Publications by authors named "Cowan E"

Background: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) disproportionately impact populations with higher social vulnerability. Expedited Partner Therapy (EPT), which allows the treatment of partners without requiring a medical visit, reduces STI reinfection rates and expands treatment access for underserved groups. However, EPT remains underutilized, particularly in the electronic prescription era, which introduces logistical complexities.

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Objectives: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is the most common substance use disorder in the United States. Despite availability of four FDA-approved medications, fewer than 10% of patients are prescribed medication. This study aimed to evaluate the impact and feasibility of emergency department (ED)-initiated oral naltrexone in patients with moderate to severe AUD.

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Apolipoprotein A-I (ApoA-I), the primary component of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol primes β-cells to increase insulin secretion, however, the mechanisms involved are not fully defined. Here, we aimed to confirm ApoA-I receptors in β-cells and delineate ApoA-I-receptor pathways in β-cell insulin output. An LRC-TriCEPS experiment was performed using the INS-1E rat β-cell model and ApoA-I for unbiased identification of ApoA-I receptors.

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The lack of coordinated global regulation of plastics with drivers such as increasing production and poor waste management continue to bring vast amounts of plastic pollution into our environments. Plastics are transboundary with often a complex value chain in production, use and waste handling and, until now, a fragmented regulatory response on how to solve this crisis. We utilize Abbott and Bernstein theory of orchestration to understand the actors at play attempting to regulate the life cycle of plastics within the ongoing treaty negotiations.

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Background: Emergency departments (EDs) are critical touchpoints for overdose prevention efforts. In New York City (NYC), the Health Department's Relay initiative dispatches trained peer "Wellness Advocates" (WAs) to engage with patients in EDs after an overdose and for up to 90 days subsequently. Interest in peer-delivered interventions for patients at risk for overdose has grown nationally, but few studies have explored challenges and opportunities related to implementing such interventions in EDs.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on assessing breast and ovarian cancer risks in the isolated populations of Orkney and Shetland, particularly through identifying genetic variants in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.
  • A specific BRCA2 variant (c.517-2A>G) was found to have a significantly higher frequency among individuals with Shetland ancestry, indicating a strong link with breast and ovarian cancer cases in these families.
  • The researchers emphasize the potential for targeted genetic screening for this variant in women of Orcadian and Shetlandic descent, as most pathogenic BRCA variants in the region are due to this and another related variant.
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Fly ash is predominately the inorganic byproduct of coal combustion for electrical power generation. It is composed of aluminosilicates with Fe, Mg, K, and Ca forming submicron to 100 μm spheres and amorphous particles. During combustion trace elements are incorporated into the heterogenous fine particles that can pose risks to the environment and human health.

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Background: Increasing the equitable distribution of take home naloxone (THN) may result in reduced deaths from opioid overdose (OD).

Objectives: The primary study objective is to describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of emergency department (ED) patients who decline THN. The findings of this descriptive study may generate new hypotheses for successful THN distribution.

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Importance: In US emergency departments (EDs), empiric antibiotic treatment for gonorrhea (GC) and chlamydia (CT) is common due to the unavailability of immediate test results. Evidence suggests sex-based disparities in treatment practices, with females potentially receiving less empiric treatment than males.

Objective: To investigate sex differences in empiric antibiotic treatment for GC and CT in EDs, comparing practices to subsequent laboratory-confirmed results.

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Objectives: Determine if long-acting injectable buprenorphine (LAIB) can be successfully and safely administered in the hospital with minimal sublingual buprenorphine lead-in and potentially improve follow-up engagement in care.

Methods: We performed a retrospective case series of 46 patients who received LAIB while hospitalized at a safety-net community hospital. We abstracted demographic information, details about substance use disorder treatment history, in-hospital buprenorphine initiation methods and follow-up data from inpatient and outpatient electronic medical records.

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Prospective cohort studies of kidney equity are limited by a focus on advanced rather than early disease and selective recruitment. Whole population studies frequently rely on area-level measures of deprivation as opposed to individual measures of social disadvantage. Here, we linked kidney health and individual census records in the North of Scotland (Grampian area), 2011-2021 (GLOMMS-CORE) and identified incident kidney presentations at thresholds of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) under 60 (mild/early), under 45 (moderate), under 30 ml/min/1.

