Access to coronary catheterisation: fair shares for all?

OBJECTIVE--To determine the effects of patient''s sex and area''s material deprivation on utilisation rates of coronary catheterisation and angiography in the investigation of ischaemic heart disease. DESIGN--Retrospective analysis of routinely collected hospital statistics. SETTING--Acute hospitals throughout Northern Ireland. SUBJECTS--24,179 episodes of patients discharged from hospital with a primary diagnosis of ischaemic heart disease and 1270 episodes relating to patients with an underlying diagnosis of ischaemic heart disease who had either coronary catheterisation or angiography. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Age standardised admission rates for heart disease and age standardised utilisation rates for catheterisation or angiography, or both, for 566 electoral wards ranked by Townsend "deprivation" scores. RESULTS--Catheterisation-angiography rates in men were over fivefold those of women, ranging from 85.5/100,000 v 16/100,000 in patients from "well off" areas to 123/100,000 v 22/100,000 for patients from deprived areas. After admission rates for heart disease were controlled for, the overall rate ratio for women was 0.48 (95% confidence interval 0.38 to 0.60). After differential admission rates for heart disease and other potential clinical confounders were controlled for, the investigation rates of patients from the least and most "deprived" areas were not significantly different (rate ratio 1.04 (0.87 to 1.25)). CONCLUSION--Although investigation rates were significantly lower in women than in men, further clinical data would be required before labelling this underutilisation as evidence of bias. There was no significant difference in invasive investigation rates for heart disease in areas of varying deprivation or affluence.     

Patients' prerogatives and perceptions of benefit.

Patients today demand more information about their treatment. Doctors, however, seem reluctant to cast aside ingrained habits of paternalism, believing they can best interpret therapeutic choices for their patients. Whether doctors can be more objective and effective than patients in interpreting the "probabilities" of medical evidence is open to question. On the other hand, the exercise of choice by patients may itself have a bearing on the probabilities of outcome. Involving patients more in making therapeutic choices is justified if doctors can present options in an unbiased and effective manner and if the process improves the outcome of the care delivered.     

Studies on hemoglobin variants in Korean cattle

814 hemoglobin samples from Korean cattle were investigated by starch gel electrophoresis for the detection of hemoglobin variants. A new variant of cattle hemoglobin, called Hb, H, was recognized. It has a slower rate of migration than Hb A.
Hemoglobin types from 814 Korean cattle were as follows: 652 of Hb AA type (80.1 %), 133 of Hb AB (16.4 %), 12 of Hb AC (1.5 %), 9 of Hb BB (1.1 %), 2 of Hb BC (0.2 %), 4 of Hb AH (0.5 %), 1 of Hb CH (0.1 %), 1 of Hb HH (0.1 %). These figures correspond to the frequencies: Hb^A = 0.893, Hb^B = 0.093, Hb^c =0.009, Hb^H = 0.004.
Gene frequencies at the Hb locus in Korean cattle were compared among six population from different provinces. Generally, high frequencies of Hb^A were observed in each province.     

DAZL regulates proliferation of human primordial germ cells by direct binding to precursor miRNAs and enhances DICER processing activity

Understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms of human primordial germ cells (hPGCs) is essential in studying infertility and germ cell tumorigenesis. Many RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) and non-coding RNAs are specifically expressed and functional during hPGC developments. However, the roles and regulatory mechanisms of these RBPs and non-coding RNAs, such as microRNAs (miRNAs), in hPGCs remain elusive. In this study, we reported a new regulatory function of DAZL, a germ cell-specific RBP, in miRNA biogenesis and cell proliferation. First, DAZL co-localized with miRNA let-7a in human PGCs and up-regulated the levels of >100 mature miRNAs, including eight out of nine let-7 family, miR21, miR22, miR125, miR10 and miR199. Purified DAZL directly bound to the loops of precursor miRNAs with sequence specificity of GUU. The binding of DAZL to the precursor miRNA increased the maturation of miRNA by enhancing the cleavage activity of DICER. Furthermore, cell proliferation assay and cell cycle analysis confirmed that DAZL inhibited the proliferation of in vitro PGCs by promoting the maturation of these miRNAs. Evidently, the mature miRNAs up-regulated by DAZL silenced cell proliferation regulators including TRIM71. Moreover, DAZL inhibited germline tumor cell proliferation and teratoma formation. These results demonstrate that DAZL regulates hPGC proliferation by enhancing miRNA processing.     

Cryopreservation of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Panax ginseng</Emphasis> Adventitious Roots

We tested desiccation and/or vitrification procedures to cryopreserve the adventitious roots of Panax ginseng, the source of commercially produced ginsenosides. When only desiccation was applied, the post-freeze survival of 3- to 4-mm root tips was <14% regardless of the composition of the preculture medium or the explant origin. Callus formation was frequently observed after cryopreservation. In contrast, 90% survival and 32.5% root formation efficiency were achieved after cryopreservation when a vitrification protocol was followed. Adventitious root cultures in flasks and bioreactors were reestablished from root tips cryopreserved by vitrification. A prolonged lag-phase and lower biomass production were recorded in post-freeze-regenerated cultures compared with control roots that were subcultured four times in flasks. However, biomass accumulations did not differ between control and regenerated roots at the end of the sixth subculturing period. After 40 days of culture in bioreactors, a mean value of 12.5 g dw L⁻¹ was recorded for post-freeze-regenerated cultures versus 9.1 g dw L⁻¹ for the control roots. Production of triol and diol ginsenosides in our bioreactor cultures also was enhanced after cryopreservation, by 41.0% and 89.8%, respectively. These results suggest that the vitrification method is successful for cryopreservation of P. ginseng adventitious roots.     

