Asiantuntijaorganisaation toimintatapojen yhtenäistäminen

Nykyaikainen tehokkuus- ja tuottavuusajattelu muuttaa kovalla vauhdilla nykyajan vaatimuksia tietotyölle. Tässä muutoksessa perinteiset toimintatavat eivät välttämättä enää sovi tietoyhteiskunnan pyörittämiseen. Tässä muutoksessa yrityksen on suunniteltava omia toimintatapoja nykyaikaan sopivaksi. Nykyaikaisessa tietotyössä puhutaan paljon aikaansaamisesta ja hallinnan tunteesta. Samaan aikaan tietotyön yhteydessä mainitaan työn henkinen raskaus. Tässä voidaan mainita itsensä johtaminen. Tietotyössä osaamista tulee uudistaa, jotta valmiudet työn tekemiseen pysyvät ennallaan tai paranevat. Tämä aihe kiinnosti minua, koska nämä kehityshankkeet ovat usein suunnattu tuotannon prosesseihin. Työ tehtiin Kontram Oy:lle. Kyseessä on yksi Suomen johtavia automaation ja mittaustekniikan tuote- ja ratkaisuntarjoajia. Kontram tuottaa teollisuudelle teknologisesti innovatiivisia ratkaisuja ja konsultointia. Tavoitteena oli löytää ratkaisuja ja kehitysehdotuksia, joilla myyntiprosessin hallinta on selkeämpää ja yhtenäisempää

To continue to burn something? : Technological, economic and political path dependencies in district heating in Helsinki, Finland

The transition away from fossil fuel based infrastructure for heating and cooling has to happen on a scale and timetable with no historical precedent. As the systems are large and networked, path-dependencies constrain the transition that is further complicated by the diversity of stakeholders. Here we analyze the case of transitioning the district heating system in the city of Helsinki, Finland, within the target of a carbon neutral metropolitan area. Despite relatively advanced climate policies, path-dependencies on the political, technological-material and economical levels interact in creating a "wicked" problem with no obvious solution and potential for backsliding. It is in this context that a possibility of a green paradox arises: despite the explicit commitment of all stakeholders toward carbon dioxide emission reductions, the combination of the path-dependencies may result in a transition that increases emissions. Our results highlight policy implications of path-dependencies for researchers, government and business.Peer reviewe

Northern Warning Lights: Ambiguities of Environmental Security in Finland and Sweden

As the literature on environmental security has evolved and widened, knowledge of the full range of potential consequences of environmental change for different societies remains scattered. This article contributes to a more comprehensive approach to the implications of environmental change by providing a three-level framework of the security impacts. In particular, it will address gaps in knowledge by pointing out the relevance of geopolitical and structural factors behind environmental security impacts. The article will focus on the cases of two countries, Finland and Sweden—both seen as stable, high-income democracies that are well equipped to adapt to climate risks. Yet even under these conditions, preparedness to threat-prevention will not follow without a recognition of the full range of risks, including ones that are linked to socio-economic and geopolitical factors. On the basis of the Finnish and Swedish cases, the article proposes an analytical framework of three categories of environmental security impacts: local, geopolitical and structural

A Lot of Talk, But Little Action : The Blind Spots of Nordic Environmental Security Policy

Despite an increasing recognition that environmental change may have implications for security, there only are few policies to address the issue. This article will look at environmental security policies in Finland and Sweden and propose ways to develop more effective measures. It relies on a three-level framework that aims to enable the identification of environmental security impacts by categorising them into local, geopolitical and structural ones. The article will examine present environmental security strategies and policies in Finland and Sweden, consider their efficacy for addressing various kinds of impacts and point out approaches that are currently missing. Based on the discussion, it argues that a comprehensive policy approach is needed to tackle environmental security impacts. This requires closer coordination and interchange between sectors as well as strategic intent. In addition, further research is needed on the structural impacts of mitigating and adapting to environmental change.Peer reviewe

37 GHz observations of a large sample of BL Lacertae objects

We present 37 GHz data obtained at Metsahovi Radio Observatory in 2001 December - 2005 April for a large sample of BL Lacertae objects. We also report the mean variability indices and radio spectral indices in frequency intervals 5 - 37 GHz and 37 - 90 GHz. Approximately 34 % of the sample was detected at 37 GHz, 136 BL Lacertae objects in all. A large majority of the detected sources were low-energy BL Lacs (LBLs). The variability index values of the sample were diverse, the mean fractional variability of the sample being \Delta S_2 = 0.31. The spectral indices also varied widely, but the average radio spectrum of the sample sources is flat. Our observations show that many of the high-energy BL Lacs (HBL), which are usually considered radio-quiet, can at times be detected at 37 GHz.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures + 5 tables. Published in Astronomical Journa

Statistical models of morphology predict eye-tracking measures during visual word recognition

We studied how statistical models of morphology that are built on different kinds of representational units, i.e., models emphasizing either holistic units or decomposition, perform in predicting human word recognition. More specifically, we studied the predictive power of such models at early vs. late stages of word recognition by using eye-tracking during two tasks. The tasks included a standard lexical decision task and a word recognition task that assumedly places less emphasis on postlexical reanalysis and decision processes. The lexical decision results showed good performance of Morfessor models based on the Minimum Description Length optimization principle. Models which segment words at some morpheme boundaries and keep other boundaries unsegmented performed well both at early and late stages of word recognition, supporting dual- or multiple-route cognitive models of morphological processing. Statistical models based on full forms fared better in late than early measures. The results of the second, multi-word recognition task showed that early and late stages of processing often involve accessing morphological constituents, with the exception of short complex words. Late stages of word recognition additionally involve predicting upcoming morphemes on the basis of previous ones in multimorphemic words. The statistical models based fully on whole words did not fare well in this task. Thus, we assume that the good performance of such models in global measures such as gaze durations or reaction times in lexical decision largely stems from postlexical reanalysis or decision processes. This finding highlights the importance of considering task demands in the study of morphological processing.Peer reviewe

Sanan osien käsittely aivoissa

In agglutinative languages, such as Finnish, a single word can have a large number of possible inflected and derived forms. It is necessary for the human brain to recognize regularities in the subword structures. In study IV it was observed that the brain responses to linguistic stimuli are related to fine-grained predictions of the language input at least at the syllable level. Studies I-III tested quantitative models for describing the relationship between subword structure and the responses related to human word processing. Statistical machine-learning models developed for automated applications in Natural Language Processing have proven useful for describing morphological regularities in languages. In this thesis, these models are applied to human word processing. Visual word recognition evokes a distinct pattern of neural responses that can be functionally, temporally and spatially separated using magnetoencephalography (MEG). In study I these responses were linked to language models describing different levels of linguistic abstraction. The early occipital and occipito-temporal responses could be modeled using visual and orthographic features, whereas the responses in the bilateral temporal areas were best described by models that represented words as compositions of morphemic units or as whole words. In the statistical model of morphology used in these studies, the subword structure emerges from optimization of information representation. The structure is determined by the cost of storing distinct morphemic units and the cost of combining them. Study III found that the best performing model for describing eye-movements used compositions of morphemic segments to represent many, but not all, complex words. Many words were also kept intact. The optimal morphemes were generally more coarse-grained than those implicated by linguistic analysis. In Study II, the morphemes from the optimal statistical model were compared to linguistic morphemes in a neural decoding task in which words were identified from the cortical responses. Both statistically and linguistically structured models were successful in the decoding task. The results of this thesis suggest that the neural responses to words are related to word representation by compositions of morphemic units. The units may not be strictly linguistically determined; instead, the word structures can reflect the statistical regularities of language environment. This thesis demonstrates that quantitative modeling of cortical responses is useful for describing even relatively abstract linguistic phenomena such as morphology.Suomen kielen kaltaisissa agglutinatiivisissa kielissä voi sanan kantaan liittää erilaisia päätteitä kuten taivutuksia ja johdoksia. Aivot hyödyntävät sanan rakenteen säännönmukaisuuksia. Esimerkiksi tämän väitöskirjan tutkimuksen IV tulokset viittaavat siihen, että aivot pyrkivät ennustamaan kielellistä ärsykettä hienojakoisesti ainakin tavujen tasolla. Tutkimuksissa I-III selvitettiin, miten yhteyttä sanan osien ja ihmisen sanankäsittelyä kuvaavien vasteiden välillä voidaan mallintaa kvantitatiivisesti. Luonnollisen kielen automaattiseen prosessointiin liittyviin teknisiin sovelluksiin on kehitetty tilastollisia koneoppimiseen pohjautuvia malleja, joissa sanojen rakenteen säännönmukaisuus eli morfologia opitaan ilman kieliopillista informaatiota. Tässä väitöskirjassa näitä malleja sovelletaan kuvaamaan ihmisen sanankäsittelyä. Kirjoitettujen sanojen tunnistukseen liittyy sarja aivotason vasteita, jotka voidaan erottaa toisistaan ajan, paikan ja toiminnallisuuden suhteen magnetoenkefalografialla. Tutkimuksessa I vertailimme näitä vasteita kuvauksiin, jotka heijastivat informaation eri abstraktiotasoja.Varhaiset takaraivolohkon vasteet pystyttiin ennustamaan ärsykkeen visuaalisten ja ortografisten piirteiden avulla, mutta myöhemmät ohimolohkoilla havaitut vasteet selittyivät malleilla, jotka esittivät sanat kokonaisina tai kokoelmana erillisiä osia eli morfeemeja. Tässä tutkimuksessa käytetyssä morfologian mallissa sanojen pilkkominen erillisiin morfeemeihin perustuu siihen, kuinka morfeemien muistamiseen ja toisaalta niiden yhdistämiseen liittyvät kustannukset optimoidaan ja kuinka niitä painotetaan. Tutkimuksessa III ihmisten silmänliikkeitä kuvasi parhaiten malli, joissa osa monimutkaisista sanoista jaettiin osiin mutta joissa monet esitettiin myös jakamattomina. Optimaalisessa mallissa morfeemien pituus oli keskimäärin suurempi kuin kieliopillisesti määriteltyjen morfeemien. Tutkimuksessa II vertailtiin tilastollisiin morfeemiyksiköihin ja toisaalta kieliopillisiin morfeemeihin pohjautuvia malleja tehtävässä, jossa aivovasteen perusteella pyrittiin ennustamaan niihin liittyvä sana. Sekä kieliopilliset että tilastolliset morfeemit mahdollistivat sanan määrittämisen aivovasteen perusteella. Tutkimusten tulokset viittaavat siihen, että aivot hyödyntävät sanojen käsittelyssä morfeemien kaltaisia yksiköitä, mutta nämä yksiköt eivät määräydy tai perustu yksinomaan kieliopillisiin sääntöihin, vaan ne opitaan tilastollisesti kieliympäristöstä. Aivojen toiminnan kartoittamisessa pyritään käyttämään jatkuvasti enemmän eksplisiittisiä, määrällisiä malleja. Tämä väitöskirja toimii esimerkkinä siitä, miten myös verrattain korkean abstraktiotason kielellinen ilmiö, morfologia, voidaan yhdistää matemaattisesti hermostollisiin vasteisiin