A refamilialized system? An analysis of recent developments of personal assistance in Sweden

The Swedish system of disability support is often praised for its comparably well-developed Personal Assistance (PA) scheme. PA is formally prescribed as a social right for disabled people with comprehensive support needs in the Act Concerning Support and Services to Persons with Certain Functional Impairments (LSS). In the decade following the introduction of LSS in 1994, the PA-scheme expanded steadily to accommodate the support needs of more and more disabled people. It is commonly believed that the expansion of PA has substantially boosted the agency of both disabled people and their relatives. This article critically discusses in what direction the Swedish system of disability support has moved in the past decade. Is the common image of a system moving towards an ever increasing defamilialization of disability support still accurate? Or are there signs of stagnation, or even reversal towards refamilialization? What are the possible consequences of the more recent developments for disabled people and their relatives in terms of agency and equality? These questions will be discussed with the help of an analysis of the regulatory framework of disability support, statistical data and findings from public reports

Stopping power and collective flow of nuclear matter in the reaction Ar+Pb at 0.8 GeV/u

Charged-particle exclusive data for Ar+Pb collisions at 0.772 GeV/u are analyzed in terms of collective variables for the event shapes in momentum space. Semicentral collisions lead to sidewards flow whereas nearly head-on collisions have spherical shapes in the c.m. frame, resulting from complete stopping of projectile motion. The hydrodynamical model predictions agree qualitatively with the data whereas the standard cascade model disagrees, lacking in stopping power and collective flow

Collective motion in nucleus-nucleus collisions at 800 MeV/nucleon

Semicentral Ar+KCl, La+La, and Ar+Pb collisions at 800 MeV/nucleon were studied using a streamer chamber. The results are analyzed in the framework of the transverse momentum analysis and in terms of the average sphericity matrix. A critical examination of the analysis procedures, both experimental and theoretical, is given. New procedures are described to account for overall momentum conservation in the reaction, and to correct for azimuthal variations in the detection efficiency. Average transverse momenta per nucleon in the reaction plane are presented for deuterons emitted in the forward hemisphere, as these provide the most reliable information. A Vlasov-Uehling-Uhlenbeck calculation with a stiff equation of state gives a good fit to the momenta in the Ar+Pb reaction. Flow effects parametrized further using the sphericity tensor are found stronger than in the cascade model and consistently weaker than predicted by hydrodynamics. Parameters from the sphericity tensor exhibit a larger variation as a function of multiplicity than do the average momenta per nucleon

Magyar Geofizika 1988

Introduction Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic psychiatric disease which can take most different and unpredictable courses. It is accompanied by unspecific brainstructural changes and cognitive decline. The neurobiological underpinnings of these processes are still unclear. Emerging evidence suggests that tryptophan catabolites (TRYCATs), which involve all metabolites of tryptophan towards the kynurenine (KYN) branch, are involved in the etiology as well as in the course of BD. They are proposed to be mediators of immune-inflammation and neurodegeneration. In this study we measured the levels of KYN and its main catabolites consisting of the neurotoxic hydroxykynurenine (3-HK), the more neuroprotective kynurenic acid (KYNA) and anthranilic acid (AA) and evaluated the ratios between end-products and substrates as proxies for the specific enzymatic activity (3-HK/KYN, KYNA/KYN, AA/KYN) as well as 3-HK/KYNA as a proxy for neurotoxic vs. neuroprotective end-product relation in individuals with BD compared to healthy controls (HC). Methods We took peripheral TRYCAT blood levels of 143 euthymic to mild depressive BD patients and 101 HC. For statistical analyses MANCOVA's controlled for age, sex, body mass index, cardiovascular disease and smoking were performed. Results The levels of KYNA (F=5,579; p<.05) were reduced in BD compared to HC. The enzymatic activity of the kynurenine-3-monooxygenase (KMO) reflected by the 3-HK/KYN ratio was increased in BD individuals compared to HC (F=5,394; p<.05). Additionally the ratio of 3-HK/KYNA was increased in individuals with BD compared to healthy controls (F=11,357; p<.01). Discussion In conclusion our findings subserve the concept of KYN -pathway alterations in the pathophysiology of BD. We present evidence of increased breakdown towards the neurotoxic branch in KYN metabolism even in a euthymic to mild depressive state in BD. From literature we know that depression and mania are accompanied by inflammatory states which should be capable to produce an even greater imbalance due to activation of key enzymes in the neurotoxic direction of KYN -conversion. These processes could finally be involved in the development of unspecific brain structural changes and cognitive deficits which are prevalent in BD. Further research should focus on state dependent changes in TRYCATs and its relation to cognition, brain structure and staging parameters

