Spatiotemporal Aspects of Environmental Monitoring in the Complex Coastal Region of Southwest Finland

The management and conservation of coastal waters in the Baltic is challenged by a number of complex environmental problems, including eutrophication and habitat degradation. Demands for a more holistic, integrated and adaptive framework of ecosystem-based management emphasize the importance of appropriate information on the status and changes of the aquatic ecosystems. The thesis focuses on the spatiotemporal aspects of environmental monitoring in the extensive and geomorphologically complex coastal region of SW Finland, where the acquisition of spatially and temporally representative monitoring data is inherently challenging. Furthermore, the region is subject to multiple human interests and uses. A holistic geographical approach is emphasized, as it is ultimately the physical conditions that set the frame for any human activity. Characteristics of the coastal environment were examined using water quality data from the database of the Finnish environmental administration and Landsat TM/ETM+ images. A basic feature of the complex aquatic environment in the Archipelago Sea is its high spatial and temporal variability; this foregrounds the importance of geographical information as a basis of environmental assessments. While evidence of a consistent water turbidity pattern was observed, the coastal hydrodynamic realm is also characterized by high spatial and temporal variability. It is therefore also crucial to consider the spatial and temporal representativeness of field monitoring data. Remote sensing may facilitate evaluation of hydrodynamic conditions in the coastal region and the spatial extrapolation of in situ data despite their restrictions. Additionally, remotely sensed images can be used in the mapping of many of those coastal habitats that need to be considered in environmental management. With regard to surface water monitoring, only a small fraction of the currently available data stored in the Hertta-PIVET register can be used effectively in scientific studies and environmental assessments. Long-term consistent data collection from established sampling stations should be emphasized but research-type seasonal assessments producing abundant data should also be encouraged. Thus a more comprehensive coordination of field work efforts is called for. The integration of remote sensing and various field measurement techniques would be especially useful in the complex coastal waters. The integration and development of monitoring system in Finnish coastal areas also requires further scientific assesement of monitoring practices. A holistic approach to the gathering and management of environmental monitoring data could be a cost-effective way of serving a multitude of information needs, and would fit the holistic, ecosystem-based management regimes that are currently being strongly promoted in Europe.

Lukion opettajien ääni - Aineenopettajien käsityksiä muutoksista ja visioista lukiossa

