The Finnish Competition State and Entrepreneurial Policies in the Helsinki Region

The thesis examines the intensification and characteristics of a policy that emphasises economic competitiveness in Finland during the 1990s and early 2000s. This accentuation of economic objectives is studied at the level of national policy-making as well as at the regional level through the policies and strategies of cities and three universities in the Helsinki region. By combining the analysis of state policies, urban strategies and university activities, the study illustrates the pervasiveness of the objective of economic competitiveness and growth across these levels and sheds light on the features and contradictions of these policies on a broad scale. The thesis is composed of five research articles and a summary article. At the level of national policies, the central focus of the thesis is on the growing role of science and technology policy as a state means to promote structural economic change and its transformation towards a broader, yet ambivalent concept of innovation policy. This shift brings forward a tension between an increasing emphasis on economic aspects – innovations and competitiveness – as well as the expanding scope of issues across a wide range of policy sectors that are being subsumed under this market- and economy oriented framework. Related to science and technology policy, attention is paid to adjustments in university policy in which there has been increasing pressure for efficiency, rationalisation and commercialisation of academic activities. Furthermore, political efforts to build an information society through the application of information and communication technologies are analysed with particular attention to the balance between economic and social objectives. Finally, changes in state regional policy priorities and the tendency towards competitiveness are addressed. At the regional level, the focus of the thesis is on the policies of the cities in Finland’s capital region as well as strategies of three universities operating in the region, namely the University of Helsinki, Helsinki University of technology and Helsinki School of Economics. As regards the urban level, the main focus is on the changes and characteristics of the urban economic development policy of the City of Helsinki. With respect to the universities, the thesis examines their attempts to commercialise research and thus bring academic research closer to economic interests, and pays particular attention to the contradictions of commercialisation. Related to the universities, the activities of three intermediary organisations that the universities have established in order to increase cooperation with industry are analysed. These organisations are the Helsinki Science Park, Otaniemi International Innovation Centre and LTT Research Ltd. The summary article provides a synthesis of the material presented in the five original articles and relates the results of the articles to a broader discussion concerning the emergence of competition states and entrepreneurial cities and regions. The main points of reference are Bob Jessop’s and Neil Brenner’s theses on state and urban-regional restructuring. The empirical results and considerations from Finland and the Helsinki region are used to comment on, specify and criticise specific parts of the two theses.

Covalent tethering of the dimer interface annuls aggregation in thymidylate synthase

Thymidylate synthase (TS), a dimeric enzyme, forms large soluble aggregates at concentrations of urea (3.3-5 M), well below that required for complete denaturation, as established by fluorescence and size-exclusion chromatography. In contrast to the wild-type enzyme, an engineered mutant of TS (T155C/E188C/C244T), TSMox, in which two subunits are crosslinked by disulfide bridges between residues 155-188' and 188-155', does not show this behavior. Aggregation behavior is restored upon disulfide bond reduction in the mutant protein, indicating the involvement of interface segments in forming soluble associated species. Intermolecular disulfide crosslinking has been used as a probe to investigate the formation of larger non-native aggregates. The studies argue for the formation of large multimeric species via a sticky patch of polypeptide from the dimer interface region that becomes exposed on partial unfolding. Covalent reinforcement of relatively fragile protein-protein interfaces may be a useful strategy in minimizing aggregation of non-native structures in multimeric proteins.

Stability of scheduled multi-access communication over quasi-static flat fading channels with random coding and independent decoding

The stability of scheduled multiaccess communication with random coding and independent decoding of messages is investigated. The number of messages that may be scheduled for simultaneous transmission is limited to a given maximum value, and the channels from transmitters to receiver are quasistatic, flat, and have independent fades. Requests for message transmissions are assumed to arrive according to an i.i.d. arrival process. Then, we show the following: (1) in the limit of large message alphabet size, the stability region has an interference limited information-theoretic capacity interpretation, (2) state-independent scheduling policies achieve this asymptotic stability region, and (3) in the asymptotic limit corresponding to immediate access, the stability region for non-idling scheduling policies is shown to be identical irrespective of received signal powers.

