Fecal microbiota profiles of growing pigs and their relation to growth performance.

The early gut microbiota composition is fundamentally important for piglet health, affecting long-term microbiome development and immunity. In this study, the gut microbiota of postparturient dams was compared with that of their offspring in three Finnish pig farms at three growth phases. The differences in fecal microbiota of three study development groups (Good, Poorly, and PrematureDeath) were analyzed at birth (initial exposure phase), weaning (transitional phase), and before slaughter (stable phase).

Fewer culturable Lactobacillaceae species identified in faecal samples of pigs performing manipulative behaviour.

Manipulative behaviour that consists of touching or close contact with ears or tails of pen mates is common in pigs and can become damaging. Manipulative behaviour was analysed from video recordings of 45-day-old pigs, and 15 manipulator-control pairs (n = 30) were formed. Controls neither received nor performed manipulative behaviour.

Integrating carbon sequestration and biodiversity impacts in forested ecosystems: Concepts, cases, and policies.

The challenges posed by climate change, biodiversity loss, and land-use are deeply interconnected and integrated solutions are needed. This paper presents results from 11 contributions to a special issue covering topics of integrated modeling and spatial prioritization, mass-balance studies, Earth Observation techniques, research infrastructure developments, and evaluation of policy measures and economic compensation schemes. The spatial scale of the studies ranges from detailed site-specific to a European scale.

Comparison of Commercial Fish Proteins' Chemical and Sensory Properties for Human Consumption.

To stop overfishing and meet the protein needs of a growing population, more information is needed on how to use marine by-catches, by-products, and undervalued fish species for human consumption. Turning them into protein powder is a sustainable and marketable way to add value. However, more knowledge of the chemical and sensory properties of commercial fish proteins is needed to identify the challenges in developing fish derivatives.

Utilizing historical maps in identification of long-term land use and land cover changes.

Knowledge in the magnitude and historical trends in land use and land cover (LULC) is needed to understand the changing status of the key elements of the landscape and to better target management efforts. However, this information is not easily available before the start of satellite campaign missions. Scanned historical maps are a valuable but underused source of LULC information.

Developing fine-grained nationwide predictions of valuable forests using biodiversity indicator bird species.

The use of indicator species in forest conservation and management planning can facilitate enhanced preservation of biodiversity from the negative effects of forestry and other uses of land. However, this requires detailed and spatially comprehensive knowledge of the habitat preferences and distributions of selected focal indicator species. Unfortunately, due to limited resources for field surveys, only a small proportion of the occurrences of focal species is usually known.

Climate change and reindeer management in Finland: Co-analysis of practitioner knowledge and meteorological data for better adaptation.

We studied interannual variability and changes over time in selected climate indices in the reindeer management area (RMA) in northern Finland. We present together the knowledge possessed by reindeer herders with information from meteorological measurements over three decades. The practitioner knowledge was gathered via a survey questionnaire addressing herder observations of long-term changes (approximately during the past 30 years) in climatic conditions and their impacts on herding during the four seasons.

The level of unpleasantness of pain influences the choice of home treatment during medical abortion.

Background and aims Medical abortion is often performed at outpatient clinics or gynaecological wards. Yet, some women may stay at home during medical abortion. Pain has been reported to be one of the main side effects of the procedure.

"Generality of mis-fit"? The real-life difficulty of matching scales in an interconnected world.

A clear understanding of processes at multiple scales and levels is of special significance when conceiving strategies for human-environment interactions. However, understanding and application of the scale concept often differ between administrative-political and ecological disciplines. These mirror major differences in potential solutions whether and how scales can, at all, be made congruent.

Local and regional variability in snow conditions in northern Finland: A reindeer herding perspective.

Weather station measurements were used to force the SNOWPACK snow model and combined with reindeer herders' experiences to study the local and regional variations in snow conditions in a Finnish reindeer herding area for the 1981-2010 period. Winter conditions varied significantly between the four selected herding districts and between open and forest environments within the districts. The highest snow depths and densities, the thicknesses of ground ice, and the lengths of snow cover period were generally found in the northernmost districts.

Observed cold season changes in a Fennoscandian fell area over the past three decades.

We studied trends and variability in snow and climate characteristics in 1978-2012 in the Värriötunturit fell area, northern Finland. Cold season changes were examined using long-term observational data on snow depths, meteorological data, large-scale climate indices, and reindeer herders' experiences with difficult snow conditions. Snow depths declined, and temperatures increased significantly over the study period, with the largest changes observed in October-December and in April.

Forest fragmentation and landscape transformation in a reindeer husbandry area in Sweden.

Reindeer husbandry and forestry are two main land users in boreal forests in northern Sweden. Modern forestry has numerous negative effects on the ground-growing and arboreal lichens that are crucial winter resources for reindeer husbandry. Using digitized historical maps, we examined changes in the forest landscape structure during the past 100 years, and estimated corresponding changes in suitability of forest landscape mosaics for the reindeer winter grazing.

Pain during medical abortion: predicting factors from gynecologic history and medical staff evaluation of severity.

Background: We studied whether it is possible to predict severity of pain during medical abortion. We also studied how well medical staff recognizes the pain perceived by these women.

Study Design: Fifty-four women (mean age 26 years, range 18-42 years) undergoing medical abortion before the 64th day of gestation (mean 47 days, range 32-63 days) were asked to estimate their menstrual pain and the pain perceived during medical abortion by visual analogue scale (VAS).

