Spatial multicriteria decision analysis for the siting of on-shore wind power in Kemiönsaari

Wind power is a low-carbon energy production form that reduces the dependence of society on fossil fuels. Finland has adopted wind energy production into its climate change mitigation policy, and that has lead to changes in legislation, guidelines, regional wind power areas allocation and establishing a feed-in tariff. Wind power production has indeed boosted in Finland after two decades of relatively slow growth, for instance from 2010 to 2011 wind energy production increased with 64 %, but there is still a long way to the national goal of 6 TWh by 2020. This thesis introduces a GIS-based decision-support methodology for the preliminary identification of suitable areas for wind energy production including estimation of their level of risk. The goal of this study was to define the least risky places for wind energy development within Kemiönsaari municipality in Southwest Finland. Spatial multicriteria decision analysis (SMCDA) has been used for searching suitable wind power areas along with many other location-allocation problems. SMCDA scrutinizes complex ill-structured decision problems in GIS environment using constraints and evaluation criteria, which are aggregated using weighted linear combination (WLC). Weights for the evaluation criteria were acquired using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) with nine expert interviews. Subsequently, feasible alternatives were ranked in order to provide a recommendation and finally, a sensitivity analysis was conducted for the determination of recommendation robustness. The first study aim was to scrutinize the suitability and necessity of existing data for this SMCDA study. Most of the available data sets were of sufficient resolution and quality. Input data necessity was evaluated qualitatively for each data set based on e.g. constraint coverage and attribute weights. Attribute quality was estimated mainly qualitatively by attribute comprehensiveness, operationality, measurability, completeness, decomposability, minimality and redundancy. The most significant quality issue was redundancy as interdependencies are not tolerated by WLC and AHP does not include measures to detect them. The third aim was to define the least risky areas for wind power development within the study area. The two highest ranking areas were Nordanå-Lövböle and Påvalsby followed by Helgeboda, Degerdal, Pungböle, Björkboda, and Östanå-Labböle. The fourth aim was to assess the recommendation reliability, and the top-ranking two areas proved robust whereas the other ones were more sensitive.

A Model-Based Development and Verification Framework for Distributed System-on-Chip Architecture

The capabilities and thus, design complexity of VLSI-based embedded systems have increased tremendously in recent years, riding the wave of Moore’s law. The time-to-market requirements are also shrinking, imposing challenges to the designers, which in turn, seek to adopt new design methods to increase their productivity. As an answer to these new pressures, modern day systems have moved towards on-chip multiprocessing technologies. New architectures have emerged in on-chip multiprocessing in order to utilize the tremendous advances of fabrication technology. Platform-based design is a possible solution in addressing these challenges. The principle behind the approach is to separate the functionality of an application from the organization and communication architecture of hardware platform at several levels of abstraction. The existing design methodologies pertaining to platform-based design approach don’t provide full automation at every level of the design processes, and sometimes, the co-design of platform-based systems lead to sub-optimal systems. In addition, the design productivity gap in multiprocessor systems remain a key challenge due to existing design methodologies. This thesis addresses the aforementioned challenges and discusses the creation of a development framework for a platform-based system design, in the context of the SegBus platform - a distributed communication architecture. This research aims to provide automated procedures for platform design and application mapping. Structural verification support is also featured thus ensuring correct-by-design platforms. The solution is based on a model-based process. Both the platform and the application are modeled using the Unified Modeling Language. This thesis develops a Domain Specific Language to support platform modeling based on a corresponding UML profile. Object Constraint Language constraints are used to support structurally correct platform construction. An emulator is thus introduced to allow as much as possible accurate performance estimation of the solution, at high abstraction levels. VHDL code is automatically generated, in the form of “snippets” to be employed in the arbiter modules of the platform, as required by the application. The resulting framework is applied in building an actual design solution for an MP3 stereo audio decoder application.

Eurooppalaisen opintosuoritusten siirtojärjestelmän (ECVET) kehittämistarpeet Euroopassa

Työssä tutkitaan toisen asteen ammatillisen koulutuksen Eurooppalaista opinto-suoritusten siirtojärjestelmää ECVET:iä. Päätavoitteena on löytää suurimmat jär-jestelmän kehityskohteet ja keinot siihen koko Euroopan tasolla. Kehityskohteet selvitetään asiantuntijoiden lähettämien kyselylomakkeiden perusteella sekä ana-lysoidaan keinot kehittää järjestelmää eteenpäin tulevaisuudessa. Suurimpia on-gelmia ovat maiden erilaiset lähtökohdat lähteä kehittämään ECVET:iä, koska jokaisella maalla on erilaiset ammattikoulutusjärjestelmät, tavat arvioida ja tun-nustaa oppimista. Tarvitaan yhtenäinen näkemys ja työkalut arvioida oppimista. Jokaisen maan tulisi myös ymmärtää ja kehittää Euroopan tutkintojen viitekehyk-set (EQF) samalle tasolle jotta ne olisivat vertailukelpoisia keskenään.

