Elastic lines on splayed columnar defects studied numerically

We investigate by exact optimization method properties of two- and three-dimensional systems of elastic lines in presence of splayed columnar disorder. The ground state of many lines is separable both in 2d and 3d leading to a random walk -like roughening in 2d and ballistic behavior in 3d. Furthermore, we find that in the case of pure splayed columnar disorder in contrast to point disorder there is no entanglement transition in 3d. Entanglement can be triggered by perturbing the pure splay system with point defects.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in PR

Strain localization and anisotropic correlations in a mesoscopic model of amorphous plasticity

A mesoscopic model for shear plasticity of amorphous materials in two dimensions is introduced, and studied through numerical simulations in order to elucidate the macroscopic (large scale) mechanical behavior. Plastic deformation is assumed to occur through a series of local reorganizations. Using a discretization of the mechanical fields on a discrete lattice, local reorganizations are modeled as local slip events. Local yield stresses are randomly distributed in space and invariant in time. Each plastic slip event induces a long-ranged elastic stress redistribution. Rate and thermal effects are not discussed in the present study. Extremal dynamics allows for recovering many of the complex features of amorphous plasticity observed experimentally and in numerical atomistic simulations in the quasi-static regime. In particular, a quantitative picture of localization, and of the anisotropic strain correlation both in the initial transient regime, and in the steady state are provided. In addition, the preparation of the amorphous sample is shown to have a crucial effect of on the localization behavior

Avalanches, precursors and finite size fluctuations in a mesoscopic model of amorphous plasticity

We discuss avalanche and finite size fluctuations in a mesoscopic model to describe the shear plasticity of amorphous materials. Plastic deformation is assumed to occur through series of local reorganizations. Yield stress criteria are random while each plastic slip event induces a quadrupolar long range elastic stress redistribution. The model is discretized on a regular square lattice. Shear plasticity can be studied in this context as a depinning dynamic phase transition. We show evidence for a scale free distribution of avalanches $P(s)\propto S^{-\kappa}$ with a non trivial exponent $\kappa \approx 1.25$ significantly different from the mean field result $\kappa = 1.5$. Finite size effects allow for a characterization of the scaling invariance of the yield stress fluctuations observed in small samples. We finally identify a population of precursors of plastic activity and characterize its spatial distribution

