Digital Commons Network^™

Low Back Pain Beliefs Are Associated To Age, Location Of Work, Education And Pain-Related Disability In Chinese Healthcare Professionals Working In China: A Cross Sectional Survey, B K. Tan, Anne J. Smith, Peter B. O'Sullivan, Gang Chen, Angus F. Burnett, Andrew M. Briggs

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background: Low back pain (LBP) is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Evidence pointing towards a more efficacious model of care using a biopsychosocial approach for LBP management highlights the need to understand the pain-related beliefs of patients and those who treat them. The beliefs held by healthcare professionals (HCPs) are known to influence the treatment advice given to patients and consequently management outcomes. Back pain beliefs are known to be influenced by factors such as culture, education, health literacy, place of work, personal experience of LBP and the sequelae of LBP such as disability. There is currently a knowledge …

Pulmonary Function In Patients With Huntington's Disease, Alvaro Reyes, Travis Cruickshank, Mel Ziman, Ken Nosaka

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background: Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive motor, cognitive and psychiatric disturbances. Chest muscle rigidity, respiratory muscle weakness, difficulty in clearing airway secretions and swallowing abnormalities have been described in patients with neurodegenerative disorders including HD. However limited information is available regarding respiratory function in HD patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate pulmonary function of patients with HD in comparison to healthy volunteers, and its association with motor severity.Methods: Pulmonary function measures were taken from 18 (11 male, 7 female) manifest HD patients (53 ± 10 years), and 18 (10 male, 8 female) …

Predictors Of Grandparental Investment Decisions In Contemporary Europe: Biological Relatedness And Beyond, David A. Coall, Sonja Hilbrand, Ralph Hertwig

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Across human cultures, grandparents make a valued contribution to the health of their families and communities. Moreover, evidence is gathering that grandparents have a positive impact on the development of grandchildren in contemporary industrialized societies. A broad range of factors that influence the likelihood grandparents will invest in their grandchildren has been explored by disciplines as diverse as sociology, economics, psychology and evolutionary biology. To progress toward an encompassing framework, this study will include biological relatedness between grandparents and grandchildren, a factor central to some discipline's theoretical frameworks (e.g., evolutionary biology), next to a wide range of other factors in …

Monitoring Changes In Circulating Tumour Cells As A Prognostic Indicator Of Overall Survival And Treatment Response In Patients With Metastatic Melanoma, Dragana Klinac, Elin S. Gray, James B. Freeman, Anna Reid, Samantha Bowyer, Michael Millward, Mel Ziman

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background: New effective treatments for metastatic melanoma greatly improve survival in a proportion of patients. However biomarkers to identify patients that are more likely to benefit from a particular treatment are needed. We previously reported on a multimarker approach for the detection of heterogenous melanoma circulating tumour cells (CTCs). Here we evaluated the prognostic value of this multimarker quantification of CTCs and investigated whether changes in CTC levels during therapy can be used as a biomarker of treatment response and survival outcomes.Methods: CTCs were captured by targeting the melanoma associated markers MCSP and MCAM as well as the melanoma stem …

Reducing Depression During The Menopausal Transition: Study Protocol For A Randomised Controlled Trial, Osvaldo P. Almeida, Kylie Marsh, Leon Flicker, Martha Hickey, Andrew Ford, Moira Sim

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background: The menopausal transition (MT) is a biological inevitability for all ageing women that can be associated with changes in mood, including depressive symptoms. There is tentative evidence that women who develop depression during the MT have greater risk of subsequent depressive episodes, as well as increased health morbidity and mortality. Thus, preventing depression during the MT could enhance both current and the future health and well-being of women. This study aims to test the efficacy of a client-centred health promotion intervention to decrease the 12-month incidence of clinically significant symptoms of depression among women undergoing the MT.Methods/Design: This randomised …

