DETECT Schools Study Protocol: A Prospective Observational Cohort Surveillance Study Investigating the Impact of COVID-19 in Western Australian Schools.

Amidst the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, understanding the transmission dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is key to providing peace of mind for the community and informing policy-making decisions. While available data suggest that school-aged children are not significant spreaders of SARS-CoV-2, the possibility of transmission in schools remains an ongoing concern, especially among an aging teaching workforce. Even in low-prevalence settings, communities must balance the potential risk of transmission with the need for students' ongoing education.

A preliminary investigation of the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on facial morphology in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Alcohol exposure during pregnancy has been associated with altered brain development and facial dysmorphology. While Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is not specifically related to distinct facial phenotypes, recent studies have suggested certain facial characteristics such as increased facial masculinity and asymmetry may be associated with ASD and its clinical presentations. In the present study, we conducted a preliminary investigation to examine facial morphology in autistic children with (n = 37; mean age = 8.

Impact of geography on the control of type 2 diabetes mellitus: a review of geocoded clinical data from general practice.

Objective: To review the clinical data for people with diabetes mellitus with reference to their location and clinical care in a general practice in Australia.

Materials And Methods: Patient data were extracted from a general practice in Western Australia. Iterative data-cleansing steps were taken.

Web-based geo-visualisation of spatial information to support evidence-based health policy: a case study of the development process of HealthTracks.

Place is of critical importance to health as it can reveal patterns of disease spread and clustering, associations with risk factors, and areas with greatest need for, or least access to healthcare services and promotion activities. Furthermore, in order to get a good understanding of the health status and needs of a particular area a broad range of data are required which can often be difficult and time consuming to obtain and collate. This process has been expedited by bringing together multiple data sources and making them available in an online geo-visualisation, HealthTracks, which consists of a mapping and reporting component.

An evaluation framework for comparing geocoding systems.

Background: Geocoding, the process of converting textual information describing a location into one or more digital geographic representations, is a routine task performed at large organizations and government agencies across the globe. In a health context, this task is often a fundamental first step performed prior to all operations that take place in a spatially-based health study. As such, the quality of the geocoding system used within these agencies is of paramount concern to the agency (the producer) and researchers or policy-makers who wish to use these data (consumers).

Evaluating the effectiveness of a schools-based programme to promote exercise self-efficacy in children and young people with risk factors for obesity: steps to active kids (STAK).

Background: Low levels of physical activity in children have been linked to an increased risk of obesity, but many children lack confidence in relation to exercise (exercise self-efficacy). Factors which can impact on confidence include a chronic health condition such as asthma, poor motor skills and being overweight. Increasing levels of physical activity have obvious benefits for children with asthma and children who are overweight, but few activity interventions with children specifically target children with low exercise self-efficacy (ESE).

Primary human colonic myofibroblasts are resistant to Clostridium difficile toxin A-induced, but not toxin B-induced, cell death.

Colonic inflammation in Clostridium difficile infection is mediated by released toxins A and B. We investigated responses to C. difficile toxins A and B by isolated primary human colonic myofibroblasts, which represent a distinct subpopulation of mucosal cells that are normally located below the intestinal epithelium.

Prevalence and service implications of health anxiety in genitourinary medicine clinics.

A comparison of the prevalence of health anxiety in genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics in two UK centres was carried out using a new rating scale, the Health Anxiety Inventory (HAI). The relationship of health anxiety to demographic and clinical variables, and its impact on service contacts, was also examined in one of these centres. 694 patients were assessed and significant health anxiety was identified in 8-11%.

The millennium bugs--the need for and development of new antibacterials.

Global antibacterial resistance is becoming an increasing public health problem. Bacteria resistant to almost all of the available antibacterials have been identified. The pharmaceutical industry and fledgling biotechnology companies are responding to the threat of antibiotic resistance with renewed efforts to discover novel antibacterials in attempts to overcome bacterial resistance.

Fingertip and venous blood lactate concentration in response to graded treadmill exercise.

Fingertip and venous blood lactate concentrations were determined pre-exercise and after 4-min bouts of treadmill running at 2.69, 3.13, 3.

