Introduction: Complex production systems as, for instance, those used in health care, in off shore industry, in nuclear power industry or in aviation suffer now and then from severe system breakdowns. Lessons learnt from these often lead to changes in the "system". A more rational approach would be to identify these "system weaknesses" before accidents happen. A new proactive method, DEB analysis,

The molecular mechanism of substrate analogue interaction with Escherichia coli dUTPase was investigated, using the non-hydrolyzable 2'-deoxyuridine 5'-(α,β-imido)triphosphate (α,β-imido-dUTP). Binding of this analogue induces a difference in the far UV circular dichroism (CD) spectrum arguing for a significant change in protein conformation. The spectral shift is strictly Mg2+-dependent, does not

It is generally accepted that mating in flour beetles of the genus Tribolium is mediated by a male-produced aggregation pheromone. The pheromone production site in T. castaneum is believed to be glands on the ventral side of the femur. Behavioural experiments with the confused flour beetle T. confusum were conducted using extracts of beetles and different body parts as well as live beetles to inve

To study the role of serum testosterone (T), estradiol (E(2)), and SHBG as regulators of peak bone mass and bone turnover rate in males, a cross-sectional study with data on lifestyle factors collected retrospectively was performed in 204 young Finnish men, 18.3-20.6 yr old. One hundred fifty-four men were recruits of the Finnish Army, and 50 were men of similar age who had postponed their militar

We study aspects of scattering theory for the Schrödinger operator on the real line. In the first part of the thesis we consider potentials supported by a half-line, and we are interested in the inverse problem of reconstruction of the potential from the knowledge of values of the reflection coefficient at equidistributed points on the positive imaginary axis. Under the assumption of exponential d

The aim of the study was to provide a standardisation of self-reported competencies and emotional/behavioural problems among Swedish adolescents, using the Youth Self-Report (YSR). The YSR was completed by 2522 adolescents aged 13-18 years, recruited from secondary and upper secondary schools in different regions in Sweden. The results showed that effects of gender and age were small but significa

A method for generating controlled atmospheres of hexahydrophthalic anhydride (HHPA) in an 8 m3 exposure chamber was developed. The permeation principle was used for gaseous HHPA generation. HHPA concentration was monitored by sampling on XAD-2 tubes and by a Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer using the partial least-square quantitative method. The repeatability of the FTIR was 5%, the

In the absence of irradiation or other cytoreductive conditioning, endogenous hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are thought to fill the unique niches within the bone marrow that allow maintenance of full hematopoietic potential and thus prevent productive engraftment of transplanted donor HSCs. By transplantation of purified exogenous HSCs into unconditioned congenic histocompatible strains of mice,

Ultraviolet (uv) radiation of the operating room was assessed bacteriologically in an open randomized study of 30 total hip procedures. Volumetric air-sampling demonstrated that the number of colony forming units (cfu m-3) were significantly reduced (P less than 0.001) by uv light, both close to the wound and in the periphery of the operating room. No adverse effects of the uv-irradiation were obs

OBJECTIVES: To measure the impact on survival of being exposed to asbestos cement dust. METHODS: Survival of 866 asbestos cement workers and 755 controls was studied with Cox's proportional hazards regression models with age as the basic time variable. The effect of cumulative exposure up to the age of 40 was investigated in an internal analysis of 635 asbestos cement workers who had dose estimate

Our previous studies have indicated that endogenous nitric oxide serves as a physiologically important inhibitor of vascular tone during acute haemorrhage. This vasodilator action attenuates the concomitant reflex adrenergic constriction and thereby prevents critical reduction of tissue blood flow. The present study aimed to evaluate the overall importance of this nitric oxide regulation for survi

Objective To evaluate the rate of over-diagnosis of breast cancer 15 years after the end of the Malmo mammographic screening trial. Design Follow-up Study. Setting Malmo, Sweden. Subjects 42 283 women aged 45-69 years at randomisation. Interventions Screening for breast cancer with mammography or not (controls). Screening was offered at end of randomisation design to both groups aged 45-54 at rand

The book contains articles written by advanced students and senior academics on European issues within a large field of perspectives.

The rat urinary bladder responded to infravesical obstruction by an increased weight. The weight began to increase after 3 days of obstruction. After 10 days the weight gain had become significant, but increased further with time. At 90 days the bladders weighed 12 times the initial weight. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity per unit bladder weight increased with the duration of the obstruction.