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Schizophrenia is now generally considered to be a brain disease resulting from disturbed neurodevelopment, mediated by genetic and/or adverse events in utero and/or in early childhood. This process manifests itself in schizophrenia in young adulthood, when the brain completes its maturation. The background and development of affective psychosis have been less extensively investigated. Our aim was

Birds use vision to guide navigation, foraging and mate choice, and studies of the limitations in bird visual perception are most helpful for the understanding of bird ecology. Here, I present four studies of bird vision in bright and dim light. Paper I is a quantification of how sensitive colour vision modelling is to variation in data, such as the spectral sensitivity of photoreceptors and recep

In a retrospective follow-up study, n=202, long-term pain relief (>6 months) after a course of acupuncture treatments was found mainly among patients with chronic nociceptive pain while patients with neurogenic or psychogenic pain did not benefit much. In a placebo-controlled randomised single-blind long-term study with independent observer of chronic nociceptive low back pain, n=50, it was found

The work in this thesis concerns polymer gels, especially their swelling and mechanical properties modelled using a coarse-grained model of polyelectrolytes. The method used to study polymer gels was molecular simulation utilising the simulation package MOLSIM. Particular focus is on the effect of salt, macroions and network topology effects (polydispersity, loose-ends and interpenetrating network

Temperature-dependent structure and function of group A streptococcal M proteins.This thesis describes the temperature-dependent structure of the members in the group A streptococcal M protein family. M proteins are cell-surface proteins that are important for the bacterial virulence and bind to a diverse set of human plasma proteins. The proteins are dimeric coiled-coil molecules, but temperature

Just as all other organisms, plants adapt to various environmental conditions. This work focuses on the role of chloroplast light harvesting complex II, LHCII, in adaptation of photosynthesis to changed light conditions. The two photosystems of oxygenic photosynthesis, photosystem I and II, use light of slightly different wavelengths for photochemistry. Since the photosystems are coupled in serie

The objective of the work described in this thesis is to identify the principles and parts of an aftertreatment system for the catalytic NOx reduction for heavy-duty diesel vehicles, and to demonstrate such a system in full-scale. The reducing agent is diesel fuel. Many advantageous features of the diesel engine, such as life span, reliability and efficiency, make the engine the most frequent pow

Ultrafast nano-optics is a new and quickly evolving research field centred around the control, manipulation, and application of light on a nanometre and femtosecond scale. This can lead to improved electro-optical devices, more sensitive spectroscopy, and real-time control of chemical reactions. However, understanding the simultaneous nanometre and femtosecond evolution of nano-optical fields requ

During the last decade it has been shown that nitric oxide (NO) and carbon monoxide (CO) are produced in our own body, and that they constitute a novel class of messenger molecules. In 1992 a constitutive NO-producing NO-synthase (cNOS) was found in the islets of Langerhans, and in 1997 we could show for the first time that the islets also contained a CO-producing constitutive heme oxygenase (HO-2

Exposure to isocyanates may induce disorders in the airways of workers. Therefore, application, development and validation of methods for exposure assessment is of great importance. In the present study, we have determined the personal air and biomarker levels of isocyanates for a group of occupationally exposed workers (n=170) in different types of industrial processes. Also, the biomarker levels

The technology of cDNA microarrays has given us the possibility to monitor the state of cells by measuring the activity of thousands of genes simultaneously. This high-throughput techniqe has in cancer research allowed exploratory studies of molecular mechanisms behind for example metastasis and response to therapy. This increased knowledge can hopefully result in new therapies and improved progno

Mature blood cells are crucial for life, but they have a short lifetime and thus have to be replaced. These mature blood cells are produced by lineage restricted progenitors, which themselves are generated by rare multipotent hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in a highly dynamic process called hematopoiesis. In addition to the ability of HSCs to generate all blood cell lineages, they possess the uni

A highly dealuminated form of zeolite FAU, ultra-stable zeolite Y (USY), was used as an adsorbent matrix in the purification of proteins. Undesired proteins were removed from a crude preparation by adsorption on USY, increasing the purity of an unadsorbed protein (horse radish peroxidase), or the protein of interest was adsorbed on the zeolite and subsequently eluted through changes in the solutio

The aim of this thesis was to investigate and describe different aspects of variation in the Dactylorhiza maculata complex and to relate the variation patterns to underlying biological processes such as Quaternary migration history, hybridization and polyploid evolution. The variation patterns were analysed at various geographic levels using molecular markers (plastid DNA and ITS of nrDNA), cytolo

Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was used to study the self-diffusion of water in porous systems that respond to a change in water content in order to elucidate the porous structure and the properties of the confined water. In the carbohydrate systems cellulose fibers and starch granules, water is free to move throughout the porous objects, albeit with a rate reduced from the value of the

Specific language impairment (SLI) is commonly described as a condition where a child with otherwise normal development and hearing does not acquire language as expected. Children with SLI often have a family history of language disorders. The aetiology is poorly understood. In the first two studies, event-related brain potentials(ERPs)evoked in response to tone- and to speech stimuli were record

Evaluation of long-term side effects of treatment is important due to the growing number of childhood cancer survivors. How kidney function is affected over time needs to be clarified. In the first article, we investigated 247 healthy infants and children and established upper reference limits for several proteins in urine, to be used as markers for glomerular and tubular proteinuria in children w

It is attractive to integrate a large deformable mirror for adaptive optics into an astronomical telescope rather than using relay optics within an auxiliary instrument. However, the resulting large deformable mirror can be expensive, particularly for extremely large telescopes. We have pursued a low-cost approach using force actuators connected to the back of the deformable mirror through suction

The overall aim of this thesis was to increase our knowledge of the relationship between structure and function of human skeletal muscle, and about factors affecting strength. The ankle dorsiflexor muscles (DF) were chosen as a representative model of human skeletal muscle, and because these muscles have important roles in gait and maintenance of balance. Specific aims in this thesis were: i) to d

Transplantation is the only cure for end-stage organ failure. With the transplantation follows the need for continuous treatment with immunosuppressive agents for as long as the graft functions, which entails major side effects. Less toxic treatments are therefore in great demand. Preferably, the treatment should also be limited in time. The ultimate solution would be induction of tolerance to t