| 1. |
- Hall, C. Michael, et al.
(författare)
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Denying bogus skepticism in climate change and tourism research.
- 2015
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Ingår i: Tourism Management. - : Elsevier BV. - 0261-5177 .- 1879-3193. ; 47, s. 352-356
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This final response to the two climate change denial papers by Shani and Arad further highlights the inaccuracies, misinformation and errors in their commentaries. The obfuscation of scientific research and the consensus on anthropogenic climate change may have significant long-term negative consequences for better understanding the implications of climate change and climate policy for tourism and create confusion and delay in developing and implementing tourism sector responses.
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| 2. |
- Thompson, Paul M., et al.
(författare)
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The ENIGMA Consortium : large-scale collaborative analyses of neuroimaging and genetic data
- 2014
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Ingår i: BRAIN IMAGING BEHAV. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1931-7557 .- 1931-7565. ; 8:2, s. 153-182
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) Consortium is a collaborative network of researchers working together on a range of large-scale studies that integrate data from 70 institutions worldwide. Organized into Working Groups that tackle questions in neuroscience, genetics, and medicine, ENIGMA studies have analyzed neuroimaging data from over 12,826 subjects. In addition, data from 12,171 individuals were provided by the CHARGE consortium for replication of findings, in a total of 24,997 subjects. By meta-analyzing results from many sites, ENIGMA has detected factors that affect the brain that no individual site could detect on its own, and that require larger numbers of subjects than any individual neuroimaging study has currently collected. ENIGMA's first project was a genome-wide association study identifying common variants in the genome associated with hippocampal volume or intracranial volume. Continuing work is exploring genetic associations with subcortical volumes (ENIGMA2) and white matter microstructure (ENIGMA-DTI). Working groups also focus on understanding how schizophrenia, bipolar illness, major depression and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affect the brain. We review the current progress of the ENIGMA Consortium, along with challenges and unexpected discoveries made on the way.
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| 3. |
- Hall, C. Michael, et al.
(författare)
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No time for smokescreen skepticism : A rejoinder to Shani and Arad
- 2015
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Ingår i: Tourism Management. - : Elsevier BV. - 0261-5177 .- 1879-3193. ; 47, s. 341-347
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Shani and Arad (2014) claimed that tourism scholars tend to endorse the most pessimistic assessments regarding climate change, and that anthropogenic climate change was a "fashionable" and "highly controversial scientific topic". This brief rejoinder provides the balance that is missing from such climate change denial and skepticism studies on climate change and tourism. Recent research provides substantial evidence that reports on anthropogenic climate change are accurate, and that human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, including from the tourism industry, play a significant role in climate change. Some positive net effects may be experienced by some destinations in the short-term, but in the long-term all elements of the tourism system will be impacted. The expansion of tourism emissions at a rate greater than efficiency gains means that it is increasingly urgent that the tourism sector acknowledge, accept and respond to climate change. Debate on tourism-related adaptation and mitigation measures is to be encouraged and welcomed. Climate change denial is not.
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| 4. |
- Darreh-Shori, Taher, et al.
(författare)
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Functional variability in butyrylcholinesterase activity regulates intrathecal cytokine and astroglial biomarker profiles in patients with Alzheimer's disease
- 2013
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Ingår i: Neurobiology of Aging. - : Elsevier BV. - 0197-4580 .- 1558-1497. ; 34:11, s. 2465-2481
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) activity is associated with activated astrocytes in Alzheimer's disease brain. The BuChE-K variant exhibits 30%-60% reduced acetylcholine (ACh) hydrolyzing capacity. Considering the increasing evidence of an immune-regulatory role of ACh, we investigated if genetic heterogeneity in BuChE affects cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of inflammation and cholinoceptive glial function. Alzheimer's disease patients (n = 179) were BCHE-K-genotyped. Proteomic and enzymatic analyses were performed on CSF and/or plasma. BuChE genotype was linked with differential CSF levels of glial fibrillary acidic protein, S100B, interleukin-1 beta, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha. BCHE-K noncarriers displayed 100%-150% higher glial fibrillary acidic protein and 64%-110% higher S100B than BCHE-K carriers, who, in contrast, had 40%-80% higher interleukin-1b and 21%-27% higher TNF-alpha compared with noncarriers. A high level of CSF BuChE enzymatic phenotype also significantly correlated with higher CSF levels of astroglial markers and several factors of the innate complement system, but lower levels of proinflammatory cytokines. These individuals also displayed beneficial paraclinical and clinical findings, such as high cerebral glucose utilization, low beta-amyloid load, and less severe progression of clinical symptoms. In vitro analysis on human astrocytes confirmed the involvement of a regulated BuChE status in the astroglial responses to TNF-alpha and ACh. Histochemical analysis in a rat model of nerve injury-induced neuroinflammation, showed focal assembly of astroglial cells in proximity of BuChE-immunolabeled sites. In conclusion, these results suggest that BuChE enzymatic activity plays an important role in regulating intrinsic inflammation and activity of cholinoceptive glial cells and that this might be of clinical relevance. The dissociation between astroglial markers and inflammatory cytokines indicates that a proper activation and maintenance of astroglial function is a beneficial response, rather than a disease-driving mechanism. Further studies are needed to explore the therapeutic potential of manipulating BuChE activity or astroglial functional status. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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| 5. |
- Garcia-Loro, F., et al.
(författare)
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PILAR : A Federation of VISIR Remote Laboratory Systems for Educational Open Activities
- 2018
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Ingår i: Proceedings of 2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering, TALE 2018. - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. - 9781538665220 ; , s. 134-141
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Social demands have promoted an educational approach based on an 'anywhere and anytime' premise. Remote laboratories have emerged as the answer to the demands of technical educational areas for adapting themselves to this scenario. The result has not only benefit distance learning students but has provided new learning scenarios both for teachers and students as well as allowing a flexible approach to experimental topics. However, as any other solution for providing practical scenarios (hands-on labs, virtual labs or simulators), remote labs face several constraints inherited from the subsystems of its deployment - hardware (real instruments, equipment and scenario) and software (analog/digital conversions, communications, workbenches, etc.}. This paper describes the Erasmus+ project Platform Integration of Laboratories based on the Architecture of visiR (PILAR) which deals with several units of the federation installed in different educational institutions and devoted to analog electronics and electrical circuits. Based on the limitations of remote labs, the need for the federation will be justified and its benefits will be described by taking advantage of its strengths. The challenges that have come up during the different stages and the different approaches to design are also going to be described and analyzed. © 2018 IEEE.
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| 6. |
- Biermann, Frank, et al.
(författare)
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Scientific evidence on the political impact of the Sustainable Development Goals
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nature Sustainability. - : Springer Nature. - 2398-9629. ; 5:9, s. 795-800
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In 2015, the United Nations agreed on 17 Sustainable Development Goals as the central normative framework for sustainable development worldwide. The effectiveness of governing by such broad global goals, however, remains uncertain, and we lack comprehensive meta-studies that assess the political impact of the goals across countries and globally. We present here condensed evidence from an analysis of over 3,000 scientific studies on the Sustainable Development Goals published between 2016 and April 2021. Our findings suggests that the goals have had some political impact on institutions and policies, from local to global governance. This impact has been largely discursive, affecting the way actors understand and communicate about sustainable development. More profound normative and institutional impact, from legislative action to changing resource allocation, remains rare. We conclude that the scientific evidence suggests only limited transformative political impact of the Sustainable Development Goals thus far.
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| 7. |
- Hellström, B., et al.
(författare)
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Acoustic design artifacts and methods for urban soundscapes
- 2008
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Ingår i: 15th International Congress on Sound and Vibration. Daejon, Korea.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The research question is: “How to develop and apply acoustic artifacts and design methodologies for improving soundscapes in urban outdoor spaces?” In the project, this research question is limited to two specific types of urban outdoor spaces – city-park and city-square – and to two types of acoustic design artifacts. These are: I. Dynamic promotion of qualitative site specific sounds (e.g., the overall site specific sonic atmosphere, sounds from activities, birds and fountains), which creates an improved soundscape. II. Sound-art installations, that creates delimited auditory sub-spaces within the park/square. The purpose and method is: 1. To provide two case-studies of artistic soundscape improvement, one in a noise polluted city-park and one in a city-square. The case-studies will serve as models for future applications of the new acoustic design artifacts. 2. To create and validate an innovative acoustic design methodology based on state-of-the-art real-time acoustic simulation tools integrated into the design process. The methodology will be validated in psychoacoustic listening experiments and field studies. 3. To determine the potential of the two acoustic design artifacts (I Dynamic promotion of qualitative site specific sounds, and II Sound-art installations) for providing pleasant and restorative soundscapes, in order to strengthening the social interaction as well as the spatial and aesthetical qualities in noise polluted city parks/squares.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Bergquist, Magnus, 1983, et al.
(författare)
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Experiencing a severe weather event increases concern about climate change
- 2019
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Psychology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-1078. ; 10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Climate change is primarily driven by human-caused greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and may therefore be mitigated by changes to human behavior (Clayton et al., 2015; IPCC, 2018). Despite efforts to raise awareness and concern about climate change, GHG emissions continue to rise (IPCC, 2018). Climate change seems to be at odds with the immediate, present threats to which humans are adapted to cope (Gifford et al., 2009; Schultz, 2014; van Vugt et al., 2014). In contrast to immediate dangers, climate change is typically abstract, large scale, slow and often unrelated to the welfare of our daily lives (e.g., Ornstein and Ehrlich, 1989; Gifford, 2011). But there are moments when the consequences of climate change are readily apparent, such as extreme weather events. In the current paper, we examine the impact of personal experience with an extreme weather event, and the impact of this experience on beliefs about climate change, and intentions to take actions that can help prepare for and mitigate the consequences of climate change.
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| 10. |
- Gumaelius, Lena, et al.
(författare)
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Outreach initiatives operated by universities for increasing interest in science and technology
- 2016
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Ingår i: European Journal of Engineering Education. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 0304-3797 .- 1469-5898. ; , s. 1-34
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Since the 1990s, the low number of students choosing to study science and technology in higher education has been on the societal agenda and many initiatives have been launched to promote awareness regarding career options. The initiatives particularly focus on increasing enrolment in the engineering programmes. This article describes and compares eight European initiatives that have been established and operated by universities (and in some cases through collaboration with other actors in society). Each initiative is summarised in a short essay that discusses motivation, organisation, pedagogical approach, and activities. The initiatives are characterised by comparing the driving forces behind their creation, how the initiative activities relate to the activities at the university, size based on the number of participants and cost per participant and pedagogical framework. There seem to be two main tracks for building outreach activities, one where outreach activities are based on the university's normal activities, and one where outreach activities are designed specifically for the visiting students.
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