University of Turku

About: University of Turku is a education organization based out in Turku, Finland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Galaxy. The organization has 16296 authors who have published 45124 publications receiving 1505428 citations. The organization is also known as: Turun yliopisto & Åbo universitet.

Protein lysate microarray analysis to identify microRNAs regulating estrogen receptor signaling in breast cancer cell lines

Abstract: Predicting the impact of microRNAs (miRNAs) on target proteins is challenging because of their different regulatory effects at the transcriptional and translational levels. In this study, we applied a novel protein lysate microarray (LMA) technology to systematically monitor for target protein levels after high-throughput transfections of 319 pre-miRs into breast cancer cells. We identified 21 miRNAs that downregulated the estrogen receptor-alpha (ERalpha), as validated by western blotting and quantitative real time-PCR, and by demonstrating the inhibition of estrogen-stimulated cell growth. Five potent ERalpha-regulating miRNAs, miR-18a, miR-18b, miR-193b, miR-206 and miR-302c, were confirmed to directly target ERalpha in 3'-untranslated region reporter assays. The gene expression signature that they repressed highly overlapped with that of a small interfering RNA against ERalpha, and across all the signatures tested, was most closely associated with the repression of known estrogen-induced genes. Furthermore, miR-18a and miR-18b showed higher levels of expression in ERalpha-negative as compared with ERalpha-positive clinical tumors. In summary, we present systematic and direct functional evidence of miRNAs inhibiting ERalpha signaling in breast cancer, and demonstrate the high-throughput LMA technology as a novel, powerful technique in determining the relative impact of various miRNAs on key target proteins and associated cellular processes and pathways.

Kinematics of the Local Universe. XIII. 21-cm line measurements of 452 galaxies with the Nançay radiotelescope, JHK Tully-Fisher relation, and preliminary maps of the peculiar velocity field

Abstract: Aims. This paper presents 452 new 21-cm neutral hydrogen line measurements carried out with the FORT receiver of the meridian transit Nancay radiotelescope (NRT) in the period April 2003-March 2005. Methods. This observational programme is part of a larger project aiming at an exhaustive and magnitude-complete HI extragalactic catalogue for Tully-Fisher applications (the so-called KLUN project, for Kinematics of the Local Universe studies, to end in 2008). The whole on-line HI archive of the NRT today contains reduced HI-profiles for 4500 spiral galaxies of declination 6 > -40° (http: //klun.obs-nancay.fr). Results. As an example of this application, we used the direct Tully-Fisher relation in three (JHK) bands in deriving distances to a large catalogue of 3126 spiral galaxies distributed through the whole sky and sampling the radial velocity range well between 0 and 8000 km s -1 . Thanks to an iterative method accounting for selection bias and smoothing effects, we show a detailed and original map of the velocity field in the Local Universe as a preliminary output.

Communication via responsibility reporting and its effect on firm value in Finland

Abstract: In this paper, we fi rst analyzed the responsibility reporting literature with an emphasis on the linkage between responsibility reporting and a fi rm’s performance and valuation. Based on the literature review, we developed a research question: How does communication via responsibility reporting affect fi rm value? We analyzed the market valuation of listed Finnish fi rms through a conventional valuation model combined with responsibility reporting. The starting point for our valuation was the Ohlson model. We expanded upon the conventional valuation by studying whether communication via responsibility reporting is related to fi rm valuation. Our research question is linked to the broader academic question of whether earnings worth as an information source has been erased over the last few years. In addition, we contribute to the literature that tries to understand the link between corporate social responsibility and fi rm performance/share performance. Specifi cally, we focused on responsibility reporting according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and especially on whether the existence of these reports provides a further explanation for fi rm value. Our sample was a population type that covered all listed Finnish fi rms that have adopted GRI. No other responsibility reporting practice was used by listed fi rms in their responsibility reporting communication during the years 2002–2005. The other necessary information for valuation models was obtained from Thomson Financial Services (commercial database). The applied model supported the conclusion that communication via GRI responsibility reporting is an important explanatory factor for a fi rm’s market value. The result indicates that responsibility reporting is a part of a fi rm’s communication tools in order to decrease information asymmetry between managers and investors. In other words, GRI responsibility reporting is called for in order to produce a more precise market valuation of a fi rm. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in the Nordic countries

Abstract: Background: The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) has been translated into the different Nordic languages between 1996 and 2003. During the past few years, SDQs have been completed for nearly 100,000 children and adolescents in population-based studies as well as in clinical samples. The largest studies have been performed in Norway and Denmark, and in these countries the diagnostic interview DAWBA has also been used in conjunction with the SDQ. Aims: In addition to a brief overview of past and ongoing SDQ work in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland, we present scale means and standard deviations from selected community studies with comparable age groups, including parental reports for 7, 9 and 11 year-old children and self-reports of 13 and 15 year-olds. Conclusions: The descriptive statistics suggest that the distributions of SDQ scores are very similar across the Nordic countries. Further collaborative efforts in establishing norms and evaluating the validity of the SDQ as a screening instrument are encouraged.

The CAFA challenge reports improved protein function prediction and new functional annotations for hundreds of genes through experimental screens

Abstract: The Critical Assessment of Functional Annotation (CAFA) is an ongoing, global, community-driven effort to evaluate and improve the computational annotation of protein function. Here, we report on the results of the third CAFA challenge, CAFA3, that featured an expanded analysis over the previous CAFA rounds, both in terms of volume of data analyzed and the types of analysis performed. In a novel and major new development, computational predictions and assessment goals drove some of the experimental assays, resulting in new functional annotations for more than 1000 genes. Specifically, we performed experimental whole-genome mutation screening in Candida albicans and Pseudomonas aureginosa genomes, which provided us with genome-wide experimental data for genes associated with biofilm formation and motility. We further performed targeted assays on selected genes in Drosophila melanogaster, which we suspected of being involved in long-term memory. We conclude that while predictions of the molecular function and biological process annotations have slightly improved over time, those of the cellular component have not. Term-centric prediction of experimental annotations remains equally challenging; although the performance of the top methods is significantly better than the expectations set by baseline methods in C. albicans and D. melanogaster, it leaves considerable room and need for improvement. Finally, we report that the CAFA community now involves a broad range of participants with expertise in bioinformatics, biological experimentation, biocuration, and bio-ontologies, working together to improve functional annotation, computational function prediction, and our ability to manage big data in the era of large experimental screens.