Large-scale and long-term planning imposes extensive requirements on governance efforts regardless of whether it involves public organisations, private organisations, or both. The proportions of such planning entangle many actors and stakeholders as system components within and around a complex system. These system components and conditions in a complex planning environment introduce a diverse variety of strategic objectives into the planning. This study investigates how strategic objectives can affect the governance of complex planning systems, particularly in the context of national critical infrastructure protection. For this purpose, this thesis concentrates on a national planning procedure, STYREL, which Sweden has recently implemented for the case of power shortages. This case involves various actors from the national, regional and local levels who act on behalf of both public and private organisations in a planning process with four-year intervals, and it thus constitutes a relevant subject for this study. The investigation entailed the collection of evidence from documents and interviews. First, publicly available Swedish documents regarding the case provided an understanding of the planning. Second, interviews with decision-makers who are entrusted with this planning at municipalities and county administrative boards as well as with a few planners from power grid providers offered a deeper comprehension of both the proceedings in practice and the strategic objectives involved in this complex system for planning of critical infrastructure protection. Particularly, the findings resulted in several conceptual models that demonstrate these understandings in more detail. A soft system model visualises the problem situation and contains several elements, such as the system components, interrelations and conditions. Moreover, a multi-level planning model specifies sources of uncertainty in the planning and decision-making process that are associated with an insufficient alignment of strategic objectives in the STYREL case. These decompositions of the Swedish planning environment – both horizontal and vertical – further enabled this study to identify significant parameters of the systemic conditions and strategic objectives involved in such complex planning environments that challenge their governance. The findings of this study suggest that the Swedish process is not yet fully developed. The investigation particularly indicates that a better alignment of strategic objectives is necessary to ensure a selection of adequate goals and means that advances the future usability of the produced plan, which in turn would legitimate and strengthen this complex planning process for critical infrastructure protection. / Storskalig och långvarig planering ställer höga krav på styrning. Detta gäller oavsett om offentliga eller privata organisationer, eller båda, är involverade. Omfattningen av en sådan planering engagerar många aktörer och intressenter som komponenter inom och omkring ett komplext system. Dessa komponenter samt deras villkor inbäddade i en komplex planeringsmiljö skapar en mångfald av strategiska målbilder som följer med in till planeringen. Denna studie undersöker därför hur strategiska målbilder kan påverka styrningen av komplexa planeringssystem, särskilt i kontexten av skyddet av kritisk infrastruktur i samhället. Undersökningen fokuserar på en nationell planeringsprocess, kallad STYREL, som avser beredskapsplanering för elbristsituationer och som implementerats i Sverige. Planeringsmiljön omkring STYREL är ett relevant studieobjekt eftersom den involverar många aktörer från nationell, regional och lokal nivå. Dessa aktörer representerar offentliga och privata organisationer i den planeringsprocess som genomförs med fyraårsintervaller. Under undersökningens gång har bevis samlats in från dokument och intervjustudier. Först har offentlig tillgängliga dokument om fallet skapat en förståelse om planeringen. Intervjuer med beslutsfattare som är ansvariga för STYREL-planeringen hos länsstyrelser, kommuner samt elnätsbolag har sedan genererat en ännu djupare förståelse. Detta gällande både förfaringssättet i praktiken och de strategiska målbilder som är involverade i detta komplexa system för planering av kritisk infrastruktur-skydd. Resultaten ledde i synnerhet till några konceptuella modeller vilka demonstrerar förståelserna på ett detaljerat sätt. En systemmodell visualiserar problemsituationen och innehåller flera element såsom systemkomponenter, relationer och villkor. En multinivå-planeringsmodell specificerar källor av osäkerhet i planerings- och beslutsprocessen vilka är associerade med en otillräcklig harmonisering av strategiska målbilder i STYREL fallet. Dekompositionerna av den svenska planeringsmiljön – både horisontellt och vertikalt – gjorde det möjligt att identifiera signifikanta parametrar av de systemiska villkor och strategiska målbilder som är involverade i dessa komplexa planeringsmiljöer och utmanar deras styrning. Resultaten av studien indikerar att den svenska processen inte är fullt utvecklat. Undersökningen visar att en bättre harmonisering av strategiska målbilder är nödvändig för att säkerställa ett urval av adekvata mål och medel som skulle utveckla den framtida användbarheten av den producerade planen. Denna skulle i sin tur legitimera och stärka den komplexa planeringsprocessen för skyddet av kritisk infrastruktur. Därtill kunde detta främja en målgruppsorienterad kommunikation om risker och relevanta åtgärder. / <p>Vid tidpunkten för framläggningen av avhandlingen var följande delarbeten opublicerade: delarbete 1 under granskning, delarbete 3 under granskning.</p><p>At the time of the defence the following papers were unpublished: paper 1 under review, paper 3 under review.</p>

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / A Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) is designed to manage laboratory processes and data. It has the ability to extend the core functionality of the LIMS through configuration tools and add-on modules to support the implementation of complex laboratory workflows. The purpose of this project is to demonstrate how laboratory data and processes from a complex workflow can be implemented using a LIMS. Genomic samples have become an important part of the drug development process due to advances in molecular testing technology. This technology evaluates genomic material for disease markers and provides efficient, cost-effective, and accurate results for a growing number of clinical indications. The preparation of the genomic samples for evaluation requires a complex laboratory process called the precision aliquotting workflow. The precision aliquotting workflow processes genomic samples into precisely created aliquots for analysis. The workflow is defined by a set of aliquotting scheme attributes that are executed based on scheme specific rules logic. The aliquotting scheme defines the attributes of each aliquot based on the achieved sample recovery of the genomic sample. The scheme rules logic executes the creation of the aliquots based on the scheme definitions. LabWare LIMS is a Windows® based open architecture system that manages laboratory data and workflow processes. A LabWare LIMS model was developed to implement the precision aliquotting workflow using a combination of core functionality and configured code.