| 1. |
- Rock, Anna Ida R.
(författare)
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Statebuilding through diaspora recruitment? : The role of capacity, norms and representation for legitimacy in Somaliland and Liberia
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- How do the local elites and the wider population perceive returnees in post-war governments and what shapes these returnees’ legitimacy? Overall, while acknowledging some benefits, local elites in Somaliland and Liberia highlight challenges connected to returnees’ presence in governments and question their legitimacy. These challenges are mirrored in the perceptions of the Liberian population, who see returnees as less legitimate in government positions than stayees. The legitimacy of these returnees is mainly shaped by notions of capacity, democratic norms and practices as well as by how well they represent the local population. This thesis provides several pioneering studies of how diaspora returnees are perceived domestically. These issues are examined through three essays that rely on a wide array of novel data from Somaliland and Liberia. In essay I, I discuss under which conditions returnees in the Somaliland government are seen as legitimate. In essay II, I demonstrate how Liberian elite perceptions and experiences of returnee ministers only slightly correspond to the expectations held in international and national policy circles. In essays I and II, I mainly rely on elite interviews. However, in essay III, I investigate the research question from the perspective of the general Liberian population. Using a survey experiment, I demonstrate how a high presence of returnee ministers negatively affects cabinet legitimacy. This effect, however, is attenuated when returnees indicate that they will give up their ties to their host country. In this way, this thesis problematizes expectations of diaspora returnees by showing how they seldom constitute ideal interlocutors in statebuilding activities and their engagement often implies difficult trade-offs between central peacebuilding and statebuilding objectives. Dominance by returnees in the government excludes local actors and signals that qualifications acquired in the Global North are valued over domestic knowledge. This thesis concludes that in these contexts diaspora recruitment is highly political.
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| 2. |
- Andersson, Eira
(författare)
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Malmens manliga mysterium : En interaktiv studie om kön och tradition i modernt gruvarbete
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Avhandlingen bidrar till förståelse för yrkeslivets betydelse för en uppdelning mellan män och kvinnor, manlighet och kvinnlighet. Genom att belysa hur maskulinitet gestaltas och förhandlar i en mansdominerad industrikontext, som gruvarbete, kan vi förklara ordningar mellan män såväl som funktioner i en könssegregerad arbetsmarknad. Syftet med avhandlingen är att undersöka hur maskulinitet befästs och upprätthålls i ett mansdominerat gruvarbetarkollektiv i ett svenskt gruvföretag. Men också om/hur liknande könskonstruktioner förändras, spontant genom röster inom yrkeskollektivet eller genom påtryckningar och yttre krav. Detta mot en bakgrund av en färdriktning i gruvorganisationen, vilken kan avläsas i en förändring av vardagliga praktiker så väl som nya symboler kring modernt gruvarbete Syftet med avhandlingen är även att belysa erfarenheter kring ett nära interaktivt forskningssamarbete om könsteoretiska frågeställningar tillsammans med ett mansdominerat gruvföretag. Centralt i min interaktiva forskningsdesign är ett projekt om kön, arbetsplatskultur och säkerhet i gruvarbete, kallat Framtidens Gruvkultur vid gruvbolaget LKAB under åren 2006-2007. Framtidens Gruvkultur organiserades som en kunskapsfördjupande forskningscirkel som stöd för organisatoriskt lärande och förändring. Deltagande i forskningscirkeln var verksamma gruvarbetare vid Mining Division LKAB. Jag hade själv rollen av processledare för cirkelns aktiva workshops. I projektet har vi tillsammans genomfört aktiviteter och undersökningar utifrån en könsteoretisk processmodell men framförallt har projektet fungerat som ett forum för samtal kring gruvarbetarens yrkesroll såväl som manlighet i en tid av förändring. Aktiviteter och samtal i Framtidens Gruvkultur visar framförallt hur gruvarbetaren fortfarande är upptagen av att praktisera