IT and telecom companies in Kista Science City, Northern Stockholm

The Kista area north of Stockholm is a symbol of Sweden’s IT and telecom sector, which has great importance for the economy and working life. The report gives a current, empirically founded description of the IT sector in Kista (including the districts Akalla and Husby), which to a high extent previously has not been available. What do the establishments in Kista look like and what are the relations between them? The management of one hundred IT and telecom establishments in Kista with up to 200 employees have answered a substantial number of survey questions about their activities, their staff and about Kista. The report is descriptive and includes a short description of Kista’s history from the ideas of a city with an integration of work, housing and services until today’s Kista Science City, the year of establishment, number and size of the IT establishments in Kista and their activities. Some results in brief are: • Most of the companies have developed during the last five to ten years. • They are to a very high degree focused on IT and telecom. The most common activity is consulting followed by production of software, R&D and commerce. • More than half of the establishments have an exchange of experiences with other companies in Kista, and almost half of them are involved in strategic cooperation within e.g. development, production and marketing. • Quite a few outsource IT activities to other companies and work as subcontractors to them, but only a limited part of the contracts are with companies in Kista. The networks are regional and international rather than local. • About a quarter cooperate with interactive media companies in Stockholm. • The managements are throughout satisfied with Kista. On all the five factors they see as most important for their operations, Kista comes out well: communications, telecom, premises, competent staff and customers. Kista also comes out well on the criterion proximity to university; although few regard this as important, which is discussed in the report. • One fifth of the employees are women and the top manager is a woman in less then ten per cent of the establishments. • The average age of employees is 38 years. • The staff is well educated, almost 70 percent have three years university education or more. Still, managements view learning on the establishment as the most important source of skills. Perhaps university education is taken for granted.

Modelling the effects of the infectious environment on pig growth and intake

Sub-clinical disease can have large effects on animal production with significant economic consequences. Animal health and welfare are increasingly important criteria in animal production, and the removal of antibiotic growth promoters has added pressure on production systems. No general model has yet been proposed for predicting the growth and performance of animals exposed to pathogens. A robust framework for predicting growth during health and disease may assist in the design of nutritional, environmental and genetic management strategies. A core part of any animal growth model is how it predicts the partitioning of dietary protein and energy to protein and lipid retention for different genotypes at different degrees of maturity. Solutions proposed in the literature to the partitioning problem were described in detail and criticised in relation to their scope, generality and economy of parameters (Chapter 1). They all raised the issue, often implicitly, of the factors that affect the net marginal efficiency of using absorbed dietary protein for protein retention. Partitioning rules that withstood qualitative criticisms were then tested against literature data and a general quantitative partitioning rule was concluded for that had two key parameters: the maximum marginal efficiency of protein retention and the energy to protein ratio at which the maximum efficiency is achieved (Chapter 2). A general rule was identified which was able to predict protein retention for both protein and energy limiting diets in healthy animals. In Chapter 3 a general model was developed for predicting effects of sub-clinical pathogen challenges of different doses and virulence on the intake of animals. Pathogen induced anorexia is the major consequence on hosts during the course of infection. The model was for the period from recognition of a pathogen through to acquisition and subsequent expression of immunity. It is crucial to define the pathogen challenge (in terms of dose and virulence) and the degree of resistance of different hosts, when comparing their responses in RFI. There is no general agreement on the consequences of pathogen challenges, other than anorexia, that need to be included in a predictive framework of growth. In Chapter 4 literature data was reviewed for different kinds of pathogen challenges of a range of hosts to identify reductions in growth beyond that caused by anorexia: these were host, dose and time dependent. In only some instances did anorexia fully explain the reductions in growth. Solutions were needed for describing the protein costs of innate and acquired immune responses and repair of damaged tissues. Increased energy requirements depended on immune responses, repair of damage and fever. In Chapter 5 a framework was proposed that predicts the performance of different genotypes (in terms of growth potential and disease resistance) when challenged by different doses of pathogens and given access to different foods. The model predicts amino acid and energy requirements due to growth and immune responses, and a partitioning rule was developed for partitioning scarce resources between growth and immune responses. Predictions can be made on the performance of different animal genotypes when they are given access to different quality foods and exposed to pathogens. The development of the model and its predictions, together with future testing, may contribute significantly towards our understanding of nutrition and genotype interactions during exposure to pathogens

Respiratory Modulation in Permanent Atrial Fibrillation

Several studies have shown that the autonomic nervous system (ANS) can induce changes during atrial fibrillation (AF). There is currently a lack of methods for quantifying ANS induced variations during AF. The purpose of this study is to quantify respiratory induced modulation in the f-wave frequency trend. Following qrst-cancellation, the local f-wave frequency is estimated by fitting a harmonic f-wave model signal and a quality index (SQI) is computed based on the model fit. The resulting frequency trend is filtered using a narrow bandpass filter with a center frequency corresponding to the local respiration rate. The magnitude of the respiratory induced f-wave frequency modulation is estimated by the envelope of the filtered frequency trend. The performance of the method is validated using simulations and the method is applied to analyze ECG data from eight patients with permanent AF recorded during 0.125 Hz frequency controlled respiration before and after the full vagal blockade, respectively. Results from simulated data show the magnitude of the respiratory induced f-wave frequency modulation can be estimated with an error of less than = 0.005Hz if the SQI is above 0.45. The signal quality was sufficient for analysis in 7 out of 8 patients. In 4 patients the magnitude decreased and in 3 patients there was no change

Övergång från dygnstjänstgöring till delade dygnspass inom ambulanssjukvården

Bakgrund: Ökat antal uppdrag inom ambulanssjukvården har lett till att dygnstjänstgöring tagits bort och det införts delade dygnspass då personal inte fick någon tid för återhämtning. Studier visar att för lite sömn ger negativ påverkan på patientsäkerhet och trafiksäkerhet. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur ambulanspersonal uppfattar arbetsmiljö-, patientsäkerhet- och trafiksäkerhetsaspekter efter organisatoriskt förändrade arbetstider. Metod: Studien genomfördes med hjälp av en enkät med en kvantitativ ansats. Statistikprogrmmet SPSS användes för beräkningar och chi-2-test. Resultat: Kvinnor drabbades av huvudvärk i större utsträckning än män anslutning till ett arbetspass. En majoritet (84 %) önskar fortsätta med delade dygnspass. Slutsats: Resultatet i denna studie visade att respondenterna är positiv inställda till delade dygnspass, men besväras i stor utsträckning av bland annat huvudvärk, problem med magen samt ryggbesvär

IT and telecom companies in Kista Science City, Northern Stockholm

The Kista area north of Stockholm is a symbol of Sweden’s IT and telecom sector, which has great importance for the economy and working life. The report gives a current, empirically founded description of the IT sector in Kista (including the districts Akalla and Husby), which to a high extent previously has not been available. What do the establishments in Kista look like and what are the relations between them? The management of one hundred IT and telecom establishments in Kista with up to 200 employees have answered a substantial number of survey questions about their activities, their staff and about Kista. The report is descriptive and includes a short description of Kista’s history from the ideas of a city with an integration of work, housing and services until today’s Kista Science City, the year of establishment, number and size of the IT establishments in Kista and their activities. Some results in brief are: • Most of the companies have developed during the last five to ten years. • They are to a very high degree focused on IT and telecom. The most common activity is consulting followed by production of software, R&D and commerce. • More than half of the establishments have an exchange of experiences with other companies in Kista, and almost half of them are involved in strategic cooperation within e.g. development, production and marketing. • Quite a few outsource IT activities to other companies and work as subcontractors to them, but only a limited part of the contracts are with companies in Kista. The networks are regional and international rather than local. • About a quarter cooperate with interactive media companies in Stockholm. • The managements are throughout satisfied with Kista. On all the five factors they see as most important for their operations, Kista comes out well: communications, telecom, premises, competent staff and customers. Kista also comes out well on the criterion proximity to university; although few regard this as important, which is discussed in the report. • One fifth of the employees are women and the top manager is a woman in less then ten per cent of the establishments. • The average age of employees is 38 years. • The staff is well educated, almost 70 percent have three years university education or more. Still, managements view learning on the establishment as the most important source of skills. Perhaps university education is taken for granted

