Publications by authors named "McKee C"

Nipah virus spillovers via consumption of date palm sap in Bangladesh vary substantially between years and have been associated with lower winter temperatures and precipitation. However, the mechanisms driving the interannual variation and the influence of weather remain unexplained. Here we investigated the hypothesis that weather patterns change human sap consumption and explain interannual variation in observed spillovers.

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  • This study aimed to analyze the hemodynamics of a new animal model of Fontan physiology, which is important for understanding poor long-term outcomes in Fontan patients.
  • Researchers created a single-stage Fontan model in juvenile sheep and conducted detailed hemodynamic assessments.
  • Results showed that only a fraction of the sheep survived, with survival rates improving over time due to a learning curve; the study identified key hemodynamic characteristics but noted anatomical differences that affected the model's accuracy, suggesting surgical modifications could enhance future studies.
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SARS-CoV-2 superspreading occurs when transmission is highly efficient and/or an individual infects many others, contributing to rapid spread. To better quantify heterogeneity in SARS-CoV-2 transmission, particularly superspreading, we performed a systematic review of transmission events with data on secondary attack rates or contact tracing of individual index cases published before September 2021 prior to the emergence of variants of concern and widespread vaccination. We reviewed 592 distinct events and 9,883 index cases from 491 papers.

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Elk (Cervus canadensis) have been considered non-native to the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California and Nevada. However, elk have steadily increased their range southward from the Cascade Range into the northern Sierra Nevada over the last century. Recent reports also reveal Rocky Mountain elk moving northwards into the southern Sierra Nevada.

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Objectives: To provide an overview of the outcome measures currently used after sports-related concussion (SRC) in adolescents, categorising by the constructs they assess, follow-up duration and their feasibility of use.

Design: Scoping review.

Data Sources: We searched three electronic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE and CINAHL).

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  • Accurate forecasts improve public health responses to seasonal influenza, with 26 teams providing predictions for hospital admissions in 2021-22 and 2022-23.
  • Six out of 23 models performed better than the baseline in 2021-22, while 12 out of 18 models did so in 2022-23, with the FluSight ensemble being highly ranked in both seasons.
  • Despite its accuracy, the FluSight ensemble and other models struggled with longer forecast periods, especially during times of rapid change in influenza patterns.
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  • The study investigates the genetic relationships between bats, their ectoparasitic flies, and associated bacteria in the Gulf of Guinea, highlighting limited genetic structure in the flies compared to their bat hosts.
  • Significant isolation by distance was found, indicating that while bats have restricted movement between islands, they may occasionally disperse ectoparasites and microbes.
  • The findings enhance our understanding of African fruit bat phylogeography and could provide insights into pathogen transmission and community ecology in host-microbe interactions.
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Precise regulation of protein phosphorylation is critical for many cellular processes, and dysfunction in this process has been linked to various neurological disorders and diseases. Protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) is a ubiquitously expressed serine/threonine phosphatase with three major isoforms, (α, β, γ) and hundreds of known substrates. Previously, we reported that PP1α and PP1γ are essential for the known role of PP1 in synaptic physiology and learning/memory, while PP1β displayed a surprising opposing function.

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Background: Nipah virus (NiV), a highly lethal virus in humans, circulates in Pteropus bats throughout South and Southeast Asia. Difficulty in obtaining viral genomes from bats means we have a poor understanding of NiV diversity.

Methods: We develop phylogenetic approaches applied to the most comprehensive collection of genomes to date (N = 257, 175 from bats, 73 from humans) from 6 countries over 22 years (1999-2020).

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  • COVID-19 is still a major public health issue in the U.S., with projected hospitalizations and deaths over the next two years varying based on assumptions about immune escape and vaccine recommendations.
  • Researchers used modeling to create six different scenarios combining levels of immune escape (20% and 50% per year) and CDC vaccination recommendations for different age groups.
  • In the worst-case scenario (high immune escape and no vaccination), COVID-19 could lead to over 2.1 million hospitalizations and around 209,000 deaths, while targeted vaccinations for seniors could significantly reduce these numbers.
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Background: Accurate concussion monitoring requires access to preinjury baseline data. This is particularly important in adolescent athletes who have a high risk of concussion and are prone to prolonged recovery. As Rugby Union is governed by similar laws for men and women, it is also an ideal population to rigorously examine the impact of biological sex on concussion symptoms.

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Background: The incidence and histological type of spinal cancer is diverse. It is our role as physicians to explore the epidemiology of spinal cancers so that several projections can be made. Resource allocation, cost analyses, and the requirement of rehabilitation facilities all need to be considered.

