Publications by authors named "Elliott K"

Genetic diversity can influence fitness components such as survival and reproductive success. Yet the association between genetic diversity and fitness based on neutral loci is sometime very weak and inconsistent, with relationships varying among taxa due to confounding effects of population demography and life history. Fitness-diversity relationships are likely to be stronger and more consistent for genes known to influence phenotypic traits, such as immunity-related genes, and may also depend on the genetic differences between breeding partners.

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Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide, with early detection and advanced treatments contributing to declining mortality rates. However, managing comorbid conditions, particularly mental illness, presents significant challenges for cancer treatment. This study systematically reviews and meta-analyses the impact of having a pre-existing mental illness on breast cancer treatment utilisation, focusing on specific treatments and comparing different mental illnesses.

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Introduction: During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic, there was a surge in demand for mental health services worldwide, presenting challenges for healthcare institutions as they navigated changes in policy and safety regulations. In the United States, this resulted in many behavioral health modality changes to remain in compliance with the Center for Disease Control guidelines. A growing body of literature has documented these, yet few explored barriers and facilitators affecting the adoption of these modality delivery changes.

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In the commercial table egg industry, avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC) can lead to significant economic loss and bird mortality. The Poulvac E.

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Non-coding mutations in the TERT promoter (TERTp), typically at one of two bases -124 and -146 bp upstream of the start codon, are among the most prevalent driver mutations in human cancer. Several additional recurrent TERTp mutations have been reported but their functions and origins remain largely unexplained. Here, we show that atypical TERTp mutations arise secondary to canonical TERTp mutations in a two-step process.

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Background: In environmental epidemiology, we use an array of tools from various, related disciplines to answer key questions about environmental exposures in relation to health outcomes. Typically, we ask questions related to what, who, where, when, and how. We value these questions because they contribute to novel scientific discovery and our understanding of disease etiology linked to environmental exposures.

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Background: Scientists who communicate societally relevant information face challenging contexts in which misinformation, disinformation, hype, and spin are prevalent. As a result, they often face difficult decisions about how to frame their work in a socially responsible manner.

Objectives: Drawing from the literature on science communication and framing, we identify tradeoffs that environmental health scientists face when deciding how to communicate their work, and we propose strategies for handling these tradeoffs.

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Encephalitis with antibodies to leucine-rich glioma-inactivated 1 (LGI1-Ab-E) is a common form of autoimmune encephalitis, presenting with seizures and neuropsychiatric changes, predominantly in older males. More than 90% of patients carry the human leucocyte antigen (HLA) class II allele, HLA-DRB1*07:01. However, this is also present in 25% of healthy controls.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study analyzed glaucous-winged gull eggs from Canada's Pacific coast from 2008 to 2022, focusing on various contaminants like PFASs, PBDEs, AHFRs, and total mercury.
  • Eggs from urban-influenced colonies showed roughly double the contamination levels compared to those from offshore colonies, indicating different environmental exposures.
  • While some contaminants showed a decrease due to regulation, others displayed complex trends, and a human health risk assessment found no significant risk for First Nations consumers based on current contaminant levels.
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The basal ganglia play a key role in visual perceptual decisions. Despite being the primary target in the basal ganglia for inputs from the visual cortex, the posterior striatum's (PS) involvement in visual perceptual behavior remains unknown in rodents. We reveal that the PS direct pathway is largely segregated from the dorsomedial striatum (DMS) direct pathway, the other major striatal target for visual cortex.

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Objectives: To explore the effectiveness of an adapted 14-week cognitive stimulation therapy (CST) protocol on psychoaffective symptoms and quality of life (QOL) for people living with mild dementia.

Method: The sample for this pragmatic study were people with dementia who underwent CST between May 2016 and September 2022 during routine healthcare. Measures of participants' psychoaffective symptoms and QOL were administered before CST ('baseline') and following CST ('post-intervention').

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To investigate the effects of thirst on later hydration status, total water intake (TWI-MA), and its potential sex differences. Twelve men (mean ± standard deviation; age: 21 ± 2 years; mass: 81.0 ± 15.

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Daily energy expenditure (DEE) is the result of decisions on how to allocate time among activities (resting, commuting and foraging) and the energy costs of those activities. Dynamic body acceleration (DBA), which measures acceleration associated with movement, can be used to estimate DEE. Previous studies of DBA-DEE correlations in birds were carried out on species foraging below their thermoneutral zone, potentially decoupling the DBA-DEE relationship.

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Energy is a common currency for any living organism, yet estimating energy expenditure in wild animals is challenging. Accelerometers are commonly used to estimate energy expenditure, via a dynamic body acceleration (DBA) or time-energy budget approach. The DBA approach estimates energy expenditure directly from acceleration but may lead to erroneous estimates during inactivity when acceleration is zero but energy expenditure is not.

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Declining sea ice and increased variability in sea ice dynamics are altering Arctic marine food webs. Changes in sea ice dynamics and prey availability are likely to impact pagophilic (ice-dependent and ice-associated) species, such as thick-billed murres (), through changes in foraging behaviour and foraging success. At the same time, extrinsic factors, such as chick demand, and intrinsic factors, such as sex, are also likely to influence foraging behaviour and foraging success of adult murres.

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Objective: To qualitatively understand and characterize the experience of racism in outpatient pediatric healthcare settings from the perspectives of Black families.

Methods: We conducted focus groups with parents or guardians of Black children, recruited from academic primary care offices at a single pediatric institution. Focus groups were facilitated virtually by Black team members using an open-ended, semi-structured focus group guide.

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The quality of care in nursing homes (NHs) in the United States has long been a matter of policy concern. Although electronic health records (EHRs) are argued to improve quality, implementation has lagged due to various factors such as financial constraints and limited research on their impact on NH quality. This study examined the relationship between EHR implementation and NH quality using Donabedian's structure-process-outcome model.

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Article Synopsis
  • Seabirds are increasingly ingesting plastic, affecting various species differently based on their ecological and morphological traits.
  • In Canada, a study on northern fulmars, black-legged kittiwakes, thick-billed murres, and black guillemots revealed that 51% of fulmars contained plastic, while kittiwakes and murres had much lower rates, and guillemots showed no significant ingestion.
  • The data suggests that while fulmars ingest less plastic than those in the European Arctic, they still serve as an effective indicator for monitoring plastic pollution in Canada compared to other local species.
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Unlabelled: The COVID-19 pandemic has presented the importance of vaccination as a pivotal strategy for controlling its spread. However, vaccine hesitancy poses a significant barrier to achieving widespread immunization in the United States. This systematic review utilizes the 5C model to examine the factors contributing to hesitancy, which include confidence in vaccines, complacency about disease risk, calculations of individual benefit, convenience of vaccination, and collective responsibility for the protection of others.

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Article Synopsis
  • Life-history theory suggests that trying to raise babies can make animals less likely to survive, but we don't fully understand why.
  • Scientists studied pelagic cormorants over 16 years to see how the energy they used while raising chicks affected their survival chances.
  • They found that most years, energy use didn't seem tied to survival, and older birds used less energy, probably because they’ve learned to do things more efficiently.
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