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This thesis examines the continuity, change and adaptation of blat – as a Soviet time, informal economic transaction network, that existed as a response to a non-functional economy. The analysis is based on 33 in-depth interviews conducted in 2009 during a field study in Ukraine and Belarus. The main focus is on individuals’ descriptions, justifications and explanations of their ongoing informal p

Objective: Drug eluting stents (DES) might improve the results of stenting in the femoropopliteal (FP) segment, but randomized data between DES and BMS in the treatment of patients with chronic limb threatening ischemia (CLTI) is lacking. The aim of this study was to perform a randomized comparison, between DES and bare metal stent (BMS) implantation in a subgroup of CLTI patients with lesions in

Background: Smartwatches are commonly capable to record a lead-I-like electrocardiogram (ECG) and perform a photoplethysmography (PPG)-based atrial fibrillation (AF) detection. Wearable technologies repeatedly face the challenge of frequent premature beats, particularly in target populations for screening of AF. Objective: To investigate the potential diagnostic benefit of six-lead ECG compared to

While urbanization provides many opportunities to those arriving in thriving urban areas, a greater number of residents necessitates the expansion of housing and infrastructure. This is often achieved through densification, which can lead to increased noise, particularly through increased road traffic. A key challenge of promoting healthy urban planning is to understand potential health effects, e

BACKGROUND: Obesity rates have nearly tripled in the past 50 years, and by 2030 more than 1 billion individuals worldwide are projected to be obese. This creates a significant economic strain due to the associated non-communicable diseases. The root cause is an energy expenditure imbalance, owing to an interplay of lifestyle, environmental, and genetic factors. Obesity has a polygenic genetic arch

The covid-19 pandemic was characterized by a series of variants of concern, different strains of SARS-CoV-2 which had a serious impact on transmission. One of these, denoted Omicron, dominated in early 2022 and caused covid-19 cases to soar. The increased transmission during the Omicron wave triggered hospitals to further strengthen airborne precautions. The reason for this surge in cases during O

Immunoglobulin G (IgG) is the main isotype of antibody in human blood. IgG consists of four subclasses (IgG1 to IgG4), encoded by separate constant region genes within the Ig heavy chain locus (IGH). Here, we report a genome-wide association study on blood IgG subclass levels. Across 4334 adults and 4571 individuals under 18 years, we discover ten new and identify four known variants at five loci

Most definitions of cancer broadly conform to the current NCI definition: "Cancer is a disease in which some of the body's cells grow uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body." These definitions tend to describe what cancer "looks like" or "does" but do not describe what cancer "is" or "has become." While reflecting past insights, current definitions have not kept pace with the underst

The polyaneuploid cancer cell (PACC) state promotes cancer lethality by contributing to survival in extreme conditions and metastasis. Recent experimental evidence suggests that post-therapy PACC-derived recurrent populations display cross-resistance to classes of therapies with independent mechanisms of action. We hypothesize that this can occur through PACC memory, whereby cancer cells that have

Evolvability is the capacity of a population to generate heritable variation that can be acted upon by natural selection. This ability influences the adaptations and fitness of individual organisms. By viewing this capacity as a trait, evolvability is subject to natural selection and thus plays a critical role in eco-evolutionary dynamics. Understanding this role provides insight into how species

In this didactic paper, we present a theoretical modeling framework, called the G-function, that integrates both the ecology and evolution of cancer to understand oncogenesis. The G-function has been used in evolutionary ecology, but has not been widely applied to problems in cancer. Here, we build the G-function framework from fundamental Darwinian principles and discuss how cancer can be seen th

Somatic evolution selects cancer cell phenotypes that maximize survival and proliferation in dynamic environments. Although cancer cells are molecularly heterogeneous, we hypothesized convergent adaptive strategies to common host selection forces can be inferred from patterns of epigenetic and genetic evolutionary selection in similar tumors. We systematically investigated gene mutations and expre

We previously showed that SerpinE2 and the serine protease HtrA1 modulate fibro-blast growth factor (FGF) signaling in germ layer specification and head-to-tail development of Xenopus embryos. Here, we present an extracellular proteolytic mechanism involving this serpin-protease system in the developing neural crest (NC). Knockdown of SerpinE2 by injected antisense morpholino oligonucleotides did

Background: Providing secondary prevention through structured and comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation programmes to patients after a myocardial infarction (MI) reduces mortality and morbidity and improves health-related quality of life. Cardiac rehabilitation has the highest recommendation in current guidelines. While treatment target attainment rates at Swedish cardiac rehabilitation centres is

The rapid proliferation of data across diverse fields has accentuated the importance of accurate imputation for missing values. This task is crucial for ensuring data integrity and deriving meaningful insights. In response to this challenge, we present Xputer, a novel imputation tool that adeptly integrates Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) with the predictive strengths of XGBoost. One of Xp

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women worldwide. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a subtype of breast cancer that lacks the expression of the oestrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and amplification of HER2. This subtype is the most aggressive subtype and a heterogeneous subgroup of breast cancer, making up around 10-15% of the cases, often affecting younger patients

IntroductionBeta-lactam antibiotics are essential in the treatment of Gram-negative bloodstream infections. The effect of beta-lactam antibiotics depends on the time of unbound antibiotic concentration above the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC). An antibiotic concentration above MIC during the whole dosing interval (100% ƒT > MIC) has been suggested as a target for severe infections. The aim

We investigate how the anchoring effect—a well-established cognitive bias—influences the full distribution of subjective beliefs. While prior research extensively examines the impact of anchoring and other biases on point estimates, their effect on higher moments of the distribution remains unexplored. Through a pre-registered online experiment (N=732), we find that anchoring impacts the mean, var