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- Olsson, Lina
(författare)
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Genetic and genomic analysis of arthritis regulating regions in human and mouse
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Identifying genes involved in the disease pathways of complex diseases such as Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been shown to be very difficult. Despite decades of research still only a handful of genes have been convincingly identified as risk genes. RA is a common autoimmune disorder that affects approximately 1% of the population and knowledge of the contributing genetic factors would greatly increase our understanding of the disease and thus lead to the development of effective treatments. The genetic contributing to RA is heterogeneous and the risk effect of each individual gene will be small. Thus, very large patient cohorts are required to achieve enough power to detect new risk genes. By taking advantage of the less heterogeneous genetic and environmental contribution to disease of animal models as well as the controlled genetic background of inbred strains, the power to detect new risk genes increases. In the papers presented in this thesis a combination of animal and human genetics has lead to the identification of three new risk gene candidates. In papers I and II, the association of the genes encoding the NADPH oxidase complex was investigated for association with arthritis, initiated by the finding of Ncf1 as a risk gene in animal models. In paper I, a SNP in NCF4 was found to be associated with rheumatoid factor negative RA, specifically in men, whereas copy number variation of NCF1 was found to be association with RA in paper II. Both these findings support the role of the NADPH oxidase complex in human RA. Paper III deals with the identification of candidate genes in the mice model collagen induced arthritis and introduces a new method, which identifies several new candidate genes including Ptpn22 and Chi3l3. In paper IV, a splice site SNP in the gene Slc38a1 is identified as an arthritis causative SNP in mice. Investigation of SLC38A1 in RA patients revealed two SNPs, associated with autoantibody positive disease in men. The results presented in this thesis have led to an increased knowledge of the genetic contribution to RA and will greatly enhance our understanding of the disease pathways.
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- Torbjörnsson, Tomas, 1956-
(författare)
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Attitudes to sustainable development among Swedish pupils
- 2011
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Ingår i: Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. - Amsterdam : Elsevier BV. - 1877-0428. ; 15, s. 316-320
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The preconditions for education for sustainable development (ESD) differ according to contextual factors. This paper discusses the sources of values connected with sustainable development and also presents findings from a Swedish survey about how attitudes to some aspects of sustainable development are distributed among Swedish pupils. The results show significant differences related to gender and education programme. Boys and students in vocational programs hold stronger anthropocentric values than girls and students in theoretical programmes. There is also a positive correlation between solidarity and biocentric values. Comparison with earlier studies indicates that the differences mentioned above are increasing.
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- Torbjörnsson, Tomas, 1956-
(författare)
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Bakläxa om rättvisa
- 2010
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Ingår i: Aftonbladet. ; 19 November
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)
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| 7. |
- Torbjörnsson, Tomas, 1956-
(författare)
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Does ESD support or oppose change in the fundamental socioenvironmental values of pupils?
