Publications by authors named "ZIMMERMAN A"

Introduction: Despite recommendations from the WHO, antenatal care (ANC) coverage remains low in many low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Community health workers (CHWs) can play an important role in expanding ANC coverage through pregnancy identification, provision of health education, screening for complications, delivery of therapeutic care and referral to higher levels of care. However, despite the success of CHW programmes in various countries, WHO has called for additional research to develop evidence-based models that optimise CHW service delivery and that can be replicated across geographies.

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The vast majority of gene mutations and/or gene knockouts result in either no observable changes, or significant deficits in molecular, cellular, or organismal function. However, in a small number of cases, mutant animal models display enhancements in specific behaviors such as learning and memory. To date, most gene deletions shown to enhance cognitive ability generally affect a limited number of pathways such as NMDA receptor- and translation-dependent plasticity, or GABA receptor- and potassium channel-mediated inhibition.

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Background: Despite robust evidence supporting an association with improved outcomes in eligible patients, cardiac rehabilitation (CR) remains underused, with a minority of eligible patients participating. Virtual cardiac rehabilitation (VCR) has been proposed as an alternative to traditional center-based CR (CBCR) to improve usage rates. However, data supporting the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of VCR are limited.

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CircHomer1 is an activity-dependent circular RNA (circRNA) isoform produced from back-splicing of the Homer1 transcript. Homer1 isoforms are well-known regulators of homeostatic synaptic plasticity through post-synaptic density scaffold regulation. Homer1 polymorphisms have been associated with psychiatric diseases including schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BD).

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The utilization of biochar as a relatively efficient sorbent or stationary phase for the separation and preconcentration of a wide range of analytes represents an innovative approach in current sample pretreatment methods. Appropriate pre- and post-pyrolysis modification of the input precursor and pyrolysis product, respectively, allows targeted design of the physicochemical properties and sorption characteristics of the resulting sorbent. The present work deals with the preparation of pyrolysis materials based on unmodified cattail leaf biomass (BC) and its Mg-modified analogue (MgBC) by a slow pyrolysis process at 500 °C and a residence time of 1 h in a pyrolysis reactor.

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Article Synopsis
  • A study was conducted to investigate how well different types of biochar can absorb perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a harmful PFAS compound, comparing 23 diverse biochars made from materials like sewage sludge and wood waste.
  • The research assessed the biochars' properties such as surface area, pore size, and chemical composition, revealing that sludge-based biochars were significantly more effective at capturing PFOA than wood-based ones.
  • Statistical analysis indicated that the ability to adsorb PFOA was largely determined by the biochars' pore volume and the presence of hydrophobic interactions due to their aromatic carbon content.
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Poverty is associated with poorer mental health in early adulthood. Cash transfers (CTs) have been shown to improve child health and education outcomes, but it is unclear whether these effects may translate into better mental health outcomes as children reach young adulthood. Using a quasi-experimental approach that exploits variation across countries in the timing of national CT programme introduction, we examine whether longer exposure to CTs during childhood (0-17 years) reduces depressive symptoms in early adulthood (18-30 years).

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Biogeochemical models for predicting carbon dynamics increasingly include microbial processes, reflecting the importance of microorganisms in regulating the movement of carbon between soils and the atmosphere. Soil viruses can redirect carbon among various chemical pools, indicating a need for quantification and development soil carbon models that explicitly represent viral dynamics. In this opinion, we derive a global estimate of carbon potentially released from microbial biomass by viral infections in soils and synthesize a quantitative soil carbon budget from existing literature that explicitly includes viral impacts.

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Antibiotics are of emerging concern due to their widespread use, lack of adequate treatment, and for their potential to threaten human health and the environment. Here, a facile fabrication approach for synthesizing ZnO/CuO-bentonite composites was investigated via carbon-bed pyrolysis of bentonite followed by ZnO/CuO co-precipitation. Sorbents were synthesized using a range of bentonite pyrolysis temperatures, metal oxide contents, and ZnO:CuO mass ratios.

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Neuroinflammation in response to environmental stressors is an important common pathway in a number of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Responses to immune-mediated stress can lead to epigenetic changes and the development of neuropsychiatric disorders. Isothiocyanates (ITC) have shown promise in combating oxidative stress and inflammation in the nervous system as well as organ systems.

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Idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) is a poorly-understood sleep disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness despite normal nighttime sleep. Combining human genomics with behavioral and mechanistic studies in fish and flies, we uncover a role for , synaptic adhesion molecules of the immunoglobulin superfamily, in excessive sleepiness. Neuronal knockdown of Drosophila results in sleepy flies and loss of the vertebrate ortholog of , , results in sleepy fish.

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The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system plays a pivotal role in the immune response to viral infections, mediating the presentation of viral peptides to T cells and influencing both the strength and specificity of the host immune response. Variations in HLA genotypes across individuals lead to differences in susceptibility to viral infection and severity of illness. This study uses observations from the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic to explore how specific HLA class I molecules affect clinical responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

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Background: There is a great deal of confusion associated with conversion from CII opioid to buprenorphine products. The data presented supports that patients can be converted from high dose opioid medication to buprenorphine products safely and effectively. This presentation will provide a road map to help guide practitioners who are interested in applying this to their clinical practice.

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Radiology began as a translation of quantum physics to clinical medicine. Advances in computing and engineering enabled the differentiation of the field into diagnostic radiology, interventional radiology, and radiation oncology as practical responses to rapidly proliferating medical knowledge. Radiology has itself transformed modern medicine, helping clinicians identify, track, and intervene on multiple once deadly diseases.

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The vast majority of gene mutations and/or gene knockouts result in either no observable changes, or significant deficits in molecular, cellular, or organismal function. However, in a small number of cases, mutant animal models display enhancements in specific behaviors such as learning and memory. To date, most gene deletions shown to enhance cognitive ability generally affect a limited number of pathways such as NMDA receptor- and translation-dependent plasticity, or GABA receptor- and potassium channel-mediated inhibition.

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Article Synopsis
  • Young people living with HIV (YPLWH) face distinct challenges and worse health outcomes than other age groups, and this systematic review aims to assess the health and economic effects of interventions designed for them.
  • The review analyzed 3,735 articles, ultimately including 32 studies that evaluated various HIV interventions targeting individuals aged 10-24 years, with a majority focusing on Africa and the results indicating that most interventions were cost-effective or cost-saving.
  • The findings highlight the need for more research on the economic aspects of HIV interventions for YPLWH, especially considering the high incidence of stigma and the necessity for lifelong care.
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Unlabelled: Recent studies have revealed diverse RNA viral communities in soils. Yet, how environmental factors influence soil RNA viruses remains largely unknown. Here, we recovered RNA viral communities from bulk metatranscriptomes sequenced from grassland soils managed for 5 years under multiple environmental conditions including water content, plant presence, cultivar type, and soil depth.

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Background: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) can result in lasting brain damage that is often too subtle to detect by qualitative visual inspection on conventional MR imaging. Although a number of FDA-cleared MR neuroimaging tools have demonstrated changes associated with mTBI, they are still under-utilized in clinical practice.

Methods: We investigated a group of 65 individuals with predominantly mTBI (60 mTBI, 48 due to motor-vehicle collision, mean age 47 ± 13 years, 27 men and 38 women) with MR neuroimaging performed in a median of 37 months post-injury.

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Disorder at etched edges of graphene quantum dots (GQD) enables random all-to-all interactions between localized charges in partially filled Landau levels, providing a potential platform to realize the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model. We use quantum Hall edge states in the graphene electrodes to measure electrical conductance and thermoelectric power across the GQD. In specific temperature ranges, we observe a suppression of electric conductance fluctuations and slowly decreasing thermoelectric power across the GQD with increasing temperature, consistent with recent theory for the SYK regime.

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Sleep is an essential behavior that is still poorly understood. Sleep abnormalities accompany a variety of psychiatric and neurological disorders, and sleep can serve as a modifiable behavior in the treatment of these disorders. Zebrafish () has proven to be a powerful model organism to study sleep and the interplay between sleep and these disorders due to the high conservation of the neuro-modulatory mechanisms that control sleep and wake states between zebrafish and humans.

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Clinical and biological samples are often scarce and precious (e.g., rare cell isolates, microneedle tissue biopsies, small-volume liquid biopsies, and even single cells or organelles).

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In the palliative care population, prescription opioids are often considered viable pain relief options. However, in this complex patient population, the adverse effects of opioid medications should be identified and managed without delay. Common adverse effects can include constipation, nausea, somnolence, dizziness, vomiting, and pruritus.

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Extracellular vesicles (EVs) play a pivotal role in various biological pathways, such as immune responses and the progression of diseases, including cancer. However, it is challenging to isolate EVs at high purity from blood plasma and other biofluids due to their low abundance compared to more predominant biomolecular species such as lipoprotein particles and free protein complexes. Ultracentrifugation-based EV isolation, the current gold standard technique, cannot overcome this challenge due to the similar biophysical characteristics of such species.

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