R&D Performance Analysis: Case Studies on the Challenges and Promotion of the Evaluation and Measurement of R&D

Due to the intense international competition, demanding, and sophisticated customers, and diverse transforming technological change, organizations need to renew their products and services by allocating resources on research and development (R&D). Managing R&D is complex, but vital for many organizations to survive in the dynamic, turbulent environment. Thus, the increased interest among decision-makers towards finding the right performance measures for R&D is understandable. The measures or evaluation methods of R&D performance can be utilized for multiple purposes; for strategic control, for justifying the existence of R&D, for providing information and improving activities, as well as for the purposes of motivating and benchmarking. The earlier research in the field of R&D performance analysis has generally focused on either the activities and considerable factors and dimensions - e.g. strategic perspectives, purposes of measurement, levels of analysis, types of R&D or phases of R&D process - prior to the selection of R&Dperformance measures, or on proposed principles or actual implementation of theselection or design processes of R&D performance measures or measurement systems. This study aims at integrating the consideration of essential factors anddimensions of R&D performance analysis to developed selection processes of R&D measures, which have been applied in real-world organizations. The earlier models for corporate performance measurement that can be found in the literature, are to some extent adaptable also to the development of measurement systemsand selecting the measures in R&D activities. However, it is necessary to emphasize the special aspects related to the measurement of R&D performance in a way that make the development of new approaches for especially R&D performance measure selection necessary: First, the special characteristics of R&D - such as the long time lag between the inputs and outcomes, as well as the overall complexity and difficult coordination of activities - influence the R&D performance analysis problems, such as the need for more systematic, objective, balanced and multi-dimensional approaches for R&D measure selection, as well as the incompatibility of R&D measurement systems to other corporate measurement systems and vice versa. Secondly, the above-mentioned characteristics and challenges bring forth the significance of the influencing factors and dimensions that need to be recognized in order to derive the selection criteria for measures and choose the right R&D metrics, which is the most crucial step in the measurement system development process. The main purpose of this study is to support the management and control of the research and development activities of organizations by increasing the understanding of R&D performance analysis, clarifying the main factors related to the selection of R&D measures and by providing novel types of approaches and methods for systematizing the whole strategy- and business-based selection and development process of R&D indicators.The final aim of the research is to support the management in their decision making of R&D with suitable, systematically chosen measures or evaluation methods of R&D performance. Thus, the emphasis in most sub-areas of the present research has been on the promotion of the selection and development process of R&D indicators with the help of the different tools and decision support systems, i.e. the research has normative features through providing guidelines by novel types of approaches. The gathering of data and conducting case studies in metal and electronic industry companies, in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, and in non-profit organizations helped us to formulate a comprehensive picture of the main challenges of R&D performance analysis in different organizations, which is essential, as recognition of the most importantproblem areas is a very crucial element in the constructive research approach utilized in this study. Multiple practical benefits regarding the defined problemareas could be found in the various constructed approaches presented in this dissertation: 1) the selection of R&D measures became more systematic when compared to the empirical analysis, as it was common that there were no systematic approaches utilized in the studied organizations earlier; 2) the evaluation methods or measures of R&D chosen with the help of the developed approaches can be more directly utilized in the decision-making, because of the thorough consideration of the purpose of measurement, as well as other dimensions of measurement; 3) more balance to the set of R&D measures was desired and gained throughthe holistic approaches to the selection processes; and 4) more objectivity wasgained through organizing the selection processes, as the earlier systems were considered subjective in many organizations. Scientifically, this dissertation aims to make a contribution to the present body of knowledge of R&D performance analysis by facilitating dealing with the versatility and challenges of R&D performance analysis, as well as the factors and dimensions influencing the selection of R&D performance measures, and by integrating these aspects to the developed novel types of approaches, methods and tools in the selection processes of R&D measures, applied in real-world organizations. In the whole research, facilitation of dealing with the versatility and challenges in R&D performance analysis, as well as the factors and dimensions influencing the R&D performance measure selection are strongly integrated with the constructed approaches. Thus, the research meets the above-mentioned purposes and objectives of the dissertation from the scientific as well as from the practical point of view.

