Publications by authors named "Robert Ward"

Background: Studies have shown a correlation between greater cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and lower risk of incident and recurrent atrial fibrillation (AF). Transthoracic echocardiographic (TTE) parameters correlate to CRF and risk of AF. However, there is scarce data regarding the interplay of CRF, echocardiographic parameters, and AF ablation outcomes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Over 15 000 species of fishes are found globally in the marine environment and DNA barcodes are used extensively to describe, catalogue, understand and manage this diversity. The dataset outlined here represents a DNA barcode reference library of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (COI) from 9767 voucher specimens (representing at least 2220 species and 288 families) of marine fishes. This publicly available dataset in the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD) represents 17 years (2005-2022) of barcoding of marine fishes identified from Australian territorial waters.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

As environmental and health concerns of beef production and consumption mount, there is growing interest in agroecological production methods, including finishing beef cattle on pastures with phytochemically diverse grasses, forbs, and/or shrubs. The goal of this metabolomics, lipidomics, and fatty acid methyl ester profiling study was to compare meat (pectoralis profundus) of Black Angus cattle from two commercial US beef finishing systems (pasture-finished on Western U.S.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Conventional heterodyne readout schemes are now under reconsideration due to the realization of techniques to evade its inherent 3 dB signal-to-noise penalty. The application of high-frequency, quadrature-entangled, two-mode squeezed states can further improve the readout sensitivity of audio-band signals. In this Letter, we experimentally demonstrate quantum-enhanced heterodyne readout of two spatially distinct interferometers with direct optical signal combination, circumventing the 3 dB heterodyne signal-to-noise penalty.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Diazo compounds are important for chemical synthesis but often use dangerous materials; this study presents a safer method to create alkali metal diazomethanides using metalated ylides and nitrous oxide.
  • The reaction follows a Wittig-like mechanism and involves a unique cycloaddition that releases phosphine oxide, leading to enhanced stability of the resulting diazomethanes.
  • The improved thermal stability allows for various applications, including creating metal complexes and synthesizing compounds like 1,2,3-triazoles and diazoacetates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The study examined how dietary milk polar lipids affect gut permeability, systemic inflammation, and lipid metabolism during diet-induced obesity (DIO). C57BL/6J mice (n = 6 × 3) were fed different diets with 34% fat as energy for 15 wk: (1) a modified AIN-93G diet (control; CO); (2) CO with milk gangliosides (GG); and (3) CO with milk phospholipids (MPL). Gut permeability was assessed by fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran and sugar absorption tests.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Mycobacterium cell wall fraction (MCWF) is derived from nonpathogenic Mycobacterium phlei and is used as an immunomodulatory compound in clinical practice, yet its mode-of-action requires further research.

Objective: To evaluate the host response to MCWF in canine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and quantitative reverse transcription (qRT)-PCR for assessment of cytokines.

