Associations of early childhood adversities with mental disorders, psychological functioning, and suitability for psychotherapy in adulthood

Childhood adversities frequently precede adulthood depression and anxiety. Yet, how they impact needed treatment duration, type or focus in these common disorders, is unclear. For developing more individualized and precise interventions, we investigated whether specific early adversities associate with patients' distinct psychiatric problems, psychological vulnerabilities, and suitability for psychotherapy. A total of 221 depressed and anxious adult outpatients (excluding psychotic, severe personality, bipolar, and substance abuse disorders) referred from community, student, occupational, and private healthcare services filled the Childhood Family Atmosphere Questionnaire (CFAQ). They also filled self-reports on interpersonal behavior and problems, perceived competence, dispositional optimism, sense of coherence, defenses, and psychiatric history. Clinicians assessed the patients' symptomatology, personality, object relations, cognitive performance, and psychotherapy suitability. Regression analyses were conducted. Childhood adversities predicted both worse current psychological functioning (e.g., interpersonal problems), and better clinician-rated capacities for benefiting from psychotherapy (e.g. self-reflection, capacity for interaction). Parental problems had the most numerous negative associations to psychological functioning. Best capacities for psychotherapy were predicted by recollected family unhappiness. Associations with psychiatric criteria were, however, largely non-significant. In conclusion, for psychosocial treatment planning, patients' early adversities may indicate both vulnerability and resources. As childhood adversities are frequent among treatment-seekers, further studies examining how early adversities predict psychotherapy outcome are needed.Peer reviewe

Prediction and impact of personalized donation intervals

Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors. Vox Sanguinis published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Society of Blood Transfusion.Background and Objectives: Deferral of blood donors due to low haemoglobin (Hb) is demotivating to donors, can be a sign for developing anaemia and incurs costs for blood establishments. The prediction of Hb deferral has been shown to be feasible in a number of studies based on demographic, Hb measurement and donation history data. The aim of this paper is to evaluate how state-of-the-art computational prediction tools can facilitate nationwide personalized donation intervals. Materials and Methods: Using donation history data from the last 20 years in Finland, FinDonor blood donor cohort data and blood service Biobank genotyping data, we built linear and non-linear predictors of Hb deferral. Based on financial data from the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service, we then estimated the economic impacts of deploying such predictors. Results: We discovered that while linear predictors generally predict Hb relatively well, they have difficulties in predicting low Hb values. Overall, we found that non-linear or linear predictors with or without genetic data performed only slightly better than a simple cutoff based on previous Hb. However, if any of our deferral prediction methods are used to assign temporary prolongations of donation intervals for females, then our calculations indicate cost savings while maintaining the blood supply. Conclusion: We find that even though the prediction accuracy is not very high, the actual use of any of our predictors in blood collection is still likely to bring benefits to blood donors and blood establishments alike.Peer reviewe

Agri-environmental and rural development indicators: a proposal

The present work is a proposal of a set of indicators prepared for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The indicators are to be used in monitoring the implementation of the Ministry's strategy for sustainable use of natural resources. The core of the present work is in setting up an indicator system, which is structured around specific themes. The focus is on the assessment of agricultural and rural development. At the end, an attempt is made to provide a comprehensive picture by considering the mutual inter-linkages between the various indicators

Kognitiivinen sosiologia kulttuurin ja toiminnan suhteen tutkimuksessa

Peer reviewe

LOCALITY IN THE GLOBAL NET The Internet as a space of citizen communication and local publicness

The main outstanding features of Locality in the Global Net project were its local and grassroots orientation. The aim of the project was to explore the social meaning of new communications technology and information networks (and the Internet in particular) from the vantage-point of everyday practices, linking tecnology with people's everyday life and communication needs. The approach adopted may be described as participatory action research, which in practice meant carrying out research interventions in local communities. The study was organised in three projects, two of which focused on the development of local citizen communication and one on the development of local journalism by means of modern web technology. During the course of the project the Manse Square website has grown into an important arena of local interaction in the city of Tampere, providing a public meeting-place wor a wide range of different actors

Verkkotorilla: Internet kansalaisviestinnän ja paikallisen julkisuuden tilana. Paikallisuus verkkomediassa -julkaisun loppuraportti.

Paikallisuus verkkomediassa -hankkeen lähtöoletuksena oli, että uusi viestintätekniikka ja tietoverkot tarjoavat uudenlaisia mahdollisuuksia paikallisen julkisviestinnän käytäntöjen, toimintatapojen ja sisältöjen monipuolistamiseen. Tässä tarkoituksessa projekti loi Tampereelle ja Ouluun toiminnallisen kokonaisuuden, jossa yhtäältä tutkittiin verkkoa kansalais- ja yhteisöviestinnän välineenä ja toisaalta luodattiin verkkovälitteisen paikallisjournalismin uusia mahdollisuuksia. Osallistuvan toimintatutkimuksen menetelmällä hanke kehitti ja kokeili runsaan kahden vuoden aikana kaupunginosayhteisöjen verkkoviestinnän malleja, kansalaisryhmien keskustelevaa verkkojulkisuutta sekä uuden viestintätekniikan keinoin toteutettua kansalaisjournalismia. Hanke on osoittanut, että globaali internet tarjoaa paikallistason julkisuudelle erittäin kehityskelpoisen areenan, mutta samalla on ilmennyt, että uuden viestintätekniikan paikallinen hyödyntäminen on kaikkea muuta kuin suoraviivaista

Maternal early-pregnancy body mass index-associated metabolomic component and mental and behavioral disorders in children

Maternal pre-pregnancy obesity and/or higher body mass index (BMI) have been associated with neurodevelopmental and mental health adversities in children. While maternal metabolomic perturbations during pregnancy may underpin these associations, the existing evidence is limited to studying individual metabolites, not capturing metabolic variation specific to maternal BMI, and not accounting for the correlated nature of the metabolomic measures. By using multivariate supervised analytical methods, we first identified maternal early-pregnancy BMI-associated metabolomic component during pregnancy. We then examined whether this component was associated with mental and behavioral disorders in children, improved the prediction of the child outcomes over maternal BMI, and what proportion of the effect of maternal BMI on the child outcomes this component mediated. Early-pregnancy BMI of 425 mothers participating in the PREDO study was extracted from the national Medical Birth Register. During pregnancy, mothers donated up to three blood samples, from which a targeted panel of 68 metabolites were measured. Mental and behavioral disorders in children followed-up from birth until 8.4-12.8 years came from the Care Register for Health Care. Of the 68 metabolites averaged across the three sampling points, 43 associated significantly with maternal early-pregnancy BMI yielding a maternal early-pregnancy BMI-associated metabolomic component (total variance explained, 55.4%; predictive ability, 52.0%). This metabolomic component was significantly associated with higher hazard of any mental and behavioral disorder [HR 1.45, 95%CI(1.15, 1.84)] and relative risk of having a higher number of co-morbid disorders [RR 1.43, 95%CI(1.12, 1.69)] in children. It improved the goodness-of-model-fit over maternal BMI by 37.7-65.6%, and hence the predictive significance of the model, and mediated 60.8-75.8% of the effect of maternal BMI on the child outcomes. Maternal BMI-related metabolomic perturbations during pregnancy are associated with a higher risk of mental and behavioral disorders in children. These findings may allow identifying metabolomic targets for personalized interventions.Peer reviewe

Multiple clinical characteristics separate MED12-mutation-positive and -negative uterine leiomyomas

Up to 86% of uterine leiomyomas harbour somatic mutations in mediator complex subunit 12 (MED12). These mutations have been associated with conventional histology, smaller tumour size, and larger number of tumours within the uterus. Prior studies, with limited sample sizes, have failed to detect associations between other clinical features and MED12 mutations. Here, we prospectively collected 763 uterine leiomyomas and the corresponding normal myometrial tissue from 244 hysterectomy patients, recorded tumour characteristics, collected clinical data from medical records, and screened the tissue samples for MED12 mutations to assess potential associations between clinical variables and mutation status. Out of 763 leiomyomas, 599 (79%) harboured a MED12 mutation. In the analysis of tumour characteristics, positive MED12-mutation status was significantly associated with smaller tumour size, conventional histology, and subserous location, relative to intramural. In the analysis of clinical variables, the number of MED12-mutation-positive tumours showed an inverse association with parity, and the number of mutation-negative tumours showed a positive association with a history of pelvic inflammatory disease. This study confirmed the previously reported differences and discovered novel differentiating features for MED12-mutation-positive and -negative leiomyomas. These findings emphasise the relevance of specific driver mutations in genesis and presentation of uterine leiomyomas.Peer reviewe