Publications by authors named "Stockwell R"

Recent studies have demonstrated the remarkable potential of early life intervention strategies at influencing the course of postnatal development, thereby offering exciting possibilities for enhancing longevity and improving overall health. Metformin (MF), an FDA-approved medication for type II diabetes mellitus, has recently gained attention for its promising anti-aging properties, acting as a calorie restriction mimetic, and delaying precocious puberty. Additionally, trodusquemine (MSI-1436), an investigational drug, has been shown to combat obesity and metabolic disorders by inhibiting the enzyme protein tyrosine phosphatase 1b (Ptp1b), consequently reducing hepatic lipogenesis and counteracting insulin and leptin resistance.

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Background: Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a life-limiting disorder that is characterised by respiratory tract inflammation that is mediated by a range of microbial pathogens. Small colony variants (SCVs) of common respiratory pathogens are being increasingly recognised in CF. The aim of this systematic review is to investigate the prevalence of SCVs, clinical characteristics and health outcomes for patients with CF, and laboratory diagnostic features of SCVs compared to non-small colony variants (NCVs) for a range of Gram-positive and Gram-negative respiratory pathogens.

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Senolytic treatment in aged mice clears senescent cell burden leading to functional improvements. However, less is known regarding the effects of these compounds when administered prior to significant senescent cell accumulation. From 4-13 months of age, C57BL/6 male and female mice received monthly oral dosing of either 100 mg/kg Fisetin or a 5 mg/kg Dasatinib (D) plus 50 mg/kg Quercetin (Q) cocktail.

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Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) is primarily a salivary gland tumour that rarely involves the respiratory tract. A 58-year-old lady was admitted with worsening dyspnoea, cough and wheezing for 2 days. CT pulmonary angiogram was done due to persistent dyspnoea which revealed a 12 mm mass protruding into the posterior aspect of the trachea with multiple enlarged nodes.

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Adapting to stress, including cold environmental temperature (eT), is crucial for the survival of mammals, especially small rodents. Long-lived mutant mice have enhanced stress resistance against oxidative and non-oxidative challenges. However, much less is known about the response of those long-lived mice to cold stress.

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() is the predominant bacterial pathogen in people with cystic fibrosis (CF) and can be transmitted by airborne droplet nuclei. Little is known about the ability of ultraviolet band C (UV-C) irradiation to inactivate at doses and conditions relevant to implementation in indoor clinical settings. We assessed the effectiveness of UV-C (265 nm) at up to seven doses on the decay of nebulized aerosols (clonal strain) under a range of experimental conditions.

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Purpose: The symptom of cognitive fatigue is reported as one of the longest lasting and most debilitating symptoms of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Virtual reality may be one of the most suitable technologies for neurorehabilitation, able to integrate evidence-based neuroscientific principles into motivating rehabilitation simulations. The purpose of this study was to seek perspectives of individuals with lived experience of TBI and experienced rehabilitation clinicians in the co-design of a novel technology-based tool for cognitive fatigue after TBI.

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Introduction: Cervical Spondylolisthesis (CS) in children is under-studied. This cross-sectional study reports the CS prevalence in children.

Materials & Methods: Subjects were selected from a private practice.

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Background: The 2013 update of the Infection Prevention and Control (IP&C) Guideline outlined recommendations to prevent the spread of CF respiratory pathogens. We aimed to investigate the current infection control practices used in Australian and New Zealand (NZ) CF centers.

Methods: Two online surveys were distributed to Australian and NZ CF centers regarding the uptake of selected IP&C recommendations.

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Healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) continue to persist in hospitals, despite the use of increasingly strict infection-control precautions. Opportunistic airborne transmission of potentially pathogenic bioaerosols may be one possible reason for this persistence. Therefore, this study aimed to systematically review the concentrations and compositions of indoor bioaerosols in different areas within hospitals and the effects of different ventilation systems.

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Background And Objective: Aerosol transmission of Pseudomonas aeruginosa has been suggested as a possible mode of respiratory infection spread in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF); however, whether this occurs in other suppurative lung diseases is unknown. Therefore, we aimed to determine if (i) patients with bronchiectasis (unrelated to CF) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can aerosolize P. aeruginosa during coughing and (ii) if genetically indistinguishable (shared) P.

