Publications by authors named "Stephen Metcalf"

Drug resistance results in poor outcomes for most patients with metastatic cancer. Adaptive Therapy (AT) proposes to address this by exploiting presumed fitness costs incurred by drug-resistant cells when drug is absent, and prescribing dose reductions to allow fitter, sensitive cells to re-grow and re-sensitise the tumour. However, empirical evidence for treatment-induced fitness change is lacking.

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Childhood adversity is associated with brain morphology and poor psychological outcomes, and evidence of protective factors counteracting childhood adversity effects on neurobiology is scarce. We examined the interplay of childhood adversity with protective factors in relation to brain morphology in two independent longitudinal cohorts, the Generation R Study (N = 3008) and the Mannheim Study of Children at Risk (MARS) (N = 179). Cumulative exposure to 12 adverse events was assessed across childhood until age 9 years in Generation R and 11 years in MARS.

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Background: Self-regulation refers to a person's ability to manage their cognitive, emotional, and behavioral processes to achieve long-term goals. Most prior research has examined self-regulation at the individual level; however, individual-level assessments do not allow the examination of dynamic patterns of intraindividual variability in self-regulation and thus cannot aid in understanding potential malleable processes of self-regulation that may occur in response to the daily environment.

Objective: This study aims to develop a brief, psychometrically sound momentary self-regulation scale that can be practically administered through participants' mobile devices at a momentary level.

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Introduction: Self-regulation has been implicated in health risk behaviors and is a target of many health behavior interventions. Despite most prior research focusing on self-regulation as an individual-level trait, we hypothesize that self-regulation is a time-varying mechanism of health and risk behavior that may be influenced by momentary contexts to a substantial degree. Because most health behaviors (e.

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Oncolytic viruses are being tested in clinical trials, including in women with ovarian cancer. We use a drug-repurposing approach to identify existing drugs that enhance the activity of oncolytic adenoviruses. This reveals that carvedilol, a β-arrestin-biased β-blocker, synergises with both wild-type adenovirus and the E1A-CR2-deleted oncolytic adenovirus, dl922-947.

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Article Synopsis
  • Drug overdoses are a big problem in the U.S., especially in New Hampshire, affecting emergency responders a lot.
  • This study talked to 36 emergency workers, like doctors and police, about how they feel when helping people who overdose on drugs.
  • Some workers showed a lot of care for those using opioids, while others had negative views, and the researchers think more needs to be understood about these mixed feelings.
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This preregistered study examined whether child temperament and executive functions moderated the longitudinal association between early life stress (ELS) and behavior problems. In a Dutch population-based cohort (n = 2803), parents reported on multiple stressors (age 0-6 years), child temperament (age 5), and executive functions (age 4), and teachers rated child internalizing and externalizing problems (age 7). Results showed that greater ELS was related to higher levels of internalizing and externalizing problems, with betas reflecting small effects.

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Meta-analyses of cross-sectional studies suggest that patients with psychosis have higher circulating levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) compared with healthy controls; however, cause and effect is unclear. We examined the prospective association between CRP levels and subsequent risk of developing a psychotic disorder by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of population-based cohort studies. Databases were searched for prospective studies of CRP and psychosis.

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  • New Hampshire had a big problem with opioid overdose deaths, especially from 2014 to 2017, so the Manchester Fire Department started a program called Safe Station to help people get better.
  • The program works with community partners to make it easier for people to find help and support for their substance use issues.
  • Interviews and surveys showed that the program's success relies on teamwork, compassion from firefighters, and quick access to services, although some people felt communication between organizations could be better.
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High-grade serous cancer (HGSC) accounts for ~67% of all ovarian cancer deaths. Although initially sensitive to platinum chemotherapy, resistance is inevitable and there is an unmet clinical need for novel therapies that can circumvent this event. We performed a drug screen with 1177 FDA-approved drugs and identified the hydroxyquinoline drug, chloroxine.

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Article Synopsis
  • Some people with opioid use disorder (OUD) prefer getting treatment in a regular medical setting that also treats other health issues.
  • However, most participants in the study actually liked separate treatment programs better because they felt more comfortable and private there.
  • The reasons people chose one type of treatment over the other included how much they trusted their doctors, how quickly they could get help, and worries about being judged by others.
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Self-regulation is studied across various disciplines, including personality, social, cognitive, health, developmental, and clinical psychology; psychiatry; neuroscience; medicine; pharmacology; and economics. Widespread interest in self-regulation has led to confusion regarding both the constructs within the nomological network of self-regulation and the measures used to assess these constructs. To facilitate the integration of cross-disciplinary measures of self-regulation, we estimated product-moment and distance correlations among 60 cross-disciplinary measures of self-regulation (23 self-report surveys, 37 cognitive tasks) and measures of health and substance use based on 522 participants.

