Onko Suomi jäämässä alustatalouden junasta?

Digitaaliset alustat ja alustatalous nähdään merkittävänä murroksena, joka vaikuttaa myös Suomessa toimiviin yrityksiin. Tässä raportissa on haettu vastauksia seuraaviin kysymyksiin: 1. Millä sovellusalueilla Suomessa on parhaat edellytykset digitaalisten palveluekosysteemien ja alustojen syntymiselle? Mitkä ovat näiden sovellusalueiden vahvuudet ja heikkoudet? 2. Millä toimenpiteillä voidaan edistää digitaalisiin alustoihin perustuvan liiketoiminnan ja uusien työpaikkojen syntymistä Suomessa ja näihin alustoihin perustuvan liiketoiminnan kasvua ja kansainvälistymistä? Tiedonhankinta- ja analysointimenetelminä selvityksessä käytettiin perinteisen kirjallisuuskatsauksen lisäksi asiantuntijoiden haastatteluja, työpajatyöskentelyä, selvitystyössä olevien henkilöiden omia taustatutkimuksia ja kokemuksia, systeemidynaamista mallinnusta sekä yritysten internetissä julkaiseman tiedon analysointia. Hankittu tieto jäsennettiin innovaatiojärjestelmiä ja alustataloutta kuvaaviin viitekehyksiin. Hankkeen lopuksi muodostettiin tilanneanalyysin pohjalta joukko toimenpide-ehdotuksia julkiselle vallalle. Ne voidaan jakaa kolmeen ryhmään: laajemmat politiikkatoimet, julkisen vallan täsmätoimet alustatalouden edistämiseksi ja toimialakohtaiset interventiot

The Effect of PPARγ-Agonism on LDL Subclass Profile in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes and Coronary Artery Disease

Patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) often present a preponderance of small, dense LDL particles (small-LDL), which are associated with a high risk of myocardial infarction. Some studies suggest that PPARγ-agonists increase LDL cholesterol but have divergent effects on various LDL subclasses in T2DM patients. We studied the effect of rosiglitazone on the LDL subclass profile in T2DM patients with verified coronary artery disease (CAD). 58 patients with T2DM (HbA1c < 8.5%) and CAD were enrolled in a 16-week, randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled trial with rosiglitazone 8mg/day (n = 29) or placebo (n = 29). The LDL subclass profile was measured with gel electrophoresis. Rosiglitazone improved insulin sensitivity and glycemic control. Total cholesterol did not change after rosiglitazone treatment (p = 0.062, ANCOVA adjusted for gender and baseline values), whereas LDL (including IDL) cholesterol increased from 2.33 ± 0.48 to 2.67 ± 0.61 mmol/l (p = 0.002 vs. baseline, p = 0.0497 vs. placebo) and large buoyant LDL (large-LDL < 250Å) increased from 1.31 ± 0.36 to 1.46 ± 0.42 mmol/l (p = 0.010 vs. baseline, p = 0.044 vs. placebo) in the rosiglitazone group. No significant changes occurred to the concentration of small-LDL (< 250Å), the average LDL particle size, or HDL or triglyceride concentrations. Whole-body insulin sensitivity was associated with the average LDL particle size after intervention in the whole population (r = 0.40, p = 0.002) and in the rosiglitazone group (r = 0.43, p = 0.020). In conclusion, in T2DM patients with CAD, rosiglitazone treatment significantly increases the concentration of large (buoyant) LDL cholesterol, but not of small dense LDL cholesterol. The long term consequences of this divergent effect of rosiglitazone on LDL subfractions require further exploration

Distributed experiments in design sciences, a next step in design observation studies?

This paper describes and proposes a new method for conducting globally distributed design research. Instead of using e.g. a software we tried out a completely analogue approach: Five carefully prepared packages, containing all the necessary materials and instructions for a design challenge, were sent out to supervisors in Norway, Finland, Italy, and Australia. These local supervisors then conducted the egg-drop exercise with students that are part of an international course held at CERN. As the task is conducted according to a previously tested protocol, the results gathered with this new method can then be benchmarked with this available data. This new approach to globally conducted engineering design activities avoids local bias and enables for gathering large amounts of diverse data points. One can also think of a research community where every member can send out one experiment per year and, in return, receives data points from across the world. Based on the feedback from the supervisors we can say that from an organisational standpoint of view, this method works well. The comparison to the existing data has yet to be done