UTUPub
Not a member yet
55238 research outputs found
Sort by
Enhancing identification of nonaffective psychosis in register-based studies
Get PDFThe Finnish Quality of Psychosis Care Register assesses nonaffective psychosis (NAP) care, acknowledging treatment outside specialized psychiatric services. This approach, while providing a holistic view, raises concerns about diagnostic inaccuracies. Here, we studied situations where the register-based diagnosis might be inaccurate, and whether the first episode can be reliably identified using a 14-year wash-out period. People with first register-based NAP (ICD-10 F20-F29) between years 2010 and 2018 and without NAP diagnoses in 1996–2009 were identified from the Care Register for Health Care. A diagnosis of NAP was deemed unreliable before age 7, when dementia preceded NAP diagnosis, and when a NAP diagnosis had been assigned at admission or during psychiatric hospitalization but was not confirmed by discharge diagnosis. Despite a 14-year follow-back the first register diagnosis may miss the first treatment episode in older patients. Register-based studies on psychotic disorders should pay attention to exclusion criteria and to the definition of treatment onset. © The Author(s) 2024
Typologies in Sequence Analysis: Practical Guidelines for Identifying Robust Cluster Solutions
Get PDFSequence analysis in the social sciences heavily relies on cluster techniques to identify typologies. Clustering techniques and statistical cluster cut-off criteria for selecting the optimal number of clusters have greatly improved. In contrast, we lack a systematic assessment of how data features, such as the sequence sample size, the number of time points in the sequences, and the number of distinct states in the sequence alphabet might systematically impact the identification of sequence typologies. Drawing on both simulated data from mixture Markov models and real data from the German Family Panel survey, we provide best-practice guidelines for applied researchers to gauge whether their data is sufficient for extracting robust sequence typologies, if they empirically exist. Sequence typologies are most robust for samples with at least 500 sequences, sequence lengths greater than 10 time points, and state alphabets that have at least as many states as the “true” number of clusters.</p
Hepatic Glucose Uptake During Euglycemic Hyperinsulinemia Associates With Glycemia During Oral Glucose Tolerance Test
Get PDFContext: Postprandial hepatic glycogen synthesis and glycolysis are reduced in hepatic insulin resistance. However, the physiologic interpretation of the reduction in hepatic glucose uptake (GU) during the gold-standard measurement of insulin sensitivity, hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp, in insulin resistance is unclear. This is because the peripheral route of glucose and insulin delivery during a clamp study differs greatly from the physiological route. Objective: We hypothesized that hepatic GU during hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp would predict glycemia during oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Design: We analyzed cross-sectional data of 120 individuals (70 men and 50 women) who did not have diabetes from the CMgene study cohort. Hepatic GU was measured with [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose ([18F]FDG) and positron emission tomography. Results: In a multiple regression analysis, hepatic GU, endogenous glucose production, insulin secretion capacity, and serum triglycerides predicted OGTT glucose area under the curve (P for all P > .05). Conclusions: Hepatic GU measured during hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp is an independent predictor of OGTT glucose area under the curves even when accounting for well-known other factors affecting glycemic control. This finding supports the idea that insulin-mediated hepatic GU, and more broadly, first-pass glucose extraction, have a meaningful contribution to glycemic control. Thus, this measurement provides useful information about hepatic insulin sensitivity in the more physiologic conditions of the OGTT which may be useful when studying the pathophysiology of impaired glucose tolerance and when evaluating potential treatments for impaired glycemic control.</p
Foresight on Demand (FoD) Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on European Consumer Behaviour - Foresight Study
Get PDFOver the course of the project, experts and stakeholders were repeatedly involved in order to jointly develop opportunities and risks for consumers, particularly vulnerable groups, and ideas for policy actions. The project served as a pilot project for the implementation of comprehensive strategic foresight in DG JUST and for building capacities to cope with future uncertainties. The identified trends and scenarios provide an overview of possible future developments in consumption after the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be addressed with the proposed ideas for policy actions for sustainable consumer protection and the strengthening of consumer rights for the green and digital transition.</p
Home non-invasive ventilation : An observational study of aetiology, chronic respiratory failure of multiple aetiologies, survival and treatment adherence
Get PDFHome non-invasive ventilation (NIV) is used to treat patients with chronic respiratory failure (CRF). However, knowledge on the prevalence and impact of multimorbid aetiology of CRF, patterns of NIV use, and survival of these patients is limited. Our aim was to analyse the multiple aetiologies of CRF, patterns of NIV use and the outcome of those patients. We conducted a retrospective analysis of 1,281 patients treated with home-NIV between 2004 and 2014 in Turku University Hospital, Finland. The patients were divided into nine disease categories: obstructive airways disease (16%); obesity hypoventilation syndrome (11%); neuromuscular disease (10%); chest wall diseases (4%); sleep apnoea (26%); interstitial lung diseases (3%); malignancy (2%); other (3%) and acute (8%), which refers to the patients who did not fulfil criteria of CRF. In addition, multiple aetiologies of CRF were found in 17%. Mean adherence to home-NIV was 6.0±4.4 h/d and median treatment duration 410 (120-1021) days. Adherence, treatment duration or survival did not significantly differ between patients with either single or multiple causative diseases leading to CRF. Median survival was 4.5 years (95% CI 3.6 to 5.4). The main reasons for discontinuing NIV were death (56%) and lack of motivation (19%). We conclude that home-NIV is used in a variety of diseases. CRF of multiple aetiologies is prevalent and not limited to chronic obstructive lung disease and obstructive sleep apnoea overlap syndrome. However, the adherence to home-NIV or survival did not differ between patients with a single or multiple diseases causing CRF, but the survival of the home-NIV patients differed according to the underlying aetiology of CRF.</p
