To Örebro University

The introductory chapter provides a rationale for the book, outlining how the gendering of men’s violence in specific fields have failed to consider the interconnections, intersections, and continuities between these fields. Naming only some violences as gendered enables other violences to go unmarked. We argue that that all violences are gendered, even when they are not perpetrated by men. We review the key issues in specific fields of gendered violences including men’s violence against women, children and young people, other men, gay, trans and non-binary people, disabled people and men’s violence against themselves. We also consider how gendered violence is enacted through colonialism, militarism and war, and in relation to non-human animals and the environment, as well as through epistemic injustice. 

Flickor är lika intresserade av teknik som pojkar – men bilden är ofta en annan. Vi måste hjälpas åt att bredda bilden av teknik och visa att den är för alla, skriver forskaren Ulrika Sultan.

While it is widely acknowledged that Darwin’s descriptions of females were gender-biased, gender bias in modern sexual selection research is less recognized. This Perspective highlights that sexual selection theory and research are still male-centered and suggest strategies for alleviating biases in this field and beyond. While it is widely acknowledged that Darwin’s descriptions of females were gender-biased, gender bias in current sexual selection research is less recognized. An examination of the history of sexual selection research shows prevalent male precedence-that research starts with male-centered investigations or explanations and thereafter includes female-centered equivalents. In comparison, the incidence of female precedence is low. Furthermore, a comparison between the volume of publications focusing on sexual selection in males versus in females shows that the former far outnumber the latter. This bias is not only a historical pattern; sexual selection theory and research are still male-centered-due to conspicuous traits, practical obstacles, and continued gender bias. Even the way sexual selection is commonly defined contributes to this bias. This history provides an illustrative example by which we can learn to recognize biases and identify gaps in knowledge. I conclude with a call for the scientific community to interrogate its own biases and suggest strategies for alleviating biases in this field and beyond.

The diversity, variability, and apparent rapid evolution of animal genitalia are a vivid focus of research in evolutionary biology, and studies exploring genitalia have dramatically increased over the past decade. These studies, however, exhibit a strong male bias, which has worsened since 2000, despite the fact that this bias has been explicitly pointed out in the past. Early critics argued that previous investigators too often considered only males and their genitalia, while overlooking female genitalia or physiology. Our analysis of the literature shows that overall this male bias has worsened with time. The degree of bias is not consistent between subdisciplines: studies of the lock-and-key hypothesis have been the most male focused, while studies of cryptic female choice usually consider both sexes. The degree of bias also differed across taxonomic groups, but did not associate with the ease of study of male and female genital characteristics. We argue that the persisting male bias in this field cannot solely be explained by anatomical sex differences influencing accessibility. Rather the bias reflects enduring assumptions about the dominant role of males in sex, and invariant female genitalia. New research highlights how rapidly female genital traits can evolve, and how complex coevolutionary dynamics between males and females can shape genital structures. We argue that understanding genital evolution is hampered by an outdated single-sex bias.

Phenolics are important secondary metabolites and antioxidants in plants. Mango fruit accumulate abundant phenolic compounds, while the effect of light on the accumulation of different phenolic components in mango peel and the relevant molecular mechanism are still unknown. In this study, mature ‘Guifei’ mango fruit was subjected to postharvest UV-B/white light treatment, fruit peel was sampled for metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses. The results showed that light induced the accumulation of anthocyanins, flavonoids, and phenolics, thus increasing the antioxidant capacity in mango peel. A total of 1,223 phenolic metabolites were detected in mango peel, 36 phenolic compounds were defined as key differentially accumulated metabolites (DAMs) regulated by light. Among the DAMs, the accumulation of 33 compounds was promoted by light, and 30 of these were flavonoids. Light up-regulated most phenolics biosynthesis and light signaling pathway genes, and also regulated expression of plant hormone signaling pathway genes. Transcription factors (TFs) such as MYB, C2H2 and HSF were identified as candidates regulating phenolics biosynthesis in mango. Our findings not only provide information for commercial application of light in promoting mango fruit appearance and increasing phenolics content and antioxidant capacity, but also reveal important aspects of the molecular regulation of light-induced phenolics accumulation in mango peel.

It is common to refer to all sorts of clear-cut differences between the sexes as something that is biologically almost inevitable. Although this does not reflect the status of evolutionary theory on sex determination and sexual dimorphism, it is probably a common view among evolutionary biologists as well, because of the impact of sexual selection theory. To get away from thinking about biological sex and traits associated with a particular sex as something static, it should be recognized that in an evolutionary perspective sex can be viewed as a reaction norm, with sex attributes being phenotypically plastic. Sex determination itself is fundamentally plastic, even when it is termed “genetic”. The phenotypic expression of traits that are statistically associated with a particular sex always has a plastic component. This plasticity allows for much more variation in the expression of traits according to sex and more overlap between the sexes than is typically acknowledged. Here we review the variation and frequency of evolutionary changes in sex, sex determination and sex roles and conclude that sex in an evolutionary time-frame is extremely variable. We draw on recent findings in sex determination mechanisms, empirical findings of morphology and behaviour as well as genetic and developmental models to explore the concept of sex as a reaction norm. From this point of view, sexual differences are not expected to generally fall into neat, discrete, pre-determined classes. It is important to acknowledge this variability in order to increase objectivity in evolutionary research.

In the beginning of 2020, the coronavirus pandemic broke out. The crisis preparedness of Swedish society and the Swedish sports movement was put to the test in an unprecedented manner. It was a crisis for which no one was prepared but it required immediate and decisive actions. Physical events and gatherings ceased or were prohibited and, if possible, replaced by virtual alternatives. All individuals and organisations were forced to adapt to a new reality. However, as in all crises, in this new situation there were both dangers and opportunities.The global and historically significant nature of the COVID-19 pandemic compelled the leadership within the Swedish Sports Confederation (Riksidrottsförbundet; RF) to make swift decisions based on constantly changing circumstances. This report constitutes a qualitative study based on interviews with representatives who held leadership roles within the Swedish Sports Confederation during the pandemic. The aim is to contribute knowledge about the assumptions and strategic considerations made by these representatives during the pandemic — and the lessons that can be drawn from this today.In the report, the prioritisation of controlling the spread of the virus is interpreted as introducing a new institutional logic that shaped the entire sports movement for almost 2 years (2020–2022). We know the Swedish Sports Confederation and the sports movement ‘survived’. However, the consequences of the pandemic are still complex and extensive and will continue to impact the sports world well into the future.The results demonstrate how digitalisation significantly increased during the pandemic, and the connections and communication between the Swedish Sports Confederation, the RF-SISU districts, and the specialised sports federations improved and became more condensed. The interviews reveal reductions in activities and membership numbers and the loss of leaders, referees and volunteers who had supported sports organisations for many years. Certain sports and associations will take a long time to recover and achieve the same activity level as before the pandemic.The crisis was challenging for sports, but valuable lessons can be learned. Collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and resource utilisation are paramount in times of pandemic control and crisis. Loyal employees rallied and worked diligently to support and steer the Swedish sports movement through the crisis. For both individuals and organisations, this effort was sometimes literally about survival. RF had never practised handling a pandemic but demonstrated being well-prepared and possessing significant decisiveness and initiative. They were also able to assert influence and adapt to the new conditions through a willingness to collaborate and take responsibility. Effective communication facilitated the rapid conveyance and management of new guidelines. Many civil society organisations took significant responsibility during the pandemic, and according to the interviewees, the sports movement responded quickly and efficiently to government requirements and recommendations. By building on this knowledge, RF can better prepare for the next crisis and future challenges.

