Convergence and divergence in global economy and social development : global perspectives on the contents of economic and soical development policy and its effects on rich and poor countries

The study of convergence and divergence in global economy and social development utilises comparative indicators to investigate the contents of economic and social development policy and their effects on the global samples that represent the rich industrial, semi-industrial and the poor developing nations. The study searchesfor answers to questions such as "what are the objectives of economic growth policies in globalisation under the imperatives of convergence and divergence, and how do these affect human well-being in consideration to the objectives of social policy in various nations?" The empirical verification of data utilises the concepts of the `logic of industrialism´ for comparative analysis that focuses mainly on identifying the levels of well-being in world nations after the Second World War. The perspectives of convergence and divergence in global economy and social development critically examine the stages of early development processes in global economy, distinguish the differences between economy and social development, illustrate the contents of economic and social development policies, their effects on rich and poor countries, and the nature of convergence and divergence in propelling economic growth and unequal social development in world nations. The measurement of convergence and divergence in global economy and social development utilised both economic and social data that were combined into an index that measures the precise levels of the effects of economic and social development policies on human well-being in the rich and poor nations. The task of finding policy solutions to resolve the controversies are reviewed through empirical investigations and the analyses of trends indicated within economic and social indicators and data. These revealed how the adoption of social policy measures in translating the gains from economic growth, towards promoting education, public health, and equity, generate social progress and longer life expectancy, higher economic growth, and sustain more stable macro economy for the nations. Social policy is concerned with the translation of benefits from objectives of global economic growth policies, to objectives of social development policy in nation states. Social policy, therefore, represents an open door whereby benefits of economic growth policies are linked with the broader objectives of social development policy, thereby enhancing the possibility of extending benefits from economic growth to all human being in every nation.

Use of preclinical and early clinical data for dose selection of a selective estrogen receptor modulator toremifene in treatment of breast cancer

In development of human medicines, it is important to predict early and accurately enough the disease and patient population to be treated as well as the effective and safe dose range of the studied medicine. This is pursued by using preclinical research models, clinical pharmacology and early clinical studies with small sample sizes. When successful, this enables effective development of medicines and reduces unnecessary exposure of healthy subjects and patients to ineffectice or harmfull doses of experimental compounds. Toremifene is a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) used for treatment of breast cancer. Its development was initiated in 1980s when selection of treatment indications and doses were based on research in cell and animal models and on noncomparative clinical studies including small number of patients. Since the early development phase, the treatment indication, the patient population and the dose range were confirmed in large comparative clinical studies in patients. Based on the currently available large and long term clinical study data the aim of this study was to investigate how the early phase studies were able to predict the treatment indication, patient population and the dose range of the SERM. As a conclusion and based on the estrogen receptor mediated mechanism of action early studies were able to predict the treatment indication, target patient population and a dose range to be studied in confirmatory clinical studies. However, comparative clinical studies are needed to optimize dose selection of the SERM in treatment of breast cancer.

Virtuaalitekniikoiden ja riskianalyysin käyttö kivenmurskainten tuotekehityksessä

Tässä työssä keskitytään Metso Mineralsin valmistamien tuotteiden suunnitteluympäristöön ja erityisesti sen kehittämismahdollisuuksiin uusien teknologioiden avulla. Käyttövarmuuden parantamiseksi yksi potentiaalisimmista keinoista on parantaa laitteiden huollettavuutta. Tyypillisesti huollettavuuden verifiointi tapahtuu vasta prototyyppien testauksessa työmaaolosuhteissa, jolloin havaittujen ongelmien muuttaminen on hankalaa. Siksi huollettavuuteen tulisi kiinnittää enemmän huomiota jo tuotekehitysvaiheessa. Tässä työssä selvitetään virtuaalitekniikoiden tarjoamia mahdollisuuksia em. asioiden parantamiseksi. Työn toisena osakokonaisuutena tutkitaan riskianalyysien kehittämismahdollisuuksia. Tavoitteena on kehittää toimiva menetelmä riskianalyysin suorittamiseen virtuaaliprototyyppien avulla ja testata kaupallisten riskianalyysiin tarkoitettujen sovellusten käyttöä. Lopuksi tarkastellaan vielä uusien menetelmien integrointia osaksi tuotekehitysprosessia. Tehtyjen Case-tutkimusten perusteella havaittiin, että virtuaaliympäristöjen ja -tekniikoiden avulla saavutetaan hyötyä tuotekehityksen varhaisessa vaiheessa. Kyselytutkimuksesta saadun palautteen perusteella virtuaalitekniikoiden sovelluksille annettiin asteikolla 1–5 yleisarvosanaksi keskimäärin kolme. Virtuaalitekniikoiden ja riskianalyysien yhteiskäyttöä testattiin onnistuneesti, mutta tämä vaatii vielä kehittämistä.

