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Aims: To compare the costs of hospital care and sick leave/disability pensions between two groups of driving while impaired (DWI) offenders: participants in an alcohol ignition interlock programme (AIIP) and controls with revoked licences, but with no comparable opportunity to participate in an AIIP. Setting: As an alternative to licence revocation DWI offenders can participate in a voluntary 2-year AIIP permitting the offender to drive under strict regulations entailing regular medical check-ups. The participants are forced to alter their alcohol habits and those who cannot demonstrate sobriety are dismissed from the programme. Participants: are liable for all costs themselves. Design: Quasi-experimental, with a non-equivalent control group used for comparison; intent-to-treat design. Based on the number of occasions/days in hospital and on sick leave/disability pension, the health-care costs for public insurance have been calculated. Finding: Average total health-care costs were 25% lower among AIIP participants (1156 individuals) than among controls (815 individuals) during the 2-year treatment period. This corresponds to over €1000 (SEK9610) less annual costs per average participant. For those who complete the 2-year programme the cost reduction was more pronounced; 37% during the treatment and 20% during the post-treatment period. Conclusions: The positive health-care effects were due apparently to reduced alcohol consumption. The social benefit of being allowed to drive while in the AIIP may also have contributed. The reduction in health-care costs was significant only during the 2-year treatment period, but among those who completed the entire AIIP sustained effects were also observed in the post-treatment period. The effects were comparable to those of regular alcoholism treatment programmes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)(journal abstract)

Alkoholpåverkade förare är ett stort problem i Sverige, både inom privat- och yrkestrafik. För att få bukt med problemet väljer allt fler transportverksamheter att installera alkolås i sina fordon. Dalarnas forskningsråd har under år 2006 utfört en studie för att studera hur alkolås används inom transportsektorn för kvalitetssäkra transporter.

In this thesis electron transfer reactions and diffusion of redox molecules in three different types of self-aggregated structures are investigated. Electrochemistry was used to investigate the redox potential and diffusion coefficients for redox active molecules with different polarity. The first aggregate system studied was the micellar phase. The role of electrostatic interactions in the stability of an amphiphilic viologen was investigated for differently charged micelles. It was concluded that the electrostatic environment changed the redox potential of the viologen. In differently charged micelles the redox potential was more negative compared to when the viologen was situated in micelles with the same charge.

The second structure investigated is a very fascinating phase, the bicontinuous cubic phase, with its continuous channels of water and an apolar bilayer. Its domains with different polarity made it possible to solvate both hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecules. An amphiphilic molecule will have its head-group at the interface between the apolar and polar part, and can move lateral within the bilayer. All molecules investigated made contact with and reacted at the surface of the electrode. The diffusion of water bound species diffusing in the water channels was 3-4 times slower than in water. Hydrophobic and amphiphilic molecules were much more hindered, probably because the cubic phase was not defect free.

The third kind of structure studied was a lamellar system. This phase is built up from planar bilayers that are stacked with a repeating distance and with water in between. A hydrophilic molecule was severely hindered to move in the direction perpendicular to the bilayer plane. Upon addition of the peptide melittin the current increased, due to pore formation in the bilayer.

I denna artikel beskrivs vilka förutsättningar som bör finnas för en lyckad samverkan och de olika spänningsfält som kan uppkomma om dessa förut-sättningar inte finns på plats. Artikeln lyfter fram och problematiserar frågan om vem det är som bestämmer och hur olika aktörer måste hantera ett antal situationer som de själva inte alltid har varit med och skapat. De spännings-fält som lyfts fram är vertikal maktutövning, problem när en organisation vill mer än en sak, individernas roll, kampen om tolkningsföreträde eller att en viss kunskapssyn ska styra. Ett verktyg i artikeln för att hantera arbetet är ett paket av frågor som kan användas för att reflektera över situationen, vilket kan göras enskilt eller tillsammans med involverade samverkanspartners. Ett annat verktyg för att hantera situationen är att utveckla samverkansarbe-tet med hjälp av teorier från grupputveckling och ledarskap. Grundläggande förutsättningar för samverkan är en god dialog, tydliga roller, förståelse av de egna och partnerns förutsättningar och tydliga mål för respektive part.

Alcolocks are commercial breath test devices that prevent a motor vehicle from starting when a driver's blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is elevated. This report is an evaluation of the experiences and BAC data from the first use of alcolocks in commercial vehicles as a primary prevention strategy. In most applications, the alcolock is imposed only after an impaired driving conviction. This study, implemented in Sweden, estimates drink driving on a large scale in a variety of commercial vehicles.

