Polysomnographic titration of non-invasive ventilation in motor neurone disease (3TLA): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) uses positive pressure to assist people with respiratory muscle weakness or severe respiratory compromise to breathe. Most people use this treatment during sleep when breathing is most susceptible to instability. The benefits of using NIV in motor neurone disease (MND) are well-established.

Rehabilitation outcomes after comprehensive post-acute inpatient rehabilitation following moderate to severe acquired brain injury-study protocol for an overall prognosis study based on routinely collected health data.

Background: The initial theme of the PROGRESS framework for prognosis research is termed overall prognosis research. Its aim is to describe the most likely course of health conditions in the context of current care. These average group-level prognoses may be used to inform patients, health policies, trial designs, or further prognosis research.

Co-design in healthcare with and for First Nations Peoples of the land now known as Australia: a narrative review.

Increasing use of co-design concepts and buzzwords create risk of generating 'co-design branded' healthcare research and healthcare system design involving insincere, contrived, coercive engagement with First Nations Peoples. There are concerns that inauthenticity in co-design will further perpetuate and ingrain harms inbuilt to colonial systems.Co-design is a tool that inherently must truly reposition power to First Nations Peoples, engendering both respect and ownership.

The impact of a tailored nutrition intervention delivered for the duration of hospitalisation on daily energy delivery for patients with critical illness (INTENT): a phase II randomised controlled trial.

Background: Nutrition interventions commenced in ICU and continued through to hospital discharge have not been definitively tested in critical care to date. To commence a program of research, we aimed to determine if a tailored nutrition intervention delivered for the duration of hospitalisation delivers more energy than usual care to patients initially admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

Methods: A multicentre, unblinded, parallel-group, phase II trial was conducted in twenty-two hospitals in Australia and New Zealand.

Health assets among refugees in Australia: a systematic review.

Background: A health assets-based approach seeks to identify health-promoting or protective factors across multiple levels. Evidence of the health assets of refugees at the individual, family, and community levels in Australia is scarce. We aimed to synthesise current evidence from Australia to identify refugee health assets and explore how they influence health and well-being.

Commissioning health services for First Nations, regional, and remote populations: a scoping review.

Background: Commissioning for health services has been implemented as one approach to improve the quality and access to healthcare for First Nations, regional and remote populations. This review systematically scoped the literature for studies that described or evaluated the governance, funding, implementation and outcomes from health service commissioning targeting these groups in Canada, Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand and the United States (CANZUS nations).

Methods: Seventeen databases were searched for relevant peer reviewed and grey literature studies published in English from 2010 to 2023.

Impact of extended-course oral nirmatrelvir/ritonavir in established Long COVID: a case series.

Background: Prior case series suggest that a 5-day course of oral Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir/ritonavir) benefits some people with Long COVID, within and/or outside of the context of an acute reinfection. To the best of our knowledge, there have been no prior case series of people with Long COVID who have attempted longer courses of nirmatrelvir/ritonavir.

Methods: We documented a case series of 13 individuals with Long COVID who initiated extended courses (>5 days; range: 7.

Errors in the Spontaneous Language of Survivors of Pediatric Cerebellar Tumors.

Pediatric cerebellar tumor survivors may present with spontaneous language impairments following treatment, but the nature of these impairments is still largely unclear. A recent study by Svaldi et al. (Cerebellum.

Living with Pediatric Coeliac Disease: Lessons for Health Service Delivery.

Background: Coeliac Disease (CD) affects up to 1.4% of children worldwide, with a rising global incidence. A less typical clinical presentation and the need for a life-long gluten exclusion diet raise challenges for diagnosis, management, and healthcare delivery with considerable impacts for CD patients and families as well as clinical services.

Intensive Outreach for Mental Health: Young People's Experiences of an Intensive Outreach Model on Recovery and Engagement.

Engagement with traditional mental health services can be particularly challenging for young people experiencing severe and complex mental health problems. Assertive community treatment-based services providing mobile outreach, such as Intensive Mobile Youth Outreach Services (IMYOS), operate across Australia to support these young people's mental health needs in the transition to adulthood. Past research on IMYOS has focused on quantitative outcome measures, and young people's experiences of this type of model are poorly understood.

Considering the use of GLP-1 receptor agonists in women with obesity prior to pregnancy: a narrative review.

Purpose: Metabolic disease, including obesity and type 2 diabetes, are amongst the most significant health issues facing women of reproductive age. To date, no antenatal weight management tools have reduced the risk of adverse health outcomes for women with obesity and their offspring, resulting in a shift in focus to the pre-conception period. Although not yet recognised in most international weight management guidelines, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) are being increasingly used for weight management prior to conception.

A clinical audit of adverse post-nephrectomy outcomes in renal cell carcinoma patients at a tertiary hospital in Queensland, Australia.

Background: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a common malignancy, and nephrectomy is the mainstay of treatment for non-metastatic disease. The choice of surgery depends on the risks of oncologic recurrence, kidney function decline, and perioperative complications. This study aimed to identify factors associated with adverse post-operative outcomes in RCC patients undergoing nephrectomy at Townsville University Hospital (TUH).

Identification of Quantitative Trait Loci (QTLs) and candidate genes for trichome development in Brassica villosa using genetic, genomic, and transcriptomic approaches.

Brassica villosa is characterized by its dense hairiness and high resistance against the fungal pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Information on the genetic and molecular mechanisms governing trichome development in B. villosa is rare.

