| 1. |
- Jonasson, Anna-Karin
(författare)
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Gränskronotopen och upplösningen av formens värld : En studie av gränstematiken i Kerstin Ekmans trilogi Vargskinnet (1999-2003)
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this study is to explore the border theme in the Vargskinnet (The Wolfskin) trilogy (1999–2003) by Kerstin Ekman. Some motifs, such as skin and water, play important roles in this context, as they form part of the novels’ designs of the maintenance, transcending and dissolution of boundaries. These boundary phenomena are derived from different contexts — cultural and geographical, as well as abstract and material — and in the novels they appear mainly as recurring patterns in the novels’ subtext. The trilogy consists of Guds barmhärtighet (God's Mercy), 1999, Sista rompan (The Last String) 2002, and Skraplotter (Lottery Scratchcards), 2003. In addition to the important border motifs, the novels contain, on an overall level, problematisations of the relationship between form and content, between external and internal. Human perceptions and relation to boundary definition and demarcation are central elements of the theme to which I draw attention and include artistic creation. The analyses show how Ekman constantly relates to tradition and renewal, to different literary direction and to other writers in her treatment of man as an image creator. Vargskinnet’s thematisation of borders in various forms highlights, above all, an ongoing struggle: the struggle for power over time and space. The importance of raising awareness of the driving forces behind our ideas of the world, of our place in it and of our relations with the outside world is also highlighted in these novels. Problematisations of artistic creation, boundaries and power struggle are also found in other novels by Ekman. Examples from two of these, Gör mig levande igen ( Make Me Alive Again), 1996 and Grand final i skojarbranschen (Grand Final in the Entertainment Industry), 2011, are therefore used to deepen the analyses of Vargskinnet’s border themes.The analytical starting points of the study are mainly derived from literary theory as well as philosophical and posthumanist, feminist theory. As time and space are important elements of Vargskinnet's border themes, Michail Bachtin’s theories of the chronotope — a concept referring to the artistic designs of time and space in novels — offer useful concepts and perspectives. These make it possible to distinguish patterns in the novel’s text, in the form of repetitions and variations. Some constellations of images and descriptions recur.Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological philosophy deals with human perceptions of the relationship between form and content, as well as various border phenomena, mainly based on the body and our senses. Verbal images are particularly important in his philosophy and this applies not least to innovative metaphors. These are most prominent in his late writings, such as the posthumously published The Visible and the Invisible (1968). The complex relationship between inner and outer, as well as the creative potential of image creation, are important motives in Vargskinnet and Merleau-Ponty’s concepts and reasoning highlight their function in the trilogy.Rosi Braidotti is associated with both material feminism and posthumanism and is today one of the leading theorists in these fields of research. Braidotti’s intriguing interdisciplinary perspectives and the breadth of the range of questions she discusses make her theories difficult to summarise, but something I have taken on in the study of Vargskinnet is her quest for a new, non-linear way in which to describe and understand the world. On the one hand, it can be said to be characteristic of Ekman’s style, and on the other hand it fits well into my search for patterns in the form of recurring border motifs in her novels.
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| 2. |
- Bergström, Ida, et al.
(författare)
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Persistent accumulation of interferon-gamma-producing CD8(+)CD56(+) T cells in blood from patients with coronary artery disease
- 2012
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Ingår i: Atherosclerosis. - : Elsevier. - 0021-9150 .- 1879-1484. ; 224:2, s. 515-520
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective: There is emerging evidence for CD8(+) T cell alterations in blood from patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). We examined whether the distribution and phenotype of CD8(+)CD56(+) T cells differed according to the clinical manifestation of CAD. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanMethods: Patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS, n = 30), stable angina (SA, n = 34) and controls (n = 36) were included. Blood was collected before and up to 12 months after referral for coronary investigation. CD8(+)CD56(+) T cells were assessed by flow cytometry for expression of surface markers, apoptosis, and intracellular expression of cytokines. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanResults: The proportions of CD8(+)CD56(+) T cells were significantly higher in both ACS and SA patients compared with controls, and remained so after 3 and 12 months. This was independent of age, sex, systemic inflammation and cytomegalovirus seropositivity. CD8(+)CD56(+) T cells differed from CD8(+)CD56(-) T cells in terms of lower CD28 expression and fewer apoptotic cells. Both CD8(+) T cell subsets were positive for interferon (IFN)-gamma and tumor necrosis factor, although IFN-gamma was significantly more confined to the CD8(+)CD56(+) T cells. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanConclusion: The persistent accumulation of CD8(+)CD56(+) T cells in ACS and SA patients share several features with immunological aging. It also contributes to a larger IFN-gamma(+) pool in blood, and may thereby hypothetically drive the atherosclerotic process in a less favorable direction.
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| 3. |
- Cornelissen, Johannes H C, et al.
(författare)
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Global negative vegetation feedback to climate warming responses of leaf litter decomposition rates in cold biomes
- 2007
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Ingår i: Ecology Letters. - : Wiley. - 1461-023X .- 1461-0248. ; 10:7, s. 619-627
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Whether climate change will turn cold biomes from large long-term carbon sinks into sources is hotly debated because of the great potential for ecosystem-mediated feedbacks to global climate. Critical are the direction, magnitude and generality of climate responses of plant litter decomposition. Here, we present the first quantitative analysis of the major climate-change-related drivers of litter decomposition rates in cold northern biomes worldwide.Leaf litters collected from the predominant species in 33 global change manipulation experiments in circum-arctic-alpine ecosystems were incubated simultaneously in two contrasting arctic life zones. We demonstrate that longer-term, large-scale changes to leaf litter decomposition will be driven primarily by both direct warming effects and concomitant shifts in plant growth form composition, with a much smaller role for changes in litter quality within species. Specifically, the ongoing warming-induced expansion of shrubs with recalcitrant leaf litter across cold biomes would constitute a negative feedback to global warming. Depending on the strength of other (previously reported) positive feedbacks of shrub expansion on soil carbon turnover, this may partly counteract direct warming enhancement of litter decomposition.
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| 4. |
- Dolatabadi, Soheila, et al.
(författare)
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JAK–STAT signalling controls cancer stem cell properties including chemotherapy resistance in myxoid liposarcoma
- 2019
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Ingår i: International Journal of Cancer. - : Wiley. - 0020-7136 .- 1097-0215. ; 145:2, s. 435-449
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Myxoid liposarcoma (MLS) shows extensive intratumoural heterogeneity with distinct subpopulations of tumour cells. Despite improved survival of MLS patients, existing therapies have shortcomings as they fail to target all tumour cells. The nature of chemotherapy-resistant cells in MLS remains unknown. Here, we show that MLS cell lines contained subpopulations of cells that can form spheres, efflux Hoechst dye and resist doxorubicin, all properties attributed to cancer stem cells (CSCs). By single-cell gene expression, western blot, phospho-kinase array, immunoprecipitation, immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry and microarray analysis we showed that a subset of MLS cells expressed JAK–STAT genes with active signalling. JAK1/2 inhibition via ruxolitinib decreased, while stimulation with LIF increased, phosphorylation of STAT3 and the number of cells with CSC properties indicating that JAK–STAT signalling controlled the number of cells with CSC features. We also show that phosphorylated STAT3 interacted with the SWI/SNF complex. We conclude that MLS contains JAK–STAT-regulated subpopulations of cells with CSC features. Combined doxorubicin and ruxolitinib treatment targeted both proliferating cells as well as cells with CSC features, providing new means to circumvent chemotherapy resistance in treatment of MLS patients. © 2019 The Authors. International Journal of Cancer published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of UICC
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| 5. |
- Hammaréus, Filip, 1998-, et al.
(författare)
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Plasma type I collagen α1 chain in relation to coronary artery disease : findings from a prospective population-based cohort and an acute myocardial infarction prospective cohort in Sweden.
- 2023
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Ingår i: BMJ Open. - : BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. - 2044-6055. ; 13:9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVES: To investigate the association between type I collagen α1 chain (COL1α1) levels and coronary artery disease (CAD) by using absolute quantification in plasma. Also, to investigate the correlates of COL1α1 to clinical characteristics and circulating markers of collagen metabolism.DESIGN: Life conditions, Stress and Health (LSH) study: prospective cohort study, here with a nested case-control design.Assessing Platelet Activity in Coronary Heart Disease (APACHE) study: prospective cohort study.SETTING: LSH: primary care setting, southeast Sweden.APACHE: cardiology department, university hospital, southeast Sweden.PARTICIPANTS: LSH: 1007 randomly recruited individuals aged 45-69 (50% women). Exclusion criteria was serious disease. After 13 years of follow-up, 86 cases with primary endpoint were identified and sex-matched/age-matched to 184 controls.APACHE: 125 patients with myocardial infarction (MI), 73 with ST-elevation MI and 52 with non-ST-elevation MI.EXCLUSION CRITERIA: Intervention study participation, warfarin treatment and short life expectancy.PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcome was the association between baseline COL1α1 and first-time major event of CAD, defined as fatal/non-fatal MI or coronary revascularisation after 13 years. Secondary outcomes were the association between the collagen biomarkers PRO-C1 (N-terminal pro-peptide of type I collagen)/C1M (matrix metalloproteinase-mediated degradation of type I collagen) and CAD; temporal change of COL1α1 after acute MI up to 6 months and lastly, correlates between COL1α1 and patient characteristics along with circulating markers of collagen metabolism.RESULTS: COL1α1 levels were associated with CAD, both unadjusted (HR=0.69, 95% CI=0.56 to 0.87) and adjusted (HR=0.55, 95% CI=0.41 to 0.75). PRO-C1 was associated with CAD, unadjusted (HR=0.62, 95% CI=0.47 to 0.82) and adjusted (HR=0.61, 95% CI=0.43 to 0.86), while C1M was not. In patients with MI, COL1α1 remained unchanged up to 6 months. COL1α1 was correlated to PRO-C1, but not to C1M.CONCLUSIONS: Plasma COL1α1 was independently and inversely associated with CAD. Furthermore, COL1α1 appeared to reflect collagen synthesis but not degradation. Future studies are needed to confirm whether COL1α1 is a clinically useful biomarker of CAD.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Ong, Kwok Leung, et al.
