19683 research outputs found
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Australia-Southeast Asia relations: The post COVID-19 regional order
No full textThis edition provides in-depth analysis on the state of Australia and Southeast Asian relations and recommendations for how they may be deepened as the region enters into a phase of pandemic recovery.</p
Including frameworks of public health ethics in computational modelling of infectious disease interventions
No full textDecisions on public health interventions to control infectious diseases are often informed by computational models. Interpreting the predicted outcomes of a public health decision requires not only high-quality modelling but also an ethical framework for assessing the benefits and harms associated with different options. The design and specification of ethical frameworks matured independently of computational modelling, so many values recognized as important for ethical decision-making are missing from computational models. We demonstrate a proof-of-concept approach to incorporate multiple public health values into the evaluation of a simple computational model for vaccination against a pathogen such as SARS-CoV-2. By examining a bounded space of alternative prioritizations of three values relevant to public health ethics (aggregate clinical burden, equity in clinical burden, equity in adverse effects from vaccination), we identify value trade-offs, where the outcomes of optimal strategies differ depending on the ethical framework. This work demonstrates an approach to incorporating diverse values into decision criteria used to evaluate outcomes of models of infectious disease interventions.</p
High-Throughput Sequencing Enables Rapid Analyses of Nematode Mitochondrial Genomes from an Environmental Sample
No full textMitochondrial genomes serve as essential tools in evolutionary biology, phylogenetics, and population genetics due to their maternal inheritance, lack of recombination, and conserved structure. Traditional morphological methods for identifying nematodes are often insufficient for distinguishing cryptic species complexes. This study highlights recent advancements in nematode mitochondrial genome research, particularly the impact of long-read sequencing technologies such as Oxford Nanopore. These technologies have facilitated the assembly of mitochondrial genomes from mixed soil samples, overcoming challenges associated with designing specific primers for long PCR amplification across different groups of parasitic nematodes. In this study, we successfully recovered and assembled eleven nematode mitochondrial genomes using long-read sequencing, including those of two plant-parasitic nematode species. Notably, we detected Heterodera cruciferae in Victoria, expanding its known geographic range within Australia. Additionally, short-read sequencing data from a previous draft genome study revealed the presence of the mitochondrial genome of Heterodera filipjevi. Comparative analyses of Heterodera mitogenomes revealed conserved protein-coding genes essential for oxidative phosphorylation, as well as gene rearrangements and variations in transfer RNA placement, which may reflect adaptations to parasitic lifestyles. The consistently high A+T content and strand asymmetry observed across species align with trends reported in related genera. This study demonstrates the utility of long-read sequencing for identifying coexisting nematode species in agricultural fields, providing a rapid, accurate, and comprehensive alternative to traditional diagnostic methods. By incorporating non-target endemic species into public databases, this approach enhances biodiversity records and informs biosecurity strategies. These findings reinforce the potential of mitochondrial genomics to strengthen Australia’s as well as the global biosecurity framework against plant-parasitic nematode threats.</p
An autoethnographic critique of a past report of inpatient psychiatric treatment for gender diverse children
No full textOBJECTIVE: To review reporting on a case series of "inpatient therapy" administered to pre-pubertal children presenting with gender expansive behaviours previously published in the MJA and to compare this reporting to the adulthood recollections and past contemporaneous medical records of a person who had received such treatment. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of autoethnography, archived mental health records, and patient details published in a 1987 MJA case series of eight children. SETTING: Stubbs Terrace Hospital, a Western Australian state-funded child and adolescent psychiatric hospital, no longer in operation. PARTICIPANT: Jayne McFadyen (J), a transgender woman whose recollections align with the clinical details supplied for Case 5 in the case series, and an author of this article. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Concordance and discordance among details documented in the published case series, J's autoethnography of her hospital treatment, and archived childhood psychiatric records obtained through freedom of information. RESULTS: J's recollections align closely with details in the archived records. Both align with many, but not all, published details, most notably the following published statement: "No conscious attempt was made by the staff members to encourage masculine or feminine role behaviours." Some of the verified recollections are of psychologically coercive and aversive practices typical of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression change or suppression efforts (SOGICE). Despite inpatient treatment aimed at suppressing or changing her transgender identity and expression, J's sense of whom she understood herself to be remained steadfast. CONCLUSION: A retrospective review of "inpatient treatment" intended to re-direct gender expansive identity formation revealed pseudo-psychological strategies reliant on denial and repression. These were directed towards extinguishing childhood behaviours deemed to be socially undesirable. These practices are indistinguishable from the defining characteristics of suppression or change practices, or so-called "conversion therapy", seeking to achieve cisgender and heterosexual outcomes, efforts which are now known to be futile and harmful.</p
When Disease Concerns Divide: How Out‐Group Classification Reduces Satisfaction With Service Robots
No full textAs service robots become more prevalent in retail and hospitality settings, understanding the psychological factors that shape consumer satisfaction is critical. While prior research suggests that heightened disease concerns should increase acceptance of robotic services due to their hygienic advantages, we propose and demonstrate the opposite effect. Across eight experiments, we find that when disease concerns are salient, consumers are less satisfied with service robots. This occurs because disease concerns prompt consumers to classify anthropomorphized robots as out‐group members, triggering avoidance responses. These findings challenge assumptions about disease‐avoidance behaviors and contribute to research on consumer‐robot interactions, social categorization, and the psychological dimensions of technology adoption.</p
Social movements and the Whitlam-initiated community health movement in Australia
No full textBackground: This paper examines the social movements that influenced the development and implementation of the original Whitlam Government Community Health Program, the community health movement that emerged, and the opportunities it created for people to develop and deliver health programs in new ways. Methods: Oral history interviews with 93 people involved in community health in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, and 212 community health policy and archival documents were collected as a part of an Australian Research Council study documenting the history of community health services in Australia since the 1970s. Results: Ideas about community health in Australia were influenced by several social movements that had overlapping, but distinctive, contributions: (1) left-wing movements: political parties, workers’ health; trade unions, anti-war and anti-establishment; (2) international social medicine and community-oriented primary care; (3) Indigenous rights/Black Power; (4) feminist; and (5) community development/community power. These movements influenced Australian community health to embrace community management, advocacy and community development strategies in addition to multi-disciplinary care. However, these progressive elements were undermined by neo-liberal management reforms and medical opposition to elements of the Community Health Program. Conclusions: The early passion for community health in the 1970s and 1980s was fuelled by social movements, but the inconsistent support from the federal and most state governments limited progressive and innovative community health practice. The window of opportunity for the Community Health Program was supported by progressive social movements, but restricted from the 1990s onwards.</p
Justice washing extractivism: Pacific Island activist perspectives on just transitions and deep-sea mining
No full textThe notion of the just transition highlights that shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energies should leave no one marginalised, and benefits should be distributed in an equitable and just manner. In this context, a new frontier of resource extractivism is emerging – Deep-Sea Mining (DSM) – which proponents seek to position as a just means of acquiring critical metals and minerals used in renewable energy technologies. Drawing on postcolonial theories of island laboratories, this paper scrutinises DSM and the scramble for minerals by corporations, states, and state groupings. First, through a review of literature, the paper critically examines arguments for DSM that position it as a pathway towards just transition, including through purported benefits to nations in the Pacific Islands Region. Next, drawing on primary data collected during 2023–24 including interviews with Pacific Island climate activists (n = 45), it highlights activist understandings of DSM as perpetuating historic and ongoing colonialism, extractivism, and experimentation in the Pacific Islands Region. Far from a standalone issue, Pacific activists draw on principles of decolonisation and self-determination to engage with the intersecting crises of climate change, extractivism, and to resist DSM. Using DSM as a case study, this paper contends that the plight faced by Pacific Peoples due to the climate crisis, has been weaponised to justice wash extractivism as a climate solution.</p
Variation in temperature but not diet determines the stability of latitudinal clines in tolerance traits and their plasticity
No full textLatitudinal clines are routinely used as evidence of adaptation across broad climatic gradients. However, if environmental variation influences the strength of latitudinal clines, then clinal patterns will be unstable, and using patterns of adaptation to predict population responses to global change will be difficult. To test whether environmental variation influences latitudinal clines, we sampled five populations of Drosophila melanogaster spanning 3000 km of east coast Australia, and measured stress tolerance (heat, cold and desiccation) and body size on flies that developed in six combinations of temperature (13°C, 25°C and 29°C) and diet (standard and low-calorie) treatments. We found latitudinal clines where populations further from the equator had larger wings, higher cold tolerance and lower heat tolerance. For all traits, temperature determined the strength of latitudinal clines, whereas diet had little influence. Steeper clines often emerged in warmer treatments, created by latitudinal clines in plasticity. In the warmest temperature, higher latitude populations showed larger increases in heat tolerance, larger reductions in desiccation tolerance but smaller decreases in cold tolerance. Heat tolerance was the only trait that supported the climate variability hypothesis and a trade-off between plasticity and tolerance. Environment-dependent latitudinal clines are therefore likely to determine variation in population responses to global change.</p
Re‐Visiting the Content Validity of the Manchester Clinical Supervision Scale (MCSS‐26)
No full textClinical supervision is widely regarded as an important part of both pre-graduate and post-registration education and training of healthcare professionals. To ensure comprehensive implementation of effective supervision practices, it is crucial that supervisors, healthcare organisations and researchers have valid and reliable instruments to measure these practices. The Manchester Clinical Supervision Scale (MCSS) is the most widely used instrument for measuring supervision effectiveness in nursing and allied health. According to the developers of MCSS, it is based on Proctor's three functions of supervision as being normative, formative and restorative. The purpose of this paper was to report a test of the content validity of MCSS-26, which is the latest version. Methods included: 1. A qualitative text analysis of MCSS-26's syntax and wording. 2. A Content Validity Index with an expert panel rating the relevance of MCSS-26 items for measuring effectiveness of supervision and their clarity. 3. A linguistic reordering of items and a tabulation of panel classifications of MCSS-26 items according to Proctor's three functions. Findings revealed heterogeneity in MCSS-26's wording and an uneven flow with negative/general questions being frontloaded. The CVI identified 46% of items (n = 12/26) as relevant for directly or indirectly measuring effectiveness of clinical supervision. The expert panel was not able to consistently link items to Proctor's functions. The results have important implications for how to interpret MCSS-26 ratings of effectiveness of clinical supervision and can be used to consider psychometric studies examining the potential for an abbreviated version of MCSS-26 with a single focus on effectiveness.</p
Efficient environmental detection of heavy metal ions using porous Co-N/C rhombic dodecahedra from Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks (ZIF-67) via pyrolysis
No full textThe diverse functional groups, marvelous surface area, designability, and abundant mesoporous structure of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) have led to their widespread electrochemical applications. This work reports the preparation of carbonized ZIF-67 (Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework-67) named as Co-N/C porous rhombic dodecahedra (RDs) by pyrolysis at two different temperatures, i.e. 350 °C and 500 °C. The surface, morphological, and structural analysis evidenced the formation of Co-N/C porous RDs. Pyrolysis at a higher temperature (500 °C) produced the highly porous ZIF-67 derived Co-N/C. After carbonization, N-doped on carbon matrix and Co particles in Co-N/C synergically enhanced the electrocatalytic performance and electron transport properties. The electrochemical behavior of ZIF-67 derived Co-N/C RDs based glassy carbon electrodes (GCEs) was explored for detecting the heavy metal ions (HMIs), i.e., Hg2+ and Cr3+, using cyclovoltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) measurements. The Co-N/C@500 °C modified GCE displayed promising detectability and the highest reproducible sensitivity of ∼240 ± 0.04 μA/μM·cm2 for Cr3+ ions with a reasonable LOD of ∼412 nM. The reliability and repeatability of Co-N/C@500 °C modified GCE were also investigated. Herein, the promising sensing performance by Co-N/C@500 °C based GCE mainly benefited from the high porosity, which provided a large number of active sites for the adsorption and reduction of HMIs.</p