Generalised anxiety disorder doubles risk of cardiovascular events in people with stable coronary heart disease

Does generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) affect cardiovascular events associated with coronary heart disease (CHD)? Population: 1015 patients with stable coronary heart. Eligible patients had at least one of the following: history of myocardial infarction (MI), 50% stenosis in one or more coronary vessels (angiographic evidence), history of coronary revascularization, diagnosis of CHD or previous evidence of exercise-induced ischaemia (treadmill or nuclear testing). Setting: Medical centres and public health clinics in San Francisco, USA; September 2000 to December 2002. Prognostic factors: GAD according to Diagnostic Interview Schedule for DSM-IV criteria. Outcomes:\ud Cardiovascular events occurring between baseline and March 2009. Events included stroke, heart failure, MI, transient ischaemic attack or death. Heart failure was defined as hospitalisation for a clinical syndrome involving at least two of the following: orthopnoea, third heart sound, pulmonary rales, paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnoea, elevated jugular venous pressure, cardiomegaly or pulmonary oedema on chest radiography. Non-fatal MI was defined based on the presence of symptoms, electrocardiographic changes and cardiac enzymes using standard criteria

Percolative Model for Nanoscale Phase Separation in High Temperature Superconductors

The nature of the phase diagrams of HTSC is clarified by discussing two kinds of phase diagrams, that of the host crystalline lattice, and that of the dopant glass. The latter is associated with changes in the electronic properties, while the former is much more accessible to direct experimental identification, by diffraction, of nanoscale phase separation. Careful examination of electronic properties in both the normal and superconductive states reveals that there are several electronic miscibility gaps in YBa2Cu3Ox and La2-xSrxCuO4 that have been previously overlooked. Recent experiments on the pseudogap in Bi2Sr1.6La0.4CuOy also reveal an electronic miscibility gap.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Teaching critical appraisal to Sport & Exercise Sciences and Biosciences students

Seminars were implemented to develop undergraduates’ critical appraisal skills and their effectiveness was evaluated. Participants were 140 undergraduate students consisting of 103 students from Sport and Exercise Sciences and 37 from Biosciences. Four seminars were employed to develop and reinforce critical thinking and provide an opportunity for practise and group work. Source material included research proposals and published journal articles. Two linked pieces of coursework assessed critical thinking skills. Teaching method effectiveness was examined using the students’ questionnaire responses and comparison of coursework grades across the module. Students reported finding the seminars useful and helpful, and their self-ratings of critical appraisal skills improved from pre- to post-seminar. However, this was not generally reflected in assessment grades across the group. Overall, there was a significant decline in grades from the first to the second piece of coursework. However, although Sport and Exercise Sciences students’ scored significantly lower on the second coursework, Biosciences students scored higher. It is possible that this type of teaching helps to boost performance in students who originally are new to such skills. Future studies would need to examine whether different methods or longer follow-up might also yield improvements in objective measurements of students’ critical appraisal ability