Paper Surface Image Processing for Roughness Quality Measurement

Diplomityössä on käsitelty paperin pinnankarkeuden mittausta, joka on keskeisimpiä ongelmia paperimateriaalien tutkimuksessa. Paperiteollisuudessa käytettävät mittausmenetelmät sisältävät monia haittapuolia kuten esimerkiksi epätarkkuus ja yhteensopimattomuus sileiden papereiden mittauksissa, sekä suuret vaatimukset laboratorio-olosuhteille ja menetelmien hitaus. Työssä on tutkittu optiseen sirontaan perustuvia menetelmiä pinnankarkeuden määrittämisessä. Konenäköä ja kuvan-käsittelytekniikoita tutkittiin karkeilla paperipinnoilla. Tutkimuksessa käytetyt algoritmit on tehty Matlab® ohjelmalle. Saadut tulokset osoittavat mahdollisuuden pinnankarkeuden mittaamiseen kuvauksen avulla. Parhaimman tuloksen perinteisen ja kuvausmenetelmän välillä antoi fraktaaliulottuvuuteen perustuva menetelmä.

Evaluation of Implementation of BSc IT Curriculum at Tumaini University

In Tanzania computer knowledge is vital to supplement the pace fast growing economic and development activities, which demands high and reliable level of expertise in com- puting field. In 2006, a research carried out at Tumaini University with purpose to design and implement a contextualized curriculum that can supplement for such needs hence facilitate development in Tanzanian context. A contextualized curriculum took advantage of six principles namely curriculum contex- tualization, projects, practical, interdisciplinary orientation, international recognition and continuous research for the program’s formative and development. Implementation of the curriculum followed the CATI (Contextualize, Apply, Transfer, and Import) model with emphasis on students to identify societal expectations at the early stage in learning process, in which case the graduates will potentially cater for societal expertise needs on ICT. This study adopts an emergent exploratory cross-section research design, while employ- ing a qualitative approach. This study was conducted at Tumaini University in Iringa where by purposeful sampling was used to obtain participants such as students, teach- ers, administrators and employers who participated in several focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and participant observation. The study reveals that six principles are satisfactorily met,despite of bottlenecks such as incompatibility in pedagogical thinking and technology availability for e-learning, learning attitudes, insufficient experts with actual skills and experience,in academic field among the others. The study recommends that iterative longitudinal study should be car- ried out to design for proper intervention in response to these problems which will help in improving and stabilize the curriculum.

Salmonella enterica– Mechanisms of fluoroquinolone and macrolide resistance

Salmonella enterica – Fluorokinoloni- ja makrolidiresistenssimekanisimit Vakavia salmonellainfektioita on pitkään hoidettu fluorokinoloniantibiooteilla, kuten siprofloksasiinilla. Fluorokinolonien runsas käyttö niin ihmisillä kuin eläimilläkin on kuitenkin johtanut fluorokinoloniresistenttien salmonellakantojen lisääntymiseen. Vuoteen 2002 asti kaikki matalan tason fluorokinoloniresistenssiä ilmentävät salmonellakannat olivat resistenttejä nalidiksiinihapolle, joka on vanha ensimmäisen polven kinoloniantibiootti jota ei enää käytetä infektioiden hoidossa. Vuonna 2003 havaitsimme aivan uudentyyppisen resistenssifenotyypin salmonelloissa. Kaikki uuden fenotyypin kannat osoittivat matalaa fluorokinoloniresistenssiä (MIC ≥0.125 mg/L), mutta useat kannat olivat yllättäen aikaisempaa herkempiä nalidiksiinihapolle (MIC ≤32 mg/L). Ilmiöllä on suuri merkitys salmonellan antibioottiherkkyyksien määrittämisessä, sillä jos kanta on ollut nalidiksiinihapolle herkkä, sitä on pidetty herkkänä myös fluorokinoloneille. Väitöskirjatyössä määritettiin vuosina 2003–2007 Suomessa kerättyjen kotimaisten ja ulkomaalaisten S. enterica -kantojen fluorokinoloniresistenssiä sekä tutkittiin uuden salmonellafenotyypin epidemiologiaa ja resistenssimekanismeja. Lisäksi tutkittiin salmonellan hoidossa mahdollisesti käyttökelpoisen makrolidiantibioottijohdannaisen, atsitromysiinin tehoa salmonelloihin ja erityisesti matalaa fluorokinoloniresistenssiä ilmentäviin kantoihin. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin, että matalaa fluorokinoloniresistenssiä osoittavien salmonellakantojen määrä vähenee. Lasku oli voimakkainta Kaakkois-Aasiasta tuoduissa kannoissa. Uusi resistenssifenotyyppi on plasmidivälitteinen ja qnr-geenit olivat ainoa plasmidivälitteinen kinoloniresistenssimekanismi, joka kannoista löydettiin. Myöskään kromosomaalisten gyrA, gyrB ja parE -geenien QRDR-alueelta ei löydetty fluorokinoloniresistenssiä aiheuttavia mutaatioita. Transformaatiolla osoitettiin qnr-plasmidien olevan siirtyviä ja uusi resistenssifenotyyppi saatiin ilmennettyä myös herkässä vastaanottajakannassa. Nämä tulokset osoittavat, että vaikka S. enterican qnr-fenotyyppi on toistaiseksi levinnyt pääasiassa Kaakkois-Aasiaan, se siirtyy helposti bakteerista toiseen ja tulee todennäköisesti aiheuttamaan hoito-ongelmia myös muualla maailmassa. Uudentyyppinen qnr-fenotyyppi voi olla vaikea havaita perinteisellä herkkyysmäärityksellä. Siksi laboratorioissa tulisi aina määrittää sekä siprofloksasiiniettä nalidiksiinihappoherkkyydet. Atsitromysiinin osoitettiin olevan herkkyysmääritysten mukaan tehokas salmonelloja kohtaan mukaanlukien matala-asteista fluorokinoloniresistenssiä ilmentävät bakteerikannat.

Development of Russian Ports in The Gulf of Finland

Russia has been one of the fastest developing economic areas in the world. Based on the GDP, the Russian economy grew evenly since the crisis in 1998 up till 2008. The growth in the gross domestic product has annually been some 5–10%. In 2007, the growth reached 8.1%, which is the highest figure after the 10% growth in 2000. Due to the growth of the economy and wage levels, purchasing power and consumption have been strongly increasing. The growing consumption has especially increased the imports of durables, such as passenger cars, domestic appliances and electronics. The Russian ports and infrastructure have not been able to satisfy the growing needs of exports and imports, which is why quite a large share of Russian foreign trade is going through third countries as transit transports. Finnish ports play a major role in transit transports to and from Russia. About 15% of the total value of Russian imports was transported through Finland in 2008. The economic recession that started in autumn 2008 and continues to date has had an impact on the economic development of Russia. The export income has decreased, mainly due to the reduced world market prices of energy products (oil and gas) and raw minerals. Investments have been postponed, getting credit is more difficult than before, and the ruble has weakened in relation to the euro and the dollar. The imports are decreasing remarkably, and are not forecast to reach the 2008 volumes even in 2012. The economic crisis is reflected in Finland's transit traffic. The volume of goods transported through Finland to and from Russia has decreased almost in the same proportion as the imports of goods to Russia. The biggest risk threatening the development of the Russian economy over long term is its dependence on export income from oil, gas, metals, minerals and forest products, as well as the trends of the world market prices of these products. Nevertheless, it is expected that the GDP of Russia will start to grow again in the forthcoming years due to the increased demand for energy products and raw minerals in the world. At the same time, it is obvious that the world market prices of these products will go up with the increasing demand. The increased income from exports will lead to a growth of imports, especially those of consumer goods, as the living standard of Russian citizens rises. The forecasts produced by the Russian Government concerning the economic development of Russia up till 2030 also indicate a shift in exported goods from raw materials to processed products, which together with energy products will become the main export goods of Russia. As a consequence, Russia may need export routes through third countries, which can be seen as an opportunity for increased transit transports through the ports of Finland. The ports competing with the ports of Finland for Russian foreign trade traffic are the Russian Baltic Sea ports and the ports of the Baltic countries. The strongest competitors are the Baltic Sea ports handling containers. On the Russian Baltic Sea, these ports include Saint Petersburg, Kaliningrad and, in the near future, the ports of Ust-Luga and possibly Vyborg. There are plans to develop Ust-Luga and Vyborg as modern container ports, which would become serious competitors to the Finnish ports. Russia is aiming to redirect as large a share as possible of foreign trade traffic to its own ports. The ports of Russia and the infrastructure associated with them are under constant development. On the other hand, the logistic capacity of Russia is not able to satisfy the continually growing needs of the Russian foreign trade. The capacity problem is emphasized by a structural incompatibility between the exports and imports in the Russian foreign trade. Russian exports can only use a small part of the containers brought in with imports. Problems are also caused by the difficult ice conditions and narrow waterways leading to the ports. It is predicted that Finland will maintain its position as a transit route for the Russian foreign trade, at least in the near future. The Russian foreign trade is increasing, and Russia will not be able to develop its ports in proportion with the increasing foreign trade. With the development of port capacity, cargo flows through the ports of Russia will grow. Structural changes in transit traffic are already visible. Firms are more and more relocating their production to Russia, for example as regards the assembly of cars and warehousing services. Simultaneously, an increasing part of transit cargoes are sent directly to Russia without unloading and reloading in Finland. New product groups have nevertheless been transported through Finland (textile products and tools), replacing the lost cargos. The global recession that started in autumn 2008 has influenced the volume of Russian imports and, consequently, the transit volumes of Finland, but the recession is not expected to be of long duration, and will thus only have a short-term impact on transit volumes. The Finnish infrastructure and services offered by the logistic chain should also be ready to react to the changes in imported product groups as well as to the change in Russian export products in the future. If the development plans of the Russian economy are realized, export products will be more refined, and the share of energy and raw material products will decrease. The other notable factor to be taken into consideration is the extremely fast-changing business environment in Russia. Operators in the logistic chain should be flexible enough to adapt to all kinds of changes to capitalise on business opportunities offered by the Russian foreign trade for the companies and for the transit volumes of Finnish ports, also in the future.

