Serum osteoprotegerin levels are related to height loss: The Tromsø Study

Severe loss of body height is often a consequence of osteoporotic vertebral fractures. Osteoprotegerin (OPG) and receptor activator of nuclear factor-kB ligand (RANKL) are cytokines essential for the regulation of bone resorption. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between the OPG/RANKL system and height loss. A total of 4,435 inhabitants from the municipality of Tromsø, Norway (2,169 men and 2,266 women) were followed for 6 years. Baseline measurements included height, weight, bone mineral density, OPG, RANKL, serum parathyroid hormone and information about lifestyle, prevalent diseases and use of medication. Height was measured again at follow-up, and the loss of height was categorized into 4 groups: ≤1, 1.1–2, 2.1–3, >3 cm. We found increasing height loss with increasing baseline OPG levels in both men and women (P trend = 0.02 and 0.001, respectively), after adjustments for age and other confounders. However, when the women were stratified according to menopausal status and use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), a significant relationship was present only among postmenopausal women not using HRT (P trend = 0.02). No relations between OPG and height loss were found in post-menopausal HRT-users and premenopausal women (P trend ≥0.39). We conclude that height loss is positively associated with OPG in men and in postmenopausal women not using HRT. No relationship was found between RANKL and height loss

Mental distress in subjects who did, or did not, move from rural Sami core areas to cities in Norway: The impact of Sami ethnicity

Source: https://socialmedicinsktidskrift.se/index.php/smt/article/view/2623/2477The aim of the study was to compare the level of mental distress of Sami and non-Sami residents in rural Sami core areas with that of people who have moved from these areas to cities in Norway. Previous research on mental health among the adult Sami population has mainly been conducted in rural areas, and there is a knowledge gap concerning the mental health of urban Sami. This study has a cross-sectional design and is based on self-administered questionnaires in two different surveys: the SAMINOR 2 Questionnaire Survey (2012) and the survey From Rural to Urban Living (2014). The total analytical sample consists of 5942 individuals: 3955 rural participants (SAMINOR 2) and 1987 urban participants (From Rural to Urban Living). Chisquare tests, two-sample t-tests, and Wilcoxon’s rank sum tests were used for testing differences between the groups. Multiple linear regression analysis was applied to explore the association between place of residence and a continuous mental distress (HSCL-10) score. Logistic regression analysis was performed to explore the association between place of residence and the prevalence of mental distress, as defined as a HSCL-10 score of ≥1.85. The analyses were stratified by gender and Sami and non-Sami ethnicity. The results show that when comparing people who have moved to a city with people living in rural areas, differences in mental distress were found among non-Sami women only, with a lower level of mental distress in urban nonSami women. In men, regardless of ethnicity and in Sami women, living in rural or urban areas did not make a difference in their mental distress status

Multispectral Imaging for Determination of Astaxanthin Concentration in Salmonids

Multispectral imaging has been evaluated for characterization of the concentration of a specific cartenoid pigment; astaxanthin. 59 fillets of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, were filleted and imaged using a rapid multispectral imaging device for quantitative analysis. The multispectral imaging device captures reflection properties in 19 distinct wavelength bands, prior to determination of the true concentration of astaxanthin. The samples ranged from 0.20 to 4.34 g per g fish. A PLSR model was calibrated to predict astaxanthin concentration from novel images, and showed good results with a RMSEP of 0.27. For comparison a similar model were built for normal color images, which yielded a RMSEP of 0.45. The acquisition speed of the multispectral imaging system and the accuracy of the PLSR model obtained suggest this method as a promising technique for rapid in-line estimation of astaxanthin concentration in rainbow trout fillets

Surface-bounded growth modeling applied to human mandibles

From a set of longitudinal three-dimensional scans of the same anatomical structure, we have accurately modeled the temporal shape and size changes using a linear shape model. On a total of 31 computed tomography scans of the mandible from six patients, 14851 semilandmarks are found automatically using shape features and a new algorithm called geometry-constrained diffusion. The semilandmarks are mapped into Procrustes space. Principal component analysis extracts a one-dimensional subspace, which is used to construct a linear growth model. The worst case mean modeling error in a cross validation study is 3.7 mm

