The nature of communication structures of university students in an international web-based computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) course

Communication, the flow of ideas and information between individuals in a social context, is the heart of educational experience. Constructivism and constructivist theories form the foundation for the collaborative learning processes of creating and sharing meaning in online educational contexts. The Learning and Collaboration in Technology-enhanced Contexts (LeCoTec) course comprised of 66 participants drawn from four European universities (Oulu, Turku, Ghent and Ramon Llull). These participants were split into 15 groups with the express aim of learning about computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). The Community of Inquiry model (social, cognitive and teaching presences) provided the content and tools for learning and researching the collaborative interactions in this environment. The sampled comments from the collaborative phase were collected and analyzed at chain-level and group-level, with the aim of identifying the various message types that sustained high learning outcomes. Furthermore, the Social Network Analysis helped to view the density of whole group interactions, as well as the popular and active members within the highly collaborating groups. It was observed that long chains occur in groups having high quality outcomes. These chains were also characterized by Social, Interactivity, Administrative and Content comment-types. In addition, high outcomes were realized from the high interactive cases and high-density groups. In low interactive groups, commenting patterned around the one or two central group members. In conclusion, future online environments should support high-order learning and develop greater metacognition and self-regulation. Moreover, such an environment, with a wide variety of problem solving tools, would enhance interactivity.

Asiakkuudenhallinnan tukeminen neuroverkkoteknologian avulla

CRM on yritysten tietojärjestelmä, jolla voidaan tukea asiakkuuden hallintaa ja kehittämistä. Monilla suuryrityksillä on paljon asiakkaita ja niiden on mahdotonta tunnistaa asiakkaitaan yksilöinä. Kuitenkin asiakkaat arvostavat yhä enemmän henkilökohtaista palvelua ja kontakteja. Yritysten asiakastietokantoihin kertyy runsaasti tietoa asiakkaista ja heidän ostokäyttäytymisestään. Suuresta informaatiomäärästä johtuen tarvitaan kehittynyttä tietotekniikkaa asiakkaiden tyypittelyyn ja asiakastarpeiden tunnistamiseen. Tässä diplomityössä kehitetään neuroCRM-teoriaa määrällisesti suuren ja monimutkaisen asiakasinformaation hallintaan. Teoria perustuu itseorganisoituvien neuroverkkojen käyttöön asiakasinformaation analysoimiseksi CRM-järjestelmässä. Asiakkaat segmentoidaan ja personoidaan iteratiivisia SOM-analyysejä suorittamalla. Tulosten perusteella kehitetään asiakkaiden yksilöllisyyttä huomioivia markkinointikeinoja ja käytetään uusia kanavia, esimerkiksi mobiilia viestintätekniikkaa asiakkaiden tavoittamiseen. Asiakaskannattavuuden parantamiseksi voi- daan tehdä strategisia valintoja ja päätöksiä markkinoinnin kohdentamista varten.

Simulation of new p-type pixel strip detector with enhanced multiplication effect

This Master’s Thesis is dedicated to the simulation of new p-type pixel strip detector with enhanced multiplication effect. It is done for high-energy physics experiments upgrade such as Super Large Hadron Collider especially for Compact Muon Solenoid particle track silicon detectors. These detectors are used in very harsh radiation environment and should have good radiation hardness. The device engineering technology for developing more radiation hard particle detectors is used for minimizing the radiation degradation. New detector structure with enhanced multiplication effect is proposed in this work. There are studies of electric field and electric charge distribution of conventional and new p-type detector under reverse voltage bias and irradiation. Finally, the dependence of the anode current from the applied cathode reverse voltage bias under irradiation is obtained in this Thesis. For simulation Silvaco Technology Computer Aided Design software was used. Athena was used for creation of doping profiles and device structures and Atlas was used for getting electrical characteristics of the studied devices. The program codes for this software are represented in Appendixes.

