Use of immunoglobulin G homeostatic set point and recovery time in plasmapheresis donor safety monitoring: A retrospective observational cohort study.

Background And Objectives: Serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) and total protein are used to monitor plasmapheresis donor safety. However, there is a lack of information from large donor cohorts to determine the best use of these measurements.

Materials And Methods: We identified 230,144 plasmapheresis donors making their first donation between 1 July 2020 and 31 March 2024.

The promise of community-driven preprints in ecology and evolution.

Publishing preprints is quickly becoming commonplace in ecology and evolutionary biology. Preprints can facilitate the rapid sharing of scientific knowledge establishing precedence and enabling feedback from the research community before peer review. Yet, significant barriers to preprint use exist, including language barriers, a lack of understanding about the benefits of preprints and a lack of diversity in the types of research outputs accepted (e.

Clinical impact of the Z0011 trial on axillary surgical management in Australia and New Zealand from the BreastSurgANZ Quality Audit.

Background: The clinical management of the axilla in early breast cancer has changed since the Z0011 trial, which showed that axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) is not necessary in select patients with a positive sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB). Studies have shown a significant decrease in the rates of completion ALND (cALND) since Z0011. The aims of this study were to investigate the effect of the Z0011 trial on the management of positive axillary sentinel nodes and the trends in axillary surgical management since 2005 in Australia and New Zealand.

A randomised controlled implementation trial of the feasibility and effectiveness of school staff delivery of a selective substance use and mental health program during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Preventure is a selective school-based personality-targeted program that has shown long-term benefits in preventing student alcohol use, internalising and externalising problems when delivered by psychologists. In this first Australian randomised controlled trial of school staff implementation of Preventure, we aimed to examine i) acceptability, feasibility, and fidelity and ii) effectiveness of Preventure on student alcohol use, internalising, and externalising symptoms.

Methods: A cluster-randomised controlled implementation trial was conducted in Sydney, Australia and was guided by the RE-AIM framework (Glasgow et al.

An online multidomain lifestyle intervention to prevent cognitive decline in at-risk older adults: a randomized controlled trial.

Effective, scalable dementia prevention interventions are needed to address modifiable risk factors given global burden of dementia and challenges in developing disease-modifying treatments. A single-blind randomized controlled trial assessed an online multidomain lifestyle intervention to prevent cognitive decline over 3 years. Participants were dementia-free community-dwelling Australians aged 55-77 years with modifiable dementia risk factors.

OCT-based diagnosis of glaucoma and glaucoma stages using explainable machine learning.

Glaucoma poses a growing health challenge projected to escalate in the coming decades. However, current automated diagnostic approaches on Glaucoma diagnosis solely rely on black-box deep learning models, lacking explainability and trustworthiness. To address the issue, this study uses optical coherence tomography (OCT) images to develop an explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) tool for diagnosing and staging glaucoma, with a focus on its clinical applicability.

How unprofessional behaviors between healthcare staff threaten patient care and safety.

Introduction: Unprofessional behaviors (UB) such as bullying and incivility among healthcare staff are a significant and pervasive issue, impacting staff wellbeing, and patient safety and experiences of care. Despite its prevalence, misconceptions persist regarding the impact of UB and the mechanisms through which it affects patients.

Areas Covered: We draw upon evidence including outcomes from an extensive realist review and empirical research, to demonstrate impacts of UB on patient safety and experience, particularly focusing on how even mild forms of incivility can compromise care quality.

Unravelling phylogenetic relationships within the genus Lispe (Diptera: Muscidae) through genome-assisted and de novo analyses of RAD-seq data.

Lispe represents a species-rich genus within the family Muscidae. The current subdivision of Lispe species into species groups is based mainly on adult morphology and ecology, with the only available phylogenetic study based on three molecular markers. Nonetheless, certain species groups remain unclear and the relationships and composition of these groups are still unresolved.

Clinical outcomes and management following progressive disease with anti-PD-(L)1 therapy in patients with advanced Merkel Cell Carcinoma.

Aim: Merkel Cell Carcinoma (MCC) is a rare skin cancer with a rising incidence worldwide. Anti-programmed death-1/ligand-1 (anti-PD-(L)1) therapies are effective for the treatment of advanced MCC. This study examines patterns of response / progression of advanced MCC to anti-PD-(L)1 therapies and describes subsequent management.

Cancer-specific utility instrument for health economic evaluations: A synopsis of the EORTC QLU-C10D user manual and current validity evidence.

The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Utility - Core 10 Dimensions (QLU-C10D) adds a preference-based scoring algorithm to the EORTC measurement portfolio. It is built on the most widely used health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measure in oncology, the EORTC Quality of Life Questionnaire - Core 30 (QLQ-C30), allowing for the calculation of both HRQoL profiles and health utilities. This is an important advancement for integrating cancer-specific values into health economic evaluations and decision making, offering greater content validity and statistical power than some generic measures.

Ethical issues in conducting health research with people in prison: Results of a deliberative research project conducted with people in Australian prisons.

Planning research involving people in prison raises concerns based on past abuses of incarcerated people amongst other factors. Despite the development of guidelines for the ethical conduct of research in prisons, researchers and advocates have questioned whether current approaches aimed at protecting incarcerated persons from unethical research unfairly exclude this group from participating in and benefitting from research. Discussion of these issues comes mostly from expert opinion.

Assessing the performance of AI chatbots in answering patients' common questions about low back pain.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy and readability of the answers generated by large language model (LLM)-chatbots to common patient questions about low back pain (LBP).

