Health and social consequences: linkages between parish registers and patient records as a source in social medical history

Venereal diseases in the Sundsvall area in Sweden are studied in this article. By using linkages between between parish records and patient records it has been possible to find out what happened to a patient after the adission to a venereal ward. The linkage gives us enough information to form life and family biographies for these individuals. By investigating the life courses of 145 linked individuals it has been possible to give a closer presentation of the preliminary conclusions and problems of this research. The major problem has to do with their mobility. A life and family biography is truncated when the individual leaves the district of Sundsvall. The individuals of the study were admitted to a venereal ward in the midst of their adult life. While carefully paying attention to the linked individuals’ tendency to leave the Sundsvall area, we have studied their age distribution rates for certain events in their lives and reached a few preliminary conclusions about the sample group. Even among those who stayed in the district for quite a long while, the marriage rates were quite low . Some of these individuals had up to eight children, but the average fertility among the sample group seemed to be quite low. Because more than 60 percent of the children bom within the sample group died before the age of 15, and a very high percentage of these died before their first birthday, seems to be a convincing proof that venereal disease had an important impact on the patients’ lives. The article shows that linkages between patient records and parish registrars can help medical historians and historical demographers to understand the way in which disease and medical care affected peoples’ lives in past time

Sweet black currant’s – Mapping of quality characteristics with focus on anthocyanins

Svarta vinbär, Ribes nigrum, är ett bär med lång historia i Sverige och har många kvalitativa egenskaper inte minst hur ett hälsoperspektiv. Dock faller inte detta bär alla i smaken på grund av dess sura smak, därför har förädling med fokus på att få fram en sötare smak utförts vid SLU. Kvalitetsegenskaper hos sju selektioner framtagna på Balsgård, varav fyra sortkandidater med sötare smak, analyserades i laboratorieförsök. Det som undersöktes var halten av totalsyra genom titrering, löslig torrsubstans med refraktometer (Brix-värde), kvoten mellan löslig torrsubstans/ titrerbar syra och innehållet av antocyaniner med HPLC. Antocyaniner bidrar till svarta vinbärs hälsorelaterade egenskaper och därför lades det extra fokus på just dessa, både under den laborativa delen och i den mindre litteraturstudien som utgör bakgrunden. Efter genomförda analyser kunde det konstateras att de utvalda sortkandidaterna hade högre kvot löslig torrsubstans/ titrerbar syra och lägre totalsyrainnehåll än övriga selektioner, och att alla selektioner innehöll varierande mängd och proportioner av de fyra vanligast förekommande antocyaninerna.Blackcurrant, Ribes nigrum, is a berry with a long history in Sweden and has many qualitative properties, not least from a health perspective. However, because of its sour taste, this berry is not to everyone's liking therefore breeding with a focus on getting a sweeter taste has been done. Seven selections produced at Balsgård, including four advanced selections with perceived sweet taste, were analyzed in laboratory experiments. What was examined was the content of acid by titration, sugars via BRIX, the ratio between sugar/acid and the content of anthocyanins by HPLC. Anthocyanins are one of the factors to the health-related aspects of black currants, and therefore extra focus was placed on these, particular during the experiments and in the smaller literary study that is the background. After the tests were carried out, it was revealed that the advanced selections had higher sugar/acid ratio and lower content of titratable acidity compared to the other selections, and that all selections contained varying amount and proportions of the four most commonly occurring anthocyanins

"Will We be Tested on This?": Schoolgirls, Neoliberalism and the Comic Grotesque in Swedish Contemporary Youth Theatre

This article is based on an ethnographic participation study of the production of a play called All about the ADHD and A+ Children of Noisy Village (Ännu mer om alla vi ADHD- och MVG-barn i Bullerbyn) staged at one of Sweden’s most prom-inent playhouses for children’s and youth theatre: ung scen/öst. Within the familiar setting of the classroom, the play takes on the challenging task of questioning and scrutinizing the complex and tangled situation of contemporary neoliberal ideas and practices, their connections to capitalism and their impact on everyday school-life. This in front of an audience consisting mainly of individuals who were not even born at the time when the political map was radically re-drawn in Berlin in 1989, and who have grown up during a period when neoliberal governance has gained increasing influence in Swedish culture and society. The play mediates its dense, political content and its descriptions of teenagers’ everyday lives through a large portion of good old-fashioned entertainment, with music, singing and bi-zarre, laughter-provoking situations.The main research question to be answered in the article is: In what ways are the abstract contemporary economic-political manifestations of power and govern-ance expressed in this good-humored play for youth, and how can this be read from a feminist perspective? Hence, the article circles around three nodes that in-tersect in various ways: theatre, economic-political issues and feminist perspec-tives. The theoretical framework of the article is primarily based on a merger be-tween, on the one hand, feminist social science and, on the other, feminist cultural analysis

"Will We be Tested on This?" : Schoolgirls, Neoliberalism and the Comic Grotesque in Swedish Contemporary Youth Theatre

This article is based on an ethnographic participation study of the production of a play called All about the ADHD and A+ Children of Noisy Village (ännu mer om alla vi ADHD- och MVG-barn i Bullerbyn) staged at one of Sweden’s most prominent playhouses for children’s and youth theatre: ung scen/öst. Within the familiar setting of the classroom, the play takes on the challenging task of questioning and scrutinizing the complex and tangled situation of contemporary neoliberal ideas and practices, their connections to capitalism and their impact on everyday school-life. This in front of an audience consisting mainly of individuals who were not even born at the time when the political map was radically re-drawn in Berlin in 1989, and who have grown up during a period when neoliberal governance has gained increasing influence in Swedish culture and society. The play mediates its dense, political content and its descriptions of teenagers’ everyday lives through a large portion of good old-fashioned entertainment, with music, singing and bizarre, laughter-provoking situations. The main research question to be answered in the article is: In what ways are the abstract contemporary economic-political manifestations of power and govern-ance expressed in this good-humored play for youth, and how can this be read from a feminist perspective? Hence, the article circles around three nodes that intersect in various ways: theatre, economic-political issues and feminist perspectives. The theoretical framework of the article is primarily based on a merger between, on the one hand, feminist social science and, on the other, feminist cultural analysis

Prehospital CPR training performed with visual feedback

INTRODUCTION: Swedish firefighters are a part of the emergency medical services. Therefore, they perform prehospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on a regular basis. Training becomes crucial for maintaining the CPR skills and increasing the patients’ chances of survival. Training with visual feedback is for Swedish firefighters a new way of training CPR. The aim of this study was to evaluate firefighters’ perception of a CPR manikin with visual feedback. METHOD: This study had a qualitative approach. Data were collected by interviews with 16 firefighters after performing CPR on a manikin with visual feedback. The data were analyzed with a manifest content analysis. RESULTS: Visual feedback makes it easy to identify and maintain correct compression rate. There is a need for identifying too deep compressions. Uncertainty regarding the closeness to the stomach arises when using the whole hand during compressions instead of just the wrist. To accomplish an open airway requires a bit of adjustment of the manikins’ head. DISCUSSION: To train and learn CPR is feasible with visual feedback. The firefighters can maintaing a correct compression rate and correct compression depth during the sessions. Ventilating a patient with bag-valvemask or pocket mask may require training with visual feedback to guarantee the firefighters being able to secure an open airway of the patient. All these skills are essential and improve the chance of survival for the patients

Порівняльно-правові дослідження засад професійної діяльності працівників НЦБ Інтерполу в Україні

