| 1. |
- Höijer, Carl Johan, et al.
(author)
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Improved cardiac function and quality of life following upgrade to dual chamber pacing after long-term ventricular stimulation.
- 2002
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In: European Heart Journal. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1522-9645 .- 0195-668X. ; 23:6, s. 490-497
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aims Many patients with sinus node disease or atrioventricular block have previously received pacemakers with only ventricular stimulation (VVI or VVIR). This study aimed to investigate whether quality of life and cardiac function were affected by an upgrade to dual chamber pacing (DDDR or DDIR) following long-term ventricular stimulation. Methods After implantation of an atrial lead and a DDDR pulse generator, a randomized, double-blind crossover study was performed in 19 patients, previously treated with ventricular pacing for a median time of 6center dot8 years. Patients were randomized to 8 weeks with either VVIR or DDDR/DDIR pacing; after this time, the other mode was programmed for 8 weeks. At the end of each period, the patients' quality of life was evaluated and echocardiography was performed together with Holter monitoring and blood samples for brain natriuretic peptide. Results Sixteen of the patients preferred DDDR and two VVIR pacing (P=0center dot001); one was undecided. Seven patients demanded an early crossover while paced in the VVIR mode, vs none in the DDDR mode (P=0center dot008). Quality of life was higher in the DDDR mode in 11 of 17 modalities, reaching statistical significance for dyspnoea (P<0center dot05) and general activity (P<0center dot05). Echocardiography showed significantly larger left ventricular end-diastolic dimensions in the DDDR mode (P=0center dot01), whereas end-systolic dimensions did not differ. Left ventricular systolic function was significantly superior in the DDDR mode (mean aortic velocity--time integral: P<0center dot001) and left atrial diameter was significantly smaller in the DDDR mode (P=0center dot01). The plasma level of brain natriuretic peptide was significantly lower in DDDR mode (P=0center dot002). Conclusion An upgrade to dual chamber rate adaptive pacing results in significantly improved quality of life and cardiac function as compared to continued VVIR stimulation and should thus be considered in patients with ventricular pacemakers who have not developed permanent atrial fibrillation or flutter.
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| 2. |
- Lindholm, Carl-Johan, et al.
(author)
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Sinus rhythm maintenance following DC cardioversion of atrial fibrillation is not improved by temporary precardioversion treatment with oral verapamil.
- 2004
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In: Heart (British Cardiac Society). - : BMJ. - 1468-201X. ; 90:5, s. 8-534
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: To evaluate prospectively the effects of pretreatment with verapamil on the maintenance of sinus rhythm after direct current (DC) cardioversion. DESIGN: Randomised, active control, open label, parallel group comparison of verapamil versus digoxin. SETTINGS: Multicentre study in three teaching and three non-teaching hospitals in Sweden. PATIENTS: 100 consecutive patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) of at least four weeks' duration and indications for cardioversion were assigned randomly to two groups, one treated with verapamil (verapamil group) and the other with digoxin (digoxin group) before cardioversion. Fifty patients were assigned randomly to each treatment arm. After dropout of four patients from the digoxin group and seven patients from the verapamil group, data obtained from 89 patients were analysed. INTERVENTIONS: After randomly assigned pretreatment with either verapamil or digoxin for four weeks, DC cardioversion was performed. If sinus rhythm was restored then verapamil treatment was discontinued. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The rate of AF recurrence was assessed one, four, eight, and 12 weeks after cardioversion. RESULTS: 6 patients in the verapamil treated group and none in the digoxin treated group reverted to sinus rhythm spontaneously (p < 0.05). DC cardioversion restored sinus rhythm in 24 of 37 (65%) patients in the verapamil group and 41 of 46 patients (89%) in the digoxin group (p < 0.05). After 12 weeks' follow up 28% (13 of 46) of digoxin pretreated patients versus 9% (four of 43) of verapamil pretreated patients remained in sinus rhythm (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Pretreatment with verapamil alone does not improve maintenance of sinus rhythm after DC cardioversion in patients with AF. The rate of spontaneous cardioversion may be improved by verapamil.
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| 3. |
- Olofsson, Linus, et al.
(author)
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New possibilities with CT scanning in the forest value chain
- 2019
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In: Proceedings 21st International Nondestructive Testingand Evaluation of Wood Symposium. - : U.S. Department of Agriculture. ; , s. 569-576
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Industrial high-resolution X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanners have recently been installed at several sawmills worldwide for the description of roundwood interior features and external log shape. These CT scanners represent a technological advancement for sawmill businesses that open a way to higher volume and value yields and new production planning strategies. This paper will present an indicative study of innovative use of non-destructive CT log data in a Swedish softwood sawmill, linking high-quality information of the wood material along the wood-value chain. Sawn timber was observed throughout the sawmill process line, i.e. from the log yard through the sawmill process until grading after the timber was dried. Before sawing, the CT scanner scanned the logs and calculated knot measurements from the 3D CT log data of simulated value-optimized center yield. A corresponding set of knot measurements were later calculated from the camera-based grading of the dried timber. Only considering knots from the two sets of measurements, the sawn timber was automatically given a quality assessment based on CT data, by camera-based scanning data, and by manual visual grading for reference. Partial least squares regression was used to create prediction models by correlating the two sets of knot measurements with the automatically determined grade from the dry-sorting. The prediction models tested increased the grading consistency between the grading based on CT data of virtual planks and based on camera data of the same planks. Furthermore, a traceability algorithm was tested as a tool to generate large data sets for future studies.
