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Composition of cardiac troponin release differs after marathon running and myocardial infarction
OBJECTIVES: Elevations of cardiac troponin T (cTnT) levels are common after strenuous exercise. We assessed whether the composition of cTnT release after marathon race differs from that of acute myocardial infarction (MI).METHODS: Troponin composition was analysed in plasma samples taken from 45 runners after marathon race and from 84 patients with type 1 MI. The concentration of long cTnT (intact and mildly fragmented cTnT) was measured with a novel upconversion luminescence immunoassay, total cTnT with a commercial high-sensitivity cTnT assay, and the ratio of long to total cTnT (troponin ratio) was determined as a measure of troponin fragmentation.RESULTS: Total cTnT exceeded the upper reference limit (>14 ng/L) in 37 (82%) runners. Troponin ratio was lower in runners ((IQR) 0.17 (0.11-0.24) vs 0.62 (0.29-0.96), pCONCLUSION: In contrast to type 1 MI, only a small fraction of circulating cTnT exists as intact cTnT or long molecular forms after strenuous exercise and the difference in troponin composition is more pronounced in runners with higher troponin release.TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT06000930.</p
Frequent native language use supports phonemic and semantic verbal fluency in L1 and L2: An extended analysis of verbal fluency task performance in an L1 language attrition population
Purpose: Verbal fluency (VF) tasks are an efficient tool for exploring lexical retrieval. Attriters generally produce fewer words in semantic categories than monolinguals, but the processes underlying attriters' lexical retrieval remain unclear. Phonemic tasks are scarcely applied in language attrition studies. We aim to identify processes underlying attriters' phonemic verbal fluency (PVF) and semantic verbal fluency (SVF) performance by extending the analysis beyond total scores in the first (L1) and second (L2) language.Design: We modeled total scores and temporal aspects of task performance in L1 and L2 for the attriters, with L1 use and length of residence (LoR) as predictors. We analyzed the number and types of errors between languages and compared L1 task performance with a matched monolingual group.Data and analysis: Attriters' (N = 38) phonemic and semantic task performance in L1 (Finnish) and L2 (English) were modeled, and results were contrasted to a matched monolingual control group (N = 50).Findings: Attriters demonstrated strong proficiency in L1 and similar lexical retrieval processes in L1 and L2 after 20 years of immersive L2 exposure. Frequent L1 use supported overall performance but slowed performance down in both languages. Compared with monolinguals, attriters show a disadvantage in SVF, but not due to slower initiation. Instead, attriters rely more on rapid L1 retrieval than monolinguals.Originality: Prior research on VF tasks in language attrition populations has mainly focused on SVF total scores in L1. Our investigation explores underlying mechanisms of L1 and L2 task performance in PVF and SVF within a language attrition population and contrasts L1 performance to a matched monolingual group performance.Implications: This study demonstrates the importance of investigating L2 alongside L1 in language attrition studies for a holistic approach to language processing strategies. Our findings enhance understanding of the processes underlying VF task performance, emphasizing the significance of VF task early-stage performance.</p
Measuring the ejecta velocities of type Ia supernovae from the pan-STARRS1 medium deep survey
There is growing evidence that Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) may originate from multiple explosion channels. Previous studies have indicated that the ejecta velocity of SNe Ia is one powerful tool to discriminate between different channels. In this work, we study ∼400 confirmed SNe Ia discovered by the Pan-STARRS1 Medium Deep Survey (PS1-MDS), and obtain a sample of ∼50 SNe Ia that have near-peak Si II λ6355 velocity (vSi II) measurements. We investigate the relationships between vSi II and various parameters, including SN light-curve width, colour, host galaxy properties, and redshift. No significant trends are identified between vSi II and light-curve parameters. Regarding the host-galaxy properties, we see a significant trend that high-velocity (HV) SNe Ia (vSi II 12000 km s−1) tend to reside in more massive galaxies compared to normal velocity (NV) SNe Ia (vSi II Key words: transients: supernovae.</p
Comparison of thresholds for a convolutional neural network classifying medical images
Our aim is to compare different thresholds for a convolutional neural network (CNN) designed for binary classification of medical images. We consider six different thresholds, including the default threshold of 0.5, Youden's threshold, the point on the ROC curve closest to the point (0,1), the threshold of equal sensitivity and specificity, and two sensitivity-weighted thresholds. We test these thresholds on the predictions of a CNN with InceptionV3 architecture computed from five datasets consisting of medical images of different modalities related to either cancer or lung infections. The classifications of each threshold are evaluated by considering their accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, F1 score, and net benefit. According to our results, the best thresholds are Youden's threshold, the point on the ROC curve closest to the point (0,1), and the threshold of equal sensitivity and specificity, all of which work significantly better than the default threshold in terms of accuracy and F1 score. If higher values of sensitivity are desired, one of the two sensitivity-weighted could be of interest
Changes in life satisfaction during the transition to retirement: findings from the FIREA cohort study
Life satisfaction is an essential construct of well-being that is tied to behavioral, emotional, social and psychological outcomes. This study aimed to examine changes in total and domain-specific life satisfaction during the retirement transition and additionally examine whether those changes differ by gender, occupation, health and spousal working status. Aging public sector employees (n = 3543) from the Finnish Retirement and Aging Study cohort study were followed up annually before and after retirement. Total life satisfaction score (range 4-20) was computed by summing up the responses in four domains (interestingness, happiness, easiness and togetherness). The mean and mean change estimates and their 95% CI were calculated by using the linear regression models with generalized estimating equations, adjusted for age, gender, occupation, health and marital status. Total life satisfaction score improved among the entire study population during the retirement transition and remained stable thereafter. The improvement was greater among women versus men (gender * time interaction p = 0.004), among those with suboptimal health before retirement vs. those who had good (health * time p < 0.0001) and those who had no spouse vs. those who had a retired or working spouse (spousal-status * time p < 0.0001). In case of domain-specific life satisfaction scores, the greatest improvement was observed in the easiness domain. Life satisfaction improves during the retirement transition period, especially among women, those with suboptimal health and those living without a spouse. The improvement was considerably greater in the easiness domain than any other domains. Life satisfaction remained improved and stable during the post-retirement period
Horses discriminate between human facial and vocal expressions of sadness and joy
Communication of emotions plays a key role in intraspecific social interactions and likely in interspecific interactions. Several studies have shown that animals perceive human joy and anger, but few studies have examined other human emotions, such as sadness. In this study, we conducted a cross-modal experiment, in which we showed 28 horses two soundless videos simultaneously, one showing a sad, and one a joyful human face. These were accompanied by either a sad or joyful voice. The number of horses whose first look to the video that was incongruent with the voice was longer than their first look to the congruent video was higher than chance, suggesting that horses could form cross-modal representations of human joy and sadness. Moreover, horses were more attentive to the videos of joy and looked at them for longer, more frequently, and more rapidly than the videos of sadness. Their heart rates tended to increase when they heard joy and to decrease when they heard sadness. These results show that horses are able to discriminate facial and vocal expressions of joy and sadness and may form cross-modal representations of these emotions; they also are more attracted to joyful faces than to sad faces and seem to be more aroused by a joyful voice than a sad voice. Further studies are needed to better understand how horses perceive the range of human emotions, and we propose that future experiments include neutral stimuli as well as emotions with different arousal levels but a same valence
Kirja-arvio : Kontroversen kring det österbottniska ”tomrummet”: forntid, historiebruk och identitetspolitik
Arvio väitöskirjasta: Andreas Granberg, Bosättningsfrågan som en del av Österbottens äldre historia. Kunskapscirkulation och fria forskare i kontrovers 1978–2005. Åbo Akademis förlag, 2022.</p
5'-O-(2-Isopropoxyprop-2-yl)-protected Phosphoramidite Building Blocks in the Liquid Phase Oligonucleotide Synthesis
5'-O-(2-isopropoxyprop-2-yl) (IIP)-protection was introduced to 5’-OH function of nucleosides in high yields by an acid-catalysed transacetalization with 2,2-diisopropoxypropane. The applicability of this temporal 5’-O-protecting group was demonstrated in the liquid phase oligonucleotide synthesis (LPOS) using the corresponding phosphoramidite building blocks (dA, dG, dC and dT) and a tetrapodal precipitative soluble support. Standard protecting groups were used on nucleobases. Tetrazole as an activator, followed by oxidation using m-chloroperbenzoic acid, was used for the coupling. The IIP was shown to be a capable choice to the 5’-O protection in solution phase synthesis. It could be readily removed with formic acid (t1/2</p
Kasvokkain kohtaamiset ovat tärkeä osa lääkärikoulutusta
Hyväksi lääkäriksi kasvamiseen ei ole oikotietä, opinnoissa tarvitaan paljon aikaa yhdessäoloon.</p