Electrochemical Treatment of Wastewaters

Electrocoagulation is a process in which wastewater is treated under electrical current. Coagulant is formed during the process through the metal anode dissolution to respective ions which react with hydroxyl ions released in cathode. These metal hydroxides form complexes with pollutant ions. Pollutants are removed among metal hydroxide precipitates. This study was concentrated on describing chemistry and device structures in which electrochemical treatment operations are based on. Studied pollutants were nitrogen compounds, sulphate, trivalent and pentavalent arsenic, heavy metals, phosphate, fluoride, chloride, and bromide. In experimental part, removal of ammonium, nitrate, and sulphate during electrochemical treatment was studied separately. Main objective of this study was to find suitable metal plate material for ammonium, nitrate, and sulphate removal, respectively. Also other parameters such as pH of solution, concentration of pollutant and sodium chloride, and current density were optimized. According to this study the most suitable material for ammonium and sulphate removal by electrochemical treatment was stainless steel. Respectively, iron was the optimum material for nitrate removal. Rise in the pH of solution at the final stage of electrochemical treatment of ammonium, nitrate, and sulphate was detected. Conductivities of solutions decreased during ammonium removal in electrochemical processes. When nitrate and sulphate were removed electrochemically conductivities of solutions increased. Concentrations of residual metals in electrochemically treated solutions were not significant. Based on this study electrochemical treatment processes are recommended to be used in treatment of industrial wastewaters. Treatment conditions should be optimized for each wastewater matrix.

Ethological activities, ruminal parameters and weight gain of calves supplemented with different amounts of sodium chloride

The daily weight gain, behavioral activities (grazing, ruminating and water consumption) and the number of rumen protozoa, pH, NH3, and the osmolarity of rumen fluid was evaluated for four groups of six calves HPB/Zebu submitted to daily intake of 15, 30, 60 and 90g of NaCl during 135 days (9th Jan. to 24th May 2008).Throughout the experimental period the calves were in perfect health condition and did not show any signs suggestive of chronic sodium poisoning. There was no significant difference in average daily gain of the calves as the intake of NaCl increased. No significant behavioral changes were observed in the activities of grazing and rumination. However, there was a noticeable change in the frequency of water consumption in the calves that ingested 90g/d of NaCl; they went more often to the trough and drank more water than the group that ingested only 15g sodium chloride/d. The osmolarity of ruminal liquid was higher in the group of calves fed 90g of NaCl/d. The pH, NH3 concentration and number of rumen protozoa was within the normal range.

PET Imaging of Osteomyelitis. Feasibility of 18F-FDG, 68Ga-Chloride and 68Ga-DOTAVAP-P1 Tracers in Staphylococcal Bone Infections

Due to technical restrictions of the database system the title of the thesis does not show corretly on this page. Numbers in the title are in superscript. Please see the PDF-file for correct title. ---- Osteomyelitis is a progressive inflammatory disease of bone and bone marrow that results in bone destruction due to an infective microorganism, most frequently Staphylococcus aureus. Orthopaedic concern relates to the need for reconstructive and trauma-related surgical procedures in the fast grow¬ing population of fragile, aged patients, who have an increased susceptibility to surgical site infections. Depending on the type of osteomyelitis, infection may be acute or a slowly progressing, low-grade infection. Peri-implant infections lead to implant loosening. The emerging antibiotic resistance of com¬mon pathogens further complicates the situation. With current imaging methods, significant limitations exist in the diagnosing of osteomyelitis and implant-related infections. Positron emission tomography (PET) with a glucose analogue, 18F-fluoro¬deoxyglucose (18F-FDG), seems to facilitate a more accurate diagnosis of chronic osteomyelitis. The method is based on the increased glucose consumption of activated inflammatory cells. Unfortunately, 18F-FDG accumulates also in sterile inflammation regions and causes false-positive findings, for exam¬ple, due to post-operative healing processes. Therefore, there is a clinical need for new, more infection-specific tracers. In addition, it is still unknown why 18F-FDG PET imaging is less accurate in the detec¬tion of periprosthetic joint infections, most frequently due to Staphylococcus epidermidis. This doctoral thesis focused on testing novel PET tracers (68Ga-chloride and 68Ga-DOTAVAP-P1) for early detections of bone infections and evaluated the role of pathogen-related factors in the appli¬cations of 18F-FDG PET in the diagnostics of bone infections. For preclinical models of S. epidermidis and S. aureus bone/implant infections, the significance of the causative pathogen was studied with respect to 18F-FDG uptake. In a retrospective analysis of patients with confirmed bone infections, the significance of the presence or absence of positive bacterial cultures on 18F-FDG uptake was evalu¬ated. 18F-FDG and 68Ga-chloride resulted in a similar uptake in S. aureus osteomyelitic bones. However, 68Ga-chloride did not show uptake in healing bones, and therefore it may be a more-specific tracer in the early post-operative or post-traumatic phase. 68Ga-DOTAVAP-P1, a novel synthetic peptide bind¬ing to vascular adhesion protein 1 (VAP-1), was able to detect the phase of inflammation in healing bones, but the uptake of the tracer was elevated also in osteomyelitis. Low-grade peri-implant infec¬tions due to S. epidermidis were characterized by a low uptake of 18F-FDG, which reflects the virulence of the causative pathogen and the degree of leukocyte infiltration. In the clinical study, no relationship was found between the level of 18F-FDG uptake and the presence of positive or negative bacterial cul¬tures. Thus 18F-FDG PET may help to confirm metabolically active infection process in patients with culture-negative, histologically confirmed, low-grade osteomyelitis.

Multi-axis solutions in packaging machines in Europe

The objective of this thesis was to examine the potential of multi-axis solutions in packaging machines produced in Europe. The definition of a multi-axis solution in this study is a construction that uses a common DC bus power supply for different amplifiers running the axes and the intelligence is centralized into one unit. The cost structure of a packaging machine was gained from an automation research, which divided the machines according to automation categories. The automation categories were then further divided into different sub-components by evaluating the ratio of multi-axis solutions compared to other automation components in packaging machines. A global motion control study was used for further information. With the help of the ratio, an estimation of the potential of multi-axis solutions in each country and packaging machine sector was completed. In addition to the research, a specific questionnaire was sent to five companies to gain information about the present situation and possible trends in packaging machinery. The greatest potential markets are in Germany and Italy, which are also the largest producers of packaging machinery in Europe. The greatest growth in the next few years will be seen in Turkey where the annual growth rate equals the general machinery production rate in Asia. The greatest market potential of the Nordic countries is found in Sweden in 35th position on the list. According to the interviews, motion control products in packaging machines will retain their current power levels, as well as the number of axes in the future. Integrated machine safety features together with a universal programming language are the desired attributes of the future. Unlike generally in industry, the energy saving objectives are and will remain insignificant in the packaging industry.

Finnish cleantech SMEs in China: Challenges and solutions

The rapid economic growth in China has resulted in environmental challenges ranging from air pollution to water-related issues. Thus supporting clean technology, or cleantech, that encompasses industries that focus on alternative energy, pollution and recycling, power supplies and conservation has become one of the focal points in the Chinese economic policy for the next decade. Simultaneously, the Finnish government has initiated programs to support the internationalisation of domestic cleantech companies in an attempt to spiral the industry into one of the pillars of Finnish economic growth. This study concentrates on the conjunction of these two themes and studies the challenges faced by Finnish cleantech SMEs in the Chinese market. Consequently, the study answers the following sub questions: 1. What human and financial resource-based challenges do Finnish cleantech SMEs face in the Chinese market and what are their solutions? 2. What knowledge-based challenges do Finnish cleantech SMEs face in the Chinese market and how can these difficulties be resolved? 3. What network-based challenges do Finnish cleantech SMEs face in the Chinese market, how do they relate to the resource- and knowledge-based challenges, and how can these difficulties be resolved? This qualitative study is conducted by analysing four semi structured interviews collected from four Finnish SMEs that operate in China. The findings of the study indicate that in human resources the most important challenges are related to the hiring and retaining of employees. In contrast to extant academic literature results distinguish salary and social status as the main solutions to this challenge. Regarding financial resources it is discovered that cleantech companies enjoy a benign business environment in China and benefit from the Chinese government’s support for cleantech industry. Challenges related to knowledge resources can be grouped into categories with the most interesting knowledge flows being the stream of local market knowledge into to the foreign parent company and the outward flow of manufacturing and business practice information into the target venture. The challenge related to the first flow is gathering relevant information and the main solutions are clustering at the foreign location and hiring knowledge prior to internationalisation. Regarding the second flow the main challenge is related to intellectual property rights and the most interesting solution is the purposeful transformation of explicit knowledge into tacit knowledge. Finally, it is discovered that networks, called guanxi in China, greatly affect the business processes. Within the guanxi system there is the concept of face which was found to affect employee propensity to stay as well as, as a novel academic result, employees’ knowledge sharing intention.

