Scaling Up Deliberative Democracy as Dispute Resolution in Healthcare Reform: A Work in Progress

Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) denotes the problem of jointly localizing a moving platform and mapping the environment. This work studies the SLAM problem using a combination of inertial sensors, measuring the platform's accelerations and angular velocities, and a monocular camera observing the environment. We formulate the SLAM problem on a nonlinear least squares (NLS) batch form, whose solution provides a smoothed estimate of the motion and map. The NLS problem is highly nonconvex in practice, so a good initial estimate is required. We propose a multi-stage iterative procedure, that utilises the fact that the SLAM problem is linear if the platform's rotations are known. The map is initialised with camera feature detections only, by utilising feature tracking and clustering of  feature tracks. In this way, loop closures are automatically detected. The initialization method and subsequent NLS refinement is demonstrated on both simulated and real data

Climate variability and grain production in Scania, 1702-1911

Scania (Skane in Swedish), southern Sweden, offers a particularly interesting case for studying the historical relationship between climate variability and grain production, given the favorable natural conditions in terms of climate and soils for grain production, as well as the low share of temperature-sensitive wheat varieties in its production composition. In this article, a contextual understanding of historical grain production in Scania, including historical, phenological, and natural geographic aspects, is combined with a quantitative analysis of available empirical sources to estimate the relationship between climate variability and grain production between the years 1702 and 1911. The main result of this study is that grain production in Scania was primarily sensitive to climate variability during the high summer months of June and July, preferring cool and humid conditions, and to some extent precipitation during the winter months, preferring dry conditions. Diversity within and between historical grain varieties contributed to making this risk manageable. Furthermore, no evidence is found for grain production being particularly sensitive to climate variability during the spring, autumn, and harvest seasons. At the end of the study period, these relationships were shifting as the so-called early improved cultivars were being imported from other parts of Europe. Finally, new light is shed on the climate history of the region, especially for the late 18th century, previously argued to be a particularly cold period, through homogenization of the early instrumental temperature series from Lund (1753-1870)

The impact of drought on northern European pre-industrial agriculture

Drought has been hypothesized to be the main agrometeorological threat facing farmers in Scania (southern Sweden) before the 20th century. However, drought is a little-studied phenomenon in Scandinavian historiography. This article attempts to establish a chronology of extreme agricultural droughts, as well as their impacts on crop harvests and grain prices across Scania during the years 1614-1914, using a combination of statistical methods. Drought years significantly reduced crop harvests in nearly all analyzed samples. However, winter crops appeared more resilient when considering the years following a drought, as these crops experienced a large and significant rebound effect. Spring and fodder crops suffered losses in drought years and did not exhibit any clear rebound in subsequent years. For some spring crops, like barley, harvest losses showed signs of persistence into the years following a drought. There were significant increases in grain prices during drought years. Farms more specialized in grain production suffered similar losses as more diversified farms but were able to recover losses to a greater extent in the year following a drought, thus appearing to have been less vulnerable to droughts than more diversified farms, especially if they were able to capitalize on the grain price hikes that occurred during most drought years. Even though droughts remain one of the most prominent threats to agriculture in the region, the vulnerability to drought in winter rye and winter wheat appears to have been reduced throughout Scania in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Climatic signatures in early modern European grain harvest yields

The association between climate variability and grain harvest yields has been an important component of food security and economy in European history. Yet, inter-regional comparisons of climate-yield relationships have been hampered by locally varying data types and the use of different statistical methods. Using a coherent statistical framework, considering the effects of diverse serial correlations on statistical significance, we assess the temperature and hydroclimate (precipitation and drought) signatures in grain harvest yields across varying environmental settings of early modern (ca. 1500-1800) Europe. An unprecedentedly large network of yield records from northern (Sweden), central (Switzerland), and southern (Spain) Europe are compared with a diverse set of seasonally and annually resolved palaeoclimate reconstructions. Considering the effects of different crop types and time series frequencies, we find within regions consistent climate-harvest yield associations characterized by a significant summer soil moisture signal in Sweden, winter temperature and precipitation signals in Switzerland, and spring and annual mean temperature signals in Spain. The regional-scale climate-harvest associations are weaker than the recently revealed climate signals in early modern grain prices but similar in strength to modern climate-harvest relationships at comparable spatial scales. This is a noteworthy finding considering the uncertainties inherent in both historical harvest and palaeoclimate data

Comparative Hybrid Hartree-Fock-DFT Calculations of WO2-Terminated Cubic WO3 as Well as SrTiO3, BaTiO3, PbTiO3 and CaTiO3 (001) Surfaces

