Nitrate-Rich Beetroot Juice Selectively Lowers Ambulatory Pressures and LDL Cholesterol in Uncontrolled but not Controlled Hypertension: a Pilot Study.

Background Dietary nitrate has been shown to increase nitrate/nitrite levels in multiple populations, with potential blood pressure lowering effects. However, there are few reports among hypertensives. Aims We aimed to assess the effect of daily nitrate in subject with controlled hypertension vs. uncontrolled hypertension. Methods On day 0, hypertensives wore an ambulatory BP monitor (ABPM) for 24h and fasting blood was taken. Subjects then consumed concentrated beetroot juice (12.9mmol nitrate) for 14 consecutive days. On day 14 subjects consumed their last nitrate dose after fasting blood was drawn and again had an ABPM for 24h. Results According to baseline ABPM, 11 subjects had controlled BP while 8 had uncontrolled BP. There were similar, significant increases in serum nitrate/nitrite in both groups. We observed little change in BP variables among controlled hypertensives. However, there were reductions in BP variables in uncontrolled hypertensives where decreases in nighttime DBP (-6 ± 4.8mmHg), arterial stiffness (-0.08 ± 0.03 ambulatory arterial stiffness index) and LDL (-0.36 ± 0.42mmol/L) reached significance (p=003, 0.05 and 0.046 respectively). Conclusions Our results support the existing data suggesting an anti-hypertensive effect of nitratecontaining beetroot juice, but only among those with uncontrolled hypertension

Dietary Nitrate in Decreased Blood Pressure in Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Syndrome: a Series of N-of-1trials

Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) is a consequence of repetitive oropharyngeal airway narrowing/closure during sleep resulting in chronic intermittent hypoxaemia [1]. OSAS is regarded as an independent risk factor for hypertension (HTN) development [2] and is associated with decreased cerebral blood flow [3], leading to daytime neuropsychological sequelae [1]. Blood pressure (BP) follows a circadian rhythm termed dipping and the absence of nocturnal BP dipping is associated with target-organ damage, cerebrovascular disease, myocardial remodelling and increased cardiovascular events/mortality [4]. Abnormal BP in OSAS typically manifests as reduced nocturnal BP dipping [5]. Although continuous positive airway pressure therapy (CPAP) represents the current gold standard treatment of OSAS, its antihyper- tensive effect is limite

Publicly funded principal investigators allocation of time for public sector entrepreneurship activities

In this paper we explore the allocation of time of publicly funded principal investigators (PIs) for public sector entrepreneurship activities. We examine their allocation of time in general to research activities and specifically at a project level in relation to the type of research, knowledge transfer activity, project impact, deliberate technology transfer strategy and boundary spanning activities using data from a full population survey of publicly funded PIs in Ireland in science, engineering and technology across national and European research programmes. We find that PIs who spend more time on general research related activities allocated a higher proportion of time to technology transfer activities and that PIs who spend more time on technology activities engaged more in end of project reports and collaborative research with industry. In relation to the importance placed on impact criteria, PIs who spend more time on research placed more importance on technology and market impacts than those spending less time on research related activities. Furthermore, PIs who spend more time on technology transfer placed greater value on technology transfer, market and economic impact. We find projects of PIs spending more time on research related activities had a greater impact on technology transfer and a greater market impact, according to the assessment of respondents, than the projects of PIs spending less time on research activities. Finally, with respect to boundary spanning activities we find PIs spending more time on research engaged more in direct consultation with industry end-users and direct consultation with their technology transfer office at the pre-proposal stage of their selected project and they had significantly larger than average amount of industry partners. We conclude our analysis by considering the implications for public sector entrepreneurship

A General Test for Gene-Environment Interaction in Sib Pair-based Association Analysis of Quantitative Traits

