Essay Example on Participants Volunteers were recruited from the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania

Participants Volunteers were recruited from the Pittsburg Pennsylvania greater metropolitan area through the use of newspaper advertisements Six to eight weeks before the start of the study volunteers were required to complete a telephone interview and undergo a physical examination to assess their health status Volunteers were excluded from participating if they had a previous nasal or otologic surgery tested positive for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus HIV presented an abnormal profile of urinalysis complete blood count or blood enzyme levels were pregnant or lactating had a history of chronic illness such as respiratory or sleep disorders cardiovascular disease or took medication regularly other than birth control They were also excluded if they had been treated for the previous year or hospitalized for a psychiatric illness within the past five years To maximize the rate of infection of the RV39 rhinovirus serum neutralizing antibody titer to the RV39 rhinovirus was measured and individuals whose titer was 4 or greater were excluded A total of 123 men and 90 women between the ages of 18 and 55 Mage 30 13 years SD 10 85 57 7 men were evaluated and judged to be in good health Upon completion of the study each participant was paid 1 000 if they agreed to provide hair samples for cortisol analysis they received an additional 60 Procedures 

For approximately two months before being admitted to quarantine participants completed multiple questionnaire assessments underwent two weeks of daily interviews to evaluate positive emotion and wore a wrist actigraph unit to assess sleep behavior Two days before quarantine a repeat assay of serum neutralizing antibody RV39 titer was conducted via blood draw This assay was used as a pre study titer covariate During this time data on six additional covariates was also collected body mass index BMI sex birth control use season of exposure how many days before the challenge blood for the telomere length assay was drawn and self reported age and race Participants were then sequestered in a local hotel for the next six days Participants who arrived at the site with signs of a cold were turned away On the first day of quarantine participants were subject to a nasal examination and lavage in order to collect a baseline nasal mucociliary mucus production If a participant had a viral strain isolated from their nasal lavage samples their data was not used in subsequent analyses After the first day of quarantine Day 0 participants were infected via nasal drops containing 100 tissue culture infectious doses of RV39 Through the quarantine period daily nasal lavage samples were collected in order to evaluate viral culture and assess infection Mucus weight and nasal mucociliary clearance time were also measured daily to serve as a measure of illness 28 days after exposure blood was drawn for serological testing Childhood Family Risk In order to evaluate whether the childhood family psychosocial environment of a participant they were asked to complete the Risky Families Questionnaire Taylor Eisenberger Saxbe Lehman Lieberman 2006 Recalling their life from age 5 to 15 the participants answered 13 questions regarding their parent s level of harshness towards them during their childhood and adolescence 

The sessions lasted around 2 25 hours and took place between 3 00 p m and 9 00 p m in order to control for cortisol diurnal variations During the sessions participants completed a modified version of the Trier Social Stress Test a 15 minute stress protocol that involves public speaking and the completion of mental arithmetic As the session took place both psychological stress anxiety mood emotional response and biological salivary cortisol heart rate blood pressure respiration rate heart rate variability measures were collected Anthropomorphic Measures Anthropometric data was assessed prior to the start of the two reactivity sessions Measurements of height and weight were taken without the use of shoes or overgarments Height was recorded to the nearest half inch or half centimeter and weight was recorded to the nearest half pound or half kilogram All English units were converted to metric This data was used to calculate a participant s BMI using the following formula weight kg height m 2 Waists were measured over a participant s garments at the level of the navel and hip circumferences at the widest level of the buttocks Thiks data was used to calculate a participant s waist hip ratio with this formula waist circumference cm hip circumference cm