Publications by authors named "Kirk E"

Pregnancy is a unique phase in a woman's life marked by profound physical transformations, including changes in body shape and weight. The Body Understanding Measure for Pregnancy Scale (BUMPs) was designed to assess body image during pregnancy. Despite its increasing use, the scale has not yet been adapted into Italian, and evidence regarding its predictive validity with respect to anxiety, depression, and body appreciation is lacking.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Integrating science education with social justice is vital for preparing students to critically address significant societal issues like climate change and pandemics. This study examines the effectiveness of socioscientific system modeling as a tool within Justice-Centered Science Pedagogy (JCSP) to enhance middle school students' understanding of social justice science issues. It focuses on how system modeling can scaffold students' reasoning about complex social systems, informed by their lived experiences, cultural backgrounds, and social identities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Reproductive genetic carrier screening (RGCS) provides information about people's chance of having children with certain genetic conditions, to inform reproductive decision making. RGCS at population scale requires a robust and streamlined program that is purposively designed and formally implemented to ensure equity and consistency. There are many considerations in selecting conditions, genes and variants for inclusion in RGCS, with severity of the genetic condition a key criterion.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Genomic sequencing technology allows for identification of reproductive couples with an increased chance, as compared with that in the general population, of having a child with an autosomal recessive or X-linked genetic condition.

Methods: We investigated the feasibility, acceptability, and outcomes of a nationwide, couple-based genetic carrier screening program in Australia as part of the Mackenzie's Mission project. Health care providers offered screening to persons before pregnancy or early in pregnancy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Early Pregnancy Loss (EPL) significantly impacts women's physical and psychological health, yet there is a lack of guided hospital support services in the UK, making the evaluation of an Early Pregnancy Loss Support Clinic (EPLSC) crucial.
  • The evaluation gathered quantitative data using questionnaires to measure patient satisfaction and anxiety levels, alongside qualitative insights from interviews focusing on women’s health experiences and support needs.
  • Results showed high satisfaction rates among the 110 women who attended the EPLSC, with many reporting reduced anxiety and emphasizing the importance of emotional support and the role of the bereavement midwife.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a condition that affects multiple systems in the body, and individuals with no identified mutations tend to have milder symptoms compared to those with confirmed genetic causes.
  • * A study analyzed an Australian group with TSC who had no mutations identified (NMI) and used advanced DNA sequencing techniques to understand their phenotypes better.
  • * The findings revealed that NMI individuals exhibit similar traits to those with certain known variants, achieving a 72% diagnostic success rate by identifying previously missed mosaic variants through comprehensive testing methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Vigorous physical activity has been associated with lower risk of fatal prostate cancer. However, mechanisms contributing to this relationship are not understood.

Methods: We studied 117 men with prostate cancer in the University of North Carolina Cancer Survivorship Cohort (UNC CSC) who underwent radical prostatectomy and 101 radiation-treated patients with prostate cancer in FASTMAN.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Coordinated movement requires the nervous system to continuously compensate for changes in mechanical load across different conditions. For voluntary movements like reaching, the motor cortex is a critical hub that generates commands to move the limbs and counteract loads. How does cortex contribute to load compensation when rhythmic movements are sequenced by a spinal pattern generator? Here, we address this question by manipulating the mass of the forelimb in unrestrained mice during locomotion.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * Researchers performed a systematic review to identify and refine competencies, resulting in 78 agreement statements across four main domains: Collaboration, Clinical Excellence, Communication, and Systems Administration.
  • * The findings aim to guide chiropractic education programs in developing curricula that prepare students for careers in integrated healthcare, ultimately enhancing their employability and effectiveness in clinical practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Many copy-number variants (CNVs) are reported to cause a variety of neurodevelopmental disabilities including intellectual disability, developmental delay, autism, and other phenotypes with incomplete penetrance. Therefore, not all individuals with a pathogenic CNV are affected. Penetrance estimates vary between studies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Genomic tests, such as the Oncotype Dx 21-gene and Prosigna risk of recurrence (ROR-P) assay, are commonly used for breast cancer prognostication. Emerging data suggest variability between assays, but this has not been compared in diverse populations.

Materials And Methods: RNA sequencing was performed on 647 previously untreated stage I-III estrogen receptor-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative tumors in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study, which oversampled Black and younger women (age <50 years at diagnosis), using research versions of two common RNA-based prognostic assays: ROR-P and the 21-gene recurrence score (RS).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

More and more, people are abandoning the active pursuit of news, assuming instead that important information will be pushed to them via their social media networks. This approach to news makes people susceptible to the vast amounts of misinformation online, yet research on the effects of this kind of engagement is mixed. More research is needed on technology incidental learning effects, defined as changes in knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors as a result of being exposed to information while pursuing goals other than learning (e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

OTU deubiquitinase with linear linkage specificity (OTULIN) regulates inflammation and cell death by deubiquitinating linear ubiquitin chains generated by the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex (LUBAC). Biallelic loss-of-function mutations causes OTULIN-related autoinflammatory syndrome (ORAS), while OTULIN haploinsuffiency has not been associated with spontaneous inflammation. However, herein, we identify two patients with the heterozygous mutation p.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Body Understanding Measure for Pregnancy Scale (BUMPs) is a scale developed and validated for British pregnant women to assess body satisfaction during pregnancy. The aim of this study was to perform a cross-cultural adaptation and verify the psychometric properties of BUMPs for Brazilian adult pregnant women. The cross-cultural adaptation was performed using translation, back-translation, expert committee, expert analysis, and pre-testing, which showed easy comprehension by pregnant women.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Survivin/BIRC5 is a proliferation marker that is associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer and an attractive therapeutic target. However, BIRC5 has not been well studied among racially diverse populations where aggressive breast cancers are prevalent.

Experimental Design: We studied BIRC5 expression in association with clinical and demographic variables and as a predictor of recurrence in 2174 participants in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study (CBCS), a population-based study that oversampled Black (n = 1113) and younger (< 50 years; n = 1137) participants with breast cancer.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Problem: There is limited understanding and contradictory results regarding the contribution of the pregnant bodily experience to antenatal attachment.

Background: Antenatal attachment is an important aspect of pregnancy, which has been linked with positive maternal and infant outcomes. Given the profound physical process of pregnancy, it is likely that bodily experience is implicated in antenatal attachment, with research supporting the involvement of pregnancy body (dis)satisfaction.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: OncotypeDx is a prognostic and predictive genomic assay used in early-stage hormone receptor-positive, HER2- (HR+/HER2-) breast cancer. It is used to inform adjuvant chemotherapy decisions, but not all eligible women receive testing. We aimed to assess variation in testing by demographics and geography, and to determine whether testing was associated with chemotherapy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Genome sequencing (GS)-specific diagnostic rates in prospective tightly ascertained exome sequencing (ES)-negative intellectual disability (ID) cohorts have not been reported extensively.

Methods: ES, GS, epigenetic signatures, and long-read sequencing diagnoses were assessed in 74 trios with at least moderate ID.

Results: The ES diagnostic yield was 42 of 74 (57%).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A new device improves the way scientists can record the activity of motor units in a wide range of animals and settings.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Dominance and leverage are both possible causes of social inequality. If sexual dimorphism influences patterns of intersexual dominance, we predicted that highly dimorphic species are constrained to exhibit male-biased power (MP), but species with low sexual dimorphism are free to demonstrate a broader range of intersexual power relationships. If market effects influence intersexual leverage, we predicted that females have more power when group composition is more male-biased and estrus is asynchronous.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Classic aniridia is a highly penetrant autosomal dominant disorder characterised by congenital absence of the iris, foveal hypoplasia, optic disc anomalies and progressive opacification of the cornea. >90% of cases of classic aniridia are caused by heterozygous, loss-of-function variants affecting the locus.

Methods: Short-read whole genome sequencing was performed on 51 (39 affected) individuals from 37 different families who had screened negative for mutations in the coding region.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Coordinated movement requires the nervous system to continuously compensate for changes in mechanical load across different contexts. For voluntary movements like reaching, the motor cortex is a critical hub that generates commands to move the limbs and counteract loads. How does cortex contribute to load compensation when rhythmic movements are clocked by a spinal pattern generator? Here, we address this question by manipulating the mass of the forelimb in unrestrained mice during locomotion.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Ectopic pregnancy (EP) is a major high-risk outcome following a pregnancy of unknown location (PUL) classification. Biochemical markers are used to triage PUL as high vs low risk to guide appropriate follow-up. The M6 model is currently the best risk-prediction model.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Body image dissatisfaction refers to negative thoughts and feelings individuals have towards their own body appearance and this is thought to be affected by the physiological changes that occur during pregnancy. There are two main conflicting theories as to the effect pregnancy has on body image dissatisfaction: 1) Pregnancy related changes are in direct conflict with social ideas of female beauty (e.g.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In the middle Eocene, multiple lineages of North American omomyoids independently evolved body masses greater than 500 g. Most of these large-bodied omomyoids are known from small sample sizes, which has contributed to a lack of consensus regarding their alpha taxonomy. Here, we describe new Uintan omomyine specimens from the Uinta Basin of Utah and the Tornillo Basin of Texas.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF