Makt som fullmakt : ett vårdvetenskapligt perspektiv

The aim of this study is to deepen understanding and knowledge of the concepts and phenomenaof power and authority from the standpoint of caring science. The overall questions of the research are: What is power? What is authority? How do power and authority manifest themselves in the context of caring? How are power and authorityto be understood as caring science concepts? The overall research inception is determination of the concepts in accordance with the hermeneutic approach based on Eriksson's model. The process of understanding follows Gadamer's (1999) hermeneutics. The thesis consists of three part studies. An ontological determinationof the character of the concepts is carried out where a hermeneutic interpretation is made of texts in the Old and the New Testaments in the Bible. The pragmatic features of the concepts are studied on the basis of nurses' written stories of authority and patients' written stories of power and authority. Beside the review of literature concerning power and authority a qualitative meta-analysis ofthe concept and the phenomenon of empowerment are made. The ontological determination shows how a human being's power is the authority to hold every living thing in trust, to tend and care life. To anyone using this authority, serving onesfellow-being is the purpose. Understanding the pragmatical features of authority in the stories of nurses reveals the life-giving nature of serving. By serving the nurse draws near her true mission as a human being, her authority to care for life with love. The service of the nurse and her ability to see and confirm the patient's otherness creates confidence and results in her authority. The nursedoes not abandon the responsibility associated with authority. When the patientdoes not entrust the nurse with authority the nurse employs her inherent authority to alleviate the suffering of the patient. The pragmatical features of the concepts of power and authority in the patients' stories indicate how the nurse puts her power to an improper use if she only makes use of the authority conferred by the hierarchy of power in the organisation, assumes all power and fails to use her faculty for loving care. Patients feel that their existence is threatened when the nurse tries to deprive them of their authority; they experience homelessness, despair and impotence. Patients' struggle for existence and absolute dignity deprives their health processes of strength, and their suffering becomes unbearable. Patients recognize their vitality when encountering a nurse who uses her authority to alleviate the patients' suffering. The power of compassion is strong, and the patients' dignity is recreated when they are able to serve fellowpatients or nurses. The purpose of human life can be understood as the use of one's own inner power and strength. Love.

Packaging concept development for an assortment of medical device products

Diplomityön tavoitteena oli kehittää Wipak Oy:n valmistamille sterilointipakkauksille tulevaisuuden pakkauskonsepti. Sterilointipakkaukset luokitellaan lääkelaitedirektiivin mukaan lisätarvikkeiksi luokan 1 lääkelaitteille, ja tämä näkökulma oli vahvasti mukana konseptin kehityksessä. Lähtökohtana pakkauskonseptin suunnittelulle oli tuotteiden arvoketjussa, eli pakata tuotteet siten että pakkausten avulla voidaan tuottaa lisäarvoa arvoketjun toimijoille. Tavoitteena oli parantaa pakkausten viestintää, toimivuutta/tehokkuutta toimitusketjussa sekä vahvistaa brändin imagoa myynti- ja kuljetuspakkauksen avulla. Lääkinnälliset laitteet ja tarvikkeet ovat lainsäädännön ja normien avulla tarkasti säädeltyjä. Näiden normien vaatimukset asettavat perusteet myynti- ja kuljetuspakkausten kehittämiselle. Tämän lisäksi suunnittelussa on huomioitu asiakkaiden toiveet ja kehitystarpeet. Kirjallisuusosuudessa on keskitytty lääkinnällisten laitteiden pakkausyksiköiden toimintoihin sekä niiden kehitysnäkymiin. Pääpaino on ollut pakkausmerkintöjen ja jäljitettävyyden kehittämisellä, koska tietojen automaattisen tunnistuksen hyödyntäminen lääkintälaitteiden pakkausten arvoketjussa on kasvava trendi. Manuaalisesti tehtävät tuotevirtojen kirjaukset ketjun eri toimijoiden osalta lisäävät riskejä jäljitettävyyden kannalta ja aiheuttavat lisätyötä ja – kustannuksia ketjun kaikille osapuolille. Ehdotus uudesta pakkauskonseptista on kehitetty näiden tietojen pohjalta. Ehdotuksessa on huomioitu lainsäädännöstä ja ketjun toimijoilta tulevat tarpeet, sekä alan tulevaisuuden kehitysnäkymät. Ehdotetun pakkauskonseptin avulla saadaan lisättyä myynti- ja kuljetuspakkausten tehokkuutta, parannettua jäljitettävyyttä ja helpotettu arvoketjun alavirran toimijoiden työtä lisäämällä erillinen sisäpakkaus myyntiyksikön sisälle. Työssä on lisäksi selvitetty pakkauskonseptin kustannusvaikutukset tuotteiden hintaan. Lopussa on ehdotettu jatkotoimenpiteet suunnitelman implementoimisesta käytäntöön.

