THE MAP OR THE REALITY? HOW LEVERAGE EFFECTS OF TIME LEAKAGES DISTORT KEY RATIOS IN INFORMATION ECONOMY

This paper addresses specifically leverage effects based on the irreversible nature of time and the Cognitive Time Distortion in economy. In service - and information society, time has received an ever increasing importance, not from the perspective of faster production, but due to the fact that the major part of the economic value of Total Revenues and Total Costs is based on time. In this paper, we demonstrate new mathematical mechanisms in economy due to the irreversible nature of time and Cognitive Time Distortion, and we explore their lever effects. It is presented that the lever effect on return on capital employed may rise to many hundred percent of budgeted outcome. It is concluded that even moderate cognitive time distortions cause substantial deviation in budgeted profit as well as it proves to be a mechanism to large delays. The lever effect due to the time perception is an ever present distortion of a true economic outcome

THE MAP OR THE REALITY? HOW LEVERAGE EFFECTS OF TIME LEAKAGES DISTORT KEY RATIOS IN INFORMATION ECONOMY

This paper addresses specifically leverage effects based on the irreversible nature of time and the Cognitive Time Distortion in economy. In service - and information society, time has received an ever increasing importance, not from the perspective of faster production, but due to the fact that the major part of the economic value of Total Revenues and Total Costs is based on time. In this paper, we demonstrate new mathematical mechanisms in economy due to the irreversible nature of time and Cognitive Time Distortion, and we explore their lever effects. It is presented that the lever effect on return on capital employed may rise to many hundred percent of budgeted outcome. It is concluded that even moderate cognitive time distortions cause substantial deviation in budgeted profit as well as it proves to be a mechanism to large delays. The lever effect due to the time perception is an ever present distortion of a true economic outcome

Toll-like Receptors in Airway Inflammation in vitro and in vivo

During evolution a variety of solutions has been developed by different living organisms in order to protect itself from invading potential pathogens and particles. Protection of the host is essential for its survival and involves efficient recognition and elimination of potential pathogens. The recognition is often mediated by pathogen recognition receptors (PRRs). Activation of PRRs is mainly driven by exogenous pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) or endogenous danger associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) and result in secretion of multiple pro-inflammatory cytokines. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are members of the PRR family and the importance of these receptors during pro-inflammatory conditions is addressed in the present thesis, both in vitro and in vivo. In Paper I we showed that farmers and smokers, two groups that are continuously exposed to organic material through daily work at the farm or through tobacco smoke, have an ongoing inflammation in the respiratory tract. It was shown that chronically exposed subjects develop an adaptation to the effects of acute exposure to inhaled organic material. Further, it was demonstrated that exposure in the swine barn was a much stronger pro-inflammatory stimulus than inhaled pure lipopolysaccharide (LPS), in vivo. In Paper II, the gene expression of TLR2 on primary bronchial epithelial cells was demonstrated. This expression was synergistically enhanced by co-stimulation with pro-inflammatory stimuli and glucocorticosteroids. Dust obtained from the swine barn was a more potent pro-inflammatory stimulus than pure LPS or pure peptidoglycan (PGN), in vitro, as already shown in vivo. The secreted pro-inflammatory cytokines from the epithelial cells were diminished by blocking of the TLR2 and TLR4 with monoclonal antibodies, indicating that the pro-inflammatory stimulation was at least partly dependent on TLR2 and TLR4. In paper III we found that TLR2 on blood neutrophils was down-regulated by proinflammatory stimuli, whereas the expression TLR4 and CD14 were unaffected by the pro-inflammatory stimulation, in vitro. The expression of TLR4 and CD14 were increased by the presence of epithelial cells, irrespective of stimulation. Moreover, we showed synergistically enhanced secretion of CXCL8 (IL-8) and sCD14 during coculture compared to single culture condition and a strong positive correlation between CXCL8 and sCD14 in LPS-stimulated co-cultured cells. These findings strongly suggest an active bidirectional cross-talk between alveolar epithelial cells and neutrophils. In paper IV we confirmed what we already had shown in vitro, that TLR2 was down regulated by pro-inflammatory conditions on neutrophils, this time in vivo. We also showed the presence of soluble TLR2 (sTLR2) in BAL and sputum and that this expression was altered in COPD compared to healthy subjects. Moreover, CD14 expression on sputum neutrophils was enhanced compared with blood neutrophils and that the gene expression of CD14 on alveolar macrophages in BAL-fluid was increased in smokers compared with non-smokers. These findings indicate that PRRs expression 2 is altered by smoking per se, but also that the disease, COPD, contributes. This is likely of importance in COPD patho-physiology, in particular for exacerbations, which often are caused by microorganisms. Overall, these studies have shown the involvement of PRRs in several immunological active cell types during pro-inflammatory conditions. A better understanding of the mechanisms behind PRRs regulation and outcome would potentially benefit drug development and in the end many patients with inflammatory diseases

Äga rum: Offentliga rum betraktade i ett politiskt perspektiv, fallet Pristina

In order to fully grasp the phenomena 'City' we must understand its political structure as an integrated part of its physical structure and vice versa. This thesis focuses on one crucial element of the City, the public space, and discusses it in relation to the public realm, or sphere, of the City. The aim is to see if it is possible to conceive public space as a spatial dimension of power, and if so, how to analyse this. With the help of the theoretical tool of two ideal types of the configuration of public space, "The city as civic public life" and "The city as authoritarian control" an empirical study is carried out on the case of Prishtina, capital of Kosovo. Conclusions made are that function and use of a city's public spaces can be understood in relation to changes in the political climate of the society. Furthermore, a void in the asset of concepts offered by the ideal types is found ? and therefore also need for new concepts to describe and understand a public space undergoing a dynamic transformation, as being a part of a city in political transition

