The influence of diet and metabolism on hippocampus and hypothalamus connectivity across the lifespan

The high prevalence of unhealthy dietary patterns, obesity, and related brain disorders such as dementia emphasise the importance of research that examines the effect of dietary and metabolic factors on brain health. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess brain grey matter functional connectivity (FC) and volumes, this thesis aimed to examine the relationship between measures of diet and metabolism and the brain over the adult lifespan. First, a systematic review was conducted, to examine the relationship between dietary and metabolic health in relation to a wide range of brain MRI markers. The reviewed evidence suggested that lower dietary and metabolic health quality was related to reduced brain volume and connectivity, especially in the default mode network and the frontal and temporal lobes, although there were contrasting trends for each of these associations. To address the gaps identified by the review, we examined the association between dietary and metabolic health in relation to the hippocampus and hypothalamus FC and volumes in the cross-sectional Human Connectome Project cohort of 400 younger adults and in the longitudinal Whitehall II cohort of 775 midlife-older aged adults. The Whitehall cohort had longitudinal measures of diet/metabolic markers collected every 5 years throughout their midlife (40-70 years old). First, we note that different dietary and metabolic markers have unique patterns of longitudinal trajectories from mid-to-old-age. Our findings supported the hypothesis that better dietary and metabolic health is associated with volumetric and FC differences of the hippocampus and the hypothalamus both in younger and older cohorts. Specifically, dietary and metabolic health was linked to (1) hippocampal FC with the frontal lobe, precentral gyrus, and occipital lobe and (2) hypothalamic FC with the brainstem and the basal forebrain. These findings contribute to a growing understanding of the brain networks associated with dietary and metabolic health. The thesis provides insights into when in life dietary and metabolic health measures are related to brain health. Our findings indicated that in order to promote brain health in older age, some metabolic factors may be better targeted in midlife (e.g., cholesterol, diet, abdominal fat), while other factors should be targeted as early as possible (blood pressure, body composition/BMI). This may have implications for preventative lifestyle interventions to reduce the risk of developing dementia and to maintain overall brain health

De yngste barnas uttrykk i et medvirkningsperspektiv

ABLU-BACH1

Working life trajectories with hearing impairment

Purpose: The aim was to identify and explore factors, which facilitate or hinder work participation for people with hearing impairment. Materials and methods: In-depth interviews with 21 hearing impaired individuals of 32–67 years of age with a present or recent vocational affiliation were conducted. The analysis was conducted using a grounded theory approach. Results: The analysis resulted in a conceptual framework of working life trajectories evolving through three phases of acknowledgement of hearing loss impact: the pre-acknowledgement, acknowledgement, and post-acknowledgement phase. The phases were influenced by the qualities of three contexts: the personal, the workplace, and the service provider. The qualities of the contexts, together with the amount of time spent in a pre-acknowledgement phase, formed the trajectories towards continuation of work participation or towards a disconnection. Accumulated risk factors constituted increased likelihood of disconnecting trajectories, while accumulated facilitating factors supported sustainable trajectories. Conclusions: The results revealed a need for extended support at the workplaces, which includes the manager, colleagues, and professionals in the aim of preventing exhaustion and facilitate work participation among employees with hearing impairments. Joint action in facilitating communicative participation would share the responsibility for accommodation measures and broaden the room for manoeuver at the workplace. Implications for rehabilitation Fatigue prevention in employees with hearing loss needs to be addressed in occupational rehabilitation. Knowledge transfer on hearing loss implications needs to be included in aural rehabilitation. Occupational rehabilitation professionals and professionals targeting hearing impairments should enter into systematic, multidisciplinary follow-up at the worksite.publishedVersion(C) 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way

den glade skaberkraft og den sure dekonstruktion?

Dette Working Paper kommer til at handle om, hvordan man egentlig kan finde på at arbejde med kritisk diskursanalyse og retorik på én gang, når nu diskursanalysen på den ene side hævder, at vi skal afsløre verdensanskuelser og magtforhold bag sprogbrug, og retorikken på den anden side er mere optaget af at fortælle os, hvordan vi skal styre og målrette vores sprogbrug i skabelsen af tekster. Hvis den kritiske diskursanalyse således repræsenterer ideer om, at mennesker og menneskelige relationer styres af normer, myter og kultur, og at det, vi skal stræbe efter, er at afsløre og dekonstruere dem for at imødegå faren for den totale kontrol, så er vel netop den klassiske retorik repræsentant for det modsatte, nemlig at vi skal operere inden for de afstukne grænser, som normerne og kulturen sætter, for bedst muligt at tale vores sag? Jeg vil her forsøge at vise, at denne fremstilling er for firkantet, og at den pointe, at sproget både skaber og skabes af mennesker og samfund i en dialektisk vekslen, er en hovedpointe i nutidige tilgange inden for både retorik og diskursanalyse. Ligeledes vil jeg argumentere for, at vi i vores private og professionelle virke både har brug for at 'pille tekster fra hinanden' og at vide, hvordan vi former dem på den mest hensigtsmæssige måde. Selv om jeg opererer med begreberne 'klassisk retorik' og 'kritisk diskursanalyse', er der ikke tale om, at jeg her hverken kan eller vil give nogen udtømmende, endsige grundig, gennemgang af nogen af områderne, ligesom jeg heller ikke vil forsøge at tage patent på, hvad hverken klassisk retorik eller kritisk diskursanalyse går ud på. Min artikel er blevet til på baggrund af mine egne beskedne erfaringer med begge områder, herunder mit empiriske arbejde med diskursanalyse af spanske avisartikler, hvor jeg anvender kritisk diskursanalyse a la Fairclough (1992, 1995)

Media discourse on environmental crises in Spain

ABSTRACT. This paper presents an argumentative case study of the discursive representation of risk, responsibility and political action in the Spanish media. The study uses a critical discourse analytical approach combined with theories on risk, agency and political communication in the media. It is argued that an application of the Toulmin model is useful for eliciting systematic overall repre-sentations of responsibility and agency in environmental crises such as the mad cow crisis as well as for revealing relationships between social domains such as moral, politics, economics and science in discourse. Discourse analysis shows that in the Spanish newspaper sample the focus was on the construal of high risk and on the construal of the national Spanish politicians, the EU and the Brit-ish nation as scapegoats. No responsibility was associated with consumers or other individual players. Political action was transformed into a moral respon-sibility on the part of the national and European politicians, constrained by economic and technical-scientific reality and represented as taking place only in the public sphere. KEY WORDS: CDA, World Risk Society, argumentation, media discourse, argumentation, responsibility, political action, Spanish government, environmental crises

Interdiskursivitet og kohærens i en politisk tale

Dette Working Paper indeholder nogle foreløbige resultater af en analyse af den diskursive praksis som den kom til udtryk i de ansvarlige ministres kommunikation under kogalskabskrisen i Danmark og Spanien i 2000 og 2001. Working Paperet fokuserer på den daværende danske fødevareminister Ritt Bjerregaards interaktion med landmændene og tager sit metodiske udgangspunkt i den kritiske diskursanalyse. Analysen viser at på trods af de fremtrædende handelsøkonomiske og politiske promoveringsdiskurser kommer landbrugsreformer og etik til at fremstå som det man hæfter sig ved i talen. Dette hjælpes på vej retorisk via appeller til fælles sandheder og konstant inddragelse og iscenesættelse af landmændene som tilhørende et interessefællesskab hvor det handler om at skabe et bæredygtigt landbrug baseret bl.a. på dyrevelfærd, økologi og miljø. Denne artikel skal ses som et diskussionsoplæg, hvor jeg vil lægge op til refleksion over begreberne kohærens, diskurs og argumentation ved at vise en analyse foretaget inden for rammerne af Faircloughs version af den kritiske diskursanalyse (1992, 1995, 2000, 2003). Analysen er en del af en større undersøgelse af politisk kommunikation, men vil her fokusere på to aspekter af det Fairclough kalder ’diskursiv praksis’, nemlig 1) hvordan forskellige diskurser kommer ind i en tekst (interdiskursivitet) og 2) hvordan teksten lægger op til en bestemt fortolkning (kohærens). Den diskursive begivenhed denne artikel vil behandle er en tale Ritt Bjerregaard holdt på Landbrugsraadets Årsmøde i maj 2001. Tekstens kontekst er BSE-sagen, der involverede hele EU for et par år siden, og tidspunktet ligger efter at de værste kontroverser om kompensationsordninger mv. mellem den daværende landbrugsminister og landbrugets repræsentanter havde fundet sted. Talen tager således sit afsæt i fortiden, men dens formål er fremadskuende og handler mest om hvordan Danmark, Europa og især landmændene skal komme videre efter at have været sendt til tælling økonomisk og omdømmemæssigt af BSE, mund-og klovsyge og andre fødevarekriser. Historien her kommer dog ikke til at handle så meget om selve sagen og dens forløb; jeg har i stedet valgt at fokusere på de kommunikative aspekter i diskursanalysen. Mit formål er på længere sigt at videreudvikle Faircloughs analysebegreber ’interdiskursivitet’ og ’kohærens’, som jeg mener er områder han ikke har udfoldet helt i sin tilgang til kritisk diskursanalyse. Undersøgelsen skal på et tidspunkt ende med at fortælle noget om hvad henholdsvis Ritt Bjerregaard og den spanske landbrugsminister Miguel Arias Cañete fik ud af kogalskabskrisen. Indgik den fx som en kærkommen lejlighed til at forsøge at sætte ETISKE spørgsmål ved landbrugsproduktion, blev den brugt i et POLITISK ærinde til at argumentere for mere lovgivning, handlede den måske kun om at få ØKONOMIEN til at fungere igen, eller var det en blanding af alle tre (og flere med måske) synsvinkler? Og i givet fald, hvis alle disse rationaliteter var i spil samtidig, hvad lod ministeren så stå tilbage som den enkle konklusion borgeren og landmanden kunne drage