Design of an Embedded Computer Board for Networking Applications

Tämä diplomityö tehtiin Convergens Oy:lle. Convergens on elektroniikan suunnittelutoimisto, joka on erikoistunut sulautettuihin järjestelmiin sekä tietoliikennetekniikkaan. Diplomityön tavoitteena oli suunnitella tietokonekortti tietoliikennesovelluksia varten asiakkaalle, jolta vaatimusmäärittelyt tulivat. Työ on rajattu koskemaan laitteen prototyypin suunnittelua. Työssä suunnitellaan pääasiassa WLAN-tukiaseman tietokone. Tukiasema onasennettavissa toimistoihin, varastoihin, kauppoihin sekä myös liikkuvaan ajoneuvoon. Suunnittelussa on otettu nämä asiat huomioon, ja laitteen akun pystyy lataamaan muun muassa auton akulla. Langattomat tekniikat ovat voimakkaasti yleistymässä, ja tämän työn tukiasema tarjoaakin varteenotettavan vaihtoehdon lukuisilla ominaisuuksillaan. Mukana on mm. GPS, Bluetooth sekä Ethernet-valmius. Langattomien tekniikoiden lisäksi myös sulautetut järjestelmät ovat voimakkaasti yleistymässä, ja nykyään mikroprosessoreita löytääkin lähesmistä vain. Tässä projektissa käytetty prosessori on nopeutensa puolesta kilpailukykyinen, ja siitä löytyy useita eri rajapintoja. Jatkossa tietokonekortille on myös tulossa WiMAX-tuki, joka lisää tukiaseman tulevaisuuden arvoa asiakkaalle. Projektiin valittu Freescalen MPC8321E-prosessori on PowerPC-arkkitehtuuriin perustuva ja juuri markkinoille ilmestynyt. Tämä toi mukanaan lisähaasteen, sillä kyseisestä prosessorista ei ollut vielä kaikkea tietoa saatavilla. Mekaniikka toi omat haasteensa mukanaan, sillä se rajoitti piirilevyn koonniin, että ylimääräistä piirilevytilaa ei juurikaan jäänyt. Tämän takia esimerkiksi DDR-muistit olivat haastavia reitittää, sillä muistivetojen on oltava melko samanpituisia keskenään. Käyttöjärjestelmänä projektissa käytetään Linuxia. Suunnittelu alkoi keväällä 2007 ja toimiva prototyyppi oli valmis alkusyksystä. Prototyypin testaus osoitti, että tietokonekortti kykenee täyttämään kaikki asiakkaan vaatimukset. Prototyypin testauksessa löytyneet viat ja optimoinnit on tarkoitus korjata tuotantomalliin, joten se antaa hyvän pohjan jatkosuunnittelua varten.

MANAGING STRATEGIC CHANGE:New Business Models Applying Wireless Technology as a Source of Competitive Edge

The diffusion of mobile telephony began in 1971 in Finland, when the first car phones, called ARP1 were taken to use. Technologies changed from ARP to NMT and later to GSM. The main application of the technology, however, was voice transfer. The birth of the Internet created an open public data network and easy access to other types of computer-based services over networks. Telephones had been used as modems, but the development of the cellular technologies enabled automatic access from mobile phones to Internet. Also other wireless technologies, for instance Wireless LANs, were also introduced. Telephony had developed from analog to digital in fixed networks and allowed easy integration of fixed and mobile networks. This development opened a completely new functionality to computers and mobile phones. It also initiated the merger of the information technology (IT) and telecommunication (TC) industries. Despite the arising opportunity for firms' new competition the applications based on the new functionality were rare. Furthermore, technology development combined with innovation can be disruptive to industries. This research focuses on the new technology's impact on competition in the ICT industry through understanding the strategic needs and alternative futures of the industry's customers. The change speed inthe ICT industry is high and therefore it was valuable to integrate the DynamicCapability view of the firm in this research. Dynamic capabilities are an application of the Resource-Based View (RBV) of the firm. As is stated in the literature, strategic positioning complements RBV. This theoretical framework leads theresearch to focus on three areas: customer strategic innovation and business model development, external future analysis, and process development combining these two. The theoretical contribution of the research is in the development of methodology integrating theories of the RBV, dynamic capabilities and strategic positioning. The research approach has been constructive due to the actual managerial problems initiating the study. The requirement for iterative and innovative progress in the research supported the chosen research approach. The study applies known methods in product development, for instance, innovation process in theGroup Decision Support Systems (GDSS) laboratory and Quality Function Deployment (QFD), and combines them with known strategy analysis tools like industry analysis and scenario method. As the main result, the thesis presents the strategic innovation process, where new business concepts are used to describe the alternative resource configurations and scenarios as alternative competitive environments, which can be a new way for firms to achieve competitive advantage in high-velocity markets. In addition to the strategic innovation process as a result, thestudy has also resulted in approximately 250 new innovations for the participating firms, reduced technology uncertainty and helped strategic infrastructural decisions in the firms, and produced a knowledge-bank including data from 43 ICT and 19 paper industry firms between the years 1999 - 2004. The methods presentedin this research are also applicable to other industries.

