ABSTRACT:

It is increasingly clear that asthma is a complex disease made up of number of disease variants with different underlying pathophysiologies. Limited knowledge of the mechanisms of these disease subgroups is possibly the greatest obstacle in understanding the causes of asthma and improving treatment and can explain the failure to identify consistent genetic and environmental correlations to asthma.

The purpose of this paper is to perform a detailed examination of corruption effects on trade based on corruption characteristics known to affect economic exchange within the corruption research field. These characteristics are the level, prevalence, customs location, function and predictability of corruption. The multifaceted corruption impact on trade is empirically examined using a corruption-a

An unbalanced chromosome number (aneuploidy) is present in most malignant tumours and has been attributed to mitotic mis-segregation of chromosomes. However, recent studies have shown a relatively high rate of chromosomal mis-segregation also in non-neoplastic human cells, while the frequency of aneuploid cells remains low throughout life in most normal tissues. This implies that newly formed aneu

The formation mechanism of the barium stars is thought to be well understood. Barium-rich material, lost in a stellar wind from a thermally-pulsing asymptotic-giant branch star in a binary system, is accreted by its companion main-sequence star. Now, many millions of years later, the primary is an unseen white dwarf and the secondary has itself evolved into a giant which displays absorption lines

Endocrine resistant breast cancer is a major therapeutical challenge and accurate selection of patients susceptible to certain types of anti-hormonal treatment strategies is pivotal. Discovery of novel biomarkers potentially predicting treatment response as well as the clinical course of breast cancer is essential to effectively improve therapies and diagnosis. The main goal of this thesis was to

Aim: To compare adaptive functioning in children with mild intellectual disability (MID) with that of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Methods: Thirty-three children with MID were contrasted with 27 children with ADHD with regard to adaptive functioning as measured by the Adaptive Behaviour Assessment System (ABAS-II). The group with MID was population-based, and the

The activities of tigecycline and comparative agents on staphylococci and enterococci isolated from patients at general hospital wards (GHWs) and intensive care units (ICUs) at 3 university hospitals in Sweden were investigated. Oxacillin disc diffusion and minimal inhibitory concentration with E-test were used. The presence of mecA, vanA or vanB genes was determined with PCR. Statistically signif

Trope theory is the view that the world is a world of abstract particular qualities. But if all there is are tropes, how do we account for the truth of propositions ostensibly made true by some concrete particular? A common answer is that concrete particulars are nothing but tropes in compresence. This answer seems vulnerable to an argument (first presented by F. H. Bradley) according to which any

Context. The formation and evolution of the Milky Way bulge is not yet well understood and its classification is ambiguous. Constraints can, however, be obtained by studying the abundances of key elements in bulge stars. Aims. The aim of this study is to determine the chemical evolution of C, N, O, and a few other elements in stars in the Galactic bulge, and to discuss the sensitivities of the der

The Department of Physics at Lund University is participating in a European Union project called EUMAPP (European Union Microdose AMS Partnership Programme), in which sample preparation and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) measurements of biological samples from microdosing studies have been made. This paper describes a simplified method of converting biological samples to solid graphite for C-

Subacute inhalation study (1 week or 2 weeks) is an important process for screening out inhaled compounds causing lung irritation. To investigate whether the lung weight can be used as an indicator for acute lung injury, we have analyzed retrospectively the lung weight data from 30 studies in rats exposed to dry powder inhalation. The lung weight change was correlated with lung histopathology in t

The dissociation dynamics induced by a 100 fs, 400 nm laser pulse in a rotationally cold Br-2 sample was characterized by Coulomb explosion imaging (CEI) using a time-delayed extreme ultra-violet (XUV) FEL pulse, obtained from the Free electron LASer in Hamburg (FLASH). The momentum distribution of atomic fragments resulting from the 400 nm-induced dissociation was measured with a velocity map ima

OBJECTIVE: To study the association of physician's sex with blood pressure, lipid control, and cardiovascular risk factors in treated hypertensive men and women, stratified for the sex of their physician. METHODS: In a cross-sectional survey of hypertensive patients, 264 primary care physicians (PCPs), 187 men and 77 women from across Sweden, recruited 6537 treated hypertensive patients (48% men)

Background: To explore the point prevalence of the risk of malnutrition and the targeting of nutritional interventions in relation to undernutrition risk and hospital volume. Methods: A cross-sectional survey performed in nine hospitals including 2 170 (82.8%) patients that agreed to participate. The hospitals were divided into large, middle, and small sized hospitals. Undernutrition risk and over

ObjectivesIn this follow-up study, we wanted to present the long-term outcome (5-21years) in terms of seizure freedom, seizure reduction, and the cognitive development in the first 47 children who underwent epilepsy surgery at the University Hospital in Lund from 1991 to 2007. Materials and methodsAll children who underwent epilepsy surgery in the southern region of Sweden were assessed for cognit

BACKGROUND. Recombinant human PDGF-BB (rhPDGF-BB) reduces Parkinsonian symptoms and increases dopamine transporter (DAT) binding in several animal models of Parkinson's disease (PD). Effects of rhPDGF-BB are the result of proliferation of ventricular wall progenitor cells and reversed by blocking mitosis. Based on these restorative effects, we assessed the safety and tolerability of intracerebrove

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the prevalence of sexually offending behaviour among female and male adolescents in Sweden. One aim is to identify potential risk factors associated with sexually offending behaviour and a further aim to examine the outcome in early adulthood for a sample of sexually offending adolescent males. Three different samples were used for this thesis. A sample of