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This thesis examines how the Holy Lance of Antioch is depicted in contemporary accounts of the First Crusade and what function the relic is given in narratives of the crusaders’ victory in 1098. Particular attention is paid to how the symbolism of the Lance relates to the crusaders’ situation of famine, exhaustion, fear of defeat, and declining morale. The study does not seek to determine the auth
Brazil's Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme, Bolsa Família, reached over 50 million people at its peak, yet evidence on its long-run association with structural vulnerability remains limited. This thesis examines whether sustained programme expansion was associated with reductions in multidimensional social vulnerability across 27 Brazilian states between 2000 and 2021. Using a long-dif
Denna studie tillämpar en kvalitativ innehållsanalys för att undersöka hur Kinas desinformationskampanjer under covid-19-pandemin kan förstås som ett utövande av sharp power. Genom att sammankoppla kalla krigets sovjetiska aktiva åtgärder, med samtida teorier om skarp makt, analyseras kinesiska myndighetsdokument, statskontrollerade nyhetsartiklar och diplomatiska publiceringar på sociala medier u
Water protection areas (WPAs) are legal instruments that require fixed boundaries that can be clearly defined on a map. Groundwater systems, however, are not fixed. Groundwater capture zones expand, contract, and shift with pumping, while groundwater flow changes with seasons, climate, and land use. In practice, some older protection areas follow roads, property boundaries, or other convenient sur
Många svenska vattendrag och sjöar har sedan 1990-talet blivit mer brunfärgade av organiskt material från skog och mark, rikt på humusämnen och järn. Meningarna går isär om hur livet i vattnet påverkas och kunskapsläget är ovisst. Detta är vad vi vet och inte vet.
This study presents results from an Intensive Measurement Period (IMP2022) conducted during the European heatwave of July 2022, focusing on ozone, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and carbonaceous aerosols at 31 sites across Europe. The episode featured persistent high-pressure systems, record-breaking temperatures, widespread ozone exceedances and concurrent atmospheric new particle formation a
The emergence of markets for on-demand online physician consultations —direct-to-consumer telemedicine (DCT) — is currently transforming many healthcare settings. DCT may be a cost-effective substitute for in-person consultations, but the convenience of seeking DCT may increase the demand for the service and consequently also the costs for health insurers. To causally assess the degree to which DC
Antalet äldre ökar snabbt samtidigt som äldreomsorgen står inför växande utmaningar när det gäller personalförsörjning och resurser. Välfärdsteknik har därför lyfts fram som ett sätt att effektivisera verksamheten och göra det möjligt för fler äldre att bo kvar hemma längre. Samtidigt är kunskapen begränsad om hur tekniken samvarierar med kostnader, kvalitet och andra centrala utfall i äldreomsorg
National quality registries provide valuable opportunities for prospective, standardised follow-up of clinical outcomes over long periods. In cleft care, such long-term data remain limited internationally, particularly beyond childhood. The Swedish National Cleft Lip and Palate (CL/P) Registry, established in 1999 with predefined variables and standardised follow-ups, enables longitudinal evaluati
Biocoal is a fossil- free reductant in metallurgical processes. Due to the increasing use, risks associated with self-heating needs to be better understood. In this work, the apparent activation energy and reaction kinetics of a commercial biocoal were investigated using isothermal calorimetry, differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, and basket heating tests, including the c
Background Artificial intelligence (AI)-based computer-aided detection (CAD) systems have demonstrated clinically significant performance in mammographic screening in both retrospective and prospective studies. However, the role of AI in early cancer detection requires further evaluation. Purpose To demonstrate how AI scores in individuals diagnosed with breast cancer may increase up to 10 years b
Positive and balancing selection on pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) is widely thought to target ligand-binding domains and affect the specificity of recognition of different pathogens. Alternatively, positive/balancing selection on PRRs could affect general responsiveness by targeting for example signaling domains or cis-regulatory variation. Studies of a wild rodent (the bank vole, Clethrion
The purpose of this study was to examine how healthcare counsellors, working within the fields of habilitation and psychiatry in Region Skåne, discuss neuropsychiatric diagnoses and the approach to patients within this group. The aim was also to investigate how societal and research-driven shifts in the perception of these diagnoses affect the work of healthcare social workers. The study was condu
Reinforcement Learning (RL) has long been a powerful solution to various problems in communication networks. However, traditional RL models still face several limitations. Not only do they rely on large numbers of interactions with the environment, but they are also limited in terms of modeling long-term relationships and tackling partial observability. In recent years, the Transformer model has d
Growing evidence shows that air pollution exposure plays a critical role in the development and progression of cardiovascular disease. Pollutants such as airborne particles smaller than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) are linked to systemic inflammation, oxidative stress and vascular dysfunction, thereby increasing the risk of hypertension, atherosclerosis, stroke and myocardial infarction. Understanding the patho
The importance of gut microbiota in early life and the contribution of breast milk to human health and disease prevention has attracted extensive attention as studied by culture-independent metagenomic technologies. However, the fraction and assembled dynamics of culturable early gut and breast milk microbiota remain unexplored. In this study, longitudinal culture-enriched metagenomic sequenc
