Popular Abstract in Swedish Frontotemporal demens är ett sjukdomstillstånd där nervceller i hjärnans pann- (“fronto”) och tinninglober (“temporal”) förtvinar, vilket leder till en tilltagande cellförlust och uttunning av hjärnbarken i dessa områden. Till skillnad från Alzheimers sjukdom, den vanligaste demenssjukdomen, leder frontotemporal demens i första hand inte till försämrat minne och orienteThe present thesis explores alterations in brain morphology in the neurodegenerative disorder of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). With the aim to improve the clinical diagnostics of FTD, we explored the diagnostic potential of measuring morphological alterations in the white matter by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)- MRI, compared with the more commonly used assessment of grey matter thickness and vo

Leptin is an adipocyte-secreted hormone, the circulating levels of which correlate closely with overall adiposity. Although rare mutations in the leptin (LEP) gene are well known to cause leptin deficiency and severe obesity, no common loci regulating circulating leptin levels have been uncovered. Therefore, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of circulating leptin levels from 32,1

The central role of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) in the remodelling process of the human skeleton has been identified in numerous experimental and clinical studies. BMPs appear to be key agents in the osteoblastic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells, and more recent evidence implicates them with the cells of the osteoclastic lineage. BMP-2, BMP-4, BMP-6 and BMP-7 have been studied in t

The greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella (L.), is a serious and widespread pest of the honeybee, Apis mellifera L. In contrast to most moths, for which long-range mate finding is mediated by female-produced sex pheromones, G. mellonella males attract conspecific females over long distances by emitting large amounts of a characteristic scent in combination with bursts of ultrasonic calls. The male

Physical processes are often modeled as input-output systems. Many such systems obey passivity, which means that power is dissipated in the process. This thesis deals with the inevitable constraints imposed on physical systems due to passivity. A general approach to derive sum rules and physical limitations on passive systems is presented. The sum rules relate the dynamical behaviour of a system

Gefitinib, an epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor, has shown both anti-proliferative and anti-tumoral activity in breast cancer. This study was designed to determine the effect of adding gefitinib to neoadjuvant epirubicin and cyclophosphamide (EC) on tumor response rates. Women with unilateral, primary operable, estrogen receptor negative invasive breast cancer a parts per

Popular Abstract in Swedish De senaste ca trettio åren har man observerat en kraftig ökning av löst organiskt kol i sjöar, vattendrag och kustnära vatten i olika delar av det norra halvklotet, bl.a. i delar av Nordamerika, Storbritannien, Baltikum, centrala Europa och Skandinavien. I Sverige har ökningen främst varit koncentrerad till de södra delarna av landet. Löst organiskt kol i sjöar belägna During the past three decades, increases have been observed in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations and colour in the surface waters of lakes and rivers in parts of Europe and North America, raising concern about the effects on the quality of aquatic environments with consequences for biodiversity, resource availability and recreational use. Various hypotheses have been put forward to exp

Adenosine triphosphatases (ATPases) of double-stranded (ds) DNA archaeal viruses are structurally related to the AAA+ hexameric helicases and translocases. These ATPases have been implicated in viral life cycle functions such as DNA entry into the host, and viral genome packaging into preformed procapsids. We summarize bioinformatical analyses of a wide range of archaeal ATPases, and review the bi

The quinoline-3-carboxamides (Q compounds) are a family of small molecules that ameliorate various types of murine inflammatory autoimmune disease. One such compound has also demonstrated anti-tumor effects in murine tumor models. Several Q compounds have reached clinical trials and one compound, laquinimod, is currently in phase III clinical trial for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. The Q

We report on a single-molecule readout scheme on total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM) demonstrating a detection limit in the low fM regime for short (30-mer) unlabeled DNA strands. Detection of unlabeled DNA targets is accomplished by letting them mediate the binding of suspended fluorescently labeled DNA-modified small unilamellar vesicles (Ø approximately 100 nm) to a DNA-mo

Abstract Preeclampsia is a serious pregnancy complication that affects 3-8% of all pregnancies leading to maternal- and fetal morbidity and mortality. The etiology is still not known in detail. Previous findings have shown an up regulation of the genes coding for fetal hemoglobin (HbF) in preeclamptic placentas. The cell-free HbF protein was shown to be accumulating in the vascular lumen, to induc

Beamforming is an important feature of 60 GHz communications. We present an analysis of the influence of beamforming in indoor ultrawideband radio channels measured in the mm-wave 60 GHz band. The performance of narrowband and wideband direction-based beamformers is investigated in terms of improving channel metrics such as the delay spread, excess delay, and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The p

A constitutive model for ductile porous material is formulated within the thermodynamic framework. A yield function based on the lower-bound solution for a cylindrical void model embedded in a plastic matrix is proposed. The new yield function is compared to the classical Gurson yield function using cell model calculations. The results reveal that the proposed yield function agreed well with the p

BackgroundRetinal ischemia results in a progressive degeneration of neurons and a pathological activation of glial cells, resulting in vision loss. In the brain, progressive damage after ischemic insult has been correlated to neuroinflammatory processes involving microglia. Galectin-3 has been shown to mediate microglial responses to ischemic injury in the brain. Therefore, we wanted to explore th

Regular physical activity is understood to be an essential prerequisite for human health for both psychological and physiological well-being. However, there are differences in participation in physical activity among different groups in society, and participation in physical activity can also change over a lifetime. The general aim of this thesis was to investigate how different life-change events