Consideration into any price : an interview study with the group certified forestry entrepreneurs in northern Sweden

Miljöfrågor har i flera år varit ett ämne som engagerat mig. Samhällets intresse för miljön avspeglar sig i den skogspolitik som Sveriges riksdag beslutar om. För att bidra till en hållbar samhällsutveckling har Sveriges riksdag och regering utformat 16 miljömål. Skogen är ett centralt ämne för miljöfrågor samtidigt som den är en ekonomisk resurs. Många livnär sig på skogen. Jag tycker att en balans mellan produktion och miljö är svår att uppnå. Enligt mig är certifiering är ett sätt att försöka skapa en balans mellan produktion och miljö i skogen och ge en tydlig bild över vilka lagar och förordningar som gäller skogsbruket. När jag arbetat med uppsatsen har min huvudfråga varit hur skogsentreprenörernas verksamhet har förändrats sedan de valde att certifiera sig och vilka kostnader certifieringen medför? Skogsbranschen efterfrågar en kostnadsmodell för certifieringen. I mitt arbete kommer jag att arbeta med en klassisk kostnadsmodell. Kostnadsmodellen består av indirekta och direkta kostnadsslag som utgör ett försäljningspris, i detta fall ett pris för att utföra tjänster av PEFC certifierad entreprenör. Syftet med arbetet var att identifiera de kostnadsslag som certifieringen innebär för entreprenörerna. Arbetet inleds med en kontakt på SMF Certifiering AB. SMF Certifiering AB har varit till stor hjälp med att etablera kontakt med entreprenörer. Jag har gjort en kvalitativ undersökning i form av intervjuer där jag gav entreprenörerna utrymmet att själva beskriva hur de upplevt certifieringen. En kvantitativ undersökning hade lett till en numerisk jämförelse med flera motfrågor. Genom att utföra undersökningen kvalitativt fick jag svar på de motfrågor jag upplevt att tidigare studier medfört. Utifrån intervjuerna har jag identifierat fem stycken direkta kostnadsslag och ett flertal indirekta. De direkta kostnadsslagen registreras enligt teori på kostnadsbärare. Som entreprenör utför man ett arbete, en så kallad tjänst. I detta fall tolkar jag tjänsten som kostnadsbärare. Den intäkt som entreprenörer erhåller efter utförd tjänst ska täcka upp för alla kostnader. Detta innebär att de kostnader som uppstår till följd av certifiering och har en direkt påverkan på kostnadsbäraren, tolkas som direkta kostnadsslag. Enligt min tolkning av kostnadsmodellen har samtliga indirekta kostnadsslag påverkan på kostnadsbäraren oavsett om entreprenören är certifierad eller ej, därför har arbetet större fokus på att identifiera direkta kostnadsslag. Entreprenörerna som jag intervjuat menade att de inte får mer betalt för utförda tjänster, de menar att certifieringen kostar bara pengar. Certifierade skogsägare får mer betalt då de säljer certifierat virke. Skogsindustrin kan sälja produkterna dyrare eftersom virket är certifierat. En kostnadsmodell kan bevisa hur mycket certifieringen kostar entreprenören och då kan de kräva att högre pris för utförda tjänster. Dessutom måste PEFC certifiera skogsägare anlita PEFC certifierade skogsentreprenörer, det innebär att skogsentreprenörerna inte kan arbeta utan att vara certifierade idag. Alla åtgärder som utförs i skogen har en direkt effekt naturens utveckling. Det ligger i människans ansvar att vårda den natur som finns. Kan man motivera ökad miljöhänsyn om det bidrar till ekonomisk förlust?Environmental issues have for several years been a subject that engaged me. Society's interest in the environment is reflected in the forestry policy Swedish parliament decides. In order to contribute to sustainable development, the Swedish parliament and government designed 16 environmental targets. Forests are a central topic of environmental issues as well as being an economic resource. Serval people live on the economic profits from the forest. I think that a balance between production and the environment is difficult to achieve. According to me, the certification is one way to try to create a balance between production and the environment in the forest and give a clear picture of what laws and regulations applicable to the forestry sector. When I worked on the paper, my main question was how forest entrepreneurs business has changed since they chose to become certified and which costs the certification entails? The forest industry is demanding a cost model for certification. In my work, I will work with a classic cost model. Cost model consists of direct and indirect expense categories that constitute a sale price, in this case a price to perform services PEFC certified entrepreneur. The aim of this work was to identify the types of costs that certification means for entrepreneurs. The work begins with a contact on SMF Certification AB. SMF Certification AB has been a great help to establish contact with entrepreneurs. I have done a qualitative study in the form of interviews where I gave entrepreneurs the space to themselves describing how they experienced the certification. A quantitative investigation had led to a numerical comparison with several counter-questions. By performing qualitative survey got responses to the counter-questions I experienced that previous studies resulted. Based on the interviews I have identified five direct cost categories and numerous indirect. The direct cost categories registered under the theory of cost carriers. As an entrepreneur to perform the work, called a service. In this case, I interpret the service cost carriers. The revenue that entrepreneurs receive for services rendered will cover all expenses. This means that the costs incurred as a result of certification, and has a direct impact on cost carrier, be interpreted as a direct cost impact. According to my interpretation of the cost model has all the overheads, the impact on cost carrier whether the contractor is certified or not, because the work has a greater focus on identifying the direct cost categories. The entrepreneurs I interviewed said that they do not get paid for services rendered, they mean that certification costs just costs money. Certified forest owners get paid when they sell certified wood. The forest industry can sell products more expensive because the wood is certified. A cost model can prove how much the certification will cost the entrepreneur and then they may require higher price for services rendered. In addition, PEFC certification for forest owners to hire PEFC certified forestry entrepreneurs, it means that forest entrepreneurs can’t work without being certified today. All actions carried out in the forest has a direct effect nature's development. It is in man's responsibility to care for the natural available. Can you justify increasing environmental concerns if it contributes to economic loss

Association of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Depression Polygenic Scores with Lithium Response: A Consortium for Lithium Genetics Study

Response to lithium varies widely between individuals with bipolar disorder (BD). Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) can uncover pharmacogenomics effects and may help predict drug response. Patients (N = 2,510) with BD were assessed for long-term lithium response in the Consortium on Lithium Genetics using the Retrospective Criteria of Long-Term Treatment Response in Research Subjects with Bipolar Disorder score. PRSs for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and schizophrenia (SCZ) were computed using lassosum and in a model including all three PRSs and other covariates, and the PRS of ADHD (β = −0.14; 95% confidence interval [CI]: −0.24 to −0.03; p value = 0.010) and MDD (β = −0.16; 95% CI: −0.27 to −0.04; p value = 0.005) predicted worse quantitative lithium response. A higher SCZ PRS was associated with higher rates of medication nonadherence (OR = 1.61; 95% CI: 1.34–1.93; p value = 2e−7). This study indicates that genetic risk for ADHD and depression may influence lithium treatment response. Interestingly, a higher SCZ PRS was associated with poor adherence, which can negatively impact treatment response. Incorporating genetic risk of ADHD, depression, and SCZ in combination with clinical risk may lead to better clinical care for patients with BD

Association of polygenic score for major depression with response to lithium in patients with bipolar disorder

Lithium is a first-line medication for bipolar disorder (BD), but only one in three patients respond optimally to the drug. Since evidence shows a strong clinical and genetic overlap between depression and bipolar disorder, we investigated whether a polygenic susceptibility to major depression is associated with response to lithium treatment in patients with BD. Weighted polygenic scores (PGSs) were computed for major depression (MD) at different GWAS p value thresholds using genetic data obtained from 2586 bipolar patients who received lithium treatment and took part in the Consortium on Lithium Genetics (ConLi+Gen) study. Summary statistics from genome-wide association studies in MD (135,458 cases and 344,901 controls) from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) were used for PGS weighting. Response to lithium treatment was defined by continuous scores and categorical outcome (responders versus non-responders) using measurements on the Alda scale. Associations between PGSs of MD and lithium treatment response were assessed using a linear and binary logistic regression modeling for the continuous and categorical outcomes, respectively. The analysis was performed for the entire cohort, and for European and Asian sub-samples. The PGSs for MD were significantly associated with lithium treatment response in multi-ethnic, European or Asian populations, at various p value thresholds. Bipolar patients with a low polygenic load for MD were more likely to respond well to lithium, compared to those patients with high polygenic load [lowest vs highest PGS quartiles, multi-ethnic sample: OR = 1.54 (95% CI: 1.18–2.01) and European sample: OR = 1.75 (95% CI: 1.30–2.36)]. While our analysis in the Asian sample found equivalent effect size in the same direction: OR = 1.71 (95% CI: 0.61–4.90), this was not statistically significant. Using PGS decile comparison, we found a similar trend of association between a high genetic loading for MD and lower response to lithium. Our findings underscore the genetic contribution to lithium response in BD and support the emerging concept of a lithium-responsive biotype in BD

