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COVID-19: Cultural predictors of gender differences in global prevalence patterns
No full textMuurlink, OT ORCiD: 0000-0002-8251-9521; Taylor-Robinson, AW ORCiD: 0000-0001-7342-8348Puzzling differences are emerging between male and female infection and death rates for COVID-19 (Cai, 2020). We predict that this may be amplified, especially in the developing world, due to hitherto overlooked cultural factors. Currently, credible data from low- and lower middle-income countries on COVID-19 are sparse, with recorded case numbers seemingly suppressed by unreliable surveillance, lesser testing capacity and an underlying burden of infectious diseases that may mimic key symptoms, notably pyrexia. Indeed, acute undifferentiated febrile illness is a common feature of resource-limited tropical regions. Patterns of prevalence of vector-borne diseases in the developing world, however, offer an indication of likely COVID-19 infection and morbidity gender trends
WOmen's action for Mums and Bubs (WOMB) trial protocol: A non-randomized stepped wedge implementation trial of participatory women's groups to improve the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers and children in Australia
No full textPreston, RG ORCiD: 0000-0003-4700-1521; Redman-Maclaren, ML ORCiD: 0000-0002-2055-7733Introduction: In Australia, there have been improvements in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander maternal health, however inequities remain. There is increasing international evidence illustrating the effectiveness of Participatory Women's Groups (PWGs) in improving Maternal and Child Health (MCH) outcomes. Using a non-randomized, cluster stepped-wedge implementation of a complex intervention with mixed methods evaluation, this study aims to test the effectiveness of PWGs in improving MCH within Indigenous primary care settings in Australia and how they operate in various contexts.
Methods: This study takes place in ten primary health care services across Australia and involves the recruitment of existing PWGs or the setting up of new PWGs. Services are paired based on geography for practical reasons and two services commence the PWG intervention at three monthly intervals, with the initial four services being those with existing women's groups. Implementation of the PWGs as an intervention involves training local facilitators of PWG groups, supported engagement with local MCH data through workshops, PWGs identifying and prioritizing issues and strengths and co-implementing solutions with health services. Outcomes are measured with yearly MCH audits, a cost-effectiveness study, and process evaluation of community participation and empowerment.
Discussion: This study is the first to formally implement and quantitatively, yet with contextual awareness, measure the effect of applying a community participation intervention to improve the quality of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander MCH in Australia. Findings from this work, including detailed theory-producing qualitative analysis, will produce new knowledge of how to facilitate improved quality of MCH care in Indigenous PHC settings and how to best engage community in driving health care improvements.
Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR): ACTRN12618000945224.
Web address: http://www.ANZCTR.org.au/ACTRN12618000945224.asp
Climate change projections in the Awash River Basin of Ethiopia using Global and Regional Climate Models
No full textKoech, RK ORCiD: 0000-0002-0563-6687Understanding the long-term variability and change in climate variables is crit-ical for the sustainable management of water resources. This research aimedto project and analyse climate change in the Awash River Basin (ARB) usingbias-corrected Global and Regional Climate Model simulations. The analysisincluded a baseline period from 1986 to 2005 and two future scenarios (2050sand 2070s) under two representative concentration pathways (RCP4.5 andRCP8.5). Following the evaluation of bias correction methods, the distributionmapping and power transformation were used for temperature and precipita-tion projection, respectively. The 2050s and 2070s RCP4 simulations showedan increase in precipitation during half of the months with 32 and 10%, respec-tively. Moreover, the 2050s and 2070s RCP8.5 simulation indicated a decreasein precipitation with 18 and 26%, respectively. The 2050s and 2070s RCP8.5simulation indicated a significant decrease in precipitation in four of themonths (February/March to May) with the highest decreasing rate of 34.7%.The 2050s and 2070s RCP4.5 simulation showed an increase of 0.48–2.6 Cinmaximum temperature. In the case of RCP8.5, the simulated maximum tem-perature increase reached 3.4 and 4.1 C in the 2050s and 2070s, respectively.The future precipitation and temperature change projected in ARB mightworsen the water stress and incidence of dry spells in the basin, and hence mit-igation strategies and management options to reduce this negative impactshould be developed
Sleep hygiene in shiftworkers: A systematic review
No full textFerguson, SA ORCiD: 0000-0002-9682-7971; Jay, SM ORCiD: 0000-0002-1447-7008; Vincent, GE ORCiD: 0000-0002-7036-7823In response to demand for the ‘24/7’ availability of services, shift work has become increasingly common. Given their non-traditional working hours, shift workers sleep at non-traditional times, and as such, significant research has been undertaken to understand the sleep of this population. However, sleep hygiene in shift workers has been paid little research attention. Sleep hygiene describes a range of behaviours, lifestyle, and environmental factors that can optimise sleep quantity and quality. In order to investigate the ways in which shift workers engage with sleep hygiene, a systematic review using the databases Sage, ScienceDirect, and Scopus was undertaken. The search terms utilised were: shift work, shiftwork, shift-work, sleep hygiene, sleep routine, and sleep habit. Sixteen studies were included for review. Findings show that shift workers frequently report caffeine consumption and daytime napping, contrary to recommendations. Shift workers also commonly altered their bedroom environment to optimise sleep. Diet, exercise, alcohol and nicotine consumption were investigated minimally from a sleep hygiene perspective. Future research should aim to comprehensively investigate sleep hygiene in shift working populations, assess the applicability of current sleep hygiene guidelines to shit workers, consider the development of shift work-specific sleep hygiene guidelines, and direct the development of sleep hygiene interventions for this sleep-vulnerable population
