Soy consumption and risk of COPD and respiratory symptoms: a case-control study in Japan

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To investigate the relationship between soy consumption, COPD risk and the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, a case-control study was conducted in Japan.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 278 eligible patients (244 men and 34 women), aged 50–75 years with COPD diagnosed within the past four years, were referred by respiratory physicians, while 340 controls (272 men and 68 women) were recruited from the community. All participants underwent spirometric measurements of respiratory function. Information on demographics, lifestyle characteristics and habitual food consumption was obtained using a structured questionnaire.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Total soy consumption was positively correlated with observed lung function measures. The mean soy intake was significantly higher among controls (59.98, SD 50.23 g/day) than cases (44.84, SD 28.5 g/day). A significant reduction in COPD risk was evident for highest versus lowest quartile of daily intake of total soybean products, with adjusted odds ratio (OR) 0.392, 95% CI 0.194–0.793, <it>p </it>for trend 0.001. Similar decreases in COPD risk were associated with frequent and higher intake of soy foods such as tofu and bean sprouts, whereas respiratory symptoms were inversely associated with high consumption of soy foods, especially for breathlessness (OR 0.989, 95% CI 0.982–0.996).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Increasing soy consumption was associated with a decreased risk of COPD and breathlessness.</p

Breathlessness is associated with urinary incontinence in men: A community-based study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Urinary incontinence (UI) is a distressing problem for older people. To investigate the relationship between UI and respiratory symptoms among middle-aged and older men, a community-based study was conducted in Japan.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A convenience sample of 668 community-dwelling men aged 40 years or above was recruited from middle and southern Japan. The International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Short Form, the Medical Research Council's dyspnoea scale and the Australian Lung Foundation's Feeling Short of Breath scale, were administered by face-to-face interviews to ascertain their UI status and respiratory symptoms.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The overall prevalence of UI was 7.6%, with urge-type leakage (59%) being most common among the 51 incontinent men. The presence of respiratory symptoms was significantly higher among incontinent men than those without the condition, especially for breathlessness (45% versus 30%, <it>p </it>= 0.025). The odds of UI for breathlessness was 2.11 (95% confidence interval 1.10-4.06) after accounting for age, body mass index, smoking and alcohol drinking status of each individual.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The findings suggested a significant association between UI and breathlessness in middle-aged and older men.</p

Nietzsches gelijk: Waarom wijsheid achteraf onbillijk is

A search is performed for a massive new vector-like quark T, with charge 2/3, that is pair produced together with its antiparticle in proton-proton collisions. The data were collected by the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2012 at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.5 inverse femtobarns. The T quark is assumed to decay into three different final states, bW, tZ, and tH. The search is carried out using events with at least one isolated lepton. No deviations from standard model expectations are observed, and lower limits are set on the T quark mass at 95% confidence level. The lower limit lies between 687 and 782 GeV for all possible values of the branching fractions into the three different final states assuming strong production. These limits are the most stringent constraints to date on the existence of such a quark

Observation of the diphoton decay of the Higgs boson and measurement of its properties

Peer reviewe

Measurement of the Zγ production cross section in pp collisions at 8 TeV and search for anomalous triple gauge boson couplings

Open Access, Copyright CERN, for the benefit of the CMS Collaboration. Article funded by SCOAP3.Abstract: The cross section for the production of Zγ in proton-proton collisions at 8 TeV is measured based on data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.5 fb−1. Events with an oppositely-charged pair of muons or electrons together with an isolated photon are selected. The differential cross section as a function of the photon transverse momentum is measured inclusively and exclusively, where the exclusive selection applies a veto on central jets. The observed cross sections are compatible with the expectations of next-to-next-to-leading-order quantum chromodynamics. Limits on anomalous triple gauge couplings of ZZγ and Zγγ are set that improve on previous experimental results obtained with the charged lepton decay modes of the Z boson

Search for lepton-flavour-violating decays of the Higgs boson

Peer reviewe

Search for neutral resonances decaying into a Z boson and a pair of b jets or tau leptons

Peer reviewe

Evaluation of appendicitis risk prediction models in adults with suspected appendicitis

Background Appendicitis is the most common general surgical emergency worldwide, but its diagnosis remains challenging. The aim of this study was to determine whether existing risk prediction models can reliably identify patients presenting to hospital in the UK with acute right iliac fossa (RIF) pain who are at low risk of appendicitis. Methods A systematic search was completed to identify all existing appendicitis risk prediction models. Models were validated using UK data from an international prospective cohort study that captured consecutive patients aged 16–45 years presenting to hospital with acute RIF in March to June 2017. The main outcome was best achievable model specificity (proportion of patients who did not have appendicitis correctly classified as low risk) whilst maintaining a failure rate below 5 per cent (proportion of patients identified as low risk who actually had appendicitis). Results Some 5345 patients across 154 UK hospitals were identified, of which two‐thirds (3613 of 5345, 67·6 per cent) were women. Women were more than twice as likely to undergo surgery with removal of a histologically normal appendix (272 of 964, 28·2 per cent) than men (120 of 993, 12·1 per cent) (relative risk 2·33, 95 per cent c.i. 1·92 to 2·84; P < 0·001). Of 15 validated risk prediction models, the Adult Appendicitis Score performed best (cut‐off score 8 or less, specificity 63·1 per cent, failure rate 3·7 per cent). The Appendicitis Inflammatory Response Score performed best for men (cut‐off score 2 or less, specificity 24·7 per cent, failure rate 2·4 per cent). Conclusion Women in the UK had a disproportionate risk of admission without surgical intervention and had high rates of normal appendicectomy. Risk prediction models to support shared decision‐making by identifying adults in the UK at low risk of appendicitis were identified

All-sky search for short gravitational-wave bursts in the third Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo run

This paper presents the results of a search for generic short-duration gravitational-wave transients in data from the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. Transients with durations of milliseconds to a few seconds in the 24–4096 Hz frequency band are targeted by the search, with no assumptions made regarding the incoming signal direction, polarization, or morphology. Gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences that have been identified by other targeted analyses are detected, but no statistically significant evidence for other gravitational wave bursts is found. Sensitivities to a variety of signals are presented. These include updated upper limits on the source rate density as a function of the characteristic frequency of the signal, which are roughly an order of magnitude better than previous upper limits. This search is sensitive to sources radiating as little as ∼10^−10 M⊙ c^2 in gravitational waves at ∼70 Hz from a distance of 10 kpc, with 50% detection efficiency at a false alarm rate of one per century. The sensitivity of this search to two plausible astrophysical sources is estimated: neutron star f modes, which may be excited by pulsar glitches, as well as selected core-collapse supernova models