Interaction Between the Matrix Protein and the Polymerase Complex of Respiratory Syncytial Virus.

The global burden of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and severe associated disease is prodigious. RSV-specific vaccines have been launched recently but there is no antiviral medicine commercially available. RSV polymerase (L) protein is one of the promising antiviral targets, along with fusion and nucleocapsid proteins.

Reliability and validity of rapid assessment tools for measuring 24-hour movement behaviours in children aged 0-5 years: the Movement Behaviour Questionnaire Baby (MBQ-B) and child (MBQ-C).

Background: The development of validated "fit-for-purpose" rapid assessment tools to measure 24-hour movement behaviours in children aged 0-5 years is a research priority. This study evaluated the test-retest reliability and concurrent validity of the open-ended and closed-ended versions of the Movement Behaviour Questionnaire for baby (MBQ-B) and child (MBQ-C).

Methods: 300 parent-child dyads completed the 10-day study protocol (MBQ-B: N = 85; MBQ-C: N = 215).

A great way to bring up health behaviour topics at playgroup: a qualitative evaluation of the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program.

Background: The early years is a critical stage to establish optimal nutrition and movement behaviours. Community playgroups are a relaxed environment for parents with a focus on social connection and supporting parents in their role as 'First Teachers'. Playgroups are therefore an opportunistic setting to promote health behaviours in the early years.

Optimal trade-off control in machine learning-based library design, with application to adeno-associated virus (AAV) for gene therapy.

Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) hold tremendous promise as delivery vectors for gene therapies. AAVs have been successfully engineered-for instance, for more efficient and/or cell-specific delivery to numerous tissues-by creating large, diverse starting libraries and selecting for desired properties. However, these starting libraries often contain a high proportion of variants unable to assemble or package their genomes, a prerequisite for any gene delivery goal.

Goal-directed therapeutic exercise for paediatric posterior fossa brain tumour survivors: a qualitative analysis of experiences.

Purpose: To explore child and parent experiences of a 12-week goal-directed therapeutic exercise intervention in paediatric posterior fossa brain tumours survivors and to identify features of the program that influenced program adherence and acceptability.

Methods: Eleven interviews were conducted; five parent-child dyads (mothers = 83%) and one parent only (mean child age = 10.6 ± 3.

Participate CP 2: optimising participation in physically active leisure for children with cerebral palsy - protocol for a phase III randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: Children with cerebral palsy (CP) participate less in physical activities and have increased sedentary behaviour compared with typically developing peers. Participate CP is a participation-focused therapy intervention for children with CP with demonstrated efficacy in a phase II randomised controlled trial (RCT) to increase perceived performance of physical activity participation goals. This study will test the effectiveness of Participate CP in a multisite phase III RCT.

Cognitive Testing of Items Measuring Movement Behaviours in Young Children Aged Zero to Five Years: Development of the Movement Behaviour Questionnaires for -Baby (MBQ-B) and -Child (MBQ-C).

This paper describes the cognitive interview phase of the development of two brief surveys, the Movement Behaviour Questionnaire-Baby (MBQ-B) and Movement Behaviour Questionnaire-Child (MBQ-C), which measure the duration of physical activity, screen time, and sleep of children aged 0-5 years. The aims were (1) review the format, content, and clarity of questionnaire items and response options, (2) understand how parents retrieve, encode, and formulate responses when asked about their child's movement behaviours, and (3) identify potential sources of response error and make appropriate modifications. Interviews with parents of children aged 0-5 years were conducted using concurrent think-aloud techniques and probing questions.

Altered bone and body composition in children and adolescents with confirmed prenatal alcohol exposure.

Prenatal alcohol exposure can contribute to long term adverse health outcomes. Development of the skeletal system begins at the early embryonic stage and continues into early adulthood but the effect of prenatal alcohol exposure on skeletal growth is relatively unexplored in a clinical population. Here, we performed dual X-ray absorptiometry to examine bone, fat, and muscle accrual in children and adolescents diagnosed with, or at risk of, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs).

Seropositivity to Campylobacter and association with abortion and lamb mortality in maiden ewes from Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria.

This case-control study investigated associations between Campylobacter fetus or Campylobacter jejuni titre and reproductive outcomes in 22 flocks of Merino and non-Merino maiden ewes aged 1-2 years old. Campylobacter titres were also determined for multiparous ewes aged 3 years or older on the same farms. C.

Evaluation of Wrist Accelerometer Cut-Points for Classifying Physical Activity Intensity in Youth.

Background: Wrist worn accelerometers are convenient to wear and provide greater compliance. However, methods to transform the resultant output into predictions of physical activity (PA) intensity have been slow to evolve, with most investigators continuing the practice of applying intensity-based thresholds or cut-points. The current study evaluated the classification accuracy of seven sets of previously published youth-specific cut-points for wrist worn ActiGraph accelerometer data.

Bronchiectasis - Exercise as Therapy (BREATH): rationale and study protocol for a multi-center randomized controlled trial.

Background: Globally, bronchiectasis (BE) unrelated to cystic fibrosis (CF) is recognized as a major cause of respiratory morbidity, mortality, and healthcare utilization. Children with BE regularly experience exacerbations of their condition resulting in frequent hospitalizations and decreased health-related quality of life (HR-QoL). Guidelines for the treatment and management of BE call for regular exercise as a means of improving aerobic fitness and HR-QoL.

Toxoplasma gondii is not an important contributor to poor reproductive performance of primiparous ewes from southern Australia: a prospective cohort study.

