The aims of this project were to investigate the effect of immune complexes on mononuclear phagocytes in the presence or absence of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Mono Mac 6 (MM6) cells and human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) were used to compare the effect of chemical stimulants, cytokines and immune complexes on surface antigen expression. The same experiments were performed using HIV-infected cells to determine the effect of HIV infection on these parameters. Some of the stimulants especially IL-6, IL-10, TNF-alpha and HIV increased CD80 expressions, the effect being greater in MDM than MM6 cells. This has implications for antigen presentation. Cytokines caused the differentiation of MM6 cells and significantly increased or decreased surface antigen expressions. The MM6 cells express surface antigens at lower levels then MDM this indicates that MM6 cells need to differentiate before expressing surface antigens. The high standard deviations obtained meant that no significant change in surface antigen expression was seen in all HIV non-infected and infected MDM incubated with various immune complexes and HIV-sera. Comparing whole blood incubated with KLH and rabbit anti-human IgG showed that both seemed to produce IL-10 and IL-6 early. Only rabbit complexes stimulated TNF-a release. MDM incubated with IL-6, IL-10, and TNF-alpha showed increased expression of CD16 and CD80 only at day 3. However, HIV proteins (CHO) incubated in whole blood caused a significantly release of IL-6 at 8 hours with no detection of IL-10 and TNF-alpha. MM6 infected with HIV-1 Ba-L for 5 days showed increased expression of CD16 and CD11c, but reduced expression of the other antigens examined. Significant levels of IL-10 were released at 8 and 12 hours with a slight increase in IL-6, and TNF-alpha. HIV protein-containing (CHO) immune complexes slightly increased IL-6 secretion at 8 hours at which point, IL-10 production was high. HIV- infected cells incubated with HlV-sera showed a lack of TNF-alpha release but IL-6 and IL-10 was detected at 12 and 8 hours respectively. The detection of high levels of IL-10 and the inhibition of TNF-alpha production may stimulate progression to full blown AIDS.

Over the last decade, U.S. crop prices have become significantly more volatile. Volatile markets pose increased risks for the agricultural market participants and create a need for reliable price forecasts. Research discussed in this paper aims to find different approaches to forecast crop cash prices based on the prices of related futures contracts. Corn, soybeans, soft red winter wheat, and cotton are the focus of this research. Since price data for these commodities is non-stationary, this paper used two approaches to solve this problem. The first approach is to forecast the difference in prices between current and future period and the second is to use the regimes. This paper considers the five-year moving average approach as the benchmark when comparing these approaches. This research evaluated model performance using R-squared, mean errors, root mean squared errors, the modified Diebold-Mariano test, and the encompassing test. The results show that both the difference model and the regime model render better performance than the benchmark in most cases, but without a significant difference between each other. Based on these findings, the regime model was used to make forecasts of the cash prices of corn and soybeans, the difference model was used to make predictions for cotton, and the benchmark was used to forecast the SRW cash price. / Master of Science / This research attempts to develop models to forecast cash prices of corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton using the underlying futures prices. Two alternative approaches are proposed. The difference model focuses on forecasting the differences between current and future time prices. The regime model uses external data to determine potential structural breaks in price relationships. The out-of-sample performance of these models is compared to the benchmark of a five-year average using various performance criteria. The results show that the regime model performs better for corn and soybeans, while the difference model is the best one for cotton. For wheat, the results are mixed, but the benchmark seems to show better performance than the proposed models.

This thesis deals with the Master Data Management (MDM), specifically its implementation. The main objectives are to analyze and capture the general approaches of MDM implementation including best practices, describe and evaluate the implementation of MDM project using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Master Data Services (MDS) realized in the Czech environment and on the basis of the above theoretical background, experiences of implemented project and available technical literature create a general procedure for implementation of the MDS tool. To achieve objectives above are used these procedures: exploration of information resources (printed, electronic and personal appointments with consultants of Clever Decision), cooperation on project realized by Clever Decision and analysis of tool Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Master Data Services. Contributions of this work are practically same as its goals. The main contribution is creation of a general procedure for implementation of the MDS tool. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first (theoretically oriented) part deals with basic concepts (including definition against other systems), architecture, implementing styles, market trends and best practices. The second (practically oriented) part deals at first with implementation of realized MDS project and hereafter describes a general procedure for implementation of the MDS tool.