Secretion of hydrogen peroxide by phagocytic cells from bovine non-lactating mammary glands.

Phagocytic cells from non-lactating bovine mammary glands have the capacity to secrete hydrogen peroxide when exposed to the soluble membrane stimulant phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). Unfractionated cell suspensions, containing mainly neutrophils and macrophages, and cell monolayers enriched for macrophages secreted hydrogen peroxide. A correlation was observed between the amount of hydrogen peroxide secreted, the antibacterial activity of the cells and the number of neutrophils present in the cell suspensions.

Phagocytic and bactericidal properties of bovine macrophages from non-lactating mammary glands.

Macrophages were isolated from the mammary glands of non-lactating (dry) cows and their ability to phagocytose and kill staphylococci in vitro assessed. Normal bovine serum enhanced the uptake of staphylococci and was required for optimal killing in the bactericidal test. Dry gland secretion interfered with uptake.

Heat-stable enterotoxins from Escherichia coli P16.

Escherichia coli P16 infant mouse active heat-stable enterotoxin may be fractionated into two distinct active moieties by ion-exchange chromatography, Sephadex G-25 chromatography, and isoelectric focusing.

The ability of cholestyramine resin and other adsorbents to bind Escherichia coli enterotoxins.

Several adsorbent materials were evaluated for their ability to bind Escherichia coli enterotoxins. Cholestyramine, a strong anion-exchange resin, bound the heat-labile and the heat-stable types of enterotoxin and reduced significantly their effects in some animal models. However, its efficacy in the treatment of diarrhoeic piglets appeared to be adversely affected by the presence of milk in the alimentary tract.

Assay of the heat-labile enterotoxin of Escherichia coli in infant rabbits.

Infant rabbits were shown to respond to Escherichia coli heat-labile enterotoxin by a consistent increase in intestinal fluid content, which was maximal 5 h after oral dosing. Infant rabbits could be used in a simple quantitative assay for heat-labile E. coli enterotoxin based on the ratios of gut weight to remaining body weight 5 h after oral dosing.

Effect of Escherichia coli heat-stable enterotoxin on cyclic GMP levels in mouse intestine.

Partially purified heat-stable enterotoxin obtained from Escherichia coli strain F11/P155 caused an accumulation of cyclic GMP in the intestines of 8-day-old mice.

Biological evaluation of a methanol-soluble, heat-stable Escherichia coli enterotoxin in infant mice, pigs, rabbits, and calves.

Escherichia coli P16 was shown to produce two heat-stable toxins (ST) with differing biological activity. The toxins were separated by methanol extraction, and the first, STa, was methanol soluble, partially heat stable, active in neonatal piglets (1 to 3 days old) and infant mice, but inactive in weaned pigs (7 to 9 weeks old); the second, STb, was methanol insoluble, active in weaned pigs and rabbit ligated loops, but inactive in infant mice. It is therefore suggested that use of suckling mice as indicators of ST production will fail to identify certain ST-producing strains.

Characterization of a partially purified methanol-soluble heat-stable Escherichia coli enterotoxin in infant mice.

While studying the involvement of cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cAMP) in the fluid secretion caused by heat-stable enterotoxin (ST) from Escherichia coli P16 in infant mice, it was noted that the culture filtrate containing ST also contained large amounts of cAMP. The present paper details attempts to obtain a cAMP-free ST preparation. The organisms were grown in a defined medium, and the heated culture filtrate was concentrated by reverse osmosis.

Protection against gram-negative infections with antiserum to lipid A from Salmonella minnesota R595.

The ability of antisera to lipid A, induced in rabbits by immunization with lipid A complexed to various carriers, to protect mice against gram-negative infection and to inhibit the fluid loss caused by an enteropathogenic strain of Escherichia coli in the piglet ligated gut was investigated. No significant protection was obtained in either case, although passive hemolysis and quantitative precipitation tests showed the presence of antilipid A antibodies in the sera. Fluorescent antibody studies suggest that the lipid A is in a cryptic position on the surface of smooth strains of gram-negative bacteria.