The complement system involves both the innate and the adaptive immune systems and has important roles in the pathogenesis of SLE. Complement deficiencies within the classical pathway (C1q, C4 and C2) of activation predispose for development of the autoimmune disease SLE. The association between complement deficiencies and SLE could be explained by several mechanisms, including impaired clearance

In this paper, it is demonstrated that a single-receptor biosensor can be used to quantitatively determine each analyte in binary Mixtures LIS in multivariate data analysis tools based on the dynamic responses received from flow injection peaks. Mixtures with different concentrations of two phenolic compounds, catechol and 4-chlorophenol, were measured with a graphite electrode modified with tyros

Abstract is not available

In this dissertation, Borhanedin A. Yassin analyses Kurdish nationalism, particularly in Iran, by examining a variety of factors, some within the Kurdish community itself, others lying outside of it, i.e. in the policy of the states where the Kurds reside, and in the wider international arena. In this study the Kurdish people are linked to major developments in the period 1941-1947, with particula

Popular Abstract in Swedish Astma är en sjukdom som karakteriseras av upprepade anfall av andningssvårigheter, orsakade av kramp, slemhinnesvullnad och segt sekret i luftvägarna. Den finns beskriven i texter redan från det antika Grekland och rapporteras idag vara en sjukdom med utbredning över hela vårt klot. Astma är den vanligaste kroniska sjukdomen bland barn och är oavsett ålder den vanligastAsthma is a chronic disorder of the lower airways, characterized by inflammation and hyperreactivity. Pro-inflammatory cytokines like tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) are known to play important roles in the pathogenesis, but our knowledge how these cytokines contribute to the development of airway hyperreactivity is limited. The aims of the present study

PURPOSE: to test whether a laparoscopically-placed external band around the infrarenal aorta could stop vessel dilatation and prevent stent-graft detachment from the aortic wall. METHODS: in 13 growing pigs Gianturco-based stent-grafts were placed in the infrarenal aorta. In eight pigs, an external PTFE band (1 cm width) was placed laparoscopically around the infrarenal aorta. The remaining five p

Background: Lack of generalized guidelines for DNA flow cytometric analysis (FCM) may be the main reason for its limited use in the clinical management of breast cancer. Methods: After an initial interlaboratory reproducibility study (Round 1), we concluded that it was the evaluation of the DNA histograms rather than the technical performance of the analysis that was the main reason for discordant

The thesis includes five separate studies concerned mainly with psychosocial aspects of the problems that athletes afflicted with long-term sport injuries face. The first study deals with relationships between personality variables, coping strategies and mood-levels, both in athletes participating in competitive sports and in a non-athlete reference groups. The results indicate the athletes to us

Endothelin, a peptide produced in endothelial cells, was found to be a potent constrictor of human pial arteries through a direct, slow action on the smooth muscle cell, with a pD2 value of 8.54. It was less potent as a constrictor in pial veins (pD2 7.80) and in branches of the middle meningeal artery and superficial temporal artery (pD2 7.61 and 7.77). The major component of the contractile resp

We performed, in a cross-sectional study, dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) among 15-16-year-old boys (n 58) and girls (n 44) living in an urban area and among boys (n 82) and girls (n 66) of the same age from a rural area. We measured bone mineral density (BMD) of the total body, the lumbar spine and the hip. In the rural population, we found significantly higher BMD levels in the lumbar spi

Elongation factor G (EF-G) is a G protein factor that catalyzes the translocation step in protein synthesis on the ribosome. Its GTP conformation in the absence of the ribosome is currently unknown. We present the structure of a mutant EF-G (T84A) in complex with the non-hydrolysable GTP analogue GDPNP. The crystal structure provides a first insight into conformational changes induced in EF-G by G

In this review, we discuss recent advances in biophysical virology, presenting experimental and theoretical studies on the physical properties of viruses. We focus on the double-stranded (ds) DNA bacteriophages as model systems for all of the dsDNA viruses both prokaryotic and eukaryotic. Recent studies demonstrate that the DNA packaged into a viral capsid is highly pressurized, which provides a f

This article describes the modeling of ultra-wideband wireless propagation channels, especially for the simulation of personal area networks. The IEEE 802.15.3a standards task group has established a standard channel model to be used for the evaluation of PAN physical layer proposals. We discuss the standard model, the measurements that form its basis, and the possibilities for future improvements

Intestinal crypt epithelial T84 cells form luminal structures and differentiate to intestinal enterocyte-like cells in response to IMR-90 fibroblast-secreted transforming growth factor-beta when grown within three-dimensional collagen gel. In search of TGF-beta regulated genes involved in this differentiation process, we isolated a TGF-beta downregulated cDNA, human homologue of rat apoptosis anta

Lifetimes of a superdeformed band in Sr-82 were measured with the centroid shift method. The measured average quadrupole moment of this band corresponds to a quadrupole deformation of beta(2) approximate to 0.49, which is slightly smaller than both the theoretical prediction, and the measured deformation of the SD band in the neighboring isotone Zr-84. Lifetimes of high spin states of three normal

Foreword to the following texts: Pernilla Ulvengren: Naturliga varningsljud i människa-maskinsystem, Marcus Sanchez Svensson: När ljud pockar på uppmärksamhet, Petter Alexandersson & Konrad Tollmar: Operational Sounds - The factory soundscape as carrier of information, Dan Gärdenfors: Playing with auditory Interfaces, Kirsten Rassmus-Gröhn: Icke-visuella audio-haptiska datorgränssnitt

Essä om Alfred Hitchcocks tidiga brittiska stumfilmer.

General point interactions for the second derivative operator in one dimension are studied. In particular, cal PT-self-adjoint point interactions with the support at the origin and at points +/-l are considered. The spectrum of such non-Hermitian operators is investigated and conditions when the spectrum is pure real are presented. The results are compared with those for standard self-adjoint poin