Incidental mortality in fisheries is a major driver of population declines for albatrosses and petrels globally. However, accurate identification of species can be difficult due to the poor condition of bycaught birds and/or visual similarities between closely related species. We assessed three genetic markers for their ability to distinguish the 36 albatross and petrel species listed in Annex 1 to the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) and in Australia's Threat Abatement Plan (TAP) for the bycatch of seabirds during oceanic longline fishing operations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTerrestrially breeding marine predators have experienced shifts in species distribution, prey availability, breeding phenology, and population dynamics due to climate change worldwide. These central-place foragers are restricted within proximity of their breeding colonies during the breeding season, making them highly susceptible to any changes in both marine and terrestrial environments. While ecologists have developed risk assessments to evaluate climate risk in various contexts, these often overlook critical breeding biology data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectivesThis study aimed to compare clinical outcomes for patients admitted to Hospital in the Home (HITH) and traditional (bricks-and-mortar) hospitals and explore patient and carer experiences.MethodsA mixed methods approach including triangulation of quantitative and qualitative data was used. Quantitative outcomes were compared using augmented inverse propensity weighting to adjust for differences in patient characteristics between groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTransient killer whales have been documented hunting marine mammals across a variety of habitats. However, relatively little has been reported about their predatory behaviours near deep submarine canyons and oceanic environments. We used a long-term database of sightings and encounters with these predators in and around the Monterey Submarine Canyon, California to describe foraging behaviour, diet, seasonal occurrence, and habitat use patterns.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics and outcomes of remote-dwelling pregnant women with threatened labor referred for air medical retrieval to a regional birthing center as well as factors associated with birth within 48 hours.
Methods: This was a retrospective observational study of all pregnant women in the remote Central Australian region referred to the Medical Retrieval Consultation and Coordination Centre for labor > 23 weeks' gestation between February 12, 2018, and February 12, 2020. Univariate and multivariate statistical analyses were performed.
Brain exposure of systemically administered biotherapeutics is highly restricted by the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Here, we report the engineering and characterization of a BBB transport vehicle targeting the CD98 heavy chain (CD98hc or SLC3A2) of heterodimeric amino acid transporters (TV). The pharmacokinetic and biodistribution properties of a CD98hc antibody transport vehicle (ATV) are assessed in humanized CD98hc knock-in mice and cynomolgus monkeys.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Remote Australian women in labour often rely on retrieval services to allow birthing in specialist obstetric centres. However, there is currently debate over when not to transfer a woman in labour, for risk of an in-transit birth, associated with worse neonatal outcomes.
Methods: A scoping review methodology was undertaken, to define the scope of published literature on the topic and identify gaps in the current knowledge.
Currently, much is debated on the optimal treatment of borderline hips, being in the continuum between stable and unstable hips. The diagnosis of stability is often difficult but is a prerequisite for further treatment. Analysis includes a variety of radiographic parameters.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTau is a major driver of neurodegeneration and is implicated in over 20 diseases. Tauopathies are characterized by synaptic loss and neuroinflammation, but it is unclear if these pathological events are causally linked. Tau binds to Synaptogyrin-3 on synaptic vesicles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The Zimmer Modular Revision hip (ZMR) system is available in two stem options, a porous-coated cylindrical (PCM) and a taper (TM) stem. Several concerns have been reported regarding modular implants. Specifically, because of early junctional fractures, the ZMR system was redesigned with a wider modular interface.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The negative impact of inhalation injuries on in-hospital outcomes for burn patients is well known, but the burns community is yet to form a consensus on diagnostic criteria and clinical definitions. The diagnosis of inhalation injuries is consequently highly subjective. This study aimed to assess the variation in the rate of documented inhalation injury for adult patients in Australian and New Zealand burn units.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Knowledge of the epidemiology of burn-related fatalities is limited, with most previous studies based on hospital and burn centre data only.
Aims: To describe the epidemiological characteristics of all burn-related fatalities in Australia and New Zealand, and to identify any trends in burn-related fatality incidence over the study period.
