Publications by authors named "Tomlinson A"

Purpose: To determine new referents, or cutoff levels for tear film hyperosmolarity in the diagnosis of keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS) and to assess their effectiveness in independent patient groups.

Method: A meta-analysis was performed on published data for tear osmolarity in samples of normal eyes and various subtypes of dry eye, and pooled estimates of the mean and standard deviations for normal and (all) dry eye subjects were determined. Diagnostic referents were derived from the intercept between the distributions of osmolarity in the two samples and from receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves.

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Objective: To find the effect of dose-delivery interval on cord-blood levels of diamorphine metabolites and its effect on Apgar sores and neonatal respiration.

Study Design: Pilot study conducted in labour ward of a district general hospital. One hundred women who had normal delivery and received single dose of 7.

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The periphery of the fly eye contains a number of concentrically arranged cellular specializations that are induced by Wingless (Wg) signaling from the surrounding head capsule (HC). One of these is the pigment rim (PR), which is a thick layer of pigment cells that lies directly adjacent to the HC and completely circumscribes the rest of the retina. Many of the cells of the PR are derived from presumptive pigment cells that previously surrounded peripheral ommatidia that subsequently died.

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The objective of this study was to determine the clinical effectiveness of a prime-boost human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine regimen. A nonrandomized phase II prime-boost vaccine trial was conducted. Women with biopsy-proven anogenital intraepithelial neoplasia (AGIN) 3 were vaccinated with three doses of a recombinant fusion protein comprising HPV 16, E6/E7/L2 (TA-CIN) followed by one dose of a recombinant vaccinia virus encoding HPV 16 and 18 E6/E7 (TA-HPV).

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Article Synopsis
  • Computerized decision support systems (DSS), like ISABEL, aim to reduce diagnostic errors by providing tailored reminders to clinicians during patient assessments, particularly in routine cases where omissions often occur.
  • In a study involving 76 subjects of varying experience levels, participants evaluated 24 simulated clinical cases both before and after using the DSS to track changes in diagnostic accuracy and quality.
  • Results showed a significant decrease in diagnostic omission errors and an improvement in quality scores, demonstrating the system's effectiveness in enhancing clinical decision-making without significantly increasing consultation time.
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During asymmetric division, a cell polarizes and differentially distributes components to its opposite ends. The subsequent division differentially segregates the two component pools to the daughters, which thereby inherit different developmental directives. In Drosophila sensory organ precursor cells, the localization of Numb protein to the cell's anterior cortex is a key patterning event and is achieved by the combined action of many proteins, including Pins, which itself is localized anteriorly.

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Planar cell polarity (PCP) is a level of tissue organization in which cells adopt a uniform orientation within the plane of an epithelium. The process of tissue polarization is likely to be initiated by an extracellular gradient. Thus, determining how cells decode and convert this graded information into subcellular asymmetries is key to determining how cells direct the reorganization of the cytoskeleton to produce uniformly oriented structures.

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Purpose: To investigate the attachment of Acanthamoeba to first- and second-generation silicone hydrogel contact lenses, and to determine if patient wear or the presence of a bacterial biofilm coating affects attachment characteristics.

Design: Experimental study.

Participants And Controls: Attachment to the silicone hydrogel lenses was compared with that to a conventional hydrogel control lens.

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Objective: This study was conducted to compare the performance of liquid-based cytology (LBC) and conventional cytology (CS) in the high prevalence setting of colposcopy clinic.

Design: A split sample of matched ThinPrep (TP) and conventional smear from 563 patients were evaluated blindly. The performance of both techniques was compared with the gold standard of biopsy results or normal colposcopy examination in 441 cases.

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Purpose: Disruption of the anterior refracting surface of the eye (i.e., the tear layer) reduces visual performance.

