Implications of sperm banking for health-related quality of life up to 1 year after cancer diagnosis.

Sperm banking is recommended for all men diagnosed with cancer where treatment is associated with risk of long-term gonadatoxicity, to offer the opportunity of fatherhood and improved quality of life. However, uptake of sperm banking is lower than expected and little is known about why men refuse. Our aims were to determine: (i) demographic and medical variables associated with decisions about banking and (ii) differences in quality of life between bankers and non-bankers at diagnosis (Time 1 (T1)) and 1 year later (Time 2 (T2))

How do men in the United Kingdom decide to dispose of banked sperm following cancer treatment?

Current policy in the UK recommends that men bank sperm prior to cancer treatment, but very few return to use it for reproductive purposes or agree to elective disposal even when their fertility recovers and their families are complete. We assessed the demographic, medical and psychological variables that influence the decision to dispose by contacting men (n = 499) who banked sperm more than five years previously, and asked them to complete questionnaires about their views on sperm banking, fertility and disposal. From 193 responses (38.7% response rate), 19 men (9.8%) requested disposal within four months of completing the questionnaire. Compared with men who wanted their sperm to remain in storage, they were significantly more confident that their fertility had recovered (OR = 1.78, 95% CI = 1.05-3.03, p = 0.034), saw fertility monitoring (semen analysis) as less important (OR = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.39-0.94, p = 0.026), held more positive attitudes to disposal (OR = 5.71, 95% CI = 2.89-11.27, p < 0.001), were more likely to have experienced adverse treatment side-effects (OR = 4.37, CI = 1.61-11.85, p = 0.004) and had less desire for children in the future (OR = 0.41, 95% CI = 0.26-0.64, p < 0.001). Information about men's reasons to dispose of banked sperm may be helpful in devising new strategies to encourage men to engage with sperm banking clinics and make timely decisions about the fate of their samples

Why don't some men with banked sperm respond to letters about their stored samples?

Long-term storage of banked sperm, especially when it is not needed, for reproductive purposes, is costly and poses practical problems for sperm banks. For sperm banks to function efficiently, men must understand the implications of unnecessary storage, and make timely decisions about disposal of their own samples. Men who bank sperm prior to cancer treatment are routinely offered follow-up consultations to test their fertility, update consent and, where necessary, expedite referral for Assisted Conception. Yet sperm banks report that men do not respond to letters, suggesting samples are stored needlessly. We conducted semi-structured interviews with six men with a history of not responding to letters, to document reasons for non-response. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Men's reasons for not responding are a complex interplay between past, present and future perspectives. In terms of their past, information is important on diagnosis, because men must understand that fertility can change after treatment. Present and future concerns focus on fears of being told fertility has not recovered and being pressured to dispose of banked sperm. The challenge is to devise invitation letters that address men's concerns while offering them tangible benefits and peace of mind

Availability of services for the diagnosis and treatment of infertility in The Gambia`s public and private health facilities : a cross-sectional survey

Background Infertility is a long-standing reproductive health issue, which affects both men and women worldwide and it is especially problematic in the Global South. In sub-Saharan Africa, understanding the current availability of diagnostic and treatment services for infertility is important because this could guide health systems to improve access to fertility care for all. Yet, few studies have explicitly started from a health system perspective to grasp the availability and integration of infertility services in sub-Saharan Africa. This quantitative study, the first in The Gambia, West Africa, examines the availability of infertility services in public and private facilities as part of a wider endeavour to improve fertility care policy and practice in the country. Methods A cross-sectional survey using Qualtrics was administered to 38 health facilities. The survey was carried out between March and August 2021 and involved closed-ended questions. Data analysis consisted of descriptive statistics and t-tests performed using SPSS version 26. Results A total of 25 facilities (66%) offered infertility services, of which 13 (52%) were public and 12 (47%) private. Although the availability of screening tests was similar between health institutions, most diagnostic and treatment services were available only in the private sector. Treatment services included: (i) ovarian stimulation (n = 16, 42%); (ii) reversal of tubal ligation and/or blockage (tuboplasty) (n = 4, 11%); and (iii) intrauterine insemination (n = 3, 8%). Assisted reproductive technologies such as IVF and ICSI were not available in public or private sectors. The Gambian health management information system lacked a dedicated space to capture data on infertility. Reported barriers to integration of infertility services in existing reproductive health services included a lack of specialised training, an absence of national guidance on infertility management, and a shortage of appropriate equipment, supplies, and medication. Conclusions The availability of infertility services in The Gambia follows a trajectory that is similar to other SSA countries in which services are mostly obtainable through the private sector. Yet, access to private care is expensive and geographically restricted, which exacerbates inequalities in accessing fertility care for all. Improving the provision of infertility services in the public sector requires systematically capturing data on infertility and investing in the provision of a full-range fertility care package

Porphyry indicator minerals and their mineral chemistry as vectoring and fertility tools

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Specification and design for Full Energy Beam Exploitation of the Compact Linear Accelerator for Research and Applications

The Compact Linear Accelerator for Research and Applications (CLARA) is a 250 MeV ultrabright electron beam test facility at STFC Daresbury Laboratory. A user beam line has been designed to maximise exploitation of CLARA in a variety of fields, including novel acceleration and new modalities of radiotherapy. In this paper we present the specification and design of this beam line for Full Energy Beam Exploitation (FEBE). We outline the key elements which provide users to access ultrashort, low emittance electron bunches in two large experiment chambers. The results of start-to-end simulations are reported which verify the expected beam parameters delivered to these chambers. Key technical systems are detailed, including those which facilitate combination of electron bunches with high power laser pulses.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figure

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV

Historical Analysis: Tracking, Problematizing, and Reterritorializing Achievement and the Achievement Gap

For more than a century, state and federal governments and organizations have used different measures to determine if students and groups of students have achieved in a particular subject or grade level. While the construct of achievement is applied irrespective of student differences, this equal application turns out to be anything but equitable. In this chapter, we work to understand the way achievement plays out for Black students by deconstructing how the word achievement works. In doing so, we track the history of education, testing, and curriculum as it has been applied to Black youth and youth of color

Search for heavy neutral Higgs bosons decaying into a top quark pair in 140 fb − 1 of proton-proton collision data at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for heavy pseudo-scalar (A) and scalar (H) Higgs bosons decaying into a top-quark pair (tt¯) has been performed with 140 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of s = 13 TeV. Interference effects between the signal process and Standard Model (SM) tt¯ production are taken into account. Final states with exactly one or exactly two electrons or muons are considered. No significant deviation from the SM prediction is observed. The results of the search are interpreted in the context of a two-Higgs-doublet model (2HDM) of type II in the alignment limit with mass-degenerate pseudo-scalar and scalar Higgs bosons (mA = mH) and the hMSSM parameterisation of the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model. Ratios of the two vacuum expectation values, tan β, smaller than 3.49 (3.16) are excluded at 95% confidence level for mA = mH = 400 GeV in the 2HDM (hMSSM). Masses up to 1240 GeV are excluded for the lowest tested tan β value of 0.4 in the 2HDM. In the hMSSM, masses up to 950 GeV are excluded for tan β = 1.0. In addition, generic exclusion limits are derived separately for single scalar and pseudo-scalar states for different choices of their mass and total width