Assessment of Risk for Type 1 Diabetes in Children of Affected Families and in the General Population : Role of Immunological and Metabolic Markers

Background and aims. Type 1 diabetes (T1D), an autoimmune disease in which the insulin producing beta cells are gradually destroyed, is preceded by a prodromal phase characterized by appearance of diabetes-associated autoantibodies in circulation. Both the timing of the appearance of autoantibodies and their quality have been used in the prediction of T1D among first-degree relatives of diabetic patients (FDRs). So far, no general strategies for identifying individuals at increased disease risk in the general population have been established, although the majority of new cases originate in this population. The current work aimed at assessing the predictive role of diabetes-associated immunologic and metabolic risk factors in the general population, and comparing these factors with data obtained from studies on FDRs. Subjects and methods. Study subjects in the current work were subcohorts of participants of the Childhood Diabetes in Finland Study (DiMe; n=755), the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (LASERI; n=3475), and the Finnish Type 1 Diabetes Prediction and Prevention Study (DIPP) Study subjects (n=7410). These children were observed for signs of beta-cell autoimmunity and progression to T1D, and the results obtained were compared between the FDRs and the general population cohorts. --- Results and conclusions. By combining HLA and autoantibody screening, T1D risks similar to those reported for autoantibody-positive FDRs are observed in the pediatric general population. Progression rate to T1D is high in genetically susceptible children with persistent multipositivity. Measurement of IAA affinity failed in stratifying the risk assessment in young IAA-positive children with HLA-conferred disease susceptibility, among whom affinity of IAA did not increase during the prediabetic period. Young age at seroconversion, increased weight-for-height, decreased early insulin response, and increased IAA and IA-2A levels predict T1D in young children with genetic disease susceptibility and signs of advanced beta-cell autoimmunity. Since the incidence of T1D continues to increase, efforts aimed at preventing T1D are important, and reliable disease prediction is needed both for intervention trials and for effective and safe preventive therapies in the future. Our observations confirmed that combined HLA-based screening and regular autoantibody measurements reveal similar disease risks in pediatric general population as those seen in prediabetic FDRs, and that risk assessment can be stratified further by studying glucose metabolism of prediabetic subjects. As these screening efforts are feasible in practice, the knowledge now obtained can be exploited while designing intervention trials aimed at secondary prevention of T1D.

Composite MR image reconstruction and unaliasing for general trajectories using neural networks

In rapid parallel magnetic resonance imaging, the problem of image reconstruction is challenging. Here, a novel image reconstruction technique for data acquired along any general trajectory in neural network framework, called ``Composite Reconstruction And Unaliasing using Neural Networks'' (CRAUNN), is proposed. CRAUNN is based on the observation that the nature of aliasing remains unchanged whether the undersampled acquisition contains only low frequencies or includes high frequencies too. Here, the transformation needed to reconstruct the alias-free image from the aliased coil images is learnt, using acquisitions consisting of densely sampled low frequencies. Neural networks are made use of as machine learning tools to learn the transformation, in order to obtain the desired alias-free image for actual acquisitions containing sparsely sampled low as well as high frequencies. CRAUNN operates in the image domain and does not require explicit coil sensitivity estimation. It is also independent of the sampling trajectory used, and could be applied to arbitrary trajectories as well. As a pilot trial, the technique is first applied to Cartesian trajectory-sampled data. Experiments performed using radial and spiral trajectories on real and synthetic data, illustrate the performance of the method. The reconstruction errors depend on the acceleration factor as well as the sampling trajectory. It is found that higher acceleration factors can be obtained when radial trajectories are used. Comparisons against existing techniques are presented. CRAUNN has been found to perform on par with the state-of-the-art techniques. Acceleration factors of up to 4, 6 and 4 are achieved in Cartesian, radial and spiral cases, respectively. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Uniform Lanthanide Orthoborates LnBO(3) (Ln = Gd, Nd, Sm, Eu, Tb, and Dy) Microplates: General Synthesis and Luminescence Properties

A variety of uniform lanthanide orthoborates LnBO(3) (Ln = Gd, Nd, Sm, Eu, Tb, and Dy) microplates have been successfully prepared by a general and facile conversion method. One-dimensional (ID) lanthanide hydroxides were first prepared through a simple hydrothermal process. Subsequently, uniform LnBO(3) microplates were synthesized at the expense of the ID precursors during a hydrothermal conversion process. The whole process in this method was carried out in aqueous condition without the use of any organic solvents, surfactant, or catalyst. The as-obtained rare earth ions doped GdBO3 and TbBO3 microplates show strong light emissions with different colors coming from different activator ions under ultraviolet excitation or low-voltage electron beam excitation, which might find potential applications in fields such as light phosphor powders and advanced flat panel display devices.

Politicians, elections and catastrophe: the general election of 1847

Over the last decade, much new research has appeared on the subject of the Great Irish Famine but, remarkably, a major political event during the famine - the 1847 general election - has received virtually no mention. Recent work on politics in this period has tended to concentrate on political reaction in Britain rather than Ireland. The aim of this article is to examine the response of Irish politicians to the famine during the general election of 1847. The main source has been the political addresses and nomination speeches of most of the 140 candidates. The evidence from this material shows that, although the famine was an important matter in many constituencies, it was not the dominant issue countrywide. Various proposals to deal with the famine emerged, but there was an absence of agreed, practical measures to deal with immediate problems. The parties in Ireland failed to create a common platform to challenge the government over its efforts. Ideological constraints played an important part in these failures. The general election of 1847 represents a lost opportunity to tackle some of the effects of the famine.

After Housing Policy: Housing and the UK General Election 2001

This paper describes the results of a review of the housing content of UK General Election 2001 manifestos. Housing policy was of little importance during the election campaign. The main British political parties had, essentially, a shared housing agenda - to promote and facilitate home ownership, support area and community regeneration, tackle homelessness, improve the private rented sector, and prevent building on greenfield sites. Many issues of importance to housing specialists received little or no attention, most notably that of low demand. Some policy variations within the UK were evident, for example in attitudes towards greenfield development, home ownership and stock transfer. The paper concludes that differences in housing policy are emerging within the UK as part of a new politics of devolution and that the days of a single housing policy approach for the UK are over.

On Chaos and Fractals in General Topological Spaces

The present study on chaos and fractals in general topological spaces. Chaos theory originated with the work of Edward Lorenz. The phenomenon which changes order into disorder is known as chaos. Theory of fractals has its origin with the frame work of Benoit Mandelbrot in 1977. Fractals are irregular objects. In this study different properties of topological entropy in chaos spaces are studied, which also include hyper spaces. Topological entropy is a measures to determine the complexity of the space, and compare different chaos spaces. The concept of fractals can’t be extended to general topological space fast it involves Hausdorff dimensions. The relations between hausdorff dimension and packing dimension. Regular sets in Metric spaces using packing measures, regular sets were defined in IR” using Hausdorff measures. In this study some properties of self similar sets and partial self similar sets. We can associate a directed graph to each partial selfsimilar set. Dimension properties of partial self similar sets are studied using this graph. Introduce superself similar sets as a generalization of self similar sets and also prove that chaotic self similar self are dense in hyper space. The study concludes some relationships between different kinds of dimension and fractals. By defining regular sets through packing dimension in the same way as regular sets defined by K. Falconer through Hausdorff dimension, and different properties of regular sets also.

''Rainbow Designer'' : for global and multicultural design

What do the designers tend to achieve? To relate themselves to the reality by producing visual registers of emotions and thoughts, or by projecting and producing objects that are functional, adapting technologies to daily needs. That requires that a designer be a keen observer of his physical surroundings and have a fine sensibility to cultures, enabling him to disassemble the latent forms of the reality and cultural symbolisms in order to perceive the order underlying them and the principles of their composition and unity. Only then could he reproduce the nature and respond to cultural callings. In this process of understanding the surrounding reality of nature and cultures, a designer always moves, generally without being aware of it, between two processes: identity search and self-identification.