Outbreak of infectious laryngotracheitis in large multi-age egg layer chicken flocks in Minas Gerais, Brazil

A recent (November 2010) outbreak of infectious laryngotracheitis (ILT) in a multi-age laying hen facility in Minas Gerais state, Brazil, is described. Previous ILT outbreak in laying hens was only notified in São Paulo state, Brazil, in 2002. In the outbreak described here, the affected population was approximately eight million hens, with flock sizes ranging from 100,000 to 2,900,000 chickens. The average mortality ranged from 1 to 6%, and morbidity was around 90% (most of the twenty seven farms of the area were positive for ILT virus). Three multi-age laying farms from one company were selected for this report. Clinical signs included prostration, dyspnea, conjunctivitis, occasional swelling of the paranasal sinuses and bloody mucous nasal discharge. Severely affected chickens presented with dyspnea, gasping and became cyanotic before death. At necropsy, these chickens had fibrinous exudate blocking the larynx and the lumen of cranial part of the trachea. In addition, conjunctivitis with intense hyperemia, edema and sinuses with caseous exudate were present. On histopathology, there were marked necrosis and desquamation of respiratory ephitelium and conjunctiva with numerous syncytial cells formation and fibrinous exudate. Moderate to marked non suppurative (especially lymphocytes and plasma cells) infiltration in the lamina propria also was observed. Sixteen out of 20 examined chickens, eosinophilic intranuclear inclusion bodies were observed in the syncytial cells. The DNA extracted from larynx and trachea produced positive PCR results for ILT virus (ILTV) DNA using formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded (FFPE) samples. Amplicons from a small region of ICP4 gene were submitted to sequencing and showed 100% identity with ILTV EU104910.1 (USA strain), 99% with ILTV JN596963.1 (Australian strain) and 91% with ILTV JN580316.1 (Gallid herpesvirus 1 CEO vaccine strain) and JN580315.1 (Gallid herpesvirus 1 TCO vaccine strain).

Scaling up stepwise feature introduction to construction of large software systems

Developing software is a difficult and error-prone activity. Furthermore, the complexity of modern computer applications is significant. Hence,an organised approach to software construction is crucial. Stepwise Feature Introduction – created by R.-J. Back – is a development paradigm, in which software is constructed by adding functionality in small increments. The resulting code has an organised, layered structure and can be easily reused. Moreover, the interaction with the users of the software and the correctness concerns are essential elements of the development process, contributing to high quality and functionality of the final product. The paradigm of Stepwise Feature Introduction has been successfully applied in an academic environment, to a number of small-scale developments. The thesis examines the paradigm and its suitability to construction of large and complex software systems by focusing on the development of two software systems of significant complexity. Throughout the thesis we propose a number of improvements and modifications that should be applied to the paradigm when developing or reengineering large and complex software systems. The discussion in the thesis covers various aspects of software development that relate to Stepwise Feature Introduction. More specifically, we evaluate the paradigm based on the common practices of object-oriented programming and design and agile development methodologies. We also outline the strategy to testing systems built with the paradigm of Stepwise Feature Introduction.

Dynamics of coherent vortices in mixing layers using direct numerical and large-eddy simulations

Coherent vortices in turbulent mixing layers are investigated by means of Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) and Large-Eddy Simulation (LES). Subgrid-scale models defined in spectral and physical spaces are reviewed. The new "spectral-dynamic viscosity model", that allows to account for non-developed turbulence in the subgrid-scales, is discussed. Pseudo-spectral methods, combined with sixth-order compact finite differences schemes (when periodic boundary conditions cannot be established), are used to solve the Navier- Stokes equations. Simulations in temporal and spatial mixing layers show two types of pairing of primary Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) vortices depending on initial conditions (or upstream conditions): quasi-2D and helical pairings. In both cases, secondary streamwise vortices are stretched in between the KH vortices at an angle of 45° with the horizontal plane. These streamwise vortices are not only identified in the early transitional stage of the mixing layer but also in self-similar turbulence conditions. The Re dependence of the "diameter" of these vortices is analyzed. Results obtained in spatial growing mixing layers show some evidences of pairing of secondary vortices; after a pairing of the primary Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) vortices, the streamwise vortices are less numerous and their diameter has increased than before the pairing of KH vortices.