Syftet med denna kartläggning är att undersöka hur gruppen professorer som är knutna till lärarutbildningen ser på ULF-avtalets definition på praktiknära forskning relaterat till universitets lärarutbildning respektive samverkansuppdrag. Kartläggningsresultaten baseras på 11 intervjuer som genomfördes under maj-juni 2019. Kartläggningen visar att samtliga intervjuade professorer är positivt inställda till att lärosätet satsar på praktiknära forskning, där flertalet uttryckligen önskar mer upparbetade samverkansstrukturer såväl vid initierandet, som vid formandet av praktiknära forskningsprojekt, och vid spridningen av forskningsresultat. Ingen av de intervjuade ställer sig kritisk till ULF-avtalets definition som helhet, men samtliga problematiserar praktiknära forskning som term och fenomen. Detta snarare än att de intervjuade anser sig veta med säkerhet vad praktiknära forskning ’är’ eller bör vara. På det sättet synliggörs skilda sätt på hur praktiknära forskning kan förhållas till och ytterst innebära utifrån just den (praktiknära) forskning som bedrivs inom respektive professors ämne, forskningsgrupp etc. Som helhet framkommer med denna kartläggning tre utmaningar för arbetet med praktiknära forskning för utvecklandet av lärarutbildningen. Den ena avser arbetet med att utveckla samverkan med skolan, däribland mötet mellan olika praktiker (forsknings- kontra skolpraktiken), vilka innebär exempelvis olika utgångspunkter i kärnuppdrag, kännedom om varandra och förkunskaper. Den andra handlar om de faktiska interna förutsättningarna som finns på lärosätet att samverka och att bedriva praktiknära forskning i enlighet med ULF-definitionen. Den tredje handlar om varje enskild forskares vilja och engagemang; vad varje enskild forskare gör och vill bidra med. En slutsats är att lärarutbildningens professorer både vill och bör ingå fortsättningsvis som en strategiskt viktig grupp i delprojektet praktiknära forskning. Det är den funktion på lärosätet som rimligtvis kan förväntas vara bäst insatt i forskning som praktik. En fortsatt central fråga torde vara, med utgångspunkt i ULF-definitionen och denna kartläggning, vad praktiknära forskning för utvecklandet av lärarutbildningen ska avse för och vid Örebro universitet.

Syftet med kartläggningen är att undersöka de kommunala skolhuvudmännens erfarenheter och behov av samverkan med Örebro universitet kring praktiknära forskning och vilka interna förutsättningar de har för en sådan samverkan. Kartläggningens resultat baseras på intervjuer med representanter från Region Örebro län (RÖL) och 9 av länets 12 kommuner i Örebro län. Både enskilda intervjuer och gruppintervjuer genomfördes och totalt deltog 24 personer. Intervjuerna genomfördes under december 2019 och avslutades i mars 2020. Kartläggningen visar att endast ett fåtal av de intervjuade själva har erfarenheter av att samverka med Örebro universitet kring praktiknära forskning. Erfarenheterna på organisationsnivå av samverkan med Örebro universitet är också relativt låg men intervjuerna visar att flera kommuner har erfarenhet av samverkan med andra universitet. De intervjuade återger en tämligen likartad berättelse om tidigare erfarenheter av att samverka med Örebro universitet. Erfarenheten är att universitetet tidigare har haft ett begränsat intresse av att samverka med regionens skolhuvudmän, men att universitetets intresse idag är betydligt större. Samtliga intervjuade uttrycker intresse och behov av att samverka med universitetet kring praktiknära forskningsprojekt, men det finns en spännvidd i hur rustade och förberedda de intervjuade uppfattar att den egna skolförvaltning och skolorna är för detta. Det geografiska avståndet till Örebro universitet är något kommunerna längre ifrån lärosätet uppger sig vara vana att hantera och ses inte som något större problem. De små kommunerna i regionen som har få funktioner med allt-i-allo-uppdrag utgör försvårande omständigheter för att samverka, men kan också vara positivt för att snabbt kunna komma igång med praktiknära forskningsprojekt. Intervjuerna visar att det finns en förhoppning om att den satsning på praktiknära forskning som är i en uppstartsfas kommer att bidra till att utveckla skolhuvudmännens skolverksamhet och höja måluppfyllelsen. Behovet av praktiknära forskning ur ett skolhuvudmannaperspektiv handlar överordnat om en möjlighet att få praktiknära samarbeten med universitetets forskare, att ha forskare i skolans vardagspraktik i kommunerna. Kontakten med forskare framställs främst som ett medel för att förbättra skolans/förvaltningens systematiska kvalitetsarbete, vetenskapliga grund, stärka lärares professionsutvecklande samt förbättra undervisningen i klassrummet. Önskemålen från de intervjuade är att universitetet fortsätter på inslagen väg, både gällande förhållningssätt gentemot regionens skolhuvudmän som att vidareutveckla kommunikationen och administrationen vid konkreta samarbeten mellan universitet och skolhuvudman. Skolhuvudmännen efterfrågar forskare som har ett starkt engagemang och djup kunskap om skolverksamhet Avslutningsvis presenteras fyra slutsatser förslag på fortsatt arbete för att skapa hållbara förutsättningar för samverkan kring praktiknära forskning mellan universitet och skolhuvudmän. Slutsats 1: De kommunala skolhuvudmännens erfarenheter av samverkan med Örebro universitet är begränsade. Förslag 1: Nyttja erfarenheter från pågående praktiknära forskningsprojekten för att utveckla och etablera gemensamma och hållbara strukturer för samarbete mellan universitetet och skolhuvudmännen. Slutsats 2. Praktiknära forskning ses av skolhuvudmännen framför allt som ett medel för att genomföra forskningsbaserad skolutveckling i syfte att nå ökad måluppfyllelse i den egna kommunens skolor. Förslag 2: Skapa strukturer, processer och aktiviteter där universitets- och skolföreträdare” kan mötas i ögonhöjd” kring forskningsbaserad praktiknära forskning, skolutveckling och lärarutbildning. Slutsats 3. RUC är idag en upparbetad och uppskattad struktur som svarar mot de kommunala skolhuvudmännens behov. Förslag 3: Utveckla RUC till att bli ett regionalt nav för samverkan rörande forskningsbaserad skolutveckling, praktiknära forskning och lärarutbildning. Slutsats 4: En likvärdig utbildning i regionens skolor förutsätter att alla skolhuvudmän i regionen har likvärdiga förutsättningar att delta i praktiknära forskningsprojekt. Förslag 4: Arbeta för att bygga nationella strukturer som ger alla skolhuvudmän oavsett geografiskt läge, lärares utbildningsnivå och ekonomi förutsättningar att delta i praktiknära forskningsprojekt. Det finns annars en risk att de forskningsfrågor som lyfts i praktiknära forskningsprojekt inte uppmärksammar den mångfald av frågor som finns i Sveriges skolor. 

