International Advanced Water Technologies Centre, IAWTC/LADEC and LUT 2013 : Questionnaire Responses from Russian Drinking Water and Wastewater Treatment Plants

In this report, information is published concerning Russian water and wastewater treatment plants. The information is based on a questionnaire sent to 70 water and wastewater treatment plants in 2012-2013. The questionnaire was prepared by the International Advanced Water Technologies Centre (IAWTC) and Lahti Development Company (LADEC). The questions dealt with an assessment of the present state, the need for changes, renovation, investments, and how to improve the efficiency of the operation by training and investments. A significant need to renew the old pipelines, constructions, and processes was clearly evident. The aggregated answers can be utilized in Russia as internal benchmarking in order to arrange training and plant visits, which were requested in many of the answers. Sharing this open report with the respondents can aid networking and awareness of HELCOM requirements which relate to waste water treatment plants discharging their waste water directly or indirectly into the Baltic Sea. The aim of this report is to provide information for Finnish small and medium size companies (SMEs) as regards possible water related exportation to different parts of Russia.

Yritystoiminnan rahoitusriskit – Case: Talvivaara

Tässä kandidaatintutkielmassa selvitetään, minkälaisia rahoitusriskejä yritystoimintaan liittyy ja miten riskejä vastaan on mahdollista suojautua. Tutkielman case osassa analysoidaan Talvivaaran Kaivososakeyhtiö Oyj:n rahoitusriskejä ja Talvivaaran käyttämiä suojautumiskeinoja

Distortion and internal warping torsion of a double symmetric hollow section

This thesis is made in cooperation with Laboratory of Steel Structures and the steel company SSAB. Maximization of the benefits of high-strength steel usually requires the usage of thin wall thicknesses. This means the failures related to buckling, distortion and warping stand out. One must be aware of these phenomena to design thin-walled structures stressed with forces such as torsional loading. It is also important to take into account small stress ranges when evaluating the accurate fatigue strength of structures. The objective of this thesis is to clarify the theory of the uniform and non-uniform torsion. This paper focuses on warping due to the non-uniform torsion in double symmetric box girder and structural hollow section. The arisen stress states are explained and researched using the finite element method. Another research target is the distortion in double symmetric box girder due to torsion, and the restraining effect of transverse diaphragms at the load end. Multiple transverse diaphragms are used to study more efficient restraining against warping and distortion than a common one end plate structure.

Liber fostering Open Science and Knowledge Discovery

Presentation of Kristiina Hormia-Poutanen at the 25th Anniversary Conference of The National Repository Library of Finland, Kuopio 22th of May 2015.

Customer Experience Management – How to Improve the Customer Experience Management and its Measurement

The main goal of this master’s thesis was to find out, how to improve customer experience management and measurement. This study is a qualitative case study, in which the data collection method has been interviews. In addition, some of the company���s customer experience measurement methods have been analyzed. The theoretical background is applied in practice by interviewing 5 representatives from the case company. In the case company, the management has launched a customer experience focused program, and given guidelines for customer experience improvement. In the case company, customer experience is measured with different methods, one example is asking the recommendation readiness from a customer. In order to improve the customer experience management, the case company should define, what the company means with customer experience and what kind of customer experience the company is aiming to create. After the encounter, the customer should be left with feelings of satisfaction, positivity and trust. The company should focus on easiness in its processes, on top of which the processes should work fluently. The customer experience management should be improved through systematic planning, and by combining and standardizing different measures. In addition, some channel-based measures should be used. The measurement conducted should be more customer focused, and the case company should form an understanding, which touch points are the most relevant to measure.

Power Electronic Converters in Low-Voltage Direct Current Distribution – Analysis and Implementation

Over the recent years, smart grids have received great public attention. Many proposed functionalities rely on power electronics, which play a key role in the smart grid, together with the communication network. However, “smartness” is not the driver that alone motivates the research towards distribution networks based on power electronics; the network vulnerability to natural hazards has resulted in tightening requirements for the supply security, set both by electricity end-users and authorities. Because of the favorable price development and advancements in the field, direct current (DC) distribution has become an attractive alternative for distribution networks. In this doctoral dissertation, power electronic converters for a low-voltage DC (LVDC) distribution system are investigated. These include the rectifier located at the beginning of the LVDC network and the customer-end inverter (CEI) on the customer premises. Rectifier topologies are introduced, and according to the LVDC system requirements, topologies are chosen for the analysis. Similarly, suitable CEI topologies are addressed and selected for study. Application of power electronics into electricity distribution poses some new challenges. Because the electricity end-user is supplied with the CEI, it is responsible for the end-user voltage quality, but it also has to be able to supply adequate current in all operating conditions, including a short-circuit, to ensure the electrical safety. Supplying short-circuit current with power electronics requires additional measures, and therefore, the short-circuit behavior is described and methods to overcome the high-current supply to the fault are proposed. Power electronic converters also produce common-mode (CM) and radio-frequency (RF) electromagnetic interferences (EMI), which are not present in AC distribution. Hence, their magnitudes are investigated. To enable comprehensive research on the LVDC distribution field, a research site was built into a public low-voltage distribution network. The implementation was a joint task by the LVDC research team of Lappeenranta University of Technology and a power company Suur-Savon S¨ahk¨o Oy. Now, the measurements could be conducted in an actual environment. This is important especially for the EMI studies. The main results of the work concern the short-circuit operation of the CEI and the EMI issues. The applicability of the power electronic converters to electricity distribution is demonstrated, and suggestions for future research are proposed.