Ion mobility spectrometry in liquid analysis

Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) is a straightforward, low cost method for fast and sensitive determination of organic and inorganic analytes. Originally this portable technique was applied to the determination of gas phase compounds in security and military use. Nowadays, IMS has received increasing attention in environmental and biological analysis, and in food quality determination. This thesis consists of literature review of suitable sample preparation and introduction methods for liquid matrices applicable to IMS from its early development stages to date. Thermal desorption, solid phase microextraction (SPME) and membrane extraction were examined in experimental investigations of hazardous aquatic pollutants and potential pollutants. Also the effect of different natural waters on the extraction efficiency was studied, and the utilised IMS data processing methods are discussed. Parameters such as extraction and desorption temperatures, extraction time, SPME fibre depth, SPME fibre type and salt addition were examined for the studied sample preparation and introduction methods. The observed critical parameters were extracting material and temperature. The extraction methods showed time and cost effectiveness because sampling could be performed in single step procedures and from different natural water matrices within a few minutes. Based on these experimental and theoretical studies, the most suitable method to test in the automated monitoring system is membrane extraction. In future an IMS based early warning system for monitoring water pollutants could ensure the safe supply of drinking water. IMS can also be utilised for monitoring natural waters in cases of environmental leakage or chemical accidents. When combined with sophisticated sample introduction methods, IMS possesses the potential for both on-line and on-site identification of analytes in different water matrices.

Virus Infections in Early Childhood, Cow’s Milk Formula Exposure and Genetic Predisposition in the Development of Diabetes-Associated Autoimmunity

Varhaislapsuuden virusinfektioiden, lehmänmaitopohjaisen äidinmaitovastikeen ja geneettisen alttiuden merkitys diabetekseen liittyvän autoimmuniteetin kehittymisessä Tyypin 1 diabetes on autoimmuunisairaus, joka syntyy haiman insuliinia tuottavien beta-solujen tuhouduttua elimistön oman immuunipuolustusjärjestelmän hyökkäyksen seurauksena. Sekä perimän että ympäristötekijöiden arvellaan vaikuttavan tautiprosessiin, mutta taudin tarkkaa syntymekanismia ei tunneta. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selvittää varhaislapsuuden ympäristötekijöiden vaikutusta beta-soluautoimmuniteetin syntyyn, erityispaino tutkimuksessa oli ympäristötekijöiden yhteisvaikutuksessa sekä geneettisten riskitekijöiden ja ympäristötekijöiden vuorovaikutuksessa. Varhaislapsuudessa sairastettu sytomegalovirus- tai enterovirusinfektio ei lisännyt beta-soluautoimmuniteetin riskiä lapsilla, joilla on geneettisesti kohonnut riski sairastua tyypin 1 diabetekseen. Ennen puolen vuoden ikää sairastettu rotavirusinfektio lisäsi hieman tyypin 1 diabetekseen liittyvän autoimmuniteetin riskiä. Tarkemmassa analyysissa varhaislapsuuden enterovirusinfektio osoittautui kuitenkin autovasta-aineiden muodostumisen riskitekijäksi niiden lasten joukossa, jotka olivat saaneet lehmänmaitopohjaista äidinmaidon vastiketta ensimmäisten elinkuukausien aikana. Tämä löydös viittaa enterovirusinfektion ja lehmänmaitopohjaisen vastikkeen yhteisvaikutukseen tyypin 1 diabetekseen liittyvän autoimmuniteetin synnyssä. Löydösten mukaan PTPN22 geenin C1858T polymorfismi vaikuttaa CD4+ T solujen aktivaatioon ja proliferaatiovasteeseen, 1858T alleeliin liittyy alentunut T-soluresepto-rivälitteinen aktivaatio. 1858T alleelin kantajuuteen liittyy lisäksi lisääntynyt autovasta-aineiden ja kliinisen diabeteksen ilmaantuvuus. Tämä yhteys rajoittui yksilöihin, jotka olivat altistuneet lehmänmaitopohjaiselle vastikkeelle ennen kuuden kuukauden ikää. Tulosten mukaan sekä ympäristötekijöiden väliset yhteisvaikutukset että perimä vaikuttavat yksittäisen ympäristötekijän merkitykseen tyypin 1 diabetekseen liittyvän autoimmuniteetin synnyssä. Nämä yhteisvaikutukset ympäristötekijöiden kesken ja perimän ja ympäristötekijöiden välillä selittävät aiemmin julkaistujen tulosten ristiriittaisuutta tutkimuksissa, joissa on analysoitu vain yhden ympäristötekijän vaikutusta diabeteksen ilmaantuvuuteen.

