Turku University of Applied Sciences

With the continued interest in the role of the gut microbiota in health, attention has now turned to how to harness the microbiota for the benefit of the host. This Consensus Statement outlines the definition and scope of the term 'prebiotic' as determined by an expert panel convened by the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics in December 2016. In December 2016, a panel of experts in microbiology, nutrition and clinical research was convened by the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics to review the definition and scope of prebiotics. Consistent with the original embodiment of prebiotics, but aware of the latest scientific and clinical developments, the panel updated the definition of a prebiotic: a substrate that is selectively utilized by host microorganisms conferring a health benefit. This definition expands the concept of prebiotics to possibly include non-carbohydrate substances, applications to body sites other than the gastrointestinal tract, and diverse categories other than food. The requirement for selective microbiota-mediated mechanisms was retained. Beneficial health effects must be documented for a substance to be considered a prebiotic. The consensus definition applies also to prebiotics for use by animals, in which microbiota-focused strategies to maintain health and prevent disease is as relevant as for humans. Ultimately, the goal of this Consensus Statement is to engender appropriate use of the term 'prebiotic' by relevant stakeholders so that consistency and clarity can be achieved in research reports, product marketing and regulatory oversight of the category. To this end, we have reviewed several aspects of prebiotic science including its development, health benefits and legislation.

Interaction with intestinal microbes in infancy has a profound impact on health and disease in later life through programming of immune and metabolic pathways. We collected maternal faeces, placenta, amniotic fluid, colostrum, meconium and infant faeces samples from 15 mother-infant pairs in an effort to rigorously investigate prenatal and neonatal microbial transfer and gut colonisation. To ensure sterile sampling, only deliveries at full term by elective caesarean section were studied. Microbiota composition and activity assessment by conventional bacterial culture, 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing, quantitative PCR, and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis revealed that the placenta and amniotic fluid harbour a distinct microbiota characterised by low richness, low diversity and the predominance of Proteobacteria. Shared features between the microbiota detected in the placenta and amniotic fluid and in infant meconium suggest microbial transfer at the foeto-maternal interface. At the age of 3-4 days, the infant gut microbiota composition begins to resemble that detected in colostrum. Based on these data, we propose that the stepwise microbial gut colonisation process may be initiated already prenatally by a distinct microbiota in the placenta and amniotic fluid. The link between the mother and the offspring is continued after birth by microbes present in breast milk.

This paper explores what constitutes “enterprise education” in four European countries. It proposes a conceptual schema for capturing the various objectives of enterprise education programmes and initiatives. This conceptual schema is then used to categorise the objectives of 50 enterprise programmes from Austria, Finland, Ireland, and the UK. The paper reviews the teaching/learning methods used in these programmes. It discusses what factors are associated with “effective” enterprise education, illustrating the discussion with “best practice” from the programmes studied. The paper argues that in order to operate effective enterprise education programmes, policy makers and educators need a thorough understanding of the diverse and alternative aims and objectives of enterprise education interventions, of the alternative forms such interventions can take, and of the need to “train the trainers”.

The geographic and temporal origins of the domestic dog remain controversial, as genetic data suggest a domestication process in East Asia beginning 15,000 years ago, whereas the oldest doglike fossils are found in Europe and Siberia and date to >30,000 years ago. We analyzed the mitochondrial genomes of 18 prehistoric canids from Eurasia and the New World, along with a comprehensive panel of modern dogs and wolves. The mitochondrial genomes of all modern dogs are phylogenetically most closely related to either ancient or modern canids of Europe. Molecular dating suggests an onset of domestication there 18,800 to 32,100 years ago. These findings imply that domestic dogs are the culmination of a process that initiated with European hunter-gatherers and the canids with whom they interacted.

Pumpkin leaves grown under high light (500-700 micromol of photons m-2.s-1) were illuminated under photon flux densities ranging from 6.5 to 1500 micromol.m-2.s-1 in the presence of lincomycin, an inhibitor of chloroplast protein synthesis. The illumination at all light intensities caused photoinhibition, measured as a decrease in the ratio of variable to maximum fluorescence. Loss of photosystem II (PSII) electron transfer activity correlated with the decrease in the fluorescence ratio. The rate constant of photoinhibition, determined from first-order fits, was directly proportional to photon flux density at all light intensities studied. The fluorescence ratio did not decrease if the leaves were illuminated in low light in the absence of lincomycin or incubated in darkness in the presence of lincomycin. The constancy of the quantum yield of photoinhibition under different photon flux densities strongly suggests that photoinhibition in vivo occurs by one dominant mechanism under all light intensities. This mechanism probably is not the acceptor side mechanism characterized in the anaerobic case in vitro. Furthermore, there was an excellent correlation between the loss of PSII activity and the loss of the D1 protein from thylakoid membranes under low light. At low light, photoinhibition occurs so slowly that inactive PSII centers with the D1 protein waiting to be degraded do not accumulate. The kinetic agreement between D1 protein degradation and the inactivation of PSII indicates that the turnover of the D1 protein depends on photoinhibition under both low and high light.

Asthma is the most common chronic lower respiratory disease in childhood throughout the world. Several guidelines and/or consensus documents are available to support medical decisions on pediatric asthma. Although there is no doubt that the use of common systematic approaches for management can considerably improve outcomes, dissemination and implementation of these are still major challenges. Consequently, the International Collaboration in Asthma, Allergy and Immunology (iCAALL), recently formed by the EAACI, AAAAI, ACAAI, and WAO, has decided to propose an International Consensus on (ICON) Pediatric Asthma. The purpose of this document is to highlight the key messages that are common to many of the existing guidelines, while critically reviewing and commenting on any differences, thus providing a concise reference. The principles of pediatric asthma management are generally accepted. Overall, the treatment goal is disease control. To achieve this, patients and their parents should be educated to optimally manage the disease, in collaboration with healthcare professionals. Identification and avoidance of triggers is also of significant importance. Assessment and monitoring should be performed regularly to re-evaluate and fine-tune treatment. Pharmacotherapy is the cornerstone of treatment. The optimal use of medication can, in most cases, help patients control symptoms and reduce the risk for future morbidity. The management of exacerbations is a major consideration, independent of chronic treatment. There is a trend toward considering phenotype-specific treatment choices; however, this goal has not yet been achieved.

Revisiting the now de facto standard Stanford dependency representation, we propose an improved taxonomy to capture grammatical relations across languages, including morphologically rich ones.We suggest a two-layered taxonomy: a set of broadly attested universal grammatical relations, to which language-specific relations can be added.We emphasize the lexicalist stance of the Stanford Dependencies, which leads to a particular, partially new treatment of compounding, prepositions, and morphology.We show how existing dependency schemes for several languages map onto the universal taxonomy proposed here and close with consideration of practical implications of dependency representation choices for NLP applications, in particular parsing.

Abstract This study offers a contribution to our understanding of the role of a global mindset in the successful internationalization of small and medium‐sized companies. The particular focus is on the drivers of the global mindset and the connection with performance. We created a framework and tested it, empirically, with a representative sample of small Finnish companies in the field of information and communications technology (ICT). The findings indicate that managerial experience and market characteristics are important drivers of the global mindset, which, in turn, is one of the key parameters of international performance. The paper includes our conclusions, a discussion of the limitations of the study and the managerial implications, and suggestions for future research. Résumé La présente étude se propose de faire comprendre le rôle que joue la mentalité globale dans l'internationalisation heureuse des petites et moyennes entreprises. Nous nous appesantissons surtout sur les facteurs motivants de la mentalité et sur ses rapports avec la performance. Nous créons un cadre que nous testons, de façon empirique, à partir d'un échantillon représentatif de petites entreprises finnoises opérant dans le secteur des Technologies de l'information et de la communication (ICT). Les résultats indiquent que l'expérience en matière de gestion et les caractéristiques du marché sont des catalyseurs importants de la mentalité globale qui, à son tour, est l'un des paramètres clé de la performance internationale. L'étude dégage également nos conclusions, ses implications en matière de gestion, ses limites et propose des pistes de recherche futures.

ABSTRACT In this address, I discuss differences across investor and manager motivations for considering sustainable finance— value versus values motivations—and how these differences contribute to misunderstandings about environmental, social, and governance investment approaches. The finance research community has the ability and responsibility to help clear up these misunderstandings through additional research, which I suggest.

