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Society has a responsibility to aid its citizens in case of emergency. This calls for planning and preparations. However, societal emergency response activities are not always fully effective. This might be due to suboptimal emergency planning and preparations, with some planned response actions not working as intended. For example, it is possible that some actions show to be ‘over-planned’ with t

Society protects its citizens against crises and emergencies. Emergency management, and particularly preparedness for emergency response, can be strengthened through the use of scenario-based exercises. Since such exercises are expensive, it is of common interest to make efficient use of their results. One way to enhance existing methods for scenario-based exercise is to improve their learning eff

Background: Anxiety has been suggested to increase among young individuals, but previous studies on longitudinal trends are inconclusive. The aim of this study was to analyze longitudinally, the changes over time of prevalence of self-reported anxiety in the Swedish population between 1980/1981 and 2004/2005, in different birth cohorts and age groups. Methods: A random sample of non-institutionali

A simple Pickering emulsion route has been developed for the assembly of temperature-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) microgel particles into colloidal molecules comprising a small number of discrete microgel interaction sites on a central oil emulsion droplet. Here, the surface activity of the microgels serves to drive their assembly through adsorption to growing polydimethylsiloxa

BACKGROUND Although evidence suggests that some occupations may be a risk factor for small-for-gestational age (SGA) birth, associations between a wide range of maternal and paternal occupations and risk of SGA births remain unclear. Our objective was to analyze the risk of SGA births by parental occupation, including the entire Swedish population of mothers (>/=20 years) and fathers. METHODS We l

BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (CNS). One potential therapeutic strategy for MS is to induce regulatory cells that mediate immunological tolerance. Probiotics, including lactobacilli, are known to induce immunomodulatory activity with promising effects in inflammatory diseases. We tested the potential of various strain

Recent reports suggest that immigrants from Middle Eastern countries are a high-risk group for type 2 diabetes (T2D) compared with Swedes, and that the pathogenesis of T2D may be ethnicity-specific. Deregulation of microRNA (miRNA) expression has been demonstrated to be associated with T2D but ethnic differences in miRNA have not been investigated. The aim of this study was to explore the ethnic s

Objective: The incidence of type 1 diabetes shows a large variation worldwide, but whether the causes are environmental or genetic has not been settled. We examine here the incidence of type 1 diabetes among second-generation immigrants and adoptees from abroad to disentangle genetic/ethnic vs. environmental influence, assuming adoptees from abroad have similar environmental exposures compared wit

BACKGROUND: TNF-α inhibitors are potent anti-inflammatory drugs that have revolutionized the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Delayed gadolinium-enhanced MRI of cartilage (dGEMRIC) is a non-invasive method to study cartilage quality, in particular the glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content. PURPOSE: To evaluate knee cartilage quality before and after treatment with a TNF-α inhibitor (infliximab) i

NLRs are recently discovered PRRs detecting substructures of peptidoglycans and triggering innate immunity. NLRs are expressed in several cell types, but the presence in human B lymphocytes is still unknown. This study aimed to investigate expression and function of NLRs in human B lymphocytes. B cells were isolated and analyzed for mRNA and protein expression. The functional responsiveness of NOD

BACKGROUND: Refugee women have a high risk of coronary heart disease with low physical activity as one possible mediator. Furthermore, cultural and environmental barriers to increasing physical activity have been demonstrated. The aim of the study was to evaluate the combined effect of an approximate 6-month primary health care- and community-based exercise intervention versus an individual writte

AIM: Preterm birth is associated with a number of physical and mental health issues. The aim of this study was to find out if there was also any association between individuals born preterm in Sweden between 1984 and 2006 and the risk of unintentional injuries during childhood, adolescence and young adulthood METHODS: The study followed 2,297,134 individuals, including 5.9% born preterm, from 1985

We developed a simple model to calculate the regional deposited dose of submicron aerosol particles in the respiratory system. This model incorporates measured outdoor and modeled indoor particle number size distributions, detailed activity patterns of three age groups (teens, adults, and the elderly), semi-empirical estimation of the regional deposition fraction, hygroscopic properties of urban a

The societal consequences of drug abuse (DA) are severe and well documented, the World Health Organization recommending tracking of population trends for effective policy responses in treatment of DA and delivery of health care services. However, to correctly identify possible sources of DA change, one must first disentangle three different time-related influences on the need for treatment due to

Although cannabis abuse (CA) is known to be associated with schizophrenia, the causal nature of this association is unclear, with prodromal effects complicating its interpretation.

BACKGROUND: The possibility of an association of Graves' disease (GD) with subsequent cancers raised by certain studies. METHODS: Using a database on 18 156 hospitalised GD patients, subsequent cancers were ascertained. RESULTS: Increased risks of thyroid and parathyroid tumours were limited to the early follow-up period, which is probably a surveillance bias. Cancer sites with observed excess inc