Datan rooli yritysten suorituskyvyssä: Tekno-ekonominen näkökulma

Data is an increasingly discussed topic in both academia and business; industries considered as traditional have had to embrace the digitalization and the subsequent transformation in the past decades. The question remains, what kind of improvements could companies realize if they were to utilize data to its full extent in their business. The evolution of information technologies and the progression of digitalization has created the opportunity to expand product and service modularity from hardware to software and platforms; nowadays, many successful technology companies create products that are further improved by external developers creating new applications and features to the products, and they can be made readily available to anyone with little cost. This study links the literature from information technologies to the economic benefits enabled by data to form a holistic overview on how to review the impact of data on firm performance. The theoretical framework is then validated by triangulation of quantitative data of Finnish companies and expert interviews. The benefits of data can be divided into operational efficiencies and strategic opportunities---cost reductions and new products and services---and into internal and external sub-dimensions. In order to achieve any external benefits, data must be shared with external parties and the development of data sharing technologies from EDIs to APIs has significantly lowered the barriers to realizing these efficiencies and opportunities. Ultimately, the results of this study give business managers the lenses to assess what kind of benefits their company has already realized, and what kind of opportunities would be available if their data strategy was modified to harness the opportunities enabled by the latest technologies.Datasta keskustellaan entistä enemmän sekä akateemisissa että liiketoiminnallisissa yhteyksissä; jopa perinteisinä nähdyt toimialat ovat joutuneet omaksuneen digitalisaation ja sen myötä tulleet muutokset liiketoimintaan viimeisten vuosikymmenien aikana. Millaisia tehokkuuksia yritykset voisivat saavuttaa, mikäli ne hyödyntäisivät dataa parhaimmalla mahdollisella tavalla liiketoiminnassaan? Informaatioteknologioiden sekä digitalisaation kehitys ovat luoneet mahdollisuuden laajentaa tuotteiden ja palveluiden modulaarisuuden käsitettä fyysisistä tuotteista ohjelmistoihin ja alustoihin; nykypäivänä monet menestyneet teknologiayritykset kehittävät tuotteita jotka kehittyvät entisestään, kun ulkopuoliset kehittäjät luovat niille uusia tuotteita ja ominaisuuksia jotka voidaan jakaa käyttäjille mitättömin kustannuksin. Tämä tutkimus yhdistää kirjallisuuden informaatioteknologioiden tarjoamista mahdollisuuksista datan hyödyntämisen taloudellisiin seuraamuksiin muodostaen kattavan mallin siitä, kuinka datan vaikutusta yritysten suorituskykyyn voidaan tarkastella. Kehitetty teoreettinen viitekehys validoidaan yhdistämällä tilastollista dataa Suomalaisista yrityksistä asiantuntijoiden haastatteluihin. Datan mahdollistamat hyödyt voidaan jakaa operatiivisiin tehokkuuksiin sekä strategisiin mahdollisuuksiin---kulujen vähennyksiin sekä uusiin tuote- ja palvelumahdollisuuksiin---ja sisäisiin sekä ulkoisiin ulottuvuuksiin. Jotta ulkoisia hyötyjä voitaisiin saavuttaa, dataa täytyy jakaa ulkopuolisten toimijoiden kanssa. Datan jakamisen teknologioiden kehitys EDI-järjestelmistä API-ratkaisuihin on merkittävästi madaltanut kynnystä näiden tehokkuuksien sekä mahdollisuuksien saavuttamiselle. Tämä tutkimus antaa yritysten johtohenkilöille tavan arvioida millaisia datan hyötyjä yritys on jo saavuttanut sekä millaisia hyötyjä olisi vielä saavutettavissa, mikäli yrityksen datastrategiaa muokattaisiin hyödyntämään uusimpien teknologian tarjoamia mahdollisuuksia

Better decisions through enhancing decision-makers? Moral enhancement and liberal democracies

At the beginning of the 21st century, humanity faces multiple unprecedented global dilemmas that defy easy solutions and call into question the ability of the liberal democracies to rise to answer them. At the same time, advancements in sciences and technology have made it possible for humans to shape their own biology like never before, sparking a discussion on the ethical permissibility of humans seeking to enhance themselves or their descendants. Set against this background, the purpose of this thesis is twofold. First, to give a general overview of the so-called human enhancement debate, analyzing arguments for and against enhancement interventions and weighing their merits and weaknesses. Second, to advance an argument that the introduction of a particular type of enhancement, moral enhancement, is desirable from the point of view of generating morally more responsible political decisions

The Cell Biology of Tau Secretion

The progressive accumulation and spread of misfolded tau protein in the nervous system is the hallmark of tauopathies, progressive neurodegenerative diseases with only symptomatic treatments available. A growing body of evidence suggests that spreading of tau pathology can occurviacell-to-cell transfer involving secretion and internalization of pathological forms of tau protein followed by templated misfolding of normal tau in recipient cells. Several studies have addressed the cell biological mechanisms of tau secretion. It now appears that instead of a single mechanism, cells can secrete tauviathree coexisting pathways: (1) translocation through the plasma membrane; (2) membranous organelles-based secretion; and (3) ectosomal shedding. The relative importance of these pathways in the secretion of normal and pathological tau is still elusive, though. Moreover, glial cells contribute to tau propagation, and the involvement of different cell types, as well as different secretion pathways, complicates the understanding of prion-like propagation of tauopathy. One of the important regulators of tau secretion in neuronal activity, but its mechanistic connection to tau secretion remains unclear and may involve all three secretion pathways of tau. This review article summarizes recent advancements in the field of tau secretion with an emphasis on cell biological aspects of the secretion process and discusses the role of neuronal activity and glial cells in the spread of pathological forms of tau.Peer reviewe

