Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease, where joints are attacked by the own immune system, leading to chronic inflammation and destruction of bone and cartilage. Inflammation is a complex process, controlled by many different substances. One of them is adenosine, which has anti-inflammatory properties. In this project, three polymorphisms in different genes, involved in synthesis and signaling of adenosine, were genotyped for 188 patients with RA and 362 controls without RA. The results shows that for the polymorphism in A2a, a gene coding for an adenosine receptor, there was no significant difference in genotype distribution between the groups.

Erythropoiesis is a complex and carefully controlled process which is mainly regulated by erythropoietin. Using flow cytometry cells in a blood sample can be analyzed one by one. ADVIA 2120 using flow cytometry for analysis of red blood cells (RBC) and reticulocytes. Red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is a component of the RBC method. RDW indicates size variation on erythrocytes and is measured as a percentage of the mean cell volume (MCV). By measuring the RDW anemia can be divided into makrocytic, microcytic or normocytic. Reticulocytes refract light more strongly than red blood cells because they contain some cellular debris. The number of reticulocytes in the peripheral blood reflects erythropoiesis in the bone marrow. The purpose of this project was that by approved methods to establish reference ranges for the parameters, RDW and reticulocyte counts.The individuals who participated in the study, n=124, were considered healthy and had varying ethnicity. Reference subjects had not donated blood the last six months and participation in the study was voluntary.The statistic evaluation includes examination of distribution, and reference ranges for both men and women were established using the 2.5:t and 97.5:t percentiles. The calculated reference interval for RDW was between 12.0 ? 14.3% and the calculated reference interval for reticulocytes was between 38.0 ? 112.8 x109 cells/L. The results showed a significant difference between males and females for the parameter reticulocytes was seen. The difference indicates that different reference ranges should be established for men and women (p<0,0001). No significant difference between males and females were seen for RDW (p=0,74) indicating that the same reference ranges can be used for both men and women. .

The music distribution in Sweden and the world is rapidly changing. The music industry, however, has been reluctant to change the way they distribute music. The consequence has been that illegal music files have been available for downloading to anyone with an Internet connection. Because of the illegal downloading a new law have been implemented in an attempt to stop this behaviour. Our theory is that in implementing the IPRED-law, the sites that were hosting most of the illegal material will experience a severe decrease in traffic.

The assignment is issued by Scania Maintence AB seeking a new approach to detect power changes in their industrial processes. The work has taken place at Ångströmslaboratoriet and tests have been performed at Scania AB Södertälje.Today?s society consumes enormous amount of energy. In both economically and environmental view, it is important that the processes are effective, with high power factor. There are many ways to measure power in the industry, what they all have in common is that the installation is advanced, requires time and planning.

Sammanfattningen syftar till att ge en övergripande bild om vad arbetet handlar om, för att skapa en nyfikenhet till att läsa hela arbetet.Studiens syfte var att analysera alternativa distributionssystem för petroleumprodukter från Gävle Hamn. Där vi har valt två slutdestinationer, norra Stockholmsregionen med Brista som ett alternativ och det andra alternativet är Västerås. De faktorer som vi har utgått från när vi har analyserat distributionssystemen är ekonomiska, miljömässiga och tekniska möjligheter.Den metod som användes var kvalitativ och det empiriska materialet inhämtades genom intervjuer. I studien har nio respondenter intervjuats, vi anser att de personerna har varit relevanta för studiens syfte. Resultatet har analyserats med hjälp av tidigare forskning och teorier inom ämnet.Resultatet visade att det skulle vara ekonomsikt, miljömässigt och tekniskt möjligt att starta upp petroleumtransporter till norra stockholmsområdet.

The economic development and industrialization that has taken place in many parts of the world during the past century has brought about a huge increase in economic welfare. During this process, it has repeatedly been debated whether the gains from economic development are shared by everyone or just a few. In the field of economics, vast research has been conducted on this particular subject ever since the 1950?s. The most famous contribution might be said to be Simon Kuznets article, Growth and Income Inequality from 1955 and the ?inverted U?-hypothesis that was formulated on the basis of that article.

The economic development and industrialization that has taken place in many parts of the world during the past century has brought about a huge increase in economic welfare. During this process, it has repeatedly been debated whether the gains from economic development are shared by everyone or just a few. In the field of economics, vast research has been conducted on this particular subject ever since the 1950?s. The most famous contribution might be said to be Simon Kuznets article, Growth and Income Inequality from 1955 and the ?inverted U?-hypothesis that was formulated on the basis of that article.

