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- Berglund, Felix, et al.
(författare)
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Acute and long-term renal effects after iodine contrast media-enhanced computerised tomography in the critically ill-a retrospective bi-centre cohort study.
- 2024
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Ingår i: European Radiology. - 0938-7994 .- 1432-1084. ; 34:3, s. 1736-1745
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVES: To determine if current clinical use of iodine contrast media (ICM) for computerised tomography (CT) increases the risk of acute kidney injury (AKI) and long-term decline in renal function in patients treated in intensive care.METHODS: A retrospective bi-centre cohort study was performed with critically ill subjects undergoing either ICM-enhanced or unenhanced CT. AKI was defined and staged based on the Kidney Disease Improve Global Outcome AKI criteria, using both creatinine and urine output criteria. Follow-up plasma creatinine was recorded three to six months after CT to assess any long-term effects of ICM on renal function.RESULTS: In total, 611 patients were included in the final analysis, median age was 65.0 years (48.0-73.0, quartile 1-quartile 3 (IQR)) and 62.5% were male. Renal replacement therapy was used post-CT in 12.9% and 180-day mortality was 31.2%. Plasma creatinine level on day of CT was 100.0 µmol/L (66.0-166.5, IQR) for non-ICM group and 77.0 µmol/L (59.0-109.0, IQR) for the ICM group. The adjusted odds ratio for developing AKI if the patient received ICM was 1.03 (95% confidence interval 0.64-1.66, p = 0.90). No significant association between ICM and increase in plasma creatinine at long-term follow-up was found, with an adjusted effect size of 2.92 (95% confidence interval - 6.52-12.36, p = 0.543).CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study do not indicate an increased risk of AKI or long-term decline in renal function when ICM is used for enhanced CT in patients treated at intensive care units.CLINICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT: Patients treated in intensive care units had no increased risk of acute kidney injury or persistent decline in renal function after contrast-enhanced CT. This information underlines the need for a proper risk-reward assessment before denying patients a contrast-enhanced CT.KEY POINTS: • Iodine contrast media is considered a risk factor for the development of acute kidney injury. • Patients receiving iodine contrast media did not have an increased incidence of acute kidney injury or persistent decline in renal function. • A more clearly defined risk of iodine contrast media helps guide clinical decisions whether to perform contrast-enhanced CTs or not.
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| 4. |
- Andersson, Magnus, et al.
(författare)
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How cultural values are reflected on the housing market : direct effects and the cultural spillover
- 2019
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Ingår i: International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1753-8270 .- 1753-8289. ; 12:3, s. 405-423
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse two questions. First, is there, and if so, how large is the price premium paid for a building exhibiting a cultural value? Second, are there any spillover effects of buildings with cultural values on sales prices of neighbouring houses? Design/methodology/approach: Using a unique database of all buildings in the region of Halland, Sweden, combined with transaction data, hedonic models can be estimated, with spatially lagged variables describing proximity to three classes of culturally classified building – A, B and C – corresponding to building of national interest, building of regional interest and building of local interest. In addition, the authors also estimate models with a spatial specification on the error term, in an attempt to control for omitted variables. Findings: The results indicate that cultural classification plays a role in determining the price of a property, with large effects (ranging between 36 and 60% price premiums) for the highest classification. In addition, the authors find evidence of a cultural externality, houses in the vicinity of building with high cultural value sell at a small, but statistically significant premium of 1%. Originality/value: The cultural externality may be overlooked when it comes to valuation of cultural values in society, and therefore, it is likely that warranted protection acts to preserve cultural values in buildings become less than the social optimum. This paper suggests a new measure to cultural values contrasting previous research that rely on cultural preservation. This approach should limit problems with measurement errors that may lead to biased results.
