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| 2. |
- Björklund, Ann-Christin, et al.
(author)
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Using ICF to Describe Problems With Functioning in Everyday Life for Children Who Completed Treatment for Brain Tumor : An Analysis Based on Professionals' Documentation
- 2021
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In: Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 2673-6861. ; 2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Children treated for brain tumors often experience persistent problems affecting their activity performance and participation in everyday life, especially in school. Linking these problems to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) classification system can be described as affecting body function, activity performance, and/or participation. Services involved in the everyday life of the child have different focus and goals when meeting the child in context, which advantage the use of ICF to overcome this impediment to follow-up and provide comprehensive support for children who have completed treatment for a brain tumor.Aim: The aim of the study was to use the ICF classification system to describe how professionals in healthcare, habilitation, and school document problems with everyday life functioning at body, activity, and participation levels for children who completed treatment for a brain tumor.Materials and Methods: A retrospective review of records from healthcare, habilitation, and school concerning nine children completed treatment for brain tumor was implemented. Identified problems in everyday life were linked to ICF codes. Descriptive statistics of ICF-linked code frequency supplemented by network visualization diagrams viewing the co-occurrence between codes within the body, activity participation, and environmental components were performed.Results: Most documented problems were found in healthcare records, whereas the documentation in habilitation and school was sparse. The frequently occurring codes, independent of record source, were linked to the body function component, and ICF-linked problems in habilitation and school were salient in the activity and participation component. To gain a holistic picture of relations between ICF codes and problems, network visualization diagrams were used to illustrate clusters of problems.Conclusion: Code prevalence likely reflects where healthcare professionals and educators focus their attention when meeting the needs of children treated for a brain tumor in context. To maximize the comprehensive view of functioning and participation of children in everyday life, the full range of difficulties regarding body impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions must be identified and linked to each other in patterns of co-occurrence, which the ICF facilitate. However, ICF provides no guidance on how to identify networks of problems within the body, activity, and participation. Identifying such networks is important for building comprehensive interventions for children.
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| 3. |
- Escudero-Hernández, Celia, et al.
(author)
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The Water Channel Aquaporin 8 is a Critical Regulator of Intestinal Fluid Homeostasis in Collagenous Colitis
- 2020
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In: Journal of Crohn's & Colitis. - : Oxford University Press. - 1873-9946 .- 1876-4479. ; 14:7, s. 962-973
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Diarrhoea is a common, debilitating symptom of gastrointestinal disorders. Pathomechanisms probably involve defects in trans-epithelial water transport, but the role of aquaporin [AQP] family water channels in diarrhoea-predominant diseases is unknown. We investigated the involvement of AQPs in the pathobiology of collagenous colitis [CC], which features chronic, watery diarrhoea despite overtly normal intestinal epithelial cells [IECs].METHODS: We assessed the expression of all AQP family members in mucosal samples of CC patients before and during treatment with the corticosteroid drug budesonide, steroid-refractory CC patients and healthy controls. Samples were analysed by genome-wide mRNA sequencing [RNA-seq] and quantitative real-time PCR [qPCR]. In some patients, we performed tissue microdissection followed by RNA-seq to explore the IEC-specific CC transcriptome. We determined changes in the protein levels of the lead candidates in IEC by confocal microscopy. Finally, we investigated the regulation of AQP expression by corticosteroids in model cell lines.RESULTS: Using qPCR and RNA-seq, we identified loss of AQP8 expression as a hallmark of active CC, which was reverted by budesonide treatment in steroid-responsive but not refractory patients. Consistently, decreased AQP8 mRNA and protein levels were observed in IECs of patients with active CC, and steroid drugs increased AQP8 expression in model IECs. Moreover, low APQ8 expression was strongly associated with higher stool frequency in CC patients.CONCLUSION: Down-regulation of epithelial AQP8 may impair water resorption in active CC, resulting in watery diarrhoea. Our results suggest that AQP8 is a potential drug target for the treatment of diarrhoeal disorders.
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| 4. |
- Escudero-Hernández, Celia, et al.
(author)
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Transcriptomic profiling of collagenous colitis identifies hallmarks of non-destructive inflammatory bowel disease.
- 2021
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In: Cellular and molecular gastroenterology and hepatology. - : American Gastroenterological Association. - 2352-345X. ; 12:2, s. 665-687
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The pathophysiology of the inflammatory bowel disease collagenous colitis (CC) is poorly described. Our aim was to use RNA sequencing of mucosal samples from patients with active CC, CC in remission, refractory CC, ulcerative colitis (UC), and controls to gain insight into CC pathophysiology, identify genetic signatures linked to CC, and uncover potentially druggable disease pathways.METHODS: We performed whole transcriptome sequencing of CC samples from patients before and during treatment with the corticosteroid drug budesonide, CC steroid-refractory patients, UC patients, and healthy controls (n=9-13). Bulk mucosa and laser-captured microdissected intestinal epithelial cell (IEC) gene expression were analyzed by gene-set enrichment and gene-set variation analyses to identify significant pathways and cells, respectively, altered in CC. Leading genes and cells were validated using reverse transcription quantitative PCR and/or immunohistochemistry.RESULTS: We identified an activation of the adaptive immune response to bacteria and viruses in active CC that could be mediated by dendritic cells. Moreover, IECs display hyperproliferation and increased antigen presentation in active CC. Further analysis revealed that genes related to the immune response (DUOX2, PLA2G2A, CXCL9), DNA transcription (CTR9), protein processing (JOSD1, URI1) and ion transport (SLC9A3) remained dysregulated even after budesonide-induced remission. Budesonide-refractory CC patients fail to restore normal gene expression, and displayed a transcriptomic profile close to UC.CONCLUSIONS: Our study confirmed the implication of innate and adaptive immune responses in CC, governed by IECs and dendritic cells, respectively; and identified ongoing epithelial damage. Refractory CC could share pathomechanisms with UC.
