| 1. |
- Alakukku, Laura, et al.
(författare)
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Maatalouden ympäristötuen vaikuttavuuden seurantatutkimus (MYTVAS 3) : loppuraportti
- 2014
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Since 1995, agri-environmental support partly funded by the EU has formed the core of Finland’s agri-environmental policy. This system has had a variety of impacts on the relationship between agriculture and the environment. Today’s agri-environmental support is one of the packages included in the Rural Development Programme for Mainland Finland (2007–2013/2014), which both in itself and through the underlying EU legislation requires monitoring of the impacts of the measures implemented. The study monitoring the impact of the 2nd Finnish agri-environmental scheme (MYTVAS 3), which ran from 2008 to 2013, forms part of this monitoring. The MYTVAS 3 monitoring study was also financed by the Ministry of the Environment. The monitoring study was carried out by a consortium coordinated by MTT Agrifood Research Finland and including the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), the University of Helsinki, the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute and the University of Turku.The purpose of the MYTVAS 3 monitoring study was to find out how agri-environmental support and its various measures have affected the state of the environment in agricultural areas, how agri-environmental support has affected the potential for farming and how agri-environmental support should be developed to increase its impact. The monitoring focused on the impacts of agri-environmental support on the nutrient load from agriculture on the waterways and on biodiversity. When evaluating the findings presented, we should remember that while monitoring data shows that something happened, it does not necessarily explain what caused it. It is not always possible to show that particular developments were a specific outcome of the current agri-environmental support system and the implementation of its measures. The delay between a measure and its observed impact is often long, and the cause-and-effect relationships are complicated and partly unknown. Also, other agricultural policy and fluctuations on the market may affect the state of the agricultural environment directly or indirectly.The monitoring data show that agri-environmental support has not had a detrimental impact on the potential for farming. Despite a slight increase in the incidence of weeds, they do not cause problems of the kind that would require amendments to the content of agri-environmental measures. Carbon levels in the surface stratum of arable land seems to be continuing their slow decline, and there is still need for measures to preserve organic material in the soil.Compliance with the fertilisation limits in the agri-environmental support system would seem to have had very little impact on crop quality. Variations in the weight and protein content per hectolitre and per 1,000 seeds were of the same order between 2006 and 2012 as they were between 1995 and 2005. Crop quantities have also not been noticeably affected by compliance with the fertilisation limits. Average crop yields remained stable between 1986 and 2013, and no clearly different crop years were observed in the 2000s. It is possible, however, that the lower fertilisation levels could have lowered crop potential in the years with advantageous weather conditions in the 2000s and that protein contents have been lower in advantageous years.The monitoring data also show that the nutrient load potential of agriculture, measured by nutrient balances, has decreased continuously for nitrogen and particularly for phosphorus. The decrease in the nutrient load potential is due above all to a decrease in the use of synthetic fertilisers. The decline in nitrogen fertilisation has bottomed out in recent years, and low protein levels measured in high crop yield years show that there is no point in further reducing nitrogen fertilisation. Optimising nitrogen fertilisation according to how advantageous the growing season is and effectively using the soluble nitrogen in cattle manure are key measures in achieving reasonable nitrogen balances and good crop quality despite fluctuations in growing season conditions. New crop variants have been found to make more efficient use of nitrogen than old ones, and thus the introduction of new variants should be promoted. Despite the decrease in the nutrient balances, there are indications that nutrient loads in runoff water from domestic animal production sites are becoming an increasing problem. Indeed, the fundamental problem with the nutrient load from agriculture is the diversification of livestock farming and crop farming, which has made it more difficult to use nutrients appropriately. Therefore attention must be paid to measures that both boost the use of nutrients in manure and reduce the levels of nutrients that end up in manure. Based on nutrient load monitoring in the catchment areas of rivers, the phosphorus load per hectare of cropland has decreased in each programme period, being about 80% of the level of the first period (1995–1999) in the third period (2007–2013). Because of the increase in the area of cropland, the nitrogen load on waterways from agriculture continued to grow during the second programme period (2000–2006) but peaked in the third (2007–2013). A similar trend was found in the nitrogen load per hectare of cropland.The most important threat to biodiversity is caused by the development of landscape structure, typically involving a decrease in the number of open or half-open areas excluded from actual cultivation. The consequence of the clearing of margins and ecological islands located in crop fields, drainage measures aimed at increasing arable land and all rationalisation of cultivated areas is the diminishing of exactly those areas that are the most important from the perspective of the biodiversity of the agricultural environment. However, the measure-specific findings in the monitoring study show that biodiversity benefits have been locally achieved where measures have been implemented on a broad enough scale (biodynamic farming, traditional biotopes, wetlands, buffer zones, green fallow / nature management areas). Particular care should therefore be taken that all cultivated land continues to have a sufficient percentage of non-cultivated areas, whether they be natural meadows, nature management areas, biodiversity strips, buffer zones, filter strips, headlands, ecological islands, etc. Including the rather popular nature management areas as a new voluntary measure under basic measures was a significant contribution to biodiversity.Regarding the rural landscape, it may be noted that by visual inspection the area of cropland has remained largely unchanged, at the level of the landscape as a whole it is far more common for the landscape to become more closed than to become more open. This trend was also observed in the visual inspection of traditional biotopes, even if the openness of the meadows monitored largely remained unchanged.The only measures that directly address the reduction of gaseous emissions in the agri-environmental support system are the longterm grass cultivation on peat fields and special aid agreements for slurry injection in cropland. While other measures have indirectly affected gaseous emissions, the impact of agri-environmental support as a whole on reducing gaseous emissions from agriculture has been negligible. In general, we may conclude that the goals, content and support levels of agri-environmental support measures must be increasingly adapted and customised by region, by type of farming and by farm, because both the state of the agricultural environment and the needs of society differ greatly between different types of rural area.
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| 2. |
- Bartkova, Jirina, et al.
(författare)
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Aberrations of the MRE11-RAD50-NBS1 DNA damage sensor complex in human breast cancer : MRE11 as a candidate familial cancer-predisposing gene
- 2008
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Ingår i: Molecular Oncology. - : Wiley. - 1574-7891. ; 2:4, s. 296-316
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The MRE11, RAD50, and NBS1 genes encode proteins of the MRE11-RAD50-NBS1 (MRN) complex critical for proper maintenance of genomic integrity and tumour suppression; however, the extent and impact of their cancer-predisposing defects, and potential clinical value remain to be determined. Here, we report that among a large series of approximately 1000 breast carcinomas, around 3%, 7% and 10% tumours showed aberrantly reduced protein expression for RAD50, MRE11 and NBS1, respectively. Such defects were more frequent among the ER/PR/ERBB2 triple-negative and higher-grade tumours, among familial (especially BRCA1/BRCA2-associated) rather than sporadic cases, and the NBS1 defects correlated with shorter patients' survival. The BRCA1-associated and ER/PR/ERBB2 triple-negative tumours also showed high incidence of constitutively active DNA damage signalling (gamma H2AX) and p53 aberrations. Sequencing the RAD50, MRE11 and NBS1 genes of 8 patients from non-BRCA1/2 breast cancer families whose tumours showed concomitant reduction/loss of all three MRN-complex proteins revealed two germline mutations in MRE11: a missense mutation R202G and a truncating mutation R633STOP (R633X). Gene transfer and protein analysis of cell culture models with mutant MRE11 implicated various destabilization patterns among the MRN complex proteins including NBS1, the abundance of which was restored by re-expression of wild-type MRE11. We propose that germline mutations qualify MRE11 as a novel candidate breast cancer susceptibility gene in a subset of non-BRCA1/2 families. Our data have implications for the concept of the DNA damage response as an intrinsic anti-cancer barrier, various components of which become inactivated during cancer progression and also represent the bulk of breast cancer susceptibility genes discovered to date.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Fagerholm, Rainer, et al.
(författare)
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NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 NQO1*2 genotype (P187S) is a strong prognostic and predictive factor in breast cancer
- 2008
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Ingår i: Nature Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1061-4036 .- 1546-1718. ; 40:7, s. 844-53
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- NQO1 guards against oxidative stress and carcinogenesis and stabilizes p53. We find that a homozygous common missense variant (NQO1(*)2, rs1800566(T), NM_000903.2:c.558C>T) that disables NQO1 strongly predicts poor survival among two independent series of women with breast cancer (P = 0.002, N = 1,005; P = 0.005, N = 1,162), an effect particularly evident after anthracycline-based adjuvant chemotherapy with epirubicin (P = 7.52 x 10(-6)) and in p53-aberrant tumors (P = 6.15 x 10(-5)). Survival after metastasis was reduced among NQO1(*)2 homozygotes, further implicating NQO1 deficiency in cancer progression and treatment resistance. Consistently, response to epirubicin was impaired in NQO1(*)2-homozygous breast carcinoma cells in vitro, reflecting both p53-linked and p53-independent roles of NQO1. We propose a model of defective anthracycline response in NQO1-deficient breast tumors, along with increased genomic instability promoted by elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS), and suggest that the NQO1 genotype is a prognostic and predictive marker for breast cancer.
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| 5. |
- Hadziabdic, Emina, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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Experiences of nurses educated outside the European Union of a Swedish bridging program and the program’s role in their integration into the nursing profession : a qualitative interview study
- 2021
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Ingår i: BMC Nursing. - : BioMed Central (BMC). - 1472-6955. ; 20:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Countries all over the world are experiencing a shortage of registered nurses (RNs). Therefore, some countries, including Sweden, have tried to solve this by recruiting internationally educated nurses (IENs). Countries offer bridging programs as educational support to qualify IENs for nursing work in the destination country. However, there is little research on IENs’ experiences of bridging programs in European countries and how these programs facilitate their integration into the world of work and their new society. The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of nurses, originally educated outside the EU (European Union)/EES, of the Swedish bridging program and of the program’s role in facilitating their integration into the nursing profession in Sweden.Methods: A qualitative descriptive design was used to explore the topic based on 11 informants’ perspectives and experiences. Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants at one university in Sweden. Data were collected by individual interviews using a semi- structured interview guide during the year 2019 and were analysed using an interpretative thematic approach.Results: Two main themes emerged from the analysis: 1) Return to nursing, and 2) The bridging program as a tool for transition to nursing in Sweden. The first theme includes conditions and experiences such as personal motivation and determination, and support from others that the participants described as important in order to achieve the goal of re-establishing themselves as registered nurses in Sweden. Furthermore, the second theme describes the participants’ experiences of the bridging program as mostly positive because it led to new learning and achievements that were valuable for the transition to nursing in Sweden; however, the participants also emphasised the challenges of their transition into the nursing profession, which were related to instances of misrecognition of their professional competence and the uncertain outcome of the program.Conclusions: This study found that the bridging program facilitated integration into the nursing profession for nurses educated outside the EU/EES, especially knowledge gained in clinical-based training. Thus, it is important to recognise and value the IENs’ experience and previous knowledge and training when developing the bridging program’s curriculum.
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| 6. |
- Hector, Johanna, et al.
(författare)
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Environmental emission impact from transport during soil remediation
- 2012
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Ingår i: Urban Environment. - 9789400725393 ; 19, s. 439-448
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency has identified more than 80 000 potentially contaminated sites in Sweden. One of these is the “former Hexion site” in Mölndal, south of Gothenburg. The property was bought by the construction company NCC in order to build a new housing area. On the site industrial production has been performed for almost 200 years. The products have been chemicals, e g binders for the coatings industry and plastics additives like phthalates. Measured concentrations of pollutants exceed the EPA’s general guidelines on “sensitive land use” and a remediation is necessary.The aim of the present study has been to perform a life cycle assessment of the environmental impact caused by excavation, transports and purification in the remediation, comparing three remediation strategies: Insitu, Exsitu and Exsitu in combination with onsite. Four different options for transportation and receiver/treatment have been analyzed.Exsitu methods were found to cause a much larger environmental load than the insitu. Emissions from the remediation may be reduced by reducing the volume of contaminated soil before transport to landfill. This can be done by pre-treating the soil onsite with sifting or soil washing. Sea transport leads to a high environmental impact. Future reduction of emissions from shipping will make shipping a more competitive choice.
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| 7. |
- Heikkinen, Tuomas, et al.
(författare)
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Variants on the promoter region of PTEN affect breast cancer progression and patient survival
- 2011
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Ingår i: Breast Cancer Research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1465-5411 .- 1465-542X. ; 13:6, s. R130-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- INTRODUTION:The PTEN gene, a regulator of the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt oncogenic pathway, is mutated in various cancers and its expression has been associated with tumor progression in a dose-dependent fashion. We investigated the effect of germline variation in the promoter region of the PTEN gene on clinical characteristics and survival in breast cancer.METHODS:We screened the promoter region of the PTEN gene for germline variation in 330 familial breast cancer cases and further determined the genotypes of three detected PTEN promoter polymorphisms -903GA, -975GC, and -1026CA in a total of 2,412 breast cancer patients to evaluate the effects of the variants on tumor characteristics and disease outcome. We compared the gene expression profiles in breast cancers of 10 variant carriers and 10 matched non-carriers and performed further survival analyses based on the differentially expressed genes.RESULTS: All three promoter variants associated with worse prognosis. The Cox's regression hazard ratio for 10-year breast cancer specific survival in multivariate analysis was 2.01 (95% CI 1.17 to 3.46) P = 0.0119, and for 5-year breast cancer death or distant metastasis free survival 1.79 (95% CI 1.03 to 3.11) P = 0.0381 for the variant carriers, indicating PTEN promoter variants as an independent prognostic factor. The breast tumors from the promoter variant carriers exhibited a similar gene expression signature of 160 differentially expressed genes compared to matched non-carrier tumors. The signature further stratified patients into two groups with different recurrence free survival in independent breast cancer gene expression data sets.CONCLUSIONS:Inherited variation in the PTEN promoter region affects the tumor progression and gene expression profile in breast cancer. Further studies are warranted to establish PTEN promoter variants as clinical markers for prognosis in breast cancer.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Joshi, Peter K, et al.
