University of Gothenburg

About: University of Gothenburg is a education organization based out in Gothenburg, Sweden. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 23855 authors who have published 65241 publications receiving 2606327 citations. The organization is also known as: Göteborg University & Gothenburg University.

On Time, Space, and Action Nets:

Abstract: Laboratory studies, especially those by Latour and Woolgar (1979/1986) and Knorr Cetina (1981) have proved to be an invaluable source of inspiration for students of organizing. Laboratories, howeve...

Evolutionary Conservation of Human Drug Targets in Organisms used for Environmental Risk Assessments

Abstract: Pharmaceuticals are typically found in very low concentrations in the aquatic environment. Accordingly, environmental effects clearly assigned to residual drugs are consistent with high affinity interactions with conserved targets in affected wildlife species rather than with a general toxic effect. Thus, evolutionarily well-conserved targets in a given species are associated with an increased risk. In this study orthologs for 1318 human drug targets were predicted in 16 species of which several are relevant for ecotoxicity testing. The conservation of different functional categories of targets was also analyzed. Zebrafish had orthologs to 86% of the drug targets while only 61% were conserved in Daphnia and 35% in green alga. The predicted presence and absence of orthologs agrees well with published experimental data on the potential for specific drug target interaction in various species. Based on the conservation of targets we propose that aquatic environmental risk assessments for human drugs should always include comprehensive studies on aquatic vertebrates. Furthermore, individual targets, especially enzymes, are well conserved suggesting that tests on evolutionarily distant organisms would be highly relevant for certain drugs. We propose that the results can guide environmental risk assessments by improving the possibilities to identify species sensitive to certain types of pharmaceuticals or to other contaminants that act through well defined mechanisms of action. Moreover, we suggest that the results can be used to interpret the relevance of existing ecotoxicity data.

Cortisol secretion in relation to body fat distribution in obese premenopausal women.

Abstract: Urinary cortisol output and serum cortisol concentrations were measured in the steady state, under "field" conditions, and during standardized inhibitory and stimulatory tests in premenopausal, obese women, and were analyzed in relation to adipose tissue distribution. Urinary cortisol output was increased under field conditions in women with an elevated waist to hip circumference ratio (WHR) and, in particular, in women with a large abdominal sagittal diameter, indicating visceral fat accumulation. However, dexamethasone inhibition of cortisol secretion was normal. Stimulation with corticotropin analogue and with physical (cold-pressor test) or mental (color-word or mathematic) stress tests also showed elevated responses of serum cortisol, but not of prolactin or growth hormone concentrations. It is suggested that women with visceral fat accumulation have elevated cortisol secretion due to an increased sensitivity along the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and that this may be causing their abnormal fat depot distribution.

Impacts of invasive alien marine species on ecosystem services and biodiversity: a pan-European review.

Abstract: Stelios Katsanevakis*, Inger Wallentinus, Argyro Zenetos, Erkki Leppakoski, Melih Ertan Cinar, Bayram Ozturk, Michal Grabowski, Daniel Golani and Ana Cristina Cardoso European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES), Ispra, Italy Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Ag. Kosmas, Greece Department of Biosciences, Environmental and Marine Biology, Abo Akademi University, Turku, Finland Ege University, Faculty of Fisheries, Department of Hydrobiology, Bornova, Izmir, Turkey Faculty of Fisheries, Marine Biology Laboratory, University of Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey Department of Invertebrate Zoology & Hydrobiology, University of Lodz, Poland Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior and the National Natural History Collections, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Women in Parliaments: Descriptive and Substantive Representation

Abstract: This essay reviews two research programs. The first focuses on variations in the number of women elected to national parliaments in the world (descriptive representation), and the second focuses on effects of women’s presence in parliament (substantive representation). The theory of the politics of presence (Phillips 1995) provides reasons for expecting a link between descriptive and substantive representation. The safest position would be to say that results are “mixed” when it comes to empirical support for the theory of the politics of presence. However, when a large number of studies covering a wide set of indicators on the importance of gender in the parliamentary process are piled together, the picture that emerges shows that female politicians contribute to strengthening the position of women’s interests.