Publications by authors named "Jennifer Williamson"

Objective: Patient reported measures of hospital care are known predictors of readmission, even after accounting for risk related to age and comorbidities. This study aimed to determine the association between patient experience of diabetes-related foot disease (DFD) hospital care and unplanned hospital readmission, with a primary focus on DFD-related readmissions and a secondary focus on all-cause readmissions.

Methods: A retrospective longitudinal cohort study was conducted by linking NSW Adult Admitted Patient Survey data with administrative hospital data for persons hospitalised with DFD identified through diagnostic and/or procedure codes.

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  • - The study addresses the issue of limited ancestral diversity in genome-wide association studies (GWAS), which makes it hard to find genetic risk variants in non-European ancestry groups, focusing on Alzheimer's Disease (AD).
  • - Researchers analyzed a multi-ancestry GWAS dataset within the Alzheimer's Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC) involving individuals from various ancestries, identifying 13 shared risk loci and 3 ancestry-specific loci, highlighting the benefits of diverse samples.
  • - The findings underscore the importance of including underrepresented populations in genetic research, suggesting that even smaller sample sizes can lead to the discovery of novel genetic variants related to AD and implicating specific biological pathways like amyloid regulation and neuronal development.
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Unlabelled: This detailed 11-year longitudinal analysis calculated the public health cost of managing refractures in people aged ≥ 50 years in Australia's most populous state. It provides current and projected statewide health system costs associated with managing osteoporosis and provides a foundation to evaluate a novel statewide model of fracture prevention.

Purpose: The purpose of this longitudinal analysis was to calculate current and projected refracture rates and associated public hospital utilisation and costs in New South Wales (NSW), Australia.

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Background: Early sexual debut among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) adolescents has been associated with an increased risk of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, along with an increased risk of having multiple lifetime sexual partners, and engaging in greater frequency of sex, substance abuse, and lack of condom use. A major protective factor against early sexual debut among AI/AN youth is the familial system. Interventions aiming to improve parent-child communication and parental warmth toward adolescent sexual health topics were reported to contribute to positive youth sexual health outcomes, specifically among minority youth.

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Iconic words imitate their meanings. Previous work has demonstrated that iconic words are more common in infants' early speech, and in adults' child-directed speech (e.g.

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Peatlands play an important role in modulating the climate, mainly through sequestration of carbon dioxide into peat carbon, which depends on the availability of reactive nitrogen (Nr) to mosses. Atmospheric Nr deposition in the UK has been above the critical load for functional and structural changes to peatland mosses, thus threatening to accelerate their succession by vascular plants and increasing the possibility of Nr export to downstream ecosystems. The N balance of peatlands has received comparatively little attention, mainly due to the difficulty in measuring gaseous N losses as well as the Nr inputs due to biological nitrogen fixation (BNF).

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Introduction: We examined health insurance benefits, workplace policies, and health promotion programs in small to midsize businesses in Alaska whose workforces were at least 20% Alaska Native. Participating businesses were enrolled in a randomized trial to improve health promotion efforts.

Methods: Twenty-six Alaska businesses completed from January 2009 through October 2010 a 30-item survey on health benefits, policies, and programs in the workplace.

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Context: The vast, rugged geography and dispersed population of Alaska pose challenges for managing chronic disease risk. Creative, population-based approaches are essential to address the region's health needs. The American Cancer Society developed Workplace Solutions, a series of evidence-based interventions, to improve health promotion and reduce chronic disease risk in workplace settings.

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  • An amendment to the original paper has been released.
  • You can find the amendment through a link provided at the top of the paper.
  • This update may contain important changes or additional information related to the original content.
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  • Late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) is the most common type of dementia and is influenced by genetics.
  • Researchers studied a lot of people (94,437) to find specific genes that may increase the risk of developing LOAD, confirming 20 known ones and discovering 5 new ones.
  • They also found that certain genetic traits related to the immune system and how the brain processes proteins are linked to a higher risk of LOAD, suggesting there are more rare genes yet to be identified that could also play a role.
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Tribal health educators across the United States have found it challenging to locate engaging, culturally-relevant sexual health curricula for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth. Healthy Native Youth is a new online resource that provides a "one-stop-shop" for tribal health advocates to access age-appropriate curricula. The site was designed by a team of advisers representing a diverse group of tribal communities, using a collaborative planning process.