I den här rapporten presenteras en samlad nationell nulägesbild av Regionalt utvecklingscentrum (RUC). Den är baserad på en kartläggning av hur RUC-företrädare ser på sitt RUC:s förutsättningar, funktion och verksamhet. Kartläggningen har sin grund i fyra frågor: Hur ser RUC:s förutsättningar ut i dag?, Varför behövs ett RUC i dag?, Vad möjliggör RUC framöver? och Vad utmanar RUC framöver? Kartläggningen genomfördes via en digital enkät som skickades ut till de 22 lärosäten i Sverige som i slutet av 2020 fanns med på det nationella RUC-nätverkets sändlista. Tre lärosäten hade inte längre något RUC eller motsvarande RUC och besvarade därför inte enkäten. I juni 2021 genomfördes ett efterföljande samtal i det nationella RUC-nätverket utifrån sammanställningen av enkätsvaren. Då fanns 15 lärosäten representerade. Av kartläggningen och det efterkommande samtalet framgår att RUC-företrädarna uppfattar RUC som ett användbart och nationellt ”varumärke” för lärosätessamverkan med skolhuvudmän och skolor. I likhet med tidigare nationella nulägesbilder av RUC framkommer en fortsatt variation mellan RUC:en beträffande bemanning, finansiering och verksamhetsområden. Dagens RUC karaktäriseras av upparbetade relationer med skolhuvudmän i den egna regionen. Flera RUC verkar även röra sig mot att verksamheten får ett tydligare fokus på samverkan och aktiviteter kopplade till forskningi någon bemärkelse. I rapporten synliggörs å ena sidan RUC-företrädares önskan och ambition att RUC ska få en stärkt roll i lärosätenas arbete med att organisera och bedriva samverkan mellan lärosäte och skola i vid eller specifik bemärkelse. Å andra sidan framkommer det skillnader mellan RUC:ens mandat och förutsättningar att kunna ta en sådan roll eller funktion. Oavsett dessa skillnader är införandet av professionsprogrammet, Skolverkets regionalisering samt permanentandet av försöksverksamheten kring praktiknära forskning (även benämnd ULF) tre statliga initiativ som RUCföreträdarna ser kommer att få framtida konsekvenser för RUC:s verksamhet, såväl nationellt som lärosätesspecifikt. Mot bakgrund av det som framkommer i kartläggningen och samtalet med RUCföreträdare, diskuteras i rapporten RUC:s potential att kunna utgöra en slags garant för att värna om att lärosätet bidrar till den samhälleliga utmaningen om en förbättrad likvärdighet mellan skolor. En sådan garantroll skulle då utgå från lärosätets egna uppdrag inom samverkan, forskning och utbildning. Avslutningsvis presenteras tre slutsatser med tillhörande rekommendationer riktade mot företrädare på lärosäten och beslutsfattare på olika nivåer. En första slutsats är att RUC i dag är en etablerad nationell benämning och företeelse, men med betydande lokala variationer mellan RUC:en. Rekommendationen utifrån denna slutsats är att skapa strategier på lokal och nationell nivå rörande relationen mellan lärosätets tre uppdrag. En andra slutsats är att de lokala RUC:en kan ha olika funktioner vid sitt lärosäte, men att den gemensamma utgångspunkten för RUC som helhet är lärosätets samverkansuppdrag. Rekommendationen utifrån denna slutsats är att den nya lagskrivningen om högskolans samverkansuppdrag diskuteras internt på lärosäten och i dialog med skolhuvudmännen i den lokala regionen. En tredje slutsats är att det nationella RUC-nätverket har en potential att utgöra en tydligare gemensam röst på nationell nivå i frågor om samverkan mellan lärosäte och skola. Rekommendationen utifrån denna slutsats är att utreda intresset och möjligheterna för lärosäten att vidareutveckla RUC:s nationella nätverk till ett nationellt forum motsvarande lärarutbildningskonventet. 

Civil society organizations have often bridged the gap between government services and the needs of refugees. However, their influence is often shaped by government action or inaction. This dissertation explores the role of civil society in shaping and implementing Swedish migration policy during the Cold War era. It focuses on the refugee-related work of the Swedish Red Cross and the Swedish Free Church Council between 1951 and 1991, analyzing how their strategies were developed and executed, both discursively and in practice.

To investigate how governmental migration discourses were either internalized or resisted, and to understand the strategic choices made by the organizations, the study employs a combination of archival source analysis and analysis of historical discourses and contexts, alongside a framework based on the concept of migration governance.

The findings show that civil society actors and their local representatives constituted a significant power resource for advocacy. Furthermore, transnational networks were effectively operationalized as power resources, offering alternative avenues for continued refugee advocacy beyond the domestic sphere.

The study highlights a general tendency within both organizations to act as executors, reinforcers, and enablers of governmental refugee policies, in line with Sweden’s corporatist tradition. Although both organizations occasionally criticized government policies, their advocacy was limited by the legal and institutional frameworks at both domestic and international levels. This points to the inherent constraints of engaging in advocacy within governmental frameworks.

Hypofractionated radiotherapy (RT), including high dose rate brachy-therapy (HDR-BT) is a theoretically beneficial treatment option for curable prostate cancer. Our studies aimed to contribute to the growing body of results on the effectiveness and safety of HDR-BT both as monotherapy and as a boost in combination with external beam radiation therapy (EBRT).

In paper I, 229 patients (low- and intermediate-risk) received 2 – 4 fractions of HDR-BT as monotherapy. The median follow-up time was 85 months. In total, 9.6% had a biochemical failure (BF) and severe toxicities were uncommon. The treatment was found to be effective and safe.

In paper II, 355 patients (83% classified as high- or very high risk) received EBRT (3 Gy x 14) + a single fraction of HDR-BT (14.5 Gy). The median follow-up time was 56 months. The estimated five-year failure free survival was 79 % for the whole cohort. Our results suggest that this treatment appears to be feasible in terms of efficacy.

