Tea in a Historical and Anthropological Perspective----An Interview with Alan Macfarlane

In this paper qualitative research has been done in order to identify current problems with investing in corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds. There are several reasons to why this is an important subject. While CSR and different ethical aspects is something discussed more frequently these days, there still is a fairly low interest in ethical investments. People often state how highly they prioritize ethical aspects; still in comparison to statistics of people actually making such investments, the number is far less. As CSR investments contributes to sustainability we believe that finding solutions to the current low interest would be highly valuable. With this background, our aim with the thesis is as follows: To identify current problems as well as solutions that might result in increasing both the interest and the amount of capital being invested in ethical funds. A number of scientific articles and papers have been used in this process, giving insight to both problems somewhat obvious, but also less known. Three interviews have been conducted with people holding various positions and different expertise, in both CSR and the Swedish fund industry, providing us with valuable insight and knowledge. Most of the information gathered covers the Swedish market conditions. Some of the theory used is however based on international studies, but as there are similarities to how fund companies work with CSR we see no reason for this lowering the quality of our results. Our findings show that: There often is a lack of easy-to-obtain information describing exactly what type of ethical responsibility certain funds incorporate in their strategy. As a result individuals with interest in investing in CSR funds are likely to be put off by the complexity and large amounts of time required in order to make a well grounded decision. The identified reason for this is believed to be a result from: The lack of a clear definition of what ethical really is. Although not very surprisingly as this obviously is something that differs quite significantly between individuals. The lack of a definition makes it difficult to classify funds into either ethical or non-ethical. In order to provide the information needed without actually defining what is to be considered as ethical, our recommendation is to implement: A profile clearly stating how specific funds work towards specific areas related to CSR; allowing investors to easily overview how some specific fund take their personal view of what ethical is into account. A classification providing customers with the option of quickly overviewing whether or not funds take some type of CSR responsibility. If a fund with such classification is found, one should then easily be able to find the mentioned profile. For this to work as intended it is crucial that both the profile and classification is implemented on all types of funds, making it more recognized from a marketing standpoint.I den här rapporten har en kvalitativ undersökning gjorts för att identifiera nuvarande problem vid investering i fonder inriktade mot ”corporate social responsibility” (CSR). Det finns ett flertal anledningar till varför detta ämne är viktigt. CSR och olika etiska aspekter är något som nuförtiden diskuteras allt mer frekvent, men trots detta är intresset för etiska investeringar relativt lågt. Folk påstår ofta att de tar stor hänsyn till etiska aspekter, men när det faktiskt kommer ner till att göra en sådan investering är andelen intressenter betydligt mindre. Då investeringar inom CSR bidrar till ökad hållbarhet anser vi att det är av stort vikt att hitta lösningar till det nuvarande låga intresset. Med detta som bakgrund är följande vårt mål med detta kandidatarbete: Att identifiera nuvarande problem tillsammans med lösningar som kan resultera i såväl ett tilltagande intresse som en större mängd tillfört kapital till etiska fonder. Ett flertal vetenskapliga artiklar har används under arbetets gång för att ge en inblick i, såväl tydliga som mindre uppenbara problem. Tre intervjuer har genomförts med personer som innehar olika positioner och skiftande expertis inom såväl CSR som den svenska fondindustrin vilket har gett oss värdefull insikt och kunskap. Den största delen av informationen behandlar den svenska marknaden. Viss teori är dock baserad på internationella studier, men eftersom det finns stora likheter mellan hur fondbolag arbetar med CSR ser vi ingen anledning till att detta skulle sänka kvalitén på våra resultat. Vi har funnit att: Det ofta förekommer en brist på tydlig och lättförståelig information som beskriver vilken typ av etiskt ansvar en viss fond inkorporerar i sin strategi. Detta leder till att många individer med intresse för just investering i CSR fonder kan bli avskräckta på grund av komplexiteten och den mängd tid som krävs för att kunna genomföra ett genomtänkt beslut. Den främsta anledningen till detta är: Bristen på en tydlig definition av vad som är etiskt. Ett resultat av ofta vitt skilda åsikter från person till person. Bristen på en definition är något som försvårar indelningen mellan etiska och icke-etiska fonder. För att presentera den information som behövs, utan att faktiskt definiera vad som räknas som etiskt, är vår rekommendation att implementera: En profil som tydligt klargör hur respektive fonder arbetar inom specifika områden i anslutning till CSR. Det skulle möjliggöra för personliga sparare att lätt kunna överblicka hur fonder jobbar i förhållande till deras personliga åsikter. En klassificering som ger kunder möjlighet att snabbt identifiera huruvida en viss fond tar någon typ av hänsyn till CSR frågor eller inte. Om en fond med denna klassificering hittas ska sedan också den tidigare nämnda profilen vara mycket lättillgänglig. För att denna metod ska fungera på det sätt vi avser är det viktigt att en större mängd fondbolag tillämpar detta vilket skulle ge den en större genomslagskraft

Economy and timber production for continuous cover forestry respective clear-cut forestry : an analysis of economical and production-wise consequences

Skogsbruket som bedrivs i Sverige har under de senaste åren kritiserats av myndigheter och allmänheten. En ny skogsstrategi från EU har tagits fram för öka andelen skogsbruksmetoder, så som hyggesfria alternativ, som främjar den biologisk mångfalden samt minska koldioxidutsläppen från skogen och därav minska andelen trakthyggesbruk som bedrivs i dagsläget. Hyggesfritt skogsbruk är ett brett begrepp som innefattar olika skötselmetoder. Hyggesfritt skogsbruk har det långsiktiga målet att bruka skogen så de alltid är trädbevuxna och utan att skapa stora luckor. Denna studie avgränsas genom att enbart redovisa ett produktionsinriktat hyggesfritt skogsbruk som innefattade två olika metoder, blädningsbruk för gran samt skärmställning för tall med plantering av förädlat material. Detta ställdes i jämförelse mot skogsskötselsystemet trakthyggesbruk med avseendet på det ekonomiska nuvärdet samt virkesproduktionen i form av löpande bruttotillväxt och sortiment. Det skogliga beslutsstödsystemet Heureka PlanWise (SLU 2019) användes för att simulera och analysera de två skötselsystemen för två av SLU:s egna fastigheter med liknande trädslagsblandning, emellertid med olika breddgrader och medelboniteter. En fastighet i Gällivare kommun, Dundret och den andra i Uppsala kommun, Krusenberg. Detta för att studera om hyggesfritt skogsbruk skiljer sig i lönsamhet med olika nivåer på tillväxt. I denna studie gjordes även en känslighetsanalys där kalkylräntan ändrades mellan 1,50 %, 3,00 % och 4,50 %. Optimeringen som PlanWise genererade resulterade i ett nuvärde på 41,20 % och 10,70 % högre lönsamhet för trakthyggesbruk för fastigheterna Dundret respektive Krusenberg. Tillväxten var högre i snitt över hela planeringshorisonten för hyggesfritt oavsett fastighet. Dock visades en skillnad i tillväxten mellan blädningsbruk och skärmställningen, där skärmställning hade en högre tillväxt än blädningsbruk i Dundret och tvärtom för Krusenberg. Skillnaden i andelen volym avverkad massaved och timmer var försumbar. Känslighetsanalysen visade att lönsamheten oavsett kalkylränta var störst hos trakthyggesbruk och störst skillnad var för Dundret med 14,79 % högre lönsamhet med kalkylräntan 1,50 % och 78,79 % högre lönsamhet med kalkylräntan 4,50 %. Medan för Krusenberg var skillnaden på 3,31 % respektive 20,27 %. Skillnaderna mellan metodernas lönsamhet och produktion är inte markanta men merparten av det hyggesfria har skötts genom skärmställning, vilket liknar trakthyggesbruk mer än blädning. Slutsatsen av denna studie visar att trakthyggesbruk generellt sett är mer lönsamt, men att hyggesfritt genererar en högre bruttotillväxt i detta fall.The forestry industry in Sweden has been criticized by both authorities and the public in recent years. A new forest strategy from the EU has been developed to increase the proportion of forestry methods, such as Continuous-cover Forestry alternatives, that promotes biodiversity and other ecosystem services, and thus reduce the proportion of clear-cutting currently being practiced. Continuous-cover forestry is a broad concept that encompasses various management methods. Continuous-cover forestry has the long-term goal of using the forest without creating large gaps, and to always maintain forest cover. This study focuses solely on a production-oriented Continuous-cover forestry that included two different methods: Selection- forestry for spruce and shelterwood for pine with planting of refined plant material. This was compared to the silvicultural system of clear-cutting with respect to economic net present value and timber production in the form of annual gross increment and assortment. The forest decision support system, Heureka PlanWise (SLU 2019), was used to simulate and analyze the two management systems for two of SLU's own properties with similar distribution of tree species but different latitude and site index. One property Dundret was in the municipality of Gällivare and the second one Krusenberg was in the municipality of Uppsala. This was done to see if Continuous-cover forestry could potentially be more profitable in either of the different site indices. A sensitivity analysis was also performed, where the discount rate was changed between 1.50 %, 3.00 %, and 4.50 %. The optimization generated by PlanWise resulted in a maximum net present value of 41.20 % and 10.70 % higher profitability for clear-cutting for the Dundret and Krusenberg properties, respectively. The growth was higher on average over the entire planning horizon for Continuous-cover forestry regardless of the property. However, there was a difference in growth between selection cutting and shelterwood cutting, with shelterwood having higher growth than selection cutting in Dundret and vice versa for Krusenberg. However, the difference in the proportion of pulpwood and saw log was negligible. The sensitivity analysis showed that profitability was greatest for clear-cutting regardless of the discount rate, with the greatest difference for Dundret at 14.79 % more profitability with a discount rate of 1.50 % and 78.79 % more profitability with a discount rate of 4.50 %. For Krusenberg, the difference was 3.31 % and 20.27 %, respectively. The differences in profitability and production between the methods are not as significant, but most of the Continuous-cover forestry has been managed through shelterwood cutting, which is more similar to clear-cutting than selection cutting. The conclusion of this study shows that clear-cutting is generally more profitable, but Continuous-cover forestry generates higher gross increment

