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| 2. |
- Andersson, Emil, 1982-
(författare)
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A Theory of Justice – en radikal vision om det fullständigt rättvisa samhället
- 2021
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Ingår i: Tidskrift för politisk filosofi. - Stockholm : Thales. - 1402-2710 .- 2002-3383. ; 25:2-3, s. 4-28
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- John Rawls A Theory of Justice har haft ett monumentalt inflytande på den moderna politiska filosofin. Jag försöker här genom några nedslag i den nutida diskussionen förmedla en bild av detta inflytande, och av bokens fortsatta filosofiska relevans. Jag inleder med en kort presentation av huvuddragen i Rawls rättviseteori. Efter det går jag igenom, och bemöter, kritiken mot idealteori. Jag diskuterar sedan förhållandet mellan rättvisa och ekonomisk ojämlikhet, och förklarar varför teorin är radikalare än vad många kritiker insett. Slutligen går jag igenom hur en kontraktsteori av detta slag kan hantera frågan om rättvisa mellan generationer.
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| 4. |
- Andersson, Emil
(författare)
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Angiogenetic and hereditary factors in endometrial disease
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The endometrium is a unique tissue in the adult human body because it is the only site where physiological renewal of vessels, angiogenesis, occurs. The regulation of this process under normal conditions is not fully understood. Heavy Menstrual Bleeding of endometrial origin (HMB-E) and Endometrial Cancer (EC) are two diseases which can neither occur nor be sustained without the process of angiogenesis. Clinically, both diseases are also associated with a strong hereditary component where female relatives of affected patients demonstrate a high incidence of the same condition. The aim of this thesis is to further elucidate the angiogenic and hereditary components of these diseases. The first part of this project (studies I and II) explores HMB-E and its relationship to angiogenesis, while the second part (studies III and IV) examines the association between incidence of EC in relation to previously known and unknown hereditary factors. Study I explored the relationship between expression of the pro-angiogenic factor SDF-1 and the number of circulating epithelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in peripheral blood in 10 women with a confirmed diagnosis of HMB-E, and compared these results with those of 10 healthy controls using flow cytometry and cell culture. The results showed a significant decrease of SDF-1 throughout the entire menstrual cycle, a 16% decrease overall, with the most substantial decline noted during the proliferative phase of the menstrual cycle in women with HMB-E, compared with controls. The number of EPCs in peripheral blood was also significantly reduced in HMB-E patients, showing a significant positive correlation between number of EPCs and SDF-1 levels. These findings are consistent with the literature, which has shown that SDF-1 is essential for recruitment of EPCs from bone marrow into the bloodstream, and further suggests that this signaling axis is important for physiological angiogenesis in the endometrium. Study II addressed microvascular morphology within the endometrium among 17 women with HMB-E and compared the results with 10 controls, using immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy. We found a significant decrease in pericyte coverage of microvessels during the mid-proliferative phase, as well as an increase in vessel perimeter among women with HMB-E. We also found a negative correlation between vascular expression of the known pro-angiogenic factor VEGF-A and pericyte coverage. These findings indicate that HMB-E may be caused by altered microvessel maturation and that the overexpression of VEGF-A seen in HMB-E might be the underlying cause. Study III examined the clinical challenge of reducing EC risk in women with Lynch Syndrome (LS), who collectively have a 42-54% lifetime risk of developing this disease. Sweden has no national guidelines regarding surveillance of these women for gynecological cancers. Therefore, we took a retrospective look at the modalities and screening intervals that are currently used in Sweden for known LS carriers. In all, 86 women had a known LS mutation and participated in various screening programs. Of the 41 women who decided to have prophylactic hysterectomy while under screening, EC/complex hyperplasia was found in the uterus of 4 of them postoperatively. The remaining 45 women opted for annual surveillance without prophylactic surgery. In this group, 9 women developed EC, 2 complex endometrial hyperplasia and 2 ovarian cancers, both of which were found at an early stage by ultrasound. Among these 9 EC cases, 5 were detected through endometrial biopsy during regular surveillance at an asymptomatic stage, as were the two hyperplasias. Ultrasonography failed to detect any of these cases. The remaining 4 EC cases were associated with occult bleeding between screening visits. No difference in tumor stage was noted between the ECs found because they were symptomatic and those found through routine surveillance. No mortality resulted from the gynecological cancers found in the study group as a whole. The results did not reveal any clear benefit from conducting annual gynecological screening for women with LS if the endpoint is to reduce