Animals: Eight healthy Labrador retrievers.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Percutaneous image-guided locoregional therapies are emerging in the treatment of primary and metastatic breast cancer. Cryoablation has emerged as the dominant ablative approach as an alternative to surgery for primary breast cancer in patients who do not wish to have surgery or are poor surgical candidates. Cryoablation is well tolerated and provides excellent local control and cosmesis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Breast cancer cryoablation clinical trials have strict inclusion criteria that exclude patients with potentially treatable disease. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and outcomes of breast cancer cryoablation without surgical excision in patients ineligible for prospective cryoablation clinical trials due to unfavorable patient or tumor characteristics. This retrospective study included women who underwent cryoablation of biopsy-proven unifocal primary breast cancer with locally curative intent, without surgical excision, despite being ineligible for (and thus excluded from) cryoablation clinical trials, across seven institutions between January 1, 2000, and August 26, 2021.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The focus of this work is the role milk polar lipids play in affecting gut permeability, systemic inflammation, and lipid metabolism during acute and chronic inflammation induced by a single subcutaneous injection of lipopolysaccharide. Groups of C57BL/6J mice were fed 1 of 3 diets: a modified AIN-93G diet with a moderate level of fat (control; CO), CO with milk gangliosides (GG), and CO with milk polar lipids (MPL). The MPL diet did not prevent a gut permeability increase upon LPS stress but increased the expression of tight junction proteins zonula occludens-1 and occludin in the colon mucosa.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Breast cryoablation is a minimally invasive image-guided percutaneous procedure for the treatment of fibroadenomas and early-stage breast cancer that uses liquid nitrogen or argon gas to create extremely cold temperatures that devitalize targeted tissue. Although more long-term data are needed, this outpatient procedure is well-tolerated and carries minimal risks, including nontarget thermal injury that can be mitigated by careful planning and proper technique. Building a sustainable breast cryoablation service in a radiology practice poses several practical considerations, such as training proceduralists, purchasing equipment, recruiting patients, and understanding the revenue cycle.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The world population is growing exponentially, increasing demand to produce high-quality protein for human consumption. Changes in weather patterns, drought, and decreased land resources due to urbanization have increased the strain on the agriculture sector to meet world demands. An alternative method to combat these issues and continue to produce high-quality livestock feed would be through a controlled environment vertical farming system.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cumulenes and heterocumulenes with three or more cumulative multiple bonds are usually reactive species that serve as valuable building blocks for more complex molecules but tend to isomerize or cyclize and therefore are difficult to isolate. Using a mild ligand exchange reaction at the carbon in α-metalated ylides, we have now succeeded in the synthesis and gram-scale isolation of the elusive cyanoketenyl anion [NCO]. Despite its assumed cumulene-like structure and the delocalization of the negative charge across the whole 5-atom molecule, it features a bent geometry with a nucleophilic central carbon atom.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Transsubclavian venous implantation of the Aveir leadless cardiac pacemaker (LCP) has not been previously reported.

Methods And Results: Three cases of transsubclavian implantation of the Aveir LCP are reported. Two cases were postbilateral orthotopic lung transplant, without appropriate femoral or jugular access due to recent ECMO cannulation and jugular central venous catheters.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Clinical and analytical information on laboratory data of neonates in scientific publications is sparse and incomplete. Furthermore, interpreting neonatal laboratory data can be complex due to their time-dependent and developmental physiology, and paucity of well-established age-appropriate reference ranges for neonates. This study aims to develop publication recommendations to report laboratory data of neonates to enhance the quality of these data in research and clinical care.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Four major types of resistant starch (RS1-4) are present in foods, all of which can alter the microbiome and are fermented in the cecum and colon to produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). Type 4 RSs are chemically modified starches, not normally found in foods, but have become a popular food additive as their addition increases fiber content. Multiple studies, in humans and rodents, have explored how different RS4 affect post-prandial glucose metabolism, but fewer studies have examined the effects of RS4 consumption on the microbiome.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are bioactive lipids that are released into the colon as a metabolite of bacterial fermentation of dietary fibers. Beyond their function in the gastrointestinal tract, SCFAs can also have effects inthe brain, as a part of the gut-brain axis. Recent investigations into potential therapeutic interventions via the manipulation of the gut microbiome-and thus their SCFA metabolites-has been emerging as a new branch of personalized medicine,especially for mental health conditions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Social cognition differs from general cognition in its focus on understanding, perceiving, and interpreting social information. However, we argue that the significance of domain-general processes for controlling cognition has been historically undervalued in social cognition and social neuroscience research. We suggest much of social cognition can be characterized as specialized feature representations supported by domain-general cognitive control systems.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Clinical trials require standardized tools to assess the efficacy and safety of therapies, facilitating informed decisions on drug registration and prescriptions.
  • The Neonatal Consortium (INC) created the neonatal adverse event severity scale (NAESS) to evaluate adverse events in clinical trials, which has been validated in various studies for consistency and reliability.
  • This paper discusses the development and current impact of the NAESS, including feedback from stakeholders and future improvements to enhance its utility in clinical research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_sessiongt1l2asqf6cbmqr7kofa8i2uphpptscs): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once