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As the Big Bang model has become established, the fields of cosmology and particle physics have become intertwined. A range of observations forces us to consider the phenomena of dark matter and dark energy. This interpretation is based on our understanding of gravity, while the standard model of particle physics describes the other fundamental forces in nature and fails to explain the dark components. This thesis includes two different types of studies where hypotheses of physics beyond the standard models of particle physics and cosmology are faced with what observations and experiments can tell us. The first one deals with the possibility that our theory of gravity is what has to be modified at large distances to explain the dark energy, which then need not be a contribution to the energy content at all. The expansion histories in two such frameworks are tested with data from type Ia supernovae and measurements of the baryon acoustic peak in the galaxy distribution as well as in the cosmic microwave background. The second type of study concerns the possibility of establishing the particle nature of dark matter through interactions other than gravitational. While there are ways of doing this using astrophysical observations, the uncertainties due to astrophysics and the unknown distribution of the dark matter are large. High energy particle colliders provide a way of imitating the conditions of the early universe in the laboratory, where we can hope to produce yet unknown heavy particle states and in a more controlled environment determine their properties. We study the prospects for discovering two types of weakly interacting dark matter candidates at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. / At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: Manuscript.

Through a quantitative examination, 26 pedagogies in the pre-school activity answered a few questions in an enquiry about outdoor education. The purpose with this examination was to find out what pedagogies think and apprehend about outdoor education, and also if the "education plan" is in their minds during outdoor activities and if they see them self´s as competent in nature studies. They have also answered questions whether they think that they have good outdoor environment that stimulates children´s development and learning and if there´s any forest that they visit on regular basis. The pedagogies think that during time spent outdoor, it´s the motor skills that are best developed. All of the pedagogies mentioned above think that they need to get more educated in nature studies and also that pedagogies attitude towards time spent outdoors affect the children. They do not think about the goals and intentions of the "educations plan" all the time. They think that it is important to teach the children to take care of the nature and it´s circulation. The yard is described as stimulating, big and open and there´s also a forest nearby that they visit regularly. About half of them that participated in this examination could see themselves working in an outdoor pre-school. Keywords: Outdoor education, pedagogies, nature study, education plan.

Over the past 20 years, primary students' knowledge in biology, physics and chemistry has deteriorated. The reasons for this are many, including students' attitudes to NO, curriculum, quick social change but also pedagogues work. The purpose of my study is to see what obstacles and opportunities practicing teachers have in their teaching and how it has affected their students. I want to investigate what apprehension teachers have about what the causes of the deterioration of knowledge is. The study was conducted at a secondary school in central Sweden where 5 teachers, 3 men and 2 women, were interviewed about their perceptions. My results show that students' performance is influenced by factors at three levels: 1. in the classroom they are directly affected by the teacher, society, resources and students' own presumptions, 2. at the local level by school management and the municipality and 3. at the national level, by the society and parliament with school policy decisions. Teachers felt that the effects from all these three levels were reasons why students' skills have deteriorated. For the students to assimilate NO teaching the teachers must gain a common pedagogical foundation in education and all students must be given equal opportunity to achieve their goals. This is something I will take with me in my future role as teacher, students just need different levels of support and resource. / Under de senaste 20 åren så har grundskoleelevernas kunskaper försämrats i biologi, fysik och kemi. Orsaken till detta är många, bland annat elevers attityder till NO, kursplanen, snabba samhällsförändringarna men också pedagogens arbete. Syftet med min undersökning är att se vad praktiserande pedagoger har för hinder och möjligheter i sin undervisning och hur det har påverkat eleverna. Jag vill också undersöka vad lärare har för uppfattningar om orsaken till den försämrade kunskapen. Undersökningen genomfördes på en högstadieskola i Mellansverige där 5 lärare, 3 män och 2 kvinnor, intervjuades om deras uppfattningar. Mina resultat visar att elevers prestationer påverkas av faktorer på tre olika nivåer: 1. i klassrummet påverkas de direkt av läraren, samhället, resurser och elevernas egna förutsättningar, 2. på lokal nivå genom skolledning och kommun och 3. på nationell nivå genom samhället och riksdagen med skolpolitiska beslut. Lärarna ansåg att påverkan från alla dessa tre nivåer var orsaker till varför elevers kunskap har försämrats. För att eleverna skall kunna tillgodogöra sig NO-undervisningen måste lärarna skaffa sig en gemensam pedagogiks grund att stå på i undervisningen och alla elever måste ges samma möjligheter att uppnå sina mål. Detta är något som jag kommer ta med mig i min framtida roll som lärare, elever behöver bara olika mycket stöd och hjälpmedel.

