Cardiovascular Risk Profile and Prevalence of Microalbuminuria in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: The Campaign Disease Registry Results

To assess the cardiovascular riskprofile of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM), the prevalence of microalbuminuria, andthe prescription pattern in management of overallcardiovascular/renal risk in out patient practice.Methods: In this cross sectional study consecutiveadult patients with T2DM signed the informedconsent and were interviewed by the investigator toestablish the cardiovascular risk profile. Presence ofmicroalbuminuria (20–200mg/l) was diagnosed usingMicral-Test® strips. Analysis was done bydescriptive statistics, and multivariate logisticregression was performed to identify theindependent risk-factors for the development ofmicroalbuminuria.Results: Of the 1763 patients enrolled, data wasanalyzed on 1596 patients. Major cardiovascular riskfactorsincluded hypertension (55.4%), sedentarylifestyle (49.8%), and metabolic syndrome (30.5%).Microalbuminuria was prevalent in 55.6% (95% CI53.1-58.0) patients. On multivariate analysis,significant association was observed with totalcholesterol (p = 0.029, OR: 2.26, 95% CI: 1.09 – 4.71)and diastolic BP (p = 0.015, OR: 2.67, 95% CI: 1.21 –5.91). The most commonly prescribedantihypertensive drugs were angiotensin-convertingenzyme inhibitors (41.7%), calcium channel blockers(13.2%) and beta blockers (10%), while mostcommonly prescribed antidiabetic drugs weresulfonylureas (61.9%), biguanides (56.1%) andthiazolidinediones (17.4%).Conclusions: Patients with T2DM are at increasedcardiovascular risk specifically with uncontrolleddiastolic blood pressure and high total cholesterollevels. There is also a high prevalence ofmicroalbuminuria in patient with T2DM

Prevalence of Essential Hypertension and Assessment of Cardiovascular Risk of Pakistani Adults in Outpatient Setting

Background: To assess the prevalence of essential hypertension and evaluate cardiovascular risk in patients in Pakistan.Methods:This cross-sectional, non-interventional study was conducted at multiple centres throughout Pakistan. Data was collected from patients of either gender, ≥18 years of age, seeking routine medical consultation. Diagnosis and staging of hypertension was carried out using guidelines laid by Seventh Report of Joint National Committee (JNC 7). GenderwiseFramingham scores were calculated based on non-laboratory and laboratory parameters.Results: Out of 2336 patients evaluated, prevalence of hypertension and prehypertension was 51.5% and 31.4% , respectively. A total of 501 patients had coprevalent diabetes and hypertension. Ten-yearFramingham scores calculated using non-laboratory parameters showed 56% (947/1693) patients aged ≥30 years were at medium-to-high risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). While Framingham scores based on laboratory or non-laboratory parameters were not significantly different for men, in women the nonlaboratory based score was higher. Angiotensinconverting enzyme inhibitors and calcium channel blockers were antihypertensive agents of choice.Conclusions: Since prevalence of prehypertension and hypertension in Pakistani adults continues to be on rise and substantial proportion of study population is at medium-to-high risk of developing CVD within the next 10 years, regular BP monitoring and risk scoring is mandated for identification of at-risk population and optimal management of CVD

Virtual Collaborative R&D Teams in Malaysia Manufacturing SMEs

This paper presents the results of empirical research conducted during March to September 2009. The study focused on the influence of virtual research and development (R&D) teams within Malaysian manufacturing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The specific objective of the study is better understanding of the application of collaborative technologies in business, to find the effective factors to assist SMEs to remain competitive in the future. The paper stresses to find an answer for a question “Is there any relationship between company size, Internet connection facility and virtuality?”. The survey data shows SMEs are now technologically capable of performing the virtual collaborative team, but the infrastructure usage is less. SMEs now have the necessary technology to begin the implementation process of collaboration tools to reduce research and development (R&D) time, costs and increase productivity. So, the manager of R&D should take the potentials of virtual teams into account

MiniMapathon: mappare il mondo a 10 anni

Il presente articolo illustra il primo e più grande esperimento al mondo di MiniMapathon, ovvero un mapathon (editing collaborativo di mappe) a scopo umanitario realizzato con 250 studenti di quarta e quinta della scuola primaria. Vengono illustrate le motivazioni che hanno portato al MiniMapathon, i risultati didattici, i benefici in termini di conoscenze e di atteggiamento verso la geoinformatica e le potenzialità di questa particolare attività, indagate attraverso questionari agli studenti e interviste ai docenti delle classi coinvolte

Frequency-Doubling of Femtosecond Pulses in “Thick” Nonlinear Crystals With Different Temporal and Spatial Walk-Off Parameters

We present a comparative study on frequency-doubling characteristics of femtosecond laser pulses in thick nonlinear crystals with different temporal and spatial walk-off parameters. Using single-pass second harmonic generation (SHG) of 260 fs pulses at 1064 nm from a high-average-power femtosecond Yb-fiber laser in 5-mm-long crystals of β-BaB2O4 (BBO) and BiB3O6 (BIBO), we find that for comparable values of temporal and spatial walk-off parameters in each crystal, the optimum focusing condition for SHG is more strongly influenced by spatial walk-off than temporal walk-off. It is also observed that under such conditions, the Boyd and Kleinman theory commonly used to define the optimum focusing condition for frequency-doubling of cw and long-pulse lasers is also valid for SHG of ultrafast lasers. We also investigate the effect of focusing on the spectral, temporal, and spatial characteristics of the second harmonic (SH) radiation, as well as angular acceptance bandwidth for the SHG process, under different temporal and spatial walk-off conditions in the two crystalsPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Characteristics of Vehicular Traffic Flow at a Roundabout

We construct a stochastic cellular automata model for the description of vehicular traffic at a roundabout designed at the intersection of two perpendicular streets. The vehicular traffic is controlled by a self-organized scheme in which traffic lights are absent. This controlling method incorporates a yield-at-entry strategy for the approaching vehicles to the circulating traffic flow in the roundabout. Vehicular dynamics is simulated within the framework of the probabilistic cellular automata and the delay experienced by the traffic at each individual street is evaluated for specified time intervals. We discuss the impact of the geometrical properties of the roundabout on the total delay. We compare our results with traffic-light signalisation schemes, and obtain the critical traffic volume over which the intersection is optimally controlled through traffic light signalisation schemes.Comment: 10 pages, 17 eps figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:cond-mat/040107