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Health Professional Perspectives on Rehabilitation for People With Dementia
Get PDF© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved.
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (February 2019) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyMultidisciplinary rehabilitation is not incorporated into the usual care pathway for dementia despite increasing demand from key advocates. Clinician views regarding the relevance of rehabilitation in dementia care are not well known. This qualitative study explored the perspectives of health professionals regarding barriers to provision of multidisciplinary rehabilitation programs for people with dementia
The Puzzle of the Pseudo-Platonic Axiochus
Get PDF© 2019 the author.Although the Axiochus was already recognised as spurious in antiquity, it enjoyed a significant status along with other spuria in the Corpus Platonicum. However, its arguments seem carelessly cobbled together. They are mutually inconsistent and internally flawed. Scholars have addressed this issue in different ways. Some argue that the Axiochus is irredeemably confused. Others argue that the dialogue belongs to the genre of consolation literature, in which consistency was not expected. More recently, Tim O’Keefe has argued that the dialogue demonstrates the Socratic practice of “therapeutic inconsistency”, showing readers how to use invalid arguments to induce comforting beliefs. The inconsistencies are best explained, however, as a parody of Hellenistic therapeutic arguments. At the same time, the Axiochus underscores a long-standing Platonic emphasis on thinking critically even in the face of death. This emphasis was demonstrated in the Phaedo by Socrates’ commitment to argument when his interlocutors were afraid for him and themselves. It is demonstrated in the Axiochus by the way Socrates repeatedly encourages Axiochus to consider the arguments he presents. The consoling therapy of the Axiochus, I shall argue, is simply that the practice of reasoning calms fears by setting them to one side
Personal narratives after stoke: stories from bilingual Greek-English immigrants living in South Australia
Get PDF© 2019 the author.Narratives are intricately intertwined with quality of life, culture, and social participation. This paper reports stories told by bilingual people describing the events or consequences of a stroke on their lives. Six immigrant participants (mean age 70 years) who were less than four years post-stroke spontaneously produced a narrative recounting their personal experience of having a stroke in their native language (Greek) and in their second language (English). Stories from the two languages were taken at least ten days apart. All participants had learned English in early adulthood upon migration from Greece to Australia, and not through formal teaching but informally, in the community. This group of immigrants had lived in Australia on average for 46 years. Narratives in the two languages underwent quantitative (length, number of propositions) and qualitative analyses (ratings of coherence, ratings of clarity). Most individuals produced coherent “tellable” stories despite disruptions in language because of stroke-related language deficits or aphasia. Overall, stories were better told (length, complexity of content, temporal-causal sequencing, reference) in Greek — their native language. The results have implications for policy-makers providing health and welfare services to ageing immigrant populations. The findings are also relevant to other countries that have large immigrant populations of stroke survivors
Prime location: optimising submarine sustainment in Australia
Get PDF© [2019] Flinders University / Australian Industrial Transformation InstituteThe Australian Government is currently considering the optimal strategy and location for ongoing sustainment of the Collins Class submarines. To align with the Naval Shipbuilding Plan any decision must focus on building and sustaining the country’s naval and industrial capabilities, to generate economic growth and provide local jobs into the future. It must ensure all risks to the enterprise are mitigated, costs are managed, and availability of the Collins Class submarines is not compromised over the medium-to-long term during the transition to the Attack Class submarines.
The final Collins Class submarine was commissioned in 2003, with ASC awarded the 15 year Through-Life Support contract. In 2012, John Coles reported on the poor performance of the Collins Class, resulting in a major restructure of the submarine’s usage and upkeep cycle of maintenance and sustainment and the implementation of to two-year full cycle docking (FCD). Resolution of early concerns about the performance of the Collins Class submarines led Coles (2016) to conclude that the sustainment program had moved from a project of concern in 2012 to an exemplar in 2016. In October 2019, ASC reported the ongoing success of Collins Class sustainment activities, with performance continuing to exceed international benchmarks.
It is the responsibility of ASC to ensure that sustainment is undertaken productively, cost-effectively and in accordance with exacting standards. Significantly, large scale naval shipbuilding, deep maintenance and sustainment has been located at the Osborne facility in South Australia since the 1980s when ASC won the contract to build the Collins Class submarine. The submarine’s strategic base is located in Western Australia, with the Henderson Shipyard playing a role in some sustainment activities
Early treatment with minocycline following stroke in rats improves functional recovery and differentially modifies responses of peri-infarct microglia and astrocytes
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.Background
Altered neuronal connectivity in peri-infarct tissue is an important contributor to both the spontaneous recovery of neurological function that commonly develops after stroke and improvements in recovery that have been induced by experimental treatments in animal models. Microglia and astrocytes are primary determinants of the environment in peri-infarct tissue and hence strongly influence the potential for neuronal plasticity. However, the specific roles of these cells and the timing of critical changes in their function are not well understood. Minocycline can protect against ischemic damage and promote recovery. These effects are usually attributed, at least partially, to the ability of this drug to suppress microglial activation. This study tested the ability of minocycline treatment early after stroke to modify reactive responses in microglia and astrocytes and improve recovery.
Methods
Stroke was induced by photothrombosis in the forelimb sensorimotor cortex of Sprague-Dawley rats. Minocycline was administered for 2 days after stroke induction and the effects on forelimb function assessed up to 28 days. The responses of peri-infarct Iba1-positive cells and astrocytes were evaluated using immunohistochemistry and Western blots.
