The Transcription Factor Twist1 Has a Significant Role in Mycosis Fungoides (MF) Cell Biology: An RNA Sequencing Study of 40 MF Cases

The purpose of this RNA sequencing study was to investigate the biological mechanism underlying how the transcription factors (TFs) Twist1 and Zeb1 influence the prognosis of mycosis fungoides (MF). We used laser-captured microdissection to dissect malignant T-cells obtained from 40 skin biopsies from 40 MF patients with stage I–IV disease. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to determinate the protein expression levels of Twist1 and Zeb1. Based on RNA sequencing, principal component analysis (PCA), differential expression (DE) analysis, ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA), and hub gene analysis were performed between the high and low Twist1 IHC expression cases. The DNA from 28 samples was used to analyze the TWIST1 promoter methylation level. In the PCA, Twist1 IHC expression seemed to classify cases into different groups. The DE analysis yielded 321 significant genes. In the IPA, 228 significant upstream regulators and 177 significant master regulators/causal networks were identified. In the hub gene analysis, 28 hub genes were found. The methylation level of TWIST1 promoter regions did not correlate with Twist1 protein expression. Zeb1 protein expression did not show any major correlation with global RNA expression in the PCA. Many of the observed genes and pathways associated with high Twist1 expression are known to be involved in immunoregulation, lymphocyte differentiation, and aggressive tumor biology. In conclusion, Twist1 might be an important regulator in the disease progression of MF

Tieteelliset kirjastot pandemian jälkeen: poikkeusaika kiihdytti työn muutosta

Koronaviruspandemia hiipuu ja vähitellen voidaan puhua pandemian jälkeisestä ajasta. Tieteellisten kirjastojen tilanne on erilainen kuin kaksi vuotta sitten. Nyt on aika luoda katsaus siihen, mitä oikeastaan tapahtui, ja pohtia vaikutusten kauaskantoisuutta. Tässä artikkelissa kirjastolaiset — kevään 2020 Signumin koronakirjeenvaihtajat — jatkavat koronaraportointia omista kirjastoistaan ja analysoivat mennyttä poikkeusaikaa

”Nenästä kiinni ja ponnistus ja hyppy! Kirjastot sopeutuivat koronakevääseen

Maailmanlaajuinen koronapandemia tavoitti maaliskuussa myös Suomen ja tieteelliset kirjastot siirtyivät muun yhteiskunnan mukana poikkeusoloihin. Vaikka koronakevät mullisti kirjastojen arjen, sopeutuminen uuteen tilanteeseen tapahtui kirjastoissa nopeasti ja joustavasti. Etätyöskentelyn mallit olivat monissa kirjastoissa jo entuudestaan tuttuja, mikä helpotti siirtymää. Tässä artikkelissa kirjastolaiset – Signumin koronakirjeenvaihtajat – kertovat kokemuksistaan ja havainnoistaan poikkeustilanteessa, ja välittävät tuokiokuvia digitalisoituvasta arjesta

Previous radiotherapy improves treatment responses and causes a trend toward longer time to progression among patients with immune checkpoint inhibitor-related adverse events

Background: Immune-related adverse events (irAEs) are frequently encountered by patients during immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) treatment and are associated with better treatment outcomes. The sequencing of radiotherapy (RT) and ICIs is widely used in current clinical practice, but its effect on survival has remained unclear. Methods: In a real-world multicenter study including 521 patients who received ICI treatment for metastatic or locally advanced cancer, RT schedules and timing, irAEs, time to progression, overall survival, and treatment responses were retrospectively reviewed. Results: Patients who received previous RT and developed irAE (RT +/AE +) had the best overall response rate (ORR 44.0%). The ORR was 40.1% in the RT −/AE + group, 26.7% in the RT −/AE − group and 18.3% in the RT + /AE − group (p < 0.001). There was a significantly longer time to progression (TTP) in the RT + /AE + group compared to the RT −/AE − and RT + /AE − groups (log rank p = 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively), but the trend toward longer TTP in the RT + /AE + group did not reach statistical significance in pairwise comparison to that in the RT −/AE + group. Preceding RT timing and intent had no statistically significant effect on TTP. In a multivariate model, ECOG = 0 and occurrence of irAEs remained independent positive prognostic factors for TTP (HR 0.737; 95% CI 0.582–0.935; p = 0.012, and HR 0.620; 95% CI 0.499–0.769; p < 0.001, respectively). Conclusions: Better ORR and a trend toward longer TTP were demonstrated for patients with RT preceding ICI treatment and development of irAEs, which suggests that RT may boost the therapeutic effect of immunotherapy in patients with metastatic cancers.Peer reviewe

