The humoral immune response is dependent on the formation of antibodies. Antibodies are produced by terminally differentiated B cells, plasma cells. Plasma cells are generated either directly from antigen challenged B cells, memory cells or from cells that have undergone the germinal center (GC) reaction. The GC is the main site for class switch, somatic hypermutation and generation of memory cells. Different factors, both internal and external, shape the outcome of the immune response. In this thesis, we have studied a few factors that influence the maturation of the humoral response. We have studied how age affects the response, and we show that responses against thymus dependent antigens (TD) are more affected than responses to thymus independent (TI) antigens, in concordance with the view that the T cell compartment is more affected by age than the B cell compartment. Furthermore, we demonstrate that priming early in life have a big influence on the immune response in the aged individual. Priming with a TI form of the carbohydrate dextran B512 (Dx) induces a reduction of IgG levels in later TD responses against Dx. We have evaluated possible mechanisms for this reduction. The reduction does not seem to be caused by clonal exhaustion or antibody mediated mechanisms. We also showed that the reduced TD response after TI priming can be induced against another molecule than Dx. With the hypothesis that TI antigens induce a plasma cell biased maturation of the responding B cells, we examined the presence of Blimp-1, a master regulator of plasma cell differentiation, in GCs induced by TD and TI antigen. Blimp-1 was found earlier in GCs induced by TI antigen and the staining intensity in these GCs was stronger than in TD antigen induced GCs, indicating that plasma cells might be continuously recruited from these GCs. B cells undergoing the GC reaction are thought to be under a strict selection pressure that removes cells with low affinity for the antigen and also cells that have acquired self-reactivity. We investigated the effect of apoptotic deficiencies on the accumulation of somatic mutations in GC B cells. In mice lacking the death receptor Fas, lpr mice, the frequency of mutations was increased but the pattern of the mutations did not differ from wild type mice. In contrast, mice over-expressing the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2, had a lowered frequency of mutations and the mutations introduced had other characteristics.

The purpose of this essay has been to investigate if the national test results, in the subject of Swedish B at upper secondary school, are affecting a student’s final grade in varied degree among different teachers. The purpose has also been to investigate if the assessment of these tests is equivalent among different teachers. This particular investigation showed that there are big differences between how teachers grade, in relation to achieved results on the national test. According to the Swedish National Agency for Education, the teacher should take all performance information available into consideration for each particular student. This means that the result of a national test is only part of the teacher’s collected assessment in relation to the goals. Yet, it seems as if many teachers use the national test result as an important, and sometimes even as the only basis, when they determine a student's final grade. The investigation is also indicating that the national tests are assessed differently by different teachers. What teacher the student have, can therefore be crucial for what final grade a student will receive in relation to his or hers test result. Since it is of great importance that the assessment of the national test is fair and consistent and that the result of the assessment will be the same no matter who carries it out, the result shows that it is open to question if the national test can be considered to contribute to comparability and fairness of grades.

The problem of self-consciousness and recognition is one of the most crucial and central issues in Hegel&rsquo / s Phenomenology of Spirit. The purpose of this study is to expose and investigate this problem in accordance with the unity of Phenomenology through which Hegel examines the experience of consciousness in terms of its own criterion. The emergence of self-consciousness as an explicit issue becomes the truth of movement of consciousness, and self-consciousness essentially takes the form of desire. In this process, self-consciousness evolves from the natural desire to desire for recognition, and recognition by the other arises as the condition of self-consciousness. Besides, the only form of recognition that makes the satisfaction of self-consciousness or desire possible is the reciprocal recognition. Hegel exposes consciousness&rsquo / experience of recognition as the struggle for recognition and the dialectic of master and slave. On the other hand, the process of recognition in the Phenomenology does not culminate in the master-slave dialectic or in the liberation of slave. Rather, the servile consciousness takes another shape that emerges from its contradictory nature and it changes into the freedom of thought. That is, Hegel&rsquo / s concept of recognition cannot be reduced to the master-slave dialectic / the process of recognition persists in the subsequent movement of consciousness and it evolves into certain recognitive relations in the &lsquo / Spirit&rsquo / . For this reason, the problem of self-consciousness and recognition has a determining or constitutive role through the whole movement of consciousness in the Phenomenology.

This thesis focuses on Sophocles&rsquo / Antigone in the context of Hegel&rsquo / s reference to it in describing the ancient Greek ethical life in the chapter on &ldquo / Spirit&rdquo / of the Phenomenology of Spirit. While evaluating the ancient Greek ethical life as a moment on the way to Spirit&rsquo / s self-knowledge which dissolves through its own dialectics, Hegel describes the inherent contradictions of ancient Greek ethical life which cause its dissolution through Antigone. Antigone&rsquo / s act of mourning has a central position in the context of the supersession of these contradictions. The aim of this thesis is to understand the ancient Greek ethical life as Hegel describes it and to specify Antigone&rsquo / s position in this description.

Syftet med vår uppsats var att undersöka lärares och elevers uppfattning om skönlitterär läsning på två gymnasieskolor och ta del av det litterära utbudet i svenska A och B. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna är Molloys didaktiska frågor, den ämnesdidaktiska triangeln och tidigare forskning och studier. Undersökningsmaterialet bestod av elevenkäter och fyra lärarintervjuer. Resultatet visar att det fanns skillnader i lärares och elevers uppfattning om skönlitterär läsning och utbud. Vår övergripande slutsats blev att den skönlitterära läsningen på de två gymnasieskolorna inte fullt ut var ett fungerande moment i svenskundervisningen.

Studien är en litteraturstudie som jämför tre läroböcker i gymnasiekursen Svenska B och hur dessa behandlar skönlitteratur. Främst är det läroböckernas elevfrågor till skönlitteraturen som ligger till grund för undersökningen. Om man ser till elevfrågornas utformning behandlar de tre läroböckerna skönlitteratur på likartade sätt. Eleverna tränas i att koppla skönlitteraturen både till det samhälle de lever i och det samhälle texterna uppkom i. Det finns dock en skillnad i hur läroböckerna presenterar författarna till de utvalda texterna. Spannet löper mellan att behandla författarna som viktiga kulturpersoner med personliga och långa presentationer och att endast beskriva dem i termer som författare av tidstypiska texter.

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

The USP4 is a deubiquitinating enzyme found elevated in certain human lung and adrenal tumours. USP4 has a very close relative, USP15, which has caused great difficulty in studying only one or the other. We have had generated two antibodies specific to USP4 and USP15, and have confirmed that the two do not cross react. Although there have been previous findings of interacting partners, possible substrates and pathways in which it is involved, the biological role of USP4 is mostly unknown. We have used these antibodies to determine that USP4 and USP15 expression differs across tissue and cell types, and that expression changes as the organism ages. We have shown that USP4 plays a role in canonical Wnt signaling, perhaps by stabilizing Beta-catenin, and identified GRK2 as a kinase, phosphorylating USP4. These data have provided enough information to form a hypothesis, implicating USP4 with the destruction complex in the Wnt signaling pathway.

Using 1.0 fb^{-1} of data collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) from Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron, we measure the top-antitop production cross-section in events with two leptons, significant missing transverse energy, and at least jets, at least one of which is identified as a b-jet. As the Run II dataset grows, more stringent tests of Standard Model predictions for the top quark sector are becoming possible. The dilepton channel, where both top quarks decay t-> W b ->l nu b, is of particular interest due to its high purity. Use of an isolated track as the second lepton significantly increases the dilepton acceptance, at the price of some increase in background, particularly from W + jets events where one of the jets is identified as a lepton. To control the increase in background we add to the event selection the requirement that at least one of the jets be identified as a b-jet, reducing the background contribution from all sources. Assuming a branching ratio of BR(W->l nu) = 10.8% and a top mass of m_top = 175 GeV/c^{2} the measured cross-section is sigma = (10.5 +/- 1.8 stat. +/- 0.8 syst. +/- 0.6 lumi.) pb.

No description available.