How important are caseworkers – and why? New evidence from Swedish employment offices

Caseworkers at the Swedish Public Employment Office (PES) have an important role in helping the unemployed to find a job. In this study, I estimate the effect of caseworkers on jobseekers' future employment rates, earnings, and wages. To take into account that the average characteristics of the unemployed can vary between caseworkers, I only use information from local employment offices that randomly allocate caseworkers to clients. The results indicate that caseworkers have an effect on the jobseekers' future employment and earnings. For example, the probability of being employed within a year is about 13 percent higher if the caseworker is one standard deviation higher in the distribution of caseworkers. Distinctive of a successful caseworker is that they assist in job search rather than assigning their jobseekers to various training programs.Caseworker; program evaluation; active labour market policy

Competition between employed and unemployed job applicants: Swedish evidence

We use the Swedish Job Applicant Database to empirically investigate whether being unemployed per se reduces the probability to get contacted by a firm. This database contains personal characteristics and preferences over the type of job the applicant wants to find. The data is submitted both by employed and unemployed workers over the Internet by the applicants themselves. This means that we have access to exactly the same information as firms have when they choose whom to contact. Our results show that an unemployed applicant faces a lower probability to get contacted by a firm than an otherwise identical employed applicant, thus supporting the claim that firms view employment status as an important signal for productivity.Employed and unemployed job seekers; discrimination

Detecting discrimination in the hiring process: evidence from an Internet-based search channel

This paper uses data from an Internet-based CV database to investigate how factors which may be used as a basis for discrimination, such as the searchers’ ethnicity, gender, age and employment status, affect the number of contacts they receive from firms. Since we have access to essentially the same information as the firms, we can handle the problems associated with unobserved heterogeneity better than most existing studies of discrimination. We find that, even when we control for all other differences, searchers who have non-Nordic names, are old or unemployed receive significantly fewer contacts. Moreover, we find that this matters for the hiring outcome: Searchers who receive more contacts have a higher probability of actually getting hired.Job search; Unobserved heterogeneity; Discrimination

Man's acceptance of radical surgical procedures and medical treatments for dogs : comparative questionnaire study of two health-oriented professions

Syftet med examensarbetet var att undersöka hur olika yrkesgrupper skiljer sig i acceptans inför olika radikala operativa ingrepp och sjukdomsbehandlingar på hund närmare bestämt tumörbehandlingar, pacemakeroperationer och amputationer/rullstolsanvändning. Data samlades in genom en enkät som delades ut till sjuksköterskor och djursjukvårdare i sydvästra Sverige och svarsfrekvensen blev 80 % respektive 57 %. Enkäten bestod av fem allmänna frågor och tre frågor som illustrerade foton med olika ingrepp på hund. VAS- skala (Visuell Analog Skala) användes för att bedöma graden av acceptans på respektive ingrepp då den var lämplig vid beskrivning av känslor. Acceptansvärdena bearbetades som kontinuerliga värden mellan 0 (inte alls acceptabla) och 1 (helt acceptabla). Data analyserades med t-test för att se om det fanns någon signifikant skillnad i acceptans för de tre typerna av ingrepp mellan yrken, mellan hög och låg ålder och mellan lång och kort erfarenhet. Resultatet visade signifikant skillnad när det gällde amputation både mellan yrken (p-värde 0,034) och mellan hög och låg ålder (p-värde 0,004). Ingen signifikant skillnad fanns mellan lång och kort erfarenhet. Sjuksköterskor stod för den högre acceptansen vid jämförelse mellan yrken. Möjligtvis beror detta på att amputation kan antas vara betydligt vanligare hos människor än hos hundar. De som sett att dessa ingrepp och hjälpmedel fungerar bra för människor kanske också drar slutsatsen att det kan fungera även på hundar. Yngre personer hade högre acceptans när det gäller amputation jämfört med äldre personer. Detta kan handla om en generationsfråga. Troligtvis är de yngre i vårdyrkena relativt nyutbildade och de får med sig den nyaste tekniken och forskningen som utvecklingen gett respektive vårdinriktning. Därför kanske man är lite mer öppen för den avancerade vård som faktiskt utövas inom djursjukvården idag

Activating Imaginative Attention and Creating Observant Moments in the Everyday Through the Art of Walking

