| 1. |
- Andersson-Sköld, Yvonne, 1957-, et al.
(författare)
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Coal tar-containing asphalt : Resource or hazardous waste?
- 2007
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Ingår i: Journal of Industrial Ecology. - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 1088-1980 .- 1530-9290. ; 11:4, s. 99-116
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Coal tar was used in Sweden for the production of asphalt and for the drenching of stabilization gravel until 1973. The tar has high concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), some of which may be strongly carcinogenic. Approximately 20 million tonnes of tar-containing asphalt is present in the public roads in Sweden. Used asphalt from rebuilding can be classified as hazardous waste according to the Swedish Waste Act. The cost of treating the material removed as hazardous waste can be very high due to the large amount that has to be treated, and the total environmental benefit is unclear. The transport of used asphalt to landfill or combustion will affect other environmental targets. The present project, based on three case studies of road projects in Sweden, evaluates the consequences of four scenarios for handling the material: reuse, landfill, biological treatment, and incineration. The results show that reuse of the coal tar-containing materials in new road construction is the most favorable alternative in terms of cost, material use, land use, energy consumption, and air emissions.
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| 2. |
- Belin, Andrea Carmine, et al.
(författare)
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Association study of two genetic variants in mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
- 2007
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Ingår i: Neuroscience letters. - : Elsevier BV. - 0304-3940. ; 420:3, s. 257-62
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mitochondrial (mt) dysfunction has been implicated in Alzheimer's (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). Mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) is needed for mtDNA maintenance, regulating mtDNA copy number and is absolutely required for transcriptional initiation at mtDNA promoters. Two genetic variants in TFAM have been reported to be associated with AD in a Caucasian case-control material collected from Germany, Switzerland and Italy. One of these variants was reported to show a tendency for association with AD in a pooled Scottish and Swedish case-control material and the other variant was reported to be associated with AD in a recent meta-analysis. We investigated these two genetic variants, rs1937 and rs2306604, in an AD and a PD case-control material, both from Sweden and found significant genotypic as well as allelic association to marker rs2306604 in the AD case-control material (P=0.05 and P=0.03, respectively), where the A-allele appears to increase risk for developing AD. No association was observed for marker rs1937. We did not find any association in the PD case-control material for either of the two markers. The distribution of the two-locus haplotype frequencies (based on rs1937 and rs2306604) did not differ significantly between affected individuals and controls in the two sample sets. However, the global P-value for haplotypic association testing indicated borderline association in the AD sample set. Our data suggests that the rs2306604 A-allele could be a moderate risk factor for AD, which is supported by the recent meta-analysis.
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| 3. |
- Bjerke, Maria, 1977, et al.
(författare)
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Subcortical vascular dementia biomarker pattern in mild cognitive impairment.
- 2009
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Ingår i: Dementia and geriatric cognitive disorders. - : S. Karger AG. - 1421-9824 .- 1420-8008. ; 28:4, s. 348-56
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is an etiologically unclear disorder. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers are potentially useful for the differentiation between various MCI etiologies. AIM: The aim of the study was to assess whether baseline CSF hyperphosphorylated tau (P-tau), total tau (T-tau), amyloid beta 1-42 (Abeta(42)) and neurofilament light (NF-L) in patients with MCI could predict subcortical vascular dementia (SVD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) at follow-up. METHODS: Biomarker levels were assessed by Luminex xMAP technology and ELISA. RESULTS: Increased baseline concentrations of NF-L significantly separated MCI-SVD from stable MCI. The MCI-SVD patients were inseparable from stable MCI but separable from patients developing AD (MCI-AD) on the basis of Abeta(42,) T-tau and P-tau(181) levels. CONCLUSION: A combination of the biomarkers Abeta(42), T-tau, P-tau(181) and NF-L has the potential to improve the clinical separation of MCI-SVD patients from stable MCI and MCI-AD patients.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Lind, Karin, 1952, et al.
