Circulating resistin protein and mRNA concentrations and clinical severity of coronary artery disease

Introduction

Previous studies have implicated a strong link between circulating plasma resistin and coronary artery disease (CAD). The aim of this study was to evaluate the differences in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) resistin mRNA and its plasma protein concentrations between the patients with CAD of different clinical severity.

Material and methods

This study included 33 healthy subjects as the control group (CG) and 77 patients requiring coronary angiography. Of the latter 30 was CAD negative whereas 47 were CAD positive [18 with stable angina pectoris (SAP) and 29 with acute coronary syndrome (ACS)]. Circulating resistin was measured by ELISA; PBMC resistin mRNA was determined by real-time PCR.

Results

Resistin protein was significantly higher in the ACS group compared to the CG (P = 0.001) and the CAD negative group (P = 0.018). Resistin mRNA expression did not vary across the study groups, despite the positive correlation seen with plasma resistin (ρ = 0.305, P = 0.008). In patients, plasma resistin and PBMC resistin mRNA negatively correlated with HDL-C (ρ = -0.404, P < 0.001 and ρ = -0.257, P = 0.032, respectively). Furthermore, the highest plasma resistin tertile showed the lowest HDL-C (P = 0.006). Plasma resistin was positively associated with serum creatinine (ρ = 0.353, P = 0.002).

Conclusion

Significant increase of plasma resistin in patients with ACS compared to CG and CAD negative patients was observed. Despite no change in PBMC resistin mRNA in different disease conditions a positive association between resistin mRNA and resistin plasma protein was evident. Both plasma resistin and PBMC resistin mRNA were negatively associated with plasma HDL-C, and plasma resistin positively with serum creatinine.Key words: resistin, human; gene expression; coronary artery disease; acute coronary syndrome     

Young people's involvement in service evaluation and decision making

This study examined young people's decision making on issues that affect their lives: bullying in different contexts (e.g., family, peer groups, school) and their involvement in evaluating the availability and effectiveness of support services (e.g., disability, care). Key aims of this study were to offer young people a platform to evaluate existing services and make recommendations towards their improvement, and to discuss ways of tackling bullying at school. Focus groups were formed with 54 young people who had experienced challenges due to bullying, learning difficulties/disabilities, and caring responsibilities for family members with disabling conditions, and discussions about services and decision making on issues that affect their lives were facilitated. The findings point to a sense of agency in young people's lives with regard to evaluating and negotiating services and offering suggestions for their improvement within their family and peers. However, in their view, their decisions regarding bullying exerted limited influence within the school context. These results raised interesting issues about young people's capacity to evaluate services and the contextual influences on their involvement in decision making.     

Through the kaleidoscope: Perspectives on cultural change within an integrated information systems environment

The study of information systems and their influence on organisational culture is a complex and highly contested area of research which has been the subject of much theorising. This paper intends to add to the debate through a longitudinal case study of an integrated information system implementation undertaken within a large UK university. The system known as SITS (Strategic Information Technology Services) was introduced into the university in 2006 and the focus of the research has been on culture change within the SITS environment. Document analysis, interviews and participant observation were used to collect the data for this study. What has emerged from this study is that current approaches are unable to account for the complexity of cultural studies within an integrated information systems environment and therefore we have developed the concept of the ‘cultural kaleidoscope’ as a heuristic to better understand the nature of cultural change within these circumstances.     

Teenage social behaviour and emotional well‐being: the role of gender and socio‐economic factors

This article draws on the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) to examine parent ratings of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties and prosocial behaviour in pre‐ and mid‐adolescents. A series of mixed‐design ANOVAs yielded interesting results. Parent ratings of emotional difficulties in girls increased as they moved from pre‐ to mid‐adolescence whereas for boys the reverse was found. Peer problems were found to be on the rise, whereas prosocial skills decreased for 14‐year‐olds. Most importantly, significant associations were found between socio‐economic measures (that is, family income and parent education) and ratings across the domains of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, highlighting the socio‐economic specificity of behaviour and well‐being in adolescents. These findings have significant implications for understanding trends in young people's social behaviour and emotional well‐being from pre‐ to mid‐adolescence within their socio‐economic context.     

