Towards more ecoefficient food production: MFA approach

The food flux comprises four mutually linked loops: 1)plant production, 2)livestock husbandry, 3) food processing industry and 4) human consumption. In the present paper MFA approach has been used to describe the system. A general framework and practical solutions for estimating and balancing the materials flow are outlined. The focus in this paper is agriculture

Towards more ecoefficient food production: MFA approach

The key for the sustainable development is dematerialisation and ecoefficiency. Applied to agriculture ecoefficiency means production of nutritionally better food by using less inputs and by reducing the environmental burden. In restricting the material throughput it is essential to identify the most voluminous material flows and to direct the measures to them. Improving ecoefficiency of the food production requires that the benefits and the inputs are quantified in an unambiguous way and that the inputs are estimated for the whole production chain. A comprehensive view of the whole system is necessary. The food system comprises four mutually linked loops: 1) the plant production 2) the livestock husbandry, 3) the food processing industry and 4) the human consumption. In the present paper MFA approach has been used to describe the system. A general framework for estimating and balancing the materials flow is outlined. The focus is on agriculture, specifically on the materials flow created by the biological metabolism of the animal husbandry. The holistic MFA approach provides means to evaluate environmental and economic consequences of the production. For the decision-makers the MFA approach is a tool to guide the development and to assess the progress towards increasing ecoefficiency within the food system. The results can be used in developing new sustainability indicators. Some of the possibilities are shortly discussed. The study is the first step in developing MFA methods to analyse and to monitor the materials flow of the Finnish food systems. It is a part of the project “The Materials Flow and Ecoefficiency of Agriculture and the Sustainable Compatibility of the Food Production” carried out in collaboration between the MTT - Agrifood Research Finland and the Thule Institute at the University of Oulu. The results are used also in compiling the Finnish physical input-output tables. The study, thus, contributes to the overall development of the materials flow accounting statistics

P 093 - Comparison of three bipedal tasks to quantify contribution of proprioception to postural stability in healthy children and adolescents : Helsinki University Central Hospital, HUH Children and Adolescents

Static postural sway can be quantified as variation in body's center of force (COF) position across time using a plantar pressure plate. We aimed to compare capability of three clinically feasible bipedal tasks to extract the contribution of proprioception to postural stability. We measured the postural sway of 24 healthy volunteers (age range 10.2–17.6 years) with a plantar-pressure plate with three different standing tasks: (1) normal standing, (2) normal standing on soft foam, and (3) feet together standing. Each task was repeated eyes closed to emphasize the contribution of proprioception on maintaining the postural stability. The effect of closing the eyes varied among the tasks, and was greatest in the feet together standing task, possibly due to greater proprioceptive demands in the more difficult tasks. It appears that standing feet together is a potential task for quantifying contribution of proprioception to postural stability. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.Non peer reviewe

Paikallisista malleista yhtenäiseen käytäntöön toimintakyvyn arviointimenetelmien valinnassa ja kuntoutuksen suunnittelussa : Esimerkkinä CP-oireisto

Kuntoutuminen on yksilöllistä toimintaa, mikä edellyttää tarpeiden tunnistamista, yksilöllisten tavoitteiden asettamista ja kuntoutumista tukevien toimenpiteiden suunnittelua yhdessä kuntoutujan ja hänen läheistensä kanssa sekä oikea-aikaista toteutusta. CP (Cerebral Palsy) on yleisin pitkäaikaista ja vaativaa moniammatillista kuntoutusta vaativa diagnoosiryhmä. Tässä raportissa kuvataan hankekokonaisuus, jonka tavoitteeksi asetettiin kansallisesti yhdenmukainen arviointimenetelmien käyttö CP-oireiston hoidossa ja kuntoutuksessa. Hankkeen ensimmäisessä vaiheessa todettiin kansallisesti epäyhtenäinen käytäntö toimintakyvyn arvioinnissa sekä lääkinnällisen hoidon ja kuntoutuksen toteutuksessa lapsilla ja nuorilla, joilla on CP-oireisto. Toisessa hankevaiheessa tunnistettiin ja pilotoitiin moniammatillisen työryhmän yhteistyössä kliiniseen käyttöön soveltuvat arviointimenetelmät. Hankkeen kolmannessa vaiheessa keskityttiin valittujen arviointimenetelmien implementointiin laajempaan kansalliseen käyttöön ja lopuksi arvioitiin, miten toimintakäytäntö todellisuudessa muuttui. Lopullisiin arviointimenetelmiin päätyminen ja niiden implementoiminen käytäntöön on edellyttänyt eri menetelmien käytettävyyden testaamista, niiden lisäarvon tunnistamista, toistuvaa valintojen kyseenalaistamista, laajaa yhteistyötä ja jatkuvaa koulutusta sekä koulutusmateriaalin kehittämistä. Keskeistä muutosprosessin onnistumisessa on ollut kunkin paikkakunnan ja ammattiryhmän muutoksen toteutumisesta vastuullisten työntekijöiden (ns. knowledge broker) sitoutunut työ yhteisen tavoitteen saavuttamiseksi. Hankekokonaisuus on osoittanut, että muutosprosessissa tarvitaan valmiutta ja rohkeutta oman toiminnan kriittiseen tarkasteluun. Arkitoiminnan tekeminen näkyväksi videoimalla kuntoutussuunnitelmapalavereja ja analysoimalla tarkemmin asiakirjojen kuten kuntoutussuunnitelmien sisältöjä auttoi tunnistamaan, että ohjeet ja puheet eivät yksinään riitä muuttamaan toimintakäytäntöjä. Muutokseen vaaditaan paitsi kunkin työntekijän myös organisaation osaamisen ja asenteiden muutosta sekä aikaresursseja. Kansallisesti yhtenäisistä arviointimenetelmistä sopiminen on ajankohtainen asia, sillä soteuudistuksessa toimenpiteiden oikein kohdistaminen ja vaikutusten vertaisarviointi tulevat olemaan keskeisiä periaatteita. Tämä hankekokonaisuus keskittyi CP-oireistoon, mutta samaa toimintamallia voidaan käyttää myös muiden sairauksien, oireyhtymien sekä vammojen arviointikäytäntöjen yhdenmukaistamiseen. Yhtenäiseen arviointikäytäntöön on mahdollista päästä, mutta muutoksen toteutus on pitkällinen prosessi, jossa on jatkuvasti huomioitava niin muutosta fasilitoivat kuin estävätkin tekijät. Hankekokonaisuus osoitti myös, että toimintakyvyn arviointimenetelmiä ei tule valita käytännön toimijoita kuulematta ja ilman että menetelmien kliininen käytettävyys ja merkitys varmistetaan

