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| 2. |
- Johansson, Robert, et al.
(författare)
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Tailored vs. Standardized Internet-Based Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Depression and Comorbid Symptoms: A Randomized Controlled Trial
- 2012
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - San Francisco : Public Library of Science. - 1932-6203. ; 7:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background and Aims: Major depression can be treated by means of cognitive behavior therapy, delivered via the Internet as guided self-help. Individually tailored guided self-help treatments have shown promising results in the treatment of anxiety disorders. This randomized controlled trial tested the efficacy of an Internet-based individually tailored guided self-help treatment which specifically targeted depression with comorbid symptoms. The treatment was compared both to standardized (non-tailored) Internet-based treatment and to an active control group in the form of a monitored online discussion group. Both guided self-help treatments were based on cognitive behavior therapy and lasted for 10 weeks. The discussion group consisted of weekly discussion themes related to depression and the treatment of depression. Methods: A total of 121 participants with diagnosed major depressive disorder and with a range of comorbid symptoms were randomized to three groups. The tailored treatment consisted of a prescribed set of modules targeting depression as well as comorbid problems. The standardized treatment was a previously tested guided self-help program for depression. Results: From pre-treatment to post-treatment, both treatment groups improved on measures of depression, anxiety and quality of life. The results were maintained at a 6-month follow-up. Subgroup analyses showed that the tailored treatment was more effective than the standardized treatment among participants with higher levels of depression at baseline and more comorbidity, both in terms of reduction of depressive symptoms and on recovery rates. In the subgroup with lower baseline scores of depression, few differences were seen between treatments and the discussion group. Conclusions: This study shows that tailored Internet-based treatment for depression is effective and that addressing comorbidity by tailoring may be one way of making guided self-help treatments more effective than standardized approaches in the treatment of more severe depression.
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| 3. |
- Johansson, Therese, et al.
(författare)
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Short-term responses of beetle assemblages to wildfire in a region with more than 100 years of fire suppression
- 2011
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Ingår i: Insect Conservation and Diversity. - : Wiley. - 1752-458X .- 1752-4598. ; 4:2, s. 142-151
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 1. Suppression of wildfires in boreal landscapes has become widespread and has seriously affected many fire favoured species. However, little is known about the response of organism assemblages to large wildfires in regions with a long history of effective fire suppression, such as Scandinavia.2. We studied the short-term effects of a >1600 ha wildfire on beetle assemblages in northern Sweden. The first summer after fire, beetles were sampled in 12 sites using 36 large window traps, half in old pine forest stands in the burned area and half in similar, but unburned control stands. The entire beetle assemblage and eight subgroups were analysed: saproxylics, non-saproxylics, moderately fire favoured, strongly fire favoured, fungivores, predators, cambium consumers and red-listed species.3. Species composition differed markedly between burned and unburned forests in all nine groups. Furthermore, beetle abundance was higher in the burned area for the entire assemblage and for saproxylics, both groups of fire favoured species, predators and cambium consumers. Species number was higher only for non-saproxylics, strongly fire favoured species and cambium consumers.4. Our results show that wildfire has rapid and strong effects on a wide range of beetles. However, we only trapped two individuals of fire-dependent beetles, which may suggest a lack of such species in the region, possibly due to >100 years of fire suppression. At the regional scale, the studied wildfire may potentially increase the abundance of these beetles after a longer period of reproduction in the burned area.
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| 5. |
- Agholme, Fredrik, et al.
(författare)
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Local bisphosphonate release versus hydroxyapatite coating for stainless steel screw fixation in rat tibiae
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of materials science. Materials in medicine. - : Springer Verlag (Germany). - 0957-4530 .- 1573-4838. ; 23:3, s. 743-752
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Implant fixation in bone can be improved by a coating that delivers bisphosphonates locally, or by a hydroxyapatite (HA) coating. In this study, we compared these different types of coatings. For mechanical testing, 30 rats were assigned into three groups, and similar screws were implanted bilaterally in the proximal tibiae. The rats received screws that were either uncoated, coated with nano-crystalline hydroxyapatite or coated with a bisphosphonate releasing protein matrix. After 4 weeks, one screw was subjected to pull-out testing, and the contra-lateral one to torsion testing. For morphology, 30 rats were assigned to similar treatment groups, but received only one screw each. Bisphosphonates enhanced the pull-out force by 41% (P = 0.02) compared to controls, HA increased the pull-out force although not significantly. Conversely, HA increased the maximal torque by 64% (P = 0.02). Morphometry showed higher bone volume around bisphosphonate screws in comparison to HA-coated screws (P andlt; 0.001) and controls (P andlt; 0.001). The results suggest that bisphosphonates improve fixation by increasing the amount of surrounding bone, whereas HA mainly improves bone to implant attachment.
