Model based study of a calcium oxide looping process for post-combustion carbon dioxide capture

Calcium oxide looping is a carbon dioxide sequestration technique that utilizes the partially reversible reaction between limestone and carbon dioxide in two interconnected fluidised beds, carbonator and calciner. Flue gases from a combustor are fed into the carbonator where calcium oxide reacts with carbon dioxide within the gases at a temperature of 650 ºC. Calcium oxide is transformed into calcium carbonate which is circulated into the regenerative calciner, where calcium carbonate is returned into calcium oxide and a stream of pure carbon dioxide at a higher temperature of 950 ºC. Calcium oxide looping has proved to have a low impact on the overall process efficiency and would be easily retrofitted into existing power plants. This master’s thesis is done in participation to an EU funded project CaOling as a part of the Lappeenranta University of Technology deliverable, reactor modelling and scale-up tools. Thesis concentrates in creating the first model frame and finding the physically relevant phenomena governing the process.

Choice of Business Process Modeling Methodology - Case Northern Dimension Research Centre (NORDI) in Lappeenranta University of Technology

The main outcome of the master thesis is innovative solution, which can support a choice of business process modeling methodology. Potential users of this tool are people with background in business process modeling and possibilities to collect required information about organization’s business processes. Master thesis states the importance of business process modeling in implementation of strategic goals of organization. It is made by revealing the place of the concept in Business Process Management (BPM) and its particular case Business Process Reengineering (BPR). In order to support the theoretical outcomes of the thesis a case study of Northern Dimension Research Centre (NORDI) in Lappeenranta University of Technology was conducted. On its example several solutions are shown: how to apply business process modeling methodologies in practice; in which way business process models can be useful for BPM and BPR initiatives; how to apply proposed innovative solution for a choice of business process modeling methodology.

Photo-Fenton process for treating biological laboratory wastewater containing formaldehyde

Laboratories consume great amounts of hazardous chemicals substances and consequently generate wastewater containing them, for example formaldehyde. This substance is widely utilized to preserve biological samples generating many liters of this residue every year. The present work proposes the use of the photo-Fenton process to treat formaldehyde wastewater using sunlight irradiation. Some aspects were investigated such as the iron source, sample and hydrogen peroxide concentration and also the use of stirred systems. The use of ferrioxalate (0.5 mmol L-1) improved the efficiency of the process in relation to the use of iron nitrate, while at least 1.0 mol L-1 H2O2 is necessary to treat the sample of the 500 mg C L-1. Under these conditions, every formaldehyde detectable was degradeted and 89% of the dissolved organic carbon was removed in two hours of exposure to sunlight. These results are satisfaction considerate for São Paulo State Environmental Agency.

Romanssien ja runouden aikakausi. Thomas Warton keskiaikaa määrittelemässä 1750–1790

