Using the nonlinear control of anaesthesia-induced hypersensitivity of EEG at burst suppression level to test the effects of radiofrequency radiation on brain function

Background In this study, investigating the effects of mobile phone radiation on test animals, eleven pigs were anaesthetised to the level where burst-suppression pattern appears in the electroencephalogram (EEG). At this level of anaesthesia both human subjects and animals show high sensitivity to external stimuli which produce EEG bursts during suppression. The burst-suppression phenomenon represents a nonlinear control system, where low-amplitude EEG abruptly switches to very high amplitude bursts. This switching can be triggered by very minor stimuli and the phenomenon has been described as hypersensitivity. To test if also radio frequency (RF) stimulation can trigger this nonlinear control, the animals were exposed to pulse modulated signal of a GSM mobile phone at 890 MHz. In the first phase of the experiment electromagnetic field (EMF) stimulation was randomly switched on and off and the relation between EEG bursts and EMF stimulation onsets and endpoints were studied. In the second phase a continuous RF stimulation at 31 W/kg was applied for 10 minutes. The ECG, the EEG, and the subcutaneous temperature were recorded. Results No correlation between the exposure and the EEG burst occurrences was observed in phase I measurements. No significant changes were observed in the EEG activity of the pigs during phase II measurements although several EEG signal analysis methods were applied. The temperature measured subcutaneously from the pigs' head increased by 1.6°C and the heart rate by 14.2 bpm on the average during the 10 min exposure periods. Conclusion The hypothesis that RF radiation would produce sensory stimulation of somatosensory, auditory or visual system or directly affect the brain so as to produce EEG bursts during suppression was not confirmed.BioMed Central Open acces

Human Serum Metabolites Associate With Severity and Patient Outcomes in Traumatic Brain Injury.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of death and disability worldwide, especially in children and young adults. TBI is an example of a medical condition where there are still major lacks in diagnostics and outcome prediction. Here we apply comprehensive metabolic profiling of serum samples from TBI patients and controls in two independent cohorts. The discovery study included 144 TBI patients, with the samples taken at the time of hospitalization. The patients were diagnosed as severe (sTBI; n=22), moderate (moTBI; n=14) or mild TBI (mTBI; n=108) according to Glasgow Coma Scale. The control group (n=28) comprised of acute orthopedic non-brain injuries. The validation study included sTBI (n=23), moTBI (n=7), mTBI (n=37) patients and controls (n=27). We show that two medium-chain fatty acids (decanoic and octanoic acids) and sugar derivatives including 2,3-bisphosphoglyceric acid are strongly associated with severity of TBI, and most of them are also detected at high concentrations in brain microdialysates of TBI patients. Based on metabolite concentrations from TBI patients at the time of hospitalization, an algorithm was developed that accurately predicted the patient outcomes (AUC=0.84 in validation cohort). Addition of the metabolites to the established clinical model (CRASH), comprising clinical and computed tomography data, significantly improved prediction of patient outcomes. The identified 'TBI metabotype' in serum, that may be indicative of disrupted blood-brain barrier, of protective physiological response and altered metabolism due to head trauma, offers a new avenue for the development of diagnostic and prognostic markers of broad spectrum of TBIs.European Union FP7 project TBIcare (Grant ID: 270259), GE-NFL Head Health Challenge I Award (Grant ID: 7620), EVO (Finland), Maire Taponen Foundation, National Institute for Health Research, National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre Cambridge (Neuroscience Theme; Brain Injury and Repair Theme)This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2016.07.01

WNT2 activation through proximal germline deletion predisposes to small intestinal neuroendocrine tumors and intestinal adenocarcinomas

Many hereditary cancer syndromes are associated with an increased risk of small and large intestinal adenocarcinomas. However, conditions bearing a high risk to both adenocarcinomas and neuroendocrine tumors are yet to be described.We studied a family with 16 individuals in four generations affected by a wide spectrum of intestinal tumors, including hyperplastic polyps, adenomas, small intestinal neuroendocrine tumors, and colorectal and small intestinal adenocarcinomas.To assess the genetic susceptibility and understand the novel phenotype, we utilized multiple molecular methods, including whole genome sequencing, RNA sequencing, single cell sequencing, RNA in situ hybridization and organoid culture.We detected a heterozygous deletion at the cystic fibrosis locus (7q31.2) perfectly segregating with the intestinal tumor predisposition in the family. The deletion removes a topologically associating domain border between CFTR and WNT2, aberrantly activating WNT2 in the intestinal epithelium. These consequences suggest that the deletion predisposes to small intestinal neuroendocrine tumors and small and large intestinal adenocarcinomas, and reveals the broad tumorigenic effects of aberrant WNT activation in the human intestine.Peer reviewe

