Publications by authors named "Jessica Stevenson"

The range of the mosquito Aedes aegypti continues to expand, putting more than two billion people at risk of arboviral infection. The sterile insect technique (SIT) has been used to successfully combat agricultural pests at large scale, but not mosquitoes, mainly because of challenges with consistent production and distribution of high-quality male mosquitoes. We describe automated processes to rear and release millions of competitive, sterile male Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes, and use of these males in a large-scale suppression trial in Fresno County, California.

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One of the most disabling, yet neglected, symptom of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is alteration in taste. The purpose of this review is to examine the extent and content of research around this symptom in CKD with the goals of (1) identifying gaps in current research knowledge and (2) guiding future research. The review summarizes the basic anatomy and physiology of taste followed by analysis of the epidemiology, pathophysiology, and management strategies for taste changes in patients with CKD.

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Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with high morbidity and death, which increases as CKD progresses to end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). There has been increasing interest in developing innovative, effective and cost-efficient methods to engage with patient populations and improve health behaviours and outcomes. Worldwide there has been a tremendous increase in the use of technologies, with increasing interest in using eHealth interventions to improve patient access to relevant health information, enhance the quality of healthcare and encourage the adoption of healthy behaviours.

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Introduction: Managing nutrition is critical for reducing morbidity and mortality in patients on haemodialysis but adherence to the complex dietary restrictions remains problematic. Innovative interventions to enhance the delivery of nutritional care are needed. The aim of this phase II trial is to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a targeted mobile phone text messaging system to improve dietary and lifestyle behaviours in patients on long-term haemodialysis.

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Objectives: Diet and fluid management can reduce mortality, serious comorbidities, and debilitating symptoms in patients on hemodialysis, but restrictions may also be a major burden, and nonadherence remains high. We aimed to describe the perspectives and experiences of patients on hemodialysis regarding their dietary management to understand both facilitators and barriers to adherence and to identify strategies to improve care.

Design And Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 people on maintenance hemodialysis from six dialysis units in New South Wales, Australia.

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Objective: To describe the perspectives of healthcare providers on the nutritional management of patients on haemodialysis, which may inform strategies for improving patient-centred nutritional care.

Design: Face-to-face semistructured interviews were conducted until data saturation, and thematic analysis based on principles of grounded theory.

Setting: 21 haemodialysis centres across Australia.

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Background: Recent interest in male-based sterile insect technique (SIT) and incompatible insect technique (IIT) to control Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus populations has revealed the need for an economical, rapid diagnostic tool for determining dispersion and mating success of sterilized males in the wild. Previous reports from other insects indicated rhodamine B, a thiol-reactive fluorescent dye, administered via sugar-feeding can be used to stain the body tissue and seminal fluid of insects. Here, we report on the adaptation of this technique for male Ae.

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Renal Supportive Care is an alternative treatment pathway in advanced chronic kidney disease that is being increasingly adopted, particularly in the elderly. Renal Supportive Care uses principles of palliative care and has been developed to enhance the care for dialysis patients with a high symptom burden and those being managed on a non-dialysis pathway. Nutrition management is often an under-recognized component of care and can play an important role in improving patients' quality of life to reduce symptom burden, support physical function and independence and provide appropriate counselling to patients and their families to ensure the goals of Renal Supportive Care are met.

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Background: Control of the world's most important vector-borne viral disease, dengue, is a high priority. A lack of vaccines or effective vector control methods means that novel solutions to disease control are essential. The release of male insects carrying a dominant lethal (RIDL) is one such approach that could be employed to control Aedes aegypti.

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An efficient rapid protein expression system is crucial to support early drug development. Transient gene expression is an effective route, and to facilitate the use of the same host cells as for subsequent stable cell line development, we have created a high-yielding Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) transient expression system. Suspension-adapted CHO-K1 host cells were engineered to express the gene encoding Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigen-1 (EBNA-1) with and without the coexpression of the gene for glutamine synthetase (GS).

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