Tutkimukseni käsittelee keskiajan nousua historian tärkeäksi periodiksi 1700-luvun Englannissa näkökulmanaan Thomas Wartonin (1726–1790) kirjoitukset. Warton oli Oxfordin yliopistossa toiminut oppinut antikvaari. Wartonin pääteos History of English Poetry (1774–1781) ei nimestään huolimatta ollut moderni kirjallisuushistoria vaan 1000–1500-luvun kirjoitettua kulttuuria laajasti käsitellyt vernakulaariin kirjallisuuteen pohjautunut esitys. Warton ja hänen lähipiiriinsä kuuluneet tutkijat tarjoavat erityisen mahdollisuuden tarkastella, miten käsitys keskiajasta omana aikakautenaanmuodostui 1700-luvun lopulla. Tutkin Wartonin ja hänen aikalaistensa toisen vuosituhannen alusta kirjoittamia arvioita Michel de Certeaun historiografisen operaation käsitteen avulla. Se koostuu kolmesta vaiheesta: Alue määrittelee sosiaaliset riippuvuussuhteet ja vaikuttimet, jotka ohjaavat tutkimusta. Käytäntö viittaa siihen, miten historioitsija valitsee materiaalinsa ja muokkaa siitä historiankirjoituksena hahmottuvan kokonaisuuden. Lopuksi kirjoitus konkreettisena ja fyysisenä ilmiönä luo illuusion lopullisuudesta ja huonosti sopivien osien yhteenkuuluvuudesta. de Certeaun teoria soveltuu paremmin vanhemman historiankirjoituksen ja oppineisuuden tarkasteluun kuin historiantutkimuksen narratiiveja analysoivat teokset, koska se kontekstualisoi laajemmin historiankirjoitukseen vaikuttavat ilmiöt. Thomas Warton ja muut 1700-luvun puolivälin oppineet määrittelivät keskiajan fiktiivisten tekstien avulla. Warton tutustui tarkasti romansseihin ja kronikoihin. Erityisen suuri merkitys keskiajan hahmottamisen kannalta oli Geoffrey Monmouthilaisen kronikalla Historia regum britanniae, joka esitteli Englannin myyttisen varhaisen historian yhdistämällä Rooman ja oman kansallisen perinteen. Geoffreyn kronikan avulla Warton huomasi keskiaikaisten tarinoiden laajan vaikutuksen; hän kirjoitti erityisesti kuningas Arthuriin liittyneiden kertomusten merkityksestä, joka jatkui aina 1500-luvulle asti. Näin Warton löysi antiikin perinteelle haastajan keskiaikaisesta kulttuurista. Wartonin tapa esitellä keskiaikaa perustui osittain valistusajan sulavasti kirjoitetuille universaalihistorioille, osittain oppineelle luettelomaiselle esitystavalle. Käytännössä Wartonin pitkät johdantotutkielmat kuitenkin johdattavat lukijaa keskeisiin teemoihin. Niitä ovat mielikuvituksen väheneminen uusimmassa kirjallisuudessa ja toisaalta hienostuneisuuden ja tiedon kasvu. Warton ei missään vaiheessa kerro, liittyvätkö nämä teemat yhteen, mutta tulkintani mukaan ne liittyivät. Warton ajatteli kirjallisuuden menettäneen olennaisen mielikuvituksen samaan aikaan, kun yhteiskunta oli kehittynyt. Tämä auttaa hahmottamaan koko kirjallisuuden historiaa: Warton etsi alkuperäistä mielikuvitusta niin antiikin Kreikasta, Orientista kuin muinaisesta Skandinaviasta. History of English Poetry ei pohtinut vain kirjallisuuden ja yhteiskunnan suhdetta, sillä Warton ajatteli voivansa tutkia keskiajan yhteiskuntaa kronikoiden ja romanssien avulla. Hänen käsityksensä feodalismista, hovien elämästä ja keskiaikaisista tavoista perustuivat niihin. Warton ei huomannut, että hänen käyttämänsä lähteet olivat tietoisia kirjallisia konstruktioita vaan hän piti niitä totuudenmukaisina kuvauksina. Toisaalta Wartonin tulkintaan heijastuivat myös 1700-luvun käsitykset yhteiskunnasta. Keskiajan lähteiden kuvaukset ja 1700-luvun ideaalit vaikuttivat lopulta siihen, millaiseksi populaari kuva keskiajasta kehittyi.

Considering Target Groups in the Creation of a Comprehensive City Branding Process

The aim of the research was to create a comprehensive city branding process. This was done by identifying the key target groups of the city and considering them in the city branding process. Also key stakeholders were identified and taken into consideration when creating the branding process. As an empirical study, three first stages of the city branding process were implemented for the city of Lappeenranta having "students" as the case target group. An interview with the city officials was conducted, as well as a student survey on the current city image of Lappeenranta. Quantitative research methods were used to analyze the results of the survey. A comprehensive city branding process with eight stages was created in the research. Target groups were considered in the process by identifying the target group dependent stages. The empirical study revealed that the current city image held by the students consists of six dimensions. These dimensions were analyzed from the viewpoint of Lappeenranta with the help of an importance performance analysis.

