Recent studies find that defection from one's most preferred party to some other party is as common under proportional representation (PR) as it is in plurality systems. It is less elaborated how election-specific contextual factors affect strategic vote choice under PR. This study looks at the impact of two potentially important contextual factors: parties’ coalition signals about cooperation wit

The paper investigates possible effects of cross-linguistic variation on measures of syntactic complexity in 60 texts from learners of L2 English, L3 French and L4 Italian at CEFR level A and CEFR level B. A previous study by Gyllstad et al. (2014) showed significant differences between proficiency levels for two length measures of complexity in English and French, but not in Italian. In this papeThe paper investigates possible effects of cross‐linguistic variation on measures of syntactic complexity in 60 texts from Swedish L1 learners of English, French and Italian as foreign languages at CEFR level A and CEFR level B. A previous study on the same learners and texts, showed significant differences between proficiency levels for two length measures of complexity in English and French, but

För ungefär 350 miljoner år sedan utvecklade de första insekterna förmågan att flyga och har sedan dess dominerat våra terrestra miljöer. Trots sina pyttesmå hjärnor och avsaknad av avancerade kontrollinstrument så lyckas flygande insekter på många vis utkonkurrera modern flygteknik. Humlor och bin kan till exempel leta upp en födokälla långt ifrån sitt bo, återvända hem igen och sedan upprepa denDespite their small brains and tiny eyes, flying insects are capable of detecting and avoiding collisions with moving obstacles, and with remarkable precision they navigate through environments of different complexity. For this thesis, I have investigated how bumblebees use the pattern of apparent image motion that is generated in their eyes as they move through the world (known as optic flow), in

The development of cities is increasingly threatened by a worldwide water crisis. Urban water services (including drinking water, sanitation and drainage) are facing complex and multiple pressures, which are becoming increasingly frequent and severe. These pressures include floods, and the depletion, pollution and degradation of water resources and their associated ecosystems. These diverse pressu

Lung diseases impose a huge economic and health burden worldwide. A key aspect of several adult lung diseases, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), including emphysema, is aberrant tissue repair, which leads to an accumulation of damage and impaired respiratory function. Currently, there are few effective treatments available for these disea

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of death worldwide. One main pathological feature of COPD is the loss of functional alveolar tissue without adequate repair (emphysema), yet the underlying mechanisms are poorly defined. Reduced WNT-β-catenin signaling is linked to impaired lung repair in COPD; however, the factors responsible for attenuating this pathway remain to be

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a devastating chronic interstitial lung disease (ILD) characterized by lung tissue scarring and high morbidity. Lung epithelial injury, myofibroblast activation, and deranged repair are believed to be key processes involved in disease onset and progression, but the exact molecular mechanisms behind IPF remain unclear. Several drugs have been shown to slow dis

Rationale: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), in particular emphysema, is characterized by loss of parenchymal alveolar tissue and impaired tissue repair. Wingless and INT-1 (WNT)/b-catenin signaling is reduced in COPD; however, the mechanisms thereof, specifically the role of the frizzled (FZD) family of WNT receptors, remain unexplored. Objectives: To identify and functionally charact

Rationale: Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and in particular smokers aremore susceptible to respiratory infections contributing to acute exacerbations of disease. The immunoproteasome is a specialized type of proteasome destined to improve major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I-mediated antigen presentation for the resolution of intracellular infections. Objectiv

Systemic administration of bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells (BMDMCs) or bone marrowderivedmesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) reduces inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) in amurinemodel of Th2-mediated eosinophilic allergic airway inflammation. However, since BMDMCs are a heterogeneous population that includesMSCs, it is unclearwhether theMSCs alone are responsible for the BMDMC ef

The lung changes functionally and structurally with aging. However, age-related effects on the extracellular matrix (ECM) and corresponding effects on lung cell behavior are not well understood. We hypothesized that ECM from aged animals would induce aging-related phenotypic changes in healthy inoculated cells. Decellularized whole organ scaffolds provide a powerful model for examining how ECM cue

Background: A novel potential approach for lung transplantation could be to utilize xenogeneic decellularized pig lung scaffolds that are recellularized with human lung cells. However, pig tissues express several immunogenic proteins, notably galactosylated cell surface glycoproteins resulting from alpha 1,3 galactosyltransferase (α-gal) activity, that could conceivably prevent effective use. Use

The possibility that stem cells might be used to regenerate tissue is now being investigated for a variety of organs, but these investigations are still essentially exploratory and have few predictive tools available to guide experimentation. We propose, in this study, that the field of lung tissue regeneration might be better served by predictive tools that treat stem cells as agents that obey ce

This paper reports the results of a numerical study of the Nusselt number for the H1 and T boundary conditions in laminar, fully-developed flows of pseudoplastic and dilatant fluids in rectangular ducts. Equations for the apparent viscosity that span the entire shear rate range were utilized and the Nusselt numbers were calculated as a function of a shear rate parameter that determines the flow re

Biocompatible nanoparticles possessing fluorescent properties offer attractive possibilities for multifunctional bioimaging and/or drug and gene delivery applications. Many of the limitations with current imaging systems center on the properties of the optical probes in relation to equipment technical capabilities. Here we introduce a novel high aspect ratio and highly crystalline europium-doped c