Effect Of Bdnf Val66met On Memory Decline And Hippocampal Atrophy In Prodromal Alzheimer's Disease: A Preliminary Study, Yen Y. Lim, Victor L. Villemagne, Simon M. Laws, David Ames, Robert H. Pietrzak, Kathryn A. Ellis, Karra Harrington, Pierrick Bourgeat, Ashley I. Bush, Ralph N. Martins, Colin L. Masters, Christopher C. Rowe, Paul Maruff

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Objective: Cross-sectional genetic association studies have reported equivocal results on the relationship between the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met and risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). As AD is a neurodegenerative disease, genetic influences may become clearer from prospective study. We aimed to determine whether BDNF Val66Met polymorphism influences changes in memory performance, hippocampal volume, and Aβ accumulation in adults with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and high Aβ. Methods: Thirty-four adults with aMCI were recruited from the Australian, Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle (AIBL) Study. Participants underwent PiB-PET and structural MRI neuroimaging, neuropsychological assessments and BDNF genotyping at baseline, 18 month, …

An Anemia Of Alzheimer's Disease, N G. Faux, A Rembach, J Wiley, K A. Ellis, D Ames, C J. Fowler, Ralph N. Martins, K K. Pertile, R L. Rumble, B Trounson, C L. Masters, A I. Bush

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Lower hemoglobin is associated with cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Since brain iron homeostasis is perturbed in AD, we investigated whether this is peripherally reflected in the hematological and related blood chemistry values from the Australian Imaging Biomarker and Lifestyle (AIBL) study (a community-based, cross-sectional cohort comprising 768 healthy controls (HC), 133 participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 211 participants with AD). We found that individuals with AD had significantly lower hemoglobin, mean cell hemoglobin concentrations, packed cell volume and higher erythrocyte sedimentation rates (adjusted for age, gender, APOE-ε4 and site). In AD, plasma iron, transferrin, transferrin saturation …

Young Australian Adults’ Reactions To Viewing Personalised Uv Photoaged Photographs, Lori L. Presti, Paul Chang, Myra F. Taylor

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background: Despite two nationwide sun-protection awareness campaigns, young Australian adults continue to sunbathe. Since their primary motivation for tanning is appearance enhancement, it may well be that campaigns that highlight the negative effects of tanning on appearance are more effective than campaigns that emphasise the health risks associated with sun exposure.Aims: This study aims to explore young adults’ reactions to viewing a photoaged photograph of the sun damage already visible in their facial image.Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven females and three males aged 20-30 years. The interview transcripts were transcribed verbatim and were then subjected to Interpretive Phenomenological …

Metals In Commonly Eaten Groceries In Western Australia: A Market Basket Survey And Dietary Assessment, Anna Callan, Andrea Hinwood, Amanda Devine

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Children’s dietary exposure to metals has received limited attention in Australia. This study undertook a market basket survey and analysed 253 food and beverages for metals. These data were used in conjunction with recent average diet data for children in Western Australia to model dietary metals exposure, with mean metals intakes calculated for boys and girls aged 8, 12, 13 and 16 years. Results show that for some metals, including cadmium, nickel and manganese, dietary intake guidelines have been exceeded in younger children. The mean modelled cadmium intake in children aged 8 years was almost 60% of the World Health …

Positive Patient Experiences In An Australian Integrative Oncology Centre, Bonnie J. Furzer, Anna S. Petterson, Kemi E. Wright, Karen E. Wallman, Timothy R. Ackland, David J. Joske

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background: The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of cancer patients' utilising complementary and integrative therapies (CIT) within integrative oncology centres across Western Australia.Methods: Across four locations 135 patients accessed CIT services whilst undergoing outpatient medical treatment for cancer. Of the 135 patients, 66 (61 ± 12 y; female n = 45; male n = 21) agreed to complete a personal accounts questionnaire consisting of open-ended questions designed to explore patients' perceptions of CIT. All results were transcribed into nVivo (v9) and using thematic analysis, key themes were identified.Results: Of the 66 participants, 100% indicated they would …

