Investigation and data adaptive analysis of CARS spectra

In this diploma work advantages of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering spectrometry (CARS) and various methods of the quantitative analysis of substance structure with its help are considered. The basic methods and concepts of the adaptive analysis are adduced. On the basis of these methods the algorithm of automatic measurement of a scattering strip size of a target component in CARS spectrum is developed. The algorithm uses known full spectrum of target substance and compares it with a CARS spectrum. The form of a differential spectrum is used as a feedback to control the accuracy of matching. To exclude the influence of a background in CARS spectra the differential spectrum is analysed by means of its second derivative. The algorithm is checked up on the simulated simple spectra and on the spectra of organic compounds received experimentally.

Mitotic regulation by Polo-like kinase 1 and the Chromosomal Passenger Complex

During mitosis, the duplicated genome must be accurately divided between two daughter cells. Polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1) and Aurora B kinase, together with its binding partners Incenp, Survivin and Borealin (chromosomal passenger complex, CPC), have key roles in coordinating mitotic events. The accuracy of cell division is safeguarded by a signaling cascade termed the mitotic spindle checkpoint (SC), which ensures that chromosomes are not physically separated before correct bipolar attachments have been formed between kinetochores and spindle microtubules (MT). An inhibitory “wait anaphase” signal, which delays chromosome separation (anaphase onset), is created at individual kinetochores and broadcasted throughout the cell in response to lack of kinetochore-microtubule (kMT) attachment or proper interkinetochore tension. It is believed that the fast turnover of SC molecules at kinetochores contributes to the cell’s ability to produce this signal and enables rapid responses to changing cellular conditions. Kinetochores that lack MT attachment and tension express a certain phosphoepitope called the 3F3/2 phosphoepitope, which has been linked to SC signaling. In the experimental part, we investigated the regulation of the 3F3/2 phosphoepitope, analyzed whether CPC molecules turn over at centromeres, and dissected the mitotic roles of the CPC using a microinjection technique that allowed precise temporal control over its function. We found that the kinetochore 3F3/2 phosphoepitope is created by Plk1, and that CPC proteins exhibit constant exchange at centromeres. Moreover, we found that CPC function is necessary in the regulation of chromatid movements and spindle morphology in anaphase. In summary, we identified new functions of key mitotic regulators Plk1 and CPC, and provided insighs into the coordination of mitotic events.

Maritime transportation in the Gulf of Finland in 2007 and in 2015

The Gulf of Finland is said to be one of the densest operated sea areas in the world. It is a shallow and economically vulnerable sea area with dense passenger and cargo traffic of which petroleum transports have a share of over 50 %. The winter conditions add to the risks of maritime traffic in the Gulf of Finland. It is widely believed that the growth of maritime transportation will continue also in the future. The Gulf of Finland is surrounded by three very different national economies with, different maritime transportation structures. Finland is a country of high GDP/per capita with a diversified economic structure. The number of ports is large and the maritime transportation consists of many types of cargoes: raw materials, industrial products, consumer goods, coal and petroleum products, and the Russian transit traffic of e.g. new cars and consumer goods. Russia is a large country with huge growth potential; in recent years, the expansion of petroleum exports has lead to a strong economic growth, which is also apparent in the growth of maritime transports. Russia has been expanding its port activities in the Gulf of Finland and it is officially aiming to transport its own imports and exports through the Russian ports in the future; now they are being transported to great extend through the Finnish, Estonian and other Baltic ports. Russia has five ports in the Gulf of Finland. Estonia has also experienced fast economic growth, but the growth has been slowing down already during the past couples of years. The size of its economy is small compared to Russia, which means the transported tonnes cannot be very massive. However, relatively large amounts of the Russian petroleum exports have been transported through the Estonian ports. The future of the Russian transit traffic in Estonia looks nevertheless uncertain and it remains to be seen how it will develop and if Estonia is able to find replacing cargoes if the Russian transit traffic will come to an end in the Estonian ports. Estonia’s own import and export consists of forestry products, metals or other raw materials and consumer goods. Estonia has many ports on the shores of the Gulf of Finland, but the port of Tallinn dominates the cargo volumes. In 2007, 263 M tonnes of cargoes were transported in the maritime traffic in the Gulf of Finland, of which the share of petroleum products was 56 %. 23 % of the cargoes were loaded or unloaded in the Finnish ports, 60 % in the Russian ports and 17 % in the Estonian ports. The largest ports were Primorsk (74.2 M tonnes) St. Petersburg (59.5 M tonnes), Tallinn (35.9 M tonnes), Sköldvik (19.8 M tonnes), Vysotsk (16.5 M tonnes) and Helsinki (13.4 M) tonnes. Approximately 53 600 ship calls were made in the ports of the Gulf of Finland. The densest traffic was found in the ports of St. Petersburg (14 651 ship calls), Helsinki (11 727 ship calls) and Tallinn (10 614 ship calls) in 2007. The transportation scenarios are usually based on the assumption that the amount of transports follows the development of the economy, although also other factors influence the development of transportation, e.g. government policy, environmental aspects, and social and behavioural trends. The relationship between the development of transportation and the economy is usually analyzed in terms of the development of GDP and trade. When the GDP grows to a certain level, especially the international transports increase because countries of high GDP produce, consume and thus transport more. An effective transportation system is also a precondition for the economic development. In this study, the following factors were taken into consideration when formulating the future scenarios: maritime transportation in the Gulf of Finland 2007, economic development, development of key industries, development of infrastructure and environmental aspects in relation to maritime transportation. The basic starting points for the three alternative scenarios were: • the slow growth scenario: economic recession • the average growth scenario: economy will recover quickly from current instability • the strong growth scenario: the most optimistic views on development will realize According to the slow growth scenario, the total tonnes for the maritime transportation in the Gulf of Finland would be 322.4 M tonnes in 2015, which would mean a growth of 23 % compared to 2007. In the average growth scenario, the total tonnes were estimated to be 431.6 M tonnes – a growth of 64 %, and in the strong growth scenario 507.2 M tonnes – a growth of 93%. These tonnes were further divided into petroleum products and other cargoes by country, into export, import and domestic traffic by country, and between the ports. For petroleum products, the share of crude oil and oil products was estimated and the number of tanker calls in 2015 was calculated for each scenario. However, the future development of maritime transportation in the GoF is dependent on so many societal and economic variables that it is not realistic to predict one exact point estimate value for the cargo tonnes for a certain scenario. Plenty of uncertainty is related both to the degree in which the scenario will come true as well as to the cause-effect relations between the different variables. For these reasons, probability distributions for each scenario were formulated by an expert group. As a result, a range for the total tonnes of each scenario was formulated and they are as follows: the slow growth scenario: 280.8 – 363 M tonnes (expectation value 322.4 M tonnes)

Experimental analysis of optimization techniques on the road passenger transportation problem

Analyzing the state of the art in a given field in order to tackle a new problem is always a mandatory task. Literature provides surveys based on summaries of previous studies, which are often based on theoretical descriptions of the methods. An engineer, however, requires some evidence from experimental evaluations in order to make the appropriate decision when selecting a technique for a problem. This is what we have done in this paper: experimentally analyzed a set of representative state-of-the-art techniques in the problem we are dealing with, namely, the road passenger transportation problem. This is an optimization problem in which drivers should be assigned to transport services, fulfilling some constraints and minimizing some function cost. The experimental results have provided us with good knowledge of the properties of several methods, such as modeling expressiveness, anytime behavior, computational time, memory requirements, parameters, and free downloadable tools. Based on our experience, we are able to choose a technique to solve our problem. We hope that this analysis is also helpful for other engineers facing a similar problem

The purpose and use of passenger ships in 2058 - Future scenarios generated by the Delphi method

