En knuff i rätt riktning

För att komma tillrätta med de allt tydligare problem som bilen orsakar i våra städer och skapa nya transportvanor räcker det inte att enbart förändra den fysiska miljön. Människors beteende måste också förändras. På senare tid har trafikplanerare börjar arbeta allt mer med beteendepåverkan. Ett potentiellt användbart verktyg för att påverka människors transportvanor är nudging, där en central idé är att man påverkar beteende på ett mer omedvetet plan. För att räknas som nudging får ekonomiska incitament eller förbud inte användas. De verktyg som klassas som nudgingverktyg är istället inramning och förenkling av information, förändringar i den fysiska miljön, förändring i standardalternativ och bruk av sociala normer. Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka begreppet nudging och hur det kan användas för att påverka människors transportvanor. Inom miljöpsykologi finns det flera teorier om hur människors beteende kan påverkas. Bland annat genom att påverka värderingar, normer och vanor. Nudging kan ses vara baserat på samma teorier om människans beteende. Uppsatsen studerar hur tre kommuner arbetar med beteendepåverkan för mer hållbara personresor, samt om det finns potential att tillämpa nudging strategier. I studien gjordes intervjuer i tre kommuner för att se hur de arbetar med beteendepåverkan samt hur de ser på nudging som strategi. Endast en av kommunerna var tidigare bekant med begreppet, men alla intervjuade var positivt inställda till nudging. Studien visade att kommunerna redan genomfört åtgärder som skulle kunna klassas som nudging och att de var positivt inställda till att arbeta med beteendepåverkan. Dock är det viktigt att ta hänsyn till kommunernas specifika förutsättningar för att kunna arbeta med resebeteende på ett framgångsrikt sätt. Nudging skulle dock kunna utgöra en mer konkret verktygslåda för kommuner som vill skapa beteendeförändring. Forskning visar att nudging fungerar bäst som en förstärkning av andra åtgärder, men det krävs fortsatt mer forskning för att undersöka hur effektfullt nudging faktiskt är för att påverka transportbeteende.To overcome our cities increasingly evident issues caused by the car and create new transport habits changes in the physical environment is not enough. People also have to change their behaviour. Lately, traffic planners are working more with behaviour impact. A potentially useful strategy to impact people’s travel habits is nudging, where impacting behaviour on a more subconscious level is a central idea. To be considered a nudge economic incitements and legislation cannot be used. Instead tools that are viewed as nudging are framing and simplification of information, changes in the physical environment, changes in the default choice and use of social norms. The purpose of the thesis is to explore the concept of nudging and how it can be used to impact people’s transport habits. There are theories about how to impact people’s behaviour in environmental psychology. For instance through impacting values, norms and habits. Nudging may be viewed as being based on the same theories about people’s behaviour. The thesis explore how three Swedish municipalities handle sustainable personal traveling through behavioural impact, and if there is potential to apply nudging strategies. The three municipalities were interviewed to survey how they handle behavioural impact and their view of nudging as a strategy. Only one of the municipalities were familiar with the concept, but all of the respondents had a positive attitude towards nudging. The study showed that the municipalities already carry out measures that could be classified as nudging and that they had a positive attitude towards working with behavioural impact. Thus it is important to consider the municipality’s specific conditions to be able to work successfully with travel behaviour. Nudging could be a more concrete tool for municipalities who want to create change in transport behaviour. Research show that nudging is most successful when used as an enhancement for other measures, but more research is needed to determine how effective nudging is for impacting transport habits

Returning Integrated Genomic Risk and Clinical Recommendations: The eMERGE Study

The potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce health care disparities and inequities is recognized, but it can also exacerbate these issues if not implemented in an equitable manner. This perspective identifies potential biases in each stage of the AI life cycle, including data collection, annotation, machine learning model development, evaluation, deployment, operationalization, monitoring, and feedback integration. To mitigate these biases, we suggest involving a diverse group of stakeholders, using human-centered AI principles. Human-centered AI can help ensure that AI systems are designed and used in a way that benefits patients and society, which can reduce health disparities and inequities. By recognizing and addressing biases at each stage of the AI life cycle, AI can achieve its potential in health car

