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SummaryAims To assess mortality in patients with diabetes incident under the age of 30 years. Methods A cohort of 23 752 diabetic patients diagnosed under the age of 30 years from throughout the United Kingdom was identified during 1972–93 and followed up to February 1997. Following notification of deaths during this period, age- and sex-specific mortality rates, attributable risks and standardized mortality rates were calculated. Results The 23 752 patients contributed a total of 317 522 person-years of follow-up, an average of 13.4 years per subject. During follow-up 949 deaths occurred in patients between the ages of 1 and 84 years, 566 in males and 383 in females. All-cause mortality rates in the patients with diabetes exceeded those in the general population at all ages and within the cohort were higher for males than females at all ages except between 5 and 15 years. The relative risk of death (standardized mortality ratio, SMR), was higher for females than males at all ages, being 4.0 (95% CI 3.6–4.4) for females and 2.7 (2.5–2.9) for males overall, but reaching a peak of 5.7 (4.7–7.0) in females aged 20–29, and of 4.0 (3.1–5.0) in males aged 40–49. Attributable risks, or the excess deaths in persons with diabetes compared with the general population, increased with age in both sexes. Conclusions This is the first study from the UK of young patients diagnosed with diabetes that is large enough to calculate detailed age-specific mortality rates. This study provides a baseline for further studies of mortality and change in mortality within the United Kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SummaryAims To measure cause-specific mortality, by age, in patients with insulin-treated diabetes incident at a young age. Methods A cohort of 23 752 patients with insulin-treated diabetes diagnosed under the age of 30 years, from throughout the United Kingdom, was identified during 1972–93 and followed to February 1997. Death certificates have been obtained for deaths during the follow-up period and cause-specific mortality rates and standardized mortality ratios by age and sex are reported. Results During the follow-up period 949 deaths occurred and at all ages mortality rates were considerably higher than in the general population. Acute metabolic complications of diabetes were the greatest single cause of excess death under the age of 30 years. Cardiovascular disease was responsible for the greatest proportion of the deaths from the age of 30 years onwards. Conclusions Deaths in patients with diabetes diagnosed under the age of 30 have been reported and comparisons drawn with mortality in the general population. To reduce these deaths attention must be paid both to the prevention of acute metabolic deaths and the early detection and treatment of cardiovascular disease and associated risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extracts from triticale (Triticale hexaploide Lart.) cultivar 6A190 kernels harvested at 10 days post anthesis (developing), 41 days post anthesis (mature) and after 7 days' germination, were analyzed for their α-amylase isoenzymic composition by electrophoretic and immunochemical techniques. One antigenic α-amylase (I) was common to both developing and germinated seeds but was present in greater quantity during germination. A second antigenic α-amylase (II) was found in germinated seeds only and was barely detectable, even in an inactive state, in developing seeds. A third antigenic α-amylase (III) was found only in developing seeds. In mature seeds the α-amylase (II) predominated. α-Amylase (I) was also present but to a lesser extent than that found in developing seeds. It was concluded that the abnormally high levels of α-amylase found in triticale 6A190 in the mature, non-sprouted kernel arose due to a lack of dormancy in the grain, resulting in the de novo synthesis of α-amylase (II). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollen from 10 agricultural plant species was surveyed for the presence of proteins crossreactive with group I, group IV and group IX allergens. Barley (Hordeum vulgare), maize (Zea mays), rye (Secale cerale), triticale (xTriticosecale cereale), oats (Avena sativa), Canola (Brassica napus) and sunflower (Helianthus annus) pollens contained numerous allergen cognate proteins. Northern blot analysis of barley pollen RNA revealed the presence of group I and group IX allergen transcripts. The barley pollen cDNA hvp9742, and three other cloned allergens: phlenum protense (Phl p) V, Phl p Va and Lolium perenne (Lol p) 1b, were demonstrated to have extensive nucleotide and amino acid sequence similarity to the Poa p IX isoallergens. It was concluded that hvp9742 represents a Poa p IX isoallergen homologue expressed by barley pollen, and was therefore designated Hor v IX. It is further shown that the most highly conserved domains of all seven proteins, including Hor v IX, map to previously defined Poa p IX antibody binding epitopes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reformulation of the information reduction factor (IRF) for tracking in the presence of measurement uncertainty is presented. A simple integral representation is employed to derive an expression for the IRF that can be calculated without approximation in terms of one-dimensional integrals. This significantly reduces the computational requirements of the calculation and is relevant to the offline calculation of tracking performance and the selection of detection thresholds to optimise tracking accuracy. A comparison with Monte Carlo integration shows that the new technique is approximately 380 times faster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Runoff and soil erosion, based upon plot studies, have been reviewedfor southern China. They reveal, with the exception of tree crops, no strong association for a given land use between runoff and erosion.The data support the concept of vegetation as a major control upon runoff and sediment production. Forest and woodland have an average erosion rate of 0705 t ha-1 year-1; the lowest rate for a given cover. Tree crops experience a slightly higher erosionrate followed by a scrub-grass cover. Cultivated slopes and bare soil, with respective mean erosion rates of 6274 and 15370 t ha-1 year-1, experience the greatest erosion. In terms of runoff production the ranking (low to high) goes from forest-woodland, scrub-grass to tree crops and bare to cultivated slopes. Sediment yield and runoff under various ground covers are presented as a ratio to those obtained under forest and this underlines the influence of land use. Further support is given by the use of additional studies from South-east Asia and Tanzania. Variability of sediment production, and to a lesser extent runoff under any given land use or cover, is an important feature of the data. Results from a study in Hong Kong support the importance of ground cover in controlling erosion. For example, sediment yield in splash pans on two plots where vegetation was cut were 276 and 378 times those of the control. Two plots, which were burnt, had sediment catches 574 and 371 times those of the control.However, observations of suspended sediment levels in a small streamsuggest no great change in sediment levels after burning, which raises the question of sediment delivery from slopes to channels. The erosion rates reported for cultivation raise the question as to how longsuch rates can continue before productivity is affected. Further consideration needs to be given to economic aspects of erosion and to temporal variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]