Customer consciousness in the production process of a steel factory

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the level of customer consciousness of the production process employees in a steel factory and to investigate the methods of internal marketing in order to propose development practices to enhance the customer consciousness of the case company employees. The significance of the level of customer consciousness is discussed and practices already implemented affecting the level of customer consciousness in the company are examined. The literature review gives an insight to the role of customer consciousness in the CRM philosophy of a manufacturing company and examines the means of internal marketing in enhancing customer consciousness. In the empirical part of the study, the level and significance of customer consciousness is determined by conducting individual and focus group interviews. The interviews are also used to examine the practices that could function in enhancing the customer consciousness of the employees. Development suggestions to improve the level of customer consciousness in the production process are given based on the results. The level of customer consciousness is at a poor level in the production process and influences above all on work motivation and job satisfaction, but possibly on customer satisfaction as well. The enhancement of customer consciousness in the production process should be done e.g. by ensuring the distribution of right knowledge coherently to all of the employees, gathering large customer reference database to exploit in work and in training, using visual illustration in presenting the customer information, training proactively and letting the employees to participate in the customer oriented development activities. Customer satisfaction focused reward system can be considered.

Investigation of Oxygen Cutting Process in Solid-State Welding

The oxygen cutting is a thermal cutting process, in which metal is heated locally up to its ignition temperature and burnt off by oxygen blast. Oxygen cutting can be used to remove upset metal of a hollow bar occurred due to solid-state welding process. The main goal of this research was to establish a connection between oxygen blasts and mass of metal removed and relate findings to production to suggest improvements to the current process. This master´s thesis describes the designing and building of a test rig for oxygen blowing measurements. It also contains all executed tests and test results, which were carried out. There are different cutting parameters which were studied as well as their effect on cutting process. The oxygen cutting process, used in solid-state welding process, can be improved by the test results.

Customized agile development process for embedded software development

Agile software development has grown in popularity starting from the agile manifesto declared in 2001. However there is a strong belief that the agile methods are not suitable for embedded, critical or real-time software development, even though multiple studies and cases show differently. This thesis will present a custom agile process that can be used in embedded software development. The reasons for presumed unfitness of agile methods in embedded software development have mainly based on the feeling of these methods providing no real control, no strict discipline and less rigor engineering practices. One starting point is to provide a light process with disciplined approach to the embedded software development. Agile software development has gained popularity due to the fact that there are still big issues in software development as a whole. Projects fail due to schedule slips, budget surpassing or failing to meet the business needs. This does not change when talking about embedded software development. These issues are still valid, with multiple new ones rising from the quite complex and hard domain the embedded software developers work in. These issues are another starting point for this thesis. The thesis is based heavily on Feature Driven Development, a software development methodology that can be seen as a runner up to the most popular agile methodologies. The FDD as such is quite process oriented and is lacking few practices considered commonly as extremely important in agile development methodologies. In order for FDD to gain acceptance in the software development community it needs to be modified and enhanced. This thesis presents an improved custom agile process that can be used in embedded software development projects with size varying from 10 to 500 persons. This process is based on Feature Driven Development and by suitable parts to Extreme Programming, Scrum and Agile Modeling. Finally this thesis will present how the new process responds to the common issues in the embedded software development. The process of creating the new process is evaluated at the retrospective and guidelines for such process creation work are introduced. These emphasize the agility also in the process development through early and frequent deliveries and the team work needed to create suitable process.

Development of chemical looping combustion process

Chemical looping combustion (CLC) provides a promising technology to help cut carbon dioxide emissions. CLC is based on separated oxidation and reduction processes. Oxygen carrier, which is made from metal and supporting material, is in continuous recirculation between the air and fuel reactors. The CLC process does not require separation unit for carbon dioxide. The fuel reactor can produce an almost pure carbon dioxide feed which decrease costs of carbon capture and storage (CCS). The CLC method is one of the most promising ones for energy efficient carbon capture. A large amount of literature was examined for this study and from it the most promising methods and designs were chosen. These methods and designs were combined as reactor system design which was then sized during the making of this thesis. Sizing was done with a mathematical model that was further improved during the study.

