Does Sickle Cell Disease Protect Against Diabetes Mellitus? : Cross-sectional study

Objectives: The co-existence of diabetes mellitus (DM) and sickle cell disease (SCD) is rare. This study aimed to explore whether SCD patients have the same DM prevalence as the general population in a country with a high prevalence of DM. Methods: This cross-sectional study included all SCD adult patients admitted to Salmaniya Medical Complex, Bahrain, between 2003 and 2010 (n = 2,204). A random sample (n = 520) was taken to establish the prevalence of DM. Laboratory records were examined to determine the presence of DM. Results: There were 376 SCD patients with complete records; of these, 24 (6.4%) had DM. The age- and sex-standardised prevalence of DM was 8.3%. Conclusion: While the prevalence of DM in SCD patients in Bahrain was high, it was lower than expected in this population. SCD may have a protective effect towards DM development. However, the impact of these two conditions on vascular diseases suggest a need for screening and aggressive treatment in this population

Psychological interventions for women with non-metastatic breast cancer (Review)

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women worldwide. It is a distressing diagnosis and, as a result, considerable research has examined the psychological sequelae of being diagnosed and treated for breast cancer. Breast cancer is associated with increased rates of depression and anxiety and reduced quality of life. As a consequence, multiple studies have explored the impact of psychological interventions on the psychological distress experienced after a diagnosis of breast cancer. Objectives: To assess the effects of psychological interventions on psychological morbidities, quality of life and survival among women with nonmetastatic breast cancer. Search methods: We searched the following databases up to 16 May 2013: the Cochrane Breast Cancer Group Specialised Register, CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and PsycINFO; and reference lists of articles. We also searched the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP) search portal and ClinicalTrials.gov for ongoing trials in addition to handsearching. Selection criteria: Randomised controlled trials that assessed the effectiveness of psychological interventions for non-metastatic breast cancer in women. Data collection and analysis: Two review authors independently appraised and extracted data from eligible trials. Any disagreement was resolved by discussion. Extracted data included information about participants, methods, the intervention and outcome. Main results: Twenty-eight randomised controlled trials comprising 3940 participants were included. The most frequent reasons for exclusion were non-randomised trials and the inclusion of women with metastatic disease. A wide range of interventions were evaluated, with 24 trials investigating a cognitive behavioural therapy and four trials investigating psychotherapy compared to control. Pooled standardised mean differences (SMD) from baseline indicated less depression (SMD -1.01, 95% confidence interval (CI) -1.83 to -0.18; P = 0.02; 7 studies, 637 participants, I2 = 95%, low quality evidence), anxiety (SMD -0.48, 95% CI -0.76 to -0.21; P = 0.0006; 8 studies, 776 participants, I2 = 64%, low quality evidence) and mood disturbance (SMD -0.28, 95% CI -0.43 to -0.13; P = 0.0003; 8 studies, 1536 participants, I2 = 47%, moderate quality evidence) for the cognitive behavioural therapy group than the control group. For quality of life, only an individually-delivered cognitive behavioural intervention showed significantly better quality of life than the control with an SMD of 0.65 (95% CI 0.07 to 1.23; P = 0.03; 3 studies, 141 participants, I2 = 41%, very low quality evidence). Pooled data from two group-delivered studies showed a non-significant overall survival benefit favouring cognitive behavioural therapy compared to control (pooled hazard ratio (HR) 0.76, 95% CI 0.25 to 2.32; P = 0.63; 530 participants, I2 = 84%, low quality evidence). Four studies compared psychotherapy to control with one to two studies reporting on each outcome. The four studies were assessed as high risk of bias and provided limited evidence of the efficacy of psychotherapy. Adverse events were not reported in any of the included studies. Authors’ conclusions: A psychological intervention, namely cognitive behavioural therapy, produced favourable effects on some psychological outcomes, in particular anxiety, depression and mood disturbance. However, the evidence for survival improvement is still lacking. These findings are open to criticism because of the notable heterogeneity across the included studies and the shortcomings of the included studies

Comparison of landscape approaches to define spatial patterns of hillslope-scale sediment delivery ratio

A sediment delivery ratio (SDR) is that fraction of gross erosion that is transported from a given catchment in a given time interval. In essence, a SDR is a scaling factor that relates sediment availability and deposition at different spatial scales. In this paper, we focus on hillslope-scale SDR, i.e. the ratio of sediment produced from hillslopes to that delivered to the stream network. Factors that affect hillslope water movement, and thus entrainment or deposition of sediments, ultimately affecting the SDR, include upslope area, climate, topography, and soil cover. In erosion models, SDR is usually treated as a constant parameter. However, the use of spatially variable SDRs could improve the spatial prediction of the critical sources of sediment, i.e. identification of those areas directly affecting stream water quality. Such information would improve prioritisation of natural resource management effort and investment. Recent literature has described several landscape approaches to represent SDR variability in space, some of which account only for topography, whilst others consider topography and soil cover characteristics. The aim of this study was to evaluate four landscape approaches for their ability to depict spatial patterns of SDR in the Avon-Richardson catchment in the semi-arid Wimmera region (Victoria, South-east Australia). Erosion was assessed using a semi-distributed model (CatchMODS) with disaggregation based in subcatchments of around 40 km2 area. Hillslope gross erosion was assessed with a RUSLE approach. By applying the four landscape approaches using DEM and estimates of land use cover, four landscape index subcatchment distributions were calculated. These were normalised into standard distributions. Then, a sigmoid function was used to transform the standardised indices into SDR-index distributions ranging from zero to one. Finally, subcatchment SDRs were estimated as the product of the SDR-index by a whole-of-catchment SDR value that was estimated by calibration against sediment loads measured at five gauging stations of the study area. The major sources of hillslope erosion were modelled to be located in the southern hilly areas of the catchment. However, a topographic convergence approach predicted as well important contribution of hillslope-erosion sediment loads coming from the eastern flatter cropping land. The introduction of landscape-variable SDRs improved the overall goodness-of-fit of modelled versus observed sediment loads at five gauging stations located in the catchment for only the topographic convergence approach. However, the limited number of observations (11), the location of some gauging stations downstream of active gully erosion, and the lack of gauging stations monitoring the north-eastern part of the catchment hindered the assessment of which spatial distribution of hillslope erosion best represented the real catchment conditions. Further research is needed to define the relationship between landscape indices and SDR; and to evaluate the spatial distribution of erosion against more complete field evidence

Sovereign debt restructuring : the judge, the vultures and creditor rights

What role did the US courts play in the Argentine debt swap of 2005? What implications does this have for the future of creditor rights in sovereign bond markets? The judge in the Argentine case has, it appears, deftly exploited creditor heterogeneity – between holdouts seeking capital gains and institutional investors wanting a settlement – to promote a swap with a supermajority of creditors. Our analysis of Argentine debt litigation reveals a ‘judge-mediated’ sovereign debt restructuring, which resolves the key issues of Transition and Aggregation - two of the tasks envisaged for the IMF’s still-born Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism. For the future, we discuss how judge-mediated sovereign debt restructuring (together with creditor committees) could complement the alternative promoted by the US Treasury, namely collective action clauses in sovereign bond contracts

Peer support for patients with type 2 diabetes: cluster randomised controlled trial

Objective To test the effectiveness of peer support for patients with type 2 diabetes

Neuromorphometric characterization with shape functionals

This work presents a procedure to extract morphological information from neuronal cells based on the variation of shape functionals as the cell geometry undergoes a dilation through a wide interval of spatial scales. The targeted shapes are alpha and beta cat retinal ganglion cells, which are characterized by different ranges of dendritic field diameter. Image functionals are expected to act as descriptors of the shape, gathering relevant geometric and topological features of the complex cell form. We present a comparative study of classification performance of additive shape descriptors, namely, Minkowski functionals, and the nonadditive multiscale fractal. We found that the proposed measures perform efficiently the task of identifying the two main classes alpha and beta based solely on scale invariant information, while also providing intraclass morphological assessment

Crowding Promotes the Switch from Hairpin to Pseudoknot Conformation in Human Telomerase RNA

