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- Neiman, Daniel, et al.
(author)
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Multiplexing DNA methylation markers to detect circulating cell-free DNA derived from human pancreatic β cells
- 2020
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In: JCI Insight. - : American Society for Clinical Investigation. - 2379-3708. ; 5:14
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- It has been proposed that unmethylated insulin promoter fragments in plasma derive exclusively from β cells, reflect their recent demise, and can be used to assess β cell damage in type 1 diabetes. Herein we describe an ultrasensitive assay for detection of a β cell–specific DNA methylation signature, by simultaneous assessment of 6 DNA methylation markers, that identifies β cell DNA in mixtures containing as little as 0.03% β cell DNA (less than 1 β cell genome equivalent). Based on this assay, plasma from nondiabetic individuals (N = 218, aged 4–78 years) contained on average only 1 β cell genome equivalent/mL. As expected, cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from β cells was significantly elevated in islet transplant recipients shortly after transplantation. We also detected β cell cfDNA in a patient with KATP congenital hyperinsulinism, in which substantial β cell turnover is thought to occur. Strikingly, in contrast to previous reports, we observed no elevation of β cell–derived cfDNA in autoantibody-positive subjects at risk for type 1 diabetes (N = 32), individuals with recent-onset type 1 diabetes (<4 months, N = 92), or those with long-standing disease (>4 months, N = 38). We discuss the utility of sensitive β cell cfDNA analysis and potential explanations for the lack of a β cell cfDNA signal in type 1 diabetes.
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- Åkesson, Erik, 1981-
(author)
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Resultatansvar för likvärdighet : En läroplansteoretisk studie av systematiskt kvalitetsarbete och rektorers sensemaking
- 2024
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this dissertation is to describe and critically analyze ideas about quality management with in different arenas of the Swedish education systemand how these relate to leadership and the enacted curriculum. The study conceptualizes systematic quality work as a governance tool and a national accountability program created with the aim of solving problems concerning lack of equity and lowered national test scores. Two tensions within the policy program are identified. The first is between external results-oriented forms of control and internal professional trust. The second is between national curriculum goals and local organizational goals.The empirical study consists of a cross-case study of the most different designs of four quality systems enacted by the heads of the school organizations and the principals. The main sources of data are interviews with principals and school leaders and documents and policy artifacts. The data are analyzed from a combined perspective of loosely coupled system, discursive institutionalism and sensemaking.The main conclusion of the study is that while systematic quality work represents an attempt by the state to create a more coherent and centralized accountability system, the results point to a decentralized and loosely coupled education system focused on local organizational goals. The contents of the enacted policy solutions show that the ideational content of quality work is highly malleable to localized uses and interpretations, which also raises questions about how equity is to be understood within the policy program.The enacted solutions show great variance concerning how tensions relating to internal and external dimensions of accountability were handled. The reasons for these differences where related to different leadership strategies, varying pressures from the school market and distinct organizational needs. While the enacted accountability systems in all four cases have created results-oriented frameworks for teaching, their impact on the enacted curriculum was clearly mediated in three of the four cases.
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3. |
- Blåvarg, Ebba Christina, 1967-
(author)
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Psykologi på schemat : Formeringen av ett skolämne, 1960–2015
- 2023
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The school subject psychology in Sweden has undergone several extensive transformations during the period 1960–2015. Since the launch of Läroplan för gymnasiet 1965, psychology is a part of the national curriculum for upper secondary level as a standalone school subject in Sweden. However, it has been formulated differently within different discursive practices. This thesis focuses on the formation of the school subject psychology by analyzing texts on the subject from mainly three different practices where the subject is constructed. The first is a bureaucratic space that includes public policy texts developed through cooperation and regulation by way of bureaucratic processes. The second is a practice-oriented space and it includes teaching materials such as textbooks produced by publishers and individual authors. The third practice is a professional space and includes the discourse on the school subject psychology among teachers in the subject teacher’s association, teacher magazines and debate articles. Through a discursive perspective, the source material from these practices have been analyzed both by focusing on each space separately, and in parallel. Overall, the discourse on the school subject psychology has changed dynamically during the focused period, in the different spaces, which is depicted in detail with examples and excerpts. In addition, four overarching discourse orders are presented. First, the overarching empirical and scientific stance that permeated the subject at the beginning of the national curriculum in the 1960s. Later, in the 1990s and 2000s, an inward shift in subject focus, from being useful for understanding the world with a critical view, to critically examining and evaluating various psychological theories. However, perhaps the most unexpected finding are two major orders of discourse that can be seen in between these in time. Firstly, an overall vivid activity in all the practices and the major change that the subject underwent in the 1970s, in conjunction with the subject revision in 1979. And secondly, the extensive and almost absolute silence that followed in relation to the subject psychology. This thesis contributes to the research field by mapping the formation of psychology as a school subject in Sweden through different discursive practices, as well as highlighting various orders of discourse in relation to psychology as a school subject.
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4. |
- Nordin, Andreas, Docent, 1972-, et al.
(author)
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Transnational Competence Frameworks and National Curriculum-making : the case of Sweden
- 2021
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In: Comparative Education. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 0305-0068 .- 1360-0486. ; 57:1, s. 19-34
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Competence-Based-Approaces in Education (CBA) has become an important education policy idea internationally the last decades emphasizing a set of generic key competences as targeted outcomes of education and national curricula. However, a substantial body of research have suggested that in order to understand and explain its evolution there is a need to analyze curriculum-making as a complex and multi-layered practice taking place in a complex interplay between transnational, national as well as local arenas. In order to contribute to such a research this paper turn to discourse-institutionalism (DI) as outlined by Vivien Schmidt (2011, 2016) proposing a stratified understanding of ideas operating at different policy levels, ‘background ideas’ being very stable over time and ‘foreground ideas’ who can change more rapidly, capturing the translation of ideas travelling within and between different policy arenas and used by different actors. In this paper we will (1) compare ideas of competences as expressed in four influential frameworks for CBA, and secondly (2) we will exemplify how these ideas, with special reference to the OECD, have been translated when recontextualized within Swedish curriculum policy making using the most recent Swedish curriculum reform for the compulsory school as an empirical example. The result of the text analyses shows that when recontextualized within national borders transnational ideas of CBC are being translated in ways that enables for national politicians to adapt to transnational discourses while simultaneously maintaining public legitimacy. In the case of Sweden this political act of balancing different policy discourses has led to a national version of CBA, discussed in this paper as ‘hybrid competences’.
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5. |
- Nordin, Andreas, Docent, 1972-, et al.
(author)
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Transnational competence frameworks and national curriculum-making : the case of Sweden
- 2023
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In: Contextualizing Global Flows of Competency-Based Education. - : Routledge. - 9781032563800 - 9781003435242
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Competence-based approaches (CBAs) in education have becomean internationally important educational policy concept in recentdecades. However, a substantial body of research has suggestedthat in order to understand and explain the evolution of CBAs,there is a need to analyse curriculum-making as a complex andmulti-layered practice. To contribute to this research field, thispaper makes use of Vivien Schmidt’s concept of discursiveinstitutionalism(DI), which focuses on ideas and discourse. First,we compare ideas of competences as expressed in four influentialCBA frameworks, and second, we exemplify how these ideas, withspecial reference to the Organisation for Economic Co-operationand Development, have been translated when re-contextualisedwithin Swedish curriculum policy-making. The results show thatwhen re-contextualised within national borders, transnationalideas of competences are reconfigured. In the case of Sweden,this process has led to a national interpretation of CBAs,discussed in this paper as ‘hybrid competences.’
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