, että konversio on toteutettavissa järkevin resurssein ja voidaan laatia konversion teknisiä haasteita helpottavia ohjeita. Syksyllä 2012 käynnistyi Lappeenrannan Teknillisen Yliopiston vetämä CAMBUS-projekti, jossa on tarkoitus kehittää kaupallisesti tarjolla olevia järjestelmiä pätevämpi hybriditekniikka linja-autokäyttöön. Tämä kandidaatintyö pyrkii kirjallisuuskatsauksen keinoin selvittämään, minkälainen kaasupolkimen toteutus olisi tätä hybridikonversiota ajatellen paras kuljettajan kontrolloiman säätöohjeen käytännön toteutukseen. Lähdemateriaalina on käytetty mm. Boschin ja Automobiltechnische Zeitschriftin ajoneuvoalan käsikirjoja ja oppikirjoja, Volkswagenin koulutuskäsikirjoja ja täydentävästi tieteellisiä artikkeleita ja patentteja. Niiden pohjalta on koottu yleisimmät tämänhetkiset tekniset toteutustavat, pohdittu tiedonsiirron ja sähkömagneettisen yhteensopivuuden haasteita, sekä kokonaissäätöjärjestelmän näkökulmasta säätöohjeen suuretta. Selvityksen perusteella polkimen asentotunnistuksen kannalta oleellista on turvallisuus, eli lähinnä mekaaninen kestävyys ja riittävä häiriösuojaus. Ajoneuvossa ilmeneviä voimakkaita magneettikenttiä hyvin sietävä digitaalinen väyläjärjestelmä voi hyvin toteutettuna myös yksinkertaistaa ajoneuvon sähköjärjestelmän muuta toteutusta. Aineistojen perusteella vääntömomentti on luonnollisin valinta ohjaussuureeksi. Vääntömomenttiohjeen avulla voidaan helposti luoda selkeä ja johdonmukainen tuntuma kuljettajalle voimanlähteiden turvalliseen hallintaan ja se helpottaa myös kommunikointia pidonhallintajärjestelmän ja muiden ajoneuvon hallintaan liittyvien järjestelmien kanssa.

Virtual communities : a virtual treasure trove for end-user developers

End-user development is a very common but often largely overlooked phenomenon in information systems research and practice. End-user development means that regular people, the end-users of software, and not professional developers are doing software development. A large number of people are directly or indirectly impacted by the results of these non-professional development activities. The numbers of users performing end-user development activities are difficult to ascertain precisely. But it is very large, and still growing. Computer adoption is growing towards 100% and many new types of computational devices are continually introduced. In addition, other devices not previously programmable are becoming so. This means that, at this very moment, hundreds of millions of people are likely struggling with development problems. Furthermore, software itself is continually being adapted for more flexibility, enabling users to change the behaviour of their software themselves. New software and services are helping to transform users from consumers to producers. Much of this is now found on-line. The problem for the end-user developer is that little of this development is supported by anyone. Often organisations do not notice end-user development and consequently neither provide support for it, nor are equipped to be able to do so. Many end-user developers do not belong to any organisation at all. Also, the end-user development process may be aggravating the problem. End-users are usually not really committed to the development process, which tends to be more iterative and ad hoc. This means support becomes a distant third behind getting the job done and figuring out the development issues to get the job done. Sometimes the software itself may exacerbate the issue by simplifying the development process, deemphasising the difficulty of the task being undertaken. On-line support could be the lifeline the end-user developer needs. Going online one can find all the knowledge one could ever need. However, that does still not help the end-user apply this information or knowledge in practice. A virtual community, through its ability to adopt the end-user’s specific context, could surmount this final obstacle. This thesis explores the concept of end-user development and how it could be supported through on-line sources, in particular virtual communities, which it is argued here, seem to fit the end-user developer’s needs very well. The experiences of real end-user developers and prior literature were used in this process. Emphasis has been on those end-user developers, e.g. small business owners, who may have literally nowhere to turn to for support. Adopting the viewpoint of the end-user developer, the thesis examines the question of how an end-user could use a virtual community effectively, improving the results of the support process. Assuming the common situation where the demand for support outstrips the supply.

Crowdfunding and its utilization for startup finance in Finland – factors of a successful campaign

This thesis studies crowdfunding with qualitive methods to introduce the phenomenon as well as provide guidance to those interested in its utilization. Knowledge and ideas were gathered form several sources, from academic literature to commercial media and expert interviews. Crowdfunding has already demonstrated its ability to impact the startup scene but is still far from being utilized to its full extent, especially in Finland, where even its legality has been questioned. Crowd financing can provide capital to entrepreneurs who might not otherwise be able to obtain funding as well as enable crowdsourcing the funders in several ways. A successful campaign, however, requires a wealth of knowledge on the subject, careful planning and hard work on the implementation. The thesis will provide most benefit to entrepreneurs who are considering the use of this new form of finance, but should also be of value for investors, academics, politicians and everyone else interested in the subject.

