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This report presents an analysis of three major fires in Sweden. Two of the fires concerns the industry and the third is a fire in a assembly hall. The study is based on available written material. The quality and reliability varies, and appears to depend on the aim, interest and competence of the investigator. In some cases, the information is sufficient to assess the performance of an automatic

Background. Previous studies have demonstrated that anti-CD40L or anti-B7 requires the presence of CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells (Treg) to induce antigen specific hyporesponsiveness. Other tolerance strategies involving Treg have shown a dependency on interleukin (IL)-10. The objective of this study was to investigate the role of CD4(+)CD25(+) Treg and IL-10 when treating transplant recipients

1 The mechanisms behind bradykinin-induced effects in the airways are considered to be largely indirect. The role of cholinergic nerves and eicosanoids, and their relationship in these mechanisms were investigated in guinea-pigs. 2 The role of cholinergic nerves was studied in animals given atropine (1 mg kg-', i.v.), hexamethonium (2 mg kg-', i.v.), or vagotomized. To study the role of eicosanoid

The regulation of phospholipase D was studied in human neuroblastoma cells using phosphatidylethanol as a marker of the enzyme activity. Carbachol induced phospholipase D activity in SH-SY5Y cells. Muscarinic antagonists inhibited the response with potencies suggesting that muscarinic M1 receptors are responsible for the activation. In permeabilized SH-SY5Y cells, both the carbachol- and GTP gamma

Here, the ligand binding, activation, and tissue distribution of the orphan G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) GPR92 were studied. GPR92 binds and is activated by compounds based on the lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) backbone. The binding of LPA to GPR92 was of high affinity (K(D) = 6.4 +/- 0.9 nM) and led to an increase in both phosphoinositide hydrolysis and cAMP production. GPR92 is atypical in tha

Popular Abstract in Swedish Parkinsons sjukdom beror på att de dopamin-producerande cellerna i hjärnan dör. Detta leder till minskad rörlighet, svårigheter i att påbörja och avsluta en rörelse, balanssvårigheter och darrningar (tremor) hos de drabbade patienterna. Varför dopamincellerna dör är oklart och i nulägat kan man inte bota Parkinsons sjukdom, men man kan lindra symptomen med mediciner. PaParkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder where the midbrain dopaminergic neurons are lost. Presently there is no cure for PD, and the most common treatment is to replace the lost dopamine pharmacologically by administration of the dopamine precursor L-DOPA. This works very well during the initial treatment period, but unfortunately a majority of the patients develop abnormal involu

Individuals identified in the Swedish neonatal alpha1-antitrypsin (AAT) screening study were followed prospectively from their first to their eighteenth year of life. The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of environmental factors, i.e. active and passive smoking, and of clinical factors on lung function and the occurrence of respiratory symptoms in AAT-deficient adolescents. The study gr

We evaluated a Swedish version of a self-administered disease-specific outcome questionnaire for carpal tunnel syndrome regarding reliability, validity and responsiveness to clinical change. It consists of multi-item scales assessing symptom severity, function, patient satisfaction and quality of life. It was given to 102 patients before and 3 months after carpal tunnel release. Test-retest reliab

X-linked hyper-IgM syndrome (X-HIM) is an immunodeficiency caused by mutations in the gene encoding the CD40 ligand (CD40L). A database (CD40Lbase) of CD40L mutations has now been established, and the resultant information, together with other mutations reported elsewhere in the literature, is presented here.

In this paper we extend Merton's (Rev. Econom. Stud. 42 (1975) 375) classic stochastic version of the Ramsey model by allowing the government to control the expected growth rate of the labor supply. We characterize the solution to this control problem for general time-separable preferences, and derive an analytical solution for the CRRA case. The results show to what extent the planner, or governm

α-Galactosidase (EC 3.2.1.22) and β-mannosidase (EC 3.2.1.25) participate in the hydrolysis of complex plant saccharides such as galacto(gluco)mannans. Here we report on the cloning and characterization of genes encoding an α-galactosidase (AglC) and a β-mannosidase (MndA) from Aspergillus niger. The aglC and mndA genes code for 747 and 931 amino acids, respectively, including the eukaryotic signa

Clinical trials involving intrastriatal transplants of human embryonic mesencephalic tissue have provided proof-of-principle that nigral dopamine (DA) neurons can survive and functionally integrate into the host neural circuitry. However, the degree of graft-induced symptomatic relief differs significantly between the patients. This variability has led to investigations aimed at identifying factor

This report contains research summaries of the 17 PhD projects that were active at the Department of Automatic Control in June 1999.