Uinninmittausjärjestelmän koteloinnin suunnittelu, toteutus ja testaus

Työssä suunniteltiin ja toteutettiin laitekotelo osaksi SET-uinnin-mittausjärjestelmän prototyyppiä. Suunnittelussa huomioitiin toimintaympäristön asettamat haasteet, käytettävyys sekä valmistusmahdollisuudet teollisessa tuotannossa. Kotelo mallinnettiin hyödyntämällä AutoCAD 2010 -ohjelmistoa. 3D-mallinnuksesta tuotettiin fyysinen malli FDM Vantage SE -pikamallikoneella. Lopullinen prototyyppi valmistettiin polymeerihartsista tyhjiövalun avulla. Kote-loon asennettiin mittausjärjestelmän keskusyksikkö. Kotelo kiinnitettiin mekaanisesti antennilevyyn, osaksi järjestelmäkokonaisuutta. Laitekotelon toimivuutta testattiin monipuolisesti suunnittelussa määritettyjen vaatimusten kannalta. Testauksessa analysoitiin suunniteltua kotelointia ja järjestelmäkokonaisuutta omina kohtinaan. Testauksen pohjalta laadittiin parannusehdotukset ja pohdittiin mahdollista jatkokehitystä. Työn tuloksena syntyi käytettävä laitekotelon prototyyppi, joka vastasi suurelta osin asettuja ennakkovaatimuksia. SET-uinninmittausjärjestelmän tuotteistami-seksi prototyyppi kuitenkin vaatii edelleen lisäkehitystyötä ja -testausta

Regulation of multiple insulin-like growth factor binding protein genes by 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3)

Recently, insulin-like growth factor binding proteins (IGFBPs) have been found to be primary mediators of the anti-proliferative actions of the nuclear hormone 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) [1α,25(OH)(2)D(3)], but dependent on cellular context IGFBPs can also have a mitogenic effect. In this study, we performed expression profiling of all six human IGFBP genes in prostate and bone cancer cells and demonstrated that IGFBP1, 3 and 5 are primary 1α,25(OH)(2)D(3) target genes. In silico screening of the 174 kb of genomic sequence surrounding all six IGFBP genes identified 15 candidate vitamin D response elements (VDREs) close to or in IGFBP1, 2, 3 and 5 but not in the IGFBP4 and 6 genes. The putative VDREs were evaluated in vitro by gelshift assays and in living cells by reporter gene and chromatin immuno-precipitation (ChIP) assays. Of these 10 VDREs appear to be functional. ChIP assays demonstrated for each of these an individual, stimulation time-dependent association profile not only with the vitamin D receptor, but also with first heterodimeric partner the retinoid X receptor, other regulatory complex components and phosphorylated RNA polymerase II. Some of the VDREs are located distantly from the transcription start sites of IGFBP1, 3 and 5, but all 10 VDREs seem to contribute to the regulation of the genes by 1α,25(OH)(2)D(3). In conclusion, IGFBP1, 3 and 5 are primary 1α,25(OH)(2)D(3) target genes that in intact cells are each under the control of multiple VDREs

"Ei ollu ikinä tylsää ku oli Pirpanan tyypit ja kaverit" - Perheiden kokemuksia päiväryhmätoiminnasta

Tämän opinnäytetyön tarkoituksena oli selvittää perheiden kokemuksia Päiväryhmä Pirpanan toiminnasta. Selvityksessä pyrittiin tarkastelemaan perheiden odotuksia päiväryhmätoimintaa kohtaan, heidän toiminnasta saamaansa tukea ja sen pidempiaikaisia vaikutuksia sekä toimintaan kohdistuvia kehittämisideoita. Tavoitteena oli tuoda perheiden kokemuksia näkyviksi Päiväryhmä Pirpanan kehittämistyön tueksi. Opinnäytetyön teoriaosuudessa käsiteltiin varhaista vuorovaikutusta, kiintymyssuhdetta, vertaistukea ja perheiden arjenhallintaa sekä vanhempien osallisuutta perheessään ja perheiden palveluissa. Lisäksi esiteltiin Päiväryhmä Pirpanan sekä koko Etelä-Karjalan perhetyön kehittämisyhdistys ry:n toimintaa sekä Ensi- ja turvakotien liittoa, paikallisyhdistysten keskusjärjestöä. Selvityksessä käytettiin kvalitatiivista eli laadullista lähestymistapaa. Aineisto kerättiin käyttäen puolistrukturoitua yksilöteemahaastattelua. Selvityksessä haastateltiin neljää lapsensa kanssa päiväryhmätoimintaan osallistunutta äitiä. Haastateltaviksi haettiin myös isiä siinä kuitenkaan onnistumatta. Haastattelujen tuottama aineisto litteroitiin ja analysoitiin käyttämällä induktiivista eli aineistolähtöistä sisällön analyysia. Selvityksen tulokset ilmaisivat pitkälti asiakkaiden tyytyväisyyttä päiväryhmätoimintaa kohtaan. Esille nousivat sosiaalisiin kontakteihin ja arjenhallintaan sekä toiminnan sisältöihin kohdistuvat odotukset sekä erilaiset pelot ja ennakkoluulot. Perheiden saamana tukena ja sen pidempiaikaisina vaikutuksina näyttäytyivät läheisyys ja huolien jakaminen, lapsen hyvinvointi sekä arjen taidot ja työkalut. Kehittämisideoiksi selvitys tarjosi intensiivijakson kehittämisen, aktiviteettien lisäämisen, äidin asiantuntijuuden huomioimisen, ryhmäkauden jälkeisen toiminnan kehittämisen sekä saavutettavuuden parantamisen. Päiväryhmätoiminnassa nykyisellään toimivina käytäntöinä näyttäytyivät ryhmäkauden rakenne, toiminnan käytänteet sekä tietyiltä osin isien huomioiminen toiminnassa.The purpose of this study was to find out about the families´ experiences of the Group Family Day Care Pirpana and the activities they offer. The study aimed to examine the families’ expectations of group family day care, and the support they got from activities they did. Furthermore, the objective was to study the long-term effects of these activities and find out possible development ideas. The goal was to bring families’ experiences forth in support of the development work of Pirpana. The theoretical part of the thesis discusses early interaction, attachment, peer support and families´ everyday management as well as the parents’ involvement in the family and families’ services. In addition, the study presented Group Family Day Care Pirpana and the Lappeenranta member association of The Federation of Mother and Child Homes and Shelters. The study used a qualitative approach. The data was collected by using semi-structured individual interviews. In the inquiry there were four mothers, who were a part of the group session in Pirpana. The interviewers also sought to interview fathers, but they were unsuccessful. The material produced by the interviews were transcribed and analyzed using the inductive approach. The results of the survey largely expressed the customers’ satisfaction with the daily group activities. The customers’ expectations were towards social contacts and everyday management, for the operational content in Pirpana and for the fears and prejudices they had towards the group. The benefits that the families got were improved intimacy, improved verbal communication between the mother and the child and more everyday life skills and tools. As for development ideas there were ideas of developing the intensive periods, adding more activities, the acknowledgement of motherly expertise, and the improvement of the post-group period, as well as the improvement of accessibility. There were certain things in the existing operations of Pirpana that were reported to work fine in the survey which were the structure of the group session and for some parts the acknowledgement of the fathers in the activities

Meta-Analysis of Genome-Wide Linkage Studies in Celiac Disease.

OBJECTIVE: A meta-analysis of genome-wide linkage studies allows us to summarize the extensive information available from family-based studies, as the field moves into genome-wide association studies. METHODS: Here we apply the genome scan meta-analysis (GSMA) method, a rank-based, model-free approach, to combine results across eight independent genome-wide linkages performed on celiac disease (CD), including 554 families with over 1,500 affected individuals. We also investigate the agreement between signals we identified from this meta-analysis of linkage studies and those identified from genome-wide association analysis using a hypergeometric distribution. RESULTS: Not surprisingly, the most significant result was obtained in the HLA region. Outside the HLA region, suggestive evidence for linkage was obtained at the telomeric region of chromosome 10 (10q26.12-qter; p = 0.00366), and on chromosome 8 (8q22.2-q24.21; p = 0.00491). Testing signals of association and linkage within bins showed no significant evidence for co-localization of results. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis allowed us to pool the results from available genome-wide linkage studies and to identify novel regions potentially harboring predisposing genetic variation contributing to CD. This study also shows that linkage and association studies may identify different types of disease-predisposing variants

Good News About Endometriosis and Preterm Delivery

Non peer reviewe

Novel polylactic acid (PLA)-based active packaging with incorporation of nanoparticles and its performance throughout shelf-life of fresh-cut fruit

This study aimed at developing innovative and environmentally friendly packages for fresh-cut fruits and at a better understanding their effect on physicochemical, mechanical and microbiological characteristics during shelf-life. Packages were developed under the scope of EU project SusFoFlex (7th framework programme) – thought to incorporate materials in final packaging formulations complying environmental and sustainability concerns and valorisation of agri-food by-products. Polylactic acid (PLA)-based active packaging formulations differed in nanoclays used and presence/absence of a surfactant. PLA-nanocomposite packaging performance was evaluated and compared with pristine-PLA and conventional polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Polyone was used as plasticizer in PLA packages. PET formulation did not include any nanoclay. Fresh-cut melon was selected as food model to assess PLA packaging formulations performance on quality changes taking place throughout 7-d storage under controlled conditions. Physicochemical and textural analysis over time encompassed weight loss, colour, visual appearance, pH, soluble solids and firmness, whereas microbial enumeration covered vegetative mesophilics and psychrotrofics, Gram- rods, nonsporing Gram+ rods and cocci, yeasts and moulds. Environmental impact of PLA-based packaging was evaluated via life cycle assessment (LCA) and compared with PET. Under limit storage conditions, all microbial groups exhibited maximum viable counts after 5-d. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli were absent, and refrigeration proved to effectively reduce microbial activity. Overall inspection of dataset throughout storage, unfolded that nanoclays and surfactants in PLA formulations improved their performance, thus contributing to bring together the characteristics of both biopolymers (PLA and PET). Finally, LCA impact assessment indicated that PLA packaging with nanoclays had the highest environmental performance

First birth and total fertility rate in women with surgically verified endometriosis - A nationwide register study of 18 320 women across reproductive life course

Abstract Introduction Endometriosis is associated with pain and infertility. However, little is known about birth rate among women with endometriosis on population level. We studied whether women with endometriosis have lower birth rate than women in the general population. Material and Methods This historical population-based cohort study used data from 18 320 fertile-aged women with first surgical verification of endometriosis in 1998–2012. Women with endometriosis were further divided into sub-cohorts: women with solely peritoneal (n = 5786), ovarian (n = 6519) and deep endometriosis (n = 1267). Women with combined types and rare forms of endometriosis formed a sub-cohort of combined/other endometriosis (n = 4748). The reference cohort comprised 35 788 women. The follow-up started at the age of 15 years and ended at first birth, sterilization/bilateral oophorectomy/hysterectomy, emigration, death, age of 50 years, or December 31, 2019. From Kaplan–Meier survival curves of not giving birth, that is, until the first birth, we assessed the statistical difference of first births with crude and adjusted restricted mean survival time (RMST). In addition, we studied the fertility rate of women until the end of follow-up. Results Altogether 12 491 (68.2%) women with endometriosis compared with 28 871 (80.7%) reference women gave birth during follow-up. Women with peritoneal and deep endometriosis had higher first birth rate (73.1% and 71.3%) compared with women with ovarian and combined/other forms of endometriosis (65.2% and 65.5%) (p < 0.001). The RMST of not giving birth was longer in women with endometriosis 18.9 (18.8–19.0) years compared with the reference cohort 15.5 (15.4–15.6) with both crude and adjusted RMST difference (p < 0.001). Moreover, each sub-cohort showed a longer RMST of not giving birth than reference cohort (p < 0.001). Total fertility rate of women was 1.33 (SD 1.16) in the endometriosis and 1.89 (1.46) in the reference cohort (p < 0.001) with smaller differences among endometriosis sub-cohorts. Conclusions Findings suggest that fertility outcome is compromised depending on the endometriosis subtype. Thus, timely diagnosis and appropriate treatment might be beneficial for fertility.Abstract Introduction Endometriosis is associated with pain and infertility. However, little is known about birth rate among women with endometriosis on population level. We studied whether women with endometriosis have lower birth rate than women in the general population. Material and Methods This historical population-based cohort study used data from 18 320 fertile-aged women with first surgical verification of endometriosis in 1998–2012. Women with endometriosis were further divided into sub-cohorts: women with solely peritoneal (n = 5786), ovarian (n = 6519) and deep endometriosis (n = 1267). Women with combined types and rare forms of endometriosis formed a sub-cohort of combined/other endometriosis (n = 4748). The reference cohort comprised 35 788 women. The follow-up started at the age of 15 years and ended at first birth, sterilization/bilateral oophorectomy/hysterectomy, emigration, death, age of 50 years, or December 31, 2019. From Kaplan–Meier survival curves of not giving birth, that is, until the first birth, we assessed the statistical difference of first births with crude and adjusted restricted mean survival time (RMST). In addition, we studied the fertility rate of women until the end of follow-up. Results Altogether 12 491 (68.2%) women with endometriosis compared with 28 871 (80.7%) reference women gave birth during follow-up. Women with peritoneal and deep endometriosis had higher first birth rate (73.1% and 71.3%) compared with women with ovarian and combined/other forms of endometriosis (65.2% and 65.5%) (p < 0.001). The RMST of not giving birth was longer in women with endometriosis 18.9 (18.8–19.0) years compared with the reference cohort 15.5 (15.4–15.6) with both crude and adjusted RMST difference (p < 0.001). Moreover, each sub-cohort showed a longer RMST of not giving birth than reference cohort (p < 0.001). Total fertility rate of women was 1.33 (SD 1.16) in the endometriosis and 1.89 (1.46) in the reference cohort (p < 0.001) with smaller differences among endometriosis sub-cohorts. Conclusions Findings suggest that fertility outcome is compromised depending on the endometriosis subtype. Thus, timely diagnosis and appropriate treatment might be beneficial for fertility

HLA allele-specific expression : Methods, disease associations, and relevance in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Varying HLA allele-specific expression levels are associated with human diseases, such as graft versus host disease (GvHD) in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), cytotoxic T cell response and viral load in HIV infection, and the risk of Crohn's disease. Only recently, RNA-based next generation sequencing (NGS) methodologies with accompanying bioinformatics tools have emerged to quantify HLA allele-specific expression replacing the quantitative PCR (qPCR) -based methods. These novel NGS approaches enable the systematic analysis of the HLA allele-specific expression changes between individuals and between normal and disease phenotypes. Additionally, analyzing HLA allele-specific expression and allele-specific expression loss provide important information for predicting efficacies of novel immune cell therapies. Here, we review available RNA sequencing-based approaches and computational tools for NGS to quantify HLA allele-specific expression. Moreover, we explore recent studies reporting disease associations with differential HLA expression. Finally, we discuss the role of allele-specific expression in HSCT and how considering the expression quantification in recipient-donor matching could improve the outcome of HSCT.Peer reviewe

AWS-palveluiden vertailu Ilmatieteen laitoksen tarpeisiin

Tässä insinöörityössä toteutettiin vertailu Amazonin AWS-pilven eri konttien hallintajärjestelmistä. Työ toteutettiin Ilmatieteen laitokselle, joka halusi kahdentaa omassa konesalissa olevat säänennustusjärjestelmänsä AWS-pilveen. Varsinaista vertailua alustettiin yleistiedolla konteista, pilvipalveluista ja AWS:tä. Alkuperäisenä tavoitteena oli myös perustaa konttiympäristö AWS-pilveen hyödyntäen vertailun tuloksena valittua AWS-palvelua. Tämä ei kuitenkaan toteutunut, joten sen sijaan toteutettiin pieni Ilmatieteen laitoksen avointa säädataa ja Docker-kontteja hyödyntävä ohjelmointiprojekti. Vertailu keskittyi kolmeen varteenotettavimpaan vaihtoehtoon, jotka olivat AWS:n ECS, EKS ja ROSA. Kutakin vertailtiin Ilmatieteen laitoksen asettamien kriteerien perusteella. Tärkeimmät kriteerit olivat palvelun yhteensopivuus nykyisen järjestelmän kanssa ja se, miten palvelu pystyy skaalautumaan resurssien tarpeen vaihdellessa. Vertailussa todettiin ECS:n ja EKS:n soveltuvan ominaisuuksiltaan ja skaalautuvuudeltaan Ilmatieteen laitoksen tarpeisiin, mutta niiden ei katsottu olevan riittävän yhteensopivia nykyisen järjestelmän kanssa. ROSA-palvelun todettiin olevan paras vaihtoehto Ilmatieteen laitoksen tarpeisiin, koska se ainoana palveluna täytti kaikki asetetut kriteerit. ROSA-palvelun erotti muista se, että se käyttää OpenShift-konttien hallintajärjestelmää, joka on jo käytössä Ilmatieteen laitoksella. Tähän insinöörityöhön kuuluu myös ohjelmointiprojekti, joka tehtiin täydentämään tässä työssä aiemmin esitettyä teoriaa ja korvaamaan alkuperäisessä suunnitelmassa olleen konttiympäristön perustamisen AWS-pilveen. Ohjelmointiprojekti koostuu paikallisesti kontitetusta ohjelmasta, joka hakee Ilmatieteen laitoksen voimassa olevat varoitukset avoimesta tietokannasta, karsii ja muokkaa haettuja tietoja selkeämpään muotoon ja asettaa ne luettavaksi localhostiin. Tämän lisäksi projektiin toteutettiin ohjelma, joka lukee säävaroitukset localhostista ja asettaa ne luomaansa käyttöliittymään luettavaksi