Five-year survival in persons aged 40 years or over with newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus

The five- to six-year all-cause mortality is analysed in 1323 newly diagnosed diabetic patients aged 40 years or over. The median age at diagnosis is lower for males (63.6 years) than for females (67.5 years), but more males (24.7%) than females (20.0%) have died (p = 0.04). This male excess mortality can mainly be attributed to the 60-79-year old males. With increasing diabetes duration both male and female diabetic patients exhibit an increasing excess mortality in comparison with the Danish population. For males this excess mortality becomes statistically significant four years after diagnosis for the 40-59 year-olds and after six years for the 60-79 year-olds. For females and very old males no statistically significant excess mortality is observed, but after two to four years there is a tendency for the survival curve of 40-79-year old females to separate from that of the Danish female population to show an excess mortality. In this population-based study the disadvantageous mortality experience of even newly-diagnosed diabetic patients is clearly demonstrated.     

Factors associated with suicide attempts among patients with schizophrenia

This study explored the association between psychosocial variables and symptoms among patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders who have attempted suicide and those who have not attempted suicide. Of 336 patients with a DSM-III-R diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder who were consecutively evaluated at a university-affiliated clinical research center, 98, or 29.2 percent, reported one or more suicide attempts. Compared with patients who had not attempted suicide, patients who had made an attempt had a greater number of lifetime depressive episodes, an earlier age of onset of their illness, and an earlier age at first hospitalization.     

Low dimensional adaptive texture feature vectors from class distance and class difference matrices

In many popular texture analysis methods, second or higher order statistics on the relation between pixel gray level values are stored in matrices. A high dimensional vector of predefined, nonadaptive features is then extracted from these matrices. Identifying a few consistently valuable features is important, as it improves classification reliability and enhances our understanding of the phenomena that we are modeling. Whatever sophisticated selection algorithm we use, there is a risk of selecting purely coincidental "good" feature sets, especially if we have a large number of features to choose from and the available data set is limited. In a unified approach to statistical texture feature extraction, we have used class distance and class difference matrices to obtain low dimensional adaptive feature vectors for texture classification. We have applied this approach to four relevant texture analysis methods. The new adaptive features outperformed the classical features when applied to the most difficult set of 45 Brodatz texture pairs. Class distance and difference matrices also clearly illustrated the difference in texture between cell nucleus images from two different prognostic classes of early ovarian cancer. For each of the texture analysis methods, one adaptive feature contained most of the discriminatory power of the method.     

Pre-treatment and ethanol fermentation potential of olive pulp at different dry matter concentrations

Renewable energy sources have received increased interest from the international community with biomass being one of the oldest and the most promising ones. In the concept of exploitation of agro-industrial residues, the present study investigates the pre-treatment and ethanol fermentation potential of the olive pulp, which is the semi solid residue generated from the two-phase processing of the olives for olive oil production. Wet oxidation and enzymatic hydrolysis have been applied aiming at the enhancement of carbohydrates' bioavailability. Different concentrations of enzymes and enzymatic durations have been tested. Both wet oxidation and enzymic treatment were evaluated based on the ethanol obtained in a subsequent fermentation step by Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Thermoanaerobacter mathranii. It was found that a four-day hydrolysis time was adequate for a satisfactory release of glucose and xylose. The combination of wet oxidation and enzymatic hydrolysis resulted in the glucose and xylose concentration increase of 138 and 444%, respectively, compared to 33 and 15% with only enzymes added. However, the highest ethanol production was obtained when only enzymic pre-treatment was applied, implying that wet oxidation is not a recommended pre-treatment process for olive pulp at the conditions tested. It was also showed that increased dry matter concentration did not have a negative effect on the release of sugars, indicating that the cellulose and xylan content of the olive pulp is relatively easily available. The results of the experiments in batch processes clearly emphasize that the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) mode is advantageous in comparison with the separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) mode concerning process contamination.     

Applicability of X-ray reflectometry to studies of polymer solar cell degradation

Although degradation of polymer solar cells is widely acknowledged, the cause, physical or chemical, has not been identified. The purpose of this work is to determine the applicability of X-ray reflectometry for in situ observation of physical degradation mechanisms. We find that the rough interfaces of the polymer solar cell constituent layers seriously obstruct the sensitivity of the technique, rendering it impossible to elucidate changes in the layer/interface structure at the sub-nanometer level.     

Dispersion-determined limits on production tolerances of single-mode fibres

For single-mode fibres the standard deviation of dispersion at the nominal zero-dispersion wavelength depends strongly on the dispersion slope. For dispersion-shifted fibres, optimum values of the slope as a function of production tolerances on core radius and index difference are found, and for dispersion-flattened fibres maximum allowable production tolerances are given.     

