Using the Go Programming Language in Practice

When developing software today, we still use old tools and ideas. Maybe it is time to start from scratch and try tools and languages that are more in line with how we actually want to develop software. The Go Programming Language was created at Google by a rather famous trio: Rob Pike, Ken Thompson and Robert Griesemer. Before introducing Go, the company suffered from their development process not scaling well due to slow builds, uncontrolled dependencies, hard to read code, poor documentation and so on. Go is set out to provide a solution for these issues. The purpose of this master's thesis was to review the current state of the language. This is not only a study of the language itself but an investigation of the whole software development process using Go. The study was carried out from an embedded development perspective which includes an investigation of compilers and cross-compilation. We found that Go is exciting, fun to use and fulfills what is promised in many cases. However, we think the tools need some more time to mature

Design of Fire-exposed Steel Structures - The Swedish Approach

A rational, analytical approach to a fire engineering design of load-bearing steel structures is described. The method of design is directly based on the natural compartment fire concept and on strictly defined functional requirements and performance criteria. The method is permitted to be generally applied in Sweden, as one alternative, since about ten years. For facilitating the practical application, a comprehensive design basis has been worked out in the form of diagrams and tables for a direct determination of the maximum steel temperature during a complete compartment fire and the corresponding design load-bearing capacity of the fire exposed structure. The design basis is presented in a manual which has been given type approval for practical use by the National Swedish Board of Physical Planning and Building

Common psychiatric disorders share the same genetic origin : a multivariate sibling study of the Swedish population.

Recent studies have shown that different mental-health problems appear to be partly influenced by the same set of genes, which can be summarized by a general genetic factor. To date, such studies have relied on surveys of community-based samples, which could introduce potential biases. The goal of this study was to examine whether a general genetic factor would still emerge when based on a different ascertainment method with different biases from previous studies. We targeted all adults in Sweden (n=3 475 112) using national registers and identified those who had received one or more psychiatric diagnoses after seeking or being forced into mental health care. In order to examine the genetic versus environmental etiology of the general factor, we examined whether participants' full- or half-siblings had also received diagnoses. We focused on eight major psychiatric disorders based on the International Classification of Diseases, including schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, alcohol use disorder and drug abuse. In addition, we included convictions of violent crimes. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that a general genetic factor influenced all disorders and convictions of violent crimes, accounting for between 10% (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) and 36% (drug abuse) of the variance of the conditions. Thus, a general genetic factor of psychopathology emerges when based on both surveys as well as national registers, indicating that a set of pleiotropic genes influence a variety of psychiatric disorders.National Institute of Health, R01 HD056354-04A1Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and WelfareSwedish Research CouncilAccepte

Butterfly monitoring using systematically placed transects in contrasting climatic regions - exploring an established spatial design for sampling

Butterfly monitoring schemes are recording programs initiated to monitor nationwide butterfly abundance and distribution patterns, often with help from volunteers. The method generates high-resolution data, but may be associated with a degree of habitat sampling bias if volunteers prefer to survey areas perceived to be high-quality butterfly habitats. This can result in habitats becoming underrepresented in the data set, leading to less information about the butterfly populations there. In the present study, we investigate the possibility of applying a spatial design used by the Swedish Bird Survey for nationwide, grid-based sampling, with a goal to get butterfly monitoring data covering a representative sample of different habitats. We surveyed four 2x2 km sampling squares, split into 100 m segments, in the southernmost region of Sweden (Scania) and four in the northernmost region (Norrbotten). The grid-based transects were compared with volunteer-selected transects in a GIS analysis using a refined Swedish version of CORINE land cover data to see how well these two transect designs represent true habitat coverage. A total of 53 km transect was monitored, resulting in 490 individuals and 29 different species recorded. We found that transect cover correlated significantly with overall land cover using both monitoring methods, though standardised transects outperformed volunteer-selected transects in habitat representation in Scania, but not in Norrbotten. Butterflies were found to aggregate significantly in specific habitats, but with contrasting results for the two geographically different regions. Grasslands in both regions generated a high number of recorded butterflies, although so did clear-cut and residential areas in Norrbotten as well. The highest number of individuals recorded per transect was found in bogs in Scania. This study emphasises the value of complementing free site selection monitoring schemes with spatially representative schemes such as the Swedish Bird Survey, and sheds some light on general habitat preferences for Swedish butterflies in two contrasting climatic regions

Attitude and knowledge about GMO : agricultural journalists are asked in a quantitative study