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  • * Our research uncovered three significant variants: a protective variant in the PLCG2 gene and risk variants in ABI3 and TREM2, known for their roles in Alzheimer's susceptibility.
  • * The findings emphasize the importance of microglia, immune cells in the brain, suggesting that their genetic variations may contribute directly to the progression of Alzheimer's disease.
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This study assessed the short-term impacts of ditch blocking on water table depth and vegetation community structure in a historically drained blanket bog. A chronosequence approach was used to compare vegetation near ditches blocked 5 years, 4 years and 1 year prior to the study with vegetation near unblocked ditches. Plots adjacent to and 3 m away from 70 ditches within an area of blanket bog were assessed for floristic composition, aeration depth using steel bars, and topography using LiDAR data.

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Sexually transmitted infection (STI) and birth rates among American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth indicate a need for effective middle school HIV/STI and pregnancy prevention curricula to delay, or mitigate, the consequences of early sexual activity. While effective curricula exist, there is a dearth of curricula with content salient to AI/AN youth. Further, there is a lack of sexual health curricula that take advantage of the motivational appeal, reach, and fidelity of communication technology for this population, who are sophisticated technology users.

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Background: Surveys are commonly used in health research to assess patient satisfaction with hospital care. Achieving an adequate response rate, in the face of declining trends over time, threatens the quality and reliability of survey results. This paper evaluates a strategy to increase the response rate in a postal satisfaction survey with women who had recently given birth.

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Background: Wild berries are a valued traditional food in Alaska. Phytochemicals in wild berries may contribute to the prevention of vascular disease, cancer and cognitive decline, making berry consumption important to community health in rural areas. Little was known regarding which species of berries were important to Alaskan communities, the number of species typically picked in communities and whether recent environmental change has affected berry abundance or quality.

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Purpose: American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth experience disparities associated with sexual and reproductive health, including early age of sexual initiation. Identifying factors that are most proximally related to early sexual intercourse and that are modifiable through health promotion interventions may help to reduce these disparities. Using a multisystem approach, we assessed individual (biological, psychological, and behavioral), familial, and extrafamilial (peer behavioral) factors associated with lifetime sexual experience among AI/AN early adolescents living in three geographically dispersed U.

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Purpose: To determine the mechanism by which topically applied AR-13324, a rho kinase inhibitor, and an inhibitor of the norepinephrine transporter, reduces intraocular pressure (IOP) in normotensive monkey eyes.

Methods: Seven normotensive monkeys were used. Tonographic outflow facility (C) was measured before drug administration and repeated 6 hours after administration of 50 µL (25 µL×2) of 0.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates a rare variant in the APP gene (A673T) that may protect against late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD), originally found in Iceland, by comparing its frequency in US and Swedish populations.
  • - Researchers conducted a case-control analysis involving over 17,000 participants (including AD cases and cognitively normal controls) from multiple medical centers to assess the prevalence of this variant using advanced genotyping techniques.
  • - Results showed only a few individuals with the A673T variant; specifically, 3 heterozygous cases were found among US participants, indicating that this variant is not common in the studied populations and may not significantly impact AD risk assessment.
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Pathogenic mutations in the three known genes - the amyloid precursor protein (APP), presenilin 1 (PSEN1), presenilin 2 (PSEN2) - are known to cause familial Alzheimer's disease (AD) and tend to be associated with early-onset AD. However, the frequency and risk associated with these mutations vary widely. In addition, mutations in the frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) genes - the microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT), granulin (GRN) - have also been found to be associated with clinical AD.

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Purpose: Dry eye disease (DED) is a common ocular disease that can have adverse effects on quality of life. Our aim was to develop a single-item questionnaire that is reliable, patient-driven, and clinic friendly to assess DED symptoms and their effect on quality of life to help support the management of patients with DED.

Methods: An initial dry eye questionnaire was created and administered to 18 patients with DED followed by a 15-minute cognitive interviewing session.

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  • The study investigates how known genetic risk factors for late-onset Alzheimer disease (LOAD) influence the age at which symptoms appear in affected individuals, particularly focusing on the APOE locus and other established risk loci.
  • Researchers utilized data from the Alzheimer Disease Genetics Consortium, analyzing 9,162 patients over several years, to determine the cumulative effects of these genetic factors on age at onset (AAO) of LOAD.
  • Results indicated that variants at the APOE locus are strongly associated with earlier onset of Alzheimer’s symptoms, with other loci like CR1, BIN1, and PICALM showing statistically significant effects as well, together explaining a portion of the AAO variation.
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