Health-Related Quality of Life after Restorative Proctocolectomy : A Cross-Sectional Study

Background and Aims: Patients undergoing restorative proctocolectomy have often suffered from active ulcerative colitis which should be remembered when assessing quality of life after operation. The aim of this study was to explore health-related quality of life after restorative proctocolectomy in those with poor or good pouch function and to compare that to patients with active or inactive ulcerative colitis and to the general population. Material and Methods: Altogether, 282 restorative proctocolectomy patients were investigated. The control group comprised 408 ulcerative colitis patients from the local register. Generic 15D and disease-specific inflammatory bowel disease questionnaire health-related quality of life instruments were used. Population-based data were available for 15D. Pouch function was evaluated with oresland score and colitis activity with simple clinical colitis activity index. Results: 15D results showed that patients with good pouch function had health-related quality of life similar to that of the general population. Health-related quality of life with inflammatory bowel disease questionnaire was equally good in patients with good pouch function (n = 131; 70%) and inactive colitis (n = 95; 63%), and equally impaired in patients with poor pouch function (n = 56; 30%) and active colitis (n = 18; 12%). Conclusion: The majority of patients had health-related quality of life comparable to that in general population. Most patients with active ulcerative colitis are likely to improve their health-related quality of life after successful surgery. These findings are important when informing colitis patients about life after surgery.Peer reviewe

Cross-sectional area of the paraspinal muscles and its association with muscle strength among fighter pilots : A 5-year follow-up

Background: A small cross sectional area (CSA) of the paraspinal muscles may be related to low back pain among military aviators but previous studies have mainly concentrated on spinal disc degeneration. Therefore, the primary aim of the study was to investigate the changes in muscle CSA and composition of the psoas and paraspinal muscles during a 5-year follow up among Finnish Air Force (FINAF) fighter pilots. Methods: Study population consisted of 26 volunteered FINAF male fighter pilots (age: 20.6 (±0.6) at the baseline). The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations were collected at baseline and after 5 years of follow-up. CSA and composition of the paraspinal and psoas muscles were obtained at the levels of 3-4 and 4-5 lumbar spine. Maximal isometric strength tests were only performed on one occasion at baseline. Results: The follow-up comparisons indicated that the mean CSA of the paraspinal muscles increased (p <0.01) by 8% at L3-4 level and 7% at L4-5 level during the 5-year period. There was no change in muscle composition during the follow-up period. The paraspinal and psoas muscles' CSA was positively related to overall maximal isometric strength at the baseline. However, there was no association between LBP and muscle composition or CSA. Conclusions: The paraspinal muscles' CSA increased among FINAF fighter pilots during the first 5 years of service. This might be explained by physically demanding work and regular physical activity. However, no associations between muscle composition or CSA and low back pain (LBP) experienced were observed after the five-year follow-up. © 2019 The Author(s).Peer reviewe

