Uppsala University

An increase in migrant inflows across various countries has caused rising levels of anti-immigrant sentiment. Anchored in intergroup contact theory, this study examines whether a classroom-based simulation can improve students’ attitudes toward immigrants. A digital simulation of a migratory journey from the Middle East and North Africa was implemented in five Swedish secondary and upper-secondary schools ( N = 148, ages 14–19). Using a repeated-measures design, we assessed changes in attitudes toward immigrants, encompassing political and social tolerance. Data were analysed using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and hierarchical regression, including moderation analysis. The findings demonstrate that overall tolerance levels improved significantly after the intervention, suggesting that exposure to a simulated migratory experience can foster tolerance. When analysed as separate outcomes, the effect of simulated migration on social tolerance was significantly greater post-intervention, but political tolerance remained statistically insignificant. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that attitude changes were associated with variations in students’ exposure to the simulation, baseline attitudes, perceived learning, and parental political interest. Additional statistical tests showed that susceptibility to attitude change due to simulated migration may depend on prior knowledge of the reasons for migration. Contributing to a scarce body of research, the study provides insights into the effects and critical considerations when using simulated migratory experiences in educational practice to stimulate positive attitude change. These findings extend the contemporary understanding of the mechanisms at play in the relationship between migration background and attitudes towards immigrants, opening a new line of inquiry into leveraging simulations to improve tolerance. • There are growing concerns about anti-immigrant sentiments in many countries • Understanding migratory experiences increases tolerance towards immigrants • Teachers can foster connections to migratory experiences through simulations • Students’ tolerance for immigrants improved after engaging in simulated migration

There is limited data regarding the rare and aggressive colorectal neuroendocrine carcinoma (CR-NEC). In this large prospective study, molecular-clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes following palliative chemotherapy are reported for 163 metastatic CR-NEC patients, with a comparison to a population-based prospective cohort of 263 metastatic colorectal adenocarcinoma (CR-AC) patients. Eighty-three percent of CR-NEC received first-line platinum-etoposide, while 98% of CR-AC patients received first-line fluorouracil-based chemotherapy. Disease control rate across all first-line regimens in CR-NEC and CR-AC was 43% vs. 74%, immediate progressive disease 46% vs. 15%, progression-free survival 2.4 months (m) (95% CI 2.1-3.3) vs. 7.7 m (95% CI 6.9-8.5), and overall survival 6.7 m (95% CI 5.6-8.8) vs. 16.8 m (95% CI 13.7-20.3), all, p < .001. CR-NEC more often had synchronous metastases, worse performance status, and symptom burden at treatment initiation than CR-AC (all, p < .001). Two-year survival was 9% vs. 37% in CR-NEC and CR-AC (p < .001). BRAF mutations were frequent in CR-NEC and CR-AC (26% vs. 20%, p = .153) and associated with shorter OS in CR-NEC and CR-AC (p = .025 and p = .003). KRAS mutations were less frequent in CR-NEC than CR-AC (34% vs. 45%, p = .041), but only associated with shorter OS in rectal NEC (p = .04). The frequencies of APC and TP53 mutations were similar between the cohorts and did not impact survival. Metastatic CR-NEC and CR-AC are clinically distinct, with NEC demonstrating more aggressive features, limited treatment effect, and worse prognosis. Although they share important driver mutations, the underlying reason for their marked clinical differences remains unclear.

Conscription is making a comeback, and selective conscription has been argued to be better adapted to future military needs, and thus attractive as a model for countries contemplating reintroduction. This paper estimates the effects of selective conscription on subsequent labour market outcomes and education up to age 34, exploiting a sudden downsizing of the Swedish military in 2004. The results show an increase in unemployment in the short run. Earnings decline substantially at first, recover by age 22, but become negative and statistically significant again after age 30. Educational enrolment is delayed, although educational attainment is unaffected by age 34. The adverse labour market effects and delayed education are driven by individuals with high cognitive ability. In contrast, low-ability conscripts increase their educational attainment, and there is no evidence of negative labour market effects for this group.

Pea proteins can act not only as interfacial stabilizers of oil-in-water emulsions but also as gelling agents in the continuous phase. Protein gelation, rather than droplet jamming, may be the main mechanism of emulsion stability, providing a physical explanation for the creaminess of high-protein plant-based emulsions. Spin-echo small angle neutron scattering (SESANS) with D2O/H2O contrast variation was used to study 15% pea protein dispersions and emulsions with 40-60% rapeseed oil, 7.5% protein at pH3 to 6.5. SESANS investigates length scales up to tens of micrometres, enabling simultaneous analysis of protein networks and oil droplets without dilution. Complementary small angle X-ray/neutron scattering were used to validate protein aggregate size, and hydration. Protein dispersions at neutral pH formed mass fractal networks with small individual building blocks (radius∼38Å, hydration ∼70%). Emulsions consisted of oil droplets embedded in these networks, with droplet radii decreasing at higher oil fractions due to an effective higher protein concentration in the continuous phase, creating a denser network. Dispersions and emulsions at lower pH contained aggregated clusters of denatured proteins. These coarse and inhomogeneous networks gave increasing droplet radii at lower pH. Contrast variation enabled the separation of protein and oil droplet scattering, demonstrating that protein gelation rather than droplet jamming is the main mechanism of stability. This gives a physical explanation of the high viscosity of high-protein plant-based emulsions and is promising for these plant materials to be used as gelling agents in food applications.

