Background Fibroblast growth factor (FGF23) is a protein that is produced by osteoblasts and osteocytes. Increased serum levels of FGF23 have been associated with increased risks of osteoporotic fractures and cardiovascular disease, particularly in participants with poor renal function. Serum iron (Fe) has been suggested as a regulator of FGF23 homeostasis. Objective To determine whether Fe and ir

Background: Sex as self-injury has become a concept in Swedish society; however it is a largely unexplored area of research, not yet conceptualized and far from accepted in the research field. The use of sex as a way of affect regulation is known in the literature and has, in interviews with young women who sell sex, been compared to direct self-injury, such as cutting or burning the skin. The aim

Modeling pollination ecosystem services requires a spatially explicit, process-based approach because they depend on both the behavioral responses of pollinators to the amount and spatial arrangement of habitat and on the within- and between-season dynamics of pollinator populations in response to land use. We describe a novel pollinator model predicting flower visitation rates by wild central-pla

Habitat connectivity is central for life-cycle progression for migrating organisms. Passage of hydropower dams is associated with mortality, delay, and migratory failure for migrating fish, and the need for remedial measures to facilitate passage is widely recognized. Lately, nature-like fishways have been promoted for upstream migrating fish, and low-sloping turbine intake racks for downstream mi

A versatile mobile optical remote sensing system utilizing light detection and ranging (lidar) technology has been constructed and adapted for multidisciplinary environmental monitoring tasks on the Chinese scene. A key application is differential absorption lidar (DIAL) monitoring of distributions of gaseous air pollutants. The system includes a 20 Hz Nd:YAG laser-pumped dye laser, and two vertic

The aim of this study is to define and further the understanding of the practice of lobbying as it manifests in the participants’ interactions with each other and to identify its specific conditions (rules, standards, traits).A research overview shows that lobbying as a political phenomenon is well researched, but that the action per se tends to been taken for granted as ‘talking’. Communication b

With the dramatic increase in x-ray source brilliance and associated coherent photon flux, holography with x-rays has become feasible and is increasingly used for real-space investigations of static and dynamic properties of nanoscale systems. We describe the basic principles and capabilities of the method and present the current state of the art. A particular emphasis is put on the investigation

The field of robotics offers a wide array of estimation problems, ranging from kinematic and dynamic calibration to pose estimation and computer vision. This thesis presents a set of methods to solve estimation problems encountered in robotics, with an emphasis on industrial robotics. The researched topics are all practically motivated and have found immediate use in applications.Industrial roboti