| 11. |
- Wiitavaara, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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Experiences of illness, wellness and work environment of male ambulance personnel
- 2005
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 37th Annual Conference of the Nordic Ergonomics Society. ; , s. 266-270
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study explored experiences of illness, wellness and work environment of male ambulance personnel with musculoskeletal symptoms. A Grounded theory approach was applied with interviews with ten ambulance men parallel to analysis. Illness was experienced as threefold, with experiences of getting too vulnerable/hardened and getting worn-out beside experiences of bodily illness. Wellness was closely connected to their identity as both individuals and ambulance workers. To create stability and make sense of their illness experiences, the men performed an inner reasoning about extenuating circumstances to make illness acceptable; they also consciously worked out a strategy for handling their problems.
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| 12. |
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| 13. |
- Radke, Michael, et al.
(författare)
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Lessons learned from water/sediment-testing of pharmaceuticals
- 2014
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Ingår i: Water Research. - : Elsevier BV. - 0043-1354 .- 1879-2448. ; 55, s. 63-73
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Previous studies revealed large differences in the transformation of pharmaceuticals in rivers with similar characteristics. The present work aimed at answering the question whether these differences are related to the transformation capacity of the specific river sediments. More generally, we also aimed at evaluating the overall diagnostic power of water/sediment tests. Incubation experiments with 9 pharmaceuticals were carried out with sediments sampled from three rivers. All compounds expect carbamazepine were removed at dissipation half-lives between 2.5 and 56 days; biotransformation was identified as the major removal process. Interestingly, sediment from river Roter Main was more efficient in removing pharmaceuticals than sediment from river Gründlach, while the opposite pattern was observed in previous field studies. Obviously, the physical boundary conditions are governing the actual elimination of pharmaceuticals and not the transformation potential of the specific sediments. In a separate experiment, an immediate onset of transformation was observed after introducing oxygen to an anoxic water/sediment system. Transformation rates in sediments sampled from several sites within one river varied up to a factor of 2.5. This considerable in-stream variability is a critical factor for environmental risk assessment where single cutoff values are being used for evaluating a compound's persistence.
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| 14. |
- Kulcinskaja, Evelina
(författare)
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β-Mannan degradation by gut bacteria - Characterization of β-mannanases from families GH5 and GH26
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The human gut flora is important for our well-being. The gut bacteria are able to degrade and metabolize complex carbohydrates. Examples of such carbohydrates are β-mannans. β-Mannans consist of a backbone of β-1,4-linked mannose units and are present in e.g. the endosperm of legumes such as guar or carob. The composition of the β-mannan varies with the plant source. Carob and guar β-mannans are substituted with α-1,6-linked galactose units and are soluble in water. They make a viscous solution that is used e.g. as food thickener. It is known that guar gum galactomannan can be fermented by the human gut flora. The main enzymes that hydrolyze β-mannan backbones are called β-mannanases. β-Mannanases have been studied and characterized from a range of environments. However, β-mannanases have yet not been studied from the gut flora to any significant extent. This thesis focuses on β-mannanases from families GH5 and GH26 from the gut bacteria Bacteroides and Bifidobacterium. In Paper I, we have studied the effect of galactomannan on metabolic markers and four bacterial genera in rats fed with guar gum. Guar gum of different viscosities was tested. We found that Bifidobacterium counts were increased when the rats were fed guar gum, regardless of viscosity, while the number of Bacteroides was not different from the control. In Papers II-IV we characterized four enzymes from these genera possibly involved in the degradation of guar gum and other mannans. We characterized BaMan26A, a GH26 β-mannanase from Bifidobacterium adolescentis in Paper II and a GH5 β-mannanase, BlMan5_8, from Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis in Paper IV. In Paper III we characterized two GH26 β-mannanases, BoMan26A and BoMan26B, from Bacteroides ovatus that are encoded by a polysaccharide utilization locus. A crystal structure of BoMan26A displayed the (α/β)8 fold of clan GH-A enzymes and a substrate binding cleft. The four β-mannanases were found to vary in product profile and fine-tuned substrate specificity within the group of β-mannans. While BlMan5_8 produced oligosaccharides of varying length from β-mannan, BoMan26A produced almost exclusively mannobiose from β-mannan. BoMan26B produced mainly mannobiose, while BaMan26A produced mannotriose as a major product. BlMan5_8 is predicted to be secreted, while BoMan26B and BaMan26A appear to be anchored to the cell. BaMan26A is predicted to be located in the periplasmic space. This work gives further insight in the molecular details of β-mannan catabolism in the gut.
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| 15. |
- Dickinson, Hugh, et al.
(författare)
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Discovery of transient high-energy gamma-ray emission from the BL Lacertae object 5C 3.178
- 2013
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 552, s. A134-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report the serendipitous discovery of transient, point-like high energy gamma-ray emission coincident with the position of the suspected BL Lac object 5C 3.178. The source was detected using the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) at a significance level of similar to 8 sigma during a 200 day period which began on November 17th 2011 (MJD 55 882). The observed gamma-ray emission is characterised by a moderate 0.2-300 GeV flux F0.2-300 (GeV) = (8.22 +/- 2.04) x 10(-9) ph cm(-2) s(-1) and a hard power law spectrum with spectral index Gamma = 1.76 +/- 0.09. These properties appear consistent with the known sub-population of TeV gamma-ray-emitting BL Lac objects, implying that the source may be detectable using atmospheric Cherenkov telescope arrays. Moreover, the temporal variability of the source suggests that real-time searches of the Fermi-LAT all-sky dataset for weak emission on similar to 200 day timescales may represent a rewarding strategy.
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| 16. |
- Poon, Aubrey, 1987-
(författare)
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Assessing the Synchronicity and Nature of Australian State Business Cycles
- 2018
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Ingår i: The Economic Record. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0013-0249 .- 1475-4932. ; 94:307, s. 372-390
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper assesses the synchronicity and nature of Australian state business cycles. To this end, I develop a time-varying parameter panel Bayesian vector autoregression (BVAR) with a novel common stochastic volatility factor in the error structure, which is estimated in an efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm. The common stochastic volatility factor reveals that macroeconomic volatility was more pronounced during the Asian financial crisis than during the more recent global financial crisis. Next, the panel BVAR's common, state- and variable-specific indicators capture several interesting economic facts. In particular, the fluctuations of the common indicator closely follow the trend line of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development composite leading indicators for Australia, making it a good proxy for nationwide business cycle fluctuations. Furthermore, despite significant co-movements of Australian state and territory business cycles during times of economic contractions, the state indicators suggest that the average degree of synchronisation across the Australian state and territory cycles in the 2000s is only half of that in the 1990s. Given that aggregate macroeconomic activity is determined by cumulative activity of each of the states, the results suggests that the federal government should consider granting state governments greater autonomy in handling state-specific cyclical fluctuations.
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| 17. |
- Sim, S, et al.
(författare)
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Association between CYP2C19 polymorphism and depressive symptoms
- 2010
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Ingår i: American Journal of Medical Genetics, Part B, Neuropsychiatric Genetics. - : Wiley. - 1552-485X .- 1552-4841. ; 153B:6, s. 1160-1166
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cytochrome P450 2C19 (CYP2C19) is a polymorphic enzyme active in the metabolism of for example diazepam and the antidepressants sertraline, citalopram, and escitalopram, whereby allelic variants cause increased (CYP2C19*17) or abolished (mainly CYP2C19*2) enzymatic activity in drug metabolism. In light of the importance of CYP2C19 in the metabolism of psychoactive substances we considered it of interest to investigate the relationship between CYP2C19 polymorphisms and depressive symptoms in 1,472 subjects of European ancestry (45-98 years old) from the Swedish Twin Registry. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center of Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale. We found that poor metabolizers lacking CYP2C19 activity (PMs, CYP2C19*2/*2) had significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms than extensive metabolizers (EMs, CYP2C19*1/*1) (P = 0.0018). The size of this difference was in the same range as that between subjects reported taking antidepressants (n = 104) and those without antidepressant treatment (P < 0.0001). Our results suggest for the first time that the CYP2C19 polymorphism might be of importance for depressive symptoms, as here shown for older European adults.
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| 18. |
- Camilleri, John J., 1986
(författare)
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A computational grammar for Maltese
- 2013
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Ingår i: 4th International Conference on Maltese Linguistics.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Grammatical Framework (GF) is a multilingual grammar formalism based on using abstract syntax trees as a language-independent semantic representation. By supporting both generation and parsing to/from this interlingua, GF can produce high-quality multilingual translations within closed domains. The framework includes a Resource Grammar Library (RGL) which captures the morphology and basic syntax of some 26 languages from around the world. GF is freely available as open-source software and has most recently been used as the framework of choice in the European project MOLTO (Multilingual Online Translation). This work presents an implementation of a Maltese resource grammar using the GF formalism, attempting to cover all aspects of Maltese morphology and syntax. By using GF, this single grammar can be used for bi-directional translations between Maltese and any other language already supported by the RGL. The smart paradigms implemented in the grammar allow full inflection tables to be produced for any lexical unit, often requiring only a lemmatised form. Using these smart paradigms, the construction of a large scale monolingual dictionary can be bootstrapped from other linguistic resources. Work on building such a companion lexicon is also underway, which when combined with the resource grammar could be used to power a fullform computational lexicon for Maltese, enabling comprehensive spell-checking and other related tools. The GF system can also be used as a localisation framework for web and desktop software, allowing developers to provide interfaces to their applications in multiple languages simultaneously, including Maltese. As with all GF resources, this Maltese resource grammar is completely open-source and free to use for any purpose, released under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).
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| 19. |
- Camilleri, John J., 1986, et al.
(författare)
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A web-based tool for analysing normative documents in english
- 2018
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Applied Computing. - New York, NY, USA : ACM. ; Part F137816, s. 1865-1872
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Our goal is to use formal methods to analyse normative documents written in English, such as privacy policies and regulations. This requires the combination of a number of different elements, including information extraction from natural language, formal languages for model representation, and an interface for property specification and verification. A number of components for performing these tasks have separately been developed: a natural language extraction tool, a suitable formalism for representing such documents, an interface for building models in this formalism, and methods for answering queries asked of a given model. In this work, each of these concerns is brought together in a web-based tool, providing a single interface for analysing normative texts in English. Through the use of a running example, we describe each component and demonstrate the workflow established by our tool.
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| 20. |
- Mamoun, Abdel-Hafiz
(författare)
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Factors inhibiting ingestive behavior in chronic renal failure
- 1997
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Protein-energy malnutrition and wasting occur in many patients with chronic renal failure. Reduced nutrient intake because of anorexia, nausea and vomiting, caused by uremic toxicity is an important factor. Regular dialysis therapy results in the reduction or disappearance of anorexia, suggesting that one or more dialyzable compounds cause these toxic symptoms. We used a model for studying the ingestive behavior of conscious, free-moving rats. They were fitted with intraoral cannulas and connected to a peristaltic pump which delivers a diet solution (1 ml/min) and the time (volume) of ingestion was determined. The model was used for basic physiological studies of the role of glucose, amino acids and cholecystokinin octapeptide (CCK-8) in appetite regulation as well as for specific studies on the effect of peritoneal dialysis solutions and uremic toxins on ingestive behavior. The inhibitory effect of CCK-8 on ingestion of a protein diet was compared to that on ingestion of a carbohydrate diet. This effect lasted for 4 hrs. Injection of CCK-8 inhibited intake of carbohydrate but not protein. Conversely, injection of the CCK-A receptor antagonist L-364,718 facilitated intake of carbohydrate, but not protein. Ingestion of a protein diet caused a marked increase in the plasma level of CCK-8 which declined to basal levels in about 4 hrs. Intake of protein also caused a large increase in plasma levels of amino acids, some of them with a time course describing a mirror image of the inhibitory effect on ingestive behavior. The results suggest that release of CCK-8 into the general circulation is of no importance for termination of the protein meal. Release of amino acids may be important satiety signal for protein ingestion. Intraperitoneal injection of up to 40 ml saline had no effect on carbohydrateor protein ingestion. Injection of 30 ml of peritoneal dialysis fluids contain mg 13.6, 22.7 and 38.6 g/l of glucose induced a dose dependent inhibition of sucrose intake, but had no effect on protein intake, whereas injection of dialysis fluids containing 11, 18 and 31 g/a of amino acids reduced the intake of sucrose and protein in a dose dependent manner. Our results indicate that inhibition of appetite caused by fluids containing glucose or amino acids is specific for each nutritional constituent and not simply an effect of hyperosmolality or large filling volume. Uremic and normal urine ultrafiltrates injected i.p. inhibited the ingestion of both carbohydrate and protein, but normal plasma ultrafiltrate had no effect. The 1-5 kd subfraction (the middle molecule fraction, MM) isolated from uremic and normal urine ultrafiltrates elicited a dose-dependent inhibition of carbohydrate or protein intake, whereas subfractions with lower molecular weight had no effect. These results suggest that toxic MM fractions which are normally excreted in the urine accumulate in uremia and may suppress appetite. Intraperitoneal and intercerebroventricular injections of the MM subfractions had a potent inhibitory effect on ingestive behavior, but had a less marked effect when given intravenously, suggesting that these MM subfractions act on the splanchnic region and brain to suppress ingestive behavior. To be effective intravenously, these MM subfractions must be given in higher doses to reach their site (s) of action because they are diluted in the general circulation. The MM may act directly in the brain or via modifying neurotransmittors that regulate food intake. We demonstrated increased serotonin synthesis and dopamine turnover in uremic rats. Whether the effect of experimental uremia on cerebral monoamines is related to the effect of the MM observed here is, however, an open question. Nitric oxide synthesis was markedly inhibited in predialyzed uremic patients, but increased after hemodialysis (HD) and not influenced by feeding. CCK-8 was increased in HD patients at the end of the meal and returned to the fasting level 4 hrs later. Leptin was 4-fold higher in HD patients and remained unaffected after the meal. Hemodialysis treatment, however, influenced neither the fasting concentrations of CCK-8 nor leptin. These results suggest that accumulation of CCK-8 and leptin as well as nitric oxide depletion may inhibit ingestive behavior in HD patients.
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