Moral adherence enhancement and the case of long-distance space missions

The possibility of employing human enhancement interventions to aid in future space missions has been gaining attention lately. These possibilities have included one of the more controversial kinds of enhancements: biomedical moral enhancement. However, the discussion has thus far remained on a rather abstract level. In this paper we further this conversation by looking more closely at what type of interventions with what sort of effects we should expect when we are talking about biomedical moral enhancements. We suggest that a more grounded way to picture moral enhancement, at least in the near term, is to envision a form of cognitive enhancement that also provides some moral benefits by heightening the enhanced person's capability for acting according to their own subjective moral code. While this concept of moral adherence enhancement also has relevance for the moral enhancement discussion more widely, in this paper we apply it specifically in the context of space missions. We argue that there are weighty reasons to consider making biomedical enhancements of the proposed kind a mandatory feature of early-phase long-distance space travel because these missions are high-stakes in nature and take place in an environment where the enhancement could be seen as conferring important advantages while negating many of the traditional arguments weighed against it

Live-cell monitoring of protein localization to membrane rafts using protein-fragment complementation

The plasma membrane consists of a variety of discrete domains differing from the surrounding membrane in composition and properties. Selective partitioning of protein to these microdomains is essential for membrane functioning and integrity. Studying the nanoscale size and dynamic nature of the membrane microdomains requires advanced imaging approaches with a high spatiotemporal resolution and, consequently, expensive and specialized equipment, unavailable for most researchers and unsuited for large-scale studies. Thus, understanding of protein partitioning to the membrane microdomains in health and disease is still hampered by the lack of inexpensive live-cell approaches with an appropriate spatial resolution. Here, we have developed a novel approach based on Gaussia princeps luciferase protein-fragment complementation assay to quantitively investigate protein partitioning to cholesterol and sphingomyelin-rich domains, sometimes called 'lipid rafts', in intact living cells with a high-spatial resolution. In the assay, the reporter construct, carrying one half of the luciferase protein, is targeted to lipid microdomains through the fused acetylation motif from Src-family kinase Fyn. A protein of interest carries the second half of the luciferase protein. Together, this serves as a reversible real-time sensor of raft recruitment for the studied protein. We demonstrated that the assay can efficiently detect the dynamic alterations in raft localization of two disease-associated proteins: Akt and APP. Importantly, this method can be used in high-throughput screenings and other large-scale studies in living cells. This inexpensive, and easy to implement raft localization assay will benefit all researchers interested in protein partitioning in rafts.Peer reviewe

Mechanisms of secretion and spreading of pathological tau protein

Accumulation of misfolded and aggregated forms of tau protein in the brain is a neuropathological hallmark of tauopathies, such as Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Tau aggregates have the ability to transfer from one cell to another and to induce templated misfolding and aggregation of healthy tau molecules in previously healthy cells, thereby propagating tau pathology across different brain areas in a prion-like manner. The molecular mechanisms involved in cell-to-cell transfer of tau aggregates are diverse, not mutually exclusive and only partially understood. Intracellular accumulation of misfolded tau induces several mechanisms that aim to reduce the cellular burden of aggregated proteins and also promote secretion of tau aggregates. However, tau may also be released from cells physiologically unrelated to protein aggregation. Tau secretion involves multiple vesicular and non-vesicle-mediated pathways, including secretion directly through the plasma membrane. Consequently, extracellular tau can be found in various forms, both as a free protein and in vesicles, such as exosomes and ectosomes. Once in the extracellular space, tau aggregates can be internalized by neighboring cells, both neurons and glial cells, via endocytic, pinocytic and phagocytic mechanisms. Importantly, accumulating evidence suggests that prion-like propagation of misfolding protein pathology could provide a general mechanism for disease progression in tauopathies and other related neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we review the recent literature on cellular mechanisms involved in cell-to-cell transfer of tau, with a particular focus in tau secretion.Peer reviewe

Prolyl Oligopeptidase Enhances α-synuclein Dimerization via Direct Protein-Protein Interaction

Peer reviewe

Coregulation of neurite outgrowth and cell survival by amphoterin and S100 proteins through receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) activation.

Amphoterin is a protein enhancing process extension and migration in embryonic neurons and in tumor cells through binding to receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE), a multiligand transmembrane receptor. S100 proteins, especially S100B, are abundantly expressed in the nervous system and are suggested to function as cytokines with both neurotrophic and neurotoxic effects. However, the cell surface receptor for the cytokine function of S100B has not been identified. Here we show that two S100 family proteins, S100B and S100A1, activate RAGE in concert with amphoterin inducing neurite outgrowth and activation of transcription factor NF-kappaB. Furthermore, activation of RAGE by amphoterin and S100B promotes cell survival through increased expression of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2. However, whereas nanomolar concentrations of S100B induce trophic effects in RAGE-expressing cells, micromolar concentrations of S100B induce apoptosis in an oxidant-dependent manner. Both trophic and toxic effects are specific for cells expressing full-length RAGE since cells expressing a cytoplasmic domain deletion mutant of RAGE are unresponsive to these stimuli. These findings suggest that activation of RAGE by multiple ligands is able to promote trophic effects whereas hyperactivation of RAGE signaling pathways promotes apoptosis. We suggest that RAGE is a signal-transducing receptor for both trophic and toxic effects of S100B