Both ulcerative (syphilis) and inflammatory (chlamydia, gonorrhea

Both ulcerative (syphilis) and inflammatory (chlamydia, gonorrhea, trichomoniasis) curable STIs may also be associated with an increased risk of HIV acquisition, by up to two- to three-fold [49] and [50]. These infections

http://www.selleckchem.com/products/gdc-0068.html are linked to increased infectiousness among HIV-infected persons; urethritis and cervicitis substantially increase genital HIV shedding [51] and [52]. HPV might also increase the risk of HIV acquisition [53]. In addition to their physical consequences, STIs can have a profound psychosocial impact that is often difficult to quantify. Studies have shown that an STI diagnosis can lead to feelings of stigma, shame, and diminished self-worth, as well as anxiety about sexual relationships and future reproductive health [54], [55] and [56]. STIs also have an effect on sexual relationships, and can lead to disruption of partnerships and intimate partner violence [55] and [57]. In the recent

Global Burden of Disease Study, curable STIs accounted for almost 11 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost in 2010: syphilis, 9.6 million DALYs; chlamydia, 714,000 DALYs; this website gonorrhea, 282,000 DALYS; and trichomoniasis, 167,000 DALYs [58]. HPV-related cervical cancer accounted for another 6.4 million DALYs lost. The 2010 disease burden study did not calculate DALY estimates for HSV-2, which could be substantial given the role of HSV-2 in HIV transmission. Further, study authors have not yet published the specific no methods used to calculate DALYs for STIs; global burden estimates have been limited by a paucity of precise data on STI-related complications, especially from low-income

settings [59]. STIs also pose a substantial economic burden. In the United States, approximately $3 billion in direct medical costs were spent in 2008 to diagnose and treat 19.7 million cases of STIs and their complications, excluding HIV and pregnancy-related outcomes like stillbirth [60]. The costs associated with adverse STI outcomes are less well documented in resource-poor settings. The public health approach to STI control revolves around two main strategies: behavioral and biomedical primary prevention, to prevent STI acquisition among uninfected people, and STI case management, to diagnose and manage infected people to prevent STI complications (secondary prevention) and ongoing transmission (Fig. 2) [61]. Behavioral primary prevention includes comprehensive sex education, risk-reduction counseling, and condom promotion and provision. The main biomedical STI primary prevention interventions are HPV and HBV vaccines. STI case management involves STI diagnosis, provision of effective treatment, notification and treatment of sex partners, and safer sex counseling and condom provision [61]. STI case management can apply to both symptomatic and asymptomatic people. However, in most settings, STI case management is limited to symptomatic people seeking STI care.

Although the vaccine was designed to target HPV-16/18, end-of-stu

Although the vaccine was designed to target HPV-16/18, end-of-study data from the 4-year PATRICIA trial demonstrated efficacy against non-vaccine HPV types [10], and an overall VE against CIN3+ lesions of 93% irrespective of HPV type in the lesion in the HPV-naïve1 TVC cohort [9]. We have applied these data to the currently observed disease burden in all WHO reported countries to estimate the additional health benefits of vaccination that accrue from protection against HPV types other than HPV-16/18.

When protection irrespective of HPV types was considered, the number of CC cases and deaths potentially prevented by vaccination was at least 18% larger than when only HPV-16/18 were considered. The increased potential benefit was seen across all five WHO continents, and was particularly pronounced in Africa, where non-HPV-16/18 cases account

selleck chemicals for 17,125 cases prevented at 70% vaccination coverage representing an additional 34% cases potentially prevented, compared with 272 cases additionally prevented in Oceania, representing an additional 18% cases potentially prevented. HPV vaccination also has the potential to reduce the morbidity associated with precancerous lesions. Management of precancerous lesions detected by screening may require surgical procedures, such as conisation. In countries with absent or poorly developed cervical RGFP966 ic50 screening programmes, few precancerous lesions will be detected and the health impact will mainly be observed when undetected lesions progress to symptomatic cancer. Conversely, in countries with well-developed and effective screening programmes, many precancerous lesions are detected at an early stage and are usually treated before they progress to cancer, so the health ALOX15 burden will tend to shift away

from CC treatment towards precancerous lesion treatment. In some industrialised countries, the economic burden of precancerous lesions may exceed or approach the economic burden of CC. For example, a study of patients in a health maintenance plan in the USA found that treatment of CC accounted for 10% of healthcare expenditure on HPV-related cervical disease and treatment of precancerous lesions accounted for 17% [22]. In Belgium, the total annual cost of CC treatment to the healthcare payer was estimated at Euro 6.5 million and the annual cost of precancerous lesions at Euro 1.97 million in a retrospective study [23]. Other morbidities associated with treatment of precancerous lesions of the cervix avoidable by vaccination such as increased risk of perinatal death and pre-term births should also be considered [24] and [25]. To our knowledge, this is the first estimate of the potential impact of HPV vaccination on CC cases and deaths to apply the recent data on VE irrespective of HPV type causing the lesion reported from the end-of-study data in the PATRICIA trial [9] and [10].

The mice were housed in autoclaved micro isolator cages (Alesco,

The mice were housed in autoclaved micro isolator cages (Alesco, Brazil) and manipulated under aseptic conditions. All procedures were performed in accordance with the Brazilian Committee for Animal Care and Use (COBEA) guidelines. The presence of the HLA-class II transgene in all mice studied was verified by molecular biology techniques

using skin biopsies. All mice that did not have the HLA class II transgene were discarded and were not used in this study. We also evaluated the presence of the HLA class II molecules on the surface of antigen presenting cells from the peripheral blood to control for the expression of the specific transgene (data not shown). HLA-class II transgenic mice received two subcutaneous doses (100 μL) on days 0 and 14 of a suspension containing 50 μg of StreptInCor absorbed find more onto 300 μg of Al(OH)3 (aluminum hydroxide). Animals receiving saline plus adjuvant were used as

experimental controls for immunization. Sera samples were obtained Gemcitabine supplier from mice on day 28 following immunization while under light anesthesia by retro-orbital puncture. Sera antibody titers were determined by ELISA. Briefly, 1 μg of StreptInCor vaccine epitope and overlapping peptides, porcine cardiac myosin (Sigma, USA), or M1 recombinant protein (clone kindly provided by Prof Patrick Cleary, University of Minnesota Medical School, MN, USA) produced and purified in our lab, were diluted in coating buffer (0.05 M carbonate–bicarbonate,

pH 9.6, 50 μL/w) and was added to a 96-well MaxiSorp assay plate (Nunc, Denmark). After overnight incubation, the unless plates were blocked with 0.25% gelatin (Sigma) diluted in 0.05% Tween-20 (Sigma, USA) in PBS (dilution buffer) for 1 h at room temperature. Starting at 1/100 in dilution buffer, serial 2-fold dilutions were added to the plates (50 μL/w). After a 2 h incubation at 37 °C and three washes (200 μL/w) with 0.05% Tween 20 in PBS (rinse buffer), the plates were incubated for another hour at 37 °C with peroxidase-conjugated anti-mouse IgG (Pharmingen, USA) at 1:2000 in dilution buffer (50 μL/w). The plates were then washed three times (200 μL/w) with rinse buffer, and the reaction was revealed with 50 μL/w of 0.4 mg/mL ortophenylenediamine (OPD, Sigma, USA) in 100 mM sodium citrate (Merck, Germany) containing 0.03% H2O2 (Merck). After 10 min at room temperature, the reactions were stopped using 4 N H2SO4, and the optical density was evaluated using a 490 nm ELISA filter in an MR4000 ELISA plate reader (Dynatech, USA). To study IgG isotypes, the biotinylated conjugates anti-mouse IgG1, IgG2a, IgG2b and IgG3 (Pharmingen, USA) were used at 2 μg/mL (50 μL/w) and incubated for 1 h at 37 °C.

2) As shown in Fig 2, the absorbance intensity attained for eac

2). As shown in Fig. 2, the absorbance intensity attained for each method was very similar, irrespective of the specific PHS method employed. This observation suggests that the extent of reaction GSK2118436 purchase in each microwell was comparable. The Masuko method was expected to yield higher absorbance values due to a rearrangement of the reagent addition sequence but these signal increases were not realized

