Dynamically optimal phosphorus management and agricultural water protection

This paper puts forward a model of the role of phosphorus in crop production, soil phosphorus dynamics and phosphorus loading that integrates the salient economic and ecological features of agricultural phosphorus management. The model accounts for the links between phosphorus fertilization, crop yield, accumulation of soil phosphorus reserves, and phosphorus loading. It can be used to guide precision phosphorus management and erosion control as means to mitigate agricultural loading. Using a parameterization for cereal production in southern Finland, the model is solved numerically to analyze the intertemporally optimal combination of fertilization and erosion and the associated soil phosphorus development. The optimal fertilizer application rate changes markedly over time in response to changes in the soil phosphorus level. When, for instance, soil phosphorus is initially above the socially optimal steady state level, annually matching phosphorus application to the prevailing soil phosphorus stock produces significantly higher social welfare than using a fixed fertilizer application rate. Erosion control was found to increase welfare only on land that is highly susceptible to erosion

Dynamically Optimal Phosphorus Management and Agricultural Water Protection

This paper puts forward a model of the role of phosphorus in crop production, soil phosphorus dynamics and phosphorus loading that integrates the salient economic and ecological features of agricultural phosphorus management. The model accounts for the links between phosphorus fertilization, crop yield, accumulation of soil phosphorus reserves, and phosphorus loading. It can be used to guide precision phosphorus management and erosion control as means to mitigate agricultural loading. Using a parameterization for cereal production in southern Finland, the model is solved numerically to analyze the intertemporally optimal combination of fertilization and erosion control and the associated soil phosphorus development. The optimal fertilizer application rate changes markedly over time in response to changes in the soil phosphorus level. When, for instance, soil phosphorus is initially above the socially optimal steady state level, annually matching phosphorus application to the prevailing soil phosphorus stock produces significantly higher social welfare than using a fixed fertilizer application rate. Erosion control was found to increase welfare only on land that is highly susceptible to erosion.precision nutrient management, agricultural phosphorus loading, cereal production, soil phosphorus reserves, agricultural water pollution, dynamic programming, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Utilization of information technology in public works and city maintenance

