| 1. |
- Ekblad, Kristin, 1975-
(författare)
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The economics of sickness absence : social interactions, local cultures and working conditions
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The focus of this thesis is the study of social and psychosocial aspects of sickness absence. In Essay 1, Sickness Absence and Peer Effects – Evidence from a Swedish Municipality, detailed employment records from a Swedish public employer are used to investigate whether sick leave among work group colleagues influences individual sick leave. Our results indicate that a worker’s level of sick leave is positively correlated with sick leave among peers. When length of employment is taken into account, however, we find that this positive peer effect emerges initially after the first few years of employment. In Essay 2, Who Cares about the Colleagues? – Insights into Peer Effect Heterogeneities in Sickness Absence across Gender and Age, I scrutinize the data used in Essay 1 to further investigate the nature of peer effects in sickness absence in relation to gender and age. The results indicate that men, as well as women, are sensitive to their female colleagues but not to their male peers. Moreover, somewhat surprisingly, I find that young and middle-aged workers are sensitive to younger peers, whereas the oldest workers are not sensitive to any of their peers. Essay 3, Sickness Absence and Local Culture, investigates the effect of geographical and presumed cultural context on sickness absence. Our results indicate that the region of residence is important to individual ‘illness-related absence’. In Essay 4, Sickness Absence, Working Conditions and Gender – An Empirical Analysis using Multiltvel Models, I analyse how psychosocial working conditions are related to short- and longterm sick leave and if, and how, these relation-ships vary with gender. The results show that employees who enjoy higher levels of autonomy in their post take fewer periods of short-term sick leave, and that this effect is significantly greater for male workers. The results also show that for female workers, stronger work-group cohesion is related to a lower likelihood of long-term sick leave.
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| 2. |
- Schizas, Nikos, 1979-
(författare)
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Neuroprotection in the Injured Spinal Cord : Novel Strategies using Immunomodulation, Stem cell Transplantation and Hyaluronic acid Hydrogel carriers
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of this thesis was to establish strategies to minimize secondary damage to the injured spinal cord. Secondary damage that follows spinal cord injury (SCI) involves inflammatory and excitotoxic pathways. Regulation of these pathways using immunomodulatory and neuroprotective substances potentially protects the injured spinal cord from further damage. We also developed and studied resorbable biomaterials to be used as carriers for potential neuroprotectants to the injured spinal cord.We used transversal spinal cord slice cultures (SCSCs) derived from postnatal mice as a model. SCSCs were maintained on different biomaterials and were studied after treatment with immunomodulatory and/or neurotrophic factors. They were further excitotoxically injured and subsequently treated with interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL1RA) or by neural crest stem cell (NCSC)-transplantation.The results show that biocompatible and resorbable hydrogels based on hyaluronic acid (HA) preserved neurons in SCSCs to a much higher extent than a conventional collagen-based biomaterial or standard polyethylene terephthalate (PET) membrane inserts. Glial activation was limited in the cultures maintained on HA-based hydrogel. The anti-inflammatory factor IL1RA protected SCSCs from degenerative mechanisms that occur during in vitro incubation, and IL1RA also protected SCSCs from excitotoxic injury induced by N-Methyl-d-Aspartate (NMDA). IL1RA specifically protected neurons that resided in the ventral horn, while other neuronal populations such as dorsal horn neurons and Renshaw cells did not respond to treatment. Finally, transplantation of NCSCs onto excitotoxically injured SCSCs protected from neuronal loss, apoptosis and glial activation, while NCSCs remained undifferentiated.The results presented in this thesis indicate that carriers based on HA seem to be more suitable than conventional collagen-based biomaterials since they enhance neuronal survival per se. The observed neuroprotection is likely due to biomechanical properties of HA. IL1RA protects SCSCs from spontaneous degeneration and from NMDA-induced injury, suggesting that excitotoxic mechanisms can be modulated through anti-inflammatory pathways. Different neuronal populations are affected by IL1RA to various degrees, suggesting that a combination of different neuroprotectants should be used in treatment strategies after SCI. Finally, NCSCs seem to protect SCSCs from excitotoxic injury through paracrine actions, since they remain undifferentiated and do not migrate into the tissue during in vitro incubation.It seems that combinations of neuroprotectants and carrier substances should be considered rather than one single strategy when designing future treatments for SCI. Incorporation of neuroprotectants such as IL1RA combined with stem cells in injectable biocompatible carriers based on HA is the final goal of our group in the treatment of SCI.
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| 3. |
- Gruneau, Lina, 1994-, et al.
