Getting the Haves to Come out Behind: Fixing the Distributive Injustices of American Health Care

Hyman criticizes an article by Havighurst and Richman regarding the distributive injustices of US health care. Hyman also offers a guide for implementing policy reforms based on the analysis by Havighurst and Richman

The use of accounts in the four major Swedish banks’ accounting narratives – an impression management tool used as a response to negative media attention?

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis has been to examine whether accounts have been given by the four major Swedish banks - Swedbank, Handelsbanken, Nordea and SEB - in their accounting narratives as a response to negative media attention in the time period 2009 to 2014, and whether those accounts could be seen as an impression management tool. Methodology: We have carried out a qualitative study on articles published in Swedish web-based media in the time period 2009 to 2014. We have also carried out a qualitative content analysis of the four major Swedish banks’ accounting narratives to identify accounts in the same time period. Theoretical perspective: The theoretical framework of this study is based on theories on media as a powerful stakeholder, Legitimacy theory, Impression Management and Accounts. Empirical foundation: The empirical data includes 139 web-based articles published by six different Swedish media actors in the time period 2009 to 2014. Those articles express criticism raised against the four major Swedish banks’ mortgage margins, dividends, reduced manual cash handling and high levels of remuneration. The empirical data also includes 27 accounts identified in the four major Swedish banks’ accounting narratives in the same time period related to the banks’ mortgage margins, dividends, reduced manual cash handling and high levels of remuneration. We have studied accounting narratives in corporate annual reports, interim reports, sustainability reports and press releases. Conclusion: We have been able to demonstrate that accounts have been given by the four major Swedish banks in their accounting narratives to respond to negative media attention in the time period 2009 to 2014. In Swedbank, we have been able to prove a definite connection between some identified accounts and media attention, and further have found indications that other identified accounts in the other three banks likely are related to negative media attention as well. Overall, Swedbank is highly overrepresented in number of accounts. Most of the identified accounts have been justification accounts. Our findings show that accounts could be seen as an impression management tool the banks can use to handle negative media attention, having the ability to affect accounting narrative readers’ perceptions and neutralize a negative picture given by media. This is one possible way for the banks to reduce or close potential legitimacy gaps arisen due to negative media attention. Further, our findings indicate that media is a powerful stakeholder important for the banks to be able to manage

DOAS for flue gas monitoring—III. In-situ monitoring of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen monoxide and ammonia

A methodology is described for the in-situ detection of NO, NH3 and SO2 in flue gases by DOAS (Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy). In order to perform accurate measurements of the concentration it is necessary to compensate for the temperature dependence of the absorption cross-sections as well as for potential deviations from the Beer-Lambert law (nonlinearity effects). From the experimental data in two previous papers, empirical equations were derived for the compensation of the nonlinearity and temperature effects. These were used to compensate obtained concentration values of NO and SO2 retrieved from DOAS spectra that were recorded in a flue gas at 413 K. The measurements of SO2 showed that in a concentration interval of 500–1600 ppm at 413 K, the resulting systematic discrepancies between the DOAS and a conventional reference system decreased from 40 to only 2% when compensating the DOAS data. The maximum random difference was approximately 15%. In the same manner the systematic difference for NO decreased from 23 to 1%, with a maximum random error of 5%, for concentrations between 60 and 160 ppm. The measurements of NH3 demonstrated the versatility of the DOAS technique for time resolved in-situ measurements (<20 sec), and also the feasibility of the technique for measuring several species simultaneously. The measurement methodology developed for NH3 was more complicated than for NO and SO2 and required a larger amount of laboratory calibrations. In the spectral evaluation procedure of NH3 hot bands were utilized for flue gas temperatures above 450 K

Liberia: Krig, återhämtning och ekonomisk tillväxt

Frågan varför vissa länder är rikare än andra har undersökts av forskare i flera generationer. Ett flertal ekonomiska teorier och modeller har genom åren utvecklats i ett försök att svara på denna fråga och vissa har lyckats bättre än andra. I studiet av ekonomisk tillväxt sägs ett lands ekonomi vara i steady state då den växer i en långsiktigt jämn takt. Avsteg från detta jämviktsbegrepp kan förklaras av bl.a. ekonomiska chocker så som inbördeskrig. Det var just detta som drabbade Liberia år 1989 och fortgick till 2003 med ödesdigra konsekvenser för landets ekonomi. Denna uppsats syftar till att svara på frågor kring Liberias steady state och ekonomins tillväxttakt. För att svara på frågorna undersöks de ekonomiska konsekvenserna av ett inbördeskrig och med hjälp av modellen med teknologispridning simuleras ett antal möjliga utvecklingsvägar för Liberias ekonomi. Slutsatsen som tas är att Liberia de närmsta åren kommer att uppleva en hög tillväxttakt i BNP per capita då dess realkapitalstock återhämtar sig i snabb takt efter kriget, vilket på sikt kommer att leda till en ny och högre steady state nivå för landets ekonomi

In vivo photosensitizer tomography inside the human prostate

Interstitial photodynamic therapy (IPDT) provides a promising means to treat large cancerous tumors and solid organs inside the human body. The treatment outcome is dependent on the distributions of light, photosensitizer, and tissue oxygenation. We present a scheme for reconstructing the spatial distribution of a fluorescent photosensitizer. The reconstruction is based on measurements performed in the human prostate, acquired during an ongoing IPDT clinical trial, as well as in optical phantoms. We show that in an experimental setup we can quantitatively reconstruct a fluorescent inclusion in a fluorescent background. We also show reconstructions from a patient showing a heterogeneous distribution of the photosensitizer mTHPC in the human prostate. (C) 2009 Optical Society of Americ

Fluorescence diffuse optical tomography using upconverting nanoparticles

Fluorescence diffuse optical tomography (FDOT) can provide important information in biomedical studies. In this ill-posed problem, suppression of background tissue autofluorescence is of utmost importance. We report a method for autofluorescence-insensitive FDOT using nonlinear upconverting nanoparticles (NaYF4:Yb3+/Tm3+) in a tissue phantom under excitation intensities well below tissue-damage thresholds. Even with the intrinsic autofluorescence from the phantom only, the reconstruction of the nanoparticles is of much better quality than the reconstruction of a Stokes-shifting dye. In addition, the nonlinear power dependence leads to more confined reconstructions and may increase the resolution in FDOT

The use of dual-wavelength airborne laser scanning for estimating tree species composition and species-specific stem volumes in a boreal forest

The estimation of species composition and species-specific stem volumes are critical components of many forest inventories. The use of airborne laser scanning with multiple spectral channels may prove instrumental for the cost-efficient retrieval of these forest variables. In this study, we scanned a boreal forest using two channels: 532 nm (green) and 1064 nm (near infrared). The data was used in a two-step methodology to (1) classify species, and (2) estimate species-specific stem volume at the level of individual tree crowns. The classification of pines, spruces and broadleaves involved linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and resulted in an overall accuracy of 91.1 % at the level of individual trees. For the estimation of stem volume, we employed species-specific k-nearest neighbors models and evaluated the performance at the plot level for 256 field plots located in central Sweden. This resulted in root-mean-square errors (RMSE) of 36 m3/ha (16 %) for total volume, 40 m3/ha (27 %) for pine volume, 32 m3/ha (48 %) for spruce volume, and 13 m3/ha (87 %) for broadleaf volume. We also simulated the use of a monospectral near infrared (NIR) scanner by excluding features based on the green channel. This resulted in lower overall accuracy for the species classification (86.8 %) and an RMSE of 41 m3/ha (18 %) for the estimation of total stem volume. The largest difference when only the NIR channel was used was the difficulty to accurately identify broadleaves and estimate broadleaf stem volume. When excluding the green channel, RMSE for broadleaved volume increased from 13 to 26 m3/ha. The study thus demonstrates the added benefit of the green channel for the estimation of both species composition and species-specific stem volumes. In addition, we investigated how tree height influences the results where shorter trees were found to be more difficult to classify correctly

Frågeställningar i examensarbeten

För att klara examinationsmålen i civilingenjörsexamen (SFS 1993:100 bilaga 2) ska varje student visa förmåga att med helhetssyn kritiskt, självständigt och kreativt identifiera, formulera och hantera komplexa frågeställningar. För att öka förståelsen för hur forskningsfrågan identifieras, formuleras och hanteras vid LTH har ett tjugotal examensarbetsrapporter från olika institutioner granskats. Granskningen har utgått från rapporternas inledande och avslutande kapitel för att se om forskningsfrågan tydligt formuleras i inledningen och om den besvaras i slutsatserna. Utifrån det material vi har studerat och publicerad litteratur kan vi konstatera att det är ett allmänt problem att studenter på masters-nivå överlag har liten vana vid att hantera komplexa frågeställningar. Det tycks finnas bristande kunskaper om vad vetenskaplighet/vetenskaplig metodik/vetenskaplig tradition innebär för vad som ska presenteras och vi kan konstatera att det både på LTH och i stort finns ett behov för åtgärder för att på ett mer effektiv sätt träna studenter i detta. Att litteraturen inom detta område är begränsad visar på både behovet men kanske också svårigheter att identifiera precis hur detta kan göras. Vi identifierade detta som ett viktigt utvecklingsområde för handledare av examensarbeten inom civilingenjörsutbildningarna på LTH, som dock också kan komma att behöva stöd av nya strukturer och systematiska åtgärder för att nå gemensamma mål för hela fakulteten

Lower cognitive performance in 81-year-old men with greater nocturnal blood pressure dipping

Abnormal day-to-night blood pressure (BP) pattern have been found to be associated with cerebrovascular damage, yet studies of the elderly 80 years of age and above, for whom the risk pattern may be different due to ageing and age-associated diseases, are lacking. Ninety-seven 81-year-old men underwent ambulatory BP monitoring and were given six cognitive tests, 79 of the men completing the cognitive test battery. The odds ratio (OR) for performing one standard deviation below the mean on any cognitive test was calculated using a forward stepwise logistic regression model, confounding factors being controlled for. Groups defined in terms of day-to-night changes in BP were compared in this respect. Cognitive performance was lower (OR 3.6; P = 0.017) in the group usually described as dippers (10%–20% nocturnal drop in systolic BP [SBP]) as compared with nondippers (<10% drop). The tertile with the greatest SBP fall (10.6%–19.8%, a range considered as normal among middle aged) showed lowest cognitive performance (OR 4.7; P = 0.008) as compared with the middle tertile (5.1%–10.5% drop). The mean nocturnal fall in SBP was 7.4%, significantly greater in those with lower rather than higher cognitive performance. A nocturnal drop in SBP of ≥10% was associated with lower cognitive performance in these elderly men. The limits to normal dipping appear to be shifted in the direction of a lesser drop in the very elderly