Effects of drycleaning and exposure to light on selected service qualities of two malimo drapery fabrics

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1969 M67Master of Scienc

Characterising biochemical changes to hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells upon exposure to green tea extract using untargeted metabolomics

Complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs) have become the preferred medicine for many in replacement of conventional medicines due to cultural or financial reasons. Herbal CAMS, in particular, have become a popular choice of medicine for their purported health benefits. Green tea extract (GTE) contains the major catechins epigallocatechin-3-gallate, epicatechin gallate, epigallocatechin and epicatechin, all of which vary across different GTE products and have become the focus on research into its purported health benefits. However, there have been cases of GTE-induced hepatotoxicity, for which the biochemical pathways have not been characterised. This study elucidates compounds similarities and changes in catechin levels within several different GTE products, and biochemical pathways related to reactive oxygen species (ROS) production affected by acute GTE supplementation in an in vitro setting using metabolomic techniques. It was found that GTE hepatotoxicity significantly decreased amino acids, oxoacids and carboxylic acids at 1 mg/mL exposure but produced a different metabolite profile upon 0.1 mg/mL exposure. The results demonstrate that GTE hepatotoxicity is a dose-dependent process that induces ROS production, ATP depletion and apoptosis, which corroborates prior knowledge on this topic. These results utilise a novel field of research, metabolomics, to add insight into the biochemical mechanisms of GTE hepatotoxicity and to observe the mass spectral pattern and levels of four catechins in different GTE products: (+)-catechin, (-)-epicatechin, (-)-epigallocatechin and (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate. This will allow consumers to become more aware of herb-induced liver injury and provide data to aid the regulation of herbal CAMs

Congenital Heart Disease in Down Syndrome

Down syndrome remains the most common chromosomal abnormality in live-born infants in the world today. The association between Down syndrome and congenital heart disease (CHD) is well known, and it is widely recognized that CHD contributes significantly to the morbidity of children with Down syndrome. The reported incidence of CHD in Down syndrome patients is between 40 and 60%. The most commonly described defect is complete atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD), which comprises 30–40% of all cardiac defects. Complex genetic factors are involved. Routine cardiac screening of all newborn babies with Down syndrome is recommended. Expert groups suggest that the cardiac status of all children with Down syndrome should be established by 6 weeks of age to permit appropriate and timely treatment avoiding the establishment of irreversible pulmonary vascular disease that would make corrective surgery impossible

Guided self-help cognitive behavioural therapy for depression in primary care : a randomised controlled trial

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Structural and dielectric studies of the phase behaviour of the topological ferroelectric La1-xNdxTaO4

We thank the University of St Andrews and EPSRC (via DTG studentships to CALD and JG) for funding,The layered perovskite LaTaO4 has been prepared in its polar orthorhombic polymorphic form at ambient temperature. Although no structural phase transition is observed in the temperature interval 25° C < T < 500 °C, a very large axial thermal contraction effect is seen, which can be ascribed to an anomalous buckling of the perovskite octahedral layer. The non-polar monoclinic polymorph can be stabilised at ambient temperature by Nd-doping. A composition La0.90Nd0.10TaO4 shows a first-order monoclinic-orthorhombic (non-polar to polar) transition in the region 250° C < T < 350 °C. Dielectric responses are observed at both the above structural events but, despite the ‘topological ferroelectric’ nature of orthorhombic LaTaO4, we have not succeeded in obtaining ferroelectric P–E hysteresis behaviour. Structural relationships in the wider family of AnBnX3n+2 layered perovskites are discussed.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Analysis of the Effects of Dietary Pattern on the Oral Microbiome of Elite Endurance Athletes

