Publications

Savkin, AV, Cheng, TM, Li, Z, Javed, F, Matveev, AS & Nguyen, H 2015, Decentralized Coverage Control Problems For Mobile Robotic Sensor and Actuator Networks, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, USA.
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DISTRIBUTED COVERAGE CONTROL OF MOBILE SENSOR AND ACTUATOR NETWORKS 3 both ecological and evolutionary theory. Animal aggregations, such as schools of coordination rules at the individual level, which at the same time ...

Warkiani, ME, Wu, L, Tay, AKP & Han, J 2015, Large-Volume Microfluidic Cell Sorting for Biomedical Applications, Annual Reviews.
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Microfluidic cell-separation technologies have been studied for almost two decades, but the limited throughput has restricted their impact and range of application. Recent advances in microfluidics enable high-throughput cell sorting and separation, and this has led to various novel diagnostic and therapeutic applications that previously had been impossible to implement using microfluidics technologies. In this review, we focus on recent progress made in engineering large-volume microfluidic cell-sorting methods and the new applications enabled by them.

Agar, M & Phillips, JL 2015, 'Palliative medicine and care of the elderly' in Cherny, N, Fallon, M, Kaasa, S, Portenoy, R, Currow, D & Morita, J (eds), Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. In press-In press.
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Palliative care in the older person occurs in the context of chronic disease and multimorbidity. Coexisting conditions include musculoskeletal, psychiatric, cognitive, and chronic pain-related problems, each associated with substantive symptomatology and disability. Most crucial is to avoid management within disease ‘silos’ and the risks associated with polypharmacy, which both contribute to adverse outcomes. The complexity of older people’s care demands the formation of a collaborative partnership between primary care, geriatric, and palliative care services, together with other health-care providers in accordance with need. The caregiver of the older person warrants specific mention, often an older spouse with their own medical problems or an adult child juggling other life and work commitments. Planning for care in advance is crucial to avoid decisions being made in crisis, and is particularly crucial if cognitive decline is predicted. Physiological changes, and the frequency of falls, frailty, depression, and delirium are important when planning care and prescribing.

Ben-Nissan, B 2015, 'Discovery and development of marine biomaterials' in Kim, S (ed), Functional Marine Biomaterials, Elsevier, The Netherlands, pp. 3-32.
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Use of ready-made organic and inorganic marine skeletons is one of the simplest potential remedies to major problems hindering the future development of regenerative orthopedics such as providing a richness of framework designs and now a potentially rich, accessible source of scaffolds and osteopromotive analogues and biomineralization proteins. It has already been shown that coral and marine sponge skeletons can support self-sustaining musculoskeletal tissues and that extracts of spongin collagen and nacre seashell organic matrices promote bone mineralization. This should not be surprising given that the pivotal biomineralization proteins, which orchestrate bone morphogenesis, are also found in the earliest calcifying marine organisms.This is because they are representatives of the first molecular components established for calcification, morphogenesis, and wound healing.In support of this notion, it has emerged that BMP molecules - the main clusters of bone growth factors for human bone morphogenesis - are secreted by endodermal cells into the developing skeleton. In addition, the regenerative signaling proteins, TGF and Wnt-prime targets in bone therapeutics, are also present in early marine sponge development and instrumental to stem cell activation in Cnidarians. As more analogues are discovered using proteomic tools, skeletal organic matrices may have ever increasing utility for regenerative orthopedics and -maxillofacial surgery.

Ben-Nissan, B, Choi, AH, Roest, R, Latella, BA & Bendavid, A 2015, 'Adhesion of hydroxyapatite on titanium medical implants' in Hydroxyapatite (HAp) for Biomedical Applications, Elsevier, pp. 21-51.
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Hydroxyapatite (HAp) is a biocompatible material; although known since 1916, it was only in the early 1980s that it was first introduced as a porous-plasma-coated material in a range of metallic implants for orthopedic and maxillofacial applications. Adhesion and mechanical properties are important factors in determining the viability of coated implants or devices and their performance under simulated physiological environments. An in-depth understanding of the adhesion of implants and the susceptibility of the coating to cracking and delamination are critical reliability issues. This chapter discusses the various surface coating methods used on titanium and its alloys-in particular, the calcium phosphate coatings-and explores current testing methods for these surface-modified materials.

Braytee, A, Gill, AQ, Kennedy, PJ & Hussain, FK 2015, 'A Review and Comparison of Service E-Contract Architecture Metamodels' in Neural Information Processing, Springer International Publishing, pp. 583-595.
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Choi, AH, Cazalbou, S & Ben-Nissan, B 2015, 'Nanobiomaterial Coatings in Dentistry' in Biomaterials for Oral and Craniomaxillofacial Applications, S. Karger AG, pp. 49-61.
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During the last decade, there has been a major increase in the interest of nanostructured materials in advanced technologies for biomedical and dental clinical applications. Nanostructured materials are associated with a variety of applications within the dental and biomedical field, for example nanoparticles in drug delivery systems and nanostructured scaffolds in tissue engineering. More importantly, nanotechnology has also been linked with the modification of surface properties of synthetic implants in an attempt to improve their bioactivity, reliability and protection from the release of harmful or unnecessary metal ions. This is achieved through the use of nanocoatings and nanocomposite coatings. These new-generation coatings based on inorganic materials and biological materials such as proteins and peptides are currently investigated and applied. This chapter aims to give an overview of the recent advances in nanocoatings and their composites being investigated or used in dentistry.

Cranfield, C, Carne, S, Martinac, B & Cornell, B 2015, 'The Assembly and Use of Tethered Bilayer Lipid Membranes (tBLMs)' in Methods in Molecular Biology, Springer New York, pp. 45-53.
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© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015. Because they are firmly held in place, tethered bilayer lipid membranes (tBLMs) are considerably more robust than supported lipid bilayers such as black lipid membranes (BLMs) (Cornell et al. Nature 387(6633): 580–583, 1997). Here we describe the procedures required to assemble and test tethered lipid bilayers that can incorporate various lipid species, peptides, and ion channel proteins.

Currow, D & Phillips, JL 2015, 'Palliative care for older people' in Van den Block, L, Albers, G, Martins Pereira, S, Onwuteaka-Philipsen, B, Pasman, R & Deliens, L (eds), Palliative care for older people A public health perspective, Oxford University Press.
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The book begins by outlining the range of policies towards palliative care for older people that are found worldwide.

Ingham, J, Moore, H, Phillips, JL & Portenoy, RK 2015, 'Measurement of, and tools for, pain and other symptoms' in Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine, Oxford University Press, USA, pp. 376-390.
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This fifth edition of the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine is dedicated to the memory of Professor Geoffrey Hanks, pioneer in the field ofpalliative medicine, and co-editor of the previous four editions.

Leijdekkers, P & Gay, V 2015, 'Improving User Engagement by Aggregating and Analysing Health and Fitness Data on a Mobile App' in Inclusive Smart Cities and e-Health, Springer International Publishing, pp. 325-330.
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Lovell, TWJ, Bocking, CJ, Fransen, J, Chang, S & Coutts, AJ 2015, 'The influence of maturation, physical capacity, technical ability and motor competence on playing level and position in youth soccer players' in Favero, T, Drust, B & Dawson, B (eds), International Research in Science and Soccer II, Routledge, UK, pp. 277-285.
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Introduction The process of talent identification (TID) aims to recognise individuals who possess the ability to excel in a given sport. Identifying talent at an early age ensures that athletes are provided with a suitable learning environment so that they havetheopportunitytorealisetheirpotential(Williams and reilly, 2000). however, TID is not a simple process, especially throughout adolescence, as maturation and physical development occur at different rates for each individual (Figueiredo et al., 2009). It is common for coaches and selectors to mistake early maturation with athletic talent, resulting in older individuals more frequently selected into talented soccer programmes during adolescence (Helsen et al., 1998).

Patterson, I, Darcy, SA & Pegg, S 2015, 'Adventure recreation programming and tourism opportunities: Bringing together consumer demands and supplier understandings for people with disabilities' in Black, R & Bricker, K (eds), Adventure Programming and Travel for the 21st Century, Venture Publishing, Inc., United States of America, pp. 249-260.

Phillips, J, Ingham, JM & MacLeod, R 2015, 'Development of palliative care in Australia and New Zealand' in Bruera, E & Higginson, I (eds), Textbook of Palliative Medicine and Supportive Care, Hodder Arnold, London, pp. 59-70.

Phillips, JL, Davidson, P & Hosie, A 2015, 'Palliative Care in the Nursing Home' in Cherny, N, Fallon, M, Kaasa, S, Portenoy, R, Currow, D & Morita, J (eds), The Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Rodgers, KJ, Samardzic, K & Main, BJ 2015, 'Toxic Nonprotein Amino Acids' in Gopalakrishnakone, P, Carlini, CR & Ligabue-Braun, R (eds), Plant Toxins, Springer Netherlands, Netherlands, pp. 1-20.
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The 20 DNA-coded protein amino acids play central roles in the metabolism of most organisms. As well as being the building blocks for proteins, they play essential roles in a diverse range of metabolic pathways. They are estimated to be around 1000 molecules in nature, which share the same basic structure as these organic amino acids consisting of an α-carbon attached to a carboxyl group, an amino group, a hydrogen atom, and a unique side-chain group. Many “nonprotein” amino acids (NPAAs) are plant secondary metabolites. In this chapter, the authors discuss plant NPAAs that have a similar chemical structure, size, shape, and charge to protein amino acids and can be mistakenly used in protein synthesis, interfere in biochemical pathways, overstimulate receptors, or chelate metal ions. Most often this results in some level of toxicity to the target organism and can confer some advantage to the plant. Toxic NPAAs might have evolved as defense chemicals that can be released into the soil to inhibit the growth of other plants or agents that can limit insect herbivory. The effects of NPAAs on human health are not well understood. Consumption of a number of plants that contain NPAAs has been shown to have acutely toxic effects in humans. The key questions that remain unanswered are to what extent can NPAAs enter the food chain and what are the effects of a chronic low-level exposure to toxic plant NPAAs?

Ting, SRS, Min, EH, Cortie, MB, Nguyen, HT & Hutvagner, G 2015, 'Frontiers in Nanomedicine' in Bondì, M, Botto, C & Amore, E (eds), Frontiers in Nanomedicine, BENTHAM SCIENCE PUBLISHERS, UAE, pp. 222-255.
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The development of therapeutic nucleic acids has led to new strategies for treating various diseases. Non-viral, synthetic nano-vectors in gene therapy have attracted increasing attention due to their low immunogenicity and low toxicity compared to viral counterparts. Due to the molecular structure of nucleic acids, they are very prone to degradation in pH sensitive biological environments. Therefore, synthetic nano-vehicles for therapeutic delivery, known as ‘nano-vectors’, need to be cleverly designed and engineered to protect and deliver appropriate therapeutic nucleic acids to the targeted sites for action. In this chapter, a brief overview of various types of therapeutic nucleic acids is first provided, followed by analysis of the synthetic nanomaterials under development as delivery systems to carry nucleic acids. The nucleic acid-encapsulated nano-vectors discussed here open a window for a new generation of nanomedicine.

Agar, M, Beattie, E, Luckett, T, Phillips, J, Luscombe, G, Goodall, S, Mitchell, G, Pond, D, Davidson, PM & Chenoweth, L 2015, 'Pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial of facilitated family case conferencing compared with usual care for improving end of life care and outcomes in nursing home residents with advanced dementia and their families: the IDEAL study protocol', BMC PALLIATIVE CARE, vol. 14, no. 1.
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© 2015 Agar et al. Background: Care for people with advanced dementia requires a palliative approach targeted to the illness trajectory and tailored to individual needs. However, care in nursing homes is often compromised by poor communication and limited staff expertise. This paper reports the protocol for the IDEAL Project, which aims to: 1) compare the efficacy of a facilitated approach to family case conferencing with usual care; 2) provide insights into nursing home-and staff-related processes influencing the implementation and sustainability of case conferencing; and 3) evaluate cost-effectiveness. Design/Methods: A pragmatic parallel cluster randomised controlled trial design will be used. Twenty Australian nursing homes will be randomised to receive either facilitated family case conferencing or usual care. In the intervention arm, we will train registered nurses at each nursing home to work as Palliative Care Planning Coordinators (PCPCs) 16 h per week over 18 months. The PCPCs' role will be to: 1) use evidence-based 'triggers' to identify optimal time-points for case conferencing; 2) organise, facilitate and document case conferences with optimal involvement from family, multi-disciplinary nursing home staff and community health professionals; 3) develop and oversee implementation of palliative care plans; and 4) train other staff in person-centred palliative care. The primary endpoint will be symptom management, comfort and satisfaction with care at the end of life as rated by bereaved family members on the End of Life in Dementia (EOLD) Scales. Secondary outcomes will include resident quality of life (Quality of Life in Late-stage Dementia [QUALID]), whether a palliative approach is taken (e.g. hospitalisations, non-palliative medical treatments), staff attitudes and knowledge (Palliative Care for Advanced Dementia [qPAD]), and cost effectiveness. Processes and factors influencing implementation, outcomes and sustainability will be explored ...

Agar, M, Luckett, T & Phillips, J 2015, 'Role of palliative care in survivorship', Cancer Forum, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 90-94.
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There is consensus that survivorship care should be integrated, risk or needs stratified, individualised, coordinated and multidisciplinary. But further research is needed to determine the service models that can best deliver optimal outcomes in the most cost-effective way. Model heterogeneity and diversity is needed to address issues that are disease, treatment or symptom specific, and account for other modifying influences such as comorbid illness and lifestyle. Further work is needed to determine the key elements within models of care configured to support cancer survivors that positively influence outcomes, and how these elements can be best delivered across a diverse range of care settings. In the meantime, adopting a needs based approach to care at the individual patient level will ensure that those in most need have access to relevant support and care from specialist palliative care services. Fortunately, current Australian health reforms provide a climate of plasticity and innovation that is conducive to the paradigm shifts required.

Al Khamici, H, Brown, LJ, Hossain, KR, Hudson, AL, Sinclair-Burton, AA, Ng, JPM, Daniel, EL, Hare, JE, Cornell, BA, Curmi, PMG, Davey, MW & Valenzuela, SM 2015, 'Members of the Chloride Intracellular Ion Channel Protein Family Demonstrate Glutaredoxin-Like Enzymatic Activity', PLOS ONE, vol. 10, no. 1.
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© 2015 Al Khamici et al. The Chloride Intracellular Ion Channel (CLIC) family consists of six evolutionarily conserved proteins in humans. Members of this family are unusual, existing as both monomeric soluble proteins and as integral membrane proteins where they function as chloride selective ion channels, however no function has previously been assigned to their soluble form. Structural studies have shown that in the soluble form, CLIC proteins adopt a glutathione S-transferase (GST) fold, however, they have an active site with a conserved glutaredoxin monothiol motif, similar to the omega class GSTs. We demonstrate that CLIC proteins have glutaredoxin-like glutathione-dependent oxidoreductase enzymatic activity. CLICs 1, 2 and 4 demonstrate typical glutaredoxin-like activity using 2-hydroxyethyl disulfide as a substrate. Mutagenesis experiments identify cysteine 24 as the catalytic cysteine residue in CLIC1, which is consistent with its structure. CLIC1 was shown to reduce sodium selenite and dehydroascorbate in a glutathione-dependent manner. Previous electrophysiological studies have shown that the drugs IAA-94 and A9C specifically block CLIC channel activity. These same compounds inhibit CLIC1 oxidoreductase activity. This work for the first time assigns a functional activity to the soluble form of the CLIC proteins. Our results demonstrate that the soluble form of the CLIC proteins has an enzymatic activity that is distinct from the channel activity of their integral membrane form. This CLIC enzymatic activity may be important for protecting the intracellular environment against oxidation. It is also likely that this enzymatic activity regulates the CLIC ion channel function.

Alvarado, R, O'Brien, B, Tanaka, A, Dalton, JP & Donnelly, S 2015, 'A parasitic helminth-derived peptide that targets the macrophage lysosome is a novel therapeutic option for autoimmune disease', IMMUNOBIOLOGY, vol. 220, no. 2, pp. 262-269.
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© 2014. Parasitic worms (helminths) reside in their mammalian hosts for many years. This is attributable, in part, to their ability to skew the host's immune system away from pro-inflammatory responses and towards anti-inflammatory or regulatory responses. This immune modulatory ability ensures helminth longevity within the host, while simultaneously minimises tissue destruction for the host. The molecules that the parasite releases clearly exert potent immune-modulatory actions, which could be exploited clinically, for example in the prophylactic and therapeutic treatment of pro-inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. We have identified a novel family of immune-modulatory proteins, termed helminth defence molecules (HDMs), which are secreted by several medically important helminth parasites. These HDMs share biochemical and structural characteristics with mammalian cathelicidin-like host defence peptides (HDPs), which are significant components of the innate immune system. Like their mammalian counterparts, parasite HDMs block the activation of macrophages via toll like receptor (TLR) 4 signalling, however HDMs are significantly less cytotoxic than HDPs. HDMs can traverse the cell membrane of macrophages and enter the endolysosomal system where they reduce the acidification of lysosomal compartments by inhibiting vacuolar (v)-ATPase activity. In doing this, HDMs can modulate critical cellular functions, such as cytokine secretion and antigen processing/presentation. Here, we review the role of macrophages, specifically their lysosomal mediated activities, in the initiation and perpetuation of pro-inflammatory immune responses. We also discuss the potential of helminth defence molecules (HDMs) as therapeutics to counteract the pro-inflammatory responses underlying autoimmune disease. Given the current lack of effective, non-cytotoxic treatment options to limit the progression of autoimmune pathologies, HDMs open novel treatment avenues.

Anaissi, A, Goyal, M, Catchpoole, DR, Braytee, A & Kennedy, PJ 2015, 'Case-Based Retrieval Framework for Gene Expression Data', Cancer Informatics, vol. 14, pp. CIN.S22371-CIN.S22371.
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Background The process of retrieving similar cases in a case-based reasoning system is considered a big challenge for gene expression data sets. The huge number of gene expression values generated by microarray technology leads to complex data sets and similarity measures for high-dimensional data are problematic. Hence, gene expression similarity measurements require numerous machine-learning and data-mining techniques, such as feature selection and dimensionality reduction, to be incorporated into the retrieval process. Methods This article proposes a case-based retrieval framework that uses a k-nearest-neighbor classifier with a weighted-feature-based similarity to retrieve previously treated patients based on their gene expression profiles. Results The herein-proposed methodology is validated on several data sets: a childhood leukemia data set collected from The Children's Hospital at Westmead, as well as the Colon cancer, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the Prostate cancer data sets. Results obtained by the proposed framework in retrieving patients of the data sets who are similar to new patients are as follows: 96% accuracy on the childhood leukemia data set, 95% on the NCI data set, 93% on the Colon cancer data set, and 98% on the Prostate cancer data set. Conclusion The designed case-based retrieval framework is an appropriate choice for retrieving previous patients who are similar to a new patient, on the basis of their gene expression data, for better diagnosis and treatment of childhood leukemia. Moreover, this framework can be applied to other gene expression data sets using some or all of its steps.

Aquilina, P, Parr, WCH, Chamoli, U & Wroe, S 2015, 'Finite Element Analysis of Patient-Specific Condyle Fracture Plates: A Preliminary Study', Craniomaxillofacial Trauma & Reconstruction, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 111-116.
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Various patterns of internal fixation of mandibular condyle fractures have been proposed in the literature. This study investigates the stability of two patient-specific implants (PSIs) for the open reduction and internal fixation of a subcondylar fracture of the mandible. A subcondylar fracture of a mandible was simulated by a series of finite element models. These models contained approximately 1.2 million elements, were heterogeneous in bone material properties, and also modeled the muscles of mastication. Models were run assuming linear elasticity and isotropic material properties for bone. The stability and von Mises stresses of the simulated condylar fracture reduced with each of the PSIs were compared. The most stable of the plate configurations examined was PSI 1, which had comparable mechanical performance to a single 2.0 mm straight four-hole plate.

Archer, NS, Nassif, NT & O'Brien, BA 2015, 'Genetic variants of SLC11A1 are associated with both autoimmune and infectious diseases: systematic review and meta-analysis', Genes & Immunity, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 275-283.
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© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved. A systematic review and meta-analyses were undertaken to investigate the association of SLC11A1 genetic variants with disease occurrence. Literature searching indentified 109 publications to include in the meta-analyses assessing the association of 11 SLC11A1 variants with autoimmune and infectious disease. The (GT) n promoter alleles 2 and 3 (rs534448891), which alter SLC11A1 expression, were significantly associated with tuberculosis (OR=1.47 (1.30-1.66), OR=0.76 (0.65-0.89), respectively) and infectious disease (OR=1.25 (1.10-1.42), OR=0.83 (0.74-0.93), respectively). However, although no association was observed with autoimmune disease, a modest significant association was observed with type 1 diabetes (allele 2 OR=0.94 (0.89-0.98)). On the basis of a stronger association of (GT) n allele 2 with tuberculosis, compared with the protective effect of allele 3, we hypothesise that allele 2 is likely the disease-causing variant influencing disease susceptibility. Significant associations were observed between the 469+14G/C polymorphism (rs3731865) and autoimmune disease (OR=1.30 (1.04-1.64)) and rheumatoid arthritis (OR=1.60 (1.20-2.13)) and between the -237C/T polymorphism (rs7573065) and inflammatory bowel disease (OR=0.60 (0.43-0.84)). Further, significant associations were identified between the 469+14G/C, 1730G/A and 1729+55del4 polymorphisms (rs3731865, rs17235409 and rs17235416, respectively) and both infectious disease per se and tuberculosis. These findings show a clear association between variants in the SLC11A1 locus and autoimmune and infectious disease susceptibility.

Argha, A, Li, L, Su, SW & Nguyen, H 2015, 'Controllability Analysis of Two-Dimensional Systems Using 1D Approaches', IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, vol. 60, no. 11, pp. 2977-2982.
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© 1963-2012 IEEE. Working with the 1D form of 2D systems is an alternative strategy to reduce the inherent complexity of 2D systems. To achieve the 1D form of 2D systems, different from the so-called WAM model, a new row (column) process was proposed recently. The controllability analysis of this new 1D form is explored in this note. Two new notions of controllability named WAM-controllability and directional controllability for the underlying 2D systems are defined. Corresponding conditions on the WAM-controllability and directional controllability are derived, which are particularly useful for the control problems of 2D systems via 1D framework. According to the presented directional controllability, a directional minimum energy control input is derived for 2D systems. A numerical example demonstrates the applicability of the presented analysis.

Arruda, AFS, Carling, C, Zanetti, V, Aoki, MS, Coutts, AJ & Moreira, A 2015, 'Effects of a Very Congested Match Schedule on Body-Load Impacts, Accelerations, and Running Measures in Youth Soccer Players', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORTS PHYSIOLOGY AND PERFORMANCE, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 248-252.
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Asadnia, M, Kottapalli, AGP, Miao, J, Warkiani, ME & Triantafyllou, MS 2015, 'Artificial fish skin of self-powered micro-electromechanical systems hair cells for sensing hydrodynamic flow phenomena', Journal of The Royal Society Interface, vol. 12, no. 111, pp. 20150322-20150322.
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Using biological sensors, aquatic animals like fishes are capable of performing impressive behaviours such as super-manoeuvrability, hydrodynamic flow ‘vision’ and object localization with a success unmatched by human-engineered technologies. Inspired by the multiple functionalities of the ubiquitous lateral-line sensors of fishes, we developed flexible and surface-mountable arrays of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) artificial hair cell flow sensors. This paper reports the development of the MEMS artificial versions of superficial and canal neuromasts and experimental characterization of their unique flow-sensing roles. Our MEMS flow sensors feature a stereolithographically fabricated polymer hair cell mounted on Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3micro-diaphragm with floating bottom electrode. Canal-inspired versions are developed by mounting a polymer canal with pores that guide external flows to the hair cells embedded in the canal. Experimental results conducted employing our MEMS artificial superficial neuromasts (SNs) demonstrated a high sensitivity and very low threshold detection limit of 22 mV/(mm s−1) and 8.2 µm s−1, respectively, for an oscillating dipole stimulus vibrating at 35 Hz. Flexible arrays of such superficial sensors were demonstrated to localize an underwater dipole stimulus. Comparative experimental studies revealed a high-pass filtering nature of the canal encapsulated sensors with a cut-off frequency of 10 Hz and a flat frequency response of artificial SNs. Flexible arrays of self-powered, miniaturized, light-weight, low-cost and robust artificial lateral-line systems could enhance the capabilities of underwater vehicles.

Ashby, K, Eager, D, D'Elia, A & Day, L 2015, 'Influence of voluntary standards and design modifications on trampoline injury in Victoria, Australia', Injury Prevention, vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 314-319.
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© 2015 BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved. Purpose To examine the influence of the voluntary Australian trampoline standard (AS 4989-2006) and market-driven design modifications on relevant trampoline injuries. Methods Trend and intervention analysis on frequencies and proportions of hospital-treated trampoline-related injury in Victoria, Australia, extracted from the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset from 1 July 1999 to 30 June 2013. The injuries relevant to the AS were contact with spring and frame, and multipleuser injury. Falls from trampolines were relevant for netted trampolines, a market-driven modification. Results Frequency of all trampoline injuries increased by 11.4% (95% CI 10.0% to 11.7%) on average each year. Spring and frame, and fall injuries increased to a lesser extent (8.7%, 95% CI 6.9% to 9.8% and 7.3%, 95% CI 5.8% to 8.3%, respectively). Multiple-user injuries increased by 21.0% (95% CI 16.3% to 21.9%). As a proportion of all trampoline injuries, spring and frame injury and falls injury decreased, while multipleuser injuries increased. The intervention analysis showed no significant change in spring and frame injuries associated with the AS (p=0.17). A significant increase was found for multiple-user injuries (p=0.01), in particular for the 0-year to 4-year age group (p<0.0001), post 2007. Conclusions There was little evidence for an effect of the voluntary standard on spring and frame injury and none for multiple-user injury. Netted trampolines appear to be associated with a decrease in falls from trampolines but an increase in injuries to multiple users. A mandated trampoline safety standard and a safety campaign including warnings about multiple users is recommended. Continued monitoring of injury data will be required.

Ashby, K, Pointer, S, Eager, D & Day, L 2015, 'Australian trampoline injury patterns and trends', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, vol. 39, no. 5, pp. 491-494.
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© 2015 Public Health Association of Australia. Objectives: To examine national trampoline injury patterns and trends in the context of improved product safety standards and trampoline design modifications. Method: Review of National Hospital Morbidity data. Results: There were an average 1,737 trampoline injuries reported nationally each year from 2002 to 2011. Both injury frequency and rate grew. Statistically significant rate increases were observed among all age groups, although both are highest among children aged 5-9 years. From 2008/09 there is a possible decreasing trend among the 5-9 age group. Falls predominate and 81% of falls result in fracture. Non-fall injuries increased annually as a proportion of all hospitalised injury although they did not comprise more than 2.4% in any one year. Conclusions: History provides no evidence of an observable effect of voluntary Australian Standards for trampoline safety on population rates for trampoline injury. The major design modification - netted enclosures - could contribute to the risk of injury by leading parents to falsely believe that a netted enclosure eradicates the risk of injury.

Aubry, A, Hausswirth, C, Louis, J, Coutts, AJ, Buchheit, M & Le Meur, Y 2015, 'The Development of Functional Overreaching Is Associated with a Faster Heart Rate Recovery in Endurance Athletes', PLOS ONE, vol. 10, no. 10.
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Austin, K, Chambers, GM, de Abreu Lourenco, R, Madan, A, Susic, D & Henry, A 2015, 'Cost‐effectiveness of term induction of labour using inpatient prostaglandin gel versus outpatient Foley catheter', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, vol. 55, no. 5, pp. 440-445.
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ObjectiveEvaluating cost‐effectiveness of induction of labour (IOL) using outpatient mechanical cervical ripening using a Foley catheter (OFC) compared to inpatient chemical ripening using prostin gel (IPG).Study DesignCost‐effectiveness analysis from a hospital perspective alongside a RCT. Women in a metropolitan Australian maternity hospital with an unfavourable cervix requiring IOL at term were randomised to IPG (n = 51) or OFC (n = 50). Primary economic measures were mean patient costs, incremental cost per predelivery inpatient hour prevented, and incremental cost per vaginal delivery within 12 h of admission to the birthing unit. Bootstrapping estimates were used to construct 95% confidence intervals. Estimates of net monetary benefit were calculated to aid interpretation of the results.ResultsMean hospital costs per woman were nonsignificantly higher ($6524 OFC vs $5876 IPG) and mean difference $643; 95% CI −$366 to $1652. OFC group experienced fewer predelivery inpatient hours, resulting in an incremental cost per inpatient hour prevented of $57 (95%

Beckers, A, Van Peer, G, Carter, DR, Gartlgruber, M, Herrmann, C, Agarwal, S, Helsmoortel, HH, Althoff, K, Molenaar, JJ, Cheung, BB, Schulte, JH, Benoit, Y, Shohet, JM, Westermann, F, Marshall, GM, Vandesompele, J, De Preter, K & Speleman, F 2015, 'MYCN-driven regulatory mechanisms controlling LIN28B in neuroblastoma', Cancer Letters, vol. 366, no. 1, pp. 123-132.
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Beckers, A, Van Peer, G, Carter, DR, Mets, E, Althoff, K, Cheung, BB, Schulte, JH, Mestdagh, P, Vandesompele, J, Marshall, GM, De Preter, K & Speleman, F 2015, 'MYCN-targeting miRNAs are predominantly downregulated during MYCN-driven neuroblastoma tumor formation', Oncotarget, vol. 6, no. 7, pp. 5204-5216.
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Bhimani, A, Ncube, M & Sivabalan, P 2015, 'Managing risk in mergers and acquisitions activity: beyond ‘good’ and ‘bad’ management', Managerial Auditing Journal, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 160-175.
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Purpose– This paper aims to assess the impact of the presence/absence of risk management practices on the risk of merger and acquisition (M&A) failure.Design/methodology/approach– An agency theoretic perspective is adopted, along with a mixed-methods approach to study managerial complexity beyond simply “good” and “bad”. The focus is on an agency conflicts.Findings– The authors first present an integrated framework that classifies managerial behaviour and risk management, where M&A bids can become vehicles for maximising managerial benefits rather than shareholder value. The authors proceed to consider M&A activity that benefits both managers and shareholders in the presence of risk management strategies.Research limitations/implications– The paper highlights the benefits of multiple paradigms and research paths that address dimensions captured by an agency theoretic perspective.Practical implications– The authors regard this paper as having particular significance in that the global financial crisis has impacted M&A activities and objectives, shifting the employment and related risks faced by managers.Originality/value– The paper suggests future research paths to advance the understanding of the complex behaviour of managers involved in M&A activities that go beyond the classification of “good” and “bad” managers.

Bilsborough, JC, Greenway, KG, Opar, DA, Livingstone, SG, Cordy, JT, Bird, SR & Coutts, AJ 2015, 'COMPARISON OF ANTHROPOMETRY, UPPER-BODY STRENGTH, AND LOWER-BODY POWER CHARACTERISTICS IN DIFFERENT LEVELS OF AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL PLAYERS', JOURNAL OF STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING RESEARCH, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 826-834.
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The aim of this study was to compare the anthropometry, upper-body strength, and lower-body power characteristics in elite junior, sub-elite senior, and elite senior Australian Football (AF) players. Nineteen experienced elite senior (≥4 years Australian Football League [AFL] experience), 27 inexperienced elite senior (<4 years AFL experience), 22 sub-elite senior, and 21 elite junior AF players were assessed for anthropometric profile (fat-free soft tissue mass [FFSTM], fat mass, and bone mineral content) with dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, upper-body strength (bench press and bench pull), and lower-body power (countermovement jump [CMJ] and squat jump with 20 kg). A 1-way analysis of variance assessed differences between the playing levels in these measures, whereas relationships between anthropometry and performance were assessed with Pearson's correlation. The elite senior and sub-elite senior players were older and heavier than the elite junior players (p ≤ 0.05). Both elite playing groups had greater total FFSTM than both the sub-elite and junior elite players; however, there were only appendicular FFSTM differences between the junior elite and elite senior players (p < 0.001). The elite senior playing groups were stronger and had greater CMJ performance than the lower level players. Both whole-body and regional FFSTM were correlated with bench press (r = 0.43-0.64), bench pull (r = 0.58-0.73), and jump squat performance measures (r = 0.33-0.55). Australian Football players' FFSTM are different between playing levels, which are likely because of training and partly explain the observed differences in performance between playing levels highlighting the importance of optimizing FFSTM in young players.

Bliuc, D, Alarkawi, D, Nguyen, TV, Eisman, JA & Center, JR 2015, 'Risk of Subsequent Fractures and Mortality in Elderly Women and Men with Fragility Fractures with and without Osteoporotic Bone Density: The Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study', Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 637-646.
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ABSTRACT   Half of fragility fractures occur in individuals with nonosteoporotic BMD (BMD T-score &gt; –2.5); however, there is no information on postfracture adverse events of subsequent fracture and mortality for different BMD levels. The objective of this work was to determine the risk and predictors of subsequent fracture and excess mortality following initial fracture according to BMD. The subjects were community-dwelling participants aged 60+ years from the Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study with incident fractures followed from 1989 to 2011. The outcome measurements were as follows: risk of subsequent fracture and mortality according to BMD categorized as normal (T-score &lt; –1), osteopenia (T-score ≤ –1 and &gt; –2.5), and osteoporosis (T-score ≤ –2.5). There were 528 low-trauma fractures in women and 187 in men. Of these, 12% occurred in individuals with normal BMD (38 women, 50 men) and 42% in individuals with osteopenia (221 women, 76 men). The relative risk (RR) of subsequent fracture was &gt;2.0-fold for all levels of BMD (normal BMD: 2.0 [1.2 to 3.3] for women and 2.1 [1.2 to 3.8] for men; osteopenia: 2.1 [1.7 to 2.6] for women and 2.5 [1.6 to 4.1] for men; and osteoporosis 3.2 [2.7 to 3.9] for women and 2.1 [1.4 to 3.1] for men. The likelihood of falling and reduced quadriceps strength contributed to subsequent fracture risk in women with normal BMD. By contrast with subsequent fracture risk, postfracture mortality was increased particularly in individuals with low BMD (age-adjusted standardized mortality ratio [SMR] for osteopenia 1.3 [1.1 to 1.7] and 2.2 [1.7 to 2.9] for women and men, respectively, and osteoporosis 1.7 [1.5 to 2.0] and 2.7 [2.0 to 3.6] for women and men, respectively). This study demonstrates the high burden of subsequent fracture in individuals with normal BMD and osteopenia, and ...

Borges, TO, Dascombe, B, Bullock, N & Coutts, AJ 2015, 'Physiological Characteristics of Well-Trained Junior Sprint Kayak Athletes', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORTS PHYSIOLOGY AND PERFORMANCE, vol. 10, no. 5, pp. 593-599.
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Carter, DR, Murray, J, Cheung, BB, Gamble, L, Koach, J, Tsang, J, Sutton, S, Kalla, H, Syed, S, Gifford, AJ, Issaeva, N, Biktasova, A, Atmadibrata, B, Sun, Y, Sokolowski, N, Ling, D, Kim, PY, Webber, H, Clark, A, Ruhle, M, Liu, B, Oberthuer, A, Fischer, M, Byrne, J, Saletta, F, Thwe, LM, Purmal, A, Haderski, G, Burkhart, C, Speleman, F, De Preter, K, Beckers, A, Ziegler, DS, Liu, T, Gurova, KV, Gudkov, AV, Norris, MD, Haber, M & Marshall, GM 2015, 'Therapeutic targeting of the MYC signal by inhibition of histone chaperone FACT in neuroblastoma', Science Translational Medicine, vol. 7, no. 312.
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Histone chaperone FACT acts in a positive feedback loop with MYCN and is a therapeutic target in neuroblastoma.

Cawsey, T, Duflou, J, Weickert, CS & Gorrie, CA 2015, 'Nestin-Positive Ependymal Cells Are Increased in the Human Spinal Cord after Traumatic Central Nervous System Injury', Journal of Neurotrauma, vol. 32, no. 18, pp. 1393-1402.
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© 2015, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Endogenous neural progenitor cell niches have been identified in adult mammalian brain and spinal cord. Few studies have examined human spinal cord tissue for a neural progenitor cell response in disease or after injury. Here, we have compared cervical spinal cord sections from 14 individuals who died as a result of nontraumatic causes (controls) with 27 who died from injury with evidence of trauma to the central nervous system. Nestin immunoreactivity was used as a marker of neural progenitor cell response. There were significant increases in the percentage of ependymal cells that were nestin positive between controls and trauma cases. When sections from lumbar and thoracic spinal cord were available, nestin positivity was seen at all three spinal levels, suggesting that nestin reactivity is not simply a localized reaction to injury. There was a positive correlation between the percentage of ependymal cells that were nestin positive and post-injury survival time but not for age, postmortem delay, or glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) immunoreactivity. No double-labelled nestin and GFAP cells were identified in the ependymal, subependymal, or parenchymal regions of the spinal cord. We need to further characterize this subset of ependymal cells to determine their role after injury, whether they are a population of neural progenitor cells with the potential for proliferation, migration, and differentiation for spinal cord repair, or whether they have other roles more in line with hypothalamic tanycytes, which they closely resemble.

