Circulating micrornas associated with glycemic impairment and progression in Asian Indians.

Aims/hypothesisAsian Indians have a high incidence of type 2 diabetes, but factors associated with glycemic progression in this population are not understood. MicroRNAs are emerging as important mediators of glucose homeostasis and have not been previously studied in Asian Indians. We examined microRNA (miR) expression associated with glycemic impairment and progression in Asian Indians from the San Francisco Bay Area. We studied 128 Asian Indians age 45-84 years without known cardiovascular disease and not taking diabetes medications. Oral glucose tolerance tests were performed at baseline and after 2.5 years. We quantified circulating miRs from plasma collected during the enrollment visit using a flow cytometry-based assay.ResultsGlycemic impairment was present in 57 % (n = 73) at baseline. MiR-191 was positively associated with glycemic impairment (odds ratio (OR) 1.7 (95 % CI 1.2, 2.4), p < 0.01). The prevalence of glycemic progression after 2.5 years was 24 % (n = 23). Six miRs were negatively associated with glycemic progression: miR-122 (OR 0.5 (0.2, 0.8), p < 0.01), miR-15a (OR 0.6 (0.4, 0.9), p < 0.01), miR-197 (OR 0.6 (0.4, 0.9), p < 0.01), miR-320a (OR 0.6 (0.4, 0.9), p < 0.01), miR-423 (OR 0.6 (0.4, 0.9), p < 0.01), and miR-486 (OR 0.5 (0.3, 0.8), p < 0.01). Further multivariate adjustment did not attenuate these results.Conclusions/interpretationThis is the first study to investigate circulating miRs associated with glycemic status among this high-risk ethnic group. Individual miRs were significantly associated with both glycemic impairment and glycemic progression. Further studies are needed to determine whether miR (s) might be useful clinical biomarkers for incident T2D in the Asian Indian population

Kaons and pions in strange quark matter

The behavior of kaons and pions in strange quark matter in weak equilibrium, is investigated within the SU(3) Nambu-Jona-Lasinio [NJL] model. This work focuses a region of high densities where the behavior of mesons has not been explored in the framework of this model. It is found that above the density where strange valence quarks appear in the medium, $\rho = 3.8 \rho_0$, a change of behavior of different observables is observed indicating a tendency to the restoration of flavor symmetry. In particular, the splitting between charge multiplets, $K^+, K^-; K^0, {\bar K^0} {and} \pi^+, \pi^-$ decrease and the low energy modes with quantum numbers of $K^-, \bar K^0 {and} \pi^+$, which are excitations of the Fermi sea, are less relevant than for lower densities.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures included; revised version, some changes in the discussio

Equation of state in 2+1 flavor QCD with improved Wilson quarks by the fixed scale approach

We study the equation of state in 2+1 flavor QCD with nonperturbatively improved Wilson quarks coupled with the RG-improved Iwasaki glue. We apply the $T$-integration method to nonperturbatively calculate the equation of state by the fixed-scale approach. With the fixed-scale approach, we can purely vary the temperature on a line of constant physics without changing the system size and renormalization constants. Unlike the conventional fixed-$N_t$ approach, it is easy to keep scaling violations small at low temperature in the fixed scale approach. We study 2+1 flavor QCD at light quark mass corresponding to $m_\pi/m_\rho \simeq 0.63$, while the strange quark mass is chosen around the physical point. Although the light quark masses are heavier than the physical values yet, our equation of state is roughly consistent with recent results with highly improved staggered quarks at large $N_t$.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, v2: Table I and Figure 3 are corrected, reference updated. Main discussions and conclusions are unchanged, v3: version to appear in PRD, v4: reference adde

The disintegrin echistatin in combination with doxorubicin targets high-metastatic human osteosarcoma overexpressing ανβ3 integrin in chick embryo and nude mouse models.

