The purpose of this PhD thesis work has been to develop optical techniques that can help utility engineers for assessing the state of insulators in service and in a laboratory. The possibilities to use remote laser induced fluorescence for detection and imaging of biological growth such as algae and fungi have been investigated. Reflectance spectroscopy has also been investigated as a technique fo

Some patients with hearing impairment cannot use conventional hearing aids. One solution for these patients is the use of bone conduction hearing aids; however, this kind of equipment is associated with several problems related to the necessity for a good contact between the transducer and the temporal bone. Direct bone contact would be an ideal solution provided that safe and reaction-free skin p

Multilevel flow modeling (MFM) is a modeling method for complex technical systems in which the goals and functions of the system are explicitly described. MFM can be used as a basis for root cause analysis, where primary root causes are separated from consequential faults, in complex fault situations. Model representations for use in diagnostic reasoning usually describe causality, between paramet

In an investigation conducted by the Swedish Cancer Society. the present status, critical issues and future aspects and potentials were described by expert group for each of nine major areas of radiation therapy research. In this report, research and development in radiation therapy clinical routines is described. The terms research, development, quality assurance, quality control and clinical rou

Formation of DNA adducts as a result of exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) was studied in 98 potroom workers from an aluminium smelting plant and in 55 blue-collar workers without occupational PAH exposure. DNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) was used for quantitation of individual PAH-DNA adducts by P-32-postlabelling/high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) an

Females of the European pine sawfly, Neodiprion sertifer (Geoffr) (Hymenoptera: Diprionidae), were released and observed inside and outside (=control) of areas treated with their sex pheromone for the purpose of mating disruption. In 1992 and 1993, respectively, 0 and 2.5% of the females were observed mating in the pheromone treated area during the first day compared with 28 and 26% in the control

In this contribution examples of the application of new technologies to disentangle the mechanism of beta-delayed multiparticle emission are given. In particular the mechanism of β-delayed two-proton emission from 31Ar has been resolved and proved to be sequential, a preview of 9C-decay data is discussed.

Cysteine proteinases, especially cathepsin K, play an important role in osteoclastic degradation of bone matrix proteins and the process can, consequently, be significantly inhibited by cysteine proteinase inhibitors. We have recently reported that cystatin C and other cysteine proteinase inhibitors also reduce osteoclast formation. However, it is not known which cysteine proteinase(s) are involve

The conductive polymer poly(2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4- phenylene vinylene) (MEH-PPV) was investigated by means of single molecule spectroscopy at 15 K. MEH-PPV single chains were deposited onto a surface from a toluene solution and covered with a polymer cap layer spin-coated from an aqueous solution for protection from air. The MEH-PPV molecules exhibited large fluorescence spectral diff

Degradation of vegetation and soil erosion has contributed to loss of biological productivity and land degradation in Iceland. This thesis focuses on spatial and temporal patterns of land degradation in Iceland from a geographical perspective both along short and long timescales. The activity of current degradational processes has been assessed by studying farmers' perception of the problem and co

Popular Abstract in Swedish Det övergripande syftet med föreliggande studie är att utveckla en bättre förståelse om vad det innebär att vara montessorilärare. Utgångspunkten är lärarnas egna liv- och verksamhetsberättelser. Insamling av data har skett genom loggböcker, intervjuer, skriftliga reflektioner och diskussioner. Analys av lärarnas livsberättelser i samband med övriga data har granskats fThe overall aim of this study has been to come to a better understanding of what it means to be a Montessori teacher, by getting a group of Montessori teachers to reflect on their lives and work. Data exploration has comprised journals, interviews, written reflections and collaborative contextual analysis. Analysis of the teachers' occupational life histories and the findings as a whole have been

On Sufi gatherings in London and the impact of a visiting shaykh.

The objective of the study was to measure the lactate dehydrogenase (LD) activity in vaginal lavage fluid of women with vaginitis/vaginosis and in healthy pre- and post-menopausal controls. Also to analyse the LD isoenzyme patterns in such samples and compare the influence on the LD activity by different storage and sampling methods. Twenty of the women studied, who had no signs of inflammation as

The article is devoted to investigation of the classes of functions belonging to the gaps between classes Pn+1 (I) and P, (I) of matrix monotone functions for full matrix algebras of successive dimensions. In this paper we address the problem of characterizing polynomials belonging to the gaps P-n(I) Pn+1 (I) for bounded intervals L We show that solution of this problem is closely linked to soluti

Popular Abstract in Swedish Förekomsten av hjärt-kärlsjukdomar skiljer sig mycket mellan olika jordbruksbaserade samhällen, medan de praktiskt taget saknas helt bland samhällen som inte är baserade på jordbruk, såsom jägar- och samlarsamhällen. När man letar efter livsstilsfaktorer som skulle kunna gynna uppkomsten av kardiovaskulära sjukdomar verkar det därför logiskt att fokusera på livsstilen iThe prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) exhibits considerable variation across agrarian societies, whereas they are virtually absent in non-agrarian societies such as hunter-gatherer and horticultural societies. When looking for lifestyle factors which could promote CVD, it therefore seems logical to focus on the agrarian lifestyle and ways in which it departs from a non-agrarian lifestyle