Several association studies support the hypothesis that genetic variants can modify the influence of environmental factors on behavioral outcomes, i.e., G 9 E interaction. The case-control design used in these studies is powerful, but population stratification with respect to allele frequencies can give rise to false positive or false negative associations. Stratification with respect to the environmental factors can lead to false positives or false negatives with respect to environmental main effects and G 9 E interaction effects as well. Here we present a model based on Fulker et al. (1999) and Purcell (2002) for the study of G 9 E interaction in family-based association designs, in which the effects of stratification can be controlled. Simulations illustrate the power to detect genetic and environmental main effects, and G 9 E interaction effects for the sib pair design. The power to detect interaction was studied in eight different situations, both with and without the presence of population stratification, and for categorical and continuous environmental factors. Results show that the power to detect genetic and environmental main effects, and G 9 E interaction effects, depends on the allele frequencies and the distribution of the environmental moderator. Admixture effects of realistic effect size lead only to very small stratification effects in the G 9 E component, so impractically large numbers of sib pairs are required to detect such stratification

How Principal Investigators’ Commercial Experience Influences Technology Transfer and Market Impacts

Businesses can benefit from university–industry collaborations, yet they rarely take full advantage of them. Scientists who serve as principal investigators (PIs) act as the nucleus of university–industry collaborations and partner with industry to cocreate value. We conducted a case study of PIs at publicly funded research universities, institutes, and organizations in Ireland to explore how having commercial experience influences how PIs approach technology transfer and how they develop new business models, products, and services. We learned that PIs’ prior commercial experience influences how they approach their research, project work, and project selection and affects how they commercialize knowledge and outputs from their scientific research––that is, patents, licences, agreements, etc.––throughout the project’s life cycle. In university– industry collaborations, PIs’ commercial experience can impact industry partners’ attempts to realize technology transfer and market impacts

Розробка інвестиційної програми розвитку вугледобувних підприємств на основі SWOT- та PESТ-аналізу

На основі SWOT- та PESТ-аналізу доведено, що для підтримки виробничої потужності шахти необхідно здійснювати інвестиційні вкладення. запропоновано заходи, реалізація яких приведе до поліпшення техніко-економічних показників шахти. Ключові слова: SWOT- та PESТ-аналіз, шахта, виробнича потужність, технико-економічні показники.На основе SWOT-и PESТ-анализа доказано, что для поддержания производственной мощности шахты необходимо осуществлять инвестиционные вложения. предложены меры, реализация которых приведет к улучшению технико-экономических показателей шахты. Ключевые слова: SWOT-и PESТ-анализ, шахта, производственная мощность, технико-экономические показателиBased on SWOT- and PESR-analysis, it has been determined that to support the production capacity of a mine it is necessary to make investments. The measures are offered to improve technical and economic indicators of the mine. Keywords: SWOT- and PESR-analysis, mine, production capacity, technical and economic indicators

Statistical power to detect genetic and environmental influences in the presence of data missing at random.

We study the situation in which a cheap measure (X) is observed in a large, representative twin sample, and a more expensive measure (Y) is observed in a selected subsample. The aim of this study is to investigate the optimal selection design in terms of the statistical power to detect genetic and environmental influences on the variance of Y and on the covariance of X and Y. Data were simulated for 4000 dizygotic and 2000 monozygotic twins. Missingness (87% vs. 97%) was then introduced in accordance with 7 selection designs: (i) concordant low + individual high design; (ii) extreme concordant design; (iii) extreme concordant and discordant design (EDAC); (iv) extreme discordant design; (v) individual score selection design; (vi) selection of an optimal number of MZ and DZ twins; and (vii) missing completely at random. The statistical power to detect the influence of additive and dominant genetic and shared environmental effects on the variance of Y and on the covariance between X and Y was investigated. The best selection design is the individual score selection design. The power to detect additive genetic effects is high irrespective of the percentage of missingness or selection design. The power to detect shared environmental effects is acceptable when the percentage of missingness is 87%, but is low when the percentage of missingness is 97%, except for the individual score selection design, in which the power remains acceptable. The power to detect D is low, irrespective of selection design or percentage of missingness. The individual score selection design is therefore the best design for detecting genetic and environmental influences on the variance of Y and on the covariance of X and Y. However, the EDAC design may be preferred when an additional purpose of a study is to detect quantitative trait loci effects