Diagnostic accuracy of eHealth literacy measurement tools in older adults: a systematic review.

Background: In Canada, virtual health care rapidly expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is substantial variability between older adults in terms of digital literacy skills, which precludes equitable participation of some older adults in virtual care. Little is known about how to measure older adults' electronic health (eHealth) literacy, which could help healthcare providers to support older adults in accessing virtual care.

Youth engagement in child maltreatment research: Gaps, barriers, and approaches.

Youth engagement in research, which involves meaningfully collaborating with youth as full partners in the research process, has contributed to improved research collaborations, enhanced youth participation, and increased motivation for researchers to address scientific questions relevant to youth. Engaging youth as partners in the research process is especially needed in the field of child maltreatment due to the high prevalence of maltreatment, its poor association with health outcomes, and the disempowerment that can occur following exposure to child maltreatment. Although evidence-based approaches for youth engagement in research have been established and applied in other areas such as mental health services, youth engagement in child maltreatment research has been limited.

Start spreading the news: a deliberate approach to POCUS program development and implementation.

While there is an expanding body of literature on Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) pedagogy, administrative elements that are necessary for the widespread adoption of POCUS in the clinical environment have received little attention. In this short communication, we seek to address this gap by sharing our institutional experience with POCUS program development and implementation. The five pillars of our program, selected to tackle local barriers to POCUS uptake, are education, workflow, patient safety, research, and sustainability.

Association of Sonographic Sarcopenia and Falls in Older Adults Presenting to the Emergency Department.

Background And Objective: To determine the association between point-of-care-ultrasonography (POCUS)-measured sarcopenia and grip strength, as well as the history of prior-year falls among older adults admitted to the emergency department observation unit (EDOU).

Materials And Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was conducted over 8 months at a large urban teaching hospital. A consecutive sample of patients who were 65 years or older and admitted to the EDOU were enrolled in the study.

Do Teachers Question the Reality of Pain in Their Students? A Survey Using the Concept of Pain Inventory-Proxy (COPI-Proxy).

An assessment of a teacher's concept of their student's pain could be useful to guide preventative and targeted school-based pain science education. We aimed to assess a teacher's own concept of pain against their concept of their student's pain and examine the psychometric properties of the tool. Teachers of 10-12-year-old children were invited to participate in an online survey via social media.

Maternal obesity and programming of metabolic syndrome in the offspring: searching for mechanisms in the adipocyte progenitor pool.

Background: It is now understood that it is the quality rather than the absolute amount of adipose tissue that confers risk for obesity-associated disease. Adipose-derived stem cells give rise to adipocytes during the developmental establishment of adipose depots. In adult depots, a reservoir of progenitors serves to replace adipocytes that have reached their lifespan and for recruitment to increase lipid buffering capacity under conditions of positive energy balance.

Pediatric cochlear implant explantation and reimplantation over a 32-year period.

Objectives: Cochlear implantation is indicated for pediatric patients with bilateral severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss. The literature reports large variability in cochlear implant (CI) device survival and rates of explantation and reimplantation. This retrospective chart review summarizes CI survival and rates of explantation and reimplantation in pediatric CI recipients at a Canadian tertiary pediatric hospital over 32 years.

Microstate analyses as an indicator of anesthesia-induced unconsciousness.

Objective: The objective of this study was to identify differences in electroencephalographic microstate topographies across three perioperative phases: anesthetic pre-induction, surgical anesthesia, and post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) admission.

Methods: Whole-scalp 16-channel electroencephalographic recordings were taken throughout the perioperative period on n = 22 adult, non-cardiac surgical patients.

Results: Several differences between perioperative periods were identified.

Fact or Fiction? The Development and Evaluation of a Tobacco Virtual Health Tool.

The virtual setting is an important setting for health promotion as individuals increasingly go online for health information and support. Yet, users can have difficulty finding valid, trustworthy, and user-friendly health information online. In 2022, we launched an interactive Fact or Fiction Tobacco virtual health tool.

Combination Analysis of Ferroptosis and Immune Status Predicts Patients Survival in Breast Invasive Ductal Carcinoma.

Ferroptosis is a new form of iron-dependent cell death and plays an important role during the occurrence and development of various tumors. Increasingly, evidence shows a convincing interaction between ferroptosis and tumor immunity, which affects cancer patients' prognoses. These two processes cooperatively regulate different developmental stages of tumors and could be considered important tumor therapeutic targets.

The waiting game: investigating the neurobiological transition from acute to persistent pain in adolescent rats.

Persistent postsurgical pain affects 20% of youth undergoing a surgical procedure, with females exhibiting increased prevalence of chronic pain compared with males. This study sought to examine the sexually-dimorphic neurobiological changes underlying the transition from acute to persistent pain following surgery in adolescence. Male and female Sprague Dawley rats were randomly allocated to a sham or injury (plantar-incision surgery) condition and assessed for pain sensitivity while also undergoing magnetic resonance imaging at both an acute and chronic timepoint within adolescence.

Motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease are related to the interplay between cortical curvature and thickness.

Introduction: Brain atrophy in Parkinson's disease occurs to varying degrees in different brain regions, even at the early stage of the disease. While cortical morphological features are often considered independently in structural brain imaging studies, research on the co-progression of different cortical morphological measurements could provide new insights regarding the progression of PD. This study's aim was to examine the interplay between cortical curvature and thickness as a function of PD diagnosis, motor symptoms, and cognitive performance.

Response surface modeling of ceftriaxone removal from hospital wastewater.

In recent decades, an emerging concern of widespread antimicrobial resistance has been raised due to the existence of pharmaceutical samples such as antibiotics in an aqueous medium. Herein, antibiotic ceftriaxone (CTX) removal from hospital wastewater employing a hybrid process of electrocoagulation (EC) and adsorption (AD) was investigated. The response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to study the influences of main operating variables, including initial CTX concentration, pH, current density, reaction time, and chitosan dosage, on the removal efficiency of the treatment process.

Associations of the COVID-19 pandemic with the reported incidence of important endemic infectious disease agents and syndromes in Pakistan.

Background: Persons in Pakistan have suffered from various infectious diseases over the years, each impacted by various factors including climate change, seasonality, geopolitics, and resource availability. The COVID-19 pandemic is another complicating factor, with changes in the reported incidence of endemic infectious diseases and related syndromes under surveillance.

Methods: We assessed the monthly incidence of eight important infectious diseases/syndromes: acute upper respiratory infection (AURI), viral hepatitis, malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea, typhoid fever, measles, and neonatal tetanus (NNT), before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Differential relationships between thought dimensions and momentary affect in daily life.

Commonly used to characterize mind wandering, task-unrelated thought has long been associated with negative affective outcomes. However, less is known about how other thought dimensions including intentionality and freedom of movement interact with task-unrelated thought to modulate momentary affect in everyday life. To address this, we used ecological momentary assessments to prompt participants to report their thought patterns and affective valence five times a day for seven consecutive days.

Exploring oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction as a mechanism linking bisphenol S exposure to vascular disease in human umbilical vein endothelial cells and a mouse model of postnatal exposure.

Background: Structural analogues used to replace bisphenol A (BPA) since the introduction of new regulatory restrictions are considered emerging environmental toxicants and remain understudied with respect to their biological actions and health effects. Studies reveal a link between BPA exposure and vascular disease in human populations, whereas the vascular effects of BPA substitutes remain largely unknown.

Objectives: To determine the effect of BPS, a commonly used BPA substitute, on redox balance, nitric oxide (NO) availability and microvascular NO-dependent dilation.

Timeliness of reporting of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence results and their utility for infectious disease surveillance.

Seroprevalence studies have been used throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to monitor infection and immunity. These studies are often reported in peer-reviewed journals, but the academic writing and publishing process can delay reporting and thereby public health action. Seroprevalence estimates have been reported faster in preprints and media, but with concerns about data quality.

The impacts of partnering with cancer patients in palliative care research: a systematic review and meta-synthesis.

Background: Palliative care (PC) is an added layer of support provided concurrently with cancer care and serves to improve wellbeing and sustain quality of life. Understanding what is meaningful and a priority to patients, their families, and caregivers with lived experience of cancer and PC is critical in supporting their needs and improving their care provision. However, the impacts of engaging cancer patients the context of PC research remain unknown.

Food for thought: diet-induced impairments to decision-making and amelioration by N-acetylcysteine in male rats.

Rationale: Attempts to lose weight often fail despite knowledge of the health risks associated with obesity and determined efforts. We previously showed that rodents fed an obesogenic diet displayed premature habitual behavioural control and weakened flexible decision-making based on the current value of outcomes produced by their behaviour. Thus, habitual control may contribute to failed attempts to modify eating behaviours.

Multi-year comparison of VITEK® MS and 16S rRNA gene sequencing performance for the identification of rarely encountered anaerobes causing invasive human infections in a large Canadian region: can our laboratory abandon 16S rRNA gene sequencing?

Background: Our large regional laboratory routinely provides a definitive identification (ID) for 800-1,200 anaerobic bacteria per annum that cause invasive human infections. An increasing number of isolates (i.e.

Prediction of depression treatment outcome from multimodal data: a CAN-BIND-1 report.

Background: Prediction of treatment outcomes is a key step in improving the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). The Canadian Biomarker Integration Network in Depression (CAN-BIND) aims to predict antidepressant treatment outcomes through analyses of clinical assessment, neuroimaging, and blood biomarkers.

Methods: In the CAN-BIND-1 dataset of 192 adults with MDD and outcomes of treatment with escitalopram, we applied machine learning models in a nested cross-validation framework.

Inaugural Pan-Canadian RADGames: Results From a Successful Approach to Radiology Education for Medical Students.

Rationale And Objectives: A goal in radiology undergraduate medical education is to improve exposure to the field. In 2022, the Canadian Association of Radiologists' Medical Student Network hosted for the first time "RADGames," an interactive image interpretation contest for medical students across Canada. This program was aimed to spark interest in radiology and improve students' image interpretation skills through gamification with expert guidance.

Suitable but requiring support: How the midwifery model of care offers opportunities to counsel the vaccine hesitant pregnant population.

Uptake of vaccination during pregnancy in Canada is lower than comparator countries. A recommendation from a trusted perinatal healthcare provider is a key opportunity to promote vaccine uptake and improve confidence. This study aims to identify barriers and opportunities to vaccination in midwifery care.