Connected Health Living Lab

The school of computing, in collaboration with the institute of nursing and health research and the school of engineering, recently established the connected health living lab (CH:LL) at Ulster University. CH:LL offers a dedicated environment to support user and clinical engagement, access to state-of-the-art technology to assess usability and interaction with innovative technologies, in addition to being a dedicated environment to record user behaviours with new connected health solutions. The creation of such a dedicated environment offers a range of benefits to support multi-disciplinary research in the area of connected health. This paper illustrates the design, development, and implementation of CH:LL, including a description of the various technologies associated with the living lab at Ulster University. To conclude, the paper highlights how these resources have been used to date within various research projects

Survey of the quality of experimental design, statistical analysis and reporting of research using animals

For scientific, ethical and economic reasons, experiments involving animals should be appropriately designed, correctly analysed and transparently reported. This increases the scientific validity of the results, and maximises the knowledge gained from each experiment. A minimum amount of relevant information must be included in scientific publications to ensure that the methods and results of a study can be reviewed, analysed and repeated. Omitting essential information can raise scientific and ethical concerns. We report the findings of a systematic survey of reporting, experimental design and statistical analysis in published biomedical research using laboratory animals. Medline and EMBASE were searched for studies reporting research on live rats, mice and non-human primates carried out in UK and US publicly funded research establishments. Detailed information was collected from 271 publications, about the objective or hypothesis of the study, the number, sex, age and/or weight of animals used, and experimental and statistical methods. Only 59% of the studies stated the hypothesis or objective of the study and the number and characteristics of the animals used. Appropriate and efficient experimental design is a critical component of high-quality science. Most of the papers surveyed did not use randomisation (87%) or blinding (86%), to reduce bias in animal selection and outcome assessment. Only 70% of the publications that used statistical methods described their methods and presented the results with a measure of error or variability. This survey has identified a number of issues that need to be addressed in order to improve experimental design and reporting in publications describing research using animals. Scientific publication is a powerful and important source of information; the authors of scientific publications therefore have a responsibility to describe their methods and results comprehensively, accurately and transparently, and peer reviewers and journal editors share the responsibility to ensure that published studies fulfil these criteria

Milk yield estimation during suckling using the double oxytocin injection-milking and the double weighing-suckling methods in dairy goats

The aim was to verify the validity of the double oxytocin-milking (DOT) method as milk yield estimator during the suckling period of lactating dairy goats. To this end, it was necessary to determine whether the weighing suckling weighing (WSW) and DOT methods of milk yield estimation satisfied the criteria to be considered valuable, the accuracy between both methods and the suitability of DOT to evaluate actual milk. At parturition, sixty lactating Murciano Granadina breed goats were separated into 2 groups, in mixed (MS; n = 24) and artificial rearing (ARS; n = 36) management systems. Until the sixth week of lactation (weaning), MS goats suckled one kid while kids from ARS goats were artificially reared; moreover, goats in both systems were submitted to once-a-day milking. Once per week, actual milk yield for ARS goats and potential milk yield were recorded using DOT method for all goats, except for 12 goats in ARS which remained as a control. Twelve goats from each management system were used to evaluate diurnal variation in milk production (DVM) by DOT method for 6 consecutive days in week 4 of lactation. No difference in DVM was found by DOT method in 4-h milk production of goats in MS (P = 0.099) or ARS (P = 0.220), which allowed sixfold multiplication of milked milk volume to obtain potential milk per day. ARS goats subjected to a weekly DOT and control group goats showed a similar (P = 0.379) lactation curve for the first 6 weeks of lactation. The DOT method slightly overestimated (3.4%, P = 0.005) the milk yield evaluated by WSW method for goats under an MS, but fitted the actual milk obtained by common milk records for the group of goats in an ARS submitted to the DVM test (P = 0.357) and the group in ARS alone (P = 0.163). The DOT method applied for 8 consecutive days led to a drop of 6 12% in milk yield during the following week for both production systems. In conclusion, DOT was an accurate method to estimate milk yield during the first weeks of lactation both in MS and ARS under the conditions of this experiment. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Fernández Martínez, N.; Balasch Parisi, S.; Pérez Baena, I.; Rodríguez Garcia, M.; Peris Ribera, CJ. (2013). Milk yield estimation during suckling using the double oxytocin injection-milking and the double weighing-suckling methods in dairy goats. Small Ruminant Research. 112(1-3):181-185. doi:10.1016/j.smallrumres.2012.12.023S1811851121-

