Employer-sponsored training in stabilisation and growth policy perspectives

In Europe, accounting standards prevent larger expenditures on employer-sponsored training from being treated as investments. Using Sweden as example, we discuss two consequences for training. First, the timing: training will be conducted when income is large enough for training costs to be deducted without loss. This is more often possible during booms than recessions, providing a stabilisation policy dimension to training. Second, the volume: the training opportunity cost (foregone production) is largest during booms. Hence, training tends to be smaller than if conducted during downturns, possibly limiting growth. We formulate two proposals that can make training more counter-cyclical and increase the amount of training.Employer-sponsored training; accounting standards

Employer-Sponsored Training in Stabilisation and Growth Policy Perspectives

In Europe, accounting standards prevent larger expenditures on employer-sponsored training from being treated as investments. Using Sweden as example, we discuss two consequences for training. First, the timing: training will be conducted when income is large enough for training costs to be deducted without loss. This is more often possible during booms than recessions, providing a stabilisation policy dimension to training. Second, the volume: the training opportunity cost (foregone production) is largest during booms. Hence, training tends to be smaller than if conducted during downturns, possibly limiting growth.We formulate two proposals that can make training more counter-cyclical and increase the amount of training.Training; Accounting System; Timing; Growth

Glacial history of Northeast Greenland: cosmogenic nuclide constraints on chronology and ice dynamics

The aim of this thesis was to use cosmogenic exposure dating to investigating whether highly weathered landscapes in the Northeast Greenland fjord zone have developed during prolonged ice free conditions or have been preserved beneath cold-based ice. Previous work along the Northeast Greenland coast has presented two conflicting hypotheses for the extent of the Greenland Ice Sheet during the last glacial maximum (LGM). Land-based investigations have suggested that low gradient outlet glaciers were restricted to fjord troughs and terminated at the inner continental shelf. In contrast, marine studies have recently indicated that the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet reached the outer shelf during the LGM. Results from cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al exposure dating show that during the LGM, local cold-based ice-caps covered and preserved weathered interfjord plateaus in the Northeast Greenland fjord zone, whereas fjord troughs were filled up with dynamic ice draining the Greenland Ice Sheet. The dynamic ice reached at least 250 m a.s.l. at the mouth of Scoresby Sund at the southernmost end and probably ~600 m a.s.l. at the northernmost end of the fjord zone, indicating that there was a N-S gradient in glacial style presumably reflecting regional differences in topography of the coastal areas. The results presented in this thesis reveals a dynamic picture for the northeastern sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet suggesting that LGM ice margins were substantially more advanced than indicated by earlier reconstructions from the terrestrial record

On-command enhancement of single molecule fluorescence using a gold nanoparticle as an optical nano-antenna

We investigate the coupling of a single molecule to a single spherical gold nanoparticle acting as a nano-antenna. Using scanning probe technology, we position the particle in front of the molecule with nanometer accuracy and measure a strong enhancement of more than 20 times in the fluorescence intensity simultaneous to a 20-fold shortening of the excited state lifetime. Direct comparison with three-dimensional calculations allow us to decipher the contributions of the excitation enhancement, spontaneous emission modification, and quenching. Furthermore, we provide direct evidence for the role of the particle plasmon resonance in the modification of the molecular emission.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. submitted to Phys.Rev.Lett. 12/04/200

Stem cell plasticity, osteogenic differentiation and the third dimension

Different cues present in the cellular environment control basic biological processes. A previously established 3D microwell array was used to study dimensionality-related effects on osteogenic differentiation and plasticity of marrow stromal cells. To enable long-term culture of single cells in the array a novel surface functionalization technique was developed, using the principle of subtractive micro contact printing of fibronectin and surface passivation with a triblock-copolymer. Immunohistochemical stainings showed that when cultivated in 3D microenvironments, marrow stromal cells can be maintained in the wells for up to 7days and be induced to commit to the osteogenic lineage. In conclusion, this work shows the modification of a 3D microwell array allowing the long term study of single stem cell plasticity and fate in controlled microenvironment

Are Imitation and Replication Mirror Image Problems?

All knowledge is context dependent. The relevant context is the social community where it resides, i.e. the ‘epistemic community’ formed as groups of people define and legitimize the knowledge they possess. In the mutual engagement in a common enterprise, epistemic communities develop, maintain and nurture the codes, tools and theories that provide the basis of their practice. Commonalities of code, tools and theory facilitate both voluntary transfer and involuntary imitation of knowledge within communities, also ones spanning organizational boundaries. Conversely, knowledge transfer between different epistemic communities, whether desired or unintended, is often cumbersome and fraught with difficulties. In order to achieve effective integration and cooperation between its various professional communities and subcultures, firms must therefore undertake investments in boundary-spanning mechanisms. Since these investments are specific to the context in which they take place and to the transactions that they enable, they cannot easily be organized through arm’s length contracts. Firms exist because they have a relative advantage over markets in the integration of diverse knowledge. However, the associated capabilities need not translate into a relative advantage also in the transfer of knowledge, i.e. knowledge exchanged between members of the same epistemic community. Within communities, knowledge disseminates with relative ease both intentionally and through emulation. Knowledge thus acquired can generally be applied also outside the context of the exchange and the effort or investment expended in its acquisition is not transaction specific. The governance mode applied in such exchanges is therefore determined by strategic and contextual factors, including those of traditional transaction cost logic

The story behind an exhibited rag rug

In my paper, I describe my insights as manager of the textile workshop at the Department of Design at Linnaeus University, as well as how we teach material-based work. Part of my work as a workshop manager is to conduct a major clean-up at the end of every year. Last year, when I was standing in front of a pile of waste textiles, I began to reflect on how this pile of textile had been transformed from well-working material into waste. In a previous project with the research group Praktikforum, together with my colleagues, I explored what kinds of waste we produced when we made material-based artistic work. Thus, it was no surprise that practice-based work produced waste. The surprise was what I could understand from it. Looking closer into the waste, I obtained a deeper understanding of what had happened in the workshop during the year; how the students had used the material, what they had learned and what sometimes went wrong became obvious. I gained a deeper understanding of how we use, understand and teach/learn about materials and how we can develop the workshop by learning from the waste. At the same time, I learned the technique of ‘inbraiding’. For me, this was a new craft technique, in which waste textiles can be used when making rugs. I saw the opportunity to use the waste and upcycle it. By exhibiting the rug, I want to discuss the possibility of working more sustainably with crafts