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Heat is one of the most important factors in our atmosphere for precipitation (thunderstorm) formation. Thermal energy from local urban land-cover is also a common source of heat in the lower atmosphere. This phenomenon is known as the urban heat island effect (UHI) and is identified as a substantial cause to a changing climate in surface weather modification. The proceeding study investigates this connection between the UHI and surface weather using remote sensing platforms A ten-year analysis of the Indianapolis UHI and thunderstorms were studied from the summer months of May, June, July, August and September (MJJAS) from 2002 until 2011. LANDSAT space borne satellite technology and land-surface based weather radar technology was used in this analysis for thunderstorm investigation. Precipitation areas identified from land-based NEXRAD WSR-88D technology were used to identify convection from non-synoptic forcing and non-normal surface diurnal heating scenarios. Only convection appearing from the UHI were studied and analyzed. Results showed twenty-one events over eighteen days with the year 2005 and 2011 having the largest frequency of events. The month of August had the largest concentration with seven events during the late afternoon hours. UHI results showed July had the largest heat island magnitude with April and September having the lowest magnitude in UHI temperatures. Three events of the twenty-one storm paths did not had a significant mean temperature difference in the heat island below the storm reflectivity. The nineteen storm paths that were significant had a warmer area underneath storm path development by an average 6.2°C than surrounding areas. UHI initiation points showed twelve of the twenty-one events having statistically significant differences between 2 km initiation areas and the rest of the study areas. Land-cover results showed low intensity developed areas had the most land-cover type (48%) in the 2km initiation buffer regions.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Urban forestry is a very important element of urban structures that can improve the environment and life quality within the urban areas. Having an accurate classification of urban forests and grass areas would help improve focused urban tree planting and urban heat wave mitigation efforts. This research project will compare the use of high – resolution aerial imagery and LiDAR data when used to classify canopy and grass areas. The high – resolution image, with 1 – meter resolution, was captured by The National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) on 6/6/2012. Its coordinate system is the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83). The LiDAR data, with 1.0 – meter average post spacing, was captured by Indiana Statewide Imagery and LiDAR Program from 03/13/2011 to 04/30/2012.The study area is called the Near East Side Community Organization (NESCO) neighborhood. It is located on the east side of downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. Its boundaries are: 65 interstate, East Massachusetts Avenue, East 21st Street, North Emerson Avenue, and the rail road tracks on the south of the East Washington Street. This research will also perform the accuracy assessment based on the results of classifications using high – resolution aerial imagery and LiDAR data in order to determine and explain which method is more accurate to classify urban canopy and grass areas.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Identifying spatial and temporal patterns of disease occurrence by mapping the residential locations of affected people can provide information that informs response by public health practitioners and improves understanding in epidemiological research. A common method of locating patients at the individual level is geocoding residential addresses stored in electronic medical records (EMRs) using address matching procedures in a geographic information system (GIS). While the process of geocoding is becoming more common in public health studies, few researchers take the time to examine the effects of using different address databases on match rate and positional accuracy of the geocoded results. This research examined and compared accuracy and match rate resulting from four commonly-used geocoding databases applied to sample of 59,341 subjects residing in and around Marion County/ Indianapolis, IN. The results are intended to inform researchers on the benefits and downsides to their selection of a database to geocode patient addresses in EMRs.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Over the past two decades, northern parts of the United States have experienced extreme heat conditions. Some of the notable heat wave impacts have occurred in Chicago in 1995 with over 600 reported deaths and in Philadelphia in 1993 with over 180 reported deaths. The distribution of extreme heat events in Indianapolis has varied since the year 2000. The Urban Heat Island effect has caused the temperatures to rise unusually high during the summer months. Although the number of reported deaths in Indianapolis is smaller when compared to Chicago and Philadelphia, the heat wave in the year 2010 affected primarily the vulnerable population comprised of the elderly and the lower socio-economic groups. Studying the spatial distribution of high temperatures in the vulnerable areas helps determine not only the extent of the heat affected areas, but also to devise strategies and methods to plan, mitigate, and tackle extreme heat. In addition, examining spatial patterns of vulnerability can aid in development of a heat warning system to alert the populations at risk during extreme heat events. This study focuses on the qualitative and quantitative methods used to measure extreme heat events. Land surface temperatures obtained from the Landsat TM images provide useful means by which the spatial distribution of temperatures can be studied in relation to the temporal changes and socioeconomic vulnerability. The percentile method used, helps to determine the vulnerable areas and their extents. The maximum temperatures measured using LST conversion of the original digital number values of the Landsat TM images is reliable in terms of identifying the heat-affected regions.