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Levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, triglycerides and total cholesterol are heritable, modifiable risk factors for coronary artery disease. To identify new loci and refine known loci influencing these lipids, we examined 188,577 individuals using genome-wide and custom genotyping arrays. We identify and annotate 157 loci associated with lipid levels at P < 5 × 10(-8), including 62 loci not previously associated with lipid levels in humans. Using dense genotyping in individuals of European, East Asian, South Asian and African ancestry, we narrow association signals in 12 loci. We find that loci associated with blood lipid levels are often associated with cardiovascular and metabolic traits, including coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, blood pressure, waist-hip ratio and body mass index. Our results demonstrate the value of using genetic data from individuals of diverse ancestry and provide insights into the biological mechanisms regulating blood lipids to guide future genetic, biological and therapeutic research.

ObjectivesThis paper aims to investigate resident, facility and country characteristics associated with length of stay in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) across six European countries.SettingData from a cross-sectional study of deceased residents, conducted in LTCFs in Belgium, England, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland.ParticipantsAll residents aged 65 years and older at admission who died in a 3-month period residing in a proportional random sample of LTCFs were included.Primary and secondary outcome measuresThe primary outcome was length of stay in days, calculated from date of admission and date of death. Resident, facility and country characteristics were included in a proportional hazards model.ResultsThe proportion of deaths within 1 year of admission was 42% (range 32%–63%). Older age at admission (HR 1.04, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.06), being married/in a civil partnership at time of death (HR 1.47, 95% CI 1.13 to 1.89), having cancer at time of death (HR 1.60, 95% CI 1.22 to 2.10) and admission from a hospital (HR 1.84, 95% CI 1.43 to 2.37) or another LTCF (HR 1.81, 95% CI 1.37 to 2.40) were associated with shorter lengths of stay across all countries. Being female (HR 0.72, 95% CI 0.57 to 0.90) was associated with longer lengths of stay.ConclusionsLength of stay varied significantly between countries. Factors prior to LTCF admission, in particular the availability of resources that allow an older adult to remain living in the community, appear to influence length of stay. Further research is needed to explore the availability of long-term care in the community prior to admission and its influence on the trajectories of LTCF residents in Europe.

The colocation of clouds and smoke over the southeast Atlantic Ocean during the southern African biomass burning season has numerous radiative implications, including microphysical modulation of the clouds if smoke is entrained into the marine boundary layer. NASA's ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS (ORACLES) campaign is studying this system with aircraft in three field deployments between 2016 and 2018. Results from ORACLES-2016 show that the relationship between cloud droplet number concentration and smoke below cloud is consistent with previously reported values, whereas cloud droplet number concentration is only weakly associated with smoke immediately above cloud at the time of observation. By combining field observations, regional chemistry–climate modeling, and theoretical boundary layer aerosol budget equations, we show that the history of smoke entrainment (which has a characteristic mixing timescale on the order of days) helps explain variations in cloud properties for similar instantaneous above-cloud smoke environments. Precipitation processes can obscure the relationship between above-cloud smoke and cloud properties in parts of the southeast Atlantic, but marine boundary layer carbon monoxide concentrations for two case study flights suggest that smoke entrainment history drove the observed differences in cloud properties for those days. A Lagrangian framework following the clouds and accounting for the history of smoke entrainment and precipitation is likely necessary for quantitatively studying this system; an Eulerian framework (e.g., instantaneous correlation of A-train satellite observations) is unlikely to capture the true extent of smoke–cloud interaction in the southeast Atlantic.

Commercial mobile operators’ networks will be used for public safety communications due to demand for wireless broadband services, new applications, and smart devices. Existing dedicated professional mobile radio networks, such as terrestrial trunked radio, Tetrapol, and project 25, are based on narrowband technologies and hence their data bandwidth is limited. This paper studies how critical communications needed, e.g., by ambulance personnel, rescue squads, and law enforcement agencies can be implemented over a 5G network. The most important technology enablers are described and test network architectures used in our project given. We focus on two different use cases. First, how to enable priority communications over a commercial mobile network. Second, how to create rapidly deployable networks for emergency and tactical operations. Tests done with the implemented systems in real networks show that both approaches are very promising for future critical users. Techniques such as network slicing and licensed shared access provide means to support mission critical applications in any environment.

