The objectives of this study were (i) to determine the reproducibility of computer measurements of isometric strength and related electromyography in several muscle groups in sedentary middle-aged ...women, (ii) to evaluate the effects of different digital signal averaging methods on the reproducibility, (iii) to determine the final test score to be preferred in terms of improved reproducibility of isometric strength measurements, and (iv) to evaluate potential advantages provided by the computer measurement. Fifteen subjects were measured three times within a 2-week period. The measurements consisted of recordings of maximal isometric strength and rate of force production during trunk extension and flexion, leg extension and dominant forearm flexion with simultaneous recordings of surface electromyography, except in the trunk flexors. The following four final test scores were determined for each trial: the maximum of the three scores, the mean of the two highest scores, the median of the three scores and the mean of the three scores. The scores for the strength measurement were generally more reproducible (coefficient of variation, CV, approximately 6% and intraclass correlation coefficient ICCC, approximately 0.90) than those of the other measurements (CV > 10%, ICCC 0.13-0.97). There was no obvious preference for any type of final test score or for the width of the averaging window in the computer analysis. For isometric strength the reproducibility of the computer measurements was comparable to that of the voltmeter assessments. Computer analysis seems to be a versatile method for determining parameters of neuromuscular performance with reasonable reproducibility.
New tactical radio systems in Finland Pouttu, A.; Raustia, M.; Saarnisaari, H. ...
MILCOM 2005 - 2005 IEEE Military Communications Conference,
2005
Conference Proceeding
This article describes the developments in the field of emerging new military radio systems to be deployed in Finland, Finnish software radio programme is the tool to deploy these new systems. The ...demonstrator platform, that is being build, is a software defined radio wherein the developed wideband applications can be demonstrated. The systems that will be deployed on the demonstrator platform - tactical radio communication system (TRCS) and national tactical positioning system (NTPS) - are introduced in this paper. Brief introduction of the adaptive antenna system to be applied in the demonstrator is also given
Provider: - Institution: - Data provided by Europeana Collections- All metadata published by Europeana are available free of restriction under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain ...Dedication. However, Europeana requests that you actively acknowledge and give attribution to all metadata sources including Europeana
Provider: - Institution: - Data provided by Europeana Collections- All metadata published by Europeana are available free of restriction under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain ...Dedication. However, Europeana requests that you actively acknowledge and give attribution to all metadata sources including Europeana
The association between vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphisms and diseases such as breast cancer, prostate cancer and osteoporosis has been extensively investigated during recent years. To ...date, several polymorphisms have been found in the VDR gene. In this Finnish case-control study, comprising 483 breast cancer patients and 482 healthy population controls, we investigated the association between altered breast cancer risk and two polymorphisms in the 3' end of the gene detectable with ApaI and TaqI restriction enzymes. A statistically significant difference was observed in the ApaI genotype distribution between cases and controls. Women with the VDR variant a allele containing genotypes showed a decreased risk for breast cancer odds ratio (OR) 0.73, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.54-0.98 compared to women with the AA genotype. This association was especially strong among women with a positive family history of breast cancer (OR 0.14, 95% CI 0.03-0.76). Moreover, there was a trend (P for trend = 0.0007) for decreased risk with increasing number of variant alleles. The lowest risk of breast cancer was seen for the women with the aa genotype (OR 0.03, 95% CI 0.003-0.31) compared to women with the AA genotype. A tendency of decreased risk of breast cancer was also observed for the TaqI T allele containing genotypes (Tt and TT) (OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.41-1.12), but because the distribution of Taql alleles in the controls missed the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (P = 0.01), we were unable to properly assess the potential impact of the TaqI polymorphism in breast cancer susceptibility. In conclusion, our results suggest that the VDR ApaI genotype may be an important modifier of individual breast cancer risk among Finnish women, especially if they have a positive family history of breast cancer.
Our previous studies suggested that both COMT and GST genotypes might modify individual breast cancer risk. Here, we extended the studies to examine the potential combined effect of these genotypes ...in susceptibility to breast cancer. Our study population consisted of 483 Finnish breast cancer cases and 482 population control subjects. The odds ratios (ORs) and (95%) confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated by unconditional logistic regression adjusting for known or suspected confounding factors. No significant increase in the overall breast cancer risk was seen for any combinations of the studied genotypes. However, a substantially increased risk of breast cancer was seen for women who had used hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and simultaneously carried the COMT-L allele containing genotypes and either the GSTP1 Ile/Ile genotype (OR 4.10, 95% CI 1.24-13.6) or the GSTT1 null genotype (OR 4.19, 95% CI 1.30-13.5). These associations appeared to be mainly attributable to long-term users of HRT; the respective ORs were 7.00 (95% CI 1.21-40.6) and 8.36 (95% CI 1.44-49.0) among the users of HRT of more than 30 months. In addition, the combination of COMT-L allele containing genotypes with the GSTM1 null genotype posed a remarkably increased risk (OR 9.10, 95% CI 1.84-45.0) of breast cancer in this study group. These results suggest that the use of HRT could substantially increase the risk of breast cancer among women with specific combinations of the at-risk genotypes of COMT and GST genes.
We studied the quantity of Langerhans cells in 36 patients with cervical human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. Significantly fewer Langerhans cells (p < 0.05) were found in patients with compared to ...those without DNA tetraploidy. Similarly, patients positive for HPV 16/18 DNA by in situ hybridization or antipeptide IgA antibodies to HPV 18 tended to have fewer Langerhans cells than those negative for HPV 16/18 DNA or IgA antibodies. Our results suggest that depletion of Langerhans cells is associated with productive HPV 16/18 infection in the cervical epithelium.
Some 3-10% of Caucasians are deficient in CYP2D6 metabolism (poor metabolizers), due to inheritance of two defective alleles, whereas amplification of the CYP2D6 gene results in ultrarapid metabolism ...in 1-2% of Caucasian populations. To examine the possible association between CYP2D6 polymorphism and individual smoking behaviour, we analysed the prevalence of CYP2D6 genotypes among 292 long-term heavy smokers, 382 individuals with more variable smoking histories, and 302 never-smokers. The prevalence of ultrarapid metabolizers in heavy smokers (7.9%) was twofold compared to individuals with variable smoking habits (3.7%; odds ratio 2.3, 95% confidence interval 1.2-4.4), and fourfold compared with never-smokers (2.0%) (odds ratio 4.2, 95% confidence interval 1.8-9.8). The frequency of poor metabolizer genotype was approximately 2%, in each smoker group. However, when men and women were studied separately, the prevalence of poor metabolizer genotype was higher in male never-smokers (3.6%) than in variable smokers (2.7%) and heavy smokers (2.2%). Moreover, a trend test, adjusted by age, gender and cancer status, revealed a significant trend for the increased tobacco usage with increased metabolic capacity. Our results are in agreement with the assumption that increased CYP2D6 activity may contribute to the probability of being addicted to smoking.
