Fusarium DNA levels as compared to mycotoxin levels in finnish and estonian grain samples

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Identification of host plant volatiles from four varieties of caraway (Carum carvi) using dynamic headspace collection

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White adipose tissue mitochondrial metabolism in health and in obesity

White adipose tissue is one of the largest organs of the body. It plays a key role in whole-body energy status and metabolism; it not only stores excess energy but also secretes various hormones and metabolites to regulate body energy balance. Healthy adipose tissue capable of expanding is needed for metabolic well-being and to prevent accumulation of triglycerides to other organs. Mitochondria govern several important functions in the adipose tissue. We review the derangements of mitochondrial function in white adipose tissue in the obese state. Downregulation of mitochondrial function or biogenesis in the white adipose tissue is a central driver for obesity-associated metabolic diseases. Mitochondrial functions compromised in obesity include oxidative functions and renewal and enlargement of the adipose tissue through recruitment and differentiation of adipocyte progenitor cells. These changes adversely affect whole-body metabolic health. Dysfunction of the white adipose tissue mitochondria in obesity has long-term consequences for the metabolism of adipose tissue and the whole body. Understanding the pathways behind mitochondrial dysfunction may help reveal targets for pharmacological or nutritional interventions that enhance mitochondrial biogenesis or function in adipose tissue.Peer reviewe

Kelan järjestämä kuntoutus vuonna 1987 syntyneille

Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin vuonna 1987 Suomessa syntyneiden henkilöiden Kelan järjestämän kuntoutuksen käyttöä. Aineistona oli Kelan kuntoutusratkaisu- ja kuntoutuskustannustiedot Kansallinen syntymäkohortti 1987 -rekisteriaineistoon kuuluville henkilöille vuosilta 1987–2012. Kaikkiaan 6,2 % kohortin henkilöistä oli 25 ikävuoteen mennessä saanut myönteisen ratkaisun jollekin Kelan myöntämälle kuntoutustoimenpiteelle. Eri lakiperustein myönnettyjä kuntoutusratkaisuja tutkittiin omina kokonaisuuksinaan kuntoutustoimenpiteiden, pääsairausdiagnoosien ja kuntoutuksen kustannusten osalta. Myönteisen ratkaisun vaikeavammaisen lääkinnälliselle kuntoutukselle saaneiden henkilöiden määrät olivat pieniä (1,3 % syntymäkohortista) mutta kuntoutustoimenpiteitä eri terapiamuodoissa oli näillä henkilöillä runsaasti, ja myös kuntoutuksen henkilöä kohden lasketut kustannukset olivat korkeimmat. Yleisimmät diagnoosiryhmät olivat älyllinen kehitysvammaisuus ja CP-oireyhtymä. Ammatillista kuntoutusta oli myönnetty 2,3 %:lle kohortista, ja merkittävimmät kuntoutusmuodot henkilömäärittäin olivat ammattikoulutus ja kuntoutustutkimus. Ammatillisen kuntoutuksen kustannuksissa havaittiin selkeää nousua vuoden 2007 jälkeen. Merkittävimmät pääsairausdiagnoosit olivat masennustila ja lievä älyllinen kehitysvammaisuus. Myönteisen kuntoutuspäätöksen oli harkinnanvaraisen kuntoutuksen lakiperusteella saanut 3,2 % kohortista, ja näistä kuntoutustoimenpiteistä yli puolet oli ennen vuoden 2011 alkua myönnettyä kuntoutuspsykoterapiaa. Tämän lisäksi kuntoutus- ja sopeutumisvalmennuskurssit olivat myös merkittävä kuntoutustoimenpide. Masennustila sekä ahdistuneisuushäiriöt olivat merkittävimmät diagnoosiryhmät – myös niillä, joilla kuntoutusmuoto oli jokin muu kuin psykoterapia. Kuntoutuspsykoterapiaa omalla lakiperusteellaan oli saanut 1,3 % henkilöistä, ja psykoterapia olikin fysioterapian jälkeen määrällisesti merkittävin terapiamuoto. Alustavassa alueellisessa tarkastelussa havaittiin huomattavia eroja kuntoutustoimenpiteiden käytössä eri alueilla

Molecular Quantification and Genetic Diversity of Toxigenic Fusarium Species in Northern Europe as Compared to Those in Southern Europe

Fusarium species produce important mycotoxins, such as deoxynivalenol (DON), nivalenol (NIV) and T-2/HT-2-toxins in cereals. The highest DON and T-2/HT-2 toxin levels in northern Europe have been found in oats. About 12%&ndash;24% of Finnish oat samples in 2012 contained &gt;1.75 mg&middot;kg&minus;1 of DON, which belongs to type B trichothecenes. Fusarium graminearum is the most important DON producer in northern Europe and Asia and it has been displacing the closely related F. culmorum in northern Europe. The 3ADON chemotype of F. graminearum is dominant in most northern areas, while the 15ADON chemotype of F. graminearum is predominating in Central and southern Europe. We suggest that the northern population of F. graminearum may be more specialized to oats than the southern population. Only low levels of F. culmorum DNA were found in a few oat samples and no correlation was found between F. culmorum DNA and DON levels. DNA levels of F. graminearum were in all cases in agreement with DON levels in 2011 and 2012, when DON was measured by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). When the RIDA&reg; QUICK SCAN kit results (DON) were compared to DNA levels of F. graminearum, the variation was much higher. The homogenization of the oats flour by grinding oats with 1 mm sieve seems to be connected to this variation. There was a significant correlation between the combined T-2 and HT-2 and the combined DNA levels of F. langsethiae and F. sporotrichioides in Finland in 2010&ndash;2012. Keywords: Fusarium; mycotoxins; diversity; Europe; qPCR <! [endif] --

