Reusing repository technology for Cultural Heritage and Special Collections

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

ORCiD – Membership and implementation at Chalmers University of Technology

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

The impact of long-term brand development strategies on brand value of companies operating in high-technology markets

The objective of the current research is to investigate brand value generation. The study is conducted in the context of high-technology companies. The research aims at finding the impact of long-term brand development strategies, including advertising investments, R&D investments, R&D intensity, new products developed and design. The empirical part of the study incorporated collection of primary and secondary data on 36 companies operating in high-technology sector and being rated as top companies with the most valuable brands by Interbrand consultancy. The data contained information for six consequent years from 2008 to 2013. Obtained data was analyzed using the methods of fixed effect and random effect model (panel data analysis). The analysis showed positive effect of advertising and R&D investments on brand value of high-technology companies in the long run. The impact of remaining three strategies was not approved and further investigation is required.

Bridging the digital divide in developing countries: The role of mobile technology in bridging the digital divide

This thesis investigates how mobile technology usage could help to bring Information and communication technologies (ICT) to the people in developing countries. Some people in developing countries have access to use ICT while other people do not have such opportunity. This digital divide among people is present in many developing countries where computers and the Internet are difficult to access. The Internet provides information that can increase productivity and enable markets to function more efficiently. The Internet reduces information travel time and provides more efficient ways for firms and workers to operate. ICT and the Internet can provide opportunities for economic growth and productivity in developing countries. This indicates that it is very important to bridge the digital divide and increase Internet connections in developing countries. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how can mobile technology and mobile services help to bridge the digital divide in developing countries. Theoretical background of this thesis consists of a collection of articles and reports. Theoretical material was gathered by going through literature on the digital divide, mobile technology and mobile application development. The empirical research was conducted by sending a questionnaire by email to a selection of application developers located in developing countries. The questionnaire’s purpose was to gather qualitative information concerning mobile application development in developing countries. This thesis main result suggests that mobile phones and mobile technology usage can help to bridge the digital divide in developing countries. This study finds that mobile technology provides one of the best tools that can help to bridge the digital divide in developing countries. Mobile technology can bring affordable ICT to people who do not have access to use computers. Smartphones can provide Internet connection, mobile services and mobile applications to a rapidly growing number of mobile phone users in developing countries. New low-cost smartphones empower people in developing countries to have access to information through the Internet. Mobile technology has the potential to help to bridge the digital divide in developing countries where a vast amount of people own mobile phones.

Biogas production in regional integrated biodegradable waste treatment – Possibilities for improving energy performance and reducing GHG emissions

The greatest threat that the biodegradable waste causes on the environment is the methane produced in landfills by the decomposition of this waste. The Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC) aims to reduce the landfilling of biodegradable waste. In Finland, 31% of biodegradable municipal waste ended up into landfills in 2012. The pressure of reducing disposing into landfills is greatly increased by the forthcoming landfill ban on biodegradable waste in Finland. There is a need to discuss the need for increasing the utilization of biodegradable waste in regional renewable energy production to utilize the waste in a way that allows the best possibilities to reduce GHG emissions. The objectives of the thesis are: (1) to find important factors affecting renewable energy recovery possibilities from biodegradable waste, (2) to determine the main factors affecting the GHG balance of biogas production system and how to improve it and (3) to find ways to define energy performance of biogas production systems and what affects it. According to the thesis, the most important factors affecting the regional renewable energy possibilities from biodegradable waste are: the amount of available feedstock, properties of feedstock, selected utilization technologies, demand of energy and material products and the economic situation of utilizing the feedstocks. The biogas production by anaerobic digestion was seen as the main technology for utilizing biodegradable waste in agriculturally dense areas. The main reason for this is that manure was seen as the main feedstock, and it can be best utilized with anaerobic digestion, which can produce renewable energy while maintaining the spreading of nutrients on arable land. Biogas plants should be located close to the heat demand that would be enough to receive the produced heat also in the summer months and located close to the agricultural area where the digestate could be utilized. Another option for biogas use is to upgrade it to biomethane, which would require a location close to the natural gas grid. The most attractive masses for biogas production are municipal and industrial biodegradable waste because of gate fees the plant receives from them can provide over 80% of the income. On the other hand, directing gate fee masses for small-scale biogas plants could make dispersed biogas production more economical. In addition, the combustion of dry agricultural waste such as straw would provide a greater energy amount than utilizing them by anaerobic digestion. The complete energy performance assessment of biogas production system requires the use of more than one system boundary. These can then be used in calculating output–input ratios of biogas production, biogas plant, biogas utilization and biogas production system, which can be used to analyze different parts of the biogas production chain. At the moment, it is difficult to compare different biogas plants since there is a wide variation of definitions for energy performance of biogas production. A more consistent way of analyzing energy performance would allow comparing biogas plants with each other and other recovery systems and finding possible locations for further improvement. Both from the GHG emission balance and energy performance point of view, the energy consumption at the biogas plant was the most significant factor. Renewable energy use to fulfil the parasitic energy demand at the plant would be the most efficient way to reduce the GHG emissions at the plant. The GHG emission reductions could be increased by upgrading biogas to biomethane and displacing natural gas or petrol use in cars when compared to biogas CHP production. The emission reductions from displacing mineral fertilizers with digestate were seen less significant, and the greater N2O emissions from spreading digestate might surpass the emission reductions from displacing mineral fertilizers.

