Publications by authors named "Cross E"

Article Synopsis
  • New multipurpose prevention technologies for women prioritize reducing HIV risks and preventing unwanted pregnancies, promoting greater sexual health choices.
  • A novel long-acting injectable platform combines the HIV drug MIV-150 and the contraceptive etonogestrel using a specially designed D-peptide that forms a drug-releasing hydrogel after injection.
  • The technology shows promising biostability, low toxicity, and sustained delivery of both drugs in animal models for nearly 50 days, indicating its potential for effective long-term use.
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Introduction: Artificial intelligence (AI) and robots are increasingly shaping the aesthetic preferences of art consumers, influencing how they perceive and engage with artistic works. This development raises various questions: do cues to the humanness of the origin of an artwork or artist influence our aesthetic preferences?.

Methods: Across two experiments, we investigated how the perception and appreciation of dance is influenced by cues to human animacy.

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Aesthetic appreciation of full-body movements is likely shaped by our cumulative bodily experiences, yet most of the extant literature in this domain has focused on expertise and familiarity. We ran two experiments exploring individual differences in embodied experience and experience with the arts: In Study 1, we explored how participants' (n = 41) abilities to learn a choreography shaped their aesthetic perceptions while viewing learned vs. unknown movements, using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure cortical activation over the Action Observation Network (i.

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Background: Dance is a promising health resource for older adults, but empirical evidence remains inconsistent. The lack of synthesised evidence regarding program design, dose, and delivery limits understanding of factors influencing participation and health outcomes. This scoping review aimed to map the scope, range, and effectiveness of dance programs for older people, and identify gaps and opportunities for future research and practice.

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As social beings, we are adept at coordinating our body movements and gaze with others. Often, when coordinating with another person, we orient ourselves to face them, as mutual gaze provides valuable cues pertaining to attention and intentions. Moreover, movement synchrony and mutual gaze are associated with prosocial outcomes, yet the perceptual consequences of these forms of coordination remain poorly understood.

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Article Synopsis
  • The Genome in a Bottle Consortium (GIAB) is creating matched tumor-normal samples that are publicly consented for sharing genomic data and cell lines, focusing on pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).
  • They provide a comprehensive genomic dataset from the first individual, combining high-depth DNA from tumor and normal cells using advanced whole genome sequencing technologies.
  • This open-access resource aims to help develop benchmarks for detecting genetic variants in cancer, fostering innovation in genome measurement and analysis tools.
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  • Septic shock leads to over 40% mortality, transitioning from early hyper-inflammation to hypo-inflammation, making patients vulnerable to secondary infections.
  • The study examines how plasma metabolites from septic shock patients impact immune responses, focusing on cell stimulation with E. Coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and plasma metabolomics.
  • Findings reveal that septic shock patients show endotoxin tolerance and significant accumulation of various metabolites, which can either suppress or enhance the inflammatory response of immune cells.
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  • The study investigates the relationship between respiratory phase patterns and swallowing using a unique oronasal facemask, focusing on comparing isolated nasal airflow to combined oronasal airflow in healthy participants.* -
  • Results show that including oral airflow data only minimally alters respiratory phase estimates during swallowing tasks, with certain patterns slightly increasing while others decreased.* -
  • The findings also reveal high variability in respiratory patterns among participants, indicating a need for further research to better understand respiratory-swallowing dynamics and non-respiratory flow during swallowing.*
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Background: Fencing is a unique and increasingly popular sport, but limited data exist regarding related injuries.

Purpose: To examine the types of injuries incurred by fencing athletes, and to analyze associations between age, sex, and hand dominance with type and location of injury.

Study Design: Cross-sectional.

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Scope: The aim of these guidelines is to provide recommendations for decolonization and perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis (PAP) in multidrug-resistant Gram-positive bacteria (MDR-GPB) adult carriers before inpatient surgery.

Methods: These European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases/European Committee on Infection Control guidelines were developed following a systematic review of published studies targeting methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant enterococci, methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative Staphylococci, and pan-drug-resistant-GPB. Critical outcomes were the occurrence of surgical site infections (SSIs) caused by the colonizing MDR-GPB and SSIs-attributable mortality.

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Unlabelled: The mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system (MDS) is the canonical "reward" pathway that has been studied extensively in the context of the rewarding properties of sex, food, and drugs of abuse. In contrast, very little is known about the role of the MDS in the processing of the rewarding and aversive properties of social stimuli. Social interactions can be characterized by their salience (i.

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During a 3-year time period, a 15-year-old male castrated Terrier mix (dog 1) and a 6-year-old female spayed Labrador Retriever (dog 2) presented to the North Carolina State Veterinary Hospital with similar blood work abnormalities and no significant physical examination findings. A CBC, chemistry panel, and urinalysis performed on both dogs were relatively unremarkable, other than a marked increase in serum gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) activity. Through imaging, both patients were diagnosed with a renal mass, and histopathology of both masses revealed a carcinoma.

