Journal Staff

Introduction Cognitive behaviour therapy delivered in the format of guided self-help via the internet has been found to be effective for a range of conditions, including depression and anxiety disorders. Recent results indicate that guided self-help via the internet is a promising treatment format also for psychodynamic therapy. However, to date and to our knowledge, no study has evaluated internet-delivered psychodynamic therapy as a transdiagnostic treatment. The affect-phobia model of psychopathology by McCullough et al provides a psychodynamic conceptualisation of a range of psychiatric disorders. The aim of this study will be to test the effects of a transdiagnostic guided self-help treatment based on the affect-phobia model in a sample of clients with depression and anxiety. Methods and analysis This study will be a randomised controlled trial with a total sample size of 100 participants. The treatment group receives a 10-week, psychodynamic, guided self-help treatment based on the transdiagnostic affect-phobia model of psychopathology. The treatment consists of eight text-based treatment modules and includes therapist contact in a secure online environment. Participants in the control group receive similar online therapist support without any treatment modules. Outcome measures are the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire Depression Scale and the 7-item Generalised Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7). Process measures that concerns emotional processing and mindfulness are included. All outcome and process measures will be administered weekly via the internet and at 6-month follow-up. Discussion This trial will add to the body of knowledge on internet-delivered psychological treatments in general and to psychodynamic treatments in particular. We also hope to provide new insights in the effectiveness and working mechanisms of psychodynamic therapy based on the affect-phobia model

The process of product development in small agricultural firms

This study provides a better understanding of small-scale farmers New Product Development (NPD) processes, what activities farmers undertake within and how they work with NPD processes. NPD plays a crucial role in creating and maintaining competitiveness in many industries and its importance has grown over the years due to changing market conditions, also in the agricultural sector. One of the most critical and most important tasks for a firm is the launch and development of new products, moreover, the high frequency of failure of the development of new food products, 72-88% fail at launch, shows that the knowledge of practices for developing new food products needs to be expanded. There is a great potential for the Swedish lamb production to conduct NPD processes, with an animal that produces three different base materials; wool, meat and sheepskin, and having an increased demand for newly developed products. Previous studies have focused on NPD in large firms and on mostly industrial products. The food product sector has been neglected, which has resulted in a paucity of studies on how small firms can incorporate and work with NPD practices. Moreover, previous research has tried to identify success factors and “the best practices”. In those studies, the firm context is treated as static and over-simplified, however, this study sheds light on the matter of NPD processes through a farmers’ perspective, fulfilling a gap of knowledge on NPD in the agricultural context. The findings from this study can provide empirical insights that might be valuable to fulfil government’s and policymakers’ wishes to increase the innovation rate in the agricultural sector of Sweden. A conceptual framework was developed based on the stage-gate model and a literature review of factors for success when firms engage in innovation projects. By using a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews, a multiple case study was conducted on eleven lamb producers on the island of Gotland in Sweden. A conclusion is that the interviewed farmers are most engaged in the activities; development, testing and validation, and consumer relationship when launching the product, and less engaged in scoping, building a business case and post launch review. Moreover, the farmers are more involved in processes within firm- and productrelated factors and are less involved in activities that relate to project- and market-related factors

Real-time Accelerator Diagnostic Tools for the MAX IV Storage Rings

In this paper, beam diagnostic and monitoring tools developed by the MAX IV Operations Group are discussed. In particular, new beam position monitoring and accelerator tunes visualization software tools, as well as tools that directly influence the beam quality and stability are introduced. An availability and downtime monitoring application is also presented

Electronic bandstructure of superconducting KTaO3 (111) interfaces

Two-dimensional electron gases(2DEGs)based on KTaO3 are emerging as a promising platform for spin-orbitronics due to their high Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and gate-voltage tunability. The recent discovery of a superconducting state in KTaO3 2DEGs now expands their potential towards topological superconductivity. Although the band structure of KTaO3 surfaces of various crystallographic orientations has already been mapped using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy(ARPES), this is not the case for superconducting KTaO3 2DEGs. Here, we reveal the electronic structure of superconducting 2DEGs based on KTaO3 (111) single crystals through ARPES measurements. We fit the data with a tight-binding model and compute the associated spin textures to bring insight into the SOC-driven physics of this fascinating system.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Genome-wide association study of angioedema induced by angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker treatment

Angioedema in the mouth or upper airways is a feared adverse reaction to angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEi) and angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) treatment, which is used for hypertension, heart failure and diabetes complications. This candidate gene and genome-wide association study aimed to identify genetic variants predisposing to angioedema induced by these drugs. The discovery cohort consisted of 173 cases and 4890 controls recruited in Sweden. In the candidate gene analysis, ETV6, BDKRB2, MME, and PRKCQ were nominally associated with angioedema (p < 0.05), but did not pass Bonferroni correction for multiple testing (p < 2.89 × 10−5). In the genome-wide analysis, intronic variants in the calcium-activated potassium channel subunit alpha-1 (KCNMA1) gene on chromosome 10 were significantly associated with angioedema (p < 5 × 10−8). Whilst the top KCNMA1 hit was not significant in the replication cohort (413 cases and 599 ACEi-exposed controls from the US and Northern Europe), a meta-analysis of the replication and discovery cohorts (in total 586 cases and 1944 ACEi-exposed controls) revealed that each variant allele increased the odds of experiencing angioedema 1.62 times (95% confidence interval 1.05–2.50, p = 0.030). Associated KCNMA1 variants are not known to be functional, but are in linkage disequilibrium with variants in transcription factor binding sites active in relevant tissues. In summary, our data suggest that common variation in KCNMA1 is associated with risk of angioedema induced by ACEi or ARB treatment. Future whole exome or genome sequencing studies will show whether rare variants in KCNMA1 or other genes contribute to the risk of ACEi- and ARB-induced angioedema

