Browsing by Title
Now showing items 555-574 of 4203
-
(2020)Streptococcus pneumoniae is considered to be one of the most common causes of pneumonia and is known to cause a significant disease burden worldwide. During the past two decades much effort has been made globally to prevent pneumococcal illnesses through the use of vaccines. In Finland, all children under the age of five have been eligible to receive pneumococcal conjugate vaccine as part of the national vaccination programme since 2010. The impact of the pneumococcal vaccination has been studied extensively in Finland, and a significant decrease in the incidence of pneumonia has been observed among all vaccine-age children. One research question not yet examined in the previous studies is the exact point of time after which the impact of vaccination can be discerned in the incidence rates. This thesis considers a novel approach to multiple change point detection for time series data, where the change point problem is expressed in the form of a regression model. The model is specified so that potential change point positions are represented as separate explanatory variables. Relevant change points are then chosen by applying several established variable selection methods to the model. Out of these methods, the lasso estimate, its Bayesian analogue and two other Gaussian scale mixture priors are considered in this work. The change point model was implemented with the selected variable selection methods for age-group specific time series of pneumonia incidence rates in Finland between 2001 and 2016 to detect any changes that could be attributed to the introduction of the vaccine. These datasets were produced from routinely generated hospital discharge records, the operationalization of which is also discussed in the thesis. Aside from the vaccinated age group of under five year olds, data for both 25-44 year olds and over 65 year olds were also considered to inspect possible indirect effects of the vaccination. The implementations with different variable selection methods all provided very similar results for each age group. For under five year olds a change point during spring 2011 was selected, while for the over 65 year olds none were chosen during or after the introduction of the vaccine. For 25-44 year olds multiple change points between 2009 and 2014 were selected, but whether any of these could be attributed to the vaccination remains an open question.
-
(2018)The Kara Sea is part of the seasonal sea ice zone in the Arctic, where the warming climate is rapidly changing the sea ice regime. The warm Atlantic water transported through the Barents Sea has a strong influence on the ice conditions in the northern Kara Sea. In this thesis, trends and interannual variability in sea ice conditions in the Kara Sea area studied. For this purpose, coupled sea ice-ocean model NEMO-LIM3 and sea ice concentration datasets derived from passive microwave satellite observations (SMMR, SSM/I and SSMIS) are used. Additionally, the model performance is assessed by comparing its output with the observations. The ice coverage examined in regional and local scales shows negative trends in all months in 1978-2015. The interannual variability of the total ice covered fraction increased in winter and spring when the ice regime shifted from full to partial ice cover over the sea. Meanwhile the variability in summer and autumn decreased. The annual ice free time rapidly extended in the area north of Novaya Zemlya where the warm Atlantic water enters the Kara Sea. The mean sea ice thickness, based on the sea ice-ocean model data in 1997-2015, has become thinner in all months. The model is generally in good agreement with the observations, with the exception of the northern Kara Sea where the model underestimated heat advection. The findings confirm that the sea ice conditions in the Kara Sea have changed towards a new regime with shorter and more variable ice seasons.
-
(2023)Agroforestry is a collective name for agricultural land-use practices where combinations of woody perennials such as trees and shrubs are intentionally managed with crops and/or livestock in same land units for various environmental and economic benefits. As a sustainable farming practice, agroforestry is used to increase food production without adding harmful impacts of agriculture on natural environment. Agroforestry is a common farming practice in Taita Hills, Kenya, where it is motivated by Kenyan policies supporting tree planting in the fields. This study aims to find out how canopy height and canopy cover have changed during the last ten years in the croplands of Taita Hills to get more knowledge on the state and trends of agroforestry in the study area. Changes in canopy height and canopy cover in croplands are approached by multitemporal airborne laser scanning (ALS) data. ALS is an active remote sensing method used to acquire three-dimensional point cloud data of a target landscape. Canopy height models (CHM), 99th percentile canopy height and canopy cover data were derived from two ALS data sets from 2014/2015 and 2022 and used for the change detection of canopy height and canopy cover during the study period. Field data from 2013 and 2022 containing tree measurements from 28 field plots were used in the validation of ALS-based analyses. The results indicate that there has been a slight increase in canopy height and canopy cover during the study period. It is acknowledged that the study period is quite short to detect changes in tree growth. Hence, only slight positive changes in canopy height and canopy cover were expected. Based on CHM changes, almost 20% of the area outside forests had ≥ 2 m increase in the canopy height. Furthermore, 7% of the area outside forests had ≤ -5 m decrease in the canopy height, which corresponds to tree loss. Results for CHM based canopy height were supported by 99th percentile canopy height changes. The area outside forest with ≥ 10% canopy cover increased from 67.4% to 68.0%. Even though canopy height and canopy cover had a slight increase in the croplands, forest cover was detected to be increasing during the study period. ALS and field measurements matched well with each other. In the tree height measurements, there were more variance with taller trees, probably caused by difficulties in measuring taller trees in the field. Moreover, ALS data was found to underestimate tree height changes. The average absolute deviation for tree height changes was 1.3 m shorter for ALS-measured tree heights than field measurements. Number of trees in field plots has mainly decreased during 20132022. ALS-based mean canopy height and canopy cover changes in the plots explain the actual changes well if large number of trees have been cut down during the study period. The thesis provides valuable information on the state and trends of agroforestry in Taita Hills. However, more exact land cover classification could have enhanced the accuracy of the results even more. All in all, the results were mainly positive, indicating that there has been an increasing trend in canopy height and canopy cover in the croplands in Taita Hills.
