| 1. |
- Fröcklin, Sara, 1981-
(författare)
-
Women in the Seascape : Gender, Livelihoods and Management of Coastal and Marine Resources in Zanzibar, East Africa
- 2014
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- All over the world, coastal populations depend on, and influence, the environment in pursue of their livelihoods. Managing the environment, while meeting the growing demand for marine resources, is a challenge. It further requires knowledge about all actors. Women's contribution is often overlooked in research, policy and management of marine and coastal resources. This thesis aims to reduce this gap; a gender analysis is applied to differentiate women and men's access and use of the seascape and to address key gender issues in coastal livelihoods in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Paper I shows that men are typically engaged in fisheries and have access to the whole seascape, whereas women engage in less economically viable activities, such as seaweed farming and invertebrate harvesting, in near-shore areas. A limitation for women to reach the whole seascape is a general lack of boat transport, swimming skills and fishing gear. Paper II analyzes occupational health within seaweed farming and shows that women seaweed farmers suffer from a variety of problems, such as eye infections, musculoskeletal pains, respiratory problems and fatigue, because of poor working conditions. Paper III addresses social and ecological aspects of invertebrate harvesting. This activity lacks proper management and over a five-year period (2005 to 2010), invertebrate abundance and species richness have decreased. It also reveals gender disparities in access to invertebrate collecting grounds and species of higher economic value. Paper IV examines gender within fish trade; women traders have less access to markets, high-value fish, a diverse customer-base, cold-storing facilities and fish trade associations. Income data shows that women's income is always lower. The management system is found to be androcentric and this thesis thus argues for the need to look at the "bigger picture"; the whole seascape, both men and women, and their interests should be considered in coastal and marine management.
|
|
| 2. |
- Lindström, Sara, 1979-
(författare)
-
Genetic variation and prostate cancer : population-based association studies in Sweden
- 2007
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Prostate cancer constitutes the most common malignancy and the most common cause of cancer‐related death in Swedish men. A large body of evidence suggests that inherited genetic variants contribute to both development and progression of prostate cancer. The aim of this thesis is to identify genetic variants that alter prostate cancer risk and progression. All papers included in this thesis are based on a Swedish population‐based case‐control study (CAPS) comprising 2,965 incident prostate cancer cases and 1,823 controls.In paper I, we investigated if genetic variants in the E‐cadherin gene altered prostate cancer risk. Seven haplotype tagging SNPs(tagSNPs) were selected and genotyped in CAPS and families with hereditary prostate cancer. We confirmed association of a promoter SNP rs16260 previously reported to increase risk of hereditary prostate cancer (OR: 2.6; 95% CI: 1.6‐4.3) for homozygous ‘A’ carriers.In paper II, we assessed 46 polymorphisms earlier reported to be associated with prostate cancer risk. Six polymorphisms in five different genes were replicated. Interestingly, three of these genes were involved in the androgen biosynthesis.In paper III, we followed up on the results from paper II by genotyping 23 tagSNPs located in the hormone regulating genes AR, CYP17 and SRD5A2. Multiple SNPs and haplotypes were associated withprostate cancer risk, especially in the AR gene. Combining risk alleles from all genes revealed a substantial risk increase for each additional allele carried (OR: 1.12; 95% CI: 1.1‐1.2, P=0.00009).In paper IV, we collected information about cause of death for all case patients in CAPS. At time of follow‐up 300 study subjects were deceased from prostate cancer. We assessed AR, CYP17 and SRD5A2 variants for association with lethal prostate cancer and found overall no association. However, one AR promoter SNP was associated with an increased risk of dying from prostate cancer amongst men who received palliative hormonal therapy as primary treatment.In paper V, we assessed common genetic variation at the ERG locus for association between prostate cancer risk and survival. ERG is recognized as a protooncogene frequently overexpressed in prostate cancer. A total of 21 tagSNPs in the 5’ region of ERG were genotyped. There was no correlation between ERG SNPs and prostate cancer risk but common genetic variation located approximately 100,000 basepairs upstream of ERG was significantly associated with prostate cancer specific survival.In summary, our results suggest that common genetic variation in Ecadherin alters prostate cancer risk in Swedish men with a positive family history of prostate cancer. Moreover, common genetic variation in the androgen‐related genes AR, CYP17 and SRD5A2 affects the risk of developing prostate cancer but is unlikely to alter prostate cancer progression. However, genetic variants in AR may affect hormonal therapy response. Finally, ERG polymorphisms are associated with prostate cancer‐specific death but are not likely to play a role in prostate cancer development.
|
|
| 3. |
- Lindström, Sara, 1980-
(författare)
-
Microwell devices for single-cell analyses
- 2009
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Powerful tools for detailed cellular studies are emerging, increasing the knowledge ofthe ultimate target of all drugs: the living cell. Today, cells are commonly analyzed inensembles, i.e. thousands of cells per sample, yielding results on the average responseof the cells. However, cellular heterogeneity implies the importance of studying howindividual cells respond, one by one, in order to learn more about drug targeting andcellular behavior. In vitro assays offering low volume sampling and rapid analysis in ahigh-throughput manner are of great interest in a wide range of single-cellapplications. This work presents a microwell device in silicon and glass, developed using standardmicrofabrication techniques. The chip was designed to allow flow-cytometric cellsorting, a controlled way of analyzing and sorting individual cells for dynamic cultureand clone formation, previously shown in larger multiwell plates only. Dependent onthe application, minor modifications to the original device were made resulting in agroup of microwell devices suitable for various applications. Leukemic cancer cellswere analyzed with regard to their clonogenic properties and a method forinvestigation of drug response of critical importance to predict long-term clinicaloutcome, is presented. Stem cells from human and mouse were maintainedpluripotent in a screening assay, also shown useful in studies on neural differentiation.For integrated liquid handling, a fluidic system was integrated onto the chip fordirected and controlled addition of reagents in various cell-based assays. The chip wasproduced in a slide format and used as an imaging tool for low-volume sampling withthe ability to run many samples in parallel, demonstrated in a protein-binding assay fora novel bispecific affinity protein. Moving from cells and proteins into geneticanalysis, a method for screening genes from clones in a rapid manner was shown bygene amplification and mutation analysis in individual wells. In summary, a microwelldevice with associated methods were developed and applied in a range of biologicalinvestigations, particularly interesting from a cell-heterogeneity perspective.
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
