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Background/Objectives: This observational study dissects the complex temporal associations between body-mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio (WHR) and circulating metabolomics using a combination of longitudinal and cross-sectional population-based datasets and new systems epidemiology tools. Subjects/Methods: Firstly, a data-driven subgrouping algorithm was employed to simplify high-dimensional metabolic profiling data into a single categorical variable: a self-organizing map (SOM) was created from 174 metabolic measures from cross-sectional surveys (FINRISK, n = 9708, ages 25–74) and a birth cohort (NFBC1966, n = 3117, age 31 at baseline, age 46 at follow-up) and an expert committee defined four subgroups of individuals based on visual inspection of the SOM. Secondly, the subgroups were compared regarding BMI and WHR trajectories in an independent longitudinal dataset: participants of the Young Finns Study (YFS, n = 1286, ages 24–39 at baseline, 10 years follow-up, three visits) were categorized into the four subgroups and subgroup-specific age-dependent trajectories of BMI, WHR and metabolic measures were modelled by linear regression. Results: The four subgroups were characterised at age 39 by high BMI, WHR and dyslipidemia (designated TG-rich); low BMI, WHR and favourable lipids (TG-poor); low lipids in general (Low lipid) and high low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (High LDL-C). Trajectory modelling of the YFS dataset revealed a dynamic BMI divergence pattern: despite overlapping starting points at age 24, the subgroups diverged in BMI, fasting insulin (three-fold difference at age 49 between TG-rich and TG-poor) and insulin-associated measures such as triglyceride-cholesterol ratio. Trajectories also revealed a WHR progression pattern: despite different starting points at the age of 24 in WHR, LDL-C and cholesterol-associated measures, all subgroups exhibited similar rates of change in these measures, i.e. WHR progression was uniform regardless of the

Circulating cell-free DNA (cf-DNA) has emerged as a promising biomarker of ageing, tissue damage and cellular stress. However, less is known about health behaviours, ageing phenotypes and metabolic processes that lead to elevated cf-DNA levels. We sought to analyse the relationship of circulating cf-DNA level to age, sex, smoking, physical activity, vegetable consumption, ageing phenotypes (physical functioning, the number of diseases, frailty) and an extensive panel of biomarkers including blood and urine metabolites and inflammatory markers in three human cohorts (N = 5385; 17‐82 years). The relationships were assessed using correlation statistics, and linear and penalised regressions (the Lasso), also stratified by sex. cf-DNA levels were significantly higher in men than in women, and especially in middle-aged men and women who smoke, and in older more frail individuals. Correlation statistics of biomarker data showed that cf-DNA level was higher with elevated inflammation (C-reactive protein, interleukin-6), and higher levels of homocysteine, and proportion of red blood cells and lower levels of ascorbic acid. Inflammation (C-reactive protein, glycoprotein acetylation), amino acids (isoleucine, leucine, tyrosine), and ketogenesis (3-hydroxybutyrate) were included in the cf-DNA level-related biomarker profiles in at least two of the cohorts. In conclusion, circulating cf-DNA level is different by sex, and related to health behaviour, health decline and metabolic processes common in health and disease. These results can inform future studies where epidemiological and biological pathways of cf-DNA are to be analysed in details, and for studies evaluating cf-DNA as a potential clinical marker.

Context: Aging varies between individuals, with profound consequences for chronic diseases and longevity. One hypothesis to explain the diversity is a genetically regulated molecular clock that runs differently between individuals. Large human studies with long enough follow-up to test the hypothesis are rare due to practical challenges, but statistical models of aging are built as proxies for the molecular clock by comparing young and old individuals cross-sectionally. These models remain untested against longitudinal data. Objective: We applied novel methodology to test if cross-sectional modeling can distinguish slow vs accelerated aging in a human population. Methods: We trained a machine learning model to predict age from 153 clinical and cardiometabolic traits. The model was tested against longitudinal data from another cohort. The training data came from cross-sectional surveys of the Finnish population (n = 9708; ages 25–74 years). The validation data included 3 time points across 10 years in the Young Finns Study (YFS; n = 1009; ages 24–49 years). Predicted metabolic age in 2007 was compared against observed aging rate from the 2001 visit to the 2011 visit in the YFS dataset and correlation between predicted vs observed metabolic aging was determined. Results: The cross-sectional proxy failed to predict longitudinal observations (R2 = 0.018%, P = 0.67). Conclusion: The finding is unexpected under the clock hypothesis that would produce a positive correlation between predicted and observed aging. Our results are better explained by a stratified model where aging rates per se are similar in adulthood but differences in starting points explain diverging metabolic fates.

Background: Observational findings for high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-mediated cholesterol efflux capacity (HDL-CEC) and coronary heart disease (CHD) appear inconsistent, and knowledge of the genetic architecture of HDL-CEC is limited. Objectives: A large-scale observational study on the associations of HDL-CEC and other HDL-related measures with CHD and the largest genome-wide association study (GWAS) of HDL-CEC. Participants/Methods: Six independent cohorts were included with follow-up data for 14,438 participants to investigate the associations of HDL-related measures with incident CHD (1,570 events). The GWAS of HDL-CEC was carried out in 20,372 participants. Results: HDL-CEC did not associate with CHD when adjusted for traditional risk factors and HDL cholesterol (HDL-C). In contradiction, almost all HDL-related concentration measures associated consistently with CHD after corresponding adjustments. There were no genetic loci associated with HDL-CEC independent of HDL-C and triglycerides. Conclusions: HDL-CEC is not unequivocally associated with CHD in contrast to HDL-C, apolipoprotein A-I, and most of the HDL subclass particle concentrations.

Background: Low‐grade inflammation in the young may contribute to the early development of cardiovascular disease. We assessed whether circulating levels of glycoprotein acetyls (GlycA) were better able to predict the development of adverse cardiovascular disease risk profiles compared with the more commonly used biomarker high‐sensitivity CRP (C‐reactive protein). Methods: A total of 3306 adolescents and young adults from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (mean age, 15.4±0.3; n=1750) and Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (mean age, 32.1±5.0; n=1556) were included. Baseline associations between inflammatory biomarkers, body composition, cardiovascular risk factors, and subclinical measures of vascular dysfunction were assessed cross‐sectionally in both cohorts. Prospective risk of developing hypertension and metabolic syndrome during 9‐to‐10‐year follow‐up were also assessed as surrogate markers for future cardiovascular risk. GlycA showed greater within‐subject correlation over 9‐to‐10‐year follow‐up in both cohorts compared with CRP, particularly in the younger adolescent group (r=0.36 versus 0.07). In multivariable analyses, GlycA was found to associate with multiple lifestyle‐related cardiovascular disease risk factors, cardiometabolic risk factor burden, and vascular dysfunction (eg, mean difference in flow‐mediated dilation=−1.2 [−1.8, −0.7]% per z‐score increase). In contrast, CRP levels appeared predominantly driven by body mass index and showed little relationship to any measured cardiovascular risk factors or phenotypes. In both cohorts, only GlycA predicted future risk of both hypertension (risk ratio [RR], ≈1.1 per z‐score increase for both cohorts) and metabolic syndrome (RR, ≈1.2–1.3 per z‐score increase for both cohorts) in 9‐to‐10‐year follow‐up. Conclusions: Low‐grade inflammation captured by the novel biomarker GlycA is associated with adverse cardiovascular risk profiles from as early as adolescence and predicts f

Background: Specific heat shock proteins are associated with pregnancy complications, including spontaneous preterm birth (SPTB). Placental proteomics and whole exome sequencing recently suggested an association between heat shock protein HSPA5 and uncomplicated SPTB. In the present study, we investigated the localization of and possible roles for HSPA5 in SPTB. Methods: Western blot was performed to validate the result from the previously published proteomic analysis. We used qPCR to assess mRNA expression of genes and immunohistochemistry and immunoelectron microscopy to examine localization of HSPA5 in placental tissue. We silenced the HSPA5 gene in the HTR8/SVneo human trophoblast cell line to investigate possible functions of HSPA5. Results: HSPA5 was upregulated in placentas from SPTBs compared to spontaneous term births. We did not observe upregulation of HSPA5 mRNA in placental samples. The protein was localized in placental trophoblast in both spontaneous preterm and term placentas. Gene silencing of HSPA5 in human trophoblast cell culture affected the inflammatory response and decreased the expression of several proinflammatory genes. Conclusions: We suggest that upregulation of HSPA5 in the placenta is associated with spontaneous preterm labor. HSPA5 may promote the inflammatory response and alter the anti-inflammatory state of the placenta which could eventually lead to premature labor. Impact: -We validated upregulation of HSPA5 in placentas from spontaneous preterm birth. HSPA5 was not upregulated at transcriptional level which suggests that it may be regulated post-translationally. -Silencing HSPA5 in a human trophoblast–derived cell line suggested that HSPA5 promotes expression of proinflammatory cytokines. The emerging inflammation could lead to spontaneous preterm labor. -Identifying inflammatory pathways and factors associated with spontaneous preterm birth increases knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of premature labor. This could pro

In the current 5th Generation (5G) networking paradigm, the enforcement of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) is a non-trivial measure to ensure the scope and the quality of services and standards between tenants and service providers (SPs). On top of this, Secure Service Level Agreements (SSLA) are introduced to ensure that SPs deliver the most critical and required security-related standards defined in the contract, such as integrity, confidentiality, availability, non-repudiation, and privacy assurance. However, with the tendency for more distributed and multi-stakeholder networking architectures in next-generation networks, the management process of such SSLAs will be challenging due to the diversified security vulnerabilities and complexity of underlying technologies. Although blockchain is emerging as a platform to facilitate such distributed SSLA/SLA management frameworks, its currently available consensus mechanisms are more generic. Still, they need to improve in terms of applying in multi-stakeholder networks. Therefore, this paper presents a novel consensus mechanism called Proof-of-Monitoring (PoM) for a blockchain-based novel SSLA management framework. Moreover, we provide details about the prototype implementation of our proposed consensus algorithm and SSLA management framework. It is proven by comparing our proposal with the other existing solutions that our solution outperforms in many aspects, such as energy consumption, computation cost, and security features.

