Efficacy of virtual reality-based intervention on balance and mobility disorders post-stroke: a scoping review.

Rehabilitation interventions involving virtual reality (VR) technology have been developed for the promotion of functional independence post stroke. A scoping review was performed to examine the efficacy of VR-based interventions on balance and mobility disorders post stroke. Twenty-four articles in the English language examining VR game-based interventions and outcomes directed at balance and mobility disorders were included.

Use of antiseptic hand rubs in the health and community services industry: an Australian population-based survey.

Background: The use of antiseptic hand rubs (AHRs), rather than washing with soap and water, is considered to be the gold standard for reducing the frequency of nosocomial infections, as well as being less damaging to the hands than washing with soap and water, but little is known at a population level about usage patterns for AHRs.

Objectives: To describe AHR use patterns among workers in the health and community services industry in Australia.

Methods: Using data from a population-based survey of Australian workers, we focused on health and community services workers' exposure to chemicals at work, including the use of AHRs.

Patients' perspective of barriers and facilitators to taking long-term controller medication for asthma: a novel taxonomy.

Background: Although asthma morbidity can be prevented through long-term controller medication, most patients with persistent asthma do not take their daily inhaled corticosteroid. The objective of this study was to gather patients' insights into barriers and facilitators to taking long-term daily inhaled corticosteroids as basis for future knowledge translation interventions.

Methods: We conducted a collective qualitative case study.

Impact of post-stroke unilateral spatial neglect on goal-directed arm movements: systematic literature review.

Background: Unilateral spatial neglect (USN), a highly prevalent post-stroke impairment, refers to one's inability to orient or respond to stimuli located in the contralesional visual hemispace. Unilateral spatial neglect has been shown to strongly affect motor performance in functional activities, including non-affected upper extremity (UE) movements. To date, our understanding of the effects of USN on goal-directed UE movements is limited and comparing performance of individuals post-stroke with and without USN is required.

Cortical mechanisms underlying sensorimotor enhancement promoted by walking with haptic inputs in a virtual environment.

Sensorimotor integration is a complex process in the central nervous system that produces task-specific motor output based on selective and rapid integration of sensory information from multiple sources. This chapter reviews briefly the role of haptic cues in postural control during tandem stance and locomotion, focusing on sensorimotor enhancement of locomotion post stroke. The use of mixed-reality systems incorporating both haptic cues and virtual reality technology in gait rehabilitation post stroke is discussed.

Bedside ultrasound training using web-based e-learning and simulation early in the curriculum of residents.

Background: Focused bedside ultrasound is rapidly becoming a standard of care to decrease the risks of complications related to invasive procedures. The purpose of this study was to assess whether adding to the curriculum of junior residents an educational intervention combining web-based e-learning and hands-on training would improve the residents' proficiency in different clinical applications of bedside ultrasound as compared to using the traditional apprenticeship teaching method alone.

Methods: Junior residents (n = 39) were provided with two educational interventions (vascular and pleural ultrasound).

Sickness absence and psychosocial job quality: an analysis from a longitudinal survey of working Australians, 2005-2012.

Sickness absence is associated with adverse health, organizational, and societal outcomes. Using data from a longitudinal cohort study of working Australians (the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey), we examined the relationship between changes in individuals' overall psychosocial job quality and variation in sickness absence. The outcome variables were paid sickness absence (yes/no) and number of days of paid sickness absence in the past year (2005-2012).

Dynamic clearance measure to evaluate locomotor and perceptuo-motor strategies used for obstacle circumvention in a virtual environment.

Circumvention around an obstacle entails a dynamic interaction with the obstacle to maintain a safe clearance. We used a novel mathematical interpolation method based on the modified Shepard's method of Inverse Distance Weighting to compute dynamic clearance that reflected this interaction as well as minimal clearance. This proof-of-principle study included seven young healthy, four post-stroke and four healthy age-matched individuals.

Fair relationships and policies to support family day care educators' mental health: a qualitative study.

Background: High quality child care is a population health investment that relies on the capacity of providers. The mental health and wellbeing of child care educators is fundamental to care quality and turnover, yet sector views on the relationship between working conditions and mental health and wellbeing are scarce. This paper examines child care educators' and sector key informants' perspectives on how working in family day care influences educator's mental health and wellbeing.

Virtual reality-based navigation task to reveal obstacle avoidance performance in individuals with visuospatial neglect.

Persons with post-stroke visuospatial neglect (VSN) often collide with moving obstacles while walking. It is not well understood whether the collisions occur as a result of attentional-perceptual deficits caused by VSN or due to post-stroke locomotor deficits. We assessed individuals with VSN on a seated, joystick-driven obstacle avoidance task, thus eliminating the influence of locomotion.

Intersections between disability, type of impairment, gender and socio-economic disadvantage in a nationally representative sample of 33,101 working-aged Australians.

Background: People with disabilities are socio-economically disadvantaged and have poorer health than people without disabilities; however, little is known about the way in which disadvantage is patterned by gender and type of impairment.

Objectives: 1. To describe whether socio-economic circumstances vary according to type of impairment (sensory and speech, intellectual, physical, psychological and acquired brain injury).

A piano training program to improve manual dexterity and upper extremity function in chronic stroke survivors.

Objective: Music-supported therapy was shown to induce improvements in motor skills in stroke survivors. Whether all stroke individuals respond similarly to the intervention and whether gains can be maintained over time remain unknown. We estimated the immediate and retention effects of a piano training program on upper extremity function in persons with chronic stroke.

Workplace stress: what is the role of positive mental health?

Objective: To examine whether positive mental health (PMH)-a positively focused well-being construct-moderates the job stress-distress relationship.

Methods: Longitudinal regression was used to test two waves of matched, population-level data from a sample of older, working Australian adults (n = 3291) to see whether PMH modified the relationship between work stress and later psychological distress.

Results: Time 1 work stress was positively associated with distress at both time points.

Employment status and mental health among persons with and without a disability: evidence from an Australian cohort study.

Background: Unemployment and economic inactivity are associated with worse mental health in the general population, but there is limited understanding of whether these relationships are different for those persons with mental or physical disabilities. The aim of this study was to assess whether there were differences in mental health by labour force status among persons with and without disabilities.

Method: Over eight annual waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, a total of 2379 people with disabilities and 11 417 people without disabilities were identified.

Perception of Self-Motion and Regulation of Walking Speed in Young-Old Adults.

Whether a reduced perception of self-motion contributes to poor walking speed adaptations in older adults is unknown. In this study, speed discrimination thresholds (perceptual task) and walking speed adaptations (walking task) were compared between young (19-27 years) and young-old individuals (63-74 years), and the relationship between the performance on the two tasks was examined. Participants were evaluated while viewing a virtual corridor in a helmet-mounted display.

Workplace mental health: developing an integrated intervention approach.

Background: Mental health problems are prevalent and costly in working populations. Workplace interventions to address common mental health problems have evolved relatively independently along three main threads or disciplinary traditions: medicine, public health, and psychology. In this Debate piece, we argue that these three threads need to be integrated to optimise the prevention of mental health problems in working populations.

Employment arrangements and mental health in a cohort of working Australians: are transitions from permanent to temporary employment associated with changes in mental health?

We investigated whether being in temporary employment, as compared with permanent employment, was associated with a difference in Short Form 36 mental health and whether transitions from permanent employment to temporary employment were associated with mental health changes. We used fixed-effects regression in a nationally representative Australian sample with 10 waves of data collection (2001-2010). Interactions by age and sex were tested.

The urinary protein-to-creatinine ratio in Canadian women at risk of preeclampsia: does the time of day of testing matter?

Objectives: To determine the performance of a protein-to-creatinine ratio threshold of 30 mg/mmol in pregnant women investigated for hypertension according to the time of day of the sample.

Methods: This prospective study included ambulatory pregnant women investigated for hypertensive disorders. A single voided random urine specimen was obtained to determine the protein-to-creatinine ratio, followed immediately by a 24-hour urine collection.

Perceptual and locomotor factors affect obstacle avoidance in persons with visuospatial neglect.

Background: For safe ambulation in the community, detection and avoidance of static and moving obstacles is necessary. Such abilities may be compromised by the presence of visuospatial neglect (VSN), especially when the obstacles are present in the neglected, i.e.

Iterative development of Stand Up Australia: a multi-component intervention to reduce workplace sitting.

Background: Sitting, particularly in prolonged, unbroken bouts, is widespread within the office workplace, yet few interventions have addressed this newly-identified health risk behaviour. This paper describes the iterative development process and resulting intervention procedures for the Stand Up Australia research program focusing on a multi-component workplace intervention to reduce sitting time.

Methods: The development of Stand Up Australia followed three phases.

Area-level unemployment and perceived job insecurity: evidence from a longitudinal survey conducted in the Australian working-age population.

Unlabelled: RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: Job insecurity, the subjective individual anticipation of involuntary job loss, negatively affects employees' health and their engagement. Although the relationship between job insecurity and health has been extensively studied, job insecurity as an 'exposure' has received far less attention, with little known about the upstream determinants of job insecurity in particular. This research sought to identify the relationship between self-rated job insecurity and area-level unemployment using a longitudinal, nationally representative study of Australian households.

Probing riboswitch binding sites with molecular docking, focused libraries, and in-line probing assays.

Molecular docking calculations combined with chemically focused libraries can bring insight in the exploration of the structure-activity relationships for a series of related compounds against an RNA target. Yet, the in silico engine must be fueled by experimental observations to drive the research into a more effective ligand-discovery path. Here we show how molecular docking predictions can be coupled with in-line probing assays to explore the available chemical and configurational space in a riboswitch binding pocket.

The effect of leaving employment on mental health: testing 'adaptation' versus 'sensitisation' in a cohort of working-age Australians.

Objectives: To investigate the 'adaptation' versus 'sensitisation' hypotheses in relation to mental health and labour market transitions out of employment to determine whether mental health stabilised (adaptation) or worsened (sensitisation) as people experienced one or more periods without work.

Methods: The Household Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia (HILDA) longitudinal survey was used to investigate the relationship between the number of times a person had been unemployed or had periods out of the labour force (ie, spells without work) and the Mental Component Summary (MCS) of the Short Form 36 (SF-36). Demographic, health and employment related confounders were included in a series of multilevel regression models.