How does drought affect child health outcomes in Zimbabwe? : an econometric analysis

This thesis contributes to the broader economic literature on income shocks and child health outcomes. Child health outcomes are known to be an important factor in determining the overall health, school results and productivity later on in life as an adult. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between exposure to drought around the time of birth and child health outcomes in Zimbabwe. Drought is a relevant measure for an income shock since Zimbabwe is heavily dependent on rain-fed agriculture that provides approximately 70 percent of the population with their livelihoods. The key measure for the child health outcome is the height-for-age value, known as chronic malnutrition. Furthermore, this paper examines if a gender-bias exists as well as if residing in the rural areas could be a negative risk factor for the drought chock. The main results indicate that moderate drought at the time of birth is associated with a negative deviations from the mean reference population’s height-for-age value. Meaning that the child’s growth would be negatively affected by the drought. The analysis could not establish if gender or urban versus rural status made the child more vulnerable to drought. My findings are relevant for low‐income countries with prevalent levels of malnutrition where drought could affect food security and malnutrition levels, hence affect the human capital formation

IKT = Effektiv internkommunikation?

På dagens arbetsplatser används informations- och kommunikationsverktyg i allt större utsträckning. Användningen har, utifrån vissa aspekter, visat sig inverka negativt på de anställdas arbete och på den interna kommunikationen. Tidigare forskning har berört stress orsakad av informations- och kommunikationsteknologi (IKT) men få studier har gjorts för att studera hur anställda upplever arbetet med IKT, och hur stressen orsakad av användningen kan inverka på intern-kommunikationen. Syftet med denna studie är därför att granska vilka effekter IKT-användning medför, samt studera hur användning av IKT-verktyg påverkar internkommunikationen mellan anställda. För att uppnå studiens syfte har kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts på anställda från fyra svenska kommuner. Resultatet visar att anställda upplever arbetet med IKT-verktyg som stress-framkallande, då det leder till fler arbetsuppgifter och en oförmåga att kunna hantera den ökade information som IKT-verktyg medför. Studien tyder även på att den interna kommunikationen påverkats både positivt som negativt till följd av det ökade IKT-användandet.In today's workplace, information and communication technology (ICT) have seen an increased use and certain aspects of this use has proved to have a negative impact on employees' work performance and on the internal communication within an organization. Previous research has examined stress caused by ICT, but few studies have been done in order to study how employees perceive their work with ICT, how they handle stress caused by ICT use and how the stress caused by this use may affect internal communications. The purpose of this study is therefore to examine the impact of the use of ICT, and to study how the use of ICT tools affects the internal communication between employees. To achieve the purpose of the study, we have applied qualitative semi-structured interviews, and interviewed eight employees from four Swedish municipalities. The result of the research shows that employees experience work with ICT tools as stressful, as it leads to an increased amount of workload as well as an inability to manage the increased information that ICT brings. The study also suggests that the internal communication affected both positively and negatively as a result of the increase in ICT use

Yrkesverksamma socionomers attityder till människor med psykisk ohälsa : en kvantitativ undersökning

