Introduktion: Det är viktigt att risk för undernäring identifieras och att åtgärder sätts in så tidigt som möjligt då det är svårt att åtgärda konsekvenserna. Studier tyder på att screening för undernäring inte utförs i tillräcklig utsträckning och kunskapsbrist hos vårdpersonal lyfts som ett hinder för god nutritionsvård. Syfte: Att undersöka kunskapsnivån hos vårdpersonal på äldreboenden med avseende på undernäring och äldres energi- och näringsbehov samt om nutritionsvård utförs. Material & metod: En tvärsnittsstudie genomfördes med en enkät som delvis baserades på den validerade enkäten Knowledge of Malnutrition-Geriatric questionnaire. Tio äldreboenden i Uppsala kommun deltog. Totalt 141 sjuksköterskor, undersköterskor och vårdbiträden besvarade enkäten. Resultat: Den totala procentuella andelen kunskapspoäng var 51,3 procent av maxpoängen för samtliga deltagare tillsammans. Det fanns kunskapsluckor, gällande bl.a äldres näringsbehov, möjliga riskfaktorer för undernäring och vad som anses vara ett hälsosamt BMI för äldre (>70 år). Sjuksköterskor hade signifikant högre kunskapsnivå än både undersköterskor och vårdbiträden. Nutritionsvård verkade utföras av en stor andel av respondenterna. Slutsats: Kunskapsluckor identifierades, främst hos undersköterskor och vårdbiträden. Nutritionsvård verkade utföras av en stor andel av respondenterna. För att förbättra kunskapsnivån och därmed minimera kunskapsluckorna, kan eventuellt en skräddarsydd utbildning vara nödvändig, för att lämpligare nutritionsvård ska kunna ges.

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Allergic rhinitis is a highly common disease prevalent worldwide. The symptoms include rhinorrhea, itchy eyes and swelling. It is driven by Immunoglobulin E and a type 2 T cell response resulting in inflammation in the upper airways. Allergic rhinitis is often under diagnosed and has no cure, only treatments with varying efficiency. The role of the peripheral nervous system has classically not been thought of as part of the immune system. Recent studies have however, been successful in demonstrating its involvement. One of its most studied mediators, substance P (SP), seems to have a role in priming the innate immune system for incoming dangers. SP and Toll-like Receptors (TLRs) have been shown to regulate one another’s expression in healthy individuals. This project aimed to compare this cross-talk in healthy and allergic subjects. Analysis was made for additional receptors CD10, NK1R and VIPR2 and will also involve the cytokine interleukin 6 (IL-6) which is an important pro-inflammatory cytokine expressed following TLR ligand binding. Healthy and allergic individuals volunteered to leave nasal epithelial cells for culturing. These samples were stimulated with either SP or with R837, the synthetic ligand for TLR7. The project included three major methods; Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), Realtime quantitative PCR and fluorescent activated cell sorting (FACS). Stimulation with R837 did not give any significant differences in the transcription of genes coding for SP, tac1, and its receptor of choice, tacr1, between 7 healthy and 9 allergic subjects. Real-time qPCR for genes tlr4 and tlr9 showed that transcription of tlr4 was significantly elevated in allergic subjects and that the same was true for transcription of tlr9 but in healthy individuals, following SP exposure. Competitive-ELISA for SP proved that allergic individuals have a slower response to R837 stimulation, secreting significantly less of SP after 15 minutes compared to healthy individuals. The FACS results were hard to interpret and are unusable due to heavily split cells and persistent infections that resulted in a too small patient group for the allergic subjects (n=1). Future projects could include more patients for FACS, more extensive analysis for CD10, incorporating it in the qPCR analysis and to perform an ELISA measuring the antiinflammatory neuropeptide Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide (VIP) as it has antagonistic properties towards SP.

Livsmedelsburna sjukdomar är ett globalt problem som orsakar fleramiljoner dödsfall varje år, ändå tros den rapporterande siffran vara enbråkdel av hur många som drabbas. En anledning till svårigheten att vetaden verkliga summan av problemet är bristerna gällande rapportering avlivsmedelsbura sjukdomar. Även om Europa ligger i framkant medstrikta krav gällande säkerhet för mat uppkommer ständigt skandalersom visar på ett bristande system. Syftet med studien var att ta fram enberedskapsplan för matförgiftning och andra livsmedelsrelaterade utbrott.Målet var att ta fram en tydlig beredskapsplan som är lätt att användaoch som lämpar sig för mindre kommuner i Sverige. Litteraturundersökninggjordes för att samla information till bakgrund samt för att fåen övergripande blick över de olika livsmedelsburna sjukdomarna. Däreftergenomfördes en enkätundersökning gällande hur en beredskapsplanför livsmedelsrelaterade utbrott ser ut i Sveriges mindre kommuner. Resultatet visar att inte alla kommuner har en färdig beredskapsplan atttillgå vid större utbrott. Det som anses användbart i en sådan plan ärframförallt mallar för rutiner som exempelvis frågeformulär till densmittade vid en matförgiftning. En anledning till bristen på beredskapsplaneri mindre kommuner tros främst bero på bristande resurser, ökadpersonaltäthet hade enligt resultatet bidragit till ökad tillgång av beredskapsplaner.Utifrån de inkommande enkätsvaren har ett förslag på enberedskapsplan som är enkel att använda utformats.