Ledarskap och kommunikation i detaljhandelsföretag

En utmaning för dagens ledare är att kommunicera och delegera viktig information i organisationen. Kommunikation sker ständigt mellan ledning, mellanchefer och de anställda i ett företag. Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera om ledarskapsstilar kan påverka kommunikationen i detaljhandelsföretag. Påverkas kommunikationen av ledarens egenskaper och ledarskapsstil? För att samla in material till uppsatsen har fyra kvalitativa intervjuer gjorts. Två stycken mellanchefer har intervjuats, en som är avdelningschef på IKEA i Helsingborg samt en som är butikschef på Ica Maxi Stormarknad i Halmstad. För att se till kommunikationen i dessa företag mellan chefer och anställda har även en anställd under varje chef intervjuats. För att komplettera intervjuerna och få ett bredare perspektiv på ledare och deras sätt att kommunicera har enkäter delats ut till 60 stycken respondenter som är anställda inom detaljhandeln. Det empiriska materialet analyseras med hjälp av ett teoretiskt ramverk som innehåller olika synsätt på ledarskap samt kommunikationsteorier. I analysen diskuteras ledares egenskaper och ledarskapsstilar samt dess påverkan på kommunikationen. Även faktorer utanför ledarens personlighet som till exempel de anställdas beredvillighet analyseras. Det situationsanpassade ledarskapet diskuteras i samband med stora förändringar som uppstått på IKEA och hur dessa har satt sina spår i kommunikationen mellan de anställda. Gridmodellen används i uppsatsen för att se vad ledare lägger mest tid på, omsorg om personalen eller om produktionen? Dessutom diskuteras hinder/barriärer som kan uppstå i kommunikationen vilket gör att budskap kan tolkas på fel sätt. Till sist diskuteras olika kommunikationsnivåer, bland annat Ica Maxis webbmöten som är ett sätt att kommunicera till sina anställda. Författarna har bland annat kommit fram till att ledarskapsstilar påverkar kommunikationen i företag beroende på till exempel situationer och egenskaper

Targeted ToF-SIMS Analysis of Macrophage Content from a Human Cranial Triphasic Calcium Phosphate Implant

Macrophages play a key role in determining the fate of implanted biomaterials, especially for biomaterials such as calcium phosphates (CaPs) where these cells play a vital role in material resorption and osteogenesis, as shown in different models, including clinical samples. Although substantial consideration is given to the design and validation of different CaPs, relatively little is known about their material-cell interaction. Specifically, the intracellular content of different CaP phases remains to be assessed, even though CaP-filled macrophages have been observed in several studies. In this study, 2D/3D ToF-SIMS imaging and multivariate analysis were directly applied on the histology samples of an explant to reveal the content of macrophages. The cellular content of the macrophages was analyzed to distinguish three CaP phases, monetite, beta-tricalcium phosphate, and pyrophosphate, which are all part of the monetite-based CaP implant composition under study. ToF-SIMS combined with histology revealed that the content of the identified macrophages was most similar to that of the pyrophosphate phase. This study is the first to uncover distinct CaP phases in macrophages from a human multiphasic CaP explant by targeted direct cell content analysis. The uncovering of pyrophosphate as the main phase found inside the macrophages is of great importance to understand the impact of the selected material in the process of biomaterial-instructed osteogenesis

Interdisciplinary Animal Research Ethics - Challenges, Opportunities, and Perspectives

Can nonhuman animals be used for the benefit of humans in a scientifically and morally justified manner and, if yes, how? Based on our own experiences as scholars from various academic backgrounds, we argue that this question can only be answered as an interdisciplinary and international endeavor, considering insights from research ethics and animal ethics as well as scientific and legal aspects. The aim of this article is to contribute to the foundation of the emerging field of animal research ethics. In doing so, we describe the following seven phases of animal research experiments: ethical, legal and social presumptions (phase 0), planning (phase I), review (phase II), conduct of experiments (phase III), publication/dissemination (phase IV), further exploitation of results (phase V), and evaluation (phase VI). In total, 20 key ethical, legal, and practical challenges that an ethical framework for the use of animals in research needs to address are identified and analyzed. Finally, we characterize the following four meta-challenges and opportunities associated with animal research ethics as a field: (1) moral pluralism, (2) the integration of views and positions outside the laboratory, (3) international plurality of conduct, standards, and legal norms, and (4) interdisciplinary education

Mean muscle attenuation correlates with severe acute pancreatitis unlike visceral adipose tissue and subcutaneous adipose tissue

