FOUR SCENARIOS FOR ADOPTION OF CLOUD COMPUTING IN CHINA

Selecting appropriate technology strategy is crucial to those designing ICT-based offering for specific geographical market. The antecedents of adopting particular technology can be used to identify opportunities and barriers of entry, but further information is needed for technology management on how adoption would take place. In this paper, it is argued that deploying a scenario method facilitates identification of future developments and setting a technology strategy, which matches the emerging needs and requirements of a specific market. Specifically, this paper examines the trends and developments affecting state of Cloud Computing business in China and creating incentives for stakeholders to adopt Cloud Computing. Based on expert interviews and scenario analysis, four alternative and possibly co-existing scenarios are derived. The macro-level scenarios serve as inputs and tools for company-specific examinations on technology strategy. Also, the scenarios facilitate identifying indicators on whether standard or flexible technology architecture is needed for this particular market

Supply Chain Modifications to Improve Additive Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing (AM) offers unique production characteristics which among those, toollessness and production of complex geometries are potentially significant to operations efficiency. Previous research has illustrated the potential sufficiency of this technology to affect the supply chains‟ arrangements and enabling decentralized production configurations. While, one of the important advantages of AM enabled distributed production is the increased flexibility, which is a necessity in today‟s competitive and ever changing global supply chains, number of obstacles have kept this method from wide implementation. In this paper, we study the possible supply chain modifications to decrease the cost of an AM-enabled decentralized production system. In other words, we perform a cost-benefit analysis on various AM supply chain strategies in a spare parts context to realize the independent operational factors affecting the implementation cost of additive manufacturing. Moreover, we analyze the ways to adapt the supply chain management to enable full potential of AM considering the present technology.Mechanical Engineerin

Fluctuating Roles of Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Peer reviewe

Insights into Preservation of Blood Biomarkers in Biobank Samples

Peer reviewe

Body-mass index and risk of obesity-related complex multimorbidity : an observational multicohort study

Background The accumulation of disparate diseases in complex multimorbidity makes prevention difficult if each disease is targeted separately. We aimed to examine obesity as a shared risk factor for common diseases, determine associations between obesity-related diseases, and examine the role of obesity in the development of complex multimorbidity (four or more comorbid diseases). Methods We did an observational study and used pooled prospective data from two Finnish cohort studies (the Health and Social Support Study and the Finnish Public Sector Study) comprising 114 657 adults aged 16-78 years at study entry (1998-2013). A cohort of 499 357 adults (aged 38-73 years at study entry; 2006-10) from the UK Biobank provided replication in an independent population. BMI and clinical characteristics were assessed at baseline. BMIs were categorised as obesity (Peer reviewe

Body-mass index and risk of obesity-related complex multimorbidity: an observational multicohort study

BACKGROUND: The accumulation of disparate diseases in complex multimorbidity makes prevention difficult if each disease is targeted separately. We aimed to examine obesity as a shared risk factor for common diseases, determine associations between obesity-related diseases, and examine the role of obesity in the development of complex multimorbidity (four or more comorbid diseases). METHODS: We did an observational study and used pooled prospective data from two Finnish cohort studies (the Health and Social Support Study and the Finnish Public Sector Study) comprising 114 657 adults aged 16-78 years at study entry (1998-2013). A cohort of 499 357 adults (aged 38-73 years at study entry; 2006-10) from the UK Biobank provided replication in an independent population. BMI and clinical characteristics were assessed at baseline. BMIs were categorised as obesity (≥30·0 kg/m2), overweight (25·0-29·9 kg/m2), healthy weight (18·5-24·9 kg/m2), and underweight (<18·5 kg/m2). Via linkage to national health records, participants were followed-up for death and diseases diagnosed according to the International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10). Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% CIs and population attributable fractions (PAFs) for associations between BMI and multimorbidity were calculated. FINDINGS: Mean follow-up duration was 12·1 years (SD 3·8) in the Finnish cohorts and 11·8 years (1·7) in the UK Biobank cohort. Obesity was associated with 21 non-overlapping cardiometabolic, digestive, respiratory, neurological, musculoskeletal, and infectious diseases after Bonferroni multiple testing adjustment and ignoring HRs of less than 1·50. Compared with healthy weight, the confounder-adjusted HR for obesity was 2·83 (95% CI 2·74-2·93; PAF 19·9% [95% CI 19·3-20·5]) for developing at least one obesity-related disease, 5·17 (4·84-5·53; 34·4% [33·2-35·5]) for two diseases, and 12·39 (9·26-16·58; 55·2% [50·9-57·5]) for complex multimorbidity. The proportion of participants of healthy weight with complex multimorbidity by age 75 years was observed by age 55 years in participants with obesity, and degree of obesity was associated with complex multimorbidity in a dose-response relationship. Compared with obesity, the association between overweight and complex multimorbidity was more modest (HR 2·67, 95% CI 1·94-3·68; PAF 13·3% [95% CI 9·6-16·3]). The same pattern of results was observed in the UK Biobank cohort. INTERPRETATION: Obesity is associated with diverse, increasing disease burdens, and might represent an important target for multimorbidity prevention that avoids the complexities of multitarget preventive regimens. FUNDING: Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, National Institute on Aging

Hospital-treated infectious diseases and the risk of dementia : a large, multicohort, observational study with a replication cohort

Background Infections have been hypothesised to increase the risk of dementia. Existing studies have included a narrow range of infectious diseases, relied on short follow-up periods, and provided little evidence for whether the increased risk is limited to specific dementia subtypes or attributable to specific microbes rather than infection burden. We aimed to compare the risk of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias across a wide range of hospital-treated bacterial and viral infections in two large cohorts with long follow-up periods. Methods In this large, multicohort, observational study, the analysis was based on a primary cohort consisting of pooled individual-level data from three prospective cohort studies in Finland (the Finnish Public Sector study, the Health and Social Support study, and the Still Working study) and an independent replication cohort from the UK Biobank. Community-dwelling adults (>= 18 years) with no dementia at study entry were included. Follow-up was until Dec 31, 2012, in the Health and Social Support study, Dec 31, 2016, in the public sector study and the Still Working study, and Feb 7, 2018, in the replication cohort. Through record linkage to national hospital inpatient registers, we ascertained exposure to 925 infectious diseases (using the International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision codes) before dementia onset, and identified incident dementia from hospital records, medication reimbursement entitlements, and death certificates. Hazard ratios (HRs) for the associations of each infectious disease or disease group (index infection) with incident dementia were assessed by use of Cox proportional hazards models. We then repeated the analysis after excluding incident dementia cases that occurred during the first 10 years after initial hospitalisation due to the index infection. Findings From March 1, 1986, to an 1, 2005, 260 490 people were included in the primary cohort, and from Dec 19, 2006, to Oct 1, 2010, 485 708 people were included in the replication cohort. In the primary cohort analysis based on 3 947 046 person-years at risk (median follow-up 15.4 years [IQR 9- 8-21- 0]), 77108 participants had at least one hospital-treated infection before dementia onset and 2768 developed dementia. Hospitalisation for any infectious disease was associated with increased dementia risk in the primary cohort (adjusted HR laHRI 1.48 [95% CI 1. 37-1- 60]) and replication cohort (2.60 [2. 38-2- 83]). The association remained when analyses were restricted to new dementia cases that occurred more than 10 years after infection (aHR 1.22 [95% CI 1.09-1.36] in the primary cohort, the replication cohort had insufficient follow-up data for this analysis), and when comorbidities and other dementia risk factors were considered. There was evidence of a dose-response association between the number of episodes of hospital-treated infections and dementia risk in both cohorts (p(trend) =0- 0007). Although the greatest dementia risk was seen for central nervous system (CNS) infections versus no infection (aHR 3.01 [95% CI 2- 07-4 center dot 37]), excess risk was also evident for extra-CNS infections (1.47 [1.36-1.59]). Although we found little difference in the infection-dementia association by type of infection, associations were stronger for vascular dementia than for Alzheimer's disease (aHR 2.09 [95% CI 1- 59-2- 75] versus aHR 1.20 [1.08-1.33] in the primary cohort and aHR 3.28 [2- 65-4 center dot 04] versus aHR 1.80 [1.53-2-13] in the replication cohort). Interpretation Severe infections requiring hospital treatment are associated with long-term increased risk of dementia, including vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease. This association is not limited to CNS infections, suggesting that systemic effects are sufficient to affect the brain. The absence of infection specificity combined with evidence of dose-response relationships between infectious disease burden and dementia risk support the hypothesis that increased dementia risk is driven by general inflammation rather than specific microbes. Copyright (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe

Etänä toteutettava työpaikkaselvitys : Teknologian mahdollisuudet ja haasteet työterveyshuollon perustyöpaikkaselvityksessä

Teknologian kehittyminen on lisännyt työterveyshuollossa palvelujen tuottamista etäpalveluina. Etänä toteutetun työpaikkaselvityksen mahdollisuuksia ei ole kuitenkaan aiemmin tutkittu. Hankkeessa selvitettiin muun muassa työterveyshenkilöstön näkemyksiä etänä toteutettavista työpaikkaselvityksistä sekä kokeiltiin, voidaanko etätyöpaikkakäynnillä korvata fyysinen työpaikkakäynti. Tulosten mukaan etätyöpaikkakäynnillä oli mahdollista hankkia tietoa työoloista. Parhaiten pystyttiin selvittämään työn psykososiaalisia tekijöitä. Käytetyistä teknologioista etätyöpaikkakäynnillä toimi parhaiten reaaliaikainen videoyhteys työpaikalle tai videotallenteet työstä. Etänä toteutetuissa työpaikkaselvityksissä korostui työpaikan henkilöstölle kohdistetun esikyselyn käyttö