Publications by authors named "Cook I"

Parental stress can be debilitating for parents and their families. This is particularly true for parents who have a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or other intellectual and developmental disability (I/DD). Effective screening and measurement of parental stress leads to accurate and effective intervention.

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Purpose: Since 1990, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) has offered free cervical cancer screening to low-income, uninsured patients, increasing single time point screening and early detection rates. Little is known about NBCCEDP's longitudinal effectiveness. The objective of this study was to assess utilization of Kansas's NBCCEDP, early detection works (EDW) for one-time versus serial screening and compare rates of cervical dysplasia between groups.

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Article Synopsis
  • Placebo effects are often seen in clinical trials for benzodiazepine receptor agonists, leading to recommendations for discontinuation of these medications in older adults and the use of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI) instead.
  • This study aims to compare the effects of a masked tapering process combined with enhanced CBTI against standard CBTI with an unmasked taper in helping older adults discontinue benzodiazepine receptor agonists.
  • The primary outcome measured is the percentage of participants successfully discontinuing their medication after 6 months, with additional assessments of insomnia severity and short-term discontinuation rates.
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Uterine cancer is the most common gynecologic malignancy in the United States, with endometrioid endometrial adenocarcinoma (EC) being the most common histologic sub-type. Considering the molecular classifications of EC, efforts have been made to identify additional biomarkers that can assist in diagnosis, prognosis, and individualized therapy. We sought to explore the relationship of Repressor Element 1 (RE1) silencing transcription factor (REST), which downregulates neuronal genes in non-neuronal tissue, along with matrix metalloproteinase-24 (MMP24) and EC.

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Background: The Keap1-Nrf2 pathway serves as a central regulator that mediates transcriptional responses to xenobiotic and oxidative stimuli. Recent studies have shown that Keap1 and Nrf2 can regulate transcripts beyond antioxidant and detoxifying genes, yet the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Our research has uncovered that Drosophila Keap1 (dKeap1) and Nrf2 (CncC) proteins can control high-order chromatin structure, including heterochromatin.

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The Society for Vascular Surgery Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection's (WIfI's) threatened limb classification system serves to comprehensively assess the severity of disease in patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia by identifying and grading the main factors that place the threatened limb at greatest risk: wound severity, ischemic burden, and presence of infection. Each of these 3 factors is graded and the limb placed into a clinical stage, with increasing stage associated with severity of limb threat and predicted risk of major limb amputation at 1 year. Globally, there is a growing body of evidence reported from multiple institutions that has assessed amputation rates and wound-healing outcomes following revascularization in patients with WIfI clinical staging.

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  • Aortic dissection is a common issue during surgeries for thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms (TAAAs), often chronic and linked to aortic dilation; this study aimed to compare patient outcomes between those with chronic dissection and those with non-dissection aneurysms.
  • Researchers analyzed data from 3,470 TAAA surgeries and found that patients with chronic dissection were generally younger, had fewer heart disease risk factors, and experienced lower operative mortality (7.1%) compared to non-dissection patients (9.2%).
  • Chronic dissection was not a significant predictor of operative mortality or adverse outcomes; instead, factors like emergency repairs and chronic kidney disease played a more critical role.
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Purpose: Wellbeing refers to a person's overall happiness and satisfaction with life. Wellbeing for people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) and their families is historically significantly lower compared to the general population. It is important in the context of behavioral health treatment to not only measure the individual who is receiving treatment's overall wellbeing, but also the wellbeing of the family.

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  • A new deep-sea octocoral species, Pseudochrysogorgia bellona, was identified from the Chesterfield Plateau and shows close morphological and genetic similarities to Metallogorgia melanotrichos.
  • While M. melanotrichos is known to host a brittle star species, no brittle stars were found with the type specimens of P. bellona; however, most colonies collected in 2017 were associated with a related brittle star species, Asteroschema ajax.
  • Statistical analyses indicated a significant correlation between the sizes of the brittle stars and corals, suggesting that larger brittle stars tend to associate with larger corals, highlighting insights into growth patterns of deep-sea invertebrates.
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The metabolic processes that link Alzheimer's disease (AD) to elevated cholesterol levels in the brain are not fully defined. Amyloid beta (Aβ) plaque accumulation is believed to begin decades prior to symptoms and to contribute significantly to the disease. Cholesterol and its metabolites accelerate plaque formation through as-yet-undefined mechanisms.

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Purpose: Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is characterized by atherosclerotic arterial occlusive disease of the lower extremities and is associated with an increased risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in addition to disabling clinical sequelae, including intermittent claudication and chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI). Given the growing burden of disease, knowledge of modern practices to prevent MACE and major adverse limb events (MALE) is essential. This review article examines evidence for medical management of PAD and its associated risk factors, as well as wound prevention and care.

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Objectives: To investigate first, the level, distribution, patterns and prevalence of seven-day, objectively-measured physical activity (ambulation) in a rural health and demographic surveillance system (HDSS) site in South Africa, across demographic, temporal and anthropometric measures, within a sample of adolescent and adult participants from a defined ethnic group. Second, to investigate the strength and direction of association between levels of adiposity and physical activity (ambulation).

