Insulin management and metabolic control of type 1 diabetes mellitus in childhood and adolescence in 18 countries. Hvid?re Study Group on Childhood Diabetes

Insulin regimens and metabolic control in children and adolescents with Type 1 diabetes mellitus were evaluated in a cross-sectional, non-population-based investigation, involving 22 paediatric departments, from 18 countries in Europe, Japan, and North America. Blood samples and information were collected from 2873 children from March to August 1995. HbA1c was determined once and analysed centrally (normal range 4.4-6.3%, mean 5.4%). Year of birth, sex, duration of diabetes, height, body weight, number of daily insulin injections, types and doses of insulin were recorded. Average HbA1c in children under 11 years was 8.3 +/- 1.3% (mean +/- SD) compared with 8.9 +/- 1.8% in those aged 12-18 years. The average insulin dose per kg body weight was almost constant (0.65 U kg(-1) 24 h(-1)) in children aged 2-9 years for both sexes, but there was a sharp increase during the pubertal years, particularly in girls. The increase in BMI of children with diabetes was much faster during adolescence compared to healthy children, especially in females. Sixty per cent of the children (n = 1707) used two daily insulin injections while 37% (n = 1071) used three or more. Of those on two or three injections daily, 37% used pre-mixed insulins, either alone or in combination with short- and intermediate-acting insulin. Pre-adolescent children on pre-mixed insulin showed similar HbA1c levels to those on a combination of short- and long-acting insulins, whereas in adolescents significantly better HbA1c values were achieved with individual combinations. Very young children were treated with a higher proportion of long-acting insulin. Among adolescent boys, lower HbA1c was related to use of more short-acting insulin. This association was not found in girls. We conclude that numerous insulin injection regimens are currently used in paediatric diabetes centres around the world, with an increasing tendency towards intensive diabetes management, particularly in older adolescents. Nevertheless, the goal of near normoglycaemia is achieved in only a few.     

Review of dental materials citations: Part A, January to June 1995

The study was conducted by the known tendencies of increased stress-susceptibility and metabolic disorders in individuals with hypertrophied muscles due to innate factors or intensive exercise which can induce the overtraining syndrome. Using an animal model, muscle-associated cells from normal (N) and hypertrophic (H) skeletal muscle (m.semitendinosus) were examined in their resting and phorbolmyristate acetate (PMA) stimulated oxidation of dihydrorhodamine (DHR) as well as cathepsin B and L activities. Phagocytes were phenotyped by their casein receptors (CR) and fibroblasts by their surface collagens (I and IV). The portion of CR-cells in single cell suspension was 4-8% and 1-3% in H and N. The CR-cells were enriched by 200 g centrifugation and cultured for 5 days with and without cortisol (C), norepinephrine (NE) and indomethacin (I). NE suppressed dose-dependently CR-expression in N, with increase in H occurring. C, NE and I elevated cathepsin activities only in N. PMA stimulated DHR oxidation in H and N 5- and 2-fold. Only the oxidative rate in N reacted to C, NE and I significantly. The data suggest that the response of muscle-associated cells from hypertrophied and normal muscles to signals released in stress-coping significantly differs.     

Empowering the Content Experts

Many in higher education have come to rely on MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resources for Learning and Online Teaching), a consortium that aims to motivate and support the effective use of technology in teaching. MERLOT currently represents 15 disciplines, each with its own editorial board. Both registered members and unregistered site visitors can browse the repository.     

THE MEASUREMENTS OF HUMAN INHALABILITY OF ULTRALARGE AEROSOLS IN CALM AIR USING MANNIKINS

An idea was first introduced during the 1970s that particles cannot produce adverse health effect unless they are inhaled into the human respiratory tract. Since then several studies have been carried out to investigate the inhalable fraction of ambient aerosols. However, the previous studies were confined to the conditions of external convective flow and particle aerodynamic diameter smaller than 100 μm. This paper reports the results from an inhalability study for particle aerodynamic diameter for a range of diameters which include diameters greater than 100 μm under a condition of no external convective flow. The concept of mass balance was used in this study to derive an equation for determining the ambient particle concentration from which inhalability was calculated. The results suggested that difference in ventilation demands between adults and children does not affect inhalability, however, the inhaled dose was significantly higher in adults than children because of higher ventilation demand of adults. In terms of the breathing mode, the inhalabilities of oronasal breathing for people at heavy exercise are much higher than those of nasal breathing which simulates breath at rest and moderate exercise. The inhalability curve derived from this study indicated that a cutoff diameter for zero inhalability exists, which should be considered in the future revision of ACGIH inhalable aerosols criteria.     

