A new perspective on metformin therapy in type 1 diabetes

Metformin is quite frequently used off-label in type 1 diabetes to limit insulin dose requirement. Guidelines recommend that it can improve glucose control in those who are overweight and obese but evidence in support of this is limited. Recently-published findings from the REducing with MetfOrmin Vascular Adverse Lesions (REMOVAL) trial suggest that metformin therapy in type 1 diabetes can reduce atherosclerosis progression, weight and LDL-cholesterol levels. This provides a new perspective on metformin therapy in type 1 diabetes and suggests a potential role for reducing the long-term risk of cardiovascular disease

Electron scattering and transport in liquid argon

The transport of excess electrons in liquid argon driven out of equilibrium by an applied electric field is revisited using a multi-term solution of Boltzmann's equation together with ab initio liquid phase cross-sections calculated using the Dirac-Fock scattering equations. The calculation of liquid phase cross-sections extends previous treatments to consider multipole polarisabilities and a non-local treatment of exchange while the accuracy of the electron-argon potential is validated through comparison of the calculated gas phase cross-section with experiment. The results presented highlight the inadequacy of local treatments of exchange that are commonly used in liquid and cluster phase cross-section calculations. The multi-term Boltzmann equation framework accounting for coherent scattering enables the inclusion of the full anisotropy in the differential cross-section arising from the interaction and the structure factor, without an a priori assumption of quasi-isotropy in the velocity distribution function. The model, which contains no free parameters and accounts for both coherent scattering and liquid phase screening effects, was found to reproduce well the experimental drift velocities and characteristic energies.Comment: 32 pages, 16 figures; minor corrections, added 1 figur

The Cambridge-Cambridge ROSAT Serendipity Survey - I. X-ray-luminous galaxies

We report on the first results obtained from a new optical identification programme of 123 faint X-ray sources with $S$(0.5--2$\,{\rm keV)}>2\times 10^{-14}\,$erg$\,$s$^{-1}\,$cm$^{-2}\,$ serendipitously detected in {\it ROSAT} PSPC pointed observations. We have spectroscopically identified the optical counterparts to more than 100 sources in this survey. Although the majority of the sample (68 objects) are QSOs, we have also identified 12 narrow emission line galaxies which have extreme X-ray luminosities ($10^{42} < L_{\rm X} < 10^{43.5}\,$erg$\,$s$^{-1}$). Subsequent spectroscopy reveals them to be a mixture of starburst galaxies and Seyfert 2 galaxies in approximately equal numbers. Combined with potentially similar objects identified in the {\it Einstein} Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey, these X-ray-luminous galaxies exhibit a rate of cosmological evolution, $L_{\rm X} \propto (1+z)^{2.5\pm1.0}$, consistent with that derived for X-ray QSOs. This evolution, coupled with the steep slope determined for the faint end of the X-ray luminosity function ($\Phi(L_{\rm X}) \propto L_{\rm X}^{-1.9}$), implies that such objects could comprise 15--35 per cent of the soft (1--2$\,$keV)Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 7 pages including 5 figures; uuencoded compressed postscript; RGO-21

Registration of retinal images from Public Health by minimising an error between vessels using an affine model with radial distortions

In order to estimate a registration model of eye fundus images made of an affinity and two radial distortions, we introduce an estimation criterion based on an error between the vessels. In [1], we estimated this model by minimising the error between characteristics points. In this paper, the detected vessels are selected using the circle and ellipse equations of the overlap area boundaries deduced from our model. Our method successfully registers 96 % of the 271 pairs in a Public Health dataset acquired mostly with different cameras. This is better than our previous method [1] and better than three other state-of-the-art methods. On a publicly available dataset, ours still better register the images than the reference method

Gravitational Lensing of the X-Ray Background by Clusters of Galaxies

Gravitational lensing by clusters of galaxies affects the cosmic X-ray background (XRB) by altering the observed density and flux distribution of background X-ray sources. At faint detection flux thresholds, the resolved X-ray sources appear brighter and diluted, while the unresolved component of the XRB appears dimmer and more anisotropic, due to lensing. The diffuse X-ray intensity in the outer halos of clusters might be lower than the sky-averaged XRB, after the subtraction of resolved sources. Detection of the lensing signal with a wide-field X-ray telescope could probe the mass distribution of a cluster out to its virialization boundary. In particular, we show that the lensing signature imprinted on the resolved component of the XRB by the cluster A1689, should be difficult but possible to detect out to 8' at the 2-4 sigma level, after 10^6 seconds of observation with the forthcoming AXAF satellite. The lensing signal is fairly insensitive to the lens redshift in the range 0.1<z<0.6. The amplitude of the lensing signal is however sensitive to the faint end slope of the number-flux relation for unresolved X-ray sources, and can thus help constrain models of the XRB. A search for X-ray arcs or arclets could identify the fraction of all faint sources which originate from extended emission of distant galaxies. The probability for a 3 sigma detection of an arclet which is stretched by a factor of about 3 after a 10^6 seconds observation of A1689 with AXAF, is roughly comparable to the fraction of all background X-ray sources that have an intrinsic size of order 1''.Comment: 41 LaTeX pages, 11 postscript figures, 1 table, in AASTeX v4.0 format. To appear in ApJ, April 1, 1997, Vol. 47

QSO clustering and the AAT 2dF redshift survey

We review previous results on the clustering and environments of QSOs. We show that the correlation length for QSOs derived from existing surveys is r~5/h Mpc, similar to the observed correlation length for field galaxies at the present epoch. The galaxy environment for z<1 radio-quiet QSOs is also consistent with field galaxies. The evolution of the QSO correlation length with redshift is currently uncertain, largely due to the small numbers of QSOs (~2000) in surveys suitable for clustering analysis. We report on intial progress with the AAT 2dF QSO redshift survey, which, once completed will comprise almost 30000 QSOs. With over 1000 QSOs already observed, it is already the largest single homogeneous QSO survey. We discuss prospects for deriving limits on cosmological parameters from this survey, and on the evolution of large-scale structure in the Universe.Comment: Invited talk at RS meeting on 'Large Scale Structure in the Universe' held at the Royal Society on 25-26 March 1998 14 pages, 11 figre