| 1. |
- Öhlén, Mats, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Ideologisk konvergens mellan öst och väst? : de europeiska partifamiljerna 1990-2013
- 2015
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Ingår i: Nordisk Østforum. - : Universitetsforlaget. - 0801-7220 .- 1891-1773. ; 29:2, s. 167-189
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper we compare ideological positions of political parties in Eastern and Western Europe. As the Communist regimes collapsed and new democracies began to emerge in Eastern Europe, it became obvious that historical and cultural differences existed in relation to Western Europe. This was not least visible among the political parties. When the West European parties initiated contacts with potential sister parties in the East, noticeable differences were revealed in several issues. In general, the eastern parties appeared to be more nationalist, more populist and less tolerant towards minorities than their Western sister parties. The question raised in this paper is whether these differences, have faded or not during the 25-year period after 1989. In order to perform this analysis, the three largest and most influential party families are selected: the Christian Democratic EPP, the Social Democratic PES and the Liberal ALDE. Departing from election manifesto data compiled by the Comparative Manifesto Project, we have performed a time series analysis ranging from 1990 to 2013. Here, the Eastern parties are compared to their Western sister parties within each party family. Firstly, they are compared along the general left-right dimension, and secondly they are compared in specific issues, which have been conceived as delicate matter: the view on the EU, nationalism and view on multiculturalism.
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| 2. |
- Ammenberg, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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Biogas Research Center, BRC : Slutrapport för etapp 1
- 2015
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Biogas Research Center (BRC) är ett kompetenscentrum för biogasforskning som finansieras av Energimyndigheten, LiU och ett flertal externa organisationer med en tredjedel vardera. BRC har en mycket bred tvärvetenskaplig inriktning och sammanför biogasrelaterad kompetens från flera olika områden för att skapa interaktion på flera olika plan:mellan näringsliv, akademi och samhälle,mellan olika perspektiv, samtmellan olika discipliner och kompetensområden.BRC:s vision är:Resurseffektiva biogaslösningar finns genomförda i många nya tillämpningar och bidrar till en mer hållbar energiförsörjning, förbättrat miljötillstånd och goda affärer.BRC:s särskilda roll för att uppnå denna vision är att bidra med kunskapsförsörjning och process-/teknikutveckling för att facilitera utveckling, innovation och implementering av biogaslösningar. Resurseffektivitet är ett nyckelord, vilket handlar om att förbättra befintliga processer och system samt utveckla biogaslösningar i nya sektorer och möjliggöra användning av nya substrat.For BRC:s etapp 1, den första tvåårsperioden mellan 2012-2014, var forskningsprojekten organiserade enligt tabellen nedan. Den visar viktiga utmaningar för biogasproducenter och andra intressenter, samt hur dessa ”angreps” med åtta forskningsprojekt. Fem av projekten var av explorativ karaktär i bemärkelsen att de var bredare och mer framtidsorienterade - exempelvis utvärderade flera möjliga tekniska utvecklingsmöjligheter (EP1-5). Tre projekt hade ett tydligare fokus på teknik- och processutveckling (DP6-8).I den här slutrapporten ges en kortfattad bakgrundsbeskrivning och det finns en introduktion till vad den här typen av kompetenscentrum innebär generellt. Därefter finns mer detaljerad information om BRC, exempelvis gäller det centrumets etablering, relevans, vision, hörnstenar och utveckling. De deltagande organisationerna presenteras, både forskargrupperna vid Linköpings universitet och partners och medlemmar. Vidare finns en mer utförlig introduktion till och beskrivning av utmaningarna i tabellen och kortfattat information om forskningsprojekten, följt av ett kapitel som berör måluppfyllelse och den externa utvärdering som gjorts av BRC:s verksamhet. Detaljerad, listad information finns till stor del i bilagorna.Kortfattat kan det konstateras att måluppfyllelsen överlag är god. Det är speciellt positivt att så många vetenskapliga artiklar publicerats (eller är på gång att publiceras) kopplat till forskningsprojekten och även i det vidare centrumperspektivet. Helt klart förekommer en omfattande verksamhet inom och kopplat till BRC. I etapp 2 är det viktigt att öka andelen mycket nöjda partner och medlemmar, där nu hälften är nöjda och hälften mycket nöjda. Det handlar framför allt om stärkt kommunikation, interaktion och projektledning. Under 2015 förväntas åtminstone två doktorsexamina, där avhandlingarna har stor koppling till forskningen inom etapp 1.I början på år 2014 skedde en extern utvärdering av verksamheten vid BRC med huvudsyftet att bedöma hur väl centrumet lyckats med etableringen samt att granska om det fanns förutsättningar för framtida framgångsrik verksamhet. Generellt var utfallet mycket positivt och utvärderarna konstaterade att BRC på kort tid lyckats etablera en verksamhet som fungerar väl och engagerar det stora flertalet deltagande aktörer, inom relevanta områden och där de flesta involverade ser BRC som en befogad och väl fungerande satsning, som de har för avsikt att även fortsättningsvis stödja. Utvärderingen bidrog också med flera relevant tips och till att belysa utmaningar.Utöver denna slutrapport finns separata publikationer från forskningsprojekten.Arbetet som presenteras i rapporten har finansierats av Energimyndigheten och de medverkande organisationerna.
