Publications by authors named "Blackmore S"

Background: First Nations children and youth may have unique ways to convey their health needs that have not been recognized by health providers. This may contribute to the disparity between high rates of mental health and physical pain and the low rates of treatment for the conditions they experience. Evidence suggests a colonial history has resulted in poor experiences with the healthcare system, lack of trust with health providers and miscommunication between clinicians and patients.

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Article Synopsis
  • Hepatitis B core antibody (anti-HBc) screening is used in blood establishments worldwide to help prevent the transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV), especially from donors with occult HBV infection (OBI).
  • A survey conducted revealed varied practices in HBV screening across 30 responses from 25 countries, with some establishments screening all donations for anti-HBc and HBV DNA, while others had different approaches, leading to inconsistencies in donor deferral strategies.
  • The findings highlight the need for improved confirmation of anti-HBc results to minimize unnecessary donor deferrals while balancing the risk of transmission from anti-HBc negative OBI donors, particularly in high-endemic regions where sensitive HBV DNA testing is crucial.
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The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is regarded as one of the core brain areas in a variety of value-based behaviors. Over the past two decades, tremendous knowledge about the OFC function was gained from studying the behaviors of single subjects. As a result, our previous understanding of the OFC's function of encoding decision variables, such as the value and identity of choices, has evolved to the idea that the OFC encodes a more complex representation of the task space as a cognitive map.

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China has an in situ conservation system built around national parks, and has begun establishing an ex situ conservation system led by National Botanical Gardens. We highlight how this National Botanical Gardens system will serve the global biodiversity conservation goal of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.

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Background: Exposure to poor air quality is one of the most significant environmental public health challenges. In the UK, local authorities (LAs) are responsible for monitoring and managing air quality. This article explores the need and mechanisms for cross-departmental working in LAs to make decisions about air quality issues.

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Buckwheat is an important crop which originated in China and spread widely across Eurasia. However, exactly where in China domestication took place remains controversial. Archaeological and palynological records suggest a longer cultivation history of buckwheat in northern China than in southwestern China, but this conflicts with phylogenetic evidence implicating southwestern China as the centre of origin and diversity of buckwheat.

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Aim: To describe the demographics of those presenting to Capital & Coast DHB District Nursing Service with venous leg ulcers (VLU).

Methods: Electronic records were searched between January 2015 and December 2020 for those presenting with VLU and matched to the national minimum dataset to obtain ethnicity, age at presentation and gender. Numbers were standardised against the census data for the DHB population, to allow comparison of ethnic differences.

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Humans navigate complex situations that require the accurate estimation of the controllability of the environment. Aberrant controllability computation might lead to maladaptive behaviors and poor mental health outcomes. Illusion of control, which refers to a heightened sense of control while the environment is uncontrollable, is one such manifestation and has been conceptually associated with delusional ideation.

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This paper presents a series of experiments in collective social robotics, spanning more than 10 years, with the long-term aim of building embodied models of (aspects of) cultural evolution. Initial experiments demonstrated the emergence of behavioural traditions in a group of social robots programmed to imitate each other's behaviours (we call these Copybots). These experiments show that the noisy (i.

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Tissue adhesives are commonly used for skin closure in both surgical and nonsurgical specialties. Although they are very well tolerated, tissue adhesives can induce a localized allergic response in 0.5% to 14% of patients.

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The controllability of our social environment has a profound impact on our behavior and mental health. Nevertheless, neurocomputational mechanisms underlying social controllability remain elusive. Here, 48 participants performed a task where their current choices either did (Controllable), or did not (Uncontrollable), influence partners' future proposals.

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Objective: Due to the increased number of syphilis infections diagnosed in the UK and beyond, we reviewed our data on blood donors infected with syphilis in the UK and Ireland between 2016 and 2019.

Methods: Data were extracted from the surveillance database for all blood donors confirmed positive for syphilis in the UK and Ireland between 2016 and 2019, together with the total number of donations tested during that period. Data on positive cases included gender, age group, reported treatment, symptoms and confirmatory results.

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Article Synopsis
  • * The presence of these mutations leads to a distinct immune profile, with increased markers for neutrophils and immune checkpoints, indicating a suppressive tumor environment.
  • * Targeting STAT3 in the tumor microenvironment has shown promise in reversing this resistance, suggesting potential for new treatment strategies combining STAT3 modulators with existing immunotherapies for patients with these mutations.
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The success of the shock and kill strategy for the HIV cure depends both on the reactivation of the latent reservoir and on the ability of the immune system to eliminate infected cells. As latency reversal alone has not shown any impact in the size of the latent reservoir, ensuring that effector CTLs are able to recognize and kill HIV-infected cells could contribute to reservoir reduction. In this study, we investigated which functional aspects of human CTLs are associated with a better capacity to kill HIV-infected CD4 T cells.

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Systemic inflammation can exacerbate symptoms of many neurological diseases. This effect may be facilitated by glial cells of the central nervous system (CNS) that alter their transcriptional responses and up-regulate cytokine and chemokine expression which can, in turn trigger immune surveillance. In this study, we sought to determine the effects of pro-inflammatory cytokine stimulation (TNF, IL-1α, IL-1β) on astrocyte and microglia chemokine secretion.

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Type 2 diabetes prevention is a major priority for healthcare services and public health. This study aimed to evaluate how a local authority in England piloted a diabetes prevention programme. The South Gloucestershire Diabetes Prevention (Pilot) Programme (SGDPP) comprised a group health education course over six weeks with subsequent support provision up to six months post-enrolment.

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In this article, we address relations between lexical and phonological development, with an emphasis on the notion of phonological contrast. We begin with an overview of the literature on word learning and on infant speech perception. Among other results, we report on studies showing that toddlers' perceptual abilities do not correlate with the development of phonological contrasts within their lexicons.

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Since 2005, a new conservation action concept has been implemented to address the most threatened plant species requiring priority conservation in China. The concept is now widely recognized at different levels of governmental departments and by the general public, and is leading to great achievements for plant conservation in China.

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By a detailed ontogenetic study of Ambrosia trifida pollen, tracing each stage of development with TEM, we aim to understand the establishment of the pollen wall and to unravel the mechanisms underlying sporoderm development. The main steps of exine ontogeny in Ambrosia trifida, observed in the microspore periplasmic space, are as follows: spherical units, gradually transforming into columns, then to rod-like units; the appearance of the initial reticulate tectum; growth of columellae under the tectum and initial sporopollenin accumulation on them; the appearance of the endexine lamellae, first in fragments, then in long laminae; the cessation of the glycocalyx growth and its detachment from the plasma membrane, resulting in the appearance of gaps; massive accumulation of sporopollenin on the tectum, columellae, and endexine, and the appearance of the foot layer at the young post-tetrad stage, accompanied by establishment of caveae in sites of the former gaps; and final massive sporopollenin accumulation. This sequence of developmental events in all probability corresponds to the sequence of self-assembling micellar mesophases.

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Bacteria can adversely affect the quality of drainage released from mine waste by catalyzing the oxidation of sulfide minerals and thereby accelerating the release of acidity and metals. However, the microbiological and geochemical controls on drainage quality from unsaturated and geochemically heterogeneous waste rock remain poorly understood. Here, we identified coexisting neutrophilic and acidophilic bacteria in different types of waste rock, indicating that robust endemic consortia are sustained within pore-scale microenvironments.

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Accurate predictions of solute release from waste-rock piles (WRPs) are paramount for decision making in mining-related environmental processes. Tracers provide information that can be used to estimate effective transport parameters and understand mechanisms controlling the hydraulic and geochemical behavior of WRPs. It is shown that internal tracers (i.

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Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is associated with substantial improvements in motor symptoms of PD. Emerging evidence has suggested that nonlinear measures of complexity may provide greater insight into the efficacy of anti-PD treatments. This study investigated sample entropy and complexity index values in individuals with PD when DBS was OFF compared to ON.

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