Publications by authors named "Adam Mayer"

High ferritin is an important and sensitive biomarker for the various forms of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), a diverse and deadly group of cytokine storm syndromes. Early action to prevent immunopathology in HLH often includes empiric immunomodulation, which can complicate etiologic work-up and prevent collection of early/pre-treatment research samples. To address this, we instituted an alert system at UPMC Children's Hospital where serum ferritin > 1000 ng/mL triggered real-time chart review, assessment of whether the value reflected "inflammatory hyperferritnemia (IHF)", and biobanking of remnant samples from consenting IHF patients.

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Article Synopsis
  • Superconducting qubits can get messed up by tiny energy sources that break apart the pairs of particles needed for superconductivity, making a problem known as "quasiparticle poisoning."
  • Researchers found that a silicon crystal glued to its holder has way more low-energy sound events (called phonons) compared to a similar crystal that wasn't glued, which could affect how well these systems work.
  • The extra phonon events in the glued crystal get less frequent over time, suggesting that the stress from the glue is causing these disturbances and may be impacting other scientific devices too.
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High ferritin is an important and sensitive biomarker for hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), a diverse and deadly group of cytokine storm syndromes. Early action to prevent immunopathology in HLH often includes empiric immunomodulation, which can complicate etiologic work-up and prevent collection of early/pre-treatment research samples. To address this, we instituted an alert system where serum ferritin > 1000ng/mL triggered real-time chart review, assessment of whether the value reflected "inflammatory hyperferritnemia (IHF)", and biobanking of remnant samples from consenting IHF patients.

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Since the 'shale revolution' of the late 2000s, unconventional oil and gas extraction (UOGE) has been hailed by many as a boon for local and regional economies, workers, and property owners. While energy social science has documented many realities that counter this narrative - natural resource dependent economies, 'boom and bust' cycles of the energy industry, and 'resource curse'- there is less research examining economic impacts of UOGE for small-scale property owners. While some large-scale property owners lease their land, minerals, or water rights to oil and gas companies in exchange for royalties, other property owners are not able or do not wish to do so.

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Governments around the world struggled to formulate an effective response to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, which was hampered by the widespread diffusion of various conspiracy theories about the virus. Local governments are often responsible for the implementing mitigation measures such as mask mandates and curfews but have received very limited attention in the scholarly literature. In this article, the authors use data from local policy actors in Colorado to evaluate the relationship between conspiratorial beliefs and perceptions of mitigation policy effectiveness.

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Large hydropower projects continue to be built in developing nations, despite their known negative impacts. Large-scale energy projects strain local infrastructure and reduce access to infrastructure for households that live near them. Here we investigate the link between large-scale hydropower projects and stress.

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Understanding social and environmental impacts and household adaptation strategies in the face of expansions in energy infrastructure projects is essential to inform mitigation and interventions programs that promote well-being. Here we conducted surveys in seven communities distributed across varying degrees of proximity to a hydropower dam complex in the Brazilian Amazon along about 250 km of the floodplain of the Madeira River. Based on interviews with 154 fishers from these communities, we examine how fishers perceived changes in fisheries yields, changes in the composition of fish species, and whether and how adaptation strategies had evolved 8-9 years after the dams' construction.

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While there have been efforts to supply off-grid energy in the Amazon, these attempts have focused on low upfront costs and deployment rates. These "get-energy-quick" methods have almost solely adopted diesel generators, ignoring the environmental and social risks associated with the known noise and pollution of combustion engines. Alternatively, it is recommended, herein, to supply off-grid needs with renewable, distributed microgrids comprised of photovoltaics (PV) and in-stream generators (ISG).

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Millions of people across the world live off-grid not by choice but because they live in rural areas, have low income, and have no political clout. Delivering sustainable energy solutions to such a substantial amount of the world's population requires more than a technological fix; it requires leveraging the knowledge of underserved populations working together with a transdisciplinary team to find holistically derived solutions. Our original research has resulted in an innovative Convergence Framework integrating the fields of engineering, social sciences, and communication, and is based on working together with communities and other stakeholders to address the challenges posed by delivering clean energy solutions.

