Ph.d.-afhandling, Universitetet i Agder, Kristiansand, 2008. / Med litteraturhenvisninger.

Disputats, Stockholms universitet, 2007.

Jeg har tatt for meg rumensk folklore og folkesjel i oppgaven min og inviterer til en etnologisk lesning av Balladen om mester Manole. Inspirert av blant annet Mircea Eliades utlegning av balladen,  vil jeg forfølge motivene som balladen er bygd opp rundt. Disse motivene knytter an til gamle mytisk-rituelle former og et system av byggeritualer. Et sentralt premiss for meg er å betrakte Balladen om mester Manole som et uttrykk for en etnografisk realitet. Ved å situere balladen i en kontekst av mytiske trosforestillinger søker jeg å forstå verket i dets fulle dybde og kompleksitet. Med utgangspunkt i Balladen om mester Manole vil jeg videre undersøke hvordan den folkelige mentaliteten fungerer når den konfronteres med dødens uutgrunnelige mysterium og symbolikken i begravelsesritualene som bunner i ønsket av å gi mening til livet etter døden.

Under vårterminen 2010 startar en liten mindre skola i södra Sverige ett projekt  med att introducera en ny metod för att öka  elevernas färdigheter inom läs -och skrivinlärning. Programmet skolan ska börja arbeta med fr om höstterminen 2010 är TIL-programmet, Tidig Intensiv Lästräning ( Dahlin, 2006). Tanken med specifikt detta program, är att kunna erbjuda alla elever en möjlighet för en bra språkutveckling. Programmet vänder sig i första hand till elever i årskurs 1 och 2 som inte kommit igång med sin läsning. Alla elever får under tolv veckor arbeta intensivt med lästräning. Eftersom jag under mina vfu-perioder har sett att läs- och skrivsvårigheter är ett dilemma för vissa elever, valde jag att undersöka varför pedagogerna på den här skolan valde TIL som arbetsmetod / sätt. Arbetet börjar med en kort redogörelse över hur skolan i dag arbetar med läs-och skrivinlärnig. Sedan följer en teoretisk anknytning utifrån det Sociokulturella perspektivet. Efter det har jag valt att presentera tidigare forskning om läs- och skrivinlärning utifrån litteraturstudier. Jag har även valt att presentera några väl kända lästraditioner och läsinlärningsmetoder. Därefter kommer metoddel och intervjuresultat. Underlag för intervjuer finns med som bilaga längst bak. Syftet med arbetet har varit att förstå  vilka förväntningar och kunskaper pedagogerna på den undersökta skolan har inför introduktionen av TIL-programmet för läs och skrivinlärning, för de elever som behöver, samt vad det är som gör att de anser TIL- programmet bättre än något annat.

Thesis (M.A.)--Calvary Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Mo., 1998. / [Abstract]. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-87).

Disputats, Umeå universitet, 2007. / Findes også på internet (PDF-format): http://www.diva-portal.org/diva/getDocument?urn_nbn_se_umu_diva-1113-2__fulltext.pdf. Med litteraturhenvisninger.

Thesis (M.A.)--Covenant Theological Seminary, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-132).

This dissertation examines the preaching ministry of George Whitefield as a precursor to presuppositional apologetics in relation to the cultural shift of the Enlightenment. The presupposition of the authority of the Word of God is the concept that bridges Whitefield’s preaching and presuppositional apologetics. Chapter 1 presents the research questions narrowing the topic. This section also presents background information as well as methodology of this work. Chapter 2 describes the biographical information of Whitefield. The cultural influences marked his life from an early age, but it was the influence of John and Charles Wesley that guided his faith. Chapter 3 outlines the thought of the Enlightenment period. Specifically, rationalism as a means to discerning and living by truth. Philosophical influences such as Locke, Newton, Hume, Descartes, and Kant are overviewed. The First Great Awakening was the result of many cultural and theological ideas boiling over simultaneously. People were craving truth, direction, and a sense of authority. The Awakening highlighted the movement of the Holy Spirit theologically and a resurgence of biblical truth culturally. The work of John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards is also detailed in regards to their efforts to combat rationalism as sole priority in worldview thinking. Chapter 4 highlights the apologetic within the polemic of Whitefield. His Calvinistic theology is identified and connected to the Articles of faith for the Church of England. This leads to the idea of presuppositional apologetics found within his preaching. Cornelius Van Til, the father of presuppositional apologetics, is also overviewed to show the distinct connection between Whitefield’s thoughts in holding a high view of Scripture and what becomes presuppositional apologetics. Chapter 5 examines the sermons of Whitefield for specific content related to evangelical pushback against Enlightenment thought. Key propositions of the Enlightenment regarding authority, morality, and ultimate truth are answered within the preaching of Whitefield. Each are examined thoroughly. Chapter 6 presents a conclusion regarding the apologetic of Whitefield in his preaching towards the Enlightenment. It reveals connections between the presupposition of the authority of the revelation of God and his polemic. Other connections between the reformer John Calvin and the father of presuppositional apologetics, Cornelius Van Til, are also noted.

Background: The presence of B cells in early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is associated with longer survival, however, the role these cells play in the generation and maintenance of anti-tumor immunity is unclear. B cells differentiate into a variety of subsets with differing characteristics and functions. To date, there is limited information on the specific B cell subsets found within NSCLC. To better understand the composition of the B cell populations found in NSCLC we have begun characterizing B cells in lung tumors and have detected a population of B cells that are CD79A(+)CD27(-)IgD(-). These CD27(-)IgD(-)(double-negative) B cells have previously been characterized as unconventional memory B cells and have been detected in some autoimmune diseases and in the elderly population but have not been detected previously in tumor tissue. Methods: A total of 15 fresh untreated NSCLC tumors and 15 matched adjacent lung control tissues were dissociated and analyzed by intracellular flow cytometry to detect the B cell-related markers CD79A, CD27 and IgD. All CD79A(+) B cells subsets were classified as either naive (CD27(-)IgD(+)), affinity-matured (CD27(+)IgD(-)), early memory/germinal center cells (CD27(+)IgD(+)) or double-negative B cells (CD27(-)IgD(-)). Association of double-negative B cells with clinical data including gender, age, smoking status, tumor diagnosis and pathologic differentiation status were also examined using the logistic regression analysis for age and student's t-test for all other variables. Associations with other B cell subpopulations were examined using Spearman's rank correlation. Results: We observed that double-negative B cells were frequently abundant in lung tumors compared to normal adjacent controls (13 out of 15 cases), and in some cases made up a substantial proportion of the total B cell compartment. The presence of double-negative cells was also found to be inversely related to the presence of affinity-matured B cells within the tumor, Spearman's coefficient of -0.76. Conclusions: This study is the first to observe the presence of CD27(-)IgD(-)double-negative B cells in human NSCLC and that this population is inversely correlated with traditional affinity-matured B cell populations.

Endemic Burkitt lymphoma (eBL) is the leading pediatric cancer in sub-Saharan Africa and is associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and Plasmodium falciparum malaria co-infections. Current treatment options in Africa are combination chemotherapy with a survival rate hovering around 50%. Relapsed or refractory eBL patients have failed to receive any targeted treatments in the clinic. Our focus was to delineate immune responses in eBL, interrogate the tumor variation in responses to targeted treatments and develop mouse models that can be used to target essential mediators of tumor pathogenesis. Immune-based treatments including immune checkpoint inhibition have recently become an effective therapeutic modality in oncology. However, some B cell lymphomas such as Hodgkin Lymphoma (HL), are more receptive to checkpoint inhibition than others suggesting a need to understand the efficacy of checkpoint inhibition on different lymphoma subtypes. Checkpoint inhibitors act by blocking inhibitory receptors on T cells and improving anti-tumor responses. One of the goals of this thesis was to characterize checkpoint inhibitors on Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in eBL tumors and to identify T cell subsets that exhibit increased expression of inhibitory receptors, poor cytokine production, poor proliferation and express transcription factors associated with exhaustion. Using scRNA seq, we identified T cell clusters that co-expressed inhibitory receptors, poor proliferative markers but also sustained costimulatory signals, as well as cytokine expression suggesting a pre dysfunctional state and not terminally exhausted state. Furthermore, we quantified the dominant co-inhibitory receptors PD1 and TIGIT that are upregulated in the tumor microenvironment via immunohistochemistry (IHC) and in peripheral blood of eBL patients via flow cytometry. We compared eBL patients with healthy pediatric cohorts with a history of persistent malaria exposure to those who had little to no malaria infections, to understand uniquely T cell mediated responses in BL children. Tumors had high co-expression of PD1 and TIGIT but fewer PD1 only populations, suggesting that both ligands may play a role in restraining immune activation via IHC. Next, we investigated if PD1 ligands or TIGIT ligands were overexpressed in eBL tumors. Nectin-2, TIGIT ligand was highly expressed in eBL tumors but was not highly correlated with TIGIT expression. These studies provide insights for PD1/ TIGIT blockade in Burkitt lymphoma patients. Additionally, we established new patient-derived cell lines from eBL tumors to study tumor variation and to study targeted treatments. We established five new patient-derived eBL lines BL717, BL 719, BL720, BL725, and BL740 that were interrogated for their inter-patient variation by studying their gene expression profiles. Further, we developed a patient cell-line derived xenograft (CDX) mouse model by injecting newly patient-derived BL cell lines in immunodeficient mice (NSG BL) and studying BL tumorigenesis. Having successfully established NSG BL tumors, we observed differences in tumor growth sensitivity and survival. We tested rituximab efficacy, one of the most established treatments for B cell lymphomas in our mouse model. We also identified pathways associated with unfolded protein response (UPR) and the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling, as well as apoptosis in one of the cell line xenografts, BL740, in response to rituximab. BL717, BL720 cell line xenograft failed to control tumor growth and was enriched in IFN-ɑ signature genes. This mouse model will prove to be useful to study combination therapy against eBL tumors as well as mechanisms of resistance to drug targets. Collectively, these studies provide insights into intratumoral variation including subtypes during tumor progression and expression profiles of TILs in eBL tumors. This will be important in designing new therapeutic strategies as well as help pose novel therapeutic targets.