Echistatin, a cyclic RGD peptide, which is an antagonist of αvβ3 integrin (disintegrin), inhibited human osteosarcoma in the chick chorioallontoic membrane (CAM) model and tumor growth and pulmonary metastases in a nude mouse orthotopic model. A high-metastatic variant of human osteosarcoma, 143B-LM4, overexpressing αvβ3 integrin was used. Tumor angiogenesis by high-metastatic variant 143B-LM4 cells in the CAM was significantly inhibited by echistatin (P<0.05) as was overall growth. A doxorubicin (DOX)-echistatin combination inhibited orthotopic tumor growth compared to untreated control (P<0.01) or DOX alone (P<0.05) in nude mice. Tumor-bearing mice treated with the DOX-echistatin combination survived longer than those treated with DOX alone or control PBS (P<0.01 and P<0.01, respectively). Echistatin also inhibited experimental lung metastasis of 143B-LM4 cells in nude mice. These results suggest that DOX in combination with a disintegrin has potential to treat osteosarcoma and that αvβ3 integrin may be a target for osteosarcoma

Are university admissions academically fair?

Admission-practices at high-profile universities are often criticized for undermining academic merit. Popular tests for detecting such biases suffer from omitted characteristic bias. We develop a bounds-based test to circumvent this problem. We assume that students that are better-qualified on observables would, on average, appear academically stronger to admission-tutors based on unobservables. This assumption reveals the sign of differences in admission-standards across demographic groups which are robust to omitted characteristics. Applying our methods to admissions-data from a British university, we find higher admission standards for males and slightly higher ones for private-school applicants, despite equal admission success-probability across gender and school-background.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from MIT Press via http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/REST_a_0061

Disintegrin targeting of an αvβ3 integrin-over-expressing high-metastatic human osteosarcoma with echistatin inhibits cell proliferation, migration, invasion and adhesion in vitro.

The in vitro efficacy of the disintegrin echistatin was tested on a high-metastatic variant of 143B human osteosarcoma, 143B-LM4, which over-expresses αvβ3 integrin. Echistatin is an RGD cyclic peptide and an antagonist of αvβ3 integrin. In the present study, echistatin inhibited cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and adhesion of 143B-LM4 cells. 143B-LM4 cell proliferation decreased after treatment with echistatin in a time-dependent and dose-dependent manner (P <0.01). In vitro migration and invasion of 143B-LM4 cells were also inhibited by echistatin in a dose-dependent manner (P <0.01, respectively). Cell adhesion to vitronectin of 143B-LM4 cells was also inhibited by echistatin in a dose-dependent manner (P <0.01). These results suggest that αvβ3 integrin may be an effective target for osteosarcoma

Daya Saing dan Permintaan Ekspor Produk Biofarmaka Indonesia di Negara Tujuan Utama Periode 2003-2012

Permintaan obat herbal dunia semakin meningkat, tentunya diperlukan USAha yang lebih intensif agar pasokan bahan baku produk biofarmaka dapat terpenuhi. Penelitian ini bertujuan melihat bagaimana daya saing yang terjadi antardua negara di dunia terhadap penyediaan produk ekspor serta menganalisis faktor yang memengaruhi permintaan ekspor produk biofarmaka dunia terhadap negara tujuan utama. Metode analisis yang digunakan dalam penenelitian ini adalah Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), Export Product Dynamics (EPD) dan Gravity Model. Periode waktu yang diteliti adalah rata-rata tahun 2003 hingga 2012. Hasil penelitian menyimpulkan bahwa Indonesia memiliki daya saing yang baik terhadap komoditi kunyit dan kayu gaharu apabila dibandingkan dengan negara pesaing berdasarkan analisis RCA dan EPD dengan posisi daya saing “Lost Oppportunity”. Hasil estimasi faktor yang memengaruhi permintaan produk biofarmaka adalah Real GDP, Real Exchange Rate, Population dan Economic Distance berdasarkan analisis gravity model, seluruh variabel indepeden berpengaruh secara signifikan terhadap dependen dan sesuai dengan hipotesis