Coming dissertations at Uppsala university
-
I samtal med Kronofogden : Hur myndighetsservice görs i språkliga möten mellan inringare och kundservicehandläggare
Link: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-516489
This thesis explores the interaction between frontline service officials and clients in customer service calls to the Swedish Enforcement Authority (SEA), a national government agency working with debts. The aim is to shed light on these service calls as interactional, meaning-making encounters between callers and frontline service officials. A sub-aim is to gain an understanding of how the SEA’s mission and core values are interpreted, balanced and implemented in conversation.
Drawing on the theoretical and methodological framework of Conversation Analysis (CA), the thesis investigates how communication between SEA frontline officials and clients unfolds, and how institutional regulations, norms and relationships are invoked and negotiated. The data consists of audio recordings of 113 naturally occurring phone calls to the SEA’s centralised customer service.
The four analytical chapters explore different aspects of the interactional encounters. First, the openings of the encounters are analysed, focusing on how callers achieve service, and how the participants orient to serviceability and legitimacy. Secondly, the analysis addresses how factual information from the SEA’s institutional records is accessed, handled and responded to by the participants. In this way, the analysis illustrates how the participants display epistemic stances, and how the SEA’s mission to provide information, and to activate and educate clients, is translated into practice. Thirdly, frontline service officials’ explanations of a key SEA process are studied, revealing how the participants’ intersubjectivity is established, challenged and negotiated. Fourthly and finally, an analysis of how call takers recommend future courses of action to callers is presented, which demonstrates how the participants’ deontic rights to decide on future actions are allocated in the customer service calls.
In sum, the thesis brings to light what happens in conversations between callers and frontline service officials at the SEA. More specifically, the thesis offers insights into how institutional remits shape frontline interaction, as well as how laws, guidelines and policies are talked into being. In addition to expanding our knowledge of language and social interaction in government agencies, the key findings of the thesis may have an impact on professional development within the SEA, thereby benefiting both frontline officials and clients.
-
The role of hyaluronan and its CD44 receptor in inflammation and cancer
Link: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-517801
Hyaluronan, an important extra-cellular matrix molecule, was thought to be interstitial connecting glue decades ago. However, recent evidence has revealed that hyaluronan and its binding proteins also play crucial roles in various pathophysiological conditions in humans, including inflammation and infection.
Study I focused on dengue virus infection and found that elevated serum hyaluronan levels during early infection phase was an independent predictor for occurrence of warning signs, and thus severe dengue. High circulating levels of the viral non-structural protein 1 (NS1) correlated with high concentrations of serum hyaluronan. NS1 exposure decreased the expression of CD44 in differentiating endothelial cells impairing the integrity of vessel-like structures and promoted the synthesis of hyaluronan in dermal fibroblasts and endothelial cells in synergy with dengue-induced pro-inflammatory mediators. Perturbed hyaluronan-CD44 interactions enhanced endothelial permeability through modulation of VE-cadherin and cytoskeleton re-organization, and exacerbated the NS1-induced disruption of endothelial integrity. Study II reports a negative correlation between the expression of genes encoding hyaluronan synthase HAS2, its natural antisense transcript HAS2-AS, the chromatin modulating factor HMGA2 and transforming growth factor-β (TGFβ), and survival of patients with invasive breast cancer. TGFβ induction of Hmga2, Has2as and Has2 in mouse mammary epithelial cells, and synthesis of hyaluronan were accompanied with activation of Akt and Erk1/2 MAP-kinase signaling and were required for breast cancer cell motility. Importantly, the hyaluronan receptor Cd44, but not Hmmr, was required for TGFβ-mediated epithelial-mesenchymal transition phenotype. Has2as was found to contribute to the maintenance of stem cell factors and breast cancer stemness. Study III explored the physical interaction between the inhibitor of the apoptosis-stimulating protein of p53 (iASPP) and the hyaluronan receptor CD44. The CD44 standard isoform (CD44s), but not the variant isoform, bound to iASPP via the ankyrin-binding domain in CD44s. iASPP was required for hyaluronan-induced CD44-dependent migration and adhesion of fibroblasts. CD44 altered the sub-cellular localization of the iASPP-p53 complex; thus, ablation of CD44 promoted translocation of iASPP from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, resulting in increased formation of a cytoplasmic iASPP-p53 complex in fibroblasts. Overexpression of iASPP decreased the level of intracellular reactive oxygen species, while overexpression of CD44 increased. Knock-down of CD44s, in the presence of p53, led to increased cell growth and cell density of fibroblasts by suppression of p27 and p53.
In summary, we investigated the interaction of hyaluronan and its transmembranous receptor, CD44, as well as the modulation of hyaluronan synthesis, in several different pathophysiological conditions.
-
Structural characterization of Deinococcus radiodurans phytochrome in solution
Link: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-517644
Phytochromes are red/far-red photoreceptors which control a wide spectrum of biological processes inplants, fungi, and bacteria. Although phytochromes have been extensively studied, their mechanism ofaction still remains elusive. The signaling mechanism suggested by crystal structures involves refoldingof the so-called PHY tongue. However, currently, the involvement of the other two prominent structuralelements, the so-called helical spine and a knot in the peptide chain, remains unclear.
Here, the first backbone assignment of the photosensory module of D. radiodurans phytochrome ispresented. To achieve a higher degree of the backbone assignment and thus gain further knowledge onthe conformational changes in the chromophore binding domain, an efficient method for refolding ofthe CBDPHY phytochrome fragment was developed. While further NMR measurements on therefolded phytochrome are needed, preliminary results already show the value of the extended backboneassignment for the future structural studies. Previously unreported changes in the knot region of thephotosensory module of D. radiodurans phytochrome were captured by solution NMR. All NMRobservables suggest photoinduced structural changes in the aforementioned region, implying that thesignal is carried from the chromophore to the helical spine, and through it, to the PHY domain and theoutput module. Furthermore, a study of the region near the bottom of the helical spine has beenconducted. Using several sets of the residual dipolar coupling (RDC) measurements, together with themolecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we gained a better understanding of the network of interactionsspanning from the chromophore to the dimer contact surface.
Additionally, a procedure for structural analysis of nanoscale particles at XFELs using angular crosscorrelationsis outlined here. This approach was applied to the scattering data of ideal icosahedralparticles, a phytochrome and the human pre-ribosomal (pre-40S) particle. Condor was used to predictX-ray scattering amplitudes of these particles for customized experimental designs. Angularcorrelations can be accurately extracted from multiple-particle fluctuation X-ray scatteringexperiments. We concluded that angular cross-correlation functions (CCFs) preserve a substantialamount of structural information which enables the observation of structural features of particles at thenanometer scale. Consequently, correlation maps could be useful to follow fast dynamical changesin the structure, for instance, as a response to external stimuli.