Joint injury can lead to articular cartilage damage, excessive inflammation, and post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA). Collagen is an essential component for cartilage function, yet current literature has limited understanding of how biochemical and biomechanical factors contribute to collagen loss in injured cartilage. Our aim was to investigate spatially dependent changes in collagen content and collagen integrity of injured cartilage, with an explant model of early-stage PTOA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Air pollution and traffic noise are detrimental to cardiovascular health. However, the effects of different sources of these exposures on cardiovascular biomarkers remain unclear. We explored the associations of long-term exposure to source-specific air pollution (vehicular exhausts and residential woodsmoke) at low concentrations and road-traffic noise with systemic inflammation and cardiovascular disease biomarkers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: To investigate nurses' and other users' perceptions and knowledge regarding patient safety incident reporting software and incident reporting.
Design: A cross-sectional online survey.
Methods: The survey, 'The Users' Perceptions of Patient Safety Incident Reporting Software', was developed and used for data collection January-February 2024.
Background: Short-term exposure to low and high air temperatures can cause serious harmful effects on human health. Existing literature has mostly focused on associations of ambient air temperature with mortality and the need for health care in population-level studies. Studies that have considered self-perceived health status as an outcome when examining the effects of air temperature on health are scarce.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLong-term lifestyle interventions in childhood and adolescence can significantly improve cardiometabolic health, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted an 8-year diet and physical activity intervention in a general population of children. The research revealed that the intervention influenced 80 serum metabolites over two years, with 17 metabolites continuing to be affected after eight years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnvironmental and lifestyle factors, including air pollution, impaired diet, and low physical activity, have been associated with cardiometabolic risk factors in childhood and adolescence. However, environmental and lifestyle exposures do not exert their physiological effects in isolation. This study investigated associations between an exposome score to measure the impact of multiple exposures, including diet, physical activity, sleep duration, air pollution, and socioeconomic status, and serum metabolites measured using LC-MS and NMR, compared to the individual components of the score.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClimate change is exposing subarctic ecosystems to higher temperatures, increased nutrient availability, and increasing cloud cover. In this study, we assessed how these factors affect the fluxes of greenhouse gases (GHGs) (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: To examine the relationship between the second victim distress and outcome variables, specifically: 'turnover intentions, absenteeism and resilience'. Furthermore, this study also assessed how organizational support mediates the relationship between second victim distress and outcome variables.
Design: Cross-sectional survey.
This dataset comprises thorough measurements of light-duty vehicles emissions conducted in Siilinjärvi and Kuopio, Finland, during February 2021, using a mobile laboratory. The measurements focused on subfreezing conditions to capture emissions nuances during cold weather. Measurements were carried out on minimally trafficked roads to diminish external disturbances.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: With the widespread use of social media, understanding how healthcare professionals, such as dietitians, utilise these platforms for their work has gained interest. The aim of the current study was to describe how Finnish registered dietitians utilise various social media channels for professional purposes. The study also investigated the perceived social media skills of dietitians.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The unique life situations of older patients with cancer and their family members requires that health care professionals take a holistic approach to achieve quality care. The aim of this study was to assess the perceptions of older patients with cancer and family members about the quality of care received and evaluate differences between their perceptions. A further aim was to examine which factors explain patients' and family members' levels of satisfaction with the care received.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Nurses are leaving their profession because of poor personal job satisfaction, heavy workload, and unfavorable work environments with low professional autonomy. Professional autonomy involves the possibility to influence one's work and have a sense of control - the ability to contribute to a workplace culture and influence how decisions are made. This study explores registered nurses' perceptions of the nursing practice environment, using the Nursing Work Index-Revised (NWI-R), and its relationships with professional autonomy and job satisfaction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Opt Soc Am A Opt Image Sci Vis
December 2023
Optical properties of biological tissues, such as refractive index, are fundamental properties, intrinsically linked to a tissue's composition and structure. This study aims to investigate the variation of refractive index (RI) of human articular cartilage along the tissue depth (via collagen fibril orientation and optical density) and integrity (based on Mankin and Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) scores). The results show the relationship between RI and PG content (=0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Prior studies suggest that physical activity lowers circulating C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. However, little is known about the association between regular active commuting, i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Exposure to air pollution is associated with adverse cardiometabolic health effects and increased mortality, even at low concentrations. Some of the biological mechanisms through which air pollution can affect cardiometabolic health overlap with health outcomes associated with diet quality and changes in diet.
Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate associations of air pollutants at average concentrations below the World Health Organization, 2021 air quality guidelines with cardiometabolic outcomes.
Purpose: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Finnish version of the Specialist Outcomes and Barriers Analysis Scale.
Design: This was a cross-sectional survey study.
Methods: Cultural adaptation of the translation and content validity of the translated instrument were assessed by expert panelists (n = 5) using the content validity index.
Objectives: Climate change has increased attention to the health effects of high ambient temperatures and heatwaves worldwide. Both cause-specific mortality and hospital admissions are studied widely, mainly concentrating on warmer climates, but studies focusing on more subtle health effects and cold climates lack. This study investigated the effect of summertime daily ambient temperatures and heatwaves on sick leaves in the employed population in Helsinki, Finland, a Nordic country with a relatively cold climate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Communication challenges are one of the main contributors for medication incidents in hospitals, but health professionals' perceptions about variety of the contributing communication factors and the factors' occurrence frequencies are studied little. This cross-sectional descriptive study aimed to (1) operationalize a literature-based framework into a scale for measuring health professionals' perceptions of communication factors, which contribute to medication incidents either directly or indirectly in hospitals, (2) to measure the construct validity and internal consistency of the scale and (3) to describe the primary results of the measured weekly perceived communication challenges.
Methods: The structured online questionnaire with 82 communication related items was developed based on a framework in literature.
Background: Physically active pupils may be better and more resilient learners. However, it is unclear whether walking or cycling to school yields similar educational and school-related mental health benefits as leisure-time physical activity. We examined the associations of active school transport and leisure-time moderate-to-vigorous physical activity with perceived academic performance, competency in academic skills, school burnout and school enjoyment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged nurses and healthcare systems globally and raised major concerns for nurses' wellbeing and working conditions. This cross-sectional and correlational study design aims to describe nurses' resilience, job satisfaction, intentions to leave and quality of care, and explain their relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: Data were collected from Registered Nurses (N = 437) in Finland through an electronic survey between February 2021 and June 2021.
Particle number emission factors were determined for hundreds of individual diesel and gasoline vehicles in their real operation on Finnish highways and regional roads in 2020 with one-by-one chase measurements and Robust Regression Plume Analysis (RRPA). RRPA is a rapid way to analyze data from a large number of vehicle chases automatically. The particle number emission factors were determined for four ranges of particle diameters (>1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground & Aims: Diet and weight loss affect circulating metabolome. However, metabolite profiles induced by different weight loss maintenance diets and underlying longer term weight loss maintenance remain unknown. Herein, we investigated after-weight-loss metabolic signatures of two isocaloric 24-wk weight maintenance diets differing in satiety value due to dietary fibre, protein and fat contents and identified metabolite features that associated with successful weight loss maintenance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this study is to assess whether articular cartilage changes in an equine model of post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA), induced by surgical creation of standard (blunt) grooves, and very subtle sharp grooves, could be detected with ex vivo T relaxation time mapping utilizing three-dimensional (3D) readout sequence with zero echo time. Grooves were made on the articular surfaces of the middle carpal and radiocarpal joints of nine mature Shetland ponies and osteochondral samples were harvested at 39 weeks after being euthanized under respective ethical permissions. T relaxation times of the samples (n = 8 + 8 for experimental and n = 12 for contralateral controls) were measured with a variable flip angle 3D multiband-sweep imaging with Fourier transform sequence.
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