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| 6. |
- Alvehus, Malin, et al.
(författare)
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Adipose tissue IL-8 is increased in normal weight women after menopause and reduced after gastric bypass surgery in obese women
- 2012
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Ingår i: Clinical Endocrinology. - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0300-0664 .- 1365-2265. ; 77:5, s. 684-690
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective: The menopausal transition is characterized by increased body fat accumulation, including redistribution from peripheral to central fat depots. This distribution is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease which are linked to low-grade inflammation. We determined whether postmenopausal women have higher levels of inflammatory markers, compared to premenopausal women. We also wanted to determine if these markers are reduced by stable weight loss in obese women. Design and methods: Anthropometric data, blood samples, and subcutaneous adipose tissue biopsies were collected from normal weight premenopausal and postmenopausal women and obese women before and 2 years after gastric bypass surgery. Serum protein levels and adipose tissue gene expression of inflammatory markers were investigated. Results: IL-8 expression in adipose tissue and circulating levels were higher in postmenopausal versus premenopausal women. IL-8 expression was associated with waist circumference, independent of menopausal status. IL-6 expression and serum levels of monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 were higher in postmenopausal versus premenopausal women. Two years after gastric bypass surgery, adipose expression of IL-8, tumor necrosis factor-α, and MCP-1 decreased significantly. Serum insulin levels were associated with inflammation-related gene expression before gastric bypass surgery, but these associations disappeared after surgery. Conclusion: Postmenopausal women have an increased inflammatory response in the subcutaneous fat and circulation. Inflammatory markers in adipose tissue decreased significantly after surgery-induced weight loss. This effect may be beneficial for metabolic control and reduced cardiovascular risk after weight loss. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
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| 7. |
- Andersson, Isabelle, et al.
(författare)
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The IT Phenomenon in the Multinational Enterprise
- 2012
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Annan publikation (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- ForewordIn the last ten years (that I have been doing research and teaching at Mälardalen University) I have studied how information technology has become increasingly important in companies’ activities – in their daily business as well as in its implications for firms in general. What occurs to me is that, when the issue becomes a topic of academic research, information technology is studied from different perspectives in different areas of research – sometimes it is treated as a topic in itself, and sometimes as part of a business strategy or marketing activity. I have often asked myself when information technology will become regarded as an aspect of the business administration taught at universities. To some extent I think it already is, although it is not yet formally considered to be an aspect of business administration.As a lecturer, I have focused mainly on international business. In many of the seminars that I have lead, the issue of information technology has been discussed as something that the students believe will change the way that multinational enterprises can and do coordinate and control their organisations and acquire the information they need concerning their markets. (The use of information technology states that that is the case). The issue of how and to what end multinational enterprises use information technology has often been raised, but it seems that the literature comes up short in providing a holistic view of this matter. There are many studies on different aspects, and some of them present empirical data, but it seems there is a lack of major contemporary studies showing general results on the phenomenon of information technology in multinational enterprises. This is no surprise, since a study of this kind would cost a great deal of resources in terms of time as well as professors and doctoral candidates.This book is a work that partly fills the gap in the literature. It discusses and assembles literature on information technology as a feature of the multinational enterprise, but to some extent it also theorises on the role of IT in multinational enterprises. The students behind this work have carried out extensive literature reviews in many of the fields that encompass information technology in business in general and in large international companies in particular. They have arranged the literature and present it in a way they think is suitable in order to provide an overall picture of information technology in multinational enterprises. The study of the literature has thrown up questions, which have been asked of representatives of multinational companies and so “cases” are presented, i.e.Iexamples demonstrating the use of information technology. As a whole, this book fulfils its aim, which is to present the use of information technology in multinational companies in theory and in practice and to show that information technology as used by companies is a part of business administration as we know it. Of course there are questions that remain unanswered. Some of them are stated as topics for further research at the end of this work.I feel content to use this book as a textbook on undergraduate courses dealing with the management of multinational enterprises, since the use of information technology is an important part of these. I feel proud that it is my students who (may I add, without much help from my part) have produced this work.Cecilia Lindh, supervisor
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| 8. |
- Andersson, Louise, 1979, et al.