Kysyntä-toimitusketjun synkronointi epävarman kysynnän ja tarjonnan toimintaympäristössä

Kysynnän ja tarjonnan epävarmuudet ovat nykyisin arkipäivää useilla toimialoilla. Elämme epävarmuuden suhteen ennen näkemättömiä aikoja, minkä on arvioitu jatkuvan myös tulevaisuudessa. Yritysten tilauskannat ovat lyhyitä, ja tilaukset viivästyvät tai peruuntuvat kokonaan. Toisaalta tarjonnan epävarmuudet aiheuttavat asiakasyrityksille haasteita esimerkiksi toimitusmyöhästymisten muodossa. Tuotannon ollessa hajaantunut verkostoihin yksittäisten yritysten toiminta ja päätökset vaikuttavat toisten verkostoyritysten toimintaan. Tämän takia epävarmuuden aiheuttamista muutoksista ja poikkeamista tulisi tiedottaa kumppaniyrityksiä, jotta kaikki pysyisivät samalla kellotaajuudella. Operatiivisen ja taktisen tiedon jakaminen on nykyisissä toimitusketjuissa jo arkipäivää, mutta yritysten välisistä rajapinnoista löytyy edelleen kehitettävää. Riittävästä ei kiinnitetä huomiota vastaanottajan kykyyn ja tapaan hyödyntää informaatiota – varsinkaan muutostilanteissa. Ajan/nopeuden ollessa yhä tärkeämpi kilpailutekijä informaation ajoituksella on kriittinen merkitys kysyntä-toimitusketjujen kokonaissuorituskykyyn. Toisin sanoen, millä ajanhetkellä tietoa tulisi jakaa, jotta kumppani pystyisi hyödyntämään saamaansa tietoa mahdollisimman hyvin. Kysyntä-toimitusketjun synkronoinnilla tarkoitetaan tässä väitöstutkimuksessa nimenomaan aikatekijään keskittymistä yritysten välisessä päätöksenteossa ja informaation jakamisessa toimitusketjun kokonaissuorituskyvyn parantamiseksi. Tutkimus kytkeytyy toimitusketjukoordinoinnin tieteelliseen keskusteluun. Koordinointiteorian keskeinen osa ovat riippuvuussuhteet, joita johdetaan koordinointimekanismien avulla. Kysyntätoimitusketjun synkronointia on mallinnettu aikaisemmin VOP-OPP-mallin (Value Offering Point – Order Penetration Point) ja sen johdannaisten avulla. Näissä malleissa asiakasyrityksen kysyntäketju ja toimittajayrityksen toimitusketju ovat keskinäisessä riippuvuussuhteessa, jota johdetaan päätöksenteon synkronoinnin ja informaation jakamisen koordinointimekanismeilla. VOP-OPP-malli johdannaisineen eivät kuitenkaan huomioi epävarman toimintaympäristön vaikutuksia synkronointiin. Näissä malleissa informaation ainoana laatudimensiona tarkasteltava aikatekijä on liian kapea-alainen näkökulma synkronointiin epävarmassa ympäristössä. Lisäksi nämä mallit keskittyvät vain yksisuuntaiseen, kysyntälähtöiseen, synkronointiin jättäen huomioimatta tarjontalähtöisen synkronoinnin. Aikatekijä- ja kokonaissuorituskykypainotustensa takia VOP-OPP-malli tarjosi kuitenkin hyvän lähtöfilosofian uusien synkronointimallien kehittämiseen. Väitöstutkimus toteutettiin hypoteettis-deduktiivisena tapaustutkimuksena, jossa ensin luotiin kirjallisuuden perusteella uudet teoreettiset synkronointimalliehdotukset. Tämän jälkeen ehdotusten toimivuutta arvioitiin käytännön kysyntä-toimitusketjuissa. Tutkimuksen uutuusarvo liittyy kysyntä-toimitusketjun synkronoinnin keskeisten piirteiden systeemiseen mallintamiseen epävarmassa toimintaympäristössä. Kontribuutiona esitetään kysyntä-toimitusketjun synkronoinnin moniulotteinen kokonaismalli, joka sisältää koordinointimekanismeina päätöksenteon synkronoinnin, informaation läpinäkyvyyden sekä asiakas- ja toimittajapään joustot. Tiedon vaihtoa mallissa tarkastellaan kaksisuuntaisesti – kysyntä- ja tarjontalähtöisesti. Informaation laatudimensioina mallissa ovat informaation ajoitus, luotettavuus ja tarkkuus. Kokonaismalli sisältää kolme alimallia: Demand Visibility Point – Demand Penetration Point (DVP-DPP) on kysyntälähtöisen synkronoinnin malli, Supply Visibility Point – Supply Information Penetration Point (SVP-SIPP) on tarjontalähtöisen synkronoinnin malli ja Integroitu DVP-DPP - SVP-SIPP-malli kytkee edellä mainitut mallit toisiinsa. Näissä alimalleissa informaation eri luokkia ovat tilausta edeltävä, tilaukseen liittyvä, tilauksen jälkeinen ja sovitun toimitusajankohdan jälkeinen kysyntä- ja tarjontatieto. Käytännön hyödyntämisen näkökulmasta mallit toimivat ns. mentaalitason koordinointimekanismeina, joiden tarkoitus on herättää toimitusketjukumppanit tavoittelemaan kokonaissuorituskyvyn parantamista oman edun tavoittelemisen sijasta. Tutkimuksen päärajoitteena on sen keskittyminen ainoastaan kahdenvälisiin yhteistyösuhteisiin, mikä tarjoaa nykyisessä verkostoituneessa toimintaympäristössä varsin kapean kuvan käytännön synkronointihaasteisiin.

