Adoption of lean philosophy in car dismantling companies in Sweden-a case study

At present, Lean manufacturing techniques are widely used in industries to improve the productivity by reducing different types of wastes. A case study has been conducted to investigate how Lean techniques can contribute in car dismantling companies in Sweden. This study gained insight of how car dismantling companies can be benefitted by adopting Lean philosophy. Some eccentric characteristics of this business which act as boundary condition for implementing Lean in Production Planning and control system were also identified

Multifaceted value profiles of forest owner categories in South Sweden: The river helge å catchment as a case study

Forest landscapes provide benefits from a wide range of goods, function and intangible values. But what are different forest owner categories\u27 profiles of economic use and non-use values? This study focuses on the complex forest ownership pattern of the River Helge å catchment including the Kristianstad Vattenrike Biosphere Reserve in southern Sweden. We made 89 telephone interviews with informants representing the four main forest owner categories. Our mapping included consumptive and non-consumptive direct use values, indirect use values, and non-use values such as natural and cultural heritage. While the value profiles of non-industrial forest land owners and municipalities included all value categories, the forest companies focused on wood production, and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency on nature protection. We discuss the challenges of communicating different forest owners\u27 economic value profiles among stakeholders, the need for a broader suite of forest management systems, and fora for collaborative planning. © 2013 The Author(s)

Further development of a treatment-specific rating scale for adherence to internet-based CBT : A pilot study

Syftet med föreliggande studie var att vidareutveckla en behandlingsspecifik följsamhetsskala för paniksyndrom vid internetförmedlad kognitiv beteendeterapi (IKBT). Studiens frågeställningar var 1) uppnår skalan tillräcklig interbedömarreliabilitet, 2) finns det ett samband mellan skalan och det tidigare använda följsamhetsmåttet antalet genomförda moduler, och 3) finns det ett samband mellan skalan och behandlingsutfallet. Interbedömarreliabiliteten mellan två bedömare testades genom två omgångar samskattning. 80 deltagare som behandlades med IKBT för paniksyndrom vid enheten för internetpsykiatri i Stockholm skattades sedan enligt den behandlingsspecifika följsamhetsskalan. Även antalet moduler deltagarna genomförde registrerades. Resultaten visade att skalan sammantaget hade en god interbedömarreliabilitet. Vidare korrelerade följsamhetsskalan positivt med både antalet genomförda moduler och behandlingsutfallet. Slutsats: Skattningsskalan vidareutvecklad i föreliggande studie visade indikationer på att vara ett tillförlitligt och användbart instrument för att mäta följsamheten till IKBT vid paniksyndrom.The purpose of this study was to further develop a treatment-specific rating scale for adherence to internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (ICBT) for panic disorder. The research questions for this study were 1) does the rating scale show satisfying inter-rater reliability, 2) is there an association between the rating scale and the commonly used measurement of adherence, module completion, and 3) is there an association between the rating scale and treatment outcome. The inter-rater reliability between two raters was assessed twice. 80 participants treated with ICBT for panic disorder at Internetpsykiatrin (the unit for internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy in Stockholm) were then assessed using the treatment-specific rating scale for adherence. Module completion was also registered. Results show that the rating scale had an overall satisfying inter-rater reliability. Furthermore, the rating scale correlated positively with both module completion and treatment outcome. Conclusion: The rating scale further developed in the present study showed indications of being a reliable and useful instrument for measuring adherence to ICBT for panic disorder

From monopoly to private pharmacies : Buy-out and franchising: Finding the entrepreneur within the pharmacist

One of Sweden’s most well known monopolies is approaching its end, Apoteket AB. A re-regulation of a state owned monopoly is nothing new but it happens within an interesting trade. Since the government is in total control of the whole re-regulation process, we found it interesting to see how they managed to include the potential individuals who want to take over a pharmacy. After all, many are the times the government has emphasized the importance of small firms. Out of the approximately 900 pharmacies owned by Apoteket AB, 150 are going to be sold to individuals. This group is called “small enterprise cluster”, and this cluster became the focus of our thesis. We wanted to get an insight into this group, since it is more complex and diverse compared to the large corporations entering the market. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to measure the willingness to take over pharmacies among the employees of Apoteket AB, as well as to analyse how the government's support has affected the decisions of individuals. Method In order to get a good view of the re-regulation process we chose a qualitative approach, where we performed personal interviews with 6 respondents equally spread out on 3 pharmacies in a medium sized Swedish city and the surrounding area. The interviews where performed in a semi-structured manner. Besides the primary data, secondary data was collected. It builds the foundation for the theoretical framework and the analysis of the interviews. Since the theoretical framework was created before the research was performed, the study used a deductive research approach

Effects on drug disposition, brain monoamines and behavior after chronic treatment with the antidepressant venlafaxine in rats with experimental hepatic encephalopathy.

