Nordic welfare states continue to rely on strong central and local governments in the regulation, funding, and implementation of social policies. However, decentralization of particular policy areas (e.g. activation policies) have further increased the significance of the local level in Nordic social policy regulation. However, increasing differences between local entities (e.g. between urban and

Sepsis is caused by systemic infection and is a major health concern as it is the primary cause of death from infection. It is the leading cause of mortality worldwide and there are no specific effective treatments for sepsis. Gene deletion of the neutral solute channel Aquaporin 9 (AQP9) normalizes oxidative stress and improves survival in a bacterial endotoxin induced mouse model of sepsis. In t

Osteoporotic fractures are one of the major problems facing healthcare systems worldwide. Undoubtedly, fragility fractures of the hip represent a far greater burden in terms of morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs than other fracture sites. However, despite the significant impact on the health and quality of life of older adults, there is a general lack of awareness of osteoporosis, which re

Aims: Repeated risk assessments and treatment patterns over long time are sparsely studied in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH); thus, we aimed to investigate changes in risk status and treatment patterns in incident patients with CTEPH over a 5 year period. Methods and results: Descriptive and explorative study including 311 patients diagnosed with CTEPH 2008–2019 from the Swe

Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a life-threatening reaction triggered by volatile anesthetics and succinylcholine. MH is caused by mutations in the skeletal muscle ryanodine receptor (RYR1) gene, as is rhabdomyolysis triggered by exertion and/or pyrexia. The discrepancy between the prevalence of risk genotypes and actual MH incidence remains unexplained. We investigated the role of pre-operative ex

INTRODUCTION: The effect of random error on the performance of blood-based biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) must be determined before clinical implementation. METHODS: We measured test-retest variability of plasma amyloid beta (Aβ)42/Aβ40, neurofilament light (NfL), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and phosphorylated tau (p-tau)217 and simulated effects of this variability on biomark

Glucose-induced insulin secretion depends on β-cell electrical activity. Inhibition of ATP-regulated potassium (KATP) channels is a key event in this process. However, KATP channel closure alone is not sufficient to induce β-cell electrical activity; activation of a depolarizing membrane current is also required. Here we examine the role of the mechanosensor ion channel PIEZO1 in this process. Yod

Background: Sequencing parasite genomes in the presence of host DNA is challenging. Sequence capture can overcome this problem by using RNA probes that hybridize with the parasite DNA and then are removed from solution, thus isolating the parasite DNA for efficient sequencing. Methods: Here we describe a set of sequence capture probes designed to target 1035 genes (c. 2.5 Mbp) of the globally dist

Objective: To analyze the effectiveness and safety of growth hormone (GH) replacement treatment in adult patients with Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) and GH deficiency (GHD) enrolled in KIMS (Pfizer International Metabolic Database). Patients and methods: Patients with LCH and GHD were studied at baseline and some of them after 1 year of GH treatment. The effectiveness of GH is presented as c

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a clinically and neuroanatomically heterogeneous neurodegenerative disease characterized by different subtypes. To this date, no studies have used multimodal data that combines clinical, motor, cognitive and neuroimaging assessments to identify these subtypes, which may provide complementary, clinically relevant information. To address this limitation, we su

Background:The optimal treatment of displaced femoral neck fractures in patients 55 to 70 years old remains controversial. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of closed reduction and internal fixation with cannulated screws (IF) compared with total hip arthroplasty (THA) on hip pain and function, with use of data for outcome measures, complications, and reoperations.Methods:This

Objective: To compare the concentrations of high mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1) and S100A8/A9 in synovial fluid between patients with knee injuries and osteoarthritis (OA), and knee healthy subjects. To investigate associations of alarmin levels with different joint injuries and with biomarkers of inflammation, Wnt signaling, complement system, bone and cartilage degradation. Methods: HMGB1

MHC genes are extraordinarily polymorphic in most taxa. Host-pathogen coevolution driven by negative frequency-dependent selection (NFDS) is one of the main hypotheses for the maintenance of such immunogenetic variation. Here, we test a critical but rarely tested assumption of this hypothesis—that MHC alleles affect resistance/susceptibility to a pathogen in a strain-specific way, that is, there i

Woolly mammoths had a set of adaptations that enabled them to thrive in the Arctic environment. Many mammoth-specific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) responsible for unique mammoth traits have been previously identified from ancient genomes. However, a multitude of other genetic variants likely contributed to woolly mammoth evolution. In this study, we sequenced two woolly mammoth genomes a

Introduction: In Sweden, head computed tomography (CT) is commonly used for prediction of neurological outcome after cardiac arrest, as recommended by guidelines. We compare the prognostic ability and interrater variability of routine and novel CT methods for prediction of poor outcome. Methods: Retrospective study including patients from Swedish sites within the Target Temperature Management afte

The widely used stainless steels and their deformed variants are anticorrosive in ambient conditions due to passivation layers composed of chromium oxides. Conventionally, corrosion and erosion of the steels are attributed to the breakdown of such layers but seldomly to the origin that depends on surface heterogeneity at the microscopic level. In this work, the nanometer-scaled chemical heterogene