19683 research outputs found
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Autistic patients' experiences of the hospital setting: A scoping review
No full textAim: To explore the factors that affect the experiences of autistic patients in the hospital setting. Design: A scoping review. Data Sources: A systematic literature search using the databases CINAHL, Medline and Google Scholar was undertaken in September 2021 and updated in January 2023. This review is based on the methodological framework of Arksey and O'Malley (International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 8(1):19–32, 2005), which was further refined by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews. Results: Autistic patients, as well as their families and healthcare staff, face several barriers that can impact their healthcare experiences within hospital settings. Of 211 articles screened, 30 were eligible and included. Through our review, we identified two main themes. The first theme, ‘challenges to hospital experiences’, includes four sub-themes: (1) communication, (2) a mismatch between the needs for autistic patients and the hospital environment, (3) challenges related to parents' experiences and (4) challenges related to hospital systems. The second theme, ‘facilitators that improve hospital experiences’, includes three sub-themes: (1) provision of care pathways, (2) partnership between parents and experts and (3) facilitators to improve hospital systems. By understanding these themes, we can work to address the barriers that autistic patients and their families face, while leveraging the facilitators to improve their hospital experiences. Conclusion: It is critical to understand the experiences of autistic patients in the hospital setting because they present a substantial risk of hospital admission due to their associated acute to chronic health conditions. Additionally, nurses and other medical staff must understand the unique hospital experiences and challenges of autistic patients to improve care and facilitate better hospital experiences. This review further highlights the crucial need to adopt a collaborative and inclusive approach between autistic patients, their families and healthcare staff. To achieve this, co-design initiatives that incorporate the perspectives and lived experiences of the autistic community are necessary. By placing autistic voices at the forefront of these initiatives, it is hoped that changes are meaningful, relevant and can be sustained. Impact: Understanding the unique hospital experiences and challenges of autistic patients can improve their quality of life and well-being by reducing stress and anxiety during hospitalization, leading to better health outcomes and potentially shorter hospital stays. It can also promote a more positive view of healthcare among autistic individuals, encouraging them to seek medical care when needed and have broader societal impacts such as reducing healthcare costs and improving the overall health and well-being of the population. Autistic patients present a substantial risk of hospital admission due to their associated acute to chronic conditions. Nurses and other medical staff must understand the unique hospital experiences and challenges of autistic patients to improve care and facilitate better hospital experiences.
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Community Paramedicine in Australian community health: Implementation of the CP@clinic program (short report)
No full textExecutive summary of an implementation evaluation of CP@clinic community paramedicine program undertaken in Mildura , Victoria.
© 2023 La Trobe University
This report may be downloaded for personal use only. Permission to reproduce this report must be sought from La Trobe University. </p
Community Paramedicine in Australian community health: Implementation of the CP@clinic program (executive summary)
No full textExecutive summary of the CP@clinic implementation evaluation undertaken in Mildura, Victoria.
© 2023 La Trobe University
This report may be downloaded for personal use only. Permission to reproduce this report must be sought from La Trobe University. </p
Feature extraction and learning approaches for cancellable biometrics: A survey
No full textAbstract: Biometric recognition is a widely used technology for user authentication. In the application of this technology, biometric security and recognition accuracy are two important issues that should be considered. In terms of biometric security, cancellable biometrics is an effective technique for protecting biometric data. Regarding recognition accuracy, feature representation plays a significant role in the performance and reliability of cancellable biometric systems. How to design good feature representations for cancellable biometrics is a challenging topic that has attracted a great deal of attention from the computer vision community, especially from researchers of cancellable biometrics. Feature extraction and learning in cancellable biometrics is to find suitable feature representations with a view to achieving satisfactory recognition performance, while the privacy of biometric data is protected. This survey informs the progress, trend and challenges of feature extraction and learning for cancellable biometrics, thus shedding light on the latest developments and future research of this area.</p
Utilisation of unmanned aerial vehicle imagery to assess growth parameters in mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek)
No full textContext: Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with red-green-blue (RGB) cameras are increasingly used as a monitoring tool in farming systems. This is the first field study in mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilzcek) using UAV and image analysis across multiple seasons. Aims: This study aims to validate the use of UAV imagery to assess growth parameters (biomass, leaf area, fractional light interception and radiation use efficiency) in mungbean across multiple seasons. Methods: Field experiments were conducted in summer 2018/19 and spring-summer 2019/20 for three sowing dates. Growth parameters were collected fortnightly to match UAV flights throughout crop development. Fractional vegetation cover (FVC) and computed vegetation indices: colour index of vegetation extraction (CIVE), green leaf index (GLI), excess green index (ExG), normalised green-red difference index (NGRDI) and visible atmospherically resistant index (VARI) were generated from UAV orthomosaic images. Key results: (1) Mungbean biomass can be accurately estimated at the pre-flowering stage using RGB imagery acquired with UAVs; (2) a more accurate relationship between the UAV-based RGB imagery and ground data was observed during pre-flowering compared to post-flowering stages in mungbean; (3) FVC strongly correlated with biomass (R2 = 0.79) during the pre-flowering stage; NGRDI (R2 = 0.86) showed a better ability to directly predict biomass across the three experiments in the pre-flowering stages. Conclusion: UAV-based RGB imagery is a promising technology to replace manual light interception measurements and predict biomass, particularly at earlier growth stages of mungbean. Implication: These findings can assist researchers in evaluating agronomic strategies and considering the necessary management practices for different seasonal conditions.</p