In paper III, 34 patients who received EBRT + HDR-BT were randomized to either five or three fractions of EBRT per week. Intrafractional prostate movement was tracked in real-time using the Raypilot® system. The primary endpoint was patient-reported acute toxicity. We found no significant difference between the study groups. Target displacement was less than 2 mm during 97% of the time, supporting the use of small treatment margins.

In paper IV, 175 patients received two fractions of HDR-BT (14 Gy x 2) as monotherapy. The estimated five-year cumulative BF rate was 3% for low-risk patients and 9.6% for intermediate-risk patients. The proportion of severe urinary and bowel toxicities were low, indicating that this treatment approach is effective and safe.

Skogen har många värden och är en resurs för såväl skogsbruk, rekreation, friluftsliv och turism, som fäbodbruk och naturvård. Skogen kan vara en arena för ekonomisk utveckling, företagande och nya innovationer inom såväl skogs- och trävaruproduktion som inom tjänste- och upplevelsesektorn. Skogens ekosystem är hemvist för en mängd olika arter och har stora naturvärden som påverkar förutsättningarna för liv, på både global och lokal nivå. Skogen och skogslandskapet är också ett hem för många människor som lever och verkar på landsbygden och är en uppskattad plats för jakt, fiske och bärplockning. Många tillresta besökare uppskattar dessutom skogen som en plats för återhämtning och naturnära upplevelser och ser skogen som något exotiskt och attraktivt. För att belysa skogens olika värden och de olika synsätt som olika aktörer har på skogen som resurs, presenteras här ett antal forskningsbaserade texter från forskare inom olika ämnen inom både naturvetenskap och samhällsvetenskap. Skogen som resurs i en gränsregion är en antologi med bidrag från författare som medverkat i projektet Ingoskog - Innovation för grön omställning i skogen. 

Neural implicit surface representations are currently receiving a lot of interest as a means to achieve high-fidelity surface reconstruction at a low memory cost, compared to traditional explicit representations. However, state-of-the-art methods still struggle with excessive memory usage and non-smooth surfaces. This is particularly problematic in large-scale applications with sparse inputs, as is common in robotics use cases. To address these issues, we first introduce a sparse structure, tri-quadtrees, which represents the environment using learnable features stored in three planar quadtree projections. Secondly, we concatenate the learnable features with a Fourier feature positional encoding. The combined features are then decoded into signed distance values through a small multi-layer perceptron. We demonstrate that this approach facilitates smoother reconstruction with a higher completion ratio with fewer holes. Compared to two recent baselines, one implicit and one explicit, our approach requires only 10%–50% as much memory, while achieving competitive quality. The code is released on https://github.com/ljjTYJR/3QFP.

We propose a dense RGBD SLAM system based on 3D Gaussian Splatting that provides metrically accurate pose tracking and visually realistic reconstruction. To this end, we first propose a Gaussian densification strategy based on the rendering loss to map unobserved areas and refine reobserved areas. Second, we introduce extra regularization parameters to alleviate the “forgetting” problem during contiunous mapping, where parameters tend to overfit the latest frame and result in decreasing rendering quality for previous frames. Both mapping and tracking are performed with Gaussian parameters by minimizing re-rendering loss in a differentiable way. Compared to recent neural and concurrently developed Gaussian splatting RGBD SLAM baselines, our method achieves state-of-the-art results on the synthetic dataset Replica and competitive results on the real-world dataset TUM. The code is released on https://github.com/ljjTYJR/HF-SLAM.

Background: Meningioma is typically benign and is occasionally detected during examinations due to other reasons (e.g. suspected stroke, trauma). Reported incidence figures usually come from various registers, and most reported prevalence figures are estimations derived from incidence figures and survival data. The Region Örebro County meningioma project aims to gain a better understanding of the incidence and prevalence of meningioma in the population. With these preliminary data, we seek to ascertain the practical feasibility of our proposed search method.

Material and methods: In the Swedish county of Örebro with 302,252 inhabitants (2019), all radiology departments are within the public healthcare system. The electronic radiology archive (ERA) includes all patients who have undergone any type of radiological examination in the region since its introduction in 1996. To determine the number of individuals with meningioma in the region and when they were diagnosed, we conducted free-text searches for the word “meningioma” with various spelling variations in ERA and included all patients where the word appears in ERA referrals or responses. Subsequently, using data from the region’s electronic medical records (EMR), we excluded all patients not residing within the region. We then manually reviewed these patients’ referrals, written reports and radiology examinations, to determine whether they have meningioma, the date of diagnosis, whether it was an incidental finding, and presence of multiple meningioma.

Results: We identified 3,428 patients, of which 3,064 have been included in this study (being residents of the region). In a preliminary review, we have been able to identify 1,663 (55 %) patients with likely meningioma. Of the 1,663 patients, 5 % had a diagnosis date before the introduction of ERA. The median age was 73 (IQR 61-82) years. There were 24 % males and 76 % females. Multiple meningioma were found in 9 % of the patients. In the preliminary review 64 % were incidental findings, while 21 % and 15 % were classified as non-incidental and indeterminate, respectively.

Conclusion: Performing free-text ERA/EMR searches is a potential avenue to achieve better coverage when investigating incidence and prevalence of a disease such as meningioma in a public healthcare setting. In our initial review, it is evident that the method identifies and can retrieve meningioma patients from the ERA. Gender distribution, median age and multiple meningioma numbers are comparable to other reported meningioma populations. Based on our experience with this dataset, it is not advisable to rely solely on simple automated searches. Projects akin to this would likely be well suited for future automated image analysis (volumetric measurement, meningioma identification, etc.).

I denna rapport analyseras i vilken mån International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2022 mäter sådant som den svenska grundskolan har i uppdrag att arbeta med, enligt läroplanen och kursplanen i ämnet samhälls-kunskap. Analysen berör dels hur väl ICCS relaterar till den svenska grund-skolans övergripande medborgardanande uppdrag, dels om ICCS kunskaps-mätning ligger i linje med det som betonas i den svenska grundskolans kursplan för ämnet samhällskunskap. Till grund för analysen ligger ICCS teoretiska ramverk och mätinstrument samt svenska styrdokument i form av de inledande delarna av läroplanen och kursplanen för ämnet samhällskunskap i Lgr 11 och Lgr 22. 

Analysen visar att ICCS knyter väl an till den svenska skolans medborgardanande uppdrag. När det gäller skolans övergripande uppdrag ger ICCS elevenkät, som innehåller frågor om elevernas attityder och engagemang, relevanta indikationer på i vilken grad eleverna ställer sig bakom flera av de grundläggande värderingar som framhålls i svenska styrdokumenten. Enkäten ger också insikter om elevernas demokratiska handlingskapacitet. 

ICCS kunskapsprov speglar också väl det kunskapsinnehåll som ingår i den svenska grundskolans kursplan för ämnet samhällskunskap. Provet kan därför sägas ge en tämligen god indikation på elevernas samhällskunskaper. I både kursplanen och ICCS ges politiska aspekter störst utrymme, följt av sociala, rättsliga, ekonomiska och mediala aspekter. Demokrati är vidare det mest framträdande temat i såväl svenska styrdokument som ICCS. Hållbar utveckling är ett annat område som betonas starkt i båda sammanhangen. 

Avsikten är att ICCS kunskapsprov ska mäta olika typer av förmågor. Flest frågor är inriktade på att kunna resonera och tillämpa (reasoning and applying). Här ingår exempelvis frågor som kräver tämligen komplex begreppsförståelse, förmåga att urskilja och förstå principer samt kapacitet att föreslå, jämföra eller motivera på ett välgrundat sätt. I provet ingår också frågor som handlar om att visa kunskap om olika saker (knowing), till exempel om vissa sakförhållanden och innebörden i grundbegrepp. Liknande typer av förmågor framhålls i den svenska grundskolans kursplan för ämnet samhällskunskap. 

Även om ICCS i hög grad mäter sådant som den svenska grundskolan har i uppdrag att arbeta med, bör begränsningarna också framhållas. Undersökningar som görs vid ett enda tillfälle kan givetvis inte fånga allt som ska känneteckna den svenska grundskolan som helhet och ett skolämne som eleverna studerar under hela sin grundskoletid. ICCS mäter inte heller kunskaper om specifika svenska samhällsförhållanden och undersökningsformatet gör det inte möjligt att testa komplexa förmågor som att söka och sammanställa information eller analysera samhällsfrågor ur olika perspektiv. 

Denna rapport behandlar förutsättningar för regionala utvecklingseffekter av en väginvestering. Projektet är en inledande studie kring effekterna av vägen mellan Falun och Borlänge som öppnades för trafik 2005. Projektet är finansierat av Vägverket. Projektet avser att besvara två huvudsakliga frågeställningar: Vilka samhälleliga effekter får en ny väg mellan två städer som ligger inom samma lokala arbetsmarknad? Kan betydelsen för en region av en väginvestering påverkas genom medvetet arbete från regionens aktörer för att utnyttja dess potential? I vår studie går vi bortom själva tidsvinsten och fördjupar oss i hur utbytet mellan de två kommunerna ser ut och förändras. Vi vill också komma åt orsakerna till dessa förändringar. Det är intressant för oss hur aktörernas perspektiv och förväntningar omvandlas till beslut kring resande, byggande, kollektivtrafiksatsningar osv. Betydelsen av den nya vägen avgörs till stor del av hur regionens aktörer ser på den och agerar för att ta vara på dess potential. Studien kan ses som en förstudie. Avsikten har varit att studera utbytet mellan orterna innan vägens färdigställande och att kartlägga synen på regionens potential, vägens betydelse hos företrädare för näringslivsorganisationer, större arbetsgivare, politiker, m fl. Frågorna måste besvaras genom flera olika delstudier med skilda perspektiv. Vi har arbetat med intervjuer med beslutsfattare i den berörda regionen, vi har studerat pendlingsrörelser, analyserat kollektivtrafikens utveckling och vi har försökt att sätta in vägen i ett regionalpolitiskt utvecklingsperspektiv. Fokus i studien ligger på institutionella förhållanden och begrepp och processer i regional utveckling.

The impact of climate change is considered one of the major challenges that the winter sport tourism industry faces today. Sälen, one of the major skiing destinations in Sweden, is situated in the southernmost part of the Swedish mountain range and is therefore one of the most vulnerable destinations when it comes to the effects of climate change. The aim of this paper is to examine and discuss adaptation strategies to climate change that have been implemented in Sälen, with a special focus on increased snowmaking. We discuss snowmaking in relation to alternative adaptation strategies such as increased summer tourism, and relate the adaptation strategies encountered in Sälen to how destinations in the Austrian Alps, which have warmer temperatures, have approached the situation. Those that we interpret as adaptation strategies are mainly focused on maintaining the mass touristic character of winter sports destinations and even extending the production of downhill skiing. These strategies of adaptation and development demand continued intensive snowmaking and an even accentuated quest for snow. However, Sälen is trying to overcome its dependence on downhill skiing as its sole and dominant activity. The strategy of developing summer tourism is problematic, however, not least in relation to the parallel advance in increased snowmaking. 

The report presents a pedagogical project that promotes students' collaborative skills for which a didactic process model has been developed and tested. The starting point is Örebro University's vision (2023), where the importance of collaboration is highlighted and UNESCO's (2017) key competencies for a sustainable society. The goal is for students to apply their knowledge and experience independently and in relation to other professional educational programs by working together on authentic cases where they develop perspective-taking, reflection, communication skills and adhere to ethical practices. In our context, students from the departments of social work, special needs education and teacher education meet. Experience shows that participation has contributed to curiosity among the students, an increased understanding of each other's professional roles and an awareness of the obstacles to and opportunities of collaboration. They gain insight into their professional areas of expertise and identify what they need to learn more about.

     The process model is generic and can be used in higher education to promote students' interprofessional learning and collaborative competence. In addition, the report enriches the discussion around interprofessional cooperation in higher education.

Projektet ”Hållbar utveckling i Funäsdalsfjällen” pågick under 1999-2001 och har både nationellt och internationellt omskrivits som ett lyckosamt och banbrytande projekt med målsättning att utveckla skoterturism i den svenska fjällvärlden utan att konflikter och störningar uppstår som kan försämra förutsättningarna för andra turismgrenar i området. Syftet med denna rapport är att redovisa resultaten från en uppföljningsstudie av projektet ”Hållbar utveckling i Funäsdals-fjällen”.

Projektets olika delmål har följts upp dels via en enkätstudie riktad till ett urval av skoter- och turskidåkare som besökt Funäsdalsfjällen, dels via ett antal djupintervjuer med företrädare för de olika lokala intressegrupperna. Dessutom har skoterturismens effekter på den lokala ekonomin specialstuderas inom ramen för ett examensarbete.

Vi bedömer att projektet har varit lyckat och uppfyllt de målsättningar som satts upp för projektets verksamhet på kort sikt. En viktig förklaring till detta har varit projektets utgångspunkt i konsensusbeslut.

Från intervjustudien blir det tydligt att de olika grupperna av aktörer och intressenter har olika syn på hur utvecklingen i Funäsdalsfjällen ska se ut på lång sikt. Vissa vill exempelvis fortsätta att utveckla skoterturismen medan andra anser att gränsen för skoteråkningens påverkan i området är nådd. För fortsatt hållbar utveckling i området är det sannolikt mycket viktigt att alla intressegrupper fortsätter att delta i arbetet med att utveckla Funäsdalfjällen.

Samverkan har kanske aldrig varit så förekommande som det är idag. Samverkan används av både offentliga och privata organisationer för att utbyta erfarenheter och uppmuntra innovativa projekt, men också för att adressera problem som ingen organisation kan lösa på egen hand. Samverkan har kommit att bli självklart för dagens organisationer. En anledning till att samverkan har ökat är på grund av de organisatoriska men också tekniska möjligheterna som idag finns att binda ihop organisationer över geografiska, institutionella och tidsmässiga avstånd. Samhället är idag avsevärt mycket mer kommunikativt ihopkopplat än bara för några decennier sedan genom den mångfald av digitala medier som tillkommit, från epost och ordbehandlingsprogram till digitala möten, samarbetsplattformar, sociala medier, och mycket mer. De utökade möjligheterna att kommunicera över tid och rum har bidragit med möjligheter att utan större ansträngning börja samverka. Med dessa ökade kontaktmöjligheter kommer också ökade förhoppningar om utsikter att hitta gemensamma riktningar, samordna resurser och finna gemensamma ageranden. Något som erfarenheter visar är lättare sagt än gjort.

Service users of psychiatry and their organisations have for decades been trying to convey users’ narratives on mental distress and its treatment. This work has made an impact; the trend is towards a humanistic psychiatric care and support; a journey from paternalism to social inclusion. Our aim in this chapter is to describe the user organisations’ narratives of psychiatric services. The method for analysis is from narrative art history focusing on 1) transformation, 2) desire for and 3) lack of.

The user’s organisations in Sweden started as a radical left-wing activist movement in the 1960s, supported by anti-psychiatry intellectuals. They managed to influence the public opinion and policy makers, which contributed to the deinstitutionalisation and humanisation of psychiatry. The following period was characterized by user organisations acting like trade unions moving towards a more dialogical work with the psychiatric services. Their major contribution was to influence the development of the new psychiatry based on outpatient care and community-based living. Today the user organisations are more integrated in the psychiatric services and an active partner in co-creation and co-production of psychiatric services.

The user organisations, together with other stakeholders, have managed to contribute to a transformation of psychiatry. The large mental hospitals have closed; there has been an increased access to healthcare and to the quality of life for many of the service users. Still, there are difficulties, like the lack of support for the users who are most severely affected by mental distress, and different kinds of coercion. These problems need to be addressed at the policy level, rather than in the psychiatric health care system. To be successful there is a lot to learn from history where user organisations have acted as activists and tough trade union representatives. More than ever, free user organisations are needed that can give a voice to those who are unable to argue for their rights themselves. Then, maybe, we could move towards social inclusion; a society where we are “Leaving No One Behind”.

With some notable exceptions, research on the far-right and music has historically focused on rock-derived genres such as punk and metal. As the far-right have shifted political emphasis and sought to mainstream their political views, so, too, has research into the contemporary far-right demonstrated a distancing among political ideologues and parties as well as groups from both extreme lyrics and ‘harsher’ sounding elements. This has gone hand-in-hand with an embracing of a wider range of musical styles. Focusing on the music associated with the Alt-Right, a broad movement which sought to mainstream far-right politics, this article suggests that a cultural shift within the far-right went hand-in-hand with a mode of aesthetic appreciation among Alt-Right adherents, which has implications for the mainstreaming of far-right politics in relation to musical cultures and aesthetics. This form of musical metapolitics emphasized dissonant principles of irony and aesthetic pluralism as a form of strategic ambiguity, but still retained notions of racial superiority at its core despite an avowed openness to genre-based pluralism. Importantly, this process has implications for the mainstreaming of far-right messaging today using a wide variety of musical aesthetics.

This thesis is about ball games as content within physical education teacher education (PETE) and physical education (PE) in a Swedish context. The focus of the study is on how knowledge related to ball games becomes legitimate in PETE, and how this knowledge is transformed and used in pedagogic practice in PE. This thesis consists of four articles investigating these questions in different educational contexts. In Article I, I examine how PE teacher educators define legitimate ball games knowledge in PETE through the lens of Shulman’s theory on teachers’ knowledge. The findings suggest that PE teacher educators define legitimate knowledge as a combination of content knowledge related to participation in sports and pedagogical content knowledge related to learning for all pupils. In Article II-IV the focus is on how knowledge is recontextualised in transitions from PETE to PE and the analysis is done through Bernstein’s theoretical framework. The findings in Article II show that the pre-service teachers’ pedagogic discourse of ball games involved substantial changes and transformations in the transition from university to school placement. These changes can be explained by recontextualising rules that either constrain or enable the use of knowledge. The findings in Article III indicate that beginning teachers had different aims in their teaching, some aimed to develop pupil’s understanding of games while others used ball games as a means to develop movement or cooperative capabilities. The teachers employed different strategies to handle challenges of the cultural influence from competitive sport. The findings of Article IV suggest that beginning teachers consider knowledge from PETE useful and relevant and were able to reproduce this knowledge in PE practice. They were also missing important knowledge, and their teaching was affected by contextual factors. The thesis contributes to existing scholarship with knowledge about the recontextualisation process in which the pedagogic discourse of ball games is constructed within PETE and transformed and reproduced into PE practice.

While there has been much discussion about what kind of expertise the IPCC needs to develop to (better) guide climate policy, little has been said about how the experts themselves assess the challenges of making science policy-relevant. The paper aims to address this gap by exploring how leading IPCC experts reflect on and evaluate their work. The empirical material consists of an interview study with experts currently or recently involved in the IPCC. The selection strategy aimed to achieve a broad range of experience among those with key roles in the assessment work, including experts from all three working groups, from different regions, and of different genders. Data from the interviews was analyzed thematically using NVivo. The concept of boundary work was used to analyze the distinctions and boundaries in this work; how the IPCC experts draw boundaries between science and policy, between policy-relevance and policy-prescriptiveness, and between certain and uncertain knowledge. By analyzing the experts’ own experiences and ideas about what makes science relevant to policy-making, the paper contributes to the discussion about current and future challenges for the IPCC.

This article discusses “academic housekeeping” undertaken within IPCC, understood as the work that is rarely made visible or rewarded, but is nevertheless essential to the success of the organization. It explores the conditions, motivations, and implications for individual researchers involved in the IPCC, with particular emphasis on the invisible, un(der)recognised and unrewarded work they engage in. The empirical material consists of aninterview study of researchers involved in the IPCC assessment work. The article concludes with a discussion on the implications of unrewarded work for individual experts,expert organisations, and academic institutions.

This thesis focuses on physical touch as a pedagogical action in the interplay between male preschool teachers and children in preschool. Previous research shows preschool teachers consider touch an essential resource when supporting children’s care, learning, and development. Touch has also been subject to surveillance due to a discourse on children’s protection and the adoption of policies towards children’s rights to bodily integrity. Men, as a minority group working in a female-dominated preschool, express that they are extra careful when involved in touch situations with children to avoid possible suspicions that may arise. Against this background, the thesis aims to gain knowledge about touch as a pedagogical action for male preschool teachers and children, focusing on its functions, usage, and contextual conditions.

The study draws upon John Dewey’s pragmatism from a transactional perspective by examining different types of touch as pedagogical action. Fieldwork with participant observation has been conducted in three Swedish preschool classes with 45 children and three male preschool teachers. The findings present five types of touch as pedagogical action according to their functions: focus-oriented action, guiding action, assisting action, affectionate action, and playful action. Touch is used in different forms and is shaped by contextual conditions such as pedagogical situations, unexpected events, male preschool teachers’ and children’s initiative, children’s communication needs, and children’s age. These findings suggest that touch can support children’s meaning-making, participation, and caring relations with their teachers during several situations. Touch, understood as a pedagogical action, also contributes to strengthening male preschool teachers’ professional practice.

Chronic pain conditions can debut at any point in a person’s lifespan, although prevalence estimates peak in late adulthood. However, many adults report living with chronic pain for several decades, with some tracing this back to the early years of life. Given its impact, early life exposure to pain may be a risk factor for further health comorbid-ities and socioeconomic disadvantages. The studies in this dissertation examined differences in psychosocial outcomes between persons with early and later chronic pain onset. They also explored school absen-teeism due to pain in adolescents with recurrent pain as a pathway to accumulating risk over time. Data were gathered from a registry data-base and longitudinal surveys.

Study I (a retrospective design) found that those with an early life pain onset had a higher burden in terms of overall pain characteris-tics and psychosocial outcomes. Studies II and III (prospective longi-tudinal designs) showed that having at least one absenteeism due to pain was quite common (64%) among adolescents with recurrent pain, while about a quarter reported a more frequent rate. The risk factors for school absenteeism due to pain were sociodemographic factors, pain characteristics, stressors in the school context, and a his-tory of absenteeism due to pain at baseline (Study II). Further, about 1 in 5 adolescents with recurrent pain had persistently high absentee-ism due to pain throughout their high school education, and these in-dividuals perceived a poorer future work ability and overall future ex-pectancy compared to those with low to no absenteeism trajectory over time (Study III). These findings indicate that individuals with early life onset pain have a higher psychosocial burden of pain, with risk accumulation already noted in the early years of life.

In this paper, we extend the standard Gaussian stochastic-volatility Bayesian VAR by employing the generalized hyperbolic skew Student’s t distribution for the innovations. Allowing the skewness parameter to vary over time, our specification permits flexible modelling of innovations in terms of both fat tails and – potentially dynamic – asymmetry. In an empirical application using US data on industrial production, consumer prices and economic policy uncertainty, we find support – although to a moderate extent – for time-varying skewness. In addition, we find that shocks to economic policy uncertainty have a negative effect on both industrial production growth and CPI inflation.

Opioid analgesics are highly effective in acute pain, but chronic opioid use can result in serious adverse consequences. Concerns about emerging opioid use after bariatric surgery have been raised. The aim of this thesis was to find out if opioid use is increasing after bariatric surgery in Sweden. Study I included patients operated with primary gastric bypass surgery. Chronic opioid use increased from 4.6% beforeto 5.5% after surgery and daily dose from 1.9 mg to 2.5 mg. No differencein opioid use between women and men was found. In study II we increased the follow-up period to 8 years and compared biannual prevalence of opioid use and daily dose in patients going through any bariatric surgery procedure with an obese control group going through a commercial intensive lifestyle treatment. In the surgical group, opioid use prevalence and dose increased more rapidly than in the intensive lifestyle group. Surgery patients were also found to have an increased risk of dying from opioid-related causes.

In study III we investigated if socioeconomic factors are associated with new chronic opioid use after gastric bypass surgery. We found that the risk of new chronic opioid use increase if you; are second generation immigrant, receive financial aid, are unemployed or divorced/widowed. Having a higher level of education and a higher disposable income reduced the risk of chronic opioid use in the study. In study IV we examined if having an opioid prescription dispensed at discharge was associated with chronic opioid use after gastric bypassor sleeve gastrectomy. We found that 32.3% of the patients had an opioid prescription dispensed at discharge, and that this was associated with an almost doubled risk of chronic opioid use three years after surgery.

Bariatric surgery, these days commonly implemented with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) or sleeve gastrectomy (SG), is an effective way for patients with obesityto lose weight. In patients with obesity and concomitant type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D), it has been observed that a significant proportion achieve remission of their diabetes after bariatric surgery. Bariatric surgery usually causes food to reach the intestine more quickly, which can cause unpleasant symptoms (dumping) and in some cases causes post-bariatric hypoglycemia (PBH).

Study I aimed to analyze how the duration of diabetes before surgery affects the chance of diabetes remission. There was a clear association, in which short diabetes duration and less severe diabetes before surgery entailed an improved chance of remission.

The primary goal of Study II was to study the factors that can predict late relapse of diabetes in patients who initially achieve diabetes remission after obesity surgery. It was concluded that longer diabetes duration, higher preoperative HbA1c value, less postoperative weight loss, female sex, and insulin treatment before surgery increase the risk of relapse of diabetes after initial remission.

In Study III, the English-language Dumping Severity Scale (DSS) questionnaire was translated into Swedish (DSS-Swe). The DSS-Swe questionnaire was then reliability tested for Swedish conditions. The questionnaire rates eight symptoms associated with dumping and six symptoms associated with hypoglycemia. The DSS-Swe was considered to have good reliability regarding both internal consistency and test-retest performance for use in Swedish populations.

The aim of Study IV was to study the prevalence of dumping and PBH symptoms at different time points before and after bariatric surgery using the DSS-Swe questionnaire. The conclusion was that symptoms of dumping and PBH were common after RYGB, while no significant increase was observed after SG.

In the domain of cognitive robotics, many tasks that involve the interaction of robots and humans rely on the successful grounding of linguistic expressions in the physical environment, referred to as language grounding. The important factors that affect language grounding are the physical environment and the user, and a robot stores the perceived information about those in its context model. How a language-grounding robot creates and uses its model of context can be divided into two categories: symbolic and subsymbolic. In either case, anguage-grounding robots have to make assumptions about the environment or users that in real-world scenarios are not always guaranteed. The main question left to be answered is how to develop a language grounding method enabling robots to perform language grounding in real-world scenarios, where such assumptions are not guaranteed. We tackle this challenge by revisiting how a robot’s model of context should be defined and used in order to take advantage of both symbolic and subsymbolic systems together.