Vårt huvudsyfte har varit att utvärdera huruvida några för gymnasieungdomar tidigare kända begrepp i ämnet matematik kvalitetsmässigt förändras i olika lärandesituationer över tid. I styrdokumenten för gymnasieskolan definieras begreppet kunskap med hjälp av de fyra f:en: Fakta, kunskap som information; Förståelse, att begripa kunskap; Färdighet, kunskapens praktiska sida; Förtrogenhet, kunskap som bedömning. Vi har använt oss huvudsakligen av kvalitativ metod och teknik eftersom vi ville se vilka uppfattningar som avser begreppet ekvation som eleverna hade med sig från tidigare utbildning och hur dessa uppfattningar förändrades över tid. Den kvalitativa metoden är lämplig just för detta ändamål när vi i förväg inte vet vilka svar eleverna kommer att delge oss. Vi har använt oss av tre olika metoder för att få svar på våra frågeställningar nämligen enkät, intervju och utvärdering. Under hösten 2003 genomförde vi två olika undervisningsserier i två parallella klasser på gymnasiet. Med den ena gruppen har vi bedrivit utomhuspedagogik och den andra har undervisats på traditionellt sätt. Grupperna har mött samma problemtyper men arbetat med dem på två helt olika sätt. Det slutliga resultatet visar att majoriteten av eleverna i utegruppen ser tillämpningsmöjligheter utanför skolans värld med ekvationer emedan elever i innegruppen inte gör det utan ser ekvationer som något relaterat till skolmatematiken. Vår tolkning är att utegruppen nått en högre förtrogenhet med begreppet vi undersökt. Vår slutsats är att utomhuspedagogik kan vara en framkomlig väg att lära matematik

Life-history evolution in harvested populations: the role of natural predation

Models and experiments of the evolution of age- and/or size-at-maturation in response to population harvesting have consistently shown that selective harvesting of older and larger individuals can cause earlier maturation. These predictions, however, are all based on single-species considerations and thus crucially neglect the selective forces caused or mediated by species interactions. Here we develop simple models of phenotypic evolution of age-at-first-reproduction in a prey population subject to different types of predation and harvesting. We show that, in the presence of natural predation, the potential evolutionary response of age-at-first-reproduction to population harvesting is ambiguous: harvesting can cause either earlier or later maturation depending on the type of predator interaction and its strength relative to the fishing pressure. The counterintuitive consequences of harvesting result from the indirect effects that harvesting of a prey population has on the selection pressure exerted by its natural predator, since this selection pressure itself typically depends on prey density. If harvest rates are high, the direct selection pressures considered in classical analyses prevail and harvesting decreases the age-at-first-reproduction, whereas at lower harvest rates the indirect, inter-specifically mediated effects of harvesting can qualitatively overturn predictions based on simpler single-species models

Med flicktionen som vägvisare. Teatrala skolflickor i en postfeministisk era

I den här artikeln undersöks mötet mellan scenkonst för unga, politiska aspekter av samtida svensk skola och feministiska teoretiska perspektiv. Mer precist undersöks vilka möjliga subjektspositioner som erbjuds unga flickor inom ramen för ett analyserat teaterstycke. Texten fokuserar fyra flickfigurer i pjäsen Ännu mer om alla vi ADHD- och MVG-barn i Bullerbyn, som sattes upp 2011 på ung scen/öst, en av Sveriges mest progressiva teatrar som riktar sig till barn och ungdomar. Sverige har sedan 1970- talet en rik tradition vad gäller samhällsengagerad och konstnärligt avancerad scenkonstproduktion. Pjäsen behandlar de frågor som svensk skola brottats med under det senaste årtiondet: vilken kunskap räknas som viktig, och hur formar det de grupper och individer som ingår i det svenska skolsystemet? I linje med det vetenskapliga fältet feministisk kulturanalys utgör artikeln ett möte mellan pjästext/uppsättning och de teoretiska perspektiv artikelförfattaren valt att utgå ifrån. Texten är på så sätt en teoretiskt informerad läsning av den politiska situation flickorna i pjäsen bebor. Centralt i sammanhanget är begreppet postfeminism. Genom kreativt akademiskt skrivande och med hjälp av begreppet postfeminism visar texten på det handlingsutrymme och de begränsningar som de fyra flickornas fiktiva subjektpositioner innebär