Tulevaisuusorientaatio on tullut entistä tärkeämmäksi myös koulumaailmassa johtuen yhteiskunnassa nopeasti eteen tulevista muutoksista. On myös esitetty epäilyjä, että tulevaisuuteen reagoimisessa heikoin tilanne olisikin juuri kuntatason päätöksenteossa. Ymmärrys ja tieto opettajan työstä nimenomaan opettajan omasta perspektiivistä tarkasteltuna mahdollistavat lähtökohdan ja edellytykset todelliselle koulun uudistamiselle. Peruskysymys, johon tässä tutkimuksessa etsittiin vastausta oli: Millaisia ovat lukion aineenopettajien käsitykset lukion muutosprosesseista ja miten he visioivat oman lukionsa ja yleensä lukioiden tulevaisuutta? Aineiston keruu osui ajankohtaan, joka oli hyvin otollinen tulevaisuuden tarkasteluun, sillä uusi opetussuunnitelma otettiin käyttöön kaikissa Suomen lukioissa viimeistään lukuvuonna 2005-2006. Tutkimuksessa oli mukana kaksi hyvin erilaista lukiota Länsi-Suomen läänistä eli pieni maaseudun lukio ja hyvin suuri kaupunkilukio. Tutkimusaineiston keruu eteni kaksivaiheisesti: informoitu kysely ja teemahaastattelu. Tutkimusjoukon suuruus oli yhteensä 20, joista puolet oli miehiä ja puolet naisia. Aineenopettajien käsityksiä muutoksista ja visioista tutkittiin fenomenografisen tutkimusotteen avulla. Fenomenografiassa kiinnostuksen kohteena ovat ihmisten erilaiset käsitykset todellisuudesta ja näin saatava ymmärrys tavoista, joilla ihmiset kokevat tilanteita ja maailmaa. Organisaation muutosprosesseja voidaan kutsua myös oppimiseksi. Tutkimuksen oppivan organisaation näkökulmat perustuivat juuri yhteistyössä tapahtuvaan yhteisen toiminnan kehittämiseen. Aineenopettajien käsityksiä työyhteisöstään tarkasteltiin seuraavista oppivan organisaatiomallin näkökulmista: vuorovaikutus, päätöksenteko sekä rehtorin ja aineenopettajan rooli ja asema työyhteisössä. Aineenopettajien keskeisimmät käsitykset muutoksista lukiossa viime vuosina kohdistuivat aineenopettajan ammattirooliin ja lukio-opiskelijaan sekä opiskelijalta vaadittaviin lukio-opintoihin. Muutokset ammattiroolissa korostavat tutkimustulosten perusteella aineenopettajilta vaadittavia muitakin kuin opetettavien aineiden hallintataitoja. Suoranaista ammattitaidon puutetta opettajat kokivat varsinkin ryhmänohjaustehtävien yhteydessä, osittain myös uusien oppimisympäristöjen, esimerkiksi verkkopedagogisten taitojen, yhteydessä. Opettajien lisäkoulutuksen tarve koetaan konkreettisena, mutta sekä koulutusten sisältöihin, järjestelyihin ja ajankohtiin että koulun sijais- ym. järjestelyihin kaivattaisiin parannuksia. Verrattuna aikaisempiin tutkimuksiin näyttäisi siltä, että luokaton lukio on saanut opettajat enenevässä määrin huolestumaan opiskelijoiden syrjäytymisriskistä ja hyvinvoinnista. Opiskelijoiden syrjäytymisriskin kasvu lukio-opintojen aikana nouseekin yhdeksi lukion pessimistiseksi skenaarioksi. Muista pessimistisistä skenaarioista lukiolle, jotka saattoi johtaa tutkimustuloksista, voidaan mainita työyhteisön demokratiavajeen syveneminen sekä opetussuunnitelmasisältöjen ja ylioppilastutkintovaatimusten välisen kuilun syveneminen. Aineenopettajien käsitykset oman lukionsa visioista olivat sisällöiltään pääosin välineellisiä ja ne kohdentuivat kaikki opiskelijoihin. Esimerkiksi työyhteisöllisiä kehittämisajatuksia ei visioissa ilmennyt. Myöskään visioinnin dynaamisuus ei aineistossa korostunut. Aineenopettajien käsitykset visioiden arvopohjasta heijastivat perinteistä suomalaista arvomaailmaa eli itsekuria, velvollisuudentuntoa, kuuliaisuutta esivaltaa kohtaan ja perinteisten arvojen kunnioittamista. Sen sijaan antiikista perityviä Sokrateen edustamia keskustelua ja auktoriteettien kyseenalaistamista ei arvoissa ilmennyt, eikä myöskään uusliberalistista individualismia. Käsitykset visioiden synnystä näyttävät parhaiten selittävän opettajan muita käsityksiä liittyen visioon, visiointiin ja työyhteisöllisiin vaikutusmahdollisuuksiin sekä opettajan tulevaisuusorientoitumiseen.. Käsitykset vision syntytaustasta voidaan jakaa seuraaviin pää- ja alakategorioihin: 1. auktoriteettikeskeinen visiointi: johdon linjaus tai valtakunnallinen linjaus, 2. yhteisökeskeinen visiointi: yhteisöllinen linjaus tai toiminnallinen linjaus ja 3. yksilökeskeinen visiointi. Pessimistisimmiksi eli vähiten tulevaisuusorientoituneiksi opettajiksi työyhteisössä osoittautuivat ne opettajat, jotka pitivät oman lukionsa visiota koulun johdon sanelemana. Monet teoriat oppivasta organisaatiosta korostavat johtajuuden merkitystä työyhteisöä kehitettäessä. Johtajuuden merkitys nousi tämänkin tutkimuksen aineistosta keskeisesti esiin. Pyrkimystä kohti oppivaa organisaatiota opettajien puheista löytyy paljonkin, esimerkkeinä viittaukset johtajuuden ja vuorovaikutustapojen kehittämistarpeisiin. Sen sijaan opettajien puheet omista työyhteisöllisistä kehittymistarpeistaan, ns. alaistaidot, jäivät vähäisiksi. Tutkimustuloksista on luotu sovellusmalli kouluyhteisöjen visioinnin ja muun kehittämistyön tueksi.

