Towards a cyber physical system for personalised and automatic OSA treatment

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a breathing disorder that takes place in the course of the sleep and is produced by a complete or a partial obstruction of the upper airway that manifests itself as frequent breathing stops and starts during the sleep. The real-time evaluation of whether or not a patient is undergoing OSA episode is a very important task in medicine in many scenarios, as for example for making instantaneous pressure adjustments that should take place when Automatic Positive Airway Pressure (APAP) devices are used during the treatment of OSA. In this paper the design of a possible Cyber Physical System (CPS) suited to real-time monitoring of OSA is described, and its software architecture and possible hardware sensing components are detailed. It should be emphasized here that this paper does not deal with a full CPS, rather with a software part of it under a set of assumptions on the environment. The paper also reports some preliminary experiments about the cognitive and learning capabilities of the designed CPS involving its use on a publicly available sleep apnea database

A comparison of processing techniques for producing prototype injection moulding inserts.

This project involves the investigation of processing techniques for producing low-cost moulding inserts used in the particulate injection moulding (PIM) process. Prototype moulds were made from both additive and subtractive processes as well as a combination of the two. The general motivation for this was to reduce the entry cost of users when considering PIM. PIM cavity inserts were first made by conventional machining from a polymer block using the pocket NC desktop mill. PIM cavity inserts were also made by fused filament deposition modelling using the Tiertime UP plus 3D printer. The injection moulding trials manifested in surface finish and part removal defects. The feedstock was a titanium metal blend which is brittle in comparison to commodity polymers. That in combination with the mesoscale features, small cross-sections and complex geometries were considered the main problems. For both processing methods, fixes were identified and made to test the theory. These consisted of a blended approach that saw a combination of both the additive and subtractive processes being used. The parts produced from the three processing methods are investigated and their respective merits and issues are discussed

Glimpses of the future : Data policy, artificial intelligence and robotisation as enablers of wellbeing and economic success in Finland

Our society is moving into the 2020s in a situation where we are making more efficient use of services enabled by new technology to develop new services and business models in society and in business life. The 2020s is predicted to be a decade characterised by the clear breakthrough of artificial intelligence and robotisation in the same way as social media, cloud computing, smart phones, location and time independent working and digital services did in the 2010s. Finland has performed extremely well in international statistics in several fields of society. Finland's stability and security combined with high technology utilisation rate and education level provides an excellent platform for the creation and development of digital business. At the core of this development are citizens, businesses and data. The development of data policy and data management in a way that takes the different life situations of citizens into account is a unique innovation by global standards, and one which we believe will be a significant contributor to Finland’s success in the 2020s. In this big picture, trust plays a key role. This is a major issue that emerges in the context of the personal data processing of private citizens and customers, new business model and service development, making society more resilient, and in national and international cooperation. Trust requires continues development work in different sectors, paying due attention to the threats and risks affecting the digital environment. Here, digital security serves as the enabler of trust and of services made possible by new technology

Reducing risk in pre-production investigations through undergraduate engineering projects.

This poster is the culmination of final year Bachelor of Engineering Technology (B.Eng.Tech) student projects in 2017 and 2018. The B.Eng.Tech is a level seven qualification that aligns with the Sydney accord for a three-year engineering degree and hence is internationally benchmarked. The enabling mechanism of these projects is the industry connectivity that creates real-world projects and highlights the benefits of the investigation of process at the technologist level. The methodologies we use are basic and transparent, with enough depth of technical knowledge to ensure the industry partners gain from the collaboration process. The process we use minimizes the disconnect between the student and the industry supervisor while maintaining the academic freedom of the student and the commercial sensitivities of the supervisor. The general motivation for this approach is the reduction of the entry cost of the industry to enable consideration of new technologies and thereby reducing risk to core business and shareholder profits. The poster presents several images and interpretive dialogue to explain the positive and negative aspects of the student process

