Objective: To evaluate the performance characteristics of direct and capture ELISA for the detection of PR3-ANCA in Wegener's granulomatosis (WG) in international ANCA reference laboratories. Methods: Serum samples were derived from patients with histological and clinical diagnosis of WG (n = 60), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (n = 30) and healthy controls (n = 30). Each of them was tested for the pre

Background. Increased risk of transplant related mortality in male recipients of female hematopoietic stem cell grafts and in vitro reactivity of lymphocytes against H-Y encoded gene products in females with rejected male grafts have been documented. An increased rejection of male grafts in female recipients is not reported for solid organ or stem cell transplants and the role of H-Y as transplant

The plant- specific insert ( PSI) of cypro11 gene- encoding cyprosin, an aspartic proteinase from Cynara cardunculus, has been cloned by polymerase chain reaction ( PCR) into a bacterial expression vector. A rearranged form of this PSI in which the N- and C- terminal sequences were permutated to make it more similar to the structural arrangement observed in saposins was also cloned and expressed i

Effects of topology, length, and charge on peptide interactions with lipid bilayers was investigated for variants of the human kininogen-derived peptide HKH20 (HKHGHGHGKHKNKGKKNGKH) by ellipsometry, CD, fluorescence spectroscopy, and z-potential measurements. The peptides display primarily random coil conformation in buffer and at lipid bilayers, and their lipid interaction is dominated by electro

The propagation of short cracks in the neighbourhood of grain boundaries have been investigated using a technique were the crack is modelled by distributed dislocation dipoles and the plastic deformation is represented by discrete dislocations. Discrete dislocations are emitted from the crack tip as the crack grows. Dislocations can also nucleate at the grain boundaries. The influence on crack gro

Out-of-plane nuclear motion stimulated in the core-excited state and symmetry breaking due to this nuclear motion have been investigated for B Is excitation in the BF3 molecule by a combination of three different experimental methods: angle-resolved ion-yield spectroscopy, vibrationally resolved resonant Auger electron spectroscopy and quadruple-ion coincidence momentum-imaging technique. (C) 2002

En ansamling av riskfaktorerna bukfetma, hypertoni, dyslipidemi och glukosintolerans på basis av insulinresistens brukar ofta betecknas som metabola syndromet, men denna term är för närvarande omstridd i den internationella vetenskapliga debatten. Oavsett benämning finns denna riskfaktoransamling hos många individer och bör inte ignoreras. Rådgivning och hjälp till en förbättrad livsstil med kost,

This study was based on 459 adult patients with deep, high-grade, soft tissue sarcoma of extremities or trunk wall reported to the Scandinavian Sarcoma Group Register (1986-1993). All patients had their definitive surgery for primary tumor at a sarcoma center. The median follow-up was 7.5 (3-12) years. 204 patients are still alive. 68 patients had amputations and 391 underwent limb-sparing surgery

Popular Abstract in Swedish För att öka förståelsen för hur ljud sprider sig och strålar från byggnadskonstruktioner utförda i lättbyggnadsteknik så behövs teoretiska beräkningsmodeller. Sådana modeller presenteras i avhandlingen. Med lättbyggnadsteknik avses konstruktioner som inte är massiva, exempelvis väggar och bjälklag bestående av trä- eller stålreglar/bjälkar. Stegljudet, det vill säga detIn order to increase our knowledge of the sound transmission and radiation processes of lightweight wall and floor structures, theoretical models are needed. Detailed models may form a valuable tool. In lightweight floor structures, impact sound insulation is perhaps the most important property to consider. This thesis presents an overview of various solution strategies that may be useful in findi

This essay argues that Gulf monarchies have, hitherto, managed to maintain stability of their regimes. This was made possible by the extraordinary financial and political resources that enabled the Gulf states of combing traditional despotism with the powers of modern welfare states. The geo-political context within which they have operated has changed considerably, albeit gradually during the pas

Low-temperature charge-carrier transport in simple magnetoresistive nanodevices, consisted of narrow constrictions of submicron width in the epitaxial layer of a ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As semiconductor, has been investigated and correlated with magnetic properties of the layer. The devices containing constrictions; revealed abrupt jumps of a reduced resistance that appeared when the sweeping magneti

OBJECTIVE--To study early hip involvement in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to evaluate the usefulness of ultrasonography in the detection of hip joint synovitis in RA. METHODS--Study I: The number of hip joint replacements was recorded in a cohort of 113 patients with RA of at least five years disease duration followed from an early stage. Study II: Ultrasonography was evaluated as a method to ide

We aimed to study the occurrence of emphysematous lesions in symptom free smoking men of about 60 years of age and in a matching group of never-smoking men and the relationship between pulmonary changes at high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) and lung function tests. Our investigation included 57 smoking and 32 never-smoking healthy men from a randomized epidemiological study. HRCT was perfo

The current research considers the approximate string matching search for important subsequences from DNA sequences, which is essential for numerous bioinformatics computation tasks. We tested several approximate string matching algorithms and furthermore developed one for DNA data. Run times of the algorithms are important, since the amount of data is very large.

The objectives of this study were to describe a population of elderly patients at the beginning of their rehabilitation period as regards subjective well-being and dependence in activities of daily living (ADL). In a Swedish rural county 244 patients aged 65+ who had begun rehabilitation within the last month were targeted. One part of the self-administered Goteborg Quality of Life Instrument and