The Swedish Housing Market: Structure, Policy Issues and Modeling

Contribution to the Metropolitan Study: 20 -- The project "Nested Dynamics of Metropolitan Processes and Policies" is a collaborative study within the project area Regional Issues at IIASA. The series of contributions is a means of conveying information between the collaborators in the network of the project. This paper reports on a penetrating investigation of the housing market in the Stockholm region. It is based on a sequence of interviews and discussions with various decision makers and managers whose actions form an important market system. The paper examines the details of the system structure with the objective of formulating a reliable model of transactions, regulations, investments, etc. The work on the model itself is currently underway and will also be presented in the near future. The approach undertaken by the authors is original in its careful treatment of such system properties which constitute deviations from a free market. Consequently, the paper provides an already tested guideline for the work on the housing sector in other metropolitan regions in the study. Recently, this type of work has been initiated in several of those regions. It is believed that this work may bring about a new generation of housing sector modeling and a renewal of the pertinent analyses

Bacterial porin disrupts mitochondrial membrane potential and sensitizes host cells to apoptosis

The bacterial PorB porin, an ATP-binding beta-barrel protein of pathogenic Neisseria gonorrhoeae, triggers host cell apoptosis by an unknown mechanism. PorB is targeted to and imported by host cell mitochondria, causing the breakdown of the mitochondrial membrane potential (delta psi m). Here, we show that PorB induces the condensation of the mitochondrial matrix and the loss of cristae structures, sensitizing cells to the induction of apoptosis via signaling pathways activated by BH3-only proteins. PorB is imported into mitochondria through the general translocase TOM but, unexpectedly, is not recognized by the SAM sorting machinery, usually required for the assembly of beta-barrel proteins in the mitochondrial outer membrane. PorB integrates into the mitochondrial inner membrane, leading to the breakdown of delta psi m. The PorB channel is regulated by nucleotides and an isogenic PorB mutant defective in ATP-binding failed to induce delta psi m loss and apoptosis, demonstrating that dissipation of delta psi m is a requirement for cell death caused by neisserial infection

A method for disaggregate household forecasts

A method for making household forecasts is proposed "which yields both the total number of households and the number present in any predetermined subgroup of households. The method presupposes that incomplete information is available on the transitions of persons between various age and household categories over a period of time. The forecasting method is capable of spelling out the consequences for the prognoses of adding different amounts of external information to the computations. Such information may include population forecasts by age and sex trend-based information like restrictions on the size distribution of households econometric relations between household formation and incomes etc." The forecasting method is described in theoretical terms. "This description includes the use of information-theoretic arguments to adjust the forecast to external data. The theoretical development is illustrated by an application of the method to data for the Stockholm region [of Sweden]. In relation to this application an outline is given of the use of the methodology for long-term projections.

On the quality and impact of residential energy performance certificates

This paper addresses quality and impact issues concerning Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) by means of a dataset based upon the Swedish EPCs for single-family houses. Assuming that the quality of the certificates plays an important role for their impact, we examine to what extent various characteristics of the firms and experts issuing the certificates are influencing their assessments of energy consumption and energy conservation. Exploiting the information on biased assessments, we also investigate the relationship between the transaction price of a house and its EPC label. Doing so, we distinguish the attributes that can be observed by visiting the house and those that a buyer only can inform herself about through the EPC. Applying regression analyses we find that firm and expert characteristics matter quite a lot implying that the EPC-quality could be improved considerably by increasing the inter-rater reliability. The results also show that the price impact of the energy label is related to information that the buyers can obtain by visiting the house rather than to information uniquely provided by the EPCs. Hence, the EPCs per se are unlikely to stimulate energy conservation through the price mechanism. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Location and spatial clustering of artists

Surveys of artists' location choices show that they disproportionately reside in large cities. This paper introduces a model that attempts to explain this urban preference. The model includes four factors: access to other artists; access to consumer demand; access to service jobs; and housing affordability. These four factors are combined in a spatial equilibrium model. An equilibrium spatial distribution of artists is derived from the model and is correlated with the actual distribution among Swedish municipalities. Subsequently, the model is used for an econometric estimation of factor effects. The results show that access to other artists and local access to service jobs are important localization factors. Educated labor used as a proxy for consumer demand has a significant effect on artists' location choices. © 2013 Elsevier B.V

Complexity, scientific creativity and clustering

Industrial research investments and new product development have been the key factors behind economic growth in recent decades. They have also been the most important causes of the changing comparative advantages of regions and countries. An aim of this paper is to generate some theoretical insights into the mechanisms behind the spatial clustering of research-dependent production and the impact of the increasing complexity of products and production technologies. We claim that increases in product complexity in ICT, biomedicine and other high-tech industries necessitate closer co-operation with basic science and interdisciplinary research in universities. At the same time, statistics on the allocation of R&D investments between industry and universities show that in most countries the share going to university-based research is quite low. This is especially marked in the cases of South Korea and Japan. Policy conclusions are formulated. First, national governments should increase the support of scientific research, providing a better knowledge infrastructure of industrial R&D investments. Second, increasing scientific complexity implies more support for projects with secured scientific diversity and with a leadership that can integrate different fields of science. Third, there is a need for strategy of drastic increases of science and R&D investments in southern and eastern European in order to avoid further widening of the gap between slow and fast growth regions of Europe

Journal of Biological Chemistry

Chloroplasts and mitochondria are unique endosymbiotic cellular organelles surrounded by two membranes. Essential metabolic networking between these compartments and their hosting cells requires the exchange of a large number of biochemical pathway intermediates in a directed and coordinated fashion across their inner and outer envelope membranes. Here, we describe the identification and functional characterization of a highly specific, regulated solute channel in the outer envelope of chloroplasts, named OEP40. Loss of OEP40 function in Arabidopsis thaliana results in early flowering under cold temperature. The reconstituted recombinant OEP40 protein forms a high conductance β-barrel ion channel with subconductant states in planar lipid bilayers. The OEP40 channel is slightly cation-selective P(K+)/P(Cl−) ≈ 4:1 and rectifying (i⃗/i⃖ ≅ 2) with a slope conductance of Ḡ(max) ≅ 690 picosiemens. The OEP40 channel has a restriction zone diameter of ≅1.4 nm and is permeable for glucose, glucose 1-phosphate and glucose 6-phosphate, but not for maltose. Moreover, channel properties are regulated by trehalose 6-phosphate, which cannot permeate. Altogether, our results indicate that OEP40 is a “glucose-gate” in the outer envelope membrane of chloroplasts, facilitating selective metabolite exchange between chloroplasts and the surrounding cell