An Experimental Digital Library Platform - A Demonstrator Prototype for the DigLib Project at SICS

Within the framework of the Digital Library project at SICS, this thesis describes the implementation of a demonstrator prototype of a digital library (DigLib); an experimental platform integrating several functions in one common interface. It includes descriptions of the structure and formats of the digital library collection, the tailoring of the search engine Dienst, the construction of a keyword extraction tool, and the design and development of the interface. The platform was realised through sicsDAIS, an agent interaction and presentation system, and is to be used for testing and evaluating various tools for information seeking. The platform supports various user interaction strategies by providing: search in bibliographic records (Dienst); an index of keywords (the Keyword Extraction Function (KEF)); and browsing through the hierarchical structure of the collection. KEF was developed for this thesis work, and extracts and presents keywords from Swedish documents. Although based on a comparatively simple algorithm, KEF contributes by supplying a long-felt want in the area of Information Retrieval. Evaluations of the tasks and the interface still remain to be done, but the digital library is very much up and running. By implementing the platform through sicsDAIS, DigLib can deploy additional tools and search engines without interfering with already running modules. If wanted, agents providing other services than SICS can supply, can be plugged in

Modulation of Ly49A+ Natural Killer Cell Licensing by Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I Alleles

Natural killer: NK) cells are innate immune lymphocytes that react to cells lacking self-MHC: major histocompatibility complex) class I molecules, such as transformed or virally infected host cells and allogeneic bone marrow. This reactivity is mediated by inhibitory receptors for MHC class I that block the ability of activation receptors to stimulate NK cells. Since many NK cells lack receptors that recognize self-MHC, the inhibitory receptors also mediate a second function, termed NK cell licensing, to protect against autoreactivity. To become licensed, i.e. functionally competent to be triggered through its activation receptors, an NK cell must engage host MHC class I via at least one of its MHC class I-specific inhibitory receptors, which in mice belong to the Ly49 family of receptors. However, many properties of this process remain unclear. To explore potential determinants of NK cell licensing on a single Ly49 receptor, we have investigated the relative licensing impacts of the b, d, k, q, r, and s H2 haplotypes on Ly49A+ NK cells. In ex vivo stimulation assays, some Ly49A-MHC class I haplotype combinations produced an intermediate licensing phenotype, indicating that licensing is not a binary phenomenon. Comparisons of these data with soluble Ly49A tetramer binding assays indicate that licensing is essentially analog but is saturated by moderate-binding MHC class I ligands. Interestingly, licensing exhibited a strong inverse correlation with Ly49A surface accessibility, a measure of cis engagement of Ly49A with MHC class I expressed on the same cell. Finally, Ly49A-mediated effector inhibition was found to be more sensitive to MHC class I engagement than licensing of Ly49A+ NK cells, suggesting that licensing establishes a margin of safety against NK cell autoreactivity

Assessing consequences of low cost sourcing in China

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to develop a framework for low-cost sourcing assessment and to explore the consequences of low-cost sourcing in China for a European manufacturer.<p>Design/methodology/approach – The low-cost sourcing framework generated from literature and the consequence analysis is based on a case study of a European company that has outsourced part of its casting processes to Chinese suppliers.<p>Findings – Characteristics of low-cost sourcing are based on a literature review divided into three categories: country characteristics, supply network structure, and supply network relationships and the case study shows that these three categories of characteristics jointly create negative effects. A two-directional cause and effect relationship is proposed between the characteristics and the operational supply chain performances. The presented low-cost sourcing assessment framework should be a good starting point for low-cost sourcing assessment, including mapping a firm’s total characteristics, and for analysing their performance impact.<p>Research limitations/implications – The conducted single case study is not enough for identifying, formulating, and validating all existing relationships between the low-cost sourcing characteristics. The present study has identified the existence of the relationships but has not evaluated their levels of impact.<p>Practical implications – Managers should be aware of how suppliers in low-cost countries may affect the structures, relations, and operational supply chain performances of the supply network. This paper presents a sourcing assessment framework enabling describing what dimensions of the sourcing characteristics would be affected by sourcing to a specific area of the world and what consequences and performance effects this would have.<p>Originality/value – Few prior studies have focused on companies with already established relationships with low-cost-country suppliers and how these companies should make the best out of these supply chains. This study takes a holistic perspective on low-cost sourcing and identifies several streams for further research

