AFLP markers were successfully employed to detect diversity and genetic differentiation among Indian and Kenyan populations of tea (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze). Shannon's index of diversity was ...used to partition the total phenotypic variation into between and within population components. On average, most of the diversity was detected within populations, with 79% of the variation being within and 21% being between populations of Indian and Kenyan tea. A dendrogram constructed on the basis of band sharing distinctly separated the three populations of tea into China type (sinensis), Assam type (assamica) and Cambod type (assamica ssp. lasiocalyx) in a manner consistent with the present taxonomy of tea, the known pedigree of some of the genotypes and their geographical origin. Principal coordinate (PCO) analysis grouped Assam genotypes both from India and Kenya supporting the suggestion that the Kenyan clones have been derived from collections made in this region. The China types were more dispersed on the PCO plot which is a reflection of wider genetic variation. As would be expected, clones collected from the same region exhibited less overall genetic variation. AFLP analysis discriminated all of the tested genotypes from India and Kenya, even those which cannot be distinguished on the basis of morphological and phenotypic traits.PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Summary
Aims 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.
Modern cultivated barley is an important cereal crop with an estimated genome size of 5000 Mb. To develop the resources for positional cloning and structural genomic analyses in barley, we ...constructed a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library for the cultivar Morex using the cloning enzyme HindIII. The library contains 313344 clones (816 384-well plates). A random sampling of 504 clones indicated an average insert size of 106 kbp (range=30-195 kbp) and 3.4% empty vectors. Screening the colony filters for chloroplast DNA content indicated an exceptionally low 1.5% contamination with chloroplast DNA. Thus, the library provides 6.3 haploid genome equivalents allowing a >99% probability of recovering any specific sequence of interest. High-density filters were gridded robotically using a Genetix Q-BOT in a 4×4 double-spotted array on 22.5-cm^sup 2^ filters. Each set of 17 filters allows the entire library to be screened with 18432 clones represented per filter. Screening the library with 40 single copy probes identified an average 6.4 clones per probe, with a range of 1-13 clones per probe. A set of resistance-gene analog (RGA) sequences identified 121 RGA-containing BAC clones representing 20 different regions of the genome with an average of 6.1 clones per locus. Additional screening of the library with a P-loop disease resistance primer probe identified 459 positive BAC clones. These data indicate that this library is a valuable resource for structural genomic applications in barley.PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
This study investigated apology strategies in formal and informal situations of American university students learning Arabic as a foreign language (AFL) in the United States. Data were collected from ...spoken discourse completion tasks for 15 Arabic native speakers and 45 university students from three different proficiency levels. The findings show that there is a positive relationship between an increase in proficiency level and the production of apology strategies as well as between level of proficiency and approximation of native speakers' (NSs) apology strategy production norms. Learners in general used more statements of regret than the NS group did. Unlike what previous studies posit, the findings show that lower proficiency learners have the tendency to produce more explicit apologies than those at a higher proficiency. Results also demonstrate that verbosity was salient in oral production, which is at odds with previous claims that it tends to occur only in learners’ written responses. In addition, findings show that the NS group tends to provide vague explanations when offering apologies, whereas the learners prefer to provide specific reasons for their offense. The study also discusses pedagogical implications for teaching apologies in L2 Arabic.
We have developed a 'genotyping set' of 48 SSR-based genetic markers for application in genetical studies of barley. The SSRs are a subset of a collection of approximately 600 SSRs available to the ...barley research community. They have been specifically chosen according to the following criteria: (1) they are single locus; (2) their product quality is good under standard assay conditions; (3) they are distributed across the barley genome; and (4) they exhibit reasonably high polymorphic information content (PIC) values in the cultivated barley gene-pool. To maximise genotyping throughput, one of each SSR primer pair was 5 end-labelled with either fam, hex or tet fluorochromes to allow automated data capture after running the samples on a DNA sequencer. SSR product sizes were assembled from a reference set of 24 barley genotypes which allowed the construction of 'graphical genotypes' of each of the individual lines. The graphical genotypes provide a convenient tool for interrogating genetic similarity in the individuals surveyed. The product sizes were compared to those obtained from end-labelling one of the primers with super(33)P and separating the products by denaturing PAGE followed by autoradiography. Although inconsistencies in size were common, they could generally be easily resolved. A reference manual for use of the 'genotyping set' has been produced and is available as a PDF download file at http://www.scri.sari.ac.uk/ssr/pdf. These well-characterised barley SSRs, for the first time, provide a common set of robust PCR-based tools which can be used to integrate and compare information collected from fundamental and/or applied genetic studies on barley in different laboratories across the world.
