Reusable generic software robot

Abstract. The main purpose of this thesis was to create a generic reusable software robot which can be deployed into any IaaS type of a cloud service. In this thesis the first thing to be researched was how to implement a virtualised environment into a cloud service. The possibilities for virtualising the environment were a container and a virtual machine. The two possible implementations were researched since the resulting implementation must be compatible with a cloud service. Firstly, it was found that a container-based implementation would be the best option because it is lightweight to move around and secondly, a start-up time of a new instance in a cloud service is fast. Possible cloud providers were scanned after researching possible implementation methods. Two possible cloud providers, AWS and Azure, were studied more closely since they offer an infrastructure as a service and once they are commonly used. AWS was chosen to be the platform to be used because of a higher maturity level and also because of the possibility to add or remove container capabilities. Finally, it was discussed how a generic reusable software robot was implemented. Notable circumstances of suitable tasks for a software robot were considered.Kertakäyttöinen geneerinen ohjelmistorobotti. Tiivistelmä. Tässä työssä tutkittiin, kuinka geneerinen kertakäyttöinen ohjelmistorobotti voidaan toteuttaa pilvipalvelussa. Ensin tarkasteltiin erilaisia virtualisointimenetelmiä, joilla ohjelmistorobotti voitaisiin toteuttaa. Tutkitut menetelmät olivat virtuaalikone ja kontti. Näitä kahta toteutustapaa vertailtiin huomioiden valmiin toteutuksen sopivuus pilvipalveluun. Kontti todettiin sopivimmaksi toteutustavaksi, koska se vie vähän tilaa ja uuden instanssin käynnistäminen on nopeaa. Pilvipalvelutarjoajia tutkittiin, kun sopiva toteutusmenetelmä ohjelmistorobotille oli löydetty. Tutkimuksessa keskityttiin AWS:ään ja Azureen, jotka ovat tällä hetkellä suurimpia markkinoilla toimivia infrastructure as a service -tyyppisten pilvipalveuiden tarjoajia. AWS valittiin toteutusalustaksi, koska se on teknisesti edistyneempi kuin Azure ja AWS:ssä on mahdollista lisätä ja poistaa kontin oikeuksia. Lopuksi esiteltiin, kuinka geneerinen kertakäyttöinen ohjelmistorobotti toteutettiin ja mitä täytyy ottaa huomioon, kun päätetään sopivasta käyttökohteesta ohjelmistorobotille

Characteristics associated with initiation of hormone replacement therapy among Finnish women : A register-linkage study

Objective: To investigate which patient characteristics are associated with the initiation of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in a cohort of Finnish women. Study design: Responses to postal questionnaires distributed to a nationwide, randomly selected cohort of women in 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005 and 2010 were analyzed. The cohort members were aged 40-44 years at the beginning of the study. Information on hormone replacement therapy was received from the national prescription register. Women who started taking HRT between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2011 were included and previous users were excluded from the analysis. Main outcome measures: Initiation of HRT was the main outcome measure. The following explanatory factors for predicting the use of HRT were examined: sociodemographic factors, personality, health behavior, physiological and mental symptoms, chronic diseases and use of psychopharmaceuticals. The associations between starting HRT and the explanatory factors were analyzed with single-predictor and multi-predictor logistic regression models. Results: Factors predicting that a woman would start taking HRT were: living with a partner, weak sense of coherence, BMI less than 30 kg/m(2), heavy or moderate alcohol use, symptoms of hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system, climacteric symptoms and use of psychopharmaceuticals. Conclusions: Women with a good sense of coherence can cope with climacteric symptoms without resorting to HRT. Clinicians need to bear in mind the burden of menopausal symptoms on a woman's personal and working life when HRT is being considered. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

HPV Infections in Heterosexual Couples: Mechanisms and Covariates of Virus Transmission

Sexual intercourse is regarded as the primary route of human papillomavirus (HPV) transmission. Reported rates of the genotype-specific genital concordance of HPV infection among heterosexual partners vary. Most studies have evaluated only male/female genital transmission, but lately, the oral region has gained interest because of a rising trend of HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer. Risk factors for type-specific concordance have been reported as an increasing number of younger couples, persistent HPV infection, higher frequency of sexual intercourse, rising number of spouse's lifetime sexual partners, and sexual relations with prostitutes. However, the concordance of the same genital HPV genotype does not absolutely mean that it has been transmitted by the current partner. There are also other possible non-sexual transmission routes. The detected HPV infection may also be a reactivation of a previous infection. The high complexity of HPV transmission dynamics within an individual him-/herself as well as within sexual couples is discussed in this article. <br /

