Relationship of hyperglycaemia, hypoglycaemia, and glucose variability to atherosclerotic disease in type 2 diabetes

Objective: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is known to be associated with increased cardiovascular risk. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the independent effects of hyperglycaemia, hypoglycaemia, and glucose variability on microvascular and macrovascular disease in T2DM. Methods. Subjects with T2DM of 7.8mmol/L (β=15.83, p=0005) was the sole independent predictor of albuminuria in generalised linear regression. Conclusions. This study demonstrates that hypoglycaemia is associated with the occurrence of atherosclerotic disease while hyperglycaemia is associated with microvascular disease in a Caucasian population with T2DM of recent duration.peer-reviewe

Thermal Interface Materials Selection and Application Guidelines: In Perspective of Xilinx Virtex-5QV Thermal Management

The heat from high-power microdevices for space, such as Xilinx Virtex 4 and 5 (V4 and V5), has to be removed mainly through conduction in the space vacuum environment. The class-Y type packages are designed to remove the heat from the top of the package, and the most effective method to remove heat from the class-Y type packages is to attach a heat transfer device on the lid of the package and to transfer the heat to frame or chassis. When a heat transfer device is attached to the package lid, the surfaces roughness of the package lid and the heat transfer device reduces the effective contact area between the two. The reduced contact area results in increased thermal contact resistance, and a thermal interface material is required to reduce the thermal contact resistance by filling in the gap between the surfaces of the package lid and the heat transfer device. The current report describes JPL's FY14 NEPP task study on property requirements of TIM and impact of TIM properties on the packaging reliability. The current task also developed appratuses to investigate the performances of TIMs in the actual mission environment

Evaluation of the ICT Test Bed project: final report, June 2007

The report describes three strands of evaluation used in the review of the 2006 outcomes from ICT Test Bed and the findings from each strand. a) Quantitative data: Benchmarking of changes in performance on national tests against matched comparator schools and national averages; b) Qualitative data: Site visits including classroom observations, interviews with local authority managers, head teachers, teachers, administrative staff, technicians and students; and c) Document analysis

Suicide Screening in Primary Care: Use of an Electronic Screener to Assess Suicidality and Improve Provider Follow-Up for Adolescents

Purpose The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of using an existing computer decision support system to screen adolescent patients for suicidality and provide follow-up guidance to clinicians in a primary care setting. Predictors of patient endorsement of suicidality and provider documentation of follow-up were examined. Methods A prospective cohort study was conducted to examine the implementation of a CDSS that screened adolescent patients for suicidality and provided follow-up recommendations to providers. The intervention was implemented for patients aged 12–20 years in two primary care clinics in Indianapolis, Indiana. Results The sample included 2,134 adolescent patients (51% female; 60% black; mean age = 14.6 years [standard deviation = 2.1]). Just over 6% of patients screened positive for suicidality. A positive endorsement of suicidality was more common among patients who were female, depressed, and seen by an adolescent−medicine board-certified provider as opposed to general pediatric provider. Providers documented follow-up action for 83% of patients who screened positive for suicidality. Documentation of follow-up action was correlated with clinic site and Hispanic race. The majority of patients who endorsed suicidality (71%) were deemed not actively suicidal after assessment by their provider. Conclusions Incorporating adolescent suicide screening and provider follow-up guidance into an existing computer decision support system in primary care is feasible and well utilized by providers. Female gender and depressive symptoms are consistently associated with suicidality among adolescents, although not all suicidal adolescents are depressed. Universal use of a multi-item suicide screener that assesses recency might more effectively identify suicidal adolescents

Uptake of hepatitis C specialist services and treatment following diagnosis by dried blood spot in Scotland

Background: Dried blood spot (DBS) testing for hepatitis C (HCV) was introduced to Scotland in 2009. This minimally invasive specimen provides an alternative to venipuncture and can overcome barriers to testing in people who inject drugs (PWID). Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine rates and predictors of: exposure to HCV, attendance at specialist clinics and anti-viral treatment initiation among the DBS tested population in Scotland. Study design: DBS testing records were deterministically linked to the Scottish HCV Clinical database prior to logistic regression analysis. Results: In the first two years of usage in Scotland, 1322 individuals were tested by DBS of which 476 were found to have an active HCV infection. Linkage analysis showed that 32% had attended a specialist clinic within 12 months of their specimen collection date and 18% had begun anti-viral therapy within 18 months of their specimen collection date. A significantly reduced likelihood of attendance at a specialist clinic was evident amongst younger individuals (<35 years), those of unknown ethnic origin and those not reporting injecting drug use as a risk factor. Conclusion: We conclude that DBS testing in non-clinical settings has the potential to increase diagnosis and, with sufficient support, treatment of HCV infection among PWID