(författare)
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Usefulness of Certain Protein Biomarkers for Prediction of Coronary Heart Disease
- 2020
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Ingår i: American Journal of Cardiology. - : EXCERPTA MEDICA INC-ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC. - 0002-9149 .- 1879-1913. ; 125:4, s. 542-548
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Identification of biomarkers can help monitor and prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. We performed an exploratory analysis to identify potential biomarkers for coronary heart disease (CHD) in participants from the Life Conditions, Stress, and Health study. A total of 1,007 participants (50% women), randomly selected from the general population, were followed for incident CHD at 8 and 13 years of follow-up. Plasma levels of 184 CVD-related biomarkers were measured in samples collected at baseline in 86 cases with CHD and 184 age- and sex-matched controls by proximity extension assay. Biomarker levels were presented as normalized protein expression values (log 2 scale). After adjusting for confounding factors, 6 biomarkers showed significant association with incident CHD at 13 years. In a sensitivity analysis, this association remained significant at 8 years for 3 biomarkers; collagen alpha-1(I) chain (COL1A1), bone morphogenetic protein-6 (BMP-6), and interleukin-6 receptor alpha chain (IL-6R alpha). When entering these biomarkers in the full adjustment model simultaneously, their association with incident CHD at 13 years remained significant, hazards ratio being 0.671, 0.335, and 2.854, respectively per unit increase in normalized protein expression values. Subjects with low COL1A1, low BMP-6, and high IL-6R alpha levels had a hazards ratio of 5.097 for incident CHD risk (p = 0.019), compared with those without. In conclusion, we identified COL1A1, BMP-6 and IL-6Ra as biomarkers for incident CHD over a long-term follow-up in this exploratory analysis. For COL1A1 and BMP-6 this has not been previously reported. Further studies are needed to confirm our findings and establish their clinical relevance. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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| 8. |
- Panaliappan, Tamilarasan K., et al.
(författare)
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CAM-Delam: an in vivo approach to visualize and quantify the delamination and invasion capacity of human cancer cells
- 2020
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2045-2322. ; 10:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The development of metastases is the major cause of cancer related death. To develop a standardized method that define the ability of human cancer cells to degrade the basement membrane, e.g. the delamination capacity, is of importance to assess metastatic aggressiveness. We now present the in vivo CAM-Delam assay to visualize and quantify the ability of human cancer cells to delaminate and invade. The method includes seeding cancer cells on the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM), followed by the evaluation of cancer-induced delamination and potential invasion within hours to a few days. By testing a range of human cancer cell lines in the CAM-Delam assay, our results show that the delamination capacity can be divided into four categories and used to quantify metastatic aggressiveness. Our results emphasize the usefulness of this assay for quantifying delamination capacity as a measurement of metastatic aggressiveness, and in unraveling the molecular mechanisms that regulate delamination, invasion, formation of micro-metastases and modulations of the tumor microenvironment. This method will be useful in both the preclinical and clinical characterization of tumor biopsies, and in the validation of compounds that may improve survival in metastatic cancer.
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| 9. |
- Sahlin, Ellika, et al.
(författare)
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Identification of putative pathogenic single nucleotide variants (SNVs) in genes associated with heart disease in 290 cases of stillbirth
- 2019
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE. - 1932-6203. ; 14:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The incidence of stillbirth in Sweden has essentially remained constant since the 1980s, and despite thorough investigation, many cases remain unexplained. It has been suggested that a proportion of stillbirth cases is caused by heart disease, mainly channelopathies. The aim of this study was to analyze DNA from 290 stillbirth cases without chromosomal abnormalities for pathogenic single nucleotide variants (SNVs) in 70 genes associated with cardiac channelopathies and cardiomyopathies. The HaloPlex Target Enrichment System (Agilent Technologies) was utilized to prepare sequencing libraries which were sequenced on the Illumina NextSeq platform. We found that 12.1% of the 290 investigated stillbirth cases had one (n = 31) or two (n = 4) variants with evidence supporting pathogenicity, i.e. loss-of-function variants (nonsense, frameshift, splice site substitutions), evidence from functional studies, or previous identification of the variants in affected individuals. Regarding identified putative pathogenic variants in genes associated with channelopathies, the prevalence was significantly higher in the stillbirth cohort (n = 23, 7.93%) than the corresponding prevalence of the same variants in the non-Finnish European population of the Exome Aggregation Consortium (2.70%, pamp;lt;0.001) and SweGen, (2.30%, pamp;lt;0.001). Our results give further support to the hypothesis that cardiac channelopathies might contribute to stillbirth. Screening for pathogenic SNVs in genes associated with heart disease might be a valuable complement for stillbirth cases where todays conventional investigation does not reveal the underlying cause of fetal demise.
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