Fertilization, both in plants and animals, is at its core, a study of cell to cell communication. With respect to plants, the male gametophyte, the pollen tube, elongates within the female organ called the pistil, transporting in its cytoplasm two sperm cells. The pollen tube is attracted by signals secreted from the synergid cells that are located at the entrance to the female gametophyte that resides in the ovule. Secondary pollen tube visitors to the ovules are unwanted and repelled presumably by signals emitted by the fertilized female. The final communication between the pollen tube and female gametophyte is the induction of pollen tube rupture upon penetration of the synergid cell, an event that leads to the release of the two sperm cells, which go on to fertilize the central cell and egg cell within the female gametophyte, completing a double fertilization process that is unique to plants. My thesis research is centered on elucidating the mechanism behind the synergid cell-induced pollen tube rupture process. Studies in our laboratory have established that the synergid cell-expressed receptor like kinase, called FERONIA, mediates a highly oxidative environment in the female gematophyte that is necessary for the pollen tube rupture process. Using an in vitro pollen tube culture system, my research showed that reactive oxygen species (ROS) induces pollen tube rupture in a Ca2+-dependent manner. My results suggests a careful and truly fascinating, though still hypothetical, design of a two molecule, FERONIA and ROS, two step activation system that uses ROS to prime the pollen tube outside the synergid cell, then expose it to calcium within the synergid cell to ensure that pollen tube rupture happens in the synergid cell, enabling fertilization.

Obesity accounts for $168 billion in annual medical expenses and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and type-2 diabetes, three diseases responsible for over 50% of deaths in the United States. It is well established that the pattern of adiposity is an important factor in the relationship with disease risk and that visceral adiposity, which favors hypertrophy (characterized by enlarged cells) is more dangerous than subcutaneous adiposity, which tends to be hyperplastic (characterized by an increase in cell number). Hypertrophy is associated with inflammation and insulin resistance, and hyperplasia (adipogenesis, i.e., the formation of new adipocytes), is associated with improved insulin sensitivity. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is a potent pro-inflammatory cytokine that activates a nuclear factor-kappa B (NFKB) intracellular pathway that is an important mediator of obesity-associated insulin resistance and increased risk of type-2 diabetes. Interestingly, obesity has been positively associated with both low vitamin D status and elevated levels of TNF-alpha. Our studies focused on examining the influence of the active vitamin D hormone, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, and TNF-alpha on adipogenesis and inflammation in human primary adipocytes and determining whether the balance of these two factors influences the extent to which adipocytes accumulate lipid or express pro-inflammatory cytokines. We found no effect of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D on adipogenesis or pro-adipogenic gene expression despite a clear upregulation of a vitamin D responsive gene, 24-hydroxylase, in response to treatment with 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D. TNF-alpha clearly inhibited adipogenesis and expression of PPAR-gamma and C/EBP-alpha and enhanced expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and MCP-1, but not IL-8. There was a trend towards a dose-dependent downregulation of MCP-1 by 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D in three individuals; however, this effect was not statistically significant. While we found no interaction between TNF-alpha and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D on adipogenesis, there is a potential anti-inflammatory action of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D in human primary adipocytes. Future studies into this potential are warranted in light of the growing obesity epidemic and the interest in finding nutritionally modifiable treatment or prevention strategies to mitigate the negative consequences of obesity.

In accordance with the guidelines set forth by PBSGEO, this study aims to highlight the significance of public greenspaces within cemeteries and to propose cost-saving solutions for graveyard maintenance. This research employs a Design Science approach to examine the impact of various factors, including geospatial data, on cemetery maintenance costs. Through a case study of graveyards in Frankfurt, this thesis explores alternative solutions and presents graphical data analysis to better understand the properties of public greenspaces and graveyards. The main findings of this study indicate that effective cost estimation can significantly decrease maintenance costs and improve long-term profitability for cemetery management. While no specific model has been created, the availability of a comprehensive analysis and management portal will assist managers in making informed decisions in the future. The research concludes with the presentation of an online interactive map that can be utilized by cemetery management to reduce costs and enhance productivity. This thesis provides valuable insights into the importance of public greenspaces in cemeteries and the ways in which they can be maintained more efficiently. In addition to its exploratory analysis, this study offers practical implications for the cemetery management industry. The proposed cost-saving solutions can be easily implemented by cemetery management, leading to a reduction in maintenance costs and an improvement in the overall profitability of cemeteries. Furthermore, the findings of this study can also inform future research on the topic and contribute to the development of more sustainable cemetery management practices.

