Publications by authors named "Davies K"

Introduction: International guidelines make recommendations for the delivery of safe, high-quality primary care for people with dementia including prescribing, personalised care planning and regular holistic reviews. It is unclear how the quality and safety of this healthcare varies with socio-economic factors.

Objective: This scoping review aimed to understand the depth and breadth of existing evidence exploring socio-economic variation in the quality and safety of primary care for people with dementia.

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Background: Meta-analytic evidence has linked shame separately to both potentially traumatic events (PTEs) and psychosis, but the influence of shame on the relationship between PTEs and psychosis has not yet been examined. This study used meta-analytic structural equation modelling (MASEM) to examine whether shame plays a mediatory role between PTEs and experiences of psychosis.

Methods: A nested search was conducted within a previous systematic review on psychosis and shame to identify articles that contained a measure of PTEs.

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  • Cytokines play a crucial role in childhood diseases' inflammation, but testing is mostly confined to research, and there are no standard reference ranges for healthy children.
  • The study aimed to create an accessible dataset of cytokine levels in the airways and blood of healthy children aged 1 to 16, analyzing how these levels change with age.
  • The researchers identified a core set of cytokines that can help evaluate inflammation and address the need for reference ranges to improve disease diagnosis and monitoring treatment effects.
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Pain management in children is often more complex than in adults, since pain in children can be more challenging to assess and therefore more challenging to treat. It is essential that children's nurses have knowledge and understanding of the physiology of pain and the analgesics available to treat different types of pain. This article describes nociception and provides an overview of the three main groups of analgesics - non-opioids, opioids and adjuvants - that can be used in the pharmacological management of pain in children and young people.

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Experiments comparing diploids with polyploids and in single grassland sites show that nitrogen and/or phosphorus availability influences plant growth and community composition dependent on genome size; specifically, plants with larger genomes grow faster under nutrient enrichments relative to those with smaller genomes. However, it is unknown if these effects are specific to particular site localities with speciifc plant assemblages, climates, and historical contingencies. To determine the generality of genome size-dependent growth responses to nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization, we combined genome size and species abundance data from 27 coordinated grassland nutrient addition experiments in the Nutrient Network that occur in the Northern Hemisphere across a range of climates and grassland communities.

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Introduction: Historically, 15% of laryngeal cancer patients undergo non-curative management, but pragmatic data on this group are limited. This information is crucial to help patients make informed decisions about their care. Supported by the Northern Head & Neck Alliance, this retrospective study is the first to present survival outcomes for non-curative laryngeal cancer patients in Northern UK.

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Diagnosis of infection (CDI) remains challenging as it involves in the first instance recognition (clinical awareness) of the patients' symptoms for clinical suspicion of CDI to warrant testing, and secondly, different laboratory tests have been described for CDI. Due to the overwhelming amount of information in the literature on CDI tests and their performance, with separately published guidelines, this review aims to provide a comprehensive but concise summary of the current state of CDI diagnostic testing. Current knowledge and the impact of using different laboratory diagnostic procedures for CDI, including the most recommended approach as a two-step algorithm and the concept of diagnostic stewardship, are being discussed.

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Unlabelled: Target product profiles (TPPs) specify the essential properties tests must have to be able to address an unmet clinical need. To explore how early economic modeling can help to define TPP specifications based on cost-effectiveness considerations using the example of a new rapid diagnostic for infection (CDI), a contagious health care-associated infection causing potentially fatal diarrhea. A resource-constrained simulation model was developed to compare a hypothetical test for CDI with current practice (i.

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Background: Respiratory diseases are a common cause of morbidity and hospitalization for children. Despite this, treatment options are limited and are often ineffective. The development of curative or disease-modifying treatments for children relies on a better understanding of underlying immunity in the early airway.

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Article Synopsis
  • Development of broad-spectrum antiviral therapies, like 4'-fluorouridine (4'-FlU), is crucial for effectively responding to outbreaks and pandemics caused by emerging viruses, particularly those that cause hemorrhagic fevers, which have seen increasing morbidity and mortality rates.
  • 4'-FlU has shown antiviral activity against several hemorrhagic fever viruses in cell cultures and has demonstrated high efficacy in guinea pig models infected with lethal arenaviruses, maintaining its effectiveness at low doses.
  • When administered late in infection, 4'-FlU not only resolved clinical symptoms quickly but also showcased its potential as a therapeutic option with a broader application against various viral pathogens.
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The demand for seed-based restoration and revegetation of degraded drylands has intensified with increased disturbance and climate change. Invasive plants often hinder the establishment of seeded species; thus, they are routinely controlled with herbicides. Herbicides used to control invasive plants may maintain soil activity and cause non-target damage to seeded species.