Tiivistelmä. Tutkielmassa tutustutaan konetekniikan monitieteellistymiseen eli siihen miten konetekniikan alaa voidaan hyödyntää myös muiden alojen tutkimuksissa. Tarkastelussa on konetekniikan kehitys monitieteellisenä alana, hyödyntäminen muissa aloissa ja nykyiset poikkitieteelliset trendit. Samalla tarkastelen myös, miten konetekniikka on omana tieteenä kehittynyt moniin suuntiin. Katse käännetään myös tulevaisuuteen tutkimalla eri trendejä konetekniikan hyödyntämisessä. Tutkielman avulla lukija saa hyvän käsityksen konetekniikan merkityksestä jokapäiväisessä elämässä ja siitä, miten yhteiskunnalle muiden tekniikan alojen ohella tärkeästä kehityshaarasta on kyse. Tutkielma toimii myös esimerkkitapauksena siitä, miten monitieteellisyys tukee tieteiden kehitystä ja laajojen ongelmien ratkaisua.Multidisciplinarity of mechanical engineering. Abstract. The thesis examines the multidisciplinary aspects of mechanical engineering, i.e., how the field of mechanical engineering can also be used in research in other fields. The review includes the development of mechanical engineering as a multidisciplinary sector, the exploitation of other sectors and current cross-disciplinary trends. I will also review how engineering as one’s own science has evolved in many directions. The focus will also be on the future by exploring different trends in the use of mechanical engineering. The thesis gives the reader a good idea of the importance of mechanical engineering in everyday life and how society, along with other fields of technology has benefitted from this field. The thesis also serves as an example of how multidisciplinarity supports the development of sciences and the solutions of complex problems.

Objectives: To study sexually transmitted Chlamydia trachomatis infections (STCTs), teenage pregnancies, and payment defaults in individuals born preterm as proxies for engaging in risk-taking behavior. Study design: Our population-based register-linkage study included all 191 705 children alive at 10 years (8492 preterm [4.4%]) born without malformations in Finland between January 1987 and September 1990 as each mother’s first child within the cohort. They were followed until young adulthood. We used Cox regression to assess the hazards of STCTs, teenage pregnancies, payment defaults, criminal offending, and substance abuse by gestational age. Gestational age was considered both as a continuous and categorical (extremely, very, moderately, late preterm, early term, post term, and full term as reference) exposure. Results: A linear dose-response relationship existed between gestational age and STCT and teenage pregnancy; adjusted hazard for STCT decreased by 1.6% (95% CI, 0.7%‐2.6%), and for teenage pregnancy by 3.3% (95% CI, 1.9%‐4.8%) per each week decrease in gestational age. Those born extremely preterm (23‐27 completed weeks) had a 51% (95% CI, 31%‐83%) lower risk for criminal offending than their full-term born counterparts, and those born very preterm (range, 28‐31 weeks) had a 28% (95% CI, 7%‐53%) higher hazard for payment defaults than those born at full term. Gestational age was not associated with substance abuse. Conclusions: The lower risk-taking that characterizes people born preterm seems to generalize to sexual and to some extent criminal behavior. Those born very preterm are, however, more likely to experience payment defaults.

As a distributed ledger technology, blockchain has received significant attention in revolutionizing telecommunication and networking domains. This article proposes a blockchain-based network slice brokering mechanism for multioperator and multitenant environments of the envisioned 6G networks.

A surge in diverse novel network services is being driven by the 4th Industrial revolution and by a number of new Internet of Things (IoT) use cases. With the emergence of 5G mobile broadband, Network Slicing (NS) has been recognized as a solution for service diversification. It enables network operators to create service-aware logical networks customized for different vertical industries, which have diverse requirements in terms of functionality, performance and resource separation. Provisioning of end-to-end delay-critical communication across multiple network domains is one of the key requirements for enabling future services. In addition, due to the decreasing size of end devices, a number of use cases depend on reliable and latency constrained computational offloading. The extension of the cloud computing concept into edge computing, located in the access network, is another key technological trend that enables reductions in latency, costs, and security risks. This thesis proposes novel resource allocation mechanisms for network traffic with strict latency limitations. First, a multi-domain network slicing framework is designed, based on a novel multipath multihop delay model. This framework encompasses a novel hierarchical orchestration mechanism and a mechanism for dynamic slice resizing. Next, the problem of latency limited on-demand computational tasks offloading to Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) and cloud servers is considered. The offloading decision and resource allocation problem is formulated as a joint optimization of communication and computation resources. Then, low complexity heuristic algorithms are proposed with the aim to minimize the total resource consumption of the system. Optimal solution-based, reinforcement learning-based resource allocation algorithms are proposed to efficiently handle latency limited tasks and tasks with extremely low latency requirements. Finally, an algorithm placement strategy for delay-critical continuous, Tiivistelmä Neljäs teollinen vallankumous ja uudet esineiden internetin (IoT) käyttötapaukset luovat tarvetta uusille verkkoteknologioille ja verkon palveluille. 5G-mobiililaajakaista-palvelujen kehittämisessä verkkojen viipalointi on tunnistettu ratkaisuna palvelujen monipuolistamiseen. Sitä hyödyntäen verkko-operaattorit voivat luoda palvelutietoisia loogisia verkkoja, jotka ovat räätälöity eri vertikaalisille toimialoille, ja joilla on erilaiset vaatimukset toimivuuden, suorituskyvyn ja resurssien erottelun suhteen. Päästä päähän -viivekriittisen viestinnän tarjoaminen useiden verkkoalueiden välillä on yksi keskeisistä vaatimuksista tulevien palvelujen mahdollistamiseksi. Lisäksi päätelaitteiden pienenevän koon vuoksi useat käyttötapaukset riippuvat luotettavasta ja latenssirajoitteisesta laskennan siirrosta hyödyntämällä reunalaskentaa. Pilvilaskentakonseptin laajentaminen liityntäverkossa sijaitsevaan reunalaskentaan on toinen keskeinen teknologinen trendi, joka mahdollistaa viiveen, kustannusten ja tietoturvariskien vähentämisen. Tässä väitöskirjassa ehdotetaan uusia resurssien allokointimekanismeja verkkoliikenteelle, jossa on tiukat viiverajoitukset. Työssä on kehitetty ensin monitoimialueen verkon viipalointiviitekehys, joka perustuu uuteen monitie-monihyppy-viivemalliin. Tämä viitekehys sisältää uuden hierarkkisen orkestrointimekanismin ja mekanismin dynaamiseen viipaleiden koon muuttamiseen. Seuraavaksi työssä on tarkasteltu ongelmaa, joka liittyy rajoitettujen tilausperusteisten laskentatehtävien siirtämisen reunalaskenta- ja pilvipalvelimille. Laskennan siirtoon ja resurssien allokointiin liittyvä optimointiongelma on formuloitu viestintä- ja laskentaresurssien samanaikaista optimointia varten. Seuraavaksi työssä on tutkittu epäkompleksisia heuristisia algoritmeja, joiden tavoitteena on minimoida järjestelmän kokonaisresurssien kulutus. Työssä ehdotetaan ratkaisupohjaisia ja vahvistusoppimiseen perustuvia resurssien allokointialgoritmeja käsittelemään t

Studies on measured physical fitness and oral health are sparse. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between self-reported physical activity and measured physical fitness and oral health of young men. The study population consisted of 13,564 Finnish male conscripts who had mandatory clinical oral examinations and physical fitness tests at the beginning of military service in 2011. Finally, around 10,800 conscripts had physical fitness test outcomes available and a total of 8552 conscripts answered a computer-based questionnaire on background factors. Decayed Tooth (DT) and Decayed, Missing, or Filled Tooth (DMFT) indices, outcomes of surveys and fitness tests were used in analyses by cross-tabulation and multivariable logistic regression model (odds ratios [OR] with 95% confidence interval [CI]) were calculated. Regularly exercising conscripts had a reduced need for dental restorative treatment than those reporting no physical activity (p < 0.0001). The proportion of participants with sound dentition (DT = 0) increased steadily with increasing physical activity (39.0–59.4%). Good measured physical fitness was a protective factor against increased dental restorative treatment need. A low prevalence of smoking and low use of alcohol and energy drinks were associated with frequent exercise, whereas consumption of sport drinks and snuff use were common among those who exercised frequently. Good measured physical fitness and self-reported physical activity are associated with reduced caries burden. There is a need for information about the harms of tobacco products and the benefits of a healthy diet, even for the increased energy needs of the physically active.

