Abbey, J, Froggatt, KA, Parker, D & Abbey, B 2006, 'Palliative care in long‐term care: a system in change', International Journal of Older People Nursing, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 56-63.
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The provision of palliative care for older people within the next decade will need to be substantially different to that provided today. In long‐term care settings the achievement of quality palliative care will require attention to all levels of the health and social care system, in both its formal and informal manifestations. We suggest that long‐term care facilities will become the hospices of the future, caring for older people with chronic conditions with a long trajectory to death, the most common being dementia. We see this progression as inevitable and appropriate if the right support is provided. We discuss the impact that transferability and sustainability has had on the present provision of palliative care for older people and how that may affect the future. Four forces which are important factors in public policy; leadership, a culture that supports learning throughout the care process, an emphasis on effective team development and the use of information technologies for quality activities are used as a framework for our vision of social planning. We then go on to discuss the impact of costs, workforce, service planning and public awareness as vital areas where progress needs to be carefully tackled. We suggest some likely poor outcomes if this planning does not occur, but indicate that if planning and implementation is effective then services can provide the kind of care the baby boomer generation seeks.
Aktan, F, Henness, S, Tran, V, Duke, C, Roufogalis, B & Ammit, A 2006, 'Gingerol Metabolite and a Synthetic Analogue Capsarol™ Inhibit Macrophage NF-κB-Mediated iNOS Gene Expression and Enzyme Activity', Planta Medica, vol. 72, no. 8, pp. 727-734.
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Baheiraei, A, Ritchie, JE, Eisman, JA & Nguyen, TV 2006, 'Exploring factors influencing osteoporosis prevention and control: A qualitative study of Iranian men and women in Australia', Maturitas, vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 127-134.
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Ben-Nissan, B & Choi, AH 2006, 'Sol-gel production of bioactive nanocoatings for medical applications. Part 1: an introduction', Nanomedicine, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 311-319.
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Coatings offer the possibility of modifying the surface properties of surgical-grade materials to achieve improvements in performance, reliability and biocompatibility. Sol-gel-derived coatings demonstrate promise owing to their relative ease of production, ability to form a physically and chemically pure and uniform coating over complex geometric shapes and potential to deliver exceptional mechanical properties owing to their nanocrystalline structure. Other advantages unique to sol-gel include the production of a homogeneous material, since mixing takes place on the atomic scale, and its relatively low processing temperature avoids decomposition of the coating materials and limits the damage to metallic substrate materials as a result of exposure to elevated temperatures. A range of materials can be adapted easily for a number of biomedical and engineering applications.
BURGESS, J, OLIVER, B, PONIRIS, M, GE, Q, BOUSTANY, S, COX, N, MOIR, L, JOHNSON, P & BLACK, J 2006, 'A phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor inhibits matrix protein deposition in airways in vitro', Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, vol. 118, no. 3, pp. 649-657.
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Background: Airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells may contribute to airway remodeling through the release of growth factors, cytokines, and extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. The effect of current asthma therapies on this release is not known. Objective: We
Castagna, C, Impellizzeri, FM, Belardinelli, R, Abt, G, Coutts, A, Chamari, K & D'Ottavio, S 2006, 'Cardiorespiratory Responses to Yo-yo Intermittent Endurance Test in Nonelite Youth Soccer Players', The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 326-326.
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This study examined the validity of the Yo-yo Intermittent Endurance Test (Level 1; YYIET) as indicator of aerobic power in youth soccer players. Cardiorespiratory responses were determined in 18 moderately trained nonelite youth soccer players (age, 16.
Chen, H, Hansen, MJ, Jones, JE, Vlahos, R, Bozinovski, S, Anderson, GP & Morris, MJ 2006, 'Cigarette Smoke Exposure Reprograms the Hypothalamic Neuropeptide Y Axis to Promote Weight Loss', American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, vol. 173, no. 11, pp. 1248-1254.
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Rationale: Despite irrefutable epidemiologic evidence, cigarette smoking remains the major preventable cause of lung disease morbidity worldwide. The appetite-suppressing effect of tobacco is a major behavioral determinant of smoking, but the underlyingmolecular and neuronal mechanisms are not understood. Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is an orexigenic neuropeptide, whose activity in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus governs appetite. Objectives: To compare the effects of smoke exposure and equivalent food restriction on body weight, organ mass, cytokines, and brain NPY in Balb/c mice. Methods: A pair-feeding study design compared smoke exposure (4 wk; 1 cigarette, 3x/d, 5 d/wk) to equivalent food restriction (pair-fed) and sham-exposed control mice. Results: Smoke exposure rapidly induced mild anorexia. After 4 wk, smoke-exposed and pair-fed groups were lighter than control mice (22.0 ± 0.2, 23.2 ± 0.5, 24.9 ± 0.4 g, respectively; p ± 0.05). Brown and white fat masses were only reduced by smoke exposure, relative to control mice. NPY concentration in the paraventricular nucleus was significantly and paradoxically reduced by smoke exposure, despite lower plasma leptin concentrations; this was not observed in the pair-fed group experiencing 19% food restriction. Adipose mRNA expression of uncoupling proteins, inflammatory cytokines interleukin 6 and tumor necrosis factor α, and adipose triglyceride lipase was decreased by smoke exposure, and even lower in pair-fed mice. Conclusions: In contrast to food restriction, smoke exposure caused a reduction in hypothalamic NPY and fat mass, and regulated adipose cytokines. These findings may contribute to understanding weight loss in smoking-related lung disease and in the design of more effective smoking cessation strategies.
Chen, H, Kent, S & Morris, MJ 2006, 'Is the CCK2 receptor essential for normal regulation of body weight and adiposity?', European Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 1427-1433.
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AbstractCholecystokinin (CCK) is a gastrointestinal satiety signal released from the duodenum to terminate feeding, via CCK1 receptors. CCK2 receptors are considered to be involved in anxiety. CCK2 receptor knockout mice have increased body weight and food intake. Little is known regarding the effects of CCK2 receptor deficiency on adipose distribution and hypothalamic feeding regulators such as neuropeptide Y (NPY), a powerful stimulator of feeding. Adult (10 week) CCK2 receptor knockout and wild‐type mice were anaesthetized and killed by decapitation. Brain sections, organs and fat tissue were dissected. Plasma leptin, insulin and brain NPY content were measured by radioimmunoassay. Female CCK2 receptor knockout mice weighed more than control mice (22.0 ± 0.2 vs. 19.9 ± 0.4 g, P < 0.05), with this difference being less marked in male mice (26.4 ± 0.4 vs. 25.6 ± 0.6 g). Fat masses in all locations sampled were significantly smaller in CCK2 receptor knockout mice of both genders (P < 0.05), resulting in lower plasma leptin and insulin levels. NPY concentrations were significantly increased in arcuate nucleus and anterior hypothalamus in both male and female CCK2 receptor knockout mice, and total hypothalamic NPY content was increased by 7 and 9% in males and females, respectively (P < 0.05). CCK2 receptor deletion was associated with increased body weight and hypothalamic NPY content, but reduced fat masses and plasma leptin and insulin. Increased NPY might contribute to increased food intake in CCK2 receptor knockout mice. Further work needs to focus on the metabolic changes.
Cranfield, CG, Bomzon, Z, Day, D, Gu, M & Cartmell, SH 2006, 'Mechanical Strains Induced in Osteoblasts by Use of Point Femtosecond Laser Targeting.', Int. J. Biomed. Imaging, vol. 2006, pp. 21304:1-21304:1.
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A study demonstrating how ultrafast laser radiation stimulates osteoblasts is presented. The study employed a custom made optical system that allowed for simultaneous confocal cell imaging and targeted femtosecond pulse laser irradiation. When femtosecond laser light was focused onto a single cell, a rise in intracellular Ca 2+ levels was observed followed by contraction of the targeted cell. This contraction caused deformation of neighbouring cells leading to a heterogeneous strain field throughout the monolayer. Quantification of the strain fields in the monolayer using digital image correlation revealed local strains much higher than threshold values typically reported to stimulate extracellular bone matrix production in vitro. This use of point targeting with femtosecond pulse lasers could provide a new method for stimulating cell activity in orthopaedic tissue engineering.
Cuskelly, G, Taylor, T, Hoye, R & Darcy, S 2006, 'Volunteer Management Practices and Volunteer Retention: A Human Resource Management Approach', Sport Management Review, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 141-163.
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This study used a human resource management (HRM) approach to examine the efficacy of volunteer management practices in predicting perceived problems in volunteer retention. Participants were a sample of 375 Australian Rugby Union clubs from across the country. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the properties of a hypothesised reflective measurement model with seven volunteer management constructs (planning, recruitment, screening, orientation, training and support, performance management, and recognition). The efficacy of volunteer management practices was tested using regression analysis. © 2006 Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand.
Davidson, P, Halcomb, E, Hickman, L, Phillips, J & Graham, B 2006, 'Beyond the rhetoric: What do we mean by a 'model of care'?', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 47-55.
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Background: Contemporary health care systems are constantly challenged to revise traditional methods of health care delivery. These challenges are multifaceted and stem from: (1) novel pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments; (2) changes in consumer demands and expectations; (3) fiscal and resource constraints; (4) changes in societal demographics in particular the ageing of society; (5) an increasing burden of chronic disease; (6) documentation of limitations in traditional health care delivery; (7) increased emphasis on transparency, accountability, evidence-based practice (EBP) and clinical governance structures; and (8) the increasing cultural diversity of the community. These challenges provoke discussion of potential alternative models of care, with scant reference to defining what constitutes a model of care. Aim: This paper aims to define what is meant by the term 'model of care' and document the pragmatic systems and processes necessary to develop, plan, implement and evaluate novel models of care delivery. Methods: Searches of electronic databases, the reference lists of published materials, policy documents and the Internet were conducted using key words including 'model*', 'framework*', 'models, theoretical' and 'nursing models, theoretical'. The collated material was then analysed and synthesised into this review. Results: This review determined that in addition to key conceptual and theoretical perspectives, quality improvement theory (eg. collaborative methodology), project management methods and change management theory inform both pragmatic and conceptual elements of a model of care. Crucial elements in changing health care delivery through the development of innovative models of care include the planning, development, implementation, evaluation and assessment of the sustainability of the new model. Conclusion: Regardless of whether change in health care delivery is attempted on a micro basis (eg. ward level) or macro basis (...
Day, D, Cranfield, CG & Gu, M 2006, 'High-Speed Fluorescence Imaging and Intensity Profiling of Femtosecond-Induced Calcium Transients.', Int. J. Biomed. Imaging, vol. 2006, pp. 93438:1-93438:1.
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We have demonstrated a combined imaging system, where the physiology of biological specimens can be imaged and profiled at 10-20 frames per second whilst undergoing femtosecond laser irradiation. Individual GH3 cells labeled with the calcium fluorophore Fluo-3 were stimulated using a counter-propagating focused femtosecond beam with respect to the imaging system. As a result of the stimulation, calcium waves can be generated in COS cells, and laser-induced calcium oscillations are initiated in the GH3 cells. Single-photon fluorescence images and intensity profiles of the targeted specimens are sampled in real-time using a modified PerkinElmer UltraView LCI microscope. Copyright © 2006 Daniel Day et al.
Deng, C, Gorrie, C, Hayward, I, Elston, B, Venn, M, Mackay‐Sim, A & Waite, P 2006, 'Survival and migration of human and rat olfactory ensheathing cells in intact and injured spinal cord', Journal of Neuroscience Research, vol. 83, no. 7, pp. 1201-1212.
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AbstractIncreasing evidence indicates the potential of olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) for treating spinal cord injuries. The present study compared proliferation and migration of adult rat and human OECs transplanted into the spinal cord of athymic (immunodeficient) rats. OECs were purified from the nasal lamina propria and prelabeled with a cytoplasmic dye. After OEC injection into the thoracic spinal cord, animals were perfused 4 hr, 24 hr, and 7 days later. Both rat and human OECs showed similar migration. Cells were seen leaving the injection site after 4 hr, and by 7 days both rat and human OECs had migrated approximately 1 mm rostrally and caudally within the cord (rat: 1,400 ± 241 μm rostral, 1,134 ± 262 μm caudal, n = 5; human: 1,337 ± 192 μm rostral, 1,205 ± 148 μm caudal, n = 6). Proliferation of transplanted OECs was evident at 4 hr, but most had ceased dividing by 24 hr. In 10 animals, the spinal cord was injured by a contralateral hemisection made 5 mm rostral to the transplantation site at the time of OEC transplantation. After 7 days, macrophages were numerous both around the injury and at the transplantation site. In the injured cord, rat and human OECs migrated for shorter distances, in both rostral and caudal directions (rat: 762 ± 118 μm rostral, 554 ± 142 μm caudal, n = 4; human: 430 ± 55 μm rostral, 399 ± 161 μm caudal, n = 3). The results show that rat and human OECs rapidly stop dividing after transplantation and have a similar ability to survive and migrate within the spinal cord of immunocompromised hosts. OECs migrated less in animals with a concomitant contralateral hemisection. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Donnelly, R, Wang, B & Qu, X 2006, 'Type 2 diabetes in China: partnerships in education and research to evaluate new antidiabetic treatments', British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, vol. 61, no. 6, pp. 702-705.
