An Evaluation of the Swedish EU Presidency: Difficult Setting, Pragmatic Style and Mixed Results

This ARI reviews the achievements and set-backs of the 2009 Swedish EU Presidency. The Swedish EU Presidency during the second half of 2009 delivered few surprises, pleasant or otherwise. In style, the Presidency is better characterised by pragmatic brokerage than by providing leadership for the Union. Progress was made on a number of issues, most notably the ratification and implementation of the Lisbon Treaty and the adoption of the Stockholm Programme concerning future cooperation in the field of freedom, security and justice. Also, the agreements on financial oversight and on a tentative exit strategy are worth highlighting, but on all these issues much work remains to be done. Among the setbacks, the failure to reach a comprehensive and legally-binding deal in Copenhagen on climate change stands out

Las prioridades de la Presidencia sueca de la UE

Este ARI aborda las seis áreas prioritarias de la Presidencia sueca de la UE durante la segunda mitad de 2009, al mismo tiempo que contempla sus retos clave. El acuerdo sobre el cambio climático que deberá concluirse en Copenhague en diciembre de 2009 es la principal prioridad de la Presidencia sueca de la UE. La crisis económica y financiera también será una cuestión esencial para la Presidencia tanto por su propia importancia como debido a la forma en la que afecta al margen de maniobra en otras políticas. Las incertidumbres en los ámbitos constitucional e institucional también afectan a la Presidencia y la aplicación de un nuevo tratado y el proceso de formación de una nueva Comisión requerirán mucha atención por parte de la Presidencia. El Programa de Estocolmo, sucesor del Programa de La Haya, en el ámbito de la libertad, la seguridad y la justicia se concluirá durante el otoño, al igual que el primer acuerdo de cooperación macrorregional en la UE: la Estrategia del Mar Báltico. La Presidencia también dará prioridad a la dimensión externa de la UE y abordará cuestiones que van desde la ampliación hasta la OMC

Dosimetri og vurdering av algoritme for inversoptimalisert doseplanlegging for brachyterapi