Officials from 118 companies were interviewed representing 3689 alcolock-equipped vehicles used by 9614 professional drivers, an 80% compliance rate. In a contrast group of 230 transport businesses without alcolocks the interview compliance rate was 57%. Survey results probed motivation for and experience with alcolocks. Analysis of BAC test patterns showed alcohol consumption among employees through prevalence estimates of drink-driving attempts at the rate of BAC ≥ the legal limit 0.020%.

Before alcolock installation, 64% of the employers suspected alcohol problems among their employees and their motive for installing alcolocks (cost averaged 1700 €/vehicle) was to improve the transport quality. Several companies had technical problems with the alcolocks; but 98% recommended that other companies install alcolocks.

Among 600, heavy vehicles, 0.19% of all starts were prevented by elevated BAC; most during weekends and mornings. Daytime Saturday and Sunday mornings 0.72% of the drivers had elevated BAC.

Conclusions

The prevalence of drink driving among professional drivers is probably similar to that among drivers in general. Alcolocks would improve the safety margin and reduce public risk. Provided that the entire fleet of trucks, buses, and taxis in Sweden had installed alcolocks that would correspond to about half a million drink driving trips being prevented every year.

Ett flertal av dagens stora miljöproblem är betingade av människors livsstil. Samtidigt har dålig miljö ofta en negativ inverkan på människors hälsa. Att påverka människors beteende är nödvändigt för att åstadkomma en bättre miljö och ett förbättrat hälsotillstånd. Detta kan ske genom utbildning och information, men frågan är på vilket sätt detta ska ske för att verkligen ge avtryck i människors beteende. I handlingsplanen för Dalarnas Miljömål finns flera åtgärder som innebär informationsinsatser inom områden som berör sambandet mellan miljö och hälsa. Här finns också starka kopplingar till flera av de elva folkhälsomålen. Dalarnas Miljömål är ett måldokument med relativt hög abstraktionsnivå. Nästa steg är att operationalisera det – att gå från ord till handling. Det finns ett stort behov av att hitta metoder att kommunicera miljömålen med olika väl avgränsade målgrupper. Detta projekt har handlat om att pröva olika metoder för detta och bygger på några grundläggande pedagogiska teorier som kan sammanfattas med begreppen delaktighet och motivation. Projektet har också visat hur övergripande måldokument med fördel kan omsättas i praktiken genom att bygga nedifrån och börja i det lilla. Vad som påverkar en människas beteende styrs av en rad skilda faktorer som varierar från människa till människa, från sakområde till sakområde och som även förändras över tid. En gemensam nämnare är att det förändrade beteendet ger någon form av vinst för den enskilda människan i form av till exempel förbättrad hälsa, ekonomi eller en bättre miljö. Vinsterna för den enskilde behöver inte nödvändigtvis vara direkt kopplade till miljömålen utan kan vara indirekta som t ex önskan att tillhöra ett avantgarde, att bli omtyckt av andra etc. Det viktigaste för varje individ är att frågan ”What’s in it for me?” får ett nöjaktigt svar. Det kräver en tydlig och avgränsad målgrupp vilket är en viktig utgångspunkt i detta projekt.

The objective of this study was to investigate the electrochemical behaviour of the divalent redox active surfactant, N-cetyl-N′-methylviologen (CMV), in bicontinuous cubic and lamellar phases. The liquid crystalline phases were prepared from the system glycerolmonooleate (GMO)–water (and brine)–cationic surfactant. A comparison of the phase behaviour of GMO with the monovalent cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and the divalent CMV surfactant showed that the surfactants gave about the same effect at the same surface charge density. The electrochemical measurements were made with a mixture of CTAB and CMV as the surfactant. Cyclic voltammetry was used to study the electrochemistry of CMV incorporated in the cubic and lamellar phases that were spread on a gold electrode. The E0-values in the cubic samples were more negative (−0.55 V versus SCE) than in the lamellar samples (−0.53 V versus SCE). This can be explained by the higher charge density in the lamellar phase. The diffusion coefficients were also measured in the cubic phase. The mass transport is slowed down about fifty times in the cubic phase compared to in the pure electrolyte. The concentration dependence on the diffusion coefficient was also investigated. No electron hopping could be observed, which suggest that diffusional movement of the redox probe is the main source of charge transport. By placing the samples on a conducting glass slide, spectroelectrochemical investigations were performed. In the lamellar phase strong dimerization was detected at high concentration of viologen, but much less in the cubic phase.