Dissecting the Shared Genetic Architecture of Suicide Attempt, Psychiatric Disorders, and Known Risk Factors

Background Suicide is a leading cause of death worldwide, and nonfatal suicide attempts, which occur far more frequently, are a major source of disability and social and economic burden. Both have substantial genetic etiology, which is partially shared and partially distinct from that of related psychiatric disorders. Methods We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 29,782 suicide attempt (SA) cases and 519,961 controls in the International Suicide Genetics Consortium (ISGC). The GWAS of SA was conditioned on psychiatric disorders using GWAS summary statistics via multitrait-based conditional and joint analysis, to remove genetic effects on SA mediated by psychiatric disorders. We investigated the shared and divergent genetic architectures of SA, psychiatric disorders, and other known risk factors. Results Two loci reached genome-wide significance for SA: the major histocompatibility complex and an intergenic locus on chromosome 7, the latter of which remained associated with SA after conditioning on psychiatric disorders and replicated in an independent cohort from the Million Veteran Program. This locus has been implicated in risk-taking behavior, smoking, and insomnia. SA showed strong genetic correlation with psychiatric disorders, particularly major depression, and also with smoking, pain, risk-taking behavior, sleep disturbances, lower educational attainment, reproductive traits, lower socioeconomic status, and poorer general health. After conditioning on psychiatric disorders, the genetic correlations between SA and psychiatric disorders decreased, whereas those with nonpsychiatric traits remained largely unchanged. Conclusions Our results identify a risk locus that contributes more strongly to SA than other phenotypes and suggest a shared underlying biology between SA and known risk factors that is not mediated by psychiatric disorders.Peer reviewe

Genetic Overlap Between Alzheimer’s Disease and Bipolar Disorder Implicates the MARK2 and VAC14 Genes

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) and bipolar disorder (BIP) are complex traits influenced by numerous common genetic variants, most of which remain to be detected. Clinical and epidemiological evidence suggest that AD and BIP are related. However, it is not established if this relation is of genetic origin. Here, we applied statistical methods based on the conditional false discovery rate (FDR) framework to detect genetic overlap between AD and BIP and utilized this overlap to increase the power to identify common genetic variants associated with either or both traits. Methods: We obtained genome wide association studies data from the International Genomics of Alzheimer's Project part 1 (17,008 AD cases and 37,154 controls) and the Psychiatric Genetic Consortium Bipolar Disorder Working Group (20,352 BIP cases and 31,358 controls). We used conditional QQ-plots to assess overlap in common genetic variants between AD and BIP. We exploited the genetic overlap to re-rank test-statistics for AD and BIP and improve detection of genetic variants using the conditional FDR framework. Results: Conditional QQ-plots demonstrated a polygenic overlap between AD and BIP. Using conditional FDR, we identified one novel genomic locus associated with AD, and nine novel loci associated with BIP. Further, we identified two novel loci jointly associated with AD and BIP implicating the MARK2 gene (lead SNP rs10792421, conjunctional FDR=0.030, same direction of effect) and the VAC14 gene (lead SNP rs11649476, conjunctional FDR=0.022, opposite direction of effect). Conclusions: We found polygenic overlap between AD and BIP and identified novel loci for each trait and two jointly associated loci. Further studies should examine if the shared loci implicating the MARK2 and VAC14 genes could explain parts of the shared and distinct features of AD and BIP

The genetics of the mood disorder spectrum:genome-wide association analyses of over 185,000 cases and 439,000 controls

