This thesis is a part of a Bachelor’s degree within the field of Media and Communication at the School of Education and Communication at Jönköping University in Sweden. It is based on a Minor Field Study accomplished from the 30th of October to the 17th of December 2006 in Kampala, Uganda, East Africa. The background of the research is that women who are between 15 and 24 years old and live in sub-Saharan Africa are more than tree times as likely to be infected by HIV/AIDS as men in the same age and location. The purpose of the study is to discover indicators of what kind of health communication young women need to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS. The young women in the study are between 15 and 24 years old and live in areas affected by urban poverty in Kampala, Uganda. To be able to gain a deeper understanding for the young women’s situation, the empirical study has been based on eleven conversation interviews made one by one with eleven young women. The procedure of the study has been guided by developed grounded theory and during the analysis of the interviews phenomenology has been used. The result of the study shows that the ABC (Abstinence, Be faithful and Condom use) approach, which is used to fight HIV/AIDS in Uganda, is well known and carries an important message about prevention methods. At the same time it preaches moral in its hierarchical order which seems to judge women harder than men. The ABC approach was turned around by one of the young women in the study, which might create a more realistic message. It is however necessary to complement the approach with communication to young women about for example women’s rights and general sexual knowledge. This can be done through the use of verbal interpersonal communication, combined with easy access to HIV testing. The young women themselves can be effective peer educators and there is a need to let the interpersonal agenda be reflected in the political agenda, as well as in the developing media. To make young women able to act on their knowledge for protection, men and the community also need to be approached with gender sensitive messages.

ABCB4 est un transporteur ABC spécialisé dans la sécrétion de phosphatidylcholine au niveau de la membrane canaliculaire des hépatocytes. Des variations du gène ABCB4 sont responsables de la cholestase intrahépatique familiale progressive de type 3 (PFIC3), une maladie rare, létale, qui progresse en cirrhose et insuffisance hépatique avant l'âge adulte. Nous avons étudié l'effet de la mutation I541F décrite chez un patient. Contrairement à la forme sauvage d'ABCB4 localisée à la membrane des canalicules biliaires dans les cellules HepG2 et à la surface apicale dans les cellules MDCK transfectées, le mutant I541F n'est pas replié correctement et s'accumule dans le réticulum endoplasmique (RE). Après transfert à 27°C, le mutant est exprimé à la surface apicale sous forme mature et active. La modulation des chaperonnes cellulaires calnexine et Hsc/Hsp70 ne restaure pas le trafic intracellulaire du mutant. La cyclosporine A augmente la maturation et l'expression à la membrane plasmique d'ABCB4-I541F, ce qui ouvre des perspectives de développer de nouvelles thérapies pour le traitement de la PFIC3. La seconde partie du travail a eu pour objectif de déterminer le rôle du domaine cytoplasmique N-terminal d'ABCB4, qui n'a pas d'homologie avec d'autres transporteurs ABC. Des délétions progressives de ce domaine ont permis d'identifier une séquence de 11 acides aminés nécessaire à la sortie du RE. Des mutations ponctuelles (T34M et R47G) identifiées chez des patients n'affectent pas la maturation ni le trafic, mais diminuent fortement l'activité d'ABCB4. Ces résultats montrent que le domaine N-terminal est nécessaire à la fois pour le trafic et l'activité d'ABCB4

