Riskianalyysi sisäisen valvonnan apuvälineenä

Tutkielman tavoitteena oli pyrkiä selvittämään Ilmatieteen laitoksen toiminnalliset ja taloudelliset riskit. Tämä toteutettiin Ilmatieteen laitoksen ulkoisten ja sisäisten sidosryhmien haastatteluiden perusteella. Riskeistä rakennettiin Ilmatieteen laitokselle riskianalyysimalli, jonka kautta riskejä voidaan laitoksessa systemaattisesti tarkastella. Riskianalyysin on myös tarkoitus toimia apuvälineenä laitoksen sisäistä valvontaa ja riskienhallintaa kehitettäessä. Riskianalyysissä riskejä arvioitiin riskiin sisältyvän kahden komponentin, todennäköisyyden ja seurausten, avulla. Näin saatiin riskit karkeasti vertailukelpoiseksi keskenään. Riskeistä muodostettiin ensin toimintokohtainen riskianalyysi, jonka jälkeen riskejä analysoitiin myös koko laitoksen tasolla. Riskejä ilmeni hyvin erilaisia: osaamiseen ja henkilöstöön liittyviä ja toisaalta pitkän tähtäimen strategisiin valintoihin liittyviä. Ilmatieteen laitoksen täytyy hallita toimintaansa ja toimintaympäristöönsä liittyvät muutokset ja olla uudistumiskykyinen. Täytyy myös huomata, että riskianalyysin lisäksi sisäisen valvonnan kehittämisessä on organisaation johdolla ja sisäisellä tarkastajalla tärkeä rooli.

Improvements in the Assessment of Bacterial Viability and Killing

It is axiomatic that our planet is extensively inhabited by diverse micro-organisms such as bacteria, yet the absolute diversity of different bacterial species is widely held to be unknown. Different bacteria can be found from the depths of the oceans to the top of the mountains; even the air is more or less colonized by bacteria. Most bacteria are either harmless or even advantageous to human beings but there are also bacteria, which can cause severe infectious diseases or spoil the supplies intended for human consumption. Therefore, it is vitally important not only to be able to detect and enumerate bacteria but also to assess their viability and possible harmfulness. Whilst the growth of bacteria is remarkably fast under optimum conditions and easy to detect by cultural methods, most bacteria are believed to lie in stationary phase of growth in which the actual growth is ceased and thus bacteria may simply be undetectable by cultural techniques. Additionally, several injurious factors such as low and high temperature or deficiency of nutrients can turn bacteria into a viable but non-culturable state (VBNC) that cannot be detected by cultural methods. Thereby, various noncultural techniques developed for the assessment of bacterial viability and killing have widely been exploited in modern microbiology. However, only a few methods are suitable for kinetic measurements, which enable the real-time detection of bacterial growth and viability. The present study describes alternative methods for measuring bacterial viability and killing as well as detecting the effects of various antimicrobial agents on bacteria on a real-time basis. The suitability of bacterial (lux) and beetle (luc) luciferases as well as green fluorescent protein (GFP) to act as a marker of bacterial viability and cell growth was tested. In particular, a multiparameter microplate assay based on GFP-luciferase combination as well as a flow cytometric measurement based on GFP-PI combination were developed to perform divergent viability analyses. The results obtained suggest that the antimicrobial activities of various drugs against bacteria could be successfully measured using both of these methods. Specifically, the data reliability of flow cytometric viability analysis was notably improved as GFP was utilized in the assay. A fluoro-luminometric microplate assay enabled kinetic measurements, which significantly improved and accelerated the assessment of bacterial viability compared to more conventional viability assays such as plate counting. Moreover, the multiparameter assay made simultaneous detection of GFP fluorescence and luciferase bioluminescence possible and provided extensive information about multiple cellular parameters in single assay, thereby increasing the accuracy of the assessment of the kinetics of antimicrobial activities on target bacteria.

