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Guardians of Trust : Foreign Election Interference and the Institutional Logics of Democratic Resilience among Swedish County Governors
No full textDemocratic resilience has emerged as a central theme in academic debates in response to growing threats to contemporary democracies, yet little attention has been paid to resilience capacity to external stressors. This article conceptualises electoral integrity as a key democratic resilience capacity and examines how central actors in the Swedish electoral administration make sense of, and navigate, foreign election interference. Drawing on institutional logics theory and qualitative interviews with Swedish county governors, the article demonstrates how governors approach resilience through a logic of trust: interviewees view trust as both a core democratic resource and a target of foreign adversaries. Assuming the role of guardians of trust, governors rely on institutional practices of transparency, impartiality, and standardization as central tools. By positioning foreign election interference as a key external stressor and electoral integrity as a resilience capacity, the article contributes to the growing literature on democratic resilience. By providing insight into the work of the electoral administration, it also adds a novel resilience perspective to security studies scholarship on foreign interference. Finally, the article indicates a need for future comparative studies on electoral integrity as a resilience capacity in the context of external stressors across settings with diverging levels of trust
Iron deficiency restrains short-term recovery in patients undergoing surgery for advanced ovarian cancer
No full textBackgroundPatients with advanced ovarian cancer (AOC) who undergo primary and interval debulking surgery are often anemic at diagnosis, with iron deficiency being the most common cause. The aim was to investigate whether preoperative anemia and iron deficiency impact short-term recovery.MethodsThis retrospective cohort study included 262 patients with AOC who underwent surgery at Skane University Hospital Lund, Sweden, between January 2020 and December 2023. Patients were divided into four groups, according to preoperative anemia and iron deficiency. Iron deficiency was defined as transferrin saturation (TSAT) < 0.20. Severe complications were defined as Clavien–Dindo (CD) grade ≥ 3. Logistic regression analyses were used to investigate the difference between patients with and without iron deficiency.ResultsAmong patients with iron deficiency anemia, 24% of patients had more than 1 cm of residual tumor at the end of surgery, compared to 6-8% of patients with no anemia and/or no iron deficiency, (p 0.005). The rate of severe complications (CD ≥ 3) was higher for patients with iron deficiency, odds ratio 2.47 (95% CI 1.11–5.50), than for patients with no iron deficiency, adjusted for the Aletti score, operating time and hemoglobin (Hb) level. There was no difference between groups regarding length of hospital stay.ConclusionPatients with iron deficiency anemia, were less likely to undergo radical or optimal surgery. Severe postoperative complications were more common in patients with iron deficiency, with or without anemia. These analyses indicate that iron deficiency is associated with more advanced disease and complex surgical procedures
Media, Racism, Speciesism: Issues and Solutions for Creaturely Racism in the Anthropocene
No full textDecolonizing Truth: Lessons from Palestine
No full textThis essay reflects on the notions of objectivity and truth. Taking Palestine as an urgent political call and a precondition for a decolonial future, it argues that in the context of genocidal violence and the system-atic distortion of reality, objectivity and truth cannot be dismissed merely as tools of oppression. Instead, approaching them as counter-narratives grounded in embodied experiences that have been violently erased by colonial apparatuses of knowledge produc-tion, this essay reclaims truth as situated and from below and as a potential vehicle of justice and epis-temic resistanc
Characterization of Visceral Adipose Tissue Proteome Reveals Metabolic Changes and Inflammatory Signatures in Severe Obesity
No full textObjective: Severe obesity poses a major public health concern due to its links with cardiometabolic complications and mortality. Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) plays a key role in these processes through distinct molecular features. This study aimed to characterize the VAT proteome of individuals with severe obesity and investigate its association with serum metabolic biomarkers. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis was performed for 46 individuals with severe obesity undergoing metabolic bariatric surgery and 17 healthy controls undergoing elective abdominal surgery. VAT proteomes were analyzed using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS), and serum metabolites were quantified using nuclear magnetic resonance–based metabolomics. Results: LC–MS/MS identified 22 differentially expressed proteins (FDR < 0.05) in VAT with 12 downregulated and 10 upregulated in severe obesity. Downregulated proteins included mitochondrial enzymes involved in substrate metabolism and mitochondrial transmembrane transport. Circulating glucose, valine, and isoleucine correlated negatively with VAT mitochondrial transmembrane and electron transport proteins. Upregulated proteins were associated with inflammation, immune activation, oxidative stress, cytoskeletal remodeling, and protein turnover. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate significant molecular alterations in the VAT proteome associated with severe obesity, providing insights into the underlying mechanisms of metabolic disease. The differentially expressed proteins may serve as biomarkers or therapeutic targets for obesity-related complications. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifiers: NCT00793143 and NCT01373892
Positive Patch Test Reactions to Dental Rubber Dams and Zinc Ethylphenyldithiocarbamate in a Patient Sensitised to Thiurams and Other Carbamates
No full textWhat Does Criminal Law See When It Recognises Something as Sexual? : On the Legal Interests Involved in Sexual Offences
No full textFibroblast diversity within human gut-associated lymphoid tissues
No full textGut-associated lymphoid tissues (GALT) represent major sites of adaptive immune priming in the intestine, yet our understanding of human GALT diversity and function remains limited. Here, we used single-cell RNA sequencing, flow cytometry, and confocal laser microscopy to map the fibroblast (FB) landscape of human GALT, including that of Peyer's patches (PP), mucosal isolated lymphoid follicles (M-ILF), and submucosal ILF (SM-ILF). We identify CD24 as a marker that distinguishes GALT from other intestinal FB and demonstrate that CD24+ FB consist of distinct subsets that locate within discrete niches. We show that the composition and transcriptional profile of M-ILF and SM-ILF FB differs with SM-ILF FB appearing more focused at providing T cell support. Finally, we find the transcription profile of PP T zone reticular cells to be altered in Crohn's disease and that cells with a GALT FB-like profile can be detected in other chronic inflammatory diseases. Collectively, our findings provide an important framework for understanding GALT diversity and function
