Diabetes in the young - a global view and worldwide estimates of numbers of children with type 1 diabetes

This paper describes the methodology, results and limitations of the 2013 International Diabetes Federation (IDF) Atlas (6th edition) estimates of the worldwide numbers of prevalent cases of type 1 diabetes in children (<15 years). The majority of relevant information in the published literature is in the form of incidence rates derived from registers of newly diagnosed cases. Studies were graded on quality criteria and, if no information was available in the published literature, extrapolation was used to assign a country the rate from an adjacent country with similar characteristics. Prevalence rates were then derived from these incidence rates and applied to United Nations 2012 Revision population estimates for 2013 for each country to obtain estimates of the number of prevalent cases. Data availability was highest for the countries in Europe (76%) and lowest for the countries in sub-Saharan Africa (8%). The prevalence estimates indicate that there are almost 500,000 children aged under 15 years with type 1 diabetes worldwide, the largest numbers being in Europe (129,000) and North America (108,700). Countries with the highest estimated numbers of new cases annually were the United States (13,000), India (10,900) and Brazil (5000). Compared with the prevalence estimates made in previous editions of the IDF Diabetes Atlas, the numbers have increased in most of the IDF Regions, often reflecting the incidence rate increases that have been well-documented in many countries. Monogenic diabetes is increasingly being recognised among those with clinical features of type 1 or type 2 diabetes as genetic studies become available, but population-based data on incidence and prevalence show wide variation due to lack of standardisation in the studies. Similarly, studies on type 2 diabetes in childhood suggest increased incidence and prevalence in many countries, especially in Indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities, but detailed population-based studies remain limited.

The synapsin cycle:a view from the synaptic endocytic zone

Although the synapsin phosphoproteins were discovered more than 30 years ago and are known to play important roles in neurotransmitter release and synaptogenesis, a complete picture of their functions within the nerve terminal is lacking. It has been shown that these proteins play an important role in the clustering of synaptic vesicles (SVs) at active zones and function as modulators of synaptic strength by acting at both pre- and postdocking levels. Recent studies have demonstrated that synapsins migrate to the endocytic zone of central synapses during neurotransmitter release, which suggests that there are additional functions for these proteins in SV recycling.

POINTS OF VIEW: Multi-Roling Performance in Ireland in the 1990s, Part 1 (Layering)

This series of posts will consider the acting techniques required for this style of performance with reference to four productions from the 1990s in which two actors took on multiple roles: Frank Pig Says Hello (1992), Co-Motion’s stage adaptation of Pat McCabe’s novel; The Butcher Boy, Corca Dorca’s production of Disco Pigs (1996) by Enda Walsh; DubbleJoint’s production of Stones in his Pockets by Marie Jones (1996) and its subsequent award-winning revival which I produced at Belfast’s Lyric Theatre in 1999; and Kabosh’s production of Mojo Mickybo by Owen McCafferty (1998). The discussion will focus primarily on my own empirical exploration of the demands multi-roling places on an actor through the direction of recent revivals of Mojo Mickybo for Belfast’s Chatterbox Theatre Company (2013) and Bedlam Productions (2015).

POINTS OF VIEW: Multi-Roling Performance in Ireland in the 1990s, Part 2 (Characterisation)

The 1990s in Ireland saw a series of highly successful theatre productions in which actors played a multiplicity of roles. This has often been attributed to the economic exigencies of the times, but it also depended on the availability of flexible actors with the physical and psychological capacity to embody a wide range of identifiable characters within the one production.

This second of two posts considers the acting techniques required for this style of performance in relation to the differentiation of one character from another. The discussion will focus primarily on my own empirical exploration of the demands multi-roling places on an actor through the direction of recent revivals of Mojo Mickybo for Belfast’s Chatterbox Theatre Company (2013) and Bedlam Productions (2015).

A magnetic cycle of τ Bootis? The coronal and chromospheric view

τ Bootis is a late F-type main sequence star orbited by a Hot Jupiter. During the last years spectropolarimetric observations led to the hypothesis that this star may host a global magnetic field that switches its polarity once per year, indicating a very short activity cycle of only one year duration. In our ongoing observational campaign, we have collected several X-ray observations with XMM-Newton and optical spectra with TRES/FLWO in Arizona to characterize τ Boo's corona and chromosphere over the course of the supposed one-year cycle. Contrary to the spectropolarimetric reconstructions, our observations do not show indications for a short activity cycle.

