Growth and nutrition of willow clones

Summary

Mental Well-being at Work. A Sign of a Healthy Organisation and a Necessary Precondition for Organisational Development

One of the aims of the study was to clarify the reliability and validity of the Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) and the Eigenzustand (EZ) method as measures of the objective characteristics of work and short-term mental work load in the Finnish data. The reliability and validity were examined taking into consideration the theoretical backgrounds of the methods and the reliability of the measurements. The methods were used for finding out the preconditions for organisational development based on self-improvement and clarifying the impacts of working environment (organisational functioning and job characteristics) on a worker’s mental state and health. The influences were examined on a general level - regardless of individual personal or specific contextual factors. One aim was also to clarify how cognitions and emotions are intertwined and how they influence a person’s perception of the working environment. The data consisted of 15 blue-collar organisations in the public sector. The organisations were divided in target and comparison groups depending on the research frames. The data was collected by questionnaires by post. The exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (Lisrel) were used as the main statistical methods in examining the structures of the methods and impacts between the variables. It was shown that it is possible for organisations to develop their working conditions themselves on specific preconditions. The advance of the development processes could be shown by the amount of the development activity as well as by the changes of the mental well-being (ability to act) and sick absenteeism of the personnel. It was found that the JDS and the EZ methods were reliable and valid measures in the Finnish data. It was shown that, in addition to the objective working environment (organisational functioning and job characteristics), also such a personal factor as selfesteem influences a person’s perception of mental work load. However, the influence did not seem to be direct. The importance of job satisfaction as a general indicator of perceived working conditions was emphasised. Emotional and cognitive factors were found to be functionally intertwined constituting a common factor. Organisational functioning and the characteristics of work had connections with a person’s health measured by sick absenteeism.

Observations on the Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Dexmedetomidine. Clinical Studies on Healthy Volunteers and Intensive Care Patients

Patients treated in intensive care units require sedation and analgesia. However, sedative drugs also have potential adverse effects, and there is no single ideal sedativeanalgesic drug for these patients. Dexmedetomidine is an apha2-adrenoceptor agonist licenced for sedation of intensive care patients and patients undergoing surgery and other invasive procedures. Several routes of parenteral administration (intravenous, intramuscular, subcutaneous and intranasal) have been utilized. In the present series of studies, the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of intranasally administered dexmedetomidine as well as the gastrointestinal effects of intravenous dexmedetomidine were determined in healthy volunteers. Pharmacokinetics of dexmedetomidine during long lasting, high-dose infusions were characterized in intensive care patients. The bioavailability of intranasal dexmedetomidine was relatively good (65%), but interindividual variation was large. Dexmedetomidine significantly inhibited gastric emptying and gastrointestinal transit. In intensive care patients, the elimination half-life of dexmedetomidine was somewhat longer than reported for infusions of shorter duration and in less ill patients or healthy volunteers. Dexmedetomidine appeared to have linear pharmacokinetics up to the studied dose rate of 2.5 μg/kg/h. Dexmedetomidine clearance was decreasing with age and its volume of distribution was increased in hypoalbuminaemic patients, resulting in a longer elimination half-life and context-sensitive half-time. Intranasally administered dexmedetomidine was efficacious and well tolerated, making it appropriate for clinical situations requiring light sedation. The clinical significance of the gastrointestinal inhibitory effects of dexmedetomidine should be further evaluated in intensive care patients. The possibility of potentially altered potency and effect duration should be taken into account when administering dexmedetomidine to elderly or hypoalbuminaemic patients.

Sensory and Non-sensory Factors Behind the Liking and Choice of Healthy Food Products

A healthy and balanced diet can reduce health problems, such as overweight and metabolic syndrome. In general, people have a considerably good knowledge of what constitutes a healthy diet and how they could achieve it with their food choices. Besides, people argue that health is among their top five food choice motives. Nevertheless, the prevalence of overweight is increasing and other food choice motives, such as taste, seem to conflict with the health. Liking for food does not necessarily determine acceptance alone, thus several non-sensory factors, such as brand, country of origin and nutrition claim, can also influence. Moreover, consumers are individuals in how they prioritize sensory and nonsensory factors of foods, but e.g. increasing age, female gender and health concern have been connected to a more health-oriented dietary behaviour. To sum up, identifying different factors that can increase the liking and consumption of healthy food is essential in order to develop more attractive healthful food products. Adding vitamins, minerals, fibre or other ingredients to a food product can be used to enrich the nutritional quality of the products. However, this may be difficult in practice as regards the sensory quality and pleasantness of the foods. Generally, consumers are not willing to compromise on taste in food. On the other hand, consumers are very heterogeneous in their likings, and their personal values and attitudes may interact with preferences for specific sensory characteristics. The aims of this study were to investigate the effects of intrinsic product characteristics on sensory properties and hedonic responses; to determine the impact of few non-sensory factors; and to examine the interaction between sensory and non-sensory factors with consumers’ demographics, values and attitudes in liking of healthy model foods. The results showed that product composition influenced sensory quality and had an effect on hedonic responses. Adding flaxseed to bakery products showed a significant improvement in the nutritional quality without negative effects on sensory properties. On the other hand, the fortification of wellness beverages with vitamins and minerals may impart off-flavours. In general, sweetness of yoghurts, freshness of wellness beverages and low intensity of rye bread flavour appealed to consumers. Information about the domestic origin of yoghurts and claiming a specific function for wellness beverages enhanced liking. However, consumers who were more concerned about their health and considered natural content as an important food choice motive, rated sourer and less sweet yoghurts and wellness beverages as more pleasant. In addition, interest in health increased the consumption of rye breads and other whole grain breads among adolescents. The results showed that the optimal product quality in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic factors differs between individual consumers, and personal values and food choice motives can be connected to preferences for specific sensory characteristics of foods. This indicates that each food product needs to be considered in relation to its specific market niche, and to which segment of consumer will respond most positively to its characteristics.

