Advanced Analytics Success Factors - A Case Study

Companies are increasingly taking into use advanced analytics solutions. Advanced analytics solutions are computer programs that analyze data, make predictions on the future, and give optimization-based recommendations on courses of action for achieving pre-determined business goals. Analytics solutions employ sophisticated statistical and mathematical models, and are often offered by third parties. Companies use analytics solutions to improve the efficiency of their operations. This thesis studies whether the distinction between analytics and advanced analytics made in literature is well-founded. The second aim of this study is to find out, what contributes to an analytics initiative’s success. The study begins with a literature review synthesizing the findings of previous analytics research. The resulting synthesis identifies four distinct stages in an analytics project. They are acquiring data, transforming it into insights, communicating the insights, making business decisions, and finally implementing the decisions. Factors that contribute to each stage’s success are identified. The hypotheses that were developed in the theoretical part of the thesis are subsequently tested empirically using the single case study method and semi-structured interviews. The case study confirms the findings of earlier research. Analytics can be viewed as a process with clearly identifiable stages. Specific measures can be taken to improve the success of each stage. The results obtained suggest that an analytics initiative should always be preceded by a thorough goal definition stage. This is a finding that earlier research has not emphasized sufficiently. The study offers business executives a clear roadmap for managing analytics initiatives. It formulates clear action points and allocates parties the responsibility for executing them. The study also highlights some ordinary pitfalls preventing companies from fully benefitting from the results of analytics initiatives. Finally, the study points out new interesting research opportunities in the intersection of information systems science and cognitive science. A key difficulty in using analytics effectively is that the reasoning behind the insights created by the solutions are often complex. Cognitive science could provide us tools for making the insights easier to digest. Lastly, the study highlights that process decoupling will eventually be applied to analytics initiatives. Future studies should research how the stages of an analytics initiative can be separated from each other, and outsourced to parties performing them the most effectively

Model for long QT syndrome type 2 using human iPS cells demonstrates arrhythmogenic characteristics in cell culture

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Проект системы теплоснабжения рабочего цеха АО "КМЗ" г. Кемерово

Объектом исследования является рабочий цех АО «КМЗ». Цель работы – разработка системы теплоснабжения цеха с подбором отопительного оборудования. Температурный график – 90/70 оС. В процессе исследования проводилось изучении ограждающих конструкций здания, климатические характеристики района строительства. В результате исследования был произведен теплотехнический расчет ограждающих конструкций, расчет тепловых потерь для цеха. На основании произведенных расчетов разработан план и аксонометрическая схема системы отопления, проведен тепловой расчет отопительный приборов и гидравлический расчет системы отопления. Произведен подбор отопительного оборудования, расчет теплового баланса котельного агрегата.The object of the research is the working plant of JSC "KMZ". The work purpose – development of system of a heat supply plant with the selection of heating equipment. Temperature chart – 90/70 operating system. In the process the study was conducted the study of the building envelope, climatic characteristics of the construction area. The study was produced by the thermal design of building envelopes, heat loss calculation for the shop. On the basis of the calculations developed a plan and axonometric scheme of the heating system carried out thermal design of heaters and hydraulic calculation of the heating system. Promoted the selection of heating equipment, the calculation of the heat balance boiler unit

Preface to the special issue on Monitoring and Modelling of Carbon-Balance-, Water- and Snow-Related Phenomena at Northern Latitudes

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A Synthesis of Marine Monitoring Methods With the Potential to Enhance the Status Assessment of the Baltic Sea

Highlights - We rated novel methods regarding their ability to improve the Baltic Sea monitoring. - Methods were assessed with respect to their costs and applicability. - All methods can potentially increase data resolution or monitor novel ecosystem elements. - We recommend several novel methods for the Baltic status assessment.A multitude of anthropogenic pressures deteriorate the Baltic Sea, resulting in the need to protect and restore its marine ecosystem. For an efficient conservation, comprehensive monitoring and assessment of all ecosystem elements is of fundamental importance. The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission HELCOM coordinates conservation measures regulated by several European directives. However, this holistic assessment is hindered by gaps within the current monitoring schemes. Here, twenty-two novel methods with the potential to fill some of these gaps and improve the monitoring of the Baltic marine environment are examined. We asked key stakeholders to point out methods likely to improve current Baltic Sea monitoring. We then described these methods in a comparable way and evaluated them based on their costs and applicability potential (i.e., possibility to make them operational). Twelve methods require low to very low costs, while five require moderate and two high costs. Seventeen methods were rated with a high to very high applicability, whereas four methods had moderate and one low applicability for Baltic Sea monitoring. Methods with both low costs and a high applicability include the Manta Trawl, Rocket Sediment Corer, Argo Float, Artificial Substrates, Citizen Observation, Earth Observation, the HydroFIA®pH system, DNA Metabarcoding and Stable Isotope Analysis

Neuromuscular training with injury prevention counselling to decrease the risk of acute musculoskeletal injury in young men during military service: a population-based, randomised study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The rapidly increasing number of activity-induced musculoskeletal injuries among adolescents and young adults is currently a true public health burden. The objective of this study was to investigate whether a neuromuscular training programme with injury prevention counselling is effective in preventing acute musculoskeletal injuries in young men during military service.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The trial design was a population-based, randomised study. Two successive cohorts of male conscripts in four companies of one brigade in the Finnish Defence Forces were first followed prospectively for one 6-month term to determine the baseline incidence of injury. After this period, two new successive cohorts in the same four companies were randomised into two groups and followed prospectively for 6 months. Military service is compulsory for about 90% of 19-year-old Finnish men annually, who comprised the cohort in this study. This randomised, controlled trial included 968 conscripts comprising 501 conscripts in the intervention group and 467 conscripts in the control group. A neuromuscular training programme was used to enhance conscripts' motor skills and body control, and an educational injury prevention programme was used to increase knowledge and awareness of acute musculoskeletal injuries. The main outcome measures were acute injuries of the lower and upper limbs.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the intervention groups, the risk for acute ankle injury decreased significantly compared to control groups (adjusted hazards ratio (HR) = 0.34, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 0.15 to 0.78, <it>P </it>= 0.011). This risk decline was observed in conscripts with low as well as moderate to high baseline fitness levels. In the latter group of conscripts, the risk of upper-extremity injuries also decreased significantly (adjusted HR = 0.37, 95% CI 0.14 to 0.99, <it>P </it>= 0.047). In addition, the intervention groups tended to have less time loss due to injuries (adjusted HR = 0.55, 95% CI 0.29 to 1.04).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A neuromuscular training and injury prevention counselling programme was effective in preventing acute ankle and upper-extremity injuries in young male army conscripts. A similar programme could be useful for all young individuals by initiating a regular exercise routine.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov identifier number <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00595816">NCT00595816</a>.</p

Laboratory-assessed gait cycle entropy for classifying walking limitations among community-dwelling older adults

Among older people, walking difficulty results from actual and perceived declines in physical capacities and environmental requirements for walking. We investigated whether the physiological complexity of the gait cycle covaries with experience of walking difficulty. Walking difficulty, gait speed, and gait cycle complexity were evaluated among 702 community-dwelling older people aged 75, 80, and 85 years who took part in the six-minute walking test in the research laboratory. Walking difficulty for 500 m was self-reported. Complexity was quantified as trunk acceleration multiscale entropy during the gait cycle. Complexity was then compared between those with no reported walking difficulty, walking with modifications but no difficulty, and those reporting walking difficulty. Higher entropy differentiated those reporting no difficulty walking from those reporting walking difficulties, while those reporting having modified their walking, but no difficulty formed an intermediate group that could not be clearly distinguished from the other categories. The higher complexity of the gait cycle is associated with slower gait speed and the presence of self-reported walking difficulty. Among older people, gait cycle complexity which primarily reflects the biomechanical dimensions of gait quality, could be a clinically meaningful measure reflecting specific features of the progression of walking decline. This encourages further investigation of the sensitivity of gait cycle complexity to detect early signs of gait deterioration and to support targeted interventions among older people.peerReviewe