Kokovartalonvibraatiohoito Cp-vammaisen lapsen fysioterapiassa

Vibraatiohoito ja sen vaikutukset ovat melko vähän tutkittu hoitomuoto fysioterapiassa. Erityisesti lapsipotilaiden kanssa tämän harjoittelumuodon käyttö on harvinaista. Jatkuvasti määrältään kasvava tutkimusnäyttö vibraatiohoidon positiivisista vaikutuksista antaa näyttöä, että vibraatiohoitoa kannattaa tutkia lisää. (Rauch 2009; Sandström ym. 2005.) Tämä opinnäytetyö on integroitu kirjallisuuskatsaus. Opinnäytetyön tarkoituksena on kerätä uutta tietoa vibraatiohoidon käytöstä osana Cp-lasten fysioterapiaa. Opinnäytetyössä käsitellään Cp-vamman, lapsen toimintakyvyn sekä vibraatiohoidon välisiä yhteyksiä aihetta tutkivan tutkimuksen pohjalta. Tämän työ on tehty yhteistyössä HUS Lastenlinnan kanssa Aineisto kerättiin PubMED:n, PEDro:n sekä EBSCO:n tietokantoja käyttäen tarkkaan määritettyjen hakusanojen avulla hylkäyskriteerejä noudattaen. Lopullinen tulos oli 14 tutkimusta aiheesta. Tutkimusten analyysi tapahtui kvalitatiivisen sisällönanalyysin metodeja noudattaen. Tutkimuksissa oli käytetty monia eri metodeja vaikutusten mittaamiseen ja näiden tulosten ja oman johtopäätösten välisen synteesin luominen tapahtui aiheeseen laajalti perehtymällä sekä aineiston tarkalla analyysilla että tulkinnalla. Tämä työ tarkasteli vibraatiohoidon vaikutusta toimintakykyyn toiminnallisen liikkumisen, kävely, spastisiteetin sekä tasapainon kautta. Tutkimusten tulosten perusteella vibraatiohoito vaikuttaa kaikkiin edellä mainittuihin fyysisen toimintakyvyn osa-alueisiin positiivisesti. Tämä opinnäytetyö koostaa nämä tulokset, kerää uutta tietoa vibraatiohoidon käytöstä Cp-vammaisten lasten fysioterapiassa sekä tarjoaa monia uusia näkökulmia vibraatiohoidon vaikutukksiin sekä soveltuvuuteen Cp-vammaisten lasten terapiaan. Asiasanat: Kokovartalovibraatio, lapset, Cp-vamma, toimintakykyVibration therapy is a fairly little studied treatment method in physical therapy. Especially in the case of children, the application of vibration in therapy or training is very rare. However, the growing number of studies in vibration therapy suggests positive effects and contributes to the need of further studies. (Rauch 2009; Sandström ym. 2005.) This thesis was an integrative literature review. The purpose of this study was to gather new information on the use of whole body vibration in children’s physical therapy. This thesis studies the relations between cerebral palsy (CP), functional performance and vibration therapy through studies on the subject. The thesis was conducted in co-operation with HUS Children’s Castle hospital. The studies used in this thesis were acquired through PubMED, PEDro and EBSCO databases with the use of carefully chosen terms and conditions. The final sample consisted of 14 studies. The analysis of these studies was performed by using qualitative content analysis. The reviewed studies had used a variety of methods to measure the effects of whole body vibration. The synthesis between the results in the studies and the conclusions in this thesis was conducted by thorough study, analysis and interpretation of the studies in use. This thesis focused on the effects of whole body vibration on performance through functional mobility, walking ability, spasticity and balance. The findings suggest that whole body vibration has a positive effect on all the above-mentioned characteristics of functional performance. This thesis collates these results, provides new information and presents several new points of view towards the effects of vibration therapy, its use and suitability in the therapy of children with CP. Keywords: whole body vibration, cerebral palsy, children, functional performanc

Productization of Services

Opinnäytetyön on tilannut resurssienhallinta-alan yritys. Tilaus on osa suurempaa palveluiden tuotteistamisprojektia, jonka onnistumista opinnäytetyön on tarkoitus tutkia ja arvoida. Opinnäytetyön tavoitteena on tutkia, analysoida ja arvioida onnistuneen tuotteistamisprojektin syitä ja metodeita, sekä yleisesti- että tapauskohtaisesti tilanneen yrityksen kohdalta, minkä jälkeen opinnäytetyö pyrkii tuottamaan ohjeita sekä neuvoja tuotteistamisen kehittämiseksi. Palveluiden tuotteistamisen onnistumista mitataan opinnäytetyössä sen vaikutuksia myynnin tehokkuuteen verraten. Teoriapohjana opinnäytetyö tarkastelee palveluiden myyntiä sekä markkinointia, myyntiprosessia sekä niiden pohjalta johdettua palveluiden tuotteistusta ja sen ominaisuuksia ja vaikutuksia myynin tehokkuuteen. opinnäytetyössä käytetään tilanneen yrityksen omia myyntitilastoja, sekä sen myynin työryhmälle tehtyä haastattelua. Opinnäytetyö analysoi tilanneen yrityksen myynnin tehokkuutta tilasto pohjalta sekä haastattelua tukena käyttäen, ennen ja jälkee palveluiden tuotteistamisprosessin. Vertailun ja sen jälkeisen analyysin tuloksena todetaan, että tilannut yritys on onnistunut parantamaan myynin tehokkuutta palveluiden tuotteistamista hyödyntäen etenkin myyntiin käytetyn ajan kuluessa. Tähän syiksi on arvioitu sisäisten palveluprosessien sekä asiakirjojen ja tarjousten yhdenmukaistaminen. Lopuksi edellämainittuja arvioita hyväksikäyttäen opinnäytetyö suosittelee että yritys hyödyntäisi tuotteiden paketointia kehittääkseen palveluiden tuotteistusta, sekä sitä kautta myynnin tehokkuutta tulevaisuudessa.The thesis was written as the bachelor’s thesis of the author. It was commissioned by a company referred to as “the commissioning company” due to request by the said company. The thesis was commissioned as part of a larger productization effort of services by the commissioning company to evaluate the success of the productization of their services. The objectives of the thesis were to research, analyze and evaluate the key factors of a successful productization of services and its effects on sales efficiency. Moreover, the thesis aspired to evaluate the success of productization effort of the commissioning company by analyzing its effects on the efficiency of sales of the commissioning company. Furthermore, based on the evaluations the thesis aimed to provide relevant information on how to improve the state of the productization of service, and therefore the efficiency of sales of the commissioning company in their future efforts. The theory examined in the thesis includes service marketing and its challenges in comparison to product marketing in a business to business sales context, an introduction to sales process, as well as productization and its key methods and effects. In addition the thesis utilized statistical data of the sales of the commissioning company as well as an interview conducted on their sales team. An analysis was conducted on the efficiency of sales before and after the productization effort and the causes were evaluated. Main results were that the commissioning company succeeded in increasing the efficiency of its sales through productization primarily by decreasing the time of its sales process by streamlining and standardizing its internal processes such as document and offer generation. Lastly the thesis recommended that the commissioning company could implement service packaging to increase its sales efficiency even higher in its future efforts

