Publikationer från Umeå universitet
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Oxy-fuel combustion of softwood in a pilot-scale down-fired pulverized combustor : fate of potassium
No full textOxy-fuel biomass combustion can facilitate carbon capture in heat and power plants and enable negative carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. We demonstrate oxy-fuel combustion (OFC) of softwood powder in a 100-kW atmospheric down-fired pulverized combustor run at a global oxidizer-fuel equivalence ratio of around 1.25. The simulated oxidizer was varied between oxygen (O2)/CO2 mixtures of 23/77, 30/70, 40/60 and 54/46, and artificial air. The concentrations of the main gaseous potassium (K) species: atomic K, potassium hydroxide (KOH) and potassium chloride (KCl), were measured at two positions in the reactor core using photofragmentation tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (PF-TDLAS). Major species were quantified by TDLAS in the reactor core and with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and mass spectrometry at the exhaust. Flue gas particles were collected at the exhaust employing a low-pressure impactor and analyzed by X-ray powder diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The measured individual K species concentrations in the reactor core agreed with predictions by thermodynamic equilibrium calculations (TEC) within one order of magnitude and the sum of K in the gas phase agreed within a factor of three for all cases. Atomic K was underpredicted, while the dominating KOH and KCl were slightly overpredicted. The ratios of measured to predicted total K were similar in artificial air and OFC, but the distributions of the individual species differed at the upper reactor position. The gaseous K species and fine particle concentrations in the flue gas were directly proportional to the O2 content in the oxidizer. The crystalline phase compositions of the coarse mode particles were rich in K- and calcium-containing species. The fine mode particles, which contained most of the K, consisted mainly of K2SO4 (94%) and K3Na(SO4)2, which is in excellent agreement with TECs of gas phase condensation. As supported by the solid phase analysis, complete sulfation of K species was achieved for all studied cases. A CO2 purity (dry) of up to 94% was achieved for OFC
Effects of eplontersen on symptoms of autonomic neuropathy in hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis : secondary analysis from the NEURO-TTRansform trial
No full textBackground: The NEURO-TTRansform trial showed that after 66 weeks of treatment, eplontersen significantly reduced neuropathic impairment and improved quality of life (QoL) in patients with hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis with polyneuropathy (ATTRv-PN). In this secondary analysis from NEURO-TTRansform, autonomic impairment, and the impact of eplontersen on autonomic impairment progression was evaluated through 85 weeks in patients randomised to eplontersen (n = 144) versus external placebo (n = 60; through Week 66 from the NEURO-TTR trial). Methods: Change from baseline in modified Neuropathy Impairment Score +7 (mNIS+7) composite score, Norfolk Quality of Life-Diabetic Neuropathy (Norfolk QoL-DN) total score, and the Neuropathy Symptoms and Change (NSC) total score was evaluated. Exploratory assessments were change in autonomic components of these instruments, Composite Autonomic Symptom Score-31 (COMPASS-31) total score, and nutritional status (modified body mass index [mBMI]). Results: Patients reported profound autonomic dysfunction at baseline. Improvements with eplontersen versus placebo were observed up to Week 66 in autonomic components of mNIS+7, Norfolk QoL-DN, NSC, and mBMI; eplontersen results were sustained up to Week 85, including improvements in COMPASS-31 (Week 81). Conclusions: Eplontersen demonstrated benefit across multiple measures of autonomic impairment known to progress rapidly and negatively impact QoL without treatment, without deterioration in nutritional status
Co-creation experiences among adults in diverse contexts : a Health CASCADE scoping review
No full textObjectives: This scoping review aimed to summarise available evidence relating to co-creation experiences among adults in diverse contexts. Understanding how participation in co-creation processes shapes experiences is important as it can offer insights into the improved development and effective use of such processes. Co-creation has increasingly gained attention due to its many claimed advantages and benefits to participants. There is however a lack of aggregated literature on stakeholders’ experience of the co-creation process. Study design: Scoping review. Methods: Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework for conducting scoping reviews was used. A systematic search was conducted in Scopus and the Health CASCADE Co-creation Database (an open access curated database of 13,501 articles, screened for inclusion based on criteria relating to co-creation participatory research). Themes were generated through thematic analysis. Results: We included 80 publications. Positive co-creation experiences were linked to establishing interpersonal relationships and positive group dynamics, enhanced well-being, personal development, satisfaction and fulfilment. Negative experiences were associated with initial uncertainties, project-related challenges, interpersonal issues, dissatisfaction, and disengagement. Conclusion: This review offers insights into how co-creation shaped experiences and demonstrates the scope and characteristics of co-creation experiences. It highlights the need for further research, particularly in understanding the mechanisms underpinning and explaining experiences and in strategies for promoting positive experiences and mitigating negative experiences
