Two-photon excitation fluorometry in detection of infectious diseases

Because of the heavily overlapping symptoms, pathogen-specific diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases is difficult based on clinical symptoms alone. Therefore, patients are often treated empirically. More efficient treatment and management of infectious diseases would require rapid point-of-care compatible in vitro diagnostic methods. However, current point-of-care methods are unsatisfactory in performance and in cost structure. The lack of pointof- care methods results in unnecessary use of antibiotics, suboptimal use of virus-specific drugs, and compromised patient care. In this thesis, the applicability of a two-photon excitation fluorometry is evaluated as a tool for rapid detection of infectious diseases. New separation-free immunoassay methodologies were developed and validated for the following application areas: general inflammation markers, pathogen-specific antibodies, pathogen-specific antigens, and antimicrobial susceptibility testing. In addition, dry-reagent methodology and nanoparticulate tracers are introduced in context to the technique. The results show that the new assay technique is a versatile tool for rapid detection of infectious diseases in many different application areas. One particularly attractive area is rapid multianalyte testing of respiratory infections, where the technique was shown to allow simple assay protocols and comparable performance to the state-of-the-art laboratory methods. If implemented in clinical diagnostic use, the new methods could improve diagnostic testing routines, especially in rapid testing of respiratory tract infections.Siirretty Doriast

A semiparametric mixture regression model for longitudinal data

A normal semiparametric mixture regression model is proposed for longitudinal data. The proposed model contains one smooth term and a set of possible linear predictors. Model terms are estimated using the penalized likelihood method with the EM algorithm. A computationally feasible alternative method that provides an approximate solution is also introduced. Simulation experiments and a real data example are used to illustrate the methods

Electronic health services for cardiac patients: a salutogenic approach

Patient‐centricity is a name given to the on‐going transformation in health care delivery. The term is widely used and it has been given different interpretations in relation to the context of its use. These interpretations emphasize aspects such as empowerment, seamless chain of care, and even responsibility; how it is divided amongst the service provider and the patient. Regardless of the interpretation and the context of use, one thing is constant; a genuine desire to support the patient’s health related endeavours in a field that is fragmented and becoming increasingly technology‐oriented. In order to support the patient in this field, a comprehensive approach to health is needed to capture nuances of everyday life outside singular health related transactions (such as appointments, laboratory visits, etc.) and technology. This article looks into some well‐established theories used in depicting such a comprehensive view to health and well‐being, and conceptualizes their applicability to real‐world electronic health services. The article reports preliminary results in the form of proposed new functions, ideas on the applicability of the theories and describes the outline of the iterative development process. The findings of this article base on development of electronic health services for cardiac patients performed in an on‐going project, which is executed during 2011–2013

Monikielistä sivistystä vai englanninkielisiä ratkaisuja? : Selvitys yliopistojen kielivalinnoista

UIkomaalaisten opiskelijoiden ja henkilökunnan määrä on yliopistoissa lisääntynyt. Erityisesti ovat lisääntyneet englanninkieliset maisteriohjelmat. Myös suomenkielisiksi ilmoitetuissa ohjelmissa on paljon englanninkielistä opetusta. Lähes 90 % väitöskirjoista ja 40 % graduista tehdään englanniksi. Kolmanneksella opiskelijoista kansalliskielinen opintopolku katkeaa kandidaatin- ja maisterintutkinnon välissä. Aalto-yliopistossa englanniksi opettaminen ulottuu laajana jo kandidaattiopintoihin. Lainvalvontaviranomaisten päätökset oikeudesta kansalliskieliseen opiskeluun eivät ole muuttaneet tilannetta. Opiskelijakysely ilmensi tyytymättömyyttä tilanteeseen. 38 % suomenkielisistä ja 74 % ruotsinkielisistä vastaajista haluaa enemmän kursseja äidinkielellään. Mikäli mahdollista, yli 80 % haluaisi kurssin äidinkielellään. Selvityksen suosituksiin kuuluvat selkeät linjaukset oikeudesta opiskeluun suomeksi ja ruotsiksi. Siinä ehdotetaan kielitaitovaatimusta ja opiskelujärjestelyjä ulkomailta rekrytoiduille opettajille, kansalliskielisestä tutkimuksesta palkitsemista ja suomenkielisissä opinto-ohjelmissa koulutettavien määrän kirjaamista yliopistojen tulossopimuksiin. Kansainvälisten opiskelijoiden määrän kasvaessa yliopistoissa on lisättävä suomen kielen opetusta ja monikielisyyttä. Muuten edessä on kansalliskielten marginalisoituminen koulutuksessa ja muuallakin yhteiskunnassa