Surfers, lifeguards and new voices: A short history of beach writing in Australia
No full textEllison, ER ORCiD: 0000-0002-0865-950XThe Australian continent is a place of diverse landscapes. The outback, frequently considered an impenetrable space, captured the imagination of British colonisers. But ultimately, Australia is an island surrounded by coastline. Most Australians live along the coast; however, academic research often pays more attention to the outback. This chapter captures a short history of beach writing in Australia. From early poems like Adam Gordon Lindsay’s ‘The Swimmer’, to the writings of Tim Winton, and via Puberty Blues, beach writing has more depth than is otherwise considered. As such, this chapter provides an informative review of the key milestones of beach writing in Australia
A new sensor for detecting microrna 133B (Parkinson’s disease biomarker)
No full textChandra, SS ORCiD: 0000-0002-4257-5860The discovery of small non-protein coding regulatory RNAs, such as short microRNAs (miRs) has enabled the detection of diseases, e.g. Alzheimer's disease and breast cancer. The diagnoses of such diseases were previously difficult due to reasons of specificity of the technique and low concentrations of the targets. To this end, miR associated with diseases such as Parkinson's disease have started to be pursued as analytical biomarkers using electrochemical sensors. Such sensors can provide high sensitivity, low detection limits and rapid analysis times. These powerful advantages are an effective means to mitigate the problems associated with low miR concentrations and short lifespans.
In this work, we report the development of a new signal-on biosensor for selective and ultrasensitive detection of miR 133b, a known biomarker for Parkinson's disease. The sensor utilizes complementary ss-DNA sequence labelled with methylene blue redox marker attached to a gold electrode surface to generate current response for miR 133b when subjected to cyclic voltammetric measurements. The continuous cycling between the oxidation and reduction of methylene blue in presence of tris(2-carboxyethyl) phosphine hydrochloride, as a strong reductant, was used to amplify the response. Under optimum conditions, the sensors achieved a linear concentration range of 10 fM to 520 pM, a detection limit of 168 aM, and a sensitivity of 0.3 nA pM−1. Furthermore, the sensors successfully distinguished between matched and mismatched sequences of miR, suggesting promising potential for eventual applications in vitro
Deep undrained bearing capacity of rectangular foundations in uniform strength clay
No full textAlbermani, F ORCiD: 0000-0001-8540-1724; Suntharavadivel, TG ORCiD: 0000-0003-4439-7495; Ullah, S ORCiD: 0000-0002-5522-5341The deep vertical bearing capacity of rectangular foundations of varying aspect ratios (0.2–10) are explored within a coupled Eulerian–Lagrangian (CEL) finite element modeling framework. The CEL model is verified against existing numerical and theoretical solutions. For accurate shallow bearing capacity assessment, large deformation finite element (LDFE) solutions were found to be suitable if penetration resistance is extracted at normalized penetration depths of less than 5% of the foundation width. The deep bearing capacity factor for a circular foundation was predicted within ∼2% for a smooth foundation and ∼5% for a rough foundation. Soil weight and stiffness were found to have no impact on the penetration resistance at shallow depths but to influence the resistance at deeper depths. The relative foundation thickness has a profound influence on the deep bearing capacity factor (Nc). Increasing the normalized foundation thickness from 0.1 to 0.5 increased the bearing factor by more than 20%. An alternate soil flow mechanism was discovered responsible for this increase. The deep bearing capacity factor for a rectangular foundation was found to nonlinearly increase with the footing aspect ratio. An exponential form of equation was shown to capture well the effects of varying aspect ratio and footing thickness. The effect of the common assumption of a rigid foundation on bearing capacity in geotechnical numerical analyses has been revisited. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0002356. © 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers
Optimal PV parameter estimation via double exponential function-based dynamic inertia weight particle swarm optimization
No full textDas, NK ORCiD: 0000-0002-3396-4194Parameters associated with electrical equivalent models of the photovoltaic (PV) system play a significant role in the performance enhancement of the PV system. However, the accurate estimation of these parameters signifies a challenging task due to the higher computational complexities and non-linear characteristics of the PV modules/panels. Hence, an effective, dynamic, and efficient optimization technique is required to estimate the parameters associated with PV models. This paper proposes a double exponential function-based dynamic inertia weight (DEDIW) strategy for the optimal parameter estimation of the PV cell and module that maintains an appropriate balance between the exploitation and exploration phases to mitigate the premature convergence problem of conventional particle swarm optimization (PSO). The proposed approach (DEDIWPSO) is validated for three test systems; (1) RTC France solar cell, (2) Photo-watt (PWP 201) PV module, and (3) a practical test system (JKM330P-72, 310 W polycrystalline PV module) which involve data collected under real environmental conditions for both single- and double-diode models. Results illustrate that the parameters obtained from proposed technique are better than those from the conventional PSO and various other techniques presented in the literature. Additionally, a comparison of the statistical results reveals that the proposed methodology is highly accurate, reliable, and efficient