Ground-States of Two Directed Polymers

Joint ground states of two directed polymers in a random medium are investigated. Using exact min-cost flow optimization the true two-line ground-state is compared with the single line ground state plus its first excited state. It is found that these two-line configurations are (for almost all disorder configurations) distinct implying that the true two-line ground-state is non-separable, even with 'worst-possible' initial conditions. The effective interaction energy between the two lines scales with the system size with the scaling exponents 0.39 and 0.21 in 2D and 3D, respectively.Comment: 19 pages RevTeX, figures include

Artification in Natural History Museums

Natural history exhibitions have changed considerably over recent decades concurring with a rise of a general movement of aestheticization in the Western culture. This usually results from an attempt to make the exhibitions more appealing to provide the public numerous ways of enjoying themselves, but they are also used to communicate information, especially of an ethical and affective kind. In this paper I will consider the effects of a particular kind of aestheticization, namely artification, of these kinds of exhibitions. Artification, i.e, the process of regarding non-art objects as art, appears to be in conflict with the science-based purposes of these exhibitions. Is this truly so? Does science and the viewer\u27s understanding of scientific knowledge change when science is presented and exerienced as art or as art-like or as something aesthetic? I will approach this question phenomenologically by pondering my own experience in the Natural Bistory Museum in Helsinki and the relation of aesthetics, science and art on that basis. Instead of trying to define how art-like the exhibit in question as a whole is, I will concentrate on certain characters the exhibit has that are perhaps more readily associated with the artisitc: uniqueness and presence, and how through these concepts we may gain a look into the interrelation between art and science

Abortion Wishes and Abortion Prevention - Women Seeking Legal Termination of Pregnancy During the 1950s and 1960s in Finland

This article studies Finnish abortion-seeking women in the 1950s and 1960s byinvestigating the life situations of the abortion-seeking women and their possibilitiesto regulate childbearing under the 1950 Abortion Act. During the 1950s and 1960s,abortion was legal in Finland only on medical, ethical or eugenic grounds. The dataconsists of patient documents of the Finnish Family Federations (Vestliitto) Tamperesocial counseling service (sosiaalineuvola) from the years 1955 and 1968 and thedocuments mainly comprise abortion requests. Results show that in 1955 83 percentand in 1968 68 percent of the abortion-seeking women were married. 90 percent ofthem had two or more children and the mothers often requested abortion because ofpoor financial or social circumstances. The family conditions of these women wereoften described as difficult, as they had the main responsibility for taking care of andproviding for their families. The majority of the abortion requests were denied. In 1955,only 16 percent of the abortion-seeking women received an affirmative decision fromthe Family Federation whereas the share of admitted abortions in 1968 was 42 percent.The documents show a severe collision between the womens wishes for abortion and thesocietys interest to prevent abortions for pronatalist reasons. The data also indicatesthat women were not treated equally because their own determined and persistantbehaviour as well as the doctoral practices influenced the abortion decisions