Genetisk variasjon i veddannelse hos grankloner ( Picea abies (L.) Karst. ) med kontrasterende vekstrytme

Genetic variation in the progress of xylem formation and relationships with bud development in Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) were studied during one growing season in a clonal trial in southeastern Norway. Also the initiation of latewood formation, and the consequences for latewood percentage was studied. The study site was a clonal trial established as a classical randomized complete block design eliminating some of the site variations in growth conditions. At year 20 from stand establishment, micro-cores were extracted once a week from 16 trees representing four different clones, with known ranking of apical growth rhythm in the spring (bud flush). The sampling were continuously during the growing season from May until October 2010. Tracheid formation started in the beginning of May and ceased in August. The four clones studied were known from measurements at a very juvenile age to be contrasting in respect to timing of bud flush. One flushed very early, one very late and two were more intermediate. This were confirmed by registrations made now and also at age 20, there were significant differences between them (p<0.05). However, no significant relationships were found between the timing of bud flush and wood formation. The different phases of wood formation were measured with the result of some significant differences (p<0.05) between clones in numbers of formed tracheids in the later phases of growing season. One clone that were flushing late were found to form the highest number of tracheids but at the same time the narrowest annual ring in 2010. There were no significant differences in initiation of latewood formation, neither in latewood percentage between the clones studied (p>0.05). Thus the ones with the narrowest ring width did have greater latewood percentage. The results revealed genetic variation between the clones studied with one particular clone showing significantly higher number but narrower tracheids. Thus genetic variation in the progress of xylem formation was found, but this genetic variation seems to be fairly independent from the genetic variation in bud flush. However, this offers opportunities for further research. This study also contained a methodological study of techniques for preparation of micro-cores in the laboratory, which resulted in a recommendation of the razorblade cutting method. It was both timesaving and sufficiently accurate

Age and Provenance study of Paleoarchean rocks from the Singhbhum Craton (India)

Master's thesis in Petroleum Geosciences EngineeringThis study has performed in situ U-Pb and Lu-Hf isotope analysis on zircons and in situ U-Pb isotope analysis on apatites, by LA-ICP-MS and MC-ICPMS, from three Tonalite-Trondhjemite-Granodiorite (TTG) samples from the Paleoarchean rocks of the Singhbhum Craton, eastern India. One sample, RM1, from the Older Metamorphic Tonalite Gneiss (OMTG) and two samples, RT11 and CH2, from the Singhbhum Granites. Presenting 207Pb/206Pb zircon crystallization ages for the three samples: RT11 - 3384.4 +- 3.9 Ma, CH2 - 3308.4 +- 7.6 Ma and RM1 - 3396 +- 14 Ma. These U-Pb zircon ages are supported by very similar U-Pb apatite ages. Hf-isotopes in zircons indicates a dominantly juvenile provenance, but single zircons aged ~3.6 Ga from RT11 and RM1 indicates reworking of at least one older Archean component. RM1 yielded eight concordant 207Pb/206Pb ages of ~4.0 Ga, which rendered both radiogenic and unradoigenic 176Hf/176Hf values. Four zircons exhibited Epsilon(Hf,t) values of -10.6 to -13.6, indicating an enriched source with a separation age of 4.5 Ga, and may indicate an initially enriched reservoir at the formation of the Earth

Familielæring på en skole og dens bidrag til utvikling av skole-hjem-samarbeid i arbeidet med barns literasitet