Multiple use of forests
No full textSustainable forest management approaches, regardless of whether they involve continuous cover forestry (CCF) or rotation forestry (RF), require a holistic landscape perspective that acknowledges the multiple interests, values, and uses that depend on the locally relevant economic, ecological, and socio-cultural circumstances. These must be considered alongside the use of forests and forest landscapes as a resource for rural development. Forests provide a wide range of goods and services. Those addressed here (i.e. tourism, recreation, health, grazing, non-timber forest products, and societal protection from natural hazards) are a subset of all of those potential services that are already considered to be of special significance for the Nordic region. Most recreational users consider variation in the forest landscape and long-distance views as visually attractive but think that clearcuttings and soil tilling are harmful. In general, CCF favours bilberries, while lingonberries and some mushrooms benefit from even-aged forestry. Owing to the many and varied demands relating to forests and forest landscapes in Norway, Sweden, and Finland, CCF-supported multiple-use strategies and planning will need to consider stakeholder requirements more, now and in the future, than is currently the case
Tracing PAH emissions from leisure boats in a low tidal coastal area, including comparison with Environmental Quality Standards (EQS)
No full textThe approximately 850,000 recreational boats in Sweden, has shown to have a significant impact on the marine environment of the Swedish west coast. The extensive weather-protected archipelagos and fjords with minor tidal activity, offers excellent conditions to uncover traces of leisure boats exhaust from the background. In this study we focus on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from boat exhausts in surface sediments and water (using SPMD) in a busy harbour and a pristine fjord. The PAH analyses were performed using gas chromatography – mass spectrometry after suitable extraction procedures. Concentrations of total PAHs in water and sediments was 4–8 ng/L and 200–5500 ng/g respectively. In addition to PAH measurements, we used the number of documented motorboat passages together with residence time of water, to quantify the concentration enhancement of up to 40% due to recreational boating. Here we have for the first time succeeded in distinguishing the leisure boat PAH signature in coastal marine environments. This by combining our data and observed compositions from lakes where emissions from leisure boats is documented as a dominating source of pollution. Comparisons with Environmental Quality standards (EQS) showed elevated levels of up to more than five times in the most exposed sediments, while the water concentrations were below the EQS. The study concludes that boating activities significantly contribute to PAH-levels in these coastal environments, with implications for environmental management and pollution mitigation strategies
Where in the brain is human intelligence?✰
No full textWe still know relatively little about how the human brain supports intelligence. I this personal view I argue that adopting the framework of neurocognitive component processes (NCP) might advance the current state of knowledge. Integration of information processing across distributed brain regions is proposed as a potential NCP, and some possible clinical implications of adopting the NCP framework are outlined
The multisensory control of sequential actions
No full textMany motor tasks are comprised of sequentially linked action phases, as when reaching for, lifting, transporting, and replacing a cup of coffee. During such tasks, discrete visual, auditory and/or haptic feedback are typically associated with mechanical events at the completion of each action phase, as when breaking and subsequently making contact between the cup and the table. An emerging concept is that important sensorimotor control operations, that affect subsequent action phases, are centred on these discrete multisensory events. By predicting sensory feedback at the completion of action phases, and comparing with the actual feedback that arises, task performance can be continuously monitored. If errors are detected, the sensorimotor system can quickly respond with task-protective corrective actions. The aim of this study was to investigate how discrete multisensory feedback at the completion of action phases are used in these control operations. To investigate this question, 42 healthy human participants (both male and female) performed a visually guided sequential reaching task where auxiliary discrete visual, auditory and/or haptic feedback was associated with the completion of action phases. Occasionally however, this feedback was removed in one or two modalities. The results show that although the task was visually guided, its control was critically influenced by discrete auditory and haptic feedback. Multisensory integration effects occurred, that enhanced the corrective actions, when auditory feedback was unexpectedly removed along with haptic or visual feedback. This multisensory enhancement may facilitate the ability to detect errors during sequential actions and amplify task-protective corrective actions