Data Description: The data collected comprises anonymized, individual-level, seven-day pedometry data from a cross-sectional, conveniently sampled survey conducted in 2005-2007.

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Objective: We assessed associations between outcomes after open thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA) repair and preoperative airflow limitation stratified by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) spirometric classification of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) severity.

Methods: Among 2368 open elective TAAA repairs in patients with spirometric data, 1735 patients had COPD and 633 did not. Those with COPD were stratified by preoperative respiratory dysfunction as GOLD 1 (forced expiratory volume in the first second of expiration [FEV] ≥80% of predicted; n = 228), GOLD 2 (50% ≤ FEV < 80% of predicted; n = 1215), GOLD 3 (30% ≤ FEV < 50% of predicted; n = 260), or GOLD 4 (FEV < 30% of predicted; n = 32).

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Objective: Distribution of cervical dysplasia may influence approach for excisional procedures. Separating colposcopy biopsies into multiple specimen cups for pathologic evaluation incurs additional costs. The authors aimed to determine whether the practice of separating biopsy specimens impacts patient outcomes.

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Background: This study aimed to explore association of self-reported physical activity domains of work, leisure, and transport-related physical activity and body mass index (BMI) in 9388 adult men and women from the Africa-Wits-INDEPTH partnership for Genomic (AWI-Gen) study in Africa. Africa-Wits-INDEPTH partnership for Genomic is a large, population-based cross-sectional cohort with participants from 6 sites from rural and urban areas in 4 sub-Saharan African countries.

Methods: A sex-stratified meta-analysis of cross-sectional data from men and women aged 29-82 years was used to assess the association of physical activity with BMI.

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The primary function of human sulfotransferase 2B1b (SULT2B1b) is to sulfonate cholesterol and closely related sterols. SULT2B1b sterols perform a number of essential cellular functions. Many are signaling molecules whose activities are redefined by sulfonation-allosteric properties are switched "on" or "off," agonists are transformed into antagonists, and vice versa.

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Among human cytosolic sulfotransferases, SULT2B1b is highly specific for oxysterols─oxidized cholesterol derivatives, including nuclear-receptor ligands causally linked to skin and neurodegerative diseases, cancer and atherosclerosis. Sulfonation of signaling oxysterols redirects their receptor-binding functions, and controlling these functions is expected to prove valuable in disease prevention and treatment. SULT2B1b is distinct among the human SULT2 isoforms by virtue of its atypically long N-terminus, which extends 15 residues beyond the next longest N-terminus in the family.

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Objectives: To investigate free-living, accelerometry-derived step cadence and walking strategy parameters in 263 adult women (19-56 years) within a rural African setting. Participants were categorised into weight groups: Under-to-Normal Weight (UW/NW: < 25 kg/m), Overweight-to-Obese (OW/OB: ≥ 25 kg/m). From the minute-by-minute uni-axial accelerometry data, outcomes describing physical activity intensity, step volume, step cadence and step bouts were extracted.

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A 60-year-old woman presented with a depressed lesion at the site of her first COVID-19 (Astra Zeneca) vaccine injection. The lesion was diagnosed as a case of injection related localized lipoatrophy as markers of autoimmune disease were negative and biopsy differentiated it from localized involutional lipoatrophy. This case of localized lipoatrophy was likely due to inadvertent subcutaneous injection of the COVID-19 vaccine with a 16 mm long needle.

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Mesonephric-like endometrial carcinoma is a rare but frequently misclassified and aggressive malignancy. KRAS mutations, limited estrogen receptor (ER) expression, and TTF-1, GATA3, and luminal CD10 expression are described in these tumors, but an immunohistochemistry-based screening approach has not been studied. We assessed 300 endometrial carcinomas/carcinosarcomas to ascertain the specificity of TTF-1/GATA3/luminal CD10 expression with or without ER staining for this diagnosis.

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 Oropharyngeal dysphagia (OPD) is prevalent in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Upper esophageal sphincter (UES) dysfunction is an important pathophysiological factor for OPD in PD. The cricopharyngeus (CP) is the main component of UES.

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The Keap1-Nrf2 complex is a central regulator that mediates transcriptional responses to xenobiotic stimuli and is highly related with multiple human diseases. The molecular mechanisms and biological functions of Keap1 and Nrf2 are not fully understood. The Drosophila Keap1 homolog (dKeap1) is conserved with mammalian Keap1 except that dKeap1 contains a 156 aa C-terminal tail (CTD).

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Polychlorinated bisphenols (PCBs) continue to contaminate food chains globally where they concentrate in tissues and disrupt the endocrine systems of species throughout the ecosphere. Hydroxylated PCBs (OH-PCBs) are major PCB metabolites and high-affinity inhibitors of human estrogen sulfotransferase (SULT1E1), which sulfonates estrogens and thus prevents them from binding to and activating their receptors. OH-PCB inhibition of SULT1E1 is believed to contribute significantly to PCB-based endocrine disruption.

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