5-Acetyl-4-(4-methoxy­phen­yl)-6-methyl-3,4-dihydro­pyrimidin-2(1H)-one

In the title mol­ecule, C14H16N2O3, the heterocyclic ring adopts a flattened boat conformation, and the plane through its four coplanar atoms makes a dihedral angle of 89.65 (7)° with the benzene ring. The non-H atoms of the carbonyl, acetyl and methyl groups are nearly coplanar with the attached heterocyclic ring. Inter­molecular N—H⋯O and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds are present in the crystal structure

Molecular regulation of hormone secretion, growth and apoptosis of GLP-1-producing cells

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) spreads like an epidemic in today’s society, and there is a great need for new and improved treatments. T2D is characterized by hyperglycemia, resulting from impaired insulin production and insulin resistance in peripheral tissues. Incretin hormones, such as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), secreted from L-cells dispersed along the intestinal tract, potentiate meal-stimulated insulin secretion in a glucose-dependent manner. Defective GLP-1 secretion has been indicated in T2D and administration of GLP-1 to T2D patients restores glucose-induced insulin secretion and normalizes glycemia, making stable analogs of GLP-1 among the best available treatments for T2D today. However, enhancing endogenous GLP-1 production/secretion by direct stimulation of GLP-1 secretion/promotion of growth and viability of L-cells may be a novel and more physiological option in incretin-based diabetes therapy. The aim of this work was to determine the effect of diabetic conditions and anti-diabetic agents on GLP-1-producing cells, in order to unravel some of the mechanisms regulating growth, survival and function of this cell type. Studies I-III were performed in vitro using the murine GLUTag cell line as a model. In study I, direct effects of metformin on apoptosis, and function of GLP-1-secreting cells were determined. Simulated diabetic hyperlipidemia resulted in increased caspase-3 activity and DNA fragmentation, indicating lipoapoptosis. Metformin treatment significantly decreased this lipoapoptosis in conjunction with increased phosphorylation of AMPK. In addition, metformin treatment stimulated GLP-1 secretion. In study II, we determined molecular mechanisms mediating lipotoxicity and metformininduced lipoprotection in GLP-1-secreting cells. Diabetic hyperlipidemia was simulated in this cell system by addition of the fatty acid palmitate. Palmitate increased ROS production in GLP- 1-secreting cells, and the lipotoxic effects of palmitate were abolished in the presence of the antioxidant Trolox. Further, palmitate phosphorylated p38 MAPK and inhibition of this enzyme significantly reduced lipoapoptosis. Pre-incubation with metformin further increased palmitate- induced ROS production, while significantly reducing the expression of p38 MAPK. Study III focused on direct effects of insulin and exendin-4/GLP-1 on lipoapoptosis and function of GLP-1-secreting cells. The GLP-1R was found to be expressed in the GLUTag cells, and diabetic lipotoxicity was partially inhibited by pre-incubation with insulin or the stable GLP-1 analog exendin-4. The lipoprotective effect of exendin-4 was GLP-1R-dependent, while independent of PKA activity. In addition, both insulin and exendin-4 significantly stimulated acute and long term GLP-1 secretion in the presence of glucose. In study IV, we investigated if a high fat diet (HFD) reduces the number of enteroendocrine GLP-1-secreting Lcells in C57/Bl6 mice. We also determined the effects of a HFD on GLP-1 plasma levels and possible effects on these parameters by metformin treatment. A HFD rapidly induced a diabetic phenotype with increased HbA1c levels, as well as fasting plasma insulin levels in conjunction with reduced oral glucose tolerance – indicating the manifestation of insulin resistance. A 14 day oral administration of metformin reduced HbA1c, fasting insulin and prandial FFA levels. The number of L-cells was significantly reduced after 12 weeks on a HFD, while -- in contrast - - there was a clear trend toward increased prandial plasma GLP-1 levels despite reduced food intake in HFD-fed mice. These findings may be of pathogenic significance not only in understanding mechanisms of the impaired incretin response characterizing T2D patients, but may also be harnessed to therapeutic advantage in efforts to enhance endogenous GLP-1 production. Such an approach has hitherto received little attention but may be superior to contemporary incretin-based antidiabetic therapy, which does not faithfully mimick physiologic GLP-1 release in for instance terms of secretory pattern (e.g. pulsatility) and actions on topographically adjacent hormone receptors (e.g. in the portal vein)

