AA-Amyloidosis Can Be Transferred by Peripheral Blood Monocytes

Spongiform encephalopathies have been reported to be transmitted by blood transfusion even prior to the clinical onset. Experimental AA-amyloidosis shows similarities with prion disease and amyloid-containing organ-extracts can prime a recipient for the disease. In this systemic form of amyloidosis N-terminal fragments of the acute-phase reactant apolipoprotein serum amyloid A are the main amyloid protein. Initial amyloid deposits appear in the perifollicular region of the spleen, followed by deposits in the liver. We used the established murine model and induced AA-amyloidosis in NMRI mice by intravenous injections of purified amyloid fibrils (‘amyloid enhancing factor’) combined with inflammatory challenge (silver nitrate subcutaneously). Blood plasma and peripheral blood monocytes were isolated, sonicated and re-injected into new recipients followed by an inflammatory challenge during a three week period. When the animals were sacrificed presence of amyloid was analyzed in spleen sections after Congo red staining. Our result shows that some of the peripheral blood monocytes, isolated from animals with detectable amyloid, contained amyloid-seed that primed for AA-amyloid. The seeding material seems to have been phagocytosed by the cells since the AA-precursor (SAA1) was found not be expressed by the monocytes. Plasma recovered from mice with AA amyloidosis lacked seeding capacity. Amyloid enhancing activity can reside in monocytes recovered from mice with AA-amyloidosis and in a prion-like way trigger amyloid formation in conjunction with an inflammatory disorder. Human AA-amyloidosis resembles the murine form and every individual is expected to be exposed to conditions that initiate production of the acute-phase reactant. The monocyte-transfer mechanism should be eligible for the human disease and we point out blood transfusion as a putative route for transfer of amyloidosis

Automatic query expansion : a comparative study of different strategies for clustering of terms based on local analysis

Automatic query expansion has long been studied in information retrieval research as a technique that deals with the fundamental issue of word mismatch between query and document. The purpose of this thesis is to compare the retrieval effectiveness of different strategies for automatic query expansion. The strategies are based on local analysis of the corpus and use statistical information from the local document set to extract terms that suppose to adapt themselves to each individual search and therefore appear to be searchonyms to the index terms. The strategies compared are: association clusters, metric cluster and scalar cluster. Baseline queries of 24 topics are expanded using terms from the different clusters and searches are made. The study also explores the retrieval effectiveness of an expanded query when using terms derived from the result of a truncation algorithm. The searches were performed in the InQuery IR-system together with the web-based tool QPA and the Swedish database GP_HDINF. The retrieval effectiveness of baseline and the expanded queries are evaluated using relative recall and average precision. The study shows that all of the strategies manage to increase both recall and precision compared with the initial baseline search. No significant differences between the strategies were found.Uppsatsnivå:

Automatic query expansion : a comparative study of different strategies for clustering of terms based on local analysis

Automatic query expansion has long been studied in information retrieval research as a technique that deals with the fundamental issue of word mismatch between query and document. The purpose of this thesis is to compare the retrieval effectiveness of different strategies for automatic query expansion. The strategies are based on local analysis of the corpus and use statistical information from the local document set to extract terms that suppose to adapt themselves to each individual search and therefore appear to be searchonyms to the index terms. The strategies compared are: association clusters, metric cluster and scalar cluster. Baseline queries of 24 topics are expanded using terms from the different clusters and searches are made. The study also explores the retrieval effectiveness of an expanded query when using terms derived from the result of a truncation algorithm. The searches were performed in the InQuery IR-system together with the web-based tool QPA and the Swedish database GP_HDINF. The retrieval effectiveness of baseline and the expanded queries are evaluated using relative recall and average precision. The study shows that all of the strategies manage to increase both recall and precision compared with the initial baseline search. No significant differences between the strategies were found.Uppsatsnivå:

Designing for Online Youth Counselling : Empowerment through Design and Participation