Learning To Pronounce First Words In Three Languages: An Investigation Of Caregiver And Infant Behavior Using A Computational Model Of An Infant., Ian S. Howard, Piers Messum

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Words are made up of speech sounds. Almost all accounts of child speech development assume that children learn the pronunciation of first language (L1) speech sounds by imitation, most claiming that the child performs some kind of auditory matching to the elements of ambient speech. However, there is evidence to support an alternative account and we investigate the non-imitative child behavior and well-attested caregiver behavior that this account posits using Elija, a computational model of an infant. Through unsupervised active learning, Elija began by discovering motor patterns, which produced sounds. In separate interaction experiments, native speakers of English, French and …

Specific Intracellular Uptake Of Herceptin-Conjugated Cdse/Zns Quantum Dots Into Breast Cancer Cells, Seung-Jin Han, Pierson Rathinaraj, Soo-Young Park, Young-Kyoo Kim, Joon Hyung Lee, Inn-Kyu Kang, Jong-Sik Moon, Jeffrey G. Winiarz

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Herceptin, a typical monoclonal antibody, was immobilized on the surface of CdSe/ZnS core-shell quantum dots (QDs) to enhance their specific interactions with breast cancer cells (SK-BR3). the mean size of the core-shell quantum dots (28 nm), as determined by dynamic light scattering, increased to 86 nm after herceptin immobilization. the in vitro cell culture experiment showed that the keratin forming cancer cells (KB) proliferated well in the presence of herceptin-conjugated QDs (QD-Her, 5 nmol/mL), whereas most of the breast cancer cells (SK-BR3) had died. to clarify the mechanism of cell death, the interaction of SK-BR3 cells with QD-Her was examined …

Day Occupation Is Associated With Psychopathology For Adolescents And Young Adults With Down Syndrome, Kitty-Rose R. Foley, Peter Jacoby, Stewart Einfeld, Sonya Girdler, Jenny Bourke, Vivienne Riches, Helen Leonard

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background: Young adults with Down syndrome experience increased rates of emotional and behavioural problems compared with the general population. Most adolescents with Down syndrome living in Western Australia participate in sheltered employment as their main day occupation. Relationship between day occupation and changes in behaviour has not been examined. Therefore, the aim of this research was to explore any relationship between post school day occupations and changes in the young person's behaviour.Methods: The Down syndrome Needs Opinion Wishes database was used for case ascertainment of young adults aged 15 to 32 years with Down syndrome. Families of 118 young people …

Contourlet Textual Features: Improving The Diagnosis Of Solitary Pulmonary Nodules In Two Dimensional Ct Images, Jingjing Wang, Tao Sun, Ni Gao, Desmond D. Menon, Yanxia Luo, Qi Gao, Xia Li, Wei Wang, Huiping Zhu, Pingxin Lv, Zhigang Liang, Lixin Tao, Xiangtong Liu, Xiuhua Guo

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Materials and Methods: A total of 6,299 CT images were acquired from 336 patients, with 1,454 benign pulmonary nodule images from 84 patients (50 male, 34 female) and 4,845 malignant from 252 patients (150 male, 102 female). Further to this, nineteen patient information categories, which included seven demographic parameters and twelve morphological features, were also collected. A contourlet was used to extract fourteen types of textural features. These were then used to establish three support vector machine models. One comprised a database constructed of nineteen collected patient information categories, another included contourlet textural features and the third one contained both …

Reaching Perinatal Women Online: The Healthy You, Healthy Baby Website And App, Lydia Hearn, Margaret Miller, Leanne Lester

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Overwhelming evidence reveals the close link between unwarranted weight gain among childbearing women and childhood adiposity. Yet current barriers limit the capacity of perinatal health care providers (PHCPs) to offer healthy lifestyle counselling. In response, today's Internet savvy women are turning to online resources to access health information, with the potential of revolutionising health services by enabling PHCPs to guide women to appropriate online resources. This paper presents the findings of a project designed to develop an online resource to promote healthy lifestyles during the perinatal period. The methodology involved focus groups and interviews with perinatal women and PHCPs to …

