The aim of this thesis was to expand the knowledge regarding the use and need of assistive devices, in particular mobility devices, and to investigate how, from a European perspective, the use of them changed during the ageing process. An additional aim was to explore the use of mobility devices in everyday life among very old Swedish women during a five-year period. Further, the aim was to contri

The recent discovery of a topological phase transition in IV-VI narrow-gap semiconductors has revitalized the decades-old interest in the bulk band inversion occurring in these materials. Here we systematically study the (001) surface states of Pb1-xSnxSe mixed crystals by means of angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy in the parameter space 0 = 9 K. Using the surface-state observations, we mo

The structure of the solvated mercury(II) ion in water and dimethyl sulfoxide has been studied by means of large-angle X-ray scattering (LAXS) and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) techniques. The distribution of the Hg-O distances is unusually wide and asymmetric in both solvents. In aqueous solution, hexahydrated [Hg(OH2)(6)](2+) ions in a distorted octahedral configuration, with

The urinary bladder is responsible for storage and expulsion of urine. Proper urination depends on an ability of the bladder to adjust to increasing volume and to contract during micturition. A disturbance of bladder contractility may affect continence. In the present thesis I have used genetic, biochemical and physiological approaches to examine the role of caveolae and mircoRNAs in bladder funct

Popular Abstract in Swedish Anesthetic Conserving Device (AnaConDa®) är ett nytt, kommersiellt tillgängligt, hjälpmedel för att ge narkosgaser. AnaConDa® är en förgasare och återandningsfilter, vilken ansluts till patientens andningstub under operation eller intensivvård. Filtret fungerar med hjälp av kolpartiklar som binder utandade narkosgasmolekyler till sig vilka återandas vid nästa inandning.In order to reduce comsumption of inhalational anaesthetsics during high flow anaesthesia a system open in regard to oxygen, nitogen and nitrous oxide, but closed to inhalational anaesthetics, was developed. This was achieved by a reflecting filter for inhalational anaesthetics made of active carbon. The principle has been developed into the commersially available Anesthetic Conserving Device (ACD

The autumn gum moth, Mnesampela privata, utilizes several species of Eucalyptus planted outside regions of endemism within Australia. We investigated whether foliar monoterpene composition influenced oviposition in the field on the natural primary host (E. globulus) and a novel host (E. rubida), both characterized by nonstructural epicuticular waxes. In the laboratory, oviposition preferences of f

Termen parrhesia, som oftast översätts ungefär öppet, sanningsenligt och modigt tal förekommer i två av de sju fragment som bevarats av Valentinos av Alexandrias skrifter. I denna artikel argumenteras det för att parrhesia inte enbart bör förstås som en form av tal utan innefattade även en tanke om stabil hållning och orubbligt uppträdande. Angränsande material läses i ljuset av detta och det argu

This article deals with application of turbulent jet ignition technique to heavy duty multi-cylinder natural gas engine for mobile application. Pre-chamber spark plugs are identified as a promising means of achieving turbulent jet ignition as they require minimal engine modification with respect to component packaging in cylinder head and the ignition system. Detailed experiments were performed wi

Duodenal levodopa infusion represents an effective strategy to manage motor and non-motor complications in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). However, most published clinical series regard small numbers of patients and do not exceed 1 year follow-up. In this multi-national observational cohort study conducted in seven specialised PD clinics and university hospitals we assessed long-t

Society depends on services provided by critical infrastructures, and hence it is important that they are reliable and robust. Two main approaches for gaining knowledge required for designing and improving critical infrastructures are reliability analysis and vulnerability analysis. The former analyses the ability of the system to perform its intended function; the latter analyses its inability to

von Willebrand disease (VWD) is the most common hereditary bleeding disorder. It is caused by quantitative and/or qualitative defects of the von Willebrand factor (VWF). The severity of the disease can vary considerably, as can the hereditary patterns. The variable phenotypes of VWD have given rise to a classification scheme that divides the disease into three types according to how it is manifest

Internet-delivered psychological treatment of major depression has been investigated in several trials, but the role of personalized treatment is less investigated. Studies suggest that guidance is important and that automated computerized programmes without therapist support are less effective. Individualized e-mail therapy for depression has not been studied in a controlled trial. Eighty-eight i

Background: Previous rhinomanometry studies have shown significant long-term variability of the nasal airway resistance and questioned the clinical validity of rhinomanonnetry. Research question: Could treatment with a topical glucocorticoid, budesonide, influence the long-term variability of active anterior rhinomanometry? Methods: Eight healthy volunteers participated in an unblinded controlled

In this paper, we present a random puncturing analysis of low-density parity-check (LDPC) code ensembles. We derive a simple analytic expression for the iterative belief propagation (BP) decoding threshold of a randomly punctured LDPC code ensemble on the binary erasure channel (BEC) and show that, with respect to the BP threshold, the strength and suitability of an LDPC code ensemble for random p

We have previously shown that leukotriene D(4) (LTD(4)), a known pro-inflammatory mediator, induces increased survival and proliferation of intestinal epithelial cells. In this study we examined whether LTD(4) functions via activation of the transcription factors NFkappaB and AP-1, which are potent inducers of mitogenesis. We found that the NFkappaB inhibitory protein IkappaBalpha was not degraded

This paper explores a formally grounded ap- proach to solve the problem of dynamic binding in service- oriented software architecture. Dynamic binding is a widely adopted mean to automatically bind exposed software interfaces to actual implementations. The execution of an operation on one or another implementation, though providing the same result, could turn out in different quality of service, e

Control allocation problems, in which optimal actuator values are assigned based on desired control actions and actuator constraints, are typically formulated as constrained optimization problems. Initially, only approximate solutions to the problems were deemed tractable for real-time applications. Recently however, active set algorithms have been identified as a means for solving control allocat

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an efficient and relatively fast acting treatment for depression. However, one severe side effect of the treatment is retrograde amnesia, which in certain cases can be long-term. The mechanisms behind the antidepressant effect and the amnesia are not well understood. We hypothesized that ECT causes transient downregulation of key molecules needed to stabilize syn