Vitamin B 12 Levels in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus on Metformin

Vitamin B12 is required for proper hematopoeisis, cardiovascular and neurocognitive function. Vitamin B12 deficiency is highly prevalent among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) on metformin therapy. Aim: This study was carried out to evaluate the serum levels of vitamin B12 in patients with T2DM on metformin therapy. Material and methods: Hundred patients with T2DM within the age group of 45-80 years were recruited into this cross-sectional study. All the patients were on metformin therapy for a minimum of 5 years. Results: Vitamin B12 deficiency and borderline deficiency observed were 10.6% and 29% and 60.4% did not have vitamin B12 deficiency. B12 levels were lower in patients with more than 10 years of duration of diabetes and was statistically significant with a p value of 0.004. The average B12 levels in patients on metformin dose of >1,000 mg was 349 pg/dL and in patients with metformin dose above 1,000 mg was 215 pg/dL. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant with a p value of <0.002. Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of B 12 deficiency among diabetic patients. It is important to screen for vitamin B12 deficiency before initiating metformin and later annually

The second international workshop on enterprise security

Welcome to our second international workshop on Enterprise Security as part of CloudCom 2015, Vancouver, Canada, November 30-December 3, 2015. The first international workshop held in Singapore has been a major success since then we have achieved greater team activities, research, and international collaborations as the major and significant outcome of our first workshop on this topic. Enterprise Security involves all business, products, governments, organization, and their contractors. This also includes research areas of information security, software security, computer security, cloud security, IoT security, data and big data security. This workshop provides a significant contribution from experts on some of the following key research areas:* Incident response Systems Security - This involves many organisations are outsourcing computer operations to third parties, and the next logical step is to outsource management of computer security incidents as well.* Cloud Security Assurance Model - Defining proper measures for evaluating the effectiveness of an assurance model, which we have developed to ensure cloud security, is vital to ensure the successful implementation and continued running of the model. We need to understand that with security being such an essential component of business processes, responsibility must lie with the board.* Cloud Security - The development of cloud computing and the vast use of its services poses significant security and privacy concerns to the people and the organizations relying on these services. Diversification and obfuscation approaches are of the most promising proactive techniques that protect computers from harmful malware, by preventing them to take advantage of the security vulnerabilities. Mission critical applications are limited in the cloud as it has various security issues. As the data size are being increased gradually and the difficulty in storing, retrieving and managing data makes the application to move into cloud.* Cloud Forensics & Cryptanalysis and Enhancement - Password based authentication has been used extensively as a one of the most appropriate authentication techniques.* Validating technology and BI Techniques – This is useful for organizations to understand their status with return and risk. They can evaluate their security policies and technologies regularly.* Risk Analysis and Big Data – This is increasingly important for organizations since they deal with growing amount of data, dependency and complexity. Risk analysis can be applied to many areas related or outside cloud computing.We are pleased to receive 24 papers from researchers of 12 different countries. After the vigorous review process and careful considerations, 11 papers have been selected, with 5 full papers and 6 short papers. We have offered two prize awards. One award is to award the best paper in the information system category. The other award is to award the best paper in the computational category. Each winner can be invited to International Journal of Information Management (IJIM) and Future Generation Computer Systems (FGCS). Another good news we have is that extended version of conference papers and other security/risk researchers can contribute to our Springer book scheduled to call for papers after our workshop. We are honoured to have Dr. Konstantin Beznosov to be our keynote speaker.Enterprise Security has been a popular topic since it includes cyber security, risk management, information security, Cloud and Forensic security, risk analysis and Big Data. It is an area that can make theory into practice and allow any organizations that adopt our recommendations to enjoy the benefits of enforced Enterprise Security. The outputs of our workshop can provide organizations with several useful recommendations, proofs-of-concepts and demonstrations to improve current security and risk practices.We hope the second international workshop will foster collaborations of projects, research publications and funding opportunities at the international setting in Vancouver, Canada.Workshop Organizing Committee would like to thank CloudCom organizers for their fullest support

Pre-mRNA Splicing Modulation by Antisense Oligonucleotides

Pre-mRNA splicing, a dynamic process of intron removal and exon joining, is governed by a combinatorial control exerted by overlapping cis-elements that are unique to each exon and its flanking intronic sequences. Splicing cis-elements are usually 4-to-8-nucleotide-long linear motifs that provide binding sites for specific proteins. Pre-mRNA splicing is also influenced by secondary and higher order RNA structures that affect accessibility of splicing cis-elements. Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) that block splicing cis-elements and/or affect RNA structure have been shown to modulate splicing in vivo. Therefore, ASO-based strategies have emerged as a powerful tool for therapeutic manipulation of splicing in pathological conditions. Here we describe an ASO-based approach to increase the production of the full-length SMN2 mRNA in spinal muscular atrophy patient cells

