Publications by authors named "Connor K"

Membrane oxygenator failure remains a concern for perfusion teams. Successful outcomes for this low-frequency, high-risk intervention are predicated on having written institutional protocols for both the oxygenator change-out procedure as well as how often the procedure is practiced by staff perfusionists. A recent review of peer-reviewed journal articles, textbooks and online resources revealed a lack of a unified intervention algorithm for failure to oxygenate during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Maternal nutritional interventions during pregnancy could significantly impact placental function and shape, addressing nutrient deficiencies that affect both maternal and neonatal health.
  • A comprehensive review of studies from 2001 to 2021 identified 53 articles exploring various types of nutritional interventions, such as micronutrients, lipids, and proteins, and their effects on placental characteristics.
  • Notably, certain interventions, particularly those involving micronutrients and lipids, demonstrated a link to improved placental function and reduced risks of complications like preeclampsia, highlighting the importance of nutrition in prenatal care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Spina bifida (SB) remains one of the most common congenital anomalies and associates with significant comorbidities in the fetus, which may, in part, be driven by placental maldevelopment. We hypothesised that placental pathologies would be more prevalent in fetuses with SB compared to fetuses without congenital anomalies.

Methods: Placental pathology and transcriptome were evaluated for fetuses with isolated open SB born preterm (cases; n = 12) and control fetuses without congenital anomalies (n = 22) born at full term (FT) or preterm (PT).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The human yolk sac (hYS) is essential for embryo nutrient biosynthesis/transport and development. However, there lacks a comprehensive study of hYS nutrient-gene interactions. Here we performed a secondary analysis of hYS transcript profiles (n = 9 samples) to identify nutrient-sensitive hYS genes and regulatory networks, including those that associate with adverse perinatal phenotypes with embryonic origins.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a common cause of vision loss among older adults, and current treatment options are limited.
  • Researchers identified genetic factors contributing to AMD risk by analyzing data from 12,495 AMD cases and 461,686 controls, discovering four key protective haplotypes.
  • The study suggests that lowering levels of the protein FHR-5 could enhance certain immune pathways and potentially serve as a strategy to prevent or treat AMD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: This review aims to identify the mechanistic relationships related to periodontal diseases and its possible association with changes in human milk composition and the composition and function of infants' gut microbiome.

Background: Maternal health conditions, especially inflammatory, are associated with altered human milk composition. It is known whether maternal oral inflammatory diseases, including periodontal diseases, deleteriously affect human milk composition.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The latent singlet diradical character of the parent -quinonedimethide (-QDM), as revealed by valence bond calculations, is demonstrated experimentally by trapping with the kinetically stable free radical TEMPO at room temperature. In the absence of TEMPO, the main pathway for decomposition at ambient temperature is not (as previously proposed in the literature) a radical reaction but instead a concerted Diels-Alder dimerization, which through ωB97X-D/aug-cc-pVTZ/SMD//M06-2X-D3/6-31+G(d,p)/SMD calculations is shown to proceed through an ambimodal bispericyclic transition state. The predominantly non-radical reactivity of -QDM at room temperature differs from that of its isomeric -quinonedimethide (-QDM) congener, which self-reacts through radical pathways.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Purpose: Radiomics analysis extracts quantitative data (features) from medical images. These features could potentially reflect biological characteristics and act as imaging biomarkers within precision medicine. However, there is a lack of cross-comparison and validation of radiomics outputs which is paramount for clinical implementation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Describe continuous infusion (CI) ketamine practices in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) and evaluate its effect on pain/sedation scores, exposure to analgesics/sedatives, and adverse effects (AEs).

