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Abstract: Mammography is currently the established method in breast cancer screening, although the sensitivity is known be affected by overlapping tissue concealing tumours. Breast tomosynthesis takes advantage of multiple exposures at different angles reducing the negative effect of obscuring tissue. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the use of tomosynthesis in breast imaging with a spec
In her widely quoted and criticised Gender Trouble, Judith Butler elaborates the idea that gender needs to be understood as performative – a certain kind of “doing” within the regulative realm of a hegemonic heterosexuality that is assumed to govern intelligible bodily configurations. Drawing mainly on psychoanalytical and Foucaultian arguments, Butler dwells upon questions concerning power and su
Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms, AAA, is mainly a silent disease that mainly affects elderly males with a history of tobacco use, but when rupture occur most affected dies. Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) has made it possible to treat more fragile and elderly patients with advanced co-morbidities. The benefit of EVAR might be questionable in relation to all cause mortality in some patients. Hence,
Splitting methods are widely used as temporal discretizations of evolution equations. Such methods usually constitute competitive choices whenever a vector field can be split into a sum of two or more parts that each generates a flow easier to compute or approximate than the flow of the sum. In the research presented in this Licentiate thesis we consider dissipative evolution equations with vector
The blood is composed of many different cell types that through tightly regulated mechanisms are derived from hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). In addition, HSCs are able to undergo self-renewing divisions whereby new HSCs are produced. This is an extremely important feature of HSCs in order to ensure the existence of the HSC pool that is paramount to provide life-long hematopoiesis. Aging is in ge
Cerebral arteries participate actively in the response that follows an episode of cerebral ischemia in man and rat. It has been shown that the vascular endothelin receptor expression is increased in stroke and organ culture. Furthermore, studies have demonstrated the intracellular signalling pathways, leading to the enhanced expression of vascular endothelin receptors. We have revealed that both c
Hairdressers have an increased risk for developing airway symptoms e.g. asthma and rhinitis. Persulfate salts, which are oxidizing agents present in bleaching powder, are considered to be important causal agents for these symptoms. The underlying mechanisms are unclear and efficient tools for risk assessment and diagnosis are scarce. The general aim of this thesis was to measure proteomic changes,
The two genetically related human lentiviruses known today, HIV-1 (which is pandemic) and HIV-2 (which mainly is confined to West Africa), are the causative agents of AIDS. Progressive immune dysfunction and AIDS develop in most cases of untreated HIV-1 infection, but only in approximately 25-30% of HIV-2 infected individuals. The V1-V3 region of the HIV-1 env gp120 is important for HIV-1 corecept
Background: A prognostic marker should provide information about course and outcome of disease, e.g. predict time to a given endpoint or rate of progression due to disease in patients or subgroups of patients. Prognostic markers could be targeted to apply during the entire clinical course or just during distinct stages of the disease. Aim: The aim of this thesis is to identify, review and qualif
L-DOPA pharmacotherapy in Parkinson’s disease (PD) is associated with adverse effects occurring after a few years of treatment. Among these, dyskinesia (abnormal involuntary movements) is particularly common and potentially disabling. The causes behind dyskinesia are not completely understood, but intense research has identified a number of neuronal alterations associated with L-DOPA-induced dyski
In this thesis, the main focus has been on the childhood cancer neuroblastoma, one of the most common and lethal childhood tumours. Neuroblastoma has througout the years continued to be a clinical and biological enigma. Our first focus was on one of the most important biological risk factors in neuroblastoma -- amplification of the oncogene MYCN in the tumour cells. Because amplified MYCN typical
Abstract The scaphoid is the most commonly fractured carpal bone. The diagnosis is difficult and untreated the long-term results are poor. Approximately 10% do not unite even if they are treated properly. The aim of this thesis was to study scaphoid fracture epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment. During a four-year period (2004-03-01 to 2008-02-28) all patients attending the Emergency Department a
The incidence of overweight and obesity has reached alarming proportions. Today, overweight, obesity and the metabolic diseases cause more death than starvation. To counteract an increasing body weight gain, regulation of appetite and a controlled food intake is of greatest importance. Simply put, body weight is regulated by the amount of energy ingested, and the amount of energy expended. In toda
The thesis work, aimed at the development of laser-spectroscopic detection schemes, consists of three parts, concerned with the development and application of different techniques. The development of UV filtered Rayleigh scattering (FRS) for thermometry and fuel/air ratio measurements, using a frequency tripled, single-longitudinal-mode alexandrite laser at ~254 nm together with an isotopically en
Sum rules and physical limitations within electromagnetic theory and antenna theory have received significant attention in the last few years. However, the derivations are often relying on application specific and sometimes unsupported assumptions, and therefore a mathematically rigorous and generally applicable approach seems timely. Such an approach is presented in this thesis, along with exampl
To understand the growth of continental crust, the balance between juvenile mantle derived extraction, infracrustal reworking and crustal recycling, needs to be estimated. Since the beginning of the century, the use of coupled in situ zircon U–Pb, Lu–Hf and O isotope analyses as a tool to address these questions have increased exponentially. Numerous compilations of ever growing datasets have been
Cystic fibrosis is an inherited disease, caused by mutations of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator gene. The gene codes for a protein that serve as chloride channel. In cystic fibrosis, this protein is lacking or has a defect function resulting in a thick and sticky mucus of the airways. The altered airway environment promotes mucus and growth of pathogenic bacteria. A common
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory and systemic disease characterised by joint destruction and pannus formation. To enlarge the understanding how pannus and granulation tissue are formed two animal models were used; one using cartilage wrapped in cotton and implanted into a rat air pouch (AP) and one where mBSA induced arthritis (AIA) was performed. Cell cultures from synovial specime
The aim of this thesis is development and application of different miniaturized strategies for detection of biomarkers. The biomarker PSA (prostate specific antigen), which is prostate cancer specific, has been the main focus of the thesis. The papers present two miniaturized strategies for biomarker detection, developed at the department, an antibody microarray and the ISET platform. The antibo
The telomeres, the physical ends of the chromosomes, consist in various species of short simple tandem repeats which are extended by telomerase. The Drosophila melanogaster telomeres, which instead are elongated by retroposons, are an exception. In Chironomus pallidivittatus and Chironomus tentans the telomeres contain 340/350-bp tandem repeats in blocks up to 200 kb in size. The structure of the
