Ethnic sensitive substance abuse work : services for non-Finnish speaking clients in substance abuse treatment units in Finland today

The purpose of this study was to examine the current situation in substance abuse treatment units in Finland in taking non-Finnish speaking clients into consideration. The initiative for this research came from the Development of Alcohol and Drugs Intervention group at Stakes (National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health). Their aim was to gather information about the functioning and relevance of the quality assessment forms based on the quality recommendations for substance abuse work, filled in by substance abuse treatment units. The ethnic issue was chosen as the main approach in the study. The aim of this research was to answer the following questions: what is the readiness and competence in substance abuse treatment units in Finland to receive and encounter non-Finnish speaking clients, how is the quality of these services assessed and/or developed in the units, and what has been the role and functioning of the quality recommendations and quality assessment forms in working with non-Finnish speaking clients. The research methods used in the study were both quantitative and qualitative. The information concerning language services provided in the units was gathered from the quality assessment forms and basic information forms found in the database maintained by Stakes. The total amount of units found in the database was 267. In addition to that, semi-structured theme-interviews were carried out in four substance abuse treatment units in order to get a more deep understanding of how the services function in practice. The few number of non-Finnish speaking clients in the units may explain to a certain degree the results of the research. The results however showed that there is still space for improving the services. In the light of quality recommendations, the degree of language options provided in substance abuse treatment units in Finland today is low. Also the quantity of interpreter services provided in the units is scarce. There could also be unified guidelines specially tailored for substance abuse treatment units on how to work with ethnic minorities, as the knowledge is currently adopted from several different instances. The quality recommendations as well as quality assessment forms were valued and applied in the units appropriately and were also perceived to have an effect on the functioning, and quality, in the units.

Selvityksiä reaktiokalorimetrin soveltuvuudesta hydrometallurgiaan

Tämän työn tavoitteena oli reaktiokalorimetrin käyttöönotto sekä sen käyttökelpoisuuden selvittäminen hydrometallurgisten sovellusten ja erityisesti sinkkisulfidin liuotuksen tutkimiseen. Työn kirjallisuusosassa on käsitelty yleisellä tasolla kalorimetrian ja reaktiokalorimetrian teoriaa, termodynamiikkaa sekä sinkkirikasteen liuotuksen kemiaa. Lisäksi työssä esitellään erilaisten kalorimetrien ja termoanalyyttisten mittauslaitteiden toimintaperiaatteita. Työn kokeellisessa osassa selvitettiin reaktiokalorimetrin mittaustulosten tarkkuutta vesi- kokeiden avulla. Laitteistolla määritettiin myös reaktiolämmöt sinkkisulfidin liukenemisreaktiolle sekä elohopeasuolan saostusreaktiolle. Lisäksi tutkittiin sekoitusnopeuden, lämpötilan ja kiintoainepitoisuuden vaikutusta mittaustuloksiin. Reaktiokalorimetrillä suoritettujen kokeiden perusteella havaittiin, että reaktiolämpöjen absoluuttisten arvojen määrittäminen laitteistolla on käytännössä vaikeaa. Koska reaktiokalorimetrillä pystytään määrittämään vain mittauksen aikana tapahtunut kokonaislämpömuutos, vaikuttavat mahdolliset faasimuutokset ja reaktorin lämpöhäviöt mittaustuloksiin. Näiden tekijöiden vaikutus on pyrittävä eliminoimaan tai niiden vaikutus on tunnettava tarkkaan, jos laitteella halutaan saada luotettavia reaktiolämpömittaustuloksia. Laitteiston mittaustarkkuus huononee huomattavasti, kun reaktorin lämpötila nousee yli 60 °C:een. Laitteistolla mitatut reaktiolämmöt poikkeavat huomattavasti vastaavista kirjallisuuden arvoista. Vedelle määritetyt ominaislämpökapasiteetit poikkeavat kirjallisuuden arvoista enintään 5 alle 90 °C:een lämpötilassa.

Bayesian Estimation of Noise

In mathematical modeling the estimation of the model parameters is one of the most common problems. The goal is to seek parameters that fit to the measurements as well as possible. There is always error in the measurements which implies uncertainty to the model estimates. In Bayesian statistics all the unknown quantities are presented as probability distributions. If there is knowledge about parameters beforehand, it can be formulated as a prior distribution. The Bays’ rule combines the prior and the measurements to posterior distribution. Mathematical models are typically nonlinear, to produce statistics for them requires efficient sampling algorithms. In this thesis both Metropolis-Hastings (MH), Adaptive Metropolis (AM) algorithms and Gibbs sampling are introduced. In the thesis different ways to present prior distributions are introduced. The main issue is in the measurement error estimation and how to obtain prior knowledge for variance or covariance. Variance and covariance sampling is combined with the algorithms above. The examples of the hyperprior models are applied to estimation of model parameters and error in an outlier case.