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There are 40 million people with diabetes in China, and the projected increase in the rates of obesity and premature cardiovascular disease is alarming. Most patients prefer to combine traditional Chinese medicine with Western medicine, but there is little or no information about the risks and benefits of this approach. Traditional Chinese medicine identifies three patterns of ‘depletion–thirst’ syndrome and therapy is aimed at reversing the deficiency in yin and qi, using a combination of products tailored to the symptoms and clinical features of individual patients. In Western medicine a number of new oral and injectable antidiabetic therapies are likely to enter routine clinical practice over the next 5 years, for example long‐acting GLP‐1 analogues, DPP‐IV inhibitors and dual PPAR‐α, PPAR‐γ agonists. To make best use of these agents in China and to promote diabetes education and health service development, there is a need for improved communication and collaboration between universities and hospitals both inside and outside China; and Western pharmacologists and clinicians need a better understanding of traditional Chinese medicine. There are several examples of institutional cooperation that should further diabetes research in China, for example the Beijing Chaoyang Diabetes Hospital linked with Imperial College, London, and the University of Nottingham, which has a new campus in Ningbo, south of Shanghai.
Eager, DM 2006, 'The impact of the new trampoline standard', Journal Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia, vol. December, pp. 47-48.
Engels, BM & Hutvagner, G 2006, 'Principles and effects of microRNA-mediated post-transcriptional gene regulation', Oncogene, vol. 25, no. 46, pp. 6163-6169.
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MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are abundant regulatory RNAs involved in the regulation of many key biological processes. Recent advances in understanding the mechanism of RNA interference and miRNA-mediated mechanisms shed light on major principals of the formation of the regulatory complex and provide models to explain how these small regulatory RNA species interfere with gene expression and how they influence the translational status of the transcriptome. © 2006 Nature Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
Fisher, J, McEwen, H, Tipper, J, Jennings, L, Farrar, R, Stone, M & Ingham, E 2006, 'Wear-simulation analysis of rotating-platform mobile-bearing knees.', Orthopedics, vol. 29, no. 9 Suppl, pp. S36-S41.
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The wear and wear debris from rotating-platform mobile-bearing knees and fixed-bearing knees were compared in knee joint-simulator studies. The wear rate of the fixed-bearing knees was found to increase as the kinematics were increased because of an increase in internal-external rotation and an increase in anterorposterior (AP) translation. The wear rate of the rotating-platform mobile-bearing knees was found to be significantly lower than that of the fixed-bearing knees. The rotating-platform mobile-bearing knee was able to decouple the complex kinematics to pure rotation at the inferior tibial articulating surface and linear flexion-extension and AP sliding at the superior femoral articulating interface, substantially reducing cross-shear and wear. No difference was found in the wear debris between the rotating-platform and fixed-bearing knees. This resulted in a substantially reduced functional biological activity or osteolytic potential for the rotating-platform mobile-bearing knees due to the lower wear rates.
Fu, L, Jain, A, Xie, HK, Cranfield, C & Gu, M 2006, 'Nonlinear optical endoscopy based on a double-clad photonic crystal fiber and a MEMS mirror', OPTICS EXPRESS, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 1027-1032.
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Gabrys, B & Ruta, D 2006, 'Genetic algorithms in classifier fusion', Applied Soft Computing, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 337-347.
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Galvin, A, Kang, L, Tipper, J, Stone, M, Ingham, E, Jin, Z & Fisher, J 2006, 'Wear of crosslinked polyethylene under different tribological conditions', Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 235-243.
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Gorrie, CA, Rodriguez, M, Sachdev, P, Duflou, J & Waite, PME 2006, 'Increased neurofibrillary tangles in the brains of older pedestrians killed in traffic accidents', DEMENTIA AND GERIATRIC COGNITIVE DISORDERS, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 20-26.
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Background/Aims: Older people are over-represented in pedestrian fatalities, and it has been suggested that the presence of cognitive impairment or dementia in these individuals may contribute to their accidents. Using neuropathological methods, we aimed
Guo, Y, Zhu, JG, Watterson, PA & Wu, W 2006, 'Development of a PM Transverse Flux Motor With Soft Magnetic Composite Core', IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 426-434.
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This paper reports the design, performance analysis, fabrication, and experimental results of a three-phase, three-stack permanent magnet transverse flux motor with a soft magnetic composite stator core, which was designed to take advantage of the unique
Gurisik, E, Warton, K, Martin, DK & Valenzuela, SM 2006, 'An in vitro study of the effects of exposure to a GSM signal in two human cell lines: Monocytic U937 and neuroblastoma SK-N-SH', Cell Biology International, vol. 30, no. 10, pp. 793-799.
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The use of mobile phones is increasing, which also increases the population's exposure to global system of mobile communications (GSM) signals. Questions of safety and possible biological effects are of concern and to date, remain largely unanswered. In
Headlam, HA, Gracanin, M, Rodgers, KJ & Davies, MJ 2006, 'Inhibition of cathepsins and related proteases by amino acid, peptide, and protein hydroperoxides', FREE RADICAL BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE, vol. 40, no. 9, pp. 1539-1548.
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Reaction of radicals ill the presence Of O-2, and singlet oxygen, with some amino acids, peptides, and proteins yields hydroperoxides. These species are key intermediates in chain reactions and protein damage. Previously we have shown that peptide and pr
Henness, S, van Thoor, E, Ge, Q, Armour, CL, Hughes, JM & Ammit, AJ 2006, 'IL-17A acts via p38 MAPK to increase stability of TNF-α-induced IL-8 mRNA in human ASM', American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, vol. 290, no. 6, pp. L1283-L1290.
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Human airway smooth muscle (ASM) plays an immunomodulatory role in asthma. Recently, IL-17A has become of increasing interest in asthma, being found at elevated levels in asthmatic airways and emerging as playing an important role in airway neutrophilia. IL-17A predominantly exerts its neutrophil orchestrating role indirectly via the induction of cytokines by resident airway structural cells. Here, we perform an in vitro study to show that although IL-17A did not induce secretion of the CXC chemokine IL-8 from ASM cells, IL-17A significantly potentiates TNF-α-induced IL-8 protein secretion and gene expression in a concentration- and time-dependent manner ( P < 0.05). Levels of IL-8 protein produced after 24 h of incubation with TNF-α were enhanced 2.7-fold in the presence of IL-17A, and conditioned media significantly enhanced neutrophil chemotaxis in vitro. As IL-17A had no effect on the activity of NF-κB, a key transcriptional regulator of IL-8 gene expression, we then examined whether IL-17A acts at the posttranscriptional level. We found that IL-17A significantly augmented TNF-α-induced IL-8 mRNA stability. Interestingly, this enhanced stability occurred via a p38 MAPK-dependent pathway. The decay of IL-8 mRNA transcripts proceeded at a significantly faster rate when cells were pretreated with the p38 MAPK inhibitor SB-203580 (−0.05763 ± 0.01964, t1/2= 12.0 h), compared with vehicle (−0.01030 ± 0.007963, t1/2= 67.3 h) [results are expressed as decay constant (means ± SE) and half-life ( t1/2in h): P < 0.05]. Collectively, these results demonstrate that IL-17A amplifies the synthetic function of ASM cells, acting via a p38 MAPK-dependent posttranscriptional pathway to augment TNF-α-induced secretion of the potent neutrophil chemoattractant IL-8 from ASM cells.
Hitchcock, R, Sears, W, Gillies, RM, Milthorpe, B & Walsh, WR 2006, 'In vitro study of shear force on interbody implants', JOURNAL OF SPINAL DISORDERS & TECHNIQUES, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 32-36.
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The lordosis of the lumbar spine and body weight result in significant shear forces through the lumbosacral elise spaces. These forces result in translational motion across the disc space, which is resisted but not completely abolished by pedicle screw stabilization. It is postulated that this motion may be a factor in the development of nonunion of lumbar interbody fusions. An in vitro study of the micromotion of porcine specimens with serrated or smooth interbody spacers and subjected to shear forces under compressive preload was conducted to determinewhether the surface serrations on vertebral interbody implants significantly resist shear forces and resulting sagittal translation.
Howell, VM, Cardinal, JW, Richardson, A-L, Gimm, O, Robinson, BG & Marsh, DJ 2006, 'Rapid Mutation Screening for HRPT2 and MEN1 Mutations Associated with Familial and Sporadic Primary Hyperparathyroidism', The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 559-566.
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Hutton, BF, Olsson, A, Som, S, Erlandsson, K & Braun, M 2006, 'Reducing the influence of spatial resolution to improve quantitative accuracy in emission tomography: A comparison of potential strategies', Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, vol. 569, no. 2, pp. 462-466.
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The goal of this paper is to compare strategies for reducing partial volume effects by either minimising the cause (i.e. improving resolution) or correcting the effect. Correction for resolution loss can be achieved either by modelling the resolution for ise in iterative reconstruction or by imposing contraints based on knowledge of the underlying anatomy. Approaches to partial volume correctiuon largely rely on knoweldge of the underlying anatomy, based on well-registered high-resolution anatomical imaging modalities (CT ot MRI). Corrections can be applied bu considering the signal loss that results by smoothing the high-resolution modality to the same resolution as obntained in emission tomography. A physical phantom representing the central brain structures was used to evaluate the quantitative accuracy of the various strategies for either improving resolution or correcting for partial volume effects. Inclusion of resolution in the reconstruction model imporved the measured contrast for the central brain structures but still underestimated the true object contrast (~0.70). Use of information on the boundaries of the structures in conjunction with a smoothing prior using maximum entropy reconstruction achieved some degree of contrast enhancement and improved the noise properties of the resulting images. Partial volume correction based on segmentation of registered anatomical images and knowledge of the reconstructred resolution permitted more accurate quantificationm of the target to background ration for individual brain structures.
Hutvagner, G 2006, 'Biography of Dr Gyorgy Hutvagner', Oncogene, vol. 25, no. 46, pp. 6153-6153.
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Hutvagner, G 2006, 'MicroRNAs and cancer: issue summary', Oncogene, vol. 25, no. 46, pp. 6154-6155.
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Kealley, C, Ben-Nissan, B, van Riessen, A & Elcombe, M 2006, 'Development of Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Hydroxyapatite Bioceramics', Key Engineering Materials, vol. 309-311, no. 1, pp. 597-602.
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This paper reports development of a production method to produce a composite material that is biocompatible, with high mechanical strength and resilience. The chemical precipitation conditions necessary for the production of synthetic hydroxyapatite (HAp
Kealley, C, Elcombe, M, van Riessen, A & Ben-Nissan, B 2006, 'Development of carbon nanotube-reinforced hydroxyapatite bioceramics', Physica B: Condensed Matter, vol. 385-386, no. SI, pp. 496-498.
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This paper reports development of a production method to create a composite material that is biocompatible, which will have high mechanical strength and resilience, and be able to withstand exposure to the physiological environment. The chemical precipitation conditions necessary for the production of single-phase synthetic hydroxyapatite (HAp) and a HAp and carbon nanotube (CNT) composite material have been optimised. Neutron diffraction patterns collected before and after sintering show that the nanotubes have remained intact within the structure, while most of the remaining soot has burnt off. Small-angle neutron scattering, in conjunction with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), also shows preservation of the CNTs. Hot isostatically pressed samples showed excellent densification. Neutron diffraction data has enabled the positions of the hydroxide bonds to be determined, and shown that the addition of the CNTs has had no effect on the structural parameters of the HAp phase, with the exception of a slight reduction in the unit cell parameter a.
King, CA, Knox, MS, Henninger, N, Nguyen, TA, Ghaziuddin, N, Maker, A & Hanna, GL 2006, 'Major depressive disorder in adolescents: Family psychiatric history predicts severe behavioral disinhibition', Journal of Affective Disorders, vol. 90, no. 2-3, pp. 111-121.
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LE, H, HOANG, D & SIMMONDS, A 2006, 'PARM: A PHYSICALLY-AWARE REFERENCE MODEL FOR PEER-TO-PEER OVERLAY INTERNETWORKING', Journal of Interconnection Networks, vol. 07, no. 04, pp. 451-474.
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Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technologies developed rapidly in different directions with various applications and routing mechanisms. Each of them deals with a particular task, and/or provides a specific service. They were developed separately without a unified architecture taking into account all the performance factors of a P2P system. This makes the P2P systems incomplete and their performances far from optimal. This trend also restricts the interoperability amongst the systems because of the lack of standardization in functional architectures of the P2P systems. As a result, tangible benefits for Internet users are limited because the edge-Internet resources are not sharable amongst the systems. Inspired by TCP/IP model, this paper introduces PARM: a Physically-Aware Reference Model for Overlay Internetworking, which is an open reference structure for designing better performance P2P systems. PARM divides major functional P2P system tasks into layers so that they can be tackled individually and efficiently. A Peer Name Service was developed to evaluate the model. The service interprets peer names into their current locations. Simulation results indicate that PARM helps to produce excellent performance overlays. The overlays can achieve desirable features such as decentralization, self-organization, scalability, low overhead and minimal delay penalty.
Lewis, K, Boonyang, U, Evans, L, Siripaisarnpipat, S & Ben-Nissan, B 2006, 'A Comparative Study of Thai and Australian Crocodile Bone for Use as a Potential Biomaterial', Bioceramics 18, Pts 1 And 2, Key Engineering Materials, vol. 309-311, no. 1, pp. 15-18.
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This study aims to characterize the structure and properties of crocodile bone to assess the potential for use in biomedical applications. Crocodile bone samples obtained from Thailand (Crocodylus siamensis) and Australia (Crocodylus porosus), being the
Lord, MS, Cousins, BG, Doherty, PJ, Whitelock, JM, Simmons, A, Williams, RL & Milthorpe, BK 2006, 'The effect of silica nanoparticulate coatings on serum protein adsorption and cellular response', BIOMATERIALS, vol. 27, no. 28, pp. 4856-4862.
