WURC - Wood Ultrastructure Research Centre 1996-2007 Final report

The Wood Ultrastructure Research Centre (WURC) (http://www-wurc.slu.se) at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) was established July 1st 1996. The partners in the initial framework of WURC were STFI-Packforsk (STFI-Packforsk), the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and Chalmers University of Technology (CTH) together with seven forest industry-related companies including: AssiDomän, Korsnäs, Mo och Domsjö, SCA, StoraEnso Södra Cell and Eka Chemicals. Through various divisions and mergers two further companies (Holmen, KappaKraftliner) joined WURC in phase 3 making a total of 9 supporting industries that remained with the Centre throughout its duration. The number of Universities involved in WURC´s activities expanded during later phases and members from the Departments of Biochemistry and Quantum Chemistry, Uppsala University as well from the Division of Chemistry, Karlstad University and Department of Natural Sciences, Örebro University also participated in the Centre’s activities. WURC´s mission has been to significantly increase the basic knowledge on wood and pulp fibres regarding their morphological ultrastructure, chemical structure and physical properties and to determine how these properties change after different chemical, mechanical and enzymatic treatments. The research conducted has been primarily fundamental in character and long-term and based on cooperation between Universities, industrial research Institutes and the R & D units of forest industry-related industries. During phases 3 and 4, WURC added more applied projects in-line with the industries request and began applying the knowledge gathered and the experimental toolbox developed from the more fundamental projects to specific industrial problems associated with Strength Delivery and Mechanical pulps). The establishment of WURC in Sweden has provided the opportunity for specialists from a number of widely different disciplines to cooperate and build a united body to carry out research on wood fibre structure mainly at the micro- and nano-levels; a research area which at the start of WURC was insignificantly developed in the country, but also elsewhere in comparison to the economic importance of the industry. During later phases, the nucleus of WURC´s activities between the University partners was concentrated to the UppsalaStockholm area. During phase 3, the number of projects in WURC´s portfolio was twenty reflecting a quadrupling from phases 1 - 2 and the interest in this type of research from both academia and industry alike. During phase 4, the number of projects was progressively reduced in-line with the running down and completing of the Centre´s activities. WURC has attained a high level of competence in the area of wood fibre ultrastructure during its ca 11 years existence. It has become internationally recognized (e.g. by annual international conferences, involvement in European COST actions, peer reviewed publications and symposium presentations, exchange of guest researchers etc) as a major Centre of Excellence interacting with the Swedish pulp and paper industry. By nature of its research, competence and critical mass (e.g. 50-60 people were involved wholly or part-time in WURC´s activities during years 2003/4) (phase 3), WURC was quite unique in the world. During the last 11 years, WURC scientists have been involved in over 300 scientific papers and symposia presentations and at closing, 17 PhD and 7 Licentiate graduates (wholly or partly financed) had successfully defended their theses within the Centre. The Centre has further organized 10 international, 11 major internal industry/academia interactive seminars and numerous other industry-academia project-group meetings through its era. The Centre has had an international advisory group of leading scientists that have further been active in advising WURC´s management, vetting project developments and directions during annual seminars. WURC has used a working model based on interactions between industry and academia at all levels throughout its phases. Initially WURC´s board was comprised of representatives from member companies, VINNOVA, SLU and later on STFI-Packforsk. The chairman has been from STFI-Packforsk and the directors from StoraEnso (1996-1998), SLU (1998-2007) and vice-director from Sveaskog (2001-2007). WURC has had an Industrial Advisory (Reference) Group (IRG) comprised of representatives from all the supporting companies and together with WURC´s management team used to vet all project proposals for both academic and industrial possibilities. During phases 3/4, the group was very active in the establishment and running of industry orientated projects involving industry project leaders. The group has monitored the progress of the WURC projects and provided specialized fibre materials (e.g. chemical/mechanical pulps, wood samples) for the different projects. WURC has had a primary focus on fundamental research on fibre ultrastructure, thus the major major added benefits of the Centre has been the creation and development of interdisciplinary interactions between the Swedish pulp and paper industry and WURC scientists in a research area of common interest. During its later phases, WURC revised its major research focus to include industrial orientated projects concerning Pulp 2000, Strength Delivery and Mechanical pulps. Research of the more applied nature comprised ca 35 % of WURC´s total budget in phases 3/4 and within this group; the majority of the in-kind contributions from WURC´s industrial partners (ca 36 %) were located. During later phases, the in kind contributions from industry/University also exceeded that contracted. The challenge for WURC´s future has been to retain its academic standard at international level and at the same time further develop the industrial applications and significance of its knowledge. Great efforts were made to secure financing for continuation of the Centre after the VINNOVA Competence Centre era in 2007. This process was initiated already Autumn 05 and progressed through board activities, numerous management meetings, a writing of gaps in our knowledge document by WURC´s scientists and areas of research priority given by WURC´s member companies. This culminated in a successful application to VINNOVAs “Branschforsknings fund” February 08 for program entitled Process and product developments through unique knowledge of wood fibre ultrastructure (2008- 2011) (WURC INNOVATION). The program will include strong collaboration between University/Institute partners SLU, STFI-Packforsk, KTH and Mid-Sweden University with member companies EkaChemicals, Holmen, SCA, SmurfitKraftliner, StoraEnso and Södra Cell. Securement of the new grant with continued industry support is a testimony to the success WURC has achieved

