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- Jansson, Olle, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Neither sticks nor carrots: Swedish trade union involvement in the European Semester : Case study Sweden
- 2019
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this OSE Research paper is to ascertain to what extent the social partners in Sweden are involved in the different stages of the European Semester: what do they expect (if anything) to gain from this involvement, and do they perceive that they have an influence on the outputs and outcomes of the process? By studying available written documents and conducting interviews with representatives of the trade union confederations, employer organizations and civil servants from the government’s office, we have reconstructed the involvement of the national-level social partners in the European Semester. The Swedish case is characterized by a strong institutional framework for national social dialogue as well as weak EU pressure to adapt to the European Union’s (EU) Country-specific Recommendations (CSR) or other policy recommendations emanating from the Semester. Sweden is not part of the Eurozone and the economic recovery after the great recession has been comparatively good. In terms of the geographical typology for industrial relations used in the INVOTUNES project, Sweden is one of the ‘Northern countries’, together with Denmark, Finland and Norway. Fundamental components of the Swedish model for industrial relations, together with the high unionisation rate and broad membership, are the strong status of collective agreements, workplace representatives with a mandate to negotiate, as well as the independence of the social partners from central government. The labour market is regulated by a number of principal agreements reached at the central level between employers’ organizations and trade unions. These central agreements regulate aspects including negotiation procedures, dispute procedures and development issues. In contrast to many other countries, there are no state-administered minimum wage levels in Sweden, since the social partners negotiate these key aspects. The political situation in Sweden at the time of writing is characterised by a minority government, composed of the Social Democrats and the Green party, supported by the Liberals and the Centre party (two liberal parties). The Swedish case illustrates how a strong national social dialogue and low degree of EU pressure mean that, on the one hand, the social partners have moderate to good access to the policy process and possess considerable resources which can be used to impact the European Semester. Regardless, they ultimately have limited incentives to use these tools to influence the outputs and outcomes of the policy process. So far, the outputs from the European Semester have not pushed for concrete reforms in the areas for which the social partners are mainly responsible, thus they have had few reasons to be involved in the process. Moreover, as the national social dialogue functions well, they have no interest in using the Commission to put pressure on the national government. Instead, the social partners wish to raise the awareness of the European Commission and others regarding how industrial relations function in Sweden and how beneficial this model is. The long-term goal of the social partners is to preserve their autonomy and the model of wage formation in Sweden, namely the freedom of the social partners to reach agreements through negotiations. Reaching this goal includes protecting the wage formation model from reforms at European level. Therefore, this study suggests that the social partners monitor the work related to the Semester and take action if the CSRs concern issues that are important to them. So far this has rarely been the case. When the social partners choose to become involved in the Semester, they use insider strategies, i.e. they turn to national rather than European-level actors. The Swedish government has created formal institutions for ensuring the involvement of the social partners in the Semester work. The partners have meetings with the government regularly during the Semester, while unions and employer organizations together write an annex to the National Reform Programme (NRP). For Sweden, the policy recommendations for meaningful involvement would probably call for a more focused dialogue between local and central levels within the social partner organisations. In trying to strengthen positive incentives for such dialogue, the unions would most likely need to involve the various members more actively than they do today.
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- Bäckstrand, Jenny, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Guidelines for designing a purchasing process for small businesses
- 2016
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The purpose with this paper is to contribute towards a deeper understanding of the purchasing process in SMEs. This is done by investigating general research regarding purchasing, business strategy and SMEs to create a framework of factors influencing purchasing processes in SMEs. The factors are then authenticated with an empirical study of an SME. It is concluded that all influencing factors from the framework can be applied to the SME, but that the SME tend to handle them with a short-term perspective. This paper will provide guidelines for SMEs in order to create purchasing processes with a long-term perspective, which is more integrated with their business strategy.
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- Fornes, R., et al.
