1. |
- Andersson, P., 1992-, et al.
(author)
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Hippocampal subfield volumes contribute to working memory interference control in aging : Evidence from longitudinal associations over 5 years
- 2023
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In: Neuroimage: Reports. - : Elsevier. - 2666-9560. ; 3:4
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In memory, familiar but no longer relevant information may disrupt encoding and retrieval of to-be-learned information. While it has been demonstrated that the ability to resolve proactive interference (PI) in working memory (WM) is reduced in aging, the neuroanatomical components of this decline have yet to be determined. Hippocampal (HC) involvement in age-related decline in control of PI is currently not known. In particular, the association between HC subfield volumes and control of PI in WM has not been examined previously. Here we investigate the associations between mean level and 5-year trajectories of gray matter subfield volumes and PI in WM across the adult life span (N = 157). Longitudinal analyses over 5-years across all participants revealed that reduced volume in the subiculum was related to impaired control of PI. Age-stratified analyses showed that this association was most pronounced in older adults. Furthermore, we found that in older adults the effect of age on PI was mediated by GM volume in the HC. The current results show that HC volume is associated with the ability to control PI in WM, and that these associations are modulated by age.
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3. |
- Andersson, Jan-Olof
(author)
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Improving energy use in sawmills : from drying kilns to national impact
- 2012
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Increased concern about environmental problems has amplified the public`s interest inenergy usage. The improved subsidies for biomass, together with the rising energy priceshave made biomass a desirable product on the energy market. Energy intensive industries inthe field of wood and biomass now have nowadays an opportunity to decrease energyconsumption and to sell their biomass surplus on the energy market.This Licentiate thesis focuses on strategies to decrease biomass usage in sawmill industriesin order to increase their surplus biomass and increase their profit. This is done throughsystem analysis of sawmill industries in terms of mass and energy flows. The energyanalysis focuses on the drying kiln using psychrometric and thermodynamic relationships.State-of-the-art technologies, available on the market, have been studied to determine theirpossible effect on the total energy usage in the sawmills.This study was undertaken to determine the national use of energy due to sawmills and thepotential magnitude of improvements. Sawmills are important suppliers to the biomassmarket, since medium to large capacity sawmills contribute with 95% of the Swedish annuallumber (sawn boards) production (17.3 Mm3) with a lumber interchange of only 47%. Therest of the timber (unsawn logs) is transformed into biomass through the lumber productionprocesses. An essential part (12%) of the timber is used for supplying heat to the productionprocesses, mainly to the drying process which is the most time and heat consuming processin the sawmill. The main conclusions are that the heat demand for drying lumber in Swedishsawmills was found to be 4.9 TWh per year and the drying process can be made moreeffective by use of state-of-the-art technologies. Hence the internal use of biomass insawmills can be decreased, thereby increasing the biomass that can be sold to the marketand/or to generate heat and/or electricity, resulting in more profitable sawmills and asignificant increased supply of biomass to the market.It was also found that with available state-of-the-art technologies it is possible to recycle theheat in the evacuated air from the dryer, and if the recovered heat is used for heat sinksinside or close to the sawmill a large decrease of the energy usage can be achieved. If thetechnologies are implemented up to 5.56 TWh of equivalent biomass can be saved,depending on the technology, the specific sawmill conditions, kiln settings and dryingsystem operation. However, some of the considered technologies consume a substantialamount of electricity, so the economic benefit should be carefully evaluated.
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4. |
- Andersson Norlén, Elina, et al.
(author)
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Blood cultures with one venipuncture instead of two : a prospective clinical comparative single-center study including patients in the ICU, haematology, and infectious diseases departments
- 2023
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In: Infectious Diseases. - : Taylor & Francis. - 2374-4235 .- 2374-4243. ; 55:9, s. 591-598
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Objectives: Blood culture is a key method for diagnosing bloodstream infections. In this prospective study, we aimed to investigate whether blood cultures collected with the one-puncture method results in fewer contaminants, i.e. microorganisms from the skin or the environment, and the same detection of relevant pathogens compared to the two-puncture method. Further, we aimed to investigate if the time to blood culture positivity could be useful in evaluating contaminants.Methods: Patients planned for blood cultures were asked to participate in the study. From each recruited patient, six blood culture bottles were drawn, bottles 1–4 from the first venipuncture and bottles 5–6 from the second venipuncture. Within each patient, bottles 1–4 were compared to bottles 1, 2, 5, and 6 for contaminants and relevant pathogens. A sub-analysis was conducted on patients admitted to the ICU and those in the haematology department. We also assessed time-to-positivity for coagulase-negative staphylococci.Results: In the final analysis, 337 episodes from 312 patients were included. Relevant pathogens were identified in 62/337 (18.4%) episodes in both methods. Contaminants were detected in 12 (3.6%) and 19 episodes (5.6%) using the one-puncture and two-puncture method (p =.039), respectively. Corresponding results were observed in the sub-analysis. Notably, relevant coagulase-negative staphylococci demonstrated a shorter time-to-positivity compared to contaminant coagulase-negative staphylococci.Conclusion: Blood cultures obtained using the one-puncture method resulted in significantly fewer contaminants and detected relevant pathogens equally to the two-puncture method. Time-to-positivity may be a useful additive indicator for predicting coagulase-negative staphylococci contamination in blood cultures.