The purpose of the thesis is to generate scenarios of future purposes and of use of ships, suitable for STX Finland Cruise Oy to design and build, over a 50 year time span by applying the Delphi method and an open innovation approach in a future workshop. The scenarios were mapped out with help of two Delphi survey rounds and one future workshop. The number of participants in both surveys and the workshop was some twenty experts in each, representing various fields. On the basis of the first survey round, four different subject areas were selected for analysis: purposes for the use of ships; energy efficiency of cruises and ships; cost efficiency of sea transportation and vacation; and the views and expectations of the customers in the future. As a result of the future workshop, four different themes were established, which were studied further during the second Delphi round. The themes are future service and operation concepts; versatile uses of the space in ships; communication of environmental benefits of ships, future energy solutions and social interaction between passengers onboard. In addition to generating the scenarios, further aim of the thesis is to implement the Delphi method and workshop activity as foresight tools for STX Europe and to produce a chart of a future shipbuilding foresight community to can serve the open innovation processes in the maritime cluster as a whole.

Rautateiden henkilöliikenteen kehitys Baltian maissa

Työn tavoitteena oli selvittää, millaisia muutoksia Viron, Latvian ja Liettuan rautateiden henkilöliikenteessä on tapahtunut neuvostoajan lopun ja tämän päivän välillä. Tarkastelupisteiksi valittiin vuodet 1991, 1997, 2002 ja 2009. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli myös selvittää muutoksiin vaikuttaneita taustatekijöitä, kuvata nykytilannetta ja tarkastella tulevaisuuden vaihtoehtoisia kehityspolkuja. Tutkimuksen tulosten perusteella rautateiden henkilöliikenteen määrä on supistunut noin puoleen kaikissa kolmessa maassa tarkasteltuna junakilometrien viikoittaisella määrällä. Matkustajamäärät ovat laskeneet kaikissa kolmessa maassa selvästi tarkastelujakson aikana. Syitä rautateiden henkilöliikenteen supistumiseen ovat olleet mm. kireä kilpailu linja-autoliikenteen kanssa ja lisääntynyt henkilöautojen käyttö. 1990-luvun taloudellisesti vaikeina vuosina rautateillä ei ollut mahdollisuuksia uusia kalustoaan. Kansainvälinen talouskriisi ja sen myötä heikentynyt taloudellinen tilanne kaikissa kolmessa maassa muodostaa uuden uhan rautateiden henkilöliikenteelle. Korkeat rataverkon käyttömaksut toimivat tehokkaana esteenä henkilöliikenteen kehittämiselle.

Development of railway logistics’ information flows

Objective of this thesis was to develop the exchange of information and reduce the manual work done in the supply chain. In addition, the possibility to introduce electronic information exchange was studied between suppliers and Borealis. The aim was to create an accurate picture of Borealis’ current information flows and create from the basis of it short- and long-term improvement and development proposals. In this study the company's received and send information flows were mapped by interviewing persons who were responsible for the railroad imports and by examining documents that are used in the exchange of information. The data content of the information flows were prioritized and only the most important information contents were used for further development. Literature data was acquired concerning knowledge of electronic data interchange and information management to support the decisions and proposals. Long-term development proposals were compared with each other and the best one of them was recommended for further study. The final target of the proposal is to be able to receive electronic data and create an own database where to the information is stored and where from it is possible to follow up the rail tank cars and where from the needed reports can be retrieved.

Driver of Demand in Cargo and Passenger Traffic Between Penta Ports

Maritime transport moves around 6 billion tonnes of freight every year. The freight consists of liquid bulks (45%), dry bulks (23%) and general cargo (32%). Freight traffic and transports chains vary according to region, commodity and the origin and the destination of freight. In the European Union the ports sector handles over 90% of the trade with third countries. The share of intra-EU trade is approximately 30% of the total transportation and the number of passengers is over 200 million every year. The Baltic Sea has more than 50,000 vessels a year pass the Skaw at the northernmost tip of Denmark on their way into or out of the Baltic. Roughly 60% to 70% of these vessels are cargo vessels and 17% to 25% tankers. Ports and maritime transport play a crucial role in global commerce today. Today’s business environment is changing rapidly, and the constant changes create challenges for the transport industry and maritime traffic. Ports have to adapt to continuous changes in economic structures, logistics demands, and people’s travel and leisure patterns. In order to ensure the competitiveness of sea connections, the ports need to fully enhance multilateral cross-border understanding and cooperation. In this report the focus is on liner traffic between five ports in the Central Baltic Region: Stockholm, Tallinn, Helsinki Turku and Naantali. The report defines the drivers of the demand for cargo and passenger traffic and highlights the most important factors. The economic situation and foreign trade of each county are elaborated on with detailed information about the flows of traffic between the five ports. Based on expert interviews, the main characteristics of each port, including strengths and weaknesses, are presented. The report is based on primary and secondary data. Primary data was received through interviews and mail surveys. Secondary data was attained through a literature research, statistics, data given by the PENTA ports and webpages. The report is divided into two main parts: the drivers creating the demand for transport and the results of current cargo and passenger flows between PENTA ports.

Production Quality Analysis of Special Elevator Cars Based on Six Sigma Approach

Project scope is to utilize Six Sigma DMAIC approach and lean principles to improve production quality of the case company. Six Sigma tools and techniques are explored through a literature review and later used in the quality control phase. The focus is set on the Pareto analysis to demonstrate the most evident development areas in the production. Materials that are not delivered to the customer or materials that damaged during transportation comprise the biggest share of all feedbacks. The goal is set to reduce these feedbacks by 50 %. Production observation pointed out that not only material shortages but also over-production is a daily situation. As a result, an initial picking list where the purchased and own production components can be seen, is created, reduction of over- and underproduction and material marking improvement are seen the most competitive options so that the goal can be reached. The picking list development should still continue to make sure that the list can be used not only in the case study but also in the industrial scale. The reduction of material missing category can be evaluated reliably not sooner than in few years because it takes time to gather the needed statistical information.

The Canada Southern Railway, extending from Detroit and Toledo to Buffalo and Niagara Falls, forms the quickest and most attractive route between the west and the east.

Includes routes and rates: p.33-64.

Second Welland Canal - Book 1, Survey Map 2 - Lock 1 and Port Dalhousie

Survey map of the Second Welland Canal created by the Welland Canal Company showing the areas in and around Port Dalhousie and Grantham Township. Identified structures associated with the Canal include Lock 1, East and West Piers, Collector's Office, Lock Tender's House and the new towing path. The surveyors' measurements and notes can be seen in red and black ink and pencil. Local area landmarks and businesses are also identified and include streets and roads (ex. Road to St. Catharines, Side Line, Old Road to Port Dalhousie, Road to Niagara), the Welland Railway and its structures (ex. freight sheds, wood shed, raised platform, elevator, cranes, water tank, turn table, and passenger station), G. A. Clark's Wood Yard, Clark's Wood Office, Alex Muir's Dry Dock, Donald, Andrews and Ross' Dry Dock, RandJ Laurie Flouring Mill, R. Laurie and Company Grist Mill and A. Morrison Saw Mill. A New Road to St. Catharines is featured in red ink. Properties and property owners of note are: Concession 1 Lots 19, 20 and 21, John Christie, and John Clark.

Cross sections of excavation required to make a ditch on the earth side of the railroad near Port Dalhousie

Cross sections of excavation required to make a ditch on the earth side of the railroad near Port Dalhousie. This is a 12 page booklet of hand- drawn charts and diagrams which is slightly stained. Text is not affected, Mar. 1860.

Voucher #22 to James McCoppen (copy) which includes a letter from James McCoppen regarding a claim for having water backed up into his grain and grass by the embankment of the railroad. The letter is dated June 24, 1857 and the voucher is dated Jul. 1, 1857

Voucher #22 to James McCoppen (copy) which includes a letter from James McCoppen regarding a claim for having water backed up into his grain and grass by the embankment of the railroad. The letter is dated June 24, 1857 and the voucher is dated Jul. 1, 1857.

The New Continental Line Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad West and Southwest schedule

The New Continental Line Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad West and Southwest schedule. The schedule is slightly torn. This does not affect the text, Sept. 4, 1881.