Hammashihnajohdeakseleiden liikkeiden synkronointi

Nykyisessä valmistusteollisuudessa erilaisten robottien ja automatisoitujen tuotantovaiheiden rooli on erittäin merkittävä. Tarkasti suunnitellut liikkeet ja toimintavaiheet voidaan nykyisillä järjestelmillä ajoittaa tarkasti toisiinsa nähden, jolloin erilaisten virhetilanteidenkin sattuessa järjestelmä pystyy toimimaan tilanteen edellyttämällä tavalla. Automatisoinnin etuna on myös tuotannon muokkaaminen erilaisten tuotteiden valmistamiseen pienillä muutoksilla, jolloin tuotantokustannukset pysyvät matalina myös pienten valmistuserien tapauksissa. Usean akselin laitteissa eli niin sanotuissa moniakselikäytöissä laitteen toimintatarkkuus riippuu jokaisen liikeakselin tarkkuudesta. Liikkeenohjauksessa on perinteisesti ollut käytössä myötäkytketty paikkakaskadi, jonka virityksessä otetaan huomioon akselilla olevat erilaiset dynaamiset tilat ja käytettävät referenssit. Monissa nykyisissä hajautetuissa järjestelmissä eli moniakselikäytöissä, joissa jokaiselle akselille on oma ohjauslaite, ei yksittäisen akselin paikkavirhettä huomioida muiden akseleiden ohjauksessa. Työssä tutkitaan erilaisia moniakselijärjestelmien ohjausmenetelmiä ja myötäkytketyn paikkakaskadin toimintaa moniakselikäytössä pyritään parantamaan tuomalla paikkasäätimen rinnalle toinen säädin, jonka tulona on akseleiden välinen paikkaero.

A simulation model of the optimal maintenance strategy: conceptual agent-based approach

In this Master’s thesis agent-based modeling has been used to analyze maintenance strategy related phenomena. The main research question that has been answered was: what does the agent-based model made for this study tell us about how different maintenance strategy decisions affect profitability of equipment owners and maintenance service providers? Thus, the main outcome of this study is an analysis of how profitability can be increased in industrial maintenance context. To answer that question, first, a literature review of maintenance strategy, agent-based modeling and maintenance modeling and optimization was conducted. This review provided the basis for making the agent-based model. Making the model followed a standard simulation modeling procedure. With the simulation results from the agent-based model the research question was answered. Specifically, the results of the modeling and this study are: (1) optimizing the point in which a machine is maintained increases profitability for the owner of the machine and also the maintainer with certain conditions; (2) time-based pricing of maintenance services leads to a zero-sum game between the parties; (3) value-based pricing of maintenance services leads to a win-win game between the parties, if the owners of the machines share a substantial amount of their value to the maintainers; and (4) error in machine condition measurement is a critical parameter to optimizing maintenance strategy, and there is real systemic value in having more accurate machine condition measurement systems.

Statistical analysis of survey-based event history data with application to modeling of unemployment duration

Longitudinal surveys are increasingly used to collect event history data on person-specific processes such as transitions between labour market states. Surveybased event history data pose a number of challenges for statistical analysis. These challenges include survey errors due to sampling, non-response, attrition and measurement. This study deals with non-response, attrition and measurement errors in event history data and the bias caused by them in event history analysis. The study also discusses some choices faced by a researcher using longitudinal survey data for event history analysis and demonstrates their effects. These choices include, whether a design-based or a model-based approach is taken, which subset of data to use and, if a design-based approach is taken, which weights to use. The study takes advantage of the possibility to use combined longitudinal survey register data. The Finnish subset of European Community Household Panel (FI ECHP) survey for waves 1–5 were linked at person-level with longitudinal register data. Unemployment spells were used as study variables of interest. Lastly, a simulation study was conducted in order to assess the statistical properties of the Inverse Probability of Censoring Weighting (IPCW) method in a survey data context. The study shows how combined longitudinal survey register data can be used to analyse and compare the non-response and attrition processes, test the missingness mechanism type and estimate the size of bias due to non-response and attrition. In our empirical analysis, initial non-response turned out to be a more important source of bias than attrition. Reported unemployment spells were subject to seam effects, omissions, and, to a lesser extent, overreporting. The use of proxy interviews tended to cause spell omissions. An often-ignored phenomenon classification error in reported spell outcomes, was also found in the data. Neither the Missing At Random (MAR) assumption about non-response and attrition mechanisms, nor the classical assumptions about measurement errors, turned out to be valid. Both measurement errors in spell durations and spell outcomes were found to cause bias in estimates from event history models. Low measurement accuracy affected the estimates of baseline hazard most. The design-based estimates based on data from respondents to all waves of interest and weighted by the last wave weights displayed the largest bias. Using all the available data, including the spells by attriters until the time of attrition, helped to reduce attrition bias. Lastly, the simulation study showed that the IPCW correction to design weights reduces bias due to dependent censoring in design-based Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazard model estimators. The study discusses implications of the results for survey organisations collecting event history data, researchers using surveys for event history analysis, and researchers who develop methods to correct for non-sampling biases in event history data.

Why did the perfect marriage end : case Cloetta Fazer

Mergers are often used purposeful strategic tool. Previous research has mainly concentrated on actu-al M&A process and to elements leading to that decision. Purpose of this study is to approach de-merger of Cloetta Fazer and research what were the reasons that lead to demerger. Problem is ap-proached by first evaluating was the merger an success in the first place, as described in earlier stud-ies, media and academic research. From this information the motives for demerger are approached. Research material for study is collected from second hand sources. Research data-sample was di-vided into two categories: Timeline Sample & Additional Information Sample. Timeline sample was collected by systematically collecting news from Sanoma News database and Alma News database. This data was indexed and a timeline was constructed. From this timeline key dates, themes and elements were identified and further data gathering was concentrated based on those themes. Results of the study suggest that Merger was not as great success as it was described in earlier years. Explanations why merger ended up into demerger vary greatly. From material key factor, lack of, or error in, long term strategic planning was identified. This was due to death in family during strategy creation and mistakes made in pre-merger phase.

Tukin mittaus ja optimointi sahalinjassa

Tukin mittaus ennen sahausta ja sahausasetteen optimointi on kehittynyt paljon viimeisen 10 vuoden aikana. Sahauksen kannattavuuden huonontuessa raaka-aineen tehokas hyödyntäminen on muodostunut tärkeäksi osaksi prosessia. Mittalaitteiden tekniikan kehityttyä on ollut mahdollista mitata tukin muoto ja halkaisijat eri kohdista entistä tarkemmin. Sahausasetteen optimoinnilla pyritään raaka-aineen mahdollisimman tehokkaaseen käyttöön eli saamaan mahdollisimman hyvä saanto jokaisesta yksittäisestä sahatusta tukista. Mittaustarkkuus on suoraan kytköksissä sahausasetteen optimointi tuloksen onnistumiseen. Yleisesti tukin mittaus ennen sahausta ja sahausasetteen optimointi tulevat samalta toimittajalta. Työssä tarkasteltiin kahden eri toimittajan tukkimittareita sekä optimoinnin onnistumista sen perusteella. Käytössä oli lasikuituinen mallitukki, jota mitattiin kummankin toimittajan mittareilla. Näin voitiin suoraan vertailla mittauksen ja optimoinnin onnistumista ja verrata sitä optimaalisiin tuloksiin. Työssä käytettiin kandidaatintyössä luomaani toimintamallia tukkimittarin tarkkuuden toteamiseksi. Mittaus- ja optimointivirheistä pystyttiin laskemaan, kuinka paljon tappiota sahalaitokselle aiheutui verrattuna optimaaliseen mittaus- ja optimointitulokseen. Jo pienetkin virheet optimoinnissa ja mittauksessa vaikuttavat sahauksen kannattavuuteen, kun tarkastellaan sahalaitosta jossa sahataan 8000 – 10 000 tukkia yhden työvuoron aikana. Tulosten perusteella mittarit mittaavat hieman virheellisesti, ja kummankin mittarin mittausten perusteella saatiin eri sahausasete optimointitulokseksi. Mittavirheen takia voitiin todeta, että parantamalla mittaustarkkuutta voidaan sahauksen kannattavuutta parantaa.

Synopsis oeconomiae

Variantti A.