Overcoming the barriers to greater public engagement.

Integrating science communication training into an undergraduate research project encourages greater academic involvement in public engagement, maximizes audience size, and provides high-quality research data.

Independent and combined effects of acute physiological hyperglycaemia and hyperinsulinaemia on metabolic gene expression in human skeletal muscle.

Physiological hyperglycaemia and hyperinsulinaemia are strong modulators of gene expression, which underpins some of their well-known effects on insulin action and energy metabolism. The aim of the present study was to examine whether acute in vivo exposure of healthy humans to hyperinsulinaemia and hyperglycaemia have independent or additive effects on expression of key metabolic genes in skeletal muscle. On three randomized occasions, seven young subjects underwent a 4 h (i) hyperinsulinaemic (50 m-units·m⁻²·min⁻¹) hyperglycaemic (10 mmol/l) clamp (HIHG), (ii) hyperglycaemic (10 mmol/l) euinsulinaemic (5 m-units·m⁻²·min⁻¹) clamp (LIHG) and (iii) hyperinsulinaemic (50 m-units·m⁻²·min⁻¹) euglycaemic (4.

Reverse elephant trunk technique: a novel approach to pseudoaneurysm repair.

Traditional surgical access to the upper descending aorta is via a left thoracotomy. For postcoarctation pseudoaneurysm repair, this approach is difficult because of the risk of rupture while dissecting the aorta for proximal and distal control. Access from a median sternotomy may be safer, but is difficult because of the depth of the wound and because of the angle of approach to the distal aspect of the repair site.

Vegetarians have a reduced skeletal muscle carnitine transport capacity.

Background: Ninety-five percent of the body carnitine pool resides in skeletal muscle where it plays a vital role in fuel metabolism. However, vegetarians obtain negligible amounts of carnitine from their diet.

Objective: We tested the hypothesis that muscle carnitine uptake is elevated in vegetarians compared with that in nonvegetarians to maintain a normal tissue carnitine content.

Novel events in the molecular regulation of muscle mass in critically ill patients.

Critically ill patients experience marked skeletal muscle atrophy, but the molecular mechanisms responsible for this are largely unresolved. Therefore, we investigated key genes and proteins, identified from cell and animal studies to control protein synthesis and breakdown, in vastus lateralis biopsy samples obtained from 10 patients and 10 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Muscle cytokines IL-6 and TNF-α mRNA were higher in patients than in controls(6.

SUMO conjugation of STAT1 protects cells from hyperresponsiveness to IFNγ.

The biologic effects of IFNγ are mediated by the transcription factor STAT1. The activity of STAT1 is inhibited by small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) conjugation. This occurs both directly through decreasing STAT1 tyrosine phosphorylation and indirectly by facilitating STAT1 dephosphorylation consequential to increased STAT1 solubility because of suppressed paracrystal assembly.

STAT1 signaling is not regulated by a phosphorylation-acetylation switch.

The treatment of cells with histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) was reported to reveal the acetylation of STAT1 at lysine 410 and lysine 413 (O. H. Krämer et al.

Cytokine-induced paracrystals prolong the activity of signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) and provide a model for the regulation of protein solubility by small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO).

The biological effects of cytokines are mediated by STAT proteins, a family of dimeric transcription factors. In order to elicit transcriptional activity, the STATs require activation by phosphorylation of a single tyrosine residue. Our experiments revealed that fully tyrosine-phosphorylated STAT dimers polymerize via Tyr(P)-Src homology 2 domain interactions and assemble into paracrystalline arrays in the nucleus of cytokine-stimulated cells.

Basal and insulin-stimulated pyruvate dehydrogenase complex activation, glycogen synthesis and metabolic gene expression in human skeletal muscle the day after a single bout of exercise.

The role of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC) in insulin-stimulated glycogen replenishment the day after exercise, and its molecular control, has not been examined. This study investigated the effect of acute exercise on basal and insulin-stimulated PDC activity (the rate-limiting step in glucose oxidation), glycogen synthesis and the expression of metabolic genes and transcription factors associated with changes in PDC activation and glucose metabolism. Eight healthy men (age 24 +/- 2 years, body mass 79 +/- 4 kg) underwent a euglycaemic, hyperinsulinaemic clamp 22 h after 90 min of one-legged cycling at 60% maximal oxygen consumption.

