The immune system is remarkable in many ways. It exerts immunity to defend us from foreign pathogens, while it is also responsible for maintaining tolerance to avoid autoimmune diseases and allergy. This thesis includes three separate papers concerning both tolerance and immunity. In paper I we report that repeated antigen stimulation results in an increased proportion of Foxp3+ cells in the CD4+

Despite a growing awareness of methodological issues, the literature on APPRAISAL has not so far provided adequate answers to some of the key challenges involved in reliably identifying and classifying evaluative language expressions. This article presents a step-wise method for the manual annotation of APPRAISAL in text that is designed to optimize reliability, replicability and transparency. The

Forestry as an important industry has both direct as well as indirect effects on the Estonian economy. It is therefore essential that it is sustainably managed so that it can continue to contribute to the economy in the future. The first aim of this article is to establish the situation regarding felling and regeneration in Estonia. As the available forestry statistics display discrepancies and la

Although electric resistivity tomography (ERT) is now regarded as a standard tool in permafrost monitoring, high grounding resistances continue to limit the acquisition of time series over complete freeze-thaw cycles. In an attempt to alleviate the grounding resistance problem, we have tested three electrode designs featuring increasing sizes and surface area, in the laboratory and at three differ

It is pointed out that the triaxial bands in Nd138-140 and in the Lu/Er nuclei can be understood from the same shell structure effects. Two of the bands in Nd-138, interpreted as signature partners, exhibit a crossing at high spins with a signature splitting which is strongly reduced above the crossing. This behavior is unique among the yrast and close-to-yrast configurations, revealing the mechan

In this paper, we report on the formation of magnetically levitating accretion disks around supermassive black holes (SMBHs). The structure of these disks is calculated by numerically modeling tidal disruption of magnetized interstellar gas clouds. We find that the resulting disks are entirely supported by the pressure of the magnetic fields against the component of gravitational force directed pe

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, held in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, was probably the largest event in a long series of megasummits on environmental protection and sustainable development. Roughly 44 000 participants descended on Rio de Janeiro to take part in ten days of preparatory committee meetings, informal consultations, side events, and the actual conference. Yet d

N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine (glyphosate, PMG) is the most widely used herbicide, and its adsorption onto soil minerals plays a significant role in its mobility and rate of degradation. In this work, we present the results of the first serious effort to find a realistic surface complexation model that fits both adsorption and total proton concentration data for PMG on the common soil mineral, goethi

The modular software MOLSIM for all-atom molecular and coarse-grained simulations is presented with focus on the underlying concepts used. The software possesses four unique features: (1) it is an integrated software for molecular dynamic, Monte Carlo, and Brownian dynamics simulations; (2) simulated objects are constructed in a hierarchical fashion representing atoms, rigid molecules and colloids

A more detailed mechanistic understanding of how low molecular weight (MW) carbon (C) substrates are mineralized within the rhizosphere by soil microbial communities is crucial to accurately model terrestrial C fluxes. Currently, most experiments regarding soil C dynamics are conducted ex-situ (laboratory) and can fail to account for key variables (e.g. temperature and soil water content) which va

Background: Inflammation and immune activation have repeatedly been suggested as pathogentic factors in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The driving force for immune activation in IBS remains unknown. The aim of our study was to find out if the obligate intracellular pathogen Chlamydia could be involved in the pathogenesis of IBS. Methods: We studied 65 patients (61 females) with IBS and 42 (29 fem

A highly sensitive competitive capacitive glucose biosensor was constructed based on gold nanoparticles, which were employed as a platform to immobilize concanavalin A (Con A). Gold nanoparticles were fixed on a gold electrode, on which a layer of polytyramine was preformed via electrochemical polymerization. The sensing mechanism is based on the competitive dissociation of a glucose polymer or a

Popular Abstract in Swedish Förbränning förknippas av många som förlegat. Att utvinna energi genom att ”elda” har människan gjort under årtusenden, men trots det bestod Sveriges totala energiproduktion 2004 till 52 % av förbränning. De flesta bilar, båtar, flyg och i vissa fall även tåg utnyttjar den kemiskt lagrade energin i fossila bränslen. Uppvärmningen av bostäder är inte heller att förringa,The thesis work, aimed at the development of laser-spectroscopic detection schemes, consists of three parts, concerned with the development and application of different techniques. The development of UV filtered Rayleigh scattering (FRS) for thermometry and fuel/air ratio measurements, using a frequency tripled, single-longitudinal-mode alexandrite laser at ~254 nm together with an isotopically en

The partial unfolding of human lysozyme underlies its conversion from the soluble state into amyloid fibrils observed in a fatal hereditary form of systemic amyloidosis. To understand the molecular origins of the disease, it is critical to characterize the structural and physicochemical properties of the amyloidogenic states of the protein. Here we provide a high-resolution view of the unfolding p