-
(2024)Diurnal temperature range (DTR), defined as the difference between daily maximum and minimum temperatures, is an important variable in ecosystem dynamics. Human-induced climate change, which has increased mean temperatures worldwide, has been noted to cause global changes in DTR. In this thesis, the changes in daily maximum and minimum temperatures, as well as diurnal temperature range, were studied between the climatological periods of 1961–1990 and 1991–2020 from twenty weather observation stations in Finland. Student’s t-test was utilized to assess the statistical significance of the differences between period mean values. The results show that daily maximum and minimum temperatures have risen significantly across Finland in all seasons. The differences between 1961–1990 and 1991–2020 mean values were +1.26 °C and +1.51 °C for daily maximum and minimum temperatures, respectively. Both daily maximum and minimum temperatures have risen most notably in winter (DJF), with daily extreme temperatures increasing asymmetrically. The increase in temperatures was more pronounced for daily minimum temperatures, rising by approximately 3 °C in winter, nearly one degree more than daily maximum temperatures during the same season. Annually averaged diurnal temperature range has generally decreased in Finland from 1961–1990 to 1991–2020. The decrease in DTR was statistically significant in the northern part of Finland, and overall, the country experienced a statistically significant decrease of −0.25 °C. The decreases in annual mean DTR exhibited a latitudinal pattern, with the largest decrease observed in northern Finland and smallest in southern Finland. The majority of the decrease in DTR occurred during winter across the country, whereas changes in the other seasons were smaller and varied in direction. A decrease in DTR in Finland has been reported by other studies, although the results in this thesis (−0.09 °C/decade trend) are larger in amplitude compared to other estimates. The decrease in winter DTR was attempted to be explained by changes in air mass advection, which substantially influences diurnal temperature range in addition to influencing day-to-day variations in temperature. It was concluded that changes in air mass advection have substantially influenced the changes in winter DTR, but they may not necessarily explain all of the observed changes. Cloud cover changes were examined using ERA5 reanalysis data, but these changes were judged to be unimportant for the decrease in winter DTR. However, asymmetrical cloud cover changes in the other seasons could have potentially contributed to the differing direction of DTR change observed in spring, summer and autumn across the country.
-
(2016)The Pleistocene (2588-11,2 ka) is known as the time of the ice age. The ice age ended at the beginning of the warm and more humid Holocene. Large carnivorous predators, which survived the transition, have adapted to the current new environments. The goal of this thesis was to compare the osteological changes in the large carnivores from the Pleistocene to present. The data consists Finnish Recent and Central European fossil carnivore carnassial teeth, the calcaneum and the femoral head. Body mass estimates and carnivory indexes were taken from the carnassial tooth, the calcaneal indices were used to determine environmental openness and femoral head measurements indicated locomotory category. The femoral head changes have not been tested on carnivores, so the applicability to carnivores was also tested. The wolf (Canis lupus), the wolverine (Gulo gulo) and the bear (Ursus arctos) are smaller Recently than in the Pleistocene. Wolf's diet has changed to more omnivorous, and changes in the calcaneum indicate more closed habitats. There are no significant intraspecific differences in Finnish carnivore populations between latitudes. The femoral head indices confirm the benefits of certain osteological traits in terrestrial animals (the wolf, the wolverine, the bear) compared to the traits of a more scansorial ambush predator, the lynx (Lynx lynx). The decline in the body masses from Pleistocene to Recent has been known previously. The changes in the body masses in Finland have not been made. The lack of intraspecific differences reflects constant environmental conditions throughout Finland. The differences between fossil and Recent wolf bring new insight on the matter. The more closed environments in Finland are reflected in the wolf, and differences in locomotion between species can be detected from the material.
-
(2020)Northern peatlands form a globally significant carbon reservoir holding almost one third of global terrestrial organic soil carbon. Peatlands are in constant interaction with the atmosphere and their carbon balance can change from a sink to a source. Climate is the one of the most important factors controlling peatland dynamics and subsequently carbon dynamics. As global warming is predicted to have increasingly strong impacts over the high latitudes, also peatlands will be affected. Peatlands are an environment defined by a certain type of vegetation, which can tolerate excess moisture and of often low pH. Peatland vegetation can be divided based on the preferred habitat conditions. Peatland vegetation compositions are not static, but instead everchanging and they react to changes in climate and environment, observed as shifts from vegetation assemblage to another. I studied the climatic response of peatland vegetation compositions in Lakkasuo bog in Southern Finland. High resolution macrofossil approach was carried out to observe peat vegetation changes trough time, in particular I studied responses to known climate phases. To obtain robust chronologies, both 210Pb and 14C dating was applied. Peat bulk density and C/N ratio was also analysed, carbon accumulation rates calculated, and current vegetation and water table depth (WTD) measured in the field. Three peat sections, 50-60cm from the top, were analysed. Dating revealed that the peat sections reached back c. 300 years. Plant data was statistically analysed using Changepoint to make an objective core-to-core comparison of the changes and the timing of vegetation shifts. Because WTD is largely defining the vegetation compositions in bogs, for Lakkasuo sites three bog microforms, i.e. microhabitats, currently representing different WTD levels were chosen for the palaeoecological analyses. Vegetation was inspected in high plant taxonomical level and as larger compositional groups (plant functional types). For changepoint analyses plant taxa were classified as “dry”, “intermediate” and “wet” based on their preferred moisture conditions today. Macrofossil data indicated clear shifts in vegetation composition in Lakkasuo as a response to the Little Ice Age (LIA) cool period and to current warming. LIA was characterised by presence of wet taxa. Current warming, in turn, is visible as an increase in dry taxa. This leads to the conclusion that climate has been the prevalent controlling factor for the bog vegetation during the last c. 300 years. Current development towards dry conditions in Lakkasuo will affect the peatland carbon dynamics. The peatland is projected to experience decrease in effective moisture hindering carbon uptake capability.
-
(2013)This thesis provides a number of examples of changing cofinalities of cardinals using forcing. The main emphasis is put on the forcing notion developed by Prikry, which is used to change the cofinality of a measurable cardinal kappa to omega, while preserving all other cardinals and the universe below kappa . It is shown that the assumption of measurability cannot be weakened. Next, two variations of the original Prikry forcing are explored. Finally, a forcing notion developed by Namba is introduced, which makes the only nontrivial change of cofinality without assuming any large cardinal properties.
-
(2023)Atmospheric aerosols are solid or liquid phase particles which are suspended in ambient air. These particles have an impact on the climate through direct and indirect radiative forcing, and their measurement presents challenges in high latitude environments where concentrations may fall under the detection limit of the responsible instruments. In order to both qualify and quantify the contribution of aerosol particles to environmental change at higher latitudes, it is important to understand their microphysical and optical properties, which control their interaction with visible wavelength radiation. This thesis focuses on the characterisation of the aforementioned aerosol properties in a High Arctic environment, Villum Research Station (Northeast Greenland), during two six-month observation periods in 2020 and 2021. The parameters presented in the analysis are particle total number concentration and size distribution in the 0.3 - 10 μm size range, particle scattering coefficients σsp, particle absorption coefficients σap, and Ångström exponents describing the wavelength dependence of both optical coefficients. The seasonal variability and distribution of these properties was analysed, and case studies of exceptional particle number concentration identified as particle transport events to evaluate the contribution of local and long-distance source regions to the overall aerosol population at the station. The results of the analysis show that there is a notable seasonality to both number concentration and optical characteristics of aerosol particles at Villum Research Station, with median values for these parameters at their highest in the winter, followed by the autumn and then the summer. The dominant species during episodes of exceptional particle number concentrations were found to be dust, Elemental Carbon/Organic Carbon (EC/OC) and mixed aerosols, with source regions across continental Greenland, the Canadian Archipelago and Arctic Ocean.
-
(2018)Human-elephant conflicts (HECs) pose a threat for both the survival of elephant populations and for the wellbeing of the rural people who live adjacent to wildlife. Problems are common especially in those rural areas where human settlements and agriculture have expanded on elephant ranges and where agricultural villages border the remaining elephant habitats. Sri Lanka is one of the countries where human and elephant territories commonly overlap and where the presence of elephants causes serious challenges for the rural communities. This paper presents a study of human-elephant conflict at Bogahapalassa forest reserve in south-central Sri Lanka. Instead of studying HEC as a hindrance to elephant conservation I was interested of its impact on the local communities. The aim was to find out where, when and how this conflict takes place. The study focuses on areal differences in HEC’s prevalence, on the challenges of the used mitigation strategies, and examines the perceived causes and solutions for the elephant issue. The study area comprised 28 agrarian villages that are located adjacent to protected areas. The research was conducted using qualitative methods. We carried out group interviews with the inhabitants of the studied villages and individual interviews with different key informants. The collected data was later analysed using qualitative content analysis. The results show that human-elephant conflict takes place in all the studied villages without clear areal differences. Elephants cause problems around the year but especially during the dry season. The villagers suffer of various direct and indirect hindrances. The major cost of the conflict comes from crop losses that were commonly perceived as serious hindrance for livelihoods. The HEC has its roots in the shrinkage and deterioration of the forest areas that have been under continuous pressure from human activities. An invasive flowering species called Lantana is also spreading in the forests replacing native eatable grasses, therefore further decreasing the available food sources for elephants. It was also commonly believed that elephants are becoming increasingly used to crop raiding and to the deterrent methods that villagers use and thus the situation is worsening. There are various mitigation strategies being used to tackle the issues with elephants. Most of these seemed to be losing their effectiveness which must party contribute to the strong support of electric fencing that is now the main official strategy for HEC mitigation in this area. The villages that already have the electric fence from the Department of Wildlife Conservation reported various deficiencies in the fence. It is clear that the mitigation strategies that are currently being used are not sufficient to solve or effectively reduce the issues with elephants. Thus, other multi-pronged strategies need to be tested and implemented to sustainably mitigate the HEC.
-
(2022)Graphite is formed mainly by graphitization processes from organic precursor in high-grade metamorphic conditions, or precipitation of carbon from carbon-bearing fluids. Quality of the graphite, i.e. crystallinity, flake size and purity, determines its use and commercial value. Demand for graphite has been on the rise and is expected to increase more in the near future. The Korsnäs region in Ostrobothnia, Western Finland, is a prominent target for a graphite exploration based on the region’s geological history, i.e. the Svecofennian accretionary orogeny and high-grade metamorphic conditions. Graphite is ubiquitous in the area, and has been enriched mainly in the metapelitic schists intercalated within the paragneisses. The aim of the master’s thesis is to study the mineralogical characteristics and quality of the graphite, as well as estimate the economic importance of the graphite occurrences in the area of Korsnäs. Additionally, the origin of the graphite formations and their relationship to the regional metamorphic conditions are considered in this research. Mineralogical characteristics and quality of the graphite flakes were studied from the polished thin sections with optical microscopes and scanning electron microscope. Crystallinity of the graphite flakes was analyzed by a Raman spectroscopy, which has been used widely to measure orderly structure of a carbonaceous material. Peak temperatures of the metamorphic conditions were estimated from the Raman results using geothermometers. Based on the petrographic analysis, graphite is abundant, and the morphology refers to a flake graphite. Large proportion of the flakes are over 0.3 mm on their c-axis, which can be considered as large and the most valuable type of a flake graphite. Crystallinity of the graphite was determined from the Raman spectra using the peak intensity ratio (R1) of the graphite band and the main disordered band. The analyzed graphite flakes show good values for the R1 parameter (mean value 0.05 ± 0.05), indicating high crystallinity, and consequently, high-grade metamorphic conditions or precipitation from carbon-bearing fluids for the formation mechanism. The estimated peak temperatures are ranging from 650 to 695°C, which are consistent with the mineral assemblages of the migmatite and paragneiss samples, but inconsistent with the graphite-bearing metapelitic schists. The biotite-garnet and biotite-garnet-cordierite (sillimanite) paragneisses does not show any meaningful evidence of a retrograde overprint, but it is apparent that the graphite bearing samples have experienced retrograde metamorphism and hydrothermal alteration. This is evident from the lack of high-grade metamorphic minerals, presence of lower metamorphic grade minerals, and the estimated high peak temperatures for the formation of the graphite. Consequently, the R1 parameter suggests that the graphite in these rocks has not been affected by the retrograde metamorphism. The origin of the high-crystalline graphite appears to be a graphitization of biogenic material, but fluid-deposited graphite cannot be completely ruled out. Some carbon enrichment may have occurred by fluid-rock interactions. Further studies and detailed analyses, such as locating the possible high-grade deposits and determining the purity of the graphite, are needed. In conclusion, the high-crystalline graphite in the Korsnäs region is of good quality and shows prominent results for the commercial value.
