The general aim of the research presented in this thesis was to contribute to the understanding of how breast cancer patients with germline BRCA1/2 mutations should be treated medically and surgically, and furthermore, to characterize the limitations and strengths of different procedures for BRCA testing. In Paper I, the long-term prognosis was assessed in a cohort of early-onset breast cancer pat

Several known breast cancer susceptibility genes encode proteins involved in DNA damage response (DDR) and are characterized by rare loss-of-function mutations. However, these explain less than half of the familial cases. To identify novel susceptibility factors, 39 rare truncating mutations, identified in 189 Northern Finnish hereditary breast cancer patients in parallel sequencing of 796 DDR gen

Low-frequency noise measurements were performed on high-performance InGaAs nanowire MOSFETs. 1/f noise measurements show number fluctuations, rather than mobility fluctuations, as the dominant noise source. The minimum equivalent input gate voltage noise reported here is 80 μm2μV2/Hz, among the lowest values for III-V FETs, and showing the feasibility of a high-quality, low trap density, high-k ga

Design and properties are reported for a novel type of multi-channel isothermal microcalorimeter. It is equipped with 48 calorimetric units (channels) and is primarily intended for use as a monitor of the activity of living cells, tissues and small animals. Calorimetric vessels are positioned in a holder with the format of a 48-well microtiter plate. At most, 47 samples can be measured simultaneou

Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong, chronic disease, that generally has a sudden onset early in life, which changes the conditions for the affected child and the child’s family. The overall purpose of this thesis was to explore the socioeconomic consequences of childhood onset type 1 diabetes and through this investigate how an early life health shock can affect adult socioeconomic status. The four inc

PURPOSE: To establish the light and electron microscopic morphology of long-term full-thickness embryonic rabbit retinal transplants, with special attention paid to graft- host integration.METHODS: Eighteen rabbits received a complete embryonic neuroretina 19 days after conception. The transplants were positioned under the host retina, flat against the host retinal pigment epithelium with proper p

We test the hypothesis that rich occurrences of diatoms observed at transitions between major peat units representing different vegetation communities in a peat sequence from subarctic northern Sweden reflect responses to acid deposition from the Samalas AD 1257 and Laki AD 1783/1784 eruptions. We observe sudden changes in the mire ecosystem and thereby in the trophic status and biogeochemical cyc

Classical sum rules, that connect the dynamic scattering properties at all frequencies to the static polarizability, can be shown to break down when applied to circular polarization. This has previously been explained in terms of a breach of symmetry with respect to positive and negative frequencies. In this paper, we show an alternative explanation where circular polarization is introduced by usi

The proposed paper aims at discussing transforming representational programs in recent English-Islamic picture books. As a background, it draws attention to the identity political processes underlying the emerging literature, as stimulated by minority/marginality experiences. In its main section, the paper focuses how the picture books both reproduce and renegotiate Islamic traditional representat

Recently we reported a method for estimating the spontaneous curvatures of lipids from temperature-dependent changes in the lattice parameter of inverse hexagonal liquid crystal phases of binary lipid mixtures. This method makes use of 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycerol-3-phosphoethanolamine (DOPE) as a host lipid, which preferentially forms an inverse hexagonal phase to which a guest lipid of unknown spont

Scatterer size estimation is useful when characterizing tissue using ultrasound. In all previous studies on scatterer size, the estimations are performed in the frequency domain and are thus subjected to a trade off in time-frequency resolution. This study focused on the feasibility of estimating scatterer size in the time domain using only the ultrasound center frequency, assuming a Gaussian-shap

Today, two great signs of change are occurring. On the one hand, the capitalist world economy is putting tremendous pressure on the earth’s biosphere and bringing an onslaught of destruction to immediate environments and vulnerable people worldwide. On the other hand, the rise of new and progressive social-economic foundations is the result of an unprecedented increase of information and communica

Cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) is the most lethal form of skin cancer and its incidence has increased faster than that of any other cancer, rendering it a major public health problem worldwide. High-throughput screenings have opened the door to a new scientific world, which enables molecular-based characterization of large cancer cohort collections. The aim of the research presented in this th

Objectives To study the impact of time in therapeutic range (TTR) and international normalised ratio (INR) variability on the risk of thromboembolic events, major bleeding complications and death after mechanical heart valve (MHV) implantation. Additionally, the importance of different target INR levels was elucidated. Methods A retrospective, non-randomised multicentre cohort study including all

OBJECTIVE: Adenocarcinoma of the appendix is less than 0.5% of all gastrointestinal cancers. The aim of this study was to analyse the incidence, symptoms, pathology and treatment of appendiceal adenocarcinoma in a well defined cohort as well as the prognosis of the patients.MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective study on all patients diagnosed with adenocarcinoma of the appendix in Iceland

This thesis examines the strategies developed by José Martí for a prosperous Spanish American future in the end of the 19th century. In 1875, which is the starting point of the thesis, most nations in Spanish America had freed themselves from colonial rule and now stood before the challenge of finding a beneficial place within the international division of labour. Martí observed that centuries of