Methods: This cross-sectional study analysed responses to 30 LBP-related questions, covering self-management, risk factors and treatment. The questions were developed by experienced clinicians and researchers and were piloted with a group of consumer representatives with lived experience of LBP.

Patients' Experiences With Opioid Tapering in Noncancer Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-synthesis.

Tapering opioids is an effective strategy to reduce the risks associated with long-term opioid therapy. However, patients' experience with tapering can influence the success of this treatment. Understanding patients' experiences with opioid tapering will allow for patient-centered approaches to be adopted to tailor interventions to achieve safe and successful taper outcomes.

Could metabolic imaging and artificial intelligence provide a novel path to non-invasive aneuploidy assessments? A certain clinical need.

Pre-implantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) via embryo biopsy helps in embryo selection by assessing embryo ploidy. However, clinical practice needs to consider the invasive nature of embryo biopsy, potential mosaicism, and inaccurate representation of the entire embryo. This creates a significant clinical need for improved diagnostic practices that do not harm embryos or raise treatment costs.

Pollutant accumulation characteristics of substrates and mechanism of microbial action in different ecological ditches.

Ecological ditches serve as one of the important measures for the concentrated infiltration of stormwater in the construction process of sponge cities. Prolonged concentrated infiltration of stormwater can lead to the accumulation of pollutants and pollution risks in the substrate of ecological ditches. In this study, two different substrate ecological ditches were constructed, namely, a combined substrate ecological ditch with zeolite + ceramsite (EA), and a biological substrate ecological ditch (EB).

Predicting Carbonic Anhydrase Binding Affinity: Insights from QM Cluster Models.

A systematic series of QM cluster models has been developed to predict the trend in the carbonic anhydrase binding affinity of a structurally diverse dataset of ligands. Reference DLPNO-CCSD(T)/CBS binding energies were generated for a cluster model and used to evaluate the performance of contemporary density functional theory methods, including Grimme's "3c" DFT composite methods (rSCAN-3c and ωB97X-3c). It is demonstrated that when validated QM methods are used, the predictive power of the cluster models improves systematically with the size of the cluster models.

Comparison of different microbiome analysis pipelines to validate their reproducibility of gastric mucosal microbiome composition.

Microbiome analysis has become a crucial tool for basic and translational research due to its potential for translation into clinical practice. However, there is ongoing controversy regarding the comparability of different bioinformatic analysis platforms and a lack of recognized standards, which might have an impact on the translational potential of results. This study investigates how the performance of different microbiome analysis platforms impacts the final results of mucosal microbiome signatures.

A Community-Led Approach to Understanding How Service Providers Can Support 'Ageing well' for Older Aboriginal People in Australia.

Supporting older people to age well is a global policy priority, however the development and implementation of strategies to support ageing well for older Aboriginal people must be determined by the communities affected. This is necessary in colonial contexts, where socio-political structures impinge on Aboriginal rights and mainstream policy and practice creates and maintains health and social inequities. This article reports on research conducted in partnership with the Dharriwaa Elders Group, an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation.

Overweight yet Undernourished: A Common Juxtaposition in the Specialist Diabetes Foot Service.

Aims: To describe the nutritional status of people with diabetes-related foot complications and explore the association between nutrition and ulceration healing.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study included attendees of a diabetes foot service who completed a dietary questionnaire. Diet was compared to guideline recommendations and biochemical measures were recorded.

Generalized Stomatal Optimization of Evolutionary Fitness Proxies for Predicting Plant Gas Exchange Under Drought, Heatwaves, and Elevated CO.

Stomata control plant water loss and photosynthetic carbon gain. Developing more generalized and accurate stomatal models is essential for earth system models and predicting responses under novel environmental conditions associated with global change. Plant optimality theories offer one promising approach, but most such theories assume that stomatal conductance maximizes photosynthetic net carbon assimilation subject to some cost or constraint of water.

Ultrasound measurement of perirenal adipose tissue indicates cardiovascular disease, but standardisation is needed: A systematic review.

Introduction: In both highly industrialised and developing countries, obesity is reaching epidemic proportions and increasingly becoming a critical indicator of general morbidity, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and renal dysfunction. A promising trend in detection and management of obesity is the measurement of perirenal adipose tissue (PRAT), increasingly recognised as a metabolically active endocrine organ in itself. Its measurement by ultrasound is used increasingly to indicate visceral obesity and its clinical management.

Insights into the genetics of body size in the Bull Terrier.

The Bull Terrier (Miniature) and Bull Terrier are two varieties of a dog breed historically divided by size. We identify variety-associated chromosomal regions identified using stratified genome-wide association analysis of 69 Bull Terriers (Miniature) and 33 Bull Terriers. Next, we assess the significance of possible functional variants for body size using height (N = 1458) and weight (N = 1282) of Dog10K individuals with breed-representative metrics available.

GABA Receptor Modulation of Membrane Excitability in Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Sensory Neurons by Baclofen and α-Conotoxin Vc1.1.

GABA receptor (GABAR) activation is known to alleviate pain by reducing neuronal excitability, primarily through inhibition of high voltage-activated (HVA) calcium (Ca2.2) channels and potentiating G protein-coupled inwardly rectifying potassium (GIRK) channels. Although the analgesic properties of small molecules and peptides have been primarily tested on isolated murine dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons, emerging strategies to develop, study, and characterise human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived sensory neurons present a promising alternative.