Occupational exposure to diisocyanates within the plastic industry causes irritation and disorders in the airway. The aim of this study was to develop, validate and characterize a method for the determination of 2,4-toluenediamine (2,4-TDA), 2,6-toluenediamine (2,6-TDA), 1,5-diaminonaphthalene (1,5-NDA) and 4,4'-methylenedianiline (4,4'-MDA) in hydrolysed urine and plasma, and to study the correla

Popular Abstract in Swedish Hur man värderar resultat av kirurgisk behandling av ländryggens degenerativa åkommor är ett stort, komplext och delvis kontroversiellt ämne. Denna avhandling studerar resultatvärdering med olika metoder och instrument, huvudsakligen baserat på resultat från det nationella svenska ländryggskirurgiregistret. Arbete I. Inventering av befintliga instrument i litteraturen No consensus regarding outcomes assessment in spine patients exists. Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) questionnaires are increasingly used. The objective of this thesis was the evaluation of HRQoL measures before and after lumbar spine surgery, and their relation to other evaluation parameters as well as relevance of differences. The patients included were operated on for lumbar spine disor

From August 1999 to April 2001, there was an outbreak of severe eczema at a factory manufacturing medical equipment. A glue, mainly based on the isocyanate dicyclohexylmethane-4,4'-diisocyanate (DMDI), was suspected as being the cause of the problem. 16 workers with recent episodes of eczema were patch tested with a standard series, an isocyanate series and work material. The latter consisted of,

The possibility of modelling experiments conducted on P/M steel bars subjected to strain controlled fatigue loading is investigated. The constitutive relation is an extended Gurson model, using a viscoplastic formulation with plasticity driven damage accumulation supplemented by kinematic as we'll as isotropic hardening. The total damage is modelled as the sum of void growth and void nucleation. P

We used the amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) method to obtain genetic markers distinguishing two subspecies of willow warblers Phylloscopus trochilus that have different migratory behaviours but are not differentiated in mitochondrial DNA or at several microsatellite loci. With the inverse-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) approach we converted a dominant AFLP-marker to a codominant sin

High-spin states in Ni-58 have been investigated by means of the fusion-evaporation reaction Si-28(S-32,2p)Ni-58 at 130 MeV beam energy. Discrete-energy levels are observed in Ni-58 at record-breaking 42 MeV excitation energy and angular momenta in excess of 30h. The states form regular rotational bands with unprecedented high rotational frequencies. A comparison with configuration dependent crank

The net primary productivity (NPP) of tropical forests is one of the most important and least quantified components of the global carbon cycle. Most relevant studies have focused particularly on the quantification of the above-ground coarse wood productivity, and little is known about the carbon fluxes involved in other elements of the NPP, the partitioning of total NPP between its above- and belo

The decay of OH concentration following photolysis of room-temperature vapor-phase hydrogen peroxide is studied as a function of photolysis fluence at 266 nm in an open air environment. The rate of decay is found to increase with increasing photolysis fluence, i.e., with increasing number of photodissociated H2O2(g) molecules. Single-exponential functions approximate the OH concentration decay rat

Bile-tolerant Helicobacter spp. are emerging human and animal pathogens. However, due to their fastidious nature, which requires nutrient-rich complex media to grow, infection with these bacteria may be underestimated. The accumulation of toxic metabolites in cultures may be one of the main obstacles for successful culture of these organisms. The present study examined various potential growth-enh

The performance of quantum dots-in-a-well infrared photodetectors (DWELL IPs) has been studied by means of interband and intersubband photocurrent measurements as well as dark current measurements. Using interband photocurrent measurements, substantial escape of electrons from lower lying states in the DWELL structure at large biases was revealed. Furthermore, a significant variation in the escape

Dynamic nuclear polarization has enabled hyperpolarization of nuclei such as C-13 and N-15 in endogenous substances. The resulting high nuclear polarization makes it possible to perform subsecond C-13 MRI. By using the dynamic nuclear polarization hyperpolarization technique, 10% polarization was obtained in an aqueous solution of 100 mM C-13-labeled urea, ready for injection. The in vivo T, relax

The advent of multiplexing technologies has raised the possibility that disease states can be defined using discrete genomic and proteomic patterns or signatures. However this emerging area has been limited by the 'content problem', arising from the uncertainty of which molecules to focus on. The human cluster of differentiation (CD) antigens are expressed on cells of the human immune system (leuk

Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) is a malignant clonal disorder of the haematopoietic stem cell. Treatment of CML patients with interferon alpha (IFN-alpha) has induced haematological and cytogenetic remission. Interferons transcriptionally activate target genes through the JAK-STAT and interferon regulated factors (IRFs) family pathways. Interferon regulated factor-1 (IRF-1) is a transcriptional a

Aim: To investigate the prevalence of high levels of sperm DNA damage among men from infertile couples with both normal and abnormal standard semen parameters. Methods: A total of 350 men from infertile couples were assessed. Standard semen analysis and sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA) were carried out. Results: Ninety-seven men (28% of the whole study group) had a DNA fragmentation index (D

To detect effects of Cu pollution, the Cu tolerance of soil bacterial communities extracted from several vineyards located in NW Spain was measured. Bacterial community tolerance was estimated by means of the thymidine (TdR) and leucine (Leu) incorporation techniques using either IC50 values (the log of the metal concentration that reduced incorporation to 50%) or the percentage of activity at one