Necessity-Rich, Leisure-Poor: The Long-Term Relationship Between Income Cohorts and Consumption Through Age-Period-Cohort Analysis

The main aim of this study is to analyse household consumption patterns in the highest and lowest income quintiles and explore how they have changed over time and generations. Thus, the article explores whether social inclusivity through consumption has truly increased. This study utilises the cross-sectional time-series data of the Finnish Household Expenditure Surveys (HESs), covering the period 1966-2016. We use the Age-Period-Cohort Gap/Oaxaca (APCGO) model with logitrank dependent variables as the main statistical method. Our results indicate that an overall high income is advantageous with respect to income and spending, though the gap between high- and low-income groups has remained stagnant over cohorts. A more in-depth analysis reveals that the expenditure gap, in terms of necessities, food, and groceries consumption, has narrowed. Instead, income elastic-oriented spending on culture and leisure time has significantly increased in the high-income group, where the expenditure gap has expanded 60 percentage points over the cohorts. Simply put, expenditures on necessities have become more inclusive, but low-income groups are increasingly more 'leisure-poor'. Overall, high-income classes are spending an increasing amount of money on culture and leisure time over cohorts

Alternative exon definition events control the choice between nuclear retention and cytoplasmic export of U11/U12-65K mRNA

Cellular homeostasis of the minor spliceosome is regulated by a negative feed-back loop that targets U11-48K and U11/U12-65K mRNAs encoding essential components of the U12-type intron-specific U11/U12 di-snRNP. This involves interaction of the U11 snRNP with an evolutionarily conserved splicing enhancer giving rise to unproductive mRNA isoforms. In the case of U11/U12-65K, this mechanism controls the length of the 3' untranslated region (3'UTR). We show that this process is dynamically regulated in developing neurons and some other cell types, and involves a binary switch between translation-competent mRNAs with a short 3'UTR to non-productive isoforms with a long 3'UTR that are retained in the nucleus or/and spliced to the downstream amylase locus. Importantly, the choice between these alternatives is determined by alternative terminal exon definition events regulated by conserved U12-and U2-type 50 splice sites as well as sequence signals used for pre-mRNA cleavage and polyadenylation. We additionally show that U11 snRNP binding to the U11/U12-65K mRNA species with a long 3'UTR is required for their nuclear retention. Together, our studies uncover an intricate molecular circuitry regulating the abundance of a key spliceosomal protein and shed new light on the mechanisms limiting the export of non-productively spliced mRNAs from the nucleus to the cytoplasm.Peer reviewe

Role of Lipids in Spheroidal High Density Lipoproteins

We study the structure and dynamics of spherical high density lipoprotein (HDL) particles through coarse-grained multi-microsecond molecular dynamics simulations. We simulate both a lipid droplet without the apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) and the full HDL particle including two apoA-I molecules surrounding the lipid compartment. The present models are the first ones among computational studies where the size and lipid composition of HDL are realistic, corresponding to human serum HDL. We focus on the role of lipids in HDL structure and dynamics. Particular attention is paid to the assembly of lipids and the influence of lipid-protein interactions on HDL properties. We find that the properties of lipids depend significantly on their location in the particle (core, intermediate region, surface). Unlike the hydrophobic core, the intermediate and surface regions are characterized by prominent conformational lipid order. Yet, not only the conformations but also the dynamics of lipids are found to be distinctly different in the different regions of HDL, highlighting the importance of dynamics in considering the functionalization of HDL. The structure of the lipid droplet close to the HDL-water interface is altered by the presence of apoA-Is, with most prominent changes being observed for cholesterol and polar lipids. For cholesterol, slow trafficking between the surface layer and the regimes underneath is observed. The lipid-protein interactions are strongest for cholesterol, in particular its interaction with hydrophobic residues of apoA-I. Our results reveal that not only hydrophobicity but also conformational entropy of the molecules are the driving forces in the formation of HDL structure. The results provide the first detailed structural model for HDL and its dynamics with and without apoA-I, and indicate how the interplay and competition between entropy and detailed interactions may be used in nanoparticle and drug design through self-assembly

High Risk Population Isolate Reveals Low Frequency Variants Predisposing to Intracranial Aneurysms

Peer reviewe

Do Hacker Groups Pose a Risk to Organizations? Study on Financial Institutions Targeted by Hacktivists

10.2139/ssrn.3835547SSRN Electronic Journa

Efficacy and safety of the Lotus Valve System for treatment of patients with severe aortic valve stenosis and intermediate surgical risk: Results from the Nordic Lotus-TAVR registry

Peer reviewe

Routine revascularization with percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with coronary artery disease undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation - the third Nordic Aortic Valve Intervention Trial - NOTION-3

Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) frequently coexists with severe aortic valve stenosis (AS) in patients planned for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). How to manage CAD in this patient population is still an unresolved question. In particular, it is still not known whether fractional flow reserve (FFR) guided revascularization with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is superior to medical treatment for CAD in terms of clinical outcomes. Study design: The third Nordic Aortic Valve Intervention (NOTION-3) Trial is an open-label investigator-initiated, multicenter multinational trial planned to randomize 452 patients with severe AS and significant CAD to either FFR-guided PCI or medical treatment, in addition to TAVI. Patients are eligible for the study in the presence of at least 1 significant PCI-eligible coronary stenosis. A significant stenosis is defined as either FFR ≤0.80 and/or diameter stenosis >90%. The primary end point is a composite of first occurring all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction, or urgent revascularization (PCI or coronary artery bypass graft performed during unplanned hospital admission) until the last included patient have been followed for 1 year after the TAVI. NOTION-3 is a multicenter, multinational randomized trial aiming at comparing FFR-guided revascularization vs medical treatment of CAD in patients with severe AS planned for TAVI