Herbarium specimens as tools for exploring the evolution of fatty acid-derived natural products in plants.

Plants synthesize natural products via lineage-specific offshoots of their core metabolic pathways, including fatty acid synthesis. Recent studies have shed light on new fatty acid-derived natural products and their biosynthetic pathways in disparate plant species. Inspired by this progress, we set out to develop tools for exploring the evolution of fatty-acid derived products.

Detecting Hearing Loss Through Targeted Surveillance: Risk Registry and Surveillance Timeframe Recommendations.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to inform the revision of a targeted surveillance risk registry by identifying which risk factors predict postnatally identified hearing loss (PNIHL) in children who pass newborn hearing screening and to determine whether hearing surveillance beyond the age of 1 year is warranted.

Method: We used retrospective analysis of the audiological outcomes of children born in the state of Queensland, Australia, between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2019, who passed the newborn hearing screen with risk factors.

Results: Approximately one third of children were lost to follow-up and could not be included in the analysis.

Neonatal bacterial meningitis: hearing screening and audiological monitoring outcomes.

Objective: This study reviewed the outcomes of universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) and ongoing hearing monitoring in children following recovery from neonatal bacterial meningitis to determine (a) whether screening may be a suitable alternative to diagnostic audiology for detecting permanent childhood hearing loss (PCHL) and (b) whether infants who pass UNHS should be monitored throughout childhood.

Design: Retrospective analysis of a UNHS database.

Study Sample: Data were extracted from the state-wide UNHS database for all children born in Queensland Australia between 1 September 2004 and 30 June 2020 with the risk factor of bacterial meningitis (in isolation or in combination with other risk factors) identified at the time of the UNHS.

Cochlear nerve deficiency is an important cause of auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder at a population level in children.

Objectives: To determine the incidence, prevalence and describe risk factors and etiology for childhood Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder using population level data from a statewide universal newborn hearing program.

Methods: A retrospective statewide universal newborn hearing screening database review and descriptive analysis from 2012 to 2019 of demographic, risk factors and hearing loss etiology for babies with sensorineural hearing loss and ANSD was completed. A 2 stage aABR protocol was used and ANSD was classified when click evoked ABR were absent or grossly abnormal but otoacoustic emissions and or cochlear microphonics were present.

Childhood hearing loss detected beyond the newborn screen.

Objective: To understand the characteristics of postnatal hearing loss (PNHL) identified via different referral pathways, to inform childhood hearing screening and referral practices.

Design: Retrospective analysis of screening and audiology records.

Study Sample: A cohort of 385 children who passed newborn hearing screening in Queensland, Australia between September 2004 and December 2017 and were later diagnosed with permanent hearing loss.