Environmental Supply Chain Cooperation and Its Effect on the Circular Economy Practice‐Performance Relationship Among Chinese Manufacturers

Due to resource scarcity and environmental degradation, a new development concept emphasizing environmental concerns, called the circular economy (CE), has been enacted in legislation in China. This environmental management concept can be implemented at three levels, namely, region, industrial zone, and individual enterprise, with the objective of boosting economic development while lessening environmental and resource challenges. Environmental supply chain cooperation (ESCC), an approach that utilizes customer and supplier cooperation in environmental management, has been initiated among Chinese enterprises. Using survey data collected from 396 Chinese manufacturers, we examine the role of ESCC practices in influencing the relationship between implementing CE practices and the achievement of performance outcomes by testing the moderation and mediation effects of ESCC practices on the CE practice‐performance relationship through hierarchical regression analysis. Our data analyses indicate that ESCC practices are useful by moderation and, in some cases, essential by mediation, for Chinese manufacturers seeking to realize the performance targets desired in CE practices. The results highlight the need for Chinese manufacturers to improve supply chain coordination in their implementation of CE. On the policy side, our research findings suggest that ESCC practices are beneficial and, in some cases, necessary for the development of CE in China.     

Isolation and characterization of BTEX tolerant and degrading Pseudomonas putida BCNU 106

Bacterial strains growing in river sediments were screened to identify an organic solvent-tolerant strain of Pseudomonas. Using this screen, Pseudomonas sp. BCNU 106 was isolated on the basis of its ability to grow on benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and three xylene isomers, o-, m- and p-xylene, as its sole carbon source. BCNU 106 was identified as a gram-negative, rod-shaped aerobic and mesophilic bacterium, which grew in liquid media containing high concentrations of organic solvents. 16S rDNA analysis classified BCNU 106 as a new member of the genus Pseudomonas. BCNU 106 was distinguishable from other Pseudomonas strains that are tolerant to organic solvents in that the isolate had the ability to utilize all three xylene isomers as well as benzene, toluene and ethylbenzene. The unique properties of the isolate such as solvent-tolerance and the ability to degrade xylene isomers may have important implications for the efficient treatment of solvent wastes.     

Stem Cell Research: A Novel Boulevard towards Improved Bovine Mastitis Management

The dairy industry is a multi-billion dollar industry catering the nutritional needs of all age groups globally through the supply of milk. Clinical mastitis has a severe impact on udder tissue and is also an animal welfare issue. Moreover, it significantly reduces animal value and milk production. Mammary tissue damage reduces the number and activity of epithelial cells and consequently contributes to decreased milk production. The high incidence, low cure rate of this highly economic and sometimes deadly disease is an alarming for dairy sector as well as policy makers. Bovine mammary epithelial cells (MECs) and their stem cells are very important in milk production and bioengineering. The adult mammary epithelium consists of two main cell types; an inner layer of luminal epithelial cells, which produce the milk during lactation, and an outer layer of myoepithelial cells resting on a basement membrane, which are responsible for pushing the milk through the ductal network to the teat cistern. Inner layer of columner/luminal cells of bovine MECs, is characterized by cytokeratin18, 19 (CK18, CK19) and outer layer such as myoepithelial cells which are characterized by CK14, α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and p63. Much work has been done in mouse and human, on mammary gland stem cell research, particularly in cancer therapy, but stem cell research in bovine is still in its infancy. Such stem/progenitor cell discoveries in human and mouse mammary gland bring some hope for application in bovines. These progenitors may be therapeutically adopted to correct the structural/cytological defects in the bovine udder due to mastitis. In the present review we focused on various kinds of stem/progenitor cells which can have therapeutic utility and their possibilities to use as a potential stem cell therapy in the management of bovine post-mastitis damage in orders to restore milk production. The possibilities of bovine mammary stem cell therapy offers significant potential for regeneration of tissues that can potentially replace/repair diseased and damaged tissue through differentiation into epithelial, myoepithelial and/or cuboidal/columnar cells in the udder with minimal risk of rejection and side effects.     

The Emergence of Urban Land Use Patterns Driven by Dispersion and Aggregation Mechanisms

We employ a cellular-automata to reconstruct the land use patterns of cities that we characterize by two measures of spatial heterogeneity: (a) a variant of spatial entropy, which measures the spread of residential, business, and industrial activity sectors, and (b) an index of dissimilarity, which quantifies the degree of spatial mixing of these land use activity parcels. A minimalist and bottom-up approach is adopted that utilizes a limited set of three parameters which represent the forces which determine the extent to which each of these sectors spatially aggregate into clusters. The dispersion degrees of the land uses are governed by a fixed pre-specified power-law distribution based on empirical observations in other cities. Our method is then used to reconstruct land use patterns for the city state of Singapore and a selection of North American cities. We demonstrate the emergence of land use patterns that exhibit comparable visual features to the actual city maps defining our case studies whilst sharing similar spatial characteristics. Our work provides a complementary approach to other measures of urban spatial structure that differentiate cities by their land use patterns resulting from bottom-up dispersion and aggregation processes.