Publications by authors named "Al Brown"

Background: Public health nutrition interventions, including school-based programs, are a recommended approach to improve child dietary behaviours. However, the adoption of effective school-based nutrition programs face numerous challenges, including the limited evidence on effective strategies to maximise implementation and adoption of such programs. This study aimed to address this evidence gap by employing a novel collaborative network trial design to evaluate a series of implementation strategies employed by three NSW Local Health Districts, to improve school adoption of an effective school-based nutrition program ('SWAP IT').

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The zebrafish is a valuable model organism for studying cardiac development and diseases due to its many shared aspects of genetics and anatomy with humans and ease of experimental manipulations. Computational fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations are an efficient and highly controllable means to study the function of cardiac valves in development and diseases. Due to their small scales, little is known about the mechanical properties of zebrafish cardiac valves, limiting existing computational studies of zebrafish valves and their interaction with blood.

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Mitochondrial endonuclease G (EndoG) contributes to chromosomal degradation when it is released from mitochondria during apoptosis. It is presumed to also have a mitochondrial function because EndoG deficiency causes mitochondrial dysfunction. However, the mechanism by which EndoG regulates mitochondrial function is not known.

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Background: Methotrexate is an important component of curative therapy in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), but the role of genetic variation influencing methotrexate clearance and transport in toxicity susceptibility in children with ALL is not well established. Therefore, we evaluated the association between suspected methotrexate pharmacogenomic variants and methotrexate-related neurotoxicity.

Methods: This study included children (aged 2-20 years) diagnosed with ALL (2005-2019) at six treatment centers in the southwest United States.

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Intimate partner violence (IPV) can include emotional, physical, or sexual violence. IPV during pregnancy is a preventable cause of injury and death with negative short- and long-term impacts for pregnant women, infants, and families. Using data from the 2016-2022 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System in nine U.

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There is overwhelming evidence that the microbiome can be important to host physiology and fitness. As such, there is interest in and some theoretical work on understanding when hosts and microbiomes (co)evolve so that microbes benefit hosts and hosts favour beneficial microbes. However, the outcome of evolution likely depends on how microbes benefit hosts.

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Kelp forests and urchin barrens are two stable states in rocky reef ecosystems, each providing unique ecosystem functions like habitat for marine species and primary production. While studies frequently show that kelp forests support higher levels of some ecosystem functions than urchin barren habitats, no research has yet compared average differences. To address this gap, we first conducted a meta-analysis of studies that directly compared the ecosystem functions, services and general attributes provided by each habitat.

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Article Synopsis
  • Delayed excretion of high-dose methotrexate (HD-MTX) in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients can lead to serious health issues, prompting an examination of how laxative use for constipation affects this process.
  • A study analyzed data from 533 pediatric patients who received 1875 HD-MTX infusions, finding that delayed excretion occurred in 42.7% of infusions and was notably linked to the use of two or more laxative doses.
  • The results indicate that patients using multiple laxative doses were about 60% more likely to experience delayed drug excretion, suggesting a need for further research to better understand constipation's impact on methotrexate elimination.
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  • The study focuses on TDP-REG, a tool designed to take advantage of the specific splicing changes caused by TDP-43 loss of function (TDP-LOF), which is linked to ALS and similar neurodegenerative diseases.
  • It utilizes a deep learning algorithm, SpliceNouveau, to create customizable splicing events that enhance protein expression correlated with the disease state, both in lab settings (in vitro) and in living organisms (in vivo).
  • TDP-REG allows for targeted editing of genetic sequences, potentially correcting harmful splicing effects and leading to new precision treatment approaches for disorders related to TDP-43.
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The transgender population, a historically marginalized group, is growing in size, visibility, and cultural acceptance. However, lack of provider knowledge contributes to the disparities and discrimination that this group continues to face in the healthcare setting. Special considerations for transgender individuals undergoing imaging for breast/chest care can improve health equity, including appropriate evidence-based screening, tailored protocols, and inclusive radiology facilities.

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Epidemiological evidence of familial predispositions to myeloid malignancies and myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) has long been recognised, but recent studies have added to knowledge of specific germline variants in multiple genes that contribute to the familial risk. These variants may be common risk alleles in the general population but have low penetrance and cause sporadic MPN, such as the JAK2 46/1 haplotype, the variant most strongly associated with MPN. Association studies are increasingly identifying other MPN susceptibility genes such as TERT, MECOM, and SH2B3, while some common variants in DDX41 and RUNX1 appear to lead to a spectrum of myeloid malignancies.

