Ethnic differences in diabetes, cardiovascular risk factors and health care: the Amsterdam Health Survey of 2004

The prevalence of diabetes in inhabitants of Amsterdam (18 years and older) is 4%. The prevalence of diabetes is three times higher among Turkish people and four times higher among Moroccans in comparison to Dutch people. Turkish diabetes patients have a higher mean body mass index compared to Dutch diabetes patients, but Turkish and Moroccan diabetes patients are admitted to hospital less often than Dutch diabetes patients. It is important for policy makers to know the differences in disease prevalence and health care use between ethnic groups, considering the expected rise in the proportion of immigrants. These results formed contributions to this report that was brought out by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment and in cooperation with the Amsterdam Health Monitor of the Amsterdam Health Service. Forty-three percent of the 4042 invited Amsterdam inhabitants participated in the study in 2004. Ethnic differences in health and health care use were analyzed for the age group of 18-70 years, standardized for age and gender. Turkish and Moroccan people without diabetes differed from Dutch people without diabetes on many counts. For example, Turkish and Moroccan people were more often overweight and had higher mean blood glucose levels. They visited their general practitioners more often and experienced their own health as being moderate or poor on a more frequent basis. Turkish people without diabetes experienced more serious cardiac problems than Dutch people. The prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in diabetes patients was high among all ethnic groups. In general, cardiovascular risk factors were more frequent in Turkish diabetes patients, and to a lesser extent in Moroccan diabetes patients, compared to Dutch diabetes patients. Treatment of cardiovascular risk factors in diabetes patients is important for the prevention of or delay in cardiovascular complications.De prevalentie van diabetes bij inwoners van Amsterdam (18 jaar en ouder) wordt geschat op vier procent. Turken en Marokkanen hebben respectievelijk driemaal en viermaal vaker diabetes vergeleken met Nederlanders. Turkse diabeten zijn gemiddeld zwaarder dan Nederlandse diabeten. Turkse en Marokkaanse diabeten worden echter minder vaak opgenomen in een ziekenhuis dan Nederlandse diabeten. Een beschrijving van etniciteitverschillen in het voorkomen van ziekten en zorggebruik is van belang voor het beleid omdat immigranten een steeds groter deel van de bevolking zullen gaan uitmaken. De Amsterdamse Gezondheidsmonitor 2004 is uitgevoerd door de GGD Amsterdam in samenwerking met het RIVM. Drieenveertig procent van 4042 uitgenodigde Amsterdammers (18 jaar en ouder) heeft aan het onderzoek meegedaan. Etnische verschillen in gezondheid en zorg werden geanalyseerd voor de leeftijd 18-70 jaar, gestandaardiseerd naar leeftijd en geslacht. Turken en Marokkanen zonder diabetes verschilden op bijna alle uitkomsten van Nederlanders zonder diabetes. Turken en Marokkanen waren bijvoorbeeld gemiddeld zwaarder dan Nederlanders en zij hadden hogere gemiddelde bloedglucosewaarden. Zij gingen vaker naar de huisarts en waren minder tevreden over de eigen gezondheid. Acht procent van de Turken zonder diabetes heeft ooit een ernstige hartaandoening gehad, dit is bijna viermaal zo vaak als bij Nederlanders zonder diabetes. Risicofactoren voor hart- en vaatziekten kwamen veel voor bij diabeten uit alle etnische groepen. Turkse diabeten, en in mindere mate Marokkaanse diabeten, hadden over het algemeen een ongunstiger risicoprofiel dan Nederlandse diabeten. Behandeling van het risicoprofiel van diabetespatienten is belangrijk om het optreden van complicaties te voorkomen of uit te stellen

