Given the increasing integration of trusted leaders in public health science, including vaccination programs, context-specific understandings of community perceptions and levels of trust are critical to intervention. This study aimed to understand the perspectives and attitudes of the southeastern Louisiana community and inform the development of a community-engaged action plan. A cross-sectional survey of 555 southeastern Louisianans-including faith-based organization (FBO) members, community pharmacy (CommRx) customers, community-based organization (CBO) contacts, and Louisiana community-dwelling residents-was conducted from November 2020 to March 2021.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe genetic background of the high prevalence red blood cell antigen AnWj has remained unresolved since its identification in 1972, despite reported associations with both CD44 and Smyd1 histone methyltransferase. Development of anti-AnWj, which may be clinically significant, is usually due to transient suppression of antigen expression, but a small number of individuals with persistent, autosomally recessive inherited AnWj-negative phenotype have been reported. Whole-exome sequencing of individuals with the rare inherited AnWj-negative phenotype revealed no shared mutations in CD44H or SMYD1; instead, we discovered homozygosity for the same large exonic deletion in MAL, which was confirmed in additional unrelated AnWj-negative individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSome of the lowest COVID-19 community vaccination rates in America are found in Louisiana. This study investigated: (1) barriers that Louisiana pharmacists encountered during the pandemic; and (2) the effect of pharmacists' role and identity confidence on willingness to enforce vaccine mandates, and COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Fifty-four community pharmacists from nine regions of Louisiana participated in the study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of eligibility for the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine at the time of the vaccine rollout as a predictor of vaccine intent within the African American community.
Methods: Four hundred eighty-seven African American participants in southeastern Louisiana were surveyed from January-April of 2021, with follow-up surveys occurring in Fall 2021. Survey domains included demographics, vaccine hesitancy, discrimination in the healthcare setting, and knowledge and experiences with COVID-19.
In February 2022, an educational model was launched to train Louisiana pharmacists to become positive influencers of vaccination decisions via targeted, culturally competent interventions, with the objective of improving COVID-19 vaccine uptake in communities. A total of 47 pharmacists completed the course, and more than 90% noted that the education would help them optimize vaccine acceptance in their community practice settings. The pharmacists will participate in vaccine surveillance to assess the success of the educational model intervention and predictors of vaccine uptake.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Whilst general anaesthesia is commonly used to undertake spine surgery, the use of neuraxial and peripheral regional anaesthesia techniques for intraoperative and postoperative analgesia is an evolving practice. Variations in practice have meant that it is difficult to know which modalities achieve optimal outcomes for patients undergoing spinal surgery. Our objective was to identify available evidence on the use of regional and neuraxial anaesthesia techniques for adult patients undergoing spinal surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) classifies numerous neighborhoods in New Orleans, Louisiana, as food deserts or areas with inadequate access to good quality foods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo determine whether the exposure to sterile compounding in the pharmacy curriculum produces Doctor of Pharmacy graduates who are both competent and confident in the area of sterile compounding, and to identify additional variables that may predict student performance. Participants were recruited from the fourth-year pharmacy class of 2018 at one university. The students were asked to complete a questionnaire assessing the following domains: demographics, confidence in compounding performance, prior experience, and theoretical knowledge.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe SARS-CoV-2 virus causes COVID-19, an infection capable of causing severe disease and death but which can also be asymptomatic or oligosymptomatic. We investigated whether ABO blood group or secretor status was associated with COVID-19 severity. We investigated secretor status because expression of ABO glycans on secreted proteins and non-erythroid cells are controlled by a fucosyltransferase (FUT2), and inactivating FUT2 mutations result in a non-secretor phenotype which protects against some viral infections.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cervical spine immobilisation increases the difficulty of tracheal intubation. Many intubation devices have been evaluated in this setting, but their relative performance remains uncertain.
Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library were searched to identify randomised trials comparing two or more intubation devices in adults with cervical spine immobilisation.
Human ZNF648 is a novel poly C-terminal C2H2 zinc finger protein identified amongst the most dysregulated proteins in erythroid cells differentiated from iPSC. Its nuclear localisation and structure indicate it is likely a DNA-binding protein. Using a combination of ZNF648 overexpression in an iPSC line and primary adult erythroid cells, ZNF648 knockdown in primary adult erythroid cells and megakaryocytes, comparative proteomics and transcriptomics we show that ZNF648 is required for both erythroid and megakaryocyte differentiation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe clinically important MAM blood group antigen is present on haematopoietic cells of all humans except rare MAM-negative individuals. Its molecular basis is unknown. By whole-exome sequencing we identify EMP3, encoding epithelial membrane protein 3 (EMP3), as a candidate gene, then demonstrate inactivating mutations in ten known MAM-negative individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeeds of the desert shrub, jojoba (), are an abundant, renewable source of liquid wax esters, which are valued additives in cosmetic products and industrial lubricants. Jojoba is relegated to its own taxonomic family, and there is little genetic information available to elucidate its phylogeny. Here, we report the high-quality, 887-Mb genome of jojoba assembled into 26 chromosomes with 23,490 protein-coding genes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLow mobility during hospitalization is an under-recognized epidemic leading to adverse outcomes (Brown et al. 2009). The goal of the Mobility Volunteer Program (MVP) is to keep older people as active as possible while in hospital to prevent delirium and loss of strength.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: The asylum process has received a lot of recent media attention but little has been said about the psychological needs of those seeking or granted asylum. Many asylum seekers have experienced trauma and torture, which is associated with substantial psychiatric and psychological morbidity. The Spiritan Asylum Services Initiative (Spirasi) is Ireland's national treatment centre for survivors of torture.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Bone marrow examination has been the confirmatory test for congenital dyserythropoietic anemia type II (CDAII). Occasional spherocytes on peripheral blood smear can confound the diagnosis. Since a screening test is still unavailable, we explored the feasibility of using flow cytometry as a preliminary screening method.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was the largest maritime oil spill in history resulting in the accumulation of genotoxic substances in the air, soil, and water. This has potential far-reaching health impacts on cleanup field workers and on the populations living in the contaminated coastal areas. We have employed portable airborne particulate matter samplers (SKC Biosampler Impinger) and a genetically engineered bacterial reporter system (umu-ChromoTest from EBPI) to determine levels of genotoxicity of air samples collected from highly contaminated areas of coastal Louisiana including Grand Isle, Port Fourchon, and Elmer's Island in the spring, summer and fall of 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA major barrier to the clinical use of erythrocytes generated in vitro from pluripotent stem cells or cord blood progenitors is failure of these erythrocytes to express adult hemoglobin. The key regulators of globin switching KLF1 and BCL11A are absent or at a lower level than in adult cells in K562 and erythroid cells differentiated in vitro from induced pluripotent stem cells and cord blood progenitors. Transfection or transduction of K562 and cord blood erythroid cells with either KLF1 or BCL11A-XL had little effect on β-globin expression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Biomed Mater Res A
May 2014
Highly porous hydroxyapatite (HA) scaffolds were developed as bone graft substitutes using a template coating process, characterized, and seeded with bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). To test the hypothesis that cell-seeded HA scaffolds improve bone regeneration, HA scaffolds without cell seeding (HA-empty), HA scaffolds with 1.5 × 10(4) BMSCs (HA-low), and HA scaffolds with 1.
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