Fish and Trips in the Baltic Sea - Prices, Management and Labor Supply

The essay discusses different aspects of the market for fish from the Baltic sea. The first chapter introduces the subject and discusses how the essay relates to fishery economics and gives a background of the development of the fisheries in the Baltic Sea. Prices of different attributes of Baltic cod is the topic of the second chapter. The results show that larger sized and better quality cod have higher prices and that these prices have increased over time. The chapter also shows that quantities have some effect on prices. The third chapter is about the effects on bargaining power when the management system was changed in the Swedish Baltic cod fishery in 2011. The results show that ex-vessel prices have increased due to increased bargaining power of fishers after the reform. The fourth chapter discusses a small-scale herring fishery in the western Baltic sea that was exempted from a system of tradable fishing concessions (TFC-system). The main conclusion is that it is important to build other institutions dealing with the problem of access to quota when exempting a fishery from a TFC-system. Finally, the fifth chapter investigates short run labor supply and the occurrence of revenue targets in the Swedish Baltic cod trawler fishery. The results suggest that there is not much support for fishermen aiming for revenue targets in this fishery

Divide and Conquer: Political Decentralization and Secessionist Suppression in Indonesia and the Philippines

This paper examines the roles of identity-based conflict and secessionist sentiment in motivating and affecting political decentralization in middle-income democracies. The literature on decentralization largely assumes a link between the process and increased political accountability and service delivery effectiveness; however, these theories do not take into account cases in which national crisis and regional instability are the primary motives to decentralize. This paper hypothesizes that when decentralization occurs in direct response to threats of secession, the quality of its political accountability and service delivery mechanisms will be lower than would otherwise be predicted. Two cases are considered: the Philippines, whose decentralization occurred under a stable and well-institutionalized democratic regime, and Indonesia, which radically and rapidly decentralized in the face of high-intensity conflicts in Aceh, Maluku, and Papua. Ultimately, the careful construction and implementation of a moderate devolution program in the Philippines led to success in the areas of political accountability and service delivery, while the more extreme Indonesian program faced long-term challenges and shortcomings in those same areas. Neither country, however, can be said to have successfully eliminated regional separatism or otherwise incorporated discontented groups into their devolved systems, suggesting that this process represents a particular challenge to newly decentralized regimes

Implementing the EU Taxonomy Regulation for Swedish forest owners - EU reporting requirements for sustainable measures

Växthusgaser i atmosfären har ökat stadigt sedan 1800-talet och mängden koldioxid är den växthusgas som har ökat mest. Höga halter av växthusgaser har en negativ inverkan på jorden och dess klimat. Medeltemperaturen för jorden har även den ökat i takt med ökningen av växthusgaser vilket får förödande konsekvenser för bland annat jordens klimat. Det enda sättet att bromsa den destruktiva trenden är att minska utsläppet av växthusgaser. En i raden av många olika incitament och regleringar från politiskt håll för att bidra till begränsningen av klimatförändringarna är Europaparlamentet och rådets förordning 2020/852, även kallad Taxonomin. I januari 2020 klubbades en del av Taxonomin igenom. Taxonomin syftar till att stimulera och styra ekonomiska investeringar till hållbara verksamheter. En av de branscher som behandlas under Taxonomin är skogsbruket. I en bilaga till Taxonomin finns tekniska granskningskriterier som måste uppfyllas för att en fastighet vars produktiva areal överstiger 13 ha ska få klassas som hållbar. I detta arbete har de tekniska granskningskriterierna analyserats och tolkats hur de kommer att påverka de svenska markägarna ifall de vill uppfylla alla kriterier för att få klassas som hållbar. Till att börja med utgår kriterierna från att skogsägaren har en skogsbruksplan över sin fastighet. Utöver alla delar som ingår i en vanlig skogsbruksplan tillkommer flertalet kriterier som måste uppfyllas, exempelvis krävs en riskanalys. Utöver kraven kring skogsbruksplanen ska en klimatnyttoanalys utföras. För att bli klassad som hållbar måste skogsägaren kunna påvisa att denne bedriver ett skogsbruk där fastighetens totala kolmängd inte understiger klimatnyttonalaysens referenscenario. Hur Taxonomin kommer att påverka de svenska markägarna beror på ett flertal aspekter, exempelvis hur mycket en skogsägare tillåts att avverka beror till stor del på vilket referensscenario som väljs i klimatnyttoanalysen. Ekonomisk påverkan kommer främst att bero på hur banker ställer sig till lån och räntor till skogsägare som väljer att följa Taxonomins krav eller inte. För att Taxonomin ska vara tydlig och lättförstådd för skogsägare krävs ett förtydligande från EU, främst kring referensscenariot. Författaren har med denna rapport presenterat vad som krävs för att uppfylla de kriterier Taxonomin ställer samt presenterat ett förslag på hur en klimatnyttoanalys kan redovisas med hjälp av beslutsstödsystemet Heureka PlanVis.Greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere has increased firmly since the 19th century thus the amount of carbon dioxide has increased the most. High emissions of greenhouse gasses truly have a negative impact on earth and on our climate. Rising average temperatures leads to devastating consequences on ecosystem, only stoppable by decreased emissions of greenhouse gasses. One of many different incentives and regulations from the politics limitation of climate change is the European parliament and the council’s regulation 2020/852, also known as the Taxonomy. In January 2020, part of the Taxonomy was established, aiming to stimulate and direct economic investments to sustainable activities. One line of industries that serves under the Taxonomy is the forest industry. In an annex to the Taxonomy there is technical screening criteria to be fulfilled if a forest estate larger than 13-hectare productive land is going to be ruled as sustainable. This study analyses technical screening criteria and interpretations of the Taxonomy annex, and at what stage the Taxonomy affect Swedish landowners if they want to fulfil all the criteria to be ruled as sustainable. At first, landowners need a forest management plan. Beyond all parts usually included in a forest management plan, several criteria must be fulfilled, for example a risk analyse is needed. Beyond the demands regarding the forest management plan a climate benefit analysis needs to be performed. If a landowner wants to be ruled as sustainable, the climate benefit analysis needs to show that total amount of carbon on the estate could not fall short of a reference scenario. How the Taxonomy will affect Swedish landowners depends on several aspects. One example is, how much a landowner is allowed to harvest depends on which reference scenario is chosen in the climate benefit analysis. Economic effects will mostly depend on how the banks decide to deal with loans and interests to landowners who chose to fulfil the demands of Taxonomy or not. If the Taxonomy is going to be clear and easily understood by landowners, a clarification is needed from EU, mostly regarding reference scenario. The author of this report presents what is needed to fulfil the criteria in the Taxonomy, presenting suggestions on how a climate benefit analysis can be presented with help from the program Heureka PlanVis

A self-calibrating system for finger tracking using sound waves

In this thesis a system for tracking the fingers of a user using sound waves is developed. The proposed solution is to attach a small speaker to each finger and then have a number of microphones placed ad hoc around a computer monitor listening to the speakers. The system should then be able to track the positions of the fingers so that the coordinates can be mapped to the computer monitor and be used for human-computer interfacing. The thesis focuses on the proof-of-concept of the system. The system pipeline consists of three parts: signal processing, system self-calibration and real-time sound source tracking. In the signal processing step four different signal methods are constructed and evaluated. It is shown that multiple signals can be used in parallel. The signal method with the best performance uses a number of dampened sine waves stacked on top of each other, with each sound wave having a different frequency within a specified frequency band. The goal was to use ultrasound frequency bands for the system but experimenting showed that they gave rise to a lot of aliasing, thus rendering the higher frequency bands unusable. The second step, the system self-calibration, aims to do a scene reconstruction to find the positions of the microphones and the sound source path using only the received signal transmissions. First the time-difference of arrival (TDOA) values are estimated using robust techniques centred around a GCC-PHAT. The time offsets are then estimated in order to convert the TDOA problem into a time-of-arrival (TOA) problem so that the positions of the receivers and sound events can be calculated. Finally a "virtual screen" is fitted to the sound source path to be used for coordinate projection. The scene reconstruction was successful in 80 % of the test cases, in the sense that it managed to estimate the spatial positions at all. The estimates for the microphones had errors of 11.8 +/- 5 centimetres on average for the successful test cases, which is worse than the results presented in previous research. However, the best test case outperformed the results of another paper. The newly developed and implemented technique for finding the virtual screen was far from robust and only found a reasonable virtual screen in 12.5 % of the test cases. In the third step the sound events were estimated, one sound event at a time, using the SRP-PHAT method with the CFRC improvement. Unfortunate choices of the search volumes made the calculations very computationally heavy. The results were comparable to those of the system self-calibration when using the same data and the estimated microphone positions