maskulinitet och dekorera sin yrkesutövning i manliga symboler. Framförallt identifierar sig gruvarbetaren med en trygg manlig industriarbetartradition som betonar en praktisk kompetens och den manliga kroppens tåliga fysik. Denna maskulinitet underbyggs också av föreställningen kring en mytomspunnen gruva och det påfrestande och farliga underjordsarbetet, vara sig det är en realitet eller tankekonstruktion. Män som härbärgerar denna machostereotyp upplyfts till ”riktiga gruvarbetare” medan andra män och kvinnor i gruvarbete underordnas som fjolliga, veka eller helt enkelt inkompetenta och osolidariska mot yrkeskollektivet. En liknande hegemon funktion skapar förståelse för varför ett machoideal befästs om och om igen i gruvarbete och varför förändring eller omförhandling blir problematisk. Framtidens Gruvkultur visar också att gruvarbetaren är aktiva aktörer i förhållande till detta machoideal. De kan, på sina egna villkor, ställa sig över liknande uttryck och beteende, eller helt enkelt frångå stereotypen vilket också praktiseras. Men framförallt visar gruvarbetarna att de på en mer analytisk nivå också problematiserar machomanlighetens konsekvenser. I Framtidens Gruvkultur diskuteras exempelvis; grupptryck, onödigt risktagande, ensamhet eller orättvis behandling av kvinnor. Det är i denna position det finns verkligt utrymme för förändring - en omdefinition av maskulinitet i gruvarbete, där personliga motiv och individuella uttryck får styra en förhandling. En avslutande slutsats är följaktligen att gruvarbetaren i mångt och mycket befäster och upprätthåller ett yrkesideal i nära relation med en machomanlighet med utgångspunkt i en i en maskuliniserad industriarbetartradition. Liknande till synes stabila konstruktioner utmanas, kritiseras och problematiseras av en mer reflekterande manlighet, både från röster inom yrkeskollektivet, men också på grund av yttre krav på förändring. En färdriktning i organisationen som i avhandlingen beskrivs som; Den högteknologiska gruvan, Den säkra gruvan och Den jämställda gruvan. Denna förhandling av mansrollen i modernt gruvarbete uttrycks samtidigt som motstånd och bevarande såväl som önskan om dialog och förändring. Förhandling kring manlighet i gruvarbete pågår och fortgår… en integrerad process året om under dygnets alla timmar, likt gruvans eget produktionssystem.
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| 3. |
- Aro, Rudolf, 1992-
(författare)
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Organofluorine Mass Balance and Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance Analysis of Environmental Samples and Human Blood
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been linked to a range of negative health and environmental effects. Regulations limiting and/or banning the use of some of the legacy compounds have been introduced. Consequently, the production and use of PFAS has diversified. The risks posed by these newly introduced PFAS to both the environment and humans may be underestimated if they are not evaluated in current monitoring programs. Organofluorine mass balance analysis has been used in previous studies to estimate the overall exposure to PFAS since naturally occurring organofluorine compounds are rare in nature.In this thesis, the organofluorine mass balance analysis was performed on a variety of samples, from surface water to sewage and human blood. The results indicated the ubiquitous presence of unidentified organofluorines in all environmental compartments and human samples, for example, more than 50 % of extractable organofluorine (EOF) in human samples could not be accounted for by an extended list of target analytes. Until these compounds are identified, it is not possible to assess the risks they pose and it could lead to misguided policy decisions.To tackle the increasingly complex analytical picture and ensure more comprehensive screening, a workflow using EOF as an initial metric to identify pollution hot-spots was proposed. The wider adoption of organofluorine mass balance analysis would also require a better understanding of the analytical instrumentation used for this type of work. Experiments carried out here demonstrated the robustness of combustion ion chromatography in EOF analysis and highlighted areas in need of improvement.While organofluorine mass balance analysis has its drawbacks, the potential health and environmental risks posed by the unidentified organofluorine compounds cannot be underestimated.
