A global survey addressing sustainability of pollen monitoring.

Background: Contemporary airborne pollen records underpin environmental health warnings, yet how pollen monitoring networks are sustained is poorly understood. This study investigated by whom and how pollen monitoring sites across the globe are managed and funded.

Methods: Coordinators listed in the Worldwide Map of Pollen Monitoring Stations were invited to complete a digital questionnaire designed to survey the people and organisations involved, types, and duration of funding sources, as well as uses, purpose, and sharing of pollen information.

A cancer personalised activity and lifestyle tool (CAN-PAL): A codesign study with patients and healthcare professionals.

Aims: To codesign a cancer personalised activity and lifestyle tool (CAN-PAL) based on an existing tool. To help cancer care workers support people affected by cancer to plan and integrate physical activity into lifestyles.

Design: Mixed-methods codesign study.

Nanofluidic point-of-care IgE test for subtropical grass pollen for rapid diagnosis of allergic rhinitis.

Background: Widening of subtropical climate zones globally and increasing grass-pollen exposure provide the impetus for developing a more precise and accessible diagnosis of allergy.

Objective: To evaluate the utility of recombinant allergen components of Panicoideae and Chloridoideae pollens for specific IgE testing in a rapid, point-of-care device.

Methods: Recombinant (r) Pas n 1 and Cyn d 1 were expressed, purified, and tested in the nanofluidic device for measuring serum specific IgE (spIgE) in a well-characterized Australian cohort.

A retrospective analysis of the patient journey for children with an unerupted maxillary central incisor.

Background: Maxillary central incisors (MCI) are the third most impacted teeth. Timely multidisciplinary management is indicated as unerupted incisors can cause functional- and appearance-related distress.

Aim: To assess the patient journey for children with unerupted MCI, including referral, clinical assessment, surgical management and follow-up treatment, and highlight areas for improvement, as well as identify factors impacting orthodontic treatment burden (OTB).

Airborne grass pollen and thunderstorms influence emergency department asthma presentations in a subtropical climate.

Background: Grass pollen is considered a major outdoor aeroallergen source worldwide. It is proposed as a mechanism for thunderstorm asthma that lightning during thunderstorms promotes electrical rupture of pollen grains that leads to allergic airway inflammation. However, most evidence of associations between grass pollen and asthma comes from temperate regions.

Immunoglobulin E-specific allergens against leaf in serum of dogs with clinical features of grass leaf allergy.

Background: Grass leaf has been suspected of causing immunoglobulin (Ig)E-mediated immediate hypersensitivity reactions in humans and dogs. However, most studies in this area are case-control studies without in vitro data showing the involvement of IgE in the reaction. Laboratory studies have demonstrated the reactivity to a 50-55 kDa protein with clinical signs immediately after contact with grass leaf material.

EAACI Molecular Allergology User's Guide 2.0.

Since the discovery of immunoglobulin E (IgE) as a mediator of allergic diseases in 1967, our knowledge about the immunological mechanisms of IgE-mediated allergies has remarkably increased. In addition to understanding the immune response and clinical symptoms, allergy diagnosis and management depend strongly on the precise identification of the elicitors of the IgE-mediated allergic reaction. In the past four decades, innovations in bioscience and technology have facilitated the identification and production of well-defined, highly pure molecules for component-resolved diagnosis (CRD), allowing a personalized diagnosis and management of the allergic disease for individual patients.

Impact of a health services innovation university program in a major public hospital and health service: a mixed methods evaluation.

Background: While health services and their clinicians might seek to be innovative, finite budgets, increased demands on health services, and ineffective implementation strategies create challenges to sustaining innovation. These challenges can be addressed by building staff capacity to design cost-effective, evidence-based innovations, and selecting appropriate implementation strategies. A bespoke university award qualification and associated program of activities was developed to build the capacity of staff at Australia's largest health service to implement and evaluate evidence-based practice (EBP): a Graduate Certificate in Health Science majoring in Health Services Innovation.

Medium-Term Increases in Ambient Grass Pollen Between 1994-1999 and 2016-2020 in a Subtropical Climate Zone.

Grass pollen is the major outdoor trigger of allergic respiratory diseases. Climate change is influencing pollen seasonality in Northern Hemisphere temperate regions, but many aspects of the effects on grass pollen remain unclear. Carbon dioxide and temperature rises could increase the distribution of subtropical grasses, however, medium term shifts in grass pollen in subtropical climates have not yet been analysed.

Timothy Grass Pollen Induces Spatial Reorganisation of F-Actin and Loss of Junctional Integrity in Respiratory Cells.

