The calcium homeostasis in the body is normally strict regulated to be kept within very narrow limits. This regulation is due to the action of parathyroid hormone (PTH) which is synthesized in the chief cells of the parathyroid glands. In different diseases, the calcium homeostasis is disturbed and this could either be due to a dysfunction of the parathyroid gland itself, or it could have a completely different explanation. To investigate disturbed calciumhomeostasis, ionized calcium and PTH can be analyzed from a blood sample. There are a lot of different assays to measure PTH in humans.

This is a report of our examination project in electronics carried out for Bofors Test Center in Karlskoga. The task was to construct an electronic devise for starting up different kinds of measuring systems in exact time during test sequences. The modules that are used today are old and unreliable. Our goal was to construct a prototype, which later on is supposed to be developed into a useful system..

?Tollarsjuka? is a disease with a suspected immunopathological background seen in Nova Scotia duck tolling retrievers. Pyrexia, lameness, stiffness and joint- or musclepain are typical clinical signs. The purpose of this study is to describe case histories from dogs with a possible evidence of ?tollarsjuka?. 18 private dogs were included in this report. Generalised stiffness, lameness and fatigue were the most frequent manifestations of the disease.

Establishing a reference interval for plasma fibrinogen in foals Fibrinogen concentrations were analysed in EDTA preserved blood plasma samples from 34 thoroughbred foals born in 2001 and 2002 at one stud farm. The foals were between 0 and 240 days old at the time of the sampling, and there were 19 fillies and 12 stallions in the group. The foals were examined for clinical symptoms of disease and their body temperature was measured before blood was sampled from the jugular vein. From totally 156 blood samples, 31 were selected as originating from clinically healthy foals, and used to determine a reference range for thoroughbred foals. Samples originating from foals showing clinical symptoms of disease or an abnormal body temperature at the time of sampling, were classified as coming from unhealthy animals.

Much attention has been directed to Charity Foundations and how they use the donations given to them. Donators and external organisations put pressure on and evaluate the performance of Charity Foundations. The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding of how Charity Foundations handle the pressure from external parties through a qualitative case study of one Swedish Charity Foundation. The most important external factors have been identified and the accountability relationships between each party and the Charity Foundation have been examined. The empirical material was collected through semi-structured interviews and from written sources.

Staphylococcus aureus is the most clinically important Staphylococcus species and is associated with high mortality in patients with positive blood cultures. S. aureus bacteria may cause a variety of disease manifestations ranging from minor skin infections to life-threatening conditions such as pneumonia, meningitis, osteomyelitis, endocarditis, toxic shock syndrome (TSS) and sepsis. This microorganism belonging to the gram positive cocci may also be part of the normal flora. In Sweden, penicillinase-stable penicillins are the primary alternatives to treat S.

In the western world, strokes are the third most common cause of death, hitting mainly the elderly population. Smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes and overweight are known risk factors for causing strokes. Previous studies show that an increased level of particulate matter, PM, is also related to an increased number of strokes. The population in this study consists of patients over 65 years old who live in Malmö. Levels of particulate matter were measured from October 2004 to April 2005 at a central outdoor monitoring site in Malmö.

Today, some kind of laboratory results is required for around 70% of the diagnostics and follow-ups for diseases. In many of the cases the time from sampling to a result is very critical. Therefore the discussion of how to improve this situation has begun. For many analyses serum has been the routine choice for a long time but now it is disputed. After blood collection in a serum tube it is essential to wait 30-60 minutes before centrifugation and analysis of the sample, a long time for someone in an acute state.

In the 1980?s the moose population in Sweden grew explosively due to big changes in the silviculture with clear cuttings instead of single-tree selection. Clear cuttings brought big areas of young forest and therefore a lot of fodder in one place. Since this change, the discussion about how to manage the moose population has grown into a very big problem. Forest owners think that the population needs to be strongly reduced because of all the damage that is done to the young forest when the moose seeks its food, and the economic losses because of that.

ABSTRACT Introduction: One of the great difficulties that the nurse anesthetist encounter in their profession is to assess and estimate sleep depth versus signs of pain in the anesthetized patient. Based on a pre-operative appointment and the perioperative monitoring, an assessment of the patient is made. The experience that the nurse anesthetist has can make it easier to understand what subtile signs of the patient depends on. Purpose: With this in mind, the purpose of the pilot study was to try to find out if there are specific signs of pain during anesthesia and if the professional experience played a role. As a subsidiary aim the authors examined whether there were factors in the patient that the nurse anesthetist takes into account in the identification of pain during anesthesia.

The purpose of this thesis work was to develop an automatic fault detection system for surveillance of bearing temperature in hydropower turbines. The parameters used except the bearing temperature were cooling water temperature and cooling water flow. A simple static model based on data sampled every minute was developed to estimate the bearing temperature. Then a detector for detection of change in bearing temperature based on the CUSUM-algorithm was designed. Since the amount of data was very small the developed model was too uncertain to be used in a working system.The designed fault detection system showed to work well for the available data.

The European Brown bear (Ursus arctos) has gone from basically being extinct in Sweden to, 2008 being estimated to a total of 3298 individuals. When looking at the new Swedish moose management system it is important to have an ecosystem-based approach and therefore include all the parts that moose impacts on and from in the management, especially the brown bear. Primarily in the spring and early summer the brown bear is a significant predator on moose calfs which must be taken into account in moose management. When the bear recolonize areas that it has previously been eradicated from, it will once again come in contact with people who are not accustomed to the bear's role in the ecosystem. We studied three groups of moose management areas with different predation by bears.

Background: Practical blood flow restriction (pBFR) combined with resistance training has been proven to facilitate muscle strength despite training at low intensity. However, research investigating the effects of long-term pBFR-training and its periodization with strength training (ST) at a higher intensity is lacking, as well as the effects of occlusion training on blood lactate levels (BLL) over time.Purpose: To compare the effects of 2 weeks of pBFR training followed by 2 weeks of ST (BFR-ST) with 2 weeks of ST followed by 2 weeks of pBFR training (ST-BFR) on anaerobic performace and BLL.Method: 5 adults (age 23 ± 2 years) with a minimum of 1 year of ST experience were recruited and randomized into BFR-ST (n=2) or ST-BFR (n=3). Anaerobic performance was measured using a 30-s Wingate-test and BLL samples were collected <1 and 5 minutes post-Wingate. Data and samples were collected before the intervention and after the 2 protocols.Results: No differences were seen between groups in anaerobic output or BLL after 4 weeks of training (p>0,1 for all values). A decrease in time to peak power (tPP) were seen in both groups with an advantage for BFR-ST (-37 ± 8 %) over ST-BFR (-27 ± 22 %).

Blood samples from 44 clinically healthy cats were analysed for the presence of antibodies to Chlamydophila felis. As we wanted to investigate if the antibody titre of clinically healthy cats correlates to shedding of chlamydia, conjunctival and vaginal or preputial swabs respectively, were taken and analysed with rtPCR (real-time polymerase chain reaction) for the presence of chlamydia DNA. Furthermore, to investigate possible epidemiological factors connected with asymptomatic cats infected with chlamydia and to see if there were any indications that chlamydiosis can cause reproductive problems, the owners of the cats were asked questions regarding this. Sixty-one per cent (27 of 44) of the cats were seropositive. Three of these (11 %) had the highest antibody titre (1:1600).

The urbanization of the world is increasing. How it affects bird populations have been well studied during the last decade, and comparisons between urban and non-urban habitats have been carried out. A common method for measuring habitat quality is to calculate the population density. This method is easy to use, but have been criticized during the last couple of years. In this study, data of population densities was compared with data on reproduction success.