Environmental impact of photovoltaic electrification in rural areas

The environmental impact of photovoltaics (PV) is discussed to ascertain how well it can aid solving the dual problem of meeting the demand for electricity in rural areas and of mitigating the energy-related environmental problems. It is noted that all emissions from PV are indirect and result mainly from the energy used in producing PV equipment. They are compared with the emissions that can be offset by the use of PV. It is concluded that PV is environmentally benign, and in some cases the cheapest way of providing electricity in rural areas. Nevertheless, its currently high costs and small electric capacity mean that there are cheaper and more effective methods for solving environmental problems in the short run. It is observed, however, that the costs of emission abatement are much higher if only the emissions from existing energy uses that are replaced by PV are considered than if the emissions and costs of alternative power production methods that are offset are also included. In the longer run, PV is seen to have very high potential for growth, lower costs, and environmental benefits. Issues affecting the success of PV dissemination in rural areas of developing countries are discussed, and policy suggestions are given

Environmental impact of photovoltaic electrification in rural areas

The environmental impact of photovoltaics (PV) is discussed to ascertain how well it can aid solving the dual problem of meeting the demand for electricity in rural areas and of mitigating the energy-related environmental problems. It is noted that all emissions from PV are indirect and result mainly from the energy used in producing PV equipment. They are compared with the emissions that can be offset by the use of PV. It is concluded that PV is environmentally benign, and in some cases the cheapest way of providing electricity in rural areas. Nevertheless, its currently high costs and small electric capacity mean that there are cheaper and more effective methods for solving environmental problems in the short run. It is observed, however, that the costs of emission abatement are much higher if only the emissions from existing energy uses that are replaced by PV are considered than if the emissions and costs of alternative power production methods that are offset are also included. In the longer run, PV is seen to have very high potential for growth, lower costs, and environmental benefits. Issues affecting the success of PV dissemination in rural areas of developing countries are discussed, and policy suggestions are given

Healing Response to Coronary Stenting In Acute Coronary Syndrome – Early Anatomical and Functional Healing Assessed by Optical Coherence Tomography and Flow Reserve

Drug-eluting stents are associated with delayed vascular healing. Anatomical and functional healing of coronary arteries after balloon angioplasty with stenting was investigated in patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome. Bioactive stents, sirolimus-, zotarolimus-, and everolimus-eluting stents were compared in two ran-omized trials with optical coherence tomography and coronary flow reserve measurement at 2- or 3-month follow-up after stenting. Coronary flow reserve measurements were obtained by invasive thermodilution and transthoracic echocardiography. Variability of optical coherence tomography data was assessed between observers and sampling intervals. Uncovered stent struts and impaired coronary flow reserve values were detected in all stent groups, and a link between anatomical and functional healing was discovered. Bioactive stents showed earlier and more comprehensive neointimal coverage, which happened at the expense of luminal narrowing. Strut malapposition occurred frequently despite post-dilatation. Measurement of coronary flow reserve by transthoracic echocardiography was feasible after stenting in the left anterior descending artery of non-diabetic patients, and agreement with the invasive method was good. The results confirm that noninvasive measurement of coronary flow reserve by echocardiography can be considered for follow-up after stenting. The sampling interval of optical coherence tomography cross-sections had a significant effect on the observed percentage of uncovered and malapposed struts. The shorter sampling interval of 0.6 mm can be used to reduce variability and overestimation of strut level data.Sepelvaltimostenttien paranemisvaste sepelvaltimotautikohtauksen hoidossa – varhainen anatominen ja toiminnallinen paraneminen valokerroskuvauksella ja virtausreservillä tarkasteltuna Lääkestentteihin liittyy viivästynyttä verisuonen seinämän paranemista. Sepelvaltimoiden anatomista ja toiminnallista paranemista pallolaajennuksen jälkeen selvitettiin akuutin sepelvaltimotautikohtauksen saaneilla potilailla. Bioaktiivisia sekä sirolimuusia, everolimuusia ja tsotarolimuusia vapauttavia stenttejä vertailtiin kahdessa satunnaistetussa tutkimuksessa valokerroskuvantamisella ja virtausreservimittauksella 2 tai 3 kuukauden kuluttua stenttauksesta. Virtausreservimittaukset suoritettiin sekä kajoavalla termodiluutiomenetelmällä että kajoamattomalla kaikututkimuksella rintakehän päältä. Valokerroskuvantamismittausten hajontaa vertailtiin havainnoijien ja otantatiheyksien välillä. Peittymättömiä stentin osia ja heikentyneitä virtausreserviarvoja havaittiin kaikissa stenttiryhmissä ja anatomisen ja toiminnallisen paranemisen välillä havaittiin yhteys. Bioaktiiviset stentit osoittautuivat peittyneen endoteelilla aikaisemmin ja kattavammin, mikä puolestaan johti suonen kaventumiseen. Huono kontakti suonen seinämään oli yleistä jälkilaajennuksesta riippumatta. Kaikututkimus mahdollisti virtausreservin mittauksen kajoamattomasti vasemman laskevan haaran stenttauksen jälkitilassa diabetesta sairastamattomilla ja mittausarvot korreloivat hyvin kajoavalla menetelmällä mitattujen arvojen kanssa. Tulokset vahvistavat, että kajoamatonta virtausreservin mittausta kaikututkimuksella voidaan hyödyntää stenttauksen jälkeisessä seurannassa. Valokerroskuvauksen otantatiheys vaikutti merkitsevästi stenttien havaittuun peittymättömyyden ja malapposition osuuteen. Tiheämmällä 0,6 mm otantavälillä voidaan vähentää hajontaa ja peittymättömyyden yliarviointia.Siirretty Doriast