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| 4. |
- Byström, Joakim
(författare)
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Tourism Development in Resource Peripheries : conflicting and Unifying Spaces in Northern Sweden
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The northern Swedish inland is a sparsely populated area with a historical dependence upon natural-resource extraction. Therefore, this region has traditionally been defined as a resource periphery for extractive purposes. However, the rise of tourism challenges this narrative by producing a pleasure periphery for touristic purposes. A pleasure periphery in this context is linked to nature-based tourism that sells dreams of pristine nature and/or vast wilderness. This touristic “story” therefore becomes an antithesis to the region's industrial past. The overlapping touristic and extractive spaces, and their seemingly conflicting development narratives, constitute the theoretical approach to tourism development in the scope of this thesis. Further, this thesis adds to theorizing tourism development in northern peripheries, by contesting established development theories against each other in a northern Swedish setting. Multiple methods using both quantitative and qualitative data are used to answer the questions in this thesis.Three conclusions can be derived based on the empirical findings. Firstly, established tourism development theories are at risk of being invalid in more peripheral settings. As an example, protected areas constitute a poor development strategy, and are not producing tourism employment as shown in studies from more densely populated regions. Other destination-development theories presupposing urban-like infrastructure, which is absent in peripheries, also become invalid. Secondly, conflicts between tourism and extractive industries do occur at the discursive level where they tend to be described in dualistic terms. However, in terms of labor-market processes, findings show that tourism and resource extraction are actually rather interrelated. Within mining tourism, such a related diversification occurs due to the spatial distribution of mining and tourism skills and the interaction between them. Thirdly, the location of tourism destinations is broadly governed by resource-extractive infrastructure. Therefore, tourism destinations are normally located in places that have previously been made accessible via investments in the resource-extractive sector. Hence, resource extraction projects (unintentionally) produce accessibility to the touristic “wilderness”.In summary, resource extraction becomes a precondition for tourism development in northern Sweden, rather than a conflicting land-use competitor. Therefore, planners and decision makers should consider incorporating aspects of tourism in future plans for resource extraction as these industries often spatially overlap, intertwine, and consequently form a development symbiosis in northern resource peripheries.
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| 5. |
- Duc, Duong, 1984-
(författare)
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Healthcare context for knowledge translation in Vietnam : Development and application of the Context Assessment for Community Health (COACH) tool
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The failure to translate evidence into clinical practice has been repeatedly highlighted. This failure is partly attributed to disregarding the context within which healthcare is delivered. The aim of this thesis was to develop and psychometrically evaluate the Context Assessment for Community Health (COACH) tool, and, through that process, provide opportunities to measure aspects of context perceived to be important for Knowledge Translation (KT) interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).All four studies in this thesis were mainly undertaken in Quang Ninh province, Vietnam during 2008–2014. Study II, however, was also conducted in four other LMICs (Bangladesh, Nicaragua, South Africa, and Uganda). Study I employed inductive content analysis of 16 focus group discussions to explore the influence of context in a community-based facilitation intervention in Vietnam. Studies II and III reported on the development of the COACH tool and assessment of its psychometric properties. Study IV used the COACH tool in a survey among health workers in Vietnam.To date, three sources of evidence regarding validity of the COACH tool have been provided, that is, test content, response processes, and internal instrument structure, with promising psychometric characteristics. The COACH tool could be used as means of characterizing aspects of context ahead of KT interventions, for tailoring KT strategies, and for further understanding of the results of KT interventions.
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| 6. |
- Eriksson, Anna I. K., 1984-
(författare)
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Enrichment and Separation of Phosphorylated Peptides on Titanium Dioxide Surfaces : Applied and Fundamental Studies
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Protein phosphorylation is a very common posttranslational modification (PTM), which lately has been found to hold the keyrole in the development of many severe diseases, including cancer. Thereby, phosphoprotein analysis tools, generally based on specific enrichment of the phosphoryl group, have been a hot topic during the last decade.In this thesis, two new TiO2-based on-target enrichment methods are developed and presented together with enlightening fundamental results.Evaluation of the developed methods was performed by the analysis of: custom peptides, β-casein, drinking milk, and the viral protein pIIIa. The results show that: i) by optimizing the enrichment protocol (first method), new phosphorylated peptides can be found and ii) by the addition of a separation step after the enrichment (second method), more multi-phosphorylated peptides, which usually are hard to find, could be detected. The fundamental part, on the other hand, shows that the phosphopeptide adsorption is caused by electrostatic interactions, in general follows the Langmuir model, and the affinity increases with the phosphorylation degree. Here, however, the complexity of the system was also discovered, as the adsorption mechanism was found to be affected by the amino acid sequence of the phosphopeptide.
