Publications by authors named "Blackburn N"

Community-clinical partnerships are an effective approach to connecting primary care with public health to increase disease prevention and screenings and reduce health inequities. We explore how the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) award recipients and clinic teams are using community-clinical linkages to deliver services to populations who are without access to health care and identify barriers, facilitators, and lessons that can be used to improve program implementation. We used purposive sampling to select nine state recipients of the NBCCEDP and a clinic partner for each recipient.

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The confluence of injection drug use (IDU), alcohol consumption, and viral hepatitis increases morbidity among persons living with HIV (PWH). We present a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial of alcohol reduction interventions in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam conducted between 2016-2018. We assessed hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) coinfection among PWH reporting hazardous alcohol consumption and examined differences in IDU and alcohol use by coinfection status.

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Metallochaperones are small proteins that shuttle essential metal ions such as Cu selectively to their cellular targets. CusF has unusual Cu(I) coordination, bound by two methionines, one histidine and a capping tryptophan residue, W44. Here we compare the CO binding reactivity of the wild type (WT) protein and its W44A, F, and M variants.

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Article Synopsis
  • * 1360 older adults (65+) from four European countries participated, comparing three groups: ERS with SMS, ERS alone, and a control group.
  • * While increases in functional capacity were noted after four months favoring the ERS-SMS group, these differences were minimal and not maintained in the long term, suggesting that the benefits of adding SMS were uncertain.
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  • Ampullary adenocarcinoma (AA) shows clinical and genetic diversity, and a new genomic classifier may improve patient classification beyond traditional methods, but it needs validation before being widely used.
  • A study involving 192 patients with AA assessed the accuracy of this genomic classifier against standard histology to see if it could predict survival outcomes.
  • Results indicated a 55% agreement between genomic and histological classifications; however, while histological subtypes did not predict survival, the genomic scores did correlate with survival probabilities, suggesting the genomic approach might be more effective.
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Introduction: Marine environments offer a wealth of opportunities to improve understanding and treatment options for cancers, through insights into a range of fields from drug discovery to mechanistic insights. By applying One Health principles the knowledge obtained can benefit both human and animal populations, including marine species suffering from cancer. One such species is green sea turtles (), which are under threat from fibropapillomatosis (FP), an epizootic tumor disease (animal epidemic) that continues to spread and increase in prevalence globally.

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The copper chaperone for Sod1 (Ccs) is a metallochaperone that plays a multifaceted role in the maturation of Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase (Sod1). The Ccs mutation RW was identified in an infant with fatal neurological abnormalities. Based on a comprehensive structural and functional analysis, we developed the first data-driven model for RW-related pathogenic phenotypes.

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Introduction: Chronic shoulder pain is highly prevalent in the general population. Many different analgesic strategies have been described, including radiofrequency treatment to the suprascapular nerve (RFS); however, the effectiveness this approach remains unclear, and no strong recommendation can be made. The aim of this systematic review is to analyse the latest clinical trials evaluating the effectiveness of RFS techniques applied to the suprascapular nerve in terms of management of chronic shoulder pain, post-procedural functionality, and adverse effects.

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Opioid dependence and overdose are serious public health concerns. States have responded by enacting legislation regulating opioid-prescribing practices. Through in-depth interviews with clinicians, state officials, and organizational stakeholders, this paper examines opioid prescribing limits legislation (PLL) in North Carolina and how it impacts clinical practice.

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Background: Pericytes are multifunctional contractile cells that reside on capillaries. Pericytes are critical regulators of cerebral blood flow and blood-brain barrier function, and pericyte dysfunction may contribute to the pathophysiology of human neurological diseases including Alzheimers disease, multiple sclerosis, and stroke. Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived pericytes (iPericytes) are a promising tool for vascular research.

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Peptidylglycine monooxygenase is a copper-dependent enzyme that catalyzes C-alpha hydroxylation of glycine extended pro-peptides, a critical post-translational step in peptide hormone processing. The canonical mechanism posits that dioxygen binds at the mononuclear M-center to generate a Cu(II)-superoxo species capable of H atom abstraction from the peptidyl substrate, followed by long-range electron tunneling from the CuH center. Recent crystallographic and biochemical data have challenged this mechanism, suggesting instead that an "open-to-closed" transition brings the copper centers closer, allowing reactivity within a binuclear intermediate.

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Introduction/background: Patients living with and after head and neck cancer often experience treatment-related consequences. Head and neck lymphoedema can be described as a common chronic side effect of head and neck cancer and recognised as a contributing factor to impairment of functional status, symptom burden and health-related quality of life. The effects of head and neck lymphoedema can limit patients' involvement in daily activities and alter their appearance, increasing symptom burden and negatively affecting health-related quality of life.

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Cupredoxins are widely occurring copper-binding proteins with a typical Greek-key beta barrel fold. They are generally described as electron carriers that rely on a T1 copper centre coordinated by four ligands provided by the folded polypeptide. The discovery of novel cupredoxins demonstrates the high diversity of this family, with variations in terms of copper-binding ligands, copper centre geometry, redox potential, as well as biological function.

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Article Synopsis
  • Sedentary behavior (SB), which affects health in older adults, is influenced by educational level, highlighting its role in health disparities among this age group in Europe.
  • The study involved 1,360 participants over 65, assessing SB through self-reports and accelerometers, with findings indicating those with lower education levels reported more sedentary hours.
  • Results showed that while participants reported being more sedentary on weekdays compared to weekends, education level was linked to self-reported SB but not to objectively measured SB levels.
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Background: Community violence is a persistent and challenging public health problem. Community violence not only physically affects individuals, but also its effects reverberate to the well-being of families and entire communities. Being exposed to and experiencing violence are adverse community experiences that affect the well-being and health trajectories of both children and adults.

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Purpose: Patients living with head and neck lymphoedema (HNL) after completion of head and neck cancer (HNC) often can experience long-term functional challenges and overall poorer health-related quality of life (HRQOL). This systematic review aims to explore components of effective HNL interventions through identification and synthesising literature on existing HNL management interventions.

Methods: Five electronic databases (MEDLINE via Ovid and PubMed, CINAHL, CENTRAL, and Scopus) were systematically searched using Medical Subject Headings and free text, as well as citation tracking and Google Scholar for grey literature.

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The World Health Organization's list of cost-effective alcohol control policies is a widely-used resource that highlights strategies to address alcohol-related harms. However, there is more evidence on how recommended policies impact harms to people who drink alcohol-such as physical health problems caused by heavy alcohol use-than on secondhand harms inflicted on someone other than the person drinking alcohol, i.e.

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Youth involved in the legal system (YILS) experience rates of opioid and substance use disorders (OUD/SUDs) and overdose that is well above those in the general population. Despite the dire need, and the existing programs that focus on treatment of these problems in YILS, research on opioid initiation, and OUD prevention, including feasibility and sustainability, are severely limited. We present four studies testing interventions that, while not necessarily novel as SUD treatments, test novel structural and interpersonal strategies to prevent opioid initiation/OUD precursors: (1) ADAPT (Clinical Trial No.

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Radical -adenosyl-l-methionine (SAM) enzymes leverage the properties of one or more iron- and sulfide-containing metallocenters to catalyze complex and radical-mediated transformations. By far the most populous superfamily of radical SAM enzymes are those that, in addition to a 4Fe-4S cluster that binds and activates the SAM cofactor, also bind one or more additional auxiliary clusters (ACs) of largely unknown catalytic significance. In this report we examine the role of ACs in two RS enzymes, PapB and Tte1186, that catalyze formation of thioether cross-links in ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs).

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Peptidylglycine monooxygenase (PHM) is essential for the biosynthesis of many neuroendocrine peptides via a copper-dependent hydroxylation of a glycine-extended pro-peptide. The "canonical" mechanism requires the transfer of two electrons from one mononuclear copper (CuH, H-site) to a second mononuclear copper (CuM, M-site) which is the site of oxygen binding and catalysis. In most crystal structures the copper centers are separated by 11 Å of disordered solvent, but recent work has established that a PHM variant H108A forms a closed conformer in the presence of citrate with a reduced Cu-Cu site separation of ~4 Å.

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Delayed radiation myelopathy is a rare but severe complication that causes progressive and irreversible patient deterioration. Although it is an exclusion diagnosis, there are factors associated with radiation doses and administration areas that may reduce the risk of its incidence. To date, there is no known first-line and effective treatment available to alleviate the symptoms.

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Background: Children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) between caregivers are at an increased risk of becoming involved in dating violence during adolescence. However, to date, few adolescent dating violence (ADV) prevention programs have been developed for and evaluated with youth exposed to IPV. An exception is Moms and Teens for Safe Dates (MTSD), an evidence-based ADV prevention program for mothers or maternal caregivers (mothers) exposed to IPV and their teenagers.

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Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide with individuals in Asia disproportionately affected. Using a cross-sectional study design as part of the Jiri Eye Study, we assessed the prevalence of glaucoma in the Jirel population of Nepal and provide new information on the occurrence of glaucoma in south central Asia. Over a four-year period, 2,042 members of the Jirel population, aged 18 years and older, underwent a detailed ocular examination.

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