Publications by authors named "Muirhead R"

Article Synopsis
  • Squamous cell carcinoma of the anus (SCCA) can come back after treatment, and identifying responses early is key for personalized care, but current data on imaging biomarkers is limited and often conflicting.
  • The study analyzed data from four trials, looking at diffusion-weighted MRI scans to see if changes in the tumor's apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) could predict treatment failure during chemoradiotherapy.
  • Results showed that while a change in ADC could indicate different rates of locoregional failure, no ADC-based metrics significantly predicted treatment failure overall, highlighting the need for more comprehensive studies on radiological biomarkers in the future.
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Background: Weight loss through lifestyle interventions, notably low-energy diets, offers glycemic benefits in populations with overweight-associated prediabetes. However, >50% of these individuals fail to achieve normoglycemia after weight loss. Circulating lipids hold potential for evaluating dietary impacts and predicting diabetes risk.

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Amyloid-β pathology and neurofibrillary tangles lead to glial activation and neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease. In this study, we investigated the relationships between the levels of amyloid-β oligomers, amyloid-β plaques, glial activation and markers related to neurodegeneration in the triple mutation mouse line and in a knock-in line homozygous for the common human amyloid precursor protein ( mouse). The relationships between neuropathological features were characterized with immunohistochemistry and imaging mass cytometry.

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Background: Lifestyle interventions can prevent type 2 diabetes (T2D) by successfully inducing behavioral changes (eg, avoiding physical inactivity and sedentariness, increasing physical activity and/or healthy eating) that reduce body weight and normalize metabolic levels (eg, HbA1c). For interventions to be successful, it is important to influence "behavioral mechanisms" such as self-efficacy, which motivate behavioral changes. Theory-based expectations of how self-efficacy, chronic stress, and mood changed over time were investigated through a group-based behavior change intervention (PREMIT).

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Aging is associated with cell senescence and is the major risk factor for AD. We characterized premature cell senescence in postmortem brains from non-diseased controls (NDC) and donors with Alzheimer's disease (AD) using imaging mass cytometry (IMC) and single nuclear RNA (snRNA) sequencing (> 200,000 nuclei). We found increases in numbers of glia immunostaining for galactosidase beta (> fourfold) and p16 (up to twofold) with AD relative to NDC.

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Self-report and device-based measures of physical activity (PA) both have unique strengths and limitations; combining these measures should provide complementary and comprehensive insights to PA behaviours. Therefore, we aim to 1) identify PA clusters and clusters of change in PA based on self-reported daily activities and 2) assess differences in device-based PA between clusters in a lifestyle intervention, the PREVIEW diabetes prevention study. In total, 232 participants with overweight and prediabetes (147 women; 55.

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Article Synopsis
  • Brain perfusion and blood-brain barrier integrity are compromised early in Alzheimer's disease, leading to increased vascular issues.
  • Single nucleus RNA sequencing revealed that endothelial cells in Alzheimer's patients show gene expressions linked to AD susceptibility, particularly involving β-amyloid and impairments in vascular signaling.
  • The study suggests that targeting vascular inflammation and enhancing angiogenesis may help reduce vascular dysfunction and potentially slow down the onset or progression of Alzheimer's disease.
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Escherichia coli are widely used by water quality managers as Fecal Indicator Bacteria, but current quantification methods do not differentiate them from benign, environmental Escherichia species such as E. marmotae (formerly named cryptic clade V) or E. ruysiae (cryptic clades III and IV).

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Objective: To examine whether eating behavior and perceived stress predict the maintenance of self-reported dietary change and adherence to dietary instructions during an intervention.

Design: A secondary analysis of the behavior maintenance stage (6-36 months) of the 3-year PREVIEW intervention (PREVention of diabetes through lifestyle Intervention and population studies in Europe and around the World).

Participants: Adults (n = 1,311) with overweight and prediabetes at preintervention baseline.

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is often used as a fecal indicator bacterium for water quality monitoring. We report the draft genome sequences of 500 isolates including newly described species, namely , and , obtained from diverse environmental sources to assist with improved public health risk assessments.

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Aim(s): To identify, synthesise and map systematic reviews of the effectiveness of nursing interventions undertaken in a neonatal intensive care unit or special care nursery.

Design: This scoping review was conducted according to the JBI scoping review framework.

Methods: Review included systematic reviews that evaluated any nurse-initiated interventions that were undertaken in an NICU or SCN setting.

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Escherichia coli are routine indicators of fecal contamination in water quality assessments. Contrary to livestock and human activities, brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula), common invasive marsupials in Aotearoa/New Zealand, have not been thoroughly studied as a source of fecal contamination in freshwater. To investigate their potential role, Escherichia spp.

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Aim: To develop a nurse-led model of analgesia to manage post-operative pain in the surgical neonate.

Design: A four-round e-Delphi study was conducted from March to December 2022.

Methods: An e-Delphi method was used seeking a consensus of 70% or greater.

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Background: Sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy diet combined with overweight are risk factors for type 2 diabetes (T2D). Lifestyle interventions with weight-loss are effective in T2D-prevention, but unsuccessful completion and chronic stress may hinder efficacy. Determinants of chronic stress and premature cessation at the start of the 3-year PREVIEW study were examined.

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Article Synopsis
  • Microglial activation is crucial in diseases that involve neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration, with PET scans using TSPO to detect inflammation in the brain, although interpreting these results can be tricky.* -
  • The study finds that while TSPO expression increases in activated microglia in mouse models, it doesn't change in human diseases, indicating a difference in how TSPO is regulated across species.* -
  • Genetic differences in TSPO expression linked to the transcription factor AP1 are noted, suggesting that human TSPO-PET signals are more about the presence of inflammatory cells rather than their activation state.*
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Background: Dietary sugars are often linked to the development of overweight and type 2 diabetes (T2D) but inconsistencies remain.

Objective: We investigated associations of added, free, and total sugars, and glycaemic index (GI) with indices of glucose metabolism (IGM) and indices of body fatness (IBF) during a 3-year weight loss maintenance intervention.

Design: The PREVIEW (PREVention of diabetes through lifestyle Intervention and population studies in Europe and around the World) study was a randomised controlled trial designed to test the effects of four diet and physical activity interventions, after an 8-week weight-loss period, on the incidence of T2D.

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Aims: Irradiation of pelvic bone marrow (PBM) at the level of the typical low dose bath of intensity-modulated radiotherapy delivery (10-20 Gy) is associated with an increased risk of haematological toxicity, particularly when combined with concurrent chemotherapy. Although sparing of the whole of the PBM at a 10-20 Gy dose level is unachievable, it is known that PBM is divided into haematopoietically active and inactive regions that are identifiable based on the threshold uptake of [F]-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) seen on positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT). In published studies to date, the definition of active PBM widely used is that of a standardised uptake value (SUV) greater than the mean SUV of the whole PBM prior to the start of chemoradiation.

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Purpose: The health of parents prior to conception, a woman's health during pregnancy and the infant's environment across their first months and years collectively have profound effects on the child's health across the lifespan. Since there are very few cohort studies in early pregnancy, gaps remain in our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning these relationships, and how health may be optimised. 'BABY1000', a pilot prospective longitudinal birth cohort study, aims to (1) identify factors before and during pregnancy and early life that impact longer-term health and (2) assess the feasibility and acceptability of study design to inform future research.

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Aims: The aims of this project were to improve the utilization of developmental care practices in the neonatal unit and to increase opportunities for parental involvement in the planning and provision of caregiving.

Methods: This implementation project was conducted in a 79-bed neonatal tertiary referral unit in Australia. A pre/postimplementation survey design was utilized.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study aimed to investigate how HbA (hemoglobin A1c) and glucose-related factors influence weight loss and blood sugar changes after an 8-week low energy diet in people with overweight and pre-diabetes conditions.
  • - In a sample of 2,178 individuals, neither HbA levels nor certain glucose measures correlated with changes in body weight after the diet; however, factors like higher body weight and insulin levels were linked to improved fasting glucose levels.
  • - The findings suggest that while HbA and glucose do not predict short-term weight loss success, they may affect metabolic responses to rapid weight loss, highlighting the roles of inflammation and body fat in these processes.
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Aims: This study looked at the survival, mobilization, and transport of Escherichia coli from sheep faeces over an extended period, which was then repeated for all four seasons.

Methods And Results: Rain simulation was used to measure E. coli mobilization directly from faecal pats and subsequent transport across a soil surface.

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Animal agriculture is recognized as a key source of fecal microbial impacts on water quality and associated risks to human health. Most of the research effort has focused on losses of fecal microbes from cow/cattle feces with little research effort on sheep fecal risks. The literature on fecal microbial risks from pasture is complicated by the fact that experiments are carried out in different environments leading to difficulties in making direct comparisons between sheep and cow/cattle losses from pasture areas.

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Background: To better support participants to achieve long-lasting results within interventions aiming for weight loss and maintenance, more information is needed about the maintenance of behavioral changes. Therefore, we examined whether perceived stress predicts the maintenance of changes in eating behavior (flexible and rigid restraint of eating, disinhibition, and hunger).

Methods: The present study was a secondary analysis of the PREVIEW intervention including participants with overweight (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m) at baseline and high risk of type 2 diabetes (n = 1311).

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