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- Khoshkar, Sara, 1985-
(författare)
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From Vision to Action- Advancing green qualities in local planning practice
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Biodiversity and ecosystem services have been negatively affected as a result of urbanization. Agenda 2030 emphasizes that biodiversity and ecosystem services issues are important for all Sustainable Development Goals and that measures are needed to reverse the negative trend. In addition, it has been emphasized that local spatial planning plays a key role in meeting global challenges and achieving national and international sustainability goals. The decisions made about land use issues in local planning are of great importance for biodiversity and the availability of ecosystem services in cities. However, despite the increasing knowledge of the importance of ecosystem services, their integration in land use planning and decision-making is still limited. Furthermore, the planning instrument, Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) holds an important role in ensuring that ecosystem services are taken into account in planning and related decision-making processes. However, experiences of integrating ecosystem services in SEAs is limited. The overall aim of this thesis, comprising of five papers, is to contribute with knowledge regarding and support to local planning practice for the implementation of ecosystem services in planning and decision-making. The methods applied include: literature review, semi-structured interviews, focus group, workshops and qualitative content analysis supported with statistical analysis. In the first phase of the thesis, the studies set out to identify the challenges and needs for integrating ecosystem services in local planning practice. The results are based on a case study design of a selection of municipalities in Stockholm County. A key finding from the interviews with practitioners in the first phase was that green quality issues need to be integrated in strategic levels of planning so to pave the way for future sustainable development in municipalities. The second phase identified measures for the implementation of ecosystem services and ten key factors to promote the integration of ES in local planning. This phase included national analysis of ecosystem services in municipal comprehensive plans for Swedish municipalities presented in Paper II. The supporting statistical analysis revealed a temporal trend in the integration of ecosystem services in the municipal comprehensive plans during the last decade. In the last phase of the thesis, experiences and learning examples were identified to strengthen SEA as a planning tool by examining practices and experiences from eight European countries. In addition, it was investigated how ecosystem services were integrated into SEA for municipal comprehensive plans in Stockholm County, in order to study how SEAs can be used to strengthen ecosystem services in local planning. The synthesis of the results from the appended papers identifies ways to promote ecosystem services in local planning. The proposed measures for operationalizing ecosystem services from vision to action include: (i) improving institutional and organizational conditions (ii) facilitating communication and collaboration between actors (iii) engaging public early in the planning process (iv) adapting guidance and tools to local conditions and circumstances (v) advancing role of SEA for planning.The thesis concludes with suggestions for future research, for example to investigate how nature-based solutions for operationalizing ecosystem services can be designed in local planning.
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| 2. |
- Khoshkar, Sara, et al.
(författare)
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Moving from vision to action- integrating ecosystem services in the Swedish local planning context
- 2020
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Ingår i: Land use policy. - : Elsevier. - 0264-8377 .- 1873-5754. ; 97
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Policies and planning processes related to land use play an important role in maintaining and developing ecosystem services. The incorporation of ecosystem services into local plans is considered an indicator of the plan's capacity to implement strategic action. This study provides a national overview of the incorporation of the ecosystem service concept in current municipal comprehensive plans in Sweden and explores the actions taken by three municipalities in Stockholm County to implement the ecosystem service concept in practice. A multi-method design was employed including a qualitative content analysis of 231 municipal comprehensive plans, a statistical analysis analyzing temporal changes from 2005 – 2017, and dialogue meetings with municipal practitioners from the three municipalities. We divided the level of integration to four categories, A (Advanced) - D (Not included). Overall, the integration of the ecosystem service concept has significantly increased in municipal comprehensive plans during the last decade. At national level, 23% of municipalities have explicitly mentioned ecosystem services, and within Stockholm County, 42%. The dialogue meetings with municipal practitioners revealed that the municipalities were at different stages of implementing the ecosystem service concept, with diverse actions being implemented for advancing practice. These included capacity building, participatory processes and development of thematic plans and operational documents. To support the future implementation of the ecosystem service concept from vision to action, both local and national initiatives are needed.
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| 3. |
- Khoshkar, Sara, et al.
(författare)
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Ways Forward for Advancing Ecosystem Servicesin Municipal Planning—Experiences from Stockholm County
- 2020
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Ingår i: Land. - : MDPI AG. - 0023-7531 .- 2073-445X. ; 9:9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This case study from Stockholm County, Sweden, explores practitioners’ experiences of barriers and bridges in municipal planning practices to support actions for ecosystem services. This qualitative study is based on information gathered from a focus group, workshops, and semi-structured interviews, which aided in identifying key factors for integrating ecosystem services in municipal planning. We identified 10 key factors divided into three themes: (i) regulatory framework and political support, (ii) local organizational capacity, and (iii) local adaptation of tools and practices. In particular, the practitioners pointed to the need for the development of legal support and regulations for ecosystem services on the national and EU policy levels. Furthermore, the need for local capacity building and understanding of ecosystem services as well as increased regional support to enhance local knowledge exchange and learning was emphasized. Also, in a decentralized local governance system such as in Sweden, to fully implement ecosystem services in urban planning for sustainable development, locally adapted practical tools and monitoring procedures were considered important.
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| 4. |
- Arias, M. C., et al.