Dörren står öppen, men torka av skorna! En uppsats om statliga normer för ungdomars politiska organisering

En betydande del av Sveriges nationella ungdomspolitik syftar till att ge ungdomar större inflytande över samhällsutvecklingen. De målformuleringar som staten skapat genom bland annat regeringens liggande ungdomspolitiska proposition, har intresserat oss. Denna uppsats behandlar de normer som staten, genom olika dokument och skrifter, konstruerar för hur ungdomars politiska engagemang bör organiseras och tas till vara. Med hjälp av kvalitativ textanalys har vi sökt identifiera dessa normer i vårt utvalda material, för att sedan på en hög abstraktionsnivå diskutera vad dessa kan få för effekter för det demokratiska styrelsesättet. Vår slutsats är att det saknas en medvetenhet om de vidare implikationer som den nationella ungdomspolitiken får, och vi efterlyser därmed en bredare diskussion i ämnet

The miRNA Plasma Signature in Response to Acute Aerobic Exercise and Endurance Training

MiRNAs are potent intracellular posttranscriptional regulators and are also selectively secreted into the circulation in a cell-specific fashion. Global changes in miRNA expression in skeletal muscle in response to endurance exercise training have been reported. Therefore, our aim was to establish the miRNA signature in human plasma in response to acute exercise and chronic endurance training by utilizing a novel methodological approach. RNA was isolated from human plasma collected from young healthy men before and after an acute endurance exercise bout and following 12 weeks of endurance training. Global miRNA (742 miRNAs) measurements were performed as a screening to identify detectable miRNAs in plasma. Using customized qPCR panels we quantified the expression levels of miRNAs detected in the screening procedure (188 miRNAs). We demonstrate a dynamic regulation of circulating miRNA (ci-miRNA) levels following 0 hour (miR-106a, miR-221, miR-30b, miR-151-5p, let-7i, miR-146, miR-652 and miR-151-3p), 1 hour (miR-338-3p, miR-330-3p, miR-223, miR-139-5p and miR-143) and 3 hours (miR-1) after an acute exercise bout (P<0.00032). Where ci-miRNAs were all downregulated immediately after an acute exercise bout (0 hour) the 1 and 3 hour post exercise timepoints were followed by upregulations. In response to chronic training, we identified seven ci-miRNAs with decreased levels in plasma (miR-342-3p, let-7d, miR-766, miR-25, miR-148a, miR-185 and miR-21) and two miRNAs that were present at higher levels after the training period (miR-103 and miR-107) (P<0.00032). In conclusion, acute exercise and chronic endurance training, likely through specific mechanisms unique to each stimulus, robustly modify the miRNA signature of human plasma

Bus Frequency Optimization: When Waiting Time Matters in User Satisfaction

Reorganizing bus frequency to cater for the actual travel demand can save the cost of the public transport system significantly. Many, if not all, existing studies formulate this as a bus frequency optimization problem which tries to minimize passengers' average waiting time. However, many investigations have confirmed that the user satisfaction drops faster as the waiting time increases. Consequently, this paper studies the bus frequency optimization problem considering the user satisfaction. Specifically, for the first time to our best knowledge, we study how to schedule the buses such that the total number of passengers who could receive their bus services within the waiting time threshold is maximized. We prove that this problem is NP-hard, and present an index-based algorithm with $(1-1/e)$ approximation ratio. By exploiting the locality property of routes in a bus network, we propose a partition-based greedy method which achieves a $(1-\rho)(1-1/e)$ approximation ratio. Then we propose a progressive partition-based greedy method to further improve the efficiency while achieving a $(1-\rho)(1-1/e-\varepsilon)$ approximation ratio. Experiments on a real city-wide bus dataset in Singapore verify the efficiency, effectiveness, and scalability of our methods

HRV Biofeedback in Neck Pain Effects of Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback in Subjects with Stress-related Chronic Neck Pain: a Pilot study

Abstract Recent studies focusing on autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysfunctions, together with theoretical pathophysiological models of musculoskeletal disorders, indicate the involvement of ANS regulation in development and maintenance of chronic muscle pain. Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback (BF) in increasing HRV and reducing the symptoms of different disorders characterized by ANS aberration. The study investigated the effects of resonance frequency HRV BF on autonomic regulation and perceived health, pain, stress and disability in 24 subjects with stress-related chronic neckshoulder pain. Twelve subjects participated in 10 weekly sessions of resonant HRV BF and were compared to a control group. Subjective reports and HRV measures during relaxation and in response to a standardized stress protocol were assessed for both groups pre-and postintervention. Group X time interactions revealed a significantly stronger increase over time in perceived health (SF-36) for the treatment group, including vitality, bodily pain and social functioning. Interactions were also seen for HRV during relaxation and reactivity to stress. The present pilot study indicates improvement in perceived health over a 10 week intervention with HRV-biofeedback in subjects with chronic neck-pain. Increased resting HRV as well as enhanced reactivity to hand grip and cold pressor tests might reflect beneficial effects on ANS regulation, and suggest that this intervention protocol is suitable for a larger controlled trial