Et bofællesskab og en bevægelse: en antropologisk analyse af økosamfundsaktivisme på tværs af skalaer

The commitment to work for a sustainable transition of society has increased greatly among grassroots in recent years. Hence, civil society has taken matter into its own hands instead of waiting for action to take place on a political and structural level. Activist movements with clear political agendas have traditionally been explored and researched as examples of civil society’s way of showing engagement. However, more recently social scientific literature has turned attention towards another kind of engagement. This type of engagement is represented by different lifestyle movements that have an interest in the practices of socalled everyday makers and practivists. This article follows this approach and explores activism from an everyday practical perspective through qualitative research studies of Danish eco-communities. Whereas studies of lifestyle movements often focus on individual sustainable practice, this article includes collective achievements where sustainable lifestyle is practiced with the purpose of making a successful community. The article shows how the (micro activist) change making collective practices that are taking place locally in eco-communities are represented by (the macro activist) networkers at a larger scale through their work for change outwards in society; on a national level in the Danish Association of Eco-communities (LØS) and on a global level in the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN). The article thus describes, how activism on different scales – practivism, microactivism, and macroactivism – are practiced in Danish eco-communities as well as in the Eco-Community Movement. The article thereby argues how these scales of activism mutually reinforce each other by ensuring that local eco-communities are liveable and that eco-community principles gain ground in ‘mainstream society’. &nbsp

Health-related quality of life, functional decline, and long-term mortality in older patients following hospitalisation due to COVID-19

Background Older people are particularly vulnerable to severe COVID-19. Little is known about long-term consequences of COVID-19 on health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) and functional status in older people, and the impact of age in this context. We aimed to study age-related change in health-related quality of life, functional decline and mortality among older patients 6 months following hospitalisation due to COVID-19. Methods This was a cohort study including patients aged 60 years and older admitted to four general hospitals in South-Eastern Norway due to COVID-19, from March 1 up until July 1, 2020. Patients who were still alive were invited to attend a six-month follow-up. Change in HR-QoL and functional status compared to before the COVID-19 hospitalisation were assessed using the EuroQol 5-dimensional-5 levels questionnaire (EQ. 5D-5L). A change in visual analogue scale (VAS) score of 7 or more was considered clinically relevant. Results Out of 216 patients aged 60 years and older that were admitted to hospital due to COVID-19 during the study period, 171 were still alive 180 days after hospital admission, and 106 patients (62%) attended the six-month follow-up. Mean age was 74.3 years, 27 patients (26%) had experienced severe COVID-19. Fifty-seven participants (54%) reported a decrease in the EQ. 5D-5L VAS score after 6 months, with no significant difference between persons aged 75 years and older compared to younger. Seventy participants (66%) reported a negative change in any of the dimensions of the EQ. 5D-5L, with impaired ability to perform activities of daily life (35%), reduced mobility (33%) and having more pain or discomfort (33%) being the most commonly reported changes. Forty-six participants (43%) reported a negative change in cognitive function compared to before the COVID-19 hospitalisation. Six-month mortality was 21%, and increased with increasing age. Conclusions More than half of the patients reported a negative change in HR-QoL 6 months following hospitalisation due to COVID-19, and one out of three experienced a persistently impaired mobility and ability to carry out activities of daily living. The results suggest awareness of long-term functional decline in older COVID-19 patients.publishedVersio

Biochemical Regulation of the Tim-3-Galectin-9 Immunosuppressive Pathway under Normal Conditions and upon Cell Malignant Transformation

Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell proliferation with a high potential to spread or invade into other parts of the body and is currently considered as one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Cancer cells can be recognised and killed by cytotoxic immune cells of lymphoid lineage. However, malignant cells are capable of suppressing the host's cytotoxic immune responses using a variety of biochemical mechanisms. One of the critical and poorly understood mechanisms of immune evasion is the Tim-3 (T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain containing protein 3)-galectin-9 immunosuppressive pathway. Galectin-9, a protein highly conserved through evolution, is used to suppress anti-cancer activities of cytotoxic lymphoid cells. It has recently been reported that acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) cells are able to promote galectin-9 and Tim-3 translation and secretion through stimulation induced by fibronectin leucine-rich transmembrane protein 3 (FLRT3), which activates transmembrane receptor latrophilin-1 (LPHN1). LPHN1 mediates activation of Tim-3 and galectin-9 translation and facilitates their exocytosis. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying biochemical regulation of galectin-9 expression and control of the pathway activity remain unknown. Thus, uncovering this crucial biochemical machinery was the aim of this PhD programme. First of all, our group discovered that the Tim-3-galectin-9 pathway is active in a variety of human solid tumours and is also used to suppress the activities of cytotoxic lymphoid cells. We found that transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β) is crucial for upregulation of galectin-9 expression in human cancer but not in non-malignant human cells. The transcription factors hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) and activator protein 1 (AP-1) were found to upregulate TGF-β expression, leading to activation of the transcription factor Smad3 through autocrine action. Smad3 was found to be responsible for TGF-β-mediated upregulation of galectin-9 expression. As a follow-up, we have discovered that high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1, a nuclear protein secreted by stressed, damaged or dying cells and thus highly present in the tumour microenvironment) upregulates TGF- β production through the innate immune receptor called Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). Thus, HMGB1 can lead to induction of galectin-9 expression in cancer cells directly (if they express functional TLR4) or indirectly through TLR4 expressing myeloid cells present in the tumour microenvironment. Collectively, our results suggest that Tim-3-galectin-9 and TGF-β-dependent signalling pathways are potential targets for the immunotherapy of a large number of human cancers

