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The main objective of this thesis was to examine climate change discourses and their meaning to the future of Finland. The study focused on the political level discourses. The national review was made by studying the discussions held at the Parliament of Finland on 10.6.2014 and 25.2.2015 concerning the Climate Act. A shorter regional review was made based on interviews of the Regional Mayors in Finland. The principal method in the thesis was data-driven, qualitative content analysis. The Climate Act related discussions by the Members of the Parliament were analysed by looking into the contents of the arguments and the material from the Regional Mayor interviews were analysed by looking more into the signifiers that were attached to climate change. Another method used in the thesis was a theory-driven one based on the environmental discourses by John S. Dryzek. This method was used to analyse the Climate Act discussions and the purpose was to find out if the Finnish climate change related discussion contains any of the environmental discourses proposed by Dryzek in his theoretical studies. One aim of the thesis was also examine if any possibilities have been incorporated into the climate discussions. The analysis based on the data-driven method found five thematic groups of arguments from the speeches of the MP's supporting the Climate Act. The arguments focused on the content and targets of the Act, the institutionalisation of climate issues, the meaning of the Climate Act to national climate policy, strengthening the legitimacy of the Climate Act and the possibilities of climate change. The MP's that voted for the acceptance of the Climate Act in the Finnish Parliament also brought out concerns regarding the Act. The arguments containing these concerns were grouped into four thematic groups: Arguments illustrating the effects of the Climate Act to national economical success, the doubts concerning the effectiveness of national climate policy, the content of the Climate Act and the administrative issues. The MP's who voted against the Climate Act used the same thematic arguments, that the ones expressing their concerns. MP's attached manifold signifiers to climate change, and these were also examined in the thesis. The discussions concerning the Climate Act were also analysed from the political party perspective with both the data- and theory-driven methods. The analysis found that there were clear differences in the emphasis of the different arguments between parties. The analysis of the Regional Mayor interviews was made by the data-driven method by looking and analysing the signifiers attached to climate change. The signifiers were grouped into three groups according to the placement given to climate change in regional actions. Climate change was defined as either a central, a crosscutting or a secondary theme. Some of the Regional Mayors also described the public opinion concerning climate change in the region and this was also examined shortly in the thesis. The possibilities linked to climate change were almost without exception connected to the industrial policy success factors of the regions. The main results of the thesis were the questioning of the consensus regarding the approval of the Finnish Climate Act, the restrained reformist goals of national climate policy, the dual nature of climate policy as a threat and as a possibility, the division of the Finnish regions by the willingness to execute climate actions in the regional level and first and foremost the connection between climate policy and Finnish wellbeing and economical success. Based on the results presented in the thesis a theory of the interconnectedness of climate policy and economical success was developed. The theory aims at explaining the contents of the Finnish political climate discourses from a new perspective.

Uloshengityksen on jo kauan tiedetty kertovan hengittäjän terveydestä. Hengityksessä onkin arvioitu olevan tuhansia pelkästään endogeenista alkuperää olevia yhdisteitä, mutta vain muutamia niistä on tutkittu riittävästi, jotta niiden käyttäminen kliinisessä diagnostiikassa on tullut mahdolliseksi. Hengitysanalyysin potentiaali on siis edelleen laajalti hyödyntämättä, vaikka sen edut esimerkiksi verianalyysiin nähden ovat ilmeiset. Uloshengitys on näytematriisina yksinkertainen ja sen kerääminen on nopeaa, kivutonta sekä helppoa, ja näytteet on mahdollista analysoida vain muutamissa minuuteissa. Hengitysanalyysin potentiaali diagnostisena menetelmänä perustuu keuhkorakkuloiden ja verenkieron väliseen ohueen kapillaarikalvoon, jonka läpi monet verenkierron yhdisteet pääsevät haihtumaan suoraan uloshengitykseen. Monilla yhdisteillä hengityksessä esiintyvät pitoisuudet heijastavat siis suoraan veren yhdistepitoisuuksia. Yksi kiinnostusta herättänyt potentiaalinen biomerkkiaine on ammoniakki, joka on yhdistetty muun muassa munuaisten vajaatoimintaan ja veren kohonneisiin ureapitoisuuksiin. Poikkeuksellisen emäsluonteensa takia, hengityksen ammoniakin erittymismekanismin on kuitenkin arveltu poikkeavan muista endogeenisista yhdisteistä, ja yhdisteen on epäilty päätyvän hengitykseen veren sijasta syljestä haihtumalla. Epäselvyys ammoniakin tuottomekanismista onkin pitkään hidastanut yhdisteen analyysinpotentiaalin ymmärtämistä. Hengityksen lisäksi myös sylkianalyysit ovat herättäneet huomioita syljen helpon kerättävyyden ja erityisen koostumuksen ansiosta. Erityisesti syljen ureapitoisuudet on yhdistetty hengityksen ammoniakin tapaan veren ureapitoisuuksiin ja munuaisten toimintaan, minkä takia myös syljen ureaa on pidetty potentiaalisena biomerkkiaine. Tutkielmassa käsitellään hengityksen ammoniakin sekä syljen ammoniakin ja urean muodostumista sekä arvioidaan niiden yhteyttä elimistön ammoniakki- ja ureapitoisuuksiin. Lisäksi tutkielma käsittelee hengityksen ja syljen mittauksessa huomioon otettavia asioita sekä itse mittauksien suoritusta. Tutkielman tutkimusosuutta varten 12:sta dialyysiin osallistuvalta munuaisten vajaatoimintapotilaalta mitattiin hengityksen ja syljen ammoniakkipitoisuutta sekä veren ja syljen ureapitoisuutta hoidon ajan. Tuloksien perusteella pyrittiin arvioimaan hengityksen ammoniakin alkuperää sekä syljen urean ja hengityksen ammoniakin kykyä mitata munuaisten vajaatoimintapotilaiden ureemista tilaa sekä dialyysihoidon tehoa.

