Publications by authors named "Griffiths K"

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted governments worldwide to introduce social distancing measures, including school closures and restrictions on in-person socialising. However, adherence to social distancing was challenging for many - particularly adolescents, for whom social interaction is crucial for development. The current study aimed to identify individual-level influences on adherence to social distancing in a longitudinal sample of adolescents aged 11-20 years in England, who took part in a randomised controlled trial.

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Gibson, 1968 is an acuariid nematode associated with lethal cases of streptocarosis of diverse aquatic birds in North America and Europe. This study reports as an agent causing severe and fatal necrosis of the oesophagus and proventriculus of anatids, i.e.

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Offspring of older breeders frequently show reduced longevity, which has been linked to shorter offspring telomere length. It is currently unknown whether such telomere reduction persists beyond a single generation, as would be the case if germline transmission is involved. In a within-grandmother, multi-generational study using zebra finches, we show that the shorter telomeres observed in F1 offspring of older mothers are still present in the F2 generation even when the breeding age of their F1 mothers is young.

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Article Synopsis
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in New South Wales experience significantly higher rates of cervical cancer compared to non-Aboriginal women, with an incidence rate of 17.29 per 100,000 versus 6.77 per 100,000.
  • Despite similar overall treatment rates and survival outcomes, Aboriginal women often face barriers to surgical and radiotherapy treatments, especially if they are socioeconomically disadvantaged or live in remote areas.
  • There is a pressing need for targeted interventions to improve access to cervical cancer care for younger Aboriginal women, addressing issues related to diagnosis, treatment, and the broader socioeconomic impacts of the disease.
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Despite many diagnostic and therapeutic advances, colorectal cancer (CRC) remains the second leading cause of cancer death for men and women in the United States. Alarmingly, for reasons currently unknown, the demographics of this disease have shifted towards a younger population. Hence, understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying CRC initiation and progression and leveraging these findings for therapeutic purposes remains a priority.

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  • Heatwaves are increasing in frequency and duration, yet there is a lack of accessible environmental data for primary care use; this study aims to create an online mapping tool to help assess community vulnerability to heatwaves.
  • Conducted as a participatory action-research project in France, the study engaged key stakeholders, including primary care practitioners and data scientists, to collaboratively identify data variables affecting heatwave vulnerability.
  • The findings indicate the importance of co-creating tools that integrate environmental data into primary care, highlighting the potential to enhance health assessments and address broader planetary health issues.
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The first international consensus guideline on physiological interpretation of cardiotocograph (CTG) produced by 44 CTG experts from 14 countries was published in 2018. This guideline ensured a paradigm shift from classifying CTG by arbitrarily grouping certain features of the fetal heart rate into different "categories", and then, randomly combining them to arrive at an overall classification of CTG traces into "Normal, Suspicious and Pathological" (or Category I, II and III) to a classification which is based on the understanding of fetal pathophysiology. The guideline recommended the recognition of different types of fetal hypoxia, and the determination of features of fetal compensatory responses as well as decompensation to ongoing hypoxic stress on the CTG trace.

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Patients with a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) often experience difficulties in psychosocial functioning, which reduces the ability of individuals to engage socially. This review seeks to determine whether atypical antipsychotics (AAPs) are more effective than placebo at alleviating these difficulties in adults with a diagnosis of BPD. We identified six Randomized Control Trials, conducted between 1994 and 2024, with 1012 patients that were treated with either: Olanzapine, Quetiapine, Ziprasidone or Aripiprazole.

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Dieting is a potent risk factor for eating disorder (ED) symptoms and development, which typically occur in late adolescence. However, as diets are often motivated by body image concerns (another core ED risk factor), dieters may already carry heightened ED risk. Thus, the current study aimed to document ED risk among young people starting a diet in the community.

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People exhibit marked individual variation in their ability to exercise cognitive control in affectively charged situations. Affective control is typically assessed in laboratory settings by comparing performance in carefully constructed executive tasks performed in both affectively neutral and affectively charged contexts. There is some evidence that affective control undergoes significant improvement throughout adolescence, though it is unclear how adolescents deemed at risk of developing depression exercise affective control despite poor affective control being identified as a contributing factor to ongoing mental ill health in adulthood.

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Background: Indigenous peoples worldwide experience inequitable cancer outcomes, and it is unclear if this is underpinned by differences in or inadequate use of endocrine treatment (ET), often used in conjunction with other cancer treatments. Previous studies examining ET use in Indigenous peoples have predominately focused on the sub-national level, often resulting in small sample sizes with limited statistical power. This systematic review aimed to collate the findings ofarticles on ET utilisation for Indigenous cancer patients and describe relevant factors that may influence ET use.

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Background And Aims: Opioid use disorder (OUD) and opioid dependence lead to significant morbidity and mortality, yet treatment retention, crucial for the effectiveness of medications like buprenorphine-naloxone, remains unpredictable. Our objective was to determine the predictability of 6-month retention in buprenorphine-naloxone treatment using electronic health record (EHR) data from diverse clinical settings and to identify key predictors.

Design: This retrospective observational study developed and validated machine learning-based clinical risk prediction models using EHR data.

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As the number of pacemaker insertions increases to manage numerous cardiac arrhythmias, the number of complications is also increasing as a result. More common complications such as infection and lead displacement are routinely discussed with patients before they undergo the procedure. However rare complications such as superior vena cava syndrome are not discussed during the consenting period.

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Background: In the UK, chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a prevalent, silent and strong predictor of cardiovascular disease. Identification of CKD is poor in primary care, particularly in minority ethnic and socio-economically deprived groups.

Aim: To investigate feasibility of remote ACR testing to improve the detection and management of CKD in underserved groups.

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Increased proliferation and reduced apoptosis of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) is recognised as a universal hallmark of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), in part related to the association with reduced pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) activity, resulting in decreased oxidative phosphorylation of glucose and increased aerobic glycolysis (Warburg effect). Perhexiline is a well-recognised carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1 (CPT1) inhibitor used in cardiac diseases, which reciprocally increases PDH activity, but is associated with variable pharmacokinetics related to polymorphic variation of the cytochrome P450-2D6 (CYP2D6) enzyme, resulting in the risk of neuro and hepatotoxicity in 'slow metabolisers' unless blood levels are monitored and dose adjusted. We have previously reported that a novel perhexiline fluorinated derivative (FPER-1) has the same therapeutic profile as perhexiline but is not metabolised by CYP2D6, resulting in more predictable pharmacokinetics than the parent drug.

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Background: Lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (LDX) has demonstrated safety and efficacy for treatment of Binge Eating Disorder (BED). However, to date, trials have not included participants with co-occurring psychiatric disorders. This study explores how LDX affects eating disorder psychopathology, symptoms of common psychiatric comorbidities of BED (ADHD, depression, anxiety), and psychological quality of life, in people with moderate to severe BED.

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Diatoms are key components of freshwater ecosystems and are regularly used for paleolimnological reconstructions, in which defining species optima and tolerances is fundamental for interpreting assemblage shifts in a sediment record. Here, we examined responses of diatoms across three major environmental gradients-dissolved inorganic carbon (range: 0.1-230.

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Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) remains a leading cause of death worldwide. Increased formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) during the early reperfusion phase is thought to trigger lipid peroxidation and disrupt redox homeostasis, leading to myocardial injury. Whilst the mitochondrial enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) is chiefly recognised for its central role in ethanol metabolism, substantial experimental evidence suggests an additional cardioprotective role for ALDH2 independent of alcohol intake, which mitigates myocardial injury by detoxifying breakdown products of lipid peroxidation including the reactive aldehydes, malondialdehyde (MDA) and 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE).

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Sustained attention, a key cognitive skill that improves during childhood and adolescence, tends to be worse in some emotional and behavioural disorders. Sustained attention is typically studied in non-affective task contexts; here, we used a novel task to index performance in affective versus neutral contexts across adolescence (= 465; ages 11-18). We asked whether: (i) performance would be worse in negative versus neutral task contexts; (ii) performance would improve with age; (iii) affective interference would be greater in younger adolescents; (iv) adolescents at risk for depression and higher in anxiety would show overall worse performance; and (v) would show differential performance in negative contexts.

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The polygenic architecture of schizophrenia implicates several molecular pathways involved in synaptic function. However, it is unclear how polygenic risk funnels through these pathways to translate into syndromic illness. Using tensor decomposition, we analyze gene co-expression in the caudate nucleus, hippocampus, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of post-mortem brain samples from 358 individuals.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study evaluates the impact of the Northern Territory's 2017-18 alcohol policies, including the Banned Drinker Register (BDR), Minimum Unit Price (MUP), and Police Auxiliary Liquor Inspectors (PALIs) on domestic and family violence (DFV).
  • Findings showed notable decreases in assaults and breaches of violence orders in specific regions like Tennant Creek and Katherine after implementing DPOH and PALIs, while MUP also led to reductions in DFV NT-wide.
  • However, the introduction of the BDR was correlated with increased assault rates in various areas, suggesting mixed outcomes regarding its effectiveness on reducing DFV.
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Background: Ethnic minorities make up approximately 14% of the UK workforce. Despite the disproportionate burden of ill-health amongst ethnic minorities, and the increased interest in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) in the workplace, workplace health and wellbeing interventions are still most often designed for the ethnic majority.

Objective: The purpose of this scoping review was to explore the depth and breadth of evidence on the attitudes to and perceptions of health and wellbeing interventions in the workplace within ethnic minority groups in the UK, and to identify gaps in evidence that would provide direction for future research needs.

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Pathological opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) is implicated in the pathogenesis of many disease processes such as myocardial ischemia, traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer's disease, and diabetes. While we have gained insight into mPTP biology over the last several decades, the lack of translation of this knowledge into successful clinical therapies underscores the need for continued investigation and use of different approaches to identify novel regulators of the mPTP with the hope of elucidating new therapeutic targets. Although the mPTP is known to be a voltage-gated channel, the identity of its voltage sensor remains unknown.

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Background: Speculation exists as to whether lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (LDX) acts on the functional connectivity (FC) of brain networks that modulate appetite, reward, or inhibitory control in binge-eating disorder (BED). Better insights into its action may help guide the development of more targeted therapeutics and identify who will benefit most from this medication. Here, we use a comprehensive data-driven approach to investigate the brain FC changes that underlie the therapeutic action of LDX in patients with BED.

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Introduction: Self-directed dieting (i.e., unsupervised) is very common among adolescents and young adults but has had almost no direct research.

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