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Wound healing in adult mammals proceeds by a series of overlapping highly coordinated events. Dermal wound repair commences with the arrest of hemorrhage followed by an inflammatory response, re-epithelialization of the wound, and formation of granulation tissue within the wound space, culminating in the production of a scar. In order to study the processes involved in the repair of wounded tissue, we have developed a rodent model utilizing full thickness incisional and excisional dermal wounds, which allow for macroscopic observations and also provide tissue for the histological and immunocytochemical analysis of acute wounds and scarring.

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Background: Early preterm onset of elevated liver enzymes/low platelet count (ELLP) syndrome poses a significant management problem.

Case: Antepartum methylprednisolone, 40 mg/d intravenously was employed to stabilize ELLP syndrome, to achieve fetal lung maturity and to postpone delivery at 25 weeks and 5 days' gestation. Normalization of the liver transaminases and platelet count occurred with the use of corticosteroids, but sudden fetal death occurred at 28 weeks and 2 days' gestation.

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The light radiated from the guided mode of a hollow core photonic crystal fiber into free space is measured as a function of angle and wavelength. This enables the direct experimental visualization of the photonic band gap and the identification of localized modes of the core region.

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Frizzled (Fz) proteins are serpentine receptors that transduce critical cellular signals during development. Serpentine receptors usually signal to downstream effectors through an associated trimeric G protein complex. However, clear evidence for the role of trimeric G protein complexes for the Fz family of receptors has hitherto been lacking.

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Hollow-core photonic crystal fibres have excited interest as potential ultra-low loss telecommunications fibres because light propagates mainly in air instead of solid glass. We propose that the ultimate limit to the attenuation of such fibres is determined by surface roughness due to frozenin capillary waves. This is confirmed by measurements of the surface roughness in a HC-PCF, the angular distribution of the power scattered out of the core, and the wavelength dependence of the minimum loss of fibres drawn to different scales.

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The Hedgehog (Hh) signalling pathway is crucial for animal development and is aberrantly activated in several types of cancer. In Drosophila melanogaster, Hh signalling regulates target gene expression through the transcription factor Cubitus interruptus (Ci). Together, Protein Kinase A, Casein Kinase 1 and Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 silence the pathway in the absence of ligand by phosphorylating Ci at a defined cluster of sites, thereby promoting its proteolytic conversion to a transcriptional repressor (Ci-75).

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Background: Prospective studies have demonstrated that anxiety is associated with an increased risk of mortality and sudden cardiac death. There is therefore a need to understand what factors contribute to anxiety in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD).

Purpose: This study examined whether social support and religiosity are individually or jointly associated with lower anxiety in cardiac patients.

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Members of the Frizzled family of serpentine transmembrane receptors are required to transduce Wingless/Int (Wnt) signals and contain in their N-terminal regions a conserved Wnt-binding cysteine-rich domain (CRD). Each CRD has specific affinities for particular Wnts, and it is generally believed that signal transduction depends on the strength of this interaction. Here, we report in vivo evidence that the CRD is dispensable for Frizzled family receptors to transduce Wingless (Wg), the primary Wnt signal in Drosophila.

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It is not known if sexual intercourse at term influences the onset of labour, but there are several theoretical reasons why it may. Performing a definitive study to address this issue would pose practical and ethical difficulties. This study therefore sought to assess whether the scientific answer to this issue is of importance to pregnant women and their partners.

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Clinical diagnostic aids are relatively scarce, and are seldom used in routine clinical practice, even though the burden of diagnostic error may have serious adverse consequences. This may be due to difficulties in creating, maintaining and even using such expert systems. The current article describes a novel approach to the problem, where established medical content is used as the knowledge base for a pediatric diagnostic reminder tool called ISABEL.

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Purpose: To establish whether information leaflets and appointment reminders improve attendance for diagnostic colposcopy.

Design & Setting: Randomised controlled trial in an inner city colposcopy clinic.

Participants: 500 women newly referred to the colposcopy clinic with abnormal cervical screening smear results were randomly assigned to an intervention or control group using computer-generated numbers.

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