Environmental inFluences on the Adoption of Open Innovation: Analysis of Structural, Institutional and Cultural Impacts

The concept of open innovation has recently gained widespread attention, and is particularly relevant now as many firms endeavouring to implement open innovation, face different sets of challenges associated with managing it. Prior research on open innovation has focused on the internal processes dealing with open innovation implementation and the organizational changes, already taking place or yet required in companies order to succeed in the global open innovation market. Despite the intensive research on open innovation, the question of what influences its adoption by companies in different contexts has not received much attention in studies. To fill this gap, this thesis contribute to the discussion on open innovation influencing factors by bringing in the perspective of environmental impacts, i.e. gathering data on possible sources of external influences, classifying them and testing their systemic impact through conceptual system dynamics simulation model. The insights from data collection and conceptualization in modelling are used to answer the question of how the external environment affects the adoption of open innovation. The thesis research is presented through five research papers reflecting the method triangulation based study (conducted at initial stage as case study, later as quantitative analysis and finally as system dynamics simulation). This multitude of methods was used to collect the possible external influence factors and to assess their impact (on positive/negative scale rather than numerical). The results obtained throughout the thesis research bring valuable insights into understanding of open innovation influencing factors inside a firm’s operating environment, point out the balance required in the system for successful open innovation performance and discover the existence of tipping point of open innovation success when driven by market dynamics and structures. The practical implications on how firms and policy-makers can leverage environment for their potential benefits are offered in the conclusions.

Vaccination Competence - The Concept and Evaluation

The purpose of this two-phase study was to define the concept of vaccination competence and assess the vaccination competence of graduating public health nurse students (PHN students) and public health nurses (PHNs) in Finland, with the goal of promoting and maintaining vaccination competence and developing vaccination education. The first phase of the study included semi-structured interviews with vaccination professionals, graduating PHN students and clients (a total of n=40), asking them to describe vaccination competence as well as the factors strengthening and weakening it. The data were analyzed through content analysis. In the second phase of the study, structured instruments were developed, and vaccination competence of PHN students (n=129) in Finland and PHNs (n=405) was assessed using a self-assessment scale (VAS) and taking a knowledge test. PHNs were used as a reference group, enabling us to determine whether a satisfactory level of vaccination competence was achieved by the end of studies, or whether it was gained through work experience vaccinating clients. The data were collected from five polytechnic institutions and seven health centers located in various parts of the country. The data were collected using instruments developed for this study, and were analyzed statistically. In the first phase, based on the results of the interviews, vaccination competence was defined as a large multi-faceted entity, including the concepts of competent vaccinator, competent implementation of the vaccination, and the outcome of the implementation. Semi-structured interviews revealed that factors strengthening and weakening vaccination competence were connected to the vaccinator, the client being vaccinated, the vaccination environment and vaccinator education. On the whole, factors strengthening and weakening vaccination were the opposite of each other. In the second phase, on the self-assessment of vaccination competence, students rated themselves as significantly lower than working professionals. On the knowledge test, the percentage of correct answers was lower for students than PHNs. When all background variables were taken into account in multivariate analysis, there was no longer a significant difference between the students and PHNs on the self-assessment. However, in multivariate analysis, the PHNs still performed better than students on the knowledge test. For this study, a satisfactory level of vaccination competence was defined as a mean of 8.0 on the self-assessment and 80% correct answers on the knowledge test. Based on these criteria, students almost reached the level of satisfactory in their overall self-assessment, and PHNs did. Both groups, however, did rank themselves as satisfactory in some sum variables. On the knowledge test the students did not achieve a level of satisfactory (80%) in their total score, though PHNs did. As before, both groups did achieve a level of satisfactory in several sum variables. Further research and development should focus on vaccination education, the testing of vaccination competence and vaccination practices in clinical practice, as well as on developing the measurement tools.

