Thermal Shock Effects on Larvae of Caddis Fly Brachycentrus americanus

Wild-collected Brachycentrus americanus larvae were subjected to thermal shocks of 30-minute and 60-minute duration in June, September, and December of 1976. Temperatures at collection were 14.7 , 10.4 , and 1.2 C, respectively. The TL50\u27s for both 30-minute and 60-minute shock durations ranged from 33.3 C to 34.0 C for each month, except for a 30-minute exposure in September, which had a TL 50 of 34.6 C. Larvae from a December exposure were held for 16 days to observe postexposure behavior. Feeding was reduced 50 percent among specimens exposed to temperatures 1.2 C below the 30-minute TL 50 and 3.6 C below the 60-minute TL50

Graft Neutrophil Sequestration and Concomitant Tissue Plasminogen Activator Release During Reperfusion in Clinical Kidney Transplantation

Background. Inflammation, coagulation, and fibrinolysis are tightly linked together. Reperfusion after transient ischemia activates both neutrophils, coagulation, and fibrinolysis. Experimental data suggest that tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) regulates renal neutrophil influx in kidney ischemia and reperfusion injury. Methods. In 30 patients undergoing kidney transplantation, we measured renal neutrophil sequestration and tPA release from blood samples drawn from the supplying artery and renal vein early after reperfusion. tPA antigen levels were measured using a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. For each parameter, transrenal difference (Delta) was calculated by subtracting the value of the arterial sample (ingoing blood) from the value of the venous sample (outgoing blood). Results. Positive transrenal gradients of tPA antigen occurred at 1 minute [Delta = 14 (3-46) ng/mL, P <.01] and 5 minutes [Delta = 5 (-3 to 27) ng/mL, P <.01] after reperfusion. At 5 minutes after reperfusion, a negative transrenal gradient of neutrophils was observed [Delta = -0.17 (-1.45 to 0.24) x 10E9 cells/L, P <.001]. At 1 minute after reperfusion, neutrophil sequestration into the kidney (ie, negative transrenal neutrophil count) correlated significantly with tPA release from the kidney (ie, positive transrenal tPA concentration), (R = -0.513 and P = .006). Conclusions. The findings suggest a proinflammatory role for tPA in ischemia and reperfusion injury in human kidney transplantation.Peer reviewe

Lukion opiskelijoiden ja opettajien kokemuksia liikunnallisista aktivointimenetelmistä

Tiivistelmä. Liikunnalla voidaan vaikuttaa kokonaisvaltaiseen terveyteen ja energisyyteen. Liikunnan hyödyt on lisäksi liitetty koulumenestykseen. Tutkimukset osoittavat, että iän kasvaessa liikkuminen vähenee. Lukiolaiset viettävät ison osan päivästään istuen. Tämän vuoksi on tärkeää tutkia keinoja, joilla voitaisiin lisätä liikkumisen määrää opiskelupäivän aikana. Tässä pro gradu -tutkielmassa selvitettiin mitä eroja ja yhtäläisyyksiä opiskelijoiden ja opettajien kokemuksissa oli koskien liikunnallisten aktivointimenetelmien käyttöä lukion matematiikan pitkän oppimäärän tunneilla. Tutkimuksessa mukana olleita aktivointimenetelmiä olivat seisomapulpetit, toiminnallinen oppitunti ja Break Pro -taukoliikunta. Tämän pro gradu -tutkielman aineisto on kerätty osana Likesin ja Liikkuva opiskelu -ohjelman Matikkavire-tutkimusta, joka toteutettiin yhteistyössä Oulun yliopiston ja Oulun kaupungin kanssa. Tutkimuksen kohderyhmänä olivat lukion matematiikan pitkän oppimäärän opiskelijat (n=16) ja heidän opettajansa (n=3). Aineisto kerättiin puolistrukturoiduilla haastatteluilla vuoden 2021 keväällä. Aineiston analyysi toteutettiin sisällönanalyysin keinoin. Tulokset osoittivat, että nopeat ja helposti toteutettavat aktivointimenetelmät olivat parhaimpia niin opettajien kuin opiskelijoiden mielestä. Molemmat ryhmät kokivat omien käyttökokemustensa perusteella, että seisomapulpeteilla oli myönteistä vaikutusta vireyteen. Toiminnallinen opetus jakoi opiskelijoiden mielipiteitä, mutta opettajat pitivät sitä pääosin toimivana menetelmänä opiskelijoiden kannalta. Ryhmät olivat samaa mieltä taukojumppien hyödyllisyydestä vireyteen ja se otettiin vastaan menetelmistä myönteisimmin. Opettajat ja opiskelijat liittivät menetelmien haasteet opiskelua häiritseviin aikataulutuksen ja järjestelyn ongelmiin sekä seisomapulpettien vähäiseen lukumäärään. Opettajien ja opiskelijoiden mukaan aktivointimenetelmät koettiin tarpeelliseksi tauottamaan oppitunteja sekä parantamaan opiskeluvireyttä. Tutkimus osoitti, että erilaisten aktivointimenetelmien käytettävyydestä lukiossa tarvitaan tutkimusta, jossa opiskelijoiden ja opettajien kokemukset perustuvat aktivointimenetelmien pidempi aikaiseen käyttöön