Apartheid in the digital outdoors? : an analysis of the Instagram content of outdoor brands in the US, UK and Scandinavia
No full textThe outdoors offers widely understood health and wellbeing benefits and provides an unparalleled resource for the realization and projection of identity, from the personal to the national. Yet access to the outdoors in the countries of the global North is manifestly unequal, with BIPOC communities typically much less likely than their white counterparts to participate in outdoor leisure activities such as hiking, trail running, cycling, climbing, etc. This study revisits the hypothesis that outdoors media plays a central role in perpetuating what Martin (Citation2004) terms “apartheid in the Great Outdoors” by performing a content analysis of the Instagram posts of the top 10 outdoor brands in the US, Scandinavia and UK between the spring and summer seasons of 2020 – a period when the global pandemic restricted access to the outdoors at the same time as the Black Lives Matter movement raised awareness of systemic racial inequalities. The analysis reveals that whilst there is a purposeful response to calls to diversify the outdoors in the representational strategies of US outdoor brands, this is not the case in the UK and Scandinavia. In these locations the digital outdoors and its associated leisure identities remain overwhelmingly white, young, straight, and able-bodied
'Happy Stories' of Swedish Exceptionalism : Reproducing Whiteness in Teaching and Biology Textbooks in Sexuality Education
No full textSexuality education (SE) takes place in fields of tension where biology, legislation, norms, and values intersect. Drawing on Ahmed’s phenomenological account of whiteness, this article examines how Swedish whiteness is constructed and reproduced within SE. In Sweden, SE is formalised as an overarching, subject-integrated knowledge area where the biology subject plays a crucial role in its delivery. To include a wide spectrum of SE, where both planned and unplanned aspects of teaching are considered, as well as tensions in the content, we have analysed eight semi-structured teacher interviews and five biology textbooks. Our analysis shows how Swedish whiteness is reproduced as a form of institutionalised orientation constructed by norms, social values, people, subject knowledge, policies, and legislation, all intertwined in a complex web. This web places SE, teachers, and pupils in a racial landscape that constructs and reproduces specific forms of Swedish whiteness by assigning each a position in relation to familiarity. This familiarity provides a taken-for-granted starting point in SE, where ‘here’ is constructed as a place of progression, openness, and possibilities for happy future sexual lives, while other places come to stand out as hyper-visible examples of the less familiar, less happy, and ‘far away’. From this outpost, teachers and biology textbooks construct and reproduce Swedish whiteness through 'happy stories' of Swedish exceptionalism. Although these positive messages in SE may stem from good intentions, our findings show that a colourblind view of racial hierarchies in the rendering of ‘happy stories, about, for example, gay rights, free abortion, and equality also contributes to reproducing whiteness and reinforcing ideas about race and Swedish exceptionalism in SE
Postnatal betamethasone treatment in extremely preterm infants and risk of neurodevelopmental impairment : a cohort study
No full textObjective: To evaluate if postnatal treatment with betamethasone in extremely preterm infants was associated with neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI) at 6.5 years of age. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: Extremely Preterm Infants in Sweden Study (gestational age <27 weeks, born 2004-2007). Patients: 428 children born extremely preterm were assessed at 6.5 years of age, 115 treated with betamethasone and 313 not treated. Main outcome measures: NDI at 6.5 years of age. Evaluation at 6.5 years included cognitive testing with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV), neurological examination and a medical record review. Exposure: Treatment with postnatal betamethasone. Main outcome: Moderate to severe NDI at 6.5 years of age, defined as a composite including cerebral palsy, and/or impairment in cognition, hearing and vision. Results: Moderate to severe NDI was more prevalent in children treated with postnatal betamethasone (49% treated vs 26% not treated, p<0.001). Betamethasone-treated children had worse cognitive development with mean WISC-IV score of 75 (SD 13.7) vs 87 (SD 14.0, p<0.001). The effect was dose dependent: 1.35 mg/kg vs 1.0 mg/kg (p=0.01) in betamethasone-treated children with moderate to severe versus no or mild NDI, respectively. The differences remained after adjustment for potential confounders with logistic regression (adjusted OR (aOR) 1.80, 95% CI 1.14 to 3.21). The difference in NDI also remained after propensity score matching, with crude OR 2.82 (95% CI 1.42 to 5.61, p=0.003) and aOR 2.17 (95% CI 1.07 to 4.69, p=0.04). Conclusion: Postnatal treatment with betamethasone is associated with increased risk of NDI at 6.5 years