Iron Status And The Acute Post-Exercise Hepcidin Response In Athletes, Peter Peeling, Marc Sim, Claire E. Badenhorst, Brian Dawson, Andrew D. Govus, Chris R. Abbiss, Dorine W. Swinkels, Debbie Trinder

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study explored the relationship between serum ferritin and hepcidin in athletes. Baseline serum ferritin levels of 54 athletes from the control trial of five investigations conducted in our laboratory were considered; athletes were grouped according to values 100 mg/L (SF>100). Data pooling resulted in each athlete completing one of five running sessions: (1) 8x3 min at 85% vVO2peak; (2) 5x4 min at 90% vVO2peak; (3) 90 min continuous at 75% vVO2peak; (4) 40 min continuous at 75% vVO 2peak; (5) 40 min continuous at 65% vVO2peak. Athletes from each running session were represented amongst all four groups; hence, …

Higher Breakfast Glycaemic Load Is Associated With Increased Metabolic Syndrome Risk, Including Lower Hdl-Cholesterol Concentrations And Increased Tag Concentrations, In Adolescent Girls, Analise Nicholl, Mary Du Heaume, Trevor A. Mori, Lawrence J. Beilin, Wendy H. Oddy, Alexandra P. Bremner, Therese A. O'Sullivan

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Almost all previous studies examining the associations between glycaemic load (GL) and metabolic syndrome risk have used a daily GL value. The daily value does not distinguish between peaks of GL intake over the day, which may be more closely associated with the risk of the metabolic syndrome. The aim of the present study was to investigate the cross-sectional associations between daily and mealtime measures of GL and metabolic syndrome risk, including metabolic syndrome components, in adolescents. Adolescents participating in the 14-year follow-up of the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study completed 3 d food records and metabolic assessments. Breakfast …

Extending The Indications Of Flow Diversion To Small, Unruptured, Saccular Aneurysms Of The Anterior Circulation., Nohra Chalouhi, Md, Robert M Starke, Steven Yang, Cory D Bovenzi, Stavropoula Tjoumakaris, David Hasan, L. Fernando Gonzalez, Robert H. Rosenwasswer Md, Pascal Jabbour Md

Department of Neurosurgery Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Flow diverters are currently indicated for treatment of large and complex intracranial aneurysms. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the indications of flow diversion can be safely extended to unruptured, small, saccular aneurysms (<10 >mm) of the anterior circulation.

METHODS: Forty patients treated with the pipeline embolization device (PED) were matched in a 1:4 fashion with 160 patients treated with stent-assisted coiling based on patient age, sex, aneurysm location, and aneurysm size. Procedural complications, angiographic results, and clinical outcomes were analyzed and compared.

RESULTS: The rate of periprocedural complications was 5% in the PED …

Birth Control: To What Extent Do Women Report Being Informed And Involved In Decisions About Pregnancy And Birth Procedures?, Rachel Thompson, Yvette D. Miller

Dartmouth Scholarship

Background: Health policy, guidelines, and standards advocate giving patients comprehensive information and facilitating their involvement in health-related decision-making. Routine assessment of patient reports of these processes is needed. Our objective was to examine decision-making processes, specifically information provision and consumer involvement in decision-making, for nine pregnancy, labour, and birth procedures, as reported by maternity care consumers in Queensland, Australia.

Methods: Participants were women who had a live birth in Queensland in a specified time period and were not found to have had a baby that died since birth, who completed the extended Having a Baby in Queensland Survey, 2010 about …

An Analysis Of Angelica Kauffman's Cornelia And Penelope Paintings As They Relate To Female Enlightenment Ideals, Brandi L. Batts

LSU Master's Theses

The neoclassical art movement exemplified the ideals formulated by German scholar and antiquarian Johan Winckelmann by portraying heroes who exhibited self-sacrifice, honor and duty to the state. Almost inevitably both painters and their subjects were male. However, at the same time female artists were depicting classical heroines in a similar fashion. Angelica Kauffman, a Swiss born artist, was able to combine Winckelmann’s thoughts with Enlightenment ideals of the eighteenth century regarding women. When examined in tandem, her numerous canvases which portray Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi and Penelope, Wife of Odysseus illustrate Enlightenment ideals. The character of Cornelia, exemplifies independence, …

Strong Relationship Between Oral Dose And Tenofovir Hair Levels In A Randomized Trial: Hair As A Potential Adherence Measure For Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (Prep)., Albert Y. Liu, Qiyun Yang, Yong Huang, Peter Bacchetti, Peter L. Anderson, Chengshi Jin, Kathy Goggin, Kristefer Stojanovski, Robert Grant, Susan P. Buchbinder, Ruth M. Greenblatt, Monica Gandhi

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

BACKGROUND: Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) trials using tenofovir-based regimens have demonstrated that high levels of adherence are required to evaluate efficacy; the incorporation of objective biomarkers of adherence in trial design has been essential to interpretation, given the inaccuracy of self-report. Antiretroviral measurements in scalp hair have been useful as a marker of long-term exposure in the HIV treatment setting, and hair samples are relatively easy and inexpensive to collect, transport, and store for analysis. To evaluate the relationship between dose and tenofovir concentrations in hair, we examined the dose proportionality of tenofovir in hair in healthy, HIV-uninfected adults.

METHODS: A …

Self-Regulating Smoking And Snacking Through Physical Activity., Hwajung Oh, Adrian H. Taylor

Peninsula Medical School

OBJECTIVE: Emotional snacking contributes to weight gain after smoking cessation. Exercise acutely reduces cravings for cigarettes and snack food. This study examined if different exercise intensities acutely reduces snack and cigarette cravings and attentional bias (AB) to video clips of snacks and cigarettes among abstinent smokers. METHODS: Abstinent smokers (and snackers; N = 23) randomly did 15 mins of moderate and vigorous cycling and a passive control in a cross-over design. Visual initial AB (IAB) and maintained AB (MAB) were assessed pre- and after treatment while watching paired snacking/neutral or smoking/neutral video clips. Desire to snack and smoke were assessed …

A Biological, Latent Variable Model Of Health (Earlybird 68)., Michael E. Hyland, Alison N. Jeffery, Terence J. Wilkin

School of Psychology

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether factor analysis of a set of health-related biomarkers provides evidence of an underlying common dimension of variation, and to explore the relationship between this dimension of variation with positive and negative affect. METHOD: Twelve health-related metabolic, immune and body-composition biomarkers at ages 5, 7, 9, 11, 14 and 16years were obtained from the EarlyBird longitudinal cohort of 347 children and supplemented by positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) measured at age 16years. RESULTS: At each age, principal factor analysis revealed that nine of the 12 biomarkers consistently loaded on the first extracted factor, accounting for …

Implicit Meaning In 18-Month-Old Toddlers., Luche C Delle, Samantha Durrant, Caroline Floccia, Kim Plunkett

School of Psychology

A substantial body of evidence demonstrates that infants understand the meaning of spoken words from as early as 6 months. Yet little is known about their ability to do so in the absence of any visual referent, which would offer diagnostic evidence for an adult-like, symbolic interpretation of words and their use in language mediated thought. We used the head-turn preference procedure to examine whether infants can generate implicit meanings from word forms alone as early as 18 months of age, and whether they are sensitive to meaningful relationships between words. In one condition, toddlers were presented with lists of …

Cultural Responses To Pain In Uk Children Of Primary School Age: A Mixed-Methods Study., Pary M. Azize, Ruth Endacott, Allegra Cattani, Ann Humphreys