Methods: Multicenter, retrospective, observational study in children <18 years who received CI ketamine between 2014 and 2017. Time spent in goal pain/sedation score range and daily cumulative doses of analgesics/sedatives were compared from the 24 hours (H) prior to CI ketamine to the first 24H and 25-48H of the CI.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Existing guidelines on the preparation (Planning Research and Experimental Procedures on Animals: Recommendations for Excellence (PREPARE)) and reporting (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE)) of animal experiments do not provide a clear and standardized approach for refinement during in vivo cancer studies, resulting in the publication of generic methodological sections that poorly reflect the attempts made at accurately monitoring different pathologies. Compliance with the 3Rs guidelines has mainly focused on reduction and replacement; however, refinement has been harder to implement. The Oncology Best-practices: Signs, Endpoints and Refinements for in Vivo Experiments (OBSERVE) guidelines are the result of a European initiative supported by EurOPDX and INFRAFRONTIER, and aim to facilitate the refinement of studies using in vivo cancer models by offering robust and practical recommendations on approaches to research scientists and animal care staff.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The placenta undergoes morphological and functional adaptations to adverse exposures during pregnancy. The effects ofsuboptimal maternal body mass index (BMI), preterm birth, and infection on placental histopathological phenotypes are not yet well understood, despite the association between these conditions and poor offspring outcomes. We hypothesized that suboptimal maternal prepregnancy BMI and preterm birth (with and without infection) would associate with altered placental maturity and morphometry, and that altered placental maturity would associate with poor birth outcomes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The mussel Mytilus californianus is an ecosystem engineer forming beds along the coastlines of Northeastern Pacific shores. As sessile organisms, they modulate their energy balance through valve movements, feeding, and digestive functionality. A recent study observed that activity of the digestive enzyme cellulase was higher than predicted in mussels high on the shore, where temperatures are characteristically high and food availability is limited compared to low-shore habitats.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Following the introduction of an algorithm aiming to maximise life-years gained from liver transplantation in the UK (the transplant benefit score [TBS]), donor livers were redirected from younger to older patients, mortality rate equalised across the age range and short-term waiting list mortality reduced. Understanding age-related prioritisation has been challenging, especially for younger patients and clinicians allocating non-TBS-directed livers. We aimed to assess age-related prioritisation within the TBS algorithm by modelling liver transplantation prioritisation based on data from a UK transplant unit and comparing these data with other regions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted routine school operations, including school health programs. This study aims to describe the pandemic's impact on school health service delivery from the perspective of Maryland school health partners.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with health service representatives from public schools (K-12) between July and December 2021.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: School-based health centers (SBHCs) improve health care access, but associations with educational outcomes are mixed and limited for elementary and middle school students. We investigated whether students enrolled in a comprehensive SBHC demonstrated more growth in standardized math and reading assessments over 4 school years versus nonenrolled students. We also explored changes in absenteeism.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Autoimmune uveitis is a significant cause of blindness in younger adults, driven by specific T cells that attack the retina.
  • The disease progresses through three phases: early infiltration of inflammatory cells, an amplification phase, and a peak phase of symptoms.
  • Research shows that microglia play a crucial role in all stages of the disease, while infiltrating dendritic cells are present but not essential for the disease's progression, highlighting microglia as potential therapeutic targets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Problem: Fetal spina bifida (SB) is more common in pregnant people with folate deficiency or anomalies of folate metabolism. It is also known that fetuses with SB have a higher risk of low birthweight, a condition that is typically placental-mediated. We therefore hypothesized that fetal SB would associate with altered expression of key placental folate transporters and an increase in Hofbauer cells (HBCs), which are folate-dependent placental macrophages.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Etrasimod is a potential oral medication for treating immune-related inflammatory disorders, being tested for its effects on heart electrical activity, specifically the QT interval.
  • The study involved healthy adults receiving either etrasimod in varying doses or placebos, with the main focus on its impact on the QT interval measured through electrocardiograms.
  • Results showed that etrasimod's impact on the QTc interval was minimal, remaining below 10 milliseconds, and it only caused slight, temporary decreases in heart rate without any significant heart block issues.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Large language models (LLMs) can support nursing education but pose questions of validity, reliability, and ethical use. This article proposes using the five rights of nursing delegation framework by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing to teach nursing students about the appropriate use of LLMs in health care and nursing education. Nursing faculty can teach students how to assess the validity and reliability of the information provided by LLMs, document its use, and reference and cite information appropriately.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Here, we establish a CT-radiomics based method for application in invasive, orthotopic rodent brain tumour models. Twenty four NOD/SCID mice were implanted with U87R-Luc2 GBM cells and longitudinally imaged via contrast enhanced (CE-CT) imaging. Pyradiomics was employed to extract CT-radiomic features from the tumour-implanted hemisphere and non-tumour-implanted hemisphere of acquired CT-scans.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

To improve outcomes in fetuses with spina bifida (SB), better understanding is needed of the molecular drivers of SB and its comorbidities. Pregnant people carrying a fetus with isolated SB (cases; n = 12) or a fetus with no congenital anomalies (controls; n = 21) were recruited at Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Clinical data and placental samples were collected.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Importance: There is growing interest in expanding integrated models, in which 1 insurer manages Medicare and Medicaid spending for dually eligible individuals. Fully integrated dual-eligible special needs plans (FIDE-SNPs) are one of the largest integrated models, but evidence about their performance is limited.

Objective: To evaluate changes in care associated with integrating Medicare and Medicaid coverage in a FIDE-SNP in Pennsylvania.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: A standard blood prime for cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) in congenital cardiac surgery may possess non-physiologic values for electrolytes, glucose, and lactate. Pre-bypass Ultrafiltration (PBUF) can make these values more physiologic and standardized prior to bypass initiation. We aimed to determine if using PBUF on blood primes including packed red blood cells and thawed plasma would make prime values more predictable and physiologic.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Chemotherapy using temozolomide is the standard treatment for patients with glioblastoma. Despite treatment, prognosis is still poor largely due to the emergence of temozolomide resistance. This resistance is closely linked to the widely recognized inter- and intra-tumoral heterogeneity in glioblastoma, although the underlying mechanisms are not yet fully understood.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF