Suchergebnisse

It is now increasingly recognized that aviation is an important driver of individual and global mobility. Growth in mobility is not evenly distributed, however: recent studies indicate that a relatively small, highly mobile part of society may account for a large share of the total distances travelled. In reviewing one of the processes that may lead to growth in individual aeromobility, the paper focuses on frequent flyer programmes (FFPs) as an institutionalized framework for high mobility, detailing how these programmes reward and thus increase interest in aeromobility. Results are linked to a number of observations regarding the interrelationship of high mobility and social status, and substantiated by a survey of FFP members and their perspectives on benefits provided by such programmes. It is argued that FFPs reward high mobility and discursively interlink frequent flying with social status, which is an important element in the development of mobility patterns which shape and create the social structures that 'necessitate' air travel.

The choice of transport infrastructure projects to include in the National Transport Infrastructure Plans in Sweden is often said to be motivated by the weighing of cost against social benefits. Examining the projects that are included in the Plans, it is clear, however, that not all projects have positive net present values, and are therefore more costly to build than the benefits they create. This paper studies alternative models that might explain the choice of projects. Two political economy models, the district demand and the swing voter with lobbying, are tested, and a model that accounts for the spatial distribution of the projects, as well as the possibility that priorities are based on welfare concerns, is estimated. No support is found for the political economy models. What explains investment volume is the existence of CBA results for a project, which may indicate that welfare benefits have an impact, as do the spatial spillovers from a project's benefits and lobbying, especially by the municipalities concerned.

Riksdag och regering förfogar över en rad styrmedel för att uppnå de mål som ställts upp för trafikpolitiken. Det finns också politisk enighet om att den så kallade fyrstegsprincipen ska användas för att analysera och identifiera de styrmedel som bör användas för att på det minst kostsamma sättet uppnå de politiskt satta målen. I denna rapport har användningen av fyrstegsprincipen i praktiken diskuterats. En central observation är att det ännu återstår mycket arbete för att omsätta tankarna bakom principen i praktisk handling. I synnerhet saknas information om, och analyser av möjligheten att på ett systematiskt sätt använda ekonomiska styrmedel liksom resurser för drift och underhåll för att genomföra politiken. Mycket talar för att man på detta sätt skulle kunna närma sig målen till väsentligt lägre kostnader än vad som är fallet med de styrmedel som för närvarande står i fokus för uppmärksamheten. Till sin hjälp för att genomföra politiken har regeringen ett antal myndigheter. Vi föreslår att regeringen ger någon av dessa, exempelvis Trafikanalys, i uppdrag att självständigt genomföra de två första stegen av fyrstegsprincipen. Trafikverket genomför på samma sätt som idag en åtgärdsanalys av de styrmedel som inryms inom steg tre och fyra. Skillnaden jämfört med idag är att detta kan ske på grundval av de överväganden som redovisats inom ramen för analyserna av steg ett- och steg tvååtgärder. Det är emellertid ett rimligt krav att i moderna demokratier säkerställa att svåra frågor ges en genomlysning även om de rekommendationer som kommer fram upplevs som politiskt utmanande. ; Sweden's parliament and its government have access to a number of means for implementing overarching policies, inter alia in the transport sector. There is a broad consensus that the four step principle should provide the basic logic for choice of appropriate means for implementation of a policy which is supposed to achieve political objectives at lowest costs to society at large.

Bird winter-feeding has become a popular backyard activity around the world, particu-larly in northern regions of Europe and America with cold winters. However, the short- and long-term ecological consequences of such artificial feeding remain inconclusive. In seasonal environments, timing of breeding is a crucial aspect that can strongly influ-ence reproductive output and ultimately fitness. Individual condition at the start of the breeding season is especially important in determining breeding success, by influ-encing the onset of and investment in breeding. However, empirical evidence on the effects of winter feeding on avian breeding performance remain equivocal.We studied onset of reproduction (laying date) and breeding investment (clutch size) over seven consecutive seasons in a population of wild great tits Parus major in southern Sweden. During the first three years of study, no experimental manipulation was undertaken, while over the last four years the study area was exposed to either supplemented or unmanipulated winter feeding conditions. Breeding was positively affected by supplementary feeding during winter, as birds breeding in the supplemented area increased their clutch size compared to birds from the control area, although lay-ing date remained unaffected by winter feeding. Since differences in clutch size were absent during the three years prior to the experimental manipulation, the results sug-gest that winter supplementary feeding, and not inherent differences between the two areas, was the reason for the observed effect. Both breeding parameters varied over the years of study, although the effects of the experimental manipulation on clutch size remained consistent, which suggests a carry-over effect of winter feeding on subse-quent breeding performance. ; JB has been funded by the Andalucía Talent Hub Program launched by the Andalusian Knowledge Agency, co-funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Program, Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (COFUND – Grant Agreement no. 291780) and the ...

