Publikationer från Uppsala Universitet
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Children's gender identification beyond binary categories predicts their prosocial behaviour
No full textProsocial behaviour develops early in life yet also shows increasing gender differences over development, pointing to a role for learning and socialization connected to gender. Here, we examine prosocial behaviour in 5-year-old children (N = 54) in Sweden and how it relates to their binary gender as well as their self-rated gender identity, using two continuous scales. Prosocial behaviour was assessed using tasks for empathy, comforting, and anonymous costly sharing. We find that children are capable of identifying their gender beyond binary categories using continuous scales for identification with girls and with boys. Further, this variation in gender identity relates to their prosocial behaviour such that costly sharing is related to less identification with boys, particularly for boys. These findings shed light on the origins and development of gender differences in prosocial behaviour as well as children’s gender identity
Learning Cultural Heritage through Playful Interactive Drawing : An Embodied and Constructivist Approach at Uppsala Castle’s Children’s Section
No full textUppsala Castle, a historic landmark in Sweden, is home to the Uppsala Castle Museum, which showcases the city's cultural heritage through exhibitions and guided tours. The museum is redeveloping its displays to include a dedicated children's section. Engaging children in such contexts remains a challenge, as traditional heritage displays often prioritise passive observation over active participation. This study addresses that challenge using a Research-through-Design (RtD) approach guided by the Double Diamond process. A hybrid analogue-digital installation was designed and evaluated, comprising: (1) a Heritage Wall with digital and printed images of Uppsala's key heritage sites and QR codes for extended exploration; (2) a Drawing Station for heritage-inspired creative work; and (3) a Feedback Corner with physical and digital reflection tools. Workshops, observations, and semi-structured interviews with children aged 10-15 were thematically analysed, revealing six engagement mechanisms: active exploration, heritage-inspired creativity, social interaction, emotional engagement, usability and accessibility, and evidence of learning. The findings indicate that embodied movement between heritage references and creative activities, combined with opportunities for imaginative reinterpretation and peer exchange, transformed cultural heritage into an active, participatory learning experience. Building on the notion of strong concepts in interaction design, the study contributes the transfarable HCI-informed design principle of Playful Cultural Co-Creation, which intrigates embodied, social, and creative engagement to inform the design of interactive heritage and education experiences.
Event-Driven Hardware Access for Modular, Distributed Control Software
No full textThe Input/Output (IO) system is one of the main fundamentals of a microcontroller. It is its way of interacting with the outside world, whether via digital inputs, such as buttons, or complicated analog signals, which must first be processed by an Analog to Digital Converter (ADC). Embedded systems are inherently designed to interface with the physical world, where interaction with peripheral hardware plays a critical role. Microcontrollers and other low-levelplatforms serve as versatile computational and control units by reading sensor data, processing it, and responding accordingly. While cyclic polling of hardware inputs is a commonly employed method, it often does not correspond to the natural behavior that should be detected. Instead, many applications require triggered notifications or interrupts by specific conditions (so called events), such as reaching or crossing a threshold or drastic changes of values, which are better handled by an event-driven approach. This thesis uses the IEC 61499 standard for distributed, event-based control systems to propose an additional hardware abstraction layer that bridges the gap between cyclic IO operations and the development of event-based control logic. For digital inputs, this involves edge detection, whereas for analog inputs, it requires more complex process to address issues like discretization, and interpretation of sampled data. The proposed abstraction encapsulates these low-level concerns and exposes a configurable