Denne masteroppgaven undersøker hvordan familielæring på en skole bidrar til utvikling av skole-hjemsamarbeid i arbeidet med utvikling av barns literasitet. Det er en kasusstudie med to forskningsspørsmål: På hvilken måte bidrar familielæring på en skole til utvikling av skole-hjem-samarbeid om barns literasitet? Hvilken tilnærming til familiene har familielæringen på en skole? Kasuset er et førskoleprosjekt på en skole, i en by på Østlandet. Spørsmålene er besvart med kvalitative metoder; deltakende observasjon, semi-strukturert intervju og dokumentanalyse. Funnene drøftes i lys av sosiokulturell teori om familier og literasitet. Kasusstudiet som forskningsstrategi og sosiokulturell teori vektlegger hver på sin måte den sosiokulturelle konteksten i arbeidet med å forstå kasus/familier/barn. Kontekst er dermed en rød tråd gjennom hele oppgaven og skal være som en rammeverk i forståelsen av kasuset. Oppgaven kunne vist at familielæring bidrar til utvikling av skole-hjem-samarbeid på en skole i arbeidet med utvikling av barns literasitet. Det ville imidlertid vært en forenklet og instrumentalistisk forståelse av det hele, en form for kausalitet som synes vanskelig å benytte i forhold til menneskelige relasjoner. I stedet fant jeg et kompleks samspill av faktorer som finner sted på akkurat denne skolen, med disse menneskene og gitte spesifikke rammefaktorer. Kriteriene er ikke statiske, det vil si at familielæringen blir nødvendigvis ikke lik overalt. Det er menneskene som er involvert som former familielæringen og ikke omvendt. Familielæringen i førskoleprosjektet har hatt tid, tilgjengelighet, etiske og profesjonelle refleksjoner, evalueringer og deltagermedvirkning som suksesskriterier. Jeg argumenterer for at disse kriteriene kan være til stede både med og uten familielæring som modell for utvikling av samarbeidet mellom skole og hjem.This thesis investigates how family learning (familielæring) contributes to school-home-collaboration regarding the development of children's literacy. It is a case study with two research questions: In what way does family learning (familielæring) at a school contribute to school-homecollaboration concerning a child's literacy? Which approach to the families does the family learning (familielæring) at a school have? The case study concerns a preschool project in a city in the eastern part of Norway. The research questions are investigated using qualitative methods; participant observation, semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The findings are discussed i light of sosiocultural theory regarding families and literacy. The case study method and sosiocultural theory each, in their own way, emphasize the sosiocultural context in understanding the case, the families and the children. Context is thus a recurring theme throughout the thesis, and serves as a guiding light in understanding the preschool project. The thesis could have concluded that family learning contributes constructively to the development of school-home-collaboration regarding the development of children's literacy. This, however, would have been an over-simplified and instrumental understanding. What I did find was a complex interplay between factors particular to the studied school, the people involved and the given conditions. These factors are not static, implying that the results of family learning (familielæring) will vary. It is the people involved that shape the family learning (familielæring) and not the other way around. Key factors explaining the success of the preschool project were: accessibility of teachers and sufficient time for interaction with parents, considerations concerning ethical and professional aspects, evaluations and engaged participation of the participants. The thesis contends that these factors can be present both with or without the family learning model.Master i flerkulturell og internasjonal utdannin

Increased mortality in schizophrenia due to cardiovascular disease - a non-systematic review of epidemiology, possible causes and interventions

Background: Schizophrenia is among the major causes of disability worldwide and the mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD) is significantly elevated. There is a growing concern that this health challenge is not fully understood and efficiently addressed. Methods: Non-systematic review using searches in PubMed on relevant topics as well as selection of references based on the authors’ experience from clinical work and research in the field. Results: In most countries, the standardized mortality rate in schizophrenia is about 2.5, leading to a reduction in life expectancy between 15 and 20 years. A major contributor of the increased mortality is due to CVD, with CVD mortality ranging from 40 to 50% in most studies. Important causal factors are related to lifestyle, including poor diet, lack of physical activity, smoking, and substance abuse. Recent findings suggest that there are overlapping pathophysiology and genetics between schizophrenia and CVD-risk factors, further increasing the liability to CVD in schizophrenia. Many pharmacological agents used for treating psychotic disorders have side effects augmenting CVD risk. Although several CVD-risk factors can be effectively prevented and treated, the provision of somatic health services to people with schizophrenia seems inadequate. Further, there is a sparseness of studies investigating the effects of lifestyle interventions in schizophrenia, and there is little knowledge about effective programs targeting physical health in this population. Discussion: The risk for CVD and CVD-related deaths in people with schizophrenia is increased, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully known. Coordinated interventions in different health care settings could probably reduce the risk. There is an urgent need to develop and implement effective programs to increase life expectancy in schizophrenia, and we argue that mental health workers should be more involved in this important task

Constructing the Immune Signature of Schizophrenia for Clinical Use and Research; An Integrative Review Translating Descriptives Into Diagnostics

Schizophrenia is considered a syndrome comprised by several disease phenotypes, covering a range of underlying pathologies. One of these disease mechanisms seems to involve immune dysregulation and neuroinflammation. While the current dopamine receptor-blocking antipsychotic drugs decrease psychotic symptoms and prevent relapse in the majority of patients with schizophrenia, there is a huge need to explore new treatment options that target other pathophysiological pathways. Such studies should aim at identifying robust biomarkers in order to diagnose and monitor the immune biophenotype in schizophrenia and develop better selection procedures for clinical trials with anti-inflammatory and immune-modulating drugs. In this focused review, we describe available methods to assess inflammatory status and immune disturbances in vivo. We also outline findings of immune disturbances and signs of inflammation at cellular, protein, and brain imaging levels in patients with schizophrenia. Furthermore, we summarize the results from studies with anti-inflammatory or other immune-modulating drugs, highlighting how such studies have dealt with participant selection. Finally, we propose a strategy to construct an immune signature that may be helpful in selecting and monitoring participants in studies with immune modulating drugs and also applicable in regular clinical work

Interleukin 1 receptor antagonist and soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 are associated with general severity and psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

AbstractBackgroundPrevious studies suggest elevated inflammation in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, with increased activity of the Interleukin 1 (IL-1), interleukin 6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, von Willebrand factor (vWf) and osteoprotegerin (OPG). It is unclear how immune activation is involved in the psychopathology. We investigated if elevated inflammation was associated with disease severity (trait) or current symptom level (state), comparing psychotic with general characteristics.MethodsPlasma levels of sTNF receptor 1 (sTNF-R1), IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra), IL-6, vWf and OPG were measured with ELISA techniques in 322 patients with schizophrenia spectrum and bipolar disorder. Current symptom level (state) was measured with Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Disease severity (trait) was measured with premorbid adjustment scale (PAS), age at onset, number of psychotic episodes and number and length of hospitalizations.ResultsAfter controlling for confounders, IL-1Ra and TNF-R1 were independently associated with GAF, and significantly correlated with PANSS negative and positive, respectively. In addition, Il-1Ra was associated with PAS, and sTNF-R1 with number of hospitalizations and psychotic episodes. VWf was significantly correlated with psychotic episodes, OPG with hospitalizations and IL-6 with history of psychosis. Linear regression analysis showed that GAF remained associated with sTNF-R1 and IL-1Ra with PANSS, after controlling for the other clinical measures.ConclusionsThis supports that inflammatory markers, particularly IL-1Ra and sTNF-R1 are associated with both general disease severity and psychotic features. This supports a role of immune activation in the core pathological mechanisms of severe mental disorders

Association between leptin levels and severity of suicidal behaviour in schizophrenia spectrum disorders

Objective: Associations between suicidality and lipid dysregulation are documented in mental illness, but the potential role of leptin remains unclear. We examined the association between leptin and suicidal behaviour in schizophrenia, together with the influence of other clinical and biological indices. Method: We recruited a sample of 270 participants with schizophrenia spectrum diagnoses. Blood samples were analysed for leptin, while symptom severity was assessed by Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS ) and Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (IDS ‐C). Patients' history of suicidal behaviour was categorized into three subgroups based on IDS ‐C suicide subscale: No suicidal behaviour, mild/moderate suicidal behaviour and severe suicidal behaviour with/without attempts. Results: Mild/moderate suicidal behaviour was present in 17.4% and severe suicidal behaviour in 34.8%. Both groups were significantly associated with female gender (OR = 6.0, P = 0.004; OR = 5.9, P = 0.001), lower leptin levels (OR = 0.4, P = 0.008; OR = 0.5, P = 0.008) and more severe depression (OR = 1.2, P < 0.001; OR = 1.1, P < 0.001) respectively. Smoking (OR = 2.6, P = 0.004), younger age of onset (OR = 0.9, P = 0.003) and less use of leptin‐increasing medications (OR = 0.5, P = 0.031) were associated with severe/attempts group, while higher C‐reactive protein CRP (OR = 1.3, P = 0.008) was associated with mild/moderate group. Conclusion: Lower leptin levels were associated with higher severity of suicidal behaviour in schizophrenia.publishedVersio

Polygenic risk for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in relation to cardiovascular biomarkers

Individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), and a range of biomarkers related to CVD risk have been found to be abnormal in these patients. Common genetic factors are a putative underlying mechanism, alongside lifestyle factors and antipsychotic medication. However, the extent to which the altered CVD biomarkers are related to genetic factors involved in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder is unknown. In a sample including 699 patients with schizophrenia, 391 with bipolar disorder, and 822 healthy controls, we evaluated 8 CVD risk biomarkers, including BMI, and fasting plasma levels of CVD biomarkers from a subsample. Polygenic risk scores (PGRS) were obtained from genome-wide associations studies (GWAS) of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. The CVD biomarkers were used as outcome variables in linear regression models including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder PGRS as predictors, age, sex, diagnostic category, batch and 10 principal components as covariates, controlling for multiple testing by Bonferroni correction for the number of independent tests. Bipolar disorder PGRS was significantly (p = 0.03) negatively associated with BMI after multiple testing correction, and schizophrenia PGRS was nominally negatively associated with BMI. There were no other significant associations between bipolar or schizophrenia PGRS, and other investigated CVD biomarkers. Despite a range of abnormal CVD risk biomarkers in psychotic disorders, we only found a significant negative association between bipolar disorder PGRS and BMI. This has previously been shown for schizophrenia PGRS and BMI, and warrants further exploration

Identification of shared genetic variants between schizophrenia and lung cancer.

Epidemiology studies suggest associations between schizophrenia and cancer. However, the underlying genetic mechanisms are not well understood, and difficult to identify from epidemiological data. We investigated if there is a shared genetic architecture between schizophrenia and cancer, with the aim to identify specific overlapping genetic loci. First, we performed genome-wide enrichment analysis and second, we analyzed specific loci jointly associated with schizophrenia and cancer by the conjunction false discovery rate. We analyzed the largest genome-wide association studies of schizophrenia and lung, breast, prostate, ovary, and colon-rectum cancer including more than 220,000 subjects, and included genetic association with smoking behavior. Polygenic enrichment of associations with lung cancer was observed in schizophrenia, and weak enrichment for the remaining cancer sites. After excluding the major histocompatibility complex region, we identified three independent loci jointly associated with schizophrenia and lung cancer. The strongest association included nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and is an established pleiotropic locus shared between lung cancer and smoking. The two other loci were independent of genetic association with smoking. Functional analysis identified downstream pleiotropic effects on epigenetics and gene-expression in lung and brain tissue. These findings suggest that genetic factors may explain partly the observed epidemiological association of lung cancer and schizophrenia

Mudanças climáticas e o fitoplâncton marinho : uma revisão

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Carlos Roberto SanquettaMonografia (especialização) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Agrárias, Curso de Especialização em Projetos Sustentáveis, Mudanças Climáticas e Mercado de CarbonoInclui referênciasResumo: Uma revisão bibliográfica de artigos nacionais e internacionais foi realizada objetivando avaliar os principais impactos e respostas provocados pelas mudanças climáticas sobre o fitoplâncton marinho. Compreender como o ambiente marinho é afetado pelas alterações ambientais é fundamental, pois os oceanos são responsáveis pela absorção de mais de 80% do calor adicionado ao clima. A busca dos artigos foi realizada nas bases de dados Portal de Periódicos Capes, SciELO e Sciencedirect, entre maio e agosto de 2012 para o período compreendido entre 1980 e 2012. O fitoplâncton, além de bioindicador ambiental, é a base da cadeia alimentar e quaisquer alterações em sua composição ou abundância podem provocar graves consequências para os demais níveis tróficos, inclusive o homem. Dentre os impactos no ambiente marinho, observa-se o aquecimento da superfície da água do mar, provocando a estratificação da coluna de água e impedindo a ciclagem dos nutrientes; o aumento da temperatura atmosférica, favorecendo maiores índices de precipitação, o derretimento das geleiras e o aumento do nível do mar; a acidificação e a desoxigenação da água do mar. As respostas do fitoplâncton às mudanças climáticas compreendem alterações na taxa de crescimento, mudanças na composição específica e distribuição biogeográfica das espécies, maior risco de ocorrência de florações nocivas e de bioinvasões, dentre outras. Apesar de crescente o número de publicações sobre mudanças climáticas nos últimos anos, muitas são as incertezas sobre a real extensão desses impactos e quais outras ameaças podem decorrer das mudanças climáticas sobre o fitoplâncton marinho