Browsing by Subject "seulonta"

Assessing children’s early communication skills is important for preventing possible later language difficulties. The Finnish version of Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales, Developmental Profile (FinCSBS) is a screening tool in which parents assess their 6-24 months old child’s development in social communication, understanding and speech. Earlier studies have found connections between early communication skills and later language development. However, these language tests have been limited. The aim of this study was to examine the usability of FinCSBS for assessing 2-year-old children and the possible associations of their early communication skills with receptive and expressive language, naming and the use of inflectional forms at 3,5 years of age. This study sample is part of the validation study of the short form version of the MacArthur Communication Inventories Finnish version (Sanaseula study). Participants (N=50) were typically developed children from monolingual Finnish families. Parents filled out the FinCSBS checklist when their children were 2 years old. The same children were assessed again at 3,5 years of age with different tests (Reynell Developmental Language Scales III, Boston Naming Test and Finnish Morfological Test). Associations between early communications skills and later language skills were studied by using Spearman’s correlation coefficient and logistical regression analysis. The stability of skills was examined by comparing whether there were differencies in later language skills between those who had succeeded poorly, typically or well earlier in FinCSBS. There were no correlations between the total scores of FinCSBS at 2 years of age and language skills year and a half later. However, this study shows a trend that the level of competence is a rather stable quality so that weak early communications skills will manifest later on as weak language skills. In this study, early understanding did correlate with a later ability to use inflectional forms. It is recommended to use FinCSBS with typically developing children earlier than at 2 years of age when the prelinguistic period is ending and most children will get high scores in the assessment.

Johdanto: Ahmintahäiriö on syömishäiriö, jonka oireita ovat toistuvat ahmintakohtaukset. Niiden aikana syödään suuri määrä ruokaa lyhyessä ajassa ja menetetään syömisen hallinta. Tyypillistä on, että ahmija syö pitkin päivää, eikä syömiseen välttämättä liity nälkää. Koska ahminta tuottaa häpeää, ahmija syö yksin. Ahmintaan liittyy itsehalveksunnan ja syyllisyyden tunteita, ja se aiheuttaa voimakasta ahdistuneisuutta. Ahmintahäiriöön ei kuulu tyhjentäytymistä tai muita kompensaatiokeinoja painonnousun estämiseksi kuten bulimia nervosassa. Ahmintahäiriö voi johtaa lihavuuteen, joka on riskitekijä mm. tyypin 2 diabetekselle. Tavoite: Ahmintahäiriön ja ahmintaoireiden esiintyvyydestä suomalaisilla nuorilla naisilla ja miehillä ei ole tietoa. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää, miten yleisiä ahmintahäiriö ja ahmintaoireet ovat tutkittavassa aineistossa oirekyselyn (Eating Disorder Inventory, EDI) ja puolistrukturoidun haastattelun (Semistructured Clinical Interview, SCID) perusteella. Lisäksi selvitettiin masennuksen ja muiden syömishäiriöiden esiintyvyyttä sekä lihavuuden tai ylipainon riskiä ahmintahäiriöisillä naisilla. Samalla selvitettiin diagnostisten tunnuslukujen avulla EDI-oirekyselyn soveltuvuutta ahmintahäiriön tunnistamiseen riskiryhmistä. Aineisto ja menetelmät: Nuorten Kaksosten Terveystutkimuksen (FinnTwin16) osanottajat eli Suomessa vuosina 1975‒ 1975 syntyneet kaksoset (N=5258, 2835 naista, 2423 miestä, vastausprosentti naisilla 87 ja miehillä 83) täyttivät syömishäiriöitä seulovan kyselylomakkeen, joka sisälsi kysymyksiä painosta ja syömiskäyttäytymisestä sekä syömishäiriöiden oireita mittaavan EDI-osion. Seulontapositiiviset naiset, heidän kaksossiskonsa ja satunnaisotos seulontanegatiivisia naisia kutsuttiin puhelinhaastatteluun, jossa diagnosoitiin puolistrukturoidun SCID-haastattelun avulla anoreksia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, ahmintahäiriö ja masennus DSM-IV-tautiluokituskriteereihin perustuen. Miehiä ei haastateltu. Epidemiologisten tunnuslukujen ja logistisen regression avulla