Sepsis and invasive bacterial infection is a major cause of human disease and death worldwide. Streptococcus pyogenes is one of the major pathogens responsible for bacterial infections, which range from mild to severe and life threatening conditions. S. pyogenes contains a cell wall anchored M protein, which is an important virulence factor that can interact with many cells of the immune system. O

Popular Abstract in Swedish Introduktion Aggressivt antisocialt beteende utgör en stor utmaning för dagens samhälle, och undersökningar av vad som ligger bakom ett återkommande sådant beteende behövs för utvecklingen av våldspreventiva insatser. Syften & Metod Syftet med avhandlingen var att identifiera faktorer som samvarierar med återkommande aggressivt antisocialt beteende. De specifika måIntroduction Aggressive antisocial behavior is a major challenge to society, and studies on the determinants of its persistence are essential to the development of strategies to prevent violence. Aims & Methods The overall aim of the thesis was to establish covariates of persistent aggressive antisocial behavior in a population-based cohort and in clinically evaluated, prospectively followed,

Background: Reliable, valid, and easy-to-administer instruments to identify possible caseness and to provide proxies for clinical diagnoses are needed in epidemiological research on child and adolescent mental health. The aim of this study is to provide further validity data for a parent telephone interview focused on Autism - Tics, Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), and other Comor

The expansion of wind power in Sweden has brought increasing conflicts between the wind power industry and the interests of the military forces. This paper analyses the reasons for these perceived conflicts and suggests solutions for mitigating at least some of the problems. The analysis is based on literature studies, several semistructured interviews and workshops with stakeholders in Sweden, De

The molecular mechanisms by which the black eumelanin biopolymers exert their photoprotective action on human skin and eyes are still poorly understood, owing to critical insolubility and structural heterogeneity issues hindering direct investigation of excitation and emission behavior. Recently, we set up strategies to obtain water-soluble 5,6-dihydroxyindole (DHI)-based polymers as useful models

We have studied the growth of doped InAsyP1-y (InAsP) NWs and InAsP-InP core-shell NWs. Using hydrogen chloride (HCl) we were able to prevent radial growth on the InAsP NWs. Undoped and H2S-doped InAsP NWs had almost pure wurtzite crystal structure, while DEZn-doped NWs showed wurtzite periodically separated by short sections of pure zincblende with rotational twins. Electrical measurements confir

It has been a common practice both in Sweden and worldwide to enclose nuclear reactors with prestressed concrete structures. The prestress level decreases with time from its initial value due to various degradation mechanisms. To ensure that the prestress level is sufficient the tendon force is measured at regular in-service inspections. The intention with this paper is to present a reliability-ba

The analysis of annual extremes of hydrological and meteorological variables is frequently complicated by the presence of gaps in record, and when records are not only fragmented but also short, it is necessary to utilize to the full the information contained in them. One method is to abstract for statistical analysis all extreme events whose peaks exceed a pre-selected threshold value, but the th

Popular Abstract in Swedish Under de senaste decennierna har matematisk modellering av finansiella marknader rönt stor uppmärksamhet både inom akademi och inom industri. Ett område som har visats särskilt intresse är prissättning av finansiella instrument så som optioner. En europeisk köpoption på en underliggande aktie är ett kontrakt som ger innehavaren rätten att vid en förutbestämt tidpunkt, The first part of this thesis deals with approximations of stochastic integrals and discrete time hedging of derivative contracts; two closely related subjects. Paper A considers the problem of approximating the value of a Wiener process. The discretization points are placed at times when the absolute difference between the value of the process and the approximation reaches a threshold level. It i

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune connective tissue disease that can affect the central nervous system. Neuropsychiatric symptoms are found in 25-70% of patients. Using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) various studies have reported changes in white matter integrity in SLE patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPSLE patients). The purpose of this study was to investigate, if regi

The prevalence of troublesome fear of childbirth (FOC) in Western countries is about 20%, of which approximately 6-10% suffer from severe FOC that impacts daily life. The countries of Sweden and Denmark are quite alike as far as childbirth culture is concerned. However, to some extent they differ in the organisation of midwifery care during the antenatal and labour period, respectively, and this m

The problem of fitting models to measured data has been studied extensively, not least in the field of computer vision. A central problem in this field is the difficulty in reliably find corresponding structures and points in different images, resulting in outlier data. This thesis presents theoretical results improving the understanding of the connection between model parameter estimation and pos

Popular Abstract in Swedish Autoimmuna sjukdomar, såsom typ 1 diabetes, uppstår till följd av en obalans i immunsystemet där immunceller ser kroppens egna vävnader som ett hot och angriper dem. Vid typ 1 diabetes är det de insulin-producerande β-cellerna i bukspottskörteln som förstörs, vilket leder till att man resten av livet får tillföra kroppen insulin genom injektioner. Anledningen till varföAutoimmunity, such as type 1 diabetes (T1D), arises as a result of tolerance breakdown against host tissues, i.e. the β-cells. Central tolerance is established during thymic T cell development and defects in key events during this process could contribute to the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases. The work presented in this thesis was aiming at unravelling some of those aspects. We have investi

Microscopic diffusion anisotropy in porous materials can be quantified from diffusion NMR data acquired with a combination of directional and isotropic diffusion encoding. A drawback with current pulses sequences for isotropic encoding is that they all rely on spin echo sequences, which are only applicable to pore liquids with long transverse relaxation times and porous materials with negligible i

Magnetomotive ultrasound imaging is an emerging technique where superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles can be used as an ultrasound contrast agent. A time-varying external magnetic field acts to move tissue embedded particles, and ultrasound is used to detect the resulting tissue movement. In experimental phantom studies we have observed a phase lag dispersion in the magnetomotive response in

Recension av Svetlana Aleksijevitj, Kriget har inget kvinnligt ansikte. En utopis röster.