Purpose Individual optimized treatment planning is recommended when creating treatment plans for brachytherapy of cervical cancer. Manual alteration of the dose distribution is time consuming and the treatment plan may be dependent on the person creating it. Inverse planning simulated anneahng (IPSA) is an algorithm that can optimize the dose distribution considering dose to several delineated structures. This algorithm, currently available in the treatment planning system Masterplan, has been evaluated for brachytherapy of cervical cancer. The Masterplan system simulates a source type from at different manufacturer than the type used for treatment at St. Olavs Hospital at the time being. The dose distribution from the two source types were evaluated to see if Masterplan an be used to simulate the source type used for treatment at St. Olavs Hospital. Methods and materials The dose distributions from the two source types were compared based on calcuations from two treatment planning systems (Masterplan and Plato) simulating each source type. Dose measurements of the source used at St. Olavs Hospital for brachytherapy treatment of cervical cancer were taken. These were compared with the dose distribution calculated by the two treatment planning systems. At St. Olavs Hospital treatment are executed using a Fletcher type applicator. MR-images are taken with the applicator in place. Target and organs at risk are delineated in the images before the treatment planning is performed. For 11 patients treated with brachytherapy of cervical cancer at St. Olavs Hospital, three different IPSA-plans with different dose constraints (IPSA1, IPSA2 and IPSA3) and one treatment plan with equal dwell times were made in retrospect. All IPSA-plans constrain the same dose to the target. IPSA1 and IPSA3 have the same constraints to organs at risk, while IPSA2 allow a higher dose to the organs at risk. IPSA3 sets a limit for maximum dose in target volume. For evaluation of the quality of the treatment plans, dose parameters of chnical relevance were extracted from dose volume histograms. Results Deviations in the calculated dose distribution up to 30% is found for the two source types in certain areas. These deviations are found close to the source and below the connector end of the source. For distances ≥ 4 mm from the source center along one axis, deviations of the calculations were ≤ 4%. This is in correspondance with the measured dose values. Target coverage for IPSA2 is 0.92. For IPSA1 and IPSA3 target coverage is 0.84 and 0.81 respectively. The number of treatment plans exceeding tolerance limit for one or more OAR is 82% for IPSA2, 55% for IPSA1 and 35% for IPSA3. The plan with equal dwell times have a target coverage of 0.66 and 45% of the treatment plans exceed the given tolerance limit for one or more organs at risk. Conclusion Deviations are found in the simulated dose distribution of the two source types tested, but only in clinical irrelevant areas for brachytherapy of cervical cancer. Masterplan can be used for simulating the dose distribution of the source used for treatment at St. Olavs Hospital. Using IPSA is better when it comes to improving target coverage and not violating tolerance limit for organs at risk, than a conservative treatment plan with equal dwell times. Due to too high doses to organs at risk, IPSA2 should be rejected. IPSA1 has better target coverage and IPSA3 have lower dose to the organs at risk. To avoid inhomogeneities in dwell time values, IPSA3 is probably the best suggestion.  Sammendrag Formål Det er anbefalt & lage individuelt optimaliserte plan når behandlingsplaner skal lages i forbindelse med brachyterapi av livmorhalskreft. Manuell endring av dosefordelingen er tidkrevende og resultatet kan bli preget av personen som lager planen. 'Iverse planning simulated anneahng' (IPSA) er en algoritme som kan optimalisere dosefordehngen slik at dose til flere skisserte strukturer blir tatt hensyn til. Denne algoritmen, tilgjengehg i doseplanleggingssystemet Masterplan, har blitt vurdert for brachyterapi av livmorhalskreft. Masterplan simulerer en kildetype fra en annen produsent enn den kildetypen som blir brukt til behandling på St. Olavs hospital i dag. Dosefordehngen til de to kildetypene har blitt vurdert for å se om Masterplan kan brukes til å simulere kildetypen brukt til behandling. Metode og utstyr Dosefordehngen fra de to kildetypene ble sammenlignet ved hjelp av doseberegninger fra to doseplanleggingssystemer (Masterplan og Plato) som simulerer hver sin kildetype. Det ble tatt målinger av dosen fra kilden brukt på St. Olavs hospital til brachyterapi av livmorhalskreft. Disse ble sammenlignet med dosefordelingen regnet ut av de to planleggingssystemene. På St. Olavs hospital blir en Fletcher type apphkator brukt til behandling. MR-bilder blir tatt etter at applikatoren er posisjonert. I bildene blir målvolum og risikooganer skissert før behandlingsplanleggingen gjennomføres. I denne studien har tre ulike IPSA-planer med forskjellig doserestriksjoner (IPSA1, IPSA2 and IPSA3) og en plan med lik liggetid i kildeposisjonene, blitt laget i ettertid for 11 pasienter behandlet for livmorhalskreft på St. Olavs hospital. IPSA-planene har samme doserestriksjoner til målvolum. IPSA1 og IPSA3 har samme begrensning til risikoorganer, mens IPSA2 tillater høyere dose til risikoorganer. IPSA3 har en begrensning for maksimum dose til volum for måvolumet. For vurdering av kvaliteten til planene ble klinisk relevante doseparametre funnet fra dosevolum-histogram. Resultat Det ble funnet avvik opp til 30% for beregnet dose i ulike punkt for de to kildetypene i visse omr&der. Disse avvikene ligger nærme kilden og rett under koblingsenden. For avstander ≥ 4 mm fra kildesenter transversalt på kilden er avvikene i beregningene ≤4%. Dosemålingene som ble tatt støtter dette. Dekning av målvolum er 0.92 for IPSA2. For IPSA1 og IPSA3 er denne dekninjen henholdsvis 0.84 og 0.81. Antall planer hvor en definert grense for dosen til et eller flere risikoorgan har blitt oversteget, er 82% for IPSA2, 55% for IPSA1 og 35% for IPSA3. Planen hvor liggetidene er fordelt likt har malvolumdekning på 0.66 og 45% av planene overstiger den definerte toleranse grensen for et eller flere risikoorgan. Konklusjon Det ble funnet avvik i de simulerte dosefordelingene mellom de to kildetypene, men kun i klinisk irrelevante områder for brachyterapi av livmorhalskreft. Masterplan kan bli brukt til å simulere dosefordelingen til kilden som blir brukt til behandling på St. Olavs hospital. Bruk av IPSA gir bedre resultater enn den konservative behandlingsplanen med lik liggetid ncir det gjelder dekning av målvolum og å overholde toleransegrensene som er satt for risikorganene. På grunn av for høye doser til risikoorganer burde IPSA2 forkastes. IPSA3 gir bedre dekning av måvolum mens IPSA3 gir lavere dose til risikoorganer. For å unngå store forskjeller mellom liggetidene i de ulike kildeposisjonene vil antagelig IPSA3 gi best utganspunkt for videre planlegging

