Homeostatic plasticity, the ability of neurons to maintain their averaged activity constant around a set point value, is thought to account for the central hyperactivity after hearing loss. Here, we ...investigated the putative role of GABAergic neurotransmission in this mechanism after a noise-induced hearing loss larger than 50 dB in high frequencies in guinea pigs. The effect of GABAergic inhibition is linked to the normal functioning of K + -Cl- co-transporter isoform 2 (KCC2) which maintains a low intracellular concentration of chloride. The expression of membrane KCC2 were investigated before and after noise trauma in the ventral and dorsal cochlear nucleus (VCN and DCN, respectively) and in the inferior colliculus (IC). Moreover, the effect of gabazine (GBZ), a GABA antagonist, was also studied on the neural activity in IC. We show that KCC2 is downregulated in VCN, DCN and IC 3 days after noise trauma, and in DCN and IC 30 days after the trauma. As expected, GBZ application in the IC of control animals resulted in an increase of spontaneous and stimulus-evoked activity. In the noise exposed animals, on the other hand, GBZ application decreased the stimulus-evoked activity in IC neurons. The functional implications of these central changes are discussed.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Objectives
To estimate the economic costs of oral lichen planus (OLP) through a multicenter university hospital–based outpatient study conducted in Italy and Finland.
Materials and methods
A ...multicenter retrospective study was conducted on patients affected by OLP to evaluate the economic cost of managing the disease. Direct costs concerning diagnostic procedures, therapeutic management, and follow-up visits were obtained from clinical records. Statistics was performed with IBM SPSS Statistics.
Results
One hundred and eight patients with a confirmed diagnosis of OLP (81 women and 27 men), 58 Italians and 50 Finnish, were enrolled in this study. The mean annual cost was 1087.2 euros per patient. The mean annual cost was higher in Finnish than in Italian cohort (1558.7 euros vs. 680.7 euros—
p
< 0.05). Within the Italian cohort, the local immunosuppressive therapy group and atrophic and erosive OLP type had a higher cost (
p
< 0.05). Within the Finnish cohort, the local immunosuppressive therapy group had a higher cost (
p
< 0.05).
Conclusions
OLP-related costs are very similar to other chronic oral disorders (i.e., periodontitis) with differences between investigated countries. Moreover, patients with more severe clinical features, who need immunosuppressive therapy, are facing more expensive costs.
Clinical relevance.
In this multicenter cost of illness study, we estimated the direct health care costs of OLP and we found that patients with more severe clinical features, who therefore need symptomatic therapy, are facing more expensive costs.
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CMK, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Objective
To carry out a double‐blind randomized controlled trial (RCT) to compare the effectiveness of topical tacrolimus (TAC), triamcinolone acetonide (TRI), and placebo (PLA) in symptomatic oral ...lichen planus (OLP).
Subjects and Methods
A clinical score (CS, range 0–130) was developed to measure the clinical signs and symptoms of OLP. Twenty‐seven OLP patients with a CS of ≥20 were randomly allocated to receive 0.1% TAC ointment (n = 11), 0.1% TRI paste (n = 7), or Orabase® paste as PLA (n = 9) for 3 weeks. If the CS dropped ≥20% (interpreted as response), the patients continued the same medication for another 3 weeks. If the CS dropped <20% or increased (non‐response), the patients were switched to TAC for 6 weeks. A 6‐month follow‐up period ensued. The primary outcome variable was the change in CS from baseline to week 3. In primary outcome analysis, CS values between the treatment arms were compared.
Results
Tacrolimus and TRI were more effective (P = 0.012 and 0.031, respectively) than PLA in reducing the CS at week 3. No difference in the efficacy was noted between TAC and TRI (P = 0.997).
Conclusions
This pilot RCT provides evidence for the effectiveness of TAC and TRI over PLA in the management of OLP.
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CMK, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Socioeconomic inequalities in health are a global problem, not only among the adult population but also among children. However, studies concerning young children especially are rare. The aim of this ...study was to describe the health of Finnish children under 12 years of age, and the socioeconomic factors associated with health. The socioeconomic factors were parental education level, household net income, and working status.
A population-based survey among Finnish children aged under 12 years (n = 6,000) was conducted in spring 2007. A questionnaire was sent to parents, and a response rate of 67% was achieved. Each child's health was explored by asking a parent to report the child's health status on a 5-point Likert scale, current symptoms from a symptoms list, and current disease(s) diagnosed by a physician. The final three outcome measures were poor health, the prevalences of psychosomatic symptoms, and long-term diseases. Data were analysed using Pearson's Chi-Square tests, and logistic regression analysis with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). P-values ≤ 0.05 were considered as statistically significant.
In total, 3% of parents reported that their child's health status was poor. The prevalences of psychosomatic symptoms and long-term diseases were both 11%. The probability for poor health status was lowest among children aged 3-6 and 7-11 years, and for psychosomatic symptoms among 3-6-year-old children, whereas the odds ratios for long-term diseases was highest among children aged 7-11 years. Parental socioeconomic factors were not associated with the children's health.