Herd-level prevalence of Mycoplasma bovis in Swedish dairy herds determined by antibody ELISA and PCR on bulk tank milk and herd characteristics associated with seropositivity

Mycoplasma bovis is an important pathogen causing pneumonia, mastitis, and arthritis in cattle, leading to reduced animal welfare and economic losses worldwide. In this cross-sectional study, we investigated the prevalence of M. bovis in bulk tank milk (BTM) and herd characteristics associated with a positive antibody test result in Swedish dairy herds. Bulk tank milk samples from all Swedish dairy herds (n = 3,144) were collected and analyzed with ID Screen antibody ELISA and PCR. Information on herd characteristics was collected from the national Dairy Herd Improvement database. To identify herd characteristics associated with the presence of antibodies in BTM, logistic regression was used in 4 different models. The apparent herd-level prevalence of M. bovis infection based on antibodies in BTM was 4.8%, with large regional differences ranging from 0 to 20%. None of the BTM samples was positive by PCR. All the antibody-positive herds were situated in the south of Sweden. The logistic regression model showed that larger herds had higher odds of detectable antibodies in BTM (herd size >120 cows, odds ratio = 8.8). An association was also found between antibodies in BTM and both a higher late calf mortality (2–6 mo) and a higher young stock mortality (6–15 mo). This study showed a clear regional difference in the apparent prevalence of M. bovis infection based on antibodies. The relatively low prevalence of M. bovis in Sweden is a strong motivator for the cattle industry to take steps to prevent further spread of the infection. It is essential that the M. bovis status of free herds be known, and the regional differences shown in this study suggest that testing is highly recommended when live cattle from high-prevalence areas are being introduced into herds. We do not recommend using PCR on BTM to detect infected herds, owing to the low detection frequency in this study

Expression of citrulline and homocitrulline residues in the lungs of non-smokers and smokers : implications for autoimmunity in rheumatoid arthritis

Introduction: Smoking is a well-established risk factor for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and it has been proposed that smoking-induced citrullination renders autoantigens immunogenic. To investigate this mechanism, we examined human lung tissue from 40 subjects with defined smoking status, with or without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and control tissues from other organs for citrullinated proteins and the deiminating enzymes peptidylarginine deiminase type-2 (PAD2) and -4 (PAD4). Methods: Lung tissue samples, dissected from lobectomy specimens from 10 never smokers, 10 smokers without airflow limitation, 13 COPD smokers and eight COPD ex-smokers, and control tissue samples (spleen, skeletal muscle, liver, ovary, lymph node, kidney and heart), were analysed for citrullinated proteins, PAD2 and PAD4 by immunoblotting. Citrulline and homocitrulline residues in enolase and vimentin were analysed by partial purification by gel electrophoresis followed by mass spectrometry in 12 of the lung samples and one from each control tissues. Band intensities were scored semi-quantitatively and analysed by two-tailed Mann-Whitney T-test. Results: Within the lung tissue samples, citrullinated proteins, PAD2 and PAD4 were found in all samples, with an increase in citrullination in COPD (P = 0.039), but minimal difference between smokers and non-smokers (P = 0.77). Citrullination was also detected at lower levels in the tissues from other organs, principally in lymph node, kidney and skeletal muscle. Mass spectrometry of the lung samples showed that vimentin was citrullinated at positions 71, 304, 346, 410 and 450 in non-smokers and smokers both with and without COPD. A homocitrulline at position 104 was found in four out of six COPD samples and one out of six non-COPD. Citrulline-450 was also found in three of the control tissues. There were no citrulline or homocitrulline residues demonstrated in a-enolase. Conclusions: We have shown evidence of citrullination of vimentin, a major autoantigen in RA, in both non-smokers and smokers. The increase in citrullinated proteins in COPD suggests that citrullination in the lungs of smokers is mainly due to inflammation. The ubiquity of citrullination of vimentin in the lungs and other tissues suggests that the relationship between smoking and autoimmunity in RA may be more complex than previously thought