| 11. |
- Linseisen, Jakob, et al.
(författare)
-
Consumption of meat and fish and risk of lung cancer: results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition
- 2011
-
Ingår i: Cancer Causes and Control. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1573-7225 .- 0957-5243. ; 22:6, s. 909-918
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Evidence from case-control studies, but less so from cohort studies, suggests a positive association between meat intake and risk of lung cancer. Therefore, this association was evaluated in the frame of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition, EPIC. Data from 478,021 participants, recruited from 10 European countries, who completed a dietary questionnaire in 1992-2000 were evaluated; 1,822 incident primary lung cancer cases were included in the present evaluation. Relative risk estimates were calculated for categories of meat intake using multi-variably adjusted Cox proportional hazard models. In addition, the continuous intake variables were calibrated by means of 24-h diet recall data to account for part of the measurement error. There were no consistent associations between meat consumption and the risk of lung cancer. Neither red meat (RR = 1.06, 95% CI 0.89-1.27 per 50 g intake/day; calibrated model) nor processed meat (RR = 1.13, 95% CI 0.95-1.34 per 50 g/day; calibrated model) was significantly related to an increased risk of lung cancer. Also, consumption of white meat and fish was not associated with the risk of lung cancer. These findings do not support the hypothesis that a high intake of red and processed meat is a risk factor for lung cancer.
|
|
| 12. |
- Oikonomou, Vasileios, 1992-
(författare)
-
Cellulose-based Conducting 3D and 2D Composites for Applications in Plant Science and Responsive Systems
- 2023
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Polymers (Greek: poly=many, meros=part) are large molecules made up of many small parts (monomers) in a repetitive way, as a term was introduced for the first time (1833) by the Swedish chemist, Jöns Jakob Berzelius. By the combination of different monomers, the resulting polymer can exhibit various properties, such as biodegradability, photosensitivity and electrical conductivity. The latter is the main characteristic of the polymers included in this thesis. Since their commercialization, in the late 20th century soft and biocompatible conductive polymers have been substituting stiff and bio-tolerable metals in numerous cases, especially in the medical field for in vivo applications. Polymers can also be found in nature, as a product of the life cycles of animals, plants and microorganisms. The variety of natural polymers is vast, and they are categorized mainly into the groups of polysaccharides, polypeptides and polynucleotides. In these categories belong some of the most well known and investigated materials, for instance, DNA, proteins, silk and cellulose. The combination of synthetic materials with natural materials has intrigued the scientific community for many decades, as a way to form functional materials with hybrid properties. In this thesis, synthetic polymers, particularly conjugated polymers were combined with cellulose, the most abundant biopolymer on earth to form 2D and 3D conducting composites that can find application in plant science and stimuli-responsive systems. In the first part of this thesis, the widely used conjugated polymer PEDOT:PSS was combined with cellulose nanofibers to form 3D porous conducting scaffolds. The scaffolds were developed by freeze-drying method and their electrochemical, mechanical and structural properties were characterized. We investigated the effect of the freezing method on the scaffold properties and found a correlation between the mechanical properties and the pore wall thickness. Furthermore, with micro-CT, we could characterize in detail the bulk structure of the scaffolds and investigate how the incorporation of carbon fibers as addressing electrodes influences the porosity (paper 1). Next, we applied the conducting scaffolds for stimulating plant growth. The plant of our choice was barley, a very important crop, which was grown within the scaffold and the roots were integrated within the scaffold’s pores. We demonstrated that plants grow in the scaffolds under sterile conditions, as well as in agar which is the standard medium used in plant sterile culture. Taking a step ahead, we developed a non-sterile hydroponics setup, where the plants could grow without any contamination. Furthermore, we applied different protocols of electric stimulation to the scaffolds for various time periods and polarizations, achieving at the end a 40% increase in the plant biomass for the stimulated plants. We investigated the growth of the plants and concluded that the enhancement of growth was taking place after the stimulation period with growth enhancement both to roots and shoots (paper 2). In the second part of the thesis, we harnessed the unique electroswelling capabilities of the polythiophene-based polymer p(g3T2), with two different approaches. Initially, we demonstrated the ability of the p(g3T2) material to expand reversibly on a 2D mesh when electrochemically addressed. We optimized the coating on the metallic mesh with fixed pore size and developed an electroactive filter with tunable porosity that could modulate the flow of a system on demand (paper 3). Although p(g3T2) has great potential for various applications, it is processed from hazardous organic solvents, such as chloroform. Therefore, we addressed this issue and developed a protocol where p(g3T2) is solubilized in ethanol, which enables the coating of a plethora of substrates that chloroform would dissolve. From a biodegradable 3D printed mesh of cellulose and polylactide to everyday labware we demonstrated that p(g3T2) can change the substrate properties when electrochemically addressed directly on the non-conducting substrate without the need for an underlying supporting electrode. Forming a biocompatible substrate able to facilitate tissue engineering studies(paper 4). Overall, in this thesis, we demonstrated how synthetic materials can be combined with natural materials to form functional composites with hybrid properties. Firstly, by combining the mechanical characteristics of cellulose and the mixed ionic electronic conductivity of PEDOT:PSS we can obtain a 3D phytocompatible aerogel that can have desired pore size, undergo mechanical compression and act as an active hydroponic substrate for stimulating plant growth. Then we demonstrated how polymers with controllable volume change, such as the polythiophene-based conjugated polymer p(g3T2), can be combined with everyday materials paving the way for stimuli responsive systems such as electroactive filters, and when used with a green solvent can modify everyday labware used for in vitro experiments.