Effects of modern forest management on winter grazing resources for reindeer in Sweden.

Boreal forests in Sweden are exploited in a number of ways, including forestry and reindeer husbandry. In the winter, reindeer feed mainly on lichens, and lichen-rich forests are a key resource in the herding system. Commercial forestry has mainly negative effects on reindeer husbandry, and conflicts between these two industries have escalated over the last century.

Sleep disturbances in aspartylglucosaminuria (AGU): a questionnaire study.

Sleep disturbances are common in many progressive metabolic encephalopathies. The possible presence of disturbed sleep-wake behaviour in the lysosomal storage disorder aspartylglucosaminuria, has not been previously studied, however. The sleep-wake behaviour of 81 patients with aspartylglucosaminuria (AGU, age 3-55 years, median 22 years; 42 female and 39 male) and 49 controls (age 2-57 years, median 18 years; 25 female and 24 male) was assessed through a postal survey.

Effects of ospemifene and raloxifene on hormonal status, lipids, genital tract, and tolerability in postmenopausal women.

Objective: To compare ospemifene and raloxifene regarding their effects on hormones, lipids, genital tract, and tolerability in postmenopausal women.

Design: A randomized, double-blind study in which 118 healthy postmenopausal women received 30 (n = 29), 60 (n = 30), or 90 mg (n = 30) of ospemifene or 60 mg (n = 29) of raloxifene for 3 months.

Results: There were no significant differences in the baseline characteristics between study groups.

Alendronate prevents loss of bone density associated with discontinuation of hormone replacement therapy: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Many women using hormone replacement therapy (HRT) will discontinue HRT and lose its bone-protective effect. Methods to preserve bone density in these women need to be explored. This multicenter, international, randomized, blinded, 12-month study was conducted to assess the effect of alendronate sodium on bone density in women who had recently discontinued HRT.

GnRH analogues and uterine leiomyomas. Effect of hormone replacement therapy on cell proliferation.

Cell proliferation in uterine leiomyomas treated preoperatively with either nafarelin (400 microg/day) for 3 months (7 patients) or nafarelin plus hormone (oestradiol + norethisterone) add-back therapy (6 patients) was investigated by automatic image analysis of frozen tissue sections using immunohistochemistry with anti-proliferating cell nuclear antigen antibody. GnRHa therapy decreased cell proliferation in leiomyomas to a level corresponding to the situation previously seen in postmenopausal leiomyomas. However, there was no consistent correlation between cell proliferation and shrinkage of leiomyomal size.

Demonstration of Chlamydia trachomatis in Papanicolaou-stained gynecological smears.

A fluorescent antibody staining method was developed to detect Chlamydia trachomatis elementary bodies in Papanicolaou-stained cervical smears. Twenty-five known chlamydia-positive and 12 chlamydia-negative smears were correctly identified using this method. Smears from individuals with culture-positive chlamydia infections showed a high density of elementary bodies.

Zoladex (goserelin acetate) and the anemic patient: results of a multicenter fibroid study.

Objective: To compare the effects of goserelin acetate treatment with or without iron with iron alone.

Design: Multinational, multicenter, prospective, randomized, double-blind study.

Patients: Premenopausal women with menorrhagia or metrorrhagia and anemia associated with uterine leiomyomata awaiting hysterectomy.

Comparison of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist goserelin acetate alone versus goserelin combined with estrogen-progestogen add-back therapy in the treatment of endometriosis.

Objective: To investigate whether the addition of low-dose estrogen-P combination hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to GnRH agonist (GnRH-a) treatment for endometriosis reduces the pharmacologic side effects of such treatment without reducing efficacy and to determine the endocrinologic changes during treatment.

Design: Prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, comparative study of two drug regimens: 3.6 mg goserelin acetate in a 28-day SC depot formulation once monthly for 6 months plus either a combination of 2 mg 17 beta-E2 and 1 mg norethisterone acetate (NET) 1 mg or matching placebo tablets once daily for 6 months.

Decrease in symptoms, blood loss and uterine size with nafarelin acetate before abdominal hysterectomy: a placebo-controlled, double-blind study.

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of nafarelin before hysterectomy in a prospective placebo-controlled trial, we randomized 188 pre-menopausal women with uterine fibroids (n = 111), menometrorrhagia (n = 58) or pelvic pain (n = 19) to receive either nafarelin (200 micrograms twice daily as a nasal spray) or a placebo for 3 months before abdominal hysterectomy. The data analysis could be performed in 166 women, of whom 107 received nafarelin and 59 a placebo. Nafarelin led to a rise in blood haemoglobin (5.

Combined intraperitoneal interferon alpha-2b and mitoxantrone in refractory ovarian cancer.

In a non-randomized clinical trial, combined intraperitoneal therapy with recombinant interferon alpha-2b (20-50 MU) and mitoxantrone (20-50 mg) was studied for recurrent ovarian cancer with ascites. Altogether 19 patients were treated. After primary operation, all patients had received intravenous chemotherapy, 16 of which included cisplatin.

Inheritance of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy in one kindred.

We report three sisters with intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) and the pedigree of the family, including six generations. ICP was observed in five successive generations; most of the patients also had cholelithiasis. The uniform expression, the complete penetrance of the trait and the direct parent-to-child transmission support the Mendelian dominant mode of inheritance.