The bowel-bladder interaction is well established, as is the fact that constipation can lead to daytime incontinence and/or recurrent urinary tract infections. However, the link between constipation and enuresis is less clear. The bowel's influence on enuresis is possibly important even though fecal disimpaction by itself will not make the child dry at night. Furthermore, parents and patients may be unaware of the child's constipation until the enuresis is evaluated. The same should apply to healthy children. The hypothesis that a full bowel affects bladder function appears to be logical; however, this may not be applicable in enuresis. A crucial question is if constipation is more common among children with enuresis than in the general population. To evaluate the prevalence of constipation in children with enuresis as compared to children without bladder problems. In this case-control study the former group was recruited from a pediatric clinic and the latter from the general population in the same geographic area. All children had their horizontal rectal diameter measured via abdominal ultrasound. Their bowel movements over two weeks and bladder function over two days were recorded at home. We recruited 66 children with enuresis and 58 healthy controls. The ages ranged from 6 to 11 (mean 7.3 ± 1.3) years and 50 (40 %) of them were girls. The groups had no difference in rectal diameter (28.9 ± 7.7 vs 28.2 ± 10.1 mm, P = 0.672) and they had a similar prevalence of constipation according to the Rome IV criteria. The children with enuresis had fewer bowel movements per two weeks (11.2 ± 4.1 vs 14.8 ± 6.9, P < 0.001) than controls, but they had no more constipation symptoms. However, bladder diaries showed that children with enuresis had smaller voided volumes (87.1 ± 31.8 vs 127.5 ± 44.5 % of expected bladder capacity; P < 0.001) than controls. We did not find support for constipation being more prevalent among children with enuresis than controls. But we did find decreased functional bladder capacity in patients with enuresis which may be an indirect sign of detrusor overactivity.

We used domestication as an in vivo replicated experiment to investigate how divergent selection has shaped the evolution of multivariate phenotypic spaces. We measured 11-57 qualitative and quantitative traits in 13 species, either unique or shared between species, and established a framework for cross-species comparisons. Our results revealed significant convergence that translated into a cross-species domestication syndrome. Most species exhibited a reduction of the multivariate phenotypic space during domestication. We brought evidence that Near-Infrared spectra measured on leaves reflect phenotypic evolution unrelated to domestication, enabling its use as a control for sampling effects across species. Building on this, we developed a multivariate phenotypic divergence index (mPDI) to rank species by the extent of phenotypic divergence under domestication. We found a high disjunction of wild and domestic phenotypic spaces in all species. Neither the mPDI nor the relative size of wild vs domestic multivariate phenotypic spaces was influenced by the domestication timing or mating system. Lastly, we observed a progressive decoupling of trait correlations with increasing time since domestication. In addition to introducing a new index that can be applied for cross-species comparisons, our study uncovers recurring patterns shared among species, pointing to general principles underlying plant domestication.

Diagnostic delay is common in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (PIBD), and fecal calprotectin (FCP) is often limited by challenges with sample collection. Therefore, we aimed to identify and validate a blood-based diagnostic protein signature of PIBD. Proteins were analyzed using proximity extension assay in plasma samples from treatment-naïve pediatric patients in a Swedish inception cohort referred for suspected inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and validated in an independent Norwegian population-based pediatric inception cohort. Diagnostic performance was estimated by the area under the curve (AUC) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The discovery cohort included 58 patients with PIBD and 36 symptomatic controls without evidence of IBD, while the validation cohort consisted of 79 patients with PIBD and 37 symptomatic controls. In total, 154 proteins were examined. Univariable analyses identified 26 differentially regulated proteins for PIBD versus symptomatic controls in the discovery cohort (q < 0.05), whereas 29 proteins were differentially regulated in the validation cohort. Using regularized logistic regression, we identified a diagnostic model of 31 proteins that differentiated PIBD from symptomatic controls in the discovery cohort (AUC = 0.83; 95% CI: 0.74-0.90). The protein signature was further reduced to a clinically relevant biomarker consisting of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and seven other proteins with diagnostic capacity (AUC = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.78-0.92) outperforming hsCRP in the validation cohort (p = 0.006). We identified and validated a blood-based protein signature for PIBD with superior diagnostic performance compared to hsCRP. Given the challenges of fecal sample collection, further assay development may enable integration of these biomarkers into diagnostic pathways for PIBD. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02727959.

This paper addresses the security allocation problem in a networked control system under stealthy injection attacks. The networked system is comprised of interconnected subsystems which are represented by nodes in a digraph. An adversary compromises the system by injecting false data into several nodes with the aim of maximally disrupting the performance of the network while remaining stealthy to a defender. To minimize the impact of such stealthy attacks, the defender, with limited knowledge about attack policies and attack resources, allocates several sensors on nodes to impose the stealthiness constraint governing the attack policy. We provide an optimal security allocation algorithm to minimize the expected attack impact on the entire network. Furthermore, under a suitable local control design, the proposed security allocation algorithm can be executed in a scalable way. Finally, the obtained results are numerically validated through using Erdős-Rényi random graphs for generality.