IT and telecom companies in Kista Science City, Northern Stockholm

The Kista area north of Stockholm is a symbol of Sweden’s IT and telecom sector, which has great importance for the economy and working life. The report gives a current, empirically founded description of the IT sector in Kista (including the districts Akalla and Husby), which to a high extent previously has not been available. What do the establishments in Kista look like and what are the relations between them? The management of one hundred IT and telecom establishments in Kista with up to 200 employees have answered a substantial number of survey questions about their activities, their staff and about Kista. The report is descriptive and includes a short description of Kista’s history from the ideas of a city with an integration of work, housing and services until today’s Kista Science City, the year of establishment, number and size of the IT establishments in Kista and their activities. Some results in brief are: • Most of the companies have developed during the last five to ten years. • They are to a very high degree focused on IT and telecom. The most common activity is consulting followed by production of software, R&D and commerce. • More than half of the establishments have an exchange of experiences with other companies in Kista, and almost half of them are involved in strategic cooperation within e.g. development, production and marketing. • Quite a few outsource IT activities to other companies and work as subcontractors to them, but only a limited part of the contracts are with companies in Kista. The networks are regional and international rather than local. • About a quarter cooperate with interactive media companies in Stockholm. • The managements are throughout satisfied with Kista. On all the five factors they see as most important for their operations, Kista comes out well: communications, telecom, premises, competent staff and customers. Kista also comes out well on the criterion proximity to university; although few regard this as important, which is discussed in the report. • One fifth of the employees are women and the top manager is a woman in less then ten per cent of the establishments. • The average age of employees is 38 years. • The staff is well educated, almost 70 percent have three years university education or more. Still, managements view learning on the establishment as the most important source of skills. Perhaps university education is taken for granted

A transcriptional timetable of autumn senescence

BACKGROUND: We have developed genomic tools to allow the genus Populus (aspens and cottonwoods) to be exploited as a full-featured model for investigating fundamental aspects of tree biology. We have undertaken large-scale expressed sequence tag (EST) sequencing programs and created Populus microarrays with significant gene coverage. One of the important aspects of plant biology that cannot be studied in annual plants is the gene activity involved in the induction of autumn leaf senescence. RESULTS: On the basis of 36,354 Populus ESTs, obtained from seven cDNA libraries, we have created a DNA microarray consisting of 13,490 clones, spotted in duplicate. Of these clones, 12,376 (92%) were confirmed by resequencing and all sequences were annotated and functionally classified. Here we have used the microarray to study transcript abundance in leaves of a free-growing aspen tree (Populus tremula) in northern Sweden during natural autumn senescence. Of the 13,490 spotted clones, 3,792 represented genes with significant expression in all leaf samples from the seven studied dates. CONCLUSIONS: We observed a major shift in gene expression, coinciding with massive chlorophyll degradation, that reflected a shift from photosynthetic competence to energy generation by mitochondrial respiration, oxidation of fatty acids and nutrient mobilization. Autumn senescence had much in common with senescence in annual plants; for example many proteases were induced. We also found evidence for increased transcriptional activity before the appearance of visible signs of senescence, presumably preparing the leaf for degradation of its components

The Cultural Evolution of Democracy: Saltational Changes in A Political Regime Landscape

Transitions to democracy are most often considered the outcome of historical modernization processes. Socio-economic changes, such as increases in per capita GNP, education levels, urbanization and communication, have traditionally been found to be correlates or ‘requisites’ of democratic reform. However, transition times and the number of reform steps have not been studied comprehensively. Here we show that historically, transitions to democracy have mainly occurred through rapid leaps rather than slow and incremental transition steps, with a median time from autocracy to democracy of 2.4 years, and overnight in the reverse direction. Our results show that autocracy and democracy have acted as peaks in an evolutionary landscape of possible modes of institutional arrangements. Only scarcely have there been slow incremental transitions. We discuss our results in relation to the application of phylogenetic comparative methods in cultural evolution and point out that the evolving unit in this system is the institutional arrangement, not the individual country which is instead better regarded as the ‘host’ for the political system