203 research outputs found
Behavioural counselling to increase consumption of fruit and vegetables in low income adults : randomised trial
Objective To measure the effect of brief behavioural
counselling in general practice on patientsā
consumption of fruit and vegetables in adults from a
low income population.
Design Parallel group randomised controlled trial.
Setting Primary health centre in a deprived, ethnically
mixed inner city area.
Participants 271 patients aged 18-70 years without
serious illness.
Intervention Brief individual behavioural counselling
based on the stage of change model; time matched
nutrition education counselling.
Main outcome measures Self reported number of
portions of fruit and vegetables eaten per day, plasma
Ī² carotene, Ī± tocopherol, and ascorbic acid
concentrations, and 24 hour urinary potassium
excretion. Assessment at baseline, eight weeks, and 12
months.
Results Consumption of fruit and vegetables
increased from baseline to 12 months by 1.5 and 0.9
portions per day in the behavioural and nutrition
groups (mean difference 0.6 portions, 95% confidence
interval 0.1 to 1.1). The proportion of participants
eating five or more portions a day increased by 42%
and 27% in the two groups (mean difference 15%, 3%
to 28%). Plasma Ī² carotene and Ī± tocopherol
concentrations increased in both groups, but the rise
in Ī² carotene was greater in the behavioural group
(mean difference 0.16 Ī¼mol/l, 0.001 Ī¼mol/l to 1.34
Ī¼mol/l). There were no changes in plasma ascorbic
acid concentrations or urinary potassium excretion.
Differences were maintained when analysis was
restricted to the 177 participants with incomes
ā¤ Ā£400 (ā¬596, $640) a week.
Conclusions Brief individual counselling in primary
care can elicit sustained increases in consumption of
fruit and vegetables in low income adults in the
general population
Continuous low-dose antibiotic prophylaxis for adults with repeated urinary tract infections (AnTIC): a randomised, open-label trial
Funder: UK National Institute for Health Research. Open Access funded by Department of Health UK Acknowledgments We thank all the participants for their commitment to the study, Sheila Wallace for updating the systematic review, members of the Trial Steering Committee and members of the Data Monitoring Committee for their valuable guidance. We thank the National Health Service organisations, principal investigators and local research staff who hosted and ran the study at site. We thank the Health Technology Assessment Programme of the UK NIHR for funding the study (no. 11/72/01). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, or the UK Government Department of Health. A full report of the study30 has been published by the NIHR Library.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
The role of ion dissolution in metal and metal oxide surface inactivation of SARS CoV-2
Funding: This work was funded by UKRI-NIHR (MRC MR/V028464/1) COVID-19 Rapid Response Initiative.Anti-viral surface coatings are under development to prevent viral fomite transmission from high-traffic touch surfaces in public spaces. Copperās anti-viral properties have been widely documented, but the anti-viral mechanism of copper surfaces is not fully understood. We screened a series of metal and metal oxide surfaces for anti-viral activity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Copper and copper oxide surfaces exhibited superior anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity; however, the level of anti-viral activity was dependent on the composition of the carrier solution used to deliver virus inoculum. We demonstrate that copper ions released into solution from test surfaces can mediate virus inactivation, indicating a copper ion dissolution-dependent anti-viral mechanism. The level of anti-viral activity is, however, not dependent on the amount of copper ions released into solution per se. Instead, our findings suggest that degree of virus inactivation is dependent on copper ion complexation with other biomolecules (e.g., proteins/metabolites) in the virus carrier solution that compete with viral components. Although using tissue culture-derived virus inoculum is experimentally convenient to evaluate the anti-viral activity of copper-derived test surfaces, we propose that the high organic content of tissue culture medium reduces the availability of āuncomplexedā copper ions to interact with the virus, negatively affecting virus inactivation and hence surface anti-viral performance. We propose that laboratory anti-viral surface testing should include virus delivered in a physiologically relevant carrier solution (saliva or nasal secretions when testing respiratory viruses) to accurately predict real-life surface anti-viral performance when deployed in public spaces.PostprintPeer reviewe