Football in the community schemes: Exploring the effectiveness of an intervention in promoting healthful behaviour change

This study aims to examine the effectiveness of a Premier League football club’s Football in the Community (FitC) schemes intervention in promoting positive healthful behaviour change in children. Specifically, exploring the effectiveness of this intervention from the perspectives of the participants involved (i.e. the researcher, teachers, children and coaches). A range of data collection techniques were utilized including the principles of ethnography (i.e. immersion, engagement and observations), alongside conducting focus groups with the children. The results allude to the intervention merely ‘keeping active children active’ via (mostly) fun, football sessions. Results highlight the important contribution the ‘coach’ plays in the effectiveness of the intervention. Results relating to working practice (i.e. coaching practice and coach recruitment) are discussed and highlighted as areas to be addressed. FitC schemes appear to require a process of positive organizational change to increase their effectiveness in strategically attending to the health agenda

Scandinavian Olecranon Research in the Elderly (SCORE) : protocol for a non- inferiority, randomised, controlled, multicentre trial comparing operative and conservative treatment of olecranon fractures in the elderly

Introduction The incidence of olecranon fractures is growing in the elderly population. The traditional operative approach is giving way among the elderly to conservative treatment, which seems to provide a comparable functional outcome with a lower complication burden. However, there is still a lack of reliable evidence to support this shift. The objective of this trial is to investigate whether conservative treatment of displaced olecranon fractures in patients aged 75 or older yields comparable results to those of operative treatment in terms of pain and daily function. Methods and analysis Scandinavian Olecranon Research in the Elderly (SCORE) is a randomised, controlled, multicentre, non-inferiority trial. Eligible patients will be randomised to either conservative or operative treatment. The sample size will be 68 patients and allocation done at a 1:1 ratio (34 patients per group). The randomisation is stratified according to the participating hospital and patient's sex. Both groups will receive the same postoperative physiotherapy and pain management. The primary outcome is Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand at 1-year follow-up. Secondary outcomes are pain and satisfaction measured on visual analogue scales, Patient Reported Elbow Evaluation, range of motion of the elbow and extension strength of the elbow compared with the unaffected arm. Radiographs will be taken at each follow-up. Primary analysis of the results will be conducted on an intention-to-treat basis. Ethics and dissemination The study protocol for this clinical trial has been approved by the Ethics Committee of the Hospital District of Southwest Finland and will be submitted for approval to the Regional Ethics Committees in Linkoping, Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark. Every recruiting centre will apply local research approvals. The results of this study will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals.Peer reviewe

Safe and complete contig assembly via omnitigs

Contig assembly is the first stage that most assemblers solve when reconstructing a genome from a set of reads. Its output consists of contigs -- a set of strings that are promised to appear in any genome that could have generated the reads. From the introduction of contigs 20 years ago, assemblers have tried to obtain longer and longer contigs, but the following question was never solved: given a genome graph $G$ (e.g. a de Bruijn, or a string graph), what are all the strings that can be safely reported from $G$ as contigs? In this paper we finally answer this question, and also give a polynomial time algorithm to find them. Our experiments show that these strings, which we call omnitigs, are 66% to 82% longer on average than the popular unitigs, and 29% of dbSNP locations have more neighbors in omnitigs than in unitigs.Comment: Full version of the paper in the proceedings of RECOMB 201