Intercultural bridges in teenagers' theatrical events : performing self and constructing cultural identity through a creative drama process

The overriding aim of this drama educational case study is to deepen the understanding of meaning making in a creative intercultural youth theatre process and to examine it in the context of the 10th European Children's TheatreEncounter. The research task is to give a theoretical description of some key features of a creative drama process as the basis for theory about meaning makingin physical theatre. The first task is to illuminate the culture-historical connections of the multilayered practice of the EDERED-association. The second taskis to analyse and interpret theatrical meaning making. The ethnographical research site is regarded as a theatrical event. The analysis of the theatrical eventis divided into four segments: cultural contexts, contextual theatricality, theatrical playing and playing culture. These segments are connected with four research questions: What are the cultural contexts of a creative drama process? How can the organisation of the Encounter, genres, aesthetic codes and perception ofcodes be seen to influence the lived experiences of the participants? What are some of the key phases and characteristics in a creative practice? What kind of cultural learning can be interpreted from the performance texts? The interpretative question concerns identity and community (re)construction. How are the categories, `community´ and `child´ constructed in the Encounter culture? In this drama educational case study the research material (transcribed interviews, coded questionnaire answers, participant drawings, videotaped process text and performance texts) are examined in a multi-method analysis in the meta-theoretical framework of Dewey's naturalistic pragmatism. A three-dimensional research interest through a combination of lived experiences, social contexts and cultural-aesthetical practices compared with drama-educational practices required the methodological project of cultural studies. Furthermore, the critical interpretation of cultural texts is divided into three levels of analyses which are called description, structural analysis and theoretical interpretation. Dialogic validity (truthfulness, self-reflexivity and polyvocality) is combined with contextual validity (sensitivity to social context and awareness of historicity) and with deconstructive validity (awareness of the social discourses). My research suggests that itis possible, by means of physical theatre, to construct symbolic worlds where questions about intercultural identity and multilingual community are examined and where provisional answers are constructed in social interaction.

A long way to the rainbow country : understanding the foreign market expansion process of Finnish corporations into the Republic of South Africa between 1999 and 2005

De afrikanska ekonomierna växer med nära fyra procent per år och detta är en god indikation på kontinentens växande betydelse. Under kalla kriget hade afrikanska regeringar haft ett begränsat utrymme för opportunistisk köpslående, och därmed även en marginal att positionera sig strategiskt. Alltför ofta uppmuntrade och beskyddade stormakterna diktatorer och små lokala eliter som främst ville berika sig själv. I och med att globaliseringen tog fart och USA allt mera kom att dominera globalt, började en ny era i fråga om förändringar. Trots dessa förändringar på den globala arenan, har Afrika som kontinent hamnat i bakgrunden och jämfört med andra utvecklingsländer har Afrika attraherat ett fåtal utländska investeringar. Fortfarande, speciellt i Norden, finns det lite kunskap om hur utländska företag expanderar sin affärsverksamhet på den afrikanska kontinenten. Det råder brist på empiriska undersökningar om vilken inverkan afrikanska institutionella förändringar och lokala affärsmiljöer har på internationaliseringen och på de utländska företagens affärsutvecklingsstrategier på den afrikanska kontinenten. Med denna avhandling vill jag lyfta fram ett exempel på ett land (Sydafrika), som har lyckat dra nytta av de förändringar som 1990-talet förde med sig. I denna avhandling har jag intervjuat olika personer i ledande positioner inom olika finländska företag i Finland och i Sydafrika. Avhandlingen skapar en referensram för att öka förståelse och fördjupa analys av hur en kombination av olika interna och externa resurser ökar företagens konkurrenskraft och på det sättet bidrar till en framgångsrik affärsutveckling i Afrika. De politiska och sociala aktörerna samt aktörerna inom affärslivet besitter resurser som ambitiösa företag kan dra nytta av i sin strävan att erövra de nya framgångsrika marknaderna i Afrika. Gradvis ökar finländska företag sina insatser på den afrikanska kontinenten i strävan att skapa mervärde för sina kunder. Den värdeskapande processen gör att parterna måste närma sig varandra utgående från sina egna strategiska målsättningar. Hittills har finländska företag varit intresserad att sälja till Afrika men inte intresserad att köpa därifrån. Förutom de praktiska råden till olika företag, föreslår avhandlingen hur den finska staten och den sydafrikanska staten kunde agera tillsammans för att främja ömsesidigt handelsutbyte.