Formation of a pseudoknot in the conserved RNA core domain in the ribonucleoprotein human telomerase is required for function. In vitro experiments show that the pseudoknot (PK) is in equilibrium with an extended hairpin (HP) structure. We use molecular simulations of a coarse-grained model, which reproduces most of the salient features of the experimental melting profiles of PK and HP, to show that crowding enhances the stability of PK relative to HP in the wild type and in a mutant associated with dyskeratosis congenita. In monodisperse suspensions, small crowding particles increase the stability of compact structures to a greater extent than larger crowders. If the sizes of crowders in a binary mixture are smaller than the unfolded RNA, the increase in melting temperature due to the two components is additive. In a ternary mixture of crowders that are larger than the unfolded RNA, which mimics the composition of ribosome, large enzyme complexes and proteins in E. coli, the marginal increase in stability is entirely determined by the smallest component. We predict that crowding can restore partially telomerase activity in mutants, which dramatically decrease the PK stability.Comment: File "JACS_MAIN_archive_PDF_from_DOC.pdf" (PDF created from DOC) contains the main text of the paper File JACS_SI_archive.tex + 7 figures are the supplementary inf

Tradeoffs in jet inlet design: a historical perspective

The design of the inlet(s) is one of the most demanding tasks of the development process of any gas turbine-powered aircraft. This is mainly due to the multi-objective and multidisciplinary nature of the exercise. The solution is generally a compromise between a number of conflicting goals and these conflicts are the subject of the present paper. We look into how these design tradeoffs have been reflected in the actual inlet designs over the years and how the emphasis has shifted from one driver to another. We also review some of the relevant developments of the jet age in aerodynamics and design and manufacturing technology and we examine how they have influenced and informed inlet design decision

IRAS F02044+0957: radio source in interacting system of galaxies

The steep spectrum of IRAS F02044+0957 was obtained with the RATAN-600 radio telescope at four frequencies. Optical spectroscopy of the system components, was carried out with the 2.1m telescope of the Guillermo Haro Observatory. Observational data allow us to conclude that this object is a pair of interacting galaxies, a LINER and a HII galaxy, at $z=0.093$.Comment: 2 pages, 2 EPS-figures, uses newpasp.sty. To appear in Proc. IAU Colloq. 184, AGN Surveys, ed. R. F. Green, E. Ye. Khachikian, & D. B. Sanders (San Francisco: ASP

“I'm a Referee, Not a Female Referee”: The Experiences of Women Involved in Football as Coaches and Referees

The development of the Women's Super League (WSL) in English football, increased media coverage of the game, and an expansion of grassroots opportunities indicate a bright future for women and girls who want to play. Yet this vision must be tempered against compelling evidence of deep rooted and enduring gender inequalities within the game. This is the case for both players, and women who undertake non-playing roles, which is reflected in the relatively low numbers of women coaches and referees. Whilst The Football Association (The FA) has signalled addressing these inequalities as a key priority, critics argue that such efforts amount to superficial and limited efforts to support meaningful change. This paper departs from a concern with playing the game and responds to calls for more research to explore the experiences of women involved in football in non-playing roles. More specifically, it focuses on women coaches and referees, and addresses the following question: how do women in positions of power in football negotiate their place in what remains a distinctly male-dominated profession? In addressing this question, we take a theoretical position located at the nexus between radical and post-structural feminism, acknowledging the significance of structural power relations and individual agency in shaping daily lived social realities. Data were generated from interviews with 14 women coaches and 10 women referees. These interviews explored the structure and culture of the game and its impact on women's experiences of men's and women's competitive and grassroots football. Through a rigorous process of thematic analysis, three themes were identified: gendered entry into football careers; reinforcement of women's difference on the football field; and coping strategies for remaining in the game. Centralising the women's voices in this research highlights the insidious and persistent nature of gendered microaggressions, the sexism of football culture, and the ways in which these women negotiate this masculine terrain in their pursuit of being coaches and referees. “Andy Gray and Richard Keys hauled off air for sexist comments” (The Guardian, 24 January, 2011) “Crystal Palace Women goalkeeper accuses clubs of ignoring FA protocols after she was subjected to sexist abuse” (The Telegraph, 16 January, 2020) “Football manager demands ban on women referees” (The Guardian, 12 November, 2006) “Richard Scudamore sexism scandal intensifies as conspirator in sexist emails investigated by own law firm” (The Telegraph, 16 May, 2014) “Soccer chief's plan to boost women's game? Hotpants” (The Guardian, 16 January, 2004) “Women in Football survey a damning indictment of sexism in the workplace” (HRreview, 11 March, 2014) “Clattenburg criticised for claim female referees must pick career or children” (The Telegraph, 1 October, 2021