Outreach initiatives operated by universities for increasing interest in science and technology

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in European Journal of Engineering Edutaion on 2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/03043797.2015.1121468Since the 1990s, the low number of students choosing to study science and technology in higher education has been on the societal agenda and many initiatives have been launched to promote awareness regarding career options. The initiatives particularly focus on increasing enrolment in the engineering programmes. This article describes and compares eight European initiatives that have been established and operated by universities (and in some cases through collaboration with other actors in society). Each initiative is summarised in a short essay that discusses motivation, organisation, pedagogical approach, and activities. The initiatives are characterised by comparing the driving forces behind their creation, how the initiative activities relate to the activities at the university, size based on the number of participants and cost per participant and pedagogical framework. There seem to be two main tracks for building outreach activities, one where outreach activities are based on the university’s normal activities, and one where outreach activities are designed specifically for the visiting students.Gumaelius, L.; Almqvistb, M.; Arnadottir, A.; Axelsson, A.; Conejero, JA.; García Sabater, JP.; Klitgaard, L.... (2016). Outreach initiatives operated by universities for increasing interest in science and technology. European Journal of Engineering Education. 41(6):589-622. https://doi.org/10.1080/03043797.2015.1121468S58962241

EMERALD and EMIT—worldwide computer aided education and training packages in medical physics

This paper describes the development of two web based education and training packages EMERALD and EMIT designed to meet the training needs of professional medical physicists. The program has been developed over a number of years by collaboration between hospitals and universities across Europe. The program concentrates on assisting competence development in five initial areas: diagnostic radiology; nuclear medicine; magnetic resonance tomography; ultrasound; and radiotherapy. Each of the topic areas includes around 50 training tasks in five hypertext workbooks, supplemented by a topical image database. The training materials have been extensively refereed during the development phase and are now in use in 65 countries across the globe. Initial evaluation has shown that the material enhances the training experience and produces a more consistent output

Epigenome-wide meta-analysis of blood DNA methylation in newborns and children identifies numerous loci related to gestational age

Background Preterm birth and shorter duration of pregnancy are associated with increased morbidity in neonatal and later life. As the epigenome is known to have an important role during fetal development, we investigated associations between gestational age and blood DNA methylation in children. Methods We performed meta-analysis of Illumina's HumanMethylation450-array associations between gestational age and cord blood DNA methylation in 3648 newborns from 17 cohorts without common pregnancy complications, induced delivery or caesarean section. We also explored associations of gestational age with DNA methylation measured at 4-18 years in additional pediatric cohorts. Follow-up analyses of DNA methylation and gene expression correlations were performed in cord blood. DNA methylation profiles were also explored in tissues relevant for gestational age health effects: fetal brain and lung. Results We identified 8899 CpGs in cord blood that were associated with gestational age (range 27-42 weeks), at Bonferroni significance, P <1.06 x 10(- 7), of which 3343 were novel. These were annotated to 4966 genes. After restricting findings to at least three significant adjacent CpGs, we identified 1276 CpGs annotated to 325 genes. Results were generally consistent when analyses were restricted to term births. Cord blood findings tended not to persist into childhood and adolescence. Pathway analyses identified enrichment for biological processes critical to embryonic development. Follow-up of identified genes showed correlations between gestational age and DNA methylation levels in fetal brain and lung tissue, as well as correlation with expression levels. Conclusions We identified numerous CpGs differentially methylated in relation to gestational age at birth that appear to reflect fetal developmental processes across tissues. These findings may contribute to understanding mechanisms linking gestational age to health effects.Peer reviewe

Meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies in neonates reveals widespread differential DNA methylation associated with birthweight

Birthweight is associated with health outcomes across the life course, DNA methylation may be an underlying mechanism. In this meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies of 8,825 neonates from 24 birth cohorts in the Pregnancy And Childhood Epigenetics Consortium, we find that DNA methylation in neonatal blood is associated with birthweight at 914 sites, with a difference in birthweight ranging from -183 to 178 grams per 10% increase in methylation (P-Bonferroni <1.06 x 10(-7)). In additional analyses in 7,278 participants,Peer reviewe

Associations between Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and various eating disorders: A Swedish nationwide population study using multiple genetically informative approaches