Background: Toxoplasma gondii causes reproductive losses in sheep worldwide, including Australia. The reproductive performance of primiparous ewes is typically lower than for mature, multiparous ewes, and younger ewes are more likely to be immunologically naïve and therefore more susceptible to reproductive disease if T. gondii infection occurs during pregnancy.

Abortion and Lamb Mortality between Pregnancy Scanning and Lamb Marking for Maiden Ewes in Southern Australia.

The contribution of abortions to the overall mortality of lambs born to maiden (primiparous) ewes in Australia remains unclear. This cohort study aimed to quantify abortion and lamb mortality for ewe lambs and maiden Merino two-tooth ewes. Lamb mortality from pregnancy scanning to marking were determined for 19 ewe lamb and 11 Merino two-tooth ewe flocks across southern Australia.

On the sparsity of fitness functions and implications for learning.

Fitness functions map biological sequences to a scalar property of interest. Accurate estimation of these functions yields biological insight and sets the foundation for model-based sequence design. However, the fitness datasets available to learn these functions are typically small relative to the large combinatorial space of sequences; characterizing how much data are needed for accurate estimation remains an open problem.

Seropositivity to Coxiella burnetii in primiparous and multiparous ewes from southern Australia: A cross-sectional study.

The role of infectious diseases including coxiellosis in causing poorer reproductive performance of primiparous ewes are not well studied. The aims of this study were to determine if natural exposure to Coxiella burnetii is widespread in breeding ewes and whether seropositivity is associated with poor reproductive performance of primiparous ewes. Seropositivity to Coxiella burnetii was 0.

Neospora caninum is not an important contributor to poor reproductive performance of primiparous ewes from southern Australia: evidence from a cross-sectional study.

Neospora caninum has been implicated as a sporadic cause of abortion and perinatal deaths in sheep flocks globally. However, its significance as a reproductive pathogen for sheep in Australia remains unknown. The aims of this study were to (i) determine the seroprevalence of N.

Epistatic Net allows the sparse spectral regularization of deep neural networks for inferring fitness functions.

Despite recent advances in high-throughput combinatorial mutagenesis assays, the number of labeled sequences available to predict molecular functions has remained small for the vastness of the sequence space combined with the ruggedness of many fitness functions. While deep neural networks (DNNs) can capture high-order epistatic interactions among the mutational sites, they tend to overfit to the small number of labeled sequences available for training. Here, we developed Epistatic Net (EN), a method for spectral regularization of DNNs that exploits evidence that epistatic interactions in many fitness functions are sparse.

Unique chemistry associated with diversification in a tightly coupled cycad-thrips obligate pollination mutualism.

Cycad cone thermogenesis and its associated volatiles are intimately involved in mediating the behavior of their obligate specialist pollinators. In eastern Australia, thrips in the Cycadothrips chadwicki species complex are the sole pollinators of many Macrozamia cycads. Further, they feed and reproduce entirely in the pollen cones.

Physical ACTivity in Survivorship (PACTS): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial evaluating a goal-directed therapeutic exercise program in pediatric posterior fossa brain tumor survivors.

Background: Posterior fossa brain tumors (PFBT) are the most common solid tumor in children. Recent increases in survival rates are encouraging; however, survivors may experience a plethora of disease- and treatment-related complications that can persist into adulthood. Therapeutic exercise interventions have been shown to improve quality of survivorship in other pediatric cancer diagnoses.

Effectiveness of a novel digital application to promote fundamental movement skills in 3- to 6-year-old children: A randomized controlled trial.

Fundamental movement skills (FMS) are the foundational building blocks for lifetime participation in physical activity (PA). Programmes to promote FMS development have been primarily delivered in childcare settings. No studies have evaluated the effectiveness of an interactive digital application, designed to be co-used by parent and child, to increase FMS proficiency in preschool-aged children.

Multiple invasions of a generalist herbivore-Secondary contact between two divergent lineages of Linnaeus in Australia.

The presence of distinct evolutionary lineages within herbivorous pest insect taxa requires close attention. Scientific understanding, biosecurity planning and practice, and pest management decision-making each suffer when such situations remain poorly understood. The pest bug Linnaeus has been recorded from numerous host plants and has two globally distributed mitochondrial (mtDNA) lineages.

Global consensus on nutritional rickets: Implications for Australia.

In 2016, a global consensus on the prevention, diagnosis and management of nutritional rickets was published. The bone and mineral working group of the Australasian Paediatric Endocrine Group provides a summary and highlights differences to previous Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) guidelines on vitamin D deficiency and their implications for clinicians. Key points are: (i) The International Consensus document is focused on nutritional rickets, whereas the ANZ guidelines were focused on vitamin D deficiency.

Ready Exerciser One: Effects of music and virtual reality on cycle ergometer exercise.

Objectives: Physical inactivity remains a major global health concern, and researchers have been encouraged to explore the role of technology in the promotion of physical activity. Technologies that deliver audio-visual stimuli are frequently applied in the exercise domain. However, there is a paucity of research that examines the efficacy of modern virtual reality (VR) technology in this context.

Does spending more time on electronic screen devices determine the weight outcomes in obese and normal weight Saudi Arabian children?

Objectives: To gather data and investigate if ownership and duration of using electronic devices determines the weight status in an urban Saudi school-aged child. Methods: A multicenter, cross-sectional study conducted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between December 2015 and March 2016. A total of 1023 child were randomly selected, aged 9.

The recognition concept and genetic approaches to interpreting species.

1. Introduction. 2.