A Practical Micro Mechanical Model Based Local Approach Methodology for the Analysis of Ductile Fracture of Welded T-Joints

This thesis concentrates on developing a practical local approach methodology based on micro mechanical models for the analysis of ductile fracture of welded joints. Two major problems involved in the local approach, namely the dilational constitutive relation reflecting the softening behaviour of material, and the failure criterion associated with the constitutive equation, have been studied in detail. Firstly, considerable efforts were made on the numerical integration and computer implementation for the non trivial dilational Gurson Tvergaard model. Considering the weaknesses of the widely used Euler forward integration algorithms, a family of generalized mid point algorithms is proposed for the Gurson Tvergaard model. Correspondingly, based on the decomposition of stresses into hydrostatic and deviatoric parts, an explicit seven parameter expression for the consistent tangent moduli of the algorithms is presented. This explicit formula avoids any matrix inversion during numerical iteration and thus greatly facilitates the computer implementation of the algorithms and increase the efficiency of the code. The accuracy of the proposed algorithms and other conventional algorithms has been assessed in a systematic manner in order to highlight the best algorithm for this study. The accurate and efficient performance of present finite element implementation of the proposed algorithms has been demonstrated by various numerical examples. It has been found that the true mid point algorithm (a = 0.5) is the most accurate one when the deviatoric strain increment is radial to the yield surface and it is very important to use the consistent tangent moduli in the Newton iteration procedure. Secondly, an assessment of the consistency of current local failure criteria for ductile fracture, the critical void growth criterion, the constant critical void volume fraction criterion and Thomason's plastic limit load failure criterion, has been made. Significant differences in the predictions of ductility by the three criteria were found. By assuming the void grows spherically and using the void volume fraction from the Gurson Tvergaard model to calculate the current void matrix geometry, Thomason's failure criterion has been modified and a new failure criterion for the Gurson Tvergaard model is presented. Comparison with Koplik and Needleman's finite element results shows that the new failure criterion is fairly accurate indeed. A novel feature of the new failure criterion is that a mechanism for void coalescence is incorporated into the constitutive model. Hence the material failure is a natural result of the development of macroscopic plastic flow and the microscopic internal necking mechanism. By the new failure criterion, the critical void volume fraction is not a material constant and the initial void volume fraction and/or void nucleation parameters essentially control the material failure. This feature is very desirable and makes the numerical calibration of void nucleation parameters(s) possible and physically sound. Thirdly, a local approach methodology based on the above two major contributions has been built up in ABAQUS via the user material subroutine UMAT and applied to welded T joints. By using the void nucleation parameters calibrated from simple smooth and notched specimens, it was found that the fracture behaviour of the welded T joints can be well predicted using present methodology. This application has shown how the damage parameters of both base material and heat affected zone (HAZ) material can be obtained in a step by step manner and how useful and capable the local approach methodology is in the analysis of fracture behaviour and crack development as well as structural integrity assessment of practical problems where non homogeneous materials are involved. Finally, a procedure for the possible engineering application of the present methodology is suggested and discussed.

Multichannel distribution strategy for electrical equipment marketing

The thesis examines System Integration and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) channel in the St. Petersburg drives market. The aim of the study was to increase understanding the relationship between OEM and SI and producers, problems and ongoing trends. The collected data was analyzed in order to find out which features of a power electronic drive product exercise a significant influence for the Russian companies decision. An essential part of this study was interviews as primary information sources, organized with SI and OEM companies which represented the basic SPb industry segments. The wholesalers and end users are left out from the analysis. The collected data was analyzed in order to find out which features of a power electronic drive product exercise a significant influence for the Russian companies decision.