Results
Initial characterization showed that the numbers of Iba1-positive microglia and macrophages decreased in peri-infarct tissue at 24 h then increased markedly over the next few days. Morphological changes characteristic of activation were readily apparent by 3 h and increased by 24 h. Minocycline treatment improved the rate of recovery of motor function as measured by a forelimb placing test but did not alter infarct volume. At 3 days, there were only minor effects on core features of peri-infarct microglial reactivity including the morphological changes and increased density of Iba1-positive cells. The treatment caused a decrease of 57% in the small subpopulation of cells that expressed CD68, a marker of phagocytosis. At 7 days, the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein and vimentin was markedly increased by minocycline treatment, indicating enhanced reactive astrogliosis.
Conclusions
Early post-stroke treatment with minocycline improved recovery but had little effect on key features of microglial activation. Both the decrease in CD68-positive cells and the increased activation of astrogliosis could influence neuronal plasticity and contribute to the improved recovery
STRmix™ collaborative exercise on DNA mixture interpretation
Get PDF© 2019 Elsevier B.V. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (January 2019) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyIn forensic DNA analysis there is valid interest in the reliability of the interpretation reported. Reliability, in part but not fully, relates to the scientific concepts of repeatability, reproducibility, and accuracy. Before attempting to address repeatability and reproducibility, and the challenge in context of determining accuracy in context, we give a brief summary of the current process that leads to the reported result
Groundwater Modelling Uncertainty : implications for decision-making : summary of the Groundwater Modelling Uncertainty Workshop - Australasian Groundwater Conference 10th July 2017, University of NSW, Sydney, Australia
Get PDFThe information contained in this document is the property of NCGRT. Use or copying of this document in whole or part without the written permission of NCGRT constitutes an infringement of copyright.This report provides a summary of the outcomes from the 2017 national groundwater modelling uncertainty workshop convened by the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT), and the subsequent modelling outlook panel session held at the Australasian Groundwater Conference (AGC) on 10 and 13 July 2017, respectively. The purpose of this report is to provide simple documentation of the workshop proceedings (inputs, outputs and discussions). It has been reviewed (refer to Acknowledgements) and has been subject to basic editorial procedures
Evaluation of management scenarios for potable water supply using script-based numerical groundwater models of a freshwater lens
Get PDF© 2019 Elsevier B.V. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 24 month embargo from date of publication (February 2019) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyChallenges in balancing freshwater demands and the long-term availability of freshwater from small island aquifers warrants responsive management, whereby groundwater conditions guide decisions about pumping rates to avoid well salinization. We evaluate responsive freshwater lens management for the first time, through transient, three-dimensional, dispersive modelling of Bonriki Island (Kiribati). Both responsive- and fixed-management scenarios are explored, including a novel pumping redistribution strategy. Modelling results reveal that responsive management offers superior lens protection, particularly during droughts. Pumping redistribution produced lower salinities but greater lens depletion. All scenarios indicate that the Bonriki lens will continue to decline, consistent with previous shorter-timeframe projections. Lower lens storage losses are attainable by abstracting groundwater at the maximum acceptable salinity, contrary to traditional strategies of seeking the lowest available salinities. The methodology developed in this research provides a blueprint for investigating responsive, “monitor-and-react” management scenarios, which we advocate as best practice for balancing freshwater demands with long-term lens security
Inter-sample contamination detection using mixture deconvolution comparison
Get PDF© 2019 Elsevier B.V. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (February 2019) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyA recent publication has provided the ability to compare two mixed DNA profiles and consider their probability of occurrence if they do, compared to if they do not, have a common contributor. This ability has applications to both quality assurance (to test for sample to sample contamination) and for intelligence gathering purposes (did the same unknown offender donate DNA to multiple samples). We use a mixture to mixture comparison tool to investigate the prevalence of sample to sample contamination that could occur from two laboratory mechanisms, one during DNA extraction and one during electrophoresis. By carrying out pairwise comparisons of all samples (deconvoluted using probabilistic genotyping software STRmix™) within extraction or run batches we identify any potential common DNA donors and investigate these with respect to their risk of contamination from the two proposed mechanisms. While not identifying any contamination, we inadvertently find a potential intelligence link between samples, showing the use of a mixture to mixture comparison tool for investigative purposes
Combined geophysical and analytical methods to estimate offshore freshwater extent
Get PDF© 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 24 month embargo from date of publication (June 2019) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyOffshore fresh groundwater is increasingly suggested as a potential water resource for onshore human demands. In many cases, onshore pumping already draws significant fresh groundwater from offshore. However, offshore aquifers and the extent of offshore freshwater are usually poorly characterised due to data scarcity. This study combines geophysical data, hydraulic information and a first-order mathematical analysis to investigate offshore freshwater extent in the Gambier Embayment (Australia). A large seismic data set, combined with onshore and offshore bore-log geological profiles, are used to explore the regional offshore hydro-stratigraphy. Aquifer hydraulic parameters and onshore heads are obtained from onshore investigations. A novel application of Archie’s law, geophysical data and onshore hydrochemical data provide useful insights into the salinity profiles within four offshore wells. These are compared to steady-state, sharp-interface estimates of the freshwater extent obtained from a recently developed analytical solution, albeit using simplified conceptual models. Salinities derived from resistivity measurements indicate that in the south of the study area, pore water with total dissolved solids (TDS) of 2.2 g L-1 is found up to 13.2 km offshore. Offshore pore-water salinities are more saline in the northern areas, most likely due to thinning of the offshore confining unit. The analytical solution produced freshwater-saltwater interface locations that were approximately consistent with the freshwater-saltwater stratification in two of the offshore wells, although analytical uncertainty is high. This investigation provides a leading example of offshore freshwater evaluation applying multiple techniques, demonstrating both the benefit and uncertainty of geophysical interpretation and analytical solutions of freshwater extent