The Influence of spanish vihuela and lute music on the development of early seventeenth century english keyboard music as exemplified in the Fitzwilliam virginal book

Digitoitu 29.10 2008.

Integrating user experience into early phases of software development

The value and benefits of user experience (UX) are widely recognized in the modern world and UX is seen as an integral part of many fields. This dissertation integrates UX and understanding end users with the early phases of software development. The concept of UX is still unclear, as witnessed by more than twenty-five definitions and ongoing argument about its different aspects and attributes. This missing consensus forms a problem in creating a link between UX and software development: How to take the UX of end users into account when it is unclear for software developers what UX stands for the end users. Furthermore, currently known methods to estimate, evaluate and analyse UX during software development are biased in favor of the phases where something concrete and tangible already exists. It would be beneficial to further elaborate on UX in the beginning phases of software development. Theoretical knowledge from the fields of UX and software development is presented and linked with surveyed and analysed UX attribute information from end users and UX professionals. Composing the surveys around the identified 21 UX attributes is described and the results are analysed in conjunction with end user demographics. Finally the utilization of the gained results is explained with a proof of concept utility, the Wizard of UX, which demonstrates how UX can be integrated into early phases of software development. The process of designing, prototyping and testing this utility is an integral part of this dissertation. The analyses show statistically significant dependencies between appreciation towards UX attributes and surveyed end user demographics. In addition, tests conducted by software developers and industrial UX designer both indicate the benefits and necessity of the prototyped Wizard of UX utility. According to the conducted tests, this utility meets the requirements set for it: It provides a way for software developers to raise their know-how of UX and a possibility to consider the UX of end users with statistical user profiles during the early phases of software development. This dissertation produces new and relevant information for the UX and software development communities by demonstrating that it is possible to integrate UX as a part of the early phases of software development.

Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity in the Development of Early Mathematical Skills

