Filtyp
Moths use chemical signals emanating from food to find sites for oviposition and subsequent larval feeding. By identifying these odours, novel approaches to pest management can be developed, such as monitoring of females in pest populations. The pyralid moths studied in this thesis, the almond moth (Ephestia cautella), the Mediterranean flour moth (E. kuehniella) and the Indian meal moth (Plodia i
Sphingomyelin (SM) is a major component of mammalian cell membranes. Due to its widespread occurrence it is a dietary component, occurring mainly in milk, eggs, meat and fish. In the cell membrane SM was earlier considered to be only a structural element, which interacts with cholesterol and forms a system for bilayer stabilization. In the last decade there has been an increasing interest in sphin
Atherosclerosis is one of the major causes of death in the world. It is an inflammatory disease in the arteries which causes a gradual increase in arterial wall thickness and stiffness. Eventually a plaque could be formed, protruding into the artery and partially occluding the blood flow. Rupture of such a plaque could cause cardiac infarction or stroke. This dissertation revolves around finding b
The role of dietary fibre (DF) in disease prevention has been extensively investigated and prospective studies observed that increased DF intake decreased the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), reduced the risk of weight gain as well as the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Also a diet characterized by low glycaemic index (GI) has been shown to reduce the risk of T2D and CVD. More recently, eviden
Parkinson’s disease is characterized by progressive degeneration of the nigrostriatal dopamine system, which results in tremor, rigidity, akinesia and postural abnormalities. New therapeutic strategies are aimed at halting the neurodegenerative process or restoring the system by transplantation of fetal dopamine neurons. We have investigated the potential of the neurotrophic factors glial cell lin
The two most common autoimmune endocrine diseases in children are autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT) and Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus (IDDM). Autoantibodies (ab) can be found several years before clinical diagnosis in both diseases. The aims of this study were to investigate the prevalence of thyroid ab in children with IDDM and in children with allergic diseases; to study islet ab and t
The reaction dynamics of several polyatomic systems have been investigated in solution by femtosecond spectroscopy. Tetranitromethane-naphtalene complexes excited in the charge-transfer band at 400 nm undergo dissociative electron transfer, resulting in three primary products: [naphthalene].+, NO2 and C(NO2)3-. It was shown that this triad is formed within 200 fs. The subsequent competing reaction
This thesis describes studies of the structure and tissue distribution of alpha-1-microglobulin (a1-m), a member of the lipocalin protein superfamily with immunosuppressive properies. It was shown that a1-m appears in human plasma in five major forms. These were identified as monomeric a1-m and covalent complexes between a1-m and IgA, prothrombin, albumin and a1-m. In addition to blood, both monom
Disregarding the small primordial traces of the lightest elements, all metals have been formed in stellar processes, which means that the relative amount of metals in the Universe increases for every stellar generation. This build-up of elements is called chemical evolution and might be used both to constrain stellar models as well as understanding the formation and evolution of stellar population
The thesis deals with the further development of pure rotational coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (RCARS) for improving the capabilities of gas phase thermometry. The main effort has been to make the technique more robust when employed under a wide range of temperatures and operational conditions. A primary aim has been to investigate the impact of collisional broadening on N2 RCARS thermom
In myelopoiesis, neutrophils and monocytes/macrophages are formed from a common myeloid precursor cell in the bone marow. During maturation of neutrophils, cytoplasmic granules are formed in the cells and the content of these granules is critical for the function of neutrophils in the first line of defense against invading microorganisms. The Bactericidal/Permeability-Increasing protein (BPI) is s
The studies in this doctoral thesis report aspects of cognitive and socio emotional development in a group of teenagers and young adults with dyslexia. The 75 subjects, between 14 and 25 years of age, had been diagnosed in the latter half of the 1990s, and the collection of quantitative and qualitative data was performed in 2003-04. Study I investigated the stability of intelligence. Earlier rese
The gastrointestinal tract harbours a huge load of bacteria which exerts important biological functions to maintain health. In certain conditions the relation between commensal bacteria and pathogens may be set off balance, with an increase in number of pathogens and risk of bacterial translocation (BT). Disease and trauma may also render the intestinal barrier dysfunctional, inducing BT and incre
The overall purpose of this thesis was to explore the impact of exercise and functional performance on development and treatment of knee osteoarthritis in the middle aged. In this thesis, I have studied a population based cohort of middle-aged subjects (35-54 years, 42 % women) with chronic knee pain at baseline, to evaluate the longitudinal effect of muscle weakness on knee osteoarthritis develo
The source region of the Yellow River contributes about 35% of the total water yield in the Yellow River basin playing an important role for meeting the downstream water resources requirements. The declining water availability caused by climate change in the source region of the Yellow River is expected to have severe repercussions for the 110 million basin inhabitants in terms of water resources
Temperature is one of the most fundamental parameters to be measured in many research disciplines. In combustion science, a thorough knowledge of temperature is essential for improving and optimizing combustion processes. Increasingly strict environmental legislation, greater demands for energy, and efforts to reduce dependence upon fossil fuels are forcing the combustion industry to obtain more a
The general aim of this thesis was to molecularly characterize urothelial carcinoma (UC) at the transcriptional level using gene expression microarrays to improve the classification and pathogenetic understanding of this disease. In the first two studies (Articles I and II), gene expression profiling was used to study dysregulated transcriptional networks in a large cohort of UCs. We also investig
Introduction: The mechanism of post ischemic reactive hyperemia is still unknown but now thought to be multifactorial and perhaps involving purinergic signalling. Purines such as ATP and ADP have recently been discovered to play a vital role in the regulation of vascular tone. We postulated that ADP could play a vital role in the mechanism of coronary post ischemic reactive hyperemia and that incr
Patients suffering from the deadly progressive neurodegenerative disease Friedreich's ataxia have reduced levels of expression of the protein frataxin. Yeast frataxin has been extensively studied in vitro, and has been shown to deliver iron to heme and iron-sulfur cluster biosynthesis, as well as to oligomerize in the presence of iron. In this dissertation metal-dependent oligomerization of fratax
Extracts from the bark of the vine Uncaria tomentosa have anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antimutagenic and antioxidant effects. In this study, we evaluate the effects of an Uncaria tomentosa extract, denoted C-Med 100, on the cellular level of the immune system both in vivo and in vitro. Our results indicated that lymphocytes had significantly prolonged half life after in vivo supplementation with
