918 research outputs found

    The Effects of Grazing Cover Crops on Animal Performance and Soybean Production

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    Grazing cover crops has the potential to offset costs incurred with cover crop establishment, thus incentivizing management adoption. Information regarding cover crop species in combination with grazing and their subsequent effects on soybean production is limited. A field trial was conducted in Newton, MS from 2019 to 2021 to assess these effects. Cover crop treatments included oats (O), O + crimson clover (OC), and OC + radish (OCR) were applied in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Cover crops differed in nutritive analysis; O had significantly lower mean CP, but greater total daily nutrients (TDN). Weaned beef steers grazing cover crops had lower ADG in the OCR treatment (3.03 lb hd-1 d-1), compared to O (3.52 lb hd-1 d-1) and OC (3.55 lb hd-1 d-1). No significant difference was observed in soybean grain yield between cover crop treatments. Mean yields were 51.1, 46.1, and 38.7 bu ac-1 for the O, OC, and OCR treatments, respectively. Total net returns for grazing plus soybean production were significantly lower in the OCR (817.51ac1),comparedtotheO(817.51 ac-1), compared to the O (1,107.03 ac-1) and OC ($1,071.15 ac-1) treatments. These returns suggest that grazing provides an added value to cover crop establishment and provides incentives for increased revenue for producers willing to combine livestock and row crop enterprises

    A high-field adiabatic fast passage ultracold neutron spin flipper for the UCNA experiment

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    The UCNA collaboration is making a precision measurement of the β asymmetry (A) in free neutron decay using polarized ultracold neutrons (UCN). A critical component of this experiment is an adiabatic fast passage neutron spin flipper capable of efficient operation in ambient magnetic fields on the order of 1 T. The requirement that it operate in a high field necessitated the construction of a free neutron spin flipper based, for the first time, on a birdcage resonator. The design, construction, and initial testing of this spin flipper prior to its use in the first measurement of A with UCN during the 2007 run cycle of the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center's 800 MeV proton accelerator is detailed. These studies determined the flipping efficiency of the device, averaged over the UCN spectrum present at the location of the spin flipper, to be ϵ(overbar) = 0.9985(4)

    The Link Between Everyday Discrimination, Healthcare Utilization, and Health Status Among a National Sample of Women

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    Background: Research has not adequately examined the potential negative effects of perceiving routine discrimination on general healthcare utilization or health status, especially among reproductive-aged women. We sought to evaluate the association between everyday discrimination, health service use, and perceived health among a national sample of women in the United States. Materials and Methods: Data were drawn from the Women's Healthcare Experiences and Preferences survey, a randomly selected, national probability sample of 1078 U.S. women aged 18?55 years. We examined associations between everyday discrimination (via a standardized scale) on frequency of health service utilization and perceived general health status using chi-square and multivariable logistic regression modeling. Results: Compared with women who reported healthcare visits every 3 years or less (reference group), each one-point increase in discrimination score was associated with higher odds of having healthcare visits annually or more often (odds ratio [OR]?=?1.36, confidence interval [95% CI]?=?1.01?1.83). Additionally, each one-point increase in discrimination score was significantly associated with lower odds of having excellent/very good perceived health (OR?=?0.65; 95% CI?=?0.54?0.80). Conclusion: Perceived discrimination was associated with increased exposure to the healthcare setting among this national sample of women. Perceived discrimination was also inversely associated with excellent/very good perceived health status.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140141/1/jwh.2015.5522.pd

    Fatigue Intervention by Nurses Evaluation - The FINE Trial. A randomised controlled trial of nurse led self-help treatment for patients in primary care with chronic fatigue syndrome: study protocol. [ISRCTN74156610]

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    Background: Chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as ME (CFS/ME), is a condition characterised primarily by severe, disabling fatigue, of unknown origin, which has a poor prognosis and serious personal and economic consequences. Evidence for the effectiveness of any treatment for CFS/ME in primary care, where most patients are seen, is sparse. Recently, a brief, pragmatic treatment for CFS/ME, based on a physiological dysregulation model of the condition, was shown to be successful in improving fatigue and physical functioning in patients in secondary care. The treatment involves providing patients with a readily understandable explanation of their symptoms, from which flows the rationale for a graded rehabilitative plan, developed collaboratively with the therapist. The present trial will test the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of pragmatic rehabilitation when delivered by specially trained general nurses in primary care. We selected a client-centred counselling intervention, called supportive listening, as a comparison treatment. Counselling has been shown to be as effective as cognitive behaviour therapy for treating fatigue in primary care, is more readily available, and controls for supportive therapist contact time. Our control condition is treatment as usual by the general practitioner (GP). Methods and design: This study protocol describes the design of an ongoing, single-blind, pragmatic randomized controlled trial of a brief (18 week) self-help treatment, pragmatic rehabilitation, delivered by specially trained nurse-therapists in patients' homes, compared with nurse-therapist delivered supportive listening and treatment as usual by the GP. An economic evaluation, taking a societal viewpoint, is being carried out alongside the clinical trial. Three adult general nurses were trained over a six month period to deliver the two interventions. Patients aged over 18 and fulfilling the Oxford criteria for CFS are assessed at baseline, after the intervention, and again one year later. Primary outcomes are self-reported physical functioning and fatigue at one year, and will be analysed on an intention-to-treat basis. A qualitative study will examine the interventions' mechanisms of change, and also GPs' drivers and barriers towards referral

    The utilisation of health research in policy-making: Concepts, examples and methods of assessment

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    The importance of health research utilisation in policy-making, and of understanding the mechanisms involved, is increasingly recognised. Recent reports calling for more resources to improve health in developing countries, and global pressures for accountability, draw greater attention to research-informed policy-making. Key utilisation issues have been described for at least twenty years, but the growing focus on health research systems creates additional dimensions. The utilisation of health research in policy-making should contribute to policies that may eventually lead to desired outcomes, including health gains. In this article, exploration of these issues is combined with a review of various forms of policy-making. When this is linked to analysis of different types of health research, it assists in building a comprehensive account of the diverse meanings of research utilisation. Previous studies report methods and conceptual frameworks that have been applied, if with varying degrees of success, to record utilisation in policy-making. These studies reveal various examples of research impact within a general picture of underutilisation. Factors potentially enhancing utilisation can be identified by exploration of: priority setting; activities of the health research system at the interface between research and policy-making; and the role of the recipients, or 'receptors', of health research. An interfaces and receptors model provides a framework for analysis. Recommendations about possible methods for assessing health research utilisation follow identification of the purposes of such assessments. Our conclusion is that research utilisation can be better understood, and enhanced, by developing assessment methods informed by conceptual analysis and review of previous studies

    Absolute and Relative Surrogate Measurements of the \u3csup\u3e236\u3c/sup\u3eU(\u3cem\u3en,f\u3c/em\u3e) Cross Section as a Probe of Angular Momentum Effects

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    Using both the absolute and relative surrogate techniques, the 236U(n,f) cross section was deduced over an equivalent neutron energy range of 0 to 20 MeV. A 42 MeV 3He beam from the 88 Inch Cyclotron at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was used to perform a (3He,α) pickup reaction on targets of 235U (Jπ=7/2−) and 238U (Jπ = 0+) and the fission decay probabilities were determined. The 235U(3He,αf) and 238U(3He,αf) were surrogates for 233U(n,f) and 236U(n,f), respectively. The cross sections extracted using the surrogate method were compared to directly measured cross sections. The sensitivity of these cross sections to the Jπ -population distributions was explored

    Allelic imbalances of chromosomes 8p and 18q and their roles in distant relapse of early stage, node-negative breast cancer

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    INTRODUCTION: Identification of breast cancer patients at risk for postoperative distant relapse is an important clinical issue. Existing pathological markers can predict disease recurrence only to a certain extent, and there is a need for more accurate predictors. METHODS: Using 'counting alleles', a novel experimental method, we determined allelic status of chromosomes 8p and 18q in a case-control study with 65 early stage, node negative, invasive ductal carcinomas (IDCs). The association between allelic imbalance (AI) of both chromosomal markers and distant relapses was examined. RESULTS: Eighty percent of tumors contained 8pAI and sixty-eight percent of tumors contained 18qAI. However, none of the tumor samples retained both chromosome 8p and 18q alleles. More importantly, tumors with 8pAI but not 18qAI were more likely to have distant relapse compared to tumors with 18qAI but not 8pAI. CONCLUSION: Our finding suggests that differential allelic loss of chromosomes 8p and 18q may represent subtypes of early stage IDC with different tumor progression behaviors
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