293 research outputs found
Cerebral visual impairment captured with a structured history inventory in extremely preterm born children aged 6.5 years
No full textPurpose: To investigate whether a questionnaire can identify cerebral visual impairment (CVI) in a group of 6.5-year-old children born extremely preterm (EPT) as accurately as direct assessments. Methods: This prospective population-based study included 120 children born before 27 weeks' gestational age (66 males; mean, 25.4 ± 1.0 weeks) and 97 full-term controls (56 males; mean, 39.9 ± 1.1 weeks) at the age of 6.5 years, as part of the Extremely Preterm Infants in Sweden Study (EXPRESS). A questionnaire for detection of CVI was evaluated and compared with visual, perceptual, and cognitive assessments. Results: Parents of children born EPT reported more CVI features than the parents of control children, with median sum scores of 25 (95% CI, 18.1-31.9) and 11 (95% CI, 8.8-13.2), respectively (P < 0.001), and a median difference of 14 (95% CI, 6.6-21.4). Low rates of reported CVI features were significantly associated with better results from direct assessments within the EPT group and with less pronounced differences compared to controls. Conclusions: The questionnaire discriminated well between children born EPT and controls, and the scores were congruent with other evidence of visual, perceptual, and cognitive deficits. The easily used questionnaire compared favorably with direct assessment in identifying CVI in children born EPT and also provides valuable information to clinicians, and parents about the daily life problems associated with CVI
Clinical Effects of Faecal Microbiota Transplantation as Adjunctive Therapy in Dogs with Chronic Enteropathies—A Retrospective Case Series of 41 Dogs
No full textChronic enteropathies (CE) are common in dogs, but not all affected dogs respond to standard therapy. Successful responses to faecal microbial transplantation (FMT) in dogs with non-responsive CE have been reported in two case series. The objective of this retrospective study was to describe the clinical effects of FMT as an adjunctive therapy in a larger population of dogs with CE. Forty-one dogs aged 0.6–13.0 years (median 5.8) under treatment for CE at one referral animal hospital were included. Dogs were treated with 1–5 (median 3) FMTs as a rectal enema at a dose of 5–7 g/kg body weight. The canine inflammatory bowel disease activity index (CIBDAI) was compared at baseline versus after the last FMT. Stored faecal samples (n = 16) were analysed with the dysbiosis index. CIBDAI at baseline was 2–17 (median 6), which decreased to 1–9 (median 2; p < 0.0001) after FMT. Subsequently, 31/41 dogs responded to treatment, resulting in improved faecal quality and/or activity level in 24/41 and 24/41 dogs, respectively. The dysbiosis index at baseline was significantly lower for good responders versus poor responders (p = 0.043). Results suggest that FMT can be useful as an adjunctive therapy in dogs with poorly responsive CE
Recent cases of falciparum malaria imported to Europe from Goa, India, December 2006-January 2007
No full textAn increase in numbers of malaria cases has recently been reported in travellers returning from India, in particular from the state of Goa, on the west coast. These cases have been reported to the European Network on Imported Infectious Disease Surveillance (TropNetEurop, http://www.tropnet.net). In the past two years, there have been no reports of malaria in European travellers to Goa. However, since late November 2006, the malaria surveillance map of the network has shownan unusually intensive signal from India, indicating an increase in the number of malaria reports from that region, including Goa. By 10 January, eight patients had been reported: two in Germany, four in Denmark, and two in Sweden. With the exception of two Danish cases, all patients travelled independently of one another. The two German patients, one of the Swedish patients and one of the Danish patients stayed in Goa for 2-3 weeks and had not visited other regions within India. No changes in the general recommendations for travellers have been made in Germany. In addition, the recent cluster of malaria cases imported from Goa has also prompted the Advisory Committee for Malaria Prevention in United Kingdom Travellers (ACMP) to issue temporary change to its recommendations. The ACMP advises that travel advisors should highlight the risk of malaria, instruct on the use of mosquito bite avoidance measures [6], and recommend malaria chemoprophylaxis to those travellers who will be visiting Goa, particularly areas north of Panaji, and who will be remote from medical care. This advice remains in effect until further notice as the situation is clarified. The recommended chemoprophylaxis is chloroquine plus proguanil. Alternatives are mefloquine, atovaquone plus proguanil, or doxycycline
Det machiavellistiska personlighetsdragets förekomst bland fastighetsmäklare: En studie med fokus på försäljningsprestationer
