Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Building Research Capacity: An Exploratory Model Of Gps’ Training Needs And Barriers To Research Involvement, Alison Jones, Teresa A. Burgess, Elizabeth Farmer, Jeffrey Fuller, Nigel P. Stocks, Judy E. Taylor, Raechel L. Waters

Graduate School of Medicine - Papers (Archive)

Aims: To determine general practitioners’ research training needs, and the barriers to involvement in research.

Method: Semi-structured interviews with 11 GPs in rural and metropolitan South Australia, analysed using a grounded theory approach.

Results: General practitioners’ perceptions about their research needs were limited by their own experience and focussed at an individual level. Overlapping needs and barriers emerged, categorised as: ‘individual issues’ (a lack of research training or experience, concepts and attitudes to research, and research interest) and ‘systems issues’ (funding arrangements for general practice, access to resources, opportunity for publication and the role of The Royal Australian College of …

A Case Study Of Sodium Reduction In Breakfast Cereals And The Impact Of The Pick The Tick Food Information Program In Australia, P. G. Williams, A. Mcmahon, R. Boustead

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In 1997 one of Australia’s largest food companies undertook a program of salt reduction in 12 breakfast cereals. The National Heart Foundation’s Pick the Tick program criterion (<400mg>sodium/100g) was used as a target value where possible. Twelve products were reformulated, with reductions ranging from 85-469mg sodium per 100g and an average reduction of 40% (12-88%). As a result, 235 tonnes of salt were removed annually from the Australian food supply and five more products were able to carry the Tick logo. The impact of the Pick the Tick program in changing the food supply extends beyond those products that …

Trend To Better Nutrition On Australian Hospital Menus 1986-2001 And The Impact Of Cook-Chill Food Service Systems, A. Mcclelland, P. G. Williams

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Objective To assess trends in the nutritional quality of hospital menus and examine differences between menus used in hospitals with cook-chill or cook-fresh food services.

Design Standard patient menus were analysed against 28 criteria to assess nutritional standards and compared to results from similar studies in 1986 and 1993.

Setting Menus were collected from 80 hospitals in New South Wales, Australia, including 36 using cook-chill food service systems.

Statistical Analysis Chi-squared analysis was used to assess differences between the proportions of hospitals meeting the criteria in 2001 and 1993 and between different types of hospitals.

Results In 2001 compared to …

Evaluation Of A Tool For Rating Popular Diet Books, L. Williams, P. G. Williams

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Objective The aim of this study was to develop a questionnaire for use by nutrition professionals to enable evaluation of popular diet books.

Design A questionnaire was developed incorporating quantified criteria based on current authoritative nutrition guidelines. Twenty two questions were included, relating to nutritional adequacy, daily energy allowance, recommended rate of weight loss, flexibility and sustainability, physical activity advice, use of supplements, claims, author’s credentials, and scientific evidence. The questionnaire was used to rate 35 diets in 20 popular diet books sold in Australia in 2001, in order to test its practicality, validity and sensitivity. A computerised dietary analysis …

Nutrition And Related Claims Used On Packaged Australian Foods - Implications For Regulation, P. G. Williams, H. Yeatman, S. Zakrzewski, B. Aboozaid, S. Henshaw, K. Ingram, A. Rankine, S. Walcott, F. Ghani

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The aim of this study was to describe the use of nutrition and related claims on packaged food for sale in Australia and measure the compliance of such claims with regulations governing their use. A survey was conducted of the labelling of 6662 products in 40 different food categories on sale in New South Wales in 2001. Levels of compliance were assessed by comparing the claims on the label and data in the nutrition information panel with requirements of the Foods Standards Code and the Code of Practice on Nutrient Claims. Half of the products (51.3%) carried some type of …

Sexism Is In The Eye Of The Beholder: Does The Advertising Standards Board Reflect "Community Standards"?, Sandra C. Jones

