Press releases

The doses of estrogen and progestogen used in menopausal hormone therapy may be related to the risk of breast cancer recurrence, according to a new study in the April 6 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Surgical treatment of severe obesity provides long-term wait loss and better quality of life compared with conventional treatment in primary health care. This is shown in a ten-year follow-up of the psychosocial component of the Swedish Obese Subjects project, SOS, at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg.

A landmark study recently released reveals that approximately 60 percent of the ecosystem services that support life on Earth – such as fresh water, capture fisheries, air and water regulation, and the regulation of regional climate, natural hazards and pests – are being degraded or used unsustainably. Scientists warn that the harmful consequences of this degradation could grow significantly worse in the next 50 years.

The TIM23 complex, which regulates the transport of protein to the mitochondria in a cell, is much more complicated than was previously believed. This is shown by Uppsala University researcher Mria Lind in an article in the leading journal Cell.

Children in Europe and other parts of the world are entering puberty at an ever younger age. The reasons for this are unknown, and the EU is now financing a major three-year project called PIONEER in a determined effort to get to the root of the problem. Two Swedish research groups are involved in the project, both from Karolinska Institutet.

A new report, “Part of a Context,” presents successful outcomes in the rehabilitation of female substance abusers with the help of a network model used at Fortuna House in Värnamo, Sweden. The project helped 18 of 20 women out of their abuse, that is, 90 percent.

An experimental freshwater aquarium facility for research and teaching has been built at Karlstad University. The 250 m2 facility consists of five
rooms, equipped with several independent aquarium systems to create stream and lake-like environments. The four large, seven-meter long artificial streams are unique for Sweden, with few equivalents in the rest of the world.

In its bill Research for a Better Life (2004/05:80) the Swedish government presents its appraisal of how SEK 2.34 billion in new funding for research and development should be used with an eye to bolstering the position of Sweden as a research nation. The measures target both pure and needs-specific research and are geared to stimulate new Swedish innovations for growth and sustainable development

Acupuncture, in combination with exercise in the home, is clearly the best way to alleviate pain in pregnant women in connection with symphysiolysis, or slippage in the cartilage holding together bones. This is shown in research from the Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University in Sweden that is being published in the prestigious British medical journal BMJ.

For the first time in the world, researchers at the Quantum Device Physics Laboratory of the Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience at Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg, Sweden, have been able to measure a current by counting the single electrons that pass through a nanoelectronic circuit. This is a fundamentally new way of measuring electrical currents, and may find its application in measurements of extremely small currents with very good accuracy. The results are published in the scientific journal Nature.