The purpose of this essay was to investigate how professional social workers attitude towards mental illness and their knowledge of mental health due to a proven relation between those two. The study is of a quantitative nature and data were collected via an online survey consisting of sociodemographic questions and two statistically tested questionnaires. 51 social workers from Helsingborg, working in three social work fields: Social services department, Labour market department and Health- and social care department, answered the survey during the period 27/11-7/12. The main results of our survey have shown that there are no stigmatizing features in the attitudes towards people with mental illness.Through a comparison by the occupational field, it has been found that the non-governmental social workers have shown, to a greater extent, more favorable attitudes than their colleagues in a governmental field of social work

TFOS European Ambassador meeting: Unmet needs and future scientific and clinical solutions for ocular surface diseases

The mission of the Tear Film & Ocular Surface Society (TFOS) is to advance the research, literacy, and educational aspects of the scientific field of the tear film and ocular surface. Fundamental to fulfilling this mission is the TFOS Global Ambassador program. TFOS Ambassadors are dynamic and proactive experts, who help promote TFOS initiatives, such as presenting the conclusions and recommendations of the recent TFOS DEWS II™, throughout the world. They also identify unmet needs, and propose future clinical and scientific solutions, for management of ocular surface diseases in their countries. This meeting report addresses such needs and solutions for 25 European countries, as detailed in the TFOS European Ambassador meeting in Rome, Italy, in September 2019

Reading Speed, Comprehension and Eye Movements While Reading Japanese Novels: Evidence from Untrained Readers and Cases of Speed-Reading Trainees

BACKGROUND: A growing body of evidence suggests that meditative training enhances perception and cognition. In Japan, the Park-Sasaki method of speed-reading involves organized visual training while forming both a relaxed and concentrated state of mind, as in meditation. The present study examined relationships between reading speed, sentence comprehension, and eye movements while reading short Japanese novels. In addition to normal untrained readers, three middle-level trainees and one high-level expert on this method were included for the two case studies. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In Study 1, three of 17 participants were middle-level trainees on the speed-reading method. Immediately after reading each story once on a computer monitor, participants answered true or false questions regarding the content of the novel. Eye movements while reading were recorded using an eye-tracking system. Results revealed higher reading speed and lower comprehension scores in the trainees than in the untrained participants. Furthermore, eye-tracking data by untrained participants revealed multiple correlations between reading speed, accuracy and eye-movement measures, with faster readers showing shorter fixation durations and larger saccades in X than slower readers. In Study 2, participants included a high-level expert and 14 untrained students. The expert showed higher reading speed and statistically comparable, although numerically lower, comprehension scores compared with the untrained participants. During test sessions this expert moved her eyes along a nearly straight horizontal line as a first pass, without moving her eyes over the whole sentence display as did the untrained students. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: In addition to revealing correlations between speed, comprehension and eye movements in reading Japanese contemporary novels by untrained readers, we describe cases of speed-reading trainees regarding relationships between these variables. The trainees overall tended to show poor performance influenced by the speed-accuracy trade-off, although this trade-off may be reduced in the case of at least one high-level expert