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The COVID-19 pandemic led to an unprecedented demand for projections of disease burden and healthcare utilization under scenarios ranging from unmitigated spread to strict social distancing policies. In response, members of the Johns Hopkins Infectious Disease Dynamics Group developed flepiMoP (formerly called the COVID Scenario Modeling Pipeline), a comprehensive open-source software pipeline designed for creating and simulating compartmental models of infectious disease transmission and inferring parameters through these models. The framework has been used extensively to produce short-term forecasts and longer-term scenario projections of COVID-19 at the state and county level in the US, for COVID-19 in other countries at various geographic scales, and more recently for seasonal influenza.

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Background: Remimazolam is a benzodiazepine which, like midazolam, has sedative, anxiolytic, and amnestic properties. Ester metabolism results in a half-life of 5 - 10 min, a limited context sensitive half-life, and rapid recovery when the infusion is discontinued.

Methods: Following the Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, we performed a retrospective chart review of patients who received remimazolam in the cardiac catheterization, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and electrophysiology suites.

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Concussion examination is based primarily on clinical evaluation and symptomatic reporting. Pupillary light reflex (PLR) metrics may provide an objective physiological marker to inform concussion diagnosis and recovery, but few studies have assessed PLR, and normative data are lacking, particularly for adolescents. To capture PLR data in adolescent rugby players and examine the effects of concussion history and biological sex.

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Pain following thoracotomy is one of the most severe forms of postoperative pain. Post-thoracotomy pain may increase the risk of post-surgical pulmonary complications, postoperative mortality, prolong hospitalization, and increase utilization of healthcare resources. To mitigate these effects, anesthesia providers commonly employ continuous epidural infusions, paravertebral blocks, and systemic opioids for pain management and improvement of pulmonary mechanics.

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Case conceptualization, formally known as case formulation, is one tool that assists in determining the best course of action for children and families experiencing family violence that has been under-utilized in child welfare. In this article we present a step-by-step case conceptualization process that considers the child welfare context. We then present a hypothetical case example of a 10-year-old child referred by a child welfare worker to evidence-based treatment for mental health and behavioural concerns.

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Accurate forecasts can enable more effective public health responses during seasonal influenza epidemics. Forecasting teams were asked to provide national and jurisdiction-specific probabilistic predictions of weekly confirmed influenza hospital admissions for one through four weeks ahead for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 influenza seasons. Across both seasons, 26 teams submitted forecasts, with the submitting teams varying between seasons.

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Our ability to forecast epidemics far into the future is constrained by the many complexities of disease systems. Realistic longer-term projections may, however, be possible under well-defined scenarios that specify the future state of critical epidemic drivers. Since December 2020, the U.

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  • COVID-19 is expected to continue causing significant hospitalizations and deaths in the U.S. from April 2023 to April 2025, with projections varying based on assumptions about immune escape and vaccination recommendations.
  • The study analyzes six scenarios based on different levels of immune escape (20% and 50% per year) and three vaccination strategies (no recommendation, vaccination for ages 65+, or vaccination for all eligible groups).
  • In the worst-case scenario, without vaccination and with high immune escape, projections estimate up to 2.1 million hospitalizations and 209,000 deaths, indicating a public health crisis that could surpass pre-pandemic influenza and pneumonia mortality rates.
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Multipartite patella is an anatomical variant classified by the fragmentation of the main patellar body. The cause of this variant is due to failure in fusion of the patellar ossification centers. It is commonly misdiagnosed as a fracture of the patella in clinical practice, leading to unnecessary treatment measures.

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Psychological stress confers an increased risk for several diseases including psychiatric conditions. The susceptibility to psychological stress is modulated by various factors, many of them being modifiable lifestyle choices. The ketogenic diet (KD) has emerged as a dietary regime that offers positive outcomes on mood and health status.

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Psychological stress confers an increased risk for several diseases including psychiatric conditions. The susceptibility to psychological stress is modulated by various factors, many of them being modifiable lifestyle choices. The ketogenic diet (KD) has emerged as a dietary regime that offers positive outcomes on mood and health status.

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Bats harbor diverse intracellular Bartonella bacteria, but there is limited understanding of the factors that influence transmission over time. Investigation of Bartonella dynamics in bats could reveal general factors that control transmission of multiple bat-borne pathogens, including viruses. We used molecular methods to detect Bartonella DNA in paired bat (Pteropus medius) blood and bat flies in the family Nycteribiidae collected from a roost in Faridpur, Bangladesh between September 2020 and January 2021.

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Introduction:  Accurate medical documentation is important in the perioperative period, ensuring the safe transfer of information between teams involved in the surgical patient's care. This has been highlighted by multiple standards of care guidelines within the United Kingdom. The use of standardized pre-templated documents has displayed significant success in minimizing errors during the admission and operative stages.

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