Chamoli, U, Korkusuz, MH, Sabnis, AB, Manolescu, AR, Tsafnat, N & Diwan, AD 2015, 'Global and segmental kinematic changes following sequential resection of posterior osteoligamentous structures in the lumbar spine: An in vitro biomechanical investigation using pure moment testing protocols', Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part H: Journal of Engineering in Medicine, vol. 229, no. 11, pp. 812-821.
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Lumbar spinal surgeries may compromise the integrity of posterior osteoligamentous structures implicating mechanical stability. Circumstances necessitating a concomitant surgery to achieve restabilisation are not well understood. The main objective of this in vitro study was to quantify global and segmental (index and adjacent levels) kinematic changes in the lumbar spine following sequential resection of the posterior osteoligamentous structures using pure moment testing protocols. Six fresh frozen cadaveric kangaroo lumbar spines (T12–S1) were tested under a bending moment in flexion–extension, bilateral bending, and axial torsion in a 6-degree-of-freedom Kinematic Spine Simulator. Specimens were tested in the following order: intact state (D0), after interspinous and supraspinous ligaments transection between L4 and L5 (D1), further after a total bilateral facetectomy between L4 and L5 (D2). Segmental motions at the cephalad, damaged, and caudal levels were recorded using an infrared-based motion tracking device. Following D1, no significant change in the global range of motion was observed in any of the bending planes. Following D2, a significant increase in the global range of motion from the baseline (D0) was observed in axial torsion (median normalised change +20%). At the damaged level, D2resulted in a significant increase in the segmental range of motion in flexion–extension (+77%) and axial torsion (+492%). Additionally, a significant decrease in the segmental range of motion in axial torsion (−35%) was observed at the caudal level following D2. These results suggest that a multi-segment lumbar spine acts as a mechanism for transmitting motions, and that a compromised joint may significantly alter motion transfer to adjacent segments. We conclude that the interspinous an...

Chan, KY, Lam, HK, Dillon, TS & Ling, SH 2015, 'A Stepwise-Based Fuzzy Regression Procedure for Developing Customer Preference Models in New Product Development', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON FUZZY SYSTEMS, vol. 23, no. 5, pp. 1728-1745.
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© 2014 IEEE. Fuzzy regression methods have commonly been used to develop consumer preferences models, which correlate the engineering characteristics with consumer preferences regarding a new product; the consumer preference models provide a platform, whereby product developers can decide the engineering characteristics in order to satisfy consumer preferences prior to developing the products. Recent research shows that these fuzzy regression methods are commonly used to model customer preferences. However, these approaches have a common limitation in that they do not investigate the appropriate polynomial structure, which includes significant regressors with only significant engineering characteristics; also, they cannot generate interaction or high-order regressors in the models. The inclusion of insignificant regressors is not an effective approach when developing the models. Exclusion of significant regressors may affect the generalization capability of the consumer preference models. In this paper, a novel fuzzy modeling method is proposed, namely fuzzy stepwise regression (F-SR), in order to develop a customer preference model which is structured with an appropriate polynomial, which includes only significant regressors. Based on the appropriate polynomial structure, the fuzzy coefficients are determined using the fuzzy least-squares regression. The developed fuzzy regression model attempts to obtain a better generalization capability using a smaller number of regressors. The effectiveness of the F-SR is evaluated based on two design problems, namely a tea maker design and a solder paste dispenser design. Results show that better generalization capabilities can be obtained compared with the fuzzy regression methods commonly used for new product development. In addition, smaller scale consumer preference models with fewer engineering characteristics can be obtained. Hence, a simpler and more effective product development platform can be provided.

Chan, YL, Saad, S, Simar, D, Oliver, B, McGrath, K, van Reyk, D, Bertrand, PP, Gorrie, C, Pollock, C & Chen, H 2015, 'Short term exendin-4 treatment reduces markers of metabolic disorders in female offspring of obese rat dams', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROSCIENCE, vol. 46, pp. 67-75.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Objectives: Maternal obesity imposes significant health risks in the offspring including diabetes and dyslipidemia. We previously showed that the hypoglycaemic agent exendin-4 (Ex-4) administered from weaning can reverse the maternal impact of 'transmitted disorders' in such offspring. However daily injection for six-weeks was required and the beneficial effect may lapse upon drug withdrawal. This study aimed to investigate whether short term Ex-4 treatment during suckling period in a rodent model can reverse transmitted metabolic disorders due to maternal obesity. Methods: Maternal obesity was induced in female Sprague Dawley rats by high-fat diet feeding for 6 weeks, throughout gestation and lactation. Female offspring were treated with Ex-4 (5. μg/kg/day) between postnatal day (P) 4 and 14. Female offspring were harvested at weaning (P20). Lipid and glucose metabolic markers were measured in the liver and fat. Appetite regulators were measured in the plasma and hypothalamus. Results: Maternal obesity significantly increased body weight, fat mass, and liver weight in the offspring. There was an associated inhibition of peroxisomal proliferator activated receptor gamma coactivator 1α (PGC1α), increased fatty acid synthase (FASN) expression in the liver, and reduced adipocyte triglyceride lipase (ATGL) expression. It also increased the plasma gut hormone ghrelin and reduced glucagon-like peptide-1. Ex-4 treatment partially reversed the maternal impact on adiposity and impaired lipid metabolism in the offspring, with increased liver PGC1α and inhibition of FASN mRNA expression. Ex-4 treatment also increased the expression of a novel fat depletion gene a2-zinc-glycoprotein 1 in the fat tissue. Conclusion: Short term Ex-4 treatment during the suckling period significantly improved the metabolic profile in the offspring from the obese mothers at weaning. Long-term studies are needed to follow such offspring to adulthood to examine the s...

Cheung, BB, Tan, O, Koach, J, Liu, B, Shum, MSY, Carter, DR, Sutton, S, Po'uha, ST, Chesler, L, Haber, M, Norris, MD, Kavallaris, M, Liu, T, O'Neill, GM & Marshall, GM 2015, 'Thymosin‐β4 is a determinant of drug sensitivity for Fenretinide and Vorinostat combination therapy in neuroblastoma', Molecular Oncology, vol. 9, no. 7, pp. 1484-1500.
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AbstractRetinoids are an important component of neuroblastoma therapy at the stage of minimal residual disease, yet 40–50% of patients treated with 13‐cis‐retinoic acid (13‐cis‐RA) still relapse, indicating the need for more effective retinoid therapy. Vorinostat, or Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA), is a potent inhibitor of histone deacetylase (HDAC) classes I & II and has antitumor activity in vitro and in vivo. Fenretinide (4‐HPR) is a synthetic retinoid which acts on cancer cells through both nuclear retinoid receptor and non‐receptor mechanisms. In this study, we found that the combination of 4‐HPR + SAHA exhibited potent cytotoxic effects on neuroblastoma cells, much more effective than 13‐cis‐RA + SAHA. The 4‐HPR + SAHA combination induced caspase‐dependent apoptosis through activation of caspase 3, reduced colony formation and cell migration in vitro, and tumorigenicity in vivo. The 4‐HPR and SAHA combination significantly increased mRNA expression of thymosin‐beta‐4 (Tβ4) and decreased mRNA expression of retinoic acid receptor α (RARα). Importantly, the up‐regulation of Tβ4 and down‐regulation of RARα were both necessary for the 4‐HPR + SAHA cytotoxic effect on neuroblastoma cells. Moreover, Tβ4 knockdown in neuroblastoma cells increased cell migration and blocked the effect of 4‐HPR + SAHA on cell migration and focal adhesion formation. In primary human neuroblastoma tumor tissues, low expression of Tβ4 was associated with metastatic disease and predicted poor patient prognosis. Our findings demonstrate that Tβ4 is a novel therapeutic target in neuroblastoma, and that 4‐HPR + SAHA is a potential therapy for the disease.

Choi, AH & Ben-Nissan, B 2015, 'Calcium phosphate nanocoatings and nanocomposites, part I: recent developments and advancements in tissue engineering and bioimaging', Nanomedicine, vol. 10, no. 14, pp. 2249-2261.
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A number of materials have been applied as implant coatings and as tissue regeneration materials. Calcium phosphate holds a special consideration, due to its chemical similarity to human bone and, most importantly, its dissolution characteristics, which allow for bone growth and regeneration. The applications of molecular and nanoscale-based biological materials have been and will continue to play an ever increasing role in enhancing and improving the osseointegration of dental and orthopedic implants. More recently, extensive research efforts have been focused on the development and applications of fluorescent nanoparticles and nanocoatings for in vivo imaging and diagnostics as well as devising methods of adding luminescent or fluorescent capabilities to enhance the in vivo functionality of calcium phosphate-based biomedical materials.

Choi, AH, Conway, RC, Taraschi, V & Ben‐Nissan, B 2015, 'Biomechanics and functional distortion of the human mandible', Journal of Investigative and Clinical Dentistry, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 241-251.
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AbstractThe reaction to the use of finite element analysis (FEA) in the study of the human body has been particularly enthusiastic. Of equal and challenging complexity is the investigation of load/stress distribution and morphological distortion of the human mandible under functional loads. Furthermore, the mandible also impacts directly on body function and esthetics, playing a vital role, such as mastication and speech. The application of FEA to the biomechanical investigation of the oral systems, such as human teeth and mandibular bone remodeling, began in the early 1970s. The clinical significance of jaw deformation is unknown. The primary concern is that deformation might result in an ill‐fitting superstructure or the creation of harmful strains in the patient–implant complex. Although mandibular implant treatment has a high success rate, the possibility of failure caused by these dimensional changes and the related micromotion cannot be ignored.

Chou, J, Hao, J, Hatoyama, H, Ben-Nissan, B, Milthorpe, B & Otsuka, M 2015, 'Effect of biomimetic zinc-containing tricalcium phosphate (Zn-TCP) on the growth and osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells', Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, vol. 9, no. 7, pp. 852-858.
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© 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Several studies have shown the effectiveness of zinc-tricalcium phosphate (Zn-TCP) for bone tissue engineering. In this study, marine calcareous foraminifera possessing uniform pore size distribution were hydrothermally converted to Zn-TCP. The ability of a scaffold to combine effectively with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is a key tissue-engineering aim. In order to demonstrate the osteogenic ability of MSCs with Zn-TCP, the scaffolds were cultured in an osteogenic induction medium to elicit an osteoblastic response. The physicochemical properties of Zn-TCP were characterized by XRD, FT-IR and ICP-MS. MSCs were aspirated from rat femurs and cultured for 3 days before indirectly placing four samples into each respective well. After culture for 7, 10 and 14 days, osteoblastic differentiation was evaluated using alizarin red S stain, measurement of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels, cell numbers and cell viability. XRD and FT-IR patterns both showed the replacement of CO32- with PO43-. Chemical analysis showed zinc incorporation of 5 mol%. Significant increases in cell numbers were observed at 10 and 14 days in the Zn-TCP group, while maintaining high levels of cell viability (> 90%). ALP activity in the Zn-TCP group was statistically higher at 10 days. Alizarin red S staining also showed significantly higher levels of calcium mineralization in Zn-TCP compared with the control groups. This study showed that MSCs in the presence of biomimetically derived Zn-TCP can accelerate their differentiation to osteoblasts and could potentially be useful as a scaffold for bone tissue engineering.

Cole, AJ, Clifton-Bligh, R & Marsh, DJ 2015, 'Histone H2B monoubiquitination: roles to play in human malignancy', Endocrine-Related Cancer, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. T19-T33.
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Ubiquitination has traditionally been viewed in the context of polyubiquitination that is essential for marking proteins for degradation via the proteasome. Recent discoveries have shed light on key cellular roles for monoubiquitination, including as a post-translational modification (PTM) of histones such as histone H2B. Monoubiquitination plays a significant role as one of the largest histone PTMs, alongside smaller, better-studied modifications such as methylation, acetylation and phosphorylation. Monoubiquitination of histone H2B at lysine 120 (H2Bub1) has been shown to have key roles in transcription, the DNA damage response and stem cell differentiation. The H2Bub1 enzymatic cascade involves E3 RING finger ubiquitin ligases, with the main E3 generally accepted to be the RNF20–RNF40 complex, and deubiquitinases including ubiquitin-specific protease 7 (USP7), USP22 and USP44. H2Bub1 has been shown to physically disrupt chromatin strands, fostering a more open chromatin structure accessible to transcription factors and DNA repair proteins. It also acts as a recruiting signal, actively attracting proteins with roles in transcription and DNA damage. H2Bub1 also appears to play central roles in histone cross-talk, influencing methylation events on histone H3, including H3K4 and H3K79. Most significantly, global levels of H2Bub1 are low to absent in advanced cancers including breast, colorectal, lung and parathyroid, marking H2Bub1 and the enzymes that regulate it as key molecules of interest as possible new therapeutic targets for the treatment of cancer. This review offers an overview of current knowledge regarding H2Bub1 and highlights links between dysregulation of H2Bub1-associated enzymes, stem cells and malignancy.

Collier, A, Phillips, JL & Iedema, R 2015, 'The meaning of home at the end of life: A video-reflexive ethnography study', PALLIATIVE MEDICINE, vol. 29, no. 8, pp. 695-702.
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© The Author(s) 2015. Background: While home is cited most frequently as being the preferred place of death, most people will die in institutions. Yet, the meaning and significance of home for people nearing the end of life has not been fully explored. Aim: The aim of this article is to critically examine the meaning of home for dying patients and their families. Design: The qualitative study used video-reflexive ethnography methods. Data were collected and analysed over an 18-month period. Setting/participants: Participants were recruited from two Australian sites: a palliative care day hospital and an acute hospital. Participants included patients with a prognosis of 6months or less (n=29), their nominated family member(s) (n=5) and clinicians (n=36) caring for them. Patients and families were followed through care settings including the palliative care unit and into their own homes. Results: Whether or not participants deemed space(s) safe or unsafe was closely related to the notion of home. Six themes emerged concerning this relationship: No place like home; Safety, home and the hospital; Hospital 'becomes' home; Home 'becomes' hospital; Hospital and 'connections with home'; and The built environment. Conclusion: Home is a dynamic concept for people nearing the end of life and is concerned with expression of social and cultural identity including symbolic and affective connections, as opposed to being merely a physical dwelling place or street address. Clinicians caring for people nearing the end of life can foster linkages with home by facilitating connections with loved ones and meaningful artefacts.

Connerty, P, Ahadi, A & Hutvagner, G 2015, 'RNA Binding Proteins in the miRNA Pathway', International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 31-31.
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© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. microRNAs (miRNAs) are short ~22 nucleotides (nt) ribonucleic acids which post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression. miRNAs are key regulators of all cellular processes, and the correct expression of miRNAs in an organism is crucial for proper development and cellular function. As a result, the miRNA biogenesis pathway is highly regulated. In this review, we outline the basic steps of miRNA biogenesis and miRNA mediated gene regulation focusing on the role of RNA binding proteins (RBPs). We also describe multiple mechanisms that regulate the canonical miRNA pathway, which depends on a wide range of RBPs. Moreover, we hypothesise that the interaction between miRNA regulation and RBPs is potentially more widespread based on the analysis of available high-throughput datasets.

Cordina, R, Leaney, J, Golzan, M, Grieve, S, Celermajer, DS & Graham, SL 2015, 'Ophthalmological consequences of cyanotic congenital heart disease: vascular parameters and nerve fibre layer', Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 115-123.
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AbstractBackgroundThis study investigated the long‐term ophthalmological consequences of cyanotic congenital heart disease (CHD).DesignCross‐sectional study, tertiary referral setting.ParticipantsThirteen adults with cyanotic CHD (40 ± 4 years). Age‐ and sex‐matched healthy controls underwent aspects of the protocol.MethodsCyanosed subjects had a full ophthalmic examination, visual fields, scanning laser ophthalmoscopy and optical coherence tomography to assess retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL), retinal photography and cerebral magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).Main Outcome MeasuresRNFL thickness and quantitative analysis of retinal vessels with fractal dimension, branching and central retinal arterial equivalent (CRAE) and central retinal venous equivalent (CRVE).ResultsNo abnormalities of anatomy, motility, intraocular pressure or anterior segments were detected apart from one subject who had bilateral cataracts. Corrected visual acuity was normal in all but one cyanosed subject. Clinical examination revealed dilated retinal vasculature in 12/13 cyanosed subjects and increased tortuosity in 8/13. In the setting of cyanosis, skeletonized retinal arteria...

Coutts, AJ, Kempton, T, Sullivan, C, Bilsborough, J, Cordy, J & Rampinini, E 2015, 'Metabolic power and energetic costs of professional Australian Football match-play', JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND MEDICINE IN SPORT, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 219-224.
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© 2014 Sports Medicine Australia. Objectives: To compare the metabolic power demands between positional groups, and examine temporal changes in these parameters during Australian Football match-play. Design: Longitudinal observational study. Methods: Global positioning system data were collected from 39 Australian Football players from the same club during 19 Australian Football League competition games over two seasons. A total of 342 complete match samples were obtained for analysis. Players were categorised into one of six positional groups: tall backs, mobile backs, midfielders, tall forwards, mobile forwards and rucks. Instantaneous raw velocity data obtained from the global positioning system units was exported to a customised spreadsheet which provided estimations of both speed-based (e.g. total and high-speed running distance) and derived metabolic power and energy expenditure variables (e.g. average metabolic power, high-power distance, total energy expenditure). Results: There were significant differences between positional groups for both speed-based and metabolic power indices, with midfielders covering more total and high-speed distance, as well as greater average and overall energy expenditure compared to other positions (all p<. 0.001). There were reductions in total, high-speed, and high-power distance, as well as average metabolic power throughout the match (all p<. 0.001). Conclusions: Positional differences exist for both metabolic power and traditional running based variables. Generally, midfielders, followed by mobile forwards and mobile backs had greater activity profiles compared to other position groups. We observed that the reductions in most metabolic power variables during the course of the match are comparable to traditional running based metrics. This study demonstrates that metabolic power data may contribute to our understanding of the physical demands of Australian Football.

Cranfield, CG, Bettler, T & Cornell, B 2015, 'Nanoscale Ion Sequestration To Determine the Polarity Selectivity of Ion Conductance in Carriers and Channels', LANGMUIR, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 292-298.
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© 2014 American Chemical Society. The nanoscale spacing between a tethered lipid bilayer membrane (tBLM) and its supporting gold electrode can be utilized to determine the polarity selectivity of the conduction of ion channels and ion carriers embedded in a membrane. The technique relies upon a bias voltage sequestering or eliminating ions, of a particular polarity, into or out of the aqueous electrolyte region between the gold electrode and the tethered membrane. A demonstration is given, using ac swept frequency impedance spectrometry, of the bias polarity dependence of the ionophore conductance of gramicidin A, a cationic selective channel, and valinomycin, a potassium ion selective carrier. We further use pulsed amperometry to show that the intrinsic voltage dependence of the ion conduction is actually selective of the polarity of the transported ion and not simply of the direction of the ionic current flow.

Crowcroft, S, Duffield, R, McCleave, E, Slattery, K, Wallace, LK & Coutts, AJ 2015, 'Monitoring training to assess changes in fitness and fatigue: The effects of training in heat and hypoxia', SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE & SCIENCE IN SPORTS, vol. 25, no. S1, pp. 287-295.
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© 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This study examined the association between monitoring tools, training loads, and performance in concurrent heat and hypoxia (H+H) compared with temperate training environments. A randomized parallel matched-group design involved 18 well-trained male cyclists. Participants performed 12 interval sessions (3 weeks) in either H+H (32±1°C, 50% RH, 16.6% O2 normobaric hypoxia) or control (21°C, 50% RH, 21% O2), followed by a seven-session taper (3 weeks; 21°C, 50% RH, 21% O2), while also maintaining external training (∼6-10h/week). A 20-km time trial (TT) was completed pre- and post-training block (21°C, 50% RH, 21% O2). Before each TT and once weekly, a 4-min cycle warm-up (70% 4-min mean maximum power) was completed. Visual analog scale rating for pain, recovery, and fatigue was recorded before the warm-up, with heart rate (HREx), heart rate recovery (HRR), and rating of perceived exertion (RPEWU) recorded following. Training load was quantified using the session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE) method throughout. Overall TT improved 35±47s with moderate correlations to HRR (r=0.49) and recovery (r=-0.55). H+H group had a likely greater reduction in HREx [ES=-0.50 (90% CL) (-0.88; 0.12)] throughout and a greater sRPE (ES=1.20 [0.41; 1.99]), and reduction in HRR [ES=-0.37 (-0.70;-0.04)] through the overload. RPEWU was associated with weekly training load (r=0.37). These findings suggest that recovery and HRR in a temperate environment may be used as simple measures to identify an athlete's readiness to perform. Alternatively, the relationship of RPEWU and training load suggests that perception of effort following a standardized warm-up may be a valid measure when monitoring an athlete's training response, irrespective of the training environment.

Currow, DC, Clark, K, Kamal, A, Collier, A, Agar, MR, Lovell, MR, Phillips, JL & Ritchie, C 2015, 'The Population Burden of Chronic Symptoms that Substantially Predate the Diagnosis of a Life-Limiting Illness', JOURNAL OF PALLIATIVE MEDICINE, vol. 18, no. 6, pp. 480-485.
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De Abreu Lourenco, R, Kenny, P, Haas, MR & Hall, JP 2015, 'Factors affecting general practitioner charges and Medicare bulk‐billing: results of a survey of Australians', Medical Journal of Australia, vol. 202, no. 2, pp. 87-90.
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Di Bartolo, BA, Cartland, SP, Prado‐Lourenco, L, Griffith, TS, Gentile, C, Ravindran, J, Azahri, NSM, Thai, T, Yeung, AWS, Thomas, SR & Kavurma, MM 2015, 'Tumor Necrosis Factor–Related Apoptosis‐Inducing Ligand (TRAIL) Promotes Angiogenesis and Ischemia‐Induced Neovascularization Via NADPH Oxidase 4 (NOX4) and Nitric Oxide–Dependent Mechanisms', Journal of the American Heart Association, vol. 4, no. 11.
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Background Tumor necrosis factor–related apoptosis‐inducing ligand ( TRAIL ) has the ability to inhibit angiogenesis by inducing endothelial cell death, as well as being able to promote pro‐angiogenic activity in vitro. These seemingly opposite effects make its role in ischemic disease unclear. Using Trail −/− and wildtype mice, we sought to determine the role of TRAIL in angiogenesis and neovascularization following hindlimb ischemia. Methods and Results Reduced vascularization assessed by real‐time 3‐dimensional Vevo ultrasound imaging and CD 31 staining was evident in Trail −/− mice after ischemia, and associated with reduced capillary formation and increased apoptosis. Notably, adenoviral TRAIL administration significantly improved limb perfusion, capillary density, and vascular smooth‐muscle cell content in both Trail −/− and wildtype mice. Fibroblast growth factor‐2, a potent angiogeni...

Dickson, TJ, Darcy, S, Edwards, D & Terwiel, FA 2015, 'Sport Mega-Event Volunteers' Motivations and Postevent Intention to Volunteer: The Sydney World Masters Games, 2009', Event Management, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 227-245.
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Investment in mega-sport events is frequently justified on the basis that there are infrastructure and social legacies that remain after the event. This research explores the claims of a social legacy through a pre- and post-Games survey of volunteers at the Sydney world Masters Games 2009 (SwMG). Through online surveys the research explores pre-and post-volunteer motivations, postevent volunteering intentions before the Games and actual volunteer behavior after the Games. The pre-Games survey supports previous research that a desire to be involved in the event motivates people to volunteer. however, the postevent expression of motivations shifted to a more altruistic focus. The postevent volunteering intentions as indicated in the preevent survey would support the claim of a social legacy; however, this was not supported by the postevent measures of volunteering levels. The use of a pre- and postevent survey has highlighted that the timing of measures of motivations can influence responses and one may not depend on preevent intentions as an indicator of postevent behaviors.

DiGiacomo, M, Lewis, J, Phillips, J, Nolan, M & Davidson, PM 2015, 'The business of death: a qualitative study of financial concerns of widowed older women', BMC Womens Health, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1-10.
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© DiGiacomo et al.; licensee BioMed Central. Background: The feminisation of ageing and increasing number of widowed women in contemporary society has significant implications. Older women are at risk of poor health, social, and economic outcomes upon widowhood. The aim of the study was to describe women's experiences in the period soon after their husbands' death, including their financial issues and concerns, and the ways in which these experiences impacted on the transition to widowhood late in life. Methods: This was a longitudinal study using serial in-depth semi-structured interviews with 21 community-dwelling women over the age of 65 in Australia. Verbatim transcripts underwent Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Results: Thematic analysis revealed: 1) administrative burden increases vulnerability; 2) gender roles impact on transitions; and 3) financial adjustments render housing insecurity and health risk. High administrative burden within the context of significant grief and mourning was a defining feature of the early bereavement period. Complicated protracted administrative processes, insensitive interactions, and reminders of loss contributed to distress, anxiety and feelings of demoralisation. Several women identified assumption of household financial management as the most difficult aspect of coping with their husband's death. Conclusions: Older women may have unmet needs for assistance with administrative, financial, and legal issues immediately following spousal death and potentially for years afterward. Lack of familiarity and absence of instrumental support with financial and legal issues signal the need for policy reform, resources to improve financial literacy in women throughout the life course, increased advocacy, and consideration of different support and service models.

Domínguez Vila, T, Darcy, S & Alén González, E 2015, 'Competing for the disability tourism market – A comparative exploration of the factors of accessible tourism competitiveness in Spain and Australia', Tourism Management, vol. 47, pp. 261-272.
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© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. This paper seeks to address the research question of what factors make a destination competitive for the accessible tourism market. The research design is based on destination competitiveness theories. The objective is to formulate a ranking that can compare the competitiveness factors between two countries, with historical and appropriate data sets, in order to examine destination competitiveness for accessible tourism across the tourist regions of both countries. The current research examines the background of destination competitiveness theories, both generally and specifically, as they relate to the research contexts. The research design was developed to examine the underlying elements that facilitate accessible tourism experiences through factorial and cluster analyses, adapting the Crouch's model of competitiveness destination. The findings suggest that the competitiveness factors are different in determinance and importance, and are country-dependent. The climate, locale and tourist structure are the most important for Spain, whereas quality of services, brand and infrastructure are of great importance for Australia. The cluster analysis of the different tourist regions suggests the existence of three main stages. These stages where related to their accessibility level of offered tourism product and their policies.

Dunlop, RA, Main, BJ & Rodgers, KJ 2015, 'The deleterious effects of non-protein amino acids from desert plants on human and animal health', JOURNAL OF ARID ENVIRONMENTS, vol. 112, pp. 152-158.
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Since plants lack the ability to remove themselves from sites of predation, they have evolved alternative defences to keep predators at bay. Mechanical defences include camouflage, the addition of thorns and spikes as well as growing in locations not easily accessed by herbivores. Chemical defences include the synthesis of compounds that are toxic to predatory species and can also inhibit or retard the growth of other plant species in a process termed allelopathy. Amongst these chemicals is a reservoir of non-protein amino acids that mediate toxicity. These non-protein amino acids can be charged by tRNA synthetases and subsequently mis-incorporated into nascent polypeptides, resulting in aberrant, dysfunctional proteins that can be toxic to predators. Some species such as the bruchid beetle Bruchus rufimanus (Chrysomelidae), which feeds on the jack bean Canavalia ensiformis (Fabaceae) plant, have evolved advanced tRNA synthetases that are able to discriminate between protein and non-protein amino acids, thus remain unaffected. Other species including livestock and humans that do not possess such selectivity are susceptible to plant toxins. In this brief review we discuss the mechanisms of action and consequences of exposure to plant-derived non-protein amino acids with a focus on those derived from plants from arid environments.

Durham, J, Newton-John, TRO & Zakrzewska, JM 2015, 'Temporomandibular disorders', BMJ-BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL, vol. 350.
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Eager, DM 2015, 'Rugby headgear: Why rugby headgear offers little to no protection', Australasian Parks and Leisure, no. Winter, pp. 26-28.

Edwards, M, Onyx, J, Maxwell, H, Darcy, S, Bullen, P & Sherker, S 2015, 'A Conceptual Model of Social Impact as Active Citizenship', VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 1529-1549.
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© 2014, International Society for Third-Sector Research and The Johns Hopkins University. Participation in Civil Society Organizations (CSO) draws on and enriches social, cultural, and human capital. Social impacts of such participation as active citizenship are systemic and ‘ripple’ far beyond the immediate program outputs and outcomes. CSOs and the third sector as a whole must demonstrate and gage the difference they make in the social life of the broader community. This research offers a new approach to conceptualize CSO social impacts through an empirically derived model that accounts for the impacts of active citizenship for individuals, organizations, and the broader community. A conceptual model of systemic social impact is presented as it was developed through an exploratory study of a large Australian CSO using an abductive methodology combining focus groups and a survey. Considering the potential of the model that could account for impacts beyond program outputs and outcomes, we propose several propositions for future testing the conceptual model.

Elson, KM, Fox, N, Tipper, JL, Kirkham, J, Hall, RM, Fisher, J & Ingham, E 2015, 'Non-destructive monitoring of viability in an ex vivo organ culture model of osteochondral tissue', European Cells and Materials, vol. 29, pp. 356-369.
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Fanchini, M, Ghielmetti, R, Coutts, AJ, Schena, F & Impellizzeri, FM 2015, 'Effect of Training-Session Intensity Distribution on Session Rating of Perceived Exertion in Soccer Players', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORTS PHYSIOLOGY AND PERFORMANCE, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 426-430.
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Fullagar, HHK, Duffield, R, Skorski, S, Coutts, AJ, Julian, R & Meyer, T 2015, 'Sleep and Recovery in Team Sport: Current Sleep-Related Issues Facing Professional Team-Sport Athletes', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORTS PHYSIOLOGY AND PERFORMANCE, vol. 10, no. 8, pp. 950-957.
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© 2015 Human Kinetics, Inc. While the effects of sleep loss on performance have previously been reviewed, the effects of disturbed sleep on recovery after exercise are less reported. Specifically, the interaction between sleep and physiological and psychological recovery in team-sport athletes is not well understood. Accordingly, the aim of the current review was to examine the current evidence on the potential role sleep may play in postexercise recovery, with a tailored focus on professional team-sport athletes. Recent studies show that team-sport athletes are at high risk of poor sleep during and after competition. Although limited published data are available, these athletes also appear particularly susceptible to reductions in both sleep quality and sleep duration after night competition and periods of heavy training. However, studies examining the relationship between sleep and recovery in such situations are lacking. Indeed, further observational sleep studies in team-sport athletes are required to confirm these concerns. Naps, sleep extension, and sleep-hygiene practices appear advantageous to performance; however, future proof-of-concept studies are now required to determine the efficacy of these interventions on postexercise recovery. Moreover, more research is required to understand how sleep interacts with numerous recovery responses in team-sport environments. This is pertinent given the regularity with which these teams encounter challenging scenarios during the course of a season. Therefore, this review examines the factors that compromise sleep during a season and after competition and discusses strategies that may help improve sleep in team-sport athletes.

Fullagar, HHK, Skorski, S, Duffield, R, Hammes, D, Coutts, AJ & Meyer, T 2015, 'Sleep and Athletic Performance: The Effects of Sleep Loss on Exercise Performance, and Physiological and Cognitive Responses to Exercise', SPORTS MEDICINE, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 161-186.
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© 2014, Springer International Publishing Switzerland. Although its true function remains unclear, sleep is considered critical to human physiological and cognitive function. Equally, since sleep loss is a common occurrence prior to competition in athletes, this could significantly impact upon their athletic performance. Much of the previous research has reported that exercise performance is negatively affected following sleep loss; however, conflicting findings mean that the extent, influence, and mechanisms of sleep loss affecting exercise performance remain uncertain. For instance, research indicates some maximal physical efforts and gross motor performances can be maintained. In comparison, the few published studies investigating the effect of sleep loss on performance in athletes report a reduction in sport-specific performance. The effects of sleep loss on physiological responses to exercise also remain equivocal; however, it appears a reduction in sleep quality and quantity could result in an autonomic nervous system imbalance, simulating symptoms of the overtraining syndrome. Additionally, increases in pro-inflammatory cytokines following sleep loss could promote immune system dysfunction. Of further concern, numerous studies investigating the effects of sleep loss on cognitive function report slower and less accurate cognitive performance. Based on this context, this review aims to evaluate the importance and prevalence of sleep in athletes and summarises the effects of sleep loss (restriction and deprivation) on exercise performance, and physiological and cognitive responses to exercise. Given the equivocal understanding of sleep and athletic performance outcomes, further research and consideration is required to obtain a greater knowledge of the interaction between sleep and performance.

Gay, V & Leijdekkers, P 2015, 'Bringing Health and Fitness Data Together for Connected Health Care: Mobile Apps as Enablers of Interoperability', JOURNAL OF MEDICAL INTERNET RESEARCH, vol. 17, no. 11.
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Background: A transformation is underway regarding how we deal with our health. Mobile devices make it possible to have continuous access to personal health information. Wearable devices, such as Fitbit and Apple’s smartwatch, can collect data continuously and provide insights into our health and fitness. However, lack of interoperability and the presence of data silos prevent users and health professionals from getting an integrated view of health and fitness data. To provide better health outcomes, a complete picture is needed which combines informal health and fitness data collected by the user together with official health records collected by health professionals. Mobile apps are well positioned to play an important role in the aggregation since they can tap into these official and informal health and data silos. Objective: The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that a mobile app can be used to aggregate health and fitness data and can enable interoperability. It discusses various technical interoperability challenges encountered while integrating data into one place. Methods: For 8 years, we have worked with third-party partners, including wearable device manufacturers, electronic health record providers, and app developers, to connect an Android app to their (wearable) devices, back-end servers, and systems. Results: The result of this research is a health and fitness app called myFitnessCompanion, which enables users to aggregate their data in one place. Over 6000 users use the app worldwide to aggregate their health and fitness data. It demonstrates that mobile apps can be used to enable interoperability. Challenges encountered in the research process included the different wireless protocols and standards used to communicate with wireless devices, the diversity of security and authorization protocols used to be able to exchange data with servers, and lack of standards usage, such as Health Level Seven, for medical information exchange. Conclusion...

Ge, Q, Chen, L, Jaffar, J, Argraves, WS, Twal, WO, Hansbro, P, Black, JL, Burgess, JK & Oliver, B 2015, 'Fibulin1C peptide induces cell attachment and extracellular matrix deposition in lung fibroblasts', Scientific Reports, vol. 5, no. 1.
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AbstractFibulin-1 is an extracellular matrix (ECM) protein, levels of which are elevated in serum and lung tissue from patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis compared to healthy volunteers. Inhibition of fibulin-1C, one of four fibulin-1 isoforms, reduced proliferation and wound healing in human airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells. This study identified the bioactive region/s of fibulin-1C which promotes fibrosis. Seven fibulin-1C peptides were synthesized and used to pre-coat tissue culture plates before lung derived ASM cells and fibroblasts from patients with pulmonary fibrosis (PF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or neither disease (Control) were plated. Peptide effects on in vitro measures of fibrosis: cell attachment, proliferation and viability and ECM deposition, were examined. Among these peptides, peptide 1C1 (FBLN1C1) enhanced ASM cell and fibroblast attachment. FBLN1C1 increased mitochondrial activity and proliferation in fibroblasts. In addition, FBLN1C1 stimulated fibulin1 deposition in PF and COPD fibroblasts and augmented fibronectin and perlecan deposition in all three groups. Peptides FBLN1C2 to FBLN1C7 had no activity. The active fibulin-1C peptide identified in this study describes a useful tool for future studies. Ongoing investigation of the role of fibulin-1 may reveal the mechanisms underlying the pathphysiology of chronic lung diseases.

Ge, Q, Zeng, Q, Tjin, G, Lau, E, Black, JL, Oliver, BGG & Burgess, JK 2015, 'Differential deposition of fibronectin by asthmatic bronchial epithelial cells', American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, vol. 309, no. 10, pp. L1093-L1102.
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Altered ECM protein deposition is a feature in asthmatic airways. Fibronectin (Fn), an ECM protein produced by human bronchial epithelial cells (HBECs), is increased in asthmatic airways. This study investigated the regulation of Fn production in asthmatic or nonasthmatic HBECs and whether Fn modulated HBEC proliferation and inflammatory mediator secretion. The signaling pathways underlying transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1-regulated Fn production were examined using specific inhibitors for ERK, JNK, p38 MAPK, phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase, and activin-like kinase 5 (ALK5). Asthmatic HBECs deposited higher levels of Fn in the ECM than nonasthmatic cells under basal conditions, whereas cells from the two groups had similar levels of Fn mRNA and soluble Fn. TGF-β1 increased mRNA levels and ECM and soluble forms of Fn but decreased cell proliferation in both cells. The rate of increase in Fn mRNA was higher in nonasthmatic cells. However, the excessive amounts of ECM Fn deposited by asthmatic cells after TGF-β1 stimulation persisted compared with nonasthmatic cells. Inhibition of ALK5 completely prevented TGF-β1-induced Fn deposition. Importantly, ECM Fn increased HBEC proliferation and IL-6 release, decreased PGE2 secretion, but had no effect on VEGF release. Soluble Fn had no effect on cell proliferation and inflammatory mediator release. Asthmatic HBECs are intrinsically primed to produce more ECM Fn, which when deposited into the ECM, is capable of driving remodeling and inflammation. The increased airway Fn may be one of the key driving factors in the persistence of asthma and represents a novel, therapeutic target.

Gerace, D, Martiniello-Wilks, R, O'Brien, BA & Simpson, AM 2015, 'The use of beta-cell transcription factors in engineering artificial beta cells from non-pancreatic tissue', GENE THERAPY, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 1-8.
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Type 1 diabetes results from the autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing pancreatic beta (β) cells. Patients with type 1 diabetes control their blood glucose levels using several daily injections of exogenous insulin; however, this does not eliminate the long-term complications of hyperglycaemia. Currently, the only clinically viable treatments for type 1 diabetes are whole pancreas and islet transplantation. As a result, there is an urgent need to develop alternative therapies. Recently, cell and gene therapy have shown promise as a potential cure for type 1 diabetes through the genetic engineering of 'artificial' β cells to regulate blood glucose levels without adverse side effects and the need for immunosuppression. This review compares putative target cells and the use of pancreatic transcription factors for gene modification, with the ultimate goal of engineering a glucose-responsive 'artificial' β cell that mimics the function of pancreatic β cells, while avoiding autoimmune destruction.

Ghosh, S & Li, J 2015, 'Using sequential patterns as features for classification models to make accurate predictions on ICU events.', Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc, vol. 2015, pp. 8157-8160.
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Pattern mining algorithms have previously been utilized to extract informative rules in various clinical contexts. However, the number of generated patterns are numerous. In most cases, the extracted rules are directly investigated by clinicians for understanding disease diagnoses. The elicitation of important patterns for clinical investigation places a significant demand for precision and interpretability. Hence, it is essential to obtain a set of informative interpretable patterns for building advanced learning models about a patient's physiological condition, specially in critical care units. In this study, a two stage sequential contrast patterns based classification framework is presented, which is used to detect critical patient events like hypotension. In the first stage, we obtain a set of sequential patterns by using a contrast mining algorithm. These sequential patterns undergo post-processing, for conversion to binary valued and frequency based features for developing a classification model, in the second stage. Our results on eight critical care datasets demonstrate better predictive capabilities, when sequential patterns are used as features.

Glastras, SJ, Wong, MG, Chen, H, Zhang, J, Zaky, A, Pollock, CA & Saad, S 2015, 'FXR expression is associated with dysregulated glucose and lipid levels in the offspring kidney induced by maternal obesity', Nutrition & Metabolism, vol. 12, no. 1.
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© 2015 Glastras et al. Background: Maternal obesity is associated with dysregulation of glucose and lipid metabolism with consequent exposure of the fetus to an abnormal metabolic milieu. It is recognized that maternal obesity predisposes offspring to chronic kidney disease (CKD). We aimed to determine whether the nuclear Farnesoid X receptor (FXR), known to play a role in maintaining homeostasis of glucose and lipid metabolism, is involved in renal injury in offspring of obese mothers. Methods: Maternal obesity was established in a rat model by feeding dams with high-fat diet prior to and during pregnancy and lactation. The offspring's kidneys were examined at postnatal Day 1and Day 20. Human kidney 2 (HK2) cells were exposed to high glucose with or without the FXR agonist GW4064 or when FXR mRNA was silenced. Results: Glucose intolerance in the offspring of obese mothers was evident at weaning, with associated downregulation of renal FXR expression and upregulation of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1). HK2 cells exposed to high glucose had reduced FXR expression and increased MCP-1, TGF-β1, fibronectin and collagen IV expression, which was reversed in the presence of GW4064. FXR-silenced HK2 cells had amplified pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic markers under high glucose conditions. Conclusions: Maternal obesity influences renal expression of pro-inflammatory and fibrotic factors that predispose the offspring to CKD. This was associated with the downregulation of the renal FXR expression suggesting a potential protective role for FXR.

Goldsbury, DE, O'Connell, DL, Girgis, A, Wilkinson, A, Phillips, JL, Davidson, PM & Ingham, JM 2015, 'Acute hospital-based services used by adults during the last year of life in New South Wales, Australia: a population-based retrospective cohort study', BMC HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, vol. 15, no. 1.
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© 2015 Goldsbury et al. Background: There is limited information about health care utilisation at the end of life for people in Australia. We describe acute hospital-based services utilisation during the last year of life for all adults (aged 18+ years) who died in a 12-month period in Australia's most populous state, New South Wales (NSW). Methods: Linked administrative health data were analysed for all adults who died in NSW in 2007 (the most recent year for which cause of death information was available for linkage for this study). The data comprised linked death records (2007), hospital admissions and emergency department (ED) presentations (2006-2007) and cancer registrations (1994-2007). Measures of hospital-based service utilisation during the last year of life included: number and length of hospital episodes, ED presentations, admission to an intensive care unit (ICU), palliative-related admissions and place of death. Factors associated with these measures were examined using multivariable logistic regression. Results: Of the 45,749 adult decedents, 82 % were admitted to hospital during their last year of life: 24 % had >3 care episodes (median 2); 35 % stayed a total of >30 days in hospital (median 17); 42 % were admitted to 2 or more different hospitals. Twelve percent of decedents spent time in an ICU with median 3 days. In the metropolitan area, 80 % of decedents presented to an ED and 18 % had >3 presentations. Overall 55 % died in a hospital or inpatient hospice. Although we could not quantify the extent and type of palliative care, 24 % had mention of 'palliative care' in their records. The very elderly and those dying from diseases of the circulatory system or living in the least disadvantaged areas generally had lower hospital service use. Conclusions: These population-wide health data collections give a highly informative description of NSWhospital-based end-of-life service utilisation. Use of hospital-based services during the last ye...

Golzan, SM, Morgan, WH, Georgevsky, D & Graham, SL 2015, 'Correlation of Retinal Nerve Fibre Layer Thickness and Spontaneous Retinal Venous Pulsations in Glaucoma and Normal Controls', PLOS ONE, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. e0128433-e0128433.
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Goodswen, SJ, Barratt, JLN, Kennedy, PJ & Ellis, JT 2015, 'Improving the gene structure annotation of the apicomplexan parasite Neospora caninum fulfils a vital requirement towards an in silico-derived vaccine', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR PARASITOLOGY, vol. 45, no. 5, pp. 305-318.
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© 2015 Australian Society for Parasitology Inc. Neospora caninum is an apicomplexan parasite which can cause abortion in cattle, instigating major economic burden. Vaccination has been proposed as the most cost-effective control measure to alleviate this burden. Consequently the overriding aspiration for N. caninum research is the identification and subsequent evaluation of vaccine candidates in animal models. To save time, cost and effort, it is now feasible to use an in silico approach for vaccine candidate prediction. Precise protein sequences, derived from the correct open reading frame, are paramount and arguably the most important factor determining the success or failure of this approach. The challenge is that publicly available N. caninum sequences are mostly derived from gene predictions. Annotated inaccuracies can lead to erroneously predicted vaccine candidates by bioinformatics programs. This study evaluates the current N. caninum annotation for potential inaccuracies. Comparisons with annotation from a closely related pathogen, Toxoplasma gondii, are also made to distinguish patterns of inconsistency. More importantly, a mRNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) experiment is used to validate the annotation. Potential discrepancies originating from a questionable start codon context and exon boundaries were identified in 1943 protein coding sequences. We conclude, where experimental data were available, that the majority of N. caninum gene sequences were reliably predicted. Nevertheless, almost 28% of genes were identified as questionable. Given the limitations of RNA-Seq, the intention of this study was not to replace the existing annotation but to support or oppose particular aspects of it. Ideally, many studies aimed at improving the annotation are required to build a consensus. We believe this study, in providing a new resource on gene structure and annotation, is a worthy contributor to this endeavour.

Guo, Y, Naik, GR, Huang, S, Abraham, A & Nguyen, HT 2015, 'Nonlinear multiscale Maximal Lyapunov Exponent for accurate myoelectric signal classification', Applied Soft Computing, vol. 36, pp. 633-640.
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Gurgis, FMS, Yeung, YT, Tang, MXM, Heng, B, Buckland, M, Ammit, AJ, Haapasalo, J, Haapasalo, H, Guillemin, GJ, Grewal, T & Munoz, L 2015, 'The p38-MK2-HuR pathway potentiates EGFRvIII–IL-1β-driven IL-6 secretion in glioblastoma cells', Oncogene, vol. 34, no. 22, pp. 2934-2942.
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Haas, M & De Abreu Lourenco, R 2015, 'Pharmacological Management of Chronic Lower Back Pain: A Review of Cost Effectiveness', PharmacoEconomics, vol. 33, no. 6, pp. 561-569.
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Lower back pain is one of the most prevalent musculoskeletal conditions in the developed world and accounts for significant health services use. The American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society have published a joint clinical guideline that recommends providing patients with information on prognosis and self-management, the use of medications with proven benefits and, for those who do not improve, consideration be given to the use of spinal manipulation (for acute lower back pain only), interdisciplinary rehabilitation, exercise, acupuncture, massage, yoga, cognitive behavioural therapy or relaxation. The purpose of this review was to evaluate published economic evaluations of pharmacological management for chronic lower back pain. A total of seven studies were eligible for inclusion in there view. The quality of the economic evaluations undertaken in the included studies was not high. This was primarily because of the nature of the underlying clinical evidence, most of which did not come from rigorous randomised controlled trials (RCTs), and the manner in which it was incorporated into the economic evaluations. All studies provided reasonable information about what aspects of healthcare and other resource use were identified, measured and valued. However, the reporting of total costs was not uniform across studies. Measures of pain and disability were the most commonly collected outcomes measures. Two studies collected information on quality of life directly from participants while two studies modelled this information based on the literature. Future economic evaluations of interventions for chronic lower back pain, including pharmacological interventions, should be based on the results of well-conducted RCTs where the measurement of costs and outcomes such as quality of life and quality-adjusted life-years is included in the trial protocol, and which have a follow-up period sufficient to capture meaningful changes in both costs and outcomes. In ...

Haass, NK, Nassif, N & McGowan, EM 2015, 'Switching the Sphingolipid Rheostat in the Treatment of Diabetes and Cancer Comorbidity from a Problem to an Advantage', BioMed Research International, vol. 2015, pp. 1-9.
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Cancer and diabetes are among the most common diseases in western societies. Epidemiological studies have shown that diabetic patients have a significantly higher risk of developing a number of different types of cancers and that individuals with comorbidity (cancer and diabetes/prediabetes) have a poorer prognosis relative to nondiabetic cancer patients. The increasing frequency of comorbidity of cancer and diabetes mellitus, mainly type 2 diabetes, has driven the development of therapeutic interventions that target both disease states. There is strong evidence to suggest that balancing the sphingolipid rheostat, ceramide—sphingosine—sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is crucial in the prevention of diabetes and cancer and sphingosine kinase/S1P modulators are currently under development for the treatment of cancer and diabetes. This paper will highlight some of the complexities inherent in the use of the emerging sphingosine kinase/S1P modulators in the treatment of comorbidity of diabetes and cancer.

Haghi, M, Hittinger, M, Zeng, Q, Olivert, B, Traini, D, Young, PM, Huwer, H, Schneider-Daum, N & Lehr, C-M 2015, 'Mono- and Cocultures of Bronchial and Alveolar Epithelial Cells Respond Differently to Proinflammatory Stimuli and Their Modulation by Salbutamol and Budesonide', MOLECULAR PHARMACEUTICS, vol. 12, no. 8, pp. 2625-2632.
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© 2015 American Chemical Society. The aim of this study was to investigate the changes in transport and effectiveness of salbutamol sulfate (SAL) and budesonide (BD) following stimulation with transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) in mono- and coculture models of bronchial and alveolar epithelium. Primary bronchial and alveolar epithelial cells, grown at air interface on filters, either as monocultures or in coculture with airway smooth muscle cells or alveolar macrophages, respectively, were stimulated with TGF-β. The biological response was modulated by depositing aerosolized SAL and BD on bronchial and alveolar models, respectively. Barrier integrity, permeability to fluorescein-Na, transport of the deposited drug, and the pharmacological response to SAL (cAMP and IL-8 levels) or BD (IL-6 and -8 levels) were measured. While stimulation with TGF-β did not have any significant effect on the transepithelial electrical resistance and permeability to fluorescein-Na in mono- and coculture models, transport of SAL and BD were affected in cultures from some of the patients (6 out of 12 for bronchial and 2 out of 4 for alveolar cells). The bronchial coculture showed a better responsiveness to SAL in terms of cAMP release than the monoculture. In contrast, the difference between alveolar mono- and cocultures to TGF-β mediated interleukin release and its modulation by BD was less pronounced. Our data point to intrinsic differences in the transport of, and responsiveness to, SAL and BD when epithelial cell cultures originate from different patients. Moreover, if the biological responses (e.g., IL-8, cAMP) involve communication between different cell types, coculture models are more relevant to measure such effects than monocultures.

Haghi, M, Traini, D, Wood, LG, Oliver, B, Young, PM & Chrzanowski, W 2015, 'A 'soft spot' for drug transport: modulation of cell stiffness using fatty acids and its impact on drug transport in lung model', JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY B, vol. 3, no. 13, pp. 2583-2589.
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© The Royal Society of Chemistry 2015. The impact of a polyunsaturated fatty acid, arachidonic acid (AA), on membrane fluidity of epithelial cells and subsequent modulation of the drug transport was investigated. Membrane fluidity was assessed using molecular force microscopy. Calu-3 human bronchial epithelial cells were cultured on Transwell® inserts and the cell stiffness was assessed in the absence of fatty acids or in the presence of 30 μM AA. The morphology of the epithelial cells was distinctly different when AA was present, with the cell monolayer becoming more uniform. Furthermore the cell stiffness and variation in stiffness was lower in the presence of AA. In the fat-free medium, the median cell stiffness was 9.1 kPa which dropped to 2.1 kPa following exposure to AA. To further study this, transport of a common β2-agonist, salbutamol sulphate (SS) was measured in the presence of AA and in a fat free medium. The transport of SS was significantly higher when AA was present (0.61 ± 0.09 μg versus 0.11 ± 0.003 μg with and without AA respectively). It was evidenced that AA play a vital role in cell membrane fluidity and drug transport. This finding highlights the significance of the dietary fatty acids in transport and consequentially effectiveness of medications used to treat pulmonary diseases such as asthma. This journal is

Halkett, GKB, Lobb, EA, Miller, L, Phillips, JL, Shaw, T, Moorin, R, Long, A, King, A, Clarke, J, Fewster, S, Hudson, P, Agar, M & Nowak, AK 2015, 'Protocol for the Care-IS Trial: a randomised controlled trial of a supportive educational intervention for carers of patients with high-grade glioma (HGG)', BMJ OPEN, vol. 5, no. 10.
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Introduction: High-grade glioma (HGG) is a rapidly progressive and debilitating disease. Primary carers experience significant levels of distress which impacts on their experience of caregiving, the quality of care received and the community in terms of the increased reliance on healthcare due to the potential development of complicated grief. This paper describes the protocol for testing the efficacy and feasibility of an intervention for primary carers of patients with HGG in order to improve preparedness to care and reduce carer distress. Methods: Randomised controlled trial. The target population is carers of patients with HGG who are undergoing combined chemoradiotherapy. The intervention consists of 4 components: (1) initial telephone assessment of unmet needs of the carer, (2) tailoring of a personalised resource folder, (3) home visit, (4) ongoing monthly telephone contact and support for 12 months. The control arm will receive usual care. Primary hypothesis: This intervention will improve preparedness for caring and reduce carer psychological distress. Secondary hypothesis: This intervention will reduce carer unmet needs. The longer term aim of the intervention is to reduce patient healthcare resource utilisation and, by doing so, reduce costs. Assessments will be obtained at baseline, 8 weeks post intervention, then 4, 6 and 12 months. Participants will also complete a healthcare utilisation checklist and proxy performance status which will be assessed at baseline and monthly. 240 carers will be recruited. The sample size is 180. Multilevel mixed effects regression models will be applied to test the effect of the intervention. Ethics: Ethics approval has been gained from Curtin University and the participating sites. Dissemination: Results will be reported in international peer-reviewed journals.

Handojoseno, AMA, Shine, JM, Nguyen, TN, Tran, Y, Lewis, SJG & Nguyen, HT 2015, 'Analysis and Prediction of the Freezing of Gait Using EEG Brain Dynamics', IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, vol. 23, no. 5, pp. 887-896.
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© 2014 IEEE. Freezing of Gait (FOG) is a common symptom in the advanced stages of Parkinson's disease (PD), which significantly affects patients' quality of life. Treatment options offer limited benefit and there are currently no mechanisms able to effectively detect FOG before it occurs, allowing time for a sufferer to avert a freezing episode. Electroencephalography (EEG) offers a novel technique that may be able to address this problem. In this paper, we investigated the univariate and multivariate EEG features determined by both Fourier and wavelet analysis in the confirmation and prediction of FOG. The EEG power measures and network properties from 16 patients with PD and FOG were extracted and analyzed. It was found that both power spectral density and wavelet energy could potentially act as biomarkers during FOG. Information in the frequency domain of the EEG was found to provide better discrimination of EEG signals during transition to freezing than information coded in the time domain. The performance of the FOG prediction systems improved when the information from both domains was used. This combination resulted in a sensitivity of 86.0%, specificity of 74.4%, and accuracy of 80.2% when predicting episodes of freezing, outperforming current accelerometry- based tools for the prediction of FOG.

Hasan, MM, Zhou, Y, Lu, X, Li, J, Song, J & Zhang, Z 2015, 'Computational Identification of Protein Pupylation Sites by Using Profile-Based Composition of k-Spaced Amino Acid Pairs', PLOS ONE, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. e0129635-e0129635.
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© 2015 Hasan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Prokaryotic proteins are regulated by pupylation, a type of post-translational modification that contributes to cellular function in bacterial organisms. In pupylation process, the prokaryotic ubiquitin-like protein (Pup) tagging is functionally analogous to ubiquitination in order to tag target proteins for proteasomal degradation. To date, several experimental methods have been developed to identify pupylated proteins and their pupylation sites, but these experimental methods are generally laborious and costly. Therefore, computational methods that can accurately predict potential pupylation sites based on protein sequence information are highly desirable. In this paper, a novel predictor termed as pbPUP has been developed for accurate prediction of pupylation sites. In particular, a sophisticated sequence encoding scheme [i.e. the profile-based composition of k-spaced amino acid pairs (pbCKSAAP)] is used to represent the sequence patterns and evolutionary information of the sequence fragments surrounding pupylation sites. Then, a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier is trained using the pbCKSAAP encoding scheme. The final pbPUP predictor achieves an AUC value of 0.849 in10-fold cross-validation tests and outperforms other existing predictors on a comprehensive independent test dataset. The proposed method is anticipated to be a helpful computational resource for the prediction of pupylation sites. The web server and curated datasets in this study are freely available at http://protein.cau.edu.cn/pbPUP/.

Herbert, C, Sebesfi, M, Zeng, Q, Oliver, BG, Foster, PS & Kumar, RK 2015, 'Using multiple online databases to help identify microRNAs regulating the airway epithelial cell response to a virus‐like stimulus', Respirology, vol. 20, no. 8, pp. 1206-1212.
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AbstractBackground and objectiveExacerbations of allergic asthma are often triggered by respiratory viral infections. We have previously shown that in a T‐helper type 2 (Th2)‐biased cytokine environment, mouse and human airway epithelial cells (AEC) exhibit increased expression of pro‐inflammatory and anti‐viral genes in response to synthetic double‐stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA), a virus‐like stimulus. This implies coordinated regulation of gene expression, suggesting possible involvement of microRNA. To investigate this, we developed a novel approach to identifying candidate microRNA using online databases, then confirmed their expression by quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR).MethodsUsing a list of genes of interest, defined on the basis of the previous study as being up‐regulated in a Th2 environment, we searched mouse and human microRNA databases for possible regulatory microRNA, and selected 10 candidates that were conserved across species or predicted by more than one human database. Expression of these microRNA was tested by ARCHIVES OF GERONTOLOGY AND GERIATRICS, vol. 61, no. 3, pp. 322-329.
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Ho-Pham, LT, Lai, TQ, Mai, LD, Doan, MC, Pham, HN & Nguyen, TV 2015, 'Prevalence and Pattern of Radiographic Intervertebral Disc Degeneration in Vietnamese: A Population-Based Study', Calcified Tissue International, vol. 96, no. 6, pp. 510-517.
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Ho-Pham, LT, Lai, TQ, Nguyen, MTT & Nguyen, TV 2015, 'Relationship between Body Mass Index and Percent Body Fat in Vietnamese: Implications for the Diagnosis of Obesity', PLOS ONE, vol. 10, no. 5, pp. e0127198-e0127198.
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© 2015 Ho-Pham et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Background The burden of obesity in Vietnam has not been well defined because there is a lack of reference data for percent body fat (PBF) in Asians. This study sought to define the relationship between PBF and body mass index (BMI) in the Vietnamese population. Methods The study was designed as a comparative cross-sectional investigation that involved 1217 individuals of Vietnamese background (862 women) aged 20 years and older (average age 7 yr) who were randomly selected from the general population in Ho Chi Minh City. Lean mass (LM) and fat mass (FM) were measured by DXA (Hologic QDR 4500). PBF was derived as FM over body weight. Results Based on BMI 30, the prevalence of obesity was 1.1% and 1.3% for men and women, respectively. The prevalence of overweight and obesity combined (BMI 25) was ∼ 24% and ∼ 19% in men and women, respectively. Based on the quadratic relationship between BMI and PBF, the approximate PBF corresponding to the BMI threshold of 30 (obese) was 30.5 in men and 41 in women. Using the criteria of PBF >30 in men and PBF >40 in women, approximately 15% of men and women were considered obese. Conclusion These data suggest that body mass index underestimates the prevalence of obesity. We suggest that a PBF >30 in men or PBF >40 in women is used as criteria for the diagnosis of obesity in Vietnamese adults. Using these criteria, 15% of Vietnamese adults in Ho Chi Minh City was considered obese.

Ho-Pham, LT, Nguyen, SC, Tran, B & Nguyen, TV 2015, 'Contributions of Caucasian-associated bone mass loci to the variation in bone mineral density in Vietnamese population', Bone, vol. 76, pp. 18-22.
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Hosie, A, Lobb, E, Agar, M, Davidson, PM, Chye, R & Phillips, J 2015, 'Nurse perceptions of the Nursing Delirium Screening Scale in two palliative care inpatient units: a focus group study', JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, vol. 24, no. 21-22, pp. 3276-3285.
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Hudson, PL, Girgis, A, Mitchell, GK, Philip, J, Parker, D, Currow, D, Liew, D, Thomas, K, Le, B, Moran, J & Brand, C 2015, 'Benefits and resource implications of family meetings for hospitalized palliative care patients: research protocol', BMC PALLIATIVE CARE, vol. 14.
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Hyde, PJ, Tipper, J, Fisher, J & Hall, RM 2015, 'Wear and biological effects of a semi-constrained total disc replacement subject to modified ISO standard test conditions', Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, vol. 44, pp. 43-52.
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Jin, D, Gabrys, B & Dang, J 2015, 'Combined node and link partitions method for finding overlapping communities in complex networks', Scientific Reports, vol. 5, no. 1, p. 8600.
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AbstractCommunity detection in complex networks is a fundamental data analysis task in various domains and how to effectively find overlapping communities in real applications is still a challenge. In this work, we propose a new unified model and method for finding the best overlapping communities on the basis of the associated node and link partitions derived from the same framework. Specifically, we first describe a unified model that accommodates node and link communities (partitions) together and then present a nonnegative matrix factorization method to learn the parameters of the model. Thereafter, we infer the overlapping communities based on the derived node and link communities, i.e., determine each overlapped community between the corresponding node and link community with a greedy optimization of a local community function conductance. Finally, we introduce a model selection method based on consensus clustering to determine the number of communities. We have evaluated our method on both synthetic and real-world networks with ground-truths and compared it with seven state-of-the-art methods. The experimental results demonstrate the superior performance of our method over the competing ones in detecting overlapping communities for all analysed data sets. Improved performance is particularly pronounced in cases of more complicated networked community structures.

Jing, D, Bhadri, VA, Beck, D, Thoms, JAI, Yakob, NA, Wong, JWH, Knezevic, K, Pimanda, JE & Lock, RB 2015, 'Opposing regulation of BIM and BCL2 controls glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells', BLOOD, vol. 125, no. 2, pp. 273-283.
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Jing, T, Ramji, R, Warkiani, ME, Han, J, Lim, CT & Chen, C-H 2015, 'Jetting microfluidics with size-sorting capability for single-cell protease detection', Biosensors and Bioelectronics, vol. 66, pp. 19-23.
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Jones, PM & George, AM 2015, 'The Nucleotide-Free State of the Multidrug Resistance ABC Transporter LmrA: Sulfhydryl Cross-Linking Supports a Constant Contact, Head-to-Tail Configuration of the Nucleotide-Binding Domains', PLOS ONE, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. e0131505-e0131505.
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Kabakova, I, Marpaung, D, Poulton, C & Eggleton, B 2015, 'Harnessing On-Chip SBS', Optics and Photonics News, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 34-34.
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Stimulated Brillouin scattering—a familiar nonlinear effect in macroscopic systems such as fiber optics—is finding new applications in communication, quantum manipulation and microwave filtering in an era of integrated photonics

Kamal, O, Brown, D, Sivabalan, P & Sundin, H 2015, 'Accounting information and shifting stakeholder salience: an industry level approach', Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 172-200.
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Purpose – The purpose of this research is to understand how accounting information mobilises stakeholder salience at an industry level. Design/methodology/approach – A case study method using an explanation building approach was applied to gather information surrounding dairy industry stakeholder uses of accounting information to communicate their salience, in the historical context, leading to, and the events surrounding the milk price “war” in Australia. The Mitchell et al. (1997) stakeholder salience framework was used to advance our understanding of the different ways accounting can be mobilized by stakeholders with different types of salience attributes, at an industry level. Findings – This empirical analysis produces two insights into the relation between accounting and stakeholder salience. First, there is evidence as to how accounting information impacted on stakeholder salience at an industry level by demonstrating how accounting information (in)directly communicated and justified the increase of a stakeholder’s level of salience. Second, the Mitchell et al. (1997) model is extended by attributing levels of importance to each stakeholder attribute. It was found that, in this setting, power was the most salient attribute of the three, usurping legitimacy and urgency, leading to the outcomes observed. Research limitations/implications – ...

Keam, S & Hutvagner, G 2015, 'tRNA-Derived Fragments (tRFs): Emerging New Roles for an Ancient RNA in the Regulation of Gene Expression', Life, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 1638-1651.
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© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This review will summarise the recent discoveries and current state of research on short noncoding RNAs derived from tRNAs—known as tRNA-derived fragments (tRFs). It will describe the features of the known subtypes of these RNAs; including sequence characteristics, protein interactors, expression characteristics, biogenesis, and similarity to canonical miRNA pathways. Also their role in regulating gene expression; including mediating translational suppression, will be discussed. We also highlight their potential use as biomarkers, functions in gene regulation and links to disease. Finally, this review will speculate as to the origin and rationale for the conservation of this novel class of noncoding RNAs amongst both prokaryotes and eukaryotes.

Kempton, T & Coutts, AJ 2015, 'Physical and Technical Demands of Rugby League 9s Tournament Match Play: A Preliminary Study', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORTS PHYSIOLOGY AND PERFORMANCE, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 774-779.
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Kempton, T, Sirotic, AC & Coutts, AJ 2015, 'An integrated analysis of match-related fatigue in professional rugby league', JOURNAL OF SPORTS SCIENCES, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 39-47.
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This study examined the changes in external outputs, including metabolic power variables, and internal response whilst considering contextual factors on physical performance variables during rugby league match play. Physical performance (total distance, high-speed running and high-power distances, average metabolic power), heart-rate (percentage heart-rate peak and training impulse), collisions (attacking and defensive) and contextual (time in attack, time in defence, time out of play) data were collected from 18 rugby league players during 38 games throughout two National Rugby League seasons. Physical variables were highest in the first 10-min period of each half (P < 0.001). Heart-rate indices peaked in the second 10-min period and were lower during second half periods (P < 0.001). Few differences existed in collisions and contextual factors across 10-min periods. Physical variables were highest during the first 5-min period compared to the final (P < 0.001). There was no difference in heart-rate response, attacking collisions or contextual factors between these periods. Following the peak 5-min period in the match, there were reductions in physical, heart-rate, defensive collisions and contextual factors (P < 0.001). The data show temporal changes in physical performance, heart-rate response and collisions during rugby league match play, although these are affected by contextual factors.

Kempton, T, Sirotic, AC, Rampinini, E & Coutts, AJ 2015, 'Metabolic Power Demands of Rugby League Match Play', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORTS PHYSIOLOGY AND PERFORMANCE, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 23-28.
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Kempton, T, Sullivan, C, Bilsborough, JC, Cordy, J & Coutts, AJ 2015, 'Match-to-match variation in physical activity and technical skill measures in professional Australian Football', JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND MEDICINE IN SPORT, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 109-113.
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Objectives To determine the match-to-match variability in physical activity and technical performance measures in Australian Football, and examine the influence of playing position, time of season, and different seasons on these measures of variability Design Longitudinal observational study. Methods Global positioning system (GPS), accelerometer and technical performance measures (total kicks, handballs, possessions and Champion Data rank) were collected from 33 players competing in the Australian Football League over 31 matches during 2011-2012 (N = 511 observations). The GPS data were categorised into total distance, mean speed (m·min-1), high-speed running (HSR, >14.4 km·h-1), very high-speed running (VHSR, >19.9 km·h-1), and sprint (>23.0 km·h-1) distance whilst player load was collected from the accelerometer. The data was log transformed to provide coefficient of variation (CV) and the between subject standard deviation (expressed as percentages). Results Match-to-match variability was increased for higher speed activities (HSR, VHSR, sprint distance, CV%: 13.3 - 28.6%) compared to global measures (speed, total distance, player load, CV%: 5.3 - 9.2%). The between-match variability was relativity stable for all measures between and within AFL seasons, with only few differences between positions. Higher speed activities (HSR, VHSR, sprint distance), but not mean speed, total distance nor player load, were all higher in the final third phase of the season compared to the start of the season.

Khoo, BL, Lee, SC, Kumar, P, Tan, TZ, Warkiani, ME, Ow, SGW, Nandi, S, Lim, CT & Thiery, JP 2015, 'Short-term expansion of breast circulating cancer cells predicts response to anti-cancer therapy', Oncotarget, vol. 6, no. 17, pp. 15578-15593.
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Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are considered as surrogate markers for prognosticating and evaluating patient treatment responses. Here, 226 blood samples from 92 patients with breast cancer, including patients with newly diagnosed or metastatic refractory cancer, and 16 blood samples from healthy subjects were cultured in laser-ablated microwells. Clusters containing an increasing number of cytokeratin-positive (CK+) cells appeared after 2 weeks, while most blood cells disappeared with time. Cultures were heterogeneous and exhibited two distinct sub-populations of cells: 'Small' (≤ 25 μm; high nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio; CD45-) cells, comprising CTCs, and 'Large' (> 25 μm; low nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio; CD68+ or CD56+) cells, corresponding to macrophage and natural killer-like cells. The Small cell fraction also showed copy number increases in six target genes (FGFR1, Myc, CCND1, HER2, TOP2A and ZNF217) associated with breast cancer. These expanded CTCs exhibited different proportions of epithelial-mesenchymal phenotypes and were transferable for further expansion as spheroids in serum-free suspension or 3D cultures. Cluster formation was affected by the presence and duration of systemic therapy, and its persistence may reflect therapeutic resistance. This novel and advanced method estimates CTC clonal heterogeneity and can predict, within a relatively short time frame, patient responses to therapy.

Khruahong, S, Kong, X & Hoang, D 2015, 'Ontology Design for Thailand Travel Industry', International Journal of Knowledge Engineering, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 191-196.
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Tourism industry plays a crucial role in the economics growth in countries of South East Asia and hence the demand for rich local tourist information for visitors. In these countries, there are unique deciding impact factors to visitor journey such as constraints in culture, laws, and festivals. Such special information has not been available or implemented in general search engines so far. In this paper, we design an ontology for Thai travel industry to support an intelligent finding of these local events and their constraints using semantic web. The primary contribution of this paper is a new approach to design ontology for Thailand travel industry on both general information and specific dynamic local information using Domain Ontology Graph (DOG) and location based services. As a result, this ontology design will be applied to an intelligent searching for making decision of tourists. This ontology design will be used in semantic tourism applications in the future.

Koch, J, Everett, B, Phillips, J & Davidson, PM 2015, 'Is there a relationship between the diversity characteristics of nursing students and their clinical placement experiences? A literature review', Collegian, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 307-318.
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Background: There has been an increase in ethno-cultural, linguistic, and socio-demographical diversity in students enrolling in undergraduate nursing programs. Diversity also involves other characteristics, but little is known about how diversity impacts on the clinical experiences of nursing students. Aim: The aim of this review is to identify studies which describe the clinical placement experiences of nursing students who have a broad range of diversity characteristics. Methods: Major databases were searched and original studies published from 2003 to 30 June 2013 were eligible for inclusion. An expanded definition of diversity was used to include characteristics such as ethnicity, language, age, religion, gender, socioeconomic status, carer responsibilities, sexual orientation and special needs/disability. Findings: Male gender and speaking English as a second language are diversity characteristics associated with a less positive clinical experience. These students are also more likely to leave their nursing program. Mature-aged students and those from ethnic minority groups were also noted to have a less positive clinical experience and in some cases, this also increased attrition. However, it was difficult to determine the impact of these characteristics alone as they appeared to be linked with other characteristics such as financial difficulties and carer responsibilities in the case of mature-aged students, and language and international student status in the case of ethnicity. Conclusions: Given the significant benefits associated with preparing a diverse nursing workforce, it is an imperative to better understand the impact of diversity on nursing students to ensure that every placement becomes a positive and valuable learning experience. © 2014 Australian College of Nursing Ltd.

Lam, HK, Ekong, U, Xiao, B, Ouyang, G, Liu, H, Chan, KY & Ling, SH 2015, 'Variable weight neural networks and their applications on material surface and epilepsy seizure phase classifications', NEUROCOMPUTING, vol. 149, pp. 1177-1187.
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Lambertz, I, Kumps, C, Claeys, S, Lindner, S, Beckers, A, Janssens, E, Carter, DR, Cazes, A, Cheung, BB, De Mariano, M, De Bondt, A, De Brouwer, S, Delattre, O, Gibbons, J, Janoueix-Lerosey, I, Laureys, G, Liang, C, Marchall, GM, Porcu, M, Takita, J, Trujillo, DC, Van Den Wyngaert, I, Van Roy, N, Van Goethem, A, Van Maerken, T, Zabrocki, P, Cools, J, Schulte, JH, Vialard, J, Speleman, F & De Preter, K 2015, 'Upregulation of MAPK Negative Feedback Regulators and RET in Mutant ALK Neuroblastoma: Implications for Targeted Treatment', Clinical Cancer Research, vol. 21, no. 14, pp. 3327-3339.
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Abstract Purpose: Activating ALK mutations are present in almost 10% of primary neuroblastomas and mark patients for treatment with small-molecule ALK inhibitors in clinical trials. However, recent studies have shown that multiple mechanisms drive resistance to these molecular therapies. We anticipated that detailed mapping of the oncogenic ALK-driven signaling in neuroblastoma can aid to identify potential fragile nodes as additional targets for combination therapies. Experimental Design: To achieve this goal, transcriptome profiling was performed in neuroblastoma cell lines with the ALKF1174L or ALKR1275Q hotspot mutations, ALK amplification, or wild-type ALK following pharmacologic inhibition of ALK using four different compounds. Next, we performed cross-species genomic analyses to identify commonly transcriptionally perturbed genes in MYCN/ALKF1174L double transgenic versus MYCN transgenic mouse tumors as compared with the mutant ALK-driven transcriptome in human neuroblastomas. Results: A 77-gene ALK signature was established and successfully validated in primary neuroblastoma samples, in a neuroblastoma cell line with ALKF1174L and ALKR1275Q regulable overexpression constructs and in other ALKomas. In addition to the previously established PI3K/AKT/mTOR, MAPK/ERK, and MYC/MYCN signaling branches, we identified that mutant ALK drives a strong upregulation of MAPK negative feedback regulators and upregulates RET and RET-driven sympathetic neuronal markers of the cholinergic lineage. Conclusions: We provide important novel insights into the transcriptional consequences and the complexity of mutant ALK signaling in this aggressive pediatric tumor. The negative feedback loop of MAPK pathway inhibitors may affect novel ALK inhibition therapies, whereas mutant ALK induced RET signaling can offer novel opportunit...