Improving the usability of extruded wood-plastic composites by using modification technology

Using cellulosic reinforcement to produce plastic composites is a globally growing trend. One of such materials are wood-plastic composites, which are an extensively studied group of materials for which the global industry is looking for new applications. Issues such as bondability, durability and fire resistance still require development to improve the usability of the wood-plastic composite material. Improvement of the usability of wood-plastic composites is studied in this thesis through the effects of using selected modification technology in wood and plastic industry. The applied modification methods are surface by mechanical abrasion and plasma, chemical impregnation of wood flour, and structural modification by the co-extrusion process. The study shows that the properties of WPC can be influenced by the selected modification methods. The selected methods are also found to be able to result as improvement in the properties of the material. The may also affect other than just the targeted properties of the end-product, either in a positive or a negative manner. Therefore modification as performance improvement should be considered as a caseby- case study. Introducing WPC materials for new applications can be done by using modification technology. Structuralmodification can possibly be used to reduce material costs of the modified WPC material.

Learning information technology business in a changing industry landscape. Introducing Team Entrepreneurship in Renewing Bachelor Education in Renewing Bachelor Education in Information

Speed, uncertainty and complexity are increasing in the business world all the time. When knowledge and skills become quickly irrelevant, new challenges are set for information technology (IT) education. Meta-learning skills – learning how to learn rapidly - and innovation skills have become more essential than single technologies or other specific issues. The drastic changes in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector have caused a need to reconsider how IT Bachelor education in Universities of Applied Sciences should be organized and employed to cope with the change. The objective of the study was to evaluate how a new approach to IT Bachelor education, the ICT entrepreneurship study path (ICT-ESP) fits IT Bachelor education in a Finnish University of Applied Sciences. This kind of educational arrangement has not been employed elsewhere in the context of IT Bachelor education. The study presents the results of a four-year period during which IT Bachelor education was renewed in a Finnish University of Applied Sciences. The learning environment was organized into an ICT-ESP based on Nonaka’s knowledge theory and Kolb’s experiental learning. The IT students who studied in the ICT-ESP established a cooperative and learned ICT by running their cooperative at the University of Applied Sciences. The students (called team entrepreneurs) studied by reading theory in books and other sources of explicit information, doing projects for their customers, and reflecting in training sessions on what was learnt by doing and by studying the literature. Action research was used as the research strategy in this study. Empirical data was collected via theme-based interviews, direct observation, and participative observation. Grounded theory method was utilized in the data analysis and the theoretical sampling was used to guide the data collection. The context of the University of Applied Sciences provided a good basis for fostering team entrepreneurship. However, the results showed that the employment of the ICT-ESP did not fit into the IT Bachelor education well enough. The ICT-ESP was cognitively too tough for the team entrepreneurs because they had two different set of rules to follow in their studies. The conventional courses engaged lot of energy which should have been spent for professional development in the ICT-ESP. The amount of competencies needed in the ICT-ESP for professional development was greater than those needed for any other ways of studying. The team entrepreneurs needed to develop skills in ICT, leadership and self-leadership, team development and entrepreneurship skills. The entrepreneurship skills included skills on marketing and sales, brand development, productization, and business administration. Considering the three-year time the team entrepreneurs spent in the ICT-ESP, the challenges were remarkable. Changes to the organization of IT Bachelor education are also suggested in the study. At first, it should be admitted that the ICT-ESP produces IT Bachelors with a different set of competencies compared to the conventional way of educating IT Bachelors. Secondly, the number of courses on general topics in mathematics, physics, and languages for team entrepreneurs studying in the ICTESP should be reconsidered and the conventional course-based teaching of the topics should be reorganized to support the team coaching process of the team entrepreneurs with their practiceoriented projects. Third, the upcoming team entrepreneurs should be equipped with relevant information about the ICT-ESP and what it would require in practice to study as a team entrepreneur. Finally, the upcoming team entrepreneurs should be carefully selected before they start in the ICT-ESP to have a possibility to eliminate solo players and those who have a too romantic view of being a team entrepreneur. The results gained in the study provided answers to the original research questions and the objectives of the study were met. Even though the IT degree programme was terminated during the research process, the amount of qualitative data gathered made it possible to justify the interpretations done.

The radio frequency identification technology in the supply chain management: a case of a big logistics company

Nowadays global business trends force the adoption of innovative ICTs into the supply chain management (SCM). Particularly, the RFID technology is on high demand among SCM professionals due to its business advantages such as improving of accuracy and veloc-ity of SCM processes which lead to decrease of operational costs. Nevertheless, a question of the RFID technology impact on the efficiency of warehouse processes in the SCM re-mains open. The goal of the present study is to experiment the possibility of improvement order picking velocity in a warehouse of a big logistics company with the use of the RFID technology. In order to achieve this goal the following objectives have been developed: 1) Defining the scope of the RFID technology applications in the SCM; 2) Justification of the RFID technology impact on the SCM processes; 3) Defining a place of the warehouse order picking process in the SCM; 4) Identification and systematization of existing meth-ods of order picking velocity improvement; 5) Choosing of the study object and gathering of the empirical data about number of orders, number of hours spent per each order line daily during 5 months; 6) Processing and analysis of the empirical data; 7) Conclusion about the impact of the RFID technology on the speed of order picking process. As a result of the research it has been found that the speed of the order picking processes has not been changed as time has gone after the RFID adoption. It has been concluded that in order to achieve a positive effect in the speed of order picking process with the use of the RFID technology it is necessary to simultaneously implement changes in logistics and organizational management in 3PL logistics companies. Practical recommendations have been forwarded to the management of the company for further investigation and procedure.

The Brazilian investment in science and technology

An analysis of Brazilian federal expenditures in science and technology is presented is this study. The 1990-1999 data were compiled from records provided by two federal agencies (MCT and CNPq) responsible for managing most of the national budget related to these activities. The results indicate that the federal investments in Brazilian science and technology stagnated during the last decade (US$ 2.32 billion in 1990, US$ 2.39 billion in 1996, and US$ 2.36 billion in 1999). In contrast, a great increase in private investments in research was acknowledged both by industry and by the government during the same period, from US$ 2.12 to US$ 4.64 billion. However, this investment did not result in an increase in invention patents granted to residents (492 in 1990 and only 232 in 1997) or in a reduction of patent costs. Despite this unfavorable scenario, the number of graduate programs in the country has increased two-fold in the last decade and the contribution of Brazilians to the database of the Institute for Scientific Information has increased 4.7-fold from 1990 (2,725 scientific publications) to 2000 (12,686 scientific publications). Unstable federal resources for science, together with the poor returns of private resources in terms of developing new technologies, may jeopardize the future of Brazilian technological development.

