Finnish Defence Forces

About: Finnish Defence Forces is a other organization based out in Helsinki, Finland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Physical fitness. The organization has 181 authors who have published 280 publications receiving 6880 citations. The organization is also known as: FDF & military of Finland.

Campylobacter spp., Giardia spp., Cryptosporidium spp., noroviruses, and indicator organisms in surface water in southwestern Finland, 2000-2001

Abstract: A total of 139 surface water samples from seven lakes and 15 rivers in southwestern Finland were analyzed during five consecutive seasons from autumn 2000 to autumn 2001 for the presence of various enteropathogens (Campylobacter spp., Giardia spp., Cryptosporidium spp., and noroviruses) and fecal indicators (thermotolerant coliforms, Escherichia coli, Clostridium perfringens, and F-RNA bacteriophages) and for physicochemical parameters (turbidity and temperature); this was the first such systematic study. Altogether, 41.0% (57 of 139) of the samples were positive for at least one of the pathogens; 17.3% were positive for Campylobacter spp. (45.8% of the positive samples contained Campylobacter jejuni, 25.0% contained Campylobacter lari, 4.2% contained Campylobacter coli, and 25.0% contained Campylobacter isolates that were not identified), 13.7% were positive for Giardia spp., 10.1% were positive for Cryptosporidium spp., and 9.4% were positive for noroviruses (23.0% of the positive samples contained genogroup I and 77.0% contained genogroup II). The samples were positive for enteropathogens significantly (P < 0.05) less frequently during the winter season than during the other sampling seasons. No significant differences in the prevalence of enteropathogens were found when rivers and lakes were compared. The presence of thermotolerant coliforms, E. coli, and C. perfringens had significant bivariate nonparametric Spearman's rank order correlation coefficients (P < 0.001) with samples that were positive for one or more of the pathogens analyzed. The absence of these indicators in a logistic regression model was found to have significant predictive value (odds ratios, 1.15 x 10(8), 7.57, and 2.74, respectively; P < 0.05) for a sample that was negative for the pathogens analyzed. There were no significant correlations between counts or count levels for thermotolerant coliforms or E. coli or the presence of F-RNA phages and pathogens in the samples analyzed.

Message recovery for signature schemes based on the discrete logarithm problem

Abstract: The new signature scheme presented by the authors in [9] is the first signature scheme based on the discrete logarithm problem that gives message recovery. The purpose of this paper is to show that the message recovery feature is independent of the choice of the signature equation and that all ElGamal type schemes have variants giving message recovery and achieve five new signature schemes giving message recovery. These schemes have different properties as to implementation and security. It turns out that the scheme proposed in [9] is the only inversionless scheme whereas the message recovery variant of the DSA requires computing of inverses in both generation and verification of signatures. In [9] two applications of message recovery were proposed. In the present paper it is shown how to combine ElGamal encryption and the message recovery scheme of [9] and how to securely integrate the DSA into Diffie-Hellman key exchange.

Message Recovery for Signature Schemes Based on the Discrete Logarithm Problem

Abstract: The new signature scheme presented by the authors in [13] is the first signature scheme based on the discrete logarithm problem that gives message recovery. The purpose of this paper is to show that the message recovery feature is independent of the choice of the signature equation and that all ElGamal-type schemes have variants giving message recovery. For each of the six basic ElGamal-type signature equations five variants are presented with different properties regarding message recovery, length of commitment and strong equivalence. Moreover, the six basic signature schemes have different properties regarding security and implementation. It turns out that the scheme proposed in [13] is the only inversionless scheme whereas the message recovery variant of the DSA requires computing of inverses in both generation and verification of signatures. In general, message recovery variants can be given for ElGamal-type signature schemes over any group with large cyclic subgroup as the multiplicative group of GF(2n) or elliptic curve over a finite field. The present paper also shows how to integrate the DLP-based message recovery schemes with secret session key establishment and ElGamal encryption. In particular, it is shown that with DLP-based schemes the same functionality as with RSA can be obtained. However, the schemes are not as elegant as RSA in the sense that the signature (verification) function cannot at the same time be used as the decipherment (encipherment) function.

Vitamin D Supplementation for the Prevention of Acute Respiratory Tract Infection: A Randomized, Double-Blinded Trial among Young Finnish Men

Abstract: Ilkka Laaksi, Juha-Petri Ruohola, Ville Mattila, Anssi Auvinen, Timo Ylikomi, and Harri Pihlajamaki Department of Cell Biology, Medical School, and Department of Epidemiology, Tampere School of Public Health, University of Tampere, and Department of Clinical Chemistry, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, and Finnish Defence Forces and Research Department, Centre for Military Medicine, Helsinki, Finland