By building a strong brand that is favourably perceived by target customers, a firm can establish a competitive advantage that enables greater revenues and profitability. This is at least what the branding literature always has assumed, and something few marketing and brand managers seem to disagree with. When asked how exactly a brand can be charged with such great value, however, neither academi

The Ugandan Government has aimed at creating a needs-based and cost-effective health care system. The means to carry out this aim have been 1) a decentralization of the health sector in order to increase lower-level responsibility, accountability, and participation, and 2) a strong national policy formulation capacity, facilitating needs assessment and cost-effective prioritization. Aim The aim

In the present thesis, I investigated the inter- and intraspecific variation in the Silene vulgaris/uniflora species-complex (the bladder campions). I have focused on the effects of past and present hybridization both on a large scale ? over the whole of Europe ? and on a local scale. Silene vulgaris and S. uniflora are perennial herbs and they are interfertile. The results from my studies sugges

Food production and consumption are key drivers of environmental pressures and are essential factors in the promotion and maintenance of health. Production of food occupies more than one third of global land areas and is estimated to be responsible for some 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, we live in a world where nearly one billion people go hungry and even more people su

In this thesis, methods for automated analysis of myocardial perfusion single photon emission computer tomography (myocardial perfusion SPECT, MPS) images have been successfully developed and evaluated. MPS images show the perfusion of the myocardium and are used for diagnosing patients with suspected ischemic heart disease. The disease is characterized by reduced perfusion to a region of the myoc

A brief period of sublethal ischemia in the brain induces resistance to a subsequent, otherwise lethal ischemic insult. This phenomenon is known as ischemic tolerance or preconditioning. A model of ischemic preconditioning in the rat brain using the two-vessel occlusion model of global cerebral ischemia was established. Using this model we have demonstrated that ischemic preconditioning protects t

ABSTRACT Telomerase activity is a potential molecular marker for cancer and primitive cells in regenerative tissues. The most commonly used method to measure telomerase activity in cells is the telomerase reverse amplification protocol (TRAP) assay, where the protein extracts derived from homogenized cells are analysed. In this thesis we focused on developing a method where telomerase activity co

Malaria and tuberculosis are two of the most deadly infectious diseases that exist. Both diseases predominantly affect the most vunerable parts of society. Additionally the treatment of both diseases are complicated by growing and spreading resistance against the drugs used to treat them. Chloroquine was once described as a wonder drug for its combination of efficacy, low price and tolerable side

Osteotomy is used for correction of the altered load on the gonarthrotic knee joint. It can be performed above or below the knee. Clinical results depend on the correction after bone healing. By tibial closed wedge osteotomy (HTO), the deformity is corrected peroperatively in contrast to tibial hemicallotasis osteotomy (HCO) where the correction is performed after surgery. Comparing the two method

The Affects Towards And Perceptions Of The Self And Significant Others in Hemophiliacs and Diabetics The studies in this dissertation investigated the feelings towards and ways of perceiving the self and significant others in twenty-seven patients with hemophilia between the ages of 16-39 to discern how their perceptual-affect states are organized. Secondly, the relationship between bleeds and aff

This study has involved investigation of number of populations of the damselfly Ischnura elegans over several years, looking at frequency changes over time, morphological differences between the sexes and the morphs, differences in growth rate and development time, differences in fecundity between the morphs, and genetic differentiation between populations. I. elegans is a small annual damselfly w

The Rare Earth Elements are a group of metals, that are of growing technical and economical importance. Current separation techniques can be detrimental to the environment, and a clean technology for separation has been devised, based on analytical chromatography of the REEs. The thesis presents column preparation and impregnation to give desired properties of the separation system, experimental a

This thesis focuses on i) the effect of packing on the molecular geometry ii) packing arrangements of neutral Pd(II) and Pt(II) complexes iii) the trans influence in Pt(II) complexes iv) the differences in bonding in corresponding Pd(II) and Pt(II) complexes and v) the geometry of Pd(II) complexes with potential catalytic properties. Detailed three-dimensional structural information at the atomic

Organic carbon and bacteria have a high variability at different scales in the soil, and organic carbon may be a limiting factor for growth of soil bacteria. Thus, it can be expected that these co-vary at different scales in the soil. In this thesis, I have studied the spatial interaction between soil bacteria and natural and contaminant (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, PAH) organic carbon. The o

Molar mass and molar mass distribution of polymers are parameters of fundamental importance as they influence the performance of the polymer in applications. Polysaccharide derivatives are a class of polymers that have attracted significant scientific and commercial interest as they can be manufactured from a wide range of abundant sources in nature and thereby often are both cheap and biocompatib

Inhalation of air-borne microorganisms and components thereof can cause illnesses and diseases. However, lack of specific and sensitive methods for exposure assessment can pose problems in predicting health outcomes. Characterization of microbial load from indoor environments using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and/or tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MSMS) as well as various bioassays (

A number of homo- and heterodinuclear complexes have been synthesized as structural and functional models for the the active sites of phosphoesterases and soluble methane monooxygenases. The complexes are based on four new dinucleating ligands containing a central, potentially bridging, phenolate moiety. The hydrolytic activity of the complexes was examined by exploring the ability of the complexe

The thesis was intended to fill gaps in the knowledge regarding the normal development of lung volumes and lung mechanics in children, from young infancy to the mid-teens. In particular, data were previously lacking regarding pre-school children. The studies were done during anesthesia and muscle relaxation. Measurements: · Absolute lung volume was obtained with a tracer gas method (sulfur hexaf

Using computer-assisted sequence homology searches we identified three genes encoding proteins similar to certain fusion partner proteins in cancer. The novel APRIL gene was localized to 15q25 and encodes a protein, containing an acidic amino-acid region similar to that/those of leukemia-associated fusion partner proteins DEK and SET. The N-terminus of APRIL contains leucine-rich repeats. The mous

Many individuals spend a substantial portion of their waking time thinking about topics unrelated to current activities and surroundings (mind wandering). This dissertation sought to contribute to our knowledge of why some people mind wander more than others. Mind wandering in cognitive tasks is more common in individuals with poor executive cognitive control (working memory updating, inhibiting t