Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Estimating Scale And Scope Effects In Public Health Delivery: Implications For Regionalization, Glen P. Mays, Rachel A. Hogg, Rick Ingram, Kristina Rabarison

Health Management and Policy Presentations

OBJECTIVES: The nation's public health delivery system comprises nearly 3000 local public health agencies that vary widely in capabilities. Economic pressures, workforce shortages, and new national accreditation standards are leading these agencies to explore mechanisms for pooling resources to enhance delivery and improve population health.

METHODS: A longitudinal cohort design is used to analyze changes in the availability and perceived effectiveness of services delivered by local public health providers. A stratified random sample of the nation's 3000 local public health agencies (n=497) were surveyed in 1998 and again in 2006 and 2011 (70% response) to measure the availability of 20 …

Dietary Docosahexaenoic Acid (22:6) Incorporates Into Cardiolipin At The Expense Of Linoleic Acid (18:2): Analysis And Potential Implications, Colin Cortie, Paul L. Else

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Cardiolipin is a signature phospholipid of major functional significance in mitochondria. In heart mitochondria the fatty acid composition of cardiolipin is commonly viewed as highly regulated due to its high levels of linoleic acid (18:2n − 6) and the dominant presence of a 4×18:2 molecular species. However, analysis of data from a comprehensive compilation of studies reporting changes in fatty acid composition of cardiolipin in heart and liver mitochondria in response to dietary fat shows that, in heart the accrual of 18:2 into cardiolipin conforms strongly to its dietary availability at up to 20% of total dietary fatty acid and …

Rapid Regolith Formation Over Volcanic Bedrock And Implications For Landscape Evolution, Anthony Dosseto, Heather L. Buss, P O Suresh

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

The ability to quantify how fast weathering profiles develop is crucial to assessing soil resource depletion and quantifying how landscapes evolve over millennia. Uranium-series isotopes can be used to determine the age of the weathering front throughout a profile and to infer estimates of regolith production rates, because the abundance of U-series isotopes in a weathering profile is a function of chemical weathering and time. This technique is applied to a weathering profile in Puerto Rico developed over a volcaniclastic bedrock. U-series isotope compositions are modelled, revealing that it takes 40–60 kyr to develop an 18 m-thick profile. This is …

Re-Creating The Rural, Reconstructing Nature: An International Literature Review Of The Environmental Implications Of Amenity Migration, Jesse B. Abrams, Hannah Gosnell, Nicholas J. Gill, Peter J. Klepeis

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

The term 'amenity migration' describes a broad diversity of patterns of human movement to rural places in search of particular lifestyle attributes. This review of international literature, drawn from the authors' own prior research and searches on relevant databases, synthesises findings on the implications of amenity migration for the creation and distribution of environmental harms and benefits. Further, we critique common framings of amenity migration-related environmental transformations and offer suggestions for future research. Analysis is positioned within a review of five common themes reflected in the cases we consider: land subdivision and residential development; changes in private land use; cross-boundary …

Streptokinase Variants From Streptococcus Pyogenes Isolates Display Altered Plasminogen Activation Characteristics - Implications For Pathogenesis, Simon M. Cook, Amanda Skora, Christine M. Gillen, Mark J. Walker, Jason D. Mcarthur

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Streptococcus pyogenes (group A streptococcus, GAS) secretes streptokinase, a potent plasminogen activating protein. Among GAS isolates, streptokinase gene sequences (ska) are polymorphic and can be grouped into two distinct sequence clusters (termed cluster type-1 and cluster type-2) with cluster type-2 being further divided into sub-clusters type-2a and type-2b. In this study, far-UV circular dichroism spectroscopy indicated that purified streptokinase variants of each type displayed similar secondary structure. Type-2b streptokinase variants could not generate an active site in Glu-plasminogen through non-proteolytic mechanisms while all other variants had this capability. Furthermore, when compared with other streptokinase variants, type-2b variants displayed a 29- …

Will Climate Severity Ever Lead To Climate Action? Implications For Adaptation Policy And Practice, Bastian Seidel, Erica Bell

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

No abstract provided.

Amyloid Beta Selectively Modulates Neuronal Trkb Alternative Transcript Expression With Implications For Alzheimer's Disease, J Wong, M Higgins, G Halliday, B Garner

Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute

Dysregulation in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)/full-length TrkB (TrkB-TK+) signaling is implicated in promoting neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease (AD). BDNF/TrkB-TK+ signaling can be modulated by the presence of truncated TrkB isoforms (TrkB-TK-, TrkB-Shc). All TrkB isoforms are encoded by different alternative transcripts. In this study, we assessed if expression of the three main TrkB alternative transcripts, TrkB-TK+, TrkB-TK-, and TrkB-Shc are altered in AD. Using a cohort of control and AD brains (n=29), we surveyed the hippocampus, temporal cortex, occipital cortex, and cerebellum and found specific increases in TrkB-Shc, a neuron-specific transcript, in the AD hippocampus. No significant changes were detected …

Srp20 Regulates Trkb Pre-Mrna Splicing To Generate Trkb-Shc Transcripts With Implications For Alzheimer's Disease, Jenny Wong, Brett Garner, Glenda M. Halliday, John B.J Kwok

Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute

Previously, we reported elevated levels of the neuronspecific tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB) transcript, TrkB- sarc homology containing (Shc) in the hippocampus of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brains. In this study, we determined how TrkB-Shc transcripts are increased in AD. Utilizing a TrkB minigene transiently transfected into SHSY5Y cells, we found increased exon 19 inclusion in TrkB minigene transcripts (to generate TrkB-Shc) following cellular exposure to amyloid beta 1–42 (Ab42). As this suggested altered TrkB pre-mRNA splicing in AD, we conducted an in silico screening for putative splice regulatory protein-binding sites in the intron/exon splice regulatory regions of exons 18 and …