Autossa altistutaan suurille hiilimonoksidipitoisuuksille

Artikkeli on lyhennelmä Sari Almin väitöskirjasta: Personal exposures of preschool children to carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide in urban air. Kansanterveyslaitoksen julkaisuja A19/1999, ISBN 951-740-149-3, ISSN 0359-3584

Lakes as nitrous oxide sources in the boreal landscape

Abstract Estimates of regional and global freshwater N2O emissions have remained inaccurate due to scarce data and complexity of the multiple processes driving N2O fluxes the focus predominantly being on summer time measurements from emission hot spots, agricultural streams. Here we present four-season data of N2O concentrations in the water columns of randomly selected boreal lakes covering a large variation in latitude, lake type, area, depth, water chemistry and land use cover. Nitrate was the key driver for N2O dynamics, explaining as much as 78% of the variation of the seasonal mean N2O concentrations across all lakes. Nitrate concentrations varied among seasons being highest in winter and lowest in summer. Of the surface water samples 71% were oversaturated with N2O relative to the atmosphere. Largest oversaturation was measured in winter and lowest in summer stressing the importance to include full year N2O measurements in annual emission estimates. Including winter data resulted in four-fold annual N2O emission estimates compared to summer only measurements. Nutrient rich calcareous and large humic lakes had the highest annual N2O emissions. Our emission estimates for Finnish and boreal lakes are 0.6 Gg and 29 Gg N2O-N y-1, respectively. The Global Warming Potential (GWP) of N2O cannot be neglected in the boreal landscape, being 35% of that of diffusive CH4 emission in Finnish lakes.peerReviewe

Polymorphisms in the tyrosine kinase 2 and interferon regulatory factor 5 genes are associated with systemic lupus erythematosus

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links fieldSystemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex systemic autoimmune disease caused by both genetic and environmental factors. Genome scans in families with SLE point to multiple potential chromosomal regions that harbor SLE susceptibility genes, and association studies in different populations have suggested several susceptibility alleles for SLE. Increased production of type I interferon (IFN) and expression of IFN-inducible genes is commonly observed in SLE and may be pivotal in the molecular pathogenesis of the disease. We analyzed 44 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 13 genes from the type I IFN pathway in 679 Swedish, Finnish, and Icelandic patients with SLE, in 798 unaffected family members, and in 438 unrelated control individuals for joint linkage and association with SLE. In two of the genes--the tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) and IFN regulatory factor 5 (IRF5) genes--we identified SNPs that displayed strong signals in joint analysis of linkage and association (unadjusted P<10(-7)) with SLE. TYK2 binds to the type I IFN receptor complex and IRF5 is a regulator of type I IFN gene expression. Thus, our results support a disease mechanism in SLE that involves key components of the type I IFN system

Nurses' perceptions of aids and obstacles to the provision of optimal end of life care in ICU

Contains fulltext : 172380.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Personal exposures of preschool children to carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide in urban air

Väitöskirj

Personal exposures and microenvironmental concentrations of particles and bioaerosols

The aim of this study was to compare the personal exposure to particles and bioaerosols with that measured by stationary samplers in the main microenvironments, i.e., the home and the workplace. A random sample of 81 elementary school teachers was selected from the 823 teachers working for two councils in eastern Finland for the winter time measurement period. Bioaerosol and other particles were collected on filters by button samplers using personal sampling and microenvironmental measurements in homes and workplaces. The 24-hour sampling period was repeated twice for each teacher. Particle mass, absorption coefficient of the filter and the concentration of viable and total microorganisms were analyzed from each filter. In this paper, the study design, quality assurance principles and results of particle and bioaerosol exposure are described. The results show that particle mass concentrations, absorption coefficient and fungi were higher in personal exposure samples than in home and workplace samples. Furthermore, these concentrations were usually lower in the home than in the workplace. Bacterial concentrations were highest in heavily populated workplaces, while the viable fungi concentrations were lowest in workplaces. The fungi and bacteria results showed high variation, which emphasises the importance of quality assurance (duplicates and field blanks) in the microbial field measurements. Our results indicate that personal exposure measurements of bioaerosols in indoor environments are feasible and supplement the information obtained by stationary samplers