Immunoglobulin-storing histiocytosis: A case based systemic review

Crystal-storing histiocytosis (CSH) is a rare event in disorders associated with monoclonal gammopathy and is mostly associated with the accumulation of immunoglobulins (Igs) in the cytoplasm of histiocytes. In this article, we present a case of a 75-year-old female with IgG kappa monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) and signs of a non-crystallized version of immunoglobulin-storing histiocytosis (IgSH) in a vertebra corpus. Furthermore, we performed a literature review based on all cases of storing histiocytosis identified by literature search between 1987 and 2020 and identified 140 cases in total. The median age at diagnosis was 60 years (range 18–91), with an equal sex distribution (51% men). The majority of the patients had an underlying neoplastic B-cell disorder, most often multiple myeloma (MM), MGUS, or lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma (LPL). The main affected organ systems or tissue sites were bone (n = 52), followed by head and neck (n = 31), kidney (n = 23), lung (n = 20), and gastrointestinal (GI)-tract (n = 18). IgG was the main immunoglobulin class involved, and most cases were associated with kappa light chain expression. We conclude that IgSH is a rare disease entity but should be considered with unusual findings in several organ systems associated with monoclonal gammopathy, especially with kappa light chain expression.publishedVersio

Spontaneous Object Recognition in the Göttingen Minipig

Göttingen minipigs were tested in an object recognition procedure based on spontaneous exploration. Eight pigs were exposed to two similar objects in a sample trial and after a one-hour delay exposed to two objects, one familiar and one novel, in a test trial. The pigs explored the novel object significantly more than the familiar object in the test trial (p<0.05), thereby showing recognition of the familiar object. Furthermore, habituation of exploration of the familiar object between the sample trial and the test trial was found (p<0.05). The procedure can be useful for testing of spontaneous trial-unique memory in pigs

Endringsarbeid i skolen. Hvordan opplever læreren at videreutdanningen "Endringsarbeid i organisasjoner" har hatt betydning for egen utvikling og skolens endringsarbeid?

Kompetanseutvikling er et av de viktigste virkemidlene staten har for å støtte opp under arbeidet med kvalitetsutvikling i skolen. I strategien Kompetanse for kvalitet fra Kunnskapsdepartementet (2015) for videreutdanning for lærere og skoleledere står følgende delmål: "Videreutdanning for lærere og skoleledere skal bidra til god faglig og pedagogisk kvalitet i grunnopplæringen for å styrke elevenes læring, slik at de er godt rustet for livslang læring, for fremtidig arbeidsliv og for aktiv deltakelse i samfunnet." (Kunnskapsdepartementet, 2015) Denne kvalitative studien har til hensikt å gi et svar på hvordan læreren opplever at deltakelsen på videreutdanning i endringsarbeid har påvirket egen utvikling, og om den har hatt betydning for skolens endringsarbeid. Det viktigste har vært å få fram forskningsdeltakernes subjektive opplevelser og fortolkning av rollen som endringsagenter, altså lærernes narrativ, samt deres opplevelse av fenomenet endringsarbeid og videreutdanning av lærere. Gjennom en narrativ analyse av lærernes fortellinger har vi fått et grunnlag for å forstå hvordan de opplever endringsarbeidet i tre videregående skoler i Troms. Funn i denne studien handler om at lærere som deltar på etter- og videreutdanning er en uutnyttet ressurs i videregående skole. Narrativene viser at lærerne har økt sin kompetanse i forhold til ny undervisningsmetodikk, i tillegg har de fått et nytt blikk på egen organisasjon og skoleledelse. Kort oppsummert mener vi at endringsarbeid i organisasjoner er avhengig av en distribuert ledelsespraksis. Endringsprosesser kan initieres ovenfra, men må ledes nedenfra