More and more people are using the internet to access various societal functions. In recent years, municipalities and private enterprises have increasingly begun to explore and develop internet-based services to support public health in general and to disseminate health information in particular. This compilation thesis consists of four articles that explore and provide different perspectives on the design and implementation of new online youth counselling services for public organisations and social services, working with counselling and health information for young people. Ethnographic methods, and materials from two empirical settings, have been used to investigate how aspects of design and participation can serve to empower both potential young users and counsellors as stakeholders in the design projects. An important secondary focus is how mechanisms of empowerment play out in the design of online counselling services targeting young people. The notion of empowerment is addressed in terms of empowerment through design, focusing on normative expectations regarding young people as users of online youth counselling, as well as how to work with norms and norm-critical perspectives in the design and development of user interfaces. Another aspect of empowerment concerns participation, here seeking an increased understanding of the processes, practices and shifting roles involved in engaging professionals and young users as participants in a design project. In order to address these interrelated areas of inquiry, an eclectic theoretical and methodological approach has been used to study design in practice. An ethnomethodological approach unpacks how the participants relate to and reflect upon the design projects under study, highlighting aspects of empowerment and user agency. In addition, a sociocultural perspective on communities of practice and participation is used to increase the understanding of what it means to be a participant in participatory design projects. The findings show how embedded social norms and values have implications for users’ identities as presented in the digital design of online youth counselling services. The findings also reveal ways in which user empowerment is facilitated but also restricted by the design of youth counselling e-services, including not only the designed multimodal features of such services, but also the norms that guide usage. The studies also address the outcomes of technological change and the implementation of sociotechnical systems and services for the professionals involved in design projects. Here the studies provide knowledge about the forms of practical reasoning the counsellors engage in when anticipating work-related issues associated with the new technology and how they might deal with potential challenges. Finally, the findings show how participation in a design project may enable the development of new forms of communities of practice in which the participants and their roles and participation status change as the organisation changes

Nostalgic Sounds

Det finns ljud som är på väg att försvinna i takt med teknologins utveckling. Dagens ungdomar har aldrig hört ljud från den äldre teknologin, som den äldre generationen har fått växa upp med såsom skrivmaskinen, modemet m.m. Dessa produkter gav ifrån sig ett speciellt ljud som numera inte hörs lika mycket idag. Men vad händer när tekniken utvecklas till den grad att ljud blir en säkerhetsfråga? Förutom teknikljud finns det ljud från förhistoriska och nyligen utdöda djur som forskare har lyckats återskapa genom studier av kvarlevornas anatomi. Idag är dessa djurs ättlingar också på väg att försvinna på grund av människans destruktiva handlingar som skövling av skogar och förorening av hav. Hur kommer skogarna och haven låta när djurlivet försvinner därifrån? Vad säger det oss om ekosystemets hälsa? Detta kandidatarbete handlar om att finna både utdöende och utdöda ljud och implementera dem i en stad, där man kan få ta del av gamla och utdöda ljud som antingen ingen eller väldigt få har hört. Genom tidigare forskning, fältarbete och ljudbearbetning har jag försökt besvara den produktiva frågan: Hur kan man skapa en ljudmiljö med utdöende och utdöda ljud i digitala medier? Utifrån denna frågeställning har jag även undersökt: Hur påverkas vi och vårt samhälle vi lever i av saknaden av ljud? Nyckelord: ljudekologi, ljuddesign, teknik, historia, level design -------- There are sounds that are about to disappear as technology develops. Today's youth have never heard sounds from the older technology that the older generation has grown up with such as the typewriter, the modem etc. These products emitted a special sound which now are not heard as much today. But what happens when technology evolves so much that sound becomes a safety issue? Aside to technology sound, there are sounds from prehistoric and recently extinct animals that scientists have succeeded in reviving through studying the remains anatomy. And today, these animal's decedents are also disappearing due to man's destructive actions that devastates forests and pollutes oceans. How will the forests and the oceans sound like when the animal life disappears? What does that tell us about the health of the ecosystem? This Bachelor thesis project is about to find both dying and extinct sounds and implement them in a city where you can take part of old and extinct sounds that either no one or very few have heard. Through previous research I've tried to answer the productive question: How can you create a sound environment with dying and extinct sounds in digital medias? On this issue, I've also examined: How are we and our society we live in affected by the lack of sound? Keywords: sound ecology, sound design, technology, history, level designDetta är en reflektionsdel till en digital medieproduktion

