Office Hysteroscopy

Hysteroscopy is the most accurate technique in order to visualise the endometrial cavity and diagnose relevant pathologies. Despite the further evolvement of ultrasonography, hysteroscopy provides not only diagnosis but also treatment, when needed. Based on fine hysteroscopes produced recently, hysteroscopy can be easily performed in an office-based environment, not only for diagnostic but also for treatment of minor pathologies. The more attractive office environment compared with the conventional operating theater, the no-need for general anaesthesia and the reduced cost compared to the classic hysteroscopy are the main advantages that characterize office hysteroscopy and that made it more popular during the last years

Waveform Design for Secure SISO Transmissions and Multicasting

Wireless physical-layer security is an emerging field of research aiming at preventing eavesdropping in an open wireless medium. In this paper, we propose a novel waveform design approach to minimize the likelihood that a message transmitted between trusted single-antenna nodes is intercepted by an eavesdropper. In particular, with knowledge first of the eavesdropper's channel state information (CSI), we find the optimum waveform and transmit energy that minimize the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the output of the eavesdropper's maximum-SINR linear filter, while at the same time provide the intended receiver with a required pre-specified SINR at the output of its own max-SINR filter. Next, if prior knowledge of the eavesdropper's CSI is unavailable, we design a waveform that maximizes the amount of energy available for generating disturbance to eavesdroppers, termed artificial noise (AN), while the SINR of the intended receiver is maintained at the pre-specified level. The extensions of the secure waveform design problem to multiple intended receivers are also investigated and semidefinite relaxation (SDR) -an approximation technique based on convex optimization- is utilized to solve the arising NP-hard design problems. Extensive simulation studies confirm our analytical performance predictions and illustrate the benefits of the designed waveforms on securing single-input single-output (SISO) transmissions and multicasting

Immune system function, stress, exercise and nutrition profile can affect pregnancy outcome: Lessons from a Mediterranean cohort

This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Pregnancy is associated with major physiological and future psychosocial changes, and maternal adaptation to these changes is crucial for normal foetal development. Psychological stress in pregnancy predicts an earlier birth and lower birth weight. Pregnancy-specific stress contributes directly to preterm delivery. The importance of nutrition and exercise during pregnancy with regard to pregnancy outcome has long been acknowledged. This importance has only been further emphasized by the recent changes in food quality and availability, lifestyle changes and a new understanding of foetal programming's effects on adult outcomes. We hypothesised that for a successful pregnancy certain events at a nutritional, immune, psycho-emotional and genetic level should be tightly linked. Therefore, in this study we followed an ‘integrative’ approach to investigate how maternal stress, nutrition, pregnancy planning and exercise influence pregnancy outcome. A key finding of our study is that there was a significant reduction in the intake of alcohol, caffeine-containing and sugary drinks during pregnancy. However, passive smoking in the household remained unchanged. In terms of immune profile, a significant inverse correlation was noted between difficulty to ‘fight’ an infection and number of colds (r=-0.289, P=0.003) as well as the number of infections (r=-0.446, P<0.0001) during pregnancy. The vast majority of the pregnant women acquired a more sedentary lifestyle in the third trimester. In planned, but not in unplanned, pregnancies stress predicted infant weight, independent of age and body mass index (BMI). Notably, in mothers with negative attitudes towards the pregnancy, those with an unplanned pregnancy gave birth to infants with significantly higher weights than those with planned pregnancies. Collectively these data suggest that there is a higher order of complexity, possibly involving gene-environment interactions that work together to ensure a positive outcome for the mother as well as the foetus

Differential expression of mTOR signalling components in drug resistance in ovarian cancer

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund and is available from the specified link - Copyright @ 2010 The International Institute of Anticancer Research.Background/Aim: A limitation to successful cancer chemotherapy treatments is the acquisition of drug resistance. In advanced-stage ovarian cancer, the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway is upregulated, and inhibition of this pathway increases chemosensitivity in ovarian carcinoma cell lines. In this study, the expression of DEPTOR, mTOR, RICTOR, RAPTOR and S6 kinases were investigated in SKOV-3 and PEO1 parental and the paclitaxel-resistant (TaxR) SKOV-3TaxR and PEO1TaxR cell lines. Materials and Methods: RT-PCR, immunofluorescent analysis and Western blotting were carried out. Results: Quantitative RT-PCR revealed significant up-regulation of DEPTOR in both paclitaxel-resistant cell lines. SKOV-3TaxR exhibited down-regulation of RICTOR, RAPTOR and mTOR, whereas PEO1-TaxR showed down-regulation of RAPTOR and up-regulation of RICTOR and mTOR. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis revealed marked changes in the expression of p70S6K splice variants mRNA in PEO1TaxR. Moreover, the phosphorylation status of p70S6K at Ser371 appears to be cell-type specific. Conclusion: We hypothesize that mTOR signalling may play a role in mediating paclitaxel resistance in ovarian cancer