The aim of the present set of longitudinal studies was to explore 3-7-year-old children.s Spontaneous FOcusing on Numerosity (SFON) and its relation to early mathematical development. The specific goals were to capture in method and theory the distinct process by which children focus on numerosity as a part of their activities involving exact number recognition, and individual differences in this process that may be informative in the development of more complex number skills. Over the course of conducting the five studies, fifteen novel tasks were progressively developed for the SFON assessments. In the tasks, confounding effects of insufficient number recognition, verbal comprehension, other procedural skills as well as working memory capacity were aimed to be controlled. Furthermore, how children.s individual differences in SFON are related to their development of number sequence, subitizing-based enumeration, object counting and basic arithmetic skills was explored. The effect of social interaction on SFON was tested. Study I captured the first phase of the 3-year longitudinal study with 39 children. It was investigated whether there were differences in 3-year-old children.s tendency to focus on numerosity, and whether these differences were related to the children.s development of cardinality recognition skills from the age of 3 to 4 years. It was found that the two groups of children formed on the basis of their amount of SFON tendency at the age of 3 years differed in their development of recognising and producing small numbers. The children whose SFON tendency was very predominant developed faster in cardinality related skills from the age of 3 to 4 years than the children whose SFON tendency was not as predominant. Thus, children.s development in cardinality recognition skills is related to their SFON tendency. Studies II and III were conducted to investigate, firstly, children.s individual differences in SFON, and, secondly, whether children.s SFON is related to their counting development. Altogether nine tasks were designed for the assessments of spontaneous and guided focusing on numerosity. The longitudinal data of 39 children in Study II from the age of 3.5 to 6 years showed individual differences in SFON at the ages of 4, 5 and 6 years, as well as stability in children.s SFON across tasks used at different ages. The counting skills were assessed at the ages of 3.5, 5 and 6 years. Path analyses indicated a reciprocal tendency in the relationship between SFON and counting development. In Study III, these results on the individual differences in SFON tendency, the stability of SFON across different tasks and the relationship of SFON and mathematical skills were confirmed by a larger-scale cross-sectional study of 183 on average 6.5-year-old children (range 6;0-7;0 years). The significant amount of unique variance that SFON accounted for number sequence elaboration, object counting and basic arithmetic skills stayed statistically significant (partial correlations varying from .27 to .37) when the effects of non-verbal IQ and verbal comprehension were controlled. In addition, to confirm that the SFON tasks assess SFON tendency independently from enumeration skills, guided focusing tasks were used for children who had failed in SFON tasks. It was explored whether these children were able to proceed in similar tasks to SFON tasks once they were guided to focus on number. The results showed that these children.s poor performance in the SFON tasks was not caused by their deficiency in executing the tasks but on lacking focusing on numerosity. The longitudinal Study IV of 39 children aimed at increasing the knowledge of associations between children.s long-term SFON tendency, subitizing-based enumeration and verbal counting skills. Children were tested twice at the age of 4-5 years on their SFON, and once at the age of 5 on their subitizing-based enumeration, number sequence production, as well as on their skills for counting of objects. Results showed considerable stability in SFON tendency measured at different ages, and that there is a positive direct association between SFON and number sequence production. The association between SFON and object counting skills was significantly mediated by subitizing-based enumeration. These results indicate that the associations between the child.s SFON and sub-skills of verbal counting may differ on the basis of how significant a role understanding the cardinal meanings of number words plays in learning these skills. The specific goal of Study V was to investigate whether it is possible to enhance 3-year old children.s SFON tendency, and thus start children.s deliberate practice in early mathematical skills. Participants were 3-year-old children in Finnish day care. The SFON scores and cardinality-related skills of the experimental group of 17 children were compared to the corresponding results of the 17 children in the control group. The results show an experimental effect on SFON tendency and subsequent development in cardinality-related skills during the 6-month period from pretest to delayed posttest in the children with some initial SFON tendency in the experimental group. Social interaction has an effect on children.s SFON tendency. The results of the five studies assert that within a child.s existing mathematical competence, it is possible to distinguish a separate process, which refers to the child.s tendency to spontaneously focus on numerosity. Moreover, there are significant individual differences in children.s SFON at the age of 3-7 years. Moderate stability was found in this tendency across different tasks assessed both at the same and at different ages. Furthermore, SFON tendency is related to the development of early mathematical skills. Educational implications of the findings emphasise, first, the importance of regarding focusing on numerosity as a separate, essential process in the assessments of young children.s mathematical skills. Second, the substantial individual differences in SFON tendency during the childhood years suggest that uncovering and modeling this kind of mathematically meaningful perceiving of the surroundings and tasks could be an efficient tool for promoting young children.s mathematical development, and thus prevent later failures in learning mathematical skills. It is proposed to consider focusing on numerosity as one potential sub-process of activities involving exact number recognition in future studies.

