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Background As moderate to severe psoriasis is a systemic disease with large effects on health-related quality of life, generic measures that include overall health, not only skin involvement, are necessary. Knowledge about the relationship between the generic preference-based EuroQol 5D (EQ-5D) and dermatology-specific measures in psoriasis is limited. Objectives To analyse EQ-5D, the Dermatology

Energy service companies (ESCOs) are often portrayed as important change agents in capturing the opportunity to curb energy demand and mitigate climate change through increased efficiency. Yet, the literature in this area is limited. While many studies analyze economic and environmental savings from energy efficiency programs, far less attention has been devoted to evaluating managerial and other

We use randomness to exploit the potential sparsity of the Boolean matrix product in order to speed up the computation of the product. Our new fast outputsensitive algorithm for Boolean matrix product and its witnesses is randomized and provides the Boolean product and its witnesses almost certainly. Its worst-case time performance is expressed in terms of the input size and the number of non-zero

The ability of particles to activate and form cloud droplets influences the functioning of the Earth's hydrological cycle. This work links the particle water uptake at subsaturation to the critical supersaturation ratio needed for particles to become cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Five models using the particle hygroscopic growth at subsaturation for predicting the critical supersaturation neede

Environmental contaminants such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are man-made bioaccumulative compounds with long half-lives that are found throughout the world as a result of heavy use in a variety of consumer products during the twentieth century. Wildlife and animal studies have long suggested adverse effects of exposure to these compounds on human reproductive health, which, according t

Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) is, in contrast to non-b H. influenzae, associated with severe invasive disease such as meningitis and epiglottitis in small children. To date accurate H. influenzae capsule typing requires PCR, a time-consuming and cumbersome method. MALDI-TOF MS provides rapid bacterial diagnostics and is increasingly used in clinical microbiology laboratories. Here MALDI-TOF

Numerous animals are known to assess the resource holding potential of their opponents using conventional signals and other correlates of resource holding potential. Although body and weapon size generally correlate with resource holding potential and are often presumed to be visually evaluated in animal contests, no one has demonstrated visual assessment of opponent size while controlling for all

We studied the paleomagnetic properties of relatively organic rich, annually laminated (varved) sediments of Holocene age in Gyltigesjon, which is a lake in southern Sweden. An age-depth model was based on a regional lead pollution isochron and Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon ages of bulk sediments and terrestrial macrofossils, which included a radiocarbon wiggle-matched series of 873 varves tha

The blade tip region encounters high thermal loads because of the hot gas leakage flows, and it must therefore be cooled to ensure a long durability and safe operation. A common way to cool a blade tip is to design serpentine passages with 180 deg turns under the blade tip-cap inside the turbine blade. Improved internal convective cooling is therefore required to increase the blade tip lifetime. D

The intangible nature of software means that traditional processes for managing product development are not sufficiently effective. This, in combination with the increasing share of software in technical products, has had the effect of making it difficult to identify improvement proposals for engineering processes in many cases. This thesis uses both qualitative and quantitative research methods t

Since the basic concepts in the area of building physics are usually ignored, preventable failures are continuing to occur in modern buildings. The aim of this project is to evaluate the economic effects of different building physics aspects during the different stages in the building process and show the importance of applying building physics to designs. The hypothesis of this project is that ec

Popular Abstract in Swedish Inför hjärtkirurgi är bedömning av en patients individuella nytta av och risk vid en hjärtoperation en viktig komponent i utredningen inför operationen. En riskstratifiering innebär att patientens olika riskfaktorer (exempelvis sockersjuka, högt blodtryck, antal tidigare hjärtinfarkter, hjärtfunktion) vägs samman till en sannolikhets-bedömning av risken för en viss händThe aims of this research was to compare different risk score algorithms with regard to their validity to predict 30-day and one-year mortality after open-heart surgery, to evaluate if the preoperative risk stratification model EuroSCORE predicts the different components of resource utilization in cardiac surgery, and to systematically evaluate the accuracy and performance of artificial neural net

Spatial and temporal changes in South African solar UV-B (280-315 nm) exposure were modeled and mapped at 2.5 km2 resolution using ozone, relative humidity, cloud amount and elevation data. Computations indicated large natural gradients in UV-B exposure ranging from a 34.2% change over 14o of latitude to a 44.2% change over 16o of longitude. Modelling of future scenarios in annual UV-B exposure in

A new technique for two-dimensional temperature measurements of burning surfaces is presented. Laser-induced phosphorescence from a thermographic phosphor material applied to a surface of investigation was measured with a fast framing camera. The phosphor was excited by the 4th harmomic from a pulsed Nd:YAG operating at 10 Hz. The phosphorescence images measured by eight consecutively gated CCD de

A general mathematical model for the characterization of the dynamic (kinetically labile) association of supramolecular assemblies in solution is presented. It is an extension of the equal K (EK) model by the stringent use of linear algebra to allow for the simultaneous presence of an unlimited number of different units in the resulting assemblies. It allows for the analysis of highly complex dyna

AIMS: To describe the mortality and causes of death among subjects with alcohol use disorder in comparison with those without alcohol disorder and to study whether mental disorders increase mortality in alcoholics. DESIGN AND SETTING: Data were analysed from the database of the Lundby Study, comprising 3563 subjects followed from 1947 to 1997. METHOD: A community-based sample was investigated in 1

The morphological matrix is an important element of the engineering design methodology and is present in many textbooks. This method originally aimed at generating an exhaustive set of solutions for a given problem, by decomposing it into subproblems, finding solutions to each subproblem, and combining them. One issue associated with the morphological matrix has been the necessity to deal with the

Popular Abstract in Swedish I den litteratur om marknadsföring, som vanligen används på universitet och högskolor, framställs ofta marknadsföringsarbete som något som äger rum i en objektivt given värld, vilken kan observeras, diskuteras och studeras som ett ”faktum” utanför och mer eller mindre oberoende av företaget och dess aktiviteter. I denna avhandling är utgångspunkten istället att det vi uThe aim of this thesis is to offer a contribution to the understanding of marketing work. In orthodox, mainstream marketing management literature, the work of marketing is commonly depicted as a fairly straightforward practice, technical in character, neutral in terms of social values and ideologies, operating within an objective and pre-given world. A counter picture to this idealised view of mar

High resolution real time heat release analysis will become increasingly important in the future development of engine control systems. The increased demands on efficiency and emissions will put high demands on future engine control. Future engine concepts, for example the HCCI engine concept might crave cylinder pressure based Closed-Loop Combustion Control (CLCC). The analysis of cylinder pressu