| 1. |
- Bornhäll, Anders, 1984-
(författare)
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Unseen job creators and firm growth barriers : the role of capital constraints and seniority rules
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The topic of this thesis is to provide a deeper understanding of how the institutional framework affects firms’ hiring decisions.The first article focuses on a group of firms, called sleeping gazelles, that do not grow despite having high profits. Sleeping gazelles constitute a much larger share of the firm population than that of high-growth firms. If it is growth barriers that are hindering these firms from hiring more employees, many new jobs could be created if these barriers were removed. To investigate the effects of one of the suggested growth barriers in the literature, the second article, focuses on whether small-firm growth is hampered by lack of capital. Using survey data from business owners matched with register data, we find that firms may face a capital constraint paradox, whereby the supply of external capital might be sufficient, but firm owners might refrain from accessing it due to fear of losing control of their companies. The third article investigates whether employment protection acts as a growth barrier in Sweden. Using a reform of the Swedish last-in-first-out (LIFO) rule, we estimate the causal effects from a liberalization of the employment protection. We find that firm growth increased because of the reform and that a more expansive reform could provide new job opportunities and increase overall employment. The LIFO rule was introduced to protect older workers. The fourth article investigates whether the reform weakened the labor market position of these workers. It is found that more young individuals who were unemployed or previously not in the workforce were hired as a consequence of the reform, showing that the reform lowered youth unemployment. There is no indication of older workers leaving the workforce or becoming unemployed to any greater extent after the reform. The fifth article show that the positive effects of the reform were limited to native workers, with no effects on the labor market position of immigrants. The effects depend on the relative insider-status of employees, so that groups of employees who are closer to being insiders benefit more from less-strict employment protection legislation than groups that are further from being insiders.
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| 2. |
- Borsgård, Gustav, 1984-
(författare)
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Litteraturens mått : politiska implikationer av litteraturundervisning som demokrati- och värdegrundsarbete
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Avhandlingens syfte är att undersöka politiska implikationer av idén om litteraturundervisning som demokrati- och värdegrundsarbete i förhållande till det ideal om mätbar kunskap som präglar samtidens utbildningspolicydiskurser. Det som står i fokus är 2011 års gymnasiereform, som tolkas mot bakgrund av en genomgripande förändring av den globala och europeiska utbildningspolicydiskursen från och med millennieskiftet. Avhandlingen undersöker hur subjekt, samhälle och relationen däremellan förstås av aktörer inom policy, forskning och av lärare. Analysen är uppdelad i en transnationell nivå, en nationell nivå och en didaktisk nivå. Avhandlingen visar också hur policydiskurser rekontextualiseras mellan de olika nivåerna.Vad gäller den transnationella nivån visar avhandlingen hur EU:s utbildningspolicy lägger stor vikt vid utbildningens samhällsekonomiska funktion samtidigt som demokratiska aspekter av utbildning tonas ned. EU framhäver även värdet av entreprenörskap och kopplar kreativitetsfrämjande aspekter av konst och humaniora till arbetsmarknaden och ekonomisk tillväxt. I ramverket till OECD:s PISA-studier lyfts reading literacy fram som viktigt för såväl kritiskt tänkande som ekonomisk utveckling. Läsningen av skönlitteratur specifikt definieras dock som en individuell angelägenhet och fritidsaktivitet. Genom att anlägga ett psykologiskt perspektiv på skönlitteraturen och lyfta fram den som en individuell – snarare än samhällelig eller strukturell – angelägenhet sker en av avpolitisering av litteraturläsningens emancipatoriska värde.Vad gäller den nationella nivån visar avhandlingen hur skolans syn på demokrati och litteratur har genomgått förändringar sedan 1940-talet. Framför allt har demokratin gradvis kommit att förstås som ett ”fullbordat” projekt, snarare än som någonting som kan utvecklas eller fördjupas. Med hjälp av Gert Biestas tre dimensioner av medborgarfostran gör avhandlingen en kritisk genomgång av tongivande teorier om litteraturundervisning som demokrati- och värdegrundsarbete, och argumenterar för att merparten av teorierna fokuserar på medborgarfostran som socialisering snarare än subjektivering. Med andra ord innebär demokratiarbetet en anpassning till, snarare än en kritik av, det omgivande samhället. Avhandlingen använder sig också av Peter Dahler-Larsens begrepp konstitutiva effekter för att visa hur 2011 års gymnasiereform tonade ned demokratiska aspekter av litteraturundervisning i förhållande till den föregående läroplanen.Vad gäller den didaktiska nivån använder sig avhandlingen av kvalitativa lärarintervjuer som visar hur lärares didaktiska val ramas in av styrdokumenten och olika administrativa uppgifter. Avhandlingen argumenterar för att lärarnas tolkning av styrdokumenten innebär ett rekontextualiseringsfält inom vilket lärarna förhandlar med läroplanens bestämmelser. I flera fall väljer lärarna att bortse från aspekter av styrdokumenten för att i stället grunda sina didaktiska val på den egna lärarerfarenheten. Det avslutande kapitlet argumenterar för att en viktig politisk implikation av idén om litteraturundervisning som demokrati- och värdegrundsarbete – i synnerhet när den kombineras med strävan efter mätbarhet – är att utbildningens subjektiveringsdimension marginaliseras. Avhandlingen argumenterar för att utbildning skulle kunna handla mindre om fastslagna värden och mätbara kompetenser, och mer om elevers behov av att lära sig hantera icke-vetande.
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| 3. |
- Johansson, Björn, 1963-
(författare)
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Deciding on Sourcing Option for Hosting of Software Applications in Organisations
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Software applications are of great importance in organisations, and performance of an organisation depends on how hosting of software applications are organised. This thesis deals with the question: Why and how organisations decide on specific sourcing options for software applications hosting. The thesis describes and explains sourcing decision-making processes made in the Swedish Post (MeLo) and Jönköpings Kommun (the municipality). MeLo’s sourcing decision resulted in outsourcing of hosting, and the municipality’s sourcing decision resulted in internal sourcing of hosting. Both organisations were distinguished by a decentralised structure to a great extent and showed a huge diversity in software applications used. The sourcing decisions resulted in a change to a more centralised hosting of software applications. The thesis is a retrospective case study based on semi-structured interviews and documents analysis. Concepts from the resource-based view and factors described in sourcing literature are used to analyse these sourcing decisions. From nine theoretical initial propositions 28 propositions are developed about why and how sourcing decisions are made. From these propositions, relations are described and some conclusions are presented about why and how sourcing decisions are made. The main conclusion is that maturity level regarding software applications usage seems to influences the start, the process as such, and the outcome of a sourcing decision-making process. This is explained as the more mature the organisation is regarding usage of software applications the more proactive decision-makers are in the sourcing decision. It is also identified that involved factors can be either influencing or justifying, and it is found that control of software applications usage influences the start of a sourcing decision to a high extent. The findings suggest that a sourcing decision-making process can be described as an irrational decision process that aims at increasing commitment on an already made decision. The study suggests that the less mature and more decentralised the organisation is the more reactive and the stronger influence the need to increase control over software applications have in a sourcing decision-making process.
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| 4. |
- Bredvold, Randi, 1957-
(författare)
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Entreprenørers fortellinger : en identitetsstudie i det opplevelsesbaserte reiselivet
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This is a narrative study in which five entrepreneurs in the experience-based tourist industry have told their life-stories in connection with their establishing and running their own enterprises. Over the last decades the number of adventure-based companies has markedly increased in tourist industry, but the knowledge gained through the research on the persons who establish these companies is scant. Through focusing on the constructions of identity of the entrepreneurs, this study gives nuanced pictures of the chain of events that had lead an individual to establish one`s own company. In addition, these pictures offer deeper understanding of how these individuals perceive themselves as the founder and manager of an experience-based company. Over the last decades research in entrepreneurship has criticized the imbalanced focus on the entrepreneurs' personal characteristics and it's use as an explanation of their entrepreneurial activities. In the same critical vein I question whether motivational studies are able to explain why certain individuals choose to establish their own business. Indeed, these five stories show that an entrepreneur is not something one is but something one becomes. Although the concept of an experiential economy appeared at the end of the 1990s, the production of experiences has a long tradition in the tourist industry. Norwegian tourism has faced an uphill struggle for several decades, which worries both the authorities and the industry itself. In recent decades the focus has been directed more and more on the dimension of experience. One hopes that the creation of new and attractive adventures will help to reverse the negative trend in the industry. Effecting this reversal places a heavy responsibility on the entrepreneurs since they are to be the driving force in this process. Tourist adventures have been one of several core themes within the field of research in tourism for decades, but this focus has mainly been on the perspective of the consumer. In contrast, this study concentrates on the producers, a group about whom we know much less. The five entrepreneurs who tell their story in this study give detailed descriptions of their life until the establishment of their businesses, and we see that each of them describes a number of causal chains that are interwoven and together create a meaningful picture of their choice. Through focusing on their reflexive identity-constructions and viewing these in light of the concrete situations they were in, before they established their enterprises, we gain a deeper understanding of this choice. Through the process of categorizing these reflexive identity-constructions, three distinct ontological positions emerge, that is, different ways in understanding reality. The study shows that there is a connection between these ontological positions and the ways that the entrepreneurs run their businesses, as well as their understanding of how they create and produce adventures for their guests.