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| 7. |
- Eriksson, Anna-Karin
(författare)
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Epidemiological studies on type 2 diabetes : assessment of diabetes risk factors and study participation
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Type 2 diabetes is a disease with increasing prevalence. Better knowledge of risk factors may form the bases for specific interventions and preventive measures. The aim of this thesis was to contribute to the knowledge on type 2 diabetes, by examining family history of diabetes and other risk factors with emphasis on psychological exposures. The studies are based on the cohort of the Stockholm Diabetes Prevention Program (SDPP) in which 12,952 men and 19,416 women 35-56 years old were screened for diabetes and diabetes in close relatives. The baseline health examination comprised 3,128 men and 4,821 women of whom 50% had a family history of diabetes. An oral glucose tolerance test identified 65 men and 63 women with previously undiagnosed diabetes, and 228 men and 208 women with pre-diabetes (IFG, IGT or IFG+IGT). At the follow-up 8-10 years later, 2383 men and 3329 women were re-examined. 183 men and 106 women were then classified with diabetes, and 291 men and 211 women with pre-diabetes. In study IV, diabetes was assessed according to filled prescriptions of anti-diabetic drugs 2005-2008, through record linkage to the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register. The health examinations included body measurements, and information was obtained by questionnaire on life style, psychosocial, personality and socioeconomic factors. Prevalence odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated in logistic regression analyses for cross-sectional and prospective studies. Our findings indicate that a family history of diabetes is an important risk factor in both men and women. A combined exposure to a family history of diabetes and another risk factor, such as obesity, physical inactivity, smoking or low sense of coherence (capacity to cope with stressors) had a greater effect on type 2 diabetes than any of these factors alone. Biologic interaction was not suggested, with the exception for the combination of a family history of diabetes and obesity in women with pre-diabetes. High psychological distress conferred a two-fold increased risk for type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes in men, and in women middle scores were associated with an almost two- fold increase of pre-diabetes. Among personality traits, low antagonism in men was associated with a reduced risk of having abnormal glucose regulation (pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes), as were high hedonic capacity in both men and women. No significant associations were found with the impulsivity, negative affectivity, and alexithymia scales. Non-response bias did not seem to be present at screening- and baseline steps indicating that diabetes prevalence and risk may be estimated from a cohort study such as the SDPP. At follow-up, the overall risk for diabetes was slightly lower in the study group, although the effect of this for the association studies was limited. In conclusion, a combined exposure to a family history of diabetes and lifestyle factors had greater effect on type 2 diabetes than any of these factors alone. There was no cross-sectional biologic interaction between studied risk factors, except for a family history of diabetes and obesity in women with pre-diabetes. Psychological distress seems to be involved in the aetiology of type 2 diabetes, at least for men. In addition, some personality traits may be associated with abnormal glucose regulation.
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| 8. |
- Eriksson, Anna-Karin, 1979-
(författare)
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Global history or inter|nationalist discourse!? : Unsettling the 'comfort women' issue
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Survivors of the ‘comfort’ system, the state-sponsored regime of military sexual exploitation and a core institution in the expansion of the empire of Japan from 1932 to 1945, continue to go unrecognised almost 80 years past 1945 and 30 years after the breakthrough by human rights activists in 1991. That such a brutal regime of sexual exploitation remains unrecognised by the state is remarkable and merits attention. In this thesis, I suggest that the ‘comfort women’ issue remains stuck in a deadlock that freezes it in the inter-state framing of a status quo. As a result the comfort women, the survivors and supposed protagonists, are rendered as mere tiles in a series of inter-state conflicts between the State of Japan and its neighbours in Northeast Asia as one of the fiercest battlegrounds in this region’s ‘history wars’. My purpose in the thesis is to offer possibilities to rethink the comfort women issue beyond this deadlock. To this end, I (1) identify the dynamics that sustain and reify the deadlock (Paper 1 and Paper 2) and (2) unsettle these dynamics (Paper 3 and Paper 4).