The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the biofilm formation properties of common pathogens associated with implant-related infections on two different implant material types. Bacterial strains tested in this study were Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus mutans, Enterococcus faecalis, and Escherichia coli. Implant materials tested and compared were PLA Resorb × polymer of Poly DL-lactide (PDLLA) comprising 50% poly-L-lactic acid and 50% poly-D-lactic acid) and Ti grade 2 (tooled with a Planmeca CAD-CAM milling device). Biofilm assays were done with and without saliva treatment to evaluate the effect of saliva on bacterial adhesion and to mimic the intraoral and extraoral surgical routes of implant placement, respectively. Five specimens of each implant type were tested for each bacterial strain. Autoclaved material specimens were first treated with 1:1 saliva-PBS solution for 30 min, followed by washing of specimens and the addition of bacterial suspension. Specimens with bacterial suspension were incubated for 24 h at 37 °C for biofilm formation. After 24 h, non-adhered bacteria were removed, and specimens were washed, followed by removal and calculation of adhered bacterial biofilm. S. aureus and E. faecalis showed more attachment to Ti grade 2, whereas S. mutans showed higher adherence to PLA in a statistically significant manner. The salivary coating of specimens enhanced the bacterial attachment by all the bacterial strains tested. In conclusion, both implant materials showed significant levels of bacterial adhesion, but saliva treatment played a vital role in bacterial attachment, therefore, saliva contamination of the implant materials should be minimized and considered when placing implant materials inside the body.

The Let’s Talk about Children intervention is a tool for parents and professionals to work together to promote children’s positive development, resilience, and psychosocial well-being in social and healthcare services, at school, and in day care. The aim of this study was to evaluate the fidelity, parents’ experiences, and perceived benefits of using the Let’s Talk about Children intervention in a school context. Participants (N = 65 first-grader parents) completed an online questionnaire after the intervention. The results show that the intervention was delivered as designed and conducted with high fidelity. Parents’ experiences of the Let’s Talk about Children discussions were positive, parents felt that the atmosphere was good during the discussion, and the participants reported benefits from the intervention. Clinical trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT05038280.

Parental severe mental illness (SMI) may affect offspring physical health outcomes in multiple ways. Offspring of parents with SMI are at higher risk of developing mental illness. The impact of parental SMI on offspring’s cardiometabolic health and mortality by diseases and medical conditions is still poorly understood. This study aimed to examine cardiometabolic morbidity in middle-aged offspring of parents with SMI. The following cardiometabolic disorders were used as outcome measures: diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, coronary artery disease, obesity and cerebrovascular disorders. The study also examined cardiometabolic risk factors including glucose levels, lipid levels, insulin levels and insulin resistance. Another aim of the study was to investigate mortality by diseases and medical conditions in offspring of parents with SMI. The follow-up time was 49 years. The study determined if the risk of mortality by diseases and medical conditions increased among offspring of individuals with SMI compared to a comparison group. The hypothesis was that offspring of people with severe mental disorders have increased cardiometabolic morbidity risk and mortality risk by diseases and medical conditions. The study was prospective with data from both clinical examination and registers. Participants were from unselected population-based birth cohort: The Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (n=12,231). Offspring of parents with SMI had increased cardiometabolic morbidity risk. Male offspring had elevated risk of coronary artery disease, hyperlipidaemia, obesity and hypertension. Offspring of parents with SMI had increased risk for obesity, especially offspring of mothers with SMI. Female offspring of parents with SMI had partly increased risk for disturbances in cardiometabolic risk factors. They had increased risk for higher glucose level and waist circumference. Offspring of parents with SMI had no increased risk for mortality by diseases and medical, Tiivistelmä Vanhempien vakava mielenterveyden häiriö (SMI) voi vaikuttaa jälkeläisten fyysiseen terveyteen monin eri tavoin. Vakavaa mielenterveydenhäiriötä sairastavien vanhempien jälkeläisillä on suurempi riski sairastua psykiatrisiin sairauksiin. Vanhempien vakavan mielenterveyden häiriön vaikutus jälkeläisten kardiometaboliseen terveyteen ja tautikuolleisuuteen on kuitenkin heikosti ymmärretty. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tutkia vakavaa mielenterveyden häiriötä sairastavien vanhempien keski-ikäisten jälkeläisten kardiometabolista sairastavuutta. Seuraavia kardiometabolisia häiriöitä käytettiin tulosmuuttujina: diabetes mellitus, verenpainesairaudet, rasva-aineenvaihdunnan häiriöt, iskeemiset sydänsairaudet, lihavuus ja aivoverenkierron sairaudet. Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin myös kardiometabolisia riskitekijöitä, mukaan lukien glukoositaso, lipiditaso, insuliinitaso ja insuliiniresistenssi. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää myös vakavaa mielenterveyden häiriötä sairastavien vanhempien jälkeläisten tautikuolleisuutta. Seuranta-aika oli 49 vuotta. Hypoteesina oli, että vakavaa mielenterveydenhäiriötä sairastavien vanhempien jälkeläisillä on suurentunut kardiometabolisten sairauksien riski ja suurentunut kuolleisuusriski. Tutkimus oli prospektiivinen kliinisistä tutkimuksista ja rekistereistä saatuun dataan perustuva. Osallistujat olivat valikoimattomasta väestöpohjaisesta syntymäkohortista: Pohjois-Suomen syntymäkohortti 1966:sta (n=12,231). Vakavaa mielenterveyden häiriötä sairastavien vanhempien jälkeläisillä oli suurentunut riski kardiometabolisiin sairauksiin. Vakavaa mielenterveydenhäiriötä sairastavien vanhempien miespuoleisilla jälkeläisillä oli suurentunut iskeemisen sydänsairauden, hyperlipidemian, lihavuuden ja verenpainetaudin riski. Lihavuuden riski oli kohonnut vaikeaa mielenterveyden häiriötä sairastavien vanhempien jälkeläisillä, erityisesti äitien. Vakavaa mielenterveydenhäiriötä sairastavien vanhempien naispuoleisilla jälkeläisillä oli os

Most Self-Admitted Technical Debt (SATD) research utilizes explicit SATD features such as ‘TODO’ and ‘FIXME’ for SATD detection. A closer look reveals several SATD research uses simple SATD (‘Easy to Find’) code comments without contextual data (preceding and succeeding source code context). This work addresses this gap through PENTACET (or 5C dataset) data. PENTACET is a large Curated Contextual Code Comments per Contributor and the most extensive SATD data. We mine 9,096 Open Source Software Java projects totaling over 400 million LOC. The outcome is a dataset with 23 million code comments, preceding and succeeding source code context for each comment, and more than 250,000 SATD comments, including both ‘Easy to Find’ and ‘Hard to Find’ SATD. We believe PENTACET data will further SATD research using Artificial Intelligence techniques.

Introduction: Helping others within and beyond the family has been related to living a healthy and long life. Compassion is a prosocial personality trait characterized by concern for another person who is suffering and the motivation to help. The current study examines whether epigenetic aging is a potential biological mechanism that explains the link between prosociality and longevity. Methods: We used data from the Young Finns Study that follows six birth-cohorts from age 3–18 to 19–49. Trait-like compassion for others was measured with the Temperament and Character Inventory in the years 1997 and 2001. Epigenetic age acceleration and telomere length were measured with five DNA methylation (DNAm) indicators (DNAmAgeHorvath, IEAA_Hannum, EEAA_Hannum, DNAmPhenoAge, and DNAmTL) based on blood drawn in 2011. We controlled for sex, socioeconomic status in childhood and adulthood, and body-mass index. Results and discussion: An association between higher compassion in 1997 and a less accelerated DNAmPhenoAge, which builds on previous work on phenotypic aging, approached statistical significance in a sex-adjusted model (n = 1,030; b = −0.34; p = 0.050). Compassion in 1997 predicted less accelerated epigenetic aging over and above the control variables (n = 843; b = −0.47; p = 0.016). There was no relationship between compassion in 2001 (n = 1108/910) and any of the other four studied epigenetic aging indicators. High compassion for others might indeed influence whether an individual’s biological age is lower than their chronological age. The conducted robustness checks partially support this conclusion, yet cannot rule out that there might be a broader prosocial trait behind the findings. The observed associations are interesting but should be interpreted as weak requiring replication.

Well-performing control loops have an integral role in efficient and sustainable industrial production. Control performance monitoring (CPM) tools are necessary to establish further process optimization and preventive maintenance. Data-driven, model-free control performance monitoring approaches are studied in this research by comparing the performance of nine CPM methods in an industrially relevant process simulation. The robustness of some of the methods is considered with varying fault intensities. The methods are demonstrated on a simulator which represents a validated state-space model of a supercritical carbon dioxide fluid extraction process. The simulator is constructed with a single-input single-output unit controller for part of the process and a combination of relevant faults in the industry are introduced into the simulation. Of the demonstrated methods, Kullback–Leibler divergence, Euclidean distance, histogram intersection, and Overall Controller Efficiency performed the best in the first simulation case and could identify all the simulated fault scenarios. In the second case, integral-based methods Integral Squared Error and Integral of Time-weighted Absolute Error had the most robust performance with different fault intensities. The results highlight the applicability and robustness of some model-free methods and construct a solid foundation in the application of CPM in industrial processes.