The role of network externalities in value creating process of the commercial web service for two-sided international markets

Network externalities and two-sided markets in the context of web services and value creation is not very well discussed topic in academic literature. The explosive rise of the Internet users has created a strong base for many successful web services and pushed many firms towards e-business and online service based business models. Thus the subject of this thesis, the role of network externalities in value creating process of the commer-cial web service for two-sided international markets is very current and interesting topic to examine. The objective of this Master’s Thesis is to advance the study of network externalities from the viewpoint of two-sided markets and network effects as well as describe the value creation & value co-creation process in commercial web service business models. The main proposition suggests that the larger network of customers and the bigger number of users the web service is able to attract, the more value and stronger positive net-work externalities the service is able to create for each customer group. The empirical research of this study was implemented for commercial web service, targeted to Russian consumers and Finnish business users. The findings suggest that the size of the network is highly related to the experi-enced value of the customers and the whole value creation process of commercial web targeted for two-sided international markets varies from the value creation for one-sided or pure domestic markets.

Deoxygenation of fatty acids for production of fuels and chemicals

The decreasing fossil fuel resources combined with an increasing world energy demand has raised an interest in renewable energy sources. The alternatives can be solar, wind and geothermal energies, but only biomass can be a substitute for the carbon–based feedstock, which is suitable for the production of transportation fuels and chemicals. However, a high oxygen content of the biomass creates challenges for the future chemical industry, forcing the development of new processes which allow a complete or selective oxygen removal without any significant carbon loss. Therefore, understanding and optimization of biomass deoxygenation processes are crucial for the future bio–based chemical industry. In this work, deoxygenation of fatty acids and their derivatives was studied over Pd/C and TiO2 supported noble metal catalysts (Pt, Pt–Re, Re and Ru) to obtain future fuel components. The 5 % Pd/C catalyst was investigated in semibatch and fixed bed reactors at 300 °C and 1.7–2 MPa of inert and hydrogen–containing atmospheres. Based on extensive kinetic studies, plausible reaction mechanisms and pathways were proposed. The influence of the unsaturation in the deoxygenation of model compounds and industrial feedstock – tall oil fatty acids – over a Pd/C catalyst was demonstrated. The optimization of the reaction conditions suppressed the formation of by–products, hence high yields and selectivities towards linear hydrocarbons and catalyst stability were achieved. Experiments in a fixed bed reactor filled with a 2 % Pd/C catalyst were performed with stearic acid as a model compound at different hydrogen–containing gas atmospheres to understand the catalyst stability under various conditions. Moreover, prolonged experiments were carried out with concentrated model compounds to reveal the catalyst deactivation. New materials were proposed for the selective deoxygenation process at lower temperatures (~200 °C) with a tunable selectivity to hydrodeoxygenation by using 4 % Pt/TiO2 or decarboxylation/decarbonylation over 4 % Ru/TiO2 catalysts. A new method for selective hydrogenation of fatty acids to fatty alcohols was demonstrated with a 4 % Re/TiO2 catalyst. A reaction pathway and mechanism for TiO2 supported metal catalysts was proposed and an optimization of the process conditions led to an increase in the formation of the desired products.

On advancing business intelligence in the electricity retail market

In recent decades, business intelligence (BI) has gained momentum in real-world practice. At the same time, business intelligence has evolved as an important research subject of Information Systems (IS) within the decision support domain. Today’s growing competitive pressure in business has led to increased needs for real-time analytics, i.e., so called real-time BI or operational BI. This is especially true with respect to the electricity production, transmission, distribution, and retail business since the law of physics determines that electricity as a commodity is nearly impossible to be stored economically, and therefore demand-supply needs to be constantly in balance. The current power sector is subject to complex changes, innovation opportunities, and technical and regulatory constraints. These range from low carbon transition, renewable energy sources (RES) development, market design to new technologies (e.g., smart metering, smart grids, electric vehicles, etc.), and new independent power producers (e.g., commercial buildings or households with rooftop solar panel installments, a.k.a. Distributed Generation). Among them, the ongoing deployment of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) has profound impacts on the electricity retail market. From the view point of BI research, the AMI is enabling real-time or near real-time analytics in the electricity retail business. Following Design Science Research (DSR) paradigm in the IS field, this research presents four aspects of BI for efficient pricing in a competitive electricity retail market: (i) visual data-mining based descriptive analytics, namely electricity consumption profiling, for pricing decision-making support; (ii) real-time BI enterprise architecture for enhancing management’s capacity on real-time decision-making; (iii) prescriptive analytics through agent-based modeling for price-responsive demand simulation; (iv) visual data-mining application for electricity distribution benchmarking. Even though this study is from the perspective of the European electricity industry, particularly focused on Finland and Estonia, the BI approaches investigated can: (i) provide managerial implications to support the utility’s pricing decision-making; (ii) add empirical knowledge to the landscape of BI research; (iii) be transferred to a wide body of practice in the power sector and BI research community.