We greatly acknowledge the financial support via the ERAF Project No. 1.1.1.1/18/A/073. Calculations were performed using Latvian Super Cluster (LASC), located in the Center of Excellence at Institute of Solid State Physics, the University of Latvia, which is supported by European Union Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-Teaming Phase 2 under Grant Agreement No. 739508, project CAMART.We performed, to the best of our knowledge, the world’s first first-principles calculations for the WO2-terminated cubic WO3 (001) surface and analyzed the systematic trends in the WO3, SrTiO3, BaTiO3, PbTiO3 and CaTiO3 (001) surface ab initio calculations. According to our first principles calculations, all WO2 or TiO2-terminated WO3, SrTiO3, BaTiO3, PbTiO3 and CaZrO3 (001) surface upper-layer atoms relax inwards towards the crystal bulk, while all second-layer atoms relax upwards. The only two exceptions are outward relaxations of first layer WO2 and TiO2-terminated WO3 and PbTiO3 (001) surface O atoms. The WO2 or TiO2-terminated WO3, SrTiO3, BaTiO3, PbTiO3 and CaTiO3 (001) surface-band gaps at the Γ–Γ point are smaller than their respective bulk-band gaps. The Ti–O chemical bond populations in the SrTiO3, BaTiO3, PbTiO3 and CaTiO3 bulk are smaller than those near the TiO2-terminated (001) surfaces. Conversely, the W–O chemical bond population in the WO3 bulk is larger than near the WO2-terminated WO3 (001) surface.---//---This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.ERAF Project No. 1.1.1.1/18/A/073; Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART²

On the Relationship Between Iterated Statistical Linearization and Quasi-Newton Methods

This letter investigates relationships between iterated filtering algorithms based on statistical linearization, such as the iterated unscented Kalman filter (IUKF), and filtering algorithms based on quasi-Newton (QN) methods, such as the QN iterated extended Kalman filter (QN-IEKF). Firstly, it is shown that the IUKF and the iterated posterior linearization filter (IPLF) can be viewed as QN algorithms, by finding a Hessian correction in the QN-IEKF such that the IPLF iterate updates are identical to that of the QN-IEKF. Secondly, it is shown that the IPLF/IUKF update can be rewritten such that it is approximately identical to the QN-IEKF, albeit for an additional correction term. This enables a richer understanding of the properties of iterated filtering algorithms based on statistical linearization.Comment: 4 page

Knowledge sharing and the physical environment - A day at work in Activity Based Workplace

Dybdebasert master, 120 studiepoeng. Spesialisering økonomi.Dette er en masteroppgave i form av en kvalitativ studie med intervju og observasjoner i bedriften Eidsiva Bredbånd på Lillehammer. Studien besvarer følgende problemstilling: Hvordan påvirkes kunnskapsdeling av den fysiske organiseringen på arbeidsplassen? Kunnskap anses av mange som det eneste varige konkurransefortrinn. Denne studien ser på hvordan den fysiske organiseringen påvirker kunnskapsdelingen. Studien gir dermed et bidrag til hva som påvirker kunnskapsdeling, kunnskapsledelse og gir et bidrag i valget når en organisasjon skal organisere seg – enten det er et nybygg eller om det er omstrukturering av eksisterende kontorfasiliteter. Eidsiva Bredbånd ble valgt som informasjonskilde da de har over lengre tid jobbet med Activity Based Workplace (ABW) og er kjent i regionen for deres arbeide med dette. Informantene ble valgt tilfeldig i organisasjonen og ble intervjuet i løpet av en dag i hovedkontoret til Eidsiva Bredbånd på Lillehammer. Vi har kategorisert dataene i tre hovedkategorier; kunnskapsdeling, fysisk og teknisk infrastruktur som fremmer kunnskapsdeling og samhandling og sosialisering. Denne kategoriseringen brukte vi for å se på hvilken måte Eidsiva Bredbånd har organisert seg på en som fremmer eller hemmer kunnskapsdeling. Hovedfunnene viser at fysisk organisering kan hemme eller fremme kunnskapsdeling i en organisasjon, men at kunnskapsdelingen også er avhengig av andre faktorer som fokus fra ledelsen, kultur for kunnskapsdeling, og tillitt internt i organisasjonen. Fysisk organisering er en viktig faktor, men bare en av flere. Helt konkret viser funnene at Eidsiva Bredbånd har organisert seg på en slik måte at de nyter godt av høy grad av kunnskapsdeling – dette er et funn vi mener er overførbart til andre organisasjoner. Studien bidrar til å forklare hvordan den fysiske organiseringen påvirker kunnskapsdelingen og derved organisasjonens prestasjoner. Studien øker forståelsen for ABW og kan bidra til beslutninger hva angår organisasjoners fysiske organisering og vil kunne gi økt innsikt i hvordan en kan tilrettelegge for kunnskapsdeling. Forskning på det fysiske rommet og dets påvirkning på mennesker kan utfordre hvordan organisasjoner er satt sammen i dag og på den måten revurdere det gamle organisasjonskartet.Engelsk sammendrag (abstract) This is a master thesis as a qualitative study with interviews and observations in Eidsiva Bredbånd in Lillehammer, Norway. The following question is answered: How does the physical organization of the workplace affect knowledge sharing? Knowledge is by many considered to be the only lasting competitive advantage. This research examines how the physical organization is affecting the sharing of knowledge and thus contributing in theory on knowledge sharing, and knowledge management and gives input to organizations considering a new form of physical workplace – be it a new building or restructuring existing facilities. Eidsiva Bredbånd was chosen as source of information due to their work with Activity Based Workplace (ABW) over a long period of time and they are renowned for this work in the region. The informants where randomly selected and they were interviewed during the course of one day in the main office of Eidsiva Bredbånd in Lillehammer. The results are categorized in three main categories; knowledge sharing, physical and technical infrastructure enhancing knowledge sharing and interaction and socialization. These categories were used to analyze how Eidsiva Bredbånd has chosen to organize itself and if their physical workspace promotes or inhibits knowledge sharing. The main findings suggest that how the physical organization is arranged play a vital role in knowledge sharing, but knowledge sharing is also dependent on other factors such as involvement from leadership, a culture for knowledge sharing, and trust within the organization - making physical organization an important factor, but not the only one. Specifically, this research shows that Eidsiva Bredbånd is organized in such a way that they have a high degree of knowledge sharing -these findings are transferable to other organizations. The study contributes to explaining how the physical organization impacts knowledge sharing and thereby the achievements of the organization. Understanding ABW is further explored and may contribute to decisions regarding the physical environment and insight in how knowledge sharing is facilitated. Research on the physical space and its impact on humans can challenge the view on organizations and how they are organized today

The Ordinary Weight conjecture and Dade's Projective Conjecture for p-blocks with an extra-special defect group

Let $p$ be a rational odd prime number, $G$ be a finite group such that $|G|=p^am$, with $p \nmid m$. Let $B$ be a $p$-block of $G$ with a defect group $E$ which is an extra-special $p$-group of order $p^3$ and exponent $p$. Consider a fixed maximal $(G, B)$-subpair $(E, b_E)$. Let $b$ be the Brauer correspondent of $B$ for $N_G(E, b_E)$. For a non-negative integer $d$, let $k_d(B)$ denote the number of irreducible characters $\chi$ in $B$ which have $\chi(1)_p=p^{a-d}$ and let $k_d(b)$ be the corresponding number of $b$. Various generalizations of Alperin's Weight Conjecture and McKay's Conjecture are due to Reinhard Knorr, Geoffrey R. Robinson and Everett C. Dade. We follow Geoffrey R. Robinson's approach to consider the Ordinary Weight Conjecture, and Dade's Projective Conjecture. The general question is whether it follows from either of the latter two conjectures that $k_d(B)=k_d(b)$ for all $d$ for the $p$-block $B$. The objective of this thesis is to show that these conjectures predict that $k_d(B)=k_d(b)$, for all non-negative integers $d$. It is well known that $N_G(E, b_E)/EC_G(E)$ is a p^'-subgroup of the automorphism group of $E$. Hence, we have considered some special cases of the above question.The unique largest normal $p$-subgroup of $G$, $O_p(G)$ is the central focus of our attention. We consider the case that $O_p(G)$ is a central $p$-subgroup of $G$, as well as the case that $O_p(G)$ is not central. In both cases, the common factor is that $O_p(G)$ is strictly contained in the defect group of $B$.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Challenges of Producing Software Bill Of Materials for Java

Software bills of materials (SBOM) promise to become the backbone of software supply chain hardening. We deep-dive into 6 tools and the accuracy of the SBOMs they produce for complex open-source Java projects. Our novel insights reveal some hard challenges for the accurate production and usage of SBOMs

Hypotension during transsphenoidal pituitary surgery associated with increase in plasma levels of brain injury markers

BACKGROUND: Patients undergoing pituitary surgery may experience short- and long-term postoperative morbidity. Intraoperative factors such as hypotension might be a contributing factor. Our aim was to investigate the association between intraoperative hypotension and postoperative plasma levels of tau, neurofilament light (NfL), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) as markers of perioperative brain injury. METHODS: Between June 2016 and October 2017, 35 patients from the Gothenburg Pituitary Tumor Study were included. For tau, NfL, and GFAP, concentrations were measured in plasma samples collected before and immediately following surgery, and on postoperative days 1 and 5. The difference between the highest postoperative value and the value before surgery was used for analysis (∆taupeak , ∆NfLpeak , ∆GFAPpeak ). Intraoperative hypotension was defined as the area under the curve of an absolute threshold below 70 mmHg (AUC70) and a relative threshold below 20% (AUC20%) of the baseline mean arterial blood pressure. RESULTS: Plasma tau and GFAP were highest immediately following surgery and on day 1, while NfL was highest on day 5. There was a positive correlation between AUC20% and both ∆taupeak (r2  = .20, p < .001) and ∆NfLpeak (r2  = .26, p < .001). No association was found between AUC20% and GFAP or between AUC70 and ∆taupeak , ∆NfLpeak or ∆GFAPpeak . CONCLUSION: Intraoperative relative, but not absolute, hypotension was associated with increased postoperative plasma tau and NfL concentrations. Patients undergoing pituitary surgery may be vulnerable to relative hypotension, but this needs to be validated in future prospective studies