Intensive peatland drainage alters the physico-chemical status of the recipient streams, potentially leading to the loss of biodiversity and impaired ecosystem functioning. However, the extent of these changes, and particularly their impacts on downstream ecosystems, remain poorly understood. We studied the downstream effects of peatland drainage on stream biodiversity (aquatic bryophytes and macroinvertebrates) and key ecosystem processes (primary productivity, organic matter (OM) decomposition and OM standing stock). Our survey design comprised upstream (directly below drainage network) and downstream (∼300 m downstream) locations in 18 boreal headwater streams encompassing an extensive gradient of peatland drainage intensity (0–48 %). Drainage modified environmental conditions, with nutrient (TP, TN) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations and inorganic sediment cover increasing with intensifying drainage, in both upstream and downstream sites. Species richness of both benthic macroinvertebrates and bryophytes was strongly reduced with increasing drainage intensity. Upstream and downstream sites responded in a similar manner, suggesting wide-ranging impacts of drainage on stream biodiversity. Regardless of site location, ecosystem processes were unrelated to drainage intensity. Our results confirm that intense peatland drainage not only modifies environmental conditions and biodiversity in adjoining streams, but these impacts propagate further downstream in the stream network. To prevent further degradation of drainage-impacted freshwater ecosystems, large-scale peatland restoration is needed, with prioritization of sites with the greatest potential (least drainage-induced damage) for biodiversity recovery.

Background: Type 2 diabetes and dyslipidemias co-occur frequently with severe mental illnesses (SMI). However, less is known about serum insulin and lipid levels and prevalence of Insulin Resistance (IR) in offspring with familial risk for SMI. Method: The Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 consists of 12,068 mothers, 11,068 fathers, and 12,231 children from the two northernmost provinces in Finland. At age 46 they participated in clinical examination including measurements of glucose, lipids, and IR and answered a questionnaire including information about their nutrition and physical activity. The information on parental SMI was obtained from the Hospital Discharge Register. Parents with SMI were those who had been treated in hospital for any psychiatric disorder during 1969–1982 (ICD-8 codes 290–315). The final study group included 334 (7.3 %) offspring who had a parent with SMI and 4249 (92.7 %) offspring in the comparison group. Results: We did not find increased risk for disturbances in lipid levels, insulin levels, or IR levels between the study group (offspring of either parent with SMI) compared with the comparison group. All offspring, especially female offspring of either parent with SMI, had an increased risk for higher glucose levels and waist circumference. The results remained the same after excluding offspring with SMI. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that offspring of parents with SMI, especially female offspring, have partly increased risk for disturbances in cardiometabolic risk factors. Disturbances in glucose metabolism may have an effect via familial risk of severe mental illness.

A basic oxygen furnace (BOF) is the main unit process for refining carbon steel. The aim of this work was to study the use of vibration and audio signal measurements to monitor, predict, and control the BOF process. Vibration and audio data from nearly 300 blows were collected and analyzed together with process variables. We could confirm high correlations between some of the process variables and vibration and audio measurements. Median filtered low-frequency (3–20 Hz) audio as well as X- and Z-direction acceleration root mean square (RMS) time series correlate with the off-gas temperature, although this is much more significant for the audio data. For Y-direction measurements (the upward direction) the correlation is negligible. The low-frequency audio and vibration data are likely related to the rate of decarburization. Median filtered mid-frequency (100–1000 Hz) audio as well as X-, Y-, and Z-direction acceleration RMS time series correlate with the lance height measurement during the interval 20–600 seconds from the beginning of oxygen blow. For the audio data, the correlation was high even without median filtering. We suggest that audio and vibration activity in this frequency range is possibly related to the formation of the metal–slag–gas foam and maybe even to slopping.

Wastewaters from fish processing cause a high organic load for municipal wastewater treatment and can interfere with treatment operations due to their high oil and grease content. In the present study, a modular dissolved air flotation (DAF) unit was used to remove oil, grease and other suspended solids from fish processing plant wastewater. After DAF treatment, the residual particles and nutrients were adsorbed onto a mixture of hemp and spruce biochar in a pilot-scale column filtration system. The proposed integrated treatment process aims to improve the quality of the fish processing wastewater, facilitate water reuse, and recover the dissolved nutrients in a reusable form. The DAF treatment removed nearly all the oil and grease from the wastewater. Also, chemical oxygen demand, turbidity and phosphorus concentration clearly decreased during the DAF process. The biochar filtration further clarified the DAF-treated wastewater and partly adsorbed the residual nutrients. Furthermore, in the spent biochar mixture, the nitrogen and phosphorus content increased significantly (N to 9.1–10.5 mg/g, P to 0.32–1.38 mg/g), which indicates the improved properties of the biochar as a possible soil conditioner.

Model-based methods have a key role in achieving the technical, economical, and environmental performance improvements of the mineral processing systems. However, unmodeled process phenomena and disturbances leading to unreliable modeling results, may prevent the efficient online utilization of these methods at the operational level after the deployment of the model. This study demonstrates the feasibility of online adaptation of a dynamic, mechanistic process models in mineral beneficiation application at a pilot environment. At first, a digital twin of the grinding and flotation stages of a pilot-scale plant was developed. In the experimental campaign, a change from copper-zinc-pyrite ore to a mixture of pyrite-rich and non-sulfide gangue-rich material was carried out. Thus, during experiments, a notable change in the flotation performance was observed, which could not be replicated by a constant-parameter digital twin model. The proposed parameter adaptation framework, encompassing stochastic optimization in moving time windows, was found to be suitable for finding new optimal model parameters during the changing experimental conditions by using the elemental grades in different flotation stages. In addition, simulation studies are presented to highlight the challenges of digital twin parameter adaptation in mineral processing applications, where often only a sparse and disturbance influenced data from the key process variables are available. The adaptive digital twin allows applying the dynamic, mechanistic process models efficiently for predictive simulations in operational decisions leading to more sustainable and resource-efficient minerals processing.

Objective: Primary objective was to retrospectively examine the effects of patient age and carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) related axon loss on median nerve (MN) high resolution ultrasound (HRUS) in younger and older patients. HRUS parameters evaluated in this study were MN cross sectional area at the wrist (CSA) and wrist-to-forearm ratio (WFR). Methods: The material comprised 467 wrists of 329 patients. The patients were categorized into younger (<65 years) and older (≥65 years) groups. Patients with moderate to extreme CTS were included in the study. Axon loss of the MN was assessed by needle EMG and graded by the interference pattern (IP) density. The association between axon loss and CSA and WFR was studied. Results: The older patients had smaller mean CSA and WFR values compared to the younger patients. CSA correlated positively to the CTS severity only in the younger group. However, WFR correlated positively to CTS severity in both groups. In both age groups, CSA and WFR correlated positively with IP reduction. Conclusions: Our study complemented recent findings on the effects of patient age on the CSA of the MN. However, although the MN CSA did not correlate with the CTS severity in older patients, the CSA increased in respect to the amount of axon loss. Also, as a new result, we presented the positive association of WFR with CTS severity among older patients. Significance: Our study supports the recently speculated need for different MN CSA and WFR cut-off values for younger and older patients in assessing the severity of CTS. With older patients, WFR may be a more reliable parameter to assess the CTS severity than the CSA. CTS related axonal damage of the MN is associated to additional nerve enlargement at the carpal tunnel intel site.

Tiivistelmä. Ihmisiä altistuu työssään kvartsipölylle jatkuvasti. Altistus voi aiheuttaa erilaisia terveyshaittoja, kuten silikoosia ja keuhkosyöpää. Työssä mitattiin pölynäytteiden kvartsipitoisuuksia Fourier’n muunnosinfrapunaspektroskopiaa (FTIR) apuna käyttäen ja verrattiin tuloksia työterveyslaitoksen laboratorion tuloksiin. Mittausjärjestelmä kalibroitiin tekemällä standarikvartsista pellettejä eri kvartsipitoisuuksilla ja muodostamalla kalibraatiosuora spektrin piikkien korkeuksien muodostaessa toisen suoran akselin. Työssä käytettiin NIOSH standardia 7602 SILICA, CRYSTALLINE by IR, siltä osin kuin oli mahdollista. Työssä jouduttiin poikkeamaan standardista jonkun verran. Esimerkiksi standardinmukaista kvartsia ei ollut kalibraatioon, joten jouduttiin tyytymään eri kvartsiin, BCR-066. Tästä työn tarkkuuteen johtavat haitat minimoitiin sarjalaimennosmenetelmällä. Työssä käytiin myös läpi Fourier’n muunnosinfrapunaspektroskopiaa hyödyntänyt tutkimus, jonka valossa mikrosilikaa voisi hyötykäyttää uudelleen betonirakentamisessa kehittyvien kansakuntien hyödyksi. Työssä käytiin läpi myös teoriaa Fourier’n muunnosinfrapunaspektroskopiasta. Työ tehtiin yhteistyössä Envimetria Oy:n ja Itä-Suomen yliopiston SibLabsin kanssa.

