OBJECTIVE: We have evaluated a new technique of cardiac de-airing that is aimed at a) minimizing air from entering into the pulmonary veins by opening both pleurae and allowing lungs to collapse and b) flushing out residual air from the lungs by staged cardiac filling and lung ventilation. These air emboli are usually trapped in the pulmonary veins and may lead to ventricular dysfunction, life-thr

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In paper one, we investigated how the pharmacological activation and inhibition of the glucocorticoid system affects lifespan and symptoms in a mouse model for RTT. We performed a long-term drug treatment study with the GR activator corticosterone and the GR inhibitor RU486 under which we measured the lifespan and onset of RTT-like symptoms of male Mecp2-null and female Mecp2 heterozygous mice in

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the recently defined Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale for Schizophrenia remission criteria in a naturalistic setting of psychotic patients; to identify causal factors that change remission status; and to validate the criteria against global indices of illness, cognitive functions, and social outcome. METHODS: This was a longitudinal naturalistic study of 162 patients,

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-related autoantibodies have an increased mortality rate. Different autoantibodies are frequently co-occurring and it is unclear which autoantibodies associate with increased mortality. In addition, association with different causes of death is thus far unexplored. Both questions were addressed in three early RA populations.

The aims were to evaluate the cognitive performance and clinical diagnosis in patients (

Thymic expression of insulin has been suggested to play a major role in negative selection of autoreactive T cells and tolerance induction against pancreatic beta cells. Furthermore, the expression of insulin in peripheral antigen-presenting cells (APC) has been clearly demonstrated but whether thymic negative selection and tolerance induction also depends on peripheral influx of self-antigens (Ag

Recent research in the field of on-line handwriting recognition has been focused on statistical systems such as Hidden Markov Models, Neural Networks or a combination of these. There are however merits of employing an approach based on template matching. The first part of this thesis presents a new strategy for parameterization of on-line handwritten character samples. A novel efficient template m

Många studier har visat på svårigheten att hantera komplexa, gränsöverskridande problem i kortsiktig projektform; likväl fortsätter politikens projektifiering. I denna artikel genomförs en empirisk studie av Malmö stads projektverksamheter i syfte att undersöka förändrande och stabiliserande effekter av projekt. Ett vidare syfte är att utveckla den statsvetenskapliga förståelsen av den ökade använ

Mitochondrial dysfunction is an important cause for neonatal liver disease. Disruption of genes encoding oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) components usually causes embryonic lethality, and thus few disease models are available. We developed a mouse model for GRACILE syndrome, a neonatal mitochondrial disease with liver and kidney involvement, caused by a homozygous BCS1L mutation (232A>G). This

The observations that hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) is located in close association to insulin granules in beta-cells and that cholesterol ester hydrolase activity is completely blunted in islets of HSL null mice made us hypothesize that the role of HSL in beta-cells is to provide cholesterol for the exocytosis of insulin. To test this hypothesis, wild type (wt) and HSL null islets were depleted

The national Swedish policy on alcohol has been eroded since the country joined the European Union (EU) in 1996, leading to a steep increase in the private import of alcohol. The paper investigates the impact on drinking patterns of the greater availability of alcohol among adolescents. Two cross-sectional data sets, collected in 2003 (n = 2,760) and 2005 (n = 2,031) in schools in southern Sweden,

S100A8/A9, a pro-inflammatory and pro-thrombotic protein complex, is increased in several diseases and high levels predispose to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Recently, platelet S100A8/A9 synthesis was described in mouse and humans in relation to CVD. However, the role of platelet S100A8/A9 in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a disease with markedly increased cardiovascular morbidity, as well a