Publications by authors named "Nicholas Cheng"

Purpose: Coronary CT angiography (CCTA) is well established for the diagnostic evaluation and prognostication of coronary artery disease (CAD). The growing burden of CAD in Asia and the emergence of novel CT-based risk markers highlight the need for an automated platform that integrates patient data with CCTA findings to provide tailored, accurate cardiovascular risk assessments. This study aims to develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven platform for CAD assessment using CCTA in Singapore's multiethnic population.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: To explore the cognitive treatment preferences of young people with mental illness.

Methods: Two-hundred and fourteen people, aged 12-25 years, were surveyed about their treatment priorities. Participants were specifically asked how they might like to receive cognitive treatments and identify factors that might influence their decisions to participate.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose Of Review: To examine evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on how modifiable factors such as exercise and nutrition, with a focus on dairy products, play a role in improving bone health across the lifespan.

Recent Findings: Meta-analyses of RCTs demonstrate the advantages of consuming dairy products to improve bone mineral density/content (BMD/BMC) and markers of bone metabolism and turnover (BTMs). Eighteen RCTs were conducted investigating the combined effects of dairy and exercise, with most indicating a benefit in youth and adult populations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The phytochemical composition and physicochemical attributes of polyphenol-enriched protein particle ingredients produced with pulse proteins (e.g. chickpea protein, pea protein, and a chickpea-pea protein blend) and polyphenols recovered from wild blueberry pomace were investigated for colloidal and interfacial properties.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: Cognitive impairments are a core feature of first-episode psychosis (FEP) and one of the strongest predictors of long-term psychosocial functioning. Cognition should be assessed and treated as part of routine clinical care for FEP. Cognitive screening offers the opportunity to rapidly identify and triage those in most need of cognitive support.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Children can develop mental health issues following a concussion, but the relationship between concussions and these issues is not fully understood.
  • A study followed 115 children who experienced concussions, analyzing factors like previous psychological symptoms, family history, and child resilience to predict mental health outcomes two weeks and three months post-injury.
  • Results showed that pre-existing conditions and personal traits significantly predicted mental health problems after concussions, accounting for a substantial portion of the variance in outcomes, highlighting the need for further research in this area.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This article describes the rationale, aims, and methodology of the Accelerating Medicines Partnership® Schizophrenia (AMP® SCZ). This is the largest international collaboration to date that will develop algorithms to predict trajectories and outcomes of individuals at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis and to advance the development and use of novel pharmacological interventions for CHR individuals. We present a description of the participating research networks and the data processing analysis and coordination center, their processes for data harmonization across 43 sites from 13 participating countries (recruitment across North America, Australia, Europe, Asia, and South America), data flow and quality assessment processes, data analyses, and the transfer of data to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Data Archive (NDA) for use by the research community.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Unlabelled: Early kinetics of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in plasma predict response to pembrolizumab but typically requires sequencing of matched tumor tissue or fixed gene panels. We analyzed genome-wide methylation and fragment-length profiles using cell-free methylated DNA immunoprecipitation and sequencing (cfMeDIP-seq) in 204 plasma samples from 87 patients before and during treatment with pembrolizumab from a pan-cancer phase II investigator-initiated trial (INSPIRE). We trained a pan-cancer methylation signature using independent methylation array data from The Cancer Genome Atlas to quantify cancer-specific methylation (CSM) and fragment-length score (FLS) for each sample.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Diffusion-Weight Imaging (DWI) is increasingly used to explore a range of outcomes in pediatric concussion, particularly the neurobiological underpinnings of symptom recovery. However, the DWI findings within the broader pediatric concussion literature are mixed, which can largely be explained by methodological heterogeneity. To address some of these limitations, the aim of the present study was to utilize internationally- recognized criteria for concussion and a consistent imaging timepoint to conduct a comprehensive, multi-parametric survey of white matter microstructure after concussion.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: Cognitive impairments negatively impact the everyday functioning of young people with mental illness. However, no previous study has asked young people (1) how much of a priority cognitive functioning is within mental health treatment, and (2) what types of cognition-focused treatments are most appealing. The current study aimed to address these questions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Metastatic prostate cancer remains a major clinical challenge and metastatic lesions are highly heterogeneous and difficult to biopsy. Liquid biopsy provides opportunities to gain insights into the underlying biology. Here, using the highly sensitive enrichment-based sequencing technology, we provide analysis of 60 and 175 plasma DNA methylomes from patients with localized and metastatic prostate cancer, respectively.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Cognitive impairments are well-established features of psychotic disorders and are present when individuals are at ultra-high risk for psychosis. However, few interventions target cognitive functioning in this population.

