A notion of morphological modularity is often implicit in systematics and paleontology. Indeed, the perception of morphological modularity is manifested in the very existence of anatomy, comparative anatomy, and taxonomy as disciplines, and provides a rational basis for treating organic diversity as a combinatorial problem in development.

Community detection is a topic in network theory that involves assigning labels to nodes based on some distance measure or centrality index. Detecting communities within a network can be useful to perform information condensation. In this thesis we explore how to use the approach for pedagogical purposes, and more precisely to condense and visualise the networks of facts, concepts and procedures (also called Knowledge Components (KCs)) that are offered in higher education programmes. In details, we consider one of the most common quantities used to evaluate the goodness of a community classification, which is the concept of modularity. Detecting communities by computing the maximum possible modularity indexes is indeed usually desired, but this approach is generally unavailable because the associated optimisation problem is NP-complete. This is why practitioners use other algorithms, that instead of computing the optimum they rely on various heuristics to find communities: some use modularity directly, some start from the entire graph and divide it repeatedly, and some contain random elements. This thesis investigates the trade-offs of using different community detection algorithms and variations of the concept of modularity first in general terms, and then for the purpose of identifying communities in knowledge graphs associated to higher education programmes, which can be modelled as directed graphs of KCs. We discover, tweaking and applying these algorithms both on synthetic but also field data that the Louvain algorithm is among the better algorithms of those that we considered, which is mostly thanks to its efficiency. It does not produce a full hierarchy, however, so we recommend Fast Newman if hierarchy is important.

In the pursuit of excellence industrial companies are increasingly employing production system development to rationalize their processes. One such approach that has been employed to great extend in the automotive industry is that of introducing modularity to the product design. This shift from integral products to modular ones, is associated with a higher level of standardization of parts and processes. However, researchers are still mapping out this correlation. As the connection between modularity and the recorded effects is still up for discussion, still fewer studies have been made on how to most effectively adopt modularisation. This thesis is therefore a research that explores the relationship between product design and production from a perspective of production system development. It is a collaborative study conducted with a manufacturer of industrial robots that is preparing to transition from an integral product design to a modular one. The case study utilizes discrete – event simulation to model the impact of such a changeover in the production system. Not resulting in a step-by-step how-to guide, the study nevertheless shows that discrete – event simulation can prove to be a valuable asset both when analysing what-if scenarios and when pinpointing pre-emptive measures in order to mitigate any negative disruption such a transition might initially bring.

This is a master’s thesis project of 30 credits written with guidance from the Swedish research institute ICT Viktoria and Industrial Ecology at KTH. This thesis is conducted by two students at KTH, one with a background in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Ecology and the other with a background in Energy and Environmental Technology. This study focuses on circular economy linked to the furniture industry in Sweden and how the transition from theoretical to practical concepts can be improved. The methods of this thesis consist of three semi-structured interviews, a survey and an analytical comparative literature review. The interviews, survey and literature review is analyzed with the purpose of finding important criteria relevant for office chairs in circular business models. The interviews are performed face-to-face with three different key persons; an office supply manager, a CEO at a refurbishing company and a product manager. The study focuses on product design within the Swedish furniture industry although some aspects regarding circular business models, logistics and psychological values are included. The results are design criteria for office chairs in circular business models and a design evaluation program for the industry built on these. The program, based on multi criteria analysis, can help reduce the gap between theory and practice of how circular economy should be implemented in the industry. By giving early feedback during the design phase on how well an office chair and a company’s structure meet circular economy criteria the authors hope to ease and speed up this transition. The main characteristics of an office chair designed for circular business models are: Durable Easy to service Adaptable Modular Homogeneous material composition in modules Although the transition to circular business models can be a comprehensive process the authors believe that if furniture manufacturers would integrate circular business models for office chairs into their business structure this would be both economically viable and highly beneficial for their environmental profile which can strengthen their position on the market.

