Increased expression of circulating miRNA-93 in women with polycystic ovary syndrome may represent a novel, non-invasive biomarker for diagnosis

MicroRNAs (miRNA) are a novel class of small noncoding single-stranded RNA molecules that regulate gene expression. There is increasing evidence of their importance in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The objective was to determine if miRNA-93 and miRNA-223 are differentially expressed in the circulation of women with PCOS compared to age matched women. A case–control study comparing women with PCOS (n = 25) to age and weight matched controls (n = 24) without PCOS was performed. MiRNA-93 and miRNA-223 were determined by total RNA reverse transcription. Both miRNA-93 and miRNA-223 were significantly increased relative to the control group (p < 0.01, p = 0.029 respectively). In both groups there was no correlation of either miRNA-93 or miRNA-223 with insulin, HOMA-IR, HOMA-β or testosterone levels. The area under the receiver operator characteristic curve for miR-223 and miR-93 was 0.66 and 0.72 respectively, suggesting miR-93 is a more efficient biomarker than miR-223 for diagnosis of PCOS. The combination of the two miRNAs together, tested using multiple logistic regression analysis, did not improve the diagnostic potential. In conclusion, circulating miRNA-93 and miRNA-223 were higher in women with PCOS compared to age and weight matched controls independent of insulin resistance and testosterone levels, and miR-93 may represent a novel diagnostic biomarker for PCOS

Systems driven HLFC design

The paper presents an aerodynamic study carried out in parallel with the EU AFLoNext project to assess the issues involved in combining hybrid laminar flow control (HLFC) technology for drag reduction with wing ice protection systems (WIPS). The paper describes the selection of appropriate test cases in the literature which are representative of wings designed for HLFC system and the progression from an initial baseline HLFC chamber layout to layouts driven by practical constraints such as WIPS requirements and aircraft structure. The resulting HLFC system is a compromise between all concerned systems. Conclusions are drawn about design driven not purely by performance but by the ability to physically implement the system on a commercial aircraft

Effects of human recombinant growth hormone on exercise capacity, cardiac structure, and cardiac function in patients with adult-onset growth hormone deficiency

Objective Epidemiological studies suggest that adult-onset growth hormone deficiency (AGHD) might increase the risk of death from cardiovascular causes. Methods This was a 6-month double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised, cross-over trial followed by a 6-month open-label phase. Seventeen patients with AGHD received either recombinant human growth hormone (rGH) (0.4 mg injection daily) or placebo for 12 weeks, underwent washout for 2 weeks, and were then crossed over to the alternative treatment for a further 12 weeks. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, echocardiography, and cardiopulmonary exercise testing were performed at baseline, 12 weeks, 26 weeks, and the end of the open phase (12 months). The results were compared with those of 16 age- and sex-matched control subjects. Results At baseline, patients with AGHD had a significantly higher systolic blood pressure, ejection fraction, and left ventricular mass than the control group, even when corrected for body surface area. Treatment with rGH normalised the insulin-like growth factor 1 concentration without an effect on exercise capacity, cardiac structure, or cardiac function. Conclusion Administration of rGH therapy for 6 to 9 months failed to normalise the functional and structural cardiac differences observed in patients with AGHD when compared with a control group

Tom Vickers, Gary Craig and Karl Atkin (2013), ‘Addressing Ethnicity in Social Care Research’, Social Policy and Administration, 47 (3), June, 310–26

This article surveys recent developments in relation to the dimensions of ethnicity and ethnic disadvantage in social policy research and practice, with a focus on social care. While there has been limited increase in attention to ethnicity within general policy discussion and increasing sophistication within specialist debates, advances in theory and methodology have largely failed to penetrate the mainstream of research, let alone policy or practice. We argue for a more focussed consideration of ethnicity and ethnic disadvantage at all levels. Failure to do so creates the risk of social policy research being left behind in understanding rapid changes in ethnic minority demographics and patterns of migration, and increasing disadvantage to minorities

Hecke operators on period functions for Γ0(n)\Gamma_0(n)

Matrix representations of Hecke operators on classical holomorphical cusp forms and the corresponding period polynomials are well known. In this article we derive representations of Hecke operators for vector valued period functions for the congruence subgroups $\Gamma_0(n)$. For this we use an integral transform from the space of vector valued cusp forms to the space of vector valued period functions.Comment: v2: corrected version, submitted to Journal of Number, 29 pages, 1 figur

Cancer detection in primary care: Insights from general practitioners

© 2015 Cancer Research UK. Background: General practitioners (GPs) have a key role in cancer detection as the usual first point of contact for patients with potential cancer symptoms. Nevertheless, there is limited work that investigates their perceptions of their role in the early detection of cancer. To address this gap, we aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of cancer diagnosis from the perspective of GPs. Methods: Individual face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 55 GPs from the North and North East of England and Greater London. All interviews were recorded and professionally transcribed verbatim. Repeated reading and co-coding engendered systematic thematic analysis across the interview material. Results: Three main themes emerged from the analysis of our data. First, we identified the burden of early cancer detection in general practice, both related to the anxiety and symptoms patients bring to GPs and the need for GPs to recognise patterns of cancer symptoms and refer appropriately; second, this burden is intensified by a perceived fragmentation of services within the National Health Service (NHS); and third, it is made more complex by the interface between general practice and public health. Conclusions: GPs occupy a challenging but pivotal role in cancer detection. It is crucial that this role be supported by policy and research

The trade-off between taxi time and fuel consumption in airport ground movement

Environmental impact is a very important agenda item in many sectors nowadays, which the air transportation sector is also trying to reduce as much as possible. One area which has remained relatively unexplored in this context is the ground movement problem for aircraft on the airport’s surface. Aircraft have to be routed from a gate to a runway and vice versa and it is still unknown whether fuel burn and environmental impact reductions will best result from purely minimising the taxi times or whether it is also important to avoid multiple acceleration phases. This paper presents a newly developed multi-objective approach for analysing the trade-off between taxi time and fuel consumption during taxiing. The approach consists of a combination of a graph-based routing algorithm and a population adaptive immune algorithm to discover different speed profiles of aircraft. Analysis with data from a European hub airport has highlighted the impressive performance of the new approach. Furthermore, it is shown that the trade-off between taxi time and fuel consumption is very sensitive to the fuel-related objective function which is used

Respiration as a percentage of daily photosynthesis in whole plants is homeostatic at moderate, but not high, growth temperatures

• Here, we investigated the impact of temperature on the carbon economy of two Plantago species from contrasting habitats. • The lowland Plantago major and the alpine Plantago euryphylla were grown hydroponically at three constant temperatures: 13, 2

Public service in the information age: A study of e-government in Taiwan

This article reviews the literature on e-government and discusses policy implications stemming from e-government initiatives in Taiwan. Drawing from evaluation frameworks established in previous research, this study surveys the content of 62 websites maintained by the local, secondary and central government. Study findings suggest that, while Taiwan has made significant progress in deploying e-government initiatives across different administrative levels-especially in delivering a single service window model providing one-stop service for citizens and businesses-the technology\u27s overall implementation is hampered by operational inconsistencies at the local level and differential access across the population. The article argues that to fully realise the potential of e-government, the Taiwanese government should adopt systematic measures that reach beyond service delivery to encourage wider citizen inclusion and civic participation