Institutional fragmentation and social service variations : A Scandinavian comparison

The Scandinavian welfare states – Denmark, Norway, and Sweden – are usually assumed to constitute a coherent and unique social service model, characterized among other things by a high level of universalism. This thesis questions the existence of such a model. It presents cross-country data, which demonstrate that only Denmark complies with the image of the Scandinavian social service model, while Norway and Sweden deviate significantly. Norwegian childcare services and Swedish elderlycare services do not stand out as particularly universalistic in comparison with other Western European countries. Altogether it seems that the Scandinavian countries in terms of social service universalism form a less coherent group than often believed. The main aim of this thesis is to explain this lack of coherence among the Scandinavian social service systems and to understand variations between different service fields. Two main questions are raised: First, why do the Scandinavian countries display different levels of social service universalism? Second, why are there different developments in the Swedish welfare state as to the level of social service universalism between the two major social service fields of childcare and elderlycare? In order to answer these questions, an institutionalist approach is chosen, focusing on the impact of institutional fragmentation in the implementation process between the central government level on one hand and local governments and NGOs on the other. It is hypothesized that a low level of institutional fragmentation implying a concentration of policy-specific authority on the central state level is a positive precondition for the achievement of social service universalism, whereas a high level of institutional fragmentation providing municipalities and/or NGOs with veto points against universalistic social service policies instead has a detrimental impact on the prospects of social service universalism. Empirical data drawing on public documents and national statistics support this hypothesis: In those countries and in those social service fields where a strong concentration of implementative decision making exists, a stronger level of social service universalism has been accomplished than in those where the implementative decision making is heavily fragmented between the central government on one hand and municipalities and/or NGOs on the other. This finding tentatively indicates that the intra-Scandinavian variations of social service universalism across countries and across policy fields are indeed related to different levels of institutional fragmentation in the implementation process

Severely Incapacitating Mutations in Patients with Extreme Short Stature Identify RNA-Processing Endoribonuclease RMRP as an Essential Cell Growth Regulator

The growth of an individual is deeply influenced by the regulation of cell growth and division, both of which also contribute to a wide variety of pathological conditions, including cancer, diabetes, and inflammation. To identify a major regulator of human growth, we performed positional cloning in an autosomal recessive type of profound short stature, anauxetic dysplasia. Homozygosity mapping led to the identification of novel mutations in the RMRP gene, which was previously known to cause two milder types of short stature with susceptibility to cancer, cartilage hair hypoplasia, and metaphyseal dysplasia without hypotrichosis. We show that different RMRP gene mutations lead to decreased cell growth by impairing ribosomal assembly and by altering cyclin-dependent cell cycle regulation. Clinical heterogeneity is explained by a correlation between the level and type of functional impairment in vitro and the severity of short stature or predisposition to cancer. Whereas the cartilage hair hypoplasia founder mutation affects both pathways intermediately, anauxetic dysplasia mutations do not affect B-cyclin messenger RNA (mRNA) levels but do severely incapacitate ribosomal assembly via defective endonucleolytic cleavage. Anauxetic dysplasia mutations thus lead to poor processing of ribosomal RNA while allowing normal mRNA processing and, therefore, genetically separate the different functions of RNase MRP