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BACKGROUND: Both post-COVID-19 condition (long COVID) and the presence of persisting symptoms that do not meet formal definitions of post-COVID-19-condition may adversely affect quality of life and function. However, their prevalence among children and young people in England is unclear. METHODS: We used data from repeated surveys in a large cohort of English schoolchildren from the COVID-19 Schools Infection Survey (SIS) for the school year 2021/22 to describe the weighted prevalence of post-COVID-19-condition and compare persisting symptoms between individuals with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test and those with neither a positive test history nor suspected infection. RESULTS: Among 7797 children from 173 schools, 1.8% of primary school pupils (aged 4 to 11 years), 4.5% of secondary school pupils in years 7-11 (aged 11 to 16 years) and 6.9% of those in years 12-13 (aged 16 to 18 years) met a definition of post-COVID-19 condition in March 2022. Specific persisting symptoms such as anxiety or difficulty concentrating were frequently reported regardless of prior infection status and increased with age: 48.0% of primary school pupils, 52.9% of secondary school pupils in years 7-11 and 79.5% in years 12-13 reporting at least one symptom lasting more than 12 weeks. Persisting loss of smell and taste, cardiovascular and some systemic symptoms were more frequently reported by those with a previous positive test. CONCLUSIONS: We showed that ongoing symptoms were frequently reported by English schoolchildren regardless of SARS-CoV-2 test results and some specific symptoms such as loss of smell and taste were more prevalent in those with a positive test history. Our study emphasises the wide-ranging impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and wellbeing of children and young people.

We compare different jet-clustering algorithms in establishing fully hadronic final states stemming from the chain decay of a heavy Higgs state into a pair of the 125 GeV Higgs boson that decays into bottom-antibottom quark pairs. Such 4b events typically give rise to boosted topologies, wherein $$b{\bar{b}}$$ b b ¯ pairs emerging from each 125 GeV Higgs boson tend to merge into a single, fat b-jet. Assuming large hadron collider (LHC) settings, we illustrate how both the efficiency of selecting the multi-jet final state and the ability to reconstruct from it the masses of all Higgs bosons depend on the choice of jet-clustering algorithm and its parameter settings. We indicate the optimal choice of clustering method for the purpose of establishing such a ubiquitous beyond the SM (BSM) signal, illustrated via a Type-II 2-Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM).

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from U.S. anthropogenic sources is decreasing. However, previous studies have predicted that PM2.5 emissions from wildfires will increase in the midcentury to next century, potentially offsetting improvements gained by continued reductions in anthropogenic emissions. Therefore, some regions could experience worse air quality, degraded visibility, and increases in population-level exposure. We use global climate model simulations to estimate the impacts of changing fire emissions on air quality, visibility, and premature deaths in the middle and late 21st century. We find that PM2.5 concentrations will decrease overall in the contiguous United States (CONUS) due to decreasing anthropogenic emissions (total PM2.5 decreases by 3% in Representative Concentration Pathway [RCP] 8.5 and 34% in RCP4.5 by 2100), but increasing fire-related PM2.5 (fire-related PM2.5 increases by 55% in RCP4.5 and 190% in RCP8.5 by 2100) offsets these benefits and causes increases in total PM2.5 in some regions. We predict that the average visibility will improve across the CONUS, but fire-related PM2.5 will reduce visibility on the worst days in western and southeastern U.S. regions. We estimate that the number of deaths attributable to total PM2.5 will decrease in both the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios (from 6% to 4-5%), but the absolute number of premature deaths attributable to fire-related PM2.5 will double compared to early 21st century. We provide the first estimates of future smoke health and visibility impacts using a prognostic land-fire model. Our results suggest the importance of using realistic fire emissions in future air quality projections. ©2018, Joint Fire Science Program (grant 13‐1‐01‐4), NASA Applied Sciences Program (grant NNX15AG35G), Climate Simulation Laboratory at NCAR's Computational and Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) Large University Computing Grant, NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates Site in Climate Science at CSU (cooperative agreement AGS‐1461270), Leverhulme Research Centre Award (RC‐2015‐029)