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| 4. |
- Barringer, Rasmus, et al.
(author)
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High-Quality Curve Rendering using Line Sampled Visibility
- 2012
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In: ACM Transactions on Graphics. - : Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). - 0730-0301 .- 1557-7368. ; 31:6, s. 162-162
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Computing accurate visibility for thin primitives, such as hair strands, fur, grass, at all scales remains difficult or expensive. To that end, we present an efficient visibility algorithm based on spatial line sampling, and a novel intersection algorithm between line sample planes and Bezier splines with varying thickness. Our algorithm produces accurate visibility both when the projected width of the curve is a tiny fraction of a pixel, and when the projected width is tens of pixels. In addition, we present a rapid resolve procedure that computes final visibility. Using an optimized implementation running on graphics processors, we can render tens of thousands long hair strands with noise-free visibility at near-interactive rates.
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| 5. |
- Beck, Ingela, et al.
(author)
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Translation and cultural adaptation of the integrated palliative care outcome scale for use in Sweden
- 2016
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In: Palliative Medicine.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Background: Patient-reported outcome measurements are important for measuring changes in patients’ health over time, evaluating the quality of care given, and improving the quality of care service. The Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale (IPOS) is one such measure, capturing clinically important physical, psychological, social, and existential aspects of patients’ palliative care needs. When patients are unable to complete the IPOS questionnaire themselves with or without assistance, a staff version is also available.Aim: To translate and culturally adapt the IPOS Patient and Staff versions for use in the Swedish context.Method: The process comprised forward and backward translations, cultural adaptation, and expert group reviews. To validate the resulting Swedish version of IPOS, cognitive interviews were conducted with 13 patients and 15 staff from various care contexts.Preliminary results: The Swedish expert group changed some words and grammar due to minor discrepancies in the back translation process. The participants in the cognitive interviews responded positively overall to the questionnaire. Deteriorating health and not having Swedish as the native language did not cause problems in completing the questionnaire. After the first round of cognitive interviews, problematic questions and answer options were rephrased, and redundant text was deleted.Conclusion: The Swedish IPOS (Patient and Staff versions) has been validated linguistically and culturally, and is now available for clinical use. The next final step in the validation process will be to test the psychometric performance of the Swedish questionnaires.
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| 6. |
- Beck, Ingela, et al.
(author)
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Translation and cultural adaptation of the integrated palliative care outcome scale for use in Sweden
- 2016
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In: Palliative Medicine. - : SAGE Publications. - 0269-2163 .- 1477-030X.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Background: Patient-reported outcome measurements are important for measuring changes in patients’ health over time, evaluating the quality of care given, and improving the quality of care service. The Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale (IPOS) is one such measure, capturing clinically important physical, psychological, social, and existential aspects of patients’ palliative care needs. When patients are unable to complete the IPOS questionnaire themselves with or without assistance, a staff version is also available. Aim: To translate and culturally adapt the IPOS Patient and Staff versions for use in the Swedish context. Method: The process comprised forward and backward translations, cultural adaptation, and expert group reviews. To validate the resulting Swedish version of IPOS, cognitive interviews were conducted with 13 patients and 15 staff from various care contexts. Preliminary results: The Swedish expert group changed some words and grammar due to minor discrepancies in the back translation process. The participants in the cognitive interviews responded positively overall to the questionnaire. Deteriorating health and not having Swedish as the native language did not cause problems in completing the questionnaire. After the first round of cognitive interviews, problematic questions and answer options were rephrased, and redundant text was deleted. Conclusion: The Swedish IPOS (Patient and Staff versions) has been validated linguistically and culturally, and is now available for clinical use. The next final step in the validation process will be to test the psychometric performance of the Swedish questionnaires.
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| 7. |
- Beck, Ingela, et al.