På företaget AFRY i Karlstad har en medarbetare med fika varje fredag och turordningen för detta sker i dagsläget med en Excel-fil vilket är problematiskt då inte alla har tillgång till filen och kan då inte se när det är deras tur att ta med fika, vilket resulterar i att det glöms av att ta med fika. Författaren har fått i uppdrag av AFRY att ta fram en webbaserad applikation där personalen kan se schemat för vems tur det är att ta med fika. En kravspecifikation upprättades av uppdragsgivaren tillsammans med en lista på den tekniska uppsättningen för webbapplikationen som gäller. Studiens syfte är att undersöka vilka komplikationer som uppstår vid implementationen samt hur användarna mottar applikationen. För detta har två undersökningsfrågor upprättats som ligger till grund för studien: Vad resulterar utvärderingarna i och vilka förslag till förbättring mottogs? Vilka komplikationer uppstår vid implementationen och hur har dessa lösts? Design Science Research applicerades som forskningsstrategi för studien där momenten Specificera krav, Implementering och Utvärdering användes för att skapa artefakten som det studeras kring. En agil arbetsmetod låg till grund för att föra arbetet framåt där det utvecklades i tre sprintar. Artefakten utvärderades av testpersoner som var personal hos uppdragsgivaren och det genomfördes Black Box- och Manuella tester där testpersonerna fick uttrycka och reflektera kring implementationen som utförts. Data samlades in med hjälp av strukturerade intervjuer där författaren förde anteckningar på vad som uttrycktes. Utvärderingarna resulterade i att det som implementerades saknade funktionalitet som testpersonerna efterfrågade. Flertalet data samlades in som påvisar att de krav som ställdes skulle behövt specificerats ytterligare för att uppnå högre tillfredsställelse från testpersonerna. De komplikationer som påträffades under implementationen kunde antingen lösas genom att läsa dokumentationen för teknik som användes eller att testpersonerna, som innehar mer erfarenhet än författaren, kunde lösa dessa. Slutsatsen för studien är att krav som ställs måste specificeras mer detaljrikt för att artefakten skall bli så likt användarnas bild av den som möjligt.

There is a widespread problem of cookie banners not being compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which negatively impacts user experience and violates personal data rights. To mitigate this issue, strides need to be made in violation detection to assist developers, designers, lawyers, organizations, and authorities in designing and enforcing GDPR-compliant cookie banners. In this thesis, we present a novel method and an open-source tool for automatically analyzing the GDPR compliance of cookie banners. The tool uniquely leverages large language models together with static code analysis to locate and analyze any cookie banner, using only the website address as input. Informed by the Design Science Research methodology, our research process involved interviews with GDPR legal experts and a thorough review of current literature in order to understand the problem context and define the objectives for our solution. After an initial version of the tool was created, an evaluation was performed by a GDPR legal expert. The feedback revealed that even at this early development stage, the tool approaches the capabilities of a trained eye, which illustrates its potential. Furthermore, our proposed method is generalizable and can be used under many domains to solve various problems (e.g., more generalized web scraping). However, further development and testing with the help of legal experts is required to enhance the tool's accuracy and validity.

Screening programs for cervical cancer are performed to diagnose the early stage of cancer and prevent its development. Historically, the screening test was taken every three years, but it gradually varied due to continuous changes in technology, guidelines, and a new type of test. These changes made the screening participants uncertain and worried about understanding and interpreting the meaning of various test results and frequent follow-ups. These test results are manual and time-consuming to date. The participants seek it as digital, allowing easy and fast access to information. The primary research challenge of the proposed study is to present simple and complex test history data to the participants in an easily understandable way. The proposed research helped to design an artifact (prototype) that can be utilized to develop a digital service that does not cause any uncertain worry for the participants in understanding the complex test history data. For this, the proposed thesis study used state-of-the-art visualization techniques following the guidelines of design science research.