A Method to Estimate the Boson Mass and to Optimise Sensitivity to Helicity Correlations of tau+tau- Final States

In proton-proton collisions at LHC energies, Z and low mass Higgs bosons would be produced with high and predominantly longitudinal boost with respect to the beam axis. This note describes a new analysis tool devised to handle this situation in cases when such bosons decay to a pair of tau-leptons. The tool reconstructs the rest frame of the tau+tau- pair by finding the boost that minimises the acollinearity between the visible tau decay products. In most cases this gives a reasonable approximation to the rest frame of the decaying boson. It is shown how the reconstructed rest frame allows for a new method of mass estimation. Also a considerable gain in sensitivity to helicity correlations is obtained by analysing the tau-jets in the reconstructed frame instead of using the laboratory momenta and energies, particularly when both tau-leptons decay hadronically.Comment: 13 pages, method extended with 3D boost finde

Emergency intraosseous access in a helicopter emergency medical service: a retrospective study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Intraosseous access (IO) is a method for providing vascular access in out-of-hospital resuscitation of critically ill and injured patients when traditional intravenous access is difficult or impossible. Different intraosseous techniques have been used by our Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) since 2003. Few articles document IO use by HEMS physicians. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of intraosseous access in pre-hospital emergency situations handled by our HEMS.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We reviewed all medical records from the period May 2003 to April 2010, and compared three different techniques: Bone Injection Gun (B.I.G^®- Waismed), manual bone marrow aspiration needle (Inter V - Medical Device Technologies) and EZ-IO^®(Vidacare), used on both adults and paediatric patients.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>During this seven-year period, 78 insertion attempts were made on 70 patients. Overall success rates were 50% using the manual needle, 55% using the Bone Injection Gun, and 96% using the EZ-IO^®. Rates of success on first attempt were significantly higher using the EZ-IO^®compared to the manual needle/Bone Injection Gun (p < 0.01/p < 0.001). Fifteen failures were due to insertion-related problems (19.2%), with four technical problems (5.1%) and three extravasations (3.8%) being the most frequent causes. Intraosseous access was primarily used in connection with 53 patients in cardiac arrest (75.7%), including traumatic arrest, drowning and SIDS. Other diagnoses were seven patients with multi-trauma (10.0%), five with seizures/epilepsy (7.1%), three with respiratory failure (4.3%) and two others (2.9%). Nearly one third of all insertions (n = 22) were made in patients younger than two years. No cases of osteomyelitis or other serious complications were documented on the follow-up.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Newer intraosseous techniques may enable faster and more reliable vascular access, and this can lower the threshold for intraosseous access on both adult and paediatric patients in critical situations. We believe that all emergency services that handle critically ill or injured paediatric and adult patients should be familiar with intraosseous techniques.</p

Body mass index and mortality in elderly men and women: the Tromsø and HUNT studies

The impact of body mass index (BMI; kg/m2) and waist circumference (WC) on mortality in elderly individuals is controversial and previous research has largely focused on obesity. With special attention to the lower BMI categories, associations between BMI and both total and cause-specific mortality were explored in 7604 men and 9107 women aged ≥65 years who participated in the Tromsø Study (1994–1995) or the North-Trøndelag Health Study (1995–1997). A Cox proportional hazards model adjusted for age, marital status, education and smoking was used to estimate HRs for mortality in different BMI categories using the BMI range of 25–27.5 as a reference. The impact of each 2.5 kg/m2 difference in BMI on mortality in individuals with BMI<25.0 and BMI≥25.0 was also explored. Furthermore, the relations between WC and mortality were assessed. We identified 7474 deaths during a mean follow-up of 9.3 years. The lowest mortality was found in the BMI range 25–29.9 and 25–32.4 in men and women, respectively. Mortality was increased in all BMI categories below 25 and was moderately increased in obese individuals. U-shaped relationships were also found between WC and total mortality. About 40% of the excess mortality in the lower BMI range in men was explained by mortality from respiratory diseases. BMI below 25 in elderly men and women was associated with increased mortality. A modest increase in mortality was found with increasing BMI among obese men and women. Overweight individuals (BMI 25–29.9) had the lowest mortality