(författare)
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Directional dominance on stature and cognition in diverse human populations
- 2015
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 523:7561, s. 459-462
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Homozygosity has long been associated with rare, often devastating, Mendelian disorders, and Darwin was one of the first to recognize that inbreeding reduces evolutionary fitness. However, the effect of the more distant parental relatedness that is common in modern human populations is less well understood. Genomic data now allow us to investigate the effects of homozygosity on traits of public health importance by observing contiguous homozygous segments (runs of homozygosity), which are inferred to be homozygous along their complete length. Given the low levels of genome-wide homozygosity prevalent in most human populations, information is required on very large numbers of people to provide sufficient power. Here we use runs of homozygosity to study 16 health-related quantitative traits in 354,224 individuals from 102 cohorts, and find statistically significant associations between summed runs of homozygosity and four complex traits: height, forced expiratory lung volume in one second, general cognitive ability and educational attainment (P < 1 × 10(-300), 2.1 × 10(-6), 2.5 × 10(-10) and 1.8 × 10(-10), respectively). In each case, increased homozygosity was associated with decreased trait value, equivalent to the offspring of first cousins being 1.2 cm shorter and having 10 months' less education. Similar effect sizes were found across four continental groups and populations with different degrees of genome-wide homozygosity, providing evidence that homozygosity, rather than confounding, directly contributes to phenotypic variance. Contrary to earlier reports in substantially smaller samples, no evidence was seen of an influence of genome-wide homozygosity on blood pressure and low density lipoprotein cholesterol, or ten other cardio-metabolic traits. Since directional dominance is predicted for traits under directional evolutionary selection, this study provides evidence that increased stature and cognitive function have been positively selected in human evolution, whereas many important risk factors for late-onset complex diseases may not have been.
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| 10. |
- Lehtinen, Matti, et al.
(författare)
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Human papillomavirus vaccine efficacy against invasive, HPV-positive cancers : Population-based follow-up of a cluster-randomised trial
- 2021
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Ingår i: BMJ Open. - : BMJ. - 2044-6055. ; 11:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination protects against HPV, a necessary risk factor for cervical cancer. We now report results from population-based follow-up of randomised cohorts that vaccination provides HPV-type-specific protection against invasive cancer. Methods Individually and/or cluster randomised cohorts of HPV-vaccinated and non-vaccinated women were enrolled in 2002-2005. HPV vaccine cohorts comprised originally 16-17 year-old HPV 16/18-vaccinated PATRICIA (NCT00122681) and 012 trial (NCT00169494) participants (2465) and HPV6/11/16/18-vaccinated FUTURE II (NCT00092534) participants (866). Altogether, 3341 vaccines were followed by the Finnish Cancer Registry in the same way as 16 526 non-HPV-vaccinated controls. The control cohort stemmed from 15 665 originally 18-19 years-old women enrolled in 2003 (6499) or 2005 (9166) and 861 placebo recipients of the FUTURE II trial. The follow-up started 6 months after the clinical trials in 2007 and 2009 and ended in 2019. It was age aligned for the cohorts. Findings During a follow-up time of up to 11 years, we identified 17 HPV-positive invasive cancer cases (14 cervical cancers, 1 vaginal cancer, 1 vulvar cancer and 1 tongue cancer) in the non-HPV-vaccinated cohorts and no cases in the HPV-vaccinated cohorts. HPV typing of diagnostic tumour blocks found HPV16 in nine cervical cancer cases, HPV18, HPV33 and HPV52 each in two cases and HPV45 in one cervical cancer case. The vaginal, vulvar and tongue cancer cases were, respectively, positive for HPV16, HPV52/66 and HPV213. Intention-to-treat vaccine efficacy against all HPV-positive cancers was 100% (95% CI 2 to 100, p<0.05). Interpretation Vaccination is effective against invasive HPV-positive cancer. Trial registration number NCT00122681, Post-results; NCT00169494, Post-results; NCT00092534, Post-results.
