This thesis emphasises the role of commercial banks as financial intermediaries. It is primarily concerned with the development of the commercial banking system of Lebanon in the period 1856-1974, and assesses the role of the commercial banking system in Lebanon, as capital provider to economic development. This role is examined here in terms of the mobilisation of bank deposits and allocation of

A new method for extracting respiratory signals from the ECG/VCG is presented. The method is based on the alignment of an observed VCG loop to a reference loop with respect to the transformations of rotation and time synchronisation. The resulting series of estimated rotation angles reflects respiratory-induced changes in the electrical axis of the heart. The respiratory frequency is estimated by

Background: The availability of high throughput methods for measurement of mRNA concentrations makes the reliability of conclusions drawn from the data and global quality control of samples and hybridization important issues. We address these issues by an information theoretic approach, applied to discretized expression values in replicated gene expression data. Results: Our approach yields a quan

Popular Abstract in Swedish Stroke utgör den tredje vanligaste dödsorsaken i västvärlden och är dessutom huvudorsak till långvarigt handikapp hos vuxna individer. Det stora antalet överlevande men handikappade individer utgör ett omfattande problem för samhället inte bara i form av ekonomiska resurser utan även vad gäller personliga trauma. Den kliniska termen stroke omfattar patologiska tillståndStroke is the most common life-threatening neurological disease and ranks as the third leading cause of death in major industrialized countries. It is also the leading cause of serious long-term disability and about sixty percent of survivors have disabilities in their extremities. Recovery of certain neurological functions occurs over time, which has been attributed to endogenous restorative proc

Objective. We recently showed that plasma concentration of N-terminal atrial natriuretic peptide (Nt-proANP) is strongly directly related to salt sensitivity. The aims of the present study were to test (i) whether plasma concentration of N-terminal brain natriuretic peptide (Nt-proBNP) is related to salt sensitivity and (ii) whether Nt-proANP, as a marker of salt sensitivity, differs between type

We aimed to study the occurrence of emphysematous lesions in symptom free smoking men of about 60 years of age and in a matching group of never-smoking men and the relationship between pulmonary changes at high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) and lung function tests. Our investigation included 57 smoking and 32 never-smoking healthy men from a randomized epidemiological study. HRCT was perfo

Objectives. To compare perinatal and infant mortality in breech and cephalic presentations and between planned vaginal and cesarean section (CS) breech deliveries in Sweden. Methods. The study comprised two parts. Study A is a national cohort study for the period 1991-2001, including 22 549 breech presentations and 875 249 cephalic presentations born at >= 38 completed weeks. Study B is a case-con

Amperometric screen-printed biosensor arrays for detection of pesticides (organophosphates and carbamates) and phenols have been developed. Cholinesterases (AChE and BChE), tyrosinase (TYR), peroxidases (SBP. soybean and HRP. horseradish) and cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH) were combined on the same array consisting of one Ag/AgCl reference electrode surrounded by eight radially distributed working

Fluorescence spectra from different organs in rats and mice have been recorded to explore the potential of non-intrusive tissue diagnostics. The fluorescence was induced by a nitrogen laser that emitted at a wavelength of 337 nm. Optical multichannel techniques were used for the detection. Spectra are given from 19 different sites in Wistar/Furth rats, including an inoculated malignant tumour. The

This study presents a predicted five-year reference interval for the outcome following repair of the median or ulnar nerve in adults. Forty-four patients were examined with the use of a recently introduced model instrument for documentation after nerve repair that includes "sensory", "motor", and "pain/discomfort" outcomes which together constitute a summarized "total score". Analysis of the "tota

Recension av Historiedidaktik i Norden 5.

We have used murine 3T3-L1 cells, which differentiate in culture and acquire morphological and biochemical features of mature adipocytes, as a model for studying the expression of cyclic-nucleotide phosphodiesterase (PDE) 3B activity, protein and mRNA during differentiation and during long-term treatment of the cells with tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), a cytokine associated with insulin

Leukotriene antagonists are effective in the treatment of exercise-induced bronchoconstriction. Montelukast is a specific cysteinyl-leukotriene receptor1 antagonist without known effects on the pulmonary vessels, which in theory should be advantageous with respect to gas exchange. In addition to lung function, we investigated the effects of montelukast on parameters of gas exchange and physical pe

An analysis of inelastic photoproduction of J/psi mesons is presented using data collected at the ep collider HERA corresponding to an integrated luminosity of above 80 pb(-1), Differential and double I < P-t/psi(2) < differential cross sections are measured in a wide kinematic region: 60 < W-gammap < 260 GeV, 1 p(t,psi)(2) < 60 GeV2 and 0.05 < z < 0.9. where z is the fraction of the energy of the

Analyzing a free boundary problem for harmonic functions we show that there are no closed particle paths in an irrotational inviscid traveling wave propagating at the surface of water over a flat bed: within a period each particle experiences a backward-forward motion with a slight forward drift.