Kissan hyperaldosteronismi ja hyperadrenokortisismi

Tämä on kirjallisuuskatsaus kissojen hyperaldosteronismista sekä hyperadrenokortisismista. Työn tarkoitus on antaa suomenkielistä lisätietoa kyseisistä sairauksista ja toimia eläinlääkärin aputyökaluna praktiikassa. Primäärissä hyperaldosteronismissa lisämunuaiskuori tuottaa liikaa aldosteronia, mikä aiheuttaa verenpaineen nousua sekä hypokalemiaa. Hyperaldosteronismilla on kaksi taustasyytä: kasvainmuutos lisämunuaisessa tai lisämunuaiskuoren liikakasvu. Kasvainmuoto on huomattavasti yleisempi. Diagnostiikassa korkean verenpaineen ja/tai hypokalemian löytyminen on oleellista. Tyypilliset oireet liittyvät vähintään toiseen näistä, esimerkiksi lihasheikkous ja silmänpohjamuutokset. Hyperaldosteronismia epäiltäessä mitataan seerumin aldosteronipitoisuus, joka tyypillisesti on voimakkaasti koholla. Ultraäänitutkimuksella etsitään viitteitä suurentuneista lisämunuaisista tai lisämunuaiskasvaimesta. Kasvainperäisessä hyperaldosteronismissa lisämunuaisen poisto on suositelluin hoitomuoto. Hyperaldosteronismin hypokalemiaa ja korkeaa verenpainetta voidaan hoitaa myös oireenmukaisella lääkehoidolla. Onnistuneen leikkauksen jälkeen ennuste on erinomainen, vaikka komplikaatioriski on melko suuri. Elinajanodote on useampia vuosia. Lääkehoidolla ennuste on hieman huonompi. Hyperadrenokortisismissa eli Cushingin oireyhtymässä lisämunuaiskuori tuottaa liikaa kortisolia, mikä aikaansaa elimistön immuunisupression ja katabolisen tilan sekä ohentaa ihoa. Hyperadrenokortisismissa taustasyitä on kolme: aivolisäkeperäinen tai lisämunuaisperäinen kasvain tai iatrogeeninen eli (kortisoni)hoidon aiheuttama. Yleensä kissan hyperadrenokortisismi on aivolisäkeperäistä. Oireet liittyvät tyypillisesti rinnakkaiseen diabetes mellitukseen sekä kortisolin ihovaikutuksiin. Potilaat ovat lihasköyhiä ja vatsaontelo on laajentunut. Karvattomuutta esiintyy usein ja iho on altis repeämiselle ja mustelmille. Kissa juo, virtsaa ja syö normaalia enemmän. Diagnostiikka ei ole yksiselitteistä. Suositelluin seulontakoe on matala-annoksinen deksmetasonisuppressiokoe. Myös virtsan kortisoli-kreatiniinisuhdetta voidaan hyödyntää. Kun hyperadrenokortisismi on vahvistettu, on eroteltava, mikä muoto on kyseessä. Diagnostinen kuvantaminen on hyödyllinen apuväline. Lisäksi deksmetasonisuppressiokoe yhdistettynä virtsan kortisoli-kreatiniinisuhteen mittaukseen voi antaa osviittaa siitä, onko kyseessä lisämunuais- vai aivolisäkeperäinen sairaus. Hyperadrenokortisismin hoitoa hankaloittavat monet tekijät, joten ennuste on hyperaldosteronismiin nähden varauksellisempi. Sairauden harvinaisuuden vuoksi sen hoitoa ei ole tutkittu suurilla kissamäärillä eikä yhtä hoitosuositusta ylitse muiden voida antaa. Hoitovaihtoehtoina ovat aivolisäkkeen tai lisämunuais(t)en poisto, aivolisäkkeen säteilytys sekä lääkehoito. Aivolisäkkeen poistoa tai säteilytystä ei ole toistaiseksi mahdollista tehdä Suomessa. Lääkevaihtoehdoista trilostaani on eniten käytetty ja tutkittu. Kirurgiaan liittyy suuri komplikaatioriski, mutta onnistuneen leikkauksen jälkeen kissan elinikä vaihtelee kuukausista useampiin vuosiin. Hyperaldosteronismi on todennäköisesti alidiagnosoitu sairaus ja sitä kannattaa epäillä kaikilla hypokaleemisilla ja korkeaa verenpainetta sairastavilla kissoilla. Tulevaisuuden tutkimuskohteita hyperadrenokortisismin saralla ovat karvojen kortisolipitoisuuden mittaaminen, etomidaatin käyttö lääkehoidossa sekä kotona suoritettavan deksmetasonisupressiokokeen ja virtsan kortisoli-kreatiniinisuhteen hyödyntäminen diagnostiikassa