mortality. The single most important factor may be knowledge and awareness among doctors and patients of LS and the associated increased risk of cancer, which should trigger prompt investigation if symptoms develop. However, when screening is undertaken, endometrial biopsy seems to be the diagnostic modality of choice to detect asymptomatic ECs or hyperplasia. Study IV investigated additional genetic risk factors that help to explain the twofold increase in relative risk of developing EC among women with a first or second degree relative who have the disease, even when known single gene mutations are excluded. After genotype studies and quality control, a total of 332,906 SNPs among genotypes derived from 1116 EC cases and 5021 controls were compared. The results showed five haplotypes located on chromosomes no. 2, 10, 13, 15 and 20 that were significantly more common among EC patients than controls. The frequency of these haplotypes in the EC population ranged between 1.58-3.69% and the odds ratio for EC ranged between 1.58-3.05 for the five haplotypes. The five haplotypes were found in regions of the genome with no previously known link to EC development and without close proximity to any genes known to be involved with this disease. These findings add to our knowledge about the genetic risk factors associated with EC and may offer one explanation for why the incidence and clinical course of this disease differs among people of different ethnic backgrounds. Nevertheless, other risk factors must be taken into account when interpreting these results, including known environmental risk factors for EC and those that could potentially be inherited, such as obesity. In conclusion, this thesis provides new information concerning the angiogenic and hereditary factors involved in development of both HMB-E and EC. The papers add to our knowledge about how the SDF-1 axis is involved in endometrial vascular regeneration during physiological endometrial angiogenesis and how vascular maturation appears to be inadequate in HMB-E. The thesis also confirms the knowledge about the role of known inherited cancer syndromes in development of EC, and finds that gynecological surveillance per se does not seem to reduce mortality from gynecological cancer; instead, the most important protective factor appears to be knowledge and awareness of the cancer syndrome among both carriers of the syndrome and the care providers. Additionally, this thesis found five haploptypes that are overrepresented in a Swedish cohort of EC cases, which may explain some of the risk of inheriting EC. The future challenge will be to examine the potential link between HMB-E and EC from the perspective of both clinical and basic research.
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- Andersson, Emil
(författare)
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Computational modelling in systems biology: from rewriting cell fates to detecting tumours
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Computational modelling is becoming an increasingly important tool in biological research. By performing computer simulations of models, it becomes possible to test theories about a biological system against experimental data. Simulations can also be used as a replacement for experiments otherwise unattainable. Well-constructed models have great predictive power which helps improve experimental protocols. All four papers included in this thesis concern the development of computational models of different nature and in different application areas.In Paper I, we develop CELLoGeNe, a software tool which maps Boolean implementation of gene regulatory networks (GRNs) into energy landscapes. Within this framework, cell commitment and reprogramming are considered as movements in an energy landscape. As a part of CELLoGeNe, we develop a tool for visualising multi-dimensional energy landscapes in more than three dimensions. Furthermore, we provide a tool for stochastically analysing the shape of the energy landscape by simulating cell reprogramming in the form of weighted random walks in a landscape. Finally, we demonstrate CELLoGeNe on two GRNs governing different aspects of induced pluripotent stem cells, identifying experimentally validated attractors and revealing potential reprogramming roadblocks.In Paper II, we develop a multi-scale model for early T-cell development. This multi-scale model contains a transcriptional level, an epigenetic level and a proliferation level. The model is tuned to experimental data and predicts state-switching kinetics validated with clonal data. In Paper III, we further develop this model by placing it into an agent-based framework. We use the full model to dissect the mechanism of when T-cell progenitors decide to commit the T-cell lineage and what role inheritance plays in the decision.In Paper IV, we develop a machine learning tool that automatically detects skin tumour borders, which could provide useful aid to surgeons. We use data from hyperspectral images, training artificial neural networks only on spectra from small regions representing either healthy tissue or tumour. Then, the trained networks are used to generate prediction. Thereafter, a segmentation algorithm determines the skin tumour borders. Our approach therefore circumvents the need for a complete ground truth image. A separate model instance is trained for each individual patient which makes our approach interesting for emerging precision skin tumour diagnostics where adaptability toward the individual is key.
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| 6. |
- Andersson, Emil, 1982-
(författare)
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Ian Shapiro The State of Democratic Theory
- 2010
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Ingår i: Tidskrift för politisk filosofi. - 1402-2710 .- 2002-3383. ; 14:3, s. 55-63
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Recension (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 7. |
- Andersson, Emil, 1982-
(författare)
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Lena Andersson Om falsk och äkta liberalism
- 2019
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Ingår i: Tidskrift för politisk filosofi. - 1402-2710 .- 2002-3383. ; 23:2, s. 49-56
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Recension (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 8. |
- Andersson, Emil, 1982-
(författare)
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Per Bauhn Leva fritt och leva väl
- 2021
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Ingår i: Filosofisk Tidskrift. - Stockholm. - 0348-7482. ; :3
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Recension (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 9. |
- Andersson, Emil, 1982-
(författare)
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Reinterpreting Liberal Legitimacy
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is an inquiry into the Liberal Principle of Legitimacy, formulated by John Rawls in his later writings. According to this principle, the exercise of political power is legitimate only if it is justifiable to all citizens. This view can be interpreted in different ways, and I argue that the presently most popular way of doing so faces serious problems. The aim is to identify and defend a more plausible version of the principle, which overcomes these problems, and yet preserves the most essential and appealing features of the approach. Among the most central issues for how to interpret the principle are how to understand the notion of justifiability to a person, and who should be included in the group of persons referred to as "all citizens". On the currently received view, only justifiability to those who count as "reasonable" matter, and justifiability to these persons is understood in non-moral terms, as being determined by what is accessible to them, given the beliefs that they happen to hold. I argue that we have good reasons to reject both of these suggestions. We should instead spell out justifiability to a person in terms of what could be reasonably accepted in a moral sense, which allows us to retain the appealing idea that legitimacy is dependent on justifiability to all citizens over whom political power is exercised. I further suggest that we can use the original position – Rawls’s version of the social contract – to determine what is justifiable to all in this sense. I defend this suggestion against the expected objection that it will not be able to take reasonable pluralism – the assumption of deep disagreement between citizens – into account, by explaining why we should sharply distinguish this principle of political legitimacy from the theory of Political Liberalism. This distinction also contributes to my response to the objection, raised against this principle, that it is self-defeating. That my suggested interpretation allows us to convincingly respond to this line of criticism is yet another reason as to why it is preferable to the standard view.
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| 10. |
- Hägglund, Emil
(författare)
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Evolution of biological systems linked to complex cell architectures in Planctomycetota
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The eukaryotic cells have a nucleus and membrane-enclosed organelles for functions such as energy production, whereas the prokaryotic cells have a cell wall but no intracellular membrane-bound structures. Species of the Planctomycetota phylum are classified as bacteria but have diverse and complex cell architectures. For example, members of the Gemmataceae have highly invaginated cytoplasmic membranes, the anammox bacteria have a membrane-bound organelle for energy production, and one species, “Candidatus Uabimicrobium amorphum”, can form digestive vacuoles during phagocytotic-like engulfment of other cells.In this thesis, we have performed comparative genomics and evolutionary analyses of bacteria in the Planctomycetota to learn more about the evolution of cellular complexity. The thesis also presents a new workflow to facilitate the assembly of datasets for comparative and evolutionary analysis of prokaryotic species.Comparative analyses of several novel genomes in the Gemmatacea family showed that new protein families have evolved by massive paralogization and fusion of prokaryotic-like domains with eukaryotic-like domains. The analyses showed no strict boundary between prokaryotic and eukaryotic genomes regarding gene lengths, gene paralogy and protein domain composition patterns.Analysis of the “Candidatus Uabimicrobium amorphum” genome revealed an extreme expansion of genes for serine/threonine protein kinases, possibly related to the predatory lifestyle of this species. However, the associated domains differed from those of serine/threonine protein kinases in eukaryotes, suggesting that the expansion and diversification process has occurred independently in eukaryotes and Planctomycetota.Evolutionary studies of the enzymes in the anammox pathway showed that the central enzyme, hydrazine synthase, previously of unknown origin, has homologs in other bacteria, including other members of the Planctomycetota. However, the homologs lacked key residues involved in the formation of hydrazine, suggesting that the anammox reaction has only originated once. Other enzymes in this pathway have been acquired by horizontal gene transfer events followed by duplication and divergence. Further, by studying the evolution of the heme biosynthesis pathway in this phylum, we show that this pathway has been replaced in the anammox bacteria with a strictly anaerobic pathway following horizontal gene transfers from archaea and other bacteria.Thus, although members of the Planctomycetota share many traits with eukaryotes, such as the same types of protein domains and similarities in cellular structures, our analyses show that these features have independent origins and reflect convergent evolution. The results have implications for our understanding of the origin of cellular complexity.
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