Piloting a manualised weight management programme (Shape Up-LD) for overweight and obese persons with mild-moderate learning disabilities: study protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial

National obesity rates have dramatically risen over the last decade. Being obese significantly reduces life expectancy, increases the risk of a range of diseases, and compromises quality of life. Costs to both the National Health Service and society are high. An increased prevalence of obesity in people with learning disabilities has been demonstrated. The consequences of obesity are particularly relevant to people with learning disabilities who are already confronted by health and social inequalities. In order to provide healthcare for all, and ensure equality of treatment for people with learning disabilities, services must be developed specifically with this population in mind. The aim of this project is to pilot the evaluation of a manualised weight management programme for overweight and obese persons with mild-moderate learning disabilities (Shape Up-LD)

Mutations in topoisomerase IIβ result in a B cell immunodeficiency.

B cell development is a highly regulated process involving multiple differentiation steps, yet many details regarding this pathway remain unknown. Sequencing of patients with B cell-restricted immunodeficiency reveals autosomal dominant mutations in TOP2B. TOP2B encodes a type II topoisomerase, an essential gene required to alleviate topological stress during DNA replication and gene transcription, with no previously known role in B cell development. We use Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and knockin and knockout murine models, to demonstrate that patient mutations in TOP2B have a dominant negative effect on enzyme function, resulting in defective proliferation, survival of B-2 cells, causing a block in B cell development, and impair humoral function in response to immunization

A manualised weight management programme for adults with mild-moderate intellectual disabilities affected by excess weight: A randomised controlled feasibility trial (Shape Up-LD).

BACKGROUND: The aim was to pilot an adapted manualised weight management programme for persons with mild-moderate intellectual disabilities affected by overweight or obesity ('Shape Up-LD'). METHOD: Adults with intellectual disabilities were enrolled in a 6-month trial (3-month active intervention and 3-month follow-up) and were individually randomised to Shape Up-LD or a usual care control. Feasibility outcomes included recruitment, retention, initial effectiveness and cost. RESULTS: Fifty people were enrolled. Follow-up rates were 78% at 3 months and 74% at 6 months. At 3 and 6 months, controlling for baseline weight, no difference was observed between groups (3 months: β: -0.34, 95% confidence interval [CI]: -2.38, 1.69, 6 months: β: -0.55, 95%CI -4.34, 3.24). CONCLUSION: It may be possible to carry out a trial of Shape Up-LD, although barriers to recruitment, carer engagement and questionnaire completion need to be addressed, alongside refinements to the intervention

Description and field performance of the Walker Branch throughfall displacement experiment: 1993--1996

The authors are conducting a large-scale manipulative field experiment in an upland oak forest on the Walker Branch Watershed in eastern Tennessee to identify important ecosystem responses that might result from future precipitation changes. The manipulation of soil water content is being implemented by a gravity-driven transfer of throughfall from one 6400-m{sup 2} treatment plot to another. Throughfall is intercepted in {approx}1850 subcanopy troughs suspended above the forest floor of the dry plot and transferred by gravity flow across an ambient plot for subsequent distribution onto the wet treatment plot. Soil water content is being monitored at two depths with time domain reflectometers at 310 sampling locations across the site. The experimental system is able to produce statistically significant differences in soil water content in years having both dry and wet conditions. Maximum soil water content differentials between wet and dry plots in the 0- to 0.35-m horizon were 8 to 10% during summers with abundant precipitation and 3 to 5% during drought periods. Treatment impacts on soil water potential were restricted to the surface soil layer. Comparisons of pre- and post-installation soil and litter temperature measurements showed the ability of the experimental design to produce changes in soil water content and water potential without creating large artifacts in the forest understory environment

The Search for Invariance: Repeated Positive Testing Serves the Goals of Causal Learning

Positive testing is characteristic of exploratory behavior, yet it seems to be at odds with the aim of information seeking. After all, repeated demonstrations of one’s current hypothesis often produce the same evidence and fail to distinguish it from potential alternatives. Research on the development of scientific reasoning and adult rule learning have both documented and attempted to explain this behavior. The current chapter reviews this prior work and introduces a novel theoretical account—the Search for Invariance (SI) hypothesis—which suggests that producing multiple positive examples serves the goals of causal learning. This hypothesis draws on the interventionist framework of causal reasoning, which suggests that causal learners are concerned with the invariance of candidate hypotheses. In a probabilistic and interdependent causal world, our primary goal is to determine whether, and in what contexts, our causal hypotheses provide accurate foundations for inference and intervention—not to disconfirm their alternatives. By recognizing the central role of invariance in causal learning, the phenomenon of positive testing may be reinterpreted as a rational information-seeking strategy

Informing the design of a national screening and treatment programme for chronic viral hepatitis in primary care: qualitative study of at-risk immigrant communities and healthcare professionals

n Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise statedThis paper presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under the Programme Grants for Applied Research programme (RP-PG-1209-10038).

A manualised weight management programme for adults with mild–moderate intellectual disabilities affected by excess weight: A randomised controlled feasibility trial (Shape Up-LD)

Background The aim was to pilot an adapted manualised weight management programme for persons with mild–moderate intellectual disabilities affected by overweight or obesity (‘Shape Up-LD’). Method Adults with intellectual disabilities were enrolled in a 6-month trial (3-month active intervention and 3-month follow-up) and were individually randomised to Shape Up-LD or a usual care control. Feasibility outcomes included recruitment, retention, initial effectiveness and cost. Results Fifty people were enrolled. Follow-up rates were 78% at 3 months and 74% at 6 months. At 3 and 6 months, controlling for baseline weight, no difference was observed between groups (3 months: β: −0.34, 95% confidence interval [CI]: −2.38, 1.69, 6 months: β: −0.55, 95%CI −4.34, 3.24). Conclusion It may be possible to carry out a trial of Shape Up-LD, although barriers to recruitment, carer engagement and questionnaire completion need to be addressed, alongside refinements to the intervention

Sample of minor merger of galaxies: Optical CCD surface photometry and HII region propertie

We present the results of the B, V and I photometry of eleven southern minor mergers. The total apparent B magnitude, integrated B-V and V-I colours were measured. We built B, V, and I equivalent profiles for each galaxy and decomposed them into bulge and disk components when possible. From H$\alpha$+N[II] images we have estimated the basic photometric parameters of the HII regions, such as position, size, B-V and V-I colours, H$\alpha$+[NII] luminosity and $EW(H\alpha+[NII])$ equivalent width. We found a linear correlation between the luminosity ratios of the components and their ratio of major diameters, leading to mass ratios between 0.04 $<$ $\cal M$ $_{secondary} / \cal M$ $_{primary}$ $<$ 0.2, suggesting indeed that our sample is formed by minor mergers. Most of the HII regions and evolved star-forming regions of the sample were formed between 3.6 to 13.7 Myr ago with an average of (6.3$\pm$0.7) Myr. The HII region properties, luminosity, sizes and ages are similar in both components. The HII regions have log(H$\alpha$+[NII]) luminosity between 38.6 and 41.7. The HII region luminosity function for the whole sample fits a power law of index $\alpha$ = --1.33. The linear correlation between the luminosity $\cal L$(H$\alpha$+[NII]) and the size of the HII regions has slope of 2.12$\pm$0.06. We found that the disk of the primary component is more luminous than those of Lu's sample, while the disk of the secondary is smaller and fainter.Comment: 28 pages, 19 figures, recently accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic