Background: With improved survival of adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) comes a need to understand the lifelong outcomes of this population. The aim of this paper is to describe the rationale and design of Congenital Heart Disease Project to Understand Lifelong Survivor Experience (CHD PULSE), a study to determine long-term medical, neurocognitive, and psychosocial outcomes among adults with a history of intervention for CHD and to identify factors associated with those outcomes.
Methods: CHD PULSE is a cross-sectional survey conducted from September 2021 to April 2023 among adults aged 18 and older with a history of at least 1 intervention for CHD at 1 of 11 participating U.
Purpose: Left atrium to aortic root ratio (LA/Ao) is an echocardiographic marker of hemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). Since 2-dimensional measurement of the ratio is geometrically limited, left atrial volume (LAV) which has 3-dimensional characteristics was investigated. The aim of this study was to determine a correlation between LA/Ao ratio and LAV as well as holodiastolic flow reversal in preterm neonates with and without a PDA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrevious work has shown that adults suffering from major depressive disorder (MDD) can increase their amygdala reactivity while recalling positive memories via real-time neurofeedback (rt-fMRI-nf) training, which is associated with reduction in depressive symptoms. This study investigated if this intervention could also be considered for patients suffering from MDD who do not respond to standard psychological and pharmacological interventions, i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In the emergency department, bedside whiteboards are used to help improve communication, teamwork, and collaboration among health care providers. In addition, previous studies have shown that whiteboards aid the patient with the identification of their health care providers, plan of care, expected length of stay, and overall patient satisfaction.
Purpose: This evidence-based evaluation project assessed the perceptions of emergency department health care providers on their awareness of the effectiveness of bedside whiteboards, whether there are challenges with using them, and whether they are being updated and used consistently.
Background: Despite cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) being a standard treatment in major depressive disorder (MDD), nearly half of patients do not respond. As one of the predictors of CBT's efficacy is amygdala reactivity to positive information, which is often decreased in MDD, we explored whether real-time fMRI neurofeedback (rtfMRI-nf) training to increase amygdala responses during positive memory recall prior CBT would enhance its efficacy.
Methods: In a double-blind, placebo controlled, randomized clinical trial, 35 adults with MDD received two sessions of rtfMRI-nf training to increase their amygdala (experimental group, n = 16) or parietal (control group, n = 19) responses during positive memory neurofeedback prior to receiving 10 CBT sessions.
Malformations of cortical development (MCD) are neurological conditions involving focal disruptions of cortical architecture and cellular organization that arise during embryogenesis, largely from somatic mosaic mutations, and cause intractable epilepsy. Identifying the genetic causes of MCD has been a challenge, as mutations remain at low allelic fractions in brain tissue resected to treat condition-related epilepsy. Here we report a genetic landscape from 283 brain resections, identifying 69 mutated genes through intensive profiling of somatic mutations, combining whole-exome and targeted-amplicon sequencing with functional validation including in utero electroporation of mice and single-nucleus RNA sequencing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicroscopic sessile suspension feeders live attached to surfaces and, by consuming bacteria-sized prey and by being consumed, they form an important part of aquatic ecosystems. Their environmental impact is mediated by their feeding rate, which depends on a self-generated feeding current. The feeding rate has been hypothesized to be limited by recirculating eddies that cause the organisms to feed from water that is depleted of food particles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRapid urbanization requires health promotion practitioners to understand and engage with strategic city planning. This policy analysis research investigated how and why health was taken up into strategic land use planning in Sydney, Australia, between 2013 and 2018. This qualitative study develops two case studies of consecutive instances of strategic planning in Sydney.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNotwithstanding the historical benefits of coal in aiding human and economic development, the negative health and environmental impacts of coal extraction and processing are of increasing concern. Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) are a regulated policy mechanism that can be used to predict and consider the health impacts of mining projects to determine if consent is given. The ways in which health is considered within EIA is unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose And Setting: Infrastructure is a global multi-trillion dollar market presenting many opportunities and risks for sustainable development. This article aims to foster better conceptualisation of the connections and tensions between infrastructure policy and public health in the light of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially 'good health and wellbeing' (number 3) and 'industry, innovation and infrastructure' (number 9), based on findings from interviews with a purposive sample of senior practicing Australian infrastructure policy makers.
Principal Findings: We use an institutional framework to explore the ideas, actors, rules and mandates, and procedures underpinning the inclusion of health in infrastructure policy.
Int J Health Policy Manag
September 2018
Background: Infrastructure spending, especially in the transport sector, is expected to increase rapidly in Vietnam. This boost in transportation investment impacts health. Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) are essential tools for decision-making to reduce and mitigate anticipated impacts of development projects, and integration of health assessment as an essential part of the EIA process has been regulated in many high-income countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeritrichously-flagellated bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, self-propel in fluids by using specialised motors to rotate multiple helical filaments. The rotation of each motor is transmitted to a short flexible segment called the hook which in turn transmits it to a flagellar filament, enabling swimming of the whole cell. Since multiple motors are spatially distributed on the body of the organism, one would expect the propulsive forces from the filaments to push against each other leading to negligible swimming.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Epidemiological evidence on the social determinants of health inequity is well-advanced, but considerably less attention has been given to evaluating the impact of public policies addressing those social determinants. Methodological challenges to produce evidence on policy outcomes present a significant barrier to mobilising policy actions for health equities. This review aims to examine methodological approaches to policy evaluation of health equity outcomes and identify promising approaches for future research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Health Policy Manag
February 2018
Background: Transport policy and practice impacts health. Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) are regulated public policy mechanisms that can be used to consider the health impacts of major transport projects before they are approved. The way health is considered in these environmental assessments (EAs) is not well known.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Trauma Acute Care Surg
November 2017
Background: Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among teen drivers. The main goal of this program was to reduce texting while driving among high school teens through a unique peer-generated anti-texting campaign.
Methods: The program consisted of two phases.
Many cells exploit the bending or rotation of flagellar filaments in order to self-propel in viscous fluids. While appropriate theoretical modeling is available to capture flagella locomotion in simple, Newtonian fluids, formidable computations are required to address theoretically their locomotion in complex, nonlinear fluids, e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Trauma Acute Care Surg
August 2017
Background: Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among teen drivers. The main goal of this program was to reduce texting while driving among high school teens through a unique peer-generated anti-texting campaign.
Methods: The program consisted of two phases.
Many small organisms self-propel in viscous fluids using travelling wave-like deformations of their bodies or appendages. Examples include small nematodes moving through soil using whole-body undulations or spermatozoa swimming through mucus using flagellar waves. When self-propulsion occurs in a non-Newtonian fluid, one fundamental question is whether locomotion will occur faster or slower than in a Newtonian environment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProtein fibril accumulation at interfaces is an important step in many physiological processes and neurodegenerative diseases as well as in designing materials. Here we show, using β-lactoglobulin fibrils as a model, that semiflexible fibrils exposed to a surface do not possess the Gaussian distribution of curvatures characteristic for wormlike chains, but instead exhibit a spontaneous curvature, which can even lead to ring-like conformations. The long-lived presence of such rings is confirmed by atomic force microscopy, cryogenic scanning electron microscopy, and passive probe particle tracking at air- and oil-water interfaces.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) signalling pathway plays a central role in the development of the skin and hair follicle and is a major determinant of skin tumorigenesis, most notably of basal cell carcinoma (BCC). Various mouse models involving either ablation or overexpression of key members of the Shh signalling pathway display a range of skin tumours. To further examine the role of Shh in skin development, we have overexpressed Shh in a subset of interfollicular basal cells from 12.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe patched gene (Ptc) is a member of the hedgehog signaling pathway which plays a central role in the development of many invertebrate and vertebrate tissues. In addition, Ptc and a number of other pathway members are mutated in some common human cancers. Patched is the receptor for the hedgehog ligand and in the mouse ablation of the Ptc gene leads to developmental defects and an embryonic lethal phenotype.
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