Horizontal Slug Flow in a Large-Size Pipeline: Experimentation and Modeling

The knowledge of the slug flow characteristics is very important when designing pipelines and process equipment. When the intermittences typical in slug flow occurs, the fluctuations of the flow variables bring additional concern to the designer. Focusing on this subject the present work discloses the experimental data on slug flow characteristics occurring in a large-size, large-scale facility. The results were compared with data provided by mechanistic slug flow models in order to verify their reliability when modelling actual flow conditions. Experiments were done with natural gas and oil or water as the liquid phase. To compute the frequency and velocity of the slug cell and to calculate the length of the elongated bubble and liquid slug one used two pressure transducers measuring the pressure drop across the pipe diameter at different axial locations. A third pressure transducer measured the pressure drop between two axial location 200 m apart. The experimental data were compared with results of Camargo's1 algorithm (1991, 1993), which uses the basics of Dukler & Hubbard's (1975) slug flow model, and those calculated by the transient two-phase flow simulator OLGA.

Challenges in managing large-scale agile software development transformation

Adapting and scaling up agile concepts, which are characterized by iterative, self-directed, customer value focused methods, may not be a simple endeavor. This thesis concentrates on studying challenges in a large-scale agile software development transformation in order to enhance understanding and bring insight into the underlying factors for such emerging challenges. This topic is approached through understanding the concepts of agility and different methods compared to traditional plan-driven processes, complex adaptive theory and the impact of organizational culture on agile transformational efforts. The empirical part was conducted by a qualitative case study approach. The internationally operating software development case organization had a year of experience of an agile transformation effort during it had also undergone organizational realignment efforts. The primary data collection was conducted through semi-structured interviews supported by participatory observation. As a result the identified challenges were categorized under four broad themes: organizational, management, team dynamics and process related. The identified challenges indicate that agility is a multifaceted concept. Agile practices may bring visibility in issues of which many are embedded in the organizational culture or in the management style. Viewing software development as a complex adaptive system could facilitate understanding of the underpinning philosophy and eventually solving the issues: interactions are more important than processes and solving a complex problem, such a novel software development, requires constant feedback and adaptation to changing requirements. Furthermore, an agile implementation seems to be unique in nature, and agents engaged in the interaction are the pivotal part of the success of achieving agility. In case agility is not a strategic choice for whole organization, it seems additional issues may arise due to different ways of working in different parts of an organization. Lastly, detailed suggestions to mitigate the challenges of the case organization are provided.

Invenio v2.0: A Pythonic Framework for Large-Scale Digital Libraries

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Hydramata: Building a Nimble Solution with Hydra to Transcend the Institutional Repository

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Large Scale Repository Auditing to ISO 16363

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Invenio v2.0: A Pythonic Framework for Large-Scale Digital Libraries

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Open innovation model for a large company in the ICT industry: Case Ericsson LMF

Open innovation paradigm states that the boundaries of the firm have become permeable, allowing knowledge to flow inwards and outwards to accelerate internal innovations and take unused knowledge to the external environment; respectively. The successful implementation of open innovation practices in firms like Procter & Gamble, IBM, and Xerox, among others; suggest that it is a sustainable trend which could provide basis for achieving competitive advantage. However, implementing open innovation could be a complex process which involves several domains of management; and whose term, classification, and practices have not totally been agreed upon. Thus, with many possible ways to address open innovation, the following research question was formulated: How could Ericsson LMF assess which open innovation mode to select depending on the attributes of the project at hand? The research followed the constructive research approach which has the following steps: find a practical relevant problem, obtain general understanding of the topic, innovate the solution, demonstrate the solution works, show theoretical contributions, and examine the scope of applicability of the solution. The research involved three phases of data collection and analysis: Extensive literature review of open innovation, strategy, business model, innovation, and knowledge management; direct observation of the environment of the case company through participative observation; and semi-structured interviews based of six cases involving multiple and heterogeneous open innovation initiatives. Results from the cases suggest that the selection of modes depend on multiple reasons, with a stronger influence of factors related to strategy, business models, and resources gaps. Based on these and others factors found in the literature review and observations; it was possible to construct a model that supports approaching open innovation. The model integrates perspectives from multiple domains of the literature review, observations inside the case company, and factors from the six open innovation cases. It provides steps, guidelines, and tools to approach open innovation and assess the selection of modes. Measuring the impact of open innovation could take years; thus, implementing and testing entirely the model was not possible due time limitation. Nevertheless, it was possible to validate the core elements of the model with empirical data gathered from the cases. In addition to constructing the model, this research contributed to the literature by increasing the understanding of open innovation, providing suggestions to the case company, and proposing future steps.

Large-scale production and purification of recombinant protein from an insect cell/baculovirus system in Erlenmeyer flasks: application to the chicken poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase catalytic domain

A simple and inexpensive shaker/Erlenmeyer flask system for large-scale cultivation of insect cells is described and compared to a commercial spinner system. On the basis of maximum cell density, average population doubling time and overproduction of recombinant protein, a better result was obtained with a simpler and less expensive bioreactor consisting of Erlenmeyer flasks and an ordinary shaker waterbath. Routinely, about 90 mg of pure poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase catalytic domain was obtained for a total of 3 x 109 infected cells in three liters of culture

Centralized IT management using SCCM in a large multinational company

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager is a systems management product for managing large groups of computers and/or mobile devices. It provides operating system deployment, software distribution, patch management, hardware & software inventory, remote control and many other features for the managed clients. This thesis focuses on researching whether this product is suitable for large, international organization with no previous, centralized solution for managing all such networked devices and detecting areas, where the system can be altered to achieve a more optimal management product from the company’s perspective. The results showed that the system is suitable for such organization if properly configured and clear and transparent line of communication between key IT personnel exists.

Large-eddy simulation of wind flows over complex terrains for wind energy applications

Wind energy has obtained outstanding expectations due to risks of global warming and nuclear energy production plant accidents. Nowadays, wind farms are often constructed in areas of complex terrain. A potential wind farm location must have the site thoroughly surveyed and the wind climatology analyzed before installing any hardware. Therefore, modeling of Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) flows over complex terrains containing, e.g. hills, forest, and lakes is of great interest in wind energy applications, as it can help in locating and optimizing the wind farms. Numerical modeling of wind flows using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has become a popular technique during the last few decades. Due to the inherent flow variability and large-scale unsteadiness typical in ABL flows in general and especially over complex terrains, the flow can be difficult to be predicted accurately enough by using the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS). Large- Eddy Simulation (LES) resolves the largest and thus most important turbulent eddies and models only the small-scale motions which are more universal than the large eddies and thus easier to model. Therefore, LES is expected to be more suitable for this kind of simulations although it is computationally more expensive than the RANS approach. With the fast development of computers and open-source CFD software during the recent years, the application of LES toward atmospheric flow is becoming increasingly common nowadays. The aim of the work is to simulate atmospheric flows over realistic and complex terrains by means of LES. Evaluation of potential in-land wind park locations will be the main application for these simulations. Development of the LES methodology to simulate the atmospheric flows over realistic terrains is reported in the thesis. The work also aims at validating the LES methodology at a real scale. In the thesis, LES are carried out for flow problems ranging from basic channel flows to real atmospheric flows over one of the most recent real-life complex terrain problems, the Bolund hill. All the simulations reported in the thesis are carried out using a new OpenFOAM® -based LES solver. The solver uses the 4th order time-accurate Runge-Kutta scheme and a fractional step method. Moreover, development of the LES methodology includes special attention to two boundary conditions: the upstream (inflow) and wall boundary conditions. The upstream boundary condition is generated by using the so-called recycling technique, in which the instantaneous flow properties are sampled on aplane downstream of the inlet and mapped back to the inlet at each time step. This technique develops the upstream boundary-layer flow together with the inflow turbulence without using any precursor simulation and thus within a single computational domain. The roughness of the terrain surface is modeled by implementing a new wall function into OpenFOAM® during the thesis work. Both, the recycling method and the newly implemented wall function, are validated for the channel flows at relatively high Reynolds number before applying them to the atmospheric flow applications. After validating the LES model over simple flows, the simulations are carried out for atmospheric boundary-layer flows over two types of hills: first, two-dimensional wind-tunnel hill profiles and second, the Bolund hill located in Roskilde Fjord, Denmark. For the twodimensional wind-tunnel hills, the study focuses on the overall flow behavior as a function of the hill slope. Moreover, the simulations are repeated using another wall function suitable for smooth surfaces, which already existed in OpenFOAM® , in order to study the sensitivity of the flow to the surface roughness in ABL flows. The simulated results obtained using the two wall functions are compared against the wind-tunnel measurements. It is shown that LES using the implemented wall function produces overall satisfactory results on the turbulent flow over the two-dimensional hills. The prediction of the flow separation and reattachment-length for the steeper hill is closer to the measurements than the other numerical studies reported in the past for the same hill geometry. The field measurement campaign performed over the Bolund hill provides the most recent field-experiment dataset for the mean flow and the turbulence properties. A number of research groups have simulated the wind flows over the Bolund hill. Due to the challenging features of the hill such as the almost vertical hill slope, it is considered as an ideal experimental test case for validating micro-scale CFD models for wind energy applications. In this work, the simulated results obtained for two wind directions are compared against the field measurements. It is shown that the present LES can reproduce the complex turbulent wind flow structures over a complicated terrain such as the Bolund hill. Especially, the present LES results show the best prediction of the turbulent kinetic energy with an average error of 24.1%, which is a 43% smaller than any other model results reported in the past for the Bolund case. Finally, the validated LES methodology is demonstrated to simulate the wind flow over the existing Muukko wind farm located in South-Eastern Finland. The simulation is carried out only for one wind direction and the results on the instantaneous and time-averaged wind speeds are briefly reported. The demonstration case is followed by discussions on the practical aspects of LES for the wind resource assessment over a realistic inland wind farm.

Lean Innovation in Large Companies: a Case of Implementation in R&D

The main objective of the study is to evaluate the impact of Lean Innovation management philosophy on the creativity potential of the large multinational enterprise. A theory of Lean Innovation indicates that the modern company in any industry can successfully combine both waste-decreasing approach and innovative potential promotion through creativity cultivation or, at least, preservation. The theoretical part of the work covers the main factors, pros and cons of Lean thinking and Innovation management separately, along with generalized new product development overview. While the modern international market becomes more accessible for entrepreneural initiatives, small enterprises and start-ups, large international corporations are more subject to adopt the Lean Innovation approach in both operational and product development sectors due to extended resources and capabilities. Moreover, a multinational enterprise is a highly probable pioneer in Lean innovation implementation. The empirical part of the thesis refers to a case of large European enterprise, operating in many markets around the globe, that currently undergoes innovation management adjustments and implementations in product development while already have related themselves with operational process optimization process through Lean thinking. A goal of the work is to understand what kind of difficulties and consequences a large international firm faces when dealing with Lean Innovation to improve own performance, if they can be sealed for generalized approach.

Results of CHOP chemotherapy for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma treated in a University Hospital were studied from 1990 to 2001. Two treatment regimens were used: ProMACE-CytaBOM and then, from November 1996 on, the CHOP regimen. Complete remission (CR), disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS) rates were determined. Primary refractory patients and relapsed patients were also assessed. A total of 111 patients under 60 years of age were assessed and ranked according to the international prognostic index adjusted to age. Twenty (18%) of them were classified as low risk, 40 (36%) as intermediate risk, 33 (29.7%) as high intermediate risk, and 18 (16.3%) as high risk. Over a five-year period, OS and DFS rates were 71 and 59%, respectively, for all patients. For the same time period, OS and DFS rates were 72.8 and 61.3%, respectively, for 77 patients treated with CHOP chemotherapy and 71.3 and 60% for patients treated with the ProMACE-CytaBOM protocol. There was no significant difference in OS or DFS between the two groups. Eleven of 50 refractory and relapsed patients were consolidated with high doses of chemotherapy. Three received allogenic and 8 autologous bone marrow transplantation. For the latter, CR was 62.5% and mean OS was 41.1 months. The clinical behavior, CR, DFS, and OS of the present patients were similar to those reported in the literature. We conclude that both the CHOP and ProMACE-CytaBOM protocols can be used to treat diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients, although the CHOP protocol is preferable because of its lower cost and lower toxicity.