The effects of metformin therapy on BMI and biochemical markers among overweight children and adolescents [abstract]

Introduction: In the United States, overweight adolescents are likely to continue to gain weight over time and are more likely to become overweight adults. High rates of child and adolescent obesity leave physicians searching for ways to stop this trend. Methods: A retrospective study design was implemented to describe trends of obese adolescent patients who are prescribed metformin as part of treatment in the multidisciplinary adolescent obesity specialty clinic at the University of Missouri. Results: Of the 156 participants in this study, 55 (35%) were prescribed a variable dose of metformin, a drug commonly used for elevated insulin levels, at least once during their clinic visits. The majority of patients in this study (61%) had insulin levels that above 20, which defines hyperinsulinemia. In a chi-square analysis of the data, patients who were in higher BMI categories were more likely to have higher serum insulin levels (p=0.0285). In the analysis of the patients in the study over time, it was found that of the 131 patients who were seen for more than one visit, 111 (85%) of these patients had no increase in BMI. Discussion: The adolescent obesity clinic has shown to halt or reverse weight gain in most of the patients who came for more than one visit. While many factors, including counseling on lifestyle modification (diet and exercise), medication, and routine follow-up can be attributed to the patients' ability to stop weight gain, metformin appears to be a satisfactory adjuvant therapy in the clinical management of adolescent obesity, especially in patients with hyperinsulinemia

Residual Supply Analysis of the United States Corn Export Market

Six models of imperfect competition test the interaction between the United States and Argentina in the Japanese corn import market. The models evaluated were the Bertrand (1883), Cournot (1897), and Stackelberg (1952) with price and quantity leadership by the United States and Argentina. Models were compared using a non-nested likelihood ratio test. Results of the analysis did not show a statistically significant preference of one model over another. The dominance of the United States in the Japanese corn import market is the likely cause for the results. The methodology used in this analysis could be applied to alternate commodities such as soybeans or wheat

Warner’s Safe Cook Book

Published by the H.H. Warner Company, a noted Rochester-based safe (and later patent medicine) manufacturing company, this large cookbook is teeming with hundreds of recipes for everything ranging from mustard pickles to pepper mangoes and venison pie. Apart from the recipes themselves, the extensive descriptions of culinary technique and numerous illustrations of cooking equipment present a lucid portrait of late 19th century American cookery. The advertisements for patent medicine comprising the final 30 or so pages of this volume are of interest as well. (summary written by Joe Easterly)https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/historical-reprints/1017/thumbnail.jp

News of North Mahaska Junior Academy

A letter relating activities of the North Mahaska Junior Academy

Transvaginal Ultrasonographic Cervical Measurement in Predicting Failed Labor Induction and Cesarean Delivery for Failure to Progress in Nulliparous Women

The aim of this study was to evaluate the value of transvaginal sonographic cervical measurement in predicting failed labor induction and cesarean delivery for failure to progress in nulliparous women. One hundred and sixty-one women scheduled for labor induction underwent transvaginal ultrasonography and digital cervical examinations. Logistic regression demonstrated that cervical length and gestational age at induction, but not the Bishop score, significantly and independently predicted failed labor induction. According to the receiver operating characteristic curves analysis, the best cut-off value of cervical length for predicting failed labor induction was 28 mm, with a sensitivity of 62% and a specificity of 60%. In terms of the likelihood of a cesarean delivery for failure to progress as the outcome variable, logistic regression indicated that maternal height and birth weight, but not cervical length or Bishop score, were significantly and independently associated with an increased risk of cesarean delivery for failure to progress. Transvaginal sonographic measurements of cervical length thus independently predicted failed labor induction in nulliparous women. However, the relatively poor predictive performance of this test undermines its clinical usefulness as a predictor of failed labor induction. Moreover, cervical length appears to have a poor predictive value for the likelihood of a cesarean delivery for failure to progress

A fast and efficient translational control system for conditional expression of yeast genes

A new artificial regulatory system for essential genes in yeast is described. It prevents translation of target mRNAs upon tetracycline (tc) binding to aptamers introduced into their 5'UTRs. Exploiting direct RNA–ligand interaction renders auxiliary protein factors unnecessary. Therefore, our approach is strain independent and not susceptible to interferences by heterologous expressed regulatory proteins. We use a simple PCR-based strategy, which allows easy tagging of any target gene and the level of gene expression can be adjusted due to various tc aptamer-regulated promoters. As proof of concept, five differently expressed genes were targeted, two of which could not be regulated previously. In all cases, adding tc completely prevented growth and, as shown for Nop14p, rapidly abolished de novo protein synthesis providing a powerful tool for conditional regulation of yeast gene expression