- 2010
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Educational policy documents from global to national and local levels give priority to learning how to achieve sustainable development. “Few issues are so important but so elusive as sustainable development, and there can be very few such issues indeed where the role of learning is so crucially important to our future.”(Scott & Gough, 2004, s. xi). A need of change in human values is often expressed as a prerequisite for sustainable development. How ESD can support this change, without yielding to manipulation and indoctrination, is one of the current main issues. How do you as a teacher balance on the edge between “knowing what is right and knowing that it´s wrong to tell others what is right” ?(Wals, 2010) There are abundant suggestions about which values that have to be changed in order to achieve sustainable development. I choose to presuppose the fundamental values underlying The Millennium Declaration of the UN. They are freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature and shared responsibility (UN, 2000). Despite their importance not very much is known about how these values help or hinder sustainable development (Leiserowitz, Kates, & Paris, 2006). Studies from many different countries show that students´ primary concern is globally environmental problems. Less is known about how this concern is related to other issues that the students find important (Rickinson, 2001) and how the values mentioned above are correlated to each other.An individual can express values through actions and attitudes. Focus in my research is on how the fundamental values, underlying sustainable development, are expressed in attitudes and how these are combined and distributed among Swedish pupils in upper secondary school. A questionnaire (n=917) with 27 statements, concerning attitudes towards nature and towards fellow human beings is so far the empirical body. I use five-grade Likert items[i] aggregated into four groups, each of them summing up to a Likert scale[ii] measuring different aspects of one value. The four values are; biocentrism, anthropocentrism (two different aspects of respect for nature) equality and solidarity and are consequently connected to the underlying values in The Millennium Declaration of the UN. I use Bogner and Wiseman´s (2003)Model of Ecological Values to measure respect for nature and have constructed a new scale, Model of Social Values, for the purpose of measuring solidarity and equality.Preliminary results show a significant correlation between a strong willingness to preserve nature and to show solidarity with a wide in-group of others. There is also a significant correlation between strong utilization attitudes towards nature and to show solidarity with a narrower in-group and also between strong utilization attitudes and to accept unequal distribution of resources. These findings mainly confirm results from earlier research. People high in empathy tend to be low in materialistic values and high in intrinsic values and more negative environmental attitudes are often associated with less concern for social justice and equality(Crompton & Kasser, 2009).My all-embracing research question is to analyze how pupils today understand how learning processes in elementary school have supported or opposed their own socioenvironmental values. To do that I need to carry out qualitative interviews with individuals representing the main categories in my survey. In those interviews one aim is to catch the essence of how pupils interpret their teachers’ ability to balance on the edge between telling what is right and supporting diversity and pluralism. [i] The respondent mark the level of agreement from 1= strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree[ii] A summated scale of several items which together measure one dimension
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- Torbjörnsson, Tomas, 1956-
(författare)
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En för alla – Alla för naturen : En studie av ungdomars attityder till hållbar utveckling
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis examines young people's attitudes to some aspects of sustainable development.The focus is on attitudes to preservation and to utilization of nature and also to solidarity andto equal distribution of resources. Hence the ecological, social and economic dimensions ofsustainable development are examined in the same survey. The study is aiming to examinehow the attitudes are distributed according to sex, educational programmes and urban/ruralliving as well as to examine how the values, from which the attitudes emanate, are correlatedwith each other.The results show that young female students in theoretical programs and students who livein larger cities are most supportive of nature preservation. The same pattern recurs with evengreater clarity on the attitudes to solidarity. Attitudes to utilization of nature can also be distinguishedclearly between the sexes by young men having more positive attitudes to utilizationthan young women. However, the differences between educational programmes andbetween students from urban and rural areas are clearly smaller than when it comes to attitudesto preservation and to solidarity. Attitudes to equal distribution of recources exhibitirregular patterns. Young women have more positive attitudes than young men but the linksbetween attitudes to equality and educational programme or rural/urban living, are not pointingin any clear direction. The results also show that there is a clear and positive correlationbetween positive attitudes to nature preservation and a willingness to show solidarity with awide circle of people. Those who say they care for nature also say that they are prepared tocare for other people.
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- Torbjörnsson, Tomas, 1956-, et al.
(författare)
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Environmental Sustainability and Legal Education : Swedish Law Student´s Value Orientation
- 2018
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Ingår i: Retfærd. - : DJØF Förlag. - 0105-1121. ; 41:3-4, s. 99-115
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this study we compare Swedish law students’ value orientation with students in economics and political science and investigate how law students’ value orientation change during their first year of training. Drawing on theories and research from environmental psychology “values” are operationalized in three main categories: altruistic, biospheric and egoistic. Considering our sample groups as future power-professionals and potential agents of environmental and social change, we believe that a better understanding regarding the impact of legal education on students’ value orientation is essential. Our starting point is that when coping with bigger-than-self problems, as climate change, self-transcendence values as altruism and biospherism are important. Our findings demonstrate that legal education beginners report weaker biospheric values than the comparison groups. Another finding is that egoistic value orientation is not strengthened after one year of law education, a result that is counter indicative to previous research and debate among law scholars from U S and other countries outside of Sweden.
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