Clancestry Conversation Series

The Clancestry Conversation series forms part of QPAC's Clancestry Festival which is an annual celebration of the arts and cultural practices of the world's First Nations Peoples with a particular focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on (Re)Creating Lively Cities Through Ambient Technology in Arts, Culture and Gastronomic Experiences

Digital and interactive technologies are becoming increasingly embedded in everyday lives of people around the world. Application of technologies such as real-time, context-aware, and interactive technologies; augmented and immersive realities; social media; and location-based services has been particularly evident in urban environments where technological and sociocultural infrastructures enable easier deployment and adoption as compared to non-urban areas. There has been growing consumer demand for new forms of experiences and services enabled through these emerging technologies. We call this ambient media, as the media is embedded in the natural human living environment. This workshop focuses on ambient media services, applications, and technologies that promote people’s engagement in creating and recreating liveliness in urban environments, particularly through arts, culture, and gastronomic experiences. The RelCi workshop series is organized in cooperation with the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), in particular the Urban Informatics Lab and the Tampere University of Technology (TUT), in particular the Entertainment and Media Management (EMMi) Lab. The workshop runs under the umbrella of the International Ambient Media Association (AMEA) (http://www.ambientmediaassociation.org), which is hosting the international open access journal entitled “International Journal on Information Systems and Management in Creative eMedia”, and the international open access series “International Series on Information Systems and Management in Creative eMedia” (see http://www.tut.fi/emmi/Journal). The RelCi workshop took place for the first time in 2012 in conjunction with ICME 2012 in Melbourne, Autralia; and this year’s edition took place in conjunction with INTERACT 2013 in Cape Town, South Africa. Besides, the International Ambient Media Association (AMEA) organizes the Semantic Ambient Media (SAME) workshop series, which took place in 2008 in conjunction with ACM Multimedia 2008 in Vancouver, Canada; in 2009 in conjunction with AmI 2009 in Salzburg, Austria; in 2010 in conjunction with AmI 2010 in Malaga, Spain; in 2011 in conjunction with Communities and Technologies 2011 in Brisbane, Australia; in 2012 in conjunction with Pervasive 2012 in Newcastle, UK; and in 2013 in conjunction with C&T 2013 in Munich, Germany.

Ischemic Stroke in Young Adults

Stroke is the second leading cause of death and the leading cause of disability worldwide. Of all strokes, up to 80% to 85% are ischemic, and of these, less than 10% occur in young individuals. Stroke in young adults—most often defined as stroke occurring under the age of 45 or 50—can be particularly devastating due to long expected life-span ahead and marked socio-economic consequences. Current basic knowledge on ischemic stroke in this age group originates mostly from rather small and imprecise patient series. Regarding emergency treatment, systematic data on use of intravenous thrombolysis are absent. For this Thesis project, we collected detailed clinical and radiological data on all consecutive patients aged 15 to 49 with first-ever ischemic stroke between 1994 and 2007 treated at the Helsinki University Central Hospital. The aims of the study were to define demographic characteristics, risk factors, imaging features, etiology, and long-term mortality and its predictors in this patient population. We additionally sought to investigate, whether intravenous thrombolysis is safe and beneficial for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke in the young. Of our 1008 patients, most were males (ratio 1.7:1), who clearly outnumbered females after the age of 44, but females were preponderant among those aged <30. Occurrence increased exponentially. The most frequent risk factors were dyslipidemia (60%), smoking (44%), and hypertension (39%). Risk factors accumulated in males and along aging. Cardioembolism (20%) and cervicocerebral artery dissection (15%) were the most frequent etiologic subgroups, followed by small-vessel disease (14%), and large-artery atherosclerosis (8%). A total of 33% had undetermined etiology. Left hemisphere strokes were more common in general. Posterior circulation infarcts were more common among those aged <45. Multiple brain infarcts were present in 23% of our patients, 13% had silent infarcts, and 5% had leukoaraiosis. Of those with silent brain infarcts, majority (54%) had only a single lesion, and most of the silent strokes were located in basal ganglia (39%) and subcortical regions (21%). In a logistic regression analysis, type 1 diabetes mellitus in particular predicted the presence of both silent brain infarcts (odds ratio 5.78, 95% confidence interval 2.37-14.10) and leukoaraiosis (9.75; 3.39-28.04). We identified 48 young patients with hemispheric ischemic stroke treated with intravenous tissue plasminogen activator, alteplase. For comparisons, we searched 96 untreated control patients matched by age, gender, and admission stroke severity, as well as 96 alteplase-treated older controls aged 50 to 79 matched by gender and stroke severity. Alteplase-treated young patients recovered more often completely (27% versus 10%, P=0.010) or had only mild residual symptoms (40% versus 22%, P=0.025) compared to age-matched controls. None of the alteplase-treated young patients had symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage or died within 3-month follow-up. Overall long-term mortality was low in our patient population. Cumulative mortality risks were 2.7% (95% confidence interval 1.5-3.9%) at 1 month, 4.7% (3.1-6.3%) at 1 year, and 10.7% (9.9-11.5%) at 5 years. Among the 30-day survivors who died during the 5-year follow-up, more than half died due to vascular causes. Malignancy, heart failure, heavy drinking, preceding infection, type 1 diabetes, increasing age, and large-artery atherosclerosis causing the index stroke independently predicted 5-year mortality when adjusted for age, gender, relevant risk factors, stroke severity, and etiologic subtype. In sum, young adults with ischemic stroke have distinct demographic patterns and they frequently harbor traditional vascular risk factors. Etiology in the young is extremely diverse, but in as many as one-third the exact cause remains unknown. Silent brain infarcts and leukoaraiosis are not uncommon brain imaging findings in these patients and should not be overlooked due to their potential prognostic relevance. Outcomes in young adults with hemispheric ischemic stroke can safely be improved with intravenous thrombolysis. Furthermore, despite their overall low risk of death after ischemic stroke, several easily recognizable factors—of which most are modifiable—predict higher mortality in the long term in young adults.

