Emergency department presentations of patients from CALDB receiving chemotherapy in day oncology settings

Objectiver />The objectives of this research were to compare the emergency department (ED) presentations for cancer patients from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (CALDB) treated with chemotherapy through day oncology units with other cancer patients.r />r />Designr />A retrospective audit was conducted. Data collected included demographic factors and ED presentation characteristics. Descriptive statistics and direct logistic regression was used to summarise and compare the ED presentation rates and ED presentation characteristics of patients from CALDB and other patients.r />r />Settingr />Primary and secondary care.r />r />Patientsr />All adult day oncology patients who were treated with chemotherapy and presented to an ED between 1 January and 31 December, 2007. Across the two health sites, 770 day oncology patients attended an ED on at least one occasion. Of these 37.7% were born in a non-English speaking country.r />r />Resultsr />Patients from CALDB were more likely to present (p < 0.001, OR = 1.55, C.I. = 1.29–1.88) and re-present to an ED (p < 0.001, OR = 2.08, C.I. = 1.37–3.16), however there was no association between CALDB and admission to hospital following the ED presentation, triage category or being seen within the clinically recommended time. Patients from CALDB tended to present for potentially preventable conditions such as nausea/vomiting/dehydration and fever.r />r />Conclusionsr />Our findings suggest that targeted interventions that incorporate education and information to assist with self-care for patients from CALDB may reduce potentially preventable presentations and representations to an ED and the subsequent economic, social and personal costs associated with these ED presentations.r />

Respiratory muscle dysfunction and training in chronic heart failure

A characteristic feature of chronic heart failure (CHF) is reduced exercise tolerance. Several factors contributing to this have been identified, including alterations in central haemodynamics, skeletal muscle oxygen utilisation and respiratory muscle dysfunction. This review focuses on abnormalities identified in respiratory muscle structure and function in CHF and recent evidence for the benefit of selective inspiratory muscle training in CHF. Included in this review are findings from original investigations, with a specific focus on recent published data.r />

Nanocrystalline titanium to mesoporous anatase with high bioactivity

In present study, the formation of bioactive anatase on bulk titanium (Ti) by hybrid surface mechanical attrition treatment (SMAT) is reported. A commercial pure Ti plate first underwent SMAT in a vacuum for 1 h to produce a nanocrystalline layer with a thickness of about 30 µm, and then the nanocrystalline Ti (30 nm) was transformed into mesoporous anatase with a grain size 10 nm by chemical oxidation and calcination. The mesoporous anatase showed excellent bioactivity while being soaked in simulated body fluid, which could be attributed to the unique nanostructure on the SMAT Ti surface.r />r />

Application of novel technologies in water reclamation, reuse and recycle

Water reuse has become an integral element of the "total water resources planning and management" along with the other elements such as water conservation, water use efficiency and management of the allocation of existing water sources. Researchers are working actively on the following aspects of water reuse: identification and characterization of different wastewaters that could be reclaimed, development of treatment technologies and effluent standards, quantification of potential gains due to recycling and risk management. The wastewaters that can be reclaimed are domestic and industrial wastewaters, grey water, black water, stormwater and rain water and their potential reuse lies in agriculture, aquaculture, industries, non-potable use in residential and community fronts and indirect and direct potable use. The treatment of wastewater ranges from secondary treatment to advanced treatment, which produces different "Classes" of reclaimed water. This paper evaluates the current status of the research on the above-mentioned important aspects of water reuse with relevant case studies and the future demand for reuse water. The direction in which the future-reuse schemes should be formulated so that they are safe, environmentally sustainable and cost effective are also discussed.r />

Environmental and senescent related variations in Weddell seal body mass : implications for age-specific reproductive performance

Recent studies have found age-specific variations in reproductive performance amongst Weddell seals, Leptonychotes weddellii, and we hypothesized age-related variations in maternal body mass as a mechanism linking maternal age and the observed patterns of reproductive performance. We evaluated the effects of maternal traits such as age and reproductive experience and the effects of environmental variations on maternal body mass at parturition. Maternal body mass at parturition showed substantial age- and environmental-related variations. Maternal body mass increased with age through the young and middle ages, and evidence of senescent declines in body mass was found amongst the oldest ages. Additionally, body mass at parturition was strongly influenced by environmental variations during the pregnancy period, specifically sea-ice extent and the state of the El-Niño Southern Oscillation. Patterns of age-specific variations in body mass were consistent with age-specific patterns of offspring survival probability, which supported our hypothesis that changes in body mass link maternal age and reproductive performance in the Weddell seal. Further, environmental conditions during pregnancy may be an important component of Weddell seal reproductive performance.r />

Every day I wait

A solo exhibition - first showing - Arc One Gallery titled 'Every Day I Wait' with accompanying catalogues by Stephen Garret and Melissa Amorer />r />Exhibitions include:r />Black Box White Cube; Aspects of Performance in Australian Art, Victorian Arts Centre with accompanying catalogue; curated by Steven Tonkinr />r />Anne Scott Wilson, Photographs and Video, Conny Dietzschold Gallery 2012r />