How Coworking Spaces Affect the Motivation and the Productivity of the Employees.

The main topic of this thesis was to find out whether coworking spaces have an impact on an employee's motivation and productivity in their work. The research was conducted through a qualitative study based on ten interviews with employees currently working in a coworking space. In the given analysis, thematic analysis was used. The assignment is based on theory that deals with motivation, productivity, and how they can be linked. Our analysis showed how coworking spaces impact employee motivation and productivity. The motivation theory we rely on is Ryan and Deci's theory of self-determination. This theory divides motivation into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. This theory further assumes that people have psychological needs for competence, sense of belonging, and autonomy. We felt that this theory was relevant to our thesis as these elements describe employees well. One weakness of our research and what may enhance it for further research, would be to find more interviewees. We refer to other research that shows that the answers can change if you examine a larger group of people who work or have worked in coworking spaces

Generating Grain Graphs Using the OpenMP Tools API

Computers are becoming increasingly parallel. Many applications rely on OpenMP to divide units of work between a set of worker threads. Typically, this is done using parallel for-loops or tasking. Grain graphs is a recent method for visualizing program execution from a program perspective. It shows the control flow of a program in terms of fork and join points. Between such points, one can find grains, which are task instances or for-loop chunks. Attached to these grains are a set of metrics that inform the programmer of how they well they perform. However, generating grain graphs means using the MIR runtime system, as it is the only one designed to provide all the needed metrics. In this paper, I look at the OpenMP Tools API as an alternative. I show what data can be immediately obtained from the interface. Furthermore, I look at whether any metrics require extensions to OMPT. I find that most task-related metrics are available, but that information about for-loop chunks is missing from the API. I propose that an event for chunk scheduling is introduced, as well as an event denoting the end of task creation

Extending OMPT to Support Grain Graph Visualization

Because of physical constraints, performance gains of single-core processors has come to a halt. Computer architects have responded by adding multiple processor cores to their designs. However, for continued performance gains, multi-core designs require multithreaded applications. Manually managing individual threads becomes burdensome for large applications, and programmers therefore opt to use interfaces that abstract some of this complexity. OpenMP is one such interface. It is an industry-standard for parallel shared-memory programming. There is currently an ongoing effort to add a profiling interface called the OpenMP Tools (OMPT) API to the upcoming OpenMP 5.0 specification. OMPT will allow creating portable, high-quality performance analysis tools for OpenMP programs. Grain graphs is a recent visualization that simplifies OpenMP performance analysis. It has previously been found that the instrumentation callbacks of OMPT are almost sufficient to generate the data needed by grain graphs. However, OMPT does not describe events to measure the duration spent creating tasks, or tracing the execution of parallel for-loop chunks. In this thesis, I propose extensions that provide the necessary descriptions, and evaluate the performance impact of these extensions in the LLVM/Clang toolchain. My evaluation shows that the overheads are low. Benchmarks from the EPCC OpenMP micro-benchmark suite provoke up to 3% increased overhead in the most important scenarios. Most HPC workloads from the BOTS and SPEC OMP2012 application suites don't see any change in execution time. While the proposed extensions are motivated by grain graphs, they can be used by other profiling methods as well