The tracking of physical activity and its influence on selected coronary heart disease risk factors were studied in a 6-year (original survey in 1980, with follow-ups in 1983 and 1986) study of Finnish adolescents and young adults as part of the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study. The subjects in this analysis were aged 12, 15, and 18 years at baseline. Physical activity was assessed with a standardized questionnaire, and a sum index was derived from the product of intensity, frequency, and duration of leisure time physical activity. Complete data on physical activity index from each study year were available on 961 participants. Significant tracking of physical activity was observed with 3-year correlations of the index ranging from 0.35 to 0.54 in boys and from 0.33 to 0.39 in girls. Tracking was better in older age groups. Two groups of adolescents (active and sedentary groups) were formed at baseline according to high and low values of the index, respectively. Approximately 57% of those classified as inactive remained inactive after a 6-year follow-up. The corresponding value for active subjects was 44% (p < 0.01, active vs. inactive). The long-term effects of physically active and sedentary life-styles were studied by comparing groups of young adults who had remained active or inactive in every three examinations. Serum insulin and serum triglyceride concentrations were significantly lower in active young men. They had a more beneficial high density lipoprotein to total cholesterol ratio and thinner subscapular skinfolds. Among young women, significant differences were seen in adiposity (subscapular skinfold) and in serum triglyceride concentration. Physical activity was also related to less smoking in both sexes and, among young men, to lower consumption of saturated fatty acids and to higher polyunsaturated to saturated fatty acids ratio of the diet. In regression analyses adjusted for the 6-year change in obesity, smoking status, and diet, the change in physical activity was inversely associated with changes in serum insulin and triglycerides in boys. Independent association with triglycerides disappeared when insulin change was added to the model, suggesting that the effect may partly be mediated through insulin metabolism. The authors conclude that the level of physical activity tracks significantly from adolescence to young adulthood. Physical inactivity shows better tracking than does physical activity, and subjects who are constantly inactive express a less beneficial coronary risk profile compared with those who are constantly active.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the entrepreneurial‐directed approach to entrepreneurship education by discussing different teaching techniques aimed at infusing entrepreneurial skills and behaviour among students in the university setting. Design/methodology/approach The authors experimented with the entrepreneurial‐directed approach in their university‐level teaching, and used a combination of qualitative research methods and observation techniques to evaluate its feasibility and applicability. Information sources analysed include written material, e.g. learning diaries provided by the students, teachers' observations, and group discussions during the programme. Findings The study provides information on recent studies on entrepreneurship emphasising the core role of opportunity – discovering, evaluating and exploiting it – and reviews teaching techniques currently used in entrepreneurship education. The entrepreneurial‐directed approach seems to be well suited to the teaching situation as it encourages students to broaden their perspectives, and also to develop the entrepreneurial skills and behaviour required for their studies. Practical implications The paper provides a useful source of information for teachers interested in developing a more entrepreneurial approach, as well as for academics interested in the substance and nature of entrepreneurship education. The approach represents an experiential learning challenge to teachers and students in that it decreases the predictability and control of the teaching situation, on the other hand, increases the interest in learning and teaching. Originality/value The value of the approach is in integrating knowledge, experience and action within one entrepreneurship programme.

The role women play in entrepreneurial activity in the world economy is examined, as well as the factors that influence women’s participation in this activity.The analysis involves four types of data collection.The first comes from sampling randomly selected adults in the 34 countries examined.Second, interviews are conducted with 50 different experts in each country.These same experts are then asked to complete a standardized questionnaire.Data from international sources such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the United Nations are also collected.These data sets are combined and analyzed to produce the measures of entrepreneurial activity discussed. Results indicate that, in every country examined,men are more involved in entrepreneurship than women.The greatest gap between the genders occurs in middle-income countries.The driving force behind women’s decisions to pursue entrepreneurial activity is the lack of other job opportunities. This is especially true in low-income nations.However, no matter the income level of the country, women who have confidence and are able to perceive business opportunities are more likely to start a new business.These new businesses tend to target existing markets, use known technology, and utilize less start-up capital, which indicates that women are more conservative in their entrepreneurial activity. (SRD)

