Publications by authors named "Peter E Miller"

Background: Colorectal cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related death. Small animal models allow for the study of different metastatic patterns, but an optimal model for metastatic colorectal cancer has not been established.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine which orthotopic model most accurately emulates the patterns of primary tumor growth and spontaneous liver and lung metastases seen in patients with colorectal cancer.

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Background: The robotic platform has been used increasingly to perform colorectal surgery. The benefits of robotic colectomy when compared with laparoscopic colectomy have not been definitively established.

Study Design: A retrospective review of the NSQIP database was performed on patients undergoing elective laparoscopic or robotic colectomy in 2013.

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Background: Colorectal residency has become one of the more competitive postgraduate training opportunities; however, little information is available to guide potential applicants in gauging their competitiveness.

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the current trends colorectal residency training and to identify what factors are considered most important in ranking a candidate highly. We hypothesized that there was a difference in what program directors, current and recently matched colorectal residents, and recent graduates consider most important in making a candidate competitive for a colorectal residency position.

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Taxonomic identification accounts for a substantial portion of cost associated with bioassessment programs across the United States. New analytical approaches, such as DNA barcoding have been promoted as a way to reduce monitoring costs and improve efficiency, yet this assumption has not been thoroughly evaluated. We address this question by comparing costs for traditional morphology-based bioassessment, the standard Sanger sequencing-based DNA barcoding approach, and emerging next-generation (NGS) molecular methods.

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Background: Critically ill patients requiring emergent colectomy have significant mortality risk.

Objective: A national administrative database was used to compose a simple scoring scheme for predicting in-hospital mortality risk.

Design: The 2007 to 2009 Nationwide Inpatient Sample was queried to identify patients requiring nonelective colectomy.

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Molecular methods, such as DNA barcoding, have the potential to enhance biomonitoring programs worldwide. Altering routinely used sample preservation methods to protect DNA from degradation may pose a potential impediment to application of DNA barcoding and metagenomics for biomonitoring using benthic macroinvertebrates. Using higher volumes or concentrations of ethanol, requirements for shorter holding times, or the need to include additional filtering may increase cost and logistical constraints to existing biomonitoring programs.

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Purpose: Gastrointestinal tract hemorrhage is a common problem accounting for approximately 1 % of hospital admissions. It is estimated that one third of the episodes of lower gastrointestinal hemorrhage are secondary to diverticular disease. Inter-institutional transfer has been associated with delay in care and increased in-hospital mortality.

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DNA barcoding, as it is currently employed, enhances use of marine benthic macrofauna as environmental condition indicators by improving the speed and accuracy of the underlying taxonomic identifications. The next generation of barcoding applications, processing bulk environmental samples, will likely only provide presence information. However, macrofauna indices presently used to interpret these data are based on species abundances.

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