Cortical phase changes measured using 7-T MRI in subjects with subjective cognitive impairment, and their association with cognitive function

FSW - Self-regulation models for health behavior and psychopathology - ou

Component Depreciation in Swedish Real State Companies –A study of how private and municipal companies handle K3’s new requirement for component depreciation

Background and problem discussion: From the 1st of January 2014, the K3 framework developed by the Swedish Board for Accounting Standards became mandatory for large Swedish companies. K3 contains a requirement for tangible assets to be divided into components if the difference in consumption of the components was likely to be significant. Also, additional costs are activated in the balance sheet if they fulfill the general asset criteria. Since real estate companies have large populations of tangible assets, they are affected by the new requirement. The K3 framework is principle-based and do not have specific guidance regarding which components should be accounted for and how additional costs should be treated. Instead, accounting professionals urged industry organizations to develop guidelines the companies could use. The way assessments are made and how the framework is interpreted can also be connected to the accounting motives within the organization. Private and municipal real estate companies are different in their ownership structures and can therefore make different assessments and alternatives for actions. Purpose: The thesis has explored how municipal and private companies handled the requirement for component accounting in practice, and how their choices are affected by institutional forces such as guidance from industry organizations as well as accounting motives emerging from their ownership structures. Methodology: The thesis has been based on a qualitative method where in-depth interviews have been made with CFOs in municipal and private real estate companies. By applying existing knowledge in the field on the empirics a deductive approach has been used. Analysis and conclusion: The study has showed that all companies have used guidance from industry organizations to prepare their component accounting, but that the municipal companies would have appreciated more specific guidance. The auditors have played a minor role in the implementation, but they had a principlebased approach in their advising. The thesis has also concluded that municipal companies made more detailed component plans than private companies and that they thought the new framework provided a more true and fair view for the users of their financial reports. The private companies strived to simplify the division of components as much as possible to reduce costs and to put resources on actions that maximized the company value in order to satisfy the owners, consistent with PAT. A potential agency problem has been identified in the relatively small municipal companies since the municipal board did not evaluate their earnings targets very thoroughly. Contribution: The study contributes with an overall description of the handling of component depreciation, and that companies address the new demand differently, depending on ownership structure and size of business. It also provides a feedback to the standard setter in terms of deficiencies such as insufficient initial guidance, insufficient knowledge from auditors and decreased comparability in the early stage

Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis to study bacterial community structure in pockets of periodontitis patients

Bacteria are involved in the onset and progression of periodontitis. A promising molecular technique, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), to study microbial population dynamics in the subgingival pocket is presented. Twenty-three samples were taken from the subgingival pockets of nine patients and six healthy family members. From four periodontitis patients, 12 samples were evaluated before, 1 day after and 3 months after treatment. Part of the 16S rRNA gene of all bacteria was amplified by PCR and separated by DGGE, creating banding patterns representative of the community structure. Shifts in composition and diversity of the microbial population could be determined semiquantitatively, and this showed that treatment resulted in a decrease in the diversity of the population. After 3 months a microbial population 33-47% different from the population before treatment had re-established. Intense bands representing Exiguobacterium aurantiacum were present in 13 out of 25 samples, indicating that this species may play a role in periodontal disease

Nucleotide sequence and functional properties of a sodium-dependent citrate transport system from Klebsiella pneumoniae.

The gene of the sodium-dependent citrate transport system from Klebsiella pneumoniae (citS) is located on plasmid pES3 (Schwarz, E., and Oesterhelt, D. (1985) EMBO J. 4, 1599-1603) and encodes a 446-amino acid protein. Transport of citrate via this citrate transport protein (CitS) is dependent on the presence of sodium ions and is inhibited by magnesium ions. The DELTA-pH (pH gradient across the membrane) is the major driving force for uptake. It is postulated that, in analogy with the proton-dependent citrate carrier (CitH) of K. pneumoniae (van der Rest, M. E., Abee, T., Molenaar, D., and Konings, W. N. (1990) Eur. J. Biochem. 195, 71-77), only one of the protonated species of citrate is recognized by CitS and that citrate is translocated across the membrane in symport with protons and sodium ions. The hydrophobicity profile of CitS suggests that the protein is very hydrophobic and contains 12 membrane-spanning segments. These segments are not centered around a hydrophilic core as has been suggested for other transport proteins, but the protein is asymmetrical with seven transmembrane segments in front of a large hydrophilic loop and five after this loop. The amino acid sequence is highly similar to a citrate transport system of Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis var. diacetylactis (CitP) (David, S., van der Rest, M. E., Driessen, A. J. M., Simons, G., and de Vos, W. M. (1990) J. Bacteriol. 172, 5789-5794) and less similar to CitH of K. pneumoniae. We conclude that the citS gene of K. pneumoniae encodes a sodium-dependent citrate transport system that belongs to a novel subclass of transport proteins