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Companion AI chatbots are increasingly used to provide friendship, emotional support, and quasi-romantic relationships, with reported benefits for loneliness and mental health. At the same time, recent suicides and other serious harms allegedly linked to such systems expose gaps in existing ethical and legal frameworks. This article interrogates these gaps through four lenses: anthropomorphism, em
Interactive AI systems - large language models, conversational agents, and chatbots - are rapidly becoming primary interfaces through which citizens access and evaluate political information. Developed and governed largely by private corporations, these systems do not merely distribute content: they shape opinion formation through sustained, adaptive, and personalised dialogue, relocating politica
Emotional AI systems decode human emotions through facial micro-expressions, vocal patterns, and physiological data. While the EU Artificial Intelligence Act prohibits emotion recognition in workplaces and educational institutions, broad security exemptions permit deployment in military, defense, national security, and law enforcement contexts. This article demonstrates how these exemptions create
BACKGROUND: Caries and periodontitis are amongst the most prevalent diseases worldwide, leading to pain and loss of oral function for those affected. Prevention relies heavily on mechanical removal of dental plaque biofilms but for populations where this is not achievable, alternative plaque control methods are required. With concerns over undesirable side-effects and potential bacterial resistanc
In nature, bacteria usually exist as mixed-species biofilms, where they engage in a range of synergistic and antagonistic interactions that increase their resistance to environmental challenges. Biofilms are a major cause of persistent infections, and dispersal from initial foci can cause new infections at distal sites thus warranting further investigation. Studies of development and spatial inter
BACKGROUND: Hypertension is a significant risk factor for several neurological disorders, including stroke and dementia, yet the molecular mechanisms underlying these risks remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigated temporal proteomic remodeling of the cerebrovasculature in male spontaneously hypertensive rats and normotensive Wistar-Kyoto controls at 30 and 40 weeks of age, represen
We consider the numerical approximation of the stochastic complex Ginzburg-Landau equation with additive noise on the one-dimensional torus. The complex nature of the equation means that many of the standard approaches developed for stochastic partial differential equations cannot be directly applied. We use an energy approach to prove an existence and uniqueness result as well as to obtain moment
UNLABELLED: Pectobacterium brasiliense ( Pbr) is known to be one of the most virulent Pectobacterium species and is generally widely distributed across the globe, especially known for causing soft rot in potato-tubers and black leg in potato-plants. Currently no treatment mechanism exists, and many studies have focused on alternative treatment approaches such as biocontrol agents. Several studie
Essentially all academic research of today relies on analysis of data from a wide range of sources. Several underpinning, and rapidly developing, technologies are supporting the analysis of this data. Visualization serves as an interface to this ecosystem of tools and methods and integrates them into environments supporting scientific workflows, effectively sharing cognitive load between computers
This essay reflects on the Development Research School, a research school launched in 2022 by Lund University, Uppsala University, the University of Gothenburg, and the University of Ghana. Using this case, the essay explores two central themes: how research schools can add value to PhD education, and the particular challenges of running such a school in the field of development research. Based on
Reconstructions and simulations disagree on whether the Holocene exhibited a long-term cooling or warming signal. Anthropogenic land-use could be an important forcing regionally, but available population-based estimates differ widely. We examine transient Holocene climate model simulations forced with three population-based disturbed-land reconstructions and compare this with a fourth scenario der
PURPOSE: Early administration of beta-lactam antibiotics is a crucial part in the treatment of sepsis and septic shock. Beta-lactams demonstrate time-dependent killing and therefore it is important to optimize the time above the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC). An extra dose is recommended in threatening/suspected/confirmed septic shock. This study aimed to examine whether patients with sus
BACKGROUND: Sepsis-induced coagulopathy (SIC) is a scoring system developed for early detection of coagulopathy in sepsis and selection of patients for interventional studies. Our aim was to define the prevalence of SIC in a critically ill population and investigate if SIC at intensive care unit (ICU) admission is associated with morbidity and mortality.METHODS: Patients admitted with septic shock
Boreal forests play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle and currently act as an important carbon sink. At the same time, these forests are increasingly affected by intensive forest management and a changing disturbance regime driven by climate change. Clear-cutting has been the dominant harvesting method in managed boreal forests, while wildfire, although rare over the last century in Sweden
Background: The presence of cancer in pelvic lymph nodes removed during radical surgery for muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) is a key determinant of patient outcome. It would be beneficial to predict node status preoperatively to tailor the use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and extent of lymph node dissection. Of 12 published node status predictors based on tumor RNA expression signatures, non
