Publications by authors named "Brian Kirkpatrick"

Twin birth in dairy cattle is generally unfavorably associated with reproductive performance and calf survival in dairy cows. Genetic selection to reduce twinning rate in dairy cattle may be desirable, provided there are no undesirable correlated responses in other traits. The current study was undertaken to characterize the genomic architecture of twinning rate in the Irish Holstein-Friesian population, and to quantify the genetic relationship of twinning with other reproductive traits and milk yield.

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Clinical trials in depression lack objective measures. Speech latencies are an objective measure of psychomotor slowing with face validity and empirical support. 'Turn latency' is the response time between speakers.

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We sought to derive an objective measure of psychomotor slowing from speech analytics during a psychiatric interview to avoid potential burden of dedicated neurophysiological testing. Speech latency, which reflects response time between speakers, shows promise from the literature. Speech data was obtained from 274 subjects with a diagnosis of bipolar I depression enrolled in a randomized, doubleblind, 6-week phase 2 clinical trial.

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Background: Patients with schizophrenia exhibit a reduced life expectancy mainly due to medical-related pathologies which might have been initiated due to stressful events during fetal development. Indeed, intra-uterus growth patterns predict anthropometric measures in adulthood, describing risk factors for schizophrenia and metabolic disorders. We aim to evaluate anthropometric values in two cohorts of antipsychotic-naïve first-episode episode psychosis (FEP) and correlated them with surrogate markers of the fetal environment such as birth weight (BW) and season of birth.

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Periparturient hypocalcemia is a complex metabolic disorder that occurs at the onset of lactation because of a sudden irreversible loss of Ca incorporated into colostrum and milk. Some cows are unable to quickly adapt to this demand and succumb to clinical hypocalcemia, commonly known as milk fever, whereas a larger proportion of cows develop subclinical hypocalcemia. The main goal of this study was to identify causative mutations and candidate genes affecting postpartum blood calcium concentration in Holstein cows.

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Twinning in cattle is infrequent and usually undesired. It can result in an increased occurrence of abortion and dystocia, reduced calf survival and a high likelihood of freemartinism in mixed-sex twins. Twin gestations are also commonly associated with the formation of placental vascular anastomoses (PVA) between twins.

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Negative symptoms remain one of the major unmet needs for people with schizophrenia, and the past decade has witnessed a surge in interest in negative symptoms. In this themed issue, we present new concepts of negative symptoms and recent findings on their epidemiology and pathophysiology and on therapeutic options for their management.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Recent studies have revealed new insights into how negative symptoms in schizophrenia are defined and evaluated.
  • - The review discusses the impact of these updated concepts on clinical practice and treatment approaches.
  • - New assessment methods for negative symptoms offer potential for better understanding and managing these challenges in patients.
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Negative symptoms reflect a currently much-untreated loss of normal functioning and are frequently found in psychotic disorders. We present the first translation of the Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS) to European Portuguese and evaluate its validity in a sample of Portuguese male patients with a psychotic spectrum disorder. The Portuguese BNSS showed excellent internal consistency, high convergent validity (i.

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In Brief: The bovine high fecundity allele, Trio, results in the occurrence of multiple ovulations and is characterized by antral follicles that develop slower and acquire ovulatory capacity at smaller sizes. This study provides novel information on the effect of the Trio allele on early folliculogenesis.

Abstract: The bovine high fecundity allele, Trio, causes overexpression in granulosa cells (GCs) of SMAD6, an inhibitor of BMP15-activated SMAD signalling.

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Negative symptoms of schizophrenia manifest as reduced motivation and pleasure (MAP) and impaired emotional expressivity (EXP). These can occur as primary phenomena, but have also been suggested to occur secondary to other clinical factors, including antipsychotic-induced sedation. However, this relationship has not been established formally.

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In Brief: Follicle selection is a key event in monovular species. In this manuscript, we demonstrate the role of SMAD6 in promoting decreased granulosa cell proliferation and follicle growth rate in carriers vs noncarriers of the Trio allele and after vs before follicle deviation.

Abstract: Cattle are generally considered a monovular species; however, recently, a bovine high fecundity allele, termed the Trio allele, was discovered.

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Negative symptoms are commonly assessed via clinical rating scales; however, these measures have several inherent limitations that impact validity and utility for their use in clinical trials. Objective digital phenotyping measures that overcome some of these limitations are now available. The current study evaluated the validity of accelerometry (ACL), a passive digital phenotyping method that involves collecting data on the presence, vigor, and variability of movement.

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Multiple birth in dairy cattle is a detrimental trait both economically for producers and for animal health. Genetics of twinning is complex and has led to several quantitative trait loci regions being associated with increased twinning. To identify variants associated with this trait, calving records from 2 time periods were used to estimate daughter averages for twinning for Holstein bulls.

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Aim: We examined whether timing of known risk factors for schizophrenia may influence the development of schizophrenia with primary negative symptoms.

Method: This cross-sectional single-centre study in England used a clinical cohort of 167 clozapine-treated schizophrenia patients. Deficit and nondeficit schizophrenia models were used as clinical proxies of patients with and without primary negative symptoms respectively.

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Introduction: This study aimed to propose criteria for negative symptoms remission (NSR) in schizophrenia using the Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS).

Material And Methods: 274 participants were assessed on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), BNSS and Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale (SOFAS). Two criteria for NSR on the BNSS were proposed - NSR based on the BNSS domains scores (NSR) and NSR based on 5 key items of the BNSS (NSR) A SOFAS score of 61 and above was considered as functional remission (FR).

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Objectives: Negative symptom studies frequently use single composite scores as indicators of symptom severity and as primary endpoints in clinical trials. Factor analytic and external validation studies do not support this practice but rather suggest a multidimensional construct. The current study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to compare competing dimensional models of negative symptoms to determine the number of latent dimensions that best capture variance in biological, psychological, and clinical variables known to have associations with negative symptoms.

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Background: Digital phenotyping has been proposed as a novel assessment tool for clinical trials targeting negative symptoms in psychotic disorders (PDs). However, it is unclear which digital phenotyping measurements are most appropriate for this purpose.

Aims: Machine learning was used to address this gap in the literature and determine whether: (1) diagnostic status could be classified from digital phenotyping measures relevant to negative symptoms and (2) the 5 negative symptom domains (anhedonia, avolition, asociality, alogia, and blunted affect) were differentially classified by active and passive digital phenotyping variables.

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Introduction: This study aimed to propose criteria for negative symptoms remission (NSR) in schizophrenia using the Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS).

Material And Methods: 274 participants were assessed on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), BNSS and Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale (SOFAS). Two criteria for NSR on the BNSS were proposed - NSR based on the BNSS domains scores (NSR) and NSR based on 5 key items of the BNSS (NSR) A SOFAS score of 61 and above was considered as functional remission (FR).

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Digital phenotyping has potential for use as an objective and ecologically valid form of symptom assessment in clinical trials for schizophrenia. However, there are critical methodological factors that must be addressed before digital phenotyping can be used for this purpose. The current study evaluated levels of adherence, feasibility, and tolerability for active (i.

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Aim: We examined whether timing of known risk factors for schizophrenia may influence the development of schizophrenia with primary negative symptoms.

Method: This cross-sectional single-centre study in England used a clinical cohort of 167 clozapine-treated schizophrenia patients. Deficit and nondeficit schizophrenia models were used as clinical proxies of patients with and without primary negative symptoms respectively.

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