kuvattiin ahmintahäiriön ja ahmintaoireiden esiintyvyyttä ja ahmintahäiriön kliinistä kuvaa. Lisäksi EDI-kyselyn soveltuvuutta ahmintahäiriön tunnistamiseen riskiryhmistä selvitettiin herkkyyden ja tarkkuuden receiver operator curve (ROC) -analyysin avulla. Tulokset: Haastattelun perusteella 15 naista sai ahmintahäiriön DSM-IV-diagnoosin (esiintyvyys 0,5 %, ilmaantuvuus 30/100000 henkilövuotta). Muu syömishäiriötausta ahmintahäiriöisillä oli epätavallinen, mutta masennusta esiintyi noin kolmanneksella. Ahmintahäiriöisillä naisilla oli yli 10-kertainen riski (95 %:n luottamusväli 3,0–35,0) ylipainoon tai lihavuuteen (painoindeksi > 25kg/m2) verrattuna kohortin terveisiin. Yksittäisistä ahmintaoireista naisilla yleisimmät olivat tunnen syyllisyyttä ylensyötyäni (20 %), ahdan itseni täyteen ruokaa (13 %) ja syön silloin, kun olen poissa tolaltani (13 %). Miehillä yleisin ahmintaoire oli ahdan itseni täyteen ruokaa (17 %). Paras ahmintahäiriön seula ROC-analyysin perusteella oli EDI:n kolmen ala-asteikon kokonaispistemäärä (AUC-arvo 0,9, herkkyys 86 % ja tarkkuus 82 %). Johtopäätökset: Tulosten perusteella ahmintahäiriö oli harvinainen naiskaksosilla, mutta erilaiset ahmintaoireet olivat melko yleisiä sekä naisilla että miehillä. Masennuksen esiintyvyys sekä lihavuuden tai ylipainon riski ahmintahäiriöisillä olivat suurempia kuin terveillä. EDI-kysely soveltui hyvin ahmintahäiriön seulomiseen. Ahmintahäiriön matalan esiintyvyyden ja EDI-kyselyn seulontaominaisuuksien takia ahmintahäiriön seulominen kannattaa keskittää tiettyihin riskiryhmiin kuten masentuneet tai ylipainoiset nuoret naiset. Ravitsemusepidemiologisesta näkökulmasta ahmintahäiriön ja ahmintaoireilun välinen raja voidaan nähdä liian tiukkana, sillä ahminnan terveydelle aiheuttamia epäedullisia vaikutuksia esiintyy epäilemättä jo paljon ennen varsinaista ahmintahäiriödiagnoosia. Ahmintahäiriön tunnistaminen ja ehkäisy varhaisessa vaiheessa on tärkeää, jotta sen aiheuttamia terveyshaittoja voidaan ehkäistä.

The Finnish version of the CSBS-DP Infant-Toddler Checklist (FinCSBS) is a screening questionnaire for early communication and language of 6–24 month old children filled by their parents. There is not much information available about the validity of the FnCSBS concerning 2-year-olds and in Finland it is primarily advised to be used at an earlier age point. This study aimed to produce more information of the validity of the FinCSBS at 2 years. The study of validity gives information about the usability of a method and can add eagerness to use it for example in child health clinics. This study sample is a part of the validation study of the short form version of the MacArthur Communication Inventories Finnish version (Sanaseula study). The sample included 50 healthy, monolingual Finnish-speaking 2-year-old children. The participants language skills were assessed with two other assessment methods. MacArthur-Bates Communication Inventories -method gave information about the children’s vocabulary size and composition and Bayley-III-test about the receptive and expressive language skills. Validity was assessed by comparing the results of FnCSBS and of other methods with Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Linear regression analysis was used to get information about how much FnCBSC total score and sex explained the variation of vocabulary size and receptive or expressive language skills at 2 years. In addition the language skills of children who had succeeded poorly and typically were compared. A lot of statistically significant, positive and moderately strong connections were found between the FnCSBS and vocabulary size, composition, receptive and expressive language. Especially the total score of the FnCSBS was in connection with the concurrent language skills even though the scores got close to the maximum in this age group, as the prelingual stage is coming to an end. The FnCSBS social composite had more varying and weaker connections to the language skills than the FnCSBS expressive and receptive language. The results showed that the validity of the FnCSBS at 2 years is still fairly good. The FnCSBS can be used at 2 years to recognize children at risk and to get information about the language skills, which helps to target early intervention and to add cost-effective and preventive care.

