Publications by authors named "Pierce K"

Article Synopsis
  • The study analyzed preoperative data from adult spinal deformity patients to establish a threshold for T1 slope (T1S) from cervical radiographs that indicates thoracolumbar malalignment.
  • Researchers found a specific cutoff of 30 degrees for high T1S, with 50% of the patients falling above this threshold.
  • Notably, higher T1S was linked with greater thoracic kyphosis, sagittal vertical axis, T1-pelvic angle, and pelvic tilt, suggesting that this measurement could serve as a useful parameter in cervical evaluations.
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Background: Exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) during childhood has been associated with altered growth and adiposity in children. The effects of prenatal exposure to PAHs on developmental programming of growth and adiposity are still unknown.

Objective: To study the association of prenatal exposure to PAHs with early childhood growth and adiposity measures.

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Vaccination with the tetravalent live attenuated dengue virus (DENV) vaccines TV003 and TV005 causes a mild, relatively localized erythematous maculopapular skin rash in most dengue-naïve vaccinees. Human challenge model DENV strains, DENV2Δ30 and DENV3Δ30, trigger a confluent skin rash over most of the body in most unvaccinated participants. To determine the etiology of these rashes we performed in situ hybridization for DENV genome and assessed cellular infiltration by hematoxylin/eosin staining in skin biopsies from humans infected with live attenuated dengue vaccine DENV2Δ30 or DENV3Δ30 challenge strains.

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  • ALSUntangled examines alternative treatments for ALS, focusing on psilocybin, a psychedelic compound from mushrooms.
  • Psilocybin may theoretically help slow ALS due to its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and influence neurogenesis and inflammation, but there's no existing research specifically on its effects in ALS patients.
  • Due to potential risks of psychological side effects and lack of supporting evidence, the use of psilocybin for ALS progression is not currently endorsed.
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Introduction: Heterotopic ossification (HO) occurs following orthopedic trauma, spinal cord injuries, brain trauma and limb amputations. Once symptomatic, HO causes pain, limited mobility and decreased quality of life. Current treatments are limited and have significant complications with high recurrence rates, underscoring the need for improved therapeutic interventions.

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Background: A prolonged first episode of psychosis (FEP) without adequate treatment is a predictor of poor clinical, functional, and health outcomes and significant economic burden. Team-based "coordinated specialty care" (CSC) for early psychosis (EP) has established effectiveness in promoting clinical and functional recovery. However, California's CSC program implementation has been unsystematic and could benefit from standardizing its processes and data collection infrastructure.

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Introduction: Bisphenols are endocrine-disrupting chemicals known to contribute to chronic disease across the lifespan. With increased awareness of their health effects, changes in regulation and health behaviors have contributed to reductions in urinary bisphenol A (BPA) levels in the United States, Canada, and Europe. However, global trends in bisphenols outside these regions, especially bisphenol S (BPS) exposure, have been less studied.

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During native cartilage development, endogenous TGF-β activity is tightly regulated by cell-mediated chemical reactions in the extracellular milieu (e.g., matrix and receptor binding), providing spatiotemporal control in a manner that is localized and short acting.

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  • Nutritional status plays a vital role in selecting patients for solid tumor surgeries, with various indices developed to measure it and predict postoperative outcomes.
  • A systematic review analyzed 14 nutritional indices across 38 studies involving almost 24,000 patients, focusing on their ability to predict overall survival (OS), postoperative complications (POCs), and recurrence-free survival (RFS).
  • The study found that combined nutritional indices generally predicted lower OS better than phenotypic indices, with upper gastrointestinal tumors having more significant predictive power than lower GI sites.
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Some toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have mild social symptoms and developmental improvement in skills, but for others, symptoms and abilities are moderately or even severely affected. Those with profound autism have the most severe social, language, and cognitive symptoms and are at the greatest risk of having a poor developmental outcome. The little that is known about the underlying biology of this important profound autism subtype, points clearly to embryonic dysregulation of proliferation, differentiation and neurogenesis.

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Purpose: To investigate longitudinal associations between the presence of early childhood routines- predictable and repeatable functional practices that promote healthy growth, development, and relationships - and adolescent health outcomes.

Design: Secondary data analysis.

Setting: 20 large U.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study highlights the phenotypic diversity in early language, intellectual, motor, and adaptive functioning among autistic individuals and suggests using subtype labels to better distinguish their differences beyond the standard autism diagnosis.
  • Researchers identified two distinct autism subtypes based on early LIMA features, using advanced clustering methods on data from 615 children, revealing differing developmental trajectories between these types.
  • The identified subtypes, Type I and Type II, can be reliably detected with 98% accuracy and show significant variations in neuroimaging characteristics and gene expression, indicating their biological differences.
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Persistent colonization and outgrowth of potentially pathogenic organisms in the intestine can result from long-term antibiotic use or inflammatory conditions, and may perpetuate dysregulated immunity and tissue damage. Gram-negative Enterobacteriaceae gut pathobionts are particularly recalcitrant to conventional antibiotic treatment, although an emerging body of evidence suggests that manipulation of the commensal microbiota may be a practical alternative therapeutic strategy. Here we isolated and down-selected commensal bacterial consortia from stool samples from healthy humans that could strongly and specifically suppress intestinal Enterobacteriaceae.