The electrochemical properties of N-tetradecyl-N′-methylviologen (TMV) in differently charged micelles were studied with a glassy carbon electrode using electrochemical techniques. The redox potential varied depending on the charge of the surrounding surfactants. When the viologen was situated in cationic micelles the redox potential for the 2⁺/1⁺ reaction was more positive than when situated in negatively charged micelles. The non-ionic micelles destabilised the 2⁺-state most showing the highest redox potentials. From studies of several different cationic micelles it was concluded that the most important parameter for the redox potential was the surface charge density. A calculation based on a simple model confirmed this. Other interactions also influenced the stability of the redox states. Adsorption, desorption and reorganisation of the surfactants at the electrode surface caused capacitive currents. To control the nonfaradaic current, differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) was used in addition to cyclic voltammetry.

Demografiskt sett ligger regionen före övriga Sverige när det gäller antalet personer i arbetsför ålder som snart ska gå i ålderspension, detta innebär att behovet av nyrekrytering av arbetskraft kommer att uppstå inom en nära framtid. Detta är positivt ur synvinkeln att regionen kan komma att få ett försprång gentemot andra när det gäller att hantera problematiken. Det negativa är att man snabbare ställs inför utmaningen att få tillräckligt många att arbeta med offentlig service samt att skapa möjligheter för näringslivet att rekrytera arbetskraft så att man även i fortsättningen kan vara konkurrenskraftiga. Kommunernas befolkning är av stor vikt, både för att kunna planera service och tjänster och för att kunna få en hållbar ekonomi i kommunerna. I stort sett alla Sveriges kommuner har ett önskemål om att kunna öka sin befolkning, och därigenom sitt skatteunderlag. Verkligheten ser dock ut på ett annat sätt. Ett antal stora orter ökar i befolkning, samtidigt som de flesta kommunerna minskar sin. Födelsenettot är historiskt sett lågt och den nationella ökning av befolkning som sker, sker framförallt i storstäderna och drivs på med hjälp av invandring. Denna bild ger kommunerna en hel del att tänka på för att på sikt kunna lösa servicen till medborgarna, både ekonomiskt och med tanke på en minskad befolkning i arbetsför ålder.

Hur har människor det i Dalarna? Vad tycker de om boende, miljö, offentlig service, kollektivtrafik etc? Vilka frågor vill de att politiken ska syssla med? Vad tror de om Dalarnas och sin egen framtid? Under 2000-talet har tre stora regionala undersökningar gjorts som handlat om människors livssituation. Länsstyrelsen gjorde år 2000 en studie av flyttningar och flyttare och år 2002 en boendeundersökning. År 2005 gjorde Region Dalarna tillsammans med Temo en Pejling med fokus på hur människor i Dalarna såg på sin livssituation. Som en fortsättning på det arbetet skickade Region Dalarna i slutet av 2008 ut en enkät till ett urval av Dalarnas befolkning med frågor kring hur man upplevde sin livsmiljö. Målet med enkätundersökningen var att studera och lyfta fram befolkningens syn på viktiga faktorer i det kommunala och regionala utvecklingsarbetet. Resultatet kan i viss mån spegla förändringar sedan tidigare undersökningar i Dalarna och kan också till en del jämföras med liknande undersökningar i andra delar av landet. Kollektivtrafik, serviceutbud, arbetspendling, hälsoläge osv. finns det naturligtvis redan en hel del kunskap om. Men hur ser människors behov, önskemål och attityder ut i förhållande till det man upplever sig ha tillgång till? Hur varierar detta med t.ex. ålder, kön, ekonomiska resurser och typ av bostadsort? Hur ser det ut just i Dalarna, och i Dalarnas kommuner? Svaren på sådana frågor kan vara en viktig del av underlaget för fortsatt regionalt och kommunalt utvecklingsarbete.

Few studies have explored older people’s expected future quality of life (QoL), despite evidence that perceptions of one’s future influence healthy ageing. Research on this topic should embrace a range of potential influences, including perceptions of one’s neighbourhood and region. This study examined expected QoL in a random sample of the population of Dalarna, a Swedish region. A self-completion questionnaire assessed demographic characteristics, current neighbourhood and regional evaluations, self-evaluations, expectations for the future, and current and expected QoL. In total, 786 people aged ≥ 65 years participated. A sequential multiple regression model explained 44% of the variance in older people’s expected QoL, with self-reported health (sr²=.03), Expected Regional Opportunity (sr²=.03), and Perceived Regional Status (sr²=.02) having the strongest associations with expected QoL. Research on the importance of one’s neighbourhood to QoL in older people should encompass people’s perceptions of their region, to better inform social policy for healthy ageing.

