The overall aim of this thesis was to develop and evaluate a specific instrument, measuring both mothers’ and fathers’ postnatal sense of security during the first postnatal week, and to explore and describe important factors associated with this. Data was collected from 2003 to 2009. The thesis has a methodological (Paper I), an evaluative (Paper II) and an explorative and descriptive design (P

Lifestyle interventions affect patients' risk factors for metabolic syndrome (MeSy), a pre-stage to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and related complications. An effective lifestyle intervention is the Swedish Björknäs intervention, a 3-year randomized controlled trial in primary care for MeSy patients. To include future disease-related cost and health consequences in a cost-effectiveness analys

Population-based studies on the epidemiology of primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) are sparse. The aim of the present study was to investigate prevalence and temporal trends in the incidence of PSC 1992-2005 in an adult population in Vastra Gotaland, a region in southern Sweden with a defined population of about 1.5 million. Patients with PSC aged 18 years or above were identified through a comp

Mossbauer spectroscopy is an indispensable spectroscopic technique and analytical tool in iron coordination chemistry. The linear correlation between the electron density at the nucleus ("contact density'') and experimental isomer shifts has been used to link calculated contact densities to experimental isomer shifts. Here we have investigated relativistic methods of systematically increasing soph

Our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of many neurological disorders has been greatly enhanced by the discovery of mutations in genes linked to familial forms of these diseases. These have facilitated the generation of cell and animal models that can be used to understand the underlying molecular pathology. Recently, there has been a surge of interest in the use of patient-derived cells, d

Umbilical cord blood acid-base status at birth gives an objective evaluation of the fetal exposure and response to hypoxia during labor. The objective of this thesis was to elucidate methodological issues associated with interpretation of cord blood gases. DELAYED CORD BLOOD SAMPLING (Paper I): arterial and venous pH and bicarbonate decreased, and pCO2, base deficit (BD), and lactate increased sig

Transcriptional profiling of epithelial ovarian cancer has revealed molecular subtypes correlating to biological and clinical features. We aimed to determine gene expression differences between malignant, benign and borderline serous ovarian tumors, and investigate similarities with the well-established intrinsic molecular subtypes of breast cancer.

Background: In animal studies, perfluorinated alkyl substances affect growth and neuro-behavioural outcomes. Human epidemiological studies are sparse. The aim was to investigate the association between pregnancy serum concentrations of perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and offspring behaviour and motor development at 5-9 years of age. Methods: Maternal sera from the IN

Radionuclides from the Chernobyl accident were released and dispersed during a limited period of time, but under different weather conditions. As a result the radionuclides were unevenly distributed on the ground. During the years the initial deposition has been altered at some locations by different processes, but remains relatively unchanged in others. Here we report on the current inhomogeneous

Nominally Anhydrous Minerals (NAM) in the Earth's mantle contain trace amounts of hydrogen, as a result of the NAM's ability to incorporate hydroxyl ions. The isotopic composition of these hydrogen reservoirs is for the Earth's crust, well characterized. The knowledge of the isotopic composition of the Earth's interior on the other hand is limited. It is believed that the hydrogen composition in t

Vigabatrin is an antiepileptic drug that is known to cause visual field defects and retinal dysfunction measured by full-field electroretinography (ff-ERG). Underlying mechanisms have not yet been elucidated. The aims of this thesis were to investigate parameters of vigabatrin treatment; reversibility of visual dysfunction, prevalence of retinal dysfunction in children, role of drug-dose and evalu

The 2nd generation bioethanol will be produced from lignocellulose biomass including agricultural residues such as bagasse, straw, and stover, forest products residues and dedicated energy crops. The bioconversion of lignocellulose raw materials to ethanol requires microorganisms that are able (i) to ferment both hexose and pentose sugars present in lignocellulose and (ii) to tolerate and to remai

Finite size effects on the phase transition in the 2D Potts model with open boundary conditions are studied with Wang-Landau Monte Carlo simulations. We show the lattice size dependent cross-over from first order to continuous phase transition and discuss it in terms of surface induced disorder and size dependence of the latent heat. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Virtual reality (VR) has become a popular approach to study human behavior in fire. The present position paper analyses Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) of VR as a research tool for human behavior in fire. Virtual environments provide a maximum of experimental control, are easy to replicate, have relatively high ecological validity, and allow safe study of occupant behavior

Age is an important risk factor for breast cancer, but previous data has been contradictory on whether patient age at diagnosis is also related to breast cancer survival. The present study evaluates age at diagnosis as a prognostic factor for breast cancer on a large cohort of patients at a single institution.

Terrestrial organic carbon is exported to freshwater systems where it serves as substrate for bacterial growth. Temporal variations in the terrigenous organic carbon support for aquatic bacteria are not well understood. In this paper, we demonstrate how the combined influence of landscape characteristics and hydrology can shape such variations. Using a 13-day bioassay approach, the production and

In this paper, we propose a novel interference cancellation method that exploits secondary data to estimate stationary interference components present in both the primary and the secondary data sets, thereby allowing for the removal of such interference from the data sets, even when these components share frequencies with the signal of interest. The algorithm estimates the present interference com

Background: The commercialization of second-generation bioethanol has not been realized due to several factors, including poor biomass utilization and high production cost. It is generally accepted that the most important parameters in reducing the production cost are the ethanol yield and the ethanol concentration in the fermentation broth. Agricultural residues contain large amounts of hemicellu

Pleistocene glacial cycles play a major role in diversification and speciation, although the relative importance of isolation and expansion in driving diversification remains debated. We analysed mitochondrial DNA sequence data from 15 great reed warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) populations distributed over the vast Eurasian breeding range of the species, and revealed unexpected postglacial exp