Search

Abstract Monitoring both native and invasive species is crucial for understanding their ecological impacts. However, obtaining reliable data can be challenging, especially for elusive species like mesopredators. This study utilized snow-track surveys in Finland (1989–2022) to examine population trends of the invasive raccoon dog and the native red fox. While raccoon dogs are known to reduce activity during cold weather, we demonstrated that accounting for temperature and snowfall allows for effective population trend estimation using snow-track data. Track accumulation decreased in cold and snowy weather more clearly for raccoon dogs than for red foxes. We also found that the track accumulation of the raccoon dog had significantly increased, while those of the red fox population had declined, particularly in southern parts of the country. Notably, raccoon dog snow-track numbers increased in northern regions, suggesting a potential for further range expansion under a warming climate. These findings reveal a concerning shift in Finland’s mesopredators abundance due to the invasive species’ success and the decline of the native species. Thus, the invasive raccoon dog is likely to have an increasing role in those northern ecosystems where it interacts with the native fauna.

Invasive predators are one of the leading causes of global biodiversity loss, threatening local ecosystems through predation and spreading diseases. In Europe, the most common and widespread invasive mesopredator is the raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides). Raccoon dog is an opportunistic omnivore listed as a species of European Union concern, as they are suspected of harming ground-nesting waterbird populations. However, the actual extent of risks caused by raccoon dog predation has been disputed, partly due to methodological constraints in detecting all prey in the diet. Here, we studied the animal components of raccoon dog diet using DNA metabarcoding, a powerful tool to detect even the smallest traces of ingested food items. We sequenced genes 12S rRNA and COI from raccoon dog scat samples collected during the breeding season of birds close to water bodies in southern Finland. We also examined whether the occurrence of different dietary items would depend on the habitat around the latrine. We found that frogs were the most common vertebrate food item in raccoon dog diet during spring. The proportion of detected bird material was not higher compared to earlier studies, despite the potential to detect DNA originating from eggs. The proportion of fish in the diet increased with increasing water area around the latrine, but no other relationships between diet and habitat were found. We conclude that even though raccoon dogs predate on waterbirds’ and other ground nesting birds’ nests, they do not seem to be specialized on it in our study areas. However, declining waterbird populations and, in particular, local amphibian populations could be negatively impacted by raccoon dog predation.

Background and purpose: There is concern among clinicians regarding the performance of thin, highly cross-linked polyethylene acetabular liners at high inclination angles that cause edge contact and high contact stresses. We studied ex vivo wear performance of thin, vitamin-E grafted, highly cross-linked polyethylene (Vivacit-E) liners in relation to high acetabular inclination angle. Materials and methods: Wear of Vivacit-E acetabular liners (thickness 4.0–5.7 mm) was studied with a validated hip joint simulator at 2 different acetabular inclination angles, 40° (optimal) and 65° (high). The test simulated walking. Wear was evaluated gravimetrically and dimensionally. Results: At the optimal inclination angle, slight weight gain occurred. At the high angle, the liners lost weight slightly. Due to the minimal weight loss, gravimetric wear rates were difficult to determine. Linear wear was below the detection limit of 0.01 mm. Conclusion: Even with the high acetabular inclination angle, the prostheses performed well in the present test conditions. The wear rates of the liners were estimated to be clearly below the osteolysis threshold of 0.05 mm/year, below which osteolysis is absent. Since the present hip joint simulator has been shown to produce clinically relevant wear, these ex vivo results are likely to reflect the in vivo behavior of the design.

Abstract Bats utilize forests as roosting sites and feeding areas. However, it has not been documented how bats utilize these habitats in the boreal zone with methods afforded by recent technological advances. Forest structure and management practices can create a variety of three‐dimensional habitats for organisms capable of flight, such as bats. Here, we study the presence of boreal bats in a forest forming a mosaic of different age classes, dominant tree species, canopy cover, soil fertility, and other environmental variables, throughout their active season in the summer using passive ultrasound detectors. Our results indicate a preference for mature forest by Eptesicus nilssonii and a pooled set of Myotis bats. Both groups of bats also showed temporal changes in their habitat use regarding forest age. In June and July, both groups occurred more often in mature than young forests, but from August onwards, the difference in occurrence became less evident in Myotis and disappeared completely in E. nilssonii. In addition, E. nilssonii was more often present in forests with low canopy cover, and its occurrence shifted from coniferous forests to deciduous forests during the season. The results reflect the within‐season dynamics of bat communities and their ability to utilize different types of forest as environmental conditions change. Yet, the results most importantly emphasize the importance of mature forests to bat diversity and the need to conserve such environments in the boreal zone.

