This thesis addresses how verbal comprehension is affected by seeing the speaker and in particular when the speaker is an animated virtual speaker. Two people visually co-present – one talking and the other listening, trying to comprehend what is said – is a central and critical scenario whether one is interested in human cognition, communication or learning. Papers I & II are focused on the e

The development of new ultrasound imaging technologies that aim to resolve objects smaller than the conventional ultrasounds diffraction limit calls for new types of phantoms to evaluate these technologies. When it comes to vascular flow phantoms, this becomes challenging due to the difficulty of manufacturing phantoms with vessels smaller than 1 mm in diameter. Here we describe a novel manufactur

Methylation of biomolecules is a frequent biochemical reaction within the cell, and a plethora of highly specific methyltransferases (MTases) catalyse the transfer of a methyl group from S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet) to various substrates. The posttranslational methylation of lysine residues, catalysed by numerous lysine (K)-specific protein MTases (KMTs), is a very common and important protein mo

A plant bioassay was used to enumerate infectious Frankia in soil and micro- and molecular techniques were used to identify possible mechanisms by which Frankia survive drying.Myrica-nodulating Frankia occurred in five Hawaiian volcanic deposits with depositional ages ranging from 20 to 162 years before present. The oldest deposit had a mean estimated nodulation capacity from 450 to 1200 times gre

The Uppsala university coin cabinet harbours arather unusual numismatic treasure, a ‘screw-thaler’ from Augsburg, produced in the secondhalf of the 17th century. The object combines twothalers from Augsburg, one from 1632 portrayingthe Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus, and theother one coined 1658 displaying the city ofAugsburg. One side of both coins is polished aswell as hollowed out, and the rim

The spin effects in the hadronization process have been included for the first time in the PYTHIA 8 event generator. The spin effects are limited to the production of pseudo-scalar mesons and are obtained from the propagation of the quark polarization along the fragmentation chain according to the rules of the so-called 3P0 model. The interface between PYTHIA 8 and the package of the 3P0 model is

The successful synthesis of hierarchically structured titanium silicalite-1 (TS-1) with large intracrystalline macropores by steam-assisted crystallisation of mesoporous silica particles is reported. The macropore topology was imaged in 3D by using electron tomography and synchrotron radiation-based ptychographic X-ray computed tomography, revealing interconnected macropores within the crystals ac

In many species, the offspring of related parents suffer reduced reproductive success, a phenomenon known as inbreeding depression. In humans, the importance of this effect has remained unclear, partly because reproduction between close relatives is both rare and frequently associated with confounding social factors. Here, using genomic inbreeding coefficients (FROH) for >1.4 million individuals,

Electrical quantum conductors coupled to microwave resonators have in the last decade emerged as a versatile test bed for controllable light-matter interaction on the nanometer scale. Recent experimental progress with high-impedance resonators has resulted in conductor-resonator systems with a large, dimensionless coupling parameter λ 0.1, well beyond the small-coupling regime, λ1 Motivated by thi

Background: The majority of patients with incurable esophageal adenocarcinoma suffer from dysphagia. We assessed a novel treatment strategy with initial short-course radiotherapy followed by chemotherapy with the primary aim to achieve long-term relief of dysphagia. Methods: This phase II trial included treatment-naîve patients with dysphagia due to esophageal adenocarcinoma not eligible for curat

Giant planets form out of a disc of gas and dust – called protoplanetary disc -- that surrounded the protosun at the time of its formation. While the cores of giant planets were growing via planetesimal and pebble accretion, they started to interact with the gas in the protoplanetary disc. These interactions can lead to inward migration of all the four giant planets in our Solar System during the

Objective: Auditory change-detection responses provide information on sound discrimination and memory skills in infants. We examined both the automatic change-detection process and the processing of emotional information content in speech in preterm infants in comparison to full-term infants at term age. Methods: Preterm (n = 21) and full-term infants' (n = 20) event-related potentials (ERP) were