interface, allowing developers to focus on designing event-driven behaviors without manually translating periodic data into events. Questions such as whether event-based IO (eIO) access reduces complexity in the application layer and enhances the programming paradigms outlined by the IEC 61499 standard are central to this work. Additionally, the thesis investigates the extent to which event-driven IO contributes to increased hardware independence. Furthermore, it examines the performance implications — both gains and potential overhead — introduced by the proposed abstraction layer. Respond-time tests confirm that the event-driven IO system performs in average equally to acommonly used IO structure. Also less function blocks are needed and therefore the logic complexity can be reduced significantly. This leads to the conclusion that the new event-based IO system improves versatility, enables event-driven triggering behavior on a cyclic platform, and keeps the same performance level while reducing program complexity. Hardware independence can be improved to a certain extent, but not beyond what has already been achieved with the established Modular IO system
Obesity in chronic spinal cord injury is associated with poorer body composition and increased risk of cardiometabolic disease
No full textWith increased longevity after spinal cord injury (SCI), cardiovascular disease has emerged as a major cause of morbidity and mortality. We evaluate the association of body composition and injury level with cardiometabolic disease (CMD) risk factors. Sixty-two individuals (69% male, 31% female) with chronic SCI (mean duration 7.4, SD +/- 5.8 years) were recruited. Mean age of participants was 34.4 +/- 12.1 years with BMI of 23.8 +/- 5, while 64% had BMI < 25 and 11% >30. Total and percent truncal fat correlated positively (p < 0.05) with serum triglycerides, non-high-density lipid cholesterol, c-reactive protein (CRP), oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), and measures of insulin resistance. Those with obesity in SCI (defined as BMI >= 22) had increased total and trunk mass and fat percentage, unfavorable lipid profiles and evidence of insulin insensitivity. Total fat was associated with CMD risk factors, including insulin resistance (OGTT 60 min r = 0.47, p < 0.05; homeostasis model assessment [HOMA] r = 0.62, p < 0.05), serum triglycerides (r = 0.31, p < 0.05), and inflammation (CRP r = 0.43, p < 0.05). Obesity in SCI related to higher CMD risk, while time since injury and injury level (paraplegia versus tetraplegia) did not. Future studies may evaluate roles of nutrition, exercise, sleep-promotion, and pharmaceuticals to lower neurogenic obesity and chronic CMD risk
Faithful Resistance : Christians and the Quest for Belonging
No full textThis thesis explores how Christian Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank experience marginalisation and respond to it through faith-based agency, resilience, and everyday resistance. As a small and often overlooked religious minority living under military occupation, they face a unique combination of political, social, and theological pressures. Drawing on thirteen semi-structured interviews with Protestant and other local Christians, the study uses thematic analysis and is guided by theoretical perspectives on agency (Giddens, Arendt), resilience (Masten), and marginalisation (Spivak, Crenshaw, Yuval-Davis). The findings are organised into four main themes: (1) Structures of Marginalisation, (2) Identity Under Pressure, (3) Community Resilience and Faith-Based Agency, and (4) Duality of Being a Minority Within a Minority. Participants described daily challenges such as movement restrictions, religious discrimination, and shrinking church communities. Yet many also spoke of their determination to stay, to serve, and to be “living stones” in their land. Churches emerged as not only spiritual homes but also spaces for education, advocacy, and social support. Rather than being defined by victimhood, many of those interviewed expressed a deep sense of purpose and commitment to justice, non-violence, and peace. This study challenges the tendency to render Palestinian Christians invisible in both political and theological narratives. By centring their voices and experiences, it highlights how faith is not just a source of personal strength, but also a foundation for collective action and resilience. Their stories show what it means to hold on, to identity, to dignity, and to belonging, in a context where all of these are constantly under pressure.