Lao, W, Tan, Y, Jin, X, Xiao, L, Kim, JJY & Qu, X 2015, 'Comparison of Cytotoxicity and the Anti-Adipogenic Effect of Green Tea Polyphenols with Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate in 3T3-L1 Preadipocytes', The American Journal of Chinese Medicine, vol. 43, no. 06, pp. 1177-1190.
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Recent studies have demonstrated the effects of green tea polyphenols (GTP) and epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) on obesity. However, high doses of EGCG have also exhibited cytotoxicity. The aim of this study was to compare total GTP with purified EGCG on cytotoxicity, and to investigate the effects and the molecular mechanism of total GTP and EGCG on adipogenesis. Cytotoxicity was determined by cell viability assay. For the adipogenesis study, 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were incubated with three doses of GTP (1, 10, and 100 μg/ml) and the effect of EGCG (6.8 μg/ml) was compared with 10 μg/ml GTP containing 68% EGCG. Oil Red O staining and triglyceride content assay were carried out 10 days after differentiation and treatment. Adipogenic regulators CCAAT element binding protein α (C/EBPα), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) and sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1c (SREBP-1c) were determined by qRT-PCR and immunoblotting. GTP at 1000 μg/ml and EGCG (68 and 680 μg/ml) significantly affected cell viability. Purified EGCG had greater cytotoxicity than corresponding doses of GTP. About 10 μg/ml of GTP showed stronger reduction in triglyceride accumulation than EGCG treatment. Transcriptional factors of C/EBPα, SREBP-1c and PPARγ were markedly decreased in both GTP and EGCG-treated cells and GTP exhibited stronger inhibitory effects on C/EBPα and PPARγ protein expression than EGCG (p < 0.05). In conclusion, total GTP exerted greater inhibitory effects than purified EGCG on adipogenesis through down-regulating the adipogenic factor C/EBPα, SREBP-1c and PPARγ expression. These findings support that a polyphenol mixture is safer and more effective than EGCG alone for preventing obesity and obesity-related chronic diseases.

Lawandi, J, Tao, C, Ren, B, Williams, P, Ling, D, Swan, MA, Nassif, NT, Torpy, FR, O'Brien, BA & Simpson, AM 2015, 'Reversal of diabetes following transplantation of an insulin-secreting human liver cell line: Melligen cells', Molecular Therapy - Methods & Clinical Development, vol. 2, pp. 15011-15011.
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© 2015 American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy As an alternative to the transplantation of islets, a human liver cell line has been genetically engineered to reverse type 1 diabetes (TID). The initial liver cell line (Huh7ins) commenced secretion of insulin in response to a glucose concentration of 2.5 mmol/l. After transfection of the Huh7ins cells with human islet glucokinase, the resultant Melligen cells secreted insulin in response to glucose within the physiological range; commencing at 4.25 mmol/l. Melligen cells exhibited increased glucokinase enzymatic activity in response to physiological glucose concentrations, as compared with Huh7ins cells. When transplanted into diabetic immunoincompetent mice, Melligen cells restored normoglycemia. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) revealed that both cell lines expressed a range of β-cell transcription factors and pancreatic hormones. Exposure of Melligen and Huh7ins cells to proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, and IFN-γ) affected neither their viability nor their ability to secrete insulin to glucose. Gene expression (microarray and qRT-PCR) analyses indicated the survival of Melligen cells in the presence of known β-cell cytotoxins was associated with the expression of NF-κB and antiapoptotic genes (such as BIRC3). This study describes the successful generation of an artificial β-cell line, which, if encapsulated to avoid allograft rejection, may offer a clinically applicable cure for T1D.

Lees, JG, Gorgani, NN, Ammit, AJ, McCluskey, A, Robinson, PJ & O'Neill, GM 2015, 'Role of dynamin in elongated cell migration in a 3D matrix', Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Molecular Cell Research, vol. 1853, no. 3, pp. 611-618.
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Lemke, C, Budka, M & Gabrys, B 2015, 'Metalearning: a survey of trends and technologies', Artificial Intelligence Review, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 117-130.
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Li, Z, He, Y, Wong, L & Li, J 2015, 'Burial Level Change Defines a High Energetic Relevance for Protein Binding Interfaces', IEEE-ACM TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY AND BIOINFORMATICS, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 410-421.
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Protein-protein interfaces defined through atomic contact or solvent accessibility change are widely adopted in structural biology studies. But, these definitions cannot precisely capture energetically important regions at protein interfaces. The burial depth of an atom in a protein is related to the atom's energy. This work investigates how closely the change in burial level of an atom/residue upon complexation is related to the binding. Burial level change is different from burial level itself. An atom deeply buried in a monomer with a high burial level may not change its burial level after an interaction and it may have little burial level change. We hypothesize that an interface is a region of residues all undergoing burial level changes after interaction. By this definition, an interface can be decomposed into an onion-like structure according to the burial level change extent. We found that our defined interfaces cover energetically important residues more precisely, and that the binding free energy of an interface is distributed progressively from the outermost layer to the core. These observations are used to predict binding hot spots. Our approach's F-measure performance on a benchmark dataset of alanine mutagenesis residues is much superior or similar to those by complicated energy modeling or machine learning approaches.

Liu, A, Richards, L, Bladen, CL, Ingham, E, Fisher, J & Tipper, JL 2015, 'The biological response to nanometre-sized polymer particles', Acta Biomaterialia, vol. 23, pp. 38-51.
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Liu, Q, Ren, J, Song, J & Li, J 2015, 'Co-Occurring Atomic Contacts for the Characterization of Protein Binding Hot Spots', PLOS ONE, vol. 10, no. 12, pp. e0144486-e0144486.
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© 2015 Liu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. A binding hot spot is a small area at a protein-protein interface that can make significant contribution to binding free energy. This work investigates the substantial contribution made by some special co-occurring atomic contacts at a binding hot spot. A co-occurring atomic contact is a pair of atomic contacts that are close to each other with no more than three covalent-bond steps.We found that two kinds of co-occurring atomic contacts can play an important part in the accurate prediction of binding hot spot residues. One is the co-occurrence of two nearby hydrogen bonds. For example, mutations of any residue in a hydrogen bond network consisting of multiple co-occurring hydrogen bonds could disrupt the interaction considerably. The other kind of co-occurring atomic contact is the co-occurrence of a hydrophobic carbon contact and a contact between a hydrophobic carbon atom and a π ring. In fact, this co-occurrence signifies the collective effect of hydrophobic contacts. We also found that the B-factor measurements of several specific groups of amino acids are useful for the prediction of hot spots. Taking the B-factor, individual atomic contacts and the co-occurring contacts as features, we developed a new prediction method and thoroughly assessed its performance via cross-validation and independent dataset test. The results show that our method achieves higher prediction performance than well-known methods such as Robetta, FoldX and Hotpoint.We conclude that these contact descriptors, in particular the novel co-occurring atomic contacts, can be used to facilitate accurate and interpretable characterization of protein binding hot spots.

Liu, Q, Song, R & Li, J 2015, 'Inference of gene interaction networks using conserved subsequential patterns from multiple time course gene expression datasets', BMC Genomics, vol. 16, no. S12, pp. 1-16.
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© 2015 Liu et al. Motivation: Deciphering gene interaction networks (GINs) from time-course gene expression (TCGx) data is highly valuable to understand gene behaviors (e.g., activation, inhibition, time-lagged causality) at the system level. Existing methods usually use a global or local proximity measure to infer GINs from a single dataset. As the noise contained in a single data set is hardly self-resolved, the results are sometimes not reliable. Also, these proximity measurements cannot handle the co-existence of the various in vivo positive, negative and time-lagged gene interactions. Methods and results: We propose to infer reliable GINs from multiple TCGx datasets using a novel conserved subsequential pattern of gene expression. A subsequential pattern is a maximal subset of genes sharing positive, negative or time-lagged correlations of one expression template on their own subsets of time points. Based on these patterns, a GIN can be built from each of the datasets. It is assumed that reliable gene interactions would be detected repeatedly. We thus use conserved gene pairs from the individual GINs of the multiple TCGx datasets to construct a reliable GIN for a species. We apply our method on six TCGx datasets related to yeast cell cycle, and validate the reliable GINs using protein interaction networks, biopathways and transcription factor-gene regulations. We also compare the reliable GINs with those GINs reconstructed by a global proximity measure Pearson correlation coefficient method from single datasets. It has been demonstrated that our reliable GINs achieve much better prediction performance especially with much higher precision. The functional enrichment analysis also suggests that gene sets in a reliable GIN are more functionally significant. Our method is especially useful to decipher GINs from multiple TCGx datasets related to less studied organisms where little knowledge is available except gene expression data.

Lourenco, RDA & Hall, J 2015, 'Paying for the expanding role of primary care in cancer control', LANCET ONCOLOGY, vol. 16, no. 12, pp. 1228-1229.
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Advances in cancer detection and treatment pose a challenge to traditional cancer services focused on the acute delivery of specialist care. In The Lancet Oncology Commission,1 Greg Rubin and colleagues set out an exhaustive charter for the role of primary care services, and the primary care physician (PCP). The authors suggest 18 action points for a greater role for the PCP from detection to palliation.

Lovell, M, Luckett, T, Boyle, F, Stubbs, J, Phillips, J, Davidson, PM, Olver, I, von Dincklage, J & Agar, M 2015, 'Adaptation of international guidelines on assessment and management of cancer pain for the Australian context', ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF CLINICAL ONCOLOGY, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 170-177.
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© 2015 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd. Aim: To develop clinical practice guidelines for screening, assessing and managing cancer pain in Australian adults. Methods: This three-phase project utilized the ADAPTE approach to adapt international cancer pain guidelines for the Australian setting. A Working Party was established to define scope, screen guidelines for adaptation and develop recommendations to support better cancer pain control through screening, assessment, pharmacological and non-pharmacological management, and patient education. Recommendations with limited evidence were referred to Expert Panels for advice before the draft guidelines were opened for public consultation via the Cancer Council Australia Cancer Guidelines Wiki platform in late 2012. All comments were reviewed by the Working Party and the guidelines were revised accordingly. Results: Screening resulted in six international guidelines being included for adaptation - those developed by the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (2008), National Health Service Quality Improvement Scotland (2009), National Comprehensive Cancer Network (2012), European Society of Medical Oncology (2011), European Association for Palliative Care (2011, 2012) and National Institute of Clinical Excellence (2012). Guideline adaptation resulted in 55 final recommendations. The guidelines were officially launched in November 2013. Conclusion: International guidelines can be efficiently reconfigured for local contexts using the ADAPTE approach. Availability of the guidelines via the Cancer Council Australia Wiki is intended to promote uptake and enable recommendations to be kept up to date. Resources to support implementation will also be made available via the Wiki if found to be effective by a randomized controlled trial commencing in 2015.

Lovell, MR, Phillips, J, Luckett, T & Agar, M 2015, 'Improving the system for managing cancer pain', INTERNAL MEDICINE JOURNAL, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 361-362.
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Luckett, T, Bhattarai, P, Phillips, J, Agar, M, Currow, D, Krastev, Y & Davidson, PM 2015, 'Advance care planning in 21st century Australia: a systematic review and appraisal of online advance care directive templates against national framework criteria', AUSTRALIAN HEALTH REVIEW, vol. 39, no. 5, pp. 552-560.
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Ly, D & Oliver, B 2015, 'Do We Really Need to Keep Redesigning &#946;₂-agonists for the Management of Asthma?', Current Drug Delivery, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 9-15.
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© 2015 Bentham Science Publishers. There is an enormous drive to refine therapeutic designs and delivery systems, but in this review we ask if this is always the right direction? We choose to play devil's advocate, and argue that refining drug design is not always needed, and what is actually needed is a greater understanding of the biology of the disease. Here we focus on asthma and the β2-agonist group of bronchodilators as an example of how a class of therapeutic has been developed and continues to be developmentally refined. In this review, we define viralinduced exacerbations as the greatest cause of lung attacks and the most crucial time β2-agonist therapy is needed. We explore the reasons why β2-agonist therapy fails in patients with rhinovirus-induced exacerbations, and explain why further “engineered” β2-agonist therapies are likely to continue to fail in this subset of asthmatic population. We justify our perspective by returning to the biology that underlies the cause of disease and highlight the need for “more research” into alternative therapies for this population of asthmatic patients.

Macha, IJ, Boonyang, U, Cazalbou, S, Ben-Nissan, B, Charvillat, C, Oktar, FN & Grossin, D 2015, 'Comparative study of Coral Conversion, Part 2: Microstructural evolution of calcium phosphate', JOURNAL OF THE AUSTRALIAN CERAMIC SOCIETY, vol. 51, no. 2, pp. 149-159.

Macha, IJ, Cazalbou, S, Ben-Nissan, B, Harvey, KL & Milthorpe, B 2015, 'Marine Structure Derived Calcium Phosphate-Polymer Biocomposites for Local Antibiotic Delivery', MARINE DRUGS, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 666-680.
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© 2015 by the authors. Hydrothermally converted coralline hydroxyapatite (HAp) particles loaded with medically active substances were used to develop polylactic acid (PLA) thin film composites for slow drug delivery systems. The effects of HAp particles within PLA matrix on the gentamicin (GM) release and release kinetics were studied. The gentamicin release kinetics seemed to follow Power law Korsmeyer Peppas model with mainly diffusional process with a number of different drug transport mechanisms. Statistical analysis shows very significant difference on the release of gentamicin between GM containing PLA (PLAGM) and GM containing HAp microspheres within PLA matrix (PLAHApGM) devices, which PLAHApGM displays lower release rates. The use of HAp particles improved drug stabilization and higher drug encapsulation efficiency of the carrier. HAp is also the source of Ca2+ for the regeneration and repair of diseased bone tissue. The release profiles, exhibited a steady state release rate with significant antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) (SH1000) even at high concentration of bacteria. The devices also indicated significant ability to control the growth of bacterial even after four weeks of drug release. Clinical release profiles can be easily tuned from drug-HAp physicochemical interactions and degradation kinetics of polymer matrix. The developed systems could be applied to prevent microbial adhesion to medical implant surfaces and to treat infections mainly caused by S. aureus in surgery.

Macha, IJ, Ozyegin, LS, Oktar, FN & Ben-Nissan, B 2015, 'Conversion of Ostrich Eggshells (Struthio camelus) to Calcium Phosphates', Journal of the Australian Ceramic Society, vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 125-133.
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© Copyright 2015, The Australian Ceramic Society. The exceptional progress made in orthopaedic and dental applications have increased the demand of calcium phosphate bioceramics due to their chemical similarities to the inorganic component of hard tissues. Low cost production of calcium phosphate bioceramics could be achieved by using pure natural biogenic materials by relatively simple methods. In this study calcium phosphate powders were produced from ostrich (Struthio camelus) eggshell powder at a moderate temperature of 80°C by relatively simple process of low temperature heating by hot plate (HP) and hot platting while agitation with ultrasonication (HPUS) hence introducing mechanical activation. The product structure and compositions were studied with FTIR, SEM, DTA/TCA, XRD and ICP techniques. The results showed that calcium deficient hydroxyapatite and dicalcium phosphate were obtained from HP and HPUS methods. Poorly crystalline calcium deficient hydroxyapatite was converted into whilockite after calcining at 800°C. The results suggest that this low cost and relatively simple method is efficient to easily produce calcium phosphate powders from adequately feed controlled farms to obtain pure uncontaminated eggshells for a range of biomedical applications.

Marsh, DJ 2015, 'Networks regulating ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like proteins promise new therapeutic targets', Endocrine-Related Cancer, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. E1-E3.
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Martín, F, Miró, JV & Moreno, L 2015, 'RGB-D DE-based Scan Matching: Exploiting Colour Properties in Registration', Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, vol. 80, no. 1, pp. 71-85.
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© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Colour plays a fundamental role in the perception process of humans. In robotics, the exploitation of this type of information has become increasingly important in many different tasks. The development of new sensors has made it possible to obtain colour information together with depth information about the environment. We have recently developed a scan matching algorithm based on evolutionary concepts (Differential Evolution). The main objective of this work is to include colour properties in the registration process, studying how colour can be used to improve the scan matching process. In particular, we have designed a filter to extract the most significant points of a RGB-D scan based on the Delta E divergence between neighbours. In addition, colour properties have also been included in the fitness function of the scan matching method. Our approach has been tested in a real environment and the most significant conclusion is the improvement of the algorithm performance when measuring the valley of convergence.

McAuliffe, S, Brown, R, Catalano, A, Ho, PJ, Nassif, N, Woodland, N, Hart, D, Weatherburn, C, Yang, S, Suen, H, Paul, C, Joshua, D & Gibson, J 2015, 'Using digital polymerase chain reaction to detect minimal residual disease in myeloma by identifying FGFR3 up-regulation', LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA, vol. 56, no. 9, pp. 2714-2716.
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McGowan, EM, Simpson, A, McManaman, J, Boonyaratanakornkit, V & Hardikar, AA 2015, 'Hijacking of Endocrine and Metabolic Regulation in Cancer and Diabetes', BioMed Research International, vol. 2015, pp. 1-2.
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McGrath, KCY, Li, X-H, McRobb, LS & Heather, AK 2015, 'Inhibitory Effect of a French Maritime Pine Bark Extract-Based Nutritional Supplement on TNF-α-Induced Inflammation and Oxidative Stress in Human Coronary Artery Endothelial Cells', Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol. 2015, pp. 1-7.
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Oxidative stress and inflammation, leading to endothelial dysfunction, contribute to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. The popularity of natural product supplements has increased in recent years, especially those with purported anti-inflammatory and/or antioxidant effects. The efficacy and mechanism of many of these products are not yet well understood. In this study, we tested the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of a supplement, HIPER Health Supplement (HIPER), on cytokine-induced inflammation and oxidative stress in human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAECs). HIPER is a mixture of French maritime pine bark extract (PBE), honey, aloe vera, and papaya extract. Treatment for 24 hours with HIPER reduced TNF-α-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation that was associated with decreased NADPH oxidase 4 and increased superoxide dismutase-1 expression. HIPER inhibited TNF-αinduced monocyte adhesion to HCAECs that was in keeping with decreased expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 and intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 and decreased nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) activation. Further investigation of mechanism showed HIPER reduced TNF-αinduced IκBαand p38 and MEK1/2 MAP kinases phosphorylation. Our findings show that HIPER has potent inhibitory effects on HCAECs inflammatory and oxidative stress responses that may protect against endothelial dysfunction that underlies early atherosclerotic lesion formation.

Mendham, AE, Duffield, R, Coutts, AJ, Marino, F, Boyko, A & Bishop, DJ 2015, 'Rugby-Specific Small-Sided Games Training Is an Effective Alternative to Stationary Cycling at Reducing Clinical Risk Factors Associated with the Development of Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized, Controlled Trial', PLOS ONE, vol. 10, no. 6.
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Introduction The present study investigated whether rugby small-sided games (SSG) could be an effective alternative to continuous stationary cycling (CYC) training at reducing clinical risk factors associated with the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods Thirty-three middle-aged (48.6±6.6y), inactive men were randomized into a CYC (n=11), SSG (n=11), or control (CON, n=11) group. Participants trained 3d.wk-1 for 8 weeks, while control participants maintained normal activity and dietary patterns. Exercise duration was matched between groups, which involved CYC or SSG (four quarters, interspersed with 2-min passive recovery). Both training programs were designed to induce similar internal loads of maximal heart rate (~80-85%HRmax) and rating of perceived exertion. Pre- and post-intervention testing included dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry scan, graded exercise test, fasting 2h oral glucose tolerance test and resting muscle biopsy. Western blotting was used to assess the content of skeletal muscle proteins associated with mitochondrial biogenesis and glucose regulation. Results Both CYC and SSG increased VO2 at 80%HRmax, and reduced glycated haemoglobin, glucose area under the curve (AUC; SSG, -2.3±2.4; CYC -2.2±1.6 mmol.L1(120min)1; p<0.05), and total body fat-mass (SSG -2.6±0.9%; CYC -2.9±1.1%), compared to no change in CON (p<0.05). SSG reduced insulin AUC (-30.4±40.7 µlU.mL1(120min)1; p<0.05) and increased total body fat-free mass (1.1±1.2kg; p<0.05), with no change in CYC or CON (P>0.05). There were no differences within or between conditions for protein content of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1α, sirtuin-1, p53, glucose transporter-4, protein kinase AKT/PKB, myocyte enhancer factor 2A, mitochondrial transcription factor, nuclear respiratory factor (NRF)-1, NRF-2 or mitochondrial complexes I-V (p>0.05).

Mendham, AE, Duffield, R, Marino, F & Coutts, AJ 2015, 'A 12-week sports-based exercise programme for inactive Indigenous Australian men improved clinical risk factors associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus', JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND MEDICINE IN SPORT, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 438-443.
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Mendham, AE, Duffield, R, Marino, F & Coutts, AJ 2015, 'Differences in the acute inflammatory and glucose regulatory responses between small-sided games and cycling in sedentary, middle-aged men', JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND MEDICINE IN SPORT, vol. 18, no. 6, pp. 714-719.
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OBJECTIVES: This study compared the acute inflammatory and glucose regulatory response within and between rugby specific small-sided games and stationary cycling in sedentary, middle-aged Caucasian men. DESIGN: Nine middle-aged, sedentary men who were free from disease participated in 2×40 min exercise conditions (stationary cycling and small-sided games) in a randomised, cross-over design. METHODS: Heart rate and Rating of Perceived Exertion were collected during each bout. Venous blood was collected at fasting, 0, 30, 60 and 240min post-exercise for measurement of glucose, insulin, cortisol and inflammatory markers including tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β, interleukin-6, interleukin-1 receptor agonist and C-reactive protein. RESULTS: No significant differences existed between conditions for heart rate and Rating of Perceived Exertion (p>0.05). Interleukin-6 was increased immediately post-exercise in both conditions (p<0.05), but greater in small-sided games at 240min post-exercise compared with stationary cycling (p<0.05). Glucose was lower in small-sided games than stationary cycling at 30 and 240min post-exercise (p<0.05). Interleukin-1receptor agonist, insulin and cortisol showed an exercise-induced increase (p<0.05), with no significant differences between conditions (p>0.05). Results for C-reactive protein, tumour necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1β showed no significant exercise-induced changes within or between conditions (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Both small-sided games and stationary cycling conditions were sufficient to stimulate an acute anti-inflammatory response as indicated by the post-exercise elevation of interleukin-6, interleukin-1receptor agonist and cortisol. The novel findings are that an acute bout of small-sided games bout is capable of maintaining an elevated post-exercise interleukin-6 response and lowered blood glucose concentration, compared with intensity- and duration-matched stationary cycling condition.

Merklein, M, Kabakova, IV, Büttner, TFS, Choi, D-Y, Luther-Davies, B, Madden, SJ & Eggleton, BJ 2015, 'Enhancing and inhibiting stimulated Brillouin scattering in photonic integrated circuits', Nature Communications, vol. 6, no. 1.
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AbstractOn-chip nonlinear optics is a thriving research field, which creates transformative opportunities for manipulating classical or quantum signals in small-footprint integrated devices. Since the length scales are short, nonlinear interactions need to be enhanced by exploiting materials with large nonlinearity in combination with high-Q resonators or slow-light structures. This, however, often results in simultaneous enhancement of competing nonlinear processes, which limit the efficiency and can cause signal distortion. Here, we exploit the frequency dependence of the optical density-of-states near the edge of a photonic bandgap to selectively enhance or inhibit nonlinear interactions on a chip. We demonstrate this concept for one of the strongest nonlinear effects, stimulated Brillouin scattering using a narrow-band one-dimensional photonic bandgap structure: a Bragg grating. The stimulated Brillouin scattering enhancement enables the generation of a 15-line Brillouin frequency comb. In the inhibition case, we achieve stimulated Brillouin scattering free operation at a power level twice the threshold.

Michopoulou, E, Darcy, S, Ambrose, I & Buhalis, D 2015, 'Accessible tourism futures: the world we dream to live in and the opportunities we hope to have', Journal of Tourism Futures, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 179-188.
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PurposeAccessible tourism is evolving as a field of academic research and industry practice, set within a dynamic social context. The field is interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary. The purpose of this paper is to examine key concepts and global initiatives that will shape accessible tourism futures.Design/methodology/approachThree of the authors have extensive academic experience in the area and the fourth author is the Managing Director of the pre-eminent European Network for Accessible Tourism. In taking a limited Delphi approach to canvassing key areas likely to shape accessible tourism futures, the following concepts and policy initiatives were examined: motivations, dreams and aspirations of people with disability; demography; UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; destination competitiveness; universal design (UD); and the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.FindingsA discussion of each of the above areas was placed in context to accessible tourism futures and to contextualise the papers that were selected for the special issue. The latter part of the paper outlines the contribution of each empirical paper to the issue discussing the approach, findings and implications. Stakeholder collaboration was identified as the key common theme of the papers and the factor for developing accessible tourism solutions, recognising the value of the market and capitalising on it. A collaborative approach is required to recognise the complementary nature of the different paradigms; to re-shape and transform the future of the accessible tourism industry. To assist in the development of accessible tourism futures, UD principles should provide a foundation to ...

Moreira, A, Bilsborough, JC, Sullivan, CJ, Cianciosi, M, Aoki, MS & Coutts, AJ 2015, 'Training Periodization of Professional Australian Football Players During an Entire Australian Football League Season', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORTS PHYSIOLOGY AND PERFORMANCE, vol. 10, no. 5, pp. 566-571.
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Moreira, A, Costa, EC, Coutts, AJ, Nakamura, FY, da Silva, DA & Aoki, MS 2015, 'COLD WATER IMMERSION DID NOT ACCELERATE RECOVERY AFTER A FUTSAL MATCH', REVISTA BRASILEIRA DE MEDICINA DO ESPORTE, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 40-43.
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Moreira, A, Kempton, T, Aoki, MS, Sirotic, AC & Coutts, AJ 2015, 'The Impact of 3 Different-Length Between-Matches Microcycles on Training Loads in Professional Rugby League Players', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORTS PHYSIOLOGY AND PERFORMANCE, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 767-773.
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Munoz, L, Kavanagh, ME, Phoa, AF, Heng, B, Dzamko, N, Chen, EJ, Doddareddy, MR, Guillemin, GJ & Kassiou, M 2015, 'Optimisation of LRRK2 inhibitors and assessment of functional efficacy in cell-based models of neuroinflammation', European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, vol. 95, pp. 29-34.
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LRRK2IN1 is a highly potent inhibitor of leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2, IC50 = 7.9 nM), an established target for treatment of Parkinson's disease. Two LRRK2IN1 analogues 1 and 2 were synthesised which retained LRRK2 inhibitory activity (1: IC50 = 72 nM; 2: IC50 = 51 nM), were predicted to have improved bioavailability and were efficacious in cell-based models of neuroinflammation. Analogue 1 inhibited IL-6 secretion from LPS-stimulated primary human microglia with EC50 = 4.26 μM. In order to further optimize the molecular properties of LRRK2IN1, a library of truncated analogues was designed based on docking studies. Despite lacking LRRK2 inhibitory activity, these compounds show antineuroinflammatory efficacy at micromolar concentration. The compounds developed were valuable tools in establishing a cell-based assay for assessing anti-neuroinflammatory efficacy of LRRK2 inhibitors. Herein, we present data that IL-1β stimulated U87 glioma cell line is a reliable model for neuroinflammation, as data obtained in this model were consistent with results obtained using primary human microglia and astrocytes.

Naik, GR & Nguyen, HT 2015, 'Nonnegative Matrix Factorization for the Identification of EMG Finger Movements: Evaluation Using Matrix Analysis', IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 478-485.
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© 2014 IEEE. Surface electromyography (sEMG) is widely used in evaluating the functional status of the hand to assist in hand gesture recognition, prosthetics and rehabilitation applications. The sEMG is a noninvasive, easy to record signal of superficial muscles from the skin surface. Considering the nonstationary characteristics of sEMG, recent feature selection of hand gesture recognition using sEMG signals necessitate designers to use nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF)-based methods. This method exploits both the additive and sparse nature of signals by extracting accurate and reliable measurements of sEMG features using a minimum number of sensors. The testing has been conducted for simple and complex finger flexions using several experiments with artificial neural network classification scheme. It is shown, both by simulation and experimental studies, that the proposed algorithm is able to classify ten finger flexions (five simple and five complex finger flexions) recorded from two sEMG sensors up to 92% (95% for simple and 87% for complex flexions) accuracy. The recognition performances of simple and complex finger flexions are also validated with NMF permutation matrix analysis.

Naik, GR, Baker, KG & Nguyen, HT 2015, 'Dependence Independence Measure for Posterior and Anterior EMG Sensors Used in Simple and Complex Finger Flexion Movements: Evaluation Using SDICA', IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 1689-1696.
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© 2015 IEEE. Identification of simple and complex finger flexion movements using surface electromyography (sEMG) and a muscle activation strategy is necessary to control human-computer interfaces such as prosthesis and orthoses. In order to identify these movements, sEMG sensors are placed on both anterior and posterior muscle compartments of the forearm. In general, the accuracy of myoelectric classification depends on several factors, which include number of sensors, features extraction methods, and classification algorithms. Myoelectric classification using a minimum number of sensors and optimal electrode configuration is always a challenging task. Sometimes, using several sensors including high density electrodes will not guarantee high classification accuracy. In this research, we investigated the dependence and independence nature of anterior and posterior muscles during simple and complex finger flexion movements. The outcome of this research shows that posterior parts of the hand muscles are dependent and hence responsible for most of simple finger flexion. On the other hand, this study shows that anterior muscles are responsible for most complex finger flexion. This also indicates that simple finger flexion can be identified using sEMG sensors connected only on anterior muscles (making posterior placement either independent or redundant), and vice versa is true for complex actions which can be easily identified using sEMG sensors on posterior muscles. The result of this study is beneficial for optimal electrode configuration and design of prosthetics and other related devices using a minimum number of sensors.

Ng, HY, Oliver, BGG, Burgess, JK, Krymskaya, VP, Black, JL & Moir, LM 2015, 'Doxycycline reduces the migration of tuberous sclerosis complex‐2 null cells ‐ effects on RhoA‐GTPase and focal adhesion kinase', Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, vol. 19, no. 11, pp. 2633-2646.
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AbstractLymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is associated with dysfunction of the tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) leading to enhanced cell proliferation and migration. This study aims to examine whether doxycycline, a tetracycline antibiotic, can inhibit the enhanced migration of TSC2‐deficient cells, identify signalling pathways through which doxycycline works and to assess the effectiveness of combining doxycycline with rapamycin (mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 inhibitor) in controlling cell migration, proliferation and wound closure. TSC2‐positive and TSC2‐negative mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF), 323‐TSC2‐positive and 323‐TSC2‐null MEF and Eker rat uterine leiomyoma (ELT3) cells were treated with doxycycline or rapamycin alone, or in combination. Migration, wound closure and proliferation were assessed using a transwell migration assay, time‐lapse microscopy and manual cell counts respectively. RhoA‐GTPase activity, phosphorylation of p70S6 kinase (p70S6K) and focal adhesion kinase (FAK) in TSC2

Nguyen, LT, Stangenberg, S, Chen, H, Al-Odat, I, Chan, YL, Gosnell, ME, Anwer, AG, Goldys, EM, Pollock, CA & Saad, S 2015, 'l-Carnitine reverses maternal cigarette smoke exposure-induced renal oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in mouse offspring', American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology, vol. 308, no. 7, pp. F689-F696.
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Maternal smoking is associated with metabolic disorders, renal underdevelopment, and a predisposition to chronic kidney disease in offspring, yet the underlying mechanisms are unclear. By exposing female Balb/c mice to cigarette smoke for 6 wk premating and during gestation and lactation, we showed that maternal smoke exposure induced glucose intolerance, renal underdevelopment, inflammation, and albuminuria in male offspring. This was associated with increased renal oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction at birth and in adulthood. Importantly, we demonstrated that dietary supplementation of l-carnitine, an amino acid shown to increase antioxidant defenses and mitochondrial function in numerous diseases, in smoke-exposed mothers during pregnancy and lactation significantly reversed the detrimental maternal impacts on kidney pathology in these male offspring. It increased SOD2 and glutathione peroxidase 1, reduced ROS accumulation, and normalized levels of mitochondrial preprotein translocases of the outer membrane, and oxidative phosphorylation complexes I–V in the kidneys of mouse progeny after intrauterine cigarette smoke exposure. These findings support the hypothesis that oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction are closely linked to the adverse effects of maternal smoking on male offspring renal pathology. The results of our study suggest that l-carnitine administration in cigarette smoke-exposed mothers mitigates these deleterious renal consequences.

Nguyen, TV & Seeman, E 2015, 'Osteoporosis: Treat or Let Die Twice More Likely', Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, vol. 30, no. 9, pp. 1551-1552.
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Oktar, FN, Gokce, H, Gunduz, O, Sahin, YM, Agaogullari, D, Turner, IG, Ozyegin, LS & Ben-Nissan, B 2015, 'Bioceramic Production from Giant Purple Barnacle (<i>Megabalanus</i> <i>tintinnabulum</i>)', Key Engineering Materials, vol. 631, pp. 137-142.
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In this study the structural and chemical properties of barnacle shell based bioceramic materials (i.e. hydroxyapatite, whitlockite, monetite and other phases) were produced by using mechano-chemical (hot-plate) conversion method. Cleaned barnacle shells were ball milled down to <75µm in diameter. Differential thermal and gravimetric analyses (DTA/TGA) were performed to determine the exact CaCO3 content. Sample batches of 2g were prepared from the fine powders produced. For each batch, the required volume of an aqueous H3PO4 solution was calculated in order to set the stoichiometric molar ratio of Ca/P equal to 1.5 for ß-tricalcium phosphate (ß-TCP) or to 1.667 for hydroxyapatite (HA). The temperature was set to 80°C for 15 minutes to complete the process. After the titration of the equivalent amount of H3PO4 into the prepared solution, agitation was carried out on a hot-plate (i.e. mechano-chemical processing) for 8 hours. The sediments formed were dried and the resulting TCP and HA powders were calcined at 400°C and 800°C respectively. For complete characterization of the bioceramics produced, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses were carried out. The current study proposes a simple, economic and time efficient method for nano-bioceramic production.

Otsuka, Y, Takeuchi, M, Otsuka, M, Ben-Nissan, B, Grossin, D & Tanaka, H 2015, 'Effect of carbon dioxide on self-setting apatite cement formation from tetracalcium phosphate and dicalcium phosphate dihydrate; ATR-IR and chemoinformatics analysis', Colloid and Polymer Science, vol. 293, no. 10, pp. 2781-2788.
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Pandrala, M, Sundaraneedi, MK, Ammit, AJ, Woodward, CE, Wallace, L, Keene, FR & Collins, JG 2015, 'Differential Anticancer Activities of the Geometric Isomers of Dinuclear Iridium(III) Complexes', European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, vol. 2015, no. 34, pp. 5694-5701.
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AbstractThe anticancer activities of dinuclear iridium(III) complexes [{Ir(tpy)Cl}2{μ‐bbn}]4+ {Cl‐Irbbn; tpy = 2,2′:6′,2″‐terpyridine, bbn = bis[4(4′‐methyl‐2,2′‐bipyridyl)]‐1,n‐alkane (n = 7, 12 and 16)} against MCF‐7 and MDA‐MB‐231 breast cancer cell lines have been determined. The activities of the Cl‐Irbbn complexes increased with increasing chain length, the Cl‐Irbb16 complex showing the best anticancer properties. However, while Cl‐Irbb16 was active against the metastatic MDA‐MB‐231 cells (3 μM), it was relatively inactive against the nonmetastatic MCF‐7 line (29 μM). The three geometric isomers of Cl‐Irbb16 were isolated and characterised by NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry, and their anticancer activities, lipophilicities (log P) and DNA‐binding abilities were examined. The trans,trans (t,t) isomer (IC50 = 2 μM against MDA‐MB‐231) showed considerably greater anticancer activity than the cis,trans (c,t) and cis,cis (c,c) isomers (8 and 31 μM, respectively). From log P measurements, the t,t isomer of Cl‐Irbb16 (log P = –0.62) was found to be slightly more lipophilic than the other geometric isomers (–0.95...

