Wegener´s granulomatosis (WG) is an unusual, serious, systemic vasculitis with specific clinical findings. The studies in this thesis aim at broadening our understanding of the aetiology and outcome of WG. Patients with WG were identified in the In-patient Register 1975-2001. During this time the incidence increased three-fold, and neither ANCA-related increased awareness, nor diagnostic drift, seem to fully explain this trend, but it is still unclear if a true rise in incidence exists. Anti- neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) have been presented as highly specific for vasculitis. In a series of consecutive cANCA/PR3-ANCA positive patients, we investigated the positive predictive value for ANCA, and the outcome of patients with a positive cANCA/PR3-ANCA but not vasculitis. These patients have a low future risk of developing vasculitis, possibly indicating that ANCA, in this setting, reflects neutrophil activating properties not specific to vasculitis. By linkage of the WG-cohort, and randomly selected population controls, to the Multi-generation register, we identified all first-degree relatives and spouses of patients and controls, totally encompassing some 2,000 patients and 70,000 relatives. Familial aggregation of WG was the exception, with absolute risks of < 1 per 1000.However, relative risks in first-grade relatives amounted to 1.56 (95% CI 0.35-6.90) such that a moderate familial aggregation cannot be excluded. In the WG-cohort, cancer occurrence and risk was compared to that of the general population. Patients with WG have an overall doubled risk of cancer, with particularly increased risks of bladder-cancer, haematopoietic cancers including lymphomas and squamous skin-cancer. In a case-control study nested within the WG-cohort, treatment with cyclophosphamide was compared among bladder-cancer patients and matched cancer-free controls. Absolute risk of bladder cancer as high as 10% some years after diagnosis were found, and this risk can partly be attributed to cyclophosphamide-treatment, with a dose-response relationship.

Thèse de doctorat : Anglais. Civilisation britannique : Rennes 2 : 2007. / Bibliogr. f. 555-584. Index.

Widely considered the world’s largest migration, the ongoing rural-to-urban migration in China is unprecedented in terms of scale and impact. Millions of Chinese peasants flood to cities in waves to try their fortune. Among them, dagongmei, literally translated as “working sisters,” who are single, young, and undereducated rural women working in cities, are believed to be one of the most marginalized communities. Their segregation and discrimination in the labor market has been well documented. As a major life event, their marriages have also received academic attention, but the marriage of dagongmei in current literature is generally considered a means towards achieving social advancement, often terminating their migratory trajectory. Few studies address the question of how physical mobility and economic independence alter the social relations of dagongmei in their pursuit of dating and potential spouses across the rural-urban divide. The separations of dagongmei from patriarchal families empower them, but their legally classified rural citizenship and their lack of cultural and social capital constrain their aspirations. To closely examine how individual agency interacts with familial control and societal constraints, I conduct in-depth interviews with dagongmei, applying feminist standpoint theory, to hear their experiences concerning the social processes of mate selection. By situating marriage as a dynamic decision-making process, I identify three subgroups of women: independent seekers, resigned negotiators, and tradition reformers. My overall conclusion is that young rural women are empowered by their migration to pursue major life goals such as marriage, but traditional gender ideology still operates to confine their roles as daughters and wives in a transitional society with competing capitalist and socialist characteristics. / text

Notre thèse de maîtrise se consacre à une analyse psychanalytique du roman familial, et en particulier de la relation mère-fille dans trois œuvres du XXIe siècle. Les textes, Autour de ma mère (2007) de Catherine Safonoff, Décidément je t’assassine (2010) de Corinne Hoex et Rien ne s’oppose à la nuit (2011) de Delphine de Vigan proposent tous une narration fragmentée du récit familial dans lequel la communication entre mère et fille, la maternité et le rapport au corps ont une place importante. Nous montrons comment le récit familial, qui trouve ses origines dans la mort ou dans l’avènement de la mort de la mère, est un travail de deuil qui facilite l’acceptation de la relation que la narratrice entretient avec sa mère. En outre, nous nous intéressons au lien entre la complexité de la relation mère-fille et le processus thérapeutique, c’est-à-dire l’écriture du récit familial. Une approche psychanalytique nous permet, dans un premier chapitre, d’aborder et de définir le roman familial. À partir de cette définition, nous abordons à l’écriture en tant que travail de deuil. Nous examinons également l’importance de la forme et du contenu du récit familial et son rapport avec la relation mère-fille. Ce survol théorique nous permet de passer à l’analyse de la relation entre les deux femmes dans les récits familiaux des œuvres du corpus. Le désir de la fille d’être à la fois près et loin de sa mère est incontournable dans le discours familial ; cette complexité se manifeste dans les fragments sur la communication avec la mère, le rapport à la maternité et au corps. Ainsi, la fille, endeuillée par la disparition de la mère, trouve un certain réconfort dans l’écriture du roman familial.

Recognising that NPT2 is the major Na/Pi cotransporter in the kidney, that hereditary hypophosphatemic rickets with hypercalciuria (HHRH) is caused by a renal Pi leak and, that Npt2 knockout mice demonstrate a biochemical phenotype similar to that of patients with HHRH, we sought to determine whether NPT2 was a candidate gene for this disorder. Using single-strand conformation polymorphsim (SSCP) analysis and sequencing in six unrelated pedigrees with the disease, we found no disease-causing mutations. Two polymorphisms were identified in the gene and used as markers to examine segregation of NPT2 with the disease. HHRH did not segregate with the gene markers. In addition, the impact of NPT2 on bone mineral density (BMD) was examined by genotyping a population of 104 individuals for which BMD data was available, and determining whether there was an association between NPT2 genotype and bone density. No significant association was found between NPT2 genotype and BMD.

Two approaches were taken to investigating constraints on kinship in predicting social behaviour in the vervet monkey Cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus in Barbados. in Chapter 1, behavioural interactions between an adult female and an unrelated adopted infant were compared with those between mothers and their natural offspring. The adoptive mother consistently scored higher than mothers with their own offspring in pre-weaning contact-maintaining behaviours, but the difference was not statistically significant. Post-weaning aggression and support interactions between mothers and infants also suggest no difference in parental behaviour and parental costs between adoptive and natural mothers. During post-weaning, the adopted infant was more aggressive to other troop members, and provided more maternal support in aggressive disputes, than another high ranking infant of the same year. / In Chapter 2, effects of kinship on the distribution of aggression and support in feral vervet monkeys were investigated by comparing aggression and support between full sibs and maternal half sibs (within matrilines), and between paternal-half sibs and unrelated juveniles (between matrilines). The strong tendency to behave affiliatively to matrilineal members in Old World monkeys, and maternal control of offspring rank within matrilines, may constrain the ability of offspring to enhance inclusive fitness by behaving differentially to either paternal or maternal sibs based on their degree of relatedness.

Multiple myeloma is a painful and uncurable malignant disease with an increasing incidence and mortality in several countries, e.g., Sweden. Some factors are suspected to be of aetiological significance, such as ionising radiation and chronic antigenic stimulation in certain inflammatory diseases. A familial factor has also been indicated. Furthermore, some studies have demonstrated farming as an occupation entailing an increased risk for the disease. The aim of this investigation was to further elucidate the impact of different aetiological factors in relation to multiple myeloma. The knowledge of aetiology is always a prerequisite for prevention. A case-control study on multiple myeloma was performed in a high-inddence area, the northern part of Sweden. One part of this study dealt with occupations and different exposures. The results supported farming as being an occupation with an increased risk. Within farming two kinds of pesticides, phenoxyacetic adds and DDT, and contact with certain domestic animals, i.e., cattle, horses and goats, were assodated with multiple myeloma. Farming as a risk factor was also confirmed by a register-based linkage study using the Swedish Cancer Environment Register. In this study a time trend was indicated, with increasing standardized inddence ratios over the different time periods studied. Another part of the case-control study showed that rheumatoid arthritis entailed an increased risk for multiple myeloma, a finding earlier suggested from register-based linkage studies, but not from any çase-control study. A third part of the case-control study indicated an increased risk for multiple myeloma if any first-degree relative had a history of haematological malignancy, or other malignant tumour, espedally prostatic cancer, brain tumour, and renal cancer. A case study encompassing 942 patients with haematological malignandes in the county of Jämtland, Sweden, during a 22-year period showed that about 5% of the patients had at least one relative who also suffered from such a disease. An espedally strong familial occurrence was found in the group of chronic lymphoprohferative diseases, including multiple myeloma. / <p>S. 1-69: sammanfattning, s. 71-129: 5 uppsatser</p> / digitalisering@umu

The occurrence of clinically diagnosed and/or ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) in the families of 220 patients with AAAs, treated at the Surgical Clinic, University Hospital of Umeå in the northern part of Sweden during the years 1965-82, was studied. A questionnaire concerning the blood relatives was answered by 87/89 patients. 16/87 patients (18%) had blood relatives with AAAs. In 14 families one blood relative was affected, and in 2 families two blood relatives were affected. First degree relatives were affected in 9/87 cases (10%), and second degree relatives in 7/87 cases (8%). 9/468 (1.9%) of the patients' brothers and sisters but only five of all their cousins had AAAs, and 7/204 (3.4%) of the dead brothers and sisters had died of ruptured AAAs. Concerning the patients who were not included in the letter survey at least 14/133had blood relatives with AAAs. However, the great majority of these patients were dead when the study was performed and could not be asked aboutthe occurrence of AAAs in their families. The patients with AAAs had significantly higher serum concentrations of triglyceride and (YLDL + LDL)-cholesterol and a significantly lower serum concentration of HDL-cholesterol than randomly selected healthy controls of the same sex and age as the patients. We also compared the distributions of genetic markers (HLA antigens, the blood group systems ABO, Rh, MNSs, P, Kell, Lewis and Duffy and the serum protein group systems haptoglobin, transferrin, group-specific component, complement C3, properdin factor and alpha-1-antitrypsin) in patients with AAAs with the distributions in controls and in some cases with the expected distributions according to the Hardy-Weinberg law. A significantly decreased frequency of Rh-negative individuals, and significantly increased frequencies of Kell-positi ve individuals, of MN heterozygotes and of heterozygotes concerning haptoglobin type was found. Furthermore, the aneurysm walls of patients with and without AAAs in the family were compared concerning the morphology, but no differences were found. We also studied the occurrence of collagen types I and III in the aneurysm walls, and the occurrence of vimentin and desmin in the smooth muscle cells of the aneurysm walls, but all these components were present in the aneurysm walls of both the patients with and those without AAAs in the family. To summarize the results, there seems to be an increased frequency of AAAs, and especially of ruptured AAAs, among the brothers and sisters of patients with AAAs. Elevated serum concentrations of triglyceride and (VLDL + LDL)- cholesterol and a lowered serum concentration of HDL-cholesterol seems to be common in patients with AAAs. There seems to be a hereditary predisposition to the development of AAAs, because we found associations with four different genetic markers (Rh, MN, Kell, haptoglobin group). However, there is probably no specific "familial" type of AAAs, because we found no differences between the patients with and those without AAAs in the family.Key words: / <p>S. 1-42: sammanfattning, s. 43-103: 5 uppsatser</p> / digitalisering@umu

No description available.

The aim of the study was to investigate whether social support moderates the relationship between stress and psychological well–being. The inverse relationship between the experience of stress and psychological well–being is supported on the one hand (Chang, 1998; Skok, Harvey, & Reddihough, 2006), while social support’s reducing effect on psychological distress has also been reported (Cohen & McKay, 1984; Sherbourne & Stewart, 1991). It is possible that social support may interact with the influence of stress on well–being in such a way as to moderate the relationship. Social support was conceptualised in terms of Pretorius’ (1998) model, which describes social support as a resource of fortitude, and originates from various sources, namely, positive appraisal of self, support from family, and support from friends and others. Although social support is considered to be a well–researched phenomenon, an empirical study exploring its effect on the influence of stress on well–being in an African context is yet to be conducted. A sample of 459 participants completed the Setswana versions of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ; Goldberg & Hillier, 1979) to measure the experience of stress, the Affectometer 2 (AFM; Kammann & Flett, 1983) to measure the affective component of wellbeing, the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985) to measure the cognitive component of well–being, and the Fortitude Questionnaire (FORQ; Pretorius, 1998) to measure social support. Data were collected in a quantitative, crosssectional survey, with random sample selection. After data exploration by using descriptive statistics and inter–scale correlations, stepwise multiple regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relationships and to explore moderation effect of social support. Results showed inverse relationships between the experience of stress, as operationalised by the GHQ subscales, and psychological well–being, operationalised by positive and negative affect (AFM–PA and AFM–NA) and satisfaction with life (SWL). Receiving social support from various sources, namely positive appraisal of self, support from family, and support from friends and others, was found to moderate relationships between the experience of stress and the affective components of psychological well–being. Social support from family moderated most effectively of the three sources of support. It was found that social support, particularly familial support, had a protective effect on the maintenance of psychological well–being when experiencing psychological distress. It is thus a possible protective factor to be developed and encouraged in psychological interventions with individuals from this population in particular. / Thesis (M.A. (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.