Novel CO2 Regulated Proteins in Synechocystis PCC 6803

The large biodiversity of cyanobacteria together with the increasing genomics and proteomics metadata provide novel information for finding new commercially valuable metabolites. With the advent of global warming, there is growing interest in the processes that results in efficient CO2 capture through the use of photosynthetic microorganisms such as cyanobacteria. This requires a detailed knowledge of how cyanobacteria respond to the ambient CO2. My study was aimed at understanding the changes in the protein profile of the model organism, Synechocystis PCC 6803 towards the varying CO₂ level. In order to achieve this goal I have employed modern proteomics tools such as iTRAQ and DIGE, recombinant DNA techniques to construct different mutants in cyanobacteria and biophysical methods to study the photosynthetic properties. The proteomics study revealed several novel proteins, apart from the well characterized proteins involved in carbon concentrating mechanisms (CCMs), that were upregulated upon shift of the cells from high CO₂ concentration (3%) to that in air level (0.039%). The unknown proteins, Slr0006 and flavodiiron proteins (FDPs) Sll0217-Flv4 and Sll0219-Flv2, were selected for further characterization. Although slr0006 was substantially upregulated under C_i limiting conditions, inactivation of the gene did not result in any visual phenotype under various environmental conditions indicating that this protein is not essential for cell survival. However, quantitative proteomics showed the induction of novel plasmid and chromosome encoded proteins in deltaslr0006 under air level CO₂ conditions. The expression of the slr0006 gene was found to be strictly dependent on active photosynthetic electron transfer. Slr0006 contains conserved dsRNA binding domain that belongs to the Sua5/YrdC/YciO protein family. Structural modelling of Slr0006 showed an alpha/beta twisted open-sheet structure and a positively charged cavity, indicating a possible binding site for RNA. The 3D model and the co-localization of Slr0006 with ribosomal subunits suggest that it might play a role in translation or ribosome biogenesis. On the other hand, deletions in the sll0217-sll218- sll0219 operon resulted in enhanced photodamage of PSII and distorted energy transfer from phycobilisome (PBS) to PSII, suggesting a dynamic photoprotection role of the operon. Constructed homology models also suggest efficient electron transfer in heterodimeric Flv2/Flv4, apparently involved in PSII photoprotection. Both Slr0006 and FDPs exhibited several common features, including negative regulation by NdhR and ambiguous cellular localization when subjected to different concentrations of divalent ions. This strong association with the membranes remained undisturbed even in the presence of detergent or high salt. My finding brings ample information on three novel proteins and their functions towards carbon limitation. Nevertheless, many pathways and related proteins remain unexplored. The comprehensive understanding of the acclimation processes in cyanobacteria towards varying environmental CO₂ levels will help to uncover adaptive mechanisms in other organisms, including higher plants.

