Bovine lactoferrin targets apoptotic and EGFR mechanisms in breast cancer

 This research investigated the anti-cancer effects of milk protein, lactoferrin. It was found that lactoferrin specifically induced cell death in breast cancer cells and was non-toxic to normal mammary gland cells. Key molecular mechanisms targeted by lactoferrin were elucidated in this study which provides important insight into the activity of this protein as an anti-cancer agent.

Autism spectrum disorder symptoms in children with ADHD: a community-based study

This study examined the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptoms in a community-based sample of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and non-ADHD controls. We also examined the relationship between ASD symptoms and ADHD subtype, ADHD symptom severity and child gender. Participants were 6-10-year-old children (164 ADHD; 198 non-ADHD control) attending 43 schools in Melbourne, Australia, who were participating in the Children's Attention Project. ADHD was assessed in two stages using the parent and teacher Conners' 3 ADHD index and the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children IV (DISC-IV). ASD symptoms were identified using the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ). Unadjusted and adjusted linear and logistic regression examined continuous and categorical outcomes, respectively. Children with ADHD had more ASD symptoms than non-ADHD controls (adjusted mean difference=4.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.8; 5.3, p<0.001, effect size=0.7). Boys with ADHD had greater ASD symptom severity than girls with ADHD (adjusted mean difference=2.9, 95% CI 0.8; 5.2, p=0.01, effect size=0.4). Greater ADHD symptom severity was associated with greater ASD symptom severity (regression co-efficient=1.6, 95% CI 1.2; 2.0, p<0.001). No differences were observed by ADHD subtype. Greater hyperactive/impulsive symptoms were associated with greater ASD symptoms (regression coefficient=1.0; 95% CI 0.0; 2.0, p=0.04) however, this finding attenuated in adjusted analyses (p=0.45). ASD symptoms are common in children with ADHD. It is important for clinicians to assess for ASD symptoms to ensure appropriate intervention.

Brief report: associations between self-reported paternal relationships, anger, alcohol, and intimate partner violence in a prison sample

This study investigates the association between family relationships, anger, alcohol use, and self-reported intimate partner violence (IPV). Participants were 55 male prisoners who completed a survey about their family relationships, anger, alcohol use, and aggression. Exposure to parental IPV predicted rates of self-reported perpetration of IPV, suggesting the importance of understanding more about the developmental pathways to IPV if effective prevention, intervention, and assessment strategies are to be developed for use with this high-risk population.

Nurses' views of patient participation in nursing care

AIMS: To explore nurses' views of patient participation in nursing care on medical wards. BACKGROUND: Nurses have frequent contact with patients, highlighting their potential role in enabling patient participation. However, some nurses' actions and attitudes act as barriers, failing to achieve core requirements of patient participation. Discovering nurses' views may assist in developing strategies to encourage patient participation in hospitals. DESIGN: Interpretive study. METHODS: Twenty nurses were recruited from four medical wards, located in two Australian hospitals. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted between November 2013-March 2014 and analysed using content analysis. FINDINGS: Five categories emerged from the nurses' views. The first category, acknowledging patients as partners, showed nurses respected patients as legitimate participants. In the second category, managing risk, nurses emphasized the need to monitor participation to ensure rules and patient safety were maintained. Enabling participation was the third category, which demonstrated nurses' strategies that enhanced patients' participation. The fourth category was hindering participation; encapsulating nurses' difficulty in engaging patients with certain characteristics. In the final category, realizing participation, nurses believed patients could be involved in physical activities or clinical communication. CONCLUSION: Nurses have a crucial role in promoting patient participation. Through acknowledging and enabling participation, nurses may facilitate patient participation in a range of nursing activities. The nurse's role in enacting participation is complex, having to accommodate each patient's risks and characteristics, highlighting the need for good assessment skills. Education, policy and research strategies are essential to foster nurses' pivotal role in patient participation.

Perceptions of change in office space design: redesigning Barwon Water’s office environment

In early 2015 Barwon Water received State government funding to rationalise and renovate its various Geelong-based administrative offices into one complex. Integral to the renovations is a new green-star retrofit of the existing Ryrie Street complex by GHD Woodhead. The project will consolidate all of Barwon Water’s offices onto one site, increase floor space, provide a new ‘green’ atrium, and adopt an open plan layout. Having set a new strategic direction, Barwon Water is now undergoing a wholesale cultural and operational change in order to realise these strategic objectives. Aspirations for workplace design have been identified as: environmentally sustainable; foster innovation and creativity; establish connections; improve communication and collaboration; provide efficient space for effective work; flexibility over time; welcoming and connected to the community; healthy; and, up to date technology. This paper investigates Barwon Water staff perceptions and apprehensions of this prospective consolidation, particularly the proposed open plan office environment. While most research in this topic is informed by an immediate pre-design workshop of staff needs, this research provides a longitudinal perspective of human perceptions about work place environment change and a review of how changes in office environment synergistically align to architectural responses and changes in corporate strategies.