Grass pollens have been identified as mediators of respiratory distress, capable of exacerbating respiratory diseases including epidemic thunderstorm asthma (ETSA). It is hypothesised that during thunderstorms, grass pollen grains swell to absorb atmospheric water, rupture, and release internal protein content to the atmosphere. The inhalation of atmospheric grass pollen proteins results in deadly ETSA events.

Thunderstorm asthma in seasonal allergic rhinitis: The TAISAR study.

Background: Asthma epidemics associated with thunderstorms have had catastrophic effects on individuals and emergency services. Seasonal allergic rhinitis (SAR) is present in the vast majority of people who develop thunderstorm asthma (TA), but there is little evidence regarding risk factors for TA among the SAR population.

Objective: We sought to identify risk factors for a history of TA and hospital presentation in a cohort of individuals with SAR.

Community Response to the Impact of Thunderstorm Asthma Using Smart Technology.

Background: The most severe thunderstorm asthma (TA) event occurred in Melbourne on the 21st November 2016 and during this period, daily pollen information was available and accessible on smart devices via an App. An integrated survey within the App allows users to self-report symptoms.

Objective: To explore patterns of symptom survey results during the period when the TA event occurred.

Characteristics of emergency patients admitted to hospital with asthma: A population-based cohort study in Queensland, Australia.

Objective: Patient characteristics with exacerbation of asthma accessing care in the ED who are at risk of hospital admission have not been determined in subtropical climates. The objective of the study was to investigate the spatiotemporal burden of asthma hospital admissions across Queensland (QLD) and model risk factors for asthma hospital admission following an ED visit.

Methods: Six years of routinely collected data (2012-2017) from 28 QLD public hospitals were extracted from Queensland Health's Emergency Data Collection.

Periodontal status in children with primary immunodeficiencies.

Objective: This study aimed to assess associations between neutrophil-related primary immunodeficiencies (PIDs) and the presence of periodontal disease and other oral diseases and response to periodontal treatment.

Background: Presence of neutrophil-related PIDs is thought to be a major risk factor for development of periodontitis.

Methods: This study had both a cross-sectional and cohort design.

What are the health and socioeconomic impacts of allergic respiratory disease in Tasmania?

Objective The aim of this study was to quantify the direct and indirect costs of asthma and allergic rhinitis (AR) for 2018 in Tasmania. Methods We used publicly available data, and Tasmanian-specific values where available, to estimate direct and indirect costs of both diseases. Direct costs included outcomes such as emergency department (ED) presentations, hospitalisations, general practice visits and medication use.

A student and staff collaborative audit exploring the food and drinks available from a dental teaching hospital outlet.

Introduction NHS England's Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) standard 1b sets targets for food and drinks high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) that should be sold in hospitals.Aims To assess the products that were available in a dental hospital food outlet and to explore the cost and placement of HFSS products.Design and setting A prospective audit of the food outlet in a dental hospital in London, UK carried out by staff and students in May 2018 benchmarked against CQUIN 1b.

Grass Gazers: Using citizen science as a tool to facilitate practical and online science learning for secondary school students during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted educational systems worldwide during 2020, including primary and secondary schooling. To enable students of a local secondary school in Brisbane, Queensland, to continue with their practical agricultural science learning and facilitate online learning, a "Grass Gazers" citizen science scoping project was designed and rapidly implemented as a collaboration between the school and a multidisciplinary university research group focused on pollen allergy. Here, we reflect on the process of developing and implementing this project from the perspective of the school and the university.

Spatiotemporal characteristics of asthma emergency department presentations in diverse geographical and climatic regions, Queensland, Australia.

Objective: Sudden acute episodes of asthma exacerbation are often treated by hospital EDs. It is hypothesised that determinants of acute asthma would differ across geographic regions. The objective of the present study was to detail seasonality, trends and spatiotemporal patterns of asthma ED presentations across Queensland (QLD), Australia, a state covering 1.

Global Climate Change and Pollen Aeroallergens: A Southern Hemisphere Perspective.

Climatic change will have an impact on production and release of pollen, with consequences for the duration and magnitude of aeroallergen seasonal exposure and allergic diseases. Evaluations of pollen aerobiology in the southern hemisphere have been limited by resourcing and the density of monitoring sites. This review emphasizes inconsistencies in pollen monitoring methods and metrics used globally.

Thunderstorm asthma: an overview of mechanisms and management strategies.

Introduction: Epidemic thunderstorm asthma (ETSA) is due to a complex interaction of environmental and individual susceptibility factors, with outbreaks reported globally over the last four decades. Australia has been particularly susceptible with nearly half of episodes reported internationally, culminating in the catastrophic Melbourne 2016 event.

Areas Covered: Reported ETSA episodes are reviewed for common environmental and meteorological risk factors.