Publications by authors named "O F Smith"

Background: The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) program uses the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), and the Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS) as part of their unique outcome monitoring system. To reduce patient burden, this study explored whether abbreviated versions of these questionnaires can be used to derive relevant outcome statistics with minimal loss of information.

Methods: Using two samples (training; n = 1530, validation; n = 766), we examined whether existing short-forms, PHQ-4 and GAD-R3, would provide enough information to calculate relevant outcomes with near perfect agreement with the outcomes based on the original scales.

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Secretion of high-value proteins and enzymes is fundamental to the synthetic biology economy, allowing continuous fermentation during production and protein purification without cell lysis. Most eukaryotic protein secretion is encoded by an N-terminal signal peptide (SP); however, the strong impact of SP sequence variation on the secretion efficiency of a given protein is not well defined. Despite high natural SP sequence diversity, most recombinant protein secretion systems use only a few well-characterised SPs.

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Article Synopsis
  • Many existing fluorescent calcium sensors are affected by changes in pH, impacting their performance.
  • Researchers developed a new calcium sensor that uses diacylated 1,10-diaza-18-crown-6, which is sensitive to low levels of calcium and can work in water.
  • However, this sensor struggles with selecting calcium over other divalent cations and still shows pH sensitivity in acidic conditions, with insights provided on how its structure relates to these characteristics.
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Introduction: Pragmatic trials aim to speed translation to practice by integrating study procedures in routine care settings. This study evaluated implementation outcomes related to clinician and patient recruitment and participation in a trial of community paramedicine (CP) and presents successes and challenges of maintaining pragmatic study features.

Methods: Adults in the pre-hospital setting, emergency department (ED), or hospital being considered for referral to the ED/hospital or continued hospitalization for intermediate-level care were randomized 1:1 to CP care or usual care.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Mitochondrial dysfunction plays a crucial role in HF, particularly through issues with calcium homeostasis and oxidative stress, which worsen the condition.
  • * This review highlights the need for more research on mitochondrial dynamics and oxidative stress in different HF types, and it calls for the development of new treatments targeting these mitochondrial issues to improve patient outcomes.
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