The latest version of liquid chromatography is ultra-high performance (or pressure) chromatography (UHPLC). In the technique, short and narrow-bore columns with particle sizes below 3 µm are used. The extremely high pressure used results in very short analysis times, excellent separation, and good resolution. This makes UHPLC a good choice for steroidal analysis. Steroids are a highly interesting area of study; they can be recognized as biomarkers for several diseases and are a relevant topic in doping testing. In this thesis articles on the topic ‘steroid analysis with UHPLC’, published prior to April 2017, are reviewed. UHPLC is always combined with mass spectrometry (MS) for steroid analysis. The MS utilized is usually of multi-dimension: quadrupole time of flight (QTOF) or triple quadrupole (QqQ). The instrumentation is suitable for both untargeted and targeted analysis. In untargeted studies, the study of changes in the human metabolome has been especially interesting. The articles on targeted studies are usually focused on doping control and quantification of identified biomarkers. The analysis with UHPLC-MS/MS usually provide reliable results with fast analysis time, without complicated sample preparation. Typically, the sample preparation processes can include only protein precipitation, liquid-liquid extraction or solid-phase extraction. UHPLC is also a valuable tool in simple and routine analysis. The separation efficiency is increased by the small plate height and the analysis time can thus be reduced. In this thesis work the technique was utilized for the analysis of food additives. For validation of an UHPLC method the repeatability, trueness, bias, measurement uncertainty and other factors need to be assessed. The experimental part of the thesis is dedicated to describe the development and validation of a method for analysis of five food additives and caffeine. The developed method was partly validated, with the aim to fulfil the needs of the Finnish Customs Laboratory. The optimized method comprised of an injection volume of 2 µL and a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The buffer was a phosphate buffer at pH of 4.0 and the gradient elution program was from 6 % to 30 % of acetonitrile in 1.6 minutes, then 1.6-1.7 minutes with 6% acetonitrile. The total run time was only 1.7 minutes. The limit of detection values was between 0.02 µg/mL and 1.73 µg/mL. The limit of quantitation values was between 0.054 µg/mL to 5.78 µg/mL, which should be sufficient for the Customs needs in the sense of checking if a product is over a certain limit. Expanded measurement uncertainties were around 20 %.

In this thesis, we give an overview of current methodology in the field of uncertainty estimation in machine learning, with focus on confidence scores and their calibration. We also present a case study, where we propose a novel method to improve uncertainty estimates of an in-production machine learning model operating in an industrial setting with real-life data. This model is used by a Finnish company Basware to extract information from invoices in the form of machine-readable PDFs. The solution we propose is shown to produce confidence estimates, which outperform the legacy estimates on several relevant metrics, increasing coverage of automated invoices from 65.6% to 73.2% with no increase in error rate.

