| 1. |
- Ahluwalia, T. S., et al.
(författare)
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Genome-wide association study of circulating interleukin 6 levels identifies novel loci
- 2021
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Ingår i: Human molecular genetics. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0964-6906 .- 1460-2083. ; 30:5, s. 393-409
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Interleukin 6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional cytokine with both pro- and anti-inflammatory properties with a heritability estimate of up to 61%. The circulating levels of IL-6 in blood have been associated with an increased risk of complex disease pathogenesis. We conducted a two-staged, discovery and replication meta genome-wide association study (GWAS) of circulating serum IL-6 levels comprising up to 67428 (n(discovery)=52654 and n(replication)=14774) individuals of European ancestry. The inverse variance fixed effects based discovery meta-analysis, followed by replication led to the identification of two independent loci, IL1F10/IL1RN rs6734238 on chromosome (Chr) 2q14, (P-combined=1.8x10(-11)), HLA-DRB1/DRB5 rs660895 on Chr6p21 (P-combined=1.5x10(-10)) in the combined meta-analyses of all samples. We also replicated the IL6R rs4537545 locus on Chr1q21 (P-combined=1.2x10(-122)). Our study identifies novel loci for circulating IL-6 levels uncovering new immunological and inflammatory pathways that may influence IL-6 pathobiology.
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| 2. |
- Bahrami, Alireza, et al.
(författare)
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Experimental Investigation of Ultimate Shear Force Capacity of Glulam Reinforced with Glued-in Threaded Rods
- 2023
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Ingår i: The Open Construction & Building Technology Journal. - : Bentham. - 1874-8368. ; 17, s. 1-12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Abstract:Background:Glued-in threaded (GIT) rods have been considered an effective timber connection method having several advantages, such as high load-carrying capacity, great stiffness, and good fire resistance. This type of connection has widely been utilized in newly built modern timber structures and for reinforcing the existing ones.Objective:The purpose of this experimental research is to investigate how the ultimate shear force capacity (USFC) of glulam is affected if it is reinforced with GIT rods and to study the interaction between the glulam and GIT rods. The results of this research can help researchers and engineers to select a suitable method of reinforcing the glulam with GIT rods at a superior inclination angle (IA) to the fiber direction in order to achieve higher USFCs.Methods and Experimental Tests:A total of forty glulam samples were tested for failure. The experimental tests consisted of five different series of samples with eight samples in each series. Sample series 1 were unreinforced glulam. Sample series 2 and 4 were glulam reinforced with the GIT rods at two different IAs of 45° and 90° to the fiber direction, respectively. Sample series 3 and 5 were glulam reinforced in the same way as sample series 2 and 4, but they were split in the middle. The samples were tested for failure using a standard testing machine. The machine was connected to a computer that recorded all the values obtained from the tests.Results:The results of the study were obtained as force-displacement graphs. The stiffness of the samples and interaction between the glulam and GIT rods were also calculated. The results achieved from the experimental tests of different series were compared and discussed.Conclusion:The experimental tests resulted in a 12.5% increase in the average USFC of sample series 2. However, the average USFC of sample series 4 was not enhanced significantly. The interaction between the glulam and GIT rods was obtained as 31.8% for the samples with reinforcing at the IA of 45° to the fiber direction and 3.8% for the samples with reinforcing at the IA of 90° to the fiber direction. Reinforcing the glulam with the GIT rods demonstrated the potential of enhancing its USFC. However, reinforcing the glulam with the GIT rods at the IA of 45° to the fiber direction was found to be superior to reinforcing the glulam with the GIT rods at the IA of 90° to the fiber direction.
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| 3. |
- Bahrami, Alireza, et al.
(författare)
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How Aware and Active is the Swedish Building and Real Estate Sector in Climate-Smart Concrete?
- 2022
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Ingår i: International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology. - : Seventh Sense Research Group. - 2231-5381. ; 70:1, s. 126-138
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Carbon dioxide has long proven to be one of the greenhouse gases that affects our planet's climate and environment. With the forthcoming European Union goals and Sweden's own net-zero goal, it is required that the building and real estate sector works with climate-smart materials to construct future buildings. The net-zero goal by 2045 requires a common effort from all companies to find innovative solutions in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions sharply. This study investigates how aware and active the building and real estate sector is in climate-smart concrete (CSC) through a survey and comparison of environmental product declarations (EPDs). Climate-smart is a term for concrete that contains a lower percentage of Portland cement clinker than traditional concrete. This research aims to examine how far the development has taken place and to evaluate how the market has adopted the newly available products. It is als assessed which alternative additive materials are the most common as well as advantages and disadvantages of the CSC. A questionnaire is created, and the survey is sent out to companies. A comparison is made between three different EPDs of the CSC and two references for concrete with the ordinary Portland cement clinker. Reference concrete 1 is a standard value, and reference concrete 2 is an EPD value. A reference building is used to calculate the volume and weight of its utilized concrete. The three types of the CSC are compared with the reference concrete 1, and the results show a carbon dioxide reduction of 29.3%. However, the comparison of these three types of the CSC with the reference concrete 2 demonstrates a carbon dioxide reduction of 2.8%. In addition, it is concluded that the future will require the building and real estate sector to invest time and training to work with the CSC further.
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| 4. |
- Bahrami, Alireza, et al.
(författare)
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Important Criteria for Swedish Construction Companies to Choose Environmentally Friendly Concrete
- 2023
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Ingår i: Civil Engineering Journal. - : CEJ. - 2676-6957 .- 2476-3055. ; 9:1, s. 197-207
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Today, ordinary Portland cement-based concrete is one of the most important building materials and is widely used in new building construction, which is an environmental problem, as cement production accounts for 5%-8% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. Thus, the need for using more environmentally friendly concrete (EFC) is growing. However, it is stated that Swedish construction companies are reluctant to change and adopt new construction methods and materials. This research aims to map the important criteria for Swedish construction companies to choose EFC for use in their projects. The study is carried out based on a literature study and a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire is designed considering the significant criteria of EFC derived from the literature study. The respondents from the Swedish construction companies were asked to rate these various criteria. The collected results are presented with bar graphs. The results show that the highest valued criterion by the respondents for the use of EFC in the projects is its long-term properties, while the lowest one is the possibility of introducing a specific ceiling for greenhouse gas emissions by the companies.
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| 5. |
- Bauer, Georg F., et al.
(författare)
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Future directions for the concept of salutogenesis : A position article
- 2020
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Ingår i: Health Promotion International. - : Oxford University Press. - 0957-4824 .- 1460-2245. ; 35:2, s. 187-195
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aaron Antonovsky advanced the concept of salutogenesis almost four decades ago (Antonovsky, Health, Stress and Coping. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 1979; Unravelling the Mystery of Health. Jossey-Bass,San Francisco, CA, 1987). Salutogenesis posits that life experiences shape the sense of coherence (SOC)VC that helps to mobilize resources to cope with stressors and manage tension successfully (determiningone's movement on the health Ease/Dis-ease continuum). Antonovsky considered the three-dimensionalSOC (i.e. comprehensibility, manageability, meaningfulness) as the key answer to his question about theorigin of health. The field of health promotion has adopted the concept of salutogenesis as reflected in theinternational Handbook of Salutogenesis (Mittelmark et al., The Handbook of Salutogenesis. Springer,New York, 2016). However, health promotion mostly builds on the more vague, general salutogenic orientation that implies the need to foster resources and capacities to promote health and wellbeing. Tostrengthen the knowledge base of salutogenesis, the Global Working Group on Salutogenesis (GWG-Sal)of the International Union of Health Promotion and Education produced the Handbook of Salutogenesis.During the creation of the handbook and the regular meetings of the GWG-Sal, the working group identified four key conceptual issues to be advanced: (i) the overall salutogenic model of health; (ii) the SOC concept; (iii) the design of salutogenic interventions and change processes in complex systems; (iv) the application of salutogenesis beyond health sector. For each of these areas, we first highlight Antonovsky'soriginal contribution and then present suggestions for future development. These ideas will help guideGWG-Sal's work to strengthen salutogenesis as a theory base for health promotion.
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| 6. |
- Bergman, Martin, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Material & Surface design methodology-the user study framework
- 2020
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Ingår i: Surface Topography-Metrology and Properties. - Bristol : Institute of Physics Publishing (IOPP). - 2051-672X. ; 8:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A material and surface selection within the car industry is usually based on a comprehensive study based on sensation and perception, focusing on particular perceived qualities and impressions (emotional functions) through visual and tactile interaction of plastic surfaces. On top of that 'emotional function', the 'technical function' such as surface roughness or gloss for a certain matter in symbiosis, will result in a number of material and surface proposals. The range of materials fitting into the window of these requirements varies depending on the industry's ability to hit the target specified in regard to the 'emotional functions', usually defined by the designer's intention. Thus, to be able to get a deeper understanding of how to frame the 'emotional functions' and link them to the 'technical functions', two user studies were made in this paper. The user studies were made with two different designs however with the same main research target to be able to understand the varieties of these two. The aim of doing so was to be able to find the user study design that was the most time efficient and providing the most significant data linked to the 'technical functions' and process control/traceability. However also finding the user study design with the least strains for the participating users in regard to uninterrupted brain activity. By designing the user study in relevant subsets in a certain sequence, user study design nr 2 has proven to be more time efficient and provide more data regarding the soft metrology. Future work will focus on deeper knowledge about how these surfaces different material- and surface properties correlate to the participants responses regarding perceived quality of a car interior design. The development of a new non-contact measurement is also discussed, enabling the possibility to complement and improve the hard metrology set up.