PRODUCT DATA MANAGEMENT FOR FINNISH SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED MANUFACTURING ENTERPRISES - Towards a viable information system concept

Product Data Management (PDM) systems have been utilized within companies since the 1980s. Mainly the PDM systems have been used by large companies. This thesis presents the premise that small and medium-sized companies can also benefit from utilizing the Product Data Management systems. Furthermore, the starting point for the thesis is that the existing PDM systems are either too expensive or do not properly respond to the requirements SMEs have. The aim of this study is to investigate what kinds of requirements and special features SMEs, operating in Finnish manufacturing industry, have towards Product Data Management. Additionally, the target is to create a conceptual model that could fulfill the specified requirements. The research has been carried out as a qualitative case study, in which the research data was collected from ten Finnish companies operating in manufacturing industry. The research data is formed by interviewing key personnel from the case companies. After this, the data formed from the interviews has been processed to comprise a generic set of information system requirements and the information system concept supporting it. The commercialization of the concept is studied in the thesis from the perspective of system development. The aim was to create a conceptual model, which would be economically feasible for both, a company utilizing the system and for a company developing it. For this reason, the thesis has sought ways to scale the system development effort for multiple simultaneous cases. The main methods found were to utilize platform-based thinking and a way to generalize the system requirements, or in other words abstracting the requirements of an information system. The results of the research highlight the special features Finnish manufacturing SMEs have towards PDM. The most significant of the special features is the usage of project model to manage the order-to-delivery –process. This differs significantly from the traditional concepts of Product Data Management presented in the literature. Furthermore, as a research result, this thesis presents a conceptual model of a PDM system, which would be viable for the case companies interviewed during the research. As a by-product, this research presents a synthesized model, found from the literature, to abstract information system requirements. In addition to this, the strategic importance and categorization of information systems within companies has been discussed from the perspective of information system customizations.

Acquisition and transfer of experiential learning from rock climbing to the corporate workplace

There were three purposes to this study. The first purpose was to determine how learning can be influenced by various factors i~ the rock climbing experience. The second purpose was to examine what people can learn from the rock climbing experience. The third purpose was to investigate whether that learning can transfer from the rock climbing experience to the subjects' real life in the workplace. Ninety employees from a financial corporation in the Niagara Region volunteered for this study. All subjects were surveyed throughout a one-day treatment. Ten were purposefully selected one month later for interviews. Ten themes emerged from the subjects in terms of what was learned. Inspiration, motivation, and determination, preparation, goals and limitations, perceptions and expectations, confidence and risk taking, trust and support, teamwork, feedback and encouragement, learning from failure, and finally, skills and flow. All participants were able to transfer what was learned back to the workplace. The results of this study suggested that subjects' learning was influenced by their ability to: take risks in a safe environment, fail without penalty, support each other, plan without time constraints, and enjoy the company of fellow workers that they wouldn't normally associate with. Future directions for research should include different types of treatments such as white water rafting, sky diving, tall ship sailing, or caving.