Attendance in special education (SE) is more common among individuals born preterm than among those born at term. Less is known about school grades of those born preterm in mainstream education (ME), and how these grades predict later educational attainment. This population-based register-linkage study assessed (1) attendance in SE, and then focused on those in ME by assessing (2) school grades at 16 year, (3) completed educational level at 25 year, and (4) school grades as predictors for completed education by gestational age (GA) with full-term birth (39–41 completed weeks) as reference. The sample comprised 223,744 individuals (10,521 preterm, 4.7%) born in Finland (1/1987–9/1990). Of the sample, 4.9% attended SE. Those born preterm had up to 5.5-fold rates for SE. In ME, those born extremely preterm (EPT) had marginally lower mathematics grades compared with full-term counterparts, whilst those born late preterm or early term had slightly higher grades. Those born EPT or very preterm had lower physical education grades in ME. However, the minor differences in school grades according to GA appear not to translate into educational differences in young adulthood. The associations between school grades at 16 year and completed education at 25 year did not vary by GA.

The aim of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is to clean wastewater before it is discharged into the environment. Real-time monitoring and control will become more essential as the regulations for effluent discharges are likely to become stricter in the future. Model-based soft sensors provide a promising solution for estimating important process variables such as chemical oxygen demand (COD) and help in predicting the performance of WWTPs. This paper explores the possibility of using interpretable model structures for monitoring the influent and predicting the effluent of paper mill WWTPs by systematically finding the best model parameters using an exhaustive algorithm. Experimentation was conducted with regression models such as multiple linear regression (MLR) and partial least squares regression (PLSR), as well as LASSO regression with a nonlinear scaling function to account for nonlinearities. Some autoregressive time series models were also built. The results showed decent modelling accuracy when tested with test data acquired from a wastewater treatment process. The most notable test results included the autoregressive model with exogenous inputs for influent COD (correlation 0.89, mean absolute percentage error 8.1%) and a PLSR model for effluent COD prediction (correlation 0.77, mean absolute percentage error 7.6%) with 20 h prediction horizon. The results show that these models are accurate enough for real-time monitoring and prediction in an industrial WWTP.

Aims: In most population-based epidemiological follow-up studies the aim is not to intervene in the life of the participants. Although the idea is not to intervene, being a member of the longitudinal follow-up study and studies conducted during follow-up may affect the target population. A population-based study including mental health enquiries might reduce the unmet need for psychiatric treatment by motivating people to seek treatment for their psychiatric ill-health. We examined the use of psychiatric care services in the population born in the year 1966 in Northern Finland, of whom 96.3% are participants in the prospective Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966). Methods: As a study cohort we used people born in 1966 in Northern Finland (n = 11 447). The comparison cohort included all the people born in the years 1965 and 1967 in the same geographical area (n = 23 339). The follow-up period was from age 10 to 50 years. The outcome measure was the use of psychiatric care services, which was analysed using Cox Proportional Hazard regression and Zero-Truncated Negative Binomial Regression. Results: People born in 1966 in Northern Finland did not differ from those born in 1965 and 1967 in terms of the outcome measure. Conclusions: We found no association between participation in an epidemiological follow-up study and the use of psychiatric care services. The NFBC1966 may be regarded as a representative at the population level in terms of psychiatric outcomes despite the personal follow-up of the birth cohort. The associations of participation in epidemiological follow-up studies have previously been under-examined, and the results need to be replicated.

Fouling is a phenomenon where material accumulates on the exterior of convective heat exchangers (HX) and other surfaces. In boilers fired by waste-derived or biomass fuels, these surfaces are cleaned frequently to maintain adequate heat transfer between the flue gas and fluid. However, excess cleaning of HX surfaces wastes money and resources, and the common practice of soot removal at fixed time intervals is not an optimal strategy. An adaptive timing method would be beneficial; however, real-time knowledge of HX condition is hard to obtain. In this paper, we present (1) a state estimation approach for fouling monitoring in a Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) boiler, fusing knowledge from a physical model with process measurement data, and (2) a novel condition monitoring scheme based on modal-vibrational sensing, with potential for a directly estimating the degree of fouling on heating surfaces. The results are demonstrated on a full-scale commercial CFB. Combining physical models, machine learning, and modal analysis in mutually supporting ways provides a solid basis for future sootblowing optimization efforts and improved fouling management.

The novel concept of factory-as-a-service (FaaS) allows the agility of adapting the manufacturing process by identifying the industry’s supply chain and user requirements. To cater to FaaS, flexibility in networking and cloud services is a must. 5G network slice broker (NSB) is a third-party mediator that caters to networking resource demand from clients to the service providers. Thus, this article introduces a secure blockchain-based NSB to facilitate FaaS. The proposed secure NSB (SNSB) provides secure, cognitive, and distributed network services for resource allocation and security service level agreement (SSLA) formation with coordination of slice managers and SSLA managers. In SNSB, we introduce a federated slice selection algorithm with Stackelberg game model and reinforcement learning algorithm to compute the real time and the optimal unit price and demand level. We provide an extensive implementation and performance evaluation of SNSB using the slice manager and a custom SSLA manager.

Prospective birth cohort studies are longitudinal research studies that follow a group of individuals from birth throughout their lifespan, collecting data on various factors over time. The data collection methods may include clinical examinations, questionnaires, tests, interviews, and linkage to existing data, enabling the examination of multiple risk factors and potential interactions between them. The follow-up procedures raise a question about whether intensive follow-up could affect the study population in any way. This study focuses on the association between participation in longitudinal follow-up studies and the use of psychiatric care services and cardiometabolic disorders in two prospective birth cohort studies, the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966) and the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 (NFBC1986). The hypothesis is that participation in the NFBC studies may increase the use of psychiatric healthcare services and reduce suicidal behaviour, and that cohort participants may live healthier lives and have fewer cardiometabolic disorders than comparison cohorts. In addition, we explored the changes in the incidences of hospital-treated psychiatric disorders in five large Finnish birth cohorts of individuals born between 1966 and 1997. The results show somewhat inconsistent effects of participation in the NFBC1966 and NFBC1986 studies. Female participants of NFBC1966 had a significantly younger onset of several cardiometabolic disorders, while female participants of NFBC1986 used less psychiatric care services and male participants of NFBC1986 had a decreased risk for several cardiometabolic disorders. In addition, the incidence of hospital-treated psychiatric disorders increased over the decades in the five birth cohorts in Finland, which is somewhat opposite to the Finnish psychiatric health policy plan. It is important to note that the cohort participants of NFBC1986 are still relatively young, and an accurate assessment of the diff, Tiivistelmä Prospektiiviset syntymäkohorttitutkimukset ovat pitkittäistutkimuksia, joissa tutkimusväestöä seurataan syntymästä lähtien läpi elämän keräämällä tietoja eri tekijöistä ajan kuluessa. Tietoja voidaan kerätä kliinisillä tutkimuksilla, kyselyillä ja haastatteluilla, mikä mahdollistaa useiden riskitekijöiden ja niiden mahdollisten vuorovaikutusten tutkimisen. Prospektiivisten syntymäkohorttien pitkä seuranta herättää kysymyksen, voiko intensiivinen seuranta vaikuttaa tutkimusväestöön millään tavalla. Tämä tutkimus keskittyy pitkittäisseurantaan osallistumisen ja psykiatristen terveydenhuoltopalveluiden käytön sekä kardiometabolisten häiriöiden väliseen yhteyteen kahdessa prospektiivisessa syntymäkohorttitutkimuksessa, Pohjois-Suomen syntymäkohortti 1966:ssa (NFBC1966) ja Pohjois-Suomen syntymäkohortti 1986:ssa (NFBC1986). Hypoteesina on, että osallistuminen NFBC-tutkimuksiin saattaa lisätä psykiatristen terveydenhuoltopalveluiden käyttöä ja vähentää itsemurhakäyttäytymistä, sekä se, että kohortin osallistujat saattavat elää terveellisemmin ja kärsiä vähemmän kardiometabolisista häiriöistä kuin vertailukohortit. Lisäksi tutkitaan sairaalassa hoidettujen psykiatristen häiriöiden esiintyvyyden muutoksia viidessä suuressa suomalaisessa syntymäkohortissa, joiden osallistujat ovat syntyneet vuosien 1966 ja 1997 välillä. Tulokset osoittavat jonkin verran epäjohdonmukaisia vaikutuksia NFBC1966- ja NFBC1986-syntymäkohortteihin osallistumisella. NFBC1966:n naisosallistujilla oli tilastollisesti merkitsevästi nuorempi sairastumisikä kardiometabolisiin sairauksiin, NFBC1986:n naisosallistujat käyttivät vähemmän psykiatrisia hoitopalveluita ja NFBC1986:n miesosallistujilla oli pienentynyt riski sairastua kardiometabolisiin sairauksiin vertailukohorttiin verrattuna. Lisäksi sairaalassa hoidettujen psykiatristen häiriöiden esiintyvyys kasvoi viimeisten vuosikymmenten aikana viidessä syntymäkohortissa Suomessa, mikä on jonkin verran ristiriidassa Suomen psykiatrisen tervey

