The Context and Diffusion of Knowledge in the Finnish Jewellery Industry - The role of the House of Fabergé

Researchers within the fields of economic geography and organizational management have extensively studied learning and the prerequisites and impediments for knowledge transfer. This paper combines two discourses within the two subjects: the-communities-of-practice and the learning region approaches, merging them through the so-called ecology of knowledge-approach, which is used to examine the knowledge transfer from the House of Fabergé to the Finnish jewellery industry. We examine the pre-revolution St Petersburg jewellery cluster and the post-revolution Helsinki, and the transfer of knowledge between these two locations through the components of communities of people, institutions and industry. The paper shows that the industrial dynamics of the Finnish modern-day goldsmith industry was inherently shaped both through the transfer and the non-transfer of knowledge. It also contends that the “knowledge-economy” is not anchored in and exclusive for the high technology sector of the late 20th century.

High efficiency infrared antireflection coatings (ARCs) for space optics

Simple ARC designs for germanium (Ge) optics useful in spaceborne electro-optical systems have been generated. It is seen that the designs which are non-quarterwave in nature are efficient in terms of spectral coverage and residual reflection loss. They have been realised experimentally and the resulting ARCs are found to have very good spectral and durability properties.

Dimensionality of quality from a customer perspective in the wood industry

The research analyzes product quality from a customer perspective in the case of the wood products industry. Of specific interest is to understand better how environmental quality is perceived from a customer perspective. The empirical material used comprises four data-sets from Finland, Germany and the UK, collected during 1992 2004. The methods consist of a set of quantitative statistical analyses. The results indicate that perceived quality from a customer perspective can be presented using a multidimensional and hierarchical construct with tangible and intangible dimensions, that is common to different markets and products. This applies in the case of wood products but also more generally at least for some other construction materials. For wood products, tangible product quality has two main sub-dimensions: technical quality and appearance. For product intangibles, a few main quality dimensions seem be detectable: Quality of intangibles related to the physical product, such as environmental issues and product-related information, supplier-related characteristics, and service and sales personnel behavior. Environmental quality and information are often perceived as being inter-related. Technical performance and appearance are the most important considerations for customers in the case of wood products. Organizational customers in particular also clearly consider certain intangible quality dimensions to be important, such as service and supplier reliability. The high technical quality may be considered as a license to operate , but product appearance and intangible quality provide potential for differentiation for attracting certain market segments. Intangible quality issues are those where Nordic suppliers underperform in comparison to their Central-European competitors on the important German markets. Environmental quality may not have been used to its full extent to attract customers. One possibility is to increase the availability of the environment-related information, or to develop environment-related product characteristics to also provide some individual benefits. Information technology provides clear potential to facilitate information-based quality improvements, which was clearly recognized by Finnish forest industry already in the early 1990s. The results indeed indicate that wood products markets are segmented with regard to quality demands

Titania nanowires as substrates for sensing and photocatalysis of common textile industry effluents

Sensing and photocatalysis of textile industry effluents such as dyes using mesoporous anatase titania nanowires are discussed here.Spectroscopic investigations show that the titania nanowires preferentially sense cationic (e.g. Methylene Blue, Rhodamine B) over anionic (e.g. Orange G, Remazol Brilliant Blue R) dyes. The adsorbed dye concentration on titania nanowires increased with increase in nanowire dimensions and dye solution pH. Electrochemical sensing directly corroborated spectroscopic findings. Electrochemical detection sensitivity for Methylene Blue increased by more than two times in magnitude with tripling of nanowire average length. Photodegradation of Methylene Blue using titania nanowires is also more efficient than the commercial P25-TiO2 nanopowders. Keeping illumination protocol and observation times constant, the Methylene Blue concentration in solution decreased by only 50% in case of P25-TiO2 nanoparticles compared to a 100% decrease for titania nanowires. Photodegradation was also found to be function of exposure times and dye solution pH.Excellent sensing ability and photocatalytic activity of the titania nanowires is attributed to increased effective reaction area of the controlled nanostructured morphology. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Vacuum emissivity meter for thermal emittance measurements of coatings

The problems in measuring thermal emittance by steady?state calorimetric technique have been analyzed. A few suggestions to make it more accurate, simple, and rapid have been discussed and results are presented.

CSR in forest industry – Case study of reporting and implementation of social responsibility in three international companies

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become increasingly important topic in forest industries, and other global companies, in recent years. Globalisation, faster information delivery and demand for sustainable development have set new challenges for global companies in their business operations. Also the importance of stakeholder relations, and pressure to become more transparent has increased in the forest industries. Three dimensions of corporate responsibility economic, environmental and social, are often included in the concept of CSR. Global companies mostly claim that these dimensions are equally important. This study analyses CSR in forest industry and has focus on reporting and implementation of social responsibility in three international companies. These case-companies are Stora Enso, SCA and Sappi, and they have different geographical base, product portfolios and therefore present interesting differences about forest industry strategy and CSR. Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has created the most known and used reporting framework in CSR reporting. GRI Guidelines have made CSR reporting a uniform function, which can also be measured between companies and different sectors. GRI Guidelines have also made it possible to record and control CSR data in the companies. In recent years the use of GRI Guidelines has increased substantially. Typically CSR reporting on economic and environmental responsibility have been systematic in the global companies and often driven by legistlation and other regulations. However the social responsibility has been less regulated and more difficult to compare. Therefore it has previously been often less focused in the CSR reporting of the global companies. The implementation and use of GRI Guidelines have also increased dialogue on social responsibility issues and stakeholder management in global companies. This study analyses the use of GRI´s framework in the forest industry companies´ CSR reporting. This is a qualitative study and the disclosure of data is empricially analysed using content analysis. Content analysis has been selected as a method for this study because it makes it possible to use different sources of information. The data of this study consists of existing academic literature of CSR, sustainability reports of thecase-companies during 2005-2009, and the semi-structured interviews with company representatives. Different sources provide the possibility to look at specific subject from more than one viewpoint. The results of the study show that all case-companies have relatively common themes in their CSR disclosure, and the differences rise mainly from their product-portfolios, and geographic base. Social impacts to local communities, in the CSR of the companies, were mainly dominated by issues concerning creating wealth to the society and impacting communities through creation of work. The comparability of the CSR reporting, and especially social indicators increased significally from 2007 onwards in all case-companies. Even though the companies claim that three dimensions of CSR economic, environmental and social are equally important economic issues and profit improvement still seem to drive most of the operations in the global companies. Many issues that are covered by laws and regulations are still essentially presented as social responsibility in CSR. However often the unwelcome issues in companies like closing operations are covered just briefly, and without adequate explanation. To make social responsibility equally important in the CSR it would demand more emphasis from all the case-companies. A lot of emphasis should be put especially on the detail and extensiveness of the social reponsibility content in the CSR.

Two-dimensional fuzzy fault tree analysis for chlorine release from a chlor-alkali industry using expert elicitation

The hazards associated with major accident hazard (MAN) industries are fire, explosion and toxic gas releases. Of these, toxic gas release is the worst as it has the potential to cause extensive fatalities. Qualitative and quantitative hazard analyses are essential for the identification and quantification of these hazards related to chemical industries. Fault tree analysis (FTA) is an established technique in hazard identification. This technique has the advantage of being both qualitative and quantitative, if the probabilities and frequencies of the basic events are known. This paper outlines the estimation of the probability of release of chlorine from storage and filling facility of chlor-alkali industry using FTA. An attempt has also been made to arrive at the probability of chlorine release using expert elicitation and proven fuzzy logic technique for Indian conditions. Sensitivity analysis has been done to evaluate the percentage contribution of each basic event that could lead to chlorine release. Two-dimensional fuzzy fault tree analysis (TDFFTA) has been proposed for balancing the hesitation factor involved in expert elicitation. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Aitosuklaa jäätelöpuikon kuorrutteena

Tutkimuksen kirjallisuuskatsauksessa keskityttiin jäätelöpuikkoihin, erilaisiin suklaakuorrutteisiin ja elintarvikkeiden kuorruttamiseen suklaalla. Lisäksi kirjallisuuskatsauksessa perehdyttiin suklaan koostumukseen, nestemäisen suklaan virtausominaisuuksiin ja koostumuksen ja virtausominaisuuksien välisiin vuorovaikutuksiin. Kokeellisessa osassa tavoitteena oli selvittää, miten maitosuklaakuorrutteen rasvapitoisuuden, emulgointiainepitoisuuden ja kuorrutteen lämpötilanvaihtelut vaikuttavat kuorrutteen viskositeettiin, myötöjännitykseen, jähmettymisaikaan ja jäätelöpuikon päälle jäävän kuorrutteen määrään. Erityisesti pyrittiin selvittämään, miten jäätelöpuikon päälle jäävän kuorrutteen määrää saadaan säädeltyä kuorrutteen rasvapitoisuutta, emulgointiainepitoisuutta ja lämpötilaa muuttamalla. Tutkimuksen koeasetelma tehtiin Box-Behnken-mallilla. Selittäviksi muuttujiksi tutkimukseen valittiin kuorrutteen rasvan määrä, emulgointiaineen määrä ja kuorrutteen lämpötila jäätelöpuikkoja kuorrutettaessa. Vastemuuttujina oli kuorrutteen jähmettymisaika, viskositeetti, myötöjännitys ja jäätelöpuikon päälle jäävän kuorrutteen määrä. Tulokset käsiteltiin regressioanalyysin avulla. Muuttujien välisiä vuorovaikutuksia tutkittiin vastepintamallilla. Vastemuuttujien välisiä korrelaatioita tutkittaessa käytettiin Pearsonin korrelaatiokerrointa. Kuorrutteen rasvan määrän lisääntyminen vähensi tilastollisesti merkitsevästi jäätelöpuikon päälle jäävän kuorrutteen määrää, kuorrutteen jähmettymisaikaa, viskositeettia ja myötöjännitystä. Emulgointiaineen määrän lisääminen kuorrutteessa pienensi kuorrutteen määrää jäätelöpuikon päällä, kuorrutteen jähmettymisaikaa ja kuorrutteen myötöjännitystä. Kuorrutteen lämpötilan lisääminen jäätelöpuikkoja kuorrutettaessa pienensi kuorrutteen määrää ja viskositeettia. Kuorrutteen jähmettymisaika sen sijaan piteni lämpötilaa lisättäessä. Tutkimuksen perusteella voidaan sanoa, että jäätelöpuikkoja kastettaessa suklaakuorrutteen lämpötila, rasvan määrä ja lesitiinin määrä vaikuttivat jäätelöpuikon päälle jäävän kuorrutteen määrään. Vastepintamallinnuksen käyttö soveltui hyvin suklaakuorrutteen määrän tutkimiseen. Sen avulla saatiin selvitettyä, miten jäätelöpuikon päälle jäävän kuorrutteen määrää saadaan säädeltyä muuttamalla kuorrutteen emulgointiainepitoisuutta, rasvapitoisuutta ja lämpötilaa.