| 1. |
- Dietz, Benedikt, et al.
(författare)
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Detection of diabetes from whole-body MRI using deep learning
- 2021
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Ingår i: JCI Insight. - : American Society for Clinical Investigation. - 2379-3708. ; 6:21
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Obesity is one of the main drivers of type 2 diabetes, but it is not uniformly associated with the disease. The location of fat accumulation is critical for metabolic health. Specific patterns of body fat distribution, such as visceral fat, are closely related to insulin resistance. There might be further, hitherto unknown, features of body fat distribution that could additionally contribute to the disease. We used machine learning with dense convolutional neural networks to detect diabetes-related variables from 2371 T1-weighted whole-body MRI data sets. MRI was performed in participants undergoing metabolic screening with oral glucose tolerance tests. Models were trained for sex, age, BMI, insulin sensitivity, HbA1c, and prediabetes or incident diabetes. The results were compared with those of conventional models. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 87% for the type 2 diabetes discrimination and 68% for prediabetes, both superior to conventional models. Mean absolute regression errors were comparable to those of conventional models. Heatmaps showed that lower visceral abdominal regions were critical in diabetes classification. Subphenotyping revealed a group with high future diabetes and microalbuminuria risk. Our results show that diabetes is detectable from whole-body MRI without additional data. Our technique of heatmap visualization identifies plausible anatomical regions and highlights the leading role of fat accumulation in the lower abdomen in diabetes pathogenesis.
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| 2. |
- Fritz, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Habitus and climate change: Exploring support and resistance to sustainable welfare and social–ecological transformations in Sweden
- 2021
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Ingår i: British Journal of Sociology. - : Wiley. - 0007-1315 .- 1468-4446. ; 72:4, s. 874-890
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We explore peoples' dispositions and practices with regard to social–ecological transformations based on a sustainable welfare policy strategy in Sweden. We draw on Bourdieu's concept of habitus to highlight the relations between social positions, dispositions, and position-takings. Using data from an own survey, we identify habitus types and place these in the space of social positions. We apply principal component analysis to a large set of questions about social, ecological, and climate change related topics and identify eight underlying eco–social dispositions. These are used for cluster analyses that find typical constellations of eco–social dispositions within the Swedish population: variants of eco–social habitus. We find seven habitus types and describe their social characteristics, political preferences, and practices. Finally, the seven habitus are plotted onto the map of social positions, the Bourdieusian social space, highlighting their relations—proximities, tensions, and contestations—to each other. We find evidence that political struggles around social–ecological transformations reproduce existing social structures but are also connected to new “eco–social” divisions that appear between groups in similar positions. In the conclusion we discuss the implications for social–ecological transformations based on sustainable welfare.
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| 3. |
- Fritz, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Introduction to the special issue: Tackling inequality and providing sustainable welfare through eco-social policies
- 2023
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Ingår i: European Journal of Social Security (EJSS). - 1388-2627 .- 2399-2948. ; 25:4, s. 315-327
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- We are increasingly witnessing the social and ecological crises of our time becoming entangled and amplifying each other. The current policy responses from national states and international governance bodies remain within the dominant framework of economic growth-centred strategies. In this editorial, we argue that a new paradigm of sustainable welfare is needed, which includes eco-social policies addressing social and ecological sustainability concerns in integrated ways. We first demonstrate how social and ecological problems are interconnected and why green growth approaches fail to tackle them. As an alternative, and as a pointer to a social security system that can help people navigate the dire straits of increasing eco-social risks, we present the foundations and principles of sustainable welfare, and discuss how this, according to Kuhn, can be understood as a new social policy paradigm. In the second part of this editorial, we introduce the papers brought together in this special issue. The cutting-edge research of the contributing authors includes theoretical and conceptual advances, empirical case studies from different European countries, and transnational studies. Each paper discusses the implications of its findings for European social security systems.
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| 4. |
- Gauld, Jethro G., et al.
