Doctoral thesis: On the Role of Process Regions at Stationary and Growing Cracks.

Studies of crack behaviour and fracture are generally performed using continuum analysis. Thus, the process region is either not considered at all or assumed to be point-sized. In the latter case it is often ascribed a desired property, usually the ability to consume energy.A major step towards the understanding of the fracture process region the concept of autonomy of the near tip field was introduced by Barenblatt in 1962. He also introduced a cohesive modulus as a description of the material behaviour in the crack tip vicinity. This implies again that process region should be small in some sense. In an elastic surrounding smallness of the process region must be related to a significant geometrical length, usually the crack length. Which introduces the question about what happens in the case the crack is of similar size or even small compared with the linear extent of the fracture process region. The present thesis brings some light into this

Paris' exponent m<2 and behaviour of short cracks - Discussion of fracture paper #23

The official iMechanica Blog for the Elsevier Journal Engineering Fracture Mechanic

A matter of balance in a fast paced society: performing Ayurvedic health counseling

This paper concerns the practice of so called ‘Ayurvedic health counselling’ in Sweden today. It is a case study involving semi-structured interviews with six practitioners in the Stockholm area. The focus is on how the practitioners construe the therapeutic processes involved in their practice. The aim of the case study is to develop theoretical interpretations of these processes in terms of a performance perspective based upon Catherine Bell’s concept of ‘ritualization’. The client’s participation can be interpreted as a ritualized agency with a sense of practical mastery of the specific ritualized space. The cause and cure of the illness is attributed to concrete factors through the emphasis on body and habits, a contextualization and embodiment of the illness. By being recognized as a person that is active in relation to her/his life problems, a person with responsibility and control of the illness, the client’s engagement in (and recognition of ) the ritualized space is made an integral part of the ritualization

Institutions, Veto Players and Policy Change-The Privatization Process of the Telecommunication Sector in Germany and Switzerland

Veto player have come to serve as an explanatory fact in the divergence of policy outcomes. Contemporary research on the subject of policy making argues that policy stability is more likely in political settings with multiple veto players, although it restricts a government's ability to push through reforms. The ambition of this thesis is to examine the affect political institutions have on the policy making process. More precisely, it aims to evaluate the explanatory power of the veto player theory as provided by Tsebelis (1995). This thesis reconstructs and discuss the assumptions and predictions of the veto player theory. The method being used is a comparative study. The theory will be tested against the cases of the telecommunication reforms in Germany and Switzerland. In both countries the proposal of a complete privatization of the telecommunication sector been considered, but whereas in Germany (1994), the second post-reform transformed the state monopoly into a private sector Switzerland rejected the same proposal, as late as 2006. Even though the concept of veto player has a central role in explaining policy outcomes, the findings show that the veto player theory is not alone sufficient alone to explain the different policy outcomes in selected cases. The more general critics against the theory derives from how actors endowed with veto power are conceptualized. To strong assumptions on the actors behavior, might result in overlooking potential veto players

VERTICAL INTEGRATION OF A MANUFACTURER’S AFTER SALES UNIT A case study on transaction costs

