Filtyp
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
Most organisms on Earth live a life where they are exposed to multiple and variable threats. In order to maximise survival they need to be able to perceive and respond to these threats. Two common threats that crustacean zooplankton are faced with are predation and ultraviolet radiation (UVR). To cope with these threats zooplankton use different strategies such as diel vertical migration and the a
Left atrioventricular plane displacement (AVPD) has been shown to correlate well with left ventricular (LV) systolic function measured as ejection fraction (EF). AVPD has also been shown to be related to diastolic performance. Other factors related to AVPD include age, heart rate, LV and atrial dimensions, myocardial thickness, bodysurface, and afterload. In this thesis the left AVPD was studied i
The growth of short fatigue cracks deviates from the behaviour of long fatigue cracks even if subjected to the same nominal driving force. The influence from the microstructure is pronounced, while crack closure effects may not be that important as for longer cracks. The objective of this thesis is to study the local conditions for crack growth for two different short crack problems, and to develo
This thesis evaluates alterations in lipid metabolism and Kupffer cell morphology seen during total parenteral nutrition in healthy rats. During infusion of lipid emulsions, cholesterol and phospholipids accumulated in non-high density lipoproteins, while high density lipoproteins were enriched in triglycerides. Triglycerides also accumulated in hepatic tissue, and the activity of hepatic lipase
Estrogen receptors (ER) are expressed not only in classical target organs for estrogen like breast and uterus, but also in male reproductive system as well as in non-reproductive organs such as brain, liver and bone. The functions of ER are quite well known in reproductive organs but less information is available regarding their function in vascular tissue. The objective of this thesis was to inve
This thesis describes early inflammatory responses involving interactions between leukocytes and the endothelial lining of the blood vessel wall. An adhesion molecule, E-selectin, which is upregulated on interleukin-1 activated endothelium, was found to mediate rolling between leukocytes and endothelial cells in vivo. Immunohistochemistry revealed that E-selectin was preferentially expressed in ve
Competition between and within species has been one of the most studied concepts in ecology. In this thesis the aim was to test the idea of plant-microbial competition for N and, by studying this interaction, to gain a better understanding of different N processes in soil. The research carried out seeks to investigate plant-microbial competition for N based on the definition that competition only
Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic diseases characterized by hyperglycemia resulting from defects in insulin secretion, insulin action, or both. The new WHO criteria for classification of diabetes takes into account also clinical stages dividing the diabetic patients into noninsulin requiring (NIR), insulin requiring for control (IRC) and insulin requiring for survival (IRS) subgroups. Diab
This thesis concerns how people with stroke describe their experiences of life with stroke and how they learn to live with stroke. In the western world the interest for research in lived experiences has increased. This might be due to the higher rate of people with illness and lifelong diseases. The aim of the study is to analyze stories from persons with stroke of their lived experiences of life
There is an ongoing controversy regarding how to take care of patients with mild primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT). Some recommend surgical treatment at diagnosis, others just follow-up as long as there is no evidence of disease progression. The aim of this thesis was to evaluate cardiac and skeletal risk factors related to the duration of mild PHPT. Fifty patients with mild PHPT were randomized
The aims of this research was to compare different risk score algorithms with regard to their validity to predict 30-day and one-year mortality after open-heart surgery, to evaluate if the preoperative risk stratification model EuroSCORE predicts the different components of resource utilization in cardiac surgery, and to systematically evaluate the accuracy and performance of artificial neural net
Diamond-Blackfan anemia (DBA) is a congenital erythroid aplasia that usually presents as macrocytic anemia during infancy. Linkage analysis suggests that at least four genes are associated with DBA of which two have been identified so far. The known DBA genes encode the ribosomal proteins S19 and S24 accounting for 25% and 2% of the patients respectively. This study shows that RPS19 gene transfer
The aim of this thesis is to describe and explain independent declarative clauses in German which have the finite verb in absolute clause-initial position. They are called verb-first declarative clauses. It is shown that this type of clause can be found in a variety of Germanic languages. There is evidence suggesting that this is a very old type with roots in ancient Indo-European. It has thus ex
In many developing tropical countries, rapid urban growth leads to several problems, including increased thermal stress. This has negative consequences for people's health and well-being, and affects social and commercial outdoor activities negatively. Consequently, the creation of thermally comfortable microclimates in urban environments is highly important. The main aim of this thesis is to dee
Over the last 25 years a number of new anaesthetic drugs have been introduced on the market to allow for better patient satisfaction and faster recovery after anaesthesia and sedation. Propofol (2,6-di-isopropylphenol), one of our most common iv anaesthetics, is associated with pleasant sleep and rapid recovery with little postoperative nausea. When used for anaesthetic induction propofol causes s
N-acylethanolamines (NAEs) belong to a growing family of endogenous signalling molecules acting on a variety of receptors and ion channels. In 1992, it was reported that the N-acylethanolamine anandamide is present in the brain and activates the central cannabinoid (CB) receptor. Anandamide and other NAEs are considered to be generated on demand following receptor activation or cell stress. The ti
Brandvägg describes how a group of firefighters, who consistently maintain that they are “practitioners and not theorists”, relate to various forms of language based knowledge and language based “knowledging” in their vocational training, which is based on problem based learning. From a sociocultural perspective to learning, and within the parameters of a didactic perspective with the focus on the
Increased attention is nowadays devoted to waste management. The objective of this work is to analyse how commonly known business economic models and methods, as well as the Polluter-Pays Principle, can be applied to waste management in general and to waste fractionation in particular, so as to facilitate environmental optimisation of industrial and construction waste fractionation. In discussing