Limits of Meritocracy. How Fields of Study and Gender Segregation Affect Social Stratification in Finland

This dissertation critically reviews the idea of meritocracy from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective. Based on a discussion of classical texts of social philosophy and sociology, it is argued that meritocracy as a concept for social stratification is best compatible with the sociological tradition of status attainment research: both frame social inequality in primarily individualistic terms, centring on the role of ascribed (e.g., gender, social background) and achieved (e.g., educational qualifications) characteristics for determining individuals’ socioeconomic rewards. This theoretical argument introduces the research problem at the core of this dissertation: to what extent can the individualistic conception of social stratification be maintained empirically? Fields of study and their interaction with educational attainment levels play a prominent role in the analysis of this question. Drawing on sociological versions of segmented labour market theory, it is assumed that fields of study may channel individuals into heterogeneous political-economic contexts on the labour market, which potentially modify the socioeconomic benefit individuals derive from their qualification levels. The focus on fields of study may also highlight economic differentials between men and women that derive from the persisting segregation of men’s and women’s occupational and educational specializations rather than direct gender discrimination on the labour market. The quantitative analyses in this dissertation consist of three research articles, which are based primarily on Finnish data, but occasionally extend the view to other European countries. The data sources include register-based macro- and microdata as well as survey data. Article I examines the extent and the patterns of gender segregation within the Finnish educational system between 1981 and 2005. The results show that differences between men’s and women’s field specializations have for the most part remained stable during this period, with particularly high levels of gender segregation observed at lower educational levels. The focus in Article II rests on the effects of gender-segregated fields of study on higher education graduates’ occupational status. It is shown that fields of study matter for accessing professional jobs and avoiding low-skilled positions in Finland: at the early career stage, particularly polytechnic graduates from female-dominated fields are less likely to work in professional positions. Finnish university graduates from male-dominated fields were more likely than their peers with different specializations to work as professionals, yet they also faced a greater risk of being sorted into lowskilled jobs if they failed to make use of this advantage. Article III proceeded to analyse the joint impact of educational qualification levels and fields of study on young adults’ median earnings in Finland between 1985 and 2005. The results show that qualification levels do not confer a consistent benefit in the process of earnings stratification. Advanced qualifications raise median earnings most clearly among individuals specializing in the same field of study. When comparing individuals with different field specializations, on the other hand, higher-level qualifications do not necessarily lead to higher median earnings. Overall, the findings of this dissertation reveal a heterogeneous effect of education for achieving social positions, which challenges individual-centred, meritocratic accounts of social stratification and underlines the problematic lack of structural and institutional dimensions in the dominant account of social status attainment.

