Amyloidosis is a group of diseases characterized by a change in protein conformation resulting in aggregation and tissue deposition of amyloid fibrils. One variant of cystatin C, L68Q cystatin C, is highly amyloidogenic and persons carrying the corresponding gene suffer from massive cerebral amyloidosis leading to brain hemorrhage and death. Amyloidogenic proteins like cystatin C and prion protein

Eosinophils, containing tissue toxic granule proteins, are regarded a culprit cell in asthma pathogenesis. Using animal and human experimental models of asthma effects on eosinophilic airway inflammation were investigated in vivo. The current research paradigm regarding spontaneous and steroid-induced clearance of airway tissue eosinophils exclusively involves death through apoptosis followed by p

This study is about health pedagogy in nursing education. The main purpose is to describe health pedagogy in the context of nursing education and to increase the understanding for the subject. It is the different experiences of how teachers and students understand the concept, and how this can be related to how health pedagogical knowledge is expressed in the documents which govern nurses' educati

Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by a CAG-triplet expansion in the gene encoding the protein huntingtin. The disease typically starts in mid-life and progresses for 15-20 years. To date no effective treatment is available for curing the disease. HD primarily affects the striatum, cerebral cortex and hypothalamus. At later stages cell death is evident in the striatum

The Malmö Preventive Project, a preventive, case-finding programme for cardiovascular risk factors and alcohol abuse was created in 1974 at the Department of Preventive Medicine of Malmö University Hospital. Between 1974-1992, a total of 22 444 men (mean age 44 years range 27 - 61) and 10 902 women (mean age 50 years, range 28 - 58) attended the programme, with an overall attendance rate of 70% (r

Poor ergonomics in production systems can compromise performance and cause musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), which pose a huge cost to society, companies, and afflicted individuals. This thesis presents a research trajectory through the problem space by: 1) Identifying and quantifying workplace risk factors for MSDs, 2) Identifying how these risks may relate to production strategies, and 3) Develo

In this thesis, retinal function in general, as well as central retinal function and structure are described in selected forms of acquired and hereditary retinal disorders, in order to improve our understanding of underlying pathogenic mechanisms. This comparison has been made possible during the last years, through the relatively recent development of multifocal ERG (mfERG) and optical coherence

The prime mover in the world today is the Internal Combustion (IC) engine. The development and improvement of the internal combustion engines since Nicolaus August Otto and Rudolf Diesel has continued until today and will continue long into the future. No major competitor to the IC engine has yet emerged. There is a long list of potential competitors but they still have to prove their superiority

This thesis consists of three theoretical essays on the acquisition of skills in teams. The first essay deals with the training and recruitment of football players in the European Soccer leagues. Before 1995, the transfer system entitled the ceding football club compensation from the acquiring football club when, on the expiry of his contract, the player in question moved to another club. In 1995,

Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is an extremely potent smooth muscle spasmogen well known from the vascular system but also active within the airways. The importance of its proinflammatory and co-mitogenic properties has become increasingly evident, the endothelin system also having been shown to mimic the signal features of asthma, COPD and other pulmonary diseases. The present thesis concerns the role of th

The fusion protein AML1-ETO is observed in acute myeloid patients with the chromosomal translocation t(8;21). Cells with this chimeric protein have impaired granulocytic and erythroid differentiation with accumulation of myeloblasts. The transcriptional co-repressor ETO (Eight Twenty One) was identified from the cloning of AML1-ETO. Subsequently, MTGR1 (Myeloid Translocation Gene-Related protein 1

The aim of this thesis was to identify the influence of calcium, physical activity and detraining on bone mass and bone size in girls and young women. We hypothesised that calcium intake above a specific level does not enhance the accrual of bone mineral, that exercise predominantly influences the skeleton in the early pubertal period and that reduced training is followed by a loss of exercise-ind

Coordination of policies embracing biomass use has been called for in order to speed up progress towards the European Union renewable energy and climate change goals. Policy coordination and coherence is also required if the many complex and diverse issues constraining sustainable bioenergy development are to be addressed. To contribute to meeting such needs this doctoral thesis provides insights

The aim of this thesis was to evaluate cervical physiological changes by three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound during pregnancy and to investigate the ability of 3D power Doppler to predict time to spontaneous and induced delivery in prolonged pregnancy. The thesis is based on five studies: reproducibility of cervical measurements by 3D power Doppler ultrasound (study I), reference data representativ

The aims of these studies were to evaluate retinoid measurements, more specifically the performance of all-trans and 13-cis retinoic acids methods in clinical experimental settings and to evaluate the informational value of these measurements in relation to S-Retinol. Biological and analytical variations for retinoids were evaluated for healthy subjects. The performance of the retinoic acid measur

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest of the scientific community for the use of ab initio and density functional theory methods in theoretical studies of molecules containing many atoms. However, the `scaling wall' of some of the most accurate of such methods is often an obstacle for their applicability to systems of real-life interest, e.g. in biochemistry and nanotechnologies, one bott

Relapsing polychondritis (RP) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are autoimmune diseases where an inappropriate immune response destroys cartilage. In RP, the ears, larynx, nose and joints are affected, while the most prominent sign of RA is arthritis. For ethical reasons many experiments can not be performed in man, and consequently animal models are needed. To investigate the complexity of the tissu

Brain damage from ischemia-reperfusion and hypoglycemia are major causes of morbidity and mortality. Therapeutic strategies include hypothermia, glutamate-receptor blockade, immunosuppression and lately treatment aiming at preserving mitochondrial integrity and function. Mitochondria are the main producers of cellular energy but mitochondria also participate in cell signaling and take an active pa

Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI), resulting from disease (e.g. cystic fibrosis, chronic pancreatitis) or surgery (e.g. pancreectomy or pancreas duct ligation), leads to disorders in the digestive system, such as, maldigestion, malabsorption and finally malnutrition. Pancreatic duct-ligated (PDL) pigs have been used as a suitable large-animal model to study the conditions and treatment of EP

Connective tissues contain a prominent extracellular matrix that provides mechanical and physical properties. This extracellular matrix contains as a major constituent a network of collagen fibres. These are composed of collagen fibrils, which in turn are assembled from many collagen molecules aligned parallel to each other. Several proteins, e.g. collagens, leucine-rich repeat proteins and thromb