Immigrants' and Natives' Unemployment-risk: Productivity Differentials or Discrimination?

Studying the unemployment risk during 1992 to 1995 for a sample of employees in 1991, we find that immigrants from the non-European countries run a risk of unemployment that is twice the corresponding risk for the native workers. There exist substantial unemployment-risk differentials taking into account employees’ demographic and human capital characteristics, the wage-rate in 1991 and systematic sorting of workers across establishments associated with varying unemployment risks. Exaggerating beyond all reasonable limits, the ability differentials (measured in school grades and IQ-tests) between immigrants and natives fails to explain the differences between immigrants and natives in unemployment risks. Our simulations indicate that the observed unemployment-risk differentials between native and non-European workers correspond to ability differentials that are at least as large as the whole range of IQ-scores. Our conclusion is that discriminatory behavior and stereotype beliefs must be involved. Furthermore, we report results indicating that the existing income-gap between immigrants and natives in Sweden is almost entirely due to unequal employment opportunities.Immigration; Unemployment; Discrimination

Is the Swedish Central Government a Wage Leader?

Is the Swedish central government a wage leader? This question is studied empirically in a vector error-correction model using a unique, high quality data set. Private sector salaries are found to be weakly exogenous to the system of equations. This means that the private sector is the wage leader in the long-run model. We also find that salaries in these two sectors do not converge to a common salary in the long-run and that changes in central government salaries do not Granger cause changes in private sector salaries. Together, these findings clearly demonstrate that the central government is not placing undue pressure on salaries in the private sector. The central government is not acting as a wage leader.public sector wages; Sweden; vector error-correction model; wage leadership.

Value-Based Health Care Delivery, Preventive Medicine and the Medicalization of Public Health

The real paradigm shift for healthcare is often stated to include a transition from accentuating health care production and instead emphasize patient value by moving to a ‘value-based health care delivery’. In this transition, personalized medicine is sometimes referred to as almost a panacea in solving the current and future health challenges. In theory, the progress of precision medicine sounds uncontroversial and most welcomed with its promise of a better healthcare for all, with real benefits for the individual patient provided a tailored and optimized treatment plan suitable for his or her genetic makeup. And maybe, therefore, the assumptions underpinning personalized medicine have largely escaped questioning. The use of personalized medicine and the use of digital technologies is reshaping our health care system and how we think of health interventions and our individual responsibility. However, encouraging individuals to engage in preventive health activities possibly avoids one form of medicalization (clinical), but on the other hand, it takes up another form (preventive medicine and ‘self-care’) that moves medical and health concerns into every corner of everyday life. This ought to be of little value to the individual patient and public health. We ought to instead demand proof of these value ideas and the lacking research. Before this is in place critical appraisal and cynicism are requisite skills for the future. Otherwise, we are just listening to visionaries when we put our future health into their hands and let personalized solutions reach into people's everyday life regardless of patient safety and integrity

Do Domestic Educations Even Out the Playing Field? Ethnic Labor Market Gaps in Sweden

The importance of investing in host country-specific human capital such as domestic language proficiency and domestic education is often cited as a determining factor for the labor market success of immigrants. This suggests that entirely domestic educations should even out the playing field providing equal labor market opportunities for natives and immigrants with similar (domestic) educations. This study follows a cohort of students from Swedish compulsory school graduation in 1988 until 2002 in order to document ethnic differences in education, including grades and field of education, and subsequent labor market outcomes. Results indicate both initial differences in youth labor market status and long term differences in employment rates, most notably for those with Non-European backgrounds. Differences in level or field of domestic education cannot explain persistent employment gaps. However, employment gaps are driven by differences among those with secondary school only. No employment or income gaps are found for the university educated.Ethnic minorities; Education; Employment; Discrimination

A Pill for the Ill? : Depression, Medicalization and Public Health

Mental disorders, especially depression, have been increasingly described as a growing burden to global public health. Critics argue, however, that the use of mental health surveys, underlying these descriptions, tends to overestimate the prevalence of mental disorders by not distinguishing everyday experiences of distress from pathological conditions. This medicalization of public health is believed to narrow the focus of public health practices. The aim of this thesis is twofold. The first objective is to describe and analyze experiences with antidepressant treatment for depression as expressed in adverse drug reaction (ADR) reports from patients, i.e. “consumers reports.” A second goal is to conduct a theoretical discussion, by looking at broad societal changes, and analyzing the consequences of mental ill health as a significant public health problem. Special attention will be given to medicalization. Reports of suspected adverse reactions regarding antidepressant mediations were submitted from 2002 to 2009 to an open Internet-based reporting system in Sweden. These were analyzed according to common psychiatric reactions and narrative experiences. Furthermore, a literature overview in a broad and general sense was performed to underpin a theoretical discussion on health, public health, mental ill health and medicalization. The main findings of this thesis were that patients reporting to an open Internet-based system in Sweden seemed, to a large extent, to experience psychiatric ADR symptoms of mental disturbances (sometimes severe), which affected them in many different ways, especially during discontinuation. These reports also suggested a negative doctor-patient interaction from the patient’s perspective. Risks leading to increased medicalization as a result of overdiagnoses of depression were found. Pharmaceuticalization resulting from overprescribed antidepressants was also deemed problematic. According to a theoretical discussion on public health and medicalization, increased medicalization as a result of excessive diagnosing risks individualizing mental problems and may divert the focus from the social and political context of public health. According to patient reports, there seems to be a potential problem as to how patients are diagnosed with depression and prescribed antidepressant medication in the medical encounter. Increased drug treatment risks lead to increased health care costs and potential harm from adverse drug reactions. Overdiagnosis and overtreatment may in turn lead to diminished trust in the health system. If depression is going to be viewed as a growing public health problem, it, therefore, calls for a distinction between ill health problems that are medical and those that are not. Arguments for increased medication must be related to a possible danger of medicalizing social problems and life crises

Digital Twin framework for Extended Reality, by integrating Nachi and SCARA Robot in XR-lab

Digital Twin is a tool used for monitoring systems and controlling systems at a distance; the twining of systems has been around ever since NASA’s Apollo mission; creating a digital twin lets people monitor the system in real-time. A digital twin also allows for modeling, configuration, testing, optimization, and research under dynamic circumstances; it also provides for hazardous free training on systems that can be hard reach, i.e., offshore. Extended reality is a gathering term for all virtual environments VR, AR, MR, and shared VR, the last one allowing a team to monitor a system together without the need for a headset displaying the information. UiT Narvik has an XR lab based on shared VR; here it is possible to create a collaborative environment around a digital twin. This project is centered around creating a digital twin in the XR lab and making a know-how framework to facilitate a base for more digital twins. The thesis has resulted in two digital twin models that can be used in the XR lab, the robots are located at UiT Narvik, and a proposed method for connecting has been made. The models are created in Unity based on the URDF for each robot; controls have been established for controlling the robots inside the XR environment at the same time as controlling the XR lab. The proposed method for communicating with the robots is to use the Open Sound Control protocol and bridge it with python to the OPC UA server connected to the robots. The know-how framework for integrating a digital twin is presented in the result part of the report

Cellular Uptake of Amyloid Forming Proteins Related to Neurodegenerative Disease

Aggregation and deposition of disease-associated protein is a pathological hallmark of several human disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). These diseases are characterized by the formation of amyloid-β (Aβ) and α-synuclein (α-syn) amyloid fibrils, in extracellular and intracellular locations, respectively. Prior to extracellular deposition of Aβ into plaques, Aβ also accumulates within neurons, but the molecular and cellular mechanisms contributing to uptake are not fully understood. Moreover, exact links between disease onset and progression are missing, hindering the development of new disease-modifying therapies.This Thesis describes my research to elucidate how chemical and physical characteristics of Aβ and α-syn, and their ensuing aggregates, influence their cellular uptake. This is important as the endolysosomal system has been implicated as a potential site for onset and progression of disease pathology. Focusing on Aβ uptake I demonstrate that the most aggregation-prone and neurotoxic variant Aβ(1-42) is endocytosed twice as efficiently as Aβ(1-40). I show that the uptake of both variants occurs via clathrin- and dynamin-independent endocytosis, but my work also points to a mechanistic difference; Aβ(1-42) is for example more sensitive to inhibitors of action polymerisation. Further, in studies of Aβ(1-42), I demonstrate that uptake is regulated by small Rho GTPases and highly sensitive to changes in membrane tension, but apparently not via GRAF1-regulated CLIC/GEECs, suggesting the involvement of yet unidentified molecular players. I also show how uptake of pre-formed α-syn fibrils is inversely related to fibril length, and correlates to reductions in metabolic activity, pointing to an important role of cellular uptake and endolysosomal accumulation in toxicity. Lastly, I demonstrate that both monomeric Aβ and fibrillar α-syn are dependent on cell surface proteoglycans for uptake. Importantly, I show that for Aβ this dependency builds up over time, suggesting that local peptide aggregation at the cell surface could precede uptake.Altogether, this Thesis contribute new molecular and mechanistic insights into how cellular uptake contributes to intraneuronal accumulation of amyloidogenic proteins relevant in neurodegenerative disease

Entreprenörskap på landsbygden

Denna kandidatuppsats är skriven inom agronomprogrammet för landsbygdsutveckling. Syftet är att undersöka vilka möjligheter respektive hinder det finns för företagande i Sysslebäck samt på vilket sätt entreprenörerna, genom sina företag, bidrar till en levande landsbygd. Uppsatsen bygger på intervjuer gjorda med personer som driver företag på platsen. För att besvara frågorna har litteratur använts för att kunna göra en analys och förstå vilka faktorer som ligger bakom det som företagarna ger uttryck för och upplever. Begrepp som nätverk, gleshet och ”community” har använts för detta syfte. Studien visar att lagar och regelverk från myndigheter ofta är ett hinder för företagarna. Regler medför ofta stora ekonomiska kostnader för verksamheterna och företagarna uttrycker att de inte känner sig sedda och förstådda av myndigheter, från kommunnivå till EU-nivå. Tillgången till ett nätverk är en viktig del i verksamheten. Genom nätverket kan kunskap bytas och företagets namn få en spridning. Genom nätverket kan företagarna även hämta stöd från andra företagare. På den geografiska platsen finns det hinder, men framför allt stora möjligheter i och med närheten till naturen. Landskapet är en stor ”turistmagnet” som företagarna utnyttjar genom att nischa sina produkter för att locka till sig turister. De hinder som finns är främst kopplade till det låga kundunderlag som finns på platsen. Företagens betydelse för en levande landsbygd gestaltas på olika vis. Bland annat genom skapandet av arbetsmöjligheter, men även genom att agera som inspirationskällor och bidra till att socialt kapital kan skapas bland de boende i bygden.This bachelor thesis is written within the Agriculture Rural Development program. The aim is to examine the opportunities and barriers that exist for entrepreneurs in the village of Sysslebäck and in what way the entrepreneurs, through their companies, contribute to a living countryside. The study is based on interviews conducted with individuals who run businesses in the area. To answer the questions, literature was used to make an analysis of the issues. Concepts such as network, sparsity and community have been used for this purpose. The study shows that laws and regulations from government agencies are often an obstacle for entrepreneurs. Policies often cause large economic costs for businesses and entrepreneurs say that they do not feel seen and understood by authorities, on the municipal level to the European level. Access to a network is an important part of the business. Through the network, knowledge can be exchanged and the company name get spread. Through the network, entrepreneurs can also find support from other entrepreneurs. On the geographic location, there are both barriers but also large opportunities, with proximity to nature. The countryside is a major tourist “magnet” that entrepreneurs use by creating a niche for their products to attract tourists. The obstacles are mainly linked to the low customer base in the local area. The importance of the local entrepreneurs for a living countryside is shown in different ways. Partly through the creation of job opportunities, but also by acting as sources of inspiration and to be a place where social capital can be created with the residents in the area

Fågel, fiende eller mitt i mellan? En studie över ordet nešers betydelse och användning i Gamla Testamentet

This thesis is a study of the Hebrew word nešer, which is the name of the bird most often mentioned in the Old Testament. What kind of bird it is, is not defined in any of the texts in which it occurs, but the modern interpretations call it either an eagle or a vulture. The purpose of this thesis is to see if it is possible to define what kind of bird it is, see how it has been used in the Old Testament texts and to see if there are similarities to the symbolism and usage of similar birds in the literature of nearby cultures. By comparing existing birds with the descriptions of characteristics and behaviors that can be found in the texts, I try to come to a conclusion about which bird nešer most likely refers to, the two most prevalent proposals put forward being the griffon vulture and the golden eagle. Then I look closer at the different texts that contain the word nešer to try and see how it’s being used, and it is in the context of similes and metaphors the nešer is most common. Other nearby cultures with related languages, such as Ugaritic and Akkadian, has words which are directly related to nešer¸ so called cognates, they have the same etymological background and similar import. But even in cultures that do not share the same language, one can see that there are similar concepts, eg the Greek word aetos is used in a similar way, and in the Egyptian myths one can see elements similar to those characterizing nešer. When studying the usage of the word nešer, one can see similarities with the neighboring cultures, but the great difficulty in defining what kind of bird nešer actually is, is that in those passages where it’s used do not give a complete description, the similes used give only small clues on the characteristics and behaviors

The environmental impact of advertising media : when will the environment get a break?

The aim of the thesis was to investigate energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions from an advertisement broadcasted on the radio or the television or distributed through press. The object was to calculate the amount of carbon dioxide emissions per individual receiver of an advertisement in Sweden. There was no room for a deeper investigation into editorial work within the framework of the thesis. Consequently, main focus of the radio and television study was on broadcasting itself and the components involved. Focus for the press study was on paper production, printing and distribution. Production and discarding of media equipment was not taken into account. Life cycle assessment was used to calculate the results. The different media studied were MTG Radio, TV3 and Dagens Nyheter. Similar studies show that time is an important variable when you compare different types of media