OBJECTIVES The prevalence of active tuberculosis (TB) is low in Finland, but outbreaks do occur. Following exposure national guidelines recommend either tuberculosis skin test or interferon-γ-release assay-testing of asymptomatic children. The aim of this study was to compare QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube test (QFT) and interferon-γ-inducible protein (IP-10) release assay for detection of Mycobac...

Background: Childhood obesity is a major public health concern. The importance of genes in development of obesity is evident from twin and family studies. Moreover, epigenetic events in early life may play an important role in obesity etiology. Aim: We aimed to outline and discuss the role of genetic and epigenetic influences on development of obesity in early life from around birth and into ad...

Engineering failure investigation is a detective process of determining why and how things went wrong. Forensic engineering can be defined as the application of the engineering sciences to the investigation of failures or other performance problems, with a focus on uncovering causes so that improved facilities can be engineered. The first stage in determining the failure causes is the investiga...

OBJECTIVE To assess the cost-effectiveness of the tuberculosis screening activities currently funded by the Flemish government in Flanders, Belgium. METHODS After estimating the expenses for 2013-2014 of each of nine screening components - which include high-risk groups, contacts and people who are seeking tuberculosis consultation at a centre for respiratory health care - and the associated ...

iii hemoglobin forniatiomi am’e present siniult.aneoumsly. As a result of such studies, it has been shown that the genes m’esponsihle for hemogbobins C amid S are very proi)ably ableies,m amid that. the genetic locus involved iii the produmction of these two types of abnormual heniogbobin is imidependemit of the thalassemia locus,2’ although the latter conclusion is complicated by the growing r...

Electrophysiological measures may be useful markers of the genetic underpinnings of complex behavior and psychopathology. Twin and family studies have been used to estimate the genetic contribution to the individual differences in a variety of electrophysiological measures. These studies are briefly reviewed here and published twin correlations from a number of studies with comparable methodolo...

SETTING Seven public tuberculosis (TB) units in Kampala, Uganda, where Uganda's national TB program recently introduced household contact investigation, as recommended by 2012 guidelines from WHO. OBJECTIVE To apply a cascade analysis to implementation of household contact investigation in a programmatic setting. DESIGN Prospective, multi-center observational study. METHODS We constructed...

Case detection, diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis 1 B) in children are challenging issues vorldwide. This study in Afghanistan aimed to evaluate paediatric TB case management, including contact investigation, at health facilities where all diagnostic processes were available. In 7 out of 8 regions of the country 1 province was selected. Documents used for management of paediatric TB cases...

BACKGROUND Recruitment of participants with obesity is a real challenge. To reduce time and costs in similar projects, we investigated various recruiting strategies used in a longitudinal family study with respect to their enrolment yield and cost effectiveness. Results may help other research groups to optimize their recruitment strategies. METHODS We applied different recruitment strategies...

It is essential to develop adequate statistical methods to fully utilize information from longitudinal family studies. We extend our previous multipoint linkage disequilibrium approach-simultaneously accounting for correlations between markers and repeat measurements within subjects, and the correlations between subjects in families-to detect loci relevant to disease through gene-based analysis...