Mailed smoking cessation support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who smoke: protocol for a hybrid type 1 effectiveness - implementation trial.

Introduction: Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and the single most significant risk behaviour contributing to adverse health conditions among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. There is an urgent need for innovative approaches to support reductions in smoking prevalence. This study will assess the implementation and effectiveness of a mailed smoking cessation support programme that includes nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) () for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

PAK3 pathogenic variant associated with sleep-related hypermotor epilepsy in a family with parental mosaicism.

Protein-activated kinases mediate spine morphogenesis and synaptic plasticity. PAK3 is part of the p21-activated kinases (PAKs) family of Ras-signaling serine/threonine kinases. Pathogenic variants in the X-linked gene PAK3 have been described in patients with neurodevelopmental syndromes.

Validity, reliability and clinical utility of ASSIST-Y in assessing risk of substance-related harm and dependence in Spanish male adolescents.

Background: Substance use among adolescents is strongly associated with adverse physical, mental health, and social outcomes. Prevention and early intervention can reduce the likelihood of future problems, but requires valid and reliable screening tools capable of assessing risk across a range of substances. This study assessed the validity, reliability, and clinical utility of the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST-Y) for adolescents aged 15-17 years.

Finding the right dose: a scoping review examining facilitation as an implementation strategy for evidence-based stroke care.

Background: Despite evidence supporting interventions that improve outcomes for patients with stroke, their implementation remains suboptimal. Facilitation can support implementation of research into clinical practice by helping people develop the strategies to implement change. However, variability in the amount (dose) and type of facilitation activities/facilitator roles that make up the facilitation strategies (content), may affect the effectiveness of facilitation.

Healthcare practitioners as accomplices: a qualitative study of gender affirmation in a context of ambiguous regulation in Indonesia.

Background: The World Professional Association for Transgender Health guidelines Standards of Care 8 draw on ethical arguments based on individual autonomy, to argue that healthcare and other professionals should be advocates for trans people. Such guidelines presume the presence of medical services for trans people and a degree of consensus on medical ethics. Very little is known, however, about the ethical challenges associated with both providing and accessing trans healthcare, including gender affirmation, in the Global South.

Determining timeframes to death for imminently dying patients: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: Clinicians are frequently asked 'how long' questions at end-of-life by patients and those important to them, yet predicting timeframes to death remains uncertain, even in the last weeks and days of life. Patients and families wish to know so they can ask questions, plan, make decisions, have time to visit and say their goodbyes, and have holistic care needs met. Consequently, this necessitates a more accurate assessment of empirical data to better inform prognostication and reduce uncertainty around time until death.

Long-acting, progestin-based contraceptives and risk of breast, gynecological, and other cancers.

Background: Use of long-acting, reversible contraceptives has increased over the past 20 years, but an understanding of how they could influence cancer risk is limited.

Methods: We conducted a nested case-control study among a national cohort of Australian women (n = 176 601 diagnosed with cancer between 2004 and 2013; 882 999 matched control individuals) to investigate the associations between the levonorgestrel intrauterine system, etonogestrel implants, depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate and cancer risk and compared these results with the oral contraceptive pill. We used conditional logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Intestinal barrier function, caecal microbiota and growth performance of thermoneutral or heat stressed broiler chickens fed reduced crude protein diets supplemented with guanidinoacetic acid.

The effectiveness of guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) in reduced protein (RP) diets on performance and gut health of broilers under heat stress is largely unknown. A 35-d experiment was conducted using four dietary treatments: a standard protein diet (SP, 22.1 and 20.

Multifaceted barriers associated with clinical breast examination in sub-Saharan Africa: A multilevel analytical approach.

Objectives: Clinical breast examination (CBE) open the pathway to early detection and diagnosis of breast cancer. This study examined barriers to CBE uptake in seven sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries.

Methods: Data from the most current Demographic and Health Surveys of Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Kenya Mozambique, Senegal and Tanzania was used.

Automated characterisation of cerebral microbleeds using their size and spatial distribution on brain MRI.

Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) are small, hypointense hemosiderin deposits in the brain measuring 2-10 mm in diameter. As one of the important biomarkers of small vessel disease, they have been associated with various neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases. Hence, automated detection, and subsequent extraction of clinically useful metrics (e.

'Screening should not be based on ability to pay': Australian healthcare providers' and consumers' perspectives on public funding for non-invasive prenatal testing.

Background: Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) does not receive any Medicare rebate. This study investigated the views of Australian healthcare providers and consumers on public funding of NIPT.

Materials And Methods: Two anonymous online, cross-sectional surveys were conducted from September 2022 to January 2023.

Cardiac growth patterns and metabolism before and after birth in swine: Role of miR in proliferation, hypertrophy and metabolism.

The adult mammalian heart is unable to undergo cardiac repair, limiting potential treatment options after cardiac damage. However, the fetal heart is capable of cardiac repair. In preparation for birth, cardiomyocytes (CMs) undergo major maturational changes that include exit from the cell cycle, hypertrophic growth, and mitochondrial maturation.

Perspectives on Frailty Among Emergency Physicians: A Qualitative Descriptive Study.

Background The proportion of older people in the general population is rising. Accompanying this rise is an increased prevalence of frailty. Frailty is a syndrome of increased vulnerability to stressors due to decreased physiological reserve and is linked to increased health services use.

Continuous Glucose Monitors and Programmed Shared Medical Appointments in Managing Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Among First Nation Women in Australia: A Co-Designed Feasibility Study.

