Lameness in UK dairy cows: a review of the current status

Lameness in dairy cattle has been reported as a concern for welfare and economic reasons for over 20 years. This concern has been expressed from across the industry and has prompted the launch of a number of initiatives to address the problem. This article reviews the current status of lameness in dairy cows in the UK, outlines the current understanding of the condition and its impacts on welfare and productivity, and highlights areas where evidence is still lacking

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

Background: Many patients with COVID-19 have been treated with plasma containing anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of convalescent plasma therapy in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Methods: This randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]) is assessing several possible treatments in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 177 NHS hospitals from across the UK. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either usual care alone (usual care group) or usual care plus high-titre convalescent plasma (convalescent plasma group). The primary outcome was 28-day mortality, analysed on an intention-to-treat basis. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936. Findings: Between May 28, 2020, and Jan 15, 2021, 11558 (71%) of 16287 patients enrolled in RECOVERY were eligible to receive convalescent plasma and were assigned to either the convalescent plasma group or the usual care group. There was no significant difference in 28-day mortality between the two groups: 1399 (24%) of 5795 patients in the convalescent plasma group and 1408 (24%) of 5763 patients in the usual care group died within 28 days (rate ratio 1·00, 95% CI 0·93–1·07; p=0·95). The 28-day mortality rate ratio was similar in all prespecified subgroups of patients, including in those patients without detectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at randomisation. Allocation to convalescent plasma had no significant effect on the proportion of patients discharged from hospital within 28 days (3832 [66%] patients in the convalescent plasma group vs 3822 [66%] patients in the usual care group; rate ratio 0·99, 95% CI 0·94–1·03; p=0·57). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at randomisation, there was no significant difference in the proportion of patients meeting the composite endpoint of progression to invasive mechanical ventilation or death (1568 [29%] of 5493 patients in the convalescent plasma group vs 1568 [29%] of 5448 patients in the usual care group; rate ratio 0·99, 95% CI 0·93–1·05; p=0·79). Interpretation: In patients hospitalised with COVID-19, high-titre convalescent plasma did not improve survival or other prespecified clinical outcomes. Funding: UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research

Tocilizumab in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Background: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of tocilizumab in adult patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 with both hypoxia and systemic inflammation. Methods: This randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing several possible treatments in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in the UK. Those trial participants with hypoxia (oxygen saturation <92% on air or requiring oxygen therapy) and evidence of systemic inflammation (C-reactive protein ≥75 mg/L) were eligible for random assignment in a 1:1 ratio to usual standard of care alone versus usual standard of care plus tocilizumab at a dose of 400 mg–800 mg (depending on weight) given intravenously. A second dose could be given 12–24 h later if the patient's condition had not improved. The primary outcome was 28-day mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treat population. The trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04381936). Findings: Between April 23, 2020, and Jan 24, 2021, 4116 adults of 21 550 patients enrolled into the RECOVERY trial were included in the assessment of tocilizumab, including 3385 (82%) patients receiving systemic corticosteroids. Overall, 621 (31%) of the 2022 patients allocated tocilizumab and 729 (35%) of the 2094 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 0·85; 95% CI 0·76–0·94; p=0·0028). Consistent results were seen in all prespecified subgroups of patients, including those receiving systemic corticosteroids. Patients allocated to tocilizumab were more likely to be discharged from hospital within 28 days (57% vs 50%; rate ratio 1·22; 1·12–1·33; p<0·0001). Among those not receiving invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, patients allocated tocilizumab were less likely to reach the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilation or death (35% vs 42%; risk ratio 0·84; 95% CI 0·77–0·92; p<0·0001). Interpretation: In hospitalised COVID-19 patients with hypoxia and systemic inflammation, tocilizumab improved survival and other clinical outcomes. These benefits were seen regardless of the amount of respiratory support and were additional to the benefits of systemic corticosteroids. Funding: UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research

Unary FA-presentable semigroups

Automatic presentations, also called FA-presentations, were introduced to extend nite model theory to innite structures whilst retaining the solubility of interesting decision problems. A particular focus of research has been the classication of those structures of some species that admit automatic presentations. Whilst some successes have been obtained, this appears to be a dicult problem in general. A restricted problem, also of signicant interest, is to ask this question for unary automatic presentations: auto-matic presentations over a one-letter alphabet. This paper studies unary FA-presentable semigroups. We prove the following: Every unary FA-presentable structure admits an injective unary automatic presentation where the language of representatives consists of every word over a one-letter alphabet. Unary FA-presentable semigroups are locally nite, but non-nitely generated unary FA-presentable semigroups may be innite. Every unary FA-presentable semigroup satises some Burnside identity.We describe the Green's relations in unary FA-presentable semigroups. We investigate the relationship between the class of unary FA-presentable semigroups and various semigroup constructions. A classication is given of the unary FA-presentable completely simple semigroups.PostprintPeer reviewe

Integrating science and research in a HCI design course

Undergraduate computer science students have few opportunities to experience scientific investigation and computer science research. A human-computer interaction (HCI) course can offer many opportunities for research that are accessible to undergraduate students, and because of the similarity between the design and research processes, a design project based HCI course is particularly suited to introducing undergraduate computer science students to the research process. In this paper, we describe and discuss the challenges of integrating research projects into a design HCI course. We also present example research projects and discuss the feedback form students attending the course. Copyright 2005 ACM

Basal Tear Osmolarity as a metric to estimate body hydration and dry eye severity

The osmolarities of various bodily fluids, including tears, saliva and urine, have been used as indices of plasma osmolality, a measure of body hydration, while tear osmolarity is used routinely in dry eye diagnosis, the degree of tear hyperosmolarity providing an index of disease severity. Systemic dehydration, due to inadequate water intake or excessive water loss is common in the elderly population, has a high morbidity and may cause loss of life. Its diagnosis is often overlooked and there is a need to develop a simple, bedside test to detect dehydration in this population. We hypothesize that, in the absence of tear evaporation and with continued secretion, mixing and drainage of tears, tear osmolarity falls to a basal level that is closer to that of the plasma than that of a tear sample taken in open eye conditions. We term this value the Basal Tear Osmolarity (BTO) and propose that it may be measured in tear samples immediately after a period of evaporative suppression. This value will be particular to an individual and since plasma osmolarity is controlled within narrow limits, it is predicted that it will be stable and have a small variance. It is proposed that the BTO, measured immediately after a defined period of eye closure, can provide a new metric in the diagnosis of systemic dehydration and a yardstick against which to gauge the severity of dry eye disease