Visual Analysis of Variability and Features of Climate Simulation Ensembles

This PhD thesis is concerned with the visual analysis of time-dependent scalar field ensembles as occur in climate simulations. Modern climate projections consist of multiple simulation runs (ensemble members) that vary in parameter settings and/or initial values, which leads to variations in the resulting simulation data. The goal of ensemble simulations is to sample the space of possible futures under the given climate model and provide quantitative information about uncertainty in the results. The analysis of such data is challenging because apart from the spatiotemporal data, also variability has to be analyzed and communicated. This thesis presents novel techniques to analyze climate simulation ensembles visually. A central question is how the data can be aggregated under minimized information loss. To address this question, a key technique applied in several places in this work is clustering. The first part of the thesis addresses the challenge of finding clusters in the ensemble simulation data. Various distance metrics lend themselves for the comparison of scalar fields which are explored theoretically and practically. A visual analytics interface allows the user to interactively explore and compare multiple parameter settings for the clustering and investigate the resulting clusters, i.e. prototypical climate phenomena. A central contribution here is the development of design principles for analyzing variability in decadal climate simulations, which has lead to a visualization system centered around the new Clustering Timeline. This is a variant of a Sankey diagram that utilizes clustering results to communicate climatic states over time coupled with ensemble member agreement. It can reveal several interesting properties of the dataset, such as: into how many inherently similar groups the ensemble can be divided at any given time, whether the ensemble diverges in general, whether there are different phases in the time lapse, maybe periodicity, or outliers. The Clustering Timeline is also used to compare multiple climate simulation models and assess their performance. The Hierarchical Clustering Timeline is an advanced version of the above. It introduces the concept of a cluster hierarchy that may group the whole dataset down to the individual static scalar fields into clusters of various sizes and densities recording the nesting relationship between them. One more contribution of this work in terms of visualization research is, that ways are investigated how to practically utilize a hierarchical clustering of time-dependent scalar fields to analyze the data. To this end, a system of different views is proposed which are linked through various interaction possibilities. The main advantage of the system is that a dataset can now be inspected at an arbitrary level of detail without having to recompute a clustering with different parameters. Interesting branches of the simulation can be expanded to reveal smaller differences in critical clusters or folded to show only a coarse representation of the less interesting parts of the dataset. The last building block of the suit of visual analysis methods developed for this thesis aims at a robust, (largely) automatic detection and tracking of certain features in a scalar field ensemble. Techniques are presented that I found can identify and track super- and sub-levelsets. And I derive “centers of action” from these sets which mark the location of extremal climate phenomena that govern the weather (e.g. Icelandic Low and Azores High). The thesis also presents visual and quantitative techniques to evaluate the temporal change of the positions of these centers; such a displacement would be likely to manifest in changes in weather. In a preliminary analysis with my collaborators, we indeed observed changes in the loci of the centers of action in a simulation with increased greenhouse gas concentration as compared to pre-industrial concentration levels

Asymmetric evaluations: Government popularity and economic performance in the United Kingdom

This article introduces a new method for testing asymmetric, reference-point-dependent behaviour in economic voting. Specifically, prospect theory suggests that people exhibit loss aversion, which crucially depends on a reference point. In practice, this reference point is often unknown. This article proposes a procedure to estimate reference points from the data using threshold models, and then test whether above- and below reference point effects are equivalent, or whether negative changes have stronger effects as predicted by prospect theory. This method is applied to the relationship between economic performance and government popularity in the United Kingdom, using monthly time series data over the last thirty years. The results show that there is asymmetric, reference-point-dependent behaviour, most notably in the relationship between unemployment and government popularity

The perception of flooding and water nuisance

In this paper we aim to gain insight in the determinants that control the risk perception of flooding and water nuisance by developing and validating a questionnaire. We also investigate to what extent the risk characteristics of external safety risks apply to perceptions of flooding and water nuisance. We use elements from the psychometric paradigm: risk perception characteristics and their interrelationships have been quantified by developing statements about flooding (38) and water nuisance (12), which were rated by respondents. The state-trait anxiety inventory was applied to determine whether perceptions are related to anxiety characteristics. A focus group session was organized to further explain our findings. Factor analyzing 49 questionnaires resulted in the identification of eight flooding factors (explained variance: 74%) and three water nuisance factors (explained variance: 62%). The internal consistency of the scales measured by Cronbach’s alpha ranged from 0.54 to 0.82. Like in the perception of external safety risks, ‘dread’ seems to be the most important concept binding different characteristics. Although dread towards both flooding and water nuisance is rather low, it seems more present in the latter case. We hypothesize cautiously that the extent of dread for water nuisance is also determined by the anxiety one experiences at that particular moment. In both cases awareness of ‘increasing risks’ is clearly present, and we find the characteristics ‘(no) dread’, ‘(un)controllable situation’ and ‘does not affect me’ to be related. Also the characteristic ‘risk-benefit trade off’ seems also to be related to ‘no dread’.