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With large wildfires becoming more frequent, we must rapidly learn how megafires impact biodiversity to prioritize mitigation and improve policy. A key challenge is to discover how interactions among fire-regime components, drought and land tenure shape wildfire impacts. The globally unprecedented 2019-2020 Australian megafires burnt more than 10 million hectares, prompting major investment in biodiversity monitoring.

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is a One Health pathogen found in humans, animals, and the environment, with food representing a potential transmission route. One Health studies are often limited to a single country or selected reservoirs and ribotypes. This study provides a varied and accessible collection of isolates and sequencing data derived from human, animal, and food sources across 13 European countries.

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Re-establishing native plants while controlling invasive species is a challenge for many dryland restoration efforts globally. Invasive plants often create highly competitive environments so controlling them is necessary for effective establishment of native species. In the sagebrush steppe of the United States, invasive annual grasses are commonly controlled with herbicide treatments.

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Unlabelled: There is a high burden of socioeconomic deprivation across Merseyside and, along with this, poorer cancer outcomes. The incidence of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) within this region is higher than the national average and there are often additional complexities to individual treatment pathways such as poor health literacy, lack of social support and transport options which can impact on adherence to prescribed treatments.

Aims: This work aims to understand the impact of deprivation on patients diagnosed with HNSCC undergoing chemoradiotherapy (CRT) or radiotherapy (RT) treatment by identifying barriers to adherence.

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Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) causes human disease ranging from subclinical to a fatal haemorrhagic syndrome. Determinants of CCHF pathogenesis are largely unknown and animal models that recapitulate human disease are limited. A recently described mouse model uses a monoclonal antibody (mAb 5A3) targeting the interferon (IFN) alpha/beta receptor to suppress type I IFN responses, making animals transiently susceptible to infection.

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Article Synopsis
  • Australia has low pathogenicity avian influenza viruses circulating within its territory.
  • A Eurasian low pathogenicity avian influenza H5 virus has recently been detected in Australia.
  • This finding is important for monitoring and diagnostics, especially given the potential risk of highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) not currently being present.
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  • - A framework was created to define essential skills and attributes that mental health professionals need to effectively care for individuals with complex psychosis, addressing the high social and economic costs associated with the condition.
  • - An online Delphi method was used to gather input from international experts in complex psychosis, leading to a consensus on 167 key skills and attributes, which were categorized into 14 main areas.
  • - The framework serves as a benchmark for training and skill development for mental health clinicians, aiming to improve clinical care and outcomes for those affected by complex psychosis.
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In July 2019, Victoria Gray became the first patient with sickle cell disease to receive a CRISPR-based cell therapy as a volunteer in the exa-cel clinical trial, sponsored by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics. Barely four years later, the ensuing therapy, branded as Casgevy, received approval from regulatory agencies in Europe, the United States, and the Middle East, ushering in a new era of CRISPR-based medicines. During this period, scores of other clinical trials have been launched, including many actively recruiting patients across phase 1, phase 2, and phase 3 clinical trials around the world.

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  • Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is a common type of B-cell lymphoma in kids, with many being cured but some showing resistance to treatment.
  • Researchers used single-cell transcriptomics to study the differences between patients who respond to therapy and those who don’t, finding that non-responders have more immune cells and a specific gene, Tropomyosin 2 (TPM2), highly expressed in their tumors.
  • The study suggests that the level of TPM2 can help predict treatment outcomes for BL patients, highlighting the disease's genetic diversity and potential biomarkers for therapy resistance.
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Orchids offer a variety of floral rewards to pollinators. In many orchid groups, however, the transfer of pollen is based on food-deception, as in the case of Laelia (including Schomburgkia s.s.

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  • Enhanced weathering (EW) of basalt, a silicate rock, is being studied as a method for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to help mitigate climate change, particularly in tropical northeastern Australia.* -
  • Field experiments from 2018 to 2022 measuring the effects of basalt on sugarcane crops showed increased soil pH and nutrient levels, but no significant improvement in crop yields or detectable increase in soil inorganic carbon levels.* -
  • The study found that although the basalt weathering process did not significantly enhance CDR, it may still contribute to long-term reductions in CO emissions from the soil due to changes in soil acidity levels and delayed effects from continued basalt application.*
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