Spectral measurements of global UV irradiance recorded by Brewer spectrophotometers can be significantly affected by instrument-specific optical and mechanical features. Thus, proper corrections are needed in order to reduce the associated uncertainties to within acceptable levels. The present study aims to contribute to the reduction of uncertainties originating from changes in the Brewer internal temperature, which affect the performance of the optical and electronic parts, and subsequently the response of the instrument. Until now, measurements of the irradiance from various types of lamps at different temperatures have been used to characterize the instruments' temperature dependence. The use of 50 W lamps was found to induce errors in the characterization due to changes in the transmissivity of the Teflon diffuser as it warms up by the heat of the lamp. In contrast, the use of 200 or 1000 W lamps is considered more appropriate because they are positioned at longer distances from the diffuser so that warming is negligible. Temperature gradients inside the instrument can cause mechanical stresses which can affect the instrument's optical characteristics. Therefore, during the temperature-dependence characterization procedure warming or cooling must be slow enough to minimize these effects. In this study, results of the temperature characterization of eight different Brewer spectrophotometers operating in Greece, Finland, Germany and Spain are presented. It was found that the instruments' response changes differently in different temperature regions due to different responses of the diffusers' transmittance. The temperature correction factors derived for the Brewer spectrophotometers operating at Thessaloniki, Greece, and Sodankylä, Finland, were evaluated and were found to remove the temperature dependence of the instruments' sensitivity.

Ypäyssuo is the largest mire system in Karelia, which in 2015 was, together with a big part of the Kepasuo mire system, included in the newly established regional hydrological (mire) nature reserve (zakazknik) Ypäyssuo. The Ypäyssuo mire system was surveyed by different specialists in 1954, 2003 and 2010. In 2013 surveys focused on the flora of mire, forest, aquatic, waterside, secondary and disturbed habitats, including the previously understudied mires of the Kepasuo system. This paper provides up-to-date information on the flora of vascular plants and mosses in this protected area. The list of species and their occurrence in the reserve's habitats are reported for the first time. Surveys of the territory detected 242 species of vascular plants and 111 species of mosses. The diversity of the flora is not high, the greatest contribution to the biodiversity coming from riparian spruce forest and waterside habitats, which occupy less than 3 % of the reserve's territory. They harbour 128 vascular plant species (53 % of the total number) and 53 moss species (48 %). Mires, which occupy 67 % of the territory, are the habitats for 76 vascular plant species (31 %) and 51 moss species (45 %). The flora was found to comprise a number of boreo-nemoral species growing close to the northern limits of their distribution range. Dactylorhiza traunsteineri is listed in the national Red Data Book, and the Republic of Karelia Red Data Book lists also Carex laxa and Orthotrichum gymnostomum.

This article presents a comparative study of innovation in vocational education and training (VET) in three innovative European countries: England, Finland and Germany. The focus is on innovation emerging from VET practitioners' (directors, teachers, project coordinators, etc.) participation in inter-organisational networks with local, regional, national, European or international reach. The concept of practitioner-driven innovation is introduced to describe the ways VET practitioners perceive participation in inter-organisational network learning to change and innovate practices in VET organisations. The findings of the comparative research, based on the literature of innovation and empirical studies in the three countries, indicate that the perceptions of VET practitioners on innovation, emerging from participation in inter-organisational networks, are largely convergent across the three European countries. The article suggests that VET practitioners perceive participation in inter-organisational network learning to enhance innovation in VET with, for example, specialisation, new training models, and professional development. While noting the limitations of the research, the article aims to contribute to present research and discussion of practice-based innovation and network learning in VET.

Current theories of learning emphasize the role of motivational and affective aspects in university student learning. The aim of the present study was to examine the interrelations among approaches to learning, self-regulated learning, and cognitive strategies in the context of teacher education. Cognitive-motivational profiles were identified among novice teacher students. It was also looked at, whether well-being, epistemological beliefs, and study success in an activating lecture course were related to these profiles. The participants were 213 first year teacher students, who participated in an activating lecture course at a major Finnish university. The students filled in a questionnaire including items based on the MED NORD instrument (Lonka et al. in "Med Teach" 30:72-79, 2008). The structural validity of the scales was tested by means of a series of factor analyses. Latent class clustering was used for clustering students into homogeneous groups. Finally, a series of ANOVAs was conducted to examine between-group differences across the criterion variables. Three groups of students were identified (1) "non-regulating students" (50%), (2) "self-directed students" (28%), and (3) "non-reflective students" (22%). "Non-regulating students" expressed the highest levels of stress, exhaustion, and Lack of Interest. "Self-directed students" received the highest grades. The profiles were not only related to study success, but also to the general well-being of the students. It was concluded that motivational profiles may have not been optimal, even in this highly-selected population. It is of interest to see, how these students shall develop during their studies.

Developmental dyslexia (DD) is more prevalent as an "umbrella" disorder than many educators realize. The music educator can play a particularly useful role in helping children in the general or choral classroom cope with DD, given the temporal nature of cognitive issues inherent in the disorder. The purposes of this article are to provide a brief overview of DD and to offer teaching strategies for music educators to assist students with DD in the music classroom. Melodic and rhythmic activities are described and suggested as ways to engage children with DD as part of inclusive general music classrooms. (Contains 2 figures, 1 table, and 22 notes.)

In this article, we analyse schoolchildren's clothing at the village school of Rautiosaari in northern Finland between 1909 and 1939. Accordingly, we describe the kind of clothes that schoolgirls and schoolboys used during the target period. Interviews with elderly people were used as sources for the study. The research had a micro-historical approach. The starting point was a group interview with 10 people supplemented by several individual interviews. In addition to interviews, the data included observations of existent relevant environments and historical documents such as photographs, official archive records, magazines and newspapers, local history publications, and other literature. Clothes and schoolchildren as their users create a lively educational discourse covering the chronological continuity in the flow of history which the researchers interpret. (Contains 4 figures and 1 note.)

The intervention method of Developmental Dialogue, originally developed by Laura Mott (1992),has been further elaborated to promote employees’ professional development and well-being. Theaim of formative interventions is to enhance the agency of participants. There is particular interestin transformative agency, which is defined as participants’ capacity to take purposeful actions tochange their work activity. By applying six types of agency expressions, this paper examines howtransformative agency emerges in an interaction between a DD participant and the interventionist.The agency expressions are analysed in the context of explicit and implicit intervention tools andobjects of talk. The analysis yields a new category called reframing agency which is of interestparticularly from a work-related well-being perspective. We interpret the findings with the notionof a contradictory object within the cycle model of professional development. The case suggeststhat changes in work, as interpreted by the researchers do not always fully grasp the participant’ssense of collective work. Finally, at the end of the paper we propose ideas for further research.

This study investigated the relationships among approaches to learning, regulation of learning, cognitive and attributional strategies, stress, exhaustion, and study success. University students (N = 437) from three faculties filled in a questionnaire concerning their self-reported study behaviour, cognitive strategies, and well-being. Their interrelations were examined in a variable- and a person-oriented way. Latent class clustering was used for clustering students into homogeneous groups. Three groups of students were identified: non-academic, self-directed, and helpless students. Helpless students reported higher levels of stress and exhaustion than non-academic or self-directed students. Self-directed students had the highest GPA. Our findings demonstrate the usefulness of combining cognitive and emotional aspects for investigations of students' learning.

Biomass could be a key source of renewable energy. Agricultural waste products, such as corn stover, provide a convenient means to replace fossil fuels, such as coal, and a large amount of feedstock is currently available for energy consumption in the U.S. This study has two main objectives: (1) to understand the impact of corn stover moisture content and grinder speed on grind physical properties; and (2) develop response surface models and optimize these models using a hybrid genetic algorithm. The response surface models developed were used to draw surface plots to understand the interaction effects of the corn stover grind moisture content and grinder speed on the grind physical properties and specific energy consumption. The surface plots indicated that a higher corn stover grind moisture content and grinder speed had a positive effect on the bulk and tapped density. The final grind moisture content was highly influenced by the initial moisture content of the corn stover grind. Optimization of the response surface models using the hybrid genetic algorithm indicated that moisture content in the range of 17 to 19% (w.b.) and a grinder speed of 47 to 49 Hz maximized the bulk and tapped density and minimized the geomantic mean particle length. The specific energy consumption was minimized when the grinder speed was about 20 Hz and the corn stover grind moisture content was about 10% (w.b.).

This article explores how new university students in three different fields of study--arts, law and veterinary medicine--explain their own disciplinary choices (n = 536). Despite the differences between the study fields, the new students' answers often included the word "interest". Because interest is linked to high-quality learning, the students seem to have a good starting point for their studies. On the other hand, the students use the concept of interest in several contexts, which may reflect diverse usage of the construct as well as different levels of interest development. On the basis of student expressions, five subcategories specifying the level of interest were identified. The study shows that it is possible to identify aspects of individual interest from the rather short written explanations of disciplinary choices. (Contains 2 tables.)

