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Environmental concerns and limited availability of fossil hydrocarbons have boosted the research of renewable feedstocks and their processing into fuels and chemicals. Currently, vast majority of transportation fuels and bulk chemicals are refined from crude oil, but renewable lignocellulosic plant biomass has long been recognised as potential feedstock for liquid fuel and chemical production. Several alternative processes exist for biomass refining, lignocellulose-to-ethanol process being among the most studied processes. First, lignocellulose is pretreated in order to deconstruct the recalcitrant structures of plant cell walls and expose cellulosic fibrils. Subsequently, biotechnical process utilises cellulolytic enzymes of fungal origin to depolymerise cellulose down to glucose monomers and oligomers. Monomeric sugars serve as a source for platform chemicals in further conversions. Lignocellulose consists mainly of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. It is generally accepted that lignin has an inhibitory effect during enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose and part of this effect is caused by irreversible cellulase adsorption on lignin. Fungal cellulase system consists of several enzyme components that contribute to the effective degradation of insoluble cellulosic substrate. Cellulases are traditionally divided to three groups according to enzymatic activity: exoglucanases, endoglucanases and ?-glucosidases. Different enzyme components are shown to have different affinity to lignin which enables screening or engineering of weak lignin-binding enzymes. However, too little is still known about enzyme-lignin interactions and competitive nature of enzyme binding on lignin. In this study, lignin-rich residues were isolated from steam pretreated spruce (SPS) using three different methods: enzymatic hydrolysis, acid hydrolysis and alkali extraction. Lignin residues were characterized and used in adsorption studies with commercial cellulase preparations from Trichoderma reesei (Celluclast 1.5L) and Aspergillus niger (Novozym 188). Enzyme activity measurements and protein analytics were employed to reveal competitive adsorption of cellulases and catalytic activity of solid-bound enzymes. Results showed that T. reesei enzymes had high affinity on lignocellulosic SPS and all SPS-derived lignins, but enzyme activity measurements revealed considerably divergent competitive adsorption patterns. Among all the isolated lignins, lignin-rich residue obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis of SPS and subsequent protease purification was evaluated as most suited adsorption substrate for further adsorption studies and screening purposes. ?-glucosidases from T. reesei and A. niger were shown to have highly distinctive adsorption behaviour on the lignin-rich substrates: A. niger ?-glucosidase lacked affinity to lignin, whereas T. reesei ?-glucosidase adsorbed to all lignin-rich particles. Lignin-bound Trichoderma reesei endoglucanases and CBH I exoglucanase were shown to retained high activity towards soluble substrates used in activity measurements. On the contrary, same enzymes were unable to processively hydrolyze insoluble crystalline cellulose.

Global warming affects permafrost in the Arctic regions, where melting organic carbon storages will increasingly contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases. Little is known about tundra soil microbial communities, but Acidobacteria and viruses seem to have important roles there. Here, for the first time, we isolated five Acidobacteria infecting viruses from Kilpisjärvi tundra soils using host strains previously isolated from the same area. Three viruses were isolated on Edaphobacter sp. X5P2, one on Edaphobacter sp. M8UP27, and one on Granulicella sp. X4BP1. The viruses had circular double-stranded DNA genomes 63,196–308,711 bp in length and 51–58% GC content. From 108 to 348 putative ORFs were predicted, 54–72% of which were sequences unique to each virus. Annotations indicated that all five phages most likely have tailed virions. The diversity of viruses present in the studied soils was estimated with the metagenome analysis. Only 0.1% (627) of all assembled metagenomic contigs were phage-positive. The gene-sharing network analysis showed approximately genus-level clustering between the virus isolates and a few metagenomic viral contigs, but overall, all (except one) viral contigs clustered only with each other, not with any known viruses from the NCBI database. No taxonomical assignments could be done for the metagenomic viral contigs, highlighting overall undersampling of soil viruses. Further detailed studies on virus-host interactions are needed to understand the impact of viruses on host abundance and metabolism in Arctic soils, as well as the microbial input into biogeochemical cycles.

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. With the ever-increasing threat of antibiotic resistance, they have emerged as a promising alternative treatment. Many phage genomes contain modified bases. They prevent digestion by restriction enzymes allowing the resistance of these viruses to bacterial defence mechanisms. YerA41, a phage that infects Yersinia ruckeri, contains a genome that could not be amplified using any of the DNA polymerases available in the market. Neither restrictions enzymes were able to digest it. These properties led to the assumption that YerA41 genome is not conventional and is likely to contain modified nucleotides. In order to replicate its genome, YerA41 should possess its own DNA polymerase that would be able to use, YerA41 genome as template. If so, it would be able to use other modified genomes as well. Hence, this DNA polymerase could become a very valuable biotechnological tool. In this study we isolated and optimised the purification of DNAP01, one of the putative DNA polymerases encoded by YerA41 genome. In addition, this work shows, with the help of different experiments, how DNAP01 is a novel DNA polymerase able to use YerA41 DNA as template. This is the first time an enzyme of this nature has been described and isolated.

Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is used to treat recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI), and its potential as a treatment for other inflammatory conditions, like inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), has been extensively studied lately. It has been noticed that some bacteria in fecal transplants do not require physical contact with intestinal epithelium to alleviate inflammation, and extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been proposed to carry the anti-inflammatory properties of those beneficial bacteria. In this thesis project, an isolation protocol was set up to isolate EVs from two fecal-originated Bacteroides isolates, Bacteroides ovatus and Bacteroides vulgatus, which had shown anti-inflammatory potential in previous studies. Isolation of EVs succeeded, and both isolates were confirmed to produce EVs. To study the anti-inflammatory potential, human colon epithelial cells (HT-29) were treated with several dilutions of isolated EVs, and then challenged with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to induce inflammation. Amount of produced interleukin (IL-) 8 was measured as a marker of inflammation. EVs of both Bacteroides isolates continuously showed anti-inflammatory potential, but statistically significant conclusions could not be made. EVs have a potential to be used as a treatment in different inflammatory conditions and as adjuvant factors in synthetic FMT. To study the immunomodulatory potential of EVs of Bacteroides species more, proteomic analysis of contents of EVs, as well as potential to improve intestinal barrier are suggested. Also, testing the ability to alleviate production of other inflammatory markers could reveal more anti-inflammatory potential.

As a result of oil transport and pumping from the ground there is a constant risk for oil spills. The impact of an oil spill to the marine ecosystem can be significant. Therefore there has been growing interest to create new biological ways to degrade oils hydrocarbons by using microbes and plants ability to degrade oil to less harmful compounds. Because the biodegradation of oil in the nature is slow microbe enrichments and nutrient fertilizers can be developed to stimulate it. Compared to the oceans the Baltic Sea has significantly lower salinity and also temperature is lower than the average ocean temperature. Therefore it is important to take into consideration the unique features of the Baltic Sea when new enrichments are developed for oil spill response. The aim of this study was to enrich samples from the Baltic Sea coastal areas that had previously contaminated with oil. These samples were enriched with crude oil and with marine diesel oil. The oil-degradation efficiency of the enrichments were evaluated using several methods and the changes in microbial diversity was also examined among the process. The aim was to enrich microbial population which can be used in combination with carrier materials as an ecological and inexpensive oil spill recovery method in the Baltic Sea area. The biodegradation of the oil during enrichments were detected by carbon dioxide measurements, biodegradability and hydrocarbon analysis. Changes in the cell concentration during the enrichments were measured by Live/Dead- and DAPI staining. Changes in the microbe activity was detected with ATP-measurements. The oil degradation effectiveness of the enrichments were examined with HALO-plating and with emulsification test. Changes in the microbial diversity during the enrichment was examined with Ion Torrent sequencing. The results showed that used methods were suitable for estimating oil biodegradation, microbial activity, cell concentration and microbial diversity changes in the samples. The enrichment temperature was the most significant factor influencing the oil degradation efficiency and microbial diversity of the enrichments. The influence of the sampling site was not so significant. Crude oil biodegraded more efficiently by crude oil enri0chments than the marine diesel oil by marine diesel oil enrichments. According to the chemical and microbiological methods used in this study oil biodegradation was observed at low temperatures (5 and 15 °C). Several oil-degrading enrichments working at lower temperatures were obtained in this study. However, the biodegradation of oil was relatively slow and would be important to examine if the bigger amounts of nutrients, as well as the use of carrier materials would enhance the biodegradation process at cold temperature. The OILRES-project (Multilevel assessment of sustainable oil spill response measures and their impact on Arctic and subarctic marine environments) where the master´s thesis were done was funded by the Academy of Finland and it is co-operation of Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) and Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT Ltd).