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| 9. |
- Eriksson, Anna-Lena, 1971
(författare)
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COMT Genotype, sex steroids, and bone phenotype in mice and men
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- COMT GENOTYPE, SEX STEROIDS AND BONE PHENOTYPE IN MAN AND MICE Anna-Lena Eriksson Institute of Medicine, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden, 2008 ABSTRACT Sex steroids are of profound importance for several physiological processes including reproduction, growth, and maintenance of skeletal integrity. Serum levels of sex steroids are associated with bone mineral density (BMD) and have been shown to be predictive of fracture risk in older people. Sex steroid levels in serum, and also BMD and fracture risk, are under genetic control. Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is an important estrogen-degrading enzyme. In the COMT gene there is a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), COMT val108/158met, differentiating three levels of activity: high (COMTHH), intermediate (COMTHL), and low (COMTLL), as a result of lower enzyme activity of the Met variant. The aim of the studies in this thesis was to investigate the role of COMT val108/158met for serum levels of sex steroids, skeletal phenotype, and fracture risk. Four human cohorts and one mouse strain devoid of COMT activity (COMT KO) were used. In girls in early puberty, COMTLL was found to be associated with higher estradiol (E2) levels, increased longitudinal and radial cortical bone growth, and an earlier pubertal development compared with COMTHH. Girls with the COMTLL genotype were 5.4 cm taller on average than girls with COMTHH. Regression models indicated that most of the associations with pubertal development and growth were mediated through elevated levels of E2. This is plausible, because in theory the COMTLL genotype would be associated with higher E2 levels due to impaired degradation of estrogens. Increased longitudinal and radial cortical bone growth was also seen in COMT KO mice, compared with their wild-type siblings. In young adult men, COMT genotype was found to be associated with BMD and it was also found to be a modulator of the positive associations previously found in these young adult men between physical activity (PA) and BMD. In general, the association between PA and BMD was stronger in the COMTLL genotype than in the COMTHH genotype. In elderly men, COMT genotype was associated with an increased risk of self-reported fractures during their lifetime. In addition, COMTLL was found to be associated with increased E2 levels in middle-aged men and a decreased risk of myocardial infarction (MI) in middle-aged men and women combined. In conclusion, the findings in this thesis indicate that COMT may be implicated in several physiological processes including the regulation of timing of puberty and growth in young girls and female mice, bone phenotype in young adult men, fracture risk in elderly men, the incidence of MI in middle-aged individuals, and serum E2 levels in middle-aged men. ISBN 978-91-628-7666-1
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| 10. |
- Eriksson, Anna
(författare)
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Molecular mechanisms of VEGF-mediated angiogenesis and vascular permeability
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Angiogenesis, sprouting of new capillaries from pre-existing blood vessels, is a tightly regulated multi-step process. One of the key mediators in this process is the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF). Many tumors express high levels of VEGF and pathological angiogenesis is considered a hallmark of malignant tumor growth. Tumor vessels are often leaky and prone to hemorrhaging, most likely due to the vascular permeabilityenhancing effect of VEGF, a feature that distinguishes it from other angiogenic proteins. In this thesis, the focus has been on members of the VEGF-family, and their role in angiogenesis and vascular permeability. We have shown that VEGF-C is angiogenic in addition to its known effects on lymph vessel growth (lymphangiogenesis) and vascular permeability. In capillaries, vascular leakage induced by VEGF and VEGF-C was mostly mediated via fenestrac, small pore-like openings in the endothelial cells. In contrast, Fibroblast Growth Factor-2 (FGF-2), another well characterized angiogenic protein, did not induce any vascular permeability and FGF-2-induced blood vessels did not exhibit any fenestrae. VEGF-induced vascular permeability and formation of fenestrae could be reduced by inhibition of Rac, a protein involved in reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton. Rac inhibition also affected angiogenesis, but to a lesser degree than vascular leakage. Thus, the signaling pathways leading to angiogenesis and vascular permeability in response to VEGF are in part separated. Another member of the VEGF-family, Placental Growth Factor (P1GF) could also modulate VEGF-induced angiogenesis. When VEGF and P1GF-1 were coexpressed in tumor cells, they formed heterodimers that were functionally inactive, thus effectively depleting the pool of available bioactive VEGF homodimers and hence angiogenesis and tumor growth were reduced. In summary, the angiogenic and vascular permeability-stimulating effects of members of the VEGF-family can be modulated in at least two ways, formation of inactive heterodimers and interfering with the intracellular signaling. This could have conceptual implications in the treatment of tumor growth and other diseases characterized by pathological vascular permeability.
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