Beginning as a planning tool within Sweden's national road administration some 50 years ago, benefit-cost analysis (BCA) has come to be a pillar of the national transport policy because of subsequent strategic choices made by the national parliament. These choices made it necessary to widen the analysis of costs to include also externalities and a foregone conclusion was that efficient investment priorities should be made based on BCA. But no one asked whether the political decision makers or the BCA models were up to that task. This paper reviews the institutional framework and practice of BCA in Sweden for transport infrastructure investment, and considers design issues that have been and still are debated, such as whether the discount rate should include a risk term and how to account for the marginal cost of public funds. A main concern with BCA results is the underestimation of construction costs, making transport sector projects look better than they are. Several ex post analyses have established that a higher NPV ratio increases the probability of being included in the investment program proposal prepared by the agency. The requirement to let projects undergo BCA seems to make planners "trim" project proposals by trying to reduce investment costs without significantly reducing benefits. This relationship is weaker among profitable projects. Moreover, there is no correlation between rate of return and the probability of being included in the final program, which is established on political grounds.

The purpose of this paper is to describe Sweden's recent reforms to open the railway passenger markets to entry, and to addresses four critical issues for the success of the reforms; the allocation of infrastructure capacity, the provision of maintenance and terminal facilities, the access to rolling stock and the provision of information and ticketing to travelers. The analysis shows that the legislation and regulatory tools that are needed to handle these challenges to a large extent remain to be developed.

Basal metabolic rate (BMR) constitutes the lowest metabolic rate in a resting animal and is, therefore, considered to reflect the energetic cost of maintenance in endotherms. BMR is a reversible plastic trait that changes with environmental and ecological circumstances, albeit being heritable and susceptible to selection. Inter-individual variation within populations of small birds is substantial, and while many of the drivers of such variation have been identified, many remain unexplained. We studied winter BMR variation of juveniles over a 15-year period in a wild population of great tits Parus major at the northern border of their distribution. BMR during winter consistently changed between years, even after controlling for environmental factors, suggestive of a non-reversible developmental plasticity shaping the adult metabolic phenotype. BMR in cohorts of wintering great tits varied among winters as a response to minimum ambient temperatures experienced early in life, during the prehatching period. This developmental plasticity might be adaptive if temperatures experienced by growing embryos would metabolically prime them to an environment that they will likely encounter in future life. However, in line with a more unpredictable future climate, the risk of phenotype-environment mismatch is likely to lead to certain cohorts being poorly adapted to prevailing winter conditions, resulting in wider annual fluctuations in population size. ; Open access funding provided by Lund University. JB has been funded by the Andalucía Talent Hub Program launched by the Andalusian Knowledge Agency, co-funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Program, Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (COFUND—Grant Agreement no 291780) and the Ministry of Economy, Innovation, Science and Employment of the Junta de Andalucía. Supported by the Academy of Finland projects no. 102286 and 47195, and the Thule Institute of the University of Oulu (JB and EH) and by grants from the Swedish Research Council no. S-AA/F0 09677-311, B 650-19981108/2000, 629-2002-1893 and 621-2003-2912 (JÅN). ; Peer reviewed

Only one fifth of children aged 11–17 years are physically active for 60 min (min)/day. As physical activity (PA) levels track from childhood to adulthood, it is important to establish healthy PA behavior early in life. This study aims to evaluate whether daily school PA is associated with objectively measured PA independently of other socioecological factors. This study includes 209 children (120 boys) aged 9.8 ± 0.6 (mean ± SD) years from four government-funded schools in Sweden. One school including 113 children (70 boys) had 40 min of daily school PA (intervention) and three schools including 96 children (50 boys) had 60 min of school PA/week (control). PA was measured during four serial days with accelerometers. General PA (GPA) was defined as mean counts per minute (cpm). Socioecological factors were collected by questionnaires, and anthropometric traits by measurements. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test whether sex, age, relative age, body height, fat mass, lean mass, screen time activity, parental educational level, parental attitude towards PA, parental PA, sibling(s)' PA, living in a house or apartment, and whether the child was allocated to 40 min daily school PA or 60 min school PA/week, was independently associated with GPA. Daily GPA was found to be 686.9 ± 211.9 cpm. Independently of the other included factors, daily school PA was associated with +81.8 (15.7, 147.8) cpm compared with 60 min PA/week. This study infers that daily school PA is an appropriate strategy to promote PA in 10-year-old children, independently of different socioecological factors.

Only one fifth of children aged 11–17 years are physically active for 60 min (min)/day. As physical activity (PA) levels track from childhood to adulthood, it is important to establish healthy PA behavior early in life. This study aims to evaluate whether daily school PA is associated with objectively measured PA independently of other socioecological factors. This study includes 209 children (120 boys) aged 9.8 ± 0.6 (mean ± SD) years from four government-funded schools in Sweden. One school including 113 children (70 boys) had 40 min of daily school PA (intervention) and three schools including 96 children (50 boys) had 60 min of school PA/week (control). PA was measured during four serial days with accelerometers. General PA (GPA) was defined as mean counts per minute (cpm). Socioecological factors were collected by questionnaires, and anthropometric traits by measurements. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test whether sex, age, relative age, body height, fat mass, lean mass, screen time activity, parental educational level, parental attitude towards PA, parental PA, sibling(s)' PA, living in a house or apartment, and whether the child was allocated to 40 min daily school PA or 60 min school PA/week, was independently associated with GPA. Daily GPA was found to be 686.9 ± 211.9 cpm. Independently of the other included factors, daily school PA was associated with +81.8 (15.7, 147.8) cpm compared with 60 min PA/week. This study infers that daily school PA is an appropriate strategy to promote PA in 10-year-old children, independently of different socioecological factors.

Under some circumstances, the marginal cost approach to infrastructure pricing leads to problems with cost recovery; a pricing policy which ensures that existing assets are efficiently used may not deliver revenue to pay for the costs for maintenance of existing, nor indeed for construction of new infrastructure. For different reasons governments may find this inappropriate and rather want to complement the marginal-cost-pricing principle with a requirement for a sector of the economy to break even. Efficiency would then be jeopardised. The idea behind work package 2 is to establish the micro-aspects of requirements to recover costs over and above marginal costs. This is done for all modes of transport. More precisely, the objective of this report is to establish some core features of how each mode of transport is organised, to describe the implications of cost recovery requirements for each mode and to analyse different mechanisms which would ascertain that each mode covers a larger share of its own costs. ; CATRIN - Cost allocation of transport infrastructure cost

Abstract
ContextUngulate prey can use increased vigilance to reduce their risk of predation, but little is known of the combined and interactive risk effects from humans and wolves in determining ungulate behaviour across time and space. Understanding the interplay between these risk effects is increasingly important, considering the recolonisation of several large carnivores to more human-dominated landscapes in Europe.
AimThe aim of the present study was to assess the vigilance behaviour expressed by red deer (Cervus elaphus) in response to both humans and wolves in the Polish Białowieża Forest.
MethodsUsing a camera-trap transect, the effect of distance to human settlements, hunting season, patterns of space use by wolves (Canis lupus), canopy openness, canopy height, time of day, as well as sex/age of individuals, on the vigilance behaviour observed in red deer was studied using a model-selection approach.
Key resultsWe did not find a clear effect of patterns of space use by wolves or distance to human settlements on red deer vigilance behaviour at the landscape scale. However, red deer showed increased vigilance during the hunting season and during the day outside of protected areas and reserves, because disturbance from human hunters is highest. Conversely, we also found that red deer were more vigilant at night within more protected areas, which is likely to be explained by the increased activity of wolves because human activity is strictly limited.
ConclusionsOur study showed that vigilance behaviour of red deer in Białowieża Primeval Forest is more driven by human hunting than by the frequency of wolf presence at a landscape scale. This could be explained by the higher temporal and spatial predictability of human hunting activities than wolf risk. We found that patterns of wolf space use, as opposed to the omnipresent fear effects from humans, had only localised effects by increasing vigilance levels during night hours in non-hunting areas of the forest. The reverse was observed outside of protected reserves. Understanding how prey species respond to this new combination of risk from natural predators and humans, is increasingly important in a landscape where human risk is becoming ever more potent and carnivores recolonise.

BACKGROUND: International organisations, e.g. WHO, stress the importance of competent registered nurses (RN) for the safety and quality of healthcare systems. Low competence among RNs has been shown to increase the morbidity and mortality of inpatients. OBJECTIVES: To investigate self-reported competence among nursing students on the point of graduation (NSPGs), using the Nurse Professional Competence (NPC) Scale, and to relate the findings to background factors. METHODS AND PARTICIPANTS: The NPC Scale consists of 88 items within eight competence areas (CAs) and two overarching themes. Questions about socio-economic background and perceived overall quality of the degree programme were added. In total, 1086 NSPGs (mean age, 28.1 [20-56]years, 87.3% women) from 11 universities/university colleges participated. RESULTS: NSPGs reported significantly higher scores for Theme I "Patient-Related Nursing" than for Theme II "Organisation and Development of Nursing Care". Younger NSPGs (20-27years) reported significantly higher scores for the CAs "Medical and Technical Care" and "Documentation and Information Technology". Female NSPGs scored significantly higher for "Value-Based Nursing". Those who had taken the nursing care programme at upper secondary school before the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) programme scored significantly higher on "Nursing Care", "Medical and Technical Care", "Teaching/Learning and Support", "Legislation in Nursing and Safety Planning" and on Theme I. Working extra paid hours in healthcare alongside the BSN programme contributed to significantly higher self-reported scores for four CAs and both themes. Clinical courses within the BSN programme contributed to perceived competence to a significantly higher degree than theoretical courses (93.2% vs 87.5% of NSPGs). SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION: Mean scores reported by NSPGs were highest for the four CAs connected with patient-related nursing and lowest for CAs relating to organisation and development of nursing care. We conclude that the NPC Scale can be used to identify and measure aspects of self-reported competence among NSPGs.