Publications by authors named "B G Willis"

Purpose: Holistic review for admissions is designed to mitigate the common systemic barriers applicants may face in their medical school application journey and the common mistakes committed by admissions committees, but limited literature outlines how this can be modeled. This study examined a blinded holistic admissions approach that emphasized mission and value alignment and the resulting characteristics of applicants by admission status.

Method: Application data from 2,027 applicants to The University of Texas at Tyler School of Medicine with complete secondary applications for the 2022 to 2023 cycle were analyzed.

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Background: Evolutionary tradeoffs between life-history strategies are important in animal evolution. Because microbes can influence multiple aspects of host physiology, including growth rate and susceptibility to disease or stress, changes in animal-microbial symbioses have the potential to mediate life-history tradeoffs. Scleractinian corals provide a biodiverse, data-rich, and ecologically-relevant host system to explore this idea.

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  • Statins are often underutilized for preventing cardiovascular disease (CVD), and understanding factors influencing adherence is crucial.
  • This study aims to explore the connection between shared decision making (SDM)—reflected through recorded CVD risk scores—and patients' adherence to statins and overall health outcomes.
  • By analyzing data from English primary care records of patients aged 40-84 who started statin therapy, the research will assess how the presence of a CVD risk score at initiation impacts ongoing medication adherence and CVD-related results.
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  • Gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs) can be either hormone-secreting or non-secreting, have serious health implications, and an average survival of 75-124 months.
  • Research shows that key genes involved in the tumor's development, especially epigenetic regulators like MEN1, DAXX, and ATRX, are often mutated, but their effects are not well understood.
  • The calcium sensing receptor (CaSR) is significantly reduced in GEP-NETs, potentially due to DNA methylation and chromatin modifications, suggesting it functions as a tumor suppressor by inhibiting cell growth in pancreatic NETs.
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