This research is for UPM Kymmene Oyj. They are very interested in this topic because they are Finlands biggest users of the stumps and also big stump dealer for the other companies. The research is included to the big research project which is coordinated by FIBIC. Projects name is BEST, which means Sustainable Bioenergy Solutions for Tomorrow. The European Union has set the obligations for the renewable energy source usage in their climate and energy policy. This means that the use of forest biomass needs to grow from year 2006 to year 2020 from 3,6 million cubic meters to 13,5 million cubic meters in year 2020. In the year 2012 usage of forest biomass was 8,3 million cubic meters. The share of the stumps from that amount was 1,1 million cubic meters. The share of the stumps can grow even more. If we are going to use stumps even more we should increase the quality of stump wood. Most harmful things in stump wood quality is the soil particles. They comes up from the ground with stumps when the stumps are lifted. These particles increases stumps ash contents which is very harmful in the combustion process. But still stumps are energy rich fuel which keeps low moisture content during the winter and that is the time when we most need energy. The goal of the research is to find ways to rise energy thickness of the stump by different handling methods. First method is to precrush stumps with Arjes Raptor XL crusher. That special method should decrease moisture content and this has founded out earlier in practical tests because this crusher has special crushing unit. Second method is to take unwanted particles away by sieving. In the research we use two different sieving machines: Neuenhauser 2F StarScreen starscreen and Keestrack Frontier screen. Crushing and sieving together increased heating values 7,5–16,6 % and average was 11,1 %. Different handling methods effects most by decreasing moisture and ash content.

Due to the current three-step intervention model and integration in schools, early identification of students with support needs as well as focusing support on them is becoming increasingly important. Previous studies have shown that timely and properly dimensioned support reduces the shortcomings of linguistic skills as well as learning difficulties arising from learning disabilities. At the moment, there are no tools available for enabling close monitoring or systematic evaluation of learning for special education teachers. This study set out to provide answers for the challenges brought by the current education policy. The aim of this study was to examine the suitability of a screening method developed for the first graders in a municipality in Southern Finland to identify possible support needs in linguistic development. In addition, the focus was on what kind of intervention measures were used with the students identified with the risk for dyslexia and how effective the intervention measures were. The target group of this research was 25 first grade students in a school in Southern Finland during 2012-2013. The RTI model, developed for mapping, monitoring and evaluating students' linguistic support needs, was used as research data. The screening was done in three separate phases. First, the students were screened for the risk of dyslexia and directed to linguistic intervention groups, if needed. Then the results of the intervention group were compared with a control group. The results were analysed both statistically and qualitatively. With the screening method, students with the need of support in linguistic skills were recognised. They were directed to linguistic intervention organised as part-time special education. The intervention measures were based on linguistic skills development program that was developed in the municipality-wide Kelpo project during the years 2009-2010. The results of the intervention group and the control group converged at different measuring points.This study indicated that the screening method is a suitable tool for systematic monitoring of linguistic support needs. Used with the intervention measures it has positive effects on the development of reading and writing skills among the students with the risk for dyslexia.

