Self-Assessment Report for International Accreditation - Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes in Environmental Technology

Ympäristötekniikan kandidaatin ja diplomi-insinöörin tutkinto-ohjelmien itsearviointiraportissa käsitellään tutkinto-ohjelmien osaamistavoitteita ja niiden saavuttamista. Raportissa käydään läpi myös käytössä olevat resurssit sekä tutkinto-ohjelmiin liittyviä tunnuslukuja. Itsearviointi on toteutettu kansainvälisen akkreditointijärjestön kriteerien mukaisesti (ASIIN ja EUR-ACE).

Improving alumni administration by self-built information system : building IMMIT connected' to enhance alumni connection

Alumni are considered as precious resource of the institutions, thus improving alumni adminis-tration is critical. In information era, alumni administration is assisted by widespread information technology, such as social network sites. This paper aims to discover if a self-built information sys-tem would enhance alumni connection in the IMMIT context, and what kind of attributes would be helpful applying to the special context. The current online alumni services at other universities and at the IMMIT host university are analyzed, and then social media is introduced. After illustrating the social capital existing in IM-MIT, the type of the self-built information system is suggested, following an interpretation of the prototype. Two research models are utilized in this article: TAM and intentional social action model. The second model is adjusted with proposed parameters. Afterwards, a survey and an interview protocol are designed under the guidance of the models. The results are analyzed in several groups, and the proposed parameters are tested. A conclusion is drawn to indicate how to improve alumni‟s intention to use and how to achieve a better-accepted design.

Self-Assessment Report for International Accreditation - Chemical Engineering

Kemiantekniikan kandidaatin ja diplomi-insinöörin tutkinto-ohjelmien itsearviointiraportissa käsitellään tutkinto-ohjelmien osaamistavoitteita ja niiden saavuttamista. Raportissa käydään läpi myös käytössä olevat resurssit sekä tutkinto-ohjelmiin liittyviä tunnuslukuja. Itsearviointi on toteutettu kansainvälisen akkreditointijärjestön kriteerien mukaisesti (ASIIN ja EUR-ACE).

Self-perception of sexual life and associated factors: a population study conducted in women aged 50 or more years

PURPOSE: To evaluate the prevalence of women aged 50 years or more who are sexually active and their self-perception with respect to their sexual lives. Associated factors were also assessed. METHODS: A cross-sectional, population-based, self-reported household survey involving 622 Brazilian women aged 50 years or more. Sociodemographic, clinical, and behavioral factors were evaluated. The sexual life self-perception was classified as very good, good, fair, poor, or very poor. Data were analyzed using the χ² test, Fisher's exact test, and Poisson multiple regression analysis. Prevalence ratios and their 95% confidence intervals were also calculated. RESULTS: Of the women in this sample, 228 (36.7%) reported having a sexual life and, of these, 53.5% classified it as very good or good, while 46.5% considered it fair, poor, or very poor. The bivariate analysis indicated that being postmenopausal (p=0.025) and using natural remedies to treat the menopause (p=0.035) were factors associated with the woman classifying their sexual lives as fair, poor, or very poor. Multiple regression analysis showed that more women who had used or were currently using natural remedies for the menopause scored their sexual lives as fair, poor, or very poor. CONCLUSIONS: More than half the women aged 50 years or more in this study were not sexually active. A poorer sexual life self-perception was associated with the use of natural remedies to treat menopausal symptoms. This may indicate a need to improve the way in which these women are evaluated and treated. Women's assessment of their own sexual lives may prove a useful tool in clinical practice.

Poster presentation as a report of a self-designed laboratory experiment : a case study

