Biodiversity impacts of the 2019-2020 Australian megafires.

With large wildfires becoming more frequent, we must rapidly learn how megafires impact biodiversity to prioritize mitigation and improve policy. A key challenge is to discover how interactions among fire-regime components, drought and land tenure shape wildfire impacts. The globally unprecedented 2019-2020 Australian megafires burnt more than 10 million hectares, prompting major investment in biodiversity monitoring.

Caring for yourself while you care for someone else: a qualitative study exploring the mental and cardiovascular health behaviours of female carers of stroke survivors.

Purpose: Female carers of stroke survivors may experience increased risk of developing chronic health issues, such as cardiovascular disease. This study aims to understand: (i) how female carers of stroke survivors manage their mental and cardiovascular health and (ii) the characteristics they would find helpful in an intervention to support their ability to manage their health and wellbeing.

Materials And Methods: A qualitative descriptive design was used with data collected semi-structured interviews and analysed using inductive thematic analysis.

Non-pharmacological interventions to improve mental health outcomes among female carers of people living with a neurological condition: a systematic review.

Purpose: This systematic review aims to examine the effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions for improving mental health outcomes among female carers of people living with a neurological condition.

Materials And Methods: A narrative synthesis of English-language randomized controlled trials was undertaken.

Results: 18 unique studies were included.

Joe's Story: How a Capitated Payment Model Lets Me Be the Physician I Want to Be.

For many years I cared for Joe, following him through diagnoses of strokes, end-stage renal disease, and metastatic prostate cancer. Gaining his trust, coordinating his care across specialist visits and hospitalizations, and helping him and his family clarify goals of care took an investment of time and relationship-building. I was able to spend this time with Joe, and all of my medically complex patients, because I had taken a job in a Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), a fully capitated model of care.

Preferences for risks and benefits of treatment outcomes for chronic low back pain: Choice-based conjoint measure development and discrete choice experiment.

Introduction: Understanding individual patient preferences for chronic low back pain (cLBP) outcomes is essential for targeting available therapeutic options; yet tools to elicit patient outcome preferences are limited.

Objective: To develop and test a choice-based conjoint (CBC) measure, commonly used in behavioral economics research, to elicit what outcomes patients with cLBP want to achieve and avoid.

Design: We developed a survey-based CBC measure to allow patients to make risk/benefit trade-off choices between possible treatment outcomes.

Genetic assessment of the value of restoration planting within an endangered eucalypt woodland.

Assessment of woodland restoration often focusses on stand demographics, but genetic factors likely influence long-term stand viability. We examined the genetic composition of Yellow Box (Eucalyptus melliodora) trees in endangered Box-Gum Grassy Woodland in SE Australia, some 30 years after planting with seeds of reportedly local provenance. Using DArT sequencing for 1406 SNPs, we compared genetic diversity and population structure of planted E.

CAPER: patient preferences to inform nonsurgical treatment of chronic low back pain: a discrete-choice experiment.

Objective: We developed and used a discrete-choice measure to study patient preferences with regard to the risks and benefits of nonsurgical treatments when they are making treatment selections for chronic low back pain.

Methods: "CAPER TREATMENT" (Leslie Wilson) was developed with standard choice-based conjoint procedures (discrete-choice methodology that mimics an individual's decision-making process). After expert input and pilot testing, our final measure had 7 attributes (chance of pain relief, duration of relief, physical activity changes, treatment method, treatment type, treatment time burden, and risks of treatment) with 3-4 levels each.

SMART Drumlines Ineffective in Catching White Sharks in the High Energy Capes Region of Western Australia: Acoustic Detections Confirm That Sharks Are Not Always Amenable to Capture.

The management of human-shark interactions can benefit from the implementation of effective shark hazard mitigation measures. A Shark-Management-Alert-in-Real-Time (SMART) drumline trial in the Capes region of Western Australia was instigated after several serious incidents involving surfers and white sharks (). The project aimed to determine whether white sharks (target species), which were relocated after capture, remained offshore using satellite and acoustic tagging.

Long Non-Coding RNAs: The New Frontier into Understanding the Etiology of Alcohol Use Disorder.

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a complex, chronic, debilitating condition impacting millions worldwide. Genetic, environmental, and epigenetic factors are known to contribute to the development of AUD. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a class of regulatory RNAs, commonly referred to as the "dark matter" of the genome, with little to no protein-coding potential.

Coroner county systems are associated with a higher likelihood of unclassified drug overdoses compared to medical examiner county systems.

There is a striking geographic variation in drug overdose deaths without a specific drug recorded, many of which likely involve opioids. Knowledge of the reasons underlying this variation is limited. We sought to understand the role of medicolegal death investigation (MDI) systems in unclassified drug overdose mortality.

Initial insights on the impact of COVID-19 on boat-based recreational fishing in Western Australia.

The COVID-19 global pandemic and subsequent implementation of measures to reduce contact within the community have affected fisheries worldwide, yet few studies have reported the impacts on recreational fisheries. This study investigates boat-based recreational fishing in Western Australia from March to August 2020, where COVID-19 measures relevant to recreational fishers included various travel restrictions, and social and physical distancing measures. Information from surveys of licensed recreational fishers and fisheries compliance officers, and camera footage from key boat ramps is presented.

Understanding how psychosocial factors relate to seeking medical care among older adults using a new model of care seeking.

Rationale: Research has identified psychosocial factors related to the use of health services among the older population; however, the specific roles by which these factors drive behavior have not been identified and empirically tested.

Objective: This study tested whether previously identified psychosocial factors decrease or increase the motivational potential to seek care, the motivational sensitivity to perceived access, or the motivational sensitivity to perceived need.

Methods: The 2014 U.

Fatal opioid overdoses in the U.S. declined more than reported between 2017 and 2018.

: In U.S. death records, many drug overdoses do not have classified drug involvement, which challenges surveillance of opioid overdoses across time and space.

Large variations in eutrophication among estuaries reflect massive differences in composition and biomass of macroalgal drift.

The characteristics of detached macroalgae (drift) in nearby highly eutrophic and mesotrophic estuaries in south-western Australia are compared to elucidate the magnitude and types of changes that occur in macroalgal drift when estuaries receive excessive nutrient input. Drift characteristics in the large basins of the microtidal, eutrophic Peel-Harvey and mesotrophic Swan-Canning, which is not subjected to large nutrient inputs directly from agricultural land, differed markedly. Biomass (dry weight) in mesotrophic estuary was dominated by rhodophytes (92%), particularly Laurencia and Hypnea, and in eutrophic estuary by opportunistic chlorophytes (68%), especially Chaetomorpha and Ulva.

Genetic variation within a species of parasitic nematode, , in skunks.

Carnivores in the families Mustelidae and Mephitidae are essential hosts for the cranial roundworm genus . A high prevalence of has been observed in the striped skunk, . Genetic barcoding studies of other nematodes have successfully used the cytochrome oxidase I (COI) mitochondrial gene to analyze genetic variation and divergence.

Acute myocardial infarction associated with unconventional natural gas development: A natural experiment.

Background: Whereas it is plausible that unconventional natural gas development (UNGD) may adversely affect cardiovascular health, little is currently known. We investigate whether UNGD is associated with acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

Methods: In this observational study leveraging the natural experiment generated by New York's ban on hydraulic fracturing, we analyzed the relationship between age- and sex-specific county-level AMI hospitalization and mortality rates and three UNGD drilling measures.

Smokeless tobacco policy in Bangladesh: A stakeholder study of compatibility with the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Introduction: Smokeless tobacco (ST) is the predominant form of tobacco used in Bangladesh and is associated with adverse health outcomes. Bangladesh ratified the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2004. There are concerns that FCTC legislation and implementation of ST control policy is insufficient in Bangladesh.

An online survey of informal caregivers' unmet needs and associated factors.

Purpose/objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the frequency of unmet needs of carers among a convenience sample of carers, and the participant factors associated with unmet needs, to inform the development of interventions that will support a range of caregivers. The aims of this study were to: (1) assess the most frequently reported moderate-high unmet needs of caregivers; and (2) examine the age, gender, condition of the care recipient, and country variables associated with types of unmet needs reported by informal caregivers.

Research Method/design: An online cross-sectional survey among informal caregivers in English-speaking countries was conducted.

Natural gas development, flaring practices and paediatric asthma hospitalizations in Texas.

Background: Recent advancements in drilling technology led to a rapid increase in natural gas development (NGD). Air pollution may be elevated in these areas and may vary by drilling type (conventional and unconventional), production volume and gas flaring. Impacts of NGD on paediatric asthma are largely unknown.

The long-term unmet needs of informal carers of stroke survivors at home: a systematic review of qualitative and quantitative studies.

Aim: To synthesise research describing the long-term unmet needs of carers who are providing care to a stroke survivor at home who is at least 3 months post-discharge.

Methods: A systematic review with a narrative synthesis of the English-language qualitative and quantitative studies identified from MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, EMBASE, AMED, and Scopus was undertaken.

Results: Five quantitative studies, seven qualitative studies, and one mixed-method study were included in the review.

Interrater Reliability of Muscle Ultrasonography Image Acquisition by Physical Therapists in Patients Who Have or Who Survived Critical Illness.

Objective: Previous studies have demonstrated that muscle ultrasound (US) can be reliably performed at the patient bedside by novice assessors with minimal training. The primary objective of this study was to determine the interrater reliability of muscle US image acquisition by physical therapists and physical therapist students. Secondarily, this study was designed to elucidate the process for training physical therapists to perform peripheral skeletal muscle US.