Publications by authors named "HARMON J"

Choledocholithiasis is reported in up to 20% of patients undergoing cholecystectomy. It is recommended to remove common bile duct gallstones due to the risk of complications. A common approach to the management of choledocholithiasis is to combine laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) with endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), which is typically completed during two separate sessions.

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The Env protein of murine leukemia virus (MLV) is the prototype of a large clade of retroviral fusogens, collectively known as gamma-type Envs. Gamma-type Envs are found in retroviruses and endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) representing a broad range of vertebrate hosts. All gamma-type Envs contain a highly conserved stretch of 26-residues in the transmembrane subunit (TM) comprising two motifs, a putative immunosuppressive domain (ISD) and a CXCC motif.

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  • Epinephrine in arthroscopic irrigation improves surgeon-rated visual clarity in shoulder surgeries, and subacromial injections are also explored for their effects.
  • A study aimed to determine if preoperative subacromial injections of epinephrine enhance surgeon visualization during arthroscopic shoulder surgery, hypothesizing that it would lead to better outcomes.
  • In a randomized controlled trial with 60 patients, while the epinephrine group reported slightly better visual clarity scores, the difference was not statistically significant, indicating no clear advantage over the control group.
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  • Ebola disease (EBOD) is a serious illness caused by viruses in the Orthoebolavirus genus, primarily the Ebola virus, posing challenges for public health due to its human-to-human transmission and limited treatment options.
  • Despite decades of research, the origins and detailed epidemiology of these viruses remain unclear, with serosurveys indicating higher infection rates than the observed clinical cases.
  • Recent work has mapped a specific B-cell epitope in the Ebola virus spike protein, revealing that cross-reactive antibodies provide insight into unexpected seroprevalences and suggest potential improvements in serological specificity for diagnosing EBOD.
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  • Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a type of blood vessel inflammation diagnosed primarily through a procedure called temporal artery biopsy (TAB).
  • This case report discusses how frozen section analysis during TAB can provide quick diagnostic results that help in starting treatment right away.
  • The authors suggest more research into using frozen section analysis to potentially prevent the need for additional biopsies in patients suspected of having GCA.
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Introduction/objective: The objective of the study was to develop an understanding of the perceptions of people with Parkinson's disease and clinical academics on the implementation of a regional interdisciplinary model of care.

Methods: A qualitative descriptive study was undertaken. A PD interdisciplinary clinic was conducted in an Australian regional location.

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  • Traumatic spinal cord injury (tSCI) leads to quick loss of neurological function, making recovery prediction challenging.
  • The study used contrast-enhanced ultrasound to assess intraspinal blood flow disruption in a rodent model, finding that this disruption was linked to injury severity and locomotor function after 8 weeks.
  • In 27 human cases with varying tSCI severity, results confirmed correlations between ultrasound metrics and both injury severity and functional recovery after 6 months, suggesting potential for these ultrasound metrics in prognostic assessments, although further studies are needed.
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Aim: To explore the experiences of interdisciplinary Higher Educational Academics within Nursing, Midwifery, Pharmacy and Biomedical Science in the use of teaching squares as a formative, collaborative pedagogical tool to promote reflection.

Background: One approach to enhancing academic teaching practice involves the provision of feedback to individual academics. This approach can be challenging for the reviewer, hence other less intimidating approaches are popular.

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  • Normal aging negatively impacts cerebrovascular health, linked to increased risk of ischemic injury, though less is known about the spinal cord compared to the brain.
  • Research using contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in aging Fisher 344 rats showed that older rats had significantly more tortuous anterior spinal arteries and higher vascular resistance, alongside reduced blood volume in spinal tissues.
  • When subjected to low oxygen conditions, younger rats exhibited a substantial increase in blood flow, while aged rats did not respond, possibly due to diminished pericyte coverage and activated microglia in the aged group.
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Objective: To explore the use of teaching squares by interdisciplinary Higher Education (HE) academics when engaging in a cycle of teaching reflection.

Design: A scoping review of published and unpublished research between 2012 and 2022.

Data Sources: Systematic search of ten (10) electronic databases and hand searching of reference lists identified 13 studies for review.

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Immunizing mice with Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) nucleoprotein (NP), glycoprotein precursor (GPC), or with the GP38 domain of GPC, can be protective when the proteins are delivered with viral vectors or as a DNA or RNA vaccine. Subunit vaccines are a safe and cost-effective alternative to some vaccine platforms, but Gc and Gn glycoprotein subunit vaccines for CCHFV fail to protect despite eliciting high levels of neutralizing antibodies. Here, we investigated humoral and cellular immune responses and the protective efficacy of recombinant NP, GP38, and GP38 forms (GP85 and GP160) associated with the highly glycosylated mucin-like (MLD) domain, as well as the NP + GP38 combination.

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Critical limb ischemia is an important clinical entity due to its association with increased morbidity and mortality. The mortality and amputation-free survival remains poor especially in those where revascularization is not an option. Recently, the role of cellular therapy has emerged as a promising therapeutic measure that may aid in wound healing and revascularization and improve functional outcomes.

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Outcomes for adult patients with a high-grade glioma continue to be dismal and new treatment paradigms are urgently needed. To optimize the opportunity for discovery, we performed a phase 0/1 dose-escalation clinical trial that investigated tumor pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and single nucleus transcriptomics following combined ribociclib (CDK4/6 inhibitor) and everolimus (mTOR inhibitor) treatment in recurrent high-grade glioma. Patients with a recurrent high-grade glioma (n = 24) harboring 1) / deletion or / amplification, 2) loss or mutations, and 3) wild-type retinoblastoma protein (Rb) were enrolled.

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  • The rVSVΔG-ZEBOV-GP vaccine has been used during Ebola outbreaks, and a study in Uganda assessed healthcare workers' knowledge, attitudes, and long-term immune responses following vaccination.
  • Out of 565 surveyed healthcare workers, only 37% reported being vaccinated, and a significant portion lacked knowledge that the vaccine only protects against Ebola.
  • Despite the general desire for booster doses, the findings highlight the need for continued education on Ebola and other viral hemorrhagic fevers, especially since the vaccine's long-term effectiveness remains uncertain.
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  • CCHFV is a dangerous tick-borne virus with no approved treatments, and its L protein has a domain that interferes with immune responses, making it a potential drug target.
  • Researchers previously showed that a protein variant called CC4 can effectively inhibit CCHFV replication in lab settings.
  • In this study, they tested delivering CC4 using a modified adenovirus in mice, finding that while one injection method delivered the virus more effectively to the liver, it did not protect against lethal CCHFV infection.
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Background: Macro and meso level factors that influence the participation by clinical pharmacists in ward rounds include pharmacy management culture, commitment to ward rounds and adequate time for ward rounds being included in workload models. The 'micro' level factors that affect the involvement of clinical pharmacists in ward rounds have not been widely explored.

Objective: Explore 'micro' level factors to gain insight into clinical pharmacists' participation in interprofessional ward rounds in inpatient settings through the lens of social cognitive theory.

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Purpose: Rib fractures are common after blunt thoracic trauma and can be associated with significant morbidity and mortality. We investigated trends of rib fracture injuries among adults presenting to United States (US) emergency departments, factors related to increased likelihood of hospitalization, and hospitalization practice patterns.

Methods: We queried the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System database between 2012 and 2021 for all patients 18 years of age and older with rib fractures.

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Normal aging is associated with significant deleterious cerebrovascular changes; these have been implicated in disease pathogenesis and increased susceptibility to ischemic injury. While these changes are well documented in the brain, few studies have been conducted in the spinal cord. Here, we utilize specialized contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) imaging to investigate age-related changes in cervical spinal vascular anatomy and hemodynamics in male Fisher 344 rats, a common strain in aging research.

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Background: The opioid overdose crisis is one of the worst public health crises ever to face the US and emerging evidence suggests its effects are compounded by the presence of drug adulterants. Here we report our efforts to characterize the adulterants present within the local fentanyl supply of San Diego County, obtained from undifferentiated drug samples seized by local law enforcement over the calendar year 2021.

Methods: Thirty-two participating local law enforcement agencies across San Diego submitted 4838 unknown individual illicit drug samples (total of 312 kg) to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department Regional Crime Laboratory for identification.

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Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1α (HIF-1α) has presented a new direction for ischemic preconditioning of surgical flaps to promote their survival. In a previous study, we demonstrated the effectiveness of HIF-1a DNA plasmids in this application. In this study, to avoid complications associated with plasmid use, we sought to express HIF-1α through mRNA transfection and determine its biological activity by measuring the upregulation of downstream angiogenic genes.

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Bats are increasingly recognized as reservoirs of emerging zoonotic pathogens. Egyptian rousette bats (ERBs) are the known reservoir of Marburg virus (MARV), a filovirus that causes deadly Marburg virus disease (MVD) in humans. However, ERBs harbor MARV asymptomatically, likely due to a coadapted and specific host immunity-pathogen relationship.

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Purpose: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a preventable cause of blindness detectable through screening using retinal digital photography. The Irish National Diabetic Retina Screening (DRS) programme, Diabetic RetinaScreen, provides free screening services to patients with diabetes from aged 12 years and older. A technical failure (TF) occurs when digital retinal imaging is ungradable, resulting in delays in the diagnosis and treatment of sight-threatening disease.

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The History Maker paper focuses on the extraordinary revolution that dramatically improved the surgical results for the Whipple procedure (pancreaticoduodenectomy) in the 1980s and identifies Dr. Cameron as the leader of this revolution, who reported a mortality rate of approximately 1%. The revolutionary reduction of postoperative mortality for the Whipple procedure was achieved by adherence to gentle and precise Halstedian surgical techniques with adequate drainage of pancreatico-jejunal anastomosis with closed-suction silastic drains, along with the development of high-volume surgeons and hospitals.

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