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Introduction: Previous studies have shown that substantial percentages of emergency department (ED) patients in the USA recommended for HIV or hepatitis C (HCV) decline testing. Evidence-based and cost-effective interventions to improve HIV/HCV testing uptake are needed, particularly for people who inject drugs (PWIDs) (currently or formerly), who comprise a group at higher risk for these infections. We developed a brief persuasive health communication intervention (PHCI) designed to convince ED patients who had declined HIV/HCV testing to agree to be tested.

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Introduction: Formative assessments have overall been shown to improve summative evaluations in medical education. However, it remains unclear if utilizing them for course credit in an integrated curriculum over multiple subspecialties is beneficial for student acquisition of knowledge. We set out to determine if grading formative quizzes had an effect on student acquisition of knowledge via summative assessments.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The Nest Parasite Community Science Project aims to explore how food supplementation affects eastern bluebirds and their nest parasites, involving input from 69 stewards in 26 states between 2018 and 2021.
  • - Findings show that providing mealworms or suet increased the fledging success of bluebirds, despite the presence of common parasites like blow flies, fleas, and mites in the nests.
  • - The influence of food supplementation on parasite prevalence varied by year and location, with more stewards feeding bluebirds in the southern U.S., a trend that contrasts with other scientific projects.
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Every day, we encounter far more information than we could possibly remember. Thus, our memory systems must organize and prioritize the details from an experience that can adaptively guide the storage and retrieval of specific episodic events. Prior work has shown that shifts in internal goal states can function as event boundaries, chunking experiences into distinct and memorable episodes.

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Importance: Buprenorphine is an effective yet underused treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD).

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility (acceptability, tolerability, and safety) of 7-day injectable extended-release buprenorphine in patients with minimal to mild opioid withdrawal.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This nonrandomized trial comprising 4 emergency departments in the Northeast, mid-Atlantic, and Pacific geographic areas of the US included adults aged 18 years or older with moderate to severe OUD and Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale (COWS) scores less than 8 (minimal to mild), in which scores range from 0 to 7, with higher scores indicating increasing withdrawal.

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Aim: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate β-cell function, and β-cell mitochondria and insulin secretion are perturbed in diabetes. We aimed to identify key miRNAs regulating β-cell mitochondrial metabolism and novel β-cell miRNA-mitochondrial pathways.

Methods: TargetScan (http://www.

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Objectives: Many children who require hospitalization are ideal candidates for care in pediatric observation units (POUs) rather than inpatient pediatric units. Differences in outcomes between children cared for in these 2 practice settings have not been thoroughly evaluated.

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, children aged 0 to 18 years admitted to a POU at a community hospital or inpatient unit at a children's hospital were enrolled if they met specific clinical criteria.

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The memory benefit that arises from distributing learning over time rather than in consecutive sessions is one of the most robust effects in cognitive psychology. While prior work has mainly focused on repeated exposures to the same information, in the real world, mnemonic content is dynamic, with some pieces of information staying stable while others vary. Thus, open questions remain about the efficacy of the spacing effect in the face of variability in the mnemonic content.

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Aims/hypothesis: Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery (RYGB) frequently results in remission of type 2 diabetes as well as exaggerated secretion of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). Here, we assessed RYGB-induced transcriptomic alterations in the small intestine and investigated how they were related to the regulation of GLP-1 production and secretion in vitro and in vivo.

Methods: Human jejunal samples taken perisurgically and 1 year post RYGB (n=13) were analysed by RNA-seq.

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Purpose: Chest x-ray (CXR) is the standard imaging used to evaluate children in acute respiratory distress and failure. Our objective was to compare the lung-imaging techniques of CXR and lung ultrasound (LUS) in the evaluation of children with acute respiratory failure (ARF) to quantify agreement and to determine which technique identified a higher frequency of pulmonary abnormalities.

Methods: This was a secondary analysis of a prospective observational study evaluating the sensitivity and specificity of LUS in children with ARF from 12/2018 to 02/2020 completed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA).

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Background: Opioid overdose deaths in 2021 were the highest ever, driven by fentanyl and polysubstance use.

Objective: The aim of the study was to characterize drug use, assessed by urine drug screens (UDSs), in patients with untreated opioid use disorder (OUD) presenting to 28 emergency departments (EDs) nationally and by region.

Methods: We analyzed UDSs from patients enrolled in the CTN-0099 ED-INNOVATION (Emergency Department-Initiated Buprenorphine Validation) trial between July 12, 2020 and March 9, 2022.

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