Publications by authors named "Maras A"

Frailty refers to a state of increased vulnerability to mortality and other adverse outcomes as a consequence of age-related decline in physiologic reserve and function. Comparative biomedical scientists are relied upon to innovate approaches to enhance understanding of the similarities and differences between humans and other animal species that can impact healthy aging. The research aim of this study was to develop a clinical frailty index (FI) in the Exceptional Aging in Rottweilers Study (EARS) and test its ability to predict all-cause mortality in elderly dogs.

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Emerging evidence in women supports the notion that pregnancy may reset disease resistance, thereby providing protection against subsequent adverse health outcomes, but this hypothesis has not been adequately explored in domestic dogs. Cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) rupture is a degenerative orthopedic disease that frequently affects pet dogs, and its risk has been associated with disruption of the reproductive hormone axis. Our research team is conducting a lifetime cohort study of purebred Rottweilers in North America that have lived 30% longer than breed-average.

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Background And Hypothesis: Young people (YP) with psychotic experiences (PE) have an increased risk of developing a psychiatric disorder. Therefore, knowledge on continuity of care from child and adolescent (CAMHS) to adult mental health services (AMHS) in relation to PE is important. Here, we investigated whether the self-reported trajectories of persistent PE were associated with likelihood of transition to AMHS and mental health outcomes.

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Purpose: Experiences of young people transitioning from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) to Adult Mental Health Services (AMHS) have mostly been investigated qualitatively. This study adapts and validates the On Your Own Feet - Transition Experiences Scale (OYOF-TES) in a sample of CAMHS users in Europe and describes young people's and parents' experiences with transition and end of care at CAMHS.

Methods: The OYOF-TES was adapted to a mental health setting and translated.

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Purpose: The aim of this study was to characterize the prevalence of cardiometabolic comorbidities (i.e., diabetes, peripheral vascular disease, myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, cerebrovascular disease) among Hispanic/Latino cancer survivors and examine the impact of cardiometabolic comorbidities on health-related quality of life (HRQoL), unmet supportive care needs, patient-provider communication self-efficacy, satisfaction with cancer care, and increases in healthy behaviors.

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Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data are rarely deposited in open databases, leading to loss of critical scientific knowledge. Existing data reporting methods (images, tables, lists of values) contain less information than raw data and are poorly standardized. Together, these issues limit FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) access to these data, which in turn creates barriers for compound dereplication and the development of new data-driven discovery tools.

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Background: Young people are at risk of falling through the care gap after leaving child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) despite an ongoing need for mental health support. Currently, little is known about the predictors of transitioning to adult mental health services (AMHS), and associated healthcare and societal costs as young people cross the transition boundary.

Objective: To conduct a secondary data analysis exploring predictors of transitioning or falling through the gap and associated costs.

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Article Synopsis
  • There are significant challenges at the boundary between child/adolescent mental health services and adult services for young people, leading to issues in continuity of care.
  • A study involving 772 young people across seven European countries found that engagement with healthcare services dropped significantly after the transition to adult services, with healthcare costs also decreasing from €7761 to €3376.
  • Factors such as service capacity issues and young people's disengagement from healthcare post-transition contribute to the observed cost reductions, highlighting the need for long-term research on the impacts of this transition on health outcomes and costs.
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Cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) rupture is one of the most commonly diagnosed orthopedic conditions of pet dogs, making estimated lifetime cruciate ligament survival an attractive endpoint for studies attempting to define clinical and genetic correlates of rupture risk reduction. Early life experiences contribute significantly to the origins of adult health outcomes, yet our current understanding of modifiable susceptibility factors that drive the high frequency of CCL rupture remains limited. We reasoned that combining lifetime medical history with standardized late-life assessment of lifetime cruciate ligament survival and detailed phenotyping of each dog for selected risk variables would provide a sensitive approach to identify factors that would differentiate between lifelong avoidance versus susceptibility to ligament rupture.

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Background: Poor transition planning contributes to discontinuity of care at the child-adult mental health service boundary (SB), adversely affecting mental health outcomes in young people (YP). The aim of the study was to determine whether managed transition (MT) improves mental health outcomes of YP reaching the child/adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) boundary compared with usual care (UC).

Methods: A two-arm cluster-randomised trial (ISRCTN83240263 and NCT03013595) with clusters allocated 1:2 between MT and UC.

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Background: The configuration of having separate mental health services by age, namely child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and adult mental health services (AMHS), might be a barrier to continuity of care that adversely affects young people's mental health. However, no studies have investigated whether discontinuity of care in the transition period affects mental health. We aimed to discern the type of care young people receive after reaching the upper age limit of their CAMHS and examine differences in outcomes at 24-month follow-up between young people receiving different types of care.

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In this work, nine new bromophenol derivatives were designed and synthesized. The alkylation reactions of (2-bromo-4,5-dimethoxyphenyl)methanol () with substituted benzenes - produced new diaryl methanes -. Targeted bromophenol derivatives - were synthesized via the O-Me demethylation of diaryl methanes with BBr3.

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Ideal friend and romantic partner characteristics related to self-perceived characteristics have been investigated in typically developing (TD) individuals, but not in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Considering the autistic symptoms and challenges, investigating these concepts in autistic individuals is relevant. Given the lack of consensus, identity-first ("autistic person") and person-first ("person with autism") language are mixed throughout, to cover all preferences.

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Background: This study examines the effectiveness of the culturally adapted Dutch version of The Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS®), utilizing a randomized control trial (RCT) with an active treatment control condition.

Methods: 106 adolescents with ASD, aged 12-18 years, were randomly assigned to one of two group interventions: the experimental condition (PEERS®; n = 54) or the active treatment control condition (Regulation, Organization and Autonomy Didactics; ROAD; n = 52). Effects of interventions on social skills were primarily assessed using an observational measure (CASS - Contextual Assessment Social Skills).

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Background: In mental health, transition refers to the pathway of young people from child and adolescent to adult services. Training of mental health psychiatrists on transition-related topics offers the opportunity to improve clinical practice and experiences of young people reaching the upper age limit of child and adolescent care.

Methods: National psychiatrist's organizations or experts from 21 European countries were surveyed 1/ to describe the status of transition in adult psychiatry (AP) and child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) postgraduate training in Europe; 2/ to explore the amount of cross-training between both specialties.

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Purpose: The service configuration with distinct child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and adult mental health services (AMHS) may be a barrier to continuity of care. Because of a lack of transition policy, CAMHS clinicians have to decide whether and when a young person should transition to AMHS. This study describes which characteristics are associated with the clinicians' advice to continue treatment at AMHS.

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Purpose: The presence of distinct child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and adult mental health services (AMHS) impacts continuity of mental health treatment for young people. However, we do not know the extent of discontinuity of care in Europe nor the effects of discontinuity on the mental health of young people. Current research is limited, as the majority of existing studies are retrospective, based on small samples or used non-standardised information from medical records.

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The Natural Products Magnetic Resonance Database (NP-MRD) is a comprehensive, freely available electronic resource for the deposition, distribution, searching and retrieval of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data on natural products, metabolites and other biologically derived chemicals. NMR spectroscopy has long been viewed as the 'gold standard' for the structure determination of novel natural products and novel metabolites. NMR is also widely used in natural product dereplication and the characterization of biofluid mixtures (metabolomics).

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Article Synopsis
  • Tourette syndrome (TS) is influenced by genetic and environmental factors, and this study investigated how specific genetic variants interact with pre- and perinatal adversity to affect tic severity in individuals with TS.
  • Researchers examined 98 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from various sources, including previous GWAS studies, to determine their association with tic severity using linear regression models.
  • While one SNP (rs7123010) showed a significant link to higher tic severity, the overall findings regarding the gene-environment interactions were not replicated in a second sample, suggesting more research is needed in this area.
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented stress on economies, food systems, and health care resources in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Existing surveillance provides a proxy of the COVID-19 caseload and mortalities; however, these measures make it difficult to identify the dynamics of the pandemic and places where outbreaks are likely to occur. Moreover, existing surveillance techniques have failed to measure the dynamics of the pandemic.

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Objective: Young people moving from child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) to adult mental health services (AMHS) are faced with significant challenges. To improve this state of affairs, there needs to be a recognition of the problem and initiatives and an urgent requirement for appropriate tools for measuring readiness and outcomes at the transfer boundary (16-18 years of age in Europe). The objective of this study was to develop and validate the Transition Readiness and Appropriateness Measure (TRAM) for assessing a young person's readiness for transition, and their outcomes at the transfer boundary.

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Background: Social skills interventions are commonly deployed for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Because effective and appropriate social skills are determined by cultural factors that differ throughout the world, the effectiveness of these interventions relies on a good cultural fit. Therefore, the ACCEPT study examines the effectiveness of the Dutch Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS®) social skills intervention.

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Objective: Neurofeedback has been proposed as an effective alternative for pharmacological treatment in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), with potentially long-term and delayed benefits. However, the specificity of such long-term behavioral improvements remains inconclusive and therefore additional research into the neurophysiological effects of neurofeedback is needed. We compared long-term effects of theta/beta neurofeedback (NFB) to methylphenidate (MPH) and physical activity (PA, semi-active control intervention) on electroencephalogram (EEG) power spectra.

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