Publications by authors named "Courtney Boyd"

Isoflurane anesthesia prior to carbon dioxide euthanasia is recognized as a refinement by many guidelines. Facilities lacking access to a vaporizer can use the "drop" method, whereby liquid anesthetic is introduced into an induction chamber. Knowing the least aversive concentration of isoflurane is critical.

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Introduction: The goal of this systematic review was to examine the efficacy of behavioral health care treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety delivered via telehealth.

Methods: We searched a combination of keywords related to telehealth, relevant mental health disorders, and evidence-based psychotherapies in three databases (PubMed, PsycInfo, and Embase) from database inception to April 2022. We included randomized controlled trials published in English wherein at least one arm received an evidence-based psychotherapy via telehealth.

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Obesity, overweight, and suboptimal eating habits are threats to U.S. active-duty service member (SM) nutritional fitness.

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Adjustment disorder (AD) is one of the most commonly diagnosed mental health disorders and is generally conceptualized to be mild and short-lived. Despite the frequent use of AD in clinical settings, little is known about the prognosis of this condition. Our goal was to systematically review research on a range of AD outcomes in order to provide a broad characterization of AD prognosis.

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While vaccines have reduced the incidence of vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine hesitancy threatens the re-emergence of childhood infectious diseases. This randomized controlled study evaluated an online vaccine education program to advance vaccine acceptance among middle-school students. Study participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group who viewed the VEP videos or to a comparison group who viewed a science-based video unrelated to vaccines.

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The increased utilization of metrology resources and expanded application of its' approaches in the development of internationally agreed upon measurements can lay the basis for regulatory harmonization, support reproducible research, and advance scientific understanding, especially of dietary supplements and herbal medicines. Yet, metrology is often underappreciated and underutilized in dealing with the many challenges presented by these chemically complex preparations. This article discusses the utility of applying rigorous analytical techniques and adopting metrological principles more widely in studying dietary supplement products and ingredients, particularly medicinal plants and other botanicals.

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In the market of dietary supplements, a low level of certainty exists in the state of the science, coupled with not always knowing what is in the product. Together these issues make weighing benefits/risks difficult and hinder the ability to guide evidence-based practice decisions. The authors sought to identify priorities and develop potential solutions to address research gaps so that information disseminated, can ultimately, be relied upon, when trying to make appropriate and safe decisions.

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Dietary supplements promoted for brain health and enhanced cognitive performance are widely available. Claims made for these products are directed not only to the elderly wishing to prevent or mitigate cognitive decline, but also young healthy populations looking to boost their cognitive performance. It is unclear whether these claims made on product bottles and through advertising match the science.

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Cholesterol-dependent cytolysins (CDCs) are pore-forming proteins that serve as major virulence factors for pathogenic bacteria. They target eukaryotic cells using different mechanisms, but all require the presence of cholesterol to pierce lipid bilayers. How CDCs use cholesterol to selectively lyse cells is essential for understanding virulence strategies of several pathogenic bacteria, and for repurposing CDCs to kill new cellular targets.

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Dietary supplements targeting brain health have quickly emerged in the marketplace as cognitive performance becomes an important public health issue. While manufacturers are required to report the exact ingredients and formulations listed on the Supplement Facts labels of products, many reports have indicated such labels are not always truthful, and the content of some products is inconsistent with the ingredients listed on the Supplement Facts label. To identify dietary supplement products and ingredients marketed for brain health and cognitive performance and perform analyses of select products to verify whether purported claims are truthful and product labels accurate.

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Objective: Approximately 55-76% of Service members use dietary supplements for various reasons; although such use has become popular, decisions are often driven by information that is not evidence-based. This work evaluates whether current research on dietary ingredients for chronic musculoskeletal pain provides sufficient evidence to inform decisions for practice and self-care, specifically for Special Operations Forces personnel.

Methods: A steering committee convened to develop research questions and factors required for decision-making.

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Objective: Approximately 55-76% of Service members use dietary supplements for various reasons, including pain and related outcomes. This work evaluates current research on dietary ingredients for chronic musculoskeletal pain to inform decisions for practice and self-care, specifically for Special Operations Forces personnel.

Methods: A steering committee convened to develop research questions and factors required for decision-making.

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Objective: Approximately 55-76% of Service members use dietary supplements for various reasons; although such use has become popular for a wide range of pain conditions, decisions to use supplements are often driven by information that is not evidence-based. This work evaluates whether the current research on dietary ingredients for chronic musculoskeletal pain provides sufficient evidence to inform decisions for practice and self-care, specifically for Special Operations Forces personnel.

Methods: A steering committee convened to develop research questions and factors required for decision-making.

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Objectives: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and combat-related stress can be refractory, pervasive, and have a devastating impact on those affected, their families, and society at large. Challenges dealing with symptoms may in turn make a servicemember more susceptible to problems, including alcohol abuse, interpersonal conflict, and occupational problems. An effective treatment strategy will address multifactorial issues by using a holistic multimodal approach.

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The membrane attack complex (MAC) is one of the immune system's first responders. Complement proteins assemble on target membranes to form pores that lyse pathogens and impact tissue homeostasis of self-cells. How MAC disrupts the membrane barrier remains unclear.

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Deployed by both hosts and pathogens, β-pore-forming proteins (β-PFPs) rupture membranes and lyse target cells. Soluble protein monomers oligomerize on the lipid bilayer where they undergo dramatic structural rearrangements, resulting in a transmembrane β-barrel pore. Advances in electron cryo-microscopy (cryoEM) sample preparation, image detection, and computational algorithms have led to a number of recent structures that reveal a molecular mechanism of pore formation in atomic detail.

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The membrane attack complex (MAC) is the pore-forming toxin of the complement system, a relatively early evolutionary acquisition that confers upon complement the capacity to directly kill pathogens. The MAC is more than just a bactericidal missile, having the capacity when formed on self-cells to initiate a host of cell activation events that can have profound consequences for tissue homeostasis in the face of infection or injury. Although the capacity of complement to directly kill pathogens has been recognised for over a century, and the pore-forming killing mechanism for at least 50 years, there remains considerable uncertainty regarding precisely how MAC mediates its killing and cell activation activities.

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The plasma membrane provides an essential barrier, shielding a cell from the pressures of its external environment. Pore-forming proteins, deployed by both hosts and pathogens alike, breach this barrier to lyse target cells. Intermedilysin is a cholesterol-dependent cytolysin that requires the human immune receptor CD59, in addition to cholesterol, to form giant β-barrel pores in host membranes.

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Headaches are prevalent among Service members with traumatic brain injury (TBI); 80% report chronic or recurrent headache. Evidence for nonpharmacologic treatments, such as acupuncture, are needed. The aim of this research was to determine if two types of acupuncture (auricular acupuncture [AA] and traditional Chinese acupuncture [TCA]) were feasible and more effective than usual care (UC) alone for TBI-related headache.

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Purpose: Pain is multi-dimensional and may be better addressed through a holistic, biopsychosocial approach. Massage therapy is commonly practiced among patients seeking pain management; however, its efficacy is unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis is the first to rigorously assess the quality of massage therapy research and evidence for its efficacy in treating pain, function-related and health-related quality of life outcomes across all pain populations.

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Objective: Pain is multi-dimensional and may be better addressed through a holistic, biopsychosocial approach. Massage therapy is commonly practiced among patients seeking pain management; however, its efficacy is unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis is the first to rigorously assess the quality of the evidence for massage therapy's efficacy in treating pain, function-related, and health-related quality of life outcomes in surgical pain populations.

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Purpose: Pain is multi-dimensional and may be better addressed through a holistic, biopsychosocial approach. Massage therapy is commonly practiced among patients seeking pain management; however, its efficacy is unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis is the first to rigorously assess the quality of massage therapy research and evidence for its efficacy in treating pain, function-related and health-related quality of life in cancer populations.

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Background: Systematic reviews (SRs) are widely recognized as the best means of synthesizing clinical research. However, traditional approaches can be costly and time-consuming and can be subject to selection and judgment bias. It can also be difficult to interpret the results of a SR in a meaningful way in order to make research recommendations, clinical or policy decisions, or practice guidelines.

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Purpose: While fatigue, sleep disturbance, and depression often co-occur in breast cancer patients, treatment efficacy for this symptom cluster is unknown. A systematic review was conducted to determine whether there are specific interventions (ie, medical, pharmacological, behavioral, psychological, and complementary medicine approaches) that are effective in mitigating the fatigue-sleep disturbance-depression symptom cluster in breast cancer patients, using the Rapid Evidence Assessment of the Literature (REAL(©)) process.

Methods: Peer-reviewed literature was searched across multiple databases; from database inception - October 2011, using keywords pre-identified to capture randomized controlled trials (RCT) relevant to the research question.

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A systematic review was conducted using Samueli Institute's Rapid Evidence Assessment of the Literature (REAL) process to determine the evidence base for melatonin as an agent to optimize sleep or improve sleep quality, and generalize the results to a military, civilian, or other healthy, active, adult population. Multiple databases were searched yielding 35 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) meeting the review's inclusion criteria, which were assessed for methodological quality as well as for melatonin effectiveness. The majority of included studies were high quality (83.

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