Chemiluminescence detection of MDMA in street drug samples using tris (2,2'-bipyridine) ruthenium (III)

Tris(2,2'-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) chemiluminescence was investigated for the detection of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and several related compounds in street drug samples. Optimization using flow injection analysis showed that the selectivity of the reagent can be targeted towards the detection of secondary amines by altering the pH of the reaction environment. The greater selectivity of this mode of detection, compared to UV-absorbance, reduces the probability of false positive results from interfering compounds. The detection limit for MDMA under these conditions was 0.48 μM. A HPLC method incorporating post-column tris(2,2'-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) chemiluminescence detection was applied to the determination of MDMA in five street drug samples. The results obtained were in good agreement with quantification performed using traditional UV-absorbance detection, which demonstrates the viability of this method for confirmatory analysis of drug samples. This is the first report of tris(2,2'-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) chemiluminescence for the detection of MDMA and related amphetamine derivatives.

Multi-dimensional liquid chromatography and metabolomics, are two dimensions better than one?

 While data processing methods in metabolomic studies often work with 'n' number of dimensions, analytical techniques, with the notable exception of NMR, have mostly stuck only to one. Peak overlap continues to be a problem and there is an ever-present demand to maximize the number of metabolites that can be separated and identified in a single run. One method that might help to overcome these issues is multidimensional liquid chromatography, which uses two columns of different phases. A sequential collection of aliquots is made from the first column and reinjected onto a second, and the resulting data are then plotted in 2D or 3D space. The total peak capacity of such a system is the combined peak capacities of each column. The 'offline' version of this technique, using a fraction collector, was introduced over 30 years ago but with recent advances in instrumentation and software, particularly the 'online' approach using automated switching valves, has led to increasing interest in the technique. Both offline and online methods can be carried out as a comprehensive procedure, or via 'heart-cutting', in which only specific peaks are analysed in the second dimension. Past applications include proteomics, natural product chemistry, forensic science and pharmaceutical analysis. These successes are likely to be built on in the future as new column chemistries and bio-informatic approaches are developed. In this review an overview of the theory of twodimensional liquid chromatography is presented, its potential in the field of metabolomics is assessed and predictions for future research directions are made.

Incidence and course of adolescent deliberate self-harm in Victoria, Australia, and Washington State

PURPOSE: There have been few longitudinal studies of deliberate self-harm (DSH) in adolescents. This cross-national longitudinal study outlines risk and protective factors for DSH incidence and persistence. METHODS: Seventh and ninth grade students (average ages 13 and 15 years) were recruited as state-representative cohorts, surveyed, and then followed up 12 months later (N = 3,876), using the same methods in Washington State and Victoria, Australia. The retention rate was 99% in both states at follow-up. A range of risk and protective factors for DSH were examined using multivariate analyses. RESULTS: The prevalence of DSH in the past year was 1.53% in Grade 7 and .91% in Grade 9 for males and 4.12% and 1.34% for Grade 7 and Grade 9 females, respectively, with similar rates across states. In multivariate analyses, incident DSH was lower in Washington State (odds ratio [OR] = .67; 95% confidence interval [CI] = .45-1.00) relative to Victoria 12 months later. Risk factors for incident DSH included being female (OR = 1.93; CI = 1.35-2.76), high depressive symptoms (OR = 3.52; CI = 2.37-5.21), antisocial behavior (OR = 2.42; CI = 1.46-4.00), and lifetime (OR = 1.85; CI = 1.11-3.08) and past month (OR = 2.70; CI = 1.57-4.64) alcohol use relative to never using alcohol. CONCLUSIONS: Much self-harm in adolescents resolves over the course of 12 months. Young people who self-harm have high rates of other health risk behaviors associated with family and peer risks that may all be targets for preventive intervention.

