Refining and regaining skills in fixation/diversification stage performers: The Five-A Model

Technical change is one of many factors underpinning success in elite, fixation/diversification stage performers. Surprisingly, however, there is a dearth of research pertaining to this process or the most efficacious methods used to bring about such a change. In this paper we highlight the emergent processes, yet also the lack in mechanistic comprehension surrounding technical change, addressing issues within the motor control, sport psychology, coaching and choking literature. More importantly, we seek an understanding of how these changes can be made more secure to competitive pressure, and how this can be embedded within the process of technical change. Following this review, we propose The Five-A Model based on successful coaching techniques, psychosocial concomitants, the avoidance of choking and principles of effective behaviour change. Specific mechanisms for each stage are discussed, with a focus on the use of holistic rhythm-based cues as a possible way of internalising changes. Finally, we suggest the need for further research to examine these five stages, to aid a more comprehensive construction of the content and delivery of such a programme within the applied setting

Single-shot Ad26 vaccine protects against SARS-CoV-2 in rhesus macaques

A safe and effective vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) may be required to end the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic1–8. For global deployment and pandemic control, a vaccine that requires only a single immunization would be optimal. Here we show the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of a single dose of adenovirus serotype 26 (Ad26) vector-based vaccines expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein in non-human primates. Fifty-two rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) were immunized with Ad26 vectors that encoded S variants or sham control, and then challenged with SARS-CoV-2 by the intranasal and intratracheal routes9,10. The optimal Ad26 vaccine induced robust neutralizing antibody responses and provided complete or near-complete protection in bronchoalveolar lavage and nasal swabs after SARS-CoV-2 challenge. Titres of vaccine-elicited neutralizing antibodies correlated with protective efficacy, suggesting an immune correlate of protection. These data demonstrate robust single-shot vaccine protection against SARS-CoV-2 in non-human primates. The optimal Ad26 vector-based vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, termed Ad26.COV2.S, is currently being evaluated in clinical trials

Optimization of Non-Coding Regions for a Non-Modified mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine

The CVnCoV (CureVac) mRNA vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 has recently been evaluated in a phase 2b/3 efficacy trial in humans1. CV2CoV is a second-generation mRNA vaccine with non-modified nucleosides but optimized non-coding regions and enhanced antigen expression. Here we report a head-to-head study of the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of CVnCoV and CV2CoV in nonhuman primates. We immunized 18 cynomolgus macaques with two doses of 12 ug of lipid nanoparticle formulated CVnCoV, CV2CoV, or sham (N=6/group). CV2CoV induced substantially higher binding and neutralizing antibodies, memory B cell responses, and T cell responses as compared with CVnCoV. CV2CoV also induced more potent neutralizing antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 variants, including the delta variant. Moreover, CV2CoV proved comparably immunogenic to the BNT162b2 (Pfizer) vaccine in macaques. While CVnCoV provided partial protection against SARS-CoV-2 challenge, CV2CoV afforded more robust protection with markedly lower viral loads in the upper and lower respiratory tract. Binding and neutralizing antibody titers correlated with protective efficacy. These data demonstrate that optimization of non-coding regions can greatly improve the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of a non-modified mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in nonhuman primates

Protective efficacy of Ad26.COV2.S against SARS-CoV-2 B.1.351 in macaques

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants that partially evade neutralizing antibodies poses a threat to the efficacy of current COVID-19 vaccines1,2. The Ad26.COV2.S vaccine expresses a stabilized Spike protein from the WA1/2020 strain and has recently demonstrated protective efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 in humans in multiple geographic regions, including in South Africa where 95% of sequenced viruses in COVID-19 cases were the B.1.351 variant3. Here we show that Ad26.COV2.S elicits humoral and cellular immune responses that cross-react with the B.1.351 variant and protects against B.1.351 challenge in rhesus macaques. Ad26.COV2.S induced lower binding and neutralizing antibodies against B.1.351 as compared with WA1/2020 but elicited CD8 and CD4 T cell responses that were comparable against WA1/2020, B.1.351, B.1.1.7, P.1, and CAL.20C variants. B.1.351 infection of sham control rhesus macaques resulted in higher levels of virus replication in bronchoalveolar lavage and nasal swabs than did WA1/2020 infection. Ad26.COV2.S provided robust protection against both WA1/2020 and B.1.351, although we observed higher levels of virus in vaccinated animals following B.1.351 challenge. These data demonstrate that Ad26.COV2.S provided robust protection against B.1.351 challenge in rhesus macaques. Our findings have important implications for vaccine control of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern

Long-range Angular Correlations On The Near And Away Side In P-pb Collisions At √snn=5.02 Tev

7191/Mar294

DNA vaccine protection against SARS-CoV-2 in rhesus macaques

The global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has made the development of a vaccine a top biomedical priority. In this study, we developed a series of DNA vaccine candidates expressing different forms of the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein and evaluated them in 35 rhesus macaques. Vaccinated animals developed humoral and cellular immune responses, including neutralizing antibody titers at levels comparable to those found in convalescent humans and macaques infected with SARS-CoV-2. After vaccination, all animals were challenged with SARS-CoV-2, and the vaccine encoding the full-length S protein resulted in >3.1 and >3.7 log10 reductions in median viral loads in bronchoalveolar lavage and nasal mucosa, respectively, as compared with viral loads in sham controls. Vaccine-elicited neutralizing antibody titers correlated with protective efficacy, suggesting an immune correlate of protection. These data demonstrate vaccine protection against SARS-CoV-2 in nonhuman primates

The ATLAS trigger system for LHC Run 3 and trigger performance in 2022

The ATLAS trigger system is a crucial component of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. It is responsible for selecting events in line with the ATLAS physics programme. This paper presents an overview of the changes to the trigger and data acquisition system during the second long shutdown of the LHC, and shows the performance of the trigger system and its components in the proton-proton collisions during the 2022 commissioning period as well as its expected performance in proton-proton and heavy-ion collisions for the remainder of the third LHC data-taking period (2022–2025)

Searches for exclusive Higgs boson decays into D⁎γ and Z boson decays into D0γ and Ks0γ in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Searches for exclusive decays of the Higgs boson into D⁎γ and of the Z boson into D0γ and Ks0γ can probe flavour-violating Higgs boson and Z boson couplings to light quarks. Searches for these decays are performed with a pp collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 136.3 fb−1 collected at s=13TeV between 2016–2018 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. In the D⁎γ and D0γ channels, the observed (expected) 95% confidence-level upper limits on the respective branching fractions are B(H→D⁎γ)<1.0(1.2)×10−3, B(Z→D0γ)<4.0(3.4)×10−6, while the corresponding results in the Ks0γ channel are B(Z→Ks0γ)<3.1(3.0)×10−6

Combination of searches for heavy spin-1 resonances using 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A combination of searches for new heavy spin-1 resonances decaying into diferent pairings of W, Z, or Higgs bosons, as well as directly into leptons or quarks, is presented. The data sample used corresponds to 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV collected during 2015–2018 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Analyses selecting quark pairs (qq, bb, tt¯, and tb) or third-generation leptons (τν and τ τ ) are included in this kind of combination for the frst time. A simplifed model predicting a spin-1 heavy vector-boson triplet is used. Cross-section limits are set at the 95% confdence level and are compared with predictions for the benchmark model. These limits are also expressed in terms of constraints on couplings of the heavy vector-boson triplet to quarks, leptons, and the Higgs boson. The complementarity of the various analyses increases the sensitivity to new physics, and the resulting constraints are stronger than those from any individual analysis considered. The data exclude a heavy vector-boson triplet with mass below 5.8 TeV in a weakly coupled scenario, below 4.4 TeV in a strongly coupled scenario, and up to 1.5 TeV in the case of production via vector-boson fusion