The 2011 Eruption of the Recurrent Nova T Pyxidis; the Discovery, the Pre-eruption Rise, the Pre-eruption Orbital Period, and the Reason for the Long Delay

We report the discovery by M. Linnolt on JD 2455665.7931 (UT 2011 April 14.29) of the sixth eruption of the recurrent nova T Pyxidis. This discovery was made just as the initial fast rise was starting, so with fast notification and response by observers worldwide, the entire initial rise was covered (the first for any nova), and with high time resolution in three filters. The speed of the rise peaked at 9 mag/day, while the light curve is well fit over only the first two days by a model with a uniformly expanding sphere. We also report the discovery by R. Stubbings of a pre-eruption rise starting 18 days before the eruption, peaking 1.1 mag brighter than its long-time average, and then fading back towards quiescence 4 days before the eruption. This unique and mysterious behavior is only the fourth known anticipatory rise closely spaced before a nova eruption. We present 19 timings of photometric minima from 1986 to February 2011, where the orbital period is fast increasing with P/dot{P}=313,000 yrs. From 2008-2011, T Pyx had a small change in this rate of increase, so that the orbital period at the time of eruption was 0.07622950+-0.00000008 days. This strong and steady increase of the orbital period can only come from mass transfer, for which we calculate a rate of 1.7-3.5x10^-7 Mo/yr. We report 6116 magnitudes between 1890 and 2011, for an average B=15.59+-0.01 from 1967-2011, which allows for an eruption in 2011 if the blue flux is nearly proportional to the accretion rate. The ultraviolet-optical-infrared spectral energy distribution is well fit by a power law with flux proportional to nu^1.0, although the narrow ultraviolet region has a tilt with a fit of \nu^{1/3}. We prove that most of the T Pyx light is not coming from a disk, or any superposition of blackbodies, but rather is coming from some nonthermal source.Comment: ApJ submitted, 62 pages, 8 figures; much added data, updated analysi

Portrayals and perceptions of AI and why they matter

How researchers, communicators, policymakers, and publics talk about technology matters. Shared understandings about the nature, promise and risks of new technologies develop through the explicit or implicit stories that different groups tell about technology and its place in our lives. The AI narratives project – a joint endeavour by the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence and the Royal Society – has been examining which narratives currently influence public debates about AI, and how these portrayals might shape public perceptions of the capabilities, risks, and benefits of AI technologies. Many of the current ideas about AI technologies that are pervasive in public consciousness – typically that AI is an embodied, super-human intelligence – are shaped by hundreds of years of stories that people have told about humans and machines, and our places in the world. This cultural hinterland shapes how AI is portrayed in media, culture, and everyday discussion; it influences what societies find concerning – or exciting – about technological developments; and it affects how different publics relate to AI technologies. Building a well-founded public dialogue about AI technologies will be key to continued public confidence in the systems that deploy AI technologies, and to realising the benefits they promise across sectors. Since the launch of the machine learning project, the Royal Society has been creating spaces for public discussion about AI technologies, and their implications for society. In a series of four workshops, the Royal Society and Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence explored: which narratives around intelligent machines are most prevalent, and their historical roots; what can be learned from how the narrative around other complex, new technologies developed, and the impact of these; how narratives are shaping the development of AI, and the role of arts and media in this process; and the implications of current AI narratives for researchers and communicators. The report brings together the conclusions of these workshops, and is for anyone interested in how AI is portrayed and perceived.Drs Cave, Dihal, and Dillon are funded by a Leverhulme Trust Research Centre Grant awarded to the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence. Dr Singler was funded by a Templeton World Charitable Foundation grant during the course of the AI narratives project, awarded to the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, St Edmund's College, Cambridge