Economic Attitudes, Social Attitudes and Their Psychological Underpinnings – A Study of the Finnish Political Elite

We investigated the relation between economic and social attitudes and the psychological underpinnings of these attitudes in candidates (N = 9515) in the Finnish 2017 municipal elections. In this politically elite sample, right-wing economic attitudes and social conservatism were positively correlated (r = 0.41), and this correlation was predominantly driven by those on the economic left being socially liberal, and vice versa. In terms of underlying psychological processes, consistent with dual process models of political ideology, the anti-egalitarian aspect of social dominance orientation was more strongly associated with right-wing economic attitudes, and the conventionalism and aggression aspects of right-wing authoritarianism with social conservatism. Our results show that even in a non-United States context in which the masses organize their political attitudes on two independent dimensions, these dimensions are moderately aligned among certain parts of the political elite, and that the political attitudes of the political elite can be traced to underlying psychological motivations. We argue that equality concerns could play a role in explaining why the left-right and liberal-conservative dimensions are more strongly aligned among those on the left and those more liberal.Peer reviewe

Child's age at parental death and university education

Losing a parent due to premature death is generally associated with negative child outcomes. However, the study of possible (modifying) effects of the child's age and family background has been neglected in previous research. In this paper, we analyse the relationship between the child's age at parental death and the child's university education, and we study whether the possible association is modified by the child's family background. We apply ordinary least square regression and linear sibling fixed effect models to high-quality Finnish Census Panel data, consisting of 88,727 children born between 1982 and 1990. According to our results, the negative influence of parental death varies by the child's age; the consequences of parental death for young children were the most adverse. Interestingly, the influence of parental death seemed not to vary by family background

Reply to 'Letter to Editor by Finsterer J and Zarrouk-Mahjoub S : Phenotypic manifestations of the m.8969G > A variant'

Peer reviewe

Cost-effectiveness of whole-exome sequencing in progressive neurological disorders of children

Objectives: To clarify the diagnostic utility and the cost-effectiveness of whole-exome sequencing (WES) as a routine early-diagnostic tool in children with progressive neurological disorders. Methods: Patients with infantile-onset severe neurological diseases or childhood-onset progressive neurological disorders were prospectively recruited to this WES study, in the pediatric neurology clinic at Helsinki University Hospital during 2016-2018. A total of 48 patients underwent a singleton WES. A control group of 49 children underwent traditional diagnostic examinations and were retrospectively collected from the hospital records. Their use of health care services, related to the diagnostic process, was gathered. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) per additional diagnosis was calculated from the health care provider perspective. Bootstrapping methods were used to estimate the uncertainty of cost-effectiveness outcomes. Results: WES provided a better diagnostic yield (38%) than diagnostic pathway that did not prioritize WES in early diagnosis (25%). WES outperformed other diagnostic paths especially when made early, within one year of first admission (44%). Cost-effectiveness in our results are conservative, affected by WES costs during 2016-18. Conclusions: WES is an efficient and cost-effective diagnostic tool that should be prioritized in early diagnostic path of children with progressive neurological disorders. The progressively decreasing price of the test improves cost-effectiveness further. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of European Paediatric Neurology Society.Peer reviewe

Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Finnish Bordetella pertussis isolates collected during 2006-2017

Objectives: Macrolides, such as azithromycin and erythromycin, are first-line drugs for the (prophylactic) treatment of pertussis. This study aimed to screen for macrolide-, quinolone- or trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (SXT)-resistant strains among Finnish Bordetella pertussis isolates.Methods: Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed on 148 B. pertussis strains isolated during 2006-2017. Isolates were analysed by allele-specific PCR for detection of the macrolide resistance-associated mutation A2047G in the 23S rRNA gene. The gyrA gene was sequenced for detection of the A260G mutation associated with quinolone resistance. For phenotyping, a random selection was made by selecting every third isolate (n=50) to determine the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) for erythromycin and azithromycin by Etest and the inhibition zone size for nalidixic acid (NAL) and SXT by single disk diffusion assay.Results: Neither the macrolide resistance-associated mutation A2047G nor the quinolone resistance-associated mutation A260G was detected in any of the B. pertussis isolates. MICs of azithromycin and erythromycin ranged between 0.016-0.19 mu g/mL and 0.016-0.25 mu g/mL, respectively. The size of the inhibition zone surrounding the NAL disk ranged between 22-27 mm in diameter. The inhibition zone surrounding the SXT disk ranged between 24-37 mm in diameter. No isolates resistant to any of the tested antimicrobials were identified.Conclusions: The allele-specific PCR is a simple and useful tool for screening B. pertussis resistance to macrolides. All Finnish isolates tested were susceptible to macrolides, quinolones and SXT. (C) 2018 International Society for Chemotherapy of Infection and Cancer. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Toward Sustainable Use of Space : Economic, Technological, and Legal Perspectives