(författare)
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Increased saliva cortisol awakening response in patients with mild cognitive impairment
- 2007
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Ingår i: Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders. - : S. Karger AG. - 1420-8008 .- 1421-9824. ; 24:5, s. 389-395
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- <i>Background:</i> It is unknown whether HPA-axis dysfunction is present in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The aim of the present study was to investigate whether cortisol levels are elevated among patients with MCI and/or whether the individuals have adequate feedback control of their HPA axis. <i>Material and Methods:</i> 27 patients with MCI and 15 healthy controls were included in the study. Saliva samplings were performed 5 times a day before intake of 0.5 mg dexamethasone, and 5 times a day after intake of dexamethasone, respectively. <i>Results:</i> Significantly higher cortisol levels were found 15 min after awakening among patients with MCI in comparison with the controls, both before and after dexamethasone administration (p < 0.05). Also, the ratio between cortisol at awakening time and 15 min after awakening was lower in the patient group after dexamethasone administration (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences in basal cortisol levels before or after dexamethasone between groups. <i>Conclusion:</i> The results indicate that there is an HPA-axis disturbance, with normal basal cortisol levels and increased awakening response among patients with MCI. The dissociation between basal values and the awakening response may be of pathophysiological importance for the cognitive impairment.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Nordlund, Arto, 1962, et al.
(författare)
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Episodic memory and speed/attention deficits are associated with Alzheimer-typical CSF abnormalities in MCI
- 2008
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Ingår i: Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. - 1355-6177. ; 14:4, s. 582-590
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is regarded as the prodromal stage of dementia disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). Objective: To compare the neuropsychological profiles of MCI subjects with normal concentrations of total tau (T-τ) and Aβ42 in CSF (MCI-norm) to MCI subjects with deviating concentrations of the biomarkers (MCI-dev). MCI-norm (N = 73) and MCI-dev (N = 73) subjects were compared to normal controls (N = 50) on tests of speed/attention, memory, visuospatial function, language and executive function. Results: MCI-norm performed overall better than MCI-dev, specifically on tests of speed and attention and episodic memory. When MCI-dev subjects were subclassified into those with only high T-tau (MCI-tau), only low Aβ42 (MCI-Aβ) and both high T-tau and low Aβ42 (MCI-tauAβ), MCI-tauAβ tended to perform slightly worse. MCI-tau and MCI-Aβ performed quite similarly. Conclusions: Considering the neuropsychological differences, many MCI-norm probably had more benign forms of MCI, or early non-AD forms of neurodegenerative disorders. Although most MCI-dev performed clearly worse than MCI-norm on the neuropsychological battery, some did not show any deficits when compared to age norms. A combination of CSF analyses and neuropsychology could be a step toward a more exact diagnosis of MCI as prodromal AD.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Zetterberg, Henrik, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Intra-individual stability of CSF biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease over two years
- 2007
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Ingår i: Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD. - 1387-2877. ; 12:3, s. 255-60
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study examines the intra-individual stability of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) over 2 years in 83 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 17 cognitively healthy control individuals. All participants underwent clinical and neuropsychological evaluation and lumbar puncture at baseline and after 2 years at a university hospital memory clinic. CSF was analyzed for total tau (T-tau), phospho-tau(181) (P-tau(181)) and amyloid-beta(1-42) (Abeta(1-42)). During the 2-year observational time, 12 MCI patients progressed to AD and 3 progressed to vascular dementia, while 68 remained stable. Baseline T-tau and P-tau(181) levels were elevated in the MCI-AD group as compared to the stable MCI patients and the control group (p<0.01), while baseline Abeta(1-42) levels were lower (p<0.001). Stable MCI patients were biochemically indistinguishable from controls. The biomarker levels at baseline and after 2 years showed Pearson R values between 0.81 and 0.91 (p<0.001) and coefficients of variation of 7.2 to 8.7%. In conclusion, intra-individual biomarker levels are remarkably stable over 2 years. Thus, even minor biochemical changes induced by treatment against AD should be detectable using these biomarkers, which bodes well for their usefulness as surrogate markers for drug efficacy in clinical trials.
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