Publications by authors named "L F Melville"

Parental strategies for home management of pain crisis in children with sickle cell anemia are not well studied. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs) are thought of as the mainstay of home and in-patient pain management for pediatric patients with sickle cell disease. Parents and providers often fear the use of opioids due to the risk of addiction.

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Article Synopsis
  • Ross River virus (RRV) and Barmah Forest virus (BFV) are related viruses found in Australia and Papua New Guinea, showing evidence of convergent evolution in their genetic development.
  • Analysis of multiple genomes revealed that specific mutations in key proteins are important for their replication and interaction with host cells, indicating similarities in how both viruses adapt to their environments.
  • Although some mutations appear to have benefited their evolution, the overall selection pressures suggest that RRV and BFV have undergone purifying selection, maintaining stable functions during their replication in different hosts like mosquitoes and vertebrates.
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Parasites are known for their ability to rapidly adapt to changing conditions. For parasitic helminths, changes in climate, along with farming and management practices associated with the intensification of livestock farming, provide novel challenges which can impact on their epidemiology and control. The sustainability of livestock production partially relies on effective control of helminth infection.

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Haemonchus contortus is a parasitic nematode of small ruminants responsible for significant economic losses and animal health concerns globally. Detection of gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) infection in veterinary practice typically relies on microscopy-based methods such as the faecal egg count and morphological identification of larval culture. However, mixed co-infections are common and species-specific identification is typically time-consuming and expertise-intensive.

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