Thick XML client and technology of its construction

Nykyään kolmeen kerrokseen perustuvat client-server –sovellukset ovat suuri kinnostuskohde sekä niiden kehittäjille etta käyttäjille. Tietotekniikan nopean kehityksen ansiosta näillä sovelluksilla on monipuolinen käyttö teollisuuden eri alueilla. Tällä hetkellä on olemassa paljon työkaluja client-server –sovellusten kehittämiseen, jotka myös tyydyttävät asiakkaiden asettamia vaatimuksia. Nämä työkalut eivät kuitenkaan mahdollista joustavaa toimintaa graafisen käyttöliittyman kanssa. Tämä diplomityö käsittelee client-server –sovellusten kehittamistä XML –kielen avulla. Tämä lähestymistapa mahdollistaa client-server –sovellusten rakentamista niin, että niiden graafinen käyttöliittymä ja ulkonäkö olisivat helposti muokattavissa ilman ohjelman ytimen uudelleenkääntämistä. Diplomityö koostuu kahdesta ostasta: teoreettisesta ja käytännöllisestä. Teoreettinen osa antaa yleisen tiedon client-server –arkkitehtuurista ja kuvailee ohjelmistotekniikan pääkohdat. Käytannöllinen osa esittää tulokset, client-server –sovellusten kehittämisteknologian kehittämislähestymistavan XML: ää käyttäen ja tuloksiin johtavat usecase– ja sekvenssidiagrammit. Käytännöllinen osa myos sisältää esimerkit toteutetuista XML-struktuureista, jotka kuvaavat client –sovellusten kuvaruutukaavakkeiden esintymisen ja serverikyselykaaviot.

Acceptance and Use of Information Technology among Nurses in Psychiatric Hospitals

Hoitajien informaatioteknologian hyväksyntä ja käyttö psykiatrisissa sairaaloissa Informaatioteknologian (IT) käyttö ei ole ollut kovin merkittävässä roolissa psykiatrisessa hoitotyössä, vaikka IT sovellusten on todettu vaikuttaneen radikaalisti terveydenhuollon palveluihin ja hoitohenkilökunnan työprosesseihin viime vuosina. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on kuvata psykiatrisessa hoitotyössä toimivan hoitohenkilökunnan informaatioteknologian hyväksyntää ja käyttöä ja luoda suositus, jonka avulla on mahdollista tukea näitä asioita psykiatrisissa sairaaloissa. Tutkimus koostuu viidestä osatutkimuksesta, joissa on hyödynnetty sekä tilastollisia että laadullisia tutkimusmetodeja. Tutkimusaineistot on kerätty yhdeksän akuuttipsykiatrian osaston hoitohenkilökunnan keskuudessa vuosien 2003-2006 aikana. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) –teoriaa on hyödynnetty jäsentämään tutkimusprosessia sekä syventämään ymmärrystä saaduista tutkimustuloksista. Tutkimus osoitti kahdeksan keskeistä tekijää, jotka saattavat tukea psykiatrisessa sairaalassa toimivien hoitajien tietoteknologiasovellusten hyväksyntää ja hyödyntämistä, kun nämä tekijät otetaan huomioon uusia sovelluksia käyttöönotettaessa. Tekijät jakautuivat kahteen ryhmään; ulkoiset tekijät (resurssien suuntaaminen, yhteistyö, tietokonetaidot, IT koulutus, sovelluksen käyttöön liittyvä harjoittelu, potilas-hoitaja suhde), sekä käytön helppous ja sovelluksen käytettävyys (käytön ohjeistus, käytettävyyden varmistaminen). TAM teoria todettiin käyttökelpoiseksi tulosten tulkinnassa. Kehitetty suositus sisältää ne toimenpiteet, joiden avulla on mahdollista tukea sekä organisaation johdon että hoitohenkilökunnan sitoutumista ja tätä kautta varmistaa uuden sovelluksen hyväksyntä ja käyttö hoitotyössä. Suositusta on mahdollista hyödyntää käytännössä kun uusia tietojärjestelmiä implementoidaan käyttöön psykiatrisissa sairaaloissa.

New computer software for defining the three-dimensional geometry for a centrifu- gal compressor impeller

In this thesis, a computer software for defining the geometry for a centrifugal compressor impeller is designed and implemented. The project is done under the supervision of Laboratory of Fluid Dynamics in Lappeenranta University of Technology. This thesis is similar to the thesis written by Tomi Putus (2009) in which a centrifugal compressor impeller flow channel is researched and commonly used design practices are reviewed. Putus wrote a computer software which can be used to define impeller’s three-dimensional geometry based on the basic geometrical dimensions given by a preliminary design. The software designed in this thesis is almost similar but it uses a different programming language (C++) and a different way to define the shape of the impeller meridional projection.

Creating generation Y sources of motivation for enhanced performance

New challenges have been created in the modern work environment as the diversity of the workforce is greater than ever in terms of generations. There will become a large demand of generation Y employees as the baby boomer generation employees retire at an accelerated rate. The purpose of this study is to investigate Y generation specific characteristics and to identify motivational systems to enhance performance. The research questions are: 1. What are Y generation characteristics? 2. What motivational systems organizations can form to motivate Y generation employees and in turn, create better performance? The Y generation specific characteristics identified from the literature include; achievement oriented; confident; educated; multitasking; having a need for feedback; needing management support; sociable and tech savvy. The proposed motivational systems can be found in four areas of the organization; HRM, training and development, communication and decision making policies. Three focus groups were held to investigate what would motivate generation Y employees to achieve better performance. Two of these focus groups were Finnish natives and the third consisted of international students. The HRM systems included flexibility and a culture of fun. It was concluded that flexibility within the workplace and role was a great source of motivation. Culture of fun was not responded to as favorably although most focus group participants rated enjoyableness as one of their top motivating factors. Training and development systems include training programs and mentoring as sources of potential motivation. Training programs were viewed as a mode to gain a better position and were not necessarily seen as motivational systems. Mentoring programs were not concluded to have a significant effect on motivation. Communication systems included keeping up with technology, clarity and goals as well as feedback. Keeping up with technology was seen as an ineffective tool to motivate. Clarity and goal setting was seen as very important to be able to perform but not necessarily motivating. Feedback had a highly motivating effect on these focus groups. Decision making policies included collaboration and teamwork as well as ownership. Teams were familiar and meet the social needs of Y generation employees and are motivating. Ownership was equated with trust and responsibility and was highly valued as well as motivating to these focus group participants.

VVER-440 Thermal Hydraulics as a Computer Code Validation Challenge

This thesis concentrates on the validation of a generic thermal hydraulic computer code TRACE under the challenges of the VVER-440 reactor type. The code capability to model the VVER-440 geometry and thermal hydraulic phenomena specific to this reactor design has been examined and demonstrated acceptable. The main challenge in VVER-440 thermal hydraulics appeared in the modelling of the horizontal steam generator. The major challenge here is not in the code physics or numerics but in the formulation of a representative nodalization structure. Another VVER-440 specialty, the hot leg loop seals, challenges the system codes functionally in general, but proved readily representable. Computer code models have to be validated against experiments to achieve confidence in code models. When new computer code is to be used for nuclear power plant safety analysis, it must first be validated against a large variety of different experiments. The validation process has to cover both the code itself and the code input. Uncertainties of different nature are identified in the different phases of the validation procedure and can even be quantified. This thesis presents a novel approach to the input model validation and uncertainty evaluation in the different stages of the computer code validation procedure. This thesis also demonstrates that in the safety analysis, there are inevitably significant uncertainties that are not statistically quantifiable; they need to be and can be addressed by other, less simplistic means, ultimately relying on the competence of the analysts and the capability of the community to support the experimental verification of analytical assumptions. This method completes essentially the commonly used uncertainty assessment methods, which are usually conducted using only statistical methods.

Modification of Photocatalyst with Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity for Water

Increasing demand and shortage of energy resources and clean water due to the rapid development of industry, population growth and long term droughts have become an issue worldwide. As a result, global warming, long term droughts and pollution-related diseases are becoming more and more serious. The traditional technologies, such as precipitation, neutralization, sedimentation, filtration and waste immobilization, cannot prevent the pollution but restrict the waste chemicals only after the pollution emission. Meanwhile, most of these treatments cannot thoroughly degrade the contaminants and may generate toxic secondary pollutants into ecosystem. Heterogeneous photocatalysis as the innovative wastewater technology attracts many attention, because it is able to generate highly reactive transitory species for total degradation of organic compounds, water pathogens and disinfection by-products. Semiconductor as photocatalysts have demonstrated their efficiency in degrading a wide range of organics into readily biodegradable compounds, and eventually mineralized them to innocuous carbon dioxide and water. But, the efficiency of photocatalysis is limited, and hence, it is crucial issue to modify photocatalyst to enhance photocatalytic activity. In this thesis, first of all, two literature views are conducted. A survey of materials for photocatalysis has been carried out in order to summarize the properties and the applications of photocatalysts that have been developed in this field. Meanwhile, the strategy for the improvement of photocatalytic activity have been explicit discussed. Furthermore, all the raw material and chemicals used in this work have been listed as well as a specific experimental process and characterization method has been described. The synthesize methods of different photocatalysts have been depicted step by step. Among these cases, different modification strategies have been used to enhance the efficiency of photocatalyst on degradation of organic compounds (Methylene Blue or Phenol). For each case, photocatalytic experiments have been done to exhibit their photocatalytic activity.The photocatalytic experiments have been designed and its process have been explained and illustrated in detailed. Moreover, the experimental results have been shown and discussion. All the findings have been demonstrated in detail and discussed case by case. Eventually, the mechanisms on the improvement of photocatalytic activities have been clarified by characterization of samples and analysis of results. As a conclusion, the photocatalytic activities of selected semiconductors have been successfully enhanced via choosing appropriate strategy for the modification of photocatalysts.

The role of business model in computer game development organizations

The computer game industry has grown steadily for years, and in revenues it can be compared to the music and film industries. The game industry has been moving to digital distribution. Computer gaming and the concept of business model are discussed among industrial practitioners and the scientific community. The significance of the business model concept has increased in the scientific literature recently, although there is still a lot of discussion going on on the concept. In the thesis, the role of the business model in the computer game industry is studied. Computer game developers, designers, project managers and organization leaders in 11 computer game companies were interviewed. The data was analyzed to identify the important elements of computer game business model, how the business model concept is perceived and how the growth of the organization affects the business model. It was identified that the importance of human capital is crucial to the business. As games are partly a product of creative thinking also innovation and the creative process are highly valued. The same applies to technical skills when performing various activities. Marketing and customer relationships are also considered as key elements in the computer game business model. Financing and partners are important especially for startups, when the organization is dependent on external funding and third party assets. The results of this study provide organizations with improved understanding on how the organization is built and what business model elements are weighted.

