Publications by authors named "Christopher Reynolds"

The adenosine A1 receptor (AR) is a promising target for pain treatment. However, the development of therapeutic agonists is hampered by adverse effects, mainly including sedation, bradycardia, hypotension, or respiratory depression. Recently discovered molecules able to overcome this impediment are the positive allosteric modulator MIPS521 and the A1R-selective agonist BnOCPA, which are both potent and powerful analgesics with fewer side effects.

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While cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, significant disparities exist in care access in low‑ and middle‑income countries (LMICs). In Liberia, screening and treatment for anal cancers remain limited, and are exacerbated among vulnerable groups, including men who have sex with men (MSM). Screen‑triage‑treat models for cancerous lesions have been successful in reducing cervical cancer mortality, but the feasibility of this approach has not been studied for anal cancers in a low‑resource context.

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Introduction: Over 100 million displaced people rely on health services in humanitarian contexts, defined as unstable or transitory settings created in response to complex emergencies. While services are often described, there is a dearth of evidence on best practices for successful implementation to guide efforts to optimize health delivery. Implementation science is a promising but underutilized tool to address this gap.

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Background: Maternal mortality remains a persistent challenge in low- and middle-income countries, where evidence-based interventions of obstetric triage and prehospital communication remain sparse. There is limited implementation evidence for technology-based approaches to improve obstetric care in such contexts. Liberia struggles with maternal mortality, particularly in rural areas where deaths are attributable to delays from absent triage and interfacility communication.

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Immigration policy, particularly regarding migrants crossing the US-Mexico border, has been a highly debated topic for years. There is a continued debate on how to maintain national security while protecting the health and dignity of migrants. In this commentary, we argue that the Biden Administration's "Proclamation on Securing the Border" issued on June 4, 2024, alongside the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice's (DOJ) Interim Final Rule, poses a significant threat to the health of migrants seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border by forcing more migrants to wait in encampments in border towns.

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Article Synopsis
  • GLP-1 receptor agonists are effective for treating type 2 diabetes and obesity, but patient responses vary due to genetic differences.
  • A specific genetic variant (A316T) shows protective effects against T2D and cardiovascular disease and leads to improved blood glucose and insulin levels in a mouse model.
  • However, this variant results in reduced effectiveness when using GLP-1R agonist medications, highlighting the need to understand genetic variations for personalized treatment strategies.
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Background: Significant disparities exist in laparoscopic training opportunities for surgeons in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). ALL-SAFE is an innovative, low-cost training system for LMIC surgeons' laparoscopic development. However, strategies to implement and scale ALL-SAFE are unstudied.

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Article Synopsis
  • Shortages of healthcare professionals in humanitarian settings, especially at the US-Mexico border, necessitate understanding how to enhance their involvement.
  • A study involved interviews with 27 health professionals to explore their motivations, barriers, and recommendations for improving participation in migrant healthcare.
  • Findings revealed that while many professionals had strong internal motivations to help vulnerable populations, they faced significant sacrifices such as career and family commitments, along with barriers like limited education and volunteer opportunities.
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Unlabelled: The ruminant-microorganism symbiosis is unique by providing high-quality food from fibrous materials but also contributes to the production of one of the most potent greenhouse gases-methane. Mitigating methanogenesis in ruminants has been a focus of interest in the past decades. One of the promising strategies to combat methane production is the use of feed supplements, such as seaweeds, that might mitigate methanogenesis via microbiome modulation and direct chemical inhibition.

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Background: Laparoscopy training remains inaccessible in many low- and middle-income countries, including Liberia. We assessed the availability of laparoscopy and feasibility of implementing a laparoscopic program among Liberian surgeons and trainees.

Methods: This mixed-methods study utilized a 32-item survey and semi-structured interviews on laparoscopic experience, knowledge, desires, barriers, patient perceptions, and training opportunities among surgeons and trainees at Liberia's two main teaching hospitals in March 2023.

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Background: The number of migrants at the Mexico-US border has increased to historic levels, and frequently changing immigration policy impacts this population as they await entry into the US. This study evaluated the usability and health effects of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) One™ mobile application among asylum seekers near the US port of entry in Reynosa, Mexico.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 20 asylum seekers in Reynosa, Mexico, in February 2023.

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Background: Surgical decision-making for preference-sensitive operations among older adults is understudied. Ventral hernia repair (VHR) is one operation where granular data are limited to guide preoperative decision-making. We aimed to determine risk for VHR in older adults given clinically nuanced data including surgical and hernia characteristics.

