The polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a heterogeneous disorder in women characterised by chronic ovulatory failure, hyperandrogenaemia, and insulin resistance. Some women are completely asymptomatic and others present with extreme menstrual disturbance, severe hirsutism, infertility and recurrent miscarriage. The pathophysiology of PCOS is not completely understood, but it is thought that insulin resistance plays a central role. In normal subjects, non-diabetic obese patients and patients with non-insulin dependent diabetes, insulin resistance is associated with elevated plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) levels. PAI-1 is a glycoprotein, which inhibits the formation of plasmin (a proteolytic enzyme). Plasmin aids fibrinolysis and extracellular proteolysis. High PAI-1 and low plasmin levels increase the risk of thrombosis and impair extracellular proteolysis required in ovarian follicle growth, ovulation and embryo implantation. This study was designed to determine whether elevated plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) was associated with the insulin resistance present in PCOS, investigate its possible role in the causation of anovulation and recurrent pregnancy loss in these women and ascertain whether it was an additional thrombotic risk factor so that clinicians and patients could take appropriate measures to reduce this risk In a pilot study, systemic PAI-1 activity was significantly elevated in oligomenorrhoiec women with PCOS. A larger study supported these findings, but demonstrated that obesity was a significant confounding factor, as the increase in PAI-1activity disappeared when standardised for weight. Activated Protein-C (APC) resistance was subsequently tested in these women because of the unexpected finding of an increased prevalence of a positive family history of thrombosis in women with PCOS compared with controls, but there was no increase in the prevalence of APC-resistance in PCOS. In another project, the cellular distribution of PAI-1 protein in human ovaries was described for the first time using immunohistochemistry. It was localised to the granulosa and theca cell compartments in both polycystic and normal ovaries, however there was no significant difference in the intensity of PAI-l staining between both groups on image analysis. PAI-1 messenger RNA expression was also evaluated in these biopsies by in-situ hybridisation, but no signal was detected suggesting that there was either a low overall RNA preservation in the tissues, or an insufficient sensitivity of the cocktail of oligonucleotide probes used. This study did not support the hypothesis that elevated PAI-1 was a feature of PCOS, however the in-situ location of PAI-1 protein was demonstrated for the first time in the human ovary and consistent with a previously suspected role in ovulation. The results did not support a role for PAI-1 in anovulation, recurrent miscarriage or increased thrombosis in PCOS.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Large bodies of empirical evidence show that policies and practices that support failure in schools does little to improve student outcomes, yet course failure remains widespread in secondary schools. Further, there is a growing body of evidence indicating these policies and practices are costly in fiscal terms. This study builds on this body of evidence to ask the question: how much money does course failure in secondary schools cost the Ontario public education system annually? Borrowing from Levin & McEwan’s resource cost modelling approach, the study calculates the volume of course failure across all secondary schools in the province and establishes estimates of the annual cost of secondary course failure taking into account some factors known to be systematically related. This work aims to better understand the costs of providing public secondary school education in order to make more effective use of resources. In the 2008–09 school year 7.9% of course registrations in Ontario secondary schools resulted in failure. Fail rates are greater for students who receive special services and vary considerably by subject area. The annual cost is estimated to be $472 million.

Large bodies of empirical evidence show that policies and practices that support failure in schools does little to improve student outcomes, yet course failure remains widespread in secondary schools. Further, there is a growing body of evidence indicating these policies and practices are costly in fiscal terms. This study builds on this body of evidence to ask the question: how much money does course failure in secondary schools cost the Ontario public education system annually? Borrowing from Levin & McEwan’s resource cost modelling approach, the study calculates the volume of course failure across all secondary schools in the province and establishes estimates of the annual cost of secondary course failure taking into account some factors known to be systematically related. This work aims to better understand the costs of providing public secondary school education in order to make more effective use of resources. In the 2008–09 school year 7.9% of course registrations in Ontario secondary schools resulted in failure. Fail rates are greater for students who receive special services and vary considerably by subject area. The annual cost is estimated to be $472 million.

With increasing demands in bone repair and replacement, this research investigates the microstructure, properties and performance of bovine bone, human bone, and synthetic materials. Doing so, experimental approaches were used to exam and compare bones, as well as mimicking nature by developing a synthetic material to repair bones. Experimentally, bovine bone, tumor-free human bone, and cancerous human bone were studied via the small scale mechanical loading test. Failure analysis was conducted via optical and electronic microscopic techniques. Characterization results were used to develop a synthetic material that possesses strength and strain needed as a bone material. Characterizing techniques include a small punch test, scanning electron microscope (SEM), optical microscope and x-ray diffraction (XRD) were used for experimental approach. The results showed that small punch tests in longitudinal and tangential directions showed different mechanical properties and failure mechanisms. Cancer cells in human bone caused the bone softening and lowered the density. Synthesized epoxy-silicone-geopolymer material had higher deformability than bone. Understanding obtained in this research helps us to develop better synthetic bone materials in future. This thesis is composed of six chapters. The first chapter covers as an introduction to understand the purpose and motivation of present studies, and this section followed by the details of the motivation and objectives of this research. The third chapter explains experimental approaches that were conducted to meet the objectives. The fourth chapter describes the results and the major discovery of the experiments, and the results will be discussed in the Chapter IV. Finally, the last chapter provides the conclusions and recommendations for future work.

Syfte:            Syftet med denna litteraturstudie var att studera hur personer med hjärtsvikt kan få en förbättrad nutrition genom egenvård. Metod:          Studien genomfördes som en litteraturöversikt. Artiklarna söktes via databaserna CINAHL och PubMed. Resultat:       Studiens resultat innehöll 10 artiklar med kvantitativ ansats. En förutsättning för att personer med hjärtsvikt ska klara sin egenvård och ges möjlighet att förbättra sin nutrition är utbildning. Utbildningsmetoder som i föreliggande litteraturstudie har visat sig fungera är att kombinera skriftlig och muntlig utbildning. Undervisningen bör innehålla information om vilken typ av mat personer med hjärtsvikt behöver äta samt varför. En god följsamhet till givna riktlinjer nås genom att ge personer med hjärtsvikt individuellt anpassad information samt att uppföljning sker och information ges kontinuerligt. Slutsats:        Det är mycket viktigt att hälso- och sjukvårdspersonal kombinerar muntlig och skriftlig information vid utbildning inom nutrition riktad till personer med hjärtsvikt för att stärka deras egenvård. Hälso- och sjukvårdspersonal bör se till att kontinuerlig uppföljning sker för att optimera följsamheten.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2002. / Adviser: Julio Garcia. Submitted to the Dept. of Psychology. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-73). Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2007. / Härtill 6 uppsatser.