To Örebro University

This paper analyzes how the IPCC understands and addresses with risk and uncertainty. First, it discusses the IPCC’s formal and explicit view on how it understands, manages, and communicates risk and uncertainty in its knowledge assessments. This is done through an analysis of the documents that the IPCC has produced on the subject. The analysis reveals that the IPCC has an ambitious yet complicated system for identifying, assessing, and managing risk and uncertainty. The paper then explores how IPCC experts – researchers appointed by the IPCC to conduct its knowledge assessments – view this system and use it to determine risk and uncertainty. This is done through an interview study with IPCC experts. The analysis indicates that there are tensions in the way knowledge, uncertainty, and risk are viewed. Interviewees made limited reference to the IPCC’s formalized view of risk and uncertainty, but based on the little they did say, it appears to help them manage not only risk and uncertainty, but also internal disagreements and divergent research traditions. Finally, the paper draws conclusions about the challenges that the IPCC will face and need to address regarding risk and uncertainty.

In the third year of Swedish upper secondary school, students choose if they want to attend English 7; an optional course that incurs a credit increment which improves the chance of being admitted to university. The third-year course is the first that includes texts used in higher education and content of a scientific nature in the syllabus, yet the effects English 7 has on students’ language proficiency and level of preparedness for reading course literature in English remain unexplored. In this mixed methods study, descriptive and inferential statistics are combined with qualitative content analysis to analyse questionnaire and interview data from more than 300 upper secondary school and university students. The results suggest English 7 appears to act as a bridge between upper secondary school with students who attended English 7 significantly better prepared to read course literature in English at university. However, English 7 is also perceived as an elite course that is not for everyone, with students who need it the most to improve their English opting not to attend, leading to the conclusion there is a need to reevaluate the role of English 7. 

This thesis takes an interest in the literacy practices in a Special Educational Needs (SEN) classroom for grades 7-9 in a compulsory school, where most students are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The diagnosis ASD often implies difficulties related to print literacy as well as deficits in social interaction (ICD5), and many of these students show a relatively low rate of passing grades in school. A possible explanation for this is that social interaction and literacy are considered as key abilities in the view on learning in the Education Act, and therefore crucial for reaching the knowledge requirements stated in the curricula. The relation between the difficulties implied by the diagnosis and necessary abilities for reaching knowledge requirements in school constitutes a special educational dilemma. Considering this dilemma, the aim of this study is to make visible, from a relational perspective, the prerequisites for participation in literacy practices in a SEN group for students diagnosed with ASD. The research question is: What obstacles and opportunities for participation in the classroom literacy practices appear for the focus students? The empirical material was produced through an ethnographic approach, where the participants were followed for one year. Video and interviews were used as methods for data production. The theoretical framework is relational pedagogy, and Martin Buber’s concepts are used to analyze the relational dimensions in the classroom interactions around text. The results show how relational aspects of teacher-student meetings affect the possibilities for student participation in interactions around text. The study concludes that educators’ relational competence plays a crucial role for the students’ opportunities to participate in literacy practices. The findings have implications for practice that are applicable for teaching students with special educational needs as well as for teaching in the general classroom.

The study focuses on the issues of using foreign powers of attorney to dispose of immovable property located in in Ukraine. The unprecedented scale of migration of the Ukrainian population to European countries caused by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation continues to provoke legal issues that require research and answers. Among them is the issue of disposal of immovable property located in Ukraine on the basis of foreign powers of attorney.

The article addresses the following issues: the law of which country such a power of attorney must comply with; whether it must be created in the form of an authentic instrument; and whether certification of the authenticity of the signature on such a power of attorney is sufficient. As one of the possible examples, the article considers the situation of a power of attorney issued by a Polish notary for disposal of immovable property located in Ukraine. It is concluded that such a power of attorney must be authenticated, i.e., drawn up in the form of a ‘notarial act’ under Polish law, which is equivalent to a notarial authentication under Ukrainian law.

The article pays special attention to the concept of an ‘authentic instrument,’ which is analogous in its characteristics to a document authenticated by a notary under Ukrainian law. An authentic instrument is a document issued by a public authority; this authenticity should relate to the content of the instrument and not only, for example, the signature; the instrument has to be enforceable in itself in the state in which it originates.

The study draws attention to the fact that the law to which a foreign power of attorney must comply depends the interpretation of the provisions of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Private International Law.’ Depending on the strategy interpretation of these provisions, a power of attorney from a country where the concept of an authentic instrument is not used (Sweden, Ireland, Denmark, Cyprus, Finland) may be either recognised or not recognised in Ukraine as legally sufficient ground to dispose someone’s immovable property.

Attention is also paid to the legal consequences of using a foreign power of attorney, which, in accordance with the provisions of a bilateral international agreement between Ukraine and a third country, must comply with the law of Ukraine, but is not authenticated. Such a power of attorney is void pursuant to Article 219 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, but its voidance does not directly result in the invalidity or nullity of the agreement concluded on the basis of the void power of attorney.

