Utilization of environmental monitoring information in pharmaceutical manufacturing

In the manufacturing industry in general, digitization has been a big trend for some time now. However, manufacturing companies do not yet know how to utilize all the data they collect about production processes and thus gain additional value. The pharmaceutical industry is very different industry compared to other manufacturing industries and requires the manufacturer to closely monitor the processes to guarantee their reliability. Pharmaceutical manufacturers also have to follow exact requirements and laws, which are monitored by external parties. The purpose of this thesis was to focus on pharmaceutical manufacturing and environmental monitoring data that is collected from production processes. The company, for which this thesis was done, needed to find out how the monitoring data of their current environment is utilized and how it could be developed. The company was aware that they collect certain information in order to meet the requirements for pharmaceutical manufacturing, but there are still gaps in how they utilize this collected information. A lot of information in the pharmaceutical industry is collected only because of requirements, and companies do not always think about utilizing that information for other purposes. The answered research question of this thesis was “How environmental monitoring data can be utilized better in a pharmaceutical production environment?”. The research was conducted at one manufacturing site of a pharmaceutical company. The study was conducted as a semistructured interview study where the participants were personnel who are involved in monitoring the manufacturing environment at the site. The thesis also explores technical solutions for the utilization of environmental monitoring data, which were developed based on the interviews. Based on the interviews and the site's documents, it was possible to get an understanding of the current environmental monitoring programme and how the data collected from it is utilized. With the help of the key points that emerged from the interviews, it was possible to design technical solutions for better utilization of the environmental monitoring data in production. The results of the thesis are presented to the company and site, and the implementations of these technical solutions are not part of this thesis. The thesis brought up the current state of utilization of data in one area of the manufacturing industry, where there are still not many studies to compare with. Although this study only gave a small view of the utilization of data in the pharmaceutical industry, and especially of the utilization of environmental monitoring data. It is important to create the basis for possible new research in this area, where there is clearly a lot to be developed. The utilization of manufacturing industry data is to some extent comparable to pharmaceutical manufacturing, but due to its differences, it is important to remember the details that make it different. Because of the differences, this industry has different needs for the usage of data

Understanding students’ game experiences throughout the developmental process of the Number Navigation Game

Serious games for learning have received increased attention in recent years. However, empirical studies on students’ gaming experiences throughout the developmental process of serious games and discussions regarding game design are missing. The aims of the present study were to analyze students’ gaming experiences while playing four consecutive versions of the Number Navigation Game (NNG)—a mathematical game-based learning environment focusing on flexibility and adaptivity with whole-number arithmetic; and to provide an extensive review of the NNG developmental and design process over 3 years with focus on how and why the design decisions were made, and how those choices affected students’ gaming experiences. The study employed a mixed-methods design of quantitative and qualitative research. The Game Experience Questionnaire about eight core game experience dimensions was answered by different groups of students at primary schools in Finland in three different experiments after students played four versions of the NNG from 2014 to 2016. Six semi structured interviews related to students’ game experiences, preferences and game features of the latest version of NNG were conducted. Overall, results indicate that improvement in game’s usability and clarity in the user interface has positive impacts on students’ game experiences. Furthermore, there seems to be a clear advantage in having better aesthetics and value in improving extrinsic elements that could contribute to maintain players’ enthusiasm and situational interest in serious games.</p

Ohjelmoitavan käsittelypöydän ohjelmiston määrittely ja suunnittelu

Tämä opinnäytetyö on tehty Pemamek Oy:lle. Työn tavoitteena oli kehittää vakiolaitteisiin uusia ominaisuuksia, joilla lisätään yrityksen kilpailukykyä markkinoilla. Tarkoituksena on luoda automaattinen ohjelmisto vakiolaitteisiin, joissa kaikki ohjaukset ovat aikaisemmin toimineet manuaalisesti. Ohjauksen pitää pystyä kommunikoimaan sille suunnitellun käyttöliittymän kanssa. Ohjelmiston pitää ylläpitää haluttujen liikkeiden paikkatietoja. Opinnäytetyössä käydään läpi automaatiosuunnittelun prosessia ja sen vaiheita kehitystyön elinkaaren aikana. Tähän kuulu ohjelmistovaatimuksia, toimintojen määrittelyä, suunnittelua ja testauksia. Ohjelmistovaatimuksiin ja toimintojen määrittelyyn kuuluvat asiakkaan ja toimeksiantajan vaatimusten ja tarpeiden selvittäminen. Testauksessa tutustutaan V-malliin ja sen toteuttamiseen eri vaiheissa kehitystyön elinkaarta. Työssä noudatettiin käytäntöjä ja sääntöjä, jotka määriteltiin suunnitteluprosessissa. Työn lopputuotteena oli vakiokäsittelypöytä, joka sisälsi uuden käyttöliittymän, automaattisen ohjauksen ja liikkeiden paikkatiedon tallentamisen. Vakiokäyttöpöydän käyttöönotto ja siihen kuuluvat testit tehtiin ja hyväksyttiin asiakkaan toimipisteessä. Ohjelmiston suunnittelun aikana huomattiin tärkeitä muutostarpeita käsittleypöytien kehityksen kannalta. Työllä saavutettiin sille asetetut tavoitteet.This thesis was commissioned by Pemamek Oy. The purpose of this thesis was to develop new features for standard devices that will increase the company's competitiveness in the market. The goal was to create automatic controls for standard devices that have previously operated all controls manually. The machine control must be in communication with the user interface and it must maintain the positional information of the desired motion. This thesis examined the process of automated design and its various stages in the development life cycle. This includes software requirements, feature definitions, planning and testing. Software requirements and functional specifications include clarification of customer’s and Pemamek’s needs. The test part of thesis introduces the V model and its implementation at different stages of the development life cycle. This work follows the practices and rules defined in the design process. The final product of the thesis is a standard positioner, which includes a new interface, automatic control and recording of position data. Positioner deployment and related tests were performed and approved at the customer working site. During the design of the software, important needs for changes were identified for the development of positioners. All the goals were achieved

Oral Health Outcome Measures: A Feasibility Evaluation

Objectives: Outcomes of oral health care must be measured and analysed to improve oral health care delivery, outcomes, and quality. This study aims to develop and test outcome measures for the needs of oral health organisers and explore their feasibility using clinical data. Methods: Based on the literature review and oral health advisory board, outcome measures for oral health care were identified, developed, and tested. Data from 425,000 clinical examinations were obtained from the clinical records of 8 public oral care providers in Finland. Results: The advisory board selected 7 outcome measures: 1 on oral self-care, 2 on periodontitis, 3 on caries, and 1 on missing teeth. A large variation was found in the diagnostic and data entry practices of these outcome measures. The coverage of caries and missing teeth entries was good, but the quality of initial and remineralised caries entries was questionable. The caries and missing teeth measures show statistically significant differences amongst some providers. Conclusions: The measures “new cavitated caries surfaces,” “cavity-free clinical examinations,” and “the change in the missing value” were evaluated as feasible. The results of these measures provided insight about the effectiveness of oral care and enabled the comparison between the providers and age groups. Statistically significant differences between the providers in the measures imply potential possibilities for providers to learn from each other