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| 5. |
- Backman, Fredrik
(författare)
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Energy efficiency in Swedish SMEs : Exploring barriers, knowledge creation and the role of municipal energy efficiency programs
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of this thesis is to analyze how municipalities support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in their work to improve their energy efficiency. The purpose of this study is to increase the current understanding of how the methods and tools used by municipalities to assist SMEs in improving their energy efficiency influence the end results in terms of achieved energy efficiency, and how knowledge related to energy efficiency is created within SMEs. This thesis consists of two separate case studies that examine how two municipalities used a network approach to support SMEs in implementing energy efficient measures. The theoretical frameworks of policy networks, barriers, communities of practice (COPs), and energy efficiency networks were used in this thesis. The findings are presented in the appended four articles. An overall conclusion is that networks that provide information in the form of a report with technological solutions as the only output are less likely to reach the agreed-upon goals. To achieve a more successful result, SMEs must be active in the process; they must be allowed to create knowledge and understanding that they perceive as valuable and relevant for themselves. Another important result is that information is not automatically transformed by SMEs into knowledge. In fact, SMEs need a platform from which they can negotiate the received information and use it to create knowledge through practice and social interaction. Finally, it was found that the type of technological solution is not insignificant; the type of energy efficient measure to be implemented and its level of complexity affect how a municipality should support energy efficiency work among SMEs.
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| 6. |
- Barbu, Andreea, et al.
(författare)
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The use of hydrogen gas clearance for blood flow measurements in single endogenous and transplanted pancreatic islets
- 2015
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Ingår i: Microvascular Research. - : Elsevier BV. - 0026-2862 .- 1095-9319. ; 97, s. 124-129
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The blood perfusion of pancreatic islets is regulated independently from that of the exocrine pancreas, and is of importance for multiple aspects of normal islet function, and probably also during impaired glucose tolerance. Single islet blood flow has been difficult to evaluate due to technical limitations. We therefore adapted a hydrogen gas washout technique using microelectrodes to allow such measurements. Platinum micro-electrodes monitored hydrogen gas clearance from individual endogenous and transplanted islets in the pancreas of male Lewis rats and in human and mouse islets implanted under the renal capsule of male athymic mice. Both in the rat endogenous pancreatic islets as well as in the intra-pancreatically transplanted islets, the vascular conductance and blood flow values displayed a highly heterogeneous distribution, varying by factors 6-10 within the same pancreas. The blood flow of human and mouse islet grafts transplanted in athymic mice was approximately 30% lower than that in the surrounding renal parenchyma. The present technique provides unique opportunities to study the islet vascular dysfunction seen after transplantation, but also allows for investigating the effects of genetic and environmental perturbations on islet blood flow at the single islet level in vivo. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.
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| 7. |
- Berg, Christoffer, 1986-
(författare)
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Public Planning, Neoliberal Hybridity and Local Activism in Sundbyberg : Epochal Reconfiguration of Urban Development in Greater Stockholm
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Which urban policy responses are deployed when a small social democratic municipality in a greater city region aims to be competitive for private investments in housing and the built environment? Which new institutional development arrangements are implemented for this purpose, in the wake of a decades-long hegemonic position of the municipal public housing company? This thesis draws on a qualitative case study design to approach such questions, and investigates recent urban development in Sundbybergs stad in Greater Stockholm to answer them. Theoretically, the thesis draws on a theory of neoliberal localization in combination with Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the social production of space. The thesis is thereby able to explain how the municipality consolidated political power, institutional infrastructures, and administrative capacities with a view to introducing a market-based paradigm of urban development. It argues that this paradigm became characterized by a neoliberal hybridity. It supports this argument by analyzing three major development projects targeting three areas with very different sociospatial characteristics. The thesis thereby demonstrates how market-based developments integrated a number of regulatory features and public planning interventions in accordance with certain objectives, concerns, and conditions. E.g., it reveals how the development of a 1970s Million Homes Programme area, Hallonbergen, relied both on an extended sale of public assets to support private developers’ investments with the objective of comprehensively transforming the area, and on extraordinary measures for ‘social sustainability’. It also reveals how the development of the original municipal town, Central Sundbyberg, was arranged in a municipal development company. This established a business-like format for political control and external expertise, while undermining public planning and clouding democratic accountability. This point is further emphasized by analyzing local inhabitants’ methods for contesting certain development features and land use proposals in this project, enforcing a re-politicization of a largely depoliticized development project. Ultimately, the thesis contributes new knowledge on the variegating forms of neoliberal urbanism through an atypical case of a subordinate city region municipality that historically has been characterized by social democracy, a large public rental housing structure, a public housing company with control of spatial planning, and working-class populations and industries.
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| 8. |
- Bergman, Hilde-Marlene, et al.
