Biomimetic building facades demonstrate potential to reduce energy consumption for different building typologies in different climate zones.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions leading to anthropogenic global warming continue to be a major issue for societies worldwide. A major opportunity to reduce emissions is to improve building construction, and in particular the effectiveness of building envelope, which leads to a decrease in operational energy consumption. Improving the performance of a building's thermal envelope can substantially reduce energy consumption from heating, ventilation, and air conditioning while maintaining occupant comfort.

Providing food to patients in primary care to induce weight loss: a systematic literature review.

Purpose: Primary care is the ideal setting to promote weight management, warranting innovative ways to support patients. This systematic review aimed to determine whether providing food to patients in primary care can help to reduce body weight.

Methods: Four databases were searched for studies that aimed to elicit weight loss by directly providing foodstuffs and/or supplements to patients in primary care settings.

The epidemiologic and biologic basis for classifying older age as a high-risk, immunocompromising condition for pneumococcal vaccine policy.

Introduction: Immunosenescence is a normal biologic process involving deterioration of protective immune responses. Consequently, older adults experience increased risk of infectious diseases, particularly pneumonia, and its leading bacterial cause, . Pneumococcal vaccine recommendations are often limited to adults with specific medical conditions despite similar disease risks among older adults due to immunosenescence.

Queensland Family Cohort: a study protocol.

Introduction: The perinatal-postnatal family environment is associated with childhood outcomes including impacts on physical and mental health and educational attainment. Family longitudinal cohort studies collect in-depth data that can capture the influence of an era on family lifestyle, mental health, chronic disease, education and financial stability to enable identification of gaps in society and provide the evidence for changes in government in policy and practice.

Methods And Analysis: The Queensland Family Cohort (QFC) is a prospective, observational, longitudinal study that will recruit 12 500 pregnant families across the state of Queensland (QLD), Australia and intends to follow-up families and children for three decades.

Cohort profile: indigenous human papillomavirus and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma study - a prospective longitudinal cohort.

Purpose: Our aims are to: (1) estimate prevalence, incidence, clearance and persistence of oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infection among Indigenous Australians; (2) identify risk factors associated with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC)-related HPV types (HPV 16 or 18); (3) develop HPV-related health state valuations and; (4) determine the impact on OPSCC and cervical cancers, and the cost-effectiveness of extending publicly-funded HPV vaccination among Indigenous Australians.

Participants: Participants were recruited from February 2018 to January 2019. Twelve-month follow-up occurred from March 2019 to March 2020.

Pre-clinical evaluation of a whole-parasite vaccine to control human babesiosis.

Babesia spp. are tick-transmitted intra-erythrocytic protozoan parasites that infect humans and animals, causing a flu-like illness and hemolytic anemia. There is currently no human vaccine available.

Platinum complexes act as shielding agents against virus infection.

We determine that the substitution-inert polynuclear platinum complex (PPC) TriplatinNC is an antiviral agent and protects cells from enterovirus 71 and human metapneumovirus infection. This protection occurs through the formation of adducts with cell-surface glycosaminoglycans. Our detailed mechanistic investigation demonstrates that TriplatinNC blocks viral entry by shielding cells from virus attack, opening new directions for metalloshielding antiviral drug development.

Maternal selenium deficiency in mice promotes sex-specific changes to urine flow and renal expression of mitochondrial proteins in adult offspring.

Selenium deficiency during pregnancy can impair fetal development and predispose offspring to thyroid dysfunction. Given that key selenoproteins are highly expressed in the kidney and that poor thyroid health can lead to kidney disease, it is likely that kidney function may be impaired in offspring of selenium-deficient mothers. This study utilized a mouse model of maternal selenium deficiency to investigate kidney protein glycation, mitochondrial adaptations, and urinary excretion in offspring.

Engineered Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigen assembly into core-shell nanobeads for diagnosis of tuberculosis.

Despite recent advances in diagnosis, tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the ten leading causes of death worldwide. Here, we engineered Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) proteins (ESAT6, CFP10, and MTB7.7) to self-assemble into core-shell nanobeads for enhanced TB diagnosis.

How does self-perceived nutrition competence change over time during medical training? A prospective longitudinal observational study of New Zealand medical students.

Objectives: Medical nutrition education aims to equip doctors with nutrition knowledge, skills, attitudes and confidence to counsel patients to improve their diet. This study aimed to describe changes in medical students' self-perceived nutrition competence at three time points during medical training.

Design: Prospective longitudinal observational study.

Comparison of obesity and metabolic syndrome prevalence using fat mass index, body mass index and percentage body fat.

Background: Accurate obesity classification is important so that appropriate intervention can be instituted to modify metabolic risk factors. Commonly utilized body mass index (BMI) and percentage body fat (PBF) are influenced by lean mass whereas fat mass index (FMI) measures only body fat. This study compares the prevalence of obesity and metabolic risk factors with FMI, BMI and PBF using DXA (dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry).

Self-assembled particulate vaccine elicits strong immune responses and reduces Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis infection in mice.

Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) causes chronic progressive granulomatous enteritis leading to diarrhoea, weight loss, and eventual death in ruminants. Commercially available vaccines provide only partial protection against MAP infection and can compromise the use of bovine tuberculosis diagnostic tests. Here, we report the development of a protein-particle-based vaccine containing MAP antigens Ag85A-SOD-Ag85B-74F as a fusion ('MAP fusion protein particle').

Anti-prion and α-Synuclein Aggregation Inhibitory Sterols from the Sponge cf. .

In a study aimed at identifying new anti-prion compounds we screened a library of 500 Australian marine invertebrate derived extracts using a yeast-based anti-prion assay. This resulted in an extract from the subtropical sponge cf. showing potent anti-prion activity.

COVID-19 and nutriceutical therapies, especially using zinc to supplement antimicrobials.

The nutritional status of a patient can be critical for the efficacy of other pharmaceuticals, especially organic antibiotics, to treat viral pandemics. There may be political and scientific difficulties in achieving a constructive synergy of nutritional and prescribed allopathic remedies. For adequate treatment, timelines may need to extend well beyond eliminating viral proliferation, e.

Low serum selenium in pregnancy is associated with reduced T3 and increased risk of GDM.

Thyroid disorders are the most common endocrine disorders affecting women commencing pregnancy. Thyroid hormone metabolism is strongly influenced by selenium status; however, the relationship between serum selenium concentrations and thyroid hormones in euthyroid pregnant women is unknown. This study investigated the relationship between maternal selenium and thyroid hormone status during pregnancy by utilizing data from a retrospective, cross-sectional study (Maternal Outcomes and Nutrition Tool or MONT study) with cohorts from two tertiary care hospitals in South East Queensland, Australia.

Nonpharmacological interventions to improve the psychological well-being of women accessing abortion services and their satisfaction with care: A systematic review.

How women perceive and experience abortion impacts their subsequent psychological well-being. This systematic review evaluated nonpharmacological interventions designed to support women undergoing abortion services and improve their psychological well-being and satisfaction with care. Searches were conducted in MEDLINE, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, Social Services Abstracts, and PTSD Pubs.

Mitochondrial transformations in the aging human placenta.

Mitochondria play a key role in homeostasis and are central to one of the leading hypotheses of aging, the free radical theory. Mitochondria function as a reticulated network, constantly adapting to the cellular environment through fusion (joining), biogenesis (formation of new mitochondria), and fission (separation). This adaptive response is particularly important in response to oxidative stress, cellular damage, and aging, when mitochondria are selectively removed through mitophagy, a mitochondrial equivalent of autophagy.

Development of vaccines for SARS-CoV-2.

COVID-19 emerged in late 2019 and has rapidly spread through many countries globally. The causative SARS-CoV-2 virus was not known until recently, and there is little or no natural immunity in human populations. There is an urgent need for vaccines and drugs to combat this new pandemic.

Systematic review of posttraumatic stress disorder in police officers following routine work-related critical incident exposure.

Background: The prevalence of PTSD in police officers has been the subject of a large and highly variable empirical literature. The present systematic review evaluates the extant literature on PTSD in police officers using an international dataset.

Methods: We employed best-evidence narrative synthesis to evaluate whether PTSD prevalence in police is elevated in comparison to the general population of Canada (8%), which itself has a higher lifetime PTSD prevalence than many other regions and thus serves as a conservative standard of comparison.

Total bacterial load, inflammation, and structural lung disease in paediatric cystic fibrosis.

Background: Cystic fibrosis (CF) is characterised by reduced airway clearance, microbial accumulation, inflammation, and lung function decline. Certain bacterial species may contribute disproportionately to worsening lung disease. However, the relative importance of these microorganisms compared to the absolute abundance of all bacteria is uncertain.

Intermittent not continuous hypoxia provoked haematological adaptations in healthy seniors: hypoxic pattern may hold the key.

Purpose: The purpose of this single-blind, repeated measures study was to investigate the effect of two hypoxic patterns, continuous or intermittent on key markers of haematological adaptation, stress and cardiac damage in healthy senior participants.

Methods: Fifteen healthy senior participants each followed a three-phase protocol over 3 consecutive weeks: (1) 5 consecutive days of breathing room air without a mask (2) 5 days of normoxic mask breathing (sham, FiO = 21%) (3) 5 days of intermittent hypoxia (IH) tailored to achieve a mean peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO) of 85% during ~ 70 min of cumulative exposure to hypoxia. After a 5-month washout period, participants were recalled to undertake continuous hypoxia (CH, SpO = 85%, ~ 70 min).

Antimony and arsenic speciation, redox-cycling and contrasting mobility in a mining-impacted river system.

The Macleay River in eastern Australia is severely impacted by historic stibnite- and arsenopyrite-rich mine-tailings. We explore the partitioning, speciation, redox-cycling, mineral associations and mobility of antimony and arsenic along >70 km reach of the upper Macleay River. Elevated Sb/As occur throughout the active channel-zone and in floodplain pockets up to the regolith margin, indicating broad dispersal during floods.