Publications by authors named "BAKER R"

Random walks and related spatial stochastic models have been used in a range of application areas, including animal and plant ecology, infectious disease epidemiology, developmental biology, wound healing and oncology. Classical random walk models assume that all individuals in a population behave independently, ignoring local physical and biological interactions. This assumption simplifies the mathematical description of the population considerably, enabling continuum-limit descriptions to be derived and used in model analysis and fitting.

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Background: This study evaluated the sensory and breast pain outcomes in inferior versus superomedial pedicle breast reduction.

Methods: Twenty patients undergoing the inferior pedicle technique were matched to 20 patients undergoing the superomedial pedicle technique based on age, BMI, and resection weight. Patients were evaluated preoperatively and postoperatively at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months.

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Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) presents a substantial challenge due to its complex nature, limited effective treatment options, and modest benefits from current therapies in slowing disease progression. This study explores the potential of intranasal (IN) delivery to enhance the CNS delivery of riluzole (RLZ), a standard ALS treatment which is subject to blood-brain barrier efflux mechanisms. Additionally, the impact of elacridar (ELC), an efflux pump inhibitor, on IN RLZ CNS bioavailability was examined.

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Readily available animal tissue, such as ground beef, is a convenient material to represent the dielectric properties of biological tissue when validating microwave imaging and sensing hardware and techniques. The reliable use of these materials depends on the accurate characterization of their properties. In this work, the effect of physiologically relevant levels of dehydration on ex vivo tissue samples is quantified while controlling for variation within and between samples.

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ObjectiveKidney failure increases people's risk of cardiovascular disease, sometimes requiring cardiac surgery. The aim of this study was to estimate the risk of cardiac surgery for adults with treated kidney failure in comparison with the general population in Australia.MethodsWe performed a population-based retrospective cohort study by linking data between the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry and the Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons Cardiac Surgery Database, for 2010-2019.

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External (EL) and internal (IL) load are commonly used methods used to quantify training load in team sports. Playing time and playing position may influence the training loads for specific athletes throughout a season. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effect of athlete playing status and individual in-season practices on EL and IL across a collegiate women's basketball season.

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Background: The utility and uptake of Del Nido cardioplegia in adult cardiac surgery is rapidly increasing. Cases with prolonged aortic cross-clamp times necessitate multi-dosing however an understanding of safe ischaemic times and definitive guidelines in this domain are lacking. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the safety and efficacy of our DNC strategy by comparing post-operative troponin profiles and clinical outcomes between Del Nido and hyperkalaemic cardioplegia for cases with aortic cross-clamp times of greater than 90 min.

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Adaptor protein complex-3 (AP-3) mediates cargo sorting from endosomes to lysosomes and lysosome-related organelles. Recently, it was shown that AP-3 adopts a constitutively open conformation compared to the related AP-1 and AP-2 coat complexes, which are inactive until undergoing large conformational changes upon membrane recruitment. How AP-3 is regulated is therefore an open question.

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Background: Engaging with the public can influence policy decisions, particularly towards more radical policy change. While established research exists exploring public perceptions on causes of health inequalities, much less exists on how to tackle health inequalities in the UK. Despite an emphasis on 'lived experience', currently no study has focused on how individuals with very poor health conceive of both causes of, and solutions to, health inequalities.

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In more than half of the individuals with a clinically relevant bleeding tendency who are referred to hemostasis experts, no biological etiology can be found after extensive laboratory testing. These persons are diagnosed with an unexplained bleeding tendency or "bleeding disorder of unknown cause" (BDUC). The mucocutaneous bleeding phenotype of individuals with BDUC is generally comparable to that of individuals with inherited bleeding disorders such as von Willebrand disease or platelet function disorders.

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Objective: Evaluate the immunogenicity of a vaccine targeting the S protein (Ssee) of Streptococcus equi subsp equi and determine antibody activity against Ssee in horses with strangles.

Methods: The study was designed as a prospective experiment using 20 university-owned Quarter Horses and a cross-sectional serosurvey of 78 privately owned horses with strangles. Horses were immunized IM with 0 (n = 4), 200 (n = 8), or 400 (n = 8) μg of recombinant Ssee at weeks 0, 4, and 12.

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Background: Low-income pregnant patients are at high risk of postpartum depression (PPD). Mothers and Babies (MB) is a cognitive behavioral therapy-based program that prevents up to 50% of de novo PPD when provided in person to low-income Spanish- and English-speaking people who are pregnant without depression. MB is limited by the need for trained personnel to support it.

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Background: Daratumumab, an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody, has been approved for the treatment of multiple myeloma. Data are needed regarding the use of daratumumab for high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma, a precursor disease of active multiple myeloma for which no treatments have been approved.

Methods: In this phase 3 trial, we randomly assigned patients with high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma to receive either subcutaneous daratumumab monotherapy or active monitoring.

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The integration of fluorine into medicinal compounds has become a widely used strategy to improve the biochemical and therapeutic properties of drugs. Inclusion of -CFH and -OCF fluoroalkyl groups has garnered attention due to their bioisosteric properties, enhanced lipophilicity, and potential hydrogen-bonding capability in bioactive substances. In this study, we prepared a series of stable Cu[CF(OCF)(CFH)]L complexes by insertion of commercially available perfluoro(methyl vinyl ether), CF=CF(OCF), into Cu-H bonds derived from Stryker's reagent, [CuH(PPh)], using ancillary ligands L.

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The primary aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of tissue flossing on athletic performance measures. A secondary aim was to explore the efficacy of tissue flossing when applied to a joint or soft tissue (i.e.

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Background: The prevalence of mental health disorders calls for valid and reliable instruments that are easy to administer and assess for clinicians and researchers. The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) is a commonly used instrument to assess psychological distress; however, model fit and internal reliability issues have been reported. Our objective was to assess the factorial and structural validity of the DASS-21.

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Introduction: Warfarin (vitamin K antagonist) remains an established anticoagulant for patients at high risk of arterial and venous thromboembolism. The prompt reversal of the anticoagulant effect of warfarin is necessary in the context of major bleeding or emergency surgery because of its extended inhibition of vitamin K-dependent coagulation factors for days. The mainstay of urgent warfarin reversal has been vitamin K administration, and infusion of a three-factor prothrombin complex concentrate (3FPCC) and the option for the addition of fresh frozen plasma as a source of factor VII.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the immediate cardiovascular effects of different cannabis inhalation methods and cannabinoid profiles, focusing on THC and CBD.
  • Researchers assessed arterial stiffness, endothelial function, and cardiac performance in 22 healthy cannabis users before and after using THC-dominant and CBD-dominant strains.
  • Results show that THC use significantly increases heart rate and blood pressure, while CBD does not affect these cardiovascular markers, indicating potential risks associated with THC consumption.
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Article Synopsis
  • - The European Health Data Space (EHDS) initiative aims to standardize health data exchange across Europe, focusing on the European Electronic Health Record Exchange Format to enhance data interoperability, although its guidelines, particularly the European Patient Summary, may not fully support clinical research in cardiology yet.
  • - This study evaluates the European Patient Summary and HL7 FHIR guidelines to identify gaps that limit their effectiveness for using patient data in AI-driven heart failure management research.
  • - By analyzing two EU-funded projects, DataTools4Heart and AI4HF, the study highlights the need for specific data items and minor adjustments in the existing guidelines to better support secondary use in clinical research and improve personalized healthcare for heart failure patients.
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Purpose: Functional connectivity hubs were previously identified at the source level in low-risk full-term newborns by high-density electroencephalography (HD-EEG). However, the directionality of information flow among hubs remains unclear. The aim of this study was to study the directionality of information flow among source level hubs in low-risk full-term newborns using HD-EEG.

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'Treatment effect measures under nonproportional hazards' by Snapinn et al. (Pharmaceutical Statistics, 22, 181-193) recently proposed some novel estimates of treatment effect for time-to-event endpoints. In this note, we clarify three points related to the proposed estimators that help to elucidate their properties.

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After briefly reviewing the historical development and ethical regulation of resuscitative technologies, this study probes why clinicians engage in the morally problematic practice of show and slow coding and why hospitals tolerate it? Studies conducted in 1995 and 2020 indicate that conscientious clinicians engage in these practices to protect their patients from abusive or futile resuscitation. And hospitals' clinical cultures tolerate these practices to protect conscientious clinicians from censure, dismissal, delicensing, or legal prosecution for withholding or withdrawing abusive or futile resuscitative technologies without prior patient or surrogate consent. Show and slow coding evolved in American clinical cultures in the second half of the 20th century when closed-chest cardiac massage, defibrillators, ventilators, and other resuscitative technologies raised seemingly novel ethical questions.

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Background: Studies estimating risks after cardiac surgery for patients receiving kidney replacement therapy have been limited by the size and generalizability of those cohorts. This study used data linked between registries to estimate short-term postoperative outcomes for large patient cohorts receiving kidney replacement therapy at the time of surgery.

Methods: This population-based observational cohort study included adult patients who had undergone cardiac surgery in Australia between 2010 and 2019.

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