Functional characterization of two plant type I MADS-box genes in Arabidopsis thaliana : AGL40 and AGL62 : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Plant Biology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

MADS-box transcription factors (TF) are a family of evolutionary conserved genes found across various eukaryotic species. Characterized by the conserved DNA binding MADS-box domain. MADS-box TF has been shown to play various roles in developmental processes. MADS-box genes can be based on MADS-box structural motifs divided into type I and type II lineages. In plants very limited functional characterization have been achieved with type I genes MADS-box genes. In this project we attempted to functionally characterize 2 closely related members of the type I lineage MADS-box genes AGL40 and AGL62 and give further support to the hypothesis that plant type I MADS-box genes are also crucial to normal plant development. Based on our expression domain characterization assay using AGL62: GUS fusion construct, we have shown expression of AGL62 in various tissues but especially strong in developing seeds, pollen and seedling roots and shoots. The web based microarray data suggesting that AGL62 may have a function in seed, pollen and seedling development backed up this result. Interestingly when we carried out PCR based genotyping with segregating population of heterozygous AGL62 T-DNA insertion lines (agl62/+) to identify the homozygous T-DNA insertion lines we detected no homozygous T-DNA insertion line indicating loss-of-function of AGL62 may be lethal to plant. With reference to the AGL62 expression in pollen, seed and seedling root and shoot, we carried out phenotypic assay on each of these tissues in agl62/+ background to investigate whether there was any phenotypic defect observed. Significant reduction in number of seeds was observed in agl62/+ indicating possible role of AGL62 in seed development. Our microscopic observation of seeds from agl62/+ plants showed defective embryos and confirmed that AGL62 plays a role in seed development. Our data on AGL62 is the first report that confirms AGL62's involvement in plant development and can be a ground work for further works on functional characterization of other members of plant type I MADS-box genes

On Observability and Monitoring of Distributed Systems: An Industry Interview Study

Business success of companies heavily depends on the availability and performance of their client applications. Due to modern development paradigms such as DevOps and microservice architectural styles, applications are decoupled into services with complex interactions and dependencies. Although these paradigms enable individual development cycles with reduced delivery times, they cause several challenges to manage the services in distributed systems. One major challenge is to observe and monitor such distributed systems. This paper provides a qualitative study to understand the challenges and good practices in the field of observability and monitoring of distributed systems. In 28 semi-structured interviews with software professionals we discovered increasing complexity and dynamics in that field. Especially observability becomes an essential prerequisite to ensure stable services and further development of client applications. However, the participants mentioned a discrepancy in the awareness regarding the importance of the topic, both from the management as well as from the developer perspective. Besides technical challenges, we identified a strong need for an organizational concept including strategy, roles and responsibilities. Our results support practitioners in developing and implementing systematic observability and monitoring for distributed systems

An Evaluation Of The Relationships Between Safety Management Systems (SMS), Transformational Safety Leadership, Self-Efficacy, And Safety Performance Metrics In A 14 Code Of Federal Regulation (CFR) Part 121 Airline: A Mediation Analysis

A concurrent-embedded mixed-method triangulation design evaluated observed safety outcomes at a U.S. 14 Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) Part 121 air carrier. A previously validated model that measures Safety Management Systems (SMS process engagement and SMS policy implementation), transformational safety leadership, self-efficacy, safety motivation (mediator), and safety behaviors (safety compliance and safety participation) was assessed using structural equation modeling/path analysis. Semi-structured interviews of SMS subject-matter experts and safety leaders were used to explore the impact of SMS implementation. Factual data from the carrier was examined to provide convergent or divergent information regarding the other portions of the study. The results indicated SMS policy implementation had a significant effect on safety compliance (SC) and safety participation (SP), but SMS process engagement impacted only safety compliance (SC). A moderate relationship was found between safety motivation and both SC and SP. The results also indicated a significant effect of transformational safety leadership on safety motivation and SP. Self-efficacy and SC were weakly related. The results point to the importance of transformational leadership, clear safety policy, and motivation on safety outcomes. Gender differences were noted in SC and safety-related events, while years at the carrier were impactful on SC. Role at the company impacted safety-related event scores. Practitioners might consider tailored training due to the differences noted in this study. Future research is required to explore the impact of experience, role, and gender on safety outcomes and safety-related events estimation

Avoimeen dataan perustuvan jokivirtaamatyökalun arvo Kaakkois-Aasiassa

Water governance deals with a substance that is essential for sustaining life. Managing a physical substance, which runs in multiple interconnected systems crossing administrative borders of all scales, creates controversies when the interests of different stakeholders collide. Creating policies and making decisions related to water requires efficient science-policy interaction, to which environmental modelling is inarguably an important input that provides salient, credible, and legitimate information to be used. However, modelling the endless complexity of the physical world leaves the modelers facing uncertainties. This work demonstrates the environmental modelling process, conducts an uncertainty quantification, and finally investigates the potential of adopting open-source solutions as a part of environmental modelling and policy support. This work applies both quantitative and qualitative methods. The main quantitative methods are hydrostreamer, a newly developed open-source tool that can estimate river streamflow, and Monte Carlo simulation, which is applied to quantify a type of uncertainty related to hydrostreamer. Within the qualitative methods, a survey and semi-structured interviews are applied to assess the current state of hydrostreamer and its applicability in the 3S river basin located in Southeast Asia, and also to investigate the potential of open-source based environmental modelling solutions in a more general manner. In the work, one of the contributors of uncertainty related to modelling streamflow with hydrostreamer is quantified and shown to behave with respect to Strahler order. Minor applications for hydrostreamer in its present state are found in the study area, and potential for adopting open-source solutions is shown, primarily due to low costs and through major donor organizations. In the resulting discussion, it is emphasized that trade-offs between modelling tool applicability and accuracy should be addressed to make the environmental modelling process truly open, instead of limiting the openness to only few of those with the required capabilities. Evaluating uncertainties related to a modelling process helps building confidence on the methods used; however, it should be considered carefully how to present the analysis and results for those who are not familiar with the subject. The work is a technical approach with ultimate goals in incorporating non-technical people and arguing for open data and transparency. It is concluded that open-source tools exhibit potential to be incorporated in complicated policy-making contexts despite the fact that no single tool can provide a panacea for complex issues.Vesi on keskeinen elämää ylläpitävä aine, ja sen merkitys lähes kaikille elinkeinoille on hyvin suuri. Se kiertää luonnon toisiinsa liittyneissä järjestelmissä jatkuvasti, ja vesivarojen hallinnoinnin on kyettävä toimimaan hallinnollisten rajojen yli. Veden käyttöön liittyy usein intressiristiriitoja eri toimijoiden välillä. Tieteellistä tietoa ja ympäristömallintamista hyödynnetään päätöksenteossa vesialalla, jolloin tuotetun tiedon tulisi olla mahdollisimman hyödyllistä ja luotettavaa. Fyysisen maailman loputon monimutkaisuus kuitenkin aiheuttaa epävarmuutta mallintamiseen. Tässä työssä esitellään ympäristömallintamisen prosessi ja arvioidaan erästä epävarmuustekijää numeerisesti. Lopuksi arvioidaan avoimeen lähdekoodiin perustuvien ratkaisujen potentiaalia osana ympäristömallintamista ja päätöksenteon tukea. Tässä työssä käytetään sekä laskennallisia että laadullisia menetelmiä. Laskennallisia menetelmiä ovat hydrostreamer, uusi avoimeen lähdekoodiin perustuva työkalu jokivirtaaman arviointiin, ja Monte Carlo -simulaatio, jota käytetään epävarmuuden simuloimiseen ja arviointiin. Kyselytutkimusta sekä puolistrukturoituja haastatteluja sovelletaan hydrostreamerin nykytilan ja sovellettavuuden arviointiin käyttäen nk. 3S-jokilaaksoa Kaakkois-Aasiassa esimerkkialueena. Työn tuloksena näytetään arvioidun spatiaalisen epävarmuuden käyttäytyvän käänteisesti Strahlerin luvun suhteen. Pienimuotoisia sovelluskohteita hydrostreamerille osoitetaan olevan tutkimusalueella, ja avointen työkalujen käyttöä ympäristömallintamisessa arvioidaan laadullisten tulosten perusteella. Työn pohdinnassa korostetaan, että mallintamistyökalujen valinnassa ja käytössä tulisi ottaa huomioon kompromissit sovellettavuuden ja tarkkuuden välillä. Tällöin mallinnusprosessista tulisi aidosti avoin sen sijaan, että avoimuus rajoittuisi vain pienelle joukolle toimijoita, joilla on tarvittava osaaminen ja data käytössään. Mallinnukseen liittyvien epävarmuuksien analysointi auttaa rakentamaan luottamusta kehitettyihin menetelmiin: epävarmuusanalyysin toteutus ja tulosten esittäminen muille voivat kuitenkin olla haastavia ja vaativat huolellista suunnittelua. Työ on lähtökohtaisesti tekninen, mutta sen pohjalta voidaan myös saada ei-teknisiä toimijoita osallistumaan mallintamiseen entistä enemmän. Yhteenvetona voidaan todeta, että potentiaalia sisällyttää avoimet työkalut osaksi monimutkaisia päätöksentekoprosesseja on olemassa, vaikkakaan mikään työkalu ei voi yksinään ratkaista kaikkia ongelmia

Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Software Engineering Workshop

The four major topics of discussion included: the NASA Software Engineering Laboratory, software testing, human factors in software engineering and software quality assessment. As in the past years, there were 12 position papers presented (3 for each topic) followed by questions and very heavy participation by the general audience

Risk Mitigation and Monitoring Challenges in Software Organizations: A Morphological Analysis

Context: The present body of research on risk mitigation focuses mostly on sparse and dispersed research using various approaches during project development. Objectives: This paper's goals are to conceptualize and construct a morphological analysis (MA) framework, examine the literature that has already been published on these risks and how to mitigate them in software development, and identify research gaps that suggest areas for further study. Methods: Based on a survey of 102 works, we provide an MA framework. The MA framework, which is composed of five dimensions and 17 variants, identifies 33 distinct research gaps as the maximum number of potential areas for future study. The implications for future research are covered in the paper's conclusion. Risk reduction during the project development process is extremely beneficial for project managers at an organization in delivering high-quality goods on time and within budget. Results:  Based on a review of the literature, it was discovered that the development of software projects used a very low percentage of official risk mitigation and elimination methods. Research also revealed the significance of people-related risks in the risk mitigation process for the benefit of the organization. Some key research demonstrated experimentation, case studies, and empirical approaches for evaluation. Future work may include examining project managers' perceptions and knowledge of risk management. Managers of software development teams require greater risk-mitigation strategies. Conclusion: Scholars and researchers need to put more effort into developing quantitative and intelligent risk models. It is crucial to identify major risks so that they won't compromise the project's future success. In our future work, we can employ more models that are helpful for combining quantitative and intelligent risk models using various AI strategies to reduce hazards

Stress Evaluation of Welded Steel Bridges on Coal-Haul Routes

This report describes the procedure developed and being employed to determine and assess live-load stresses in structural members of welded steel bridges on extended· weight coal haul routes. Those bridges are routinely subjected to loads from coal trucks in excess of those permitted on other routes. Those elevated loads may result in high stresses in bridge members. Of principal concern are certain weld details on steel bridges that are susceptible to fatigue cracking when subject to high live-load stresses. Seventeen welded steel bridges on extended-weight coal haul routes have been identified for investigation under this study. The study test procedure consists of 1) a review of coal-haul data and plans to identify lanes of a bridge subject to greatest coal-truck loading, 2) identification of weld details of interest for analysis on portions of the bridge superstructure subject to high live-load stresses, 3) field application of strain gages to measure live-load stresses at locations of interest on a bridge, 4) continuous monitoring of live stresses from routine traffic for an extended period and 5) data retrieval and reduction and fatigue analysis. Fatigue analysis is based on the number of stress cycles measured during the field test and the equivalent resolved live-load stress. That is compared to the 1992 AASHTO fatigue performance data for applicable structural details (e.g. welded connections). An exemplary use of the study test procedure is given for the KY 15 bridge over the North Fork of the Kentucky River and KY SO in Perry Co. This report describes the test locations, test procedures and results of the derived test data. The field tests will indicate the level of live-load stresses to which the bridges are exposed. Additionally, the fatigue analyses may indicate whether welded steel bridges on extended-weight coal haul routes are susceptible to fatigue damage