U.K. Prospective Diabetes Study. XV: Relationship of renin-angiotensin system gene polymorphisms with microalbuminuria in NIDDM

We performed a case-control study to determine whether molecular variants of genes of the renin-angiotensin system were associated with the presence of albuminuria in non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). A total of 180 diabetic patients with persistent microalbuminuria [median urinary albumin (interquartile range) of 74 (54 to 126 mg/liter)] were matched with two control groups of diabetic patients without microalbuminuria [median urinary albumin 7 (5 to 10) mg/liter] for variables known to be associated with raised urinary albumin concentration including hemoglobin A1c and triglyceride. One control group was also matched for blood pressure and the other group was not, to allow assessment of interactions with hypertension. Association with the I/D polymorphism of the ACE gene and M235T variant of the angiotensinogen gene (AGT) with microalbuminuria and retinopathy was examined. There were no significant differences in genotype frequency between cases and controls for ACE or AGT irrespective of blood pressure matching. However, among subjects with microalbuminuria, those with the ACE DD genotype had a significantly greater urinary albumin excretion than individuals with a non-DD genotype [median 88 (68 to 170) mg/liter vs. 67 (53 to 113) mg/liter, P < 0.001]. More subjects with the DD than non-DD genotype had persistent albuminuria > 100 mg/liter, twice the upper normal range (60% vs. 38%, P = 0.006). When increased albumin excretion occurs, the presence of the ACE DD genotype appears to be associated with higher urinary albumin levels. No association with retinopathy was observed.     

Influence of thermomechanical ageing on tensile properties of 2014 aluminium alloy

2014 aluminium alloy was subjected to various thermomechanical ageing (TMA) treatments which included partial peak ageing (25% and 50%), warm rolling (10% and 20%) and further ageing to peak hardness level at 160 ° C. The tensile tests reveal that TMA treatments cause a substantial improvement in tensile properties and thermal stability. The electron microscopic studies reveal that the TMA treatments affect substantially the ageing characteristics. The TMA Ib treatment yields the finest needles having longitudinal dimensions of 40nm. The TMA treatments also lead to precipitate-dislocation networks of different densities. It is observed that TMA IIb treatment results in the densest precipitate-dislocation tangles of all the TMA treatments. As a result, a significant improvement in the tensile properties of 2014 aluminium alloy has been observed.     

Truck driver scheduling in Canada

This paper presents and studies the Canadian Truck Driver Scheduling Problem (CAN-TDSP), which is the problem of determining whether a sequence of locations can be visited within given time windows in such a way that driving and working activities of truck drivers comply with Canadian Commercial Vehicle Drivers Hours of Service Regulations. Canadian regulations comprise the provisions found in US hours of service regulations as well as additional constraints on the maximum amount of driving and the minimum amount of off-duty time on each day. We present two heuristics and an exact approach for solving the CAN-TDSP. Computational experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our approaches and indicate that Canadian regulations are significantly more permissive than US hours of service regulations.     

Regional Climate Simulations on EU-INDIA Grid Infrastructures: Methodologies and Performance

In this paper, we present a possible approach to use different Grid infrastructures across Europe and India for regional climate simulations and discuss in details the advantages and limitations in using them. The application taken into consideration is the Regional Climate Model RegCM4, which has been recently re-written for making it more efficient and easier to be fully exploited on any kind of computational infrastructure. We describe here the methods applied to port this package on the Grid infrastructures made available by the EU-IndiaGrid project. We also discuss different approaches, the way to run the model on both European and Indian infrastructures and our promising approach to deal with data management issues. Use of RegCM on Grid infrastructure has further been compared with that on HPC resources. The domain worked upon for these tests is the South-Asia CORDEX domain, which is of great importance for the Indian Summer Monsoon. Our final conclusion is that, for certain class of experiments, RegCM4 model can be efficiently and easily integrated on Grid infrastructures, by means of the procedures described in this paper.     

Strategic questions for consumer-based health communications

Using the consumer-oriented approach of social and commercial marketers, this article presents a process for crafting messages designed to improve people's health behaviors. The process, termed consumer-based health communications (CHC), transforms scientific recommendations into message strategies that are relevant to the consumer. The core of CHC is consumer research conducted to understand the consumer's reality, and thereby allowing six strategic questions to be answered. The immediate result of the CHC process is a strategy statement--a few pages that lay out who the target consumer is, what action should be taken, what to promise and how to make the promise credible, how and when to reach him or her, and what image to convey. The strategy statement then guides the execution of all communication efforts, be they public relations, mass media, direct marketing, media advocacy, or interpersonal influence. It identifies the most important "levers" for contact with the consumer. Everyone from creative specialists through management and program personnel can use the strategy statement as a touchstone to guide and judge the effectiveness of their efforts. The article provides a step by step illustration of the CHC process using the 5 A Day campaign as an example.     

NK cells can recognize different forms of class I MHC

NK recognition and lysis of targets are mediated by activation receptor(s) whose effects may be over-ridden by inhibitory receptors recognizing class I MHC on the target. Incubation of normal lymphoblasts with a peptide that can bind to their class I MHC renders them sensitive to lysis by syngeneic NK cells. By binding to class I MHC, the peptide alters or masks the target structure recognized by an inhibitory NK receptor(s). This target structure is most likely an "empty" dimer of class I heavy chain and beta2m as opposed to a "full" class I trimer formed by binding of specific peptide that is recognized by CTL.     

Rupture of a hepatic artery aneurysm and renal infarction: 2 complications of fibromuscular dysplasia that mimic vasculitis

Fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) is one of the most important mimics of vasculitis. FMD is more prevalent in women and may cause infarcts of organ systems including the brain, intestines, and extremities. These acute clinical presentations often raise the suspicion of vasculitis and therefore rheumatologists will be asked to evaluate these patients. One of the frequent manifestations of FMD is renal artery involvement. Angiographic evaluation often shows a "string of beads" appearance of the renal arteries but sometimes only tapering of the vascular lumen or cutoffs may be seen. In contrast, hepatic artery involvement with FMD occurs much less frequently and may initially present with life threatening intraabdominal bleeding. Celiac angiograms of these patients often show aneurysms, a presentation similar to vasculitis. Only a high level of suspicion for FMD and careful evaluation of clinical facts will lead to correct diagnosis. This will prevent the wrong diagnosis of vasculitis and subsequent treatment with potentially toxic medications. We present 2 cases of FMD involving the renal and hepatic arteries that illustrate this diagnostic challenge.     

Multiple evolutionary origins of the fungus causing Panama disease of banana: concordant evidence from nuclear and mitochondrial gene genealogies

Panama disease of banana, caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense, is a serious constraint both to the commercial production of banana and cultivation for subsistence agriculture. Previous work has indicated that F. oxysporum f. sp. cubense consists of several clonal lineages that may be genetically distant. In this study we tested whether lineages of the Panama disease pathogen have a monophyletic origin by comparing DNA sequences of nuclear and mitochondrial genes. DNA sequences were obtained for translation elongation factor 1alpha and the mitochondrial small subunit ribosomal RNA genes for F. oxysporum strains from banana, pathogenic strains from other hosts and putatively nonpathogenic isolates of F. oxysporum. Cladograms for the two genes were highly concordant and a partition-homogeneity test indicated the two datasets could be combined. The tree inferred from the combined dataset resolved five lineages corresponding to "F. oxysporum f. sp. cubense" with a large dichotomy between two taxa represented by strains most commonly isolated from bananas with Panama disease. The results also demonstrate that the latter two taxa have significantly different chromosome numbers. F. oxysporum isolates collected as nonpathogenic or pathogenic to other hosts that have very similar or identical elongation factor 1alpha and mitochondrial small subunit genotypes as banana pathogens were shown to cause little or no disease on banana. Taken together, these results indicate Panama disease of banana is caused by fungi with independent evolutionary origins.