Filetype
This thesis consists of four self-contained essays on different conflicts shaping local government policy. The first essay examines how population aging affects the generosity of public long-term care. Aging may directly affect long-term care policy as the elderly become a more important voter group. However, concerns for other citizens may dampen the political importance of the elderly. Fixed e
Mercury (Hg) is regarded as a major environmental concern in many regions, traditionally because of high concentrations in freshwater fish, and now also because of potential toxic effects on soil microflora. The predominant source of Hg in most watersheds is atmospheric deposition, which has increased 2- to >20-fold over the past centuries. A promising approach for supporting current European effo
Reducing CO2 emissions is one of the most important goals in Europe as well as the rest of the world. To reach that goal, the use of energy must be reduced. Thus, the building industry is facing a great challenge. Not only energy efficiency but also sustainability is desirable in the building stock. This thesis presents and suggests methods that can be used to improve prediction and verification o
Background and Purpose: Natriuretic peptides predict poor outcomes in cardiovascular disease. However, the knowledge of their relationship to stroke is limited and prospective studies from the general population are few. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and midregional pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (MR-proANP) p
The general aim of the research programme SPEAK (Sustainable Planning andEnvironmental Assessment Knowledge, www.speakproject.se) was to generateknowledge on, and to strengthen the role of strategic environmental assessment(SEA) in planning as a measure to attain the environmental quality objectives andto promote sustainable development. The SPEAK programme had atransdisciplinary point of departur
G protein-coupled receptor 30 (GPR30) is a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) that is attracting considerable attention in breast cancer and cardiometabolic regulation. Following reports that GPR30 is required for some rapid estrogen responses, e.g. increased cAMP production and ERK1/2 activity, in estrogen receptor (ER)-negative cells, GPR30 was renamed G protein-coupled estrogen receptor 1 (GPER1
Background: Hip fractures are common in older individuals entailing considerable risk of morbidity and mortality. Instruments are needed to enhance risk stratification of hip fracture patients. There is limited knowledge of the role of biomarkers as risk prognosticators for mortality in hip fracture patients.Aims: We assessed how well two well known risk stratification tools performed in a cohort
Objectives: The main goal of the COVIDENZA trial is to evaluate if inhibition of testosterone signalling by enzalutamide can improve the outcome of patients hospitalised for COVID-19. The hypothesis is based on the observation that the majority of patients in need of intensive care are male, and the connection between androgen receptor signalling and expression of TMPRSS2, an enzyme important for
Importance: Preterm birth has been associated with increased risk of heart failure (HF) early in life, but its association with new-onset HF in adulthood appears to be unknown. Objective: To determine whether preterm birth is associated with increased risk of HF from childhood into mid-adulthood in a large population-based cohort. Design, Setting, and Participants: This national cohort study was c
Importance: Soft drinks are frequently consumed, but whether this consumption is associated with mortality risk is unknown and has been understudied in European populations to date.Objective: To examine the association between total, sugar-sweetened, and artificially sweetened soft drink consumption and subsequent total and cause-specific mortality.Design, Setting, and Participants: This populatio
The alarming rates of extinction and degrading ecosystems call for new means of understanding and accounting for how people depend on nature. Ecosystem services (ES) is a contested but widely applied concept aiming to connect ecosystem functions to human wellbeing and to assess and account for how nature matters in decision-making. More diverse frameworks and ideas of value intended for assessment
The detrimental effect of a lengthy summer vacation on important scholastic abilities such as reading, writing and mathematical skills is relatively well documented, but how language skills are affected by summer vacation is less investigated. The purpose of our study is to investigate how lexical organization and retrieval assessed by a semantic verbal fluency (SVF) task and oral narrative abilit
Theme; 1. Dealing with contamination of soil, groundwater and sedimentDevelopments in technologies, policies, concepts, regulation, managementTitle of session; 1a. Assessment and monitoringSubject: New investigation and monitoring techniques Titel: ”Stimulated reductive dechlorination identified with induced polarization - a new opportunity to monitor in situ remediation of chlorinated solvents?”P
IntroductionConsidering that on average in developed countries we spend about 65% of our time in private homes, understanding the exposures in homes is of outmost importance. Aerosol concentrations indoors come from indoor sources, infiltrate from outdoors and can be formed from precursors both of indoor and outdoor origin. Several characteristics and processes influence the properties of aerosols
Summary: Traditionally, fire safety has often been addressed with methods based on prescriptive recommendations. The opportunity to use an alternative analytical approach has led to the development of fire safety engineering, beginning with structural fire safety design in the 1960's and today including fire safety design and fire risk analysis in general. The prediction of reality using model cal
Importance: Traditional adoption studies examine disorder-to-disorder parent-offspring transmission. The role of parental genetic risk in offspring disorder transmission can capture indirect genetic effects from parental genotype to parental phenotype to offspring risk. Objective: To assess the relative importance of genetic and rearing effects from paternal family genetic risk scores (FGRSs) in 3
Inadequate insulin secretion is a central component in the development of Diabetes Mellitus, resulting from reduced pancreatic β-cell mass, as well as diminished β-cell function. Islet produced 5-hydroxy tryptamine (5-HT) is suggested to regulate insulin secretion and β-cell mass in rodents during pregnancy and in metabolically challenged states. However, the role of 5-HT in control of insulin rel
Great efforts have been made to find solutions to the shortage of organs, such as extending the donor pool by accepting so-called marginal donors and development of transplantation of organs from animals (xenotransplantation, xt). Due to the scarcity of organs, there is a long tradition of prioritizing among patients on the waiting list for transplantation. Rules for allocation of organs have been
