Logistiska utmaningar vid internationella mässor – Case: Finlands deltagande i Shanghai Expo 2010

Examensarbetet handlar om världsutställningen som ägde rum i Shanghai i Kina år 2010 där skribenten arbetade på den finska organisationens logistiksida. Den finska organisationen styrdes av det finska företaget Finpro som specialiserat sig på företagsetablering utomlands. På en världsutställning bygger deltagarländerna egna byggnader där de håller sin utställning. Finlands utställning hölls i en byggnad som planerats av en finsk arkitektbyrå och namngetts Kirnu. Arbetet är avgränsat till den logistiska delen av den finska organisationens verksamhet. Syftet med arbetet är att identifiera vilka problemområden som fanns inom logistiken samt hur man kunde förbättra verksamheten med tanke på deltagande i framtida världsutställningar. Teoridelen baserar sig på litteratur- samt internetkällor inom ämnesområdet. Inom teorin finns information om utställningar överlag, världsutställningar samt om den kinesiska kulturen. Examensarbetet är forskat inom den kvalitativa undersökningsmetodens ramar och intervjuer av tre nyckelpersoner har utförts för att få djupare synpunkter inom frågor som ansetts viktiga av skribenten. Empirin är skriven på basen av egna upplevelser samt intervjuobjektens synpunkter. I empiridelen förekommer vilka utmaningar som fanns och hur stor inverkan den kinesiska kulturen har på verksamheten i Kina. Resultatet visar att ingen världsutställning är helt lik en annan då den hålls och byggs upp av olika värdländer. Personalstrukturen är också mycket beroende på själva utställningens storlek. Dessutom förändras problemområden och nya utmaningar uppstår. I ett land som Kina där affärskulturen skiljer sig mycket från den finska finns det skäl att studera den och försöka utnyttja den så mycket det går. Förhandsarbetet är också väldigt viktigt för att kunna förutse eventuella problem och strukturera personalens mängd och positioner rätt. Anställning av personal med tidigare erfarenhet inom världsutställningar kan dock säkert ge en stor fördel då ett evenemang av denna typ är väldigt unik

Sports Activity After Short-Stem Hip Arthroplasty

Background: No data are available about the sports activity of patients with bone-conserving short-stem hip implants. Hypothesis: Patients can return to a good level of sports activity after implantation of a short-stem hip implant. Study Design: Case series; Level of evidence, 4. Methods: The sports activity level of 68 patients (76 hips) after short-stem hip arthroplasty was assessed for a minimum of 2 years after implantation. In addition to the clinical examination, a detailed evaluation of the patients’ sports pattern was obtained. Furthermore, the results were analyzed with regard to gender (female and male) and age (55 years). Results: After a mean of 2.7 years, patients showed a Harris Hip Score (HHS) of 93.6, a Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC) score of 9.5, and a University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) activity score of 7.6, with each individual participating on average in 3.5 different disciplines after surgery compared with 3.9 before surgery. High-impact activities decreased significantly postoperatively, whereas low-impact activities increased significantly. The duration of the sports activities remained stable, while the frequency actually increased. In contrast, men participated preoperatively in more sports than women (4.3 men vs 3.3 women). However, because of a pronounced decrease in high-impact activities by men, both genders participated in an equal number of sports postoperatively (3.5 men vs 3.5 women). Finally, 45% (n = 31) reported at least one activity that they missed. Most of them were disciplines with an intermediate- or high-impact level. Conclusion: Patients with a short-stem hip implant can return to a good level of activity postoperatively. Participation in sports almost reached similar levels as preoperatively but with a shift from high- to low-impact activities. This seems desirable from a surgeon’s point of view but should also be communicated to the patient before hip replacemen

An initial exploration of semi-automated tutoring: How AI could be used as support for online human tutors

In this paper, we begin our process of incorporating an AI bot in an online chat tutoring setting as a support for the tutor. We explore how an AI bot could give suggestions for tutor messages, although the human tutor will control how to communicate with the student. Tutoring, an important dimension of networked learning, has long been seen as a beneficial approach to students’ learning. An AI bot has the potential to aid tutors in the tutoring process and contribute to the scalability. The present pilot study was conducted in the tutoring setting of the Math Coach program. In the program, teacher students aid students from upper primary school to upper secondary school in mathematics through an online text-based chat system. Llama2 was used as a large language model (LLM), fine-tuned for Swedish comprehension utilizing the Math Coach system's chat logs. Four coaches, teacher students at a technical Swedish university and active in the Math Coach program, were invited to interact with the AI bot and participate in a group discussion. The coaches interacted individually with the AI bot while the chat conversation was displayed on a monitor so all participants could discuss the interaction while it took place. A semi-structured interview approach was taken and the participants were also encouraged to 'think aloud' about their experience. In the discussions, the coaches expressed surprise by the AI's social aspect. They perceived the AI bot as friendly with a positive attitude and were especially surprised by its ability to correctly place appropriate emojis. The coaches agreed that the AI was able to ask both appropriate and helpful questions and share some good guidance for how to proceed in the problem-solving process. However, they felt that the AI bot was not able to offer sufficient mathematical guidance, oftentimes the AI bot was confidently wrong. It also wrote too long messages, which humans would typically separate into several chat messages, and did not wait for a response but instead moved too quickly towards the solution. Moving forward we plan to address the effects of improved prompts on the AI bot and continue finetuning the LLM. We will continue to conduct pilot studies and eventually conduct more large-scale empirical studies

