DIGITAL MONSTERS: An empirical analysis of the effect of increasing e-commerce on firms and markets in Sweden

The aim of this thesis is to develop an understanding of how Swedish retailers selling goods on the consumer market and the competition among them have been affected by the growth of e-commerce between the years 2007-2015. Firm specific data from 133 firms have been used together with market specific data estimated from 6850 firms to analyse why some firms do better than others, and which decisions related to e-commerce that have been favourable during the observable period of time. The performance of firms is measured with the development of their market shares between 2007-2015. The study introduces a new variable to measure when firms started using e-commerce, based on when they first mentioned e-commerce in their annual report. The results imply that early entrants in e-commerce have had an advantage, that large incumbent firms do not have any additional advantages and that old firms are stuck in a path dependence and do not use internet retailing to the same extent as younger firms

Strategic water management planning : a guide to management on the farm

Efter en tid av uteblivit nederbörd kommer såväl underjordiska som ovan jordiska vatten magasin att utgöra begränsningen för växtodlingen på platsen. Mängden vatten av det tillgängligaga vatten som förångas från vattenmagasinen beror främst på atmosfärens krav på vatten s.k. evaporationstryck. När vattnet förångas skapas ett underskott i jorden. När detta underskott närmar sig vissningsgränsen är vattenbristen ett faktum. Hur stor skada växtligheten och det mikrobiella livet i jorden beror på jordmån, växtslag, klimat. I detta arbete kommer det beskrivas hur atmosfären påverkar markfukten. Genom experimentell dataanalys utvärderas ett områdes hydrologiska värde i avseende på odlingspotential. Resultatet kommer att presenteras som stor liten eller ingen risk för fuktdeficit. Modellen kommer från Kina, där den används för att planera kulturåtgärder utifrån atmosfärens påverkan på markfukten. I takt med att klimatet förändras kommer livet på jorden som vi känner det också att förändras. Det är viktigt att vi som förvaltare av vår genesamma jord är med att skapa ett jordbruk som inte försämrar eller förändrar möjligheterna att bedriva produktion av mat för kommande generationer. Detta arbete är tänkt att sprida kunskap om det hydrologiska kretsloppet och möjligheterna att själv göra analyser av hur atmosfärens skiftningar påverkar markfukten på gårdsnivå. Och vilken påverkan som man själv som växtodlare i odlingslandskapet kan göra. Författaren till detta arbete har kommit till slutsats att som odlare bör man göra en generell riskbedömning om det föreligger risk för fuktdeficit och om hur detta påverkar möjligheterna att bedriva ett jordbruk med hållbar utveckling. Arbete ska vara till hjälp som en första guide till ett resurssnålt vattenmanagement där målet inte är att tjäna så mycket som möjligt. Att bruka sin jord på hållbart sätt är en minst lika stor utmaning som att fylla hela ladan med pengar.After a period of missed precipitation the underground water facilities will be dried up. How long time your crop can survives without water is depending on your storage capacity in the ground and on the ground. This essay will guide you how to make a basic water management program that will help you to monitor the water balance on a farm level. By summering precipitation and labelling it with incoming water we will get an idea of the potential evaporation this land has to offer. This idea is then transformed throw an experimental equation to construct a water content account where input is rain and evapotranspiration output. If the balance is positive the risk for drought is low. On the outer hand if the balance is low the soil or risk for water deficit. The model comes from China, where it is used to the cultural action due to the atmospheric effects on soil moisture. The climate is changing life on earth as we know it also changing. This work is meant to spread awareness of the hydrological cycle and how the change affects the soil moisture at the farm level. In Sweden there are currently no systematic measurements of soil moisture and without knowledge of the substrate, the result is all too vague. The conclusion is that the best way to run a water management program is by doing a general assessment of how the atmosphere will affects the terms for soilwater and it’s availability at the farm level. Especially if the substrate is poor and the content of biological material are low

Faba Bean Fractions for 3D Printing of Protein-, Starch- and Fibre-Rich Foods

Food 3D printing allows for the production of personalised foods in terms of shape and nutrition. In this study, we examined whether protein-, starch- and fibre-rich fractions extracted from faba beans can be combined to produce fibre- and protein-rich printable food inks for extrusion-based 3D printing. Small amplitude oscillatory shear measurements were used to characterise the inks while compression tests and scanning electron microscopy were used to characterise the freeze-dried samples. We found that rheological parameters such as storage modulus, loss tangent and yield stress were related to ink printability and shape stability. Investigations on the effect of ink composition, infill pattern (honeycomb/grid) and direction of compression on textural and microstructural properties of freeze-dried 3D-printed objects revealed no clear effect of infill pattern, but a strong effect of direction of compression. Microstructure heterogeneity seemed to be correlated with the textural properties of the printed objects

Improving the Interpretation of Small Molecule Diffusion Coefficients

Diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy (DOSY) is increasingly widely used for the analysis of mixtures by NMR spectroscopy, dispersing the signals of different species according to their diffusion coefficients. DOSY is used primarily to distinguish between the signals of different species, with the interpretation of the diffusion coefficients observed usually being purely qualitative, for example to deduce whether one species is bigger or smaller than another. In principle the actual values of diffusion coefficient obtained carry important information about the sizes of different species and on interactions between species, but the relationship between diffusion coefficient and molecular mass is in general a very complex one. Here a recently-proposed analytical relationship between diffusion coefficient and molecular mass for the restricted case of small organic molecules is tested against a wide range of data from the scientific literature, and generalised to cover a range of solvents and temperatures

Clearing the undergrowth: detection and quantification of low level impurities using 19F NMR

A new 19F NMR method, ODYSSEUS, allows low level impurities to be detected without interference from 13C satellites.</p

Pasting and gelation of faba bean starch-protein mixtures

Starch and protein are major components in many foods, contributing to nutritional and textural properties. Understanding how the behaviour and interactions of these components contribute to different textures is important. In this study, mixed gel systems were created with different ratios of starch to protein (constant solid content 12%) extracted from faba bean, a promising crop for locally produced plant-based foods in cold climate regions. The mixed starch-protein gels were characterised in terms of pasting, texture and microstructure. Starch-rich mixtures showed higher water binding and water absorption than samples with higher protein content. A tendency for more efficient hydration in starch-rich samples was confirmed by NMR. Iodine affinity appeared to be lower for high-protein samples, particularly at higher temperatures. Mixtures with high starch content also showed higher viscosity during pasting, higher storage modulus throughout gelation, lower tan delta and lower frequency dependence of the final gel. Characterisation by compression tests showed stronger and more elastic gels with increasing starch content. Light microscopy revealed that starch granules were tightly packed, espe-cially at higher starch content, with protein filling the spaces between starch granules. SEM micrographs revealed a network structure with larger pores and thicker strands in samples with higher starch content. Overall, increasing protein content reduced viscosity during pasting and caused softer gels, likely owing to different gelation and hydration properties of starch and protein

Correlations between RNA and protein expression profiles in 23 human cell lines

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Central Dogma of biology holds, in famously simplified terms, that DNA makes RNA makes proteins, but there is considerable uncertainty regarding the general, genome-wide correlation between levels of RNA and corresponding proteins. Therefore, to assess degrees of this correlation we compared the RNA profiles (determined using both cDNA- and oligo-based microarrays) and protein profiles (determined immunohistochemically in tissue microarrays) of 1066 gene products in 23 human cell lines.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A high mean correlation coefficient (0.52) was obtained from the pairwise comparison of RNA levels determined by the two platforms. Significant correlations, with correlation coefficients exceeding 0.445, between protein and RNA levels were also obtained for a third of the specific gene products. However, the correlation coefficients between levels of RNA and protein products of specific genes varied widely, and the mean correlations between the protein and corresponding RNA levels determined using the cDNA- and oligo-based microarrays were 0.25 and 0.20, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Significant correlations were found in one third of the examined RNA species and corresponding proteins. These results suggest that RNA profiling might provide indirect support to antibodies' specificity, since whenever a evident correlation between the RNA and protein profiles exists, this can sustain that the antibodies used in the immunoassay recognized their cognate antigens.</p