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| 11. |
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| 12. |
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| 13. |
- Scholte op Reimer, Wilma, et al.
(författare)
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Cardiovascular risk estimation by professionally active cardiovascular nurses : Results from the Basel 2005 Nurses Cohort
- 2006
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Ingår i: European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1474-5151 .- 1873-1953. ; 5:4, s. 258-263
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Nurses play a key role in the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and one would, therefore, expect them to have a heightened awareness of the need for systematic screening and their own CVD risk profile. The aim of this study was to examine personal awareness of CVD risk among a cohort of cardiovascular nurses attending a European conference. Methods: Of the 340 delegates attending the 5th annual Spring Meeting on Cardiovascular Nursing (Basel, Switzerland, 2005), 287 (83%) completed a self-report questionnaire to assess their own risk factors for CVD. Delegates were also asked to give an estimation of their absolute total risk of experiencing a fatal CVD event in the next 10 years. Level of agreement between self-reported CVD risk estimation and their actual risk according to the SCORE risk assessment system was compared by calculating weighted Kappa (κw). Results: Overall, 109 responders (38%) self-reported having either pre-existing CVD (only 2%), one or more markedly raised CVD risk factors, a high total risk of fatal CVD (≥ 5% in 10 years) or a strong family history of CVD. About half of this cohort (53%) did not know their own total cholesterol level. Less than half (45%) reported having a 10-year risk of fatal CVD of < 1%, while 13% reported having a risk ≥ 5%. Based on the SCORE risk function, the estimated 10-year risk of a fatal CVD event was < 1% for 96% of responders: only 2% had a ≥ 5% risk of such an event. Overall, less than half (46%) of this cohort's self-reported CVD risk corresponded with that calculated using the SCORE risk function (κw = 0.27). Conclusion: Most cardiovascular nurses attending a European conference in 2005 poorly understood their own CVD risk profile, and the agreement between their self-reported 10-year risk of a fatal CVD and their CVD risk using SCORE was only fair. Given the specialist nature of this conference, our findings clearly demonstrate a need to improve overall nursing awareness of the role and importance of systematic CVD risk assessment. © 2006 European Society of Cardiology.
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| 14. |
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| 15. |
- Shungin, Dmitry, et al.
(författare)
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New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.
- 2015
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 518:7538, s. 187-378
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms.
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| 16. |
- Sulosaari, Virpi, et al.
(författare)
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A comparative review of advanced practice nurse programmes in the Nordic and Baltic countries
- 2023
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Ingår i: Nurse Education Today. - : Elsevier. - 0260-6917 .- 1532-2793. ; 127
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundAdvanced practice nurses (APNs) programs are career-development opportunities significant for nursing workforce retention as well as for the quality of patient care. Inconsistency regarding policy, education, titles, scope of practice, skills and competencies have been identified as major challenges in developing advanced practice nursing in Europe. APN roles and education are under development in the Nordic and Baltic countries. However, there is a lack of information on the current state in this region.ObjectiveThe purpose of this paper is to compare APN programs in the Nordic and Baltic countries to identify their commonalities and differences.Design and methodsThis descriptive comparative study reviewed seven master's level APN programs in six Nordic and Baltic countries. Data was extracted from the programme by the expert teachers or leaders of the programmes (N = 9). Competencies recommended in the European Tuning Project (ETP) and the International Council of Nurses (ICN) guidelines on advanced practice nursing, were used to evaluate the programs. The same informants provided additional information on the current state of APN education in the country.ResultsThe admission requirements were similar in the six countries but in two, clinical work experience is an entry requirement. There are two commonly identified APN roles: clinical nurse specialist (CNS) and nurse practitioner (NP). Most of the programs included all the EPT and ICN competencies. The main differences regarded prescribing competencies. All programmes included clinical training, but the methods on how it is implemented varies.ConclusionThe findings indicate that APN programs in the Nordic and Baltic countries correspond with the recommendations of the European Tuning Project and ICN guidelines. This is an important message for administrators, policymakers, and politicians, as well as the nursing community, on providing opportunities for APNs to practice to their full potential within each country as well as cross-country.Tweetable abstract: “APN programmes in the Nordic and Baltic countries correspond with international guide-lines. Special attention is needed in future on the clinical training of APNs”.
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