Maternal health care in natural disasters : A study on the International Federation of the Red Cross’s maternal health care in flooding disaster relief

This thesis aims to describe how the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) tends to maternal health care in floodings and whether it should be deemed sufficient. Floodings in Pakistan (2010), Bangladesh (2017) and Sudan (2013) are used as units of analysis when conducting a content analysis. The theoretical framework consists of critical success factors for disaster response based in the emergency management literature. A big part of the theoretical framework revolves around the importance of expertise and rationality in disaster response planning and implementation. The three floodings received relief efforts from IFRC which are presented in emergency appeal reports. Lists on essential maternal health care interventions in combination with the theoretical framework create analysis questions that are posed to the appeals. Results are presented in a table naming the prevalence of each intervention in each report. The findings show that maternal health care was seen to and deemed sufficient in only one of the three cases: Pakistan. The conclusion is that the discourse on maternal health care in natural disasters should be developed and that further research on the subject needs to be conducted

Clinical investigations of fixation stability and reading eye movements

Reading and writing plays a fundamental role in our culture. Compared with, e.g. speech, written language has an immense impact as it offers the possibility to share information over unprecedented distance in time and space. By observing how the eyes move while reading we can obtain knowledge of the recognition process. To enable reading, not only moving the eyes are required, but also a good quality of fixation is essential. This thesis presents findings from four eye movement studies performed with the Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope (SLO) and Tobii Eye-tracker. The aims were to 1) investigate the fixational pattern in healthy subjects using the microperimetry technique obtained with the SLO in order to learn more about normal fixational pattern. This is important since changes in fixational pattern, due to pathology, can occur prior to detectable changes in the macula or visual pathway; 2) use the SLO to map solar induced scotomas and evaluate the fixational pattern after such injury; 3) evaluate if the Tobii system could be used to evaluate reading performance despite its relatively low resolution and sampling frequency; and 4) evaluate if patients with neovascular AMD, treated with Lucentis, gain a better reading ability by using the Tobii Eye tracker. The results from the SLO studies demonstrated that the fixational pattern in healthy subjects measured with the SLO had a mean centre of gravity located at a mean absolute distance of 0.27º from the fixation point (FP) and a directional predominance of the fixational pattern more frequently distributed vertically than horizontally. This means that computerized fixation control when performing microperimetry with the SLO provides information about the fixation pattern, which cannot be obtained with standard clinical perimetry techniques. The studies further showed that SLO microperimetry session with fixational mapping are useful in patients with unstable and/or extrafoveal fixation, which is a common situation in patients with a foveal lesion/injury. The Tobii Eye tracker studies showed that the Tobii system, despite its relative low resolution and sampling frequency, is suitable for evaluation of reading performance in clinical settings. Furthermore, that texts used for studying reading performance must be chosen carefully since even texts of similar linguistic difficulty, due to the nature of the text content, can yield the differences found in reading performance. When investigating AMD patients, the findings outlined that Lucentis treatment gave a significant better visual acuity, not necessarily connected with improved reading eye movements and reading ability. However, reading should be tested in order to fully understand a patient s complaints; however, as a direct measure of visual improvement after, for example Lucentis treatment, other tests should also be used

Maternal health care in natural disasters : A study on the International Federation of the Red Cross’s maternal health care in flooding disaster relief

This thesis aims to describe how the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) tends to maternal health care in floodings and whether it should be deemed sufficient. Floodings in Pakistan (2010), Bangladesh (2017) and Sudan (2013) are used as units of analysis when conducting a content analysis. The theoretical framework consists of critical success factors for disaster response based in the emergency management literature. A big part of the theoretical framework revolves around the importance of expertise and rationality in disaster response planning and implementation. The three floodings received relief efforts from IFRC which are presented in emergency appeal reports. Lists on essential maternal health care interventions in combination with the theoretical framework create analysis questions that are posed to the appeals. Results are presented in a table naming the prevalence of each intervention in each report. The findings show that maternal health care was seen to and deemed sufficient in only one of the three cases: Pakistan. The conclusion is that the discourse on maternal health care in natural disasters should be developed and that further research on the subject needs to be conducted