Mechanisms and Difference-Making

I argue that difference-making should be a crucial element for evaluating the quality of evidence for mechanisms, especially with respect to the robustness of mechanisms, and that it should take central stage when it comes to the general role played by mechanisms in establishing causal claims in medicine. The difference- making of mechanisms should provide additional compelling reasons to accept the gist of Russo-Williamson thesis and include mechanisms in the protocols for Evidence- Based Medicine (EBM), as the EBM+ research group has been advocatin

Estimating Contact Process Saturation in Sylvatic Transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi in the United States

Although it has been known for nearly a century that strains of Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent for Chagas' disease, are enzootic in the southern U.S., much remains unknown about the dynamics of its transmission in the sylvatic cycles that maintain it, including the relative importance of different transmission routes. Mathematical models can fill in gaps where field and lab data are difficult to collect, but they need as inputs the values of certain key demographic and epidemiological quantities which parametrize the models. In particular, they determine whether saturation occurs in the contact processes that communicate the infection between the two populations. Concentrating on raccoons, opossums, and woodrats as hosts in Texas and the southeastern U.S., and the vectors Triatoma sanguisuga and Triatoma gerstaeckeri, we use an exhaustive literature review to derive estimates for fundamental parameters, and use simple mathematical models to illustrate a method for estimating infection rates indirectly based on prevalence data. Results are used to draw conclusions about saturation and which population density drives each of the two contact-based infection processes (stercorarian/bloodborne and oral). Analysis suggests that the vector feeding process associated with stercorarian transmission to hosts and bloodborne transmission to vectors is limited by the population density of vectors when dealing with woodrats, but by that of hosts when dealing with raccoons and opossums, while the predation of hosts on vectors which drives oral transmission to hosts is limited by the population density of hosts. Confidence in these conclusions is limited by a severe paucity of data underlying associated parameter estimates, but the approaches developed here can also be applied to the study of other vector-borne infections

Fyysisesti inaktiivisten opiskelijoiden motivaatio korkeaintensiteettisessä intervalliharjoittelussa

Tämän opinnäytetyön tarkoituksena oli selvittää fyysisesti inaktiivisten opiskeli-joiden kokemuksia sisäisestä ja ulkoisesta motivaatiosta ja harjoittelun mielek-kyydestä pyörällä toteutetussa korkeaintensiteettisessä intervalliharjoittelussa (Sprint interval training=SIT). Yhteistyökumppani opinnäytetyössä oli Saimaan korkeakoululiikunta, jonka yhdyshenkilönä toimi fysioterapeutti Hanna Bohm. Opinnäytetyö oli kvalitatiivinen, jossa aineisto kerättiin puolistrukturoiduilla teemahaastatteluilla. Opinnäytetyöstä laitettiin ilmoitus Saimaan korkeakoulu-liikunta SaLUT:n sivuille, jonka kautta vapaaehtoiset olivat yhteydessä opin-näytetyön tekijöihin. Vapaaehtoisista ja kriteerit täyttävistä hakijoista valittiin viisi henkilöä, joista lopulta neljä päätyi opinnäytetyöhön osallistujiksi. Osallis-tujat osallistuivat neljän viikon SIT–protokollan mukaiseen harjoitteluun kol-mena päivänä viikossa. Haastatteluista saadut tulokset analysoitiin käyttämällä induktiivista sisällönanalyysiä. Aineiston perusteella fyysisesti inaktiiviset opiskelijat kokivat sisäisiä ja ulkoisia motiiveja pyörällä toteutetussa korkeaintensiteettisessä intervalliharjoittelussa. Osallistujat kokivat harjoittelun mielekkääksi näkyvien harjoitusvasteiden, har-joituksen lyhytkestoisuuden ja fyysisten tuntemusten ansiosta. Osallistujia mo-tivoivat jatkamaan tuloksien näkyminen, oma hyvinvointi, onnistumisen koke-mukset ja mielenkiinto harjoitusmuotoa kohtaan. Jatkossa tutkimustuloksia voidaan hyödyntää esimerkiksi osana fysioterapiaprosessia fyysisesti inaktiivi-silla asiakkailla.The purpose of the thesis was to examine experiences of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and reasonableness of training on physically inactive students in high intensity interval training implemented by cycle ergometer (Sprint interval training=SIT). The thesis was carried out in co-operation with Saimaan korkeakoululiikunta (Saimaa Higher Education Sports and Welfare Services). Physiotherapist Hanna Bohm from Saimaan korkeakoululiikunta acted as a contact person. The research method was qualitative and material was collected via semi-structured theme interviews. An advertisement was placed in the Saimaan korkeakoululiikunta website, inviting volunteers to contact the research team. Five people were selected among the volunteers and four ended up participat-ing in the study. The volunteers took part in intervention activities during four weeks, doing exercises according to the SIT–protocol three times a week. In-ductive content analysis was employed for analysing the answers received through interviews. According to the results, physically inactive students experienced both intrinsic and extrinsic motives in high intensity interval training implemented by cycle ergometer. Training was experienced enjoyable by the participants because of the exercise responses, short duration and physical sensations. The partici-pants were motivated to continue training because they saw the results and wanted to improve their wellbeing. Other motives to continue training were ex-periences of success and interest towards the training method. In the future the results can be used in physiotherapy processes with physically inactive clients, for example

Tropospheric emissions: Monitoring of pollution (TEMPO)

TEMPO was selected in 2012 by NASA as the first Earth Venture Instrument, for launch between 2018 and 2021. It will measure atmospheric pollution for greater North America from space using ultraviolet and visible spectroscopy. TEMPO observes from Mexico City, Cuba, and the Bahamas to the Canadian oil sands, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, hourly and at high spatial resolution (~2.1kmN/S x 4.4 kmE/W at 36.5°N, 100°W). TEMPO provides a tropospheric measurement suite that includes the key elements of tropospheric air pollution chemistry, as well as contributing to carbon cycle knowledge. Measurements are made hourly from geostationary (GEO) orbit, to capture the high variability present in the diurnal cycle of emissions and chemistry that are unobservable from current low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites that measure once per day. The small product spatial foot print resolves pollution sources at sub-urban scale. Together, this temporal and spatial resolution improves emission inventories, monitors population exposure, and enables effective emission-control strategies. TEMPO takes advantage of a commercial GEO host space craft to provide a modest cost mission that measures the spectra required to retrieve ozone(O3), nitrogen dioxide(NO2), sulfur dioxide(SO2), formaldehyde(H2CO), glyoxal (C2H2O2), bromine monoxide(BrO), IO (iodine monoxide), water vapor, aerosols, cloud parameters, ultraviolet radiation,and foliage properties. TEMPO thus measures the major elements,directly or by proxy, in the tropospheric O3 chemistry cycle. Multi-spectral observations provide sensitivity to O3 in the lower most troposphere, substantially reducing uncertainty in air quality predictions. TEMPO quantifies and tracks the evolution of aerosol loading. It provides these near-real- time air quality products that will be made publicly available. TEMPO will launch at a prime time to be the North American component of the global geostationary constellation of pollution monitoring together with the European Sentinel-4 (S4) and Korean Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) instruments