PET and MR imaging in Parkinson’s disease patients with cognitive impairment. A study of dopaminergic dysfunction, amyloid deposition, cortical hypometabolism and brain atrophy

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder. It is characterized by a severe loss of substantia nigra dopaminergic neurons leading to dopamine depletion in the striatum. PD affects movement, producing motor symptoms such as rigidity, tremor and bradykinesia. Non-motor symptoms include autonomic dysfunction, neurobehavioral problems and cognitive impairment, which may lead to dementia. The pathophysiological basis of cognitive impairment and dementia in PD is unclear. The aim of this thesis was to study the pathophysiological basis of cognitive impairment and dementia in PD. We evaluated the relation between frontostriatal dopaminergic dysfunction and the cognitive symptoms in PD patients with [18F]Fdopa PET. We also combined [C]PIB and [18F]FDG PET and magnetic resonance imaging in PD patients with and without dementia. In addition, we analysed subregional striatal [18F]Fdopa PET data to find out whether a simple ratio approach would reliably separate PD patients from healthy controls. The impaired dopaminergic function of the frontostriatal regions was related to the impairment in cognitive functions, such as memory and cognitive processing in PD patients. PD patients with dementia showed an impaired glucose metabolism but not amyloid deposition in the cortical brain regions, and the hypometabolism was associated with the degree of cognitive impairment. PD patients had atrophy, both in the prefrontal cortex and in the hippocampus, and the hippocampal atrophy was related to impaired memory. A single 15-min scan 75 min after a tracer injection seemed to be sufficient for separating patients with PD from healthy controls in a clinical research environment. In conclusion, the occurrence of cognitive impairment and dementia in PD seems to be multifactorial and relates to changes, such as reduced dopaminergic activity, hypometabolism, brain atrophy and rarely to amyloid accumulation.Siirretty Doriast

Implementing web accessibility to an existing web application

Web accessibility is becoming more and more important as societies around the world rely more and more on digital services. It enables the services to be used by many different kinds of users. It is starting to become a norm in public sector organisations, which sets up expectations and demands for web applications. When you have an existing educational web application like Sanako Connect, how do you go about implementing web accessibility into it? That topic is explored through four research questions. First, as different countries and regions have regulations regarding web accessibility, and there are different web accessibility guidelines, what accessibility guidelines should be followed? Secondly, how those guidelines could be transformed into more concrete requirements? The research questions become more practical from here on out. The third research question asks how to modify the development process so that accessibility will be thought of in future development and revisions of the software. This is vital because the application is in a constant flux of new features and refactoring, which means that web accessibility should be an integral part of development. The final question is, what are the challenges and solutions when implementing the requirements to an existing application. Background into web applications and web accessibility is provided to find answers to the first two questions. The last two questions are explored through the starting phases of a web accessibility implementation project. The implementation project will also validate answers for the first two questions, as the guidelines and requirements will guide the development process and implementation. Even though the implementation details are unique to this one product, the challenges and solutions are general enough that they support previously discussed approaches to web accessibility. The most important takeaway is that there rarely are valid arguments for not including web accessibility into new projects from the start. Including it afterwards is always the harder path to take

Agriculture in the information society: challenges of sustainable development

The overall goal of the study was to identify possible impacts of the information society on ecologically, economically and socially sustainable development in Finnish agriculture

Connecting Abaqus and CATIA V5 in product development

Abstract. In this work Abaqus software, which is used for doing finite element analysis, and the associative interface of CATIA V5 computer-aided design software and Abaqus were researched. From the associative interface, the usage with Abaqus and the usage’s requirements were researched. From Abaqus it’s usage and requirements were studied. The software was also explored by a case study. In the case study there was no need to utilize the associativity of the associative interface. The methods of research in this work were computer-aided design, finite element analysis and the connection of those through associative interface. In this work it was clarified how the associative interface works with Abaqus by the features, and how Abaqus works by its modules. This work included a case study, in which squeezing of a cavity seal between two plastic shells was simulated. In the case study nonlinear material model for the cavity seal was used. The case study was challenging due high nonlinearity and included especially calculation time challenges. In the case study a situation occurred where the simulation did not pass every step. Because of that a decision was made to make a second finite element analysis model, where the cavity seal model was replaced by gasket model that was simpler in terms of the calculations. The old model was named as model A and the new model as model B. In case study’s results models A and B were compared, and represented shell’s strains and stress of screw towers were calculated by model B. In the work’s discussion the benefits of associative interface with Abaqus were discussed together with an export problem which appeared during the work, a need of expert for making simulations and the change of gasket model in the case study. As conclusions it was stated of the associative interface that its very useful with Abaqus, and it does not need special skills or experience for the use. However, as a conclusion it was stated that training is needed for use of Abaqus.Abaqus ja CATIA V5 -ohjelmistojen yhdistäminen tuotekehityksessä. Tiivistelmä. Tässä työssä tutkittiin Dassault Systémesin Abaqus-ohjelmaa, jolla tehdään elementtianalyyseja sekä CATIA V5 -tietokoneavusteisen suunnitteluohjelman ja Abaquksen välistä assosiatiivista käyttöliittymää. Assosiatiivisesta käyttöliittymästä tutkittiin yhteiskäyttöä Abaquksen kanssa, ja yhteiskäytön vaatimuksia. Abaquksesta tutkittiin käyttöä ja käytön vaatimuksia. Ohjelmistoon tutustuttiin myös esimerkkitapauksen avulla. Tässä esimerkkitapauksessa ei tarvinnut hyödyntää assosiatiivisen käyttöliittymän assosiatiivisuutta. Käytettävät tutkimusmenetelmät työssä olivat tietokoneavusteinen suunnittelu, elementtianalyysi, ja tietokoneavusteisen suunnittelun ja elementtianalyysin yhdistäminen. Työssä selvitettiin, miten assosiatiivinen käyttöliittymä toimii Abaquksen kanssa ominaisuuksittain ja miten Abaqus toimii moduuleittain. Lisäksi työ sisälsi esimerkkitapauksen, jossa simuloitiin ontelotiivisteen puristusta kahden muovikuoren väliin. Esimerkkitapauksessa käytettiin epälineaarista materiaalimallia ontelotiivisteelle. Tämä esimerkkitapaus oli vaativa ja sisälsi erityisesti laskenta-aikahaasteita. Esimerkkitapauksessa päädyttiin tilanteeseen, jossa simulaatio ei mennyt kaikkein vaiheiden läpi. Tämän takia päädyttiin tekemään toinenkin elementtianalyysimalli, jossa ontelotiivistemalli oli korvattu laskennan kannalta yksinkertaisemmalla tiivistemallilla. Vanha malli nimettiin malli A:ksi, ja uusi malli nimettiin malli B:ksi. Esimerkkitapauksen tuloksissa vertailtiin malleja A ja B, ja otettiin esiin mallilla B laskettuja kuorten venymiä ja ruuvitornien jännitystiloja. Työn käsittelyosuudessa käsiteltiin assosiatiivisen käyttöliittymän hyötyjä Abaquksen kanssa, työtä tehdessä ilmenneeseen tiedonvienti ongelmaan, asiantuntijan tarvetta esimerkkitapauksen simulaatiota tehdessä ja tiivistemallin vaihtoa työssä. Johtopäätöksinä assosiatiivisesta käyttöliittymästä todettiin, että se on Abaquksen kanssa hyvin käyttökelpoinen, eikä tarvitse erikoisosaamista tai -kokemusta käyttöä varten. Johtopäätöksenä Abaquksesta todettiin, että se tarvitsee käyttöä varten kouluttautumista

Ympäristöyhteiskuntateorian moninainen olemus

Ilmo Massa (toim.): Vihreä teoria. Ympäristö yhteiskuntateorioissa. Gaudeamus 2009

The Sustainability of agriculture in a northern industrialized country : from controlling nature to rural development

Published by MDPI AG, Basel, SwitzerlandThe concept of sustainability has been a part of theory and practice in agriculture for a long time, but the diverse roots of the concept have led to a number of different definitions of sustainable agriculture. This paper provides an overview of the policy development of sustainable agriculture in Finland by examining internal and external discourses of sustainability and the evolution in different dimensions of sustainability. We show that the debate on sustainability within European Union s Common Agricultural Policy and Finnish agri-environmental policy are reflected in attempts to implement and monitor sustainability in agriculture in Finland. However, indicators suggest a largely non-sustainable condition. This has contributed to a shift in policy objectives from sustainable agriculture to sustainable rural development, especially in the EU context. As there are commonly trade-offs between the economic, ecological and social dimensions of sustainable development, future developments in sustainable agriculture will inevitably be characterized by continuous redefinitions of problems, paradigm revisions and reassessments of actions already taken.v2012o

Integrin α2β1 in nonactivated conformation can induce focal adhesion kinase signaling.

Conformational activation of integrins is generally required for ligand binding and cellular signalling. However, we have previously reported that the nonactivated conformation of α2β1 integrin can also bind to large ligands, such as human echovirus 1. In this study, we show that the interaction between the nonactivated integrin and a ligand resulted in the activation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) in a protein kinase C dependent manner. A loss-of-function mutation, α2E336A, in the α2-integrin did not prevent the activation of FAK, nor did EDTA-mediated inactivation of the integrin. Full FAK activation was observed, since phosphorylation was not only confirmed in residue Y397, but also in residues Y576/7. Furthermore, initiation of downstream signaling by paxillin phosphorylation in residue Y118 was evident, even though this activation was transient by nature, probably due to the lack of talin involvement in FAK activation and the absence of vinculin in the adhesion complexes formed by the nonactivated integrins. Altogether these results indicate that the nonactivated integrins can induce cellular signaling, but the outcome of the signaling differs from conventional integrin signaling

Elävät kaupunkilaboratoriot: kulttuuritoimijat Tampereen Hiedanrannan uudistajina

This paper examines the role of cultural actors in promoting sustainability in an urban living lab (ULL). The case study utilizes thematic analysis on the interviews of cultural actors working in the multi-sectoral, circular-economy oriented Hiedanranta ULL in Tampere. The results of the study show, first, that the cultural sector is not detached from the innovative business and experimentation sector of the ULL. On the contrary, cultural actors advance creative ambience and co-develop experimentations, making them an essential part of the ULL innovation processes. Second, cultural actors promote social and cultural sustainability at the local level, which often stays hidden in the processes of upscaling innovations. Third, the sustainable and transformative potential of cultural actors, within and beyond the ULL is mostly horizontal. The results suggest that the cultural sector, comprising civil society actors, can have a multidimensional effect on ULL development. &nbsp