Approaches to Supply Chain Risk Management: Identification, Analysis and Control

Supply chain risk management has emerged as an increasingly important issue in logistics as disruptions in the supply chain have become critical issues for many companies. The scientific literature on the subject is developing and in many respects the understanding of it is still in its infancy. Thus, there is a need for more information in order for scholars and practitioners to understand the causalities and interrelations that characterise the phenomenon. The aim of this dissertation is to narrow this gap by exploring key aspects of supply chain risk management through two maritime supply chains in the immediate region of the Gulf of Finland. The study contributes to the field in three different ways. Firstly, it facilitates the identification of risks on different levels of the supply chain through a systematic analysis of the processes and actors, and of the cognitive barriers that limit the actors’ visibility and their understanding of the operations and the risks involved. There is a clear need to increase collaboration and information exchange in order to improve visibility in the chain. Risk management should be a collaborative effort among the individual actors, aimed at obtaining a holistic picture. Secondly, the study contributes to the literature on risk analysis through the use of systemic frameworks that illustrate the causalities and linkages in the system, thereby making it easier to perceive the vulnerabilities. Thirdly, the study enhances current knowledge of risk control in identifying actor roles, risk visibility and risk controllability as being among the key factors determining risk-management effectiveness against supply-chain vulnerability. This dissertation is divided into two parts. The first part gives a general overview of the relevant literature, the research design and the conclusions of the study, and the second part comprises six research publications. Case-study methodology with systematic combining approach is used, where in-depth interviews, questionnaires and expert panel sessions are the main data collection methods. The study illustrates the current state of risk management in multimodal maritime supply chains, and develops frameworks for further analysis. The results imply that there are major differences between organizations in their ability to execute supply chain risk management. Further collaboration should be considered in order to facilitate the development of systematic and effective management processes.

Molecular diagnostics of rare inherited SYNDROMES with a view on diagnostic test development

CHARGE syndrome, Sotos syndrome and 3p deletion syndrome are examples of rare inherited syndromes that have been recognized for decades but for which the molecular diagnostics only have been made possible by recent advances in genomic research. Despite these advances, development of diagnostic tests for rare syndromes has been hindered by diagnostic laboratories having limited funds for test development, and their prioritization of tests for which a (relatively) high demand can be expected. In this study, the molecular diagnostic tests for CHARGE syndrome and Sotos syndrome were developed, resulting in their successful translation into routine diagnostic testing in the laboratory of Medical Genetics (UTUlab). In the CHARGE syndrome group, mutation was identified in 40.5% of the patients and in the Sotos syndrome group, in 34%, reflecting the use of the tests in routine diagnostics in differential diagnostics. In CHARGE syndrome, the low prevalence of structural aberrations was also confirmed. In 3p deletion syndrome, it was shown that small terminal deletions are not causative for the syndrome, and that testing with arraybased analysis provides a reliable estimate of the deletion size but benign copy number variants complicate result interpretation. During the development of the tests, it was discovered that finding an optimal molecular diagnostic strategy for a given syndrome is always a compromise between the sensitivity, specificity and feasibility of applying a new method. In addition, the clinical utility of the test should be considered prior to test development: sometimes a test performing well in a laboratory has limited utility for the patient, whereas a test performing poorly in the laboratory may have a great impact on the patient and their family. At present, the development of next generation sequencing methods is changing the concept of molecular diagnostics of rare diseases from single tests towards whole-genome analysis.

Stretching a service concept brand

Brands have become one of the most valuable assets for organizations, which is why organizations want to benefit from them in whole scale. However, service concept brands are still little researched. The purpose of this research is to study how brand stretching and co-branding strategies can help a service concept brand to attain wider target market. More specifically, this research aims to contribute the methods and their risks and benefits to different customer levels of a group fitness brand. This study is a qualitative single case analysis embedded with multiple units of analysis. The data used in this study was gathered by nine theme interviews. The interviewees are from one of the customer levels of the service concept provided by the case organization. The interviews are made in different geographical areas in Finland. The results of the study will clarify and illustrate the differences and similarities between the theoretical framework and practise. Several differences between traditional brand stretching and co-branding strategies and those that are possible to employ by a service concept brand were found. The answers of the interviewees were slightly different depending on their role in the organization and their experience from the branch. However, they proved that not all brand stretching or co-branding strategies are applicable in the group fitness brand. Nevertheless, also several similarities that benefit the group fitness brand were found.