Children's language and behavioural,social and emotional difficulties and prosocial behaviour during the toddler years and at school entry

The ability of young children to manage their emotions and behaviours is an important prerequisite for social adjustment and school readiness. With an increase in early‐onset behavioural difficulties in children, understanding changes in child behaviour during the preschool years and the factors that influence it is a priority for policy and practice. Despite much evidence on the association between language and behavioural difficulties in children, few studies have examined longitudinally language and problem/prosocial behaviour in early years. Using a UK community‐based sample, Dimitra Hartas, from the University of Warwick, examines the association between language, gender and behavioural, social and emotional difficulties and prosocial behaviour during the toddler years and at school entry. The findings showed a moderate decline in behavioural and social difficulties during preschool, and stability in emotional difficulties. Moderate associations were found between vocabulary and problem behaviour but not prosocial behaviour, with literacy‐based language emerging as a substantive predictor of teacher‐rated behaviour. These findings have important implications for early years provision.     

Identifying and selecting able students for the NAGTY summer school: emerging issues and future considerations

In recent years, there has been an increasing recognition that the educational needs of able students were not being adequately met in British schools resulting in a series of governmental educational initiatives aiming at improving the education of able students. The establishment of the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (NAGTY) at the University of Warwick was a development aimed at enhancing able students' educational provision. An evaluation of the first summer school, established under the auspices of NAGTY, took place to address issues of identifying and selecting able students, exploring the relative value of different sources of evidence for determining eligibility, and looking at the overall effectiveness of the selection process. Qualitative methods (i.e., interviews, observations, document analysis) were employed to collect data on the process of identifying and selecting able students. The evaluation yielded interesting results with regard to the criteria/eligibility for selection, decisions about what counts as evidence of giftedness and its relative value.     

The Idiom of Love and Sacrifice: Emotional Vocabularies of Motherhood in Nineteenth-Century Greece

In this article, I draw on a rich body of family correspondence from the second half of the nineteenth century in Greece. I perceive letters in correspondences as textual and material in-between places, and therefore as key sites for the creation and negotiation of maternal feelings. Switching constantly between small-scale autobiographical accounts and contemporary cultural perceptions of good motherhood, I argue that maternal love, the most crucial term of the emotional vocabulary at the time, overlaps with feelings and practices of self-sacrifice and suffering. Paradoxically, the rhetoric of selflessness, as a strong indication of a life-long maternal offering to children, requires specific obligations as a way of repayment. In researching the genealogy of maternal love, sacrifice and selflessness, the article shows the clear proximity of these notions to the wordings of Christian indoctrination and moral teaching of the period.     

The effects of a 13-week career development programme on career-adapting thoughts and behaviours

This quasi-experimental design study investigated an interactive and practical Career Development Programme (CDP), a 13-week career guidance and counselling (CGC) intervention, on a sample of 224 Czech students. Students who received the CGC intervention and those from the “waiting list” who expressed interest in gaining support through the CDP were assessed at the beginning and at the end of the 13-week intervention. The findings indicated the benefits of CDP for the transition from university to working life: as hypothesized, the CDP increased career adaptability and cooperation, career construction and career maturity of students and graduates.

     

The ecology of young children’s behaviour and social competence: child characteristics,socio-economic factors and parenting

Using a longitudinal, UK representative sample from the Millennium Cohort Study, the present study examined the effects of socio-economic factors on mother- and teacher-rated behaviour, and the unique and cumulative contribution of both risk and protective factors inherent in children’s proximal and distal influences to behaviour during the toddler years and at school entry. The findings showed that although family income, parental employment and maternal education had a significant moderate impact on child problem behaviour as rated in the home and school, when considered in the context of child characteristics and family processes their contribution was negligible, especially for income. In contrast, parenting practices and parental well-being emerged as good predictors of behavioural difficulties and prosocial behaviour at school entry, pointing to the importance of supporting parents in order to promote social competence in young children. These findings have implications for family policy.