Reliability of Instruments Measuring At-Risk and Problem Gambling Among Young Individuals : A Systematic Review Covering Years 2009-2015

Peer reviewe

Reaction pathways during oxidation of cereal β-glucans

Oxidation of cereal beta-glucans may affect their stability in food products. Generally, polysaccharides oxidise via different pathways leading to chain cleavage or formation of oxidised groups within the polymer chain. In this study, oxidation pathways of oat and barley beta-glucans were assessed with different concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) or ascorbic acid (Asc) with ferrous iron (Fe2+) as a catalyst. Degradation of beta-glucans was evaluated using high performance size exclusion chromatography and formation of carbonyl groups using carbazole-9-carbonyloxyamine labelling. Furthermore, oxidative degradation of glucosyl residues was studied. Based on the results, the oxidation with Asc mainly resulted in glycosidic bond cleavage. With H2O2, both glycosidic bond cleavage and formation of carbonyl groups within the beta-glucan chain was found. Moreover, H2O2 oxidation led to production of formic acid, which was proposed to result from Ruff degradation where oxidised glucose (gluconic acid) is decarboxylated to form arabinose. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Treating gambling disorder with as needed administration of intranasal naloxone : a pilot study to evaluate acceptability, feasibility and outcomes

Correction:Background and aim There is growing interest in the use of medication-assisted treatments for gambling disorder (GD). Opioid receptor antagonists are hypothesised to blunt the craving associated with gambling. This study was designed to assess the feasibility of using an intranasal naloxone spray to treat GD. Design An 8-week, open-label, uncontrolled pilot study. Setting A single study site in the capital region of Finland. Subjects Twenty problem gamblers (nine men) were randomised into two groups. Group A (n=10) took one dose into one nostril (2mg naloxone), as needed, with a maximum of 4 doses/day (max. 8mg/day). Group B (n=10) took one dose into each nostril (4mg naloxone) as needed, with a maximum of 4 doses/day (max. 16mg/day). Intervention Naloxone hydrochloride nasal spray. Measures Acceptability and feasibility of the intervention were assessed. Use of study medication, adverse events, gambling frequency and gambling expenditure were recorded in a mobile diary. Problem gambling: South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), depressive symptoms: Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and alcohol use: Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test were recorded. Results Study completion rate was 90%. Acceptability and feasibility scores were high. Group B used intranasal naloxone more frequently than group A, and consequently used more naloxone. No serious adverse events were reported. The postintervention SOGS scores were lower (median=4 (IQR=3.75) versus preintervention scores (median=12 (IQR=4.75)). Depressive symptoms were reduced during the trial (preintervention BDI median=9, IQR=9vs postintervention BDI median=6, IQR=6). Conclusions The acceptability and feasibility of using intranasal naloxone were high, and no serious adverse events were reported. Preliminary results suggest mixed results in terms of gambling behaviour (ie, reduced frequency but not expenditure) and decreased depressive symptoms. Trial registration number EudraCT2016-001828-56Peer reviewe

Treating gambling disorder with as needed administration of intranasal naloxone: A pilot study to evaluate acceptability, feasibility and outcomes

Background and aim There is growing interest in the use of medication-assisted treatments for gambling disorder (GD). Opioid receptor antagonists are hypothesised to blunt the craving associated with gambling. This study was designed to assess the feasibility of using an intranasal naloxone spray to treat GD.Design An 8-week, open-label, uncontrolled pilot study.Setting A single study site in the capital region of Finland.Subjects Twenty problem gamblers (nine men) were randomised into two groups. Group A (n=10) took one dose into one nostril (2 mg naloxone), as needed, with a maximum of 4 doses/day (max. 8 mg/day). Group B (n=10) took one dose into each nostril (4 mg naloxone) as needed, with a maximum of 4 doses/day (max. 16 mg/day).Intervention Naloxone hydrochloride nasal spray.Measures Acceptability and feasibility of the intervention were assessed. Use of study medication, adverse events, gambling frequency and gambling expenditure were recorded in a mobile diary. Problem gambling: South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), depressive symptoms: Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and alcohol use: Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test were recorded.Results Study completion rate was 90%. Acceptability and feasibility scores were high. Group B used intranasal naloxone more frequently than group A, and consequently used more naloxone. No serious adverse events were reported. The postintervention SOGS scores were lower (median=4 (IQR=3.75) versus preintervention scores (median=12 (IQR=4.75)). Depressive symptoms were reduced during the trial (preintervention BDI median=9, IQR=9 vs postintervention BDI median=6, IQR=6).Conclusions The acceptability and feasibility of using intranasal naloxone were high, and no serious adverse events were reported. Preliminary results suggest mixed results in terms of gambling behaviour (ie, reduced frequency but not expenditure) and decreased depressive symptoms.</div

