In October 2019, over 200 people from around the world gathered at the Sharing Cities Summit in Sweden for a conference in Lund and an exhibition and workshops in Malmö. The combination of people from municipalities, academia, sharing initiatives, NGOs and SMEs created a vibrant environment for critical discussions. The focus of the event was centered on the connections between the Sustainable Dev

International studies on civil society organizations (CSOs) highlight how CSO's relation to the public sector is central to the characteristics of organizational change. This article contributes to this line of research in two ways. Firstly it explores how Swedish CSOs, involved with social services, are affected by proximity to and dependence on the public sector for their strategies of organizat

Many thermophilic bacteria are efficient biomass degraders (producing polysaccharide degrading enzymes and utilizing a great variety of substrates, e.g. lignocellulosic polymers, pentoses, hexoses, as well sugar acids, and sugar alcohols). This makes them interesting organisms as potential cell factories in a circular bioeconomy. Lignocellulosic and marine macroalgal biomasses are regarded as sust

This article reports work-in-progress of a parallel kinematic robot development for construction with main focus on the concept phase. We suppose the weight distribution of the proposed structure enables integration of robotic components into construction equipment while enabling tailoring of important characteristics such as accuracy, stiffness and workspace toward application needs.We describe c

Den här rapporten analyserar Europeiska unionens hantering av coronakrisen från de första signalerna om spridning av viruset från Kina i januari 2020 till dess att Europeiska rådet enades om ett historiskt stöd- och återhämtningspaket i juli 2020. Under halvåret pågick ett intensivt krishanteringsarbete på EU-nivå. Samtidigt hanterades krisen primärt av medlemsstaterna själva, med olika och ibland

Arbetet med civil krisberedskap är centralt för hur samhället förmår förebygga och hantera kriser av olika slag. Den civila beredskapen inkluderar grundläggande förmågor som att ge sjukvård, upprätthålla livsmedelsdistribution och se till att infrastruktur som elnät och internetkommunikation fungerar, även i en allvarlig kris eller till och med ett krig. Under coronapandemin har diskussionerna gåt

Coronapandemin kan beskrivas som en global kris som i allt väsentligt har hanterats nationellt. Det globala samarbetet inom framför allt Världshälsoorganisationen WHO har ifrågasatts och kritiserats, inte minst av USA, som nu förbereder för att lämna organisationen. EU-samarbetet har innefattat samordning av vissa krisinsatser och gemensamma ekonomiska stödåtgärder, men strategier för hälso- och s

Giant cell arteritis (GCA, also called temporal arteritis) is a rare and Takayasu arteritis (TA) is an even rarer autoimmune disease (AID), both of which present with inflammatory vasculitis of large and medium size arteries. The risk factors are largely undefined but disease susceptibility has been associated with human leukocyte antigen locus. Population-level familial risk is not known. In the

Background: It is recommended that patch-test readings include a day (D)7 reading. Substitution of the D7 reading with a photo may be a valid option. Objectives: To compare the sensitivity of digital photos at D7 to clinical readings, to assess the number of positive reactions appearing at D7 only (late reactions), and after D7 only (delayed reactions). Methods: Patients patch tested in six Europe

Single-trait eco-evolutionary models of arms races between consumers and their resource species often show inhibition rather than promotion of community diversification. In contrast, modelling arms races involving multiple traits, we found that arms races can promote diversification when trade-off costs among traits make simultaneous investment in multiple traits either more beneficial or more cos

Self-assembling peptide-based hydrogels are a class of tunable soft materials that have been shown to be highly useful for a number of biomedical applications. The dynamic formation of the supramolecular fibrils that compose these materials has heretofore remained poorly characterized. A better understanding of this process would provide important insights into the behavior of these systems and co

Aims: The current study aimed to explore the expression of transient receptor potential A1 ion channels (TRPA1) in the rat ureter and to assess if TRPA1-active compounds modulate ureter function. Methods: The expression of TRPA1 in rat ureter tissue was studied by immunofluorescence. The TRPA1 distribution was compared to calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), α-actin (SMA1), anoctamin-1 (ANO1),

Background: Coeliac disease is an immune-mediated intestinal disease characterised by lifelong intolerance to dietary gluten in genetically predisposed individuals. Microbial factors including infections or bacterial microbiota have long been suspected to be involved in the aetiology, but the scientific literature on the topic is scattered and heterogeneous. Aims: To review human observational stu

Stroke is the second leading cause of death and dependency in Europe and costs the European Union more than €30bn, yet significant gaps in the patient pathway remain and the cost-effectiveness of comprehensive stroke care to meet these needs is unknown. The European Brain Council Value of Treatment Initiative combined patient representatives, stroke experts, neurological societies and literature r

Parkinson's disease (PD) is primarily known as a movement disorder because of typical clinical manifestations associated with the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. However, it is now widely recognized that PD is a much more complex condition, with multiple and severe nonmotor features implicating additional brain areas and organs in the disease process. Pathologically, typical

How blood parasite infections influence the migration of hosts remains a lively debated issue as past studies found negative, positive, or no response to infections. This particularly applies to small birds, for which monitoring of detailed migration behavior over a whole annual cycle has been technically unachievable so far. Here, we investigate how bird migration is influenced by parasite infect

Obesity is a risk factor for several major cancers. Associations of weight change in middle adulthood with cancer risk, however, are less clear. We examined the association of change in weight and body mass index (BMI) category during middle adulthood with 42 cancers, using multivariable Cox proportional hazards models in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort. Of