Den psykosociala arbetsmiljöns komplexitet : En studie om medarbetarnas upplevelser och beskrivningar av deras psykosociala arbetsmiljö på en kommunal enhet i norra Sverige

Det finns idag en växande problematik med psykisk ohälsa bland medarbetare på svenska arbetsplatser. Med bland annat detta som bakgrund har Arbetsmiljöverket lagt fram ett nytt förslag på en föreskrift som skall förtydliga arbetsgivarens och arbetstagarens ansvar för att undvika denna problematik. Problematiken med den psykosociala arbetsmiljön återfinns på en kommunal enhet i norra Sverige där denna studie avsåg att undersöka hur medarbetarna på denna enhet idag upplever sin psykosociala arbetsmiljö. Genom semistrukturerade intervjuer var målet att ge en fingervisning på vilka områden som kan ha bidragit till denna problematik. Resultatet visade på att majoriteten av medarbetarna upplever arbetstiden som rimlig och icke skadlig. Vidare visade resultatet på att upplevelsen av arbetsbelastningen varierar där vissa ansåg att den är bra medan andra upplevde att de saknar de resurser som krävs för att klara av sina arbetsuppgifter. Resultatet visade även på att medarbetarna hade svårt att svara på frågor som berörde chefers kunskap och kompetens. Som svar frågan om andra faktorer som medarbetarna upplevde påverkar deras psykosociala arbetsmiljö negativt nämndes ett flertal spridda faktorer som går att återkoppla till relationen till chef och ledning. Exempel på dessa är brist på inflytande och stöd, misstro från chef och ledning samt brist på trovärdighet och legitimitet i de beslut som chef och ledning fattat

Polisens hårda (hash)tag

I takt med digitaliseringen har det skett ett kommunikativt skifte som kräver de auktoritära myndigheterna att tänka om kring deras kommunikation. Idag har sociala medier öppnat upp möjligheten för myndigheter att skapa en lekfull och kreativ dialog med sina medborgare. Denna kvalitativa studie syftar till att öka förståelsen för myndigheters kommunikation på sociala medier i relation till värdeskapande. En semiotisk bild- och textanalys har genomförts på två av Polisens lokala Instagramkonton, Polisen Skärholmen och Polisen Norrmalm. Vidare har en kompletterande innehållsanalys genomförts på Polisens policydokument för att kartlägga hur värde kan förstås. Tidigare forskning har visat att myndigheter, såsom Polisen, står inför stora utmaningar inför en etablering på sociala medier, framförallt med hänsyn till de visuella sociala medierna som avser en större effekt på individens känslomässiga och kognitiva tolkning jämför med endast text. Det teoretiska ramverket innefattar teorierna value based management, Goffmans dramaturgiska teori, inramningsteorin och semiotik. Analysen resulterade i slutsatsen att Polisen skapar värde med sin kommunikation på sociala medier, men på olika sätt beroende på vilken poliskår som kommunicerar. Vi vill därför betona vikten av välformulerade värdedokument, speciellt när de ska vara applicerbara på en hel myndighet och att Polismyndigheten kan behöva urskilja vad som är viktigt att kommunicera ut till medborgarna.As a result of the digitalization, there has been a communicative change that requires authorities to rethink their communication. Today, social media has allowed authorities the opportunity to converse in creative and playful dialogues with their citizens. This qualitative study aims to increase the understanding of government communication on social media in relation to value creation. A semiotic image and text analysis has been carried out on two of the Police's local Instagram accounts, Polisen Skärholmen and Polisen Norrmalm. Furthermore, a supplementary content analysis has been carried out on the Police's policy documents to identify how value creation can be understood. Previous research has shown that authorities, such as the Police, face major challenges when seeking to establish themselves on social media. This is especially held in regards to the visual social media which generates a greater effect on the individual's emotional and cognitive interpretation compared to just text-based social media. The theoretical framework includes Value based management, Goffman's dramaturgical theory, framing theory and semiotics. The analysis resulted in the Police creating value with its communication on social media, but in different ways depending on which police force communicates to its audiences. Therefore we want to emphasize the importance of well-formulated value documents, especially when they are to be applicable to an entire authority and that the Police Authority may need to discern what is important to communicate to the citizens