Measurement of event shapes in deep inelastic scattering at HERA

Inclusive event-shape variables have been measured in the current region of the Breit frame for neutral current deep inelastic ep scattering using an integrated luminosity of 45.0 pb^-1 collected with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The variables studied included thrust, jet broadening and invariant jet mass. The kinematic range covered was 10 < Q^2 < 20,480 GeV^2 and 6.10^-4 < x < 0.6, where Q^2 is the virtuality of the exchanged boson and x is the Bjorken variable. The Q dependence of the shape variables has been used in conjunction with NLO perturbative calculations and the Dokshitzer-Webber non-perturbative corrections (`power corrections') to investigate the validity of this approach.Comment: 7+25 pages, 6 figure

The association between birth weight and plasma fibrinogen is abolished after the elimination of genetic influences

Low birth weight is associated with an increased risk of atherothrombosis, which may be related in part to the association between low birth weight and high plasma fibrinogen. The association between birth weight and fibrinogen may be explained by intrauterine, socio-economic or genetic factors. We examined birth weight and fibrinogen in 52 dizygotic and 56 adolescent monozygotic (genetically identical) twin pairs. The dizygotic but not the monozygotic twins with the lowest birth weight from each pair had a fibrinogen level that was higher compared with their co-twins with the highest birth weight [dizygotic twins: 2.62±0.46 g

Measurement of inclusive D*+- and associated dijet cross sections in photoproduction at HERA

Inclusive photoproduction of D*+- mesons has been measured for photon-proton centre-of-mass energies in the range 130 < W < 280 GeV and a photon virtuality Q^2 < 1 GeV^2. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 37 pb^-1. Total and differential cross sections as functions of the D* transverse momentum and pseudorapidity are presented in restricted kinematical regions and the data are compared with next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative QCD calculations using the "massive charm" and "massless charm" schemes. The measured cross sections are generally above the NLO calculations, in particular in the forward (proton) direction. The large data sample also allows the study of dijet production associated with charm. A significant resolved as well as a direct photon component contribute to the cross section. Leading order QCD Monte Carlo calculations indicate that the resolved contribution arises from a significant charm component in the photon. A massive charm NLO parton level calculation yields lower cross sections compared to the measured results in a kinematic region where the resolved photon contribution is significant.Comment: 32 pages including 6 figure

Event shapes in e+e- annihilation and deep inelastic scattering

This article reviews the status of event-shape studies in e+e- annihilation and DIS. It includes discussions of perturbative calculations, of various approaches to modelling hadronisation and of comparisons to data.Comment: Invited topical review for J.Phys.G; 40 pages; revised version corrects some nomenclatur

Angular and Current-Target Correlations in Deep Inelastic Scattering at HERA

Correlations between charged particles in deep inelastic ep scattering have been studied in the Breit frame with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 6.4 pb-1. Short-range correlations are analysed in terms of the angular separation between current-region particles within a cone centred around the virtual photon axis. Long-range correlations between the current and target regions have also been measured. The data support predictions for the scaling behaviour of the angular correlations at high Q2 and for anti-correlations between the current and target regions over a large range in Q2 and in the Bjorken scaling variable x. Analytic QCD calculations and Monte Carlo models correctly describe the trends of the data at high Q2, but show quantitative discrepancies. The data show differences between the correlations in deep inelastic scattering and e+e- annihilation.Comment: 26 pages including 10 figures (submitted to Eur. J. Phys. C