Pankin reaalioptiot kriisiytyneiden asiakasyrityksien riskienhallinnallisessa lisäluototuksessa

Tämän tutkielman tarkoituksena on ollut tutkia pankin mahdollisuuksia soveltaa reaalioptioajattelua kriisiyrityksien käyttöpääomaan liittyvissä lisäluototusprosesseissa. Kohdepankin rahoitusasiantuntijoita haastattelemalla ja esimerkkitapauksiin tutustumalla tutkia on tutkittu pk-yritysten lisäluototusprosessia ja reaalioptioteorian soveltuvuutta luottoriskinhallintaan. Tutkimuksessa saatiin selville, että pankin luottoprosessin päätöksentekologiikassa on selkeitä yhteneväisyyksiä reaalioptioajattelun kanssa, mutta tietoisesti pankin asiantuntijat eivät sovella reaalioptioteoriaa toimintaansa. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin myös, että tiedostamattoman reaalioptioajattelun hyödyntämisaktiivisuus lisääntyy pankissa sitä mukaa, kun asiakaskohtainen riski kasvaa. Lisäksi kohdepankin asiantuntijat suhtautuivat luottoprosessissa kriisiyrityksille myönnettyihin lisäluottoihin suojautumisoption kaltaisen ajattelumallin tavoin. Toisin sanoen lisäluotto katsottiin asiakasyrityksen toiminnan jatkumisen mahdollistavana tekijänä, jonka avulla pitkän tähtäimen luottoriskin laskeminen on todennäköistä. Reaalioptioteorian tietoinen hyödyntäminen saattaisi tarjota lisätyökaluja asiakasyrityksien skenaarioiden arviointiin ja tukea sitä kautta luottopäätöksen tekemistä ja riskienhallintaa. Reaalioptiot voisivat tuoda joustavuutta ja lisäarvoa sellaisiin tilanteisiin, joissa asiakasyrityksen osalta ei ole olemassa laajaa historiatietoa tai asiakastuntemusta. Reaalioptioiden mahdollistaman joustavuuden sovittaminen säädösten mukaisiin proseduureihin saattaisi olla merkittävä keino pankin prosessin kehittämiseksi ja sisäisen viestinnän tehostamiseksi.

Implementation of a perioperative management protocol for patients undergoing orthopedic surgery

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the initial results after the implementation of perioperative protocol in patients over 60 years of age undergoing surgical treatment for femur fractures.METHODS: We conducted a prospective study of patients older than 60 years who were hospitalized with femur fracture. They were operated under spinal anesthesia and analgesia by lumbar plexus blockade. Data evaluation was performed before arrival in the operating room during surgery, in the post-anesthesia recovery room and in the ward the next morning of the operation.RESULTS: 105 patients underwent various types of surgical corrections of the femur. The hospital stay ranged from three to 86 days. Fasting ranged from 9h15min to 19h30mn. Hypotension occurred in 5.7%. The duration of motor blockade ranged from 1h45min to 5h30imn. Maltodextrin feeding ranged from 50min to 3h45min and the time spent in the post-anesthetic care unit ranged from 50 minutes to 4 hours. Onset of oral intake in the ward ranged from 4hto 8h15min. The duration of anesthesia ranged from 14 to 33 hours. No patient required a urinary catheter, nor was transferred to the ICU. All patients were able to be discharged on the first postoperative day.CONCLUSION: The use of a protocol to accelerate the postoperative period may reduce the fasting time, length of hospital stay and provide faster i discharge n elderly patients with femur fractures.

Non-linear analysis of laminated metal matrix composites by an integrated micro/macro-mechanical model

The present paper describes an integrated micro/macro mechanical study of the elastic-viscoplastic behavior of unidirectional metal matrix composites (MMC). The micromechanical analysis of the elastic moduli is based on the Composites Cylinder Assemblage model (CCA) with comparisons also draw with a Representative Unit Cell (RUC) technique. These "homogenization" techniques are later incorporated into the Vanishing Fiber Diameter (VFD) model and a new formulation is proposed. The concept of a smeared element procedure is employed in conjunction with two different versions of the Bodner and Partom elastic-viscoplastic constitutive model for the associated macroscopic analysis. The formulations developed are also compared against experimental and analytical results available in the literature.

Switchable lanthanide fluorescence probes in homogenous molecular diagnostics

The number of molecular diagnostic assays has increased tremendously in recent years.Nucleic acid diagnostic assays have been developed, especially for the detection of human pathogenic microbes and genetic markers predisposing to certain diseases. Closed-tube methods are preferred because they are usually faster and easier to perform than heterogenous methods and in addition, target nucleic acids are commonly amplified leading to risk of contamination of the following reactions by the amplification product if the reactions are opened. The present study introduces a new closed-tube switchable complementation probes based PCR assay concept where two non-fluorescent probes form a fluorescent lanthanide chelate complex in the presence of the target DNA. In this dual-probe PCR assay method one oligonucleotide probe carries a non-fluorescent lanthanide chelate and another probe a light absorbing antenna ligand. The fluorescent lanthanide chelate complex is formed only when the non-fluorescent probes are hybridized to adjacent positions into the target DNA bringing the reporter moieties in close proximity. The complex is formed by self-assembled lanthanide chelate complementation where the antenna ligand is coordinated to the lanthanide ion captured in the chelate. The complementation probes based assays with time-resolved fluorescence measurement showed low background signal level and hence, relatively high nucleic acid detection sensitivity (low picomolar target concentration). Different lanthanide chelate structures were explored and a new cyclic seven dentate lanthanide chelate was found suitable for complementation probe method. It was also found to resist relatively high PCR reaction temperatures, which was essential for the PCR assay applications. A seven-dentate chelate with two unoccupied coordination sites must be used instead of a more stable eight- or nine-dentate chelate because the antenna ligand needs to be coordinated to the free coordination sites of the lanthanide ion. The previously used linear seven-dentate lanthanide chelate was found to be unstable in PCR conditions and hence, the new cyclic chelate was needed. The complementation probe PCR assay method showed high signal-to-background ratio up to 300 due to a low background fluorescence level and the results (threshold cycles) in real-time PCR were reached approximately 6 amplification cycles earlier compared to the commonly used FRET-based closed-tube PCR method. The suitability of the complementation probe method for different nucleic acid assay applications was studied. 1) A duplex complementation probe C. trachomatis PCR assay with a simple 10-minute urine sample preparation was developed to study suitability of the method for clinical diagnostics. The performance of the C. trachomatis assay was equal to the commercial C. trachomatis nucleic acid amplification assay containing more complex sample preparation based on DNA extraction. 2) A PCR assay for the detection of HLA-DQA1*05 allele, that is used to predict the risk of type 1 diabetes, was developed to study the performance of the method in genotyping. A simple blood sample preparation was used where the nucleic acids were released from dried blood sample punches using high temperature and alkaline reaction conditions. The complementation probe HLA-DQA1*05 PCR assay showed good genotyping performance correlating 100% with the routinely used heterogenous reference assay. 3) To study the suitability of the complementation probe method for direct measurement of the target organism, e.g., in the culture media, the complementation probes were applied to amplificationfree closed-tube bacteriophage quantification by measuring M13 bacteriophage ssDNA. A low picomolar bacteriophage concentration was detected in a rapid 20- minute assay. The assay provides a quick and reliable alternative to the commonly used and relatively unreliable UV-photometry and time-consuming culture based bacteriophage detection methods and indicates that the method could also be used for direct measurement of other micro-organisms. The complementation probe PCR method has a low background signal level leading to a high signal-to-background ratio and relatively sensitive nucleic acid detection. The method is compatible with simple sample preparation and it was shown to tolerate residues of urine, blood, bacteria and bacterial culture media. The common trend in nucleic acid diagnostics is to create easy-to-use assays suitable for rapid near patient analysis. The complementation probe PCR assays with a brief sample preparation should be relatively easy to automate and hence, would allow the development of highperformance nucleic acid amplification assays with a short overall assay time.