Dublin 1916: theatre of revolt

In his essay, Anti-Object, Kengo Kuma proposes that architecture cannot and should not be understood as object alone but instead always as series of networks and connections, relationships within space and through form. Some of these relationships are tangible, others are invisible. Stan Allen and James Corner have also called for an architecture that is more performative and operative – ‘less concerned with what buildings look like and more concerned with what they do’ – as means of effecting a more intimate and promiscuous relationship between infrastructure, urbanism and buildings. According to Allen this expanding filed offers a reclamation of some of the areas ceded by architecture following disciplinary specialization:

‘Territory, communication and speed are properly infrastructural problems and architecture as a discipline has developed specific technical means to deal with these variables. Mapping, projection, calculation, notation and visualization are among architecture’s traditional tools for operating at the very large scale’.

The motorway may not look like it – partly because we are no longer accustomed to think about it as such – but it is a site for and of architecture, a territory where architecture can be critical and active. If the limits of the discipline have narrowed, then one of the functions of a school of architecture must be an attempt occupy those areas of the built environment where architecture is no longer, or has yet to reach. If this is a project about reclamation of a landscape, it is also a challenge to some of the boundaries that surround architecture and often confine it, as Kuma suggests, to the appreciation of isolated objects.

M:NI 2014-15
We tend to think of the motorway as a thing or an object, something that has a singular function. Historically this is how it has been seen, with engineers designing bridges and embankments and suchlike with zeal … These objects like the M3 Urban Motorway, Belfast’s own Westway, are beautiful of course, but they have caused considerable damage to the city they were inflicted upon.

Actually, it’s the fact that we have seen the motorway as a solid object that has caused this problem. The motorway actually is a fluid and dynamic thing, and it should be seen as such: in fact it’s not an organ at all but actually tissue – something that connects rather than is. Once we start to see the motorway as tissue, it opens up new propositions about what the motorway is, is used for and does. This new dynamic and connective view unlocks the stasis of the motorway as edifice, and allows adaptation to happen: adaptation to old contexts that were ignored by the planners, and adaptation to new contexts that have arisen because of or in spite of our best efforts.

Motorways as tissue are more than just infrastructures: they are landscapes. These landscapes can be seen as surfaces on which flows take place, not only of cars, buses and lorries, but also of the globalized goods carried and the lifestyles and mobilities enabled. Here the infinite speed of urban change of thought transcends the declared speed limit [70 mph] of the motorway, in that a consignment of bananas can cause soil erosion in Equador, or the delivery of a new iphone can unlock connections and ideas the world over.

So what is this new landscape to be like? It may be a parallax-shifting, cognitive looking glass; a drone scape of energy transformation; a collective farm, or maybe part of a hospital. But what’s for sure, is that it is never fixed nor static: it pulses like a heartbeat through that most bland of landscapes, the countryside. It transmits forces like a Caribbean hurricane creating surf on an Atlantic Storm Beach: alien forces that mutate and re-form these places screaming into new, unclear and unintended futures.

And this future is clear: the future is urban. In this small rural country, motorways as tissue have made the whole of it: countryside, mountain, sea and town, into one singular, homogenous and hyper-connected, generic city.

Goodbye, place. Hello, surface!

MNI: Motorway Notation Network

In his essay, Anti-Object, Kengo Kuma proposes that architecture cannot and should not be understood as object alone but instead always as series of networks and connections, relationships within space and through form. Some of these relationships are tangible, others are invisible. Stan Allen and James Corner have also called for an architecture that is more performative and operative – ‘less concerned with what buildings look like and more concerned with what they do’ – as means of effecting a more intimate and promiscuous relationship between infrastructure, urbanism and buildings. According to Allen this expanding filed offers a reclamation of some of the areas ceded by architecture following disciplinary specialization:

‘Territory, communication and speed are properly infrastructural problems and architecture as a discipline has developed specific technical means to deal with these variables. Mapping, projection, calculation, notation and visualization are among architecture’s traditional tools for operating at the very large scale’.

The motorway may not look like it – partly because we are no longer accustomed to think about it as such – but it is a site for and of architecture, a territory where architecture can be critical and active. If the limits of the discipline have narrowed, then one of the functions of a school of architecture must be an attempt occupy those areas of the built environment where architecture is no longer, or has yet to reach. If this is a project about reclamation of a landscape, it is also a challenge to some of the boundaries that surround architecture and often confine it, as Kuma suggests, to the appreciation of isolated objects.

M:NI 2014-15
We tend to think of the motorway as a thing or an object, something that has a singular function. Historically this is how it has been seen, with engineers designing bridges and embankments and suchlike with zeal … These objects like the M3 Urban Motorway, Belfast’s own Westway, are beautiful of course, but they have caused considerable damage to the city they were inflicted upon.

Actually, it’s the fact that we have seen the motorway as a solid object that has caused this problem. The motorway actually is a fluid and dynamic thing, and it should be seen as such: in fact it’s not an organ at all but actually tissue – something that connects rather than is. Once we start to see the motorway as tissue, it opens up new propositions about what the motorway is, is used for and does. This new dynamic and connective view unlocks the stasis of the motorway as edifice, and allows adaptation to happen: adaptation to old contexts that were ignored by the planners, and adaptation to new contexts that have arisen because of or in spite of our best efforts.

Motorways as tissue are more than just infrastructures: they are landscapes. These landscapes can be seen as surfaces on which flows take place, not only of cars, buses and lorries, but also of the globalized goods carried and the lifestyles and mobilities enabled. Here the infinite speed of urban change of thought transcends the declared speed limit [70 mph] of the motorway, in that a consignment of bananas can cause soil erosion in Equador, or the delivery of a new iphone can unlock connections and ideas the world over.

So what is this new landscape to be like? It may be a parallax-shifting, cognitive looking glass; a drone scape of energy transformation; a collective farm, or maybe part of a hospital. But what’s for sure, is that it is never fixed nor static: it pulses like a heartbeat through that most bland of landscapes, the countryside. It transmits forces like a Caribbean hurricane creating surf on an Atlantic Storm Beach: alien forces that mutate and re-form these places screaming into new, unclear and unintended futures.

And this future is clear: the future is urban. In this small rural country, motorways as tissue have made the whole of it: countryside, mountain, sea and town, into one singular, homogenous and hyper-connected, generic city.

Goodbye, place. Hello, surface!

A frontal view gait recognition based on 3D imaging using a time of flight camera

Studies have been carried out to recognize individuals from a frontal view using their gait patterns. In previous work, gait sequences were captured using either single or stereo RGB camera systems or the Kinect 1.0 camera system. In this research, we used a new frontal view gait recognition method using a laser based Time of Flight (ToF) camera. In addition to the new gait data set, other contributions include enhancement of the silhouette segmentation, gait cycle estimation and gait image representations. We propose four new gait image representations namely Gait Depth Energy Image (GDE), Partial GDE (PGDE), Discrete Cosine Transform GDE (DGDE) and Partial DGDE (PDGDE). The experimental results show that all the proposed gait image representations produce better accuracy than the previous methods. In addition, we have also developed Fusion GDEs (FGDEs) which achieve better overall accuracy and outperform the previous methods.

