Does the increase in house prices influence the creation of business startups?: the case of Sweden

Entrepreneurs are at the core of economic development in that they start new businesses or make existing firms grow. To fulfill this important role, entrepreneurs need access to finance. Owing to information asymmetry and the relatively high risk associated with business start-ups, many financiers shy away from engaging in relationships with firms during the early stages of their development. Based on the existing body of knowledge on the financing of entrepreneurship, we know that insider finance is of paramount importance in the early stages of firms’ development. We expand this knowledge base by analyzing the influence of house prices on business start-ups across municipalities in Sweden. In our analysis, we include data from all municipalities in Sweden. Our data on house prices and control variables are collected in period one, and our data on the frequency of start-ups are collected in period two. We find that rising house prices in a municipality lead to a higher frequency of start-ups. In our regression analysis, we find that a 1% increase in house prices leads to a 0.14% increase in start-ups. Our findings are in line with the limited international research that has been previously conducted, and for this reason, they could be seen as a vital addition to the existing body of knowledge within the area of entrepreneurship and regional development.

Temperatures in Hallandsås railway tunnels 2019–2021

Vid projektering av trafiktunnlar behöver temperaturförhållanden beaktas. Tunnlar på höghastighetsbanorna är planerade att byggas med en kontinuerlig, membranförsedd lining som vatten- och frostsäkring. Detta avskärmar bergets värme från kölden i tunneln. Det behöver därför utvärderas vilken inverkan detta har på temperaturerna i tunneln respektive liningen samt inverkan på temperaturer i underbyggnad och dess dränering. Utvärderingen kommer att göras med program som kan simulera temperaturen i tunnelns olika delar utifrån geometrier, yttre väderförhållanden och trafik genom tunneln. Dessa simuleringsprogram behöver kalibreras mot data från befintliga tunnlar.  Syftet med denna publikation är att redovisa instrumentdata och installationer som utförts för att samla temperaturer i och kring järnvägstunnlarna genom Hallandsåsen samt att tillhandahålla insamlade väderdata från tunnlarna och i omgivningen under åren 2019–2021.  Underlaget kommer att används för att kalibrera modeller som simulerar temperaturer i järnvägstunnlar.When designing traffic tunnels, temperature conditions need to be considered. Tunnels on the highspeed railway lines which are planned to be built in Sweden will be fitted with a continuous lining for water and frost protection. This lining acts as a heat barrier between the rock and the air in the tunnel. It is therefore necessary to evaluate the impact this has on the temperatures in the tunnel and the lining. The evaluation will be done with programs that can simulate the temperature in the different parts of the tunnel based on geometries, external weather conditions and traffic through the tunnel. These simulation programs need to be calibrated against data from existing tunnels.  The purpose of this publication is to report instrument data and installations carried out to collect temperatures in and around the railway tunnels through Hallandsåsen and to provide collected weather data from the tunnels and in the surroundings during the years 2019-2021.  The data provided with this report will be used to calibrate models that simulate temperatures in railway tunnels

Automated monitoring of groundwater contamination along salted roads

This report describes the results from preliminary laboratory investigations of ground water samples obtained during the autumn of 2004 from national road 67 Heby in Sweden, using a novel liquid sensor technology, "Electronic Tongue" (ET), and a commercial conductivity probe. Partial least squares regression (PLS) combined with principal component analysis (PCA) was used to build a model to quantify ET data using ion concentrations determined by conventional laboratory analysis as well as measured conductivity data. Results showed very good correlation between ET data and chlorine concentrations in field samples as well as conductivity data. In addition to chlorine concentration, results also indicated that ET has the potential to detect and warn for other types of contaminants in ground water. The reports also describes the planned installation in June 2005 of a complete system for remote monitoring of chloride concentration via the Internet using a similar technology platform as for the VTI frost monitoring system (Tjäl 2000)

Phenomenographic study of basic science understanding-senior medical students' conceptions of fatigue

INTRODUCTION: Helping students learn to apply their newly learned basic science knowledge to clinical situations is a long-standing challenge for medical educators. This study aims to describe how medical students' knowledge of the basic sciences is construed toward the end of their medical curriculum, focusing on how senior medical students explain the physiology of a given scenario. Methods A group of final-year medical students from two universities was investigated. Interviews were performed and phenomenographic analysis was used to interpret students' understanding of the physiology underlying the onset of fatigue in an individual on an exercise bicycle. RESULTS: Three categories of description depict the qualitatively different ways the students conceptualized fatigue. A first category depicts well integrated physiological and bio-chemical knowledge characterized by equilibrium and causality. The second category contains conceptions of finite amount of substrate and juxtaposition of physiological concepts that are not fully integrated. The third category exhibits a fragmented understanding of disparate sections of knowledge without integration of basic science and clinical knowledge. DISCUSSION: Distinctive conceptions of fatigue based with varying completeness of students' understanding characterized the three identified categories. The students' conceptions of fatigue were based on varying understanding of how organ systems relate and of the thresholds that determine physiological processes. Medical instruction should focus on making governing steps in biological processes clear and providing opportunity for causal explanations of clinical scenarios containing bio-chemical as well as clinical knowledge. This augments earlier findings by adding descriptions in terms of the subject matter studied about how basic science is applied by students in clinical settings

IT som aktivt stöd till studenters lärande? 66

Process och produkt 5:e universitetspedagogiska konferensen vid Linköpings universite