Study of gas cavity size hysteresis in a packed bed using DEM

When a high velocity gas jet is introduced into a packed bed a cavity is formed. The size of the cavity shows hysteresis on increasing and decreasing gas flow rates. This hysteresis leads to different cavity sizes at same gas flow rate depending on the bed history. The size of cavity affects the gas flow profiles in the packed bed. In this study the cavity size hysteresis phenomenon has been modeled using discrete element method along with turbulent gas flow. A reasonable agreement has been found between computed and experimental results on cavity size ysteresis. The effect of various parameters, such as nozzle height from the bed bottom and packing height, on the cavity size hysteresis has been studied. It is found that inter-particle interaction forces along with gas drag and bed porosity play an important role in describing the cavity size hysteresis. The injection of gas flow allows the particles to go to an unconstrained state than they were previously in, and their ability to remain in that state, even under decreased gas drag force, leads to the phenomenon of cavity size hysteresis. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Topography of the combining region of a Thomsen-Friedenreich-antigen-specific lectin jacalin (Artocarpus integrifolia agglutinin). A thermodynamic and circular-dichroism spectroscopic study

Thermodynamic analysis of carbohydrate binding by Artocarpus integrifolia (jackfruit) agglutinin (jacalin) shows that, among monosaccharides, Me alpha GalNAc (methyl-alpha-N-acetylgalactosamine) is the strongest binding ligand. Despite its strong affinity for Me alpha GalNAc and Me alpha Gal, the lectin binds very poorly when Gal and GalNAc are in alpha-linkage with other sugars such as in A- and B-blood-group trisaccharides, Gal alpha 1-3Gal and Gal alpha 1-4Gal. These binding properties are explained by considering the thermodynamic parameters in conjunction with the minimum energy conformations of these sugars. It binds to Gal beta 1-3GalNAc alpha Me with 2800-fold stronger affinity over Gal beta 1-3GalNAc beta Me. It does not bind to asialo-GM1 (monosialoganglioside) oligosaccharide. Moreover, it binds to Gal beta 1-3GalNAc alpha Ser, the authentic T (Thomsen-Friedenreich)-antigen, with about 2.5-fold greater affinity as compared with Gal beta 1-3GalNAc. Asialoglycophorin A was found to be about 169,333 times stronger an inhibitor than Gal beta 1-3GalNAc. The present study thus reveals the exquisite specificity of A. integrifolia lectin for the T-antigen. Appreciable binding of disaccharides Glc beta 1-3GalNAc and GlcNAc beta 1-3Gal and the very poor binding of beta-linked disaccharides, which instead of Gal and GalNAc contain other sugars at the reducing end, underscore the important contribution made by Gal and GalNAc at the reducing end for recognition by the lectin. The ligand-structure-dependent alterations of the c.d. spectrum in the tertiary structural region of the protein allows the placement of various sugar units in the combining region of the lectin. These studies suggest that the primary subsite (subsite A) can accommodate only Gal or GalNAc or alpha-linked Gal or GalNAc, whereas the secondary subsite (subsite B) can associate either with GalNAc beta Me or Gal beta Me. Considering these factors a likely arrangement for various disaccharides in the binding site of the lectin is proposed. Its exquisite specificity for the authentic T-antigen, Gal beta 1-3GalNAc alpha Ser, together with its virtual non-binding to A- and B-blood-group antigens, Gal beta 1-3GalNAc beta Me and asialo-GM1 should make A. integrifolia lectin a valuable probe for monitoring the expression of T-antigen on cell surfaces.

Measurement of $d\sigma/dy$ of Drell-Yan $e^+e^-$ pairs in the $Z$ Mass Region from $p\bar{p}$ Collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV

We report on a CDF measurement of the total cross section and rapidity distribution, $d\sigma/dy$, for $q\bar{q}\to \gamma^{*}/Z\to e^{+}e^{-}$ events in the $Z$ boson mass region ($66M_{ee}

Reactive characteristics of narrow germanium p-n junctions in the breakdown region

An inductive behaviour observed in germanium p-n junctions in the breakdown region is reported.

Unusual dielectric response in B-site size-disordered hexagonal transition metal oxides

We discover that hexagonal holmium copper titanate (Ho2CuTiO6), has a unique and highly desirable combination of high dielectric constant, low losses, very small temperature coefficient, and low frequency dependence. Our first-principles calculations indicate that these exceptional properties result from a size-difference at the Cu/Ti B-site that suppresses the expected ferroelectric transition, combined with the dominance of intermediate-frequency polar vibrational modes in the dielectric response. Our results suggest that the use of such B-site disorder in alloys of hexagonal transition-metal oxides should generally result in similar robust dielectrics.

Reverse bias capacitance measurements on copper-doped germanium p-n junctions in the breakdown region

Results of measurements at a high frequency on reverse bias capacitance of copper-doped germanium junctions are reported. Phenomenal increase in capacitance is found in the breakdown region, particularly at low temperatures.

