Prevalence of childhood lead poisoning and respiratory disease associated with lead smelter emissions.

Background: The city of Port Pirie in South Australia has been a world leading centre for lead and zinc smelting and processing since 1889 that continues to cause contamination of its environment and resident population. This study quantifies the effect of lead and SO emissions from Nyrstar Port Pirie Pty Ltd's smelter on blood lead and respiratory health outcomes, respectively, and establishes what air quality values are required to better protect human health.

Method: Blood lead and emergency department presentation data collected by South Australia Health (SA Health) and lead in air and SO data collected by the South Australian Environment Protection Authority (SAEPA) were obtained and analysed to quantify health outcomes due to smelter emissions in Port Pirie.

Ambient soil cation exchange capacity inversely associates with infectious and parasitic disease risk in regional Australia.

Human contact with soil may be important for building and maintaining normal healthy immune defence mechanisms, however this idea remains untested at the population-level. In this continent-wide, cross-sectional study we examine the possible public health benefit of ambient exposures to soil of high cation exchange capacity (CEC), a surrogate for potential immunomodulatory soil microbial diversity. We compare distributions of normalized mean 2011/12-2012/13 age-standardized public hospital admission rates (cumulative incidence) for infectious and parasitic diseases across regional Australia (representing an average of 29,516 patients/year in 228 local government areas), within tertiles of socioeconomic status and soil exposure.

Landscape biodiversity correlates with respiratory health in Australia.

Megatrends of urbanisation and reducing contact with natural environments may pose a largely unappreciated risk to human health, particularly in children, through declining normal (healthy) immunomodulatory environmental exposures. On the other hand, building knowledge of connections between environments, biodiversity and human health may offer new integrated ways of addressing global challenges of rising population health costs and declining biodiversity. In this study we are motivated to build insight and provide context and priority for emerging research into potential protective (e.

Frequency of counterstrain tender points in osteopathic medical students.

Context: Counterstrain is 1 osteopathic manipulative treatment technique taught to osteopathic medical students, but teaching all 300 counterstrain tender points is not feasible at most colleges of osteopathic medicine (COMs) because of time limitations.

Objective: To identify high-yield tender points in osteopathic medical students for teaching and to assess for correlations between tender points and demographic information, weight, and history of pain or trauma.

Methods: First- and second-year osteopathic medical students at 5 COMs were surveyed regarding the presence and absence of tender points found on themselves by fellow students.

Unraveling the mechanism of protein disaggregation through a ClpB-DnaK interaction.

HSP-100 protein machines, such as ClpB, play an essential role in reactivating protein aggregates that can otherwise be lethal to cells. Although the players involved are known, including the DnaK/DnaJ/GrpE chaperone system in bacteria, details of the molecular interactions are not well understood. Using methyl-transverse relaxation-optimized nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, we present an atomic-resolution model for the ClpB-DnaK complex, which we verified by mutagenesis and functional assays.

Impact of cost of medicines for chronic conditions on low income households in Australia.

Objectives: To determine the cost of medicines for selected chronic illnesses and the proportion of discretionary income this would potentially displace for households with different pharmaceutical subsidy entitlements and incomes.

Methods: We analysed household income and expenditure data for 9,774 households participating in two Australian surveys in 2009-10. The amount of 'discretionary' income available to households after basic living and health care expenditure was modelled for households with high pharmaceutical subsidies: pensioner and non-pensioner concessional (social security entitlements); and households with general pharmaceutical subsidies and low, middle or high incomes.

From the city to the bush: increases in patient co-payments for medicines have impacted on medicine use across Australia.

Aim: To determine whether the national declines in prescription medicine use occurring after the 2005 21% increase in co-payments affected all areas of Australia or were specific to remote and disadvantaged areas.

Methods: Observed dispensing of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and statins were obtained for 1392 statistical local areas (SLA) of Australia in 2004 and 2006. Expected dispensing was based on national dispensing rates and was age standardised to each SLA.

A new perspective on Hsp104-mediated propagation and curing of the yeast prion [PSI (+) ].

Most prions in yeast form amyloid fibrils that must be severed by the protein disaggregase Hsp104 to be propagated and transmitted efficiently to newly formed buds. Only one yeast prion, [PSI (+) ], is cured by Hsp104 overexpression. We investigated the interaction between Hsp104 and Sup35, the priongenic protein in yeast that forms the [PSI (+) ] prion.

Insight into molecular basis of curing of [PSI+] prion by overexpression of 104-kDa heat shock protein (Hsp104).

Yeast prions are a powerful model for understanding the dynamics of protein aggregation associated with a number of human neurodegenerative disorders. The AAA+ protein disaggregase Hsp104 can sever the amyloid fibrils produced by yeast prions. This action results in the propagation of "seeds" that are transmitted to daughter cells during budding.

How much do we spend on prescription medicines? Out-of-pocket costs for patients in Australia and other OECD countries.

Objectives: To determine changes in out-of-pocket expenditure on prescription medicines for Australian patients, and how patient expenditure compares with other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

Methods: We examined out-of-pocket expenditure on prescription medicines by patients in Australia between 1970 and 2007, and between Australia and 15 other OECD countries (Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Republic of Korea (South Korea), Luxembourg, Poland, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States) in 2005.

Findings: Spending on publicly subsidised medicines by Australian patients increased from $16 per person in 1971 to $62 in 2007.

At last, a national health measurement survey program for Australia!

Objective assessment of the health of the population is the key to policy and planning.

Determinants of self-reported medicine underuse due to cost: a comparison of seven countries.

Objectives: To compare the predictors of self-reported medicine underuse due to cost across countries with different pharmaceutical subsidy systems and co-payments.

Methods: We analysed data from a 2007 survey of adults in Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand (NZ), the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US). The predictors of underuse were calculated separately for each country using multivariate poisson regression.

The geographic distribution of private health insurance in Australia in 2001.

Background: Private health insurance has been a major focus of Commonwealth Government health policy for the last decade. Over this period, the Howard government introduced a number of policy changes which impacted on the take up of private health insurance. The most expensive of these was the introduction of the private health insurance rebate in 1997, which had an estimated cost of $3 billion per annum.

Increased patient co-payments and changes in PBS-subsidised prescription medicines dispensed in Western Australia.

Objective: To determine whether a 24% increase in patient co-payments in January 2005 and two related co-payment changes for medicines subsidised under the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) were associated with changes in dispensings in Western Australia (WA).

Method: We analysed aggregate monthly prescription counts and defined daily dose per 1,000 population per day (DDD/1,000/day) for atypical antipsychotics, combination asthma medicines, HmgCoA reductase inhibitors (statins) and proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs). Trends pre and post the co-payment increase in January 2005 were compared.

A multistage system for the automated detection of epileptic seizures in neonatal electroencephalography.

This paper describes the design and test results of a three-stage automated system for neonatal EEG seizure detection. Stage I of the system is the initial detection stage and identifies overlapping 5-second segments of suspected seizure activity in each EEG channel. In stage II, the detected segments from stage I are spatiotemporally clustered to produce multichannel candidate seizures.

Remodeling of protein aggregates by Hsp104.

Hsp104 is molecular chaperone in the AAA+ family of ATPases that specializes in the resolubilization and refolding of thermally denatured proteins in yeast. In addition to providing high levels of thermotolerance, Hsp104 plays a pivotal role in the propagation of yeast prions, self-replicating, amyloid-like aggregates that are inherited during mitosis and meiosis. In this review, the structure and function of Hsp104 is discussed, its functional interaction with other molecular chaperones, and a model for disaggregation and refolding is proposed.

The SmpB-tmRNA tagging system plays important roles in Streptomyces coelicolor growth and development.

The ssrA gene encodes tmRNA that, together with a specialized tmRNA-binding protein, SmpB, forms part of a ribonucleoprotein complex, provides a template for the resumption of translation elongation, subsequent termination and recycling of stalled ribosomes. In addition, the mRNA-like domain of tmRNA encodes a peptide that tags polypeptides derived from stalled ribosomes for degradation. Streptomyces are unique bacteria that undergo a developmental cycle culminating at sporulation that is at least partly controlled at the level of translation elongation by the abundance of a rare tRNA that decodes UUA codons found in a relatively small number of open reading frames prompting us to examine the role of tmRNA in S.

The impact of co-payment increases on dispensings of government-subsidised medicines in Australia.

Purpose: Patient co-payments for medicines subsidised under the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) increased by 24% in January 2005. We investigated whether this increase and two related co-payment changes were associated with changes in dispensings of selected subsidised medicines in Australia.

Method: We analysed national aggregate monthly prescription dispensings for 17 medicine categories, selected to represent a range of treatments (e.

Peptide and protein binding in the axial channel of Hsp104. Insights into the mechanism of protein unfolding.

The AAA+ molecular chaperone Hsp104 mediates the extraction of proteins from aggregates by unfolding and threading them through its axial channel in an ATP-driven process. An Hsp104-binding peptide selected from solid phase arrays enhanced the refolding of a firefly luciferase-peptide fusion protein. Analysis of peptide binding using tryptophan fluorescence revealed two distinct binding sites, one in each AAA+ module of Hsp104.

The C-terminal extension of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Hsp104 plays a role in oligomer assembly.

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae protein Hsp104, a member of the Hsp100/Clp AAA+ family of ATPases, and its orthologues in plants (Hsp101) and bacteria (ClpB) function to disaggregate and refold thermally denatured proteins following heat shock and play important roles in thermotolerance. The primary sequences of fungal Hsp104's contain a largely acidic C-terminal extension not present in bacterial ClpB's. In this work, deletion mutants were used to determine the role this extension plays in Hsp104 structure and function.

Nucleocytoplasmic trafficking of the molecular chaperone Hsp104 in unstressed and heat-shocked cells.

Hsp104 is a molecular chaperone in yeast that restores solubility and activity to inactivated proteins after severe heat shock. We investigated the mechanisms that influence Hsp104 subcellular distribution in both unstressed and heat-shocked cells. In unstressed cells, Hsp104 and a green fluorescent protein-Hsp104 fusion protein were detected in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm.

Rule-enhanced Clustering in the Detection of Neonatal Seizures.

This paper describes a three-stage system for the detection of neonatal seizures. The first stage detects 5-s seizure segments using signal processing and pattern recognition techniques. In the second stage, the seizure segments overlapping with artifactual segments are marked for post-processing using rules.

Enhanced spatio-temporal clustering in the detection of neonatal seizures using context-based rules.

This work describes the clustering stage of a three-stage automated neonatal seizure detection system. This stage clusters spatio-temporally the short candidate seizure segments detected in prior stages, and then applies a variety of context-based rules to eliminate false detections and determine the final detected seizures. The work discusses important considerations in the implementation of rules and presents preliminary results.

Effects of age and ACL reconstruction on quadriceps gamma loop function.

Background And Purpose: Both aging and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction are associated with strength deficits, which can in turn influence performance of activities of daily living. Thus it is informative to understand mechanisms underlying strength deficits. Age-related declines in strength follow reductions in muscle fiber numbers and size, whereas strength deficits following ACL reconstruction may be caused by the loss of intraligamentous mechanoreceptors.