Publications by authors named "Watkins C"

Somion occarium is a wood-decaying bracket fungus belonging to an order known to be rich in useful chemical compounds. Despite its widespread distribution, S. occarium has been assessed as endangered on at least one national Red List, presumably due to loss of old-growth forest habitat.

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Background: Place matters for health. In Texas, growing rural populations face a variety of structural, social, and economic disparities that position them for potentially worse health outcomes. The current study contributes to understanding rural health disparities in a state-specific context.

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Purpose: The goal of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in young orthopedic trauma patients and its impact on bone mineral density (BMD) measured through computed tomography imaging of the lumbar spine.

Methods: Conducted at a level I trauma center, this prospective cross-sectional analysis included 100 patients aged 18 to 50 years with non-fragility fractures. Vitamin D levels and Hounsfield units of the lumbar spine were recorded from computed tomography scans.

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Atraumatic bilateral femoral neck fractures are rare, especially in younger patients and those without significant comorbidities. However, pregnant individuals appear to be at increased risk due to normal physiological changes in calcium balance, leading to transient osteoporosis of the hip. In these individuals, calcium and bone mineral density are generally decreased, reflecting the calcium demands of the developing fetus.

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Alopecurus aequalis is a winter annual or short-lived perennial bunchgrass which has in recent years emerged as the dominant agricultural weed of barley and wheat in certain regions of China and Japan, causing significant yield losses. Its robust tillering capacity and high fecundity, combined with the development of both target and non-target-site resistance to herbicides means it is a formidable challenge to food security. Here we report on a chromosome-scale assembly of A.

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Introduction: Overweight and obesity are growing public health problems worldwide. Both diet and physical activity have been the primary interventions for weight reduction over the past decade. With increasing rates of overweight and obesity, it is evident that a primary focus on diet and exercise has not resulted in sustained obesity reduction within the global population.

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Background: Return-to-work is a major goal achieved by fewer than 50% stroke survivors. Evidence on how to support return-to-work is lacking.

Aims: To evaluate the clinical effectiveness of Early Stroke Specialist Vocational Rehabilitation (ESSVR) plus usual care (UC) (i.

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Astronomers have found more than a dozen planets transiting stars that are 10-40 million years old, but younger transiting planets have remained elusive. The lack of such discoveries may be because planets have not fully formed at this age or because our view is blocked by the protoplanetary disk. However, we now know that many outer disks are warped or broken; provided the inner disk is depleted, transiting planets may thus be visible.

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Objective: To determine the impact of testosterone therapy (TT) on the incidence of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in a large cohort of hypogonadal males and to evaluate the relationship between TT in hypogonadal males and prostatic interventions.

Methods: We used the 2011-2020 International Business Machines Corporation MarketScan database to identify hypogonadal males above 18 years old and determine if they received TT. International Classification of Diseases, 9th and 10th Revisions, Current Procedural Terminology, Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System Procedure Codes, and National Drug Code (NDC) codes were used for diagnoses, interventions, and medications.

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Introduction: Persistent racial and gender disparities are prevalent within the higher education and medical training system, notably seen in the underrepresentation of Hispanic or Latinos, Black Americans, and female surgeons compared to their respective population proportions. This study aims to quantify publications addressing ethnic or gender diversity across various surgical specialties, analyze publication trends, and explore specific topics within medical literature.

Database: The Database includes PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study looked at how stroke survivors can return to work and found that only about half succeed within a year.
  • Researchers wanted to see how well early special vocational rehabilitation (ESSVR) helped these survivors, compared to normal care.
  • Results showed that those receiving ESSVR got more support, lasting longer and better organized, while normal care had shorter and less effective help.
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Gender and biological sex have distinct impacts on the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Estrogen deficiency is known to predispose female mice to T2D. In our previous study, we found that a high-fat, high-sucrose diet (HFHSD) induces T2D in male mice through the miR-10b-5p/KLF11/KIT pathway, but not in females, highlighting hormonal disparities in T2D susceptibility.

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We present a reference genome assembly from an individual male Violet Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa violacea, Linnaeus 1758). The assembly is 1.02 gigabases in span.

