Publications by authors named "Cowan R"

Background: Wheelchair users live predominantly sedentary lifestyles and have a substantially higher risk for cardiometabolic disease and mortality compared to people without disabilities. Exercise training has been found to be effective in improving cardiometabolic health (CMH) outcomes among people without disabilities, but research on wheelchair users is limited and of poor quality.

Objective: The primary aim of this study is to examine the immediate and sustained effects of a 24-week, telehealth, movement-to-music cardiovascular (M2M-C) exercise program on core indicators of CMH among adult wheelchair users compared to an active control group.

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Background: Racial and ethnic minorities remain underrepresented in the surgical workforce with well-documented barriers to diversity and inclusion, including financial support, lack of mentorship, and high attrition rates. Recent literature has documented race and sex discrimination in the training of surgical residents but little is known about the experience of discrimination at the surgical fellowship level. The goal of our study was to assess attitudes and perceptions of unconscious bias experienced during surgical oncology fellowship training at our institution.

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Article Synopsis
  • The amygdala, a key brain region for emotion and memory, shows enhanced memory encoding through electrical stimulation, particularly in its basolateral complex (BLA).
  • Direct stimulation using rhythmic theta-burst stimulation (TBS) has been found to improve both emotional and non-emotional declarative memory by promoting synaptic plasticity in areas like the hippocampus.
  • A study conducted during a memory task revealed that TBS modulates neuronal activity in the brain, with specific neuron characteristics influencing how they respond to stimulation, which is significant for future neuromodulation therapies.
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Purpose: We aim to determine the current treatment patterns and recommendations among physicians for cutaneous lymphomas and to identify the types of skin lymphomas for which existing radiation regimens need improvement.

Methods And Materials: A questionnaire from the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer was distributed to all members of the Cutaneous Lymphoma Tumour Group and Radiation Oncology Scientific Council. This online survey included 13 questions regarding treatment practices for patients with cutaneous lymphoma.

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Objective: To examine the length of time to complete wheelchair repairs and the relationship between negative outcomes and the factors that prevented or determined who performed the repairs.

Design: Survey, cross-sectional.

Setting: Nine spinal cord injury (SCI) Model Systems Centers.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Radiation oncologists must make tailored decisions for patient treatment, but these choices would benefit from more clinical evidence and research.
  • * The article calls for a prospective trial to better understand how different radiation doses affect patient outcomes in primary cutaneous lymphoma treatment.
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Introduction: Neurological disorders (ND) have a high incidence in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In this region, systemic challenges of conventional medicine (CM) and cultural beliefs have contributed to a large utilization of traditional medicine (TM). Yet, data on TM and those who use it in the treatment of ND in SSA are scarce.

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  • "Revolving door patients" are people who keep going back to the hospital because they aren't getting better, often due to not taking their medicine or not having enough support.
  • The idea of a Mobile Delivery Program (MDP) is proposed, where healthcare workers bring medicines and help directly to these patients' homes to make it easier for them to stick to their treatment.
  • This program aims to help patients avoid going back to the hospital repeatedly, improve their overall health, and save a lot of money that is currently spent on hospital visits and other related costs.
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Background: Longitudinal studies highlight the importance of early intervention and timely device fitting for language development in children with congenital or early acquired hearing loss. Due to the variability in hearing loss, comorbidities, family circumstances, and service access, individualised monitoring of listening development is essential to inform decision-making. The Functional Listening Index-Paediatric (FLI-P), a 64-item hierarchical checklist of listening skills, has been validated for children with hearing loss aged 0-6 years.

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  • Researchers are investigating potential biomarker signatures in serum and cerebrospinal fluid to better diagnose and categorize different types of migraines (episodic and chronic) since there are currently no known biomarkers for migraine.
  • The study identified key proteins that distinguish migraine patients from healthy controls, with a classification model achieving high sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing migraines.
  • Findings show that certain proteins, like ZFP-814 and CACNA1F, are linked to migraine persistence and may serve as indicators for treatment responses in migraine patients.
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In Intensive Care Units (ICUs), patients are at risk of developing ocular complications, especially exposure keratopathy. Plan, Do, Study, Act for PDSA cycle. Despite national guidelines, implementation remains challenging.

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Objectives: We describe new curriculum materials for engaging secondary school students in exploring the "big data" in the NIH All of Us Research Program's Public Data Browser and the co-design processes used to collaboratively develop the materials. We also describe the methods used to develop and validate assessment items for studying the efficacy of the materials for student learning as well as preliminary findings from these studies.

Materials And Methods: Secondary-level biology teachers from across the United States participated in a 2.

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Background: Our recent studies have shown headache disorders to be very common in the central and western sub-Saharan countries of Benin and Cameroon. Here we report headache in nearby Mali, a strife-torn country that differs topographically, culturally, politically and economically. The purposes were to estimate headache-attributed burden and need for headache care.

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Objective: Following a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), the most prevalent and profoundly debilitating occurrence is the emergence of an acute and persistent post-traumatic headache (PTH), for which there are presently no approved treatments. A crucial gap in knowledge exists regarding the consequences of an mTBI, which could serve as a foundation for the development of therapeutic approaches. The activation of trigeminal sensory nerve terminals that innervate the calvarial periosteum (CP)-a densely innervated tissue layer covering the calvarial skull-has been implicated in both migraines and PTHs.

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Ultrasound has revolutionized reconstructive microsurgery, offering real-time imaging and enhanced precision allowing for preoperative flap planning, recipient vessel identification and selection, postoperative flap monitoring, and lymphatic surgery. This narrative review of the literature provides an updated evidence-based overlook on the current applications and emerging frontiers of ultrasound in microsurgery, focusing on free tissue transfer and lymphatic surgery. Color duplex ultrasound (CDU) plays a pivotal role in preoperative flap planning and design, providing real-time imaging that enables detailed perforator mapping, perforator suitability assessment, blood flow velocity measurement, and, ultimately, flap design optimization.

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Aims: In 2020 the UK Global Cancer Network (UKGCN) was formed to unite those in the UK interested in Global Oncology and to strengthen collaborative partnerships with stakeholders working across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in cancer health systems, governance, and care. The UKGCN undertook a mapping exercise to document collaborations to inform the UK's global oncology strategy.

Materials And Methods: A semi-structured survey was developed and disseminated using a snowball method over ten weeks from February 2021 across the UK's cancer community, to identify individuals and institutions engaged in clinical practice, research, and/or education with partners in LMICs.

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Background: A blood-stage Plasmodium falciparum malaria vaccine would provide a second line of defence to complement partially effective or waning immunity conferred by the approved pre-erythrocytic vaccines. RH5.1 is a soluble protein vaccine candidate for blood-stage P falciparum, formulated with Matrix-M adjuvant to assess safety and immunogenicity in a malaria-endemic adult and paediatric population for the first time.

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Background And Objectives: Spinal CSF leaks lead to spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH). While International Classification of Headache Disorders, Third Edition (ICHD-3) criteria necessitate imaging confirmation or low opening pressure (OP) for SIH diagnosis, their sensitivity may be limited. We offered epidural blood patches (EBPs) to patients with symptoms suggestive of SIH, with and without a documented low OP or confirmed leak on imaging.

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Purpose Of Review: This review focuses on the challenges of diagnosing and treating spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH), a condition caused by spinal CSF leakage. It emphasizes the need for increased awareness and advocates for early and thoughtful use of empirical epidural blood patches (EBPs) in suspected cases.

Recent Findings: SIH diagnosis is hindered by variable symptoms and inconsistent imaging results, including normal brain MRI and unreliable spinal opening pressures.

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Article Synopsis
  • Angiosperms are vital for ecosystems and human life, making it important to understand their evolutionary history to grasp their ecological dominance.
  • The study builds an extensive tree of life for about 8,000 angiosperm genera using 353 nuclear genes, significantly increasing the sampling size and refining earlier classifications.
  • The findings reveal a complex evolutionary history marked by high gene tree conflict and rapid diversification, particularly during the early angiosperm evolution, with shifts in diversification rates linked to global temperature changes.
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Impulsive choices prioritize smaller, more immediate rewards over larger, delayed, or potentially uncertain rewards. Impulsive choices are a critical aspect of substance use disorders and maladaptive decision-making across the lifespan. Here, we sought to understand the neuronal underpinnings of expected reward and risk estimation on a trial-by-trial basis during impulsive choices.

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Objective: To evaluate whether a 500 pulses per second per channel (pps/ch) rate would provide non-inferior hearing performance compared to the 900 pps/ch rate in the Advanced Combination Encoder (ACE™) sound coding strategy.

Design: A repeated measures single-subject design was employed, wherein each subject served as their own control. All except one subject used 900 pps/ch at enrolment.

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Illness cognitions (IC) influence how a patient adapts to a chronic disease. The aim was (1) to determine if training for a handcycling mountain time trial (HandbikeBattle) improves IC and (2) to identify factors associated with IC change scores. Persons with a chronic disability (N = 220; including N = 151 with spinal cord disorder) trained 5 months and participated in the time trial.

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