A limited understanding of iron uptake mechanisms is available for Streptococcus pyogenes, a hemolytic human pathogen capable of using a variety of hemoproteins in addition to ferric and ferrous iron. This study characterizes the transporters of iron-complexes siuADBG (for streptococcal iron uptake) and siaABC (for streptococcal iron acquisition). These ABC-type transporters are encoded by iron regulated operons and their protein products are homologous to components of heme and siderophore transporters found in both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Mutants of the membrane permeases siuG and siaB were constructed and characterized. Mutations in both transporters demonstrated growth reduction in comparison to the parent strain when grown in complex medium containing iron in the form of hemoglobin. The addition of heme to the growth medium inhibited ferric uptake by the wild-type while the addition of protoporphyrin IX did not, suggesting that heme utilization as an iron source is responsible for the inhibition of ferric accumulation. Inactivation of siuG reduced the ability of heme to inhibit ferric incorporation by the cells. Inactivation of siaB in addition to siuG had a cumulative effect, indicating that both siu and sia transporters are involved in heme utilization. We also demonstrated that purified rSiaA, the surface receptor of SiaABC, binds heme and hemoglobin in vitro, and we propose a mechanism of heme binding by SiaA. Studies in a zebrafish infection model revealed that the siuG mutant was attenuated in producing disease. While the siaB mutant also presented virulence attenuation, infection by this mutant was characterized by an increase in the host inflammatory response. These observations show that iron acquisition is important for S. pyogenes virulence. We propose that the SiaABC and SiuADBG, together with the multi-metal transporter MtsABC, are involved in iron acquisition from different iron sources present in the human body, thus contributing to the survival and pathogenesis of S. pyogenes.

ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporters constitute one of the largest families of transport proteins. The occurrence of multidrug resistance (MDR) in human cancer cells has been correlated with the over expression of human ABC, P-glycoprotein (Pgp). Streptomyces peucetius produces two anticancer agents, doxorubicin and daunorubicin, that belong to the anthracycline family of antibiotics. The organism is self-resistant to the potent effects of the antibiotics it produces due to the action of an efflux pump, DrrAB. Both Pgp and DrrAB carry out similar functions, but in two different cell types. An understanding of the bacterial drug transporter DrrAB is thus expected to help in obtaining a better understanding of the function and evolution of the multidrug transporter P-glycoprotein. In DrrAB, the catalytic and membrane domains are present on separate subunits, DrrA and DrrB respectively. How the catalytic ATP-binding domains and the membrane domains in transporters interact with each other, or how energy is transduced between them, is not well understood. We introduced several single cysteine substitutions in DrrB and then by using a cysteine to amine hetero-bifunctional cross-linker showed that DrrA interacts predominantly with the N-terminal cytoplasmic tail of DrrB. Within this region of DrrB, we also identified a sequence with similarities to the EAA motif found in importers of the ABC family of proteins, thus leading to the proposal that the EAA or the EAA-like motif may be involved in forming a generalized interface between the ABC and the TMD of both uptake and export systems. By using a combination of approaches, including point mutations and disulfide cross-linking analysis, we show here that the Q-loop region of DrrA plays an important role in dimerization of DrrA as well as in interactions with DrrB. Furthermore, we also show that the interaction of the Q-loop with the N-terminus of DrrB is involved in transmitting conformational changes between DrrA and DrrB. The scope of the present study further extends into identifying the factors involved in the biogenesis of the DrrAB pump. We have identified two accessory proteins namely, FtsH and GroEL that may be involved in proper folding and assembly of the transporter.

<p>This thesis is a part of a Bachelor’s degree within the field of Media and Communication at the School of Education and Communication at Jönköping University in Sweden. It is based on a Minor Field Study accomplished from the 30th of October to the 17th of December 2006 in Kampala, Uganda, East Africa.</p><p>The background of the research is that women who are between 15 and 24 years old and live in sub-Saharan Africa are more than tree times as likely to be infected by HIV/AIDS as men in the same age and location.</p><p>The purpose of the study is to discover indicators of what kind of health communication young women need to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS. The young women in the study are between 15 and 24 years old and live in areas affected by urban poverty in Kampala, Uganda.</p><p>To be able to gain a deeper understanding for the young women’s situation, the empirical study has been based on eleven conversation interviews made one by one with eleven young women. The procedure of the study has been guided by developed grounded theory and during the analysis of the interviews phenomenology has been used.</p><p>The result of the study shows that the ABC (Abstinence, Be faithful and Condom use) approach, which is used to fight HIV/AIDS in Uganda, is well known and carries an important message about prevention methods. At the same time it preaches moral in its hierarchical order which seems to judge women harder than men. The ABC approach was turned around by one of the young women in the study, which might create a more realistic message. It is however necessary to complement the approach with communication to young women about for example women’s rights and general sexual knowledge. This can be done through the use of verbal interpersonal communication, combined with easy access to HIV testing. The young women themselves can be effective peer educators and there is a need to let the interpersonal agenda be reflected in the political agenda, as well as in the developing media. To make young women able to act on their knowledge for protection, men and the community also need to be approached with gender sensitive messages.</p>

<p>KSL Trading Inc is a trading company in the Jönkoping area that distributes</p><p>material for the furniture and interior design industry.</p><p>The purpose of this report is to analyze the existing material flow and</p><p>warehouse layout as well as to identify the issues there are today at KSL’s</p><p>warehouse for board material. When we identified what kind of problems that</p><p>existed we were able to design a new plan for the material flow and storage</p><p>possibilities. The problems we found where:</p><p>• There is no well-organised warehouse layout</p><p>• There are no routines to keep the warehouse clean and in order</p><p>• There is no formed plan how to handle material</p><p>To solve these problems we have used different methods like interviews,</p><p>observations, calculations and literature studies. The information we have</p><p>gathered from these methods have been analyzed and developed into a result</p><p>In the result we have made two time studies on different orders in the existing</p><p>layout. We have presented two proposals on layout improvements on the</p><p>warehouse that improves the handling and flow of the material. Then we</p><p>simulated these orders in one of the two layout proposals to make an estimate</p><p>of time improvements. In packing orders we can show on an estimated</p><p>improvement in time of 45 %</p><p>We have divided the material into eight different families and then performed</p><p>an ABC-analysis on these families. We have also analysed how much material</p><p>of each family that is stored.</p><p>We have designed a new marking label that simplifies the work to maintain the</p><p>materials that are stored well in order and structure.</p><p>Finally we have been able to draw some overall conclusions on how to improve</p><p>the situation for the entire organisation.</p>

I denna kandidatuppsats undersöks hur ett förändrat produktionsupplägg påverkar ett svensktproducerande företags konkurrenskraft när konkurrensen från globala lågprisalternativ medkort leveranstid ökar. Genom att byta produktionsupplägg från produktion mot lager tillmontering mot order och genom att standardisera artiklar och till viss del modulindelaprodukter kan kundorderpunkten flyttas bak i produktionsprocessen. Komponenternamonteras då ihop till slutprodukt först när kundordern anlänt, vilket bidrar till att antaletlagerförda variantartiklar minskar vilket är något som bidrar till en lägre kapitalbindning.Kostnadsbesparingen detta medför kan användas till att utveckla ordervinnande egenskaper.Exempel på sådana egenskaper är att förbättra kvaliteten på produkterna, öka mervärdet,förlänga garantin samt stärka varumärket som ett mer miljövänligt alternativ. / This Bachelor thesis examines how a changed production structure affects one Swedishmanufacturing corporation’s competitiveness, when competition from global low priceoptions with short delivery times is increasing. By switching production structure from “maketo stock” to “assembly to order” and by standardizing articles, to some extent, modularizeproducts, the customer order decoupling point moves back in the production process. Thecomponents are assembled into finished products when the orders arrive, thus helping toreduce the number of stocked variant articles, and generally to decrease the value of fixedcapital.The cost savings this entails can be used to develop order-winning properties, to improveproduct quality, increase the added value and extend the warranty or work to become anenvironmentally friendly alternative, which strengthens the brand.

KSL Trading Inc is a trading company in the Jönkoping area that distributes material for the furniture and interior design industry. The purpose of this report is to analyze the existing material flow and warehouse layout as well as to identify the issues there are today at KSL’s warehouse for board material. When we identified what kind of problems that existed we were able to design a new plan for the material flow and storage possibilities. The problems we found where: • There is no well-organised warehouse layout • There are no routines to keep the warehouse clean and in order • There is no formed plan how to handle material To solve these problems we have used different methods like interviews, observations, calculations and literature studies. The information we have gathered from these methods have been analyzed and developed into a result In the result we have made two time studies on different orders in the existing layout. We have presented two proposals on layout improvements on the warehouse that improves the handling and flow of the material. Then we simulated these orders in one of the two layout proposals to make an estimate of time improvements. In packing orders we can show on an estimated improvement in time of 45 % We have divided the material into eight different families and then performed an ABC-analysis on these families. We have also analysed how much material of each family that is stored. We have designed a new marking label that simplifies the work to maintain the materials that are stored well in order and structure. Finally we have been able to draw some overall conclusions on how to improve the situation for the entire organisation.

Background: Companies of today commonly search to gain competitive advantages throughout different forms of co-operation, one of which is referred to as Supply Chain Management. Although little research has been assigned to the topic of how to manage and control this type of relation, lately a growing number of academics has been arguing that ABC is an appropriate mean of controlling this type of relationships. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate to what degree the ongoing debate on the use of ABC as a mean of control within SCM correspond to the present theories related to ABC and SCM respectively. Research method: The thesis takes it’s starting point within the literature, meaning that the empirical information consists of published articles in the ongoing debate. This information is put in relation to the original theories concerning both topics. Conclusions: The results shown in the thesis in some content agrees with the ongoing debate referring to the positive aspects that could result from using ABC as a mean of control within SCM. However the main result of the study is the discovery of a lack of discussion concerning the problems that implementing ABC within SCM might implicate, a fact that we believe contributes to the mainly positive view on using ABC within Supply Chain Management. / Bakgrund Företag av idag ingår i allt större utsträckning i någon form av samarbete för att på så vis skapa sig konkurrensfördelar på marknaden, en av dessa samarbetsformer går under beteckningen Supply Chain Management. Hur styrningen i denna typ av relation bör se ut är ett relativt outforskat ämne, dock finns det i dagens forskningsdebatt flera forskare som förespråkar ABC-kalkylering som ett lämpligt styrinstrument för denna typ av relationer. Syfte Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur väl den pågående forskningsdebatten gällande användandet av ABC som styrverktyg inom SCM överensstämmer med befintlig teoribildning inom de respektive forskningsområdena. Genomförande Studien tar sin utgångspunkt i litteraturen, med detta avses att den empiri som studeras består av publicerade artiklar i den aktuella debatten. Informationen ställs sedan i relation till den existerande teoribildningen inom ABC respektive SCM. Slutsats De resultat som framkommer ur studien visar på att den aktuella debatten i vissa avseenden har rätt i de positiva effekter ett ABC-system skulle kunna generera inom SCM. Men vad studien huvudsakligen kommer fram till är att det i forskningsdebatten saknas en ordentlig problematisering av ämnet, vilket enligt oss också förklarar den övervägande positiva syn som föreligger till användandet av ABC inom SCM.

Mutations in the gene encoding the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator protein (CFTR) cause cystic fibrosis (CF), the most common life-shortening genetic disease among Caucasians. Although general features of the structure of CFTR have been predicted from homology models, the conformational changes that result in channel opening and closing have yet to be resolved. We created new closed- and open-state homology models of CFTR, and performed targeted molecular dynamics simulations of the conformational transitions in a channel opening event. The simulations predict a conformational wave that starts at the nucleotide binding domains and ends with the formation of an open conduction pathway. Experimentally confirmed changes in side-chain interactions are observed in all major domains of the protein. We also identified unique-to-CFTR substitutions that may have led to channel activity in CFTR. Molecular modeling and simulations are used to compare the effects of these substitutions against a canonical ABC transporter, and suggest that gain of channel function in CFTR may have risen from loss of ATPase function at its NBDs. The models and simulation add to our understanding of the mechanism of ATP-dependent gating in this disease-relevant ion channel.