Anaesthetists' and surgeons' attitudes towards informed consent in the UK: an observational study.

Background: The attitudes of patients' to consent have changed over the years, but there has been little systematic study of the attitudes of anaesthetists and surgeons in this process. We aimed to describe observations made on the attitudes of medical professionals working in the UK to issues surrounding informed consent.

Method: A questionnaire made up of 35 statements addressing the process of consent for anaesthesia and surgery was distributed to randomly selected anaesthetists and surgeons in Queen's Medical Centre (Nottingham), Royal Sussex County Hospital (Brighton) and Eastbourne District General Hospital (Eastbourne) during 2007.

Superior sagittal sinus thrombosis presenting as a continuous headache: a case report and review of the literature.

Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis is a rare but dangerous condition, occurring with an incidence of 3-4 cases/million/year. Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis presents a diagnostic challenge due to its varied presentation patterns. We report a case of a 42 year old Nepali man diagnosed with cerebral venous sinus thrombosis after presenting with a week long history of continuous headache.

A rare cause of recurrent iron deficiency anaemia.

Gastro intestinal Stromal Tumours (GISTs) are a rare neoplasm of the gastrointestinal tract. They often grow silently and present late when surgical cure is not possible. Chemo and radiotherapy have a very poor success rate.

Attempt to replicate published genetic associations in a large, well-defined osteoarthritis case-control population (the GOAL study).

Objective: Published studies have tested over 90 genes for association with osteoarthritis (OA), but few positives reported have been independently replicated. Using a new case-control study, our aim was to attempt the replication of findings from 12 genes reported to have significant genetic association with OA and to further examine the role of genetic variation in six of these genes.

Methods: A case-control study was undertaken in Nottingham, UK.

Characterization of GLUT4 and calpain expression in healthy human skeletal muscle during fasting and refeeding.

Aims: Calpain-10 and calpain-3 and the diabetes ankyrin repeat protein (DARP) have all been linked to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. We set out to measure the expression of these genes in human skeletal muscle and relate them to functional measurements of insulin action during fasting (which induces insulin resistance) and refeeding (which reverses it).

Methods: Ten healthy male volunteers underwent 48 h of starvation followed by 24 h of high carbohydrate refeeding.

Effect of exercise mode on blood glucose disposal during physiological hyperinsulinaemia in humans.

The aim of this study was to compare whole-body glucose uptake in cycling and running performed during physiological hyperinsulinaemia. On three occasions, seven male subjects underwent a hyperinsulinaemic (30 mU m(-2) min(-1)), euglycaemic (5 mmol l(-1)) clamp for 120 min. On one occasion, subjects rested for the duration of the trial (CON).

IgA-antitissue transglutaminase: validation of a commercial assay for diagnosing coeliac disease.

We have evaluated a commercial assay for serum IgA class antibodies to tissue transglutaminase, the enzyme identified as the major endomysial autoantigen in coeliac disease (CD). Sera were available from 130 adults diagnosed with CD in Southern Derbyshire between 01 01 97 and 31 12 99. Sera from 100 patients without villous atrophy on small intestinal biopsy were controls.

The practical, methodological and ethical dilemmas of conducting focus groups with vulnerable clients.

Aim: This paper presents some of the practical, methodological and ethical dilemmas that were encountered in a study that used focus groups to elicit the views of women with serious and enduring mental health problems about the services they were receiving.

Findings: The dilemmas identified included the time and effort taken to gain access to the women, the role of the researcher as facilitator, communication and interaction in the focus group, accepting the women's reality, and the thin divide between research and therapy.

Conclusion: The paper concludes with some recommendations for researchers who are planning to use focus groups to elicit the views of vulnerable clients.

Strain differences to the effects of aversive frequency ultrasound on behaviour and brain topography of c-fos expression in the rat.

Previous studies have shown that ultrasound at 20 kHz produces an escape (defence) response in the hooded Lister rat. This study compares the ultrasound-induced behavioural response in the hooded Lister and albino Wistar rat. Ultrasound (continuous tone, square wave, 20 kHz) produced an initial characteristic startle response (brisk running) in the hooded Lister rat that was followed immediately after cessation of the ultrasound by a period of freezing behaviour.