The essay discusses Gabriel Naudé’s ideal of a censorship-free and publicly open library within Naudé’s intellectual environment consisting of some early modern veins of political theory and views to history. An assumption is that the Naudéan ideal of library and some veins in early modern historiography and views to history could manifest somehow similar rationalities. The early modern vein of Tacitist historiography pursuing a realist and source-based description of the past could relate to Naudé’s ideal of the censorship-free library and his technocratic and moral premises excluding political thought. Naudé’s ideal of the publicly open library, on the other hand, could relate to a different view to history that could be constitutive of morality too. The early phase of early modern Tacitism especially would be consistent with Naudé’s thought of both the library and politics, while the other view to history could be, at best, only fragmentarily significant.

The smart city concept brings together technology, government and different layers of society, utilizing technological enablers, such as the internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI). These enablers, in turn, facilitate development of various aspects of the smart city including, e.g., transportation, governance, education, safety and communications. However, the transition towards smarter cities involves not only technological development but also the changing and evolving roles of citizens, service providers and city authorities. In this transition, the key issue is creating and growing roles of collaboration, participation and coordination. Whereas mainstream research focuses on smart city transformation in big cities, aspects of this transformation in the context of small cities has been a widely neglected topic. This paper presents three cases of smart city development in small cities in Finland, each concentrating on a different aspect of smart city development. The cases reveal how a relatively small-sized city may take remarkable steps in smart city development by selecting a specific theme on which to build smart city activities. These examples also emphasize the critical role of public sector actors, showing that the public sector has a key role in creating the foundations for fruitful ecosystem-based development work.

In an attempt to identify patients who have successfully survived a resuscitated cardiac arrest (CA), attention is drawn to resistin and S100B protein, two biomarkers that have been studied in relation to CA.

Abstract Landscape structure can affect dispersal and gene flow in a species. In urban areas, buildings, roads, and small habitat patches make the landscape highly fragmented and can inhibit movement and affect dispersal behavior. Similarly, in rural forested areas, large open areas, such as fields, may act as barriers to movement. We studied how landscape structure affects natal dispersal distances of Eurasian red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) in an urban area and a rural area in Finland, by monitoring juvenile red squirrels with radio telemetry. We observed extremely long dispersal distances—up to 16 km—in the rural study area, but shorter distances—on average only half a kilometer—in the urban study area. The landscape structure affected the eventual dispersal paths; in the rural landscape, dispersers favored spruce dominated areas and avoided fields along their dispersal route, although they occasionally even crossed wide fields. In the urban landscape, squirrels preferred areas with deciduous or coniferous trees. The movement steps made by dispersers were longer in the more hostile landscape compared to forested areas. Despite these effects on movement path, the landscape structure only had a minor effect on straight line dispersal distances moved from the natal nest. In other words, individuals moved longer distances and were likely to circumvent barriers in their path, but this did not affect how far they settled from their natal home. This result indicates that, although landscape structure has obvious effects on movement, it still may have only a small effect on other aspects of the population, for example, gene flow.

Alina Deniza Ciubean,1,2 Rodica Ana Ungur,2,3 Laszlo Irsay,2,3 Viorela Mihaela Ciortea,2,3 Ileana Monica Borda,2,3 Ioan Onac,2,3 Stefan Cristian Vesa,1 Anca Dana Buzoianu1 1Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Clinical Pharmacology, Iuliu Haţieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania; 2Department of Rehabilitation, Clinical Rehabilitation Hospital, Cluj-Napoca, Romania; 3Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Iuliu Haţieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Objectives: Osteoporosis is a common skeletal disorder characterized by decreased bone mass and increased susceptibility to fractures, which are associated with pain and decrease in physical function, social function, and well-being, which are all aspects of quality of life (QoL). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the burden of osteoporosis and fragility fractures in Romanian postmenopausal women from Cluj County using the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and Quality of life questionnaire of the European Foundation for Osteoporosis (QUALEFFO-41) questionnaires.Materials and methods: An analytical cross-sectional study on 364 postmenopausal women was carried out between June 2016 and August 2017 in the Clinical Rehabilitation Hospital in Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, Romania. Data were collected by interview and from the medical documents: clinical and demographic data, personal medical history, risk factors for osteoporosis, and bone mineral density at the lumbar spine and femur. The patients included in the study were asked to complete the Romanian versions of the SF-36 and QUALEFFO-41 questionnaires.Results: Women with osteoporosis had significantly lower scores in the SF-36 domains (P

Introduction: Reduced serum levels of paraoxonase 1 (PON1) activities are associated with diseases involving increased oxidative stress, such as acute coronary syndrome. We aimed to determine whether serum PON1 activities are a prognostic factor for one-year survival following ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).

Habitat choice often entails trade-offs between food availability and predation risk. Understanding the distribution of individuals in space thus requires that both habitat characteristics and predation risk are considered simultaneously. Here, we studied the nest box use of two arboreal squirrels who share preferred habitat with their main predators. Nocturnal Ural owls (Strix uralensis) decreased occurrence of night-active flying squirrels (Pteromys volans) and diurnal goshawks (Accipiter gentilis) that of day-active red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris). Unexpectedly, the amount of preferred habitat had no effect on nest box use, but, surprisingly, both squirrel species seemed to benefit from close proximity to agricultural fields and red squirrels to urban areas. We found no evidence of trade-off between settling in a high-quality habitat and avoiding predators. However, the amount of poor-quality young pine forests was lower in occupied sites where goshawks were present, possibly indicating habitat specific predation on red squirrels. The results suggest that erecting nest boxes for Ural owls should be avoided in the vicinity of flying squirrel territories in order to conserve the near threatened flying squirrels. Our results also suggest that flying squirrels do not always need continuous old forests, and hence the currently insufficient conservation practices could be improved with reasonable increases in the areas left untouched around their nests. The results of this study demonstrate the importance of taking into account both habitat requirements and predation risk as well as their interactive effects when modeling the occupancy of threatened animal species and planning their conservation.

Informaatiotutkimuksen yliopistonlehtori Vesa Suominen jäi eläkkeelle ja piti läksiäisluentonsa 1.2.2017 Oulun yliopistossa.

Scop: Această cercetare are drept scop stabilirea unei corelaţii genotip-fenotip la pacienţii trataţi cu acenocumarol şi studierea factoriilor genetici (polimorfismele VKORC1 şi CYP2C9), care ar putea influenţa valorile INR în timpul iniţierii terapiei anticoagulante orale cu acenocumarol. Material şi metode: Am inclus 131 de pacienţi care necesitau tratament cu acenocumarol, 70 (53,4%) femei şi 61 (46,6%) bărbaţi, internaţi în Clinica Medicala 5 din Cluj-Napoca, între 2009-2011. Am studiat influenţa vârstei, sexului, medicaţiei concomitente şi a genelor CYP2C9 şi VKORC1 asupra valorii INR măsurate în ziua a treia de tratament şi asupra diferenţei dintre această valoare şi valoarea INR măsurată la debutul tratamentului (INRDIF). Rezultate şi concluzii: Am demonstrat o diferenţă semnificativă statistic pentru INR3 şi valorile INRDIF la pacienţii cu genotip AA şi cei cu genotip GG ai polimorfismului c.- 1639G>A al genei VKORC1. Prezenţa genotipului AA al polimorfismului c.- 1639G>A al genei VKORC1 a determinat o creştere de 15,7 ori a riscului ca un pacient să prezinte INR supraterapeutic după 2 zile de tratament cu 4 mg de acenocumarol.

Obiectivul studiului a fost de investigarea fenotipului şi genotipului PON1 la pacienţii români cu obezitate abdominală. Material şi metodă. Loturile din studiu au constat din 88 de pacienţi cu obezitate abdominală şi 46 subiecţi cu circumferinţă abdominală normală. Pentru fiecare pacient am determinat parametri clinici care ar putea influenţa activităţile PON1. Polimorfismele Q192R şi L55M ale genei PON1 au fost identificate prin PCR-RFLP (polimorfismul lungimii fragmentelor de restricţie) prin utilizarea unor primeri şi enzime de restricţie specifice. Activităţile PON1 lactonază, paraoxonază şi arilesteraza au fost măsurate prin metode spectofotometrice. Analiza statistică a genotipurilor PON1 şi activităţilor ei la pacienţii obezi şi nonobezi a fost realizată cu programul MedCalc (versiunea 12.5.0.0). Rezultate: Nu am găsit o diferenţă semnificativă între pacienţii obezi şi nonobezi în ceea ce priveşte vârsta şi sexul. Studiul a revelat faptul că activităţile PON1 nu sunt influenţate de sexul pacienţilor. Dintre activităţile PON1, doar activitatea paraoxonazei a fost invers corelată cu vârsta (p=0,05). Circumferinţa abdominală a influenţat independent doar variaţia activităţii arilesterazei (R2=6,5%); p=0,003). Distribuţia genotipurilor PON1 între loturi a fost semnificativ diferită doar pentru Q192R (p=0,007), dar nu şi pentru genotipurile L55M. Genotipul QR a avut cea mai mare influenţă asupra activităţii paraoxonazei (R2=40,6; p

Suomen kirjastoseuran Koulutus- ja tutkimustyöryhmä järjesti Oulussa marraskuussa pidettyjen Informaatiotutkimuksen päivien yhteydessä työpajan, jossa pohdittiin kirjastoalan koulutuksen kysymyksiä.