As society today increasingly understands the impact of transnational corporate operations, an increasing recognition on the part of corporations of their responsibility for social and environmental well being of people in poor countries appears. The norm - Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) grew out of such logic. The present study explores the extent to which CSR can be expected to contribute

Composite materials, i.e, mixtures of two or more materials, are commonly used in industry, because they often have outstanding properties in comparison with the original materials. In many cases the inhomogeneities are on a very fine scale, which makes it difficult to perform a full numerical simulation of the material. On the fine scale we have rapid oscillations in the material parameters, but

Background and Purpose - Autoantibodies against antigens in oxidized low-density lipoprotein are common in people; experimental studies suggest that these immune responses have a functional role in the disease process. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the immune response against one defined oxidized low-density lipoprotein antigen, the aldehyde-modified peptide corres

Metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for ethanolic fermentation of xylose is summarized with emphasis on progress made during the last decade. Advances in xylose transport, initial xylose metabolism, selection of host strains, transformation and classical breeding techniques applied to industrial polyploid strains as well as modeling of xylose metabolism are discussed. The production

Two new antibiotic metabolites, dacrymenone (1) and VM 3298-2 (2), were isolated from fermentations of a Dacrymyces sp., and their structures were determined by spectroscopic techniques. Dacrymenone (1) is a new eremophilane sesquiterpenoid while VM 3298-2 (2) is a bis-enol ether between methyl pyruvate and 4,6-dihydroxycyclohexan-1,3-dione. Dacrymenone (1) shows weak antibacterial and antifungal

This paper investigates the outcome of ageing on taxes and hospitalisation of the elderly using panel data on 23 Swedish county councils 1980-1999. We test two hypotheses; whether a larger share of elderly has no negative effect on bed days per elderly person and no positive effect on tax rates. We reject the first hypothesis but fail to reject the second hypothesis. Further we cannot reject the h

Five polymeric films were studied to determine their ability to retain the colour, weight and texture of broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var. Italica "Monterey"). The materials were oriented polypropylene (OPP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and two different low-density polyethylenes (LDPE), one of which contained a sachet reported to absorb ethylene. The broccoli was packaged and stored at 4 and 10 de

Six pure strains of obligate anaerobes capable of degrading the toxin beta-N-oxalyl-L-alpha, beta-diaminopropionic acid (beta-ODAP) contained in grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) have been isolated from cow rumen. The new isolates were identified as Megasphaera elsdenii (five different genotypes) and Clostridium bifermentans using 16S rDNA analysis. The beta-ODAP degrading efficiency of the isolates wa

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a multifactorial, polygenic autoimmune disease. For effective treatment and control of RA, understanding of disease pathways and identification of genes involved are essential. Animal models are efficient tools to identify such pathogenic mechanisms and genes underlying the disease process. In the present study, collagen antibody induced arthritis (CAIA), a mouse model

Low-energy particle production perpendicular to the event plane in three-jet events produced in Z decays in e(+)e(-) annihilation is measured and compared to that perpendicular to the event axis in two-jet events. The topology dependence of the hadron production ratio is found to agree with a leading-order QCD prediction. This agreement and especially the need for the presence of a destructive int

In Swedish public debate, economists have been more influential than any other category of social scientists. We examine the views of five great Swedish economists on the role of the university economist in the public arena. What did they say about scholarly objectivity and value judgements, about political commitment and educating the people? The five economists are Knut Wicksell, Gustav Cassel,

A novel process for the production of biodegradable lubricant-based stocks from epoxidized vegetable oil with a lower pour point via cationic ion-exchange resins as catalysts was developed. This involves two steps, first, ring-opening reactions by alcoholysis followed by esterification of the resultant hydroxy group in the first step. The ring-opening reaction of epoxidized soybean oil with differ

In the first essay of this thesis we develop a model for calculating the net expected value of a swap agreement subject to dual-default risk. The main explanatory variable for the net expected return of a swap is the default intensity of each party measured by the credit rating of the firm. We derive the net expected return of the swap as a function of the credit rating of the firm receiving the f

In this paper, we are concerned with the charging and electrokinetic behavior of colloidal particles exhibiting a high surface charge in the alkaline pH range. For such particles, a theoretical approach has been developed in the framework of the primitive model. The charging and electrokinetic behavior of the particles are determined by the use of a Monte Carlo simulation in a grand canonical ense