Patel, BS, Co, WS, Donat, C, Wang, M, Che, W, Prabhala, P, Schuster, F, Schulz, V, Martin, JL & Ammit, AJ 2015, 'Repression of breast cancer cell growth by proteasome inhibitorsin vitro: impact of mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase 1', Cancer Biology & Therapy, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 780-789.
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Patel, BS, Prabhala, P, Oliver, BG & Ammit, AJ 2015, 'Inhibitors of Phosphodiesterase 4, but Not Phosphodiesterase 3, Increase β₂-Agonist–Induced Expression of Antiinflammatory Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Phosphatase 1 in Airway Smooth Muscle Cells', American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, vol. 52, no. 5, pp. 634-640.
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Copyright © 2015 by the American Thoracic Society. β2-agonists are principally used in asthma to provide bronchodilation; however, they also have antiinflammatory properties, due, in part, to their ability to up-regulate mitogenactivated protein kinase phosphatase (MKP) 1 in a cAMP-dependent manner. Phosphodiesterases (PDEs) are attractive targets for potentiating the antiinflammatory response. There are 11 subfamilies of PDE enzymes; among these, inhibition of PDE3 and PDE4 are the main targets for airway smooth muscle (ASM). PDE enzymes are important intracellular regulators that catalyze the breakdown of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and/or 3',5'-cyclic guanosine monophosphate to their inactive forms. Given that MKP-1 is cAMP dependent, and inhibition of PDE acts to increase β2-agonist-induced cAMP, it is possible that the presence of PDE inhibitors may enhance β2-adrenoceptor-mediated responses. We address this herein by comparing the ability of a panel of inhibitors against PDE3 (cilostamide, cilostazol, milrinone) or PDE4 (cilomilast, piclamilast, rolipram) to increase cAMP, MKP-1 mRNA expression, and protein up-regulation in ASM cells induced in response to the β2-agonist formoterol. Our data show that inhibitors of PDE4, but not PDE3, increase β2-agonist-induced cAMP and induce MKP-1 mRNA expression and protein up-regulation. When cAMP was increased, there was a concomitant increase in MKP-1 levels and significant inhibition of TNF-α-induced CXCL8 (IL-8). This result was consistent with all PDE4 inhibitors examined but not for the PDE3 inhibitors. These findings reinforce cAMP-dependent control of MKP-1 expression, and suggest that PDE4 is the predominant PDE isoform responsible for formoterolinduced cAMP breakdown in ASM cells. Our study is the first to demonstrate that PDE4 inhibitors augment antiinflammatory effects of β2-agonists via increased MKP-1 expression in ASM cells.

Peng, J, Wang, P, Ge, H, Qu, X & Jin, X 2015, 'Effects of Cordycepin on the Microglia-Overactivation-Induced Impairments of Growth and Development of Hippocampal Cultured Neurons', PLOS ONE, vol. 10, no. 5, pp. e0125902-e0125902.
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© 2015 Peng et al. Microglial cells are normally activated in response to brain injury or immunological stimuli to protect central nervous system (CNS). However, over-activation of microglia conversely amplifies the inflammatory effects and mediates cellular degeneration, leading to the death of neurons. Recently, cordycepin, an active component found in Cordyceps militarisa known as a rare Chinese caterpillar fungus, has been reported as an effective drug for treating inflammatory diseases and cancer via unclear mechanisms. In this study, we attempted to identify the anti-inflammatory role of cordycepin and its protective effects on the impairments of neural growth and development induced by microglial over-activation. The results indicate that cordycepin could attenuate the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced microglial activation, evidenced by the dramatically reduced release of TNF-α and IL-1β, as well as the down-regulation of mRNA levels of iNOS and COX-2 after cordycepin treatment. Besides, cordycepin reversed the LPS-induced activation of NF-κB pathway, resulting in antiinflammatory effects. Furthermore, by employing the conditioned medium (CM), we found cordycepin was able to recover the impairments of neural growth and development in the primary hippocampal neurons cultured in LPS-CM, including cell viability, growth cone extension, neurite sprouting and outgrowth as well as spinogenesis. This study expands our knowledge of the anti-inflammatory function of cordycepin and paves the way for the biomedical applications of cordycepin in the therapies of neural injuries.

Periard, JD, Jay, O, Alonso, J-M, Coutts, AJ, Flouris, AD, Gonzalez-Alonso, J, Hausswirth, C, Lee, JKW, Kong, L, Nassis, GP, Nybo, L, Pluim, BM, Roelands, B, Sawka, MN, Wingo, J & Racinais, S 2015, 'Author's Reply to Brocherie and Millet: 'Is the Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature (WGBT) Index Relevant for Exercise in the Heat?'', SPORTS MEDICINE, vol. 45, no. 11, pp. 1623-1624.
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Peters, MDJ, Godfrey, CM, Khalil, H, McInerney, P, Parker, D & Soares, CB 2015, 'Guidance for conducting systematic scoping reviews', International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 141-146.
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© 2015 University of Adelaide, Joanna Briggs Institute. Reviews of primary research are becoming more common as evidence-based practice gains recognition as the benchmark for care, and the number of, and access to, primary research sources has grown. One of the newer review types is the 'scoping review'. In general, scoping reviews are commonly used for 'reconnaissance' - to clarify working definitions and conceptual boundaries of a topic or field. Scoping reviews are therefore particularly useful when a body of literature has not yet been comprehensively reviewed, or exhibits a complex or heterogeneous nature not amenable to a more precise systematic review of the evidence. While scoping reviews may be conducted to determine the value and probable scope of a full systematic review, they may also be undertaken as exercises in and of themselves to summarize and disseminate research findings, to identify research gaps, and to make recommendations for the future research. This article briefly introduces the reader to scoping reviews, how they are different to systematic reviews, and why they might be conducted. The methodology and guidance for the conduct of systematic scoping reviews outlined below was developed by members of the Joanna Briggs Institute and members of five Joanna Briggs Collaborating Centres.

Petriwskyj, A, Parker, D, OʼDwyer, S, Moyle, W & Nucifora, N 2015, 'Interventions to build resilience in family carers of people living with dementia: a systematic review protocol', JBI Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports, vol. 13, no. 7, pp. 44-61.
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Petriwskyj, A, Parker, D, OʼDwyer, S, Moyle, W & Nucifora, N 2015, 'Interventions to build resilience in family carers of people living with dementia: a systematic review protocol', JBI Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports, vol. 13, no. 7, pp. 44-61.
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Phillips, J 2015, 'Implementing evidence-based palliative care', International Journal of Palliative Nursing, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 55-55.
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Phillips, J 2015, 'Research roundup', International Journal of Palliative Nursing, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 98-99.
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Synopses of a selection of recently published research articles of relevance to palliative care.

Phillips, J 2015, 'The challenge of off-label prescribing', International Journal of Palliative Nursing, vol. 21, no. 9, pp. 419-419.
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Phillips, J, Dal Grande, E, Ritchie, C, Abernethy, AP & Currow, DC 2015, 'A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study That Defined Normative Population Data for the Life-Space Mobility Assessment-Composite Score', Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, vol. 49, no. 5, pp. 885-893.
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Mobility is linked to health status and quality of life. Life-Space Mobility Assessment (LSMA; range 0-120) measures the spatial extent of people's excursion and physical support needs over the preceding month.The aim of this study was to generate normative population data for an LSMA-Composite (LSMA-C) score, irrespective of age or health service contact and explore the LSM of people with diabetes, current asthma, arthritis, and osteoporosis.LSMA questions were included in the 2011 South Australian Health Omnibus Survey, a multistage, systematic, and clustered sample of household face-to-face interviews. Sociodemographic and clinical variables were explored in relation to LSMA scores using descriptive, univariable, and multivariable analyses and receiver operator curves.For the 3032 respondents, the mean LSMA score was 98.3 (SD 20.3; median 100; interquartile range 34 [86-120]; range 6-120). Five percent of respondents scored <60, 11% scored between ≥ 60 and 79, 27% scored between ≥ 80 and 99, and the remainder scored between 100 and 120. After 55 years of age, LSMA-C scores declined, more so in females. In multivariable analysis, declining scores were associated with being female, being older, living in rural areas, lower educational attainment, not working, lower household income, and higher numbers of chronic conditions (R(2) = 0.35, P < 0.001). The receiver operator curve demonstrated a highly specific but relatively insensitive measure.Having controlled for known confounders, the male/female difference cannot be easily explained. These data will help to contextualize studies in the future that use the LSMA-C score.

Phillips, JL, Johnson, M & Currow, D 2015, 'Heart failure and palliative care: Are we there yet?', Cardiology Today, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 13-16.
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Integrating a palliative approach with active management can help identify and address the significant needs of patients with advanced heart failure.Key PointsIntroducing a palliative approach to care of patients with heart failure while still attempting to modify the disease course through treatment can improve patients’ quality of life.Patients who would benefit from a palliative approach can be better identified by tools that assess needs rather than prognosis.Optimal palliative care of patients with heart failure integrates ongoing active management with specific interventions to manage symptoms such as breathlessness and oedema.A plan for deactivation of implantable cardioverter defibrillators at the end of life should be devised and discussed with patients.Patients should be given the opportunity to reflect on and communicate their preferences for end-of-life care early in the disease process.

Phillips, JL, Lovell, M, Luckett, T, Agar, M, Green, A & Davidson, P 2015, 'Australian survey of current practice and guideline use in adult cancer pain assessment and management: The community nurse perspective', COLLEGIAN, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 33-41.
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© 2013 Australian College of Nursing Ltd. Background: Cancer pain remains a major public health concern. Despite effective treatments being available to manage the majority of cancer pain, this debilitating symptom is frequently under treated. As cancer has becomes a chronic disease a range of health professionals, including community nurses in Australia are increasingly caring for people living with cancer related pain. Yet, little is known about community nurses capacity to assess and manage cancer pain in accordance with best available evidence. Objectives: This study aimed to: identify the barriers and facilitators to adult cancer pain assessment and management as perceived by Australian health professionals; identify if cancer pain guidelines are currently used; identify barriers and facilitators to guideline use; and establish the need for Australian cancer pain guidelines. This article reports on community nurses' perceptions of managing cancer pain in the community setting. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was administered online. Invitations were circulated via peak bodies and clinical leaders seeking the views and experiences of health professionals involved in caring for people living with cancer pain. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise the quantitative data, and thematic content analysis were used to describe the qualitative data. Results: Sixty-two community nurses responded to the survey, representing 29% of the total sample. These participants reported high levels of adherence to accepted cancer pain management practices in their workplace, with 71% nominating the Palliative Care Therapeutic Guideline V.3 as being most frequently used to manage community patients' cancer related pain. Key barriers to effective cancer pain management in the community were: difficulties accessing non-pharmacological interventions (89%), lack of coordination by multiple providers (89%), and impact of distance on ability to access pain-related ser...

Poulos, RC, Thoms, JAI, Shah, A, Beck, D, Pimanda, JE & Wong, JWH 2015, 'Systematic Screening of Promoter Regions Pinpoints Functional Cis-Regulatory Mutations in a Cutaneous Melanoma Genome', Molecular Cancer Research, vol. 13, no. 8, pp. 1218-1226.
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Abstract With the recent discovery of recurrent mutations in the TERT promoter in melanoma, identification of other somatic causal promoter mutations is of considerable interest. Yet, the impact of sequence variation on the regulatory potential of gene promoters has not been systematically evaluated. This study assesses the impact of promoter mutations on promoter activity in the whole-genome sequenced malignant melanoma cell line COLO-829. Combining somatic mutation calls from COLO-829 with genome-wide chromatin accessibility and histone modification data revealed mutations within promoter elements. Interestingly, a high number of potential promoter mutations (n = 23) were found, a result mirrored in subsequent analysis of TCGA whole-melanoma genomes. The impact of wild-type and mutant promoter sequences were evaluated by subcloning into luciferase reporter vectors and testing their transcriptional activity in COLO-829 cells. Of the 23 promoter regions tested, four mutations significantly altered reporter activity relative to wild-type sequences. These data were then subjected to multiple computational algorithms that score the cis-regulatory altering potential of mutations. These analyses identified one mutation, located within the promoter region of NDUFB9, which encodes the mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase (ubiquinone) 1 beta subcomplex 9, to be recurrent in 4.4% (19 of 432) of TCGA whole-melanoma exomes. The mutation is predicted to disrupt a highly conserved SP1/KLF transcription factor binding motif and its frequent co-occurrence with mutations in the coding sequence of NF1 supports a pathologic role for this mutation in melanoma. Taken together, these data show the relatively high prevalence of promoter mutations in the COLO-829 melanoma genome, and indicate that a proportion of these significantly alter the regulatory potential of gene promoters. Implications: Genom...

Prabhala, P & Ammit, AJ 2015, 'Tristetraprolin and Its Role in Regulation of Airway Inflammation', Molecular Pharmacology, vol. 87, no. 4, pp. 629-638.
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Prabhala, P, Bunge, K, Rahman, MM, Ge, Q, Clark, AR & Ammit, AJ 2015, 'Temporal regulation of cytokine mRNA expression by tristetraprolin: dynamic control by p38 MAPK and MKP-1', American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, vol. 308, no. 9, pp. L973-L980.
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Cytokines drive many inflammatory diseases, including asthma. Understanding the molecular mechanisms responsible for cytokine secretion will allow us to develop novel strategies to repress inflammation in the future. Harnessing the power of endogenous anti-inflammatory proteins is one such strategy. In this study, we investigate the p38 MAPK-mediated regulatory interaction of two anti-inflammatory proteins, mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase 1 (MKP-1) and tristetraprolin (TTP), in the context of asthmatic inflammation. Using primary cultures of airway smooth muscle cells in vitro, we explored the temporal regulation of IL-6 cytokine mRNA expression upon stimulation with TNF-α. Intriguingly, the temporal profile of mRNA expression was biphasic. This was not due to COX-2-derived prostanoid upregulation, increased expression of NLRP3 inflammasome components, or upregulation of the cognate receptor for TNF-α-TNFR1. Rather, the biphasic nature of TNF-α-induced IL-6 mRNA expression was regulated temporally by the RNA-destabilizing molecule, TTP. Importantly, TTP function is controlled by p38 MAPK, and our study reveals that its expression in airway smooth muscle cells is p38 MAPK-dependent and its anti-inflammatory activity is also controlled by p38 MAPK-mediated phosphorylation. MKP-1 is a MAPK deactivator; thus, by controlling p38 MAPK phosphorylation status in a temporally distinct manner, MKP-1 ensures that TTP is expressed and made functional at precisely the correct time to repress cytokine expression. Together, p38 MAPK, MKP-1, and TTP may form a regulatory network that exerts significant control on cytokine secretion in proasthmatic inflammation through precise temporal signaling.

Qu, X & Ong, M 2015, 'Successful Treatment of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Infertility with Chinese Herbal Medicine: A Case Report', Endocrinology & Metabolic Syndrome, vol. 04, no. 03, pp. 1-3.
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This case report details a 30 year old woman with hyperlipidemia, Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and infertility. Her impaired liver function has prevented the use of pharmaceutical drugs (statins and metformin). The patient therefore underwent two stages of Chinese herbal medicine treatment: the first formula to ameliorate hyperlipidemia and amenorrhea; and the second formula to improve ovarian dysfunction as well as glucose and lipid metabolism. Over 8 months of treatment, the patient achieved pregnancy and a natural birth without developing gestational diabetes. While the treatment of coexisting metabolic syndrome conditions is often complex and difficult, this case report highlights how Chinese herbal medicine may offer a successful treatment option for women with multiple metabolic abnormalities and associated infertility

Racinais, S, Alonso, J-M, Coutts, AJ, Flouris, AD, Girard, O, Gonzalez-Alonso, J, Hausswirth, C, Jay, O, Lee, JKW, Mitchell, N, Nassis, GP, Nybo, L, Pluim, BM, Roelands, B, Sawka, MN, Wingo, J & Periard, JD 2015, 'Consensus Recommendations on Training and Competing in the Heat', SPORTS MEDICINE, vol. 45, no. 7, pp. 925-938.
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© 2015, The Author(s). Exercising in the heat induces thermoregulatory and other physiological strain that can lead to impairments in endurance exercise capacity. The purpose of this consensus statement is to provide up-to-date recommendations to optimize performance during sporting activities undertaken in hot ambient conditions. The most important intervention one can adopt to reduce physiological strain and optimize performance is to heat acclimatize. Heat acclimatization should comprise repeated exercise–heat exposures over 1–2 weeks. In addition, athletes should initiate competition and training in an euhydrated state and minimize dehydration during exercise. Following the development of commercial cooling systems (e.g., cooling vests), athletes can implement cooling strategies to facilitate heat loss or increase heat storage capacity before training or competing in the heat. Moreover, event organizers should plan for large shaded areas, along with cooling and rehydration facilities, and schedule events in accordance with minimizing the health risks of athletes, especially in mass participation events and during the first hot days of the year. Following the recent examples of the 2008 Olympics and the 2014 FIFA World Cup, sport governing bodies should consider allowing additional (or longer) recovery periods between and during events for hydration and body cooling opportunities when competitions are held in the heat.

Racinais, S, Alonso, JM, Coutts, AJ, Flouris, AD, Girard, O, Gonzalez-Alonso, J, Hausswirth, C, Jay, O, Lee, JKW, Mitchell, N, Nassis, GP, Nybo, L, Pluim, BM, Roelands, B, Sawka, MN, Wingo, J & Periard, JD 2015, 'Consensus recommendations on training and competing in the heat', BRITISH JOURNAL OF SPORTS MEDICINE, vol. 49, no. 18, pp. 1164-1173.
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Exercising in the heat induces thermoregulatory and other physiological strain that can lead to impairments in endurance exercise capacity. The purpose of this consensus statement is to provide up-to-date recommendations to optimise performance during sporting activities undertaken in hot ambient conditions. The most important intervention one can adopt to reduce physiological strain and optimise performance is to heat acclimatise. Heat acclimatisation should comprise repeated exercise-heat exposures over 1-2 weeks. In addition, athletes should initiate competition and training in a euhydrated state and minimise dehydration during exercise. Following the development of commercial cooling systems (eg, cooling-vest), athletes can implement cooling strategies to facilitate heat loss or increase heat storage capacity before training or competing in the heat. Moreover, event organisers should plan for large shaded areas, along with cooling and rehydration facilities, and schedule events in accordance with minimising the health risks of athletes, especially in mass participation events and during the first hot days of the year. Following the recent examples of the 2008 Olympics and the 2014 FIFA World Cup, sport governing bodies should consider allowing additional (or longer) recovery periods between and during events, for hydration and body cooling opportunities, when competitions are held in the heat.

Racinais, S, Alonso, JM, Coutts, AJ, Flouris, AD, Girard, O, Gonzalez-Alonso, J, Hausswirth, C, Jay, O, Lee, JKW, Mitchell, N, Nassis, GP, Nybo, L, Pluim, BM, Roelands, B, Sawka, MN, Wingo, JE & Periard, JD 2015, 'Consensus recommendations on training and competing in the heat', SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE & SCIENCE IN SPORTS, vol. 25, no. S1, pp. 6-19.
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© 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Exercising in the heat induces thermoregulatory and other physiological strain that can lead to impairments in endurance exercise capacity. The purpose of this consensus statement is to provide up-to-date recommendations to optimize performance during sporting activities undertaken in hot ambient conditions. The most important intervention one can adopt to reduce physiological strain and optimize performance is to heat acclimatize. Heat acclimatization should comprise repeated exercise-heat exposures over 1-2 weeks. In addition, athletes should initiate competition and training in a euhydrated state and minimize dehydration during exercise. Following the development of commercial cooling systems (e.g., cooling vest), athletes can implement cooling strategies to facilitate heat loss or increase heat storage capacity before training or competing in the heat. Moreover, event organizers should plan for large shaded areas, along with cooling and rehydration facilities, and schedule events in accordance with minimizing the health risks of athletes, especially in mass participation events and during the first hot days of the year. Following the recent examples of the 2008 Olympics and the 2014 FIFA World Cup, sport governing bodies should consider allowing additional (or longer) recovery periods between and during events for hydration and body cooling opportunities when competitions are held in the heat.

Rahman, MM, Rumzhum, NN, Morris, JC, Clark, AR, Verrills, NM & Ammit, AJ 2015, 'Basal protein phosphatase 2A activity restrains cytokine expression: role for MAPKs and tristetraprolin', Scientific Reports, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 1-16.
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AbstractPP2A is a master controller of multiple inflammatory signaling pathways. It is a target in asthma; however the molecular mechanisms by which PP2A controls inflammation warrant further investigation. In A549 lung epithelial cells in vitro we show that inhibition of basal PP2A activity by okadaic acid (OA) releases restraint on MAPKs and thereby increases MAPK-mediated pro-asthmatic cytokines, including IL-6 and IL-8. Notably, PP2A inhibition also impacts on the anti-inflammatory protein – tristetraprolin (TTP), a destabilizing RNA binding protein regulated at multiple levels by p38 MAPK. Although PP2A inhibition increases TTP mRNA expression, resultant TTP protein builds up in the hyperphosphorylated inactive form. Thus, when PP2A activity is repressed, pro-inflammatory cytokines increase and anti-inflammatory proteins are rendered inactive. Importantly, these effects can be reversed by the PP2A activators FTY720 and AAL(s), or more specifically by overexpression of the PP2A catalytic subunit (PP2A-C). Moreover, PP2A plays an important role in cytokine expression in cells stimulated with TNFα; as inhibition of PP2A with OA or PP2A-C siRNA results in significant increases in cytokine production. Collectively, these data reveal the molecular mechanisms of PP2A regulation and highlight the potential of boosting the power of endogenous phosphatases as novel anti-inflammatory strategies to combat asthmatic inflammation.

Rampinini, E, Alberti, G, Fiorenza, M, Riggio, M, Sassi, R, Borges, TO & Coutts, AJ 2015, 'Accuracy of GPS Devices for Measuring High-intensity Running in Field-based Team Sports', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORTS MEDICINE, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 49-53.
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Rana, MM, Li, L & Su, S 2015, 'Distributed State Estimation Using RSC Coded Smart Grid Communications', IEEE Access, vol. 3, pp. 1340-1349.
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© 2013 IEEE. Recently, the renewable distributed energy resources (DERs) have become more and more popular due to carbon-free energy sources and environment-friendly electricity generation. Unfortunately, these power generation patterns are mostly intermittent in nature and distributed over the electrical grid, which creates challenging problems in the reliability of the smart grid. Thus, the smart grid has a strong requisite for an efficient communication infrastructure to facilitate estimating the DER states. In contrast to the traditional methods of centralized state estimation (SE), we propose a distributed approach to microgrid SE based on the concatenated coding structure. In this framework, the DER state is treated as a dynamic outer code, and the recursive systematic convolutional (RSC) code is seen as a concatenated inner code for protection and redundancy in the system states. Furthermore, in order to properly monitor the intermittent energy source from any place, this paper proposes a distributed SE method. Particularly, the outputs of the local SE are treated as measurements, which are fed into the master fusion station. At the end, the global SE can be obtained by combining local SEs with corresponding weighting factors. The weighting factors can be calculated by inspiring the covariance intersection method. The simulation results show that the proposed method is able to estimate the system state properly.

Rao, A, Sibbritt, D, Phillips, JL & Hickman, LD 2015, 'Prayer or spiritual healing as adjuncts to conventional care: a cross sectional analysis of prevalence and characteristics of use among women', BMJ OPEN, vol. 5, no. 6, pp. e007345-e007345.
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Objectives: To determine the prevalence and characteristics of users of prayer or spiritual healing among women. Design and setting: This cross sectional study was conducted as a part of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH), a 20-year study that examines various factors affecting women's health and well-being. Participants: The sample used in the current study were women from the 1946-1951 cohort (n=9965) (59-64 years) who were surveyed in 2010.Outcome measures: Use of prayer or spiritual healing; demographic factors and measures of health status. x² Tests, analyses of variance (to determine associations) and a stepwise backward logistic regression model (for the most significant predictors) using a likelihood ratio test were used to determine the outcome measures. Results: It is estimated that 26% of Australian women from the 1946-1951 cohort (aged 59-64 years) use prayer or spiritual healing on a regular basis. Women were significantly more likely to use prayer or spiritual healing if they were non-smokers, non-drinkers or lowrisk drinkers, had symptoms of severe tiredness (OR 1.25; 95% CI 1.12 to 1.40), depression, (OR 1.30; 95% CI 1.11 to 1.53), anxiety (OR 1.33; 95% CI 1.15to 1.53), diagnosed cancer (OR 1.84; 95% CI 1.28 to 2.65) or other major illnesses (OR 1.43; 95% CI 1.18to 1.75) and used other complementary therapies. Conclusions: A significant proportion of adult women are using prayer or spiritual healing. Given that prayer or spiritual healing was significantly associated with health symptoms, chronic illnesses and positive health seeking behaviours, respect for prayer or spiritual healing practices is required within health care settings. Future research is recommended around specific populations using prayer or spiritual healing, reasons for their use and potential benefits on health related outcomes and general well-being.

Ren, J, Liu, Q, Ellis, J & Li, J 2015, 'Positive-unlabeled learning for the prediction of conformational B-cell epitopes', BMC BIOINFORMATICS, vol. 16, no. 18.
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© 2015 Ren et al. Background: The incomplete ground truth of training data of B-cell epitopes is a demanding issue in computational epitope prediction. The challenge is that only a small fraction of the surface residues of an antigen are confirmed as antigenic residues (positive training data); the remaining residues are unlabeled. As some of these uncertain residues can possibly be grouped to form novel but currently unknown epitopes, it is misguided to unanimously classify all the unlabeled residues as negative training data following the traditional supervised learning scheme. Results: We propose a positive-unlabeled learning algorithm to address this problem. The key idea is to distinguish between epitope-likely residues and reliable negative residues in unlabeled data. The method has two steps: (1) identify reliable negative residues using a weighted SVM with a high recall; and (2) construct a classification model on the positive residues and the reliable negative residues. Complex-based 10-fold cross-validation was conducted to show that this method outperforms those commonly used predictors DiscoTope 2.0, ElliPro and SEPPA 2.0 in every aspect. We conducted four case studies, in which the approach was tested on antigens of West Nile virus, dihydrofolate reductase, beta-lactamase, and two Ebola antigens whose epitopes are currently unknown. All the results were assessed on a newly-established data set of antigen structures not bound by antibodies, instead of on antibody-bound antigen structures. These bound structures may contain unfair binding information such as bound-state B-factors and protrusion index which could exaggerate the epitope prediction performance. Source codes are available on request.

Saffari, M, Zeidi, IM, Fridlund, B, Chen, H & Pakpour, AH 2015, 'A Persian Adaptation of Medication Adherence Self-Efficacy Scale (MASES) in Hypertensive Patients: Psychometric Properties and Factor Structure', High Blood Pressure & Cardiovascular Prevention, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 247-255.
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Şahin, YM, Gündüz, O, Bulut, B, Özyeğin, LS, Gökçe, H, Ağaoğulları, D, Chou, J, Kayalı, ES, Ben-Nissan, B & Oktar, FN 2015, 'Nano-Bioceramic Synthesis from Tropical Sea Snail Shells (Tiger Cowrie - Cypraea Tigris) with Simple Chemical Treatment', Acta Physica Polonica A, vol. 127, no. 4, pp. 1055-1058.
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Scott, TL, Mittelman, MS, Beattie, E, Parker, D & Neville, C 2015, 'Translating Training in the NYU Caregiver Intervention in Australia: Maintaining Fidelity and Meeting Graduate Standards in an Online Continuing Professional Education Setting', Educational Gerontology, vol. 41, no. 10, pp. 710-722.
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Shah, K, te Marvelde, L, Collins, M, De Abreu Lourenco, R, D’Costa, I, Coleman, A, Fua, T, Liu, C, Rischin, D, Lau, E & Corry, J 2015, 'Safety and cost analysis of an 18FDG-PET-CT response based follow-up strategy for head and neck cancers treated with primary radiation or chemoradiation', Oral Oncology, vol. 51, no. 5, pp. 529-535.
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Background: Prognostic information can rationalise clinical follow-up after radical cancer treatment. This retrospective cohort study of radical head and neck (chemo)radiotherapy patients examines the clinical safety and cost implications of stratifying follow-up intensity by post-treatment 18FDG-PET-CT response. Methods: In 2008 clinical review after radical head and neck radiotherapy was reduced from 3- to 6-monthly for patients with complete 18FDG-PET-CT response at 3months. 184 patients treated after this change ("PET Stratified", 2009-11) were compared to 178 patients treated before ("Standard", 2005-7). Clinical safety was assessed by the time to detection of recurrence, overall survival and potential for radical treatment of recurrence. A hospital cost analysis was performed using individual patient data. Results: 127 of 178 Standard and 148 of 184 PET Stratified patients achieved complete response on post-treatment imaging. Baseline clinical characteristics were comparable. Median follow-up from response assessment was 4.8. years in the Standard cohort and 2.1. years for PET Stratified. PET Stratified patients had a mean 4.4 outpatient visits in 2. years, compared to 7.0 among Standard patients. Over 90% of patients remained free of recurrence at 2. years in both cohorts. Time to detection of recurrence was similar between two cohorts (HR1.05, 95%CI 0.45-2.52), as was overall survival (HR0.91, 95%CI 0.36-2.29). The proportion of radically treatable recurrences was also similar (42% Standard vs. 47% PET Stratified). The hospital cost savings per patient from reduced review were AUD$2606 over 2. years, AUD$5012 over five. Conclusion: 18FDG-PET-CT to stratify follow-up intensity after radical radiotherapy for head and neck cancer reduces costs with no apparent clinical detriment.

Sharpe, LJ, Rao, G, Jones, PM, Glancey, E, Aleidi, SM, George, AM, Brown, AJ & Gelissen, IC 2015, 'Cholesterol sensing by the ABCG1 lipid transporter: Requirement of a CRAC motif in the final transmembrane domain', Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Molecular and Cell Biology of Lipids, vol. 1851, no. 7, pp. 956-964.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Abstract The ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter, ABCG1, is a lipid exporter involved in removal of cholesterol from cells that has been investigated for its role in foam cells formation and atherosclerosis. The mechanism by which ABC lipid transporters bind and recognise their substrates is currently unknown. In this study, we identify a critical region in the final transmembrane domain of ABCG1, which is essential for its export function and stabilisation by cholesterol, a post-translational regulatory mechanism that we have recently identified as dependent on protein ubiquitination. This transmembrane region contains several Cholesterol Recognition/interaction Amino acid Consensus (CRAC) motifs, and its inverse CARC motifs. Mutational analyses identify one CRAC motif in particular with Y667 at its core, that is especially important for transport activity to HDL as well as stability of the protein in the presence of cholesterol. In addition, we present a model of how cholesterol docks to this CRAC motif in an energetically favourable manner. This study identifies for the first time how ABCG1 can interact with cholesterol via a functional CRAC domain, which provides the first insight into the substrate-transporter interaction of an ABC lipid exporter.

Shemesh, J, Jalilian, I, Shi, A, Heng Yeoh, G, Knothe Tate, ML & Ebrahimi Warkiani, M 2015, 'Flow-induced stress on adherent cells in microfluidic devices', Lab on a Chip, vol. 15, no. 21, pp. 4114-4127.
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The article describes flow-induced stress on adherent cells in microfluidics devices in light of ongoing discoveries in mechanobiology.

Shiozawa-West, N, Dunlop, RA & Rodgers, KJ 2015, 'Using an in vitro model to study oxidised protein accumulation in ageing fibroblasts', BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA-GENERAL SUBJECTS, vol. 1850, no. 11, pp. 2177-2184.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Background The accumulation of oxidised proteins in ageing cells and tissues results from an increase in oxidant damage coupled with impaired degradation of the damaged proteins. Heat Shock Proteins (HSP) and other chaperones are required to recognise damaged proteins and transport them to the lysosomal and proteasomal degradation pathways. How these systems fail in ageing cells is not clear. Methods We monitor oxidised protein accumulation, the activity of the proteasome and lysosomal proteases, and HSP levels in MRC-5 fibroblasts throughout their mitotic lifespan. We then use a novel in vitro cell culture model to experimentally generate oxidised proteins in young and old MRC-5 fibroblasts and compare their rates of degradation and changes in the key pathways involved in oxidised protein removal. Results We show that the activity of the proteasome and some lysosomal enzymes decreases with ageing in MRC-5 cells as do levels of HSP70 but this is not associated with an accumulation of oxidised proteins which only occurs as cells closely approach post-mitotic senescence. Old cells are unable to degrade experimentally generated oxidised proteins as efficiently as young cells. Exposure to mild heat stress however increases the efficiency of oxidised protein degradation by young cells and increases levels of HSP70. Conclusions Our results highlight the importance of the HSP/chaperone system in oxidised protein metabolism, particularly in ageing cells. General significance These data might have implications for the development of therapies for pathologies associated with protein accumulation and suggest that the HSP/chaperone system would be an important target.

Shungin, D, Winkler, TW, Croteau-Chonka, DC, Ferreira, T, Locke, AE, Mägi, R, Strawbridge, RJ, Pers, TH, Fischer, K, Justice, AE, Workalemahu, T, Wu, JMW, Buchkovich, ML, Heard-Costa, NL, Roman, TS, Drong, AW, Song, C, Gustafsson, S, Day, FR, Esko, T, Fall, T, Kutalik, Z, Luan, J, Randall, JC, Scherag, A, Vedantam, S, Wood, AR, Chen, J, Fehrmann, R, Karjalainen, J, Kahali, B, Liu, C-T, Schmidt, EM, Absher, D, Amin, N, Anderson, D, Beekman, M, Bragg-Gresham, JL, Buyske, S, Demirkan, A, Ehret, GB, Feitosa, MF, Goel, A, Jackson, AU, Johnson, T, Kleber, ME, Kristiansson, K, Mangino, M, Mateo Leach, I, Medina-Gomez, C, Palmer, CD, Pasko, D, Pechlivanis, S, Peters, MJ, Prokopenko, I, Stančáková, A, Ju Sung, Y, Tanaka, T, Teumer, A, Van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, JV, Yengo, L, Zhang, W, Albrecht, E, Ärnlöv, J, Arscott, GM, Bandinelli, S, Barrett, A, Bellis, C, Bennett, AJ, Berne, C, Blüher, M, Böhringer, S, Bonnet, F, Böttcher, Y, Bruinenberg, M, Carba, DB, Caspersen, IH, Clarke, R, Warwick Daw, E, Deelen, J, Deelman, E, Delgado, G, Doney, ASF, Eklund, N, Erdos, MR, Estrada, K, Eury, E, Friedrich, N, Garcia, ME, Giedraitis, V, Gigante, B, Go, AS, Golay, A, Grallert, H, Grammer, TB, Gräßler, J, Grewal, J, Groves, CJ, Haller, T, Hallmans, G, Hartman, CA, Hassinen, M, Hayward, C, Heikkilä, K, Herzig, K-H, Helmer, Q, Hillege, HL, Holmen, O, Hunt, SC, Isaacs, A, Ittermann, T, James, AL, Johansson, I, Juliusdottir, T, Kalafati, I-P, Kinnunen, L, Koenig, W, Kooner, IK, Kratzer, W, Lamina, C, Leander, K, Lee, NR, Lichtner, P, Lind, L, Lindström, J, Lobbens, S, Lorentzon, M, Mach, F, Magnusson, PKE, Mahajan, A, McArdle, WL, Menni, C, Merger, S, Mihailov, E, Milani, L, Mills, R, Moayyeri, A, Monda, KL, Mooijaart, SP, Mühleisen, TW, Mulas, A, Müller, G, Müller-Nurasyid, M, Nagaraja, R, Nalls, MA, Narisu, N, Glorioso, N, Nolte, IM, Olden, M, Rayner, NW, Renstrom, F, Ried, JS, Robertson, NR, Rose, LM, Sanna, S, Scharnagl, H, Scholtens, S, Sennblad, B, Seufferlein, T, Sitlani, CM, Vernon Smith, A, Stirrups, K, Stringham, HM, Sundström, J, Swertz, MA, Swift, AJ, Syvänen, A-C, Tayo, BO, Thorand, B, Thorleifsson, G, Tomaschitz, A, Troffa, C, van Oort, FVA, Verweij, N, Vonk, JM, Waite, LL, Wennauer, R, Wilsgaard, T, Wojczynski, MK, Wong, A, Zhang, Q, Hua Zhao, J, Brennan, EP, Choi, M, Eriksson, P, Folkersen, L, Franco-Cereceda, A, Gharavi, AG, Hedman, ÅK & et al. 2015, 'New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution', Nature, vol. 518, no. 7538, pp. 187-196.
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© 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, we conducted genome-wide association meta-analyses of waist and hip circumference-related traits in up to 224,459 individuals. We identified 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (WHRadjBMI) and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P<5×10-8). Twenty of the 49 WHRadjBMI loci showed significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which displayed a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation, and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms.

