Building consumer trust during the productization phase of a new, smart health tech consumer product

Abstract. The thesis aims to investigate the role of trust during the New Product Development (NPD) phase of smart health tech products, focusing on the consumer testing phase. The central research question examines the factors related to trust that arise during the productization/NPD process, and how these factors can be incorporated and enhanced during the development of a new smart health tech product. The study seeks to understand the factors influencing trust in smart health tech products, validate these factors in a real-life business setting, and provide recommendations for future research and productization processes. The research employs a two-step methodology, starting with a literature review to identify general and specific trust-building factors and establish a theoretical framework. Following this, empirical research is conducted with WellO2, a Finnish health tech company planning to launch a new smart mouthpiece designed to measure lung and breathing functions. This phase involves real-life testing of the product to validate the identified trust-building factors and uncover any previously unrecognized factors. The most crucial findings of the study are expected to highlight the key trust-building factors that emerge during the consumer testing phase of the NPD process and offer practical recommendations for incorporating these factors into future product development processes for SMEs. The results of this study are intended to be used by companies involved in the development of smart health tech products to enhance trust during the NPD process, leading to successful product adoption and commercialization. While the research is conducted in the context of a specific company and product, the findings and recommendations may have broader applicability and generalizability to other companies and products in the smart health tech sector.Asiakasluottamuksen rakentaminen uusien ja älykkäiden terveysteknologiatuotteiden tuotteistamisvaiheessa . Tiivistelmä. Tämä diplomityö pyrkii tutkimaan luottamuksen roolia älykkäiden terveysteknologiatuotteiden uuden tuotekehityksen (NPD) vaiheessa, keskittyen kuluttajatestausvaiheeseen. Keskeinen tutkimuskysymys tarkastelee tuotteistamis-/NPD-prosessin aikana esiin tulevia luottamukseen liittyviä tekijöitä ja sitä, kuinka näitä tekijöitä voidaan sisällyttää ja vahvistaa uuden älyterveysteknologiatuotteen kehityksessä. Tutkimus pyrkii ymmärtämään tekijöitä, jotka vaikuttavat luottamuksen kehittymiseen älyterveysteknologiatuotteissa, arvioimaan näitä tekijöitä todellisessa liiketoimintaympäristössä ja antamaan suosituksia tulevalle tutkimukselle ja tuotteistamisprosesseille. Tutkimus alkaa kirjallisuuskatsauksella, joka pyrkii tunnistamaan luottamuksen rakentamiseen liittyviä tekijöitä ja luomaan täten teoreettisen viitekehyksen aiemman kirjallisuuden pohjalta. Tämän jälkeen teoreettista viitekehystä ja tunnistettuja luottamusta rakentavia tekijöitä tutkitaan todellisessa liiketoimintaympäristössä. Case-yrityksenä on suomalainen terveysteknologiayritys WellO2, joka suunnittelee uuden tuotteen (älysuukappaleen) lanseerausta, jonka tarkoituksena on pystyä mittaamaan keuhkojen hengitystoimintoja. Tutkimuksen aikana tuotetta testattiin todellisessa kuluttajatestausympäristössä ja sillä pyrittiin validoimaan tunnistetut luottamuksen rakentamisen tekijät ja löytämään uusia, vielä tuntemattomia tekijöitä. Tutkimuksen tärkeimmät tulokset korostavat avaintekijöitä uuden tuotteen luottamuksen rakentamiseen, mitkä nousevat esiin NPD-prosessin kuluttajatestausvaiheessa ja tarjoavat käytännön suosituksia näiden tekijöiden sisällyttämiseksi tuleviin tuotekehitysprosesseihin PK-yrityksille. Tämän tutkimuksen tulosten on tarkoitus palvella yrityksiä, jotka ovat mukana älyterveysteknologiatuotteiden kehittämisessä ja joiden tarkoituksena on parantaa kuluttajien luottamusta tuotteeseen NPD-prosessin aikana, mikä helpottaisi tuotteen menestyksekästä käyttäjähyväksyntää ja kaupallistamista. Vaikka tutkimus on tehty yhden yrityksen ja tuotteen kontekstissa, tuloksilla ja suosituksilla voi olla laajempaa käyttöä ja yleistettävyyttä myös muille yrityksille ja tuotteille älyterveysteknologia-alalla

Neptunium(V) transport in granitic rock : A laboratory scale study on the influence of bentonite colloids

In the present study neptunium(V) uptake by crystalline granitic rock (Kuru Grey granite) and the role of stable and mobile bentonite colloids (MX-80) on the migration of neptunium(V) was investigated. Two different experimental setups were utilized, batch-type experiments under stagnant conditions and column experiments under flowing water conditions. The uptake of 10(-6) M neptunium(V) by 40 g/L crushed granite in 10 mM NaClO4 was found to be pH-dependent, whereas neptunium(V) uptake by MX-80 bentonite colloids (0.08-0.8 g/L) was pH-independent up to a pH-value of approximately 11. Column experiments were conducted in the presence and absence of colloids at two pH values (pH = 8 and 10) and two flow rates (0.3 and 0.8 mL/h) in 10 mM NaClO4. The injected neptunium(V) concentration was 2x10(-4) M and the colloid concentration ranged from 0.08 to 0.32 g/L. The properties of the flow field in the columns were investigated with a conservative chloride tracer, at the same two flow rates of 0.8 and 0.3 mL/h. The resulting breakthrough curves were modeled using the analytical solution of advection-matrix diffusion equation. A tailing of neptunium(V) breakthrough curves in comparison to the conservative tracer was observed, which could be explained by a slightly higher retardation of neptunium(V) in the column caused by sorption on the granite. The sorption was in general lower at pH 8 than at pH 10. In addition, the tailing was almost identical in the absence and presence of MX-80 bentonite colloids, implying that the influence of colloids on the neptunium(V) mobility is almost negligible.Peer reviewe

Overview of VideoCLEF 2009: New perspectives on speech-based multimedia content enrichment

VideoCLEF 2009 offered three tasks related to enriching video content for improved multimedia access in a multilingual environment. For each task, video data (Dutch-language television, predominantly documentaries) accompanied by speech recognition transcripts were provided. The Subject Classification Task involved automatic tagging of videos with subject theme labels. The best performance was achieved by approaching subject tagging as an information retrieval task and using both speech recognition transcripts and archival metadata. Alternatively, classifiers were trained using either the training data provided or data collected from Wikipedia or via general Web search. The Affect Task involved detecting narrative peaks, defined as points where viewers perceive heightened dramatic tension. The task was carried out on the “Beeldenstorm” collection containing 45 short-form documentaries on the visual arts. The best runs exploited affective vocabulary and audience directed speech. Other approaches included using topic changes, elevated speaking pitch, increased speaking intensity and radical visual changes. The Linking Task, also called “Finding Related Resources Across Languages,” involved linking video to material on the same subject in a different language. Participants were provided with a list of multimedia anchors (short video segments) in the Dutch-language “Beeldenstorm” collection and were expected to return target pages drawn from English-language Wikipedia. The best performing methods used the transcript of the speech spoken during the multimedia anchor to build a query to search an index of the Dutch language Wikipedia. The Dutch Wikipedia pages returned were used to identify related English pages. Participants also experimented with pseudo-relevance feedback, query translation and methods that targeted proper names

Field-Weighted XML Retrieval Based on BM25.

This is the first year for the Centre for Interactive Systems Research participation of INEX. Based on a newly developed XML indexing and retrieval system on Okapi, we extend Robertson’s field-weighted BM25F for document retrieval to element level retrieval function BM25E. In this paper, we introduce this new function and our experimental method in detail, and then show how we tuned weights for our selected fields by using INEX 2004 topics and assessments. Based on the tuned models we submitted our runs for CO.Thorough, CO.FetchBrowse, the methods we propose show real promise. Existing problems and future work are also discussed

Compositions of dissolved organic matter in the ice-covered waters above the Aurora hydrothermal vent system, Gakkel Ridge, Arctic Ocean

Hydrothermal vents modify and displace subsurface dissolved organic matter (DOM) into the ocean. Once in the ocean, this DOM is transported together with elements, particles, dissolved gases and biomass along with the neutrally buoyant plume layer. Considering the number and extent of actively venting hydrothermal sites in the oceans, their contribution to the oceanic DOM pool may be substantial. Here, we investigate the dynamics of DOM in relation to hydrothermal venting and related processes at the as yet unexplored Aurora hydrothermal vent field within the ultraslow-spreading Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Ocean at 82.9∘ N. We examined the vertical distribution of DOM composition from sea ice to deep waters at six hydrocast stations distal to the active vent and its neutrally buoyant plume layer. In comparison to background seawater, we found that the DOM in waters directly affected by the hydrothermal plume was molecularly less diverse and 5 %–10 % lower in number of molecular formulas associated with the molecular categories related to lipid and protein-like compounds. On the other hand, samples that were not directly affected by the plume were chemically more diverse and had a higher percentage of chemical formulas associated with the carbohydrate-like category. Our results suggest that hydrothermal processes at Aurora may influence the DOM distribution in the bathypelagic ocean by spreading more thermally and/or chemically induced compositions, while DOM compositions in epipelagic and mesopelagic layers are mainly governed by the microbial carbon pump dynamics and surface-ocean–sea-ice interactionspublishedVersio

Laboratory-based surveillance of COVID-19 in the Greater Helsinki area, Finland, February-June 2020

Objectives: The aim was to characterise age-and sex-specific severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus disease-2 (SARS-CoV-2) RT-PCR sampling frequency and positivity rate in Greater Helsinki area in Finland during February & ndash;June 2020. We also describe the laboratory capacity building for these diagnostics. Methods: Laboratory registry data for altogether 80,791 specimens from 70,517 individuals was analysed. The data included the date of sampling, sex, age and the SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test result on specimens collected between 1 February and 15 June 2020. Results: Altogether, 4057/80,791 (5.0%) of the specimens were positive and 3915/70,517 (5.6%) of the individuals were found positive. In all, 37% of specimens were from male and 67% from female subjects. While the number of positive cases was similar in male and female subjects, the positivity rate was significantly higher in male subjects: 7.5% of male and 4.4% of female subjects tested positive. The highest incidence/100,000 was observed in those aged >80 years. The proportion of young adults in positive cases increased in late May 2020. Large dips in testing frequency were observed during every weekend and also during public holidays. Conclusions: Our data suggest that men pursue SARS-CoV-2 testing less frequently than women. Consequently, a subset of coronavirus disease-2019 infections in men may have gone undetected. People sought testing less frequently on weekends and public holidays, and this may also lead to missing of positive cases. The proportion of young adults in positive cases increased towards the end of the study period, which may suggest their returning back to social behaviour with an increased risk of infection. (c) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-ncnd/4.0/).Peer reviewe

Relevance similarity: an alternative means to monitor information retrieval systems

BACKGROUND: Relevance assessment is a major problem in the evaluation of information retrieval systems. The work presented here introduces a new parameter, "Relevance Similarity", for the measurement of the variation of relevance assessment. In a situation where individual assessment can be compared with a gold standard, this parameter is used to study the effect of such variation on the performance of a medical information retrieval system. In such a setting, Relevance Similarity is the ratio of assessors who rank a given document same as the gold standard over the total number of assessors in the group. METHODS: The study was carried out on a collection of Critically Appraised Topics (CATs). Twelve volunteers were divided into two groups of people according to their domain knowledge. They assessed the relevance of retrieved topics obtained by querying a meta-search engine with ten keywords related to medical science. Their assessments were compared to the gold standard assessment, and Relevance Similarities were calculated as the ratio of positive concordance with the gold standard for each topic. RESULTS: The similarity comparison among groups showed that a higher degree of agreements exists among evaluators with more subject knowledge. The performance of the retrieval system was not significantly different as a result of the variations in relevance assessment in this particular query set. CONCLUSION: In assessment situations where evaluators can be compared to a gold standard, Relevance Similarity provides an alternative evaluation technique to the commonly used kappa scores, which may give paradoxically low scores in highly biased situations such as document repositories containing large quantities of relevant data

Does Genetic Diversity Predict Health in Humans?

Genetic diversity, especially at genes important for immune functioning within the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC), has been associated with fitness-related traits, including disease resistance, in many species. Recently, genetic diversity has been associated with mate preferences in humans. Here we asked whether these preferences are adaptive in terms of obtaining healthier mates. We investigated whether genetic diversity (heterozygosity and standardized mean d2) at MHC and nonMHC microsatellite loci, predicted health in 153 individuals. Individuals with greater allelic diversity (d2) at nonMHC loci and at one MHC locus, linked to HLA-DRB1, reported fewer symptoms over a four-month period than individuals with lower d2. In contrast, there were no associations between MHC or nonMHC heterozygosity and health. NonMHC-d2 has previously been found to predict male preferences for female faces. Thus, the current findings suggest that nonMHC diversity may play a role in both natural and sexual selection acting on human populations

A Genome-Wide Association Study of Diabetic Kidney Disease in Subjects With Type 2 Diabetes

dentification of sequence variants robustly associated with predisposition to diabetic kidney disease (DKD) has the potential to provide insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms responsible. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of DKD in type 2 diabetes (T2D) using eight complementary dichotomous and quantitative DKD phenotypes: the principal dichotomous analysis involved 5,717 T2D subjects, 3,345 with DKD. Promising association signals were evaluated in up to 26,827 subjects with T2D (12,710 with DKD). A combined T1D+T2D GWAS was performed using complementary data available for subjects with T1D, which, with replication samples, involved up to 40,340 subjects with diabetes (18,582 with DKD). Analysis of specific DKD phenotypes identified a novel signal near GABRR1 (rs9942471, P = 4.5 x 10(-8)) associated with microalbuminuria in European T2D case subjects. However, no replication of this signal was observed in Asian subjects with T2D or in the equivalent T1D analysis. There was only limited support, in this substantially enlarged analysis, for association at previously reported DKD signals, except for those at UMOD and PRKAG2, both associated with estimated glomerular filtration rate. We conclude that, despite challenges in addressing phenotypic heterogeneity, access to increased sample sizes will continue to provide more robust inference regarding risk variant discovery for DKD.Peer reviewe