Kvinnor, datorspel och identifikation : en genusanalys av två datorspel och två kvinnors datorspelande

This essay covers computer gaming as seen from a perspective of gender theory. The main purpose of the essay is to examine women’s relationship to computer games, and more specifically women’s attitudes to the games they play. The theoretical basis for this essay is sprung from a hermeneutic perspective. The empirical basis for analysis consists of two in depth interviews and game analysis of the two computer games Counter Strike and Final Fantasy XI. The theories and previous research we have taken in consideration discuss topics like computer usage, gender studies, identity, identification, cyborg theory, subculture, fanculture and narration. This essay has shown that the two computer games contain multiple gender related and theory relevant connotations. The aspects of the games the informants consider important in the identification process mainly consist of game related communion and the interaction with other players. Both informants have presented several views on what they find important in the process of identification and what they chose to discard

Versioner av verkligheten : Intervjuer med svenska dokumentärfilmare

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att förstå hur svenska dokumentärfilmare i dag arbetar med gestaltningen av verkligheten. I den här uppsatsen tar vi reda på vilka attityder en grupp svenska dokumentärfilmare delar när det gäller relationen till innehållet i filmerna, publiken, yrkesgruppen och de nya förutsättningar som genren erfar. För att besvara frågeställningen har vi utfört nio öppet riktade kvalitativa intervjuer med svenska dokumentärfilmare. Urvalet består till största del av erfarna dokumentärfilmare vars filmer har visats i större distributionssammanhang. Intervjuerna har transkriberats och analyserats med Pierre Bourdieus fältteori som redskap. Resultatet ger en inblick i svenska dokumentärfilmares vardag och exemplifierar hur filmarna resonerar kring sitt arbete. Resultatet visar att de dokumentärfilmare vi intervjuat känner ett ansvar för de medverkande, anser sig vara källkritiska och värnar om sina filmers trovärdighet. De karakteriseras som yrkesgrupp av ett brinnande intresse för de ämnen de tar upp i sina filmer. De tenderar inte att drivas av ett vinstintresse trots att yrkesgruppen till stor del består av egenföretagare. De är ofta kritiska till politiska och ekonomiska maktfält, utan att öppet inta rollen som aktivister eller opinionsbildare. Vi ser också att de intervjuade dokumentärfilmarna är positiva till de nya förutsättningar som dokumentärfilmen verkar under. Billigare kameror och fler publiceringskanaler ger filmarna möjlighet att gestalta fler ämnen och fler världar. Samtidigt finns det en oro över att man som filmare, på nätet, ska förlora kontrollen över sitt material, vilket ibland påverkar ämnesvalet

Control And Reward In Online Dating Practices – A Study Of Users’ Experiences Of Tinder

This paper is based on a study of users experiences and practices of meeting potential new partners online through the use of the mobile dating service Tinder. The aim of the study is to explore how users experience design features and functionalities for online dating practices. By exploring the use of functionalities and features in the location-based mobile application Tinder, we offer a broad understanding of the relationship between designed functionalities and dating practices that users experience through these features. The empirical material presented in the paper is drawn from a study based on a mixed method approach, combining an initial observational study, an online survey, with focus group interviews. Four specific designed functions are highlighted in our empirical data: the connection with Facebook, the profile cards of users, the swipe-centered mutual match function, and geographical proximity. These functions contribute to the specific user experiences of control and reward. Our findings indicate that online dating practices are formed by an inseparable interplay of design functionalities, users attitudes and the use of specific mobile applications that taken together contributes to the overall online dating experiences