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Background: Child and Family Health Nursing (CFHN) services provide universal care to families during the first 2000 days (conception: 5 years) to support optimal health and developmental outcomes of children in New South Wales, Australia. The use of technology represents a promising means to encourage family engagement with CFHN services and enable universal access to evidenced-based age and stage information. Currently, there is little evidence exploring the acceptability of various models of technology-based support provided during the first 2000 days, as well as the maternal characteristics that may influence this.

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Background: In recent studies, receipt of chiropractic care has been associated with lower odds of receiving prescription opioids and, among those already prescribed, reduced doses of opioids among patients with non-cancer spine pain. These findings suggest that access to chiropractic services may reduce reliance on opioids for musculoskeletal pain.

Objective: To assess the impact of chiropractic care on initiation, or continued use, of prescription opioids among patients with non-cancer spine pain.

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Interpersonal management of homophobic stigma (e.g., selectively constructing one's social network; confronting stigma) is an understudied area of resilience among sexual minority people.

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Sexual minority men (SMM) in the US are twice as likely to experience mental health challenges, including depressive symptoms, compared with their heterosexual counterparts. Having a like-mentor, or a sexual minority mentor, is associated with improved mental well-being among SMM mentees. However, few studies have explored the potential benefits to mentors.

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Dark chocolate produced on equipment used to manufacture milk chocolate can contain milk due to cross-contact. This study evaluated the use of dry cleaning methods for removing milk chocolate residue from a butterfly or ball valve attached to a stainless steel pipe and from pilot-scale equipment used in chocolate manufacture. Milk-free dark chocolate (40 °C) was pumped through a milk chocolate-contaminated valve/pipe assembly after no cleaning, use of a pig purging treatment, or a 40 °C cocoa butter flush.

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Hypertension is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Despite the widespread availability of both pharmacological and lifestyle therapeutic options, blood pressure control rates across the globe are worsening. In fact, only 23% of individuals with high blood pressure in the United States achieve treatment goals.

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High-dose methotrexate (HD-MTX) is used in the treatment of children with central nervous system (CNS) tumors; however, toxicity information is limited. We characterized toxicities following 102 administrations of HD-MTX (4.6-13.

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Article Synopsis
  • The genomics era has led to the identification of the ERG gene as a new autosomal dominant predisposition factor for bone marrow failure (BMF) and hematological malignancies (HM), crucial for blood cell development and function.
  • Research found several rare ERG variants associated with thrombocytopenia and various forms of HM, showing onset typically before age 40.
  • Functional studies indicated that many ERG variants disrupt its role as a transcription factor, leading to ineffective blood cell production, with implications for clinical diagnosis and treatment strategies for affected patients and families.
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Methotrexate is a critical component of curative chemotherapy for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), but is associated with neurotoxicity. Information on long-term outcomes following an acute neurotoxic event is limited. Therefore, this report compares neurocognitive performance more than 12 months post diagnosis (mean = 4 years) between ALL patients with (n = 25) and without (n = 146) a history of acute neurotoxicity.

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Background: Hearing loss (HL) is associated with worse neurocognitive outcomes among patients with medulloblastoma. We aimed to identify risk factors associated with severe HL and to evaluate the generalizability of a published HL calculator among patients treated with passive scattering proton therapy (PSPT) and cisplatin.

Methods: We identified patients aged 3-21 years who were treated at our centers between 2007 and 2022.

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Article Synopsis
  • Missions into Deep Space this decade are concerning due to potential health risks from microgravity and galactic cosmic radiation, especially for kidneys.
  • Researchers used various biological and clinical analyses on samples from spaceflight-exposed mice, humans, and simulated environments.
  • Key findings reveal that spaceflight causes kidney-related issues like increased risk of kidney stones, changes in nephron structure, and damage from radiation exposure.
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Selection causes local adaptation across populations within species and simultaneously divergence between species. However, it is unclear if either the force of or the response to selection is similar across these scales. We show that natural selection drives divergence between closely related species in a pattern that is distinct from local adaptation within species.

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