Nowadays, the business world is characterized by complexity since market and customer requirements are changing rapidly. Based on this assumption, providers are facing the challenge of delivering software products in shorter terms while these products remain innovative. Agile software development has a huge impact on how software is developed worldwide and promises business value in short iterations. At the same time, requirements are the base of all software products, and consequently, Requirements Engineering (RE) plays one of the most important roles in system development. Traditional techniques referring to intended data do not cover the constantly increasing demands of RE and unintended data from digital sources has amplified the need for Data-Driven Requirements Engineering (DDRE). This study contributes to Computer and System Science by providing a process to combine DDRE and traditional RE approaches in Agile software development methodologies. In this study, the researcher is trying to provide a concrete solution to the lack of an effective process to address data-driven requirements in a Scrum environment organized by regular Sprints and the purpose of it is to suggest a new method for requirements elicitation based on digital data and combine them with traditional stakeholder-driven RE in a Scrum agile environment. The method intends to assist Agile professionals to elicit requirements from digital sources in combination with intended data derived from the stakeholders without impacting the main Agile practices. The approach to conduct this study is Design Science Research (DSR) and contains five steps: Explicate Problem, Define Requirements, Design and develop Artefact, Demonstrate Artefact, and Evaluate Artefact. Literature review has been conducted to explicate the research problem and define the requirements of the artefact. Then, a process and a collaboration board have been created based on the requirements to bring DDRE and traditional RE into the Scrum environment. The researcher performed a demonstration of two illustrative cases of the usage of the proposed artefact to three Scrum professionals and three semi-structured interviews were conducted to evaluate the artefact. After the evaluation, the researcher refined and presented the final artefact that will help the public and private organizations to reduce the costs and time plan on eliciting requirements, and to increase the customers’ satisfaction. The artefact has not been applied in a real Agile environment, but Requirement Engineers and Agile team members can build on the proposed method and bring the elicitation approach of DDRE closer to the software development process.

No description available.

Commercial carrot processors produce up to 175,000 tons of carrot waste annually. Carrot Mash (CM) is the term referring to the waste by-product of peeled baby carrot processing. Transportation of carrot processing waste is expensive due to its high- water content (approx. 83-95%). High in bioactive compounds (carotenoids) and dietary fibers, it is expected that its conversion into a value-added by-product is of interest to the carrot processing industry. Hemicellulose-rich plant materials have proven to be a source of oligosaccharides, which are known for their beneficial prebiotic activity. The objectives of this research were to: 1) determine the effect of mechanical treatments on the extraction of water and bioactive compounds and evaluate the functional properties of carrot mash; 2) incorporate dried carrot mash into a beef patty and evaluate changes in pH, color, cooking yield, and texture; 3) apply an enzymatic treatment to carrot mash to promote the conversion of polysaccharides to oligosaccharides for prebiotic benefits. Mechanical separation of liquid and solid fractions by way of expeller pressing was efficient in extracting liquid while simultaneously increasing total solids by nearly 200%, the extraction of carotenoids by 1000%, and polyphenol content by nearly 97%. Mechanical treatments increased the fat binding capacity on average by 183% compared to untreated mash. The addition of unpressed carrot mash or expeller pressed carrot mash increased the cooking yield of a beef patty by 3-13% without significantly changing its textural properties. Enzymatically treating the carrot mash significantly increased the concentration of oligosaccharides up to 2.3%. These results suggest that carrot processing wastes can be physically and enzymatically modified and have an immense potential to be utilized as a functional ingredient in human food rather than being landfilled, composted or used as animal feed.

