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| 2. |
- Westin, Jonas, 1980-
(författare)
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Efficiency and acceptability of pricing policies and transport investments in distorted economies
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis contains five papers studying the economic efficiency and political acceptability of road pricing policies and transport investments in distorted economies. Interactions between the transport market and other distorted markets, such as the labor market, can have a large impact on the welfare effect of a road pricing policy or a transport investment. Many road pricing studies therefore try to incorporate effects from other distorted markets in the analysis. Paper I analyzes how the economic efficiency of a road toll in a distorted economy depends on assumptions about the initial tax system. In the road pricing literature, the welfare effect of a road toll is often found to depend on revenue use. Using a simple general equilibrium model paper I shows that the relative efficiency of marginal revenue recycling policies depends more on assumptions regarding inefficiencies in the initial tax system than on the road toll per se. Paper II studies the effect on welfare, equity and labor supply from a road toll in a commuting population with heterogeneous value of time and endogenous labor supply. When explicitly taking into account that commuters have different value of time, the road toll can increase total labor supply even when the revenues are not recycled back to the commuters. The analysis stresses the importance of recognizing traveler heterogeneity when analyzing congestion pricing. Road pricing policies are often characterized by conflicting interests between different stakeholders and different geographical areas. Papers III and IV study the economic efficiency and political acceptability of pricing and investment policies in different institutional and geographical settings. The main contribution of the papers is to explain how political constraints can lead to inefficient tolling strategies. The papers contribute to the existing literature on political acceptability of road pricing by analyzing the conflict and potential trade-off between political acceptability and economic efficiency. A difficulty when assessing the welfare effect of a future transport policy is also that many factors and parameters needed for the analysis are uncertain. Paper V studies the climate benefit of an investment in high speed rail by calculating the magnitude of annual traffic emission reduction required to compensate for the annualized embedded emissions from the construction of the line. The paper finds that to be able to balance the annualized emissions from the construction, traffic volumes of more than 10 million annual one-way trips are usually required, and most of the traffic diverted from other transport modes must come from aviation.
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| 3. |
- Askarieh, Galia, 1983, et al.
(författare)
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Systemic and intrahepatic interferon-gamma-inducible protein 10 kDa predicts the first-phase decline in hepatitis C virus RNA and overall viral response to therapy in chronic hepatitis C.
- 2010
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Ingår i: Hepatology. - : Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health). - 1527-3350 .- 0270-9139. ; 51:5, s. 1523-1530
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- High systemic levels of interferon-gamma-inducible protein 10 kDa (IP-10) at onset of combination therapy for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection predict poor outcome, but details regarding the impact of IP-10 on the reduction of HCV RNA during therapy remain unclear. In the present study, we correlated pretreatment levels of IP-10 in liver biopsies (n = 73) and plasma (n = 265) with HCV RNA throughout therapy within a phase III treatment trial (DITTO-HCV). Low levels of plasma or intrahepatic IP-10 were strongly associated with a pronounced reduction of HCV RNA during the first 24 hours of treatment in all patients (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.002, respectively) as well as when patients were grouped as genotype 1 or 4 (P = 0.0008 and P = 0.01) and 2 or 3 (P = 0.002, and P = 0.02). Low plasma levels of IP-10 also were predictive of the absolute reduction of HCV RNA (P < 0.0001) and the maximum reduction of HCV RNA in the first 4 days of treatment (P < 0.0001) as well as sustained virological response (genotype 1/4; P < 0.0001). To corroborate the relationship between early viral decline and IP-10, pretreatment plasma samples from an independent phase IV trial for HCV genotypes 2/3 (NORDynamIC trial; n = 382) were analyzed. The results confirmed an association between IP-10 and the immediate reduction of HCV RNA in response to therapy (P = 0.006). In contrast, pretreatment levels of IP-10 in liver or in plasma did not affect the decline of HCV RNA between days 8 and 29, i.e., the second-phase decline, or later time points in any of these cohorts. CONCLUSION: In patients with chronic hepatitis C, low levels of intrahepatic and systemic IP-10 predict a favorable first-phase decline of HCV RNA during therapy with pegylated interferon and ribavirin for genotypes of HCV.
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| 4. |
- Jenelius, Erik, et al.
(författare)
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Critical infrastructure protection under imperfect attacker perception
- 2010
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Ingår i: International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection. - : Elsevier BV. - 1874-5482 .- 2212-2087. ; 3:1, s. 16-26
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper considers the problem of allocating finite resources among the elements of a critical infrastructure system in order to protect it from antagonistic attacks. Previous studies have assumed that the attacker has complete information about the utilities associated with attacks on each element. In reality, it is likely that the attacker's perception of the system is not as precise as the defender's, due to geographical separation from the system, secrecy, surveillance, complex system properties, etc. As a result, the attacker's actions may not be those anticipated under the assumption of complete information. We present a modeling framework that incorporates imperfect attacker perception by introducing random observation errors in a previously studied baseline model. We analyze how the perceptive ability affects the attack probabilities and the defender's disutility and optimal resource allocation. We show for example that the optimal resource allocation may differ significantly from the baseline model, that a less perceptive attacker may cause greater disutility for the defender, and that increasing the investment in an element can increase the expected disutility even in a zero-sum situation.
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| 5. |
- Lagging, Martin, 1965, et al.
(författare)
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Response prediction in chronic hepatitis C by assessment of IP-10 and IL28B-related single nucleotide polymorphisms.
- 2011
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Ingår i: PloS one. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 6:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- High baseline levels of IP-10 predict a slower first phase decline in HCV RNA and a poor outcome following interferon/ribavirin therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C. Several recent studies report that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) adjacent to IL28B predict spontaneous resolution of HCV infection and outcome of treatment among HCV genotype 1 infected patients.
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| 6. |
- Lindh, Magnus, 1960, et al.
(författare)
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IL28B polymorphisms determine early viral kinetics and treatment outcome in patients receiving peginterferon/ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C genotype 1
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Viral Hepatitis. - : Wiley. - 1352-0504 .- 1365-2893. ; 18:7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) upstream of IL28B predict the outcome of treatment in chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, but their impact on viral kinetics and relation to other predictors are not well known. Here, two SNPs, rs12979860 and rs8099917, were analysed and related to early viral kinetics during treatment in 110 patients with HCV genotype 1 infection. The reduction of HCV RNA after 7days of therapy was more pronounced (P<0.0001) in patients with CC(rs12979860) or TT(rs8099917) than in patients carrying TT(rs12979860) or GG(rs8099917), respectively. The two SNPs were in linkage disequilibrium (d' =1, r2 = 0.44), but CC(rs12979860) was less common (43% vs. 71%) than TT(rs8099917). Patients carrying both CC(rs12979860) and TT(rs8099917) genotypes achieved lower levels of HCV RNA at week 4 than those with CT or TT at rs12979860 and TT(rs8099917) (P=0.0004). The viral elimination was significantly influenced by rs12979860 independently of baseline viral load, age or fibrosis. This translated into high rates of sustained viral response (SVR) among patients carrying CC(rs12979860) despite the presence of high viral load at baseline (SVR 74%), high age (SVR 79%) or severe liver fibrosis (SVR 83%). We conclude that the IL28B variability influences the antiviral efficiency of interferon/ribavirin therapy and has a strong impact on SVR, independently of traditional response predictors. A combined assessment of these SNPs in conjunction with other response predictors may better predict outcome in difficult-to-treat patients.
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| 7. |
- Liwång, Hans, et al.
(författare)
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Minimising Risk from Armed Attacks : The Effects of the Nato Naval Ship Code
- 2011. - 1
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Ingår i: Stockholm Contributions in Military-Technology 2010. - Stockholm : Försvarshögskolan. - 9789186137076 ; 2, s. 65-81
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The NATO Standardization Agency (NSA) is proposing a Naval Ship Code (NSC) that can be applied to surface naval vessels and other vessels operated by the armed forces or agencies of a state. The NSC is optional and based on, and benchmarked against, conventions and resolutions of the International Maritime Organisation.The NSC cover areas such as ship controllability, engineering systems, fire safety, evacuation, communications and navigation. The code does not include measures specifically designed to address the effects of armed attack.The covered areas in NSC are however also very important when the effects from armed attack is to be minimised. This work investigates how the NSC will effect, and interact with, measures to ensure survivability under attack. Survivability is here seen as a function of the ships susceptibility, vulnerabilityand recoverability. Based on two case studies this paper exemplifies the effect of the NSC on the vessels total safety. The case studies presented are ballistic protection on smaller naval vessels and bridge configuration to minimize effects of attacks.
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| 9. |
- Proost, Stef, et al.
(författare)
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Race to the Top in Traffic Calming
- 2014
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- We study the competition of two suburbs that are facing transit traffic flows. We show that in the absence of toll measures, the Nash equilibrium leads to a race to the top in traffic calming, except for the measures that do not affect the generalized cost of traffic. The Nash equilibrium is compared to two types of centralized decisions: the symmetric solution and the asymmetric solution. It is shown how the asymmetric solution that concentrates all transit traffic in one suburb is better but can only be realized if the authority over the local roads is transferred to the central authority.
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| 10. |
- Subramaniyam, Devipriya, et al.
(författare)
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Secretory Leukocyte Protease Inhibitor inhibits neutrophil apoptosis.
- 2011
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Ingår i: Respirology. - : Wiley. - 1440-1843 .- 1323-7799. ; Dec, s. 300-307
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- SUMMARY AT A GLANCE: Secretory leukocyte proteinase inhibitor (SLPI) is a major anti-elastase barrier at the epithelial surfaces of upper respiratory tract. Our findings indicate clear up-regulation of SLPI in response to endotoxin in nasal secretions. In addition, SLPI shows dose-dependent anti-apoptotic and chemotactic effects on primary human neutrophils. ABSTRACT: Background and objective: The Secretory Leukocyte Protease Inhibitor (SLPI) is a major anti-elastase barrier at the epithelial surfaces of upper respiratory tract. In addition to its anti-protease activity, SLPI has been shown to express anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-inflammatory properties. Methods: We measured SLPI concentration in nasal lavage fluid of healthy volunteers after challenge with endotoxin (LPS) and evaluated SLPI effects in vitro on neutrophil chemotaxis, adhesion, cytokine (IL-8) release and apoptosis. Results: SLPI concentration in nasal lavage (n = 9) 2, 6 and 24 hrs after the challenge with LPS (25 µg) increased from 32% to 238% compared to baseline (226 ± 71 ng/ml). In vitro, SLPI (20 to 80µg/ml) induced neutrophil chemotaxis (6-fold, p < 0.001) and decreased neutrophil apoptosis by 73% (p = 0.006), relative to controls. However, SLPI had no affect on IL-8 release or neutrophil adhesion to fibronectin. SLPI-positive immunoreactivity was co-localised with neutrophils in lung specimens from patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Conclusions: Our findings indicate up-regulation of SLPI in response to LPS in nasal secretions and show anti-apoptotic effects of SLPI in primary human neutrophils suggesting a new role of SLPI during neutrophilic inflammation.
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