Assessing the readiness and feasibility to implement a model of care for spine disorders and related disability in Cross Lake, an Indigenous community in northern Manitoba, Canada: a research protocol.

Background: Since the 1990s, spine disorders have remained the leading cause of global disability, disproportionately affecting economically marginalized individuals, rural populations, women, and older people. Back pain related disability is projected to increase the most in remote regions where lifestyle and work are increasingly sedentary, yet resources and access to comprehensive healthcare is generally limited. To help tackle this worldwide health problem, World Spine Care Canada, and the Global Spine Care Initiative (GSCI) launched a four-phase project aiming to address the profound gap between evidence-based spine care and routine care delivered to people with spine symptoms or concerns in communities that are medically underserved.

Pyrrocidines A and B demonstrate synergistic inhibition of growth.

-a mycotoxigenic fungus and food safety threat-coinhabits maize kernels with . This protective endophyte produces secondary metabolites of interest, pyrrocidines A and B, which inhibit the growth of and specifically block fumonisin biosynthesis. Previous transcriptomic analyses found (FVEG_00314), a gene adjacent to the fumonisin biosynthetic gene cluster, to be induced over 4,000-fold in response to pyrrocidine challenge.

The prevalence and burden of musculoskeletal disorders amongst Indigenous people in Pimicikamak, northern Manitoba, Canada: A community health survey.

Objectives: To investigate the prevalence of spine symptoms and spine disability, self-care and care seeking behaviors in a random sample of Indigenous adults residing in Cross Lake, northern Manitoba, Canada.

Study Design And Setting: Orally administered survey in Cree or English to a representative sample of Pimicikamak citizens from the treaty ( = 150/1931 houses) and non-treaty ( = 20/92 houses) land, between May and July 2023. Questions ( = 154) were derived from the 2018 First Nations Regional Health Survey, 2020 Canadian Community Health Survey, and 2021 The Global Burden of Disease study, covering demographics, spine symptoms, chronic conditions, activity limitations, general health, self-care, medication, and satisfaction with care.

Relationship of Age and Running Biomechanics in Female Recreational Runners.

Middle-age and older runners demonstrate differences in running biomechanics compared with younger runners. Female runners demonstrate differences in running biomechanics compared with males, and females experience hormonal changes during menopause that may also affect age-related changes in running biomechanics. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between age and running biomechanics in healthy female recreational runners.

The Fifth Annual Symposium of the Midwest Aging Consortium.

As the healthcare burden caused by an increasingly aging population rapidly rises, a pressing need exists for innovative geroscience research that can elucidate aging mechanisms and precipitate the development of therapeutic interventions to support healthy aging. The Fifth Annual Midwest Aging Consortium Aging Research symposium, held from April 28 to 30, 2024, was hosted by The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, and featured presentations from investigators across the Midwestern United States. This report summarizes the research presented at the symposium, whose topics included cellular senescence and the aging brain, metabolism and metabolic interventions, nutrition, redox mechanisms and biomarkers, and stress mechanisms.

Willingness of population health survey participants to provide personal health information and biological samples.

Background: Biological sample collection and data linkage can expand the utility of population health surveys. The present study investigates factors associated with population health survey respondents' willingness to provide biological samples and personal health information.

Methods: Using data from the 2019 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Monitor survey (n = 2,827), we examined participants' willingness to provide blood samples, saliva samples, probabilistic linkage, and direct linkage with personal health information.

Neurophysiological Models in Individuals at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis: Using Translational EEG Paradigms to Forecast Psychosis Risk and Resilience.

Over the last several decades, there have been major research efforts to improve the identification of youth and young adults at clinical high-risk for psychosis (CHR-P). Among individuals identified as CHR-P based on clinical criteria, approximately 20% progress to full-blown psychosis over 2-3 years and 30% achieve remission. In more recent years, neurophysiological measures with established sensitivity to schizophrenia have gained traction in the study of CHR-P and its range of clinical outcomes, with the goal of identifying specific biomarkers that precede psychosis onset that 7 chapter, we review studies examining several translational electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potential (ERP) measures, which have known sensitivity to schizophrenia and reflect abnormal sensory, perceptual, and cognitive processing of task stimuli, as predictors of future clinical outcomes in CHR-P individuals.

Mismatch Negativity as an Index of Auditory Short-Term Plasticity: Associations with Cortisol, Inflammation, and Gray Matter Volume in Youth at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis.

Mismatch negativity (MMN) event-related potential (ERP) component reduction, indexing N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR)-dependent auditory echoic memory and short-term plasticity, is a well-established biomarker of schizophrenia that is sensitive to psychosis risk among individuals at clinical high-risk (CHR-P). Based on the NMDAR-hypofunction model of schizophrenia, NMDAR-dependent plasticity is predicted to contribute to aberrant neurodevelopmental processes involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia during late adolescence or young adulthood, including gray matter loss. Moreover, stress and inflammation disrupt plasticity.

Changes in sex differences in mental health over time: the moderating effects of educational status and loneliness.

Background: Limited evidence exists regarding how sex differences in mental health are changing over time, especially in the context of recent health and economic adversities.

Aims: To examine the temporal shifts in mental health issues among males and females, and explore the influence of education and loneliness on these trends.

Methods: Data were utilized from the 2020 to 2023 Monitor study, a repeated cross-sectional survey of adults 18 years and older in Ontario, Canada.

