Using secondments in tertiary health facilities to build paediatric expertise in allied health professionals working in rural New South Wales.

Outline Of Problem: Allied health professionals working in rural settings have broad caseloads requiring advanced skills as general specialists. This can include children with specialised needs.

Design: Educational secondments were coordinated for allied health professionals to achieve self-nominated learning objectives.

A behaviour change intervention to reduce sedentary time in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: Replacing sedentary behaviour with light intensity physical activity (ie, activities classified as less than three metabolic equivalents, such as slow-paced walking) may be a more realistic strategy for reducing cardiometabolic risk in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease than only aiming to increase levels of moderate-vigorous intensity physical activity. Behaviour change interventions to reduce sedentary behaviour in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease have not yet been developed or tested.

Research Questions: Is a 6-week behaviour change intervention effective and feasible in reducing sedentary time in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease?

Design: This study will be a multi-centre, randomised, controlled trial with concealed allocation, assessor blinding, and intention-to-treat analysis, comparing a 6-week behaviour change intervention aimed at reducing sedentary time with a sham intervention in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Multidimensional evaluation of tracheobronchial disease in adults.

The large airways can be affected by a wide spectrum of acquired benign and malignant diseases. These lesions may present as focal or diffuse processes and with narrowing or widening of the airway. Some of these may be asymptomatic for quite some time and may be incidentally detected on imaging, while others may be symptomatic, causing airway compromise.

Hand Sensibility, Strength, and Laxity of High-Level Musicians Compared to Nonmusicians.

Purpose: To determine whether musicians have more sensitive, stronger, and flexible hands than nonmusicians.

Methods: A total of 100 musicians and 100 control subjects were assessed for 2-point discrimination, Semmes-Weinstein monofilament light touch, grip and pinch strength, and laxity. Musicians were included if enrolled as instrumental performance majors at a 4-year accredited conservatory of music.

Non-surgical treatment of lateral epicondylitis: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

Background: Non-surgical approaches to treatment of lateral epicondylitis are numerous. The aim of this systematic review is to examine randomized, controlled trials of these treatments.

Methods: Numerous databases were systematically searched from earliest records to February 2013.

Inter-rater reliability of physiotherapists using the Pirani scoring system for clubfoot: comparison with a modified five-point scale.

This study examines inter-rater reliability between physiotherapists using the Pirani scoring system for clubfoot, and whether the addition of two scale points to give a modified five-point severity scale improves reliability. A total of 65 infant feet were assessed by two raters, with 21 different rater combinations used. The Pirani scoring system was found to be a reliable assessment tool when used by physiotherapists to score clubfoot, with a minimum of fair to good inter-rater reliability demonstrated across all clinical signs.

Inter-tester reliability and precision of manual muscle testing and hand-held dynamometry in lower limb muscles of children with spina bifida.

Reliability and measurement precision of manual muscle testing (MMT) and hand-held dynamometry (HHD) were compared for children with spina bifida. Strength measures were obtained of the hip flexors, hip abductors, and knee extensors of 20 children (10 males, 10 females; mean age 9 years 10 months; range: 5 to 15 years) by two experienced physical therapists and a student physical therapist. Inter-tester reliability [ICC(2,1)] for HHD varied from 0.

Effect of antioxidants on oxidative stability of edible fats and oils: thermogravimetric analysis.

Thermogravimetric analysis was used to determine the oxidative stability of various edible oils (olive oil, milkfat) and triacylglycerides (triolein, trilinolein), while the effect of natural (alpha-tocopherol, ascorbic acid) and synthetic antioxidants (butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), and tertiary butyl hydroquinone were evaluated by addition to trilinolein. Oil resistance to oxidation was obtained by measuring the increase in sample weight due to the uptake of molecular oxygen, the temperature at maximum sample weight, and the temperature at the onset of oxidation. When comparing sample weight increase, trilinolein proved to be oxidatively less stable than triolein, olive oil, and milk fat, while triolein was less stable than olive oil and milk fat.