EuReCa ONE—27 Nations, ONE Europe, ONE Registry A prospective one month analysis of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest outcomes in 27 countries in Europe

AbstractIntroductionThe aim of the EuReCa ONE study was to determine the incidence, process, and outcome for out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) throughout Europe.MethodsThis was an international, prospective, multi-centre one-month study. Patients who suffered an OHCA during October 2014 who were attended and/or treated by an Emergency Medical Service (EMS) were eligible for inclusion in the study. Data were extracted from national, regional or local registries.ResultsData on 10,682 confirmed OHCAs from 248 regions in 27 countries, covering an estimated population of 174 million. In 7146 (66%) cases, CPR was started by a bystander or by the EMS. The incidence of CPR attempts ranged from 19.0 to 104.0 per 100,000 population per year. 1735 had ROSC on arrival at hospital (25.2%), Overall, 662/6414 (10.3%) in all cases with CPR attempted survived for at least 30 days or to hospital discharge.ConclusionThe results of EuReCa ONE highlight that OHCA is still a major public health problem accounting for a substantial number of deaths in Europe.EuReCa ONE very clearly demonstrates marked differences in the processes for data collection and reported outcomes following OHCA all over Europe. Using these data and analyses, different countries, regions, systems, and concepts can benchmark themselves and may learn from each other to further improve survival following one of our major health care events

Effects of interspecific relationships in forested landscapes on breeding success in Eurasian treecreeper

Jatkuvat vanhoihin metsiin kohdistuvat metsänhakkuut kaventavat puukiipijöiden ja kekomuurahaisten elinmahdollisuuksia. Havaitsin tämän väitöstyössäni, jonka teemoina olivat puukiipijän ja kekomuurahaisten välinen ravintokilpailu puiden rungoilla ja petojen, lähinnä kärpän, lumikon ja käpytikan vaikutus puukiipijän pesintämenestykseen pesäpönttöpopulaatiossa. Tutkimus on toteutettu Keski-Suomen metsissä Konneveden, Hankasalmen ja Laukaan kunnan alueella vuosina 1990-2003. This study is focused on the effects of predation to the breeding success of Eurasian treecreeper and resource competition between red wood ants, Formica rufa -group and treecreepers. One of the most important factors in competition between ants and treecreepers seems to be limited food resources on tree trunks. Treecreeper could consume a significant amount of arthropods on tree trunks near the nest during nesting period. Nests of treecreeper suffer from heavy nest predation from the great spotted woodpecker and from mustelids. Nest defence behaviour of parents is quite mild and composed mostly from high-pitched alarm calls that silence hungry nestlings in the nest. I used a moulted great spotted woodpecker as a predator model. Nest defence was similar between female and male on the first brood, but on the second, later brood male is mostly absent. Treecreepers are sensitive to modern forestry. Parents have to take more risk in their nest defence in smaller forest patches keeping the hungry nestlings quiet. It is more difficult to noisy offspring to hear alarm-calls of parents. The land-use and forest resource data of Landsat within two hundred meter radii around the nest boxes were used in GIS. Breeding success of treecreeper was greater and less variable in mature forest areas and lower in young forest areas. Nest predation rate was higher in territories with high proportion of young sapling stands. The territories of red wood ant were counted and each territory was classified as being either with ants, if the territory contained at least one ant mound or without ants. Treecreepers breeding in territories with ants laid their first clutches later and produced fewer fledglings with lower body mass at the nestling stage compared to the pairs breeding in territories without ants. Comparing the pairs that bred twice in the same territory during the same breeding season, I found that those breeding in territories with ants laid smaller second clutches than pairs in territories without ants. Food abundance was higher during the second broods, but the overall availability of food was lower in territories with ants. Additionally, I found associated evidence that the quality of treecreepers nestlings were affected by amount of red wood ants. Morphological characters of nestlings like body mass were lighter, subcutanous fat contents were thinner and tarsus lengths were shorter when the quantity of red wood ants was higher. The amount of wood ants had no significant effect on morphological characters like wing length and also there was no significant relationship between the wood ant level and nest-box occupancy, fecundity (clutch size) or physiological stress of nestlings. The survival and fecundity of treecreepers’ chicks fledging from ant territories may be further reduced by their low fledging mass

Polarization adaptation to improve cell border area bitrates and system capacity in small cells

Funding Information: This work was supported in part by Aalto University and Tampere University. Measurements were supported by mobile operator DNA (Telenor Group). Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).The target of this paper is to show the impact of polarization adaptation on the received signal quality in an outdoor small-cell deployment scenario. The signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) is the key factor in defining the achievable data rate, and the capacity of the cell. At the cell border area, the SIR value is typically low and causes a significant decrease in the system capacity and achievable data rates. These bad SIR areas at the cell border can be improved by using orthogonal polarizations in the neighboring cells rather than using all polarizations over the whole cell coverage area. For the research work of this paper, a series of measurements were carried out to measure a received signal power and a cross polarization discrimination (XPD) ratio while the signal is transmitted and received with a different set of polarizations. In the measurements, we have considered horizontal, vertical, +/− 45° slanted polarizations, and two different environments, urban street and open space, and three frequencybands, 970−1030 MHz, 2000−2030 MHz and 3364−3400 MHz. The measurement results revealed that at a different distance from the transmitter, for horizontal/vertical polarization, the average XPD is around 24.7 dB and 31.7 dB in the urban street and open area environments, respectively. For +/− 45° slanted polarization, the average XPD is around 11.5 dB and 12.1 dB in the urban street and open area environments, respectively. This paper goes on to propose polarization adaptation in each cell, where the primary polarization is valid for the whole service area of the cell, and secondary polarization is only used in close proximity of the base station antenna. Considering the results, it is emphasized that system capacity can be significantly improved by having only one channel with good SIR values compared to multiple channels with bad SIR values. However, MIMO channels with orthogonal polarizations or with spatial multiplexing can be utilized in the closed vicinity of the base station, i.e., in an area with good SIR values. It is shown that the overall cell capacity can be increased by almost 35% by utilizing polarization adaptation compared to MIMO 2 × 2.Peer reviewe

Forest management is associated with physiological stress in an old-growth forest passerine.

We investigated how physiological stress in an area-sensitive old-growth forest passerine, the Eurasian treecreeper (Certhia familiaris), is associated with forest fragmentation and forest structure. We found evidence that the concentrations of plasma corticosterone in chicks were higher under poor food supply in dense, young forests than in sparse, old forests. In addition, nestlings in large forest patches had lower corticosterone levels and a better body condition than in small forest patches. In general, corticosterone levels were negatively related to body condition and survival. We also found a decrease in corticosterone levels within the breeding season, which may have been a result of an increase in food supply from the first to the second broods. Our results suggest that forest fragmentation may decrease the fitness of free-living individual treecreepers

Effects of a Home-Based Physical Rehabilitation Program on Physical Disability After Hip Fracture: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Objective Fewer than half of the patients with hip fracture will regain the prefracture level of physical functioning. This secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial investigated the effects of a multicomponent home-based rehabilitation program (ProMo) on physical disability after hip fracture. Design Randomized, controlled, parallel-group trial. Setting Rehabilitation in participants' homes; measurements in university-based laboratory and local hospital. Participants Population-based clinical sample of community-dwelling people older than 60 years (n = 81) operated for hip fracture were randomized into intervention and control groups. Intervention The year-long intervention aimed at restoring mobility. It included evaluation and modification of environmental hazards, guidance for safe walking, pain management, home exercise, physical activity counseling, and standard care. Measurements Physical disability was assessed by a questionnaire at baseline, and 3, 6, and 12 months thereafter. Sum scores were computed for basic (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). A higher score indicated more difficulty. GEE models were constructed to analyze the effect of the intervention. Results In the intention-to-treat analysis, no intervention effect was observed for sum scores. For the single disability items, borderline significant positive effects were observed for preparing food and handling medication (interaction P = .061 and P = .061, respectively). In the per-protocol analysis, the mean differences between groups were −0.4 points (SE 0.5), −1.7 (0.7), and −1.2 (0.7) at 3, 6, and 12 months for ADLs and −1.0 (1.2), −3.2 (1.5), and −2.5 (1.4) for IADLs, correspondingly. Conclusion The current analyses suggest that home-based rehabilitation may reduce disability among older people after hip fracture. The present results need to be confirmed in a study with larger sample size. Potentially a more task-oriented rehabilitation approach might gain more benefits. Current Controlled Trials (ISRCTN53680197).peerReviewe