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This study examines the Advertising Standards Board’s response to complaints lodged against advertisements between 1999 and 2001 under sub-section 2.3 of the AANA Code (portrayal of sex/sexuality/nudity). Between 1999 and 2001, the ASB considered 419 complaints lodged by members of the general public under this subsection of the Code, of which only three were upheld. The decisions reported in the ASB’s Case Reports for these three years are examined by assessing three advertisements from each of these years (including the only one in each year against which a complaint was upheld). Inconsistencies in the application of this sub-section of the …

Are Current Social Marketing Campaigns Getting Through To Undergraduate University Students?, Sandra C. Jones

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In this study, we conduct a survey of health behaviours among undergraduate university students. The health behaviours include weight control, exercise, smoking, alcohol consumption, use of illicit drugs, and safe-sex practices. By comparing the results with national survey results, we test the hypothesis that university students – who have completed high school, with better than average grades – are more likely to exhibit healthy behaviours and avoid unhealthy or unsafe behaviours than the general population. Detailed information on the health behaviours of university students is not currently available (see Australia’s Health 2000, in which there are no reports of health …

Consumer Confusion: Parents Nutritional Perceptions Of Food Advertisements, Christina Hoang, Sandra C. Jones, Jennifer Thornton

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Due to the increasing prevalence of childhood obesity in society, this study was undertaken to determine if advertisers could potentially be misleading parents through the nutritional claims made in advertisements for popular children’s food products. Research was conducted to determine the sorts of nutritional messages parents received from four food advertisements. In total, 41 parents from an Australian university childcare centre participated in the study. The results revealed several major discrepancies whereby parents’ perceived unhealthy products to be healthy – indicating a degree of consumer confusion among parents.

Believability And Effectiveness Of Young Adult Safe-Drinking Messages, N. Breen, Sandra C. Jones

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This study investigates eight safe-drinking messages, using appeals to the ‘self’ versus appeals about ‘others’, in combination with either a low or high physical threat, or a low or high social threat. The participants were18-25 year old second-year university marketing students. An experimental design was used for data collection, which involved 196 participants, with the groups comprised of participants with homogenous demographic characteristics and drinking behaviour. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the believability and effectiveness of the messages. It was determined that messages about ‘others’ were perceived as more believable and effective than the corresponding appeals used …

Cooking Attenuates The Ability Of High-Amylose Meals To Reduce Plasma Insulin Concentrations In Rats, Marc A. Brown, Leonard H. Storlien, Ian L. Brown, J Higgins

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Recognising Facial Expression From Spatially And Temporally Modified Movements, Frank E. Pollick, Harold C. Hill, Andrew Calder, Helena Paterson

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

We examined how the recognition of facial emotion was influenced by manipulation of both spatial and temporal properties of 3-D point-light displays of facial motion. We started with the measurement of 3-D position of multiple locations on the face during posed expressions of anger, happiness, sadness, and surprise, and then manipulated the spatial and temporal properties of the measurements to obtain new versions of the movements. In two experiments, we examined recognition of these original and modified facial expressions: in experiment 1, we manipulated the spatial properties of the facial movement, and in experiment 2 we manipulated the temporal properties. …

Linking The Structure And Perception Of 3-D Faces: Gender, Ethnicity And Expressive Posture, Guillaume Vignali, Harold C. Hill, Eric Vatikiotis-Bateson

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

A statistical study of human face shape is reported whose overall goal was to identify and characterise salient components of facial structure for human perception and communicative behaviour. A large database of 3-D faces has been constructed and analysed for differences in ethnicity, sex, and posture. For each of more than 300 faces varying in race/ethnicity (Japanese versus Caucasian) and sex, nine postures (smiling, producing vowels, etc) were recorded. Principal components analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) were used to reduce the dimensionality of the data and to provide simple, yet reliable reconstruction of any face from components corresponding …

The Influence Of Red Meat Intake Upon The Response To A Resistance Exercise-Training Program In Older Australians, Peter L. Mclennan, Linda C. Tapsell, Alice Owen, Irene Gutteridge

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Topographic Plasticity In Primary Visual Cortex Is Mediated By Local Corticocortical Connections, Mike B. Calford, Layne L. Wright, Andrew B. Metha, Vivian Taglianetti

Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute

The placement of monocular laser lesions in the adult cat retina produces a lesion projection zone (LPZ) in primary visual cortex (V1) in which the majority of neurons have a normally located receptive field (RF) for stimulation of the intact eye and an ectopically located RF ( displaced to intact retina at the edge of the lesion) for stimulation of the lesioned eye. Animals that had such lesions for 14 - 85 d were studied under halothane and nitrous oxide anesthesia with conventional neurophysiological recording techniques and stimulation of moving light bars. Previous work suggested that a candidate source of …

Case Report: Severe Mercuric Sulphate Poisoning Treated With 2,3-Dimercatopropane-1-Sulphonate And Haemodiafiltration, Paul I. Dargan, Lucy J. Giles, Craig I. Wallace, Ivan House, Alison H. Thomson, Richard J. Beale, Alison L. Jones

Graduate School of Medicine - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Aqua(Pyridine-Kn)(N-Salicylidenetyrosinaot-K3 O,N,O')Copper (Ii), Ray J. Butcher, Garry Mockler, Owen Mckern

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

The tridentate Schiff base ligand derived from the conden­s­ation of salicyl­aldehyde and dl-tyrosine, in the presence of pyridine, forms a square-pyramidal five-coordinate Cu complex, [Cu(C₁₆H₁₃NO₄)(C₅H₅N)(H₂O)], with a water mol­ecule occupying the apical site.

Catena-Poly[[(Pyridine-Kn)Copper(Ii)]U-N-Salicylideneglycinato-K40,N,0':0'], Ray J. Butcher, Garry Mockler, Owen Mckern

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

The tridentate Schiff base ligand derived from the condensation of salicyl­aldehyde and glycine, in the presence of pyridine, forms the title polymeric square-pyramidal five-coordinate copper complex, [Cu(C₅H₅N)(C₉H₇NO₃)(C₅H₅N)], in which the copper centers are linked via the carboxyl O atoms of neighboring groups occupying the apical site.

Poisoned Patients As Potential Organ Donors: Postal Survey Of Transplant Centres And Intensive Care Units, David Michael Wood, Paul Ivor Dargan, Alison L. Jones

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

Background The number of patients awaiting allograft transplantation in the UK exceeds the number of organs offered for transplantation each year. Most organ donors tend to be young, fit and healthy individuals who die because of trauma or sudden cardiac arrest. Patients who die from drug and poison intoxication tend to have similar characteristics but are less frequently offered as potential organ donors. Methods A postal questionnaire survey of all transplantation centres and an equal number of intensive care units in the UK was undertaken. The use of kidney, heart, lung, liver and pancreas transplants from poisoned patients following deliberate …

Disturbance-Mediated Competition And The Spread Of Phragmites Australis In A Coastal Marsh, Todd Minchinton, Mark D. Bertness

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

In recent decades the grass Phragmites australis has been aggressively invading coastal, tidal marshes of North America, and in many areas it is now considered a nuisance species. While P. australis has historically been restricted to the relatively benign upper border of brackish and salt marshes, it has been expanding seaward into more physiologically stressful regions. Here we test a leading hypothesis that the spread of P. australis is due to anthropogenic modification of coastal marshes. We did a field experiment along natural borders between stands of P. australis and the other dominant grasses and rushes (i.e., matrix vegetation) in …

Mid-Late Holocene El Nino Variability In The Equatorial Pacific From Coral Microatolls, Colin Woodroffe, Matthew R. Beech, Michael K. Gagan

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

Oxygen isotope ratios in Porites microatolls from Christmas Island in the central Pacific provide high-resolution proxy records of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability since 3.8 thousand years ago (ka). Compared with modern microatolls, reconstructions from fossil microatolls imply that interannual variations in ENSO sea-surface temperature and precipitation were less intense 3.8–2.8 ka, but more pronounced at 1.7 ka. Amplification of ENSO at ∼2 ka is consistent with precessional changes in insolation seasonality, but exceeds model predictions and may reflect stronger rainfall teleconnections through enhanced interaction between the Southern Oscillation and the Pacific Intertropical Convergence Zone.

Bovine Non-O157 Shiga Toxin 2-Containing Escherichia Coli Isolates Commonly Possess Stx2-Edl933 And/Or Stx2vhb Subtypes, Kim Brett, Michael A Hornitzky, Karl A Bettelheim, Mark J. Walker, Steven Djordjevic

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

stx₂ genes from 138 Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) isolates, of which 127 were of bovine origin (58 serotypes) and 11 of human origin (one serotype; O113:H21), were subtyped. The bovine STEC isolates from Australian cattle carried ehxA and/or eaeA and predominantly possessed stx_2-EDL933 (103 of 127; 81.1%) either in combination with stx_2vhb (32 of 127; 25.2%) or on its own (52 of 127; 40.4%). Of 22 (90.9%) bovine isolates of serotype O113:H21, a serotype increasingly recovered from patients with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) or hemorrhagic colitis, 20 contained both stx_2-EDL933 and stx_2vhb; 2 …

Intercomparison Of Ndsc Ground-Based Solar Ftir Measurements Of Atmospheric Gases At Lauder, New Zealand, D W. T Griffith, Nicholas Jones, B Mcnamara, Clare Paton-Walsh, W. R. Bell, Cirilo Bernado

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

A formal intercomparison of atmospheric total column measurements of N₂O, N₂, CH₄, O₃, HCl, HNO₃, and HF by two ground-based solar Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometers conducted as part of the Network for the Detection of Stratospheric Change (NDSC) instrument certification procedure at Lauder, New Zealand, is presented. The two instruments were nominally very similar, collocated, and collected data at the same times. Collected spectra were analyzed independently by the individual operators in a blind-phase intercomparison, then reanalyzed by a single operator using identical analysis methods to eliminate any potential …

Dehydration And Partial Melting In Subduction Zones: Constraints From U-Series Disequilibria, Bernard Bourdon, Simon Turner, Anthony Dosseto

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

We present a critical reappraisal of U-series data from arc volcanoes to constrain slab dehydration and melting processes using a global subduction zone data set. There is no clear evidence for significant mobilization of Th or Pa in dehydration fluids while the source region of arc rocks is relatively oxidized and mobility of U is strongly enhanced. It is argued that along-arc U/Th and U/Pa isotope data reflect time-integrated addition of U from the slab to the mantle wedge. The presence of large Ra-Th disequilibrium correlated with Ba/Th ratios provides evidence for some very recent fluid addition and fast magma …

The Chronostratigraphy Of A Holocene Barrier Estuary: Lake Illawarra Nsw, Craig R. Sloss, Brian G. Jones, Colin V. Murray-Wallace, Charles Mcclennan

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

Valley-fill sequences, preserved in topographic lows associated with incised valley systems, potentially preserve a record of Holocene sea level fluctuations. A detailed litho- and biostratigraphy of the Holocene barrier estuary, Lake Illawarra, New South Wales has been constructed. Forty kilometres of seismic surveys, forty-one vibracores, supplemented by auger drill holes and trenches, and faunal analysis provides the data for this investigation. A detailed chronology of the infilling of the barrier estuary has been established using 115 aspartic acid derived ages and six radiocarbon ages. The results provide a detailed chronology for the deposition of marine transgressive deposits, barrier growth, and …

Revised Age For Mojokerto 1, An Early Homo Erectus Cranium From East Java, Indonesia, Michael Morwood, P O'Sullivan, E E. Susanto, F Aziz

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

Dates of around 1.8 Ma have been claimed for a hominin cranial vault excavated near Mojokerto City in East Java, Indonesia. Such an early date for presumed Homo erectus in East Asia would require a major revision of the general model for timing of initial hominin dispersal 'Out of Africa'. Instead, our field study and redating of two pumice horizons at the site indicate that the age of the Mojokerto cranial vault is less than 1.49 Ma. Furthermore, we argue that a basic understanding of site and regional depositional processes is fundamental for assessing the significance of any radiometric date.

Allosteric Α1-Adrenoreceptor Antagonism By The Conopeptide Ρ-Tia, Iain A. Sharpe, Linda Thomas, Marion L. Loughnan, Leonid Motin, Elka Palant, Daniel E. Croker, Dianne Alewood, Songhai Chen, Robert M. Graham, Paul F. Alewood, David J. Adams, Richard J. Lewis

Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute

A peptide contained in the venom of the predatory marine snail Conus tulipa, ρ-TIA, has previously been shown to possess α 1,-adrenoreceptor antagonist activity. Here, we further characterize its pharmacological activity as well as its structure-activity relationships. In the isolated rat vas deferens, ρ-TIA inhibited α1, -adrenoreceptor-mediated increases in cytosolic Ca2+ concentration that were triggered by norepinephrine, but did not affect presynaptic α2-adrenoreceptor-mediated responses. In radioligand binding assays using [125I]HEAT, ρ-TIA displayed slightly greater potency at the α1B, than at the α1A or α1D, subtypes. Moreover, although it did not affect the rate of association for [3H]prazosin binding to the …

Report On The Consumpton Of Vegetables And Fruit In Nsw, Victoria M. Flood, Debra Hector, Liz Story

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Increasing vegetable and fruit consumption in the New South Wales population is a key public health priority. There is little dispute that high vegetable and fruit consumption confers significant health benefits. Epidemiological evidence indicates that increasing intakes of vegetables and fruit decreases the risk of major chronic diseases including cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, diverticulitis, cataracts, macular degeneration, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. For optimal health benefits, the importance of consuming a variety of vegetables and fruit is stressed. It is also important that there appears to be a dose-response relationship between vegetable and fruit consumption and …

Comparing Solid Body With Point-Light Animations, Harold C. Hill, Yuri Jinno, Alan Johnston

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The movement of faces provides useful information for a variety of tasks and is now an active area of research. We compare here two ways of presenting face motion in experiments: as solid-body animations and as point-light displays. In the first experiment solid-body and point-light animations, based on the same motion-captured marker data, produced similar levels of performance on a sex-judgment task. The trend was for an advantage for the point-light displays, probably in part because of residual spatial cues available in such stimuli. In the second experiment we compared spatially normalised point-light displays of marker data with solid-body animations …

Α-Conotoxins Pnia And [A10l]Pnia Stabilize Different States Of The Α7-L247t Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor, Ron C. Hogg, Gene Hopping, Paul F. Alewood, David J. Adams, Daniel Bertrand

Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute

The effects of the native α-conotoxin PnIA, its synthetic derivative [A10L]PnIA and alanine scan derivatives of [A10L]PnIA were investigated on chick wild type α7 and α7-L247T mutant nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) expressed in Xenopus oocytes. PnIA and [A10L]PnIA inhibited acetylcholine (ACh)-activated currents at wtα7 receptors with IC50 values of 349 and 168 nM, respectively. Rates of onset of inhibition were similar for PnIA and [A10L]PnIA; however, the rate of recovery was slower for [A10L]PnIA, indicating that the increased potency of [A10L]PnIA at α7 receptors is conveyed by its slower rate of dissociation from the receptors. All the alanine mutants of …

Isolation, Structure, And Activity Of Gid, A Novel Α4/7-Conotoxin With An Extended N-Terminal Sequence, Annette Nicke, Marion L. Loughnan, Emma L. Millard, Paul F. Alewood, David J. Adams, Norelle L. Daly, David J. Craik, Richard J. Lewis

Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute

Using assay-directed fractionation of Conus geographus crude venom, we isolated α-conotoxin GID, which acts selectively at neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). Unlike other neuronally selective α-conotoxins, α-GID has a four amino acid N-terminal tail, γ-carboxyglutamate (Gla), and hydroxyproline (O) residues, and lacks an amidated C terminus. GID inhibits α7 and α3β2 nAChRs with IC50 values of 5 and 3 nM, respectively and is at least 1000-fold less potent at the α1β1γδ, α3β4, and α4β4 combinations. GID also potently inhibits the α4β2 subtype (IC50 of 150 nM). Deletion of the N-terminal sequence (GIDΔ1-4) significantly decreased activity at the α4β2 nAChR but …