Urheilujohtajien kompetenssit : Suomalaisten urheilujohtajien näkökulmia

Urheilujohtaminen nähdään Suomessa haasteellisena johtamisenalana. Vallitsevan käsityksen mukaan suomalaisen urheilun johtamisosaaminen on alhaista. Sen taustalla on erityisesti koulutuksen puute sekä eri erityisosaamisalueiden tunnistamisen haasteet. Urheilun toimintaympäristön erityispiirteillä on merkitystä alan johtamisen kannalta, ja urheilujohtaminen vaatiikin omaa erityisosaamistaan. Liiketoimintaympäristön muutokset haastavat edelleen urheilujohtajien toimintaa. Urheilu kaupallistuu, ammattimaistuu ja kansainvälistyy. Tämän määrällisen kyselytutkimuksen tarkoituksena on ollut selvittää urheilujohtajilta vaadittavia johtamisen kompetensseja suomalaisen urheilun liiketoimintaympäristön viitekehyksessä. Tunnistamalla urheilujohtajien kompetensseja pystytään kehittämään alan koulutusohjelmia ja urheilujohtajien rekrytointiprosesseja sekä hyödyntämään niitä osana työpaikkakoulutusta. Tutkimusaineisto koostuu 284 suomalaisen urheilujohtajan kyselyvastauksista. Urheilujohtajiksi määritettiin tutkimusjoukon urheiluorganisaatioiden ylimmät palkatut toimihenkilöt. Tutkimuksen analyysissä hyödynnettiin SPSS-tilastonkäsittelyohjelmaa, jonka avulla tutkimusmuuttujia tarkasteltiin keskilukujen, frekvenssien ja prosenttiosuuksien osalta. Johtamisen kompetenssien osalta kyselyssä käytettiin Likert-asteikkoa. Tutkimustulosten pohjalta suomalaisten urheilujohtajien tärkeimmiksi johtamisen kompetensseiksi tunnistettiin ihmissuhdetaidot, verkostoitumistaidot, johtamistaidot, toiminnan kehittämisen taidot, itsensä johtamisen taidot, henkilöstöhallintotaidot ja viestintätaidot. Tutkimustuloksista on tunnistettavissa, että urheilujohtajien tausta vaikuttaa tärkeiksi koettuihin kompetensseihin

Comparison of Semi-autonomous Mobile Robot Control Strategies in Presence of Large Delay Fluctuation

We propose semi-autonomous control strategies to assist in the teleoperation of mobile robots under unstable communication conditions. A short-term autonomous control system is the assistance in the semi-autonomous control strategies, when the teleoperation is compromised. The short-term autonomous control comprises of lateral and longitudinal functions. The lateral control is based on an artificial potential field method where obstacles are repulsive, and a route is attractive. LiDAR-based artificial potential field methods are well studied. We present a novel artificial potential field method based on color and depth images. Benefit of a camera system compared to a LiDAR is that a camera detects color, is cheaper, and does not have moving parts. Moreover, utilization of active sensors is not desired in the particle accelerator environment. A set of experiments with a robot prototype are carried out to validate this system. The experiments are carried out in an environment which mimics the accelerator tunnel environment. The difficulty of the teleoperation is altered with obstacles. Fully manual and autonomous control are compared with the proposed semi-autonomous control strategies. The results show that the teleoperation is improved with autonomous, delay-dependent, and control-dependent assist compared to the fully manual control. Based on the operation time, control-dependent assist performed the best, reducing the time by 12% on the tunnel section with most obstacles. The presented system can be easily applied to common industrial robots operating e.g. in warehouses or factories due to hardware simplicity and light computational demand.Peer reviewe

Aerosol formation and growth rates from chamber experiments using Kalman smoothing

Bayesian state estimation in the form of Kalman smoothing was applied to differential mobility analyser train (DMA-train) measurements of aerosol size distribution dynamics. Four experiments were analysed in order to estimate the aerosol size distribution, formation rate, and size-dependent growth rate, as functions of time. The first analysed case was a synthetic one, generated by a detailed aerosol dynamics model and the other three chamber experiments performed at the CERN CLOUD facility. The estimated formation and growth rates were compared with other methods used earlier for the CLOUD data and with the true values for the computer-generated synthetic experiment. The agreement in the growth rates was very good for all studied cases: estimations with an earlier method fell within the uncertainty limits of the Kalman smoother results. The formation rates also matched well, within roughly a factor of 2.5 in all cases, which can be considered very good considering the fact that they were estimated from data given by two different instruments, the other being the particle size magnifier (PSM), which is known to have large uncertainties close to its detection limit. The presented fixed interval Kalman smoother (FIKS) method has clear advantages compared with earlier methods that have been applied to this kind of data. First, FIKS can reconstruct the size distribution between possible size gaps in the measurement in such a way that it is consistent with aerosol size distribution dynamics theory, and second, the method gives rise to direct and reliable estimation of size distribution and process rate uncertainties if the uncertainties in the kernel functions and numerical models are known.Bayesian state estimation in the form of Kalman smoothing was applied to differential mobility analyser train (DMA-train) measurements of aerosol size distribution dynamics. Four experiments were analysed in order to estimate the aerosol size distribution, formation rate, and size-dependent growth rate, as functions of time. The first analysed case was a synthetic one, generated by a detailed aerosol dynamics model and the other three chamber experiments performed at the CERN CLOUD facility. The estimated formation and growth rates were compared with other methods used earlier for the CLOUD data and with the true values for the computer-generated synthetic experiment. The agreement in the growth rates was very good for all studied cases: estimations with an earlier method fell within the uncertainty limits of the Kalman smoother results. The formation rates also matched well, within roughly a factor of 2.5 in all cases, which can be considered very good considering the fact that they were estimated from data given by two different instruments, the other being the particle size magnifier (PSM), which is known to have large uncertainties close to its detection limit. The presented fixed interval Kalman smoother (FIKS) method has clear advantages compared with earlier methods that have been applied to this kind of data. First, FIKS can reconstruct the size distribution between possible size gaps in the measurement in such a way that it is consistent with aerosol size distribution dynamics theory, and second, the method gives rise to direct and reliable estimation of size distribution and process rate uncertainties if the un-certainties in the kernel functions and numerical models are known.Peer reviewe