(författare)
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Permanent Genetic Resources added to Molecular Ecology Resources Database 1 February 2013-31 March 2013
- 2013
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology Resources. - : Wiley. - 1755-098X .- 1755-0998. ; 13:4, s. 760-762
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article documents the addition of 142 microsatellite marker loci to the Molecular Ecology Resources database. Loci were developed for the following species: Agriophyllum squarrosum, Amazilia cyanocephala, Batillaria attramentaria, Fungal strain CTeY1 (Ascomycota), Gadopsis marmoratus, Juniperus phoenicea subsp. turbinata, Liriomyza sativae, Lupinus polyphyllus, Metschnikowia reukaufii, Puccinia striiformis and Xylocopa grisescens. These loci were cross-tested on the following species: Amazilia beryllina, Amazilia candida, Amazilia rutila, Amazilia tzacatl, Amazilia violiceps, Amazilia yucatanensis, Campylopterus curvipennis, Cynanthus sordidus, Hylocharis leucotis, Juniperus brevifolia, Juniperus cedrus, Juniperus osteosperma, Juniperus oxycedrus, Juniperus thurifera, Liriomyza bryoniae, Liriomyza chinensis, Liriomyza huidobrensis and Liriomyza trifolii.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Elhag, Sara, et al.
(författare)
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Differences in Cell-Intrinsic Inflammatory Programs of Yolk Sac and Bone Marrow Macrophages
- 2021
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Ingår i: Cells. - : MDPI AG. - 2073-4409. ; 10:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Tissue-resident macrophages have mixed developmental origins. They derive in variable extent from yolk sac (YS) hematopoiesis during embryonic development. Bone marrow (BM) hematopoietic progenitors give rise to tissue macrophages in postnatal life, and their contribution increases upon organ injury. Since the phenotype and functions of macrophages are modulated by the tissue of residence, the impact of their origin and developmental paths has remained incompletely understood. Methods: In order to decipher cell-intrinsic macrophage programs, we immortalized hematopoietic progenitors from YS and BM using conditional HoxB8, and carried out an in-depth functional and molecular analysis of differentiated macrophages. Results: While YS and BM macrophages demonstrate close similarities in terms of cellular growth, differentiation, cell death susceptibility and phagocytic properties, they display differences in cell metabolism, expression of inflammatory markers and inflammasome activation. Reduced abundance of PYCARD (ASC) and CASPASE-1 proteins in YS macrophages abrogated interleukin-1 beta production in response to canonical and non-canonical inflammasome activation. Conclusions: Macrophage ontogeny is associated with distinct cellular programs and immune response. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the regulation and programming of macrophage functions.
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| 9. |
- Sekine, Takuya, et al.
(författare)
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TOX is expressed by exhausted and polyfunctional human effector memory CD8(+) T cells
- 2020
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Ingår i: Science immunology. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 2470-9468. ; 5:49
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- CD8(+) T cell exhaustion is a hallmark of many cancers and chronic infections. In mice, T cell factor 1 (TCF-1) maintains exhausted CD8(+) T cell responses, whereas thymocyte selection-associated HMG box (TOX) is required for the epigenetic remodeling and survival of exhausted CD8(+) T cells. However, it has remained unclear to what extent these transcription factors play analogous roles in humans. In this study, we mapped the expression of TOX and TCF-1 as a function of differentiation and specificity in the human CD8(+) T cell landscape. Here, we demonstrate that circulating TOX+ CD8(+) T cells exist in most humans, but that TOX is not exclusively associated with exhaustion. Effector memory CD8(+) T cells generally expressed TOX, whereas naive and early-differentiated memory CD8(+) T cells generally expressed TCF-1. Cytolytic gene and protein expression signatures were also defined by the expression of TOX. In the context of a relentless immune challenge, exhausted HIV-specific CD8(+) T cells commonly expressed TOX, often in clusters with various activation markers and inhibitory receptors, and expressed less TCF-1. However, polyfunctional memory CD8(+) T cells specific for cytomegalovirus (CMV) or Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) also expressed TOX, either with or without TCF-1. A similar phenotype was observed among HIV-specific CD8(+) T cells from individuals who maintained exceptional immune control of viral replication. Collectively, these data demonstrate that TOX is expressed by most circulating effector memory CD8(+) T cell subsets and not exclusively linked to exhaustion.
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| 10. |
- Sen, Abhijit, et al.
(författare)
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Coffee and tea consumption and risk of prostate cancer in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition
- 2019
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Ingår i: International Journal of Cancer. - : Wiley. - 0020-7136 .- 1097-0215. ; 144:2, s. 240-250
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The epidemiological evidence regarding the association of coffee and tea consumption with prostate cancer risk is inconclusive, and few cohort studies have assessed these associations by disease stage and grade. We examined the associations of coffee (total, caffeinated and decaffeinated) and tea intake with prostate cancer risk in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. Among 142,196 men, 7,036 incident prostate cancer cases were diagnosed over 14 years of follow-up. Data on coffee and tea consumption were collected through validated country-specific food questionnaires at baseline. We used Cox proportional hazards regression models to compute hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Models were stratified by center and age, and adjusted for anthropometric, lifestyle and dietary factors. Median coffee and tea intake were 375 and 106 mL/day, respectively, but large variations existed by country. Comparing the highest (median of 855 mL/day) versus lowest (median of 103 mL/day) consumers of coffee and tea (450 vs. 12 mL/day) the HRs were 1.02 (95% CI, 0.94–1.09) and 0.98 (95% CI, 0.90–1.07) for risk of total prostate cancer and 0.97 (95% CI, 0.79–1.21) and 0.89 (95% CI, 0.70–1.13) for risk of fatal disease, respectively. No evidence of association was seen for consumption of total, caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee or tea and risk of total prostate cancer or cancer by stage, grade or fatality in this large cohort. Further investigations are needed to clarify whether an association exists by different preparations or by concentrations and constituents of these beverages.
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