Background Although attention-deficit hyperactivity/impulsivity disorder (ADHD) and eating disorders (EDs) frequently co-occur, little is known about the shared etiology. In this study we comprehensively investigated the genetic association between ADHD and various EDs, including anorexia nervosa (AN) and other EDs (OED, including bulimia nervosa [BN]). Methods We applied different genetically informative designs to register-based information of a Swedish nationwide population (N=3,550,118). We first examined the familial co-aggregation of clinically diagnosed ADHD and EDs across multiple types of relatives. We then applied quantitative genetic modeling in full-sisters and maternal half-sisters to estimate the genetic correlations between ADHD and EDs. We further tested the associations between ADHD polygenic risk scores (PRS) and ED symptoms, and between AN PRS and ADHD symptoms, in a genotyped population-based sample (N=13,472). Results Increased risk of all types of EDs was found in individuals with ADHD (any ED: OR [95% CI]=3.97 [3.81-4.14], AN: 2.68 [2.15-2.86], OED: 4.66 [4.47-4.87], BN: 5.01 [4.63-5.41]) and their relatives compared to individuals without ADHD and their relatives. The magnitude of the associations reduced as the degree of relatedness decreased, suggesting shared familial liability between ADHD and EDs. Quantitative genetic models revealed stronger genetic correlation of ADHD with OED (0.37 [0.31-0.42]) than with AN (0.14 [0.05-0.22]). ADHD PRS correlated positively with ED symptom measures overall and sub-scales “drive for thinness” and “body dissatisfaction”, despite small effect sizes. Conclusions We observed stronger genetic association with ADHD for non-AN EDs than AN, highlighting specific genetic correlation beyond a general genetic factor across psychiatric disorders

Experimental verification of tomographic measurement methods in ultrasound

This thesis describes two different measurement methods applied to ultrasound. The first method, Ultrasound doppler vector tomography, uses ultrasound to measure blood flow and the second method, Light diffraction tomography, measures the pressure field in an ultrasound beam with laser light. Both methods depend on tomography algorithms for reconstruction of the measured region. A prime motive for Ultrasound doppler vector tomography was to develop an automatic ultrasound based diagnostic scanning system for breast cancer screening. The special tomography algorithm used for detection of directional blood flow is described as well as the developed experimental system. Flow phantoms were measured and the results were compared with simulations, which show good agreement. The ongoing development of the method concerns improved tomography algorithms, better tissue-mimicking flow phantoms and ways to increase the spatial resolution. The main part of the thesis is about the development and use of Light diffraction tomography, which can be used for characterization of ultrasound fields. To our knowledge, only three laboratories worldwide have published results with this method and the subjects of the current work are to define, describe and expand the limits. Some of the most important advantages with light diffraction tomography are the non-perturbing character and the possibility to do absolute pressure measurements with high spatial resolution in both water and air. These advantages were exploited to measure 10 MHz transducers in water, close to the surfaces with high spatial resolution and to measure ultrasound in air in the frequency range 40 kHz – 2 MHz. The results show that under certain circumstances light diffraction tomography can be used for absolute measurements with an uncertainty on the order of 10% in water and 13% in air. Complex ultrasound nearfields were characterized and peaks separated 160 µm were resolved. The applicability on airborne ultrasound was investigated showing unique results regarding absolute measurements, spatial resolution, sensitivity, phase measurements and frequency response. The thesis also includes the Department of Electrical Measurements’ experience in the EC project “An assessment of medical ultrasonic field measurement methods”, the purpose of which was to evaluate a specific ultrasound measurement standard

Kan man på programnivå vända negativa trender?

Ansökningstalen för Elektroteknikprogrammet, LTH, har sedan IT-kraschen 2000 minskat kraftigt. Detta fenomen är inte unikt för Lund utan kan noteras på Sveriges övriga tekniska högskolor och internationellt i västvärlden. De programansvariga har under flera år varit medvetna om problemen och har på bred front försökt att möta de nya förutsättningarna och vända trenden. Färsk statistik visar att våra åtgärder haft positiv effekt

Ultrasound field characterisation in air using light diffraction tomography

The aim of this work was to show the applicability of light diffraction tomography on airborne ultrasound. Different air-coupled transducers in the frequency range 40 kHz - 2 MHz were measured to show the method's performance. A calibrated microphone and the pulse-echo method were used to evaluate the results. The absolute measurements agreed within the calibrated microphone's uncertainty range. Pulse waveforms and corresponding FFT-diagrams show the method's higher bandwidth compared to the microphone. Further, the method offers non-perturbing measurements with high spatial resolution, which was especially advantageous for measurements close to the transducer surfaces. The S/N-ratio was larger than or in the same range as that of the two comparing methods