Examining human-centered design practice in the mobile apps era

Human-Centered Design (HCD) is a well-recognized approach to the design of interactive computing systems that supports everyday and professional lives of people. To that end, the HCD approach put central emphasis on the explicit understanding of users and context of use by involving users throughout the entire design and development process. With mobile computing, the diversity of users as well as the variety in the spatial, temporal, and social settings of the context of use has notably expanded, which affect the effort of interaction designers to understand users and context of use. The emergence of the mobile apps era in 2008 as a result of structural changes in the mobile industry and the profound enhanced capabilities of mobile devices, further intensify the embeddedness of technology in the daily life of people and the challenges that interaction designers face to cost-efficiently understand users and context of use. Supporting interaction designers in this challenge requires understanding of their existing practice, rationality, and work environment. The main objective of this dissertation is to contribute to interaction design theories by generating understanding on the HCD practice of mobile systems in the mobile apps era, as well as to explain the rationality of interaction designers in attending to users and context of use. To achieve that, a literature study is carried out, followed by a mixed-methods research that combines multiple qualitative interview studies and a quantitative questionnaire study. The dissertation contributes new insights regarding the evolving HCD practice at an important time of transition from stationary computing to mobile computing. Firstly, a gap is identified between interaction design as practiced in research and in the industry regarding the involvement of users in context; whereas the utilization of field evaluations, i.e. in real-life environments, has become more common in academic projects, interaction designers in the industry still rely, by large, on lab evaluations. Secondly, the findings indicate on new aspects that can explain this gap and the rationality of interaction designers in the industry in attending to users and context; essentially, the professional-client relationship was found to inhibit the involvement of users, while the mental distance between practitioners and users as well as the perceived innovativeness of the designed system are suggested in explaining the inclination to study users in situ. Thirdly, the research contributes the first explanatory model on the relation between the organizational context and HCD; essentially, innovation-focused organizational strategies greatly affect the cost-effective usage of data on users and context of use. Last, the findings suggest a change in the nature of HCD in the mobile apps era, at least with universal consumer systems; evidently, the central attention on the explicit understanding of users and context of use shifts from an early requirements phase and continual activities during design and development to follow-up activities. That is, the main effort to understand users is by collecting data on their actual usage of the system, either before or after the system is deployed. The findings inform both researchers and practitioners in interaction design. In particular, the dissertation suggest on action research as a useful approach to support interaction designers and further inform theories on interaction design. With regard to the interaction design practice, the dissertation highlights strategies that encourage a more cost-effective user- and context-informed interaction design process. With the continual embeddedness of computing into people’s life, e.g. with wearable devices and connected car systems, the dissertation provides a timely and valuable view on the evolving humancentered design.

Embedding sustainability into the new computer science curriculum for English schools

The primary goals of this study are to: embed sustainable concepts of energy consumption into certain part of existing Computer Science curriculum for English schools; investigate how to motivate 7-to-11 years old kids to learn these concepts; promote responsive ICT (Information and Communications Technology) use by these kids in their daily life; raise their awareness of today’s ecological challenges. Sustainability-related ICT lessons developed aim to provoke computational thinking and creativity to foster understanding of environmental impact of ICT and positive environmental impact of small changes in user energy consumption behaviour. The importance of including sustainability into the Computer Science curriculum is due to the fact that ICT is both a solution and one of the causes of current world ecological problems. This research follows Agile software development methodology. In order to achieve the aforementioned goals, sustainability requirements, curriculum requirements and technical requirements are firstly analysed. Secondly, the web-based user interface is designed. In parallel, a set of three online lessons (video, slideshow and game) is created for the website GreenICTKids.com taking into account several green design patterns. Finally, the evaluation phase involves the collection of adults’ and kids’ feedback on the following: user interface; contents; user interaction; impacts on the kids’ sustainability awareness and on the kids’ behaviour with technologies. In conclusion, a list of research outcomes is as follows: 92% of the adults learnt more about energy consumption; 80% of the kids are motivated to learn about energy consumption and found the website easy to use; 100% of the kids understood the contents and liked website’s visual aspect; 100% of the kids will try to apply in their daily life what they learnt through the online lessons.