Male and female flowers of the dioecious perennial herb Rubus chamaemorus L. are similar in general appearance. However, female flowers are somewhat smaller, do not produce any pollen, and contain very small amounts of nectar. Syrphids and bumblebees, which are important pollinators of R. chamaemorus, showed a strong preference for male flowers. Male flowers were also less often rejected by flower

An autoclavable all-glass system for studying microbial dynamics at permeable surfaces is described. Standard hydrophobic or hydrophilic membranes (46-mm diameter) of various pore sizes were supported on a glass frit through which nutrient solutions were pumped by a peristaltic pump. The pump provided a precisely controlled flow at speeds of 0.5 to 500 ml of defined or natural cell exudates per h,

Qualitative and quantitative changes were observed in lipids, poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), and a cell wall peptidoglycan consitutent in a marine bacterial isolate during starvation for 24 h in an energy and nutrient-free medium. While the amount and composition of the membrane fatty acids fluctuated within the first hours of starvation, the total amount of fatty acids decreased during the starvat

Three marine bacteria were examined for physiological and morphological changes in the initial phase of starvation. It was found that the starvation process was induced in a similar way irrespective of whether the cells were suspended in nutrient and energy free artificial seawater (NSS) or NSS supplemented with nitrogen and phosphorus. An initial phase of increased activity was consistent with a

Sensitive detection of cellular components from specific groups of microbes can be utilized as 'signatures' in the examination of microbial consortia from soils, sediments or biofilms. Utilizing capillary gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and stereospecific derivatizing agents, D-alanine, a component localized in the prokaryotic (bacteria) cell wall, can be detected reproducibly. Enrichments o

The possibilities of using combined capillary gas chromatography mass spectrometry for highly sensitive and selective determinations of enantiomeric alanines of bacterial origin have been evaluated. The alanines were separated as their diastereoisomeric N‐heptafluorobutyryl‐2‐butyl ester derivatives on a 25 m fused silica capillary column coated with SE‐54 as stationary phase. The mass spectra of

Room temperature esterification with the electron capturing pentafluorobenzyl bromide in glass capillaries, with analysis by capillary gas-liquid chromatography coupled with chemical ionization mass spectrometry and negative ion detection in the selected ion mode, allowed detection and identification of fatty acids from microbial biofilms at the femtomolar level. This sensitivity was achieved wit

Gas chromatographic analyses of muramic acid, diaminopimelic acid and D-alaline, which are specific components of the bacterial cell wall, have been performed using electron capture or selected ion monitoring detection. Intact cells or peptidogylycan preparations were hydrolyzed in HCl and DCl. After purification by cation exchange chromatography, followed by conversion to the N-heptafluobutyrliso

Background: Emergency Departments (EDs) today rely heavily on Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and associated support systems. EHR updates are known to be associated with adverse events, but reports on the consequences of breakdowns in EDs are lacking. Objectives: To describe the effects on workload, occupancy, patient Length Of Stay (LOS), and admissions at three EDs (a regional trauma center, a

In addition to Malmö having the most reported crimes in relation to its population, it is also one of the cities in the country with the highest percentage of gun-related violence. Our earlier studies show that people who commit serious crimes such as homicide or attempted homicide in Malmö are primarily single, have no psychiatric diagnosis and mainly use knives or other sharp weapons to commit t

Mistra Future Fashion Phase 2, IVL Swedish Environment Institute (IVL), PlanMiljø and the International Institute of Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University have investigated a selection of important aspects to consider when implementing an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for textiles in Sweden. The focus of the work was to identify, analyse and promote aspects that co

Plastics have become ubiquitous in modern society. It is a group of materials that is versatile and useful in many types of applications and have thus become extremely popular. Plastics are thus important for many industries and value chains as well as for everyday practices of most individuals – and should thus be also for investors and financial actors. A transition to sustainable plastics will

Demographic explanations for the rise in household income inequality include increased educational assortative mating and changes in the division of paid labour within families. Building on this research, the current study focuses on the connected nature of these two inequality-producing mechanisms, while at the same time bridging the divide with the economic literature on the role of income diffe

BACKGROUND: Surgical site infection (SSI) represents almost 40% of nosocomial infections. Risk for SSI is most prominent following colorectal surgery. There is no Swedish standard SSI classification or surveillance. We have failed to find validation of SSI surveillance programs presently in use. This study investigates SSI registration routines at Halmstad County Hospital, Sweden (HCH) as well as

Population ageing is putting pressure on pension systems and health care services, creating an imperative to extend working lives. At the same time, policy makers throughout Europe and North America emphasize home care. Thus, the number of people combining caregiving responsibilities with paid work is growing. We investigate the conflicts that arise from this by exploring the time costs of unpaid

An increasing number of patients with central nervous system (CNS) tumour could survive to reproductive age. However, it is largely unknown whether the history of CNS tumour might affect pregnancy outcome. We aimed to explore the risk of being born pretem among children of CNS tumour survivors. By linking several nationwide registers in Sweden, we identified 1369 children whose parents were childh

Knowledge of dynamics in protein is very important in the description of protein function and molecular recognition. The thesis investigates protein dynamics on time-scales from milli- to sub-nanosecond, with focus on the latter, using NMR spin relaxation experiments on two proteins, the 138-residue carbohydrate recognition domain of galectin-3 (Gal3C) and the 56-residue B1 domain of bacterial pro