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There is a rising proportion of aging population worldwide. The high vulnerability of older adults to morbidity and mortality introduces an enormous health and economic burden to themselves and the society. The established leading cause of death among older adults is due to chronic and vascular diseases. These conditions are related to the nutritional status and are preventable with the help of ac
The general aim of the research presented in this thesis was to contribute to the understanding of how breast cancer patients with germline BRCA1/2 mutations should be treated medically and surgically, and furthermore, to characterize the limitations and strengths of different procedures for BRCA testing. In Paper I, the long-term prognosis was assessed in a cohort of early-onset breast cancer pat
During the last years, many governments have set targets for increasing the share of biofuels in the transportation sector. Understanding consumer behavior is essential in designing policies that efficiently increase the uptake of cleaner technologies. In this paper we analyze adopters and non-adopters of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs). We use diffusion of innovation theory and the established n
Background: In the neutron-rich A≈100 mass region, rapid shape changes as a function of nucleon number as well as coexistence of prolate, oblate, and triaxial shapes are predicted by various theoretical models. Lifetime measurements of excited levels in the molybdenum isotopes allow the determination of transitional quadrupole moments, which in turn provides structural information regarding the pr
This paper sets up a framework for designing a massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) testbed by investigating hardware and system-level requirements such as processing complexity, duplexing mode and frame structure. Taking these into account, a generic system and processing partitioning is proposed which allows flexible scaling and processing distribution onto a multitude of physically sep
Blood group antigens may be used as receptors by pathogens when infecting their hosts. Different blood groups therefore can be disease susceptibility factors. Thus, pathogens may have exerted a selection pressure on the evolution of blood group diversity. One aim of our study was to identify red blood cell (RBC) membrane structures that are bound by the common human pathogen. Streptococcus pyogene
Background: Stress myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS) is widely regarded as a useful imaging modality for diagnosing patients with suspected ischemic heart disease. Current European guidelines recommend stress study to be performed first since rest study can be omitted if stress study is interpreted as normal. Thus, a rest study should only be performed in patients with equivocal or abnormal
Background: The objective of this study was to explore the prognostic value of the Bone Scan Index (BSI) obtained at the time of diagnosis in a group of high-risk prostate cancer patients receiving primary hormonal therapy. Methods: This was a retrospective study based on 130 consecutive prostate cancer patients at high risk, based on clinical stage (T2c/T3/T4), Gleason score (8 to 10) and prostat
Effective material parameters for diffusion and elastic deformation are calculatedfor porous materials using a continuum theory-based superposition procedure. The theory that is limited to two-dimensional cases, requires that the pores are sufficiently sparse. The methodleads to simple manual calculations that can be performed by, e.g. hospital staff at clinicaldiagnoses of bone deceases that invo
Resource management is an essential building block of any modern computer and communication network. In this thesis, the results of our research in the following two tracks are summarized in four papers. The first track includes three papers and covers modeling, prediction and control for multi-tier computing systems. In the first paper, a NARX-based multi-step-ahead response time predictor for si
Background It is important that referring physicians and other treating clinicians properly understand the final reports from diagnostic tests. The aim of the study was to investigate whether referring physicians interpret a final report for a myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS) test in the same way that the reading nuclear medicine physician intended. Methods After viewing final reports conta
Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic performance of the three software packages 4DMSPECT (4DM), Emory Cardiac Toolbox (ECTb), and Cedars Quantitative Perfusion SPECT (QPS) for quantification of myocardial perfusion scintigram (MPS) using a large group of consecutive patients. Methods: We studied 1,052 consecutive patients who underwent 2-day stress/rest 99mTc-sestamibi MPS
Hypertension is a dominating risk factor for cardiovascular disease. To characterize the genomic response to hypertension, we administered vehicle or angiotensin II to mice and performed gene expression analyses. AngII treatment resulted in a robust increase in blood pressure and altered expression of 235 genes in the aorta, including Gucy1a3 and Gucy1b3 which encode subunits of soluble guanylyl c
Studies of predator-mediated selection on behaviour are critical for our understanding of the evolution and maintenance of behavioural diversity in natural populations. Consistent individual differences in prey behaviour, especially in the propensity to take risks ("boldness"), are widespread in the animal kingdom. Theory predicts that individual behavioural types differ in a cost-benefit trade-of
Mitochondrial disorders are among the most prevalent inborn errors of metabolism but largely lack treatments and have poor outcomes. High-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diets (KDs) have shown beneficial effects in mouse models of mitochondrial myopathies, with induction of mitochondrial biogenesis as the suggested main mechanism. We fed KD to mice with respiratory chain complex III (CIII) deficie
Several known breast cancer susceptibility genes encode proteins involved in DNA damage response (DDR) and are characterized by rare loss-of-function mutations. However, these explain less than half of the familial cases. To identify novel susceptibility factors, 39 rare truncating mutations, identified in 189 Northern Finnish hereditary breast cancer patients in parallel sequencing of 796 DDR gen
Previous studies about the trends and sources of PV soft cost reduction have only offered a limited understanding of systemic aspects that drive this development. Drawing on concepts of sectoral innovation system theory, this study analyzes the evolution of the German PV sectoral system since the early 1990s, focusing specifically on key processes associated with the deployment of building-sited P
Metabolic syndrome is associated with cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and prediabetes. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of interrelated clinical disorders. Difficulties in regulating glucose levels in blood are implicated in many of these disorders. Lactate, another energy metabolite, is produced under anaerobic conditions and can be used to monitor the balance between aerob
