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. .

To become a successful athlete requires several different components in which one of themost significant is the ability to develop their own physical strenght. What weight exercises has the best transfer effects for skating?Participants in the study were 20 male senior hockey players from Div. II in the Västra Gö- talands Regionen in which all participants had at least 10 years of hockey experience.Test subjects had to perform a five-minute individual warm up followed by an opportunity to familiarize with the upcoming exercise. The first on-ice test was a 35 meters sprint test and the second test was an S-cornering agility test.

The purpose of this study was to investigate different relations between the damages of falls and background variables as well as the relation between the falls and the weather condition to later be able to use this report to expand the knowledge among workers at VTI about the pedestrian fall injuries. All of the fall injuries in the data that this study is based on have occurred in Sweden during the time period between January 2003 and December 2011.To be able to answer the questions that this report is based on several statistical methods are used. The statistical methods that have been used during the making of this report are multiple linear regression, binary logistic regression, correlation analysis, association analysis and descriptive statistics as well as visual analysis.The results of the study show that women around menopause age have a tendency to get a big increase in the amount of injuries compared to men of the same age. The study also suggests that men on average tend to have a lower level of injury compared to women.Age also seems to affect both the amount of injuries and the level of injury negatively. The study suggests that the most likely reason for this is both that the intake of ?Fall Risk Increasing Medicine?, which is medicine that increases the drowsiness, is higher among older individuals as well as lower estrogen levels among older women and lower amount of testosterone among older men, which causes a loss of bone density in both sexes.The weather seems to have a strong effect on how many injuries occur but also a noticeable effect on the scale of the injury.

Osteoporos är en sjukdom som under de senaste decennierna ökat. I Sverige inträffar det cirka 70 000 osteoporosrelaterade benbrott varje år. Den största gruppen som drabbas är kvinnor efter menopaus. Syftet var att belysa faktorer som är av betydelse för prevention av osteoporos och osteoporosrelaterade frakturer hos postmenopausala kvinnor. Metoden var en systematisk litteraturstudie bestående av 10 vetenskapliga artiklar varav 9 baserade på kvantitativ och en på kvalitativ forskning.

This is an empirical cross-sectional study with the aim to examine the patient?s comprehension about their quality of life within two to seven years after their stem-cell transplantation with reference to physical, social, emotional, psychological and functional wellbeing and to investigate if the patient groups have disease specific problems. Differences in quality of life between men and women and also between allogeneic and stem cell transplantation with an unrelated donor (URD) were studied. The measurement Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT) and the bone marrow transplant subscale (BMT) is a 49 item, valid and reliable measure that was used. The questionnaire was answered by 43 of 47 patients (91%).There is a significant difference between men and women in physical, social and functional wellbeing.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis is a common disease worldwide. The disease is described as a chronic inflammation that afflicts mainly the joints, the tendrons and the synovial joint. The inflammation breaks down cartilage, ligaments and bone. When the patient gets the diagnosis he/she frequently reacts with chock, denial or/and dissociation. Active support from the nurse can have an important impact on the patient in accepting and processing that he/she suffers from disease.

This is a literature study in which I investigate if there are scientific studies that form the basis of the Swedish dog world views concerning the spaying of bitches. The positive impacts are said to be reduced problems with pseudopregnancy, reduced risk of pyometra, reduced risk of mammary and uterine tumors, an earlier cease of bone growth, a more active and happier dog and a bitch who is more tolerant of other dogs. The negative consequences are said to be urinary incontinence, increased aggressiveness, lower metabolism and the increased risk of obesity, a more lethargic individual and altered coat.There are studies indicating that spaying reduces behavioral problems associated with heat and pseudopregnancy. Assuming no ovary tissue persists after the procedure, and there is no progesterone production, the risk of pyometra decreases. Early spaying, before the first heat, reduces the risk of mammary tumors.

The purpose of this study was, if possible, to find a housing system for growing bulls that was as optimal as possible for the animal welfare. In order to select housing systems you must take into account the size of the group, body weight and the type of floor. Seven of the international most common housing systems were compared, straw bedding, deep straw bedding, sliding straw bedding, concrete slatted floor, rubber coated slatted floor, cubicles and feeding cubicles. Studies that have examined the proportion of tail, claw and leg injuries and the presence of unnatural behavior in the different systems. In summary, all studies showed that soft underlay were beneficial for the animals in terms of the proportion of bone lesions and swellings.

This project is based on my fathers farm which lays outside Löberöd, twenty kilometres south of Eslöv in Skåne. While my family for some time have thought about building a new milkingstable with AMS(Automatic milking system) I decided to compare the AMS with a conventional milkingstable. We are abit concerned about how many cows we should have in the new stable. Because of that I calculated with two different number of cows. I have compared three different types of milking stables: One alternative is 180 cows milked in a double eigth hearing bone milking stable. The second alternative is 128 cows milked with two DeLaval VMS-robots. The third alternative is 171 cows milked with three DeLaval VMS-robots. One salesman from DeLaval and one salesman from A-betong helped me to get marketprices on the milkingrobots, building, ventilation and prices on all the concrete. In all the costs labour is included. The rest of the costs are calculated in a softwareprogram called K-data 03 which is a program with predicted costs. The calulations from the program showed that the price in the milkingpit system was 51 000 sek per cow.

The Clinical Pathology Laboratory at SLU in Uppsala has analysed several blood samples from Dachshunds with severe anemia. As there are no previous studies on this topic, a study was performed to evaluate if Dachshunds are more prone to severe anemia compared with other breeds. In addition, a retrospective case study on Dachshunds with severe anemia was done to search for common risk factors or diseases. Hemoglobin values in samples from 1272 Dachshunds and 2269 German Shepherds analyzed from September 1994 to October 2007 were used to compare the frequency of severe anemia in Dachshund and German shepherd. The samples were identified by laboratory information system.

Insomnia is getting more prevalent with age, both because of natural changes in the sleep pattern and because of increased morbidity. It can cause dysfunctioning and sedation during the day. Therefore it is often treated with hypnotics. It is possible though that hypnotics can cause daytime sleepiness as well, not to mention increased risk of falling and fractures because of sedation and prolonged reaction time. Benzodiazepines and benzodiazepine related drugs, the subjects of this study, are commonly used as hypnotics.

This essay concerns the osteological cremated skeletal remains from Broe, Halla parish, Gotland of  The Late Iron Age.The focus of this essay is to determine the position of the corpse on the pyre, whether the cremated bones were crushed after or prior to the cremation and if the individual was buried in the pyre. In addition the species, age, sex and skeletal abnormalities of the bones in question will be studied.The result of the research has yielded that the cremated bones did not need to be crushed to result in the small fragment sizes. Crushing of the bones may have happened during the cremation, this conclusion has been drawn through the comparison of a pyre experiment were bone fragmentation is evident with cremated foxes, and dogs in the cremation graves from Broe. The construction of the pyre and the position of the corpse could not be determined through colouring and fragmentation of the bones.The human's were commonly buried in the pyre, and in some cases it is possible that the "grave" in fact is the remainder of a pyre. The species found are dog, horse, cow, sheep/goat and bear.

The aim of this study was to compare the effect between the drugs rituximab and infliximab in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA is an autoimmune disease that affects the peripheral joints and is associated with exacerbations. Various immune reactions in the body cause inflammation of the joints which further results in cartilage and bone damage. The diagnosis is made by the classification system "The 2010 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) / European league against rheumatism (EULAR) classification criteria for rheumatoid arthritis", which is an update of the older system called "The 1987 American College of Rheumatology classification criteria for RA". Approximately 0.5-1% of the population is developing the disease, but it varies slightly between different parts of the world.

This project was initiated by a desire to improve our knowledge about animal welfare. It is a part of a series of projects involving the way dogs are kept in today?s society. The aim of this project was to investigate the dog?s behaviour when left alone in a parked car.