Kliinisen lääketieteen tohtorikoulutus tarjoaa tänään rakenteellisesti aiempaa suunnitellumman tutkijankoulutuksen

English summar

Does the company's economic performance affect access to occupational health services?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In Finland like in many other countries, employers are legally obliged to organize occupational health services (OHS) for their employees. Because employers bear the costs of OHS it could be that in spite of the legal requirement OHS expenditure is more determined by economic performance of the company than by law. Therefore, we explored whether economic performance was associated with the companies' expenditure on occupational health services.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We used a prospective design to predict expenditure on OHS in 2001 by a company's economic performance in 1999. Data were provided by Statistics Finland and expressed by key indicators for profitability, solidity and liquidity and by the Social Insurance Institution as employers' reimbursement applications for OHS costs. The data could be linked at the company level. Regression analysis was used to study associations adjusted for various confounders.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Nineteen percent of the companies (N = 6 155) did not apply for reimbursement of OHS costs in 2001. The profitability of the company represented by operating margin in 1999 and adjusted for type of industry was not significantly related to the company's probability to apply for reimbursement of the costs in 2001 (OR = 1.00, 95%CI: 0.99 to 1.01). Profitability measured as operating profit in 1999 and adjusted for type of industry was not significantly related to costs for curative medical services (Beta -0.001, 95%CI: -0.00 to 0.11) nor to OHS cost of prevention in 2001 (Beta -0.001, 95%CI: -0.00 to 0.00).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We did not find a relation between the company's economic performance and expenditure on OHS in Finland. We suppose that this is due to legislation obliging employers to provide OHS and the reimbursement system both being strong incentives for employers.</p

Sensitivity of the human auditory cortex to acoustic degradation of speech and non-speech sounds

The perception of speech is usually an effortless and reliable process even in highly adverse listening conditions. In addition to external sound sources, the intelligibility of speech can be reduced by degradation of the structure of speech signal itself, for example by digital compression of sound. This kind of distortion may be even more detrimental to speech intelligibility than external distortion, given that the auditory system will not be able to utilize sound source-specific acoustic features, such as spatial location, to separate the distortion from the speech signal. The perceptual consequences of acoustic distortions on speech intelligibility have been extensively studied. However, the cortical mechanisms of speech perception in adverse listening conditions are not well known at present, particularly in situations where the speech signal itself is distorted. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the cortical mechanisms underlying speech perception in conditions where speech is less intelligible due to external distortion or as a result of digital compression. In the studies of this thesis, the intelligibility of speech was varied either by digital compression or addition of stochastic noise. Cortical activity related to the speech stimuli was measured using magnetoencephalography (MEG). The results indicated that degradation of speech sounds by digital compression enhanced the evoked responses originating from the auditory cortex, whereas addition of stochastic noise did not modulate the cortical responses. Furthermore, it was shown that if the distortion was presented continuously in the background, the transient activity of auditory cortex was delayed. On the perceptual level, digital compression reduced the comprehensibility of speech more than additive stochastic noise. In addition, it was also demonstrated that prior knowledge of speech content enhanced the intelligibility of distorted speech substantially, and this perceptual change was associated with an increase in cortical activity within several regions adjacent to auditory cortex. In conclusion, the results of this thesis show that the auditory cortex is very sensitive to the acoustic features of the distortion, while at later processing stages, several cortical areas reflect the intelligibility of speech. These findings suggest that the auditory system rapidly adapts to the variability of the auditory environment, and can efficiently utilize previous knowledge of speech content in deciphering acoustically degraded speech signals.Puheen havaitseminen on useimmiten vaivatonta ja luotettavaa myös erittäin huonoissa kuunteluolosuhteissa. Puheen ymmärrettävyys voi kuitenkin heikentyä ympäristön häiriölähteiden lisäksi myös silloin, kun puhesignaalin rakennetta muutetaan esimerkiksi pakkaamalla digitaalista ääntä. Tällainen häiriö voi heikentää ymmärrettävyyttä jopa ulkoisia häiriöitä voimakkaammin, koska kuulojärjestelmä ei pysty hyödyntämään äänilähteen ominaisuuksia, kuten äänen tulosuuntaa, häiriön erottelemisessa puheesta. Akustisten häiriöiden vaikutuksia puheen havaitsemiseen on tutkttu laajalti, mutta havaitsemiseen liittyvät aivomekanismit tunnetaan edelleen melko puutteelisesti etenkin tilanteissa, joissa itse puhesignaali on laadultaan heikentynyt. Tämän väitöskirjan tavoitteena oli tutkia puheen havaitsemisen aivomekanismeja tilanteissa, joissa puhesignaali on vaikeammin ymmärrettävissä joko ulkoisen äänilähteen tai digitaalisen pakkauksen vuoksi. Väitöskirjan neljässä osatutkimuksessa lyhyiden puheäänien ja jatkuvan puheen ymmärrettävyyttä muokattiin joko digitaalisen pakkauksen kautta tai lisäämällä puhesignaaliin satunnaiskohinaa. Puheärsykkeisiin liittyvää aivotoimintaa tutkittiin magnetoenkefalografia-mittauksilla. Tutkimuksissa havaittiin, että kuuloaivokuorella syntyneet herätevasteet voimistuivat, kun puheääntä pakattiin digitaalisesti. Sen sijaan puheääniin lisätty satunnaiskohina ei vaikuttanut herätevasteisiin. Edelleen, mikäli puheäänien taustalla esitettiin jatkuvaa häiriötä, kuuloaivokuoren aktivoituminen viivästyi häiriön intensiteetin kasvaessa. Kuuntelukokeissa havaittiin, että digitaalinen pakkaus heikentää puheäänien ymmärrettävyyttä voimakkaammin kuin satunnaiskohina. Lisäksi osoitettiin, että aiempi tieto puheen sisällöstä paransi merkittävästi häiriöisen puheen ymmärrettävyyttä, mikä heijastui aivotoimintaan kuuloaivokuoren viereisillä aivoalueilla siten, että ymmärrettävä puhe aiheutti suuremman aktivaation kuin heikosti ymmärrettävä puhe. Väitöskirjan tulokset osoittavat, että kuuloaivokuori on erittäin herkkä puheäänien akustisille häiriöille, ja myöhemmissä prosessoinnin vaiheissa useat kuuloaivokuoren viereiset aivoalueet heijastavat puheen ymmärrettävyyttä. Tulosten mukaan voi olettaa, että kuulojärjestelmä mukautuu nopeasti ääniympäristön vaihteluihin muun muassa hyödyntämällä aiempaa tietoa puheen sisällöstä tulkitessaan häiriöistä puhesignaalia

Prevalence of neoplasms among former adolescent psychiatric inpatients

Abstract Objective: To examine the association between psychiatric disorders and neoplasms. Methods: A follow-up study of a population-based cohort of patients admitted for psychiatric care between the ages 13–17 years. The cases were patients with a follow-up diagnosis of neoplasm. The K-SADS-PL interview was used to assess DSM-IV based psychiatric diagnoses at adolescence. The treatment episodes due to neoplasms and related psychiatric disorders were extracted from the National Health Care Registers. Results: Of the original cohort, 6.3% of subjects had a neoplasm diagnosis. Male cases were characterized as taking snuff and females as having a fear of becoming obese. 75% of cases had smoked regularly and 47% suffered from substance misuse disorder already in adolescence. At a mean age of 22 years, the diagnoses of skin or soft tissue neoplasms were prevailing, three being malignant neoplasms of the skin, mouth or colon. Non-psychotic disorders were comorbid both two years before (26%) and after (33%) the neoplasm diagnosis. Conclusion: Focus on psychiatric symptoms of patients with neoplasms may enhance their treatment outcome and quality of life

Ultraelastic and high-conductivity multiphase conductor with universally autonomous self-healing

Abstract Next-generation, truly soft, and stretchable electronic circuits with material level self-healing functionality require high-performance solution-processable organic conductors capable of autonomously self-healing without external intervention. A persistent challenge is to achieve required performance level as electrical, mechanical, and self-healing properties optimized in tandem are difficult to attain. Here heterogenous multiphase conductor with cocontinuous morphology and macroscale phase separation for ultrafast universally autonomous self-healing with full recovery of pristine tensile and electrical properties in less than 120 and 900 s, respectively, is reported. The multiphase conductor is insensitive to flaws under stretching and achieves a synergistic combination of conductivity up to ≈1.5 S cm−1, stress at break ≈4 MPa, toughness up to >81 MJ m−3, and elastic recovery exceeding 2000% strain. Such properties are difficult to achieve simultaneously with any other type of material so far. The solution-processable multiphase conductor offers a paradigm shift for damage tolerant and environmentally resistant soft electronic components and circuits with material level self-healing