A Template for Cloud Technology Deployment in an Energy Trading Environment

Nykyaikaiset pilvipalvelut tarjoavat suurille yrityksille mahdollisuuden tehostaa laskennallista tietojenkäsittelyä. Pilvipalveluiden käyttöönotto tuo mukanaan kuitenkin esimerkiksi useita tietoturvakysymyksiä, joiden vuoksi käyttöönoton tulee olla tarkasti suunniteltua. Tämä tutkimus esittelee kirjallisuuskatsaukseen perustuvan, asteittaisen suunnitelman pilvipalveluiden käyttöönotolle energialiiketoimintaympäristössä. Kohdeyrityksen sisäiset haastattelut ja katsaus nykyisiin energiateollisuuden pilviratkaisuihin muodostavat kokonaiskuvan käyttöönoton haasteista ja mahdollisuuksista. Tutkimuksen päätavoitteena on esittää ratkaisut tyypillisiin pilvipalvelun käyttöönotossa esiintyviin ongelmiin käyttöönottomallin avulla. Tutkimuksessa rakennettu käyttöönottomalli testattiin esimerkkitapauksen avulla ja malli todettiin toimivaksi. Ulkoisten palveluiden herättämien tietoturvakysymysten takia käyttöönoton ensimmäiset osiot, kuten lopputuotteen määrittely ja huolellinen suunnittelu, ovat koko käyttöönottoprosessin ydin. Lisäksi pilvipalveluiden käyttöönotto vaatii nykyiseltä käyttöympäristöltä uusia teknisiä ja hallinnollisia taitoja. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat pilvipalveluiden monipuolisen hyödyn erityisesti laskentatehon tarpeen vaihdellessa. Käyttöönottomallin rinnalle luotu kustannusvertailu tukee kirjallisuuskatsauksessa esille tuotuja hyötyjä ja tarjoaa kohdeyritykselle perusteen tutkimuksen eteenpäin viemiselle.

Utilization of AMI-Technology in a Multilayered Demand Response Service Environment

This thesis studied the performance of Advanced metering infrastructure systems in a challenging Demand Response environment. The aim was to find out what kind of challenges and bottlenecks could be met when utilizing AMI-systems in challenging Demand Response tasks. To find out the challenges and bottlenecks, a multilayered demand response service concept was formed. The service consists of seven different market layers which consist of Nordic electricity market and the reserve markets of Fingrid. In the simulations the AMI-systems were benchmarked against these seven market layers. It was found out, that the current generation AMI-systems were capable of delivering Demand Response on the most challenging market layers, when observed from time critical viewpoint. Additionally, it was found out, that to enable wide scale Demand Response there are three major challenges to be acknowledged. The challenges hindering the utilization of wide scale Demand Response were related to poor standardization of the systems in use, possible problems in data connectivity solutions and the current electricity market regulation model.

From Unspecific Quenching to Specific Signaling: Functional GTPase Assays Utilizing Quenching Resonance Energy Transfer (QRET) Technology

The aim of the work presented in this study was to demonstrate the wide applicability of a single-label quenching resonance energy transfer (QRET) assay based on time-resolved lanthanide luminescence. QRET technology is proximity dependent method utilizing weak and unspecific interaction between soluble quencher molecule and lanthanide chelate. The interaction between quencher and chelate is lost when the ligand binds to its target molecule. The properties of QRET technology are especially useful in high throughput screening (HTS) assays. At the beginning of this study, only end-point type QRET technology was available. To enable efficient study of enzymatic reactions, the QRET technology was further developed to enable measurement of reaction kinetics. This was performed using proteindeoxyribonuclei acid (DNA) interaction as a first tool to monitor reaction kinetics. Later, the QRET was used to study nucleotide exchange reaction kinetics and mutation induced effects to the small GTPase activity. Small GTPases act as a molecular switch shifting between active GTP bound and inactive GDP bound conformation. The possibility of monitoring reaction kinetics using the QRET technology was evaluated using two homogeneous assays: a direct growth factor detection assay and a nucleotide exchange monitoring assay with small GTPases. To complete the list, a heterogeneous assay for monitoring GTP hydrolysis using small GTPases, was developed. All these small GTPase assays could be performed using nanomolar protein concentrations without GTPase pretreatment. The results from these studies demonstrated that QRET technology can be used to monitor reaction kinetics and further enable the possibility to use the same method for screening.

A conceptual and practical overview of cDNA microarray technology: implications for basic and clinical sciences

cDNA microarray is an innovative technology that facilitates the analysis of the expression of thousands of genes simultaneously. The utilization of this methodology, which is rapidly evolving, requires a combination of expertise from the biological, mathematical and statistical sciences. In this review, we attempt to provide an overview of the principles of cDNA microarray technology, the practical concerns of the analytical processing of the data obtained, the correlation of this methodology with other data analysis methods such as immunohistochemistry in tissue microarrays, and the cDNA microarray application in distinct areas of the basic and clinical sciences.