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Type 2 diabetes can result in debilitating vascular complications, and resistance training (RT) is an effective therapy for improving cardiovascular outcomes. However, only 10-30% of adults meet the public health guidance for RT. While current RT guidelines focus on targeting major muscle groups, guidance specific to simplified movement categorization may augment understanding of RT programming and improve uptake and outcomes.

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Magnetic fields have been used to uniformly align the lyotropic chiral nematic (cholesteric) liquid crystalline (LC) phase of biopolymers to a global orientation and optical appearance. Here, we demonstrate that, in contrast, weak and patterned magnetic field gradients can create a complex optical appearance with the variable spatial local organization of needle-like magnetically decorated cellulose nanocrystals. The formation of optically patterned thin films with left- and right-handed chiral and achiral regions is observed and related to local magnetic gradient-driven vortices during LC suspension flow.

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Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) is a cardiac-specific biomarker, used for the detection of myocardial injury. While rabbits develop naturally occurring cardiovascular disease, they are also an animal model for human disease; thus, rapid detection of cTnI has implications for both veterinary and human medicine. The objective of this study was to validate and establish a reference interval for a point-of-care (POC) cTnI assay in New Zealand White rabbits.

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Glucose metabolism is a critical regulator of T cell function, largely thought to support their activation and effector differentiation. Here, we investigate the relevance of individual glycolytic reactions in determining the pathogenicity of T helper 17 (Th17) cells using single-cell RNA-seq and Compass, an algorithm we previously developed for estimating metabolic flux from single-cell transcriptomes. Surprisingly, Compass predicted that the metabolic shunt between 3-phosphoglycerate (3PG) and 2-phosphoglycerate (2PG) is inversely correlated with pathogenicity in these cells, whereas both its upstream and downstream reactions were positively correlated.

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Article Synopsis
  • Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is commonly caused by a lack of beneficial Lactobacillus bacteria and has negative health effects that often persist after standard antibiotic treatments.
  • These antibiotics tend to favor the growth of Lactobacillus iners over the more protective Lactobacillus crispatus, highlighting the need for strategies to support L. crispatus growth.
  • Research shows that oleic acid and similar fatty acids can inhibit L. iners while promoting L. crispatus, working through specific genes involved in fatty acid metabolism, suggesting that oleic acid could be a more effective treatment for BV than traditional antibiotics.
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  • Autism and ADHD are complex neurodevelopmental disorders with overlapping features, but they are rarely studied together, especially regarding sex differences.
  • The study utilized a large neuroimaging dataset to analyze cortical anatomy linked to autism and ADHD, revealing specific patterns in brain structure for each condition.
  • Findings showed that autism presented with greater cortical thickness in specific areas, while ADHD had more global increases in thickness but lower volume and surface area; also, unique patterns were observed in individuals with both conditions.
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Patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) and its variants rely on the right ventricle (RV) to provide cardiac output. Diminished RV systolic function has been associated with poor clinical outcomes in this population. Echocardiographic strain has emerged as a useful method to quantify RV deformation.

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  • The study explored how the stage of lactation and diet (high, medium, or no pasture) affect the composition and quality of Cheddar cheese.
  • It found that while overall cheese composition remained similar across diets, fatty acid profiles varied significantly, with pasture-fed cheese showing higher levels of beneficial nutrients like omega-3s.
  • Additionally, the stage of lactation had a more pronounced effect on the ripening characteristics and protein content of the cheese than diet alone.
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Background: Low physical performance is associated with higher mortality rate in multiple pathological conditions. Here, we aimed to determine whether body composition and physical performance could be prognostic factors in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Moreover, we performed an exploratory approach to determine whether plasma samples from NSCLC patients could directly affect metabolic and structural phenotypes in primary muscle cells.

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Background And Objectives: Housing insecurity is associated with adverse effects on child growth and development cross-sectionally; less is known about its cumulative, long-term effects. This study describes longitudinal experiences of housing insecurity during childhood from infancy (age 1 year) to adolescence (age 15 years) and examines their associations with adolescent health outcomes.

Methods: Using data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we created a composite measure of housing insecurity using 5 indicators (eg, skipping a rent or mortgage payment, eviction) for participants at ages 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15 years.

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