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Simulating space plasma on a global scale is computationally demanding due to the system size involved. Modeling regions with variable resolution depending on physical behavior can save computational resources without compromising too much on simulation accuracy. This thesis examines adaptive mesh refinement as a method of optimizing Vlasiator, a global hybrid-Vlasov plasma simulation. Behavior of plasma near the Earth's magnetosphere and different characteristic scales that need to be considered in simulation are introduced. Kinetic models using statistical methods and fluid methods are examined. Modeling electrons kinetically requires resolutions orders of magnitude finer than ions, so in Vlasiator ions are modeled kinetically and electrons as a fluid. This allows for lighter simulation while preserving some kinetic effects. Mesh refinement used in Vlasiator is introduced as a method to save memory and computational work. Due to the structure of the magnetosphere, resolution isn't uniform in the simulation domain, with particularly the tail regions and magnetopause having rapid spatial changes compared to the relatively uniform solar wind. The region to refine is parametrized and static throughout a simulation run. Adaptive mesh refinement based on the simulation data is introduced as an evolution of this method. This provides several benefits: more rigorous optimization of refinement regions, easier reparametrization for different conditions, following dynamic structures and saving computation time in initialization. Refinement is done based on two indices measuring the spatial rate of change of relevant variables and reconnection respectively. The grid is re-refined at set intervals as the simulation runs. Tests similar to production runs show adaptive refinement to be an efficient replacement for static refinement. Refinement parameters produce results similar to the static method, while giving somewhat different refinement regions. Performance is in line with static refinement, and refinement overhead is minor. Further avenues of development are presented, including dynamic refinement intervals.

Ilmatieteen laitoksella on runsaasti hankekohtaisesti tehtyjä virtausmittauksia akustisella Dopplerilmiöön perustuvalla ADCP -laitteella. Tällaiset akustiset mittarit pystyvät muita virtausmittareita paremmin mittaamaan laajoja merialueita, joten ne ovatkin maailmanlaajuisesti yksi suosituimmista menetelmistä tarkkailla merien virtauksia. Tärkeimmät ehdot mittausten onnistumiselle on mitatun virtauksen horisontaalinen homogeenisuus, joka ei aina toteudu muun muassa vedessä olevien äänisignaalin sirottajien itsenäisen liikkeen seurauksena. Laite pyrkii jatkuvasti tarkistamaan olosuhteiden riittävän sopivuuden ja poistaa tehokkaasti esimerkiksi mittausalueelle osuneiden kalojen liikkeet. Mikäli laitteen sisäinen laaduntarkkailu on kuitenkin liian tiukka, se saattaa liian helposti hylätä poikkeuksellisempia ilmiöitä, joten tiukempi laaduntarkkailu jätetään usein erikseen tehtäväksi. Tässä tutkielmassa kehitin laaduntarkastusohjelmiston merenpohjaan ankkuroidulle ADCP:lle. Työssä keskitytään erityisesti Ilmatieteen laitoksen käyttämään Teledyne RD Instrument’s -valmistajan Workhorse Sentinel -laitteeseen. Kynnysarvot datan laadulle on määritelty erityisesti tämän valmistajan mittareille ja testit perustuvat laitteen tallentamaan tietoon mittausprosessista. Lähestymistapa perustuu oletukseen, että jos valtaosa virtausnopeuden määrittämisen yhteydessä tehdyistä mittauksista eivät olleet riittävän luotettavia, niin luultavasti loput näistä näennäisesti onnistuneista mittauksista eivät myöskään edusta todellista virtaustilannetta. Laaduntarkistusohjelmisto kehitettiin käyttämällä esimerkkimateriaalina Saaristomerellä Lövskärin risteyksessä vuonna2013 suoritettuja mittauksia. Lövskärin datasetti oli erittäin hyvälaatuista ja epähomogeenisuuden seurauksena datasetistä poistettiin noin 0,3 % mittauksista. Meren ylintä 5 metrin kerrosta ei pystytty mittaamaan voimakkaan sivukeilan aiheuttaman häiriön takia (13 % mittauksista). Datasetissä on huomattavissa selkeää mittausten epävarmuuden kasvua termokliinissä ja yöaikaan, mikä johtuu sirottajina toimivan eläinplanktonin aktiivisuudesta. Yleisesti alueen virtaukset olivat termokliinin seurauksena vahvasti kerrostuneet ja alueella ilmeni syksyllä lyhytkestoisia voimakkaita (lähes 50 cm/s) virtauksia.

