Range expansion and the possibility of an emerging contact zone between two subspecies of Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita ssp.

The Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita is represented in Sweden by two different subspecies; the northern well-established abietinus and the southern recently established collybita which has expanded its range northward during the past two decades. At present, an area approximately 500 km wide separates the two subspecies. In order to document differences between the northern and southern populations we compared morphology, vocalisation, habitat choice, and neutral genetic variation in mitochondrial (mt) DNA and at four microsatellite loci of 30 male Chiffchaffs from each subspecies. Our results show significant differences in several morphological traits and in song. Playback experiments revealed a significant difference in aggressive behaviour depending on which population-specific song that was played to the birds. Mitochondrial DNA was geographically structured with similar to 90% of the birds carrying a mt haplotype matching their sample population. No allelic differences at the microsatellite loci were found between populations. Our data demonstrate a substantial differentiation between the northern and southern populations despite gene flow, clearly separating them into the subspecies abietinus and collybita

Clientelism, corruption and the rule of law

It is widely believed that clientelism-the giving of material goods in return for electoral support-is associated with poorer governance outcomes. However, systematic cross-country evidence on the deleterious effects of clientelism on governance outcmes is lacking. In this paper we examine the relationship between political clientelism, corruption and rule of law using cross-country panel data for 134 countries for the period 1900–2018. We distinguish between two manifestations of political clientelism-whether vote buying exists, and whether political parties offer material goods to their constituents in exchange for political support (non-programmatic party linkages). We provide evidence of a negative relationship existing between political clientelism on governance outcomes, with increases in clientelism leading to increased political corruption, and weaker rule of law. We also find that the deleterious effects of political clientelism are mainly through non-programmatic party linkages rather than the practice of vote buying

Anti-windup in mid-ranging control

The implementation of anti-windup methods in mid-rangingcontrol needs further attention. It is demonstrated how use of standard anti-windup schemes may give unnecessary performance degradation during saturation. The problem isillustrated for two separate systems, control of oxygen concentration in a bio-reactor and temperature controlof a cooling system. In the paper, guidelines are derived for how to design the standard anti-windup scheme to recover performance. As an alternative a modified anti-windup scheme for mid-ranging control is presented that minimizes the performance degradation during saturation

Pharmaceutical product modularization as a mass customization strategy to increase patient benefit cost-efficiently

Customized pharmaceutical products aim to comply with the individual needs of a patient to enhance the treatment outcome. The current pharmaceutical production paradigm is, however, dominated by mass production, where the pharmaceutical products embrace a one-size-fits-all design with a low possibility of treatment optimization to patient needs. This production paradigm is not designed or intended for customized pharmaceutical products and operating this production context for customized pharmaceutical products is argued to be cost-inefficient. To address this challenge of inefficient production of customized pharmaceutical products, this study proposes an approach to modular pharmaceutical product design. As a mass customization strategy, product modularization enables serving customers with customized products cost-efficiently. The proposed modular pharmaceutical products integrate three product design requirements originating from patient needs: a scalable dose strength, a flexible target release profile, and a scalable treatment size. An approach to assess the value of these product designs is presented, by means of proposing three benefit metrics complying with respective design requirements and a cost metric assessing the cost of producing these modular pharmaceutical product designs. Results suggest that pharmaceutical product modularization can, by keeping the number of produced components low, substantially increase the external product variety and, hence, enhance the treatment outcome of patients. Fur-thermore, results indicate that the achieved benefit for the patient through product modularization increases beyond additional costs arising during production. However, a careful modularization must be performed to optimize the tradeoff between the increased benefit and cost

Adapting discrete goods supply chains to support mass customisation of pharmaceutical products

Emerging research within the field of personalised medicines has aimed to enhance patient treatment through the use of pharmaceutical products that are customized to the individual needs and preferences of the patient. The currently dominant production platforms of pharmaceutical products, however, regard a mass production paradigm and are thus unfeasible for the production and provision of personalised medicines. The production platforms are not designed or are intended for a customisation context. Operating such a context with the current supply chain entails challenges such as increasing costs, time to patient and efforts in quality assurance activities. To address these challenges, this paper presents four reconfigured pharmaceutical supply chain designs. A qualitative operational performance assessment elicits the strengths and weaknesses of the respective supply chain design operating in a customisation context. The results suggest that a later point of variegation, i.e., the point in the supply chain where the final customisation is achieved, can relieve the operational effort of the stakeholders in the supply chain while providing the benefits of personalised medicines, i.e., an enhanced treatment outcome of the patient. A trade-off remains, however, between the supply chain’s decreased operational effort and degree of necessary reconfigurations, such as introducing new functions to stakeholder operation, reallocating activities to other stakeholders or educating stakeholders

Internhyra i kommuner - En kvalitativ studie av medelstora kommuner i Skåne

Vårt syfte är att beskriva och analysera utformning, använd- ning och syfte med prissättningsmodeller för internhyror i kommunal verksamhet. Studien har genomförts utifrån en hermeneutisk metodansats, och en kvalitativ och en induktiv forskningsstrategi. Empiriskt material har samlats in via semistrukturerade intervjuer. Teorikapitlet är strukturerat för att ge övergripande förståelse för målkongruens, organisationsstruktur och internhyror i kommunal administration. Vi har studerat fem kommuner med ett invånarantal mellan 30 000 och 50 000. Fokus ligger på deras internhyror. Materialet har samlats in genom personliga intervjuer och telefonintervjuer. Vi har funnit att det finns små incitament för de köpande enheterna av lokaler inom kommunerna att resursallokera. Vi tolkar detta som en effekt av den princip om full kostnadstäckning som återfinns i det empiriska materialet

Applying Function-Means Tree Modelling to Personalized Medicines

Recent breakthroughs in diagnostics, genotyping and so forth, has created opportunities to satisfy the individual therapeutic needs of each patient, i.e. treatment can be tailored according to the patient’s biological attributes as well as according to behavioural and environmental factors. Medicines, when tailored to the individual needs are often referred to as personalized medicines. So far, pharmaceutical production platforms are dominated by mass production in a batch manner with limited possibilities to fully satisfy the emerging customization needs of pharmaceutical products. To face the challenge of customization in an economically feasible manner, re-engineering of the product and production concept is inevitable. The aim of the present work is to introduce a novel approach to customize treatments by structural parameterization of the medicinal product concept. The primary adaption is here evaluated for solid oral dosage forms (SODFs), e.g. tablets. The tablet concept is re-designed to embrace a modular architecture. A platform approach, more specifically the Configurable Component (CC) method (Claesson, 2006), is used for efficient configuration of product families. To support the design work, computer-aided design tools are used. The Configurable Component modeller (CCM) (Claesson, op. cit.) is used for the function-means tree modelling of the tablet concept and from this product variants are automatically generated. The properties of the generated product families are then evaluated with regards to following criteria; product variety and manufacturing complexity to identify critical trade-offs

Reduced natriuretic response to acute sodium loading in COMT Gene deleted mice

BACKGROUND: The intrarenal natriuretic hormone dopamine (DA) is metabolised by catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and monoamine oxidase (MAO). Inhibition of COMT, as opposed to MAO, results in a potent natriuretic response in the rat. The present study in anaesthetized homozygous and heterozygous COMT gene deleted mice attempted to further elucidate the importance of COMT in renal DA and sodium handling. After acute intravenous isotonic sodium loading, renal function was followed. RESULTS: COMT activity in heterozygous mice was about half of that in wild type mice and was zero in the homozygous mice. MAO activity did not differ between the genotypes. Urinary sodium excretion increased 10-fold after sodium loading in wild type mice. In heterozygous and homozygous mice, the natriuretic effects of sodium loading were only 29 % and 39 %, respectively, of that in wild type mice. Arterial pressure and glomerular filtration rate did not differ between genotypes. Baseline norepinephrine and DA excretions in urine were elevated in the homozygous, but not in heterozygous, COMT gene deleted mice. Urinary DA excretion increased after isotonic sodium loading in the wild type mice but not in the COMT gene deleted mice. CONCLUSIONS: Mice with reduced or absent COMT activity have altered metabolism of catecholamines and are unable to increase renal DA activity and produce normal natriuresis in response to acute sodium loading. The results support the hypothesis that COMT has an important role in the DA-mediated regulation of renal sodium excretion

Analysis of Neuropeptide S Receptor Gene (NPSR1) Polymorphism in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Polymorphism in the neuropeptide S receptor gene NPSR1 is associated with asthma and inflammatory bowel disease. NPSR1 is expressed in the brain, where it modulates anxiety and responses to stress, but also in other tissues and cell types including lymphocytes, the lungs, and the intestine, where it appears to be up-regulated in inflammation. We sought to determine whether genetic variability at the NPSR1 locus influences the susceptibility and clinical manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).From the Epidemiological Investigation of Rheumatoid Arthritis (EIRA) case-control study, 1,888 rheumatoid arthritis patients and 888 controls were genotyped for 19 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) spanning the entire NPSR1 gene and 220 KB of DNA on chromosome 7p14. The association between individual genetic markers and their haplotypic combinations, respectively, and diagnosis of RA, presence of autoantibodies to citrullinated proteins (ACPA), and disease activity score based on 28 joints (DAS28) was tested. There was no association between diagnosis of RA and NPSR1 variants. However, several associations of nominal significance were detected concerning susceptibility to ACPA-negative RA and disease activity measures (DAS28). Among these, the association of SNP rs324987 with ACPA-negative RA [(p=0.004, OR=0.674 (95% CI 0.512-0.888)] and that of SNP rs10263447 with DAS28 [p=0.0002, OR=0.380 (95% CI 0.227-0.635)] remained significant after correction for multiple comparisons.NPSR1 polymorphism may be relevant to RA susceptibility and its clinical manifestation. Specific alleles at the NPSR1 locus may represent common risk factors for chronic inflammatory diseases, including RA