david barker

OBJECTIVE: We sought to evaluate how implementing a thoracic Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocol impacted surgical outcomes after elective anatomic lung resection. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: The effect of implementing the ERAS Society/European Society of Thoracic Surgery (ESTS) thoracic ERAS protocol on postoperative outcomes throughout an entire healthcare system has not yet been reported. METHODS: This was a prospective cohort study within one healthcare system (1/2019-3/2023)...

A highly adaptable asymmetric synthetic route toward dihydronaphthalene lignans was developed, with its application to the syntheses of negundin B and vitexin 1/6 described herein. This developed pathway proceeded through an enantioselective aldol reaction to establish the contiguous stereocenters present in the final structures with subsequent functional group transformations yielding (-)-negundin B and (-)-vitexin 1/6. The enantioselective synthesis of vitexin 1/6 allowed the correction of absolute configuration, which has been widely incorrectly reported...

OBJECTIVES: Biologic therapies have led to increasing numbers of patients with psoriasis who have clear or nearly clear skin. Current practice is that biologic therapy is continued indefinitely in these patients, contributing to a substantial long-term drug and healthcare burden. 'As needed' biologic therapy in psoriasis may address this, however our understanding of patient and clinician perceptions of this strategy is limited. METHODS: We first conducted UK-wide online scoping surveys of patients with psoriasis and dermatology clinicians to explore their views on 'as needed' biologic therapy...

INTRODUCTION: This study investigated the role of proactive semantic interference (frPSI) in predicting the progression of amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) to dementia, taking into account various cognitive and biological factors. METHODS: The research involved 89 older adults with aMCI who underwent baseline assessments, including amyloid PET and MRI scans, and were followed longitudinally over a period ranging from 12 to 55 months (average 26.05 months)...

Norlignans are a rare class of natural products isolated from a diverse range of plant species, many of which have interesting biological activities including antibacterial, antioxidant, phytotoxic, platelet aggregation inhibitory effects, and more. Isolated from Amomum villosum (Amomi Fructus), amovillosumins A ( 1 ) and C ( 3 ) are norlignans which were of interest to synthesize, due to their interesting bioactivities, specifically their ability to increase stimulation of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) secretion...

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Visceral pain is a leading cause of morbidity in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), contributing significantly to reduced quality of life. Currently available analgesics often lack efficacy or have intolerable side effects, driving the need for a more complete understanding of the mechanisms causing pain. Whole transcriptome gene expression analysis was performed by bulk RNA sequencing of colonic biopsies from patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn disease (CD) reporting abdominal pain and compared with noninflamed control biopsies...

Methoxyflurane (MOF) as an agent for dental sedation has been used safely in Australasia for decades. The drug is now licensed for relief of pain associated with trauma and is being used during several medical outpatient procedures in the stead of traditional intravenous agents for sedation in the UK. Our aim was to analyse the safety and feasibility of the introduction of MOF as a drug for dental sedation in the UK community setting and assess its environmental impact. A literature review was conducted for available studies and a research audit of medical histories of patients that received nitrous oxide sedation in the previous year was carried out to assess suitability for MOF administration...

BACKGROUND: Although age is the biggest known risk factor for dementia, there remains uncertainty about other factors over the life course that contribute to a person's risk for cognitive decline later in life. Furthermore, the pathological processes leading to dementia are not fully understood. The main goals of Insight 46-a multi-phase longitudinal observational study-are to collect detailed cognitive, neurological, physical, cardiovascular, and sensory data; to combine those data with genetic and life-course information collected from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD; 1946 British birth cohort); and thereby contribute to a better understanding of healthy ageing and dementia...

OBJECTIVES: To test whether adolescents' mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with the combination of their instructional approach(es) and their sleep patterns. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: Adolescents were recruited through social media outlets in October and November 2020 to complete an online survey. PARTICIPANTS: Participants were 4442 geographically and racially diverse, community-dwelling students (grades 6-12, 51% female, 36% non-White, 87% high schoolers)...

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic revealed numerous barriers to effectively managing public health crises, including difficulties in using publicly available, community-level data to create learning systems in support of local public health decision responses. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of health care partners began meeting to learn from their collective experiences. We identified key tools and processes for using data and learning system structures to drive equitable public health decision making throughout different phases of the pandemic...

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Alcohol consumption before sleep decreases sleep latency, explaining the common use of alcohol as a sleep aid. The full impact of alcohol on sleep architecture is not well understood, particularly the potential cumulative effects of pre-sleep alcohol consumption across consecutive nights. Here, we describe the effects of pre-sleep alcohol on sleep architecture across three consecutive nights. METHODS: Thirty adult participants took part in a crossover, within-subjects study consisting of two sets of three consecutive nights of in-lab polysomnography...

Immunotherapeutic agents have revolutionized cancer treatment over the past decade. However, most patients fail to respond to immunotherapy alone. A growing body of preclinical studies highlight the potential for synergy between radiotherapy and immunotherapy, but outcomes of clinical studies have been mixed. This review summarizes the current state of immunotherapy and radiation combination therapy across cancers, highlighting existing challenges and promising areas for future investigation.

BACKGROUND: The treatment landscape for relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS) has changed dramatically in recent decades, including an increasing number of high-efficacy disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) with varied administration and monitoring requirements. Coupled with greater focus on earlier treatment, these factors have resulted in stretching of the capacity of MS specialist services and allied healthcare professionals (HCPs). To assist with the effective planning of MS services in the UK NHS, this study quantified the administration and monitoring time burden associated with high-efficacy DMTs (alemtuzumab, cladribine tablets, fingolimod, natalizumab, and ocrelizumab) for relapsing MS...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Clinical trials developing therapeutics for frontotemporal degeneration (FTD) focus on pathogenic variant carriers at preclinical stages. Objective, quantitative clinical assessment tools are needed to track stability and delayed disease onset. Natural speech can serve as an accessible, cost-effective assessment tool. We aimed to identify early changes in the natural speech of FTD pathogenic variant carriers before they become symptomatic. METHODS: In this cohort study, speech samples of picture descriptions were collected longitudinally from healthy participants in observational studies at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University between 2007 and 2020...

A novel application of the Theil-Sen robust regression method for determining the temporal trends in the concentration of heavy metals in UK ambient air over the period 2005-2020 is presented and compared to other regression methods. We have demonstrated improvements over non-robust methods of regression, proving the ability to tease out trends that are small with respect to the variability of the concentration measurement. The method is used to identify, in general, large and significant trends in the concentrations of Ni, As, Pb and V over the period 2005-2020, either across the UK as a whole or at groupings of site classifications in the UK...

Here, we introduce the Early Relational Health (ERH) Learning Community's bold, large-scale, collaborative, data-driven and practice-informed research agenda focused on furthering our mechanistic understanding of ERH and identifying feasible and effective practices for making ERH promotion a routine and integrated component of pediatric primary care. The ERH Learning Community, formed by a team of parent/caregiver leaders, pediatric care clinicians, researchers, and early childhood development specialists, is a workgroup of Nurture Connection-a hub geared toward promoting ERH, i...

Health promotion is conceived as a unifying concept for improving the health of populations. This means addressing the socio-cultural, economic and commercial causes of ill-health, which are necessarily informed by past policies and socio-cultural contexts. However, historical scholarship has rarely figured in health promotion practice or scholarship. This gap resides in the determinants of health, and notably in the analyses of tobacco control and skin cancer prevention, two long-running campaigns that have shaped modern health promotion in Australia...

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties and diagnostic accuracy of the 32-item version of the Multilingual Naming Test (MINT) in participants from 2 ethnic groups (European Americans [EA; n = 106] and Hispanic Americans [HA; n = 175]) with 3 diagnostic groups (cognitively normal [CN], n = 94, mild cognitive impairment [MCI], n = 148, and dementia, n = 39). METHOD: An Item Response Theory model was used to evaluate items across ethnicity and language groups (Spanish and English), resulting in a 24-item version...

More than 30,000 ankle sprains occur each day in the United States, and the majority of ankle sprains involve the anterior talofibular ligament. Up to 30% of patients develop functional ankle instability and chronic pain after a severe ankle sprain. When nonoperative measures are unsuccessful, operative reconstruction of the lateral ankle ligaments is recommended. To further strengthen the repair, accelerate rehabilitation, and allow for a quicker return to sport, augmentation with suture tape has recently become an alternative among surgeons in the reconstruction of the lateral ankle ligaments...