[26]. Therefore it appears that previously observed sulphonated phenol-mediated attenuation was either consistent or insignificant. The precision of the reported PHS procedures differed significantly. Across the 17–500 μg/mL, the mean relative standard deviation (RSD) for the Saha, optimized PHS, and Masuko assay were 6%, 10%, and 22%, respectively. While the Saha method exhibited the best precision, it required the most material (i.e. 0.5 mL). The decreased reproducibility of the Masuko method may be due to increased sensitivity

to unintended variability in the time lapsed from sulphuric acid addition (i.e. the heat generation step) to the addition of phenol. In this work, the order of addition was found to be important with better precision observed when the heat generation step was the final step, presumably leading to a more uniform reaction temperature. A consistent reaction was SB203580 concentration generated by careful consideration of the factors affecting the temperature of reaction. In contrast to the method described here, which uses a polystyrene microtitre plate, a reduced signal was observed when the glass microplate was used (). This attenuated signal is likely due to the higher thermal

conductivity and specific why heat of borosilicate glass as well as the greater volume of material contained in the glass microplate relative to the polystyrene microplate. These factors presumably prevent the solution from attaining the high temperature required for robust reaction. The testing with glucose established that the modified PHS assay had satisfactory accuracy and precision. This method was comparable to the method of Saha et al. and was characterized by superior precision to the method of Masuko et al. [25] and [26]. The reproducibility was particularly strong for higher polysaccharide concentrations, which is within the dynamic range most samples derived from typical purification HTPD will likely reside. The greater simplicity, speed, and ease of automation afforded by the elimination of the discrete heating steps warranted further development of the modified PHS method. A diverse library of mono-, di-, and poly-saccharides were assayed with the modified PHS assay. The carbohydrates tested included glucose, α-lactose monohydrate, l-arabinose, maltose, hyaluronic acid, chondroitin sulfate, sodium alginate, gellan gum, dextran, ι-carrageenan, glycogen, DNA, endotoxin, and N-acetyl neuraminic acid.

e , neuralgia (neuronal pain) and neuron degeneration Gabapentin

e., neuralgia (neuronal pain) and neuron degeneration. Gabapentin is proved to be very effective and well tolerated in the treatment of neuropathic pain. Alpha lipoic acid is an universal antioxidant which prevents oxidative damage of neurons. Methylcobalamin increases myelin sheath formation thereby regenerates neuron. Literature survey reveals many reported methods for the analysis of GBP by ultra-violet (UV),6 and 7 high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)8, 9, 10 and 11 and high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC).12 Various methods have been reported for determination of MCB by UV,13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 HPLC5, 17 and 18

and HPTLC.12 Estimation of ALP by UV,19 and 20 HPLC3, 21 and 22 and GC,21 either individually or in combination with other drugs are reported. To the best of our knowledge, there is no analytical method Palbociclib purchase reported for simultaneous determination of ternary mixture containing GBP, MCB and ALP. Therefore, an attempt has been made to develop a simple, accurate, rapid and reproducible ratio spectra derivative spectroscopic method for simultaneous determination

of GBP, MCB and ALP in tablet dosage form and validate it, in accordance with ICH guidelines.23 Pharmaceutical Cyclopamine grade of GBP (Zydus Research Center, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India), ALP (Centurion Laboratories, Vadodara, Gujarat, India) and MCB (Centurion Laboratories, Vadodara, Gujarat, India) were kindly supplied as gift samples, certified to contain >99% (w/w) on dried basis. Commercially available trigabantin 100 (Sun Pharma, Sikkim) tablets claimed to contain 100 mg Gabapentin, 0.5 mg Methylcobalamin and 100 mg Alpha lipoic acid have been utilized in

the present work. Methanol of Analytical grade was purchased from Merck Chemicals, India and Rankem Chemicals, India. Sartolon Polyamide, 0.20 μm pore size membrane filter, Sartorius AG. 37070 Goettingen, Germany, and 0.45 μm pore size, 47 mm Ø, Sartolon Polyamide, Sartorious AG, Germany. Solutions however containing appropriate concentration of GBP, MCB, ALP and mixture of GBP + MCB + ALP in methanol (glassware’s protected with aluminium foil & keep all glassware below 25 °C) were scanned using UV–visible spectrophotometer in “Spectrum mode” in the range of 800−200 nm and their spectra were stored in computer. Using UV Probe software spectrum of mixture was divided by spectrum of GBP (100 μg/ml) and MCB (0.5 μg/ml); GBP (100 μg/ml) and ALP (100 μg/ml); MCB (0.5 μg/ml) and ALP (100 μg/ml) to get ratio spectrum of ALP, MCB and GBP respectively. Ratio spectra of the drugs were smoothed (Δλ = 10) and converted to first order derivative spectra (Δλ = 10) using UV Probe software. First order ratio derivative spectra of the drugs were overlaid. From the overlain ratio derivative spectra of GBP, MCB and ALP, 731.10 nm, 768.53 nm and 242.21 nm were selected as suitable analytical wavelengths for analysis of GBP, MCB and ALP respectively ( Fig. 1).

Second, key differences in the two clinic populations’ age, educa

Second, key differences in the two clinic populations’ age, education, and the services sought by clients likely contributed to some selection bias in each community. Third, socioeconomic status was not easily established for both samples, as the two regional assessment instruments (surveys) did not directly ask

about participant income. Other sources of information were used to establish low socioeconomic status in WV and LA County. In WV, to receive services, all WIC clients must have incomes which fell at or below 185% of the U.S. Poverty www.selleckchem.com/products/Cyclopamine.html Income Guidelines. In LA County, participants provided zip codes to verify their region of residence and answered questions about employment status, education, and usage of need-based public services. The present

case studies of rural WV and urban LA County represent unique snapshots of subpopulations targeted by the national CPPW program administered by the CDC (Bunnell et al., 2012). Results of the studies confirmed the need to invest in these regions, which contained high prevalence of overweight and obesity. Coupled to other system-level or multi-sector interventions, the range of nutrition interventions in WV and LA County (e.g., WIC health education; workplace breastfeeding accommodations; healthy food procurement practices; and public education) offer potentially meaningful opportunities to facilitate better food selections among low-income women and their families. These data Panobinostat chemical structure provide invaluable insights on how these and other STK38 obesity prevention strategies can be tailored and refined to address the needs of this important segment of the population — a group that can have an enormous impact not only on what food they choose for themselves, but, more importantly, for their families. Collectively, these subpopulation health data served as an important

guide for further planning of obesity prevention efforts in both communities; in many cases, these efforts became a part of the subsequent Community Transformation Grants portfolio. The authors report no financial disclosures or conflicts of interest. The authors would like to thank the staff in the following agencies and organizations for their support and contributions to this article: CPPW-West Virginia (Principal Investigator Joe Barker); the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health and the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department; Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Lisa V. Smith, Jennifer Piron, and Mirna Ponce); RTI International (Allie Lieberman and Jonathan Blitstein); and the CPPW Manuscript Writing Workshop sponsored by ICF International (Kathleen Whitten, Tesfayi Gebreselassie). The project was supported in part by cooperative agreements from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (#3U58DP002429-01S1, West Virginia and #3U58DP002485-01S1, Los Angeles County).

This was serially diluted to two fold, to obtain concentration ra

This was serially diluted to two fold, to obtain concentration ranging from 5000 μg to 1.22 μg/ml. One hundred microlitres of each concentration was added to a well (96-well micro plate) containing 85 μl of nutrient broth, 10 μl resazurin (6.75 mg/ml) and 5 μl of standard inoculums, selleck products the appropriate inoculum size for standard MIC is 2 × 104 to 105 CFU/ml. The final concentration of DMSO in the well was less than 1%. Nystatin and chloramphenicol serially diluted by two fold, to obtain concentration

ranging from 50 μg to 3.13 μg/ml served as positive controls and wells without extract, with DMSO served as negative control. The plates were covered with a sterile plate sealer, agitated to mix the content of the wells using a plate shaker and incubated at 37 °C for 24 h. The experiment was carried out in triplicates and microbial growth was determined by observing the change in colour in the wells (blue to pink). The least concentration showing no colour change in the well was considered as the MIC. The total phenolics in essential oil were determined according to Folin–Ciocalteu procedure.34 Four hundred microlitres of sample (two

replicates) were taken in test tubes; 1.0 ml of Folin–Ciocalteu reagent (diluted 10-fold with distilled water) and 0.8 ml of 7.5% sodium carbonate selleck chemicals were added. The tubes were mixed and allowed to stand for 30 min and the absorption at 765 nm was measured against a blank, which contained 400 μl of ethanol

in place of sample. The total phenolic content was expressed as gallic acid equivalents in mg/g Suplatast tosilate of essential oil. The antioxidant activity of the essential oil was estimated using a slight modification of the DPPH radical scavenging protocol.35 For a typical reaction, 2 ml of 100 μM DPPH solution in ethanol was mixed with 2 ml of 100 μg/ml of essential oil. The effective test concentrations of DPPH and the essential oil were therefore 50 μM and 50 μg/ml, respectively. The reaction mixture was incubated in the dark for 15 min and thereafter the optical density was recorded at 517 nm against the blank. For the control, 2 ml of DPPH solution in ethanol was mixed with 2 ml of ethanol and the optical density of the solution was recorded after 15 min. The assay was carried out in triplicate. The decrease in optical density of DPPH on addition of test samples in relation to the control was used to calculate the antioxidant activity, as percentage inhibition (%IP) of DPPH radical. Radicalscavenging(%)=(Acontrol−Asample)×100Acontrol The chemical composition of the essential oil was analysed using the GC–MS. GC–MS analysis of active fraction of essential oil was carried out by using Perkin Elmer – Clarus 500 GC–MS unit. The column type used was PE-5 (equivalent to DB-5) with a column length of 30 mm × 0.25  mm, coating thickness 0.25 μm. The injector and detector temperatures were set at 230 °C.

05 were considered statistically significant Results were expres

05 were considered statistically significant. Results were expressed as mean levels and standard deviations (SD) or as median and interquartile range as appropriate. χ2 was used to assess group differences in categorical variables. Odd ratio (OR) and 95% confidence limits (95% CL), when possible, were calculated. For continuous variables, the t-test was used with Logarithmic transformation of non-normal distributed variables. In the study period, 136

Vorinostat mw cases of invasive meningococcal B disease were reported. The mean age was 5.0 years, median 2.7 years, interquartile range 10.2 months–6.4 years. Among these, 96/136 (70.6%) patients were between 0 and 5 years, 61/136 (45.2%) patients were between 0 and 2 years. Among cases under 2 years of age, 39/61 (63.9%) occurred during the first year of life. Distribution of cases according to age is shown in Fig. 1. Within the first year of age the highest incidence was observed between the 4th and the 8th month of age, where 20/39 (51.3%) cases occurred. Case distribution according PFI-2 price to months of age is shown in Fig. 2. Fifty-two blood samples

were tested both by culture and RT-PCR. MenB was found in 43/52 (82.7%); the 9 (17.3%) patients who were negative for both tests in blood were positive by RT-PCR in CSF. MenB was identified by RT-PCR alone in 32/43 (74.4%) patients and by both RT-PCR and culture in 11/43 (25.6%) patients (McNemar’s p < 10−3); no sample was identified by culture alone. Fifty-nine CSF samples were tested both by culture and RT-PCR. MenB was found in 57/59 (96.6%); the 2 (3.4%) patients who were negative for both tests in CSF were positive by RT-PCR

in blood. MenB was identified by RT-PCR alone in 35/57 (61.4%) patients; by culture alone in 1/57 (1.8%) and by both RT-PCR and culture in 21/57 (36.8%) patients (McNemar’s p < 10−3). Overall, 82 patients were tested at the same time by both molecular and cultural tests either in blood or in CSF or in both and a Neisseria meningitidis infection was found by RT-PCR in blood or CSF in 81/82 cases (98.8%). Dipeptidyl peptidase In the same patients culture could identify 27/82 (32.9%) infections. RT-PCR was significantly more sensitive than culture in achieving laboratory diagnosis of meningococcal infection (Cohen’s Kappa: 0.3; McNemar p < 10−5). Sensitivity according to clinical presentation was evaluated. In 44 patients who were admitted to hospital with the diagnosis of sepsis with or without meningitis, RT-PCR was performed in the blood of 29/44 and in CSF of 15/44 and was positive in 29/29 (100%) blood and in 13/15 (86.7%) CSF. Culture was performed in the blood of 24/44 and in the CSF of 10/44 and was positive in 6/24 blood (25.0%) and in 2/10 (20.0%) CSF. As for meningitis, in 90 patients with the diagnosis of meningitis with no sign of sepsis, RT-PCR was performed in 39 blood samples and in 61 CSF samples and was positive in 29/39 (74.4%) blood samples and 60/61 (98.4%) CSF samples.