Stadsträdgården, Uppsala : a study of Gunnar Jarle Sorte´s theory about park qualities

Parker har en central roll inom landskapsarkitektur och en stor inverkan på människors hälsa. För att förstå vad som gör att vissa parker föredras framför andra kan miljöpsykologisk forskning studeras. I denna kandidatuppsats ligger fokus på den del av miljöpsykologin som handlar om hur människor upplever utomhusmiljö och varför gröna miljöer är viktiga. Gunnar Jarle Sorte, professor emeritus i landskapsarkitektur, har utifrån ett miljöpsykologiskt perspektiv konstruerat åtta parkkvaliteter baserade på upplevelsemässiga värden. Kandidatuppsatsen analyserar huruvida dessa åtta parkkvaliteter finns representerade i Uppsalas stadspark Stadsträdgården och hur det går att förbättra kvaliteterna. Studien innefattade en litteraturstudie och tolkning av Sortes parkkvaliteter samt en platsstudie av Stadsträdgården i form av inventering och analys. Resultatet visade att alla åtta parkkvaliteter finns i Stadsträdgården men är representerade i varierande grad i parkens olika delar. Analysen visade även att parkkvaliteterna är beroende av varandra och när flera parkkvaliteter uppnås eller inte uppnås på en plats beror det oftast på samma påverkande faktorer. Utifrån analysen gjordes principskisser med syftet att tillföra parkkvaliteter baserade på miljöpsykologi. Att gestalta parker utifrån miljöpsykologisk forskning är ett användbart verktyg för att säkerhetsställa en hög kvalitet i parker. Förtätningen som idag sker runt om i Sverige tar till viss del parkmark i anspråk och bidrar till att trycket på befintliga parker ökar. För att parker ska ha en fortsatt god inverkan på människors hälsa krävs en hög standard och god planering.Parks are very important in Landscape architecture and many studies have showed that they have a positive impact on the wellbeing and health of people. Environmental psychology can help us understand why some parks are preferred before others. This Bachelor’s thesis is concentrating on how people are perceiving their environment and why green areas are important in the matter of wellbeing. Gunnar Jarle Sorte, professor emeritus in Landscape architecture, has developed a theory about eight park qualities based on environmental psychology. The Bachelor´s thesis analyzes the presence of these park qualities in Stadsträdgården, the city park of Uppsala and how they could be improved. The study includes a literature review, an interpretation of Sorte´s park qualities and a place study of Stadsträdgården including inventory and analysis. The result showed that all park qualities where present in Stadsträdgården but not completely represented everywhere in the park. The analysis also stated that the park qualities are depending on each other and weather the qualities are present or not often relates to the same factors. Design proposals where made using the analysis with the intention to add the missing qualities based on environmental psychology. Using environmental psychology to design parks is one way to ensure high quality. The ongoing urbanization in Sweden is partly using green areas and parks for urban growth and more people are using the remaining parks. To make sure that parks will continue to have a positive impact on people’s health a high standard of parks is needed

Jämställdhet i styrelserummet – hjälpande eller stjälpande?

Studien syftar till att undersöka sambandet mellan finansiell prestation, mätt som Tobins Q, och andelen kvinnor i styrelsen i svenska börsnoterade bolag. Studien använder sig av en kvantitativ metod med en deduktiv ansats. Författarna har gjort en multipel regressionsanalys och regressionstester i Eviews som baseras på insamlad paneldata. Urvalet består av 158 bolag som samtliga har varit noterade på Nasdaq OMX Stockholm mellan åren 2012 - 2016. Studien finner ett signifikant negativt samband mellan andelen kvinnor i bolagsstyrelser och finansiell prestation på den svenska marknaden.The study examines the relationship between financial performance, measured as Tobin’s Q, with the proportion of women in the boardroom in Swedish listed companies. The study uses a quantitative method with a deductive approach. The authors have made a multiple regression analysis and regression tests in Eviews based on collected panel data. The sample consists of 158 companies, all of which have been listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm between the years 2012-2016. The study finds a significant negative relationship between the proportion of women in the boardroom at Swedish listed companies and financial performance

Activity budget and behaviour of giant otters Pteronura brasiliensis at Parken Zoo, Eskilstuna, Sweden