Thymic neuroendocrine tumors in patients with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1

Objective MEN1 is associated with an increased risk of developing tumors in different endocrine organs. Neuroendocrine tumors of the thymus (TNETs) are very rare but often have an aggressive nature. We evaluated patients with MEN1 and TNET in three university hospitals in Finland. Design/Methods We evaluated patient records of 183 MEN1-patients from three university hospitals between the years 1985-2019 with TNETs. Thymus tumor specimens were classified according to the new WHO 2021 classification of TNET. We collected data on treatments and outcomes of these patients. Results There were six patients (3.3%) with MEN1 and TNET. Five of them had the same common gene mutation occurring in Finland. They originated from common ancestors encompassing two pairs of brothers from sequential generations. The mean age at presentation of TNET was 44.7 +/- 11.9 years. TNET was classified as atypical carcinoid (AC) in five out of six patients. One patient had a largely necrotic main tumor with very few mitoses and another nodule with 25 mitoses per 2 mm(2), qualifying for the 2021 WHO diagnosis of large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC). In our patients, the 5-year survival of the TNET patients was 62.5% and 10-year survival 31.3%. Conclusion In this study, TNETs were observed in one large MEN1 founder pedigree, where an anticipation-like earlier disease onset was observed in the most recent generation. TNET in MEN1 patients is an aggressive disease. The prognosis can be better by systematic screening. We also show that LCNEC can be associated with TNET in MEN1 patients.Peer reviewe

Simultaneous determination of iron and copper in children's sera by FAAS

Predložena je nova jednostavna metoda plamene atomsko-apsorpcijske spektrometrije (FAAS), za simultano određivanje željeza i bakra u serumu djece. Ona se temelji na predobradbi uzorka u jednom koraku (deproteinizacija s 3 mol L–3 HCl u odnosu 1:1) i kalibraciji u jednom koraku sa standardom pripravljenim u 1.5 mol L–3 HCl. Tijekom optimizacije metode primijenjen je multifaktorski dizajnirani eksperiment. Preporučena metoda osigurava ispravnost, osjetljivost i preciznost usporedljivu onima referentnih metoda. Novi je pristup jednostavan i brz; on štedi i vrijeme i reagense i uzorke, pri čemu je potonje posebno važno u dječjoj dijagnostici.A new and simple flame atomic-absorption spectrometric (FAAS) method is proposed for simultaneous determination of iron and copper in children's sera. It is based on single-step sample pretreatment (deproteinization with 3 mol L–1 HCl, ratio 1:1) and single-step calibration using 1.5 mol L–1 HCl standard. During method’s optimization a short multifactorial design experiment was used. The proposed method assures accuracy, sensitivity and precision comparable to that of the reference methods. The new approach is simple and time-, labour- and serum-saving, the latter being especially important in pediatric diagnostics

Novel pyrimidine-2,4-diamine derivative suppresses the cell viability and spindle assembly checkpoint activity by targeting Aurora kinases

Mitosis represents a clinically important determination point in the life cycle of proliferating cells. One potential drug target within the mitotic machinery is the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC), an evolutionarily conserved signaling pathway that monitors the connections between microtubules (MTs) and chromosomes. Mistakes in SAC signaling may lead to cell division errors that can trigger elimination of cancer cells at M phase or soon after exit from mitosis. In this study, we describe the cellular effects of a novel pyrimidine-2,4-diamine derivative that we discovered to inhibit the activity of SAC. The compound caused rapid escape from the mitotic arrest induced by lack of interkinetochore tension but not by lack of MT-kinetochore attachments. In cycling cells, the compound disrupted the architecture of mitotic spindle that triggered a transient M-phase arrest that was rapidly followed by a forced mitotic exit. The premature termination of M phase was found to be a consequence of precocious inactivation of SAC caused by a direct inhibitory effect of the compound on Aurora B kinase in vitro and in cells. The compound also targets Aurora A kinase and tubulin in vitro and in cells, which can explain the observed spindle anomalies. The reduced activity of Aurora B kinase resulted in polyploidy and suppression of cancer cell viability. Our data suggest that this new pharmacophore possesses interesting anticancer properties that could be exploited in development of mitosis-targeting therapies