(författare)
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The effect of androgen excess on maternal metabolism, placental function and fetal growth in obese dams
- 2017
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Pregnant women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are often overweight or obese. To study the effects of maternal androgen excess in obese dams on metabolism, placental function and fetal growth, female C57Bl6J mice were fed a control (CD) or a high fat/high sucrose (HF/HS) diet for 4-10 weeks, and then mated. On gestational day (GD) 15.5-17.5, dams were injected with dihydrotestosterone (CD-DHT, HF/HS-DHT) or a vehicle (CD-Veh, HF/HS-Veh). HF/HS dams had higher fat content, both before mating and on GD18.5, with no difference in glucose homeostasis, whereas the insulin sensitivity was higher in DHT-exposed dams. Compared to the CD groups, the livers from HF/HS dams weighed more on GD18.5, the triglyceride content was higher, and there was a dysregulation of liver enzymes related to lipogenesis and higher mRNA expression of Fitm1. Fetuses from HF/HS-Veh dams had lower liver triglyceride content and mRNA expression of Srebf1c. Maternal DHT exposure, regardless of diet, decreased fetal liver Pparg mRNA expression and increased placental androgen receptor protein expression. Maternal diet-induced obesity, together with androgen excess, affects maternal and fetal liver function as demonstrated by increased triglyceride content and dysfunctional expression of enzymes and transcription factors involved in de novo lipogenesis and fat storage.
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- Hadrévi, Jenny, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Plasma metabolomic patterns in patients with exhaustion disorder
- 2019
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Ingår i: Stress. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1025-3890 .- 1607-8888. ; 22:1, s. 17-26
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Exhaustion disorder (ED) is a stress-related disorder that often implies a great burden on the individual patient as well as on society. Previous studies have shown that ED is associated with metabolic deviations, such as lowered fasting glucose. Several mechanisms have been discussed as a plausible explanation of the lack of energy described by these patients. Metabolic processes and reduced ability to mobilize energy have been suggested as important factors. This study investigated metabolomics in 20 patients diagnosed with ED and compared them with 21 healthy controls. Plasma metabolic profiles were examined in both fasting and nonfasting (postprandial) conditions. Blood plasma samples were analyzed for metabolite content using gas chromatography mass spectrometry. A total of 62 different metabolites were simultaneously detected in each of the samples. Multivariate models indicated systematic differences between patients with ED and healthy controls in both their fasting and nonfasting plasma metabolite levels. Lysine and octadecenoic acid were more abundant and glutamine, glycine, serine and gluconic acid were less abundant in the patients across both conditions. In the present study, we comprehensively and simultaneously screen for changes in a large number of metabolites. Our results show a difference in systemic metabolites between patients with exhaustion disorder and healthy controls both in the fasting and in the postprandial states. Here, we present new potential biomarkers mirroring exhaustion disorder metabolism.
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- Hoffmann, Jenny M, et al.
(författare)
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BMP4 Gene Therapy in Mature Mice Reduces BAT Activation but Protects from Obesity by Browning Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue.
- 2017
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Ingår i: Cell reports. - : Elsevier BV. - 2211-1247. ; 20:5, s. 1038-1049
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We examined the effect of Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4 (BMP4) on energy expenditure in adult mature mice by targeting the liver with adeno-associated viral (AAV) BMP4 vectors to increase circulating levels. We verified the direct effect of BMP4 in inducing a brown oxidative phenotype in differentiating preadipocytes invitro. AAV-BMP4-treated mice display marked browning of subcutaneous adipocytes, with increased mitochondria and Uncoupling Protein 1 (UCP1). These mice are protected from obesity on a high-fat diet and have increased whole-body energy expenditure, improved insulin sensitivity, reduced liver fat, and reduced adipose tissue inflammation. On a control diet, they show unchanged body weight but improved insulin sensitivity. In contrast, AAV-BMP4-treated mice showed beiging of BAT with reduced UCP1, increased lipids, and reduced hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL). Thus, BMP4 exerts different effects on WAT and BAT, but the overall effect is to enhance insulin sensitivity and whole-body energy expenditure by browning subcutaneous adipose tissue.
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- Holmquist Mengelbier, Linda, et al.
(författare)
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Intratumoral genome diversity parallels progression and predicts outcome in pediatric cancer.
- 2015
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Genetic differences among neoplastic cells within the same tumour have been proposed to drive cancer progression and treatment failure. Whether data on intratumoral diversity can be used to predict clinical outcome remains unclear. We here address this issue by quantifying genetic intratumoral diversity in a set of chemotherapy-treated childhood tumours. By analysis of multiple tumour samples from seven patients we demonstrate intratumoral diversity in all patients analysed after chemotherapy, typically presenting as multiple clones within a single millimetre-sized tumour sample (microdiversity). We show that microdiversity often acts as the foundation for further genome evolution in metastases. In addition, we find that microdiversity predicts poor cancer-specific survival (60%; P=0.009), independent of other risk factors, in a cohort of 44 patients with chemotherapy-treated childhood kidney cancer. Survival was 100% for patients lacking microdiversity. Thus, intratumoral genetic diversity is common in childhood cancers after chemotherapy and may be an important factor behind treatment failure.
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