Tämän diplomityön tavoitteena on tutkia informaatioteknologian käyttöönottoa ja hyödyntämistä yleisten alueiden ylläpito- ja rakennustyön kontekstissa. Kiristyneessä taloustilanteessa työt on pystyttävä tekemään yhä kustannustehokkaammin, minkä vuoksi uudenlaisten teknologioiden käyttöönotosta on tullut tärkeä kehityssuunta myös perinteisillä suorittavan työn aloilla. Tutkimus on laadullinen case- eli tapaustutkimus, jonka kohdeorganisaationa oli Helsingin yleisten alueiden ylläpidosta ja rakentamisesta vastaava Stara. Tutkimuksessa keskityttiin tarkastelemaan erityisesti kahta tällä hetkellä käynnissä olevaa merkittävää käyttöönottoprojektia, jotka ovat työsuoritetietoa automaattisesti tallentava ajoneuvotelematiikka ja älypuhelimilla toimiva Mobilenote-tuotannonohjaussovellus. Tutkimusaineiston tärkeimmän osan muodostivat yhteensä 19 Staran työntekijän haastattelut, joissa selvitettiin henkilöstön näkemyksiä informaatioteknologioiden hyödyistä, käyttöönottoprojektien kulusta ja niihin liittyneistä ongelmista. Haastatteluiden ohella organisaation sisäisiä dokumentteja käytettiin täydentävänä materiaalina. Tutkimuksen tulokset jakautuivat analyysin perusteella viiteen teemaan, jotka käsittelivät 1) käyttöönottoprojektien tilaa ja onnistuneisuutta, 2) teknologiaan ja käytettävyyteen liittyviä tekijöitä, 3) teknologioiden kohtaamaa vastustusta, 4) Staran osastojen yhteistyöstä ja sisäisestä toiminnasta tehtyjä havaintoja, ja 5) haastateltavien yleisemmän tason näkemyksiä informaatio-teknologian käyttömahdollisuuksista Starassa. Yleisesti ottaen haastateltavat suhtautuivat uusien teknologioiden tuomiin mahdollisuuksiin positiivisesti, ja etenkin Mobilenote-sovellukselle on jo löydetty lukuisia työtä sujuvoittavia käyttötarkoituksia. Teknologioihin ja niiden käyttöönottoon on kuitenkin liittynyt myös useita ongelmia, joiden vuoksi erityisesti telematiikan pilotointiprojektia pidettiin epäonnistuneena. Tutkimuksen perusteella keskeiseksi ongelmakohdaksi osoittautui käyttöönottoprojektien hallit-semattomuus, joka on seurausta mm. tavoitteiden epätarkasta määrittelystä. Projektinhallinta-osaamisen lisäksi myös Staran osastojen keskinäisestä yhteistyöstä ja organisaation yleisistä toimintatavoista löytyi kehitettävää. Huomiota tulisi kiinnittää etenkin avoimeen kommunikaatioon ja kehitysprojektien nykyistä tarkempaan dokumentoimiseen. Osana avointa kommunikaatiota on tärkeää huomioida myös teknologioiden käyttäjät tarjoamalla riittävästi koulutusta ja luomalla keskustelun ilmapiiri, jolla pyritään ratkaisemaan mahdolliset teknologian synnyttämät ristiriidat.The purpose of this thesis is to study the adoption and use of information technology in the context of public works and city maintenance. The current difficult economic situation has made it particularly important to be able to perform work as efficiently as possible. Therefore, the adoption of modern information technology solutions has become a major trend in traditional blue collar work environments as well. The study was conducted as a qualitative case study of Stara, the public maintenance and construction service provider of the City of Helsinki. The specific research interest was to observe two distinct ongoing and significant technology implementation projects: a custom vehicle telematics system, and a mobile production management software named Mobile note. Primary research data consisted of semi-structured interviews of 19 Stara employees in total. The aim of these interviews was to collect employees’ views on the benefits of the two technologies, and their views on the overall progress and problems associated with the technology implementation projects. In addition to the interviews, organizational documents were also used as supplementary data. Based on a qualitative analysis the results of the study were divided into five themes: 1) the state and successfulness of the implementation projects; 2) factors related to technology and usability; 3) user resistance towards the technologies; 4) cooperation and internal culture of the organization’s departments; and 5) general level views on the possibilities that modern information technologies can offer. The employees’ attitudes towards the use of information technology were generally positive, and e.g. the Mobile note application has already proven itself very useful. However, the technologies as well as their implementation projects have also faced several problems; and the vehicle telematics pilot was deemed particularly unsuccessful. Poorly coordinated projects and insufficiently defined goals were identified as some of the most significant causes of problems. In addition to project management, there is also room for improvement in the interdepartmental cooperation and the organizational practices in general. Emphasis should be put especially on open communication and more thorough documentation of the development projects. During technology implementation, it is also important to take the end users into account by providing them with enough training and by enabling constructive discussion so that possible conflicts caused by the new technology can be resolved

Cardiorespiratory Fitness Estimation Based on Heart Rate and Body Acceleration in Adults With Cardiovascular Risk Factors : Validation Study