Influence of annealing temperature on the mechanical properties of carbon supersaturated TaW coatings

The combination of ceramic hardness with metallic toughness is a major challenge in the development of protective coatings. The relative new concept of high entropy alloys (HEAs) can be a promising pathway to achieve new high-performance materials While HEA thin films have been studied to some extent by experimental and computational materials science, there is only limited information available about the influence of carbon on HEA thin films, especially when prepared with physical vapor deposition techniques. We have recently studied the properties of CrNbTaTiW thin films and observed a combination of high hardness and crack resistance for Ta and W-rich compositions when small amounts of carbon (\u3c 10 at%) is added [1]. To increase our understanding of the properties of these multicomponent HEA films, we have studied the influence of temperature and carbon on the structure and properties alloys in the ternary TaW-C system. The Ta-W-C thin films were deposited by non-reactive magnetron sputtering from elemental targets. The material properties were strongly depending on the carbon content. The TaW films crystallise in a bcc structure with a strong (110) texture with coherent grain boundaries. TEM analysis revealed that the films exhibit coherent grain boundaries with specific crystallographic directions. The addition of 8 at.% led to the formation of a metastable bcc supersaturated solid-solution without the formation of carbide precipitates. The main effect of the carbon addition was agrain refinement reducing the column width, which resulted in an increase in hardness from 14 to 16 GPa while the reduced E-modulus was unaffected. The enhanced hardness will be discussed in terms of solid solution hardening and grain refinement strengthening. The films were also annealed up to 900 °C to investigate the thermal stability. The TaW(C) remained in the bcc structure and no carbide formation was observed. Furthermore, the annealing had an age-hardening effect leading to a peak hardness of 26 GPa. These results indicate that TaW-C alloys are suitable for future high temperature application. [1] S. Fritze, P. Malinovskis, L. Riekehr, L. von Fieandt, E. Lewin, U. Jansson, Hard and crack resistant carbon supersaturated refractory multicomponent nanostructured coatings, Sci. Rep. (2018) 1–8

A systems biology model of the regulatory network in Populus leaves reveals interacting regulators and conserved regulation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Green plant leaves have always fascinated biologists as hosts for photosynthesis and providers of basic energy to many food webs. Today, comprehensive databases of gene expression data enable us to apply increasingly more advanced computational methods for reverse-engineering the regulatory network of leaves, and to begin to understand the gene interactions underlying complex emergent properties related to stress-response and development. These new systems biology methods are now also being applied to organisms such as <it>Populus</it>, a woody perennial tree, in order to understand the specific characteristics of these species.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We present a systems biology model of the regulatory network of <it>Populus </it>leaves. The network is reverse-engineered from promoter information and expression profiles of leaf-specific genes measured over a large set of conditions related to stress and developmental. The network model incorporates interactions between regulators, such as synergistic and competitive relationships, by evaluating increasingly more complex regulatory mechanisms, and is therefore able to identify new regulators of leaf development not found by traditional genomics methods based on pair-wise expression similarity. The approach is shown to explain available gene function information and to provide robust prediction of expression levels in new data. We also use the predictive capability of the model to identify condition-specific regulation as well as conserved regulation between <it>Populus </it>and <it>Arabidopsis</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We outline a computationally inferred model of the regulatory network of <it>Populus </it>leaves, and show how treating genes as interacting, rather than individual, entities identifies new regulators compared to traditional genomics analysis. Although systems biology models should be used with care considering the complexity of regulatory programs and the limitations of current genomics data, methods describing interactions can provide hypotheses about the underlying cause of emergent properties and are needed if we are to identify target genes other than those constituting the "low hanging fruit" of genomic analysis.</p

Protease gene families in Populus and Arabidopsis

BACKGROUND: Proteases play key roles in plants, maintaining strict protein quality control and degrading specific sets of proteins in response to diverse environmental and developmental stimuli. Similarities and differences between the proteases expressed in different species may give valuable insights into their physiological roles and evolution. RESULTS: We have performed a comparative analysis of protease genes in the two sequenced dicot genomes, Arabidopsis thaliana and Populus trichocarpa by using genes coding for proteases in the MEROPS database [1] for Arabidopsis to identify homologous sequences in Populus. A multigene-based phylogenetic analysis was performed. Most protease families were found to be larger in Populus than in Arabidopsis, reflecting recent genome duplication. Detailed studies on e.g. the DegP, Clp, FtsH, Lon, rhomboid and papain-Like protease families showed the pattern of gene family expansion and gene loss was complex. We finally show that different Populus tissues express unique suites of protease genes and that the mRNA levels of different classes of proteases change along a developmental gradient. CONCLUSION: Recent gene family expansion and contractions have made the Arabidopsis and Populus complements of proteases different and this, together with expression patterns, gives indications about the roles of the individual gene products or groups of proteases

Global expression profiling in leaves of free-growing aspen

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Genomic studies are routinely performed on young plants in controlled environments which is very different from natural conditions. In reality plants in temperate countries are exposed to large fluctuations in environmental conditions, in the case of perennials over several years. We have studied gene expression in leaves of a free-growing aspen (<it>Populus tremula</it>) throughout multiple growing seasons</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We show that gene expression during the first month of leaf development was largely determined by a developmental program although leaf expansion, chlorophyll accumulation and the speed of progression through this program was regulated by the temperature. We were also able to define "transcriptional signatures" for four different substages of leaf development. In mature leaves, weather factors were important for gene regulation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study shows that multivariate methods together with high throughput transcriptional methods in the field can provide additional, novel information as to plant status under changing environmental conditions that is impossible to mimic in laboratory conditions. We have generated a dataset that could be used to e.g. identify marker genes for certain developmental stages or treatments, as well as to assess natural variation in gene expression.</p

Interventions for lifestyle changes to promote weight reduction, a randomized controlled trial in primary health care

BACKGROUND: Overweight and obesity are growing public health problems in high income countries and is now growing at a dramatic pace in low and middle income countries, particularly in urban settings. The aim of this trial was to examine the effects of a weight reduction program in adults and to determine whether or not a more extensive intervention was superior to ordinary care. METHODS: Patients seeking advice for overweight/obesity or illness related to overweight/obesity at eight primary health care centers in Sweden were randomized either to intervention or control care groups with both groups given dietary advice and individualized information on increased regular physical activity. In the intervention group advice was more extensive and follow-up more frequent than in the control group during the study period of two years. Main outcome measure was reduction in body weight of five percent or more from study start. RESULTS: From October 2004 to April 2006, 133 patients, 67 in the intervention group and 66 in the control group, were randomized over a period of 18 months. Target weight was achieved at 12 months by 26.7% of the patients in the intervention group compared with 18.4% in the control group (p = 0.335). There was an average absolute weight loss of 2.5 kg in the intervention group and 0.8 kg in the control group at 12 months as compared with the weight at study entry. There were no significant differences between the groups in quality of life, blood glucose and lipids. At 24 months target weight was achieved in 21.9% versus 15.6%, with an average weight reduction of 1.9 kg and 1.2 kg in the two groups, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Promotion of a diet with limited energy intake, appropriate composition of food and increased physical activity had limited effects on body weight in a Swedish primary care setting. More extensive advice and more frequent visits made no significant difference to the outcome. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrial.gov: NCT0160691

A cross-species transcriptomics approach to identify genes involved in leaf development

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We have made use of publicly available gene expression data to identify transcription factors and transcriptional modules (regulons) associated with leaf development in <it>Populus</it>. Different tissue types were compared to identify genes informative in the discrimination of leaf and non-leaf tissues. Transcriptional modules within this set of genes were identified in a much wider set of microarray data collected from leaves in a number of developmental, biotic, abiotic and transgenic experiments.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Transcription factors that were over represented in leaf EST libraries and that were useful for discriminating leaves from other tissues were identified, revealing that the C2C2-YABBY, CCAAT-HAP3 and 5, MYB, and ZF-HD families are particularly important in leaves. The expression of transcriptional modules and transcription factors was examined across a number of experiments to select those that were particularly active during the early stages of leaf development. Two transcription factors were found to collocate to previously published Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) for leaf length. We also found that miRNA family 396 may be important in the control of leaf development, with three members of the family collocating with clusters of leaf development QTL.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This work provides a set of candidate genes involved in the control and processes of leaf development. This resource can be used for a wide variety of purposes such as informing the selection of candidate genes for association mapping or for the selection of targets for reverse genetics studies to further understanding of the genetic control of leaf size and shape.</p

ChloroSpec: A new in vivo chlorophyll fluorescence spectrometer for simultaneous wavelength‐ and time‐resolved detection

Chlorophyll fluorescence is a ubiquitous tool in basic and applied plant science research. Various standard commercial instruments are available for characterization of photosynthetic material like leaves or microalgae, most of which integrate the overall fluorescence signals above a certain cut‐off wavelength. However, wavelength‐resolved (fluorescence signals appearing at different wavelengths having different time dependent decay) signals contain vast information required to decompose complex signals and processes into their underlying components that can untangle the photo‐physiological process of photosynthesis. Hence, to address this we describe an advanced chlorophyll fluorescence spectrometer ‐ ChloroSpec ‐ allowing three‐dimensional simultaneous detection of fluorescence intensities at different wavelengths in a time‐resolved manner. We demonstrate for a variety of typical examples that most of the generally used fluorescence parameters are strongly wavelength dependent. This indicates a pronounced heterogeneity and a highly dynamic nature of the thylakoid and the photosynthetic apparatus under actinic illumination. Furthermore, we provide examples of advanced global analysis procedures integrating this three‐dimensional signal and relevant information extracted from them that relate to the physiological properties of the organism. This conveniently obtained broad range of data can make ChloroSpec a new standard tool in photosynthesis research