Design and validation of stateful composite RESTful web services

A web service is a software system that provides a machine-processable interface to the other machines over the network using different Internet protocols. They are being increasingly used in the industry in order to automate different tasks and offer services to a wider audience. The REST architectural style aims at producing scalable and extensible web services using technologies that play well with the existing tools and infrastructure of the web. It provides a uniform set of operation that can be used to invoke a CRUD interface (create, retrieve, update and delete) of a web service. The stateless behavior of the service interface requires that every request to a resource is independent of the previous ones facilitating scalability. Automated systems, e.g., hotel reservation systems, provide advanced scenarios for stateful services that require a certain sequence of requests that must be followed in order to fulfill the service goals. Designing and developing such services for advanced scenarios with REST constraints require rigorous approaches that are capable of creating web services that can be trusted for their behavior. Systems that can be trusted for their behavior can be termed as dependable systems. This thesis presents an integrated design, analysis and validation approach that facilitates the service developer to create dependable and stateful REST web services. The main contribution of this thesis is that we provide a novel model-driven methodology to design behavioral REST web service interfaces and their compositions. The behavioral interfaces provide information on what methods can be invoked on a service and the pre- and post-conditions of these methods. The methodology uses Unified Modeling Language (UML), as the modeling language, which has a wide user base and has mature tools that are continuously evolving. We have used UML class diagram and UML state machine diagram with additional design constraints to provide resource and behavioral models, respectively, for designing REST web service interfaces. These service design models serve as a specification document and the information presented in them have manifold applications. The service design models also contain information about the time and domain requirements of the service that can help in requirement traceability which is an important part of our approach. Requirement traceability helps in capturing faults in the design models and other elements of software development environment by tracing back and forth the unfulfilled requirements of the service. The information about service actors is also included in the design models which is required for authenticating the service requests by authorized actors since not all types of users have access to all the resources. In addition, following our design approach, the service developer can ensure that the designed web service interfaces will be REST compliant. The second contribution of this thesis is consistency analysis of the behavioral REST interfaces. To overcome the inconsistency problem and design errors in our service models, we have used semantic technologies. The REST interfaces are represented in web ontology language, OWL2, that can be part of the semantic web. These interfaces are used with OWL 2 reasoners to check unsatisfiable concepts which result in implementations that fail. This work is fully automated thanks to the implemented translation tool and the existing OWL 2 reasoners. The third contribution of this thesis is the verification and validation of REST web services. We have used model checking techniques with UPPAAL model checker for this purpose. The timed automata of UML based service design models are generated with our transformation tool that are verified for their basic characteristics like deadlock freedom, liveness, reachability and safety. The implementation of a web service is tested using a black-box testing approach. Test cases are generated from the UPPAAL timed automata and using the online testing tool, UPPAAL TRON, the service implementation is validated at runtime against its specifications. Requirement traceability is also addressed in our validation approach with which we can see what service goals are met and trace back the unfulfilled service goals to detect the faults in the design models. A final contribution of the thesis is an implementation of behavioral REST interfaces and service monitors from the service design models. The partial code generation tool creates code skeletons of REST web services with method pre and post-conditions. The preconditions of methods constrain the user to invoke the stateful REST service under the right conditions and the post condition constraint the service developer to implement the right functionality. The details of the methods can be manually inserted by the developer as required. We do not target complete automation because we focus only on the interface aspects of the web service. The applicability of the approach is demonstrated with a pedagogical example of a hotel room booking service and a relatively complex worked example of holiday booking service taken from the industrial context. The former example presents a simple explanation of the approach and the later worked example shows how stateful and timed web services offering complex scenarios and involving other web services can be constructed using our approach.

Flexible multibody dynamics and intelligent control of a hydraulically driven hybrid redundant robot machine

