Localization Services for Online Common Operational Picture and Situation Awareness

Many operations, be they military, police, rescue, or other field operations, require localization services and online situation awareness to make them effective. Questions such as how many people are inside a building and their locations are essential. In this paper, an online localization and situation awareness system is presented, called Mobile Urban Situation Awareness System (MUSAS), for gathering and maintaining localization information, to form a common operational picture. The MUSAS provides multiple localization services, as well as visualization of other sensor data, in a common frame of reference. The information and common operational picture of the system is conveyed to all parties involved in the operation, the field team, and people in the command post. In this paper, a general system architecture for enabling localization based situation awareness is designed and the MUSAS system solution is presented. The developed subsystem components and forming of the common operational picture are summarized, and the future potential of the system for various scenarios is discussed. In the demonstration, the MUSAS is deployed to an unknown building, in an ad hoc fashion, to provide situation awareness in an urban indoor military operation.Peer reviewe

Geenien muokkaus uusilla tekniikoilla: kasvit, eläimet, mikrobit

CRISPR/Cas9 teknologian soveltaminen genomieditointiin on saanut valtavasti huomiota ja sitä on pidetty mullistavana teknologiana, jonka vaikutukset ja mahdollisuudet ovat paljon laajemmat kuin perinteisten geenimuuntelumenetelmien. Tässä julkaisussa, joka on valmisteltu geenitekniikan lautakunnan pyynnöstä keväällä 2018 valmistuneen muistion pohjalta, selvitetään esimerkkien avulla CRISPR/Cas9 teknologian erilaisia sovelluksia erityisesti kasvinjalostuksessa ja malarian torjunnassa. Mikrobeihin kohdistuvaa genomie-ditointia sivutaan lyhyesti. CRISPR/Cas9-teknologia mahdollistaa myös populaatioissa itseään levittävien geenielementtien (ns. geeniajurien) rakentamisen. Julkaisussa tarkas-tellaan myös genomieditointisovellusten suhdetta geenitekniikkalainsäädäntöön. Erityisen ongelman muodosti pitkään se, että oli epäselvää miten EU:n lainsäädäntöä sovelletaan uusiin tekniikoihin, jotka mahdollistavat kohdennetun mutageneesin tavalla, jota ei voi erottaa luonnon mutaatioista. Tilannetta on selkeyttänyt EU-tuomioistuimen (EUT) heinä-kuussa 2018 tekemä päätös, jossa se otti kantaa uusien mutageneesitekniikoiden juridiseen asemaan. Biotekniikan neuvottelukunta laatii terveyskysymyksistä erillisen selvityksen. </p

EuReCa ONE—27 Nations, ONE Europe, ONE Registry A prospective one month analysis of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest outcomes in 27 countries in Europe

AbstractIntroductionThe aim of the EuReCa ONE study was to determine the incidence, process, and outcome for out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) throughout Europe.MethodsThis was an international, prospective, multi-centre one-month study. Patients who suffered an OHCA during October 2014 who were attended and/or treated by an Emergency Medical Service (EMS) were eligible for inclusion in the study. Data were extracted from national, regional or local registries.ResultsData on 10,682 confirmed OHCAs from 248 regions in 27 countries, covering an estimated population of 174 million. In 7146 (66%) cases, CPR was started by a bystander or by the EMS. The incidence of CPR attempts ranged from 19.0 to 104.0 per 100,000 population per year. 1735 had ROSC on arrival at hospital (25.2%), Overall, 662/6414 (10.3%) in all cases with CPR attempted survived for at least 30 days or to hospital discharge.ConclusionThe results of EuReCa ONE highlight that OHCA is still a major public health problem accounting for a substantial number of deaths in Europe.EuReCa ONE very clearly demonstrates marked differences in the processes for data collection and reported outcomes following OHCA all over Europe. Using these data and analyses, different countries, regions, systems, and concepts can benchmark themselves and may learn from each other to further improve survival following one of our major health care events

Towards an improved IT service desk system and processes: a case study

An IT service desk provides a Single Point of Contact for the customers and users regarding support requests. The world-wide adoption of IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework has also pushed organizations to improve their service desk operations. However, improving the service desk is a serious challenge for many IT service providers. Many government organizations in Finland have started to use ITIL in their service desks and need help in configuring service desk tools and defining processes. The research problem of this study is: How could an IT service provider’s service desk operations be improved by using IT service management best practices? The main contribution of this paper is to present results of a case study on IT service support in Finnish Tax Administration. First, the customer support challenges are described. Second, we present how these challenges were solved by using ITIL based practices. Third, we show how service desk performance and ITSM training usefulness were measured. Finally, lessons learnt from the case are presented

Organic matter characterization of circular water in recirculating aquaculture system

