Rationale and design of APOLLO: a personalized rehAbilitation PrOgram in aLLOgeneic bone marrow transplantation.

Background: Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a common therapy for many hematologic malignancies. While advances in transplant practice have improved cancer-specific outcomes, multiple and debilitating long term physical and psychologic effects remain. Patients undergoing allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (allo-BMT) are often critically ill at initial diagnosis and with necessary sequential treatments become increasingly frail and deconditioned.

Artificial intelligence and social accountability in the Canadian health care landscape: A rapid literature review.

Background: Situated within a larger project entitled "Exploring the Need for a Uniquely Different Approach in Northern Ontario: A Study of Socially Accountable Artificial Intelligence," this rapid review provides a broad look into how social accountability as an equity-oriented health policy strategy is guiding artificial intelligence (AI) across the Canadian health care landscape, particularly for marginalized regions and populations. This review synthesizes existing literature to answer the question: How is AI present and impacted by social accountability across the health care landscape in Canada?

Methodology: A multidisciplinary expert panel with experience in diverse health care roles and computer sciences was assembled from multiple institutions in Northern Ontario to guide the study design and research team. A search strategy was developed that broadly reflected the concepts of social accountability, AI and health care in Canada.

Comparison of binocular reading speed in patients with strabismus without amblyopia versus controls.

Objective: Amblyopia has been shown to slow reading speed. Limited literature exists on reading speed in strabismus without amblyopia. Our study compares binocular reading speed in patients with strabismus without amblyopia versus normal controls.

Variability of Replicates of Intraocular Inflammatory Biomarkers in Ocular Fluid Samples Analyzed with Multiplex Assays.

Purpose: Certain factors such as instrumental and sample processing errors may contribute to variability of ocular biofluid samples when they are run as replicates with multiplex assays. There is a paucity of literature on the variability of replicates in multiplex assays. This study aims to evaluate whether there is significant variability in replicate analyses of multiplex assays.

Reading Speed Using the International Reading Speed Texts in a Normal Canadian Cohort.

Background The International Reading Speed Texts (IReST) are commonly used to measure reading speed, which may be affected in many eye conditions. They were originally tested in a younger British population. Our study evaluates IReST in a Canadian population.

Health Care Students' Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence: Countrywide Survey in Canada.

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a futuristic concept; it is increasingly being integrated into health care. As studies on attitudes toward AI have primarily focused on physicians, there is a need to assess the perspectives of students across health care disciplines to inform future curriculum development.

Objective: This study aims to explore and identify gaps in the knowledge that Canadian health care students have regarding AI, capture how health care students in different fields differ in their knowledge and perspectives on AI, and present student-identified ways that AI literacy may be incorporated into the health care curriculum.

Out of the shadows: Chronic pain in Canadian Armed Forces veterans - Proceedings of a workshop at the 2019 Forum of the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research.

This commentary summarizes proceedings of a workshop on chronic pain in military personnel and veterans (released personnel) at the Annual Forum of the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research in Gatineau and Ottawa on October 22, 2019. The extent and impact of chronic pain among Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) veterans and their families is significant and has been underappreciated, largely due to limited disclosure by serving and veteran military personnel, stemming from a fear of stigmatization. Living with pain is seen as a fact of life in military cultures, something to be endured and not discussed.

Tooth attachment and pleurodont implantation in lizards: Histology, development, and evolution.

Squamates present a unique challenge to the homology and evolution of tooth attachment tissues. Their stereotypically pleurodont teeth are fused in place by a single "bone of attachment", with seemingly dubious homology to the three-part tooth attachment system of mammals and crocodilians. Despite extensive debate over the interpretations of squamate pleurodonty, its phylogenetic significance, and the growing evidence from fossil amniotes for the homology of tooth attachment tissues, few studies have defined pleurodonty on histological grounds.

Working memory in posterior cortical atrophy.

We used an ad hoc created neuropsychological battery to evaluate in details both verbal and visuospatial working memory (WM) in patients with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA, n = 5). PCA is a rare, early-onset neurodegenerative dementia, often due to Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. Clinically, PCA patients present with visual, visuospatial, and visuomotor deficits, and no memory complaints.

Tooth germ initiation patterns in a developing dentition: An in vivo study of Xenopus laevis tadpoles.

The transparency of soft tissue in Xenopus laevis tadpoles and the anterior-posterior orientation of their developing tooth germs in the upper jaw offer a unique opportunity for the in vivo charting of the first 15-20 days of the developing dentition. Twenty-two X. laevis tadpoles were anesthetized daily and their mouths opened to record the first appearance, position, and development of tooth germs in the upper jaw.

Histological evidence for a dynamic dental battery in hadrosaurid dinosaurs.

The first histological study of an entire hadrosaurid dental battery provides a comprehensive look at tooth movement within this complex structure. Previous studies have focused on isolated teeth, or in-situ batteries, but this is the first study to examine an entire dental battery of any dinosaur. The absence of direct tooth-to-tooth contact across the entire battery and a unique arrangement of the dental tissues in hadrosaurids led us to compare their teeth with the ever-growing incisors of mammals.

Mosasaurs and snakes have a periodontal ligament: timing and extent of calcification, not tissue complexity, determines tooth attachment mode in reptiles.

Squamates present a unique challenge to our understanding of dental evolution in amniotes because they are the only extant tooth-bearing group for which a ligamentous tooth attachment is considered to be absent. This has led to the assumption that mammals and crocodilians have convergently evolved a ligamentous tooth attachment, composed of root cementum, periodontal ligament, and alveolar bone, whereas squamates are thought to possess a single bone of attachment tissue that fuses teeth to the jaws. The identity and homology of tooth attachment tissues between squamates, crocodilians, and mammals have thus been a focal point of debate for decades.

Towards a synthetic view of potato cold and salt stress response by transcriptomic and proteomic analyses.

Potato can suffer from several abiotic stresses such as cold temperature, high soil salinity, lack of water or heavy metal exposure, to name a few. They are known to affect plant growth as well as productivity, with differential regulations at several levels. Potato response to cold and salt exposure was investigated at both transcriptomic and proteomic levels in a growth chamber experiment.

Histology of tooth attachment tissues and plicidentine in Varanus (Reptilia: Squamata), and a discussion of the evolution of amniote tooth attachment.

Few recent studies have examined the histological basis for tooth attachment in squamates. In the past few years, a surge of interest in this topic has led to the intriguing suggestion that the major tissues derived from the tooth germ (enamel, dentine, cementum and alveolar bone), are conservative and are present in all amniotes. In this study, we describe the histology and development of the tooth attachment complex in Varanus rudicollis, the rough-neck monitor.

Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol may palliate altered chemosensory perception in cancer patients: results of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot trial.

Background: A pilot study (NCT00316563) to determine if delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) can improve taste and smell (chemosensory) perception as well as appetite, caloric intake, and quality of life (QOL) for cancer patients with chemosensory alterations.

Patients And Methods: Adult advanced cancer patients, with poor appetite and chemosensory alterations, were recruited from two sites and randomized in a double-blinded manner to receive either THC (2.5 mg, Marinol(®); Solvay Pharma Inc.

Carbohydrate metabolism and cell protection mechanisms differentiate drought tolerance and sensitivity in advanced potato clones (Solanum tuberosum L.).

In potatoes and many other crops, drought is one of the most important environmental constraints leading to yield loss. Development of drought-tolerant cultivars is therefore required for maintaining yields under climate change conditions and for the extension of agriculture to sub-optimal cropping areas. Drought tolerance mechanisms have been well described for many crop plants including Native Andean potato.

Tooth histology in the cretaceous ichthyosaur Platypterygius australis, and its significance for the conservation and divergence of mineralized tooth tissues in amniotes.

Ichthyosaurs are an extinct group of secondarily aquatic reptiles that show ligamentous tooth attachment to the jaw in some derived forms. Here, we provide a modern description of tooth histology in ichthyosaurs, using Platypterygius australis, a large ichthyosaur from the Cretaceous of Australia. Our study supports evolutionary conservation of the principal mineralized tooth tissue types in amniotes with ligamentous tooth attachment: enamel, dentine, cellular, and acellular cementum.

Identification of drought-responsive compounds in potato through a combined transcriptomic and targeted metabolite approach.

Two potato clones (Solanum tuberosum L.) of the Andean cultivar group, called Sullu and SS2613, with different drought-tolerance phenotypes were exposed to a continuously increasing drought stress in a field trial. At the physiological level, while relative leaf water contents were similar in both clones, osmotic potential was lower in Sullu and declined more strongly during drought compared with SS2613.

Customized PCR-array analysis informed by gene-chip microarray and biological hypothesis reveals pathways involved in lung inflammatory response to titanium dioxide in pregnancy.

Validation of gene-chip microarray results is one of the challenges in genomic studies. The successful use of a custom-designed 96-well polymerase chain reaction (PCR) array to study the unexpected inflammatory effect of environmental titanium dioxide (TiO2) particles on the lungs of pregnant mice, with similar results not seen in control mice, is reported. In our approach, selection of candidate genes for the custom PCR array was informed by prior gene-chip microarray profiling.

Monitoring gene expression of potato under salinity using cDNA microarrays.

The molecular response to salt exposure was studied in the leaves of a Solanum tuberosum clone using cDNA microarray. Differentially expressed genes were classified according to their known or predicted function and their expression ratio as compared to the control. The major changes upon a 150 mM NaCl exposure in potato leaves occurred in the photosystem apparatus and Calvin cycle: many transcripts coding for proteins belonging to photosystems I and II and chlorophyll synthesis were repressed.

Characterization of particulate matter for three sites in Kuwait.

Many studies have shown strong associations between particulate matter (PM) levels and a variety of health outcomes, leading to changes in air quality standards in many regions, especially the United States and Europe. Kuwait, a desert country located on the Persian Gulf, has a large petroleum industry with associated industrial and urban land uses. It was marked by environmental destruction from the 1990 Iraqi invasion and subsequent oil fires.

Quantitative assessment of neuromotor function in workers with current low exposure to mercury vapor.

Evaluation of neuromotor function has been used in several epidemiological studies of workers with long-term exposure to mercury vapor (Hg 0). Some recent studies indicate adverse effects at relatively low exposure levels. In the present study, we used sensitive quantitative methods, developed specifically to detect subtle effects of exposure to toxins on motor function.