Filtyp
The question of America’s cultural position in relation to the rest of the world is essential for all research connected to America and to the history of modern Europe. This situation has become obvious over the last years because of our societies’ latest “crisis”, with the consecration of the “post-modern” and “global” view of society, history and culture. The aim of the dissertation is to analys
Evo Morales and the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) took office in Bolivia in 2006, riding on the wave of fierce popular protests against previous, neoliberal regimes. Morales was depicted as the country’s first indigenous president. His government promised a radical transformation of national politics and rebranded Bolivia as a “plurinational state”. Under MAS, indigenous subjectivity has moved fr
Visual ergonomics evaluations and interventions were performed on non-computer work tasks at recycling facilities, post sorting facilities and operating theatres. The results can to some extent be applicable to other professions and workplaces. The purpose of the research was to investigate the effects of visual ergonomics interventions on eyestrain, musculoskeletal discomfort, headache, and visua
Modern spectroscopic techniques, such as nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and Raman spectroscopy, rely heavily on statistical signal processing systems for decision making and information extraction. The first part of this thesis introduces novel robust algorithms for detection, estimation, and classification of signals obtained through these spectroscopic tech
This dissertation is a study of metaphors of emotion in rebétiko song texts. Rebétiko is a major popular-music style of modern Greece, consisting mostly of melancholic songs full of sorrow, disappointment, and misfortune, as well as passion and romance, but also of cheerful songs of revelry and a carefree attitude to life. Rebétiko as a music style developed in the Greek-speaking world and its dia
This thesis explores the relationship between the position, function and semantics of the German particle "also" (?so?). Traditionally, "also" is classified as a conjunctional adverb because it can fill the position in front of the finite verb in the German clause, the so-called "Vorfeld" (?pre-field?). In this position, it has a meaning similar to that of a conjunction but a distribution similar
How well can we explain natural occurrences of cognitive behaviours given the theoretical frameworks available to us today? The thesis explores what has to be assumed in cognitive theory in order to provide such an explanation, in contrast to being able to predict behaviour under controlled circumstances. The behaviours considered are all of the type described as involving higher level cognition
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD, is manifested by chronic airflow limitation due to inflammation and tissue destruction in the lungs. COPD is caused primarily by smoking and with increasing cigarette consumption in the world, the prevalence for COPD will most probably increase in the future. The chronic inflammation in the lungs of these patients is thought to drive the pathogenesis fo
Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a common disease where underlying mechanisms for the local initiating events in the pancreas, the systemic dissemination of the inflammatory response and remote organ dysfunction still are unclear. The overall aim of the thesis was to study mechanisms of the inflammatory response in AP with special emphasis on local, systemic, and distant organ injury directed at differe
The aim of this study is to describe and analyse the situation of male teachers in the day-to-day work of pre-school, taking into account the fact that men are underrepresented in this profession. The methodic field is qualitative. Video recordings and interviews have been carried out with the fourteen male pre-school teachers who have participated in the project. Some of these men work together w
One of the most important aspects of the marriage legislation in medieval canon law is the doctrine of free choice. According to this doctrine, established by pope Alexander III in the second half of the twelfth century, the validity of a marriage depended solely on the freely given consent of the parties. Neither family nor witnesses, not even the presence of a priest were necessary to form a val
The main contribution of this thesis is approximation algorithms for several computational geometry problems. The underlying structure for most of the problems studied is a geometric network. A geometric network is, in its abstract form, a set of vertices, pairwise connected with an edge, such that the weight of this connecting edge is the Euclidean distance between the pair of points connected. S
This study challenges the prevailing assumption that the expansion of cultivated land areas and increasing number of livestock in the agro-pastoral regions of northern China have aggravated the process of land degradation since the start of the rural reforms in 1978. Land-use and productivity trends in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR), with special attention to the Keerqin steppe region
In this thesis the role of cartilage proteins and their potential as antigen and availability to the immune system in arthritis were investigated. Six papers are included; where four present new animal models for Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), one shows how genetic disorders in cartilage may affect arthritis and the last how posttranslational modification of collagen type II (CII) affects tolerance. P
Physician and patient do not meet as equals in the consultation. It is the responsibility of the physician to actively work for better communication in order to provide equitable health care for all individuals. Immigrant patients are a vulnerable group, shown in studies all over the world to have less access to care, fewer opportunities for health, and poorer health compared to majority populatio
Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most common form of epilepsy among adult patients, and the most problematic one as seizures cannot be controlled by currently available drugs in 30 % of patients. Gene therapy based on overexpression of endogenous anti-epileptic agents such as the neuropeptide galanin and the glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) represents a promising new approach
Evangelium Cyrillicum Gothoburgense, ECG, a tetraevangel treasured in Göteborg University Library, has been studied from several aspects. A codicological study showed that the MS bears signs of earlier restoration and that some leaves are missing at the beginning and at the end. The watermark is a "boar", and the date of ECG is believed to be 1605-1625 on the basis of an identical watermark in ano
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is characterized by lipid accumulation and inflammation in arteries. The disease starts early in life with migration of monocytes into the arterial wall where they engulf entrapped lipoproteins and become macrophage foam cell. A simultaneous inflammatory response further enhances lipid and cell accumulation at sites of lesion development, resulting in progression of at
Chronic diabetic foot ulcers are a source of major concern for both patients and health care systems. Oxygen deficiency plays a major role in the pathogenesis of these ulcers. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) has been proposed as a medical treatment for diabetic foot ulcers, but the clinical utility has not been established. Hyperbaric Oxygen in Diabetic patients with chronic Foot Ulcer (HODFU) st
The aim of this thesis was to develop a non-invasive method to quantify the size of a shunt through a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) by ultrasound and to test its usability in clinical settings. There is no consensus regarding the optimal management strategy for a PDA in premature infants. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) are the first treatment of choice. The use of NSAIDs, especiall