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The airborne route is a potential pathway in the person-to-person transmission of bacterial strains among cystic fibrosis (CF) populations. In this cross-sectional study, we investigate the physical properties and survival of common non- CF pathogens generated during coughing. We conclude that Gram-negative bacteria and are aerosolised during coughing, can travel up to 4 m and remain viable within droplet nuclei for up to 45 min.

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Rationale: People with cystic fibrosis (CF) generate Pseudomonas aeruginosa in droplet nuclei during coughing. The use of surgical masks has been recommended in healthcare settings to minimize pathogen transmission between patients with CF.

Objectives: To determine if face masks and cough etiquette reduce viable P.

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The paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) provides care to critically ill neonates, infants and children. These patients are vulnerable and susceptible to the environment surrounding them, yet there is little information available on indoor air quality and factors affecting it within a PICU. To address this gap in knowledge we conducted continuous indoor and outdoor airborne particle concentration measurements over a two-week period at the Royal Children's Hospital PICU in Brisbane, Australia, and we also collected 82 bioaerosol samples to test for the presence of bacterial and viral pathogens.

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Article Synopsis
  • Lung infections caused by Mycobacterium abscessus, a multidrug-resistant mycobacteria, pose a significant threat to individuals with cystic fibrosis as they worsen lung damage and increase health risks.
  • Contrary to previous beliefs that these infections are acquired from the environment, recent genomic analysis shows many cases are actually spread through transmission from person to person, possibly via surfaces and aerosols.
  • The analysis also identified that dominant circulating clones of M. abscessus are linked to worse health outcomes and higher virulence, indicating an urgent global health challenge.
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Prior ecological research has shown that spatial processes can enhance the temporal stability of populations in fluctuating environments. Less explored is the effect of dispersal on rapid adaptation and its concomitant impact on population dynamics. For asexually reproducing populations, theory predicts that dispersal in fluctuating environments can facilitate asynchrony among clones and enhance stability by reducing temporal variability of total population abundance.

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In many countries numbers of adults with cystic fibrosis (CF) exceed that of children, with median survival predicted to surpass 50 years. Increasing longevity is, in part, due to intensive therapies including eradication of early infection and suppressive therapies and pulmonary exacerbations. Initial infections with common CF pathogens are thought to arise from the natural environment.

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Introduction: Self-expanding metallic stents (SEMS) are used to palliate malignant gastric outlet obstruction (GOO) and are useful in patients with limited life expectancy or severe medical comorbidity, which would preclude surgery. Stenting can be performed transorally or by a percutaneous transgastric technique. Our goal was to review the outcome of patients who underwent radiological SEMS insertion performed by a single consultant interventional radiologist.

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Background: Biodegradable (BD) oesophageal stents have been available commercially only since 2008 and previous published research is limited. Our aim was to review the use of BD stents to treat dysphagia in benign or malignant oesophageal strictures.

Methods: Patients were identified from a prospective interventional radiological database.

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Understanding the factors that govern the stability of populations and communities has gained increasing importance as habitat fragmentation and environmental perturbations continue to escalate due to human activities. Dispersal is commonly viewed as essential to the maintenance of diversity in spatially subdivided communities, but few experiments have explored how dispersal interacts with the spatiotemporal components of environmental perturbations to determine community-level stability. We examined these processes using an experimental planktonic system composed of three competing species of zooplankton.

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The clinical applicability of screening surgically resected nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumour tissue and serum for activating epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation is unknown. Furthermore, the comparative accuracy of inexpensive EGFR mutation tests, mutant-enriched (ME)-PCR and high-resolution melt (HRM) has not been determined. Lung tumour DNA from 522 surgically resected stage I-IV NSCLC and matched serum DNA from a subset of 64 subjects was analysed for EGFR mutations in exons 19 and 21 using ME-PCR and HRM.

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We describe an unusual case of a 54-year-old woman who was diagnosed with a subacute Budd-Chiari syndrome due to membranous venous obstruction in the inferior vena cava. The unusual feature of this case was that she had been diagnosed with pulmonary emboli a few years earlier and was on lifelong warfarin with a therapeutic international normalised ratio. She was effectively treated by venoplasty.

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We present a new efficient approach for characterizing image texture based on a recently published discrete, orthonormal space-frequency transform known as the DOST. We develop a frequency-domain implementation of the DOST in two dimensions for the case of dyadic frequency sampling. Then, we describe a rapid and efficient approach to obtain local spatial frequency information for an image and show that this information can be used to characterize the horizontal and vertical frequency patterns in synthetic images.

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