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The point of departure of this thesis is the rapidly growing research field known as the New Economic Geography (NEG). It consists of four chapters, one introductory chapter and three self-contained theoretical studies. The chapters may be summarised as follows. The first chapter gives a brief account of the NEG. It explains the soaring interest in the location of economic activity, and it review
Selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) is an effective operations method that successfully decreased the degree of spasticity with long lasting beneficial effects for children with spastic diplegia. Children undergoing SDR are postoperatively in severe pain, a pain related to both the extensive surgical exposure with multilevel laminotomy and the nerve root manipulation. To give an optimal pain relief,
This thesis deals with techniques to model risk in financial markets and consists of four separate essays. The thesis begins with an introduction in chapter one, while chapter two to chapter five contains the four essays. The first essay examines the implication of using various risk measures for portfolio selection. Specifically, three risk measures are examined: variance, Value at Risk (VaR) an
The focus of this dissertation is communication between managers and subordinates in a modern organization. The research questions are concerned with ideas, practices and organizational conditions in relation to leadership communication. My starting point for this study was the change in leadership philosophy that was introduced in many organizations at the beginning of the 1980s. This transforma
Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) is a remarkably proficient colonizer of the human respiratory tract. The aim of this thesis has been to characterize currently known, and identify novel, bacterial factors involved in the key processes of colonization and pathogenesis, namely adherence to host tissue and evasion of the host innate immunity. We have shown that the NTHi virulence factor Pr
Around 5% of all cancer cases worldwide are caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) which has been established as the cause of cervical cancer and genital warts (condylomas). Cutaneous HPV types have been weakly associated with non-melanoma skin lesions such as squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and actinic keratosis (AK). We have analyzed skin and genital lesions for presence of HPV-DNA in order to searc
The DEK gene is upregulated in a growing number of cancers and translocated to form the DEK-NUP214 fusion gene in a subset of acute myeloid leukemia. In this thesis, we studied the cellular and molecular functions of the DEK and DEK-NUP214 proteins. We found that the expression of DEK is increased by the leukemia-associated fusion protein NUP98-HOXA9, suggesting that DEK may be a downstream mediat
The MAX II and MAX III synchrotron light sources at MAX-lab provide synchrotron radiation for experiments in a wide variety of research fields. The synchrotron radiation is emitted by ultra-relativistic electrons circulating in electron storage rings. In this thesis the transverse and longitudinal electron beam sizes and the electron beam lifetime limitations in electron storage rings are discusse
This thesis consists of three distinct articles that can be read separately. Each one has been awarded a chapter of its own. The independence of these chapters should not be taken as meaning that they are unrelated. Besides belonging all to the subfield of macroeconomics, they share the common feature of being inherently economic policy oriented. The title of the first article is "Fiscal Policy a
Smooth muscles are components of several physiologically important organs and often involved in disease. Smooth muscle contraction is regulated by variations in intracellular [Ca2+]; increased levels activate the myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) which phosphorylates myosin and initiates contraction. Myosin phosphatase (MLCP) dephosphorylates myosin and promotes relaxation. Several cellular signali
Tumors of bone and soft tissue are common but only constitute 1 % of all malignant tumors. The malignant tumors are often difficult to diagnose due to their rarity and morphological resemblance between subtypes. This makes the diagnostic process challenging. Thus, there is a need for ancillary techniques, such as genetic analyses, not only for diagnostic purposes, but also for obtaining informatio
One of the major determinants of the final infarct size during an acute coronary occlusion is the size of the myocardium subjected to ischemia. Identification and quantification of this so-called myocardium at risk in the acute phase of ischemia has been difficult in patients with conventional methods, such as myocardial perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) or electrocardio
Outer membrane vesicles (OMV) have the size of nanoparticles and are released from the outer membrane of most Gram-negative bacteria. The OMV reflect the composition of the bacterial outer membrane, including lipids and virulence factors specific for the pathogen, and are involved in pathogenesis and bacterial survival. Moraxella catarrhalis and Haemophilus influenzae are Gram-negative bacterial s
Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) develops in 3-6% of the population over 65 years and affects mainly men. AAA has a complex etiology involving inflammation, proteolysis, fibrinolysis and coagulation. The general aim of the present thesis was to study the associations between markers of inflammation, proteolysis, fibrinolysis and coagulation with aneurysm size and growth. In paper I associations bet
Three different methods for Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes computational fluid dynamics modeling of non-premixed ignition and combustion using tabulated chemistry have been developed. All methods make use of flamelet libraries, where the flamelet auto-ignition process is parameterized using a progress variable. The progress variable parameterization of the auto-ignition chemistry allows for using
Hematopoiesis is the process of blood formation that originates with the hematopoietic stem cell (HSC), a cell type that is responsible for the life-long supply of mature blood cells. HSCs are defined by their ability to self-renew as well as giving rise to differentiated cells of all blood lineages. Because of these features, HSCs are also the basis for bone marrow transplantation regimens for tr
Sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response syndrome to a localized or systemic infection that leads to the over production of proinflammatory cytokines and the ultimate failure of multiple organ systems. However, little is known about the potential role of Rac1 in controlling sepsis-induced intracellular signaling pathways. We hypothesized that Rac1 might be involved in sepsis mediated signaling p
This thesis describes a number of coherent processes, such as quantum information processing, superradiance and electromagnetically induced transparency, which have been experimentally implemented using rare-earth-ion-doped crystals. The rare-earths are a class of elements that have in common, an atomic structure that allows for very long lifetimes as well as coherence times, both on optical trans
Transplantation of vital organs is today a widely used treatment when failure of the organ is a fact. To prevent rejection immunosuppresive treatment must be maintained lifelong, unless transplantation is perfomed between identical twins. Many immunosuppresive agents introduced in clinical practice have been benificial in improving graft survival rates, but adverse effects remains a huge problem t
Prostate cancer is one of the most common malignancies. Its treatment is highly dependent on the presence or absence of metastases. The available invasive and non-invasive modalities for detecting metastases are imperfect. Positron-emission tomography fused with computed tomography (PET/CT) is a non-invasive method for detecting metastases that is presently evaluated for prostate cancer. Fluoride