Enseigner l'interculturel dans le supérieur: quels discours et approches d'un concept ambigu à l'heure de l'internationalisation? Le cas de la Finlande

L‘interculturel est un concept souvent partagé mais rarement défini dans la recherche alors que ses compréhensions, interprétations et applications sont variées, ce qui mène à des malentendus et des positionnements épistémologiques et méthodologiques ambigus. En parallèle, de nombreuses critiques et propositions de réorientations de la notion voient le jour. Nous entendons faire le point sur la notion et son intégration potentielle dans l‘enseignement de la communication interculturelle (ECI). Notre étude se base sur l‘analyse de six groupes focalisés d‘enseignants (-chercheurs) impliqués dans l‘enseignement de l‘interculturel du niveau supérieur en Finlande, pays du nord de l‘Europe. Nous avons recours aux paradigmes postmodernes et aux sciences du langage (analyse du discours inspirée d‘auteurs français, et plus particulièrement de l‘école française de la deuxième génération (les théories de l‘énonciation (Kerbrat-Orecchioni, 2002 ; Marnette, 2005) et une approche du dialogisme inspirée par Bakhtine (1977))). Ces méthodes permettent de mettre en avant la complexité identitaire en posant l‘hétérogénéité du discours comme principe, c‘est-à-dire qu‘elles considèrent que tout discours inclut la « voix » de l‘autre. Repérer la présence de ces voix dans les discours des enseignants/chercheurs nous a permis de démontrer comment celles-ci participaient à la construction de leur identité pendant l‘interaction. Nous avons pu observer comment les relations entre ces interactions verbales donnaient lieu à des instabilités (contradictions, omissions), dont l‘étude nous a aidée à déduire leur(s) façon(s) de concevoir l‘interculturel. Les discours analysés révèlent a) que la définition de l‘interculturel est partagée sans être perçue de la même manière et b) que les différentes représentations du concept peuvent varier dans le discours d‘un même enseignant, mettant en évidences des contradictions qui posent problème s‘il s‘agit de communiquer un savoir-être aux apprenants. Nous nous sommes efforcée de trouver la place d‘un interculturel renouvelé parmi ces discours et de dissocier l‘image de l‘éducation interculturelle qui est promue en Finlande de ce qui est proposé en réalité : les changements actuels semblent avoir un minimum d‘impact sur la façon dont les enseignants traitent l‘interculturel. Nous nous demandons alors comment l‘Etat finlandais peut promouvoir un enseignement interculturel cohérent sans proposer aux enseignants/chercheurs une formation qui leur permettrait de reconnaitre les diverses diversités impliquées par l‘interculturel. Mots clés : Communication interculturelle, diversité, culture, enseignement supérieur finlandais.

Mathematics inspired by Darwin. Adaptive dynamics of dispersal and cooperation

In 1859, Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution by natural selection, the process occurring based on fitness benefits and fitness costs at the individual level. Traditionally, evolution has been investigated by biologists, but it has induced mathematical approaches, too. For example, adaptive dynamics has proven to be a very applicable framework to the purpose. Its core concept is the invasion fitness, the sign of which tells whether a mutant phenotype can invade the prevalent phenotype. In this thesis, four real-world applications on evolutionary questions are provided. Inspiration for the first two studies arose from a cold-adapted species, American pika. First, it is studied how the global climate change may affect the evolution of dispersal and viability of pika metapopulations. Based on the results gained here, it is shown that the evolution of dispersal can result in extinction and indeed, evolution of dispersalshould be incorporated into the viability analysis of species living in fragmented habitats. The second study is focused on the evolution of densitydependent dispersal in metapopulations with small habitat patches. It resulted a very surprising unintuitive evolutionary phenomenon, how a non-monotone density-dependent dispersal may evolve. Cooperation is surprisingly common in many levels of life, despite of its obvious vulnerability to selfish cheating. This motivated two applications. First, it is shown that density-dependent cooperative investment can evolve to have a qualitatively different, monotone or non-monotone, form depending on modelling details. The last study investigates the evolution of investing into two public-goods resources. The results suggest one general path by which labour division can arise via evolutionary branching. In addition to applications, two novel methodological derivations of fitness measures in structured metapopulations are given.