The Pine Wood Nematode: a personal view

The first report of the disease (“pine wilt disease”) associated with the pinewood nematode, goes back to 1905, when Yano reported an unusual decline of pines from Nagasaki. For a long time thereafter, the cause of he disease was sought, but without success. Because of the large number of insect species that were usually seen around and on infected trees, it had always been assumed that the causal agent would prove to be one of these. However, in 1971, Kiyohara and Tokushike found a nematode of the genus Bursaphelenchus in infected trees. The nematode found was multiplied on fungal culture, inoculated into healthy trees and then re-isolated from the resulting wilted trees. The subsequent published reports were impressive: this Bursaphelenchus species could kill fully-grown trees within a few months in the warmer areas of Japan, and could destroy complete forests of susceptible pine species within a few years. Pinus densiflora, P. thunbergii und P. luchuensis were particularly affected. In 1972, Mamiya and Kiyohara described the new species of nematode extracted from the wood of diseased pines; it was a named Bursaphelenchus lignicolus. Since 1975, the species has spread to the north of Japan, with the exception of the most northerly prefectures. In 1977, the loss of wood in the west of the country reached 80%. Probably as a result of unusually high summer temperatures and reduced rainfall in the years 1978 and 1979, the losses were more than 2 million m3 per year. From the beginning, B. lignicolus was always considered by Japanese scientists to be an exotic pest. But where did it come from? That this nematode could also cause damage in the USA became clear in 1979 when B. lignicolus was isolated in great numbers from wood of a 39 year-old pine tree (Pinus nigra) in Missouri which had suddenly died after the colour of its needles changed to a reddish-brown colour (Dropkin und Foudin, 2 1979). In 1981, B. lignicolus was synonymised by Nickle et al. with B. xylophilus which had been found for the first time in the USA as far back as 1929, and reported by Steiner and Buhrer in 1934. It had originally been named Aphelenchoides xylophilus, the wood-inhabiting Aphelenchoides but was recognised by Nickle, in 1970,to belong in the genus Bursaphelenchus. Its common name in the USA was the "pine wood nematode" (PWN. After its detection in Missouri, it became known that B. xylophilus was widespread throughout the USA and Canada. It occurred there on native species of conifers where, as a rule, it did not show the symptoms of pine wilt disease unless susceptible species were stressed eg., by high temperature. This fact was an illuminating piece of evidence that North America could be the homeland of PWN. Dwinell (1993) later reported the presence of B. xylophilus in Mexico. The main vector of the PWN in Japan was shown to be the long-horned beetle Monochamus alternatus, belonging to the family Cerambycidae. This beetle lays its eggs in dead or dying trees where the developing larvae then feed in the cambium layer. It was already known in Japan in the 19th century but in the 1930s, it was said to be present in most areas of Japan, but was generally uncommon. However, with the spread of the pine wilt disease, and the resulting increase of weakened trees that could act as breeding sites for beetles, the populations of Monochamus spp. increased significantly In North America, other Monochamus species transmit PWN, and the main vector is M. carolinensis. In Japan, there are also other, less efficient vectors in the genus Monochamus. Possibly, all Monochamus species that breed in conifers can transmit the PWN. The occasional transmission by less efficient species of Monochamus or by some of the many other beetle genera in the bark or wood is of little significance. In Europe, M. galloprovincialis and M. sutor transmits the closely related species B. mucronatus. Some speculate that these two insect species are “standing by” and waiting for the arrival of B. xylophilus. In 1982, the nematode was detected and China. It was first found in dead pines near the Zhongshan Monument of Nanjing (CHENG et. al. 1983); 265 trees were then killed by pine wilt disease. Despite great efforts at eradication in China, the nematode spread further and pine wilt disease has been 3 reported from parts of the provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, Guangdong, Shandong, Zhejiang and Hubei (YANG, 2003). In 1986, the spread of the PWN to Taiwan was discovered and in 1989, the nematode was reported to be present in the Republic of Korea where it had first been detected in Pinus thunbergii and P. densiflora. It was though to have been introduced with packing material from Japan. PWN was advancing. In 1984, B. xylophilus was found in wood chips imported into Finland from the USA and Canada, and this was the impetus to establish phytosanitary measures to prevent any possible spread into Europe. Finland prohibited the import of coniferous wood chips from these sources, and the other Nordic countries soon followed suit. EPPO (the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization) made a recommendation to its member countries in 1986 to refuse wood imports from infested countries. With its Directive of 1989 (77/93 EEC), the European Community (later called the European Union or EU) recognised the potential danger of B. xylophilus for European forests and imposed restrictions on imports into the Europe. PWN was placed on the quarantine list of the EU and also of other European countries. Later, in 1991, a dispensation was allowed by the Commission of the EU(92/13 EEC) for coniferous wood from North America provided that certain specified requirements were fulfilled that would prevent introduction.

Exact and numerical solutions for diffusio-reaction equations with convection term

Esta dissertação estuda essencialmente dois problemas: (A) uma classe de equações unidimensionais de reacção-difusão-convecção em meios não uniformes (dependentes do espaço), e (B) um problema elíptico não-linear e paramétrico ligado a fenómenos de capilaridade. A Análise de Perturbação Singular e a dinâmica de Hamilton-Jacobi são utilizadas na obtenção de expressões assimptóticas para a solução (com comportamento de frente) e para a sua velocidade de propagação. Os seguintes três métodos de decomposição, Adomian Decomposition Method (ADM), Decomposition Method based on Infinite Products (DIP), e New Iterative Method (NIM), são apresentados e brevemente comparados. Adicionalmente, condições suficientes para a convergência da solução em série, obtida pelo ADM, e uma aplicação a um problema da Telecomunicações por Fibras Ópticas, envolvendo EDOs não-lineares designadas equações de Raman, são discutidas. Um ponto de vista mais abrangente que unifica os métodos de decomposição referidos é também apresentado. Para subclasses desta EDP são obtidas soluções numa forma explícita, para diferentes tipos de dados e usando uma variante do método de simetrias de Bluman-Cole. Usando Teoria de Pontos Críticos (o teorema usualmente designado mountain pass) e técnicas de truncatura, prova-se a existência de duas soluções não triviais (uma positiva e uma negativa) para o problema elíptico não-linear e paramétrico (B). A existência de uma terceira solução não trivial é demonstrada usando Grupos Críticos e Teoria de Morse.

Ecological assessment of the red deer population in the Lousã Mountain

Durante o último século, as populações de cervídeos têm aumentado substancialmente um pouco por toda a Europa. O veado Cervus elaphus não foi exceção, apresentando atualmente uma ampla distribuição geográfica. Após a quase extinção de todas as populações selvagens desta espécie em Portugal, o número de efetivos de veado e a área de distribuição da espécie têm aumentado significativamente nas últimas décadas. Esta proliferação deveu-se fundamentalmente aos processos de reintrodução implementados em algumas zonas do país, como foi o caso da Serra da Lousã. Dez anos após a reintrodução, a expansão geográfica e demográfica é já uma realidade e a espécie assume um papel relevante tanto do ponto de vista cinegético como turístico. Com o aumento das populações de ungulados, surge a necessidade de aumentar o conhecimento existente sobre estas espécies, particularmente ao nível das estimativas populacionais, do uso e seleção de habitat, do comportamento e da fisiologia das populações. Neste sentido, um dos objetivos foi comparar quatro métodos de contagem de excrementos em termos de estimativa populacional, aplicabilidade e eficiência. Face aos resultados obtidos, o método de transectos lineares com distance sampling revelou-se o mais eficiente, providenciando uma boa precisão num menor tempo. Relativamente ao uso e seleção do habitat, recorrendo a transectos de contagem de excrementos e a observações diretas, verificou-se que o veado seleciona positivamente habitats que lhe proporcionam simultaneamente alimento e refúgio, como é o caso das áreas de ecótono. A preferência por áreas de ecótono evidencia um comportamento adaptativo de maximização de energia, no qual os animais optam por procurar refúgio na proximidade das áreas de alimentação de forma a minimizarem os dispêndios energéticos. Em termos de dinâmica populacional, verificou-se uma relação entre a densidade de veado e o tamanho dos seus grupos, bem como o efeito nos mesmos do coberto vegetal. Contudo, dado o seu alto dimorfismo sexual em termos de tamanho corporal, as preferências de habitat podem também ser em parte responsáveis pela segregação sexual fora da época de reprodução. Face aos resultados obtidos através do método de observação direta de animais, a segregação sexual surge como consequência da interação entre fatores sociais e de habitat, que resultam de diferentes estratégias reprodutivas por parte de ambos os sexos. As diferentes estratégias reprodutivas são também notórias em termos de condição física e imunológica, com os machos a aumentarem a sua condição durante as épocas de primavera e verão de forma a melhorarem a sua performance durante o cio, e as fêmeas a viverem grande parte do ano no limiar da condição física devido ao seu investimento na sobrevivência da sua descendência. Globalmente, o veado apresenta uma boa adaptação à Serra da Lousã e representa um importante recurso natural para esta região. Contudo, para que a proliferação desta população selvagem continue, é necessária a implementação de medidas de gestão adequadas a este ecossistema mediterrâneo.

Studies on honey from the Algarve in view of its valorization

Tese de dout., Química, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Univ. do Algarve, 2012