Syftet med denna artikel är att problematisera konsekvenserna av policybeslut i dagens målstyrda skola för elever i behov av stöd, närmare bestämt elever med den neuropsykiatriska funktionsnedsättningen autismspektrumtillstånd (AST). Elever med diagnos inom AST har enligt rapporter låg måluppfyllelse och hög frånvaro i den svenska grundskolan (Autism- och Aspergerförbundet, 2013; 2016). Samma rapporter visar att en majoritet av dessa elever därför saknar gymnasiebehörighet efter avslutad obligatorisk grundskoleutbildning. Skolpersonal måste ha den kompetens och flexibilitet som behövs för att möta denna elevgrupp annars kan det leda till att eleverna inte klarar de målen för utbildningen, vilket begränsar deras framtida yrkesval och möjligheter att delta i samhällslivet enligt Skolinspektionen (2012). Denna artikel diskuterar inte skolpersonals kompetens utan styrdokument och de villkor de skapar för skola i allmänhet och för elever i behov av stöd i synnerhet. Konsekvenser av den nya skollag som trädde i kraft 2011 uppmärksammas av forskare och handikapporganisationer. Det förefaller som om Skollagen (800:2010) inte alltid följs och att läroplanen Lgr11 kan skapa hinder i stället för förutsättningar för denna elevgrupp, samt att den nya mål- och resultatstyrning skolan regleras av på olika sätt har medfört ökade svårigheter för elever med AST att lyckas med sina studier. Trots goda intentioner ges skolor inte alltid de förutsättningar som krävs för anpassning efter elevers funktionsnedsättningar enligt Skolverket (2016). Denna artikel framhåller att de förändringar samhället och skolan genomgått under det senaste decenniet bör problematiseras ur en demokratisk synvinkel då de medfört uppenbara risker för utanförskap för en grupp individer i vårt samhälle.

Children interviewed by the police in cases of suspected child abuse may experience emotional distress. Simultaneously, parents face the dual challenge of being suspects in the investigation while also striving to support their child’s well-being. To offer children and their parents information and support in such cases, social workers in Sweden developed the model After the Child Forensic Interview (ACFI, sw. Efter barnförhöret). This study aims to explore the model from the perspective of family social workers to understand its relevance for supporting children and parents. Twenty family social workers from eleven Swedish municipalities were interviewed about their experiences of working with ACFI. The analysis revealed that working with ACFI (a) requires preconditions such as resources and cooperation, individual/professional knowledge and experience, and the parents’ receptivity, (b) demands adaptations such as changes and additions, and (c) entails side effects. Overall, family social workers describe the model as beneficial as it can improve client-worker relationships and facilitate further interventions. However, it is required that the municipalities have a plan for implementation and allocation of resources.

The metaverse is considered by some to be the next big thing in the global economy. Despite technological progress and high expectations, scholars agree that a broader metaverse platform does not yet exist. Instead, it has been suggested that the metaverse exists mainly as an imaginary or a representation in various discursive contexts. However, studies that examine such representations are few, and the present study aims to – through the lens of social representation theory – critically explore how VR technology and the metaverse are discursively represented in Swedish news media. The analysis identifies three underlying themata: (a) The inevitability of technology, (b) The commodification of experience, and (c) The world of male pioneers. It is concluded that the news media’s representation of VR and the metaverse contributes greatly to maintaining the structural status quo. For traditional journalism to fulfill its democratic mission, a pervasive update of medialogic is needed.

The aim of this article is to critically evaluate the concept of caring masculinity/ies, a concept that has gained traction in critical studies on men and masculinities (CSMM) since the publication of Karla Elliott’s 2016 article. Utilizing a rapid literature review, this study analyses 54 peer-reviewed papers published in English-language journals since 2016. The paper begins with an overview of the early development of caring masculinities, tracing its theoretical roots and initial applications. It subsequently categorizes the dominant ways in which the concept has been applied, focusing on typologies, caring practices, and processes of change, as well as on criticism of the concept. The paper then discusses key critical junctions and limitations, particularly on the conflation of attitudes with practice. It finally calls for a more coherent focus on caring practices that emphasizes the importance of intersectionality, the initial feminist promise of the concept and greater attention to the structural barriers that may enable, shape or restrict men’s caring.

Purpose: This study aimed to explore the perceptions and experiences of social workers and police officers in terms of risk management and inter- and intra-agency collaboration in cases of intimate partner violence (IPV) in rural and remote areas in Sweden.

Method: Adopting an exploratory qualitative research design, 13 semi-structured focus group interviews with 38 social workers and six police officers from six rural and remote regions were conducted. Data were analyzed using thematic analyses.

Results: In relation to our informants’ work with risk management responses, two themes were identified related to barriers and possibilities. In terms of collaboration, two themes were identified in the data: barriers to inter- and intra-agency collaboration, and facilitators of inter- and intra-agency collaboration. Overall, the results of this study correspond to previous research. However, novel findings related to possibilities with risk management responses and collaboration specific to a rural and remote context.

Conclusions: The results of this study are discussed in terms of policy and practical implications for social workers and police officers in general and in relation to the unique context of rural and remote areas. As such, there is an incongruence between current urban-centric policies of IPV prevention and the specific structural and cultural characteristics of sparsely populated areas.

Failures can occur in any interaction between humans and robots, and the extent of the failure depends on the domain of application and the context in which the failure occurs. Typically, interaction failures are attributed to errors on the robot’s side. This paper examines the concept of Intelligent Disobedience (ID) and how it can be leveraged for managing interaction failures caused by humans. Our work-in-progress focuses on the practical implementation of ID in robot teleoperation and highlights the benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration for this project.

Human-robot interaction in any form and application domains are susceptible to failures. Failures are of varied definitions and types. The severity of the failure is high for teleoperated tasks. In this paper, we focus on the less explored type of failure called human induced interaction failure using the concept of Intelligent Dis-obedience (ID). ID was first used as a method for training guide dogs, where the dogs disobey the user’s commands that are dangerous to perform. Imparting this behaviour of disobedience to manage human induced interaction failures consists of numerous social, cultural and ethical aspects to consider. This paper discusses a novel framework based on ID to manage human induced interaction failures. Also, we discuss a nuanced approach involved in robot disobedience considering the different social and cultural aspects.

Bangladesh has experienced significant economic development in recent years, but the prevalence of extreme poverty among minority groups remains high. This study examines how exclusion, discrimination, and structural barriers contribute to multidimensional poverty among ethnic and religious minorities. It provides insights for policymakers and development partners in promoting inclusive development.

The authors contribute to a better understanding of the multiple dimensions of poverty by exploring the intersection of ethnicity, religion, discrimination, and poverty in Bangladesh, a critical but under-researched dimension of marginalization. The findings emphasize the need to move beyond reliance on economic growth and generic poverty reduction measures, advocating for tailored approaches that address structural exclusion and advance the rights of the most disadvantaged.

From a development perspective, the study holds particular significance. Bangladesh’s aspiration to eradicate poverty and achieve sustained economic growth hinges on addressing the needs of those furthest behind. Similarly, its democratic commitments are tested by the extent to which it upholds the basic rights and entitlements of marginalized populations. These goals align with Sweden’s priorities in international development, including promoting equity, safeguarding human rights, and fostering inclusive governance.

Employing qualitative methods that capture the voices and lived experiences of members of marginalized groups, this report provides insights for international development partners, including Sida, as well as decisionmakers in Bangladesh. By deepening understanding of extreme poverty and advocating for calibrated and coordinated responses, it supports efforts to advance accountability, amplify marginalized voices, and ensure that development truly benefits all.

The study outlines a set of policy implications of relevance for decision- and policymakers in Bangladesh as well as for multilateral and bilateral development partners, including the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The policy reflections largely focus on how to make marginalised minority groups in Bangladesh more ‘visible’, which is a prerequisite for addressing their extreme poverty and marginalisation.

This thesis examines the role of present futures in global education policy discourse by analysing how they shape and are used to legitimise programmatic ideas for education. The thesis acknowledges present futures as action-guiding factors and arguments inspired by the sociology of expectations and sociological fictionalism.

UNESCO's initiative Futures of Education: Learning to Become serves as the empirical entry point into the global education governing arena. This study comprises material published from the initiative's launch in 2019 up to the initiative's final report, published in 2021. The report was compiled by the International Commission on the Futures of Education, which UNESCO invited to revise educational futures in exchange with experts and the public. Moreover, the Faure report (1972) and the Delors report (1996), which are similar flagship reports commissioned by UNESCO, are considered for an appropriate contextualisation of the subject matter. The analysis draws on the discourse historical approach (DHA) and therefore integrates thoroughly sociopolitical and historical context for the analysis.

This thesis shows how futures were imagined and portrayed as elusive and disruptive in the Futures of Education initiative and how that meant that education needed to be flexible, adaptable, and plural. However, to understand the present futures and programmatic ideas this thesis unearthed, it is essential to consider the peculiarity of the global education governing arena and UNESCO's history of struggle to stay relevant. After all, the initiative also functioned as an opportunity or strategy to (re)produce and legitimise the role of UNESCO as a humanistic actor and brand in the global education governing arena while maintaining to be relevant to diverse stakeholders and ideologies.

This study addresses the issue of sampling error within research on subsets of parliamentary text corpora. Two samples of parliamentary speeches relating to the marketisation of the Swedish education system, drawn thr ough different sampling techniques, are analysed and compared. The analyses find that diverging sampling methodologies can be complementary as each method adds substantial quantities of unique documents to the dataset. Further, the diverging sampling methodologies employed produce documents with similar semantic content. However, analyses of the distributi on of speeches between party affiliations and speakers indicate va st differences between the two samples. These results indicate that sampling frames can substantially influence the findings of parliamentary text analyses. We conclude that combining different sampling techniques can be a way to reduce the ris k of sampling error, which in turn can have a strong influence on the conclusions drawn from analyses of parliamentary texts. 

Successful adoption of industrial robots will strongly depend on their ability to safely and efficiently operate in human environments, engage in natural communication, understand their users, and express intentions intuitively while avoiding unnecessary distractions. To achieve this advanced level of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), robots need to acquire and incorporate knowledge of their users’ tasks and environment and adopt multimodal communication approaches with expressive cues that combine speech, movement, gazes, and other modalities. This paper presents several methods to design, enhance, and evaluate expressive HRI systems for non-humanoid industrial robots. We present the concept of a small anthropomorphic robot communicating as a proxy for its non-humanoid host, such as a forklift. We developed a multimodal and LLM-enhanced communication framework for this robot and evaluated it in several lab experiments, using gaze tracking and motion capture to quantify how users perceive the robot and measure the task progress

In this paper we present a hierarchical motion and intent prediction system prototype, designed to efficiently operate in complex environments while safely handling risks arising from diverse and uncertain human motion and activities. Our system uses an array of advanced cues to describe human motion and activities, including generalized motion patterns, full-body poses, heterogeneous agent types and causal contextual factors that influence human behavior.