Emulsion polymerization is used to make high molecular weight polymers with a fast reaction rate. In emulsion, the temperature is well controlled and the viscosity of the continuous phase remains constant since all polymer chains are inside colloidal particles. Colloid dispersions have the advantage of being used as they are without further purification, which is great for industrial purposes. Emulsion polymerization is also well-scalable to fit the standards of the industry. Adhesives serve an important role in the furniture and construction industry. Many adhesives used for such purposes are derived from non-renewable resources and are not reusable. Additionally, when such strong adhesives are being used in attaching wooden parts, they cannot be separated and once the lifetime of the product is finished, it ends in a landfill. The possibility to remove such strong adhesives from the wooden product would give the wood possibility to be used in other applications. Additionally, the possibility to reapply the adhesive would decrease the amount of adhesive needed to be produced and increase the lifetime of the glue product. In this thesis polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) adhesives are modified by introducing hydrogen bonding units to the polymer chain by copolymerization of vinyl acetate with monomers having urea and bis-urea hydrogen bonding motifs. Comonomers suitable for vinyl acetate are designed, synthesized and characterized.

Contacts between individuals play a central part in infectious disease modelling. Social or physical contacts are often determined through surveys. These types of contacts may not accurately represent the truly infectious contacts due to demographic differences in susceptibility and infectivity. In addition, surveyed data is prone to statistical biases and errors. For these reasons, a transmission model based on surveyed contact data may make predictions that are in conflict with real-life observations. The surveyed contact structure must be adjusted to improve the model and produce reliable predictions. The adjustment can be done in multiple different ways. We present five adjustment methods and study how the choice of method impacts a model’s predictions about vaccine effectiveness. The population is stratified into n groups. All five adjustment methods transform the surveyed contact matrix such that its normalised leading eigenvector (the model-predicted stable distribution of infections) matches the observed distribution of infections. The eigenvector method directly adjusts the leading eigenvector. It changes contacts antisymmetrically: if contacts from group i to group j increase, then contacts from j to i decrease, and vice versa. The susceptibility method adjusts the group-specific susceptibility of individuals. The changes in the contact matrix occur row-wise. Analogously, the infectivity method adjusts the group-specific infectivity; changes occur column-wise. The symmetric method adjusts susceptibility and infectivity in equal measure. It changes contacts symmetrically with respect to the main diagonal of the contact matrix. The parametrised weighting method uses a parameter 0 ≤ p ≤ 1 to weight the adjustment between susceptibility and infectivity. It is a generalisation of the susceptibility, infectivity and symmetric methods, which correspond to p = 0, p = 1 and p = 0.5, respectively. For demonstrative purposes, the adjustment methods were applied to a surveyed contact matrix and infection data from the COVID-19 epidemic in Finland. To measure the impact of the method on vaccination effectiveness predictions, the relative reduction of the basic reproduction number was computed for each method using Finnish COVID-19 vaccination data. We found that the eigenvector method has no impact on the relative reduction (compared to the unadjusted baseline case). As for the other methods, the predicted effectiveness of vaccination increased the more infectivity was weighted in the adjustment (that is, the larger the value of the parameter p). In conclusion, our study shows that the choice of adjustment method has an impact on model predictions, namely those about vaccination effectiveness. Thus, the choice should be considered when building infectious disease models. The susceptibility and symmetric methods seem the most natural choices in terms of contact structure. Choosing the ”optimal” method is a potential topic to explore in future research.

