Adverse effects of prenatal stress or environmental chemical exposures on fetal growth are well described, yet their combined effect remains unclear.
To conduct a systematic review on the combined ...impact and interaction of prenatal exposure to stress and chemicals on developmental outcomes.
We used the first three steps of the Navigation Guide systematic review. We wrote a protocol, performed a robust literature search to identify relevant animal and human studies and extracted data on developmental outcomes. For the most common outcome (fetal growth), we evaluated risk of bias, calculated effect sizes for main effects of individual and combined exposures, and performed a random effects meta-analysis of those studies reporting on odds of low birthweight (LBW) by smoking and socioeconomic status (SES).
We identified 17 human- and 22 animal-studies of combined chemical and stress exposures and fetal growth. Human studies tended to have a lower risk of bias across nine domains. Generally, we found stronger effects for chemicals than stress, and these exposures were associated with reduced fetal growth in the low-stress group and the association was often greater in high stress groups, with limited evidence of effect modification. We found smoking associated with significantly increased odds of LBW, with a greater effect for high stress (low SES; OR 4.75 (2.46-9.16)) compared to low stress (high SES; OR 1.95 (95% CI 1.53-2.48)). Animal studies generally had a high risk of bias with no significant combined effect or effect modification.
We found that despite concern for the combined effects of environmental chemicals and stress, this is still an under-studied topic, though limited available human studies indicate chemical exposures exert stronger effects than stress, and this effect is generally larger in the presence of stress.
A
bstract
It is well known that in
b
-hadron decays with a single unreconstructible final state particle, the decay kinematics can be solved up to a quadratic ambiguity, without any knowledge of the
...b
-hadron momentum. We present a method to infer the momenta of
b
-hadrons produced in hadron collider experiments using information from their reconstructed flight vectors. Our method is strictly agnostic to the decay itself, which implies that it can be validated with control samples of topologically similar decays to fully reconstructible final states. A multivariate regression algorithm based on the flight information provides a
b
-hadron momentum estimate with a resolution of around 60% which is sufficient to select the correct solution to the quadratic equation in around 70% of cases. This will improve the ability of hadron collider experiments to make differential decay rate measurements with semileptonic
b
-hadron decays.
Beauty and charm quarks are ideal probes of pertubative Quantum Chromodymanics in proton–proton collisions, owing to their large masses. In this paper the role of multi-parton interactions in the ...production of doubly-heavy hadrons is studied using simulation samples generated with
Pythia
, a Monte Carlo event generator. Comparisons are made to the stand-alone generators
BcVegPy
and
GenXicc
. New methods of speeding up
Pythia
simulations for events containing heavy quarks are described, enabling the production of large samples with multiple heavy-quark pairs. We show that significantly higher production rates of doubly-heavy hadrons are predicted in models that allow heavy quarks originating from different parton–parton interactions (within the same hadron–hadron collision) to combine to form such hadrons. Quantitative predictions are sensitive to the modelling of colour reconnections. We suggest a set of experimental measurements capable of differentiating these additional contributions.
There are reports of developmental and reproductive health effects associated with the widely used biocide triclosan.
Apply the Navigation Guide systematic review methodology to answer the question: ...Does exposure to triclosan have adverse effects on human development or reproduction?
We applied the first 3 steps of the Navigation Guide methodology: 1) Specify a study question, 2) Select the evidence, and 3) Rate quality and strength of the evidence. We developed a protocol, conducted a comprehensive search of the literature, and identified relevant studies using pre-specified criteria. We assessed the number and type of all relevant studies. We evaluated each included study for risk of bias and rated the quality and strength of the evidence for the selected outcomes. We conducted a meta-analysis on a subset of suitable data.
We found 4282 potentially relevant records, and 81 records met our inclusion criteria. Of the more than 100 endpoints identified by our search, we focused our evaluation on hormone concentration outcomes, which had the largest human and non-human mammalian data set. Three human studies and 8 studies conducted in rats reported thyroxine levels as outcomes. The rat data were amenable to meta-analysis. Because only one of the human thyroxine studies quantified exposure, we did not conduct a meta-analysis of the human data. Through meta-analysis of the data for rats, we estimated for prenatal exposure a 0.09% (95% CI: −0.20, 0.02) reduction in thyroxine concentration per mg triclosan/kg-bw in fetal and young rats compared to control. For postnatal exposure we estimated a 0.31% (95% CI: −0.38, −0.23) reduction in thyroxine per mg triclosan/kg-bw, also compared to control. Overall, we found low to moderate risk of bias across the human studies and moderate to high risk of bias across the non-human studies, and assigned a “moderate/low” quality rating to the body of evidence for human thyroid hormone alterations and a “moderate” quality rating to the body of evidence for non-human thyroid hormone alterations.
Based on this application of the Navigation Guide systematic review methodology, we concluded that there was “sufficient” non-human evidence and “inadequate” human evidence of an association between triclosan exposure and thyroxine concentrations, and consequently, triclosan is “possibly toxic” to reproductive and developmental health. Thyroid hormone disruption is an upstream indicator of developmental toxicity. Additional endpoints may be identified as being of equal or greater concern as other data are developed or evaluated.
•The Navigation Guide was applied to evaluate adverse effects of triclosan.•There was inadequate human evidence of an association between triclosan and T4.•Meta-analysis indicated a triclosan-induced dose-dependent decrease in T4 in rats.•Triclosan was rated “possibly toxic” to reproductive and developmental health.