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| 7. |
- Bonomi, A, et al.
(författare)
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Analysis of the genetic variants associated with circulating levels of sgp130. Results from the IMPROVE study
- 2020
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Ingår i: Genes and immunity. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1476-5470 .- 1466-4879. ; 21:2, s. 100-108
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The genes regulating circulating levels of soluble gp130 (sgp130), the antagonist of the inflammatory response in atherosclerosis driven by interleukin 6, are largely unknown. Aims of the present study were to identify genetic loci associated with circulating sgp130 and to explore the potential association between variants associated with sgp130 and markers of subclinical atherosclerosis. The study is based on IMPROVE (n = 3703), a cardiovascular multicentre study designed to investigate the determinants of carotid intima media thickness, a measure of subclinical atherosclerosis. Genomic DNA was genotyped by the CardioMetaboChip and ImmunoChip. About 360,842 SNPs were tested for association with log-transformed sgp130, using linear regression adjusted for age, gender, and population stratification using PLINK v1.07. A p value of 1 × 10−5 was chosen as threshold for significance value. In an exploratory analysis, SNPs associated with sgp130 were tested for association with c-IMT measures. We identified two SNPs significantly associated with sgp130 levels and 24 showing suggestive association with sgp130 levels. One SNP (rs17688225) on chromosome 14 was positively associated with sgp130 serum levels (β = 0.03 SE = 0.007, p = 4.77 × 10−5) and inversely associated with c-IMT (c-IMTmean–maxβ = −0.001 SE = 0.005, p = 0.0342). Our data indicate that multiple loci regulate sgp130 levels and suggest a possible common pathway between sgp130 and c-IMT measures.
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| 8. |
- Borg, Tor, et al.
(författare)
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Mått på bostadsbristen : Förslag på hur återkommande bedömningar ska utföras
- 2020
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Boverket fick i juni 2019 i uppdrag av regeringen att lämna förslag på hur återkommande bedömningar av bostadsbristen ska utföras samt att lämna förslag på enhetliga begrepp som ska användas vid kommunikation kring bostadsbristen. Avsikten är att de presenterade beräkningarna ska kunna användas i arbetet med bostadsförsörjningsfrågor och underlätta arbetet med att planera, utföra och följa upp insatser för att åtgärda bostadsbristen. Boverket har tagit fram en årlig beräkningsmodell där antalet hushåll som saknar en rimlig bostad beräknas på både nationell, regional och lokal nivå. Vad som är en rimlig bostad definieras enligt en uppsättning kriterier och normer. Kvantitativa mått visar hur många hushåll som har en boendesituation som inte uppfyller de olika kriterierna. Samråd har skett med Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner (SKR) samt med Socialstyrelsen under uppdragets gång. Båda anser att de givits utrymme att framföra sin mening och har förklarat sig nöjda med samrådet. Avstämningar har också gjorts med en rad andra aktörer. Denna rapport utgör Boverkets slutredovisning av uppdraget. Rapporten har tagits fram av en projektgrupp bestående av Tor Borg, Bengt J Eriksson, Oskar Gramstad, Ulla-Christel Götherström, Hans Jonsson, Bo Söderberg och Hang Zettervall, med den förstnämnda som projektledare.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Cabrera, Carin C., et al.
(författare)
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Increased iron absorption in patients with chronic heart failure and iron deficiency
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Cardiac Failure. - : Elsevier BV. - 1071-9164 .- 1532-8414. ; 26:5, s. 440-443
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Iron deficiency (ID) is common in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), but the underlying causes are not fully understood. We investigated whether ID is associated with decreased iron absorption in patients with CHF.Methods and Results: We performed an oral iron-absorption test in 30 patients and 12 controls. The patients had CHF with reduced (n = 15) or preserved (n = 15) ejection fraction and ID, defined as s- ferritin < 100 mu g/L, or s-ferritin 100-299 mu g/L and transferrin saturation < 20%. The controls had no HF or ID and were of similar age and gender. Blood samples were taken before and 2 hours after ingestion of 100 mg ferroglycin sulphate. The primary endpoint was the delta plasma iron at 2 hours. The delta plasma iron was higher in the group with HF than in the control group (median increase 83.8 [61.5;128.5] mu g/dL in HF vs 47.5 [ 30.7;61.5] mu g/dL in controls, P = 0.001), indicating increased iron absorption. There was no significant difference between the groups with preserved or reduced ejection fraction (P = 0.46).Conclusion: We found increased iron absorption in patients with CHF and ID compared to controls without ID and HF, indicating that reduced iron absorption is not a primary cause of the high prevalence of ID in patients with CHF.
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