On vain vähän tietoa siitä, millaisia menetelmiä dysfagian eli nielemisvaikeuden seulontaan on käytössä. Tiedetään kuitenkin, että seulonnalla voidaan ennaltaehkäistä keuhkokuumeen syn-tyä, henkilökohtaista kärsimystä sekä lyhentää sairaalajaksojen pituutta ja vähentää kuolleisuut-ta. Dysfagia eli nielemisvaikeus on yleinen oire aivoverenkiertohäiriön jälkeen. Puheterapeutit eivät voi kuitenkaan arvioida kaikkia sairaalaan tulevien potilaiden nielemisen toimintaa ja siksi sairaanhoitajien tulee seuloa potilaat mahdollisten nielemisvaikeuksien varalta ja siten tunnistaa ns. riskiryhmä. Tämä riskiryhmä ohjataan puheterapeutin tarkempaan nielemisen arvioon. Useimmissa sairaaloissa ei kuitenkaan ole vakiintunutta käytäntöä dysfagian seulontaan. Ei ole myöskään tietoa siitä, mikä on ideaalisin dysfagian seulontamenetelmä. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on selvittää, mitä menetelmiä on käytössä dysfagian seulontaan ja kuinka tarkko-ja ne ovat tunnistamaan sitä. Tutkimuksessa pyritään kokoamaan yhteen käytössä olevia dysfa-gian seulontamenetelmiä aivoverenkiertohäiriön jälkeen akuuttivaiheessa. Aineistoa kerättiin EBSCO- ja Medline – tietokannoista. Hakutermit muodostettiin kuvailevassa kirjallisuuskatsauksessa käytettyjen käsitteiden dysfagia/nielemisvaikeus, akuutti aivoveren-kiertohäiriö, sairaanhoitaja ja seulonta englanninkielisistä vastineista. Aineiston keruuta ohjasi tutkimuksille asetetut valintakriteerit: 1) tutkimuksen tuli olla vertaisarvioitu, 2) julkaisuvuosi 2006–2016, 3) tutkimuksen tuli olla luettavissa englannin tai suomen kielellä, 4) koko tekstin tuli olla saatavilla, 5) tutkimuksen tuli käsitellä dysfagian seulontamenetelmää. Haku tuotti 33 kansainvälistä artikkelia, joista valintakriteerien pohjalta lopulliseksi aineistoksi valikoitui seit-semän artikkelia. Tiedonhakuprosessissa sekä aineiston tulkinnassa noudatettiin kuvailevan kirjallisuuskatsauksen periaatteita. Tulosten perusteella voidaan sanoa, että dysfagian seulontaan käytetään useita menetelmiä ja ne osoittavat hyvää tai erinomaista sensitiivisyyttä ja keskinkertaista spesifisyyttä dysfagian tunnistamiseksi. Dysfagian seulontaan ei sairaaloissa ole vakiintunutta käytäntöä, mutta tämän tutkielman seulontamenetelmistä voisi hyvin olla jo nyt hyötyä erikoissairaanhoidossa.