Promoting Healthy Lifestyles with Personalized, APOE Genotype Based Health Information: The Effects on Psychological-, Health Behavioral and Clinical Factors

There is an increasing demand for individualized, genotype-based health advice. The general population-based dietary recommendations do not always motivate people to change their life-style, and partly following this, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are a major cause of death in worldwide. Using genotype-based nutrition and health information (e.g. nutrigenetics) in health education is a relatively new approach, although genetic variation is known to cause individual differences in response to dietary factors. Response to changes in dietary fat quality varies, for example, among different APOE genotypes. Research in this field is challenging, because several non-modifiable (genetic, age, sex) and modifiable (e.g. lifestyle, dietary, physical activity) factors together and with interaction affect the risk of life-style related diseases (e.g. CVD). The other challenge is the psychological factors (e.g. anxiety, threat, stress, motivation, attitude), which also have an effect on health behavior. The genotype-based information is always a very sensitive topic, because it can also cause some negative consequences and feelings (e.g. depression, increased anxiety). The aim of this series of studies was firstly to study how individual, genotype-based health information affects an individual’s health form three aspects, and secondly whether this could be one method in the future to prevent lifestyle-related diseases, such as CVD. The first study concentrated on the psychological effects; the focus of the second study was on health behavior effects, and the third study concentrated on clinical effects. In the fourth study of this series, the focus was on all these three aspects and their associations with each other. The genetic risk and health information was the APOE gene and its effects on CVD. To study the effect of APOE genotype-based health information in prevention of CVD, a total of 151 volunteers attended the baseline assessments (T0), of which 122 healthy adults (aged 20 – 67 y) passed the inclusion criteria and started the one-year intervention. The participants (n = 122) were randomized into a control group (n = 61) and an intervention group (n = 61). There were 21 participants in the intervention Ɛ4+ group (including APOE genotypes 3/4 and 4/4) and 40 participants in the intervention Ɛ4- group (including APOE genotypes 2/3 and 3/3). The control group included 61 participants (including APOE genotypes 3/4, 4/4, 2/3, 3/3 and 2/2). The baseline (T0) and follow-up assessments (T1, T2, T3) included detailed measurements of psychological (threat and anxiety experience, stage of change), and behavioral (dietary fat quality, consumption of vegetables, - high fat/sugar foods and –alcohol, physical activity and health and taste attitudes) and clinical factors (total-, LDL- HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, blood glucose (0h and 2h), body mass index, waist circumference and body fat percentage). During the intervention six different communication sessions (lectures on healthy lifestyle and nutrigenomics, health messages by mail, and personal discussion with the doctor) were arranged. The intervention groups (Ɛ4+ and Ɛ4-) received their APOE genotype information and health message at the beginning of the intervention. The control group received their APOE genotype information after the intervention. For the analyses in this dissertation, the results for 106/107 participants were analyzed. In the intervention, there were 16 participants in the high-risk (Ɛ4+) group and 35 in the low-risk (Ɛ4-) group. The control group had 55 participants in studies III-IV and 56 participants in studies I-II. The intervention had both short-term (≤ 6 months) and long-term (12 months) effects on health behavior and clinical factors. The short-term effects were found in dietary fat quality and waist circumference. Dietary fat quality improved more in the Ɛ4+ group than the Ɛ4- and the control groups as the personal, genotype-based health information and waist circumference lowered more in the Ɛ4+ group compared with the control group. Both these changes differed significantly between the Ɛ4+ and control groups (p<0.05). A long-term effect was found in triglyceride values (p<0.05), which lowered more in Ɛ4+ compared with the control group during the intervention. Short-term effects were also found in the threat experience, which increased mostly in the Ɛ4+ group after the genetic feedback (p<0.05), but it decreased after 12 months, although remaining at a higher level compared to the baseline (T0). In addition, Study IV found that changes in the psychological factors (anxiety and threat experience, motivation), health and taste attitudes, and health behaviors (dietary, alcohol consumption, and physical activity) did not directly explain the changes in triglyceride values and waist circumference. However, change caused by a threat experience may have affected the change in triglycerides through total- and HDL cholesterol. In conclusion, this dissertation study has given some indications that individual, genotypebased health information could be one potential option in the future to prevent lifestyle-related diseases in public health care. The results of this study imply that personal genetic information, based on APOE, may have positive effects on dietary fat quality and some cardiovascular risk markers (e.g., improvement in triglyceride values and waist circumference). This study also suggests that psychological factors (e.g. anxiety and threat experience) may not be an obstacle for healthy people to use genotype-based health information to promote healthy lifestyles. However, even in the case of very personal health information, in order to achieve a permanent health behavior change, it is important to include attitudes and other psychological factors (e.g. motivation), as well as intensive repetition and a longer intervention duration. This research will serve as a basis for future studies and its information can be used to develop targeted interventions, including health information based on genotyping that would aim at preventing lifestyle diseases. People’s interest in personalized health advices has increased, while also the costs of genetic screening have decreased. Therefore, generally speaking, it can be assumed that genetic screening as a part of the prevention of lifestyle-related diseases may become more common in the future. In consequence, more research is required about how to make genetic screening a practical tool in public health care, and how to efficiently achieve long-term changes.

