Search

Background:Circulating microRNAs are emerging as potential prognostic biomarkers for the development of type 2 diabetes. However, microRNAs are also associated with complications from impaired glucose metabolism (e.g. endothelial cell function). Prior studies have not evaluated for associations between trajectories of circulating microRNAs with trajectories of fasting blood glucose over time and the responses to behavioral interventions to reduce risk. This study performed longitudinal assessment of microRNAs and fasting blood glucose and identified relationships between microRNAs and behavioral risk reduction interventions. Methods:MicroRNAs (n = 353) were measured in subsets (n = 10, n = 8) of participants from previously completed clinical trials that studied behavioral risk reduction interventions. Fasting blood glucose trajectories were associated with changes in 45 microRNAs over 12 months. Results:Following a 3-month physical activity and dietary intervention compared with baseline, 13 microRNAs were differentially expressed. Seven microRNAs (i.e. miR-106b, miR-20b, miR-363, miR-486, miR-532, miR-92a and miR-93) were commonly identified between the two analyses. Conclusions:Further studies are needed to determine which microRNAs are prognostic biomarkers of risk for type 2 diabetes versus consequences of impaired glucose metabolism. Additional future directions of this research are to differentiate whether microRNAs are prognostic and/or diagnostic biomarkers for risk for type 2 diabetes and predictive biomarkers of responses to risk reduction interventions.

Aim: The purpose of the study was to explore the perceived risk for diabetes and heart attack and associated health status of Caucasian, Filipino, Korean, and Latino Americans without diabetes. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 904 urban adults (mean age 44.3. ±. 16.1 years; 64.3% female) in English, Spanish or Korean between August and December 2013. Results: Perceived risk for developing diabetes was indicated by 46.5% (n=421), and 14.3% (n=129) perceived themselves to be at risk for having a heart attack in their lifetime. Significant predictors of pessimistic diabetes risk perceptions: Filipino (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]. =1.7; 95% CI: 1.04-2.86) and Korean (AOR. =2.4; 1.33-4.48) ethnicity, family history of diabetes (AOR. =1.4; 1.00-1.84), female gender (AOR. =1.4; 1.04-1.96), high cholesterol (AOR=1.6; 1.09-2.37) and higher body mass index (BMI) (AOR. =1.1; 1.08-1.15). Predictors of pessimistic heart attack risk perceptions were family history of an early heart attack (AOR. =2.9; 1.69-5.02), high blood pressure (AOR. =2.4; 1.45-3.84), and higher BMI (AOR. =1.1; 1.04-1.12) after controlling for socio-demographic factors. Older age, physical inactivity, smoking, and low HDL levels were not associated with risk perceptions. Conclusion: Multiple risk factors were predictive of greater perceived diabetes risk, whereas, only family history of heart attack, high blood pressure and increases in BMI significantly contributed to perceived risk of heart attack among ethnically diverse at risk middle-aged adults. It is important that healthcare providers address the discordance between an individual's risk perceptions and the presence of actual risk factors.

An improvement in dielectric strength is required in vacuum circuit breakers (VCBs) intended for use in higher voltage systems. In order to develop higher voltage VCBs, it is important to improve the dielectric strength in a vacuum based on consideration of the vacuum breakdown mechanism. Particularly for gaps longer than 10 mm, little is known about the breakdown mechanisms and their quantitative analyses in a vacuum. This paper discusses the breakdown conditioning characteristics of long gap electrodes, under a non-uniform electric field in a vacuum. We treat gap lengths of up to 50 mm in this paper. The conditioning characteristics are investigated under impulse voltage applications. A negative standard lightning impulse voltage was applied to rod-plane electrodes made of Cu-Cr and SUS304 for different tip radii and gap distances until the conditioning effect was completed. We observed illumination spots on electrodes at each breakdown during the conditioning process and calculated the corresponding breakdown field strengths. Experimental results revealed that the tendency of breakdowns associated with long gaps is different from that for the short gaps. As a result, we clarified that the breakdown field strengths are nearly constant at 110-120 kV/mm at the distances longer than 10 mm, and the breakdown field strength is at its maximum when the gap distance is about 5 mm. Index Terms--Breakdown conditioning, non-uniform electric field, long gap, lightning impulse voltage.

Breakdown (BD) characteristics in vacuum are strongly dependent on the electrode surface conditions, such as surface roughness. However, there is little known concerning the details of the relationship between the surface roughness and BD conditioning effect. In practical application, it is important to clarify how the surface roughness affects the breakdown conditioning characteristics, especially for the non-uniform field configuration. This paper discusses the effect of surface roughness on breakdown conditioning characteristics under non-uniform electric field in vacuum under applications of negative standard lightning impulse voltage. For this purpose, we examined the BD conditioning of a rod-to-plane electrode made of SUS304 and Cu-Cr. The surface roughness of [R.sub.a] is controlled from 0.3 to 2.5 [micro]m. Experimental results revealed that the enhancement of surface roughness of electrodes increases the number of BD to complete the conditioning effect. We explained the results from the observed results of the electrode surface. Consequently, we could clarify the effect of surface roughness on the conditioning effect under non-uniform electric field in vacuum quantitatively. Index Terms--Vacuum, conditioning effect, non-uniform electric field, lightning impulse voltage, vacuum circuit breaker, electrode surface roughness.

We fabricate 128-Kbit SRAMs using a rad-hard circuit design based on a mixed-mode three-dimensional simulation in a commercial silicon-on-insulator foundry with 0.2-/[micro]m design rules. Appropriate design increases the critical linear energy transfer of single-event upset over 164.4 MeV /(mg/[cm.sup.2]). Index Terms--Radiation hardening, semiconductor device fabrication, semiconductor memories, silicon on insulator technology.

The transient changes in stripe patterns of Ag-Sb thin films electrodeposited from the aqueous electrolyte are investigated. The surface morphology observation indicates that the stripe patterns are represented by average stripe spacings and have a time-invariant property.