Publications by authors named "S M O'Rourke"

Magnusiomyces capitatus is an environmental fungus found in soil, water, air, plants, and dairy products which may cause opportunistic infections in patients with haematological disorders resulting in high mortality rates. This series of the first reported cases in Ireland discusses investigation of two patients with underlying haematological disorders, hospitalised in the Irish National Adult Stem Cell Transplant Unit (NASCTU), who developed line-related fungaemias with M. capitatus within a three-month period.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Airway macrophages (AM) are key immune cells in the lungs that help protect against infections, making them important for targeted therapies aimed at enhancing immune responses.
  • - The study investigates how different types of macrophages respond to signaling molecules (IFN-γ and IL-4) that represent immune responses in the lungs, finding that AM rely heavily on glycolysis for their functions, especially in cytokine production.
  • - Results show that AM exhibit unique metabolic responses and functional plasticity compared to monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM), suggesting that AM could be effective targets for new inhaled treatments for lung diseases.
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Background: Patients requiring lower limb immobilization after injury have an increased venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk. The extent of this risk in published studies varies. The Thrombosis Risk Prediction for Patients with Cast Immobilization (TRiP[cast]) model quantifies VTE risk using clinical parameters.

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  • The study focused on optimizing recruitment and participant retention strategies for the Active Women over 50 trial, which aims to help women aged 50+ engage in more physical activity in New South Wales, Australia.
  • Researchers conducted a focus group and numerous interviews with women in this age group to gather feedback on recruitment materials and program components such as health coaching and online resources.
  • Five key themes emerged related to recruitment effectiveness, highlighting the importance of representation, readability, and accessibility, which led to refinements in the program design despite some technological and budgetary limitations.
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The immune system plays a crucial role in tissue repair and regeneration. Macrophages have been identified as master regulators of the early immune response and healing outcome, by orchestrating the temporal nature of the initial inflammation phase and coordinating the fate of stem/progenitor cells involved in regeneration. However, traditional in-vitro models for the study of macrophages often fail to fully replicate the complexity of the in-vivo microenvironment, therefore generating models which do not fully capture the extensive spectrum of macrophage behaviour seen in native tissues.

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