Modern zoos must ensure the welfare and conservation of their captive animals. For this, it is recommended to provide cognitive stimuli (‘enrichment’), good habitat management and adequate nutrition amongst other things. Assessment of animal welfare should include behavioural observation. One frequently used approach compares the activity budget of zoo animals with their wild conspecifics, carefully interpreting resulting differences. Here, this method is used for giant otters Pteronura brasiliensis on a feeding regime with three fixed feeding times during the keeper’s working day, and ice blocks containing fish suspended above the pool, thawing over time and thus releasing fish well into the night. This time-delayed food dispensing was expected to make the subjects spend a large proportion of time foraging. Nevertheless, results show a lower feeding proportion than reported in the literature for this species in the wild (27% versus 64%), likely related to the fact that zoo animals did not have to hunt live prey. The captive otters also spent less time scent-marking (1% versus 9%), possibly due to the absence of other conspecific groups in their vicinity. By contrast, there was a higher proportion of resting (34% versus 21%) and affiliative behaviours (14% versus 1%), suggesting that shifts in the activity budget between natural habitats and zoos need not always be interpreted as indicators of reduced welfare. ‘Calling family members to food’, reported in the wild, was observed repeatedly when one family member was awake and the rest were asleep at a time that fish fell from the thawing block into the pool. Extending food distribution over time, particularly into the night, might develop behaviours other than increased feeding activity as indicators of welfare in captive giant otters. Further investigations with delayed feeding methods for this and other species are needed

The employer's perspective: employment of people with disabilities in wage subsidized employments

The aim of this article is to examine employers' perspectives of the conditions of employment of people with disabilities within a context of wage subsidies. Employers in different workplaces were interviewed, and the interviews were analysed according to qualitative content analysis (Graneheim and Lundman 2004). The results show that four factors – attitude, matching, economic incentives and accommodations – are important for the employment of people with disabilities within a context of wage subsidies. Positive earlier experiences of people with disabilities serve as one of the reasons employers are willing to consider people with disabilities for jobs, but for hiring to take place, there must also be a match between the right person and the right job. Wage subsidies are seen, within this context, as an incentive to hire people who have reduced work capacity; accommodations are seen as necessary for the successful implementation of such hiring decisions. This knowledge can be applied in the design of support measures for unemployed people with disabilities

The behavioural effects of feeding lean meat vs whole rabbit carcasses to zoo jaguars Panthera onca

The challenge of carnivore feeding in zoos is to stimulate natural feeding behaviour without using live prey animals. The objective of this study was to investigate how two different feed types (lean beef and whole rabbits) affect the behaviour of zoo jaguars Panthera onca for the first six hours after feed presentation. Three socially housed jaguars at Parken Zoo, Sweden, were offered either lean beef or whole rabbits for 10 consecutive feeding days. Their behaviour during and after feeding was videorecorded and then compared between the two feed types. When analysing the frequency of different behaviours for six hours after feeding, results confirm that feeding behaviour occurred significantly more frequently when whole rabbits were fed, particularly during the first hour after feed presentation. However, even though feeding time increased by more than 300%, this represents a change of less than 1% in terms of the overall proportion of a 24-hour budget. Future studies might investigate the effect of feeding jaguars larger carcasses than rabbits, including with more hours of observation

Temperature and concentration dependence of the electrochemical PtHg4 alloy formation for mercury decontamination

New and improved methods to remove toxic mercury from contaminated waters and waste streams are highly sought after. Recently, it was shown that electrochemical alloy formation of PtHg4 on a platinum surface with mercury ions from solution can be utilized for decontamination, with several advantages over conventional techniques. Herein, we examine the alloy formation process in more detail by mercury concentration measurements using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry in batch measurements as well as electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance analysis both in batch and in flowing water with initial mercury concentrations ranging from 0.25 to 75000 \ub5g L−1 Hg2+. Results show that mercury is effectively removed from all solutions and the rate of alloy formation is constant over time, as well as for very thick layers of PtHg4. The apparent activation energy for the electrochemical alloy formation was determined to be 0.29 eV, with a reaction order in mercury ion concentration around 0.8. The obtained results give new insights that are vital in the assessment and further development of electrochemical alloy formation as a method for large scale mercury decontamination

Decidual Macrophages Are Significantly Increased in Spontaneous Miscarriages and Over-Express FasL

Decidual macrophages (DM) are the second most abundant population in the fetal-maternal interface. Their role has been so far identified as being local immuno-modulators favoring the maternal tolerance to the fetus. Herein we investigated tissue samples from 11 cases of spontaneous miscarriages and from 9 cases of elective terminations of pregnancy. Using immunohistochemistry and dual immunofluorescence we have demonstrated that in spontaneous miscarriages the DM are significantly increased. Additionally, we noted a significant up-regulation of macrophage FasL expression. Our results further support a dual role for DM during pregnancy and miscarriages. We hypothesize that the baseline DM population in normal pregnancy is in line with an M2 phenotype supporting the ongoing gestation. In contrast, during spontaneous miscarriages, the increased FasL-expressing population could be a part of an M1 phenotype participating in Fas/FasL-related apoptosis. Our results highlight a new aspect of macrophage biology in pregnancy physiology and pathophysiology. Further studies with larger samples are needed to verify the current results and evaluate their clinical impact

Can retention forestry help conserve biodiversity?

