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Rosacea is a chronic skin disorder, characterized by redness and flushing of the cheeks, nose, chin or forehead. It has been proposed that rosacea is a result of frequent blushing (Miller, 1921; Klaber & Whittkower, 1939). However, the relationship between rosacea and blushing is uncertain. The aim of the present research was to investigate the relationship between psychological stress and vascular disturbances in rosacea. Five studies were conducted. The first study explored the relationship between rosacea and mental health while the next two investigated vascular responses in rosacea sufferers and controls to acetylcholine (which induces endothelial vasodilatation and axon reflexes) and psychological stress (embarrassment). The fourth study aimed to examine the relationship between psychological indicators and rosacea symptoms on a daily basis. The fifth study consisted of three case studies looking at the use of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Task Concentration Training (TCT) with rosacea sufferers presenting with social anxiety and fear of blushing symptoms. In study 1, sixty-two participants were asked to complete the Blushing Propensity Scale (BPS), Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE), Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS), Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and Social Phobia Scale (SPS). Outcomes from the first study indicated that Type 2 rosacea sufferers (n= 12) perceived themselves as blushing more frequently and intensely than Type 1 rosacea sufferers (n=19) or controls (n=31). This suggested that Type 2 rosacea sufferers experiencing frequent blushing may have a lower sensitivity threshold to blushing episodes. In addition, Type 2 rosacea sufferers perceived themselves as more stressed than Type 1 rosacea sufferers or controls, possibly indicating that managing the condition can be stressful. Contrary to previous reports (Gupta et al., 2006; National Rosacea Society, 2005) severity of rosacea was not associated with depression, social anxiety or fear of negative evaluation. However, a few participants who reported high social anxiety and stress scores were offered psychological intervention (Study 5). The aim of the second study was to investigate vascular responses in rosacea sufferers. Cutaneous endothelial and axon reflex function was assessed using an acetylcholine dose response curve. The axon reflex was assessed by inducing a flare with ACh iontophoresis. Outcomes from this study indicated that Type 2 rosacea sufferers had a greater axon reflex response than Type 1 rosacea sufferers. Thus over-reactivity of the axon reflex in Type 2 rosacea sufferers might contribute to prolonged vasodilatation. However, cutaneous endothelial responses to ACh were similar in rosacea and control groups. The results suggested that neural pathways mediated the flushing response rather than cutaneous endothelial function. The third study investigated facial blood flow while participants attempted laboratory induced embarrassment tasks. Type 2 rosacea sufferers were found to have a greater blood flow in the facial region than Type 1 rosacea sufferers during singing and speech tasks, suggesting that Type 2 rosacea sufferers blushed more than type 1 rosacea sufferers or controls. Furthermore, Type 2 rosacea sufferers reported higher embarrassment and blushing ratings than Type 1 rosacea sufferers. This indicated that Type 2 rosacea sufferers perceived themselves as emotionally more aroused than other participants. Taken together, it would appear that a combination of physiological and cognitive factors increased facial blood flow in Type 2 rosacea sufferers in laboratory induced embarrassment tasks. The fourth study explored the relationship between stress and symptoms of rosacea. Using a diary, 15 rosacea sufferers recorded their stress, anxiety and mood and their intensity of rosacea symptoms daily. Stress was associated with increased stinging/facial redness on the same day for 1 to 2 months. Furthermore, it was associated with increased stinging ratings the next day. However, feeling anxious or having low mood was not related to increase stinging the next day. The presence of increased stress found in rosacea participants on the day where stinging and redness occurred should be taken into consideration when formulating psychological interventions for rosacea sufferers. In study 5, individual psychological intervention was provided to three participants experiencing stress, fear of blushing and social anxiety symptoms. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Task Concentration Training (TCT) were helpful in managing stress, anxiety and fear of blushing symptoms in individual rosacea sufferers. Encouragingly, all participants reported a gain in their repertoire of strategies and showed a decrease in anxiety symptoms on assessment questionnaires following their intervention. Replication of the intervention protocol and investigation of other psychological approaches are required to establish best practise outcome for rosacea sufferers who require psychological interventions. The present findings suggest that over-reactivity of axon reflexes contributes to facial flushing. In addition, emotional flushing in rosacea sufferers appears to be maintained by a combination of cognitive and physiological factors. On a clinical level, the study recommends that emotional stress associated with facial flushing in rosacea sufferers to be targeted for psychological intervention.