The current evolution of industrial systems is characterized by expectations of increased production efficiency, data security, regulatory compliance, scalability, and environmental sustainability. One of the key technologies driving these advancements is the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), together with 5th Generation(5G) and beyond networks. These enable seamless connectivity between infrastructure, machines, and people, facilitating rapid data exchange, automation, monitoring, and control of industrial systems. In this thesis, the main contributions are threefold. First, the thesis proposes a novel decentralized service architecture to establish confidentiality, integrity, and authentication of cloud-integrated IIoT. Secondly, the research proposed a decentralized architecture incorporating Game Theory for efficient and secured network slice brokering and service-level agreement establishment. Finally, the thesis proposed a novel consensus mechanism for reliable IIoT data formulation. This thesis proposes to utilise reputation score as a numerical indicator for the IIoT data reliability in combination with BulletProof zero-knowledge proof to defend the data formulation IIoT from slowly adaptive adversaries to yield energy efficiency. Identifying the scalability limitations in the centralized security services, the thesis incorporated blockchain-based smart contracts as a decentralized service enabler that provides decentralization, lower latency, and transparency with cryptographically integrity-preserved ledger. The proposed service architecture was implemented and evaluated with numerical and programmatic simulations. The thesis results were derived from the comparisons of partial implementations from state-of-art to distinguish the numerical advantages of the proposal. The proposed architecture has yielded significant efficiency improvements, including storage utilization (to 20% in IIoT authentication), latency (Up to 55% in IIoT authentication, Tiivistelmä Teollisten järjestelmien nykykehitykselle on ominaista odotukset tuotannon tehostamisesta, tietoturvasta, säännösten noudattamisesta, skaalautuvuudesta ja ympäristön kestävyydestä. Yksi tähän kehitykseen johtavista keskeisistä teknologioista on teollinen esineiden internet (IIoT) yhdessä viidennen sukupolven (5G) ja muiden verkkojen kanssa. Ne mahdollistavat saumattoman yhteyden infrastruktuurin, koneiden ja ihmisten välillä, mikä helpottaa nopeaa tiedonvaihtoa, automaatiota, valvontaa ja teollisten järjestelmien hallintaa. Tämän väitöstutkimuksen tärkeimmät tulokset ovat kolmella alueella. Ensinnäkin työssä ehdotetaan uutta hajautettua palveluarkkitehtuuria pilvilaskentaan integroidun IIoT:n luottamuksellisuuden, eheyden ja todentamisen varmistamiseksi. Toiseksi tutkimuksessa ehdotetaan hajautettua arkkitehtuuria, joka hyödyntää peliteoriaa tehokkaan ja suojatun verkon viipaloinnin välitys- ja palvelutasosopimuksen toteuttamiseksi. Lopuksi työssä ehdotetaan uutta konsensusmekanismia luotettavaa IIoT-tietojen laatimista varten. Tässä tutkimuksessa ehdotetaan mainepisteiden hyödyntämistä numeerisena indikaattorina IIoT-tietojen luotettavuudelle yhdessä BulletProof-tietokannan kanssa, joka puolustaa datan luomista IIoT järjestelmissä hitaasti mukautuvilta hyökkäyksiltä, energiatehokkuuden huomioiden. Keskitettyjen turvallisuuspalvelujen skaalautuvuusrajoitukset huomioiden, lohkoketjupohjaiset älykkäät sopimukset sopivat hajautetuksi palvelun mahdollistajaksi, joka tarjoaa hajauttamisen, pienemmän viiveen ja läpinäkyvyyden kryptografisesti eheyden säilyttävällä tilikirjalla. Ehdotettu palveluarkkitehtuuri toteutettiin ja arvioitiin numeerisilla ja ohjelmallisilla simulaatioilla. Väitöstutkimuksen tulokset on johdettu vertaamalla osatoteutusta uusinta tekniikkaa erottamaan ehdotuksen numeeriset edut. Ehdotettu arkkitehtuuri on tuottanut merkittäviä tehokkuusparannuksia, joita ovat muun muassa tallennuksen käyttö (20 prosenttiin IIoT-todennuksessa), viive (55

Knowledge graphs (KGs) structure knowledge to enable the development of intelligent systems across several application domains. In industrial maintenance, comprehensive knowledge of the factory, machinery, and components is indispensable. This study defines the objectives for evolvable KGs, building upon our prior research, where we initially identified the problem in industrial maintenance. Our contributions include two main aspects: firstly, the categorization of learning within the KG construction process and the identification of design objectives for the KG process focusing on supporting industrial maintenance. The categorization highlights the specific requirements for KG design, emphasizing the importance of planning for maintenance and reuse.

Technical debt presents sub-optimal choices made in development, which are beneficial in the short term but not in the long run. Consciously admitted debt, which is marked with a keyword, e.g., TODO, is called keyword-labeled self-admitted technical debt (KL-SATD). KL-SATD can lead to adverse effects in software development, e.g., to a rise in complexity within the developed software. We investigated the relationship between KL-SATD from source code comments and reports from the highly popular industrial program analysis tool SonarQube. The goal was to find which SonarQube metrics and issues are related to KL-SATD introduction and removal and how many KL-SATD in the context of an issue addresses that issue. We performed a study with 33 software repositories. We analyzed the changes in SonarQube reports (sqale index, reliability and security remediation metrics, and SonarQube issues) and the relationship to KL-SATD addition and removal with mixed model analysis. We manually annotated a sample to investigate how many KL-SATD comments are in the context of SonarQube issues and how many address them directly. KL-SATD is associated with a reduction in code maintainability measured with SonarQube’s sqale index. KL-SATD removal is associated with an increase in code maintainability (sqale index) and reliability measured with SonarQube’s reliability remediation effort. The introduction and removal of KL-SATD have a predominantly relationship with code smells, and not with vulnerabilities and bugs. Manual annotation revealed that 36% of KL-SATD comments are in the context of a SonarQube issue, but only 15% of the comment address an issue. This means that despite of statistical relationship between KL-SATD comments and SonarQube reports there is a large set of KL-SATD comments that are in areas that Sonarqube reports as clean or free of maintainability issues. KL-SATD introduction and removal are connected mainly to code smells, connecting them to maintainability rat

The metaverse, which consists of several universes called verses, is predicted to be the Internet of the future. Recently, this idea has received a lot of discussions, but not enough attention has been paid to the security concerns of these virtual worlds. Primarily when the user and platform server communicate with each other and share sensitive information using the public channel, any attacker can capture the message and can perform various types of attacks such as privacy attack, violation of perfect forward secrecy, impersonation attack, ephemeral secret leakage attack and traceability attack. Therefore, there is impelling need to design an authentication protocol for the metaverse environment that can secure the communication between the user and the platform server. Taking this into account, we designed a zero-knowledge proof authentication protocol based on blockchain for the metaverse environment. The security of the designed protocol is verified through the Burrows-Abadi-Needham (BAN) logic, Scyther tool, and Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) tool. The outcome of the security verification demonstrates that the designed metaverse authentication protocol mitigates all the attacks mentioned above. Moreover, we evaluated the performance of the designed metaverse authentication protocol in terms of computational, communication, storage costs, and energy consumption and compared it with existing metaverse authentication protocols, showing good results taking into account the additional security strength.

Cardiometabolic diseases are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Although common risk factors are well known, there has been no success in changing the growing trend in these diseases. An earlier detection of underlying harmful changes in the body, as well as a deeper understanding of the biological changes related to these diseases, could help in the early prevention and development of novel treatment strategies. Different omics technologies combined with a large population and clinical cohorts allow for a more detailed exploration of the biological changes related to various diseases. In the current thesis, these methodologies were first utilised to explore the metabolic changes associated with incident stroke and its subtypes. The first study identified 10 metabolic measures associated with incident strokes. Second, metabolomic data, together with clinical variables, were used to investigate the metabolic characteristics of mortality risk among coronary angiography patients. Furthermore, the predictive properties of metabolic measures in mortality risk prediction were assessed. The second study demonstrated that metabolic changes associated with all-cause mortality were present also when controlling for important clinical variables. The metabolic measures slightly improved discrimination at the cost of calibration compared to clinical variables when assessing the utility of these measures in the prediction of all-cause mortality. Third, the potential role of circulating inflammatory cytokines as mediators in the pathway from increased adiposity measured by body mass index to relevant disease outcomes was assessed. The third study identified three cytokines driven by body mass index. Only weak associations were seen when further assessing the causal role of the identified cytokines in different inflammatory-related diseases. In conclusion, this thesis illustrates the utility of the application of omics data in three different epidemiolog, Tiivistelmä Kardiometaboliset sairaudet ovat suurimpia sairastavuuden ja kuolleisuuden aiheuttajia maailmanlaajuisesti. Vaikka yleisimmät riskitekijät näille sairauksille tunnetaan hyvin, kasvavaa trendiä näiden sairauksien osalta ei ole kyetty muuttamaan. Kehossa olevien piilevien muutosten aikaisempi tunnistaminen sekä näihin sairauksiin liittyvien biologisten muutosten syvempi ymmärtäminen voisi auttaa varhaisessa ehkäisyssä sekä uusien hoitomuotojen kehittämisessä. Erilaiset omiikkateknologiat yhdistettyinä suuriin kliinisiin ja väestöaineistoihin mahdollistavat sairauksiin liittyvien erilaisten biologisten muutosten entistä tarkemman tarkastelun. Tässä väitöskirjassa näitä menetelmiä on hyödynnetty ensinnäkin aivohalvauksiin ja sen alatyyppeihin liittyvien aineenvaihduntamuutosten selvittämiseen. Ensimmäinen osatyö tunnisti kymmenen aineenvaihduntamuuttujaa, jotka olivat yhteydessä aivohalvauksiin. Toisessa työssä aineenvaihduntamuuttujia käytettiin kuolleisuuteen yhteydessä olevien metabolisten muutoksien selvittämiseen sydämen varjoainekuvauspotilailla. Lisäksi metabolisten muuttujien tuomaa lisähyötyä kliinisten muuttujien lisäksi kuolleisuusriskin ennustamisessa arvioitiin. Toinen osatyö osoitti, että aineenvaihduntamuutoksia on havaittavissa, vaikka analyysissä huomioitaisiin tärkeät kliiniset muuttujat. Aineenvaihduntamuuttujat paransivat hieman ennustemallin erottelukykyä kokonaiskuolleisuuden ennustamisessa, mutta samalla systemaattinen harha hieman lisääntyi verrattuna pelkkien kliinisten muuttujien käyttöön. Kolmanneksi verenkierron tulehdusproteiinien roolia painoindeksillä mitatun liikalihavuuden ja erilaisten relevanttien sairauksien syy-seuraussuhteiden välittäjinä arvioitiin. Kolmas osatyö tunnisti kolme painoindeksiin yhteydessä olevaa tulehdusproteiinia. Arvioitaessa näiden tulehdusproteiinien syy-seuraussuhteita eri tulehduksellisiin sairauksiin, nähtiin vain heikkoja yhteyksiä. Yhteenvetona tämä väitöskirjatyö osoittaa erilaisten omiikka-aine

