The New Informatics

The discipline that used to be called “information systems” is changing its identity. In Sweden, we have emphasized this reorientation by changing our name from “administrative data processing” to “informatics.” I will attempt to characterize this new informatics, describing it as a theory and design oriented study of information technology use, an artificial science with the intertwined complex of people and information technology as its subject matter. I will end by giving some suggestions for how to think of a new curriculum

A high-performance data structure for mobile information systems

Mobile information systems can now be provided on small form-factor computers. Dictionary-based data compression extends the capabilities of systems with limited processing and memory to enable data intensive applications to be supported in such environments. The nature of judicial sentencing decisions requires that a support system provides accurate and up-to-date data and is compatible with the professional working experience of a judge. The difficulties caused by mobility and the data dependence of the decision-making process are addressed by an Internet-based architecture for collecting and distributing system data.We describe an approach to dictionary-based data compression and the structure of an information system that makes use of this technology

AN ARTIFICIAL WORLD: An invitation to creative conversations on future use and design of computer technology

Aims and methods for the practice of system development were formulated in relation to early computer technology use in the sixties. These aims and methods provided a foundation for research and a framework for discussion which still set the agenda for theoretical work. Changes in computer technology use in the eighties raise issues that tend to fall outside the established research tradition. New user groups, the industrialization of software development, a tremendous diversification of computer technology use, and profound changes in society, everyday life, and world view broaden the need for research on how to put computer technology to good human use. In this paper we want to contribute to a discussion of how this challenge can be met, in general, and by the system development community, in particular

Ansvarsgenombrott - en jämförelse av gällande rätt och ny hovrättspraxis

Ett mycket omdiskuterat fenomen i svensk doktrin är när aktieägare åläggs ett ansvar för aktiebolagets förpliktelser trots ansvarsbegränsningen i 1 kap. 3§ ABL. Detta fenomen har kommit att kallas för ansvarsgenombrott. I två nyligen avkunnade hovrättsdomar har ansvarsgenombrott använts för att motivera ett sådant genombrott av 1 kap. 3§ ABL. Båda rättsfallen behandlade bolag vars enda syfte var att driva rättsprocesser, s.k. processbo-lag. Följande undersökning avser att utreda ifall HovR hade stöd för sina domskäl i gällande rätt. För att genomföra en sådan undersökning är en utgångspunkt att gällande rätt först utreds. Vad gällande rätt på området består i visade sig efter en undersökning av prejudikat, doktrin och lagförarbeten vara mycket svårt att konstatera. Samt-liga prejudikat präglades av oklarhet och inga principiella ställningstaganden togs av HD i något av rättsfallen. Doktrin har därav också kommit att präglas av osäkerhet och till viss mån oenighet om vad som egentligen krävs för att ansvarsgenombrott ska ske i svensk rätt. Det enda försök som gjorts för att instifta en generell lagregel på området avvisades och lagförarbeten därefter har inte erkänt ett behov av en sådan regel. De allra flesta tycks dock vara överens om ansvarsgenombrottets existens. Något konstaterande om institutets närmare innebörd och omfång är däremot inte möjligt att göra i dagsläget. Domskälen i de båda hovrättsdomarna blir därför av naturliga skäl i högsta grad präglade av denna osäkerhet. Stödet för utgången i de båda målen bygger på ett uttalande i doktrin från Rhode år 1984. Detta är ett stöd som inte bara är mindre lämpligt i sammanhanget då det dels bortser från all senare doktrin och samtliga lagförarbeten på området och dels för att Rhode baserat sitt resonemang på ett vagt rättsfall i ett internationellt perspektiv. Undersökningen går också vidare och konstaterar att ett behov av en generell lagregel på området numera existerar för att råda bukt med processbolag och potentiellt framtida bolagskonstruktioner av liknande slag

Optimal use of radar radial winds in the HARMONIE numerical weather prediction system

The use of radial velocity information from the European weather radar network is a challenging task, due to a rather heterogeneous radar network and the different ways of providing the Doppler velocity information. A preprocessing is therefore needed to harmonize the data. Radar observations consist of a very high resolution dataset which means that it is both demanding to process as well as that the inherent resolution is much higher than the model resolution. One way of reducing the amount of data is to create super observations (SO) by averaging observations in a predefined area. This paper describes the preprocessing necessary to use radar radial velocities in the data assimilation where the SO construction is included. The main focus is to optimize the use of radial velocities in the HARMONIE-AROME numerical weather model. Several experiments were run to find the best settings for first-guess check limits as well as a tuning of the observation error value. The optimal size of the SO and the corresponding thinning distance for radar radial velocities was also studied. It was found that the radial velocity information and the reflectivity from weather radars can be treated differently when it comes to the size of the SO and the thinning. A positive impact was found when adding the velocities together with the reflectivity using the same SO size and thinning distance, but the best results were found when the SO and thinning distance for the radial velocities are smaller compared to the corresponding values for reflectivity

A theoretical evaluation of the impact of the type of reaction on heat production and material losses in biomass piles

Self-heating during storage of biomass in piles causes material losses, leads to emissions to air, and poses a risk of fire. There are different techniques to assess a biomass material's propensity for self-heating, some of these are briefly reviewed. One of these techniques is isothermal calorimetry, which measures thermal power from materials and produces time-resolved curves. A recently developed and published test standard, ISO 20049-1:2020, describes how the self-heating of pelletized biofuels can be determined by means of isothermal calorimetry and how thermal power and the total heat produced during the test should be measured by isothermal calorimetry. This paper supports interpretation of the result obtained by isothermal calorimetry; the mentioned standard provides examples of peak thermal power and total heat but does not provide any assistance on how the result from isothermal measurements should be interpreted or how the result from measurements on different samples could be compared. This paper addresses the impact of different types of reactions, peak thermal power, total heat released (heat of reaction), activation energy, heat conductivity, and pile size on the temperature development in a generic pile of biomass. This paper addresses important parameters when the result from isothermal calorimetry is evaluated. The most important parameter, with respect to temperature development in large piles, was found to be the total heat released. It was also proposed that safe storage times, that is, the time until a run-away of the temperature in the pile, could be ranked based on the time to the peak thermal power