Publications by authors named "Thomas O Brien"

Background: Children with cerebral palsy (CP) regularly fall over and this has negative effects on their physical and psychosocial wellbeing (e.g., reduced activity participation).

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There are thousands of Mendelian diseases with more being discovered weekly and the majority have no approved treatments. To address this need, we require scalable approaches that are relatively inexpensive compared to traditional drug development. In the absence of a validated drug target, phenotypic screening in model organisms provides a route for identifying candidate treatments.

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  • - The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) among older Americans has risen by 10.5% from 2007 to 2017, despite treatment advancements for hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) infections.
  • - Treatment for HBV significantly increased, leading to a decrease in HBV-attributable HCC, while HCV-attributable HCC continued to rise even after improvements in HCV treatment starting in 2014.
  • - The study utilized data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare database to analyze the relationships between antiviral therapy and HCC incidence in those aged 66 and older.
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Background: Shorter duration therapy for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection might reduce treatment costs and increase the number of patients treated and cured. We determined factors associated with treatment response after an 8-week sofosbuvir-based therapy and developed a simple model to predict an individual's likelihood of treatment success.

Methods: Among 2907 patients who received ledipasvir/sofosbuvir for 8 weeks, we determined failure rates by demographic and clinical characteristics, and IFNL4-∆G/TT genotype.

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Compromised heat loss due to limited convection and evaporation can increase thermal strain. We aimed to determine the effectiveness of ice slurry ingestion to reduce thermal strain following hyperthermia in a state of compromised heat loss. Twelve healthy males (age: 25 ± 4y) underwent hot water immersion to elevate rectal temperature (Trec) by 1.

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Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of compounds with uses in industry and many consumer products. Concerns about the potential health effects of these compounds resulted in regulation by the Stockholm Convention on the use of three of the most common PFAS, including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Thousands of PFAS remain in production that are unregulated and for which their toxicity is unknown.

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  • * All affected individuals showed symptoms like muscle weakness and spasticity starting in childhood, with nerve conduction studies indicating axonal motor neuropathy.
  • * Research on C. elegans mutants and potential treatment options indicates that targeted therapies might help manage RTN2-related conditions despite no significant structural changes observed in patient fibroblasts.
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Objectives: are a frequent cause of nosocomial infections worldwide. Sequence type 147 (ST147) has been reported as a major circulating high-risk lineage in many countries, and appears to be a formidable platform for the dissemination of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) determinants. However, the distribution of this pathogen in Western African hospitals has been scarcely studied.

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  • Falling on stairs poses significant health risks for older adults, yet existing research primarily focuses on controlled environments rather than real-life staircases with varying dimensions.
  • This study aims to determine if stair gait parameters (like foot clearance and cadence) observed in a laboratory setting hold true when older adults navigate actual stairs in their homes.
  • Results indicate significant differences in biomechanical risk factors between laboratory and real staircases, with high-risk fallers exhibiting riskier movement strategies.
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We aimed to compare rectal temperature (T) and gastro-intestinal temperature (T) during passive heating and subsequent recovery with and without ice slurry ingestion. Twelve males (age: 25 ± 4 years, body mass index: 25.7 ± 2.

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  • Recent studies have found microplastics in human blood and placenta, but their health effects are not fully understood.
  • In experiments with pregnant mice, exposure to polystyrene microplastics led to fetal growth restriction, prompting further research on polyethylene, a common type of microplastic.
  • The study showed that while polyethylene exposure did not affect fetal growth, it significantly increased blood flow in the umbilical artery, indicating potential risks to placental function and adverse pregnancy outcomes.
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Trips and slips are significant causal perturbations leading to falls on stairs, especially in older people. The risk of a trip caused by a toe or heel catch on the step edge increases when clearance is small and variable between steps. The risk of a slip increases if the proportion of the foot area in contact with the step is reduced and variable between steps.

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  • Wilson disease (WD) is caused by mutations in the ATP7B gene, leading to copper overload in the liver and brain, which can result in severe health issues.
  • A mutant strain of Caenorhabditis elegans was created to study this condition, showing significant Cu sensitivity, stunted development, and other health impairments due to a specific ATP7B variant.
  • The cua-1 mutant strain serves as a valuable experimental model for understanding copper toxicity in WD and testing potential therapeutic approaches.
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Importance: Infections are largely modifiable causes of cancer. However, there remains untapped potential for preventing and treating carcinogenic infections in the US.

Objective: To estimate the percentage and number of incident cancers attributable to infections in the US among adults and children for the most recent year cancer incidence data were available (2017).

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Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common joint disease affecting humans and horses, resulting in significant morbidity, financial expense, and loss of athletic use. While the pathogenesis is incompletely understood, inflammation is considered crucial in the development and progression of the disease. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have received increasing scientific attention for their anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, and pro-regenerative effects.

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Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) incidence was rising in the United States. Previously, using data collected by the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program through 2017, we found that overall incidence had begun to decline, although not in Black and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations. Utilizing expanded SEER data encompassing ~50% of the population, we examined secular trends and demographic differences in HCC incidence through 2019.

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Background: People with HIV have higher risk of hepatocellular carcinoma than the general population, partly because of higher prevalence of coinfection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV).

Methods: We calculated standardized incidence ratios for hepatocellular carcinoma in people with HIV by comparing rates from people with HIV in the HIV/AIDS Cancer Match Study, a population-based HIV and cancer registry linkage, to those in the general population. We used multivariable Poisson regression to estimate adjusted incidence rate ratios among people with HIV and linked the Texas HIV registry with medical claims data to estimate adjusted odds ratios (AORs) of HBV and HCV in hepatocellular carcinoma patients with logistic regression.

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This is the primary report of the randomized, placebo-controlled phase 3 BRIGHT AML 1019 clinical trial of glasdegib in combination with intensive chemotherapy (cytarabine and daunorubicin) or non-intensive chemotherapy (azacitidine) in patients with untreated acute myeloid leukemia. Overall survival (primary endpoint) was similar between the glasdegib and placebo arms in the intensive (n = 404; hazard ratio [HR] 1.05; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.

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Globally, ∼56.8 million people are chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV), with about half residing in Asia. The cost and efficiency of delivering regimens based on direct-acting antiviral agents for HCV are important considerations in implementing these curative treatments.

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The study aimed to explore the influence of a sports-specific intermittent sprint protocol (ISP) on wheelchair sprint performance and the kinetics and kinematics of sprinting in elite wheelchair rugby (WR) players with and without spinal cord injury (SCI). Fifteen international WR players (age 30.3 ± 5.

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In this introductory chapter, I will briefly describe how I came to discover the mammalian mitoribosome and will add a few notes on my contribution to the field.

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Hepatitis D virus (HDV) requires co-infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV). Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) shares transmission routes with these viruses. Among 4,932 US women infected with or at-risk for HIV during 1994-2015, HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) positivity was more common in women with HIV (2.

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