Continuous low-dose antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent urinary tract infection in adults who perform clean intermittent self-catheterisation: the AnTIC RCT
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
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Property rents in medieval English towns: Hull in the fourteenth century
This paper examines whether property rents varied within the medieval town of Hull. Scholars have been deterred from analysing medieval urban rents because of a belief that they were āfossilisedā from an early stage in town development, and therefore did not reflect economic forces that guided the later development of towns. Hull rents reported in the 1347 rental had been set only recently, however. Statistical analysis of these rents reveals the economic topography of the town and leads to a reconsideration of its economic development
Monitoring extinction risk and threats of the worldās fishes based on the Sampled Red List Index
Global biodiversitytargets require us to identify species at risk of extinction and quantify status and trends of biodiversity. The Red List Index (RLI) tracks trends in the conservation status of entire species groups over time by monitoring changes in categories assigned to species. Here, we calculate this index for the worldās fishes in 2010, using a sampled approach to the RLI based on a randomly selected sample of 1,500 species, and also present RLI splits for freshwater and marine systems separately. We further compare specific traits of a worldwide fish list to our sample to assess its representativeness. Overall, 15.1% of species in the sample were estimated to be threatened with extinction, resulting in a sampled RLI of 0.914 for all species, 0.968 in marine and 0.862 in freshwater ecosystems. Our sample showed fishing as the principal threat for marine species, and pollution by agricultural and forestry effluents for freshwater fishes. The sampled list provides a robust representation for tracking trends in the conservation status of the worldās fishes, including disaggregated sampled indices for marine and freshwater fish. Reassessment and backcasting of this index is urgent to check the achievement of the commitments proposed in global biodiversity targets
Monitoring Extinction Risk and Threats of the World\u27s Fishes Based on the Sampled Red List Index
Global biodiversitytargets require us to identify species at risk of extinction and quantify status and trends of biodiversity. The Red List Index (RLI) tracks trends in the conservation status of entire species groups over time by monitoring changes in categories assigned to species. Here, we calculate this index for the worldās fishes in 2010, using a sampled approach to the RLI based on a randomly selected sample of 1,500 species, and also present RLI splits for freshwater and marine systems separately. We further compare specific traits of a worldwide fish list to our sample to assess its representativeness. Overall, 15.1% of species in the sample were estimated to be threatened with extinction, resulting in a sampled RLI of 0.914 for all species, 0.968 in marine and 0.862 in freshwater ecosystems. Our sample showed fishing as the principal threat for marine species, and pollution by agricultural and forestry effluents for freshwater fishes. The sampled list provides a robust representation for tracking trends in the conservation status of the worldās fishes, including disaggregated sampled indices for marine and freshwater fish. Reassessment and backcasting of this index is urgent to check the achievement of the commitments proposed in global biodiversity targets
Prototype Imaging Spectrograph for Coronagraphic Exoplanet Studies (PISCES) for WFIRST/AFTA
Prototype Imaging Spectrograph for Coronagraphic Exoplanet Studies (PISCES) is a lenslet array based integral field spectrometer (IFS) designed for high contrast imaging of extrasolar planets. PISCES will be used to advance the technology readiness of the high contrast IFS baselined on the Wide-Field InfraRed Survey Telescope/Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets (WFIRST/AFTA) coronagraph instrument. PISCES will be integrated into the high contrast imaging testbed (HCIT) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and will work with both the Hybrid Lyot Coronagraph (HLC) and the Shaped Pupil Coronagraph (SPC) cofigurations. We discuss why the lenslet array based IFS is selected for PISCES. We present the PISCES optical design, including the similarities and differences of lenslet based IFSs to normal spectrometers, the trade-off between a refractive design and reflective design, as well as the specific function of our pinhole mask on the back surface of the lenslet array to further suppress star light introduced speckles. The optical analysis, alignment plan, and mechanical design of the instrument will be discussed
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