The Role of a CA Repeat Polymorphism in the Promoter Region of the Insulin like Growth Factor-I gene in Physiology and the Pathophysiology of Diabetes Mellitus

A polymorphism in the promoter region of the IGF-I gene is amongst others related to total IGF-I serum levels, body height and type 2 diabetes. In this thesis, we investigated the influence of this polymorphism on the age-related decline, secular trend in body height, beta cell function, risk of micro-albuminuria, diabetic retinopathy and mortality. All subjects were participants of the Rotterdam Study, a population based cohort study of diseases in the elderly. We observed an age related decline in IGF-I serum levels only in subjects who were carrier of the most frequent alleles. Individuals who were non-carriers of the most frequent alleles, had the lowest serum IGF-I level and the lowest body height. Furthermore, we observed in this group in individuals with a normal glucose tolerance a decreased beta cell function. Non-carriers of the mst freqent alleles also had a higher risk to develop diabetic retinopathy, micro-albuminuria and had worse survival compared to persons who were carriers of the most frequent alleles

Travelling ionospheric disturbances over Kharkiv, Ukraine, accompanying the operation of EISCAT heater facility

We have detected the travelling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) over Kharkiv with periods of 40–80 min occurring in the time range between 09:00 and 10:30 UT on November 22 and between 10:00 and 12:00 UT on November 23, 2012 during and after the operation of the EISCAT heater facility. The duration of these disturbances were less than 120–180 min. The relative amplitudes of the TIDs in electron density ranged from 0.05 to 0.15 and those in electron and ion temperatures were about 0.02 – 0.05. Assuming that these TIDs have been generated in the heated region, we described the possible mechanisms of their generation.Виявлено рухомі іоносферні збурення (РІЗ) над Харковом з періодами 40–80 хв., що мали місце впродовж 09:00 – 10:30 UT 22 листопада та з 10:00 до 12:00 UT 23 листопада 2012 р. в період і після роботи нагрівного стенда EISCAT. Тривалість цих збурень не перевищувала 120–180 хв. Відносні амплітуди РІЗ концентрації електронів складали 0.05 – 0.15, а РІЗ температур електронів та іонів дорівнювали 0.02 – 0.05. За припущення, що ці РІЗ були згенерровані в нагрітій області, описано можливі механізми їх генерації

Overconfidence, optimism and entrepreneurship

Overconfidence is one of the alleged drivers for market entry. However, establishing its effect is challenging and much of the existing entrepreneurship literature confusingly conflates overconfidence with optimism. In the present study, we use validated scales to analyze the relationship between overconfidence and two important aspects of entrepreneurship, while explicitly controlling for optimism. Specifically, we study the role of overconfidence in developing intentions about entering entrepreneurship as well as how overconfidence relates to entrepreneurial orientation. Our findings show that overconfidence is related to intended market entry but not to the market position (entrepreneurial orientation) of the business

High-latitude artificial aurora using the EISCAT high-gain HF facility

The EISCAT high-frequency (HF) transmitter facility at Ramfjord, Norway, has been used to accelerate F-region electrons sufficiently to excite the oxygen atoms and nitrogen molecules, resulting in optical emissions at 630, 557.7 and 427.8 nm. During O-mode transmissions at 5.423 MHz, using 630 MW effective radiated power, in the hours after sunset on 12 November 2001 several new observations were made, including: (1) The first high-latitude observation of an HF induced optical emission at 427.8 nm and (2) Optical rings being formed at HF on followed by their collapse into a central blob. Both discoveries remain unexplained with current theories

Substring filtering for low-cost linked data interfaces

Recently, Triple Pattern Fragments (TPFS) were introduced as a low-cost server-side interface when high numbers of clients need to evaluate SPARQL queries. Scalability is achieved by moving part of the query execution to the client, at the cost of elevated query times. Since the TPFS interface purposely does not support complex constructs such as SPARQL filters, queries that use them need to be executed mostly on the client, resulting in long execution times. We therefore investigated the impact of adding a literal substring matching feature to the TPFS interface, with the goal of improving query performance while maintaining low server cost. In this paper, we discuss the client/server setup and compare the performance of SPARQL queries on multiple implementations, including Elastic Search and case-insensitive FM-index. Our evaluations indicate that these improvements allow for faster query execution without significantly increasing the load on the server. Offering the substring feature on TPF servers allows users to obtain faster responses for filter-based SPARQL queries. Furthermore, substring matching can be used to support other filters such as complete regular expressions or range queries

A polymorphic CA repeat in the promoter region of the insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) gene

Commentar

The Extending of Observing Altitudes of Plasma and Ion Lines During Ionospheric Heating

Source at https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JA024809. The ultrahigh-frequency observation during an ionospheric heating experiment on 11 March 2014 at the European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association Tromsø site illustrated a remarkable extension of observing altitudes of the enhanced plasma line and the ion line, implying that the enhanced ion acoustic wave and Langmuir wave should satisfy the Bragg condition within the extending altitude range. An analysis shows that the dependence of the wave number of the traveling ion acoustic wave on the profiles of enhanced electron temperature and ion mass, as are expected from the dispersion relation of the ion acoustic wave, leads to the extension of observing altitudes of the enhanced ion line. In addition, the altitude extension of the enhanced plasma line is dependent mainly on the profile of the electron density, although it is not independent of the profile of the electron temperature. Considering a small gradient profile of electron density, however, the enhanced electron temperature, as well as the thermal conduction along the magnetic field, may lead to the altitude extension of the enhanced plasma line