(författare)
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Role of EphA4 receptor signaling in thyroid development: regulation of folliculogenesis and propagation of the C-cell lineage.
- 2011
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Ingår i: Endocrinology. - : The Endocrine Society. - 1945-7170 .- 0013-7227. ; 152:3, s. 1154-64
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Transcriptome analysis revealed that the tyrosine kinase receptor EphA4 is enriched in the thyroid bud in mouse embryos. We used heterozygous EphA4-EGFP knock-in mice in which enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) replaced the intracellular receptor domain (EphA4(+/EGFP)) to localize EphA4 protein in thyroid primordial tissues. This showed that thyroid progenitors originating in the pharyngeal floor express EphA4 at all embryonic stages and when follicles are formed in late development. Also, the ultimobranchial bodies developed from the pharyngeal pouch endoderm express EphA4, but the ultimobranchial epithelium loses the EGFP signal before it merges with the median thyroid primordium. Embryonic C cells invading the thyroid are exclusively EphA4-negative. EphA4 expression continues in the adult thyroid. EphA4 knock-out mice and EphA4-EGFP homozygous mutants are euthyroid and have a normal thyroid anatomy but display subtle histological alterations regarding number, size, and shape of follicles. Of particular interest, the pattern of follicular abnormality differs between EphA4(-/-) and EphA4(EGFP/EGFP) thyroids. In addition, the number of C cells is reduced by >50% exclusively in animals lacking EphA4 forward signaling (EphA4(EGFP/EGFP)). Heterozygous EphA4 mutants have no apparent thyroid phenotype. We conclude that EphA4 is a novel regulator of thyroid morphogenesis that impacts on postnatal development of the two endocrine cell lineages of the differentiating gland. In this process both EphA4 forward signaling (in the follicular epithelium) and reverse signaling mediated by its cognate ligand(s) (A- and/or B-ephrins expressed in follicular cells and C cells, respectively) are probably functionally important.
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| 9. |
- Andersson, Therese, et al.
(författare)
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Achilles tendon healing in rats is improved by intermittent mechanical loading during the inflammatory phase
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of Orthopaedic Research. - : Wiley Online Library. - 0736-0266 .- 1554-527X. ; 30:2, s. 274-279
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Tendons adapt to changes in mechanical loading, and numerous animal studiesshow that immobilization of a healing tendon is detrimental to the healingprocess. The present study addresses whether the effects of a few episodes ofmechanical loading are different during different phases of healing. Fifty femalerats underwent Achilles tendon transection, and their hind limbs were unloadedby tail suspension on the day after surgery. One group of 10 rats was taken downfrom suspension to walk on a treadmill for 30 minutes per day, on days 2-5 aftertransection. They were euthanized on day 8. Another group underwent similartreadmill running on days 8-11 and was euthanized on day 14. Completelyunloaded groups were euthanized on day 8 and 14. Tendon specimens were thenevaluated mechanically. The results showed that just 4 loading episodesincreased the strength of the healing tendon. This was evident irrespective of thetime-point when loading was applied (early or late). The positive effect on earlyhealing was unexpected, considering that the mechanical stimulation was appliedduring the inflammatory phase, when the calluses were small and fragile. Ahistological study of additional groups with early loading also showed someincreased bleeding in the loaded calluses. Our results indicate that a smallamount of early loading may improve the outcome of tendon healing. This couldbe of interest to clinical practice.
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| 10. |
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