People spend more than 90% of time indoors. That has made the analysis of indoor air quality an subject of interest. There is a growing popularity of miniaturized sample extraction techniques utilizing solid adsorbent materials and thermal desorption allowing direct sample introduction for analysis. This approach is solvent free and there is possibility for reusing adsorbent materials depending of adsorbent properties. This thesis covers the basics of adsorption-desorption process and takes detailed look on different adsorbent materials such as activated carbon (AC), metal-organic framework (MOF) and carbon nanotubes (CNT) and evaluates the effect of surface functionality and pore size distribution for adsorption process. In experimental part, a self-made autosampler functionality and its injection parameters were optimized. The autosampler is able to independently inject up to six in-tube extraction (ITEX) needles with complete desorption. The ITEX was constructed during this experiment with TENAX-GR adsorbent and the repeatability of autosampler and ITEXs were tested and compared to commercial system with extraction of different amines. The effectiveness of this system was also demonstrated for indoor volatile organic compound (VOC) analysis.

Software delivery has evolved notably over the years, starting from plan-driven methodologies and lately moving to principles and practises shaped by Agile and Lean ideologies. The emphasis has moved from thoroughly documenting software requirements to a more people-oriented approach of building software in collaboration with users and experimenting with different approaches. Customers are directly integrated into the process. Users cannot always identify software needs before interacting with actual implementations. Building software is not only about building products in the right way, but also about building the right products. Developers need to experiment with different approaches, directly and indirectly. Not only do users value practical software, but the development process must also emphasise on the quality of the product or service. Development processes have formed to support these ideologies. To enable a short feedback-cycle, features are deployed often to production. A software is primarily delivered through a pipeline consisting of tree stages: development, staging and production. Developers develop features by writing code, verify these by writing related tests, interact and test software in a production-like 'staging' environment, and finally deploy features to production. Many practises have formed to support this deployment pipeline, notably Continuous Integration, Deployment and Experimentation. These practises focus on improving the flow of how software is being developed, tested, deployed and experimented with. The Internet has provided a thriving environment for using new practises. Due to the distributed nature of the web, features can be deployed without the need of any interaction from users. Users might not even notice the change. Obviously, there are other environments where many of these practises are much harder to achieve. Embedded systems, which have a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electrical system, require hardware to accompany the software. Related processes and environments have their limitations. Hardware development can only be iterative to a certain degree. Producing hardware takes up front design and time. Experimentation is more expensive. Many stringent contexts require processes with assurances and transparency - usually provided by documentation and long-testing phases. In this thesis, I explore how advances in streamlining software delivery on the web has influenced the development of embedded systems. I conducted six interviews with people working on embedded systems, to get their view and incite discussion about the development of embedded systems. Though many concerns and obstacles are presented, the field is struggling with the same issues that Agile and Lean development are trying to resolve. Plan-driven approaches are still used, but distinct features of iterative development can be observed. On the leading edge, organisations are actively working on streamlining software and hardware delivery for embedded systems. Many of the advances are based on how Agile and Lean development are being used for user-focused software, particularly on the web.

The two input rivers of Säkylä’s Lake Pyhäjärvi: Pyhäjoki and Yläneenjoki, were studied with aerial thermal infrared imaging (TIR) analysis and baseflow program, in order to estimate the baseflow in the two rivers. From the helicopter- assisted TIR survey made in July 2011, almost 200 groundwater discharge sites were located in the two studied rivers. The groundwater discharge anomalies were categorized in 5 different classes: 1) spring/springs, 2) cold channel connected to the main channel, 3) diffuse discharge to river, 4) wetland/ wide seepage, 5) unknown anomaly. In addition, a temperature analysis was performed from the studied rivers. In both rivers, pattern of increasing river water temperature from headwaters towards river outlet were discovered with temperature analysis. The baseflow share estimate was made with baseflow filtering program which uses recursive digital filter for signal processing. Mean baseflow share estimation from four years: 2010-2013, were 70 % for River Pyhäjoki and 54 %, for River Yläneenjoki. Larger baseflow portion, lower river water temperature and wide diffuse discharge areas of River Pyhäjoki indicate that Pyhäjoki is more groundwater contributed than River Yläneenjoki. Previous studies made from the Lake Pyhäjärvi catchment have signs of higher groundwater share in River Pyhäjoki catchment, as well. However, TIR and baseflow estimation results of this study have to be dealt with caution. TIR results represent momentary circumstances and GWD locations are interpretations. There are also many factors increasing the uncertainty of the temperature analysis and observations of GWD anomalies. The results of baseflow analysis has to be interpreted carefully too because baseflow filtering is pure signal processing. However, this study shows that River Pyhäjoki and River Yläneenjoki have groundwater contribution. There is a difference in groundwater share in the two studied rivers. In River Pyhäjoki the larger groundwater share (70 %) is related to coarser grained glacial deposits in the river catchment. In TIR results, the influence of headwaters of the River Pyhäjoki, fed by two large springs: Myllylähde and Kankaanranta were emphasized. The two feeding springs are connected to the Säkylä-Virttaankangas esker complex. In River Yläneenjoki catchment, where GW portion was estimated to be smaller (54 %) and GW anomalies where mostly discrete, there are only two little till groundwater areas near the river channel and the catchment is characterized by finer sediments than River Pyhäjoki catchment.

Ilmakehän pienhiukkaset, eli aerosolihiukkaset, vaikuttavat maapallon säteilypakotteeseen riippuen hiukkasen kemiallisesta koostumuksesta. Kemiallinen koostumus ohjaa yli 50 nanometristen hiukkasten taipumusta joko sirottaa tai absorboida auringonsäteilyä. Toisaalta hiukkaset voivat myös osallistua pilvenmuodostukseen, jos ne ovat koostumukseltaan kyllin hapettuneita ja siksi pystyvät sitomaan ympärilleen vesimolekyylejä. Ilman aerosolihiukkasia maapallo olisi varmasti paljon lämpimämpi, sillä sekä suora säteilyn sirottaminen että epäsuora sirottaminen pilvien kautta ovat tärkeitä ilmakehän viilennysmekanismeja. Auringonsäteilyn määrä ja siten pintalämpötilat ohjaavat ilmakehän pienhiukkasten pitoisuuksia ihmisten ja luonnon kautta. Hiukkasten primäärilähteitä ja lähtöaineita on valtava kirjo, joka luo laajan hiukkasten fysiokemiallisten ominaisuuksien kokoelman. Tässä työssä esitellään tutkimus aerosolihiukkasten kemiallisen koostumuksen vuodenaikaisvaihtelusta SMEAR II -asemalla, Etelä-Suomessa, jossa lämpötilan vuodenaikaisvaihtelu on suurta. Työhön liittyvissä mittauksissa hyödynnettiin massaspektrometriaa ja in situ -suodatinmittauksia. Aerosolikemiamittaukset kuuluvat SMEAR II -aseman rutiinimittauksiin, ja niitä on tehty jatkuvasti vuodesta 2012 lähtien. Tässä tutkielmassa