The compatibility of
W
-boson mass measurements performed by the ATLAS, LHCb, CDF, and D0 experiments is studied using a coherent framework with theory uncertainty correlations. The measurements are ...combined using a number of recent sets of parton distribution functions (PDF), and are further combined with the average value of measurements from the Large Electron–Positron collider. The considered PDF sets generally have a low compatibility with a suite of global rapidity-sensitive Drell–Yan measurements. The most compatible set is CT18 due to its larger uncertainties. A combination of all
m
W
measurements yields a value of
m
W
=
80
,
394.6
±
11.5
MeV with the CT18 set, but has a probability of compatibility of 0.5% and is therefore disfavoured. Combinations are performed removing each measurement individually, and a 91% probability of compatibility is obtained when the CDF measurement is removed. The corresponding value of the
W
boson mass is
80
,
369.2
±
13.3
MeV, which differs by
3.6
σ
from the CDF value determined using the same PDF set.
Malignant glioma is an aggressive tumour commonly associated with a dismal outcome despite optimal surgical and radio-chemotherapy. Since 2005 temozolomide has been established as first-line ...chemotherapy. We investigate the role of in vivo glioma models in predicting clinical efficacy.
We searched three online databases to systematically identify publications testing temozolomide in animal models of glioma. Median survival and number of animals treated were extracted and quality was assessed using a 12-point scale; random effects meta-analysis was used to estimate efficacy. We analysed the impact of study design and quality and looked for evidence of publication bias.
We identified 60 publications using temozolomide in models of glioma, comprising 2443 animals. Temozolomide prolonged survival by a factor of 1.88 (95% CI 1.74-2.03) and reduced tumour volume by 50.4% (41.8-58.9) compared with untreated controls. Study design characteristics accounted for a significant proportion of between-study heterogeneity, and there was evidence of a significant publication bias.
These data reflect those from clinical trials in that temozolomide improves survival and reduces tumour volume, even after accounting for publication bias. Experimental in vivo glioma studies of temozolomide differ from those of other glioma therapies in their consistent efficacy and successful translation into clinical medicine.
Addressing critical global health issues, such as antimicrobial resistance, infectious disease outbreaks, and natural disasters, requires strong coordination and management across sectors. The One ...Health approach is the integrative effort of multiple sectors working to attain optimal health for people, animals, and the environment, and is increasingly recognized by experts as a means to address complex challenges. However, practical application of the One Health approach has been challenging. The One Health Systems Mapping and Analysis Resource Toolkit (OH-SMART) introduced in this paper was designed using a multistage prototyping process to support systematic improvement in multi-sectoral coordination and collaboration to better address complex health concerns through an operational, stepwise, and practical One Health approach. To date, OH-SMART has been used to strengthen One Health systems in 17 countries and has been deployed to revise emergency response frameworks, improve antimicrobial resistance national action plans and create multi agency infectious disease collaboration protocols. OH-SMART has proven to be user friendly, robust, and capable of fostering multi-sectoral collaboration and complex system-wide problem solving.
The prevalence, associations, and natural history of pain in multiple sclerosis (MS) are poorly understood. The objective of this work was to study the prevalence of pain syndromes in MS both ...cross-sectionally, and longitudinally during the MS disease course. We systematically identified prospective studies detailing pain prevalence in definite MS. We used pooled prevalence estimates, explored heterogeneity using meta-regression, and analysed prevalence during the disease course using both estimates at disease milestones and longitudinal studies. Twenty-eight articles (7101 subjects) describing overall pain, or pain syndromes, met inclusion criteria. Pooled overall pain prevalence (17 studies, 5319 subjects) was 63% (95% confidence interval CI 55-70%). Marked heterogeneity in this estimate was not significantly explained by selected study design variables (use of outpatient sample, timeframe prior to study over which pain was assessed) or sample demographic variables (mean Expanded Disability Status Scale, mean disease duration, proportion of female sex, and proportion with progressive MS). We quantified prevalence of headache (43%; 95% CI 33-52%), neuropathic extremity pain (26%; 95% CI 7-53%), back pain (20%; 95% CI 13-28%), painful spasms (15%; 95% CI 8.5-23%), Lhermitte sign (16%; 95% CI 10-25%), and trigeminal neuralgia (3.8%; 95% CI 2-6%) in included studies. Prevalence of pain at MS disease milestones (prior to onset, at onset, and at relapse) and during longitudinal follow-up was poorly described. Pain is common in MS, as are specific pain syndromes. The clinical associations and natural history of pain in MS require clarification. Future study could be enhanced by standardised study design.
Upgrades to the LHCb computing infrastructure in the first long shutdown of the LHC have allowed for high quality decay information to be calculated by the software trigger making a separate offline ...event reconstruction unnecessary. Furthermore, the storage space of the triggered candidate is an order of magnitude smaller than the entire raw event that would otherwise need to be persisted. Tesla is an application designed to process the information calculated by the trigger, with the resulting output used to directly perform physics measurements.
In future measurements of the dilepton (
Z
/
γ
∗
) transverse momentum,
Q
T
, at both the Tevatron and LHC, the achievable bin widths and the ultimate precision of the measurements will be limited by ...experimental resolution rather than by the available event statistics. In a recent paper the variable
a
T
, which corresponds to the component of
Q
T
that is transverse to the dilepton thrust axis, has been studied in this regard. In the region,
Q
T
< 30 GeV,
a
T
has been shown to be less susceptible to experimental resolution and efficiency effects than the
Q
T
. Extending over all
Q
T
, we now demonstrate that dividing
a
T
(or
Q
T
) by the measured dilepton invariant mass further improves the resolution. In addition, we propose a new variable,
, that is determined exclusively from the measured lepton directions; this is even more precisely determined experimentally than the above variables and is similarly sensitive to the
Q
T
. The greater precision achievable using such variables will enable more stringent tests of QCD and tighter constraints on Monte Carlo event generator tunes.
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