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Streptococcus pyogenes is a common human pathogen causing mild infections such as tonsillitis and pharyngitis, but is also the cause of life-threatening conditions. To be able to infect the human host, S. pyogenes express different virulence factors. The surface-expressed M protein is a major virulence factor of S. pyogenes, mediating resistance to killing by human neutrophils. Results presented i

Objectives and design Knowledge in physiotherapy is based on both scientific evidence and clinical practice. Different perspectives of knowledge generate different implications for theory development. The aim of this qualitative, phenomenographic study was to describe physiotherapists' conceptions of physiotherapy knowledge. Intervention and participants Open, semi-structured interviews were condu

The use of topographical data in hydrological and agricultural applications has increased with GPS data availability and the concept of precision agriculture. This thesis investigates the relationships between topography and in one case simulated soil moisture and in the other case yield. The yield was recorded with a new optical sensor, which uses a digital camera to detect objects and records th

BACKGROUND: Extracellular nucleotides play an important role in the regulation of vascular tone and may be involved in cerebral vasospasm after subarachnoidal haemorrhage. This study was designed to characterise the contractile P2 receptors in endothelium-denuded human cerebral and omental arteries. The isometric tension of isolated vessel segments was recorded in vitro. P2 receptor mRNA expressio

Cellulose, a polysaccharide consisting of beta-1,4-linked glucose, is the major component of plant cell walls and consequently one of the most abundant biopolymers on earth. Carbohydrate polymers such as cellulose are molecules with vast diversity in structure and function, and a multiplicity of hydrolases operating in concert are required for depolymerisation. The bacterium Rhodothermus marinus,

This thesis is a comparative analysis of five cases, in which criminal responsibility and mental disorder were in issue. Andrea Yates drowned her five children. John W. Hinckley Jr shot and injured President Ronald Reagan. Kjeldsen raped and assassinated a taxi driver on his way from Calgary to Banff. Mijailo Mijailovic attacked and killed the Swedish minister of foreign affairs Anna Lindh. Sara S

All companies face risk in their daily business. Internationalised companies tend to experience higher risk due to for example unfamiliar business environment than companies that act only on the national market. Estonia became independent as late as in 1991 and is therefore a new interesting market for many companies in neighbouring countries like Sweden. Risks that are most apparent for an intern

Power production represents one fourth to one third of all CO2 emissions. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in one way to approach the increasing problem with CO2 emissions from fossil fuelled power plants. The CO2 is separated, compressed and transported to a final storing site. To allow more efficient transport and to match the pressure of the final storing site, the CO2 is compressed to a superc

To allow the user interface in a mobile phone more space, slide modules are implemented. The usage of slide modules introduces many new challenges when designing a mobile phone. New solutions to these challenges is the main scope for this thesis. Nokia currently has several different slide phones out on the market implementing some sort of slide module. The slide module provides extra space for th

Problem: The industry structure could be viewed as changing. A problem for some mangers is the knowing how the consequences of their decisions affect their supply chain in advance. Purpose: The purpose is divided into two parts. (1) To examine the possibility of applying the complexity theory through an agent-based model at a supply chain. (2) To investigate and evaluate different future scenarios

This essay deals with eight women, who all left their native country Bosnia because of the war. Before the flight, each individual is a human being with a role and a place in the structure of society. After the flight, she suddenly finds herself in an unknown community, after having lost her land, her culture, family, friends and identity. The purpose of this essay was to try to give a backdrop of

Introduction Reporting estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) instead of serum concentrations is advised in current guidelines. Most creatinine-based eGFR equations for children require height, a parameter not readily available to laboratories. Combining height-dependent creatinine- and cystatin C-based eGFR improves performance. Recently, a height-independent creatinine-based eGFR equation h

Non-myelinated C-fibre responses during sympathetic trunk stimulation were studied in rabbit common peroneal nerve 2 weeks after the nerve had been subjected to compression at 400 mmHg for 30 min. Our previous studies have demonstrated that during sympathetic trunk stimulation the compound action potential of uninjured somatic C-fibres is characterized by a reduced amplitude and an increased laten

Seed orchards function as the primary source of high-quality seeds for reforestation in many European countries, but their seed yields can be severely reduced due to seed- and cone-feeding insects. We evaluated various parameters of pheromone-based mating disruption for control of the moths Cydia strobilella and Dioryctria abietella, which are major pests in European Picea abies seed orchards. We

År 2001 deklarerade den tanzaniska regeringen den första Primary Education Development Plan och därmed avskaffades den tidigare obligatoriska skolavgiften för grundskolan. I och med avskaffandet av skolavgiften förväntades andelen barn i grundskola att öka. Syftet med avhandlingen är att förstå hur reformen och dess fokus på avskaffandet av skolavgiften har påverkat föräldrars och vårdnadshavares In 2001, the first Primary Education Development Plan declared that the previous obligatory primary education fee was to be abolished in Tanzania. This was an attempt to increase the access to public primary education for all children. This thesis aims to understand how the reform and its focus on the abolition of school fee influences parents’ and caregivers’ support for primary education and imp

Background The long-term risk of stroke after surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation is not well known. We performed an observational cohort study with long follow-up after the “cut-and-sew” Cox-maze III procedure (CM-III), including left atrial appendage excision. The aim was to analyze the incidence of stroke/transient ischemic attack (TIA) and the association to preoperative CHA2DS2-VASc (ag

Objective: To develop automated immunoassays for the quantification of Cartilage Oligomeric Matrix Protein (COMP) and a COMP neoepitope in synovial fluid and to investigate their diagnostic potential in different joint conditions. Methods: Two sandwich immunoassays were developed for the quantification of COMP and a COMP neoepitope, using an automated analyser (IDS-iSYS, Immunodiagnostic Systems,

Background: Pain is a frequent symptom of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease and has a substantial impact on quality of life. The King’s Parkinson’s disease pain scale (KPPS) has become internationally established and is an English-language, standardized, reliable and valid scale for evaluation of pain in idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. This article presents a validated version in German. Method: The

Caveolae are membrane invaginations present at high densities in muscle and fat. Recent work has demonstrated that myocardin family coactivators (MYOCD, MKL1), which are important for contractile differentiation and cell motility, increase caveolin (CAV1, CAV2, CAV3) and cavin (CAVIN1, CAVIN2, CAVIN3) transcription, but several aspects of this control mechanism remain to be investigated. Here, usi

Laser-capture microdissection (LCM) offers a reliable cell population enrichment tool and has been successfully coupled to MS analysis. Despite this, most proteomic studies employ whole tissue lysate (WTL) analysis in the discovery of disease biomarkers and in profiling analyses. Furthermore, the influence of tissue heterogeneity in WTL analysis, nor its impact in biomarker discovery studies have