I moderskabets skygge: konstruktioner af 'godt forældreskab' i repræsentationer af 'selvvalgt' enlige fædre

More than ever, it is considered 'natural', that fathers take on (half) the responsibility for the care of their young children This article contributes to feminist research on ‘alternative’ families and fatherhood ideologies with a specific focus on single fathers. I conduct a critical examination of contemporary representations of ‘elective’ single fathers in the British print media and illustrate how parenting is (re)constructed as a female domain. This is achieved through an accentuation of ‘womanness’ as a prerequisite for appropriate nurturing, which works to construct fatherhood as secondary to motherhood. Thus, even when positively connoted subject positions of ‘good parents’ are made available to ‘elective’ single fathers (in this instance, to fathers who have adopted older children), these remain situated within a powerful discourse emphasising the ‘natural’ nurturing capacity of women and the particular parenting ideal of the (female) mother

Global MicroRNA Expression Profiling of High-Risk ER+ Breast Cancers from Patients Receiving Adjuvant Tamoxifen Mono-Therapy: A DBCG Study

PURPOSE: Despite the benefits of estrogen receptor (ER)-targeted endocrine therapies in breast cancer, many tumors develop resistance. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been suggested as promising biomarkers and we here evaluated whether a miRNA profile could be identified, sub-grouping ER+ breast cancer patients treated with adjuvant Tamoxifen with regards to probability of recurrence. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Global miRNA analysis was performed on 152 ER+ primary tumors from high-risk breast cancer patients with an initial discovery set of 52 patients, followed by two independent test sets (N = 60 and N = 40). All patients had received adjuvant Tamoxifen as mono-therapy (median clinical follow-up: 4.6 years) and half had developed distant recurrence (median time-to-recurrence: 3.5 years). MiRNA expression was examined by unsupervised hierarchical clustering and supervised analysis, including clinical parameters as co-variables. RESULTS: The discovery set identified 10 highly significant miRNAs that discriminated between the patient samples according to outcome. However, the subsequent two independent test sets did not confirm the predictive potential of these miRNAs. A significant correlation was identified between miR-7 and the tumor grade. Investigation of the microRNAs with the most variable expression between patients in different runs yielded a list of 31 microRNAs, eight of which are associated with stem cell characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the large sample size, our data strongly suggests that there is no single miRNA profile predictive of outcome following adjuvant Tamoxifen treatment in a broad cohort of ER+ breast cancer patients. We identified a sub-group of Tamoxifen-treated breast cancer patients with miRNA-expressing tumors associated with cancer stem cell characteristics

Hvordan kan miljø- og klimahensyn integreres i den økonomiske politik?

Through decades, the natural sciences have documented some troubling links between the growing economy and damages to the environment, most prominent of which are global warming and the loss of biodiversity. Recent years have however shown that the road from identifying the problems to action is slow and complicated to navigate: The goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions does not stand alone; rather it is weighed against numerous other policy objectives. This paper first outlines a way of measuring the links between economic activity and the environment: The Green GDP. This measure attempts to measure the environmental damages in the same metric as other economic activity, thus informing us on whether or not economic growth comes at the expense of the environment. Next, the paper introduces a research project aimed at developing the GREEN REFORM model that can simulate the environmental effects of economic policy as well as the impact of environmental policy on the economy. While the Green GDP is an indication of the environmental costs of current and past economic activity, the GREEN REFORM model can be used for evaluation of future scenarios and policy interventions. Finally, the paper presents an analysis of the political barriers to adopting the above-mentioned tools in decision-making in a Danish context. The paper argues that while there is some demand for the tools, there is a potential for significant opposition in the form of political-economy constraints

A Comparative Study of the Surgical Outcome of Internationally Adopted versus Swedish Born Children with Cleft Lip and/or Palate

Abstract Degree Project thesis, Programme in Medicine Title: A Comparative Study of the Surgical Outcome of Internationally Adopted versus Swedish Born Children with Cleft Lip and/or Palate Author: Kjeld Gravgaard Department of Plastic Surgery, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden, 2015 Background At Sahlgrenska University Hospital, internationally adopted patients with a cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) are treated by a cleft team at the Department of Plastic Surgery. Earlier studies and clinical experience indicate a higher number of surgical complications compared to non-adopted children. Aim To show demographic and surgical statistics on adopted children with CL/P, and investigate the surgical outcome in internationally adopted patients compared to non-adopted patients. Patients and Methods Medical records of 158 adopted patients receiving surgical treatment at Sahlgrenska University Hospital were analyzed. Twenty-seven of these were selected according to diagnosis and type of surgical treatment and compared to a non-adopted control group, of 68 patients. Four parameters were compared: Bleeding and operation time during bone grafting surgery, as well as number of surgical procedures and number of palato-pharyngeal flap procedures at 10 years of age. The data was analyzed using SPSS, and the non-parametrical Mann-Whitney U test. Results The majority of patients had been adopted from China, and the majority of adopted patients had unilateral cleft lip and palate. There was a statistically significant higher number of palato-pharyngeal flap procedures in the adopted group compared to the control group (P=0,001). There were no statistically significant differences in bleeding, operation time and total number of surgical procedures between the groups. Conclusions Adopted CL/P-patients require significantly more speech improvement surgery compared to non-adopted CL/P-patients