Maternal VDR variants rather than 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration during early pregnancy are associated with type 1 diabetes in the offspring

This study was supported by the Finnish Academy (grant 127219), the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Diabetes Research Foundation, the EVO funding of the South Ostrobothnia Central Hospital from the Ministry ofHealthand SocialAffairs (EVO1107), the BiomedicumHelsinki Foun- dation, the Jalmari and Rauha Ahokas Foundation, the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation, the Suoma Loimaranta-Airila Fund, the Onni and Hilja Tuovinen Foundation and the Juho Vainio Foundation

Partial transfection of cells using laminar flows in microchannels

This manuscript describes a convenient method for partial transfection using a Y-shaped microchannel polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-glass chip and on-chip cationic lipid-mediated transfection. Enhanced green fluorescent protein genes (pEGFP-N2) were introduced into the COS-7 cells cultured in half of the channel, while red fluorescent protein genes (pDsRed-N1) were introduced into the cells cultured in another half of the channel. This on-chip partial transfection technique provides an avenue for the spatial control of transfection. It is possible to use this technique to perform parallel transfection on chips in order to study cell behaviors under two or more gene transfections in the same culture

Modified Convective Stratiform Technique (CSTm) Performance on Rainfall Estimation in Indonesia

This study has analyzed a rainfall estimation using a modified convective stratiform technique (CSTm). Unlike the original convective stratiform technique (CST), which only utilizes infrared (IR) data, CSTm applies not only IR data but also passive microwave (PMW) data. Two major modifications contained in CSTm are: (1) the application of a variability index (VI) method that uses PMW data to perform convective and stratiform separation, and (2) the ability to determine the average extensive coverage of the new areas of each pixel point as a result of the utilization of the PMW data. In this study, rainfall estimation was conducted for 23 points spread over four major islands in Indonesia. The estimation was performed based only on IR and PMW data obtained from coincident observations. For verification, the estimation results were compared with real observations. The main verification action conducted in this study used multi-category contingency tables for 4 categories and this action was supported by the root mean square error (RMSE) method. The verification results of the hourly estimation conducted for 4 days in early November 2011 showed that CSTm can effectively improve the performance quality of CST

Assessing the Demand for Annuities in an Undeveloped Market: Evidence from Hong Kong

How to design an attractive annuity for an undeveloped market and how to assess thepotential demand for such a product? We first conduct a discrete choice experimentamong participants of a large-scale occupational defined contribution pension scheme inHong Kong to identify desired product characteristics of an annuity. The preferred annuityis sold by an A-rated insurance company, provides nominal annuity payouts and a 10-yearperiod-certain guarantee. Using a second survey, we then analyze the demand for thepreferred annuity. Close to one third of respondents chooses to annuitize, a fraction thatconsiderably exceeds observed annuitization rates in developed markets. Regardinghousehold characteristics, we find that annuity demand decreases with general financialliteracy but increases with specific knowledge about the annuity product. Remarkably, aself-reported bequest motive increases the demand for an annuity providing a 10-yearperiod-certain guarante