Metalliyhtyeen markkinointi

Opinnäytetyöni käsittelee markkinointia erityisesti metalliyhtyeiden näkökulmasta. Metallimusiikki on viimeisen kymmenen vuoden aikana vahvistanut jatkuvasti asemaansa musiikkimaailmassa, niin Suomessa kuin muuallakin. Suomesta on ponnistanut satoja metallimusiikkia soittavia yhtyeitä maailmanlaajuiseen menestykseen. Käyn työssäni läpi aluksi markkinoinnin perusteoriaa, johon metalliyhtyeidenkin markkinointi perustuu. Täydennän markkinoinnin teoriaa esimerkein omasta Thaurorod-yhtyeestäni. Jatkan työtäni yleisestä markkinoinnin teoriasta käsittelemään yhä syvemmin musiikin promootiota ja markkinointia. Syvennyn niihin seikkoihin, jotka ovat erityisen tärkeitä yhtyeen menestymisen kan-nalta. Työni empiirisen osuuden ennakkoasetelma on seuraavanlainen. Valitsen 15 metalliyhtyettä, jotka edustavat hyvin tiukasti samaa musiikkityyliä. Jaan nämä yhtyeet kolmeen eri kategoriaan yhtyeiden menestymisasteen mukaan. Yksi kategoria koostuu yhtyeistä, jotka ovat jo saavuttaneet paljolti menestystä ja ovat edelleen suuressa nousussa. Toinen ryhmä muodostuu yhtyeistä, jotka ovat saavuttaneet jonkinasteista menestystä, mutta eivät silti sen suurempaa läpimurtoa ainakaan vielä. Viimeinen kategoria sisältää yhtyeitä, jotka eivät ole suuremmin menestyneet, vaikkakin ovat jo pitkään menestystä tavoitelleet. Kukin kategoria koostuu viidestä yhtyeestä ja lähtökohtaisesti tiedän jo kunkin yhtyeen tämänhetkisen tilan. Selvittelen niitä syitä, jotka ovat sen taustalla, miksi yhtye on tai ei ole menestynyt. Työni loppuun olen kirjoittanut levy-yhtiön edustajan mietteitä nykyisestä markkinatilanteesta. Tutkiessani yhtyeitä olen päätynyt siihen, että tärkeimmät seikat, jotka turvaavat yhtyeen tien menestykseen ovat ahkera työ konsertoinnin, promootion ja tuotannon kanssa sekä jatkuva yhtyeen kehittäminen kaikilla mahdollisilla osa-alueilla niin, että lopputuloksena on mahdollisimman ammattimainen yhtye jonka taustalla lopulta toimii musiikin ammattilaisista koostuva joukko. Musiikkiliiketoiminnassa on aina myös sattumalla jonkinlainen osuus, mutta mitä enemmän yhtye on valmis tekemään työtä menestyksensä eteen, sitä pienempi rooli sattumalle jää.Metalband Marketing My thesis handles marketing particularly from the point of view of metal bands. Metal music has continuously strengthened its position for the past ten years in the music field in Finland and in the rest of the world. There are hundreds of metal bands from Finland that have striven themselves into a worldwide success. In my thesis I go through the basic marketing theory on which the metalband marketing is also considerably based on. I backfill the marketing theory with some examples from my own metal band called Thaurorod. I continue my thesis from the basic marketing theory to handle more and more the music promotion and marketing. I go more deeply into these matters which are essential when it comes to a band’s success. The baseline of the experiential section of the thesis is the following: I pick 15 metal bands that represent strictly very similar music style. Then I divide these bands into three different categories based on the band’s state of success. The first category includes the bands that have already gained a lot of success and are still strongly going forward with their music. The second group is formed by the bands that have gained some success but not an actual breakthrough at least yet. The final category’s bands have not had much success even though the bands have been pursuing the success already a while. There are five bands in each category and I know from the start the current state of each band. What I am to research here are the reasons behind the bands that have or have not gained success. At the end of my thesis I have written some thoughts of a representative of a record label about the current market situation. As I researched these bands it became obvious that the key factors behind the success of different bands are the hard work with live performances, promotion and production as well as the never ending developing of the band in every possible sector so the outcome will be as professional a group as possible that finally works with the team of professionals. Of course, in the music business chance always plays some role but the more work the band is willing to do in pursue of success the lesser the role will be for chance

