Quality of life in Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetic patients prior to and after pancreas and kidney transplantation in relation to organ function

Improvement of the quality of life in Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetic patients with severe late complications is one of the main goals of pancreas and/or kidney grafting. To assess the influences of these treatment modalities on the different aspects of the quality of life a cross-sectional study in 157 patients was conducted. They were categorized into patients pre-transplant without dialysis (n=29; Group A), pre-transplant under dialysis (n=44; Group B), post-transplant with pancreas and kidney functioning (n=31; Group C), post-transplant with functioning kidney, but insulin therapy (n=29; Group D), post-transplant under dialysis and insulin therapy again (n=15; Group E) and patients after single pancreas transplantation and rejection, with good renal function, but insulin therapy (n=9; Group F). All patients answered a mailed, self-administered questionnaire (217 questions) consisting of a broad spectrum of rehabilitation criteria. The results indicate a better quality of life in Groups C and D as compared to the other groups. In general the scores are highest in C, but without any significant difference to D. Impressive significant differences between C or D and the other groups were found especially in their satisfaction with physical capacity, leisure-time activities or the overall quality of life. The satisfaction with the latter is highest in C (mean±SEM: 4.0±0.2 on a 1 to 5-rating scale; significantly different from A: 3.1±0.1, B: 2.7±0.2 and E: 2.6±0.3; p<0.01), followed by D (3.8±0.2; significantly different from B and E; p<0.01). Group F shows a mean of 3.1±0.4, which is not significantly different from C. The percentages of patients in each group, who are not working: A: 38 %, B: 64 %, C: 74 %, D: 66 %, E: 87 % and F: 78 % indicate that there is no marked improvement in the vocational situation after successful grafting

Review of "Stochastic Modelling for Systems Biology" by Darren Wilkinson

"Stochastic Modelling for Systems Biology" by Darren Wilkinson introduces the peculiarities of stochastic modelling in biology. This book is particularly suited to as a textbook or for self-study, and for readers with a theoretical background

SUPPORTING RESEARCH COLLABORATION – ON THE NEEDS OF VIRTUAL RESEARCH TEAMS

Virtual teams are increasingly common in research as in corporate reality. While collaborative work in enterprises has received considerable attention, detailed understanding of collaborative work in virtual research teams is missing. To close this gap, we develop a model of the collaborative research process from idea generation to communication. We illustrate that the research phases require different support functions on the individual as well as on the team level. We explain that software tools, in particular social software, can provide support for collaborative work in virtual research teams

Concurrent Verbal Encouragement and Wingate Anaerobic Cycle Test Performance in Females: Athletes vs. Non-Athletes

International Journal of Exercise Science 5(3) : 239-244, 2012. To examine the effect of concurrent verbal encouragement on the performance of the WAnT in female athletes vs. female non-athletes. College-age female subjects were recruited where ten of the subjects were intercollegiate athletes (ATH, n1=10) and the nine were non-athletes (NON, n2=9). The WAnT was novel to all subjects and the subjects were blinded to the study’s purpose. Prior to the experimental trials, subjects were measured for body composition and performed a familiarity WAnT trial without verbal encouragement. Subjects then performed the WAnT twice, once with concurrent verbal encouragement (VE) and once without (NVE), in a balanced cross-over design. Peak (PP) and mean power (MP), and total work (TW) were compared between ATH and NON across VE and NVE using an ANOVA (1 between, 1 within), α=0.05. ATH and NON did not differ (p\u3e0.05) in age or body composition with the exception of fat-free mass which differed significantly (ATH=53.7±6.6, NON=46.1±5.7 kg) (p\u3c0.05). A significant (p\u3c0.05) main effect for ATH/NON was observed where ATH outperformed NON when pooled across VE/NVE trials for PP (ATH=13.0±1.4, NON=11.3±1.7 W·kg-1), MP (ATH=7.7±1.1, NON=6.7±0.9 W·kg-1) and TW (ATH=232±35, NON=201±26 J·kg-1). When pooled across all subjects (ATH and NON), the VE/NVE trials did not differ (p\u3e0.05) for PP (VE=12.4±1.7, NVE=12.0±1.9 W·kg-1), MP (VE=7.3±1.1, NVE=7.2±1.2 W·kg-1) and TW (VE=219±33, NVE=215±35 J·kg-1). The ATH/NON interaction with VE/NVE was not significant (p\u3e0.05). Concurrent verbal encouragement does not affect performance on the WAnT in females, nor does it affect WAnT performance in female athletes and non-athletes differently

Simple and efficient moving horizon estimation based on the fast gradient method

By now many results with respect to the fast and efficient implementation of model predictive control exist. However, for moving horizon estimation, only a few results are available. We present a simple solution algorithm tailored to moving horizon estimation of linear, discrete time systems. In a first step the problem is reformulated such that only the states remain as optimization variables, i.e. process and measurement noise are eliminated from the optimization problem. This reformulation enables the use of the fast gradient method, which has recently received a lot of attention for the solution of model predictive control problems. In contrast to the model predictive control case, the Hessian matrix is time- varying in moving horizon estimation, due to the time-varying nature of the arrival cost. Therefore, we outline a tailored method to compute online the lower and upper eigenvalues of the Hessian matrix required by the here considered fast gradient method. In addition, we discuss stopping criteria and various implementation details. An example illustrates the efficiency of the proposed algorithm

COST STUDY OF A 100-Mw(e) DIRECT-CYCLE BOILING WATER REACTOR PLANT

A technical and economic evaluation is presented of a direct-cycle light- water boiling reactor designed for natural circulation and internal steam-water separation. The reference lOO-Mw(e) reactor power plant design evolved from the study should have the best chance (compared to similar plants) of approaching the 8 to 9 mill/kwh total power-cost level. (W.D.M.

Measuring the effects of acupuncture and homoeopathy in general practice: An uncontrolled prospective documentation approach

BACKGROUND: Despite the increasing demand for acupuncture and homoeopathy in Germany, little is known about the effects of these treatments in routine care. We set up a pragmatic documentation study in general practice funded within the scope of project launched by a German health insurer. Patients were followed-up for up to four years. METHODS: The aim of the project was to study the effects and benefits of acupuncture and/or homoeopathy, and to assess patient satisfaction within a prospective documentation of over 5000 acupuncture and over 900 homoeopathy patients. As data sources, we used the documentation made available by therapists on every individual visit and a standardised quality-of-life questionnaire (MOS SF-36); these were complemented by questions concerning the patient's medical history and by questions on patient satisfaction. The health insurer provided us with data on work absenteeism. RESULTS: Descriptive analyses of the main outcomes showed benefit of treatment with middle to large-sized effects for the quality of life questionnaire SF-36 and about 1 point improvement on a rating scale of effects, given by doctors. Data on the treatment and the patients' and physicians' background suggests chronically ill patients treated by fairly regular schemes. CONCLUSION: Since the results showed evidence of a subjective benefit for patients from acupuncture and homoeopathy, this may account for the increase in demand for these treatments especially when patients are chronically ill and unsatisfied with the conventional treatment given previously