A Citizens Compact: Reaching out to the Citizens of Europe. CEPS EPIN Working Papers No. 14, 1 September 2005

[Executive Summary]. How can the deadlock after the ‘no’ to the European Constitutional Treaty in France and the Netherlands be overcome? What should be the aim of the ‘period of reflection’ that has been agreed by the European Council? The authors of this paper propose the adoption of a ‘Citizens Compact’, which should directly address the larger malaise among citizens that underlies the Constitutional crisis. It should contribute to the reduction of the EU’s democratic deficit without treaty reform. The following measures should be envisaged: • National parliaments should participate more strongly in the controversies on core European issues through earlier and intensive debates about EU initiatives. • Every six months governments should explain their positions on the priorities of the EU-presidency in their national parliaments. • EU-actors (MEPs, Commissioners and top officials) should participate more intensively in national debates about European issues and contribute to a better understanding of the European political processes among citizens. • National governments should regularly publish information bulletins about the latest EU initiatives and –decisions. • Public fora about European issues should be established in every member state with speakers coming from national politics, from the EU level and other member states as well as representatives from civil society. • Uncontroversial elements of the Constitutional Treaty that strengthen EU democracy could already be adopted through inter-institutional agreements. • A White Paper on the establishment of a ‘European Democratic and Civic Space’ in the EU should be elaborated. • In the future important legislative acts should contain an impact assessment of the consequences on citizens’ lives

FoU på fisk : frå prøvefiske til telemetristudiar og avansert populasjonsgenetisk forsking

Det fiskefaglege miljøet på Evenstad har drive FoU-verksemd sidan tidleg på 1990-talet. Den gongen var fokuset å finne gode løysingar på utfordringar i forvaltninga av lokale og regionale fiskeressursar i ferskvatn. Dette er vidareført dei seinare åra, sjølv om innsatsen no er noko meir djuptgåande og avansert, og kan vonleg tilføre fiskefaget ny generell kunnskap. Starten på utviklinga av fagmiljøet var studium av vandringane til stor aure i Glåma ved hjelp av radiotelemetri for å lokalisere gyteog oppvekstområde. Deretter vart innsatsen retta mot å finne nytten og effektane av settefiskutsettingane i vassdraget. I dei seinare åra er dette vidareført i arbeidet med å skaffe kunnskap om naturleg rekruttering av aure i sidevassdrag til Glåma. Gjennom doktorgradsarbeid blir det forska på effektar av temperaturauke på vekst og populasjonsdynamikk hos aure i lys av klimaendringane som skjer. Og korleis røya som art er spalta i ulike genetiske og evolusjonære einingar som vi treng å kjenne til med tanke på framtidig forvaltning av biologisk mangfald

Extending OMPT to Support Grain Graphs

The upcoming profiling API standard OMPT can describe almost all profiling events required to construct grain graphs, a recent visualization that simplifies OpenMP performance analysis. We propose OMPT extensions that provide the missing descriptions of task creation and parallel for-loop chunk scheduling events, making OMPT a sufficient, standard source for grain graphs. Our extensions adhere to OMPT design objectives and incur a low overhead for BOTS (up to 2% overhead) and SPEC OMP2012 (1%) programs. Although motivated by grain graphs, the events described by the extensions are general and can enable cost-effective, precise measurements in other profiling tools as well.submittedVersionThis is a pre-print of an article published in [Lecture Notes in Computer Science]. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-65578-9_1