Plos One
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The effects of vitamin D supplementation on mild hepatic dysfunction and glycemic control are unclear in children and adolescents with either type 1 (T1D) or type 2 diabetes (T2D). ⋯ Vitamin D supplementation in subjects with T2D was associated with statistically significant decreases in BMI SDS, ALT, and a clinically-significant decrease in HbA1c.
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The ADAM33 gene has been identified as a potentially important asthma candidate gene and polymorphisms in this gene have been shown to be associated with asthma and seasonal allergic rhinitis. ⋯ Polymorphisms in the ADAM33 gene may contribute to susceptibility of mite-sensitized PER in this Chinese population.
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Historical Article
Climate change and macro-economic cycles in pre-industrial europe.
Climate change has been proven to be the ultimate cause of social crisis in pre-industrial Europe at a large scale. However, detailed analyses on climate change and macro-economic cycles in the pre-industrial era remain lacking, especially within different temporal scales. Therefore, fine-grained, paleo-climate, and economic data were employed with statistical methods to quantitatively assess the relations between climate change and agrarian economy in Europe during AD 1500 to 1800. ⋯ These findings merely reflect the general interactions between climate change and macro-economic cycles at the large spatial region with a long-term study period. The findings neither illustrate individual incidents that can temporarily distort the agrarian economy nor explain some specific cases. In the study, the scale thinking in the analysis is raised as an essential methodological issue for the first time to interpret the associations between climatic impact and macro-economy in the past agrarian society within different temporal scales.
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Intracranial aneurysm (IA) is significantly more prevalent in patients with coarctation of the aorta or bicuspid aortic valve than in the general population, suggesting a common pathophysiology connecting IA and aortopathy. Here, we analyzed echocardiographic aortic root dimension (ARD) in patients with IA to confirm this possibility. ⋯ A certain group of IA patients share a common intrinsic wall defect with aortopathy. Shared neural crest cell origin may give rise to this phenomenon.
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Acute kidney injury (AKI) complicates the course of disease in critically ill patients. Efforts to change its clinical course have failed because of the fail in the early detection. This study was designed to assess whether heat shock protein (Hsp72) is an early and sensitive biomarker of acute kidney injury (AKI) compared with kidney injury molecule (Kim-1), neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), and interleukin-18 (IL-18) biomarkers. ⋯ The biomarker Hsp72 is enough sensitive and specific to predict AKI in critically ill patients up to 3 days before the diagnosis.