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Stakeholder co-design of sustainable urban pest management strategies
Get PDFThe high levels of broad-spectrum insecticides used to manage invertebrates in many cities around the world has significant environmental and health impacts. Integrated pest management (IPM) is a framework for sustainable pest control practice, but uptake of IPM remains low in most cities. We used participatory action research with pest management industry stakeholders (practitioners, industry representatives, researchers and government employees) to identify key issues in urban pest management in Australia, set priorities for change and discuss collaborative solutions. Via an online survey and a face-to-face workshop, the participants identified the key themes of education and training, public awareness, environmental impacts and lack of IPM uptake. We present a summary of the top eight issues, the priorities identified for each one and the co-designed recommended actions that different stakeholders can take to support a shift towards more sustainable pest management practices in urban settings
Treatment refusal by cancer patients: A qualitative study of oncology health professionals’ views and experiences in Australia
Get PDFIn some cases, against medical advice, a person with cancer decides not to undergo any conventional, evidence-based cancer treatments including chemotherapy, radiotherapy hormone therapy and others. Estimates for treatment refusal range from 2.6% to 14.55%. Refusing evidence-based conventional cancer treatments is linked to rapid deterioration, poor prognosis and a higher risk of premature death. This study aimed to explore oncology health professionals’ experiences and views on why patients refuse standard cancer treatments. We employed an in-depth qualitative research design, adopting a social constructionist framework. Fourteen health professionals in Western Australia (WA) with experience working in oncology were interviewed. Four themes were identified: ‘They want to do it their way’; ‘Keeping the door open’; ‘It can be draining’; and ‘Where to from here?’. We found that treatment refusal had a disproportionate impact on individuals, families, health professionals and the health system, including time spent engaging with patients contemplating refusing treatment. The issue is complex and multifaceted, with several motivations for treatment refusal. Statistics on 5-year survival rates need to be presented in a number of ways so that people understand what these statistics mean. General information on cancer regarding incidence, treatments and survival rates could be presented via social media so that we reach more people. Supports for oncology health professionals are needed including training to prevent compassion fatigue and burnout
Quality survivorship care for people affected by advanced or metastatic cancer: A Clinical Oncology Society of Australia endorsement of the Joint Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer and American Society of Clinical Oncology care standards and practice recommendations
No full textBouncing back or forward? Two approaches to democratic resilience after extremist attacks
No full textViolent extremist attacks pose a serious threat to democracy, undermining its institutions, norms and practices. This article examines the disruptive impact of violent extremism on the public sphere and considers the role of political leaders in responding to these challenges. Leaders are widely recognised as the key actors shaping the public discourse after extremist attacks, by either reinforcing or resisting the division intended by these attacks. Yet, their role in building democratic resilience – that is, fostering the public sphere’s ability to respond to extremist attacks without compromising its democratic commitments – remains underexplored. Drawing on a range of case studies, the article examines the spectrum of leaders’ responses to violent extremist attacks and their effects on democratic resilience. It identifes two distinct approaches to democratic resilience: ‘bouncing back’ by maintaining the status quo, or ‘bouncing forward’ by deepening democratic commitments. The article considers the implications of each approach and underscores the necessity of the latter in strengthening the public sphere and its deliberative capacity in the aftermath of extremist attacks
Ecological resources of a heavily modified and utilised temperate coastal embayment: Cockburn Sound
No full textCoastal environments and their associated biota provide numerous environmental, economic and societal services. Cockburn Sound, a temperate embayment on the lower west coast of Western Australia, is immensely important for the State and adjacent capital city of Perth. However, urbanisation and associated terrestrial and marine development has the potential to threaten this important ecosystem. This study collated published and unpublished data to review the current state of the ecological resources of Cockburn Sound and describe how they have changed over the past century. Post-WWII, the embayment began undergoing pronounced anthropogenic changes that limited oceanic water exchange, increased nutrient load, modified benthic habitats and increased fishing pressure. The most visual outcome of these changes was substantial eutrophication and the loss of 77% of seagrass habitats. However, the increased primary productivity from elevated nutrient inputs produced high commercial fishery yields of up to ~1,700 t in the early 1990s before improved wastewater regulation and restricted fishing access steadily reduced commercial catches to ~300 t in recent years. Despite substantial anthropogenic-induced changes, Cockburn Sound has remained a diverse and ecologically important area. For example, the embayment is a key spawning area for large aggregations of Snapper, is a breeding and feeding site for seventeen marine bird species (including Little Penguins) and, is frequented by numerous protected species such as pinnipeds, dolphins, and White and Grey Nurse sharks. In recent decades, numerous projects have been initiated to restore parts of Cockburn Sound with mixed success, including seagrass transplantation, deployment of artificial reefs and stocking of key fish species, mainly Snapper. Nevertheless, while still biodiverse, there are signs of considerable ecological stress from escalating anthropogenic pressures and the cumulative impacts of ongoing and future developments, including climate change, which may severely impact the functioning of this important ecosystem
Ocular changes as potential biomarkers for early diagnosis of Alzheimer\u27s disease
No full textAlzheimer\u27s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder and the most common cause of dementia. AD diagnosis often involves a thorough assessment, including clinical evaluation, cognitive testing, medical history examination, genetic testing, and biomarker analysis. Currently, the invasive nature and high costs of biomarker testing, such as cerebrospinal fluid analysis and neuroimaging, have limited the early detection and intervention of the disease. Therefore, researchers have explored cheaper and less invasive options, such as ocular imaging. This review discusses the close relationship between the eye and the central nervous system and ocular changes as a potential non-invasive AD biomarker. Ocular changes in AD have frequently been reported in the literature, particularly in the later stages of the disease. However, identifying biomarkers specifically attributable to AD remains a challenge. Additionally, this review provides a comprehensive overview of existing studies and highlights potential pathways for enhancing AD detection through ocular structural and functional evaluation. Highlights: Widespread screening for early detection of Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) is limited by cost and time constraints with current methods. Non-invasive and inexpensive methods are needed to overcome these difficulties. The eye is readily accessible and has shared developmental origins, neurobiology, and neurochemistry with the brain. The expanding field of ocular biomarker studies needs larger, well-characterized cohorts and longitudinal studies to understand the ocular changes for preclinical AD screening. Standards should be established for more methodical investigative approaches to identify ocular biomarkers that are specifically attributable to AD
Optimising exercise for managing chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in people diagnosed with cancer
No full textBackground: Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy is a common and debilitating side effect of cancer treatment. While exercise has shown promise in alleviating this burden, it remains underutilised in clinical practice due to the lack of accessible, clinician-friendly guidance. Aim: This review aimed to synthesise current evidence on exercise interventions for managing chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy and provide practical insights to support clinicians in integrating these approaches into patient care. Methods: A search was conducted across MEDLINE, CINAHL, and SPORTDiscus using keywords related to exercise and CIPN. Studies were included if they involved adults receiving neurotoxic chemotherapy and exercise-based interventions. Two authors independently screened studies and resolved conflicts with a third author. Study quality was assessed using the JBI Critical Appraisal Tools, and only studies meeting a minimum quality standard were included. A balanced sampling approach was employed. Data on study design, participant characteristics, interventions, and outcomes were extracted. Results: Eleven studies were included, covering various exercise modalities: multimodal (n = 5), yoga (n = 2), aerobic (n = 1), resistance (n = 1), balance (n = 1), and sensorimotor (n = 1). Exercise interventions, particularly multimodal exercise, significantly improved symptom severity, functionality, and quality of life (p \u3c 0.05). The studies had high methodological quality, with randomised controlled trials scoring between 9/13 and 11/13, and quasi-experimental studies scoring 8/9 on JBI tools. Conclusions: This review highlights the significant benefits of exercise, especially multimodal exercise, for managing CIPN and provides guidance for integrating these strategies into clinical practice. Future research is needed to refine exercise prescriptions and develop standardised guidelines
Superior effects of high-intensity interval eccentric cycling training on neuromuscular adaptations with similar aerobic adaptations to concentric cycling
No full textPurpose: We compared the effects of high-intensity interval eccentric (EC) versus concentric cycling (CC) training on aerobic capacity, muscle function and morphology. Methods: Healthy men (19–56 y) performed EC (n = 9) or CC (n = 8) training twice a week for 8 weeks. The training progressed from 5 × 2-min intervals with 1-min rest to 7 × 2-min intervals with 30-s rest. EC and CC were matched for perceived effort, and progressed from 30 to 36% of concentric peak power output (PPO10s) for CC and from 45 to 70% PPO10s for EC. Changes in peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak), incremental concentric PPO (PPOinc), 6-min walking distance (6 MW), 10 s concentric PPO (PPO10s), maximal voluntary isometric contraction knee extensor strength (MVC), countermovement (CMJ) and squat jump height (SJ), quadriceps cross-sectional area (CSA), and fascicle length (FL) and pennation angle (PA) of vastus lateralis were compared between EC and CC. Results: Greater (P \u3c 0.05) changes in PPO10s (EC: 26.9 ± 10.5% vs. CC: 8.9 ± 8.0%, Hedges’g = 2.03), CMJ (3.9 ± 1.8 vs. − 3.3 ± 7.4%, g = 1.46), SJ (7.4 ± 4.7% vs. − 2.3 ± 4.4%, g = 2.26), and CSA (6.1 ± 4.7 vs. 0.1 ± 3.8%, g = 1.48) were observed after EC than CC. No significant differences between EC and CC were found for changes in VO2peak (3.7 ± 3.9 vs. 6.6 ± 6.9%, g = -0.55), PPOinc (6.0 ± 4.2 vs. 6.4 ± 4.6%, g = − 0.11), 6 MW (6.0 ± 4.2 vs. 6.4 ± 4.6%, g = -1.03) and MVC (12.5 ± 13.3 vs. 6.2 ± 8.3%, g = 0.59). FL and PA did not show significant changes after EC and CC. Conclusion: EC was more effective than CC for improving several markers of muscle function. High-intensity interval eccentric cycling appears to be suitable for simultaneously improving strength and endurance
Anomaly detection of seasonal vessel activity
No full textMonitoring maritime traffic is essential for ensuring the safety of vessels, safeguarding transported goods or persons, and preventing illicit or hazardous activity at sea. Increasingly, researchers have explored data-driven approaches to model expected vessel behaviour and detect deviations or anomalies. These anomalies—such as course deviations, unauthorised area entries, or unexpected operational patterns—can indicate emergencies, regulatory breaches, or unlawful intent. Data broadcast by vessels provides a valuable resource for such analyses; however, the inherent complexity and context-dependency of maritime behaviour present persistent modelling challenges. One critical yet underutilised factor in this context is seasonality. For certain vessel types, for example, fishing vessels, patterns of activity vary predictably with the time of year. Ignoring these seasonal trends can lead to models that misclassify normal seasonal behaviour as anomalous, or worse, fail to detect meaningful outliers.
This research study proposes a two-phase approach for maritime anomaly detection while incorporating seasonal context. In the first phase, clustering techniques are applied to vessel trajectory data to identify patterns of normal operation. In the second phase, a classification process evaluates new trajectories against these models to detect anomalous activity. Central to this approach is the inclusion of seasonal context: month-of-year (MoY) values were encoded into each trajectory record, enabling the model to be seasonally aware.
A persistent challenge in trajectory similarity calculation lies in the variable length of trajectories and the appropriate choice of distance measures. To address this, four trajectory distance measures were assessed: Dynamic Time Warping (DTW), two normalised DTW variants, and the Hausdorff distance. Particular attention was given to DTW’s known sensitivity to trajectory length. The use of normalised variants was investigated to mitigate length-related biases and improve comparability between trajectories of differing durations.
The core seasonal model was constructed using a set of in-season-fishing vessel trajectories representing typical operational behaviour during active fishing periods. DBSCAN, a density-based clustering algorithm, was employed to identify coherent groups within this data, with parameter tuning based on data-driven distance thresholds. The model’s performance was then evaluated against a mixed set of trajectories comprising in-season and out-of-season fishing vessels, alongside cargo, passenger, and tanker vessels, to assess its capacity to detect both seasonal deviations and category-based anomalies.
Following clustering, a k-nearest neighbours (kNN) classifier was applied to classify new, unseen trajectories relative to the established seasonal models. Three distance-based thresholding metrics were tested: Cluster-Mean, Cluster-IQR-Rule, and DBSCAN Epsilon. Experimental results indicated that the Hausdorff distance and both normalised DTW variants consistently outperformed the non-normalised DTW measure, which remained unstable due to trajectory length sensitivity.
Finally, an ensemble framework, Inter-Model Reasoning (IMR), was introduced to combine the individual classifiers while excluding unstable distance measures. The IMR configuration delivered improved detection consistency, reduced false positives, and enhanced decision robustness at moderate consensus thresholds. These findings reinforce the value of incorporating seasonal context, adaptive distance measures through normalisation, and ensemble-based reasoning within maritime anomaly detection frameworks
