Publications by authors named "PJ White"

Research on how pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)-informed faculty development initiatives can support PCK development among health professions educators is limited. Given the positive impact of PCK on enhancing professional knowledge for effective teaching, this study investigates the learning process of health professions educators in developing their PCK through a faculty development initiative, supported by the Content Representation (CoRe) tool. Using a qualitative approach, grounded in social constructionism, the study engaged eight educators from diverse health disciplines at an Australian university.

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Characterising the transmission dynamics between various population groups is critical for implementing effective outbreak control measures whilst minimising financial costs and societal disruption. While recent technological and methodological advances have made individual-level transmission chain data increasingly available, it remains unclear how effectively this data can inform group-level transmission patterns, particularly in small, rapidly saturating outbreak settings. We introduce a novel framework that leverages transmission chain data to estimate group transmission assortativity; this quantifies the extent to which individuals transmit within their own group compared to others.

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Stigma surrounding mental health, particularly among men, remains a significant barrier to men engaging with support services for their mental health. Despite increasing evidence of interventions targeting different aspects of stigma reduction, there is a notable gap in the literature concerning male-specific mental health stigma reduction interventions and on the underlying behavior change techniques (BCTs) used to reduce stigma. The purpose of this review is to synthesize the evidence relating to the impact of mental health stigma reduction interventions among men and to explore the underlying BCTs associated with each intervention.

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Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is an important crop in arid regions that is well-adapted to desert ecosystems. To understand the remarkable ability to grow and yield in water-limited environments, experiments with water-withholding for up to four weeks were conducted.

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Engaging the public is a common practice in science disciplines and is deeply rooted in the discipline of entomology. These efforts to engage specific target groups within the general public are well studied, especially extension efforts to engage farmers and agricultural stakeholders, but this is not the case for K-12 educational spaces. Here, we conducted a scoping review to (1) determine the characteristics of entomology outreach efforts engaging K-12 populations and (2) identify opportunities for improvement based on the synthesis of those characteristics.

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  • Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) thalamotomy is an effective treatment for medication-resistant essential tremor, even in patients with complicating factors like extensive basal ganglia calcifications.
  • A case report involving a 69-year-old man with significant calcifications due to Fahr's disease showed that unilateral MRgFUS thalamotomy resulted in complete tremor relief and minor side effects after careful preoperative planning.
  • The successful outcome of this case suggests that MRgFUS may be a viable treatment option for other patients with similar intracranial calcifications, expanding its potential use beyond previously considered candidates.
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  • The current tests for identifying TB infection include the Tuberculin Skin Test (TST) and interferon-gamma release assays (IGRA), but access and implementation issues limit their use.
  • Novel skin tests such as Diaskintest and C-TST show potential for better scalability and accuracy, though evidence on their economic impact is still lacking.
  • Systematic reviews indicated that while costs for TBST were generally lower than TST and IGRA, there is limited high-quality evidence for TBST, and the existing studies on TST and IGRA lean towards high-income settings without clear economic consensus.
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Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) thalamotomy has emerged as an effective treatment for tremor, particularly in those patients who are excluded from deep brain stimulation. The authors illustrate an example of MRgFUS thalamotomy, targeting the ventralis intermedius nucleus, in a 78-year-old patient with tremor who had features of essential tremor and tremor-predominant Parkinson's disease. Significant tremor improvement was seen during the procedure.

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  • The StrAtegic PoLicy EvIdence-Based Evaluation CeNTer (SALIENT) is a key player in helping the Department of Veterans Affairs meet the Evidence Act requirements by providing evidence and evaluation support for federal funding requests.
  • SALIENT focuses on optimizing policies and programs for veterans, improving health outcomes, advancing dissemination science, and expanding the workforce in implementation science through collaborative evaluations.
  • Using a Lean Sprint methodology, SALIENT collaborates with veterans and stakeholders to develop strategic evaluation plans, ensuring effective communication of results and implementation of evidence-based practices.
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Yellowstone National Park is home to the only plains bison population that has continually existed as wildlife, on the same landscape, through the population bottleneck of the late 19th century. Nevertheless, by the early 1900s, only 23 wild bison were known to have survived poaching. Salvation efforts included the addition of 18 females from Montana and 3 bulls from Texas to augment this population.

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The Core Concepts of Pharmacology (CCP) initiative is developing educational resources to transform pharmacology education into a concept-based approach. This study evaluated the quality of global educator-created MCQs in generating items for the pharmacology concept inventory (PCI) instrument and developed as a resource for learning pharmacology fundamental concepts. A panel of 22 global pharmacology experts recruited from the CCP initiative research team participated in the MCQ pilot database design and evaluation.

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Background: Control of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is a priority in the World Health Organization strategy to eliminate TB. Many high-income, low TB incidence countries have prioritised LTBI screening and treatment in recent migrants. We tested whether a novel model of care, based entirely within primary care, was effective and safe compared to secondary care.

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  • STIs are a major global health issue that adversely impacts sexual and reproductive health, especially in low-resource settings due to gaps in evidence and tools.
  • In 2022, the WHO launched an initiative to prioritize STI research, identifying 40 key areas, with a focus on developing affordable diagnostic tests, new treatments, and enhanced epidemiologic data.
  • The priorities also emphasize innovative approaches to STI communication and partner management, and include research related to mpox, highlighting the need for STI studies during disease outbreaks linked to sexual transmission.
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In veterinary medicine and livestock production, ensuring good animal husbandry is vital for the physical and emotional wellbeing of animals under our care. Pain poses challenges for assessment and mitigation, especially in species unable to express pain overtly. This review examines current pain mitigation interventions in routine husbandry, focuses on the duration of pain after procedures and implications for animal welfare.

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Objectives: To determine the relationship between lipoprotein particle size/number with hepatic steatosis (HS), given its association with traditional lipoproteins and coronary atherosclerosis.

Methods: Individuals with available CT data and blood samples enrolled in the PROMISE trial were studied. HS was defined based on CT attenuation.

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Background: Prior to September 2021, 55,000-90,000 hospital inpatients in England were identified as having a potentially nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 infection. This includes cases that were likely missed due to pauci- or asymptomatic infection. Further, high numbers of healthcare workers (HCWs) are thought to have been infected, and there is evidence that some of these cases may also have been nosocomially linked, with both HCW to HCW and patient to HCW transmission being reported.

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Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is best known for thermogenesis. Rodent studies demonstrated that enhanced BAT thermogenesis is tightly associated with increased energy expenditure, reduced body weight, and improved glucose homeostasis. However, human BAT is protective against type 2 diabetes, independent of body weight.

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Background: Observational evidence suggests the 4CMenB meningococcal vaccine may partially protect against gonorrhea, with one dose being two-thirds as protective as two. We examined the cost-effectiveness of vaccinating men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) in England, with one- or two-dose primary vaccination.

Methods: Integrated transmission-dynamic health-economic modeling explored the effects of targeting strategy, first- and second-dose uptake levels, and duration of vaccine protection, using observational estimates of vaccine protection.

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The meningococcal group B vaccine, 4CMenB, is a broad-spectrum, recombinant protein vaccine that is licensed for protection against meningococcal group B disease in children and adults. Over the past decade, several observational studies supported by laboratory studies have reported protection by 4CMenB against gonorrhoea, a sexually transmitted infection caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Gonorrhoea is a major global public health problem, with rising numbers of diagnoses and increasing resistance to multiple antibiotics.

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Collective action is essential to address planetary health as current and future environmental challenges are socioecological and require coordinated, informed, and sustained action from all societal sectors. Education that engages intergenerational communities is a crucial means of building collective action as it provides opportunities to develop an informed citizenry capable of making the necessary decisions to work towards planetary health. Schools are valuable sites of community learning and action, and will benefit from a new orientation towards and commitment to educator training, curriculum development, and youth agency.

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Evidence on the economic impact of novel skin tests for tuberculosis infection (TBST) is scarce and limited by study quality. We used estimates on the cost-effectiveness of the use of TBST compared to current tuberculosis infection (TBI) tests to assess whether TBST are affordable and feasible to implement under different country contexts. A Markov model parametrised to Brazil, South Africa and the UK was developed to compare the cost-effectiveness of three TBI testing strategies: (1) Diaskintest (DST), (2) TST test, and (3) IGRA QFT test.

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Over recent years, studies have shown that science and health profession graduates demonstrate gaps in their fundamental pharmacology knowledge and ability to apply pharmacology concepts in practice. This article reviews the current challenges faced by pharmacology educators, including the exponential growth in discipline knowledge and competition for curricular time. We then argue that pharmacology education should focus on essential concepts that enable students to develop beyond 'know' towards 'know how to'.

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