No full textTitle: The occurrence of the Machiavellian personality trait among real estate agents: A study focusing on sales performance Level: Student thesis, final assignment for Bachelor Degrees in Business Administration Author: Jessica Backman & Fanny Hellgren Supervisor: Jonas Kågström Date: 2019 - June Aim: The purpose of this research paper is to analyze the presence of the personality trait Machiavellianism among Swedish real estate agents and its impact on sales performances. Method: The study is based on a quantitative research method with a deductive approach. The primary data of this study is based on a questionnaire. The participants of this questionnaire are 106 registered real estate agents in Sweden. This data was subsequently analyzed in the program jamovi, which resulted in a descriptive analysis, a correlation analysis and a factor analysis. Result & Conclusions: The result shows that the degree of Machiavellianism negatively affects the investigated real estate agents to all sales performance measures. Furthermore, the result shows that people with a high degree of Machiavellianism thinks to a greater extent that it is okay to use cap prices, front man and to withhold information, to the extent that it occurs. Generally speaking, the participating real estate agents consider that it is not okay to use cap prices, front man and to withhold information. Furthermore, the degree of Machiavellianism is relatively low among the investigated real estate agents. Contribution of the thesis: The study has contributed to understanding the occurrence of the Machiavellian personality trait among the investigated real estate brokers and how this personality trait affects their sales performance. Suggestions for future research: In order to gain a deeper understanding of Machiavellianism's influence on sales performance, it would have been interesting to compare how Machiavellianism appears in different cultures in relation to sales performance. To increase the understanding of the subject further, a proposal is to investigate how the degree of Machiavellianism appears in different sales industries. Key words: “Machiavellianism”, “the dark triad”, “real estate”, “sales performance” and “sales
An evaluation of using a U-Net CNN with a random forest pre-screener : On a dataset of hand-drawn maps provided by länsstyrelsen i Jönköping
No full textMuch research has been done on the use of machine learning to extract features such as buildings, lakes et cetera from satellite imagery, and while this dataset is valuable for many use cases, it is limited to time periods in which satellites were used. Historical maps have a much greater range of available time periods but the viability of using machine learning to extract data from these has not been investigated to any great extent. This case study uses a real-world use case to show the efficacy of using a U-Net convolutional neural network to extract features drawn on hand-drawn maps. By implementing a random forest as a pre-screener to the U-Net the goal was to filter out noise that could lead to false positives. By filtering out the noise the hope was to increase the accuracy of the U-Net. The pre-screener in this study has not performed well on the dataset and has not improved the performance of the U-Net. The U-Nets ability to extrapolate the location of features not explicitly drawn on the map was not clearly established. The results of this study show that the U-Net CNN could be an invaluable tool for quickly extracting data from this typically cumbersome data source, allowing for easier access to a wealth of data. The fields of archeology and climate science would find this especially useful
Modulation of innate immune response to mRNA vaccination after SARS-CoV-2 infection or sequential vaccination in humans
No full text### General information
This is a dataset record for the research paper "Modulation of innate immune response to mRNA vaccination after SARS-CoV-2 infection or sequential vaccination in humans" led by professor Karin Loré (Karolinska Institutet) and her research group.
Author(s): Hellgren F, Rosdahl A, Arcoverde Cerveira R, Lenart K, Ols S, Gwon Y-D, Joas G, Kurt S, Delis A-M, Evander M, Normark J, Ahlm C, Forsell M, Cajander S, Loré K
Corresponding author: Karin Loré, Division of Immunology and Allergy, Department of Medicine Solna, Karolinska Institutet, Visionsgatan 4, BioClinicum J7:30, Karolinska University Hospital, 171 64 Stockholm, Sweden.
Contact e-mail: [email protected]
Github code repo: https://github.com/rodrigarc/orebro_study/
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.175401
This readme file was last updated: 2024-04-22
The dataset is available upon reasonable request through the corresponding author.
### Cohort description
The repository contains metadata for the 30 study participants recruited among health-care workers at the University hospital of Örebro, Sweden. At the start of the study, 14 individuals had a previous Covid-19 infection and 16 were infection naïve. Among the infection naïve group, 75% were female (12 out of 16 participants), with a mean age of 41 years, ranging from 25 to 66 years. In the group with previous Covid-19 infection, 71.4% were female (10 out of 14 participants), with a mean age of 44.6 years, spanning from 29 to 63 years. Study participants were sampled adjacent to each vaccine dose according to the schedule shown in Fig. 1A.