This study investigates product development of complex products in a modular environment at the paver manufacturer Dynapac. It is determined how the complexity of a modular product constrains product development.Product development in a modular enviornment is a popular research topic in previous literature. However there is limited literature regarding in what ways the complexity of a modular product constrains product development in form of new product variants demanded by the market. A more comprehensive research within this field is interesting for manufacturing companies producing complex products in a modular environment since it could ease and optimize their product development processes. An efficient product development process is crucial to stay competitive and to be able to serve the market rapidly with qualitative and desired products, which increases the importance of this study.With the aim to address the limitations of the existing literature on product development based from modular complex product systems a case study was conducted. The constraints of developing a new paver model demanded by the market caused by the complexity of the paver design were identified.The findings of the research have both theoretical and managerial implications. The theoretical contribution consists mainly of the identification of a new type of overall constraints in modular complex product systems which I call ‖architectural functional constraints‖. These constraints cause an unexpected chain reaction of affected modules in the product system when a change to one module is made, even if the change ostensibly only should affect the module in question. The results show that the effects of this type of constraints is a constraining factor on product development of new product variants in a modular environment. The effects of the architectural functional constraints constrain product development since they trigger time consuming activities in order to avoid a dysfunctional product, or a product that has a high level of commonality with other product offerings. Further the effects oppose a rapid and cost-efficient product development which is regarded to be two of the main benefits with modularity.The managerial implications include a decision process for new product development projects that can be used when architectural functional constraints are found in a product in order to ensure an economic sustainable development of new product variants. Hence managers can use the decision process as a tool to both make and communicate current and future decisions in a structured way.The study is a starting point for further studies investigating how the complexity of modular products might constrain product development efforts. It is expected that the results of the study can be used by other manufacturing companies operating in a similar context, producing complex product systems in a modular environment.

Due to a growing interest in communication in today’s society the demand for equipment that is used in communication networks increases while the competition between companies that produce this equipment grows. To meet the increasing demand and at the same time having a competitive product development many companies use some effective product design, such as the modular product design. When a modular product design is used it’s good to compare different module configurations for a certain product and to simplify these comparisons some tool can be used. This work examines the design and development of a tool that visualize information about different modular plans in a web interface. The focus of the work is on the storage and processing of data to be presented and also the software architecture, namely the back-end of the tool. The front-end consists of a web interface that is developed and described in another thesis. Different techniques to store data are examined and data models are developed. A multitier architecture, more precisely three tiers, is used in the tool where the three tiers are one tier for the data storage, one tier for the processing of data and one for the web interface. A relational database is used as data storage and to process data the programing language Java is used. To communicate between the web interface and the tier that process data a RESTful API is used.

Bakgrund: På samma sätt som fordonsindustrin uppfyller kundens behov medhjälp av ett kundanpassat utbud bestående av standardiserade moduler, finnsdet intresse hos konsultbolag att använda modularitet för att standardisera ochkundanpassa tjänster. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att utforska fördelar, nackdelar och risker med attanvända tjänstemodularitet för konsulttjänster från både kundens ochleverantörens perspektiv, samt undersöka vilka konsekvenser tjänstemodularitetkan medföra. Metod: En explorativ fallstudie genomfördes och med teoretisk tematisk analysidentifierades fördelar, nackdelar och risker med att använda tjänstemodularitetför konsulttjänster. Vidare analys gjordes för att undersöka vilka konsekvensertjänstemodularitet medför. Datainsamlingen har bestått av primärdata frånintervjuer och sekundärdata från observationer och dokument. Resultat: Studien resulterade i två teman, sex subteman och 25 koder. Studienpåvisar flertalet fördelar, nackdelar och risker med tjänstemodularitet förkonsulttjänster, från både kundens och leverantörens perspektiv. Fördelar,nackdelar och risker vägdes samman för att beskriva konsekvenser somtjänstemodularitet medför. Slutsats: Studiens slutsats är att tjänstemodularitet kan bli ett effektivt sätt attkombinera kundanpassning och standardisering, förutsatt att funna nackdelaroch risker hanteras. De nackdelar och risker är i många fall kopplade direkt ellerindirekt till de funna fördelarna och utmaningarna som nackdelar och riskermedför kan leda till fördelar om dom hanteras rätt. Originalitet: Studien bidrar med ökad förståelse kring tjänstemodularitet förkonsulttjänster. Detta genom att belysa nackdelar och risker medtjänstemodularitet ur både kunds- och leverantörsperspektiv. / Background: In the same way that the automotive industry meets thecustomer's needs with the help of a customized range consisting of standardizedmodules, there is an interest in consulting companies to use modularity tostandardize and customize services. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to explore the advantages, disadvantages,and risks of using service modularity for consulting services from both thecustomer's and the supplier's perspective, and to investigate the consequencesof service modularity. Methodology: An exploratory case study was conducted and with theoreticalthematic analysis the advantages, disadvantages, and risks of using servicemodularity for consulting services were identified. Further analysis wasperformed to investigate the consequences of service modularity. The datacollection consisted of primary data from interviews and secondary data fromobservations and documents. Result: The study resulted in two themes, six subthemes, and 25 codes. Thestudy reveals several advantages, disadvantages, and risks of service modularityfor consulting services, from both the customer's and the supplier's perspective.Advantages, disadvantages, and risks were weighed together to describe theconsequences of service modularity. Conclusion: The study concludes that service modularity can be an effectiveway to combine customer customization and standardization if disadvantagesand risks are addressed. The disadvantages and risks are in many cases linkeddirectly or indirectly to the advantages found and the challenges thatdisadvantages and risks entail can lead to advantages if they are handledcorrectly. Originality: The study contributes to an increased understanding of servicemodularity for consulting services. This is done by highlighting disadvantagesand risks with service modularity from both a customer and supplierperspective.

The world and its economy is going through countless and significant changes. Intangible assets are one of these changes due to the economy and the society have a higher demand for information than before. Nevertheless, tangible assets are still important assets within the economy since no economy will function without tangible assets. Intangible assets and tangible assets can contribute to that a business is gaining competitive advantages and thereby, increasing the level of profits. The focal study has been performed at Sweco Environment AB and aims to investigate how intangible assets and tangible assets contribute to increased gross profits within a specific service industry, where a modular product can be implemented. A modular product wasinvestigated in order to find differences and similarities which can affect a business’ opportunities to generate increased gross profit. The focal study is limited to a modular product and a specific industry, where it can be applied. In order to perform the focal study, scientific articles, books and reports have been utilised to form a foundation of the theoretical framework. The theoretical framework consists of sustainability, modularity and economics. Subsequently, a combination of a qualitative and quantitative research has been conducted. The qualitative research included observations and semi-structured interviews with experienced participants within the field. The quantitative research contained archival records with annual financial statements and balance sheets of private corporations within the Swedish market. The archival records were used in order to perform the econometric analysis. The results from the observations and interviews demonstrated a holistic picture of the nonmodular product and the modular product. The main differences were found within the process from customer order to utilisation and the leasing option for the modular product. The econometric analysis which was performed in the specific service industry indicated that tangible assets were not statistically significant meanwhile, intangible assets were statistically significant. A 1 % increase in intangible assets contribute to 0.088 % increase in gross profit per employee. By investing in intangible assets does not only contribute to increased gross profits, it can also lead to competitive advantages.

We provide explicit equations for moduli spaces of Drinfeld shtukas over the projective line with Γ(N), Γ_1(N) and Γ_0(N) level structures, where N is an effective divisor on P^1 . If the degree of N is big enough, these moduli spaces are relative surfaces. We study how the moduli space of shtukas over P^1 with Γ_0(N) level structure, Sht^{2,tr}(Γ_0(N)), can be used to provide a notion of motivic modularity for elliptic curves defined over function fields. Elliptic curves over function fields are known to be modular in the sense of admitting a parametrization from a Drinfeld modular curve, provided that they have split multiplicative reduction at one place. We conjecture a different notion of modularity that should cover the curves excluded by the reduction hypothesis. We use our explicit equations for Sht^{2,tr}(Γ_0(N)) to verify our modularity conjecture in the cases where N = 2(0) + (1) + (∞) and N = 3(0) + (∞).

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / A popular non-invasive brain activity measurement method is based on the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Such data are frequently used to study functional connectivity (FC) defined as statistical association among two or more anatomically distinct fMRI signals (Friston, 1994). FC has emerged in recent years as a valuable tool for providing a deeper understanding of neurodegenerative diseases and neuropsychiatric disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease and autism. Information about complex association structure in high-dimensional fMRI data is often discarded by a calculating an average across complex spatiotemporal processes without providing an uncertainty measure around it. First, we propose a non-parametric approach to estimate the uncertainty of dynamic FC (dFC) estimates. Our method is based on three components: an extension of a boot strapping method for multivariate time series, recently introduced by Jentsch and Politis (2015); sliding window correlation estimation; and kernel smoothing. Second, we propose a two-step approach to analyze and summarize dFC estimates from a task-based fMRI study of social-to-heavy alcohol drinkers during stimulation with avors. In the first step, we apply our method from the first paper to estimate dFC for each region subject combination. In the second step, we use semiparametric additive mixed models to account for complex correlation structure and model dFC on a population level following the study's experimental design. Third, we propose to utilize the estimated dFC to study the system's modularity defined as the mutually exclusive division of brain regions into blocks with intra-connectivity greater than the one obtained by chance. As a result, we obtain brain partition suggesting the existence of common functionally-based brain organization. The main contribution of our work stems from the combination of the methods from the fields of statistics, machine learning and network theory to provide statistical tools for studying brain connectivity from a holistic, multi-disciplinary perspective.