The context model contains all necessary information that is acquired at runtime for performing language grounding. A robot can store different features of the environment and user in its context model. In this thesis, we focus on information related to objects in the robot’s surroundings and a user who may verbally communicate with the robot about the objects, to give information about them, or to refer to them. Symbolic and subsymbolic techniques, when used separately, inherently limit language-grounding robots in their ability to process and ground information. When symbolic techniques are deployed in language grounding, common assumptions have to be made regarding the user, such as the user can refer to a limited and fixed set of objects, using a fixed set of grammar and vocabulary. When subsymbolic techniques are used, common assumptions have to be made regarding the environment, like that the environment is fixed, or that nothing hinders the robot’s full observability over objects.

To ensure the robot’s language grounding performance in real-world scenarios where the user and environment have variabilities, we propose an approach that integrates symbolic and subsymbolic techniques by revisiting the theory and practice of context. The initial step in our approach is defining the context, which serves as the cornerstone for integrating the robot’s grounding, perceptual, and interactive skills, tailored for real-world scenarios. Based on the defined model of context, we develop methods that enable the robot to perceive and store information from the environment and user in the context model, alongside a grounding methodology within the acquired information. The robot’s visual and verbal perception modules utilize neural techniques that guarantee the robot’s robustness in responding to the user’s variabilities in real-world scenarios. To guarantee the robot’s language grounding performance amidst the challenges posed by real-world variabilities of the environments, we focus on the robot’s skills in handling the challenges. Specifically, when a robot’s perception is hindered or an object new to the robot is introduced, we develop techniques based on planning and reasoning to enable the robot to perceive its required information.

The outcome of this dissertation advances cognitive robots that have to execute real-world tasks using language grounding. Our proposed methods relax the assumptions inherent in the current systems, enabling robots to perform language grounding in challenging real-world scenarios. We demonstrate how symbolic and subsymbolic techniques can be integrated using a model of context, showcasing how this integration enables robots to perform language grounding in real-world scenarios, even in complex environments. We evaluate and validate our methods experimentally in real-world scenarios, underscoring the effectiveness and practical applicability of our approaches.

In recent decades, the role of communication and PR within higher education institutions (HEIs) has grown in significance, marked by the expansion of communication departments, diversified work assignments for communication professionals, and an increasing focus on reputation and visibility. This study examines 203 job advertisements targeting communication professionals in Swedish HEIs from 1999 to 2022. Our analysis identifies a substantial shift in the expectations and roles of communication professionals. It reveals a pronounced trend of increasing expectations, necessitating candidates to possess a broader and deeper skill set to manage a wider spectrum of responsibilities in HEIs. Furthermore, while our findings signal a noteworthy transformation in the communication profession, it also shows the evolvement from a supportive function to a strategically integral role in aiding and forming institutional management and leadership. Moreover, this study highlights communication departments as particularly flexible sites for receiving and incorporating external trends and ideas in university organizations.

Failure in change detection in the surrounding environment while driving is attributed among other things to the number of incidents and the density of them occurring along the task as this is directly related to an increase in cognitive load. Here, we investigate the role of time proximity between events on the detection performance during a naturalistic driving task in a virtual simulation. Participants performed a change detection task while driving, in which we systematically manipulated the time difference between changes and we analysed the effect on detection performance by the driver. Our research demonstrates that events occurring simultaneously deteriorate detection performance (in terms of detection rate, and detection time), while performance improves as the temporal gap increases. Moreover, the outcomes suggest that the duration of an event affects the detection of the following one, with better performance recorded for very short or very long duration events and worse for medium duration events between (5-10 sec). These outcomes are crucial for driving assistance and training, considering the detection of safety-critical events or efficient attentional disengagement on time from irrelevant targets.

Densification through infill developments is a common planning strategy where both advantages and problems have been brought forward. However, the knowledge on how such developments affect residents and their relations to local outdoor environments is limited. Also, modernist areas have been highlighted as planning heritage with specific values. We studied the case of a multi-family housing area in Uppsala, Sweden, originally planned in the 1960s as part of the Swedish modernist welfare era and later affected by densification through infill development. The mixed-methods approach included document analysis and observations followed by an online survey focused on the use of, perceived qualities of and satisfaction with outdoor environments among residents. The results revealed the heritage of careful planning during the 1960s concerning green space availability and solutions limiting car traffic, with recent densification affecting different sub-areas to various degrees. Respondents living in non-densified sub-areas reported higher levels of satisfaction, more qualities and a more varied use of the outdoor environment compared to in densified sub-areas. However, the management level was considered too low in mainly one of the non-densified sub-areas. Many respondents brought up the loss of qualities in their local outdoor environment through the infill development, both during the construction work and in the result, with less green spaces and increased car traffic. This study revealed large negative effects for residents of densification that focuses on density without securing sufficient qualities in the outdoor environment but also of neglected open space management.

Purpose: This study investigates how communication is used by a Swedish public authority to legitimate the responsibilization of preparedness, i.e. how the state encourages individual citizens to take more responsibility for their security.

Design/methodology/approach: A multimodal discursive approach drawing on multimodal narrative analysis of video clips and multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) is used to examine how the responsibilization of preparedness is legitimated in video material published on Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency's (MSB's) YouTube channel.

Findings: The study finds that the responsibilization of preparedness is legitimated through an ongoing but evolving normalization of threat. The findings also show how responsibilization is legitimated in moralizing terms of individual contribution to society, which may indicate a return from neo-liberal values to more traditional Swedish collectivist values.

Originality/value: The study shows how communication around preparedness and responsibilization is discursively constructed and legitimated through multimodal features, while previous research has mainly focused on verbal or written communication.

Gender-based has recently gained increased attention in the European policy landscape. Since 2019, multiple calls and recommendations addressing gender-based violence have been produced (the Helsinki Call for Action 2019, SWG GRI 2020). In a significant move in 2021, the European Commission (EC) introduced Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) as an eligibility criterion for Horizon Europe (2021–2027), with measures against gender-based violence, including sexual harassment, as one recommended thematic area. Simultaneously, the 2021 European Parliament (EP) resolution (2019/2164(INI), drew attention to sexual harassment among women students in science, technology, engineering, and medicine fields, urging EU Member States and educational institutions to enact zero-tolerance policies, establish codes of conduct, create safe reporting channels, and report cases to relevant authorities. Acknowledging the need for coordinated efforts, in 2021, the Ljubljana Declaration on gender equality in research and innovation, endorsed by 37 parties, including the EU27, the EC, Associated Countries, Accession Countries and third countries, emphasised the lack of cohesive infrastructure and procedures addressing gender-based violence in academia.

In the ever-changing landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), discussions frequently revolve around innovation, efficiency, and forward progress. Where concerns about AI are expressed, they tend to focus on the futuristic existential threat of machines taking control of humans. However, amidst the whirlwind of advancements in AI and deepfake technology, there is a crucial part of the story that is often neglected: the overwhelming influence and power of men and masculinities in these spaces, and how this affects the safety of women and girls in the digital world. The dominance of men and masculinities within these organizational structures and ways of organizing is not a new topic, but its relevance remains indisputable and becomes more pressing every day.