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Accurate analysis of the rich information contained within X-ray spectra usually calls for detailed electronic structure theory simulations. However, density functional theory (DFT), time-dependent DFT and many-body perturbation theory calculations increasingly require the use of advanced codes running on high-performance computing (HPC) facilities. Consequently, many researchers who would like to augment their experimental work with such simulations are hampered by the compounding of nontrivial knowledge requirements, specialist training and significant time investment.

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Humanitarian assistance is hindered by a lack of strategies to optimize care delivery through research and organized networks. Distinct from global health, humanitarian assistance struggles to address its multifaceted challenges, including duplicative resources, uncoordinated communication, unregulated staff expertise and safety, financial waste, and poor-quality metrics and care delivery. Implementation science provides an exciting and underutilized approach that can be applied to address these challenges, by studying how to effectively design, implement, optimize, and scale evidence-based interventions.

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In the decade since the discovery of androglobin, a multi-domain hemoglobin of metazoans associated with ciliogenesis and spermatogenesis, there has been little advance in the knowledge of the biochemical and structural properties of this unusual member of the hemoglobin superfamily. Using a method for aligning remote homologues, coupled with molecular modelling and molecular dynamics, we have identified a novel structural alignment to other hemoglobins. This has led to the first stable recombinant expression and characterization of the circularly permuted globin domain.

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Background: Social media provides an increasingly popular, unfiltered source of perspectives on healthcare. The objective of this study is to characterize the landscape of social media posts regarding carpal tunnel release (CTR).

Methods: Content was queried from Instagram between February 2, 2019 to August 12, 2021 using the hashtags #carpaltunnelrelease and #carpaltunnelsurgery.

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Background: The number of migrants and asylum seekers at the Mexico-US border has increased to historic levels. Our objective was to determine the medical diagnoses and treatments of migrating people seeking care in humanitarian clinics in Matamoros, Mexico.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of patient encounters by migrating people through a humanitarian clinic in Matamoros, Mexico, from November 22, 2019, to March 18, 2021.

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The use of tourniquets for life-threatening limb hemorrhage is standard of care in military and civilian medicine. The United States (U.S.

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Background: Social media offers a popular, unfiltered source of patient and provider perspectives on health care. This study investigated the characteristics of social media posts referencing distal radius fracture (DRF).

Methods: Content was queried from Instagram from February 06, 2019, to December 08, 2021, using the hashtags "#distalradiusfracture" and "#wristfracture.

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Purpose: The Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry Study is a phase II basket study evaluating antitumor activity of commercially available targeted agents in patients with advanced cancers with genomic alterations known to be drug targets. The results in a cohort of patients with solid tumors with mutations treated with cobimetinib plus vemurafenib are reported.

Methods: Eligible patients had measurable disease (RECIST v.

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Methane (CH) emissions from ruminants are of a significant environmental concern, necessitating accurate prediction for emission inventories. Existing models rely solely on dietary and host animal-related data, ignoring the predicting power of rumen microbiota, the source of CH. To address this limitation, we developed novel CH prediction models incorporating rumen microbes as predictors, alongside animal- and feed-related predictors using four statistical/machine learning (ML) methods.

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Purpose: The Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry Study is a phase II basket study evaluating the antitumor activity of commercially available targeted agents in patients with advanced cancers with genomic alterations known to be drug targets. Results of a cohort of patients with solid tumors with mutations treated with nivolumab plus ipilimumab are reported.

Methods: Eligible patients had measurable disease (RECIST v.

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Background: This study examined the effect of prior pulmonary embolism (PE) on total joint arthroplasty (TJA) outcomes.

Methods: We reviewed patients who had a prior PE undergoing TJA at a single tertiary medical center between January 1, 2012 and January 1, 2021. There were 177 TJA patients who had a prior PE who underwent 1:3 propensity-matching to patients without a history of prior PE.

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Article Synopsis
  • 12-Thiazole abietanes are special compounds that can help stop a brain problem called neuroinflammation by blocking a specific enzyme named hABHD16A.
  • Scientists used different techniques to understand which parts of these compounds make them work better against hABHD16A while not affecting another enzyme, hABHD12.
  • One compound showed to be super effective at blocking hABHD16A, but if it had a certain structure, it could accidentally block hABHD12 instead, which means the design of these compounds is really important for making new medicines.
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