Publications by authors named "Macfarlane S"

Background: There are no approved oral disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess efficacy and safety of blarcamesine (ANAVEX®2-73), an orally available small-molecule activator of the sigma-1 receptor (SIGMAR1) in early AD through restoration of cellular homeostasis including autophagy enhancement.

Design: ANAVEX2-73-AD-004 was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 48-week Phase IIb/III trial.

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  • A team of over 180 researchers from more than 40 countries is addressing the issues related to "phantom agents," which are proposed pathogenic agents that are listed without concrete evidence of their existence.
  • These phantom agents, identified only through symptoms and lacking proper isolates or genetic data, create obstacles for trade and plant certification, making effective detection and risk assessment difficult.
  • The researchers recommend removing these agents from regulatory lists and updating standards in line with modern diagnostic methods to facilitate germplasm exchange and support global agriculture.
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Metastasis driven by cancer cell migration is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths. It involves significant changes in the organization of the cytoskeleton, which includes the actin microfilaments and the vimentin intermediate filaments. Understanding how these filament change cells from normal to invasive offers insights that can be used to improve cancer diagnosis and therapy.

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  • The study aimed to create a consensus list of the top 10 signs and symptoms of adverse drug events (ADEs) for residents in long-term care facilities using certain medications.
  • Conducted via a 3-round Delphi approach, healthcare professionals from 13 countries evaluated various signs and symptoms, prioritizing those that impact quality of life and can be easily monitored.
  • After three rounds, the final list of prioritized signs and symptoms included issues like recent falls, daytime drowsiness, abnormal movements, confusion, and dizziness.
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The evolution of digitally based pedagogies, such as extended reality (XR) - a group of simulated learning environments that include virtual simulation, virtual reality, and augmented reality - has prompted optometry educators to seek evidence to guide the implementation of these teaching and learning activities within their curricula. Looking more broadly across the medical and allied health fields, there is a wealth of evidence to guide the incorporation of XR, as it is increasingly being integrated into the curricula of other select health professions disciplines. Educators from these disciplines continue to explore and embed XR in practice.

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Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionally impacted people experiencing homelessness, including people sleeping rough, people in temporary accommodation and those living in boarding houses. This paper reports on intersectoral responses across six health and social care agencies in Inner Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Prior to the pandemic the six agencies had established an , in recognition of the need for intersectoral collaboration to address the complex health needs of people experiencing homelessness.

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Background: Effective implementation of new curricula requires faculty to be knowledgeable about curriculum goals and have the appropriate pedagogical skills to implement the curriculum, even more so if the new curriculum is being deployed at multiple institutions. In this paper, we describe the process of creating a common faculty development program to train cross-institutional faculty developers to support the implementation of national harmonized medicine and nursing curricula.

Methods: A five-step approach was used, including a cross-institutional needs assessment survey for faculty development needs, the development of a generic faculty development program, the identification and training of cross-institutional faculty educators, and the implementation of cross-institutional faculty capacity-building workshops.

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Objective: To investigate incorporating a ready-to-use 2.5:1 ratio liquid feed into a ketogenic diet (KD) in children and adults with drug-resistant epilepsy.

Methods: Following a three-day baseline, patients (n = 19; age: 19 years [SD 13], range: 8-46 years) followed a KD for 28 days (control period), then incorporated ≥200 mL/day of a ready-to-use liquid feed, made with a ratio of 2.

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This retrospective cohort study aims to assess whether the implementation of a multidisciplinary approach in the Gosford Hospital High-Risk Foot Clinic improved outcomes of diabetic foot ulcers. Ulceration is a common foot complication of diabetes mellitus and greatly increases patient morbidity and mortality. Patients who attended at least one appointment at the Gosford Hospital High-Risk Foot Clinic in 2017 or 2019 were identified through the Gosford Hospital Podiatry department's records.

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Plant-derived volatiles mediate interactions among plants, pathogenic viruses, and viral vectors. These volatile-dependent mechanisms have not been previously demonstrated belowground, despite their likely significant role in soil ecology and agricultural pest impacts. We investigated how the plant virus, tobacco rattle virus (TRV), attracts soil nematode vectors to infected plants.

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  • - Lynch syndrome is a hereditary condition that elevates the risk for various cancers, including both internal tumors and specific skin tumors like keratoacanthomas and sebaceous tumors.
  • - Diagnosing Lynch syndrome can be complicated, especially in cases of mosaicism where affected individuals may not show a clear genetic variant, which is rare in medical literature.
  • - This report highlights a unique case where keratoacanthoma testing via immunohistochemistry led to the diagnosis of mosaic Lynch syndrome, emphasizing the need to consider mosaicism in strong clinical cases even when genetic tests are inconclusive.
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Stem cells are essential for the development and organ regeneration of multicellular organisms, so their infection by pathogenic viruses must be prevented. Accordingly, mammalian stem cells are highly resistant to viral infection due to dedicated antiviral pathways including RNA interference (RNAi). In plants, a small group of stem cells harbored within the shoot apical meristem generate all postembryonic above-ground tissues, including the germline cells.

