Increasing the representation of minoritized youth for inclusive and reproducible brain-behavior associations.

Population neuroscience datasets allow researchers to estimate reliable effect sizes for brain-behavior associations because of their large sample sizes. However, these datasets undergo strict quality control to mitigate sources of noise, such as head motion. This practice often excludes a disproportionate number of minoritized individuals.

MAGinator enables accurate profiling of de novo MAGs with strain-level phylogenies.

Metagenomic sequencing has provided great advantages in the characterisation of microbiomes, but currently available analysis tools lack the ability to combine subspecies-level taxonomic resolution and accurate abundance estimation with functional profiling of assembled genomes. To define the microbiome and its associations with human health, improved tools are needed to enable comprehensive understanding of the microbial composition and elucidation of the phylogenetic and functional relationships between the microbes. Here, we present MAGinator, a freely available tool, tailored for profiling of shotgun metagenomics datasets.

Pandemic Stringency Measures and Hospital Admissions for Eating Disorders.

Importance: Hospitalizations for eating disorders rose dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health restrictions, or stringency, are believed to have played a role in exacerbating eating disorders. Few studies of eating disorders during the pandemic have extended to the period when public health stringency restrictions were lifted.

Screening and Prophylaxis for Venous Thromboembolism in Pediatric Surgery: A Systematic Review.

Objective: The American Pediatric Surgical Association Outcomes and Evidence-Based Practice Committee conducted a systematic review to describe the epidemiology of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in pediatric surgical and trauma patients and develop recommendations for screening and prophylaxis.

Methods: The Medline (Ovid), Embase, Cochrane, and Web of Science databases were queried from January 2000 through December 2021. Search terms addressed the following topics: incidence, ultrasound screening, and mechanical and pharmacologic prophylaxis.

Double Trouble! Do Workplace Supports Mitigate Lost Productivity for Young Workers with Both Severe Rheumatic Diseases and Depressive Symptoms?

Background: The objectives of this longitudinal study were to understand how comorbid rheumatic disease and depression symptoms were associated with at-work productivity among young adults, and to examine whether workplace support modified this association.

Methods: Seventy-six Canadian young adults who were employed and living with a rheumatic disease were surveyed three times over 27 months. Morbidity was defined by whether participants reported severe rheumatic disease symptoms and/or depressive symptoms.

Proteomic predictors of individualized nutrient-specific insulin secretion in health and disease.

Population-level variation and mechanisms behind insulin secretion in response to carbohydrate, protein, and fat remain uncharacterized. We defined prototypical insulin secretion responses to three macronutrients in islets from 140 cadaveric donors, including those with type 2 diabetes. The majority of donors' islets exhibited the highest insulin response to glucose, moderate response to amino acid, and minimal response to fatty acid.

Postsurgical Pain Risk Stratification to Enhance Pain Management Workflow in Adult Patients: Design, Implementation, and Pilot Evaluation.

Background: Exposure to opioids after surgery is the initial contact for some people who develop chronic opioid use disorder. Hence, effective postoperative pain management, with less reliance on opioids, is critical. The Perioperative Opioid Quality Improvement (POQI) program developed (1) a digital health platform leveraging patient-survey-reported risk factors and (2) a postsurgical pain risk stratification algorithm to personalize perioperative care by integrating several commercially available digital health solutions into a combined platform.

Clinical pathway development to standardize pharmacological medication management of agitation in pediatric inpatient settings.

Objective: Acute agitation in pediatrics is commonly encountered in hospital settings, can contribute to significant physical and psychological distress, and management is highly varied in practice. As such, the development of a standardized pharmacologic guideline is paramount. We aimed to develop a novel clinical pathway (CP) for management of acute agitation for all hospitalized pediatric patients in Canada.

HumanIslets: An integrated platform for human islet data access and analysis.

Comprehensive molecular and cellular phenotyping of human islets can enable deep mechanistic insights for diabetes research. We established the Human Islet Data Analysis and Sharing (HI-DAS) consortium to advance goals in accessibility, usability, and integration of data from human islets isolated from donors with and without diabetes at the Alberta Diabetes Institute (ADI) IsletCore. Here we introduce HumanIslets.

A comprehensive tandem repeat catalog of the human genome.

With the increasing availability of long-read sequencing data, high-quality human genome assemblies, and software for fully characterizing tandem repeats, genome-wide genotyping of tandem repeat loci on a population scale becomes more feasible. Such efforts not only expand our knowledge of the tandem repeat landscape in the human genome but also enhance our ability to differentiate pathogenic tandem repeat mutations from benign polymorphisms. To this end, we analyzed 272 genomes assembled using datasets from three public initiatives that employed different long-read sequencing technologies.