<p>The purpose of this thesis was to examine the demand for cross directional control of basis weight on a board machine. To analyse the demand, changes made by the control system are studied. The significant changes were expected to be present when a major event occurred on the machine. The events classified as major were changes in basis weight, of grade or of coating blade. Break of board and stoppage of the machine were also included. These events can be seen as large disturbances to the machine. </p><p>In order to identify the disturbances a methodology had to be developed. The methodology developed is to analyse the output from a model with the actuators of the control system as input and measurement of basis weight as output. The analysis of this output was done using the multivariate method of principal component analysis. </p><p>The data analysed in this thesis was collected on-line from a board machine operating within the Stora Enso group. Over a period of 3 months, a total of 47 sets of data were collected, each set representing 12-14 hours. The data analysis shows that the variations in the control system are greater than the variation in the measured basis weight. This is a strong indication that the control system is needed and in order to find disturbances in the cross directional profile it is not enough only to analyse the final product, the control signals also have to be analysed. </p><p>The large disturbances do not necessarily emerge from the major events as assumed. Other causes might havelarger impact to the process then first believed. </p><p>One of the major obstacles in trying to explain the variations is that the basis weight is controlled by using the centre layer of the board but measured on the final product. This leads to the fact that the errors seen by the measuring system can result from anything on the machine and be compensated by basis weight in the centre layer of the board.</p>

The main concern of this work is the development of methodsfor automatic condition monitoring of control loops withapplication to the process industry. By condition monitoringboth detection and diagnosis of malfunctioning control loops isunderstood, using normal operating data and a minimum amount ofprocess knowledge. The use of indices for quantifying loop performance is dealtwith in the first part of the thesis. The starting point is anindex proposed by Harris (1989). This index has been modifiedin order to cover a larger range of processes. The same conceptis then used to assess the sampling rate in control loops.Other index-based monitoring methods where some amount ofprocess knowledge is available are discussed. The evaluation of the performance indices discussed requiresknowledge of the process dead-time. Therefore a concept calledevent-triggered estimation is introduced in the second part ofthe thesis. Both automatic data selection and dead-timeestimation methods are proposed and conditions for successfulestimation are discussed. The last part of the thesis deals with the diagnosis ofoscillations. A method to automatically diagnose staticfriction (stiction) in the actuator is presented. Furthermore,two methods are proposed which allow automatic distinction ofexternally and internally generated oscillations. All describedmethods have been implemented in a MATLAB-based graphical userinterface which is briefly described.

Radioimmunotherapy is becoming important as a new therapeutic strategy for treatment of tumour diseases. Lately monoclonal antibodies tagged with radionuclides have demonstrated encouraging results in treatment of hematological malignancies. The progress in treatment of solid tumours using radioimmunotherapy, however, has been slow. New strategies to improve the treatment response need to be evaluated. Such new strategies include the combination of radioimmunotherapy with other treatment modalities but also elucidation and exploration of the death effector mechanisms involved in tumour eradication. As the combination of radioimmunotherapy and radiotherapy provides several potential synergistic effects, we started out by optimising a treatment schedule to detect benefits combining these treatment modalities. An anti-cytokeratin antibody labelled with 125I administered before, after, or simultaneously with radiotherapy, indicated that the highest dose to the tumour was delivered when radiotherapy was given prior to the antibody administration. The optimised treatment schedule was then applied therapeutically in an experimental study on HeLa Hep2 tumour bearing nude mice given radiotherapy prior to administration of 131I-labelled monoclonal antibodies. Combining these treatment regimes enhanced the effect of either of the treatment modalities given alone, and a significant reduction in tumour volumes could be demonstrated. This treatment caused a dramatic change in tumour morphology, with increased amounts of connective tissue, giant cells and cysts. Furthermore cellular alterations like heterogeneity of nuclear and cytoplasmic size and shape were observed, and at least a fraction of the tumour cells presented some characteristics of apoptosis. The induced sequential events in Hela Hep2 cells exposed to 2.5-10 Gy of ionizing radiation were studied further, with special emphasis on cell cycle arrest, mitotic aberrations and finally cell death. Following radiation HeLa Hep2 cells initiated a transient G2/M arrest trying to repair cellular damage. This arrest was followed by a sequence of disturbed mitoses with anaphase bridges, lagging chromosomal material, hyperamplification of centrosomes and multipolar mitotic spindles. These mitotic disturbances produced multinuclear polyploid cells and cells with multiple micronuclei, cells that were destined to die via mitotic catastrophes and delayed apoptosis. Induction of apoptosis in HeLa Hep2 cells following radiation doses and dose-rates equivalent to those delivered at radioimmunotherapy was concurrently studied in vitro. Significant induction of apoptosis was obtained and found to be induced relatively slowly, peaking 72-168 hours post irradiation. Caspases from the intrinsic pathway as well as the extrinsic pathway were found to be activated in response to ionizing radiation. Furthermore caspase-2, which has recently been acknowledged for its role as an initiator caspase was found to be activated following radiation and seems to play an important role in this delayed apoptosis.

Understanding the first order controls over resource cycling and limitation in ecosystems is critical for predicting ecosystem response to disturbances. Topography and vegetation self-organizing mechanisms are first order controls over resource fluxes across the landscape. Topography controls downslope flow of resources (i.e water and nutrients). Through spatial feedbacks, vegetation is able to actively modify its environment and maximize resource flows towards it. To date, the impacts of these controls on ecosystem dynamics have mostly been investigated separately. As such, there is a knowledge gap in the understanding of how these first order controls together dictate the dynamics of the ecosystem. This dissertation aims to gain a better understanding of how self-organizing mechanisms and topography operate together to affect wetland ecosystem dynamics. A spatially explicit, wetland vegetation patterning model that includes for both vegetation self-organizing control and topographic control is developed (Nutrient Depletion Model, NDM). The model describes a scale dependent feedback between vegetation, transpiration and nutrient accumulation that drives the formation of vegetation patterns. The model is applied to investigate the effects of topography and self-organizing mechanisms on form and orientation of vegetation patterns and vegetation growth dynamics of wetland ecosystems. Results show that the two first order controls synergistically impact the formation of the various patterns as observed in wetland ecosystems. Results also show the following: (1) Self-organizing mechanisms result in a more efficient retention of resources, which result in higher biomass in the model that include for both self-organizing mechanism and topographic control (SO+TC) than in the model that that includes only for topographic control (TC). (2) However, when resources or topographic gradients increase or annual rainfall decrease, the vegetation growth dynamics of the TC+SO and TC models converge. The NDM is applied to arctic Alaska to investigate how do the two first order controls impact present and future C-N dynamics of an arctic ecosystem. Simulation results show no significant difference in the dynamics between the SO+TC model and the TC model. The climate change simulation results suggest that changes in daily variability of temperature and precipitation can impact ecosystem dynamics as much as the changes in mean temperature and precipitation. Results from this dissertation provide a more complete picture on the relative roles of the two first order controls over ecosystem nutrient cycling and vegetative growth dynamics. Finally, in this thesis, in order to simulate small-scale feedbacks over large spatial domains, the NDM is implemented in a GPU computing language, which accelerates computational simulation by at least two orders of magnitude. These tools for grid-based simulations can provide a platform for using GPUs in other areas of scientific investigation.

