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Background: Excess body weight, physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption and certain dietary factors are individually related to colorectal cancer (CRC) risk; however, little is known about their joint effects. The aim of this study was to develop a healthy lifestyle index (HLI) composed of five potentially modifiable lifestyle factors healthy weight, physical activity, non-smoking, limited
In order to increase the understanding of suicidal behaviour, the general aim of the thesis is to gain a profound knowledge of the suicidal individual, and hence to find and ensure a preventive strategy. This will be accomplished by finding and trying new methods for evaluation of suicide risk. The Suicide Assessments Scale, SUAS, and a new self-rating version, SUAS-S were tested. These scales ar
Head and neck cancer is a heterogeneous group of tumours, although histopathologically, >95% are squamous cell carcinomas (SCC). Some tumours respond better to therapy than others. Not enough is known to predict the outcome and tailor individualised treatment. Although one of the main risk factors, smoking, has decreased over the last decades, some head and neck cancer groups show increasing incid
Understanding past methane dynamics in arctic wetlands and lakes is crucial for estimating future methane release. Methane fluxes from lake ecosystems have increasingly been studied, yet only few reconstructions of past methane emissions from lakes are available. In this study, we develop an approach to assess changes in methane availability in lakes based on delta C-13 of chitinous invertebrate r
Atmospheric organic aerosols are generally classified as primary and secondary (POA and SOA) according to their formation processes. An actual separation, however, is challenging when the timescales of emission and gas-to-particle formation overlap. The presence of SOA formation in biomass burning plumes leads to scientific questions about whether the oxidized fraction of biomass burning aerosol i
Background Acute pyelonephritis is a common infection in adult women, but there is a paucity of controlled trials of its treatment and the optimum duration of antibiotic treatment has not been properly defined. We compared the efficacy of ciprofloxacin for 7 days and 14 days in women with community-acquired acute pyelonephritis. Methods In a prospective, non-inferiority trial undertaken at 21 cent
Northern Europe was capped by ice during Weichsel (Wurm), the maximum of which occurred approximately 18,000 years before present. When in the latter part of the 19(th) century the view of an all-devastating land ice (the tabula rasa hypothesis) was generally adopted by natural scientists, plant biogeographers used a simple model predicting a post-glacial, northwards re-migration of species in con
Antigenic variation of surface proteins allows microorganisms to evade the immune system of the infected host. This phenomenon represents an apparent paradox, because the variable protein must retain an important function, while its antigenic properties vary extensively. The surface associated M protein of Streptococcus pyogenes, a common human pathogen, exhibits antigenic variation due to an N-te
Background: Since the cloning in 1990 of cDNA corresponding to mRNA transcribed at the blood-group ABO locus, polymorphisms due to ethnic and/or phenotypic variations have been reported. Some subgroups have been explained at the molecular level, but unresolved samples are frequently encountered in the reference laboratory. Results: ABO blood grouping discrepancies were investigated serologically a
The aim of the project has been to elucidate molecular events leading to amyloidosis in Hereditary Cystatin C Amyloid Angiopathy (HCCAA) patients, to enable simple diagnosis of the disease and with the ultimate goal to understand the amyloid formation process in detail, in order to develop inhibitors to the process. At the DNA level, a point mutation segregating with HCCAA was identified in the cy
Context Inpatients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, warfarin prevents ischemic stroke, but dose adjustment, coagulation monitoring, and bleeding limit its use. Objective To compare the efficacy of the oral direct thrombin inhibitor ximelagatran with warfarin for prevention of stroke and systemic embolism. Design, Setting, and Participants Double-blind, randomized, multicenter trial (20002001)
Popular Abstract in Swedish Framtida klimatförändringar påverkas till stor del på människans utsläpp av CO2, samt av klimat- och CO2-relaterade återkopplingar genom kolcykeln i både landbaserade ekosystem och hav. Landbaserade ekosystem tar för tillfället upp omkring 25% av de antropogena utsläppen av CO2 från förbränning av fossila bränslen och markanvändning, men att tillskriva vilka mekanismer The nature of future climate change will depend on anthropogenic emissions of CO2, as well as climate- and CO2-mediated feedbacks through carbon (C) cycling in both terrestrial ecosystems and oceans. Terrestrial ecosystems remove presently about 25% of the anthropogenic CO2 fossil-fuel and land-use change emissions, but to attribute which mechanisms cause this uptake, and the key regions where it
The Zeeman interaction in low-dimensional III-V semiconductor nanostructures is studied. The effective g-value of bulk InGaAs is measured by two different spin resonance techniques. Experimental conditions were found to control the Overhauser effect, thus enabling a highly accurate determination of the g-value, g* = -4.070 ± 0.005, being a prerequisite for theoretical modeling of low-dimensional
Popular Abstract in Swedish Därför får man sockersjuka (Felix Mulder, 6 år): ”Det är inte bra att äta för mycket socker. Socker är vasst och skär sönder blodkropparna. Då kan man inte göra insulin och man blir sjuk.” Islet amyloid polypeptide (förkortat: IAPP) är ett medelstort äggviteämne - peptid - som upptäcktes 1986 av Per Westermark i Uppsala. Denna upptäckt har en intressant bakgrund. Det hIslet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP; also named ”amylin”) is a member of the calcitonin superfamily of peptides, displaying the closest structural relationship to the neuropeptide calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP). It is expressed in islet beta-cells and forms islet amyloid in type 2 diabetic patients. IAPP may restrain release and peripheral actions of insulin. Thus, IAPP has been implicated in
Popular Abstract in Swedish När vi ser oss omkring i naturen är det lätt att överväldigas av den otroliga variationen i olika former, färger och mönster som förekommer. Var kommer all denna variation ifrån? Samma fråga ställde sig Charles Darwin för mer än 150 år sedan – svaret publicerade han 1859 i sin bok ”Om arternas uppkomst”. Evolution är den process som genom selektion gynnar vissa egenskapOur knowledge of the evolutionary potential of traits involved in different selective episodes, especially in natural populations, is still limited. This is true for questions such as the genetic basis and inheritance of traits, how natural and sexual selection acts on them, and how selective conflicts influence the evolutionary response to selection. In my thesis, I investigate these questions, u
The red admiral (Vanessa atalanta) is a migratory butterfly that can be found in North America, North Africa, Europe and some parts of Asia. In Europe the main part of the population spend winter in the Mediterranean region and the following spring leave this area to breed further to the north. At least one new generation is then produced in the summer region before they return to the south again
The gene fusion technique is widely used in protein engineering and in this thesis it constitutes the basis of both the construction of artificial bifunctional enzymes and the display of two novel peptides. Artificial bifunctional enzymes have been used as model systems in the studies of native multifunctional enzymes and proximity effects within these complexes. Two various constructs are descri