(författare)
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Precision i hälsoekonomiska utvärderingsresultat och osäkerhet i prioriteringsbeslut
- 2022
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Tandvårds- och läkemedelsförmånsverket (TLV) genomför på uppdrag av regeringen ett arbete med att utveckla metoder för hälsoekonomiska utvärderingar av precisionsmedicin och betalningsmodeller för avancerade terapiläkemedel (ATMP). TLV redovisar i sin andra rapport inom ramen för uppdraget ett antal nya möjliga metoder som kan användas i en hälsoekonomisk utvärdering för att värdera huruvida de priser som företagen efterfrågar är rimliga i förhållande till läkemedlens nytta. Eftersom hälsoekonomiska utvärderingar alltid är behäftade med osäkerhet i skattningarna är frågan om hur osäkerhet skall analyseras och beskrivas central för precisionsmedicin och ATMP då dataunderlagen ofta är knapphändiga. I en slutsats från ett tidigare arbete om utmaningarna med att utvärdera kostnader och hälsoeffekter inom ramen för precisionsmedicin konstaterades det att osäkerheten i skattningarna av kostnadseffektivitet kommer att öka när patientpopulationerna som utvärderas blir allt mindre. Vidare framgick det i de tidigare arbetena att TLVs ansats för att beskriva och analysera osäkerhet inte alltid är helt tydlig. Som en del i TLVs regeringsuppdrag ingår det att beskriva och tydliggöra osäkerheter i skattningar av kostnadseffektivitet samt hur dessa osäkerhet kan påverka osäkerhet i prioriteringsbeslut och den här rapporten är en del i det arbetet.Rapporten är fristående från den rapport som TLV skrivit inom ramen för regeringsuppdraget men har som mål att ge en kompletterande beskrivning av de osäkerheter som oftast föreligger när hälsoekonomiska utvärderingar utgör en del av ett underlag för prioriteringsbeslut. Förhoppningen är att denna rapport tillsammans med TLVs rapport ska stimulera till fortsatt diskussion om potentiella lösningar för att hantera utmaningar inte bara med precisionsmedicin och ATMP utan även med beslutsfattande under osäkerhet generellt inom hälso- och sjukvården.
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| 4. |
- Parseh, Masoumeh, 1989-, et al.
(författare)
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Pre-Crash Vehicle Control and Manoeuvre Planning: A Step Towards Minimizing Collision Severity for Highly Automated Vehicles
- 2019
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Ingår i: 2019 IEEE International Conference of Vehicular Electronics and Safety (ICVES). - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper addresses the control of a highly automated vehicle in a traffic scenario, where colliding with other traffic agents is unavoidable. Such a critical situation could be the result of a fault in the vehicle, late obstacle detection or the presence of an aggressive driver. We provide an approach that allows the vehicle’s control system to choose the manoeuvre that is likely to lead to the least severe injuries to vehicle occupants.The approach involves the off-line solving of an optimal control problem to create a set of trajectories based on controlling the steering angle rate and the braking rate at the vehicle’s limits. Occupant injury severity prediction, based on accident data with the focus on impact location, is used by a real-time collision control algorithm to choose a trajectory from the pre-computed optimal set. A simulation set-up is presented to illustrate the idea of the collision control algorithm in a simple scenario involving dynamic traffic agents.
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| 5. |
- Svensson, Torbjörn, Adjunkt, 1969-
(författare)
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From games to news : Creating an engagement model for digital local news
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The transition of local news from the analog, printed format to a digital format, fit for our increasingly digitized media technology society, has not been as straight-forward as was imagined at the dawning of the World Wide Web. Newspapers, in particular local newspapers, were quite fast in trying to adapt to the new technology platform and put their content on the web. User experiences of reading news have certainly evolved since 1995, with the introduction, for example, of the smartphone and proprietary news apps. However, there has been no deep or consistent commitment to understanding more specifically how the digital format can provide a means of interactivity for users and support a range of content and means to engage it. The digital news format does enable interaction between readers and news staff, and, not least, between users in real-time. However, many features for engagement are currently under-explored. Other media, for example computer games, have developed new ways to engage their audience of players both in terms of how the media is distributed and also how the content is personally adaptive, for example, to the unique skill level of players, or by offering them freedom of action to explore content, and/or by enabling increasing communication among player groups.The main knowledge contribution of this research is a novel model for reader engagement in digital local news. The model is constructed by transferring features for user needs satisfaction and engagement in digital games to the realm of digital local news. Self Determination Theory, which establishes ways of describing user engagement in general, and when applied to computer games specifically, forms the basis of the research. Additionally detailed knowledge about user types counters a traditional ‘one to many’ broadcast logic and supports greater understanding of heterogeneity within reader groups. The model also defines the digital maturity of the different features across a spectrum, from substitution via modification to disruption (Su-Mo-Di). For example, some digital features replicate those from the analog printed version II of the newspaper (substitution), while some are impossible to implement in a paper format (disruption).The aim of the research is to outline a unique model of engagement and illustrate how to apply the varied and detailed features when applied to digital local news. This usage of game engagement transferred to digital news contexts also allows alternative ways to interpret the term gamification. Classically gamification has been defined as using game design elements in non-game contexts, where typical game features like points, leaderboards, and badges have been introduced into a significant variation of media and forms, often to increase effectiveness or output from processes. This research contests that view and suggests that gamification can be used to engage mechanisms from games on a higher or more abstract level than actual game mechanics.The method for transferring this form of game engagement to digital local news engagement is built on a process where the more detailed strategies for making computer games engaging are abstracted and re-applied to the field of digital local news. These strategies form the basis for the unique engagement model illustrated within the thesis. These engagement aspects drawn from the model are further elaborated and used to examine specific examples and two prototypes focused on digital local news. The conclusions demonstrate that a focus on engagement through many varied applications can offer a rich method to increase and to analyze user experiences and to design novel features specific to enhancing digital local news.
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