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Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure is the main risk factor for cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM), but its specific effect in infancy is unknown. We examined whether season of birth, a proxy for solar UVR exposure in the first few months of life, is associated with CMM in childhood through young adulthood.
Some non-Western immigrant groups in Europe have elevated risk of psychosis relative to native-born. It is hypothesized that neighborhood ethnic density moderates this risk. Immigration to Sweden has increased substantially recently, particularly from the Middle East. This study examined the relationship between neighborhood ethnic density (i.e., living in an immigrant enclave) and risk of psychot
Characterizing the sizes and interactions of macromolecules under native conditions is a challenging problem in many areas of molecular sciences, which fundamentally arises from the polydisperse nature of biomolecular mixtures. Here, we describe a microfluidic platform for diffusional sizing based on monitoring micron-scale mass transport simultaneously in space and time. We show that the global a
The present thesis concerns methods and knowledge that are useful when analysing the risks and vulnerabilities of complex systems in a societal emergency management context. Operational definitions of vulnerability and emergency response capabilities are suggested and two methods for analysing the vulnerability of critical infrastructure networks, based on the suggested definition, are presented.
An operational definition of vulnerability is proposed. The definition is used to describe and analyse different methods for risk and vulnerability analysis. Several problems related to analysing the vulnerability of a complex sociotechnical system to a specific perturbation are identified and discussed. Suggestions of how risk- and vulnerability analyses can be performed for such systems are pres
Chronic hyperglycemia and duration of diabetes are the major risk factors associated with development of micro- and macrovascular complications of diabetes. Although it is believed that hyperglycemia induces damage to the particular cell subtypes, e.g., mesangial cells in the renal glomerulus, capillary endothelial cells in the retina, and neurons and Schwann cells in peripheral nerves, the exact
Hereditary C2 deficiency (C2D) is an important susceptibility factor for invasive infections caused by encapsulated bacteria such as pneumococci and Haemophilus influenzae type b. The infections are mostly seen in childhood indicating that antibody-mediated acquired immunity is affected. C2D persons and healthy controls were vaccinated with ActHIB® and Pneumo23®. Analysis of specific antibodies to
Classification of COPD into different GOLD stages is based on forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) but has shown to be of limited value. The aim of the study was to relate spirometry values to more advanced measures of lung function in COPD patients compared to healthy smokers. The lung function of 65 COPD patients and 34 healthy smokers was investigated using flo
Background and purpose. Whereas traditional views of language processing in the brain have assumed that the language function is concentrated to a limited number of cortical areas (Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas), current knowledge points at a much more complex system of language and speech processing involving many brain areas, both cortical and subcortical. The purpose of the current study was to
Most microlevel studies in the social sciences have focused on the impact of different measured variables. While some studies have also dealt with unobserved variation, it has usually only been controlled for to perfect the estimates of the observables. In this article, the authors applied a modified version of a recently developed method designed to quantify the effect of unobserved variation in
In this study, principles of Cognitive Systems Engineering are used to better understand the human–machine interaction manifesting in the use of anaesthesia alarms. The hypothesis is that the design of the machine incorporates built-in assumptions of the user that are discrepant with the anaesthesiologist's self-assessment, creating ‘user image mismatch’. Mismatch was interpreted by focusing on th
The familial risk of abdominal wall hernia (AWH) is largely unknown. In addition, it is unknown whether inguinal hernia (IH), femoral hernia (FH), incisional hernia (INH), epigastric hernia (EH), and umbilical hernia (UH) share familial susceptibility. The aim of this nationwide study was to determine the familial risks of concordant AWH (same disease in proband and exposed relative) and discordan
Background Using three independent methods, prior studies in Swedish sibling pairs indicate that environmental factors contribute substantially to familial aggregation for drug abuse (DA). Could we replicate these results in cousin pairs? Method Using multiple Swedish public databases (1964-2011), we defined DA using medical, legal or pharmacy registry records and examined concordance in full cous
Perinatal risk factors including high birth weight have been associated with Wilms tumor in case-control studies. However, these findings have seldom been examined in large cohort studies, and the specific contributions of gestational age at birth and fetal growth remain unknown. We conducted the largest population-based cohort study to date consisting of 3,571,574 persons born in Sweden in 1973-2
None of the population-based epidemiologic studies to date has had a large enough sample size to show the familial risk of testicular cancer (TC) by age at diagnosis for patients and their relatives or for rare histologic subtypes.
Objective: To study health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in arthritis rehabilitation performed by multidisciplinary teams in patients with chronic inflammatory arthritis. Predictors of change in health-related quality of life and the proportion of patients with clinical improvement were investigated. Design: Multicentre prospective observational study in 4 European countries. Methods: HRQoL was