Microsoft Forefront UAG -PORTAALIPALVELIMEN VAIHTO

Tiivistelmä Tässä opinnäytetyössä käsitellään Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway-portaalipalvelimen vaihtoa yrityksessä. Se esittelee asennuksen ja keinot palvelimen käyttöönottoon ja käy läpi, millaiselle palvelimelle UAG asennettiin. Opinnäytetyö toteutettiin Abloy Oy:n Network Solutions -yksikön ohjelmistokehitysosastolle. Ohjelmistokehitysosasto ylläpitää Abloy Oy:n palvelimien ohjelmistoja. Osasto sai tehtäväkseen vaihtaa fyysisen UAG-portaalipalvelimen uuteen virtuaaliseen palvelimeen, mikä siirtyi osittain opinnäytetyön tekijän tehtäväksi. Palvelin täytyi vaihtaa suorituskykyisemmäksi ja ohjelmisto päivittää uudempaan. Opinnäytetyö oli toimintapainotteinen, eikä tutkimustyötä juurikaan tehty. Alkuperäisen aikataulun mukaan projektin oli tarkoitus valmistua maaliskuun 2014 loppuun mennessä, mutta aikataulu venyi kiireisen työtilanteen vuoksi. Itse palvelin tilattiin maaliskuun alussa, mutta asennukset päästiin aloittamaan vasta loppukeväästä. Asennusprojektissa ilmeni paljon ongelmia, jotka saatiin lopulta ratkaistua. Projekti oli täysin valmis vasta loppukesästä.Abstract This thesis deals with the basic initialization of Forefront Unified Access Gateway in a company. It presents the installation and deployment of a server and goes through what kind of a server UAG was installed to. The thesis was carried out for the software development department of Abloy Oy Net-work Solutions business unit. The software development department maintains the server software of Abloy Oy. The department was given the task to change the physical UAG portal server to a new virtual server, which became partially a task for the author of the thesis. The server had to be changed to a more efficient one and the software needed to be upgraded. The study was action-oriented, and very little research needed to be done. The project should have been ready by the end of March 2014, but the schedule was delayed be-cause of the hectic work situation. The server itself was ordered in early March, but the installation began in the late spring. The installation was problematic, but all the issues were eventually resolved. The project was fully completed by the end of the summer

Merchants Prestige -lautapelin suunnittelu

Opinnäytetyöni aiheena on lautapelin suunnittelu. Suunnitteluun sisältyvät säännöt ja pelimekaniikka, sekä lähtökohta visuaaliselle ilmeelle. Työssä selvitetään myös lyhyesti lautapelaamisen historiaa ja miksi niitä pelataan. Opinnäytetyössä tein harrastuksestani työn. Vuosien pelaajakokemukseni antoi minul-le hyvän lähtökohdan ammattimaiseen perehtymiseen lautapeleihin ja niiden suunnit-teluun. Pelini nimeksi tuli Merchants Prestige ja tarkoituksenani on viedä se markki-noille.The subject of my thesis is a board game design. The design incorporates the rules and game mechanics, as well as the starting point for the visual look. The work will also brief the board gaming history and why they are played. In the thesis I made a hobby to be my work. Years of player experience gave me a good starting point for professional familiarization to board games and in their design. My game is called Merchants Prestige, and my intention is to take it to market

Predicting Corporate Bankruptcy with Financial Ratios and Macroeconomic Predictors : Evidence from Finnish data

Bankruptcy is a severe and permanent state of a firm where all stakeholders are facing the consequences, not just the investors. The literature of bankruptcy prediction is an extensive area where new statistical methods have been applied recently. The purpose of this thesis is to study benefits of using machine learning methods in bank-ruptcy prediction instead traditional methods such as logistic regression and Z-score by using Finnish data. Furthermore, this thesis tests the use of macroeconomic variables together with firm specific predictors. Lastly, machine learning algorithm called random forest is tested against logistic regression. The adaptation of random forest in bankruptcy prediction is not studied comprehensively. This thesis employs dataset of 96 995 Finnish firms between the years 1999 and 2019. 2595 firms of this dataset are stated as bankrupt, representing 2.7% of all observations. The finan-cial ratios are derived from Altman’s Z-score’s variables which reflect the financial state of a firm. The effect of macroeconomic events on predictability of bankruptcy, is tested by em-ploying different macroeconomic predictors such as change in gross domestic product. The robustness checks include careful data cleaning and validating models by splitting data into training and test data. The results from Finnish data encourage the use of machine learning methods in bankruptcy, especially random forest algorithm. Predictability by using random forest outperformed all other methods introduced in this thesis. Furthermore, the utilisation of macroeconomic predictor in bankruptcy prediction is justified together with firm specific predictors. Particularly, household debt as a proportion of available income shows a significant predictive power on bankruptcy. Lastly, the random forest performed better than logistic regression. This thesis provides encouraging results on bankruptcy prediction in practical purposes against traditional methods such as Z-score that are still used today

Breaking frames. images and artworks in current visual climates.