Quality of Sour Cream Packaged in Cups with Different Light Barrier Properties Measured by Fluorescence Spectroscopy and Sensory Analysis

ABSTRACT:  In this study, photooxidation of sour cream packaged in cups with different light barrier properties was investigated. The sour cream was light exposed for 36 h with a standard fluorescent light tube, simulating storage conditions in many Norwegian grocery stores. Three different cups were evaluated: a white cup, a cup with medium light barrier (LB), and a cup with high LB. The quality of the sour cream was evaluated by sensory analysis and front face fluorescence spectroscopy. The sour cream stored in white cups became very rancid during the light exposure, with a rancid flavor score of 7.8 on a scale from 1 to 9, where 9 is the highest intensity. Cups with high LB gave best protection against the light. The sensory assessors could not distinguish between sour cream stored in cups with high LB and sour cream stored in the dark. The rancid flavor intensity for the cups with medium LB was significantly different ( P  < 0.05) from both the white cup and the cup with high LB. The sensory flavor intensities indicated that with 36 h of light exposure, only a cup with high LB will protect the sour cream sufficiently. The fluorescence measurements corresponded well with the sensory analysis as the photosensitizers were somewhat degraded for sour cream stored in cups with medium LB and most degraded in the white cups. For the cups with high LB, the fluorescence peaks that originated from the photosensitizers were all intact.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Dairy products such as sour cream will develop off-odor and taste faults ("sunlight taste") in a few hours if exposed to sufficient fluorescent lightning in the grocery stores. A light barrier can be incorporated in the packaging material to protect the dairy products from the light. Our experiment showed that the incorporation of a black pigment into 1 of the 3 plastic layers in the cup for packaging of sour cream protected the sour cream from degradation when exposed to light.     

Combined numerical and analytical method of calculating microbending losses in single-mode fibers with arbitrary index profiles

Using a multilayer approximation of the index distribution, analytical solutions of the microbending losses according to Petermann's approach for single-mode fibers with arbitrary index profiles can be derived. It is shown that less than 20 layers are required to ensure satisfying accuracy for graded-index single-mode fibers. For single-cladded fibers, simple profile-independent formulas for the ω01and ω02spots sizes are presented. These make it possible from the Laplace spot size at the zero dispersion wavelength to derive the spectral microbending losses without knowing the index profile.     

Wet oxidation pre‐treatment of woody yard waste: parameter optimization and enzymatic digestibility for ethanol production

Woody yard waste with high lignin content (22% of dry matter (DM)) was subjected to wet oxidation pre‐treatment for subsequent enzymatic conversion and fermentation. The effects of temperature (185–200 °C), oxygen pressure (3–12 bar) and addition of sodium carbonate (0–3.3 g per 100 g DM biomass) on enzymatic cellulose and hemicellulose (xylan) convertibility were studied. The enzymatic cellulose conversion was highest after wet oxidation for 15 min at 185 °C with addition of 12 bars of oxygen and 3.3 g Na₂CO₃ per 100 g waste. At 25 FPU (filter paper unit) cellulase g^?1 DM added, 58–67% and 80–83% of the cellulose and hemicellulose contained in the waste were converted into monomeric sugars. The cellulose conversion efficiency during a simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) assay at 10% DM was 79% for the highest enzyme loading (25 FPU g^?1 DM) while 69% conversion efficiency was still reached at 15 FPU g^?1 DM. Total carbohydrate recoveries were high (91–100% for cellulose and 72–100% for hemicellulose) and up to 49% of the original lignin and 79% of the hemicellulose could be solubilized during wet oxidation treatment and converted into carboxylic acids mainly (total carboxylic acids = 3.1–7.4% on DM basis). Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

5‐(Piperidin‐4‐yl)‐3‐Hydroxypyrazole: A Novel Scaffold for Probing the Orthosteric γ‐Aminobutyric Acid Type A Receptor Binding Site

A series of bioisosteric N₁‐ and N₂‐substituted 5‐(piperidin‐4‐yl)‐3‐hydroxypyrazole analogues of the partial GABA_AR agonists 4‐PIOL and 4‐PHP have been designed, synthesized, and characterized pharmacologically. The unsubstituted 3‐hydroxypyrazole analogue of 4‐PIOL ( 2 a ; IC₅₀～300 μM ) is a weak antagonist at the α₁β₂γ₂ GABA_AR, whereas substituting the N₁‐ or N₂‐position with alkyl or aryl substituents resulted in antagonists with binding affinities in the high nanomolar to low micromolar range at native rat GABA_ARs. Docking studies using a α₁β₂γ₂ GABA_AR homology model along with the obtained SAR indicate that the N₁‐substituted analogues of 4‐PIOL and 4‐PHP, 2 a – k , and previously reported 3‐substituted 4‐PHP analogues share a common binding mode to the orthosteric binding site in the receptor. Interestingly, the core scaffold of the N₂‐substituted analogues of 4‐PIOL and 4‐PHP, 3 b – k , are suggested to flip 180° thereby adapting to the binding pocket and addressing a cavity situated above the core scaffold.