BACKGROUND: Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies associated vasculitides (AAV) is a group of autoimmune diseases, characterized by small vessel inflammation. Phagocytes such as neutrophils and monocytes are the main effector cells found around the inflamed vessel wall. Therefore, we wanted to investigate aspects of function and activation of these cells in patients with AAV.METHODS: Flow cytomet

Increased phosphorylation of the KIF5 anterograde motor is associated with impaired axonal transport and neurodegeneration, but paradoxically also with normal transport, though the details are not fully defined. JNK phosphorylates KIF5C on S176 in the motor domain; a site that we show is phosphorylated in brain. Microtubule pelleting assays demonstrate that phosphomimetic KIF5C (1-560)S176D associ

Optical diagnostics are remote non-intrusive sensing techniques. The thesis work concerns the use of OH and soot optical diagnostics for combustion research.Internal combustion (IC) engines are widely used for the generation of power and for transportation purposes. Soot emission, involving carbon particles that emanate from the combustion process, is one of major sources of pollutants in engine e

This thesis explores methods for generating proposition databases in a large-scale and multilingual setting. Our methods are centered on using semantic role labeling for extracting predicate-argument structures, and the subsequent transformation of such structures for knowledge base population and generation. By extending semantic role labeling with entity detection, we demonstrate how predicate-a

This study compares the evolution of income-related health inequality (IRHI) in Australia (2001–2006) and in Great Britain (1999–2004) by exploring patterns of morbidity- and mortality-related health changes across income groups. Using Australian longitudinal data, the change in health inequality is decomposed into those changes related to health changes (income-related health mobility) and income

Whole-tree harvesting, i.e. harvesting of stems, branches and tops, has become increasingly common during recent decades due to the increased demand for renewable energy. Whole-tree harvesting leads to an increase in base cation losses from the ecosystem, which can counteract recovery from acidification. An increase in weathering rates due to higher temperatures is sometimes suggested as a process

Transformers, modulators and other high voltage electrical equipment are traditionally filled with mineral oil, which serves as a coolant and dielectric insulator. A rising trend is observed globally towards the adoption of less-combustible, bio-degradable transformer liquids at ever increasing voltages and power ratings. This paper presents a study of the fire behavior of five different dielectri

Parkinsons sjukdom (PD) är den näst vanligast förekommande åldersrelaterade neurodegenerativa sjukdomen efter Alzheimers. De främsta symptomen på PD är typiska rörelsesvårigheter, vilka beror på förlust av dopamin i hjärnregionen striatum. Ett annat viktigt särdrag är ansamlingar av proteinet alpha-synuclein i många nervceller inom flera hjärnområden. Den effektivaste behandlingen mot Parkinson-syParkinson´s disease (PD) is an age-related neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a loss of nigral dopamine (DA) neurons that project their axons to the striatum. Striatal DA depletion causes the typical motor symptoms of PD. Another key feature of PD are intracellular protein inclusions containing alpha-synuclein within affected brain regions. L-DOPA is the most effective treatment for the s

Deterministic builds, where the compile and build processes are reproducible, can be used to achieve increased trust in distributed binaries. As the trust can be distributed across a set of builders, where all provide their own signature of a byte-to-byte identical binary, all have to cooperate in order to introduce unwanted code in the binary. On the other hand, if an attacker manages to incorpor

A Keyless Signing Infrastructure (KSI) provides users with a means to timestamp documents on a per-second basis. The KSI consists of a global infrastructure with several server layers and by using Merkle hash trees, the root hash can be used to verify the integrity and timestamp of a document. Regular publication of root hashes, e.g., once per month, allows a document to be verified without suppor

Managing performance is critical for realizing certain economic benefits when managing customer relations in call centers. However, prior call center research is fragmented and under-analyzed, which contributes to a limited understanding of the underlying elements for performance and complexities in managing individual- and group-based performance in call centers. The purpose of this thesis is to

BackgroundThe complexity of analyzing eye-tracking signals increases as eye-trackers become more mobile. The signals from a mobile eye-tracker are recorded in relation to the head coordinate system and when the head and body move, the recorded eye-tracking signal is influenced by these movements, which render the subsequent event detection difficult.New methodThe purpose of the present paper is to

The adsorption and reaction of CO and NO on Ir(111) have been studied by near-ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (NAP-XPS) together with low-energy electron diffraction, scanning tunneling microscopy, and mass spectroscopy (MS). Under both ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) and NAP conditions CO molecules occupy on-top sites of the Ir(111) surface at room temperature (RT) by forming two-dimensi

The use of diode lasers for spatially resolved temperature imaging is demonstrated in low-pressure premixed methane–air flames using two-line atomic fluorescence of seeded indium atoms. This work features the advantages of using compact diode lasers as the excitation sources with the benefits of two-dimensional planar imaging, which is normally only performed with high-power pulsed lasers. A versa

One of the few and most complete records of the MDICE (Middle Darriwilian Isotope Carbon Excursion) is herein documented from Baltoscandia. Based on a core section penetrating the condensed Lower–Middle Ordovician succession (~46 m) on the island of Öland, southeastern Sweden, we provide an integrated scheme for carbon isotope chemostratigraphy (313 samples) and conodont biostratigraphy (29 sample

This paper presents a simple and effective way of solving the robust subspace estimation problem where the corruptions are column-wise. The method we present can handle a large class of robust loss functions and is simple to implement. It is based on Iteratively Reweighted Least Squares (IRLS) and works in an iterative manner by solving a weighted least-squares rank-constrained problem in every it

In this article, we present a multistage model to optimize inventory control decisions under stochastic demand and continuous review. We first formulate the general problem for continuous stages and use a decomposition solution approach: since it is never optimal to let orders cross, the general problem can be broken into a set of single-unit subproblems that can be solved in a sequential fashion.