Cost Affecting Factors Related to Fillet Joints

Fillet welds are by far the most frequent arc welding joint type in the fabrication industry with about 80% of all arc welded joints worldwide. Alt-hough the joint is well established, there are many aspects to consider when pro-ducing an ideal weld. This paper reveals and connects several problematic issues related to the joint type and the difficulties to fabricate a weld with correct strength, cost, and quality. Excessive welding of fillet welds is common, resulting in increased fabrication cost. There could be several causes for this; the designers do not customize the weld demand for the different stress levels and the production adds even more to handle the variation in the process. Previous studies shows that the combination of these factors can result in 100% extra weld metal, compared to what should be needed to fulfil the strength demands. Inspections are another contributor to excess welding. The capability of the weld size measurement method used by welders and inspectors is unsatisfactory. Measurement system analyses show that the scatter from the measurement system itself is in the same range as the scatter from the process. A critical summary of the current state-of-the-art is that fillet welds are hard to specify and fabricate with the right size, that the measuring method is incapable and the connection between size and strength is weak

On the origin of trisomy 21 Down syndrome

Background: Down syndrome, characterized by an extra chromosome 21 is the most common genetic cause for congenital malformations and learning disability. It is well known that the extra chromosome 21 most often originates from the mother, the incidence increases with maternal age, there may be aberrant maternal chromosome 21 recombination and there is a higher recurrence in young women. In spite of intensive efforts to understand the underlying reason(s) for these characteristics, the origin still remains unknown. We hypothesize that maternal trisomy 21 ovarian mosaicism might provide the major causative factor. Results: We used fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with two chromosome 21-specific probes to determine the copy number of chromosome 21 in ovarian cells from eight female foetuses at gestational age 14–22 weeks. All eight phenotypically normal female foetuses were found to be mosaics, containing ovarian cells with an extra chromosome 21. Trisomy 21 occurred with about the same frequency in cells that had entered meiosis as in pre-meiotic and ovarian mesenchymal stroma cells. Conclusion: We suggest that most normal female foetuses are trisomy 21 ovarian mosaics and the maternal age effect is caused by differential selection of these cells during foetal and postnatal development until ovulation. The exceptional occurrence of high-grade ovarian mosaicism may explain why some women have a child with Down syndrome already at young age as well as the associated increased incidence at subsequent conceptions. We also propose that our findings may explain the aberrant maternal recombination patterns previously found by family linkage analysis

The first encounter with a city : a case study on how entrance areas can be identified and designed in Täby

Att anlända till eller passera en stad gör intryck ‐ medvetet eller omedvetet så bidrar omgivningarna vi passerar till att påverka vår bild av staden. Mötet med staden och dess miljöer kan således fungera såväl inbjudande som avvisande beroende på utformning och hur vi tolkar den. Detta examensarbete syftar till att tydliggöra stadens entréer genom vilka det första mötet med en stad kan ske, och utgörs av en fallstudie om hur Täbys entréplatser kan identifieras. Fortsättningsvis används en av de identifierade platserna som grund för att utforma ett förslag till gestaltning som fungerar som entréposition i staden och som ger ett intryck av stadens identitet och karaktär. Arbetet innehåller även en genomförd surveyundersökning som beskriver några av de uppfattningar och åsikter som boende och besökare till Täby har om staden och dess entréer. Litteratur beskriver att målet med entréplatser är att markera övergången till staden samt att välkomna människor till staden. Här finns dessutom möjlighet att synliggöra staden, dess identitet och karaktär. Utmaningen med att förmedla en identitet är dock att uppfattningen av en plats är subjektiv, och påverkas av människors egna erfarenheter och tankar likväl som hur den fysiska miljön faktiskt ser ut. Resultatet av surveyundersökningen visar på hur vissa delar av stadens identitet uppfattas av såväl boende som besökare, shoppingcentrumet Täby Centrum och stadens omgivande natur är exempel på detta. Andra uppfattningar gav dock delade meningar, exempelvis huruvida Täby ses som en egen stad eller inte. En tydlig tendens var dessutom att de som intervjuades varken kunde peka ut positiva eller negativa platser de passerar i staden, eller platser där de kände att de var framme i staden. De entréplatser som identifierades i Täby utgjordes till stor del av trafikmässiga lösningar och bestod främst av stationer, trafikplatser samt större genomfartsleder. En av dessa trafikplatser valdes som utgångspunkt för en gestaltning vars mål förutom att utgöra en entré och visa på stadens identitet, även beskrivs av ihågkombarhet, hastighetsanpassning och säsongsdynamik. Gestaltningen fokuseras på människors instinktiva känsla av platsen och utnyttjar det omgivande landskapet för att skapa en storskalig helhetsgestaltning där vegetation står i centrum. Detta examensarbete är ett exempel på hur ett helhetsgrepp över entréerna till staden kan tas, i vilka situationer och sammanhang de kan uppstå och vad de kan förmedla för att ge förutsättningar för ett positivt intryck. Entréerna är det första vi möts av och de innehar således en möjlighet att vara det som först bjuder oss in i staden.Arriving to or passing a city makes an impression. Whether we know it or not, the environtments we pass contribute to influence our image of the city. The encounter with a city and its environments can therefore either act inviting or repelling depending on its design and how we interpret it. This master thesis discusses the city's entrances where you experience the first encounter with a city. A case study is made of how the city entrances of Täby can be identifyed. Thereafter, a design proposal is made of one of the identified entrance areas which should work as an entrance to the city and convey the identity of the city. The thesis also contains a survey study that describes how some of the people both living in and visiting Täby percieve the city and its entrances. According to literature, the intent with city entrances is to clarify the transition to the city and to generate a sense of welcoming. They also have an opportunity to present the city and its identity and character. Though, the challenge with communicating an identity is that the perception of a place is subjective and depends on people's experiences as much as on what the physical environment actually looks like. The result of the survey study shows how some parts of the identity of Täby are percieved by both inhabitants and visitors, for example the shopping centre Täby Centrum and the nature surrounding the city. Though, other images of the city was more unclear, for example whether Täby is seen as an own city or not. A clear tendency was also that the respondents could neither mention positive or negative places along the transportation routes, nor entrance areas in the city. The entrance areas identifyed in Täby consisted mainly by stations, interchanges and transit routes. The design proposal in the later part of the thesis was made on one of the interchanges. The aim with the design was to enhance a purpose of an entrance to the city and to convey the identity of the city, but also to communicate recognizability, adaptation to speed and dynamics of the season. The design is focused on peoples instinctive feelings of the place and utilizes the surrounding landscape to create a large scale design where the vegetation plays an important role. This thesis is an example of how a comprehensive approach can be taken of the city entrances, in what situations they can appear and what they can convey to give conditions for a positive impression. The entrances are the first thing we encounter and they have a chance to be what first invites us to the city