Työelämän jatkuvat muutokset ja monimutkaisuus asettavat johtajuudelle haasteita. Itsensä johtamisen avulla yksilöiden on mahdollista toimia tehokkaasti työelämässä ja selviytyä jatkuvan muutoksen keskellä. Sen vuoksi itsensä johtamiseen onkin viime aikoina kiinnitetty yhä enemmän huomiota ja siitä on muotoutunut uudenlainen johtamisen laji perinteisten johtamisteorioiden rinnalle. Itsensä johtamista tukemalla voidaan vaikuttaa yksilön itseohjautuvuuteen ja kokemukseen autonomiasta. Näin itsensä johtamista tehostamalla voidaan saavuttaa parempia tuloksia. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on vastata johtamisympäristön muutokseen itsensä johtamisen hyödyntämisen avulla. Tutkimus tarkastelee itsensä johtamista Manzin luoman Self-Leadership-konseptin kautta ja tarkoituksena on luoda selkeä kokonaiskuva tästä itsenäisestä ja todella tärkeästä johtajuusteoriasta. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on selvittää millä tavalla yksilöt ilmentävät itsensä johtamista omassa työssään ja mitä keinoja he käyttävät johtaessaan itseään. Tutkimus on kvalitatiivinen eli laadullinen. Tutkimus on toteutettu kirjallisuuskatsauksena kokoamalla erilaisia itsensä johtamista ilmentäviä teorioita yhteen. Tutkimus toteutettiin teemahaastattelujen avulla ja aineisto analysoitiin sisällönanalyysin avulla. Haastattelut tehtiin kahdeksalle henkilölle, jotka kaikki ilmensivät itsensä johtajuutta omassa työelämässään. Kukin haastateltava työskenteli erilaisessa organisaatiossa erilaisissa työtehtävissä. Haastattelujoukko myös edusti eri ikäryhmiä. Haastatteluissa oli apuna valmis haastattelurunko, jossa itsensä johtamista käsiteltiin viiden eri teeman avulla. Nämä teemat ovat motivaatio, itseohjautuvuus ja autonomia, minäpystyvyys ja tavoitteet, palaute sekä organisaation tuki. Teemat on johdettu itsensä johtamisen teoreettisesta viitekehyksestä. Tutkimus osoitti, että yksilöt harjoittavat itsensä johtamista hyödyntämällä erilaisia itsensä johtamisen strategioita. Itsensä johtaminen vaikuttaa olennaisesti yksilöiden suoritukseen ja lisäksi se hyödyttää myös organisaatioita työtehokkuuden kasvun myötä. Itsensä johtamisen avulla yksilön toiminta tehostuu ja yksilö pystyy myös itsensä johtamisen strategioiden avulla paremmin säätelemään omaa toimintaansa ja vaikuttamaan itseensä. Haastateltavat henkilöt olivat joukko itsensä johtamisen strategioita hyödyntäviä yksilöitä, jotka pyrkivät asettamaan itselleen haastavia tavoitteita ja seuraamaan toimintansa tuloksia esimerkiksi palautteen avulla. Lisäksi he olivat sisäisesti motivoituneita ja pyrkivät alati kehittämään itseään ja omia taitojaan. Organisaatioiden tulisi tukea työntekijöiden tarpeita sekä itsensä johtamista ja näin voidaan saavuttaa parempi tuottavuus. Tutkimustulokset osoittivat, että yksilön autonomian tukeminen lisäsi haastateltavien motivaatiota ja näin työ koettiin todella mielekkääksi. Työtehtävät itsessään motivoivat ulkoisten kannustimien sijaan. Tutkimus tarjoaa ensiarvoisen tärkeää tietoa itsensä johtamisen hyödyntämisestä yksilöllisesti ja lisäksi sen avulla kiinnitetään huomio organisaation kokemaan hyötyyn itsensä johtajuudesta. Itsensä johtaminen on tärkeä prosessi ja se ansaitsee tulla vieläkin tarkemmin tutkituksi tulevaisuudessa. Itsensä johtaminen tarjoaa työkaluja yksiöiden työtehokkuuden ja työssä viihtyvyyden tarkastelemiseen. Itsensä johtamisesta hyötyy näin yksilön lisäksi myös organisaatio. Tutkimus osoitti, että itsensä johtamisesta luotu teoreettinen viitekehys ilmentää itsensä johtamista ja erilaisten strategioiden avulla on mahdollista vaikuttaa itseensä, jotta haluttu lopputulos saavutetaan onnistuneesti ja tehokkaasti. Ilman itsensä jatkuvaa tiedostamista ja omien taitojen kehittämistä ei ole mahdollista selviytyä työelämän jatkuvien muutoksien keskellä.

Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan kuluttajien kokemuksia ja näkemyksiä aikaan sekä ajankäyttöön liittyen. Syventymisen kohteena ovat ajan symboliset ja sosiaaliset merkitykset. Tutkielmassa analysoidaan sitä, miten kuluttajat jäsentävät ajankäyttöään, miten he kokevat pirstaloituneen ajan, millaista ajankäyttöä he ihannoivat sekä mistä he haaveilevat. Tutkimusaineisto koostuu kymmenen työelämässä olevan 29–38-vuotiaan kuluttajan yksilöhaastattelusta. Haastateltavat ovat korkeakoulutettuja ja aineiston analyysissa on käytetty teemoittelua. Tutkimuksen viitekehys rakentuu yhtäältä ajankäyttötutkimuksen ja aikakäsityksien tutkimuksen perinteeseen sekä toisaalta ajan ominaisuuksien, rutiinien sekä rytmien tutkimuksiin. Keskeisenä tuloksena on kuluttajien ristiriitainen kokemus ajasta. He ihannoivat tehokkuutta ja haaveilevat vapaudesta ilman aikatauluja. Tehokkaaseen ajankäyttöön sisältyy ajatus säästäväisestä kuluttajasta, joka harkitsee tarkkaan valintojaan. Kuluttaja pohtii arjenhallintaa kotitalouden näkökulmasta ja omasta kiiretuntemuksensa näkökulmasta. Oman ajankäytön kontrolli on kuluttajalle läsnä arjessa. Vastapainoisesti kuluttaja haaveilee arjen pienistä irtiotoista, ajantajun sallitusta menetyksestä ja pohtii unelmien ajankäyttöä. Kuluttajien tavat suhtautua aikaan kumpuavat menneestä ajasta. Maatalousyhteiskunnassa hyveinä pidetty protestanttinen työeetos tehokkuusvaatimuksineen ja agraarinen kulutuseetos säästäväisyyshyveineen ovat jättäneet jälkensä suomalaisiin kuluttajiin. Nykykuluttajat korostavat lisäksi vapaa-ajan tehokkuutta ansiotyön rinnalla. Älypuhelin ja kalenterit toimivat ajanhallinnan tukena. Perhe, harrastukset ja omakotitaloasuminen ovat tekijöitä, joiden kesken vapaa-aika jaetaan. Kuluttajien aika on pirstaloitunutta. Rutiinit ovat epäsäännöllistyneet, aktiviteetit ovat pirstoutuneet, toiminta on sijoittunut uudelleen ja ajankäytössä on merkkejä päällekkäisyyksistä. Oikean ja väärän välinen tasapainoilu on jatkuvaa. Vastakkain ovat työ ja vapaa-aika tai vaihtoehtoisesti työ ja perhe. Vapaa-ajan sisältämä symbolinen taistelu oikean ja väärän ajanvieton välillä kumpuaa sosiaalisista ja kulttuurisista normeista.

The literature review deals with quality management and it´s differend philosophies and quality tools. Especially reviewed quality tools which can be used to improve quality and help to find the root cause of problem. There is also described the product, ice cream, manufacturing process, Finnish regulation requirements and sensory charasteristics. The aim of experimental work was to clarify the situation of ice cream net content control on Nestlé Turenki ice cream factory and improve the process with use of quality tools. The work contains products target net weight process, how to define new product´s weight, the release of product batch, tare process. This study showed that the 1liter Chocolate brick -product has the highest standard deviation of the all products investigated. The standard deviation were even 6,5 gramms. High standard deviation leads also hig amount of overfilling and based on this study Chocolate 1liter brick weigh target should be target net weigh instead of label weight. The akkredited company verify all scales used for product release time to time. The stydy showed that the statical scales uncertainity is good and uncertainity varies beetween 0,14-0,15 g. The study showed that a few tare should be updated that overfilling can be minimized. The tare monitoring was determined to correspond the Nestlé procedures. The factory tare monitoring frequency With Eskimo strawberry -product was compared to WELMEC guidance monitoring plan. The WLMEC monitoring plan is more looser than Nestlé guidance, but the factory will follow the Nestlé rules.

In my thesis I explore the user experience in a new clothing-related service that is based on lending. The study is based on the users’ experiences of a clothing lending service called Vaatelainaamo. I have used a qualitative research method. The data was collected by personal interviews that followed the form of theme interviews. The data is analyzed according to the themes and research literature addressing product-service system, shopping, emotional and symbolical meanings of clothing as well as sustainable consumption. The purpose of the themes is to explore the experiences and the preconditions for adapting new clothing-related product-system services. In addition the purpose is to understand the meaning of clothing as material possessions and the challenges consumers face in the field of sustainable clothing consumption. The findings of the study indicate that lending clothing represents sustainable way of clothing consumption. Attributes most contributing to positive perceptions of the service is the available assortment of clothing and the social aspect of the service. In order to gain user satisfaction, the assortment of clothing is to meet the size and style requirements of the user. In addition the ease use of the service including the store location, opening hours and the easy maintenance of the clothing were found to be the main factors contributing to the user satisfaction. In my study, the importance of owning clothing is determined through the functional and symbolical meanings of the clothing. The functionality is mainly experienced through the ease of use and functionality of the clothing in everyday life. Quality, good fit and attachment, which is formed through use, were found to be the main contributors for functionality. The importance of owning clothing is restricted to basic and trustworthy clothing as well as to meaningful clothing that represented certain memories. However, the desire for variation, which is experienced through clothing, is hard to fulfill with the basic and functional clothing. Lending is found to be a good way to satisfy the desire for variation without attachment to material possessions. According to the study sustainable ways to consume clothing is seen as a trivial matter. Consumers have different practices in order to attain sustainability including decreasing consumption, saving and investing in quality. Overall the interviewees’ experience that lending clothing is an effective way to question the consumption practices and the real needs related to clothing. Lending service is also found to have an educational feature, as the users’ knowledge of Finnish designers, quality and maintenance of clothing is cultivated through the use of the service.

The aim of this research was to find out how split-root fertigation affects the tield and quality of greenhouse tomato grown under modern greenhouse conditions. The aim was to find out if split-root fertigation produces bigger and better quality crop than traditional fertigation. In addition water use efficiency was compared between the split-root and traditional fertigation approaches. The study was conducted at MTT Agrifood Research Finland (Piikkiö) during 3.4.- 24.11.2009 in greenhouse. In split-root fertigation approach the roots of the tomato plants were divided into two comparments where the other compartment was fertigated with low electrical conductivity (EC) solution and the other on with concentrated EC solution. In traditional fertigation treatment the roots were also divided into two compartments but both parts were fertigated with solutions of equal EC. In split-root fertigation plant is able to take water from dilute solution and nutrients from concentrated solution. High EC can inrcease tomatos quality but decrease yield. Split-root fertigation enables use of high EC and low EC solutions to achieve the best quality tomatoes and most yield. During the cultivation period, the EC values of the nutrient solutions were maintained in their target values for almost all the time. The traditional fertigation approach produced more marketable yield and first class yield in number of fruits per plant than the split-root approach. The differences in the two approaches were statistically significant. One of the most factors that decreased the volume of marketable yield by was blossom-end rot. Water use efficiency was calculated by dividing the marketable yield by the volume of the water used during growth season. The split-root fertigation approach produced 164 g/l and the traditional fertigation 171 g/l of fruits per used litre of water. However, the difference was not statistically significant. Further research on split-root fertigation is needed. Based on the literature it the concentrated compartment in the split-root fertigation system may induce drought stress signals, which eventually reduc optimal production.