Simpson, A, Gerace, D & Martiniello-Wilks, R 2015, 'Diabetes reversal via gene transfer: building on successes in animal models', Research and Reports in Endocrine Disorders, vol. 5, pp. 15-15.
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Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is caused by the autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing pancreatic β-cells. People with T1D manage their hyperglycemia using daily insulin injections; however, this does not prevent the development of long-term diabetic complications such as retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy, and various macrovascular disorders. Currently, the only 'cure' for T1D is pancreas transplantation or islet-cell transplantation; however, this is hampered by the limited number of donors and the requirement for life-long immunosuppression. As a result, the need for alternative therapies is vital. One of the strategies employed to correct T1D is the use of gene transfer to generate the production of an “artificial” β-cell that is capable of secreting insulin in response to fluctuating glucose concentrations that normally occurs in people without T1D. The treatment of many diseases using cell and gene therapy is generating significant attention in the T1D research community; however, for a cell therapy to enter clinical trials, success and safety must first be shown in an appropriate animal model. Animal models have been used in diabetes research for over a century, have improved our understanding of the pathophysiology of diabetes, and have led to the discovery of useful drugs for the treatment of the disease. Currently, the nonobese diabetic mouse is the animal model of choice for the study of T1D as it most closely reflects disease development in humans. The aim of this review is to evaluate the success of cell and gene therapy to reverse T1D in animal models for future clinical application.

Slattery, K, Bentley, D & Coutts, AJ 2015, 'The Role of Oxidative, Inflammatory and Neuroendocrinological Systems During Exercise Stress in Athletes: Implications of Antioxidant Supplementation on Physiological Adaptation During Intensified Physical Training', SPORTS MEDICINE, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 453-471.
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Smallie, T, Ross, EA, Ammit, AJ, Cunliffe, HE, Tang, T, Rosner, DR, Ridley, ML, Buckley, CD, Saklatvala, J, Dean, JL & Clark, AR 2015, 'Dual-Specificity Phosphatase 1 and Tristetraprolin Cooperate To Regulate Macrophage Responses to Lipopolysaccharide', The Journal of Immunology, vol. 195, no. 1, pp. 277-288.
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Abstract Dual-specificity phosphatase (DUSP) 1 dephosphorylates and inactivates members of the MAPK superfamily, in particular, JNKs, p38α, and p38β MAPKs. It functions as an essential negative regulator of innate immune responses, hence disruption of the Dusp1 gene renders mice extremely sensitive to a wide variety of experimental inflammatory challenges. The principal mechanisms behind the overexpression of inflammatory mediators by Dusp1−/− cells are not known. In this study, we use a genetic approach to identify an important mechanism of action of DUSP1, involving the modulation of the activity of the mRNA-destabilizing protein tristetraprolin. This mechanism is key to the control of essential early mediators of inflammation, TNF, CXCL1, and CXCL2, as well as the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10. The same mechanism also contributes to the regulation of a large number of transcripts induced by treatment of macrophages with LPS. These findings demonstrate that modulation of the phosphorylation status of tristetraprolin is an important physiological mechanism by which innate immune responses can be controlled.

Smith, MR, Marcora, SM & Coutts, AJ 2015, 'Mental Fatigue Impairs Intermittent Running Performance', MEDICINE AND SCIENCE IN SPORTS AND EXERCISE, vol. 47, no. 8, pp. 1682-1690.
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Copyright © 2015 by the American College of Sports Medicine. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of mental fatigue on intermittent running performance. Methods: Ten male intermittent team sports players performed two identical self-paced, intermittent running protocols. The two trials were separated by 7 d and preceded, in a randomized-counterbalanced order, by 90 min of either emotionally neutral documentaries (control) or the AX-continuous performance test (AX-CPT; mental fatigue). Subjective ratings of fatigue and vigor were measured before and after these treatments, and motivation was recorded before the intermittent running protocol. Velocity, heart rate, oxygen consumption, blood glucose and lactate concentrations, and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were measured throughout the 45-min intermittent running protocol. Session RPE was recorded 30 min after the intermittent running protocol. Results: Subjective ratings of fatigue were higher after the AX-CPT (P = 0.005). This mental fatigue significantly reduced velocity at low intensities (1.28 ± 0.18 m·s1 vs 1.31 ± 0.17 m·s-1; P = 0.037), whereas high-intensity running and peak velocities were not significantly affected. Running velocity at all intensities significantly declined over time in both conditions (P < 0.001). Oxygen consumption was significantly lower in the mental fatigue condition (P = 0.007). Other physiological variables, vigor and motivation, were not significantly affected. Ratings of perceived exertion during the intermittent running protocol were not significantly different between conditions despite lower overall velocity in the mental fatigue condition. Session RPE was significantly higher in the mental fatigue condition (P = 0.013). Conclusion: Mental fatigue impairs intermittent running performance. This negative effect of mental fatigue seems to be mediated by higher perception of effort.

Song, R, Catchpoole, DR, Kennedy, PJ & Li, J 2015, 'Identification of lung cancer miRNA–miRNA co-regulation networks through a progressive data refining approach', Journal of Theoretical Biology, vol. 380, pp. 271-279.
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Song, R, Liu, Q, Liu, T & Li, J 2015, 'Connecting rules from paired miRNA and mRNA expression data sets of HCV patients to detect both inverse and positive regulatory relationships', BMC Genomics, vol. 16, no. S2.
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© 2015 Song et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. Background: Intensive research based on the inverse expression relationship has been undertaken to discover the miRNA-mRNA regulatory modules involved in the infection of Hepatitis C virus (HCV), the leading cause of chronic liver diseases. However, biological studies in other fields have found that inverse expression relationship is not the only regulatory relationship between miRNAs and their targets, and some miRNAs can positively regulate a mRNA by binding at the 5' UTR of the mRNA.Results: This work focuses on the detection of both inverse and positive regulatory relationships from a paired miRNA and mRNA expression data set of HCV patients through a 'change-to-change' method which can derive connected discriminatory rules. Our study uncovered many novel miRNA-mRNA regulatory modules. In particular, it was revealed that GFRA2 is positively regulated by miR-557, miR-765 and miR-17-3p that probably bind at different locations of the 5' UTR of this mRNA. The expression relationship between GFRA2 and any of these three miRNAs has not been studied before, although separate research for this gene and these miRNAs have all drawn conclusions linked to hepatocellular carcinoma. This suggests that the binding of mRNA GFRA2 with miR-557, miR-765, or miR-17-3p, or their combinations, is worthy of further investigation by experimentation. We also report another mRNA QKI which has a strong inverse expression relationship with miR-129 and miR-493-3p which may bind at the 3' UTR of QKI with a perfect sequence match. Furthermore, the interaction between hsa-miR-129-5p (previous ID: hsa-miR-129) and QKI is supported with CLIP-Seq data from starBase. Our method can be easily extended for the expression data analysis of other diseases.Conclusion: Our rule discovery method is useful for integrating binding information and expression profile for identifying HCV miRNA-mRNA regulatory modules and can be applied to the study...

Stangenberg, S, Chen, H, Wong, MG, Pollock, CA & Saad, S 2015, 'Fetal programming of chronic kidney disease: the role of maternal smoking, mitochondrial dysfunction, and epigenetic modfification', American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology, vol. 308, no. 11, pp. F1189-F1196.
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The role of an adverse in utero environment in the programming of chronic kidney disease in the adult offspring is increasingly recognized. The cellular and molecular mechanisms linking the in utero environment and future disease susceptibility remain unknown. Maternal smoking is a common modifiable adverse in utero exposure, potentially associated with both mitochondrial dysfunction and epigenetic modification in the offspring. While studies are emerging that point toward a key role of mitochondrial dysfunction in acute and chronic kidney disease, it may have its origin in early development, becoming clinically apparent when secondary insults occur. Aberrant epigenetic programming may add an additional layer of complexity to orchestrate fibrogenesis in the kidney and susceptibility to chronic kidney disease in later life. In this review, we explore the evidence for mitochondrial dysfunction and epigenetic modification through aberrant DNA methylation as key mechanistic aspects of fetal programming of chronic kidney disease and discuss their potential use in diagnostics and targets for therapy.

Stangenberg, S, Nguyen, LT, Chen, H, Al-Odat, I, Killingsworth, MC, Gosnell, ME, Anwer, AG, Goldys, EM, Pollock, CA & Saad, S 2015, 'Oxidative stress, mitochondrial perturbations and fetal programming of renal disease induced by maternal smoking', The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology, vol. 64, pp. 81-90.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. An adverse in-utero environment is increasingly recognized to predispose to chronic disease in adulthood. Maternal smoking remains the most common modifiable adverse in-utero exposure leading to low birth weight, which is strongly associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD) in later life. In order to investigate underlying mechanisms for such susceptibility, female Balb/c mice were sham or cigarette smoke-exposed (SE) for 6 weeks before mating, throughout gestation and lactation. Offspring kidneys were examined for oxidative stress, expression of mitochondrial proteins, mitochondrial structure as well as renal functional parameters on postnatal day 1, day 20 (weaning) and week 13 (adult age). From birth throughout adulthood, SE offspring had increased renal levels of mitochondrial-derived reactive oxygen species (ROS), which left a footprint on DNA with increased 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosin (8-OHdG) in kidney tubular cells. Mitochondrial structural abnormalities were seen in SE kidneys at day 1 and week 13 along with a reduction in oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) proteins and activity of mitochondrial antioxidant Manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD). Smoke exposure also resulted in increased mitochondrial DNA copy number (day 1-week 13) and lysosome density (day 1 and week 13). The appearance of mitochondrial defects preceded the onset of albuminuria at week 13. Thus, mitochondrial damage caused by maternal smoking may play an important role in development of CKD at adult life.

Su, SW, Savkin, AV, Guo, Y, Celler, BG & Nguyen, HT 2015, 'Decentralized Integral Controllability Analysis Based on a New Unconditional Stability Criterion', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUTOMATIC CONTROL, vol. 60, no. 1, pp. 211-215.
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Decentralized integral control is one of the most popular control strategies used in practice. An important issue associated with this strategy is the analysis of Decentralized Integral Controllability (DIC). Campo and Morari showed that for a given process, if its steady state gain matrix is not critically D-stable, its DIC can be determined by using its steady state gain matrix. This technical note investigates decentralized integral control with a special focus on the DIC analysis of processes whose steady state gain matrices are critically D-stable. First, we introduce a new unconditional stability criterion. Then, by using the proposed criterion, it is proved that for up to four-channel processes, their DIC can be totally determined by their steady state gain matrices. We also present a multi-loop PI control design method, which provides an explicit lower bound of the proportional coefficient to achieve decentralized unconditional stability for low dimensional processes. For higher dimensional processes, this technical note presents a six-channel process whose DIC property cannot be determined only by its steady state gain matrix, contradicting the view of some other researchers.

Sun, Y, Bell, JL, Carter, D, Gherardi, S, Poulos, RC, Milazzo, G, Wong, JWH, Al-Awar, R, Tee, AE, Liu, PY, Liu, B, Atmadibrata, B, Wong, M, Trahair, T, Zhao, Q, Shohet, JM, Haupt, Y, Schulte, JH, Brown, PJ, Arrowsmith, CH, Vedadi, M, MacKenzie, KL, Hüttelmaier, S, Perini, G, Marshall, GM, Braithwaite, A & Liu, T 2015, 'WDR5 Supports an N-Myc Transcriptional Complex That Drives a Protumorigenic Gene Expression Signature in Neuroblastoma', Cancer Research, vol. 75, no. 23, pp. 5143-5154.
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Abstract MYCN gene amplification in neuroblastoma drives a gene expression program that correlates strongly with aggressive disease. Mechanistically, trimethylation of histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4) at target gene promoters is a strict prerequisite for this transcriptional program to be enacted. WDR5 is a histone H3K4 presenter that has been found to have an essential role in H3K4 trimethylation. For this reason, in this study, we investigated the relationship between WDR5-mediated H3K4 trimethylation and N-Myc transcriptional programs in neuroblastoma cells. N-Myc upregulated WDR5 expression in neuroblastoma cells. Gene expression analysis revealed that WDR5 target genes included those with MYC-binding elements at promoters such as MDM2. We showed that WDR5 could form a protein complex at the MDM2 promoter with N-Myc, but not p53, leading to histone H3K4 trimethylation and activation of MDM2 transcription. RNAi-mediated attenuation of WDR5 upregulated expression of wild-type but not mutant p53, an effect associated with growth inhibition and apoptosis. Similarly, a small-molecule antagonist of WDR5 reduced N-Myc/WDR5 complex formation, N-Myc target gene expression, and cell growth in neuroblastoma cells. In MYCN-transgenic mice, WDR5 was overexpressed in precancerous ganglion and neuroblastoma cells compared with normal ganglion cells. Clinically, elevated levels of WDR5 in neuroblastoma specimens were an independent predictor of poor overall survival. Overall, our results identify WDR5 as a key cofactor for N-Myc–regulated transcriptional activation and tumorigenesis and as a novel therapeutic target for MYCN-amplified neuroblastomas. Cancer Res; 75(23); 5143–54. ©2015 AACR.

Suñer, S, Joffe, R, Tipper, JL & Emami, N 2015, 'Ultra high molecular weight polyethylene/graphene oxide nanocomposites: Thermal, mechanical and wettability characterisation', Composites Part B: Engineering, vol. 78, pp. 185-191.
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Tan, Y, Jin, XL, Lao, W, Kim, J, Xiao, L & Qu, X 2015, 'Antiresistin RNA Oligonucleotide Ameliorates Diet-Induced Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Mice through Attenuating Proinflammatory Cytokines', BioMed Research International, vol. 2015, pp. 1-13.
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The aim of this study was to determine whether inhibition of resistin by a synthetic antiresistin RNA (oligonucleotide) oligo ameliorates metabolic and histological abnormalities in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) induced by high-fat diet (HFD) in mice. The antiresistin RNA oligo and a scrambled control oligo (25 mg/kg of body weight) were i.p. injected to HFD mice. Serum metabolic parameters and hepatic enzymes were measured after 4-week treatment. The treatment significantly reduced epididymal fat and attenuated the elevated serum resistin, cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, and insulin with an improved glucose tolerance test. Antiresistin RNA oligo also normalized serum AST and ALT levels with improved pathohistology of NAFLD. Immunoblotting and qRT-PCR revealed that decreased protein and mRNA expression of resistin in fat and liver tissues of the treated mice were associated with reduction of adipose TNF-αand IL-6 expression and secretion into circulation. mRNA and protein expression of hepatic phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) and sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1c (SREBP-1c) were also significantly decreased in the treated mice. Our results suggest that resistin may exacerbate NAFLD in metabolic syndrome through upregulating inflammatory cytokines and hepatic PEPCK and SREBP-1c. Antiresistin RNA oligo ameliorated metabolic abnormalities and histopathology of NAFLD through attenuating proinflammatory cytokines.

Tang, FSM, Foxley, GJ, Gibson, PG, Burgess, JK, Baines, KJ & Oliver, BG 2015, 'Altered Innate Immune Responses in Neutrophils from Patients with Well- and Suboptimally Controlled Asthma', Mediators of Inflammation, vol. 2015, pp. 1-11.
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Background. Respiratory infections are a major cause of asthma exacerbations where neutrophilic inflammation dominates and is associated with steroid refractory asthma. Structural airway cells in asthma differ from nonasthmatics; however it is unknown if neutrophils differ. We investigated neutrophil immune responses in patients who have good (AGood) and suboptimal (ASubopt) asthma symptom control.Methods. Peripheral blood neutrophils fromAGood(ACQ < 0.75,n=11),AS

Tonkin, RS, Mao, Y, O’Carroll, SJ, Nicholson, LFB, Green, CR, Gorrie, CA & Moalem-Taylor, G 2015, 'Gap junction proteins and their role in spinal cord injury', Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, vol. 7, no. JAN, pp. 1-9.
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© 2015 Tonkin, Mao, O'Carroll, Nicholson, Green, Gorrie and Moalem-Taylor. Gap junctions are specialized intercellular communication channels that are formed by two hexameric connexin hemichannels, one provided by each of the two adjacent cells. Gap junctions and hemichannels play an important role in regulating cellular metabolism, signaling, and functions in both normal and pathological conditions. Following spinal cord injury (SCI), there is damage and disturbance to the neuronal elements of the spinal cord including severing of axon tracts and rapid cell death. The initial mechanical disruption is followed by multiple secondary cascades that cause further tissue loss and dysfunction. Recent studies have implicated connexin proteins as playing a critical role in the secondary phase of SCI by propagating death signals through extensive glial networks. In this review, we bring together past and current studies to outline the distribution, changes and roles of various connexins found in neurons and glial cells, before and in response to SCI. We discuss the contribution of pathologically activated connexin proteins, in particular connexin 43, to functional recovery and neuropathic pain, as well as providing an update on potential connexin specific pharmacological agents to treat SCI.

Tovey, ER, Stelzer-Braid, S, Toelle, BG, Oliver, BG, Reddel, HK, Willenborg, CM, Belessis, Y, Garden, FL, Jaffe, A, Strachan, R, Eyles, D, Rawlinson, WD & Marks, GB 2015, 'Rhinoviruses significantly affect day-to-day respiratory symptoms of children with asthma', Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, vol. 135, no. 3, pp. 663-669.e12.
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© 2014 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Background Viruses are frequently associated with acute exacerbations of asthma, but the extent to which they contribute to the level of day-to-day symptom control is less clear.Objective We sought to explore the relationship between viral infections, host and environmental factors, and respiratory symptoms in children.Methods Sixty-seven asthmatic children collected samples twice weekly for an average of 10 weeks. These included nasal wash fluid and exhaled breath for PCR-based detection of viral RNA, lung function measurements, and records of medication use and asthma and respiratory symptoms in the previous 3 days. Atopy, mite allergen exposure, and vitamin D levels were also measured. Mixed-model regression analyses were performed.Results Human rhinoviruses (hRVs) were detected in 25.5% of 1232 nasal samples and 11.5% of breath samples. Non-hRV viruses were detected in less than 3% of samples. hRV in nasal samples was associated with asthma symptoms (cough and phlegm: odds ratio = 2.0; 95% CI = 1.4-2.86, P =.0001; wheeze and chest tightness: odds ratio = 2.34, 95% CI = 1.55-3.52, P <.0001) and with cold symptoms, as reported concurrently with sampling and 3 to 4 days later. No differences were found between the 3 hRV genotypes (hRV-A, hRV-B, and hRV-C) in symptom risk. A history of inhaled corticosteroid use, but not atopic status, mite allergen exposure, or vitamin D levels, modified the association between viruses and asthma symptoms.Conclusion The detection of nasal hRV was associated with a significantly increased risk of day-to-day asthma symptoms in children. Host, virus genotype, and environmental factors each had only a small or no effect on the relationship of viral infections to asthma symptoms.

Truong, BCQ, Tuan, HD, Fitzgerald, AJ, Wallace, VP & Nguyen, HT 2015, 'A Dielectric Model of Human Breast Tissue in Terahertz Regime', IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 62, no. 2, pp. 699-707.
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The double Debye model has been used to understand the dielectric response of different types of biological tissues at terahertz (THz) frequencies but fails in accurately simulating human breast tissue. This leads to limited knowledge about the structure, dynamics, and macroscopic behavior of breast tissue, and hence, constrains the potential of THz imaging in breast cancer detection. The first goal of this paper is to propose a new dielectric model capable of mimicking the spectra of human breast tissue's complex permittivity in THz regime. Namely, a non-Debye relaxation model is combined with a single Debye model to produce a mixture model of human breast tissue. A sampling gradient algorithm of nonsmooth optimization is applied to locate the optimal fitting solution. Samples of healthy breast tissue and breast tumor are used in the simulation to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed model. Our simulation demonstrates exceptional fitting quality in all cases. The second goal is to confirm the potential of using the parameters of the proposed dielectric model to distinguish breast tumor from healthy breast tissue, especially fibrous tissue. Statistical measures are employed to analyze the discrimination capability of the model parameters while support vector machines are applied to assess the possibility of using the combinations of these parameters for higher classification accuracy. The obtained analysis confirms the classification potential of these features.

Truong, BCQ, Tuan, HD, Wallace, VP, Fitzgerald, AJ & Nguyen, HT 2015, 'The Potential of the Double Debye Parameters to Discriminate Between Basal Cell Carcinoma and Normal Skin', IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology, vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 990-998.
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� 2015 IEEE. The potential of terahertz imaging for improving the efficiency of Mohs's micrographic surgery in terms of tumor margin detection was previously studied. Thanks to high water content of human skin, its dielectric response to terahertz radiation can be described by the double Debye model which uses five parameters to fit experimental data. Skin tumors typically have a higher water content than normal tissues do, and this should be apparent in the parameters. The goal of this paper is to apply statistical methods to these parameters to test their power to differentiate skin cancer from normal tissue. Based on the prediction accuracy estimated using a cross-validation method, we found the best classifier was the static permittivity at low frequency (εs). By combining the most relevant parameters, we obtained a classification accuracy of 95.7%, confirming the classification capability of the parameters, thereby supporting their application to improve terahertz imaging for the purpose of skin cancer delineation.

Tuan, HD, Savkin, A, Nguyen, TN & Nguyen, HT 2015, 'Decentralised model predictive control with stability constraints and its application in process control', Journal of Process Control, vol. 26, pp. 73-89.
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This paper presents a novel decentralised model predictive control for a plant consisting of interconnected systems. A constructive technique for online stabilisation that is applicable to the model predictive controllers (MPC) is developed. The plant-wise stability is achievable by the newly introduced asymptotically positive realness constraint (APRC) for MPC. Simulations are provided to demonstrate the efficiency of the presented APRC.

Tuckett, A, Parker, D, Clifton, K, Walker, H, Reymond, E, Prior, T, Jenkin, P, Israel, F, Greeve, K & Glaetzer, K 2015, 'What general practitioners said about the palliative care case conference in residential aged care: An Australian perspective. Part 2', Progress in Palliative Care, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 9-17.
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Tuckett, AG, Hodgkinson, B, Rouillon, L, Balil‐Lozoya, T & Parker, D 2015, 'What carers and family said about music therapy on behaviours of older people with dementia in residential aged care', International Journal of Older People Nursing, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 146-157.
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AimThis study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of group music therapy (MT) intervention on behaviours of older people with dementia.MethodReported here are qualitative data from five, semi‐structured focus groups; two comprising a total of seven family members and three comprising a total of 23 staff members.ResultsA number of core themes emerged: temporality, effect and policy with a number of subthemes. The MT effect is tempered by the temporality of (i) the older person's dementia state, (ii) the session and (iii) the psychosomatic effect on the older person. Music therapy is perceived to (i) evoke memories and facilitate reminiscence, (ii) act as a diversion (has an instrumental value) and it is contentious to discount the (iii) dichotomy between music and therapist in terms of the overall effect. Finally, policymakers need to know that MT is (i) highly prized and more, not less, MT is recommended.ConclusionFindings from this study illustrate that the timing of the MT session has consequences for the workflow in the residential aged care facility; MT has a psychosomatic effect and participants here evaluate this as temporal. Care providers and family members acknowledge the instrumental value of MT and its helping with cognition and exercise. They have mixed views about the effects of the mus...

Tursky, ML, Beck, D, Thoms, JAI, Huang, Y, Kumari, A, Unnikrishnan, A, Knezevic, K, Evans, K, Richards, LA, Lee, E, Morris, J, Goldberg, L, Izraeli, S, Wong, JWH, Olivier, J, Lock, RB, MacKenzie, KL & Pimanda, JE 2015, 'Overexpression of ERG in cord blood progenitors promotes expansion and recapitulates molecular signatures of high ERG leukemias', Leukemia, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 819-827.
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Valiente, D, Ghaffari Jadidi, M, Valls Miró, J, Gil, A & Reinoso, O 2015, 'Information-based view initialization in visual SLAM with a single omnidirectional camera', Robotics and Autonomous Systems, vol. 72, pp. 93-104.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. This paper presents a novel mechanism to initiate new views within the map building process for an EKF-based visual SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) approach using omnidirectional images. In presence of non-linearities, the EKF is very likely to compromise the final estimation. Particularly, the omnidirectional observation model induces non-linear errors, thus it becomes a potential source of uncertainty. To deal with this issue we propose a novel mechanism for view initialization which accounts for information gain and losses more efficiently. The main outcome of this contribution is the reduction of the map uncertainty and thus the higher consistency of the final estimation. Its basis relies on a Gaussian Process to infer an information distribution model from sensor data. This model represents feature points existence probabilities and their information content analysis leads to the proposed view initialization scheme. To demonstrate the suitability and effectiveness of the approach we present a series of real data experiments conducted with a robot equipped with a camera sensor and map model solely based on omnidirectional views. The results reveal a beneficial reduction on the uncertainty but also on the error in the pose and the map estimate.

van Halteren, A & Gay, V 2015, 'Continuous Digital Health', IEEE Internet Computing, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 8-9.
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Virdun, C & Phillips, J 2015, 'Commentary on Jack B, Baldry C, Groves K, Whelan A, Sephton J and Gaunt K (2013) Supporting home care for the dying: an evaluation of healthcare professionals' perspectives of an individually tailored hospice at home service. Journal of Clinical Nursing 22, 2778-2786', JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, vol. 24, no. 7-8, pp. 1147-1148.
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Virdun, C, Brown, N, Philips, J, Luckett, T, Agar, M, Green, A & Davidson, PM 2015, 'Elements of optimal paediatric palliative care for children and young people: An integrative review using a systematic approach', COLLEGIAN, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 421-431.
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© 2014 Australian College of Nursing Ltd. Background: Models of palliative care need to address the unmet needs of children, young people and families. Objective: To undertake an integrative review to identify the key elements of optimal paediatric palliative care from the perspectives of children and young people with palliative care needs and their parents. Data sources: Electronic databases including CINAHL, Medline, PsycINFO and AMED searched using combined terms for palliative care, service models and children along with reference lists of included studies. Study selection: Peer reviewed empirical studies reporting on evaluation of paediatric palliative care by children and young people with palliative care needs (0-19 years), or their families, published in English, between 2000 and 2013. The views of health professionals and grey literature were excluded. Quality appraisal completed by two researchers, consensus reached following discussion. Data extraction and synthesis: Data extracted by two researchers, entered into an electronic proforma and synthesised using a narrative approach. Results: Seven studies were identified of which two were quantitative, one was qualitative and four were mixed methods. Synthesis highlighted the need for tailored support enabling flexibility in care, with specific reference to location of care and access to psychosocial support, 24. h specialist support, respite care and sibling support. Conclusions: Paediatric palliative care should be flexible, responsive and tailored to the needs of children and their families. Robust evaluation of models of care that incorporate these elements is required to inform optimal care.

Virdun, C, Luckett, T, Davidson, PM & Phillips, J 2015, 'Dying in the hospital setting: A systematic review of quantitative studies identifying the elements of end-of-life care that patients and their families rank as being most important', PALLIATIVE MEDICINE, vol. 29, no. 9, pp. 774-796.
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© The Author(s) 2015. Background: The majority of expected deaths occur in hospitals where optimal end-of-life care is not yet fully realised, as evidenced by recent reviews outlining experience of care. Better understanding what patients and their families consider to be the most important elements of inpatient end-of-life care is crucial to addressing this gap. Aim and design: This systematic review aimed to ascertain the five most important elements of inpatient end-of-life care as identified by patients with palliative care needs and their families. Data sources: Nine electronic databases from 1990 to 2014 were searched along with key internet search engines and handsearching of included article reference lists. Quality of included studies was appraised by two researchers. Results: Of 1859 articles, 8 met the inclusion criteria generating data from 1141 patients and 3117 families. Synthesis of the top five elements identified four common end-of-life care domains considered important to both patients and their families, namely, (1) effective communication and shared decision making, (2) expert care, (3) respectful and compassionate care and (4) trust and confidence in clinicians. The final domains differed with financial affairs being important to families, while an adequate environment for care and minimising burden both being important to patients. Conclusion: This review adds to what has been known for over two decades in relation to patient and family priorities for end-of-life care within the hospital setting. The challenge for health care services is to act on this evidence, reconfigure care systems accordingly and ensure universal access to optimal end-of-life care within hospitals.

Wang, C, Savkin, AV, Clout, R & Nguyen, HT 2015, 'An Intelligent Robotic Hospital Bed for Safe Transportation of Critical Neurosurgery Patients Along Crowded Hospital Corridors', IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, vol. 23, no. 5, pp. 744-754.
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Warkiani, ME, Tay, AKP, Guan, G & Han, J 2015, 'Membrane-less microfiltration using inertial microfluidics', Scientific Reports, vol. 5, no. 1, p. 11018.
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AbstractMicrofiltration is a ubiquitous and often crucial part of many industrial processes, including biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Yet, all existing filtration systems suffer from the issue of membrane clogging, which fundamentally limits the efficiency and reliability of the filtration process. Herein, we report the development of a membrane-less microfiltration system by massively parallelizing inertial microfluidics to achieve a macroscopic volume processing rates (~ 500 mL/min). We demonstrated the systems engineered for CHO (10–20 μm) and yeast (3–5 μm) cells filtration, which are two main cell types used for large-scale bioreactors. Our proposed system can replace existing filtration membrane and provide passive (no external force fields), continuous filtration, thus eliminating the need for membrane replacement. This platform has the desirable combinations of high throughput, low-cost and scalability, making it compatible for a myriad of microfiltration applications and industrial purposes.

Warkiani, ME, Tay, AKP, Khoo, BL, Xiaofeng, X, Han, J & Lim, CT 2015, 'Malaria detection using inertial microfluidics', Lab on a Chip, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 1101-1109.
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Diagnosis of malaria at the early stage of infection is challenging due to the difficulty in detecting low abundance parasites from blood.

Warkiani, ME, Wicaksana, F, Fane, AG & Gong, H-Q 2015, 'Investigation of membrane fouling at the microscale using isopore filters', Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 307-315.
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Xie, C, Zhang, J, Li, R, Li, J, Hong, P, Xia, J & Chen, P 2015, 'Automatic classification for field crop insects via multiple-task sparse representation and multiple-kernel learning', Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 119, pp. 123-132.
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Yang, S, Center, JR, Eisman, JA & Nguyen, TV 2015, 'Erratum to: Association between fat mass, lean mass, and bone loss: the Dubbo osteoporosis epidemiology study', Osteoporosis International, vol. 26, no. 6, pp. 1865-1866.
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Yuwono, M, Guo, Y, Wall, J, Li, J, West, S, Platt, G & Su, SW 2015, 'Unsupervised feature selection using swarm intelligence and consensus clustering for automatic fault detection and diagnosis in Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning systems', Applied Soft Computing, vol. 34, pp. 402-425.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Various sensory and control signals in a Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system are closely interrelated which give rise to severe redundancies between original signals. These redundancies may cripple the generalization capability of an automatic fault detection and diagnosis (AFDD) algorithm. This paper proposes an unsupervised feature selection approach and its application to AFDD in a HVAC system. Using Ensemble Rapid Centroid Estimation (ERCE), the important features are automatically selected from original measurements based on the relative entropy between the low- and high-frequency features. The materials used is the experimental HVAC fault data from the ASHRAE-1312-RP datasets containing a total of 49 days of various types of faults and corresponding severity. The features selected using ERCE (Median normalized mutual information (NMI) = 0.019) achieved the least redundancies compared to those selected using manual selection (Median NMI = 0.0199) Complete Linkage (Median NMI = 0.1305), Evidence Accumulation K-means (Median NMI = 0.04) and Weighted Evidence Accumulation K-means (Median NMI = 0.048). The effectiveness of the feature selection method is further investigated using two well-established time-sequence classification algorithms: (a) Nonlinear Auto-Regressive Neural Network with eXogenous inputs and distributed time delays (NARX-TDNN); and (b) Hidden Markov Models (HMM); where weighted average sensitivity and specificity of: (a) higher than 99% and 96% for NARX-TDNN; and (b) higher than 98% and 86% for HMM is observed. The proposed feature selection algorithm could potentially be applied to other model-based systems to improve the fault detection performance.

Zarzour, P, Boelen, L, Luciani, F, Beck, D, Sakthianandeswaren, A, Mouradov, D, Sieber, OM, Hawkins, NJ, Hesson, LB, Ward, RL & Wong, JWH 2015, 'Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Array Profiling Identifies Distinct Chromosomal Aberration Patterns Across Colorectal Adenomas and Carcinomas', GENES CHROMOSOMES & CANCER, vol. 54, no. 5, pp. 303-314.
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Zhao, Z-Q, Han, G-S, Yu, Z-G & Li, J 2015, 'Laplacian normalization and random walk on heterogeneous networks for disease-gene prioritization', Computational Biology and Chemistry, vol. 57, pp. 21-28.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Random walk on heterogeneous networks is a recently emerging approach to effective disease gene prioritization. Laplacian normalization is a technique capable of normalizing the weight of edges in a network. We use this technique to normalize the gene matrix and the phenotype matrix before the construction of the heterogeneous network, and also use this idea to define the transition matrices of the heterogeneous network. Our method has remarkably better performance than the existing methods for recovering known gene-phenotype relationships. The Shannon information entropy of the distribution of the transition probabilities in our networks is found to be smaller than the networks constructed by the existing methods, implying that a higher number of top-ranked genes can be verified as disease genes. In fact, the most probable gene-phenotype relationships ranked within top 3 or top 5 in our gene lists can be confirmed by the OMIM database for many cases. Our algorithms have shown remarkably superior performance over the state-of-the-art algorithms for recovering gene-phenotype relationships. All Matlab codes can be available upon email request.

Zheng, H, Forgetta, V, Hsu, Y, Estrada, K, Rosello‐Diez, A, Leo, PJ, Dahia, CL, Park‐Min, KH, Tobias, JH, Kooperberg, C, Kleinman, A, Styrkarsdottir, U, Liu, C, Uggla, C, Evans, DS, Nielson, CM, Walter, K, Pettersson‐Kymmer, U, McCarthy, S, Eriksson, J, Kwan, T, Jhamai, M, Trajanoska, K, Memari, Y, Min, J, Huang, J, Danecek, P, Wilmot, B, Li, R, Chou, W, Mokry, LE, Moayyeri, A, Claussnitzer, M, Cheng, C, Cheung, W, Medina‐Gómez, C, Ge, B, Chen, S, Choi, K, Oei, L, Fraser, J, Kraaij, R, Hibbs, MA, Gregson, CL, Paquette, D, Hofman, A, Wibom, C, Tranah, GJ, Marshall, M, Gardiner, BB, Cremin, K, Auer, P, Hsu, L, Ring, S, Tung, JY, Thorleifsson, G, Enneman, AW, van Schoor, NM, de Groot, LCPGM, van der Velde, N, Melin, B, Kemp, JP, Christiansen, C, Sayers, A, Zhou, Y, Calderari, S, van Rooij, J, Carlson, C, Peters, U, Berlivet, S, Dostie, J, Uitterlinden, AG, Williams, SR, Farber, C, Grinberg, D, LaCroix, AZ, Haessler, J, Chasman, DI, Giulianini, F, Rose, LM, Ridker, PM, Eisman, JA, Nguyen, TV, Center, JR, Nogues, X, Garcia‐Giralt, N, Launer, LL, Gudnason, V, Mellström, D, Vandenput, L, Amin, N, van Duijn, CM, Karlsson, MK, Ljunggren, Ö, Svensson, O, Hallmans, G, Rousseau, F, Giroux, S, Bussière, J, Arp, PP, Koromani, F, Prince, RL, Lewis, JR, Langdahl, BL, Pernille Hermann, A, Jensen, JB, Kaptoge, S, Khaw, K, Reeve, J, Formosa, MM, Xuereb‐Anastasi, A, Åkesson, K, McGuigan, FE, Garg, G, Olmos, JM, Zarrabeitia, MT, Riancho, JA, Ralston, SH, Alonso, N, Jiang, X, Goltzman, D, Pastinen, T, Grundberg, E, Gauguier, D, Orwoll, ES, Karasik, D, Davey‐Smith, G, Smith, AV, Siggeirsdottir, K, Harris, TB, Carola Zillikens, M, van Meurs, JBJ, Thorsteinsdottir, U, Maurano, MT, Timpson, NJ, Soranzo, N, Durbin, R, Wilson, SG, Ntzani, EE, Brown, MA, Stefansson, K, Hinds, DA, Spector, T, Adrienne Cupples, L, Ohlsson, C, Greenwood, CMT, Jackson, RD, Rowe, DW, Loomis, CA, Evans, DM, Ackert‐Bicknell, CL, Joyner, AL, Duncan, EL, Kiel, DP, Rivadeneira, F & Richards, JB 2015, 'Whole‐genome sequencing identifies EN1 as a determinant of bone density and fracture', Nature, vol. 526, no. 7571, pp. 112-117.
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© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. The extent to which low-frequency (minor allele frequency (MAF) between 1-5%) and rare (MAF ≤ 1%) variants contribute to complex traits and disease in the general population is mainly unknown. Bone mineral density (BMD) is highly heritable, a major predictor of osteoporotic fractures, and has been previously associated with common genetic variants, as well as rare, population-specific, coding variants. Here we identify novel non-coding genetic variants with large effects on BMD (ntotal = 53,236) and fracture (ntotal = 508,253) in individuals of European ancestry from the general population. Associations for BMD were derived from whole-genome sequencing (n = 2,882 from UK10K (ref. 10); a population-based genome sequencing consortium), whole-exome sequencing (n = 3,549), deep imputation of genotyped samples using a combined UK10K/1000 Genomes reference panel (n = 26,534), and de novo replication genotyping (n = 20,271). We identified a low-frequency non-coding variant near a novel locus, EN1, with an effect size fourfold larger than the mean of previously reported common variants for lumbar spine BMD (rs11692564(T), MAF = 1.6%, replication effect size = +0.20 s.d., Pmeta = 2 × 10-14), which was also associated with a decreased risk of fracture (odds ratio = 0.85; P = 2 × 10-11; ncases = 98,742 and n controls = 409,511). Using an En1 cre/flox mouse model, we observed that conditional loss of En1 results in low bone mass, probably as a consequence of high bone turnover. We also identified a novel low-frequency non-coding variant with large effects on BMD near WNT16 (rs148771817(T), MAF = 1.2%, replication effect size = +0.41 s.d., Pmeta = 1 × 10-11). In general, there was an excess of association signals arising from deleterious coding and conserved non-coding variants. These findings provide evidence that low-frequency non-coding variants have large effects on BMD and fracture, thereby providing rat...