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| 5. |
- Tornberg, Åsa B.B., et al.
(författare)
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Reduced Neuromuscular Performance in Amenorrheic Elite Endurance Athletes
- 2017
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Ingår i: Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. - : Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. - 0195-9131 .- 1530-0315. ; 49:12, s. 2478-2485
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction Secondary functional hypothalamic amenorrhea (SFHA) is common among female athletes, especially in weight-sensitive sports. The aim of this study was to investigate the link between SFHA and neuromuscular performance in elite endurance athletes. Methods Sixteen eumenorrheic (EUM) and 14 SFHA athletes from national teams and competitive clubs participated. Methods included gynecological examination, body composition (dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry), resting metabolic rate and work efficiency, exercise capacity, knee muscular strength (KMS) and knee muscular endurance (KME), reaction time (RT), blood sampling performed on the third to fifth days of the menstrual cycle, and 7-d assessment of energy availability. Results SFHA athletes had lower estrogen (0.12 0.03 vs 0.17 +/- 0.09 nmolL(-1), P < 0.05), triiodothyronine (T-3) (1.4 +/- 0.2 vs 1.7 +/- 0.3 nmolL(-1), P < 0.01), and blood glucose (3.8 +/- 0.3 vs 4.4 +/- 0.3 mmolL(-1), P < 0.001) but higher cortisol levels (564 +/- 111 vs 400 +/- 140 nmolL(-1), P < 0.05) compared with EUM athletes. SFHA had a lower body weight (55.0 +/- 5.8 vs 60.6 +/- 7.1 kg, P < 0.05), but no difference in exercise capacity between groups was found (56.4 +/- 5.8 vs 54.0 +/- 6.3 mL O(2)min(-1)kg(-1)). RT was 7% longer, and KMS and KME were 11% and 20% lower compared with EUM athletes. RT was negatively associated with glucose (r = -0.40, P < 0.05), T-3 (r = -0.37, P < 0.05), and estrogen (r = -0.43, P < 0.05), but positively associated with cortisol (r = 0.38, P < 0.05). KMS and KME correlated with fat-free mass in the tested leg (FFMleg; r = 0.52, P < 0.001; r = 0.58, P < 0.001) but were negatively associated with cortisol (r = -0.42, P < 0.05; r = -0.59, P < 0.001). FFMleg explained the differences in KMS, while reproductive function and FFMleg independently explained the variability in KME. Conclusions We found lower neuromuscular performance among SFHA compared with EUM athletes linked to a lower FFMleg, glucose, estrogen, T-3, and elevated cortisol levels.
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| 6. |
- Wulf, Matilda Torstensson, 1985-
(författare)
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Kärlekens paradis : Konflikten mellan kärlek och konst i Henrik och Märta Tikkanens litterära dialog
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Märta Tikkanen claims that if she had not started writing she and husband Henrik would have lived happily ever after. They had the best of intentions. Still, the utopia of a lover’s paradise, where two authors could live out their life together in a home filled with happiness, intellectual discussions and children, turned into a lifelong struggle. When conflicts started to arise, they turned to writing and through their books a unique dialogue about love, life and the impossible choice between self-realisation and fulfilling the needs of loved ones emerges. In this thesis I follow the Tikkanens' literary dialogue from the publication of Märta Tikkanen’s first novel in 1970 to 2004, when she published a memoir over Henrik and their relationship as a way to mark the 20th anniversary of his passing. My empirical material mainly consists of books written by either Märta or Henrik Tikkanen about their life together. I focus on something I call the conflict between love and art, which, I argue, is the driving force in the books. This conflict is a result a collision of the discourse of love and the discourse of art, something that becomes apparent when themes and motives in works by the Tikkanens are analysed as part of a wider literary, cultural and social context. I also explore the medialisation of the conflict by analysing the Tikkanens' presence in the press. I build on feministic studies in the literary and cultural fields to discuss the gendered conditions of writing and hegemonical love. My aim is to show that the inequalities in work-life are entangled with the hegemonical heterosexual love system. When love is portrayed as a dichotomy between nurturing and self-sacrificing "female" love and grandiose, ecstatic "male" love, as it is in the Tikkanens' dialogical books, there is a ricochet effect that expands to all aspects of life and society. Through the lens of the Tikkanens these mechanisms are made visible and relatable.
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| 7. |
- Jarlsdotter Wikström, Jenny, 1985-
(författare)
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Materiella vändningar : läsningar av Parland, Lispector, Berg och Byggmästar
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the dissertation is to examine the analytical potential of the ”material turn” within the field of literary studies. In particular, it explores how theoretical perspectives associated with the material turn may shed light on the work of four writers: Henry Parland (Finland, 1908–1930), Clarice Lispector (Brazil, 1920–1977), Aase Berg (Sweden, b. 1967), and Eva-Stina Byggmästar (Finland, b. 1967). As is demonstrated, however, these works of fiction and poetry also pose a challenge to the theories of the material turn. Recognizing this tension, fiction, theory, and poetry are engaged on an equal footing in an investigation of subjectivity, matter, nature, and their possible conceptualization. The study begins with an overview of the theoretical research field, discussing five influential research anthologies of the material turn published between 2008 and 2015. The introductory chapter also reviews current research on the material turn in a Swedish context, concluding with a discussion of reading as an affirmative philosophical practice. The first part of the dissertation then examines Parland’s novel Sönder (1930) in relation to object-oriented ontology and feminist readings of the novel. Part two takes Lispector’s Água viva (1973) as its object, discussing it in connection to critical plant studies and the way plants present themselves in texts. Part three uses the frameworks of material feminism to discuss themes and motifs in Berg’s lyrical motherhood trilogy (2002–2007). Part four highlights cuteness, detail-centered aesthetics, nomadism, the pastoral trope, and the forest as a place of queer resistance in five poetic works (2006–2014) by Byggmästar. In different ways, the four case studies all center on issues of how the intricate relation between humans and nonhumans can be explored and expressed in writing, and what implications artistic exploration may have on an ethical and political level. As the dissertation concludes, the material turn reassesses many of the fundamental philosophical categories (i.e. subject and object, nature and culture, human and nonhuman). The major theorists of the field – Karen Barad, Jane Bennett, Rosi Braidotti, Elizabeth Grosz, and Timothy Morton – all stress the need to destabilize given concepts of nature and culture, establishing matter, materiality, and the environment as agents beyond human control. This standpoint, however, has problematic consequences for literary studies, given that literary scholars work with aesthetic representations created by humans. If, as many of the above-mentioned theorists assert, nature has its own powers, can it then be said to write fiction or poetry? If we answer the question affirmatively, how does this nature-writing-itself into fiction happen? These complications often lead to analytic aporias, but as the dissertation argues, such aporetic readings are not discouraging per se. On the contrary, the aporias or failures produced by the four case studies highlight the need for even more careful readings of literary as well as theoretical texts, and provide the grounds for a discussion on the ethical dimensions of reading fiction.
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| 8. |
- Johansson, Anders, 1972-
(författare)
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Biopolitics and Reflexivity : A Study of GMO Policymaking in the European Union
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The political discourse that has emerged as a consequence of establishing a European regulatory framework for GMOs has not been without problems. This dissertation addresses the political and regulatory challenges created by the development and use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the EU. The underlying hypothesis in the dissertation is that the emergence of a European policy in the field of GMOs has appeared through new reflexive forms of governance. The aim of this research is to understand how these reflexive forms of regulation have emerged and operate within the EU, with a particular focus on the two GMO directives 90/220/EEC and 2001/18/EC. However, the study scrutinises the regulatory regimes from the 1970s onwards by investigating how the regulatory framework regarding GMOs has been developed and implemented in the EU. This is done through an analysis of the notion of ‘risk’ and the ‘precautionary principle’ since these concepts have been at the forefront of the GMO regulation debate. The empirical approach focuses on how the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council as well as other actors and institutions articulate ambivalence, interpretations and uncertainties in the decision-making processes regarding regulative measures for GMOs, with an accent on risk and the precautionary principle. The main empirical material has been documents concerning the inter-institutional process involved in the regulatory process of making the two directives. The analysis indicates that during the process of implementing GMO regulations, new steering strategies have appeared within the EU’s decision-making institutions when the objective of the regulation has taken centre stage in political and scientific controversies.