Stabilized sparse ordinal regression for medical risk stratification

The recent wide adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs) presents great opportunities and challenges for data mining. The EMR data are largely temporal, often noisy, irregular and high dimensional. This paper constructs a novel ordinal regression framework for predicting medical risk stratification from EMR. First, a conceptual view of EMR as a temporal image is constructed to extract a diverse set of features. Second, ordinal modeling is applied for predicting cumulative or progressive risk. The challenges are building a transparent predictive model that works with a large number of weakly predictive features, and at the same time, is stable against resampling variations. Our solution employs sparsity methods that are stabilized through domain-specific feature interaction networks. We introduces two indices that measure the model stability against data resampling. Feature networks are used to generate two multivariate Gaussian priors with sparse precision matrices (the Laplacian and Random Walk). We apply the framework on a large short-term suicide risk prediction problem and demonstrate that our methods outperform clinicians to a large margin, discover suicide risk factors that conform with mental health knowledge, and produce models with enhanced stability. © 2014 Springer-Verlag London.

Variation in energy intake and basal metabolic rate of a bird migrating in a wind tunnel

1. We studied the changes in body mass, metabolizable energy intake rate (ME) and basal metabolic rate (BMR) of a Thrush Nightingale, Luscinia luscinia, following repeated 12-h migratory flights in a wind tunnel. In total the bird flew for 176 h corresponding to 6300 km. This is the first study where the fuelling phase has been investigated in a bird migrating in captivity. r />r />2. ME was very high, supporting earlier findings that migrating birds have among the highest intake rates known among homeotherms. ME was significantly higher the second day of fuelling, indicating a build-up of the capacity of the digestive tract during the first day of fuelling. r />r />3. Further indications of an increase in size or activity level of metabolically active structures during fuelling come from the short-term variation in BMR, which increased over the 2-day fuelling period with more than 20%, and in almost direct proportion to body mass. However, mass-specific BMR decreased over the season. r />r />4. The patterns of mass change, ME and BMR of our focal bird following two occasions of 12-h fasts were the same as after flights, indicating that fast and flight may involve similar physiological processes. r />r />5. The relatively low ME the first day following a flight may be a contributing factor to the well-known pattern that migrating birds during stopover normally lose mass the first day of fuelling.

Towards the optimization of performance of Atlantic salmon reared at different water temperatures via the manipulation of dietary ARA/EPA ratio

In recent years, aquaculture has been facing a series of new issues, including the necessary replacement of fish oil and fish meal because of their limited supply and sub-optimal water temperature conditions. Higher water temperatures are increasingly encountered as the result of climate change related phenomena and/or the practice of farming of species in areas with environmental characteristics outside their optimal physiological range, such as the case of Atlantic salmon (. Salmo salar) farming in Australia during the summer season. Previous studies in teleost fish have shown that when fish are exposed at higher environmental temperatures, fish had a preferential increased dietary intake for arachidonic acid (20:4n - 6, ARA). This observation suggests that, given the several metabolic roles of ARA, its dietary provision may play an important role in fish for adapting at sub-optimal high water temperatures. The objective of this study was therefore to evaluate the effects of different dietary ARA/EPA ratios in juvenile Atlantic salmon as affected by time of exposition to the diet and water temperatures, with particular focus to fish performance and possible resulting modifications of tissue fatty acid composition. The study showed that independently from dietary treatments, fish held at the higher temperatures had an increased ARA accumulation, primarily in the liver and this ARA accumulation increased over time. It was also shown that the combined dietary inclusion of ARA and EPA significantly improved fish performance, compared with diets either richer in ARA or EPA. A general trend toward higher content of n - 3 LC-PUFA at lower temperatures was also quite clear, especially in the liver. Therefore, and assuming that the trends in tissue fatty acid composition could be taken as a clue of the optimal fatty acid requirements of fish, the n - 6 requirement (and in particular ARA) clearly appears to be greater for Atlantic salmon raised at high water temperatures. Protein accumulation was higher in the diet with the combined dietary inclusion of ARA and EPA for fish held at high water temperature (20. °C), with a concomitant lipid reduction. This study shows the importance of dietary ARA for maximal growth in Atlantic salmon, particularly during the period of the year when high water temperatures are often encountered. Further studies specifically looking at optimal dietary ARA/EPA ratio and roles of ARA on myogenesis, stress physiology and immune status of cultured fish are warranted. Statement of relevance: Given the current high level of fish oil replacement in aquafeed, and the often encountered sub-optimal environmental temperatures, we believe that this study could be considered as timely and highly pertinent for the aquaculture industry and associated R&D sector.

Developing a systems understanding of rural water supply in Timor-Leste

 Systems thinking techniques help to explain the lack of robustness of rural water systems in Timor-Leste. Development drivers currently promote increasing coverage of water programs with little concern for ongoing functionality. Investing in increased community participation, and promoting community and individual decision making, would improve the robustness of these systems.