Empowered yet dehumanized : perceptions of women's attractiveness in the context of gender earnings inequality
No full textBackground Gender earnings inequality remains a significant issue in the labor market. In response, women may perceive attractiveness as a potential resource. However, the effectiveness of attractiveness may vary depending on whether it is assessed from a first-person or third-person perspective. Methods To explore how attractiveness is perceived in the context of gender earnings inequality, we conducted two studies. Study 1 examined women's self-perceptions of their attractiveness when faced with gender earnings inequality. Study 2 investigated how third-person observers perceive women's emphasis on attractiveness in the same context. Results Study 1 revealed that women reported feeling empowered by their attractiveness. However, Study 2 found that third-party observers perceived women's emphasis on attractiveness as a form of self-dehumanization. Specifically, participants viewed these women as less human, less empowered, more susceptible to sexual objectification in daily life, and less likely to be chosen as friends in the gender earnings inequality context. Conclusion These findings provide evidence for the perceived empowering function of women's attractiveness as a response to gender earnings inequality while also highlighting a critical discrepancy between women's self-perceptions and third-party evaluations of attractiveness
Defending the fortress : How asset ownership shapes the desire to resist foreign aggression
No full textIn recent years, security policy attitudes have surged to the forefront of public discourse, especially amidst geopolitical shifts like Russia's incursions into Ukraine and China's assertiveness in the South Asian Sea. Yet, despite its significance, scholarly focus on these attitudes, particularly concerning the will to resist foreign aggression, remains scant. This research endeavors to fill this gap by exploring the correlation between economic resources, primarily tangible asset ownership, and defense-related attitudes. Drawing on multiyear survey data from Finland - a nation uniquely positioned given its mandatory military service for males and its proximity to Russia's sphere of interest - we find a strong association between tangible asset ownership and an increased willingness among citizens to resist foreign incursions. This relationship becomes even more pronounced during times of geopolitical uncertainty, underscoring the importance of the prevailing security environment in shaping these attitudes. While we do not refute previous arguments regarding increased economic opportunities leading to decreased war proclivity, we emphasize the conditional nature of this relationship, contingent upon the immediate threat to one's material possessions. In essence, citizens are more inclined to defend what they have when the specter of war looms large
High-Density Inverted Micellar Intermediates Promote Membrane Fusion of Cationic Liposomes in Drug Delivery
No full textLiposomes have become increasingly popular as carriers for pharmaceutically relevant molecules such as nucleic acids, proteins, or anticancer drugs. The bottleneck in delivering such vehicles is their inefficient endosomal uptake by target cells. To bypass endosomal degradation and enhance delivery efficiency, fusogenic liposomes have been developed. They fuse with extraordinary efficiency with the plasma membrane of mammalian cells and deliver their cargo directly into the cell cytoplasm. Here, we set out to decipher the key to membrane fusion and optimize the liposomal composition accordingly. Special focus has been placed on identifying the intrinsic phase properties of these liposomes. Therefore, giant and small cationic liposomes with outstandingly high membrane fusion efficiency were prepared, and their thermal phase behavior was investigated using fluorescence microscopy, solid-state NMR, small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), and cryo-electron microscopy techniques. Our experiments revealed a temperature-dependent phase behavior of those liposomes. At 25 degrees C and below, mainly a lamellar phase formed without elevated membrane fusion capacity. At the physiological temperature of 37 degrees C and above, we found high concentrations of inverted micellar intermediates and interlamellar attachments, presumably as precursors of a high-temperature 3D phase, embedded in a lamellar phase. Their structures were resolved by cryo-electron tomography. We believe that the presence of these metastable fusion intermediate structures enables highly efficient fusion with complex biological membranes under physiological conditions, as is necessary in biomedical applications
Associations between socioeconomic deprivation and witnessing family violence among: Swedish adolescents : findings from a population-based school survey
No full textAim: Exposure to family violence is a significant public health concern, linked to negative outcomes in both childhood and adulthood. This study investigates the prevalence of family violence witnessed by adolescents in Sweden and explores its association with socioeconomic factors. Methods: Data from the population-based survey Life and Health in Youth conducted in 2023 was used, including 3704 adolescents aged 15-18 years. It examines three forms of family violence: threats of violence, abusive language and physical/sexual violence. Results: The findings reveal that 19% of adolescents reported having witnessed at least one type of family violence, with girls reporting higher rates than boys. Socioeconomic deprivation, particularly perceived family economic stress, was strongly correlated with witnessing family violence. Adolescents who experienced economic stress were more often reporting exposure to threats of violence (adjusted odds ratio (adjOR) = 2.84) and multi-type victimisation (adjOR = 2.81). These results indicate that socioeconomic factors are important to consider when supporting adolescents in vulnerable situations. Conclusions: One in five adolescents reported having witnessed any type of family violence. This study provides insights into the association between socioeconomic deprivation and adolescent exposure to family violence within the Swedish context. Adolescents with these experiences should be recognised by professionals in the health sector, welfare services and educational system due to their particularly vulnerable situatio