ZHOU, J, QIN, Y, KOU, L, YUWONO, M & SU, S 2015, 'Fault detection of rolling bearing based on FFT and classification', Journal of Advanced Mechanical Design, Systems, and Manufacturing, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. JAMDSM0056-JAMDSM0056.
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Zibellini, J, Seimon, RV, Lee, CMY, Gibson, AA, Hsu, MSH, Shapses, SA, Nguyen, TV & Sainsbury, A 2015, 'Does Diet-Induced Weight Loss Lead to Bone Loss in Overweight or Obese Adults? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials', Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, vol. 30, no. 12, pp. 2168-2178.
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ABSTRACT   Diet-induced weight loss has been suggested to be harmful to bone health. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis (using a random-effects model) to quantify the effect of diet-induced weight loss on bone. We included 41 publications involving overweight or obese but otherwise healthy adults who followed a dietary weight-loss intervention. The primary outcomes examined were changes from baseline in total hip, lumbar spine, and total body bone mineral density (BMD), as assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Secondary outcomes were markers of bone turnover. Diet-induced weight loss was associated with significant decreases of 0.010 to 0.015 g/cm2 in total hip BMD for interventions of 6, 12, or 24 (but not 3) months' duration (95% confidence intervals [CIs], –0.014 to –0.005, –0.021 to –0.008, and –0.024 to –0.000 g/cm2, at 6, 12, and 24 months, respectively). There was, however, no statistically significant effect of diet-induced weight loss on lumbar spine or whole-body BMD for interventions of 3 to 24 months' duration, except for a significant decrease in total body BMD (–0.011 g/cm2; 95% CI, –0.018 to –0.003 g/cm2) after 6 months. Although no statistically significant changes occurred in serum concentrations of N-terminal propeptide of type I procollagen (P1NP), interventions of 2 or 3 months in duration (but not of 6, 12, or 24 months' duration) induced significant increases in serum concentrations of osteocalcin (0.26 nmol/L; 95% CI, 0.13 to 0.39 nmol/L), C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (CTX) (4.72 nmol/L; 95% CI, 2.12 to 7.30 nmol/L) or N-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (NTX) (3.70 nmol/L; 95% CI, 0.90 to 6.50 nmol/L bone collagen equivalents [BCEs]), indicating an early effect of diet-induced weight loss to promote bone breakdown. These data show that in overweight and obese indi...

Alqudah, H, Xiwei Cui, Lin Ye, Kai Cao, Szymanski, J, Ying Guo & Steven Su 1970, 'Modeling of tri-axial accelerometers in a self-designed wearable inertial measurement unit', 2015 9th International Conference on Sensing Technology (ICST), 2015 9th International Conference on Sensing Technology (ICST), IEEE, Auckland, pp. 605-610.
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This paper introduces a self-designed wearable inertial measurement unit (IMU-BMSJv2) and the calibration of its tri-axial accelerometers. We compare two popular accelerometer calibration approaches, the classical method (attitude dependent) and auto calibration method (attitude independent). Both these two calibration methods have been applied for the calibration of the self-designed IMU-BMSJv2; verification experiments have been carried out for the calibration of the tri-axial accelerometers. Experimental results show that although the auto-calibration method has the advantage of attitude independency, the classical calibration method can achieve better parameter estimation. We thus claim that the attitude dependent calibration method is still the first option considered when certain experimental conditions are satisfied.

Argha, A, Li, L, Su, SW & Hung Nguyen 1970, 'Discrete-time sliding mode control for networked systems with random communication delays', 2015 American Control Conference (ACC), 2015 American Control Conference (ACC), IEEE, Chicago, IL, USA, pp. 6016-6021.
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© 2015 American Automatic Control Council. This paper aims to design a robust discrete-time sliding mode control (DSMC) for the uncertain discrete-time networked systems involving time-varying Communication delays. To this end, the so-called Bernoulli random binary distribution is utilized to model the random time-varying delays. Then, by exploiting a specific sliding surface, a discrete-time sliding mode controller is designed such that the derived closed-loop system state and sliding function remain bounded in the presence of uncertainties and exogenous disturbances. Since the system state and sliding function are involved time-varying delays, the notion of exponentially mean square stability will be used to guarantee the stability/boundedness of the derived closed-loop system. The proposed robust DSMC can also overcome the conservatism of the existing methods in the literature. An illustrative example is presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Argha, A, Li, L, Su, SW & Nguyen, H 1970, 'Robust output-feedback discrete-time sliding mode control utilizing disturbance observer', 2015 54th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), 2015 54th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), IEEE, Osaka, Japan, pp. 5671-5676.
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© 2015 IEEE. This paper is devoted to the problem of designing a robust dynamic output-feedback discrete-time sliding mode controller (ODSMC) for uncertain discrete-time systems. The basic idea behind this scheme comes from the fact that output feedback discrete-time sliding mode control (ODSMC), unlike its continuous-time counterpart, does not require to exploit a discontinuous term including the sliding function. Therefore, it is not a vital requirement that the sliding function is expressed in terms of the system outputs only. Furthermore, our observer-based discrete-time sliding mode controller (DSMC) leads to a considerably larger region of applicability. Besides, with the assumption of dealing with slow exogenous disturbances, a methodology is developed which aims to reduce the thickness of the boundary layer around the sliding surface. Moreover, the boundedness of the obtained closed-loop system is analyzed and the bound on the underlying system state is derived.

Argha, A, Su, SW, Hung Nguyen & Celler, BG 1970, 'Designing adaptive integral sliding mode control for heart rate regulation during cycle-ergometer exercise using bio-feedback', 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Milan, Italy, pp. 6688-6691.
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© 2015 IEEE. This paper considers our developed control system which aims to regulate the exercising subjects' heart rate (HR) to a predefined profile. The controller would be an adaptive integral sliding mode controller. Here it is assumed that the controller commands are interpreted as biofeedback auditory commands. These commands can be heard and implemented by the exercising subject as a part of the control-loop. However, transmitting a feedback signal while the pedals are not in the appropriate position to efficiently exert force may lead to a cognitive disengagement of the user from the feedback controller. To address this problem this paper will employ a different form of control system regarding as 'actuator-based event-driven control system'. This paper will claim that the developed event-driven controller makes it possible to effectively regulate HR to a predetermined HR profile.

Argha, A, Su, SW, Nguyen, H & Celler, BG 1970, 'Heart rate regulation during cycle-ergometer exercise via bio-feedback', 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Milan Italy, pp. 4639-4642.
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© 2015 IEEE. This paper explains our developed control system which regulates the heart rate (HR) to track a desired trajectory. The controller is indeed a non-conventional non-model-based proportional, integral and derivative (PID) controller. The controller commands are interpreted as biofeedback auditory commands. These commands can be heard and implemented by the exercising subject as a part of the control-loop. However, transmitting a feedback signal while the pedals are not in the appropriate position to efficiently exert force may lead to a cognitive disengagement of the user from the feedback controller. This note explains a novel form of control system regarding as 'actuator-based event-driven control system', designed specifically for the purpose of this project. We conclude that the developed event-driven controller makes it possible to precisely regulate HR to a predetermined HR profile.

Bakirov, R, Gabrys, B & Fay, D 1970, 'On sequences of different adaptive mechanisms in non-stationary regression problems', 2015 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN), 2015 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN), IEEE.
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© 2015 IEEE. Existing adaptive predictive methods often use multiple adaptive mechanisms as part of their coping strategy in non-stationary environments. These mechanisms are usually deployed in a prescribed order which does not change. In this work we investigate and provide a comparative analysis of the effects of using a flexible order of adaptive mechanisms' deployment resulting in varying adaptation sequences. As a vehicle for this comparison, we use an adaptive ensemble method for regression in batch learning mode which employs several adaptive mechanisms to react to the changes in data. Using real world data from the process industry we demonstrate that such flexible deployment of available adaptive methods embedded in a cross-validatory framework can benefit the predictive accuracy over time.

Braun, M, Schulte, J & Davila, YC 1970, 'Reciprocal Peer Teaching for Problem-Solving Teams in a Senior-Year Science Course', Proceedings of the Australian Conference for Science and Mathematics Education, Australian Conference for Science and Mathematics Education 2015, The University of Sydney, Institute for Innovation in Science & Mathematics Education, Perth, Australia, pp. 13-14.

Braytee, A, Gill, AQ, Kennedy, PJ & Hussain, FK 1970, 'A Review and Comparison of Service E-Contract Architecture Metamodels.', ICONIP (4), International Conference on Neural Information Processing, Springer, Istanbul, Turkey, pp. 583-595.
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© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015. An adaptive service e-contract is an electronic agreement which is required to enable adaptive or agile service sourcing and pro- visioning. There are a number of e-contract metamodels that can be used to create a context specific adaptive service e-contract. The chal- lenge is which one to choose and adopt for adaptive services. This paper presents a review and comparison of well-known e-contract metamod- els using the architecture theory. The architecture theory allows the analysis of the e-contract metamodels using a three-dimension analyt- ical lens: structure, behavior and technology. The results of this paper highlight the metamodels structural, behavioral and technological differ- ences and similarities. This paper will help researchers and practitioners to observe the existing e-contract metamodels are appropriate to the adaptive services or if thwhetherere is a need to merge and integrate the concepts of these metamodels to propose a new unifying adaptive service e-contract metamodel. This paper is limited to the number of compared metamodels.

Braytee, A, Hussain, FK, Anaissi, A & Kennedy, PJ 1970, 'ABC-sampling for Balancing Imbalanced Datasets Based on Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm', 2015 IEEE 14th International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA), 2015 IEEE 14th International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA), IEEE, Miami, Florida, pp. 594-599.
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© 2015 IEEE. Class imbalanced data is a common problem for predictive modelling in domains such as bioinformatics. It occurs when the distribution of classes is not uniform among samples and results in a biased prediction of learning towards majority classes. In this study, we propose the ABC-Sampling algorithm based on a swarm optimization method called Artificial Bee Colony, which models the natural foraging behaviour of honeybees. Our algorithm lessens the effects of imbalanced classes by selecting the most informative majority samples using a forward search and storing them in a ranked subset. Then we construct a balanced dataset with a planned undersampling strategy to extract the most frequent majority samples from the top ranked subset and combine them with all minority samples. Our algorithm is superior to a state-of-the-art method on nine benchmark datasets with various levels of imbalance ratios.

Burgess, J, Munk, L, Jaffar, J, Black, J & Oliver, B 1970, 'BIBF1120 inhibits fibroblasts proliferation and production of the extracellular matrix protein fibulin-1', 3.3 Mechanisms of Lung Injury and Repair, Annual Congress 2015, European Respiratory Society.
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Büttner, TFS, Hudson, DD, Kabakova, IV & Eggleton, BJ 1970, 'Phase-locked, multiwavelength, distributed feedback brillouin laser', Optics InfoBase Conference Papers.

Büttner, TFS, Hudson, DD, Kabakova, IV & Eggleton, BJ 1970, 'Phase-locked, multiwavelength, distributed feedback brillouin laser', Proceedings 2015 European Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics - European Quantum Electronics Conference, CLEO/Europe-EQEC 2015.

Candra, H, Yuwono, M, Chai, R, Handojoseno, A, Elamvazuthi, I, Nguyen, HT, Su, S & IEEE 1970, 'Investigation of Window Size in Classification of EEG-Emotion Signal with Wavelet Entropy and Support Vector Machine', 2015 37TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY (EMBC), International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2015, Milano, Italy, pp. 7250-7253.
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When dealing with patients with psychological or emotional symptoms, medical practitioners are often faced with the problem of objectively recognizing their patients’ emotional state. In this paper, we approach this problem using a computer program that automatically extracts emotions from EEG signals. We extend the finding of Koelstra et. al [IEEE trans. affective comput., vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 18–31, 2012] using the same dataset (i.e. the DEAP: dataset for emotion analysis using electroencephalogram, physiological and video signals), where we observed that the accuracy can be further improved using wavelet features extracted from shorter time segments. More precisely, we achieved accuracy of 65% for both valence and arousal using the wavelet entropy of 3 to 12 seconds signal segments. This improvement in accuracy entails an important discovery that information on emotions contained in the EEG signal may be better described in term of wavelets and in shorter time segments.

Candra, H, Yuwono, M, Handojoseno, A, Chai, R, Su, S, Nguyen, HT & IEEE 1970, 'Recognizing emotions from EEG subbands using wavelet analysis', 2015 37TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY (EMBC), International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE, Milano, Italy, pp. 6030-6033.
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© 2015 IEEE. Objectively recognizing emotions is a particularly important task to ensure that patients with emotional symptoms are given the appropriate treatments. The aim of this study was to develop an emotion recognition system using Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals to identify four emotions including happy, sad, angry, and relaxed. We approached this objective by firstly investigating the relevant EEG frequency band followed by deciding the appropriate feature extraction method. Two features were considered namely: 1. Wavelet Energy, and 2. Wavelet Entropy. EEG Channels reduction was then implemented to reduce the complexity of the features. The ground truth emotional states of each subject were inferred using Russel's circumplex model of emotion, that is, by mapping the subjectively reported degrees of valence (pleasure) and arousal to the appropriate emotions - for example, an emotion with high valence and high arousal is equivalent to a 'happy' emotional state, while low valence and low arousal is equivalent to a 'sad' emotional state. The Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier was then used for mapping each feature vector into corresponding discrete emotions. The results presented in this study indicated thatWavelet features extracted from alpha, beta and gamma bands seem to provide the necessary information for describing the aforementioned emotions. Using the DEAP (Dataset for Emotion Analysis using electroencephalogram, Physiological and Video Signals), our proposed method achieved an average sensitivity and specificity of 77.4% ± 14.1% and 69.1% ± 12.8%, respectively.

Cao, K, Guo, Y & Su, SW 1970, 'A review of motion related EEG artifact removal techniques', 2015 9th International Conference on Sensing Technology (ICST), 2015 9th International Conference on Sensing Technology (ICST), IEEE, Auckland, pp. 600-604.
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The traditional EEG (electroencephalograph) system requires the subject to stay still when acquiring bio-signals. There have been mobile EEG units, for instance ambulatory electroencephalography (AEEG), a portable device designed for recording ictal events or interictal epileptiform discharge. However, these were never intended for motion related EEG recordings. Such techniques constrain motion related brain potential tests. A number of papers have considered this issue and as a result a new research area was established. This paper is a review on the different aspects of this problem, such as algorithms and hardware design, for the reduction of motion related EEG artifacts. Finally, this paper recommends several proper strategies on EEG artifact reduction.

Chai, R, Naik, GR, Tran, Y, Ling, SH, Craig, A, Nguyen, HT & IEEE 1970, 'Classification of Driver Fatigue in an Electroencephalography-based Countermeasure System with Source Separation Module', 2015 37TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY (EMBC), International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE, Milano, Italy, pp. 514-517.
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An electroencephalography (EEG)-based counter measure device could be used for fatigue detection during driving. This paper explores the classification of fatigue and alert states using power spectral density (PSD) as a feature extractor and fuzzy swarm based-artificial neural network (ANN) as a classifier. An independent component analysis of entropy rate bound minimization (ICA-ERBM) is investigated as a novel source separation technique for fatigue classification using EEG analysis. A comparison of the classification accuracy of source separator versus no source separator is presented. Classification performance based on 43 participants without the inclusion of the source separator resulted in an overall sensitivity of 71.67%, a specificity of 75.63% and an accuracy of 73.65%. However, these results were improved after the inclusion of a source separator module, resulting in an overall sensitivity of 78.16%, a specificity of 79.60% and an accuracy of 78.88% (p < 0.05).

Chai, R, Smith, MR, Nguyen, TN, Ling, SH, Coutts, AJ, Nguyen, HT & IEEE 1970, 'Comparing Features Extractors in EEG-based Cognitive Fatigue Detection of Demanding Computer Tasks', 2015 37TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY (EMBC), International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE, Milano, Italy, pp. 7594-7597.
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An electroencephalography (EEG)-based classification system could be used as a tool for detecting cognitive fatigue from demanding computer tasks. The most widely used feature extractor in EEG-based fatigue classification is power spectral density (PSD). This paper investigates PSD and three alternative feature extraction methods, in order to find the best feature extractor for the classification of cognitive fatigue during cognitively demanding tasks. These compared methods are power spectral entropy (PSE), wavelet, and autoregressive (AR). Bayesian neural network was selected as the classifier in this study. The results showed that the use of PSD and PSE methods provide an average accuracy of 60% for each computer task. This finding is slightly improved using the wavelet method which has an average accuracy of 61%. The AR method is the best feature extractor compared with the PSD, PSE and wavelet in this study with accuracy of 75.95% in AX continuous performance test (AX-CPT), 75.23% in psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) and 76.02% in Stroop task (p-value < 0.05).

Chandrakanthan, V, Jair, K, Oliver, R, Qiao, Q, Kang, YC, Zarzour, P, Beck, D, Boelen, L, Unnikrihnan, A, Villanueva, J, Nunez, A, Knezevic, K, Palu, C, Nasrallah, R, Hardy, P, Grey, S, Whan, R, Walkley, C, Purton, LE, Ward, R, Wong, J, Hesson, L, Ittner, L, Walsh, W & Pimanda, J 1970, 'PDGF-AB AND AZACITIDINE INDUCED REPROGRAMMING OF SOMATIC CELLS INTO TISSUE REGENERATIVE MULTNOTENT STEM CELLS', EXPERIMENTAL HEMATOLOGY, 44th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International-Society-for-Experimental-Hematology (ISEH), ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC, Kyoto, JAPAN, pp. S89-S89.
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Chen, H, Singh, M, Chan, YL, Saad, S, Chee, C, Beh, IT, Herok, G & Gorrie, C 1970, 'Effect of mild traumatic brain injury on brain functional outcome in rats', JOURNAL OF NEUROCHEMISTRY, 25th Biennial Meeting of the International-Society-for-Neurochemistry Jointly with the 13th Meeting of the Asian-Pacific-Society-for-Neurochemistry in Conjunction with the 35th Meeting of the Australasian-Neuroscience-Society, WILEY-BLACKWELL, AUSTRALIA, Cairns, pp. 291-291.

Cheng, M, Edwards, D & Darcy, S 1970, 'A novel review approach on adventure tourism scholarship', BEST EN Think Tank XV The Environment-People Nexus in Sustainable Tourism : Finding the Balance, BEST EN Think Tank XV The Environment-People Nexus in Sustainable Tourism : Finding the Balance, South Africa, pp. 187-189.
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As a niche market, adventure tourism has been developing rapidly in many regions and territories, evidenced by increasing number of participants and intensive growth of adventure tourism products (Adventure Travel Trade Association, 2013; Tourism New Zealand, 2013). It has become an important component of the tourism industry in many Western countries (e.g. New Zealand) and is gaining some prominence in domestic tourism in select emerging countries (e.g. China and Brazil). This particular growth of adventure tourism sector in past two decades is closely related to the increase of all types of nature based tourism. Adventure tourism has been strongly likened to outdoor and adventure recreation (Buckley, 2006; Pomfret & Bramwell, 2014; Sung, Morrison, & O'Leary, 1996). Buckley (2006), for example, sees little distinction between the terms adventure tourism, nature tourism, outdoor and adventure recreation in some cases. However, research in adventure tourism has been slight, especially when compared with the large number of other dominant special interest tourism studies (Buckley, 2010). As such, an updated review article on adventure tourism in the tourism context seems essential.

Chroinin, DN, Goldsbury, D, O'Connell, DL, Beveridge, A, Davidson, P, Girgis, A, Ingham, N, Phillips, JL, Wilkinson, A & Ingham, J 1970, 'Patterns of hospital-based healthcare use amongst dementia patients in their last year of life in New South Wales (NSW)', AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL ON AGEING, pp. 22-22.

Chung, C-Y, Warkiani, ME, Mesgari, S, Rosengarten, G & Taylor, R 1970, 'Thermoset polyester-based superhydrophobic microchannels for nanofluid heat transfer applications', SPIE Proceedings, SPIE Micro+Nano Materials, Devices, and Applications, SPIE, Sydney, AUSTRALIA.
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Curiskis, SA, Osborn, TR & Kennedy, PJ 1970, 'Link prediction and topological feature importance in social networks', Conferences in Research and Practice in Information Technology Series, Australian Data Mining Conference, Australian Computer Society, Sydney, pp. 39-50.
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The problem of link prediction describes how to account for the development of connection structure in a graph. There are many applications of link prediction, such as predicting missing links and future links in online social networks. Much of the literature has focused on limited characteristics of the graph topology or on node attributes, rather than a broad range of measures. There is a rich spectrum of topological features associated with a graph, such as neighbourhood similarity scores, node centrality measures, community structure and path-based distance measures. In this paper we formulate a supervised learning approach to link prediction using a feature set of graph measures chosen to capture a wide range of topological structure. This approach has the advantage that it can be applied to any graph where the connection structure is known. Random forest learning models are used for their high accuracy and measures of feature importance. The feature importance scores reveal the strength of contribution of the topological predictors for link prediction in a variety of synthetically generated network datasets, as well as three real world citation networks. We investigate both undirected and directed cases. Our results show that this approach can deliver very high model precision and recall performance in certain graphs, and good performance generally. Our models also consistently outperform a simpler comparison model we developed to resemble earlier work. In addition, our analysis of variable importance for each dataset reveals meaningful information regarding deep network properties.

Dang, TD, Hoang, D & Nanda, P 1970, 'Data Mobility Management Model for Active Data Cubes', 2015 IEEE Trustcom/BigDataSE/ISPA, 2015 IEEE Trustcom/BigDataSE/ISPA, IEEE, Helsinki, Finland, pp. 750-757.
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© 2015 IEEE. Cloud computing dramatically reduces the expense and complexity of managing IT systems. Business customers do not need to invest in their own costly IT infrastructure, but can delegate and deploy their services effectively to cloud vendors and service providers. A number of security and protection mechanisms have been proposed to prevent the disclosure of sensitive information or tempering with the data by employing various policy, encryption, and monitoring approaches. However, few efforts have been focused on data mobility issues in terms of protection of data when it is moved within a cloud or to and from a new cloud environment. To allay users' concern of data control, data ownership, security and privacy, we propose a novel data mobility management model which ensures continuity protecting data at new cloud hosts at new data locations. The model provides a mobility service to handle data moving operation that relies on a new location database service. The new model allows the establishment of a proxy supervisor in the new environment and the ability of the active data to record its own location. The experimental outcomes demonstrate the feasibility, proactivity, and efficiency by the full mobility management model.

Darcy, SA 1970, 'Preparing for the National Disability Insurance Scheme: Consumer understandings of providing an equality of experience', 2015 Asia-Pacific Venue Industry Congress Program, It's All About Them: 2015 Asia-Pacific Venue Industry Congress, Adelaide Convention Centre.
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Simon's address will draw on his personal, professional and technical knowledge of the impending business opportunities that the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) ca bring to the venue sector through understanding how to best provide an equality of experience to improve the social participation of people with disability as consumers, participants, volunteers and employees. His presentation will be divided into two parts: 1. Understanding the legislative and policy framework of disability reform; and 2. What is equality of experience for people with mobility, vision, hearing and cognitive disabilities?.The NDIS, which is currently being piloted in three jurisdictions in Australia, is much talked about within the disability community but not very well understood by others. The NDIS is a revolutionary change to the way that all Australians that have or acquire a disability will be provided with services in the future. The presentation will outline the overall approach of the NDIS through community awareness, information provision for effective support of people with disability in the community and individual funding for the 400,000 people with disability with specialised support needs. The change to individualised funding allocation to each person presents challenges to current disability service provision and opportunities for business, government and the not-for-profit sector who are able to provide services that the group are looking to purchase. The Commonwealth government also has a National Disability Strategy that provides a framework for social participation across all areas of citizenship. In a venue and event context, people with disabilities need to be considered as consumers, members, volunteers, participants and employees. From an audience perspective venue managers need to consider what constitutes an 'equality of experience' for the group. The presentation will examine cutting-edge contemporary practice for those with mobility...

De Abreu Lourenco, R 1970, 'Drug reimbursement – a little bit of this…and a whole lot of that…', Hepatitis C Consumer Advocacy Workshop.

De Abreu Lourenco, R 1970, 'Drug Reimbursement in Australia: Through the looking Glass', HCA Consumer Workshop, Webinar hosted by ZEST.

De Abreu Lourenco, R 1970, 'Valuing meta-health effects: how we ask matters', 2nd International Academy of Health Preference Research meeting, Brisbane.

De Abreu Lourenco, R & Parish, K 1970, 'One of the team: research with, not just about, consumers', Sydney Catalyst, 2015 PostGraduate and Early Career Research Symposium.

DiGiacomo, M, Lewis, J, Phillips, J, Davidson, PM & Nolan, M 1970, 'The role of gender, administrative burden, and financial concerns in the transition to widowhood; a qualitative study', Australian Association of Gerontology, Alice Springs.

Elamvazuthi, I, Duy, NHX, Ali, Z, Su, SW, Khan, MKAA & Parasuraman, S 1970, 'Electromyography (EMG) based Classification of Neuromuscular Disorders using Multi-Layer Perceptron', Procedia Computer Science, IEEE International Symposium on Robotics and Intelligent Sensors, Elsevier BV, Langkawi, MALAYSIA, pp. 223-228.
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Electromyography (EMG) signals are the measure of activity in the muscles. The aim of this study is to identify the neuromuscular disease based on EMG signals by means of classification. The neuromuscular diseases that have been identified are myopathy and neuropathy. The classification was carried out using Artificial Neural Network (ANN). There are five feature extraction techniques that were used to extract the signals such as Autoregressive (AR), Root Mean Square (RMS), Zero Crossing (ZC), Waveform length (WL) and Mean Absolute Value (MAV). A comparative analysis of these different techniques were carried out based on the results. The Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) was used for carrying out the classification.

Elliott, J, Lees, T, Nassif, N & Lal, S 1970, 'Stress and the New South Wales Police Force: The prevalence of various coping mechanisms', Inter-University Neuroscience and Mental Health Conference.

Falque, R, Vidal-Calleja, T, Miro, JV & IEEE 1970, 'Kidnapped Laser-Scanner for Evaluation of RFEC Tool', 2015 IEEE/RSJ INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT ROBOTS AND SYSTEMS (IROS), IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IEEE, Hamburg, Germany, pp. 313-318.
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© 2015 IEEE. An algorithm is proposed for matching data from different sensing modalities. The problem is formalised as a kidnapped robot problem, where Bayesian fusion is used to find the most likely location where both modalities agree. The key idea of our algorithm is to model the correlation between the two modalities as a likelihood used to update a location prior. Data, in this case, is represented as 2.5D thickness maps from a laser scanner and a Remote Field Eddy Current (RFEC) tool, used in non-destructive testing to assess the condition of infrastructures. The laser data is limited, while RFEC data is continuous. Given some prior in location, the aim is to find the 2.5D thickness map from the laser that corresponds to the RFEC data, which should be noted is highly noisy. Real data from CCTV inspections of water pipes are used to validate the proposed approach.

Gay, V, Leijdekkers, P, Gill, A & Felix Navarro, K 1970, 'Le Bon Samaritain: A Community-Based Care Model Supported by Technology.', Stud Health Technol Inform, Health Informatics Conference, IOS Press, Netherlands, pp. 50-55.
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BACKGROUND: The effective care and well-being of a community is a challenging task especially in an emergency situation. Traditional technology-based silos between health and emergency services are challenged by the changing needs of the community that could benefit from integrated health and safety services. Low-cost smart-home automation solutions, wearable devices and Cloud technology make it feasible for communities to interact with each other, and with health and emergency services in a timely manner. OBJECTIVES: This paper proposes a new community-based care model, supported by technology, that aims at reducing healthcare and emergency services costs while allowing community to become resilient in response to health and emergency situations. METHODS: We looked at models of care in different industries and identified the type of technology that can support the suggested new model of care. Two prototypes were developed to validate the adequacy of the technology. RESULTS: The result is a new community-based model of care called 'Le Bon Samaritain'. It relies on a network of people called 'Bons Samaritains' willing to help and deal with the basic care and safety aspects of their community. Their role is to make sure that people in their community receive and understand the messages from emergency and health services. The new care model is integrated with existing emergency warning, community and health services. CONCLUSION: Le Bon Samaritain model is scalable, community-based and can help people feel safer, less isolated and more integrated in their community. It could be the key to reduce healthcare cost, increase resilience and drive the change for a more integrated emergency and care system.

Gerace, D, Martiniello-Wilks, R & Simpson, AM 1970, 'BIOLUMINESCENT IMAGING OF MESENCHYMAL STEM CELL ENGRAFTMENT IN IMMUNE COMPETENT AND IMMUNE DEFICIENT ANIMAL MODELS OF TYPE 1 DIABETES', JOURNAL OF GENE MEDICINE, 9th Biennial Meeting of the Australasian-Gene-and-Cell-Therapy-Society (AGCTS), WILEY-BLACKWELL, Univ Melbourne, Univ Coll, Parkville, AUSTRALIA, pp. 201-201.

Gerace, D, Martiniello-Wilks, R & Simpson, AM 1970, 'Persistence of Luciferase Expressing Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (BMSCs) in Non-Obese Diabetic (NOD) and NOD/Scid Mice', MOLECULAR THERAPY, 18th Annual Meeting of the American-Society-of-Gene-and-Cell-Therapy (ASGCT), NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP, New Orleans, LA, pp. S101-S101.
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Golzan, M, Georgevsky, D, Orr, C, Schulz, A & Graham, S 1970, 'RETINAL VASCULAR AND GCL CHANGES IN PATIENTS WITH EARLY GLAUCOMA, ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE AND NORMAL CONTROLS', CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL OPHTHALMOLOGY, WILEY-BLACKWELL, pp. 95-95.

Gorrie, C, Nguyen, T, Sutherland, T & Mao, Y 1970, 'The response of endogenous neural progenitor cells throughout the neuroaxis after a rat spinal cord contusion injury', JOURNAL OF NEUROCHEMISTRY, 25th Biennial Meeting of the International-Society-for-Neurochemistry Jointly with the 13th Meeting of the Asian-Pacific-Society-for-Neurochemistry in Conjunction with the 35th Meeting of the Australasian-Neuroscience-Society, WILEY-BLACKWELL, AUSTRALIA, Cairns, pp. 253-253.

Ha, VKL, Nguyen, TN & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'Real-time transmission of panoramic images for a telepresence wheelchair', 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Milan, Italy, pp. 3565-3568.
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© 2015 IEEE. This paper proposes an approach to transmit panoramic images in real-time for a telepresence wheelchair. The system can provide remote monitoring and assistive assistance for people with disabilities. This study exploits technological advancement in image processing, wireless communication networks, and healthcare systems. High resolution panoramic images are extracted from the camera which is mounted on the wheelchair. The panoramic images are streamed in real-time via a wireless network. The experimental results show that streaming speed is up to 250 KBps. The subjective quality assessments show that the received images are smooth during the streaming period. In addition, in terms of the objective image quality evaluation the average peak signal-to-noise ratio of the reconstructed images is measured to be 39.19 dB which reveals high quality of images.

Handojoseno, AMA, Gilat, M, Quynh Tran Ly, Chamtie, H, Shine, JM, Nguyen, TN, Tran, Y, Lewis, SJG & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'An EEG study of turning freeze in Parkinson's disease patients: The alteration of brain dynamic on the motor and visual cortex', 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Milano, Italy, pp. 6618-6621.
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© 2015 IEEE. Freezing of gait is a very debilitating symptom affecting many patients with Parkinson's disease, leading to a reduced mobility and increased risk for falls. Turning is known to be the most provocative trigger for freezing of gait. However, the underlying brain dynamic changes associated with a turning freeze remain unknown. This study therefore used ambulatory EEG to investigate the brain dynamic changes associated with freezing of gait during turning. In addition, this study aimed to determine the most suitable EEG sensor location to detect freezing of gait during turning using our classification system. Data from four Parkinson's disease patients with freezing of gait was analysed using power spectral density and brain effective connectivity, comparing periods of successful turning with freezing of gait during turning. Results showed that freezing of gait during turning is associated with significant alterations in the high beta and theta power spectral densities across the occipital and parietal areas. Furthermore, brain effective connectivity showed that freezing during turning was associated with increased connectivity towards the visual area, which also had the highest accuracy to detect freezing episodes in the O1 regions by using power spectral density in our classification analyses. This is the first study to show cortical dynamic changes associated with freezing of gait during turning, providing valuable information to enhance the performance of future freezing of gait detection systems.

Hatoum, D, Bok, CF, Touw, A, Nassif, N & McGowan, E 1970, 'Sphingosine Kinase 1 (SK1-43kDa) isoform expression may contribute to cancer aggressiveness', New Horizons 2015, University of Technology Sydney.

Hatoum, D, Yagoub, D, Brennan, S, Nassif, N & McGowan, EM 1970, 'P14ARF-p53-p21 alters the metabolic pathway in breast cancer – a novel proteomic global approach', Annals of Oncology, IMPAKT Breast cancer conference, Brussels May 6th-9th, Elsevier BV, Brussels, pp. iii10-iii10.
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Hatoum, D, Yagoub, D, Nassif, N & McGowan, E 1970, 'P14ARF-p53-p21: P14ARF-p53-p21: reprogramming metabolic regulation and function in breast cancer', New Horizons 2015, University of Technology Sydney (UTS).

Heneka, N, Phillips, JL, Rowett, D & Shaw, T 1970, 'IDENTIFYING OPIOID MEDICATION ERROR TYPES, INCIDENCE AND PATIENT IMPACT IN ADULT ONCOLOGY AND PALLIATIVE CARE SETTINGS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW', Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology, pp. 128-128.

Herbert, C, Sebesfi, M, Zeng, Q, Oliver, B, Foster, P & Kumar, R 1970, 'MICRORNA REGULATION OF AIRWAY EPITHELIAL CELLS IN AN ALLERGIC ENVIRONMENT', RESPIROLOGY, Thoracic Society Australia New Zealand Australian New Zealand Society Respiratory Science Annual Scientific Meeting 2015, WILEY-BLACKWELL, Queensland, AUSTRALIA, pp. 98-98.

Hoang, D & Dat, DT 1970, 'Health data in cloud environments', Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, PACIS 2015 - Proceedings, Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, PACIS, Singapore, pp. 96-108.
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The process of provisioning healthcare involves massive healthcare data which exists in different forms on disparate data sources and in different formats. Consequently, health information systems encounter interoperability problems at many levels. Integrating these disparate systems requires the support at all levels of a very expensive infrastructures. Cloud computing dramatically reduces the expense and complexity of managing IT systems. Business customers do not need to invest in their own costly IT infrastructure, but can delegate and deploy their services effectively to Cloud vendors and service providers. It is inevitable that electronic health records (EHRs) and healthcare-related services will be deployed on cloud platforms to reduce the cost and complexity of handling and integrating medical records while improving efficiency and accuracy. The paper presents a review of EHR including definitions, EHR file formats, structures leading to the discussion of interoperability and security issues. The paper also presents challenges that have to be addressed for realizing Cloudbased healthcare systems: data protection and big health data management. Finally, the paper presents an active data model for housing and protecting EHRs in a Cloud environment.

