Collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) is one of the most commonly used animal models for Rheumatoid arthritis (RA). CIA is induced in susceptible mouse strains after immunization with heterologous type II collagen (CII). In mice of the H-2q haplotype rat CII (rCII) is used whereas in mice of the H-2r haplotype bovine CII is utilized. The broad objective of this thesis was to gain an understanding of th

Wooded pasture and older forest with dead trees, about 10% of an area of 3000 ha in the central part of the parish of Stenbrohult, was inventoried for wood-living beetles in 1985-2002. In the study areas Carl Linnaeus was born in 1707, and he spent his summers there until 1728. All standard methods for finding wood-beetles were used, including many window traps and 170 wood mould samples. As a new

To enhance the performance of gas turbine engines, high top-cycle temperatures are desired. However, the temperature is limited by current materials. To achieve the higher performance, and meanwhile maintain the metal temperatures of the combustors, vanes and blades below the allowable limits, sophisticated cooling techniques, such as impingement cooling, film cooling and convective internal cooli

The car interior is a complex man-machine interface. Poor interior design contributes to traffic accidents as well as discomfort and disorders in professional and long distance drivers. When buying a car comfort is for many customers an important factor. Consequently, car interior comfort besides safety is of great importance when designing cars. Comfort is a subjective feeling and hard to model m

A method to estimate the annual collected energy and the annual average optical efficiency factor is suggested. The radiation distribution on the absorber of an asymmetric CPC collector with a flat bi-facial absorber is measured for three different absorber mounting angles using a photo diode. The annual optical efficiency factors and a relative measure of the annual collected energy are determine

AIMS: To investigate if it was possible to lower the dose of streptokinase and maintain an effective thrombolysis by adding pulsed low energy ultrasound. METHODS: 53 retinal veins in 27 rabbits were occluded by rose bengal enhanced laser treatment. Six rabbits were treated with streptokinase (50,000 IU/kg), 10 rabbits were treated with a low dose of streptokinase (25,000 IU/kg), and 11 rabbits wer

Systematic studies were performed on the effect of the surfactant alkyl chain length (10-16 carbon atoms) and the head group charge/structure (anionic, cationic, nonionic) on the pasting properties of wheat flour and starch aqueous suspensions by means of a Rapid Visco Analyser (RVA). An excellent agreement was observed between the effect of surfactants on the onset temperature of the pasting proc

Power supply systems play a very important role in everyday life applications. There are mainly two ways of producing energy for low power generation: electrochemical batteries and small engines. In the last few years, many improvements have been carried out in order to obtain lighter batteries with longer durations but unfortunately the energy density of 1 MJ/kg seems to be an asymptotic value. A

The paper is aimed at the description of the newly introduced model used to simulate the neural response to the chemical stimulus. A potential difference across the living cell or tissue depends usually on the chemical excitation of this living entity. The peculiar case of chemical excitation is the odour recognition across animal kingdom, in particular by various insects. A potential difference i

[abstract missing]

In this study the influence of a low-molecular hydrophobic solute on the Bur of a hydrophilic regenerated cellulose membrane and hydrophobic polysulphone membranes with different nominal molecular weight cut-off, NMWCO, was investigated. Octanoic acid was used as a model substance because it is considerably smaller than the NMWCO of all the membranes used in the investigation. Octanoic acid was fo

Background: Family-centred care according to the Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP) has been reported to positively influence family function. The aim was to examine if NIDCAP affects the views of prematurely born infants' mothers regarding maternal rote, perception of the infant and the neonatal care. Method: Preterm infants with gestational age < 32 weeks w

Objective: To determine the incidence and clinical significance of neutralizing antibody (NAb) formation in patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis ( MS) who participated in the European Interferon Beta-1a IM Dose-Comparison Study. Methods. Patients were randomized to treatment with interferon beta-1a (IFN beta-1a) 30 mu g or 60 mu g IM once weekly for up to 4 years. Serum samples obtained at b

In intact rabbit femoral artery rings pre-contracted with phenylephrine, acetylcholine (ACh; 10(-9)-10(-6) M) produces endothelium-dependent relaxation, abolished after mechanical rubbing to remove the endothelium. The response to ACh was absent at low oxygen tension (less than or equal to 4 kPa) or in the presence of sodium cyanide (1 mM). Intact rabbit jugular veins relaxed to ACh in lower conce