Planning and control of internal development projects in a fast changing environment: Case study

Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on kuvata ja ymmärtää kuinka sisäisiä kehityshankkeita voidaan hallita onnistuneesti kun toimitaan nopeasti muuttuvassa ympäristössä. Tutkimus kuvailee etenkin projekteille tärkeitä menestymistekijöitä, kuten suunnittelu, kontrollointi ja päätöksenteko. Tutkimus selvittää yleisimmät ongelma-alueet case-organisaation sisäisten kehityshankkeiden hallinnassa. Tutkimus on luonteeltaan laadullinen tutkimus, jossa tutkimusmenetelmänä on käytetty tapaustutkimusta. Empiirisessa osassa käsittellään case-organisaation sisäisiä informaatioteknologia-hankkeita (IT) ja uusien konseptien kehityshankkeita (NCD). iSisäisten kehityshankkeiden erilaisuuden ymmärtäminen oli tutkimuksen tärkein tulos. Tutkimuksen empiirinen osio osoitti sen, että epävarmuudella on erittäin suuri vaikutus projektihallintaan sekä projektin kontrollointiin. Case-organisaation IT-projektien onnistuminen riippuu organisaatiomuu-toksen onnistumisesta. Asiakkaisiin ja markkinoihin liittyvät epävarmuudet ovat vaikuttavimmat NCD projektien epävarmuuksista. Näillä epävarmuuk-sil­la on vaikutusta projektihallintaan jonka myötä NCD projektit juuttuvat useim­mi­ten noidankehiin tai ne lopetetaan jo aikaisessa vaiheessa.

Russian transition in the early 21st century

Tässä tutkimuksessa käsitellään Venäjän talouden kehitystä uudella vuosituhannella. Kylmän sodan aikaan Neuvostoliitto oli suurvalta, jonka asema perustui sotilasmahtiin. Sotateollisuuden konversio palvelemaan nykytarpeita ei ole ollut helppo tehtävä. Vuoden 1998 talouskriisin jälkeen elintaso on toipunut verraten nopeasti, mikä on nähtävissä tarkastellessa kotitalouksien kulutusrakenteita, joita käsitellään tarkemmin luvussa 2. Siirtymätalouksissa vaihtotaseen vajeet ovat yleisiä, mutta luonnonrikkauksiensa ansiosta Venäjän vaihtotaseet ovat olleet huomattavan ylijäämäisiä, mitä pohditaan luvussa 3. Vaihtotaseen ylijäämien heijatusvaikutus on ollut Venäjän rooli pääomien nettoviejänä. Venäjän investointikertymä onedelleen erittäin vaatimaton suhteutettuna maan kehitysvaiheeseen. Jokaisessa menestyksekkäässä taloudessa investoinnit ovat pitkän aikavälintaloudellisen menestyksen avaintekijä. Venäjän erityispiirteitä tähän liittyen on kuvattu luvussa 4. Raportti päättyy talouden nykytilanteen analyysiin (luvut 5 ja 6).

Supporting knowledge creation and sharing in the early phases of the strategic innovation process

The driving forces of technology and globalization continuously transform the business landscape in a way which undermines the existing strategies and innovations of organizations. The challenge for organizations is to establish such conditions where they are able to create new knowledge for innovative business ideas in interaction between other organizations and individuals. Innovation processes continuously need new external stimulations and seek new ideas, new information and knowledge locating more and more outside traditional organizational boundaries. In several studies, the early phases of the innovation process have been considered as the most critical ones. During these phases, the innovation process can emerge or conclude. External knowledge acquirement and utilization are noticed to be important at this stage of the innovation process giving information about the development of future markets and needs for new innovative businessideas. To make it possible, new methods and approaches to manage proactive knowledge creation and sharing activities are needed. In this study, knowledge creation and sharing in the early phases of the innovation process has been studied, and the understanding of knowledge management in the innovation process in an open and collaborative context advanced. Furthermore, the innovation management methods in this study are combined in a novel way to establish an open innovation process and tested in real-life cases. For these purposes two complementary and sequentially applied group work methods - the heuristic scenario method and the idea generation process - are examined by focusing the research on the support of the open knowledge creation and sharing process. The research objective of this thesis concerns two doctrines: the innovation management including the knowledge management, and the futures research concerning the scenario paradigm. This thesis also applies the group decision support system (GDSS) in the idea generation process to utilize the converged knowledge during the scenario process.

Selected Aspects Related to Pre-development Stages of International Software projects. Case of Finland and Russia

The question of Pilot Project creation, due to support pre-development stage of software product elaboration, nowadays might be used as an approach, which allows improving the whole scheme of information technology project running. This subject is not new, but till now no model has been presented, which gives deep description of this important stage on the early phase of project. This Master's Thesis represents the research's results and findings concerning the pre-development study from the Software Engineering point of view. The aspects of feasibility study, pilot prototype developments are analyzed in this paper. As the result, the technique of Pilot Project is formulated and scheme has been presented. The experimental part is focused on particular area Pilot Project scheme's implementation- Internationally Distributed Software projects. The specific characteristic, aspects, obstacles, advantages and disadvantages are considered on the example of cross border region of Russia and Finland. The real case of Pilot Project technique implementation is given.

Physical layer development in third generation protocol software architecture

Diplomityön tavoitteena oli kehittää kolmannen sukupolven fyysistä protokollakerrosta matkapuhelimen ohjelmistoarkkitehtuurille. Kolmannen sukupolven matkapuhelinjärjestelmät ovat aikaisempia järjestelmiä monimutkaisempia. Ohjelmiston koon ja monimutkaisuuden sekä aikataulujen kiireellisyyden vuoksi on tullut tarve ottaa käyttöön formaaleja menetelmiä ohjelmiston kehitystyöhön. Formaalit kuvauskielet mahdollistavat tarkan, yksiselitteisen ja simuloitavissa olevan järjestelmäkuvauksen muodostamisen. Fyysinen protokollakerros tarjoaa tiedon siirtoa ylemmille protokollakerroksille. Tämän tiedonsiirron hallinta vaatii protokollakerrosten välistä viestinvälitystä. Formaaleja kuvauskieliä käyttämällä voidaan viestinvälityksen toteutusta automatisoida ja siinä tarvittavaa logiikkaa havainnollistaa. Työssä suunniteltiin, toteutettiin ja testattiin ylempien protokollakerrosten kanssa kommunikoivaa osaa fyysisestä protokollakerroksesta. Tuloksena saatiin solunvalintatoiminnallisuuden vaatiman kommunikoinnin ja tilakoneen toteutus ohjelmistoarkkitehtuurissa. Ohjelmistonkehityksen alkuvaiheiden havaittiin olevan fyysisen kerroksen suorituskyvyn kannalta merkittävässä asemassa, koska tällöin viestinvälityksen optimointi on helpointa. Formaalit kuvauskielet eivät ole sellaisenaan täysin soveltuvia tarkoin määritellyn ohjelmistoarkkitehtuurin osien kehitykseen.

User-driven community-based service development

This final thesis project was carried out in the Industrial Management department of University of Applied Sciences Stadia for Forum Virium Helsinki. The purpose of this study was to answer to the question of how companies can use online customer community of co-creation in service development and what is the value gained from it. The paper combines a range of recently published theoretical works and ongoing customer community case development. The study aims to provide new information and action approaches to new service developers that may increase the success of the community building process. The paper also outlines the benefits of the use of online customer community and offers practical suggestions for maximizing the value gained from the community in service development projects. The concepts and suggestions introduced in the study appear to have notable new possibilities to the service development process but they have to be further tested empirically. This paper describes the online consumer community of co-creation to an important organizational process of innovation management suggesting that it possesses a great value to business. Online customer communities offer a potential of improving the success of new services or products enabling early, penetrable market entry and creating sustainable competitive advantage.