Estrogen Receptor Status in Relation to Risk of Contralateral Breast Cancer-A Population-Based Cohort Study

10.1371/journal.pone.0046535PLoS ONE710

Trophic ecology of piscivorous Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus (L.)) in subarctic lakes with contrasting food-web structures

The trophic ecology of piscivorous Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus (L.); charr) in the food webs of large subarctic lakes is not well understood. We assessed charr diets, parasites, growth, maturity, and stable isotope ratios in Fennoscandian subarctic lakes dominated by monomorphic or polymorphic whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus (L.)) populations. Charr density was low in all lakes, except in profundal habitats. Charr shifted to piscivory at small size (16-25 cm total length) and consumed a range of prey-fish sizes (2-25 cm). Cannibalism was observed in a few individuals from one monomorphic whitefish lake. Charr matured at 37-51 cm (5-8 years old), grew to 52-74 cm maximum observed length and 47-83 cm asymptotic length. Charr increased total area of convex hull and core stable isotopic diversity area of the fish community by 51-98% and 44-51% in monomorphic whitefish lakes, but only 8-11% and 7-10% in polymorphic whitefish lakes. The difference was due to increasing food-chain length in monomorphic whitefish lakes, whereas reliance on littoral carbon did not change. Charr were the top piscivores in monomorphic whitefish lakes, but played a less important role in polymorphic whitefish lakes, which contained a more diverse predator fauna.Peer reviewe

Estimation of the order parameter exponent of critical cellular automata using the enhanced coherent anomaly method.

The stochastic cellular automaton of Rule 18 defined by Wolfram [Rev. Mod. Phys. 55 601 (1983)] has been investigated by the enhanced coherent anomaly method. Reliable estimate was found for the $\beta$ critical exponent, based on moderate sized ($n \le 7$) clusters.Comment: 6 pages, RevTeX file, figure available from [email protected]

Lean-ajattelu ja lean-päivittäisjohtaminen yliopistosairaaloissa

Terveydenhuollossakin sovellettava lean-ajattelu korostaa jatkuvaa parantamista ja lisäarvon tuottamista asiakkaille. Lean-päivittäisjohtamisen piirteitä ovat mittaamisen ja lean-taulujen avulla tapahtuva visuaalinen seuranta, vastuu toiminnasta ja päivittäiset lyhyet moniammatilliset tiimikokoukset. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli tunnistaa lean-päivittäisjohtamisen piirteitä ja siihen liittyvää osaamista sekä lean-ajattelun hyödynnettävyyttä yliopistosairaaloissa. Aineisto kerättiin neljästä suomalaisesta yliopistosairaalasta lean-ajattelua soveltavilta asiantuntijoilta kyselyillä (N = 41) ja teemahaastatteluilla (N = 15) marraskuun 2017 ja kesäkuun 2018 välillä. Aineistot analysoitiin aineisto- ja teoriaohjaavalla sisällönanalyysilla. Lean-ajattelun periaatteet sopivat yliopistosairaaloihin. Lean-ajattelun systemaattinen soveltaminen terveydenhuollon organisaatioissa edellyttää valmentavaa johtamista, selkeitä strategiassa kuvattuja visiota ja tavoitteita, jalkautussuunnitelmaa sekä johdon ja henkilöstön sitoutumista siihen. Soveltamista rajoittaa osa terveydenhuollon kulttuurin piirteistä: hierarkkisuus, menettelytapojen kankeus ja epäselvät prosessit. Lean-ajattelun periaatteita ja työkaluja käytettäneen tulevaisuudessakin, mutta ajattelumallin odotetaan muokkaantuvan ja hyödyn paranevan, kun lean-ajattelu yhdistetään muihin johtamis- ja kehittämismalleihin. Lean-päivittäisjohtamisen ei arvioitu olevan vakioitunutta yliopistosairaaloissa, mutta sen piirteitä tunnistettiin ja samalla tarve niiden vahvistamiseen. Piirteitä olivat kommunikaatio ja viestintä, mittaaminen ja seuranta, osaamisen hallinta, valmentava johtaminen, tiimityön ja muutoksen tukeminen, jatkuva parantaminen, hukan poistaminen sekä strategian mukainen toiminta ja tavoitteiden asettaminen. Lean-päivittäisjohtamisen vahvistamiseksi tarvitaan jatkuvan parantamisen menettelyjen jaseurantamittareiden systemaattista kehittämistä.</p

Compositional nonblocking verification with always enabled events and selfloop-only events

This paper proposes to improve compositional nonblocking verification through the use of always enabled and selfloop-only events. Compositional verification involves abstraction to simplify parts of a system during verification. Normally, this abstraction is based on the set of events not used in the remainder of the system, i.e., in the part of the system not being simplified. Here, it is proposed to exploit more knowledge about the system and abstract events even though they are used in the remainder of the system. Abstraction rules from previous work are generalised, and experimental results demonstrate the applicability of the resulting algorithm to verify several industrial-scale discrete event system models, while achieving better state-space reduction than before

The evaluation of a shuttle borne lidar experiment to measure the global distribution of aerosols and their effect on the atmospheric heat budget

A shuttle-borne lidar system is described, which will provide basic data about aerosol distributions for developing climatological models. Topics discussed include: (1) present knowledge of the physical characteristics of desert aerosols and the absorption characteristics of atmospheric gas, (2) radiative heating computations, and (3) general circulation models. The characteristics of a shuttle-borne radar are presented along with some laboratory studies which identify schemes that permit the implementation of a high spectral resolution lidar system

Observation of Crossover from Ballistic to Diffusion Regime for Excimer Molecules in Superfluid 4^4He

We have measured the temperature dependence of the time of flight of helium excimer molecules He2* in superfluid 4He and find that the molecules behave ballistically below 100mK and exhibit Brownian motion above 200 mK. In the intermediate temperature range the transport cannot be described by either of the models.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to the Proceedings of the International Conference on Quantum Fluids and Solids 201

From clear lakes to murky waters - tracing the functional response of high-latitude lake communities to concurrent 'greening' and 'browning'

Climate change and the intensification of land use practices are causing widespread eutrophication of subarctic lakes. The implications of this rapid change for lake ecosystem function remain poorly understood. To assess how freshwater communities respond to such profound changes in their habitat and resource availability, we conducted a space-for-time analysis of food-web structure in 30 lakes situated across a temperature-productivity gradient equivalent to the predicted future climate of subarctic Europe (temperature +3 degrees C, precipitation +30% and nutrient +45 mu g L-1 total phosphorus). Along this gradient, we observed an increase in the assimilation of pelagic-derived carbon from 25 to 75% throughout primary, secondary and tertiary consumers. This shift was overwhelmingly driven by the consumption of pelagic detritus by benthic primary consumers and was not accompanied by increased pelagic foraging by higher trophic level consumers. Our data also revealed a convergence of the carbon isotope ratios of pelagic and benthic food web endmembers in the warmest, most productive lakes indicating that the incorporation of terrestrial derived carbon into aquatic food webs increases as land use intensifies. These results, reflecting changes along a gradient characteristic of the predicted future environment throughout the subarctic, indicate that climate and land use driven eutrophication and browning are radically altering the function and fuelling of aquatic food webs in this biome.Peer reviewe

Relative and absolute cancer risks among Nordic kidney transplant recipients-a population-based study

Kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) have an increased cancer risk compared to the general population, but absolute risks that better reflect the clinical impact of cancer are seldom estimated. All KTRs in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland, with a first transplantation between 1995 and 2011, were identified through national registries. Post-transplantation cancer occurrence was assessed through linkage with cancer registries. We estimated standardized incidence ratios (SIR), absolute excess risks (AER), and cumulative incidence of cancer in the presence of competing risks. Overall, 12 984 KTRs developed 2215 cancers. The incidence rate of cancer overall was threefold increased (SIR 3.3, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.2-3.4). The AER of any cancer was 1560 cases (95% CI: 1468-1656) per 100 000 person-years. The highest AERs were observed for nonmelanoma skin cancer (838, 95% CI: 778-901), non-Hodgkin lymphoma (145, 95% CI: 119-174), lung cancer (126, 95% CI: 98.2-149), and kidney cancer (122, 95% CI: 98.0-149). The five- and ten-year cumulative incidence of any cancer was 8.1% (95% CI: 7.6-8.6%) and 16.8% (95% CI: 16.0-17.6%), respectively. Excess cancer risks were observed among Nordic KTRs for a wide range of cancers. Overall, 1 in 6 patients developed cancer within ten years, supporting extensive post-transplantation cancer vigilance.Peer reviewe