First Nations women in Australia diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, co-designed and attended a programmed shared medical appointment that included continuous glucose monitors and culturally responsive food appreciation activities over 8 weekly sessions to improve glycaemic control. The project was a single site, longitudinal change from baseline, mixed methods, feasibility study using HbA1c as the primary outcome measure. Secondary outcome measures included, weight, metabolic health-related blood panels, CGM, Blood Glucose Levels (BGL) time-in-range percentage, Patient Activation Measure (PAM) and Problem Areas In Diabetes (PAID) tools and client satisfaction survey and semi focussed interviews.

Orthoflavivirus circulation in South-East Queensland, Australia, before and during the 2021-2022 incursion of Japanese encephalitis virus assessed through sero-epidemiological survey of a sentinel equine population.

An incursion and outbreak of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) was reported in Australia in 2021 and 2022, respectively. There was speculation that JEV may have been circulating in Australia unknowingly prior to the detection. In this study, we determined sero-prevalence and transmission of West Nile virus (WNV), Murray Valley encephalitis virus (MVEV) and JEV, prior to and post JEV incursion in a sentinel equine population in south-east Queensland (SEQ), Australia, using blocking ELISAs (screening test) and virus neutralisation test (confirmatory).

eHealth, digital information and technology use of men with prostate cancer.

Background: The investigation of digital information sources and technologies specifically used by men with prostate cancer is scarce. This study seeks to address current gaps in the literature by investigating prostate cancer-specific internet and technology use by men with prostate cancer and factors associated with this use.

Methods: Cross-sectional surveys were conducted in three Australian urology clinics (local in Sydney, Western Sydney and Murrumbidgee) in 2023.

The impact of the BreastScreen NSW transition from film to digital mammography, 2002-2016: a linked population health data analysis.

Objectives: To assess the impact of the transition from film to digital mammography in the Australian national breast cancer screening program.

Study Design: Retrospective linked population health data analysis (New South Wales Central Cancer Registry, BreastScreen NSW); interrupted time series analysis.

Setting: New South Wales, 2002-2016.

The Use of Omics in Untangling the Effect of Lifestyle Factors in Pregnancy and Gestational Diabetes: A Systematic Review.

Aim: To synthesise the evidence from clinical trials and observational studies using omics techniques to investigate the impact of diet and lifestyle factors on metabolite profile in pregnancy, and in the prevention and management of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).

Materials And Methods: A systematic literature search was performed using PubMed, Ovid, CINAHL, and Web of Science databases in October 2023 and updated in September 2024. Inclusion criteria were randomised controlled trials (RCT) or non-RCTs in pregnant women with or without GDM, that measured diet and lifestyle factors, and which applied post-transcriptional omics approaches.

Factors Influencing the Use of Shave Biopsy for Lesions Suspicious of Melanoma in Australia: An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Study.

Background: Recent Australian trends indicate that shave biopsies for diagnosing lesions suspicious of melanoma are increasing, yet reasons for this remain relatively unknown. We sought to understand which factors influence Australian clinicians' use of shave biopsy for managing thin lesions suspicious of melanoma in sites of low cosmetic sensitivity.

Methods: We used a convergent, exploratory mixed-methods design, with a cross-sectional online survey (n = 59) and semi-structured qualitative interviews (n = 15).

Measuring Food and Water Security in an Aboriginal Community in Regional Australia.

Objective: To measure current levels and experiences of food and water security in Walgett to guide a community-led program and to provide a baseline measure.

Design: A community-led cross-sectional survey conducted in April 2022 by trained local researchers.

Setting: Walgett, a regional town in NSW, Australia.

The world's most venomous spider is a species complex: systematics of the Sydney funnel-web spider (Atracidae: Atrax robustus).

The Sydney funnel-web spider Atrax robustus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1877 is an iconic Australian species and considered among the most dangerously venomous spiders for humans. Originally described in 1877 from a single specimen collected in "New Holland", this spider has a complex taxonomic history.

Maintaining level of modifiable dementia risk scores is associated with better cognitive outcomes than increasing risk scores: A population-based prospective cohort study.

Background: A brain healthy lifestyle, consisting of good cardiometabolic health and being cognitively and socially active in midlife, is associated with a lower risk of cognitive decline years later. However, it is unclear whether lifestyle changes over time also affect the risk for mild cognitive impairment (MCI)/dementia, and rate of cognitive decline.

Objectives: To investigate if lifestyle changes over time are associated with incident MCI/dementia risk and rate of cognitive decline.

Blarcamesine for the treatment of Early Alzheimer's Disease: Results from the ANAVEX2-73-AD-004 Phase IIB/III trial.

Background: There are no approved oral disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess efficacy and safety of blarcamesine (ANAVEX®2-73), an orally available small-molecule activator of the sigma-1 receptor (SIGMAR1) in early AD through restoration of cellular homeostasis including autophagy enhancement.

Design: ANAVEX2-73-AD-004 was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 48-week Phase IIb/III trial.

Evaluating student understanding of core pharmacokinetic concepts.

Both educators and graduates have expressed concern about a perceived pharmacology knowledge gap that includes difficulty applying fundamental principles to clinical and research problems. Consequently, we sought to determine the extent to which current students can explain the meaning of, and appropriately apply, a subset of core concepts, and to identify any misconceptions arising from the responses. Of the twenty-four pharmacology core concepts arising from the recent international collaboration, four pharmacokinetic concepts were chosen, namely drug bioavailability, drug clearance, volume of distribution, and steady-state concentration.