Background Mood disorders (including major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder) affect 10-20% of the population. They range from brief, mild episodes to severe, incapacitating conditions that markedly impact lives. Despite their diagnostic distinction, multiple approaches have shown considerable sharing of risk factors across the mood disorders. Methods To clarify their shared molecular genetic basis, and to highlight disorder-specific associations, we meta-analysed data from the latest Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) genome-wide association studies of major depression (including data from 23andMe) and bipolar disorder, and an additional major depressive disorder cohort from UK Biobank (total: 185,285 cases, 439,741 controls; non-overlapping N = 609,424). Results Seventy-three loci reached genome-wide significance in the meta-analysis, including 15 that are novel for mood disorders. More genome-wide significant loci from the PGC analysis of major depression than bipolar disorder reached genome-wide significance. Genetic correlations revealed that type 2 bipolar disorder correlates strongly with recurrent and single episode major depressive disorder. Systems biology analyses highlight both similarities and differences between the mood disorders, particularly in the mouse brain cell-types implicated by the expression patterns of associated genes. The mood disorders also differ in their genetic correlation with educational attainment – positive in bipolar disorder but negative in major depressive disorder. Conclusions The mood disorders share several genetic associations, and can be combined effectively to increase variant discovery. However, we demonstrate several differences between these disorders. Analysing subtypes of major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder provides evidence for a genetic mood disorders spectrum

Bipolar multiplex families have an increased burden of common risk variants for psychiatric disorders.

Multiplex families with a high prevalence of a psychiatric disorder are often examined to identify rare genetic variants with large effect sizes. In the present study, we analysed whether the risk for bipolar disorder (BD) in BD multiplex families is influenced by common genetic variants. Furthermore, we investigated whether this risk is conferred mainly by BD-specific risk variants or by variants also associated with the susceptibility to schizophrenia or major depression. In total, 395 individuals from 33 Andalusian BD multiplex families (166 BD, 78 major depressive disorder, 151 unaffected) as well as 438 subjects from an independent, BD case/control cohort (161 unrelated BD, 277 unrelated controls) were analysed. Polygenic risk scores (PRS) for BD, schizophrenia (SCZ), and major depression were calculated and compared between the cohorts. Both the familial BD cases and unaffected family members had higher PRS for all three psychiatric disorders than the independent controls, with BD and SCZ being significant after correction for multiple testing, suggesting a high baseline risk for several psychiatric disorders in the families. Moreover, familial BD cases showed significantly higher BD PRS than unaffected family members and unrelated BD cases. A plausible hypothesis is that, in multiplex families with a general increase in risk for psychiatric disease, BD development is attributable to a high burden of common variants that confer a specific risk for BD. The present analyses demonstrated that common genetic risk variants for psychiatric disorders are likely to contribute to the high incidence of affective psychiatric disorders in the multiplex families. However, the PRS explained only part of the observed phenotypic variance, and rare variants might have also contributed to disease development

När vågen kommer. Studier av och reflektioner över svensk katastrofjournalistik

Studier av och reflektioner över svensk katastrofjournalistik. Vi har med vår undersökning försökt utreda i vilken riktning journalistiken i Sverige har utvecklats mellan två stora kriser, Estonia (1994) och Tsunamin (2004), mot bakgrund av de olika teoretiska perspektiv som beskrivits ovan

The sixth wave of mergers and acquisitions. A case study investigating a Hong Kong based company’s investment in Sweden

Since the late 1800 companies have performed mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in order to expand their businesses. The characteristics of M&As have altered along with the globalization of our world and the different trends have been divided into five different waves. Recently there has been evidence found supporting a sixth wave, that is, where companies originating from emerging economies acquire or merge with companies in developed economies rather than the opposite. This phenomena and the integration process that they face is what this study aims at investigating and the purpose is to investigate whether the existing M&A literature can be applied to this sixth wave or not. To be able to find answers to the problem statement a single case study was performed on a Hong Kong based company taking over the operation of the Stockholm subway and interviews were conducted at various levels within the company. What was found was that an important contributing factor as to why integration of this kind might be problematic is the lack of comprehension of the different cultures and that the communication between employer and employee is obstructed as a result of this. What can be concluded from this study is that irrespectively of the nationalities of companies taking part of M&As the problems encountered during the integration process are the same, thus, the current M&A literature focusing on Western companies performing M&As on companies in emerging markets is applicable to the sixth wave as well