| 1. |
- Ashman Kröönström, Linda, 1982, et al.
(author)
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Long-term self-reported health and disability after COVID-19 in public employees.
- 2022
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In: BMC public health. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2458. ; 22:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Although the symptomatology has been assessed in multiple studies among persons recovering from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), less is known regarding long-term general health and disability. We aimed to assess long-term self-reported disability in public employees after predominantly mild COVID-19 in comparison with individuals who had negative COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test results.Public employees within Region Västra Götaland were offered tests to identify SARS-CoV-2 infection (n=56,221) and were invited to complete an online survey that included the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule. Questionnaires were sent out between January 26 and March 5, 2021. A total of 14,222 (25.3%) employees responded, of which 10,194 (18%) were included (women n=8749, 85.8%). Of these, 7185 (70.5%) participants had a negative PCR test result (controls). A total of 1425 (14%) had a positive PCR result and were categorized in the sub-acute phase (4-12weeks post COVID-19), and 1584 (15.5%) had a positive PCR test and were categorized in the post COVID-19 phase (>12weeks).Fifty-two percent of controls rated disability of varying degrees, versus 73% and 64% of participants in the sub-acute and post COVID-19 phase, respectively. Being "emotionally affected" was the most frequently reported disability in the sub-acute phase, the post COVID-19 phase, as well as in controls. The proportion of participants reporting difficulties for 20-30days was higher in the sub-acute phase than in the post COVID-19 phase (27.9% vs. 21.8%, p<0.001) as well as in a comparison between participants in the post COVID-19 phase and controls (21.8% vs 14.2%, p<0.001). Compared with controls, severe disability was more common in the post COVID-19 phase among both women (15.8% vs. 10.7%,), and men (9.8% vs. 6.8%).Disability was present in all groups; however, reported disability was greater in the sub-acute phase than in the post COVID-19 phase. The higher levels of disability reported in the COVID-19 patient population may indicate a persisting need for rehabilitation and recovery. In general, women reported a greater degree of disability than men in the sub-acute and post COVID-19 phases.
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| 2. |
- Larsson, Simon, 1982, et al.
(author)
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Contextualizing negative attitudes to wildlife and wildlife governance in the moral economy of Swedish farmers
- 2022
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In: Frontiers in Conservation Science. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2673-611X. ; 3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Conflicts over managing large carnivores have been prominent in Sweden in recent decades. The most significant controversies are related to wolves, but the bear, lynx, and wolverine are also included. While the state and environmental organizations make efforts to guarantee a viable population of the large protected carnivores, farmers generally have a negative attitude towards large carnivores and a low level of trust in wildlife governance. Based on 22 in-depth interviews, 37 telephone questionnaires with Swedish farmers, and an analysis of 111 applications for protective hunting, this paper aims to demonstrate how these farmers’ perspectives on large carnivores can be explained by moral (sense of right and wrong) and moral economy (a system of obligations related to values and relations intervening with political views and financial decisions). The paper argues that farming, in addition to being an economic activity, is integrated with values, heritage, and relations to other human beings and animals. Farmers understand these values to be threatened by large carnivores, especially by wolves. The paper contextualizes negative sentiments, conflicts, protests, and also illegal hunting of large carnivores in relation to a sense of morals, sense of fairness, meanings, traditions, and mechanisms of daily life. We argue that this perspective provides a lens through which to interpret the conflict between farmers on the one side and the state and animal rights activists on the other. Such interpretation has consequences for understanding the legitimacy of government, shifting the focus from the processes of political governance (predominant in liberal political philosophy) to legitimacy tied to collective notions of social goods.
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| 3. |
- Larsson, Simon, et al.
(author)
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Reviewing electricity production cost assessments
- 2013
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In: Renewable & sustainable energy reviews. - : Elsevier BV. - 1364-0321 .- 1879-0690. ; 30, s. 170-183
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A thorough review of twelve recent studies of production costs from different power generating technologies was conducted and a wide range in cost estimates was found. The reviewed studies show differences in their methodologies and assumptions, making the stated cost figures not directly comparable and unsuitable to be generalized to represent the costs for entire technologies. Moreover, current levelized costs of electricity methodologies focus only on the producer's costs, while additional costs viewed from a consumer perspective and on external costs with impact on society should be included if these results are to be used for planning. Although this type of electricity production cost assessments can be useful, the habit of generalizing electricity production cost figures for entire technologies is problematic. Cost escalations tend to occur rapidly with time, the impact of economies of scale is significant, costs are in many cases site-specific, and country-specific circumstances affect production costs. Assumptions on the cost-influencing factors such as discount rates, fuel prices and heat credits fluctuate considerably and have a significant impact on production cost results. Electricity production costs assessments similar to the studies reviewed in this work disregard many important cost factors, making them inadequate for decision and policy making, and should only be used to provide rough ballpark estimates with respect to a given system boundary. Caution when using electricity production cost estimates are recommended, and further studies investigating cost under different circumstances, both for producers and society as a whole are called for. Also, policy makers should be aware of the potentially widely different results coming from electricity production cost estimates under different assumptions.
