Selective detection of fluoride based on a pyridinium n-phenolate-calix[4]pyrrole displacement assay: an undergraduate laboratory experiment

A two-step experiment is proposed for a third year class in experimental organic chemistry. Over a period of five weeks, the students synthesized calix[4]pyrrole, a receptor that is highly selective for fluoride, and a pyridinium N-phenolate dye. Subsequently, the students used the synthesized compounds to investigate a displacement assay on the basis of the competition in acetonitrile between fluoride and the dye for calix[4]pyrrole. The experiment increased the students' skills in organic synthesis and in the characterization of organic compounds, provided a very attractive and accessible illustration of important supramolecular phenomena, and allowed the study of a chromogenic chemosensor.

BIOMATERIAIS: TIPOS, APLICAÇÕES E MERCADO

AbstractThe types of compounds used in the production of biomaterials, namely metals, ceramics, synthetic and natural polymers, as well as composite materials, are discussed in the present work, together with details of their application and evolution from biocompatible to bioactive, biodegradable, and biomimetic clinical products. The chemical structure, the three-dimensional structure, and the molecular organization of compounds frequently used in the manufacture of relevant classes of biomaterials are discussed, along with their advantages and some of their major limitations in specific clinical applications. The main chemical, physical, mechanical, and biological requirements of biomaterials categories are presented, as well as typical tissular responses to implanted biomaterials. Reasons for the recent economic growth of the biomaterials market segment are addressed, and the most successful biomaterial categories are discussed, emphasizing areas such as orthopedic and cardiovascular implants, regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, and controlled drug release devices. Finally, the need for the development of innovative and more accessible biomaterials, due to the expected increase in the number of elderly people and the growing trend of personalized medical procedures, is pointed out.

PREPARAÇÃO DE PONTOS DE CARBONO E SUA CARACTERIZAÇÃO ÓPTICA: UM EXPERIMENTO PARA INTRODUZIR NANOCIÊNCIA NA GRADUAÇÃO

Carbon dots (CDs) constitute a new class of carbon-based nanomaterials that measure less than 10 nm and display attractive physical and chemical features such as fluorescence. CDs have been considered the new “power” carbon nanomaterials since their accidental discovery in 2004. This study reports a simple, easy, and accessible experiment for undergraduate courses. The experiment involves the preparation of CDs by pyrolysis using commercial gelatin as a low cost precursor as well as CD purification and optical characterization. The optical properties of CDs such as absorption and emission properties make them a promising material for teaching the basic concepts and techniques used for characterization of nanomaterials. Also, the reactants and final product are suitable for undergraduate courses since they are non-toxic materials. The prepared CDs can be used in such applications as bioimaging, solar cells, and photocatalysis.

PROPOSTA EXPERIMENTAL DIDÁTICA PARA O ENSINO DE ANÁLISE DE COMPONENTES PRINCIPAIS

Principal component analysis (PCA) is a chemometric method that allows for the extraction of chemical information that would otherwise be impossible to determine. Teaching chemometrics to undergraduates can contribute to the overall professional development and training of new teachers, whose profiles have been gaining attention due to the current demand for data interpretation. In this study, a didactic experiment involving PCA is proposed. Spectrophotometry was used in the ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) region to assess the behavior of anthocyanins extracted from red cabbage at different pH values. The results suggest the possible separation of anthocyanin structures into three distinct groups, according to their chemical characteristics displayed in acid, neutral, and basic media. The objective is to develop educational materials targeted to undergraduate courses, which encompass a larger number of concepts and introduce instrumental techniques currently being employed in both academic research and the industrial sector. Specifically, the proposed experiment introduces concepts related to spectrophotometry in the UV-Vis range and the PCA chemometric method. The materials used are easily accessible, and UV-Vis spectroscopy equipment is less expensive in comparison with other spectroscopy methods.