-
(2022)Small arctic glaciers have in general been consistently neglected with respect to the collection of long time-series observations. Available data is often a product of multiple independent and separate studies, thus gaps in the data sets are common. Numerical modelling provides one solution to alleviate existing gaps in knowledge, while historical observations can be used to assess model accuracy. The Foxfonna ice cap and associated glacier were investigated with the aid of the numerical modelling software, Elmer/Ice. The goal was to reproduce core glaciological characteristics of the entire glacier system from a 3D simulation based on multiple digital elevation models (DEMs) between the years 1961-2021. The methods proved capable of providing additional information on the glaciological characteristics of a small glacier system, such as Foxfonna. Issues primarily arose from the steady state assumption and the difficulty of producing simulations for a dynamically varying glacier system.
-
(2020)Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) has a high quantum efficiency and a bandgap of 1.44 eV. As a consequence, it is being used to efficiently detect gamma rays. The aim of this thesis is to explore the properties of the CdTe pixelated detector and the procedures conducted in order to fine-tune the electronic readout system. A fully functional CdTe detector would be useful in medical imaging techniques such as Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). BNCT requires a detector with a good energy resolution, a good timing resolution and a good stopping power. Although the CdTe crystal is a promising material, its growing process is difficult due to the fact that different types of defects appear inside the crystal. The quality assurance process has to be thorough in order for suitable crystals to be found. An aluminum oxide layer (Al2O3) was passivated onto the surface of the crystal. The contacts for both sides were created using Titanium Tungsten (TiW) and gold (Au) sputtering deposition, followed by an electroless nickel growth. I tested the CdTe pixelated detector with different radioactive sources such as Am-241, Ba-133, Co-57, Cs-137 and X-ray quality series in order to study the sensitivity of the device and its capacity to detect gamma and X-rays.
-
(Helsingin yliopistoHelsingfors universitetUniversity of Helsinki, 2012)The increased use of liquid biofuels has created a need for an accurate and a reliable technique for determining blend ratios of biofuel and fossil fuel due to technical reasons related to car engines and due to legislative reasons. The true portion of biological carbon in a fuel can be determined reliably only by radiocarbon measurement. Radiocarbon is created in upper atmosphere by cosmic radiation and is transferred to flora and fauna via photosynthesis. When an organism dies, the radiocarbon in its body starts do decay. Because the half-life of radiocarbon is very long and because biofuels are manufactured from relatively young feedstock materials, it is possible to calculate the biofraction of a fuel sample by determining its radiocarbon contents. The most popular techniques for determining this are, to date, accelerator mass spectrometry and liquid scintillation counting. Liquid scintillation counting is cheaper and easier to use, but in low concentrations the accuracy is not as good. In addition, the technique has the drawback of quenching effects. Accelerator mass spectrometry is the most accurate method, but the disadvantages are the price and size of the equipment and labor-intensive sample preparation process, which can take several days. In addition to the radioanalytical techniques, the biofractions of biofuels have been determined by infrared, Raman, nuclear magnetic resonance, X-ray and fluorescence spectroscopy and by gas and liquid chromatography, but these techniques have more limited applicability. In these techniques, the determination is usually based on direct or indirect detection of fatty acid methyl ester groups. However, the newer generation biofuels do not anymore contain these groups and their chemical composition is similar to fossil fuels. In addition, by using these techniques one cannot determine e.g. whether the ethanol in petrol blend is in fact manufactured from biological or fossil sources. In the experimental section of the thesis an elemental analyzer -based sample preparation method was developed, by which the time spent on sample preparation for accelerator mass spectrometer was decreased when compared to previous method, described by standard ASTM D6866-10. The biodiesel samples were combusted in the elemental analyzer and the carbon dioxide collected cryogenically. The carbon dioxide was reduced to graphite and their radiocarbon contents was measured by accelerator mass spectrometry. In addition, the results from elemental analyzer method were compared to previous results by closed-tube-combustion method. It was noticed that the elemental analyzer method was more accurate, faster and easier to use.
