| 1. |
- Alriksson-Schmidt, Ann I, et al.
(author)
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CP-North: living life in the Nordic countries? : A retrospective register research protocol on individuals with cerebral palsy and their parents living in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland
- 2019
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In: BMJ Open. - : BMJ. - 2044-6055. ; 9:10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- INTRODUCTION: Cerebral palsy (CP) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disabilities. Yet, most individuals with CP are adults. How individuals with CP fare in terms of health, quality of life (QoL), education, employment and income is largely unknown. Further, little is known about the effects of having a child with CP on the parents. The Nordic countries are known for their strong welfare systems, yet it is unknown to what extent the added burden related to disability is actually compensated for. We will explore how living with CP affects health, QoL, healthcare utilisation, education, labour market outcomes, socioeconomic status and mortality throughout the lifespan of individuals with CP and their parents. We will also investigate if these effects differ between subgroups, within and across the Nordic countries. METHODS AND ANALYSES: CP-North is a multidisciplinary 4-year (1 August 2017 to 31 July 2021) register research project. The research consortium comprises researchers and users from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Finland. Data from CP registries and follow-up programmes, or cohorts of individuals with CP, will be merged with general national registries. All individual studies are structured under three themes: medical outcomes, social and public health outcomes, and health economics. Both case-control and cohort designs will be included depending on the particular research question. Data will be analysed in the individual countries and later merged across nations.ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The ethics approval processes in each individual country are followed. Findings will be published (open access) in international peer-reviewed journals in related fields. Updates on CP-North will be published online at http://rdi.arcada.fi/cpnorth/en/.
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| 2. |
- Anticona, Cynthia, et al.
(author)
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Sources and risk factors for lead exposure in indigenous children of the Peruvian Amazon, disentangling connections with oil activity
- 2012
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In: International journal of occupational and environmental health. - : Maney Publishing. - 1077-3525 .- 2049-3967. ; 18:4, s. 268-277
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Introduction: In the Corrientes river basin, Peruvian Amazon, lead exposure among indigenous communities was first reported in 2006. To address controversy regarding the main source of exposure, this study aimed to identify the sources and risk factors for lead exposure among children from the communities in question, and to clarify the potential relationship with oil activity.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in six communities. Participants were children aged 0–17 years and their mothers. Data collection included blood lead levels (BLLs) and hemoglobin determination, a questionnaire on risk factors and environmental sampling. We used age-stratified multivariate regression models, with generalized estimating equation to account for correlation within households.Results: Twenty-seven percent of the children had BLLs ≧10 μg/dl. Mother's BLLs ≧10 μg/dl, playing and chewing lead scraps, fishing ≧three times/week, and living in highly oil-exposed communities increased the risk of having BLLs ≧10 μg/dl. Lead concentrations in sediment, soil, dust, and fish samples were below reference values.Conclusions: Mother's BLLs ≧10 μg/dl, playing and chewing lead scraps to manufacture fishing sinkers were the most important risk factors for children’s BLLs ≧10 μg/dl. The connection with oil activity appears to be through access to metal lead from the industry's wastes.
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| 3. |
- Archilli, F., et al.
(author)
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Search for a vector gauge boson in phi meson decays with the KLOE detector KLOE-2 Collaboration
- 2012
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In: Physics Letters B. - : Elsevier BV. - 0370-2693 .- 1873-2445. ; 706:4-5, s. 251-255
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The existence of a light dark force mediator has been tested with the KLOE detector at DA Phi NE. This particle, called U. is searched for using the decay chain phi -> eta U, eta -> pi(+)pi(-)pi(0), U -> e(+)e(-). No evidence is found in 1.5 fb(-1) of data. The resulting exclusion plot covers the mass range 5 < M-U < 470 MeV, setting an upper limit on the ratio between the U boson coupling constant and the One structure constant, alpha'/alpha, of <= 2 x 10(-5) at 90% C.L. for 50 < M-U < 420 MeV.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Ekneligoda, Thushan Chandrasiri, 1974-
(author)
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Estimation of the Elastic Moduli of Porous Materials using Analytical Methods, Numerical Methods, and Image Analysis
- 2007
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The effective bulk modulus and effective shear modulus of porous materials having various types of pore shapes are investigated, using both analytical and numerical methods. These solutions, and the scaling laws that are derived with the aid of these solutions, are then used to make predictions of the effective elastic moduli of some sandstones and ceramics, based on two-dimensional images of the pore space. The complex variable method is used to find the hydrostatic and shear compliances of a large family of pores that have N-fold rotational symmetry, and which have at most four terms in their conformal mapping function. This solution is validated using boundary element (BEM) calculations, and is also used to test two scaling laws that estimate the compliances based on the area and perimeter of the pore. The boundary perturbation method is used to study the effect of small-scale roughness on the compressibility and shear compliance of a nominally circular pore. The solution is carried out to fourth order in the roughness parameter for the case of hydrostatic loading, and to second order for shear loading. These solutions allow one to judge the scale of roughness that can safely be ignored when obtaining images of the pores. Predictions are then made of the elastic moduli of some porous materials – two sandstones and a ceramic. Starting with scanning electron micrographs, image analysis software is used to isolate and extract each pore from the host material. The bulk and shear compliances are estimated using both BEM and the two scaling laws. Areally-weighted mean values of these compliances are calculated for each material, and the differential effective medium scheme is used to obtain expressions for the moduli as functions of porosity. These predictions agree well with the experimental values found in the literature.
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| 6. |
- Ekqvist, Susanne, et al.
(author)
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Does gold concentration in the blood influence the result of patch testing to gold?
- 2009
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In: British Journal of Dermatology. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1365-2133 .- 0007-0963. ; 160:5, s. 1016-1021
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We have recently found a correlation between contact allergy to gold sodium thiosulphate (GSTS) and gold concentration in the blood (B-Au) in a stented population: the higher the B-Au, the stronger the patch-test reaction. To further investigate the correlation between B-Au and patch-test reactivity to gold. In this provocation control cross-over trial of 24 patients with dermatitis with a known contact allergy to gold, the patients were randomized into two groups where one was topically provoked to gold (15 mg GSTS) and one to the control. All patients were simultaneously patch tested with GSTS in 10 aqueous dilutions (1.1 mg GSTS). Patch-test readings were performed and blood was drawn. After 6 weeks, the experiment was repeated and the group that had previously been provoked with gold was now provoked with the control and vice versa. B-Au was higher after gold provocation whereas no treatment effect was discerned for minimal eliciting concentration (MEC) or summarized test score (STS). Instead, significant differences in period effect were observed implying higher B-Au and STS and lower MEC on test occasion II. The most likely explanation is the increased B-Au and/or booster effect from test occasion I. There was a correlation between B-Au and MEC: the higher the B-Au, the lower the MEC. The correlation between B-Au and MEC indicates that the B-Au is of importance for the skin reactivity to gold.
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| 7. |
- Giesecke, Marianne, et al.
(author)
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Binding of monovalent and multivalent metal cations to polyethylene oxide in methanol probed by electrophoretic and diffusion NMR
- 2016
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In: Journal of Physical Chemistry B. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1520-6106 .- 1520-5207. ; 120:39, s. 10358-10366
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Complex formation in methanol between monodisperse polyethylene oxide (PEO) and a large set of cations was studied by measuring the effective charge acquired by PEO upon complexation. Quantitative data were obtained at a low ionic strength of 2 mM (for some salts, also between 0.5 and 6 mM) by a combination of diffusion nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and electrophoretic NMR experiments. For strongly complexing cations, the magnitude of the acquired effective charge was on the order of 1 cation per 100 monomer units. For monovalent cations, the relative strength of binding varies as Na+ < K+ ≈ Rb+ ≈ Cs+, whereas Li+ exhibited no significant binding. All polyvalent cations bind very weakly, except for Ba2+ that exhibited strong binding. Anions do not bind, as is shown by the lack of response to the chemical nature of anionic species (perchlorate, iodide, or acetate). Diffusion experiments directly show that the acetate anion with monovalent cations does not associate with PEO. Considering all cations, we find that the observed binding does not follow any Hofmeister order. Instead, binding occurs below a critical surface charge density, which indicates that the degree of complexation is defined by the solvation shell. A large solvation shell prevents the binding of most multivalent ions.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Karimiana, Naymeh, et al.
(author)
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On/off-switchable folic acid sensor using molecularly imprinted smart polymer electrode
- 2014
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In: 24<sup>th</sup>Anniversary World Congress on Biosensors – Biosensors 2014. - : Elsevier.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Recently, much attention has been focused on the development of controlled switchable surfaces, also known as “smart surfaces”, which switch their physicochemical properties in response to external stimuli [1]. Switching of a surface based on temperature can be realised using thermo-sensitive polymers, which undergo a phase transition at the lower critical solution temperature (LCST), where their behavior switches between hydrophobic and hydrophilic [2]. LCST modulation can be achieved by copolymerisation with other monomers in order to produce a LCST close to physiological temperature. Thus, it could be useful in controllable, temperature-responsive bio-switches for biomedical and biotechnology applications [3]. The combination of smart polymers with molecular imprinting offers a powerful tool to design more effective sensors and medical devices. In this study, a temperature sensitive amine-terminated poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) block with (N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide) cross-linker along with o-phenylenediamine was electropolymerised on a gold electrode in the presence of folic acid (FA) as template to produce an on/off-switchable molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) affinity sensor for folic acid. Differential pulse voltammetry and cyclic voltammetry were used to characterise the FA-imprinted layer. Incubation of the MIP-modified electrode with FA resulted in a suppression of the ferro/ferricyanide redox process. The highest sensitivity of this temperature gated on/off-switchable folic acid sensor was achieved at 22 ºC. Such switchable affinity materials offer considerable potential for the design of highly selective and controllable biosensors and immunoassays.
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| 10. |
- Karimipanah, Taghi, 1953-, et al.
(author)
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Investigation of flow pattern for a confluent-jets system on a workbench of an industrial space
- 2014
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In: Indoor Air 2014. ; , s. 192-199
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A new air supply terminal based on confluent jets was installed on a workbench, in vicinity of a CNC machine, of an industrial space. The flow pattern and temperature field was carried out by CFD calculations and infrared camera imaging technique. A main goal of this technique is to save energy therefore the jet should distribute the air where it is desired. This is possible because the confluent jets system uses the benefits of both mixing (high momentum for better spreading of the air jet) and displacement (cleaner air in occupied zone). The results show that thermal comfort and air quality analysis relies on consistent facts and is in good agreements with the existed standards. It was shown that the supply terminal is able to spread the fresh air to the needed work area. This is an advantage of the high momentum air distribution system used in this investigation.
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