The Effect of N-Fertilization Rate or Inclusion of Red Clover to Timothy Leys on Fatty Acid Composition in Dairy Cow Milk

There is growing awareness among consumers of the link between diet and health. Further, the public often associates dairy products with coronary heart disease, since most of the fatty acids (FA) in milk are saturated. Therefore, it would be desirable to improve the FA profile of milk, which might be achieved by using appropriate feeding regimes. N-fertilization has been shown to influence both total fatty acid (TFA) content and the FA composition in a wide variety of species (Arvidsson 2009). The aim of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of grass silages subjected to different N fertilisation regimes fed to dairy cows on the FA composition of their milk, and to compare the grass silages in this respect to red clover-dominated silage, under typical Swedish production conditions

Ger kvävegödsling eller inblandning av rödklöver i vallen någon effekt på mjölkens fettsyrasammansättning?

Ett positivt samband mellan koncentrationen av råprotein och fettsyror har påvisats i en rad olika arter. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om detta samband kunde användas för att påverka mjölkens fettsyrasammansättning. Följaktligen gödslades en timotejvall med tre olika nivåer av kväve: 30, 90 och 120 kg N/ha till förstaskörd för att åstadkomma tre ensilage med olika råproteinkoncentration. Ett fjärde ensilage bestående av rödklöver och timotej (60 respektive 40 % på ts-basis) inkluderades också. Studien genomfördes under typiska produktionsbetingelser, dvs. med samma typer och mängder av kraftfoder som på en kommersiell gård. De uppnådda skillnaderna i fettsyrakoncentrationer mellan ensilagen påverkade dock inte mjölken, vilket visar att ökad kvävegödsling, eller inbladning av rödklöver, inte nödvändigtvis leder till högre koncentrationer av fleromättade fettsyror i mjölk vid en foderstat bestående av 60% vallfoder och 40% kraftfoder

Emergency Department Triage Scales and Their Components: A Systematic Review of the Scientific Evidence

Emergency department (ED) triage is used to identify patients' level of urgency and treat them based on their triage level. The global advancement of triage scales in the past two decades has generated considerable research on the validity and reliability of these scales. This systematic review aims to investigate the scientific evidence for published ED triage scales. The following questions are addressed

The LEADING Guideline:Reporting Standards for Expert Panel, Best-Estimate Diagnosis, and Longitudinal Expert All Data (LEAD) Studies.

Accurate assessments of symptoms and diagnoses are essential for health research and clinical practice but face many challenges. The absence of a single error-free measure is currently addressed by assessment methods involving experts reviewing several sources of information to achieve a more accurate or best-estimate assessment. Three bodies of work spanning medicine, psychiatry, and psychology propose similar assessment methods: The Expert Panel, the Best-Estimate Diagnosis, and the Longitudinal Expert All Data (LEAD). However, the quality of such best-estimate assessments is typically very difficult to evaluate due to poor reporting of the assessment methods and when it is reported, the reporting quality varies substantially. Here we tackle this gap by developing reporting guidelines for such studies, using a four-stage approach: 1) drafting reporting standards accompanied by rationales and empirical evidence, which were further developed with a patient organization for depression, 2) incorporating expert feedback through a two-round Delphi procedure, 3) refining the guideline based on an expert consensus meeting, and 4) testing the guideline by i) having two researchers test it and ii) using it to examine the extent previously published articles report the standards. The last step also demonstrates the need for the guideline: 18 to 58% (Mean = 33%) of the standards were not reported across fifteen randomly selected studies. The LEADING guideline comprises 20 reporting standards related to four groups: The Longitudinal design; the Appropriate data; the Evaluation - experts, materials, and procedures; and the Validity group. We hope that the LEADING guideline will be useful in assisting researchers in planning, reporting, and evaluating research aiming to achieve best-estimate assessments. Open data (Delphi surveys 1 and 2), code (analyses), and material (surveys): https://osf.io/fkv4b

Vitamin D and stress urinary incontinence in pregnancy: a cross-sectional study

Objective To assess the association between levels of vitamin D and urinary incontinence (UI) in pregnancy. Design A cross‐sectional study. Secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial. Setting Two university hospitals in Norway. Population A total of 851 healthy, pregnant women >18 years in gestational weeks 18–22 with a singleton live fetus. Methods Data on UI were collected from a questionnaire at inclusion and serum analysis of 25‐hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) was performed. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were applied to study associations between exposure and outcomes. Main outcome measures Prevalence of self‐reported UI, stress (SUI) and urge (UUI) or mixed UI. Results In total, 230/851 (27%) of the participants were vitamin D insufficient (25(OH)D <50 nmol/l) and 42% reported to have any UI. Women with 25(OH)D <50 nmol/l were more likely to report any UI (P = 0.03) and SUI (P < 0.01) compared with women with 25(OH)D ≥50 nmol/l. In a univariable logistic regression analysis, serum levels of 25(OH)D <50 nmol/l was associated with increased risk of any UI (odds ratio [OR] 1.5 with 95% CI 1.0–2.1), SUI only (OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.2–2.4), but not mixed UI or UUI only (OR 0.8, 95% CI 0.5–1.5). In a multivariable logistic regression model, serum levels of 25(OH)D <50 nmol/l were associated with a higher risk of experiencing SUI only (OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.1–2.2). Conclusions Serum 25(OH)D <50 nmol/l was associated with increased risk of any UI, and SUI in particular.publishedVersio

A Longer Interstimulus Interval Yields Better Learning in Adults and Young Adolescents

Eyeblink conditioning is one of the most popular experimental paradigms for studying the neural mechanisms underlying learning and memory. A key parameter in eyeblink conditioning is the interstimulus interval (ISI), the time between the onset of the conditional stimulus (CS) and the onset of the unconditional stimulus (US). Though previous studies have examined how the ISI affects learning there is no clear consensus concerning which ISI is most effective and different researchers use different ISIs. Importantly, the brain undergoes changes throughout life with significant cerebellar growth in adolescents, which could mean that different ISIs might be called for in children, adolescents and adults. Moreover, the fact that animals are often trained with a shorter ISI than humans make direct comparisons problematic. In this study, we compared eyeblink conditioning in young adolescents aged 10–15 and adults using one short ISI (300 ms) and one long ISI (500 ms). The results demonstrate that young adolescents and adults produce a higher percentage of CRs when they are trained with a 500 ms ISI compared to a 300 ms ISI. The results also show that learning is better in the adults, especially for the shorter ISI

Pathogenic Neisseria Hitchhike on the Uropod of Human Neutrophils

Polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) are important components of the human innate immune system and are rapidly recruited at the site of bacterial infection. Despite the effective phagocytic activity of PMNs, Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections are characterized by high survival within PMNs. We reveal a novel type IV pilus-mediated adherence of pathogenic Neisseria to the uropod (the rear) of polarized PMNs. The direct pilus-uropod interaction was visualized by scanning electron microscopy and total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy. We showed that N. meningitidis adhesion to the PMN uropod depended on both pilus-associated proteins PilC1 and PilC2, while N. gonorrhoeae adhesion did not. Bacterial adhesion elicited accumulation of the complement regulator CD46, but not I-domain-containing integrins, beneath the adherent bacterial microcolony. Electrographs and live-cell imaging of PMNs suggested that bacterial adherence to the uropod is followed by internalization into PMNs via the uropod. We also present data showing that pathogenic Neisseria can hitchhike on PMNs to hide from their phagocytic activity as well as to facilitate the spread of the pathogen through the epithelial cell layer

Atrial fibrillation genetic risk differentiates cardioembolic stroke from other stroke subtypes

AbstractObjectiveWe sought to assess whether genetic risk factors for atrial fibrillation can explain cardioembolic stroke risk.MethodsWe evaluated genetic correlations between a prior genetic study of AF and AF in the presence of cardioembolic stroke using genome-wide genotypes from the Stroke Genetics Network (N = 3,190 AF cases, 3,000 cardioembolic stroke cases, and 28,026 referents). We tested whether a previously-validated AF polygenic risk score (PRS) associated with cardioembolic and other stroke subtypes after accounting for AF clinical risk factors.ResultsWe observed strong correlation between previously reported genetic risk for AF, AF in the presence of stroke, and cardioembolic stroke (Pearson’s r=0.77 and 0.76, respectively, across SNPs with p &lt; 4.4 × 10−4 in the prior AF meta-analysis). An AF PRS, adjusted for clinical AF risk factors, was associated with cardioembolic stroke (odds ratio (OR) per standard deviation (sd) = 1.40, p = 1.45×10−48), explaining ∼20% of the heritable component of cardioembolic stroke risk. The AF PRS was also associated with stroke of undetermined cause (OR per sd = 1.07, p = 0.004), but no other primary stroke subtypes (all p &gt; 0.1).ConclusionsGenetic risk for AF is associated with cardioembolic stroke, independent of clinical risk factors. Studies are warranted to determine whether AF genetic risk can serve as a biomarker for strokes caused by AF.</jats:sec

Semantic Excel: An Introduction to a User-Friendly Online Software Application for Statistical Analyses of Text Data

Semantic Excel (www.semanticexcel.com) is an online software application with a simple, yet powerful interface enabling users to perform statistical analyses on texts. The purpose of this software is to facilitate statistical testing based on words, rather than numbers. The software comes with semantic representations, or an ordered set of numbers describing the semantic similarity between words/texts that are generated from Latent Semantic Analysis. These semantic representations are based on large datasets from Google N-grams for a dozen of the most commonly used languages in the world. This small-by-big data approach enables users to conduct analyses of small data that is enhanced by semantic knowledge from big data. First, we describe the theoretical foundation of these representations. Then we show the practical steps involved in carrying out statistical calculation using these semantic representations in Semantic Excel. This includes calculation of semantic similarity scores (i.e., computing a score describing the semantic similarity between two words/texts), semantic t-tests (i.e., statistically test whether two sets of words/texts differ in meaning), semantic-numeric correlations (i.e., statistically examine the relationship between words/texts and a numeric variable) and semantic predictions (i.e., using statistically trained models to predict numerical values from words/texts)