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Family carers of older adults (Letter to the editor)
Get PDFThis is an electronic version of an article published in Gerace, A., Dawson, S., O’Kane, D., & Muir-Cochrane, E. (2017, February). Family carers of older adults (Letter to the editor). InPsych, 39 (1), 3.
This final published version is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (Feb 2017) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving polic
Australian university general practices: potential to reach out to vulnerable young people
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Mental distress and associated factors among undergraduate students at the University of Hargeisa, Somaliland: a cross-sectional study
Get PDFThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background
Mental distress is a common finding among University students. Empirical research has confirmed that the University student population has a higher prevalence of mental disorder than the general population. However, no previous study has examined the mental health conditions of students in Somaliland.
Methods
An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 570 undergraduate students at the University of Hargeisa in October, 2013. Study subjects were selected using a stratified random sampling. The Self-reporting questionnaire (SRQ-20) was used to assess mental distress. Multiple logistic regression analysis was carried out to identify factors independently associated with mental distress.
Results
The point prevalence of mental distress was found to be 19.8%. Mental distress was associated with being female (AOR = 3.52, 95% CI 1.94, 6.39), having a monthly income of 100 United States dollars (USD) or less (AOR = 2.19, 95% CI 1.12, 4.28), and not having a satisfying relationship with the family (AOR = 11.52, 95% CI 3.18, 41.72) and friends (AOR = 7.33, 95% CI 2.83, 18.93). Nearly one in five students (18.6%) has been using Khat in the previous 12 months. Khat use was also associated with greater likelihood of mental distress (AOR = 2.87, 95% CI 1.26, 6.56). In addition, financial difficulties and the poor prospect of finding a job were common sources of stress among the students.
Conclusions
A significant proportion of the students at the University of Hargeisa suffer from mental distress which might have a detrimental effect on their academic performance. The mental health needs of the University students require attention with special emphasis on female students, students experiencing financial hardships, students who use Khat and those who have interpersonal problems
Nerve Growth Factor and Related Substances: A Brief History and an Introduction to the International NGF Meeting Series
Get PDFThis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).Nerve growth factor (NGF) is a protein whose importance to research and its elucidation of fundamental mechanisms in cell and neurobiology far outstrips its basic physiological roles. It was the first of a broad class of cell regulators, largely acting through autocrine and paracrine interactions which will be described herein. It was of similar significance in establishing the identity and unique roles of neurotrophic factors in the development and maintenance of the peripheral and central nervous systems. Finally, it contributed to many advances in the elaboration of cell surface receptor mechanisms and intracellular cell signaling. As such, it can be considered to be a “molecular Rosetta Stone”. In this brief review, the highlights of these various studies are summarized, particularly as illustrated by their coverage in the 13 NGF international meetings that have been held since 1986
The Significance of the Greek Orthodox Religion for Second Generation Greek-Australian Young Women
Get PDFAll rights reserved © 2017, Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand. Reproduced with permission of the publisher.This paper discusses the significance of the Greek Orthodox religion for young Greek Australian women. The findings of a qualitative study undertaken in Melbourne, Australia in 2013 indicate that for these granddaughters of Greek immigrants, their Greek Orthodox faith is a marker of Greek identity and also a source of resilience and social support. This is a major aspect of the cultural perspective that has been passed down from elders to these young women who indicate that their faith, expressed as belief in God, the Greek Orthodox religion, prayer, miracles and the sacraments of the Church, gives them comfort, support and emotional well-being, and serves as an important source of resilience. This paper describes the elements of religious belief that shape these young women’s perspective and discusses the role of religion in their wellbeing and overall affective state
Serotonergic modulation of the activity of GLP-1 producing neurons in the nucleus of the solitary tract in mouse
Get PDFThis is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Objective
Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and 5-HT are potent regulators of food intake within the brain. GLP-1 is expressed by preproglucagon (PPG) neurons in the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS). We have previously shown that PPG neurons innervate 5-HT neurons in the ventral brainstem. Here, we investigate whether PPG neurons receive serotonergic input and respond to 5-HT.