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5. |
- Andersson, T, et al.
(author)
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Syndromic surveillance for local outbreak detection and awareness : evaluating outbreak signals of acute gastroenteritis in telephone triage, web-based queries and over-the-counter pharmacy sales
- 2014
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In: Epidemiology and Infection. - : Cambridge University Press. - 0950-2688 .- 1469-4409. ; 142:2, s. 303-313
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- For the purpose of developing a national system for outbreak surveillance, local outbreak signals were compared in three sources of syndromic data - telephone triage of acute gastroenteritis, web queries about symptoms of gastrointestinal illness, and over-the-counter (OTC) pharmacy sales of antidiarrhoeal medication. The data sources were compared against nine known waterborne and foodborne outbreaks in Sweden in 2007-2011. Outbreak signals were identified for the four largest outbreaks in the telephone triage data and the two largest outbreaks in the data on OTC sales of antidiarrhoeal medication. No signals could be identified in the data on web queries. The signal magnitude for the fourth largest outbreak indicated a tenfold larger outbreak than officially reported, supporting the use of telephone triage data for situational awareness. For the two largest outbreaks, telephone triage data on adult diarrhoea provided outbreak signals at an early stage, weeks and months in advance, respectively, potentially serving the purpose of early event detection. In conclusion, telephone triage data provided the most promising source for surveillance of point-source outbreaks.
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6. |
- Backeström, Anna, et al.
(author)
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Acute hyperglycaemia leads to altered frontal lobe brain activity and reduced working memory in type 2 diabetes.
- 2021
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In: PloS one. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 16:3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- How acute hyperglycaemia affects memory functions and functional brain responses in individuals with and without type 2 diabetes is unclear. Our aim was to study the association between acute hyperglycaemia and working, semantic, and episodic memory in participants with type 2 diabetes compared to a sex- and age-matched control group. We also assessed the effect of hyperglycaemia on working memory-related brain activity. A total of 36 participants with type 2 diabetes and 34 controls (mean age, 66 years) underwent hyperglycaemic clamp or placebo clamp in a blinded and randomised order. Working, episodic, and semantic memory were tested. Overall, the control group had higher working memory (mean z-score 33.15 ± 0.45) than the group with type 2 diabetes (mean z-score 31.8 ± 0.44, p = 0.042) considering both the placebo and hyperglycaemic clamps. Acute hyperglycaemia did not influence episodic, semantic, or working memory performance in either group. Twenty-two of the participants (10 cases, 12 controls, mean age 69 years) were randomly invited to undergo the same clamp procedures to challenge working memory, using 1-, 2-, and 3-back, while monitoring brain activity by blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The participants with type 2 diabetes had reduced working memory during the 1- and 2-back tests. fMRI during placebo clamp revealed increased BOLD signal in the left lateral frontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex as a function of working memory load in both groups (3>2>1). During hyperglycaemia, controls showed a similar load-dependent fMRI response, whereas the type 2 diabetes group showed decreased BOLD response from 2- to 3-back. These results suggest that impaired glucose metabolism in the brain affects working memory, possibly by reducing activity in important frontal brain areas in persons with type 2 diabetes.
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7. |
- Berginström, Nils, 1984-, et al.
(author)
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Fatigue after traumatic brain injury is linked to altered striato-thalamic-cortical functioning
- 2017
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In: Brain Injury. - : Taylor & Francis. - 0269-9052 .- 1362-301X. ; 31:6-7, s. 755-755
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Mental fatigue is a common symptom in the chronic phase of traumatic brain injury. Despite its high prevalence, no treatmentis available for this disabling symptom, and the mechanisms underlying fatigue are poorly understood. Some studies have suggested that fatigue in traumatic brain injury and other neurological disorders might reflect dysfunction within striato-thalamic-cortical loops. In the present study, we investigated whether functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI) can be used to detect chronic fatigue after traumatic brain injury (TBI), with emphasis on the striato-thalamic cortical-loops. We included patients who had suffered traumatic brain injury (n = 57, age range 20–64 years) and experienced mental fatigue > 1 year post injury (mean = 8.79 years, SD = 7.35), and age- and sex-matched healthycontrols (n = 27, age range 25–65 years). All participants completed self-assessment scales of fatigue and other symptoms, underwent an extensive neuropsychological test battery and performed a fatiguing 27-minute attention task (the modified Symbol Digit Modalities Test) during fMRI. Accuracy did not differ between groups, but reaction times were slower in the traumatic brain injury group (p < 0.001). Patients showed a greater increase in fatigue than controls from before to after task completion (p < 0.001). Patients showed less fMRI blood oxygen level–dependent activity in several a priori hypothesized regions (family-wise error corrected,p < 0.05), including the bilateral caudate, thalamus and anterior insula. Using the left caudate as a region of interest and testing for sensitivity and specificity, we identified 91% of patients and 81% of controls. As expected, controls showed decreased activation over time in regions of interest—the bilateral caudate and anterior thalamus (p < 0.002, uncorrected)—whereas patients showed no corresponding activity decrease. These results suggest that chronic fatigue after TBI is linked to altered striato-thalamic-cortical functioning. The high precision of fMRI for the detection of fatigue is of great clinical interest, given the lack of objective measures for the diagnosis of fatigue.
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8. |
- Berginström, Nils, et al.
(author)
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Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Detect Chronic Fatigue in Patients With Previous Traumatic Brain Injury : changes linked to altered Striato-Thalamic-Cortical Functioning
- 2018
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In: The journal of head trauma rehabilitation. - : Wolters Kluwer. - 0885-9701 .- 1550-509X. ; 33:4, s. 266-274
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Objective: To investigate whether functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can be used to detect fatigue after traumatic brain injury (TBI).Setting: Neurorehabilitation clinic.Participants: Patients with TBI (n = 57) and self-experienced fatigue more than 1 year postinjury, and age- and gender-matched healthy controls (n = 27).Main Measures: Self-assessment scales of fatigue, a neuropsychological test battery, and fMRI scanning during performance of a fatiguing 27-minute attention task.Results: During testing within the fMRI scanner, patients showed a higher increase in self-reported fatigue than controls from before to after completing the task (P < .001).The patients also showed lower activity in several regions, including bilateral caudate, thalamus, and anterior insula (all P < .05). Furthermore, the patients failed to display decreased activation over time in regions of interest: the bilateral caudate and anterior thalamus (all P < .01). Left caudate activity correctly identified 91% of patients and 81% of controls, resulting in a positive predictive value of 91%.Conclusion: The results suggest that chronic fatigue after TBI is associated with altered striato-thalamic-cortical functioning. It would be of interest to study whether fMRI can be used to support the diagnosis of chronic fatigue in future studies.
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9. |
- Björklund, Patrik, et al.
(author)
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Västerås slott : Slott och borgar
- 2000
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Reports (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- En majoritet av dagens byggnadsuppgifter gäller att hantera det redan byggda. När vi står inför situationen att restaurera en befintlig byggnad är det viktigt att förstå olika tidsperioders stilideal liksom byggnadsteknik och material. Först då kan vi göra en väl avvägd analys, som tar tillvara och utvecklar de kvaliteter som byggnaderna själva besitter. Därför är utbildningen upplagd som ett växelspel mellan föreläsningar, seminarier, exkursioner och en för året vald studieuppgift.Slott och borgar har varit läsårets tema. Vi har valt att arbeta med Västerås och Örebro slott - två ganska bortglömda Vasaslott som är väl värda att lyfta fram. Särskilt har vi studerat de senaste 300 årens förändringar, som inte tidigare ägnats lika stora forskarmöda som medelitden och Vasatiden. I dessa två exempel finns en provkarta på estetiska, praktiska och tekniska ingrepp från Carl Hårlemans tid och fram till idag.Studierna har således omfattat både gestaltning, funktion och byggnadsteknik. Avsikten är att visa på kvaliteter i de omvandlingar och restaureringar som skett, men också att peka på problem och analysera olika möjligheter inför framtiden. Arbetet har skett i samarbete med Statens fastighetsverk och är tänkt att utgöra ett underlag till vårdprogram och framtida restaureringsinsatser.
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10. |
- Boen, Rune, et al.
(author)
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Beyond the global brain differences : intraindividual variability differences in 1q21.1 distal and 15q11.2 bp1-bp2 deletion carriers
- 2024
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In: Biological Psychiatry. - 0006-3223 .- 1873-2402. ; 95:2, s. 147-160
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Carriers of the 1q21.1 distal and 15q11.2 BP1-BP2 copy number variants exhibit regional and global brain differences compared with noncarriers. However, interpreting regional differences is challenging if a global difference drives the regional brain differences. Intraindividual variability measures can be used to test for regional differences beyond global differences in brain structure.Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging data were used to obtain regional brain values for 1q21.1 distal deletion (n = 30) and duplication (n = 27) and 15q11.2 BP1-BP2 deletion (n = 170) and duplication (n = 243) carriers and matched noncarriers (n = 2350). Regional intra-deviation scores, i.e., the standardized difference between an individual's regional difference and global difference, were used to test for regional differences that diverge from the global difference.Results: For the 1q21.1 distal deletion carriers, cortical surface area for regions in the medial visual cortex, posterior cingulate, and temporal pole differed less and regions in the prefrontal and superior temporal cortex differed more than the global difference in cortical surface area. For the 15q11.2 BP1-BP2 deletion carriers, cortical thickness in regions in the medial visual cortex, auditory cortex, and temporal pole differed less and the prefrontal and somatosensory cortex differed more than the global difference in cortical thickness.Conclusions: We find evidence for regional effects beyond differences in global brain measures in 1q21.1 distal and 15q11.2 BP1-BP2 copy number variants. The results provide new insight into brain profiling of the 1q21.1 distal and 15q11.2 BP1-BP2 copy number variants, with the potential to increase understanding of the mechanisms involved in altered neurodevelopment.
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