Five Baltic Ports Togehter: Forecasts, Trends and Recommendations

The ports of Stockholm, Tallinn, Helsinki, Naantali and Turku play key roles in making the Central Baltic region accessible. Effective, competitive, eco-friendly and safe port procedures and solutions for the transportation of goods are of major importance for trade in the Baltic Sea region. This report presents the most essential results and recommendations of the PENTA project, which focused on how ports could better comprehend and face current and future challenges facing carriage of goods by sea. Each of the four work packages (WPs) of the PENTA project analysed the changes from a different perspective. WP2 focused on traffic flows between the PENTA ports. Its main emphasis was on the ports, shipowners, and logistics companies that are the key parties in freight transport and on the changes affecting the economy of those ports. In WP3 noise as an environmental challenge for ports was investigated and the analysis also shed light on the relationship between the port and the city. In WP4 procedures related to safety, security and administrative procedures were researched. The main emphasis was on identifying the requirements for the harmonisation of those procedures. Collaboration is highlighted throughout this report. In order to prepare for the future, it was found that ports need to respond to growing competition, increasing costs and shifts in customer demand by strengthening their existing partnerships with other actors in the maritime cluster. Cargo and passenger transport are the main sources of income for most ports. Cargo traffic between the PENTA ports is expected to grow steadily in the future and the outlook for passenger traffic is positive. However, to prepare for the future, ports should not only secure the core activities which generate revenue but also seek alternative ways to make profit. In order to gain more transit traffic, it is suggested that ports conduct a more thorough study of the future requirements for doing business with Russia. The investigation of noise at ports revealed two specific dilemmas that ports cannot solve alone. Firstly, the noise made by vessels and, secondly, the relationship between the port and the surrounding city. Vessels are the most important single noise source in the PENTA ports and also one of the hardest noise sources to handle. Nevertheless, port authorities in Finland and Sweden are held responsible for all noise in the port area, including noise produced by vessels, which is noise the port authority can only influence indirectly. Building housing by waterfront areas close to ports may also initiate disagreements because inhabitants may want quiet areas, whereas port activities always produce some noise from their traffic. The qualitative aspects of the noise question, cooperating with the stakeholders and the communicating of issues related to noise are just as important. We propose that ports should follow the logic of continuous improvement in their noise management. The administrative barriers discussed in this report are mainly caused by differences in international and national legislation, variations in the customs procedures of each country, the incompatibility of the IT systems used in maritime transport, noncompliance with regulations regarding dangerous goods, and difficulties in applying Schengen regulations to vessels from non-EU countries. Improving the situation is out of the hands of the ports to do alone and requires joint action on a variety of levels, including the EU, national authorities and across administrative borders.

Extreme Observables and Optimal Measurements in Quantum Theory

Optimization of quantum measurement processes has a pivotal role in carrying out better, more accurate or less disrupting, measurements and experiments on a quantum system. Especially, convex optimization, i.e., identifying the extreme points of the convex sets and subsets of quantum measuring devices plays an important part in quantum optimization since the typical figures of merit for measuring processes are affine functionals. In this thesis, we discuss results determining the extreme quantum devices and their relevance, e.g., in quantum-compatibility-related questions. Especially, we see that a compatible device pair where one device is extreme can be joined into a single apparatus essentially in a unique way. Moreover, we show that the question whether a pair of quantum observables can be measured jointly can often be formulated in a weaker form when some of the observables involved are extreme. Another major line of research treated in this thesis deals with convex analysis of special restricted quantum device sets, covariance structures or, in particular, generalized imprimitivity systems. Some results on the structure ofcovariant observables and instruments are listed as well as results identifying the extreme points of covariance structures in quantum theory. As a special case study, not published anywhere before, we study the structure of Euclidean-covariant localization observables for spin-0-particles. We also discuss the general form of Weyl-covariant phase-space instruments. Finally, certain optimality measures originating from convex geometry are introduced for quantum devices, namely, boundariness measuring how ‘close’ to the algebraic boundary of the device set a quantum apparatus is and the robustness of incompatibility quantifying the level of incompatibility for a quantum device pair by measuring the highest amount of noise the pair tolerates without becoming compatible. Boundariness is further associated to minimum-error discrimination of quantum devices, and robustness of incompatibility is shown to behave monotonically under certain compatibility-non-decreasing operations. Moreover, the value of robustness of incompatibility is given for a few special device pairs.