Renewable energy futures in Finland : business concepts and opportunities for growth up to 2025

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Turku Moving with Human Rights? : A Case Study on the Localisation of Human Rights at the City of Turku

This study aims to generate a locally informed understanding of the current human rights practice in Turku, using a participatory approach to gauge the perception and prioritisation of human rights among its residents via a survey. The study analyses city’s approach to human rights by evaluating its policies and practices, specifically focusing on areas emphasised by the residents’ survey feedback. Accordingly, the thesis primarily reviews policies in the context of health and well-being, specifically focusing on sports and physical activities as a means to enhance the quality of life for its residents. The study uses a Human Rights-Based Approach to analyse Turku's policies, aligning with the PANEL -principles (Participation, Accountability, Non-Discrim ination, Empowerment, and Legality) to assess their effectiveness in implementing human rights. It highlights Turku's worthy emphasis on the health and well-being of its residents and its legal adherence to national and international regulations concerning health, well-being, and sports development. Key findings suggest that while Turku's policies and initiatives embody a rights-based approach, there is a distinct shortfall in the explicit use of human rights language in policy-making and public communications. The city's efforts reflect an ideological commitment to empowerment and inclusivity, but fail to educate residents about their rights and entitlements. Study also reveals a widespread concern across diverse demographics regarding non -discrimination and equality. Turku's policies demonstrate a commitment to these principles, aiming to integrate them into various aspects of governance and service provision. The city strategy and initiatives like the Moving Turku -policy are focused on addressing the needs of vulnerable groups and promoting inclusivity, recognising that preventing social exclusion is key to advancing equality and non-discrimination. The study reinforces the importance of localising human rights to enhance their relevance in local contexts. It underlines the role of local governments like Turku in this process. It shows that local authorities can actively contribute to the realisation of residents' human rights. To further these efforts, the study recommends Turku to explicitly use human rights language, foster social cohesion and promote human rights awareness. The study's timing aligns with the current global focus on localising human rights and the ongoing impetus on increasing awareness among local authorities of the benefits in embracing a rights-based approach in their governance. To conclude, the thesis presents Turku as a city that, while implementing human rights in practice, remains detached from the rights discourse due to the lack of explicit acknowledgment and education on human rights. The recommendations urge the city to bridge this gap through an active commitment to human rights

Wind Power Policy Options in Finland: Analysis of Energy Policy Actors' Views Using Regulation Theory

In this paper I present and discuss views expressed by Finnish energy policy actors on wind power policy options in Finland. Views were collected with a questionnaire and interviews. The views reflect criteria for good regulation and are analyzed through criteria drawn from regulation theory literature. The arguments contain many elements from the regulation criteria, as well as political and value-based criteria. Increasing wind power's competitiveness is a paramount objective of policy, but there is no uniform view of the way to reach it. Emphasis on free competition is strong, setting boundaries to methods that are considered appropriate for promoting wind power. Information guidance instruments were not considered very effective, but nevertheless fairly probable and quite preferable, particularly consumer information. Financial incentives were considered very probable and rather preferable. They were deemed necessary for the competitiveness of wind power, but should be phased out (except R&D support). Unpredictability of support was found problematic. Command-and-control mechanisms were considered rather improbable, and the views about their preferability were sharply divided. They were criticized for not being suitable for liberalized electricity markets, and for having limited impact on innovation

New linear predictive methods for digital speech processing

Speech processing is needed whenever speech is to be compressed, synthesised or recognised by the means of electrical equipment. Different types of phones, multimedia equipment and interfaces to various electronic devices, all require digital speech processing. As an example, a GSM phone applies speech processing in its RPE-LTP encoder/decoder (ETSI, 1997). In this coder, 20 ms of speech is first analysed in the short-term prediction (STP) part, and second in the long-term prediction (LTP) part. Finally, speech compression is achieved in the RPE encoding part, where only 1/3 of the encoded samples are selected to be transmitted. This thesis presents modifications for one of the most widely applied techniques in digital speech processing, namely linear prediction (LP). During recent decades linear prediction has played an important role in telecommunications and other areas related to speech compression and recognition. In linear prediction sample s(n) is predicted from its p previous samples by forming a linear combination of the p previous samples and by minimising the prediction error. This procedure in the time domain corresponds to modelling the spectral envelope of the speech spectrum in the frequency domain. The accuracy of the spectral envelope to the speech spectrum is strongly dependent on the order of the resulting all-pole filter. This, in turn, is usually related to the number of parameters required to define the model, and hence to be transmitted. Our study presents new predictive methods, which are modified from conventional linear prediction by taking the previous samples for linear combination differently. This algorithmic development aims at new all-pole techniques, which could present speech spectra with fewer parameters.reviewe

Pääkaupunkiseudun liikennepoliittinen päätöksenteko : Liikennesuunnittelijoiden ja poliitikkojen näkemyksiä ohjauskeinoista, niiden valinnasta ja tulevasta käytöstä

Tässä Koneen säätiön rahoittamassa ja MMT Vilja Varhon toteuttamassa tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan neljän kunnan (Espoo, Helsinki, Kauniainen ja Vantaa) liikennesuunnittelijoiden ja poliittisten päätöksentekijöiden näkemyksiä liikennepoliittisista ohjauskeinoista ja liikennepolitiikan teosta. Tavoitteena oli lisätä tietoa kaupunkitason liikennepolitiikan teosta, löytää erilaisia lähestymistapoja liikennepoliittiseen ohjaukseen sekä tarkastella esteitä, jotka vaikeuttavat ympäristönsuojelullisesti tehokkaan liikennepolitiikan käyttöönottoa

Finnish Bioeconomy in 2050 : Visions of Future Environmental Professionals

Finland and the European Union, among others, are promoting bioeconomy as a new form of economy. According to the EU, the bioeconomy comprises those parts of the economy that produce renewable biological resources, such as crops, forests, fish, animals and micro-organisms, or use them to produce food, materials and energy. In order for transition to have public legitimacy and engagement, it is important to understand different stakeholders’ views of bioeconomy. Therefore in this article we focus on future environmental professionals’ views of bioeconomy and compare them to the official definitions. We collected essays about Finnish bioeconomy in 2050 among 47 future environmental professionals who were currently studying at universities in the Helsinki region. The one-page essays were written in the spring 2017. Their content was analysed through nine themes (energy, housing, transport, food, other consumption, individuals, society, drivers, and definition of bioeconomy). Respondents’ views were reduced to three-four alternative future images per each theme and then combined into overall future images. According to the results, respondents’ visions were much more versatile and varied than the images portrayed by the Finnish and EU policies. The visions included dystopic images as well as critical views regarding the consumption-based lifestyles of today. The visions included changes to everyday life and practices, as well as to prevailing values and attitudes. For example, dietary changes such as increased vegetarianism and reduced consumption of meat and dairy products were very common. On the other hand, local food production and self-sufficiency were preferred by many respondents. In addition, the new technologies and materials envisioned were not only bio-based. Instead, solar and wind power emerged as particularly important energy forms. Even nuclear power was mentioned, which demonstrates how the focus of these visions was often carbon-neutrality rather than renewability or biological resources. Altogether these visions demonstrate that even among future environmental professionals the concept of bioeconomy is far from clear. It can be hypothesized that the term is even less known among the Finnish people at large. It is also likely that current research and promotion activities do not take into account the various societal and everyday dimensions of bioeconomy, if they only focus on the technological and economic aspects of the transform. We conclude that the aim to transform the Finnish society towards bioeconomy should be discussed more widely, and its definition, legitimacy, and societal impacts should be studied further.Non peer reviewe

"Olo oli väsynyt mutta voittamaton" : tulkintoja syömishäiriöön liittyvistä pakko-oireista

Tutkin syömishäiriön kokeneiden tulkintoja syömishäiriöön liittyvistä pakko-oireista. Syömishäiriöt ovat mielenterveyden häiriöitä, joiden syntyä selittävät erilaiset biologiset, psyykkiset ja sosiaaliset tekijät. Niiden tunnistaminen ja hoito on haastavaa ja vaatii yhä sujuvampaa moniammatillista yhteistyötä. Syömishäiriön sairastaminen voi vaikuttaa moneen yksilön elämänalueeseen, kuten työkykyyn, taloudelliseen toimeentuloon, ihmissuhteisiin ja fyysiseen terveyteen. Tavoitteenani on tuoda syömishäiriöitä ja laajemmin mielenterveystyötä näkyvämmäksi myös sosiaalityön osaamisalueelle ja keskusteluun. Tutkimukseni aineisto koostuu 12 syömishäiriön kokeneen henkilön kirjoituksesta, jotka on kerätty keväällä 2018. Välitin kirjoituspyynnön Syömishäiriöliiton kautta sekä aiheeseen liittyvässä suljetussa Facebook-ryhmässä. Analyysimenetelmänäni on aineistolähtöinen sisällönanalyysi. Tutkimustulokset on koottu kolmeksi pääteemaksi, joita ovat hallinta, rankaisu ja syyllisyys, sekä toivo. Aineistossa kuvataan monenlaisia syömiseen, liikuntaan ja kehoon liittyviä sääntöjä, pakko-ajatuksia ja toimia. Oireita kuvataan toisaalta hallitsemattomiksi, toisaalta niitä tulkitaan pyrkimykseksi hallita jotakin elämänaluetta ja kokea siten turvallisuudentunnetta. Aineistossa on myös jonkin verran vertauksia riippuvuussairauksiin ja riippuvuutta kuvaavaa retoriikkaa. Monessa kohdin aineistoa syömishäiriöoireilu tulkitaan rankaisevaksi, ja sekä itse sairastamiseen, että sairauteen liittyvistä säännöistä poikkeamiseen liittyy syyllisyyden tunteita. Kirjoituksissa käsitellään myös toivoa ja toipumisprosessia. Monet muut elämänsisällöt ja tavoitteet ovat osaltaan tukeneet toipumisprosessia. Myös läheisten tuella ja hoitokontaktin toimivuudella on aineistossa ollut suuri merkitys