Publikationer från Uppsala Universitet
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Choosing the right path : The effects of pursuing general versus vocational secondary education on dropout risk and youth inactivity
No full textThis article presents evidence on how students’ risk of dropping out or becoming inactive (NEET) are affected by pursuing a general (academic) versus vocational upper secondary education. We use a regression discontinuity design exploiting the grade-based admission process in Sweden. The results suggest that, among those students who apply to both types of education, starting a general program is associated with a higher likelihood of not graduating on time and spending more time without employment and outside studies during early adulthood. Furthermore, students on general programs perform worse in tests for courses mandatory for graduation, compared to students on vocational programs. We also find an increased dropout risk among students starting general programs when running family fixed effects models on the population of upper secondary students
Conceptual reasoning, intuition, and mathematics in physics : Statistical mechanics as a starting point for exploring student reasoning in upper-level university courses
No full textLearning physics in upper-level university courses introduces various challenges related to increasingly complex concepts and the increasingly integral role of mathematics. However, the research at this educational level remains relatively limited, particularly in topics such as statistical mechanics. This licentiate thesis aims to contribute to our understanding of student reasoning in upper-level physics courses, taking statistical mechanics as a starting point for the exploration. The thesis presents empirical findings from three papers and discusses them in relation to three broad themes: conceptual reasoning, intuition, and mathematics. The first two papers present grounded analyses of video data collected from problem-solving sessions with student groups working through tasks on the topic of statistical mechanics. The first paper presents ten emerged categories of recurring student challenges, suggesting that students had vague ideas about key concepts and struggled to apply their ideas in appropriate ways. The second paper—informed by the first—contributes with a focused exploration of students’ use of intuition in upper-level physics and chemistry contexts. Paper II demonstrates how students’ responses to their intuitions can lead to either productive or unproductive outcomes regardless of the intuition’s appropriateness. The third paper, a phenomenographic study, contributes with insight into the variation of university teachers’ views on the role of mathematics within their science, technology, or engineering discipline, in terms of five categories of increasingly integral and decreasingly instrumental roles. In the synthesis of this thesis, I present a model based on the Resources framework to provide a holistic analysis of all my findings. The model employs the process of framing, which involves active and passive activations of conceptual, metacognitive, and epistemological resources. I contrast two distinct frames based on my findings, a limited “stat mech approach” frame and an extended “cross-domain reasoning” frame, and propose the following implications for education. To help upper-level physics students build a more coherent and functional knowledge structure, teachers should: guide students to connect concepts within and between domains of physics; promote students’ ability to extend their frame; and consider how their views about intuition and mathematics in physics may be reflected in their teaching
Tuberculosis Progression Signature : A Comparison of Gene Signatures for Predicting Progression From Latent to Active Tuberculosis
No full textTuberculosis is the world’s leading cause of death from an infectious disease. The nature of the infection, which remains latent for most who contract it, makes it difficult to predict which individuals will develop the active disease. As much as one fourth of the world’s population is latently infected, so offering preventative therapy to all such patients is unfeasible. A test which indicates which patients will progress from latent infection to active disease would be a great benefit for medical professionals, who could give preventative treatment to those in greatest need. Recent research into gene signatures for predicting tuberculosis progression is promising for this goal. This project involved summarising the WHO requirements for such a test, performing a literature search of longitudinal studies on the topic as well as providing access to datasets used in such studies. This would lead to the finding of a gene signature to be used with the Cepheid GeneXpert® platform for predicting tuberculosis progression within 12 months. We found seven significant cohort studies with available datasets relevant to the topic and nine gene signatures compliant with the requirements. Our analysis concluded that the gene signature known as RISK6, consisting of the genes FCGR1B, GBP2, SDR39U1, SERPING1, TRMT2A and TUBGCP6, is the best candidate for such a test
