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In today's society, much energy is used and all energy use (e.g. heat, electricity) affects the environment. Greenhouse gas emissions from energy affect the climate of the earth and increase the natural greenhouse effect. Environmental impact because of energy use causes both local and global problems. Efficient energy use in buildings is a prerequisite for dealing with climate issues and in t
In most manufacturing companies, it is necessary to carry inventory to a greater or lesser extent in order to disconnect the activities in the supply chain that are not conducted at the same pace. This way, a smoother flow through the chain, from raw material extraction to arrival at the final customer of a finished product, is facilitated. However, different parts of a company often have conflict
The interactions between airway epithelial cells (AECs) and dendritic cells (DCs) play an important role in the sensitization towards airborne allergens. Not much is known about the underlying mechanisms and novel in vitro approaches are needed, which include the different involved cell types in order to investigate what happens at the molecular level during sensitization. In this project, one aim
In the pursuit of a system capable of measuring pain signals in humans we propose a method to differentiate those signals related to pain from those which are not. We performed a time-frequency analysis using the Gabor transform to have complete information about the spectrum and its behaviour through the time to study the main differences over the evoked potentials provoked by both nociceptive an
When viewing moving objects in videos the movement of the eyes is called smooth pursuit. For evaluating the relationship of eye tracking data to the moving objects, the objects in the videos need to be detected and tracked. In the first part of this thesis, a method for detecting and tracking of moving objects in videos is developed. The method mainly consists of a modified version of the Gaussian
A common approach to treat respiratory diseases is with adhesive powder mixtures. These are dispersed into an aerosol upon inhalation. It has been found that the performance of such mixtures can be improved by adding fine particle lactose, but exactly why is yet to be established. Several theories have been proposed by previous studies, but the fundamental mechanism is still unknown. This study w
The HIE-ISOLDE post accelerator at CERN has recently come online, en- abling the use of radioactive ion beams with energies of up to 10 MeV/u. An active target gaseous detector is under development for use in some of the experiments. The first investigation of the electron amplification stage with gas electron multipliers has been performed. To this end, a small prototype GEM detector was built an
For variable-frequency drives, the most common way to apply the desired power to an electrical motor is using PWM modulated signals. Due to high-frequency components, those signals give rise to reflections in the motor cables, radiated noise around the cables and acoustic noise in the motor. In order to avoid those problems, NFO Drives AB develops and produces an alternative to PWM modulation call
The A rabidopsis thaliana protein kinase AtPDK1 was identified as a homologue of the mammalian 3-phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase-1 (PDK1), which is involved in a number of physiological processes including cell growth and proliferation. We now show that AtPDK1 expressed in E. coli as a recombinant protein, undergoes autophosphorylation at several sites. Using mass spectrometry, three pho
The procoagulant function of activated factor V (FVa) is inhibited by activated protein C (APC) through proteolytic cleavages at Arg(306), Arg(506), and Arg(679). The effect of APC is potentiated by negatively charged phospholipid membranes and the APC cofactor protein S. Protein S has been reported to selectively stimulate cleavage at Arg(306), an effect hypothesized to be related to reorientatio
Web sites are exposed to high rates of incoming requests. Since web sites are sensitive to overload, admission control mechanisms are often implemented. The purpose of such a mechanism is to prevent requests from entering the web server during high loads. This paper presents how admission control mechanisms can be designed and implemented with a combination of queueing theory and control theory. S
The effects of environmental stress on the physiology and behaviour of higher vertebrates has become an important avenue of research in recent years. Evidence from recent studies has suggested that the avian stress-related hormone corticosterone (CORT) may play a role in immunocompetence and sexual selection. We tested whether CORT is immunosuppressive by studying humoral and cell-mediated immune
A general model of linearized species interactions, essentially Lotka–Volterra theory, applied to questions of biodiversity has previously been shown to be a powerful tool for understanding local species–abundance patterns and community responses to environmental change for a single trophic level. Here this approach is extended to predict community composition and responses to environmental change
Objective: To validate self-reported information on weight and height in an adult population and to find a useful algorithm to assess the prevalence of obesity based on self-reported information. Research Methods and Procedures: This was a crosssectional survey consisting of 1703 participants (860 men and 843 women, 30 to 75 years old) conducted in the community of Vara, Sweden, from 2001 to 2003.
Small-x evolution in QCD is conveniently described by Mueller's dipole model which, however, does not include saturation effects in a way consistent with boost invariance. In this paper we first show that the recently studied zero and one dimensional toy models exhibiting saturation and explicit boost invariance can be interpreted in terms positive definite k-> k+1 dipole vertices. Such k-> k+1 ve
The latest Cyrtograptus lundgreni graptolite Chron (Late Wenlock, middle Silurian) is characterized globally by the Mulde Event faunal extinctions and glacio-eustatic sea-level change. Only in the last decade has it been recognized as one of the most severe extinction events of the Silurian Period. A section spanning the Slite Group-Halla Formation boundary on the islet Ytterholmen off main Gotlan
Typical for Western classical music is the process of interpreting and conveying a written score into sounding music. However, sometimes the communication of musical issues between musicians may be experienced as aggravating. In educational contexts in a broad sense, it might be advantageous if this communication could be facilitated, for example, by using visual illustrations as a complement to t
The Oskarshamn and Forsmark areas in the Fennoscandian Shield, SE Sweden, have been chosen as potential sites for hosting highly radioactive nuclear waste. To evaluate their respective suitability, the geological history of the bedrock in these two areas has been investigated. This study has focused on the thermal evolution, from c. 500 °C to c. 50 °C. 40Ar-39Ar geochronology on hornblende, muscov
Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA) are important musculoskeletal diseases that the EUMUSC.NET project developed Standards of Care (SOC) for. Objective The purpose was to explore factors to enable successful implementation of the SOC for RA and OA. Methods A combined set of methods was used; a literature search, a European survey among patients, clinicians and policymakers
