Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) can interfere with hormone activities and are suspected as endocrine disrupters involved in disorders, e.g. reproductive disorders. We investigated the possible relation between the actual integrated serum xenoestrogenic, xenoandrogenic and aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) activities, and the sperm DNA damage and sperm apoptotic markers of 262 adult males (54 In

This thesis consists of five papers (Papers A-E) treating problems in non-parametric statistics, especially methods of kernel smoothing applied to density estimation for stochastic processes (Papers A-D) and regression analysis (Paper E). A recurrent theme is to, instead of treating highly positively correlated data as ``asymptotically independent'', take advantage of local dependence structures b

Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) is a separation process in water and wastewater treatment. The removal function is based on reducing the density of the particle by producing aggregates of the particles and added micro-bubbles of air, thus lifting the aggregates to the water surface, where they can be removed as sludge. One parameter that is believed to be of crucial importance is fluid dynamics. The

OBJECTIVE: To improve identification of gravidas at risk for thrombosis. Venous thromboembolic complications are a major cause of maternal mortality during pregnancy. Factor V Leiden, which causes activated protein C resistance, is the most prevalent thrombophilia in white populations. However, selective screening for factor V Leiden has not been evaluated previously for identifying women who migh

We study the Dirichlet problem for p-harmonic functions (and p-energy minimizers) in bounded domains in proper, pathconnected metric measure spaces equipped with a doubling measure and supporting a Poincare inequality. The Dirichlet problem has previously been solved for Sobolev type boundary data, and we extend this result and solve the problem for all continuous boundary data. We study the regul

To investigate the cause of anomalously bright resonance lines of helium in the Sun, we have studied the magnitude of the enhancements and some proposals made to explain them. Calculations in new semiempirical solar models indicate that the resonance lines of helium are enhanced by factors of 2-5 for He I and between 2 and 9 for He II, depending on the elemental abundances assumed. These enhanceme

BACKGROUND: Glutathione transferases (GST) are a group of multifunctional enzymes important in the detoxification of many electrophiles and, in addition, fatty acid hydroperoxides, thus limiting tissue damage from oxidative free radical attack. Of the four classes of GST (alpha, mu, pi, and theta), a class mu isoenzyme, GST mu, is dominantly inherited and is expressed in approximately half of the

The dynamic forest ecosystem model ForSAFE was applied at 16 coniferous forest sites in Sweden to investigate past and future changes in soil chemistry following changes in atmospheric deposition. The simulation shows a considerable historical soil acidification. Acidification in the southwest, where deposition has been greatest, was more expressed in the deepest soil layers, while it was more eve

More than 550 breast adenocarcinomas with clonal chromosomal abnormalities have been reported. Although the aberration pattern is clearly nonrandom, no specific primary or secondary karyotypic abnormality has been identified, and furthermore the chronological order in which the aberrations appear during disease progression is not well known. The high degree of karyotypic complexity in epithelial t

High-spin states in Cu-59 were populated using the fusion-evaporation reaction Si-28 + Ca-40 at a beam energy of 122 MeV. The Gammasphere Ge-detector array in conjunction with the 4pi charged-particle detector array Microball allowed for the detection of gamma-rays in coincidence with evaporated light particles. The resulting extensive high-spin decay scheme of Cu-59 is presented, which comprises

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) have been shown to increase the Costs Of multiple mating and therefore favor relatively monogamous mating strategies. We examine another way in which STDs can influence mating systems in species in which female choice is important. Because more popular males are more likely to become infected, STDs can counteract any selective pressure that generates strong mat

Popular AbstractAvsikten med denna avhandling är att utveckla en teori om de försvårade villkor som män ur arbetarklassen och den lägre medelklassen upplevt i Ronneby sedan början av 1900-talet; om hur traditionen att snabbt komma ut i arbetslivet — som bland män i Ronneby i det närmaste har varit likvärdigt med att bli vuxen — ersatts av ett behov att senarelägga vuxenblivandet. Bakgrunden är attThe place is Ronneby, a smallish town in southern Sweden. My subjects are working class and lower middle class men in Ronneby, men who — since the beginning of the century — have encountered changing conditions for reaching adulthood. In this dissertation, I will analyse these changing and increasingly difficult conditions and try to explain how the tradition of starting to work early in life, and

Objective: To audit the effect of changes in treatment of inguinal hernias on recurrence rate. Design: Retrospective analysis of consecutive patients operated on in 1990 and prospective analysis of consecutive patients operated on in 1996. Follow up with questionnaire followed by selective clinical examination. Setting: County hospital, Sweden. Subjects: 144 patients with 147 inguinal hernias oper

OBJECTIVE: Endoleaks and endotension are critically important complications of some endovascular aortic aneurysm repairs (EVARs). For the resolution of controversial issues and the determination of areas of uncertainty relating to these complications, a conference of 27 interested leaders was held on November 20, 2000. METHODS: These 27 participants (21 vascular surgeons, five interventional radio

Intensities of infrared absorption due to asymmetric stretching vibrations of interstitial oxygen atoms in Ge crystals enriched with O-16 and O-18 isotopes have been compared with oxygen concentrations determined by means of secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). For Ge samples with oxygen content less than 510(17) cm(-3) a good correlation has been found between the values of oxygen concentratio

Popular Abstract in Swedish Reumatoid artrit (kronisk ledgångsreumatism; RA) är en inflammatorisk sjukdom där lederna är det primära målorganet. Spondylartropatier är ett gemensamt namn för ett flertal kroniska inflammatoriska sjukdomar med många gemensamma tecken som till exempel: inflammatorisk ryggsmärta, inflammationer i leder, senskidor, muskelfästen, förekomst av "orvfingrar/-tår". Orsaken/eAbstract The treatment of arthritis has undergone a dramatic change since biological agents targeting specific mediators of the disease process have been introduced. Tumour necrosis factor (TNF) antagonists have been shown to reduce signs and symptoms of disease and to retard the development of tissue damage in the majority of patients. This thesis focuses on clinical, immunological and biochemic

BACKGROUND: Leucocyte recruitment and inflammation are key features of high dose radiation-induced tissue injury. The inflammatory response in the gut may be more pronounced following radiotherapy due to its high bacterial load in comparison to the response in other organs. We designed a model to enable us to study the effects of radiation on leucocyte-endothelium interactions and on intestinal mi