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Antibodies are key players of the immune system in higher vertebrates, which provide a defense against potentially lethal threats from the environment. Besides their importance in the immune defense, antibodies have a great potential as reagents in biological chemistry and diagnostics, and as therapeutic agents against both infectious diseases and cancer. Despite tremendous advances in all fields
Crossflow microfiltration is a technique to separate suspended particles (or cells or droplets) from liquids by use of a membrane that is permeable for the liquid but impermeable for the particles. The permeate flow drives particles to the membrane surface, where they may be deposited and form a fouling layer. To limit the growth of this fouling layer a flow is applied tangentially to the membrane
Glass sheets are often used in radon surveys to estimate retrospective radon concentrations, as radon progenies are embedded in the upper surface layer. The implanted activity is influenced by a variety of different environmental conditions. In this work, experimental methods based on etching to determine the depth distribution of recoil-implanted 210Po in glass from radon decay in air were develo
Magnetic relaxation dispersion measurements have been performed on aqueous protein solutions to study the dynamics of waters in the proton transport channel of bacteriorhodopsin and the self-association of the proteins BPTI, lysozyme and beta-lactoglobulin. The measurements have focused on the bulk relaxation rates, R1 and R2, of three water nuclei 1H, 2H and 17O that are coupled to the protein en
The number of software-based products is increasing, which is why the importance of an efficient software development process is also increasing, from a competitive advantage perspective. For years, software development organizations have been plagued by poor product quality and high development costs. Studies in software process improvement (SPI) have concerned themselves with improving the softw
The focus of this thesis is on the most widespread organizational change that the public sector has gone through during the 1990s: the introduction, implementation and continuous use of profit centers. There are three major reasons for studying profit centers. First, profit centers appear to have become a permanent element in the management of local government. Second, profit centers were used dif
This thesis describes different aspects of nanotechnology manufacturing with nanoimprint lithography (NIL), a relatively new nanofabrication tool capable of high resolution and high throughput. Surface structure creation with NIL is based on mechanical deformation of the patterning material. This is radically different from the two main established methods, ultra violet lithography (UVL) and elect
A series of experiments and developments, related to stable and radioactive isotopes, have been carried out. These studies have focused on measuring the low-lying excitations of spherical and deformed nuclei using electromagnetic (Coulomb) excitation and also on developments in detector technology for upcoming radioactive ion beams facilities. The low-lying excitations in the nuclei 107,109Sn and
The complexity of proteins is reflected in the structure of their fluids. This is seen from strongly inhomogeneous distributions about the single protein. Using molecular simulations of protein models, based on experimental structures, the present work probes the directional forces between proteins. Emphasis is made on the mutual orientation of proteins and the interplay of electrostatic and short
Melatonin is a neurohormone which mediates photoperiodic signals from the pineal organ to the brain. GABA (g-aminobutyric acid) is the major inhibitory transmitter in the central nervous system. It has previously been suggested that functional interaction exists between central binding sites for GABA/benzodiazepines (GABAA/bzd receptors) and melatonin in the central nervous system, and that GABA a
The respiratory chain of plants contains both proton-pumping enzymes that conserve energy and non-proton-pumping alternative enzymes that bypass the sites of energy conservation. In addition to the proton-pumping complex I, plant mitochondria contain alternative type II NAD(P)H dehydrogenases, which allow oxidation of NADH and NADPH from the matrix and the cytosol. The seven gene homologues of typ
This dissertation investigates properties of two-dimensional many-body systems. Studies are performed using the Spin-Density Functional Theory with the Local Spin-Density Approximation, and numerical exact diagonalization. The properties studied include symmetry-breaking states in few-electron quantum dots, gaps in confined few-body systems, magnetic properties of cold fermionic atoms in optical l
This dissertation focuses on the possibilities for artist craftsmen or handicrafters to operate their independent small enterprises under the conditions of late-modern society. It describes and analyses the game in the arena of handicraft production. The powerful influence of gender constructions on this game is considered. The theoretical discussion starts with Bourdieus´ theory about fields of c
A deletion is defined as a missing piece of a chromosome, ranging in size from as small as a single base pair to as much as an entire arm of a chromosome. Deletions can cause diseases, but may also have a neutral effect in the genome. In this thesis, I describe how inherited deletions can be detected by analysis of the segregation pattern of genetic markers in pedigrees. These methods are based on
Organic substrates for pelagic bacteria are derived from dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in the water column that originates either from primary production from within the lake itself (autochthonous), or import of organic matter from the terrestrial watershed (allochthonous production). This thesis addresses the utilization of allochthonous versus autochthonous carbon (C) sources by lake bacteriopl
The aims of these studies were to investigate the pharmacokinetics of two beta-lactam antibiotics in patients with fever and cytostatic-induced neutropenia and the influence of cytostatic-induced gastrointestinal damage on the absorption of co-trimoxazole. Furthermore to study the pharmacodynamic interactions between antibiotics and antineoplastic drugs and the impact of antineoplastic drugs on th
Inhibition of the costimulatory molecules B7 and CD40L with CTLA4Ig and anti-CD40L administered only during the first week after transplantation induces indefinite survival of allo- and xenogeneic heart transplants and significantly prolongs skin grafts in C3H mice. However, this treatment protocol is not as effective in C57BL/6 mice which reject skin transplants with nearly the same median surviv
Autoimmune diseases are dependent on both genetic and environmental factors in complex interplay. They arise from a faulty immune response against self-antigens, and causes great suffering in affected individuals. Despite large efforts and hundreds of thousands of research articles published, the disease etiologies remain largely unknown. Knowledge of which genes are involved and how they interact
Propagation of transient waves in nonstationary, inhomogeneous, dispersive, stratified media is considered. Waves originating from sources exterior to the scatterer as well as from internal sources are treated. Algorithms are developed and illustrated by computations of wave phenomena in stationary, nonstationary and weakly nonlinear media. In the theoretical part, the underlying hyperbolic equati
Cytochromes function in electron transfer reactions, e.g. in respiratory systems, and contain haem as a prosthetic group. Cytochromes of the c-type differ from other cytochromes in that haem is covalently attached, via thioether linkages, to two cysteine residues in a conserved sequence motif in the protein, Cys-Xaa-Yaa-Cys-His. The functional location of c-type cytochromes in bacteria is on the o
