Study of sensoric properties of organic semiconductors

Látky na bázi diketopyrrolopyrrolu jsou organické pigmenty, které mají charakter polovodičů. Jejich analogy s pyridylovou boční skupinou jsou díky své citlivosti na vodík potenciálně využitelné jako vodíkové senzory. Cílem bakalářské práce bylo zkoumat vlastnosti senzorů s aktivní vrstvou z derivátů diketopyrrolopyrrolu. Testování senzorů probíhalo na aparatuře, která byla sestavena na FCH VUT v Brně. Konkrétně byly sledovány změny vodivosti senzorů v přítomnosti vodíku za různých podmínek.Compounds based on diketopyrrolopyrrole are organic pigments that behave as semi-conductors. Their analogues with pyridyl side group are due to their sensitivity to hydrogen potentially useful as hydrogen sensors. The aim of this work was to examine properties of sensors with an active layer of diketopyrollopyrolle derivatives. The sensors were tested on an apparatus built for this purpose at FCH VUT in Brno. More specifically, changes to conductivity of these sensors in the presence of hydrogen under various conditions were studied.

Modelling and solving logistical problems with combinatorial optimization: case Parmatic

This paper deals with various logistical optimisation problems by modelling them with modified versions of, or problems related to, the Vehicle Routing Problem. The problem is modelled as an Asymmetrical Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with multiple vehicles, the number of vehicles being found from solving the Bin Packing Problem. First, a linear programming formulation is constructed. Then an object-oriented programming implementation is derived from the original formulation, and implemented into a tool used to solve an empirical case from a construction company. The tool used is a Java-based application developed by the author

Using Mindfulness to Decrease Stress in College Students

The prevalence of stress is increasing in colleges, where students are experiencing anxiety at an alarming rate, with anxiety being the topic most discussed in university counseling centers. The purpose of this evidence-based practice project was to determine the effect of mindfulness exercises on college students’ perceived stress. The Stetler Model guided the project development and implementation. The literature search revealed that best practice included mindfulness exercises through a combination of face-to-face instruction and remote online audio meditation for a duration of eight weeks. For this project, 56 undergraduate students (health care-leadership, health-science, and nursing majors) enrolled in a health care leadership class were asked to participate. Consenting students completed the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) at baseline. Mindfulness activities, in the form of 3- to 10-minute audiovisual sessions, were provided prior to the start of scheduled class for a period of eight weeks. Students were also encouraged to use and track additional guided audio meditations outside of the classroom. At the end of the 8-week period, paired t-tests were used to evaluate the effect of the intervention on students’ stress. Findings included a modest reduction in total PSS-10 scores from baseline to post-intervention: 20.23 vs. 18.70 (t = 1.743, p = 0.089). But statistically significant improvement in scores were noted on the item that assessed how often students felt nervous and stressed M = 3.33 vs. M = 2.93, (t = 2.716, p = .010). A repeated measures ANOVA was run on post-intervention total PSS-10 scores to assess for efficacy within specific demographic variables (gender, major, academic grade level, GPA, and counseling center visits), but none of these were statistically significant. The secondary outcome of PSS-10 scores based on the total days of mindfulness exercise intervention participation showed not significant (p = .085) results. However, the mean post-intervention PSS-10 score did decrease with general utilization of mindfulness exercise sessions. The results may be clinically significant and may provide college-aged students with the resources needed to combat stress as they continue their education and enter the workforce

Taxation and Inequality : Study of Changing Income Inequality in Finland, 1961-2005

Following the publication of Thomas Piketty’s magnum opus Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2014a) and his subsequent work Capital and Ideology (2020), much attention has been paid on taxation as a driving cause behind changing income inequality from the 1980s and 1990s onward. In Finland, the work of Piketty and his colleague, Emmanuel Saez (e.g., Piketty & Saez, 2003), has received the attention of leading inequality scholars, including the economists Marja Riihelä, Risto Sullström and Matti Tuomala (e.g., Riihelä et al., 2005). Following Piketty & Saez, these authors have arrived at the conclusion that changes in income inequality in Finland during the 1990s and early 2000s can be attributed to changes in income taxation at the beginning of the 1990s. Riihelä et al. argue that the introduction of the so-called Nordic dual income tax (1993) lowered the effective tax rates on top capital incomes vis-à-vis wages and salaries, thus increasing the incentives of transforming the latter into more favorably treated capital incomes. This paper seeks to criticize the Riihelä et al. explanation on the grounds of tax history and changes in Finnish companies’ profitability. It is proposed that the chain of causation needs to be taken beyond taxation and into the creation of income in businesses and corporations, as well as its distribution. The paper shows that the firms’ payout ratio has remained surprisingly stable apart from the tumultuous years of the early 1990s depression. Although taxation has probably affected the composition of the firms’ payout, it has, on average, had a much lesser impact on its level. While taxation may have amplified the changes in after-tax income inequality, it has not been their fundamental cause. It is argued that profitability may hold the key to these shifts in income inequality. Firm ownership in Finland, as elsewhere (e.g., Bengtsson & Waldenström, 2018) has been highly concentrated in the top-most fractiles (for example, the top 1% or 0.1%). Given the fact that these fractiles’ income has historically been contingent on profits (even if paid in wages or fringe benefits, for example), it is argued that the changes in Finnish income inequality during this period have been very much a top-level phenomenon. It is also argued that these results may provide impetus for similar research in other countries, as well. The paper’s research period coincides with a U-shaped trend in profitability and income inequality. First, both profitability and income inequality decreased from the 1960s until a deep depression in the beginning of the 1990s. Then, during the 1990s, inequality and profitability rebounded, leveling off after the turn of the millennium. The paper uses Finnish taxable income and wealth statistics as its primary source of income data. National accounts data is used for estimating business and corporate profitability. Additional survey-based data on Finnish households’ income is used for robustness checks. Additionally, the paper uses secondary sources on tax legislation, firm ownership and capital structures to support its argument. Methodologically, income shares are estimated using a generalized Pareto curve interpolation developed by Blanchet et al. (2017). The impact of the 1993 tax reform as well as its late 1980s and early 1990s predecessors are assessed in terms of marginal tax rates and elasticity of taxable income. Finally, the medium-term dynamic impact of the interaction of profitability and payout, the so-called payout rate of response, is measured on the top 1 percent taxable income share.Non peer reviewe

