Print quality study of newsprint : Further development of the laboratoryoffset press at PAPRO

A laboratory offset press has been developed over the last five years at PAPRO for testing print qualityon newsprint, as at present, there is no good way for the mills to test this issue. In this project a comparisonhas been made between a laboratory offset press and a commercial press to see if the laboratoryoffset press can be used as a reliable test method or if a further development is needed.To evaluate the method, similar papers have been printed in both presses and compared using imageanalysis techniques. All together eighteen samples were tested which is enough to give comparableresults. The print quality showed a high variation, the values from the laboratory offset press and thecommercial press were not following the same trends. At present time the laboratory offset press needsome further development before it can be used as a reliable test method for halftone prints. Even sosome conclusions were made.The newsprint that has been used came from Norske Skog Tasman Mill (Kawerau), since the otheraim of this project was to do a repeatability study of their three existing paper machines to distinguishpossible differences in the production. The paper samples were taken from each paper machine on sixdifferent dates to give a representative result. This also gave the opportunity to compare the machinesbetween themselves. Comparison between the machines shows that the wire side gives a better andmore even result than the topside on the prints from the laboratory offset press. According to the resultfrom the commercial press the wire side shows a higher degree of variability. Samples from papermachine 2 and 3 were less variable and had the lowest standard deviation of grey level for solid areas.This suggests that newsprints from PM 2 and PM 3 give a more even print quality with a better inkcoverage.

En beskrivning av informationsmiljö därdatumstyrda förhållanden råder : En fallstudie av en myndighet och dess informationsmiljö med rättsakter

In this study a case study was conducted at the Transport Agency. The government agency is seeking better alternatives to its current ways of keeping track of important dates stated in legal documents. The agency wants to explore the possibility for an IT-solution for keeping track on those dates. In the case study change analysis was conducted on the vehicle type approval process. Qualitative interviews were conducted with a section manager, vehicle type and component approvers, and with a system administrator and a system manager at the Transport Agency in Borlänge. The study describes an information environment in an organization in which date-controlled conditions apply and challenges with such an environment.The study also provides a proposal for designing an IT-solution for such an environment. The result that emerged showed that the information environment in terms of the legal documents and the institutions’ (EU and UNECE) websites where they are distributed is challenging for keeping track on dates. The challenges of the websites are that they are limited and complicated in terms of information search. The challenges with the legal documents are that date-controlled conditions apply. In other words, the dates themselves determine which dates and what applies and not. The legal documents are also many, retroactive, refer to each other and contain regulations for different kinds of areas, which makes difficult to find the relevant dates. The design proposal that emerged was made based on the existing IT environment at the Transport Agency. It was proposed that important key concepts are identified, categorized and realized in a database with searchability on the most important common concepts as denominators, and that it the information conforms with E-message. The developed database was based on date, date type, vehicle category, legal document, minor version and other info. A web interface was created in ASP.NET and C # for access to the database, with the message that a webbbased IT-solution should be considered.

Determinants and effects of central bank independence reforms

This thesis consists of four empirically oriented papers on central bank independence (CBI) reforms.    Paper [1] is an investigation of why politicians around the world have chosen to give up power to independent central banks, thereby reducing their ability to control the economy. A new data-set, including the possible occurrence of CBI-reforms in 132 countries during 1980-2005, was collected. Politicians in non-OECD countries were more likely to delegate power to independent central banks if their country had been characterized by high variability in inflation and if they faced a high probability of being replaced. No such effects were found for OECD countries.    Paper [2], using a difference-in-difference approach, studies whether CBI reform matters for inflation performance. The analysis is based on a dataset including the possible occurrence of CBI-reforms in 132 countries during the period of 1980-2005. CBI reform is found to have contributed to bringing down inflation in high-inflation countries, but it seems unrelated to inflation performance in low-inflation countries.    Paper [3] investigates whether CBI-reforms are important in reducing inflation and maintaining price stability, using a random-effects random-coefficients model to account for heterogeneity in the effects of CBI-reforms on inflation. CBI-reforms are found to have reduced inflation on average by 3.31 percent, but the effect is only present when countries with historically high inflation rates are included in the sample. Countries with more modest inflation rates have achieved low inflation without institutional reforms that grant central banks more independence, thus undermining the time-inconsistency theory case for CBI. There is furthermore no evidence that CBI-reforms have contributed to lower inflation variability    Paper [4] studies the relationship between CBI and a suggested trade-off between price variability and output variability using data on CBI-levels, and data the on implementation dates of CBI-reforms. The results question the existence of such a trade-off, but indicate that there may still be potential gains in stabilization policy from CBI-reforms.

Homosocialitetens kraft : hur unga män ”gör” maskulinitet i grupp och individuellt

The power of homosociality: how young men “do” masculinity in groups and individually Using young men’s narratives, about other men, friends, dates and girlfriends, this article discusses the following questions: Can the interpretation – the understanding of young men’s collective presentations of masculinity as a surface that hides a more complex masculinity – undermine how we interpret young men’s talk about and interaction with other men, as well as with women? Can this disassembling understanding have an impact on how young men interpret and relive the interactions with other men, as well as with women? Can this disassembling of the homosocially created masculinity from the more individually created masculinity shape secondary gains for the young men, such as e.g. a more flexible and stretchable arena of responsibility, as well as more flexible space of acting? Thomas Johansson, Professor of Social Work social work, states that if we only focus the homosocially created masculinity, this will reshape a less nuanced picture of young men’s way of doing masculinity (Johansson 2005). Thus, young men’s vulnerability and difficulties remain hidden. However, this disassembling of the homosocially created masculinity from the more individually based doings of masculinity could possibly also give secondary gains, such as e.g. a more flexible and stretchable field of responsibility, as well as more flexible space of acting. This article shows that using a fragmentised and situated masculinity, as a way of understanding the complexity and the ambivalence in young men’s project of doing masculinity, makes evident – on the one hand – the vulnerability in young men’s process of doing masculinity. On the other hand, however, this view also makes it possible for young men to avoid responsibility for their actions. Instead the situated context – e.g. if in a peer group or alone, and what kind of relations the young man has – will be significant for how the act will be interpreted. The empirical material consists of six individual interviews and one group interview with four men. The age span of the participants is 16 to 24 years old. The overall theme for the discussions is heterosexual practice and relations.