Mechanism of crystal structure transformations. Part 3. - Factors affecting the anatase-rutile transformation

The particle size and crystallite size of anatase increase markedly in the region of the crystal structure transformation. The unit cell of anatase seems to expand prior to the transformation to rutile. This expansion has been attributed to a displacive transformation of the type defined by Buerger. Smaller particle size and larger surface area seem to favour the transformation. The kinetics of the transformation of anatase prepared by the hydrolysis of titanium sulphate have been studied at different temperatures and are found to be considerably different from the kinetics of the transformation of pure anatase. The transformation becomes immeasurably slow below ∼695 ± 10°C compared to ∼610°C for pure anatase. An induction period is observed in the transformation of anatase obtained from sulphate hydrolysis and the duration decreases with increase in temperature. The activation energy is ∼120 kcal/mole, a value higher than that for the pure anatase-rutile transformation. The results have been interpreted in terms of the relative rates of nucleation and propagation processes. The activation energy for the nucleation process seems to be much larger than for the propagation process. The kinetics of the transformation of anatase samples doped with different amounts of sulphate ion impurity have also been studied and the transformation is found to be progressively decelerated with increase in the impurity concentration. The energy of activation for the transformation appears to increase progressively with increase in impurity concentration.

Influence of Oxide Particle Network Morphology on Ion Solvation and Transport in ``Soggy Sand''Electrolytes

The role of oxide surface chemical composition and solvent on ion solvation and ion transport of ``soggy sand'' electrolytes are discussed here. A ``soggy sand'' electrolyte system comprising dispersions of hydrophilic/hydrophobic functionalized aerosil silica in lithium perchlorate methoxy polyethylene glycol solution was employed for the study. Static and dynamic rheology measurements show formation of an attractive particle network in the case of the composite with unmodified aerosil silica (i.e., with surface silanol groups) as well as composites with hydrophobic alkane groups. While particle network in the composite with hydrophilic aerosil silica (unmodified) were due to hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic aerosil silica particles were held together via van der Waals forces. The network strength in the latter case (i.e., for hydrophobic composites) were weaker compared with the composite with unmodified aerosil silica. Both unmodified silica as well as hydrophobic silica composites displayed solid-like mechanical strength. No enhancement in ionic conductivity compared to the liquid electrolyte was observed in the case of the unmodified silica. This was attributed to the existence of a very strong particle network, which led to the ``expulsion'' of all conducting entities from the interfacial region between adjacent particles. The ionic conductivity for composites with hydrophobic aerosil particles displayed ionic conductivity dependent on the size of the hydrophobic chemical moiety. No spanning attractive particle network was observed for aerosil particles with surfaces modified with stronger hydrophilic groups (than silanol). The composite resembled a sol, and no percolation in ionic conductivity was observed.

Compressible axially symmetric laminar boundary layer flow in the stagnation region of a blunt body in the presence of magnetic field

In this paper, the steady laminar viscous hypersonic flow of an electrically conducting fluid in the region of the stagnation point of an insulating blunt body in the presence of a radial magnetic field is studied by similarity solution approach, taking into account the variation of the product of density and viscosity across the boundary layer. The two coupled non-linear ordinary differential equations are solved simultaneously using Runge-Kutta-Gill method. It has been found that the effect of the variation of the product of density and viscosity on skin friction coefficient and Nusselt number is appreciable. The skin friction coefficient increases but Nusselt number decreases as the magnetic field or the total enthalpy at the wall increases

Micellar size and shape in solutions of calcium stearate in cetane from optical depolarization data

Observations at a series of temperatures of the changes in viscosities and depolarization factors of 1% and 18% solutions of calcium stearate in cetane to which varying amounts of water have been added can be interpreted in terms of the existence of anisometric micelles. In general, changes in the size of the micelles inferred from values of ρh agree with those deduced from the viscosity data. The correlation between anisometry of micelles from rheological and optical observations is much poorer in the case of ρν, presumably because of the difficulty in differentiating the contribution of anisometry and anisotropy to ρν.

Effect of disorder on the exponent in the coherence region in high temperature superconductors

Effect of disorder on the electrical resistance near the superconducting transition temperature in the paracoherence region of high temperature YBa2CU3O7-delta (YBCO) thin film superconductor is reported. For this, c-axis oriented YBa2Cu3O7-delta thin films having superconducting transition width varying between 0.27 K and 6 K were deposited using laser ablation and high pressure oxygen sputtering techniques. Disorder in these films was further created by using 100 MeV oxygen and 200 MeV silver ions with varying fluences. It is observed that the critical exponent in the paracoherence region for films with high transition temperature and small transition width is in agreement with the theoretically predicted value (gamma = 1.33) and is not affected by disorder, while for films with lower transition temperature and larger transition width the value of exponent is much larger as compared to that theoretically predicted and it varies from sample to sample and usually changes with disorder induced by radiation. This difference in the behaviour of the exponent has been explained on the basis of differences in the strength of weak links and the transition between temperatures T. and T, is interpreted as a percolation like transition with disorder. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.