Publications by authors named "Elizabeth Stubbs"

Eye contact is among the most primary means of social communication used by humans. Quantification of eye contact is valuable as a part of the analysis of social roles and communication skills, and for clinical screening. Estimating a subject's looking direction is a challenging task, but eye contact can be effectively captured by a wearable point-of-view camera which provides a unique viewpoint.

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Children with autism have atypical gaze behavior but it is unknown whether gaze differs during distinct types of reciprocal interactions. Typically developing children (N = 20) and children with autism (N = 20) (4-13 years) made similar amounts of eye contact with an examiner during a conversation. Surprisingly, there was minimal eye contact during interactive play in both groups.

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Nasopharyngeal carriage studies are needed to monitor changes in important bacterial pathogens in response to vaccination and antibiotics. Commercial swab transport followed by transfer to skim milk tryptone glucose glycerol broth for frozen storage is an option for studies of Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae and Moraxella catarrhalis.

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Background: Chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) affects many children in disadvantaged populations. The most appropriate topical antibiotic treatment in children with persistent disease is unclear.

Methods: Children with CSOM despite standard topical treatment were randomized to 6-8 weeks of topical ciprofloxacin (CIP) versus topical framycetin-gramicidin-dexamethasone (FGD).

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The nasopharynx (NP) is the preferred site for detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae in young children, but NP sampling is not well tolerated. We compared nose blowing with paired nasal swabs. The sensitivity of nose blowing was 46% (95% confidence interval [CI] 38 to 56%), which increased to 94% (95% CI, 85 to 98%) for children with visible secretions.

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Background: It is unclear why some children with acute otitis media (AOM) have poor outcomes. Our aim was to describe the clinical course of AOM and the associated bacterial nasopharyngeal colonisation in a high-risk population of Australian Aboriginal children.

Methods: We examined Aboriginal children younger than eight years who had a clinical diagnosis of AOM.

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Background: Australian Indigenous children living in remote areas have rates of tympanic membrane perforation as high as 60%, almost 100 times the prevalence in urban child care settings (<1%). Relative rates of pneumococcal nasal carriage do not reflect this difference in disease risk.

Methods: Cross-sectional comparison of nasal carriage and hand contamination in children younger than 4 years of age from urban child-care centers and Indigenous children 3-7 years of age from a remote community.

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