Prevalence and attributable health burden of chronic respiratory diseases, 1990–2017: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017
No full textRawal, LB ORCiD: 0000-0003-1106-0108Background: Previous attempts to characterise the burden of chronic respiratory diseases have focused only on specific disease conditions, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma. In this study, we aimed to characterise the burden of chronic respiratory diseases globally, providing a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis on geographical and time trends from 1990 to 2017. Methods: Using data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017, we estimated the prevalence, morbidity, and mortality attributable to chronic respiratory diseases through an analysis of deaths, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and years of life lost (YLL) by GBD super-region, from 1990 to 2017, stratified by age and sex. Specific diseases analysed included asthma, COPD, interstitial lung disease and pulmonary sarcoidosis, pneumoconiosis, and other chronic respiratory diseases. We also assessed the contribution of risk factors (smoking, second-hand smoke, ambient particulate matter and ozone pollution, household air pollution from solid fuels, and occupational risks) to chronic respiratory disease-attributable DALYs. Findings: In 2017, 544·9 million people (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 506·9–584·8) worldwide had a chronic respiratory disease, representing an increase of 39·8% compared with 1990. Chronic respiratory disease prevalence showed wide variability across GBD super-regions, with the highest prevalence among both males and females in high-income regions, and the lowest prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. The age-sex-specific prevalence of each chronic respiratory disease in 2017 was also highly variable geographically. Chronic respiratory diseases were the third leading cause of death in 2017 (7·0% [95% UI 6·8–7·2] of all deaths), behind cardiovascular diseases and neoplasms. Deaths due to chronic respiratory diseases numbered 3 914 196 (95% UI 3 790 578–4 044 819) in 2017, an increase of 18·0% since 1990, while total DALYs increased by 13·3%. However, when accounting for ageing and population growth, declines were observed in age-standardised prevalence (14·3% decrease), age-standardised death rates (42·6%), and age-standardised DALY rates (38·2%). In males and females, most chronic respiratory disease-attributable deaths and DALYs were due to COPD. In regional analyses, mortality rates from chronic respiratory diseases were greatest in south Asia and lowest in sub-Saharan Africa, also across both sexes. Notably, although absolute prevalence was lower in south Asia than in most other super-regions, YLLs due to chronic respiratory diseases across the subcontinent were the highest in the world. Death rates due to interstitial lung disease and pulmonary sarcoidosis were greater than those due to pneumoconiosis in all super-regions. Smoking was the leading risk factor for chronic respiratory disease-related disability across all regions for men. Among women, household air pollution from solid fuels was the predominant risk factor for chronic respiratory diseases in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, while ambient particulate matter represented the leading risk factor in southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania, and in the Middle East and north Africa super-region. Interpretation: Our study shows that chronic respiratory diseases remain a leading cause of death and disability worldwide, with growth in absolute numbers but sharp declines in several age-standardised estimators since 1990. Premature mortality from chronic respiratory diseases seems to be highest in regions with less-resourced health systems on a per-capita basis. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licens
A focus group study of older adults’ perceptions and preferences towards web-based physical activity interventions
No full textAlley, SJ ORCiD: 0000-0001-9666-5071; Parkinson, L ORCiD: 0000-0001-9433-9555; Rebar, A ORCiD: 0000-0003-3164-993X; Schneiders, AG ORCiD: 0000-0002-1583-3879; Schoeppe, S ORCiD: 0000-0003-1937-876X; Vandelanotte, CL ORCiD: 0000-0002-4445-8094Objective: To explore older adults’ perceptions and preferences for web-based physical activity interventions. Participants: Adults 65+ years were recruited via telephoning randomly selected households in Central Queensland, Australia. Methods: Six focus groups were conducted with a total of 46 adults 65+ years. Data were analyzed by qualitative content analysis. Results: This group of older adults liked websites that have links to information and included instructional videos and disliked websites that were hard to navigate. Many participants did not express an initial interest in web-based physical activity programs. The most common reason was that they did not have a computer or adequate internet connection. Some participants said they would be interested if it included a structured exercise program. When asked about preferences for web-based physical activity programs, this group preferred them to be simple and not cluttered, to include personalized advice, to include reminder check-ins and the ability to review goals after illness or injury. The most common preference for personalized advice in web-based interventions was that the information needs to be tailored to their existing injuries and illnesses. Conclusion: The findings from this study will inform the design of future web-based interventions specifically tailored to the needs of older people. © 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC