Publications by authors named "MacLeod B"

Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the role of omega-3 fatty acids, specifically EPA and DHA, in reducing liver fat storage while examining the lesser-known effects of ALA on liver metabolism.
  • Male mice were fed different diets (lard, flaxseed oil, or menhaden oil) for 21 weeks, and various tests were conducted to analyze fat composition and gene expression related to fat metabolism.
  • Results showed that EPA/DHA from menhaden oil significantly lowered liver fat compared to lard and flax diets, and the beneficial effects on liver fat regulation were independent of the D6D enzyme activity linked to ALA.
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Ketogenic diets (KDs) are very high in fat and low in carbohydrates. Evidence supports that KDs improve glucose metabolism in humans and rodents that are obese and/or insulin resistant. Conversely, findings in healthy rodents suggest that KDs may impair glucose homeostasis.

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Objectives: To develop a patient-reported outcomes measure (PROM) for total laryngectomy.

Study Design: Qualitative interviews with a purposive sample of patients with total laryngectomy, followed by cognitive debriefing interviews with patients and expert feedback.

Methods: Concept elicitation was performed using in-depth qualitative interviews with a purposive sample of patients who had undergone total laryngectomy.

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  • * A cross-sectional study conducted during 2020-2021 surveyed 74 learners to assess wellness, using established burnout and resilience scales, finding that online learners reported significantly more burnout despite similar scores in resilience, mindfulness, and self-compassion compared to in-person learners.
  • * The study concludes that increased virtual learning may contribute to burnout, highlighting the need for further research on the causes of this burnout and potential protective factors that could help students cope with virtual education.
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Dairy and nondairy plant-based alternative proteins are reported to differentially influence body weight; however, most research has compared plant-based alternatives with isolated dairy proteins rather than a complete milk protein (containing casein and whey). This is notable given that people do not generally consume isolated dairy proteins. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the impact of a soy protein isolate (SPI) on factors influencing body weight gain in male and female mice in comparison to skim milk powder (SMP).

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Context Moore's Expanded Outcomes Framework is a 7 level framework commonly used to assess the outcomes of continuing medical education (CME) programs. Levels 1 to 5 are provider-level outcomes (participation, satisfaction, knowledge, competence, and performance) while levels 6 and 7 are patient- and community-level outcomes. Chart reviews are one method to assess level 5 (performance).

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Background: Chronic pain (CP) is a debilitating disease that reduces quality of life, decreases productivity, and has become a primary cause of health care resource consumption. Despite this, many Canadian family physicians have received little formal education in managing CP, making it one of the most challenging areas of practice in primary care. Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes Chronic Pain & Opioid Stewardship St.

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Key pathological features of Alzheimer's disease (AD) include build-up of amyloid β (Aβ), which promotes synaptic abnormalities and ultimately leads to neuronal cell death. Metabolic dysfunction is known to influence the risk of developing AD. Impairments in the leptin system have been detected in AD patients, which has fuelled interest in targeting this system to treat AD.

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Like all receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs), ErbB4 signals through a canonical signaling involving phosphorylation cascades. However, ErbB4 can also signal through a non-canonical mechanism whereby the intracellular domain is released into the cytoplasm by regulated intramembrane proteolysis (RIP) and translocates to the nucleus where it regulates transcription. These different signaling mechanisms depend on the generation of alternative spliced isoforms, a RIP cleavable ErbB4-JMa and an uncleavable ErbB4-JMb.

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Article Synopsis
  • A 64-year-old woman developed a worsening ulcer after a hip replacement, leading to a preliminary diagnosis of pyoderma gangrenosum.
  • The MolecuLight i:X device helped confirm the absence of infection, allowing for non-invasive treatment with steroids and other therapies without initial debridement.
  • Despite complications and the growth of specific bacteria, the patient successfully healed after transitioning to more effective medications and negative-pressure wound therapy.
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  • The optimization of materials often involves trade-offs between conflicting objectives, which can be represented by the Pareto front.
  • The self-driving laboratory, Ada, identifies conditions for creating palladium films with lower processing temperatures (below 200 °C) compared to previous methods (250 °C), expanding the potential for different substrate coatings.
  • Ada’s findings lead to the spray coating of palladium films with moderate conductivity (1.1 × 10 S m at 191 °C) and improved conductivity (2.0 × 10 S m at 226 °C), demonstrating the effectiveness of automated exploration in material discovery.
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Inhibiting PD-1:PD-L1 signaling has transformed therapeutic immune restoration. CD4 T cells sustain immunity in chronic infections and cancer, yet little is known about how PD-1 signaling modulates CD4 helper T (T) cell responses or the ability to restore CD4 T-mediated immunity by checkpoint blockade. We demonstrate that PD-1:PD-L1 specifically suppressed CD4 T1 cell amplification, prevents CD4 T1 cytokine production and abolishes CD4 cytotoxic killing capacity during chronic infection in mice.

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Introduction: The recent COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the necessity of protecting health care providers (HCPs) against the transmission of infectious agents during dental procedures. To this end, the effectiveness of several air cleaning devices (ACDs) in reducing HCPs exposure to aerosols generated during dental procedures was estimated, separately or in combination with each other. These ACDs were a chairside unit capturing aerosols at the source of generation, and four ambient ACDs: a portable ambient ACD; a negative pressure module; a custom made, fan-operated and wall-mounted air filter (WMAF); and a smaller and passive version of the latter.

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Implementation research often fails to have its intended impact on what programs actually do. Embedding research within target organizational systems represents an effective response to this problem. However, contradictions associated with the approach often prevent its application.

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Purpose: There exists a pressing need for the identification of novel analgesics. We recently reported on a new preclinical assay for rapid analgesic screening based on intraplantar (i.pl.

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Chronic viral infections increase severity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) coinfection. Here, we examined how chronic viral infections alter the pulmonary microenvironment to foster coinfection and worsen disease severity. We developed a coordinated system of chronic virus and Mtb infection that induced central clinical manifestations of coinfection, including increased Mtb burden, extra-pulmonary dissemination, and heightened mortality.

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Background: Legalization of cannabis encourages the development of specific cultivars to treat disease such as neuropathic pain. Because of the large number of cultivars, it is necessary to prioritize extracts before proceeding to clinical trials.

Purpose: To compare extracts of two unique cannabis cultivars (CT-921, CT-928) for treatment of neuropathic pain induced by constriction of sciatic nerve in mice and to illustrate the use of this animal model to set priority for future trials.

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Many pathogens subvert intestinal immunity to persist within the gastrointestinal tract (GIT); yet, the underlying mechanisms that enable sanctuary specifically in this reservoir are unclear. Using mass cytometry and network analysis, we demonstrate that chronic LCMV infection of the GIT leads to dysregulated microbial composition, a cascade of metabolic alterations, increased susceptibility to GI disease, and a system-wide recalibration of immune composition that defines viral persistence. Chronic infection led to outgrowth of activated Tbet-expressing T reg cell populations unique to the GIT and the rapid erosion of pathogen-specific CD8 tissue-resident memory T cells.

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Discovering and optimizing commercially viable materials for clean energy applications typically takes more than a decade. Self-driving laboratories that iteratively design, execute, and learn from materials science experiments in a fully autonomous loop present an opportunity to accelerate this research process. We report here a modular robotic platform driven by a model-based optimization algorithm capable of autonomously optimizing the optical and electronic properties of thin-film materials by modifying the film composition and processing conditions.

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Strain engineering can increase the activity and selectivity of an electrocatalyst. Tensile strain is known to improve the electrocatalytic activity of palladium electrodes for reduction of carbon dioxide or dioxygen, but determining how strain affects the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is complicated by the fact that palladium absorbs hydrogen concurrently with HER. We report here a custom electrochemical cell, which applies tensile strain to a flexible working electrode, that enabled us to resolve how tensile strain affects hydrogen absorption and HER activity for a thin film palladium electrocatalyst.

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