Model-Driven Development of Interactive Multimedia Applications

The development of highly interactive multimedia applications is still a challenging and complex task. In addition to the application logic, multimedia applications typically provide a sophisticated user interface with integrated media objects. As a consequence, the development process involves different experts for software design, user interface design, and media design. There is still a lack of concepts for a systematic development which integrates these aspects. This thesis provides a model-driven development approach addressing this problem. Therefore it introduces the Multimedia Modeling Language (MML), a visual modeling language supporting a design phase in multimedia application development. The language is oriented on well-established software engineering concepts, like UML 2, and integrates concepts from the areas of multimedia development and model-based user interface development. MML allows the generation of code skeletons from the models. Thereby, the core idea is to generate code skeletons which can be directly processed in multimedia authoring tools. In this way, the strengths of both are combined: Authoring tools are used to perform the creative development tasks while models are used to design the overall application structure and to enable a well-coordinated development process. This is demonstrated using the professional authoring tool Adobe Flash. MML is supported by modeling and code generation tools which have been used to validate the approach over several years in various student projects and teaching courses. Additional prototypes have been developed to demonstrate, e.g., the ability to generate code for different target platforms. Finally, it is discussed how models can contribute in general to a better integration of well-structured software development and creative visual design

Consistency-by-Construction Techniques for Software Models and Model Transformations

A model is consistent with given specifications (specs) if and only if all the specifications are held on the model, i.e., all the specs are true (correct) for the model. Constructing consistent models (e.g., programs or artifacts) is vital during software development, especially in Model-Driven Engineering (MDE), where models are employed throughout the life cycle of software development phases (analysis, design, implementation, and testing). Models are usually written using domain-specific modeling languages (DSMLs) and specified to describe a domain problem or a system from different perspectives and at several levels of abstraction. If a model conforms to the definition of its DSML (denoted usually by a meta-model and integrity constraints), the model is consistent. Model transformations are an essential technology for manipulating models, including, e.g., refactoring and code generation in a (semi)automated way. They are often supposed to have a well-defined behavior in the sense that their resulting models are consistent with regard to a set of constraints. Inconsistent models may affect their applicability and thus the automation becomes untrustworthy and error-prone. The consistency of the models and model transformation results contribute to the quality of the overall modeled system. Although MDE has significantly progressed and become an accepted best practice in many application domains such as automotive and aerospace, there are still several significant challenges that have to be tackled to realize the MDE vision in the industry. Challenges such as handling and resolving inconsistent models (e.g., incomplete models), enabling and enforcing model consistency/correctness during the construction, fostering the trust in and use of model transformations (e.g., by ensuring the resulting models are consistent), developing efficient (automated, standardized and reliable) domain-specific modeling tools, and dealing with large models are continually making the need for more research evident. In this thesis, we contribute four automated interactive techniques for ensuring the consistency of models and model transformation results during the construction process. The first two contributions construct consistent models of a given DSML in an automated and interactive way. The construction can start at a seed model being potentially inconsistent. Since enhancing a set of transformations to satisfy a set of constraints is a tedious and error-prone task and requires high skills related to the theoretical foundation, we present the other contributions. They ensure model consistency by enhancing the behavior of model transformations through automatically constructing application conditions. The resulting application conditions control the applicability of the transformations to respect a set of constraints. Moreover, we provide several optimizing strategies. Specifically, we present the following: First, we present a model repair technique for repairing models in an automated and interactive way. Our approach guides the modeler to repair the whole model by resolving all the cardinalities violations and thereby yields a desired, consistent model. Second, we introduce a model generation technique to efficiently generate large, consistent, and diverse models. Both techniques are DSML-agnostic, i.e., they can deal with any meta-models. We present meta-techniques to instantiate both approaches to a given DSML; namely, we develop meta-tools to generate the corresponding DSML tools (model repair and generation) for a given meta-model automatically. We present the soundness of our techniques and evaluate and discuss their features such as scalability. Third, we develop a tool based on a correct-by-construction technique for translating OCL constraints into semantically equivalent graph constraints and integrating them as guaranteeing application conditions into a transformation rule in a fully automated way. A constraint-guaranteeing application condition ensures that a rule applies successfully to a model if and only if the resulting model after the rule application satisfies the constraint. Fourth, we propose an optimizing-by-construction technique for application conditions for transformation rules that need to be constraint-preserving. A constraint-preserving application condition ensures that a rule applies successfully to a consistent model (w.r.t. the constraint) if and only if the resulting model after the rule application still satisfies the constraint. We show the soundness of our techniques, develop them as ready-to-use tools, evaluate the efficiency (complexity and performance) of both works, and assess the overall approach in general as well. All our four techniques are compliant with the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF), which is the realization of the OMG standard specification in practice. Thus, the interoperability and the interchangeability of the techniques are ensured. Our techniques not only improve the quality of the modeled system but also increase software productivity by providing meta-tools for generating the DSML tool supports and automating the tasks

Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute: Year Three Annual Report 2016

NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) is pleased to present the 2016 Annual Report. Each year brings new scientific discoveries, technological breakthroughs, and collaborations. The integration of basic research and development, industry and academic partnerships, plus the leveraging of existing technologies, has further opened a scientific window into human exploration. SSERVI sponsorship by the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) continues to enable the exchange of insights between the human exploration and space science communities, paving a clearer path for future space exploration. SSERVI provides a unique environment for scientists and engineers to interact within multidisciplinary research teams. As a virtual institute, the best teaming arrangements can be made irrespective of the geographical location of individuals or laboratory facilities. The interdisciplinary science that ensues from virtual and in-person interactions, both within the teams and across team lines, provides answers to questions that many times cannot be foreseen. Much of this research would not be accomplished except for the catalyzing, collaborative environment enabled by SSERVI. The SSERVI Central Office, located at NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, provides the leadership, guidance and technical support that steers the virtual institute. At the start of 2016, our institute had nine U.S. teams, each mid-way through their five-year funding cycle, plus nine international partnerships. However, by the end of the year we were well into the selection of four new domestic teams, selected through NASA's Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN) process, and a new international partnership. Understanding that human and robotic exploration is most successful as an international endeavor, international partnerships collaborate with SSERVI domestic teams on a no-exchange of funds basis, but they bring a richness to the institute that is priceless. The international partner teams interact with the domestic teams in a number of ways, including sharing students, scientific insights, and access to facilities. We are proud to introduce our newest partnership with the Astrophysics and Planetology Research Institute (IRAP) in Toulouse, France. In 2016, Principal Investigator Dr. Patrick Pinet assembled a group of French researchers who will contribute scientific and technological expertise related to SSERVI research. SSERVI's domestic teams compete for five-year funding opportunities through proposals to a NASA CAN every few years. Having overlapping proposal selection cycles allows SSERVI to be more responsive to any change in direction NASA might experience, while providing operational continuity for the institute. Allowing new teams to blend with the more seasoned teams preserves corporate memory and expands the realm of collaborative possibilities. A key component of SSERVI's mission is to grow and maintain an integrated research community focused on questions related to the Moon, Near-Earth asteroids, and the moons of Mars. The strong community response to CAN-2 demonstrated the health of that effort. NASA Headquarters conducted the peer-review of 22 proposals early in 2017 and, based on recommendations from the SSERVI Central Office and NASA SSERVI program officers, the NASA selecting officials determined the new teams in the spring of 2017. We are pleased to welcome the CAN-2 teams into the institute, and look forward to the collaborations that will develop with the current teams. The new teams are: The Network for Exploration and Space Science (NESS) team (Principal Investigator (PI) Prof. Jack Burns/U. Colorado); the Exploration Science Pathfinder Research for Enhancing Solar System Observations (ESPRESSO) team (PI Dr. Alex Parker/Southwest Research Institute); the Toolbox for Research and Exploration (TREX) team (PI Dr. Amanda Hendrix/ Planetary Science Institute); and the Radiation Effects on Volatiles and Exploration of Asteroids & Lunar Surfaces (REVEALS) team (PI Prof. Thomas Orlando/ Georgia Institute of Technology). In this report, you will find an overview of the 2016 leadership activities of the SSERVI Central Office, reports prepared by the U.S. teams from CAN-1, and achievements from several of the SSERVI international partners. Reflecting on the past year's discoveries and advancements serves as a potent reminder that there is still a great deal to learn about NASA's target destinations. Innovation in the way we access, sample, measure, visualize, and assess our target destinations is needed for further discovery. At the same time, let us celebrate how far we have come, and strongly encourage a new generation that will make the most of future opportunities

DOC 2016-03 Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAcc), Full Proposal

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Annual Report of the University, 2005-2006, Volumes 1-7

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