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| 3. |
- Baresel, Christian, et al.
(författare)
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Reuse of treated wastewater for non-potable use (ReUse)
- 2015
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Population growth, increasing living standards, but also environmental hazards with global climate change as the most significant are all contributing to an increasing water stress in many parts of the world. While access to fresh water for drinking water is getting more costly due to environmental pollution, uses of drinking water conflicts with water needs for agricultural and industrial use, which are in need of substantial water quantities. The use of reclaimed wastewater for non-potable purposes provides a solution for this. This is not new and has in fact been applied in many regions as the main water management approach. As water scarcity becomes more severe, also the need for more sustainable and holistic approaches to deal with our limited fresh water resources becomes more and more obvious. The traditional one-way water handling approach, with end-of-pipe treatment releasing “clean” effluent water to nature, has to be converted into a society-internal water reuse scheme where different water qualities and water uses are considered as an integral part of the water cycle. The present report presents activities and results from an international project that aimed at developing and optimizing water treatment processes and systems for sustainable reuse of treated wastewater. The starting point is to combine the sequential batch treatment (SBR, sequencing batch reactors) with different conventional and emerging secondary and tertiary treatment techniques in various combinations, optimized from an overall sustainability perspective. Evaluation and optimization is achieved using life cycle assessment and life cycle cost assessment and their combination. Den här rapporten finns endast på engelska. Svensk sammanfattning finns i rapporten.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Hadgu, Endale, et al.
(författare)
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Breast cancer in Ethiopia : evidence for geographic difference in the distribution of molecular subtypes in Africa
- 2018
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Ingår i: BMC Women's Health. - : BioMed Central. - 1472-6874. ; 18:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease with several morphological and molecular subtypes. Widely accepted molecular classification system uses assessment of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and proliferation marker Ki67. Few studies have been conducted on the incidence and molecular types of breast cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa. Previous studies mainly from Western and Central Africa, showed breast cancer to occur at younger ages and to present with aggressive features, such as high-grade, advanced stage and triple-negative phenotype (negative for ER, PR and HER2). Limited data from East Africa including Ethiopia however shows hormone receptor negative tumors to account for a lower proportion of all breast cancers than has been reported from elsewhere in Africa.METHODS: In this study from Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, 114 breast cancer patients diagnosed between 2012 and 2015 were enrolled. ER, PR, Ki67 and HER2 receptor status were assessed using immunohistochemistry from tissue microarrays. FISH was used for assessment of gene amplification in all equivocal tumor samples and for confirmation in HER2-enriched cases.RESULTS: The distribution of molecular subtypes was: Luminal A: 40%; Luminal B: 26%; HER2-enriched: 10%; TNBC: 23%. ER were positive in 65% of all tumors and 43% the cases were positive for PR. There was statistically significant difference in median age at diagnosis between the molecular subtypes (P < 0.05). There was a bimodal distribution of molecular subtypes in different age ranges with Luminal B subtype being more common at younger ages (median = 36) and Luminal A subtype more prevalent at older ages (median = 42). There were no statistically significant differences in tumor grade, histology, and stage between the molecular subtypes of breast cancer.CONCLUSION: The present study detected Luminal A breast cancer to be the most common subtype and reveals a relatively low rate of hormone receptor negative and TNBC. Our findings and results from other East African studies suggest geographic variability in the distribution of the molecular subtypes of breast cancer in Africa and hence have important clinical and policy implications for breast cancer control and treatment in Ethiopia.
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| 6. |
- Krekels, Elke H. J., et al.
(författare)
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Population Pharmacokinetics of Edoxaban in Patients with Non-Valvular Atrial Fibrillation in the ENGAGE AF-TIMI 48 Study, a Phase III Clinical Trial
- 2016
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Ingår i: Clinical Pharmacokinetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0312-5963 .- 1179-1926. ; 55:9, s. 1079-1090
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: Edoxaban is a novel factor Xa inhibitor. This study characterizes the population pharmacokinetics of edoxaban in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) included in the phase III ENGAGE AF-TIMI 48 study, evaluates covariates for the dose-exposure relationship in this population, and assesses the impact of protocol-specified dose reductions on exposure using simulations.Methods: Model development was performed using NONMEMA (R) and based on sparse data from the ENGAGE AF-TIMI 48 study augmented with dense data from 13 phase I studies to inform and stabilize the model. The influence of body weight (WT), creatinine clearance (CLCR), concomitant P-glycoprotein (P-gp) inhibitors, age, sex, race, and NVAF on pharmacokinetic parameters was evaluated based on statistical significance and clinical relevance.Results: A two-compartment model with first-order elimination and first-order absorption after an absorption lag-time best described the data. Apparent volume and clearance terms increased with increasing WT. Apparent renal clearance increased with increasing CLCR. Apparent non-renal, renal, and inter-compartmental clearance terms differed between phase I volunteers and NVAF patients. Asian patients were found to have increased apparent central volume of distribution, bioavailability, and total apparent clearance. Concomitant P-gp inhibitors increased the bioavailability statistically significantly, but this did not reach clinical relevance.Conclusion: Edoxaban disposition and the variability in this disposition, including influence of covariates, after oral administration were adequately characterized in patients with NVAF. The 50 % dose reduction in patients with low WT (aecurrency sign60 kg), moderate renal impairment (CLCR aecurrency sign50 mL/min), or concomitant P-gp inhibitors led to 30 % lower exposure than in the other patients.