-
(2021)Genomic structural variants are large events that change the structure of the genome. These can cause changes in the functions of cells by breaking genes and genomic regulatory regions. Multiple factors are known to affect the formation of structural variants and previous studies have shown that often the sequence content in a genomic region plays a role in their formation. This study aims to characterize the sequence content around structural variant breakpoints from structural variants which have been detected from human tissue samples which have been whole genome sequenced with nanopore sequencing. The characterization was done by looking at the genomic repetitive elements found around the breakpoints, by analyzing the GC-content around the breakpoints, and by studying what kind of enriched DNA motifs were found in the sequences around the breakpoints and how these were located in these sequences. Multiple different repetitive elements were seen to occur near the breakpoint regions, and it was also observed that there were differences in what kind of repetitive elements were seen around different types of structural variants. Around the sequences of different kinds of structural variants there was also distinct differences in what kind of GC-content profiles the sequences had. In addition, various different enriched motifs were also found from the sequences and many of these showed distinct variation on how they were located around the breakpoints. These results support the previous findings showing that also here the sequence content does play a role in the formation of structural variants, but still all of the results here could not be directly explained by previous studies. In these results, it was seen that the GC-content was higher in sequences that have been affected by an event that causes structural variant formation. Also, many of the found DNA motifs were distinctly skewed around the breakpoint sequences, possibly hinting that the sequences containing these motifs would be prone to the formation of structural variants.
-
(2021)International shipping is globally a major source of atmospheric nitrogen oxides (NOx). It has been widely recognized that these emissions have negative effects on maritime air quality and human health. For a long time, shipping was the least regulated NOx emission source, but now first regulations for ship exhaust NOx emissions started as of January 2021. Shipping emissions must be monitored so the obedience of these regulations can be followed. Different measurement techniques are developed to address the problems related to shipping emission monitoring. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentration measurements by TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard Copernicus Sentinel 5 Precursor (S5P) satellite can be used to characterize signatures of shipping emissions. The capability of TROPOMI to detect busy shipping lanes and port areas was first tested with a large study area of the whole Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Analysis was supported with shipping emission data inventory from the Ship Traffic Assessment Model (STEAM). Results showed elevated NO2 concentrations close to major port areas, especially if the dominant wind direction on the water area was from the continent. These elevated concentrations were most likely a result of both transported urban emissions and shipping emissions. STEAM and TROPOMI grid cell comparison was done over the busiest shipping lane area over the open sea, and the results showed that if the monthly summed shipping emission amount was either small or very large, the signal of shipping emissions was affected by background concentrations. More detailed shipping emission study was done at port Piraeus and the surrounding sea area. There, satellite measurement analysis was done by selecting three smaller study areas for comparison, one over the city of Athens, the second one close to the port Piraeus and the third one over the open sea. Relation between the satellite observations of NO2 and modelled shipping emissions of NOx was obtained in the study area that was over the open sea, the center of the area being 35 km from the coast. The signal of shipping emissions was not detected close to the port, most likely because of the influence of other emission sources. Lastly, spring and summer 2020 were analysed separately in more detail, as they were included in the overall study period of this thesis but the air pollution patterns at that time were affected by the extraordinary COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. The results showed unusually small average NO2 concentrations over the city of Athens during spring 2020. Meteorological observations from that time period did not show anything that could fully explain the decrease. Observations over the sea close to Piraeus showed no clear difference between 2019 and 2020 average concentrations, so the pandemic possibly had only a minor impact on the shipping emissions in the port area.
