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Tiivistelmä. Kandidaatintutkielmassani tutkin sukupuolen arviointia solisluun maksimipituuden perusteella ja epäsymmetrian mahdollista vaikutusta tähän arviointiin ja sen tarkkuuteen. Tutkin tämän solisluun maksimipituutta käyttävän sukupuolen arviointimenetelmän soveltuvuutta euroamerikkalaiseen ja suomalaiseen aineistoon. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että Spradley & Jantzin kehittämä jakopiste on pätevä metodi solisluun sukupuolen arvioimiseen maksimipituudesta. Tämä jakopiste esimerkiksi sekoittuneen luuaineiston selvittämisessä on hyvä tapa selvittää sukupuolta euroamerikkalaisessa aineistossa. Tämän lisäksi jakopistettä voi harkiten hyödyntää suomalaisessa aineistossa muiden testattujen metodien puuttuessa. Epäsymmetriaa tarkastellessa nousi esiin, kuinka vasen solisluu on usein oikeaa solisluuta pidempi, mutta sillä ei ollut merkittävää vaikutusta sukupuolen arvioinnissa.

Background Most people have strong left-brain lateralisation for language, with a minority showing right- or bilateral language representation. On some receptive language tasks, however, lateralisation appears to be reduced or absent. This contrasting pattern raises the question of whether and how language laterality may fractionate within individuals. Building on our prior work, we postulated (a) that there can be dissociations in lateralisation of different components of language, and (b) these would be more common in left-handers. A subsidiary hypothesis was that laterality indices will cluster according to two underlying factors corresponding to whether they involve generation of words or sentences, vs. receptive language. Methods We tested these predictions in two stages: At Step 1 an online laterality battery (Dichotic listening, Rhyme Decision and Word Comprehension) was given to 621 individuals (56% left-handers); At Step 2, functional transcranial Doppler ultrasound (fTCD) was used with 230 of these individuals (51% left-handers). 108 left-handers and 101 right-handers gave usable data on a battery of three language generation and three receptive language tasks. Results Neither the online nor fTCD measures supported the notion of a single language laterality factor. In general, for both online and fTCD measures, tests of language generation were left-lateralised. In contrast, the receptive tasks were at best weakly left-lateralised or, in the case of Word Comprehension, slightly right-lateralised. The online measures were only weakly correlated, if at all, with fTCD measures. Most of the fTCD measures had split-half reliabilities of at least .7, and showed a distinctive pattern of intercorrelation, supporting a modified two-factor model in which Phonological Decision (generation) and Sentence Decision (reception) loaded on both factors. The same factor structure fitted data from left- and right-handers, but mean scores on the two factors were lower (less le

Introduction/Background*Routine blood markers provide poor diagnostic capacity for ovarian cancer. Ultrasound examination using the criteria developed by International Ovarian Tumor Analysis group is the most sensitive and specific diagnostic method, but in up to 20% of cases evaluation is inconclusive (Sladkevicius et al. 2020; Valentin et al. 2011). We pioneered platelet proteome analysis and identified platelet biomarkers of ovarian cancer (Lomnytska et al. 2018).Methodology The purpose of the study is to identify diagnostic marker panel on platelet microvesicles in blood plasma for non-invasive differential diagnostics of benign adnexal lesions, borderline tumours and ovarian cancer. The expression of platelet protein biomarkers on platelet microvesicles in patients with benign and malignant adnexal lesions was analysed using flow cytometry. Identified biomarker panels were analysed together with the gynaecologic ultrasound criteria.Result(s)*Analysis comprised 39 patients with benign adnexal lesions (n=10), borderline (n=10), ovarian cancer stage I-II (n=8) and stage III-IV (n=11). Using flow cytometry analysis of platelet microvesicles in platelet-poor blood plasma, we detected our previously identified by proteome analysis of platelets markers ACTN4, CRKL, ERP29, GELS, PHB and SRC (Lomnytska et al., 2018). Expression of P-selectin positive platelet microvesicles was 2-fold higher in ovarian cancer (p<0.05). Increased expression of our identified markers on P-selectin positive platelet microvesicles was observed in ovarian cancer (figure 1).Abstract 464 Figure 1 Conclusion*Identified platelet biomarkers (Lomnytska et al. 2018) are detectable on platelet microvesicles in blood plasma with increased expression in ovarian cancer. Further analysis of microvesicles in relation to ultrasound evaluation has the potential to improve ovarian cancer diagnostics.

QC 20220921

The biobased production of adipic acid, a precursor in the production of nylon, is of great interest in order to replace the current petrochemical production route. Glucose-rich lignocellulosic raw materials have high potential to replace the petrochemical raw material. A number of metabolic pathways have been proposed for the microbial conversion of glucose to adipic acid, but achieved yields and titers remain to be improved before industrial applications are feasible. One proposed pathway starts with lysine, an essential metabolite industrially produced from glucose by microorganisms. However, the drawback of this pathway is that several reactions are involved where there is no known efficient enzyme. By changing the order of the enzymatic reactions, we were able to identify an alternative pathway with one unknown enzyme less compared to the original pathway. One of the reactions lacking known enzymes is the reduction of the unsaturated a,6 bond of 6-amino-trans-2-hexenoic acid and trans-2-hexenedioic acid. To identify the necessary enzymes, we selected N-ethylmaleimide reductase from Escherichia coli and Old Yellow Enzyme 1 from Saccharomyces pastorianus. Despite successful in silico docking studies, where both target substrates could fit in the enzyme pockets, and hydrogen bonds with catalytic residues of both enzymes were predicted, no in vitro activity was observed. We hypothesize that the lack of activity is due to a difference in electron withdrawing potential between the naturally reduced aldehyde and the carboxylate groups of our target substrates. Suggestions for protein engineering to induce the reactions are discussed, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of the two metabolic pathways from lysine. We have highlighted bottlenecks associated with the lysine pathways, and proposed ways of addressing them.