With the discovery of antibiotics, several diseases that were previously lethal is today readily cured, or so we thought. Some degree of resistance to one or several antibiotics can be found among many strains of clinical important bacteria. The problem has been somewhat kept at bay for the last few decades by altering already existing antibiotics, and thereby prolonging their usage. It is clear t

The aim of the present work was to gain better understanding of the mechanisms controlling heat and mass transfer during thermal processing of beefburgers. The effects of different factors such as the chemical composition and comminution of the meat raw material, the pan temperature and the meat patty diameter on the characteristics of heat and mass transfer were studied. The evolution of the char

The studies presented in Papers I to IV illustrate the importance of soil moisture in soil solution chemistry and response of native plants to the changes induced by change in moisture regime. With the help of glasshouse experiments I tried to study the influence of different treatments of soil moisture conditions on the mineral uptake by native plants of calcareous soil. I also tried to find the

The study is based on data collected at the LEP II accelerator during the second period of the Large Electron-Positron collider operations (1996-2000). During that time the DELPHI (DEtector with Lepton, Photon and Hadron Identification) experiment collected about 90 Gb of data on tape corresponding to 687-691 pb-1 of luminosity. The data obtained by the VSAT (Very Small Angle Tagger) electromagne

Different models and statistical mechanical approximations for titrating polyelectrolytes are studied and the results compared with Monte Carlo simulations and experimental data. Three types of models have been used in the simulations: i) rigid structures and freely jointed chains with ii) rigid bonds and iii) flexible, harmonic bonds. Sampling is facilitated for the latter two by the use of pivot

This thesis presents the research performed within two different research groups using heavy-ion induced nuclear reactions. They offer the opportunity to investigate different properties of nuclear matter. The results are based on measurements using a variety of different experimental techniques. The PHENIX experiment measured the production of deuteron and anti-deuterons at mid-rapidity in gold-

Complex I is the mitochondrial enzyme complex that oxidizes NADH produced in the citric acid cycle and reduces quinone in the membrane, coupled to proton pumping out of the mitochondrial matrix, creating a membrane potential. This process generates about 40% of the energy used by living organisms. High-resolution structures of complex I recently became available, but the molecular mechanism behind

The free volume in polymers is coupled to several important physical properties, such as density, viscosity and gas diffusivity. The physical properties of polymers close to a solid surface have been shown to be significantly perturbed as compared to their bulk state. The behavior of polymers close to surfaces comes into play within the field of polymer composites, where the properties of the inte

Diffusion MRI is widely used to study brain structure in vivo. While this technique is often applied to investigations of brain connectivity, it can also be used to infer specific information about the tissue microstructure; for example, to estimate the axon diameter. In the present work, the role of tissue microstructure and water exchange in biophysical models employed in diffusion MRI was inves

One of the main trends in the polymer industry today is the increasing importance of polymer blends. Combining two or more immiscible polymers in a polymer blend often leads to multi-phase materials with desirable properties. The typical poor morphological stability and low interfacial adhesion in these blends can be eliminated by adding compatibilizing graft copolymers. Well-defined graft copoly

This thesis concerns different kinds of tunneling based devices all showing negative differential resistance. The thesis is divided in three parts, resonant tunneling transistors, Esaki diodes and coupled zero dimensional systems. The resonant tunneling transistors are GaAs-based vertical field effects transistors, based on a combination of overgrown tungsten gates and double barrier heterostruct

By using ancient texts, medieval documents, philological observations, and archaeological artifacts, scholars have reconstructed a prehistorical world and religion. The people who upheld this culture have been named, inter alia, "Indo-Europeans", "Aryans", "Japhetites" and "Wiros". Yet, these people have not left any texts, no artifacts can with certainty be ascribed to them, nor do we know any in

This thesis describes the design, synthesis and evaluation of synthetic inhibitors for the carbohydrate binding proteins called galectins. Potent and selective inhibitors can be used as important research tools in the endeavor to chart the true role of galectins in biological events such as cancer and inflammation and possibly as lead for future galectin targeting drugs. A panel of O-galactosyl a

The aim of this thesis was to analyze the value of pictures in a number of cognitive tasks that are predominantly verbal in nature. Three studies, with three experiments each, are included in the thesis. The first study found automatic interference effects from pictures (facial expressions) on the affective evaluation of words. In the Stroop-like presentation of integrated picture-and-word stimuli

A considerable part of chemistry in nature and industry, takes place in an environment of other molecules. Reactions, transitions, interactions or other chemical processes are almost always modified by the environment. These modifications or environment effects depend ultimately on the interactions between the molecules, the so called intermolecular interactions. The special case of effects induce

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are members of a family of polysaccharide structures consisting mostly of repeating disaccharide units. Most GAGs are attached to specific serine residues in proteins to form proteoglycans (PGs). GAGs and PGs show a large and diverse number of biological functions ranging from cell cycle regulation and control of formation of blood vessels to modification of tissue transp

Political Culture and Social Engagement. An ethnological study of everyday parliamentary life in Helsingborg. The goal of my thesis is to, by examining foundational features which support political culture, make visible prerequisites for political engagement. Using diverse everyday situations, the thesis describes how one “does” politics. I follow two committee chairpersons in the municipality of

Reading and writing skills are of crucial importance in modern society. Therefore, dyslexia is a significant handicap, not only in respect of lexical skills and processing of language-based information - it appears to have social consequences as well, as evidenced for instance by the high frequency of dyslexics among long-term unemployed people. One major research problem is that the term dyslexia

The aim of this thesis is to examine interaction between the business community and academia, and consider the Science Park as a brokering environment and actor. The bulk of park-oriented research, like park-related practice, is based on network theory and thinking. Taking such an approach, it is natural to study the intensity and nature of the interactions of the involved parties – in this case,

The board of directors is often described as a valuable resource for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that can contribute to the direction and performance of the firm. Mainstream research and literature on boards and governance has however mainly been concerned with how the board of directors best can monitor and restrain managerial action in large widely held corporations, and there is