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| 2. |
- Abdul-Hussein, Saba, et al.
(författare)
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Expression profiles of muscle disease-associated genes and their isoforms during differentiation of cultured human skeletal muscle cells
- 2012
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Ingår i: BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. - : BioMed Central. - 1471-2474. ; 13
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: The formation of contractile myofibrils requires the stepwise onset of expression of muscle specific proteins. It is likely that elucidation of the expression patterns of muscle-specific sarcomeric proteins is important to understand muscle disorders originating from defects in contractile sarcomeric proteins.METHODS: We investigated the expression profile of a panel of sarcomeric components with a focus on proteins associated with a group of congenital disorders. The analyses were performed in cultured human skeletal muscle cells during myoblast proliferation and myotube development.RESULTS: Our culture technique resulted in the development of striated myotubes and the expression of adult isoforms of the sarcomeric proteins, such as fast TnI, fast TnT, adult fast and slow MyHC isoforms and predominantly skeletal muscle rather than cardiac actin. Many proteins involved in muscle diseases, such as beta tropomyosin, slow TnI, slow MyBPC and cardiac TnI were readily detected in the initial stages of muscle cell differentiation, suggesting the possibility of an early role for these proteins as constituent of the developing contractile apparatus during myofibrillogenesis. This suggests that in disease conditions the mechanisms of pathogenesis for each of the mutated sarcomeric proteins might be reflected by altered expression patterns, and disturbed assembly of cytoskeletal, myofibrillar structures and muscle development.CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, we here confirm that cell cultures of human skeletal muscle are an appropriate tool to study developmental stages of myofibrillogenesis. The expression of several disease-associated proteins indicates that they might be a useful model system for studying the pathogenesis of muscle diseases caused by defects in specific sarcomeric constituents.
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| 3. |
- Abdul-Hussein, Saba, et al.
(författare)
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Phenotypes of Myopathy-Related Beta-Tropomyosin Mutants in Human and Mouse Tissue Cultures
- 2013
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Ingår i: Plos One. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 8:9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mutations in TPM2 result in a variety of myopathies characterised by variable clinical and morphological features. We used human and mouse cultured cells to study the effects of beta-TM mutants. The mutants induced a range of phenotypes in human myoblasts, which generally changed upon differentiation to myotubes. Human myotubes transfected with the E41K-beta-TMEGFP mutant showed perinuclear aggregates. The G53ins-beta-TMEGFP mutant tended to accumulate in myoblasts but was incorporated into filamentous structures of myotubes. The K49del-beta-TMEGFP and E122K-beta-TMEGFP mutants induced the formation of rod-like structures in human cells. The N202K-beta-TMEGFP mutant failed to integrate into thin filaments and formed accumulations in myotubes. The accumulation of mutant beta-TMEGFP in the perinuclear and peripheral areas of the cells was the striking feature in C2C12. We demonstrated that human tissue culture is a suitable system for studying the early stages of altered myofibrilogenesis and morphological changes linked to myopathy-related beta-TM mutants. In addition, the histopathological phenotype associated with expression of the various mutant proteins depends on the cell type and varies with the maturation of the muscle cell. Further, the phenotype is a combinatorial effect of the specific amino acid change and the temporal expression of the mutant protein.
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| 4. |
- Abraha, Desalegn
(författare)
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Command Economy as Failed Model of Development: Lessons Not Yet Learned : The Case of Eritrea
- 2010
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Ingår i: Journal of Management Policy and Practice. - : North American Business Press. - 1913-8067. ; 11:5, s. 49-68
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this article is to identify which economic model is applied in Eritrea. The government claims to follow the market economy model(s), however, the actual practice seems to be different and casts doubts on the government's commitment to market economy. Against this background, the author has examined Eritrea's economic development model. Confirming to his doubts, the author found out that the government is applying a militarist command economy model, however, in an improperly planned, poorly coordinated and extremely mismanaged approach, with its serious negative impacts on the economic, social, cultural, diplomatic and political conditions in the country.
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| 5. |
- Abraha, Desalegn
(författare)
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Leadership Crises and Nation Building in a Politically Turbulent Environment : The Case of the so Called Peoples Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) Central Office in Eritrea
- 2010
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Ingår i: Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics. - : North American Business Press. - 1913-8059. ; 8:1, s. 108-123
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The purpose of this article is to examine the social dimension of the nation building process in Eritrea. A qualitative case-study method which is composed of primary and secondary data is applied to conduct the research. The main findings show that (i) the social dimension of the nation building process was a complete failure, (ii) the main reason for the failure is the inappropriateness of the leadership to lead the task properly and (iii) a directive, visionary, participative and interactive leader that possesses, quality, legitimacy, justice, care, competence and character, i.e. honesty, integrity, trustworthiness and principle-centeredness is a leader that can accomplish the task successfully.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Abraha Gebrekidan, Desalegn
(författare)
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Establishment processes in a one party economy : the case of Eritrea
- 2010
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Ingår i: African Journal of Economic and Management Studies. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 2040-0705 .- 2040-0713. ; 1:1, s. 91-111
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the issues of how business people perceive the business environment, how government policies impact the environment and how the environment impacts the establishment processes and position development of new firms in the Eritrean market. The process is discussed by keeping a strict focus on the main actors and the activities they carried out, as well as how the available resources are utilized and exchanged in the market.Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on the establishment process model developed from the network approach, case studies based on interviews and focus group discussions have been used to shed light on the extent to how government policies and the environment impacts the establishment processes and position development in the Eritrean market.Findings – An important conclusion of this paper is that the main obstacle for business establishment is the hostile attitude of the government to the private sector. Another significant obstacle for building a successful position in the market is the state-owned command economy network of relationships. An additional crucial hindrance is the non-existence of a market economy network of relationships that can provide firms in the private sector with the resources they need to perform their operations.Research limitations/implications – All firms in this paper have demonstrated that the main obstacle for establishment is the hostile attitude of the government to the private sector. Another obstacle is the state-owned command economy network of relationships, which hinders firms from building a successful position in the market. An additional crucial hindrance is the non-existence of a market economy network of relationships that can provide firms in the private sector with the resources they need to perform their operations. Since the paper is based on case studies and focus group discussions, conducting a similar study on a representative sample of firms selected from a larger population will be very useful.Originality/value – This paper makes a unique contribution by focusing on the establishment process in a market, which is regulated, controlled and owned by the one party government. The other unique contribution is that a firm has to identify the secrets of business success and to follow the same strategy.
