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Introduction Patient organisations play a key role in providing patient support, whilst facilitating patient-centred and participatory medicine. The Sleep Apnoea Trust Association (SATA) commissioned a patient review of their website. The objectives of this project were to improve communication between SATA, their members and other patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA), and to invite members’ critique of SATA’s website. Methods A mixed-methods questionnaire of 15-items including Likert scales, multiple-choice, open-ended, and demographic questions was designed to assess members’ needs and preferences for healthcare communication. The web-based questionnaire was informed by patients, their families and clinicians, and included a structured evaluation of website accessibility, readability, and information quality. 1,318 SATA members were invited by email to participate anonymously. Descriptive demographic and quantitative, and thematic qualitative data are presented. Results 351 (27%) of SATA members responded; 70% were male, 93% ≥45 years and 62% with severe pre-treatment OSA symptoms. 44% learned about SATA via their sleep clinic, 5% from GPs, and 32% via search-engines. Over 87% had visited the SATA website at least twice. Two-thirds were satisfied or very satisfied with the content, 31% were neutral and only 3% were dissatisfied. 49% ‘often’ found the information they sought, 43% ‘occasionally’, and 8% ‘rarely or never’. Areas highlighted for improvement included the dated and cluttered appearance, and difficulty navigating the site. Further information was requested re OSA research, equipment maintenance and reviews, DVLA guidelines, and other patients’ experiences. Discussion Most SATA members became aware of the patient charity support only after visiting secondary care suggesting the need to create stronger links with the public and primary care. Once aware of SATA’s website, many patients made multiple visits gaining good quality information. Key data was obtained for phase II of this project, which is to increase accessibility and the interactive nature of the website.

Two groups of mice with different microbiological flora were housed in the same room, one group in individually ventilated cages (IVC) and the other in a ventilated cabinet. Routine health screening carried out at regular intervals revealed that these mini-containment units were effective in preventing exchange of micro-organisms between the two groups of mice. Although the animals in the IVC racks did become contaminated with organisms from an unknown source. there is no evidence to suggest that the IVC racks did not function properly. Therefore mini-containment units offer considerable potential for controlling the health status of animals in different groups but work with such animals must take place in accordance with standard operating procedures., Scandinavian Journal of Laboratory Animal Sciences, Vol. 24 No. 4 (1997)

It was necessary to treat a colony of several thousand transgenic and wild, type breeding mice for parasitic infestations. The suitability of the anti-parasitie agent, ivermectin, for controlling parasites in mice which are to be used for embryo transfer was investigated in a small preliminary study. There were no significant differences in plugging rate, number of embryos produced, number of implantations or number of resorptions between treated and untreated mice. Therefore the main colony of transgenic mice was treated with ivermectin to remove oxyurid worms and mites. The treatment was effective, since no parasites were found at a subsequent health screen, and there were no adverse effects such as diarrhoea or mis-mothering in treated mice. These results indicate that ivermeetin could be used in mice for transgenic studies without causing detrimental effects on either the mice or the experiment., Scandinavian Journal of Laboratory Animal Sciences, Vol. 24 No. 4 (1997)

Climate change and the subsequent impact this has on carbon emissions for buildings has shown great concern for the industry. With over 1.35 million non-domestic buildings at least over 25 years old; the need for more practical refurbishment strategies in order to decarbonise and future-proof the old building stock against climate change is vital. The aim of this paper is to explore more sustainable, economic and less-disruptive refurbishment approaches for an air conditioned building as efficient future weather mitigation measures. Particular emphasis was placed on the evaluation of the carbon reductions associated with the best-suited approaches under two future climatic scenarios, 2030 & 2050.\ud \ud A building simulation model of a public office building has been developed to assess the current energy performance as well as the predicted future energy performance for two refurbishment strategies. These strategies are adaptive thermal control and fabric modification. A reduction in carbon emissions, of 7.5%, results from applying adaptive heating and cooling set points to the model with a current weather data scenario. This reduces to 6.8% in 2030 and 5.3% in 2050. The potential savings are most significant for the current climate scenario and then reduce for the 2030 and 2050 scenarios largely because of an elevation in heating set points. In terms of cooling, an upper limit to the cooling set point of 26°C prevents meaningful differentiation between the 2030 and 2050 adaptive cooling set points but is necessary due to the lack of opportunities for building occupants to adapt their conditions. There is scope for research to be carried out into the application of adaptive set points for existing buildings. Some work has been carried out on the cooling scenario but little appears to have been done for heating as of yet. Given that this could be retrofitted into BMS systems, it is a potential option to reduce building carbon emissions with minimal cost for buildings with centralised systems. For the fabric modification, a significant reduction in carbon emissions was achieved by the use of composite panels to replace much of the glazing. This resulted in a significant improvement in building performance but at a significant investment cost.

Acetylation of wood to enhance its resistance against wood decaying fungi and insects has been studied extensively under both laboratory and terrestrial field trials. Also several studies are investigating the performance of acetylated wood in marine and fresh water exposures. This paper updates nine year marine tests with acetylated radiata pine in Hejlsminde (Denmark) and presents data on 3 year field tests at 3 marine locations in Italy (Follonica, Genova, Venice) and one in Oregon (USA) as well as an oyster bed test at 2 locations in Australia. Data are also presented on the performance of acetylated Scots pine, radiata pine, and poplar as sheet piling installed in fresh water in 1995 or 2000 in the Netherlands.

Aliskiren is the first of a new class of orally active, non-peptide, renin inhibitors. The enzyme renin is involved in the first step of the renin - angiotensin - aldosterone system (RAAS), which helps regulate blood pressure. Inhibition of renin activity suppresses the RAAS at an earlier point than that targeted by the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. Short-term, placebo-controlled studies in patients with mild-to-moderate hypertension show aliskiren monotherapy to be well tolerated and effective; it lowers blood pressure at least as effectively as the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide and the angiotensin II receptor antagonists (blockers: ARBs) irbesartan and losartan. In a 26-week study, aliskiren-based treatment had a greater antihypertensive effect than treatment based on the ACE inhibitor ramipril. Aliskiren in combination with an ACE inhibitor, an ARB, a calcium-channel blocker or with hydrochlorothiazide reduced blood pressure more effectively than the respective monotherapies in most instances. Whereas ACE inhibitors and ARBs increase plasma renin concentration and activity as a consequence of interrupting angiotensin II-mediated negative feedback on renin release, renin inhibitors decrease plasma renin activity. This is illustrated best in studies in which aliskiren neutralises the increase in plasma renin activity caused by an ACE inhibitor and an ARB. The net reduction in renin activity occurs despite the increase in plasma renin concentration that aliskiren causes. These increases are slightly larger with aliskiren than those occurring with other blockers of the renin pathway, consistent with inhibition at the rate-limiting step causing the greatest inhibition of the angiotensin II-mediated negative feedback. © 2008 CSF Medical Communications Ltd.

Presentado al 18th International Congress of Animal Reproduction, celebrado en Tours (Francia) del 26 al 30 de junio de 2016.

Some stallions produce ejaculates of low quality and/or low fertility when used for artificial insemination (AI). The purpose of these five case studies was to use Single Layer Centrifugation (SLC) to select the best spermatozoa from problem ejaculates for subsequent use in AI. Sperm quality, in terms of motility, morphology and chromatin integrity, was improved in the SLC-selected samples compared to the corresponding uncentrifuged samples, with the exception of one stallion thought to have ampullary stasis. In this stallion, neither the incidence of spermatozoa with detached heads nor the proportion of damaged chromatin was decreased by SLC, in contrast to previous results. Pregnancies were obtained after using SLC-selected spermatozoa from the five stallions for AI, indicating that the spermatozoa were functional after SLC. Overall, the results suggest that SLC may be useful when preparing AI doses from some problem ejaculates. This is the pre-reviewed version of the following article: J.M. Morrell, G. Mari, G. Kutvolgyi, S. Meurling, B. Mislei, E. Iacono and Heriberto Rodriguez-Martinez, Pregnancies Following Artificial Insemination with Spermatozoa from Problem Stallion Ejaculates Processed by Single Layer Centrifugation with Androcoll-E, 2011, Reproduction in domestic animals (1990), (46), 4, 642-645. which has been published in final form at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0531.2010.01721.x Copyright: Blackwell Publishing http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/