Methods
We employed immunohistochemistry to reveal serotonergic innervation of PPG neurons. We investigated the responsiveness of PPG neurons to 5-HT using in vitro Ca2+ imaging in brainstem slices from transgenic mice expressing the Ca2+ indicator, GCaMP3, in PPG neurons, and cell-attached patch-clamp recordings.
Results
Close appositions from 5-HT-immunoreactive axons occurred on many PPG neurons. Application of 20 μM 5-HT produced robust Ca2+ responses in NTS PPG dendrites but little change in somata. Dendritic Ca2+ spikes were concentration-dependent (2, 20, and 200 μM) and unaffected by blockade of glutamatergic transmission, suggesting 5-HT receptors on PPG neurons. Neither activation nor blockade of 5-HT3 receptors affected [Ca2+]i. In contrast, inhibition of 5-HT2 receptors attenuated increases in intracellular Ca2+ and 5-HT2C receptor activation produced Ca2+ spikes. Patch-clamp recordings revealed that 44% of cells decreased their firing rate under 5-HT, an effect blocked by 5-HT1A receptor antagonism.
Conclusions
PPG neurons respond directly to 5-HT with a 5-HT2C receptor-dependent increase in dendritic [Ca2+]i. Electrical responses to 5-HT revealed additional inhibitory effects due to somatic 5-HT1A receptors. Reciprocal innervation between 5-HT and PPG neurons suggests that the coordinated activity of these brainstem neurons may play a role in the regulation of food intake
Supervising international students in clinical placements: perceptions of experiences and factors influencing competency development
No full text© 2016 The Author(s). Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to
the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver
(http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background
Health professional education programs attract students from around the world and clinical supervisors frequently report that international students find learning in clinical placement contexts particularly challenging. In existing literature clinical supervisors, who support international students on placement have identified concerns about their communication and interactions within clinical environments.
However, clinical supervisors’ perspectives about their experiences with international students on placement and the strategies they utilise to facilitate international student learning have not been described. As a result we have little insight into the nature of these concerns and what clinical supervisors do to support international students’ competency development.
Methods
Five focus group interviews were conducted with twenty Speech-Language Pathology clinical supervisors, recruited from 2 Australian universities. Interview data were analysed thematically. Themes identified were interpreted using cognitive load and sociocultural learning theories to enhance understanding of the findings.
Results
Four themes were identified: ‘Complex teaching and learning relationships’, ‘Conceptions of students as learners’; Student communication skills for professional practice’, and ‘Positive mutual learning relationships’.
Conclusions
Findings indicated that clinical supervisors felt positive about supporting international students in clinical placements and experienced mutual learning benefits. However, they also identified factors inherent to international students and the placement environment that added to workload, and made facilitating student learning complex. Clinical supervisors described strategies they used to support international students’ cultural adjustment and learning, but communication skills were reported to be difficult to facilitate within the constraints of placements. Future research should address the urgent need to develop and test strategies for improving international students’ learning in clinical settings
Predicting success in medical school: a longitudinal study of common Australian student selection tools
No full textOpen Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to
the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver
(http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background: Medical student selection and assessment share an underlying high stakes context with the need for
valid and reliable tools. This study examined the predictive validity of three tools commonly used in Australia:
previous academic performance (Grade Point Average (GPA)), cognitive aptitude (a national admissions test), and
non-academic qualities of prospective medical students (interview).
Methods: A four year retrospective cohort study was conducted at Flinders University Australia involving 382
graduate entry medical students first enrolled between 2006 and 2009. The main outcomes were academic and
clinical performance measures and an indicator of unimpeded progress across the four years of the course.
Results: A combination of the selection criteria explained between 7.1 and 29.1 % of variance in performance
depending on the outcome measure. Weighted GPA consistently predicted performance across all years of the
course. The national admissions test was associated with performance in Years 1 and 2 (pre-clinical) and the
interview with performance in Years 3 and 4 (clinical). Those students with higher GPAs were more likely to have
unimpeded progress across the entire course (OR = 2.29, 95 % CI 1.57, 3.33).
Conclusions: The continued use of multiple selection criteria to graduate entry medical courses is supported, with
GPA remaining the single most consistent predictor of performance across all years of the course. The national
admissions test is more valuable in the pre-clinical years, and the interview in the clinical years. Future selections
research should develop the fledgling research base regarding the predictive validity of the Graduate Australian
Medical School Admissions Test (GAMSAT), the algorithms for how individual tools are combined in selection, and
further explore the usefulness of the unimpeded progress index
The effectiveness of an educational intervention to improve knowledge and perceptions for reducing organophosphate pesticide exposure among Indonesian and South Australian migrant farmworkers
No full textThis work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited
The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/). By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed.Background
Farmworkers are at risk of exposure to organophosphate pesticides (OPs). Improvements of knowledge and perceptions about organophosphate (OP) exposure may be of benefit for the reduction in OP exposure.
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of an educational intervention to improve knowledge and perceptions for reducing OP exposure among Indonesian and South Australian (SA) migrant farmworkers.
Methods
This was a quasi-experimental study. The educational intervention used a method of group communication for 30 Indonesian farmworkers and individual communication for seven SA migrant farmworkers. Knowledge and perceptions about OP exposure were measured pre-intervention and 3 months after the intervention.
Results
Unadjusted intervention effects at follow-up showed statistically significantly improved scores of knowledge (both adverse effects of OPs and self-protection from OP exposure), perceived susceptibility, and perceived barriers among Indonesian farmworkers compared with SA migrant farmworkers. Furthermore, these four significant variables in the unadjusted model and the two other variables (perceived severity and perceived benefits) were statistically significant after being adjusted for the level of education and years working as a farmworker. In contrast, knowledge about adverse effects of OPs was the only variable that was statistically significantly improved among SA migrant farmworkers. The results of this study suggests educational interventions using a method of group communication could be more effective than using individual intervention.
Conclusion
These improvements provide starting points to change health behavior of farmworkers, particularly to reduce OP exposure, both at the workplace and at home
Community Perspective on Consultation on Urban Stormwater Management: Lessons from Brownhill Creek, South Australia
No full textThis article is an open access
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).There are salutary lessons from contrasting community consultation efforts in 2011 and
2015 to develop and gain support for an urban stormwater management plan for the Brownhill Creek
catchment in Adelaide, South Australia. The 2011 process was a failure in the human dimension,
precipitating loss of community confidence, unnecessarily entrained thousands of hours of time of
residents who initiated a community action group for environmental conservation and caused a
three-year delay to decision making. By contrast, the 2015 process was vastly improved, resulted in a
landslide level of support for an obvious option not previously offered, achieved the required level of
flood protection, saved Aus$5 million (14%) on the previously proposed option and protected a highly
valued natural environment from an unnecessary dam. This paper presents a rarely heard perspective
on these community consultation processes from a participating community environmental and
heritage conservation action group (the Brownhill Creek Association) that was deeply engaged in
reforming the Draft Brown Hill Keswick Creek Stormwater Management Plan. This reveals that the
community needs to see that all options are considered and to have access to accurate information
with which to assess them. It is also necessary that the proposed plan is consistent with existing
agreed plans and policies developed through public consultation. Community concerns need to
be heard, acknowledged and acted upon or responded to, and the consultation process needs to
be transparently fair and democratic to win community support. A major contributor to success in
the second consultation was that all community action groups were invited to meetings to discuss
the purpose of the consultation and the methods to be used. Feedback was subsequently received
before the process commenced to show what had changed and why any suggestions concerning the
consultation process were not being adopted. This openness helped to mend the distrust of the first
consultation process and is recommended as an essential early step in any public consultation process