HPV infection and bacterial microbiota in breast milk and infant oral mucosa.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the association between bacterial microbiota in breast milk and the infant mouth. The influence of human papilloma virus (HPV) infection on infant oral microbiota was also assessed.MATERIAL AND METHODS: Altogether 35 breast milk and 35 infant oral samples with known HPV status were selected from the Finnish Family HPV Study cohort. In total, there were 31 mother-infant pairs. The microbiota composition was characterized by 16S rRNA gene sequencing (V3-V4 region).RESULTS: HPV DNA was present in 8.6% (3/35) of the breast milk and 40% (14/35) of the infant oral samples. Eight shared genera between breast milk and infant oral were found; these included Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Unclassified Gemellaceae, Rothia, Veillonella, Haemophilus, Propionibacterium and Corynebacterium. HPV status was not associated with either microbiota richness or diversity in the infant mouth. However, the infant oral microbiota clustered in different groups according to HPV status. We detected higher abundance of Veillonella dispar (p = 0.048) at species level in HPV negative infant oral samples. We did not detect differences in the breast milk microbiota composition related to HPV infection due to only three HPV positive milk samples.CONCLUSIONS: HPV infection is associated with distinct oral bacterial microbiota composition in infants. The direction of causality underlying the phenomenon remains unclear.</p

Composition and maternal origin of the neonatal oral cavity microbiota

Background: The origin of the initial oral microbiota in neonates still remains poorly understood. Objective: The aim of this study was to understand how the maternal microbiota contributes to the initial neonatal oral microbiota. Design: Twelve mother-neonate pairs with samples from the maternal oral mucosa, uterine cervix and placenta and the neonatal oral cavity immediately after birth were studied. The microbiota composition and diversity were characterized by 16S rRNA gene sequencing (V3-V4 region). The microbiota analyses and comparisons were carried out with Calypso software version 8.1 and with SourceTracker 1.0.1. Results: Samples from the neonatal oral cavity showed moderately high bacterial diversity and low richness. The neonatal oral cavity microbiota seems to share features mainly with the microbes detected in the placenta, followed by the cervical microbiota and the maternal oral microbiota. No statistically significant differences in diversity (Shannon index, p = 0.14), richness (Chao1, p = 0.53) or in microbial composition were observed according to delivery mode. Conclusion: The neonatal oral cavity microbiota is not significantly modulated by the birth canal or maternal oral microbiota but displays clear associations with microbes in the placenta. These results suggest that the neonatal oral microbiota may have a prenatal origin</p

The clearance of oral high-risk human papillomavirus infection is impaired by long-term persistence of cervical human papillomavirus infection

AbstractPersistence of high-risk (HR-) human papillomavirus (HPV) infection of the uterine cervix increases the risk of cervical cancer. Oral HPV infections are among potential covariates of long-term genotype-specific persistent cervical HR-HPV infections. It is not known whether this persistence reflects inability of the host to reject HPV infections in general. A case–control setting was designed to estimate the covariates of long-term persistent cervical HR-HPV infections using multivariate generalized estimating equation (GEE) models. HPV was detected with PCR using GP05+/GP06+-primers and genotyped for 24 HPVs with a Multimetrix-kit. The cases (n = 43) included women who had genotype-specific persistent cervical HR-HPV infection for at least 24 months (24M+) and controls were women who tested repeatedly HPV-negative in their cervical samples (n = 52). These women represent a sub-cohort of the Finnish Family HPV Study. The cases differed significantly from the HPV-negative controls in several aspects: they were younger, had a longer mean time to incident oral HPV infection (40.7 versus 23.6 months), longer duration of oral HPV persistence (38.4 versus 14.1 months), and longer time to clearance of their oral HPV infection (50.0 versus 28.2 months). In multivariate GEE analysis, the second pregnancy during the follow up was the only independent predictor with significant protective effect against 24M+ persistent cervical HR-HPV infections, OR of 0.15 (95% CI 0.07–0.34). To conclude, long-term persistent cervical HR-HPV infections are associated with a prolonged clearance of oral HR-HPV infections while new pregnancy protects against persistent cervical HR-HPV infections

Gingival cell growth with antiresorptive treatment combined with corticosteroids or antiestrogen

Objectives: Antiresorptive treatment has been shown to impair mucosal cell proliferation, migration, and viability. However, in the clinic, antiresorptives are often used in combination with other drugs. We studied the effect of antiresorptives combined with a corticosteroid or antiestrogen on oral mucosal keratinocytes and fibroblasts.Material and methods: Human gingival keratinocyte and fibroblast cell lines were exposed to bisphosphonates (BPs) and denosumab in different concentrations and durations together with an antiestrogen or corticosteroid. Changes in cell viability, proliferation and migration after exposures were measured. Data were evaluated with hierarchical linear mixed model for repeated measurements.Results: Bisphosphonate exposure suppressed keratinocyte and fibroblast cell viability, proliferation, and migration in a time-dependent manner. Combining a corticosteroid or antiestrogen with BPs further increased this negative effect. Denosumab alone had a mild positive effect on keratinocyte and fibroblast growth. When denosumab was combined with a corticosteroid or antiestrogen, cell growth was suppressed.Conclusions: Our results show that coexisting medications may increase the negative impact of BPs or denosumab on oral mucosal cells