Systematic comparisons of fertility developments based on education, gender and country context are rare. Using harmonized register data, we compare cohort total fertility and ultimate childlessness by gender and educational attainment for cohorts born beginning in 1940 in four Nordic countries. Cohort fertility (CTF) initially declined in all four countries, although for cohorts born in the 1950s and later, the CTF remained stable or declined only modestly. Childlessness, which had been increasing, has plateaued in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Women's negative educational gradient in relation to total fertility has vanished, except in Finland, while men's positive gradient has persisted. The highest level of men's childlessness appears among the least educated. In the oldest female cohorts, childlessness was highest among the highly educated, but these patterns have changed over the cohorts as childlessness has increased among the low educated and remained relatively stable among higher educated women. In Denmark, Norway and Sweden, childlessness is now highest among the least educated women. We witness both a new gender similarity and persistent (among men) and new (among women) educational disparities in childbearing outcomes in the Nordic region. Overall, the number of low educated has decreased remarkably over time. These population segments face increasing social and economic disadvantages that are reflected as well in their patterns of family formation.

This paper investigates the dynamics of business networks. We distinguish between confined dyadic change and network change and show how change itself may be incremental or radical, using the punctuated equilibrium model of change. The concept of the critical event is introduced to highlight radical change. We propose an analytical framework where the ideas of mechanism, nature and forces of change are integrated. Two circles of network change (incremental and radical) are presented and transfers from one circle to the other are discussed. We believe this conceptual elaboration may have significant implications for future network dynamic research

It is not well known how often drug resistance, a major clinical problem, occurs early or late in the course of epilepsy and how often epilepsy follows a continuous, remitting or relapsing-remitting pattern. To provide evidence if, in fact, different patterns of evolution of drug resistance and remission exist, a prospective, long-term population-based study of 144 patients followed on the average for 37.0 years (SD 7.1, median 40.0, range 11-42) since their first seizure before the age of 16 years was performed. At the end of follow-up, 67% of 144 patients were in terminal remission, on or off antiepileptic drugs. Early remission, starting within the first year of treatment, was seen in 45 patients (31%). In 23 (16%) of them, first remission continued, uninterrupted by relapse, to terminal remission. Late remission with a mean delay of 9 years was achieved by a further 72 patients (50%), including 46 (32%) patients who achieved terminal remission without any relapse and suggested, together with 23 patients, a remitting course. Following a relapse after early or late remission, 28 (19%) patients achieved terminal remission, suggesting a remitting-relapsing pattern. Altogether 20 patients (14%) did not re-enter remission, indicating a worsening course of epilepsy. Twenty-seven (19%) patients were drug-resistant from the start to the end of follow-up. In conclusion, half the patients with childhood-onset epilepsy will eventually enter terminal remission without relapse and a fifth after relapse. One-third will have a poor long-term outcome in terms of persistent seizures after remission or without any remission ever.

MOTIVATION: JOY is a program to annotate protein sequence alignments with three-dimensional (3D) structural features. It was developed to display 3D structural information in a sequence alignment and to help understand the conservation of amino acids in their specific local environments. RESULTS: : The JOY representation now constitutes an essential part of the two databases of protein structure alignments: HOMSTRAD (http://www-cryst.bioc.cam.ac.uk/homstrad ) and CAMPASS (http://www-cryst.bioc.cam.ac. uk/campass). It has also been successfully used for identifying distant evolutionary relationships. AVAILABILITY: The program can be obtained via anonymous ftp from torsa.bioc.cam.ac.uk from the directory /pub/joy/. The address for the JOY server is http://www-cryst.bioc.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/joy.cgi. CONTACT: kenji@cryst.bioc.cam.ac.uk