Accurate human activity and trajectory prediction are crucial for ensuring safe and reliable human-robot interactions in dynamic environments, such as industrial settings, with mobile robots. Datasets with fine-grained action labels for moving people in industrial environments with mobile robots are scarce, as most existing datasets focus on social navigation in public spaces. This paper introduces the THÖR-MAGNI Act dataset, a substantial extension of the THÖR-MAGNI dataset, which captures participant movements alongside robots in diverse semantic and spatial contexts. THÖR-MAGNI Act provides 8.3 hours of manually labeled participant actions derived from egocentric videos recorded via eye-tracking glasses. These actions, aligned with the provided THÖR-MAGNI motion cues, follow a long-tailed distribution with diversified acceleration, velocity, and navigation distance profiles. We demonstrate the utility of THÖR-MAGNI Act for two tasks: action-conditioned trajectory prediction and joint action and trajectory prediction. We propose two efficient transformer-based models that outperform the baselines to address these tasks. These results underscore the potential of THÖR-MAGNI Act to develop predictive models for enhanced human-robot interaction in complex environments.

This paper presents a critical analysis of the links between modernization and masculinities in Türkiye through the case of the regulation of men’s hair in the civil service. The Turkish civil service is an institution where the state has accumulated and deployed power, disciplined its civil servant employees, and shaped and transformed masculinities as part of the broader process of modernization. Both the civil service as a research field, and men’s hair, despite its powerful symbolic importance in politics, have been neglected in critical studies on men and masculinities. To fill this gap, four momentous changes in civil service history in Türkiye are examined, as a part of the modernization project over the last two centuries and simultaneous reciprocal interrelations of macro- and meso-processes with men’s facial hair. These changes have been targeted towards or resulted in transformations of men’s facial hair in the civil service, in turn constructing state-sanctioned masculinities in the civil service and society.

In this article, the main focus will be to analyze the notion of mediation in an attempt to apply it to one of the major topics of our time: the increasing impact of AI technologies in social life. Mediation being essentially a relational concept, I will start by linking it to the relational thinking developed in sociological theory and postphenomenology. My own contribution will be to take a substantialist position and to define what I consider to be the ecstatic dimension of relationality, re-interpreted via the notion of “being-toward.” I will also draw on Sartre's socio-materialist understanding of mediation, focusing in particular on his general conceptualization of the “practico-inert field.” A metaphorological approach will be presented in the final part of the study to illustrate the relations between humans and AI technologies. Three metaphors will be used to explore the meaning of algorithmic mediations: “vampire objects,” “bewitched quantities,” and “frozen voices.” These metaphors will be interpreted in light of empirical phenomena: (a) algorithmically generated “synthetic data,” (b) “high-frequency trading,” and (c) AI recruitment chatbots in hiring.

In 2022, one in 20 minors in Sweden had a refugee background. As most refugees do not return to their countries of origin, understanding successful resettlement should be prioritised. Acculturation and psychological resilience are useful concepts, as both acknowledge the interplay between individual and contextual factors in sociocultural adjustment. However, less is known about the role of resilience in the selection and maintenance of acculturation strategies, especially among refugee youth. This qualitative interview study aimed to investigate how acculturation strategies may be shaped by risks and resources using a soci-oecological resilience framework. The narratives of 22 refugee youth in Sweden were explored using reflexive thematic analysis. Deductive coding, informed by an established socioecological model of immigrant youth adaptation, examined the interplay between individual acculturation motivations and contextual factors. The analysis resulted in six themes: (1) war, peace, and opportunities (global forces); (2) (dis)orientation and comparisons (socio-political context); (3) aiming for integration (individual/motivation to acculturate); (4) learning to belong (microsystem—school); (5) inclusion and exclusion (microsystem—friends); (6) support, conflict, and accord (microsystem—family). The analysis highlights how resilience resources may enable maintenance, while frustration and discrimination can pose a risk to the maintenance of a preferred integration strategy.

David L. Collinson is a UK-based scholar of gender, organizations and management, with a special interest in leadership. Collinson can rightly claim to be amongst a small number of top-flight European scholars in his field. His range of work on critical approaches to leadership, management and organization is vast and variegated, with primary interests in: leadership and followership dialectics; power, identities and insecurities; gender, men and masculinities; conformity, dramaturgy and resistance; humour in organizations; and positivity and Prozac leadership. In particular, he has focused much of his academic work on two related subject areas, leadership, and gender, men and masculinities, thus bridging Critical Leadership Studies (CLS) and Critical Studies on Men and Masculinities (CSMM). 