The assembly and maintenance of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) vacuum vessel (VV) is highly challenging since the tasks performed by the robot involve welding, material handling, and machine cutting from inside the VV. The VV is made of stainless steel, which has poor machinability and tends to work harden very rapidly, and all the machining operations need to be carried out from inside of the ITER VV. A general industrial robot cannot be used due to its poor stiffness in the heavy duty machining process, and this will cause many problems, such as poor surface quality, tool damage, low accuracy. Therefore, one of the most suitable options should be a light weight mobile robot which is able to move around inside of the VV and perform different machining tasks by replacing different cutting tools. Reducing the mass of the robot manipulators offers many advantages: reduced material costs, reduced power consumption, the possibility of using smaller actuators, and a higher payload-to-robot weight ratio. Offsetting these advantages, the lighter weight robot is more flexible, which makes it more difficult to control. To achieve good machining surface quality, the tracking of the end effector must be accurate, and an accurate model for a more flexible robot must be constructed. This thesis studies the dynamics and control of a 10 degree-of-freedom (DOF) redundant hybrid robot (4-DOF serial mechanism and 6-DOF 6-UPS hexapod parallel mechanisms) hydraulically driven with flexible rods under the influence of machining forces. Firstly, the flexibility of the bodies is described using the floating frame of reference method (FFRF). A finite element model (FEM) provided the Craig-Bampton (CB) modes needed for the FFRF. A dynamic model of the system of six closed loop mechanisms was assembled using the constrained Lagrange equations and the Lagrange multiplier method. Subsequently, the reaction forces between the parallel and serial parts were used to study the dynamics of the serial robot. A PID control based on position predictions was implemented independently to control the hydraulic cylinders of the robot. Secondly, in machining, to achieve greater end effector trajectory tracking accuracy for surface quality, a robust control of the actuators for the flexible link has to be deduced. This thesis investigates the intelligent control of a hydraulically driven parallel robot part based on the dynamic model and two schemes of intelligent control for a hydraulically driven parallel mechanism based on the dynamic model: (1) a fuzzy-PID self-tuning controller composed of the conventional PID control and with fuzzy logic, and (2) adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system-PID (ANFIS-PID) self-tuning of the gains of the PID controller, which are implemented independently to control each hydraulic cylinder of the parallel mechanism based on rod length predictions. The serial component of the hybrid robot can be analyzed using the equilibrium of reaction forces at the universal joint connections of the hexa-element. To achieve precise positional control of the end effector for maximum precision machining, the hydraulic cylinder should be controlled to hold the hexa-element. Thirdly, a finite element approach of multibody systems using the Special Euclidean group SE(3) framework is presented for a parallel mechanism with flexible piston rods under the influence of machining forces. The flexibility of the bodies is described using the nonlinear interpolation method with an exponential map. The equations of motion take the form of a differential algebraic equation on a Lie group, which is solved using a Lie group time integration scheme. The method relies on the local description of motions, so that it provides a singularity-free formulation, and no parameterization of the nodal variables needs to be introduced. The flexible slider constraint is formulated using a Lie group and used for modeling a flexible rod sliding inside a cylinder. The dynamic model of the system of six closed loop mechanisms was assembled using Hamilton’s principle and the Lagrange multiplier method. A linearized hydraulic control system based on rod length predictions was implemented independently to control the hydraulic cylinders. Consequently, the results of the simulations demonstrating the behavior of the robot machine are presented for each case study. In conclusion, this thesis studies the dynamic analysis of a special hybrid (serialparallel) robot for the above-mentioned special task involving the ITER and investigates different control algorithms that can significantly improve machining performance. These analyses and results provide valuable insight into the design and control of the parallel robot with flexible rods.

The Effect of Different Weed Management Strategies on the Growth and Yield of Direct-Seeded Dry Rice (Oryza sativa)

Weed management is a primary concern in direct seeded rice (DSR) cropping because weed growth becomes a major constraint on crop yield. A two year field study was set up to evaluate the effect of various weed control measures on crop growth, grain yield and grain quality of DSR. The experiment involved five different weed control measures: hand weeding, hoeing, inter-row tine cultivation, inter-row spike hoeing and herbicide treatment (Nominee 100 SC). The extent of weed control (compared to a non-weeded control) ranged from 50-95%. The highest crop yield was obtained using hand weeding. Hand weeding, tine cultivation and herbicide treatment raised the number of fertile rice tillers formed per unit area and the thousand grain weight. Tine cultivation provided an effective and economical level of weed control in the DSR crop.

Climate, soil and tree flora relationships in forests in the state of São Paulo, southeastern Brasil

ABSTRACT - (Climate, soil and tree flora relationships in forests in the state of São Paulo, southteastern Brasil). With the aim of verifying possible influences of abiotic features on the spatial distribution of forest tree species and families, thirteen surveys in the state of São Paulo were selected, representing different conditions (localization at the extreme coordenates and altitudes, succesional stages, surveying methods). By applying Jaccard's Index to the binary matrices of 806 synonymized specific binomina and 79 families (Cronquist's system) phenograms were constructed using the method of the unweighted pair grouping by mathematical average (UPGMA). The species formed two floristic blocks: hygrophyllous (yearly rainfall greater than 2000 mm without dry season) and mesophyllous (yearly rainfall about 1400 mm with variable dry season). The latter was divided in two other groups: the high-altitudinal (median altitudes higher than 750 m, frost average frequency greater than 3 days/year) and low-altitudinal. Both mesophyllous floristic blocks were subdivided according to soil conditions (texture, eutrophism, acid or allic dystrophism, iron content). At the family level the relations were weak, but also showed the soil nutritional status as a possible constraint to the spatial partition of families.

