Streptavidin-based nanostructures : from bulk to surface-confined assembly studies

Self-assembly, the ability of disordered units to spontaneously organize themselves into high-order structures via non covalent bonds, is a physical principle allowing nanostructures to be created from the bottom-up, extending nano-order to macroscales. This thesis was dedicated to program the self-organization of mature wild-type streptavidin by using linear tetrabiotinylated and trifurcated hexabiotinylated connectors. Self-organization studies in bulk solution demonstrated that streptavidin combined with a linear tetrabiotinylated connector spontaneously assembled into a one-dimensional streptavidin-based block copolymer. In the presence of calcium ions, the fibrils formed bundles that served as a template for the nucleation, the growth and the assembling of calcite microcrystals. This hierarchical self-assembly process yielded millimeter-sized one-dimensional mineralized protein matrices. Both mineralized and naked one-dimensional streptavidin-based block co- polymers were imaged by electron microscopy. With the aim of obtaining well-defined and monodisperse nanostructures, a step-by- step assembly approach was investigated. Designed mixed bis-biotinylated monolayers on gold were used to anchor streptavidin, which was successively exposed to linear tetrabiotinylated or trifurcated hexabiotinylated connectors and streptavidin. The stepwise elongation process was followed in situ by surface plasmon resonance and quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring. The size-controlled immobilized streptavidin-based fibrils were scrutinized by atomic force microscopy in the hydrated state

Clinical characteristics of poor-grade aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage treatment

Background: The initial clinical status after aneurysm rupture, whether primary or secondary, determines the final outcome. The most common cause of patient deterioration is a high Hunt and Hess (HH) score, which correlates closely with a high mortality rate. Poor-grade aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is determined as an HH score 4 or 5. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical characteristics of poor graded aneurysmal SAH at our institution. Patients and Methods  During the 5-year period, 415 patients with intracranial aneurysm were admitted to our institution. Patients with poor-grade aneurysmal SAH accounted 31.08% ( n  = 132) of the total number of ruptured aneurysms. Interventional treatment was predominantly in the form of surgery, whereas conservative treatment included medication and external ventricular drainage. Final outcome was assessed with a modified Rankin score (mRs). Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 23.0 with a significance level set to 5% (α = 0.05). Results  The majority of patients (57.6%) were in the age range from 51 to 69 years. Twenty-five patients (18.9%) had an HH score of 4, whereas 107 patients (81.1%) had an HH score of 5. Depending on the location, the majority of patients ( n  = 43) had an aneurysm on the medial cerebral artery (MCA). The final aneurysm occlusion was performed in 71 patients, of whom 94.36% were treated surgically. A positive outcome (mRs 0-4) was found in 49.25% of patients who underwent primarily surgical, treatment with a mortality of 42.3%. Although the outcome was better in patients with an HH score 4, both groups benefited from surgical treatment. Conclusion  Poor-grade aneurismal SAH is a condition of the middle and older age, with most patients with an HH 5 score and deep comatose state. There was better outcome in patients with an HH score of 4 compared to an HH score of 5 and both groups benefited from surgical treatment, which resulted in a positive outcome in almost 50% of surgically treated patients

Zinc-dysprosium functionalized amyloid fibrils

The heterometallic Zn2Dy2 entity bearing partially saturated metal centres covalently decorates a highly ordered amyloid fibril core and the functionalised assembly exhibits catalytic Lewis acid behaviour

Construction of Insulin 18-mer Nanoassemblies Driven by Coordination to Iron(II) and Zinc(II) Ions at Distinct Sites

Controlled self-assembly (SA) of proteins offers the possibility to tune their properties or to create new materials. Herein, we present the synthesis of a modified human insulin (HI) with two distinct metal-ion binding sites, one native, the other abiotic, enabling hierarchical SA through coordination with two different metal ions. Selective attachment of an abiotic 2,2'-bipyridine (bipy) ligand to HI, yielding HI-bipy, enabled Zn(II) -binding hexamers to SA into trimers of hexamers, [[HI-bipy]6 ]3 , driven by octahedral coordination to a Fe(II) ion. The structures were studied in solution by small-angle X-ray scattering and on surfaces with AFM. The abiotic metal ligand had a higher affinity for Fe(II) than Zn(II) ions, enabling control of the hexamer formation with Zn(II) and the formation of trimers of hexamers with Fe(II) ions. This precise control of protein SA to give oligomers of oligomers provides nanoscale structures with potential applications in nanomedicine

Smarta tjänster för den SmartaTV:n : Ett dokument för utveckling av smartTV applikationer

Denna rapport riktar sig mot utvecklare och teknisk kunniga personer. Arbetet är avsett att ge insikt i smartTV världen och även dela med sig av de erfarenheter vi har fått lära oss. Vi fick i uppdrag från Eniro att skapa en smartTV applikation som använde sig av deras tjäns-ter, utmaningen var stor och området okänt. Vi använde oss utav agila metoder för att ut-veckla smartTV applikationen. Det var två av oss som par programmerade och ledde pro-jektet. Själva utvecklingen började med informationsökning och tidsplanering. Även om själva utvecklingsprocessen var iterativ var vi tvungna att planera tiden, eftersom vi hade 10 veckor på oss bara. Detta ledde till att vi fick ställa upp vissa avgränsningar som vilka tjäns-ter vi skulle använda och hur mycket funktionalitet vi skulle ha inom applikationen. Vi an-vände oss av Samsungs SDK som plattform, de hade en egen emulator som fungerade ut-märkt och simulerade tv känslan på det bästa sättet. Efter att vi hade testat väldigt mycket och jobbat veckovis, kunde vi varje vecka redovisa en delprodukt till kunden. Detta gjorde arbetet roligare och mer inriktat mot vad kunden ville ha. Därefter kunde vi skriva våra re-sultat från erfarenheter som vi har samlat under projektets gång. Resultaten valde vi att redovisa först och främst i ett par kriterier som ska vara viktiga för framtida investeringar inom smartTV världen. Dessa är då: Det skulle vara lämpligt om företaget har webbtjänster baserade på HTML, Flash och Java-Script. Tjänsterna bör vara enkelt navigerade och inte behöva ha så mycket användarin-teraktion för att fungera. De använda systemen skall kunna gå att integrera med webbtjänster, om inte tjäns-terna är redan webbtjänster. Lämpliga tjänster kan vara enkla arkadspel, film, musik, nyheter, kartsökning, per-sonsökning. Nytänkande vad gäller användarinteraktion behövs för applikationer som behöver mer användarinteraktion.This report is aimed at developers, and knowledgeable people. The work is intended to provide insight into the smartTV world and also share the experience we have learned. We were asked by Eniro to create a smartTV application, that uses their services, the challenge were great and in an unknown field. We used agile methods to develop smartTV applica-tion. We worked in two man teams and also planned and led our project. The actual devel-opment began with an information search and planning. Although the actual development process was iterative, we had to plan the time we had been giving, because we only had 10 weeks to use only. This meant we had to set up certain boundaries and which services we would use and how much functionality we would have within the application. We used the Samsung SDK as a platform; they had their own emulator, which worked great and simulat-ed television the best way possible. After we a lot of testing and work on a weekly basis, we could each week present a co-product to the customer. This made the work more fun and more focused on what the customer wanted. Then, we could write our results down from the experiences we have gathered during the project. The results we chose to present first of all are written down as a couple of criteria that will be important for future investments in the smartTV world. These are then: It would be appropriate if the company has Web services based on HTML, Flash and/or JavaScript. The services should be easily navigated and not need much user interaction to work. The used systems should be able to integrate with Web services, unless the services are already online services. Appropriate services can be simple arcade games, movies, music, news, map search,People finder. new thinking and Innovation in terms of user interaction is needed for applications that require more user interaction

Smarta tjänster för den SmartaTV:n : Ett dokument för utveckling av smartTV applikationer

Denna rapport riktar sig mot utvecklare och teknisk kunniga personer. Arbetet är avsett att ge insikt i smartTV världen och även dela med sig av de erfarenheter vi har fått lära oss. Vi fick i uppdrag från Eniro att skapa en smartTV applikation som använde sig av deras tjäns-ter, utmaningen var stor och området okänt. Vi använde oss utav agila metoder för att ut-veckla smartTV applikationen. Det var två av oss som par programmerade och ledde pro-jektet. Själva utvecklingen började med informationsökning och tidsplanering. Även om själva utvecklingsprocessen var iterativ var vi tvungna att planera tiden, eftersom vi hade 10 veckor på oss bara. Detta ledde till att vi fick ställa upp vissa avgränsningar som vilka tjäns-ter vi skulle använda och hur mycket funktionalitet vi skulle ha inom applikationen. Vi an-vände oss av Samsungs SDK som plattform, de hade en egen emulator som fungerade ut-märkt och simulerade tv känslan på det bästa sättet. Efter att vi hade testat väldigt mycket och jobbat veckovis, kunde vi varje vecka redovisa en delprodukt till kunden. Detta gjorde arbetet roligare och mer inriktat mot vad kunden ville ha. Därefter kunde vi skriva våra re-sultat från erfarenheter som vi har samlat under projektets gång. Resultaten valde vi att redovisa först och främst i ett par kriterier som ska vara viktiga för framtida investeringar inom smartTV världen. Dessa är då: Det skulle vara lämpligt om företaget har webbtjänster baserade på HTML, Flash och Java-Script. Tjänsterna bör vara enkelt navigerade och inte behöva ha så mycket användarin-teraktion för att fungera. De använda systemen skall kunna gå att integrera med webbtjänster, om inte tjäns-terna är redan webbtjänster. Lämpliga tjänster kan vara enkla arkadspel, film, musik, nyheter, kartsökning, per-sonsökning. Nytänkande vad gäller användarinteraktion behövs för applikationer som behöver mer användarinteraktion.This report is aimed at developers, and knowledgeable people. The work is intended to provide insight into the smartTV world and also share the experience we have learned. We were asked by Eniro to create a smartTV application, that uses their services, the challenge were great and in an unknown field. We used agile methods to develop smartTV applica-tion. We worked in two man teams and also planned and led our project. The actual devel-opment began with an information search and planning. Although the actual development process was iterative, we had to plan the time we had been giving, because we only had 10 weeks to use only. This meant we had to set up certain boundaries and which services we would use and how much functionality we would have within the application. We used the Samsung SDK as a platform; they had their own emulator, which worked great and simulat-ed television the best way possible. After we a lot of testing and work on a weekly basis, we could each week present a co-product to the customer. This made the work more fun and more focused on what the customer wanted. Then, we could write our results down from the experiences we have gathered during the project. The results we chose to present first of all are written down as a couple of criteria that will be important for future investments in the smartTV world. These are then: It would be appropriate if the company has Web services based on HTML, Flash and/or JavaScript. The services should be easily navigated and not need much user interaction to work. The used systems should be able to integrate with Web services, unless the services are already online services. Appropriate services can be simple arcade games, movies, music, news, map search,People finder. new thinking and Innovation in terms of user interaction is needed for applications that require more user interaction

Bosnien-Hercegovina - en studie om försoning mellan tre etniska grupper

The purpose of this study is to investigate if reconciliation between former war-enemies and ethnic groups (Muslims, Croats and Serbs) in Bosnia and Hercegovina is possible today. Reconciliation between these groups is necessary for the development of the state and sustainable peace. In order to fulfil the aim I have applied qualitative conversation interviews together with qualitative literature study. In this research I have studied the three largest parties (SDA, HDZ and SDS) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Conversation interviews were made with two representatives of each party. The reconciliation theory and the recommendations that the theory advocates were used in the study. The recommendations were also used to create interview questions that gave me relevant empirical data from the interviews. The interview data with the high representatives of these political parties led to a valid result. The conclusions show that reconciliation between these three ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina is not possible today. Huge political, economical and social changes and improvements are necessary. All three classes, top-level, middle-range and grassroots, must get involved in the process if reconciliation is to be possible. Keywords: Bosnia and Herzegovina, reconciliation, ethnic groups, political parties

Kroatien - en studie av ett land i övergång mot en konsloliderad demokrati

Croatia became an independent country 1991 and has since then strived to reach a democracy level, which can lead to membership of the European Union. The purpose of this essay is on the basis of consolidate democratic perspective to illustrate Croatia’s democratic development. In order to fulfil the aim, I have applied a qualitative text analysis technique. Through analysis of books and documents, data was collected to accommodate a valid result. I have used consolidated democracy, with its five areas (political, civil, economic, legal and bureaucratic), as my theoretical framework to the data, to provide answers and develop an analysis. The conclusions show that the consolidate democracy in Croatia has developed a lot since the independence, and Croatia is on its good way to turn into a democratic state like other West-European countries. Croatia has developed and is still developing their political, civil, economic, legal and bureaucratic areas. A good sign of their democratic development is that Croatia received status as a candidate country in June 2005 for European Union, which shows that Croatia is on the way to complete its transition to consolidated democracy