The authors looked at aspects of successful and problematic studying in terms of three different research traditions: students' approaches to learning, self-regulated learning and cognitive strategies. These frameworks have been widely applied when explaining university student learning. However, relations among different traditions have not been sufficiently looked at. In this study the authors explored the relations between learning approaches, regulation of learning and cognitive strategies. The subjects were students at the University of Helsinki who filled in the Task Booklet of Learning and the Strategy and Attribution Questionnaire. Their academic achievement was coded from university archives. It was found that approaches to learning, regulation of learning, and cognitive strategies were related to each other, and further, to study success. (Contains 3 tables.)

Policymakers and academics often identify institutional boundaries as one of the factors that shape the capacity of jurisdictions to manage natural resources such as water, forests, and scenic lands. This article examines two key bodies of literature--common-pool resource management theory and local public economy theory--to explain how the boundaries of political jurisdictions affect natural resource management. Two empirical methods were used to test hypotheses from the literature, using a study of water management programs in California. The results demonstrate that institutional boundaries that coincide with natural resources are likely to be associated with the implementation of more effective resource management programs. At the same time, where jurisdictions can control through coordination, they can also facilitate more effective resource management where jurisdictions do not match resource boundaries.

Studied parent's choice of preschool facility in a Swedish city to illustrate social and cultural changes in Swedish society. Findings from a survey completed by 1,584 mothers show that parents' use of the right to choose a preschool facility is economically, socially, and culturally segregated, although patterns of choice are not a simple effect of housing segregation. (SLD)

Sie Sie Siew,1,2 Timo Kauppinen,1 Pentti Kyyrönen,3 Pirjo Heikkilä,1 Eero Pukkala2,31Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland; 2School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland; 3Finnish Cancer Registry, Institute for Statistical and Epidemiological Cancer Research, Helsinki, FinlandAbstract: Controversy exists over whether or not occupational inhalation exposure to wood dust and/or formaldehyde increases risk for respiratory cancers. The objective of this study was to examine the risk of nasal, nasopharyngeal, and lung cancer in relation to occupational exposure to wood dust and formaldehyde among Finnish men. The cohort of all Finnish men born between the years 1906 and 1945 and in employment during 1970 was followed up through the Finnish Cancer Registry for cases of cancers of the nose (n = 292), nasopharynx (n = 149), and lung (n = 30,137) during the period 1971–1995. The subjects' occupations, as recorded in the population census in 1970, were converted to estimates of exposure to wood dust, formaldehyde, asbestos, and silica dust through the Finnish job-exposure matrix. Cumulative exposure (CE) was calculated based on the prevalence, average level, and estimated duration of exposure. The relative risk (RR) estimates for the CE categories of wood dust and formaldehyde were defined by Poisson regression, with adjustments made for smoking, socioeconomic status, and exposure to asbestos and/or silica dust. Men exposed to wood dust had a significant excess risk of nasal cancer overall (RR, 1.59; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06–2.38), and specifically nasal squamous cell carcinoma (RR, 1.98; 95% CI, 1.19–3.31). Workers exposed to formaldehyde had an RR of 1.18 (95% CI, 1.12–1.25) for lung cancer. There was no indication that CE to wood dust or formaldehyde would increase the risk of nasopharyngeal cancer. Occupational exposure to wood dust appeared to increase the risk of nasal cancer but not of nasopharyngeal or lung cancer. The slight excess risk of lung cancer observed for exposure to formaldehyde may be the result of residual confounding from smoking. In summary, this study provides further evidence that exposure to wood dust in a variety of occupations may increase the risk of nasal cancer.Keywords: job-exposure matrix, inhalation exposure, cumulative exposure, cancer risk

Existence of the smallest, greatest, minimal, maximal and unique continuous solutions to distributional Cauchy problems, as well as their dependence on the data, are studied. The main tools are a continuous primitive integral and fixed point results in function spaces.

In this article we derive existence and comparison results for discontinuous non-absolute functional integral equations of Volterra type in an ordered Banach space which has a regular order cone. The obtained results are then applied to first-order impulsive differential equations.

We prove existence results for discontinuous functional equations in general $L^p$-spaces and apply these results to the solvability of implicit and explicit elliptic boundary-value problems involving discontinuous nonlinearities. The main tool in the proof is a fixed point result in lattice-ordered Banach spaces proved by the second author.