Methods: Data from the National Coronial Information System, including data for pre-hospital and in-hospital burn-related fatality cases, was used to examine the characteristics of burn-related fatalities occurring in Australia and New Zealand from 2009 to 2015.
Dysfunction of the microtubule-associated protein Tau (encoded by the gene) has been implicated in more than twenty neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's. As such, the physiological and disease-relevant functions of Tau have garnered great interest in the research community. One barrier hampering investigations into the functions of Tau and the generation of pharmacological agents targeting Tau has been the difficulty of obtaining soluble Tau protein in purified form.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Burn injuries to workers can have a devastating impact, however knowledge of the epidemiology of work-related burn injuries in Australia and New Zealand is limited.
Purpose: To describe epidemiological characteristics of work-related burn injuries in Australia and New Zealand, and to compare these with non-work-related burns.
Methods: Adult burn injury data, 2009-2016, were extracted from the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand.
Advances in DNA sequencing technology have revolutionized the field of molecular analysis of trophic interactions, and it is now possible to recover counts of food DNA sequences from a wide range of dietary samples. But what do these counts mean? To obtain an accurate estimate of a consumer's diet should we work strictly with data sets summarizing frequency of occurrence of different food taxa, or is it possible to use relative number of sequences? Both approaches are applied to obtain semi-quantitative diet summaries, but occurrence data are often promoted as a more conservative and reliable option due to taxa-specific biases in recovery of sequences. We explore representative dietary metabarcoding data sets and point out that diet summaries based on occurrence data often overestimate the importance of food consumed in small quantities (potentially including low-level contaminants) and are sensitive to the count threshold used to define an occurrence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSynaptic dysfunction is an early pathological feature of neurodegenerative diseases associated with Tau, including Alzheimer's disease. Interfering with early synaptic dysfunction may be therapeutically beneficial to prevent cognitive decline and disease progression, but the mechanisms underlying synaptic defects associated with Tau are unclear. In disease conditions, Tau mislocalizes into pre- and postsynaptic compartments; here we show that, under pathological conditions, Tau binds to presynaptic vesicles in Alzheimer's disease patient brain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt has been reported that weather-related high ambient temperature is associated with an increased risk of work-related injury. Understanding this relationship is important because work-related injuries are a major public health problem, and because projected climate changes will potentially expose workers to hot days, including consecutive hot days, more often. The aim of this study was to quantify the impact of exposure to sustained periods of hot weather on work-related injury risk for workers in Melbourne, Australia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGelatinous zooplankton are a large component of the animal biomass in all marine environments, but are considered to be uncommon in the diet of most marine top predators. However, the diets of key predator groups like seabirds have conventionally been assessed from stomach content analyses, which cannot detect most gelatinous prey. As marine top predators are used to identify changes in the overall species composition of marine ecosystems, such biases in dietary assessment may impact our detection of important ecosystem regime shifts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTau is implicated in more than 20 neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease. Under pathological conditions, Tau dissociates from axonal microtubules and missorts to pre- and postsynaptic terminals. Patients suffer from early synaptic dysfunction prior to Tau aggregate formation, but the underlying mechanism is unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThyroid hormone (TH) target cells need to adopt mechanisms to maintain sufficient levels of TH to ensure regular functions. This includes thyroid epithelial cells, which generate TH in addition to being TH-responsive. However, the cellular and molecular pathways underlying thyroid auto-regulation are insufficiently understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives The aim of this study was to investigate the association between high ambient temperature and acute work-related injury, expanding on previous research in this area. Specifically we examined the relationship between both daytime and overnight temperatures and injury risk and disentangled physically demanding occupational exposures from exposure to outdoor working conditions. Methods A time-stratified case-crossover study design was used to examine the association between ambient temperatures and acute work-related injuries in Melbourne, Australia, 2002-2012, using workers' compensation claims to identify work-related injuries.
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