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Objective: The optimal management of patients with incidentally found clinically isolated aortitis (CIA) after aneurysm repair is unclear. This study compared long-term surgical and clinical outcomes after surgical repair of thoracic aortic aneurysm between patients with CIA and patients with noninflammatory etiologies.

Methods: This is a matched cohort study.

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In the US, unconventional oil and gas (UOG) production has elicited strong public response. As production occurs amid residential and commercial spaces, environmental, social, economic, regulatory, and mental health impacts have been documented across locations. Some community groups have mobilized against this activity, while others have not.

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For the first 6 months of the novel coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic, the hospital medicine procedure service at our center was temporarily unavailable. We assessed paracentesis rates and clinical outcomes for patients admitted with cirrhosis and ascites before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two hundred and twenty-four and 131 patients with cirrhosis and ascited were admitted to hospital before and during COVID-19 respectively.

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Palliative Care (PC) encompasses an integrated health care philosophy of care for individuals with serious illnesses and their families. Referrals to palliative care often come from other healthcare clinicians who lack the time and skill required to address the needs of the patient and their caregivers. At its heart, palliative care is individualized to the values, beliefs, and goals of the patient.

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Research reveals that a "finite pool of worry" constrains concern about and action on climate change. Nevertheless, a longitudinal panel survey of 1,858 UK residents, surveyed in April 2019 and June 2020, reveals little evidence for diminishing climate change concern during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, the sample identifies climate change as a bigger threat than COVID-19.

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Objective: Distinguishing aortitis-induced aneurysms from noninflammatory aortic aneurysms is difficult and often incidentally diagnosed on histologic examination after surgical repair. This study was undertaken to examine surgically diagnosed aortitis and identify patient characteristics and imaging findings associated with the disease.

Methods: In this case-control study, cases had newly diagnosed, biopsy-proven noninfectious aortitis after open thoracic aortic aneurysm surgical repair.

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Unconventional oil and gas extraction (UOGE) has spurred an unprecedented boom in on-shore production in the U.S. Despite a surge in related research, a void exists regarding inquiries into policy outcomes and perceptions.

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As the quality of patient care continues to improve, nursing professionals are continuously tasked with researching, implementing, and evaluating best practices. The practice of obtaining blood samples from paediatric patients, using a conventional three-way stopcock method, has been associated with peripheral arterial catheter intraluminal contamination and catheter-related bloodstream infections. A paediatric cardiac intensive care unit (PCICU), in a large medical centre in the USA, set an objective to mitigate the risk of possible contamination by implementing the use of closed arterial lab sampling devices.

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Background: Sustainable school buildings hold much promise to reducing operating costs, improve occupant well-being and, ultimately, teacher and student performance. However, there is a scarcity of evidence on the effects of sustainable school buildings on health and performance indicators. We sought to create a framework for a multidisciplinary research agenda that links school facilities, health, and educational outcomes.

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Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) sensors offer many advantages for chemical analyses, including the ability to provide chemical specific information and multiplexed detection capability at specific locations. However, to have operative SERS sensors for probing microenvironments, probes with high signal enhancement and reproducibility are necessary. To this end, dynamic enhancement of SERS (i.

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Introduction: Self-rated health is demonstrated to vary substantially by both personal socio-economic status and national economic conditions. However, studies investigating the combined influence of individual and country level economic indicators across several countries in the context of recent global recession are limited. This paper furthers our knowledge of the effect of recession on health at both the individual and national level.

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The effects recurring seizures have on the developing brain are an important area of debate because many forms of human epilepsy arise in early life when the central nervous system is undergoing dramatic developmental changes. To examine effects on glutamatergic synaptogenesis, epileptiform activity was induced by chronic treatment with GABAa receptor antagonists in slice cultures made from infant rat hippocampus. Experiments in control cultures showed that molecular markers for glutamatergic and GABAergic synapses recapitulated developmental milestones reported previously in vivo.

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