Publications by authors named "Alexis Perkins"

Article Synopsis
  • Clinical trials, essential for healthcare, also significantly contribute to climate change; researchers have developed a method to calculate their carbon footprint and applied it to 10 UK and international trials.
  • Data on trial activities was collected from 10 trial units, evaluated for emission sources, and feedback was gathered on the carbon footprint calculation process.
  • The carbon footprints of the trials varied widely, highlighting key areas for emissions reduction, with suggestions to incorporate carbon footprint considerations during the trial design phase.
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Background: Singing for lung health (SLH) is an arts-based breathing control and movement intervention for people with long-term respiratory conditions, intended to improve symptoms and quality of life. Online, remotely delivered programmes might improve accessibility; however, no previous studies have assessed the effectiveness of this approach.

Methods: We conducted an assessor-blind randomised controlled trial comparing the impact of 12 weeks of once-weekly online SLH sessions against usual care on health-related quality of life, assessed using the RAND 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) Mental Health Composite (MHC) and Physical Health Composite (PHC) scores.

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Background: Immediate smoking cessation interventions delivered alongside targeted lung health checks (TLHCs) to screen for lung cancer increase self-reported abstinence at 3 months. The impact on longer term, objectively confirmed quit rates remains to be established.

Methods: We followed up participants from two clinical trials in people aged 55-75 years who smoked and took part in a TLHC.

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Introduction: Lung cancer screening presents an important teachable moment to promote smoking cessation, but the most effective strategy to deliver support in this context remains to be established.

Methods: We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis of smoking cessation interventions delivered during lung health screening, published prior to 20/07/2022 MEDLINE, PsychINFO, CENTRAL, EMBASE, CINAHL and Scopus databases. Two reviewers screened titles, and abstracts, four reviewed each full text using prespecified criteria, extracted relevant data, assessed risk of bias and confidence in findings using the GRADE criteria.

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Background: The Ferriman-Gallwey hirsutism score is the currently accepted standard for assessing excess hair growth that may indicate hyperandrogenicity. The score was originally based on 60 Caucasian women, and recent studies suggest that it may need modification to be used in other populations.

Objectives: To investigate ethnic, racial, and pigmentary variations in hair growth of the upper lip in diverse multinational populations.

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Background: Acne vulgaris is a common skin disease with a large quality of life impact, characterized by comedones, inflammatory lesions, secondary dyspigmentation, and scarring. Although traditionally considered a disease of adolescence, reports suggest it is also a disease of adults, especially adult women. Our objectives were to determine acne prevalence in a large, diverse group of women and to examine acne by subtype and in relation to other skin findings, measurements, and lifestyle factors.

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Background: Topical coal tar is a well known and effective treatment for psoriasis, but the messiness, staining, odor, and inconvenience associated with its use make patient satisfaction and compliance a challenge.

Objective: To determine the efficacy, patient tolerability, and cosmetic acceptability of a new topical liquor carbonis distillate (LCD) 15% solution compared with calcipotriene (calcipotriol) cream in patients with moderate, chronic plaque psoriasis.

Study Design: A randomized, single-blind, active-controlled, parallel-group, clinical trial consisting of a 12-week treatment phase and a 6-week post-treatment follow-up phase.

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Background: In recent years there has been an increasing focus on human subject protection and on documentation of ethical review in published clinical research. The JAAD clearly states in its instructions to authors, which adhere to the guidelines set forth by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, "studies involving live human subjects must have been approved by the author's Institutional Review Board or its equivalent."

Objective: To determine what proportion of prospective studies on human subjects submitted to the clinical trials and therapeutics section lacked mention of review by an ethics board and to determine the outcome of these manuscripts.

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The theory-of-mind abilities of twins, children with nontwin siblings, and only children were compared to investigate further the link between number and type of siblings and theory-of-mind abilities. Three- to 5-year-old children with nontwin siblings outperformed both only children and twins with no other siblings, twins who also had other siblings outperformed twins who did not, and children with at least 1 opposite-sex sibling outperformed children with only same-sex siblings. Twins performed significantly better when asked about the false beliefs of their twins than they did when asked about the false beliefs of their friends.

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Advancing age is associated with significant declines on neurobehavioral tasks that demand substantial mental effort. Functional imaging studies of mental abilities indicate that older adults faced with cognitive challenges tend to activate more regions, particularly frontal, than their younger counterparts, and that this recruitment of additional regions may reflect an attempt to compensate for inefficiency in cortical networks. The neural basis of emotion processing in aging has received little attention, and the goal of the present study was to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the influence of age on facial emotion processing and activation in cortical and limbic regions.

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