Tuberculosis (TB) has plagued the humanity for several thousands of years. The bacteria causing TB is mainly spread from person to person as an aerosol transmission. It is estimated that one third of the world’s population is infected with the disease; about 10% of these will develop active TB during their lifetime. In year 2000, 8 million TB-cases were detected, of which 2 million died. Except fo

GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid) is a well-known inhibitory neurotransmitter in the CNS. GABA is also present at high concentrations in the insulin-producing β-cells in the islets of Langerhans, but its function there is less clear. GABA is believed to accumulate in SLMVs (synaptic-like microvesicles). These vesicles are different from the insulin-containing LDCVs (large dense-core vesicles). In this th

Advanced manufacturing technologies and programmable machines such as industrial robots are used to increase productivity and quality for competitiveness on a global market. Development of increasingly flexible manufacturing systems has resulted in an increasing importance of software aspects, both on a system level and for efficient interaction with human operators. Trends toward providing custom

There are two fundamentally different ways by which a metabolite can be transferred between enzymes in metabolic pathways. If the two sequential enzymes cannot form a complex with each other, the metabolite must first be released from the producing enzyme to the reaction medium and then be transported to the consuming enzyme, via the reaction medium, by free diffusion. If the two sequential enzyme

The Baltic Sea is a continental shelf sea that is influenced by both river runoff and marine water. The two water masses are vertically stratified in the Baltic Sea, resulting in a positive, estuarine circulation system, which has undergone changes in the past due to isostatic uplift of the Baltic basin. For researchers to understand past changes in the marine environment of the Baltic Sea, a soun

The research presented in this thesis has focused on methods for improving the legibility and usability of maps in real-time map services. The aim has been threefold: to create methods to increase the cartographic quality of maps in map services, to develop methods to measure the legibility, as perceived by the user, and to evaluate the quality of maps. Map services are becoming increasingly commo

Urinary tract infections (UTI) are among the most common bacterial infections in humans. Symptomatic UTIs may be acute, recurrent or chronic but the most frequent form of UTI is asymptomatic bacteruria (ABU). In ABU, the mucosa remains inert, despite the presence of large bacterial numbers in urine. The difference in disease severity reflects the virulence of the infecting strain and the propensit

The aims of the study were to investigate the applications of digital radiography to musculoskeletal radiology. In the first part of the research, the diagnostic accuracy of digital images as compared to film-screen radiographs was studied and the spatial resolution requirements evaluated. Using computed radiography (CR), the pathological changes included were erosions, soft tissue swelling, peri

Gel dosimetry is a new dosimetry method applied in radiation therapy. Gel dosimeters consist of a radiation sensitive gel, which can integrate absorbed doses from several radiation sources or beams. The dose to the gel can be evaluated by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a procedure that is the focus of the present thesis. A robust tool for the evaluation of the nonuniformity in MRI has been dev

In this thesis, a new electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) signal from photosystem II is presented. The signal is shown to originate from the S0 oxidation state of the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC). It is a Mn-derived signal displaying clear hyperfine structure, centered at g=2, and is significantly broader than the well-known multiline signal from the S2 state, indicating the presence of MnII in

Predicting the probable survival for a patient can be very challenging for many diseases. In many forms of cancer, the choice of treatment can be directly impacted by the estimated risk for the patient. This thesis explores different methods to predict the patient's survival chances using artificial neural networks (ANN). ANN is a machine learning technique inspired by how neurons in the brain fu

Amphibious vision is accomplished in many animals by special optical and physiological adaptations in the eyes. However, human eyes are considered to be adapted to a life in air since our curved outer cornea – which is used to refract more than two-thirds of the incoming light on land – becomes useless underwater. This thesis produces evidence that Moken children, a population of sea nomads (or se

The nuclear model for three dimensional cranking is extended to include a generalization of the Strutinski renormalization procedure from principal axis cranking to cranking about an tilted axis. A new computer code has been written for realistic, full-scale calculations within the three dimensional cranking model. The code is developed for calculations to produce output of high precision to allow

This thesis has two main themes, autonomous agents and concepts. An autonomous agent is a system capable of interacting with its environment via its own sensors and effectors in order to accomplish some task. Arguments against both purely reactive and purely deliberative agent architectures are presented in favor for hybrid approaches. A novel hybrid approach based on the concept of anticipatory s

This thesis is about the formation of amylose-lipid complexes, and their properties. Two forms of superstructures can be identified. Complex form I has more randomly distributed helices, while the structure of form II is crystalline and therefore exhibits the typical V-pattern in X-ray diffraction analyses. Form II has higher heat stability, and is produced by heating at a temperature at least suf

Phosphoinositides are of particular interest in signal transduction processes as they can be sequentially phosphorylated and used as precursors for the intracellular messengers inositol trisphosphate (InsP3) and diacylglycerol (DAG) that in turn affects calcium levels and protein kinase cascades, eventually leading to a physiological response. The activity and regulation of PtdIns 4-kinases and Pt

In order to create a heme environment which permits biomimicry of heme-containing plant peroxidases and investigate the role played by the vinyl side chains of the porphyrin ring on the stability and, possibly, catalytic activity of model compounds, a number of new synthetic microperoxidases -– hemin-6(7)-gly-his methyl ester (HGH) and hemin-6(7)-gly-gly-his methyl ester (HGGH) and hemin-6,7-bis(g

Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic activities of the antidepressants venlafaxine (VEN) and citalopram (CIT) were investigated in the portacaval shunted (PCS) rat, a model of chronic hepatic encephalopathy (HE), and normal/control rats. The levels of VEN in serum and brain were higher in PCS rats than in controls after a single injection and chronic treatment with VEN (10 mg/kg). After reducing th

Regulation of blood flow involves several endogenous substances and mechanisms, and exogenous substances may also affect the blood flow. In the present thesis, human omental blood vessels were investigated in vitro concerning (i) characteristics of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) receptors; (ii) mediators of substance P (SP)-induced relaxation; (iii) direct and indirect (via effects on sympathetic neur

Immunological self-tolerance is a state of the whole organism where deleterious responses are either avoided or regulated. Breaking of immunological tolerance will lead to autoimmune disease or chronic inflammatory conditions. T cell maturation in the thymus generates a peripheral T cell pool with an enormous TCR repertoire, from which specific T cells are selected and activated upon encounters wi