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.

Esta tesis analiza los métodos estáticos, los cuales comprenden los métodos analíticos y semi empíricos que son utilizados para determinar la capacidad de carga teórica en pilotes, y los compara con las pruebas de carga dinámica, las cuales brindan el resultado real de la capacidad de carga de un pilote. El análisis realizado recopila las teorías de Therzaghi, Hansen, Meyerhof y Bowles, en cuanto a los modelos analíticos, y las teorías de Aoki Velloso, Decourt Quaresma, Pedro Paulo Velloso y Texeira, por parte de las teorías semi empíricas. / This thesis analyzes the static methods, which include the analytical and semi-empirical methods that are used to determine the theoretical load capacity in piles, and compares them with the dynamic load tests, which provide the real result of the load capacity of a pile. The analysis compiles the theories of Therzaghi, Hansen, Meyerhof and Bowles, regarding the analytical models, and the theories of Aoki Velloso, Decourt Quaresma, Pedro Paulo Velloso and Texeira, by the semi-empirical theories. / Tesis

Software is the heartbeat of modern technology. To keep up with the new demands and expansion of requirements, changes are constantly introduced to the software, i.e., changes can also be made to fix an existing fault/defect. However, these changes might also cause further faults/defects in the software. This study aims to investigate the possible correlation between change-proneness and fault-proneness in object- oriented systems. Forty releases of five different open-source systems are analysed to quantify change- and fault-proneness; Beam, Camel, Ignite, Jenkins, and JMe- ter, then statistic evidence is presented as to answer the following: (1) Is there is a relationship between change-proneness and fault-proneness for classes in object- oriented systems? (2) Is there a relationship between size and fault-proneness for classes in object-oriented systems? and (3) Is there a relationship between size and change-proneness for classes in object-oriented systems? Using the Wilcoxon rank- sum test, the results show that: (1) there is a correlation between change- and fault- proneness at a statistically significant level and (2) a correlation also exists betweenclass size and its change- and fault-proneness at a statistically significant level.

Coworking is a shared office environment for independent workers, they offer extra service in contrast to what ordinary office-hotels normally do. The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe what the essence of the phenomenon of coworking is, i.e. what characteristics make coworking perceived as coworking. This has been conducted through a phenomenological method called the EPP-method. Which makes it possible to find the essence of a phenomenon. This was done through analysis of transcribed interviews. The participants were asked to tell about their experiences of being members of a coworking place and about the interaction with other members. This provided an opportunity to answer questions about what and how individuals perceive about coworking and what meaning they attribute to their experiences. The result of the study was several essences of coworking: Coworkers, Coworking Manager, Professional Diversity, Small Business, Social Rooms and Flexible Workspace. The essences are meaning content that has been found in all seven transcriptions in the study material, ie. that the participants agreed that these points are crucial for one to perceive coworking. / Coworking är delade kontorsmiljöer för fristående arbetare, de erbjuder extra service utöver vad vanliga kontorshotell, där man bara hyr ett arbetsrum, gör. Studiens syfte var att undersöka och beskriva vad essensen av fenomenet coworking är, alltså vilka kännetecken som gör att coworking uppfattas som just coworking. Detta har undersökts med en fenomenologisk metod som heter EPP-metoden, vilken gör det möjligt att hitta just essensen av ett fenomen. Detta skedde genom analys av transkriberade intervjuer där deltagarna ombads berätta om sina upplevelser av att vara medlemmar på ett coworking-ställe och om interaktionen med andra medlemmar. Detta gav möjlighet att besvara frågor om vad och hur individerna uppfattar coworking samt vilken mening de tillskriver sina upplevelser. Resultatet blev sex essenser av coworking: Coworkers, Coworkingmanager, Yrkesmångfald, Småföretag, Sociala rum och Flexibel arbetsyta. Essenserna är meningsinnehåll som funnits i alla transkriptioner i studiens material, det vill säga att deltagarna varit överens om att dessa punkter är avgörande för att man ska uppfatta coworking. Essensen Coworkers visar på behovet av en kollegial samvaro inom kontexten coworking. Essensen Sociala rum handlar istället om den fysiska avgränsningen mellan områden som innefattar arbete och områden för sociala interaktioner. Coworkingmanager är en essens därför att den rollen påverkar huruvida deltagarna upplever coworking positivt eller negativt. Småföretag visade oss vikten av att det finns flera mindre företag på coworking-ställen och att detta leder till Yrkesmångfald som också är en essens av coworking. Avslutningsvis var Flexibel arbetsyta en framträdande essens därför att det är avgörande att medlemmarnas olika förväntningar på en fysisk arbetsmiljö tillmötesgås. / <p>2022-06-08</p>

In the search for a sustainable and environmentally friendly energy source, artificial photosynthesis has been proposed  as a promising solution. Using water as a substrate, solar energy can be utilised to store energy in the chemical form of hydrogen fuel. In part of this global scientific effort, this thesis work focuses on enabling molecular dynamics simulations of a particular set of ruthenium centred  water oxidation catalysts. The new catalysts show great success because of a binuclear  reaction  pathway in aqueous solution which makes it very interesting to model and investigate. Utilising quantum  mechanical tools, a set of molecular mechanics force field parameters for Ru-involved bonds, angles, torsions, and partial charges was successfully obtained and examined. The work allows future large scale simulation of water  oxidation and oxygen evolution in order to gain understanding and improve artificial photosynthesis.

This thesis addresses local adaptation to climate change-induced sea level rise, taking an ethical perspective and focusing at the role of planning and the planner. The research, which has been conducted within a transdisciplinary research project, takes a bottom-up approach to applied ethics, and relies to a great extent on empirical data. In doing this, it contributes to the growing field of ethics of climate change adaptation, with results that can be of interest to both ethicists and planners. The thesis consists of an introductory chapter and three articles.  Article 1: Departing from an interview study with planners working with adaptation to sea level rise in Sweden, a typology of ethical issues is presented. It is shown that planners have to deal with input-oriented, process-oriented, and outcome-oriented ethical issues, and that knowledge of these can contribute to ethical adaptation policy.  Article 2: A method building on Value Sensitive Design (VSD) and scenario planning is developed and applied to address the challenge of integrating ethics when planning for uncertainty over long time- horizons, in the context of adaptation to sea level rise. The method consists of three steps for scenario development and three steps for value investigations. The application resulted in insights on aspects important for an ethical long-term adaptation to sea-level rise.  Article 3: Responsibility of adaptation to sea level rise is often assigned to local planners. But what does it mean to be responsible? Departing from the idea of professional virtues, three codes of ethics for planners are analysed to extract aspirational characteristics for planners. The identified virtues are put in relation to central challenges of adaptation, where five virtues stand out as central to the understanding of what it means to be responsible in adaptation to sea level rise. / Den har avhandlingen behandlar etiska aspekter i anpassning till stigan­de havsnivåer. Som en följd av klimatforändringarna stiger havsnivåer­na, vilket utsätter kustnära samhällen for stora risker. För att minimera dessa risker kan vi antingen minska våra utslapp och begransa klimatförändringarna (detta kallas på engelska for mitigation), eller så kan vi anpassa oss till förandringarna vi star inför. Anpassning till stigande hav­snivåer kan bland annat ta form av hårda skydd som murar mot havet, ekosystembaserade skydd som mangroveskogar, eller genom att flytta samhällen och människor från riskzoner, en sa kallad planerad reträtt. Det som är karakteristiskt för anpassning till stigande havsnivåer är att det i stor utsträckning handlar om ingrepp i den byggda miljön, vilket gör att anpassning till stigande havsnivåer på många sätt kan betraktas som en sorts fysisk planering. I de flesta samhällen kommer anpassning innebära en kombina­tion av insatser, och när anpassningsstrategier formuleras kommer det behövas tas hänsyn till mål- och värdekonflikter. I och med detta kan an­passning till klimatförandringarna och till stigande havsnivåer uppfattas som etisk till sin natur. En etisk analys kan bidra med att systematisera rätt och fel och bistå med verktyg for att fatta välmotiverade beslut. Trots detta har förhallandevis lite forskning inriktat sig på just etisk an­passning till stigande havsnivåer. Denna avhandling bidrar med etiska analyser av anpassning till stigande havsnivåer, med särskild inrikt­ning på lokal anpassning och planerarens roll i anpassningsprocessen. Forskningen som presenteras har genomförts inom det tvärvetenskapli­ga forskningsprojektet Sea-rims (Sustainable and ethical adaptation to rising mean sea levels) som drivs av filosofiska avdelningen på KTH till­sammans med Statens Geotekniska Institut (SGI). Projektgruppen har tillsammans med ett antal projektpartners från sydsvenska kommuner och länsstyrelser, samt en referensgrupp med representanter från myn­digheter som arbetar med anpassning till stigande havsnivåer, utforskat etiska dimensioner av de problem som projektmedlemmarna står infor. Avhandlingen kan därmed ses som ett exempel på tillampad etik, med ett tydligt nedifrån-perspektiv på de etiska frågeställningarna. / <p>QC 210519</p>

Empirical Bayes methods have been around for a long time and have a wide range of applications. These methods provide a way in which historical data can be aggregated to provide estimates of the posterior mean. This thesis revisits some of the empirical Bayesian methods and develops new applications. We first look at a linear empirical Bayes estimator and apply it on ranking and symbolic data. Next, we consider Tweedie’s formula and show how it can be applied to analyze a microarray dataset. The application of the formula is simplified with the Pearson system of distributions. Saddlepoint approximations enable us to generalize several results in this direction. The results show that the proposed methods perform well in applications to real data sets.

No description available.

States that owing to foresight and planning by Portuguese business executives, most firms in Portugal survived the difficult 1970s and 1980s and, as a consequence, are stronger in today's competitive internal and external challenges. Sets out the methodology used and gives data analysis and results in a descriptive way, with the use of explanatory tables. Closes by stating that time-based differentiation may offer new ways for firms competing in highly differentiated markets.

The objective of this study is to investigate the approaches utilised by external decision-makers in their evaluation of the different facets of performance of manufacturing organisations, operating as open systems. In process, important linkages which exist among relevant performance parameters are explored. The types and frequencies of performance measures used by the sampled Portuguese financial analysts are compared using factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. Results tend to underscore the significance of the collective performance of all subsystems of the manufacturing system. Based on the findings of this research, implications focusing on the management of organisational performance systems are identified.