När fotboll blir business

Sweden’s civil society is changing. The democratic civil organization, a symbol of the ideologically intertwined popular movement with its historical strive toward the welfare state, is increasingly adopting the concepts, resources and organizational models of the corporation. By challenging the member-run and altruistic ideals of the civil sector the process of corporatization is perceived as a threat to the non-profit organization’s contribution to society. This thesis portrays the corporatization from an optimistic perspective. A case study of two corporatized football clubs examines the clubs’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects. Based on the hypothesis that commercialization intensifies sport clubs’ priority of CSR, interviews with club representatives and influential individuals within Swedish football conclude three answers to how the CSR projects are linked to the process of corporatization. Firstly, intensified business collaboration transfers CSR-strategies to the clubs. Secondly, CSR creates financial and social capital by immunizing the clubs toward critic from its sponsors and society. As sponsors increasingly prioritize CSR the clubs’ growing dependency on profit and company support stimulate CSR activities. Finally, corporatized clubs increase their CSR-strategies to compensate for criticism of declining societal contribution. These results show how the non-profit organization’s shift toward the market can strengthen its societal contribution

Effects of Hydroclimatic Change and Rehabilitation Activities on Salinity and Mangroves in the Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta, Colombia

The Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta (CGSM), Colombia is possibly the wetland that has experienced the largest mangrove mortality on record due to modification of hydrologic connectivity and consequent hypersaline conditions. We used hydroclimatic, salinity and mangrove basal area data collected in five stations from 1993 to 2015 to study the relation between ongoing mangrove recovery, changes in salinity in the wetland and hydroclimatic changes in precipitation, potential evapotranspiration and freshwater inputs. We found that until 2015, the mangrove ecosystems in CGSM are in general terms in a path of recovery due to the combined effect of favorable hydroclimatic conditions and management operations to increase freshwater inputs into the wetland. We observed in three stations that the annual growth of mangrove basal area increased as pore water salinity decreased. Regarding surface water salinity, El Niño/Southern Oscillation explained most of the inter-annual variability in the wet season by regulating freshwater and in the dry season by regulating potential evaporation from the wetland. However, persistent channel reopening appeared to be the cause for the largest salinity decreases, whereas lack of persistent dredging slowed recovery in other areas. The monitoring of the mangrove-salinity-hydroclimate system must continue in order to increase its understanding and to avoid more recurring episodes of mangrove mortality

Are female students in general and nursing students more ready for teamwork and interprofessional collaboration in healthcare?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Interprofessional Education (IPE) is now spreading worldwide and many universities are now including IPE in their curricula. The aim of this study was to investigate whether or not such student characteristics as gender, previous working experience in healthcare, educational progress and features of the learning environment, such as educational programmes and curriculum design, have an impact on their open-mindedness about co-operation with other professions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Medical and nursing students at two Swedish universities were invited to fill in the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS). Totally, 955 students were invited and 70.2% (n = 670) participated in the study. A factor analysis of the RIPLS revealed four item groupings (factors) for our empirical data, but only one had sufficient internal consistency. This factor was labelled "Team Player".</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Regardless of the educational programme, female students were more positive to teamwork than male students. Nursing students in general displayed more positive beliefs about teamwork and collaboration than medical students. Exposure to different interprofessional curricula and previous exposure to interprofessional education were only to a minor extent associated with a positive attitude towards teamwork. Educational progress did not seem to influence these beliefs.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The establishment of interprofessional teamwork is a major challenge for modern healthcare. This study indicates some directions for more successful interprofessional education. Efforts should be directed at informing particularly male medical students about the need for teamwork in modern healthcare systems. The results also imply that study of other factors, such as the student's personality, is needed for fully understanding readiness for teamwork and interprofessional collaboration in healthcare. We also believe that the RIPL Scale still can be further adjusted.</p

A Sweet Talk: The Molecular Systems of Perineuronal Nets in Controlling Neuronal Communication

Perineuronal nets (PNNs) are mesh-like structures, composed of a hierarchical assembly of extracellular matrix molecules in the central nervous system (CNS), ensheathing neurons and regulating plasticity. The mechanism of interactions between PNNs and neurons remain uncharacterized. In this review, we pose the question: how do PNNs regulate communication to and from neurons? We provide an overview of the current knowledge on PNNs with a focus on the cellular interactions. PNNs ensheath a subset of the neuronal population with distinct molecular aspects in different areas of the CNS. PNNs control neuronal communication through molecular interactions involving specific components of the PNNs. This review proposes that the PNNs are an integral part of neurons, crucial for the regulation of plasticity in the CNS

Do all stocks fail to outperform treasury bills? : an inquiry into the return distributions of individual stocks in United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and Sweden

Inthispaper, weinvestigatethedistributionofindividualstockreturnsinUnited Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and Sweden from 1986 to 2017. Specifically, our results highlight the strong presence of positive skewness in the return distributions. Consequently, the majority of stocks fail to generate buy-and-hold returns superior to the matching one-month Treasury bills over their lifetime (or sample period). The only exceptions are Japan and France, where slightly more than half of the stocks yield positive excess return. Measured in wealth creation, only a fraction of companies constitute the total net wealth created in the market. The numbers range from 0.5% in Italy to 10.9% in Sweden, whereas the remaining stocks in aggregate have produced returns equal to the Treasury bills. Thus, it is evident that stock markets are highly concentrated, where contributions from the minority of stocks more than make up for the poor performance by the majority. The results provide evidence to why most undiversified funds underperform against market-wide benchmark portfolios.nhhma

Water budget estimation on a data limited wetland : The case of the Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta, Colombia

At the end of the 20th century, the combination of climatic and anthropogenic events resulted in hyper salinity conditions in the coastal wetland Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta (CGSM), Colombia. Although salinity concentrations are generally related to the type and quantity of water entering and exiting a wetland and to its internal hydrological dynamics, there have been no up to date hydrological studies on the CGSM. Here we show how a water budget can be used as a first-order of approximation to describe the CGSM's hydrology, despite data limitations. We collected hydroclimatic data to calculate and analyze the fluxes of water entering and exiting CGSM and their corresponding uncertainties. We find that the water budget is mostly affected by the precipitation regime, a result connected to studies of regional El Niño/La Niña effects. Scenario analyses show that contribution of freshwater from the streams coming down from the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range on the eastern side of CGSM is currently larger than that of the channels draining from Magdalena River to the west, in contrast to the general focus on the western side. However, Monte Carlo simulations suggest that the eastern freshwater inflow is insignificant in affecting the hydrological response of CGSM. These results outline the need to (1) increase understanding of the internal connectivity and circulation of CGSM and (2) further investigate the effect of agriculture on the eastern side of CGSM