This thesis examines the concept of frames and framing in images and artworks in current visual climates. I analyse how framing affects the ways one interprets art they encounter. My central research questions are as follows: What are the frames? What is framing as an act? What kinds of connections frames create when placed in various contexts? Recognizing frames and framing around artworks is one of the most crucial areas of visual cultures to comprehend in order to understand the full context of images and artworks. I formulate my analysis by these three research questions, and five specific study cases. The study cases I analyse are either artworks, which are part of my personal artistic practice or collective projects I have been co-creating. Nevertheless, the projects are not part of this thesis as independent art-works. Instead, they represent images and documentation of the artworks and experiments I have made. The five study cases create the core of my research process and are distinct part of this thesis. Together the practical and textual experiments formulate my exploration upon the concept of frames. I examined the frames from the point of view of a single frame structure moving further towards extensive frame-systems. I studied these structures through practical and contextual deconstruction and reconstruction processes and how frames inevitably connect with de-framing and reframing. This analysis I made demonstrated that frames could never operate as single units, but nevertheless are open and irreplaceably interconnected with other frames around. Frictions and breaking of frames are a necessary and essential part of the frame constructions. These open frame-systems are endlessly free for new and uncontrollable interpretations, although framing effects explicitly what kinds of representations artworks create at the same time. For these reasons, the deconstruction-reconstruction process is critical for understanding the full meanings frames possess. The overall conclusion of this thesis is that frames are endlessly open for new and uncontrollable interpretations. Nevertheless, reframing is never possible without deconstruction and de-framing processes, which are essential for making free interpretations of art.Taiteen maisterin lopputyössäni on kolme keskeistä tutkimuskysymystä, joiden kautta pohdin kuvien ja taideteosten merkitysrakenteiden eli rajausten ja kehysten muodostumista. Tarkat tutkimuskysymykseni ovat seuraavat: Mitä ovat merkitysrakenteet? Mitä merkityksien kehystäminen tarkoittaa tekona? Miten nämä rakenteet vaikuttavat taideteosten tulkintaan erilaisissa, muuttuvissa viitekehyksissä? Rajausten ja merkitysrakenteiden tunnistamisella on erittäin tärkeä rooli kuvien ja taideteosten hahmotta-misessa ja niiden muodostamien laajempien merkityssuhteiden ymmärtämisessä. Lähestyn tutkimustani näiden kysymysten ja viiden tapaustutkimuksen kautta. Mukaan valitut taideteokset eivät ole varsinaisesti esillä itsenäisinä teoksina tai näyttelyn muodossa, vain pikemminkin dokumentaationa tutkimukselleni ja tärkeä pohja tälle tekstimuotoiselle lopputyöni osalle. Kaikki lopputyössäni esiintyvät taideteokset ovat joko osa henkilökohtaista taiteellista tuotantoani tai kollektiivisia taidepr-jekteja, joita olen ollut mukana tekemässä. Analysoin merkitysrakenteita ensi yksittäisen kehyksen näkökulmasta kulkien kohti laajempia merkityskokonaisuuksia. Tutkin mm. merkitysrakenteiden dekonstruktiota ja rekonstruktiota, niin käytännön keinoin kuin käsitteellisestikin. Analysoin myös kuinka nämä prosessit ovat väistämättä sidoksissa rajausten purkamisen ja uudelleen rakentamisen kanssa. Tämä tutkimus on osaltaan vahvistanut näkemystäni siitä, että merkitysrakenteet eivät koskaan toimi erillisinä yksittäisinä kehyksinä, vain aina laajemmissa verkostoissa toisten merkitysrakenteiden kanssa. Näiden kehysten avaaminen ja rajausten rikkominen on ehdoton edellytys sille, että eri merkitykset voivat kommunikoida vapaasti toistensa välillä. Vain vapaat ja avoimet merkitysverkostot voivat jatkuvasti kehittyä ja olla avoinna uusille tulkinnoille ja merkitysten annoille. Yhtäaikaisesti, rajaukset ja merkityskehykset vaikuttavat vahvasti siihen miten taideteoksia tulkitaan. Juuri tämän takia dekonstruktio- ja rekonstruktioprosessi ovat kriittisen tärkeitä taideteosten, ja laajemmin koko nykytaiteen ja visuaalisten kulttuureiden, kokonaismerkityksien ymmärtämiselle. Yleisenä loppupäätelmänä voidaankin sanoa, että merkitysrakenteet ovat jatkuvasti avoinna uusille määritelmille. Kuitenkaan uusien merkitysten tekeminen ei ole mahdollista ilman dekonstruktio- ja rekonstruktioprosesseja, jotka ovat väistämättömiä ja ehdottoman tärkeitä uusia ja riippumattomia tulkintoja tehdessä

Aspects of reparametrization in Gaussian process regression with the Weibull model.