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| 9. |
- Latini, Francesco, Ph.D. 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Refined Analysis of Chronic White Matter Changes after Traumatic Brain Injury and Repeated Sports-Related Concussions: Of Use in Targeted Rehabilitative Approaches?
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Clinical Medicine. - : MDPI. - 2077-0383. ; 11:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Traumatic brain injury (TBI) or repeated sport-related concussions (rSRC) may lead to long-term memory impairment. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is helpful to reveal global white matter damage but may underestimate focal abnormalities. We investigated the distribution of post-injury regional white matter changes after TBI and rSRC. Six patients with moderate/severe TBI, and 12 athletes with rSRC were included ≥6 months post-injury, and 10 (age-matched) healthy controls (HC) were analyzed. The Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status was performed at the time of DTI. Major white matter pathways were tracked using q-space diffeomorphic reconstruction and analyzed for global and regional changes with a controlled false discovery rate. TBI patients displayed multiple classic white matter injuries compared with HC (p < 0.01). At the regional white matter analysis, the left frontal aslant tract, anterior thalamic radiation, and the genu of the corpus callosum displayed focal changes in both groups compared with HC but with different trends. Both TBI and rSRC displayed worse memory performance compared with HC (p < 0.05). While global analysis of DTI-based parameters did not reveal common abnormalities in TBI and rSRC, abnormalities to the fronto-thalamic network were observed in both groups using regional analysis of the white matter pathways. These results may be valuable to tailor individualized rehabilitative approaches for post-injury cognitive impairment in both TBI and rSRC patients.
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| 10. |
- Marklund, Niklas, et al.
(författare)
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Tau aggregation and increased neuroinflammation in athletes after sports-related concussions and in traumatic brain injury patients – A PET/MR study
- 2021
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Ingår i: NeuroImage. - : Elsevier. - 2213-1582. ; 30
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and repeated sports-related concussions (rSRCs) are associated with an increased risk for neurodegeneration. Autopsy findings of selected cohorts of long-term TBI survivors and rSRC athletes reveal increased tau aggregation and a persistent neuroinflammation. To assess in vivo tau aggregation and neuroinflammation in young adult TBI and rSRC cohorts, we evaluated 9 healthy controls (mean age 26 ± 5 years; 4 males, 5 females), 12 symptomatic athletes (26 ± 7 years; 6 males, 6 females) attaining ≥3 previous SRCs, and 6 moderate-to severe TBI patients (27 ± 7 years; 4 males, 2 females) in a combined positron emission tomography (PET)/magnetic resonance (MR) scanner ≥6 months post-injury. Dual PET tracers, [18F]THK5317 for tau aggregation and [11C]PK11195 for neuroinflammation/microglial activation, were investigated on the same day. The Repeated Battery Assessment of Neurological Status (RBANS) scores, used for cognitive evaluation, were lower in both the rSRC and TBI groups (p < 0.05). Neurofilament-light (NF-L) levels were increased in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF; p < 0.05), and serum tau levels lower, in TBI although not in rSRC. In rSRC athletes, PET imaging showed increased neuroinflammation in the hippocampus and tau aggregation in the corpus callosum. In TBI patients, tau aggregation was observed in thalami, temporal white matter and midbrain; widespread neuroinflammation was found e.g. in temporal white matter, hippocampus and corpus callosum. In mixed-sex cohorts of young adult athletes with persistent post-concussion symptoms and in TBI patients, increased tau aggregation and neuroinflammation are observed at ≥6 months post-injury using PET. Studies with extended clinical follow-up, biomarker examinations and renewed PET imaging are needed to evaluate whether these findings progress to a neurodegenerative disorder or if spontaneous resolution is possible.
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