Diabetic ketoacidosis

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is the most common acute hyperglycaemic emergency in people with diabetes mellitus. A diagnosis of DKA is confirmed when all of the three criteria are present — ‘D’, either elevated blood glucose levels or a family history of diabetes mellitus; ‘K’, the presence of high urinary or blood ketoacids; and ‘A’, a high anion gap metabolic acidosis. Early diagnosis and management are paramount to improve patient outcomes. The mainstays of treatment include restoration of circulating volume, insulin therapy, electrolyte replacement and treatment of any underlying precipitating event. Without optimal treatment, DKA remains a condition with appreciable, although largely preventable, morbidity and mortality. In this Primer, we discuss the epidemiology, pathogenesis, risk factors and diagnosis of DKA and provide practical recommendations for the management of DKA in adults and children

Dual function of Jnk1 and Jnk2 in hepatocytes is essential to protect against toxic liver injury

BACKGROUND & AIMS

Assembly of carbon nanotubes and alkylated fullerenes : nanocarbon hybrid towards photovoltaic applications

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Taking advantage of the non-covalent interaction between alkyl chains and the sidewalls of a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT), a nanocarbon hybrid of SWCNT and a fullerene (C60) derivative with long alkyl chains was constructed as a donor–acceptor pair for photovoltaics and nanodevice investigations. It was found that SWCNT could be mostly unbundled by the alkylated C60 (1) and was well-dispersed in organic solvents. As a photoactive material, the resultant nanocarbon hybrid, 1-SWCNT, performed well in light-energy harvesting applications in photoelectrochemical cells and nanoscale field-effect transistors (FET). Moreover, the 1-SWCNT assembly exhibited superhydrophobicity, providing an interesting opportunity to fabricate nanocarbon-based waterproof optoelectronic devices. In order to understand the photoexcitation process, the 1-SWCNT assembly was electrochemically and spectroscopically characterized. The electrochemical results showed that the SWCNT facilitated electronic communication between 1 and the electrode. The steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence and the photoluminescence excitation studies suggested efficient quenching of the singlet excited state of C60. Nanosecond transient absorption data revealed the one-electron reduction of fullerene, C60˙−, thereby demonstrating the photoinduced electron transfer from SWCNT to the C60 unit in the 1-SWCNT assembly.DFG, EXC 314, Unifying Concepts in Catalysi

A ritual site with sacrificial wells from the Viking Age at Trelleborg, Denmark

The promontory facing Storebælt with the well-known circular Viking Age military fortress of Trelleborg erected by Harold Bluetooth in AD 980/981 seems to have been an important ceremonial space prior to the erection of the fortress and contemporary with a nearby high status settlement dated to the seventh to the eleventh century. This study presents new cross-disciplinary investigations focusing on three sacrificial well-like structures (47, 50 and 121) from the pre-Christian Viking Age at Trelleborg. Two of the sacrificial wells (47 and 121) included the only skeletal remains of four children hitherto recovered from Danish Viking Age wells. The strontium isotope results of the four children point to local provenance. However, the results of each well seem to pair up in a systematic way pointing to that the children might come from two different key surrounding areas at Trelleborg. Furthermore, the three wells contained animal remains of primarily domestic livestock partly representing consumption waste from either profane or ritual meals deriving from, for example, blót activities. Well 47 produced a young he-goat and well 121 a hindlimb of an above-average-size young horse, a large part of a young cow and a large dog. Altogether intentional offerings deposited while still enfleshed and interpreted to have served as propitiatory sacrifices to honour or appease the gods and to ensure fertility. This research provides new information that enlightens the formation processes underlying accumulation of cultural deposits in features such as ritual wells, in the period prior to Christianity