Predicting neural activity of whole body cast shadow through object cast shadow in dynamic environments.

Shadows, as all other objects that surround us, are incorporated into the body and extend the body mediating perceptual information. The current study investigates the hypothesis according to which the perception of object shadows would predict the perception of body shadows. 38 participants (19 males and 19 females) aged 23 years on average were immersed into a virtual reality environment and instructed to perceive and indicate the coincidence or non coincidence between the movement of a ball shadow with regard to ball movement on the one hand, and between their body shadow and their body position in space on the other.

The design of the Deaf in Touch Everywhere (DITE) mobile application with Deaf and interpreter communities in Malaysia.

Background: Ineffective communication with Deaf individuals in healthcare settings has led to poor outcomes including miscommunication, waste, and errors. To help address these challenges, we developed a mobile app, Deaf in Touch Everywhere (DITE) which aims to connect the Deaf community in Malaysia with a pool of off-site interpreters through secure video conferencing.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to (a) assess the feasibility and acceptability of measuring unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) constructs for DITE with the Deaf community and Malaysian sign language (BIM) interpreters and (b) seek input from Deaf people and BIM interpreters on DITE to improve its design.

Progress in magnetic particle imaging signal and iron quantification methods - application to long circulating SPIONs.

The strengths of Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) lay in its sensitivity, quantitative nature, and lack of signal attenuation for Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (SPION). These advantages make MPI a powerful tool for the non-invasive monitoring of tracer behaviour over time. With more MPI studies emerging, a standardized method for determining the boundaries of a region of interest (ROI) and iron quantification is crucial.

Effects of Sacubitril/Valsartan on Exercise Capacity in Patients with Heart Failure with Reduced Ejection Fraction and the Role of Percentage of Delayed Enhancement Measured by Cardiac Magnetic Resonance in Predicting Therapeutic Response: A Multicentre Study.

: This study aims to evaluate the cardiopulmonary effects of sacubitril/valsartan therapy in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), investigating a possible correlation with the degree of myocardial fibrosis, as assessed by cardiac magnetic resonance. : A total of 134 outpatients with HFrEF were enrolled. : After a mean follow-up of 13.

Dengue in Pregnancy: A Southeast Asian Perspective.

Dengue cases have been rising in recent years. In 2019 alone, over 658,301 of the 5.6 million reported cases originated from Southeast Asia (SEA).

Economic Evaluation of Family-Focused Programs When Parents Have a Mental Health Problem: Methodological Considerations.

Objectives: The nature of adverse effects of parental mental health problems and of the interventions to address them may require specific designs of economic evaluation studies. Nevertheless, methodological guidance is lacking. We aim to understand the broad spectrum of adverse effects from parental mental health problems in children and the economic consequences on an individual and societal level to navigate the design of economic evaluations in this field.

Estrogen - A key neurosteroid in the understanding and treatment of mental illness in women.

The commentary is an invited brief about my contribution to Psychiatry Research. My work has built on the "estrogen hypothesis", as stated by Hafner, Riecher-Rossler and Seeman in the 1990's. This hypothesis was that estrogen provides 'protection' against the early onset of severe schizophrenia in women, and with decreasing brain estrogens at the menopause, mental ill health worsens in women.

General Surgery: Requirements, Rationale, and Robust Results.

Safe, timely, and affordable surgical care is desirable worldwide, but is largely an unmet need. Surgical care is recognized as an important component of public health. Vision for sustainable surgical development is desirable, and general surgeons can contribute substantially toward this mission.

Workers' Activity Profiles Associated With Predicted 10-Year Cardiovascular Disease Risk.

Background There is a need to explore common activity patterns undertaken by workers and the association between these activity profiles and cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study explored the number and type of distinct profiles of activity patterns among workers and the association between these profiles and predicted 10-year risk for a first atherosclerotic CVD event. Methods and Results Distinct activity patterns from a cross-section of workers' accelerometer data were sampled from Canadian Health Measures Survey participants (5 cycles, 2007-2017) and identified using hierarchical cluster analysis techniques.

Cultural adaptation and validation of instruments for measuring the flipped classroom experience.

Introduction: In 2017, a revamped bachelor of pharmacy program was introduced at Monash University and incorporated a predominantly flipped classroom-based pedagogy. The attitudes and preferences of students towards this program had yet to be assessed using a reliable instrument. Since no instrument was readily available, the objective of this study was to identify, contextualize, and validate a suitable instrument.

Early Childhood Educators as COVID Warriors: Adaptations and Responsiveness to the Pandemic Across Five Countries.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has seriously impacted countries across the globe. The pandemic has created a completely new teaching-learning environment of interaction for early childhood educators. In many countries, face-to-face teaching has been replaced by remote teaching, while in others, there have been intermittent lockdowns and limited interruptions to regular teaching norms.

