Publications by authors named "Levine D"

Purpose: To assess the level of moral distress (MD) and perceptions of ethical climate among pediatric hematology/oncology (PHO) nurses and to identify bioethics topics where increased education was desired.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we administered the 26-item Swedish Moral Distress Scale-Revised (sMDS-R), specifically revised and validated for pediatric oncology, in conjunction with the Clinical Ethics Needs Assessment Survey (CENAS). Electronic surveys were sent to inpatient and outpatient PHO nurses.

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Arterial cannulation, commonly performed in the radial artery, is a widely used method for continuous blood pressure monitoring. Occasionally, the axillary artery is used as an alternate site of cannulation. However, complications like occlusion can lead to adverse events and severe outcomes.

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Background: Previous reports suggest patient and caregiver lack of awareness of dementia. Little is known about how this varies by ethnicity and how informal (family) caregiver burden is associated with knowing a dementia diagnosis.

Objective: To investigate whether participants with probable dementia were aware of a diagnosis provided by a physician and how this differed among Mexican American and non-Hispanic White participants; whether having a primary care physician was associated with dementia diagnosis unawareness; and the association of dementia diagnosis unawareness with caregiver burden.

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Background: Black adults have higher dementia risk than White adults. Whether tighter population-level blood pressure (BP) control reduces this disparity is unknown.

Objective: Estimate the impact of optimal BP treatment intensity on racial disparities in dementia.

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Objectives: It is unknown whether cognitive test scores are equivalently associated with informant-rated cognitive decline across culturally and linguistically diverse older adults. We examined the association between cognitive domain scores on the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) and informant-rated cognitive decline in a harmonized population-based sample of older adults.

Design, Setting, And Participants: We combined data from the HCAP sub-study of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; 2016) and the Brain Attack Surveillance in Corpus Christi-Cognitive (BASIC-C; 2018-2020) study.

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Language interventions may yield greater benefits for younger children than their older counterparts, making it critical to evaluate children's language skills as early as possible. Yet, assessing young children's language presents many challenges, such as limited attention spans, low expressive language, and hesitancy to speak with an unfamiliar examiner. To address these challenges, the Quick Interactive Language Screener for Toddlers (QUILS:TOD; for children 24- to 36-months of age) was developed as a quick, tablet-based language screener capable of assessing children's vocabulary, syntax, and word learning skills.

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Study Objective: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) during early childhood (before 6 years) is prevalent, accounting for rising rates of emergency department visits. These injuries may lead to postconcussive symptoms, which may be subtle and difficult to diagnose in young children. Inadequate discharge counseling may lead to prolonged duration of symptoms and possible developmental delays.

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Background: Monolingual cognitive assessments are standard for bilinguals; the value of bilingual assessment is unknown. Since declines in animal naming accompany memory declines in dementia, we examined the association between bilingual animal naming and memory among bilingual Mexican American (MA) older adults.

Methods: Bilingual MA (n = 155) completed the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) in a Texas community study.

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We introduce Cell2Sentence (C2S), a novel method to directly adapt large language models to a biological context, specifically single-cell transcriptomics. By transforming gene expression data into "cell sentences," C2S bridges the gap between natural language processing and biology. We demonstrate cell sentences enable the finetuning of language models for diverse tasks in biology, including cell generation, complex celltype annotation, and direct data-driven text generation.

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Background: Valve-sparing root replacement (VSRR) requires a unique skill set. This study aimed to examine the influence of surgeon's procedural volume on outcomes of VSRR.

Methods: This retrospective study included 1697 patients from 2 large, high-volume aortic centers who underwent aortic root replacement (ARR) between 2004 and 2021 and were potentially eligible for VSRR.

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Objective: Reoperation after aortic root replacement (ARR) is associated with increased operative risk and complexity. This study evaluated clinical outcomes and reoperation rates in patients undergoing ARR.

Methods: From 2004 to 2021, 2700 adult patients underwent an ARR in a 2-institution database.

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Background: Overcoming the heterogeneous mechanisms of metastasis and chemoresistance will improve outcomes for women with tubo-ovarian carcinomas (TOCs). CD44 expression has been shown to be associated with poor prognosis and advanced disease in TOCs. In addition, studies have shown a link between chemoresistance and CD44 pathways.

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Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the agreement between explosive detection dog (EDD) handlers and a team of veterinarians in assessing body condition score (BCS) and muscle condition score (MCS), hypothesizing significant BCS differences between handlers and veterinarians, and no significant MCS differences in healthy active duty EDDs.