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Background: Longitudinal studies consistently report adverse long-term outcomes of childhood maltreatment. Little is known about the impact of childhood maltreatment on mental health among a marginalized population (New Zealand Māori); therefore, we cannot assume the effects of maltreatment are the same across the population.

Objective: Associations were examined between childhood sexual abuse (CSA), childhood physical punishment (CPP) and childhood neglect (CN) (<16 years) and mental health outcomes 18-40 years, by ethnicity (Māori/non-Māori).

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  • Handheld spirometry allows for at-home monitoring of lung function, which became particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic, but its accuracy compared to clinic-based spirometry in children remains uncertain.
  • A study analyzed paired forced expiratory volume (FEV) readings from 67 participants aged 6 years and older, revealing that home spirometry often produced lower results and had moderate variability during periods of clinical stability.
  • The findings suggest that home spirometry cannot replace clinic spirometry in children, especially as new handheld devices may underread results, indicating the need for dual measurements in clinical settings to improve the accuracy of home data trends.
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The nucleolus and Cajal bodies (CBs) are sub-nuclear domains with well-known roles in RNA metabolism and RNA-protein assembly. However, they also participate in other important aspects of cell functioning. This study uncovers a previously unrecognised mechanism by which these bodies and their components regulate host defences against pathogen attack.

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Objectives: To identify predictors of mortality in people with active and challenging behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD).

Design: A retrospective case-control study was designed to compare those referred to Dementia Support Australia (DSA) who died in the 12 months to November 2016, with an equal number of controls who did not die. An audit tool was designed after literature review and expert opinion from the service.

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  • Timely access to support is crucial for the development of autistic children and the mental well-being of their caregivers, with naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBIs) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) being effective but resource-intensive.
  • The study will conduct a randomized clinical trial comparing the effectiveness of NDBI, ACT, and a combination of both, focusing on children aged 2-5 in New Zealand over a 13-week period.
  • The trial is ethically approved and aims to share its findings widely, regardless of outcomes, to benefit stakeholders and health professionals.
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Effective screening of plant germplasm collections for resistance to plant viruses requires that there is a rapid and efficient system in place to challenge individual plants with the virus. Potato leafroll virus (PLRV), a commercially important pathogen of potato, is able naturally to infect only the phloem-associated tissue of plants and is delivered to this tissue by feeding aphids. Mechanical (non-vector-mediated) infection by PLRV does not occur thus screening for PLRV resistance is currently laborious and time consuming.

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In many low- and middle-income countries, there seems to be a mismatch between graduate skills and healthcare industry requirements due to variability in curricula. With the current increased global demand for competent health profession graduates, harmonizing competency-based curricula (CBC) is necessary to address this mismatch. This paper describes how three health professions training universities in Tanzania and their two long-standing United States partners embarked on developing harmonized CBC for undergraduate medicine and nursing degrees.

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Background: Virtual simulations are used throughout healthcare training programs to enable development of clinical skills, however the potential for virtual simulation to enhance cognitive and affective skills is less well understood. This study explored pre-clinical optometry students' perceptions of the impact of virtual simulation on the development of core competency skills including patient-centred care, communication, scientific literacy, and evidence-based practice.

Methods: A mixed methods study was conducted using pre-existing anonymized data from an electronic survey distributed to pre-clinical optometry students enrolled in the double degree Bachelor of Vision Science/Master of Optometry at Deakin University, Australia.

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Objective: To review studies reporting on the effectiveness of psychiatry service delivery for older people and people with dementia in hospital and residential aged care.

Methods: A systematic search of four databases was conducted to obtain peer-reviewed literature reporting original research published since June 2004 evaluating a psychiatry service for older people (aged 60 years and over) or people with dementia in inpatient or residential aged care settings.

Results: From the 38 included studies, there was consistent low-to-moderate quality evidence supporting the effectiveness of inpatient older persons' mental health wards ( = 14) on neuropsychiatric symptoms, mood, anxiety and quality of life.

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  • The wheat yellow mosaic virus (WYMV) has a protein called P3N-PIPO, which is important for the movement and severity of the disease it causes, similar to other potyviruses.
  • Research demonstrated that the presence of the P3N-PIPO protein in a potato virus X (PVX) vector led to more severe disease symptoms and increased virus levels in infected plants compared to a PVX without this protein.
  • Additionally, scientists identified proteins that interact with P3N-PIPO, including a receptor-like kinase, and found that reducing the expression of P3N-PIPO led to milder symptoms and less virus accumulation in plants.
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