Physical Activity through a Classroom-Based Intervention: A Pragmatic Non-Randomized Trial among Swedish Adolescents in an Upper Secondary School

Schools are an important arena to curb the decline in physical activity (PA) in youth. School-based interventions with accelerometer-measured PA are warranted. This study aimed to increase accelerometer-measured PA in adolescents following a 12-month school-based intervention. Two school-classes of 16–18-year-old Swedish students were allocated to intervention group and control group. Accelerometer-measured PA was gathered at baseline, 6- and 12-month follow-up. Mixed-effects linear regression was used to investigate between-group and within-group differences in mean minutes per day (min/day) of moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA), light PA (LPA) and sedentary time (ST). Fifty-seven students participated (intervention group = 31, control group = 26). At 12-month follow-up, the intervention group performed 5.9 (95% CI: −4.3, 16.2) min/day more in MVPA, 1.8 (95% CI: −17.9, 14.2) min/day less in LPA, and 4.1 (95% CI: −27.3, 19.2) min/day less in ST compared to the control group. Within the intervention group, there was no significant change in PA. Within the control group, LPA decreased (95% CI: −19.6, −0.2; p = 0.044) and ST increased (95% CI: 1.8, 30.8; p = 0.028). Although no between-group differences in PA were statistically significant, the within-group changes may suggest a preventive impact on the decline in PA during adolescence.

A posteriori Dietary Patterns in 71-year old Swedish Men and the Prevalence of Sarcopenia 16 Years Later

The role of diet in sarcopenia is unclear and results from studies using dietary patterns (DPs) are inconsistent. We assessed how adherences to a posteriori DPs are associated with the prevalence of sarcopenia and its components 16 years later. Four DPs were defined in the Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men at baseline (n= 1133, average age 71 years). Among 257 men with information at follow-up, 19% (n=50) had sarcopenia according to the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP) 2 definition. Adherence to DP2 (mainly characterized by high intake of vegetables, green salad, fruit, poultry, rice and pasta) was non-linearly associated with sarcopenia; adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for medium and high vs low adherence: 0.41 (0.17-0.98) and 0.40 (0.17-0.94). The OR per standard deviation (SD) higher adherence to DP2 was 0.70 (0.48 - 1.03). Adjusted ORs (95% CIs) for 1 SD higher adherence to DP1 (mainly characterized by high consumption of milk and cereals), DP3 (mainly characterized by high consumption of bread, cheese, marmalade, jam and sugar) and DP4 (mainly characterized by high consumption of potatoes, meat and egg, and low consumption of fermented milk) were 1.04 (0.74 - 1.46), 1.19 (0.71 - 2.00) and 1.08 (0.77 - 1.53), respectively. There were no clear associations between adherence to the DPs and muscle strength, muscle mass, physical performance or sarcopenia using EWGSOP1 (sarcopenia n=54). Our results indicate that diet may be a potentially modifiable risk factor for sarcopenia in old Swedish men.

Gender Assignment in Six North Scandinavian Languages: Patterns of Variation and Change

This study addresses gender assignment in six North Scandinavian varieties with a three-gender system: Old Norse, Norwegian (Nynorsk), Old Swedish, Nysvenska, Jamtlandic, and Elfdalian. Focusing on gender variation and change, we investigate the role of various factors in gender change. Using the contemporary Swedish varieties Jamtlandic and Elfdalian as a basis, we compare gender assignment in other North Scandinavian languages, tracing the evolution back to Old Norse. The data consist of 1,300 concepts from all six languages coded for cognacy, gender, and morphological and semantic variation. Our statistical analysis shows that the most important factors in gender change are the Old Norse weak/strong inflection, Old Norse gender, animate/inanimate distinction, word frequency, and loan status. From Old Norse to modern languages, phonological assignment principles tend to weaken, due to the general loss of word-final endings. Feminine words are more susceptible to changing gender, and the tendency to lose the feminine is noticeable even in the varieties in our study upholding the three-gender system. Further, frequency is significantly correlated with unstable gender. In semantics, only the animate/inanimate distinction signifi-cantly predicts gender assignment and stability. In general, our study confirms the decay of the feminine gender in the Scandinavian branch of Germanic.

