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Background Abnormal renal hemodynamic responses to salt-loading are thought to contribute to salt-sensitive (SS) hypertension. However, this is based largely on studies in anesthetized animals, and little data are available in conscious SS and salt-resistant rats. Methods and Results We assessed arterial blood pressure, renal function, and renal blood flow during administration of a 0.4% NaCl and a high-salt (4.0% NaCl) diet in conscious, chronically instrumented 10- to 14-week-old Dahl SS and consomic SS rats in which chromosome 1 from the salt-resistant Brown-Norway strain was introgressed into the genome of the SS strain (SS.BN1). Three weeks of high salt intake significantly increased blood pressure (20%) and exacerbated renal injury in SS rats. In contrast, the increase in blood pressure (5%) was similarly attenuated in Brown-Norway and SS.BN1 rats, and both strains were completely protected against renal injury. In SS.BN1 rats, 1 week of high salt intake was associated with a significant decrease in renal vascular resistance (-8%) and increase in renal blood flow (15%). In contrast, renal vascular resistance failed to decrease, and renal blood flow remained unchanged in SS rats during high salt intake. Finally, urinary sodium excretion and glomerular filtration rate were similar between SS and SS.BN1 rats during 0.4% NaCl and high salt intake. Conclusions Our data support the concept that renal vasodysfunction contributes to blood pressure salt sensitivity in Dahl SS rats, and that genes on rat chromosome 1 play a major role in modulating renal hemodynamic responses to salt loading and salt-induced hypertension.

Denna uppsats skrevs med syftet att undersöka hur ungdomspartier förmedlar den egna rollen som har sitt syfte att bidra till demokratin i Sverige. Detta gjordes genom att använda Robert. A Dahls teori kring den demokratiska processen som analysverktyg. Analysen gjordes utifrån ungdomspartiernas hemsidor, sociala medier och stadgar samt andra tillgängliga dokument. Arbetet avgränsade sig till tre olika ungdomspartier vilka var Ung vänster, Liberala ungdomsförbundet och Ungsvenskarna. Resultatet blev att alla dessa kommunicerar tre helt olika roller. Ung vänster förmedlar en roll som kopplades till ”kontroll över agendan” vilket innebär att de primärt fokuserar på sakfrågor och att föra fram sina åsikter. Liberala ungdomsförbundet har istället valt att fokusera på att sprida kunskapen kring sin ideologiska grund som kopplas till kriteriet ”upplyst förståelse”. Ungsvenskarna förmedlar en roll som bidrar till ”effektivt deltagande”, vilket betyder att de rekryterar och utbildar framtida politiker till sitt moderparti. Alla tre har dock fler funktioner och kan kopplas till flera kriterier men detta var vilka deras primära fokus riktade på. / This paper was written with the purpose of examine which role youth parties communicate to have for their contribution to the swedish democracy. This was accomplished by using the theory of the democratic process created by Robert. A Dahl. The youth parties webpages, social media and accessible documents was used in the analysis, the sampled parties was “Ung vänster” (the young left wing), “Liberala ungdomsförbundet” (the young liberals) and “Ungsvenskarna” (The swedish youths). The result being that all three are contributing to the democracy by showing different primary roles yet still being able to fill some of the other criteria as well, however to a lesser extent. “Ung vänster” communicates a role which connects to the criteria of “control of the agenda” which means they have taken on the function of influencing the decision makers of society. “Liberala ungdomsförbundet” has instead chosen to put their focus in spreading information about the main thoughts of the liberal ideology, this role connects to the criteria of “enlightened understanding”. “Ungsvenskarna” is primarily focusing on communicating a function of recruiting and educating new party members with the goal to create future politicians for the main party, this role connects to the criteria of “effective participation”.

This dissertation offers a genealogy of political theory as a subfield of American political science. Over five chapters, it traces the subfield’s development from late nineteenth-century America until the 1970s and asks how leading practitioners responded to a series of political conjunctions. The first chapter asks how political theory emerged from the progressive movement and was characterized by a racist, “Teutonist” intellectual framework that lasted until the First World War. The war led to the demise of this initial framework, leaving political theory without an anchor. The second chapter asks how a leading political theorist, Charles Merriam, sought to resuscitate political theory by making it more “scientific,” focusing on analyzing political behavior. This chapter demonstrates how interaction with the city of Chicago forced Merriam’s thought into more egalitarian directions. The third chapter charts political theory in “the age of fear.” It shows how Merriam and his student Harold Lasswell sought to thicken liberalism and conceptualize its totalitarian alternatives. The fourth chapter asks how leading behavioralists—including Gabriel Almond, Robert Dahl, and David Truman, as well as Louis Hartz—deployed political theory to characterize, congratulate, and criticize the tenets of American liberalism in the context of the Cold War. In the project’s final chapter, I ask how political theory went its own way as a subfield. Amidst the tumult of the 1960s, its leading practitioners—including Sheldon Wolin and Leo Strauss—found themselves politically at odds with behavioralism. Their opposition to the practice of political science led them to associate humanism with radical political critique. By offering a history of political theory that puts behavioralism at its center, the dissertation unsettles conventional narratives within political science that characterize political theory as the other of “empirical social science.” Second, by highlighting a tradition of thought that married systematic empiricism and normative intent, the dissertation critically recaptures a realistic mode of political theorizing. Raymond Geuss has called for political theory to engage more with the facts of the political world. My dissertation offers a way forward. It reminds readers that empiricism can be a normative venture and highlights the close affinity between political science and theory. Many political scientists, I argue, were engaged in a project we can term “operational political theory.” They took theoretic concepts—such as democracy—and furnished them with empirical evidence. They asked how political theory worked in practice and then evaluated extant practices according to political theoretic norms.

The purpose of this study is to examine why the media has a more negative attitude towards lobbyism in 2014 compared to earlier years since the 1970s in Sweden. This study examines first if a change of attitude has occurred between the given years and whether the attitude is more positive, negative or neutral towards lobbyism in recent years compared to earlier years and lastly if the media are comparing different contexts in which lobbying takes place. The method of this study is based on quantitative content analysis, and on Kanol’s ideas that by implementing theories from different disciplines one can develop theories on comparative lobbying in order to increase and improve our knowledge on the phenomenon of lobbyism as the contemporary research on the subject are scars and underdeveloped. The material in this study are news articles that have been collected between 1970 to 2000 and every second year from 2000 up until 2014. This study also provides a comprehensive picture of the Swedish context in which lobbying takes place by gathering information from multiple sources and earlier studies as this information has as of yet not been gathered in a single study up until now. The conclusion is that there has been a change of attitude towards lobbyism in Sweden, however, the dominant attitude is not a negative but rather a more skeptical/cynical one which has increased since 1992. The term lobbying is controversial because it’s being mentioned in various topics that could be considered negative by the reader as the decision making whether the news article is negative or positive is subjective. Because the media has increased its negative news reporting overall and that the unconscious mind of the reader is also attracted to negative news reporting, the term lobbying can be considered “negative” overall as it is constantly being mentioned in negative contexts even when the article is not about lobbying. A reasonable explanation why the media has a more negative / skeptical attitude to lobbyism is because of previous scandals related to lobbying either in Sweden or outside the country's border, but also because the media can’t hold the elected officials responsible for their actions as transparency and accountability is absent. Because of the increased reporting in Sweden on lobbying from all over the world, the subject will most likely become more relevant on the Swedish political agenda.