Australians report climate change as a bigger concern than COVID-19.

Australia experienced two public health emergencies in 2020 - the catastrophic bushfires and the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Whilst these were separate events, both have similar drivers arising from human pressures on the natural environment. Here we report on relative personal concerns of Australians in a survey implemented during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Nurturing Care Interventions for Realizing the Development Potential of Every Child: From Pilot to Scale Up in Maharashtra.

The WHO-UNICEF nurturing care framework (NCF) for early childhood development provides a roadmap for action, focusing on pregnancy and the first three years of life. It emphasizes the need to invest in capacity building and empowerment of service providers, families and communities to create a conducive environment that promotes child development. We describe our experience of implementing nurturing care interventions, beginning with a pilot project in Maharashtra covering a population of 10000 to and scaling it up to a model called Aarambh (the beginning), catering to a population of 1,500,000.

Assistive Technology Provider Experiences during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Globally, health systems face challenges in the delivery of assistive technology (AT) and only 10% of people are currently able to access the assistive products they need. The COVID-19 pandemic presented an uncharted path for AT providers to navigate, placing them under pressure to be agile and rapidly adapt. This article, part of a series, explores the experiences and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on AT providers and aims to inform how AT providers can be better prepared and supported in the future.

Percutaneous Mitral Valve Annuloplasty in Patients With Secondary Mitral Regurgitation and Severe Left Ventricular Enlargement.

Objectives: This study sought to determine the effect of percutaneous mitral valve annuloplasty with the Carillon device versus guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) alone in patients with secondary mitral regurgitation (MR) and severe left ventricular (LV) enlargement.

Background: The clinical impact of the Carillon device in patients with severe LV dilation is not well established.

Methods: This is a pooled analysis involving 3 prospective trials (TITAN [Transcatheter Implantation of Carillon Mitral Annuloplasty Device], TITAN II, and REDUCE FMR [CARILLON Mitral Contour System for Reducing Functional Mitral Regurgitation] trials) in which patients with functional MR and severe LV enlargement (LV end-diastolic diameter >65 mm) were treated with GDMT and the Carillon device versus GDMT alone.

Joint angle estimation with wavelet neural networks.

This paper presents a wavelet neural network (WNN) based method to reduce reliance on wearable kinematic sensors in gait analysis. Wearable kinematic sensors hinder real-time outdoor gait monitoring applications due to drawbacks caused by multiple sensor placements and sensor offset errors. The proposed WNN method uses vertical Ground Reaction Forces (vGRFs) measured from foot kinetic sensors as inputs to estimate ankle, knee, and hip joint angles.

Authors, peer reviewers, and readers: What is expected from each player in collaborative publishing?

Scholarly publishing is in a crisis, with the many stakeholders complaining about different aspects of the system. Authors want fast publication times, high visibility and publications in high-impact journals. Readers want freely accessible, high-quality articles.

"I teach it because it is the biggest threat to health": Integrating sustainable healthcare into health professions education.

Background: Steering planetary and human health towards a more sustainable future demands educated and prepared health professionals.

Aim: This research aimed: to explore health professions educators' sustainable healthcare education (SHE) knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy and teaching practices across 13 health professions courses in one Australian university.

Methods: Utilising a sequential mixed-methods design: Phase one (understanding) involved an online survey to ascertain educators' SHE knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy and teaching practices to inform phase two (solution generation), 'Teach Green' Hackathon.

Measuring physical activity with activity monitors in patients with heart failure: from literature to practice. A position paper from the Committee on Exercise Physiology and Training of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology.

The aims of this paper were to provide an overview of available activity monitors used in research in patients with heart failure and to identify the key criteria in the selection of the most appropriate activity monitor for collecting, reporting, and analysing physical activity in heart failure research. This study was conducted in three parts. First, the literature was systematically reviewed to identify physical activity concepts and activity monitors used in heart failure research.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) prevention: Virtual classroom education for hand hygiene.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), has spread rapidly in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. Considering the recent outbreak of COVID-19, some precautionary measures have been announced, including campus class suspensions. Nursing campus courses have also been suspended, and there may be a learning gap between hand hygiene theory and clinical training for nursing students.

General Practitioners' management of young people with mental health conditions in Australia.

Aim: Detecting and diagnosing youth mental health issues can be challenging for General Practitioners (GPs) who are often the first to encounter them. One aim of this study was to understand the challenges GPs faced in identifying, treating and referring young people with mental health issues in Melbourne, Australia. A second aim was to identify gaps in GP knowledge and service provision in order to design a service and training program for GPs that addresses those gaps.