Cancer risk among people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes: disentangling true associations, detection bias, and reverse causation

 OBJECTIVE: Evidence indicates an increased risk of certain cancers among people with type 2 diabetes. Evidence for rarer cancers and for type 1 diabetes is limited. We explored the excess risk of site-specific cancer incidence and mortality among people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, compared with the general Australian population. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Registrants of a national diabetes registry (953,382) between 1997 and 2008 were linked to national death and cancer registries. Standardized incidence and mortality ratios (SIRs/SMRs) are reported. RESULTS: For type 1 diabetes, significant elevated SIRs were observed for pancreas, liver, esophagus, colon and rectum (females only [F]), stomach (F), thyroid (F), brain (F), lung (F), endometrium, and ovary, and decreased SIRs were observed for prostate in males. Significantly increased SMRs were observed for pancreas, liver, and kidney (males only), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, brain (F), and endometrium. For type 2 diabetes, significant SIRs were observed for almost all site-specific cancers, with highest SIRs observed for liver and pancreas, and decreased risks for prostate and melanoma. Significant SMRs were observed for liver, pancreas, kidney, Hodgkin's lymphoma, gallbladder (F), stomach (F), and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (F). Cancer risk was significantly elevated throughout follow-up time but was higher in the first 3 months postregistration, suggesting the presence of detection bias and/or reverse causation. CONCLUSIONS: Type 1 and type 2 diabetes are associated with an excess risk of incidence and mortality for overall and a number of site-specific cancers, and this is only partially explained by bias. We suggest that screening for cancers in diabetic patients is important.

Feeling it: understanding Korean adoptees' experiences of embodied identity

This paper examines the ways in which transnational Korean adoptees experience identity as an embodied subjective process that is simultaneously contested and objectified by social perceptions of their bodies in their adoptive countries and South Korea. To analyse these lived experiences, I draw primarily on embodiment theories such as Budgeon’s (2003) sociological concept of ‘body as event’ and Csordas’ (2002) cultural phenomenological view of the body not as an object but as a ‘subject of culture’. To analyse processes of (re)embodiment, I draw on Ahmed’s (2007) concepts of ‘space’ and ‘whiteness’. Based on ethnographic data in South Korea and semi-structured interviews with 22 adult Korean adoptees, this paper demonstrates how Korean adoptees’ embodied identities are lived in relation to racialised experiences of belonging and Otherness.

On-call work: to sleep or not to sleep? It depends

On-call working time arrangements are increasingly common, involve work only in the event of an unpredictable incident and exist primarily outside of standard hours. Like other non-standard working time arrangements, on-call work disrupts sleep and can therefore have negative effects on health, safety and performance. Unlike other non-standard working time arrangements, on-call work often allows sleep opportunities between calls. Any sleep obtained during on-call periods will be beneficial for waking performance. However, there is evidence that sleep while on call may be of substantially reduced restorative value because of the expectation of receiving the call and apprehension about missing the call. In turn, waking from sleep to respond to a call may be associated with temporary increases in performance impairment. This is dependent on characteristics of both the preceding sleep, the tasks required upon waking and the availability and utility of any countermeasures to support the transition from sleep to wake. In this paper, we critically evaluate the evidence both for and against sleeping during on-call periods and conclude that some sleep, even if it is of reduced quality and broken by repeated calls, is a good strategy. We also note, however, that organisations utilising on-call working time arrangements need to systematically manage the likelihood that on-call sleep can be associated with temporary performance impairments upon waking. Given that the majority of work in this area has been laboratory-based, there is a significant need for field-based investigations of the magnitude of sleep inertia, in addition to the utility of sleep inertia countermeasures. Field studies should include working with subject matter experts to identify the real-world impacts of changes in performance associated with sleeping, or not sleeping, whilst on call.

Sound the alarm: health and safety risks associated with alarm response for salaried and retained metropolitan firefighters

Responding to an emergency alarm poses a significant risk to firefighters' health and safety, particularly to cardiovascular health, physical and psychological stress, and fatigue. These risks have been largely categorised for salaried firefighters working 'on station'. Less is known about the factors that contribute to these risks for the vast number of non-salaried personnel who serve in retained roles, often deploying from home. The present study investigated the alarm response procedure for Australian metropolitan fire fighters, identifying common and divergent sources of risk for salaried and retained staff. There were significant differences in procedure between the two workgroups and this resulted in differences in risk profile between groups. Sleep and fatigue, actual response to the alarm stimulus, work-life balance and trauma emerged as sources of risk experienced differently by salaried and retained firefighters. Key findings included reports of fatigue in both groups, but particularly in the case of retained firefighters who manage primary employment as well as their retained position. This also translated into a poor sense of work-life balance. Both groups reported light sleep, insufficient sleep or fragmented sleep as a result of alarm response. In the case of salaried firefighters, this was associated with being woken on station when other appliances are called. There were risks from physical and psychological responses to the alarm stimulus, and reports of sleep inertia when driving soon after waking. The findings of this study highlight the common and divergent risks for these workgroups, and could be used in the ongoing management of firefighters' health and safety.