Uraohjaus ja urasuunnittelu ammattikorkeakoulussa

Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selvittää, millaista uraohjausta ammattikorkeakoulun tuutoriopettajat antavat ja millaista uraohjausta opiskelijat haluavat. Lisäksi tavoitteena oli selvittää, löytyykö opiskelijoiden koulutusalavalinnan perusteista yhteyttä uran suunnittelutaitoihin ja ohjauksen tarpeeseen, ja tunnistavatko tuutoriopettajat opiskelijoiden erilaiset uraohjauksen tarpeet. Tutkimuksen teoreettisissa rakenteissa hyödynnettiin kolmea postmodernia urateoriaa, jotka olivat Hodkinsonin ja Sparkesin (1997) uranvalinnan päätöksentekoteoria, Mitchellin, Lewinin ja Krumbolzin (1999) suunnitellun sattuman teoria ja Savickasin (2005) uran rakentamisteoria. Tutkimusympäristönä oli Satakunnan ammattikorkeakoulu. Tutkimus oli kaksivaiheinen. Ensimmäisessä vaiheessa kerättiin harkinnanvaraisesti valituilta tuutoriopettajilta (n=14) ja opintojensa eri vaiheissa olevilta opiskelijoilta (n=65) kirjoitettu aineisto. Kvalitatiivinen aineisto analysoitiin sisällönanalyysillä. Aineiston perusteella löydettiin kolmenlaisia urasuunnittelijoita: epävarmat, uteliaat ja tietoiset. Aineiston perusteella laadittiin kyselylomake tutkimuksen toisen vaiheen tiedonkeruuta varten. Tutkimuksen toisessa vaiheessa kerättiin opintojen eri vaiheissa olevilta opiskelijoilta kyselylomakekyselynä kvantitatiivinen aineisto (n=903), joka analysoitiin tilastollisin menetelmin. Koulutusalavalinnan perusteista elämäntilanne, alan mahdollisuudet, oma toive, kutsumus, aktiivinen tiedonhaku ja halu opiskella ammattikorkeakoulussa olivat yhteydessä opiskelijan hyvään urasuunnittelukykyyn. Näillä perusteilla koulutusalansa valinneita tietoisiksi luokiteltuja urasuunnittelijoita oli 72 % vastanneista. Alavalinnan perusteista sattuman, kavereiden, sukulaisten, lukion opinto-ohjauksen ja paikkakunnan perusteella koulutusalansa valinneet luokiteltiin epävarmoiksi urasuunnittelijoiksi, ja heitä oli 28 % vastanneista. Tulokset antavat ohjaajille tukea epävarman ja muita enemmän uraohjausta tarvitsevan opiskelijan tunnistamiseen ja heidän hops-prosessinsa tehostamiseen opintojen alusta asti. Lisäksi tulosten perusteella esitetään seuraavia suosituksia: tuutoriopettajille tulisi asettaa pätevyysvaatimukseksi ohjausalan opintojen suorittaminen; opiskelijoita tulisi ohjata tunnistamaan erilaisia satunnaisesti avautuvia mahdollisuuksia ja tietoisesti hyödyntämään niitä elämässään; uraohjaukseen tulisi kytkeä mukaan työelämäyhteistyö; ohjaajien tulisi tiivistää yhteistyötä toisen asteen ohjaajien kanssa, jotta opiskelijoiden koulutusalavalinnat onnistuisivat paremmin; uraohjausta tulisi antaa tulevaisuuden kvalifikaatioiden ennakoinnin ja elinikäisten oppimisvalmiuksien näkökulmasta.

Stiffness based trajectory planning and feedforward based vibration suppression control of parallel robot machines