Effectiveness of physical therapy interventions for children with cerebral palsy: A systematic review

Background To assess the effectiveness of physical therapy (PT) interventions on functioning in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Methods A search was made in Medline, Cinahl, PEDro and the Cochrane library for the period 1990 to February 2007. Only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on PT interventions in children with diagnosed CP were included. Two reviewers independently assessed the methodological quality and extracted the data. The outcomes measured in the trials were classified using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Results Twenty-two trials were identified. Eight intervention categories were distinguished. Four trials were of high methodological quality. Moderate evidence of effectiveness was established for two intervention categories: effectiveness of upper extremity treatments on attained goals and active supination, and of prehensile hand treatment and neurodevelopmental therapy (NDT) or NDT twice a week on developmental status, and of constraint-induced therapy on amount and quality of hand use. Moderate evidence of ineffectiveness was found of strength training on walking speed and stride length. Conflicting evidence was found for strength training on gross motor function. For the other intervention categories the evidence was limited due to low methodological quality and the statistically insignificant results of the studies. Conclusion Due to limitations in methodological quality and variations in population, interventions and outcomes, mostly limited evidence on the effectiveness of most PT interventions is available through RCTs. Moderate evidence was found for some effectiveness of upper extremity training. Well-designed trials are needed especially for focused PT interventions.BioMed Central Open acces

The Bits of Silence : Redundant Traffic in VoIP

Human conversation is characterized by brief pauses and so-called turn-taking behavior between the speakers. In the context of VoIP, this means that there are frequent periods where the microphone captures only background noise – or even silence whenever the microphone is muted. The bits transmitted from such silence periods introduce overhead in terms of data usage, energy consumption, and network infrastructure costs. In this paper, we contribute by shedding light on these costs for VoIP applications. We systematically measure the performance of six popular mobile VoIP applications with controlled human conversation and acoustic setup. Our analysis demonstrates that significant savings can indeed be achievable - with the best performing silence suppression technique being effective on 75% of silent pauses in the conversation in a quiet place. This results in 2-5 times data savings, and 50-90% lower energy consumption compared to the next better alternative. Even then, the effectiveness of silence suppression can be sensitive to the amount of background noise, underlying speech codec, and the device being used. The codec characteristics and performance do not depend on the network type. However, silence suppression makes VoIP traffic network friendly as much as VoLTE traffic. Our results provide new insights into VoIP performance and offer a motivation for further enhancements, such as performance-aware codec selection, that can significantly benefit a wide variety of voice assisted applications, as such intelligent home assistants and other speech codec enabled IoT devices.Peer reviewe

An Extended Gene Protein/Products Boolean Network Model Including Post-Transcriptional Regulation

Background: Networks Biology allows the study of complex interactions between biological systems using formal, well structured, and computationally friendly models. Several different network models can be created, depending on the type of interactions that need to be investigated. Gene Regulatory Networks (GRN) are an effective model commonly used to study the complex regulatory mechanisms of a cell. Unfortunately, given their intrinsic complexity and non discrete nature, the computational study of realistic-sized complex GRNs requires some abstractions. Boolean Networks (BNs), for example, are a reliable model that can be used to represent networks where the possible state of a node is a boolean value (0 or 1). Despite this strong simplification, BNs have been used to study both structural and dynamic properties of real as well as randomly generated GRNs. Results: In this paper we show how it is possible to include the post-transcriptional regulation mechanism (a key process mediated by small non-coding RNA molecules like the miRNAs) into the BN model of a GRN. The enhanced BN model is implemented in a software toolkit (EBNT) that allows to analyze boolean GRNs from both a structural and a dynamic point of view. The open-source toolkit is compatible with available visualization tools like Cytoscape and allows to run detailed analysis of the network topology as well as of its attractors, trajectories, and state-space. In the paper, a small GRN built around the mTOR gene is used to demonstrate the main capabilities of the toolkit. Conclusions: The extended model proposed in this paper opens new opportunities in the study of gene regulation. Several of the successful researches done with the support of BN to understand high-level characteristics of regulatory networks, can now be improved to better understand the role of post-transcriptional regulation for example as a network-wide noise-reduction or stabilization mechanism

The Inclusiveness and Emptiness of <i>Gong Qi</i>: A Non-Anglophone Perspective on Ethics from a Sino-Japanese Corporation

This article introduces a non-Anglophone concept of gong qi(communal vessel, 公器) as a metaphor for ‘corporation’. It contributes an endogenous perspective from a Sino-Japanese organizational context that enriches mainstream business ethics literature, otherwise heavily reliant on Western traditions. We translate the multi-layered meanings of gong qi based on analysis of its ideograms, its references into classical philosophies, and contemporary application in this Japanese multinational corporation in China. Gong qi contributes a perspective that sees a corporation as an inclusive and virtuous social entity, and also addresses the elusive, implicit, and forever evolving nature of organizational life that is rarely noticed. We propose gong qi can be applied in other organizations and wider cultural contexts to show a new way of seeing and understanding business ethics and organization. Rather than considering virtue as a list of definable individual qualities, we suggest that the metaphor of gong qi reveals how virtue can be experienced as indeterminate, yet immanently present, like the substance of emptiness. This, then allows us to see the virtue of immanence, the beauty of implicitness, and hence, the efficacy of gong qi