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There is an increasing appreciation for the role of cell surface glycans in modulating interactions with extracellular ligands and participating in intercellular communication. We recently reported the existence of sialoglycoRNAs, where mammalian small RNAs are covalently linked to N-glycans through the modified base acpU and trafficked to the cell surface. However, little is currently known about the role for O-glycosylation, another major class of carbohydrate polymer modifications.

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The authors make the case for using a written instead of a spoken supervision agreement at supervision's outset in order to provide clarity and education about supervision, supply an accessible document that supervisees can readily reference, sidestep memory issues that negatively affect the supervision process, and enable dyadic collaboration that sets an immediate positive tone for supervision. The invitational, clarifying, educational, empowering, and transparent (ICEE-T) supervision agreement approach is described, with emphasis on the essential elements to put in place at the outset of supervision. A written agreement, which is valuable at any supervisee developmental stage, can be invaluable when working with novice supervisees (e.

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Mate choice, and sex differences in romantic behaviours, represented one of the first major applications of evolutionary biology to human behaviour. This paper reviews Darwinian approaches to heterosexual mate assessment based on physical characteristics, placing the literature in its historical context (1871-1979), before turning (predominantly) to psychological research on attractiveness judgements based on physical characteristics. Attractiveness is consistently inferred across multiple modalities, with biological theories explaining why we differentiate certain individuals, on average, from others.

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GlycoRNA consists of RNAs modified with secretory N-glycans that are presented on the cell surface. Although previous work supported a covalent linkage between RNA and glycans, the direct chemical nature of the RNA-glycan connection was not described. Here, we develop a sensitive and scalable protocol to detect and characterize native glycoRNAs.

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Background: The African Stroke Organization (ASO) in partnership with the University of Central Lancashire's Stroke Research Team launched the Africa-UK Stroke Partnership (AUKSP). AUKSP undertook two (stroke expert and hospital Stroke Unit (SU)) on-line surveys mapping existing capacity and capability to deliver African stroke care.

Methods: An on-line expert survey tool was sent to 139 stroke experts in 54 African countries October 2021-March 2022 and the hospital SU survey to 120 hospital SUs (identified from the expert survey) June-October 2022.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study examined how low temperatures (0 °C vs. 20 °C) affect the quality and flavor of ripe red tomatoes during 8 days of storage.
  • Storing tomatoes at 0 °C helped maintain their sugar content and texture by promoting the expression of certain genes, while inhibiting others related to aroma and carotenoid synthesis.
  • The cold storage also activated genes linked to antioxidants and heat shock proteins, which contributed to preserving the overall quality of the tomatoes.
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Introduction: Around 40% of adults have pre-hypertension (120-139/80-89mmHg) increasing their risk of developing hypertension and associated cardiovascular conditions. Guidance on pre-hypertension management focuses on improving lifestyle. Self-monitoring may improve awareness and understanding of blood pressure (BP) for people with pre-hypertension, allowing them to modify their lifestyle risks.

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Nucleosome occupancy plays an important role in chromatin compaction, affecting biological processes by hampering the binding of cis-acting elements such as transcription factors, RNA polymerase machinery, and coregulatory. Accessible regions allow for cis-acting elements to bind DNA and regulate transcription. Here, we detail our protocol to profile nucleosome occupancy and chromatin structure dynamics under drought stress at the genome-wide scale using micrococcal nuclease (MNase) digestion.

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Dehydration after stroke is associated with poor health outcomes, increased mortality, and poses a significant economic burden to health services. Yet research suggests that monitoring and assessment of hydration status is not routinely undertaken. In this commentary, we critically appraise a systematic review which aimed to synthesise the existing evidence regarding diagnosis and treatment of dehydration after stroke.

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Purpose: How does lexical decision behavior vary in students with the same grade level (all students were in their first year of middle-school), but different levels of reading fluency? Here, we tested a prediction of the dual-route model: as fluency increases, variations in the results may reflect a decreasing reliance on decoding and an increasing reliance on the lexical route.

Method: 1,501 French 6 graders passed a one-minute speeded reading-aloud task evaluating fluency, and a ten-minute computerized lexical decision task evaluating the impact of lexicality, length, word frequency and pseudoword type.

Results: As predicted, the word length effect varied dramatically with reading fluency, with the least fluent students showing a length effect even for frequent words.

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