In this thesis, first-principles calculations within density functional theory are presented, with a principal goal to investigate the phase stability of so called Mn+1AXn (MAX) phases. MAX phases are a group of nanolaminated materials comprised of a transition metal (M), a group 12-16 element (A), and carbon or nitrogen (X). They combine ceramic and metallic characteristics, and phase stability studies are motivated by a search for new phases with novel properties, such as magnetism, and for the results to be used as guidance in attempted materials synthesis in the lab. To investigate phase stability of a hypothetical material, a theoretical approach has been developed, where the essential part is to identify the set of most competing phases relative to the material of interest. This approach advance beyond more traditional evaluation of stability, where the energy of formation of the material is generally calculated relative to its single elements, or to a set of ad hoc chosen competing phases. For phase stability predictions to be reliable, validation of previous experimental work is a requirement prior to investigations of new, still hypothetical, materials. It is found that the predictions from the developed theoretical approach are consistent with experimental observations for a large set of MAX phases. The predictive power is thereafter demonstrated for the new phases Nb2GeC and Mn2GaC, which subsequently have been synthesized as thin films. It should be noted that Mn is used for the first time as sole M-element in a MAX phase. Hence, the theory is successfully used to find new candidates, and to guide experimentalists in their work on novel promising materials. Phase stability is also evaluated for MAX phase alloys. Incorporation of oxygen in different M2AlC phases are studied, and the results show that oxygen prefer different sites depending on M-element, through the number of available non-bonding M d-electrons. The theory also predicts that oxygen substituting for carbon in Ti2AlC stabilizes the material, which explains the  experimentally observed 12.5 at% oxygen (x = 0.5) in Ti2Al(C1-xOx). Magnetism is a recently attained property of MAX phase materials, and a direct result of this Thesis work. We have demonstrated the importance of choice of magnetic spin configuration and electron correlations approximations for theoretical evaluation of the magnetic ground state of Cr2AC (A = Al, Ga, Ge). Furthermore, alloying Cr2AlC with Mn to obtain the first magnetic MAX phase have been theoretically predicted and experimentally verified. Using Mn2GaC as model system, Heisenberg Monte Carlo simulations have been used to explore also noncollinear magnetism, suggesting a large set of possible spin configurations (spin waves and spin spirals) to be further investigated in future theoretical and experimental work.

Background: Eutrophication is a wide spread problem all over the world, this is due to enrichment of surplus nutrients entering water ecosystems. The high concentration of nutrients come from different sources like rural activities, industrial areas and other human activities. This can lead to a high nutrient load entering seas and lakes in the nature. Tributaries can contribute with nutrient loading to main rivers, a tributary like that is Kistingebäcken. Aim: The aim is to investigate how big the nutrient concentration and loading of phosphorus and nitrogen Kistingebäcken contributes to Trönningeån. It will also be investigated if there are any main point source emission of phosphorus and nitrogen from the industrial area located along Kistingebäcken. Method: Water samples were collected in a tributary called Kistingebäcken and in the main river Trönningeån located in the county of Halland, Sweden. These were analyzed to see how much nitrogen and phosphorus they contained. The definition of nutrient concentration is the nutrient level present in an area of a river, while the definition of nutrient load is the quantity of flowing nutrients trough a river which eventually enters lakes, rivers or the sea. Results: There was no significant difference in the total nitrogen concentration between sample point 6 (before the tributary) and sample point 7 (after the tributary) (P=0.904).  There was no significant difference in the total phosphorus concentration between sample point 6 (before the tributary) and sample point 7 (after the tributary) (P=0.743). The nutrient load from sample point 5 contributed with 17-26 kg N/day (11-14%) and 0.29-0.32 kg P/day (13-23%) to Trönningeån. The difference in nutrient load between sample point 6 and 7 was 48-61kg N/day (27-40%) and 0.16-0.5 kg P/day (11-23%). Tukey post hoc test showed that sample point 1 had significantly higher nitrogen concentration in comparison to sample point 2, 3, 4 and 5 (P= 0.001, P<0.001, P<0.001 and P<0.001). Sample point 2 had higher phosphorus concentrations in comparison to sample point 1, 3, 4 and 5 (P= 0.033, P<0.001, P=0.001 and P<0.001). Conclusion: Nitrogen and phosphorus do not increase in concentration after the tributary (sample point 7) in Trönningeån. However, the total nitrogen and phosphorus load increased between 27-40% and 11-23% in Trönningeån after the tributary. Sample point 1 and 2 had the highest nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations and are the main point source emissions in Kistingebäcken, probably due to the landfill facility.

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