Coeliac screening in a Scottish cohort of children with type 1 diabetes mellitus: is DQ typing the way forward?

BACKGROUND: Children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) are at increased risk of coeliac disease (CD). Recent guidelines indicate coeliac screening should include HLA typing for CD predisposing (DQ2/DQ8) alleles and those negative for these alleles require no further coeliac screening. METHODS: Children (n=176) with T1DM attending clinics across two Scottish regions were screened for HLA DQ2/DQ8 as part of routine screening. Data collected included the frequency of DQ2/DQ8 genotypes and the additional cost of HLA screening. RESULTS: Overall, DQ2/DQ8 alleles were identified in 94% of patients. The additional cost of HLA typing was £3699.52 (£21.02 per patient). All patients with known CD (11/176) were positive for DQ2/DQ8 and all were diagnosed with CD within 5 years of T1DM diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: The vast majority of children with T1DM have CD-predisposing HLA genotypes limiting the number of patients that can be excluded from further screening. We conclude that HLA genotyping is not currently indicated for CD screening in this population.

Allocating anthropogenic pollutant emissions over space: application to ozone pollution management.

An inventory of volatile organic compound (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions is an important tool for the management of ground-level ozone pollution. This paper has two broad aims: it illustrates the potential of a geographic information system (GIS) for enhancing an existing spatially-aggregated, anthropogenic emissions inventory (EI) for Tucson, AZ, and it discusses the ozone-specific management implications of the resulting spatially-disaggregated EI. The main GIS-related methods include calculating emissions for specific features, spatially disaggregating region-wide emissions totals for area sources, and adding emissions from various point sources. In addition, temporal allocation factors enable the addition of a multi-temporal component to the inventory. The resulting inventory reveals that on-road motor vehicles account for approximately 50% of VOC and NOx emissions annually. On-road motor vehicles and residential wood combustion are the largest VOC sources in the summer and winter months, respectively. On-road motor vehicles are always the largest NOx sources. The most noticeable weekday vs. weekend VOC emissions differences are triggered by increased residential wood combustion and increased lawn and garden equipment use on weekends. Concerning the EI's uncertainties and errors, on-road mobile, construction equipment, and lawn and garden equipment are identified as sources in the most need of further investigation. Overall, the EIs spatial component increases its utility as a management tool, which might involve visualization-driven analyses and air quality modeling.

Integrating remote sensing and local vegetation information for a high-resolution biogenic emissions inventory--application to an urbanized, semiarid region.

This paper presents a methodology for the development of a high-resolution (30-m), standardized biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions inventory and a subsequent application of the methodology to Tucson, AZ. The region's heterogeneous vegetation cover cannot be modeled accurately with low-resolution (e.g., 1-km) land cover and vegetation information. Instead, local vegetation data are used in conjunction with multispectral satellite data to generate a detailed vegetation-based land-cover database of the region. A high-resolution emissions inventory is assembled by associating the vegetation data with appropriate emissions factors. The inventory reveals a substantial variation in BVOC emissions across the region, resulting from the region's diversity of both native and exotic vegetation. The importance of BVOC emissions from forest lands, desert lands, and the urban forest changes according to regional, metropolitan, and urban scales. Within the entire Tucson region, the average isoprene, monoterpene, and OVOC fluxes observed were 454, 248, and 91 micrograms/m2/hr, respectively, with forest and desert lands emitting nearly all of the BVOCs. Within the metropolitan area, which does not include the forest lands, the average fluxes were 323, 181, and 70 micrograms/m2/hr, respectively. Within the urban area, the average fluxes were 801, 100, and 100 micrograms/m2/hr, respectively, with exotic trees such as eucalyptus, pine, and palm emitting most of the urban BVOCs. The methods presented in this paper can be modified to create detailed, standardized BVOC emissions inventories for other regions, especially those with spatially complex vegetation patterns.

Antituberculosis agents. V: Alpha-[5-(5-nitro-2-furyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-ylthio]acethydrazide and related compounds.

alpha-[5-(5-Nitro-2-furyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-ylthio]aceth ydrazide, alpha-[5-(5-nitro-2-furyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-ylthio]acetamid e, delta-allyl-1-[( 5-(5-nitro-2-furyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-ylthio]acety) thiosemicarbazide, and other related compounds have been synthesised for testing against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.