E-business solutions as a part of a customer service portfolio

Tässä työssä tutkittiin sähköisen liiketoiminnan palveluiden tarvetta kartonkiteollisuudessa. Palveluiden tarvetta ja sisältöä tutkittiin suomalaisessa metsäteollisuusyrityksessä. Tutkimus suoritettiin teemahaastatteluin ja sitä täydennettiin tekemällä yritys case. Tutkimuksen pohjana toimi esiselvitys, jossa muutamia sähköisen liiketoiminnan palveluita oli tunnistettu. Sähköisen liiketoiminnan palveluiden on havaittu lisääntyneen merkittävästi yritystenvälisessä liiketoiminnassa. Kuluttajakaupassa sähköisen liiketoiminnan palvelut ovat olleet jo pitkään käytössä. Sähköisen kaupankäynnin lisääntyminen on ajanut yrityksiä perustamaan sähköisiä kauppapaikkoja, modernisoimaan toimitusmallejaan tai palvelukonseptejaan sekä huomioimaan sähköisen tiedonvaihdon vaikutuksia liiketoimissaan. Tutkimuksen tulokset johtivat kolmeen johtopäätökseen. Tutkimus osoitti, että sähköisen liiketoiminnan palvelut ovat osa nykyaikaista yritystenvälistä liiketoimintaa. Palveluita on olemassa ja niitä on tarjolla yrityksen kilpailijoiden toimesta maailmanlaajuisesti. Toiseksi tutkimus osoitti, että toimitusketjun tulevaisuus on palveluiden kehittämisessä ja niiden rakentamisessa. Kartonkituotteet lähenevät toisiaan laadullisesti kokoajan, sähköiset palvelut voivat tuoda kilpailuetua ja niiden avulla voidaan erottua markkinoilla. Kolmanneksi, sähköiseen liiketoimintaan on panostettava ja palveluita on rakennettava toimitusmalleja tukevaksi. Palveluiden sisällön on huomioitava asiakastarpeet.

Developing Service-based Solutions for Water Treatment in Finnish Mining Industry

The aim of this master’s thesis is to analyze the mining industry customers' current and future needs for the water treatment services and discover new business development opportunities in the context of mine water treatment. In addition, the study focuses on specifying service offerings needed and evaluate suitable revenue generation models for them. The main research question of the study is: What kind of service needs related to water treatment can be identified in the Finnish mining industry? The literature examined in the study focused on industrial service classification and new service development process as well as the revenue generation of services. A qualitative research approach employing a case study method was chosen for the study. The present study uses customer and expert interviews as primary data source, complemented by archival data. The primary data was gathered by organizing total of 13 interviews, and the interviews were analyzed by using qualitative content analysis. The abductive-logic was chosen as the way of conducting scientific reasoning in this study. As a result, new service proposals were developed for Finnish mine industry suppliers. The main areas of development were on asset efficiency services and process support services. The service needs were strongly associated with suppliers’ know-how of water treatment process optimization, cost-effectiveness as well as on alternative technologies. The study provides an insight for managers that wish to pursue a water treatment services as a part of their business offering.

Virtual technology and haptic interface solutions for design and control of mobile working machines

Commercially available haptic interfaces are usable for many purposes. However, as generic devices they are not the most suitable for the control of heavy duty mobile working machines like mining machines, container handling equipment and excavators. Alternative mechanical constructions for a haptic controller are presented and analysed. A virtual reality environment (VRE) was built to test the proposed haptic controller mechanisms. Verification of an electric motor emulating a hydraulic pump in the electro-hydraulic system of a mobile working machine is carried out. A real-time simulator using multi-body-dynamics based software with hardware-in-loop (HIL) setup was used for the tests. Recommendations for further development of a haptic controller and emulator electric motor are given.

Indoor Localization Solutions for a Marine Industry Augmented Reality Tool

In this report are described means for indoor localization in special, challenging circum-stances in marine industry. The work has been carried out in MARIN project, where a tool based on mobile augmented reality technologies for marine industry is developed. The tool can be used for various inspection and documentation tasks and it is aimed for improving the efficiency in design and construction work by offering the possibility to visualize the newest 3D-CAD model in real environment. Indoor localization is needed to support the system in initialization of the accurate camera pose calculation and auto-matically finding the right location in the 3D-CAD model. The suitability of each indoor localization method to the specific environment and circumstances is evaluated.

Communication Solutions for LVDC Island Networks

Production and generation of electrical power is evolving to more environmental friendly technologies and schemes. Pushed by the increasing cost of fossil fuels, the operational costs of producing electrical power with fossil fuels and the effect in the environment, like pollution and global warming, renewable energy sources gain con-stant impulse into the global energy economy. In consequence, the introduction of distributed energy sources has brought a new complexity to the electrical networks. In the new concept of smart grids and decen-tralized power generation; control, protection and measurement are also distributed and requiring, among other things, a new scheme of communication to operate with each other in balance and improve performance. In this research, an analysis of different communication technologies (power line communication, Ethernet over unshielded twisted pair (UTP), optic fiber, Wi-Fi, Wi-MAX, and Long Term Evolution) and their respective characteristics will be carried out. With the objective of pointing out strengths and weaknesses from different points of view (technical, economical, deployment, etc.) to establish a richer context on which a decision for communication approach can be done depending on the specific application scenario of a new smart grid deployment. As a result, a description of possible optimal deployment solutions for communication will be shown considering different options for technologies, and a mention of different important considerations to be taken into account will be made for some of the possible network implementation scenarios.

Applying Nordic Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Solutions in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia

RENSOL (Regional Energy Solutions) project deals with the use of energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions in Kaliningrad Oblast to tackle climate change. Overall objective of the RENSOL work package 1 is to build awareness and knowledge on solutions for energy efficient buildings and street lightning applications. The project report describes available solutions to improve housing energy efficiency.

Making the impact on research and society: a case study - open repository and crowdsourcing solutions developed for the Finno-Ugric Digitization Pilot Project at the National Library of Finland

Jussi-Pekka Hakkaraisen esitys 24. Kansainvälisessä tieteen-, teknologian ja lääketieteen historian kongressissa (24th International Congress of History of Science, Technology and Medicine) Manchesterissa 26.7.2013

Developing Bioimage Informatics – from Microscopy to Software Solutions – with alpha2beta1 Integrin as a Case Study