Expression of the RNA helicase DDX3 and the hypoxia response in breast cancer

<p>Aims: DDX3 is an RNA helicase that has antiapoptotic properties, and promotes proliferation and transformation. In addition, DDX3 was shown to be a direct downstream target of HIF-1α (the master regulatory of the hypoxia response) in breast cancer cell lines. However, the relation between DDX3 and hypoxia has not been addressed in human tumors. In this paper, we studied the relation between DDX3 and the hypoxic responsive proteins in human breast cancer.</p> <p>Methods and Results: DDX3 expression was investigated by immunohistochemistry in breast cancer in comparison with hypoxia related proteins HIF-1α, GLUT1, CAIX, EGFR, HER2, Akt1, FOXO4, p53, ERα, COMMD1, FER kinase, PIN1, E-cadherin, p21, p27, Transferrin receptor, FOXO3A, c-Met and Notch1. DDX3 was overexpressed in 127 of 366 breast cancer patients, and was correlated with overexpression of HIF-1α and its downstream genes CAIX and GLUT1. Moreover, DDX3 expression correlated with hypoxia-related proteins EGFR, HER2, FOXO4, ERα and c-Met in a HIF-1α dependent fashion, and with COMMD1, FER kinase, Akt1, E-cadherin, TfR and FOXO3A independent of HIF-1α.</p> <p>Conclusions: In invasive breast cancer, expression of DDX3 was correlated with overexpression of HIF-1α and many other hypoxia related proteins, pointing to a distinct role for DDX3 under hypoxic conditions and supporting the oncogenic role of DDX3 which could have clinical implication for current development of DDX3 inhibitors.</p&gt

Self-Association of an Activating Natural Killer Cell Receptor, KIR2DS1

As a major component of the innate immune system, natural killer cells are responsible for activating the cytolytic killing of certain pathogen-infected or tumor cells. The self-recognition of natural killer cells is achieved in part by the killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) protein family. In the current study, using a suite of biophysical methods, we investigate the self-association of an activating KIR, KIR2DS1. This KIR is of particular interest because when in the presence of the HLA-Cw6 protein, KIR2DS1 becomes a major risk factor for psoriasis, an autoimmune chronic skin disease. Using circular dichroism spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, and atomic force microscopy, we reveal that KIR2DS1 self-associates in a well-defined fashion. Our novel results on an activating KIR allow us to suggest a working model for the KIR2DS1- HLA class I molecular mechanism

Ring-LWE:applications to cryptography and their efficient realization

© Springer International Publishing AG 2016. The persistent progress of quantum computing with algorithms of Shor and Proos and Zalka has put our present RSA and ECC based public key cryptosystems at peril. There is a flurry of activity in cryptographic research community to replace classical cryptography schemes with their post-quantum counterparts. The learning with errors problem introduced by Oded Regev offers a way to design secure cryptography schemes in the post-quantum world. Later for efficiency LWE was adapted for ring polynomials known as Ring-LWE. In this paper we discuss some of these ring-LWE based schemes that have been designed. We have also drawn comparisons of different implementations of those schemes to illustrate their evolution from theoretical proposals to practically feasible schemes

Influence of soil type and natural Zn chelates on flax response, tensile properties and soil Zn availability

A greenhouse experiment was conducted on weakly acidic and calcareous soils to evaluate the relative efficiencies of three natural Zn chelates [Zn-aminelignosulphonate (Zn-AML), Zn-polyhydroxyphenylcarboxylate (Zn-PHP) and Zn-S,S-ethylenediaminedisuccinate (Zn-S,S-EDDS)] applied to a crop textile flax (Linum ussitatisimum L.) at application rates of 0, 5 and 10 mg Zn kg−1. In the flax plant, the following parameters were determined: dry matter yield, soluble and total Zn concentrations in leaf and stem, chlorophyll, crude fibre, and tensile properties. For the different soil samples, the following parameters were determined: available Zn (DTPA-AB and Mehlich-3 extractable Zn), easily leachable Zn (BaCl2-extractable Zn), the distribution of Zn fractions, pH and redox potential. On the basis of the use of added Zn by flax, or Zn utilization, it would seem recommendable to apply Zn-S,S-EDDS at the low Zn rate in both soils. In contrast, adding the high Zn rate of this chelate to the weakly acidic soil produced an excessive Zn concentration in the plant, which caused a significant decrease in both dry matter yield and chlorophyll content. Furthermore, assessing available Zn with the DTPA-AB method proved the best way of estimating the level of excess Zn in flax plants. The soluble Zn concentration, which was established with 2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid reagent (MES), of plant fresh and dry matter could be used as an alternative way of diagnosing the nutritional status of Zn in flax plants. In this experiment, the highest soil pHs were associated with the lowest redox potentials, which coincided with the smallest amounts of available Zn and water soluble Zn in soil, and the lowest levels of Zn uptake by flax plants

Biophysical and electrochemical studies of protein-nucleic acid interactions

This review is devoted to biophysical and electrochemical methods used for studying protein-nucleic acid (NA) interactions. The importance of NA structure and protein-NA recognition for essential cellular processes, such as replication or transcription, is discussed to provide background for description of a range of biophysical chemistry methods that are applied to study a wide scope of protein-DNA and protein-RNA complexes. These techniques employ different detection principles with specific advantages and limitations and are often combined as mutually complementary approaches to provide a complete description of the interactions. Electrochemical methods have proven to be of great utility in such studies because they provide sensitive measurements and can be combined with other approaches that facilitate the protein-NA interactions. Recent applications of electrochemical methods in studies of protein-NA interactions are discussed in detail

Chironomid-based palaeotemperature estimates for northeast Finland during Oxygen Isotope Stage 3.

Quantitative palaeotemperature estimates for the earlier part of Oxygen Isotope Stage (OIS-) 3 are inferred from subfossil chironomid remains. The high-latitudinal study site of Sokli, northeast Finland, provides for a unique lacustrine deposit covering the earlier part of OIS-3, and the chironomid remains found in the sediments show that a shallow lake with a diverse fauna was present at the study site throughout the record. Using a Norwegian calibration data set as a modern analogue, mean July air temperatures are reconstructed. The chironomid-inferred July air temperatures are surprisingly high, reaching values similar to the current temperature at the study site. Other proxies that were applied to the sediments included the analysis of botanical and zoological macro-remains, and our results concur with temperature estimates derived from climate indicator taxa. Summer temperatures for interstadial conditions, reconstructed with climate models, are as high as our proxy-based palaeotemperatures

TNK2 preserves epidermal growth factor receptor expression on the cell surface and enhances migration and invasion of human breast cancer cells

Introduction Amplification of the TNK2 gene in primary tumours correlates with poor prognosis. In accordance, TNK2 overexpression was shown to promote invasion of cancer cells - but the mechanism by which TNK2 mediates these effects is unresolved. TNK2 was suggested to regulate Cdc42-driven migration by activation of breast cancer antioestrogen resistance 1 (BCAR1); however, distinct from this effect is evidence for a role of TNK2 in the regulation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) endocytosis and degradation. In the present study we sought to investigate whether negative targeting of TNK2 by siRNA could be used to inhibit cancer cell invasion, to establish the contribution of its effect on the EGFR and to consequently attempt to resolve the issue of TNK2's mechanism of action. Methods We used siRNA to knockdown expression of TNK2 and its proposed effector BCAR1 in order to analyse the effect of this knockdown on cancer cell behaviour in vitro. We examined morphological changes using phase-contrast microscopy and immunohistochemistry. Functional parameters examined included apoptosis, proliferation, migration and invasion. We also performed flow cytometry analysis to examine EGFR cell surface expression and carried out western blot to examine the total EGFR levels. Results We observed that targeting of TNK2 by siRNA in breast cancer cells resulted in distinct morphological changes characterised by a stellate appearance and an absence of protrusions at membrane edges. These changes were not recapitulated upon siRNA targeting of BCAR1. We thus hypothesised that a component of the effects induced by TNK2 may be independent of BCAR1. Consistent with the idea of an alternative mechanism for TNK2, we observed that TNK2 associates with activated EGFR in breast cancer cells in a TNK2-kinase-independent manner. Furthermore, we demonstrated that TNK2 functions to maintain EGFRs on the cell surface. We could demonstrate that the main functional effect of activating these surface EGFRs in breast cancer cells is stimulation of migration. In accordance, TNK2 silencing by siRNA led to a significant reduction in cell surface EGFR and to a concomitant decrease in the migratory and invasive capacity of breast cancer cells. Conclusion Our data suggest that TNK2 can enhance migration and invasion of breast cancer cells via preservation of EGFR expression, notwithstanding its previously reported signalling via BCAR1, explaining its oncogenic behaviour in vitro and correlation with metastatic human breast cancer in vivo