Gaussian processes can be used through Bayesian models so that they are formed through a multidimensional Gaussian prior with a special covariance matrix structure and an arbitrary likelihood model. They often include a latent variable structure between the features and the response variable. Bayesian modeling's drawbacks are usually related to the normalizing constants that normalize the product of a prior probability density function and a likelihood function to a proper probability distribution. These integrals are hard or even impossible to calculate analytically and hence some approximations are required. One popular approximation is the Laplace approximation, which is a Gaussian approximation for the unnormalized log-posterior distribution. Reparametrization of the observation model can lead to changes in properties of the posterior distribution such as shape and convergence. The performance of approximations made for the posterior distribution also change along with the parametrization. The changes are often related to either computational complexity or the predictive performance of the approximation. This thesis presents the Gaussian processes starting from Bayes' formula and moves quickly towards key concepts in Bayesian modeling such as predictive distributions and hierarchy. An approximation of interest for the posterior distribution, the Laplace approximation, is derived. Traditional optimization algorithm for the Laplace approximation is the Newton method, which is replaced by an algorithm called natural gradient adaptation in this thesis. Then the focus is turned from general introduction of Gaussian processes to more specific treatment of them by choosing the Weibull distribution as an observation model. Two different parametrizations for the Weibull model are studied, one which acts as a baseline and can be thought as traditional parametrization for the model, and another one for which the parameters are orthogonal. The predictive performance of the Laplace approximation is then compared within the two parametrizations in two different kind of data sets. Finally the results show decrease in computation time required for the Laplace approximation but no improvement in the predictive performance for orthogonal parametrization

A multistate analysis of ulcerative colitis and colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) accounts for one in 10 new cancer cases worldwide. CRC risk is determined by a complex interplay of constitutional, behavioral, and environmental factors. Patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) are at increased risk of CRC, but effect estimates are heterogeneous, and many studies are limited by small numbers of events. Furthermore, it has been challenging to distinguish the effects of age at UC diagnosis and duration of UC. Multistate models provide a useful statistical framework for analyses of cancers and premalignant conditions. This thesis has three aims: to review the mathematical and statistical background of multistate models; to study maximum likelihood estimation in the illness-death model with piecewise constant hazards; and to apply the illness-death model to UC and CRC in a population-based cohort study in Finland in 2000–2017, considering UC as a premalignant state that may precede CRC. A likelihood function is derived for multistate models under noninformative censoring. The multistate process is considered as a multivariate counting process, and product integration is reviewed. The likelihood is constructed by partitioning the study time into subintervals and finding the limit as the number of subintervals tends to infinity. Two special cases of the illness-death model with piecewise constant hazards are studied: a simple Markov model and a non-Markov model with multiple time scales. In the latter case, the likelihood is factorized into terms proportional to Poisson likelihoods, which permits estimation with standard software for generalized linear models. The illness-death model was applied to study the relationship between UC and CRC in a population-based sample of 2.5 million individuals in Finland in 2000–2017. Dates of UC and CRC diagnoses were obtained from the Finnish Care Register for Health Care and the Finnish Cancer Registry, respectively. Individuals with prevalent CRC were excluded from the study cohort. Individuals in the study cohort were followed from January 1, 2000, to the date of first CRC diagnosis, death from other cause, emigration, or December 31, 2017, whichever came first. A total of 23,533 incident CRCs were diagnosed during 41 million person-years of follow-up. In addition to 8,630 patients with prevalent UC, there were 19,435 cases of incident UC. Of the 23,533 incident CRCs, 298 (1.3%) were diagnosed in patients with pre-existing UC. In the first year after UC diagnosis, the HR for incident CRC was 4.67 (95% CI: 3.07, 7.09) in females and 7.62 (95% CI: 5.65, 10.3) in males. In patients with UC diagnosed 1–3 or 4–9 years earlier, CRC incidence did not differ from persons without UC. When 10–19 years had passed from UC diagnosis, the HR for incident CRC was 1.63 (95% CI: 1.19, 2.24) in females and 1.29 (95% CI: 0.96, 1.75) in males, and after 20 years, the HR was 1.61 (95% CI: 1.13, 2.31) in females and 1.74 (95% CI: 1.31, 2.31) in males. Early-onset UC (age <40 years) was associated with a markedly increased long-term risk of CRC. The HR for CRC in early-onset UC was 4.13 (95% CI: 2.28, 7.47) between 4–9 years from UC diagnosis, 4.88 (95% CI: 3.46, 6.88) between 10–19 years, and 2.63 (95% CI: 2.01, 3.43) after 20 years. In this large population-based cohort study, we estimated CRC risk in persons with and without UC in Finland in 2000–2017, considering both the duration of UC and age at UC diagnosis. Patients with early-onset UC are at increased risk of CRC, but the risk is likely to depend on disease duration, extent of disease, attained age, and other risk factors. Increased CRC risk in the first year after UC diagnosis may be in part due to detection bias, whereas chronic inflammation may underlie the long-term excess risk of CRC in patients with UC