A model of Bˉ0→D∗+ωπ−\bar{B}^0\to D^{*+}\omega\pi^- decay

We suggest a parameterization of the matrix element for $\bar{B}^0\to D^{*+}\omega\pi^-$ decay using kinematic variables convenient for experimental analysis. The contributions of intermediate $\omega\pi$- and $D^{**}$-states up to spin 3 have been taken into account. The angular distributions for each discussed hypothesis have been obtained and analysed using Monte-Carlo simulation.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, 1 table; V2: text in some places improved and acknowledgments adde

Numerical instability of the Akhmediev breather and a finite-gap model of it

In this paper we study the numerical instabilities of the NLS Akhmediev breather, the simplest space periodic, one-mode perturbation of the unstable background, limiting our considerations to the simplest case of one unstable mode. In agreement with recent theoretical findings of the authors, in the situation in which the round-off errors are negligible with respect to the perturbations due to the discrete scheme used in the numerical experiments, the split-step Fourier method (SSFM), the numerical output is well-described by a suitable genus 2 finite-gap solution of NLS. This solution can be written in terms of different elementary functions in different time regions and, ultimately, it shows an exact recurrence of rogue waves described, at each appearance, by the Akhmediev breather. We discover a remarkable empirical formula connecting the recurrence time with the number of time steps used in the SSFM and, via our recent theoretical findings, we establish that the SSFM opens up a vertical unstable gap whose length can be computed with high accuracy, and is proportional to the inverse of the square of the number of time steps used in the SSFM. This neat picture essentially changes when the round-off error is sufficiently large. Indeed experiments in standard double precision show serious instabilities in both the periods and phases of the recurrence. In contrast with it, as predicted by the theory, replacing the exact Akhmediev Cauchy datum by its first harmonic approximation, we only slightly modify the numerical output. Let us also remark, that the first rogue wave appearance is completely stable in all experiments and is in perfect agreement with the Akhmediev formula and with the theoretical prediction in terms of the Cauchy data.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures, Formula (30) at page 11 was corrected, arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1707.0565

Altered cyclooxygenase-1 and enhanced thromboxane receptor activities underlie attenuated endothelial dilatory capacity of omental arteries in obesity

AIMS: Obesity is a risk factor for endothelial dysfunction, the severity of which is likely to vary depending on extent and impact of adiposity on the vasculature. This study investigates the roles of cyclooxygenase isoforms and thromboxane receptor activities in the differential endothelial dilatory capacities of arteries derived from omental and subcutaneous adipose tissues in obesity. MAIN METHODS: Small arteries were isolated from omental and subcutaneous adipose tissues obtained from consented morbidly obese patients (n = 65, BMI 45 ± 6 kg m-2 [Mean ± SD]) undergoing bariatric surgery. Relaxation to acetylcholine was studied by wire myography in the absence or presence of indomethacin (10 μM, cyclooxygenase inhibitor), FR122047 (1 μM, cyclooxygenase-1 inhibitor), Celecoxib (4 μM, cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor), Nω-Nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME, 100 μM, nitric oxide synthase inhibitor) or combination of apamin (0.5 μM) and charybdotoxin (0.1 μM) that together inhibit endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor (EDHF). Contractions to U46619 (thromboxane A2 mimetic) were also studied. KEY FINDINGS: Acetylcholine relaxation was significantly attenuated in omental compared with subcutaneous arteries from same patients (p < 0.01). Indomethacin (p < 0.01) and FR122047 (p < 0.001) but not Celecoxib significantly improved the omental arteriolar relaxation. Cyclooxygenase-1 mRNA and U46619 contractions were both increased in omental compared with subcutaneous arteries (p < 0.05). L-NAME comparably inhibited acetylcholine relaxation in both arteries, while apamin+charybdotoxin were less effective in omental compared with subcutaneous arteries. SIGNIFICANCE: The results show that the depot-specific reduction in endothelial dilatory capacity of omental compared with subcutaneous arteries in obesity is in large part due to altered cyclooxygenase-1 and enhanced thromboxane receptor activities, which cause EDHF deficiency

Exceptional Concentrations of Gold Nanoparticles in 1,7 Ga Fluid Inclusions From the Kola Superdeep Borehole, Northwest Russia

In the drill core of the Kola super-deep borehole (SG-3, 12,262 m depth) gold-bearing rocks of Archaean age have been located at depths of 9,500 to 11,000 m. In veins, between 9,052 and 10,744 m, within this gold zone, quartz contains fluid inclusions with gold nanoparticles. There are 4 types of fluid inclusions (1) gas inclusions of dense CO2, (2) liquid-vapor two-phase aqueous inclusions, (3) three-phase inclusions with NaCl daughter crystals, and (4) CO2-aqueous inclusions. In all inclusion types, there are extremely high concentrations of gold. The highest gold concentrations were found in the type 3 and 4 fluid inclusions with an average concentration of c. 750 ppm and may be as high as 6,000 ppm. The presence of gold as nanoparticles in the solutions of these fluid inclusions was determined by optical and spectroscopic methods. We suggest that these fluids could be a precursor of “orogenic gold fluids” which, at the gold concentrations determined, would reduce the requirements for large volumes of metamorphic fluids to form orogenic ore deposits. Further, as nanoparticles, gold could be transported in larger amounts than in true solution

Mitigating susceptibility-induced distortions in high-resolution 3DEPI fMRI at 7T

Geometric distortion is a major limiting factor for spatial specificity in high-resolution fMRI using EPI readouts and is exacerbated at higher field strengths due to increased B0 field inhomogeneity. Prominent correction schemes are based on B0 field-mapping or acquiring reverse phase-encoded (reversed-PE) data. However, to date, comparisons of these techniques in the context of fMRI have only been performed on 2DEPI data, either at lower field or lower resolution. In this study, we investigate distortion compensation in the context of sub-millimetre 3DEPI data at 7T. B0 field-mapping and reversed-PE distortion correction techniques were applied to both partial coverage BOLD-weighted and whole brain MT-weighted 3DEPI data with matched distortion. Qualitative assessment showed overall improvement in cortical alignment for both correction techniques in both 3DEPI fMRI and whole-brain MT-3DEPI datasets. The distortion-corrected MT-3DEPI images were quantitatively evaluated by comparing cortical alignment with an anatomical reference using dice coefficient (DC) and correlation ratio (CR) measures. These showed that B0 field-mapping and reversed-PE methods both improved correspondence between the MT-3DEPI and anatomical data, with more substantial improvements consistently obtained using the reversed-PE approach. Regional analyses demonstrated that the largest benefit of distortion correction, and in particular of the reversed-PE approach, occurred in frontal and temporal regions where susceptibility-induced distortions are known to be greatest, but had not led to complete signal dropout. In conclusion, distortion correction based on reversed-PE data has shown the greater capacity for achieving faithful alignment with anatomical data in the context of high-resolution fMRI at 7T using 3DEPI

Fr-TM-align: a new protein structural alignment method based on fragment alignments and the TM-score

©2008 Pandit and Skolnick; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/9/531doi:10.1186/1471-2105-9-531Background: Protein tertiary structure comparisons are employed in various fields of contemporary structural biology. Most structure comparison methods involve generation of an initial seed alignment, which is extended and/or refined to provide the best structural superposition between a pair of protein structures as assessed by a structure comparison metric. One such metric, the TM-score, was recently introduced to provide a combined structure quality measure of the coordinate root mean square deviation between a pair of structures and coverage. Using the TM-score, the TM-align structure alignment algorithm was developed that was often found to have better accuracy and coverage than the most commonly used structural alignment programs; however, there were a number of situations when this was not true. Results: To further improve structure alignment quality, the Fr-TM-align algorithm has been developed where aligned fragment pairs are used to generate the initial seed alignments that are then refined using dynamic programming to maximize the TM-score. For the assessment of the structural alignment quality from Fr-TM-align in comparison to other programs such as CE and TMalign, we examined various alignment quality assessment scores such as PSI and TM-score. The assessment showed that the structural alignment quality from Fr-TM-align is better in comparison to both CE and TM-align. On average, the structural alignments generated using Fr-TM-align have a higher TM-score (~9%) and coverage (~7%) in comparison to those generated by TM-align. Fr- TM-align uses an exhaustive procedure to generate initial seed alignments. Hence, the algorithm is computationally more expensive than TM-align. Conclusion: Fr-TM-align, a new algorithm that employs fragment alignment and assembly provides better structural alignments in comparison to TM-align. The source code and executables of Fr- TM-align are freely downloadable at: http://cssb.biology.gatech.edu/skolnick/files/FrTMalign/