Sonography is as useful as MRI in depicting acute hamstring injuries and because of lower costs may be the preferred imaging technique. However, MRI is more sensitive for follow-up imaging of healing injuries. The longitudinal length of the strain as measured on MRI is a strong predictor for the amount of time needed until an athlete can return to competition.

Objective To examine changes in maternal serum levels of activin A and follistatin during pregnancy and labour Design In three cross sectional and three longitudinal studies venous blood was collected from women during pregnancy, spontaneous labour, labour induction and prior to elective caesarean section for the measurement of activin A and follistatin.Setting Monash Medical Centre, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.Population One hundred and twenty-three women participated in a cross sectional study in pregnancy, 18 women in two longitudinal pregnancy studies, 36 women in a cross sectional labour study, nine women in a longitudinal study of labour induction. Ten women undergoing elective caesarean section were also studied.Methods Activin A and follistatin were measured using two sensitive and specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. ResultsIn the cross sectional study of pregnancy, mean (SEM) maternal serum activin A and follistatin levels increased towards term (2.4 ng/mL (0.3) and 1.8 ng/mL (0.3) in first trimester to 18.9 ng/mL (3.8) and 5.3 ng/mL (0.9) at term, respectively), but the longitudinal study revealed that levels plateau in the last three weeks of pregnancy (16.0 ng/mL (2-6) and 6-2 ng/mL (1.4) at 37 weeks and 16-6 ng/mL (3.5) and 6.2 n g / d (0.5) before labour for activin A and follistatin, respectively). There was no difference in levels of activin A and follistatin between women delivered by caesarean section and labouring women at term (14.9 ng/mL (2.8) vs 11.0 ng/mL (0.93) and 5.95 ng/mL (0-67) vs 5.71 ng/mL (0.63), respectively) and levels of both proteins did not alter throughout spontaneous or induced labour.Conclusions We believe that these data argue against activin A playing an acute role in the initiation or regldation of human parturition.

The objective for this study was to determine whether learning style preferences of health science students could predict their attitudes to e-learning. A survey comprising the Index of Learning Styles (ILS) and the Online Learning Environment Survey (OLES) was distributed to 2885 students enrolled in 10 different health science programs at an Australian university. A total of 822 useable surveys were returned generating a response rate of 29.3%. Using SPSS, a linear regression analysis was completed. On the ILS Active-Reflective dimension, 44% of health science students reported a preference as being active learners, 60% as sensing learners, and 64% as sequential learners. Students' attitudes toward e-learning using the OLES showed that their preferred scores for all 9 subscales were higher than their actual scores. The linear regression analysis results indicated that ILS learning styles accounted for a small percentage of the OLES actual and preferred subscales' variance. For the OLES actual subscales, the ILS Active-Reflective and Sensing-Intuitive learning style dimensions were the most frequent predictors of health science students' attitudes towards elearning. For the OLES preferred subscales, ILS Active-Reflective and Sequential-Global learning style dimensions accounted for the most frequent source of variance. It appears that the learning styles of health science students (as measured by the ILS) can be used only to a limited extent as a predictor of students' attitudes towards elearning. Nevertheless, educators should still consider student learning styles in the context of using technology for instructional purposes.

Main outcome measures Tissue lysates of myometrium were analysed for activin A content using an enzymelinked immunosorbent assay and activin receptor proteins IA, IIA and IIB using Western hybridisation. Activin b A -subunit and activin receptors were localised in myometrium by immunohistochemistry. Results Activin A was detected by ELISA in non-pregnant, pregnant and labouring myometrium. Levels were signi®cantly higher in labouring myometrium. The three activin receptors IA, IIA and IIB were detected in all myometrial samples by Western hybridisation. Receptor IA was expressed in signi®cantly higher levels in pregnant myometrium. Receptor IIA was very weakly expressed throughout. The expression of receptor IIB was similar in all three groups. Activin b A -subunit and all three receptors were localised to the endothelial cells of myometrial blood vessels. Neither activin b A -subunit nor any of the three activin receptors were immunolocalised to myometrial smooth muscle cells in the three groups. This result was con®rmed by Western blotting for expression of activin receptors in isolated myometrial smooth muscle and microvascular endothelial cells. ConclusionThe myometrium is not a target for activin A during late pregnancy or labour. However, activin A may have a role in the regulation of microvascular endothelial cell function in the myometrium.

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