Julkaisumaa: 203 CZ CZE Tšekki

Mapping financial stability

The ongoing global financial crisis has demonstrated the importance of a systemwide, or macroprudential, approach to safeguarding financial stability. An essential part of macroprudential oversight concerns the tasks of early identification and assessment of risks and vulnerabilities that eventually may lead to a systemic financial crisis. Thriving tools are crucial as they allow early policy actions to decrease or prevent further build-up of risks or to otherwise enhance the shock absorption capacity of the financial system. In the literature, three types of systemic risk can be identified: i ) build-up of widespread imbalances, ii ) exogenous aggregate shocks, and iii ) contagion. Accordingly, the systemic risks are matched by three categories of analytical methods for decision support: i ) early-warning, ii ) macro stress-testing, and iii ) contagion models. Stimulated by the prolonged global financial crisis, today's toolbox of analytical methods includes a wide range of innovative solutions to the two tasks of risk identification and risk assessment. Yet, the literature lacks a focus on the task of risk communication. This thesis discusses macroprudential oversight from the viewpoint of all three tasks: Within analytical tools for risk identification and risk assessment, the focus concerns a tight integration of means for risk communication. Data and dimension reduction methods, and their combinations, hold promise for representing multivariate data structures in easily understandable formats. The overall task of this thesis is to represent high-dimensional data concerning financial entities on lowdimensional displays. The low-dimensional representations have two subtasks: i ) to function as a display for individual data concerning entities and their time series, and ii ) to use the display as a basis to which additional information can be linked. The final nuance of the task is, however, set by the needs of the domain, data and methods. The following ve questions comprise subsequent steps addressed in the process of this thesis: 1. What are the needs for macroprudential oversight? 2. What form do macroprudential data take? 3. Which data and dimension reduction methods hold most promise for the task? 4. How should the methods be extended and enhanced for the task? 5. How should the methods and their extensions be applied to the task? Based upon the Self-Organizing Map (SOM), this thesis not only creates the Self-Organizing Financial Stability Map (SOFSM), but also lays out a general framework for mapping the state of financial stability. This thesis also introduces three extensions to the standard SOM for enhancing the visualization and extraction of information: i ) fuzzifications, ii ) transition probabilities, and iii ) network analysis. Thus, the SOFSM functions as a display for risk identification, on top of which risk assessments can be illustrated. In addition, this thesis puts forward the Self-Organizing Time Map (SOTM) to provide means for visual dynamic clustering, which in the context of macroprudential oversight concerns the identification of cross-sectional changes in risks and vulnerabilities over time. Rather than automated analysis, the aim of visual means for identifying and assessing risks is to support disciplined and structured judgmental analysis based upon policymakers' experience and domain intelligence, as well as external risk communication.

Self-assessment report for international accreditation - Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes in Information Technology

Lappeenrannan teknillisen yliopiston Tietotekniikan kandidaatin ja maisterin tutkinto-ohjelmien itsearviointi toteutettiin v. 2012 kansainvälistä akkreditointia varten. Itsearviointiraportissa kuvataan tutkinto-ohjelmien tavoitteet, toteutus ja arviointimenettelyt sekä tulokset.

Regulation of self-renewal and detection of karyotypic changes of pluripotent human embryonic stem cells

Human embryonic stem cells are pluripotent cells capable of renewing themselves and differentiating to specialized cell types. Because of their unique regenerative potential, pluripotent cells offer new opportunities for disease modeling, development of regenerative therapies, and treating diseases. Before pluripotent cells can be used in any therapeutic applications, there are numerous challenges to overcome. For instance, the key regulators of pluripotency need to be clarified. In addition, long term culture of pluripotent cells is associated with the accumulation of karyotypic abnormalities, which is a concern regarding the safe use of the cells for therapeutic purposes. The goal of the work presented in this thesis was to identify new factors involved in the maintenance of pluripotency, and to further characterize molecular mechanisms of selected candidate genes. Furthermore, we aimed to set up a new method for analyzing genomic integrity of pluripotent cells. The experimental design applied in this study involved a wide range of molecular biology, genome-wide, and computational techniques to study the pluripotency of stem cells and the functions of the target genes. In collaboration with instrument and reagent company Perkin Elmer, KaryoliteTM BoBsTM was implemented for detecting karyotypic changes of pluripotent cells. Novel genes were identified that are highly and specifically expressed in hES cells. Of these genes, L1TD1 and POLR3G were chosen for further investigation. The results revealed that both of these factors are vital for the maintenance of pluripotency and self-renewal of the hESCs. KaryoliteTM BoBsTM was validated as a novel method to detect karyotypic abnormalities in pluripotent stem cells. The results presented in this thesis offer significant new information on the regulatory networks associated with pluripotency. The results will facilitate in understanding developmental and cancer biology, as well as creating stem cell based applications. KaryoliteTM BoBsTM provides rapid, high-throughput, and cost-efficient tool for screening of human pluripotent cell cultures.

Relation between the level of self-mutilation and theconcentration of fecal metabolites of glucocorticoids incaptive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

The influence of stress in an environment, according with the behavioral and endocrine variables of primates, are increasingly being studied by a diversity of authors, and have shown that abnormal behaviors associated with increased glucocorticoids may be directly related with the impairment of their well-being. In this work were used 22 adult chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), 11 males and 11 females, kept in captivity in three different institutions. All animals had their behavior registered by focal session using a 30 seconds sample interval, during six months, totaling 4,800 registries per each animal. During this period, fecal samples were collected 3 times a week for the extraction and measurement of the concentration of fecal metabolites of glucocorticoid by radioimmunoassay. Of the total observed, stereotypical behaviors represented 13,45±2.76%, and among them, self-mutilation represented 38.28±3.98 %. The animals were classified into three different scores, according with the percentage of body surface with alopecia due to self-mutilation. It was found a positive correlation of high intensity between the scores of alopecia due to the observed mutilation and the average concentrations of fecal metabolites of glucocorticoids. This result strongly suggests that this measurement of self-mutilation in a chimpanzee can be used as an important auxiliary tool to evaluate de conditions of adaptation of an animal in captivity, functioning as a direct indicator of the presence of chronic stress.

Arc fusion of self-fluxed nickel alloys

Self-fluxed nickel alloys are usually flame fused after thermal spraying. However, due to the practical aspects of high temperatures reached during flame fusing, large structures such as the hydraulic turbines for power generation, can not be efficiently coated. An alternative is to fuse the sprayed coating with a gas tungsten electric arc. In this case, heating is much more intensive and substrate temperature during and after the fusing operation is much lower, thus reducing the possibility that any problem will occur. In this work, coatings of self-fluxed nickel alloy fused by flame and gas tungsten arc were evaluated as protection of hydraulic turbines against cavitational damage. Several tests were performed, including the ASTM ultrasonically vibration-induced cavitation, optical and scanning electronic microscopic metallography, and hardness tests. The results showed that the arc-fused coating presented better cavitation damage resistance, probably due to its finer microstructure. A field application of this new technique is also described. A self-fluxed Ni alloy was flame sprayed in critical regions of Francis-type hydraulic turbine blades and fused by a gas tungsten arc after spraying. The blades will be inspected during the next two years.

Acceleration of Solar Energetic Particles in coronal shocks through self-generated turbulence

The acceleration of solar energetic particles (SEPs) by flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) has been a major topic of research for the solar-terrestrial physics and geophysics communities for decades. This thesis discusses theories describing first-order Fermi acceleration of SEPs through repeated crossings at a CME-driven shock. We propose that particle trapping occurs through self-generated Alfvén waves, leading to a turbulent trapping region in front of the shock. Decelerating coronal shocks are shown to be capable of efficient SEP acceleration, provided seed particle injection is sufficient. Quasi-parallel shocks are found to inject thermal particles with good efficiency. The roles of minimum injection velocities, cross-field diffusion, downstream scattering efficiency and cross-shock potential are investigated in detail, with downstream isotropisation timescales having a major effect on injection efficiency. Accelerated spectra of heavier elements up to iron are found to exhibit significantly harder spectra than protons. Accelerated spectra cut-off energies are found to scale proportional to (Q/A)^1.5, which is explained through analysis of the spectral shape of amplified Alfvénic turbulence. Acceleration times to different threshold energies are found to be non-linear, indicating that self-consistent time-dependent simulations are required in order to expose the full extent of acceleration dynamics. The well-established quasilinear theory (QLT) of particle scattering is investigated by comparing QLT scattering coefficients with those found via full-orbit simulations. QLT is found to overemphasise resonance conditions. This finding supports the simplifications implemented in the presented coronal shock acceleration (CSA) simulation software. The CSA software package is used to simulate a range of acceleration scenarios. The results are found to be in agreement with well-established particle acceleration theory. At the same time, new spatial and temporal dynamics of particle population trapping and wave evolution are revealed.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Shipping Views of Baltic Sea Shipping Companies on the Benefits of Responsibility

The safety of shipping operations in the Baltic Sea is an extensively studied issue due to the density of traffic and the ecological sensitivity of the area. The focus has, however, mainly been on ship technology or on traffic control measures and the operative safety aspect of shipping is in a minor position in maritime safety studies and is lacking in terms of solutions. Self-regulatory and voluntary measures could be effective ways to improve the operational safety of shipping. Corporate social responsibility, or CSR, is one example of a voluntary measure that the shipping companies can take. CSR can enhance maritime safety and improve the shipping companies’ competitiveness. The aim of this study is to increase the knowledge of CSR in the maritime sector and study its applicability and benefits to the shipping companies. The research comprises of a theory part and a questionnaire study, which examine the significance of corporate social responsibility in shipping companies’ maritime safety and competitiveness. The aim of the questionnaire study is to find out how corporate social responsibility is implemented in the shipping companies. According to the literature review, responsible actions can produce financial and time costs, but due to these actions cost savings in the form of learning and increased efficiency can be achieved. Responsible actions can also produce concrete improvements and a reputation of responsibility that can lead to both cost savings and increase in the company’s income. CSR is recognised as having real business benefits in terms of attracting customers and high-quality employees. In shipping, CSR usually focuses on environmental issues. Environmental social responsibility in shipping is mainly motivated by the need to comply with existing and forthcoming regulation. Shipping companies engage in CSR to gain competitive advantage and to increase maritime safety. The social aspects of CSR take into account the well-being and skills of the employees, corporation and other stakeholders of the company. The questionnaire study revealed that the most common CSR measures in shipping companies are environmental measures, and that environmental concerns are considered to be the most important reason to engage in CSR. From the preliminary question about the concept of CSR it can also be seen that safety issues are commonly considered to be a part of CSR and safety gains are the second most important reason to engage in CSR. From the questionnaire, it can also be extrapolated that gaining a better reputation is one of the most important reasons to engage in CSR in the first place. For example, the main economic benefit was seen to be the increase of customer numbers as a result of a better reputation. Based on the study, it would seem that companies are starting to realise that they might gain competitive advantage and be favoured as shippers if they engage in sustainable, responsible operations and present themselves as “green”.

Self-deposit, discovery, and delivery of scientific GIS datasets using GeoHydra

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