Water balance modelling in a tropical watershed under deciduous forest (Mule Hole, India): Regolith matric storage buffers the groundwater recharge process

Accurate estimations of water balance are needed in semi-arid and sub-humid tropical regions, where water resources are scarce compared to water demand. Evapotranspiration plays a major role in this context, and the difficulty to quantify it precisely leads to major uncertainties in the groundwater recharge assessment, especially in forested catchments. In this paper, we propose to assess the importance of deep unsaturated regolith and water uptake by deep tree roots on the groundwater recharge process by using a lumped conceptual model (COMFORT). The model is calibrated using a 5 year hydrological monitoring of an experimental watershed under dry deciduous forest in South India (Mule Hole watershed). The model was able to simulate the stream discharge as well as the contrasted behaviour of groundwater table along the hillslope. Water balance simulated for a 32 year climatic time series displayed a large year-to-year variability, with alternance of dry and wet phases with a time period of approximately 14 years. On an average, input by the rainfall was 1090 mm year(-1) and the evapotranspiration was about 900 mm year(-1) out of which 100 mm year(-1) was uptake from the deep saprolite horizons. The stream flow was 100 mm year(-1) while the groundwater underflow was 80 mm year(-1). The simulation results suggest that (i) deciduous trees can uptake a significant amount of water from the deep regolith, (ii) this uptake, combined with the spatial variability of regolith depth, can account for the variable lag time between drainage events and groundwater rise observed for the different piezometers and (iii) water table response to recharge is buffered due to the long vertical travel time through the deep vadose zone, which constitutes a major water reservoir. This study stresses the importance of long term observations for the understanding of hydrological processes in tropical forested ecosystems. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Injection laryngoplasty with autologous fascia for treatment of unilateral vocal fold paralysis

The purpose of this dissertation was to study the applicability of minced autologous fascia graft for injection laryngoplasty of unilateral vocal fold paralysis (UVFP). Permanence of augmentation and host versus graft tissue reactions were of special interest. The topic deals with phonosurgery, which is a subdivision of the Ear, Nose and Throat-speciality of medicine. UVFP results from an injury to the recurrent or the vagal nerve. The main symptom is a hoarse and weak voice. Surgery is warranted for patients in whom spontaneous reinnervation and a course of voice therapy fails to improve the voice. Injection laryngoplasty is a widespread surgical technique which aims to restore glottic closure by augmenting the atrophied vocal muscle, and also by turning the paralyzed vocal fold towards midline. Currently, there exists a great diversity of synthetic, xenologous, homologous, and autologous substances available for injection. An autologous graft is perfect in terms of biocompatibility. Free fascia grafts have been successfully used in the head and neck surgery for decades, but fascia had not been previously applied into the vocal fold. The fascia is harvested from the lateral thigh under local anesthesia and minced into paste by scissors. Injection of the vocal fold is performed in laryngomicroscopy under general anesthesia. Three series of clinical trials of injection laryngoplasty with autologous fascia (ILAF) for patients with UVFP were conducted at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology of the Helsinki University Central Hospital. The follow-up ranged from a few months to ten years. The aim was to document the vocal results and possible morbidity related to graft harvesting and vocal fold injection. To address the tissue reactions and the degree of reabsoprtion of the graft, an animal study with a follow-up ranging from 3 days to 12 months was performed at the National Laboratory Animal Center, University of Kuopio. Harvesting of the graft and injection was met with minor morbidity. Histological analysis of the vocal fold tissue showed that fascia was well tolerated. Although some resorption or compaction of the graft during the first months is evident, graft volume is maintained well. When injected deep and laterally into the vocalis muscle, the fascia graft allows normal vibration of the vocal fold mucosa to occur during phonation. Improvement of voice quality was seen in all series by multiple objective parameters of voice evaluation. However, the vocal results were poor in cases where the nerve trauma was severe, such as UVFP after chest surgery. ILAF is most suitable for correction of mild to moderate glottic gaps related to less severe nerve damage. Our results indicate that autologous fascia is a feasible and safe new injection material with good and stable vocal results. It offers a practical solution for surgeons who treat this complex issue.