(author)
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Translation and cultural adaptation of the Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale including cognitive interviewing with patients and staff
- 2017
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In: BMC Palliative Care. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1472-684X. ; 16:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUND: To expand our clinical and scientific knowledge about holistic outcomes within palliative care, there is a need for agreed-upon patient-reported outcome measures. These patient-reported outcome measures then require translation and cultural adaptation, either from country-specific languages to English, or the other way around. The aim of this study was to translate and cross-culturally adapt the Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale (IPOS) to the Swedish care context.METHODS: Swedish versions of IPOS Patient and IPOS Staff were developed and culturally adapted using recommended guidelines including cognitive interviews with patients (n = 13) and staff (n = 15) from different care contexts including general and specialised palliative care.RESULTS: The comprehension and judgement difficulties identified in the pre-final patient and staff versions were successfully solved during the cognitive interviewing process. IPOS was well accepted by both patients and staff, none of the questions were experienced as inappropriate, and all questions were judged important.CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we translated and culturally adapted the patient and staff versions of IPOS, and demonstrated face and content validity and acceptability of the scale through cognitive interviewing with patients and staff within residential care facility, surgical and specialised palliative home care units. Cognitive interviewing in parallel with patients and staff in rounds, with tentative analysis in between, was a suitable method for identifying and solving challenges with comprehension and evaluation in the pre-final version of IPOS. The Swedish IPOS is now available for use in a variety of clinical care settings.
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| 8. |
- Bentham, James, et al.
(author)
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A century of trends in adult human height
- 2016
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In: eLIFE. - : eLife Sciences Publications Ltd. - 2050-084X. ; 5
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5–22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.3– 19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8– 144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Bojsen-Møller, Emil, 1989-
(author)
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Movement Behaviors and Cognitive Health for Office Workers
- 2022
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The lifetime trajectories of movement behavior and cognitive functioning depend on complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors. There is substantial evidence suggesting that physical activity benefits cognitive functions. However, how sedentary behavior and the composition of movement behaviors (i.e., sleep, physical activity, and sedentary behavior) influences cognitive functions remains to be elucidated. Observational studies suggest that sedentary time is unfavorably related to cognitive functions in older adults, but the majority of evidence comes from self-reported estimates of movement behavior, which are rather weakly related to device-based measures. Furthermore, while evidence suggests that structured exercise can have protective effects on cognition in inactive older adults, much less is known about how midlife movement behavior is related to cognitive functions. Thus, knowledge of how midlife movement behavior relates to and possibly affects cognitive functions and its underlying mechanisms is much needed. This thesis is part of a larger research project investigating how movement behaviors relate to and influence cognitive function, mental health, and neurophysiological mechanisms underpinning these. The project specifically targets healthy office workers and is co-produced with employers of office workers and health-promoting companies. This thesis aimed to investigate how movement behaviors relate to and influence cognitive functions and neuroplasticity among office workers.The first study investigated cross-sectional relationships between device-measured movement behavior and cognitive functions among 334 office workers. The results revealed no association between total time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity or sedentary behavior and cognitive functions, suggesting that this association may not be as robust as previously suggested in older populations or as inferred from self-report. The second study investigated the extent to which corticospinal excitability is influenced by different movement behaviors. Sixteen sedentary office workers participated in a cross-over randomized controlled trial. We contrasted 3 hours of prolonged sitting with 3 hours of interrupted sitting and 2.5 hours sitting followed by a 25-minute bout of exercise. Acute changes in corticospinal excitability and long-term potentiation-like neuroplasticity were investigated using transcranial magnetic stimulation and paired associative stimulation. Changes in corticospinal excitability over time did not differ between conditions, suggesting that in inactive middle-aged office workers, a physical activity bout or frequently breaking up prolonged sitting does not induce immediate changes in corticospinal excitability or long-term potentiation-like neuroplasticity. The third and fourth studies are based on a 6-month cluster-randomized intervention conducted in 263 healthy office workers. An ecological model for behavior change was used to design two interventions aiming at reducing sedentary behavior or increasing physical activity relative to a passive control group, with the ultimate aim of improving cognitive functions and mental health. The third study investigated how effective each intervention was at changing the 24-hour movement behavior, and the fourth study examined intervention effects on cognitive functions. The results showed that the interventions were ineffective in reducing sedentary behavior and increasing physical activity, respectively, with no detected beneficial effects on cardiorespiratory fitness or cognitive functions relative to the control group. Changes in cognition from baseline to follow-up were not associated with changes in the composition of movement behaviors or cardiorespiratory fitness, but some associations between changes in movement behaviors and cognition were moderated by sex, age, and cardiorespiratory fitness. Thus, the third and fourth studies of the thesis have highlighted the challenges involved in successfully achieving movement behavior change to address the possible effects on cognitive improvements in an ecological setting.In summary, the results presented in this thesis did not provide support for an association between movement behaviors and cognitive functions in healthy physically active office workers, demonstrated no acute effect of a single session of physical activity or breaking up prolonged sitting on corticospinal excitability in sedentary office workers, and revealed no evidence for successful movement behavior change or benefits for cognition in an ecological cluster-randomized intervention in healthy physically active office workers. The findings suggest that among physically active office workers, sedentary behavior may not be as detrimental for cognition and neuroplasticity as previously suggested and shows that changing movement behavior in office workers at the workplace represents a challenging endeavor. Still, these findings do not exclude the possibility that changes in movement behaviors might benefit cognitive functions in physically inactive office workers at higher cardiovascular risk, with lower cardiorespiratory fitness and/or lower daily cognitive stimulation.
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