La desigualdad en el consumo familiar. Diferencias de género en la España contemporánea (1850-1930)

In the last few years, Economic Theory has revised two basic ideas around the economics of the household: that family income is the result of the individual income of each of its members (income pooling), and that all family members living in the household have equal access to its resources. Unequal access to family resources (among women and men, on the one hand, and among the elderly, adults and children, on the other), is now understood as an input (for instance, that women eat less food and of worst quality than men), and as an output (for instance that women have poorer health, higher epidemic mortality, or are less tall than men as a result, among other things, of having received less food and poorer medical care, and/or of a heavier workload). Despite the fact that inequality in intra‐family consumption has become the center of attention in academic and international agencies, it can still not be found in the agenda of Economic History. In this paper we look at some of the resources consumed by Spanish families in the 19th century: food, alcoholic beverages, clothes and shoes. Medical topographies, our main source, suggest that unequal access to family resources among household members had a strong impact on their health and wellbeing.

Algunes qüestions referides a l’aprenentatge lingüístic de la infància estrangera a Catalunya

L’article està organitzat en dues parts. A la primera, s’aborden algunes qüestions generals relacionades amb la integració i l’aprenentatge de llengües. A la segona, es discuteix la manera de fer possible l’aprenentatge de les llengües de l’escola a aquesta part de la infància, amb un èmfasi especial en el tractament de la seva pròpia llengua

Integración de visualización científica molecular en el salón de clases

For some years, Chemistry teachers have used scientific visualization software of molecular models in computing rooms and chemistry laboratories for educational purposes. However, its application in classrooms has been limited. This article describes the integration and use of computer programs for scientific molecular visualization in a traditional classroom. We consider that the improvement of technical aspects of their application and use (usability) has a direct effect on students' understanding of molecular structures (including students' extrinsic motivation), among other factors. Consequently, we developed a guide for the integration of hardware and software of molecular visualization for its use in the classroom.

Agrupacions musicals obreres a les Terres de l'Ebre : Alcanar 1845­-1930

Les agrupacions musicals canareves del segle XIX han estat un referent clau en el desenvolupament de la cultura musical del poble d’Alcanar. Han esdevingut un nexe identitari com a poble i han estat un mitjà d’integració i participació de les classes socials més desfavorides en el fet musical.

Conversioni al cattolicesimo a Roma tra Sei e Settecento. La presenza degli scandinavi nell’Ospizio dei Convertendi.

