| 1. |
- Abzhandadze, Tamar, 1980, et al.
(författare)
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Sick leave one year after COVID-19 infection: a nationwide cohort study during the first wave in Sweden.
- 2024
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Ingår i: Scientific reports. - 2045-2322. ; 14:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study aimed to investigate the patterns of sick leave, as well as factors associated with sick leave due to COVID-19 during one year after the COVID-19 diagnosis, and sex-related aspects on sick leave. This nationwide study involved 11,902 individuals who received sickness benefits for COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic. Data from three Swedish registries were analyzed for sick leave that commenced between March 1 and August 31, 2020, with a follow-up period of 12 months. Sick leave due to COVID-19 was counted as the number of days with sickness benefits and required to include at least one registered COVID-19 diagnosis. The median duration of sick leave was 35 days, and 347 (2.9%) individuals continued their sick leave during the entire follow-up period. Furthermore, 1 year later, the cumulative incidence of sick leave was slightly higher in males (3.5%) compared to females (2.7%). Older age, being single with no children, diagnosed with the virus, medium income level, history of sick leave, and need for inpatient care were significantly associated with a higher duration of sick leave due to COVID-19, both in the total population and when stratified by sex. These results indicated that three out of 100 (3%) patients were still on sick leave 1 year after their COVID-19 diagnosis. Aspects regarding the importance of sick leave duration differed between males and females and comprised sociodemographic characteristics and need for inpatient care. The results indicated the complexity of sick leave due to COVID-19.
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| 2. |
- Abzhandadze, Tamar, 1980, et al.
(författare)
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Transforming self-reported outcomes from a stroke register to the modified Rankin Scale: a cross-sectional, explorative study
- 2020
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 10:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim was to create an algorithm to transform self-reported outcomes from a stroke register to the modified Rankin Scale (mRS). Two stroke registers were used: the Vaststroke, a local register in Gothenburg, Sweden, and the Riksstroke, a Swedish national register. The reference variable, mRS (from Vaststroke), was mapped with seven self-reported questions from Riksstroke. The transformation algorithm was created as a result of manual mapping performed by healthcare professionals. A supervised machine learning method-decision tree-was used to further evaluate the transformation algorithm. Of 1145 patients, 54% were male, the mean age was 71 y. The mRS grades 0, 1 and 2 could not be distinguished as a result of manual mapping or by using the decision tree analysis. Thus, these grades were merged. With manual mapping, 78% of the patients were correctly classified, and the level of agreement was almost perfect, weighted Kappa (K-w) was 0.81. With the decision tree, 80% of the patients were correctly classified, and substantial agreement was achieved, K-w=0.67. The self-reported outcomes from a stroke register can be transformed to the mRS. A mRS algorithm based on manual mapping might be useful for researchers using self-reported questionnaire data.
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| 3. |
- Borneskog, Catrin, et al.
(författare)
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Changes in sexual behavior among high-school students over a 40-year period
- 2021
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Nature Research. - 2045-2322. ; 11:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this study was to investigate sexual behavior, contraceptive use, risk factors as well as sources of sex information among first-year high-school students in Sweden. Secondly, to assess differences between genders and study programs as well as changes over a 40-year period. A repeated cross-sectional survey was conducted in two cities. A questionnaire comprising 77 items was used. The study population consisted of 415 students (63.4% females). The median age of sexual intercourse was 15 years. In total, 37% had had sexual intercourse, compared to 56.3% in 2009 and 45% in 1999 (p < 0.001), and the proportion of students who had their first sexual intercourse was not influenced by gender. More students in vocational programs (46.3%), compared to theoretical (33.3%), had experience of at least one sexual intercourse (p = 0.019). The same extend of contraception use at first and latest intercourse was reported, compared to previous studies. Forty-nine percent were mostly informed about sex from the internet, while in previous years, magazines, family and youth clinics were the main information sources. Comparing over time, students were in general less sexually experienced and less engaged in non-penetrative sex and physical intimacy. These findings call for a new approach, when designing sex and relationship education and health-care counseling in adolescents.
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| 4. |
- Hasselström, Linus, et al.