Rakennettu areenatähteys. Rock-konsertti globalisoituvana mediaspektaakkelina 1965-2013

Kulttuurihistorian alaan kuuluva artikkeliväitöskirja edustaa populaarikulttuurin ja tarkemmin populaarimusiikin tutkimusta kiinnittyen ennen muuta audiovisuaalisen mediakulttuurin muutokseen 1960-luvulta tähän päivään. Väitöskirja käsittelee Pink Floydin, The Rolling Stonesin, U2:n ja Peter Gabrielin areenakonserttikiertueita ja kyseisten kiertueiden lavasuunnittelijoiden Mark Fisherin ja Robert Lepagen toimintaa. Tutkimus tarkastelee, miten jättiläismäiset mediaspektaakkelit saivat alkunsa, ammattimaistuivat ja globalisoituivat vuosien 1965–2013 välillä. Analyysin kohteena on se, miten ne rakentuivat ja toisaalta rakensivat areenatähteyttä sekä uudistivat audiovisuaalista kulttuuria. Konserttien avainkohtia ja populaarijulkisia aineistoja hermeneuttisesti tulkiten ja lähilukien sekä historiallisesti kontekstoiden tutkimus rakentaa kulttuurihistoriallisen kokonaistulkinnan viihdeteollisuuden mahtipontiseksi muotoutuneen ilmiön tuotannosta. Tutkimuksen lähtökohtana on populaarimusiikkitähden vaikutus 1900-luvun jälkipuoliskon ja 2000-luvun alun massamediassa ja kulttuurissa. Tarkastelemalla areenarockin mediaspektaakkeleiden kulttuurihistoriaa tutkimus ottaa kantaa niihin kaupallisiin, teknologisiin ja poliittisiin muutoksiin, jotka ovat viimeisen viidenkymmenen vuoden aikana mahdollistaneet tähteyden globaalia leviämistä. Tämän muutoksen seurauksena lähes kenestä tahansa voi tulla tähti ja lähes mistä tahansa kulttuuri-ilmiöstä voi tulla populaaria. Mutta vain jotkut tähdet ja yhtyeet esiintyvät täysille areenoille. Areenakonsertit ovatkin tähteysilmiön keskeisiä huipentumia, globaalin viihdekulttuurin äärimmäisiä manifestaatioita. Nykyiset areenoilla tapahtuvat mediaspektaakkelit ovat monimutkaista audiovisuaalista musiikkiteatteria, jossa kaikkien esityksen elementtien – teatraalisten ja audiovisuaalisten efektien – tulee olla mahdollisimman suuria ja taitavasti rytmitettyjä. Mediaspektaakkelien analyysissa tulee erityisesti kohdistaa huomio erilaisten medioiden suhteisiin sekä kysymykseen siitä, miten suuri osa audiovisuaalista konserttikokemusta itse asiassa on ennalta rakennettua ja nauhoitettua. Lavasuunnittelu yhdistää esiintyjän teatraaliset eleet ja esiintymisen laajempaan audiovisuaaliseen ja ennalta mietittyyn temaattiseen kokonaisuuteen. Tähän kuuluvat suurten konserttilavojen kertakäyttöarkkitehtuuri, valon ja pintojen yhdistäminen populaariin kuvastoon sekä itse teoksien audiovisuaalisen kerronnan historiallisiin ja nostalgisiin viitteisiin.

La Suisse : carte itinéraire projeté sur les messures trigonometriques les plus nouvelles et d'après les meilleurs sources avec le plan des villes de Berne, Bâle, Zurich, Genéve, Lausanne et la Chaux de Fonds = Die Schweiz : besonders für die Reisende nach den neuesten trigonometrischen Vermessungen u. den besten Quellen entworfen mit den Plänen von Bern, Basel, Zürich, Genf, Lausanne, la Chaux de Fonds

Kartta kuuluu A. E. Nordenskiöldin kokoelmaan

Map of a part of eastern Asia to show the commercial position of the productive coal fields of Yesso, Japan

Kartta kuuluu A. E. Nordenskiöldin kokoelmaan

Map of the sources of Snake River : with its tributaries together with portions of the headwaters of the Madison and Yellowstone from surveys and observations of the Snake River Expedition

Kartta kuuluu A. E. Nordenskiöldin kokoelmaan

Map of the sources of Snake River : with its tributaries together with portions of the headwaters of the Madison and Yellowstone from surveys and observations of the Snake River Expedition

Kartta kuuluu A. E. Nordenskiöldin kokoelmaan

Nouvelle carte générale et détaillée de l'Europe offrant le tableau actuel, géographique, politique et commercial de tous ses états, leurs limites respectives, les fleuves, les rivières, les grandes chaînes des montaignes et les principales routes, les divisions et subdivisions de cette partie du monde, depuis le traité de Tilsit : dressées d'après les cartes particulières françaises et étrangères les plus détaillées, les plus nouvelles, les éstimées, avec des changements, des restificatios, et les positions assujéties aux observations astronomiques les plus récentes, déterminées par les académiciens et autres savants

Kartta kuuluu A. E. Nordenskiöldin kokoelmaan