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Hälften av Afrikas befolkning - mer än 300 miljoner människor - hotas idag av markförstöring och ökenspridning. De flesta forskare är överens om att markförstöring orsakas av mänsklig aktivitet som avsiktligt eller oavsiktligt rubbar balansen i redan känsliga ekosystem. Namibia det torraste landet söder om Sahara, vilket följaktligen gjort att landet är mycket utsatt för ökenspridning och markförsHalf of Africa’s population - more than 300 million people - is threatened by land degradation. In general, land degradation is initiated when people intentionally or accidentally disturb the balance in a already fragile ecosystem. Poor management practices such as overgrazing, puts pressure on land already close to exceed the limits of sustainability. Besides suffering from overgrazing issues, Na

Sydvästra Grönlands arkeiska berggrund (North Atlantic Craton, NAC) intruderades av ett stort antal mafiska intrusioner och diabasgångar under arkeikum och proterozoikum, vars åldrar är dåligt kända. Detta arbete omfattar dateringar av fem intrusioner med U-Pb metoden av mineralen zirkon och baddeleyit från tre olika generationer av mafiska bergarter. En mafisk-ultramafisk lagrad intrusion i FiskeThe Archaean bedrock of southern Greenland (the North Atlantic Craton) is host to a large number of mafic intrusions and dyke swarms. This study present a robust U-Pb zircon age of 2990.1 ± 13 Ma for a mafic-ultramafic layered intrusion in the Fiskefjord region and four baddeleyite U-Pb ages of doleritic dykes that range between c. 2500 and c. 2050-2030 Ma. The dyke located SE of Ameralik Fjord is

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the clinical value of human glandular kallikrein 2 (hK2) compared with free (f) and total (t) prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in the early detection of prostate cancer (PCa). METHODS: In PCa screening conducted in 1995 to 1996 in Goteborg, Sweden, 5853 of 9811 randomly selected men (aged 50 to 66 years; median 61) accepted PSA testing; those with tPSA levels of 3. 0 ng/m

Rationale Vitamin D has been shown to be involved in the host immune response toward Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Objectives: To test whether vitamin D supplementation of patients with tuberculosis (TB) improved clinical outcome and reduced mortality. Methods: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, place-bocontrolled trial in TB clinics at a demographic surveillance site in Guinea-Bissau. We incl

Age-associated and degenerative loss of functional integrity in soft tissues develops from effects of cumulative and subtle changes in their extracellular matrix (ECM). The highly ordered tendon ECM provides the tissue with its tensile strength during loading. As age and exercise collude in the high incidence of tendinopathies, we hypothesized that aged tendons fail due to cumulative damage result

Barley is an abundant crop in Europe, which makes its straw residues an interesting cellulose source for ethanol production. Steam pretreatment of the straw followed by enzymatic hydrolysis converts the cellulose to fermentable sugars. Prior to pretreatment the material is impregnated with a catalyst, for example, H2SO4, to enhance enzymatic digestibility of the pretreated straw. Different impregn

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate, in a nationwide study, the inter-observer variation and performance in interpretations of bone scans regarding the presence or absence of bone metastases. Methods Bone scan images from 59 patients with breast or prostate cancer, who had undergone scintigraphy due to suspected bone metastatic disease, were studied. The patients were selected to

The overall purpose of this thesis was to reduce brain tissue responses around implanted microelectrodes using a pharmacological strategy. One of the main aims was to develop and evaluate drug delivery systems that allow local administration of anti-inflammatory pharmaceutics. The drug Minocycline was therefore encapsulated into biodegradable poly (D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles and th

A new sensing technology platform integrating magnetic permeability detection and a two-site heterogeneous immunoassay in a one-step analysis is described. As a platform model, measurements of C-reactive protein (CRP), a cardiac and inflammation marker, were performed in a rapid (11.5 min) high-sensitivity (hs) procedure with a low detection limit (0.2 mg/L) and accuracy (CV = 11%). The two-site h

A structure determination in combination with a kinetic study of the steroid converting isozyme of horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase, SS-ADH, is presented. Kinetic parameters for the substrates, 5β-androstane-3β,17β-ol, 5β-androstane-17β-ol-3-one, ethanol, and various secondary alcohols and the corresponding ketones are compared for the SS- and EE-isozymes which differ by nine amino acid substitut

Screening serum levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is now a major strategy for early detection of prostate cancer (PC). Quantification of the lead time thus obtained is important both for understanding the development of PC and for evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of widespread screening. In our study, 1,233 randomly selected men living in Stockholm in 1988 were invited to partic

After identifying an association between maternal Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) reactivation and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the authors analyzed a nested case-control study within Finnish and Icelandic maternity cohorts with 7 million years of follow-up to confirm EBV's role in ALL. Offspring of 550,000 mothers were followed up to age 15 years during 1975-1997 by national cancer registries to

This work is the first comprehensive description of Makalero, a language spoken by approximately 6,500 speakers in the Iliomar subdistrict, in the south-east of the Republic of East Timor. While previous sources considered it to be a dialect of the larger language Makasae, the present study, which is based on primary data gathered by the author during fieldwork in East Timor, notes sufficient gram

Background: In the 1950s, Sweden initiated prophylaxis as a lifelong treatment for haemophilia. It was the first country to do so. Objective: To describe and evaluate dosing and outcome of prophylactic treatment in a large cohort of adult people with severe haemophilia who have been using prophylaxis most of their lives. Methods: Eighty-one patients born between 1932 and1992 were divided into two

Most nuclear medicine clinicians use only visual assessment when interpreting regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) from single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) images in clinical practice. The aims of this study were to develop a new, easy to use, automated method for quantification of rCBF-SPECT and to create normal values by using the method on a normal population. We developed a 3-dim

Background: There is an evident need for improved management of elderly patients with trauma in order to avoid common and troublesome complications such as delirium. The aim of this study was to investigate whether an implementation of a multi-factorial program including intensified pre-hospital and perioperative treatment and care could reduce the incidence of delirium in elderly patients with hi

PURPOSE: To assess the significance of a patent inferior mesenteric artery (IMA) and presence of intrasac thrombus on the outcome of endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) for infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). METHODS: Between June 2004 and June 2007, 114 AAA patients (100 men; mean age 75 years, range 56-87) treated electively with a bifurcated stent-graft were assessed with computed tomog