Looking Beyond the Debt Accumulation : A Critical Assessment of the Causal Mechanisms behind a Global Debt Crisis

This thesis aims to offer a critical analysis of the phenomenon of a global debt crisis and possible mechanisms that may cause them. It starts with a hypothesis that the concept of a global debt crisis is too vaguely defined and relies too much on the idea of excessive debt being the root cause of the crisis. Instead, the thesis will argue that a global debt crisis must have a systemic nature where the crisis threatens the existence of the entire global monetary system. For the purposes of the argument, the different interpretations of debt are examined, the relevant features of our global monetary system are determined, and a systemic crisis theory of Jürgen Habermas is utilized. The thesis has its theoretical background in Critical Realism, which will help distinguish social mechanisms with real causal powers that may contribute to forming a global debt crisis. The thesis uses abductive and retroductive reasoning to assess different mechanisms brought forward in the relevant literature of whether they are capable and necessary to cause a global debt crisis. Furthermore, the thesis will approach the debt from the perspective of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), which emphasizes the state’s role in managing money and debt relations. Specifically, the thesis will apply the frameworks of sectoral balances and monetary sovereignty to determine the differences of the global debt network in contrast to sovereign or private debt. Based on these frameworks, the argument is that the same mechanisms cannot cause a global debt crisis as a sovereign debt crisis. In the analysis part, the thesis focuses on two possible mechanisms that frequently appear in the academic literature as a cause for a global debt crisis: global imbalances and global debt deflation. The case for global imbalances relies on the fears of the U.S. dollar collapsing, which the frameworks of MMT indicate to be highly implausible due to the total U.S. monetary sovereignty. On the other hand, the case for global debt deflation rests on an increasing accumulation of private debt, which is shown to be more dangerous globally. However, despite its sound systemic causal mechanism, the assessment finds that global debt deflation is alone an insufficient cause to create a global debt crisis. In conclusion, the thesis emphasizes the role and significance of political decisions as a necessary cause behind most debt crises, especially a possible global one. The relevance of debt-controlling institutions are considered briefly, but the ultimate responsibility for preventing a global debt crisis is put into the hands of currency-issuing states. Political decisions will be shown to function as both a capable and necessary cause for a global crisis. Furthermore, the thesis also considers the limitations of using MMT to examine global debt relations and gives preliminary suggestions for further research

Managing New Ventures and Knowing Whether You Need to Pivot Your Business Model: Evidence from the Finnish IT Sector

Research Objectives Corporate agility is considered to be a key competitive advantage of startup companies developing new products when compared to larger corporations. With the now popular Lean Startup -methodology suggesting companies should make swift decisions to change their strategy and business model in uncertain new ventures, companies are supposed to know very quickly whether a business model is going to be successful or not. The purpose of this study is to understand why companies make radical changes to their business model and how they try to ensure at a relatively early stage that a business model is likely to fail, and that the most prudent action to take is to change trajectory and focus on another business model. Subsequently, the study seeks to clarify how agile companies develop their products under high levels of uncertainty. Methodology The empirical data for this study was gathered from eight semi-structured interviews with founders or early investors from growing Finnish IT startup companies. The respondents were selected as they have been involved with their respective companies from conception or from a very early stage and due to their top management position, the interviewees are very knowledgeable about all the reasoning behind the strategic decisions their companies made throughout the lifecycle of their core product offering. The interviews were analyzed using a systematic coding process. Findings The findings of the study indicate that companies either pivot due to a prolonged period of disappointing sales performance, or due to the new opportunities presented by experiments with new business models that lead to an immediate impact in customer satisfaction and revenue growth. The study indicates that disappointing performance is a sound basis for pivot only after multiple iterations on a business model, as it then becomes clearer that progress is too slow to reach desired performance levels and financial trouble is already visible in the horizon. Another finding of the study was the temporal differences between pivots that arose from negative performance and positive surprises from experiments

Low-cost embedded system for relative localization in robotic swarms

In this paper, we present a small, light-weight, low-cost, fast and reliable system designed to satisfy requirements of relative localization within a swarm of micro aerial vehicles. The core of the proposed solution is based on off-the-shelf components consisting of the Caspa camera module and Gumstix Overo board accompanied by a developed efficient image processing method for detecting black and white circular patterns. Although the idea of the roundel recognition is simple, the developed system exhibits reliable and fast estimation of the relative position of the pattern up to 30 fps using the full resolution of the Caspa camera. Thus, the system is suited to meet requirements for a vision based stabilization of the robotic swarm. The intent of this paper is to present the developed system as an enabling technology for various robotic tasks

Navigation, localization and stabilization of formations of unmanned aerial and ground vehicles

A leader-follower formation driving algorithm developed for control of heterogeneous groups of unmanned micro aerial and ground vehicles stabilized under a top-view relative localization is presented in this paper. The core of the proposed method lies in a novel avoidance function, in which the entire 3D formation is represented by a convex hull projected along a desired path to be followed by the group. Such a representation of the formation provides non-collision trajectories of the robots and respects requirements of the direct visibility between the team members in environment with static as well as dynamic obstacles, which is crucial for the top-view localization. The algorithm is suited for utilization of a simple yet stable visual based navigation of the group (referred to as GeNav), which together with the on-board relative localization enables deployment of large teams of micro-scale robots in environments without any available global localization system. We formulate a novel Model Predictive Control (MPC) based concept that enables to respond to the changing environment and that provides a robust solution with team members' failure tolerance included. The performance of the proposed method is verified by numerical and hardware experiments inspired by reconnaissance and surveillance missions

Can Applying a Gender Lens to Social Innovation Promote Women\u27s Rights and Gender Equality?

Social innovation is not new, but it is increasingly being called on to provide solutions to some of the world’s most pressing social and economic problems. Despite awareness about its importance, research in the field of social innovation is often vague, and there are competing definitions and understandings of the concept. There is also very little research that attempts to connect the field of social innovation with the fields of gender studies, women’s studies, feminist research, or men and masculinity studies. This dissertation applies a gender lens to the concept of social innovation. In doing so, it aims to develop the foundations for future research at the intersection of social innovation and gender equality. To conduct this research, I sought an affiliation with the MATCH International Women’s Fund, a Canadian organization that provides grants to support women’s social innovations in the Global South. This is a qualitative exploratory study in which I used peer-reviewed academic research as well as practitioner tools and knowledge from a range of sectors and disciplines. These include the results of 25 in-depth interviews with people engaged in social innovation or a related field, data from Twitter Canada, and a fellowship experience at Canada’s leading innovation hub, MaRS Discovery District. My research demonstrates the need for gender sensitivity and analysis in the field of social innovation. I argue that social innovation will not achieve its full potential if it does not understand how to respond to existing gender hierarchies all over the world. Innovation is about bringing together different perspectives; when we leave an analysis of gender out, we miss out on a lot. A gender analysis is not as simple as including more women in innovation; it is also about how innovation is interpreted and understood

Faktor-Fakor yang Mempengaruhi Tercapainya SPM Kesehatan pada Pelayanan Penderita Hipertensi di Kabupaten Gunungkidul

Penilaian kinerja penyelenggaraan urusan wajib berkaitan dengan pelayanan dasar kepada masyarakat dapat dilihat melalui capaian SPM. Capaian SPM Penderita Hipertensi Kabupaten Gunungkidul pada tahun 2021 yaitu sebesar 8,02%, masih belum mencapai target nasional sebesar 100%. Target yang masih belum tercapai ini menjadi indikator masih perlu ditingkatkan kembali pelayanan yang diberikan kepada masyarakat melalui analisis faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi proses implementasi kebijakan SPM pelayanan penderita hipertensi di Kabupaten Gunungkidul. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kualitatif dengan pendekatan deskriptif analitik berupa wawancara mendalam (in-depth interview) dan observasi langsung. Hasil dari penelitian ini yaitu penerapan SPM pelayanan penderita hipertensi di Kabupaten Gunungkidul sudah sesuai dengan peraturan yang berlaku, akan tetapi terdapat permasalahan dalam mencapai target SPM yang telah ditentukan yaitu terdapat kendala dalam hal sasaran yang belum menggunakan data rill penderita hipertensi, kurangnya SDM pelayanan penderita hipertensi, jumlah sasaran yang tidak sebanding dengan SDM puskesmas, rendahnya kesadaran penderita hipertensi untuk melakukan pengobatan rutin di fasilitas kesehatan, belum terintegrasi dengan baik jejaring fasilitas kesehatan terkait dengan pencatatan dan pelaporan pelayanan penderita hipertensi dan kegiatan Posbindu PTM yang belum bisa berjalan secara mandiri tanpa pendampingan dari puskesmas