Although the oral microbiota is known to play a crucial role in human health, there are few studies of diet x oral microbiota interactions, and none in elite athletes who may manipulate their intakes of macronutrients to achieve different metabolic adaptations in pursuit of optimal endurance performance. The aim of this study was to investigate the shifts in the oral microbiome of elite male endurance race walkers from Europe, Asia, the Americas and Australia, in response to one of three dietary patterns often used by athletes during a period of intensified training: a High Carbohydrate (HCHO; = 9; with 60% energy intake from carbohydrates; ~8.5 g kg day carbohydrate, ~2.1 g kg day protein, 1.2 g kg day fat) diet, a Periodised Carbohydrate (PCHO; = 10; same macronutrient composition as HCHO, but the intake of carbohydrates is different across the day and throughout the week to support training sessions with high or low carbohydrate availability) diet or a ketogenic Low Carbohydrate High Fat (LCHF; = 10; 0.5 g kg day carbohydrate; 78% energy as fat; 2.1 g kg day protein) diet. Saliva samples were collected both before (Baseline; BL) and after the three-week period (Post treatment; PT) and the oral microbiota profiles for each athlete were produced by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Principal coordinates analysis of the oral microbiota profiles based on the weighted UniFrac distance measure did not reveal any specific clustering with respect to diet or athlete ethnic origin, either at baseline (BL) or following the diet-training period. However, discriminant analyses of the oral microbiota profiles by Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) Effect Size (LEfSe) and sparse Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (sPLS-DA) did reveal changes in the relative abundance of specific bacterial taxa, and, particularly, when comparing the microbiota profiles following consumption of the carbohydrate-based diets with the LCHF diet. These analyses showed that following consumption of the LCHF diet the relative abundances of and spp. were decreased, and the relative abundance of spp. was increased. Such findings suggest that diet, and, in particular, the LCHF diet can induce changes in the oral microbiota of elite endurance walkers

Simple and objective prediction of survival in patients with lung cancer: staging the host systemic inflammatory response

Background. Prediction of survival in patients diagnosed with lung cancer remains problematical. The aim of the present study was to examine the clinical utility of an established objective marker of the systemic inflammatory response, the Glasgow Prognostic Score, as the basis of risk stratification in patients with lung cancer. Methods. Between 2005 and 2008 all newly diagnosed lung cancer patients coming through the multidisciplinary meetings (MDTs) of four Scottish centres were included in the study. The details of 882 patients with a confirmed new diagnosis of any subtype or stage of lung cancer were collected prospectively. Results. The median survival was 5.6 months (IQR 4.8–6.5). Survival analysis was undertaken in three separate groups based on mGPS score. In the mGPS 0 group the most highly predictive factors were performance status, weight loss, stage of NSCLC, and palliative treatment offered. In the mGPS 1 group performance status, stage of NSCLC, and radical treatment offered were significant. In the mGPS 2 group only performance status and weight loss were statistically significant. Discussion. This present study confirms previous work supporting the use of mGPS in predicting cancer survival; however, it goes further by showing how it might be used to provide more objective risk stratification in patients diagnosed with lung cancer

Neural crest stem cells undergo multilineage differentiation in developing peripheral nerves to generate endoneurial fibroblasts in addition to Schwann cells

Neural crest stem cells (NCSCs) persist in peripheral nerves throughout late gestation but their function is unknown. Current models of nerve development only consider the generation of Schwann cells from neural crest, but the presence of NCSCs raises the possibility of multilineage differentiation. We performed Cre-recombinase fate mapping to determine which nerve cells are neural crest derived. Endoneurial fibroblasts, in addition to myelinating and non-myelinating Schwann cells, were neural crest derived, whereas perineurial cells, pericytes and endothelial cells were not. This identified endoneurial fibroblasts as a novel neural crest derivative, and demonstrated that trunk neural crest does give rise to fibroblasts in vivo, consistent with previous studies of trunk NCSCs in culture. The multilineage differentiation of NCSCs into glial and non-glial derivatives in the developing nerve appears to be regulated by neuregulin, notch ligands, and bone morphogenic proteins, as these factors are expressed in the developing nerve, and cause nerve NCSCs to generate Schwann cells and fibroblasts, but not neurons, in culture. Nerve development is thus more complex than was previously thought, involving NCSC self-renewal, lineage commitment and multilineage differentiation