|
|
| 13. |
- Oikonomou, Vasileios, et al.
(författare)
-
Elucidating the Bulk Morphology of Cellulose-Based Conducting Aerogels with X-Ray Microtomography
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Advanced Materials Technologies. - : WILEY. - 2365-709X. ; 8:23
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Conducting cellulose composites are promising sustainable functional materials that have found application in energy devices, sensing and water purification. Herein, conducting aerogels are fabricated based on nanofibrillated cellulose and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate, using the ice templating technique, and their bulk morphology is characterized with X-ray microtomography. The freezing method (−20 °C in a freezer vs liquid nitrogen) does not impact the mean porosity of the aerogels but the liquid-N2 aerogels have smaller pores. The integration of carbon fibers as addressing electrodes prior to freezing results in increased mean porosity and pore size in the liquid-N2 aerogels signifying that the carbon fibers alter the morphology of the aerogels when the freezing is fast. Spatially resolved porosity and pore size distributions also reveal that the liquid-N2 aerogels are more inhomogeneous. Independent of the freezing method, the aerogels have similar electrochemical properties. For aerogels without carbon fibers, freezer-aerogels have higher compression modulus and are less stable under cycling compression fatigue test. This can be explained by higher porosity with larger pores in the center of liquid-N2 aerogels and thinner pore walls. This work demonstrates that micro-CT is a powerful tool for characterizing the morphology of aerogels in a non-destructive and spatially resolved manner.
|
|
| 14. |
|
|
| 15. |
- Roswall, Nina, et al.
(författare)
-
Consumption of predefined 'Nordic' dietary items in ten European countries : an investigation in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort
- 2014
-
Ingår i: Public Health Nutrition. - : Cambridge University Press. - 1368-9800 .- 1475-2727. ; 17:12, s. 2650-2659
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: Health-beneficial effects of adhering to a healthy Nordic diet index have been suggested. However, it has not been examined to what extent the included dietary components are exclusively related to the Nordic countries or if they are part of other European diets as well, suggesting a broader preventive potential. The present study describes the intake of seven a priori defined healthy food items (apples/pears, berries, cabbages, dark bread, shellfish, fish and root vegetables) across ten countries participating in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) and examines their consumption across Europe. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. A 24 h dietary recall was administered through a software program containing country-specific recipes. Sex-specific mean food intake was calculated for each centre/country, as well as percentage of overall food groups consumed as healthy Nordic food items. All analyses were weighted by day and season of data collection. SETTING: Multi-centre, European study. SUBJECTS: Persons (n 36 970) aged 35-74 years, constituting a random sample of 519 978 EPIC participants. RESULTS: The highest intakes of the included diet components were: cabbages and berries in Central Europe; apples/pears in Southern Europe; dark bread in Norway, Denmark and Greece; fish in Southern and Northern countries; shellfish in Spain; and root vegetables in Northern and Central Europe. Large inter-centre variation, however, existed in some countries. CONCLUSIONS: Dark bread, root vegetables and fish are strongly related to a Nordic dietary tradition. Apples/pears, berries, cabbages, fish, shellfish and root vegetables are broadly consumed in Europe, and may thus be included in regional public health campaigns.
|
|