Designing for women experiencing intimate partner violence

This thesis explores design issues that should be taken into account when developing mobile services for women experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV). The aim of the thesis was to apply user-centred design methods and gain understanding of the situation and the needs of potential users of a mobile application aimed at women under a threat of abuse. The thesis explores the opportunities mobile technology could offer to women recovering from IPV. The threats posed by the violent environment and the attempt to develop ways to reduce the risks were emphasised in the research and design project. The theoretical part of the thesis deals with the definition of intimate partner violence, the consequences of violence from a survivor point of view and the means of surviving violence. In addition, this section examines the risks and opportunities that information technology enables in abusive situations. The theoretical part is followed by a description of a design project aimed at developing a concept for a mobile application for women experiencing violence. The research on which the design work was based was carried out using user-centered design methods such as interviews, surveys and mapping the current operating environment and available services for survivors. The concept of the mobile application related to the thesis was evaluated using prototyping and usability tests. The thesis introduces the application concept that emerged from the design work and suggests principles to be used to support design in situations where users live under a threat of violence. The following principles emerged from the study: 1) safety and privacy, 2) validation and support for empowerment and 3) encouragement to reach out. The findings indicate that mobile applications developed with user-centred design approach can provide beneficial tools for coping with IPV. The potential features were for example anonymous contact to support organisation, diary, and information on violence and safety arrangements. The study implies that it is possible to reduce the threat of violence related to the use situations. The study implies that the risk of violence when using the application can be reduced by for example protecting the content with a password, hiding the actual content of the application and sharing information about security and privacy. It is also important to recommend that the users evaluate their own security situation and act on their own assessment.Tämä opinnäytetyö tutkii suunnittelutyöhön liittyviä kysymyksiä, jotka tulisi ottaa huomioon kehitettäessä mobiilipalveluita parisuhdeväkivaltaa kokeville naisille. Opinnäytetyön tavoite oli selvittää käyttäjälähtöisen suunnittelun keinoin potentiaalisten käyttäjien tilannetta ja tarpeita sekä kartoittaa mobiiliteknologian mahdollistamien työkalujen hyödyllisyyttä väkivallasta selviytymisen prosessissa. Väkivaltaisen ympäristön aiheuttamien uhkien tarkastelu ja pyrkimys kehittää keinoja riskien pienentämiseen painottuivat tutkimus- ja suunnitteluprojektissa. Opinnäytteen teoreettinen osa käsittelee parisuhdeväkivallan määritelmää, väkivallan seurauksia väkivaltaa kokevan näkökulmasta sekä väkivallasta selviytymisen keinoja. Lisäksi osio käy läpi kirjallisuutta tietoteknologian ja parisuhdeväkivallan riskeistä ja mahdollisuuksista. Teoreettista osuutta seuraa kuvaus suunnitteluprojektista, jonka tavoitteena oli kehittää konsepti mobiilisovellukselle, joka on suunnattu väkivaltaisessa parisuhteessa oleville naisille. Suunnittelutyön pohjana käytetty tutkimus toteutettiin käyttäjälähtöisen suunnittelun metodein. Menetelmät sisälsivät mm. haastatteluja, kyselyjä ja väkivaltatyön nykyisen toimintaympäristön ja palveluiden kartoittamista. Opinnäytetyöhön liittyvän mobiilisovelluksen konseptia arvioitiin prototyypin ja käytettävyystutkimuksen keinoin. Opinnäytetyön lopuksi tutustutaan suunnittelutyön tuloksena syntyneeseen sovelluskonseptiin ja esitellään suunnittelua tukevat periaatteet tilanteisiin, joissa potentiaaliset käyttäjät elävät väkivallan uhan alla. Suunnitteluperiaatteet on ryhmitelty seuraaviin kategorioihin: 1) turvallisuus ja yksityisyys, 2) kokemuksen validointi ja voimaantumisen tukeminen 3) hiljaisuuden rikkominen. Löydösten perusteella vaikuttaa siltä, että käyttäjälähtöisesti suunnitelluilla mobiilisovelluksilla voi tarjota välineitä väkivaltaisesta parisuhteesta selviytymiseen. Tärkeiksi toiminnoiksi koettiin mm. anonyymi yhteydenotto, päiväkirjatoiminto ja tieto väkivallasta ja turvallisuudesta. Tutkimuksen perusteella käyttötilanteisiin liittyvää väkivallan uhkaa on mahdollista vähentää erilaisin keinoin. Riskejä pienentää mm. sisällön suojaaminen salasanalla, sovelluksen varsinaisen sisällön kätkeminen sekä tietoturvainformaation jakaminen. Käyttäjiä on myös tärkeätä ohjata arvioimaan omaa turvallisuustilannettaan ja toimimaan oman arviointinsa perusteella

Expanding the Horizons of Manufacturing: Towards Wide Integration, Smart Systems and Tools

This research topic aims at enterprise-wide modeling and optimization (EWMO) through the development and application of integrated modeling, simulation and optimization methodologies, and computer-aided tools for reliable and sustainable improvement opportunities within the entire manufacturing network (raw materials, production plants, distribution, retailers, and customers) and its components. This integrated approach incorporates information from the local primary control and supervisory modules into the scheduling/planning formulation. That makes it possible to dynamically react to incidents that occur in the network components at the appropriate decision-making level, requiring fewer resources, emitting less waste, and allowing for better responsiveness in changing market requirements and operational variations, reducing cost, waste, energy consumption and environmental impact, and increasing the benefits. More recently, the exploitation of new technology integration, such as through semantic models in formal knowledge models, allows for the capture and utilization of domain knowledge, human knowledge, and expert knowledge toward comprehensive intelligent management. Otherwise, the development of advanced technologies and tools, such as cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things, the Industrial Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Cloud Computing, Blockchain, etc., have captured the attention of manufacturing enterprises toward intelligent manufacturing systems

A comparison of processing techniques for producing prototype injection moulding inserts.

This project involves the investigation of processing techniques for producing low cost moulding inserts used in the particulate injection moulding (PIM) process. Prototype moulds were made from both additive and subtractive processes as well as a combination of the two. The general motivation for this was to reduce the entry cost of users when considering PIM. PIM cavity inserts were first made by conventional machining from a polymer block using the pocket NC desktop mill. PIM cavity inserts were also made by fused filament deposition modelling using the Tiertime UP plus 3D printer. The injection moulding trials manifested in surface finish and part removal defects. The feedstock was a titanium metal blend which is brittle in comparison to commodity polymers. That in combination with the meso-scale features, small cross sections and complex geometries were considered the main problems. For both processing methods fixes were identified and made to test the theory. These consisted of a blended approach that saw a combination of both the additive and subtractive processes being used. The parts produced from the three processing methods are investigated and their respective merits and issues are discussed

Dynamic e-skills development for foreign languages education in the emergency digitization paradigm

The COVID-19 pandemic induced amplified digitalization measures in the higher education sphere, informed by the need to take quick comprehensive action in order to achieve the overarching result to transform educational scenarios into interdisciplinary digital, blended, and hybrid frameworks. Taking into account the context of the erupted military intervention on Ukraine in February 2022, and the ensuing information warfare in various digital environments (social media, news coverage, digital communications), the specific value of the learning outcomes and outputs is allocated to the digitally enhanced foreign languages education as a tool of the internationally broadcast strife of Ukraine for freedom and sovereignty. The study results disclose the comprehensive review of dynamics of the digital skills development and application to construe interdisciplinary competencies of students of European (English, Spanish, French, Italian, German) and Asian (Mandarin Chinese, Japanese) Languages major programs in Ukraine through the span of educational activities in the time-frame of COVID-19 emergency digitization measures of 2021 and wartime emergency digitization measures of 2022 in Ukraine

Front-Line Physicians' Satisfaction with Information Systems in Hospitals

Day-to-day operations management in hospital units is difficult due to continuously varying situations, several actors involved and a vast number of information systems in use. The aim of this study was to describe front-line physicians' satisfaction with existing information systems needed to support the day-to-day operations management in hospitals. A cross-sectional survey was used and data chosen with stratified random sampling were collected in nine hospitals. Data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistical methods. The response rate was 65 % (n = 111). The physicians reported that information systems support their decision making to some extent, but they do not improve access to information nor are they tailored for physicians. The respondents also reported that they need to use several information systems to support decision making and that they would prefer one information system to access important information. Improved information access would better support physicians' decision making and has the potential to improve the quality of decisions and speed up the decision making process.Peer reviewe