No record of fatality due to intussusception was found in the rec

No record of fatality due to intussusception was found in the records for the defined review period. On an average 17.3 cases of confirmed intussusception were identified from this retrospective analysis. At CSMMU,

Lucknow atleast 14 cases per year were recorded over a duration of six years while at KMC, Manipal atleast 20 cases per year were recorded over a duration of five years. This analysis describes the epidemiological characteristics of intussusception in two regions of India. Epidemiology of intussusception in India is similar to that described in other parts of the world. Previous IWR-1 cell line reports specify that this condition is more frequent in males, with our study yielding a male to female ratio of 3.1:1. While the ratio varies widely across different countries, Quizartinib all reports indicated predominance of males. In the geographically close Asian region, studies report this ratio to range from 1.3:1 in Singapore [10] to 9:1 in India [11] and [12]. A possible trend, with highest cases reported in the month of April was observed. This is in contrast to reports

from other studies in which no such trend was reported [13], [14] and [15]. A peak of diagnosis (maximum number of cases) was observed in infants between 6 and 12 months of age. In this analysis, the classic triad of abdominal pain, vomiting, and rectal bleeding was reported in 18.7% of subjects which is higher than reported in a similar study conducted in India [14]. However, we found that clinical signs and symptoms in the present analysis were similar to those reported previously in other studies [14] and [15]. Vomiting was the most commonly recorded clinical symptom. We found that most of the cases were managed surgically which imposes a heavy economic burden on the health system in terms of prolonged hospital stay however this observation caries a potential bias as both the hospitals were tertiary care centers where relatively serious cases are

Mephenoxalone seen. The current study was limited by the lack of complete immunization data which made it difficult to reliably count the number and type of immunizations administered prior to hospitalization for intussusception. Additionally, the analysis was limited by the inability to define the catchment area for intussusception cases or to obtain accurate birth-cohort data for the catchment population. As data collected was from referral hospitals, these cases were those that were most severe and may not be representative of all cases identified through population surveillance This prevented the estimation of incidence of intussusception cases in a population. Nevertheless, the strength of this retrospective study is that it provides important insights into the epidemiology of intussusception among Indian children belonging to two different regions.

These adjustments have three goals: to support the head and body

These adjustments have three goals: to support the head and body against gravity and other external NU7441 forces, to maintain the centre of mass aligned and over the base of support, and to stabilise parts of the body while other parts are moved. Balance, therefore forms the foundation of all voluntary motor skills (Massion & Woollacott 1996) and is a real problem when muscles are paralysed or weak. As these muscles control hip, knee, and ankle joints, these individuals need to learn to balance using muscles of the upper body. In order to enable patients to regain functional skills, the rehabilitation therapist sets goals for

the patient and arranges the environment in which the action takes place. However, it is the patient who must organize a movement that matches the environment and produces the desired outcome. Using Gentile’s taxonomy, reaching sideways to touch or pick up an object on the floor (eg, Fig 1, top left, Harvey at al 2011) and sitting up again, gives the patient

the ‘idea of the movement’ (Gentile 2000). They get an idea of how far they can move laterally and still return to upright sitting without losing balance by testing the limits of stability and expanding these limits to achieve their objective. If the movement is not practised in the context of an everyday activity, and if it is not made challenging and therefore difficult (but not impossible), it becomes meaningless, and boring – ie, producing the movement is abstract rather than concrete. Functional tasks have a concrete goal, eg, picking Wnt activation up the soap from the floor when showering. Some of the subjects found the ‘exercises boring and repetitious’. Exercises can be boring and repetitive unless we are training to go skiing, run a marathon, or cycle in a charity race when already we have concrete goals and motivation is high and we really push ourselves. So one wonders, was the training program sufficiently challenging and goal directed? Did the methodology allow sufficient challenge for the participants to learn how to adapt to environmental demands, pay attention to critical

features, and actively engage in practice. Acquiring skill does not only mean to repeat and consolidate but also to invent and progress (Whiting 1980); practice is a particular type of repetition without repetition (Bernstein 1967). Did they practise moving at different speeds, were they encouraged to push themselves to their ‘limits’? Did they have the chance to make mistakes – making errors is part of learning. Interestingly, it seems that the results of this study support the principle of specificity of training. The study has also opened up a most interesting area of investigation, and we are sure the article will stimulate considerable interest as it has for us. “
“We thank Professors Shepherd and Carr for their letter and interest in our paper (Harvey et al 2011). We largely agree with their insightful comments and interpretation of the literature.