Almost 5,000 Nordic citizens have answered a wide range of questions relating to Nordic co-operation, climate change and democratic engagement. The results show that Nordic citizens are concerned about the trends and believe that climate change and the environment is the most important area of co-operation for the Nordic region. There is also a lot of variation in what citizens think the best measures are and in the extent to which they believe that politicians can solve the climate crisis. The report highlights both challenges and opportunities for the Nordic democracies in their work for the climate and environment of the future
Voluntary work is important in itself, but it also creates cohesion and other important resources for society. In the Nordic region, voluntary work has also been a key feature in the democratic debate, and has been important for creating political inclusion. This report indicates that voluntary work in the Nordic region remains stable but, under the surface, structural changes are taking place that suggest that voluntary work and organisations are now finding a different role to the one they occupied previously.
Whilst cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and positron emission tomography (PET) biomarkers for amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau pathologies are accurate for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), their broad implementation in clinical and trial settings are restricted by high cost and limited accessibility. Plasma phosphorylated-tau181 (p-tau181) is a promising blood-based biomarker that is specific for AD, correlates with cerebral Aβ and tau pathology, and predicts future cognitive decline. In this study, we report the performance of p-tau181 in >1000 individuals from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), including cognitively unimpaired (CU), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD dementia patients characterized by Aβ PET. We confirmed that plasma p-tau181 is increased at the preclinical stage of Alzheimer and further increases in MCI and AD dementia. Individuals clinically classified as AD dementia but having negative Aβ PET scans show little increase but plasma p-tau181 is increased if CSF Aβ has already changed prior to Aβ PET changes. Despite being a multicenter study, plasma p-tau181 demonstrated high diagnostic accuracy to identify AD dementia (AUC = 85.3%; 95% CI, 81.4-89.2%), as well as to distinguish between Aβ- and Aβ+ individuals along the Alzheimer's continuum (AUC = 76.9%; 95% CI, 74.0-79.8%). Higher baseline concentrations of plasma p-tau181 accurately predicted future dementia and performed comparably to the baseline prediction of CSF p-tau181. Longitudinal measurements of plasma p-tau181 revealed low intra-individual variability, which could be of potential benefit in disease-modifying trials seeking a measurable response to a therapeutic target. This study adds significant weight to the growing body of evidence in the use of plasma p-tau181 as a non-invasive diagnostic and prognostic tool for AD, regardless of clinical stage, which would be of great benefit in clinical practice and a large cost-saving in clinical trial recruitment. ; Data collection and sharing was funded by ADNI (NIH #U01 AG024904) and DOD ADNI (#W81XWH-12-2-0012). ADNI is funded by the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, and through generous contributions from the following: AbbVie, Alzheimer's Association; Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation; Araclon Biotech; BioClinica, Inc.; Biogen; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; CereSpir, Inc.; Cogstate; Eisa i Inc.; Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Eli Lilly and Company; EuroImmun; F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd and its affiliated company Genentech, Inc.; Fujirebio; GE Healthcare; IXICO Ltd.; Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy Research & Development, LLC.; Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development LLC.; Lumosity; Lundbeck; Merck & Co., Inc.; Meso Scale Diagnostics, LLC.; NeuroRx Research; Neurotrack Technologies; Novartis Ph armaceuticals Corporation; Pfizer Inc.; Piramal Imaging; Servier; Takeda Pharmaceutical Company; and Transition Therapeutics. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research is providing funds to support ADNI clinical sites in Canada. Private sector contributions are facilitated by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health ( www.fnih.org). The grantee organization is the Northern California Institute for Research and Education, and the study is coordinated by the Alzheimer's Therapeutic Research Institute at the University of Southern California. ADNI data are disseminated by the Laboratory for Neuro Imaging at the University of Southern California. TKK holds a Brightfocus fellowship (#A2020812F), and is further supported by the Swedish Alzheimer Foundation (Alzheimerfonden; #AF-930627), the Swedish Brain Foundation (Hjärnfonden; #FO2020-0240), the Swedish Dementia Foundation (Demensförbundet), the Agneta Prytz-Folkes & Gösta Folkes Foundation (#2020-00124), the Aina (Ann) Wallströms and Mary-Ann Sjöbloms Foundation, the Anna Lisa and Brother Björnsson's Foundation, Gamla Tjänarinnor, and the Gun and Bertil Stohnes Foundation. NJA is supported by the Swedish Alzheimer Foundation (Alzheimerfonden; #AF-931009), the Swedish Brain Foundation (Hjärnfonden), the Agneta Prytz-Folkes & Gösta Folkes Foundation, and the Swedish Dementia Foundation (Demensförbundet). AS was supported by the Emil Aaltonen Foundation and the Paul o Foundation, and currently receives funding from the Orion Research Foundation. MS-C received funding fro m the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under the Marie Skl odowska-Curie action grant agreement No 752310, and currently receives funding from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI19/00155) and from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Juan de la Cierva Programme grant IJC2018-037478-I). PR-N is supported by the Weston Brain Institute, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging and the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS; Chercheur Boursier, and 2020-VICO-279314 TRIAD/BIOVIE Cohort), the CIHR-CCNA Canadian Consortium of Neurodegeneration in Aging, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (project 34874). KB was supported by the Alzheimer Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF; #RDAPB- 201809-2016615), the Swedish Research Council (#2017-00915), the Swedish Alzheimer Foundation (#AF-742881), Hjärnfonden, Sweden (#FO2017-0243), and a grant (#ALFGBG-715986) from the Swedish state under the agreement between the Swedish government and the County Councils, the ALF-agreement. KB is supported by the Swedish Research Council (#2017-00915), the Alzheimer Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), USA (#RDAPB-201809-2016615), the Swedish Alzheimer Foundation (#AF-742881), Hjärnfonden, Sweden (#FO2017- 0243), the Swedish state under the agreement between the Swedish government and the County Councils, the ALF- agreement (#ALFGBG-715986), and European Union Joint Program for Neurodegenerative Disorders (JPND2019- 466-236). HZ is a Wallenberg Scholar supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council (#2018-02532), the European Research Council (#681712), Swedish State Support for Clinical Research (# ALFGBG-720931), the Alzheimer Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), USA (#201809-2016862), the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 860197 (MIRIADE), and the UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL.