Family-based dietary intervention in the STRIP study – influences on diet and diet-related attitudes

The focus of this dissertation was to investigate the effects of family-based dietary intervention during childhood and adolescence. The participants comprised of children and parents who participated in a longitudinal, randomised atherosclerosis prevention trial (STRIP study). The intervention families (n=540) took part in a dietary intervention since the child’s age of 8- months. The control group (n=522) did not receive any tailored dietary intervention. The main focus of the intervention was to improve the quality of dietary fat. The diet of children and parents was evaluated by daily food records and dietrelated attitudes by a questionnaire. The dietary intervention influenced, favourably, the dietary fat quality in children and parents. Fat quality improved mainly by the decrease of saturated fat intake. Some minor effects of the intervention were also observed in children’s fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption although the F&V consumption was very low. The intervention increased parental interest in healthy eating, but there was no difference in interest in natural products or in attitudes towards hedonic eating attitudes between the intervention and control parents. Parents’ interest in healthy eating associated with parents’ and children’s high fruit and vegetable consumption but not with their fat quality ratio. On the other hand, dietary fat quality improved at every level of interest in healthy eating. It seems that the main target of the intervention, the dietary fat quality of the children, was promoted effectively. In the future, more emphasis should be given on increasing unsaturated fat intake and on elevating F&V consumption in children. Children’s diet, especially F&V consumption, associated with diet-related attitudes of the parents. Therefore, co-operation with parents and family-based premises for working should be capitalized upon when promoting healthy eating in children and adolescents.

The Effects of Anesthetic Induced Loss of Consciousness on Quantitative Electroen Cephalogram, and Bispectral and Spectral Entropy Indices. Studies on Healthy Male

Changes in the electroencephalography (EEG) signal have been used to study the effects of anesthetic agents on the brain function. Several commercial EEG based anesthesia depth monitors have been developed to measure the level of the hypnotic component of anesthesia. Specific anesthetic related changes can be seen in the EEG, but still it remains difficult to determine whether the subject is consciousness or not during anesthesia. EEG reactivity to external stimuli may be seen in unconsciousness subjects, in anesthesia or even in coma. Changes in regional cerebral blood flow, which can be measured with positron emission tomography (PET), can be used as a surrogate for changes in neuronal activity. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of dexmedetomidine, propofol, sevoflurane and xenon on the EEG and the behavior of two commercial anesthesia depth monitors, Bispectral Index (BIS) and Entropy. Slowly escalating drug concentrations were used with dexmedetomidine, propofol and sevoflurane. EEG reactivity at clinically determined similar level of consciousness was studied and the performance of BIS and Entropy in differentiating consciousness form unconsciousness was evaluated. Changes in brain activity during emergence from dexmedetomidine and propofol induced unconsciousness were studied using PET imaging. Additionally, the effects of normobaric hyperoxia, induced during denitrogenation prior to xenon anesthesia induction, on the EEG were studied. Dexmedetomidine and propofol caused increases in the low frequency, high amplitude (delta 0.5-4 Hz and theta 4.1-8 Hz) EEG activity during stepwise increased drug concentrations from the awake state to unconsciousness. With sevoflurane, an increase in delta activity was also seen, and an increase in alpha- slow beta (8.1-15 Hz) band power was seen in both propofol and sevoflurane. EEG reactivity to a verbal command in the unconsciousness state was best retained with propofol, and almost disappeared with sevoflurane. The ability of BIS and Entropy to differentiate consciousness from unconsciousness was poor. At the emergence from dexmedetomidine and propofol induced unconsciousness, activation was detected in deep brain structures, but not within the cortex. In xenon anesthesia, EEG band powers increased in delta, theta and alpha (8-12Hz) frequencies. In steady state xenon anesthesia, BIS and Entropy indices were low and these monitors seemed to work well in xenon anesthesia. Normobaric hyperoxia alone did not cause changes in the EEG. All of these results are based on studies in healthy volunteers and their application to clinical practice should be considered carefully.