Type 2 diabetes is associated with raised risk of several cancers, but for type 1 diabetes risk data are fewer and inconsistent We assembled a cohort of 23 473 UK patients with insulin‐treated ...diabetes diagnosed at ages <30, almost all of whom will have had type 1 diabetes, and for comparison 5058 diagnosed at ages 30 to 49, of whom we estimate two‐thirds will have had type 2, and followed them for an average of 30 years for cancer incidence and mortality compared with general population rates. Patients aged <30 at diabetes diagnosis had significantly raised risks only for ovarian (standardised incidence ratio = 1.58; 95% confidence interval 1.16‐2.11; P < .01) and vulval (3.55; 1.94‐5.96; P < .001) cancers, with greatest risk when diabetes was diagnosed at ages 10‐14. Risks of cancer overall (0.89; 0.84‐0.95; P < .001) and sites including lung and larynx were significantly diminished. Patients diagnosed with diabetes at ages 30 to 49 had significantly raised risks of liver (1.76;1.08‐2.72) and kidney (1.46;1.03‐2.00) cancers, and reduced risk of cancer overall (0.89; 0.84‐0.95). The raised ovarian and vulval cancer risks in patients with type 1 diabetes, especially with diabetes diagnosed around pubertal ages, suggest possible susceptibility of these organs at puberty to metabolic disruption at diabetes onset. Reduced risk of cancer overall, particularly smoking and alcohol‐related sites, might reflect adoption of a healthy lifestyle.
What's new?
A cohort of 23 000 UK patients with insulin‐treated diabetes diagnosed 1972 to 1993 at ages <30, therefore almost all with type 1 diabetes, were followed for average 30 years, considerably longer than in any published study. Unlike other studies, analyses were possible on age at diabetes diagnosis. Risks were significantly raised for incidence of ovarian and vulval cancers, especially if diabetes was diagnosed at ages 10 to 14, that is, likely around puberty, but were significantly decreased for cancer overall.
Purpose of review
This article reviews available assessment instruments for three of the feeding and eating disorder diagnostic categories: avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), pica, ...and rumination disorder (RD). It includes an overview of the current status of screening tools, questionnaire measures, and diagnostic instruments.
Recent findings
Screening instruments are available for all three disorders; however, for pica and RD, these typically include single screening items only and do not cover any specific features of these presentations. Only one questionnaire suitable for clinical populations is included, covering ARFID only. Standardized diagnostic interviews are limited to two covering both pica and RD, only one of which provides further clinical information. Of the five diagnostic instruments for ARFID described here, two include diagnostic items as well as allowing more detailed assessment of clinical features.
Summary
There are a limited number of assessment measures available for all three disorders, with instruments for ARFID being the greatest in number and widest in terms of scope. A commonly encountered difficulty is that many assessment instruments do not adequately cover diagnostic exclusion criteria, which raises the likelihood of false positive findings. All currently available measures require further study to determine their reliability and validity.
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been criticized for lacking external validity. We assessed whether a trial in people with type I diabetes mellitus mirrored the wider population and applied ...sample-weighting methods to assess the impact of differences on our trial's findings.
The Relative Effectiveness of Pumps over MDI and Structured Education trial was nested within a large UK cohort capturing demographic, clinical, and quality of life data for people with type I diabetes mellitus undergoing structured diabetes-specific education. We first assessed whether our RCT participants were comparable with this cohort using propensity score modeling. After this, we reweighted the trial population to better match the wider cohort and re-estimated the treatment effect.
Trial participants differed from the cohort in regard to sex, weight, HbA1c, and also quality of life and satisfaction with current treatment. Nevertheless, the treatment effects derived from alternative model weightings were similar to that of the original RCT.
Our RCT participants differed in composition to the wider population, but the original findings were unaffected by sampling adjustments. We encourage investigators take steps to address criticisms of generalizability but doing so is problematic; external data, even if available, may contain limited information and analyses can be susceptible to model misspecification.
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