In my PhD dissertation, I have examined a group of people of Scandinavian origin received by Ospizio dei Convertendi. This group has been hitherto largely unknown to historical research. The Ospizio was an institute founded by the Oratorian Congregation in Rome in 1673 to provide religious instruction and material aid to both recent and aspirant converts to Roman Catholicism. My research traces the profile of converts and a typology of motives, examining different factors which influenced the conversion process. I show that the key factors were often of a social rather than a religious nature. Moreover, I have analyzed the hospice in the context of Counter-Reformation charity as well. In terms of numbers, the Scandinavians formed a somewhat marginal yet not insignificant group within the Roman hospice. Out of a total of 2203 guests received between 1673 and 1706, 4.6 % were Scandinavians: 74 Swedes (including Finland and Livonia) and 27 Danes (including Norway). They came from a rigorously Protestant region which reacted to Catholicism with severe legislative measures. Converts to Catholicism risked confiscation of their goods, expulsion or even capital punishment. Since both Sweden and Denmark were practically impenetrable to Catholicism at the time and clandestine missionary attempts often failed before they had even properly started, the Roman Catholic Church shifted its interest towards Northerners arriving in Rome, a preferred destination for young noblemen, artists and migrant craftsmen. The material related to Ospizio dei Convertendi, conserved in the Vatican archives, is a scarcely known yet unusually rich source, not only for the religious history of our continent, but also for social history and the study of migration in early modern Europe. It contains a wealth of information about members of the subordinate classes, of their travels and lives in Europe. The profile delineated in these documents is of individuals who had a wide range of different professions and different aspirations. These documents encompass a vast social spectrum that was highly mobile on a continent which by that time had become pluriconfessional. Therefore, these migrants faced the complex religious reality in their everyday life. The principal corpus of my research consists of two types of manuscript sources created for administrative and in a way also for apologetic purposes of the Roman Catholic Church. My starting point is the Primo registro generale of Ospizio dei Convertendi. This is a volume in which the following information about each guest was registered: name, nationality, city of origin, age, sex, profession, confession professed before converting, date of arrival, departure, abjuration and baptism. Typically, the convert was male, originating from Stockholm or Copenhagen, from 21 to 30 years of age. The biggest occupational groups in descending order were soldiers, noblemen, craftsmen and sailors. Thus the data reflects a multiform reality of interurban and long distance migration, ideals regarding the education of young noblemen and gentry as well as the need of European armies to hire foreign mercenaries in their various campaigns. Against this background the almost total absence of women is hardly surprising: there is only one woman in the material I have studied. The second main source, Nota degl’ospiti ricevuti e spese fatte per essi, sheds more light on the choices of the converts, their motivations and their lives outside Scandinavia before reaching Rome. This narrative material permits an analysis which completes but also goes far beyond the columns of the Institute’s general register. This material consists of reports written by Catholic priests based on an interview conducted upon each guest’s arrival. The material frequently includes information on what the converts would do following their departure from the Institute as well. These sources have a specific narrative form and contain short biographies, list reasons for converting and information about the journey from the North to the Mediterranean - a journey which in many cases took several years. Moreover, they show that certain unorthodox practices such as calling on the saints and pleading for help from them were not uncommon in the Protestant popular religion. The recording of information on conversions from Protestantism to Catholicism reflects both religious and social interest on the part of the receiving institute. The information obtained was used for the purposes of religious teaching, for finding adequate ways of inserting the convert into Italian society so that he could earn a living, and to find effective methods to convert others with a similar cultural and geographical background. The stories recorded were based on interviews with the newly-arrived, information obtained from a travel companion or fellow countrymen, or from written documents the aspirant converts carried with them. These sources illustrate, although sometimes in rather simplified ways, the circumstances and motivations which were relevant to the choice of changing one’s confession. In addition, I have examined petitions addressed to the hospice and other Roman authorities in order to get financial aid. These petitions were written by Italian scrittori, and they contain certain conventions and topoi of presenting the conversion with the purpose of improving the chances of obtaining financial aid. It is through these filters, which may seem initially almost invisible, that the remote voice of the converts reaches us. The results of the analysis are particularly interesting because they disagree with some of the principal conclusions of previous work on the subject. First, earlier research has focused almost exclusively on the conversions of noblemen, and has argued, second, that the Queen Christina of Sweden was the driving force behind their change of confession. The sources examined for this dissertation present a profile of long-distance migrants, many of them members of the subordinate classes, who were looking for ways to make their living in Europe. These people had in many cases left their country of origin several years earlier and not for religious reasons, so, crucially, we are not dealing with confessional migration in these cases. Rather, conversion was a complex process, intricately tied up with strategies of survival, integration and upward social mobility. At the same time, while these components are significant on their own right, they do not necessarily point to the absence of motivations of a more clearly religious nature.

Evaluating End-User Training Effectiveness in ERP System Implementation

Today’s business world demands more and more internal and external integration and transparency among companies at all fields. Integrated ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems offer a possibility to improve business practices and procedures by providing a unified view on the business including all functions and departments. Due to the obvious benefits, the popularity of integrated ERP systems keeps growing. The implementation of ERP systems has however proven risky. The implementation projects tend to be long, extensive, and costly – and often they end up in a failure. Due to the significant task and role changes ERP implementation brings to almost everybody in the company, training has been identified as one of the most critical success factors of an ERP implementation. To ensure that the training is conducted in the most effective and successful manner, the training outcomes should be evaluated. So far, training evaluation has however gained only limited attention at most companies investing in different training programs. Uponor corporation has initiated a large ERP implementation and process harmonization program in 2004. Thousands of end-users have been trained during this project so far, and the work still continues until the project is completed in 2010. In this thesis, the evaluation of end-user training in Uponor’s ERP program is brought further from the current state of performing the basic participant satisfaction survey in the end of each class. The results show that in order to reach reliable training effectiveness evaluation results, not only the reaction towards training but also transfer of skills and attitudes and the final results of the training program should be evaluated.

