Publications by authors named "Bradley Pollock"

Background: The reopening of college and university campuses was seen as presenting a high risk for transmission of COVID-19. Thus, these institutions faced with a new public health challenge never heretofore faced on this scale. To magnify the problem, they needed to rapidly develop and implement re-opening plans in an environment filled with uncertainty and for a population that was significantly less likely to observe COVID-19 mitigation behaviors.

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Objective: To examine how public health policy was reinforced by peer workers who were called Public Health Ambassadors (PHAs) at a West Coast university during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: Descriptions of PHA community interactions were collected. Analyses were conducted using data from the 12-weeks of the 2020 Fall Quarter.

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We report on the experimental investigation of magnetic field generation with a half-loop gold sheet coil driven by long-duration (10 ns) and high-power (0.5 TW) laser pulses. The amplitude of the magnetic field was characterized experimentally using proton deflectometry.

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Article Synopsis
  • Aflatoxin exposure may not be widely recognized as a major concern in developed countries like the U.S., but climate change could increase the growth of toxic fungi and aflatoxin production in crops.
  • Recent studies in East and West Texas, especially in liver cancer-prone populations, highlighted increased serum levels of aflatoxin exposure between 2004 and 2014.
  • The findings suggest rising aflatoxin contamination levels in Texas, indicating a need for more research on the health risks associated with increased exposure.
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Patients with major burn injuries typically require numerous blood transfusions. It is not known if an inhalation injury (INHI) directly influences the need for blood transfusion. The purpose of this study was to determine whether INHI increases the amount of blood transfused to major burn patients.

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Background: With prior reports indicating a lack of progress in survival improvement in older adolescents and young adults (AYAs) aged 15 to 39 years with cancer compared with both younger and older patients with cancer, the current analysis provides an update of survival trends of cancers among AYAs, children, and older adults.

Methods: Data from the National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database for 13 regions were used to ascertain survival trends of the 34 most frequent cancers diagnosed in AYAs compared with children and older adults.

Results: As of 2002 through 2006, the 5-year relative survival rate for all invasive cancers in AYAs was 82.

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Background: Incidence rates and trends of cancers in adolescents and young adults (AYAs) ages 15 to 39 years were reexamined a decade after the US National Cancer Institute AYA Oncology Progress Review Group was established.

Methods: Data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program through 2011 were used to ascertain incidence trends since the year 2000 of the 40 most frequent cancers in AYAs, including tumors with nonmalignant/noninvasive behavior.

Results: Seven cancers in AYAs exhibited an overall increase in incidence; in 4, the annual percent change (APC) exceeded 3 (kidney, thyroid, uterus [corpus], and prostate cancer); whereas, in 3, the APC was between 0.

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Background: Metformin has shown promise for cancer prevention. Prior studies suggested that metformin might interact potential prostate cancer (PCa) prevention agents: finasteride and statins. This study assessed if concurrent use of statins or finasteride modified the long-term impact of metformin on PCa risk in men with type 2 diabetes (T2DM).

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Introduction: Statistics is an essential training component for a career in clinical and translational science (CTS). Given the increasing complexity of statistics, learners may have difficulty selecting appropriate courses. Our question was: what depth of statistical knowledge do different CTS learners require?

Methods: For three types of CTS learners (principal investigator, co-investigator, informed reader of the literature), each with different backgrounds in research (no previous research experience, reader of the research literature, previous research experience), 18 experts in biostatistics, epidemiology, and research design proposed levels for 21 statistical competencies.

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The literature supporting a relationship between religion/spirituality and physical/mental health has led to recommendations that health professionals attend to these issues in patient assessment and intervention. Many studies indicate that spiritual issues are important to adolescents, especially those with physical and/or psychological health concerns. Although several instruments have been developed to measure religion/spirituality in adults, no validated instrument currently exists for assessing this concept in children or adolescents.

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Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) signaling has been shown to promote invasion and metastasis in various models of human cancers. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of a TGF-beta type I receptor kinase inhibitor (TbetaRI-I) to limit early systemic metastases in an orthotopic xenograft model of lung metastasis and in an intracardiac injection model of experimental bone and lung metastasis using human breast carcinoma MDA-MB-435-F-L cells, a highly metastatic variant of human breast cancer MDA-MB-435 cells, expressing the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP). Treatment of the cells with the TbetaRI-I had no effect on their growth but blocked TGF-beta-stimulated expression of integrin alpha(v)beta(3) and cell migration in vitro.

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