Canadian Niagara Power Company fonds

Power at the Falls: The first recorded harnessing of Niagara Falls power was in 1759 by Daniel Joncairs. On the American side of the Falls he dug a small ditch and drew water to turn a wheel which powered a sawmill. In 1805 brothers Augustus and Peter Porter expanded on Joncairs idea. They bought the American Falls from New York State at public auction. Using Joncairs old site they built a gristmill and tannery which stayed in business for twenty years. The next attempt at using the Falls came in 1860 when construction of the hydraulic canal began by the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Co. The canal was complete in 1861 and brought water from the Niagara river, above the falls, to the mills below. By 1881 the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Co. had a small generating station which provided some electricity to the village of Niagara Falls and the Mills. This lasted only four years and then the company sold its assets at public auction due to bankruptcy. Jacob Schoellkopf arrived at the Falls in 1877 with the purchase of the hydraulic canal land and water and power rights. In 1879 Schoellkopf teamed up with Charles Brush (of Euclid Ohio) and powered Brush’s generator and carbon arc lights with the power from his water turbines, to illuminate the Falls electrically for the first time. The year 1895 marked the opening of the Adam No. 1 generating station on the American side. The station was the beginnings of modern electrical utility operations. The design and operations of the generating station came from worldwide competitions held by panels of experts. Some who were involved in the project include; George Westinghouse, J. Pierpont Morgan, Lord Kelvin and Nikoli Tesla. The plants were operated by the Niagara Falls Power Company until 1961, when the Robert Moses Plant began operation in Lewiston, NY. The Adams plants were demolished that same year and the site used as a sewage treatment plant. The Canadian side of the Falls began generating their own power on January 1, 1905. This power came from the William Birch Rankine Power Station located 500 yards above the Horseshoe Falls. This power station provided the village of Fort Erie with its first electricity in 1907, using its two 10,000 electrical horsepower generators. Today 11 generators produce 100,000 horsepower (75 megawatts) and operate as part of the Niagara Mohawk and Fortis Incorporated Power Group.

Niagara-Welland Power Company Limited fonds, 1833, 1852, 1904-1906, 1909, n.d.

The Welland Power and Supply Canal Company Limited, established in 1893 and incorporated in 1894 with a capital stock of $500,000. The aim of the company was to harness the natural water supply of the Niagara and Welland Rivers. In 1898 the Canadian Electrical News published a report by Henry Symons, QC outlining the main project of the company. This project involves the construction of a canal from the Welland River to the brow of the mountain at Thorold, a distance of 8 miles; the construction at Thorold of a power house, and from Thorold to Lake Ontario, a raceway by which to carry water into the lake. The estimate for the machinery to generate 100,000 horse power is £125,000; for transmission line to Toronto at a voltage of 10,000….The total estimate therefore amounts to £2,452,162, or roughly speaking, $12,000,000. Source: Canadian Electrical News, August 1898, p. 172. In 1899 the company officers petitioned the federal government desiring a name change to the Niagara-Welland Power Company Limited. Officers of the company were Harry Symons, President; Charles A. Hesson, Vice-President; and M.R. O’Loughlin, James B. Sheehan, James S. Haydon, Frederick K. Foster, directors; John S. Campbell, secretary-treasurer. The company���s head offices were located in St. Catharines, with a New York (City) office on Broad Street. In 1905 and 1909 the company petitioned the federal government for additional time to construct its works, which was granted. The company had until May 16, 1915 to complete construction. John S. Campbell (1860-1950) was a graduate of the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall. During his university years John began his military career first in "K" Company, Queens Own rifles and then later as Commanding Officer of the 19th Lincoln Regiment, from 1906 to 1910. Upon his return to St. Catharines John Campbell served as secretary in the St. Catharines Garrison Club, a social club for military men begun in 1899. After being called to the Bar, he became a partner in the firm of Campbell and McCarron and was appointed to the bench in 1916, serving until retirement in 1934. Judge Campbell served as an alderman for several terms and was the mayor of St. Catharines in 1908 and 1909. He also served as the first chairman of the St. Catharines Public Utilities in 1914. John S. Campbell was married to Elizabeth Oille, daughter of Jerome B. and Charlotte (St. John) Oille. The family home "Cruachan" was located at 32 Church St.

Original estimate of Mr. Danforth on the Port Dalhousie and Thorold Railway

Original estimate of Mr. Danforth on the Port Dalhousie and Thorold Railway (1 page, handwritten), Nov. 3, 1853.

Specifications and form of tender for grading for the Port Dalhousie and Thorold Railway

Specifications and form of tender for grading for the Port Dalhousie and Thorold Railway, March (5 pages, handwritten), 1854.

Calculations regarding quantities needed for cutting and ditching

Calculations regarding quantities needed for cutting and ditching (1 page, handwritten), March 19, 1884.

Port Dalhousie and Thorold Railway estimate of work done to date with an approximation of probable damage sustained by suspending the track

Port Dalhousie and Thorold Railway estimate of work done to date with an approximation of probable damage sustained by suspending the track, Aug. 22, 1854.

Clipping from a Town Council meeting at which estimates of the costs of Railway Line no. 1 and Line no. 2 were submitted by the office of Port Dalhousie and Thorold Railway

Clipping from a Town Council meeting at which estimates of the costs of Railway Line no. 1 and Line no. 2 were submitted by the office of Port Dalhousie and Thorold Railway. The estimate was submitted by S.D. Woodruff and George Rykert, president. There is also a disclaimer in which Calvin Phelps claims to have resigned as director of the Port Dalhousie and Thorold Railway when he discovered that the company had no intention to adhere to the original plan for building and running the road, Aug. 1854.