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Objective-To determine the prevalence of elevated total (TT) and free testosterone (FT), and DHEAS, alone and in combination, in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) patients. Design-Cross-sectional analysis Setting-Tertiary care academic medical centerPatients-Seven hundred and twenty patients diagnosed with PCOS according to the NIH 1990 criteria. Interventions-History and physical exam, and blood sampling.Main Outcome Measure(s)-Hyperandrogenemia, defined as at least one androgen value above the 95 th percentile of 98 healthy control women, i.e. TT >88 ng/dl, FT >0.75 ng/dl, and DHEAS >2750 ng/ml. Result(s)-A total of 716 PCOS subjects were included. The overall, prevalence of hyperandrogenemia in PCOS was 75.3%. Supranormal levels of FT were present in 57.6%, of TT in 33.0%, and of DHEAS in 32.7% of PCOS patients. When assessing the prevalence of two abnormal values, the prevalence of simultaneously elevated androgens was lowest with TT and DHEAS (1.7%) and highest with TT and FT (20.4%). Altogether, simultaneous elevations in all three markers were found in 8.7% of PCOS subjects.Conclusion-Approximately three-fourths of patients with PCOS diagnosed by the NIH 1990 criteria have evidence of hyperandrogenemia; the single most predictive assay was the measurement of FT with ∼60% of patients demonstrating supranormal levels.

ObjectiveShort sleep duration induces hormonal perturbations contributing to hyperphagia, insulin resistance, and obesity. The majority of these studies are conducted in young adults. This analysis in a large (n= 769) sample of postmenopausal women (median age 63 y) sought to 1) confirm that sleep duration and sleep quality are negatively correlated with circulating leptin concentrations and 2) to examine the relationship between self-reported sleep, dietary energy intake, and diet quality, as well as, investigate the role of leptin in these associations.Design and MethodsSleep duration/quality, insomnia, and dietary intake were determined via self-report. Blood samples were collected following an overnight fast to assess serum leptin concentration. All analyses were adjusted for total body fat mass.ResultsWomen reporting ≤6h sleep/night had lower serum leptin concentrations than those reporting ≥8h sleep (P= 0.04). Furthermore, those with ≤6h sleep/night reported higher dietary energy intake (p=0.01) and lower diet quality (P= 0.04) than the reference group (7h sleep/night). Women sleeping ≥8h also reported lower diet quality than the reference group (P= 0.02). Importantly, serum leptin did not confound these associations.ConclusionsThese results provide evidence that sleep duration is inversely associated with serum leptin and dietary energy intake in postmenopausal women.

Many scholars argue that citizens with higher levels of political trust are more likely to grant bureaucratic discretion to public administrators than citizens with lower levels of trust. Trust, therefore, can relieve the tension between managerial flexibility and political accountability in the modern administrative state. Unfortunately, there is little empirical evidence showing that trust is actually associated with citizens’ willingness to cede policy‐making power to government. This article tests theories about political trust and citizen competence using the case of zoning. Trust in local government is found to be an important predictor of support for zoning, but trust in state government and trust in national government have no effect. These findings suggest that trust affects policy choice and helps determine how much power citizens grant to local administrators.

Because xenon NMR is highly sensitive to the local environment, laser-polarized xenon could be a unique probe of living tissues. Realization of clinical and medical science applications beyond lung airspace imaging requires methods of efficient delivery of laser-polarized xenon to tissues, because of the short spin-lattice relaxation times and relatively low concentrations of xenon attainable in the body. Preliminary results from the application of a polarized xenon injection technique for in vivo 129 Xe NMR͞MRI are extrapolated along with a simple model of xenon transit to show that the peak local concentration of polarized xenon delivered to tissues by injection may exceed that delivered by respiration by severalfold.