The dissertation proposes two control strategies, which include the trajectory planning and vibration suppression, for a kinematic redundant serial-parallel robot machine, with the aim of attaining the satisfactory machining performance. For a given prescribed trajectory of the robot's end-effector in the Cartesian space, a set of trajectories in the robot's joint space are generated based on the best stiffness performance of the robot along the prescribed trajectory. To construct the required system-wide analytical stiffness model for the serial-parallel robot machine, a variant of the virtual joint method (VJM) is proposed in the dissertation. The modified method is an evolution of Gosselin's lumped model that can account for the deformations of a flexible link in more directions. The effectiveness of this VJM variant is validated by comparing the computed stiffness results of a flexible link with the those of a matrix structural analysis (MSA) method. The comparison shows that the numerical results from both methods on an individual flexible beam are almost identical, which, in some sense, provides mutual validation. The most prominent advantage of the presented VJM variant compared with the MSA method is that it can be applied in a flexible structure system with complicated kinematics formed in terms of flexible serial links and joints. Moreover, by combining the VJM variant and the virtual work principle, a systemwide analytical stiffness model can be easily obtained for mechanisms with both serial kinematics and parallel kinematics. In the dissertation, a system-wide stiffness model of a kinematic redundant serial-parallel robot machine is constructed based on integration of the VJM variant and the virtual work principle. Numerical results of its stiffness performance are reported. For a kinematic redundant robot, to generate a set of feasible joints' trajectories for a prescribed trajectory of its end-effector, its system-wide stiffness performance is taken as the constraint in the joints trajectory planning in the dissertation. For a prescribed location of the end-effector, the robot permits an infinite number of inverse solutions, which consequently yields infinite kinds of stiffness performance. Therefore, a differential evolution (DE) algorithm in which the positions of redundant joints in the kinematics are taken as input variables was employed to search for the best stiffness performance of the robot. Numerical results of the generated joint trajectories are given for a kinematic redundant serial-parallel robot machine, IWR (Intersector Welding/Cutting Robot), when a particular trajectory of its end-effector has been prescribed. The numerical results show that the joint trajectories generated based on the stiffness optimization are feasible for realization in the control system since they are acceptably smooth. The results imply that the stiffness performance of the robot machine deviates smoothly with respect to the kinematic configuration in the adjacent domain of its best stiffness performance. To suppress the vibration of the robot machine due to varying cutting force during the machining process, this dissertation proposed a feedforward control strategy, which is constructed based on the derived inverse dynamics model of target system. The effectiveness of applying such a feedforward control in the vibration suppression has been validated in a parallel manipulator in the software environment. The experimental study of such a feedforward control has also been included in the dissertation. The difficulties of modelling the actual system due to the unknown components in its dynamics is noticed. As a solution, a back propagation (BP) neural network is proposed for identification of the unknown components of the dynamics model of the target system. To train such a BP neural network, a modified Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm that can utilize an experimental input-output data set of the entire dynamic system is introduced in the dissertation. Validation of the BP neural network and the modified Levenberg- Marquardt algorithm is done, respectively, by a sinusoidal output approximation, a second order system parameters estimation, and a friction model estimation of a parallel manipulator, which represent three different application aspects of this method.

One hundred million years of interhemispheric communication: the history of the corpus callosum

Analysis of regional corpus callosum fiber composition reveals that callosal regions connecting primary and secondary sensory areas tend to have higher proportions of coarse-diameter, highly myelinated fibers than callosal regions connecting so-called higher-order areas. This suggests that in primary/secondary sensory areas there are strong timing constraints for interhemispheric communication, which may be related to the process of midline fusion of the two sensory hemifields across the hemispheres. We postulate that the evolutionary origin of the corpus callosum in placental mammals is related to the mechanism of midline fusion in the sensory cortices, which only in mammals receive a topographically organized representation of the sensory surfaces. The early corpus callosum may have also served as a substrate for growth of fibers connecting higher-order areas, which possibly participated in the propagation of neuronal ensembles of synchronized activity between the hemispheres. However, as brains became much larger, the increasingly longer interhemispheric distance may have worked as a constraint for efficient callosal transmission. Callosal fiber composition tends to be quite uniform across species with different brain sizes, suggesting that the delay in callosal transmission is longer in bigger brains. There is only a small subset of large-diameter callosal fibers whose size increases with increasing interhemispheric distance. These limitations in interhemispheric connectivity may have favored the development of brain lateralization in some species like humans. "...if the currently received statements are correct, the appearance of the corpus callosum in the placental mammals is the greatest and most sudden modification exhibited by the brain in the whole series of vertebrated animals..." T.H. Huxley (1).