(författare)
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Socioeconomic prospects of a seaweed bioeconomy in Sweden
- 2020
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Seaweed cultivation is a large industry worldwide, but production in Europe is small compared to production in Asian countries. In the EU, the motivations for seaweed farming may be seen from two perspectives; one being economic growth through biomass production and the other being the provisioning of ecosystem services such as mitigating eutrophication. In this paper, we assess the economic potential of large-scale cultivation of kelp, Saccharina latissima, along the Swedish west coast, including the value of externalities. The findings suggest that seaweed farming has the potential of becoming a profitable industry in Sweden. Furthermore, large-scale seaweed farming can sequester asignificant share of annual anthropogenic nitrogen and phosphorus inflows to the basins of the Swedish west coast (8% of N and 60% of P). Concerning the valuation of externalities, positive values generated from sequestration of nitrogen and phosphorus are potentially counteracted by negative values frominterference with recreational values. Despite the large N and P uptake, the socioeconomic value of this sequestration is only a minor share of the potential financial value from biomass production. This suggests that e.g. payment schemes for nutrient uptake based on the socioeconomic values generatedis not likely to be a tipping point for the industry. Additionally, seaweed cultivation is not a cost-efficient measure in itself to remove nutrients. Policy should thus be oriented towards industry development, as the market potential of the biomass will be the driver that may unlock these bioremediationopportunities.
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| 5. |
- Helmersson, Johanna, et al.
(författare)
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Cystatin C predicts long term mortality better than creatinine in a nationwide study of intensive care patients
- 2021
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Ingår i: Scientific reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 11:1, s. 5882-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Decreased glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is linked to poor survival. The predictive value of creatinine estimated GFR (eGFR) and cystatin C eGFR in critically ill patients may differ substantially, but has been less studied. This study compares long-term mortality risk prediction by eGFR using a creatinine equation (CKD-EPI), a cystatin C equation (CAPA) and a combined creatinine/cystatin C equation (CKD-EPI), in 22,488 patients treated in intensive care at three University Hospitals in Sweden, between 2004 and 2015. Patients were analysed for both creatinine and cystatin C on the same blood sample tube at admission, using accredited laboratory methods. During follow-up (median 5.1 years) 8401 (37%) patients died. Reduced eGFR was significantly associated with death by all eGFR-equations in Cox regression models. However, patients reclassified to a lower GFR-category by using the cystatin C-based equation, as compared to the creatinine-based equation, had significantly higher mortality risk compared to the referent patients not reclassified. The cystatin C equation increased C-statistics for death prediction (p < 0.001 vs. creatinine, p = 0.013 vs. combined equation). In conclusion, this data favours the sole cystatin C equation rather than the creatinine or combined equations when estimating GFR for risk prediction purposes in critically ill patients.
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| 6. |
- Hintze, Arend, Professor, et al.
(författare)
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Inclusive groups can avoid the tragedy of the commons
- 2020
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 10:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The public goods game is a famous example illustrating the tragedy of the commons (Hardin in Science 162:1243-1248, 1968). In this game cooperating individuals contribute to a pool, which in turn is distributed to all members of the group, including defectors who reap the same rewards as cooperators without having made a contribution before. The question is now, how to incentivize group members to all cooperate as it maximizes the common good. While costly punishment (Helbing et al. in New J Phys 12:083005, 2010) presents one such method, the cost of punishment still reduces the common good. The selfishness of the group members favors defectors. Here we show that including other members of the groups and sharing rewards with them can be another incentive for cooperation, avoiding the cost required for punishment. Further, we show how punishment and this form of inclusiveness interact. This work suggests that a redistribution similar to a basic income that is coupled to the economic success of the entire group could overcome the tragedy of the commons.
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| 7. |
- Hintze, Arend, Professor, et al.
(författare)
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Risk sensitivity as an evolutionary adaptation
- 2015
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2045-2322. ; 5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Risk aversion is a common behavior universal to humans and animals alike. Economists have traditionally defined risk preferences by the curvature of the utility function. Psychologists and behavioral economists also make use of concepts such as loss aversion and probability weighting to model risk aversion. Neurophysiological evidence suggests that loss aversion has its origins in relatively ancient neural circuitries (e.g., ventral striatum). Could there thus be an evolutionary origin to risk aversion? We study this question by evolving strategies that adapt to play the equivalent mean payoff gamble. We hypothesize that risk aversion in this gamble is beneficial as an adaptation to living in small groups, and find that a preference for risk averse strategies only evolves in small populations of less than 1,000 individuals, or in populations segmented into groups of 150 individuals or fewer - numbers thought to be comparable to what humans encountered in the past. We observe that risk aversion only evolves when the gamble is a rare event that has a large impact on the individual's fitness. As such, we suggest that rare, high-risk, high-payoff events such as mating and mate competition could have driven the evolution of risk averse behavior in humans living in small groups.