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| 8. |
- Abraha Gebrekidan, Desalegn
(författare)
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Establishment Processes in the Traditional, Complex and Fast Developing Emerging Economy : The Case of Swedish Firms in China
- 2012
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 2012 International Conference on Marketing Studies (ICMS2012). - : academic-journal.org.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Applying a qualitative case-study method this article examines the establishment processes of IKEA and HELDING Share Company (HSC). The findings show that establishment in China is a complex, time and resources consuming process. This is because the Chinese culture makes it a pre-requisite to build social networks of harmonious interpersonal relationships, i.e. guanxi_to achieve success. The rules are changing continuously and there is an excessive involvement of the authorities in the economic activities in the market. It thus takes time and consumes enormous resources to understand the problems and to develop strategies to achieve success in establishments. IKEA and HSC developed interpersonal networks (guanxi) with the JV partners and the various influential people (facilitators) in the different phases of establishments. The developed guanxi enabled the two firms to understand and to handle; the cultural constraint, the complicated and continuously changing legal system, the bottlenecks in authorities relationships, the most complex and time consuming bureaucratic structures, the unique style of negotiations, to get operations and import license, license for the land for running the business and to get various types of assistance in the network development.
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| 9. |
- Adamson, Göran, et al.
(författare)
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Adaptive Assembly Feature Based Function Block Control of Robotic Assembly Operations
- 2012
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Ingår i: The 13th Mechatronics Forum International Conference Proceedings. - Linz : TRAUNER Verlag. - 9783990330425 ; , s. 8-13
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Many manufacturing systems are exposed to a variety of unforeseen changes, negatively restricting their performances. External variations depending on market demand (e.g. changes in design, quantity and product mix) and internal variations in production capability and flexibility (e.g. equipment breakdowns, missing/worn/broken tools, delays and express orders) all contribute to an environment of uncertainty. In these dynamically changing environments, adaptability is a key feature for manufacturing systems to be able to perform at a maximum level, while keeping unscheduled downtime to a minimum. Targeting manufacturing equipment adaptability, this paper reports an assembly feature (AF) based approach for robotic assembly, using IEC 61499 compliant Function Blocks (FBs). Through the use of a network of event-driven FBs, an adaptive controller system for an industrial gantry robot’s assembly operations has been designed, implemented and tested. Basic assembly operations have been mapped as AFs into Assembly Feature Function Blocks (AF-FBs). Through their combination in FB networks, they can be aggregated to perform higher level assembly tasks. The AF-FBs dynamic execution and behavior can be adaptively controlled through embedded eventdriven algorithms, enabling the ability of adaptive decisions to handle unforeseen changes in the runtime environment.
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| 10. |
- Adamson, Göran, et al.
(författare)
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Event-Driven Adaptability using IEC 61499 in Manufacturing Systems
- 2012
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Ingår i: Proceedings of The 5th International Swedish Production Symposium, SPS12. - Linköping : The Swedish Production Academy. - 9789175197524 ; , s. 453-460
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Different kinds of uncertainty, such as variations in manufacturing capability and functionality, as well as changes in demand, make up a dynamically changing environment for many manufacturing systems of today. The ability to adapt to these unforeseen changes, through dynamic decision-making as well as dynamic control capabilities based on the use of real-time manufacturing information and intelligence, is vital to be able to perform at a competitive level while reducing unscheduled downtime. The event-driven Function Block (FB) model of the IEC 61499 standard, as opposed to the time-triggered and data-driven concept of IEC 61331, supports this approach, making it possible to handle, in a responsive and adaptive way, different kinds of uncertainty. Our objective is to develop methodologies for distributed, adaptive and dynamic process planning as well as machine monitoring and control for machining and assembly operations, using event-driven FBs. The implementation and testing of FB-based control for manufacturing equipment has been successfully realized in prototype systems, with control of both CNC machining and robotic assembly operations. The approach of using IEC 61499 FBs for adaptive control in other applications is also investigated, as an adaptive decision support system for operators at manufacturing facilities is under development. We strongly believe that IEC 61499 will play a major role in the shift to adaptive manufacturing systems.
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