Background: Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and NK cells have an interrelated role in angiogenesis that is critical for placentation and success of in vitro fertilization. An attempt was made to assess a possible relationship between the two in this study. Methods: A case control study was performed comparing the serum levels of VEGF-A and its receptor VEGF-R1 with levels of NK cells, activated NK cells and NK cytotoxicity in 62 women with Repeated Implantation Failure (RIF). The healthy control group consisted of 72 women of similar age, without known issues in achieving pregnancy or evidence of autoimmunity. Levels of VEGF-A and VEGF-R1 were quantified by ELISA methods with standard curve interpolation. NK cell subsets were determined with flow cytometry using fluorescent-tagged anti-CD56, anti-CD16, anti-CD3 and anti-CD69. NK cytotoxicity was performed by incubating peripheral blood mononuclear cells and K562 cultured cells with propidium iodide, steroid, intralipid and intravenous immunoglobulin, using previously described methods. Statistical analysis involved Mann-Whitney-U and Spearman’s rank correlation testing with p-values defined as

Oxford Archaeology (OA) undertook a trial trench evaluation within the ground floor of 51a St. Giles', Oxford prior to the proposed redevelopment of the site. After removal of floor coverings in the 'Dining Room' the area was scanned with a cable avoidance tool (CAT). Floor boards and their supporting joists were then removed from a wider Lshaped area and a thin covering of dirt was cleared away from this area. The cleaning revealed structural archaeology in the southern part of the room but due to the presence of live services within this area the decision was made to amalgamate the two 1 x 1m Trial Pits into a single 2 x 1m Trench which was located running parallel to, and just inside the inside line of, the northern wall of the building. The position of the area exposed by the floor removal and cleaning as well as the trench location were surveyed in relation to the internal walls of the Dining Room. The trench was excavated using hand tools to an approximate level of 1m below the existing floorboards, and followed OAs general approach to excavation and recording. All structural remains were left in situ. Upon reaching a depth of 1.0m below current ground level (bgl), a hand auger was used to log the nature and depths of the underlying deposits. After monitoring and agreement from David Radford (OCC), the trench was backfilled with the arisings from the excavation. In February 2019, Oxford Archaeology were commissioned by Savills on behalf of St Johns College, Oxford to undertake a trial trench evaluation within a groundfloor room at 51a St Giles, Oxford. An area was cleared of floorboards and joists, and a thin layer of soil was removed, within which a smaller 2m by 1m trench was excavated. In situ deposits and structural remains dating to the Late Medieval / Early Post Medieval were encountered at an uppermost height of 63.25m OD, which was 0.22m below the existing internal floor levels. Hand auger holes reached truncated natural gravel at 62.22mOD, no indication of an overlying insitu loess was observed. A large northsouth orientated limestone wall foundation was revealed, abutted by a smaller limestone wall foundation running to the east. A dark greyishbrown homogenous humicrich deposit to the west of the wall (outside) probably represented mixed garden soils, whereas inside the structure less humic reddishbrown deposits indicated possible ground raising. No floor levels were associated with the structural remains. The internal and external deposits dated to the 16th century, with deposits overly the demolition of the structures dating to the 1718th century, contemporary with the suggested construction dates for the current extant buildings at the site. Residual abraded sherds of medieval pottery, present in most of the deposits, attested to earlier activity at the site. The height at which structural remains survived under the floor in the existing buildings (63.25 - 63.07mOD) is somewhat lower than the highest levels recorded in the garden by a previous evaluation, at 63.32 - 63.60mOD (TVAS, 2017). It is noticeable that the garden levels are higher than the level of the outside path (adjacent to the building) as well as the floors within the building, and suggests that the area of the path and extant building footprint were reduced and levelled, perhaps from those still present in the garden during construction. Therefore, there is potential for better archaeological preservation in the higher parts of the garden