Employment status passages and psychosocial well-being.

Medical students entering the labor market were studied to find out whether the improvement of psychosocial well-being depends on characteristics of their careers. Psychosocial well-being was described on the basis of psychosomatic stress symptoms, psychological distress (General Health Questionnaire), and strain resistance resources (Sense of Coherence). The 3-year follow-up showed that among women the improvement of strain resistance resources was delayed in the group with several entries into work. Among men the findings suggested associations between stress symptoms and career characteristics. Most of the results, however, did not support the hypothesis about the division of the participants into those with a stable career and improving well-being and those with a fragmented career and low well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of Cr and Al Pack Cementation Coatings on Co-Based γ/γ′ Superalloys

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A - Co-based superalloys have been developed as candidate materials to replace Ni-based superalloys in hot sections of turbine engines, however, their...     

Passive and transpassive behaviour of CoCrMo in simulated biological solutions

In this work, the behaviour of a CoCrMo alloy under simulated body conditions was investigated. More specifically, the electrochemical properties of the alloy and the relevant mechanisms in the passive and transpassive states were studied in detail. Electrochemical techniques such as potentiodynamic and potentiostatic polarisation, cyclic voltammetry, rotating disc electrode and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were employed. Further, ex situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis of the passive films was carried out. A good correlation between the results obtained from all the experimental techniques was achieved. Overall, it was found that the passive film on CoCrMo changed in composition and thickness with both potential and time. The passive behaviour of the CrCrMo alloy is due to a formation an oxide film highly enriched with Cr (≈90% Cr oxides) on the alloy surface. The passive and transpassive behaviour of the alloy is hence dominated by the alloying element Cr. In the transpassive region, strong thickening of the oxide film takes place, combined with a change in the composition of the film, and strongly increased dissolution rate. In the transpassive region, all alloying elements dissolve according to the composition of the alloy. The metal ion release is also very strongly enhanced by cyclic variation of the potential between reducing and oxidizing conditions. In this case, during activation/repassivation cycles, cobalt dissolution is greater than expected from the composition of the alloy. Therefore, active dissolution behaviour is mainly dominated by the alloying element Co.     

A new method for evaluating the subjective image quality of photographs: dynamic reference

The Dynamic Reference (DR) method has been developed for subjective image quality experiments in which original or undistorted images are unavailable. The DR method creates reference image series from test images. Reference images are presented to observers as a slide show prior to evaluating their quality. As the observers view the set of reference images, they determine the overall variation in quality within the set of test images. This study compared the performance of the DR method to that of the standardized absolute category rating (ACR) and paired comparison (PC) methods. We measured the performance of each method in terms of time effort and discriminability. The results showed that the DR method is faster than the PC method and more accurate than the ACR method. The DR method is especially suitable for experiments that require highly accurate results in a short time.     

On the human ability to discriminate audio ambiances from similar locations of an urban environment

When developing advanced location-based systems augmented with audio ambiances, it would be cost-effective to use a few representative samples from typical environments for describing a larger number of similar locations. The aim of this experiment was to study the human ability to discriminate audio ambiances recorded in similar locations of the same urban environment. A listening experiment consisting of material from three different environments and nine different locations was carried out with nineteen subjects to study the credibility of audio representations for certain environments which would diminish the need for collecting huge audio databases. The first goal was to study to what degree humans are able to recognize whether the recording has been made in an indicated location or in another similar location, when presented with the name of the place, location on a map, and the associated audio ambiance. The second goal was to study whether the ability to discriminate audio ambiances from different locations is affected by a visual cue, by presenting additional information in form of a photograph of the suggested location. The results indicate that audio ambiances from similar urban areas of the same city differ enough so that it is not acceptable to use a single recording as ambience to represent different yet similar locations. Including an image was found to increase the perceived credibility of all the audio samples in representing a certain location. The results suggest that developers of audio-augmented location-based systems should aim at using audio samples recorded on-site for each location in order to achieve a credible impression.     