Factors associated with decision-making on prophylactic hysterectomy and attitudes towards gynecological surveillance among women with Lynch syndrome (LS) : a descriptive study

To prevent endometrial carcinoma in Lynch syndrome (LS), regular gynecological surveillance visits and prophylactic surgery are recommended. Previous data have shown that prophylactic hysterectomy is an effective means of cancer prevention, while the advantages and disadvantages of surveillance are somewhat unclear. We aimed to evaluate female LS carriers' attitudes towards regular gynecological surveillance and factors influencing their decision-making on prophylactic surgery that have not been well documented. Pain experienced during endometrial biopsies was also evaluated. Postal questionnaires were sent to LS carriers undergoing regular gynecological surveillance. Questionnaires were sent to 112 women with LS, of whom 76 responded (68%). Forty-two (55%) had undergone prophylactic hysterectomy by the time of the study. The majority of responders (64/76; 84.2%) considered surveillance appointments beneficial. Pain level during endometrial biopsy was not associated with the decision to undergo prophylactic surgery. The level of satisfaction the women had with the information and advice provided during surveillance was significantly associated with the history of prophylactic hysterectomy (satisfaction rate of 73.2% versus 31.8% of nonoperated women, p = 0.003). The women who had undergone prophylactic surgery were older than the nonoperated women both at mutation testing (median of 42.3 years versus 31.6 years, p <0.001) and at the time of the study (median of 56.9 years versus 46.0 years, respectively, p <0.001). Women with LS pathogenic variants have positive experiences with gynecological surveillance visits, and their perception of the quality of the information and advice obtained plays an important role in their decision-making concerning prophylactic surgery.Peer reviewe

Reliability of preoperative evaluation of postmenopausal ovarian tumors

BioMed Central open acces

Measurements with Irradiated 3D Silicon Strip Detectors

For the unprecedentedly high radiation level at the sLHC, the luminosity upgrade of the LHC, new tracking detectors are investigated. Among different approaches, silicon detectors in 3D technology constitute a promising option. Columnar electrodes are etched into the substrate, therefore the distance for charge collection and depletion is decoupled from the detector thickness. Thus, two of the detrimental effects caused by radiation in silicon (increased depletion voltage and charge carrier trapping) can be reduced. Results of measurements with irradiated 3D silicon strip detectors produced by IMB-CNM are presented

Measurement of electroweak WZ boson production and search for new physics in WZ plus two jets events in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV

A measurement of WZ electroweak (EW) vector boson scattering is presented. The measurement is performed in the leptonic decay modes WZ -> l nu l'l', where l, l' = e, mu. The analysis is based on a data sample of proton-proton collisions at root s = 13 TeV at the LHC collected with the CMS detector and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1) . The WZ plus two jet production cross section is measured in fiducial regions with enhanced contributions from EW production and found to be consistent with standard model predictions. The EW WZ production in association with two jets is measured with an observed (expected) significance of 2.2 (2.5) standard deviations. Constraints on charged Higgs boson production and on anomalous quartic gauge couplings in terms of dimension-eight effective field theory operators are also presented. (C) 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

Search for additional neutral MSSM Higgs bosons in the tau tau final state in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A search is presented for additional neutral Higgs bosons in the tau tau final state in proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The search is performed in the context of the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model (MSSM), using the data collected with the CMS detector in 2016 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1). To enhance the sensitivity to neutral MSSM Higgs bosons, the search includes production of the Higgs boson in association with b quarks. No significant deviation above the expected background is observed. Model-independent limits at 95% confidence level (CL) are set on the product of the branching fraction for the decay into tau leptons and the cross section for the production via gluon fusion or in association with b quarks. These limits range from 18 pb at 90 GeV to 3.5 fb at 3.2 TeV for gluon fusion and from 15 pb (at 90 GeV) to 2.5 fb (at 3.2TeV) for production in association with b quarks, assuming a narrow width resonance. In the m(h)(mod+) scenario these limits translate into a 95% CL exclusion of tan beta > 6 for neutral Higgs boson masses below 250 GeV, where tan beta is the ratio of the vacuum expectation values of the neutral components of the two Higgs doublets. The 95% CL exclusion contour reaches 1.6TeV for tan beta = 60.Peer reviewe