Patients with chronic hepatic encephalopathy (HE) may present affective symptoms and antidepressant drug treatment in this condition is not uncommon. The present microdialysis study investigated treatment with the chronic antidepressant venlafaxine (VEN) in experimental HE with regard to tentative changes in pharmacokinetic and/or pharmacodynamic parameters. Three weeks after portacaval shunt (PCS) or sham operation in rats, VEN (10 mg/kg daily) was administered by implanted osmotic minipumps. VEN treatment for 14 days resulted in higher concentrations of VEN in PCS rats than in sham controls in serum and brain compartments, and the VEN levels in serum and brain were strongly inter-correlated. The serum N-desmethylvenlafaxine concentration did not differ between the groups, but correlated with the serum VEN levels. The other VEN metabolites were below the quantification limits. VEN treatment for 9-12 days significantly stimulated locomotion and rearing in the open field in sham controls, but failed to do so in the PCS rats. The concentrations of noradrenaline, dopamine, 5-HT, and 5-HIAA in neocortical dialysates were higher in PCS than in sham rats after 14 days of VEN treatment, but the elevations reached statistical significance only in the case of dopamine and 5-HIAA. In summary, there were significant pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic alterations in rats with experimental HE as compared to controls. The described experimental HE model may be useful for continued pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic interaction studies to unravel the pathophysiological consequences of HE on the CNS

Socioeconomy as a prognostic factor for location of death in Swedish palliative cancer patients

Background: An important aspect of end-of-life care is the place of death. A majority of cancer patients prefer home death to hospital death. At the same time, the actual location of death is often against patient's last-known wish. The aim of this study was to analyze whether socioeconomic factors influence if Swedish palliative cancer patients die at home or at a hospital. There is no previous study on location of death encompassing several years in Swedish cancer patients. Methods: Data was collected from the Swedish Register of Palliative Care for patients diagnosed with brain tumor, lung, colorectal, prostate or breast cancer recorded between 2011 and 2014. The data was linked to the Swedish Cancer Register, the Cause of Death Register and the Longitudinal Integration Database for health-insurance and labor-market studies. A total of 8990 patients were included. Results: We found that marital status was the factor that seemed to affect the place of death. Lack of a partner, compared to being married, was associated with a higher likelihood of dying at a hospital. Conclusion: Our findings are in line with similar earlier studies encompassing only 1 year and based on patients in other countries. Whether inequalities at least partly explain the differences remains to be investigated. Patients dying of cancer in Sweden, who do not have a life partner, may not have the option of dying at home due to lack of informal support. Perhaps the need of extensive community support services to enable home death have to improve, and further studies are warranted to answer this question

Chemokine Analysis in Patients with Metastatic Uveal Melanoma Suggests a Role for CCL21 Signaling in Combined Epigenetic Therapy and Checkpoint Immunotherapy

Purpose: Patients with metastatic uveal melanoma have limited therapeutic options and high mortality rate so new treatment options are needed.Patients and Methods: We previously reported that patients treated with the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab and the histone deacetylase inhibitor entinostat in the PEMDAC trial, experienced clinical benefits if their tu-mor originated from iris or was wildtype for BAP1 tumor suppressor gene. Here we present the 2-year follow-up of the patients in the PEMDAC trial and identify additional factors that correlate with response or survival.Results: Durable responses were observed in 4 patients, with additional 8 patients exhibiting a stable disease. The median overall survival was 13.7 months. Grade 3 adverse events were reported in 62% of the patients, but they were all manageable. No fatal toxicity was observed. Activity of thymidine kinase 1 in plasma was higher in patients with stable disease or who progressed on treatment, compared with those with partial response. Chemokines and cytokines were analyzed in plasma. Three chemokines were significantly different when comparing patients with and without response. One of the factors, CCL21, was higher in the plasma of respond-ing patients before treatment initiation but decreased in the same patients upon treatment. In tumors, CCL21 was expressed in areas resembling ter -tiar y lymphoid structures (TLS). High plasma levels of CCL21 and presence of TLS-like regions in the tumor correlated with longer survival.Conclusions: This study provides insight into durable responses in the PEMDAC trial, and describes dynamic changes of chemokines and cytokines in the blood of these patients.Significance: The most significant finding from the 2-year follow-up study of the PEMDAC trial was that high CCL21 levels in blood was associated with response and survival. CCL21 was also expressed in TLS-like regions and presence of these regions was associated with longer survival. These analyses of soluble and tumor markers can inform on predictive biomark-ers needing validation and become hypothesis generating for experimental research

EISCAT_3D - a next-generation European radar system for upper atmosphere and geospace research

The EISCAT Scientifi c Association, together with a number of collaborating institutions, has recently completed a feasibility and design study for an enhanced performance research radar facility to replace the existing EISCAT UHF and VHF systems. This study was supported by EU Sixth-Framework funding. The new radar retains the powerful multi-static geometry of the EISCAT UHF, but will employ phased arrays, direct-sampling receivers, and digital beamforming and beam steering. Design goals include, inter alia, a tenfold improvement in temporal and spatial resolution, an extension of the instantaneous measurement of full-vector ionospheric drift velocities from a single point to the entire altitude range of the radar, and an imaging capability to resolve small-scale structures. Prototype receivers and beamformers are currently being tested on a 48-element, 224 MHz array (the "Demonstrator") erected at the Kiruna EISCAT site, using the EISCAT VHF transmitter as an illuminator.Validerad; 2010; 20090807 (gustav_j)</p