Aims: To investigate whether omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (-3 PUFA) supplementation improves cognitive functioning among individuals at ultra-high risk for psychosis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cognitive impairment is a well-documented predictor of transition to a full-threshold psychotic disorder amongst individuals at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis. However, less is known about whether change in cognitive functioning differs between those who do and do not transition. Studies to date have not examined trajectories in intelligence constructs (e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Cognitive deficits are associated with poor functional outcomes in individuals recovering from a first episode of psychosis (FEP). Existing treatments that target cognitive deficits in FEP may enhance cognitive function, but improvements to real-world functioning are less consistent. Furthermore, these treatments may not adequately address the personal recovery goals of young people attending FEP services.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: Cognitive deficits are recognized features of depressive disorders in youth aged 12-25. These deficits are distressing, predict functional impairment and limit the effectiveness of psychological therapies. Cognitive enhancement using behavioural, biochemical or physical treatments may be useful in young people with depression, but studies have not been synthesized.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Complex organic-inorganic interfaces are important for device and sensing applications. Charge transfer doping is prevalent in such applications and can affect the interfacial energy level alignments (ELA), which are determined by many-body interactions. We develop an approximate many-body GW approach that can capture many-body interactions due to interfacial charge transfer.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Emerging soft exoskeletons pose urgent needs for high-performance strain sensors with tunable linear working windows to achieve a high-precision control loop. Still, the state-of-the-art strain sensors require further advances to simultaneously satisfy multiple sensing parameters, including high sensitivity, reliable linearity, and tunable strain ranges. Besides, a wireless sensing system is highly desired to enable facile monitoring of soft exoskeleton in real time, but is rarely investigated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: This randomized controlled feasibility study investigates the ability for clinical application of the Brain-Computer Interface-based Soft Robotic Glove (BCI-SRG) incorporating activities of daily living (ADL)-oriented tasks for stroke rehabilitation.

Methods: Eleven recruited chronic stroke patients were randomized into BCI-SRG or Soft Robotic Glove (SRG) group. Each group underwent 120-minute intervention per session comprising 30-minute standard arm therapy and 90-minute experimental therapy (BCI-SRG or SRG).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cross-linking mass spectrometry (XL-MS) has become a powerful structural tool for defining protein-protein interactions (PPIs) and elucidating architectures of large protein assemblies. To advance XL-MS studies, we have previously developed a series of sulfoxide-containing MS-cleavable cross-linkers to facilitate the detection and identification of cross-linked peptides using multistage mass spectrometry (MS). While current sulfoxide-based cross-linkers are effective for in vivo and in vitro XL-MS studies at the systems-level, new reagents are still needed to help expand PPI coverage.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Phenytoin is the current standard of care for second-line treatment of paediatric convulsive status epilepticus after failure of first-line benzodiazepines, but is only effective in 60% of cases and is associated with considerable adverse effects. A newer anticonvulsant, levetiracetam, can be given more quickly, is potentially more efficacious, and has a more tolerable adverse effect profile. We aimed to determine whether phenytoin or levetiracetam is the superior second-line treatment for paediatric convulsive status epilepticus.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Systematic documentation of chemotoxicities in outpatient clinics is challenging. Incorporating patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures in clinical workflows can be an efficient strategy to strengthen the assessment of symptomatic treatment toxicities in oncology clinical practice. We compared the adequateness, feasibility, and acceptability of toxicity documentation using systematic, prospective, application of the PRO Common Toxicity Criteria for Adverse Events (PRO-CTCAE) tool.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The provision of continuous passive, and intent-based assisted movements for neuromuscular training can be incorporated into a robotic elbow sleeve. The objective of this study is to propose the design and test the functionality of a soft robotic elbow sleeve in assisting flexion and extension of the elbow, both passively and using intent-based motion reinforcement. First, the elbow sleeve was developed, using elastomeric and fabric-based pneumatic actuators, which are soft and lightweight, in order to address issues of non-portability and poor alignment with joints that conventional robotic rehabilitation devices are faced with.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The Paediatric Research in Emergency Departments International Collaborative (PREDICT) performs multicentre research in Australia and New Zealand. Research priorities are difficult to determine, often relying on individual interests or prior work.

Objective: To identify the research priorities of paediatric emergency medicine (PEM) specialists working in Australia and New Zealand.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Convulsive status epilepticus (CSE) is the most common life-threatening childhood neurological emergency. Despite this, there is a lack of high quality evidence supporting medication use after first line benzodiazepines, with current treatment protocols based solely on non-experimental evidence and expert opinion. The current standard of care, phenytoin, is only 60% effective, and associated with considerable adverse effects.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF