Publications by authors named "Anna Jonsdottir"

Most of the Earth's surface has now been modified by humans. In many countries, natural and semi-natural ecosystems mostly occur as islands, isolated by land converted for agriculture and a variety of other land-uses. In this fragmented state, long-distance dispersal may be the only option for species to adapt their ranges in response to changing climate.

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Background: There is a need for a feasible tool to assess the risk of frailty prior to surgery. We aimed to identify the ratio of abnormal results for three clinically applicable screening tools to assess the risk of frailty, and their association with adverse outcomes in a cohort of elderly surgical patients.

Methods: In this prospective pilot study, patients ≥65 years undergoing preoperative evaluation for elective surgery were included and subjected to three frailty screening tests; Program of Research to Integrate Services for the Maintenance of Autonomy 7-item questionnaire (PRISMA7), Timed Up and Go (TUG), and Clock Drawing Test (CDT).

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The COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent move of higher education to online courses has disrupted the learning paths of many students. Social network data were collected from two cohorts of students, those starting their higher education in normal conditions in 2017 and those starting in 2020 during the pandemic. The findings showed that students in the 2020 cohort reported making fewer connections at the beginning of the first semester and developed significantly fewer connections during the first semester.

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Introduction: The interRAI Emergency Department-Screener (ED-screener) is a risk stratification instrument incorporating functional and social aspects to identify older adults in EDs. The aim was to assess the construct validity and utility of the ED-screener in comparison with more established instruments.

Methods: The ED-screener, Triage Risk Screening Tool (TRST) and Identification of Seniors at Risk (ISAR) were administered to older ED-patients.

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Salivary gland tumours (SGT) are a vast and heterogenous group of neoplasms. There is a relative lack of comprehensive nationwide epidemiological studies on the subject. The aim of this nationwide analysis was to gain insight into epidemiological traits, such as site, incidence and histological subtypes of SGT in general.

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Introduction: Reduced concentrations of placental protein 13 (PP13) during the first trimester of human pregnancy are associated with elevated risk for the subsequent development of preeclampsia, which is one of the deadliest obstetrical complications of pregnancy. Previous studies by our group have shown that PP13 lowers blood pressure in pregnant rats, increases the size and weight of pups and placentas, and induces vasodilation of resistance arteries through endothelial signaling pathways involving endothelial nitric oxid synthase and prostaglandin.

Methods: In the present study, the effect of PP13 was investigated in nonpregnant female Sprague Dawley rats (n=27).

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Background: the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS-GMS) recommendations for training in Geriatric Medicine were published in 1993. The practice of Geriatric Medicine has developed considerably since then and it has therefore become necessary to update these recommendations.

Methods: under the auspices of the UEMS-GMS, the European Geriatric Medicine Society (EuGMS) and the European Academy of Medicine of Ageing (EAMA), a group of experts, representing all member states of the respective bodies developed a new framework for education and training of specialists in Geriatric Medicine using a modified Delphi technique.

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While generally described as a bipartite mutualistic association between fungi and algae or cyanobacteria, lichens also host diverse and heretofore little explored communities of nonphototrophic endolichenic bacteria. The composition and possible roles of these bacterial communities in the lichen symbiotic association constitute an emerging field of research. Saxicolous (rock-dwelling) seashore lichens present an unusual environment, characterized by rapid fluctuations in temperature, salinity, exposure to solar radiation, etc.

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Introduction: The nationwide Icelandic Cancer Registry (ICR) was established in 1954 and has been extensively used for research from the outset although formal quality assessment of the registry database has not previously been undertaken. In this paper we report the first formal evaluation of the comparability, validity, timeliness and completeness of the ICR.

Material And Methods: Data from the ICR for the period 1955-2009 (41 994 cancer diagnoses) were used, applying established quantitative and semi-quantitative methods.

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Background: Observers respond more accurately to targets in visual search tasks that share properties with previously presented items, and transient attention can learn featural consistencies on a precue, irrespective of its absolute location.

Methodology/principal Findings: We investigated whether such attentional benefits also apply to temporal consistencies. Would performance on a precued Vernier acuity discrimination task, followed by a mask, improve if the cue-lead times (CLTs; 50, 100, 150 or 200 ms) remained constant between trials compared to when they changed? The results showed that if CLTs remained constant for a few trials in a row, Vernier acuity performance gradually improved while changes in CLT from one trial to the next led to worse than average discrimination performance.

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Introduction: Ninety percent of diabetic individuals in Iceland suffer from type 2 diabetes mellitus. Antibodies against ss-cell components characterise type 1 diabetes, but these antibodies are also found in type 2 diabetic individuals, defined as latent autoimmune diabetes in adults or LADA. The purpose of this investigation was to estimate the prevalence of LADA in Iceland and to describe the phenotype and relatedness of these individuals.

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Sphingolipids, especially as elements of the sphingomyelin signal transduction cycle, are thought to play a significant role as second messengers and modulators of events in heart muscle cells. A possible modulatory role of sphingosine in signal transduction in the beta-adrenergic pathway in the heart was examined. Neonatal rat cardiomyocytes were incubated with sphingosine and/or other agents after which cAMP levels and contraction rates were measured.

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