Implementing a change management process into enterprise performance management applications

Information technology service management has become an important task in delivering information for management purposes. Especially applications containing information for decision making need to be agile and ready for changes. The aim of this study was to find a solution for successful implementation of an ITIL based change management process to enterprise resource management applications managed by the target organization. Literature review of the study introduces frameworks that are important for success of an IT project implementation. In addition an overview of ITIL and ITIL based change management process is presented. The result of the study was a framework of actions that are needed to accomplish to be successful in change management process implementation. It was noticed that defining success criterions, critical success factors and success measures is important for achieving the goals of the implementation project.

Perspectives interculturelles et interlinguistiques sur le discours académique – Crosscultural and Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Academic Discourse. Volume 1

The Department of French Studies of the University of Turku (Finland) organized an International Bilingual Conference on Crosscultural and Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Academic Discourse from 2022 May 2005. The event hosted specialists on Academic Discourse from Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, and the USA. This book is the first volume in our series of publications on Academic Discourse (AD hereafter). The following pages are composed of selected papers from the conference and focus on different aspects and analytical frameworks of Academic Discourse. One of the motivations behind organizing the conference was to examine and expand research on AD in different languages. Another one was to question to what extent academic genres are culturebound and language specific or primarily field or domain specific. The research carried out on AD has been mainly concerned with the use of English in different academic settings for a long time now – mainly written contexts – and at the expense of other languages. Alternatively the academic genre conventions of English and English speaking world have served as a basis for comparison with other languages and cultures. We consider this first volume to be a strong contribution to the spreading out of researches based on other languages than English in AD, namely Finnish, French, Italian, Norwegian and Romanian in this book. All the following articles have a strong link with the French language: either French is constitutive of the AD corpora under examination or the article was written in French. The structure of the book suggests and provides evidence that the concept of AD is understood and tackled to varying degrees by different scholars. Our first volume opens up the discussion on what AD is and backs dissemination, overlapping and expansion of current research questions and methodologies. The book is divided into three parts and contains four articles in English and six articles in French. The papers in part one and part two cover what we call the prototypical genre of written AD, i.e. the research article. Part one follows up on issues linked to the 13 Research Article (RA hereafter). Kjersti Fløttum asks wether a typical RA exists and concentrates on authors’ voices in RA (self and other dimensions), whereas Didriksen and Gjesdal’s article focuses on individual variation of the author’s voice in RA. The last article in this section is by Nadine Rentel and deals with evaluation in the writing of RA. Part two concentrates on the teaching and learning of AD within foreign language learning, another more or less canonical genre of AD. Two aspects of writing are covered in the first two articles: foreign students’ representations on rhetorical traditions (Hidden) and a contrastive assessment of written exercices in French and Finnish in Higher Education (Suzanne). The last contribution in this section on AD moves away from traditional written forms and looks at how argumentation is constructed in students’ oral presentations (Dervin and Fauveau). The last part of the book continues the extension by featuring four articles written in French exploring institutional and scientific discourses. Institutional discourses under scrutiny include the European Bologna Process (Galatanu) and Romanian reform texts (Moilanen). As for scientific discourses, the next paper in this section deconstructs an ideological discourse on the didactics of French as a foreign language (Pescheux). Finally, the last paper in part three reflects on varied forms of AD at university (Defays). We hope that this book will add some fuel to continue discussing diverse forms of and approches to AD – in different languages and voices! No need to say that with the current upsurge in academic mobility, reflecting on crosscultural and crosslinguistic AD has just but started.

The notion of process in nonstandard theory and in Whiteheadian metaphysics

In this article I intend to show that certain aspects of A.N. Whitehead's philosophy of organism and especially his epochal theory of time, as mainly exposed in his well-known work Process and Reality, can serve in clarify the underlying assumptions that shape nonstandard mathematical theories as such and also as metatheories of quantum mechanics. Concerning the latter issue, I point to an already significant research on nonstandard versions of quantum mechanics; two of these approaches are chosen to be critically presented in relation to the scope of this work. The main point of the paper is that, insofar as we can refer a nonstandard mathematical entity to a kind of axiomatical formalization essentially 'codifying' an underlying mental process indescribable as such by analytic means, we can possibly apply certain principles of Whitehead's metaphysical scheme focused on the key notion of process which is generally conceived as the becoming of actual entities. This is done in the sense of a unifying approach to provide an interpretation of nonstandard mathematical theories as such and also, in their metatheoretical status, as a formalization of the empirical-experimental context of quantum mechanics.

The Process of Greening Cycle as Method of Operative Environmental

The structural change of society from product-based business to service- and further to need-based business has caused the fact that work for environmental issues has spread from conventional factories and environmentally harmful production to concern services and offices as well. Almost every company has an office, so a relatively small environmental burden caused by an individual office grows remarkable already at the state level and globally even more. Motivation to work for environmental issues in an individual office could be challenging even without the fact that wasted environmental impacts bound also wasted costs. Besides cost savings, a concretely greener image of a company has its value in the B2Cas well as in the B2B-field. Consumers and clients are more and more conscious of environmental issues and demand concrete actions instead of speeches, good thoughts and meaningless certifications. Internal work for environmental issues at a strategy level is not sufficient, so operational environmental management is needed for changing old practices. This research is about the effects of operative environmental management on the greening process of an office-based business. The research is outlined to concern the operative work in the office including field sales. Target was to concretely lower the environmental impacts of Lyreco Finland and to find cost savings directly by changing the operative practices in the office and also indirectly by affecting the level of environmental knowledge of the personnel. During the greening process, the aim was also to create concrete arguments for marketing as well. The circle of greening process, which was especially created for this diploma work, was used as a method. The circle divides a year to themes and sections separated by factors of environmental impacts. Separation is based on Brett Wills’ thoughts of seven green wastes (Wills, Brett. The Green Intensions. 2009) and follows it uneasily. The circle aimed at ensuring evolutionary growth of knowledge instead of being revolutionary in the changing process. Committing personnel to the process from its start by asking ideas from them and giving them clear directions was an important part of the research of operative management. Because of working from distance, communication with personnel was operated by frequent training days and weekly greening notes via emails and intranet. Also availability for communication was an important task because of the telecommuting. Research results of this work show that operative environmental management in an officebased business today is mostly management of change. When the strategic environmental friendliness is taken into a concrete level, the most important individual factor is motivating the operating personnel. Research shows that evolutionary change is found being an efficient way to make a change. Also understanding one´s own impact on the environmental burden and on the whole greening process clearly motivates the personnel. Results show that in the operative realization of the greening process, clear directions of new working practices, being as concrete as possible, and committing personnel to follow them make the process more effective. The operative environmental management and the cycle of the greening process decrease the environmental burden and save costs. The concrete results could be used as believable arguments in marketing and therefore exploited in communication with interest groups. Commitment of the management is also one of the key factors of success in the greening process. In this research, changes in the business field by a company trade took the focus of the management away from the greening process and made the process more inefficient by decreasing the amount of training days. The circle of greening process will be used as a tool in the future, as well, and therefore it will help observe environmental impacts of a company and increase sustainable development. Commitment of management to the evolutionary environmental work helps the operating personnel lower environmental impacts, decrease costs and build a concretely greener image.