This thesis describes the synthesis of molecules designed to inhibit the hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS3 serine protease and the human aspartic protease BACE-1, and it also reports the structure-activity relationships between potential inhibitors and the targeted enzymes. In addition, consideration is given to the class of enzymes known as proteases, as well as the question of why such enzymes can be regarded as suitable targets for developing drugs to combat diseases in general. Some strategies used to design protease inhibitors and the desired properties of such potential drug candidates are also briefly examined. Infection with HCV gives rise to a predominantly chronic disease that causes severe liver damage and ultimately leads to cirrhosis and liver cancer, and hence it represents the main factor underlying most of the liver transplants in the developed world. The HCV NS3 serine protease is essential for replication of the virus, and it has become one of the most widely exploited targets for developing anti-HCV inhibitors. The results presented here concern the design and synthesis of linear and macrocyclic NS3 protease inhibitors containing a novel trisubstituted cyclopentane moiety as an N-acyl-(4R)-hydroxyproline bioisostere. Several highly potent compounds were evaluated, including inhibitors with Ki and replicon EC50 values in the subnanomolar and the low nanomolar range, respectively. Alzheimer’s disease is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder of the brain. It is characterized by loss of memory and cognition, and is associated with accumulation of plaques and tangles that cause serious impairment and functional decline of brain tissues. The plaques consist mainly of amyloid-β fragments that are generated through two cleavages of amyloid precursor protein (APP). The enzyme responsible for the initial cleavage is the aspartic protease BACE-1 (beta-site APP-cleaving enzyme), which was explored in the current studies as a pharmaceutical target. The synthetic work comprised development of two series of BACE-1 inhibitors with different central core isosteres; a statine-based and a hydroxyethylene-based series. Highly potent inhibitors were produced by varying the substituents coupled to the statine-based central core. X-ray crystallography and molecular modeling enabled analysis of the binding properties of these compounds. In the second series a hydroxyethylene central core was decorated with more advanced P1 substituents with the aim of increasing the binding interactions with the S1 site. This resulted in inhibitors with more drug-like properties and activities in the low micromolar range.

Conjugated polyelectrolytes (CP) show interesting electrical and optical properties for organic electronics as well as for life science applications. Their possibilities of supramolecular assembly with nanowire like misfolded proteins, amyloids, as well as synthetic polypeptides or DNA forming conducting or luminescent nano composites is highly interesting as being a truly bottom up approach for fabrication of OLEDs, photovoltaic’s as well as logic devices. The conformation and aggregation dependent luminescence properties from the special class of CPs, Luminescent conjugated polyelectrolytes (LCP), have been utilised and developed as sensors to follow and study biomolecular interactions, DNA hybridisation, protein-protein interactions and staining of living cell cultures and tissue slides. In this thesis we are bringing the evolution a few steps further by applying new types of experimental techniques, such as light scattering and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, combined with standard techniques as soft lithography and different spectroscopy techniques, to gain better knowledge of the optical behaviour of LCPs and their interactions with biomolecules. We explore the optical properties and vibronic transitions of LCPs; their ability of resonance energy transfer with LCPs indicating super lightning behaviour; the opposite fluorescence shift when interacting with α-helical rich polypeptides compared to earlier reports of interactions upon staining of β-rich amyloids; and the possibility of LCPs to influence protein aggregation as well as the possibility of fabricating biochips based on LCPs and soft lithography. Here we also show fundamental limitations to patterning using macromolecular fluids, of general relevance to soft lithography and nanoimprint lithography with low viscosity polymers.

Augmented Reality (AR) technology has, despite many applications in the research domain, not made it to a widespread end user market. The one exception is AR applications for mobile phones. One of the main reasons for this development is technological constraints of the non-mobile phone based systems - the devices used are still neither mobile nor lightweight enough or simply not usable enough. This thesis addresses the latter issue by taking a holistic approach to the development and evaluation of AR applications for both single user and multiple user tasks. The main hypothesis is that in order for substantial wide spread use of AR technology, the applications must be developed with the aim to solve real world problems with the end user and goal in focus. Augmented Reality systems are information systems that merge real and virtual information with the purpose of aiding users in different tasks. An AR system is a general system much like a computer is general; it has potential as a tool for many different purposes in many different situations. The studies in this thesis describe user studies of two different types of AR applications targeting different user groups and different application areas. The first application, described and evaluated, is aimed at giving users instructions for use and assembly of different medical devices. The second application is a study where AR technology has been used as a tool for supporting collaboration between the rescue services, the police and military personnel in a crisis management scenario. Both applications were iteratively developed with end user representatives involved throughout the process and the results illustrate that users both in the context of medical care, and the emergency management domain, are positive towards AR systems as a technology and as a tool in their work related tasks. The main contributions of the thesis are not only the end results of the user studies, but also the methodology used in the studies of this relatively new type of technology. The studies have shown that involving real end users both in the design of the application and in the user task is important for the user experience of the system. Allowing for an iterative design process is also a key point. Although AR technology development is often driven by technological advances rather than user demands, there is room for a more user centered approach, for single user applications as well as for more dynamic and complex multiple user applications.

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