Publications by authors named "Nicol S"

Background: Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE) is a crucial component within return-to-work decision making. However, clinician-based physical FCE interpretation may introduce variability and biases. The rise of technological applications such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, could ensure consistent and precise results.

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  • Oceanic eddies are crucial in marine ecosystems, attracting diverse marine life, including predators, by concentrating forage fauna.
  • In a study of a thousand eddies, only 13% showed significant effects on forage fauna, with just 6% exhibiting a strong "oasis effect."
  • Both anticyclonic and cyclonic eddies can create oases, but only high-amplitude eddies with strong water-mass-trapping significantly impact marine life, indicating complex interactions that require more research.
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  • Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a tough cancer to treat because it can hide from the immune system, making it one of the deadliest types of cancer.
  • Scientists want to learn more about why PDAC is so good at avoiding the immune system and how the gut microbiome, which helps our immune system, can impact this.
  • Research shows that the gut microbiome can change the kinds of immune cells in PDAC patients and may also affect how the tumor interacts with these immune cells, suggesting that improving gut health could help fight PDAC better.
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Background: Galectins (Gal's) are a family of carbohydrate-binding proteins that are known to support the tumour microenvironment through their immunosuppressive activity and ability to promote metastasis. As such they are attractive therapeutic targets, but little is known about the cellular expression pattern of galectins within the tumour and its neighbouring stromal microenvironment. Here we investigated the cellular expression pattern of Gals within pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

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Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma has a poor clinical outcome and responses to immunotherapy are suboptimal. Stromal fibroblasts are a dominant but heterogenous population within the tumor microenvironment and therapeutic targeting of stromal subsets may have therapeutic utility. Here, we combine spatial transcriptomics and scRNA-Seq datasets to define the transcriptome of tumor-proximal and tumor-distal cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and link this to clinical outcome.

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We studied humoral and cellular immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in 152 long-term care facility staff and 124 residents over a prospective 4-month period shortly after the first wave of infection in England. We show that residents of long-term care facilities developed high and stable levels of antibodies against spike protein and receptor-binding domain. Nucleocapsid-specific responses were also elevated but waned over time.

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Objectives: To examine readiness of adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) to transition to adult care.

Study Design: A cross-sectional multicenter study evaluating transition readiness in individuals with IBD 16-19 years old prospectively recruited from 8 Canadian IBD centers using the validated ON Taking Responsibility for Adolescent to Adult Care (ON TRAC) questionnaire. Secondary aims included (1) screening for depression and anxiety using the 8-item Personal Health Questionnaire Depression Scale and The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders questionnaires, respectively; (2) evaluating the association between depression and anxiety with readiness and disease activity; and (3) subjectively evaluating AYA readiness based on physician and parent assessments.

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Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a poor clinical outlook. Responses to immune checkpoint blockade are suboptimal and a much more detailed understanding of the tumor immune microenvironment is needed if this situation is to be improved. Here, we characterized tumor-infiltrating T-cell populations in patients with PDAC using cytometry by time of flight (CyTOF) and single-cell RNA sequencing.

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  • Biodiversity offsets are strategies used to balance the negative effects of building or development on nature and wildlife.
  • Experts usually suggest that these offsets should be near the area affected to help similar ecosystems, but sometimes distant offsets are considered.
  • A study on migratory shorebirds showed that while far-off offsets might work better in some cases, there are real risks and challenges in proving they are just as effective as local ones.
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Age is the strongest determinant of COVID-19 mortality, and over 2 billion people have received primary series vaccination with BNT162b2 (mRNA) or ChAdOx1 (adenoviral vector). However, the profile of sustained vaccine immunogenicity in older people is unknown. Here, we determine spike-specific humoral and cellular immunity to 8 months following BNT162b2 or ChAdOx1 in 245 people aged 80-98 years.

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Mathematical modelling is used during disease outbreaks to compare control interventions. Using multiple models, the best method to combine model recommendations is unclear. Existing methods weight model projections, then rank control interventions using the combined projections, presuming model outputs are directly comparable.

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Most child sex offending is unreported and undetected. Despite this, most research relies on the characteristics of those frequently detected and arrested. This study aims to address this disparity by examining a group of men convicted of child sexual abuse (CSA) offences with multiple victims and who evaded detection for long periods of time ( = 170).

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Children and adolescents generally experience mild COVID-19. However, those with underlying physical health conditions are at a significantly increased risk of severe disease. Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of antibody and cellular responses in adolescents with severe neuro-disabilities who received COVID-19 vaccination with either ChAdOx1 (n=6) or an mRNA vaccine (mRNA-1273, n=8, BNT162b2, n=1).

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The prefrontal cortex (PFC) supports a diversity of cognitive processes. Impairment in PFC-dependent cognition is associated with multiple psychiatric disorders, including those known to display sex differences. Our ability to treat this impairment is limited, in part due to an incomplete understanding of the neural mechanisms that support PFC-dependent cognition.

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Most child sexual abuse (CSA) remains unreported and undetected. Despite this, much of what we know about perpetrators of CSA is derived from samples of convicted CSA offenders. Significant knowledge gaps remain about those who have evaded detection.

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Allogeneic immune responses underlie the graft-versus-leukaemia effect of stem cell transplantation, but disease relapse occurs in many patients. Minor histocompatibility antigen (mHAg) peptides mediate alloreactive T cell responses and induce graft-versus-leukaemia responses when expressed on patient haematopoietic tissue. We vaccinated nine HA-1-negative donors against HA-1 with a 'prime-boost' protocol of either two or three DNA 'priming' vaccinations prior to 'boost' with modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA).

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Lifestyle modification has been demonstrated as a powerful tool in combating the morbidity and mortality of disease. Due to lack of training or education not enough physicians are discussing lifestyle changes with patients. The objective of this study was to determine what influenced participants to make lifestyle changes, and if it was a physician, what was said or done to motivate that decision.

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The design of e-cigarettes (e-cigs) is constantly evolving and the latest models can aerosolize using high-power sub-ohm resistance and hence may produce specific particle concentrations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the aerosol characteristics generated by two different types of electronic cigarette in real-world conditions, such as a sitting room or a small office, in number of particles (particles/cm). We compared the real time and time-integrated measurements of the aerosol generated by the e-cigarette types Just Fog and JUUL.

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Globally, many river systems are under stress due to overconsumption of water. Governments have responded with programmes to deliver environmental water to improve environmental outcomes. Although such programmes are essential, they may not be sufficient to achieve all desired environmental outcomes.

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Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most common tumor subtypes and remains associated with very poor survival. T cell infiltration into tumor tissue is associated with improved clinical outcome but little is known regarding the potential role of NK cells in disease control. Here we analyze the phenotype and function of NK cells in the blood and tumor tissue from patients with PDAC.

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  • Predators can greatly influence prey populations and affect lower trophic levels, particularly in aquatic ecosystems, but the impact of aquatic mammals like the platypus remains under-explored.
  • Our study focused on how the platypus affects benthic invertebrate populations in a mesotrophic lake and a dynamic stream ecosystem using exclusion experiments.
  • Results showed that platypuses significantly suppressed invertebrate prey, especially detritivores and omnivores, with stronger effects observed in the stream compared to the lake, while effects on algae and sediment redistribution were minimal, indicating the need for further research to understand these variations.
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Elevated seawater CO can cause a range of behavioural impairments in marine fishes. However, most studies to date have been conducted on small benthic species and very little is known about how higher oceanic CO levels could affect the behaviour of large pelagic species. Here, we tested the effects of elevated CO, and where possible the interacting effects of high temperature, on a range of ecologically important behaviours (anxiety, routine activity, behavioural lateralization and visual acuity) in juvenile yellowtail kingfish, Seriola lalandi.

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Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) are a key component of the Antarctic food web with considerable lipid reserves that are vital for their health and higher predator survival. Krill lipids are primarily derived from their diet of plankton, in particular diatoms and flagellates. Few attempts have been made to link the spatial and temporal variations in krill lipids to those in their food supply.

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Anthropogenic CO emissions are causing global ocean warming and ocean acidification. The early life stages of some marine fish are vulnerable to elevated ocean temperatures and CO concentrations, with lowered survival and growth rates most frequently documented. Underlying these effects, damage to different organs has been found as a response to elevated CO in larvae of several species of marine fish, yet the combined effects of acidification and warming on organ health are unknown.

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