A common usage for electroactive polymers (EAPs) is in different types of actuators, where advantage is taken of the deformation of the polymer due to an electric field. It turns out that time-dependent effects are present in these applications. One of these effects is the viscoelastic behavior of the polymer material. In view of the modeling and simulation of applications for EAP within a continu

The aim of this study was to assess whether a school-based program with expanded physical education lessons was effective in increasing children's physical capacity and in preventing excessive weight gain in children. The study performed in 2000-2003 comprised 132 children, 73 boys and 59 girls at baseline 6-9 years and in follow-up 9-12 years, attending two different schools with a similar size,

Thermal neutron detector based on films of (B4C)-B-10 have been developed as an alternative to He-3 detectors. In particular, The Multi-Grid detector concept is considered for future large area detectors for ESS and ILL instruments. An excellent signal-to-background ratio is essential to attain expected scientific results. Aluminium is the most natural material for the mechanical structure of of t

A detailed diatom record from Lake Kälksjön, west-central Sweden, reveals two periods of abrupt ecological change correlative with the 8.2 ka cooling event. Using a combination of abrupt step changes and piece-wise linear regressions, the diatom data were analysed for change points over time, and two sudden and large events that are described as regime shifts were detected. During the first event

Investigation into predictors for treatment outcome is essential to improve the clinical efficacy of therapeutic multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs). We therefore studied the possible harmful impact of immunogenic ABO blood groups antigens - genetically governed antigenic determinants - at all given steps of MSC-therapy, from cell isolation and preparation for clinical use, to final recip

A period of two and a half millennia separates us from the Classical period of ancient Greece. Nevertheless, looking at ancient Greek medicine from the perspective of modern health economics is an interesting endeavour in that it increases our understanding of the ancient world and provides insights into contemporary society. Ancient Greece is rightly famous for pioneering secular and scientific m

Popular Abstract in Swedish Syftet med sjukgymnastik är att främja hälsa och välbefinnande och hjälpa människor till aktivitet och delaktighet vid sjukdom och skada. Professionen är påverkad av olika hälsoparadigm som hör samman med olika kunskapstraditioner. Det biomedicinska hälsoparadigmet har en dualistisk syn på människan, där normalitet ses som standard, och där syftet är att kurera och korrThe aim of physiotherapy is to promote health and well-being, and to facilitate increased activity and participation of individuals with diseases and injuries. The profession is influenced by different health paradigms which have emerged from different knowledge traditions. The biomedical paradigm of health adopts a dualistic view of mankind in which the normal is regarded as the standard, and the

Asthma and allergic rhinitis are diseases that cause major disability and illness in all ethnic groups and ages. It is well established that allergic rhinitis and asthma are closely linked entities and more than 75 % of the patients with asthma reports concomitant rhinitis. Asthma is also closely associated to bronchial hyperresponsiveness, and a large part of patients with rhinitis alone show a r

The concept of “style of thought” or Denkstil is today probably primarily associated with the Polish microbiologist and philosopher of science Ludwik Fleck and his writings from the 1930s. It was however used quite extensively already by Karl Mannheim in his writings on the sociology of knowledge from the 1920s. Quite interestingly, the concept of style of thought was also used twice by Rudolf Car

Desiccation of the Sahara since the middle Holocene has eradicated all but a few natural archives recording its transition from a "green Sahara" to the present hyperarid desert. Our continuous 6000- year paleoenvironmental reconstruction from northern Chad shows progressive drying of the regional terrestrial ecosystem in response to weakening insolation forcing of the African monsoon and abrupt hy

Background: The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae provides unique opportunities to study roles and regulation of aqua/glyceroporins using frontline tools of genetics and genomics as well as molecular cell and systems biology. Scope of review: S. cerevisiae has two similar orthodox aquaporins. Based on phenotypes mediated by gene deletion or overexpression as well as on their expression pattern, the y

Recordings of the acoustic activity of free-swimming groups of echolocating dolphins increase the likelihood of collecting overlapping click trains, originating from multiple individuals, in the same set of data. In order to evaluate the click properties of each individual based on such recordings it is necessary to identify which clicks originate from which animal. This paper suggests a computati

In this paper, we review our efforts to use quantum mechanical (QM) methods to improve free-energy estimates of the binding of drug candidates to their receptor proteins. First, we have tested the influence of various implicit solvation models on predictions of the ligand-binding affinity. The accuracy of implicit solvation models strongly depend on the parameterisation, but also on the magnitude

The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb(-1). The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary decay vertices of b

Purpose – In the field of humanitarianism, cluster thinking has been suggested as a solution to the lack of coordinated disaster response. Clusters for diverse functions, including sheltering, logistics and water and sanitation, can be viewed as an effort to achieve functional coordination. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a greater understanding of the potential of cluster concepts u

This licentiate thesis focuses on clustered parametric models for estimation of line spectra, when the spectral content of a signal source is assumed to exhibit some form of grouping. Different from previous parametric approaches, which generally require explicit knowledge of the model orders, this thesis exploits sparse modeling, where the orders are implicitly chosen. For line spectra, the non-l

Spectra of far-infrared conductivity contain useful information on charge transport at nanoscopic length scales. However. decrypting the mechanisms and parameters of charge transport from the measured spectra is a complex task in nanostructured systems in particular, the conductivity is strongly influenced by charge carrier interaction with surfaces or interfaces between constituents of the compos