-
(2017)In a quantum computer, the information carriers, which are bits in ordinary computers, are implemented as devices that exhibit coherent superpositions of physical states and entanglement. Such components, known as quantum bits or qubits, can be realized with various different types of two-state quantum systems. Quantum computers will be built for computational speed, with hoped for applications especially in cryptography and in other tasks where classical computers remain inefficient. Circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) is a quantum-computer architecture which employs superconducting electronic components and microwave photon fields as building blocks. Compared to cavity quantum electrodynamics (CQED), where atoms are trapped in physical cavities, cQED is more attractive in that its qubits are tunable and conveniently integrable with the electronics already in use. This architecture has shown some of the most promising qubit designs, despite their coherence times reaching tens of microseconds, are still below the state of the art with spin qubits, which reach milliseconds. Coherence times are historically the most relevant parameters describing the fitness of a qubit, although these days not necessarily the limiting factor. This thesis presents a comprehensive set of theoretical and experimental methods for measuring the characteristic parameters of superconducting qubits. We especially study transmission-line-shunted plasma oscillation qubits, or transmons, and presents experimental results for a single sample. Transmon capacitively couples a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) with a coplanar waveguide (CPW) resonator, often with added frequency tunability utilizing an external magnet. The number of superconducting charge carriers tunnelled through a junction in the SQUID are used as qubit degrees of freedom. Readout of the qubit state is carried out by measuring transmission through the CPW. A cryogenic setup is employed with measurement and driving pulses delivered from microwave sources. Steady-state spectroscopy is employed to determine the resonance frequencies of the qubit and the resonator, qubit-resonator coupling constants, and the energy parameters of the qubit. Pulse-modulated measurements are employed to determine the coherence times of the qubit. The related analysis- and simulation programs and scripts are collected togithub.com/patomaki.
-
(2020)Voice-Based Proactive Information Retrieval can support social interactions by augmenting conversations and removing the need for explicit search activity. Previous work introduces the SearchBot, a proactive search agent used to collect data about search behaviour during social interactions. Although prior analyses show that it positively influences the conversations of its users, the research leaves a gap in understanding how it affects their other behaviours. This thesis aims to bridge this gap by analyzing data from a previous study and characterizing the influence of the SearchBot on the behaviours and activities of its users. Our findings show that study participants displayed an increased frequency of engagement with the SearchBot system than with a more traditional search system. In addition, our exploration of the different types of search activities that users perform shows that SearchBot users are able to avoid the most cognitively expensive one (query formulation and typing). The findings also reveal patterns of interaction between the SearchBot system and its users in terms of speech patterns and search behaviours. We discuss the implications of our findings and provide suggestions for future work.
-
(2015)Flavour violating processes have never been observed for charged leptons, electron, muon and tau. The existence of charged lepton flavour violating (CLFV) processes is however expected, since flavour is violated by all the other fermions of the standard model (SM). In the standard model the neutrinos are massless, which forbids the mixing of neutrino flavour and also the violation of lepton flavour. The zero mass of the neutrinos in the SM is in conflict with the experimentally observed neutrino oscillations. The standard model has to be extended to include massive neutrinos. The easiest way to explain the neutrino mass is to assume that they acquire masses in the same way as the rest of the SM fermions: in the Higgs mechanism. This way however leads to problems with the naturality of the neutrino Yukawa coupling. One of the most popular methods of generating the neutrino mass is the so called seesaw mechanism (type-I). The standard model, extended with the neutrino masses, allows the charged lepton flavour to be violated. This leads to unobservably small transition rates however. Therefore an observation of charged lepton flavour violating process would be a clear evidence of the existence of new physics beyond the standard model and it's trivial extensions. To have hope of ever observing charged lepton flavour violating processes, there must be an extension of the standard model which produces observable, though small, rates for CLFV processes. One of the most popular extensions of the standard model is the so called minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). The neutrinos are massless in the MSSM, as they are in SM, and therefore CLFV processes are forbidden in the MSSM. Luckily the neutrino masses can be generated via seesaw mechanism in the MSSM as well as in the SM. The MSSM contains more potential sources for CLFV processes than the SM. The extra sources are the soft mass parameters of the sleptons. In supersymmetric models the sleptons couple to the leptons through the slepton-lepton-gaugino-vertices. These generate the CLFV processes at the loop-level. Often the off-diagonal soft terms are assumed zero in the MSSM at the input scale, where the supersymmetry breaks. Experiments are done at much lower electroweak scale. The soft SUSY-breaking terms acquire large radiative corrections as they are run from the input scale down to the electroweak scale. Here the seesaw mechanism kicks in. The seesaw mechanism brings with it the off-diagonal neutrino Yukawa coupling matrices. This allows the off-diagonal slepton mass terms to evolve non-zero at the electroweak scale. In this thesis the charged lepton flavour violation is discussed first in the context of the standard model. Then the CLFV processes, l_i → (l_j γ), l_i → (l_j l_k l_l) and l_i ↔ l_j, are studied in the most general way: in the effective theories. Finally the charged lepton flavour violation is studied in the supersymmetric theories in general and more specifically in the minimal supersymmetric standard model extended with the seesaw mechanism (type-I).
-
(2020)Particle and nuclear physics experiments require state-of-the-art detector technologies in a pursuit to achieve high data collection efficiency, and thus ensuring reliable data recording from the particle collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments of CERN. High demand for data to be used for precision analysis has led to the development of MicroPattern Gaseous Detector (MPGD) based structures: Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) and MICROMEGAS (MM). A systematic study is conducted on charging-up behaviour in a two-stage amplification structure, consisting of a single GEM foil above a MM detector with 2D readout chamber. Charging-up effect arises in the detector system due to combined effects from polarization of dielectric surfaces and accumulation of charges on the dielectric surfaces of MM resistive strips under high external electric field. The internal fields created from charging-up of dielectric surfaces can lead to a change in the applied electric field and gain of the detector suffers. In this thesis, the instability of gain due to characteristic charging-up process in GEM and MM is observed for different event rates and humidity level in the detector fill gas (P-10 gas mixture). MM gain decreased with time due to charging-up of dielectric surfaces and an exponential drop of gain by ≈30% is detected in case of dry gas i.e. fill gas without moisture. By adding a small amount of water content into fill gas, the MM gain is observed to drop around 22-30%. Addition of 1320±280 ppmV water content into MM gas volume yielded a higher gain of about 10% compared to dry gas. In case of higher rate measurement, achieved by using GEM foil as a pre-amplification stage between drift and readout electrode, the gain saturates at 70%. For low rate measurement, the gain saturates at 68%. GEM gain is observed to increase slowly by 17% as the dielectric surfaces inside its holes charged-up gradually over time.
-
(2021)Chatbotteja on kehitetty jo vuosikymmenten ajan, mutta nykyinen kiinnostus on kasvanut niihin teknologian kehityksen myötä. Chatbotit palvelevat ihmisiä eri tarkoituksissa ja niiden toiminta perustuu keskusteluun ihmisen kanssa. Chatbotit tarjoavat henkilökohtaista palvelua vuorokauden jokaisena hetkenä, jonka vuoksi niiden tarve on lisääntynyt monilla aloilla, kuten verkkomyynnissä ja terveydenhuollossa. Chatbottien kehityksessä on tärkeää pohtia niiden toteutusta. Monet käyttäjät suosivat edelleen muita informaationlähteitä heidän ongelmiensa ratkaisuun. Yksi tapa mitata chatbot-järjestelmien laatua on tutkia niiden käyttäjäkokemusta. Tässä tutkielmassa tarkastellaan empiirisesti chatbot-sovellusten käyttäjäkokemusta. Empiirisen osion muodostaa laadullinen tutkimus, jonka avulla pyritään vastaamaan seuraavaan tutkimuskysymykseen: Kuinka chatbottien käyttäjäkokemusta voitaisiin parantaa? Tutkimus järjestettiin Osaamisbotti-palvelun kanssa, joka tarjosi testiympäristön tutkimuksen suorittamiselle. Tutkimukseen osallistui kahdeksan henkilöä, jotka suorittivat heille annetun tehtävän keskustelemalla chatbotin kanssa. Tutkimuksen aineisto on saatu protokolla-analyysin ja sen jälkeisen haastattelun keinoin. Tulokset esittävät, että ihmismäiset keskustelukyvyt, pidemmät vastaukset sekä tehokas keskustelun kulku parantavat chatbottien käyttäjäkokemusta. Lisäksi riittävällä informoinnilla ohjataan keskustelua sekä vältetään virhetilanteita. Chatbottien hyvällä saatavuudella sekä helppokäyttöisyydellä kasvatetaan niiden hyväksyntää ja käyttöönottoa. Tutkielman tuloksia voidaan hyödyntää tulevissa tutkimuksissa ja chatbottien kehitystyössä.
Now showing items 555-574 of 4203