Correlation between elevated serum ferritin and HbA1c in type 2 diabetes mellitus

Background: Serum Ferritin, an acute phase reactant is a marker of iron stores in the body. Recent studies indicate that increased body iron stores and subclinical hemochromatosis has been associated with the development of glucose intolerance, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and possibly the development of diabetic retinopathy, nephropathy and vascular dysfunction. This study was carried out to examine and establish a relationship between Serum Ferritin with Type 2 diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome and to examine whether a correlation between S. ferritin and FBS, HbA1c exists.Methods: 86 type 2 diabetes subjects (M:F - 57:29, mean age 54.3±9.2 years, mean BMI 24.28kg/m2) which included 24 patients with metabolic syndrome were studied and compared with controls. S. ferritin, Hb, ESR, FBS, PPBS, HbA1c and fasting lipid profile were measured.Results: Serum ferritin was significantly higher in diabetic patients when compared to controls and serum ferritin had a positive correlation with increasing duration of diabetes.Conclusions: There was a positive correlation between serum ferritin and FBS, HbA1c. There was no correlation between serum ferritin and age, sex, metabolic syndrome, coexistent hypertension, total cholesterol, LDL and serum triglycerides.

Familial esophageal achalasia in mother and son

Familial esophageal achalasia a rare presentation, is most often described in monozygotic twins or siblings. Parent/child association is very rare and exhaustive review of the literature found about 5 times as many instances of affected siblings than instances of affected parent/child. Only seven instances of parent/child association have been reported till date. We report a 75 -year-old lady with achalasia cardia and her son who developed the same illness one year later. Mother was treated by Heller's surgery and son is presently on medical management

Sovereign debt, government myopia, and the financial sector

What determines the sustainability of sovereign debt? In this paper, we develop a model where myopic governments seek electoral popularity but can nevertheless commit credibly to service external debt. They do not default when they are poor because they would lose access to debt markets and be forced to reduce spending; they do not default when they become rich because of the adverse consequences to the domestic financial sector. Interestingly, the more myopic a government, the greater the advantage it sees in borrowing, and therefore the less likely it will be to default (in contrast to models where sovereigns repay because they are concerned about their long term reputation). More myopic governments are also likely to tax in a more distortionary way, and create more dependencies between the domestic financial sector and government debt that raise the costs of default. We use the model to explain recent experiences in sovereign debt markets

The Internal Governance of Firms

We develop a model of internal governance where the self-serving actions of top management are limited by the potential reaction of subordinates. Internal governance can mitigate agency problems and ensure that firms have substantial value, even with little or no external governance by investors. External governance, even if crude and uninformed, can complement internal governance and improve efficiency. This leads to a theory of investment and dividend policy, in which dividends are paid by self-interested CEOs to maintain a balance between internal and external control.University of Chicago. Center for Research in Security PricesNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (Grant No. R060230004)University of Chicago. Booth School of Business (Initiative on Global Markets)George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the Stat

Relationship of rheumatoid factor positivity to prevalence of joint manifestations in type 2 diabetes which are unrelated to rheumatoid arthritis

Background: The present study was designed to investigate the relationship of rheumatoid factor positivity to the prevalence of joint manifestations in type 2 diabetes which are not attributable to rheumatoid arthritis.Methods: We evaluated 192 type 2 diabetes patients with rheumatological complications and age and sex matched non-diabetic controls for rheumatoid factor (RF) positivity. Diabetic patients with frozen shoulder, LJM syndrome, carpal tunnel syndrome, trigger finger, DISH and Dupuytren’s contracture were evaluated for RF positivity.  Results: RF was positive in 47 patients (24.4%) when compared to controls (4.2%). RF positivity was associated with an increased prevalence of joint manifestations in diabetic group when compared to controls. RF positivity was not related to the duration of diabetes nor was it related to long term glycemic control.Conclusion: RF positivity resulted in an increased prevalence of joint manifestations in diabetes, which were unrelated to rheumatoid arthritis

Effect of natural convection on oscillating flow in a pipe with cryogenic temperature difference across the ends

The effect of natural convection on the oscillatory flow in an open-ended pipe driven by a timewise sinusoidally varying pressure at one end and subjected to an ambient-to-cryogenic temperature difference across the ends, is numerically studied. Conjugate effects arising out of the interaction of oscillatory flow with heat conduction in the pipe wall are taken into account by considering a finite thickness wall with an insulated exterior surface. Two cases, namely, one with natural convection acting downwards and the other, with natural convection acting upwards, are considered. The full set of compressible flow equations with axissymmetry are solved using a pressure correction algorithm. Parametric studies are conducted with frequencies in the range 5–15 Hz for an end-to-end temperature difference of 200 and 50 K. Results are obtained for the variation of velocity, temperature, Nusselt number and the phase relationship between mass flow rate and temperature. It is found that the Rayleigh number has a minimal effect on the time averaged Nusselt number and phase angle. However, it does influence the local variation of velocity and Nusselt number over one cycle. The natural convection and pressure amplitude have influence on the energy flow through the gas and solid

CFD analysis of high frequency miniature pulse tube refrigerators for space applications with thermal non-equilibrium model

High frequency, miniature, pulse tube cryocoolers are extensively used in space applications because of their simplicity. Parametric studies of inertance type pulse tube cooler are performed with different length-to-diameter ratios of the pulse tube with the help of the FLUENT® package. The local thermal non-equilibrium of the gas and the matrix is taken into account for the modeling of porous zones, in addition to the wall thickness of the components. Dynamic characteristics and the actual mechanism of energy transfer in pulse are examined with the help of the pulse tube wall time constant. The heat interaction between pulse tube wall and the oscillating gas, leading to surface heat pumping, is quantified. The axial heat conduction is found to reduce the performance of the pulse tube refrigerator. The thermal non-equilibrium predicts a higher cold heat exchanger temperature compared to thermal equilibrium. The pressure drop through the porous medium has a strong non-linear effect due to the dominating influence of Forchheimer term over that of the linear Darcy term at high operating frequencies. The phase angle relationships among the pressure, temperature and the mass flow rate in the porous zones are also important in determining the performance of pulse tube refrigerator

Shafranov's virial theorem and magnetic plasma confinement

Shafranov's virial theorem implies that nontrivial magnetohydrodynamical equilibrium configurations must be supported by externally supplied currents. Here we extend the virial theorem to field theory, where it relates to Derrick's scaling argument on soliton stability. We then employ virial arguments to investigate a realistic field theory model of a two-component plasma, and conclude that stable localized solitons can exist in the bulk of a finite density plasma. These solitons entail a nontrivial electric field which implies that purely magnetohydrodynamical arguments are insufficient for describing stable, nontrivial structures within the bulk of a plasma.Comment: 9 pages no figure

Sovereign debt, government myopia, and the financial sector

What determines the sustainability of sovereign debt? In this paper, we develop a model where myopic governments seek electoral popularity but can nevertheless commit credibly to service external debt. They do not default when they are poor because they would lose access to debt markets and be forced to reduce spending; they do not default when they become rich because of the adverse consequences to the domestic financial sector. Interestingly, the more myopic a government, the greater the advantage it sees in borrowing, and therefore the less likely it will be to default (in contrast to models where sovereigns repay because they are concerned about their long term reputation). More myopic governments are also likely to tax in a more distortionary way, and create more dependencies between the domestic financial sector and government debt that raise the costs of default. We use the model to explain recent experiences in sovereign debt markets