Since 2013, I have been conducting a collaborative project on walking together with the actress and tightrope walker Helena Kågemark, where walking has become a means for inquiry-based performing. The purpose of this project was to apply techniques and strategies from the theatre work we pursue in situations outside of the theatre on walking actions in urban spaces – in order to create attention as well as bring forth poetry in situations of everyday life. The project included a wide range of activities and events; from our own explorative walks documented through “walking journals” to participatory walks with others and public presentations of performance acts, performance lectures, discussions, workshops and exhibitions. In our project, we used physical acting techniques to create attention and meaning in situations that emerged in the streets. Our aim was to go beyond the automatic patterns of the everyday when walking through town in order to activate a way to relate to the environment and to create experience that develops both the perception and imagination of the one who walks. We chose to focus on the seemingly small and invisible stories and observations of the everyday, while actively carrying out a psychophysical walk. In this article, I would like to reflect on certain parts of the walking project in order to investigate more closely how we transferred our experience as theatre practitioners to walking activities, and in doing so, activating imaginative attention in order to create observant moments in everyday situations

Antioxidants from Diet and Supplements in relation to Cardiovascular Disease

Many epidemiological studies have reported an inverse association between fruit and vegetable consumption and cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Because fruits and vegetables are high in antioxidants they were hypothesized to be one the factors responsible for the protective mechanisms. However, studies focusing on single antioxidants such as vitamin C, vitamin E and beta-carotene have reported inconsistent results. In diet there is a wide range of substances present with antioxidant properties. Total Antioxidant Capacity is a concept aiming to measure the capacity from all present antioxidants in reducing reactive species by taking into account synergistic and antagonistic interactions. Multivitamin supplements are another source of antioxidants including vitamins and sometimes minerals usually in doses close to recommended daily allowances. A common belief is that multivitamin are good substitute for dietary derived nutrients and may help prevent CVD. The aims with this thesis were to: 1) examine the validity and reproducibility of food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ)-based Total Antioxidant Capacity estimates. 2) examine whether Total Antioxidant Capacity of diet is associated with the risk of myocardial infarction and stroke among women and if the association is different between CVD-free women and women with CVD history at baseline. 3) examine whether multivitamin supplement use is associated with the risk of myocardial infarction and if the association is different between CVD-free women and women with CVD history at baseline. 4) examine whether multivitamin supplement use is associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) by quantitatively summarizing accumulated evidence with a meta-analytic approach. The main contributors to Total Antioxidant Capacity of diet were fruits and vegetables (44%), whole grains (18%) and coffee (14%). The FFQ-based Total Antioxidant Capacity estimate, as measured with Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) assay, correlated with ORAC in whole plasma (r=0.29) and ORAC in the lipophilic part of plasma (r=0.32). Total Antioxidant Capacity of diet was inversely associated with the risk of myocardial infarction (HR in the highest quintile as compared to the lowest = 0.80, 95% CI: 0.67-0.97) and total stroke (HR in the highest quintile as compared to the lowest = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.70-0.99) among women who were CVD-free at baseline. Among women with CVD history Total Antioxidant Capacity of diet was not associated with myocardial infarction and total stroke. Multivitamin use was inversely associated with the risk of myocardial infarction only among CVD-free women and not among women with CVD history. The summarized evidence from 5 prospective cohort studies indicated a 21% (95% CI: 10-30%) decreased CHD risk among CHD/CVD-free study populations at baseline. Taken together, these results suggest that Total Antioxidant Capacity may be of importance in primary prevention of myocardial infarction and stroke. Multivitamin supplement use may be of importance in primary prevention of CHD

Towards Automated Attack Simulations of BPMN-based Processes

Process digitization and integration is an increasing need for enterprises, while cyber-attacks denote a growing threat. Using the Business Process Management Notation (BPMN) is common to handle the digital and integration focus within and across organizations. In other parts of the same companies, threat modeling and attack graphs are used for analyzing the security posture and resilience. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to use attack graph simulations on processes represented in BPMN. Our contributions are the identification of BPMN's attack surface, a mapping of BPMN elements to concepts in a Meta Attack Language (MAL)-based Domain-Specific Language (DSL), called coreLang, and a prototype to demonstrate our approach in a case study using a real-world invoice integration process. The study shows that non-invasively enriching BPMN instances with cybersecurity analysis through attack graphs is possible without much human expert input. The resulting insights into potential vulnerabilities could be beneficial for the process modelers.Comment: Submitted for review to EDOC 202

