Topological Alterations of the Structural Brain Connectivity Network in Children with Juvenile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: We used diffusion MR imaging to investigate the structural brain connectivity networks in juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis, a neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disease of childhood. Although changes in conventional MR imaging are typically not visually apparent in children agedPeer reviewe

Infant event-related potentials to speech are associated with prelinguistic development

Neural auditory processing and prelinguistic communication build the foundation for later language development, but how these two are associated is not well known. The current study investigated how neural speech processing is associated with the level and development of prelinguistic skills in 102 infants. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in 6-months-olds to assess the neural detection of a pseudoword (obligatory responses), as well as the neural discrimination of changes in the pseudoword (mismatch responses, MMRs). Prelinguistic skills were assessed at 6 and 12 months of age with a parental questionnaire (Infant-Toddler Checklist). The association between the ERPs and prelinguistic skills was examined using latent change score models, a method specifically constructed for longitudinal analyses and explicitly modeling intra-individual change. The results show that a large obligatory P1 at 6 months of age predicted strong improvement in prelinguistic skills between 6 and 12 months of age. The MMR to a frequency change was associated with the concurrent level of prelinguistic skills, but not with the improvement of the skills. Overall, our results highlight the strong association between ERPs and prelinguistic skills, possibly offering opportunities for early detection of atypical linguistic and communicative development.Peer reviewe

NPAS2 and PER2 are linked to risk factors of the metabolic syndrome

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mammalian circadian clocks control multiple physiological events. The principal circadian clock generates seasonal variations in behavior as well. Seasonality elevates the risk for metabolic syndrome, and evidence suggests that disruption of the clockwork can lead to alterations in metabolism. Our aim was to analyze whether circadian clock polymorphisms contribute to seasonal variations in behavior and to the metabolic syndrome.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We genotyped 39 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) from 19 genes which were either canonical circadian clock genes or genes related to the circadian clockwork from 517 individuals drawn from a nationwide population-based sample. Associations between these SNPs and seasonality, metabolic syndrome and its risk factors were analyzed using regression analysis. The p-values were corrected for multiple testing.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our findings link circadian gene variants to the risk factors of the metabolic syndrome, since <it>Npas2 </it>was associated with hypertension (P-value corrected for multiple testing = 0.0024) and <it>Per2 </it>was associated with high fasting blood glucose (P-value corrected for multiple testing = 0.049).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our findings support the view that relevant relationships between circadian clocks and the metabolic syndrome in humans exist.</p

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

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

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

Validation of the Finnish version of the SCOFF questionnaire among young adults aged 20 to 35 years

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We tested the validity of the SCOFF, a five-question screening instrument for eating disorders, in a general population sample.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A random sample of 1863 Finnish young adults was approached with a questionnaire that contained several screens for mental health interview, including the SCOFF. The questionnaire was returned by 1316 persons. All screen positives and a random sample of screen negatives were invited to SCID interview. Altogether 541 subjects participated in the SCID interview and had filled in the SCOFF questionnaire. We investigated the validity of the SCOFF in detecting current eating disorders by calculating sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV) for different cut-off scores. We also performed a ROC analysis based on these 541 persons, of whom nine had current eating disorder.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The threshold of two positive answers presented the best ability to detect eating disorders, with a sensitivity of 77.8%, a specificity of 87.6%, a PPV of 9.7%, and a NPV of 99.6%. None of the subjects with current eating disorder scored zero points in the SCOFF.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Due to its low PPV, there are limitations in using the SCOFF as a screening instrument in unselected population samples. However, it might be used for ruling out the possibility of eating disorders.</p

Experience of a Preventive Experiment : Spatial Social Mixing in Post-World War II Housing Estates in Helsinki, Finland

The contingent of large housing estates built in the 1960s and 1970s accounts for almost a half of all high-rises in Finland. The primary ideology in their genesis was to combine industrially prefabricated urban housing development with the surrounding forest landscape—together with a policy of spatial social mixing—to prevent social disorder and segregation. These policies seemed to work as intended until the early 1990s, but have since proved to be insufficient. With Western integration and new information and communication-based economic growth, new trends of population differentiation have emerged. As new wealth has moved out to the fringes of cities, the large housing estates have declined socio-economically—and have been enriched ethnically. This differentiation is structurally produced, works through the regional housing market and, as such, is beyond the scope of the preventive policies pursued. Recent attempts at controlling the regional markets and new forms of spatial social mixing have so far proved difficult.The contingent of large housing estates built in the 1960s and 1970s accounts for almost a half of all high-rises in Finland. The primary ideology in their genesis was to combine industrially prefabricated urban housing development with the surrounding forest landscape—together with a policy of spatial social mixing—to prevent social disorder and segregation. These policies seemed to work as intended until the early 1990s, but have since proved to be insufficient. With Western integration and new information and communication-based economic growth, new trends of population differentiation have emerged. As new wealth has moved out to the fringes of cities, the large housing estates have declined socio-economically—and have been enriched ethnically. This differentiation is structurally produced, works through the regional housing market and, as such, is beyond the scope of the preventive policies pursued. Recent attempts at controlling the regional markets and new forms of spatial social mixing have so far proved difficult.Peer reviewe

Level of suicidal intent predicts overall mortality and suicide after attempted suicide: a 12-year follow-up study

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to comprehensively examine clinical risk factors, including suicide intent and hopelessness, for suicide and risk of death from all causes after attempted suicide over a 12-year follow-up period. METHODS: A systematic sample of 224 patients from consecutive cases of attempted suicide referred to health care in four Finnish cities between 1 January and 31 July 1990 was interviewed. RESULTS: After 12 years of follow-up 22% of these patients had died, 8% by committing suicide. The only statistically significant risk factor for eventual suicide was high scores on Beck's Suicidal Intention Scale. Male gender, older age, physical illness or disability and high scores on Beck's Suicidal Intention Scale predicted death overall. CONCLUSIONS: Following attempted suicide, high intention to kill oneself is a significant risk factor for both death from all causes and suicide