Maksullisen verkkopalvelun konsepti mediayhtiölle

Mediayhtiöt miettivät keinoja joilla saataisiin lukijat maksamaan myös verkkopalveluihin julkaistavista sisällöistä. Tässä tutkimuksessa selvitettiin tilaajapohjaisen maksullisen verkkopalvelu-mallin soveltuvuutta Talentum Media Oy:lle sekä kehitettiin yritykselle maksavia asiakkaita houkuttelevan sisältötuotteen konsepti. Tutkimuksessa ei ilmennyt syitä, joiden takia yrityksen olisi syytä lykätä maksullisen verkkopalvelun kehittämistä. Perinteistä lehteä ja sen verkkopalvelua ei kannata nähdä toistensa kilpailijoina. Käyttäjät ovat yhä valmiimpia maksamaan sisällöstä verkossa, kun se on järjestelty houkutteleviksi kokonaisuuksiksi ja paketoitu oikein, sekä kun he säästävät aikaa tai vaivaa verkkopalvelun käytöllä. Verkkopalvelun muuntaminen maksulliseksi on kuitenkin suunniteltava erittäin tarkkaan, muuten käyttäjät saattavat siirtyä ilmaisiin palveluihin. Talentumin verkkopalveluiden käyttäjille tehdyn kyselytutkimuksen mukaan yrityksen verkkopalveluiden käyttäjät maksaisivat mieluiten verkkokoulutuksista, erityisraporteista ja tutkivasta journalismista, ammattikirjojen tiivistelmistä, opastavista tietopaketeista, pörssi- ja yritystiedosta sekä näköislehdistä. Tutkimuksessa kehitettiin maksullisen verkkopalvelun konsepti, joka tarjoaa lukijoille itsensä kehittämisen välineitä sekä informaatiota nopeasti ja vaivattomasti heidän haluamaansa aikaan ja valitsemallaan päätelaitteella. Konseptia seuraavan tuotekehityshankkeen tuloksena syntyvästä verkkopalvelusta odotetaan saatavan merkittävää lisäliikevaihtoa yrityksen online-toiminnoille.

IDEAS for Strategic Technology Management: Design of an electronically mediated scenario method

The age-old adage goes that nothing in this world lasts but change, and this generation has indeed seen changes that are unprecedented. Business managers do not have the luxury of going with the flow: they have to plan ahead, to think strategies that will meet the changing conditions, however stormy the weather seems to be. This demand raises the question of whether there is something a manager or planner can do to circumvent the eye of the storm in the future? Intuitively, one can either run on the risk of something happening without preparing, or one can try to prepare oneself. Preparing by planning for each eventuality and contingency would be impractical and prohibitively expensive, so one needs to develop foreknowledge, or foresight past the horizon of the present and the immediate future. The research mission in this study is to support strategic technology management by designing an effective and efficient scenario method to induce foresight to practicing managers. The design science framework guides this study in developing and evaluating the IDEAS method. The IDEAS method is an electronically mediated scenario method that is specifically designed to be an effective and accessible. The design is based on the state-of-the-art in scenario planning, and the product is a technology-based artifact to solve the foresight problem. This study demonstrates the utility, quality and efficacy of the artifact through a multi-method empirical evaluation study, first by experimental testing and secondly through two case studies. The construction of the artifact is rigorously documented as justification knowledge as well as the principles of form and function on the general level, and later through the description and evaluation of instantiations. This design contributes both to practice and foundation of the design. The IDEAS method contributes to the state-of-the-art in scenario planning by offering a light-weight and intuitive scenario method for resource constrained applications. Additionally, the study contributes to the foundations and methods of design by forging a clear design science framework which is followed rigorously. To summarize, the IDEAS method is offered for strategic technology management, with a confident belief that it will enable gaining foresight and aid the users to choose trajectories past the gales of creative destruction and off to a brighter future.

Theorica Pantegni . Transcription of the Helsinki manuscript (Codex EÖ.II.14)

The Theorica Pantegni is a medieval medical textbook written in Latin. The author was Constantine the African (Constantinus Africanus), a monk of Tunisian origin. He compiled the work in the latter half of the eleventh century at the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino in Italy. - Manuscript Eö.II.14, containing the Theorica Pantegni published here, belongs today to the National Library of Finland. It can be dated to the third quarter of the twelfth century, which makes it one of the earliest surviving exemplars of the Theorica Pantegni: over seventy manuscripts of the work survive, of which about fifteen can be dated to the twelfth century. Manuscript Eö.II.14 is written in black ink on 210 parchment leaves (recto and verso), amounting to 420 pages, in pre-Gothic script. - The present text is a transcription of Ms Eö.II.14. The goal is to provide the reader with an accessible text that is faithful to the original.

Theorica Pantegni . Facsimile and Transcription of the Helsinki manuscript (Codex EÖ.II.14)

The Theorica Pantegni is a medieval medical textbook written in Latin. The author was Constantine the African (Constantinus Africanus), a monk of Tunisian origin. He compiled the work in the latter half of the eleventh century at the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino in Italy. - Manuscript Eö.II.14, containing the Theorica Pantegni published here, belongs today to the National Library of Finland. It can be dated to the third quarter of the twelfth century, which makes it one of the earliest surviving exemplars of the Theorica Pantegni: over seventy manuscripts of the work survive, of which about fifteen can be dated to the twelfth century. Manuscript Eö.II.14 is written in black ink on 210 parchment leaves (recto and verso), amounting to 420 pages, in pre-Gothic script. - The present text is a transcription of Ms Eö.II.14. The goal is to provide the reader with an accessible text that is faithful to the original.

