Publications by authors named "CULLEN B"

Whether depression and poor sleep interact or have statistically independent associations with brain structure and its change over time is not known. Within a subset of UK Biobank participants with neuroimaging and subjective and/or objective sleep data (n = 28,351), we examined associations between lifetime depression and sleep disruption and their interaction with structural neuroimaging measures, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Sleep variables were: self-reported insomnia and difficulty getting up; actigraphy-derived short sleep (<7 h); sustained inactivity bouts during daytime (SIBD); and sleep efficiency.

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  • Caring for hard-to-heal wounds requires understanding both medical and personal factors that affect each patient's condition.
  • Wound care providers must consider comorbidities, psychosocial challenges, and individual experiences related to pain, odor, and drainage to tailor effective treatment.
  • The review emphasizes collaboration among wound care professionals, researchers, and the healthcare industry to improve accountability and meet the diverse needs of patients.
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Objective: The assessment of mood after brain injury is more challenging when people have ongoing severe cognitive and receptive communication impairments. There is no gold standard on how these assessments should be undertaken. This study aimed to reach a consensus on this among specialists working with this population.

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Background: In the context of an outbreak of HIV among people who inject drugs in Glasgow, Scotland, identified in 2015, our objectives were to: (1) develop epidemiological methods to estimate HIV incidence using data linkage, and (2) examine temporal changes in HIV incidence to inform public health responses.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study involving data linkage of laboratory HIV testing data to identify individuals with a history of drug use. Person-years (PY) and Poisson regression were used to estimate incidence by time period (pre-outbreak: 2000-2010 and 2011-2013; early outbreak: 2014-2016; ongoing outbreak: 2017-2019).

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Objective: Mood assessment is challenging when people have cognitive and receptive communication impairments after severe brain injury. This study explored how UK-based medical and psychology professionals working with people with severe cognitive and communication impairments after brain injury assess mood in this population.

Design: Following their participation in an online survey, professionals were invited to participate in individual semi-structured interviews.

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  • To track global progress in reducing HIV incidence, a reliable evaluation method is essential since usual HIV diagnosis dates can misrepresent when the infection actually occurred.
  • A Bayesian statistical model was developed to more accurately estimate the proportions of recent and incident HIV infections in Scotland from 2015 to 2019 by incorporating various testing results and surveillance data.
  • The model found that 43.9% of diagnoses were incident infections and 21.6% were recent, particularly high among people who inject drugs, demonstrating the model's potential to enhance understanding of HIV transmission dynamics amidst data limitations.
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  • * Researchers analyzed data from nearly 53,000 UK Biobank participants to see if various psychological and physical health traits, such as neurological conditions and cognitive test scores, were linked to increased motion during imaging.
  • * Results indicated that poorer health traits often predicted higher motion levels, which in turn reduced the likelihood of obtaining complete imaging data, highlighting a potential bias in studies involving brain imaging in healthy populations.
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Reliable and valid cognitive screening tools are essential in the assessment of those with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Yet, there is no consensus about which tool should be used in clinical practice. This systematic review assessed psychometric properties of cognitive screening tools for detecting cognitive impairment in TBI.

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  • The study investigates the genetic risk factors associated with different patterns of adolescent depression, highlighting the importance of understanding how genetics contribute to varied symptom trajectories over time.
  • Using data from two large longitudinal cohorts in the US and UK, researchers employed growth modeling and polygenic risk score analysis to assess genetic influences on depression and related psychiatric disorders across various ancestries.
  • The findings demonstrate unique depression trajectories in adolescents and suggest that genetics play a significant role in the development and progression of depressive symptoms, potentially guiding early intervention strategies.
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Effective fluid handling by wound dressings is crucial in the management of exuding wounds through maintaining a clean, moist environment, facilitating healing by removing excess exudate and promoting tissue regeneration. In this context, the availability of reliable and clinically relevant standardised testing methods for wound dressings are critical for informed decision making by clinicians, healthcare administrators, regulatory/reimbursement bodies and product developers. The widely used standard EN 13726 specifies the use of Solution A, an aqueous protein-free salt solution, for determining fluid-handling capacity (FHC).

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  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) affects about 1% of people and has a strong genetic component, but previous studies have not fully explained its genetic causes or biological mechanisms.
  • A large genome-wide association study (GWAS) analyzed data from over 53,000 OCD cases and over 2 million control participants, identifying 30 significant genetic markers related to OCD and suggesting a 6.7% heritability from SNPs.
  • The research also found 249 candidate risk genes linked to OCD, particularly in specific brain regions, and showed genetic correlations with various psychiatric disorders, laying the groundwork for further studies and potential treatments.
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Objective: Cognitive screening tests can identify potential dementia by indicating a concerning level of cognitive impairment. The older populations for whom this is most relevant are more likely to experience chronic pain, which also impairs cognitive function, but pain's impact on cognitive screening tests specifically remains unknown.