Dielectric anisotropy and relaxation studies of the homologous series of N-(4-n-alkyloxy-2-hydroxy-benzylidene)-4-carbethoxyaniline

Dielectric properties of the homologous series of newly synthesized nonchiral compounds N-(4-n-alkyloxy-2-hydroxy-benzylidene)-4-carbethoxyaniline, (n = 6, 8, 10, 12) having wide temperature range (∼60°C) smectic A (SmA) phase, have been studied by the impedance spectroscopy in the frequency range of 100 Hz to 1 MHz. Measurements have been carried out for two principal alignments (planar as well as homeotropic) of the SmA phase. Dielectric anisotropy (Δε' = ε'∥ - ε'⊥) for all the members of the series has been found to be negative for the whole temperature range of SmA phase. Magnitude of the dielectric anisotropy (|Δε'|) has been found to decrease with the number of alkyl chains. Relaxation frequencies corresponding to the rotation of the individual molecules about their short axes, lie below 1 MHz and obey the Arrhenius law by which activation energies have been determined. However, the relaxation frequencies corresponding to the rotation of the molecules about their short axes apparently lie above 10 MHz.

Molecular Genetics of Age-related Macular Degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD; OMIM # 603075) is an eye disease of the elderly, signs of which appear after the age of 50. In the Western world it is a leading cause of permanent visual loss with a prevalence of 8.5% in persons under 54 years of age and of 37% in persons over 75 years of age. Early forms of AMD may be asymptomatic, but in the late forms usually a central scotoma in the visual field follows severely complicating daily tasks. Smoking, age, and genetic predisposition are known risk factors for AMD. Until recently no true susceptibility genes had been identified though the composition of drusen deposits, the hallmarks of AMD, has suggested that the complement system might play a role in the pathogenesis of AMD. When four groups reported in March 2005, that, on chromosome 1q32, a Y402H variant in the complement factor H (CFH) gene confers risk for AMD in independent Caucasian samples, a new period in the field of genetic research of AMD started. CFH is a key regulator of the complement system. Thus, it is logical to speculate, that it plays a role in the pathogenesis of AMD. We performed a case-control association study to analyse whether the CFH Y402H variant contain a risk for AMD in the Finnish population. Although the population of Finland represents a genetic isolate, the CFH Y402H polymorphism was associated with AMD also in our patient sample with similar risk allele frequencies as in the other Caucasian populations. We further evaluated the effects of this variant, but no association between lesion subtype (predominantly classic, minimally classic or occult lesion) or lesion size of neovascular AMD and the CFH Y402H variant was detected. Neither did the variant have an effect on the photodynamic therapy (PDT) outcome. The patients that respond to PDT carried the risk genotype as frequently as those who did not respond, and no difference was found in the number of PDT sessions needed in patients with or without the risk genotypes of CFH Y402H. Functional analyses, however, showed that the binding of C-reactive protein (CRP) to CFH was significantly reduced in patients with the risk genotype of Y402H. In the past two years, the LOC387715/ high-temperature requirement factor A1 (HTRA1) locus on 10q26 has also been repeatedly associated with AMD in several populations. The recent discovery of the LOC387715 protein on the mitochondrial outer membrane suggests that the LOC387715 gene, not HTRA1, is the true predisposing gene in this region, although its biological function is still unknown. In our Finnish patient material, patients with AMD carried the A69S risk genotype of LOC387715 more frequently than the controls. Also, for the first time, an interaction between the CFH Y402H and the LOC387715 A69S variants was found. The most recently detected susceptibilty gene of AMD, the complement component 3 (C3) gene, encodes the central component of the complement system, C3. In our Finnish sample, an additive gene effect for the C3 locus was detected, though weaker than the effects for the two main loci, CFH and LOC387715. Instead, the hemicentin-1 or the elongation of very long chain fatty acids-like 4 genes that have also been suggested as candidate genes for AMD did not carry a risk for AMD in the Finnish population. This was the first series of molecular genetic study of AMD in Finland. We showed that two common risk variants, CFH Y402H and LOC387715 A69S, represent a high risk of AMD also in the isolated Finnish population, and furthermore, that they had a statistical interaction. It was demonstrated that the CFH Y402H risk genotype affects the binding of CFH to CRP thus suggesting that complement indeed plays an important role in the pathogenesis of AMD.