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Across the world, national currencies—public goods that emerged out of a previous era of currency proliferation—are now competing with private alternatives. As paper and coins fall into disuse, the seigniorage that helps to fund the circulation and regulation of currency diminishes, while their capacity to bind together states and citizens decreases in equal measure. The Swedish central bank's response to these threats, which includes issuing the world's first national digital currency, charts a course that all central banks must consider in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arne Bjerhammar is well known worldwide mainly for his research in physical geodesy but also for introducing a new matrix algebra with generalized inverses applied in geodetic adjustment. Less known are his developments in geodetic engineering and contributions to satellite and relativistic geodesy as well as studies on the relation between the Fennoscandia land uplift and the regional gravity low. Most likely part of his research has contributed to worldwide political relaxation during the cold war, which deed was honored by a certificate of achievement awarded by the Department of Research of the US army as well as the North Star Order by the King of Sweden. Arne Bjerhammar's pioneer scientific production, in particular on a world geodetic system, towards what would become GPS, as well as relativistic geodesy, is still of great interest among the worldwide geodetic community, while the memories and spirit along his outstanding academic deeds have more or less fainted away from his home university (KTH) only a decade after he passed away. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One characteristic feature of central banks today is that policy decisions are almost exclusively made by a committee rather than by a single policy maker. Another is that central banks endeavour to be transparent. Together, this has brought to the fore an important but so far unresolved issue: how much information about the committee's deliberations should the central bank reveal? Does this kind of information make monetary policy easier to understand and predict, or does it make it harder? We address this issue by employing a novel method. We measure the sentiment and tone of the minutes of the Swedish central bank using an automated content analysis that converts the qualitative information in the minutes to a quantitative measure. We find that this measure is helpful in predicting future policy rate decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on a May 2007 Swedish National Library conference, or Think Tank as it was called, on the role of the book as artifact and the value of the printed versus digital material. A report on the Google digitalization project at the University of Michigan was presented. Other talks addressed paper book preservation and warehousing, the growth of illiteracy, and the anarchy of the Internet.

Ferro-papikeite, ideally NaFe22+(Fe32+Al2)(Si5Al3)O22(OH)2, is a new mineral of the amphibole supergroup from the Filipstad Municipality, Värmland County, Central Sweden, where it occurs in a medium-grade felsic metavolcanic rock. Ferro-papikeite is pale brown with a translucent luster, has a colorless to very pale-brown streak, and shows no fluorescence under long-wave or short-wave ultraviolet light. Grains are subhedral, 0.4–3.0 mm in size, and show well-developed {210} cleavage. It has a Mohs hardness of ~6 and is brittle with a splintery fracture, has the characteristic perfect {210} cleavage of orthorhombic amphiboles, intersecting at ~56°, and the calculated density is 3.488 g/cm3. In transmitted plane-polarized light, ferro-papikeite is moderately pleochroic X = very pale brown, Y = Z = honey brown; X < Y = Z. Ferro-papikeite is biaxial (+), α = 1.674(2), β = 1.692(2), γ = 1.716(2), 2Vmeas = 86.2(9) and 2Vcalc = 88.3°, dispersion is r < v, weak. The orientation is: X || a, Y || b, Z || c. Ferro-papikeite is orthorhombic, space group Pnma, a = 18.628(4), b = 17.888(4), c = 5.3035(11) Å, V = 1767.2(6) Å3, Z = 4. The strongest ten X‑ray diffraction lines in the powder pattern are [d in Å(I) (hkl)]: 8.255(100)(210), 3.223(39)(440), 3.057(68)(610), 2.824(28)(251), 2.674(41)(351), 2.572(56) (161,621), 2.549(38)(202), 2.501(50)(261,451), 2.158(25)(502), and 1.991(31)(661). Chemical analysis by electron microprobe gave SiO2 36.50, Al2O3 22.24, TiO2 0.09, FeO 31.54, MnO 0.65, MgO 5.48, CaO 0.08, Na2O 2.35, F 0.22, H2Ocalc 1.85, O=F –0.09, sum 100.91 wt%. The formula unit, calculated on the basis of 24 (O+OH+F) with (OH) = 2 apfu and Fe3+ = 0.13 apfu (determined from the distance) is A(Na0.70Ca0.01)B+C(Mg1.25Fe23.90+ Mn20.08+ Al1.62Fe30.13+ Ti40.01+)Σ6.99T(Si5.60Al2.40)Σ8O22(OH1.89F0.11)2. The crystal structure of ferro-papikeite was refined to an R-index of 3.60% using 2335 unique observed reflections collected with MoKa X-radiation. [4]Al3+ is ordered over the four T sites as follows: T 1B > T1A > T2B >> T2a, [6]Al3+ is completely ordered at M2, and Fe2+ is strongly ordered at M4. The A site is split with Na+ strongly ordered at A1. End-member ferro-papikeite is related to end-member gedrite, □Mg2(Mg3Al2)(Si6Al2)O22(OH)2, by the substitutions Na+ → □, Fe2+ → Mg, and Al3+ → Si4+. The description of ferro-papikeite as a new species further emphasizes the compositional similarities between the monoclinic calcium amphiboles and the orthorhombic magnesium-iron-manganese amphiboles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crystal structure of dixenite, ideally Cu+Fe3+Mn142+ (As5+O4) (As3+O3)5 (SiO4)2(OH)6, from Långban, Sweden, was refined to an R1-index of 1.58%, and the structure proposed by Araki and Moore (1981) was confirmed and details elucidated. The structure, crystallizing in space group R3 with a = 8.2204(3) and c = 37.485(3) Å, consists of layers of (Mn2+,Fe3+)(O,OH)6 octahedra linked by (As5+O4) and (SiO4) tetrahedra, (As3+O3) trigonal pyramids, and (Cu+As43+) tetrahedra. There are five distinct layers in the repeat unit of the cell, four of which are very similar to the layers in mcgovernite. An unusual aspect of one of the trimers of octahedra is that there is a triangular-prismatic hole through the center of the cluster. The (Cu+As43+) tetrahedra are parts of larger clusters: [Cu+(As3+O3)4] in which four (As3+O3) groups link to a central Cu+ that occupies the positions normally taken by the stereoactive lone-pairs of electrons that generally characterize As3+ in triangular-pyramidal coordination by O. Thus, the stereoactive lone-pair behavior that is characteristic of (As3+O3) trigonal pyramids is suppressed by the coordination of Cu+ by four As3+ ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the effects of school choice reforms implemented in the early 1990s in two different settings: Sweden and Milwaukee (WI, U.S.). We show how both the ideological and theoretical arguments for choice reform were similar in the two contexts, yet the consequences in terms of the organizational outcome and institutional sector configuration ended up strikingly dissimilar. While the new group of actors in the Swedish school system consisted primarily of large-scale for-profit schools, with only a minor share of the expansion being catered to by nonprofit actors, the Milwaukee school choice program became dominated by small-scale nonprofit schools operated by religious communities. We seek to explicate these differences by drawing on the welfare state literature and social origins theory, as well as from organizational and historical institutional theory. We argue that the resulting composition of providers is directly related to the deep-seated differences in the civil society regimes operating in the two contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluorapatite-monazite-xenotime-allanite mineralogy, petrology, and textures are described for a suite of Kiruna-type apatite-iron oxide ore bodies from the Grängesberg Mining District in the Bergslagen ore province, south central Sweden. Fluorapatite occurs in three main lithological assemblages. These include: (1) the apatite-iron oxide ore bodies, (2) breccias associated with the ore bodies, which contain fragmented fluorapatite crystals, and (3) the variably altered host rocks, which contain sporadic, isolated fluorapatite grains or aggregates that are occasionally associated with magnetite in the silicate mineral matrix. Fluorapatite associated with the ore bodies is often zoned, with the outer rim enriched in Y+REE compared to the inner core. It contains sparse monazite inclusions. In the breccia, fluorapatite is rich in monazite-(Ce) ± xenotime-(Y) inclusions, especially in its cores, along with reworked, larger monazite grains along fluorapatite and other mineral grain rims. In the host rocks, a small subset of the fluorapatite grains contain monazite ± xenotime inclusions, while the large majority are devoid of inclusions. Overall, these monazites are relatively poor in Th and U. Allanite-(Ce) is found as inclusions and crack fillings in the fluorapatite from all three assemblage types as well as in the form of independent grains in the surrounding silicate mineral matrix in the host rocks. The apatite-iron oxide ore bodies are proposed to have an igneous, sub-volcanic origin, potentially accompanied by explosive eruptions, which were responsible for the accompanying fluorapatite-rich breccias. Metasomatic alteration of the ore bodies probably began during the later stages of crystallization from residual, magmatically derived HCl- and H2SO4-bearing fluids present along grain boundaries. This was most likely followed by fluid exchange between the ore and its host rocks, both immediately after emplacement of the apatite-iron oxide body, and during subsequent phases of regional metamorphism and deformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Red vesuvianite crystals occur with hausmanite and calcite in a hand specimen from Långban, Sweden. Backscattered electron imaging revealed that a very few of the vesuvianite crystals exhibit cores of higher average atomic number (vesuvianite I) than the bulk (vesuvianite II). Average electron microprobe compositions of vesuvianite I show 3.32 wt% MnO (1.43 Mn2+ apfu), 3.13 wt% Bi2O3 (0.41 Bi3+ apfu), 0.82 wt% Cl (0.71 Cl apfu), and 0.56 wt% As2O5 (0.15 As5+ apfu). The average vesuvianite II composition shows considerably more Mn (4.14 wt% MnO, or 1.76 Mn2+ apfu) but less Bi (0.62 wt% Bi2O3, or 0.08 Bi3+ apfu) and Cl (0.13 wt% Cl, or 0.11 Cl apfu) and about the same amount of As (0.62 wt% As2O5, or 0.16 As5+ apfu). The crystal structures of vesuvianite I (a = 15.595, c = 11.779 Å) and II (a = 15.585, c = 11.778 Å) were refined in space group P4/nnc to R1 values of 0.0445 and 0.0167, respectively. The results show Bi at the new Bi3 position and Cl at the new Cl site; Bi3 can only be occupied when there is a vacancy at the nearby (~0.4 Å) X3 position, and Cl when there is a vacancy at the nearby (~0.4-0.5 Å) O10 position. Bond distances and site occupancies suggest that the Cl atom at the Cl site is bonded to the Bi atom at the Bi3 position when it is occupied. Arsenic occupies the T1 site and is coordinated by oxygen atoms at two O7B and two O11 positions. Manganese replaces Ca at the X1 and X2 position and dominates the Y1 position in vesuvianite I, whereas in vesuvianite II it replaces Ca at the X1 site and fills the Y1A position. In both structures Mn also occurs subordinate to Al + Mg at the Y3 position. Bond-valence analysis indicates that the Mn at the Y1 and Y1A positions is divalent rather than trivalent as required for manganvesuvianite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]