Tuotteen elinkaarenaikainen tiedonhallinta palvelukeskeisen arkkitehtuurin avulla

Palvelukeskeistä arkkitehtuuria (SOA) sovelletaan nykyään varsinkin suurten yritysten tietojärjestelmien suunnittelussa ja toteutuksessa. Siinä toiminnot suunnitellaan palveluina, mikä lisää erityisesti palveluiden uudelleen-käytettävyyttä ja mahdollisuutta hyödyntää jo tehtyjä järjestelmäinvestointeja. Tuotteen elinkaarenaikaisen tiedonhallinnan (PLM) pyrkimyksenä on saada elinkaarelle hajaantunut tieto käyttöön oikeassa paikassa oikeaan aikaan sekä parantaa tuotetiedon luotettavuutta ja ajantasaisuutta. Tämä on yksi tärkeimmistä tekijöistä tavoiteltaessa kilpailuetuja verkottuneessa liiketoiminnassa. Tämän diplomityön tavoitteena oli selvittää, kuinka tuotteen elinkaarenaikainen tiedonhallinta voidaan toteuttaa palvelukeskeisen arkkitehtuurin avulla sekä, mitä haasteita ja hyötyjä tästä seuraa organisaatiolle. Tutkimus tehtiin kirjallisuustutkimuksena. Työ tarjoaa tietoa PLM:n ja SOA:n integroinnista sekä integroinnin haasteista ja hyödyistä. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat palvelukeskeisen PLM:n tuovan oikein suunniteltuna ja toteutettuna merkittäviä hyötyjä verkostoituneessa ympäristössä toimiville yrityksille. Lisäksi työ antaa käsityksen siitä, kuinka laaja projekti palvelukeskeisen PLM:n implementointi on.

Pk-yrityksen layout-suunnittelu ohutlevytuoteteollisuudessa

Diplomityössä käsitellään omistajanvaihdon myötä tapahtuvaa yritysten yhdentymistä pkt- sektorilla. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli suunnitella layout uuteen halliin sekä suunnitella muuttoprosessi kokonaisuudessaan. Tutkimuksessa käsiteltiin koneiden siirron lisäksi myös yritysten yhdentymistä ja yritysfuusiota. Ratkaisumalleja haettiin kirjallisuudesta, tuotannon seuraamisesta ja edellisistä muutoista syntyneistä kokemuksista. Työn aikana kartoitettiin yritysten nykytilanne ja etsittiin siellä olevat parantamista vaativat kohdat. Lisäksi selvitettiin yritysten tuotanto layout -suunnittelua varten. Layoutin tekemisen runkona käytettiin Mutherin -layoutkaaviota. Tietojen pohjalta tehtiin kolme erillistä mallia, joista hyötyarvomatriisia hyväksi käyttäen valittiin yksi. Lisäksi yritysten yhdentymisen työkirjan avulla tehtiin lista tarvittavista toimenpiteistä ennen muuttoa sekä muuton jälkeen. Tutkimuksessa käsiteltiin myös yrityksen ohjelmainvestointeja sekä levytyökeskuksen että laserleikkauskoneen nestaukseen. Lisäksi työssä käsiteltiin myös uusia koneinvestointeja ja uutta organisaatiokaaviota.

Use Of Systems Approach with Total Quality Management in Industrial Organizations

The objective of the work has been to study why systems thinking should be used in combination with TQM, what are the main benefits of the integration and how it could best be done. The work analyzes the development of systems thinking and TQM with time and the main differences between them. The work defines prerequisites for adopting a systems approach and the organizational factors which embody the development of an efficient learning organization. The work proposes a model based on combination of an interactive management model and redesign to be used for application of systems approach with TQM in practice. The results of the work indicate that there are clear differences between systems thinking and TQM which justify their combination. Systems approach provides an additional complementary perspective to quality management. TQM is focused on optimizing operations at the operational level while interactive management and redesign of organization are focused on optimization operations at the conceptual level providing a holistic system for value generation. The empirical study demonstrates the applicability of the proposed model in one case study company but its application is tenable and possible also beyond this particular company. System dynamic modeling and other systems based techniques like cognitive mapping are useful methods for increasing understanding and learning about the behavior of systems. The empirical study emphasizes the importance of using a proper early warning system.