Defect-Mediated Crystallization of the Particulate TiO2 Photocatalyst Grown by Atomic Layer Deposition
Get PDFNanopowders or films of pure and mixed oxides in nanoparticulate form have gained specific interest due to their applicability in functionalizing high-surface-area substrates. Among various other applications, our presented work primarily focuses on the behavior of TiO2 as a photocatalyst deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) on a quartz particle. The photocatalytic activity of TiO2 on quartz particles grown by ALD was studied in terms of ALD growth temperature and post-treatment heating rate. Amorphous TiO2 thin films (30 nm) were grown from tetrakis(dimethylamido)titanium (TDMAT) at 100 and 200 °C on quartz particles (0.35-3.5 μm) and crystallized using oxidative heat treatment at 500 °C with variable heating rates. The growth temperature was found to affect the TiO2 defect structure: TiO2 grown at 200 °C is black due to Ti3+ defects, whereas the film grown at 100 °C is white but contains some traces of the TDMAT ALD precursor. During the oxidative heat treatment, precursor traces desorbed and Ti3+ defects were oxidized. ALD TiO2 grown at 100 degrees C crystallized as anatase, whereas the rutile-to-anatase ratio of 200 °C grown TiO2 increased with the heating rate. The hydrogen production rate of mixed-phase TiO2 was found to outperform that of anatase TiO2.</p
Stress Biology : Complexity and Multifariousness in Health and Disease
Get PDFPreserving and regulating cellular homeostasis in the light of changing environmental conditions or developmental processes is of pivotal importance for single cellular and multicellular organisms alike. To counteract an imbalance in cellular homeostasis transcriptional programs evolved, called the heat shock response (HSR), unfolded protein response (UPR) and integrated stress response (ISR), that act cell-autonomously in most cells but in multicellular organisms are subjected to cell-nonautonomous regulation. These transcriptional programs downregulate expression of most genes but increase expression of heat shock genes, including genes encoding molecular chaperones and proteases, proteins involved in repair of stress-induced damage to macromolecules and cellular structures. 61 years after the discovery of the heat shock response by Ferruccio Ritossa many aspects of stress biology are still enigmatic. Recent progress in the understanding of stress responses and molecular chaperones was reported at the 12th International Symposium on Heat Shock Proteins in Biology, Medicine and the Environment in the Old Town Alexandria, VA, USA from 28th to 31st of October 2023
Metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma accounts for nearly all squamous cell carcinomas of the parotid gland
Get PDFPrimary squamous cell carcinoma of the parotid gland (pSCCP) has long been recognized as a separate entity and is included in the WHO classifications of salivary gland tumors. However, it is widely accepted among head and neck pathologists that pSCCP is exceptionally rare. Yet, there are many publications describing series of pSCCP and data from SEER and other cancer register databases indicate erroneously an increasing incidence of pSCCP. Importantly, pSCCP and metastatic (secondary) squamous cell carcinoma to the parotid gland (mSCCP) have nearly identical histological features, and the diagnosis of pSCCP should only be made after the exclusion of mSCCP. Moreover, all of the histological diagnostic criteria proposed to be in favor of pSCCP (such as, for example, dysplasia of ductal epithelium) can be encountered in unequivocal mSCCP, thereby representing secondary growth along preexistent ducts. Squamous cell differentiation has also been reported in rare genetically defined primary parotid carcinomas, either as unequivocal histological squamous features (e.g., NUT carcinoma, mucoepidermoid carcinoma), by immunohistochemistry (e.g., in NUT carcinoma, adamantinoma-like Ewing sarcoma, basal-type salivary duct carcinoma, mucoepidermoid carcinoma), or a combination of both. Another major issue in this context is that the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) coding system does not distinguish between primary or metastatic disease, resulting in a large number of patients with mSCCP being misclassified as pSCCP. Immunohistochemistry and new molecular biomarkers have significantly improved the accuracy of the diagnosis of many salivary gland neoplasms, but until recently there were no biomarkers that can accurately distinguish between mSCCP and pSCCP. However, recent genomic profiling studies have unequivocally demonstrated that almost all SCCP analyzed to date have an ultraviolet light (UV)-induced mutational signature typical of mSCCP of skin origin. Thus, mutational signature analysis can be a very useful tool in determining the cutaneous origin of these tumors. Additional molecular studies may shed new light on this old diagnostic and clinical problem. This review presents a critical view of head and neck experts on this topic
"The Cult of Greta Thunberg": De-legitimating Climate Activism with "Religion"
Get PDFContemporary climate activism has often been called a "religion" or a "cult." We investigate what is done with climate religion discourse (CRD), by whom, and to what ends. Our case study concerns Finland, one country out of many where forms of climate activism are regularly dismissed by equating them with "irrational" religion. We find that political parties and newspaper columnists use terms and phrases such as "millenarianism," "prophet," "Messiah," "cult," "apocalypse," "Virgin Mary of climate religion," and "children's crusade." We argue that these are examples of strategic othering in the Finnish context. We observe that this religionizing stems from the activism's incompatibility with prevalent economic rationality, and that gender is a significant theme in CRD use. An unintended consequence of CRD is that it constructs those forms of religion, which do not disturb modernity and the capitalist order as more legitimate than others
Who Supports Climate Policies? Comprehensive Analyses in Finland and Beyond
Get PDFKirja-arvio:Arvosteltu teos: Jukka Sivonen: Public Attitudes on Climate Policy Instruments: A Comparative Perspective in Europe. Turku: University of Turku, 2023, 139 pp. ISBN 978-951-29-9416-8</p