Genetic counselors outside of the genetics clinic: Roles, practices, and ethico-legal implications in light of lagging legal recognition across Canada.

Advances in medical genetics have led to a significant increase in demand for genetic services and expertise across almost all medical specialties. Genetic counselors (GCs) in Canada play key roles in genetic services both within and outside of the Genetics Clinic, while not being regulated or legally recognized as healthcare professionals (HCPs) in most provinces. Understanding whether GCs outside of the "traditional" Genetics Clinic influence patient care, their level of professional autonomy and supervisory structure is, therefore, important.

Realist process evaluation of the knowledge translation programme of a patient-oriented research network.

Rationale: The Knowledge Translation (KT) Programme of a pan-Canadian strategic patient-oriented research network focused on brain-based developmental disabilities aimed to mobilize knowledge relevant to the network members. The programme also promotes and studies integrated Knowledge Translation (iKT) approaches involving different interested parties, such as researchers, patient-partners and decision-makers, in all parts of the knowledge creation process.

Aims And Objectives: The objective of this study is to advance research programme evaluation methods through a realist evaluation of the process of implementing iKT activities.

Imaging approach to pediatric calvarial bulges.

Palpable calvarial lesions in children may require multi-modality imaging for adequate characterization due to non-specific clinical features. Causative lesions range from benign incidental lesions to highly aggressive pathologies. While tissue sampling may be required for some lesions, others have a typical imaging appearance, and an informed imaging approach facilitates diagnosis.

Effects of pain, sedation and analgesia on neonatal brain injury and brain development.

Critically ill newborns experience numerous painful procedures as part of lifesaving care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. However, painful exposures in the neonatal period have been associated with alterations in brain maturation and poorer neurodevelopmental outcomes in childhood. The most frequently used medications for pain and sedation in the NICU are opioids, benzodiazepines and sucrose; these have also been associated with abnormalities in brain maturation and neurodevelopment making it challenging to know what the best approach is to treat neonatal pain.

The Cost-Effectiveness of Omalizumab for Treatment of Food Allergy.

Background: Omalizumab is an anti-IgE therapy newly approved by the Food and Drug Administration for allergen agnostic treatment of single or multiple food allergies in patients aged 1 year or older.

Objective: Evaluate the cost-effectiveness of omalizumab as a food allergy treatment.

Methods: We evaluated health and economic outcomes in Markov cohorts of simulated food allergic infants randomized to receive omalizumab using a 15-year horizon.

Support interventions offered to family members of a child treated with hematopoietic stem cell transplant: A scoping review.

A scoping review was conducted to explore support interventions for family members of a child treated with hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). Three databases (CINAHL, Embase, and Medline) were searched to answer the review question: What are the support interventions offered to family members of a child treated with HSCT and are they based on a family-centred care approach? Out of 665 screened articles, nine were selected for full review. Findings revealed two main types of family-centred support interventions: psychological face-to-face and technology-based interventions.

A national survey of children's experiences and needs when attending Canadian pediatric emergency departments.

Background: Optimizing a child's emergency department (ED) experience positively impacts their memories and future healthcare interactions. Our objectives were to describe children's perspectives of their needs and experiences during their ED visit and relate this to their understanding of their condition.

Methods: 514 children, aged 7-17 years, and their caregivers presenting to 10 Canadian pediatric EDs completed a descriptive cross-sectional survey from 2018-2020.

External validation of a paediatric Smart triage model for use in resource limited facilities.

Models for digital triage of sick children at emergency departments of hospitals in resource poor settings have been developed. However, prior to their adoption, external validation should be performed to ensure their generalizability. We externally validated a previously published nine-predictor paediatric triage model (Smart Triage) developed in Uganda using data from two hospitals in Kenya.

The 2024 Pediatric Sepsis Challenge: Predicting In-Hospital Mortality in Children With Suspected Sepsis in Uganda.

The aim of this "Technical Note" is to inform the pediatric critical care data research community about the "2024 Pediatric Sepsis Data Challenge." This competition aims to facilitate the development of open-source algorithms to predict in-hospital mortality in Ugandan children with sepsis. The challenge is to first develop an algorithm using a synthetic training dataset, which will then be scored according to standard diagnostic testing criteria, and then be evaluated against a nonsynthetic test dataset.