| 1. |
- Bergman, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Safety and efficacy of the mRNA BNT162b2 vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 in five groups of immunocompromised patients and healthy controls in a prospective open-label clinical trial
- 2021
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Ingår i: EBioMedicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 2352-3964. ; 74
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Patients with immunocompromised disorders have mainly been excluded from clinical trials of vaccination against COVID-19. Thus, the aim of this prospective clinical trial was to investigate safety and efficacy of BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination in five selected groups of immunocompromised patients and healthy controls.Methods: 539 study subjects (449 patients and 90 controls) were included. The patients had either primary (n=90), or secondary immunodeficiency disorders due to human immunodeficiency virus infection (n=90), allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation/CAR T cell therapy (n=90), solid organ transplantation (SOT) (n=89), or chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) (n=90). The primary endpoint was seroconversion rate two weeks after the second dose. The secondary endpoints were safety and documented SARS-CoV-2 infection.Findings: Adverse events were generally mild, but one case of fatal suspected unexpected serious adverse reaction occurred. 72.2% of the immunocompromised patients seroconverted compared to 100% of the controls (p=0.004). Lowest seroconversion rates were found in the SOT (43.4%) and CLL (63.3%) patient groups with observed negative impact of treatment with mycophenolate mofetil and ibrutinib, respectively.Interpretation: The results showed that the mRNA BNT162b2 vaccine was safe in immunocompromised patients. Rate of seroconversion was substantially lower than in healthy controls, with a wide range of rates and antibody titres among predefined patient groups and subgroups. This clinical trial highlights the need for additional vaccine doses in certain immunocompromised patient groups to improve immunity.
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| 2. |
- Borgström, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Wetlands as a potential multifunctioning tool to mitigate eutrophication and brownification
- 2024
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Ingår i: Ecological Applications. - 1051-0761 .- 1939-5582.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Eutrophication and brownification are ongoing environmental problems affecting aquatic ecosystems. Due to anthropogenic changes, increasing amounts of organic and inorganic compounds are entering aquatic systems from surrounding catchment areas, increasing both nutrients, total organic carbon (TOC), and water color with societal, as well as ecological consequences. Several studies have focused on the ability of wetlands to reduce nutrients, whereas data on their potential to reduce TOC and water color are scarce. Here we evaluate wetlands as a potential multifunctional tool for mitigating both eutrophication and brownification. Therefore, we performed a study for 18 months in nine wetlands allowing us to estimate the reduction in concentrations of total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), TOC and water color. We show that wetland reduction efficiency with respect to these variables was generally higher during summer, but many of the wetlands were also efficient during winter. We also show that some, but not all, wetlands have the potential to reduce TOC, water color and nutrients simultaneously. However, the generalist wetlands that reduced all four parameters were less efficient in reducing each of them than the specialist wetlands that only reduced one or two parameters. In a broader context, generalist wetlands have the potential to function as multifunctional tools to mitigate both eutrophication and brownification of aquatic systems. However, further research is needed to assess the design of the generalist wetlands and to investigate the potential of using several specialist wetlands in the same catchment.
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| 3. |
- Borgström, Emilie W., et al.
(författare)
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Three Adult Cases of STAT1 Gain-of-Function with Chronic Mucocutaneous Candidiasis Treated with JAK Inhibitors
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Clinical Immunology. - : Springer. - 0271-9142 .- 1573-2592. ; 43, s. 136-150
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose; The aim of this study was to characterize clinical effects and biomarkers in three patients with chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis (CMC) caused by gain-of-function (GOF) mutations in the STAT1 gene during treatment with Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors.Methods: Mass cytometry (CyTOF) was used to characterize mononuclear leukocyte populations and Olink assay to quantify 265 plasma proteins. Flow-cytometric Assay for Specific Cell-mediated Immune-response in Activated whole blood (FASCIA) was used to quantify the reactivity against Candida albicans.Results: Overall, JAK inhibitors improved clinical symptoms of CMC, but caused side effects in two patients. Absolute numbers of neutrophils, T cells, B cells, and NK cells were sustained during baricitinib treatment. Detailed analysis of cellular subsets, using CyTOF, revealed increased expression of CD45, CD52, and CD99 in NK cells, reflecting a more functional phenotype. Conversely, monocytes and eosinophils downregulated CD16, consistent with reduced inflammation. Moreover, T and B cells showed increased expression of activation markers during treatment. In one patient with a remarkable clinical effect of baricitinib treatment, the immune response to C. albicans increased after 7 weeks of treatment. Alterations in plasma biomarkers involved downregulation of cellular markers CXCL10, annexin A1, granzyme B, granzyme H, and oncostatin M, whereas FGF21 was the only upregulated marker after 7 weeks. After 3 months, IFN-gamma and CXCL10 were downregulated.Conclusions: The clinical effect of JAK inhibitor treatment of CMC is promising. Several biological variables were altered during baricitinib treatment demonstrating that lymphocytes, NK cells, monocytes, and eosinophils were affected. In parallel, cellular reactivity against C. albicans was enhanced.
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| 4. |
- Borgström, Max, et al.
(författare)
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Retinal thinning and brain atrophy in early MS and CIS
- 2020
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Ingår i: Acta Neurologica Scandinavica. - : Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Inc.. - 0001-6314 .- 1600-0404. ; 142:5, s. 418-427
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background Optical coherence tomography (OCT) could be complementary to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain in monitoring course of multiple sclerosis (MS) and clinically isolated syndrome (CIS). Thinning of neurons in ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer (GCIPL) measured by OCT is assumed to be associated with brain atrophy. Objectives To evaluate association of GCIPL with brain parameters detected by quantitative MRI (qMRI) and MR-spectroscopy (MRS) in early MS and CIS. Methods Seventeen newly diagnosed MS and 18 CIS patients were prospectively included. The patients were assessed at baseline as well as at 1 year follow-up by OCT, qMRI and MRS. Brain parenchymal and myelin volumes (BPV, MYV respectively) and the corresponding fractions (BPF, MYF) were measured with qMRI. Metabolites including myo-inositol (myo-Ins) were measured in the normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) using MRS. T-tests and ANOVA were used to analyze group differences, and linear regression models to evaluate association of GCIPL with BPV, MYV and myo-Ins after correlation analysis. Results Disease activity reflected by lesions on MRI and presence of CSF oligoclonal IgG bands were more prominent in MS compared to CIS. GCIPL, BPV, MYV, BPF and MYF were reduced, while concentration of myo-Ins was increased in MS compared to CIS. Follow-up showed consistency of thinner GCIPL in MS compared to CIS. GCIPL thinning correlated with reduced BPV and MYV (P < .05 for both), but with increased myo-Ins (P < .01). Conclusions Significant GCIPL thinning occurs in early MS and is associated with enhanced brain inflammation and atrophy.
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| 5. |
- Deutschmann, Mats, 1964-, et al.
(författare)
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"It ain't what you say. It's the way you say it" : adapting the matched guise technique (MGT) to raise awareness of accentedness stereotyping effects among Swedish pre-service teachers
- 2023
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Ingår i: Language Awareness. - : Routledge. - 0965-8416 .- 1747-7565. ; 32:2, s. 255-277
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The study describes a pedagogic adaptation of the matched guise technique with the aim to raise linguistic self-awareness of L2 accentedness stereotyping effects among Swedish pre-service teachers. In the experiment, 290 students attending teacher training programs were exposed to one of two matched guises, representing either L1 accented Swedish, or L2 accented Swedish. Both guises were based on the same recording, but the L2 accented version had been digitally manipulated using cut-and-paste techniques in order to replicate certain vowel sounds (the [u:]-sound in particular) associated with low-prestige Swedish L2 accentedness. The findings from this experiment were then used as starting point for language awareness raising activities. Our overall results show that the L2 accented manipulated recording was evaluated more favourably than the original L1 accented recording on all investigated variables. One proposed explanation is that respondents were inadvertently influenced by so-called shifting standards effects, i.e. lower standards/expectations are being used as reference points when evaluating the L2 accented recording. This tendency, however, seemed to be less apparent among respondents with bi/multilingual linguistic identities. Following debriefing discussions based on the experiment findings, there were clear indications that respondents did become more aware of inadvertent linguistic stereotyping by participating in the activities.
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| 6. |
- Fast, Jonatan, et al.
(författare)
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Hot-carrier separation in heterostructure nanowires observed by electron-beam induced current
- 2020
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Ingår i: Nanotechnology. - : IOP Publishing. - 1361-6528 .- 0957-4484. ; 31:39
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The separation of hot carriers in semiconductors is of interest for applications such asthermovoltaic photodetection and third-generation photovoltaics. Semiconductor nanowiresoffer several potential advantages for effective hot-carrier separation such as: a high degree ofcontrol and flexibility in heterostructure-based band engineering, increased hot-carriertemperatures compared to bulk, and a geometry well suited for local control of light absorption.Indeed, InAs nanowires with a short InP energy barrier have been observed to produce electricpower under global illumination, with an open-circuit voltage exceeding the Shockley-Queisserlimit. To understand this behaviour in more detail, it is necessary to establish control over theprecise location of electron-hole pair-generation in the nanowire. In this work we performelectron-beam induced current measurements with high spatial resolution, and demonstrate therole of the InP barrier in extracting energetic electrons.We interprete the results in terms ofhot-carrier separation, and extract estimates of the hot carriers’ mean free path.
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| 7. |
- Flodgren, Vidar, et al.
(författare)
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III-V nanowire based neuromorphic nanophotonic circuits
- 2023
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Ingår i: 2023 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe and European Quantum Electronics Conference, CLEO/Europe-EQEC 2023. - 9798350345995
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Combining highly efficient nanophotonic structures into artificial neural networks hold significant promise for superior hardware solutions [1]. Well-defined circuit architectures and concepts, with limited size and clear functionality are useful to develop and verify such novel concepts. Insects are capable of amazing autonomous feats well beyond current computers, such as navigating across hundreds of kilometres of unfamiliar terrain, with only a few drops of nectar as energy supply. One important module of the insect brain, conserved across species with vastly different lifestyles, is the central complex navigation circuit. This has been distilled to its fundamental neuroarchitecture and the function of a number of its components into a biologically constrained computational model [2].
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| 8. |
- McKibbin, Sarah R., et al.
(författare)
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Operando Surface Characterization of InP Nanowire p-n Junctions
- 2020
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Ingår i: Nano Letters. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1530-6984 .- 1530-6992. ; 20:2, s. 887-895
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present an in-depth analysis of the surface band alignment and local potential distribution of InP nanowires containing a p-n junction using scanning probe and photoelectron microscopy techniques. The depletion region is localized to a 15 nm thin surface region by scanning tunneling spectroscopy and an electronic shift of up to 0.5 eV between the n- A nd p-doped nanowire segments was observed and confirmed by Kelvin probe force microscopy. Scanning photoelectron microscopy then allowed us to measure the intrinsic chemical shift of the In 3d, In 4d, and P 2p core level spectra along the nanowire and the effect of operating the nanowire diode in forward and reverse bias on these shifts. Thanks to the high-resolution techniques utilized, we observe fluctuations in the potential and chemical energy of the surface along the nanowire in great detail, exposing the sensitive nature of nanodevices to small scale structural variations.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Winge, David, et al.
(författare)
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Artificial nanophotonic neuron with internal memory for biologically inspired and reservoir network computing
- 2023
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Ingår i: Neuromorphic Computing and Engineering. - 2634-4386. ; 3:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Neurons with internal memory have been proposed for biological and bio-inspired neural networks, adding important functionality. We introduce an internal time-limited charge-based memory into a III-V nanowire (NW) based optoelectronic neural node circuit designed for handling optical signals in a neural network. The new circuit can receive inhibiting and exciting light signals, store them, perform a non-linear evaluation, and emit a light signal. Using experimental values from the performance of individual III-V NWs we create a realistic computational model of the complete artificial neural node circuit. We then create a flexible neural network simulation that uses these circuits as neuronal nodes and light for communication between the nodes. This model can simulate combinations of nodes with different hardware derived memory properties and variable interconnects. Using the full model, we simulate the hardware implementation for two types of neural networks. First, we show that intentional variations in the memory decay time of the nodes can significantly improve the performance of a reservoir network. Second, we simulate the implementation in an anatomically constrained functioning model of the central complex network of the insect brain and find that it resolves an important functionality of the network even with significant variations in the node performance. Our work demonstrates the advantages of an internal memory in a concrete, nanophotonic neural node. The use of variable memory time constants in neural nodes is a general hardware derived feature and could be used in a broad range of implementations.
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