Mobility and using smartphones and tablets as replacement of laptops are getting to be increasingly vital for enterprises and accordingly bring new concerns from different perspective for both companies and individuals. To achieve enterprise mobility companies needs to ensure that the mobile equipment are always connected, complies with security policy in a safe and protected path toward being productivity and efficiency. To approach these purposes Mobile Device Management (MDM) was created few years back in order to not only secure enterprises information but additionally manage user’s activities and equipment. However there is no general methodology to define criteria weight for these systems and rather depends on different enterprise policy. One primary issue here is availability of many MDM solutions in market and several difficulties to compare them together and meanwhile most of comparison documents limited based on white papers of providers which mostly designed for commercial market purposes. This thesis will come up with a list of important properties for MDM solutions and evaluate several of solutions as well as categorizing all available criteria in this area. Second part of thesis is a case study of choosing proper MDM solution for two different scenarios and give recommendations on what products to utilize relying upon what sort of association you have. In order to achieve this, strong analytical methods are required to compare existing services and sharper eye from security perspective toward the applications.

During the past few years the use of mobile devices became extremely popular not only for personal use but also for working. When personal mobile devices are used as working assets the enterprises should search for some suitable ways to protect their data and network from the unmanaged mobile devices. On the other hand, it is widely believed that employees are more productive when they work from their own devices. This arise three questions: what risks these devices are bringing to the organizations, how to protect the company data and network while allowing the employees to work from their devices, and how adapted the real world is to the Bring Your Own Device trend. To answer these questions and the sub-questions deriving from them, an extensive literature study and a survey approach are used. The results from the study show that even though there are many risks for the companies, brought by the use of personal mobile devices, there exist adequate solutions to mitigate these risks. However, the results from the survey approach show that the companies are not very adapted to this trend yet and there exist a need for better understanding of the problem.

No description available.

I affärsprocesser flödar information i olika format. Verbal, skriven, dokumenterad, eller i form av databaser. Oavsett format måste informationen lagras men den måste dessutom vara tillgänglig för alla som kan ha nytta av den. När det gäller information i en processorienterad organisation måste den plats där informationen lagras också möjliggöra för flödet av den. Detta examensarbete är baserat på öppna intervjuer genomförda på Tekniska verken i Linköping (hädanefter kallat TvAB) och på Alstom Power i Växjö (hädanefter kallat Alstom). Intervjuerna syftar till att ge oss empiri för undersökningen, och även till att ge en inblick i den vardag som finns på företagen vilket förankrar studien i praktik och teori. Studien syftar till att undersöka hur processägarnas kunskap påverkar informationsflödet och spridningen av masterdata i organisationen. Vår studie visar att beroende på vem som tillfrågas skiljer sig synen på informationsflödet från processägarna. Förklaringen till denna skillnad är att processägarnas förståelse om masterdata skiljer sig från varandra. Somliga hade en grundlig förståelse för masterdata, medan andra aldrig hört ordet. Detta leder till att informationsasymmetri uppstår, ett övertag för den personen med större eller bättre förståelse för begreppet masterdata. / Information in different formats flow within business processes. It can be verbal, written or previously documented information. It can also take the shape of databases. Regardless of the format the information has to be stored but at the same time readily available for those who must use it. When it comes to information in a process oriented organization the storage facility for the information must also allow for the usage and the flow of the information itself. This paper which is based on a study conducted at Tekniska verken in Linköping and at Alstom Power in Växjö, Sweden aims to investigate how a process owner’s view on the information flow can affect the sharing of master data in an organization. Open interviews were conducted both at Tekniska verken and Alstom since no research had previously been done on the specific view of the process owner. The interviews were not solely aimed at gathering empirical data but also to give an insight into the everyday routine of the companies. This principle forms the theoretical and practical base for this study. The study shows the way a process owner views the internal flow of information is completely dependent on how well the process owner understands the term “master data”. This study also shows proof of asymmetrical information in the sense of one person having a greater understanding of master data than another. Thus, the person with the greater understanding can use this to his or her advantage.

Ställverk 85 som används av Trafikverket idag är ett signaldistributionssystem och börjar komma till slutet av sin livslängd vilket har resulterat i brist på reservdelar. Målet med det här arbetet är att identifiera de mest kritiska komponenterna i centralenheten och utdelssystemet i ställverk 85 samt utreda varför dessa komponenter felar. För att uppnå målet används det metoder som litteraturstudie, insamling av dokumentation från Trafikverket, workshop hos leverantörerna av ställverk 85 Alstom samt FMEA för att modellera fram resultat. Resultat från arbetet visar att åska är en bakomliggande orsak till att kretskorten i ställverk 85 felar för båda kretskorten som har studerats under arbetet, MDM- och TRE-kort. Utöver överspänningar vid blixtnedslag visar arbetet att transistorerna i TRE-kortet är en komponent som felar i en hög grad. För MDM-kortet finns det inte en specifik komponent som felar mer än någon annan. / Interlocking system 85, which is used by the Swedish Transport Administration today, is a signal distribution system and is coming to the end of its useful life, which has resulted in a lack of spare parts. The goal of this work is to identify the most critical components in the central unit and distribution system in interlocking system 85 and to investigate why these components fail. To achieve this goal, methods such as literature study, collection of documentation from the Swedish Transport Administration, workshop at interlocking system 85 supplier Alstom and FMEA are used to model results. Results from the work show that lightning is a major reason why the circuit boards in switchgear 85 fail for both circuit boards that have been studied during the work, MDM, and TRE boards. In addition to the lightning, the work shows that the transistors in the TRE-board are a component that fails to a great degree. For the MDM-board there is not a specific component that fails more than the other.

Connectivity provided by technology and liberation of trade have led to a globalization of organizations, affecting supply chains to expand in complexity. As a result, many organizations today have challenges of managing information in a consistent manner throughout a complex system environment. This study aims to identify the most valuable attributes of a solution for managing master data, in an efficient and consistent manner, across an extended and complex supply chain. Master data, such as products, customers and suppliers, can be defined as valuable core business information, since it is vital for supporting business operations. A requirements elicitation was performed, including interviews conducted internally with employees at IFS and externally with customers. Furthermore, a requirements analysis resulted in a specification of requirements including the most desirable attributes of a future Master Data Management (MDM) solution. Five main themes of the attributes were identified; architecture, availability and integration, governance, user interface and lifecycle management. The study contributes to the area of research, by identifying challenges and valuable attributes to consider when developing or investing in a solution for MDM.

The most common secondary structure of proteins is the alpha-helix. The alpha-helix can be involved in various protein-protein interactions (PPIs) through the recognition of three or more side chains along one face of the alpha-helix (Wells and McClendon, 2007). In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the development of peptidic and non-peptidic compounds that bind to PPI surfaces. We focused on the design and synthesis of compounds that mimic the orientation of side chain residues of an alpha-helical protein domain. Although our scaffolds could potentially inhibit various PPIs, we focused mainly on the disruption of interactions among the Bcl-2-family of proteins and the Mdm-2-family of proteins to favor apoptosis in cancer cells. A summary of Bcl-2 and Mdm-2 structure and function relationships that focuses on the possibility of using peptidic and non-peptidic alpha-helical mimics as PPI inhibitors is described in Chapter One. Chapter Two discusses the design and synthesis of 3-substituted-2,6- and 2,5-piperazinedione oligomers as more hydrophilic scaffolds compared to previously reported alpha-helical mimetics (Yin, et al., 2005). A key feature of this design is the linkage of the units by a hydrazine bond. While we were able to prepare several monomers containing the hydrazine linkage, synthesis of the dimers and trimers is very challenging. Due to the difficulty of synthesizing oligomeric piperazine-diones in practical yields, we next focused on the design and synthesis of novel 2,5-terpyrimidinylene scaffolds as an alternative to obtain alpha-helical mimetics; this is discussed in Chapter Three. The main outcome of this project was the efficient preparation of a "first-generation" non-peptidic compound library via a facile iterative synthesis enabled by the key conversion of 5-cyanopyrimidine to 5-carboxamidine. Chapter Three also discusses our progress towards the synthesis of structurally similar substituted-2,5-terpyrimidinylenes, but with more drug-like properties as determined by QikProp calculations. Chapter Four describes an independent study on the synthesis of a guanidine derivative as an alkylating agent for the synthesis of cysteine peptide nucleic acids, CPNA, which is another current project in our lab.