The plant growth-promoting bacterium (PGPB) Pseudomonas sp. UW4, previously isolated from the rhizosphere of common reeds growing on the campus of the University of Waterloo, promotes plant growth in the presence of different environmental stresses, such as flooding, high concentrations of salt, cold, heavy metals, drought and phytopathogens. In this work, the genome sequence of UW4 was obtained by pyrosequencing and the gaps between the contigs were closed by directed PCR. The P. sp. UW4 genome contains a single circular chromosome that is 6,183,388 bp with a 60.05% G+C content. The bacterial genome contains 5,423 predicted protein-coding sequences that occupy 87.2% of the genome. Nineteen genomic islands (GIs) were predicted and thirty one complete putative insertion sequences were identified. Genes potentially involved in plant growth promotion such as indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) biosynthesis, trehalose production, siderophore production, acetoin synthesis, and phosphate solubilization were determined. Moreover, genes that contribute to the environmental fitness of UW4 were also observed including genes responsible for heavy metal resistance such as nickel, copper, cadmium, zinc, molybdate, cobalt, arsenate, and chromate. Whole-genome comparison with other completely sequenced Pseudomonas strains and phylogeny of four concatenated "housekeeping" genes (16S rRNA, gyrB, rpoB and rpoD) of 128 Pseudomonas strains revealed that UW4 belongs to the fluorescens group, jessenii subgroup.

High concentrations of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induce cellular damage, however at lower concentrations ROS act as intracellular second messengers. In this study, we demonstrate that serotonin (5-HT) transactivates the platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) type β receptor as well as the TrkB receptor in neuronal cultures and SH-SY5Y cells, and that the transactivation of both receptors is ROS-dependent. Exogenous application of H₂O₂ induced the phosphorylation of these receptors in a dose-dependent fashion, similar to that observed with 5-HT. However the same concentrations of H₂O₂ failed to increase ERK1/2 phosphorylation. Yet, the NADPH oxidase inhibitors diphenyleneiodonium chloride and apocynin blocked both 5-HT-induced PDGFβ receptor phosphorylation and ERK1/2 phosphorylation. The increases in PDGFβ receptor and ERK1/2 phosphorylation were also dependent on protein kinase C activity, likely acting upstream of NADPH oxidase. Additionally, although the ROS scavenger N-acetyl-l-cysteine abrogated 5-HT-induced PDGFβ and TrkB receptor transactivation, it was unable to prevent 5-HT-induced ERK1/2 phosphorylation. Thus, the divergence point for 5-HT-induced receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) transactivation and ERK1/2 phosphorylation occurs at the level of NADPH oxidase in this system. The ability of 5-HT to induce the production of ROS resulting in transactivation of both PDGFβ and TrkB receptors may suggest that instead of a single GPCR to single RTK pathway, a less selective, more global RTK response to GPCR activation is occurring.

In the present study, withaferin A (WA), a steroidal lactone with anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor properties, inhibited proteasome activity and induced endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and cytoplasmic HSP accumulation in Xenopus laevis A6 kidney epithelial cells. Proteasomal inhibition by WA was indicated by an accumulation of ubiquitinated protein and a decrease in chymotrypsin-like activity. Additionally, immunoblot analysis revealed that treatment of cells with WA induced the accumulation of HSPs including ER chaperones, BiP and GRP94, as well as cytoplasmic/nuclear HSPs, HSP70 and HSP30. Furthermore, WA-induced an increase in the relative levels of the protein kinase, Akt, while the levels of actin were unchanged compared to control. Northern blot experiments determined that WA induced an accumulation in bip, hsp70 and hsp30 mRNA but not eIF-1α mRNA. Interestingly, WA acted synergistically with mild heat shock to enhance HSP70 and HSP30 accumulation to a greater extent than the sum of both stressors individually. This latter phenomenon was not observed with BiP or GRP94. Immunocytochemical analysis indicated that WA-induced BiP accumulation occurred mainly in the perinuclear region in a punctate pattern, while HSP30 accumulation occurred primarily in a granular pattern in the cytoplasm with some staining in the nucleus. Prolonged exposure to WA resulted in disorganization of the F-actin cytoskeleton as well as the production of relatively large HSP30 staining structures that co-localized with F-actin. Finally, prior exposure of cells to WA treatment, which induced the accumulation of HSPs conferred a state of thermal protection since it protected the F-actin cytoskeleton against a subsequent cytotoxic thermal challenge.