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Pain-measurement tools are often criticized for not addressing the influence of culture and ethnicity on pain. This study examined how children who speak English as a primary or additional language discuss pain. Two methods were used in six focus group interviews with 34 children aged 4-7 years: (i) use of drawings from the Pediatric Pain Inventory to capture the language used by children to describe pain; and (ii) observation of the children's placing of pain drawings on red/amber/green paper to denote perceived severity of pain. The findings demonstrated that children with English as an additional language used less elaborate language …

Evaluating The Application Of Research-Based Guidance To The Design Of An Emergency Preparedness Leaflet., E. Hellier, J. Edworthy, L. Newbold, K. Titchener, M. Tucker, E. Gabe-Thomas

School of Psychology

UNLABELLED: Guidelines for the design of emergency communications were derived from primary research and interrogation of the literature. The guidelines were used to re-design a nuclear emergency preparedness leaflet routinely distributed to households in the local area. Pre-test measures of memory for, and self-reported understanding of, nuclear safety information were collected. The findings revealed high levels of non-receipt of the leaflet, and among those who did receive it, memory for safety advice was poor. Subjective evaluations of the trial leaflet suggested that it was preferred and judged easier to understand than the original. Objective measures of memory for the two …

English-Learning One- To Two-Year-Olds Do Not Show A Consonant Bias In Word Learning., Caroline Floccia, Thierry Nazzi, Luche C Delle, Silvana Poltrock, Jeremy Goslin

School of Psychology

Following the proposal that consonants are more involved than vowels in coding the lexicon (Nespor, Peña & Mehler, 2003), an early lexical consonant bias was found from age 1;2 in French but an equal sensitivity to consonants and vowels from 1;0 to 2;0 in English. As different tasks were used in French and English, we sought to clarify this ambiguity by using an interactive word-learning study similar to that used in French, with British-English-learning toddlers aged 1;4 and 1;11. Children were taught two CVC labels differing on either a consonant or vowel and tested on their pairing of a third …

Mediofrontal Event-Related Potentials In Response To Positive, Negative And Unsigned Prediction Errors., Thomas D. Sambrook, Jeremy Goslin

School of Psychology

Reinforcement learning models make use of reward prediction errors (RPEs), the difference between an expected and obtained reward. There is evidence that the brain computes RPEs, but an outstanding question is whether positive RPEs ("better than expected") and negative RPEs ("worse than expected") are represented in a single integrated system. An electrophysiological component, feedback related negativity, has been claimed to encode an RPE but its relative sensitivity to the utility of positive and negative RPEs remains unclear. This study explored the question by varying the utility of positive and negative RPEs in a design that controlled for other closely related …

Using Forced Choice To Test Belief Bias In Syllogistic Reasoning., Dries Trippas, Michael F. Verde, Simon J. Handley

School of Psychology

In deductive reasoning, believable conclusions are more likely to be accepted regardless of their validity. Although many theories argue that this belief bias reflects a change in the quality of reasoning, distinguishing qualitative changes from simple response biases can be difficult (Dube, Rotello, & Heit, 2010). We introduced a novel procedure that controls for response bias. In Experiments 1 and 2, the task required judging which of two simultaneously presented syllogisms was valid. Surprisingly, there was no evidence for belief bias with this forced choice procedure. In Experiment 3, the procedure was modified so that only one set of premises …

Joint Effect Of Multiple Common Snps Predicts Melanoma Susceptibility, Shenying Fang, Jiali Han, Mingfeng Zhang, Li-E Wang, Qingyi Wei, Christopher I. Amos, Jeffrey E. Lee

Dartmouth Scholarship

Single genetic variants discovered so far have been only weakly associated with melanoma. This study aims to use multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) jointly to obtain a larger genetic effect and to improve the predictive value of a conventional phenotypic model. We analyzed 11 SNPs that were associated with melanoma risk in previous studies and were genotyped in MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) and Harvard Medical School investigations. Participants with ≥15 risk alleles were 5-fold more likely to have melanoma compared to those carrying ≤6. Compared to a model using the most significant single variant rs12913832, the increase in predictive …