Background: Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a frequent disorder with considerable morbidity and mortality. Obesity has previously been reported to influence disease severity. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the association of adipose and muscle parameters with the severity grade of AP. Methods: In total 454 patients were recruited. The first contrast-enhanced computed tomography of each patient was reviewed for adipose and muscle tissue parameters at L3 level. Associations with disease severity were analysed through logistic regression analysis. The predictive capacity of the parameters was investigated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results: No distinct variation was found between the AP severity groups in either adipose tissue parameters (visceral adipose tissue and subcutaneous adipose tissue) or visceral muscle ratio. However, muscle mass and mean muscle attenuation differed significantly with p-values of 0.037 and 0.003 respectively. In multivariate analysis, low muscle attenuation was associated with severe AP with an odds ratio of 4.09 (95% confidence intervals: 1.61-10.36, p-value 0.003). No body parameter presented sufficient predictive capability in ROC-curve analysis. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that a low muscle attenuation level is associated with an increased risk of severe AP. Future prospective studies will help identify the underlying mechanisms and characterise the influence of body composition parameters on AP.Peer reviewe

Supercritical fluid extraction of fish oil from fish by-products: A comparison with other extraction methods

Fish and fish by-products are the main natural source of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), both of them with a great importance in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Comparing to conventional fish oil extraction processes such as cold extraction, wet reduction or enzymatic extraction, supercritical fluid extraction with carbon dioxide under moderate conditions (25 MPa and 313 K) may be useful for reducing fish oil oxidation, especially when fish oil is rich in omega-3 such as salmon oil, and the amount of certain impurities, such as some species of arsenic. Furthermore, taking profit of the advantages of supercritical carbon dioxide as extractive solvent, a coupled extraction-fractionation process is proposed as a way to remove free fatty acids and improve fish oil quality, alternatively to physical and chemical refining procedures.Ministry of Education and Science (CTQ2005-07301), Junta de Castilla y León (GR 167) and Pescanova S.A. (Spain

MicroRNA control of podosome formation in vascular smooth muscle cells in vivo and in vitro

PDGF enhances podosome formation and cell migration by regulating expression of the microRNAs miR-143 and -145, which target PDGF-R, PKC-ε, and fascin

The handbook for standardized field and laboratory measurements in terrestrial climate change experiments and observational studies (ClimEx)

Climate change is a world-wide threat to biodiversity and ecosystem structure, functioning and services. To understand the underlying drivers and mechanisms, and to predict the consequences for nature and people, we urgently need better understanding of the direction and magnitude of climate change impacts across the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. An increasing number of climate change studies are creating new opportunities for meaningful and high-quality generalizations and improved process understanding. However, significant challenges exist related to data availability and/or compatibility across studies, compromising opportunities for data re-use, synthesis and upscaling. Many of these challenges relate to a lack of an established 'best practice' for measuring key impacts and responses. This restrains our current understanding of complex processes and mechanisms in terrestrial ecosystems related to climate change. To overcome these challenges, we collected best-practice methods emerging from major ecological research networks and experiments, as synthesized by 115 experts from across a wide range of scientific disciplines. Our handbook contains guidance on the selection of response variables for different purposes, protocols for standardized measurements of 66 such response variables and advice on data management. Specifically, we recommend a minimum subset of variables that should be collected in all climate change studies to allow data re-use and synthesis, and give guidance on additional variables critical for different types of synthesis and upscaling. The goal of this community effort is to facilitate awareness of the importance and broader application of standardized methods to promote data re-use, availability, compatibility and transparency. We envision improved research practices that will increase returns on investments in individual research projects, facilitate second-order research outputs and create opportunities for collaboration across scientific communities. Ultimately, this should significantly improve the quality and impact of the science, which is required to fulfil society's needs in a changing world.Peer reviewe

eIF4A2 drives repression of translation at initiation by Ccr4-Not through purine-rich motifs in the 5'UTR

Background: Regulation of the mRNA life cycle is central to gene expression control and determination of cell fate. miRNAs represent a critical mRNA regulatory mechanism, but despite decades of research, their mode of action is still not fully understood. Results: Here, we show that eIF4A2 is a major effector of the repressive miRNA pathway functioning via the Ccr4-Not complex. We demonstrate that while DDX6 interacts with Ccr4-Not, its effects in the mechanism are not as pronounced. Through its interaction with the Ccr4-Not complex, eIF4A2 represses mRNAs at translation initiation. We show evidence that native eIF4A2 has similar RNA selectivity to chemically inhibited eIF4A1. eIF4A2 exerts its repressive effect by binding purine-rich motifs which are enriched in the 5′UTR of target mRNAs directly upstream of the AUG start codon. Conclusions: Our data support a model whereby purine motifs towards the 3′ end of the 5′UTR are associated with increased ribosome occupancy and possible uORF activation upon eIF4A2 binding