New prepositions in the house

In the literature on semantic and categorial change French chez and Mainland Scandinavian hos are often cited together as parallel examples of locative prepositions deriving from nouns referring to the concept ‘house’. In this paper we compare in detail the philological records and the more recent development of the two items as well as that of the cognate Insular Scandinavian hjá. We show that while there are similarities in the development of Latin CASA / French chez and hos, as frequently suggested in the literature, there are also significant divergences. We argue in favour of a reevaluation of the origin of hos aligning it with hjá rather than casa as suggested in Noreen (1892), and show that if so revised, the differences can be shown to arise from the different meanings of the source terms: Latin casa ‘hut, house’ and later ‘place’ as opposed to Old Swedish hos and Old Icelandic hjá ‘group of people, company’. We then go on to explore the consequences of these different diachronic trajectories for our general understanding of the connected semantic and syntactic developments and the time course of categorial change.

Ovid and Chrétien de Troyes

Readers’ cultural expectations regarding literary masterpieces can hamper their experience of humor. This chapter studies the passage in Chrétien de Troyes’ Yvain in which the knight’s faithful lion is said to run like a frantic hog. This simile is so surprising that it has generally been ignored not only by medievalists but also by medieval translators of Chrétien’s Yvain. Yet its potential humor is highly significant, as its disruptive quality constitutes an astute response to the already disruptive thrust of Ovid’s legend of Pyramus and Thisbe. The comparative and intertextual approach of this chapter brings together, on the one hand, Chrétien’s romance with its translations in Middle English, Old Norse, and Old Swedish, and on the other hand, Ovid’s seminal legend with its medieval adaptations by Chaucer, Gower, Boccaccio, and the anonymous author of the Old French Piramus et Tisbé. In every work, the dynamics of perception and cognition are central to the plot.

Risk of suicide attempt and suicide in young adult refugees compared to their Swedish-born peers: a register-based cohort study

Purpose Refugees, especially minors, who often have experienced traumatic events, are a vulnerable group regarding poor mental health. Little is known, however, of their risk of suicidal behaviour as young adults. We aimed to investigate the risk of suicidal behaviour for young adult refugees who migrated as minors. The moderating role of education and history of mental disorders in this association was also investigated. Methods In this register linkage study, all 19–30-year-old Swedish-born (n = 1,149,855) and refugees (n = 51,098) residing in Sweden on December 31st, 2009 were included. The follow-up period covered 2010–2016. Cox models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The multivariate models were adjusted for socio-demographic, labour market marginalisation and health-related factors. Results Compared to Swedish-born, the risk of suicide attempt was lower for all refugees (HR 0.78, 95% CI 0.70–0.87), and accompanied refugee minors (HR 0.77, 95% CI 0.69–0.87), but estimates did not differ for unaccompanied refugee minors (HR 0.83, 95% CI 0.62–1.10). Low education and previous mental disorders increased the risk of suicide attempt in both refugees and Swedish-born, with lower excess risks in refugees. Findings for suicide were similar to those of suicide attempt. Conclusion Young adult refugees have a lower risk of suicidal behaviour than their Swedish-born peers, even if they have low educational level or have mental disorders. Young refugees who entered Sweden unaccompanied do not seem to be equally protected and need specific attention.

The Eufemiaviser and the Reception of Courtly Culture in Late Medieval Denmark – Die dänischen Eufemiaviser und die Rezeption höfischer Kultur im spätmittelalterlichen Dänemark

This book presents texts which are a unique testimony in Danish literature between the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period: the so-called Eufemiaviser (Eufemia poems), courtly verse romances, translated into Danish via Old French and Old Swedish sources in the later part of the 15th century. These texts have hardly been studied in Scandinavian research so far.

Love, sadness and other mental states in the Middle Welsh Owain (and related texts)

This article explores the devices employed by the medieval Welsh narrator of Owain, or Chwedyl Iarlles y Ffynnawn (‘The Story of the Lady of the Well’), to convey emotions and the mental states of his characters to his audiences. Although he generally remains inaudible, he uses, at some crucial points, words and phrases denoting emotions in a narrow sense, such as love, sadness and shame, in order to direct and steer the audiences’ perception and their understanding of the narrative. A comparison with thematically related texts, Chrétien de Troyes’ Yvain, and its Old Norse, Old Swedish and Middle English translations, helps to assess the narrative role of literary emotions in the Welsh text.