Autosomal STR-analysis is the standard method of DNA-typing in casework. However, there are forensic sample types that may contain a large fraction of female DNA and a minimal fraction of male DNA. The male fraction may not be successfully amplified using autosomal STR-analysis because it “drowns” in the female fraction. However, the analysis of male-specific YSTR markers may circumvent this obstacle. ...

The arctic is exposed to a wide range of pollutants which originate from industrialized areas located in temperate regions. Halogenated organic contaminants (HOCs) are of special concern due to their persistency and ability to bioaccumulate. Consequently, animals high in the food chain, such as marine seabirds, are prone to accumulate high levels of these compounds. The HOCs are known to increase ...

The emergence and increase of antimicrobial resistance among bacterial populations has raised interest in the factor that contributes to this situation. Mobile genetic elements and in particular integrons have been found to play a role in the spread of resistance genes due to their ability to capture and integrate one or more gene cassettes by site-specific recombination. The genes can be integrated ...

Enterococcus are a group of bacteria growing on different environmental condition behaving as a commensal as well as opportunistic pathogen. Among the enterococci, Enterococcus faecium is recently emerged as a nosocomial multi-resistance pathogen especially in the severely ill and immunocompromised patients causing a wide range of diseases like endocarditis, bacteraemia and urinary tract infections. ...

Depression is currently one of the leading causes worldwide of suicide and disability, the most common treatment is antidepressants. Most antidepressants work by increasing the monoamine levels in the central nervous system by inhibition of the reuptake of monoamines into the presynaptic neuron, and thereby ensure accumulation of the monoamines in the synaptic cleft. The main target for most ...

<p><i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> is a Gram-positive opportunistic pathogen responsible for a range of infections that can lead to fatal invasive diseases such as pneumonia or osteomyelitis. Approximately 30% of the healthy adult population are persistently colonized by <i>S. aureus</i> strains in their anterior nares. The molecular mechanism underlying <i>S. aureus</i> colonization and infection ...

Neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (NAIT) is most commonly caused by destruction of foetal platelets by maternal antibodies reactive to human platelet antigen (HPA)-1a. The activation of antigen-primed B cells to differentiate to antibody-secreting plasma cells usually requires help from CD4 T cells. The strong association between anti-HPA-1a-production and the MHC allele HLA-DRB3*0101 supports ...

P53 is a key tumor suppressor and transcription factor protecting us from cancer. The wild type p53 protein functions as a regulatory protein, triggering a variety of cellular responses to different signals. Activation of p53 can lead to cell division arrest, DNA repair, or apoptosis. More than 60% of all human cancers contain p53 mutations. P53 is also reported in many studies to play a role in the ...

In recent years the number of people using cigarettes in Norway has significantly declined, with intake of nicotine being replaced by smokeless tobacco (ST) products such as snus placed in the oral cavity. While health risks from smoking cigarettes are well known little is known about health risks of using ST. The main aim of this thesis was to compare the effects of oral use of snus with nicotine ...

Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) is common in the human population with a seropositivity of approximately 60%. The virus is chronically shed from healthy skin, but the genuine host cell remains unknown and a permissive cell culture system is lacking. The viral genome is in an episomal state in cells where MCPyV has been found. The virus is not harmful in healthy individuals, but it is involved in ...