Sökresultat

The subject for this dissertation is the Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch’s Das 6-Tage-Spiel (1998). The purpose is to examine in what way Das 6-Tage-Spiel, as part of the orgien mysterien theater (hereafter o. m. theater), is an adequate means to realize Nitsch’s intention (as he has described them outside of the work in writings and interviews). Das 6-Tage-Spiel is an example of a category of scen

Amperometric enzyme based biosensors were designed, developed and characterised in flow systems. Solid graphite and carbon paste electrodes were used as support for enzyme immobilisation. Both mediated and direct electron transfers between redox enzymes and electrodes were utilised for biosensor construction, as well as coupled enzyme systems. Special emphasis was placed on the optimisation of bio

A phonetogram is a diagram displaying sound pressure levels (SPL) of softest and loudest possible phonation over the entire fundamental frequency range (F0) of a voice. Female singers mean phonetogram had a significantly higher upper contour than female nonsingers. When reading at various voice levels female singers produced markedly higher mean equivalent sound pressure levels (Leq) and mean rel

Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic activities of the antidepressants venlafaxine (VEN) and citalopram (CIT) were investigated in the portacaval shunted (PCS) rat, a model of chronic hepatic encephalopathy (HE), and normal/control rats. The levels of VEN in serum and brain were higher in PCS rats than in controls after a single injection and chronic treatment with VEN (10 mg/kg). After reducing th

The research presented in this thesis has focused on methods for improving the legibility and usability of maps in real-time map services. The aim has been threefold: to create methods to increase the cartographic quality of maps in map services, to develop methods to measure the legibility, as perceived by the user, and to evaluate the quality of maps. Map services are becoming increasingly commo

The Baltic Sea is a continental shelf sea that is influenced by both river runoff and marine water. The two water masses are vertically stratified in the Baltic Sea, resulting in a positive, estuarine circulation system, which has undergone changes in the past due to isostatic uplift of the Baltic basin. For researchers to understand past changes in the marine environment of the Baltic Sea, a soun

Tuberculosis (TB) has plagued the humanity for several thousands of years. The bacteria causing TB is mainly spread from person to person as an aerosol transmission. It is estimated that one third of the world’s population is infected with the disease; about 10% of these will develop active TB during their lifetime. In year 2000, 8 million TB-cases were detected, of which 2 million died. Except fo

Gel dosimetry is a new dosimetry method applied in radiation therapy. Gel dosimeters consist of a radiation sensitive gel, which can integrate absorbed doses from several radiation sources or beams. The dose to the gel can be evaluated by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a procedure that is the focus of the present thesis. A robust tool for the evaluation of the nonuniformity in MRI has been dev

In this thesis, a new electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) signal from photosystem II is presented. The signal is shown to originate from the S0 oxidation state of the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC). It is a Mn-derived signal displaying clear hyperfine structure, centered at g=2, and is significantly broader than the well-known multiline signal from the S2 state, indicating the presence of MnII in

Urinary tract infections (UTI) are among the most common bacterial infections in humans. Symptomatic UTIs may be acute, recurrent or chronic but the most frequent form of UTI is asymptomatic bacteruria (ABU). In ABU, the mucosa remains inert, despite the presence of large bacterial numbers in urine. The difference in disease severity reflects the virulence of the infecting strain and the propensit

The aim of this thesis has been to study protein-polymer interaction and association. Two different techniques were used; Monte Carlo simulations were combined with partitioning in polymeric aqueous two-phase systems. Monte Carlo simulations have been used to evaluate the hydrophobic interaction in electrolyte solution. The results showed that monovalent salt only slightly increases the hydrophob

This work has been aimed at developing and applying laser-induced incandescence (LII) for flame soot characterization. The basic principle of LII is rapid heating of the soot particles to temperatures of 3500-4000 K by short laser pulses. Thereby the intensity of the soot incandescence is increased. By detection of this increased incandescence and analysis of the detected signal, the volume fracti

Optical spectroscopy is a versatile and powerful tool to probe translucent materials. In this work, the focus is on characterization of strongly scattering (turbid) materials by means of time-of-flight spectroscopy (TOFS). Instrumentation and modelling aspects of TOFS were investigated and improved, enabling significantly more accurate spectroscopic measurements. It was shown that the commonly us

Advanced manufacturing technologies and programmable machines such as industrial robots are used to increase productivity and quality for competitiveness on a global market. Development of increasingly flexible manufacturing systems has resulted in an increasing importance of software aspects, both on a system level and for efficient interaction with human operators. Trends toward providing custom

Predicting the probable survival for a patient can be very challenging for many diseases. In many forms of cancer, the choice of treatment can be directly impacted by the estimated risk for the patient. This thesis explores different methods to predict the patient's survival chances using artificial neural networks (ANN). ANN is a machine learning technique inspired by how neurons in the brain fu

Amphibious vision is accomplished in many animals by special optical and physiological adaptations in the eyes. However, human eyes are considered to be adapted to a life in air since our curved outer cornea – which is used to refract more than two-thirds of the incoming light on land – becomes useless underwater. This thesis produces evidence that Moken children, a population of sea nomads (or se

There are two fundamentally different ways by which a metabolite can be transferred between enzymes in metabolic pathways. If the two sequential enzymes cannot form a complex with each other, the metabolite must first be released from the producing enzyme to the reaction medium and then be transported to the consuming enzyme, via the reaction medium, by free diffusion. If the two sequential enzyme

GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid) is a well-known inhibitory neurotransmitter in the CNS. GABA is also present at high concentrations in the insulin-producing β-cells in the islets of Langerhans, but its function there is less clear. GABA is believed to accumulate in SLMVs (synaptic-like microvesicles). These vesicles are different from the insulin-containing LDCVs (large dense-core vesicles). In this th

In this thesis I used allozymes and PCR-RFLP analysis of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) to investigate geographic differentiation within the widespread Silene dioica (L.) Clairv. (Caryophyllaceae) and the narrowly-distributed S. hifacensis Rouy ex Willk., (a Spanish endemic). In an investigation of allozyme variation in Nordic S. dioica, multivariate analysis of variation at eight polymorphic loci reveal

Macrophages mediate innate immunity through release of cytokines, eicosanoids, reactive oxygen species as well as through phagocytosis and secretion of lysosomal enzymes. Regulation of lysosomal secretion in macrophages differs in several respects from release of specialized granules in other leukocytes. Lysosomal secretion is not dependent upon cytosolic calcium but is instead triggered by lysoso