Bidding strategies for real-life small loan auctions

We define and identify bidding strategies in real-life small loan auctions (Prosper.com). In such auctions, lenders bid for borrowers' loan listings and the winners get to fund the loan at an interest rate determined by the auction. The exceptionally large empirical database provided by Prosper.com offers a unique opportunity to test and further develop the theory of online auctions. This study shows that bidding behavior is not homogeneous among bidders, as the traditional auction theory suggests. Instead, bidders use many different bidding strategies. Moreover, learning and bidders' consistency over time in different auctions is studied.     

The effect of differentiation inducers on the integrin expression of K562 erythroleukemia cells

The DNA sequences of the recA gene from 25 strains of bacteria are known. The evolution of these recA gene sequences, and of the derived RecA protein sequences, is examined, with special reference to the effect of variations in genomic G + C content. From the aligned RecA protein sequences, phylogenetic trees have been drawn using both distance matrix and maximum parsimony methods. There is a broad concordance between these trees and those derived from other data (largely 16S ribosomal RNA sequences). There is a fair degree of certainty in the relationships among the "Purple" or Proteobacteria, but the branching pattern between higher taxa within the eubacteria cannot be reliably resolved with these data.     

Non‐destructive detection of corrosion applied to steel and galvanized steel coated with organic paints by the pulsed phase thermography

Organic coatings in the automobile industry have to resist corrosion and mechanical damage from stone chipping. Currently, no tool is established in industrial non‐destructive applications for analyzing the damage of stone‐impacts and the following corrosion after accelerated corrosion tests. Measurement methods such as the scanning Kelvin probe can analyze the corrosion progress in a detailed manner, but with a long measurement time. The pulsed phase thermography (PPT) is a non‐destructive tool to analyze inhomogeneities and defects in materials, with a huge field of applications existing. The present work shows advances in using the PPT to detect propagation of corrosion under coatings. Physical principles of the mechanism of the corrosion detection under coatings are described. Results of measurements of organic coatings on carbon steel as well as of organic coated galvanized steel show the corrosion propagation. Influencing factors to the measurement such as the thickness of the coatings are investigated, but no significant effect on the quality of the analysis was found. The corrosion progress can be monitored by the PPT fast and reliably. The achieved results correlate with the theoretical basis and the test results after surface characterization and destructive analysis of samples.     

Furan in the baby-food samples purchased from the Finnish markets – Determination with SPME–GC–MS

A method applying solid-phase microextraction followed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometric determination was in-house validated and used to study furan concentrations in baby-food samples purchased from the Finnish markets. The validation parameters showed that the method was well applicable for the reliable analysis of furan. Furan was analysed in 21 different baby-food samples as three independent replicates. The mean levels of furan varied between 4.7 and 90.3 μg kg⁻¹ being well in accordance with the levels reported in other studies. The mean concentrations of similar product formulas based on their ingredients were 9.2, 37.0 and 49.6 μg kg⁻¹ for fruit-, vegetables- and meat-containing baby-foods, respectively. According to the statistical analyses, fruit-based baby-food samples had significantly lower concentrations of furan as compared to other formulas. Based on our exercise, it seems that a low margin of safety exists between the extreme worst case infant exposures and the deduced NOAEL of furan on experimental animals, particularly for a clear rodent carcinogen.     

Site managers’ daily work and the uses of building information modelling in construction site management

The use of building information modelling (BIM) and related software tools is increasingly expanding in the work of site managers in construction projects. The early uses of BIM in the actual tasks of site managers are explored by examining the utilization of BIM in their work and the challenges in the deployment of the new digital tools for traditional project collaboration. The ethnographic method of the study consists of shadowing the site managers’ work. The site managers actively used BIM and found it beneficial for their daily work. However, the use of BIM in construction sites is still limited because only a few managers have the competence to use BIM software tools, mobile tools are lacking, and the information content of the models needed for construction work is insufficient.