Publisher Copyright: © Antti-Pekka E Rissanen, Mirva Rottensteiner, Urho M Kujala, Jari L O Kurkela, Jan Wikgren, Jari A Laukkanen. Originally published in JMIR Cardio (https://cardio.jmir.org), 25.10.2022. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Cardio, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://cardio.jmir.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.Background: Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Adding CRF to conventional risk factors (eg, smoking, hypertension, impaired glucose metabolism, and dyslipidemia) improves the prediction of an individual's risk for adverse health outcomes such as those related to cardiovascular disease. Consequently, it is recommended to determine CRF as part of individualized risk prediction. However, CRF is not determined routinely in everyday clinical practice. Wearable technologies provide a potential strategy to estimate CRF on a daily basis, and such technologies, which provide CRF estimates based on heart rate and body acceleration, have been developed. However, the validity of such technologies in estimating individual CRF in clinically relevant populations is poorly known. Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the validity of a wearable technology, which provides estimated CRF based on heart rate and body acceleration, in working-aged adults with cardiovascular risk factors. Methods: In total, 74 adults (age range 35-64 years; n=56, 76% were women; mean BMI 28.7, SD 4.6 kg/m2) with frequent cardiovascular risk factors (eg, n=64, 86% hypertension; n=18, 24% prediabetes; n=14, 19% type 2 diabetes; and n=51, 69% metabolic syndrome) performed a 30-minute self-paced walk on an indoor track and a cardiopulmonary exercise test on a treadmill. CRF, quantified as peak O2 uptake, was both estimated (self-paced walk: a wearable single-lead electrocardiogram device worn to record continuous beat-to-beat R-R intervals and triaxial body acceleration) and measured (cardiopulmonary exercise test: ventilatory gas analysis). The accuracy of the estimated CRF was evaluated against that of the measured CRF. Results: Measured CRF averaged 30.6 (SD 6.3; range 20.1-49.6) mL/kg/min. In all participants (74/74, 100%), mean difference between estimated and measured CRF was −0.1 mL/kg/min (P = .90), mean absolute error was 3.1 mL/kg/min (95% CI 2.6-3.7), mean absolute percentage error was 10.4% (95% CI 8.5-12.5), and intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.88 (95% CI 0.80-0.92). Similar accuracy was observed in various subgroups (sexes, age, BMI categories, hypertension, prediabetes, and metabolic syndrome). However, mean absolute error was 4.2 mL/kg/min (95% CI 2.6-6.1) and mean absolute percentage error was 16.5% (95% CI 8.6-24.4) in the subgroup of patients with type 2 diabetes (14/74, 19%). Conclusions: The error of the CRF estimate, provided by the wearable technology, was likely below or at least very close to the clinically significant level of 3.5 mL/kg/min in working-aged adults with cardiovascular risk factors, but not in the relatively small subgroup of patients with type 2 diabetes. From a large-scale clinical perspective, the findings suggest that wearable technologies have the potential to estimate individual CRF with acceptable accuracy in clinically relevant populations.Peer reviewe

Разработка технологии художественного изделия из металла по технологии ковки

Выпускная квалификационная работа 80с., 24 рис., 16 табл., 10 источников, 2 прил. Ключевые слова: художественная ковка, сварка, технология, светильник, металл, бионический стиль, стилизация. Объектом исследования является технология художественной ковки, как в целом, так и применительно к конкретному изделию. Цель работы – создание декоративного напольного светильника по технологии художественной ковки. В процессе исследования проводились классификационные и комплексные анализы функций светильника, элементов конструкции, этапов формообразования и стилизации, а также свойств материалов, применяемых для создания изделия. В результате исследования были получены и классифицированы данные о различных функциях и параметрах разрабатываемого объекта, что позволило в дальнейшем создать рабочFinal qualifying work of 80c., 24 fig., 16 tab., 10 sources, 2 adj. Keywords: art forging, welding, technology, lamp, metal, bionic style, stylization. The object of research is the technology of artistic forging, both in general and in relation to a particular product. The purpose of the work - the creation of a decorative floor lamp by art forging technology. The study carried out classification and complex analyzes luminaire features design elements, the stages of shaping and styling, as well as the properties of the materials used to create the product. The study was prepared and classified data about the various features and options developed by the object, which will continue to create the workpiece in real using the claimed technology. The basic constructive, technological a

SIHTI-interventio : Nuoren ongelmien ja elämäntilanteen kokonaisvaltainen arviointi perustason ja erikoissairaanhoidon yhteistyönä

Tekijän nimi kannessa virheellisesti Kaisa Haataina

Measuring psychosocial stress with heart rate variability-based methods in different health and age groups

Objective. Autonomic nervous system function and thereby bodily stress and recovery reactions may be assessed by wearable devices measuring heart rate (HR) and its variability (HRV). So far, the validity of HRV-based stress assessments has been mainly studied in healthy populations. In this study, we determined how psychosocial stress affects physiological and psychological stress responses in both young (18-30 years) and middle-aged (45-64 years) healthy individuals as well as in patients with arterial hypertension and/or either prior evidence of prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. We also studied how an HRV-based stress index (Relax-Stress Intensity, RSI) relates to perceived stress (PS) and cortisol (CRT) responses during psychosocial stress. Approach. A total of 197 participants were divided into three groups: (1) healthy young (HY, N = 63), (2) healthy middle-aged (HM, N = 61) and (3) patients with cardiometabolic risk factors (Pts, N = 73, 32-65 years). The participants underwent a group version of Trier Social Stress Test (TSST-G). HR, HRV (quantified as root mean square of successive differences of R-R intervals, RMSSD), RSI, PS, and salivary CRT were measured regularly during TSST-G and a subsequent recovery period. Main results. All groups showed significant stress reactions during TSST-G as indicated by significant responses of HR, RMSSD, RSI, PS, and salivary CRT. Between-group differences were also observed in all measures. Correlation and regression analyses implied RSI being the strongest predictor of CRT response, while HR was more closely associated with PS. Significance. The HRV-based stress index mirrors responses of CRT, which is an independent marker for physiological stress, around TSST-G. Thus, the HRV-based stress index may be used to quantify physiological responses to psychosocial stress across various health and age groups.Peer reviewe