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Serum protein adsorption on colloidal silica surfaces was investigated using a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) monitoring. The amount of serum proteins adsorbed on colloidal silica-coated surfaces was not significantly different from the control silica surfaces, with the exception of 21 nm colloidal silica which experienced significantly less (P<0.05) fibrinogen adsorption compared with control silica. The adhesion and proliferation of human endothelial cells (C11STH) on nano-scale colloidal silica surfaces were significantly reduced compared with control silica surfaces, suggesting that the conformation of adsorbed proteins on the colloidal silica surfaces plays a role in modulating the amount of cell binding. Fibronectin is one of the main extracellular matrix proteins involved in endothelial cell attachment to biomaterial surfaces. There was reduced binding of a monoclonal anti-fibronectin antibody, that reacted specifically with the cell-binding fragment, to fibronectin-coated colloidal silica surfaces compared with control silica surfaces. This suggests that the fibronectin adsorbed on the colloidal silica-coated surfaces was conformationally changed compared with control silica reducing the availability of the cell-binding domain of fibronectin.
Lord, MS, Modin, C, Foss, M, Duch, M, Simmons, A, Pedersen, FS, Milthorpe, BK & Besenbacher, F 2006, 'Monitoring cell adhesion on tantalum and oxidised polystyrene using a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation', BIOMATERIALS, vol. 27, no. 26, pp. 4529-4537.
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The quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) (Q-Sense AB, Sweden) has been established as a useful tool for evaluating interactions between various biological and non-biological systems, and there has been increasing interest in using the QCM-D technique for cell monitoring applications. This study investigated the potential of the QCM-D to characterise the initial adhesion and spreading of cells in contact with protein precoated biocompatible surfaces. The QCM-D technique is attractive for monitoring cell adhesion and spreading as it allows in situ real-time measurements. The adhesion of NIH3T3 (EGFP) fibroblasts to tantalum (Ta) and oxidised polystyrene (PSox) surfaces precoated with serum proteins was examined using the QCM-D for a period of either 2 or 4 h. Time-lapse photography was performed at 30 min intervals to visually examine cell adhesion and spreading in order to relate cell morphology to the QCM-D response. Following adsorption of albumin, fibronectin or newborn calf serum onto the surfaces, QCM-D measurements showed that cells adhered and spread on the fibronectin and serum coated surfaces, while few cells adhered to the albumin coated surfaces. Cells adhered to albumin coated surfaces had a rounded morphology. The responses to fibronectin and serum precoated surfaces were quite different for each of the underlying substrates indicating that the process of cell adhesion and spreading elicits different responses depending on both the protein coating composition and the influence of the underlying substrate. The different response may be due to extracellular matrix remodelling as well as cytoskeletal changes. Frequency (f) and dissipation (D) changes associated with cell adhesion were less than would be expected from the Sauerbrey relation due to the viscoelastic properties of the cells. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Lord, MS, Stenzel, MH, Simmons, A & Milthorpe, BK 2006, 'Lysozyme interaction with poly(HEMA)-based hydrogel', BIOMATERIALS, vol. 27, no. 8, pp. 1341-1345.
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Lysozyme interaction with an acrylic-based hydrogel, poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) co-methacrylic acid (P(HEMA-MAA)), was investigated using a combination of quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D), surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and dual polarisation interferometry (DPI). This combination of techniques demonstrated that lysozyme initially absorbed into the hydrogel matrix and displaced water from the hydrogel while subsequent lysozyme additions were adsorbed onto the surface of the hydrogel material. QCM-D, being sensitive to bound water, showed an overall decrease in mass and stiffening of the layer after lysozyme addition. SPR, a water insensitive technique, showed a net mass increase after addition of lysozyme and buffer rinses. DPI showed that the first exposure of lysozyme to P(HEMA-MAA) was consistent with lysozyme absorption while subsequent lysozyme exposures were consistent with lysozyme adsorption.
Lord, MS, Stenzel, MH, Simmons, A & Milthorpe, BK 2006, 'The effect of charged groups on protein interactions with poly(HEMA) hydrogels', BIOMATERIALS, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 567-575.
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Lord, MS, Stenzel, MH, Simmons, A & Milthorpe, BK 2006, 'The effect of charged groups on protein interactions with poly(HEMA) hydrogels', Biomaterials, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 567-575.
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Proteins, lipids and other biomolecules interact strongly with the acrylic-based biomaterials used for contact lenses. Although hydrogels are nominally resistant to protein fouling, many studies have reported considerable amounts of protein bound to poly(2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate) (PHEMA) lenses. This study examined the binding of a series of biomolecules (tear protein analogues, mucin and cholesterol) to poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) and three HEMA-based hydrogels (PHEMA, HEMA plus methacrylic acid (P(HEMA-MAA)), HEMA plus methacrylic acid plus N-vinylpyrrolidone (P(HEMA-MAA-NVP))) by use of a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) monitoring. The QCM-D estimates changes in the mass and viscous constant for the adsorbed layer through measurements of frequency and dissipation. Protein interaction with each of the test materials caused a net increase in mass of the material indicating protein binding except for lysozyme interacting with P(HEMA-MAA). A net decrease in mass was observed for lysozyme interacting with P(HEMA-MAA) which may be ascribed to lysozyme collapsing the hydrogel by expelling water. A net mass decrease was observed for cholesterol interacting with each of the hydrogel materials, while a mass increase was observed on PMMA. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Mitchell, R, Cavanagh, M & Eager, D 2006, 'Not all risk is bad, playgrounds as a learning environment for children', International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 122-124.
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The article discusses the implications of risk-free playgrounds on the development of children's social, cognitive, physical and emotional skills. Some experts would argue that children do not lose interest in playgrounds that is not challenging, while school-aged children indicate that risk free environment is not enjoyable. It concludes that it is important that playgrounds should provide opportunities to allow children to extend themselves in a challenging yet semi-controlled environment.
Nelson, AE, Howe, CJ, Nguyen, TV, Leung, K-C, Trout, GJ, Seibel, MJ, Baxter, RC, Handelsman, DJ, Kazlauskas, R & Ho, KK 2006, 'Influence of Demographic Factors and Sport Type on Growth Hormone-Responsive Markers in Elite Athletes', The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, vol. 91, no. 11, pp. 4424-4432.
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AbstractContext: GH-responsive markers of the IGF system and of collagen turnover hold promise as the basis of a GH doping test.Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of age, gender, body mass index (BMI), ethnicity, and sporting type on GH-responsive serum markers in a large cohort of elite athletes from different ethnic backgrounds.Design: The study was designed as a cross-sectional study.Participants: A total of 1103 elite athletes (699 males, 404 females), aged 22.2 ± 5.2 yr, from 12 countries and 10 major sporting categories participated in this study.Main Outcome Measures: Serum IGF-I, IGF binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3), acid labile subunit (ALS), and collagen markers [N-terminal propeptide of type I procollagen (PINP), C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (ICTP), N-terminal propeptide of type III procollagen (PIIINP)] were measured.Results: There was a significant negative correlation (r = −0.14 to −0.58, P < 0.0005) between age and each of the GH-responsive markers. Serum IGF-I, IGFBP-3, and ALS were all lower (P < 0.05), whereas the collagen markers PINP, ICTP, and PIIINP were higher (P < 0.05) in men than in women. Multiple regression analysis indicated that age, gender, BMI, and ethnicity accounted for 23–54% of total between-subject variability of the markers. Age and gender cumulatively accounted for 91% of the attributable variation of IGF-I and more than 80% for PINP, ICTP, and PIIINP. Gender exerted the greatest effect on ALS (48%), and BMI accounted for less than 12% attributable variation for all markers. The influence of ethnicity was greatest for IGFBP-3 and ALS; however, for the other markers, it accounted for less than 6% attributable variation. Analysis of 995 athletes indicated that sporting type contributed 5–19% of attributable variation.Conclu...
Newton-John, TR & Williams, ACDC 2006, 'Chronic pain couples: Perceived marital interactions and pain behaviours', PAIN, vol. 123, no. 1-2, pp. 53-63.
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Ngo, AD, Taylor, R, Roberts, CL & Nguyen, TV 2006, 'Association between Agent Orange and birth defects: systematic review and meta-analysis', International Journal of Epidemiology, vol. 35, no. 5, pp. 1220-1230.
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Background The association between parental exposure to Agent Orange or dioxin and birth defects is controversial, due to inconsistent findings in the literature. The principal aim of this study was to conduct a meta-analysis of relevant epidemiological
Nguyen, HB & Corbett, SW 2006, 'In reply', Academic Emergency Medicine, vol. 13, no. 9, pp. 999-1000.
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Nguyen, HB, Rivers, EP, Abrahamian, FM, Moran, GJ, Abraham, E, Trzeciak, S, Huang, DT, Osborn, T, Stevens, D & Talan, DA 2006, 'Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock: Review of the Literature and Emergency Department Management Guidelines', Annals of Emergency Medicine, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 54.e1-54.e1.
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Severe sepsis and septic shock are as common and lethal as other acute life-threatening conditions that emergency physicians routinely confront such as acute myocardial infarction, stroke, and trauma. Recent studies have led to a better understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms and the development of new or newly applied therapies. These therapies place early and aggressive management of severe sepsis and septic shock as integral to improving outcome. This independent review of the literature examines the recent pathogenic, diagnostic, and therapeutic advances in severe sepsis and septic shock for adults, with particular relevance to emergency practice. Recommendations are provided for therapies that have been shown to improve outcomes, including early goal-directed therapy, early and appropriate antimicrobials, source control, recombinant human activated protein C, corticosteroids, and low tidal volume mechanical ventilation. © 2006 American College of Emergency Physicians.
Nguyen, HT, Kim, JH, Nguyen, AT, Nguyen, LT, Shin, JC & Lee, B-W 2006, 'Using canopy reflectance and partial least squares regression to calculate within-field statistical variation in crop growth and nitrogen status of rice', Precision Agriculture, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 249-264.
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For the site-specific prescription of fertilizer topdressing in rice cultivation, a non-destructive diagnosis of the rice growth and nutrition status is necessary. Three experiments were done to develop and test a model using canopy reflectance for the non-destructive diagnosis of plant growth and N status in rice. Two experiments for model development were conducted, one in 2000 and another in 2003 in Suwon, Korea, including two rice varieties and four nitrogen (N) rates in 2000 and four rice varieties and 10 N treatments in 2003. Hyperspectral canopy reflectance (300-1,100 nm) data recorded at various growth stages before heading were used to develop a partial least squares regression (PLS) model to calculate plant biomass and N nutrition status. The 342 observations were split for model calibration (75%) and validation (25%). The PLS model was then tested to calculate within-field statistical variation of four crop variables: shoot dry weight (SDW), shoot N concentration (SN), shoot N density (SND) and N nutrition index (NNI) using measured canopy reflectance data from a field of 6,500 m2 in 2004. Results showed that PLS regression using logarithm reflectance had better performance than both the PLS and multiple stepwise linear regression (MSLR) models using original reflectance data to calculate the four plant variables in year 2000 and 2003. It produced values with an acceptable model coefficient of determination (R 2) and relative error of calculation (REC). The model R 2 and REC ranged from .83 to .89 and 13.4% to 22.8% for calibration, and .76 to .87 and 14.0% to 24.4% for validation, respectively. The PLS regression model R 2 was reduced in the test data of year 2004 but the root mean square error of calculation (RMSEC) was smaller, suggesting that the PLS regression model using canopy reflectance data could be a promising method to calculate within-field spatial variation of rice crop growth and N status. © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.
Nguyen, ND, Eisman, JA & Nguyen, TV 2006, 'Anti-Hip Fracture Efficacy of Bisphosphonates: A Bayesian Analysis of Clinical Trials', Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 340-349.
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Abstract In postmenopausal women, the efficacy of bisphosphonates on hip fracture risk is not clear. This Bayesian meta-analysis quantitatively reviewed data from 12 randomized clinical trials with 18,667 patients and found that bisphosphonate treatment was associated with a reduced risk for hip fracture by 42%. Introduction: The efficacy of antiresorptive bisphosphonates therapy on reducing hip fracture is not clear, because evidence from randomized clinical trials (RCTs) is inconclusive. This study was undertaken to quantitatively assess the effect of bisphosphonates on hip fracture using literature review and meta-analysis. Materials and Methods: Bayesian methods of meta-analysis were applied to synthesize data from 12 RCTs available between 1990 and 2004. The trials involved 18,667 postmenopausal women with low BMD or osteoporosis who have been followed or treated for between 1 and 4 years. The medications used were etidronate (two trials) alendronate (six trials), risedronate (three trials), and clodronate (one trial). The primary endpoint was the incidence of hip fracture. Results: When data from all 12 studies were pooled, treatment with bisphosphonates was associated with a reduced risk for hip fracture by 42% (relative risk {RR}, 0.58; 95% credible interval {CrI}, 0.42-0.80). The absolute rate reduction was 52 hip fractures per 10,000 women (95% CrI, 4–110) for a period of 3-year treatment. The probability that bisphosphonates are better than placebo (in reducing hip fracture risk by at least 30%) was 0.90. Conclusions: In postmenopausal women with osteoporosis or low BMD, bisphosphonate treatment is associated with reduced risk of hip fracture.
Nguyen, TN & Goodrich, JA 2006, 'Protein-protein interaction assays: eliminating false positive interactions', Nature Methods, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 135-139.
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Nguyen, TV & Eisman, JA 2006, 'Pharmacogenomics of osteoporosis: opportunities and challenges.', J Musculoskelet Neuronal Interact, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 62-72.
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The genetics of osteoporosis can be considered in two broad areas: disease susceptibility and drug activity. While the former has been studied, the latter is still largely untouched. Pharmacogenomics is the utilization of genetic information to predict outcome of drug treatment, with respect to both beneficial and adverse effects. The pharmacotherapy of osteoporosis is characterized by variability in therapeutic response with limited prediction of response on a patient-by-patient basis. This is particularly problematic in a clinical situation where therapy is typically required for several years before outcomes can be evaluated for an individual. Thus, the emerging field of pharmacogenomics holds great potential for refining and optimising pharmacological treatment of osteoporosis. Key components for future development of the pharmacogenomics of osteoporosis should include improved understanding of mechanisms of drug action, identification of candidate genes and their variants and expansion of clinical trials to include genetic profiling. This approach could provide clinicians and scientists with powerful tools to dissect novel molecular pathways involved in osteoporosis and to identify new drug targets. The iterative combination of innovative genomics with classical endocrinological approaches in osteoporosis research can be examined as a model of biological research and innovate therapeutical approaches in a continuing interaction between clinical science and basic research.
O'Brien, BA, Geng, X, Orteu, CH, Huang, Y, Ghoreishi, M, Zhang, Y, Bush, JA, Li, G, Finegood, DT & Dutz, JP 2006, 'A deficiency in the in vivo clearance of apoptotic cells is a feature of the NOD mouse', Journal of Autoimmunity, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 104-115.
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Deficiencies in apoptotic cell clearance have been linked to autoimmunity. Here we examined the time-course of peritoneal macrophage phagocytosis of dying cells following the direct injection of apoptotic thymocytes into the peritoneum of NOD mice and BALB/c controls. Macrophages from NOD mice demonstrated a profound defect in the phagocytosis of apoptotic thymocytes as compared to control macrophages. Nonobese diabetic mice also demonstrated a decrease in the clearance of apoptotic cell loads following an apoptotic stimulus to thymocytes (dexamethasone) when compared to BALB/c or NOR controls. Further, NOD mice demonstrated an increase in apoptotic cell load following an apoptotic stimulus to keratinocytes (ultraviolet light, UVB) when compared to control strains. Animals deficient in macrophage phagocytosis of apoptotic debris often manifest an autoimmune phenotype characterized by the production of antinuclear autoantibodies (ANA). We determined whether increased apoptotic cell loads (through repeated exposure to UVB irradiation) could accelerate such autoimmune phenomena in young NOD mice. Following repeated UVB irradiation, NOD mice, but not BALB/c or NOR controls, developed ANA. We propose that abnormalities in apoptotic cell clearance by macrophages predispose NOD mice to autoimmunity.
Oliver, BG & Black, JL 2006, 'Airway Smooth Muscle and Asthma', Allergology International, vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 215-223.
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The airway smooth muscle is the key determinant of airway narrowing in asthma but its function in the absence of disease is unknown. Evidence for an intrinsic abnormality in the muscle in asthma is only just emerging. The airway smooth muscle is not merely a contractile cell, but also one which determines the composition of, and interacts with the extracellular matrix, and which may participate in inflammatory and allergic reactions and viral infections. The reason for the differences which have been observed in the in vitro properties of airway smooth muscle derived from asthmatic individuals may result from an inherent "supercontractility", an increased tendency to proliferate due to the absence of an inhibitory transcription factor C/EBP-α, the influence of an altered extracellular matrix and/or a decrease in release of factors such as PGE2 which would under normal circumstances inhibit both proliferation and contraction. Although long acting beta agonists and corticosteroids are successful treatments for inflammation and bronchoconstriction, the structural changes which constitute airway remodelling may require additional therapeutic intervention, the nature of which will be determined by thorough investigation of the mechanisms underlying the asthmatic phenotype. ©2006 Japanese Society of Allergology.
Oliver, BGG, Johnston, SL, Baraket, M, Burgess, JK, King, NJC, Roth, M, Lim, S & Black, JL 2006, 'Increased proinflammatory responses from asthmatic human airway smooth muscle cells in response to rhinovirus infection', Respiratory Research, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 1-11.
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Background: Exacerbations of asthma are associated with viral respiratory tract infections, of which rhinoviruses (RV) are the predominant virus type. Airway smooth muscle is important in asthma pathogenesis, however little is known about the potential interaction of RV and human airway smooth muscle cells (HASM). We hypothesised that rhinovirus induction of inflammatory cytokine release from airway smooth muscle is augmented and differentially regulated in asthmatic compared to normal HASM cells. Methods: HASM cells, isolated from either asthmatic or non-asthmatic subjects, were infected with rhinovirus. Cytokine production was assayed by ELISA, ICAM-1 cell surface expression was assessed by FACS, and the transcription regulation of IL-6 was measured by luciferase activity. Results: RV-induced IL-6 release was significantly greater in HASM cells derived from asthmatic subjects compared to non-asthmatic subjects. This response was RV specific, as 5% serum- induced IL-6 release was not different in the two cell types. Whilst serum stimulated IL-8 production in cells from both subject groups, RV induced IL-8 production in only asthmatic derived HASM cells. The transcriptional induction of IL-6 was differentially regulated via C/EBP in the asthmatic and NF-κB + AP-1 in the non-asthmatic HASM cells. Conclusion: This study demonstrates augmentation and differential transcriptional regulation of RV specific innate immune response in HASM cells derived from asthmatic and non-asthmatics, and may give valuable insight into the mechanisms of RV-induced asthma exacerbations. © 2006 Oliver et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
OSEIKUMAH, A, AMMIT, A, SMITH, R, GE, Q & CLIFTON, V 2006, 'Inflammatory Mediator Release in Normal Bronchial Smooth Muscle Cells is Altered by Pregnant Maternal and Fetal Plasma Independent of Asthma☆', Placenta, vol. 27, no. 8, pp. 847-852.
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Phillips, J, Davidson, PM, Jackson, D, Kristjanson, L, Daly, J & Curran, J 2006, 'Residential aged care: the last frontier for palliative care', JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, vol. 55, no. 4, pp. 416-424.
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This paper is a report of an explorative study describing the perceptions and beliefs about palliative care among nurses and care assistants working in residential aged care facilities in Australia. Background. Internationally, the number of people dying in residential aged care facilities is growing. In Australia, aged care providers are being encouraged and supported by a positive policy platform to deliver a palliative approach to care, which has generated significant interest from clinicians, academics and researchers. However, a little is known about the ability and capacity of residential aged care services to adopt and provide a palliative approach to care. Methods. Focus groups were used to investigate the collective perceptions and beliefs about palliative care in a convenience sample of nurses and care assistants working in residential aged care facilities in Australia. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse the data, which were collected during 2004. Results. Four major themes emerged: (1) being like family; (2) advocacy as a key role; (3) challenges in communicating with other healthcare providers; (4) battling and striving to succeed against the odds. Although participants described involvement and commitment to quality palliative care, they also expressed a need for additional education and support about symptom control, language and access to specialist services and resources.
Phillips, JL, Davidson, PM, Jackson, D, Kristjanson, L, Bennett, ML & Daly, J 2006, 'Enhancing palliative care delivery in a regional community in Australia', Australian Health Review, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 370-370.
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Although access to palliative care is a fundamentalright for people in Australia and is endorsed bygovernment policy, there is often limited access tospecialist palliative care services in regional, ruraland remote areas. This article appraises the evidencepertaining to palliative care service deliveryto inform a sustainable model of palliative carethat meets the needs of a regional population onthe mid-north coast of New South Wales.Expert consultation and an eclectic literaturereview were undertaken to develop a model ofpalliative care service delivery appropriate to theneeds of the target population and resources ofthe local community. On the basis of this review, alocal palliative care system that is based on apopulation-based approach to service planningand delivery, with formalised integrated networkagreements and role delineation between specialistand generalist providers, has the greatestpotential to meet the palliative care needs of thisregional coastal community.
Pissuwan, D, Valenzuela, SM & Cortie, MB 2006, 'Therapeutic possibilities of plasmonically heated gold nanoparticles', TRENDS IN BIOTECHNOLOGY, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 62-67.
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Nanoparticles of gold, which are in the size range 10-100 nm, undergo a plasmon resonance with light. This is a process whereby the electrons of the gold resonate in response to incoming radiation causing them to both absorb and scatter light. This effect can be harnessed to either destroy tissue by local heating or release payload molecules of therapeutic importance. Gold nanoparticles can also be conjugated to biologically active moieties, providing possibilities for targeting to particular tissues. Here, we review the progress made in the exploitation of the plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles in photo-thermal therapeutic medicine. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Pongchaiyakul, C, Apinyanurag, C, Soontrapa, S, Soontrapa, S, Pongchaiyakul, C, Nguyen, TV & Rajatanavin, R 2006, 'Prevalence of osteoporosis in Thai men.', J Med Assoc Thai, vol. 89, no. 2, pp. 160-169.
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BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis is a growing health problem not only in women but also in men. However, there is a scarcity of epidemiologic data to study osteoporosis in Thai men. OBJECTIVES: To examine the bone mineral density (BMD) and to determine the prevalence of osteoporosis in Thai men. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A total of 412 men (159 from Bangkok and 253 from Khon Kaen, respectively) averaging 51 +/- 16 years of age, were measured for BMD at the femoral neck and lumbar spine by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (LUNAR Corporation, WI, USA). RESULTS: The peak BMD was observed in men 20-29 years of age at both the femoral neck (mean +/- SD, 1.10 +/- 0.15 g/cm2) and lumbar spine (mean +/- SD, 1.17 +/- 0.13 g/cm2). The prevalence of osteoporosis in the entire group of subjects was 12.6, 4.6 and 3.9 per cent at the femoral neck, lumbar spine and both sites, respectively. The prevalence of osteoporosis increased with advancing age and was significantly higher at the femoral neck in urban men than rural men (18.2 vs 9.2 per cent, p < 0.05) but comparable at the lumbar spine (5.0 vs 4.3 per cent, p = 0.81). The correlation between femoral neck and lumbar spine BMDs was 0.53 (p < 0.001). In univariate analysis, increased age, lower weight and lesser height were each associated with lower femoral neck BMD, whereas only lower weight and lesser height were associated with lower lumbar spine BMD. However, when the three factors were entered simultaneously, only increased age and lower weight were significantly associated with lower femoral neck BMD and only lower weight had a significant association with lower lumbar spine BMD. CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrated descriptive BMD data, normal BMD reference values for diagnosis and reported the prevalence of osteoporosis in Thai men.
Pongchaiyakul, C, Nguyen, TV, Kosulwat, V, Rojroongwasinkul, N, Charoenkiatkul, S, Pongchaiyakul, C, Sanchaisuriya, P & Rajatanavin, R 2006, 'Defining obesity by body mass index in the Thai population: an epidemiologic study.', Asia Pac J Clin Nutr, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 293-299.
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The objective of this study was to develop cut-off values and evaluate the accuracy of body mass index (BMI) in the definition of obesity in the Thai population. A cross-sectional, epidemiologic study in 340 men and 507 women aged 50 +/- 16 yr (mean +/- SD; range: 20-84 yr), were sampled by stratified clustering sampling method. Body composition, including percentage body fat (%BF), was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (GE Lunar Corp, Madison, WI). BMI was obtained by dividing weight (in kg) by height (in m2). The 'golden standard 'for defining obesity was %BF > or =25% in men and %BF > or =35% in women. The %BF-based prevalence of obesity in men and women was 18.8% and 39.5%, respectively. However, using the BMI cut-off of > or =30, only 2.9% of men and 8.9% of women were classified as obese. In the cubic regression model, BMI was a significant predictor of %BF, such that in men a BMI of 27 kg/m2 would predict a %BF of 25%, and in women a BMI of 25 kg/m2 would correspond to a %BF of 35%. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for BMI was approximately 0.87 (95% CI: 0.82-0.92) and 0.86 (95% CI: 0.83-0.90) in men and women, respectively. In conclusion, for the Thai population, BMI is a reasonably useful indicator of obesity; however, the cut-off values of BMI for diagnosing obesity should be lowered to 27 kg/m2 in men and 25 kg/m2 in women.
Pongchaiyakul, C, Pongchaiyakul, C, Wanothayaroj, E, Nguyen, TV & Rajatanavin, R 2006, 'Association between waist circumference and percentage body fat among rural Thais.', J Med Assoc Thai, vol. 89, no. 10, pp. 1592-1600.
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OBJECTIVE: Determine the association between waist circumference (WC) and percentage body fat (%BF) and to develop cut-off values and evaluate the accuracy of WC in the definition of obesity in rural Thai population. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A cross-sectional, epidemiologic study in 181 men and 255 women aged 50+/-16 yr (mean+/-SD; range: 20-84 yr) sampled by stratified clustering sampling method, was designed. Percentage body fat was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (GE Lunar Corp, Madison, WI). The 'golden standard'for defining obesity was%BF > or = 25 in men and%BF > or = 35 in women. Waist circumference in centimeter was measured. RESULTS: In this study, the %BF-based prevalence of obesity in men and women was 8.3% and 44%, respectively. However using the WC cut-off (WHO) of 102 cm in men and 88 cm in women, only 1.7% of men and 24% of women were classified as obese. WC was a significant predictor of %BF, such that in men, a WC of 93 cm would predict a %BF of25%, and in women a WC of 84 cm would correspond to a %BF of 35%. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0. 87 and 0. 88 in men and women, respectively. In conclusion, waist circumference is a reasonably useful indicator of obesity. CONCLUSION: The cut-off values of WC for diagnosing obesity should be lower in Thailand than in Western countries.
Potas, JR, Zheng, Y, Moussa, C, Venn, M, Gorrie, CA, Deng, C & Waite, PME 2006, 'Augmented locomotor recovery after spinal cord injury in the athymic nude rat', JOURNAL OF NEUROTRAUMA, vol. 23, no. 5, pp. 660-673.
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The immune response contributes to ongoing secondary tissue destruction following spinal cord injury (SCI). Although infiltrating neutrophils and monocytes have been well studied in this process, T-cells have received less attention. The objective of thi
Rodgers, KJ, Hume, PM, Morris, JGL & Dean, RT 2006, 'Evidence for L-dopa incorporation into cell proteins in patients treated with levodopa', JOURNAL OF NEUROCHEMISTRY, vol. 98, no. 4, pp. 1061-1067.
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Levodopa (L-dopa) is the most widely used agent for the symptomatic relief of Parkinson's disease. There is concern that chronic L-dopa treatment may be detrimental, with some studies suggesting that L-dopa may be neurotoxic. A potentially important mech
Rodgers, KJ, Watkins, DJ, Miller, AL, Chan, PY, Karanam, S, Brissette, WH, Long, CJ & Jackson, CL 2006, 'Destabilizing role of cathepsin S in murine atherosclerotic plaques', ARTERIOSCLEROSIS THROMBOSIS AND VASCULAR BIOLOGY, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 851-856.
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Objective - Lysosomal proteinases have been implicated in a number of pathologies associated with extracellular matrix breakdown. Therefore, we investigated the possibility that the lysosomal proteinase cathepsin S may be involved in atherosclerotic plaq
Schrover, RJ, Adena, MA, De Abreu Lourenco, R, Prince, HM, Seymour, JF & Wonder, MJ 2006, 'Development of a predictive population survival model according to the cytogenetic response rate for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia in the chronic phase', LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA, vol. 47, no. 6, pp. 1069-1081.
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Slattery, KM, Wallace, LK, Murphy, AJ & Coutts, AJ 2006, 'Physiological determinants of three-kilometer running performance in experienced triathletes', JOURNAL OF STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING RESEARCH, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 47-52.
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The present investigation examined the physiological parameters that contribute to 3-km running performance. Following 2 familiarization sessions, 16 experienced male triathletes (Vo(2)max = 55.7 +/- 4.9 ml(.)kg(-1.)min(-1), age = 31.3 +/- 11.7 years) pe
Slattery, KM, Wallace, LK, Murphy, AJ & Coutts, AJ 2006, 'Physiological Determinants of Three-Kilometer Running Performance in Experienced Triathletes', The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 47-47.
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Smith, AJ 2006, 'Continued Psychometric Evaluation of an Intuition Instrument for Nursing Students', Journal of Holistic Nursing, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 82-89.
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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of a revised intuition instrument developed for nursing students. Method: Principal component factor analysis was used to establish construct validity, and the Cronbach’s alpha was used to examine reliability. Findings: Statistical analysis resulted in a 26-item intuition instrument with 6 factors accounting for 62% of the variance. The factors were labeled as Feelings That Reassure (27.7%), Spiritual Connections (10.9%), Feelings That Alert (8.4%), Feelings That Forewarn (5.8%), Physical Sensations That Alert (4.7%), and Reading Physical Cues (4.2%). Eigenvalues ranged from 1.100 to 7.225, and factor loadings ranged from .572 to .848. The overall Cronbach’s alpha was .89 with a range of .73 to .85 for each factor. Conclusions: The 26-item intuition instrument showed evidence of construct validity and reliability. Implications: The intuition instrument can serve as a stimulus to foster students’ intuitive abilities.
Smith, PJ, Shon, HK, Vigneswaran, S, Ngo, HH & Nguyen, H 2006, 'Productivity enhancement in a cross-flow ultrafiltration membrane system through automated de-clogging operations', JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE, vol. 280, no. 1-2, pp. 82-88.
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A membrane system only has a limited operational lifetime, whereby it becomes so severely fouled that continued operation must be stopped. In the cross-flow configuration of membrane filtration of wastewater, both increased cross-flow velocities and decr
Smith, PJ, Vigneswaran, S, Ngo, HH, Ben-Aim, R & Nguyen, H 2006, 'A new approach to backwash initiation in membrane systems', JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE, vol. 278, no. 1-2, pp. 381-389.
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Smith, PJ, Vigneswaran, S, Ngo, HH, Nguyen, HT & Ben-Aim, R 2006, 'Application of an automation system and a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system for the optimal operation of a membrane adsorption hybrid system', WATER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, vol. 53, no. 4-5, pp. 179-184.
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The application of automation and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems to municipal water and wastewater treatment plants is rapidly increasing. However, the application of these systems is less frequent in the research and developmen
Su, SW, Anderson, BDO & Brinsmead, TS 2006, 'Minimal multi realization of MIMO linear systems', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUTOMATIC CONTROL, vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 690-695.
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This note explores the minimal multirealization problem, which is the determination of a minimal degree, parameter-dependent, state variable description to express a finite set of linear multivariable systems. The form of the parameter-dependent state va
Su, SW, Bao, J & Lee, PL 2006, 'A hybrid active-passive fault-tolerant control approach', ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, vol. 1, no. 1-2, pp. 54-62.
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This paper presents a hybrid active-passive approach to fault-tolerant control (FTC). It combines the existing active fault-tolerant control techniques with the newly developed passive decentralized unconditionally stabilizing (DUS) control. The FTC system is developed to achieve optimized performance under sensor failures that are most frequently encountered and/or have significant impact on the process, while guaranteeing the stability under any other failures. This approach can significantly reduce the level of complexity of FTC systems, leading to costeffective designs. A stability condition for control systems based on reconstructed virtual sensor outputs is developed. The effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated by control of a distillation column
Su, SW, Bao, J & Lee, PL 2006, 'Conditions on input disturbance suppression for multivariable nonlinear systems on the basis of feedforward passivity', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS SCIENCE, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 225-233.
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In this paper, we consider the problem of input disturbance suppression for nonlinear systems based on feedforward passivity. First, we show that integral control can sufficiently suppress a class of slowly variant (including constant) input disturbance and track constant references provided certain closed-loop stability is achieved. Then, sufficient conditions of integral controllability for nonlinear processes are presented. These conditions are further relaxed by using an input and output transformation.
Su, SW, Bao, J & Lee, PL 2006, 'Decentralized Control for Multivariable Processes with Actuator Nonlinearities', Developments in Chemical Engineering and Mineral Processing, vol. 14, no. 1-2, pp. 163-172.
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AbstractDecentralized control is the most widely used control strategy in the process industries because of the simplicity to design and implement the controller, and the potential to achieve failure tolerant control. Actuator nonlinearities are often encountered in many chemical processes. This paper presents a decentralized control method for processes which have static actuator nonlinearities, such as saturation and dead zone. The proposed decentralized integral controller is designed based on feedforward passivation, which can be applied to nonminimum phase processes and/or processes of high relative degree. The concept of marginally stable positive real systems is used to analyse the stability of a closedloop system. The feedforward system is constructed to attain dynamic performance on the basis of frequency based passivity analysis. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated using an example of a quadruple tank control problem.
Tan, D, Darmasetiawan, S, Haines, CJ, Huang, K-E, Jaisamram, U, Limpaphayom, KK, Lin, SQ, Ling, YS, Nguyen, TNP, Park, K-H, Shah, D, Subramaniam, R, Taechakraichana, N, Xing, SM, Tan, D, Darmasetiawan, S, Haines, CJ, Huang, K-E, Jaisamram, U, Limpaphayom, KK, Lin, SQ, Ling, YS, Nguyen, TNP, Park, K-H, Shah, D, Subramaniam, R, Taechakraichana, N & Xing, SM 2006, 'Guidelines for hormone replacement therapy of Asian women during the menopausal transition and thereafter', Climacteric, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 146-151.
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Tavakoli, J, Jabbari, E, Khosroshahi, ME & Boroujerdi, M 2006, 'Swelling characterization of anionic acrylic acid hydrogel in an external electric field', Iranian Polymer Journal (English Edition), vol. 15, no. 11, pp. 891-900.
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A polymer gel is a cross-linked polymer which undergoes a reversible volume and/or sol-gel phase transition in response to physiological (temperature, pH and presence of ion in organism fluids) or other external (electric field, light) stimuli. In structurally soft gels, the motion of polymer network and the diffusion of ions easily take place by an external stimulus. A typical function of gel containing ionic groups is to swell under the influence of an electric field, making it useful for wide biomedical applications. In this study, poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) hydrogel network was prepared by free radical polymerization whose average molecular weight between crosslinkes was calculated as 18500 g/mol and its homogeneity assessment evaluated by comparing 30 samples swelling ratios after 48 h soaking in distilled deionized water. The swelling behaviour of PAA under an electric field application was also investigated as a function of cross-linking agent and electric field intensity variation. It is seen that equilibrium swelling ratio of PAA gel increases from 16 (no electric field) to 30 (by application of 300 V/m electric field), however this variation is dependent on the sample location relative to electrodes. The normalized swelling ratio of sample changes by 4.8 to 0.9 relative to its distance from positive electrode. Increasing the concentration of cross-linking agent (EGDMA) from 0.14 to 0.71 molar percent of monomer resulted in 45% decrease of gel volume fraction. It is proven that applying an external electric field can make an improvement in the time-response of the hydrogel expansion phase and swelling behaviour.
Taylor, T, Darcy, S, Hoye, R & Cuskelly, G 2006, 'Using Psychological Contract Theory to Explore Issues in Effective Volunteer Management', European Sport Management Quarterly, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 123-147.
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Psychological contract theory is used here to explore the set of expectations and obligations that community sport club volunteers regard as part of their volunteering experience. In the first phase of the research, focus group interviews were conducted with 98 community sports club administrators about the methods used to manage volunteers and the organisational expectations of the volunteers. In phase two, 48 general volunteers were interviewed about their expectations and perceptions of the club's volunteer management practices. The findings indicate that club administrators and volunteers place different emphases on the transactional, assurance of good faith and fair dealing, and intrinsic job characteristic components of the psychological contract. Notably, club administrators had substantial expectations of volunteers in relation to adherence to professional, legal and regulatory standards. Volunteers were primarily concerned with doing rewarding work in a pleasant social environment that was able to fit within their often tight time restrictions. The implications of these findings for volunteer management processes and practice in community sport clubs are discussed.
Tipper, JL, Galvin, AL, Ingham, E & Fisher, J 2006, 'Estimation of the Osteolytic Potential of Noncrosslinked and Crosslinked Polyethylenes and Ceramic-on-Ceramic Total Hip Prostheses', Journal of ASTM International, vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 1-16.
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Abstract There is currently considerable interest in the wear debris and osteolytic potential of different types of bearings used in total joint replacements. The aim of this study was first to characterize the wear and wear particles generated from two different grades of UHMWPE acetabular cups with different levels of crosslinking in a hip joint simulator. Secondly, the results for the polyethylenes were compared to an alumina ceramic-on-ceramic hip prosthesis. The wear rates of the two noncrosslinked material types were very similar at 49±8 mm3 per million cycles for the GUR 1020 and 45.6±1.4 mm3 per million cycles for the GUR 1050. Moderate crosslinking (4 MRad) significantly (P<0.05) reduced the wear rate of the GUR 1020 material by 30 % to 35±9 mm3 per million cycles. High levels of crosslinking of GUR 1050 (10 MRad) produced a highly significant (P<0.01) 80 % reduction in wear volume. Although reduced wear volumes were observed with moderate levels of crosslinking for the 4 MRad GUR 1020 material, little benefit was conveyed by crosslinking, in terms of predicted overall biocompatibility and estimated osteolytic potential. Introducing high levels of crosslinking (10 MRad) into the GUR 1050 material reduced wear and osteolytic potential by up to five-fold compared to the other GUR 1050 materials. However, compared to the noncrosslinked and moderately crosslinked GUR 1020 materials, the highly crosslinked GUR 1050 UHMWPE had only a two-fold lower osteolytic potential. The alumina ceramic-on-ceramic hip prostheses produced extremely low wear rates under both standard and microseparation simulation conditions, and consequently the osteolytic potential of the alumina bearings was estimated to be >20-fold lower than the highly crosslinked polyethylene.
Tipper, JL, Galvin, AL, Williams, S, McEwen, HMJ, Stone, MH, Ingham, E & Fisher, J 2006, 'Isolation and characterization of UHMWPE wear particles down to ten nanometers in size from in vitro hip and knee joint simulators', Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, vol. 78A, no. 3, pp. 473-480.
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AbstractThere is currently considerable interest in the wear debris and osteolytic potential of different types of bearings used in total joint replacements. The biological activity of the wear debris is dependent on the size and volume of the particles produced. Wear volume also plays an important role in the functional biological activity of a joint replacement. In vitro studies have shown that crosslinking of ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) acetabular cups and tibial trays produces a reduction in wear volume, and crosslinking has now been introduced clinically for both types of prostheses. Previous studies have identified both micron and submicron‐sized polyethylene wear particles. The aim of this study was to characterize the wear and wear particles generated from moderately crosslinked GUR 1020 GVF UHMWPE acetabular cups and tibial trays in hip and knee joint wear simulators down to 10 nanometers in size. The wear rates of the two prosthesis types were very similar at 25.6 ± 5.3 mm3 per million cycles for the hip prostheses and 22.75 ± 5.95 mm3 per million cycles for the knee prostheses. Nanometer‐sized wear particles were isolated and characterized from both hip and knee simulator lubricants for the first time. Significantly higher numbers (p < 0.05) of particles in the nanometer (<0.1 μm) size range were produced by the hip prostheses compared to the knee prostheses. The knee prostheses produced larger particles, with the mode of particle size in the 0.1–1.0 μm size range, compared to <0.1 μm size range for the hip prostheses. In addition, the knee prostheses produced a greater volumetric concentration of wear particles in the 1.0–10 μm size range, and consequently lower specific biological activity and functional biological activity indices. These results indicated that the knee prostheses ha...
Waite, PME, Gorrie, CA, Herath, NP & Marotte, LR 2006, 'Whisker maps in marsupials: Nerve lesions and critical periods', ANATOMICAL RECORD PART A-DISCOVERIES IN MOLECULAR CELLULAR AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, vol. 288A, no. 2, pp. 174-181.
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In the wallaby, whisker-related patterns develop over a protracted period of postnatal maturation in the pouch. Afferents arrive simultaneously in the thalamus and cortex from postnatal day (P) 15. Whisker-related patterns are first seen in the thalamus
Wang, CY, Nguyen, ND, Morrison, NA, Eisman, JA, Center, JR & Nguyen, TV 2006, 'β3-adrenergic receptor gene, body mass index, bone mineral density and fracture risk in elderly men and women: the Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study (DOES)', BMC Medical Genetics, vol. 7, no. 1.
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Abstract Background Recent studies have suggested that the Arg allele of β3-adrenergic receptor (ADRB3) gene is associated with body mass index (BMI), which is an important predictor of bone mineral density (BMD) and fracture risk. However, whether the ADRB3 gene polymorphism is associated with fracture risk has not been investigated. The aim of study was to examine the inter-relationships between ADRB3 gene polymorphisms, BMI, BMD and fracture risk in elderly Caucasians. Methods Genotypes of the ADRB3 gene were determined in 265 men and 446 women aged 60+ in 1989 at entry into the study, whose BMD were measured by DXA (GE Lunar, WI USA) at baseline. During the follow-up period (between 1989 and 2004), fractures were ascertained by reviewing radiography reports and personal interviews. Results The allelic frequencies of the Trp and the Arg alleles were 0.925 and 0.075 respectively, and the relative frequencies of genotypes Trp/Trp, Trp/Arg and Arg/Arg 0.857, 0.138 and 0.006 respectively. There was no significant association between BMI and ADRB3 genotypes (p = 0.10 in women and p = 0.68 in men). There was also no significant association between ADRB3 genotypes and lumbar spine or femoral neck BMD in either men and women. Furthermore, there were no significant association between ADRB3 genotypes and fracture risk in both women and men, either before or after adjusting for and, BMD and BMI. Conclusion
Watsford, M, Murphy, A & Coutts, A 2006, 'Energy expenditure and time–motion analysis during recreational surfing', Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, vol. 9, pp. 9-9.
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Yousef, B, Hoang, DB & Rogers, G 2006, 'Serviter: A service-oriented programmable network platform for shared infrastructure', COMPUTER COMMUNICATIONS, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 642-659.
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Active Networks propose a new approach for dynamic service deployment through the introduction of extensible software components and per-packet processing in the forwarding plane. By doing so, this approach causes serious degradation to performance, scal
Zeng, J, Dunlop, RA, Rodgers, KJ & Davies, MJ 2006, 'Evidence for inactivation of cysteine proteases by reactive carbonyls via glycation of active site thiols', BIOCHEMICAL JOURNAL, vol. 398, no. 2, pp. 197-206.
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Hyperglycaemia, triose phosphate decomposition and oxidation reactions generate reactive aldehydes in vivo. These compounds react non-enzymatically with protein side chains and N-terminal amino groups to give adducts and cross-links, and hence modified proteins. Previous studies have shown that free or protein-bound carbonyls inactivate glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase with concomitant loss of thiol groups [Morgan, Dean and Davies (2002) Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 403, 259-269]. It was therefore hypothesized that modification of lysosomal cysteine proteases (and the structurally related enzyme papain) by free and protein-bound carbonyls may modulate the activity of these components of the cellular proteolytic machinery responsible for the removal of modified proteins and thereby contribute to a decreased removal of modified proteins from cells. It is shown that MGX (methylglyoxal), GO (glyoxal) and glycolaldehyde, but not hydroxyacetone and glucose, inhibit catB (cathepsin B), catL (cathepsin L) and catS (cathepsin S) activity in macrophage cell lysates, in a concentration-dependent manner. Protein-bound carbonyls produced similar inhibition with both cell lysates and intact macrophage cells. Inhibition was also observed with papain, with this paralleled by loss of the active site cysteine residue and formation of the adduct species S-carboxymethylcysteine, from GO, in a concentration-dependent manner. Inhibition of autolysis of papain by MGX, along with cross-link formation, was detected by SDS/PAGE. Treatment of papain and catS with the dialdehyde o-phthalaldehyde resulted in enzyme inactivation and an intramolecular active site cysteine-lysine cross-link. These results demonstrate that reactive aldehydes inhibit cysteine proteases by modification of the active site cysteine residue. This process may contribute to the accumulation of modified proteins in tissues of people with diabetes and age-related pathologies, including atherosclerosis, catar...
Al-Oqaily, A & Kennedy, PJ 1970, 'Using a kernel-based approach to visualize integrated Chronic Fatigue Syndrome datasets', Conferences in Research and Practice in Information Technology Series, Australian Data Mining Conference, ACS, Sydney Australia, pp. 53-61.
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We describe the use of a kernel-based approach using the Laplacian matrix to visualize an integrated Chronic Fatigue Syndrome dataset comprising symptom and fatigue questionnaire and patient classification data, complete blood evaluation data and patient gene expression profiles. We present visualizations of the individual and integrated datasets with the linear and Gaussian kernel functions. An efficient approach inspired by computational linguistics for constructing a linear kernel matrix for the gene expression data is described. Visualizations of the questionnaire data show a cluster of non-fatigued individuals distinct from those suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that supports the fact that diagnosis is generally made using this kind of data. Clusters unrelated to patient classes were found in the gene expression data. Structure from the gene expression dataset dominated visualizations of integrated datasets that included gene expression data. © 2006, Australian Computer Society, Inc.
Apeh, ET & Gabrys, B 1970, 'Clustering for Data Matching', KNOWLEDGE-BASED INTELLIGENT INFORMATION AND ENGINEERING SYSTEMS, PT 1, PROCEEDINGS, 10th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Bournemouth, ENGLAND, pp. 1216-1225.
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Beauregard, M & Kennedy, PJ 1970, 'Robust Simulation of Lamprey Tracking', Parallel problem solving from nature - PPSN, Parallel Problem Solving from Nature, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Rejkavik, Iceland, pp. 641-650.
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Biologically realistic computer simulation of vertebrates is a challenging problem with exciting applications in computer graphics and robotics. Once the mechanics of locomotion are available it is interesting to mediate this locomotion with higher level behavior such as target tracking. One recent approach simulates a relatively simple vertebrate, the lamprey, using recurrent neural networks to model the central pattern generator of the spine and a physical model for the body. Target tracking behavior has also been implemented for such a model. However, previous approaches suffer from deficiencies where particular orientations of the body to the target cause the central pattern generator to shutdown. This paper describes an approach to making target tracking more robust.
Beauregard, M, Kennedy, PJ & Debenham, J 1970, 'Fast simulation of animal locomotion: lamprey swimming', IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, World Computer Congress, Springer US, Santiago, Chile, pp. 247-256.
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© 2006 by International Federation for Information Processing. All rights reserved. Biologically realistic computer simulation of vertebrate locomotion is an interesting and challenging problem with applications in computer graphics and robotics. One current approach simulates a relatively simple vertebrate, the lamprey, using recurrent neural networks for the spine and a physical model for the body. The model is realized as a system of differential equations. The drawback with this approach is the slow speed of simulation. This paper describes two approaches to speeding up simulation of lamprey locomotion without sacrificing too much biological realism: (i) use of superior numerical integration algorithms and (ii) simplifications to the neural architecture of the lamprey.
Bedford, DS, Sivabalan, P, Brown, DA & Malmi, T 1970, 'Balanced scorecard content, use, and performance impacts: some Australian evidence', Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ), Wellington, New Zealand.
BENN, DE, RICHARDSON, AL, MARSH, DJ & ROBINSON, BG 1970, 'Genetic Testing in Pheochromocytoma‐ and Paraganglioma‐Associated Syndromes', Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1st International Symposium on Pheochromocytoma, Wiley, Bethesda, MD, pp. 104-111.
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Abstract: Genetic understanding of pheochromocytoma (PHEO) and paraganglioma (PGL) syndromes has recently expanded with the identification of the involvement of the mitochondrial complex II peptides, namely the succinate dehydrogenase subunit B (SDHB), subunit C (SDHC), and subunit D (SDHD). In patients with PHEO and/or PGL genetic testing for germline mutations in SDHD and SDHB has been recommended, in addition to the PHEO susceptibility genes VHL and RET. After careful clinical assessment of the patient, suspected familial disease may direct the clinician to the appropriate gene for testing. In the absence of obvious features of familial disease, the decision regarding the appropriate gene for testing is more difficult. Such testing can be costly and time consuming, but a rational prioritization of gene testing can streamline the process. Therefore in order to achieve this for apparently sporadic cases we propose a decision matrix based on site of tumor, functionality, and age at presentation.
Brazil, K, Froggatt, K, Parker, D & Teno, J 1970, 'Palliative care for older people in long-term care settings: an international comparison of challenges and solutions', JOURNAL OF PALLIATIVE CARE, CENTER BIOETHICS CLIN RES INST MONTREAL, pp. 197-197.
Chan, PY, Dunlop, RA & Rodgers, KJ 1970, 'Accumulation of hypochlorite modified LDL by human monocyte-derived macrophages causes a selective increase in expression of the cathepsin S gene.', FREE RADICAL RESEARCH, 13th Biennial Meeting of the Society-for-Free-Radical-Research-International, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, Davos, SWITZERLAND, pp. S107-S107.
Chen, L, Bhowmick, SS & Li, J 1970, 'COWES: Clustering Web Users Based on Historical Web Sessions', DATABASE SYSTEMS FOR ADVANCED APPLICATIONS, PROCEEDINGS, 11th International Conference on Database Systems for Advanced Applications, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Singapore, SINGAPORE, pp. 541-556.
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Christen, P, Kennedy, PJ, Li, J, Simoff, SJ & Williams, G 1970, 'Data Mining 2006: Proceedings of the Australasian Data Mining Conference (AusDM 2006)', Data Mining 2006: Proceedings of the Australasian Data Mining Conference (AusDM 2006), Australian Data Mining Conference, Australian Computer Society, Sydney.
Christen, P, Kennedy, PJ, Li, J, Simoff, SJ & Williams, GJ 1970, 'Preface', Conferences in Research and Practice in Information Technology Series.
Corchado, E, Baruque, B & Gabrys, B 1970, 'Maximum Likelihood Topology Preserving Ensembles', INTELLIGENT DATA ENGINEERING AND AUTOMATED LEARNING - IDEAL 2006, PROCEEDINGS, 7th International Conference on Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning (IDEAL 2006), Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Univ Burgos, Burgos, SPAIN, pp. 1434-1442.
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Coutts, AJ, Sirotic, AC & Knowles, H 1970, 'Changes in match-specific sprinting performance in relation to training loads in elite rugby league players', Book of Abstracts - 11th Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science, 11th Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science, European College of Sport Science, Lausanne, Switzerland, pp. 102-103.
Coutts, AJ, Sirotic, AC, Knowles, H & Catterick, C 1970, 'Periodisation of training loads in professional rugby league', From Research to Practice, 2nd Australian Association for Exercise and Sport Science Conference, Australian Association for Exercise and Sport Science, Sydney, Australia, pp. 127-127.
Craig, DA, Nguyen, HT & Burchey, HA 1970, 'Two Channel EEG Thought Pattern Classifier', 2006 International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Conference Proceedings. Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE, New York, USA, pp. 1291-1294.
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This paper presents a real-time electro-encephalogram (EEG) identification system with the goal of achieving hands free control. With two EEG electrodes placed on the scalp of the user, EEG signals are amplified and digitised directly using a ProComp+ encoder and transferred to the host computer through the RS232 interface. Using a real-time multilayer neural network, the actual classification for the control of a powered wheelchair has a very fast response. It can detect changes in the user's thought pattern in 1 second. Using only two EEG electrodes at positions O1 and C4 the system can classify three mental commands (forward, left and right) with an accuracy of more than 79 %
Dascombe, BJ, Reaburn, P, Holmes, M & Coutts, AJ 1970, 'Comparison of the oxygen uptake and muscle oxygenation slow components during high-intensity cycling in well-trained young and veteran cyclists', From Research to Practice, 2nd Australian Association for Exercise and Sport Science Conference, Australian Association for Exercise and Sport Science, Sydney, Australia, pp. 100-100.
Dissanayake, G, Paxman, J, Miro, JV, Thane, O & Thi, H-T 1970, 'Robotics for Urban Search and Rescue', First International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems, First International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems, IEEE, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, pp. 294-298.
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This paper describes a team of robots that are designed for urban search and rescue applications. The team CASualty consists of four tele-operated robots and one autonomous robot. A brief description of the capabilities of the robot team is presented together with the details of capabilities of the autonomous robot HOMER. In particular, the software architecture, user interface, strategies used for mapping, exploration and the identification of human victims present in the environment are described. The team participated in an international competition on urban search and rescue (RoboCup Rescue) held in Bremen, Germany in June 2006 where HOMER was placed second in the autonomy challenge
Dissanayake, G, Paxman, J, Miro, JV, Thane, O & Thi, H-T 1970, 'Robotics for Urban Search and Rescue', 2006 International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems, 2006 International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems, IEEE, Peradeniya, SRI LANKA, pp. 294-298.
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This paper describes a team of robots that are designed for urban search and rescue applications. The team CASualty consists of four tele-operated robots and one autonomous robot. A brief description of the capabilities of the robot team is presented together with the details of capabilities of the autonomous robot HOMER. In particular, the software architecture, user interface, strategies used for mapping, exploration and the identification of human victims present in the environment are described. The team participated in an international competition on urban search and rescue (RoboCup Rescue) held in Bremen, Germany in June 2006 where HOMER was placed second in the autonomy challenge. ©2006 IEEE.
Ellekilde, L, Valls Miro, J & Dissanayake, G 1970, 'Fusing range and intensity images for generating dense models of three-dimensional environments', Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE International Conference on Man-Machine Systems (ICoMMS 2006), IEEE International Conference on Man-Machine Systems, IET, Langkawi, Malaysia, pp. 1-5.
Fisher, J, Jin, Z, Tipper, J, Stone, M & Ingham, E 1970, 'PRESIDENTIAL GUEST LECTURE: Tribology of Alternative Bearings', Clinical Orthopaedics & Related Research, Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health), pp. 25-34.
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Fu, L, Jain, A, Xie, H, Cranfield, C & Gu, M 1970, 'Integration of a Double-clad Photonic Crystal Fiber, a GRIN Lens and a MEMS Mirror for Nonlinear Optical Endoscopy', Biomedical Optics, Biomedical Topical Meeting, OSA.
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We report on a prototype of a nonlinear optical endoscope based on a doubleclad photonic crystal fiber and a GRIN lens to improve the detection efficiency and a MEMS mirror to steer the beam. © 2006 Optical Society of America.
Gabrys, B, Baruque, B & Corchado, E 1970, 'Outlier Resistant PCA Ensembles', KNOWLEDGE-BASED INTELLIGENT INFORMATION AND ENGINEERING SYSTEMS, PT 3, PROCEEDINGS, 10th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Bournemouth, ENGLAND, pp. 432-440.
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Gay, V & Leijdekkers, P 1970, 'Around the Clock Personalized Heart Monitoring Using Smart Phones', SMART HOMES AND BEYOND, International conference on smart homes and health telematics, IOS Press, Belfast, UK, pp. 82-89.
Gunning, SJ, Maggio, FJ, Valenzuela, S, Broady, KW, King, GK & Nicholson, GM 1970, 'Pharmacophore mapping of the κ-atracotoxins: selective insect potassium channel blockers that reveal a novel insecticide target', 15th World Congress on Animal, Plant and Microbial Toxins, Glasgow, Scotland.
Jap, B, Lal, S, Fischer, P, Waters, S & Bekiaris, A 1970, 'Assessment of electroencephalography activity from different areas of the brain during fatigue', RNSH/UTS- Scientific Research Meeting, Sydney, Australia.
Kabakova, IV & Sukhorukov, AP 1970, 'Optical beam reflection upon two-frequency noncollinear interaction in photorefractive crystals', Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences: Physics, pp. 2002-2006.
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The effect of nonlinear reflection upon two-frequency noncollinear interaction of optical beams in photorefractive crystals was considered for the first time. Simple expression for the critical reflection angle was found in the geometrical-optics approximation. Numerical simulation confirms the theoretical result. © 2007 by Allerton Press, Inc.
King, LM, Nguyen, HT & Lal, SKL 1970, 'Early Driver Fatigue Detection from Electroencephalography Signals using Artificial Neural Networks', 2006 International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Conference Proceedings. Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE, pp. 2187-2190.
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This paper describes a driver fatigue detection system using an Artificial Neural Network (ANN). Using electroencephalogram (EEG) data sampled from 20 professional truck drivers and 35 non professional drivers, the time domain data are processed into alpha, beta, delta and theta bands and then presented to the neural network to detect the onset of driver fatigue. The neural network uses a training optimization technique called the Magnified Gradient Function (MGF). This technique reduces the time required for training by modifying the Standard Back Propagation (SBP) algorithm. The MGF is shown to classify professional driver fatigue with 81.49% accuracy (80.53% sensitivity, 82.44% specificity) and non-professional driver fatigue with 83.06% accuracy (84.04% sensitivity and 82.08% specificity). © 2006 IEEE.
King, LM, Nguyen, HT & Lal, SKL 1970, 'Early driver fatigue detection from electroencephalography signals using artificial neural networks.', Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc, Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE, United States, pp. 2187-2190.
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This paper describes a driver fatigue detection system using an artificial neural network (ANN). Using electroencephalogram (EEG) data sampled from 20 professional truck drivers and 35 non professional drivers, the time domain data are processed into alpha, beta, delta and theta bands and then presented to the neural network to detect the onset of driver fatigue. The neural network uses a training optimization technique called the magnified gradient function (MGF). This technique reduces the time required for training by modifying the standard back propagation (SBP) algorithm. The MGF is shown to classify professional driver fatigue with 81.49% accuracy (80.53% sensitivity, 82.44% specificity) and non-professional driver fatigue with 83.06% accuracy (84.04% sensitivity and 82.08% specificity).
Le, H, Hoang, D & Simmonds, A 1970, 'PARM: a physically-aware reference model for overlay internetworking', 20th International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications - Volume 1 (AINA'06), 20th International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications - Volume 1 (AINA'06), IEEE, Vienna, Austria, pp. 419-424.
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Peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies developed rapidly in different directions with various applications and routing mechanisms. However, the lack of standardization in functional architectures of the P2P systems makes their performances far from optimal. This trend also restricts the interoperability amongst the systems, and limits the exploitation of the edge-Internet resources and tangible benefits for Internet users. Inspired by the TCP/IP model, this paper introduces PARM: a physically-aware reference model for overlay internetworking. PARM is a layered model that enables a more modular communications approach to solve P2P problems and to optimize systems more efficiently. Simulation results indicate that PARM helps to produce better performance overlays with desirable features such as decentralization, self-organization, and minimal delay penalty.
Leijdekkers, P & Gay, V 1970, 'Personal Heart Monitoring and Rehabilitation System using Smart Phones.', ICMB, International Conference on Mobile Business, IEEE Computer Society, Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 29-29.
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Leijdekkers, P & Gay, V 1970, 'Personal heart monitoring system using smart phones to detect life threatening arrhythmias', 19TH IEEE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON COMPUTER-BASED MEDICAL SYSTEMS, PROCEEDINGS, IEEE Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems, IEEE Computer Soc, Salt Lake City, UT, pp. 157-162.
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This paper discusses a personalized heart monitoring system using smart phones and wireless (bio) sensors. We combine ubiquitous computing with mobile health technology to monitor the wellbeing of high risk cardiac patients. The smart phone analyses in r
Li, J, Li, H, Wong, L, Pei, J & Dong, G 1970, 'Minimum description length principle: Generators are preferable to closed patterns', Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 409-414.
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The generators and the unique closed pattern of an equivalence class of itemsets share a common set of transactions. The generators are the minimal ones among the equivalent itemsets, while the closed pattern is the maximum one. As a generator is usually smaller than the closed pattern in cardinality, by the Minimum Description Length Principle, the generator is preferable to the closed pattern in inductive inference and classification. To efficiently discover frequent generators from a large dataset, we develop a depth-first algorithm called Gr-growth. The idea is novel in contrast to traditional breadth-first bottom-up generator-mining algorithms. Our extensive performance study shows that Gr-growth is significantly faster (an order or even two orders of magnitudes when the support thresholds are low) than the existing generator mining algorithms. It can be also faster than the state-of-the-art frequent closed itemset mining algorithms such as FPclose and CLOSET+. Copyright © 2006, American Association for Artificial Intelligence (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved.
Ling, SH, Leung, FHF, Lam, HK & IEEE 1970, 'A variable node-to-node-link neural network and its application to hand-written recognition', 2006 IEEE INTERNATIONAL JOINT CONFERENCE ON NEURAL NETWORK PROCEEDINGS, VOLS 1-10, IEEE International Joint Conference on Neural Network, IEEE, Vancouver, CANADA, pp. 921-928.
Liu, G, Sim, K & Li, J 1970, 'Efficient Mining of Large Maximal Bicliques', DATA WAREHOUSING AND KNOWLEDGE DISCOVERY, PROCEEDINGS, 8th International Conference on Data Warehousing and Knowledge Discovery (DaWaK 2006), Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Cracow, POLAND, pp. 437-448.
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Lock, DJ, Taylor, TL & Darcy, SA 1970, 'Sport fan identity and the new kid on the block.', Sport World United, Sport World United 14th EASM Congress, European Academy of Sport Management, Nicosia, Cyprus, pp. 135-136.
Luu, J & Kennedy, PJ 1970, 'Investigating the size and value effect in determining performance of Australian listed companies: A neural network approach', Conferences in Research and Practice in Information Technology Series, Australian Data Mining Conference, ACS, Sydney, Australia, pp. 155-161.
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This paper explores the size and value effect in influencing performance of individual companies using backpropagation neural networks. According to existing theory, companies with small market capitalization and high book to market ratios have a tendency to perform better in the future. Data from over 300 Australian Stock Exchange listed companies between 2000-2004 is examined and a neural network is trained to predict company performance based on market capitalization, book to market ratio, beta and standard deviation. Evidence for the value effect was found over longer time periods but there was less for the size effect. Poor company performance was also observed to be correlated with high risk. © 2006, Australian Computer Society, Inc.
Miro, JV, Zhou, W, Dissanayake, G & IEEE 1970, 'Towards vision based navigation in large indoor environments', 2006 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Vols 1-12, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IEEE, Beijing, China, pp. 2096-2102.
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The main contribution of this paper is a novel stereo-based algorithm which serves as a tool to examine the viability of stereo vision solutions to the simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) for large indoor environments. Using features extracted from the scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) and depth maps from a small vision system (SVS) stereo head, an extended Kalman fllter (EKF) based SLAM algorithm, that allows the independent use of information relating to depth and bearing, is developed. By means of a map pruning strategy for managing the computational cost, it is demonstrated that statistically consistent location estimates can be generated for a small (6 m × 6 m) structured office environment, and in a robotics search and rescue arena of similar size. It is shown that in a larger office environment, the proposed algorithm generates location estimates which are topologically correct, but statistically inconsistent. A discussion on the possible reasons for the inconsistency is presented. The paper highlights that, despite recent advances, building accurate geometric maps of large environments with vision only sensing is still a challenging task. ©2006 IEEE.
Nguyen, AD, Ha, QP & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'Virtual-head robot tracking and three-point l-l control for multiple mobile robots', DIS 2006: IEEE WORKSHOP ON DISTRIBUTED INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS: COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND ITS APPLICATIONS, PROCEEDINGS, IEEE Workshop on Distributed Intelligent Systems, IEEE Computer Soc, Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC, pp. 73-78.
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In the context of robotic formation control, the commonly-used virtual robot tracking combined with l-l control has limitations in the establishment of a line formation, the possibility of collision between robots, and the singularity cases involved. This paper presents a new approach called the virtual-head robot tracking and three-point l-l control incorporated with a reactive control scheme. The proposed approach, tested through extensive simulations, can demonstrate line formations of a group of mobile robots with singularities alleviated and inter-robot collision completely avoided. © 2006 IEEE.
Nguyen, HT, Ghevondian, N & Jones, TW 1970, 'Neural-network detection of hypoglycemic episodes in children with type 1 diabetes using physiological parameters.', Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc, Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE, United States, pp. 6053-6056.
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The most common and highly feared adverse effect of intensive insulin therapy in patients with diabetes is the increased risk of hypoglycemia. Symptoms of hypoglycemia arise from the activation of the autonomous central nervous systems and from reduced cerebral glucose consumption. HypoMon is a non-invasive monitor that measures some physiological parameters continuously to provide detection of hypoglycemic episodes in Type 1 diabetes mellitus patients (T1DM). Based on heart rate, corrected QT interval of the ECG signal and skin impedance, a neural network detection algorithm has been developed to recognize the presence of hypoglycemic episodes. From a clinical study of 21 children with T1DM, associated with hypoglycemic episodes, their heart rates increased (1.16 +/- 0.16 vs. 1.03 +/- 0.11, P<0.0001), their corrected QT intervals increased (1.09 +/- 0.09 vs. 1.02 +/- 0.07, P<0.0001) and their skin impedances reduced significantly (0.66 +/- 0.19 vs. 0.82 +/- 0.21, P<0.0001). The overall data were obtained and grouped into a training set, a validation set and a test set, each with 7 patients randomly selected. Using a feedforward multi-layer neural network with 9 hidden nodes, and an algorithm developed from the training set and the validation set, a sensitivity of 0.9516 and specificity of 0.4142 were achieved for the test set. A more advanced neural network algorithm will be developed to improve the specificity of test sets in the near future.
