Supply chain resilience in Finnish SME family firms

Paper delivered at the 21st Logistics Research Network annual conference 2016, 7th-9th September 2016, Hull. Abstract Purpose: The challenging economic landscape in Finland has brought about a stronger need among firms to manage risk and uncertainty in order to maintain operational performance and supply chain continuity. Given this turbulent environment, the contribution and commercial activities that small and medium sized family firms provide for the Finnish economy require them to have knowledge of drivers of risk and the tools to mitigate it. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how resilient small- and medium-sized (SME) family firm supply chains are operating during the current economic turbulence in Finland. Research Approach: The empirical study for this paper took an inductive research approach by devising a framework from the literature on family firm capabilities and supply chain risk and resilience, and then investigating the strength of the framework through qualitative data collection. Multiple-case studies were conducted including pilot and semi-structured interviews with respondents representing six SME family firms active in Finland. Findings and Originality: Risk drivers and key capabilities connected to SME family firms have been identified. The subject of supply chain resilience was perceived as an abstract subject by several firms, but gained increased interest throughout the research. Several resilience-promoting activities are already being conducted by some firms, nevertheless areas of improvement have also been identified. Despite the growing interest of SMEs in risk and resilience not many studies have been conducted on how SME family firms manage their supply chain resilience; thus this study bridges a gap by combining these two elements. Research Impact: There are many different studies on SME family firms but research on how capabilities of the family firm influences supply chain resilience has not received a great degree of academic interest. Further, prior empirical research on how SME family firms manage supply chain risk and resilience in practice is scarce. This study thus informs the literature on these aspects. Practical Impact: The findings of this study contribute valuable insights to managers active in SME family firms when evaluating their level of business risk and uncertainty, particularly relating to their supply chain activities. Further, the findings offer practical guidelines to help improve supply chain continuity and resilience

Korjausrakentamisen tietomallintaminen ja Tekla Structures -komponentit

Rakennusalan tietomallipohjaista tiedonhallintaa on kehitetty aktiivisesti 2000-luvulla. Suomessakin on tehty useita tietomallintamista edistäviä kehityshankkeita, joiden pohjalta on julkaistu Yleiset tietomallivaatimukset 2012 -julkaisusarja, jossa selostetaan ja ohjeistetaan rakennushankkeen eri vaiheiden ja osapuolten tehtävät. Tässä insinöörityössä tutkittiin uudis- ja korjausrakentamishankkeiden tietomallintamisprosessien eroavaisuuksia, sekä minkälaisia erityispiirteitä korjausrakentamishankkeiden suunnittelussa ja toteutuksessa on. Tavoitteena oli selvittää minkälaisia hyötyjä ja haittoja tietomallin käyttö tuo mukanaan hankkeiden suunnitteluun ja toteutukseen. Lisäksi työn tavoitteena oli tutkia korjausrakentamisessa yleisesti käytössä olevia rakenne- ja liitostyyppejä ja luoda tutkimusten pohjalta tietomallintamista helpottavia komponentteja Tekla Structures -ohjelmistoon. Tietomallintamisprosesseja ja tietomallintamisen hyötyjä ja haittoja tutkittiin kirjallisuus- sekä internetlähteiden avulla. Rakenne- ja liitostyyppejä tutkittiin myös edellä mainittujen lähteiden avulla, mutta mallinnettavien rakenteiden valintaan vaikutti myös tilaajayrityksen ehdo-tukset mallinnettavista rakenteista. Tutkimuksissa havaittiin, että tietomallintaminen tarjoaa monia eri hyötyjä ja mahdollisuuksia, joiden avulla voidaan parantaa suunnittelun ja toteutuksen laatua, sekä vähentää näissä tulevien virheiden määrää. Kuitenkin hankkeen luonne ja sisältö määrittelevät sen, onko tietomallintamisen käyttäminen kokonaisuuden kannalta hyödyllistä. Työn tuloksena luotiin parametrisoidut komponentit pilarin teräsbetonimanttelista ja siihen tarvittavasta vaarnatappiliitoksesta sekä seinärakenteiden aukkojen vahvistuksista. Kom-ponentit luotiin näistä rakenteista, koska niistä ei ollut olemassa valmiita komponentteja Tekla Structures -ohjelmiston komponenttikirjastossa. Lisäksi kyseiset rakenteet ovat yleisiä korjausrakentamisessa ja niihin törmätään usein, kun vanhaa rakennusta ryhdytään korjaamaan.Building Information Modeling (BIM) based management of construction has been actively developed in the 21st century. There have been several BIM development projects also in Finland. Based on these projects in 2012, Common Building Information Modeling require-ments 2012 -publication series were published. These publications describes the basic requirements and the concept of the use of BIM in construction projects. The objective of this thesis was to examine the differences between BIM processes in new construction and renovations projects. Furthermore, the aim was to research the special features of the design and implementation of the building renovation projects. As a result of this research the advantages and disadvantages of BIM usage were explored. In addition, the objective was to examine the commonly used structure and connection types in renovation. On the basis of these studies, selected structures were modeled for Tekla Structures BIM software. BIM processes together with advantages and disadvantages of BIM were studied with the help of professional literature and internet sources. Structure and connection types were also examined with the above mentioned sources but also the proposals of the subscriber company were taken into account when making the selection for the structures to be modeled. The study showed that BIM offers several advantages and opportunities which helps to increase the quality of design and implementation and it also reduces the number of defects. However, the nature and contents of the project defines whether it is overall beneficial to use BIM or not. As a result of the thesis parameterized components were created from column mantle structure and the related anchoring connection and additionally wall structure reinforcements in basic cases. Components were created to facilitate the modeling process and also because there were not yet components from these structures in the component catalog of Tekla Structures. In addition, these particular structures are very common in renovations

Toward the Mott state with Magnetic Cluster Formation in Heavily Cu-Doped NaFe1−x_{1-x}Cux_{x}As

Recent neutron scattering measurements indicate that NaFe$_{1-x}$Cu$_{x}$As forms an antiferromagnetic stripe phase near $x\approx 0.5$ in a Mott insulating state. This copper concentration is well in excess of that required for superconductivity, $x < 0.04$. We have investigated the development of magnetism in this compound using $^{23}$Na nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra and spin-lattice relaxation measurements performed on single crystals ($x$ = 0.13, 0.18, 0.24, and 0.39). We find multiple inequivalent Na sites, each of which is associated with a different number of nearest neighbor Fe sites occupied by a Cu dopant. We show that the distribution of Cu substituted for Fe is random in-plane for low concentrations ($x = 0.13$ and 0.18), but deviates from this with increasing Cu doping. As is characteristic of many pnictide compounds, there is a spin pseudo gap that increases in magnitude with dopant concentration. This is correlated with a corresponding increase in orbital NMR frequency shift indicating a change in valence from Cu$^{2+}$ to a Cu$^{1+}$ state as $x$ exceeds 0.18, concomitant with the change of Fe$^{2+}$ to Fe$^{3+}$ resulting in the formation of magnetic clusters. However, for $x\leq 0.39$ there is no evidence of long-range static magnetic order.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figure

Path Integrals and Parastatistics

The propagator and corresponding path integral for a system of identical particles obeying parastatistics are derived. It is found that the statistical weights of topological sectors of the path integral for parafermions and parabosons are simply related through multiplication by the parity of the permutation of the final positions of the particles. Appropriate generalizations of statistics are proposed obeying unitarity and factorizability (strong cluster decomposition). The realization of simple maximal occupancy (Gentile) statistics is shown to require ghost states.Comment: 14 pages, no figures, phyzzx.te

A Born-WKBJ inversion method for acoustic reflection data

Density and bulk modulus variations in an acoustic earth are separately recoverable from standard reflection surveys by utilizing the amplitude-versus-offset information present in the observed wave fields. Both earth structure and a variable background velocity can be accounted for by combining the Born and WKBJ approximations, in a "before stack" migration with two output sections, one for density variations and the other for bulk modulus variations. For the inversion, the medium is considered to be composed of a known low-spatial frequency variation (the background) plus an unknown high-spatial frequency variation in bulk modulus and density (the reflectivity). The division between the background and the reflectivity depends upon the frequency content of the source. For constant background parameters, computations are done in the Fourier domain, where the first part of the algorithm includes a frequency shift identical to that in an F-K migration. The modulus and density variations are then determined by observing in a least-squares sense amplitude versus offset wavenumber. For a spatially variable background, WKBJ Green's operators that model the direct wave in a medium with a smoothly varying background are used. A downward continuation with these operators removes the effects of variable velocity from the problem, and, consequently, the remainder of the inversion essentially proceeds as if the background were constant. If the background is strictly depth dependent, the inversion can be expressed in closed form. The method neglects multiples and surface waves and it is restricted to precritical reflections. Density is distinguishable from bulk modulus only if a sufficient range of precritical incident angles is present in the data

Sampled Policy Gradient for Learning to Play the Game Agar.io

In this paper, a new offline actor-critic learning algorithm is introduced: Sampled Policy Gradient (SPG). SPG samples in the action space to calculate an approximated policy gradient by using the critic to evaluate the samples. This sampling allows SPG to search the action-Q-value space more globally than deterministic policy gradient (DPG), enabling it to theoretically avoid more local optima. SPG is compared to Q-learning and the actor-critic algorithms CACLA and DPG in a pellet collection task and a self play environment in the game Agar.io. The online game Agar.io has become massively popular on the internet due to intuitive game design and the ability to instantly compete against players around the world. From the point of view of artificial intelligence this game is also very intriguing: The game has a continuous input and action space and allows to have diverse agents with complex strategies compete against each other. The experimental results show that Q-Learning and CACLA outperform a pre-programmed greedy bot in the pellet collection task, but all algorithms fail to outperform this bot in a fighting scenario. The SPG algorithm is analyzed to have great extendability through offline exploration and it matches DPG in performance even in its basic form without extensive sampling

Grand canonical partition functions for multi level para Fermi systems of any order

A general formula for the grand canonical partition function for a para Fermi system of any order and of any number of levels is derived.Comment: 9 pages, latex, no figure

An Enquiry into Nurse-to-Nurse Collaboration Within the Older People Care Chain as Part of the Integrated Care : A Qualitative Study

Introduction: Health care systems for older people are becoming more complex and care for older people, in the transition between hospital and primary healthcare requires more systematic collaboration between nurses. This study describes nurses' perceptions of their collaboration when working between hospital and primary healthcare within the older people care chain. Theory and methods: Using a qualitative approach, informed by grounded theory, six focus groups were conducted with a purposive sample of registered nurses (n = 28) from hospitals (n = 14) and primary -healthcare (n = 14) during 2013. The data were analyzed using dimensional analysis. Findings: Four dimensions of collaboration were identified: 1) Context and Situation, 2) Conditions, 3) Processes and Interactions and 4) The Consequences of nurse-to-nurse collaboration within the older people care chain. These four dimensions were then conceptualized into a model of nurse-to-nurse collaboration. Discussion and conclusion: Improved collaboration is useful for the safe, timely and controlled transfer of older people between hospital and primary healthcare organizations and also in healthcare education. The findings in this study of nurse-to-nurse collaboration provides direction and opportunities to improve collaboration and subsequently, the continuity and integration in older people care in the transition between organizations.Peer reviewe

Canonical Partition Functions for Parastatistical Systems of any order

A general formula for the canonical partition function for a system obeying any statistics based on the permutation group is derived. The formula expresses the canonical partition function in terms of sums of Schur functions. The only hitherto known result due to Suranyi [ Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 65}, 2329 (1990)] for parasystems of order two is shown to arise as a special case of our general formula. Our results also yield all the relevant information about the structure of the Fock spaces for parasystems.Comment: 9 pages, No figures, Revte