19683 research outputs found
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The Prehistory of Historical Archaeology in Victoria. A preliminary report to 1974
No full textThis paper was included in the 13th issue of Excavations, Surveys and Heritage Management in Victoria and was presented at the annual Victorian Archaeology Colloquium held at La Trobe University on 2 February 2024.</p
A review of digital health interventions to support breastfeeding in low- and middle-income countries
No full textAim: To describe research on digital health interventions designed to support breastfeeding in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).Design: Literature review.Methods: Pre-specified searches were conducted in three databases. Included studies were assessed using the mHealth Evidence Reporting and Assessment (mERA) checklist to evaluate the quality and completeness of reporting (total score 0-16). Critical appraisal was conducted following the Quality Assessment Tool for Diverse Studies (QuADS, percentage of criteria met from total score 0-39). Extracted data were synthesised based on country, primary concept, methodology, demographics, main findings, and intervention type.Data Sources: Medline, CINAHL, and ProQuest (January 1989 to January 2024).Results: Twenty-nine studies were included that described digital health interventions for breastfeeding support in LMICs. Digital interventions included one or more of: websites and mobile apps (14 studies), text messages (9 studies) and postnatal telehealth follow-up and education by mobile phone (8 studies). These interventions were designed to support breastfeeding initiation and continuation rates by providing timely information, support, and reminders. Challenges included high attrition rates, limited access to technology and inadequate integration with existing health systems. Quality and completeness of intervention reporting was variable according to the mERA (median = 11 range: 8-15). Methodological and reporting quality was generally high according to the QuADS (median 97%, range 79-100%).Conclusion: While digital health interventions show promise for breastfeeding support in LMICs, challenges such as technology access disparities, limited health system integration, and inconsistent reporting standards remain. Future research should explore cost-effectiveness, contextual adaptability, and user experience to enhance intervention scalability. The mERA checklist offers a useful framework for reporting digital health interventions, supporting replicability and sustainability.</p
Associations between age and social exclusion in the social domain of life by childlessness type among Australian women without children
No full textInvoluntarily, circumstantially and voluntarily childless women are constructed as deviating from pronatalist mothering norms, placing them at risk of social exclusion driven by unequal gender relations. This research examines associations between age, childlessness type and the probability of impaired social exclusion indicators in the social domain of life (social networks, social support, subjective social support and social interaction), social exclusion drivers (stigmatisation and stereotyping) and perceived exclusion due to not having children. Data were collected via self-administered questionnaire from 789 women aged 25 to 64 years living in Australia. Generalised additive models and general linear models stratified by childlessness type and controlling for education, employment, income and relationship status, assessed associations between age, childlessness type and dependent variables. Age was non-linearly associated with impaired social networks, with different patterns for circumstantially compared to involuntarily and voluntarily childless women. Associations between age and impaired social support and subjective social support were observed among voluntarily childless women. Among circumstantially childless women, there were associations between age and perceived exclusion from social interaction due to not having children. Age was associated with stigma consciousness and stereotyping, with different peak ages for circumstantially compared to involuntarily and voluntarily childless women. Different age-related patterns among childlessness types may relate to nuanced stigmatisation of involuntarily, circumstantially and voluntarily childless women, and its shifting salience over women's reproductive and post-reproductive years.</p
Tuning In: Exploring Perception Through Art
No full textSubmitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Visual Arts to the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.This thesis was a recipient of the Research Masters Award in recognition of the originality and high standard of the research and the impact of the work in the context of the field of research.</p
Global Scenario, Aetiology and Risk Factors Associated with Oral and Maxillofacial Diseases
No full textNo description supplied.</p
Making the most of open for learning innovation - generating impact
No full textA diagram on making the most of open educational resources and practices. This four field quadrant came out of the Mental Health Essentials project to communicate the importance of designing OERs for impact - ideally as a learning and teaching intervention - from the beginning.The figure was adapted to address the open ed context, originally from Figure 1 of Salmon, G. (2014). Learning innovation: A framework for transformation. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning (EURODL), 17(2), 220-236.</p
Strengthening Collaboration in Emergency Management – A Case Study of the Northern Victorian Emergency Management Cluster
No full text“The purpose of this project was to explore an example of collaborative emergency management through the Northern Victorian Emergency Management Cluster (the Cluster), situated in the 2022 flood event, which was one of the most extreme flood events in the state. The Cluster is a formal regional emergency management collaboration including Campaspe Shire Council (CSC), Central Goldfields Shire Council (CGSC), City of Greater Bendigo (CoGB), Loddon Shire Council (LSC), and Mount Alexander Shire Council (MASC). The key research question was: How does a formal collaboration shape emergency management in the context of climate change in regional Victoria?”</p
Duplex-Specific DNase Signal Amplification Allows Attomolar Electrochemical Detection of MicroRNAs
No full textPoint-of-care biosensors for detecting blood-circulating nucleic acids hold significant potential for disease diagnosis. However, achieving both high sensitivity and accessibility remains a challenge. Electrochemical hybridization assays offer a promising approach for detecting specific nucleic acid sequences but are typically limited to picomolar concentrations. Here, a duplex-specific DNase-assisted electrochemical hybridization assay is presented, enabling highly sensitive nucleic acid detection. By incorporating duplex DNase, the method achieves detection limits as low as 1 attomolar, significantly enhancing sensitivity. This work paves the way for ultrasensitive nucleic acid detection in critical point-of-care applications.</p
Multi-omics identify hallmark protein and lipid features of small extracellular vesicles circulating in human plasma
No full textExtracellular vesicles (EVs) are an essential signalling entity in human plasma implicated in health and disease. Still, their core protein and lipid componentry, which lie at the centre of EV form and function, remain poorly defined. Here we performed high-resolution density gradient fractionation of over 140 human plasma samples to isolate circulating EVs, and systematically constructed their quantitative proteome (4,500 proteins) and lipidome (829 lipids) landscapes using mass spectrometry. We identified a highly conserved panel of 182 proteins (including ADAM10, STEAP23 and STX7) and 52 lipids (including PS, PIPs, Hex2Cer and PAs), providing a deep survey of hallmark molecular features and biological pathways characteristic to circulating EVs. We also mapped the surfaceome diversity, identifying 151 proteins on the EV surface. We further established a set of 42 proteins and 114 lipids features that served as hallmark features of non-EV particles in plasma. We submit ADAM10 and PS(36:1) as conserved EV biological markers that precisely differentiate between EV and non-EV particles. Our findings, which can be explored via an open-source Shiny web tool (evmap.shinyapps.io/evmap/), will serve as a valuable repository to the research community for a clearer understanding of circulating EV biology.</p
Twisted Sister1: an agravitropic mutant of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) with altered root and shoot architectures
No full textWe identified a mutant of hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum) with impaired responses to gravity. The mutant, named Twisted Sister1 (TS1), had agravitropic roots that were often twisted along with altered shoot phenotypes. Roots of TS1 were insensitive to externally applied auxin, with the genetics and physiology suggestive of a mutated AUX/IAA transcription factor gene. Hexaploid wheat possesses over 80 AUX/IAA genes, and sequence information did not identify an obvious candidate. Bulked segregant analysis of an F2 population mapped the mutation to chromosome 5A, and subsequent mapping located the mutation to a 41 Mbp region. RNA-seq identified the TraesCS5A03G0149800 gene encoding a TaAUX/IAA protein to be mutated in the highly conserved domain II motif. We confirmed TraesCS5A03G0149800 as underlying the mutant phenotype by generating transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana. Analysis of RNA-seq data suggested broad similarities between Arabidopsis and wheat for the role of AUX/IAA genes in gravity responses, although there were marked differences. Here we show that the sequenced wheat genome, along with previous knowledge of the physiology of gravity responses from other plant species, gene mapping, RNA-seq, and expression in Arabidopsis have enabled the cloning of a key wheat gene that defines plant architecture.</p