Using Monte Carlo simulation for estimation of uncertainty of four point roundness measurements of large rotors

Large-scale rotors in the paper and steel industry are called rolls. Rolls are reground at regular intervals and roundness measurements are made throughout the machining process. Measurement systems for roundness and diameter variation of large rolls (diameter < 2000 mm) are available on the market, and generally use two to four sensors and a roundness measurement algorithm. These methods are intended to separate roundness of the rotor from its movement. The hybrid four-point method has improved accuracy, even for harmonic component amplitudes. For reliable measurement results, every measurement should be traceable with an estimation of measurement uncertainty. In this paper, the Monte-Carlo method is used for uncertainty evaluation of the harmonic components of the measured roundness profile under typical industrial conditions. According to the evaluation, the standard uncertainties for the harmonic amplitudes with the hybrid method are below 0.5 µm for the even harmonics and from 1.5 µm to 2.5 µm for the odd harmonics, when the standard uncertainty for the four probes is 0.3 µm each. The standard uncertainty for roundness deviation is 3.3 µm

Spoken Language Skills in Children With Bilateral Hearing Aids or Bilateral Cochlear Implants at the Age of Three Years

Objectives: Early hearing aid (HA) fitting and cochlear implants (CIs) aim to reduce the effects of hearing loss (HL) on spoken language development. The goals of this study were (1) to examine spoken language skills of children with bilateral HAs and children with bilateral CIs; (2) to compare their language skills to the age-norms of peers with normal hearing (NH); and (3) to investigate factors associated with spoken language outcomes. Design: Spoken language results of 56 Finnish children with HL were obtained from a nationwide prospective multicenter study. Children with HL comprised two groups: children with mild-to-severe HL who used bilateral HAs (BiHA group, n = 28) and children with profound HL who used bilateral CIs (BiCI group, n = 28). Children's spoken language comprehension, expressive and receptive vocabulary, and phonological skills were compared with normative values of children with NH at the age of three years. Odds ratio (OR) was calculated to compare proportions of children below age-norms in BiHA and BiCI groups. Factors associated with spoken language outcomes were modeled with analysis of covariance. Results: At the age of 3 years, 50%-96% of children with HL performed 1 SD or more below the mean of the normative sample of age-peers with NH in spoken language skills, depending on the language domain. Receptive vocabulary and phonological skills were the most vulnerable language domains. In receptive vocabulary, 82% of the children in the BiHA group and 50% of the children in the BiCI group scored 1 SD or more below the normative mean. The BiHA group was 4.4 times more likely to have poorer receptive vocabulary than the BiCI group. In phonological skills, 96% of children in the BiHA group and 60% of the children in the BiCI group scored 1 SD or more below the normative mean. The BiHA group was 18.0 times more likely to have poorer phonological skills than the BiCI group. The analysis of covariance models showed that unaided pure-tone average, PTA(0.5-4 kHz), had a significant effect on spoken language comprehension in the BiHA group. For the BiCI group, age at HL diagnosis and age at CI activation had a significant effect on expressive vocabulary. High maternal level of education had a significant effect on language comprehension and expressive vocabulary and female gender on phonological skills. Conclusions: At the age of 3 years, especially receptive vocabulary and phonological skills caused difficulties for children with HL showing also considerable individual variation. Children with bilateral HAs seemed to be more likely to have poorer receptive vocabulary and phonological skills than children with bilateral CIs. A variety of factors was associated with outcomes in both groups. Close monitoring of spoken language skills of children with HL is important for ensuring similar opportunities for all children with HL and timely intervention, when needed.Peer reviewe