An international cohort comparison of size effects on job growth

The contribution of different-sized businesses to job creation continues to attract policymakers’ attention; however, it has recently been recognised that conclusions about size were confounded with the effect of age. We probe the role of size, controlling for age, by comparing the cohorts of firms born in 1998 over their first decade of life, using variation across half a dozen northern European countries Austria, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the UK to pin down size effects. We find that a very small proportion of the smallest firms play a crucial role in accounting for cross-country differences in job growth. A closer analysis reveals that the initial size distribution and survival rates do not seem to explain job growth differences between countries, rather it is a small number of rapidly growing firms that are driving this result

The prognostic significance of low-frequency somatic mutations in metastatic cutaneous melanoma

Background: Little is known about the prognostic significance of somatically mutated genes in metastatic melanoma (MM). We have employed a combined clinical and bioinformatics approach on tumor samples from cutaneous melanoma (SKCM) as part of The Cancer Genome Atlas project (TCGA) to identify mutated genes with potential clinical relevance. Methods: After limiting our DNA sequencing analysis to MM samples (n = 356) and to the CANCER CENSUS gene list, we filtered out mutations with low functional significance (snpEFF). We performed Cox analysis on 53 genes that were mutated in ≥3% of samples, and had ≥50% difference in incidence of mutations in deceased subjects versus alive subjects. Results: Four genes were potentially prognostic [RAC1, FGFR1, CARD11, CIITA; false discovery rate (FDR) 75% of the samples that exhibited corresponding DNA mutations. The low frequency, UV signature type and RNA expression of the 22 genes in MM samples were confirmed in a separate multi-institution validation cohort (n = 413). An underpowered analysis within a subset of this validation cohort with available patient follow-up (n = 224) showed that somatic mutations in SPEN and RAC1 reached borderline prognostic significance [log-rank favorable (p = 0.09) and adverse (p = 0.07), respectively]. Somatic mutations in SPEN, and to a lesser extent RAC1, were not associated with definite gene copy number or RNA expression alterations. High (>2+) nuclear plus cytoplasmic expression intensity for SPEN was associated with longer melanoma-specific overall survival (OS) compared to lower (≤ 2+) nuclear intensity (p = 0.048). We conclude that expressed somatic mutations in infrequently mutated genes beyond the well-characterized ones (e.g., BRAF, RAS, CDKN2A, PTEN, TP53), such as RAC1 and SPEN, may have prognostic significance in MM

Synoptic analysis of a decade of daily measurements of SO2 emission in the troposphere from volcanoes of the global ground-based Network for Observation of Volcanic and Atmospheric Change

Volcanic plumes are common and far-reaching manifestations of volcanic activity during and between eruptions. Observations of the rate of emission and composition of volcanic plumes are essential to recognize and, in some cases, predict the state of volcanic activity. Measurements of the size and location of the plumes are important to assess the impact of the emission from sporadic or localized events to persistent or widespread processes of climatic and environmental importance. These observations provide information on volatile budgets on Earth, chemical evolution of magmas, and atmospheric circulation and dynamics. Space-based observations during the last decades have given us a global view of Earth's volcanic emission, particularly of sulfur dioxide (SO2). Although none of the satellite missions were intended to be used for measurement of volcanic gas emission, specially adapted algorithms have produced time-averaged global emission budgets. These have confirmed that tropospheric plumes, produced from persistent degassing of weak sources, dominate the total emission of volcanic SO2. Although space-based observations have provided this global insight into some aspects of Earth's volcanism, it still has important limitations. The magnitude and short-term variability of lower-atmosphere emissions, historically less accessible from space, remain largely uncertain. Operational monitoring of volcanic plumes, at scales relevant for adequate surveillance, has been facilitated through the use of ground-based scanning differential optical absorption spectrometer (ScanDOAS) instruments since the beginning of this century, largely due to the coordinated effort of the Network for Observation of Volcanic and Atmospheric Change (NOVAC). In this study, we present a compilation of results of homogenized post-analysis of measurements of SO2 flux and plume parameters obtained during the period March 2005 to January 2017 of 32 volcanoes in NOVAC. This inventory opens a window into the short-term emission patterns of a diverse set of volcanoes in terms of magma composition, geographical location, magnitude of emission, and style of eruptive activity. We find that passive volcanic degassing is by no means a stationary process in time and that large sub-daily variability is observed in the flux of volcanic gases, which has implications for emission budgets produced using short-term, sporadic observations. The use of a standard evaluation method allows for intercomparison between different volcanoes and between ground- and space-based measurements of the same volcanoes. The emission of several weakly degassing volcanoes, undetected by satellites, is presented for the first time. We also compare our results with those reported in the literature, providing ranges of variability in emission not accessible in the past. The open-access data repository introduced in this article will enable further exploitation of this unique dataset, with a focus on volcanological research, risk assessment, satellite-sensor validation, and improved quantification of the prevalent tropospheric component of global volcanic emission