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| 7. |
- Liu, Xuejin, et al.
(författare)
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Energy Calibration of a Silicon-Strip Detector for Photon-Counting Spectral CT by Direct Usage of the X-ray Tube Spectrum
- 2015
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Ingår i: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science. - 0018-9499 .- 1558-1578. ; 62:1, s. 68-75
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The variation among energy thresholds in a multibin detector for photon-counting spectral CT can lead to ring artefacts in the reconstructed images. Calibration of the energy thresholds can be used to achieve homogeneous threshold settings or to develop compensation methods to reduce the artefacts. We have developed an energy-calibrationmethod for the different comparator thresholds employed in a photon-counting silicon-strip detector. In our case, this corresponds to specifying the linear relation between the threshold positions in units of mV and the actual deposited photon energies in units of keV. This relation is determined by gain and offset values that differ for different detector channels due to variations in the manufacturing process. Typically, the calibration is accomplished by correlating the peak positions of obtained pulse-height spectra to known photon energies, e. g. with the aid of mono-energetic x rays from synchrotron radiation, radioactive isotopes or fluorescence materials. Instead of mono-energetic x rays, the calibrationmethod presented in this papermakes use of a broad x-ray spectrum provided by commercial x-ray tubes. Gain and offset as the calibration parameters are obtained by a regression analysis that adjusts a simulated spectrum of deposited energies to ameasured pulse-height spectrum. Besides the basic photon interactions such as Rayleigh scattering, Compton scattering and photo-electric absorption, the simulation takes into account the effect of pulse pileup, charge sharing and the electronic noise of the detector channels. We verify the method for different detector channels with the aid of a table-top setup, where we find the uncertainty of the keV-value of a calibrated threshold to be between 0.1 and 0.2 keV.
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| 8. |
- Liu, Xuejin, et al.
(författare)
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Modelling the channel-wise count response of a photon-counting spectral CT detector to a broad x-ray spectrum
- 2015
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Ingår i: Medical Imaging 2015: Physics of Medical Imaging. - : SPIE. - 9781628415025
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Variations among detector channels in CT very sensitively lead to ring artefacts in the reconstructed images. For material decomposition in the projection domain, the variations can result in intolerable biases in the material line integral estimates. A typical way to overcome these effects is to apply calibration methods that try to unify spectral responses from different detector channels to an ideal response from a detector model. However, the calibration procedure can be rather complex and require excessive calibration measurements for a multitude of combinations of x-ray shapes, tissue combinations and thicknesses. In this paper, we propose a channel-wise model for a multibin photon-counting detector for spectral CT. Predictions of this channel-wise model match well with their physical performances, which can thus be used to eliminate ring artefacts in CT images and achieve projection-basis material decomposition. In an experimental validation, image data show significant improvement with respect to ring artefacts compared to images calibrated with flat-fielding data. Projection-based material decomposition gives basis material images showing good separation among individual materials and good quantification of iodine and gadolinium contrast agents. The work indicates that the channel-wise model can be used for quantitative CT with this detector.
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| 9. |
- Liu, Xuejin, et al.
(författare)
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Spectral response model for a multibin photon-counting spectral computed tomography detector and its applications
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Medical Imaging. - : SPIE - International Society for Optical Engineering. - 2329-4302 .- 2329-4310. ; 2:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Variations among detector channels in computed tomography can lead to ring artifacts in the reconstructed images and biased estimates in projection-based material decomposition. Typically, the ring artifacts are corrected by compensation methods based on flat fielding, where transmission measurements are required for a number of material-thickness combinations. Phantoms used in these methods can be rather complex and require an extensive number of transmission measurements. Moreover, material decomposition needs knowledge of the individual response of each detector channel to account for the detector inhomogeneities. For this purpose, we have developed a spectral response model that binwise predicts the response of a multibin photon-counting detector individually for each detector channel. The spectral response model is performed in two steps. The first step employs a forward model to predict the expected numbers of photon counts, taking into account parameters such as the incident x-ray spectrum, absorption efficiency, and energy response of the detector. The second step utilizes a limited number of transmission measurements with a set of flat slabs of two absorber materials to fine-tune the model predictions, resulting in a good correspondence with the physical measurements. To verify the response model, we apply the model in two cases. First, the model is used in combination with a compensation method which requires an extensive number of transmission measurements to determine the necessary parameters. Our spectral response model successfully replaces these measurements by simulations, saving a significant amount of measurement time. Second, the spectral response model is used as the basis of the maximum likelihood approach for projection-based material decomposition. The reconstructed basis images show a good separation between the calcium-like material and the contrast agents, iodine and gadolinium. The contrast agent concentrations are reconstructed with more than 94% accuracy.
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| 10. |
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