Human myoma tissue-based extracellular matrix models for testing the effects of irradiation on the HPV positive cells

Background: This study was designed to investigate the invasion of human papillomavirus (HPV) positive human cervical carcinoma cell lines in human leiomyoma-based extracellular matrices in vitro,and to test the suitability of the model for studying the irradiation effects on the cancer cell invasion. Methods: HPV positive cervical carcinoma cell lines SiHa and CaSki, and HPV negative squamous cell carcinoma cell line HSC-3 were used. CaSki cells contain around 600 copies of HPV 16 virus in the genome, whereas SiHa have only 1-2 copies per cell. Cells were analyzed using two different human tumor derived extracellular matrix methods (3D myoma disc model, and Myogel Transwell invasion assay). Cultures were irradiated with 4 Gy. Myoma invasion area and the depth of invasion were measured with ImageJ 1.51j8 software. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS Statistics (IBM SPSS (R) Statistics 25). Results: All cells invaded through Myogel coated Transwell membranes and within myoma discs. In myoma discs, a difference in the invasion depth (p = 0.0001) but not in invasion area (p = 0.310) between the HPV positive cell lines was seen, since SiHa (less HPV) invaded slightly better than CaSki (more HPV). HSC-3 cells (HPV negative) invaded deepest (p = 0.048) than either of the HPV positive cell line cells. No difference was detected in the invasion area (p = 0.892) between HPV positive and HPV negative cells. The ionized radiation significantly reduced the invasion depth of HSC-3 (p = 0.008), SiHa (p = 0.0001) and CaSki (p = 0.005). No significant effect on the invasion area was detected in any of the cell lines. However, a significant difference was observed between SiHa and CaSki in the reduction of the invasion depth after radiation (p = 0.013) as the reduction was greater with SiHa than CaSki. Conclusions: Both solid and gelatinous human leiomyoma-based extracellular matrix models were suitable platforms to study the invasion of HPV positive cervical carcinoma cells in vitro. SiHa cells with less HPV copy number cells invaded slightly better and were slightly more sensitive to irradiation than CaSki cells with high HPV copy number. However, there was no drastic differences between the invasion properties of these carcinoma cells.</div

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-encoded small RNAs (EBERs) associated with poor prognosis of head and neck carcinomas

BACKGROUND: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is the main cause of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), also found in other head and neck carcinomas (HNSCCs) where its role remains controversial.RESULTS: EBV was found in 80% and 21% of the samples with PCR and ISH (in cancer cells), respectively. Eight of ISH-positive samples were not NPCs. EBER-RNA detection in carcinoma cells was associated with worse prognosis, whether or not NPCs were included. HPV/EBV and HSV/HPV coinfections associated with a shorter survival. LMP-1 expression, positive in 51% of samples did not correlate with the disease outcome.MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed EBV in 73 HNSCC samples with a known HPV and HSV-1 status, using in situ hybridization (ISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) for EBV-early transcripts (EBER) and LMP-1 protein, respectively. EBV-DNA was detected with a Luminex-based method. The results were correlated with HPV-status and disease outcome.CONCLUSIONS: EBV is transcriptionally active in NPC cells but also in a subgroup of other HNSCCs.</p

Staircase-pattern neonatal line in human deciduous teeth is associated with tooth type

ObjectiveThe staircase (Sc) pattern enamel microstructure is an expression of an impaired ameloblast function. It has been reported to appear in the neonatal line (NNL), the accentuated stria evincing live birth in deciduous tooth enamel. Our objective was to investigate the prevalence of Sc NNL in deciduous tooth types and its possible association with perinatal circumstances.DesignSc in the NNL of 88 teeth, a collection derived from a long-term, prospectively followed population cohort, was recorded with linear polarised transmitted light and analysed for tooth type, duration and mode of delivery, and pain medication used during labour.ResultsSc prevalence in the NNL differed highly significantly between tooth types (p ConclusionThis research indicates that the NNL location within tooth crown enamel has a strong impact on microstructural changes along the NNL. Considering our results of Sc prevalence, deciduous canines, having the least Sc appearance, could be used in studies that aim to investigate factors associated with NNL width. In addition, Sc prevalence variation in first deciduous molars might enable to investigation of physiological stressors strong enough to cause ameloblast impairment, such as Sc.</p