Drivers of inter-year variability of plant production and decomposers across contrasting island ecosystems

Despite the likely importance of inter-year dynamics of plant production and consumer biota for driving community- and ecosystem-level processes, very few studies have explored how and why these dynamics vary across contrasting ecosystems. We utilized a well characterized system of 30 lake islands in the boreal forest zone of northern Sweden across which soil fertility and productivity vary considerably, with larger islands being more fertile and productive than smaller ones. In this system we assessed the inter-year dynamics of several measures of plant production and the soil microbial community (primary consumers in the decomposer food web) for each of 9 years, and soil microfaunal groups (secondary and tertiary consumers) for each of 6 of those years. We found that for measures of plant production and each of the three consumer trophic levels, inter-year dynamics were strongly affected by island size. Further, many variables were strongly affected by island size (and thus bottom-up regulation by soil fertility and resources) for some years but none in others, most likely due to inter-year variation in climatic conditions. For each of the plant and microbial variables for which we had 9 years of data, we also determined the inter-year coefficient of variation (CV), an inverse measure of stability. We found that CVs of some measures of plant productivity were greater on large islands while those of other measures were greater on smaller islands; CVs of microbial variables were unresponsive to island7 size. We also found that the effects of island size on the temporal dynamics of some variables were related to inter-year variability of macroclimatic variables. As such, our results show that the inter year dynamics of both plant productivity and decomposer biota across each of three trophic levels, as well as the inter-year stability of plant productivity, differs greatly across contrasting ecosystems, with potentially important but largely overlooked implications for community and ecosystem processes

Nära vatten

Examensarbetet Nära vatten är ett gestaltningsförslag som visar på hur man kan skapa ett varierat utbud av rekreationsmiljöer i centrala Göteborg med en framtida park på Frihamnens pirer. Resultatet grundar sig på inventeringar och analyser av platsens befi ntliga och framtida situation samt inspiration från parker runtom i världen. Arbetet syftar till att undersöka hur Frihamnens förutsättningar kan förändras och utvecklas genom gestalting.The concept Close to Water is a design proposal that shows how a variety of recreational environments can be created in central Gothenburg with a future park on the piers of Frihamnen. The results are based on studies and analyses of the site’s existing and future situation with inspiration from real parks around the world. The work aims to investigate how the conditions of Frihamnen can change and evolve through design

Zur Analyse von Rezensionen in Feuilletons und Blogs

Hur en bok recenseras i media är viktigt för dess framgång. Litteraturkritik finns i tidningar, tidskrifter, radio och tv. Numera publiceras även litteraturkritik online, exempelvis i forum och i bloggar. I dag kan alla recensera ett verk och publicera sin åsikt så att andra kan ta del av den. Syftet med avhandlingen är att undersöka recensioner av verken I skuggan av min bror av Uwe Timm och Våtmarker av Charlotte Roche. Undersökningsmaterialet består av tysk- och svenskspråkiga recensioner som publicerats i tidningar och i bloggar. Målet med undersökningen är att få reda på vad recensionerna innehåller, vad de berättar om verket. Intressant är också att undersöka om det finns skillnader mellan tysk- och svenskspråkiga recensioner samt hur recensioner i tidningar skiljer sig från bloggrecensioner. Analysen är indelad i två delar. Först behandlas tidningsrecensioner och sedan bloggrecensionerna. Teoridelen innehåller förklaringar till begreppen: reception, förväntningshorisont, recension, litteraturkritik, bedömning och intertextualitet. Analysen visade att de tysk- och svenskspråkiga tidningsrecensionerna liknade varandra i innehåll och uppbyggnad. Framför allt innehöll recensionerna ett speciellt citat ur boken I skuggan av min bror. De båda författarna av verken blev lika lite presenterade i de tyskspråkiga recensionerna som i de svenskspråkiga. Däremot innehöll de flesta recensioner uppgifter om verken, t.ex. förlag, utgivningsår, antal sidor och pris. I jämförelsen med bloggrecensionerna visade det sig att dessa hade en friare form och att de ofta innehöll en betygsskala. En annan märkbar skillnad var att bloggrecensionerna endast hade författarens och verkets namn som rubrik medan tidningsrecensionerna hade helt andra rubriker.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format