Interpreting marine benthic ecosystem functioning in coastal waters: validating the biological trait concept

Coastal areas harbour high biodiversity, but are simultaneously affected by rapid degradations of species and habitats due to human interactions. Such alterations also affect the functioning of the ecosystem, which is primarily governed by the characteristics or traits expressed by the organisms present. Marine benthic fauna is nvolved in numerous functions such as organic matter transformation and transport, secondary production, oxygen transport as well as nutrient cycling. Approaches utilising the variety of faunal traits to assess benthic community functioning have rapidly increased and shown the need for further development of the concept. In this thesis, I applied biological trait analysis that allows for assessments of a multitude of categorical traits and thus evaluation of multiple functional aspects simultaneously. I determined the functional trait structure, diversity and variability of coastal zoobenthic communities in the Baltic Sea. The measures were related to recruitment processes, habitat heterogeneity, large-scale environmental and taxonomic gradients as well as anthropogenic impacts. The studies comprised spatial scales from metres to thousands of kilometres, and temporal scales spanning one season as well as a decade. The benthic functional structure was found to vary within and between seagrass landscape microhabitats and four different habitats within a coastal bay, in papers I and II respectively. Expressions of trait categories varied within habitats, while the density of individuals was found to drive the functional differences between habitats. The findings in paper III unveiled high trait richness of Finnish coastal benthos (25 traits and 102 cateogries) although this differed between areas high and low in salinity and human pressure. In paper IV, the natural reduction in taxonomic richness across the Baltic Sea led to an overall reduction in function. However, functional richness in terms of number of trait categories remained comparatively high at low taxon richness. Changes in number of taxa within trait categories were also subtle and some individual categories were maintained or even increased. The temporal analysis in papers I and III highlighted generalities in trait expressions and dominant trait categories in a seagrass landscape as well as a “type organism” for the northern Baltic Sea. Some initial findings were made in all four papers on the role of common and rare species and traits for benthic community functioning. The findings show that common and rare species may not always express the same trait categories in relation to each other. Rare species in general did not express unique functional properties. In order to advance the understanding of the approach, I also assessed some issues concerning the limitations of the concept. This was conducted by evaluating the link between trait category and taxonomic richness using especially univariate measures. My results also show the need to collaborate nationally and internationally on safeguarding the utility of taxonomic and trait data. The findings also highlight the importance of including functional trait information into current efforts in marine spatial planning and biomonitoring.

Mechanical design and analysis of modular active magnetic bearing test rig

Tässä työssä on tutkittu modulaarisen aktiivimagneettilaakeroidun koelaitteen mekaanista suunnittelua ja analysointia. Suurnopeusroottorin suunnittelun teoria on esitelty. Lisäksi monia analyyttisiä mallinnusmenetelmiä mekaanisten kuormitusten mallintamiseksi on esitelty. Koska kyseessä on suurnopeussähkökone, roottoridynamiikka ja sen soveltuvuus suunnittelussa on esitelty. Magneettilaakerien rakenteeseen ja toimintaan on tutustuttu osana tätä työtä. Kirjallisuuskatsaus nykyisistä koelaitteista esimerkiksi komponenttien ominaisuuksien tunnistamiseen ja roottoridynamiikan tutkimuksiin on esitelty. Työn rajauksena on konseptisuunnittelu muunneltavalle magneettilaakeroidulle (AMB) koelaitteelle ja suunnitteluprosessin dokumentointi. Muunneltavuuteen päädyttiin, koska se mahdollistaa erilaisten komponenttiasetteluiden testaamisen erilaisille magneettilaakerikokoonpanoille ja roottoreille. Pääpaino tässä työssä on suurnopeus induktiokoneen roottorin suunnittelussa ja mallintamisessa. Modulaaristen toimilaitteiden kuten magneettilaakerien ja induktiosähkömoottorin rakenne on esitelty ja modulaarisen rakenteen käytettävyyden hyödyistä koelaitekäytössä on dokumentoitu. Analyyttisiä ja elementtimenetelmään perustuvia tutkimusmenetelmiä on käytetty tutkittaessa suunniteltua suurnopeusroottoria. Suunnittelun ja analysoinnin tulokset on esitelty ja verrattu keskenään eri mallinnusmenetelmien välillä. Lisäksi johtopäätökset sähkömagneettisten osien liittämisen monimutkaisuudesta ja vaatimuksista roottoriin ja toimilaitteisiin sekä mekaanisten että sähkömagneettisten ominaisuuksien optimoimiseksi on dokumentoitu.