Econometric microsimulation models that simulate the effects of taxation and social benefit legislation on the disposable incomes of individuals and households are widely used by social scientists and policymakers worldwide. The results produced by these models have a degree of uncertainty arising from multiple sources. One of these is sampling error that is caused by the fact that the simulation is performed on a sample of the total population of interest. However, assessment of the accuracy of results through the estimation of sampling variability caused by this error is still largely absent in the microsimulation literature. The users of econometric microsimulation models are often interested in the values of certain inequality and poverty indicators. This thesis presents variance estimation methods that can be employed to produce variance estimates for these indicators. The main focus is on bootstrap and linearization methods for variance estimation and the indicators considered are the at-risk-of-poverty threshold (ARPT), the at-risk-of-poverty rate (ARPR) and the Gini coefficient. The efficiency of variance estimation methods is tested in a simulative study performed on a data set produced by the SISU microsimulation model developed by Statistics Finland. The methods are also employed in a hands-on case study to help assess the effects of an actual legislative reform simulated by the SISU model. It is found that both bootstrap and linearization methods for variance estimation produce relatively good variance estimates for the indicators considered, with linearization being the more effective of the two. However, high outlier incomes are shown to cause difficulties in the variance estimation of the Gini coefficient with both methods.

The Nordic region is a connected region with a long history of cooperation, shared cultures, and social and economic interactions. Cross-border cooperation and cross-border mobility has been a central aspect in the region for over half a century. Despite of shared borders and all countries being part of the Schengen Area, providing free movement, little research has been made on the extent of daily cross-border movements and little data exists on the topic. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, human mobility and cross-border mobility has risen to the top of the political agenda, with new challenges changing cross-border mobility around the world. As an already very connected region, the Nordic region saw a sudden decrease in mobility and areas across borders were suddenly isolated from each other. The spread of the COVID-19 virus and the most important measures to counter the pandemic have been spatial in their nature. Restrictions on mobility and lockdown of regions and countries have been some of the measures set in place at varying degrees in different locations. Understanding the effects of mobility on the spread of COVID-19 and understanding how successful different measures have been is important in handling the ongoing and future pandemics. There is a lack of, particularly quantitative, research that investigates the functional aspects of cross-border mobility in the Nordic region. In addition, a lack of up-to-date, reliable data on human flows between the Nordic countries is missing. Research on the spread and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to human mobility, is rapidly increasing and being pioneered in conjunction with the developments of the pandemic. Through a lens of human mobility and activity spaces, how the cross-border regions in the Nordics reveal themselves by aggregating movements of individuals are investigated. The aim is to examine how geotagged Twitter data can be used to study cross-border mobility, as well as which functional cross-border areas can be estimated from movements of Twitter users and how these movements have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Twitter data is collected and processed and reveal human mobility flows from before and after COVID-19 travel restrictions were set in place, making the data fit for a correlation analysis with available official commuter statistics. Using a kernel density estimation, estimations of the functional cross-border regions at different spatial levels are conducted, uncovering the spatial extent of functional regions and how human mobility connects regions across national borders. On this basis, movements of Twitter users in two time periods, March 2019 – February 2020 and March 2020 – February 2021, are compated with available statistics from the Nordic region. The results show that Twitter data correlates strongly with official commuter statistics for the region and are a good fit for studying cross-border mobility. Additionally, policy made cross-border regions does not completely overlap with the functional cross-border regions. Although there are many similarities between the policy made and functional cross-border regions, in a functional aspect the regions are smaller than the policy made regions and heavily condensed around large cities. The estimation of functional cross-border regions also show the effect of COVID-19 and measures taken to limit cross-border mobility. The amount of cross-border mobility is severely reduced and the composition of functional regions changes differently for different regions. In general, the spatial extent of cross-border regions reduce and gravitates towards the largest cities on either side of the border. The methods and results developed in this thesis provides an understanding of the dynamics of mobility flows in the Nordic region, and are first steps in increasing the use of novel data sources in cross-border mobility research in the Nordics. Further research into methods for expanding the data basis in the region is needed and further research should be conducted in deepening the understanding of demographic and temporal aspects of functional cross-border regions. Regional planning, tourism, and statistics are all fields that rely on recent, up-to-date data, and the methods for utilizing novel data sources shown in this thesis can mitigate some of the flaws that current data sources have. In combating the spread of the COVID-19 virus, it is of profound importance to understand mobility flows across borders, something that this thesis provides methods and insights to do.

The economic development of Northern Ostrobothnia has been in the spotlight because of rapid growth of Oulu high-technology industries. However, most of the researchers seem to concentrate on the development in Oulu without considering the situation in the whole region or its peripheries. The thesis gives an overview of the main factors that affected successful high-tech development in Oulu since 1960s as well the economic and social development in the whole region of Northern Ostrobothnia. Innovations have become a very topical issue in research and policies during the last decades. For this reason the understanding of this term has become vague and they started to be used as buzzwords more and more often. This thesis analyses how innovations are defined in the regional strategic programmes of Norhern Ostrobothnia, what types of innovation activities are emphasized most, which industries are considered as benefiting from innovations. The usage of different territorial innovation models (innovative milieu, cluster, regional innovation system) is also analyzed. The research also examines how different geographical scales of innovation activities are seen in the studied policy documents: how the role of global scale for innovative development in Northern Ostrobothnia is understood, are there any links with national innovation system discussed, how are innovations on local scales treated. The documents chosen for the research are regional strategic programmes for four programming periods: 2004-2006, 2007-2010, 2011-2013 and 2014-2017. The data is analyzed using qualitative content analysis, which allows to systematize and summarize the content of the text and examine in what contexts are the terms used. The analytical approach is theory-driven, however, modified with consideration to the data. The research showed that regional strategic programmes employ broad definition of innovation, especially emphasizing marketing in the documents for the latest programming periods. Innovative activities are regarded not only in context of high-technology industries, but in relation to low- and medium-technology industries as well, though in latest documents the focus is mainly on high-tech production. The term 'cluster' is used mainly as a buzzword, though in the latest regional strategic programme the frequency of use has decreased, alternatively the model of innovative milieu has become more popular. Concept of regional innovation system has been briefly mentioned in the documents. There has been very limited explanation of structures of any of the territorial innovation models, however, the documents linked the concept of regional innovation system to innovative milieu, seeing the first as a next stage of development of the latter. Regional strategic programmes mention the role of innovation processes happening on different geographical levels, but the discussion is rather limited - international scale is mostly considered as global market, national scale is seen as the source of funding and on local scale the attention is mainly payed to Oulu.

The goal of the thesis is to prove the Dold-Kan Correspondence, which is a theorem stating that the category of simplicial abelian groups sAb and the category of positively graded chain complexes Ch+ are equivalent. The thesis also goes through these concepts mentioned in the theorem, starting with categories and functors in the first section. In this section, the aim is to give enough information about category theory, so that the equivalence of categories can be understood. The second section uses these category theoretical concepts to define the simplex category, where the objects are ordered sets n = { 0 -> 1 -> ... -> n }, where n is a natural number, and the morphisms are order preserving maps between these sets. The idea is to define simplicial objects, which are contravariant functors from the simplex category to some other category. Here is also given the definition of coface and codegeneracy maps, which are special kind of morphisms in the simplex category. With these, the cosimplicial (and later simplicial) identities are defined. These identities are central in the calculations done later in the thesis. In fact, one can think of them as the basic tools for working with simplicial objects. In the third section, the thesis introduces chain complexes and chain maps, which together form the category of chain complexes. This lays the foundation for the fourth section, where the goal is to form three different chain complexes out of any given simplicial abelian group A. These chain complexes are the Moore complex A*, the chain complex generated by degeneracies DA* and the normalized chain complex NA*. The latter two of these are both subcomplexes of the Moore complex. In fact, it is later on shown that there exists an isomorphism An = NAn +DAn between the abelian groups forming these chain complexes. This connection between these chain complexes is an important one, and it is proved and used later on in the seventh section. At this point in the thesis, all the knowledge for understanding the Dold-Kan Correspondence has been presented. Thus begins the forming of the functors needed for the equivalence, which the theorem claims to exist. The functor from sAb to Ch+ maps a simplicial abelian group A to its normalized chain complex NA*, the definition of which was given earlier. This direction does not require that much additional work, since most of it was done in the sections dealing with chain complexes. However, defining the functor in the opposite direction does require some more thought. The idea is to map a chain complex K* to a simplicial abelian group, which is formed using direct sums and factorization. Forming it also requires the definition of another functor from a subcategory of the simplex category, where the objects are those of the simplex category but the morphisms are only the injections, to the category of abelian groups Ab. After these functors have been defined, the rest of the thesis is about showing that they truly do form an equivalence between the categories sAb and Ch+.

Within the last century humanity has grown significantly more numerous and more globally connected than ever before in its history. Together with the increased risks of climate change, we are more susceptible than ever to major epidemics and pandemics caused by novel zoonotic diseases. For these reasons it is not only important understand under which conditions novel pathogens are able to invade and spread in a host population but also to understand how these pathogens can be eradicated following an invasion event. In this thesis we present and study the demographic and evolutionary dynamics of a compartmental epidemiological model that includes a compartment for asymptomatic individuals, who require a second infection to become symptomatic and infectious. We show that the model exhibits a wide variety of demographic dynamical behaviour, all of which can be evolutionarily attracting configurations under simple evolutionary considerations. The model is an extreme simplification of the real world and excludes relevant information such as age and spatial structures of the population at hand. The aim of this thesis is to obtain a general understanding of how varying certain parameters on one hand allows a pathogen to invade a host population and, on the other hand, allows the host to eradicate an established pathogen, in particular, through the process of evolution.