This entry outlines definitions of and debates on patriarchy, ranging from the ‘rule of the fathers’ to a diverse range of broader feminist theorizations in terms of, for example, the domestic mode of production, economic systems, reproduction, sexuality, and violence. This is followed by noting some critiques of the concept of patriarchy as, for example, too monolithic, ahistorical or insufficiently intersectional, as well as how patriarchy has become important as a critical frame in some theorizations of masculinities. These discussions feed into the consideration of several ways in which patriarchy, as both concept and social formation, are relevant for analyses of management. These include: patriarchy as a context of management; the management of patriarchal arenas, such as the state and capitalist organizations; and management as a manifestation of patriarchy. More specifically, attention is drawn to the practices of patriarchal managements, patriarchal managing, and patriarchal masculinities; and the increasing recognition of plural, intersectional and transnational patriarchal managements.

The concept of care, like that of work, is very broad and multifaceted. It can refer to many different forms of care: physical, psychological, social and spiritual. Care can also refer to organized systems of care, for example health care, social care, institutional care and home care. Care can be conceptualized both as work, in terms of care work conducted, and as more than work alone, as in care for others, one’s or others’ children and other dependents, as well as for oneself. According to Tronto (2013), care can entail: caring about; taking care of; giving care; receiving care; caring with, as with solidarity. Care can thus be used more widely still to refer to care for animals, non-humans, the environment and the planet.

This article examines Swedish men’s ice hockey in the border-land between amateur and professional sports from 1965 to 1975. In brief, the Swedish Ice Hockey Association strived for greater breadth and increased professionalism, which resulted in different initiatives. Inspiration for training programs came mainly from the East (Soviet ice hockey), while more commercial innovations came from the West (professional leagues in North America). In short, preserving Swedish ice hockey’s integrity influenced all decisions. Measures were taken to maintain and possibly increa-se the popularity of domestic ice hockey. But when the amateur model had reached its full potential, professional players were ac-cepted. The negotiations regarding the existence of and attitudes towards amateurism are here interpreted in terms of maintaining or resisting the dominant hegemony.

This research report presents the results from the project Connecting digital and analog literacy: The potential of the digital pencil for text creation in schools (DigiPen). Digital pencils are used for writing, drawing, and pointing on tablet or laptop screens. So far, they have not been used to any larger extent in Swedish schools. Two studies of uses of digital pencils in Swedish compulsory schools are presented. One was carried out in a fourth-grade class and one in an eighth-grade class. The report describes the potentials of digital pencils as tools in schools for writing by hand, drawing, and thinking, as well as for performing tasks other than those that are possible with analog pencils. A number of detailed recommendations are presented, based on the empirical findings of the studies. The recommendations are directed toward teachers, teacher students, school management, and educational policymakers, as well as representatives of the hardware and software industry.

Transformer-based models have gained increasing popularity for time-series prediction; however, in specific applications such as residential heating systems, static contextual data of buildings is crucial to effectively capture and learn complex environmental dynamics. This paper presents a novel transformer-based model that adapts the contextual meta-data of residential buildings, generalizing across diverse environments. The model integrates temporal data with adaptive embedding of building-specific contextual meta-data such as geographic locations and building characteristics to dynamically learn and adapt to the variations. These adaptive context embeddings allow the model to comprehensively understand how different buildings respond to environmental changes over time. Initial results show improved accuracy and reliability in indoor temperature predictions of residential buildings, demonstrating the model’s potential to optimize district heating systems across a diverse array of residential buildings. This proposed model provides a basis for developing proactive heat management systems in buildings.

Purpose: We aimed to characterize the cardiovascular, lactate and perceived exertion responses in relation to performance during competition in junior and senior elite synchronized swimmers.

Methods: 34 high level senior (21.4 ± 3.6 years) and junior (15.9 ± 1.0) synchronized swimmers were monitored while performing a total of 96 routines during an official national championship in the technical and free solo, duet and team competitive programs. Heart rate was continuously monitored. Peak blood lactate was obtained from serial capillary samples during recovery. Post-exercise rate of perceived exertion was assessed using the Borg CR-10 scale. Total competition scores were obtained from official records.

Results: Data collection was complete in 54 cases. Pre-exercise mean heart rate (beats·min(-1)) was 129.1 ± 13.1, and quickly increased during the exercise to attain mean peak values of 191.7 ± 8.7, with interspersed bradycardic events down to 88.8 ± 28.5. Mean peak blood lactate (mmol·L(-1)) was highest in the free solo (8.5 ± 1.8) and free duet (7.6 ± 1.8) and lowest at the free team (6.2 ± 1.9). Mean RPE (0-10+) was higher in juniors (7.8 ± 0.9) than in seniors (7.1 ± 1.4). Multivariate analysis revealed that heart rate before and minimum heart rate during the routine predicted 26% of variability in final total score.

Conclusions: Cardiovascular responses during competition are characterized by intense anticipatory pre-activation and rapidly developing tachycardia up to maximal levels with interspersed periods of marked bradycardia during the exercise bouts performed in apnea. Moderate blood lactate accumulation suggests an adaptive metabolic response as a result of the specific training adaptations attributed to influence of the diving response in synchronized swimmers. Competitive routines are perceived as very to extremely intense, particularly in the free solo and duets. The magnitude of anticipatory heart rate activation and bradycardic response appear to be related to performance variability.

I detta nummer av Texter om våld presenteras forskning och resultat från forskningsprogrammet RiskSam. Den evidensbaserade modellen RiskSam syftar till att förbättra riskhanteringen vid våld i nära relationer. Bidragen lyfter fram de utmaningar och möjligheter som präglar arbetet med riskbedömning, riskhantering och samverkan. I det inledande kapitlet introduceras RiskSam-programmet och de delstudier som ingår. Som programmets forskningsledare Susanne Strand beskriver, är målet att implementera och utvärdera RiskSam-modellen, för att långsiktigt stärka välfärdsinstitutionernas förmåga att hantera risker och förebygga upprepat partnervåld.

Programmets forskare undersöker bland annat hur riskhantering praktiseras och hur effektiva olika insatser är för att förhindra återfall. I texten Polisens första kontakt i partnervåldsärenden, betonar Johan Stjernqvist vikten av snabba, skräddarsydda insatser kombinerade med en långsiktig skyddsplanering. Jag själv skriver om socialsekreterares upplevelser av att hantera ärenden om våld i nära relationer i Att arbeta med ärenden om våld i nära relation. Här läggs särskilt fokus på arbetsvillkor och resurser utifrån en hållbar arbetssituation. I studien om förutsättningarna för arbetet i olika geografiska kontexter, Hantera risk för våld i nära relation i gles- och landsbygd, framträder både unika utmaningar och möjligheter: medan avstånd försvårar och resurser ofta är knappa, kan mindre samhällen ändå erbjuda närmare relationer och nätverk som underlättar arbetet.

I flera kapitel lyfts de utsattas perspektiv. Åsa Källström undersöker i Våld, riskhantering och livskvalitet i anslutning till pandemin, liksom jag i Mammors erfarenheter av våld efter separation, kvinnors erfarenheter av samhällets stöd efter partnervåld. Deras berättelser understryker behovet av samordnat och individanpassat stöd – ett behov som blev särskilt tydligt under pandemin, då tillgången till hjälp blev annorlunda och fungerade olika bra för olika individer.

Att våldet inte alltid upphör vid en separation är väletablerat inom forskningen. Jacqueline Lindblom beskriver i texten Stalkning av en före detta partner de svårigheter som uppstår vid riskbedömning och hantering av stalkning från före detta partner, och framhåller vikten av individanpassade insatser i samverkan mellan olika aktörer. Susanne Mattsson beskriver i Vad är eftervåld? liksom Hanna Palhamn Szabó i Juridiskt våld – att använda lagen som våldshandling, fenomenet våld efter separation i nära relation och dess allvarliga konsekvenser för kvinnor och barn. Deras texter visar hur våldets fortsättning efter separationen begränsar kvinnors liv och hur samhällets institutioner ibland misslyckas med att erbjuda tillräckligt skydd.

Fokus riktas även mot våldsutövarna. Joakim Petersson beskriver i Behandling av partnervåldsutövare behandlingar som syftar till att minska våldsutövarens beteende, och visar på behovet av evidensbaserade metoder och kunskap om klienters egna upplevelser av behandling. Emma Källvik avslutar antologin med texten Hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck och en analys av hedersrelaterat våld. Hon framhåller hur detta fenomen delar likheter med partnervåld men kräver anpassade strategier på både individ- och samhällsnivå.

The principle of proportionality is a key principle in EU law; however, it has distinctive meanings in different contexts. In the field of free movement, proportionality constrains the Member States’ possibilities to diverge from EU law on the basis of the requirement of suitability and necessity. In the area of EU competences it is a principle that guides the relationship between the EU and Member States and requires the EU legislator to use the least intrusive means of regulation/legislation to protect state sovereignty. There is also a third approach to proportionality in the field of EU sanctions and the Court of Justice’s case-law, which entails that the sanction imposed must be commensurate to the gravity of the offence. This more conventional criminal law ‘retrospective’ version of proportionality has now been enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights and suggests that ‘the severity of penalties must not be disproportionate to the criminal offence’. 

This article argues that common property arrangements are relevant for Coasean bargaining, that commons can be understood as a common property institution suitable for Coasean bargaining, and that international human rights law can support commons and facilitate such bargaining for the sake of attaining a better environment. An environmental tragedy of the commons, regardless if occurring in shared resource domains or in relation to shared resources in other regards, can also be synonymous with general environmental decline. Environmental degradation is, at times, described as the production of negative externalities, i.e. effects produced by the use of a resource which negatively impact other users, the environment, or humanity at large. A traditional solution for such externalities, especially in the context of the tragedy of the commons, is privatisation of resources with private property. Contemporarily, however, private property and privatisation is considered flawed because it fails to remove such externalities which are shared by everyone, and which accumulate into general ruin (such as adverse climate change). Nevertheless, property still lies at the heart of many market solutions to environmental degradation, including solutions such as the Coase theorem, which in turn has also traditionally favoured private property. The answer to the conundrum of what property solution could more aptly allow the market to resolve issues like the tragedy of commons may then reside with the concept of commons. The general improvement of our environment may lie with commons permeated by common property facets and human rights that empower people to protect their environments, and by extension, achieve more sustainability, through Coasean bargaining (negotiation) with emitters on the market, without the direct interference by the State.

