Nutritive sucking induces age-specific EEG-changes in 0-24 week-old infants.

Little is known how the brain of the newborn infant responds to the postnatal nutrition and care. No systematic studies exist in which the effects of nutritional and non-nutritional sucking on the brain activity of the infant were compared. We recorded the EEG activity of 40 infants at the ages of 0,6,12 and 24 weeks in four successive behavioral stages: while the infants were hungry and waiting for sucking, during non-nutritional and nutritional sucking, and during satiation after completed feeding.

Can we predict the effects of multiple stressors on insects in a changing climate?

The responses of insects to climate change will depend on their responses to abiotic and biotic stressors in combination. We surveyed the literature, and although synergistic stressor interactions appear common among insects, the thin taxonomic spread of existing data means that more multi-stressor studies and new approaches are needed. We need to move beyond descriptions of the effects of multiple stressors to a mechanistic, predictive understanding.

Multitasking Microglia and Alzheimer's Disease: Diversity, Tools and Therapeutic Targets.

Given the importance of microglia to inflammatory, phagocytic and synaptic modulatory processes, their function is vital in physiological and pathological brain. The impairment of microglia in Alzheimer's disease has been demonstrated on genetic, epigenetic, transcriptional and functional levels using unbiased systems level approaches. Recent studies have highlighted the immense phenotypic diversity of microglia, including the ability to adopt distinct and dynamic phenotypes in ageing and disease.

De Novo assembly and annotation of the freshwater crayfish Astacus astacus transcriptome.

We generated RNA-seq data to assemble the transcriptome of the noble crayfish (Astacus astacus) from four combined tissues (abdominal muscle, hepatopancreas, ovaries, green glands). A total of 194 million read pairs with a length of 100 bp were generated. The transcriptome was assembled de novo using Trinity software, producing 158,649 non-redundant transcripts.

Serum zinc and risk of type 2 diabetes incidence in men: The Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study.

Objectives: Zinc may play a role in the development of type 2 diabetes (T2D), because it is involved in antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. However, the role of zinc in the etiology of T2D has been poorly investigated. This study was conducted to study the association of serum zinc on T2D risk in middle-aged and older Finnish men.

The neuropeptide oxytocin modulates consumer brand relationships.

Each year, companies invest billions of dollars into marketing activities to embellish brands as valuable relationship partners assuming that consumer brand relationships (CBRs) and interpersonal relationships rest upon the same neurobiological underpinnings. Given the crucial role of the neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) in social bonding, this study tests whether OXT-based mechanisms also determine the bond between consumers and brands. We conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled study involving 101 subjects and analyzed the effect of intranasal OXT on consumers' attribution of relationship qualities to brands, brands paired with human celebrity endorsers, and familiar persons.

EMG signal morphology and kinematic parameters in essential tremor and Parkinson's disease patients.

The aim of this work was to differentiate patients with essential tremor from patients with Parkinson's disease. Electromyographic data from biceps brachii muscles and kinematic data from arms during isometric tension of the arms were measured from 17 patients with essential tremor, 35 patients with Parkinson's disease and 40 healthy controls. The EMG signals were divided to smaller segments from which histograms were calculated.

Hyaluronan production enhances shedding of plasma membrane-derived microvesicles.

Many cell types secrete plasma membrane-bound microvesicles, suggested to play an important role in tissue morphogenesis, wound healing, and cancer spreading. However, the mechanisms of their formation have remained largely unknown. It was found that the tips of long microvilli induced in cells by overexpression of hyaluronan synthase 3 (HAS3) were detach into the culture medium as microvesicles.

The development of a digitising service centre for natural history collections.

Digitarium is a joint initiative of the Finnish Museum of Natural History and the University of Eastern Finland. It was established in 2010 as a dedicated shop for the large-scale digitisation of natural history collections. Digitarium offers service packages based on the digitisation process, including tagging, imaging, data entry, georeferencing, filtering, and validation.