(författare)
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Metabolite aberrations in early diabetes detected in rat kidney using mass spectrometry imaging
- 2019
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Ingår i: Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1618-2642 .- 1618-2650. ; 411:13, s. 2809-2816
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Diabetic kidney disease is a serious complication of diabetes that can ultimately lead to end-stage renal disease. The pathogenesis of diabetic kidney disease is complex, and fundamental research is still required to provide a better understanding of the driving forces behind it. We report regional metabolic aberrations from an untargeted mass spectrometry imaging study of kidney tissue using an insulinopenic rat model of diabetes. Diabetes was induced by intravenous injection of streptozotocin, and kidneys were harvested 2weeks thereafter. Imaging was performed using nanospray desorption electrospray ionization connected to a high-mass-resolving mass spectrometer. No histopathological changes were observed in the kidney sections; however, mass spectrometry imaging revealed a significant increase in several 18-carbon unsaturated non-esterified fatty acid species and monoacylglycerols. Notably, these 18-carbon acyl chains were also constituents of several increased diacylglycerol species. In addition, a number of short- and long-chain acylcarnitines were found to be accumulated while several amino acids were depleted. This study presents unique regional metabolic data indicating a dysregulated energy metabolism in renal mitochondria as an early response to streptozotocin-induced type I diabetes.
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| 9. |
- Berntson, Lillemor, 1957-, et al.
(författare)
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Haptoglobin in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
- 2022
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Ingår i: Pediatric Rheumatology. - : BioMed Central (BMC). - 1546-0096. ; 20:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Haptoglobin (Hp), a liver derived acute phase inflammatory protein (APP), has scarcely been studied in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). Hp can occur in blood as two isoforms (Hp1 and Hp2) in precursor and mature forms. Routine clinical chemistry immunoturbidimetry does not discern these forms. It is unknown how different forms relate to disease activity in JIA. Our aims were to determine allele frequency and plasma concentrations of different Hp forms at higher versus lower JIA disease activity and compare to other APPs.METHODS: Plasma from JIA (n = 77) and healthy (n = 42) children were analyzed for apparent Hp allelic frequency and densitometric concentrations of alpha forms by Western blot (WB). Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (buffy coat) was performed in a subset to estimate conformity with genetics. At higher versus lower juvenile arthritis disease activity score (JADAS27) (which includes erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR)), total mature Hp concentration from WB was compared and correlated against immunoturbidimetry and total protein, albumin, serum amyloid A (SAA) and C-reactive protein (CRP).RESULTS: At 300-fold dilution needed to study mature forms in Western blot, precursors were undetectable. Hp2 contributed most signal in most samples. Hp allele frequency was similar in JIA and controls. Both mature forms, taken separately or by sum, declined following treatment, but remained above concentrations of healthy controls, even in a remission subset that achieved JADAS27 < 1. Densitometry correlated with immunoturbidimetry. Hp concentrations correlated with JADAS27, albumin (negatively), CRP and SAA with immunoturbidimetric method correlating strongest to JADAS27 (Spearman R ~ 0.6, p < 0.0001).CONCLUSION: Hp allele frequency in JIA is similar to the general population, indicating that children with JIA should have the same possibility as in healthy children to produce preHp2 (zonulin), thought to increase intestinal permeability. Circulating Hp concentrations largely parallel other APPs and ESR; none of these measures correlate very strongly to JADAS27 score but Hp can be measured from capillary sampling which is impossible with ESR.
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| 10. |
- Buckland, Philip I., et al.
(författare)
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Integrating human dimensions of Arctic palaeoenvironmental science : SEAD – the strategic environmental archaeology database
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Archaeological Science. - : Elsevier. - 0305-4403 .- 1095-9238. ; 38:2, s. 345-351
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Environmental change has a human dimension, and has had so for at least the last 10 000 years. The prehistoric impact of people on the Arctic landscape has occasionally left visible traces, such as house and field structures. More often than not, however, the only evidence available is at the microscopic or geochemical level, such as fossil insect and seed assemblages or changes in the physical and chemical properties of soils and sediments. These records are the subject of SEAD, a multidisciplinary database and software project currently underway at Umeå University, Sweden, which aims to create an online database and set of tools for investigating these traces, as part of an international research infrastructure for palaeoecology and environmental archaeology.
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