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Rat heart nuclei were isolated and contents of DNA, RNA and protein, and activity of DNA-dependent RNA polymerase were determined during development of cardiac hypertrophy. Both protein/DNA and RNA/DNA ratios of isolated nuclei were increased within 24 hr after aortic constriction and remained high for a two weeks' observation period, suggesting an increased RNA synthesis and enlargement of nuclei. The apparent activity of polymerase of the control hearts measured in the presence of Mn2+ and (NH4)2 SO4 was 2·5-fold higher than that measured in the presence of Mg2 + . The activity in the sham-operated rats was elevated in the first three days. The increase in RNA polymerase activity after aortic banding was biphasic in that an early, transient increase was observed at 4 hr after the operation and a later and greater increase appeared at approximately 24 hr and remained at a high level for several days. The early increase in the Mg2 + activated system was 109% and the Mn2+ system 169%, whereas at the peak that appeared on the third-fourth day the respective increases were 618% and 310%. The results suggest a predominant synthesis of messenger RNA at the early stage of hypertrophy followed later by an increased synthesis of ribosomal RNA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Hospital electronic patient records (EPRs) offer the opportunity to exploit large-scale routinely acquired data at relatively low cost and without selection. EPRs provide considerably richer data, and in real-time, than retrospective administrative data sets in which clinical complexity is often poorly captured. With population ageing, a wide range of hospital specialties now manage older people with multimorbidity, frailty and associated poor outcomes. We, therefore, set-up the Oxford and Reading Cognitive Comorbidity, Frailty and Ageing Research Database-Electronic Patient Records (ORCHARD-EPR) to facilitate clinically meaningful research in older hospital patients, including algorithm development, and to aid medical decision-making, implementation of guidelines, and inform policy., Methods and Analysis: ORCHARD-EPR uses routinely acquired individual patient data on all patients aged ≥65 years with unplanned admission or Same Day Emergency Care unit attendance at four acute general hospitals serving a population of >800 000 (Oxfordshire, UK) with planned extension to the neighbouring Berkshire regional hospitals (>1 000 000). Data fields include diagnosis, comorbidities, nursing risk assessments, frailty, observations, illness acuity, laboratory tests and brain scan images. Importantly, ORCHARD-EPR contains the results from mandatory hospital-wide cognitive screening (≥70 years) comprising the 10-point Abbreviated-Mental-Test and dementia and delirium diagnosis (Confusion Assessment Method-CAM). Outcomes include length of stay, delayed transfers of care, discharge destination, readmissions and death. The rich multimodal data are further enhanced by linkage to secondary care electronic mental health records. Selection of appropriate subgroups or linkage to existing cohorts allows disease-specific studies. Over 200 000 patient episodes are included to date with data collection ongoing of which 129 248 are admissions with a length of stay ≥1 day in 64 641 unique patients., Ethics and Dissemination: ORCHARD-EPR is approved by the South Central Oxford C Research Ethics Committee (ref: 23/SC/0258). Results will be widely disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at conferences, and regional meetings to improve hospital data quality and clinical services., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.)

Population-level biomedical research offers new opportunities to improve population health, but also raises new challenges to traditional systems of research governance and ethical oversight. Partly in response to these challenges, various models of public involvement in research are being introduced. Yet, the ways in which public involvement should meet governance challenges are not well understood. We conducted a qualitative study with 36 experts and stakeholders using the World Café method to identify key governance challenges and explore how public involvement can meet these challenges. This brief report discusses four cross-cutting themes from the study: the need to move beyond individual consent; issues in benefit and data sharing; the challenge of delineating and understanding publics; and the goal of clarifying justifications for public involvement. The report aims to provide a starting point for making sense of the relationship between public involvement and the governance of population-level biomedical research, showing connections, potential solutions and issues arising at their intersection. We suggest that, in population-level biomedical research, there is a pressing need for a shift away from conventional governance frameworks focused on the individual and towards a focus on collectives, as well as to foreground ethical issues around social justice and develop ways to address cultural diversity, value pluralism and competing stakeholder interests. There are many unresolved questions around how this shift could be realised, but these unresolved questions should form the basis for developing justificatory accounts and frameworks for suitable collective models of public involvement in population-level biomedical research governance., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.)