During and after myocardial infarction, millions to a billion cells die off. Scar tissue formed by fibroblasts replaces the injured myocardium during recovery. While the newly formed tissue is durable and prevents rupture of the heart, it doesn´t contribute to pump function. Depending on the extent of cardiomyocyte loss, the remaining functional myocardium get strained. Adult mammalian heart has inadequate capacity to regenerate after such injury. In case of sustained substantial increase in workload, the compensatory mechanisms turn into pathological processes including excessive fibrosis and myocyte apoptosis. The progressive decline of hearts contractile function results in heart failure (HF). Current drug treatments for managing HF aim to prevent progression of the disease and relieve symptoms. ACE inhibitors, beta blockers and diuretics are effective along with healthy lifestyle. No practical treatments are available to restore cardiac function yet. Human myocardium normally regenerates, but only 1% or less of myocytes get replaced yearly. Heart’s resident stem/progenitor cells (CPCs) likely play a role in the turnover. The aim of this study was to develop a screening method to identify small molecules that possibly promote differentiation of cardiac progenitor cells to cardiomyocytes. Cell population differentiated from mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) was used as a model for CPCs. Directed differentiation protocol of mESCs used here promotes commitment to cells of cardiac mesoderm, part of which will further differentiate to cardiac progenitors. The resulting population at day 6 is heterogenous but many of these cells are progenitors that turn into cardiomyocytes (CMs) by day 8. 10 000 cells per well are plated on 384 well plates at day 5. Test compounds are added at day 6 and removed day 8 for effect in progenitors and day 7-9 for effect in early cardiomyocytes. 0,1% DMSO is used as vehicle and Wnt pathway inhibitor XAV939 as positive control. The effects are quantified with plate reader on day 9. E14 derived mESC reporter line was used. Myl2v-eGFP + SMyHC3-RFP double reporter line allows the specific identification of ventricular CMs with green fluorescence and atrial CMs with red fluorescence. Plate reader measures the total fluorescence of the wells at 485/520nm on day 9, which is used as a readout for ventricular CMs. The fluorescence intensity depends on the amount of GFP+ cells but also on the level of Myl2v expression. Atrial CMs could be quantified similarly but the population doesn´t contain enough RFP+ cells. The assay was shown to reliably point out ‘hits’ that have a strong effect. Any compounds that only produce a moderate effect could be a false negative, however. The effect on cardiac progenitors could likely be increased by simply adding the compounds earlier on day 5. Variability of key reagents causes the main technical troubles through unpredictably affecting cytokine concentrations which decreases the amount of cardiac progenitors. Partially similar screening assays are being used by the big pharma where they cryopreserve progenitors in bulk for later use, thus simplifying and speeding up their method. Same approach could be adopted.

Background and Objectives: It is crucial to identify children's linguistic and communicative challenges as early as possible. Previous research indicates that early vocabulary and gesture-object expression skills are strong predictors of later linguistic and communicative abilities. By assessing these skills, it is possible to identify children in need of support at an early stage. Various methods have been developed to assess early language and communication development, one of which is Finnish version of Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales, Developmental Profile (FinCSBS). It is a screening method where parents evaluate a child's social communication, speech comprehension, and speech production skills between the ages of 6 to 24 months. While the FinCSBS has been standardized up to two years of age, there is limited research on its application in assessing this age group. The aim of this master's thesis was to investigate whether a child's mastery of vocabulary and gestures at the age of one is related to their linguistic and communicative development at the age of two, as assessed using the FinCSBS. Additionally, the study aimed to examine the usability of the FinCSBS in assessing children's linguistic development at two years of age. Participants and Methods: This study included 50 typically developing Finnish-speaking children. The study sample was part of the validation study of short form of the MacArthur Communication Inventories Finnish version (Sanaseula study). Children's mastery of vocabulary and gesture-object functions was assessed at one year of age using the Finnish Long Form version of the Communicative Development Inventories (FinCDI-LF), while their linguistic and communicative skills at two years of age were assessed using the FinCSBS. The connections between one-year-old children's vocabulary and gesture-object skills and two-year-old children's linguistic and communicative skills were initially examined by analyzing the Spearman correlation coefficient. Subsequently, the connections were further explored through linear regression analysis. Results and Discussion: Based on the correlation coefficients, it was found that vocabulary mastery at one year of age was associated with later vocabulary comprehension, and gesture-object functions were related to later social communication skills. More information is needed to understand the connections between these skills in greater detail. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the FinCSBS may not necessarily be suitable for assessing two-year-old children, as its ability to identify children in need of support at this age may be weaker compared to earlier age groups. Therefore, its usage is advisable to be focused on younger age groups. At the age of two, the FinCSBS could be most beneficial when used alongside another method that provides a more detailed assessment of vocabulary. In the future, it is essential to develop a method that allows for a more precise assessment of a two-year-old child's comprehension of vocabulary.