Den svenska debatten om användningen av GMO har varit en het och infekterad fråga i många år. Förespråkarna och motståndarna till GMO är långt ifrån varandra och positionerna är tämligen låsta. Hur kan det komma sig att man ser användning av GMO på så vitt skilda sätt? Jag började fundera på vad de som mestadels förmedlar informationen om GMO själva har för syn på ämnet. Studien fokuseras på journalister som bevakar och skriver om den gröna näringen i svenska tidningar. Vad tycker lantbruksjournalisterna egentligen om GMO och företeelsen som sådan? Vilken kunskap har man? Hur ser man på framtid och opartiskhet? Anledningen till att jag valt denna målgrupp är att jag anser att man som journalist har en mycket viktig del i hur information om GMO kommuniceras till allmänheten och därmed påverkar debatten om GMO. För att ta reda på vad de berörda journalisterna har för inställning och kunskap om GMO användes en kvantitativ forskningsmetod. En webbenkät som bygger på SLUs enkätgenerator skapades så att journalisterna kunde gå in och svara på frågor om bakgrund, anställning, kunskap och åsikt om GMO. Enkäten fanns tillgänglig under fyra veckor. För att sprida enkäten kontaktades redaktionschefer, ansvariga utgivare och reportrar som uppmanades att svara på enkäten och skicka den vidare till kollegor. Resultat blev att 34 journalister svarade på enkäten, ca två tredjedelar i undersökningen var män. Åldern varierade mellan 26 år och 60+. Flest svar, ca 70 procent, kom från journalister som representerade rena lantbrukstidningar exempelvis Jordbruksaktuellt, ATL, Land lantbruk, Lantbrukets affärer, Lantmannen mm. 73 procent ansåg sig ha bra kunskap om GMO. 49 procent ansåg sig generellt vara positiva eller ganska positiva till GMO. Inom en tio-års period tror 44 procent av journalisterna att man i Sverige kommer odla GMO- grödor i större skala. 88 procent av journalisterna svarade att det var viktigt att vara opartisk när man skriver om GMO. Sammanfattningsvis anser sig lantbruksjournalister ha en bra kunskap om GMO, samtidigt som man anser att allmänheten har dålig kunskap. Var man har fått sin kunskap om GMO från varierar. Många anser att tidningar, internet och andra experter på området har bidraget med den bästa kunskapen. Lantbruksjournalister ser både positiva och negativa konsekvenser med användning av GMO. Det är tydligt att man är mer positiv till GMO-teknik i framställandet av t.ex. industriprodukter än till mat och livsmedel. Lantbruksjournalister är splittrade i frågan om det kommer dröja många år innan GMO är accepterat i Sverige. Man har mycket varierande åsikter om GMO, men de försöker och anser sig vara opartiska när man skriver om GMO.The Swedish debate on the use of GMO has been a hot issue and infected for many years. Proponents and opponents of GMO are far apart and the positions are fairly locked. How can it be that people sees the use of GMO in such different ways? I started thinking about what they that mostly communicate information about GMO have for views on the subject. This study focused on journalists covering and writing about the green industry in Swedish newspapers. What do agricultural journalists really think about GMO and by its form? What knowledge do they have? How can they see the future and impartiality? The reason I chose this target group is that I believe that journalists have a very important part in how information about GMO is communicated to the public, and thereby affect the debate on GMO. To find out what the journalists attitude and knowledge about GMO are, I used a quantitative research method. A web survey based on a school survey generator was created so that journalists could go in and answer questions about the background, employment, knowledge and opinion about GMO. The questionnaire was available for four weeks. In order to distribute the questionnaire were managing editors, publisher and reporters were contacted and invited to answer the questionnaire as well as send it on to colleagues. The result was that 34 journalists responded to the survey, about two-thirds in the survey were men. The age ranged between 26 years and 60 +. Most responses, about 70 percent, came from journalists who represented agricultural magazines. 73 percent felt they had good knowledge about GMO. 49 percent considered themselves to be generally positive or fairly positive for GMO. 44 percent of the journalists were expecting that a ten-year period there will be GM crops grown on a larger scale in Sweden. 88 percent of journalists said it was important to be impartial when writing about GMO. In conclusion, agricultural journalists have a good knowledge of GMO, while their view are that the public has little knowledge. From where they get the knowledge of GMO vary. Many believe that magazines, internet and other experts in the field have contributed to the best knowledge. Agricultural journalists sees both positive and negative consequences in the use of GMO. It is clear that they are more favorable to GM technology in the production of such as industrial products than for food products. Agricultural journalists are divided on the question whether there will be many years before GMO is accepted in Sweden. They have very varied opinions on GMO, but they try and consider themselves to be impartial when writing about GMO

Rational Approach to Fire Engineering Design of Steel Buildings

The present paper describes a rational analytical approach to a fire engineering design of load-bearing structures and partitions. The design method is permitted to be generally applied in Sweden, as one alternative, since about ten years. The method is directly based on the natural fire concept and strictly defined functional requirements and performance criteria . For facilitating the practical application of the design method to steel structures, a comprehensive design basis has been worked out in the form of diagrams and tables for a direct and quick determination of the maximum steel temperature during a complete compartment fire and the corresponding design load-bearing capacity of the fire exposed structure. The design basis is presented in a manual [4] which is approved for practical use by the National Swedish Board of Physical Planning and Building. The paper is organized in such a way, that a reader, who only wants to be informed of the practical application of the design method, can limit himself to a study of chapter 3 and the explanatory example. Chapters 1 and 2 are supplementing this description with respect to the general design philosophy behind the design method and the connected structural fire safety characteristics

Tri-nucleotide threading for parallel amplification of minute amounts of genomic DNA

Efforts to correlate genetic variations with phenotypic differences are intensifying due to the availability of high-density maps of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and the development of high throughput scoring methods. These recent advances have led to an increased interest for improved multiplex preparations of genetic material to facilitate such whole genome analyses. Here we propose a strategy for the parallel amplification of polymorphic loci based on a reduced set of nucleotides. The technique denoted Tri-nucleotide Threading (TnT), allows SNPs to be amplified via controlled linear amplification followed by complete removal of the target material and subsequent amplification with a pair of universal primers. A dedicated software tool was developed for this purpose and variable positions in genes associated with different forms of cancer were analyzed using sub-nanogram amounts of starting material. The amplified fragments were then successfully scored using a microarray-based PrASE technique. The results of this study, in which 75 SNPs were analyzed, show that the TnT technique circumvents potential problems associated with multiplex amplification of SNPs from minute amounts of material. The technique is specific, sensitive and can be readily adapted to equipment and genotyping techniques used in other research laboratories without requiring changes to the preferred typing method