Abstract: The present invention relates to metformin for use in treating a patient, wherein the patient exhibits an increased level of GDF15 in response to metformin treatment; to methods of identifying a patient who will benefit or who will not benefit from metformin treatment; methods of treating a patient at risk of developing or suffering from a disease or disorder comprising administering therapeutically effective amount of metformin; methods of adapting the dosage of metformin; the usage of GDF15 as biomarker for identifying a patient who will benefit or who will not benefit from metformin treatment, kits for use in identifying a patient who will benefit from metformin treatment and the use of the kits, as well as methods of treating a patient or who will not benefit from metformin treatment.

Abstract: An autoignition material is provided which contains azodicarbonamide (ADCA) serving as a fuel and an oxidizer including at least basic copper nitrate (BCN) as an oxidizing agent for oxidizing the fuel, present in a ratio of ADCA to BCN of at least about 0.5, and a binder, present in a relative amount of no more than 5 weight percent of the autoignition material, serving as a binding agent for binding at least the fuel and the oxidizer, wherein the autoignition material has an equivalence ratio of less than about 0.8.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to an interceptor security server. The server receives incoming requests from a network and determines if they are valid or not. When the requests are valid, the server relays them to other computing devices that store the actual data. The other devices then relay the requested information to the server, which then passes it to the requesting party. When an invalid request is received, the server denies the request. In this manner, the server protects the associated other computing devices from harmful attacks, snooping requests, or other invalid network requests.