Clinical Care Pathways for Second and Third Trimester Termination of Pregnancy for Medical Reasons in Canada.

Objective: Termination of pregnancy in the 2/3 trimester for fetal or maternal complications (i.e., for medical reasons) is an essential health service.

Exploring the connection between climatic conditions and genetic properties of Abies alba Mill., including warm and summer-dry Mediterranean environments.

Abies alba Mill. is a prominent European tree species predominantly inhabiting cool and humid montane environments. However, paleoecological evidence reveals that during the Eemian and mid-Holocene, A.

Our learning journey: Creating continuing education courses for pharmacy team members on First Nations cultural safety and humility in British Columbia, Canada.

Purpose: Systemic racism across healthcare systems perpetuates health disparities. While pharmacy curricula are changing, most pharmacy team members in Canada have received minimal to no training in First Nations cultural safety and humility. At the time this work was undertaken, no pharmacy-specific First Nations cultural safety and humility courses existed for practicing pharmacy team members.

Interventions to improve health care provider implementation and patient adherence of patients to recommendations on geriatric assessment and management in older adults: A scoping review protocol.

The world population is aging. Comprehensive Geriatric assessment (CGA) has been proven to improve the well-being of older adults. However, evidence suggests not all clinicians implement these recommendations in their practice; nor do all patients adhere to them.

Ascertaining the Environmental Advantages of Pavement Designs Incorporating Recycled Content through a Parametric and Probabilistic Approach.

Reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) is a widely used end-of-life (EoL) material in asphalt pavements to increase the material circularity. However, the performance loss due to using RAP in the asphalt binder layer often requires a thicker layer, leading to additional material usage, energy consumption, and transportation effort. In this study, we developed a parametric and probabilistic life cycle assessment (LCA) framework to robustly compare various pavement designs incorporating recycled materials.

Ultrasound Evaluation of Upper Limb Sublesional Muscle Morphology in Cervical Spinal Cord Injury.

Introduction/aims: Upper limb paralysis is arguably the most limiting consequence of cervical spinal cord injury (cSCI). There is limited knowledge regarding the early structural changes of muscles implicated in grasp/pinch function and upper extremity nerve transfer surgeries. We evaluated: (1) muscle size and echo intensity (EI) in subacute cSCI (2-6 months) and (2) the influence of lower motor neuron (LMN) damage on these ultrasound parameters.

Asynchronous shifts in the demographics of two wave-swept kelp species (Laminariales) after nearly four decades.

Kelp forests are among the most abundant and productive marine ecosystems but are under threat from climate change and other anthropogenic stressors. Although knowledge is growing about how the abundance and distribution of kelp forests are changing, much less is known about the "non-lethal" effects that global change is having on the performance and health of kelp populations in areas where they persist. Here we assessed the age distribution of two common stipitate kelp species, Laminaria setchelli and Pterygophora californica, at Wizard Islet in Barkley Sound, British Columbia, Canada, and compared these data to historical demographic data collected by De Wreede (1984) and Klinger and DeWreede (1988) from the same site between 1981 and 1983.

Disco-Interacting Protein 2 Homolog B CGG Repeat Expansion in Siblings with Neurodevelopmental Disability and Progressive Movement Disorder.

Background: Trinucleotide repeat expansions are an emerging class of genetic variants associated with various movement disorders. Unbiased genome-wide analyses can reveal novel genotype-phenotype associations and provide a diagnosis for patients and families.

Objective: The aim was to identify the genetic cause of a severe progressive movement disorder phenotype in 2 affected brothers.

Performance-Based Outcome Measures After Hip or Knee Arthroplasty: A Systematic Review and Content Analysis Using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF).

Rational: One of the important considerations to select the appropriate outcome measures is determining if the tool is relevant to patients. Despite the availability of various performance-based tests to objectively assess function, it is unknown which performance-based tests best capture important aspects of function after hip or knee arthroplasty.

Aims And Objectives: Our systematic review aimed to identify the existing performance-based tests used in hip or knee arthroplasty and link the activity component of each test to the modified International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) core set for osteoarthritis (OA).

The Interactive Role of Climatic Transfer Distance and Overstory Retention on Douglas-Fir Seedling Survival and Height Growth in Interior British Columbia.

The future climatic niche of interior Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca [Mirb.] Franco) is expected to have little spatial overlap with its current range due to climate change.

Supervised Functional Principal Component Analysis Under the Mixture Cure Rate Model: An Application to Alzheimer'S Disease.

Brain imaging data is one of the primary predictors for assessing the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). This study aims to extract image-based features associated with the possibly right-censored time-to-event outcomes and to improve predictive performance. While the functional proportional hazards model is well-studied in the literature, these studies often do not consider the existence of patients who have a very low risk and are approximately insusceptible to AD.

Evaluating human ability to distinguish between ChatGPT-generated and original scientific abstracts.

This study aims to analyze the accuracy of human reviewers in identifying scientific abstracts generated by ChatGPT compared to the original abstracts. Participants completed an online survey presenting two research abstracts: one generated by ChatGPT and one original abstract. They had to identify which abstract was generated by AI and provide feedback on their preference and perceptions of AI technology in academic writing.

Audit of B-cell Cancer Genes.

Comprehensive genetic analysis of tumors with exome or whole genome sequencing has enabled the identification of the genes that are recurrently mutated in cancer. This has stimulated a series of exciting advances over the past 15 years, guiding us to new molecular biomarkers and therapeutic targets among the common mature B-cell neoplasms. In particular, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), follicular lymphoma (FL) and Burkitt lymphoma (BL) have each been the subject of considerable attention in this field.

Symptoms in Persons With Either Active or Inactive Crohn's Disease Are Agnostic to Disease Phenotype: The Magic in Imagine Study.

Background: We aimed to examine the relationship between disease symptoms and disease phenotype in a large Canadian cohort of persons with Crohn's disease (CD).

Methods: Adults (n=1515) with CD from 14 Canadian centers participated in the Mind And Gut Interactions Cohort (MAGIC) between 2018 and 2023. Disease activity was measured using the 24-item IBD Symptom Inventory-Short-Form (IBDSI-SF).

Far Cortical Locking Versus Standard Constructs for Locked Plate Fixation in the Treatment of Acute, Displaced Fractures of the Distal Femur: A Multicenter Randomized Trial.

Background: Fixation of distal femoral fractures remains a challenge, and nonunions are common with standard constructs. Far cortical locking (FCL) constructs have been purported to lead to improved fracture-healing as compared with that achieved with traditional locking bridge plates. We sought to test this hypothesis in a comparative effectiveness clinical trial.

Streamlining the Journey of Research Into Clinical Practice: Making Your Patients and Practice Flourish Evaluation and Treatment of Pyogenic Spondylodiscitis of the Spine: AO Spine Knowledge Forum Trauma and Infection.

Study Design: Literature Review with clinical recommendations.

Objective: To highlight impactful studies on pyogenic spondylodiscitis (PS), identified by the AO Spine Knowledge Forum Trauma and Infection, with recommendations for their integration into clinical practice.

Methods: Five influential studies on PS that have the potential to shape current practice in spinal infections were selected and reviewed.

Immunobridging Trials: An Important Tool to Protect Vulnerable and Immunocompromised Patients Against Evolving Pathogens.

Safeguarding patients from emerging infectious diseases demands strategies that prioritise patient well-being and protection. Immunobridging is an established trial methodology which has been increasingly employed to ensure patient protection and provide clinicians with swift access to vaccines. It uses immunological markers to infer the effectiveness of a new drug through a surrogate measure of efficacy.

Beyond Needles: Immunomodulatory Hydrogel-Guided Vaccine Delivery Systems.

Vaccines are critical for combating infectious diseases, saving millions of lives worldwide each year. Effective immunization requires precise vaccine delivery to ensure proper antigen transport and robust immune activation. Traditional vaccine delivery systems, however, face significant challenges, including low immunogenicity and undesirable inflammatory reactions, limiting their efficiency.

A Canadian Perspective on Systemic Therapy for Recurrent or Metastatic Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma.

Although the majority of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) present with early-stage or locoregional disease that can be treated with definitive radiotherapy, approximately 20% of patients experience disease recurrence, and 15% present with metastatic disease that is not amenable to curative therapy. Management of patients with recurrent or metastatic (r/m) NPC who are not candidates for local salvage therapy is challenging in Canada, as there is uncertainty in extrapolating evidence that is largely generated from Southeast China to non-endemic regions such as Canada. Currently, treatment options in Canada are limited to chemotherapy regimens that can only achieve short-term response and prolongation of survival.

Perspectives of Women with Breast Cancer and Healthcare Providers Participating in an Adherence-Enhancing Program for Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy: A Qualitative Study.

Background: Adjuvant endocrine therapy (AET) is prescribed for 5-10 years to women with hormone-sensitive breast cancer to prevent recurrence. However, a significant proportion of women do not adhere to AET. We developed SOIE, a one-year program designed to enhance the AET experience and adherence.

Guidelines for the Management of Complications of Diabetes in Saudi Arabia Using Delphi Technique for Consensus Among National Experts.

(1) Background: Saudi Arabia has one of the leading cases of diabetes globally, with approximately 27.8% of adults suffering from the disease. Given the negative consequences of diabetes mellitus (DM), it is critical to develop guidelines for its management.

Atrial Fibrillation Related Titin Truncation Is Associated With Atrial Myopathy in Patient-Derived Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Disease Models.

Background: Protein-truncating mutations in the titin gene are associated with increased risk of atrial fibrillation. However, little is known about the underlying pathophysiology.

Methods: We identified a heterozygous titin truncating variant (TTNtv) in a patient with unexplained early onset atrial fibrillation and normal ventricular function.

Novel Real-Time Fluoroscopic Assessment Method of Transcatheter Heart Valve Expansion Following Balloon-Expandable TAVR.

Background: Transcatheter heart valve (THV) underexpansion after transcatheter aortic valve replacement may be associated with worse outcomes. THV expansion can be assessed fluoroscopically using a pigtail for calibration; however, the accuracy of this technique specific to transcatheter aortic valve replacement is unknown. We assessed the accuracy and reproducibility of a novel fluoroscopic method to assess THV expansion using the THV commissural post for calibration.