This thesis concerns how the power quality in the grid is affected by the connection of wind power plants. As things are at present, Fortum Distribution AB has a number of wind turbines and wind parks connected to the own grid. As the pressure on building and connecting additional wind power is increasing, so is also the interest of how the already existing wind power generation affects the power quality in the nearby distribution grids. The study is performed by direction of Fortum Distribution AB and is limited to the 10 kV/40 kV-grid in Bohuslän, Sweden. The methods for calculation of power quality are compared to the results of a number of measurements.

The music distribution in Sweden and the world is rapidly changing. The music industry, however, has been reluctant to change the way they distribute music. The consequence has been that illegal music files have been available for downloading to anyone with an Internet connection. Because of the illegal downloading a new law have been implemented in an attempt to stop this behaviour. Our theory is that in implementing the IPRED-law, the sites that were hosting most of the illegal material will experience a severe decrease in traffic.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the relationship between the socially constructed genders is manifested in American library science. To visualize gender, bibliometric analyses of peer reviewed articles published in three core journals of library science between 1980 and 2000 inclusive, are performed. The three journals are: College and Research Libraries, Journal of Academic Librarianship and Library Quarterly. Questions: 1. Does gender affect the publishing process regarding the distribution of female and male authors? 2.

A change towards using more biofuels than fossil fuels is taking place in Sweden, and in many other parts of the world. This makes the use of fuel pellets increasingly popular, causing a greater demand for sawmill sawdust products. There is a trend towards the use of multiple types of shredders, instead of a single type in each sawmill. The purpose of the study was to characterize the different flows of saw particles that can be found at Sävar såg when cutting thick or thin wood with different cutting techniques. The saw particles size, shape, moisture content and heat value were analysed by the cutting stations: first cutting fast and slow, second cutting fast and slow, grading fast and slow and planning.

The Swedish energy system will be influenced by many future changes, such as energy and climate policy objectives. The installation of more renewable electricity could increase by using solar energy. Over the recent years, grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems have increased dramatically in Sweden, partly due to various support systems and compensation models. These support systems have been designed to make it easy for individuals and businesses to invest in self-generated electricity and thus contribute to the transformation of the energy system.The introduction of a higher proportion of solar energy may in turn affect the Swedish electricity system. This could mean that the electricity companies will be facing a number of changes in the near future.

Chlorinated solvents are common contaminants in soil and water. Under anaerobic conditions microbes are capable of transforming chlorinated solvents into ethylene which would result in a remediation of the contaminated area. In order to use natural attenuation as a remediation method evidence of continuous degradation is required. Furthermore, the degradation must occur at a sufficient rate and continuous monitoring of the site is needed until the demanded levels are achieved. A field study was performed on the basis of data from a dry-cleaning facility contaminated mainly by perchloroethylene.

This thesis investigates the overall risks of flooding over the Design Basis Flooding Level (DBFL) at the Swedish nuclear power plants (Oskarshamn, Ringhals and Forsmark), using statistical data and methods, but also considers historical events which might affect the overall risk of flooding at the specified sites.Considering the nuclear accident which happened in Fukushima in conjuction with the earthquake and tsunami which struck eastern Japan on 11 March 2011, operators and licensors of nuclear power plants all over the world conducted reviews and investigations on the overall risks posed to the plants from external events. One important such event is extreme water level.One part of the thesis includes an extreme value analysis (using Generalized Extreme Value distribution and Generalized Pareto distribution) of water level data from SMHI (Sweden's Meteorological and Hydrological Institute) measured at stations close to the Swedish nuclear power plants. The results of the statistical studies indicate that considering the return period used in the thesis (100 000 years), the water levels at the Swedish nuclear power plants are not expected to exceed DBFL.The other part of the thesis consists of a historical study of extreme weather-related events. The results of this study indicate that no historical events seem to have occured which would indicate a higher risk of flooding than the one suggested by the statistical study. .

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to study attitudes and standpoints among a few librarians towards literature with state supported distribution provided by the Swedish Arts Council. By qualitative interviews with librarians at five different public libraries, the thesis examines which attitudes that flourish concerning the titles, how the circular of books is treated, where the titles belong on the literature map and if the system is producing a standardisation of this literature and if the conception of quality is relevant. We also study how the librarians relate to intentions of the Swedish Art Council with the distributed titles and how they regard their availability. Our theoretical framework is based on Hans Hertel?s model of five literary circulations and Theodor W.