Industrial forestry typically leads to a simplified forest structure and altered species composition. Retention of trees at harvest was introduced about 25years ago to mitigate negative impacts on biodiversity, mainly from clearcutting, and is now widely practiced in boreal and temperate regions. Despite numerous studies on response of flora and fauna to retention, no comprehensive review has summarized its effects on biodiversity in comparison to clearcuts as well as un-harvested forests. Using a systematic review protocol, we completed a meta-analysis of 78 studies including 944 comparisons of biodiversity between retention cuts and either clearcuts or un-harvested forests, with the main objective of assessing whether retention forestry helps, at least in the short term, to moderate the negative effects of clearcutting on flora and fauna. Retention cuts supported higher richness and a greater abundance of forest species than clearcuts as well as higher richness and abundance of open-habitat species than un-harvested forests. For all species taken together (i.e. forest species, open-habitat species, generalist species and unclassified species), richness was higher in retention cuts than in clearcuts. Retention cuts had negative impacts on some species compared to un-harvested forest, indicating that certain forest-interior species may not survive in retention cuts. Similarly, retention cuts were less suitable for some open-habitat species compared with clearcuts. Positive effects of retention cuts on richness of forest species increased with proportion of retained trees and time since harvest, but there were not enough data to analyse possible threshold effects, that is, levels at which effects on biodiversity diminish. Spatial arrangement of the trees (aggregated vs. dispersed) had no effect on either forest species or open-habitat species, although limited data may have hindered our capacity to identify responses. Results for different comparisons were largely consistent among taxonomic groups for forest and open-habitat species, respectively.Synthesis and applications. Our meta-analysis provides support for wider use of retention forestry since it moderates negative harvesting impacts on biodiversity. Hence, it is a promising approach for integrating biodiversity conservation and production forestry, although identifying optimal solutions between these two goals may need further attention. Nevertheless, retention forestry will not substitute for conservation actions targeting certain highly specialized species associated with forest-interior or open-habitat conditions.Our meta-analysis provides support for wider use of retention forestry since it moderates negative harvesting impacts on biodiversity. Hence, it is a promising approach for integrating biodiversity conservation and production forestry, although identifying optimal solutions between these two goals may need further attention. Nevertheless, retention forestry will not substitute for conservation actions targeting certain highly specialized species associated with forest-interior or open-habitat conditions

Essential Genetic Interactors of SIR2 Required for Spatial Sequestration and Asymmetrical Inheritance of Protein Aggregates

Sir2 is a central regulator of yeast aging and its deficiency increases daughter cell inheritance of stress-and aging-induced misfolded proteins deposited in aggregates and inclusion bodies. Here, by quantifying traits predicted to affect aggregate inheritance in a passive manner, we found that a passive diffusion model cannot explain Sir2-dependent failures in mother-biased segregation of either the small aggregates formed by the misfolded Huntingtin, Htt103Q, disease protein or heat-induced Hsp104-associated aggregates. Instead, we found that the genetic interaction network of SIR2 comprises specific essential genes required for mother-biased segregation including those encoding components of the actin cytoskeleton, the actin-associated myosin V motor protein Myo2, and the actin organization protein calmodulin, Cmd1. Co-staining with Hsp104-GFP demonstrated that misfolded Htt103Q is sequestered into small aggregates, akin to stress foci formed upon heat stress, that fail to coalesce into inclusion bodies. Importantly, these Htt103Q foci, as well as the ATPase-defective Hsp104(Y662A)-associated structures previously shown to be stable stress foci, co-localized with Cmd1 and Myo2-enriched structures and super-resolution 3-D microscopy demonstrated that they are associated with actin cables. Moreover, we found that Hsp42 is required for formation of heat-induced Hsp104(Y662A) foci but not Htt103Q foci suggesting that the routes employed for foci formation are not identical. In addition to genes involved in actin-dependent processes, SIR2-interactors required for asymmetrical inheritance of Htt103Q and heat-induced aggregates encode essential sec genes involved in ER-to-Golgi trafficking/ER homeostasis