Environmental responses of fruiting fungal communities are phylogenetically structured

Through their ephemeral reproductive structures (fruiting bodies), ectomycorrhizal forest soil fungi provide a resource for a plethora of organisms. Thus, resolving what biotic and abiotic factors determine the occurrence and abundance of fruiting bodies is fundamental for understanding the dynamics of forest trophic networks. While the influence of abiotic factors such as moisture and temperature on fungal fruiting are relatively well established, little is known about how these processes interact with the evolutionary history of fungal species to determine when, where, and in which abundance fungal fruiting bodies will emerge. A specific knowledge gap relates to whether species' responses to their environment are phylogenetically structured. Here, we ask whether related fungal taxa respond similarly to climatic factors and forest habitat characteristics, and whether such correlated responses will affect the assembly of fungal fruiting communities. To resolve these questions, we fitted joint species distribution models combining data on the species composition and abundance of fungal fruiting bodies, environmental variation, and phylogenetic relationships among fungal taxa. Our results show that both site-level forest characteristics (dominant tree species and forest age) and climatic factors related to phenology (effective heat sum) greatly influence the occurrence and abundance of fruiting bodies. More importantly, while different fungal species responded unequally to their shared environment, there was a strong phylogenetic signal in their responses, so that related fungal species tended to fruit under similar environmental conditions. Thus, not only are fruiting bodies short-lived and patchily distributed, but the availability of similar resources will be further aggregated in time and space. These strong constraints on resource availability for fungus-associated taxa highlight the potential of fungus-based networks as a model system for studies on the ecology and evolution of resource-consumer relations in ephemeral systems of high spatiotemporal patchiness

Earnings profiles of Finnish wage earners in 2000–2010

The employee’s salary normally increases with age and experience, but for how long? The purpose of this discussion paper is to investigate the age-wage profile with the help of register data. A trajectory analysis has been applied to the categorization of the register data, based on which six different groups in wage development have been identified. Taking various background factors into account, the wage profiles of the groups are modeled using a mixed statistical model. According to the results, the wage development of Finnish employees in relation to age takes the form of an undulating, up-and-down profile, the shape and peaks of which vary according to the wage group

Clinical validation of automated and rapid mariPOC SARS-CoV-2 antigen test

Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).COVID-19 diagnostics was quickly ramped up worldwide early 2020 based on the detection of viral RNA. However, based on the scientific knowledge for pre-existing coronaviruses, it was expected that the SARS-CoV-2 RNA will be detected from symptomatic and at significant rates also from asymptomatic individuals due to persistence of non-infectious RNA. To increase the efficacy of diagnostics, surveillance, screening and pandemic control, rapid methods, such as antigen tests, are needed for decentralized testing and to assess infectiousness. A novel automated mariPOC SARS-CoV-2 test was developed for the detection of conserved structural viral nucleocapsid proteins. The test utilizes sophisticated optical laser technology for two-photon excitation and individual detection of immunoassay solid-phase particles. We validated the new method against qRT-PCR. Sensitivity of the test was 100.0% (13/13) directly from nasopharyngeal swab specimens and 84.4% (38/45) from swab specimens in undefined transport mediums. Specificity of the test was 100.0% (201/201). The test's limit of detection was 2.7 TCID50/test. It showed no cross-reactions. Our study shows that the new test can detect infectious individuals already in 20 min with clinical sensitivity close to qRT-PCR. The mariPOC is a versatile platform for syndromic testing and for high capacity infection control screening of infectious individuals.Peer reviewe