‘I had a lump in my stomach’: Swedish gay and lesbian students' experiences of their time in school

Objectives: Gay and lesbian youth can experience ignorance and a lack of acknowledgement surrounding their sexual orientation during their time in school. This qualitative interview study describes how Swedish gay and lesbian students experience their secondary school years on the basis that society has heteronormative values. Methods: The data is based on eight telephone interviews with gay and lesbian young adults, aged 18–25 and was analysed using a qualitative narrative approach. Findings: The findings presented four themes: not fitting into the norm of heterosexuality, lacking confirmation of their own homosexuality, finding courage, seeing the school as a supportive or a non-supportive environment. Conclusions: A way to normalise homosexuality can be to discuss sexual development and attraction from a health-promoting perspective. Professionals working in school need to feel comfortable with issues such as sexuality in order to create a situation of confidence for the student

Gait re-education in transfemoral amputees The training programme, gait analysis, oxygen consumption and coping

A gait re-education programme, combining physiotherapy with a psychologically conscious therapeutic approach, was applied to nine unilateral transfemoral amputees, whose amputation was caused by trauma or tumour. The participants trained once a week for a mean 10 months. The median age was 33 years (range 16– 51). They had worn a prosthesis for more than 18 months and had completed conventional rehabilitation. Before treatment, walking ability was limited and three used walking aids. All had problems with low-back pain. The effects of training on gait pattern and gait speed were evaluated with a three-dimensional motion analysis system. Oxygen consumption and energy cost were measured by analysing expired gas and heart rate was measured by electrocardiogram. Semi-structured interviews were performed to describe coping strategies in the acute phase and over time. Results showed normalized gait speed comparable to healthy non-amputees of similar age, due to improved gait technique and walking skills. After treatment none needed walking aids and almost all low-back pain had disappeared. In addition, seven participants learnt to jog. Results indicate that this new approach may add skills, mostly on participation level, for leading a relatively normal life. The positive results remained at a six-month follow-up. The participants’ strategies for coping in the acute phase were denial and avoidance. Over time they used downward comparisons, positive comparisons and repression. Only one participant had fully accepted the situation and adjusted to the new norm. Future research will show whether these results can be generalized in a controlled study

Program for the feasibility of developing a high pressure acoustic levitator

This is the final report for the program for the feasibility of developing a high-pressure acoustic levitator (HPAL). It includes work performed during the period from February 15, 1987 to October 26, 1987. The program was conducted for NASA under contract number NAS3-25115. The HPAL would be used for containerless processing of materials in the 1-g Earth environment. Results show that the use of increased gas pressure produces higher sound pressure levels. The harmonics produced by the acoustic source are also reduced. This provides an improvement in the capabilities of acoustic levitation in 1-g. The reported processing capabilities are directly limited by the design of the Medium Pressure Acoustic Levitator used for this study. Data show that sufficient acoustic intensities can be obtained to levitate and process a specimen of density 5 g/cu cm at 1500 C. However, it is recommended that a working engineering model of the HPAL be developed. The model would be used to establish the maximum operating parameters of furnace temperature and sample density

Effects of climate, fire and vegetation development on Holocene changes in total organic carbon concentration in three boreal forest lakes in northern Sweden

International audienceNear infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), diatoms, pollen, charcoal, loss-on-ignition (LOI), and nutrient elements in lake sediments were used to assess important factors controlling Holocene changes in the total organic carbon (TOC) concentration, pCO2, color and pH of lake water in three boreal forest lakes in northern Sweden. The results suggest that mire formation, fire frequency and humidity are the most important forcing factors on millennial timescales. Mires produce humic acids that become available to the lakes, whereas fires may reduce the pool of carbon in the catchments, and humidity controls the transportation of allochthonous carbon into the lakes. Vegetation development and temperature as sole factors are of minor importance for the TOC concentrations in these lakes on a millennial timescale. Two of the sites indicate that liming and possibly fish introduction and rotenone treatment in recent time has led to increased TOC, color and pH in the lake water, and changed the diatom community composition to an assemblage that has never been present before. Given the predicted climate change scenario that suggests a more humid climate, expanding mires and less frequent fires, our paleolimnological data suggest that TOC concentrations can be expected to increase in boreal forest lakes in the future. Since super-saturation and emission of CO2 from lakes is correlated to the TOC concentration of lake water, higher TOC concentrations may lead to increased emission of CO2 from lakes to the atmosphere