Environmental NGOs and Protected Area Conservation in Australia: The Political Consequences of Aligning with Private Interests
No full textThis article examines the political consequences of environmental nongovernment organization (ENGO) involvement in protected area conservation in Australia. Rapid growth of a nongovernment protected area (NGPA) estate this century has involved a range of individuals, communities, First Nations, and ENGOs, and has been closely tied to government policy and private finance. Although NGPA conservation achievements have been profound, there has been limited examination of what expanded nongovernment involvement, responsibility, and leadership mean for the practice and governance of nature conservation. Thematic analysis of twenty-four key informant interviews and selective gray literature identifies how financing, accountability, and partisan politics are emerging as key domains in shaping an NGPA estate that reflects a closer alignment with capital and market forces. ENGOs are playing a key role in crafting new political conditions for protected area conservation, where their role in neoliberal governance is not just service delivery, but statecraft and agenda setting. ENGOs are increasingly casting protected area conservation as apolitical, and thereby a bipartisan activity, driven by a “pragmatic” agenda that seeks to secure private financing for land ownership and management obligations. Frameworks of accountability to donors shape ENGO practices and conceptions of conservation through exposure to novel market mechanisms. As a result, ENGO operation permits limited space for plural, ideological, and structural debate about protected area conservation, the public interest, and the root causes of ecological crises to which it responds. The embrace of conservation led by nongovernment actors marks a substantive shift from the formative politics of ENGOs in Australia
Water use dynamics of dryland wheat grown under elevated CO2with supplemental nitrogen
No full textContext: Elevated atmospheric CO2 (e[CO2]) and nitrogen (N) fertilisation stimulate biomass and yield of crops. However, their interactions depend on crop growth stages and may affect water use dynamics. Aims and methods: This study investigated the interactive effects of two N rates, 0 and 100 kg N ha-1, and two CO2 concentrations, ambient (a[CO2], 400 μmol mol-1) and e[CO2] (550 μmol mol-1), on biomass, yield and water use of two wheat cultivars, Wyalkatchem (N-use efficient) and Yitpi (local), using a free air CO2 enrichment facility. Key results: Elevated [CO2] stimulated leaf area (10%, P = 0.003) and aboveground biomass (11%, P = 0.03). In addition, e[CO2] reduced stomatal conductance (25%, P < 0.001) and increased net assimilation rates (12%, P < 0.001), resulting in greater (40%, P < 0.001) intrinsic water use efficiency. During early growth stages, e[CO2] resulted in higher water use than a[CO2]; however, this difference disappeared later in the season, resulting in similar cumulative water use under both CO2 concentrations. Supplemental N stimulated grain yield of Yitpi by 14% while decreasing that of Wyalkatchem by 7% (N × cultivar, P = 0.063). With supplemental N, Yitpi maintained greater post-anthesis leaf N, chlorophyll content, canopy cover and net assimilation rate than Wyalkatchem. Conclusions: During early growth stages, the e[CO2]-induced stimulation of leaf-level water use efficiency was offset by greater biomass, resulting in higher water use. By the end of the season, similar cumulative water use under both CO2 concentrations indicates the dominating effect of the prevailing seasonal conditions in the study area. Observed yield responses of the studied cultivars to supplemental N were associated with their ability to maintain post-anthesis photosynthetic capabilities. Implications: Our findings suggest that N-use efficiency traits and responsiveness need to be considered independently to optimise benefits from the 'CO2 fertilisation effect' through breeding
The Distinctive Biology and Characteristics of the Bare-Nosed Wombat (Vombatus ursinus)
No full textThe bare-nosed wombat is an iconic Australian fauna with remarkable biological characteristics and mythology. This solitary, muscular, fossorial, herbivorous marsupial from southeast Australia has continent and continental island subspeciation. Vombatiformes also contains hairy-nosed wombats (Lasiorhinus spp.); koala (Phascolarctos cinereus); and extinct megafauna, Phascolonus gigas (giant wombat), Diprotodon, and Thylacoleo (marsupial lion). Culturally important to Aboriginal people, bare-nosed wombats engineer ecosystems through digging, grazing, and defecation. Olfaction and cubic fecal aggregations appear critical for communication, including identity, courtship, and mating. Though among the largest fossorial herbivores, they have a nutrient-poor diet, a home range up to an order of magnitude smaller than expected, and a metabolism among the lowest extreme for mammals >10 kg. Metabolic depression may confer advantages over resource competitors and fossorial lifestyle protection from predators, fires, and climatic extremes. Bare-nosed wombats are loved and persecuted by European colonists. Recent population increases may reflect softening attitudes toward, and greater protections of, bare-nosed wombats. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Animal Biosciences, Volume 12 is February 2024. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates
Using mid-infrared spectroscopy to identify more fertile cows for insemination to sexed semen
No full textContext. Broader applications of milk mid-infrared spectral data could add value to milk-recording data. One such application is to rank cows on the probability of conception to first service (MFERT) which could help prioritise cows for insemination with dairy sexed semen (SS). Aims. This study compared the use of MFERT estimates against two other approaches, to (1) identify most and least fertile dairy cows and (2) prioritise cows predicted to be most fertile for first service insemination with SS. Methods. Mid-infrared spectral data from first herd test after calving was used to generate 13 379 MFERT predictions for 76 cohorts. Reproduction records were used to calculate reproductive parameters, calf numbers and net benefit, i.e. calf values minus mating costs, for two breeding programs. Breeding program 1 used SS and conventional dairy semen, while Breeding program 2 used SS, conventional dairy and beef semen. Three semen-allocation approaches were compared, namely, allocation via MFERT, calving date (CDATE) or assignment via random number generator (RANDOM). Key results. MFERT significantly outperformed (1) RANDOM in identifying cows most and least likely to calf after first insemination (P </p
Landscape-level Patterns in Urban Bird Communities - Master Data File
No full textMaster data file from Jacinta Humphrey's PhD project entitled: "Life in the Suburbs: Landscape-level Patterns in Urban Bird Communities": https://doi.org/10.26181/25661601 </p