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| 4. |
- Aksouh, F., et al.
(author)
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STUDY OF THE O-15(2p,gamma)Ne-17 CROSS SECTION BY COULOMB DISSOCIATION OF Ne-17 FOR THE rp PROCESS OF NUCLEOSYNTHESIS
- 2014
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In: Acta Physica Polonica, Series B.. - 1509-5770 .- 0587-4254. ; 45:2, s. 229-234
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The O-15(2p, gamma)Ne-17 cross section has been studied by the inverse reaction, the Coulomb dissociation of Ne-17. The experiment has been performed at the GSI. The Ne-17 excitation energy prior to decay has been reconstructed by using the invariant-mass method. The preliminary differential and integral Coulomb dissociation cross sections (sigma(Coul)) have been extracted, which provide a photoabsorption (sigma(photo)) and a radiative capture cross section (sigma(cap)). Additionally, important information about the Ne-17 nuclear structure will be obtained. The analysis is in progress.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Bennett, Juliana, 1992, et al.
(author)
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Addressing the Swedish large carnivore controversy : identifying roadblocks in collaborative governance to reduce conflict
- 2022
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In: Frontiers in Conservation Science. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 2673-611X. ; 3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In Europe, and many places throughout the world, the return, and preservation of large carnivores is escalating tensions between stakeholder groups, as well as between local actors and authorities. In Sweden, despite policies aimed at reducing conflict surrounding wildlife management, tensions seem to have intensified. This research investigates the collaborative governance model within Swedish wildlife management and what dampens the capacity to reduce ongoing tensions. In-depth interviews were conducted with stakeholders at different levels of wildlife management. Through an abductive approach combining empirical data from interviews and theories from the human-wildlife conflict and collaborative governance literature, we problematize the role of regional wildlife managers in this multilevel governance context, in exploration of ways to advance collaboration. Our model analyzes the challenges for wildlife managers to implement government policies based on broad international conventions while remaining accountable to local concerns. The results reveal that issues within the governance structure and relationships within management in terms of lack of legitimacy, trust, and participation, need to be addressed to create a socially viable collaborative governance regime capable of managing conflict.
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| 7. |
- Boholm, Åsa, 1953, et al.
(author)
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What is the problem? A literature review on challenges facing the communication of nanotechnology to the public
- 2019
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In: Journal of nanoparticle research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1388-0764 .- 1572-896X. ; 21:4
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Ethical and societal issues concerning justice, safety, risks, and benefits are well-established topics in the discourses of nanotechnology innovation and development. That nanotechnology innovation should be socially and ethically responsible is generally accepted by scientists, policymakers, regulators, and industry, and the idea of public involvement and communication is part and parcel of the conceptualization of responsible technology development. This paper systematically reviews the social science research literature accumulated between 2002 and 2018 on the communication of nanotechnology. A critical and constructivist perspective on policy problems guides the analysis. Two questions are asked of this literature: what problems are identified regarding the communication of nanotechnology to the public? How can these problems be managed and/or resolved? Three different problem themes are identified: the public, societal institutions, and nanotechnology itself. While for some identified problems, there are corresponding solutions; in other instances, there is little alignment between problems and solutions. In conclusion, the paper recommends that in communicating nanotechnology to the public: (i) the objectives of communication should be defined; (ii) previous research should be used responsibly; (iii) communication strategies should be adapted to the context; and (iv) effort should not be spent trying to develop a generic framework for communication.
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| 8. |
- Chen, Jingjing, 1982, et al.
(author)
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An Energy Efficient 56 Gbps PAM-4 VCSEL Transmitter Enabled by a 100 Gbps Driver in 0.25 µm InP DHBT Technology
- 2016
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In: Journal of Lightwave Technology. - 0733-8724 .- 1558-2213. ; 34:21, s. 954-4964
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Datacenters demand higher speed VCSEL-based optical interconnects at low power consumption. As a potential technology enabler, this paper presents a wide bandwidth and energy efficient multilevel PAM VCSEL driver implemented in an InP 0.25 μm double heterojunction bipolar transistor (DHBT) technology. The operational bandwidth of the driver is verified and error-free electrical data transmission up to 56 Gbps PAM-2 and 100 Gbps PAM-4 is demonstrated at a driver energy consumption less than 2 pJ/bit. The driver is integrated and tested with an in-house fabricated 850 nm VCSEL. Error-free 56 Gbps PAM-4 optical transmission at a transmitter energy consumption of 3.7 pJ/bit is demonstrated without equalization. This is the highest data rate reported for an integrated PAM-4 modulated VCSEL transmitter, while being the most energy efficient above 40 Gbps operation. Moreover, the VCSEL driver offers a pre-emphasis feature at PAM-2 operation for improved link throughput and receiver sensitivity.
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| 9. |
- Hanna, Atieh, et al.
(author)
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Deliberative safety for industrial intelligent human-robot collaboration: Regulatory challenges and solutions for taking the next step towards industry 4.0
- 2022
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In: Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing. - : Elsevier BV. - 0736-5845 .- 1879-2537. ; 78
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In previous scholarly literature, safety is understood as a main obstacle for introducing human-robot collaboration in industrial production. This interdisciplinary paper is concerned with the safety and regulation of human-robot collaboration and contribute to this debate through a case study of stakeholders in Sweden, exploring the views of the involved stakeholders which is largely absent in previous research literature. The case study concludes that while stressing some potential benefits, stakeholders within the industry are generally reluctant to human-robot collaboration. Current regulation and safety standards are understood to be one of the prominent obstacles to such solutions. Based on the perspectives of the stakeholders as well as an analysis of current regulation and safety standards, the paper identifies the following problems with current regulation: (i) existing categories and conceptualizations used to guide safety evaluation are problematic, (ii) intelligence and autonomous aspects of collaborative systems are not sufficiently addressed, (iii) current standards do not enable evaluation of the trade off between safety, efficiency and flexibility, and (iv) the regulation has a lack of focus on active safety and using the control system as a safety measure.In an attempt to address these identified problems, the difference between traditional collaborative robots and intelligent human-robot collaboration is analyzed in the paper and a new safety approach is suggested, called Deliberative safety, which allows the humans and robots to switch between different safety measures based on the need for flexibility or efficiency to reach production goals. While considering system performance, we propose a taxonomy to better support the design of deliberative safety as well as five safety measures to use in a deliberative safety approach. These measures include available measures like perimeter safety, zone safety and reactive safety to more advanced measures like planned and active safety, and when used together, they can enable intelligent human-robot collaboration.
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| 10. |
- Lai, I. H, et al.
(author)
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A unique tetrameric structure of deer plasma haptoglobin – an evolutionary advantage in the Hp 2-2 phenotype with homogeneous structure
- 2008
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In: FEBS Journal. - 1742-4658 .- 1742-464X. ; 275, s. 981-993
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Similar to blood types, human plasma haptoglobin (Hp) is classified intothree phenotypes: Hp 1-1, 2-1 and 2-2. They are genetically inheritedfrom two alleles Hp 1 and Hp 2 (represented in bold), but only theHp 1-1 phenotype is found in almost all animal species. The Hp 2-2protein consists of complicated large polymers cross-linked by a2-bsubunits or (a2-b)n (where n ‡ 3, up to 12 or more), and is associatedwith the risk of the development of diabetic, cardiovascular and inflammatorydiseases. In the present study, we found that deer plasma Hpmimics human Hp 2, containing a tandem repeat over the a-chain basedon our cloned cDNA sequence. Interestingly, the isolated deer Hp ishomogeneous and tetrameric, i.e. (a-b)4, although the locations of )SHgroups (responsible for the formation of polymers) are exactly identicalto that of human. Denaturation of deer Hp using 6 m urea under reducingconditions (143 mm b-mercaptoethanol), followed by renaturation,sustained the formation of (a-b)4, suggesting that the Hp tetramers arenot randomly assembled. Interestingly, an a-chain monoclonal antibody(W1), known to recognize both human and deer a-chains, only binds tointact human Hp polymers, but not to deer Hp tetramers. This impliesthat the epitope of the deer a-chain is no longer exposed on the surfacewhen Hp tetramers are formed. We propose that steric hindrance playsa major role in determining the polymeric formation in human and deerpolymers. Phylogenetic and immunochemical analyses revealed that theHp 2 allele of deer might have arisen at least 25 million years ago. Amechanism involved in forming Hp tetramers is proposed and discussed,and the possibility is raised that the evolved tetrameric structure of deerHp might confer a physiological advantage.
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