Kiinnostus kiertovesilaitoksiin (RAS) on kasvamassa, koska niissä kalaa voidaan viljellä ekologisesti optimaalisissa olosuhteissa ympäri vuoden. Ratkaistavana on kuitenkin joitain teknisiä ongelmia, ennen kuin viljely on kannattavaa Suomessa. Ongelmat liittyvät vedenlaadun ylläpitämiseen hyvänä, sillä liuenneet orgaaniset aineet (DOM) kertyvät kiertoveteen heikentäen veden laatua. Tämä tutkimus painottui DOM:n karakterisointiin korkean suorituskyvyn nestekromatografilla (HPLC-SEC) kokoekskluusiota, sekä samanaikaisesti UV254 -absorbanssi ja fluoresenssi detektiota käyttäen. Tutkimusympäristönä toimi Luken Laukaalla sijaitseva kiertovesilaitos, josta kolmen RAS-yksikön viikoittaisista vesinäytteitä analysoitiin kyseisellä menetelmällä orgaanisen aineen kertymistä. RAS-yksiköt 10, 8 ja 9 toimivat 250, 500 ja 750 L kg rehua-1 d-1 korvausveden määrillä kokeen kestäessä 105 päivää. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tutkia siikojen kasvua, DOM -komponenttien kertymistä ja veden laatua näissä erillisissä yksiköissä. Tulokset osoittivat, ettei siikojen kasvussa ollut merkittävää eroa yksiköiden välillä. Typpiyhdisteiden: NH4- N+, NO2-N ja NO3-N, sekä liuenneen orgaanisen hiilen (DOC) ja kokonaistypen (TN) konsentraatiot ja kaikkien tutkittujen DOM-komponenttien signaalit olivat kokeen lopussa suurimmat 10-yksikössä, jossa veden vaihtuvuus oli pienin. 8 ja 9 -yksiköiden välillä erot olivat huomattavan pieniä, joissain tapauksissa tilastollisesti merkitseviä. Yksiköiden vesinäytteiden fluoresoivista yhdisteistä suurin osa oli fulvohappomaisia, joka oli peräisin korvausvedestä. Tulokset viittaavat siihen, että korvausveden suhteella 500 - 750 L kg rehua-1 d-1 toimivien yksiköiden puhdistussysteemi pystyi tehokkaasti puhdistamaan kiertovettä. Yksikössä 10, johon korvausvettä lisättiin 250 L kg rehua-1 d-1, DOM- ja typpiyhdisteitä kertyi kiertoveteen, mutta kokeen puolivälissä kyseisen yksikön puhdistusteho parani. DOM-komponenttien kertyminen saattaa lisätä riskiä patogeenien aiheuttamiin infektioihin ja siten lisätä kalakuolemia. On mahdollista, että täysimittaisella kasvatuskaudella intensiivinen kasvatus pienellä korvausveden määrällä heikentää kalojen kasvua ja terveyttä. Mahdollisten makuvirheiden syntyminen intensiivisessä RAS -yksikössä tutkitaan tähän pro gradu -työhön liittyvässä tutkimuksessa.The recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) is a prominence ecological method to farm fish in optimal circumstances annually. Interest among this aquaculture form has increased recently, however, some technical problems must be solved before RAS could be taken to commercial fish production in Finland. These problems are related to water quality, dissolved organic matter (DOM) is known to accumulate to the system and weaken the water quality by increasing microbial activity and chemical and biological oxygen demand. The focus on this study was on characterizing DOM with size-exclusion high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC-SEC) with fluorescence and absorbance detection from the weekly samples, of Laukaa’s experimental RAS facility operated by Luke. The DOM-components studied were UVA254, tyrosine-, tryptophan-, humic- and fulvic acid-like fluorescence compounds, which were separated further to seven fractions with size exclusion -column. The experiment was ongoing for 105 days. The aim was to study European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) growth, DOM accumulation and different water quality parameters of the data of the experiment in three different RAS, 8, 9 and 10, where renewal water rates (RWR) were relatively 500, 750 and 250 L kg-1 feed . The results showed that there were no significant differences between fish growth studied by feed conversion rate (FCR) nor by specific growth rate (SGR) between the three RAS. Concentration of nitrogen compounds NH4-N+, NO2-N and NO3-N, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total nitrogen (TN) and signals of all DOM-components were significantly higher in RAS 10 at the end of the experiment, where the renewal water rate (RWR) was the smallest. DOM-components did not accumulate in RAS 8 and 9, but in RAS 10 accumulation was observed in all DOM-components. Tank water samples fluorescence compounds were formed in average of 55.1 ± 0.6 % of fulvic acid-like, 21.5 ± 0.3 % of tryptophan-like, 16 ± 0.2 % of humic acid-like and 7.4 ± 0.7 % of tyrosine-like compounds. This study suggests that there is no difference in whitefish growth between RWR of 250 - 750 L kg-1 feed in 105 days long period. When RWR is as low as 250 L kg-1 feed, accumulation of DOM, DOC, TN and nitrogen compounds occurs in RAS. That may increase risk of infection, or cause odor problems in fish meat. During a complete growing season, fish growth may decrease, due the worse water quality with intensive RAS system

IMPLEMENTING A SOFTWARE PROBLEM MANAGEMENT MODEL, A CASE

Abstract. The primary goal of software problem management is to minimize the impact of problems on the business and to identify the root cause of problems. At present, many organizations are planning to implement a problem management model that is compliant with IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework. However, the ITIL framework is a heavy standard with a large number of difficult concepts. IT organizations need practical guidelines to be able to implement ITIL-based processes. The purpose of this study is to provide a checklist of issues that are essential for implementing the problem management process. The research question in this paper is: what are the requirements for implementing a software problem management model. A case study research method is used in this study to evaluate requirements