GUPEA

Gothenburg University Publications Electronic Archive

GUPEA is a platform for e-publishing of theses, student essays and other research publications.

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  • Pathogen induced anorexia in Helicoverpa armigera moths. A study on the genetic correlation between a reduction in feeding when infected and survival.
    (2026-08-14) Heyman, Olof; University of Gothenburg / Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences; Göteborgs universitet / Instiutionen för biologi och miljövetenskap
    Pathogen-induced anorexia is a wildly accepted concept, where during an infection an organism reduces how much they are feeding. The reason for this is not yet fully understood and has over the years been attributed to it increasing survival during an infection and would therefore be considered an adaptive trait. Currently the basis for pathogen-induced anorexia being adaptive is not explored to a degree sufficient for that claim, as it currently stands and is only explored on the phenotypic level. This makes it very difficult to tell if it is an adaptive trait or only a symptom of infection, in this study I aim to examine if pathogen-induced anorexia can be considered and adaptive trait. To do this I quantify the genetic correlation between a reduction in feeding when infected and survival, in other words I examine to what degree genes that encode for reduced feeding when infected, also encode for increased probability of survival when infected. I did this by breading adult Helicoverpa armigera to create families of larvae consisting of siblings and half siblings, creating multiple individuals that share part of each other’s genes. I then infected haphazardly selected individuals in each family with different doses of pathogen (high, low, and control) and two qualities of diets (standard and poor). Then in a Bayesian model I extracted the genetic correlation as a posterior distribution for each treatment. The distributions indicated no evidence for pathogen-induced anorexia being an adaptive trait, as the estimated values for the genetic correlation contained both large quantities of likely negative and positive values.
  • Schooling under Market Incentives: Educational and Political Consequences of the Swedish Voucher System
    (2026-08-14) Gren, Simon
    School-choice reforms are intended to give families greater influence over where children attend school and to use competition for students to improve educational quality and efficiency. Yet introducing market incentives into education may have consequences that extend beyond these objectives. In the early 1990s, Sweden implemented a far-reaching reform that combined universal school choice with public funding for private schools, including for-profit providers. This dissertation examines how the resulting school system affects educational outcomes and local school markets, as well as electoral behavior and perceptions of political responsibility. The four papers combine Swedish register data, election results, and a preregistered survey experiment. Paper 1 compares outcomes among students attending municipal, for-profit private, and not-for-profit private schools and examines how private-school expansion affects local school markets. Private-school attendance is associated with stronger academic outcomes during compulsory school, but not with clear advantages in later education or income. At the municipal level, private-school expansion is associated with modest improvements in some educational outcomes, but also with greater segregation, particularly by migration background, and with little evidence of changes in overall educational costs. Papers 2 and 3 examine electoral responses to changes in local school provision. Incumbent parties lose votes in areas affected by proposed public-school closures, even when the proposals are withdrawn. School openings, by contrast, generate no clear electoral reward. These findings point to an asymmetry between the political consequences of visible losses and more diffuse gains. Paper 4 investigates how citizens attribute responsibility for educational outcomes to local politicians, school principals, private owners, and national policymakers. The survey experiment shows that private ownership shifts responsibility away from local politicians and toward private actors and, in some scenarios, national policymakers. This shift is substantially greater for blame associated with school closures than for credit associated with school openings. Although responsibility attribution and electoral accountability are empirically distinct, the findings together show how private provision can alter the political consequences of publicly funded education. Taken together, the results show that school-choice reforms affect not only educational outcomes and the organization of school markets but also political behavior and the perceived division of responsibility between public and private actors. How welfare services are organized therefore matters both for what those services produce and for how citizens understand the state and hold decision-makers to account.
  • Peer Support i vården av traumatiserade flyktingar. En etnografisk fältrapport om erfarenhetsbaserat stöd inom Röda Korsets behandlingscenter
    (2026-08-14) Christelle Abboud; University of Gothenburg/School of Global Studies; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för globala studier
    Denna uppsats undersöker hur Peer Support praktiseras inom vården av traumatiserade flyktingar vid Svenska Röda Korsets behandlingscenter i Göteborg, Skövde och Vänersborg. Peer Support innebär att personer med egen erfarenhet av trauma, migration eller psykisk ohälsa arbetar som stödpersoner inom vårdorganisationer. Studien fokuserar på hur denna roll integreras i den dagliga verksamheten och hur relationer mellan patienter, Peer Support och professionell personal formas i olika vårdpraktiken. Genom att analysera både formella behandlingssammanhang och informella möten, såsom väntrum situationer och gruppaktiviteter, belyser studien hur omsorg skapas i vardagliga interaktioner. Uppsatsens huvudargument är att Peer Support utgör en central form av relationell omsorg som kompletterar traditionell behandling genom att skapa tillit, igenkänning och motivation hos patienter. Rollen fungerar samtidigt som en bro mellan patienter och vårdpersonal och bidrar till att synliggöra patientperspektivet inom organisationen. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur Peer Support praktiseras inom vården av traumatiserade flyktingar, samt hur relationer, omsorg och erfarenhetsbaserad kunskap formas i vardagliga vårdpraktiken. Analysen utgår från medicinsk antropologi och bygger särskilt på Annemarie Mols teori om omsorg som praktik, Joan Trontos perspektiv på Care-arbete samt teorier om erfarenhetsbaserad kunskap och gränsarbete. Studien bygger på ett etnografiskt fältarbete bestående av deltagande observationer och semistrukturerade intervjuer med personal och Peer Supporters vid Svenska Röda Korsets behandlingscenter. Examensarbetet är skrivet på svenska.