Germline Variants in Patients Affected by Both Uveal and Cutaneous Melanoma.

Uveal melanoma (UM) and nonacral cutaneous melanoma (CM) are distinct entities with varied genetic landscapes despite both arising from melanocytes. There are, however, similarities in that they most frequently affect people of European ancestry, and high penetrance germline variants in BAP1, POT1 and CDKN2A have been shown to predispose to both UM and CM. This study aims to further explore germline variants in patients affected by both UM and CM, shedding light on the underlying genetic mechanism causing these diseases.

Views and perspectives toward implementing the Global Spine Care Initiative (GSCI) model of care, and related spine care program by the people in Cross Lake, Northern Manitoba, Canada: a qualitative study using the Theoretical Domain Framework (TDF).

Background: Back pain is very common and a leading cause of disability worldwide. Due to health care system inequalities, Indigenous communities have a disproportionately higher prevalence of injury and acute and chronic diseases compared to the general Canadian population. Indigenous communities, particularly in northern Canada, have limited access to evidence-based spine care.

Identifying Psychosocial and Ecological Determinants of Enthusiasm In Youth: Integrative Cross-Sectional Analysis Using Machine Learning.

Background: Understanding the factors contributing to mental well-being in youth is a public health priority. Self-reported enthusiasm for the future may be a useful indicator of well-being and has been shown to forecast social and educational success. Typically, cross-domain measures of ecological and health-related factors with relevance to public policy and programming are analyzed either in isolation or in targeted models assessing bivariate interactions.

Correlates of low resilience and physical and mental well-being among black youths in Canada.

Background: Resilience has gained considerable attention in the mental health field as a protective factor that enables individuals to overcome mental health issues and achieve positive outcomes. A better understanding of resilience among Black youth is important for supporting the strengths and capacities within this population. This study seeks to investigate the correlates of resilience among Black youths in Canada.

Iris melanoma in an Australian cohort.

Background: To report the clinicopathological features and epidemiology of iris melanoma in Queensland, Australia.

Methods: This was a retrospective study of 86 patients with iris melanoma treated between 2001 and 2022 at the Queensland Ocular Oncology Service, Brisbane, Australia. Main outcome measures included demographics, clinical and phenotypic features, age-adjusted incidence and relative survival.

Changes in modes of cannabis consumption pre- and post-legalization and their correlates among adults in Ontario, Canada: 2017-2022.

Despite an increase in the varieties of cannabis products available for consumption, limited evidence is available about the patterns of cannabis consumption methods before and after legalization. To examine the changes in modes of cannabis use and their correlates among adults in Ontario, Canada both prior to and following cannabis legalization in 2018. Data were utilized from the 2017 to 2022 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health's (CAMH) Monitor study, a repeated cross-sectional survey of adults 18 years of age and older ( = 2,665; 56% male).

Changes in medical cannabis use in Ontario, Canada (2014 to 2019): Trajectory of trends, medical authorization patterns and association with recreational cannabis legalization.

Objectives: We characterized trends in medical cannabis use; examined characteristics associated with medical cannabis use without medical authorization; and examined the association between recreational cannabis legalization and medical cannabis use in Ontario, Canada.

Methods: Data were from a repeated, population-based, cross-sectional survey of adults (N = 19,543; 2014-2019). Cannabis use was categorized as either medical cannabis use, recreational cannabis use or no cannabis use.

Factors That Contribute to the Mental Health of Black Youth during COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: The mental health of Black youth during the COVID-19 pandemic is potentially influenced by various systemic factors, including racism, socioeconomic disparities, and access to culturally sensitive mental health support. Understanding these influences is essential for developing effective interventions to mitigate mental health disparities.

Methods: Our project used a community-based participatory (CBP) research design with an intersectional theoretical perspective.

Extreme γ' fibrinogen levels in COVID-19 patients.

COVID-19 disease progression can be accompanied by a "cytokine storm" that leads to secondary sequelae such as acute respiratory distress syndrome. Several inflammatory cytokines have been associated with COVID-19 disease progression, but have high daily intra-individual variability. In contrast, we have shown that the inflammatory biomarker γ' fibrinogen (GPF) has a 6-fold lower coefficient of variability compared to other inflammatory markers such as hs-CRP.

"Dual Pandemics": Intersecting Influences of Anti-Black Racism and the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health of Black Youth.

Background: The intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic with systemic anti-Black racism in the form of police violence and the subsequent Black Lives Matter movement has created an especially critical juncture to examine the mental health of Black youth.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand the intersecting impacts of anti-Black racism and the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of Black youth.

Methods: A youth-engaged research approach and intersectionality framework were utilized.

An inversion-based clustering approach for complex clusters.

Background: The choice of an appropriate similarity measure plays a pivotal role in the effectiveness of clustering algorithms. However, many conventional measures rely solely on feature values to evaluate the similarity between objects to be clustered. Furthermore, the assumption of feature independence, while valid in certain scenarios, does not hold true for all real-world problems.

Financial and economic costs of healthcare-associated infections in Africa.

Background: Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) remain a global health challenge, and have elevated rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. HAIs impact patients and their families by causing illness, prolonged hospital stay, potential disability, excess costs and, sometimes, death. The costs of HAIs are increasing due to spreading antimicrobial resistance.