Self monitoring of blood glucose - a survey of Diabetes UK members with type 2 diabetes who use SMBG

Background: aim - to survey members of Diabetes UK who had Type 2 diabetes and who used self monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG), to elicit their views on its usefulness in the management of their diabetes, and how they used the results. A questionnaire was developed for the Diabetes UK website. The questionnaire was posted on the Diabetes UK website until over 500 people had responded. Questions asked users to specify the benefits gained from SMBG, and how these benefits were achieved. We carried out both quantitative analysis and a thematic analysis for the open ended free-text questions.Findings: 554 participants completed the survey, of whom 289 (52.2%) were male. 20% of respondents were recently diagnosed (&lt; 6 months). Frequency of SMBG varied, with 43% of participants testing between once and four times a day and 22% testing less than once a month or for occasional periods.80% of respondents reported high satisfaction with SMBG, and reported feeling more 'in control' of their diabetes management using it. The most frequently reported use of SMBG was to make adjustments to food intake or confirm a hyperglycaemic episode.Women were significantly more likely to report feelings of guilt or self-chastisement associated with out of range readings (p = &lt; .001).Conclusion: SMBG was clearly of benefit to this group of confirmed users, who used the results to adjust diet, physical activity or medications. However many individuals (particularly women) reported feelings of anxiety and depression associated with its use.<br/

Magnetic Resonance

Contains a report on a research project

Multi-Model Assessment of the Factors Driving the Ozone Evolution Over the 21st Century

The evolution of ozone from 1960 to 2100 is examined in simulations from fourteen chemistry-climate models. There is general agreement among the models at the broadest levels, with all showing column ozone decreasing at all latitudes from 1960 to around 2000, then increasing at all latitudes over the first half of the 21 st century (21 C), and latitudinal variations in the rate of increase and date of return to historical values. In the second half of the century, ozone is projected to carry on increasing, level off or even decrease depending on the latitude, resulting in variable dates of return to historical values at latitudes where column ozone has declined below those levels. Separation into partial column above and below 20 hPa reveals that these latitudinal differences are almost completely due to differences in the lower stratosphere. At all latitudes, upper stratospheric ozone increases throughout the 21 C and returns to 1960 levels before the end of the century, although there is a spread among the models in dates that ozone returns to historical values. Using multiple linear regression the upper stratospheric ozone increase comes from almost equal contributions due to decrease in halogens and cooling from increased greenhouse gas concentrations. The evolution of lower stratospheric ozone differs with latitude. In the tropical lower stratosphere an increase in tropical upwelling causes a steady decrease in ozone through the 21C, and total column ozone does not return to 1960 levels in all models. In contrast, lower stratospheric and total column ozone in middle and high latitudes increases during the 21 C and returns to 1960 levels. For all models there is an earlier return for ozone to historical levels in the northern hemisphere. This is thought to be due to interhemispheric differences in transport

Epitaxial Growth of La1/3_{1/3}Sr2/3_{2/3}FeO3_3 thin films by laser ablation

We report on the synthesis of high quality La$_{1/3}$Sr$_{2/3}$FeO$_3$ (LSFO) thin films using the pulsed laser deposition technique on both SrTiO$_3$ (STO) and LaAlO$_3$ (LAO) substrates (100)-oriented. From X-Ray diffraction (XRD) studies, we find that the films have an out-of-plane lattice parameter around 0.3865nm, almost independent of the substrate (i.e. the nature of the strains). The transport properties reveal that, while LSFO films deposited on STO exhibit an anomaly in the resistivity vs temperature at 180K (corresponding to the charge-ordered transition and associated with a transition from a paramagnetic to an antiferromagnetic state), the films grown on LAO display a very small magnetoresistance behavior and present an hysteresis around 270K under the application of a 4T magnetic field. The changes in transport properties between both substrates are discussed and compared with the corresponding single crystals.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Variability of subtropical upper tropospheric humidity

International audienceAnalysis of Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) measurements for five northern winters shows significant longitudinal variations in subtropical upper tropospheric relative humidity (RH), not only in the climatological mean values but also in the local distributions and temporal variability. The largest climatological mean values in the northern subtropics occur over the eastern Pacific and Atlantic oceans, where there is also large day-to-day variability. In contrast, there are smaller mean values, and smaller variability that occurs at lower frequency, over the Indian and western Pacific oceans. These differences in the distribution and variability of subtropical RH are related to differences in the key transport processes in the different sectors. The large variability and intermittent high and low RH over the Eastern Pacific and Atlantic oceans, and to a smaller extent over the Indian ocean, are due to intrusions of high potential vorticity air into the subtropics. Intrusions seldom occur over the eastern Indian and western Pacific oceans, and here the subtropical RH is more closely linked to the location and strength of subtropical anticyclones. In this region there are eastward propagating features in the subtropical RH that are out of phase with the tropical RH, and are caused by modulation of the subtropical anticyclones by the Madden-Julian Oscillation

Refractory composite materials for spacecraft thrust chambers Final report, 23 Jul. 1968 - 22 Feb. 1970

Hot firing tests with FLOX/methane propellants for evaluating pyrolytic refractory composite materials for thrust chamber

A Spherically Symmetric Closed Universe as an Example of a 2D Dilatonic Model

We study the two-dimensional (2D) dilatonic model describing a massless scalar field minimally coupled to the spherically reduced Einstein-Hilbert gravity. The general solution of this model is given in the case when a Killing vector is present. When interpreted in four dimensions, the solution describes either a static or a homogeneous collision of incoming and outgoing null dust streams with spherical symmetry. The homogeneous Universe is closed.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Physical Review