"Perceptions of parental relationships in the eating disorders: The relevance of depressed mood": Correction.

Reports errors in the original article by S. A. Wonderlich and W. J. Swift (Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1990[Nov], Vol 99[4], 353–360). The Intrapsychic surface in Figure 1 was incorrectly labeled on Clusters 6 and 8, and the coefficients in Table 2 for "Father controls me" ought to be –0.6 for the bulimic–anorexic diagnostic group and .15 for the bulimic diagnostic group. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in PA, Vol 78:10468.) Recent studies (e.g., D. M. Garner et al; see record 1985-22960-001) have suggested that subtypes of eating-disordered persons differ in their perceptions of their family environments. This study used the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior to examine how depressed mood influenced eating-disordered Ss' ratings of their parental relationships. The results indicated that when level of mood disturbance was statistically controlled, there were no significant differences in parent ratings among 11 restricting anorexics, 11 bulimic anorexics, 26 bulimics, and 29 normal control Ss. The results are discussed in terms of the possible relations of mood, eating disorder, and perception of family relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Human, but not bovine, oxidized cerebral spinal fluid lipoproteins disrupt neuronal microtubules

Cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) lipoproteins have become a focus of research since the observation that inheritance of particular alleles of the apolipoprotein E gene affects the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). There is evidence of increased lipid peroxidation in CSF lipoproteins from patients with AD, but the biological significance of this observation is not known. A characteristic of the AD brain is a disturbance of the neuronal microtubule organization. We have shown previously that 4-hydroxy-2(E)-nonenal, a major product of lipid peroxidation, causes disruption of neuronal microtubules and therefore tested whether oxidized CSF lipoproteins had the same effect. We exposed Neuro 2A cells to human CSF lipoproteins and analyzed the microtubule organization by immunofluorescence. In vitro oxidized human CSF lipoproteins caused disruption of the microtubule network, while their native (nonoxidized) counterparts did not. Microtubule disruption was observed after short exposures (1 h) and lipoprotein concentrations were present in CSF (20 μg/mL), conditions that did not result in loss of cell viability. Importantly, adult bovine CSF lipoproteins, oxidized under identical conditions, had no effect on the microtubule organization of Neuro 2A cells. Comparison of human and bovine CSF lipoproteins revealed similar oxidation-induced modifications of apolipoproteins E and A-I as analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Western blotting. Fatty acid analysis revealed substantially lower amounts of unsaturated fatty acids in bovine CSF lipoproteins, when compared to their human counterparts. Our data therefore indicate that oxidized human CSF lipoproteins are detrimental to neuronal microtubules. This effect is species-specific, since equally oxidized bovine CSF lipoproteins left the neuronal microtubule organization unchanged.     

Input Admittance of a Circular Waveguide Aperture Covered by a Dielectric Slab

The input admittance of a circular waveguide opening onto an infinite flange with a homogeneous lossy dielectric coating is derived using integral transforms and assuming the dominant TE11mode as the trial field at the aperture. Admittance calculations for low-loss dielectric sheets of various thicknesses are given and compared with measurements obtained using ground planes of varying sizes. Excellent agreement with theory is obtained for the circular waveguide terminated into a square ground plane only1lambdato2lambda. on a side. A quantitative comparison of the surface wave contribution to the total admittance is also given.     

A flexible super conducting ac cable: radial thermal contraction and the x-ray examination of a sample length of cold core

The temperature reduction which a superconducting cable core will have to undergo following its manufacture and installation is nearly 300 K before it can be used. The satisfactory accommodation of the corresponding significant amount of thermal contraction of its component parts is therefore of major importance.This paper is concerned with such thermal contraction upon cooling of a flexible superconducting ac cable core comprising helically laid strip conductors of niobium clad copper and a polyethylene tape dielectric with electrostatic screens and bedding layers.A method is described of designing, for a controlled amount of radial contraction, a core held at near constant length. A report is also given of the x-ray examination of a sample core used for voltage tests. The relevance of the results to some other designs of core is discussed.     

An investigation of the effect of an axial magnetic field on the He-Cd+laser

The drastic effect that a weak axial magnetic field can have upon the output of an He-Cd+ metal vapor laser is reported. A 37-percent increase in output power has been observed for a tube current of 55 mA and magnetic field strength of 70 G. Also described are parametric and spectroscopic studies performed to elucidate the cause of the large power output change.     

Transport and effects of fine particles

Fine particles in the airborne environment are responsible for a number of undesirable effects. Separation between sources and receptors means that a number of transport mechanisms must be considered in assessing the influence of control at source upon the effects. This paper reviews the current state of knowledge of source—receptor transport and its influence upon effects, and suggests several areas where research is needed.