Identitetens Ljudspår: musik, smak & subkultur

This essay presents a picture of swedish reggae listeners and how their love of music give meaning to their lives and unite them in a sub-culture. Based on interviews with six young men about their involvement in reggae, it also investigates the relationship between music and identity, or more clearly; how identity is expressed through music. Furthermore, I discuss the notion of taste according to Bourdieu, and argue against his statement that taste in music affirms the class and social background of an individual. Results from my empirical data have indicated that reggae music is difficult to associate to a distinct lifestyle, which inclines me to argue that it has managed to transcend phenomena such as ethnicity, class and cultural affiliation

Bostadspolitikens effekt på flyttkedjan

Syftet med uppsatsen är att visa vilka effekter som bostadspolitik har på flyttkedjan och där med också på bostadsmarknaden. Vidare är syftet att applicera kunskapen på den svenska bostadsmarknaden för att kunna analysera hur den svenska bostadspolitiken påverkar den inhemska marknaden. Uppsatsen bygger på teorier kring effekterna av bostadspolitiken i form av hyresreglering samt transaktionskostnader och hur de påverkar bostadsmarknaden. En egen teoretiska modell visar vilken effekt hyresreglering, högre hyror för nyproduktion och transaktionskostnader har på individers flyttmönster och vilka effektivitetsförluster de bostadspolitiska åtgärderna kan leda till. Effekterna av en hyresreglering är positiv då vakansgraden sjunker, dock kan de negativa effekterna väga över om regleringen är för hård och bostadsbristen som uppstår leder till att bostadsbeståndet används ineffektivt. Då det råder brist på hyresrätter i 85 % av Sveriges kommuner kan vår hyresreglering antas vara för hård och ge negativa konsekvenser. Presumtionshyrorna som infördes 2006 är verkningslösa om standarden inte väger upp för den högre boendekostnaden och/eller om betalningsviljan är för låg. Transaktionskostnaderna påverkar mobiliteten negativt och där med också utnyttjandet av bostadsbeståndet på ett negativt sett. En annan studie visar att i Nederländerna leder en ökning av transaktionskostnaderna med 1 % till en minskad mobilitet med 8 %. Att effekterna av transaktionskostnader är negativa bekräftas dels av min egen modell men också av det faktum att mobiliteten i Sverige till skillnad från andra nordiska länder minskat sedan 2008 då reglerna för uppskov förändrades. Hyresregleringen behöver inte avskaffas men definitivt luckras upp och transaktionskostnaderna behöver ses över, ett alternativ är att sprida ut kostnaderna över boendetiden. Det är förslag på två åtgärder av många som behövs för att få en marknad i balans och där med minska de årliga samhällskostnaderna som uppstår i och med den minskade tillväxten som bostadsbristen ger upphov till

From seed to soap : a study of seaweed farming on Zanzibar and how foreign investments can createemployment opportunities for independent female seaweed farmers

Zanzibar is the world’s third biggest exporter of seaweed but the industry is currently facing challenges such as rising sea temperatures and falling market prices. Today, independents female seaweed farmers live on the border of the extreme poverty line and are struggling with hazardous working conditions. The Seaweed Center in Paje village on the southeast coast of Zanzibar was established in 2011 by a foreign investor called the Rylander Foundation to create employment opportunities for independent female seaweed farmers. Instead of exclusively producing raw dried seaweed the center has provided the employees with material necessary to produce value-added products, such as soap, for export. Humanitarian investments with a people-over-profit approach has resulted in a holistic business model where identifying the capitals and capabilities of people living in the area of implementation has resulted in responsible investments, both socially and environmentally. More innovative investments like these are needed in order to keep the seaweed industry alive and flourish

How to select networks of marine protected areas for multiple species with different dispersal strategies

Aim: To develop and test theory based on connectivity to identify optimal networks of marine protected areas (MPAs) that protect multiple species with a range of dispersal strategies. Location: The eastern North Sea in the Atlantic Ocean. Methods: Theory of finding optimal MPA network is based on eigenvalue perturbation theory applied to population connectivity. Previous theory is here extended to the persistence of multiple species by solving a maximization problem with constraints, which identifies an optimal consensus network of MPAs. The theory is applied to two test cases within a 120,000 km2 area in the North Sea where connectivity was estimated with a biophysical model. In a realistic case, the theory is applied to the protection of rocky-reef habitats, where the biophysical model is parameterized with realistic dispersal traits for key species. Theoretical predictions of optimal networks were validated with a simple metapopulation model. Persistence of optimal consensus MPA networks is compared to randomly selected networks as well as to the existing MPA network. Results: Despite few overlapping MPA sites for the optimal networks based on single dispersal strategies, the consensus network for multiple dispersal strategies performed well for 3 of 4 contrasting strategies even without user-defined constraints. In the test with five realistic dispersal strategies, representing a community on threatened rocky reefs, the consensus network performed equally well compared to solutions for single species. Different dispersal strategies were also protected jointly across the MPA network (93% of sites), in contrast to simulations of the existing MPA network (2% of sites). Consensus networks based on connectivity were significantly more efficient compared to existing MPAs. Main conclusions: Our findings suggest that the new theoretic framework can identify a consensus MPA network that protects a whole community containing species with multiple dispersal strategies

Clinical research:Developing an appropriate career structure

The veterinary profession needs to become more successful in producing the next generation of clinician scientists, say Richard Mellanby and others, who set out a roadmap for future academic postgraduate clinical training

Mitochondrial dysfunction in adult midbrain dopamine neurons triggers an early immune response

Dopamine (DA) neurons of the midbrain are at risk to become affected by mitochondrial damage over time and mitochondrial defects have been frequently reported in Parkinson\u27s disease (PD) patients. However, the causal contribution of adult-onset mitochondrial dysfunction to PD remains uncertain. Here, we developed a mouse model lacking Mitofusin 2 (MFN2), a key regulator of mitochondrial network homeostasis, in adult midbrain DA neurons. The knockout mice develop severe and progressive DA neuron-specific mitochondrial dysfunction resulting in neurodegeneration and parkinsonism. To gain further insights into pathophysiological events, we performed transcriptomic analyses of isolated DA neurons and found that mitochondrial dysfunction triggers an early onset immune response, which precedes mitochondrial swelling, mtDNA depletion, respiratory chain deficiency and cell death. Our experiments show that the immune response is an early pathological event when mitochondrial dysfunction is induced in adult midbrain DA neurons and that neuronal death may be promoted non-cell autonomously by the cross-talk and activation of surrounding glial cells