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| 8. |
- Hintze, Arend, Professor, et al.
(författare)
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The evolution of generosity in the ultimatum game
- 2016
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2045-2322. ; 6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- When humans fail to make optimal decisions in strategic games and economic gambles, researchers typically try to explain why that behaviour is biased. To this end, they search for mechanisms that cause human behaviour to deviate from what seems to be the rational optimum. But perhaps human behaviour is not biased; perhaps research assumptions about the optimality of strategies are incomplete. In the one-shot anonymous symmetric ultimatum game (UG), humans fail to play optimally as defined by the Nash equilibrium. However, the distinction between kin and non-kin - with kin detection being a key evolutionary adaption - is often neglected when deriving the "optimal" strategy. We computationally evolved strategies in the UG that were equipped with an evolvable probability to discern kin from non-kin. When an opponent was not kin, agents evolved strategies that were similar to those used by humans. We therefore conclude that the strategy humans play is not irrational. The deviation between behaviour and the Nash equilibrium may rather be attributable to key evolutionary adaptations, such as kin detection. Our findings further suggest that social preference models are likely to capture mechanisms that permit people to play optimally in an evolutionary context. Once this context is taken into account, human behaviour no longer appears irrational © The Author(s) 2016.
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| 9. |
- Hintze, Arend, Professor, et al.
(författare)
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The Janus face of Darwinian competition
- 2015
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2045-2322. ; 5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Without competition, organisms would not evolve any meaningful physical or cognitive abilities. Competition can thus be understood as the driving force behind Darwinian evolution. But does this imply that more competitive environments necessarily evolve organisms with more sophisticated cognitive abilities than do less competitive environments? Or is there a tipping point at which competition does more harm than good? We examine the evolution of decision strategies among virtual agents performing a repetitive sampling task in three distinct environments. The environments differ in the degree to which the actions of a competitor can affect the fitness of the sampling agent, and in the variance of the sample. Under weak competition, agents evolve decision strategies that sample often and make accurate decisions, which not only improve their own fitness, but are good for the entire population. Under extreme competition, however, the dark side of the Janus face of Darwinian competition emerges: Agents are forced to sacrifice accuracy for speed and are prevented from sampling as often as higher variance in the environment would require. Modest competition is therefore a good driver for the evolution of cognitive abilities and of the population as a whole, whereas too much competition is devastating.
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| 10. |
- Lagali, Neil, et al.
(författare)
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Dendritic cell maturation in the corneal epithelium with onset of type 2 diabetes is associated with tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily member 9
- 2018
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 8:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Type 2 diabetes mellitus is characterized by a low-grade inflammation; however, mechanisms leading to this inflammation in specific tissues are not well understood. The eye can be affected by diabetes; thus, we hypothesized that inflammatory changes in the eye may parallel the inflammation that develops with diabetes. Here, we developed a non-invasive means to monitor the status of inflammatory dendritic cell (DC) subsets in the corneal epithelium as a potential biomarker for the onset of inflammation in type 2 diabetes. In an age-matched cohort of 81 individuals with normal and impaired glucose tolerance and type 2 diabetes, DCs were quantified from wide-area maps of the corneal epithelial sub-basal plexus, obtained using clinical in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM). With the onset of diabetes, the proportion of mature, antigen-presenting DCs increased and became organized in clusters. Out of 92 plasma proteins analysed in the cohort, tumor necrosis factor receptor super family member 9 (TNFRSF9) was associated with the observed maturation of DCs from an immature to mature antigen-presenting phenotype. A low-grade ocular surface inflammation observed in this study, where resident immature dendritic cells are transformed into mature antigen-presenting cells in the corneal epithelium, is a process putatively associated with TNFRSF9 signalling and may occur early in the development of type 2 diabetes. IVCM enables this process to be monitored non-invasively in the eye.
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