On the impact of rigorous approaches on the quality of development

Software systems are expanding and becoming increasingly present in everyday activities. The constantly evolving society demands that they deliver more functionality, are easy to use and work as expected. All these challenges increase the size and complexity of a system. People may not be aware of a presence of a software system, until it malfunctions or even fails to perform. The concept of being able to depend on the software is particularly significant when it comes to the critical systems. At this point quality of a system is regarded as an essential issue, since any deficiencies may lead to considerable money loss or life endangerment. Traditional development methods may not ensure a sufficiently high level of quality. Formal methods, on the other hand, allow us to achieve a high level of rigour and can be applied to develop a complete system or only a critical part of it. Such techniques, applied during system development starting at early design stages, increase the likelihood of obtaining a system that works as required. However, formal methods are sometimes considered difficult to utilise in traditional developments. Therefore, it is important to make them more accessible and reduce the gap between the formal and traditional development methods. This thesis explores the usability of rigorous approaches by giving an insight into formal designs with the use of graphical notation. The understandability of formal modelling is increased due to a compact representation of the development and related design decisions. The central objective of the thesis is to investigate the impact that rigorous approaches have on quality of developments. This means that it is necessary to establish certain techniques for evaluation of rigorous developments. Since we are studying various development settings and methods, specific measurement plans and a set of metrics need to be created for each setting. Our goal is to provide methods for collecting data and record evidence of the applicability of rigorous approaches. This would support the organisations in making decisions about integration of formal methods into their development processes. It is important to control the software development, especially in its initial stages. Therefore, we focus on the specification and modelling phases, as well as related artefacts, e.g. models. These have significant influence on the quality of a final system. Since application of formal methods may increase the complexity of a system, it may impact its maintainability, and thus quality. Our goal is to leverage quality of a system via metrics and measurements, as well as generic refinement patterns, which are applied to a model and a specification. We argue that they can facilitate the process of creating software systems, by e.g. controlling complexity and providing the modelling guidelines. Moreover, we find them as additional mechanisms for quality control and improvement, also for rigorous approaches. The main contribution of this thesis is to provide the metrics and measurements that help in assessing the impact of rigorous approaches on developments. We establish the techniques for the evaluation of certain aspects of quality, which are based on structural, syntactical and process related characteristics of an early-stage development artefacts, i.e. specifications and models. The presented approaches are applied to various case studies. The results of the investigation are juxtaposed with the perception of domain experts. It is our aspiration to promote measurements as an indispensable part of quality control process and a strategy towards the quality improvement.

Evaluation of alternative containers to determining the working width of fertilizer spreaders

Farmers have difficult of determining the evenness of transverse distribution and the working width, due the tests with this aim require equipments and complex methodologies. So, this study evaluates some alternative containers with the aim to allow a more accessible adjustment of the full width of the solid fertilizer spreaders. Four different containers were tested: i) standard container constructed in accordance with ISO 5690/1; ii) container of polyethylene (plastic trays) with screen shading to prevent the ricochet of material; iii) containers composed by boxes of long-life milk, and iv) containers composed by flowerpots (number 3.5). Also, three different spreaders were used for the tests. Alternative containers showed greater retention of particles than the standardized containers. The full width of work obtained for the coefficients of variation of 12.5; 15; 17.5 and 20%, ranged due the containers in the different pathways. The flowerpots of polyethylene showed similar results to the standardized containers. The heights of the containers were more important for its efficiency than its area of collection.