Method: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis (SR/MA) following PRISMA guidelines evaluating cognitive screening scores in studies involving participants with chronic pain compared with a pain-free control group.

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This article describes the contemporary bioengineering theory and practice of evaluating the fluid handling performance of foam-based dressings, with focus on the important and clinically relevant engineering structure-function relationships and on advanced laboratory testing methods for pre-clinical quantitative assessments of this common type of wound dressings. The effects of key wound dressing material-related and treatment-related physical factors on the absorbency and overall fluid handling of foam-based dressings are thoroughly and quantitively analysed. Discussions include exudate viscosity and temperature, action of mechanical forces and the dressing microstructure and associated interactions.

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The aim of this study is to analyze patient-reported outcomes following this procedure as well as any demographics that may confer prognostic capability. A retrospective analysis was conducted of patients who underwent Triple Arthrodesis at our facility from 2014-2021. Patients were selected if they underwent an isolated triple arthrodesis.

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Fractures of the talus are infrequent injuries often associated with substantial morbidity and imperfect outcomes. We undertook a retrospective review of talus fractures at multiple level 1 trauma centers in order to identify common treatment patterns and potential predictors of complications. All cases of talar fractures meeting inclusion criteria at our institution were reviewed.

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Imagine a bowl of soup that never emptied, no matter how many spoonfuls you ate-when and how would you know to stop eating? Satiation can play a role in regulating eating behavior, but research suggests visual cues may be just as important. In a seminal study by Wansink et al. (2005), researchers used self-refilling bowls to assess how visual cues of portion size would influence intake.

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Climate variability and increasing drought events have become significant concerns in recent years. However, there is limited published research on body weight (BW) change of dairy heifers with different genetic merit when grazing on drought impacted pastures in southern Australia. Achieving target body weight (BW) is vital for dairy heifers, especially during critical stages like mating and calving.

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Happiness is a fundamental human affective trait, but its biological basis is not well understood. Using a novel approach, we construct LDpred-inf polygenic scores of a general happiness measure in 2 cohorts: the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) cohort (N = 15,924, age range 9.23-11.

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  • Individuals with severe mental illness are at a higher risk for cardiometabolic diseases, and recent studies suggest that genetic factors may link these two conditions rather than just lifestyle and medication effects.
  • Researchers analyzed genetic variations in the DCC locus using data from over 402,000 participants in the UK Biobank to find associations with psychiatric and metabolic traits.
  • The study found distinct genetic influences for traits like smoking and body mass index, indicating that these traits do not share underlying mechanisms, particularly within the context of mental illness and cardiometabolic health.
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  • Major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder (BD), and schizophrenia (SCZ) are found to increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases, particularly venous thromboembolism (VTE), due to factors like obesity, smoking, and medication use.
  • A study using genetic data from large consortia identified a significant link between MDD and VTE risk, but not for BD or SCZ.
  • The findings suggest that the genetic predisposition to MDD can indicate a higher likelihood of VTE, potentially informing risk assessments, especially if there is a family history of MDD.
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Background: Maternal stress (MS) is a well-documented risk factor for impaired emotional development in offspring. Rodent models implicate the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus in the effects of MS on offspring depressive-like behaviors, but mechanisms in humans remain unclear. Here, we tested whether MS was associated with depressive symptoms and DG micro- and macrostructural alterations in offspring across 2 independent cohorts.

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Mobile phone reminding apps can be used by people with acquired brain injury (ABI) to compensate for memory impairments. This pilot feasibility trial aimed to establish the feasibility of a randomized controlled trial comparing reminder apps in an ABI community treatment setting. Adults with ABI and memory difficulty who completed the three-week baseline were randomized ( = 29) and allocated to Google Calendar or ApplTree app.

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Cellular processes are the product of interactions between biomolecules, which associate to form biologically active complexes. These interactions are mediated by intermolecular contacts, which if disrupted, lead to alterations in cell physiology. Nevertheless, the formation of intermolecular contacts nearly universally requires changes in the conformations of the interacting biomolecules.

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Background: Tobacco smoking is highly prevalent among persons with serious mental illness (SMI) and is the largest contributor to premature mortality in this population. Evidence-based smoking cessation therapy with medications and behavioral counseling is effective for persons with SMI, but few receive this treatment. Mental health providers have extensive experience working with clients with SMI and frequent treatment contacts, making them well positioned to deliver smoking cessation treatment.

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