For a more detailed overview of the baseline characteristics please see Table 1 attached in the manuscript.
### Dataset description
Antibody titers measured by ELISA, Percentages of Immunophenotyping of studied cell subsets, and serum protein measurements were compiled into Excel sheets and fully anonymized. This data was provided as supplemental material with the original article.
RNA-sequencing data: RNA-seq analysis of 99 samples was performed using Illumina sequencing. Preprocessing of FASTQ raw reads was done with the nf-core/rnaseq v3.8 pipeline, with results saved in TSV format. The human genome was appended with vaccine and SARS-CoV-2 related genes prior to read alignment using STAR and gene expression quantification with Salmon.
Keywords: mRNA vaccines, innate immunity, Covid-19, coronavirus, vaccin
Regulation of adenylyl cyclase 5 in striatal neurons confers the ability to detect coincident neuromodulatory signals
No full textLong-term potentiation and depression of synaptic activity in response to stimuli is a key factor in reinforcement learning. Strengthening of the corticostriatal synapses depends on the second messenger cAMP, whose synthesis is catalysed by the enzyme adenylyl cyclase 5 (AC5), which is itself regulated by the stimulatory Gαolf and inhibitory Gαi proteins. AC isoforms have been suggested to act as coincidence detectors, promoting cellular responses only when convergent regulatory signals occur close in time. However, the mechanism for this is currently unclear, and seems to lie in their diverse regulation patterns. Despite attempts to isolate the ternary complex, it is not known if Gαolf and Gαi can bind to AC5 simultaneously, nor what activity the complex would have. Using protein structure-based molecular dynamics simulations, we show that this complex is stable and inactive. These simulations, along with Brownian dynamics simulations to estimate protein association rates constants, constrain a kinetic model that shows that the presence of this ternary inactive complex is crucial for AC5's ability to detect coincident signals, producing a synergistic increase in cAMP. These results reveal some of the prerequisites for corticostriatal synaptic plasticity, and explain recent experimental data on cAMP concentrations following receptor activation. Moreover, they provide insights into the regulatory mechanisms that control signal processing by different AC isoforms
Models of corticostriatal synaptic plasticity and plateau potentials in striatal projection neurons
No full textIn this thesis we studied synaptic plasticity and neuronal computation in single striatal projection neurons (SPNs), which have a major role in goal-directed learning. Goal-directed or reward learning means to learn, based on sensory information from the body and the environment, to select actions out of all the behavioral repertoire that lead to obtaining a goal or reward (such as food or water). In mammals, all the behavioral motor repertoire is under constant, tonic inhibition, and the direct-pathway SPNs (dSPNs) select (disinhibit) goal-obtaining actions. The learning process is guided by the neuromodulator dopamine which signals the positive or negative outcome of an action. The synapses from cortical neurons onto the dSPNs, called corticostriatal synapses, are responsive to dopamine signals, and can strengthen and weaken based on the (positive or negative) action outcome. This promotes or discourages future actions in the same or similar sensory context.
Within a collaborative computational modeling effort, we studied the biochemical circuitry in the corticostriatal synapses with multiscale modeling and simulations. This circuitry in the corticostriatal synapses responds to neuromodulatory signals and controls the expression of synaptic plasticity. Multiscale modeling and simulations enable studying a system at multiple temporal and spatial scales, and integrating the results across the different scales. Based on molecular dynamics simulations of the enzyme which transduces extracellular neuromodulatory signals into an intracellular second messenger molecule, and Brownian dynamics simulations of regulator molecules binding to the enzyme, we constructed a kinetic model of the enzyme-based signal transduction network. The kinetic model showed that two co-occuring neuromodulatory signals, a dopamine peak and an acetylcholine pause, are required to produce the second messenger and thus enable strengthening of corticostriatal synapses onto dSPNs, and that only the dopamine signal is not enough.
Next, we developed a local, calcium- and reward-dependent learning rule based on what is known about the biochemical circuitry of corticostriatal synapses onto dSPNs. We show that with this biologically-based learning rule, single SPNs can learn to solve the nonlinear feature binding problem (NFBP), a computationally hard problem representing the class of linearly nonseparable tasks. This result suggests that different, unrelated or partially related stimuli that require executing the same action to obtain a goal, can use the same SPNs responsible for selecting that action, and that a single SPN can reliably distinguish between similar stimuli.
The solution of the NFBP with the aforementioned learning rule relies on supralinear dendritic voltage elevations called plateau potentials. Experimentally, plateau potentials are all-or-none events, a property crucial for performing nonlinear computations required to solve the NFBP. However, computational models of plateau potentials often produce graded voltage elevations. We analyzed and compared existing plateau potential models, and found that long-lasting glutamate spillover in the extrasynaptic space robustly produces all-or-none plateau potentials by activating extrasynaptic N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptors. This suggests that glutamate spillover may be a mechanism for generating all-or-none plateau potentials in vivo, as well.
In summary, the findings presented in this thesis advance our understanding of the role of single dSPNs in goal-directed learning, the biophysical mechanisms involved in performing their nonlinear computations, and the neuromodulatory signals necessary to produce synaptic strengthening and thus implement goal-directed learning
Doživljaj nesigurnosti posla i članstvo u sindikatu: slučaj privremenih radnika
No full textThe present study investigates the relationship between felt job
insecurity and union membership accounting for potential differences
between temporary and permanent workers. Consistent
with the idea that felt job insecurity leads workers to seek social
protection from the unions, and with earlier studies, we hypothesize
a positive relationship between felt job insecurity and union
membership (Hypothesis 1). Furthermore, we argue that this
relationship may be stronger among temporary compared with
permanent workers (Hypothesis 2): insecure temporary workers
are in a situation of 'double vulnerability', hence they have strong
motives for unionization. Hypotheses are tested in a cross-
-sectional sample of 560 Flemish (Dutch-speaking part of
Belgium) workers. Our results were as follows: the relationship
between felt job insecurity and union membership was not significant.
The interaction term between contract type and felt job
insecurity was significantly related to union membership: the relationship
between felt job insecurity and union membership was
positive among temporary workers, but not among permanent
workers. This pattern of results may inspire unions to target future
recruitment strategies on temporary workers. A route for future
research could be to test our hypotheses also longitudinally.Ova studija istražuje odnos između doživljaja nesigurnosti
posla i članstva u sindikatu, objašnjavajući potencijalne
razlike između privremeno zaposlenih radnika i onih u
stalnom radnom odnosu. U skladu s tezom da doživljaj
nesigurnosti posla navodi radnike da socijalnu zaštitu zatraže
od sindikata, a i u skladu s ranijim istraživanjima, postavlja
se hipoteza pozitivne povezanosti između doživljaja
nesigurnosti posla i članstva u sindikatu (Hipoteza 1).
Nadalje, tvrdi se da ova povezanost može biti jača kod
privremenih u usporedbi sa stalnim radnicima (Hipoteza 2):
nesigurni privremeni radnici nalaze se u položaju "dvostruke
ranjivosti", stoga imaju snažne motive za sindikalno
organiziranje. Hipoteze su testirane na uzorku poprečnoga
presjeka, koji se sastojao od 560 flamanskih radnika
(nizozemsko govorno područje u Belgiji). Rezultati su ovakvi:
povezanost doživljaja nesigurnosti posla i članstva u\ud
sindikatu nije bila značajna. Interakcija između vrste ugovora
i doživljaja nesigurnosti posla bila je značajno povezana s
članstvom u sindikatu: povezanost doživljaja nesigurnosti
posla i članstva u sindikatu bila je pozitivna kod privremenih
radnika, ali ne i kod stalnih radnika. Ovakav rezultat može
potaknuti sindikate da se ubuduće usmjere prema
strategijama privlačenja privremenih radnika. U sljedećim
istraživanjima hipoteze bi se mogle testirati i longitudinalno
En ny säsong i Björnstad : En modern romans didaktiska potential i litteraturundervisning på gymnasieskolan kopplat till sexualitet, samtycke och relationer.
No full textThe aim of this study is to analyse the didactic potential found in the novel Beartown (Backman, 2016) in relation to sex education as a part of literature studies in Swedish upper secondary school. Focusing on the three central terms of Swedish sex education, the study analyses the depiction of sexuality, consent, and relationships found within the novel from a gender and ideological perspective using the method of explicit and implicit ideology read as presented by an implied author. The results of the analysis show that Beartown depicts an environment that constructs and reinforces a heteronormative ideal and male-centric perspective as it relates to these terms. While the novel´s implied author is critical of said depiction and the negative consequences for the characters affected, the novel does not provide a preferred alternative to the problematic environment depicted. However, this criticism does help to provide a promising foundation for discussing sex education and sexuality, consent, and relationships within a classroom context.
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