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Whether in performing arts, sporting, or everyday contexts, when we watch others move, we tend to enjoy bodies moving in synchrony. Our enjoyment of body movements is further enhanced by our own prior experience with performing those movements, or our 'embodied experience'. The relationships between movement synchrony and enjoyment, as well as embodied experience and movement enjoyment, are well known.

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The process of synchronizing our body movements with others is known to enhance rapport, affect, and prosociality. Furthermore, emerging evidence suggests that synchronizing activities may enhance cognitive performance. Unknown, by contrast, is the extent to which people's individual traits and experiences influence their ability to achieve and maintain movement synchrony with another person, which is key for unlocking the social and affective benefits of movement synchrony.

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We sought to replicate and expand previous work showing that the more human-like a robot appears, the more willing people are to attribute mind-like capabilities and socially engage with it. Forty-two participants played games against a human, a humanoid robot, a mechanoid robot, and a computer algorithm while undergoing functional neuroimaging. We confirmed that the more human-like the agent, the more participants attributed a mind to them.

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Various approaches have been proposed for bridge structural health monitoring. One of the earliest approaches proposed was tracking a bridge's natural frequency over time to look for abnormal shifts in frequency that might indicate a change in stiffness. However, bridge frequencies change naturally as the structure's temperature changes.

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Long-acting drug delivery systems are promising platforms to improve patient adherence to medication by delivering drugs over sustained periods and removing the need for patients to comply with oral regimens. This research paper provides a proof-of-concept for the development of a new optimized forming injectable depot based on a tetrabenzylamine-tetraglycine-d-lysine-O-phospho-d-tyrosine peptoid-D-peptide formulation ((Phe)GGGGk(AZT)y(p)-OH). The chemical versatility of the peptoid-peptide motif allows low-molecular-weight drugs to be precisely and covalently conjugated.

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Study Design: This was a retrospective cohort study.

Objective: To determine the proportion of referrals diverted by the spine virtual fracture clinic (SVFC) from traditional outpatient clinic management.

Summary Of Background Data: The consistent rise in demand for orthopedic outpatient clinic services is creating marked challenges to the provision of quality care.

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First rib stress fractures are uncommon in athletes and diagnosis requires a high degree of clinical suspicion. Diagnostic delay may increase risk of poor healing and long-term complications. Case reports and series describe these injuries primarily in overhead athletes; proposed contributing factors include anatomic susceptibility to stress and repetitive opposing muscular forces.

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The purpose of this case study is to explain the development of Queensland's strategic approach to health system reform, which promotes partnership across the health system to better deliver integrated and value-based health care across the continuum of care. The new health system vision was informed by undertaking literature searches on national and international health system approaches to reform and supported by extensive consultation across Queensland with more than 1100 stakeholders. Thematic analysis was undertaken to identify key themes that were translated into a high-level vision document that communicated Queensland's renewed focus on wellness and delivering more care in the community.

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Adaptive immunity requires the expansion of high-affinity lymphocytes from a heterogeneous pool. Whereas current models explain this through signal transduction, we hypothesized that antigen affinity tunes discrete metabolic pathways to license clonal lymphocyte dynamics. Here, we identify nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) biosynthesis as a biochemical hub for the T cell receptor affinity-dependent metabolome.

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Mutations that perturb leptin-melanocortin signaling are known to cause hyperphagia and obesity, but energy expenditure has not been well studied outside rodents. We report on a common canine mutation in pro-opiomelanocortin (), which prevents production of β-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (β-MSH) and β-endorphin but not α-MSH; humans, similar to dogs, produce α-MSH and β-MSH from the propeptide, but rodents produce only α-MSH. We show that energy expenditure is markedly lower in affected dogs, which also have increased motivational salience in response to a food cue, indicating increased wanting or hunger.

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Children with autism are at high risk for experiencing a mental health crisis, which occurs when psychiatric and behavioral symptoms become a danger and caregivers do not have the resources to safely manage the event. Our current mental health systems of care are not fully prepared to manage crisis in autistic individuals, due to the shortage of available mental health providers and programs that are tailored for autistic children. However, new strategies to address crisis are gradually emerging.

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Developing motor synchrony with a peer (through interventions such as the mirror game) can yield collaborative, cognitive and social benefits. However, it is also well established that observation by an audience can improve cognition. The combined and relative advantages offered by motor synchronization and audience effects are not yet understood.

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The liver transplant assessment process involves a complex set of tests and clinical reviews to determine suitability for liver transplantation. We had an assessment process involving a 3-day inpatient stay and often experienced difficulties admitting patients to the prebooked bed due to a lack of inpatient bed availability.We aimed to change the process from a 3-day and 2-night inpatient stay to a 1-day day-case stay to reduce the demand for inpatient beds.

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