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| 6. |
- Granlund, Stefan, et al.
(author)
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A Low-Latency High-Throughput Soft-Output Signal Detector for Spatial Multiplexing MIMO Systems
- 2015
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In: Microprocessors and Microsystems. - : Elsevier BV. - 0141-9331. ; 39:8, s. 901-908
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper presents a low latency, high throughput soft-output signal detector for a 4x4 64-QAM spatial-multiplexing MIMO system. To achieve high data-level parallelism and accurate soft information, the detector adopts a channel-adaptive node perturbation technique to generate a list of candidate vectors around an initial linear estimation. The detection algorithm provides a large range and convenient performance-complexity trade-off by adjusting the node perturbation parameter. A partial-parallel pipelined VLSI architecture is developed to implement the algorithm with high throughput, low processing latency, while offering the flexibility to support run-time performance tuning. Moreover, a fast and hardware-friendly node enumeration scheme is developed to further reduce the processing delay by exploiting the geometric property of the quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellation. The detector was synthesized using Synopsys Design Compiler with a 65nm CMOS standard cell library. The core area is 0.58mm2 with 290K gates. The peak throughput is 3Gb/s at 500MHz clock frequency with a latency of 20ns. Compared to other reported soft-output MIMO detectors, this is a latency reduction of 71%. The corresponding energy consumption is 33pJ per bit detection.
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| 7. |
- Granlund, Stefan, et al.
(author)
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Implementation of a Highly-Parallel Soft-Output MIMO Detector with Fast Node Enumeration
- 2013
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In: [Host publication title missing].
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper presents a high throughput, low latency soft-output signal detector for a 4×4 64-QAM MIMO system. To achieve high data-level parallelism and accurate soft information, the detector adopts a node perturbation technique to generate a list of candidate vectors around Zero Forcing, ZF, result. Additionally a fast and hardware friendly node enumeration scheme is developed to significantly reduce processing delay. Implemented using a 65nm CMOS technology, the detector occupies 0.58mm2 core area with 290K gates. The peak throughput is 3Gb/s at 500 MHz clock frequency with a latency of 20ns. Energy consumption per detected bit is 33pJ.
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| 8. |
- Granlund, Stefan
(author)
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'That Child Support Grant Gives Me Powers' - Exploring Social and Relational Aspects of Cash Transfers in South Africa in Times of Livelihood Change
- 2019
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In: Journal of Development Studies. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0022-0388 .- 1743-9140.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article builds on existing literature on the material effects of cash transfers. It explores people's own perceptions of the role of unconditional cash transfers in building, maintaining, and transforming social relations in a small village in rural South Africa. Much of the literature studying the impacts of cash transfers in the global South relies on quantitative measures. Thus, there is a paucity of micro-level qualitative research on beneficiaries' own perspectives on the social impacts of cash transfers. To this end, we explored whether the Child Support Grant, a small cash transfer given to impoverished caregivers of children, changed individual and intra-household relationships, as well as community solidarity in this village. We argue that South Africa's cash transfers have largely had positive social transformative effects on individuals, in relation to a sense of dignity, autonomy and increased decision-making powers for primary caregivers, usually mothers or grandmothers. Positive effects were also perceived in relation to these households and communities, although some contested effects and limitations were also found. These findings are of interest in the ongoing broader debates around the effects of cash transfers globally as well as regionally in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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| 9. |
- Granlund, Stefan
(author)
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The promise of payday: exploring the role of state cash transfers in post-apartheid rural South Africa
- 2020
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- During the last two decades, cash transfer programs have become a significant tool across low and middle-income countries in efforts to reduce poverty. However, there is a paucity of studies on beneficiaries’ own perspectives and lived experiences of cash transfers as well as potential long-term productive effects on livelihoods.The aim of this thesis is to explore the material and socio-relational implications of state cash transfers for impoverished populations in rural South Africa in a changing livelihood context, using the Child Support Grant (CSG) as case. The CSG is an unconditional cash transfer to improve child wellbeing for households living in poverty. Material and socialrelational implications of the grant are explored through combining household surveys with all (273) households in two rural villages in the Eastern Cape Province with interviews and observations. The surveys, conducted in 2016, followed up a previous similar survey from 2002, which was before the CSG reached these villages. Drawing on literature on cash transfers, livelihoods, and social justice theory, including the two interlinked concepts of redistribution and recognition, the study points to the importance of both material and symbolic redistribution in strengthening livelihoods and social justice.The thesis reveals that in a context of rising unemployment and declining cultivation in the two villages, social grants have both protective and productive effects on livelihoods. The results show how the recipients used the CSG strategically for making small improvements to their livelihoods over time. The study also shows that the CSG has strengthened women’s autonomy and dignity and has reduced gender inequalities at household level. However, the CSG did not lead to significant improvements that could eradicate poverty in the long term.This thesis further studies state-citizen relations and the contentious character of social grants in rural South Africa. There is a growing sense of entitlement to the CSG among recipients, while sentiments of grants being a form of charity exists simultaneously. The thesis concludes that the encounters with state bureaucracy primarily are avenues where CSG recipients see the state, enact a form of agency and gain recognition, which contributes to a sense of citizenship. In conclusion, the CSG is not simply an economic transfer of cash, which keeps individuals in households and communities afloat, it also becomes part of, and reshapes, social relations. The potential for recipients to gain recognition of their status as citizens is an important symbolic implication of social grants.
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| 10. |
- Hajdu, Flora, et al.
(author)
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Changing Livelihoods in Rural Eastern Cape, South Africa (2002-2016): Diminishing Employment and Expanding Social Protection
- 2020
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In: Journal of Southern African Studies. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0305-7070 .- 1465-3893. ; 46, s. 743-772
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Despite long-standing patterns of agrarian change in South and Southern Africa, rural locales remain home to millions of people, characterised by widespread poverty and vulnerability. This is evident in South Africa's former 'homelands', the site where this study examined changes in rural livelihoods over a 14-year period. Detailed survey data (collected in 2002 and 2016) from two villages in the Pondoland region of Eastern Cape province, and augmented by in-depth fieldwork, are analysed to explore the drivers of contemporary livelihood change. Key livelihood activities are examined, namely paid employment, social grant receipt, horticulture and livestock production, marine-resource and firewood harvesting. So too are changes within, and between, these diverse livelihood activities over time. Both monetised (income-earning) activities, and 'unremunerated' or unmonetised activities (for example, subsistence agriculture or marine-resource harvesting) are measured, aggregated and compared, in order to consider the drivers, consequences and prospective future trajectories of livelihood change. Key findings for impoverished households in the villages are that waged work has decreased significantly, while expanding social welfare provision has prevented plunges into deeper poverty. Agriculture and marine-resource harvesting remain dynamic, albeit unevenly engaged in by villagers. Amid these larger patterns, local-level variations are evident, with discrepant employment and agricultural production patterns across villages. The role of the state is ambiguous, being both a restrictor and enabler of local livelihoods. As jobs and other livelihood opportunities diminish, the villagers express frustration with the state, but remain simultaneously heavily reliant on state fiscal transfers, through grants and public employment schemes. The findings speak not only to the dynamics of rural livelihoods in South Africa's former homelands; they also point to changes in rural dwellers' livelihoods, within contexts of agrarian change, rural dispossession, inequality and receding prospects for employment, increasingly evident across the global south.
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| 11. |
- Nilsson, Stefan, et al.
(author)
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Children's voices : Differentiating a child perspective from a child's perspective
- 2015
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In: Developmental Neurorehabilitation. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1751-8423 .- 1751-8431. ; 18:3, s. 162-168
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- OBJECTIVE:The aim of this paper was to discuss differences between having a child perspective and taking the child's perspective based on the problem being investigated.METHODS:Conceptual paper based on narrative review.RESULTS:The child's perspective in research concerning children that need additional support are important. The difference between having a child perspective and taking the child's perspective in conjunction with the need to know children's opinions has been discussed in the literature. From an ideological perspective the difference between the two perspectives seems self-evident, but the perspectives might be better seen as different ends on a continuum solely from an adult's view of children to solely the perspective of children themselves. Depending on the research question, the design of the study may benefit from taking either perspective. In this article, we discuss the difference between the perspectives based on the problem being investigated, children's capacity to express opinions, environmental adaptations and the degree of interpretation needed to understand children's opinions.CONCLUSION:The examples provided indicate that children's opinions can be regarded in most research, although to different degrees.
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| 12. |
- Åberg, Emma, et al.
(author)
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Harbouring group B streptococci in a neonatal intensive care unit led to an outbreak among preterm infants
- 2019
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In: Acta Paediatrica. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0803-5253 .- 1651-2227. ; 108:1, s. 58-61
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report a nosocomial outbreak with group B streptococci (GBS) in a level two neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Sachs' Children and Youth Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden, in 2014. There were five very preterm infants with severe late-onset septicaemia, and 10 further infants were colonised. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and multilocus sequence typing genetic characterisation showed that one GBS strain was the cause: serotype Ia, sequence type 23, clonal complex 23. The NICU environment cultures revealed GBS reservoirs on surfaces near sick and colonised patients. We identified workflows and guidelines that could increase the risks of nosocomial infections. Conclusion: This nosocomial GBS outbreak among preterm infants demonstrates that GBS can be harboured in the NICU environment.
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