Methods: This prospective study analyzed variance and inter-rater intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) of agreement within BCS and MCS assessments collected from the 43 EDDs by four blinded graders; the EDDs' respective handler and three veterinarians with varying levels of veterinary expertise.

Results: The results of the study showed that 74.

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Introduction: Multidisciplinary care (MDC) for late-stage chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been associated with improved patient outcomes compared with traditional nephrology care; however, the optimal MDC model is unknown. In 2015, we implemented a novel MDC model for patients with late-stage CKD informed by the Chronic Care Model conceptual framework, including an expanded MDC team, care plan meetings, clinical risk prediction, and a patient dashboard.

Methods: We conducted a single-center, retrospective cohort study of adults with late-stage CKD (estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR] < 30 ml/min per 1.

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Article Synopsis
  • The "2024 Guideline for the Primary Prevention of Stroke" updates the previous 2014 guidelines, providing new strategies for preventing strokes in individuals without a prior history.
  • A thorough review of relevant literature from various databases was conducted to inform these updated recommendations, ensuring they are based on the latest research.
  • The guidelines emphasize the preventability of strokes and include new sex-specific recommendations, aligning with the American Heart Association's Life's Essential 8, while also updating previous recommendations based on recent research findings.
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Objective: To compare changes in cognitive trajectories after stroke between younger (18-64) and older (65+) adults, accounting for pre-stroke cognitive trajectories.

Materials And Methods: Pooled cohort study using individual participant data from 3 US cohorts (1971-2019), the Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities Study (ARIC), Framingham Offspring Study (FOS), and REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke Study (REGARDS). Linear mixed effect models evaluated the association between age and the initial change (intercept) and rate of change (slope) in cognition after compared to before stroke.

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Article Synopsis
  • The cardiac intensive care unit is experiencing a shift as it adapts to an aging population with more complex health issues, necessitating a focus on multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) for better patient outcomes.
  • These MDTs consist of various healthcare professionals, including physicians from different specialties, working collaboratively to implement guidelines, enhance communication, and develop effective care plans for critically ill patients.
  • The document aims to explore the evolving nature of patient care within cardiac intensive care, covering aspects like team composition, healthcare delivery improvements, training requirements, and future directions for MDTs in this field.
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Introduction: Stroke, a leading cause of illness, death, and long-term disability in the US, presents with significant disparities across the country, most notably in southeastern states comprising the "Stroke Belt." This study intended to identify differences between Stroke Belt states (SBS) and non-Stroke Belt states (NSBS) in terms of prevalence of stroke, sociodemographic and behavioral risk factors, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL).

Methods: We analyzed data from the 2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to compare demographic characteristics, risk factors, physical activity adherence, functional independence, and HRQOL among stroke survivors in SBS and NSBS.

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Article Synopsis
  • * The study analyzed data from three cohort studies to emulate trials examining the effects of starting antihypertensive medication on the incidence of dementia, while checking for potential biases in the methods used.
  • * Results revealed inconsistent and imprecise links between antihypertensive medication initiation and dementia risk, raising concerns about residual confounding, which makes it difficult to draw solid conclusions about the relationship between these medications and dementia onset.
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The COVID-19 pandemic prompted many youth mentoring programs to offer digital services (e-mentoring). The sustained success of these efforts depended, in large part, on organizations' digital readiness. Although there are established, broad measures of digital readiness, mentoring organizations have unique requirements for readiness that have not been previously measured.

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Background: Addressing mental health disparities following COVID-19 requires adaptive, multi-sectoral, equity-focused, and community-based approaches. Mental health task-sharing in gateway settings has been found to address mental health care gaps in low- and middle-income countries, but is not a common practice in the U.S.

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Objective: Slow hoof growth poses a clinical challenge when hoof wear exceeds natural growth. Many treatment options have been reported without controlled prospective trials. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of transdermal CO2 on the rate of growth in treated hooves.

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Article Synopsis
  • Increased serotonin signaling is linked to structural changes in heart valves, particularly in the mitral valve, where reduced serotonin transporter (SERT) expression worsens degenerative mitral valve regurgitation.
  • Mice lacking SERT show significant heart issues, including fibrosis, reduced heart function, and abnormal heart sizes, with differences in gene expression patterns occurring at different ages between heart valves.
  • Valve interstitial cells from the mitral valve react more strongly to serotonin and TGFβ1 compared to other valves, suggesting that downregulation of SERT may make the heart more prone to pro-fibrotic changes, particularly in the mitral valve, which is also observed in human valve cells.
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