Magnetic fields of cool giant and supergiant stars: models versus observations

The recent years have brought great advances in our knowledge of magnetic fields in cool giant and supergiant stars. For example, starspots have been directly imaged on the surface of an active giant star using optical interferometry, and magnetic fields have been detected in numerous slowly rotating giants and even on supergiants. Here, I review what is currently known of the magnetism in cool giant and supergiant stars, and discuss the origin of these fields and what is theoretically known about them.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, invited review in the conference "Stars with a stable magnetic field: from pre-main sequence to compact remnants", to be published in Contributions of the Astronomical Observatory Skalnate Ples

The Significance of Hydrogen Bonding Interactions in the Cleavage of RNA

RNA is essential for all living organisms. It has important roles in protein synthesis, controlling gene expression as well as catalyzing biological reactions. Chemically RNA is a very stable molecule, although in biological systems many agents catalyze the cleavage of RNA, such as naturally occurring enzymes and ribozymes. Much effort has been put in the last decades in developing highly active artificial ribonucleases since such molecules could have potential in the therapeutic field and provide tools for molecular biology. Several potential catalysts have emerged, but usually detailed cleavage mechanism remains unresolved. This thesis is aimed at clarifying mechanistic details of the cleavage and isomerization of RNA by using simpler nucleoside models of RNA. The topics in the experimental part cover three different studies, one concerning the mechanism of catalysis by large ribozymes, one dealing with the reactivity of modified and unmodified RNA oligonucleotides and one showing an efficient catalysis of the cleavage and isomerization of an RNA phosphodiester bond by a dinuclear metal ion complex. A review of the literature concerning stabilization of the phosphorane intermediate of the hydrolysis and isomerization of RNA phosphodiester bond is first presented. The results obtained in the experimental work followed by mechanistic interpretations are introduced in the second part of the thesis. Especially the significance of hydrogen bonding interactions is discussed.Siirretty Doriast

Funktionaalisten ja luomuelintarvikkeiden markkinointiviestintää koskevat määräykset Suomessa

Tämän opinnäytetyön tarkoituksena on selvittää funktionaalisten eli terveysvaikutteisten ja luomuelintarvikkeiden markkinointiviestintää koskevat määräykset Suomessa. Lisäksi tavoitteena on tutkia kuinka nämä määräykset vaikuttavat kyseisiä elintarvikkeita markkinoivien yritysten markkinointiviestinnän suunnitteluun ja toteutukseen. Työn toimeksiantajana on Lahden ammattikorkeakoulu. Opinnäytetyön teoriaosuudessa käsitellään markkinointiviestintää ja siihen liittyviä yleisiä säännöksiä, elintarvikkeiden markkinointiviestintää koskevia yleisiä määräyksiä sekä luomu- ja funktionaalisia elintarvikkeita ja niitä koskevia erityisiä määräyksiä. Työn empiirisessä osuudessa selvitetään, miten määräykset vaikuttavat elintarvikealan yritysten markkinointiviestintäprosesseihin. Tähän käytettiin kvalitatiivista eli laadullista tutkimusmenetelmää. Aineistot kerättiin sähköpostihaastatteluilla luomu- tai funktionaalisia elintarvikkeita markkinoivien yritysten edustajilta tammi-maaliskuun 2015 aikana. Tutkimuksessa keskityttiin siihen millaisina yritykset kokevat nämä määräykset ja kuinka ne vaikuttavat markkinointiviestinnän suunnitteluun ja toteutukseen. Tutkimustuloksista selvisi, että yritykset näkevät nämä määräykset pääosin tarpeellisina kuluttajien luottamuksen ja tuoteturvallisuuden vuoksi. Haastattelujen perusteella selvisi myös, ettei funktionaalisten tai luomuelintarvikkeiden markkinointiviestintäprosessi eroa juurikaan tavanomaisen elintarvikkeen kanssa. Tämä perusteltiin usein sillä, että vastuu on jaettu useammalle henkilölle, joilla on vankka osaaminen omalla vastuualueellaan.The purpose of this thesis is to explore the regulations of marketing communications for functional and organic foods in Finland. A further objective is to explore how these regulations affect on marketing planning and implementation in companies. The thesis was commissioned by Lahti University of Applied Sciences. The theoretical part of this thesis deals with marketing communications and its general regulations and marketing communications of foods and specific regulations for functional and organic foods. This thesis focuses on companies’ experiences of regulations and on the effects of the rules in planning and implementing marketing communications of functional and organic foods. The empirical part of the thesis was carried out by using a qualitative method. The material was obtained by e-mail interviews from representatives of companies that market functional or organic food. The interviews were conducted during January and March 2015. The results show that the companies find these regulations necessary for product safety and to gain consumers’ trust. Based on the interviews, the results also show that the marketing process of functional and organic foods does not differ much from marketing process of ordinary foods. Many of the respondents said that the responsibility of the marketing process is shared between several employees and that is how they ensure the compliance of the marketing process

Perhetyön palvelukuvaus Etevassa : perhepalvelukeskuksen lyhytaikaishoidon yksikkö perhetyötä kehittämässä

Kehitysvammapalvelut ovat olleet voimakkaan muutoksen kohteena viime vuosina. Itsemääräämisoikeuden vahvistaminen ja yksilöllisten palvelujen tarjoaminen ovat olleet merkittävästi esillä kehitysvammaisten asiakkaiden ja heidän perheiden kanssa tehtävässä työssä. Uudessa sosiaalihuoltolaissa tulee esille, että perhetyö liittyy vanhemmuuden tukemiseen, lasten hoidon ja kasvatuksen ohjaamiseen, perheen vuorovaikutustaitojen tukemiseen ja sosiaalisten verkostojen laajentamiseen. Opinnäytetyön tarkoituksena on parantaa perhepalvelukeskus Tikkarellin tarjoaman lyhytaikaishoidon perhetyön laatua, että työntekijät osaavat jäsentää perhetyön merkitystä kehitysvammaisten asiakkaiden lyhytaikaishoidossa. Tavoitteena on luoda lyhytaikaishoidon perhetyöstä palvelukuvaus, joka jäsentää työntekijöille sekä asiakkaille perhetyön merkitystä. Perhetyön palvelukuvaus laadittiin yhteistyössä toimeksiantajan Etevan kanssa. Palvelukuvaus on opinnäytetyön liitteenä. Etevan perhepalvelukeskus Tikkarellin työntekijät osallistuivat palvelukuvauksen laatimiseen kehittämishankkeen myötä. Hankkeen lähestymistapa on toimintatutkimuksellinen. Palvelukuvaukseen sisältyvät mittarit otetaan Tikkarellin arjessa käyttöön. Työntekijät hyödyntävät niitä asiakastyössä. Kehittämishankkeeseen on liittynyt haastattelututkimus, jonka avulla on pyritty selvittämään, miten Etevan tarjoama lyhytaikaishoito on vaikuttanut perheen arkeen ja kuinka toimintaa pitäisi kehittää, jotta siitä olisi mahdollisimman paljon apua vammaisten lasten perheille. Haastatteluissa selvisi, että Tikkarellin tarjoamalla lyhytaikaishoidolla on suuri merkitys hoidossa olevalle lapselle, hänen vanhemmilleen sekä koko perheelle. Lapsen ollessa hoidossa, vanhemmat ja perheen toiset lapset saavat levätä ja tehdä asioita, jotka eivät ole mahdollisia vammaisen lapsen ollessa kotona. Tällä on suuri merkitys koko perheen hyvinvoinnille. Kehittämistarpeet koskivat työntekijöiden ja vanhempien välistä vuorovaikutusta ja tiedon kulkua. Näiden asioiden kehittämistä on tarpeen jatkaa työryhmien kanssa.Disability services have been the target of extensive change in recent years. Strengthening autonomy and offering invidualised services have been at the forefront of the work that has been done with disabled service clients and their families. The new Social Care Act determines that working with families entails supporting parenting, guiding childcare and upbringing, supporting interaction skills within families, and extending social networks. The purpose of this thesis is to improve the quality of family care delivered at a care unit, to enable staff to coordinate meaningful family work in the short-term care of disabled service users. The aim is to produce a service description of short-term family care at Tikkarelli,that communicates the value of family care to both staff and service users. The service description of family care was composed with the help of the employer. The service description is included in the thesis. The staff at the Eteva service centre Tikkarelli participated in preparing the service description as part of a development scheme. The development scheme takes on operational research approach. The measures used in the service description will be used in the daily operations at Tikkarelli. The staff uses them in daily work with service users. The development measures included interview-based research, which aimed to reveal how the short-term care offered at Eteva had affected the daily lives of families, and how to improve services so that they could provide the greatest benefit to families with disabled children. The interviews revealed that the short-term care offered at Tikkarelli had a great importance to the children that were cared for, their parents, and their whole families. When the children are in care, parents and siblings are able to rest and do things that are not possible when the disabled child is at home. This is very significant to the wellbeing of the whole family. Areas for improvement included the interactions between staff and parents, and the flow of information. It will be necessary to keep developing these factors with staff teams also in the future

Hunting for Stellar Coronal Mass Ejections

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are explosive events that occur basically daily on the Sun. It is thought that these events play a crucial role in the angular momentum and mass loss of late-type stars, and also shape the environment in which planets form and live. Stellar CMEs can be detected in optical spectra in the Balmer lines, especially in Halpha, as blue-shifted extra emission/absorption. To increase the detection probability one can monitor young open clusters, in which the stars are due to their youth still rapid rotators, and thus magnetically active and likely to exhibit a large number of CMEs. Using ESO facilities and the Nordic Optical Telescope we have obtained time series of multi-object spectroscopic observations of late-type stars in six open clusters with ages ranging from 15 Myrs to 300 Myrs. Additionally, we have studied archival data of numerous active stars. These observations will allow us to obtain information on the occurrence rate of CMEs in late-type stars with different ages and spectral types. Here we report on the preliminary outcome of our studies.Comment: 6 pages, submitted to the proceedings of IAU Symposium 328 'Living Around Active Stars

Improving Transparency in Demand-Supply Chain With Visual Business Intelligence Tools

Humans acquire more information through their visual systems than through all other systems combined. That is why we understand things better and faster when we see them. Visuality has been exploited in business environment already for a long time but the increasing amount of data and the recent development of data processing technology have brought up new opportunities and challenges for visualization. This research examines visual business intelligence and its opportunities firstly by examining scientific literature related to the subject. Later on this knowledge is made use of in improving transparency in the target organization. Visual business intelligence is quite unfamiliar term in scientific literature and most of the reference material use data visualization or visual analytics as the term. Visualization was seen as a versatile benefit for transparency improvements in target organization. Hence two slightly different visualization tools were developed. Business-discovery platform Qlikview was decided to be the base for these tools because it was already in wide use in the target organization. During the development process some improvement issues were discovered relating company data and processes. Research results still show that solutions developed during development phase have increased transparency in minor level in the demand-supply chain. Transparency was improved by improving communication and helping employees to see their business better. By taking suggested actions the transparency in the organization shall increase more