Shakkirobotin pelitekoäly rajallisen laskentatehon ympäristössä

Tiivistelmä. Shakki pelinä on kiinnostanut tiedemiehiä jo vuosisatoja. Peliä on käytetty historiassa erilaisten matemaattisten ongelmien ja varhaisten algoritmien havainnollistamiseen. Myös nykyaikana shakista on tullut laaja mielenkiinnon aihe varsinkin erilaisten tekoälyjen kehittämisessä. Shakki on pelinä liian monimutkainen ratkaistavaksi raa’alla laskentateholla, mikä tekee siitä erinomaisen kehitysalustan tekoälyjen tehokkuuden vertailemiseen. Tässä työssä toteutettiin tekoäly shakkia pelaavalle robotille. Robotin työlle merkittävät osat koostuivat mekaanisesta käsivarresta ja kamerasta, joka tunnisti pelilaudan tilanteen konenäön avulla. Laiteympäristönä käytettiin erittäin rajallisen laskentatehon Raspberry Pi 3 -minitietokonetta. Laskentateho vaikuttaa suoraan sekä algoritmin pelikykyyn että ihmisvastustajan kokemaan odotusaikaan siirtojen välillä, joten tekoälyn suorituskyky oli tärkeässä asemassa työn kannalta. Suorituskykyä testattiin vaiheittaisesti, aloittaen naiivista minimax-algoritmista siirtyen alfa-beta karsintaan ja sen erilaisiin optimisaatiotekniikoihin. Näitä eri algoritmillisia toteutuksia ja niiden suoritusaikoja vertailtiin keskenään, mikä auttoi määrittämään minimax-pohjaisten algoritmien soveltuvuutta vakuuttavan shakkitekoälyn luomiseen vähäisellä laskentateholla. Vertailuissa havaittiin selvästi perinteisen minimaxin hitaus suhteessa alfa-beta -karsintaan, varsinkin suuremmilla hakusyvyyksillä. Nopein suorituskyky ilman pelaamisen tason vähentymistä saavutettiin alfa-beta -karsintaa optimoimalla shakin avauskirjoja hyödyntämällä.Artificial intelligence of a chess robot in a system with limited computational power. Abstract. Chess as a game has interested scientists for centuries. In history, the game has been used to demonstrate different kinds of mathematical problems and early algorithms. Even today, chess has become a subject of great interest, especially in the development of various artificial intelligence. Chess is too complex to solve by raw computing power, which makes it excellent platform to compare the strength of artificial intelligence. In this work, an artificial intelligence was made for a chess robot. The parts of the robot that were relevant to the work consisted of a mechanical arm and a camera that recognized the situation of the game board with the help of machine vision. Raspberry Pi 3 was used as a hardware of the artificial intelligence. Computational power directly effects the strength of the algorithm and the time experienced by the human opponent which makes the performance of the artificial intelligence very important factor for the project. Performance was tested step by step, starting with a stripped minimax algorithm and moving to alpha-beta pruning and its various optimization techniques. These different algorithmic implementations and their execution times were compared to help determining the suitability of minimax-based algorithms to create convincing chess artificial intelligence with limited computing power. Comparisons clearly showed the slowness of the traditional minimax relative to alpha-beta pruning, especially at higher search depths. The fastest performance without any reduction in the level of gaming was achieved by optimizing alpha-beta pruning by utilizing the chess opening books

Surgical treatment of chronic acromioclavicular joint dislocation with autogenous tendon grafts

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The interaction between values and organizational identification in predicting suggestion-making at work

The present study proposed and found that personal values and organizational identification interact in predicting making suggestions for organizational improvements at work. One hundred and forty-eight employees of children’s day-care centres rated their values, their identification with the organization and their suggestion-making behaviour. Their behaviour was also rated by their supervisors. As expected, the value dimension of openness to change vs. conservation predicted suggestion-making more strongly amongst individuals highly identified with the organization than amongst individuals weakly identified with the organization. This was found using self-ratings of behaviour as well as supervisor’s rating of behaviour. The study points to the importance of values and identification in understanding suggestion-making and innovative behaviour at work, and it opens new avenues for examining this interaction in predicting other kinds of organizational behaviours

Serum Phospholipases A2 in Patients Undergoing Panproctocolectomy Because of Severe Ulcerative Colitis

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Mining Security discussions in Suomi24

Abstract This study examines how social network based approach can be applied in order to mine the security oriented discussions in Suomi24 online forum. The approach employs a student survey questionnaire to collect a dictionary related to Finland national security. In subsequent analysis, the vocabulary terms are mapped to Suomi24 corpus in order to construct the associated social network analysis that quantifies the dependency among the various vocabulary terms. Especially, the analysis of the dynamic variation of the network topology would enable the decision-maker to devise appropriate communication scheme to maximize intervention in the public sphere and reach a wider audience. Besides, a parser that finds the keywords from VeRticalzed text data format is developed to aid the construction of the underlined social network