analysoinnin kohteena ovat vuoden 2014 neljä termistä vuodenaikaa, jotka sijoittuivat tarkemmin ajanjaksolle 23.1. - 27.10.2014. Tutkimuksen analyysimenetelmät todettiin hyödyllisiksi ja niitä sovelletaan tulevaisuudessa koko nelivuotisen aikasarjan (2012 - 2015) analyysiin. Työssä todettiin aerosolihiukkasten koostuvan kesällä pääasiassa luontoperäisistä orgaanisista yhdisteistä (~77 %) ja talvella enimmäkseen epäorgaanisista yhdisteistä (~54 % ), jotka olivat kaukokulkeumaa kaupungeista. Sulfaatti dominoi tasaisesti epäorgaanista massaa vuodenajasta riippumatta. Ilmakehän hapetuskapasiteetti heijastui kesällä orgaanisen aerosolin haihtuvuustasoon madaltaen sitä huomattavasti. Kesällä puolihaihtuvalla orgaanisella aerosolilla ja nitraatilla oli selkeä vuorokausisykli, jossa valtaosa massasta oli hiukkasfaasissa yöllä ja katosi kaasufaasiin keskipäivällä. Vastaavanlaista käyttäytymistä ei orgaanisilla aerosolityypeillä ollut havaittavissa talvella, mikä johtui toisaalta kylmemmistä lämpötiloista ja toisaalta myös orgaanisen aerosolin erilaisesta koostumuksesta. Epäorgaanisten yhdisteiden vuorokausisyklien tulkinta oli haastavaa, johtuen kaukokulkeuman ajallisten vaihteluiden runsaudesta, joka tulevaisuuden laajemmassa analyysissä saadaan minimoitua.

Tämän pro gradu –tutkielman kirjallinen osuus on katsaus aerosolimassaspektrometrian kehitystä ja sen sovelluksia käsittelevään kirjallisuuteen viimeisen noin kymmenen vuoden ajalta. Aerosolimassaspektrometrialla tarkoitetaan massaspektrometrian soveltamista aerosolihiukkasten kokojaotellun kemiallisen koostumuksen mittaukseen. Erilaiset aerosolimassaspektrometrit on tutkielmassa jaoteltu kahteen ryhmään sen perusteella, analysoidaanko laitteella yksittäisiä hiukkasia vai kerrallaan ryhmittäin useita tietyn kokoisia lyhyen ajanjakson aikana kerättyjä hiukkasia. Hiukkasia ryhmittäin analysoivat aerosolimassaspektrometrit käyttävät yleensä lämpöhöyrystystä hiukkasten desorboimiseksi ennen ionisointia, kun taas yksittäisiä hiukkasia analysoivat aerosolimassaspektrometrit desorboivat hiukkaset yksi kerrallaan käyttäen tähän tyypillisesti pulssitettua laseria. Aerosolimassaspektrometreilla voidaan tehdä monenlaista ilmakehätutkimusta. Tutkielmassa on tuotu esille erityisesti orgaanisten aerosolien ja niiden alkuainekoostumuksen, merisuolan, metallien ja muiden hivenaineiden tutkimuksia. Omat kappaleensa on annettu aerosolihiukkasten kemiallista koostumusta mittaavalle monitorille sekä aerosolimassaspektrometriin liitettäville laitteille, joita ovat esimerkiksi lämpödesorptioaerosolikaasukromatografi, potentiaalinen aerosolimassakammio ja valonsironta-moduuli. Kirjallisuuskatsauksen lopussa on käsitelty lyhyesti aerosolien lähdeanalyysejä. Ilmakehän aerosolien nukleaation, kasvun ja ikääntymisen mekanismien ja kinetiikan kvantitointi ja selventäminen edelleen ovat tarpeen, koska ilmakehän aerosolihiukkasilla on vaikutuksia maapallon ilmastoon, paikallisiin ilmansaasteisiin ja ihmisten terveyteen. Aerosolimassaspektrometreilla on keskenään hyvin erilaisia ominaisuuksia, eikä ole olemassa yhtä jokaiseen tilanteeseen soveltuvaa aerosolimassaspektrometria. Mittaukset samanaikaisesti usealla eri tyyppisellä aerosolimassaspektrometrilla ja perinteisillä analyysilaitteistoilla täydentävät toisiaan ja parantavat kokonaisvaltaisesti ymmärrystä eri menetelmistä ja hiukkasten ominaisuuksista. Tutkielman kokeellisen osuuden tarkoituksena oli mitata hiukkasten kokojaoteltuja kemiallisia koostumuksia kaupunkiympäristössä näytteenkeräys- ja suoramittausmenetelmillä, ja verrata menetelmiä keskenään. Kenttämittauksia suoritettiin nokiaerosolimassaspektrometrilla (SP-AMS). Kaskadi-impaktorilla suodatinkalvoille kerättyjä kokojaoteltuja aerosolinäytteitä analysoitiin laboratoriossa ionikromatografilla (IC). Kokeellisen osuuden suoramittaus- ja näytteenkeräysmenetelmillä mitatut kokojakaumat vastasivat pääosin melko hyvin toisiaan. Suoramittausmenetelmien ylivertainen aikaresoluutio mahdollistaa ilmakehän pienhiukkasten luonnollisten lähteiden, ihmisen aiheuttamien päästöjen sekä sääolosuhteiden vaikutusten tutkimisen huomattavan tarkasti verrattuna näytteenkeräysmenetelmiin. Virheen määrittäminen on aerosolimassaspektrometrimittauksissa selvästi vaikeampaa kuin ionikromatografia-analyyseissä. Voidaan kuitenkin varmasti sanoa, että johtuen analyysivaiheiden lukumäärästä virhe IC- ja IC-MS –mittauksissa on huomattavasti suurempi kuin SP-AMS –mittauksissa.

This research studies the environmental aesthetics of boredom in the light of post-soviet neighborhoods. While belonging to the grey zone in aesthetics, boredom is an integral part of mundane life that challenges us to notice the uniqueness of our everydayness. Even though mass housing provided an economically feasible solution for sheltering millions of people, it lacks the qualities that meet contemporary living and energy standards. Soviet mass housing architecture and microdistrict designs were led by the economic conditions in the first place. Mass housing was not meant to speak, whereas the residents should not be silenced because of it. We tend to preserve what we find aesthetically pleasing (Nassauer, 1997), yet, what is aesthetically pleasing and what about other values? In this project, preservation is essential for building a contemporary-oriented mindset that could lead to more sustainable and inclusive neighborhoods. The project aims to tackle the issue of Soviet districts through the eyes of its residents, contrasting the more often used top-down approach. Here I challenge the residents' perception of their neighborhood and create a moment for reflection. By offering this space, I amplify the voices of the real experts, the ones knowing their microdistrict inside out. Environmental aesthetics is a relatively new concept within the contemporary urban planning scholarship, giving a fresh take on subjective experiences of urban settings that unveil profoundly rooted and often disguised problems. The interdisciplinarity in the research is met by merging disciplines such as sociology, urban aesthetics, urban history, and philosophy. The term boredom belonging to positive or negative aesthetic values is questioned the same as the legacy of Soviet mass housing later in the research. The ideology behind Soviet blocks is discussed, creating a common ground for diverse readers. Inclusivity is brought with resident participation through the visual research method - photovoice. To avoid biased data, the resident experiences are supported with the city planner's point of view and secondary quantitative data. The findings include Laumas microdistrict resident photovoice analysis, putting the Laumas microdistrict residents as the primary information providers. Taking pictures of their everyday surroundings, residents are given space to show how they see their microdistrict, outlining the values they are proud of or giving perspective of what needs to be changed. Instead of one-sided creation, the curation is inclusive and more reflective of the urban environment's already existing residents' values of their neighborhood. Resident aesthetic preferences open broader discussion on the maintenance issues of microdistricts facing nowadays. Topics are various, but the primary outcomes discussed built environment aesthetics, renovation, communication, identity, resident initiative, automobile domination, and natural environment aesthetics. In the final part of the study, some possible directions for changing microdistrict are pointed out, and further research questions are presented. The project is incomplete until it reaches a broader audience and provides knowledge to politicians, city planners, and other residents.