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Risk assessment of suicidal behaviour is one of the most important tasks in clinical psychiatry and a major determinant of subsequent care and treatment selections. To date, suicide risk assessment is based solely on clinical evaluations, which inevitably leads to subjective interpretations and decisions by the psychiatrist. In order to find more robust instruments in the evaluation of suicidality
Platelets are central for the primary haemostatis. The platelet has surface bound receptors that are vital for the platelet activation. One of these receptors, the purinergic ADP-activated G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) P2Y12 is a key receptor for platelet activation, and thus for thrombus formation, which makes P2Y12 a target in pharmaceutical antiplatelet therapies. As a complement during rev
Smoking is the most common and important risk factor for reduced lung function. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) affects mainly smokers and is characterized by airflow obstruction, assessed using one of two major diagnostic spirometric criteria. Aspects of lung function besides spirometry in smokers fulfilling none, either or both of the spirometric criteria for COPD are not well known
In the last decade diesel combustion has developed in a new direction. Research has been carried out trying to prolong the ignition delay and enhance fuel/air premixing to avoid diffusion combustion as well as lowering the combustion temperature through use of EGR. One of these new combustion concepts is Partially Premixed Combustion (PPC). PPC is aimed to provide combustion with low smoke and NOx
Background: In osteoarthritis (OA) the balance of cartilage matrix synthesis and degradation is disturbed, resulting in a gradual destruction of the articular cartilage. Matrix components released into body fluids by proteolytic cleavage can be used as biomarkers of ongoing processes. This thesis focuses on proteolytic degradation of the proteoglycan aggrecan with the overall aim to study the pote
Blood cell formation, or hematopoiesis, is maintained by rare hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) residing in the bone marrow (BM). HSCs may self-renew (the process whereby HSCs replicate to produce new HSCs) to preserve their own numbers, as well as initiate a highly coordinated hierarchical differentiation process that results in the production of mature effector blood cells. Aging is characterized
Multidisciplinary pain rehabilitation programmes are found decreasing pain and improve back-to-work rates. There is, however, a lack of knowledge in several respects. The overall aim of this thesis was to study outcomes in terms of occupational performance, satisfaction with performance, psychosocial functioning, disability, and coping profiles at a one-year follow-up after a musculoskeletal pain
Normal tissue is tightly controlled to keep a balance between reproduction and elimination of cells. In cancer, these regulated processes are disrupted, resulting in uncontrolled cell growth. Regulation of RNA stability and turnover is important to maintain cellular homeostasis and can be controlled by various mechanisms. During stress, the cell can form cytoplasmic complexes of proteins and RNAs,
In order to reduce comsumption of inhalational anaesthetsics during high flow anaesthesia a system open in regard to oxygen, nitogen and nitrous oxide, but closed to inhalational anaesthetics, was developed. This was achieved by a reflecting filter for inhalational anaesthetics made of active carbon. The principle has been developed into the commersially available Anesthetic Conserving Device (ACD
This thesis addressed the diagnosis, pathogenesis and clinical course of specific renal diseases hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and dense deposit disease (DDD). HUS may be associated with infection caused by Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) or with complement dysfunction due to complement mutations or auto-antibodies (atypical HUS, aHUS). EHEC is a non-invasive highly virulent bacterium
Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia, is a growing concern. As the life expectancy increases across the globe, the number of affected people is estimated to reach 100 million by 2050. Efforts to develop effective treatments for humans have mostly been based on the assumption that a faulty homeostasis of beta amyloid (Aβ) is the triggering or the driving factor behind this co
Objectives: To study: (I) the impact on cost-utility analyses of applying different national EuroQol 5-Dimensions (EQ-5D) preference sets; (II and III) whether, in methotrexate-refractory, early rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the addition of infliximab results in superior health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and may be considered cost-effective, as compared to adding sulfasalazine and hydroxychloroq
Abstract Population movements are more substantial today than at any other point in human history. If managed effectively, migration can be beneficial for all aspects of social and economic life. This thesis contains four papers, all of which are related to the economic consequences and determinants of migration, within and across countries. The first paper employs a household survey to explore
Every day we encounter many potentially harmful microbes in our environment. The epithelial linings constitute an anatomical barrier protecting us and they also produce antimicrobial polypeptides (AMPs) that act as a chemical barrier. These AMPs are small and positively charged, killing a broad range of microbes rapidly. They can either be constitutively produced or rapidly induced when epithelial
Background: Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death. Only about 6% of patients are alive 5 years after diagnosis. One reason for this low survival rate is that most patients are diagnosed at a late stage, when the tumor has spread to surrounding tissues or distant organs. Less than 20% of cases are diagnosed at an early stage that allows them to undergo potentially cu
Hereditary breast cancer constitutes a considerable fraction of the total number of breast cancer cases occurring each year. Up until recently very few breast cancer predisposing genes were known, but many new common polymorphisms contributing to increased cancer susceptibility are continuously being identified. This thesis has focused on familial breast cancer and identifying as well as investi
The aim of this dissertation is to show some cryptanalytical results on a selection of stream ciphers. We have grouped theory and results into three main parts. The first part focuses on the FCSR-based constructions X-FCSR and F-FCSR-H v3. For the X-FCSR family of stream ciphers we perform a severe state recovery attack. This attack works for both X-FCSR-128 and X-FCSR-256. We then develop a gen
The transition from normal into malignant cells with acquired uncontrolled growth is a process where cancer cells viciously develop adaptive strategies to overcome microenvironmental and metabolic stress. Hypoxia, or deficient oxygen supply, is a common feature of the expanding tumor which alters cell metabolism and consecutively causes lowered intracellular pH. To alleviate hypoxic and acidotic s
After transient global cerebral ischemia, selected populations of neurons in the brain will die after a period of 2-3 days, a phenomenon termed delayed neuronal death. This is of clinical importance as delayed neuronal death has been found to occur in humans as well. The mechanism that kills a neuron 2-3 days after the initial insult is unclear, but transcriptional steps have been implicated. The
The sensory neuropeptides substance P (SP) and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) are present in human cerebral, meningeal and temporal arteries, as are peptides associated with the sympathetic (neuropeptide Y, NPY) and parasympathetic (vasoactive intestinal peptide, VIP) nervous system. NPY is a vasoconstrictor in cerebral and meningeal arteries and potentiates noradrenaline (NA) as a vasocon