Most of the children were reported by their parent to have good health status, and approximately one tenth had experienced some psychosomatic symptoms or long-term diseases. Our study suggests that parental socioeconomic factors are not associated with the health of children aged under 12 years in Finland.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Several quantitative studies have sought to determine the factors affecting the unauthorized copying of software, particularly in North America. However, we find no statistically reliable studies on ...the situation in Europe. In order to address this gap in the literature, we explored the attitudes to and factors affecting the unauthorized copying of computer software of 249 Finnish university students: nine hypotheses derived from the existing research on unauthorized copying of computer software or theories of ethics were tested. A quantitative questionnaire was used as the research instrument. The results shed new light on the characteristics of users and factors affecting the unauthorized copying of software.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Information security was the main topic in this paper. An investigation of the compliance to information security policies were discussed. The author mentions that the insignificant relationship ...between rewards and actual compliance with information security policies does not make sense. Quite possibly this relationship results from not applying rewards for security compliance. Also mentions that based on the survey conducted, careless employee behavior places an organization's assets and reputation in serious jeopardy. The major threat to information security arises from careless employees who fail to comply with organizations' information security policies and procedures.
It is of great clinical importance to identify simple prognostic markers from preoperative biopsies that could guide treatment planning. Here, we compared tumor budding (B), depth of invasion (D), ...and the combined scores (i.e., budding and depth of invasion (BD) histopathologic model) in preoperative biopsies and the corresponding postoperative specimens of oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC). Tumor budding and depth of invasion were evaluated in the pre- and postoperative samples from 100 patients treated for OTSCC. Sensitivity and specificity statistics were used. Our results showed statistically significant (
P
< 0.001) relationship between pre- and postoperative BD scores. There was an agreement between the pre- and postoperative BD model scores in 83 cases (83%) with 57.1% sensitivity (95% CI 39.4 to 73.7%) and 96.9% specificity (95% CI 89.3 to 99.6%). Our findings suggest that the BD model, analyzed from representative biopsies, could be used for the treatment planning of OTSCC.
The literature agrees that the major threat to IS security is constituted by careless employees who do not comply with organizations' IS security policies and procedures. To address this concern, ...different approaches for ensuring employees' IS security policy compliance have been proposed. Prior research on IS security compliance has criticized these extant IS security awareness approaches as lacking theoretically and empirically grounded principles to ensure that employees comply with IS security policies. To fill this gap, this study proposes a theoretical model that contains the factors that explain employees' IS security policy compliance. Data (N=245) from a Finnish company provides empirical support for the model. The results suggest that information quality has a significant effect on actual IS security policy compliance. Employees' attitude, normative beliefs and habits have significant effect on intention to comply with IS security policy. Threat appraisal and facilitating conditions have significant impact on attitude towards complying, while coping appraisal does not have a significant effect on employees' attitude towards complying. Sanctions have insignificant effect on intention to comply with IS security policy and awards do not have a significant effect on actual compliance with IS security policy
Steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) protein related lipid transfer (START) domains are small globular modules that form a cavity where lipids and lipid hormones bind. These domains can transport ...ligands to facilitate lipid exchange between biological membranes, and they have been postulated to modulate the activity of other domains of the protein in response to ligand binding. More than a dozen human genes encode START domains, and several of them are implicated in a disease.
We report crystal structures of the human STARD1, STARD5, STARD13 and STARD14 lipid transfer domains. These represent four of the six functional classes of START domains.
Sequence alignments based on these and previously reported crystal structures define the structural determinants of human START domains, both those related to structural framework and those involved in ligand specificity.
This article can also be viewed as an enhanced version in which the text of the article is integrated with interactive 3D representations and animated transitions. Please note that a web plugin is required to access this enhanced functionality. Instructions for the installation and use of the web plugin are available in Text S1.
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The importance of peroxisomes in lipid metabolism is now well established and peroxisomes contain approximately 60 enzymes involved in these lipid metabolic pathways. Several acyl-CoA thioesterase ...enzymes (ACOTs) have been identified in peroxisomes that catalyze the hydrolysis of acyl-CoAs (short-, medium-, long- and very long-chain), bile acid-CoAs, and methyl branched-CoAs, to the free fatty acid and coenzyme A. A number of acyltransferase enzymes, which are structurally and functionally related to ACOTs, have also been identified in peroxisomes, which conjugate (or amidate) bile acid-CoAs and acyl-CoAs to amino acids, resulting in the production of amidated bile acids and fatty acids. The function of ACOTs is to act as auxiliary enzymes in the α- and β-oxidation of various lipids in peroxisomes. Human peroxisomes contain at least two ACOTs (ACOT4 and ACOT8) whereas mouse peroxisomes contain six ACOTs (ACOT3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 12). Similarly, human peroxisomes contain one bile acid-CoA:amino acid N-acyltransferase (BAAT), whereas mouse peroxisomes contain three acyltransferases (BAAT and acyl-CoA:amino acid N-acyltransferases 1 and 2: ACNAT1 and ACNAT2). This review will focus on the human and mouse peroxisomal ACOT and acyltransferase enzymes identified to date and discuss their cellular localizations, emerging structural information and functions as auxiliary enzymes in peroxisomal metabolic pathways. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Metabolic Functions and Biogenesis of Peroxisomes in Health and Disease.
► ACOTs regulate acyl-CoA metabolism in peroxisomes. ► Peroxisomes produce glycine and taurine-conjugated fatty acids. ► BAAT is involved in the inheritance of familial hypercholanemia. ► New insights into acyl-CoA thioesterase structure and function. ► ACOTs structurally belong to the α/β hydrolase and HotDog fold protein superfamilies.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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