Background: Preterm birth (<37 weeks of gestation) is a major cause of neonatal death and morbidity. Up to 40% of the variation in timing of birth results from genetic factors, mostly due to the maternal genome. Methods: We conducted a genome-wide meta-analysis of gestational duration and spontaneous preterm birth in 68,732 and 98,370 European mothers, respectively. Results: The meta-analysis detected 15 loci associated with gestational duration, and four loci associated with preterm birth. Seven of the associated loci were novel. The loci mapped to several biologically plausible genes, for example HAND2 whose expression was previously shown to decrease during gestation, associated with gestational duration, and GC (Vitamin D-binding protein), associated with preterm birth. Downstream in silico-analysis suggested regulatory roles as underlying mechanisms for the associated loci. LD score regression found birth weight measures as the most strongly correlated traits, highlighting the unique nature of spontaneous preterm birth phenotype. Tissue expression and colocalization analysis revealed reproductive tissues and immune cell types as the most relevant sites of action. Conclusions: We report novel genetic risk loci that associate with preterm birth or gestational duration, and reproduce findings from previous genome-wide association studies. Altogether, our findings provide new insight into the genetic background of preterm birth. Better characterization of the causal genetic mechanisms will be important to public health as it could suggest new strategies to treat and prevent preterm birth., Author summary Annually, more than 15 million pregnancies are affected by preterm births all over the world. There are no effective ways to prevent preterm birth, and premature babies suffer from neonatal mortality and lifelong morbidities. Genetic factors of mother and fetus explain a large proportion, approximately 30–40%, of the of the variation in gestational age at delivery. To date, there have been just a few unbiased genome-wide investigations set out to locate these genes. Better characterization of the causal genetic mechanisms could suggest new strategies to treat and prevent preterm birth. In the current study, we aimed to identify maternal genetic factors that contribute to the timing of birth by meta-analyzing genome-wide association studies from European populations. We detected 17 independent loci that were associated with gestational duration and/or the risk of preterm birth. Ten of the loci replicated associations from previous studies, and seven were novel. The replicated associations provide strong evidence for the importance of these loci in the timing of birth, although the exact genes and causal variants and pathways still require further functional analysis. The seven novel associations provide further intriguing candidates that may account for the risk of preterm birth. Bioinformatics analysis proposed the associated loci have regulatory functions predominantly in immune cell types and reproductive tissues. The analysis further highlighted the unique nature or preterm birth as a phenotype, since the only traits with strong correlations were birth weight measures that are closely linked to the studied phenotypes. Our findings complement the knowledge of the genetic factors of preterm birth.

Background: Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Furthermore, measuring its effects on patients in daily life is challenging. This study aimed to discover the association between relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) patients’ disability, fatigue, and accelerometer-measured physical activity. Methods: A total of 41 patients with RRMS with an Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) level of 0–5.5 and 20 healthy controls completed the Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS) and the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) questionnaires. The EDSS was evaluated for all patients with RRMS, and all participants performed the MS Functional Composite (MSFC) test and six-min walk test and wore an accelerometer for seven days. Results: Patients with an EDSS level of 0–2.5 were found to have higher fatigue levels (p < 0.001) than healthy controls but lower levels than patients with an EDSS level of 3–5.5 (p < 0.001). A significant correlation was found to exist between fatigue and disability level measured by the EDSS (EDSS/FSS, r=0.750/p=0.001; EDSS/MFIS, r=0.661/p=0.001) and with the MSFC test in the patient group (MSFC/FSS, r = −0.350 p=0.025; MSFC/MFIS, r = −0.423/p=0.007). Total daily activity correlated with fatigue as measured by the FSS (MVPS/FSS r = −0.357/p=0.028, step count/FSS r = −0.463/p=0.003), but no correlation was found between the EDSS or the MSFC. Conclusion: A lower disability rate, better physical condition, and higher daily-living activity were found to predict lower fatigue levels.

The water table and its dynamics are one of the key variables that control peatland greenhouse gas exchange. Here, we tested the applicability of the Optical TRApezoid Model (OPTRAM) to monitor the temporal fluctuations in water table over intact, restored (previously forestry-drained), and drained (under agriculture) northern peatlands in Finland, Estonia, Sweden, Canada, and the USA. More specifically, we studied the potential and limitations of OPTRAM using water table data from 2018 through 2021, across 53 northern peatland sites, i.e., covering the largest geographical extent used in OPTRAM studies so far. For this, we calculated OPTRAM based on Sentinel-2 data with the Google Earth Engine cloud platform. First, we found that the choice of vegetation index utilised in OPTRAM does not significantly affect OPTRAM performance in peatlands. Second, we revealed that the tree cover density is a major factor controlling the sensitivity of OPTRAM to water table dynamics in peatlands. Tree cover density greater than 50% led to a clear decrease in OPTRAM performance. Finally, we demonstrated that the relationship between water table and OPTRAM often disappears when WT deepens (ranging between 0 to −100 cm, depending on the site location). We identified that the water table where OPTRAM ceases to be sensitive to variations is highly site-specific. Overall, our results support the application of OPTRAM to monitor water table dynamics in intact and restored northern peatlands with low tree cover density (below 50%) when the water table varies from shallow to moderately deep. Our study makes significant steps towards the broader implementation of optical remote sensing data for monitoring peatlands subsurface moisture conditions over the northern region.

Background: Preterm birth affects lungs in several ways but few studies have follow-up until adulthood. We investigated the association of the entire spectrum of gestational ages with specialist care episodes for obstructive airway disease (asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)) at age 18–50 years. Methods: We used nationwide registry data on 706 717 people born 1987–1998 in Finland (4.8% preterm) and 1 669 528 born 1967–1999 in Norway (5.0% preterm). Care episodes of asthma and COPD were obtained from specialised healthcare registers, available in Finland for 2005–2016 and in Norway for 2008–2017. We used logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (ORs) for having a care episode with either disease outcome. Results: Odds of any obstructive airway disease in adulthood for those born at <28 or 28–31 completed weeks were 2–3-fold of those born full term (39–41 completed weeks), persisting after adjustments. For individuals born at 32–33, 34–36 or 37–38 weeks, the odds were 1.1- to 1.5-fold. Associations were similar in the Finnish and the Norwegian data and among people aged 18–29 and 30–50 years. For COPD at age 30–50 years, the OR was 7.44 (95% CI 3.49–15.85) for those born at <28 weeks, 3.18 (95% CI 2.23–4.54) for those born at 28–31 weeks and 2.32 (95% CI 1.72–3.12) for those born at 32–33 weeks. Bronchopulmonary dysplasia in infancy increased the odds further for those born at <28 and 28–31 weeks. Conclusion: Preterm birth is a risk factor for asthma and COPD in adulthood. The high odds of COPD call for diagnostic vigilance when adults born very preterm present with respiratory symptoms.

Background: Childhood exposure to dyslipidemia is associated with adult atherosclerosis, but it is unclear whether the long‐term risk associated with dyslipidemia is attenuated on its resolution by adulthood. We aimed to address this question by examining the links between childhood and adult dyslipidemia on carotid atherosclerotic plaques in adulthood. Methods and Results: The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study is a prospective follow‐up of children that began in 1980. Since then, follow‐up studies have been conducted regularly. In 2001 and 2007, carotid ultrasounds were performed on 2643 participants at the mean age of 36 years to identify carotid plaques and plaque areas. For childhood lipids, we exploited several risk factor measurements to determine the individual cumulative burden for each lipid during childhood. Participants were categorized into the following 4 groups based on their childhood and adult dyslipidemia status: no dyslipidemia (reference), incident, resolved, and persistent. Among individuals with carotid plaque, linear regression models were used to study the association of serum lipids with plaque area. The prevalence of plaque was 3.3% (N=88). In models adjusted for age, sex, and nonlipid cardiovascular risk factors, the relative risk for carotid plaque was 2.34 (95% CI, 0.91–6.00) for incident adult dyslipidemia, 3.00 (95% CI, 1.42–6.34) for dyslipidemia resolved by adulthood, and 5.23 (95% CI, 2.57–10.66) for persistent dyslipidemia. Carotid plaque area correlated with childhood total, low‐density lipoprotein, and non–high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol levels. Conclusions: Childhood dyslipidemia, even if resolved by adulthood, is a risk factor for adult carotid plaque. Furthermore, among individuals with carotid plaque, childhood lipids associate with plaque size. These findings highlight the importance of primordial prevention of dyslipidemia in childhood to reduce atherosclerosis development.

Background: We studied the association between participation in the longitudinal follow-up study and cardiometabolic disorders in two longitudinal studies which started prospectively in the antenatal period: the Northern Finland Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966) and the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 (NFBC1986). Both birth cohorts have been followed up since birth with multiple follow-ups including questionnaires, and clinical examinations. Methods: The NFBC studies were compared to comparison cohorts of individuals who were born in the same area as the study cohorts, but in different years. The data for the comparison cohort were obtained from registers. The cumulative incidence rates of hospital-treated cardiometabolic disorders were calculated for study and comparison cohorts covering the age of 7–50 years in NFBC1966 and the age of 0–29 years in NFBC1986. Cardiometabolic-related causes of death were analysed in NFBC1966 and the comparison cohort from the age of 0–50 years. The analysed cardiometabolic disorders were diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease, hyperlipidaemia, obesity, hypertension, and cerebrovascular disorders. The risk ratio (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) was calculated by sex. Results: In NFBC1966, no differences in cumulative incidences of cardiometabolic disorders or cardiometabolic-related deaths compared to the comparison cohort were found. Male members of NFBC1986 had decreased risk of obesity (RR: 0.45, 95% CI: 0.27–0.75) and any cardiometabolic disorders (RR: 0.75, 95% CI: 0.59–0.95) compared to the comparison cohort. Conclusions: The results suggest that participation in the NFBC1986 may have a weak positive health effect among men. Agreement to follow-up studies focusing on diet, substance use, and physical activity, may slightly decrease the incident risk of cardiometabolic disorders in the study population.

Objectives: To investigate the effects of 4 months of customised, home-based exergaming on physical function and pain after total knee replacement (TKR) compared with standard exercise protocol. Methods: In this non-blinded randomised controlled trial, 52 individuals aged 60–75 years undergoing TKR were randomised into an exergaming (intervention group, IG) or a standard exercising group (control group, CG). Primary outcomes were physical function and pain measured before and after (2 months and 4 months) surgery using the Oxford Knee Score (OKS) and Timed Up and Go (TUG) test. Secondary outcomes included measures of the Visual Analogue Scale, 10m walking, short physical performance battery, isometric knee extension and flexion force, knee range of movement and satisfaction with the operated knee. Results: Improvement in mobility measured by TUG was greater in the IG (n=21) at 2 (p=0.019) and 4 months (p=0.040) than in the CG (n=25). The TUG improved in the IG by −1.9 s (95% CI, −2.9 to −1.0), while it changed by −0.6 s (95% CI −1.4 to 0.3) in the CG. There were no differences between the groups in the OKS or secondary outcomes over 4 months. 100% of patients in the IG and 74% in the CG were satisfied with the operated knee. Conclusion: In patients who have undergone TKR, training at home with customised exergames was more effective in mobility and early satisfaction and as effective as standard exercise in pain and other physical functions. In both groups, knee-related function and pain improvement can be considered clinically meaningful. Trial registration number: NCT03717727.

Biomass-based solutions have been discussed as having the potential to replace fossil-based solutions in the iron and steel industry. To produce the biocarbon required in these processes, thermochemical treatment, pyrolysis, typically takes place. There are various ways to produce biocarbon, alongside other products, which are called pyrolysis oil and pyrolysis gas. These conversion methods can be divided into conventional and non-conventional methods. In this paper, those techniques and technologies to produce biocarbon are summarized and reviewed. Additionally, the effect of different process parameters and their effect on biocarbon yield and properties are summarized. The process parameters considered were final pyrolysis temperature, heating rate, reaction atmosphere, pressure, catalyst, use of binders, and particle size. Finally, the effect of different reactor configurations is discussed. Understanding the combination of these methods, technology parameters, and reactor configurations will help to produce biocarbon with the desired quality and highest yield possible.

Background: Preoperative esophageal stenting is proposed to have a negative effect on outcomes. The aim was to compare a 5-year survival in patients undergoing esophagectomy for esophageal cancer with and without preoperative esophageal stent in a population-based nationwide cohort from Finland. The secondary outcome was 90-day mortality. Methods: This study included curatively intended esophagectomies for esophageal cancer in Finland between 1999 and 2016, with follow-up until December 31, 2019. Cox proportional hazards models provided hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of overall 5-year and 90-day mortality. Model 1 was adjusted for age, sex, year of the surgery, comorbidities, histology, pathological stage, and neoadjuvant therapy. Model 2 included also albumin level and BMI. Result: Of 1064 patients, a total of 134 patients underwent preoperative stenting and 930 did not. In both adjusted models 1 and 2, higher 5-year mortality was seen in patients with preoperative stent with HRs of 1.29 (95% CI 1.00–1.65) and 1.25 (95% CI 0.97–1.62), respectively, compared to no stenting. The adjusted HR of 90-day mortality was 2.49 (95% CI 1.27–4.87) in model 1 and 2.49 (95% CI 1.25–4.99) in model 2. When including only neoadjuvant-treated patients, those with preoperative stent had a 5-year survival of 39.2% compared to 46.4% without stent (adjusted HR 1.34, 95% CI 1.00–1.80), and a 90-day mortality rate of 8.5% and 2.5% (adjusted HR 3.99, 95% CI 1.51–10.50). Discussion: This nationwide study reports worse 5-year and 90-day outcomes in patients with preoperative esophageal stent. Since residual confounding remains possible, observed difference could be only an association rather than the cause.

Aim: Our aim in this paper was to estimate the contribution of different parental specialised health care diagnoses to the subsequent risk of entry into the social assistance system for families with children in the period 1998–2013. Methods: We used longitudinal population-level register data consisting of all children born in 1997 in Finland and their registered parents (54 960 one and two-parent families with 801 336 observations in the period 1998–2013). Diagnoses assigned in public specialised healthcare and social assistance records were derived from nationwide administrative registers. Measures of parental socioeconomic status and previous diagnoses and the birth weight of the child were adjusted for in regression models which estimated the association between parental diagnoses and entry into the social assistance system in the following year. Results: Families with a parent somatic diagnosis had a risk ratio of 1.4 for social assistance entry in the subsequent year of the diagnosis though substantial variation by diagnosis category was detected. Parent psychiatric diagnoses were linked to a higher, 3.01-fold risk of social assistance entry. Covariate adjustment reduced these risk ratios to 1.2 and 2.1, respectively. Some 2.9% of all social assistance entries may be attributed to parental psychiatric diagnoses while somatic health records account for another 7.2%, making their total contribution over 1/10th of all cases. Conclusions: Parental specialised healthcare records were associated with a higher risk of social assistance need. Thus more interventions to support financial management are required for parents with psychiatric diagnoses.

Background: Multimorbidity affects people of all ages, but the risk factors of multimorbidity in adolescence are unclear. The aim of this study was to examine preterm birth (<37 weeks) as a shared risk factor for multiple health outcomes and the role of gestational age (degree of prematurity) in the development of increasingly complex multimorbidity (two, three, or four health outcomes) in adolescence (age 10–18 years). Methods: We used population-wide data from Finland (1 187 610 adolescents born 1987–2006) and Norway (555 431 adolescents born 1998–2007). Gestational age at birth was ascertained from medical birth registers and categorised as 23–27 weeks (extremely preterm), 28–31 weeks (very preterm), 32–33 weeks (moderately preterm), 34–36 weeks (late preterm), 37–38 weeks (early term), 39–41 weeks (term, reference category) and 42–44 weeks (post-term). Children who died or emigrated before their 10th birthday, and those with missing or implausible data on gestational age, birthweight, or covariates, were excluded. Health outcomes at age 10–18 years were ascertained from specialised health care and mortality registers. We calculated hazard ratios (HRs) and population attributable fractions (PAFs) with 95% CIs for multiple health outcomes during adolescence. Findings: Individuals were followed up from age 10 to 18 years (mean follow-up: 6 years, SD: 3 years). Preterm birth was associated with increased risks of 20 hospital-treated malignant, cardiovascular, endocrinological, neuropsychiatric, respiratory, genitourinary, and congenital health outcomes, after correcting for multiple testing and ignoring small effects (HR <1·2). Confounder-adjusted HRs comparing preterm with term-born adolescents were 2·29 (95% CI 2·19–2·39) for two health outcomes (PAF 9·0%; 8·3–9·6), and 4·22 (3·66–4·87) for four health outcomes (PAF 22·7%; 19·4–25·8) in the Finnish data. Results in the Norwegian data showed a similar pattern. We observed a consistent dose–response r