Manufacturers are continuously moving towards customers and offering them value-adding services. These services are called after-sales services and they include different kinds of maintenance work and spare-parts delivery. The need for after-sales servicing is usually located outside of the manufacturer’s home country. As the after market is an increasingly important source of revenue manufacturers need to carefully choose how to manage and govern their after-sales operations. The purpose of this thesis is to study the firm, transaction and market specific factors that are most likely to affect the make or buy decision for a manufacturer’s after-sales operations. This study follows the work of Morschett (2006) and Morschett et al. (2008) and analyses five particular after-sales characteristics that are most likely to affect vertical integration, i.e. the choice of governance for a manufacturer’s after-sales operations. The transaction costs literature provides a powerful tool for analyzing the choice of governance for a manufacturer’s foreign operations. Manufacturers have the choice to internalize the after-sales operations or outsource them trough the markets. The decision to internalize economic activities in the different stages of the value added chain is called vertical integration. This study looks at how after-sales demand, resources requirements, performance evaluability, nature of customer and corporate strategy affects vertical integration positively. The study will add to the theory of internationalization by providing an in-depth case study into the subject of transaction costs in the context of internationalization of after-sales services.. A case study approach is taken in order to get a better understanding the involved transaction costs and the internationalization of the after-sales services. Two Finnish enterprises and one after-sales subsidiary from each company is the subject of the case study. The nature of the AS customer is introduced as a new variable and is believed to have an effect on vertical integration. The findings support Morschett (2006) and Morschett et al. (2008) notions on the effect of strategy, performance evaluability and company size, to some extend, on vertical integration of the AS operations. The concept of demand is redefined and its effect on vertical integration is found to contradict previous findings.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Molecular imaging and immunotherapy in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) is a disorder that affects both heart and blood vessels. It is caused by atherosclerosis, a chronic, low-grade inflammatory disease, which is characterized by the accumulation of lipids in the arterial wall. Modified lipoproteins contain pro-inflammatory epitopes, such as phosphorylcholine (PC), that interact with inflammatory cells in the vascular wall, thereby accelerating the development of atherosclerotic lesions. The main cause of myocardial infarction (MI) arises from a rupture of an unstable, inflamed atherosclerotic lesion in the coronary artery. The MI induces an intense inflammatory response that is essential for myocardial repair and scar formation, but which is also implicated in the onset of heart failure over time. Molecular imaging techniques can be potentially used for identification of new molecular targets, such as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R), that are involved in inflammatory and repair processes. The aim of this thesis was to investigate whether a novel immunotherapy targeting the PC epitope improves vascular function and attenuates atherosclerotic inflammation in mice. A positron emission tomography (PET) tracer 68Ga¬NODAGA-exendin-4 was evaluated for detection and imaging of GLP-1R expression after MI and in atherosclerosis in experimental models. In vivo PET imaging, ultrasound imaging, tissue autoradiography, immunohistological stainings, and cell assays were utilized as the main methods in the studies. This thesis showed that treatment with the PC immunotherapy preserved coronary artery function and attenuated the uptake of an established inflammation tracer, glucose analog 18F-FDG, in atherosclerotic lesions in mice. 68Ga-NODAGA¬exendin-4 PET detected up-regulated cardiac GLP-1R expression during the healing of MI in rats. The uptake of 68Ga-NODAGA-exendin-4 was also increased in inflamed atherosclerotic lesions in mice. In conclusion, PC immunotherapy might represent a potential approach to inhibit the lipid-driven inflammation in atherosclerosis. 68Ga-NODAGA-exendin-4 PET may have implications for studying pharmacological modification of GLP-1R signaling in ASCVD.Molekyylikuvantaminen ja immunoterapia ateroskleroottisissa sydän-ja verisuonitaudeissa Sydän-ja verisuonitautien yleisin syy on ateroskleroosi, mikä on krooninen matala-asteinen tulehduksellinen sairaus, jossa rasvaa kertyy valtimoiden seinämiin. Muokkautuneiden rasvapartikkelien pinnalta on tunnistettu tulehdusreaktiota edistäviä molekyylejä kuten fosforyylikoliini, jotka ovat osallisena valtimoplakkien muodostumiseen. Suurimman osan sydäninfarkteista aiheuttaa epävakaan tulehtuneen ateroskleroottisen plakin repeytyminen sepelvaltimossa. Sydäninfarkti saa aikaan tulehdusreaktion ja arpikudoksen muodostumisen sydänlihaksessa, mikä pitkittyneenä voi johtaa myös sydämen vajaatoimintaan. Molekyylikuvantamisen avulla voisi olla mahdollista tunnistaa ja tutkia uusia kohteita kuten glukagonin kaltainen peptidi-1 (GLP-1) -reseptori, jotka liittyvät sydäninfarktinjälkeiseen tulehdusreaktioon ja arven paranemiseen. Tämän väitöskirjan tarkoituksena oli tutkia koe-eläinmalleissa, miten uusi fosforyylikoliini-molekyyliin kohdentuva immunoterapia vaikuttaa ateroskleroottisten suonten toimintaan ja tulehdukseen. Lisäksi tutkittiin GLP-1-reseptorin ilmentymistä sydäninfarktin jälkeen ja ateroskleroottisissa plakeissa 68Ga¬NODAGA-exendin-4 merkkiaineen ja positroniemissiotomografia (PET)-kuvantamisen avulla. Tutkimusmenetelminä käytettiin in vivo PET-ja ultraäänikuvantamista, autoradiografiaa, kudosvärjäyksiä ja solukokeita. Väitöskirjassa havaittiin, että fosforyylikoliini-immunoterapian jälkeen hiirten sepelvaltimoiden toiminta oli parantunut ja plakkeihin kertyi vähemmän 18F-FDG¬merkkiainetta, mikä kertoo laantuneesta tulehduksesta. 68Ga-NODAGA-exendin-4 PET-kuvantaminen osoitti, että GLP-1-reseptorin ilmentyminen oli lisääntynyt infarktinjälkeisen tulehdusreaktion aikana. 68Ga-NODAGA-exendin-4-merkkiaine kertyi myös selvästi tulehtuneisiin ateroskleroottisiin plakkeihin. Yhteenvetona voidaan todeta, että fosforyylikoliini-immunoterapia saattaisi olla potentiaalinen uusi lääkehoito valtimoplakkien tulehdusreaktion hillitsemiseksi. 68Ga-NODAGA¬exendin-4 PET-kuvantamista voitaisiin hyödyntää GLP-1-reseptoriin kohdentuvien lääkehoitojen tutkimisessa ateroskleroottisissa sydän- ja verisuonitaudeissa

Crack paths and fracture process region autonomy - Discussion of fracture paper #12

The official iMechanica Blog for the Elsevier Journal Engineering Fracture Mechanic