Kirjoitustulkkina kuurosokealle : Selvitys vallitsevista käytänteistä

Opinnäytetyöni aiheena on kirjoitustulkkaus kuurosokeille. Selvityksen tavoitteena oli kerätä kentällä käytettäviä toimintamalleja kirjoitustulkkauksessa kuurosokeille. Tutkimuskysymykseni ovat ”mitä on kirjoitustulkkaus kuurosokeille ja mitkä ovat sen erityispiirteitä?” ja ”kuinka kirjoitustulkkikoulutuksen tulee varautua kuurosokeiden ja kuulonäkövammaisten asiakasryhmään?”. Opinnäytetyön tilaaja on Suomen Kuurosokeat ry. Selvitys toteutettiin teemakyselyllä kirjoitustulkeille sekä alan asiantuntijoiden ja asiakkaan haastatte-luilla. Kyselyllä kartoitettiin muun muassa kirjoitustulkkien koulutustaustaa, tulkki- tai työparin koulutus-taustaa, millaisissa tilanteissa on toimittu kirjoitustulkkina kuurosokealle, mitä eri tulkkaus- ja kommuni-kaatiomenetelmiä tilanteissa on käytetty, mitä eri apuvälineitä kirjoitustulkkauksessa kuurosokealle on käytetty, miten se eroaa muusta kirjoitustulkkauksesta, vaatiiko kirjoitustulkkina kuurosokealle toimimi-nen erityistaitoja ja jos niin mitä erityistaitoja koulutuksessa tulisi opettaa, mitkä ovat olleet kuurosokei-den asiakkaiden erityistoiveita ja vaatiiko kirjoitustulkkina kuurosokealle toimiminen erityishuomiota fyysisen ergonomia suhteen. Kyselyyn vastasi 12 kirjoitustulkkia, joista jokainen oli toiminut kirjoitus-tulkkina kuurosokealle. Haastattelin selvitykseen koulutustahon edustajaa Hanna Putkonen-Kankaanpäätä kirjoitustulkkikoulutuksen sisällöstä, alan asiantuntijaa Sirpa Laurénia yleisesti aiheesta kirjoitustulkkaus, sekä yhtä kirjoitustulkkauksen kuurosokeaa asiakasta aiheesta kirjoitustulkkaus kuu-rosokealle. Selvityksen pohjalta voidaan pohtia kirjoitustulkkikoulutuksen mahdollista päivitystarvetta tai tarvetta lisäkoulutukselle kirjoitustulkkauksesta kuurosokeille. Kyselyn vastauksista ilmeni, että kuvailu- ja opastustaidot tulisi olla tulkilla hallussa. Tämän lisäksi erilaiset apuvälineet ja niiden käyttö tulisi hallita ja tietää miten niiden käyttö voi vaikuttaa tilanteen kulkuun. Selvityksestä ilmeni myös, että usein kirjoitustulkkausta kuurosokeille tehdään erilaisissa kokouksissa. Avainasemassa kirjoitustulkkauksessa kuurosokeille on kuitenkin asiakasryhmän heterogeenisyys, joka asettaakin haasteita tulkeille ja tulkkivälitykselle. Asiakkaan tarpeet on otettava huomioon.This thesis focuses on speech-to-text interpreting to the deafblind. The goal was to collect procedures from the field about speech-to-text interpreting to the deafblind. The research questions are “what is speech-to-text interpreting to the deafblind and what are its special features” and “how should the education of a speech-to-text interpreter be arranged for the client group of the deafblind”. The subscriber of this thesis is The Finnish Deafblind Association. The study was conducted as a theme survey for speech-to-text interpreters and as an interview by a client and professionals. The survey was used to find out the educational background of speech-to-text interpreters, interpreters and work partners: the survey questions focused on situations where there has been speech-to-text interpreting to the deafblind, and also were aimed to find out which kind of different ways of interpreting and communication have been used in these situations, which different aid tools have been used and what the difference is between speech-to-text interpreting to the deafblind and other speech-to-text interpreting. The survey also sought answers to questions such as “does speech-to-text interpreting to the deafblind require special skills, and if so, what special skills should the education program provide?”, “what special wishes have the deafblind clients had and does speech-to-text interpreting require any special notice to ergonomic well-being?” The survey was answered by 12 speech-to-text interpreters who had all done speech-to-text interpreting to the deafblind. Three different people were also interviewed: the spokeswoman of the education program, Hanna Putkonen-Kankaanpää, on what the education includes, specialized professional Sirpa Laurén about speech-to-text interpreting, and one deafblind client about speech-to-text interpreting to the deafblind. Based on this study one can consider the training of speech-to-text interpreters needing an update on further education for speech-to-text interpreters. The answers to the survey show that describing and guiding skills are crucial/essential skills for speech-to-text interpreters. Also, different kinds of aid tools should be made familiar and speech-to-text interpreters should know how to use them and be aware of how using them can affect the situation with a client. It also became apparent from the study that the situations where interpreting for the deafblind usually happens are different sorts of meetings. It is important to notice, however, that the client group of the deafblind is very heterogeneous, and this brings challenges to the work and hiring of interpreters. The clients’ needs must always be well-considered

