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This thesis explores in-group bias control. It is well-known that people tend to have extra liking for people they identify themselves with. An extra positive in-group attitude may cause discrimination, even in the absence of any negative attitudes towards the out-group. At the same time are many people motivated to behave and present themselves as unbiased. We study whether people attempt to cont

A new approach to the study of aqueous mixtures of oppositely charged polymers and surfactants has been introduced. Pure polyion-surfactant ion complex salts have been synthesized and used as the point of departure. The elimination of the simple ions reduces the number of components in the mixtures, thus greatly simplifying the system. By mixing the complex salt with either the polyelectrolyte or

Effective insulin-stimulated storage of excess glucose after a meal, and its rapid mobilisation in the fasting state provide basis of glucose homeostasis. Glycogen is the macromolecular storage form of glucose and glycogen synthase (GS) is the rate-limiting enzyme in glycogen synthesis. Skeletal muscle and liver are the major depots of glycogen. The present studies were undertaken to isolate and c

Abstract The number of cancer and autoimmune disease diagnoses increases in our society, which place high demands on the health care system. Being able to tailor treatments for each individual patient is called "Personalized medicine", and could revolutionize the care in the future. This type of medicine requires biomarkers that could be used for diagnosis, prognosis and choice of therapy. In our

Transplantation of embryonic human neural tissue can restore function in patients with Parkinson’s disease, but there is a severe shortage of donor tissue which limits the applicability of the technique. Embryonic neural tissue from other species, xenogeneic tissue, would provide a readily accessible donor tissue with the potential to help patients if the immunological reactions in the host could

This dissertation contains seven studies exploring novel instrumentation for ion and electron spectroscopy, including their applicability at storage ring light sources. The studies focus on instrumentation to study decay, dynamics and dissociation of photoexcited molecules, and the possibility to host such instruments at MAX~IV. Commissioning of an instrument for negative-ion/positive-ion coincid

Malignant hyperthermia (MH) susceptibility is a rare inherited muscular disorder, which may cause a lethal increase in metabolism during anaesthesia with certain commonly used anaesthetic. Susceptible individuals are without any signs or symptoms. It is important to identify individuals at risk, since the MH reaction is preventable. Susceptibility to MH is diagnosed with an in vitro contracture te

Acute pancreatitis is an inflammatory disease characterized by a diverse spectrum of clinical presentations ranging from a mild and self-limiting to a severe and systemic disorder. The relationship between inflammation and proteolytic activation in pancreatitis is an elusive issue. The aim of this thesis was to define the influence of platelets and neutrophils as well as their interrelations in re