[ES] La crisis económica iniciada en España en el año 2007 produjo una importante reducción de la demanda que afectó seriamente a las empresas consultoras de ingeniería españolas. Muchas de ellas optaron por iniciar un proceso de internacionalización que asegurara su continuidad, decisión que adoptaron de forma urgente y sin el tiempo necesario para adquirir conocimiento del mercado exterior y de los riesgos que conlleva la actividad internacional. Esta situación se vio agravada en el caso de las Pymes, que por su naturaleza disponen de menos recursos y capacidades para afrontar una internacionalización con garantías. Con el diseño de un modelo de madurez de internacionalización este trabajo de investigación pretende ofrecer una guía a las empresas consultoras de ingeniería que van a iniciar o han iniciado un proceso de internacionalización. El diseño del modelo está basado en: (1) el conocimiento teórico de las variables que afectan al éxito internacional en el sector de la construcción, validadas mediante entrevistas a diez empresas consultoras de ingeniería internacionalizadas; (2) los aspectos que intervienen en la expansión internacional de las empresas; y (3) los modelos de madurez más relevantes. El diseño del modelo se realiza siguiendo la propuesta del Design Science Research (DSR), en el que se somete a iteraciones de diseño y validación que incrementan su aplicabilidad. En estas iteraciones se aplican diferentes técnicas de investigación: grupo focal, prueba piloto y estudios de caso múltiple; mediante estos estudios de caso se aplica el modelo a ocho empresas consultoras de ingeniería. Estas implementaciones han permitido identificar las fortalezas y debilidades de las empresas, su nivel de madurez de internacionalización y la influencia del tamaño y experiencia internacional de las empresas en su nivel de madurez y en el valor de los índices de internacionalización. / [CA] La crisi econòmica iniciada a Espanya l'any 2007 va produir una important reducció de la demanda que va afectar seriosament les empreses consultores d'enginyeria espanyoles. Moltes d'elles van optar per iniciar un procés d'internacionalització que assegurara la seua continuïtat, decisió que van adoptar de manera urgent i sense el temps necessari per a adquirir coneixement del mercat exterior i dels riscos que comporta l'activitat internacional. Esta situació es va vore agreujada en el cas de les Pimes, que per la seua naturalesa disposen de menys recursos i capacitats per a afrontar una internacionalització amb garanties. Amb el disseny d'un model de maduresa d'internacionalització el treball de recerca pretén oferir una guia a les empreses consultores d'enginyeria que iniciaran o han iniciat un procés d'internacionalització. El disseny del model està basat en: (1) el coneixement teòric de les variables que afecten l'èxit internacional en el sector de la construcció, validades mitjançant entrevistes a deu empreses consultores d'enginyeria internacionalitzades; (2) els aspectes que intervenen en l'expansió internacional de les empreses; i (3) els models de maduresa més rellevants. El disseny del model es realitza seguint la propòsta del Design Science Research (DSR), en el qual se sotmet a iteracions de disseny i validació que incrementen la seua aplicabilitat. En estes iteracions s'apliquen diferents tècniques d'investigació: grup focal, prova pilot i estudi de casos múltiple; mitjançant estos estudis de cas, s'aplica el model a huit empreses consultores d'enginyeria. Estes implementacions han permés identificar les fortaleses i febleses de les empreses, el seu nivell de maduresa d'internacionalització i la influència de la grandària i experiència internacional de les empreses en el seu nivell de maduresa i en el valor dels índexs d'internacionalització. / [EN] The Spanish economic crisis began in 2007 and it produced a significant reduction in demand that affected Spanish engineering companies seriously. Many of them started an internationalization process to ensure their continuity, but this decision was adopted in a hurry and without enough time to acquire knowledge of the foreign market and the risks that international activity entailed. This situation was aggravated in the case of SMEs, which have fewer resources and capacities to face internationalization with guarantees. With the design of an internationalization maturity model, this research aims to offer a guide to engineering companies that are going to start or have started an internationalization process. The design of the model is based on: (1) the theoretical knowledge of the variables that affect international success in the construction sector, validated through interviews with ten internationalized engineering companies; (2) the factors involved in the international expansion of the companies; and (3) the most relevant maturity models. The design of the model is carried out following the Design Science Research (DSR) approach, in which the model is subjected to design and validation iterations that increase its applicability. In these iterations several research techniques are applied: focus group, pilot test and multiple case study; through these case studies the model is applied to eight engineering companies. These implementations have made it possible to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the companies, their level of internationalization maturity and the influence of the size and international experience of the companies on their level of maturity and on the value of the internationalization indices. / Lozano Torró, A. (2022). Modelo de madurez de internacionalización de las empresas consultoras de ingeniería españolas [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/183870 / TESIS