Det gyldne snitt : den estetiske dimensjon, en kilde til helse oget etisk anliggende

Within caring science, investigations and explorations have been carried out on the ontology of caring, and many aspects of the field have been the subject of scientific research. The main subject for this study is grounded on the human need for aesthetics. The purpose is to find how the aesthetic dimension is taken into consideration and how the aesthetic surroundings are evaluated and attended to, in the general hospitals in Norway. The theoretical perspective is founded basicly on the study of litterature from caring science and philosophy. The aim is to develop a disposition for a framework on the aesthetic surroundings in the hospitals, and to develop phenomenological and ontological knowledge and understanding of the aesthetic dimension. The study aspires to attain a deeper understanding of the aesthetic acknowledgment and of the aesthetic needs. The focus is how the aesthetic dimension can promote health and wellbeing, both for patients and for the caring staff, in the general hospitals and why the aesthetic dimension should be obligatory in `evident care¿. The study concentrates on 11 selected categories in the hospital environment, where aesthetics is of importance. The research is implemented on 5 part studies: 1. part is a study of caring science and philosophical theories about aesthetics, as a framework for the investigation. 2. part is a survey of the physical environment, in Norwegian somatic hospitals, with focus on aesthetics. This by analyzing the strategy plans for the hospitals. 3. and 4. part is questionnaires to patients and nurses to get their opinion and evaluation of the aesthetic environment in the hospitals they are connected to, and their opinion on how this influences the health and wellness for both patients and caring staff. 5. part is qualitative interviews with 16 experts, to get their opinion and evaluation of the aesthetic environment in hospitals they are or have been connected to. How would the experts like the aesthetic surroundings to be, and also their opinion on what influence they think aesthetics has on health and wellness. The main literature of caring science is rooted in K. Erikssons caring theory as well as philosophic literature; mainly I. Kant, Platon and Y. Hirn's theories on aesthetics. Various scientificresearchers of aesthetics have also been referred to. The methodological approach is a triangulation with a hermeneutic exploration, where H.G. Gadamer and Ricoeur provides the inspirational foundation. The findings and conclusions result in the development of new hypothesis for the caring science foundation and suggestions, a disposition for a framework related to future planning of the aesthetic environments in general hospitals. It might be said that a common thread arises/appears in the invariance's (invariables) that are discerned from the analysis and interpretation of the interviews and also important angles shows in the variances that crystallized. Based on the conclusions the study confirms that there is a clearconnection between health, wellness and aesthetics in the environment and that it is an ethical obligationfor those in the caring professions to be aware of and attend to the aesthetic dimension.

Alaistaidot avaintekijä kuntajohtamisen ja työhyvinvoinnin edistämisessä

Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli kuvata ja ymmärtää alaistaitoja Virolahden ja Miehikkälän kuntien palveluyhteistyössä Kaakon kaksikossa. Lisäksi kartoitettiin henkilöstön käsityksiä alaistaidoista ja merkityksestä työyhteisön johtamisen sekä henkilöstön vuorovaikutussuhteiden ja työhyvinvoinnin kehittämisessä. Tutkimus on laadullinen tapaustutkimus, jossa tutkimusmenetelmänä käytettiin teemahaastattelua yksilöhaastatteluna, joka tehtiin Kaakon kaksikon kuntien organisaatiossa kuudelletoista henkilölle. Tutkimustulosten mukaan alaistaitojen merkitys korostui kuntien siirtyessä palveluyhteistyöhön. Työntekijät ja esimiehet ymmärsivät alaistaidot käsitteenä melko samansuuntaisesti. Alaistaitojen kehittäminen lähtee henkilön oivalluksesta. Kehittäminen koettiin haasteeksi ja mahdollisuudeksi kuntajohtamisessa ja työhyvinvoinnissa. Tutkimuksen tulokset voidaan hyödyntää kunta- ja muiden organisaatioiden käyttöön henkilöstön koulutus- ja kehittämistyössä.