Impact of metformin on cardiovascular disease: a meta-analysis of randomised trials among people with type 2 diabetes.

Aims/hypothesis: Metformin is the most-prescribed oral medication to lower blood glucose worldwide. Yet previous systematic reviews have raised doubts about its effectiveness in reducing risk of cardiovascular disease, the most costly complication of type 2 diabetes. We aimed to systematically identify and pool randomised trials reporting cardiovascular outcomes in which the effect of metformin was 'isolated' through comparison to diet, lifestyle or placebo.

Does the academic performance of psychiatrists influence success in the NHS Clinical Excellence Award Scheme?

Objectives: Given the uncertainty about factors that influence receipt of Clinical Excellence Awards (CEA) and recent availability of advanced research metrics, we examined the factors that predict CEA success using a convenience sample of English psychiatrists.

Design: Observational study examining region, subspecialty, H-index, M-index, number of publications, years since registration and years in specialty.

Setting: ACCEA Nominal Roll, cross-referenced with data from the GMC's list of registered medical practitioners and Thompson's Web of Science database.

Enterobacter cloacae SLD1a-1 gains a selective advantage from selenate reduction when growing in nitrate-depleted anaerobic environments.

Enterobacter cloacae SLD1a-1 is capable of the complete reduction of selenate to selenium and the initial reaction is catalysed by a membrane-bound selenate reductase. In the present study, continuous culture experiments were employed to investigate the possibility that selenate reduction, via the selenate reductase, might provide sufficient energy to maintain cell viability when deprived of the preferred anaerobic terminal electron acceptor nitrate. The evidence presented indicates that the selenate reductase supports slow growth that retards the wash-out of the culture when switching to nitrate-depleted selenate-rich medium, and provides a proton motive force for sustained cell maintenance.

Selenate reduction by Enterobacter cloacae SLD1a-1 is catalysed by a molybdenum-dependent membrane-bound enzyme that is distinct from the membrane-bound nitrate reductase.

Enterobacter cloacae SLD1a-1 is capable of reducing selenium oxyanions to elemental selenium under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. In this study the enzyme that catalyses the initial reduction of selenate (SeO4(2-)) to selenite (SeO3(2-)) has been localised to isolated cytoplasmic membrane fractions. Experiments with intact cells have shown that the putative selenate reductase can accept electrons more readily from membrane-impermeable methyl viologen than membrane-permeable benzyl viologen, suggesting that the location of the catalytic site is towards the periplasmic side of the cytoplasmic membrane.