The concentration and metabolism of sugar in ram semen

Publication authorized December 16, 1941.Digitized 2007 AES.Includes bibliographical references (pages 33-35)

High frequency online data collection in an annual household panel study: some evidence on bias prevention and bias adjustment.

Understanding Society is the UK’s largest household panel survey. From April 2020, Understanding Society participants were invited to partake in a series of web surveys (the Understanding Society COVID-19 Study) designed to capture higher frequency information during the pandemic. To prevent bias, the COVID-19 Study invites the full range of Understanding Society participants – both those who regularly use the internet and those who do not – to take part and, furthermore, periodically invites a subset of non-respondents to a telephone follow-up. To adjust for bias, a weighting strategy is implemented that takes advantage of the rich background information available from past annual interviews. We examine the efficacy of these bias reduction and bias adjustment measures. We find that both the telephone follow-ups and weighting help to reduce bias, but that inviting those who do not regularly use the internet to the web survey appears to be of little benefit

Identifying care-home residents in routine healthcare datasets:a diagnostic test accuracy study of five methods

Background: there is no established method to identify care-home residents in routine healthcare datasets. Methods matching patient’s addresses to known care-home addresses have been proposed in the UK, but few have been formally evaluated. Study design: prospective diagnostic test accuracy study. Methods: four independent samples of 5,000 addresses from Community Health Index (CHI) population registers were sampled for two NHS Scotland Health Boards on 1 April 2017, with one sample of adults aged ≥65 years and one of all residents. To derive the reference standard, all 20,000 addresses were manually adjudicated as ‘care-home address’ or not. The performance of five methods (NHS Scotland assigned CHI Institution Flag, exact address matching, postcode matching, Phonics and Markov) was evaluated compared to the reference standard. Results: the CHI Institution Flag had a high PPV 97–99% in all four test sets, but poorer sensitivity 55–89%. Exact address matching failed in every case. Postcode matching had higher sensitivity than the CHI flag 78–90%, but worse PPV 77–85%. Area under the receiver operating curve values for Phonics and Markov scores were 0.86–0.95 and 0.93–0.98, respectively. Phonics score with cut-off ≥13 had PPV 92–97% with sensitivity 72–87%. Markov PPVs were 90–95% with sensitivity 69–90% with cut-off ≥29.6. Conclusions: more complex address matching methods greatly improve identification compared to the existing NHS Scotland flag or postcode matching, although no method achieved both sensitivity and positive predictive value > 95%. Choice of method and cut-offs will be determined by the specific needs of researchers and practitioners

Design considerations in a clinical trial of a cognitive behavioural intervention for the management of low back pain in primary care : Back Skills Training Trial

Background Low back pain (LBP) is a major public health problem. Risk factors for the development and persistence of LBP include physical and psychological factors. However, most research activity has focused on physical solutions including manipulation, exercise training and activity promotion. Methods/Design This randomised controlled trial will establish the clinical and cost-effectiveness of a group programme, based on cognitive behavioural principles, for the management of sub-acute and chronic LBP in primary care. Our primary outcomes are disease specific measures of pain and function. Secondary outcomes include back beliefs, generic health related quality of life and resource use. All outcomes are measured over 12 months. Participants randomised to the intervention arm are invited to attend up to six weekly sessions each of 90 minutes; each group has 6–8 participants. A parallel qualitative study will aid the evaluation of the intervention. Discussion In this paper we describe the rationale and design of a randomised evaluation of a group based cognitive behavioural intervention for low back pain

Efficiency and safety of varying the frequency of whole blood donation (INTERVAL): a randomised trial of 45 000 donors

Background: Limits on the frequency of whole blood donation exist primarily to safeguard donor health. However, there is substantial variation across blood services in the maximum frequency of donations allowed. We compared standard practice in the UK with shorter inter-donation intervals used in other countries. Methods: In this parallel group, pragmatic, randomised trial, we recruited whole blood donors aged 18 years or older from 25 centres across England, UK. By use of a computer-based algorithm, men were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to 12-week (standard) versus 10-week versus 8-week inter-donation intervals, and women were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to 16-week (standard) versus 14-week versus 12-week intervals. Participants were not masked to their allocated intervention group. The primary outcome was the number of donations over 2 years. Secondary outcomes related to safety were quality of life, symptoms potentially related to donation, physical activity, cognitive function, haemoglobin and ferritin concentrations, and deferrals because of low haemoglobin. This trial is registered with ISRCTN, number ISRCTN24760606, and is ongoing but no longer recruiting participants. Findings: 45 263 whole blood donors (22 466 men, 22 797 women) were recruited between June 11, 2012, and June 15, 2014. Data were analysed for 45 042 (99·5%) participants. Men were randomly assigned to the 12-week (n=7452) versus 10-week (n=7449) versus 8-week (n=7456) groups; and women to the 16-week (n=7550) versus 14-week (n=7567) versus 12-week (n=7568) groups. In men, compared with the 12-week group, the mean amount of blood collected per donor over 2 years increased by 1·69 units (95% CI 1·59–1·80; approximately 795 mL) in the 8-week group and by 0·79 units (0·69–0·88; approximately 370 mL) in the 10-week group (p<0·0001 for both). In women, compared with the 16-week group, it increased by 0·84 units (95% CI 0·76–0·91; approximately 395 mL) in the 12-week group and by 0·46 units (0·39–0·53; approximately 215 mL) in the 14-week group (p<0·0001 for both). No significant differences were observed in quality of life, physical activity, or cognitive function across randomised groups. However, more frequent donation resulted in more donation-related symptoms (eg, tiredness, breathlessness, feeling faint, dizziness, and restless legs, especially among men [for all listed symptoms]), lower mean haemoglobin and ferritin concentrations, and more deferrals for low haemoglobin (p<0·0001 for each) than those observed in the standard frequency groups. Interpretation: Over 2 years, more frequent donation than is standard practice in the UK collected substantially more blood without having a major effect on donors' quality of life, physical activity, or cognitive function, but resulted in more donation-related symptoms, deferrals, and iron deficiency. Funding: NHS Blood and Transplant, National Institute for Health Research, UK Medical Research Council, and British Heart Foundation

