Potato farmers’ decision-making under uncertainty

Swedish agriculture has declined for several decades, and for potato cultivation, the decrease has been particularly dramatic. At the same time, Sweden has adopted a national food strategy that aims to increase the production of foodstuff in Sweden. If this strategy is to be realized, the trend of declining production must be reversed. To understand how the potato industry can develop, there is a need for better knowledge of how potato farmers make decisions under risk in potato cultivation. This study aims to understand how potato growers’ revenue targets affect risk-taking in cultivation decisions, and how other factors affect farmers’ willingness to take risks in their farm businesses. Potato farmers are basically risk averse and the industry needs to find ways to shift the risk from the individual farmer to other actors in order to create a better functioning of potato market that generates higher yields and greater profits on the potato market. For instance, the average farmer is prepared to forgo a six percent increase in average revenue, if the increase will result in a greater increase in the fluctuation of annual revenue. Farmers’ decision making is affected by their revenue targets, with a higher revenue target contributing to farmers being less risk-averse in cultivation in in the pursuit of increase revenue. There are also tendencies for a revenue target to function as a reference point for farmers to relate to. At the same time, the potato growers who have a desire to control and minimize the risks surrounding cultivation in the short term are also more willing to take more risks in the cultivation to maximize results in the longer term. The study was conducted as a quantitative experiment with an experimental survey, where potato farmers answer questions about which of different revenue distributions they would prefer. The survey also included questions about respondents’ potato cultivation, and which actions the they see as important in creating a more stable result for their business. The analysis uses statistical correlation tools and knowledge from previous studies from a Prospect theory perspective.Det svenska lantbruket har minskat under flera år och för potatisodlingen har minskningen varit än mer dramatiskt. Därtill har Sverige antagit en livsmedelsstrategi som har som mål att öka produktionen av livsmedel i Sverige. För att uppfylla detta mål krävs det att trenden med minskad produktion av potatis bryts. För att förstå hur branschen skall kunna utvecklas krävs det en ökad förståelse för hur potatisodlare tar beslut och hanterar en tillvaro med osäker avkastning från potatisodlingen. Denna studie har främst fokuserat på hur potatisodlares inkomstmål påverkar risktagandet i odlingsbeslut, men även andra faktorer som påverkar odlarens vilja att ta risker i sitt lantbruksföretagande. Resultaten från studien visar att potatisodlare ogillar risk och är beredda att avstå viss avkastning för att minska risken i odlingen. Exempelvis skulle snittodlaren avstå en ökning på sex procent i medelavkastning från potatisodlingen, om den medförde en större ökning av fluktrationen i avkastningen. Det som påverkar odlarna i studiens riskvilja är dels deras inkomstmål. Där ett högre inkomstmål bidrar till att lantbrukaren är mer villig att öka risken i odlingen för att öka sina intäkter. Det finns även tendenser på att inkomstmålet fungerar som en referenspunkt som lantbrukarna förhåller sig till. Där lantbrukarna är beredda att utsätta sig för den risk som krävs för att uppnå målet. Studien kan dock inte avgöra om det är inkomstmålet eller något närliggande monetärt mål som att täcka upp för sina kostnader eller uppnå en viss vinst som är viktigast för lantbrukaren på grund av att dessa mål endast har mindre skillnader. En annan del som påverkar odlarnas beslutsfattande är hur de uppfattar att deras egna kontroller av maskiner och odlingen stabiliserar avkastningen. De odlare som anser att deras egna kontroller är viktiga är också mer villiga att ta mer risker i odlingen. Dessa odlare anser även försäkringar och att följa regler är viktiga delar för att åstadkomma ett mer stabilt resultat. Slutsatserna från studien är att de potatisodlare som har en vilja av att kontrollera och minimera riskerna runt odlingen också är mer villiga att ta mer risker i odlingen för att maximera resultatet på längre sikt. Dock är odlarna i grunden ovilliga att ta risker och marknaden behöver hitta sätt för att flytta risk från den enskilda odlaren till andra aktörer för att skapa en bättre fungerande potatismarknad som genererar högre avkastning och större vinster för marknaden i stort. Studien är genomförd som ett kvantitativt experiment med en experimentellenkät där potatisodlare har fått svara på frågor om vilken av olika avkastningsfördelningar de skulle föredra. I enkäten inkluderas även frågor om potatisodlingen samt vilka handlingar som odlaren ser som viktiga för att skapa ett stabilare resultat för företaget. Enkäten spreds i sociala medier samt via utskick med hjälp av företag och fick in 21 svar som kunde analyseras. Dessa analyserades med hjälp av statistiska korrelationsverktyg och med kunskap från tidigare studier och Prospekt teorin

A path planning and path-following control framework for a general 2-trailer with a car-like tractor

Maneuvering a general 2-trailer with a car-like tractor in backward motion is a task that requires significant skill to master and is unarguably one of the most complicated tasks a truck driver has to perform. This paper presents a path planning and path-following control solution that can be used to automatically plan and execute difficult parking and obstacle avoidance maneuvers by combining backward and forward motion. A lattice-based path planning framework is developed in order to generate kinematically feasible and collision-free paths and a path-following controller is designed to stabilize the lateral and angular path-following error states during path execution. To estimate the vehicle state needed for control, a nonlinear observer is developed which only utilizes information from sensors that are mounted on the car-like tractor, making the system independent of additional trailer sensors. The proposed path planning and path-following control framework is implemented on a full-scale test vehicle and results from simulations and real-world experiments are presented.Comment: Preprin

The Boson peak in supercooled water

We perform extensive molecular dynamics simulations of the TIP4P/2005 model of water to investigate the origin of the Boson peak reported in experiments on supercooled water in nanoconfined pores and in hydration water around proteins. We find that the onset of the Boson peak in supercooled bulk water coincides with the crossover to a predominantly low-density-like liquid below the Widom line TW. The frequency and onset temperature of the Boson peak in our simulations of bulk water agree well with the results from experiments on nanoconfined water. Our results suggest that the Boson peak in water is not an exclusive effect of confinement. We further find that, similar to other glass-forming liquids, the vibrational modes corresponding to the Boson peak are spatially extended and are related to transverse phonons found in the parent crystal, here ice Ih.We thank S. V. Buldyrev and S. Sastry for helpful discussions. The simulations were in part performed using resources provided by the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC) at the NSC and HPC2N centers. LGMP, KTW and DS were supported by the Swedish Research Council. KTW is also supported by the Icelandic Research Fund through the START programme. PK acknowledges the support of National Academies Keck Future Initiatives award. HES thanks NSF Grants No. CHE0911389, No. CHE0908218, and No. CHE-1213217. (Swedish Research Council; Icelandic Research Fund through the START programme; National Academies Keck Future Initiatives award; CHE0911389 - NSF; CHE0908218 - NSF; CHE-1213217 - NSF)Published versio

The Boson peak in supercooled water

We perform extensive molecular dynamics simulations of the TIP4P/2005 model of water to investigate the origin of the Boson peak reported in experiments on supercooled water in nanoconfined pores, and in hydration water around proteins. We find that the onset of the Boson peak in supercooled bulk water coincides with the crossover to a predominantly low-density-like liquid below the Widom line $T_W$. The frequency and onset temperature of the Boson peak in our simulations of bulk water agree well with the results from experiments on nanoconfined water. Our results suggest that the Boson peak in water is not an exclusive effect of confinement. We further find that, similar to other glass-forming liquids, the vibrational modes corresponding to the Boson peak are spatially extended and are related to transverse phonons found in the parent crystal, here ice Ih.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figure

Decompositions of complete graphs into cycles of arbitrary lengths

We show that the complete graph on $n$ vertices can be decomposed into $t$ cycles of specified lengths $m_1,\ldots,m_t$ if and only if $n$ is odd, $3\leq m_i\leq n$ for $i=1,\ldots,t$, and $m_1+\cdots+m_t=\binom n2$. We also show that the complete graph on $n$ vertices can be decomposed into a perfect matching and $t$ cycles of specified lengths $m_1,\ldots,m_t$ if and only if $n$ is even, $3\leq m_i\leq n$ for $i=1,\ldots,t$, and $m_1+\ldots+m_t=\binom n2-\frac n2$.Comment: 182 pages, 0 figures, A condensed version of this paper was published as "Cycle decompositions V: Complete graphs into cycles of arbitrary lengths" (see reference [24]). Here, we include supplementary data and some proofs which were omitted from that pape

Berusad men inte lättpåverkad: Alkoholpåverkade ögonvittnens sårbarhet för suggestibilitet

Alkoholpåverkade ögonvittnen bedöms konsekvent som mindre pålitliga än nyktra vittnen. Relevant forskning på denna grupp är dock bristfällig. Deltagarna randomiserades till en av tre möjliga betingelser (alkohol, placebo, kontroll) och ombads konsumera en förbestämd mängd alkohol. Ett ögonvittnesscenario utspelades live för deltagarna och deras sårbarhet för suggestibilitet testades en vecka efter händelsen med sexton ledande frågor. Resultaten av tre envägs oberoende variansanalyser visade att det inte fanns någon signifikant skillnad mellan grupperna. Ögonvittnen som är lågt till måttligt berusade är därmed inte nödvändigtvis mer suggestibla än nyktra vittnen. Denna uppsats knyter an till tidigare forskning och ger stöd för att ett systematiska avfärdande av berusade personers vittnesmål kan och bör ifrågasättas

Sustainable Healthcare - A National Swedish Innovation Agenda

For the past year a constellation of different stakeholders have been working with a National Swedish Innovation Agenda on Sustainable Healthcare. Numerous meetings, workshops and interviews have been conducted to sort out what actions need to be implemented so that Sustainable Healthcare can grow and become a bigger part of the Swedish innovation, economy and export. This short English version of the Innovation Agenda summarizes the definition of sustainable healthcare, key stakeholders of sustainable healthcare, a SWOT-analysis of the field, principle conclusions resulting from the work with the Agenda, results of the work (the Nordic Center for Sustainable Healthcare), as well as the main contributors and methodology of the Agenda

Socionom - Hjälpare på heltid, deltid eller övertid?

Abstract Author: Viktor Andersson & Daniel Pettersson Title: Social worker – Helper on full-time, part-time or overtime? A qualitative study about the perception of work and leisure in social work. Supervisor: Johan Cronehed There is a lively discussion in the community about what work is and what leisure is. The aim of our study was to look at how professional social workers set up to be social workers with a helping function beyond their working hours, at their leisure. Our study was conducted through interviews with social workers who are employed on full time in social services, residential treatment and school counselors. The method used to generate our empirical materials were inductive which means that the theory was selected by the empirical material. To analyze the collected empirical material, we used a theoretical basis approach that was rational choice. A general conclusion of our study was that social workers are keen to draw boundaries for what is work and what is leisure. This distinction is mainly an expressed desire, and what we have seen is that it is hard to maintain the desire in reality. There are however, according to the study, a conclusion that there is a pain threshold for where the line is to help in their spare time. The study also shows how social workers as professionals feels about giving money to beggars in their spare time outside their profession. The study shows that social worker means that there is a consensus that the knowledge by the profession is why the professional social workers is not donating money to beggars on either leisure or work time, because they do not think it helps. There is also a pattern in our empirical work that shows that social work is a little more than just a profession despite the fact that social workers being involved in the study says that social work is more of a career choice than a life missio