Publications by authors named "Julia Wells"

Objective: Telehealth is the use of technology to deliver medical services. Potential uses among veterinarians include consulting with specialists about complicated cases, sending in electronic prescriptions, or meeting with clients to discuss patient health. Although the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic posed many challenges to the veterinary profession, it accelerated the adoption of telehealth among veterinarians.

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Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are multipotent progenitor cells that are of considerable clinical potential in transplantation and anti-inflammatory therapies due to their capacity for tissue repair and immunomodulation. However, MSCs rapidly differentiate once in culture, making their large-scale expansion for use in immunomodulatory therapies challenging. Although the differentiation mechanisms of MSCs have been extensively investigated using materials, little is known about how materials can influence paracrine activities of MSCs.

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Background: Telehealth adoption is being fueled by both technological breakthroughs and societal demands; however, veterinarians have yet to fully embrace the concept of telemedicine, limiting its use and potential benefits. The goal of this study was to evaluate how effective the multi-theory model (MTM) of health behaviour change explains the initiation and sustenance of telehealth use among veterinarians.

Methods: For this cross-sectional study, a research company was contracted to disseminate the MTM-based online survey to veterinarians currently engaged in clinical practice within the United States.

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Skeletal stem cells (SSCs, or mesenchymal stromal cells typically referred to as mesenchymal stem cells from the bone marrow) are a dynamic progenitor population that can enter quiescence, self-renew or differentiate depending on regenerative demand and cues from their niche environment. However, ex vivo, in culture, they are grown typically on hard polystyrene surfaces, and this leads to rapid loss of the SSC phenotype. While materials are being developed that can control SSC growth and differentiation, very few examples of dynamic interfaces that reflect the plastic nature of the stem cells have, to date, been developed.

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Post-operative infection is a major complication in patients recovering from orthopaedic surgery. As such, there is a clinical need to develop biomaterials for use in regenerative surgery that can promote mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) osteospecific differentiation and that can prevent infection caused by biofilm-forming pathogens. Nanotopographical approaches to pathogen control are being identified, including in orthopaedic materials such as titanium and its alloys.

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Veterinary students are faced with immense pressures and rigors during school. These pressures have contributed to elevated levels of stress, anxiety, and depression (SAD) among veterinary students relative to the general population. One proposed concept to help students combat SAD is that of emotional intelligence (EI).

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Article Synopsis
  • Bioactive metabolites exhibit diverse biological functions and could serve as valuable tools for future therapeutic research.
  • The study employs nanovibrational stimulation to promote osteogenic differentiation in mesenchymal stem cells without adding external growth factors, offering a clean way to identify metabolites that induce bone formation.
  • The research identifies cholesterol sulfate and fludrocortisone acetate as potent osteogenic metabolites, while highlighting the role of cytoskeletal contractility and cell stiffness in assessing their effectiveness and specificity.
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The maintenance and expansion of the cells required for formation of tissue-engineered cartilage has, to date, proven difficult. This is, in part, due to the initial solid phase extracellular matrix demanded by the cells inhabiting this avascular tissue. Herein, we engineer an innovative alginate-fibronectin microfluidic-based carrier construct (termed a chondrobag) equipped with solid phase presentation of growth factors that support skeletal stem cell chondrogenic differentiation while preserving human articular chondrocyte phenotype.

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The development and maintenance of a functioning vascular system is a critical function for many aspects of tissue growth and regeneration. Vascular endothelial cell in vitro co-culture spheroids are self-organized cell composites that have the capacity to recapitulate the three-dimensional tissue microenvironment. These spheroid testing platforms aim to better understand the mechanisms of functional tissue and how new therapeutic agents can drive these 3D co-culture processes.

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There is a pressing clinical need to develop cell-based bone therapies due to a lack of viable, autologous bone grafts and a growing demand for bone grafts in musculoskeletal surgery. Such therapies can be tissue engineered and cellular, such as osteoblasts, combined with a material scaffold. Because mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are both available and fast growing compared to mature osteoblasts, therapies that utilize these progenitor cells are particularly promising.

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Background: As usage of digital information and communication technologies continues to grow, the incorporation of telehealth and telemedicine has become a topic of interest in the veterinary industry. Veterinary telemedicine presents the opportunity to expand veterinary medicine by increasing access to healthcare services for clients and patients and improving medical quality. The objective of this study was to assess veterinarians' knowledge and utilization of telehealth and telemedicine.