Between-group competition elicits within-group cooperation in children

Aggressive interactions between groups are frequent in human societies and can bear significant fitness costs and benefits (e.g. death or access to resources). During between-group competitive interactions, more cohesive groups (i.e. groups formed by individuals who cooperate in group defence) should out-perform less cohesive groups, other factors being equal (e.g. group size). The cost/benefit of between-group competition are thought to have driven correlated evolution of traits that favour between-group aggression and within-group cooperation (e.g. parochial altruism). Our aim was to analyse whether the proximate relationship between between-group competition and within-group cooperation is found in 3–10 years old children and the developmental trajectory of such a relationship. We used a large cohort of children (n = 120) and tested whether simulated between-group competition increased within-group cooperation (i.e. how much of a resource children were giving to their group companions) in two experiments. We found greater within-group cooperation when groups of four children were competing with other groups then in the control condition (no between-group competition). Within-group cooperation increased with age. Our study suggests that parochial altruism and in-group/out-group biases emerge early during the course of human development

Supersite of immune vulnerability on the glycosylated face of HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein gp120

A substantial fraction of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) in certain HIV-infected donors recognizes glycan-dependent epitopes on HIV-1 gp120. Here, we elucidate how bnAb PGT 135 recognizes its Asn332 glycan-dependent epitope from its crystal structure with gp120, CD4 and Fab 17b at 3.1 Å resolution. PGT 135 interacts with glycans at Asn332, Asn392 and Asn386, using long CDR loops H1 and H3 to penetrate the glycan shield to access the gp120 protein surface. Electron microscopy reveals PGT 135 can accommodate the conformational and chemical diversity of gp120 glycans by altering its angle of engagement. The combined structural studies of PGT 135, PGT 128 and 2G12 show this Asn332-dependent epitope is highly accessible and much more extensive than initially appreciated, allowing for multiple binding modes and varied angles of approach, thereby representing a supersite of vulnerability for antibody neutralization

A Clinical Trial of the Effects of Dietary Patterns on Blood Pressure

BACKGROUND: It is known that obesity, sodium intake, and alcohol consumption factors influence blood pressure. In this clinical trial, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, we assessed the effects of dietary patterns on blood pressure. METHODS: We enrolled 459 adults with systolic blood pressures of less than 160 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressures of 80 to 95 mm Hg. For three weeks, the subjects were fed a control diet that was low in fruits, vegetables, and dairy products, with a fat content typical of the average diet in the United States. They were then randomly assigned to receive for eight weeks the control diet, a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, or a "combination" diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products and with reduced saturated and total fat. Sodium intake and body weight were maintained at constant levels. RESULTS: At base line, the mean (+/-SD) systolic and diastolic blood pressures were 131.3+/-10.8 mm Hg and 84.7+/-4.7 mm Hg, respectively. The combination diet reduced systolic and diastolic blood pressure by 5.5 and 3.0 mm Hg more, respectively, than the control diet (P or =140 mm Hg; diastolic pressure, > or =90 mm Hg; or both), the combination diet reduced systolic and diastolic blood pressure by 11.4 and 5.5 mm Hg more, respectively, than the control diet (P<0.001 for each); among the 326 subjects without hypertension, the corresponding reductions were 3.5 mm Hg (P<0.001) and 2.1 mm Hg (P=0.003). CONCLUSIONS: A diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy foods and with reduced saturated and total fat can substantially lower blood pressure. This diet offers an additional nutritional approach to preventing and treating hypertension

Identified baryon and meson distributions at large transverse momenta from Au+Au collisions at sNN=200\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}} = 200 GeV

Transverse momentum spectra of $\pi^{\pm}$, $p$ and $\bar{p}$ up to 12 GeV/c at mid-rapidity in centrality selected Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}} = 200$ GeV are presented. In central Au+Au collisions, both $\pi^{\pm}$ and $p(\bar{p})$ show significant suppression with respect to binary scaling at $p_T >$ 4 GeV/c. Protons and anti-protons are less suppressed than $\pi^{\pm}$, in the range 1.5 $< p_{T} <$6 GeV/c. The $\pi^-/\pi^+$ and $\bar{p}/p$ ratios show at most a weak $p_T$ dependence and no significant centrality dependence. The $p/\pi$ ratios in central Au+Au collisions approach the values in p+p and d+Au collisions at $p_T >$ 5 GeV/c. The results at high $p_T$ indicate that the partonic sources of $\pi^{\pm}$, $p$ and $\bar{p}$ have similar energy loss when traversing the nuclear medium.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Longitudinal double-spin asymmetry and cross section for inclusive jet production in polarized proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV

We report a measurement of the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry A_LL and the differential cross section for inclusive midrapidity jet production in polarized proton collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV. The cross section data cover transverse momenta 5 < pT < 50 GeV/c and agree with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD evaluations. The A_LL data cover 5 < pT < 17 GeV/c and disfavor at 98% C.L. maximal positive gluon polarization in the polarized nucleon.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Minor changes from review process in Phys. Rev. Lett. Plain text tables of data in STAR publications may be found at http://www.star.bnl.gov/central/publications