Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a common disease that in its advanced stages is a life-limiting condition and a leading cause of death globally. This thesis aims at increasing the understanding of the socioeconomic disparities that exist both for COPD and its major risk factor, tobacco smoking. A related aim is to advance the theory and epidemiological methods used to evaluate equi

Background: Avoidable mortality is considered as a potential indicator of the influences of public health policies and healthcare quality on population health. This study aimed to examine the trend in avoidable mortality and its influence on rising life expectancy (LE) and declining gender gap in LE (GGLE) in Sweden. Methods: We extracted data on causes of death by age, sex, and year from nationa

Pollen analysis is an important tool in many fields, including pollination ecology, paleoclimatology, paleoecology, honey quality control, and even medicine and forensics. However, labour‐intensive manual pollen analysis often constrains the number of samples processed or the number of pollen analysed per sample. Thus, there is a desire to develop reliable, high‐throughput, automated systems. We p

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate a novel β-amyloid (Aβ)-PET-based quantitative measure (Aβ accumulation index [Aβ index]), including the assessment of its ability to discriminate between participants based on Aβ status using visual read, CSF Aβ42/Aβ40, and post-mortem neuritic plaque burden as standards of truth. METHODS: One thousand one hundred twenty-one participants (with and without cognitive impairmen

Liquid biopsies hold potential as minimally invasive sources of tumor biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis, therapy prediction or disease monitoring. We present an approach for parallel single-object identification of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and tumor-derived large extracellular vesicles (LEVs) based on automated high-resolution immunofluorescence followed by downstream multiplexed protein p

In this contribution, a finite element implementation of the stress gradient theory is proposed. The implementation relies on a reformulation of the governing set of partial differential equations in terms of one primary tensor-valued field variable of third order, the so-called generalised displacement field. Whereas the volumetric part of the generalised displacement field is closely related to

Vertical-beam entomological radars provide precise measurements of the body alignment of individual overflying insects but are unable to distinguish which of the two axial directions the insect is heading towards. Insects migrating at altitude typically show common alignment, although with a broad spread. We show here that when observations from multiple individual insects are available, and the i

Consumer choice policies may improve the matching of consumers and providers, and may spur competition over quality dimensions relevant to consumers. However, the gains from choice may fail to materialise in markets characterised by information frictions and switching costs. We use two large-scale randomised field experiments in primary health care to examine if individuals reconsider their provid

Purpose: In the last decade, the research community has focused on defining reliable biomarkers for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology. In 2017, the Geneva AD Biomarker Roadmap Initiative adapted a framework for the systematic validation of oncological biomarkers to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) AD biomarkers—encompassing the 42 amino-acid isoform of amyloid-β (Aβ42), phosphoryl

Mechano-regulation during tendon healing, i.e. the relationship between mechanical stimuli and cellular response, has received more attention recently. However, the basic mechanobiological mechanisms governing tendon healing after a rupture are still not well-understood. Literature has reported spatial and temporal variations in the healing of ruptured tendon tissue. In this study, we explored a c

The aims of the present study are formulated to test theoretical assumptions of the incivility spiral presented by Andersson and Pearson (1999). The first aim is to investigate possible longitudinal outcomes of witnessed workplace incivility, in the form of instigated incivility and well-being. An additional aim is to explore whether witnessed workplace incivility is indirectly related to instigat

It has been suggested that intake of polar lipids may beneficially modulate various metabolic variables. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of oat polar lipids on postprandial and second meal glycemic regulation, blood lipids, gastrointestinal hormones, and subjective appetite-related variables in healthy humans. In a randomized design, twenty healthy subjects ingested four liqui

Grass (Poaceae) pollen is the most important outdoor aeroallergen,1 exacerbating a range of respiratory conditions, including allergic asthma and rhinitis ("hay fever").2-5 Understanding the relationships between respiratory diseases and airborne grass pollen with a view to improving forecasting has broad public health and socioeconomic relevance. It is estimated that there are over 400 million pe