(författare)
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Hotspots in the grid : Avian sensitivity and vulnerability to collision risk from energy infrastructure interactions in Europe and North Africa
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Applied Ecology. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0021-8901 .- 1365-2664. ; 59:6, s. 1496-1512
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Wind turbines and power lines can cause bird mortality due to collision or electrocution. The biodiversity impacts of energy infrastructure (EI) can be minimised through effective landscape-scale planning and mitigation. The identification of high-vulnerability areas is urgently needed to assess potential cumulative impacts of EI while supporting the transition to zero carbon energy. We collected GPS location data from 1,454 birds from 27 species susceptible to collision within Europe and North Africa and identified areas where tracked birds are most at risk of colliding with existing EI. Sensitivity to EI development was estimated for wind turbines and power lines by calculating the proportion of GPS flight locations at heights where birds were at risk of collision and accounting for species' specific susceptibility to collision. We mapped the maximum collision sensitivity value obtained across all species, in each 5 x 5 km grid cell, across Europe and North Africa. Vulnerability to collision was obtained by overlaying the sensitivity surfaces with density of wind turbines and transmission power lines. Results: Exposure to risk varied across the 27 species, with some species flying consistently at heights where they risk collision. For areas with sufficient tracking data within Europe and North Africa, 13.6% of the area was classified as high sensitivity to wind turbines and 9.4% was classified as high sensitivity to transmission power lines. Sensitive areas were concentrated within important migratory corridors and along coastlines. Hotspots of vulnerability to collision with wind turbines and transmission power lines (2018 data) were scattered across the study region with highest concentrations occurring in central Europe, near the strait of Gibraltar and the Bosporus in Turkey. Synthesis and applications. We identify the areas of Europe and North Africa that are most sensitive for the specific populations of birds for which sufficient GPS tracking data at high spatial resolution were available. We also map vulnerability hotspots where mitigation at existing EI should be prioritised to reduce collision risks. As tracking data availability improves our method could be applied to more species and areas to help reduce bird-EI conflicts.
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| 5. |
- Khan, Jamil, et al.
(författare)
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Ecological ceiling and social floor: Public support for eco‐social policies in Sweden
- 2023
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Ingår i: Sustainability Science. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1862-4057 .- 1862-4065. ; 18, s. 1519-1532
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this article, we investigate public support for eco-social policies combining goals of social justice and ecological sustainability. Eco-social policies contribute both to providing a social floor or redistributing resources to where they are needed and to respecting an ecological ceiling by keeping human activities within ecological limits. We discuss five such policies and highlight arguments for and against defining them as eco-social policies: a maximum income, a wealth tax, a basic income, a working time reduction and a meat tax. Asking what the social and individual determinants of supporting these policies are, we use 2020 data from a representative survey in Sweden containing information about how respondents evaluate the policies. We run regression analyses to estimate the effects on these evaluations and test for socio-economic, knowledge-based and value-based factors. Results show that (1) in Sweden a working time reduction is the most supported eco-social policy; (2) political left orientation increases support for all five eco-social policies; (3) socio-economic factors have effects on wealth tax, maximum income and working time reduction; and (4) knowledge-based factors are more associated with the meat tax. Thus, socio-economic and knowledge-based models have the most significance for policies that could be understood as being either social or environmental, while value-based models have significance across potentially perceived policy divides and hence to a greater extent explain support for policies targeting an ecological ceiling and a social floor.
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| 6. |
- Koch, Max, et al.
(författare)
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Tackling the Double Injustice: How Citizens Evaluate Climate and Welfare Policies
- 2020
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Ingår i: World Economics Journal. - 1468-1838. ; 21:1, s. 93-115
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ambitious climate policies have distributional consequences. These require countervailing social policies to keep climate targets acceptable for the electorate. This article analyses data from the European Social Survey as to whether attitudes in relation to climate and welfare policies converge or diverge. It distinguishes four types of social-ecological attitudes: ‘Synergy’ or support for both kinds of policies; ‘Green crowding-out’ where support for climate policies is not accompanied by approval of welfare; ‘Red crowding-out’ where support for welfare coincides with a rejection of climate policies; Rejection of both types of policies. There are clear differences at country level. While synergy between both kinds of attitudes is most widespread in countries with an already established welfare state, the pattern of red crowding-out predominates in countries having an economy with high fossil-dependence. At individual level, persons expressing synergy for climate and welfare policies are well educated, young, with left-wing political beliefs and live in households with above-average incomes. Individuals who reject both kinds of policies are older, less educated, live in households with below-average incomes and politically orient to the right.Download Paper in PDF format
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| 7. |
- Leclere, David, et al.
(författare)
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Bending the curve of terrestrial biodiversity needs an integrated strategy
- 2020
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 585:7826, s. 551-556
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Increased efforts are required to prevent further losses to terrestrial biodiversity and the ecosystem services that it provides(1,2). Ambitious targets have been proposed, such as reversing the declining trends in biodiversity(3); however, just feeding the growing human population will make this a challenge(4). Here we use an ensemble of land-use and biodiversity models to assess whether-and how-humanity can reverse the declines in terrestrial biodiversity caused by habitat conversion, which is a major threat to biodiversity(5). We show that immediate efforts, consistent with the broader sustainability agenda but of unprecedented ambition and coordination, could enable the provision of food for the growing human population while reversing the global terrestrial biodiversity trends caused by habitat conversion. If we decide to increase the extent of land under conservation management, restore degraded land and generalize landscape-level conservation planning, biodiversity trends from habitat conversion could become positive by the mid-twenty-first century on average across models (confidence interval, 2042-2061), but this was not the case for all models. Food prices could increase and, on average across models, almost half (confidence interval, 34-50%) of the future biodiversity losses could not be avoided. However, additionally tackling the drivers of land-use change could avoid conflict with affordable food provision and reduces the environmental effects of the food-provision system. Through further sustainable intensification and trade, reduced food waste and more plant-based human diets, more than two thirds of future biodiversity losses are avoided and the biodiversity trends from habitat conversion are reversed by 2050 for almost all of the models. Although limiting further loss will remain challenging in several biodiversity-rich regions, and other threats-such as climate change-must be addressed to truly reverse the declines in biodiversity, our results show that ambitious conservation efforts and food system transformation are central to an effective post-2020 biodiversity strategy. To promote the recovery of the currently declining global trends in terrestrial biodiversity, increases in both the extent of land under conservation management and the sustainability of the global food system from farm to fork are required.
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| 8. |
- Redmer, Torben, et al.
(författare)
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JUN mediates the senescence associated secretory phenotype and immune cell recruitment to prevent prostate cancer progression
- 2024
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Ingår i: Molecular Cancer. - : BioMed Central (BMC). - 1476-4598. ; 23:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Prostate cancer develops through malignant transformation of the prostate epithelium in a stepwise, mutation-driven process. Although activator protein-1 transcription factors such as JUN have been implicated as potential oncogenic drivers, the molecular programs contributing to prostate cancer progression are not fully understood.Methods: We analyzed JUN expression in clinical prostate cancer samples across different stages and investigated its functional role in a Pten-deficient mouse model. We performed histopathological examinations, transcriptomic analyses and explored the senescence-associated secretory phenotype in the tumor microenvironment.Results: Elevated JUN levels characterized early-stage prostate cancer and predicted improved survival in human and murine samples. Immune-phenotyping of Pten-deficient prostates revealed high accumulation of tumor-infiltrating leukocytes, particularly innate immune cells, neutrophils and macrophages as well as high levels of STAT3 activation and IL-1β production. Jun depletion in a Pten-deficient background prevented immune cell attraction which was accompanied by significant reduction of active STAT3 and IL-1β and accelerated prostate tumor growth. Comparative transcriptome profiling of prostate epithelial cells revealed a senescence-associated gene signature, upregulation of pro-inflammatory processes involved in immune cell attraction and of chemokines such as IL-1β, TNF-α, CCL3 and CCL8 in Pten-deficient prostates. Strikingly, JUN depletion reversed both the senescence-associated secretory phenotype and senescence-associated immune cell infiltration but had no impact on cell cycle arrest. As a result, JUN depletion in Pten-deficient prostates interfered with the senescence-associated immune clearance and accelerated tumor growth.Conclusions: Our results suggest that JUN acts as tumor-suppressor and decelerates the progression of prostate cancer by transcriptional regulation of senescence- and inflammation-associated genes. This study opens avenues for novel treatment strategies that could impede disease progression and improve patient outcomes. Graphical Abstract: (Figure presented.).
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| 9. |
- Wagner, Julia, et al.
(författare)
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High resolution mapping shows differences in soil carbon and nitrogen stocks in areas of varying landscape history in Canadian lowland tundra
- 2023
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Ingår i: Geoderma. - 0016-7061 .- 1872-6259. ; 438
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Soil organic carbon (SOC) in Arctic coastal polygonal tundra is vulnerable to climate change, especially in soils with occurrence of large amounts of ground ice. Pan-arctic studies of mapping SOC exist, yet they fail to describe the high spatial variability of SOC storage in permafrost landscapes. An important factor is the landscape history which determines landform development and consequently the spatial variability of SOC. Our aim was to map SOC stocks, and which environmental variables that determine SOC, in two adjacent coastal areas along Canadian Beaufort Sea coast with different glacial history. We used the machine learning technique random forest and environmental variables to map the spatial distribution of SOC stocks down to 1 m depth at a spatial resolution of 2 m for depth increments of 0-5, 5-15, 15-30, 30-60 and 60-100 cm. The results show that the two study areas had large differences in SOC stocks in the depth 60-100 cm due to high amounts of ground ice in one of the study areas. There are also differences in variable importance of the explanatory variables between the two areas. The area low in ground ice content had with 66.6 kg C/m(-2) more stored SOC than the area rich in ground ice content with 40.0 kg C/m(-2). However, this SOC stock could be potentially more vulnerable to climate change if ground ice melts and the ground subsides. The average N stock of the area low in ground ice is 3.77 kg m(-2) and of the area rich in ground ice is 3.83 kg m(-2). These findings support that there is a strong correlation between ground ice and SOC, with less SOC in ice-rich layers on a small scale. In addition to small scale studies of SOC mapping, detailed maps of ground ice content and distribution are needed for a validation of large-scale quantifications of SOC stocks and transferability of models.
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