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Design requires thoughtful application of methods to broaden ones understanding of the task and to generate alternative solutions in the form of possible futures in relation to the task. These kind of activities implies learning. In an interaction design course for undergraduate engineering students, we noticed that students gave little effort to the usage of the design methodologies taught, and n

Government and public agencies in Sweden have promoted the expansion of eHealth. The strategy behind this effort is to increase quality of care, efficiency, patient empowerment and patient safety, and one of the most important civic eHealth services is patient online access to electronic health records (EHR). By 2017, all of Sweden’s inhabitants will be able to access their EHR from somatic care t

BACKGROUND: Chronic low-grade inflammation may play a role in the pathophysiology of depression, at least in a subset of patients. High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) has been used to define an inflamed subgroup of depression with specific clinical characteristics and symptoms. In this study we investigated biochemical and clinical characteristics in patients with difficult-to-treat depre

The speed and intensity of modern sports puts the athlete at risk for impacts to the head, or to the body when the impact force is transmitted to the head. Rapid head rotation caused by these impact forces may lead to a sports-related concussion (SRC), defined as a mild traumatic brain injury, typically resulting in short-lived disturbance of the central nervous system function. The diagnosis of S

The understanding of how forests function with respect to carbon (C) balance and its interaction with the climate system is a fundamental question in climate change research. Another important question is how large the sink for CO2 is in northern forests and how it varies with forest type, management, stand age and with external factors, such as climate variability. According to the Kyoto Protocol

The thesis comprises an analysis of the heat transfer phenomenon in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and a description of various transport phenomena in a solid oxide electrolysis cell. Both devices are encompassed under the solid oxide electrochemical cell concept. Moreover, a CFD model of an SOEC was developed to study the behavior of the cell under different conditions of operating and structural

Background: The incidence of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) is increasing worldwide. In Sweden, over 4600 cases were diagnosed in 2018. The prognosis after radical surgery varies considerably with tumor stage. In recent years, new treatment options have become available for metastatic CMM. Early onset of treatment seems to improve outcome, which suggests that early detection of recurrent disea

Background Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is a variant of cardiovascular autonomic disorder occurring predominantly in young women. POTS is characterized by an excessive heart rate increase when assuming upright posture accompanied by symptoms of orthostatic intolerance. The pathophysiology of POTS has not been fully established and is believed to be multifactorial. Purpose We a

Enzymes are involved in most reactions in nature. They are important both for the understanding of biological life and for reactions of industrial interest, e.g. in the production of artificial fertilizers, the production of biomass or biofuels. Enzymes with one or several metal ions are called metalloenzymes. In this thesis we study three different metalloenzymes, nitrogenase, lytic polysaccharid

Bread dough was studied in relation to three Andean grain flours, quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa), amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus) and canahua (Chenopodium pallidicaule), as partial replacements for wheat flour with the perspectives of dough and breadmaking. This thesis deals with the understanding of both dough as a complex system, consisting of various water-filled polymers, and dough as a viscoelast

Background: Hepatitis B virus infection is a global health problem with the highest prevalence in East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of infected people, including healthcare workers are unaware of their status. This study is aimed to determining seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus infection and associated factors among healthcare workers in northern Tanzania. Methods: This cross-sectio

Rapid internationalization of European higher education has resulted in a considerable increase in the number of English-medium instruction (EMI) degree programs now implemented at all levels of instruction. While this change of medium provides increased academic opportunities for all university stakeholders, the use of English by non-native speakers for teaching and learning in non-Anglosphere co

Multiple sclerosis leads to diffuse damage of the central nervous system, affecting also the normal-appearing white matter. Demyelination and axonal degeneration reduce regional fractional anisotropy in normal-appearing white matter, which can be routinely mapped with diffusion tensor imaging. However, the standard fractional anisotropy metric is also sensitive to physiological variations in orien

Natural killer (NK) cells represent the cytotoxic member within the innate lymphoid cell (ILC) family that are important against viral infections and cancer. Although the NK cell emergence from hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells through multiple intermediate stages and the underlying regulatory gene network has been extensively studied in mice, this process is not well characterized in humans

Background: Dexmedetomidine is a selective alpha-2 agonist with minimal impact on the haemodynamic profile. It is thought to be safer than morphine or stronger opioids, which are drugs currently used for analgesia and sedation in newborn infants. Dexmedetomidine is increasingly being used in children and infants despite not being licenced for analgesia in this group. Objectives: To determine the o

Groundwater is Earth’s largest liquid freshwater resource. It is a significant component of the hydrological cycle and a buffer that sustainsrivers and freshwater-dependent ecosystems during droughts. Approximately half of the world’s population depends on groundwater fordrinking water, food, and hygiene. It is used extensively in agricultural irrigation, food production and for industrial process

Corrosion of embedded steel reinforcement is the prime influencing factor that deteriorates the structural performance and reduces the serviceability of reinforced concrete (RC) structures, especially during earthquakes. In structural elements, RC columns play a vital role in transferring the superstructure's load to the substructure. The deterioration of RC columns can affect the structures' over

Production of agricultural biofuels is expected to rise due to increasing climate change mitigation ambitions. Policy interventions promoting targeted bioenergy solutions can be motivated by the large environmental externalities present in agricultural systems and the local context of biomass production co-benefits. Introducing energy crops in crop rotations in arable land with depleted Soil Organ

Importance: This follow-up study of extremely preterm (EPT) children (<27 weeks' gestational age [GA] at birth) revealed major eye and visual problems in 37.9% (147 of 388) of all EPT infants and in 55.4% (67 of 121) of the most immature subgroups at 6.5 years of age. These major eye and visual problems were strongly associated with treatment-requiring retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).Objectives: