Employment subsidies - A fast lane from unemployment to work?

The treatment effect of a Swedish employment subsidy is estimated using exact covariate-matching and instrumental variables methods. Our estimates suggest that the programme had a positive treatment effect for the participants. We also show how non-parametric methods can be used to estimate the time profile of treatment effects as well as how to estimate the effect of entering the programme at different points in time in the unemployment spell. Our main results are derived using matching methods. However, as a sensitivity test, we apply instrumental variables difference-in-difference methods. These estimates indicate that our matching results are robustEvaluation; employment subsidies; exact covariate-matching

Increased usage of biofuels in road transports : a policy assessment

The Swedish road transport sector relies almost completely on fossil fuels. In 2007, as much as 96 percent of the total sales of fuels was made up of petrol and diesel, while at the same time the share of total emissions of greenhouse gases in Sweden that came from road transports amounted to close to 30 per cent. Sweden is by no means worse off than any other European country in these respects. In order to address the questions of high oil dependence and CO2 emissions the European Commission has proposed a reinforcement of the legislative framework, with a 10 percent minimum for the market share of biofuels in 2020. Furthermore, the proposed target is binding for the member states, unlike the current voluntary target of 5.75 percent by 2010. More than doubling the usage of biofuels in only a bit more than a decade will most likely not be possible without policy interventions. One of the most important policies in place in Sweden today to promote biofuels is a tax exemption on these fuels. The tax exemption is however a costly measure resulting in more than a 1.3 billion SEK reduction in government revenues each year. The size of this foregone revenue of course increases with the increase in usage of biofuels. Much due to this the Swedish Energy Agency together with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency have suggested that the proposed 10 percent target should be met by introducing a binding quota system for the sales of biofuels, while at the same time abolishing the tax exemption. This thesis investigates the short run effects of this proposal on the market for fuel. Since a large part of the thesis is dedicated to constructing the simple partial equilibrium model used for the policy analysis, the development of the model can also be seen as an objective in itself. The analysis shows, just as economic theory would predict, that using price incentives as a policy intervention in the market for vehicle fuels (tax exemption) to increase the usage of biofuels, leads to uncertainty in weather the target will be met or not. Whether or not the policy measure is cost efficient depends on how, and in relation to what, the cost efficiency is measured. As it is interpreted in this thesis, the tax exemption is indeed a cost efficient measure to increase the usage of biofuels. Furthermore, the thesis shows that were the government to intervene on the fuel markets by an administrative measure (a quota), the target fulfillment would be high whereas the cost efficiency low. Moreover, the cost for promoting biofuels would in this scenario very likely be paid directly by the consumers.Det svenska oljeberoendet i vägtransportsektorn är nästintill totalt. År 2007 utgjordes 96 procent av drivmedelsförsäljningen av bensin och diesel. Samtidigt är vägtransporternas andel av växthusgasutsläppen i Sverige varje år mellan 25 och 30 procent. Situationen i Sverige påminner om den i de övriga EU-länderna och som en åtgärd för att minska såväl transportsektorns oljeberoende som dess klimatpåverkan har EU-kommissionen föreslagit att 10 procent av sektorns bränsleförbrukning i varje enskilt medlemsland ska täckas av biodrivmedel år 2020. Målet om 10 procent ska vara bindande, till skillnad från det frivilliga mål om 5.75 procent som gäller fram till år 2010. En ökning av biodrivmedelsanvändningen av denna storleksordning väntas inte ske utan statlig inblandning. Ett av de viktigaste ekonomiska styrmedlen i Sverige idag för att öka biodrivmedelns marknadsandel är en skattebefrielse för dessa drivmedel. Skattebefrielsen innebär dock ett årligt skattebortfall på mer än 1,3 miljarder kronor för staten och en ökning av biodrivmedlens marknadsandel ökar självfallet belastningen på statsfinanserna. Därför har Energimyndigheten och Naturvårdsverket föreslagit att EU-kommissionens tioprocentsmål ska uppnås genom att ett kvotsystem för biodrivmedel införs samtidigt som skattebefrielsen avskaffas. Denna uppsats beskriver de kortsiktiga effekterna på den svenska drivmedelsmarknaden av en sådan förändring av styrmedlen. Då en stor del av uppsatsen ägnas åt att först härleda den partiella jämviktsmodell över drivmedelsmarknaden som senare används för analysen kan även konstruktionen av modellen ses som ett syfte i sig. Analysen visar, i likhet med vad som förväntas enligt ekonomisk teori, att en politisk styrning av drivmedelsmarknader för en ökad användning av biodrivmedel med hjälp av ett rent ekonomiskt instrument, skattebefrielse för biodrivmedel, leder till osäkerhet i måluppfyllnad men att den förändring som ändå uppstår sker på ett kostnadseffektivt sätt. Att istället påverka marknaden genom ett administrativt, eller reglerande styrmedel (en kvot) visar sig tvärt om resultera i en god måluppfyllelse men till vad som riskerar att vara högre samhällsekonomiska kostnader än nödvändigt. De stora förlorarna på ett kvotsystem skulle vara drivmedelskonsumenterna som tvingas betala avsevärt mycket mer för sitt drivmedel

The Photovoltaic Crisis and the Demand-side Generation in Spain

The RES-E promotion policy in Spain gave priority to the photovoltaic (henceforth, PV) ground-mounted installations. For years, the coupling of customer-side generation coupled with excess energy exports was never specifically considered. However, some months ago this option was suggested as a way to recover the Spain��s PV sector from the current moratorium on the RES-E policy. A decree draft on on-site generation was issued, its central point being the consideration of electricity exports as delayed consumption rights. But several barriers hinder its entry into force. Unfortunately, Spain could be losing an important opportunity for encouraging PV investments while retail grid parity is being reached. This working paper analyzes the different types of PV demand-side generation from the point of view of consumer-generators and evaluates the economic and technical features of the regulation proposed in Spain and to date still pending

Asymmetric Cerebral Blood Flow in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment: Possible Relationship to Further Cognitive Deterioration

To explore patterns of cerebral blood flow in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), who (1) eventually deteriorate into overt dementia, with no particular focus on the type of dementia, or (2) do not appear to further deteriorate in their cognitive functions

Возможности радикального лечения варикотромбофлебита на фоне варикозной болезни и трофических язв

КОНЕЧНОСТИ НИЖНЕЙ ЯЗВАТРОМБОФЛЕБИТ /ХИРВАРИКОЗНАЯ ЯЗВАВАРИКОЗНОЕ РАСШИРЕНИЕ ВЕН /ОС

Heavy and Toxic Metals and Nutrients in Separate Places in the River Bregalnica (Eastern Macedonia)

Through a small scale of geochemical and geoecological research through the flow of the river Bregalnica, this paper will present the information about the character of the waters of the river, the level of presence of hard and toxic metals, nutrients and the amount of organic contamination. These researches will define the condition and the presence of Fe, Mn, Pb, Zn, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, cyanides, detergents, organic contaminators in separate measurement locations through the flow of the river Bregalnica. During the realization of these researches, the first thing was the approach to determine the required geochemical monitoring through the flow of the river Bregalnica. When the conditions of the waters of the river Bregalnica are considered from the aspect of presence of hard and toxic metals, it can be stated that all the measured parameters are under the allowed concentrations with the exception of Arsenic and Manganum which showed higher concentrations in separate measurement locations. key words : Heavy and toxic metals, Cyanides, Nutrients, Organic contaminators, River Bregalnica

Incidence and risk factors for suicide and attempted suicide following a diagnosis of hematological malignancy.

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked Files. This article is open access.Solid tumors are associated with an increased risk of suicide, however, there is limited detailed information on the risk of suicide in patients with hematological malignancies. Therefore, we conducted a population-based study including 47,220 patients with hematological malignancies (diagnosed 1992-2006) and their 235,868 matched controls to define the incidence and risk factors for suicide and suicide attempt. Information on suicides, suicide attempts, and preexisting psychiatric disorders was obtained from Swedish registers and individual medical records. There was a twofold increased (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.9, 95% confidence interval 1.5-2.3, P < 0.0001) risk of suicide/suicide attempt during the first 3 years after diagnosis in patients with hematological malignancies compared to matched controls. Of all hematological malignancies, multiple myeloma was associated with the highest risk (HR = 3.4; 2.3-5.0, P < 0.0001). Patients with a preexisting psychiatric disorder were at a very high risk of suicide and suicide attempt (HR = 23.3; 16.6-32.6, P < 0.0001), regardless of type of hematological malignancy. Among patients who committed suicide, 19% were in a palliative phase and 44% were in remission with no active treatment. In conclusion, the risk of suicide and suicide attempt is elevated in patients with hematological malignancies. Certain high-risk patients may benefit from early detection and preventive measures.Swedish Cancer Society CAN 2012/483 regional agreement on medical training and clinical research (ALF) between Stockholm County Council and Karolinska Institutet 20120004 Adolf H Lundin Charitable Foundation Blodcancerfonde

Utilization of convolutional neural networks for HI source finding: Team FORSKA-Sweden approach to SKA Data Challenge 2

Context. The future deployment of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) will lead to a massive influx of astronomical data and the automatic detection and characterization of sources will therefore prove crucial in utilizing its full potential. Aims. We examine how existing astronomical knowledge and tools can be utilized in a machine learning-based pipeline to find 3D spectral line sources. Methods. We present a source-finding pipeline designed to detect 21-cm emission from galaxies that provides the second-best submission of SKA Science Data Challenge 2. The first pipeline step was galaxy segmentation, which consisted of a convolutional neural network (CNN) that took an HI cube as input and output a binary mask to separate galaxy and background voxels. The CNN was trained to output a target mask algorithmically constructed from the underlying source catalog of the simulation. For each source in the catalog, its listed properties were used to mask the voxels in its neighborhood that capture plausible signal distributions of the galaxy. To make the training more efficient, regions containing galaxies were oversampled compared to the background regions. In the subsequent source characterization step, the final source catalog was generated by the merging and dilation modules of the existing source-finding software SOFIA, and some complementary calculations, with the CNN-generated mask as input. To cope with the large size of HI cubes while also allowing for deployment on various computational resources, the pipeline was implemented with flexible and configurable memory usage. Results. We show that once the segmentation CNN has been trained, the performance can be fine-Tuned by adjusting the parameters involved in producing the catalog from the mask. Using different sets of parameter values offers a trade-off between completeness and reliability