Intra-organizational knowledge transfer in a Finnish multinational company

The ability of a multinational company to effectively transfer knowledge from one unit to another can create a great source of competitive advantage and is crucial for long-term success. However, in their attempts to disseminate existent knowledge across national boundaries, organizations encounter several obstacles. Especially challenging is the transfer of tacit knowledge, the most valuable kind, as it is embedded in the minds and the behavior of people. The purpose of this study is to identify the main factors and challenges to be considered in intra-organizational knowledge transfer and consequently develop a framework that could be utilized to improve the process. The research is of qualitative nature and it adopts an exploratory approach. The study was further conducted as an intensive single-case study through studying a Finnish multinational company, and the researcher adopted a role as a participant observant in the research setting. Other data collection methods include semi-structured interviews and an online survey. The research findings show that knowledge transfer is currently challenging within the international sales organization of the case company. The majority of knowledge is currently concentrated in the company headquarters, and it is not always systematically distributed to the regional offices abroad. The main factor affecting knowledge transfer seems to be the organizational culture, which does not support or encourage knowledge sharing. The company is struggling in having a common place for information and employees that lack proper social networks have difficulties accessing relevant knowledge. Some recommended improvement suggestions include the institutionalization of knowledge transfer by turning it into an articulated organizational goal, and the implementation of a reward system that includes soft factors, such as teamwork and knowledge sharing behavior. Furthermore, the organizational culture should be more open and supportive in order to reinforce trust. Individuals in regional offices should be given better support by offering them dedicated mentors and increasing the amount of expatriation. Finally, knowledge should actively be codified and stored in commonly shared platforms where it is easily accessible by all employees.

Tuttu ja tuntematon Palmgren : pianolyriikan hurmaa : Selim Palmgrenin pianoteoksia Sibelius-Akatemian opiskelijoiden ja opettajien tulkitsemina

Konserteissa esiintyvät pianistit: Sanni Antikainen, Jarmo Eerikäinen, Laura Iacovache-Pana, Elisa Järvi, Tiina Karakorpi, Annikka Konttori-Gustafsson, Matilda Kärkkäinen, Juhani Lagerspetz, Maria Männikkö, Eduardo Palomares, Anna Ramstedt, Ilmo Ranta, Johan von Schantz, Erik T. Tawaststjerna, Hui-Ying Tawaststjerna, Emma Teronen, Stefanie Tuurna, Anu Vehviläinen.

Five Baltic Ports Togehter: Forecasts, Trends and Recommendations

The ports of Stockholm, Tallinn, Helsinki, Naantali and Turku play key roles in making the Central Baltic region accessible. Effective, competitive, eco-friendly and safe port procedures and solutions for the transportation of goods are of major importance for trade in the Baltic Sea region. This report presents the most essential results and recommendations of the PENTA project, which focused on how ports could better comprehend and face current and future challenges facing carriage of goods by sea. Each of the four work packages (WPs) of the PENTA project analysed the changes from a different perspective. WP2 focused on traffic flows between the PENTA ports. Its main emphasis was on the ports, shipowners, and logistics companies that are the key parties in freight transport and on the changes affecting the economy of those ports. In WP3 noise as an environmental challenge for ports was investigated and the analysis also shed light on the relationship between the port and the city. In WP4 procedures related to safety, security and administrative procedures were researched. The main emphasis was on identifying the requirements for the harmonisation of those procedures. Collaboration is highlighted throughout this report. In order to prepare for the future, it was found that ports need to respond to growing competition, increasing costs and shifts in customer demand by strengthening their existing partnerships with other actors in the maritime cluster. Cargo and passenger transport are the main sources of income for most ports. Cargo traffic between the PENTA ports is expected to grow steadily in the future and the outlook for passenger traffic is positive. However, to prepare for the future, ports should not only secure the core activities which generate revenue but also seek alternative ways to make profit. In order to gain more transit traffic, it is suggested that ports conduct a more thorough study of the future requirements for doing business with Russia. The investigation of noise at ports revealed two specific dilemmas that ports cannot solve alone. Firstly, the noise made by vessels and, secondly, the relationship between the port and the surrounding city. Vessels are the most important single noise source in the PENTA ports and also one of the hardest noise sources to handle. Nevertheless, port authorities in Finland and Sweden are held responsible for all noise in the port area, including noise produced by vessels, which is noise the port authority can only influence indirectly. Building housing by waterfront areas close to ports may also initiate disagreements because inhabitants may want quiet areas, whereas port activities always produce some noise from their traffic. The qualitative aspects of the noise question, cooperating with the stakeholders and the communicating of issues related to noise are just as important. We propose that ports should follow the logic of continuous improvement in their noise management. The administrative barriers discussed in this report are mainly caused by differences in international and national legislation, variations in the customs procedures of each country, the incompatibility of the IT systems used in maritime transport, noncompliance with regulations regarding dangerous goods, and difficulties in applying Schengen regulations to vessels from non-EU countries. Improving the situation is out of the hands of the ports to do alone and requires joint action on a variety of levels, including the EU, national authorities and across administrative borders.

Too many copies: confusion between duplication and versioning

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Repository and its place at the University of Pardubice

Poster at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014