Attracting Chinese Tourists to Finland

The aim of this thesis is to research development of Chinese outbound tourism market and buying behavior of Chinese tourists. The target of this research is to define the best ways of attracting Chinese tourists to the regions of Lakeland and North Karelia in Finland. The suggestions for possible improvements in the regions’ tourism image are determined. The research utilizes numerous sources of secondary data in forms of academic publications, business reports, statistics and electronic databases. The primary data for the research is taken from survey of 70 respondents conducted face-to-face in two cities in China. Besides that, numerous interviews of industry experts are carried out through phone calls or online. The results of this research reveal that the regions of Lakeland and North Karelia in Finland have a potential of better development as a destination for rapidly growing Chinese outbound tourism market. The areas suggested for further development are Educational Tourism and Health Tourism

Verification of Smoke Detection in Video Sequences Based on Spatio-temporal Local Binary Patterns

AbstractThe early smoke detection in outdoor scenes using video sequences is one of the crucial tasks of modern surveillance systems. Real scenes may include objects that are similar to smoke with dynamic behavior due to low resolution cameras, blurring, or weather conditions. Therefore, verification of smoke detection is a necessary stage in such systems. Verification confirms the true smoke regions, when the regions similar to smoke are already detected in a video sequence. The contributions are two-fold. First, many types of Local Binary Patterns (LBPs) in 2D and 3D variants were investigated during experiments according to changing properties of smoke during fire gain. Second, map of brightness differences, edge map, and Laplacian map were studied in Spatio-Temporal LBP (STLBP) specification. The descriptors are based on histograms, and a classification into three classes such as dense smoke, transparent smoke, and non-smoke was implemented using Kullback-Leibler divergence. The recognition results achieved 96–99% and 86–94% of accuracy for dense smoke in dependence of various types of LPBs and shooting artifacts including noise

Creation of the Memorial Complex for the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad on Mamaev Kurgan: Historical Memory, Art and Soviet Monumental Propaganda

Introduction. The article, based on a wide range of sources, described the creation of a memorial complex on Mamaev Kurgan in the hero city of Stalingrad/Volgograd and related public and non-public discussions. Methods and materials. An attempt was made to comprehend this process through the prism of the general dynamics of the formation of historical memory of the Great Patriotic War and the development of Soviet monumental art in the 1940s and 1960s. Using the method of actor-network analysis, the author of the article tries to reconstruct the goals, motives and actions of the main circle of interested parties (actors) who participated in the creation of the memorial complex “Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad”: the highest state-party leadership of the USSR, municipal authorities, residents of the hero city, representatives of the creative community (architects, sculptors, writers, artists), as well as veterans – participants in the battle on the Volga. Analysis and Results. Based on the study materials, it is concluded that all these “historical memory designers” contributed to the creation of a unique monument-ensemble on Mamaev Kurgan, opened in 1967, guided not only by commemorative, but also by political-ideological, financial, career, status, moral-ethics and aesthetic motives. The need to erect a large memorial in the context of the Khrushchev campaign to combat excesses in architecture and criticism from individual members of the public demanded that the authors of the project, led by sculptor E.V. Vuchetich, transform it and adapt it to new realities, and also updated the process of forming the concept of the “Lenin’s plan of monumental propaganda”

Immobilization of Platelet-Rich Plasma onto COOH Plasma-Coated PCL Nanofibers Boost Viability and Proliferation of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells

The scaffolds made of polycaprolactone (PCL) are actively employed in different areas of biology and medicine, especially in tissue engineering. However, the usage of unmodified PCL is significantly restricted by the hydrophobicity of its surface, due to the fact that its inert surface hinders the adhesion of cells and the cell interactions on PCL surface. In this work, the surface of PCL nanofibers is modified by Ar/CO2/C2H4 plasma depositing active COOH groups in the amount of 0.57 at % that were later used for the immobilization of platelet-rich plasma (PRP). The modification of PCL nanofibers significantly enhances the viability and proliferation (by hundred times) of human mesenchymal stem cells, and decreases apoptotic cell death to a normal level. According to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), after immobilization of PRP, up to 10.7 at % of nitrogen was incorporated into the nanofibers surface confirming the grafting of proteins. Active proliferation and sustaining the cell viability on nanofibers with immobilized PRP led to an average number of cells of 258+-12.9 and 364+-34.5 for nanofibers with ionic and covalent bonding of PRP, respectively. Hence, our new method for the modification of PCL nanofibers with PRP opens new possibilities for its application in tissue engineering

Search for new particles in events with energetic jets and large missing transverse momentum in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A search is presented for new particles produced at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at root s = 13 TeV, using events with energetic jets and large missing transverse momentum. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 101 fb(-1), collected in 2017-2018 with the CMS detector. Machine learning techniques are used to define separate categories for events with narrow jets from initial-state radiation and events with large-radius jets consistent with a hadronic decay of a W or Z boson. A statistical combination is made with an earlier search based on a data sample of 36 fb(-1), collected in 2016. No significant excess of events is observed with respect to the standard model background expectation determined from control samples in data. The results are interpreted in terms of limits on the branching fraction of an invisible decay of the Higgs boson, as well as constraints on simplified models of dark matter, on first-generation scalar leptoquarks decaying to quarks and neutrinos, and on models with large extra dimensions. Several of the new limits, specifically for spin-1 dark matter mediators, pseudoscalar mediators, colored mediators, and leptoquarks, are the most restrictive to date.Peer reviewe

Combined searches for the production of supersymmetric top quark partners in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A combination of searches for top squark pair production using proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb(-1) collected by the CMS experiment, is presented. Signatures with at least 2 jets and large missing transverse momentum are categorized into events with 0, 1, or 2 leptons. New results for regions of parameter space where the kinematical properties of top squark pair production and top quark pair production are very similar are presented. Depending on themodel, the combined result excludes a top squarkmass up to 1325 GeV for amassless neutralino, and a neutralinomass up to 700 GeV for a top squarkmass of 1150 GeV. Top squarks with masses from 145 to 295 GeV, for neutralino masses from 0 to 100 GeV, with a mass difference between the top squark and the neutralino in a window of 30 GeV around the mass of the top quark, are excluded for the first time with CMS data. The results of theses searches are also interpreted in an alternative signal model of dark matter production via a spin-0 mediator in association with a top quark pair. Upper limits are set on the cross section for mediator particle masses of up to 420 GeV

Probing effective field theory operators in the associated production of top quarks with a Z boson in multilepton final states at root s=13 TeV

Peer reviewe