Publications by authors named "Valentine C"

Article Synopsis
  • After allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), only a small fraction of donor stem cells help reconstitute the recipient's blood system, while the donor maintains a nearly normal stem cell pool.
  • Researchers studied blood samples from 16 donor-recipient pairs, focusing on potential clonal hematopoiesis (CH) variants that could arise due to extra stress on donor cells post-transplant.
  • Results showed similar mutation rates in both donors and recipients, with a small percentage of shared variants showing a significant increase in recipients over time, indicating that the human hematopoietic system has strong regenerative abilities even many years after HCT.
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Background: Plant-based formulas have become increasingly popular due to their health benefits, environmental concerns, cultural beliefs, improved palatability, and decreased cost. A retrospective chart review of medically stable children transitioning from a hypoallergenic formula to a yellow pea protein plant-based formula (PPPBF) was included. This study aimed to assess gastrointestinal tolerance, weight changes, and adherence to receiving a unique PPPBF.

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Preterm birth is the leading cause of neonatal and under-5 mortality globally, and healthcare-related burden and nutrition-related morbidities are unsustainable, particularly in resource-limited regions. Additionally, preterm infants are susceptible to multiple adverse outcomes including growth faltering, suboptimal neurodevelopment, and multisystemic morbidities. Maturation, healing, repair, and restoration to normalcy in preterm-born infants require optimizing nutrition; only then, prognosis, growth, neurodevelopment, and overall quality of life can improve.

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  • * In a study of aged and young mice, researchers analyzed around 2.5 million mitochondrial genomes, revealing unique mutation patterns and high mutation frequency at key replication sites.
  • * The findings highlight a difference in mutation types between rodents and primates, with specific mutations showing signs of negative selection, suggesting that mitochondrial genomes adapt and change throughout an organism's life.
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  • Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) includes conditions like myocardial infarction (MI) and unstable angina (UA), but diagnosing them early remains challenging due to delayed elevation of cardiac markers like troponin.
  • A study analyzed the potential of serum nardilysin (NRDC) as a biomarker for early ACS detection by involving two patient cohorts, finding that NRDC levels were significantly higher in ACS patients compared to those without.
  • The study showed that NRDC had better sensitivity for ACS diagnosis within 6 hours of symptom onset than traditional markers and could aid in diagnosing patients who test negative for troponin, strengthening its role when used alongside hsTnI.
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Purpose: To investigate the relationships among docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) intake, nutrient intake, and maternal characteristics on pregnancy outcomes in a phase III randomised clinical trial designed to determine the effect of a DHA dose of 1000 mg/day compared to 200 mg/day on early preterm birth (<34 weeks gestation).

Methods: A secondary aim of the phase III randomised trial was to explore the relationships among pregnancy outcomes (maternal red blood cell phospholipid (RBC-PL) DHA at delivery, preterm birth, gestational age at delivery, labor type, birth anthropometric measures, low birth weight, gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia, and admission to a neonatal intensive care unit) in participants (n = 1100). We used Bayesian multiple imputation and linear and logistic regression models to conduct an analysis of five general classes of predictor variables collected during the trial: a) DHA intake, b) nutrient intake from food and supplements, c) environmental exposure to tobacco and alcohol, d) maternal demographics, and e) maternal medical history.

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Although there has been a large body of research conducted on girl and young women victims of commercial sexual exploitation, boy and young men victims do not receive the same attention. The scant research that exists demonstrates mixed findings on the prevalence of boys and young men as victims of commercial sexual exploitation. For example, some studies find they are not as likely to be victims and others find they are victimized equally, or in some cases, potentially even more so than girls and young women, depending on location.

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Background: Micronutrition in pregnancy is critical to impact not only fetal growth and development but also long-term physical and psychiatric health outcomes.

Objective: Estimate micronutrient intake from food and dietary supplements in a diverse cohort of pregnant women and compare intake to the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs).

Design: Secondary analysis of women enrolled in a multi-site clinical trial of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplementation who provided their dietary intake using the diet history questionnaire-II ( = 843) or multiple 24 h recalls ( = 178) at baseline and their intake of nutritional supplements at baseline through 30 days postpartum.

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Error-corrected duplex sequencing (DS) enables direct quantification of low-frequency mutations and offers tremendous potential for chemical mutagenicity assessment. We investigated the utility of DS to quantify induced mutation frequency (MF) and spectrum in human lymphoblastoid TK6 cells exposed to a prototypical DNA alkylating agent, N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU). Furthermore, we explored appropriate experimental parameters for this application, and assessed inter-laboratory reproducibility.

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  • The text discusses the rising interest in using error-corrected Next Generation Sequencing (ecNGS) as a promising method for assessing mutagenicity, which could eventually replace current testing methods in preclinical safety assessments.
  • A workshop held in May 2022 in London brought together experts to share insights on ecNGS advancements, including its correlation with traditional rodent mutation assays and its applications in humans and organoid models.
  • The workshop highlighted ecNGS's potential in measuring cancer-related mutations, gene editing effects, and its overall impact on improving drug safety assessments and product development.
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  • Duplex sequencing (DuplexSeq) is an advanced method that links DNA strands to correct sequencing errors, allowing for accurate detection of mutations in tissues.
  • A study with male rats exposed to a chemical (ENU) showed significant increases in mutation frequency within 24 hours for certain tissues and confirmed a specific mutation pattern by day 7.
  • Results from different labs showed strong agreement, marking DuplexSeq as a reliable advancement over traditional gene mutation assays for testing genetic toxicity.
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This paper examines, conceptually, the relationship between stress-inducing architectural features and allostatic overload by drawing on literature from neuroimmunology and neuroarchitecture. The studies reviewed from the field of neuroimmunology indicate that chronic or repeated exposure to stress-inducing events may overwhelm the body's regulatory system, resulting in a process termed allostatic overload. While there is evidence from the field of neuroarchitecture that short-term exposure to particular architectural features produce acute stress responses, there is yet to be a study on the relationship between stress-inducing architectural features and allostatic load.

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Importance: The underuse of oral anticoagulation in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (AF) is a major issue that is not well understood.

Objective: To understand the lack of anticoagulation by assessing the perceptions of patients with AF who are not receiving anticoagulation and their physician's about the risk of stroke and the benefits and risks of anticoagulation.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study included patients with nonvalvular AF and a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 2 or more (calculated as congestive heart failure, hypertension, age 75 years and older, diabetes, stroke or transient ischemic attack, vascular disease, age 65 to 74 years, and sex category) who were not receiving anticoagulation and were enrolled from 19 sites within the National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR) Practice Innovation and Clinical Excellence Registry (PINNACLE Registry) between January 18, 2017, and May 7, 2018.

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The presence of measurable residual disease (MRD) is strongly associated with treatment outcomes in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Despite the correlation with clinical outcomes, MRD assessment has yet to be standardized or routinely incorporated into clinical trials. Discrepancies have been observed between different techniques for MRD assessment and there remains a need to compare centralized, high-quality multiparametric flow cytometry (MFC) and ultrasensitive next-generation sequencing (NGS) in AML patients with diverse mutational profiles.

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Mitochondrial genomes co-evolve with the nuclear genome over evolutionary timescales and are shaped by selection in the female germline. Here, we investigate how mismatching between nuclear and mitochondrial ancestry impacts the somatic evolution of the mt-genome in different tissues throughout aging. We used ultra-sensitive Duplex Sequencing to profile ~2.

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Virtual architecture has been increasingly relied on to evaluate the health impacts of physical architecture. In this health research, exposure to virtual architecture has been used as a proxy for exposure to physical architecture. Despite the growing body of research on the health implications of physical architecture, there is a paucity of research examining the long-term health impacts of prolonged exposure to virtual architecture.

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Background: Intention-to-treat analyses do not address adherence. Per protocol analyses treat nonadherence as a protocol deviation and assess if the intervention is effective if followed.

Objective: To determine the rate of early preterm birth (EPTB, <34 weeks gestation) and preterm birth (PTB, <37 weeks gestation) in participants who adhered to a randomly assigned docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) dose of 1000 mg/day.

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Background: Two randomized trials found women with low blood docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; an omega 3 fatty acid) had fewer early preterm births (<34 weeks gestation) if they were assigned to high dose DHA supplementation, however, there is currently no capacity for clinicians who care for pregnancies to obtain a blood assessment of DHA. Determining a way to identify women with low DHA intake whose risk could be lowered by high dose DHA supplementation is desired.

Objective: To determine if assessing DHA intake can identify pregnancies that benefit from high dose DHA supplementation.

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Liquid metal embedded elastomers (LMEEs) are composed of a soft polymer matrix embedded with droplets of metal alloys that are liquid at room temperature. These soft matter composites exhibit exceptional combinations of elastic, electrical, and thermal properties that make them uniquely suited for applications in flexible electronics, soft robotics, and thermal management. However, the fabrication of LMEE structures has primarily relied on rudimentary techniques that limit patterning to simple planar geometries.

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Background: In 2020, a multidose human-milk fortifier (MDHMF) was designed to improve the process of human-milk (HM) fortification. The bottle of MDHMF (5.5 oz, 163 ml) allows aseptic removal of HMF in a precise measure.

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We investigate the value of a two-armed Bayesian response adaptive randomization (RAR) design to investigate early preterm birth rates of high versus low dose of docosahexaenoic acid during pregnancy. Unexpectedly, the COVID-19 pandemic forced recruitment to pause at 1100 participants rather than the planned 1355. The difference in power between number of participants at the pause and planned was 87% and 90% respectively.

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C. Richard (Dick) Conti was a pioneer in innovation…not only in clinical and academic fields, but also in the exposure of academicians, clinicians, and trainees to various environments for expansion of their knowledge base…and world view. In an evolving environment of systems of medical care, engagement in management and planning by physicians and all members of the care team is essential to ensure quality for patients and to develop processes that work effectively for practitioners.

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