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The improvements in GPU hardware, including hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and the push for fully dynamic realistic-looking video games, has been driving more research in the use of ray tracing in real-time applications. The work described in this thesis covers multiple aspects such as optimisations, adapting existing offline methods to real-time constraints, and adding effects which were hard

The process of population ageing that has been occurring in Sweden can be expected to continue during the coming decades, the population pyramid will become increasingly rectangular, and possibly even demonstrating a shrinking base. This will lead to increasing challenges in terms of financing pensions, elderly care and healtcare. These problems will continue for at least 30 years with no demograp

This study is done within the framework of a project aimed at developing a wearable device (a bracelet) intended to support sensory motor rehabilitation of children with visual impairments. We present an exploratory study of aesthetic/hedonistic preferences for sounds and touch experiences among visually impaired children. The work is done in a participatory setting, and we have used mixed methods

The intracellular pathogenesis-related proteins have been identified in a broad range of flowering plants. Some display quite different patterns of expression, in many cases unrelated to the pathogenic response. Nevertheless, these proteins are all very similar and in most cases share more than 35% sequence identity. In this report we investigate the significance of a rather weak similarity betwee

The tegumental glands of Derocheilocaris typica are tricellular. Their openings are formed by two transformed epidermal cells, each with a microvillar crown. These cells form a cuticular socket housing the tip of the underlying secretory cell. From the outside, the gland openings are seen as,a pit in the cuticle, from the bottom of which a thin cuticular chimney ends with a slit-like pore. The gla

The purpose of this study was to investigate patients' experiences of care in connection with hip fracture. The care process was examined through non-participant observation, informal field interviews and healthcare records. The findings showed that many factors in the healthcare services directly or indirectly influence patients' perceptions of the quality of care. Some of these factors may depen

The people bordering the Arabian Gulf, the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea rely more and more on seawater desalination for safe water supply. Desalination has advantages and disadvantages which to a large extent depend on the region, location, technology, impact and amount of fresh water production. In this region, some 60% of all desalination capacity is installed. The three regions areas repre

Horismenus abnormicaulis sp. nov., H. patensis sp. nov. and H. zuleidae sp. nov. (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), all authored by Pikart, Costa & Hansson, are described from material obtained from seed pods of Pithecellobium dulce (Roxb.) Benth. (Fabaceae) collected in Northeastern Brazil. The seed pods were infested with larvae of Coleoptera (Chrysomelidae (Bruchinae) and Curculionidae). The associ

Top-down control of pest populations by their natural enemies is a crucial ecosystem service supporting agricultural production. The relationship between predator community composition and predation rates of pests remains poorly investigated. A deeper understanding of the processes shaping interaction strength in agroecosystems is needed if we are to accurately predict natural pest control service

Peptide hormones may occur in particularly low amounts in samples from small animals. Hence, in a rat microdialysis study conventional immunoassays were not sufficiently sensitive to measure gastrin in the dialysis samples. We therefore exploited the observation that antibodies raised against the homologous hormone cholecystokinin (CCK) occasionally bind gastrin peptides with significantly higher

Background: Treatment of postoperative pain remains a significant clinical problem, and prediction of patients with a risk of higher postoperative pain levels is an important focus. We aimed to identify patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty (THA) with risk of higher pain levels at 24 h postoperatively by using four simple and easily available clinical tools. Methods: This prospective observat

Adenosine A(1) and A(2A) receptors are neuromodulatory systems that can control mnemonic behavior, which is modified by diabetes. Since the density of these adenosine receptors can change upon chronic noxious brain conditions, we now tested if the density of A(1) and A(2A) receptors was modified in the hippocampus of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. The binding density of the selective A(1) r

The in vitro growth and sporulation of Frankia isolate HFPCcI3, a nitrogen‐fixing symbiont of Casuarina, was inhibited by both the toxic and osmotic effects of sodium chloride. This was demonstrated by comparing HFPCcI3 halotolerance with its tolerance to metabolically neutral melibiose osmoticum at sodium chloride and melibiose concentrations from 0 to 500 mmol L‐1. The osmotolerance of this stra

The WT1 protein, a product of the Wilms’ tumour 1 gene (WT1) is a zinc finger transcription factor implicated in a number of cellular processes particularly involved in the development of the urogenital system. Mutations in this gene have been implicated in abnormal development of the urogenital system resulting in syndromes such as the Denys-Drash, WAGR and Frasier and in the childhood kidney mal

INTRODUCTION: Remote consultations help reduce contact between people and prevent cross-contamination. Little is known about the changes in consultation in European rural primary care during the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic. The purpose of this mixed-methods cross-sectional study was to find out more about the effects of the pandemic on changes in patient consultations in European rural primary

Considerable time is often spent optimizing antennas to meet specific design metrics. Rarely, however, are the resulting antenna designs compared to rigorous physical bounds on those metrics. Here, we study the performance of optimized planar meander line antennas with respect to such bounds. Results show that these simple structures meet the lower bound on the radiation quality factor (Q-factor)

The advancement of mobile technologies and their ability to utilize the Global Positioning System (GPS) to accurately locate their substantial number of users, prompt Location-Based Services (LBS) significantly. Ride-sharing is a popular means of transportation that utilizes LBS. With the rapid development of smart cities and their impact on addressing the critical issues of urban life such as tra

In this article we report on a systematic comparison of presentational sentencesin Icelandic and Swedish, looking in particular at possible thematicroles of the pivot and how they correlate with positional options. Despitesome well-known differences between the languages (only Icelandic allows‘high’ IP-pivots and pivots with transitive verbs), it turns out that the restrictionson VP-pivots are sim