During the last few years, the amount of space debris has been frequently mentioned as a potential risk to current and future space operations. The purpose of this article was to describe the discussions held at the First Sustainable Space Economy Workshop held in Finland 2019. The workshop gathered together experts with economic, legal, regulatory, technological, and environmental backgrounds, with an aim of discussing the sustainable use of space from all these perspectives. As an outcome of these discussions, we find that two concepts, satellite sustainability footprint and orbital capacity, should be introduced at an international level. The satellite sustainability footprint measures how likely the satellite stays healthy and operating, without causing risks to self or others. The orbit capacity is essentially an integral of the footprint over an orbit, and it determines how many satellites of different footprints could be launched to the same orbit. In addition, in this article, we discuss how to realize such concepts within the current normative framework. The authors suggest both top-down and bottom-up approaches, necessitating negotiations within an intergovernmental framework and with the relevant space actors. The most important finding of the workshop and this article, however, is that different space-related fields and experts having diverse backgrounds should continuously discuss in a constructive and informal manner to realize the sustainable utilization of space in practice. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe

Cyclic behaviour and fatigue of stainless steels

The cyclic stress-strain curve is used for describing a stabilized (averaged) stress-strain response in strainconcentrations. Importantly, it describes the extremes of the stabilized hysteresis loop. This data is needed forestimating fatigue life based on the strain-life method for components subjected to cyclic loading. A typicalapplication for this calculation method is the design of exhaust manifolds and cylinder heads experiencingsevere temperature cycles and thermal straining. Cyclic tests with variable and constant strain amplitude, aswell as tensile tests have been carried out for three materials: 1.4307, 1.4404 and 1.4541 –type commercialstainless steels in order to study the material response. The formation of martensite was measured in the tests.Secondary hardening was observed with all strain amplitudes in 1.4307 and 1.4541 whereas in 1.4404,secondary hardening occurred only with the smallest test amplitude. Also, the fatigue life of 1.4404 tended tobe shorter than that of 1.4307 and 1.4501 in the high cycle fatigue (HCF) regime

Gene expression changes related to immune processes associate with cognitive endophenotypes of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a heterogeneous disorder characterized by a spectrum of symptoms and many different underlying causes. Thus, instead of using the broad diagnosis, intermediate phenotypes can be used to possibly decrease the underlying complexity of the disorder. Alongside the classical symptoms of delusions and hallucinations, cognitive deficits are a core feature of schizophrenia. To increase our understanding of the biological processes related to these cognitive deficits, we performed a genome-wide gene expression analysis. A battery of 14 neuropsychological tests was administered to 844 individuals from a Finnish familial schizophrenia cohort. We grouped the applied neuropsychological tests into five factors for further analysis. Cognitive endophenotypes, whole blood mRNA, genotype, and medication use data were studied from 47 individuals. Expression level of several RNA probes were significantly associated with cognitive performance. The factor representing Verbal Working Memory was associated with altered expression levels of 11 probes, of which one probe was also associated with a specific sub-measure of this factor (WMS-R Digit span backward). While, the factor Processing speed was related to one probe, which additionally associated among 55 probes with a specific sub-measure of this factor (WAIS-R Digit symbol). Two probes were associated with the measure recognition memory performance. Enrichment analysis of these differentially expressed probes highlighted immunological processes. Our findings are in line with genome-wide genetic discoveries made in schizophrenia, suggesting that immunological processes may be of biological interest for future drug design towards schizophrenia and the cognitive dysfunctions that underlie it.Peer reviewe

Duplication/triplication mosaicism of EBF3 and expansion of the EBF3 neurodevelopmental disorder phenotype

Deleterious variants in the transcription factor early B-cell factor 3 (EBF3) are known to cause a neurodevelopmental disorder (EBF3-NDD). We report eleven individuals with EBF3 variants, including an individual with a duplication/triplication mosaicism of a region encompassing EBF3 and a phenotype consistent with EBF3-NDD, which may reflect the importance of EBF3 gene-dosage for neurodevelopment. The phenotype of individuals in this cohort was quite mild compared to the core phenotype of previously described individuals. Although ataxia tended to wane with age, we show that cognitive difficulties may increase, and we recommend that individuals with EBF3-NDD have systematic neuropsychological follow-up. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of European Paediatric Neurology Society. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe