Increased hepcidin expression in colorectal carcinogenesis

AIM:To investigate whether the iron stores regulator hepcidin is implicated in colon cancer-associated anae- mia and whether it might have a role in colorectal car- cinogenesis. METHODS: Mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS and SELDI-TOF MS) was employed to measure hepcidin in urine collected from 56 patients with colorectal cancer. Quantitative Real Time RT-PCR was utilised to determine hepcidin mRNA expression in colorectal cancer tissue. Hepcidin cellular localisation was determined using im- munohistochemistry. RESULTS: We demonstrate that whilst urinary hepcidin expression was not correlated with anaemia it was posi- tively associated with increasing T-stage of colorectal cancer (P < 0.05). Furthermore, we report that hepcidin mRNA is expressed in 34% of colorectal cancer tissue specimens and was correlated with ferroportin repres- sion. This was supported by hepcidin immunoreactivity in colorectal cancer tissue. CONCLUSION: We demonstrate that systemic hepcidin expression is unlikely to be the cause of the systemic anaemia associated with colorectal cancer. However, we demonstrate for the first time that hepcidin is expressed by colorectal cancer tissue and that this may represent a novel oncogenic signalling mechanism.

Is iron overload in alcohol-related cirrhosis mediated by hepcidin?

In this case report we describe the relationship between ferritin levels and hepcidin in a patient with alcohol-related spur cell anemia who underwent liver transplantation.We demonstrate a reciprocal relation-ship between serum or urinary hepcidin and serum ferritin,which indicates that inadequate hepcidin production by the diseased liver is associated with elevated serum ferritin.The ferritin level falls with increasing hepcidin production after transplantation.Neither inflammatory indices(IL6)nor erythropoietin appear to be related to hepcidin expression in this case.We suggest that inappropriately low hepcidin production by the cirrhotic liver may contribute substantially to elevated tissue iron stores in cirrhosis and speculate that hepcidin replacement in these patients may be of therapeutic benefi t in the future.

Ethnic differences in inflammatory bowel disease: Results from the United Kingdom inception cohort epidemiology study

BACKGROUND The current epidemiology of inflammatory bowel disease(IBD)in the multiethnic United Kingdom is unknown.The last incidence study in the United Kingdom was carried out over 20 years ago.AIM To describe the incidence and phenotype of IBD and distribution within ethnic groups.METHODS Adult patients(>16 years)with newly diagnosed IBD(fulfilling Copenhagen diagnostic criteria)were prospectively recruited over one year in 5 urban catchment areas with high South Asian population.Patient demographics,ethnic codes,disease phenotype(Montreal classification),disease activity and treatment within 3 months of diagnosis were recorded onto the Epicom database.RESULTS Across a population of 2271406 adults,339 adult patients were diagnosed with IBD over one year:218 with ulcerative colitis(UC,64.3%),115 with Crohn's disease(CD,33.9%)and 6 with IBD unclassified(1.8%).The crude incidence of IBD,UC and CD was 17.0/100000,11.3/100000 and 5.3/100000 respectively.The age adjusted incidence of IBD and UC were significantly higher in the Indian group(25.2/100000 and 20.5/100000)compared to White European(14.9/100000,P=0.009 and 8.2/100000,P<0.001)and Pakistani groups(14.9/100000,P=0.001 and 11.2/100000,P=0.007).The Indian group were significantly more likely to have extensive disease than White Europeans(52.7%vs 41.7%,P=0.031).There was no significant difference in time to diagnosis,disease activity and treatment.CONCLUSION This is the only prospective study to report the incidence of IBD in an ethnically diverse United Kingdom population.The Indian ethnic group showed the highest age-adjusted incidence of UC(20.5/100000).Further studies on dietary,microbial and metabolic factors that might explain these findings in UC are underway.

Data Logging and Control of a Remote Inverter Using LoRa and Power Line Communication

For decades, the power system was highly centralized. With the growing integration of distributed generations into the system, there is a necessity for bi-directional communication methods to monitor and control the remote assets. The primary objective of this paper is to develop a communication link for monitoring and controlling a grid-connected inverter in a remote location. Furthermore, the paper presents developments that have been incorporated to improve the communication link. The literature survey indicates that LoRa is superior compared to other technologies, but has some security and reliability issues. This paper also presents an encryption algorithm to improve the security of the LoRa link. Local data storage added to the system before transmitting data increases the system reliability. A display at the transmission end is added to improve the user-friendliness of the communication link. A Powerline Communication link is parallelly added to the LoRa link to improve the reliability. Finally, tests are conducted with an actual inverter and the results are presented. The tests show that the developed communication link has improved security and reliability, while its open nature makes it highly scalable and adaptable for employment in other smart grid applications.

Impact of the Fermeuse Wind Farm on Newfoundland Grid

This paper aims to study the impact of the Fermeuse wind farm (46&deg58'42'N 52&deg57'18'W) through simulation of wind turbines driven by doubly fed induction generator which feed AC power to the isolated utility grid of Newfoundland. The focus is on the determination of both voltage and system stability constraints. The complete system is modeled and simulated in Matlab Simulink environment.

Dynamic Modelling of Submersible Pump Based Solar Water-Pumping System with Three-Phase Induction Motor Using MATLAB

The main purpose of this paper is to design and model a water-pumping system using a submersible multi-stage centrifugal pump driven by a three-phase induction motor. The system is intended for pumping water to the surface from a deep well using three power supply systems: a general network, a photo-voltaic (PV) system, and a PV system with a battery bank. These systems are used to compare two three-phase induction motors—namely, a motor with a drive and another one without a drive. The systems dynamic models are simulated in MATLAB/Simulink and the results compared with the manufacturer’s data for validation purposes. The simulation results generally show system dynamics and expected performance over a range of operation.