Identity work in longstanding subsidiaries during crisis : reinforcing, preserving and reconstructing subsidiary identity
No full textDuring a national crisis, longstanding subsidiaries’ roles are placed under considerable pressure. At the same time, the connotation of longstanding subsidiaries implies that they have existed for a significant period of time, during which they would have developed legacies and identities related to these roles. However, there is limited understanding on how longstanding subsidiaries work with their legacies and identities to influence their roles in the MNE or in the local environment. This study examines how longstanding subsidiaries of Swedish MNEs in Brazil engage in identity work during an economic crisis. Drawing on a comparative case study of 16 competence-exploring and competence-exploiting subsidiaries, the findings reveal three distinct foci of identity work: reinforcing, preserving, and reconstructing. The study contributes to the emerging literature on subsidiary identity work by demonstrating how identity work relates to subsidiary roles over time. It also contributes to subsidiary evolution research by revealing how longstanding subsidiaries manage legacy in response to environmental turbulence
Classifying Textual Genre in Historical Magazines (1875-1990)
No full textHistorical magazines are a valuable resource for understanding the past, offering insights into everyday life, culture, and evolving social attitudes. They often feature diverse layouts and genres. Short stories, guides, announcements, and promotions can all appear side by side on the same page. Without grouping these documents by genre, term counts and topic models may lead to incorrect interpretations.This study takes a step towards addressing this issue by focusing on genre classification within a digitized collection of European medical magazines in Swedish and German. We explore 2 scenarios: 1) leveraging the available web genre datasets for zero-shot genre prediction, 2) semi-supervised learning over the few-shot setup. This paper offers the first experimental insights in this direction.We find that 1) with a custom genre scheme tailored to historical dataset characteristics it is possible to effectively utilize categories from web genre datasets for cross-domain and cross-lingual zero-shot prediction, 2) semi-supervised training gives considerable advantages over few-shot for all models, particularly for the historical multilingual BERT
Exploring Gendered Relations in Peace Processes : A Single Case Study of the Bosnian Peace Process and its Long-Term Impact on Women and Gender-based Violence
No full textUN Resolution 1325, adopted in 2000, stresses the need to include women in peace and security processes to build a more sustainable and gender-just peace. Yet many peacebuilding efforts still overlook women, shaped by traditional models focused on resolving conflict between warring parties. Some post-conflict societies are a product of these earlier approaches. Excluding women in these processes not only risks limiting whose voices are heard, but also raises more profound questions about what peace means, especially in everyday life for those left out from the start. This thesis explores how women’s participation in peace processes impacts their long-term situation in post-conflict societies. The study focuses the question on Bosnia and Herzegovina as a single case study, examining the peace process and its effects on women and gender-based violence. Grounded in feminist theory, the thesis tests the hypothesis: “Excluding women in peace processes has a long-term negative impact on women and gender-based violence.”, in order to answer the study’s research question. The study finds that women were largely absent from the Bosnian peace process, and the peace agreement lacked provisions on gender and gender-based violence. However, when examining the long-term impacts, some institutional and legal progress has been made since then, women’s issues remain under-prioritized, and gender-based violence is a widespread issue. The long-term consequences are complex, and it isn't easy to trace them to the peace process directly. However, the study’s observations contributed to insights into peacebuilding and women, which shows that the early absence of women in peace processes appears to have made it harder to address these issues later. Keywords: Feminist Peace Studies, Dayton Peace Agreement, peace Processes, gender, women, gender-based violence, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Comparing Physical Activity Metrics From Different Placements of Thigh-Worn Accelerometers
