How tall am I again? A longitudinal analysis of the reliability of self-reported height.

Self-reported height measures are increasingly being included in large-scale surveys in order to measure BMI. There have been concerns about the validity of self-reported measures but there remains little understanding of why respondents may not give accurate height reports. We examine whether a lack of knowledge could be a contributing factor, by investigating the reliability of self-reported height over time and across countries.

The longitudinal effect of COVID-19 infections and lockdown on mental health and the protective effect of neighbourhood social relations.

Rationale: The effect of COVID-19 lockdowns on mental health is a major concern worldwide. Measuring the impacts, however, is difficult because of a lack of data that tracks and compares outcomes and potential protective social factors before and during lockdowns.

Objective: We aim to quantify the impact of a second lockdown in 2020 in the Australian city of Melbourne on levels of depression, anxiety, and loneliness, and analyse whether social relations in the neighbourhood may buffer against the worst effects of lockdown.

Declining realisation of reproductive intentions with age.

Study Question: What is the likelihood of having a child within 4 years for men and women with strong short-term reproductive intentions, and how is it affected by age?

Summary Answer: For women, the likelihood of realising reproductive intentions decreased steeply from age 35: the effect of age was weak and not significant for men.

What Is Known Already: Men and women are postponing childbearing until later ages. For women, this trend is associated with a higher risk that childbearing plans will not be realised due to increased levels of infertility and pregnancy complications.

Mind the "Happiness" Gap: The Relationship Between Cohabitation, Marriage, and Subjective Well-being in the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, and Norway.

Many studies have found that married people have higher subjective well-being than those who are not married. Yet the increase in cohabitation raises questions as to whether only marriage has beneficial effects. In this study, we examine differences in subjective well-being between cohabiting and married men and women in midlife, comparing the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, and Norway.

Do Marriage and Cohabitation Provide Benefits to Health in Mid-Life? The Role of Childhood Selection Mechanisms and Partnership Characteristics Across Countries.

Extensive research has found that marriage provides health benefits to individuals, particularly in the U.S. The rise of cohabitation, however, raises questions about whether simply being in an intimate co-residential partnership conveys the same health benefits as marriage.

High and growing disapproval of sex-selection technology in Australia.

Background: In Australia, the National Health and Medical Research Council has banned the use of assisted reproductive technology for social sex selection, but notes "there is limited research into the question of whether Australians support the use of sex selection for non-medical purposes". This paper investigates Australian attitudes to sex-selection technology by different means (IVF, abortion, and a hypothetical pill), for different reasons (medical, family balancing, any reason), and by differing respondent characteristics (age, sex, education and religiosity).

Methods: In 2007 and 2016, the Australian Survey of Social Attitudes (AuSSA) collected data on the attitudes of Australian adults to sex selection through IVF, abortion, and a hypothetical pill.

Cardiovascular Responsiveness to Vasopressin and α1-Adrenergic Receptor Agonists After Burn Injury.

The effects of burn injury on cardiovascular responsiveness to vasoactive agents are not well understood. The aims of this study were to determine whether burn injury alters cardiovascular reactivity to vasoactive drugs in vivo and intrinsic function of isolated mesenteric resistance arteries. Anesthetized Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to sham procedure or 30% TBSA dorsal scald burn, followed by crystalloid resuscitation (Parkland Formula).

Characterizing the role of a high-volume cancer resection ecosystem on low-volume, high-quality surgical care.

Background: Our objective was to determine the hospital resources required for low-volume, high-quality care at high-volume cancer resection centers.

Methods: Patients who underwent esophageal, pancreatic, and rectal resection for malignancy were identified using Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Database (Florida and California) between 2007 and 2011. Annual case volume by procedure was used to identify high- and low-volume centers.

New Insights into Mechanisms and Functions of Chemokine (C-X-C Motif) Receptor 4 Heteromerization in Vascular Smooth Muscle.

Recent evidence suggests that C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) heteromerizes with α1A/B-adrenoceptors (AR) and atypical chemokine receptor 3 (ACKR3) and that CXCR4:α1A/B-AR heteromers are important for α₁-AR function in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC). Structural determinants for CXCR4 heteromerization and functional consequences of CXCR4:α1A/B-AR heteromerization in intact arteries, however, remain unknown. Utilizing proximity ligation assays (PLA) to visualize receptor interactions in VSMC, we show that peptide analogs of transmembrane-domain (TM) 2 and TM4 of CXCR4 selectively reduce PLA signals for CXCR4:α1A-AR and CXCR4:ACKR3 interactions, respectively.

Assessment of Time to Clinical Response in Patients with Sepsis Treated Before and After Implementation of a Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Time-of-Flight Blood Culture Identification Algorithm.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate time to clinical response before and after implementation of rapid blood culture identification technologies. DESIGN Before-and-after trial. SETTING Large, tertiary, urban, academic health-sciences center.

Can selection on a male mating character result in evolutionary change? A selection experiment on California wild radish, Raphanus sativus.

Premise Of The Study: Whenever more pollen grains arrive on stigmas than necessary to fertilize ovules, sexual selection is possible. However, the role of sexual selection remains controversial, in part because of lack of evidence on genetic bases of traits and the response of relevant characters to selection.

Methods: In an experiment with Raphanus sativus, we selected on tendency to sire seeds in the stylar or basal regions of fruits.

Ubiquitin Urine Levels in Burn Patients.

The objective of this study was to determine whether urine ubiquitin levels are elevated after burns and to assess whether urine ubiquitin could be useful as a noninvasive biomarker for burn patients. Forty burn patients (%TBSA: 20 ± 22; modified Baux scores: 73 ± 26) were included (control: 11 volunteers). Urine was collected in 2-hour intervals for 72 hours, followed by 12-hour intervals until discharge from the intensive care unit.

Childbearing desires of childless men and women: when are goals adjusted?

This paper examines the concept of desired future fertility. Childbearing desires are often conceptualized in the literature as representing an individual's ideal future fertility where there are no constraints or obstacles to achieve the desired outcome. As such, childbearing desires, unlike fertility intentions, are thought to be relatively unaffected by changing life circumstances.

Childbearing across partnerships in Australia, the United States, Norway, and Sweden.

This article compares mothers' experience of having children with more than one partner in two liberal welfare regimes (the United States and Australia) and two social democratic regimes (Sweden and Norway). We use survey-based union and birth histories in Australia and the United States and data from national population registers in Norway and Sweden to estimate the likelihood of experiencing childbearing across partnerships at any point in the childbearing career. We find that births with new partners constitute a substantial proportion of all births in each country we study.

Clinical epidemiology of carbapenem-intermediate or -resistant Enterobacteriaceae.

Objectives: Despite the increasing incidence of carbapenem-intermediate or -resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CIRE), risk factors associated with CIRE infections have not been well defined. This study characterizes factors associated with CIRE among two different source populations.

Methods: A case-control study was performed at a tertiary care medical centre between January 2005 and December 2009.

Australian attitudes toward sex-selection technology.

Previous research based on analysis of fertility behavior and expressed preferences shows that many Australian parents want both a son and a daughter. However, most respondents to a representative survey of Australians did not approve of IVF or abortion for sex-selection purposes, and most did not think a hypothetical blue or pink pill to select sex of a child should be legal.

Attitudes and practices of recording diabetic patient information within an Australian general practice setting: an exploratory study.

Background: An accurate diabetes register enables a general practice to effectively monitor and manage the services for their patients with diabetes. This pilot project builds on the National Primary Care Collaboratives Program (a quality improvement programme for general practice) as the first change principle for managing chronic diseases.

Objectives: The main aim of the project was to improve the systems management of electronic registers of people with diabetes in the general practice setting.

Mammalian Rrn3 is required for the formation of a transcription competent preinitiation complex containing RNA polymerase I.

Mammalian Rrn3, an essential, polymerase-associated protein, is inactivated when cells are treated with cycloheximide, resulting in the inhibition of transcription by RNA polymerase I. Although Rrn3 is essential for transcription, its function in rDNA transcription has not been determined. For example, it is unclear whether Rrn3 is required for initiation or elongation by RNA polymerase I.

Reliability of peer and self-assessment scores compared with trainers' scores following third molar surgery.

Context: It is sometimes claimed that self-assessment is inaccurate and that clinicians over-rate their performance. There is a need to find out why this should be. Is poor self-assessment caused by some clinicians' inability to accurately judge performance? Or does over-scoring result from a desire to convey a more favourable impression? Peer assessment is widely advocated and is said to be of benefit to both assessor and assessee.

Food entrainment of circadian gene expression altered in PPARalpha-/- brown fat and heart.

The circadian clock is subject to food entrainment. Since PPARalpha exhibits a circadian expression profile, we hypothesized that PPARalpha deficiency would alter the food entrainable response of adipose, cardiac, and liver tissues. Wild-type and PPARalpha null mice were compared under ad libitum or restricted food access for the expression of circadian transcription factor-encoding mRNAs.