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Aims And Objectives: To analyse the experiences of older people with a diagnosed functional mental illness and their carers in relation to mental health service delivery and analyse the experiences of health and social care professionals who care for and treat older people who have a diagnosed functional mental illness.

Background: The prevalence of functional mental illness in older adults is notable but to date has received less research attention than dementia. Older adults with functional mental illness have life expectancy of up to 20 years less than the rest of the population.

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Professional medicine in colonial British Africa has been extensively examined by historians. Few scholars, however, have adequately considered the role that white settlers without medical training played in the provision of colonial health care in local African communities. This article addresses the gap by exploring amateur medical treatment by white settler women in East and South-Central African communities between 1890 and 1939, primarily in highland areas of Kenya and Southern Rhodesia.

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We report a fatal case of Lassa fever diagnosed in the United States in a Liberian traveler. We describe infection control protocols and public health response. One contact at high risk became symptomatic, but her samples tested negative for Lassa virus; no secondary cases occurred among health care, family, and community contacts.

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The microenvironments of leukemia and cancer are critical for multiple stages of malignancies, and they are an attractive therapeutic target. While skeletal abnormalities are commonly seen in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) prior to initiating osteotoxic therapy, little is known about the alterations to the bone marrow microenvironment during leukemogenesis. Therefore, in this study, we focused on the development of precursor-B cell ALL (pre-B ALL) in an immunocompetent BCR-ABL1 model.

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Philadelphia chromosome-like (Ph-like) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a newly described, high-risk subtype of B-cell ALL. It is characterized by a gene expression profile similar to that of Ph-positive ALL; however, the BCR-ABL1 fusion is not present. The World Health Organization classification of myeloid neoplasms and acute leukemia recently was updated to include the Ph-like or BCR-ABL1-like ALL subtype of B-cell ALL as a provisional entity.

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Birth of new neurons in the hippocampus persists in the brain of adult mammals and critically underpins optimal learning and memory. The process of adult neurogenesis is significantly reduced following brain irradiation and this correlates with impaired cognitive function. In this study, we aimed to compare the long-term effects of two environmental paradigms (i.

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In culture isolated bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (more precisely termed skeletal stem cells, SSCs) spontaneously differentiate into fibroblasts, preventing the growth of large numbers of multipotent SSCs for use in regenerative medicine. However, the mechanisms that regulate the expansion of SSCs, while maintaining multipotency and preventing fibroblastic differentiation are poorly understood. Major hurdles to understanding how the maintenance of SSCs is regulated are (a) SSCs isolated from bone marrow are heterogeneous populations with different proliferative characteristics and (b) a lack of tools to investigate SSC number expansion and multipotency.

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Relapse in pediatric T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) remains a significant clinical problem and is thought to be associated with clonal selection during treatment. In this study we used an established pre-clinical model of induction therapy to increase our understanding of the effect of engraftment and chemotherapy on clonal selection and acquisition of drug resistance in vivo. Immune-deficient mice were engrafted with patient diagnostic specimens and exposed to a repeated combination therapy consisting of vincristine, dexamethasone, L-asparaginase and daunorubicin.

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The close connections between colonialism and tropical medicine have been widely discussed by historians over the last fifty years. However, few authors consider the relationship between tropical medicine and European and North American imperialism in the immediate post-World War II period. This article examines the Fourth International Congresses on Tropical Medicine and Malaria, held jointly in Washington in 1948.

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The current study has investigated the use of decellularised, demineralised bone extracellular matrix (ECM) hydrogel constructs for in vivo tissue mineralisation and bone formation. Stro-1-enriched human bone marrow stromal cells were incorporated together with select growth factors including VEGF, TGF-β3, BMP-2, PTHrP and VitD3, to augment bone formation, and mixed with alginate for structural support. Growth factors were delivered through fast (non-osteogenic factors) and slow (osteogenic factors) release PLGA microparticles.

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Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF/CCN2) has long been associated with human cancers. The role it plays in these neoplasms is diverse and tumour specific. Recurring patterns in clinical outcome, histological desmoplasia and mechanisms of action have been found.

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