m-Equine : IS support for the horse industry

The horse industry is in many ways still operating the same way as it did in the beginning of the 20th century. At the same time the role of the horse has changed dramatically, from a beast of burden to a top athlete, a production animal or a beloved pet. A racehorse or an equestrian sport horse is trained and taken care of like any other athlete, but unlike its human counterpart, it might end up on our plate. According to European and many other countries’ laws, a horse is a production animal. The medical data of a horse should be known if it is to be slaughtered, to ensure that the meat is safe for human consumption. Today this vital medical information should be noted in the horse’s passport, but this paperbased system is not reliable. If a horse gets sold, depending on the country’s laws, the medical records might not be transferred to the new owner, the horse’s passport might get lost etc. Thus the system is not fool proof. It is not only the horse owners who have to struggle with paperwork; veterinarians as well as other officials often use much time on redundant paperwork. The main research question of this thesis is if IS could be used to help the different stakeholders within the horse industry? Veterinarians in particular who travel to stables to treat horses cannot always take with them their computers, since the somewhat unsanitary environment is not suitable for a sensitive technological device. Currently there is no common medical database developed for horses, although such a database with a support system could help with many problems. These include vaccination and disease control, food-safety, as well as export and import problems. The main stakeholders within the horse industry, including equine veterinarians and horse owners, were studied to find out their daily routines and needs for a possible support system. The research showed that there are different aspects within the horse industry where IS could be used to support the stakeholders daily routines. Thus a support system including web and mobile accessibility for the main stakeholders is under development. Since veterinarians will be the main users of this support system, it is very important to make sure that they find it useful and beneficial in their daily work. To ensure a desired result, the research and development of the system has been done iteratively with the stakeholders following the Action Design Research methodology.

The Effects of Estradiol, Androgens and the Selective Estrogen Modulators: Ospemifene, Raloxifene and Tamoxifen on Explant Cultures of Human Breast Tissue

The impact of menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) on increasing the risk for breast cancer (BC) remains controversial. To understand MHT-elicited cellular breast effects and the potential risks, included with using this therapy, a further investigation into this controversy is the subject of this thesis. In this thesis, to study the effects of estrogen, progestin, androgens and selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), a modified tissue explant culture system was used. The different types of human breast tissues (HBTs) used in this study were normal HBTs, obtained from reduction mammoplasties of premenopausal women (prem-HBTs) or postmenopausal (postm-HBTs) women and peritumoral HBTs (peritum-HBTs) which were obtained from surgeries on postmenopausal BC patients. The explants were cultured up to three weeks in the presence or absence of estradiol (E2), medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), testosterone (T), dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and SERMs - ospemifene (OSP), raloxifene (RAL) and tamoxifen (TAM). The cultured HBTs maintained morphological integrity and responded to hormonal treatment in vitro. E2, MPA or E2/MPA increased proliferative activity and was associated with increased cyclin-D1 and caused changes in the cell cycle inhibitors p21 and p27, whereas the androgens T and DHT inhibited proliferation and increased apoptosis in HBT epithelia and opposed E2-stimulated proliferation and cell survival. The postm-HBTs were more sensitive to E2 than prem-HBTs. The effects of OSP, RAL and TAM on HBT epithelium were antiproliferative. E2, androgens and SERMs were associated with marked changes in the proportions of epithelial cells expressing steroid hormone receptors: E2 increased ERα expressing cells and decreased androgen receptor (AR) positive cells, whereas T and DHT had opposite effects. The OSP, RAL and TAM, also decreased a proportion of ERα positive cells in HBT epithelium. At 100 nM, these compounds maintained the relative number of AR positive cells, present at control level, which may partly explain proliferative inhibition. In conclusion, the proliferative activity of E2, in the epithelium of postm-HBTs, is opposed by T and DHT, which suggests that the inclusion of androgens in MHT may decrease the risk for developing BC.