Analysis of heart rate control to assess thermal sensitivity responses in Brazilian toads

In anurans, changes in ambient temperature influence body temperature and, therefore, energy consumption. These changes ultimately affect energy supply and, consequently, heart rate (HR). Typically, anurans living in different thermal environments have different thermal sensitivities, and these cannot be distinguished by changes in HR. We hypothesized that Rhinella jimi (a toad from a xeric environment that lives in a wide range of temperatures) would have a lower thermal sensitivity regarding cardiac control than R. icterica (originally from a tropical forest environment with a more restricted range of ambient temperatures). Thermal sensitivity was assessed by comparing animals housed at 15° and 25°C. Cardiac control was estimated by heart rate variability (HRV) and heart rate complexity (HRC). Differences in HRV between the two temperatures were not significant (P=0.214 for R. icterica and P=0.328 for R. jimi), whereas HRC differences were. All specimens but one R. jimi had a lower HRC at 15°C (all P<0.01). These results indicate that R. jimi has a lower thermal sensitivity and that cardiac control is not completely dependent on the thermal environment because HRC was not consistently different between temperatures in all R. jimi specimens. This result indicates a lack of evolutive trade-offs among temperatures given that heart rate control at 25°C is potentially not a constraint to heart rate control at 15°C.

Ohjelmistotestauksen käytänteet Suomessa

Ohjelmistotestauksen merkitys on kasvanut sen mukaan mitä enemmän ohjelmisto-tuotteet vaikuttavat jokapäiväisesseen elämämme. Tämän vuoksi yritysten investointien ja laadunvarmentamisen yhteys on ilmeinen. Organisaatiot panostavat yhä enemmän ei–funktionaaliseen testaukseen, kuten turvallisuuden, suorituskyvyn ja käytettävyyden testaamiseen. Tämän työn tarkoituksena on tutkia ohjelmistotestauksen nykytilannetta Suomessa. Syy tähän on uudistaa ja parantaa ohjelmistotestauksen kurssitarjontaa Turun yliopistossa vastaamaan parhaalla mahdollisella tavalla yritysten tarvetta. Opinnäyte on toteutettu replikaatio-tutkimuksena. Pääosa kyselystä sisältää kysymyksiä ohjelmistotestauksen menetelmistä ja työkaluista testausprosessin toimintojen aikana. Lisäksi on yleisiä kysymyksiä yrityksistä ja niiden ohjelmistotestausympäristöistä. Kyselyssä otetaan myös kantaa yritysten käyttämiin monenlaisiin testaus-tasoihin, -tyyppeihin ja testauksessa kohdattuihin haasteisiin. Tämä opinnäyte perustuu testausprosessistandardeihin. Ohjelmistotestausstandardit ovat keskeisessä asemassa tässä työssä, vaikka ne ovat olleet viime aikoina vahvan kritiikin kohteena. Epäilys standardien välttämättömyyteen on syntynyt muutoksista ohjelmistokehityksessä. Tämä työ esittelee tulokset ohjelmistotestauksen käytännöistä. Tuloksia on verrattu aiheeseen liittyvän aiemman kyselyn (Lee, Kang, & Lee, 2011) tuloksiin. Ajanpuutteen havaitaan olevan suuri haaste ohjelmistotestauksessa. Ketterä ohjelmistokehitys on saavuttanut suosiota kaikissa vastaajien yrityksissä. Testauksen menetelmät ja työkalut testauksen arviointiin, suunnitteluun ja raportointiin ovat hyvin vähäisessä käytössä. Toisaalta testauksen menetelmien ja työkalujen käyttö automaattiseen testauksen toteuttamiseen ja virheiden hallintaan on lisääntynyt. Järjestelmä-, hyväksyntä-, yksikkö- ja integraatiotestaus ovat käytössä kaikkien vastaajien edustamissa yrityksissä. Kaikkien vastaajien mielestä regressio- sekä tutkiva- ja ei-funktionaalinen testaus ovat tärkeitä tekniikoita.

Proximity Based Authentication in IoT

IoT consists of essentially thousands of tiny sensor nodes interconnected to the internet, each one of which executes the programmed functions under memory and power limita- tions. The sensor nodes are distributed mainly for gathering data in various situations. IoT envisions the future technologies such as e-health, smart city, auto-mobiles automa- tion, construction sites automation, and smart home. Secure communication of data under memory and energy constraints is major challenge in IoT. Authentication is the first and important phase of secure communication. This study presents a protocol to authenticate resource constraint devices in physical proximity by solely using the shared wireless communication interfaces. This model of authentication only relies on the abundance of ambient radio signals to authenticate in less than a second. To evaluate the designed protocol, SkyMotes are emulated in a network environment simulated by Contiki/COOJA. Results presented during this study proves that this approach is immune against passive and active attacks. An adversary located as near as two meters can be identified in less than a second with minimal expense of energy. Since, only radio device is used as required hardware for the authentication, this technique is scalable and interoperable to heterogeneous nature of IoT.