Promoting aged care COVID-19 and influenza vaccination through education of Australian residential aged care staff: A mixed methods project evaluation.

Background: Vaccination coverage against COVID-19 and influenza among Australian aged care residents remains suboptimal, placing this vulnerable population at heightened risk of severe illness, frailty, and death. Health care professionals' recommendations significantly influence vaccination uptake. Aged care staff, with their unique proximity to residents, play a pivotal role in promoting vaccination.

Inequity of healthcare access for patients with diabetic foot disease: a retrospective study in south-east Queensland.

Objectives: Logan local government area (LGA) in Queensland has the highest diabetes prevalence (6.5%) within Metro South Health (MSH). The study aimed to determine the burden of, and equity of access to secondary healthcare, for diabetic foot disease (DFD) for Logan residents to better inform healthcare services planning.

Household transmission of the Delta COVID-19 variant in Queensland, Australia: a case series.

Household transmission plays a key role in the spread of COVID-19 through populations. In this paper, we report on the transmission of COVID-19 within households in a metropolitan area in Australia, examine the impact of various factors and highlight priority areas for future public health responses. We collected and reviewed retrospective case report data and follow-up interview responses from households with a positive case of the Delta COVID-19 variant in Queensland in 2021.

Enzyme-catalysed polymer cross-linking: Biocatalytic tools for chemical biology, materials science and beyond.

Intermolecular cross-linking is one of the most important techniques that can be used to fundamentally alter the material properties of a polymer. The introduction of covalent bonds between individual polymer chains creates 3D macromolecular assemblies with enhanced mechanical properties and greater chemical or thermal tolerances. In contrast to many chemical cross-linking reactions, which are the basis of thermoset plastics, enzyme catalysed processes offer a complimentary paradigm for the assembly of cross-linked polymer networks through their predictability and high levels of control.

Thermolytic Degradation of Synthetic Cannabinoids: Chemical Exposures and Pharmacological Consequences.

Synthetic cannabinoids are manufactured clandestinely with little quality control and are distributed as herbal "spice" for smoking or as bulk compound for mixing with a solvent and inhalation via electronic vaporizers. Intoxication with synthetic cannabinoids has been associated with seizure, excited delirium, coma, kidney damage, and other disorders. The chemical alterations produced by heating these structurally novel compounds for consumption are largely unknown.

Pharmacodynamic Relationships between Duration of Action of JDTic-like Kappa-Opioid Receptor Antagonists and Their Brain and Plasma Pharmacokinetics in Rats.

JDTic is a potent and selective κ-opioid receptor (KOR) antagonist that reverses U50,488-induced diuresis in rats. It partitions into brain with a duration of action lasting for weeks. In a search for KOR antagonists that do not accumulate in the brain, we compared single doses of five methylated JDTic analogs (RTI-97, -194, -212, -240, and -241) for reversal of U50,488 diuresis and pharmacokinetic (PK) properties.

Preparation and Distribution of Cannabis and Cannabis-Derived Dosage Formulations for Investigational and Therapeutic Use in the United States.

Cannabis is classified as a schedule I controlled substance by the US Drug Enforcement Agency, meaning that it has no medicinal value. Production is legally restricted to a single supplier at the University of Mississippi, and distribution to researchers is tightly controlled. However, a majority of the population is estimated to believe that cannabis has legitimate medical or recreational value, numerous states have legalized or decriminalized possession to some degree, and the federal government does not strictly enforce its law and is considering rescheduling.

Analytical surveillance of emerging drugs of abuse and drug formulations.

Uncontrolled recreational drugs are proliferating in number and variety. Effects of long-term use are unknown, and regulation is problematic, as efforts to control one chemical often lead to several other structural analogs. Advanced analytical instrumentation and methods are continuing to be developed to identify drugs, chemical constituents of products, and drug substances and metabolites in biological fluids.

Analogues of (3R)-7-hydroxy-N-[(1S)-1-{[(3R,4R)-4-(3-hydroxyphenyl)-3,4-dimethyl-1-piperidinyl]methyl}-2-methylpropyl)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-3-isoquinolinecarboxamide (JDTic). Synthesis and in vitro and in vivo opioid receptor antagonist activity.

The synthesis of compounds 6, 7a,b, 8a,b, 9a,b, and 10a,b where the amino -NH- group of JDTic (3) was replaced with an aromatic horizontal lineCH-, CH(2), O, S, or SO group was accomplished and used to further characterize the SAR of the compound 3 class of kappa opioid receptor antagonists. All of the compounds showed subnanomolar to low nanomolar K(e) values at the kappa opioid receptor. The most potent compound was 7a, where the amino -NH- group of 3 was replaced by a methylene (-CH(2)-) group.

Effectiveness of analogs of the kappa opioid receptor antagonist (3R)-7-hydroxy-N-((1S)-1-{[(3R,4R)-4-(3-hydroxyphenyl)-3,4-dimethyl-1-piperidinyl]methyl}-2-methylpropyl)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-3-isoquinolinecarboxamide (JDTic) to reduce U50,488-induced diuresis and stress-induced cocaine reinstatement in rats.

Rationale: The kappa opioid receptor (KOR) antagonist, JDTic, was reported to prevent stress-induced reinstatement of cocaine-maintained responding and to have antidepressant-like effects.

Objectives: Our objectives were to determine whether analogs of JDTic retained KOR antagonist activity and whether an orally effective analog prevented footshock-induced cocaine reinstatement.

Methods: RTI-194 (i.

The efficiency of tennis doubles scoring systems.

In this paper a family of scoring systems for tennis doubles for testing the hypothesis that pair A is better than pair B versus the alternative hypothesis that pair B is better than A, is established. This family or benchmark of scoring systems can be used as a benchmark against which the efficiency of any doubles scoring system can be assessed. Thus, the formula for the efficiency of any doubles scoring system is derived.

Four ball best ball 1.

In this paper a four-ball-best-ball (4BBB) model for pairs of golf players is set up. The 4BBB match-play scoring system is seen to satisfy a basic requirement of fairness. It is shown that it is not strictly possible to rate individual players as 4BBB players.

Positive allosteric modulation of the human cannabinoid (CB) receptor by RTI-371, a selective inhibitor of the dopamine transporter.

Background And Purpose: In our search for an indirect dopamine agonist as therapy for cocaine addiction, several selective inhibitors of the dopamine transporter (DAT), which are 3-phenyltropane analogues, were assayed for their effect on locomotor activity in mice. Interestingly, several of the compounds showed a poor correlation between stimulation of locomotion and DAT inhibition. One of the compounds, 3beta-(4-methylphenyl)-2beta-[3-(4-chlorophenyl)isoxazol-5-yl]tropane (RTI-371), was shown to cross the blood-brain barrier, by binding studies in vivo, and block cocaine-induced locomotor stimulation.

Solastalgia: the distress caused by environmental change.

Objective: Solastalgia is a new concept developed to give greater meaning and clarity to environmentally induced distress. As opposed to nostalgia--the melancholia or homesickness experienced by individuals when separated from a loved home--solastalgia is the distress that is produced by environmental change impacting on people while they are directly connected to their home environment. The paper will focus on two contexts where collaborative research teams have found solastalgia to be evident: the experiences of persistent drought in rural NSW and the impact of large-scale open-cut coal mining on individuals in the Upper Hunter Valley of NSW.

Quantitation in gated perfusion SPECT imaging: the Cedars-Sinai approach.

Cedars-Sinai's approach to the automation of gated perfusion single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging is based on the identification of key procedural steps (processing, quantitation, reporting), each of which is then implemented, in completely automated fashion, by use of mathematic algorithms and logical rules combined into expert systems. Our current suite of software applications has been designed to be platform- and operating system-independent, and every algorithm is based on the same 3-dimensional sampling scheme for the myocardium. The widespread acceptance of quantitative software by the nuclear cardiology community (QGS alone is used at over 20,000 locations) has provided the opportunity for extensive validation of quantitative measurements of myocardial perfusion and function, in our opinion, helping to make nuclear cardiology the most accurate and reproducible modality available for the assessment of the human heart.

Use of social network analysis to describe service links for farmers' mental health.

Objective: The primary mental health care needs of farmers require that service innovations incorporate rural support workers into a local service network. This component of the FarmLink pilot sought to develop a social network analysis method that would describe local mental health-related human service networks. The purpose is to inform improvements in this network and to serve as a baseline against which such improvements can be evaluated.

Effects of dopamine transporter selective 3-phenyltropane analogs on locomotor activity, drug discrimination, and cocaine self-administration after oral administration.

Several studies suggest that a dopamine transporter uptake inhibitor that has a slower onset and longer duration of action than cocaine in animal behavioral measures and decreases cocaine self-administration would be useful as an indirect dopamine agonist pharmacotherapy to treat cocaine addiction. In the present study, we compared five 3-phenyltropane analogs administered orally in locomotor activity in mice and drug discrimination in rats to gain information concerning relative potency, onset, and duration of action. The compounds were also evaluated for reduction of cocaine self-administration in rats after oral administration.

Reducing the likelihood of long tennis matches.

Long matches can cause problems for tournaments. For example, the starting times of subsequent matches can be substantially delayed causing inconvenience to players, spectators, officials and television scheduling. They can even be seen as unfair in the tournament setting when the winner of a very long match, who may have negative aftereffects from such a match, plays the winner of an average or shorter length match in the next round.

An Analysis of Ten Years of the Four Grand Slam Men's Singles Data for Lack of Independence of Set Outcomes.

The objective of this paper is to use data from the highest level in men's tennis to assess whether there is any evidence to reject the hypothesis that the two players in a match have a constant probability of winning each set in the match. The data consists of all 4883 matches of grand slam men's singles over a 10 year period from 1995 to 2004. Each match is categorised by its sequence of win (W) or loss (L) (in set 1, set 2, set 3,.

Fairer service exchange mechanisms for tennis when some psychological factors exist.

In a tennis match it is not uncommon for games to 'go with service' (ie. 1-0, 1-1, 2-1, 2-2, 3-2, so on). When this occurs, the player who serves first is either ahead by one game, or the games' score is equal.

Long-term trends in home advantage in professional team sports in North America and England (1876-2003).

Home advantage is quantitatively defined and calculated for each season since the start of the main professional sports in North America and England. Over 400,000 games are analysed. The leagues represented are the National League (1876-2002) and American League (1901-2002) for baseball, the National Hockey League (1917-2003) for ice hockey, the National Football League (1933-2002) for American football, the National Basketball Association (1946-2003) for basketball, and the four levels of professional football, formerly called the Football League, in England (1888-2003).

Monoamine transporter binding, locomotor activity, and drug discrimination properties of 3-(4-substituted-phenyl)tropane-2-carboxylic acid methyl ester isomers.

The monoamine transporter binding properties, gross behavior, and locomotor activity effects in mice and drug discrimination results in cocaine-trained rats of the 2 beta,3beta-, 2 beta,3 alpha-, 2 alpha,3beta-, and 2 alpha,3 alpha-isomers of several 3-(4-substituted-phenyl)tropane carboxylic acid methyl esters were compared (2a-f, 3a-f, 4a-f, and 5b,c). The 2 beta,3beta-isomer showed the highest affinity for the dopamine transporter (DAT), and the 2 beta,3 alpha-isomer showed the next highest affinity. The order of potency for the 2 beta,3beta-isomer is 4'-chloro (2c) = 4'-iodo (2e) > 4'-bromo (2d) = 4'-methyl (2f) > 4'-fluoro (2b) > 4'-hydrogen (2a).

Pharmacological properties of JDTic: a novel kappa-opioid receptor antagonist.

Biological studies were conducted on (3R)-7-Hydroxy-N-[(1S)-1-[[(3R,4R)-4-(3-hydroxyphenyl)-3,4-dimethyl-1-piperidinyl]methyl]-2-methylpropyl]-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-3-isoquinoline-carboxamide (JDTic), the first potent kappa-selective opioid receptor antagonist not derived from an opiate class of compounds. In the mouse tail-flick test, JDTic, administered subcutaneously (s.c.