LAB studio model : Developing external networks for learning entrepreneurship in higher education

Acknowledgements The Oulu App LAB was supported by The Finnish Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, ELY-keskus, in Finnish.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Impact of early systemic lupus erythematosus on work disability-results from the Finnish nationwide register 2000-2007

Objectives of this study were to examine work disability (WD) and its leading causes in incident SLE patients. Data were derived from the Finnish nationwide registries to identify all non-retired, 18 to 64-year-old incident SLE patients between 2000 and 2007. Sick benefits and WD pensions and the causes for them were monitored until the end of 2008. A total of 446 working-aged, incident SLE patients available for work force (mean age 42 +/- 13 years, 89% females) were found. During the follow-up (median 5.3 years), WD pension was granted to 27 patients. The most common cause was SLE itself (14 patients, 52%), with cumulative incidence of 3.4% (95% CI 1.9 to 5.8) in 5 years and 5.0% (95% CI 3.0 to 8.5) in 8 years, followed by musculoskeletal and psychiatric causes. The age- and sex- adjusted incidence ratio for WD pension in SLE patients due to any cause was 5.4 (95% CI 3.7 to 7.9) compared to the Finnish population. The mean number of WD days was 32 (95% CI 28 to 35) per patient-year among all SLE patients during the follow-up. The study concludes that SLE patients have an increased risk for WD already in early course of the disease.Peer reviewe

Prepartal overfeeding alters the lipidomic profiles in the liver and the adipose tissue of transition dairy cows

Introduction Physiological adaptations in the energy metabolism of dairy cows during the periparturient period are partly mediated by insulin resistance (IR), which may subsequently induce metabolic disorders postpartum. The molecular mechanisms underlying IR in dairy cows are largely unknown. Objective This study aimed to find a novel insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying IR in dairy cows during the periparturient period by analyzing the effects of prepartal overfeeding on the lipidomic profiles in the liver and adipose tissue (AT). Methods Sixteen cows were allocated to controlled-energy and high-energy feeding groups. Lipidomic profiling was conducted on liver and adipose tissue samples collected at 8 days prior to the predicted parturition, and 1 day (only AT) and 9 days after the actual parturition. Results Five ceramides (Cers) were identified to be significantly increased by prepartal overfeeding in AT in the analysis of the variance between groups within time points. Principal component-linear discriminant analysis showed that lipidomic profiles between the feeding groups were mainly characterized by phosphatidylcholines (PC), phosphatidylethanolamines (PE), lysophophosphatidylcholines (LysoPC), and lysophosphatidylethanolamines (LysoPE) in the liver, and by Cer, PE, and phosphatidylinositols (PI) in AT. Lipid class levels indicated that prepartal overfeeding elevated the concentration of PE, PI, LysoPC, LysoPE, and sphingomyelin in the liver, and increased the concentration of Cer in AT during the periparturient period. Conclusion Prepartal overfeeding significantly altered the concentrations of various sphingolipids, phospholipids, and lysophospholipids in the liver and AT of dairy cows during the periparturient period.Peer reviewe

Anaerobic Digestion of Solid Agricultural Biomass in Leach-Bed Reactors

This study focuses on the feasibility of the dry anaerobic digestion of solid agricultural biomass for efficient renewable-energy production and nutrient recycling. Methane production and the amount of nitrogen in the digestates were measured in pilot- and farm-scale leach-bed reactors. In the pilot scale, with a digestion time of 133 days, the methane production of a mixture of whole crop fava bean and horse manure corresponded to 94% and 116%, respectively, of the methane potentials of the solid substrates. The mono-digestion of fava beans resulted in relatively low methane production (production/potential ratios of 59% and 57%). In two full-scale experiments, the methane production of mixtures of clover-grass silage, chicken manure, and horse manure corresponded to 108% and 100% of their respective methane potentials with digestion times of 117 and 185 days. In co-digestion, the production/potential ratios were similar in the pilot and farm experiments. High nitrogen loss was observed in the farm scale when the digestate was stored in a stack covered with a tarpaulin during summertime. Thus, although the technology seems promising, attention needs to be paid to management practices to minimise nitrogen losses and greenhouse gas emissions