Estimating treatment effects from observational data is paramount in healthcare, education, and economics, but current deep disentanglement-based methods to address selection bias are insufficiently handling irrelevant variables. We demonstrate in experiments that this leads to prediction errors. We disentangle pre-treatment variables with a deep embedding method and explicitly identify and represent irrelevant variables, additionally to instrumental, confounding and adjustment latent factors. To this end, we introduce a reconstruction objective and create an embedding space for irrelevant variables using an attached autoencoder. Instead of relying on serendipitous suppression of irrelevant variables as in previous deep disentanglement approaches, we explicitly force irrelevant variables into this embedding space and employ orthogonalization to prevent irrelevant information from leaking into the latent space representations of the other factors. Our experiments with synthetic and real-world benchmark datasets show that we can better identify irrelevant variables and more precisely predict treatment effects than previous methods, while prediction quality degrades less when additional irrelevant variables are introduced.

This paper expands traditional stochastic volatility models by allowing for time-varying skewness without imposing it. While dynamic asymmetry may capture the likely direction of future asset returns, it comes at the risk of leading to overparameterization. Our proposed approach mitigates this concern by leveraging sparsity-inducing priors to automatically select the skewness parameter as dynamic, static or zero in a data-driven framework. We consider two empirical applications. First, in a bond yield application, dynamic skewness captures interest rate cycles of monetary easing and tightening and is partially explained by central banks' mandates. In a currency modeling framework, our model indicates no skewness in the carry factor after accounting for stochastic volatility. This supports the idea of carry crashes resulting from volatility surges instead of dynamic skewness.

This article explores institutional responses to gender-based violence (GBV) in three Nordic higher education institutions (HEIs) through the concept of institutional care processes (Tronto 2013). The care framework provides insights into the challenges and opportunities in HEIs' efforts to address GBV. The article presents three detailed case studies conducted in 2022 on the implementation of anti-GBV policies and practices in HEIs in Finland, Iceland, and Sweden. By reframing institutional responses as forms of care, a gap in the care processes was identified. The care work was often driven by „driving-spirits“ but lacked recognition, value, and structures for long-term capacity building. While HEIs fulfill their duty to care by identifying needs and assigning responsibility for meeting them, there was a lack of adequate working conditions in place to ensure sustainable care provision could be done.

I den här artikeln diskuterar professor Eleonor Kristoffersson rättsfamiljer och komparativ forskning inom mervärdesskatt. Artikeln avhandlar varför och hur rättsfamiljer används inom komparativ rättsvetenskaplig forskning, vilka rättsfamiljer som kan identifieras inom mervärdesskatten och hur dessa kan användas inom komparativa studier inom mervärdesskatten. I artikeln identifieras sju mervärdesskatterättsfamiljer. Slutsatsen är att mervärdesskattefamiljerna kan användas som en utgångspunkt och som en förklaringsmodell, men att forskningen också kan bli begränsad om de blir alltför styrande för urvalet av undersökningsobjekt.

South Korea introduced VAT in 1977 and the Sixth VAT Directive was enacted in the same year. In this article, the EU and Korean VAT systems are compared and analysed from a legal transplants perspective. The first research question pertains to whether there was any European influence on the Korean VAT Act at the time of its introduction, and, if so, how this influence was exerted. The second research question concerns the identification and explanation of similarities and differences between the two systems, both at the time of the introduction of Korean VAT and today. This leads to the third research question, whether the two VAT systems have moved towards or away from each other. The analysis has been carried out from a legal transplants’ perspective, which analyses whether, how and why such laws spread across the globe. The article ends with a final analysis and conclusions. Our conclusions are that there was a European influence on the Korean VAT Act by the time of its introduction, that many similarities are so close that they can hardly have occurred spontaneously, and that the two systems have drifted apart from each other.

Learning latent costs of transitions on graphs from trajectories demonstrations under various contextual features is challenging but useful for path planning. Yet, existing methods either oversimplify cost assumptions or scale poorly with the number of observed trajectories. This paper introduces DataSP, a differentiable all-to-all shortest path algorithm to facilitate learning latent costs from trajectories. It allows to learn from a large number of trajectories in each learning step without additional computation. Complex latent cost functions from contextual features can be represented in the algorithm through a neural network approximation. We further propose a method to sample paths from DataSP in order to reconstruct/mimic observed paths' distributions. We prove that the inferred distribution follows the maximum entropy principle. We show that DataSP outperforms state-of-the-art differentiable combinatorial solver and classical machine learning approaches in predicting paths on graphs.

Integrated AI systems can often be composed of a series of black-box components. We propose a planning based approach that takes a set of components, initially available models/data, and set of goal models and automatically devices a plan that represents an integrated AI system. This allows us to automatically adjust to new components and changing requirements. Experimental evaluation shows how our approach performs over a large number of instances covering sets of over 100 components.

Overcoming inertia is a top priority for managers in digital transformation; however, this study investigates how public sector managers create inertia in digital transformation through alibi narratives. Through a case study of managers in the Swedish public sector, the study analyzes how managers legitimize and reinforce stagnation rather than promoting change. Four meta-alibi narratives are identified, that facilitate managers´ understanding of the digital transformation process while simultaneously resulting in unintentional inertia. By exploring these alibi narratives, the study challenges the traditional view of managers solely as agents of change, revealing their complex role as both facilitators and impediments to digital transformation. This research provides valuable insights into the micro-level dynamics of digital transformation while highlighting the need for nuanced strategies that address the resistance within public sector organizations.