Biokuvainformatiikan kehittäminen – mikroskopiasta ohjelmistoratkaisuihin – sovellusesimerkkinä α2β1-integriini Kun ihmisen genomi saatiin sekvensoitua vuonna 2003, biotieteiden päätehtäväksi tuli selvittää eri geenien tehtävät, ja erilaisista biokuvantamistekniikoista tuli keskeisiä tutkimusmenetelmiä. Teknologiset kehitysaskeleet johtivat erityisesti fluoresenssipohjaisten valomikroskopiatekniikoiden suosion räjähdysmäiseen kasvuun, mutta mikroskopian tuli muuntua kvalitatiivisesta tieteestä kvantitatiiviseksi. Tämä muutos synnytti uuden tieteenalan, biokuvainformatiikan, jonka on sanottu mahdollisesti mullistavan biotieteet. Tämä väitöskirja esittelee laajan, poikkitieteellisen työkokonaisuuden biokuvainformatiikan alalta. Väitöskirjan ensimmäinen tavoite oli kehittää protokollia elävien solujen neliulotteiseen konfokaalimikroskopiaan, joka oli yksi nopeimmin kasvavista biokuvantamismenetelmistä. Ihmisen kollageenireseptori α2β1-integriini, joka on tärkeä molekyyli monissa fysiologisissa ja patologisissa prosesseissa, oli sovellusesimerkkinä. Työssä saavutettiin selkeitä visualisointeja integriinien liikkeistä, yhteenkeräytymisestä ja solun sisään siirtymisestä, mutta työkaluja kuvainformaation kvantitatiiviseen analysointiin ei ollut. Väitöskirjan toiseksi tavoitteeksi tulikin tällaiseen analysointiin soveltuvan tietokoneohjelmiston kehittäminen. Samaan aikaan syntyi biokuvainformatiikka, ja kipeimmin uudella alalla kaivattiin erikoistuneita tietokoneohjelmistoja. Tämän väitöskirjatyön tärkeimmäksi tulokseksi muodostui näin ollen BioImageXD, uudenlainen avoimen lähdekoodin ohjelmisto moniulotteisten biokuvien visualisointiin, prosessointiin ja analysointiin. BioImageXD kasvoi yhdeksi alansa suurimmista ja monipuolisimmista. Se julkaistiin Nature Methods -lehden biokuvainformatiikkaa käsittelevässä erikoisnumerossa, ja siitä tuli tunnettu ja laajalti käytetty. Väitöskirjan kolmas tavoite oli soveltaa kehitettyjä menetelmiä johonkin käytännönläheisempään. Tehtiin keinotekoisia piidioksidinanopartikkeleita, joissa oli "osoitelappuina" α2β1-integriinin tunnistavia vasta-aineita. BioImageXD:n avulla osoitettiin, että nanopartikkeleilla on potentiaalia lääkkeiden täsmäohjaussovelluksissa. Tämän väitöskirjatyön yksi perimmäinen tavoite oli edistää uutta ja tuntematonta biokuvainformatiikan tieteenalaa, ja tämä tavoite saavutettiin erityisesti BioImageXD:n ja sen lukuisten julkaistujen sovellusten kautta. Väitöskirjatyöllä on merkittävää potentiaalia tulevaisuudessa, mutta biokuvainformatiikalla on vakavia haasteita. Ala on liian monimutkainen keskimääräisen biolääketieteen tutkijan hallittavaksi, ja alan keskeisin elementti, avoimen lähdekoodin ohjelmistokehitystyö, on aliarvostettu. Näihin seikkoihin tarvitaan useita parannuksia,

Making the impact on research and society : a case study: crowdsourcing solutions developed for the linguistic research and citizen science

Can crowdsourcing solutions serve many masters? Can they be beneficial for both, for the layman or native speakers of minority languages on the one hand and serious linguistic research on the other? How did an infrastructure that was designed to support linguistics turn out to be a solution for raising awareness of native languages? Since 2012 the National Library of Finland has been developing the Digitisation Project for Kindred Languages, in which the key objective is to support a culture of openness and interaction in linguistic research, but also to promote crowdsourcing as a tool for participation of the language community in research. In the course of the project, over 1,200 monographs and nearly 111,000 pages of newspapers in Finno-Ugric languages will be digitised and made available in the Fenno-Ugrica digital collection. This material was published in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s, and users have had only sporadic access to the material. The publication of open-access and searchable materials from this period is a goldmine for researchers. Historians, social scientists and laymen with an interest in specific local publications can now find text materials pertinent to their studies. The linguistically-oriented population can also find writings to delight them: (1) lexical items specific to a given publication, and (2) orthographically-documented specifics of phonetics. In addition to the open access collection, we developed an open source code OCR editor that enables the editing of machine-encoded text for the benefit of linguistic research. This tool was necessary since these rare and peripheral prints often include already archaic characters, which are neglected by modern OCR software developers but belong to the historical context of kindred languages, and are thus an essential part of the linguistic heritage. When modelling the OCR editor, it was essential to consider both the needs of researchers and the capabilities of lay citizens, and to have them participate in the planning and execution of the project from the very beginning. By implementing the feedback iteratively from both groups, it was possible to transform the requested changes as tools for research that not only supported the work of linguistics but also encouraged the citizen scientists to face the challenge and work with the crowdsourcing tools for the benefit of research. This presentation will not only deal with the technical aspects, developments and achievements of the infrastructure but will highlight the way in which user groups, researchers and lay citizens were engaged in a process as an active and communicative group of users and how their contributions were made to mutual benefit.