A lot of habitats have declined or disappeared as the old cultural landscape changed to the modern agricultural landscape of today. Places such as power line corridors, racing tracks, gravel pits and military training sites have become refuges for many species associated with the old cultural landscape. These sites have been exposed to ecological disturbances that create the same type of habitats that were found in the old cultural landscape. The military training sites in Sweden has an impressive diversity of species. Disturbances from the military exercises have created habitats that are important for a wide range of species. The purpose of this thesis is to study some of the ecological disturbances occurring in the military training sites of the Swedish Armed Forces and examine how they affect different types of habitats. The thesis explains through litterateur and field studies the reason to the rich biodiversity often found at military training sites. The training sites and firing ranges of Skövde garrison were used as an example to show how the disturbances affect the environment. The study shows that military exercises (e.g. with combat vehicles) creates habitats that previously existed in the old cultural landscape. Soil damage from combat vehicles benefits insects and creates pools for amphibians. Damages on trees create snags and woody debris which favors a large amount of species. The military exercises also keep an open landscape.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the demand for cross directional control of basis weight on a board machine. To analyse the demand, changes made by the control system are studied. The significant changes were expected to be present when a major event occurred on the machine. The events classified as major were changes in basis weight, of grade or of coating blade. Break of board and stoppage of the machine were also included. These events can be seen as large disturbances to the machine. In order to identify the disturbances a methodology had to be developed. The methodology developed is to analyse the output from a model with the actuators of the control system as input and measurement of basis weight as output. The analysis of this output was done using the multivariate method of principal component analysis. The data analysed in this thesis was collected on-line from a board machine operating within the Stora Enso group. Over a period of 3 months, a total of 47 sets of data were collected, each set representing 12-14 hours. The data analysis shows that the variations in the control system are greater than the variation in the measured basis weight. This is a strong indication that the control system is needed and in order to find disturbances in the cross directional profile it is not enough only to analyse the final product, the control signals also have to be analysed. The large disturbances do not necessarily emerge from the major events as assumed. Other causes might havelarger impact to the process then first believed. One of the major obstacles in trying to explain the variations is that the basis weight is controlled by using the centre layer of the board but measured on the final product. This leads to the fact that the errors seen by the measuring system can result from anything on the machine and be compensated by basis weight in the centre layer of the board.

Nowadays global companies view the world as a single entity, sourcing materials fromanywhere and performing operations to create the optimal supply chain for their products.This leads to an increasing complexity which is driving supply management to becomea core capability of businesses. As supply chains are inherently vulnerable to disturbances,supply management will have to play a key role in the field of risk analysisand risk management. An increased awareness of sources of disturbances is essential tocreate significant improvements in the handling and prevention of disturbances.The purpose of this thesis is to identify and classify sources of disturbance which canhave a negative influence on a company’s supply management. This is achieved by theinvestigation of theories available in literature, as well as identifying and analyzing thedisturbances in the supply management of an international manufacturing company.Additionally, the theories on disturbance management are reviewed to create a foundationfor managerial implications.The company studied is Husqvarna, which currently is in a situation with several disturbancesin its supply management. The performed case study aims at both, describingthese phenomena, as well as testing of the theories. The chosen qualitative approachmakes it possible to gain in-depth knowledge and investigate different aspects ofsources of disturbances in this case study. The interviews performed are standardizedopen ended questionnaires in order to get in-depth knowledge of the situation.The empirical findings are then analyzed in regard to the purpose of the thesis. The goalof this analysis is to compare the sources of disturbances of the classification schemecreated in the literature review to the respondents’ answers from the interviews. Moreover,inputs and opinions from the respondents on how to manage disturbances are connectedwith the theories provided in the literature review within this field.Various sources of disturbance with a negative influence on the supply management ofcompanies are identified. It was also possible to compare the classification schemewhich was created based on the theoretical findings with the finding of the case study ofHusqvarna. Consequently a holistic overview of potential and actual sources of disturbancein supply management has been created. Furthermore, it is possible to contribute tothe body of knowledge on how to manage disturbances in supply management. Theprovided insights highlight implications that can help companies to successfully managedisturbances and hence improve their performance.

<p>The main concern of this work is the development of methodsfor automatic condition monitoring of control loops withapplication to the process industry. By condition monitoringboth detection and diagnosis of malfunctioning control loops isunderstood, using normal operating data and a minimum amount ofprocess knowledge.</p><p>The use of indices for quantifying loop performance is dealtwith in the first part of the thesis. The starting point is anindex proposed by Harris (1989). This index has been modifiedin order to cover a larger range of processes. The same conceptis then used to assess the sampling rate in control loops.Other index-based monitoring methods where some amount ofprocess knowledge is available are discussed.</p><p>The evaluation of the performance indices discussed requiresknowledge of the process dead-time. Therefore a concept calledevent-triggered estimation is introduced in the second part ofthe thesis. Both automatic data selection and dead-timeestimation methods are proposed and conditions for successfulestimation are discussed.</p><p>The last part of the thesis deals with the diagnosis ofoscillations. A method to automatically diagnose staticfriction (stiction) in the actuator is presented. Furthermore,two methods are proposed which allow automatic distinction ofexternally and internally generated oscillations. All describedmethods have been implemented in a MATLAB-based graphical userinterface which is briefly described.</p>