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Objective: Nearly all studies treat the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire as five independent scales (one measuring each of the five facets), yet almost no methodological work has examined the psychometric structure of the facets independently. We address this gap using factor analytic methods.

Methods: Exploratory and confirmatory factor models were fit to item response data from a sample of 522 adults recruited online.

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Aim: Treatment for opioid use disorders has recently evolved to include long-acting injectable and implantable formulations of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). Incorporating patient preferences into treatment for substance use disorders is associated with increased motivation and treatment satisfaction. This study sought to assess treatment preferences for long-acting injectable and implantable MOUD as compared to short-acting formulations among individuals with OUD.

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Article Synopsis
  • New Hampshire has a big problem with fentanyl, which causes a lot of overdose deaths, much higher than the rest of the country.
  • A study asked 76 people who use opioids about their experiences, and many of them have used fentanyl and experienced overdoses.
  • People want more education for kids, better treatment options, and needle exchange programs to help fight the crisis and make things safer.
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Objectives: The Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) is a self-report measure of mindfulness with forms of several different lengths, including the FFMQ-39, FFMQ-24, and FFMQ-15. We use item response theory analysis to directly compare the functioning of these three forms.

Methods: Data were drawn from a non-clinical Amazon Mechanical Turk study ( = 522) and studies of aftercare treatment of individuals with substance use disorders (combined = 454).

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Objective: To assess the associations between dietary cognitive restraint, disinhibited eating, and how taste and health perceptions relate to food preference; and further, whether cognitive restraint and disinhibited eating are associated with food preference decision reaction time.

Methods: Five hundred and seventeen adults participated in the study. Dietary cognitive restraint and disinhibited eating were assessed using the shortened Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ-R18).

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Background: The United States is in the midst of a devastating opioid crisis, and the state of New Hampshire (NH) has been disproportionately impacted. Naloxone is an opioid overdose reversal medication that is critical for saving lives. This study was conducted to understand emergency responders' and opioid users' experiences with, and opinions about, naloxone use and distribution in NH.

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Background: In parallel to a substantial increase in opioid overdose deaths in New Hampshire (NH), emergency personnel experienced an increase in opioid-related encounters. To inform public health responses to this crisis, insights into the experiences and perspectives of those emergency personnel who treat opioid-related overdoses are warranted.

Aims: Systematically examine emergency personnel's experiences treating opioid overdoses and obtain their perspectives on policy-level responses to the opioid crisis in NH.

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Graded levels of molecular oxygen (O2) exist within developing mammalian embryos and can differentially regulate cellular specification pathways. During differentiation, cells acquire distinct epigenetic landscapes, which determine their function, however the mechanisms which regulate this are poorly understood. The demethylation of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) is achieved via successive oxidation reactions catalysed by the Ten-Eleven-Translocation (Tet) enzymes, yielding the 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) intermediate.

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Self-regulation is a broad construct representing the general ability to recruit cognitive, motivational and emotional resources to achieve long-term goals. This construct has been implicated in a host of health-risk behaviors, and is a promising target for fostering beneficial behavior change. Despite its clear importance, the behavioral, psychological and neural components of self-regulation remain poorly understood, which contributes to theoretical inconsistencies and hinders maximally effective intervention development.

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Purpose: A rat model was developed to enable direct administration of hyperpolarized C-labeled molecules into a tumor-supplying artery for magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) studies of tumor metabolism.

Methods: Rat P22 sarcomas were implanted into the right inguinal fat pad of BDIX rats such that the developing tumors received their principle blood supply directly from the right superior epigastric artery. Hyperpolarized C-molecules were either infused directly to the tumor through the epigastric artery or systemically through the contralateral femoral vein.

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Objective: Meta-analyses of cross-sectional studies confirm an increase in circulating inflammatory markers during acute psychosis. Longitudinal studies are scarce but are needed to understand whether elevated inflammatory markers are a cause or consequence of illness. We report a longitudinal study of serum C-reactive protein (CRP) in adolescence and subsequent risk of schizophrenia and related psychoses in adulthood in the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986.

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Purpose: To estimate the rate constant for pyruvate to lactate conversion in tumours in response to a hypoxic challenge, using hyperpolarised (13)C1-pyruvate and magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Methods And Materials: Hypoxic inspired gas was used to manipulate rat P22 fibrosarcoma oxygen tension (pO2), confirmed by luminescence decay of oxygen-sensitive probes. Hyperpolarised (13)C1-pyruvate was injected into the femoral vein of anaesthetised rats and slice-localised (13)C magnetic resonance (MR) spectra acquired.

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