Ferric carboxymaltose for anemia in late pregnancy: a randomized controlled trial.

Over 46% of African pregnant women are anemic. Oral iron is recommended but often suboptimal, particularly late in pregnancy. Intravenous ferric carboxymaltose (FCM) could treat anemia in women in the third trimester in sub-Saharan Africa.

Outcome of utilizing real-time contrast medium to detect the fistulas in spinal epidural arachnoid cysts and treat with minimally invasive surgery.

Background: Spinal epidural arachnoid cysts (SEACs) are rare, non-neoplastic pathologies that can cause compressive myelopathy. Preoperative identification of the exact fistula location is crucial for minimally invasive management.

Methods: This single-center retrospective study included 27 patients with SEACs who underwent "double-needle puncture myelography" to precisely localize the fistula before minimally invasive surgery.

Core-genome guided novel therapeutic targets identification and chimeric vaccine designing against Rickettsia rickettsii.

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, caused by the gram-negative intracellular bacteria Rickettsia rickettsii, is a serious tick-borne infection with a fatality rate of 20-30%, if not treated. Since it is the most serious rickettsial disease in North America, modified prevention and treatment strategies are of critical importance. In order to find new therapeutic targets and create multiepitope vaccines, this study integrated subtractive proteomics with reverse vaccinology.

Differential physiological and yield responses of selected mung bean (Vigna radiata (L.) R. Wilczek) genotypes to various high-temperature stress regimes.

The increasing frequency of heat stress events due to climate change disrupts all stages of plant growth, significantly reducing yields, especially in crops like mung bean (Vigna radiata (L.) R. Wilczek).

Rapid climate action is needed: comparing heat vs. COVID-19-related mortality.

The impacts of climate change on human health are often underestimated or perceived to be in a distant future. Here, we present the projected impacts of climate change in the context of COVID-19, a recent human health catastrophe. We compared projected heat mortality with COVID-19 deaths in 38 cities worldwide and found that in half of these cities, heat-related deaths could exceed annual COVID-19 deaths in less than ten years (at + 3.

Selectively expressed RNA molecules as a versatile tool for functionalized cell targeting.

Targeting of diseased cells is one of the most urgently needed prerequisites for a next generation of potent pharmaceuticals. Different approaches pursued fail mainly due to a lack of specific surface markers. Developing an RNA-based methodology, we can now ensure precise cell targeting combined with selective expression of effector proteins for therapy, diagnostics or cell steering.

A survey of Australian dairy farmers' attitudes to their business, its challenges and transitioning to alternative enterprises.

Dairy farmers are grappling with serious business challenges, including rising operational costs, labour shortages, unstable milk prices, changing consumer preferences, long hours with minimal downtime and unstable weather patterns due to climate change impacts. Using a telephone-based representative survey and interviews with 147 Australian dairy farmers conducted in 2023, we employed a mixed-method approach combining quantitative and qualitative analysis to determine the challenges and primary concerns of the participants, as well as to explore potential solutions. Four key variables that contributed significantly to a binary logistic regression model of transition intentions were identified, namely: level of satisfaction with dairy farming, openness to exploring other agricultural alternatives to dairy farming, preference to receive financial and/or other support to remain in the industry and preference to receive financial and/or other support to transition into a different form of farming or business.

The incidence of cardiac surgery in adults with treated kidney failure in Australia: a retrospective cohort study.

ObjectiveKidney failure increases people's risk of cardiovascular disease, sometimes requiring cardiac surgery. The aim of this study was to estimate the risk of cardiac surgery for adults with treated kidney failure in comparison with the general population in Australia.MethodsWe performed a population-based retrospective cohort study by linking data between the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry and the Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons Cardiac Surgery Database, for 2010-2019.

Cardiac arrhythmia assessment with patch electrocardiogram versus insertable cardiac monitor: a cohort study in endurance athletes with atrial fibrillation.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the quality of ECG recordings and the concordance between the automatic detection of cardiac arrhythmia episodes by a patch ECG and an insertable cardiac monitor.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting And Participants: Endurance athletes diagnosed with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) and no other relevant comorbidities participating in a randomised controlled trial on the effects of training adaption.

Unexpected presentation: metastatic adenoid cystic carcinoma (AdCC) of the breast masquerading as a large cystic-solid renal mass.

Adenoid cystic carcinoma (AdCC) of the breast is a rare histological subtype of breast cancer, which usually has a low propensity for metastasis and is associated with a good prognosis. AdCC metastasis to the kidney is rare, with only 29 cases reported in the literature. We report a case of a woman in her 60s with multiple right-sided large cystic-solid renal lesions after a recent diagnosis of marginal zone B-cell lymphoma.

Piloting an external quality assurance program (QAP) for COVID-19 antigen rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs): findings and lessons learned from Cambodia.

Rapid antigen diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs) that quickly and accurately identify SARS-CoV-2 are an essential part of the COVID-19 response, but multiple factors can affect the validity of Ag-RDTs results. In Cambodia, several commercial Ag-RDTs have become available since the COVID-19 outbreak, but quality control (QC) and external quality assurance (EQA) of these rapid tests have yet to be fully and systematically implemented. We collaborated with laboratory experts in Australia and piloted an EQA programme of the commonly used COVID-19 Ag-RDTs at the University of Health Sciences' MERIEUX Laboratory (Tier 1 site-responsible for the in-country receipt and distribution of QA material) and four other participating laboratories (Tier 2-healthcare facility based) between November 2021 and November 2022.