Nguyen, ST, Nguyen, HT & Taylor, PB 1970, 'Bayesian Neural Network Classification of Head Movement Direction using Various Advanced Optimisation Training Algorithms', The First IEEE/RAS-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, 2006. BioRob 2006., The First IEEE/RAS-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, 2006. BioRob 2006., IEEE, Pisa, Italy, pp. 1014-1019.
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Head movement is one of the most effective hands-free control modes for powered wheelchairs. It provides the necessary mobility assistance to severely disabled people and can be used to replace the joystick directly. In this paper, we describe the development of Bayesian neural networks for the classification of head movement commands in a hands-free wheelchair control system. Bayesian neural networks allow strong generalisation of head movement classifications during the training phase and do not require a validation data set. Various advanced optimisation training algorithms are explored. Experimental results show that Bayesian neural networks can be developed to classify head movement commands by abled and disabled people accurately with limited training data.
Nguyen, ST, Nguyen, HT, Taylor, PB & Middleton, J 1970, 'Improved Head Direction Command Classification using an Optimised Bayesian Neural Network', 2006 International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Conference Proceedings. Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE, pp. 5679-5682.
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Assistive technologies have recently emerged to improve the quality of life of severely disabled people by enhancing their independence in daily activities. Since many of those individuals have limited or non-existing control from the neck downward, alternative hands-free input modalities have become very important for these people to access assistive devices. In hands-free control, head movement has been proved to be a very effective user interface as it can provide a comfortable, reliable and natural way to access the device. Recently, neural networks have been shown to be useful not only for real-time pattern recognition but also for creating user-adaptive models. Since multi-layer perceptron neural networks trained using standard back-propagation may cause poor generalisation, the Bayesian technique has been proposed to improve the generalisation and robustness of these networks. This paper describes the use of Bayesian neural networks in developing a hands-free wheelchair control system. The experimental results show that with the optimised architecture, classification Bayesian neural networks can detect head commands of wheelchair users accurately irrespective to their levels of injuries. © 2006 IEEE.
Nguyen, ST, Nguyen, HT, Taylor, PB & Middleton, J 1970, 'Improved head direction command classification using an optimised Bayesian neural network.', Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc, Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE, United States, pp. 5679-5682.
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Assistive technologies have recently emerged to improve the quality of life of severely disabled people by enhancing their independence in daily activities. Since many of those individuals have limited or non-existing control from the neck downward, alternative hands-free input modalities have become very important for these people to access assistive devices. In hands-free control, head movement has been proved to be a very effective user interface as it can provide a comfortable, reliable and natural way to access the device. Recently, neural networks have been shown to be useful not only for real-time pattern recognition but also for creating user-adaptive models. Since multi-layer perceptron neural networks trained using standard back-propagation may cause poor generalisation, the Bayesian technique has been proposed to improve the generalisation and robustness of these networks. This paper describes the use of Bayesian neural networks in developing a hands-free wheelchair control system. The experimental results show that with the optimised architecture, classification Bayesian neural networks can detect head commands of wheelchair users accurately irrespective to their levels of injuries.
Phan, HT, Hoang, DB & Society, IEEEC 1970, 'Extension of BGP to support multi-domain FICC-diffserv architecture', 20th International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications, Vol 1, Proceedings, International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications (was ICOIN), IEEE, Vienna, Austria, pp. 269-274.
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The Internet is composed of many separate administrative domains called Autonomous Systems (ASs). To enable the end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) for Internet applications, the inter-autonomous system QoS routing plays an important role in advertising
Rowsell, G, Coutts, AJ, Reaburn, P, Halson, S & Toone, R 1970, 'Effects of cold water immersion on markers of recovery, performance and training quality in well-trained triathletes.', 11th Annual Congress of the European College of Sports Science, 11th Annual Congress of the European College of Sports Science, European College of Sports Science, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Sherker, S, Ritchie, J, Eager, DM & Dennis, R 1970, 'Soft Landings: Encouraging compliance with playground safety standards in local government', 8th Australian Injury Prevention Conference, Australian Injury Prevention Network, UNSW, Sydney, Australia, pp. 1-10.
Shiozawa, N & Rodgers, KJ 1970, 'Comparison of the gene expression profiles of different cell lines in response to oxidatively modified proteins.', FREE RADICAL RESEARCH, 13th Biennial Meeting of the Society-for-Free-Radical-Research-International, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, Davos, SWITZERLAND, pp. S85-S85.
Sidhu, KS, U-Ming, L, Gorrie, C, Waite, P & Tuch, BE 1970, 'Derivation of neural progenitor cells from human embryonic stem cells for transplantation to spinal cord injury rat model', CYTOMETRY PART A, 7th Samuel A Latt Conference on Stem Cells in the Age of Fluorescence Technology, WILEY-LISS, AUSTRIA, Queensland, pp. 425-426.
Sim, K, Li, J, Gopalkrishnan, V & Liu, G 1970, 'Mining Maximal Quasi-Bicliques to Co-Cluster Stocks and Financial Ratios for Value Investment', Sixth International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM'06), Sixth International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM'06), IEEE, Hong Kong, PEOPLES R CHINA, pp. 1059-1063.
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Sivabalan, P, Booth, PJ, Malmi, T & Brown, DA 1970, 'Alternative reasons to budget, firm and budgetary characteristics, and firm performance', AFAANZ Annual Conference 2006, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference, AFAANZ, Wellington, New Zealand, pp. 1-34.
Sivabalan, P, Booth, PJ, Malmi, T & Brown, DA 1970, 'Further evidence on the impact of reasons-to-budget on budget importance and performance', 29th EAA Annual Conference, Annual Congress of European Accounting Association, EAA, Dublin, Ireland, pp. 1-45.
Slattery, KM, Wallace, LK & Coutts, AJ 1970, 'Nutritional practices of elite swimmers during an intensified training camp: with particular reference to antioxidants.', 2nd Australian Association for Exercise and Sports Science Conference, 2nd Australian Association for Exercise and Sports Science Conference, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Smith, K, Darcy, SA & Carmody, M 1970, 'Using narrative and biography in the rehabilitation process: The disAbility Leisure, Arts, Sports and Lifestyle Web project.', Australian and New Zealand Spinal Cord Society 2006 Annual Scientific Meeting 2006, Australian and New Zealand Spinal Cord Society 2006 Annual Scientific Meeting 2006 - ScienceCare Inspiration, ScienceCare Inspiration, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 50-50.
Su, SW, Lu Wang, Celler, BG & Savkin, AV 1970, 'Estimation of Oxygen Consumption for Moderate Exercises by Using a Hammerstein Model', 2006 International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Conference Proceedings. Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE, New York City, USA, pp. 3427-3430.
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This paper aims to establish block-structured nonlinear model (Hammerstein model) to predict oxygen uptake during moderate treadmill exercises. In order to model the steady state relationship between oxygen uptake (oxygen consumption) and walking speed, six healthy male subjects walked on a motor driven treadmill at six different speed (2,3,4,5,6, and 7 km/h). The averaged oxygen uptake of exercisers at steady state was measured by a mixing chamber based gas analyzer (AEI Moxus Metabolic Cart). Based on these reliable experiment data, a nonlinear static function was obtained by using Support Vector Regression. In order to capture the dynamics of oxygen uptake, a suitable Pseudo Random Binary Signal (PRBS) input was designed and implemented on a computer controlled treadmill. Breath by breath analysis of all exercisers' dynamic responses (PRBS responses) to treadmill walking was performed. A useful ARX model is identified to justify the measured oxygen uptake dynamics within the aerobic range. Finally, a Hammerstein is achieved, which is useful for the control system design of oxygen uptake regulation during treadmill exercises
Su, SW, Lu Wang, Celler, BG, Savkin, AV & Guo, Y 1970, 'Modelling and Control for Heart Rate Regulation during Treadmill Exercise', 2006 International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Conference Proceedings. Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE, New York City, USA, pp. 4299-4302.
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This paper proposes a novel integrated approach for the identification and control of Hammerstein systems to achieve desired heart rate tracking performance for an automated treadmill system. The pseudo-random binary sequence input is employed to decouple the identification of dynamic linear part from static nonlinearity. The powerful e-insensitivity support vector regression is adopted to obtain sparse representations of the inversion of static nonlinearity in order to obtain an approximated linear model of the Hammerstein system. An H infin controller is designed for the approximated linear model to achieve robust tracking performance. This new approach is applied to the design of a computer-controlled treadmill system for the regulation of heart rate during treadmill exercise. Minimizing deviations of heart rate from a preset profile is achieved by controlling the speed of the treadmill. Both conventional proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control and the proposed approaches have been employed for the controller design. The proposed algorithm achieves much better heart rate tracking performance
Su, SW, Wang, L, Celler, BG & Savkin, AV 1970, 'Estimation of oxygen consumption for moderate exercises by using a Hammerstein model', 2006 28TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY, VOLS 1-15, 28th Annual International Conference of the IEEE-Engineering-in-Medicine-and-Biology-Society, IEEE, NY, New York, pp. 2776-+.
Su, SW, Wang, L, Celler, BG, Savkin, AV & Guo, Y 1970, 'Modelling and control for heart rate regulation during treadmill exercise', 2006 28TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY, VOLS 1-15, 28th Annual International Conference of the IEEE-Engineering-in-Medicine-and-Biology-Society, IEEE, NY, New York, pp. 2757-+.
Taha, T, Miro, J & Liu, D 1970, 'An Efficient Path Planner for Large Mobile Platforms in Cluttered Environments', 2006 IEEE Conference on Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics, 2006 IEEE Conference on Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics, IEEE, Bangkok, Thailand, pp. 225-230.
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This paper presents a one step smooth and efficient path planning algorithm for navigating a large robotic platform in known cluttered environments. The proposed strategy, based on the generation of a novel search space, relies on non-uniform density sampling of the free areas to direct the computational resources to troubled and difficult regions, such as narrow passages, leaving the larger open spaces sparsely populated. A smoothing penalty is also associated to the nodes to encourage the generation of gentle paths along the middle of the empty spaces. Collision detection is carried out off-line during the creation of the configuration space to speed up the actual search for the path, which is done on-line. Results prove that the proposed approach considerably reduces the search space in a meaningful and practical manner, improving the computational cost of generating a path optimised for fine and smooth motion. © 2006 IEEE.
Taha, T, Miro, JV & Liu, D 1970, 'An efficient path planner for large mobile platforms in cluttered environments', 2006 IEEE CONFERENCE ON ROBOTICS, AUTOMATION AND MECHATRONICS, VOLS 1 AND 2, IEEE Conference on Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics, IEEE, Bangkok, THAILAND, pp. 671-+.
Taha, T, Valls Miro, J & Dissanayake, G 1970, 'Sampling based time efficient path planning algorithm for mobile platforms', Proceeding of the 2006 IEEE International Conference on Man-Machine Systems (ICoMMS 2006), IEEE International Conference on Man-Machine Systems, IET, Langkawi, Malaysia, pp. 1-6.
Uppu, S, Hoang, DB, Hintz, T & IEEE 1970, 'A Mobile Hand Held Computing System for Out Patient Workflow in Hospital Environment', 2006 IEEE 63RD VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE, VOLS 1-6, IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference, IEEE, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 751-755.
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Hospitals around the world are taking advantage of wireless LAN-based computing technologies in view of their mobility, flexibility, and speed to improve the quality and reduce the cost of patient care. The handheld computers have evolved into a viable platform for these organizations to access and manage the patients' information wirelessly from any point of care. However, the deployment of the handheld technology is hindered by the lack of automation of workflows in the present hospital system architecture. In this paper, thin client architecture with workflow decision making is presented by considering the outpatient workflow. The prototype is not intended to replace the workflows in the healthcare but to facilitate the health care professionals to receive useful and relevant information on time with greater flexibility than before. The prototype focuses on exchanging information with existing legacy systems, updating data in real time, and making them available to healthcare professionals by organizing daily routines in the ward
Vellaisamy, K & Li, J 1970, 'Bayesian Approaches to Ranking Sequential Patterns Interestingness', PRICAI 2006: TRENDS IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, PROCEEDINGS, 9th Pacific Rim International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (PRICAI 2006), Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Guilin, PEOPLES R CHINA, pp. 241-250.
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Wang, L, Su, SW & Celler, BG 1970, 'Time constant of heart rate recovery after low level exercise as a useful measure of cardiovascular fitness', 2006 International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Conference Proceedings. Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE, New York City, USA, pp. 1799-1802.
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In this study we aimed to establish the usefulness of the time constant of heart rate recovery (Tr) in the evaluation of cardiovascular fitness. 15 male subjects exercised on recumbent bicycle at three different workloads (75W, 100W 125W) where R-R intervals were monitored to determine Tr. In order to find the maximal oxygen uptake ( 2 max V..O ) of each subject, oxygen consumption rate ( 2 V..O ) was recorded throughout the treadmill exercise (10km/h). Based on 2 max V..O , we classified the subjects into two groups: the fit group and the unfit group. We found a significant difference in Tr between these two groups only existed when the workload was 75W (p .. 0.01) and only at this workload did the R-R intervals achieve stability during the 5 minutes of exercise. Furthermore, we found the cut-off value for predicting cardiovascular fitness at this workload was 55 seconds, with an associated sensitivity of 85.7% and specificity of 87.5%.