Drivers of inter-year variability of plant production and decomposers across contrasting island ecosystems

Despite the likely importance of inter-year dynamics of plant production and consumer biota for driving community- and ecosystem-level processes, very few studies have explored how and why these dynamics vary across contrasting ecosystems. We utilized a well characterized system of 30 lake islands in the boreal forest zone of northern Sweden across which soil fertility and productivity vary considerably, with larger islands being more fertile and productive than smaller ones. In this system we assessed the inter-year dynamics of several measures of plant production and the soil microbial community (primary consumers in the decomposer food web) for each of 9 years, and soil microfaunal groups (secondary and tertiary consumers) for each of 6 of those years. We found that for measures of plant production and each of the three consumer trophic levels, inter-year dynamics were strongly affected by island size. Further, many variables were strongly affected by island size (and thus bottom-up regulation by soil fertility and resources) for some years but none in others, most likely due to inter-year variation in climatic conditions. For each of the plant and microbial variables for which we had 9 years of data, we also determined the inter-year coefficient of variation (CV), an inverse measure of stability. We found that CVs of some measures of plant productivity were greater on large islands while those of other measures were greater on smaller islands; CVs of microbial variables were unresponsive to island7 size. We also found that the effects of island size on the temporal dynamics of some variables were related to inter-year variability of macroclimatic variables. As such, our results show that the inter year dynamics of both plant productivity and decomposer biota across each of three trophic levels, as well as the inter-year stability of plant productivity, differs greatly across contrasting ecosystems, with potentially important but largely overlooked implications for community and ecosystem processes

Utblicken från ett tågfönster

Att färdas med tåg är idag ett vanligt sätt att transportera sig. Under resan hinner man blicka ut genom fönstret och samtidigt skaffa sig en bild av miljön utanför. Vilket intryck vi får beror på vad vi ser utanför fönstret och kan således påverkas av hur miljön är utformad. Städer kämpar ständigt för att bli attraktiva. Vanligt är att infarter från bil-vägen planeras för att ge ett bra välkomnande och man arbetar för att ge ett bra intryck. När man istället passerar en stad i ett tåg möts man ofta av monotona industrimiljöer, parkeringar och bullerplank. Denna infart är något staden bör ta tillvara då även människor som endast passerar staden hinner bilda sig en upp-fattning om den. Syftet med denna uppsats är därför att ge förslag på hur järnvä-gens omgivande miljöer kan utformas så att tågresenärer får en ökad reseupplevelse och ett positivt intryck av staden. En litteraturstudie genomfördes för att ta reda på vilka strategier som används för biltrafikanters reseupplevelse och hur man kan anpassa dem till tågresenärer. Genom att sedan jämföra likheter mellan de båda transportsätten och hur man uppfattar omgivningen vid höga hastigheter kunde några riktlinjer sammanvävas. För att få en god reseupplevelse från ett tåg är det viktigt att tänka på variation och rytm samt att framhäva stadens identitet. En varierad resesekvens kan skapas genom att varva accenter, vilosträckor och nivåskillnader, samtidigt som siktlin-jer och landmärken kan utnyttjas för att tydliggöra identiteten. För skapa en be-haglig resesekvens med hjälp av dessa aspekter måste man tänka på vad passageraren har sett innan, vad som följer och vad den nu vill se. En fråga är viktig att ställa; var vill man lägga fokus på platsen? Litteraturstudien och egna resor resulterade i ett antal typområden som vanli-gen kantar järnvägen. Förslag på hur de kunde utformas genomfördes. Vanliga åtgärder var att tillföra eller rensa ur vegetation och använda sig av element och färg ur omgivningen på bullerplank och stängsel. Viktigt är även att öppna upp och utnyttja siktlinjer vilka även fungerar som enkla tillvägagångssätt för att ge en tydlig uppfattning av staden. Riktlinjerna som har tagits fram genom uppsatsen är generella och ses endast ur ett visuellt perspektiv med resenären i fokus. Dessa kommer senare behöva ta hänsyn till andra, ekologiska, ekonomiska och praktiska aspekter för att skapa en väl genomtänkt och hållbar miljö. Gestaltning är idag en viktig aspekt vid ny-byggnation av järnväg, där ett gestaltningsprogram ska upprättas i ett tidigt skede och sedan vara en naturlig del under planering och byggnation.A common way to travel is to go by train. During the journey we have the oppor-tunity to look through the window. What kind of impression we get depends on what we see outside. We can therefore be affected by how the environment is designed. Cities always strive to be attractive. Environments around the car road are of-ten planned with the thought of giving a good impression, but when you pass a city by train you are often met by monotonous industrial environments, parking lots and noise barriers. This is an entrance that could be better used, since it will be judged even by the people only passing the city. The aim with this thesis is therefore to give suggestions on how the environments surrounding the railroad can be designed so that the train passengers get an increased travel experience and a positive impression of the city. A literature study was made to gain knowledge about strategies that are used to improve the car passenger’s experience of the environment and how you can adapt them to the environment around the railroad. By comparing similarities between the both ways of travelling and how you experience the surroundings in high speeds, guidelines could be established. Variation and rhythm helps to give a good travel experience from a train. This can be achieved through accents, calmer parts and height differences. It is also important to promote the identity of the city by using sightlines and landmarks. In order to create a comfortable travel sequence you have to think of what the passenger have seen before, what comes next and what you now want to see. A question that is important to ask is: where do you want the focus? The literature study and personal journeys resulted in a number of example areas that usually follows the railroad and suggestions of how they could be de-signed. Common actions were to add or clear out vegetation and to use elements and colors from the surrounding on noise barriers and fences. It is also important to open up and make use of sightlines, which help to give a distinct perception of the city. The suggested guidelines in the thesis are general and can only be seen from a visual perspective with the traveler in focus. These will have to take into ac-count other, ecological, economical and practical, aspects to create a good and sustainable environment. Design is an important aspect when new railroads are built and a design program has to be established early and become a natural part during planning and construction work

Hur implementeras skyddszoner runt små vattendrag i Sverige? : en fallstudie

Riparian zones are the transition zones between aquatic and terrestrial environments. They perform numerous important ecological functions. To protect these functions, keeping riparian buffer zones when performing forestry operations around streams is a commonly used practice. In this case study, I investigated how riparian buffer zones around 119 headwaters in northern and southern Sweden are implemented using Rapid Assessment Survey (RAS). I found that 11 % of streams had 15 m. Studielokalerna i norra Sverige hade signifikant bredare buffertzoner än de i södra Sverige. Vidare indikerade resultatet på att varken storleken på bäcken eller storleken på kalhygget de flyter igenom verkar påverka vilken bredd buffertzonen ges. Trädtypssammansättning (barrträd/lövträd) av mogna träd och plantor skiljer sig mellan olika kategorier av buffertzons bredder. Resultaten visar också att mängden död ved i bäcken och skuggningen av bäcken ökar, medan mängden störningar direkt och indirekt kopplade till skogsbruk minskar med ökande bredd på buffertzonen. Kunskap om hur svenska små bäckar behandlas vid skogsbruksåtgärder, som i denna studie, kan bidra till att bedöma lokala effekter av skogsbruk på små bäckar samt kumulativa effekter på nedströms vattendrag

Generating Semantic Graph Corpora with Graph Expansion Grammar

We introduce Lovelace, a tool for creating corpora of semantic graphs. The system uses graph expansion grammar as a representational language, thus allowing users to craft a grammar that describes a corpus with desired properties. When given such grammar as input, the system generates a set of output graphs that are well-formed according to the grammar, i.e., a graph bank. The generation process can be controlled via a number of configurable parameters that allow the user to, for example, specify a range of desired output graph sizes. Central use cases are the creation of synthetic data to augment existing corpora, and as a pedagogical tool for teaching formal language theory.Comment: In Proceedings NCMA 2023, arXiv:2309.0733