Few studies have explored older people’s expected future quality of life (QoL), despite evidence that perceptions of one’s future influence healthy ageing. Research on this topic should embrace a range of potential influences, including perceptions of one’s neighbourhood and region. This study examined expected QoL in a random sample of the population of Dalarna, a Swedish region. A self-completion questionnaire assessed demographic characteristics, current neighbourhood and regional evaluations, self-evaluations, expectations for the future, and current and expected QoL.  In total, 786 people aged ≥ 65 years participated. Current QoL was favourably evaluated, and while expected QoL also received a positive assessment, the mean value for expected QoL was notably lower than that for current QoL (t(755)=24.06, p<.05). Indeed, only 3.6% (n=27) of participants rated their expected QoL higher than their current QoL. A sequential multiple regression model explained 44% of the variance in older people’s expected QoL. Nine IVs were significant (p<.05) in the final model of expected QoL: current QoL (1% unique variance explained), age (1%), education level (1%), Regional Development Beliefs (1%), Perceived Regional Status (2%), self-reported health (3%), social influence (1%), Expected Regional Opportunity (3%) and expected change in housing need (1%). Our findings establish the significance of an older person’s perception of their locality for their expected future QoL. Policies that focus only on individual and relational factors for the promotion of healthy ageing are overlooking the potential contribution of an older person’s connection to their neighbourhood and region.

The role of a university in an innovation system can take on various forms. The design of that role depends on how the university enters into collaboration with other parties in the innovation system, and how they all contribute to this design. Here, we apply a social system’s design perspective, and point out some key issues and aspects that should be considered if the role of universities is to be purposefully designed, rather than formed ad hoc.

The purpose of such a design would be to support a wide scope of mutual benefits for the university and its collaborators – a “maximum output” from the engagement. The aim here is to point out concrete matters for the system’s designer(s) to consider, in order to create a role for the university in the innovation system that embraces a range of the university’s assets and capacities. Therefore, we address a number of critical issues and aspects affecting the functioning of the university in regard to an associated regional innovation system. Why these factors are critical will also be discussed.

The paper stems from a pilot-project, where 16 semi-structured interviews from four (4) different Swedish regions were analysed, including regional innovation system executives, university innovation officers and leaders, as well as university research group leaders. We have analysed the reason why certain issues are critical for success when designing a university’s role in a regional innovation system:

First, a university's contribution to the support of an innovation system through expertise consultancy and resources require other factors than participation in the innovation process by knowledge involvement does. Second, within the university there is a tendency to make a distinction between the ideation part and the utilisation part of the innovation process: different units at the university tend to show more engagement in different aspects of the process. Third, research commission is at heart for both university researchers and external parties. Fourth, the university comprises multifaceted capacities and potentials to sustain core functions in the innovation processes: as a meeting place; as a strategic knowledge broker; or as a driving force. Fifth, a university’s various networks  is a resource that might be underestimated by external parties. Sixth, much of collaborative innovation is accomplished in smaller units within the university, far from centralised university administration. Centralisation supports the university’s relations to external parties, whereas de-centralised and independent involvement of university units supports direct and efficient collaboration.  

To maximise the output from the university’s engagement in the innovation system, the university’s role must be designed to distinguish between involvement in, or support of, innovation processes, between internal and external context requirements, and between what functions are suitable for innovation collaboration for different units of the university.

Regional innovation systems are recurrently presented by model figures. The purpose of such figures is to monitor certain ideas regarding each presented system. The topic of this paper is the role of the University represented through such model figures, and what ideas such figures are created to promote. In analysing the models, a visual communication perspective is paired with network notions.

The current objective is to discuss what politics can be found behind the idea promotion, when figures created within a university is compared to figures created outside of it. The aim is to clarify core differences between motives underlying the engagement of a university in its associated regional innovation system, by taking on the research question: How should we understand the disjunctions between model imagery on the University’s role in a regional innovation system used by people inside and outside of the University, respectively?

The research method used in this pilot-project, focusing on the Dalarna region of Sweden, is an analysis of policy documents in combination with interviews. The policy documents come from universities, as well as from other institutions engaged in regional innovation systems. Primarily the model figure of the regional innovation system presented by Region Dalarna (http://www.regiondalarna.se/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Mobilisera-for-tillvaxt-Innovationsarbete-och-smart-specialisering.pdf [p.18]) is compared to Dalarna University’s model figure of its regional collaboration self-understanding (https://www.du.se/sv/Samverkan/Lägesrapport och slutrapport – Förstudie Högskolan Dalarnas roll i det regionala innovationssystemet.pdf [p.11]), and analysed in regard to policy documents on the Dalarna innovation system. Semi-structured interviews are also made with regional innovation system executives, university innovation officers and leaders, as well as university research group leaders, 14 interviews in total, spread across four (4) different Swedish regions.

The results are several: there are commonalities in the understanding of the university’s role in the Dalarna innovation system, inside and outside of Dalarna University, but also several disjunctions:

(1)   It is a common understanding that there could be cooperation between the university and others based on research, and/or through education.

(2)   One disjunction regard whether the university should act as one centrally organized hub for such collaboration, or function through a more scattered and self-organized set of units, in accordance with specific knowledge areas, where collaboration takes place.

(3)   Another disjunction appears concerning the university’s role in regard to innovation, whether it should be expected to be involved in the very innovation processes, or be an external part in support of innovation by providing resources and expertise for those that innovate.

(4)   A third disjunction concerns the university’s regional engagement, whether its prime efforts should be focused inwards the region, or if it is more important to function as a network provider and facilitator towards other regions as well as globally.

(5)   The fourth encountered disjunction regards weather the university should take on the intermediating role as a (strategic) knowledge broker that connects and encourages parties to innovation collaboration, or, yet again, the active role as the (leading) driving force in collective innovation processes, covering entire strategic areas of intervention.

(6)   A more delicate disjunction, the fifth, is the different views on knowledge, where the external expectations on the university is to deliver configured pieces of knowledge, from research or education, ready to exploit into innovation and business, whereas the university’s internal understanding is that knowledge should be developed during the collaborative process, jointly with the external parties.

The implications of these results are that (1) the common attitude of the possibility for the university to be involved in the regional innovation system which constitutes the vital starting point for such involvement to be achieved in a systematic and meaningful way. The disjunctions are in that sense topics for negotiation: (2) how much the university should centralize its innovation system involvement must be balanced against the benefits of free and active collaboration with external parties on the level of units and individuals within the organization; (3) to what degree supportive functions for an innovation system should be expected from a university, or from others, and what actual innovation activities the university should be involved in, or not; (4) weather the university should have a more operative engagement within the region, or rather emphasize its capacity as a bridge towards other regions and countries through its networks; (5) in what regards it is useful that the university has a more strategic or leading role in terms of broking knowledge, or driving innovation processes; and (6) what are the goals and terms of collaboration – exploitation of existing knowledge or mutual development of new knowledge?

We see, as the main outcomes of this study, that the outset for a university to engage in the regional innovation system is affirmative, when involvement is recognized as possible in both research and education, from within as well as from outside the university. The existing disjunctions regarding a university’s role in the innovation system, though, present a challenge for negotiation, which, if not taken seriously, risks a collapse of collaborations and a failure of the involvement.

There are many expectations on Higher Education Institutions (HEI:s) from a range of other actors and organizations to involve and engage in systematic regional innovation and development. Likewise, attempts to achieve such involvement and engagement are many, but success is varied. This paper analyzes the consequences of multifaceted expectations on HEI:s from regional actors, for the involvement and engagement of academics in systematic innovation. Issues of conflict are discovered that constitute obstacles for collaboration. The aim of this study is to highlight disagreements regarding the university’s role in (regional) innovation systems in order to help solve such issues. Theoretically, we approach innovation systems as social systems, and consider systems as subjects of design. Empirically, we have collected policy documents (including figures), interviews, and workshop discussions between representatives for local and regional public administration, intermediary organizations, the university, as well as others, from four Swedish regions. We conclude by providing a set of considerations possible for use when designing the role of the university in an innovation system, thus facilitating a broader and deeper involvement and engagement of academics in innovation processes, or the support of such processes.

How language is used has political implications as well as communicational consequences. Regional development, using means of systematic support for innovation, is a widespread phenomenon globally that also includes numerous political ambitions and implications. This article argues that ambiguities regarding the use of terms such as ‘innovation system’ and ‘innovation support system’ need to be clarified to improve communication in this field, as well as to reveal underlying political ideas on how systematic support for innovation should be carried out, by drawing on examples from studies of regional systems. Such ambiguities contribute significantly to the often-mentioned lack of involvement and engagement in regional development on the part of higher education institutions and academics. Examining key terms and concepts of this discourse, in the interests of promoting a common and stringent use of terminology, helps to illuminate whether the desired academic involvement in innovation processes relates to ideation, implementation and commercialization, or to support for processes through the contribution of knowledge and expertise.