BACKGROUND: Emotional loneliness and social isolation are major problems in old age. These concepts are interrelated and often used interchangeably, but few studies have investigated them simultaneously thus trying to clarify their relationship. OBJECTIVES: To describe the prevalence of loneliness among aged Finns and to study the relationship of loneliness with the frequency of social contacts, with older people's expectations and satisfaction of their human relationships. Especially, we wanted to clarify whether emotional loneliness is a separate concept from social isolation. METHODS: The data were collected with a postal questionnaire. Background information, feelings of loneliness, number of friends, frequency of contacts with children, grandchildren and friends, the expectations of frequency of contacts as well as satisfaction of the contacts were inquired. The questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 6,786 aged people (>74 years) in various urban and rural areas in Finland. We report here the results of community-dwelling respondents (n = 4,113). MAIN RESULTS: More than one third of the respondents (39.4%) suffered from loneliness. Feeling of loneliness was not associated with the frequency of contacts with children and friends but rather with expectations and satisfaction of these contacts. The most powerful predictors of loneliness were living alone, depression, experienced poor understanding by the nearest, and unfulfilled expectations of contacts with friends. CONCLUSION: Our findings support the view that emotional loneliness is a separate concept from social isolation. This has implications for practice. Interventions aiming at relieving loneliness should be focused on enabling an individual to reflect her own expectations and inner feelings of loneliness.

Abstract This study presents a comprehensive literature review using a systematic approach to explore the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in promoting sustainable development in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The systematic review approach was applied to collect and analyze topics, and the literature search was conducted in two stages, encompassing 57 articles that met the research requirements. Our analysis reveals that AI's contribution to sustainability is concentrated within three key areas: organizational, technical, and processing aspects. The organizational aspect focuses on the integration of AI in companies and industries, addressing barriers to implementation and the relationship between companies, partners, and customers. The technical aspect highlights the development of AI algorithms that can address global challenges and contribute to the growth of stability and development in society. The processing aspect emphasizes the internal transformation of companies, their business models, and strategies in response to AI integration. Our proposed conceptual model outlines the essential elements organizations must consider when incorporating AI into their sustainability efforts, such as strategic alignment, infrastructure development, change management, and continuous improvement. By addressing these critical aspects, organizations can harness the potential of AI to drive positive social, environmental, and economic outcomes, ultimately contributing to the achievement of the SDGs. The model serves as a comprehensive framework for organizations seeking to leverage AI for sustainable development, but it should be adapted to individual contexts to ensure its relevance and effectiveness.

The future of mobile telephony is expected to rely on mobile services and the use of mobile services will be an integral part of the revenues to be generated by third generation mobile telephony. The adoption of new mobile services contradicts this proposition as it has been much slower than expected, especially in Europe. Basic services such as SMS, ring tones, icons and logos are still the most popular services. Several reasons have been suggested for the slow adoption rate, ranging from cultural to business models. In this paper we are searching for answers to the adoption rates by testing the applicability of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to explain the acceptance of mobile devices/services. Based on our empirical evidence from a survey conducted in Finland, it seems that the UTAUT to some extent and with some reservations can be used as a starting point to find some explanations for the adoption of mobile devices/services.

We have studied the mechanisms of water-based quenching of the upconversion photoluminescence of upconverting nanophosphors (UCNPs) via luminescence decay measurements for a better understanding of the non-radiative deactivation pathways responsible for the relatively low upconversion luminescence efficiency in aqueous solutions. This included both upconversion luminescence measurements and the direct excitation of emissive energy states of Er(3+) and Yb(3+) dopants in NaYF4:Yb(3+),Er(3+) UCNPs by measuring the decays at 550 and 655 nm upon 380 nm excitation and at 980 nm upon 930 nm excitation, respectively. The luminescence intensities and decays were measured from both bare and silanized NaYF4:Yb(3+),Er(3+) and NaYF4:Yb(3+),Tm(3+) UCNPs in H2O and D2O. The measurements revealed up to 99.9% quenching of the upconversion photoluminescence intensity of both Er(3+) and Tm(3+) doped bare nanophosphors by water. Instead of the multiphonon relaxation of excited energy levels of the activators, the main mechanism of quenching was found to be the multiphonon deactivation of the Yb(3+) sensitizer ion caused by OH-vibrations on the surface of the nanophosphor. Due to the nonlinear nature of upconversion, the quenching of Yb(3+) has a higher order effect on the upconversion emission intensity with the efficient Yb-Yb energy migration in the ∼35 nm nanocrystals making the whole nanophosphor volume susceptible to surface quenching effects. The study underlines the need of efficient surface passivation for the use of UCNPs as labels in bioanalytical applications performed in aqueous solutions.