Covering the approximately 6,500 years from the beginning of the Late Mesolithic to the transition to the Bronze Age, Mats Larsson takes the reader on a journey through the development of Swedish prehistoric society and culture set against the backdrop of climatic and landscape change. Using examples selected from a wealth of archaeological sites, artefacts and palaeo-environmental studies he explores a series of chronological themes: such as how the relationship between land and water influenced people's lives in many ways and the development of often long-distance cultural and exchange networks, as reflected in the occurrence of 'foreign' stone axes, flint, copper and pottery. He describes how innovations, such as the introduction of agriculture, spread rapidly during the Neolithic, incorporating characteristics of extensive northern European cultural groups, beginning with the Funnel Beaker Culture with its array of distinctive objects, settlements and burial monuments, while retaining some specific regional and local expressions in material culture. Later, certain characteristics of the Pitted Ware Culture, such as specific types of pottery decoration, were taken up in some areas while the emergence of some regional groups can be seen as a step in the ideological and social changes that led to what we today call the Battle Axe Culture. Towards the end of the Stone Age the battle axe was replaced by the dagger as a symbol of the male warrior as a more stable society emerged in many parts of the country, concentrated around large farms with longhouses. It was only at this late stage that agriculture and the raising of livestock gained a firm hold, and the landscape was opened up permanently.

Dissociative recombination (DR) of molecular ions with electrons is a complex, poorly understood molecular process. Its critical role as a neutralising agent in the Earth's upper atmosphere is now well established and its occurrence in many natural and laboratory produced plasma has been a strong motivation for studying the event. For the first time, theoretical concepts, experimental methodology and applications are united in one book, revealing the governing principles behind the gas-phase reaction. The book takes the reader through the intellectual challenges posed, describing in detail dissociation mechanisms, dynamics, diatomic and polyatomic ions and related processes, including dissociative excitation, ion pair formation and photodissociation. With the final chapter dedicated to applications in astrophysics, atmospheric science, plasma physics and fusion research, this is a focused, definitive guide to a fundamental molecular process. The book will appeal to academics within physics, physical chemistry and related sciences.

Over the last 20 years a vast number of new and important Swedish Mesolithic sites have been excavated and published in different ways as articles, books and site reports. As yet there has been no study that tries to bring the loose ends together and so the main task of this important new work by one of Sweden's leading prehistorians is to provide an extensive overview of some of the main sites and results. The timespan is long: c. 10 000-4000 BC and the amount and choice of data very large so rather than attempt to describe everything in detail Mats Larsson focuses on a series of fundamental research perspectives concerning Mesolithic lifeways and settlement patterns and chooses key sites to illustrate them. The emphasis is on southern and middle Sweden, though the country's northern regions are in no way forgotten. This companion piece to the author's recent successful volume Paths Towards a New World: Neolithic in Sweden, written for a general audience is also a must for all those archaeologists interested in the Mesolithic of Northern Europe and would be students of prehistory.

A geometric figure has chirality, or handedness, if its mirror image cannot be brought to coincide with itself. The concept of chirality was instrumental in establishing the tetrahedral valences of the carbon atom, and has continued to play a key role in chemistry and molecular biology ever since.The fact that living organisms use only one of two mirror isomers of such molecules as amino acids and sugars, that is, the question of the origin of homochirality of the molecular basis of life, remains an unsolved problem of the same dignity as the origin of dark matter and dark energy.The increasing importance of chirality and topology in condensed matter physics and chemistry, and the production of new states of matter in heavy-ion collisions, have brought the concept of chirality into physics and cosmology in a tangible way while at the same time expanded the physics/chemistry interface. The book is the first to address all aspects of chirality in a single volume.

This book deals with risk management and the organisation of banking in Swedish savings banks alongside the development in other European countries. The period of analysis begins with the establishment of the first savings banks in 1820 and ends in 1910. During this period, banking developed as a well-functioning system for deposits and credits. The book focuses on this development from a theoretical perspective connected to risk management and the role of trust and legitimacy in credits and savings. The analysis deals with the overall development of the Swedish banking system and the role of savings banks as well as bank connections with different groups of customers. Of interest to financial historians, academics, and researchers, it also analyses the role of insider lending and the practical aspects of granting credits, such as the use of collaterals and the level of interest rates to compensate higher risks.

This is the true story about the future that few visionaries have the knowledge necessary to put together. In order to drive the development of technology and sustainability forward there will be a need for considerable investment and collective action. The need to drive large-scale development and transformation activity is usually overlooked when experts in narrow fields project present trends into the future. The foundation of our future has been laid, or maybe not, by past decisions and activities, or lack thereof, by politicians and their voters. The enemy has already been identified and many of us know that is it us, but few ofour leaders have a picture of the path forward that needs to be taken in order to create the future that many people already see as inevitable. We try to contribute on the basis of different pictures of how the future might be created, but large-scale changes cannot be achieved through small-scale activities. It took 400,000 Americans and almost ten years to send three men to the moon in 1969. The following facts may be noted: the transformation to electric mobility is still in its infancy; less than one per cent of cars are electric and the growth is very slow in most countries. Artificial intelligence is also at an early stage of development and the technologies necessary in order to make Industry 4.0 a reality are still too expensive to be applied on a large scale and by most companies. The same is true for the principles of the circular economy. So far mostly low-hanging fruit have been picked and the principles have not been developed to a point where they can be universally applied. In order to create the future that many already see as inevitable there is a need for substantial investment and even larger transformation programmes. If existing generations want to experience it, instead of something much worse, we need to get our act together and approach transformation in a systematic manner. This book presents a well-founded argument about the remedies of contemporary societal challenges, and offers a much needed, sobered-uplook at the complex endeavors that lie ahead. Larsson's book disentangles intricate concepts connected to technology, business, industry and society, and does it free from the jargon and romanticizing we often encounter in everyday conversation. - Professor Thomas Kalling at Lund University School of Economics & Management.

This book explores the need to develop business strategies, organise and fund transformation projects and manage the transformation programme in order to further a circular economy. Circular Business Models outlines sustainable business models that can be used by companies to move transformation forward on a large scale. In addition to business models the book will cover and discuss a number of other factors necessary for a successful transformation, such as business and innovation strategy, entrepreneurship and change management. Including original interviews with circular economy practitioners, this book will be applicable to industries as diverse as manufacturing, food processing, transportation and mechanical engineering. Addressing the different challenges that meet circular economy visionaries, it outlines strategies and business models needed to gain momentum in these different sectors.

This book explores the need to develop business strategies, organise and fund transformation projects and manage the transformation programme in order to further a circular economy. Circular Business Models outlines sustainable business models that can be used by companies to move transformation forward on a large scale. In addition to business models the book will cover and discuss a number of other factors necessary for a successful transformation, such as business and innovation strategy, entrepreneurship and change management. Including original interviews with circular economy practitioners, this book will be applicable to industries as diverse as manufacturing, food processing, transportation and mechanical engineering. Addressing the different challenges that meet circular economy visionaries, it outlines strategies and business models needed to gain momentum in these different sectors.

This book explores the Swedish experience of banking development, regulation and financial crisis from 1900 to 2015. It puts the experiences of the past in the context of today's debate on the future of banking, and argues that the experiences of the Global Financial Crisis that started in 2007 warrants new understandings of the role of bank regulation. The book also analyses how shifts in bank regulations are usually part of more general policy shifts in society, which are in turn connected to both pragmatic and ideological considerations. In the case of Sweden the shift towards more extensive bank regulations after World War II was closely related to the development of the welfare state. Such shifts in policy and regulations are generally international, and the book also explores how the Swedish national policy has interacted with international developments.

This book is concerned with the developments that followed on from the introduction of farming into Britain and Southern Scandinavia (Denmark and Southern Sweden), and the idiosyncratic social and cultural patterns that emerged as the revolutionary potential of the Neolithic was gradually realised. Fundamental to the contributors approach is a concern with the ways in which communities inhabit their landscapes. If the Neolithic involved the introduction of new species of plants and animals and new forms of material culture into indigenous contexts, the longer-term consequences of this development should be gauged through changing practices of dwelling: patterns of occupation and mobility, the organisation of space, the location of ritual activities, the dead, and the sacred; and degrees of impact in ecological conditions. The authors examine the implicit knowledge, habitual practice and material culture as forms of cultural inheritance which are passed between generations, and modified by innovation. Click on the blue button above for a contents PDF.

Collaboration by the universities of Sheffield and Kalmar and Stockholm in Sweden led to two conferences being held. The second, held at Sheffield in 2006, sought collaboration and the sharing of information on archaeological data and theoretical thought on material culture diversity in the third millennium BC. Nineteen papers are presented in this volume arranged under three headings: material culture diversity in the Baltic; British Beaker burials and the Beaker People Project; Stonehenge and the Stonehenge Riverside Project. General overviews and wide-ranging discussions are joined by results from particular field orr laboratory projects.

Dissociative recombination (DR) of molecular ions with electrons is a complex, poorly understood molecular process. Its critical role as a neutralising agent in the Earth's upper atmosphere is now well established and its occurrence in many natural and laboratory-produced plasma has been a strong motivation for studying the event. In this book theoretical concepts, experimental methodology and applications are united, revealing the governing principles behind the gas-phase reaction. The book takes the reader through the intellectual challenges posed, describing in detail dissociation mechanisms, dynamics, diatomic and polyatomic ions and related processes, including dissociative excitation, ion pair formation and photodissociation. With the final chapter dedicated to applications in astrophysics, atmospheric science, plasma physics and fusion research, this is a focused, definitive guide to a fundamental molecular process. The book will appeal to academics within physics, physical chemistry and related sciences.