A tale of two innovation cultures: Bridging the gap between makers and manufacturers

Maker communities have been widely popularized during the last decade throughout the development of numerous shared spaces in the form of makerspaces, fab labs and hackerspaces across the globe. This phenomenon has drawn the attention of many stakeholders interested in establishing bridges with them for exploring their innovation potential. However, synergies between producer innovation and free innovation paradigms remain quite uncertain. To meet this gap, the authors provide an analysis of the 22 collaborative innovations between makers and manufacturers funded by the OPENMAKER project as well as relevant empirical evidence gathered throughout 126 semi-structured interviews. The findings of this contribution stress the misalignment of makers and manufacturers in society as well as their different values and motivations around innovation, and the lack of shared spaces. At the same time, the paper highlights the benefits that the interaction between these two communities could have for meeting societal challenges, increasing social welfare and speeding up innovation processes if proper incentives and conditions are orchestrated. In this sense, we propose a set of considerations and implications based on the empirical material gathered, for providing future directions for innovation policies and research agendas.This work was supported by the OPENMAKER project funded by the EC throughout the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme under Grant Agreement number 687941

European regional innovation. A methodological and updated alternative for RIS

Innovation has become a crucial factor for the development and survival of the manufacturing sector of European regions. The lower production costs in manufacturing of emerging countries force European companies to adopt strategies of technological specialization. Research and development are the two basic pillars of innovation, which obtain support from two basic resources: human capital and technology. The European Commission gives a special attention to the phenomenon of regional innovation, launching different initiatives for its evaluation, measurement and analysis. One initiative is the European Regional Innovation Scoreboard, RIS, which provides a support instrument for the design, formulation and evaluation of innovation policies. Our research gives continuity to the process of analysis and monitoring of regional innovation in Europe by contributing to a methodological alternative that updates and improves the RIS methodology, reducing considerably its arbitrariness and increasing its transparency. More specifically, we propose the incorporation of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) as an objective method of weighting the primary indicators when constructing the synthetic index of regional innovation. The present work applies the proposed methodology to a set of EUregions, including statistically updated information, and then analyzes the European regional ranking. It concludes with the main results and findings.Peer reviewe