This article delves into a recurring dilemma facing contemporary fascist movements: how to communicate ideological purity to its hardcore base and at the same time appeal to imagined new voters and recruits? By analyzing how the most prominent fascist movement in Sweden, the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM), publicly communicates its ideas about family issues and the role of women, we shed light on the semiotic work done by the far right to merge common social conservative tropes with an extremist discourse. Using the tools of social semiotics and multimodal critical discourse studies, the article shows how the NRM uses a range of semiotic resources as it interweaves mainstream conservative discourses about the nature of women and men, recognizable to a broader public (not least to supporters of the Swedish right-wing populist party, the Sweden Democrats), with Nazi keywords appealing to ideological in-groups. The analysis also reveals how the NRM uses image bank semiotics, which connote values associated with commercial lifestyle media and genres, as they communicate their views on family issues. In its use of such imagery, the NRM simultaneously draws on the fascist myth of palingenesis. Using gender and family politics as an empirical focal point, the article illustrates that linguistic and semiotic methods provide powerful tools to scrutinize the efforts of contemporary fascist movements to present themselves as ideologically pure and at the same time speak to a broader audience of potential voters and recruits.

As illustrated by the success of integer linear programming, linear integer arith-metic is a powerful tool for modelling combinatorial problems. Furthermore, the probabilistic extension of linear programming has been used to formulate problems in neurosymbolic AI. However, two key problems persist that prevent the adoption of neurosymbolic techniques beyond toy problems. First, probabilistic inference is inherently hard, #P-hard to be precise. Second, the discrete nature of integers renders the construction of meaningful gradients challenging, which is problematic for learning. In order to mitigate these issues, we formulate linear arithmetic over integer-valued random variables as tensor manipulations that can be implemented in a straightforward fashion using modern deep learning libraries. At the core of our formulation lies the observation that the addition of two integer-valued random variables can be performed by adapting the fast Fourier transform to probabilities in the log-domain. By relying on tensor operations we obtain a differentiable data structure, which unlocks, virtually for free, gradient-based learning. In our experimental validation we show that tensorising probabilistic linear integer arithmetic and leveraging the fast Fourier transform allows us to push the state of the art by several orders of magnitude in terms of inference and learning times.

Studying animal domestication offers an opportunity to understand the mechanisms of evolution. Domestication is associated with a change in selection pressures; selection for production traits is introduced, and animals are faced with larger and denser social groups. It is not unexpected then that domestication produces a simultaneous change in a number of traits, both physiological and behavioural. This correlated change in traits, e.g. egg production and social behaviour has been termed the “domestic phenotype”. However, it has been shown that selection for one trait alone among the many associated with the domestic phenotype can lead to simultaneous changes in others. This may be a result of such traits being inherited together because of pleiotropy or close linkage of several genes affecting different traits. A chicken growth QTL has previously been found in an intercross between White Leghorn layers (WL) and their main wild ancestor, the red junglefowl (RJF). This QTL has also been found to influence explorative and social behaviours. This thesis aims to characterize this QTL further with respect to social and emotional behaviours, and tries to clarify whether pleiotropy or linkage is responsible for the many observed effects. This is done using behavioural phenotyping, genetic marker genotyping, QTL- and gene expression analysis of an intercross line between RJF and WL, and to some extent of the parental RJF and WL lines themselves. The results show that domestication in these chickens has led to increased social tolerance to unfamiliar conspecifics and a tendency to a decrease in the propensity of chickens to explore the environment, and that these effects are partly explained by the previously described growth QTL. The results also indicate that close linkage of genes, rather than pleiotropy, may be responsible for the multiple effect of the QTL, as different traits to some extent seem to be influenced by different areas within the larger QTL region. This information, in combination with that of other studies and with existing and upcoming genetic research techniques, may be used in the design of future breeding programs that take animal behaviour and welfare as well as production traits into account. Findings like these may also be of use in directing research in human psychiatric genetics.

The article explores some of the contemporary challenges facing the notion of a rule of law at the global level. However, it does so by also problematizing the very idea of a global rule of law. The article makes use of two conceptions of the rule of law at the global level: The “thinner” and the “thicker” version. It is argued that both conceptions have coexisted for some time now, but that what we see now is the crack-up of the thicker version. The question is what kinds of “global rule of laws” will be asserted in the future. Chapter 2 introduces the thinner and the thicker conceptions of a rule of law at the global level. Chapter 3 goes further into detail about the thinner conception, discussing the classical understanding of international law, scrutinizing the absence of a superior authority and the complexities of sovereignty. It is highlighted that both international relations and international law is marked by violence, drawing insights from postcolonial literature. Chapter 4 shifts to the “thicker” neoliberal conception. Here, the paradox of advocating economic liberty while requiring State intervention is examined. It is emphasized that this project of imagining a rule of law at the global level has a close relationship to the role of the United States from the 1980s onwards, both through trade agreements and military power. In Chapter 5, the article explores the crack-up of the “thicker” conception, attributing it to negative effects of US interventions, financial crises, populist politics, and geopolitical tensions. The concept of a “rules-based world order” is introduced as a potential future contender, signaling a moment of transition. It is highlighted that there is a need for a version of the “thinner” conception, amid the risks that are associated with State power.