No full textBackground: Compared with other placements, thigh-worn accelerometers offer the advantage to accurately capture postures. However, the lack of standardized sensor placement on the thigh raises concerns about the comparability and harmonization of data across studies. This study aimed to investigate the impact of sensor placement on thigh-worn accelerometer measurements. Methods: Thirty-six participants wore two sensors simultaneously at center- and upper-thigh position on the same thigh during daily activities for several days. Metrics of vector magnitude (Euclidian Norm Minus One), postures, and activities generated by GGIR and ActiPASS were analyzed with Bland-Altman plots and linear regressions. Results: The findings revealed a significant dependence of vector magnitude on sensor placement: 1 cm higher distance between the center- and upper-thigh position was correlated with almost 1 mg higher difference in Euclidian Norm Minus One between the two positions (b = 0.94; 95% confidence interval [0.26, 1.62]). For time spent sedentary (b = 0.03; 95% confidence interval [-2.48, 2.55]) and intense physical activities (b = 0.22; 95% confidence interval [-0.10, 0.54]), the sensor position had no significant effect on the results. High concordance was also observed for other activities, such as walking, running, and sleeping. Conclusions: The analyses suggest that, despite variations in sensor placement, thigh-worn accelerometry data can be compared and harmonized for most postures and activities when analyzed by ActiPASS. The robust metrics by ActiPASS to accelerometer placements is likely because it utilizes multiple features in the acceleration signal (e.g., inclination, rotation) to classify activities and postures, rather than relying on a single feature (vector magnitude)
Infant Gaze Following Is Stable Across Markedly Different Cultures and Resilient to Family Adversities Associated With War and Climate Change
No full textGaze following in infancy allows triadic social interactions and a comprehension of other individuals and their surroundings. Despite its importance for early development, its ontology is debated, with theories suggesting that gaze following is either a universal core capacity or an experience-dependent learned behavior. A critical test of these theories among 809 nine-month-olds from Africa (Uganda and Zimbabwe), Europe (Sweden), and Asia (Bhutan) demonstrated that infants follow gaze to a similar degree regardless of environmental factors such as culture, maternal well-being (postpartum depression, well-being), or traumatic family events (related to war and/or climate change). These findings suggest that gaze following may be a universal, experience-expectant process that is resilient to adversity and similar across a wide range of human experiences-a core foundation for social development
Conformal prediction enables disease course prediction and allows individualized diagnostic uncertainty in multiple sclerosis
No full textAccurate assessment of progression and disease course in multiple sclerosis (MS) is vital for timely and appropriate clinical intervention. The gradual transition from relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) to secondary progressive MS (SPMS) is often diagnosed retrospectively with a typical delay of three years. To address this diagnostic delay, we developed a predictive model that uses electronic health records to distinguish between RRMS and SPMS at each individual visit. To enable reliable predictions, conformal prediction was implemented at the individual patient level with a confidence of 93%. Our model accurately predicted the change in diagnosis from RRMS to SPMS for patients who transitioned during the study period. Additionally, we identified new patients who, with high probability, are in the transition phase but have not yet received a clinical diagnosis. Our methodology aids in monitoring MS progression and proactively identifying transitioning patients. An anonymized model is available at https://msp-tracker.serve.scilifelab.se/
What Is(n't) Environmental Stewardship? : Eliciting Unspoken Assumptions Using Fisheries as a Model
No full textEnvironmental stewardship is often invoked as a net social good and an approach for achieving equitable and sustainable conservation outcomes, but it is rarely defined explicitly in management settings, and conflicting definitions have proliferated. This lack of consensus can influence conservation outcomes in several ways. Conflict can arise between stakeholders with different definitions of stewardship; managers may not proactively identify important stakeholders whose stewardship orientation does not include public advocacy; and stakeholders whose sense of stewardship does not include in-depth knowledge of a particular ecosystem may advocate for ineffective or counterproductive actions. Developing strategies for identifying the implicit, unspoken definitions of environmental stewardship held by resource users, managers, and scientists can help with navigating these challenges. Here, we develop a method to elicit the unstated stewardship orientations of a group of stakeholders in a shared conservation setting. Using thought experiments and a Policy Delphi process, we find that even within our relatively homogeneous test group of recreational fisheries managers and scientists, individuals differed in their understanding of stewardship. We encourage conservation organizations with a mission of stewardship, or ones that interface with environmental stewards, to adopt an approach like this one to identify potential sources of conflict, inequity, and ineffective action before they arise