Hoang, DB & Pham, M 1970, 'On software-defined networking and the design of SDN controllers', 2015 6th International Conference on the Network of the Future (NOF), 2015 6th International Conference on the Network of the Future (NOF), IEEE, Montreal, Canada, pp. 1-3.
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© 2015 IEEE. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) has emerged as a networking paradigm that can remove the limitations of current network infrastructures by separating the control plane from the data forwarding plane. The implications include: the underlying network state and decision making capability are centralized; programmability is provided on the control plane; the operation at the forwarding plane is simplified; and the underlying network infrastructure is abstracted and presented to the applications. This paper discusses and exposes the details of the design of a common SDN controller based on our study of many controllers. The emphasis is on interfaces as they are essential for evolving the scope of SDN in supporting applications with different network resources requirements. In particular, the paper review and compare the design of the three controllers: Beacon, OpenDaylight, and Open Networking Operation System.

Ho-Le, TP, Center, JR, Eisman, JA, Nguyen, HT & Nguyen, TV 1970, 'POLYGENIC RISK SCORE IMPROVES FRACTURE RISK PREDICTION: THE DUBBO OSTEOPROROSIS EPIDEMIOLOGY STUDY', 25th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society, Tasmania.
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Many genes for bone mineral density (BMD) have been identified in genomewide association studies. However, the contribution of these genes for fracture prediction is still unclear. This study sought to develop clinico-genetic models for predicting fracture risk in the elderly.The study was part of the Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study, in which bone health of participants aged from 60 years had been monitored continuously since 1990. Fragility fracture was ascertained from X-ray reports. Femoral neck BMD was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Seventy-one BMD-associated genetic variants were genotyped. A weighted polygenic risk score (GRS) was derived from the variants. Three fracture risk models were constructed: (1) clinical factors only, (2) clinical factors and GRS, or (3) clinical factors and 71 variants.During the follow-up period, 230 fracture cases (36.4%) were observed. Each score increase in GRS was associated with an odds ratio of 1.47 (95%CI, 1.28 to 1.69) of fracture. The area under the curve (AUC) of model 1 (with age, sex, BMD, prior fracture, and fall) was 0.71 (95%CI, 0.67 to 0.75); when GRS was added to the model (P<0.001), the AUC was increased to 0.74 (95%CI, 0.70 to 0.78). When all 71 variants were considered together with the clinical risk factors, the AUC was increased to 0.78 (95%CI, 0.74 to 0.82), and net reclassification index was improved by 22%.These results indicate that BMD-associated genes could improve the performance of fracture prediction over and above that of clinical risk factors alone, and help stratify individuals by fracture status.

Huy Hoang Nguyen, Tuan Nghia Nguyen, Clout, R & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'A novel target following solution for the electric powered hospital bed', 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Milano, Italy, pp. 3569-3572.
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The paper proposes a novel target following solution for an electric powered hospital bed. First, an improved real-time decoupling multivariable control strategy is introduced to stabilize the overall system during its operation. Environment laser-based data are then collected and pre-processed before engaging a neural network classifier for target detection. Finally, a high-level control algorithm is implemented to guarantee safety condition while the hospital bed tracks its target. The proposed solution is successfully validated through real-time experiments.

Ing, M, Oliver, R, Oliver, B, Walsh, W & Williamson, J 1970, 'EVALUATION OF TRANSBRONCHIAL LUNG CRYOBIOPSY SIZE AND FREEZING TIME: A PROGNOSTIC ANIMAL STUDY', RESPIROLOGY, Thoracic Society Australia New Zealand Australian New Zealand Society Respiratory Science Annual Scientific Meeting 2015, WILEY-BLACKWELL, Queensland, AUSTRALIA, pp. 109-109.

Jadidi, MG, Miro, JV & Dissanayake, G 1970, 'Mutual information-based exploration on continuous occupancy maps', 2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), IEEE, Hamburg Germany, pp. 6086-6092.
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© 2015 IEEE. The problem of active perception with an autonomous robot is studied in this paper. It is proposed that the exploratory behavior of the robot be controlled using mutual information (MI) surfaces between the current map and a one-step look ahead measurements. MI surfaces highlight informative areas for exploration. A novel method for computing these surfaces is described. An approach that exploits structural dependencies of the environment and handles sparse sensor measurements to build a continuous model of the environment, that can then be used to generate MI surfaces is also proposed. A gradient field of occupancy probability distribution is regressed from sensor data as a Gaussian Process and provide frontier boundaries for further exploration. The continuous global frontier surface completely describes unexplored regions and, inherently, provides an automatic termination criterion for a desired sensitivity. The results from publicly available datasets confirm an average improvement of the proposed methodology over comparable standard and state-of-the-art exploratory methods available in the literature by more than 20% and 13% in travel distance and map entropy reduction rate, respectively.

Johnson, T, Cheng, YY, Williams, M, Nassif, N, McGowan, E & Reid, G 1970, 'YB1: a potential therapeutic target in malignant pleural mesothelioma', New Horizons 2015, University of Technology Sydney (UTS).

Kielly-Carroll, C, Shaw, T, Haines, M, Dadich, A, Sanson-Fisher, R, Girgis, A, Phillips, J, Rankin, N, Robinson, T & Pointeaux, C 1970, 'BUILDING THE BRIDGE FROM DISCOVERY-TO-DELIVERY: A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE IN CANCER IMPLEMENTATION SCIENCE', Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology, WILEY-BLACKWELL, pp. 107-107.

Kwon, T, Madziva, N, Oliveira, JD, Chandramohan, SK, Yin, L, Prentice, H, Warkiani, ME, Hamel, JFP & Han, J 1970, 'Long-term steady state perfusion culture of mammalian cells using a robust microfluidic cell retention device', MicroTAS 2015 - 19th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences, pp. 108-110.
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Cell retention devices are used to retain cells in containers during perfusion culture. However, the conventional membrane-based filtration devices have challenges such as membrane fouling/clogging and increased contamination risk due to frequent filter replacements. To solve these challenges, we introduce a new microfluidic cell retention device based on inertial cell focusing. We demonstrated a long-term steady state perfusion culture of suspended CHO cells, where high density of cells (> 3×106 cells/mL) and viability (> 90%) were maintained for more than a week. Our membrane-less and clog-free cell retention device has unique advantage over the conventional filtration devices for perfusion culture.

Lawandi, J, Tao, C, Ren, B, Williams, P, Ling, D, Swan, MA, Nassif, NT, Torpy, FR, O'Brien, BA & Simpson, AM 1970, 'MELLIGEN CELSS: AN INSULIN-SECRETING HUMAN LIVER CELL LINE WHICH IS RESISTANT TO CYTOKINE-INDUCED IMMUNE ATTACK', JOURNAL OF GENE MEDICINE, 9th Biennial Meeting of the Australasian-Gene-and-Cell-Therapy-Society (AGCTS), WILEY-BLACKWELL, Univ Melbourne, Univ Coll, Parkville, AUSTRALIA, pp. 189-189.

Leijdekkers, P & Gay, V 1970, 'Improving User Engagement by Aggregating and Analysing Health and Fitness Data on a Mobile App', Inclusive Smart Cities and e-Health, International Conference on Smart Homes and Health Telematics (ICOST), Springer Series: Information Systems and Applications, incl. Internet/Web, and HCI, Geneva, Switzerland, pp. 325-330.
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Nowadays, health, fitness and contextual data can be ubiquitously collected using wearable devices, sensors and smart phones and be stored in various servers and devices. However, to engage users in active monitoring of their health and fitness, it is essential to personalise the monitoring and have all the relevant data in one place. It is also important to give users control on how their data is collected, analysed, presented and stored. This paper presents how those important features are integrated in myFitnessCompanion®, an Android Health and fitness app developed by our team. The app is able to aggregate data from multiple sources, keep it on the phone or export it to servers or Electronic Health Records (EHR). It can also present the aggregated data in a personalised manner. A mobile app such as myFitnessCompanion® is a solution to the personalisation, interoperability and control issues that are key to user engagement.

Lin Ye & Su, SW 1970, 'Experimental design for the calibration of tri-axial Magnetometers', 2015 9th International Conference on Sensing Technology (ICST), 2015 9th International Conference on Sensing Technology (ICST), IEEE, Auckland, pp. 711-715.
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The calibration and its associated experimental design scheme for the tri-axial magnetometers are explored in this paper. For the widely used 9-parameter model of tri-axial Magnetometers, based on experimental design of Tri-axial accelerometers, a 12-observation experiment scheme, whose observations are located in the vertices of an icosahedron, is presented to reduce estimation error. As this 12-observation scheme is proved to be rotatable, before experiment, it is not required to identify the direction of the magnetic field of the Earth. For this 12-observation experiment scheme, a simple parameter estimation algorithm is presented, which can be easily implemented in a micro-controller with low computational capacity. Although, this calibration method utilizes the projections of the local Earth magnetic field as calibration inputs, a high precision turntable is not essential for ensuring desired calibration accuracy.

Lin Ye & Su, SW 1970, 'Optimum Experimental Design applied to MEMS accelerometer calibration for 9-parameter auto-calibration model', 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Milan, Italy, pp. 3145-3148.
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Optimum Experimental Design (OED) is an information gathering technique used to estimate parameters, which aims to minimize the variance of parameter estimation and prediction. In this paper, we further investigate an OED for MEMS accelerometer calibration of the 9-parameter auto-calibration model. Based on a linearized 9-parameter accelerometer model, we show the proposed OED is both G-optimal and rotatable, which are the desired properties for the calibration of wearable sensors for which only simple calibration devices are available. The experimental design is carried out with a newly developed wearable health monitoring device and desired experimental results have been achieved.

Lovell, M, Luckett, T, Phillips, J, Agar, M, Ryan, L, Lam, L, McCaffrey, N, Boyle, F, Stubbs, J, Shaw, T, Currow, D, Hosie, A & Davidson, P 1970, 'CLINICAL TRIAL PROTOCOL - IMPLEMENTING CLINICAL PRACTICE GUIDELINES FOR CANCER PAIN IN ADULTS TO ENSURE EQUITABLE, COST-EFFECTIVE, EVIDENCE-BASED, PERSON-CENTRED CARE: A PHASE III PRAGMATIC STEPPED WEDGE CLUSTER RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIAL OF GUIDELINES AND SCREENING WITH IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES VERSUS GUIDELINES AND SCREENING ALONE TO IMPROVE PAIN IN ADULTS WITH CANCER ATTENDING OUTPATIENTS ONCOLOGY AND PALLIATIVE CARE CENTRES', Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology, pp. 162-162.

Matsubara, T, Miro, JV, Tanaka, D, Poon, J, Sugimoto, K & IEEE 1970, 'Sequential Intention Estimation of a Mobility Aid User for Intelligent Navigational Assistance', 2015 24TH IEEE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ROBOT AND HUMAN INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATION (RO-MAN), IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, IEEE, Kobe, Japan, pp. 444-449.
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© 2015 IEEE. This paper proposes an intelligent mobility aid framework aimed at mitigating the impact of cognitive and/or physical user deficiencies by performing suitable mobility assistance with minimum interference. To this end, a user action model using Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) is proposed to encapsulate the probabilistic and nonlinear relationships among user action, state of the environment and user intention. Moreover, exploiting the analytical tractability of the predictive distribution allows a sequential Bayesian process for user intention estimation to take place. The proposed scheme is validated on data obtained in an indoor setting with an instrumented robotic wheelchair augmented with sensorial feedback from the environment and user commands as well as proprioceptive information from the actual vehicle, achieving accuracy in near real-time of ∼80%. The initial results are promising and indicating the suitability of the process to infer user driving behaviors within the context of ambulatory robots designed to provide assistance to users with mobility impairments while carrying out regular daily activities.

McAuliffe, S, Joshua, D, Brown, R, Catalano, A, Ho, PJ, Nassif, N, Woodland, N, Hart, D, Weatherburn, C, Yang, S, Suen, H, Paul, C & Gibson, J 1970, 'Digital PCR for MRD detection of myeloma', Clinical Lymphoma Myeloma and Leukemia, 15th International Myeloma Workshop, Elsevier BV, Rome, Italy, pp. e95-e95.
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A pilot study was performed to investigate the use of digital PCR (dPCR) to detect minimal residual disease (MRD) in patients with multiple myeloma. dPCR allows greater quantitative specificity in PCR reactions by performing multiple, minute PCR reactions on individual DNA templates.

Merklein, M, Kabakova, IV, Buttner, TFS, Choi, DY, Luther-Davies, B, Madden, SJ & Eggleton, BJ 1970, 'Inhibiting stimulated Brillouin scattering in a highly nonlinear waveguide', Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe - Technical Digest.
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We demonstrate the inhibition of stimulated Brillouin scattering using a Bragg grating in a highly nonlinear chalcogenide rib waveguide on a chip.

Merklein, M, Kabakova, IV, Büttner, TFS, Choi, D-Y, Luther-Davies, B, Madden, SJ & Eggleton, BJ 1970, 'Inhibiting stimulated Brillouin scattering in a highly nonlinear waveguide', CLEO: 2015, CLEO: Science and Innovations, OSA, p. 2267.
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We demonstrate the inhibition of stimulated Brillouin scattering using a Bragg grating in a highly nonlinear chalcogenide rib waveguide on a chip. © OSA 2015.

Mitchell, A, Tang, F, Ge, Q, Morgan, L & Oliver 1970, 'RESPIRATORY VIRUSES CAN BE ISOLATED AND IDENTIFIED FROM EXHALED BREATH', RESPIROLOGY, Thoracic Society Australia New Zealand Australian New Zealand Society Respiratory Science Annual Scientific Meeting 2015, WILEY-BLACKWELL, Queensland, AUSTRALIA, pp. 28-28.

Mitchell, A, Tang, F, Ge, Q, Morgan, L & Oliver, B 1970, 'RESPIRATORY VIRUSES ARE COMMONLY IDENTIFIED IN THE EXHALED BREATH OF ADULT PATIENTS WITH STABLE BRONCHIECTASIS', RESPIROLOGY, Thoracic Society Australia New Zealand Australian New Zealand Society Respiratory Science Annual Scientific Meeting 2015, WILEY-BLACKWELL, Queensland, AUSTRALIA, pp. 127-127.

Mitchell, A, Tang, F, Ge, Q, Morgan, L & Oliver, B 1970, 'Respiratory viruses can be isolated and identified from exhaled breath', 10.1 Respiratory Infections, Annual Congress 2015, European Respiratory Society.
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Mitchell, A, Tang, F, Ge, Q, Morgan, L & Oliver, B 1970, 'Viruses are commonly identified in the exhaled breath of adults with stable bronchiectasis', 10.1 Respiratory Infections, Annual Congress 2015, European Respiratory Society.
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Moalem-Taylor, G, Mao, Y, Tonkin, R, Nguyen, T, O'Carroll, S, Nicholson, L, Green, C & Gorrie, C 1970, 'Systemic delivery of a mimetic peptide against CONNEXIN43 GAP junction protein in rats following spinal cord injury', JOURNAL OF NEUROCHEMISTRY, 25th Biennial Meeting of the International-Society-for-Neurochemistry Jointly with the 13th Meeting of the Asian-Pacific-Society-for-Neurochemistry in Conjunction with the 35th Meeting of the Australasian-Neuroscience-Society, WILEY-BLACKWELL, Cairns, AUSTRALIA, pp. 361-361.

Nguyen, TN & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'Neural network decoupling technique and its application to a powered wheelchair system', 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Milano, Italy, pp. 4586-4589.
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© 2015 IEEE. This paper proposes a neural network decoupling technique for an uncertain multivariable system. Based on a linear diagonalization technique, a reference model is designed using nominal parameters to provide training signals for a neural network decoupler. A neural network model is designed to learn the dynamics of the uncertain multivariable system in order to avoid required calculations of the plant Jacobian. To avoid overfitting problem, both neural networks are trained by the Lavenberg-Marquardt with Bayesian regulation algorithm that uses a real-time recurrent learning algorithm to obtain gradient information. Three experimental results in the powered wheelchair control application confirm that the proposed technique effectively minimises the coupling effects caused by input-output interactions even under the condition of system uncertainties.

Pech, M, Weckmann, M, Oliver, BG, Franke, A, Heinsen, F-A & Kopp, M 1970, 'Recurrent Rv-Infection Modifies Dna-Methylation In A Bronchial Epithelial Cell Line', AMERICAN JOURNAL OF RESPIRATORY AND CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE, International Conference of the American-Thoracic-Society (ATS), AMER THORACIC SOC, Denver, CO.

Pendharkar, G, Naik, GR, Acharyya, A & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'Multiscale PCA to distinguish regular and irregular surfaces using tri axial head and trunk acceleration signals', 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Milan, Italy, pp. 4122-4125.
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This study uses multiscale principal component analysis (MSPCA) signal processing technique in order to distinguish the two different surfaces, tiled (regular) and cobbled (irregular) using accelerometry data (recorded from MTx sensors). Two MTx sensors were placed on the head and trunk of the subject while the subject walked freely over the regular and irregular surfaces during a free walk. 3D acceleration signals, vertical, medio lateral (ML) and anterior-posterior (AP) were recorded for the head and trunk segments and compared for the free walk on a defined route. The magnitude of the ML and AP acceleration obtained from the MTx sensors (for both head & trunk) was higher when walking over the irregular (cobbled) surface as compared to the regular (tiled) surface. The accelerometry data was initially analysed using MSPCA and was later classified using naïve Bayesian classifier with >86% accuracy. This research study demonstrates that MSPCA can be used to distinguish the regular and irregular surfaces. The proposed method could be very useful as an automated method for classification of the two surfaces.

Poon, J, Miro, JV & Black, R 1970, 'A Passive Estimator of Functional Degradation in Power Mobility Device Users', PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE/RAS-EMBS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON REHABILITATION ROBOTICS (ICORR 2015), IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, IEEE, Singapore, pp. 997-1002.
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© 2015 IEEE. This paper documents the development of a passive technique for assessing a power mobility device user's driving proficiency during everyday driving activities outside formal assessment conditions by therapists. This is approached by first building a model by means of an Artificial Neural Network to infer longer-Term destinations for discretized bouts of travel, and subsequently drawing cues indicative of decline in driving proficiency for the duration of point-To-point navigation rather than relying on instantaneously calculated metrics. This resultant quantity, which we refer to as 'functional degradation', can then provide therapists with additional information concerning user health or serve as a leveraging parameter in combinatory shared-control mobility frameworks. Experiments conducted by able-bodied users subject to simulated noise scaled to varying degrees of functional degradation reveal a quantitative correlation between these longer-Term proficiency metrics and the magnitude of degradation experienced; a promising outcome that sets the scene for a larger-scale clinical trial.

Pradhan, S, Gay, V & Nepal, S 1970, 'Analysing and using subjective criteria to improve dental care recommendation systems', Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, PACIS 2015 - Proceedings, Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, AISEL, Singapore.
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Online reviews and rating sites are shaping industries as the users rely on recommendations given by former consumers and sharing opinions on the web. Dentistry has also been impacted by dental patients' reviews. This paper classifies trust-related information for dental care recommendations onto 4 categories: context, relationship, reputation and subjective criteria. It discusses each category and describes how they help focussing on trust when matching patients and dentists in brief. The paper then focuses on subjective criteria and presents the results of a survey aimed at showing trustrelated information emerged from subjective characteristics. Traits of personalities are used as subjective characteristics of patients and that of dentists are derived from the online patients' reviews. 580 Australian patients were surveyed to determine what factors affect their decision to find the trusted dentist. Subjective characteristics of dentists such as dentists' qualities and experienced dentists are considered the most important factors after location and cost. The most preferred dentists' qualities by almost all types of personalities are experienced, professional and quality of service. When the patients are further classified based on levels of fear, their preferences for dentists' qualities changed. Subjective qualities of both patients and dentists are important factors to improve the matching capability for the dental care recommendation systems.

Rana, M, Li, L & Su, S 1970, 'Distributed microgrid state estimation using smart grid communications', 2015 IEEE PES Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC), 2015 IEEE PES Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC), IEEE, Brisbane Australia, pp. 1-5.
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© 2015 IEEE. Recently, the renewable distributed energy resources (DERs) have become more and more popular due to carbon-free energy sources and environment-friendly electricity generation. Due to the intermittent power generation patterns, the smart grid has a strong requisite for an efficient communication infrastructure to facilitate estimating the DER states. Different from the traditional methods of centralised state estimation, we propose a distributed approach to microgrid state estimation based on the concatenated coding structure. In this framework, the DER state is treated as a dynamic outer code and the recursive systematic convolutional code is seen as a concatenated inner code for protection and redundancy in the system states. Furthermore, this paper proposes a distributed state estimation method. The simulation results show that the proposed method can successfully estimate the DER states.

Rana, M, Li, L & Su, S 1970, 'Kalman filter based distributed state estimation with communication systems', 2015 IEEE PES Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC), 2015 IEEE PES Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC), IEEE, Brisbane, pp. 1-6.
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The internet of things (IoT) has been a prevalent research topic in recent years in both academia and industry. The main idea of this framework is the integration of physical objects into a global information network. The vision of the IoT is to integrate and connect anything at any time and any place. For this reason, it is being applied in various areas such as power system monitoring, environment monitoring, network control system, smart health care, military, smart cities management and industry revolution. To achieve the goals, the fifth generation (5G) technology will be the potential infrastructure that will assist the visions of the IoT. This paper proposes a distributed approach for microgrid state estimation. First of all, the modelling of a microgrid is presented. The microgrid state-space model is linearized around the operating point, so that the proposed distributed state estimation using the IoT with 5G networks can be applied. Moreover, we peropose a wireless sensor network based communication network to sense, transmit and estimate the microgrid states. Furthermore, this technical note proposes a novel distributed state estimation method. At the end, the simulation results show that the proposed method can successfully estimate the DER states using the IoT with 5G networks.

Rana, M, Li, L & Su, S 1970, 'Kalman filter based microgrid state estimation and control using the IoT with 5G networks', 2015 IEEE PES Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC), 2015 IEEE PES Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC), IEEE, Brisbane, Australia, pp. 1-5.
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Given the significant concerns regarding carbon emissions from fossil fuels, global warming and energy crisis, the renewable distributed energy resources (DERs) are going to be integrated in smart grids, which will make the energy supply more reliable and decrease the cost and transmission losses. Unfortunately, one of the key technical challenges in power system planning, control and operation with DERs is the voltage regulation at the distribution level. This problem stimulates the deployment of smart sensors and actuators in smart grids so that the voltage regulation can be controlled at an accepted level. The observation from the multiple DERs information is transmitted to a control center via the internet of things (IoT) based fifth generation (5G) communication network. In other words, the proposed communication infrastructure provides an opportunity to address the voltage regulation challenge by offering the two-way communication links for microgrid state information collection, estimation and control. Based on this innovative communication infrastructure, we propose a least square based Kalman filter for state estimation and a feedback control method for voltage regulation of this intermittent and weather-dependent renewable power generation. Specifically, we propose to optimize the performance index by using semidefinite programming techniques in the context of smart grid applications. At the end, the efficacy of the developed approaches is demonstrated using the linear physical model of a microgrid incorporating DERs.

Ren, B, O'Brien, BA, Alexander, IE, Nassif, NT, Tan, Y, Martiniello-Wilks, R & Simpson, AM 1970, 'Pancreatic Transdiffereniation of Human Hepatocytes in the Livers of a Humanized Mouse Model', MOLECULAR THERAPY, 18th Annual Meeting of the American-Society-of-Gene-and-Cell-Therapy (ASGCT), NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP, New Orleans, LA, pp. S110-S110.
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Roxby, DN, Tran, N, Yu, P-L & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'Experimenting with microbial fuel cells for powering implanted biomedical devices', 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Milan, Italy, pp. 2685-2688.
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© 2015 IEEE. Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) technology has the ability to directly convert sugar into electricity by using bacteria. Such a technology could be useful for powering implanted biomedical devices that require a surgery to replace their batteries every couple of years. In steps towards this, parameters such as electrode configuration, inoculation size, stirring of the MFC and single versus dual chamber reactor configuration were tested for their effect on MFC power output. Results indicate that a Top-Bottom electrode configuration, stirring and larger amounts of bacteria in single chamber MFCs, and smaller amounts of bacteria in dual chamber MFCs give increased power outputs. Finally, overall dual chamber MFCs give several fold larger MFC power outputs.

Shi, A, Shemesh, J, Asadnia, M, Robles, UA, Green, R, Yeoh, GH & Warkiani, ME 1970, 'A novel microfluidic patterning device for neuron-glia co-culture', MicroTAS 2015 - 19th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences, pp. 633-635.
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Many biological processes in the body are regulated by synchronized activity between two cell types. To study cell-cell interactions, it is necessary to develop easy to use co-culture systems, where different cell types can be cultured within the same confined space. Designing a complete 3D biomimetic system to study these interactions in vitro requires complex protocols and use of non-conventional materials such as hydrogels. This paper reports development of a temporarily sealed microfluidic device which utilizes a novel valve design to directly and accurately co-culture two cell lines in alternating rows, allowing them to proliferate towards each other and then observe their interaction at the boundaries of their interface.

Shi, L, Sun, L, Vidal-Calleja, T & Miro, JV 1970, 'Kernel-specific Gaussian process for predicting pipe wall thickness maps', Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation, ACRA, Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation, AARA, Canberra, pp. 1-8.
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Data organised in 2.5D such as elevation and thickness maps has been extensively studied in the fields of robotics and geostatistics. These maps are typically a probabilistic 2D grid that stores an estimated value (height or thickness) for each cell. Modelling the spatial dependencies and making inference on new grid locations is a common task that has been addressed using Gaussian random fields. However, inference faraway from the training areas results quite uncertain, therefore not informative enough for some applications. The objective of this re- search is to model the status of a pipeline based on limited and sparse local assessments, predicting the likely condition on pipes that have not been inspected. A customised kernel for Gaussian Processes (GP) is proposed to capture the spatial correlation of the pipe wall thickness data. An estimate of the likely condition of non-inspected pipes is achieved by con-cretising GP to a multivariate Gaussian distribution and generating realisations from the distribution. The performance of this approach is evaluated on various thickness maps from the same pipeline, where data have been obtained by measuring the actual remaining wall thickness. The output of this work aims to serve as the input of a structural analysis for failure risk estimation.

Shi, Y, Tuan, HD, Su, SW & Tam, HHM 1970, 'Nonsmooth optimization for optimal power flow over transmission networks', 2015 IEEE Global Conference on Signal and Information Processing (GlobalSIP), 2015 IEEE Global Conference on Signal and Information Processing (GlobalSIP), IEEE, Orlando, FL, pp. 1141-1144.
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The optimal power flow (OPF) of a power transmission network is a NP-hard optimization problem with nonlinear equality and inequality constraints on the bus voltages. The existing nonlinear solvers often fail in yielding a feasible solution. Semi-definite relaxation (SDR) could provide an optimal solution only when the optimal solution of the relaxed semi-definite program (SDP) is of rank-one, which does not hold in general. Otherwise, the solution found by SDR is infeasible. Very recently, high-order semi-definite relaxation has been used to find the global optimal solution but such approach leads to an explosive growth of the variable dimension and so could be applied to test OPF with very small networks with 2, 3 and 5 buses, where there are only 2, 3 and 5 voltages variables. In this paper, we adapt our previously developed nonsmooth optimization algorithm to address this difficult OPF problem, which is an iterative process to generate a sequence of improved solution that converges to an optimal solution. Each its iteration calls a SDP of a moderate dimension. Preliminary simulations for difficult OPF problems of networks with a large number of buses are provided to show the efficiency of our approach.

Simpson, A, Ren, B, O'Brien, BA, Alexander, IE, Nassif, NT, Tan, Y & Martiniello-Wilks, R 1970, 'Gene therapy for diabetes: reversal of diabetes in the humanised FRG mouse model', XENOTRANSPLANTATION, IPITA/IXA/CTS Joint Congress, WILEY-BLACKWELL, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA, pp. S41-S42.

Simpson, A, Ren, B, O'Brien, BA, Alexander, IE, Nassif, NT, Tan, Y & Martiniello-Wilks, R 1970, 'GENE THERAPY FOR DIABETES: REVERSAL OF DIABETES IN THE HUMANISED FRG MOUSE MODEL.', TRANSPLANTATION, Joint Congress of the International-Pancreas-and-Islet-Transplantation-Association, International-Xenotransplantation-Association and Cell-Transplant-Society, LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA, pp. S67-S67.

Stelzer-Braid, S, Tovey, E, Willenborg, C, Toelle, B, Ampon, R, Garden, F, Oliver, B, Strachan, R, Belessis, Y, Jaffe, A, Reddel, H, Crisafulli, D, Marks, G & Rawlinson, W 1970, 'ABSENCE OF SEASONAL PEAKS IN HUMAN RHINOVIRUS AND ASTHMA EXCERBATIONS IN A COHORT OF CHILDREN WITH ASTHMA CONTRASTS TO COMMUNITY INCIDENCE OF DISEASE EXACERBATIONS', RESPIROLOGY, Thoracic Society Australia New Zealand Australian New Zealand Society Respiratory Science Annual Scientific Meeting 2015, WILEY-BLACKWELL, Queensland, AUSTRALIA, pp. 54-54.

Su, D, Miro, JV, Vidal-Calleja, T & IEEE 1970, 'Modelling In-Pipe Acoustic Signal Propagation for Condition Assessment of Multi-Layer Water Pipelines', PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2015 10TH IEEE CONFERENCE ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS AND APPLICATIONS, IEEE Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications, IEEE, Auckland, New Zealand, pp. 545-550.
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© 2015 IEEE. A solution to the condition assessment of fluid-filled conduits based on the analysis of in-pipe acoustic signal propagation is presented in this paper. The sensor arrangement consists of an acoustic emitter from which a known sonic pulse is generated, and a collocated hydrophone receiver that records the arrival acoustic wave at a high sampling rate. The proposed method exploits the influence of the surrounding environment on the propagation of an acoustic wave to estimate the condition of the pipeline. Specifically, the propagation speed of an acoustic wave is influenced by the hoop stiffness of the surrounding materials, a fact that has been exploited in the analysis of boreholes in the literature. In this work, this finding is extended to validate the analytical expression derived to infer the condition of uniform, axis-symmetric lined waterworks, a first step to ultimately be able to predict the remaining active life (time-to-failure) of pipelines with arbitrary geometries through finite element analysis (FEA). An investigation of the various aspects of the proposed methodology with typical pipe material and structures is presented to appreciate the advantages of modelling acoustic waves behaviours in fluid-filled cylindrical cavities for condition assessment of water pipelines.

Su, D, Miro, JV, Vidal-Calleja, T & IEEE 1970, 'Real-time Sound Source Localisation for Target Tracking Applications using an Asynchronous Microphone Array', PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2015 10TH IEEE CONFERENCE ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS AND APPLICATIONS, IEEE Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications, IEEE, Auckland, New Zealand, pp. 1266-1271.
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© 2015 IEEE. This paper presents a strategy for sound source localisation using an asynchronous microphone array. The proposed method is suitable for target tracking applications, in which the sound source with a known frequency is attached to the target. Conventional microphone array technologies require a multi-channel A/D converter for inter-microphone synchronization making the technology relatively expensive. In this work, the requirement of synchronization between channels is relaxed by adding an external reference audio signal. The only assumption is that the frequencies of the reference signal and the sound source attached to the target are fixed and known beforehand. By exploiting the information provided by the known reference signal, the Direction Of Arrival (DOA) of target sound source can be calculated in real-time. The key idea of the algorithm is to use the reference source to 'pseudo-align' the audio signals from different channels. Once the channels are 'pseudo-aligned', a dedicated DOA estimation method based on Time Difference Of Arrival (TDOA) can be employed to find the relative bearing information between the target sound source and microphone array. Due to the narrow band of frequency of target sound source, the proposed approach is proven to be robust to low signals-to-noise ratios. Comprehensive simulations and experimental results are presented to show the validity of the algorithm.

SU, D, VALLS MIRO, J & VIDAL-CALLEJA, T 1970, 'GRAPH-SLAM BASED CALIBRATION OF AN EMBEDDED ASYNCHRONOUS MICROPHONE ARRAY FOR OUTDOOR ROBOTIC TARGET TRACKING', Assistive Robotics, CLAWAR 2015: 18th International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots and the Support Technologies for Mobile Machines, WORLD SCIENTIFIC, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, pp. 641-648.
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© 2015, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte Ltd. All rights reserved. This paper presents a strategy for sound source localisation using an embedded asynchronous microphone array for robotic target tracking application. Conventional microphone array technologies require a multi-channel A/D converter for inter-microphone synchronization making the technology relatively expensive. In our method, a synchronization free embedded asynchronous microphone array has released this requirement. The microphone array needs self calibration using graph-based SLAM method, which estimates starting time offset and clock difference/drift rate of each microphone channel using Gauss-Newton least square optimization. The proposed method is suitable for target tracking applications.

Su, D, Vidal-Calleja, T, Mins, JV & IEEE 1970, 'Simultaneous asynchronous microphone array calibration and sound source localisation', 2015 IEEE/RSJ INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT ROBOTS AND SYSTEMS (IROS), IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IEEE, Hamburg, Germany, pp. 5561-5567.
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© 2015 IEEE. In this paper, an approach for sound source localisation and calibration of an asynchronous microphone array is proposed to be solved simultaneously. A graph-based Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) method is used for this purpose. Traditional sound source localisation using a microphone array has two main requirements. Firstly, geometrical information of microphone array is needed. Secondly, a multichannel analog-to-digital converter is required to obtain synchronous readings of the audio signal. Recent works aim at releasing these two requirements by estimating the time offset between each pair of microphones. However, it was assumed that the clock timing in each microphone sound card is exactly the same, which requires the clocks in the sound cards to be identically manufactured. A methodology is hereby proposed to calibrate an asynchronous microphone array using a graph-based optimisation method borrowed from the SLAM literature, effectively estimating the array geometry, time offset and clock difference/drift rate of each microphone together with the sound source locations. Simulation and experimental results are presented, which prove the effectiveness of the proposed methodology in achieving accurate estimates of the microphone array characteristics needed to be used on realistic settings with asynchronous sound devices.

Su, SW, Tuan, HD, Chen, W, Nguyen, HT & Celler, BG 1970, 'Conditions for simultaneous decentralized integral controllability', 2015 Australian Control Conference, AUCC 2015, Australian Control Conference, IEEE, Gold Coast, Australia, pp. 144-147.
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This paper explores the designing of a decentralized integral controller to simultaneously ensure closed loop decentralized unconditional stability for a set of multi-variable models. If such a controller exists, then the set of models is considered as Simultaneously Decentralized Integral Controllable (SDIC). We provide an sufficient SDIC condition under which an approach is given to simultaneously achieve closed loop decentralized unconditional stability.

Sun, L, Vidal-Calleja, T & Miro, JV 1970, 'Bayesian fusion using conditionally independent submaps for high resolution 2.5D mapping', 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), IEEE, Seattle, Washington, United States, pp. 3394-3400.
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© 2015 IEEE. Typically 2.5D maps provide a compact and efficient representation of the environment. When sensor data is obtained from multiple sets of noisy measurements at differing resolutions, the problem of compounding this information together to provide an effective and efficient means of mapping is not trivial, particularly as the size of the environment increases. In this paper, we propose a general framework for integrating heterogeneous sensor data to obtain large-scale 2.5D probabilistic maps. Gaussian Processes are used to generate a prior map that learns the spatial correlation between nearby points. Bayesian data fusion is then employed to update these prior maps with new measurements from distinct sensor modalities. In order to deal with large scale data, a novel submapping strategy is introduced to perform the fusion step efficiently in dealing with large covariance matrices. Submaps are first marginalised from the learned correlated prior and then updated based on the property of conditional independence. Most notably, the technique lends itself to generate accurate estimates at arbitrary resolutions and is able to handle varying noise from disparate sensor sources. The framework is applied to pipeline thickness mapping, with experimental results in fusing a high-resolution sensor and a low-resolution sensor showing the ability of the proposed technique to capture spatial correlations to come up with more accurate results when compared with a naïve fusion approach.

Sutherland, T, Mao, Y, Nguyen, T & Gorrie, C 1970, 'Comparing innate immune cell and progenitor cell responses 24 h after spinal cord injury in neonates, juvenile and adult rats', JOURNAL OF NEUROCHEMISTRY, 25th Biennial Meeting of the International-Society-for-Neurochemistry Jointly with the 13th Meeting of the Asian-Pacific-Society-for-Neurochemistry in Conjunction with the 35th Meeting of the Australasian-Neuroscience-Society, WILEY-BLACKWELL, AUSTRALIA, Cairns, pp. 126-127.

Tang, F, Foxley, G, Gibson, P, Burgess, J, Baines, K & Oliver, B 1970, 'Different innate neutrophil responses in controlled and uncontrolled asthma', 10.1 Respiratory Infections, Annual Congress 2015, European Respiratory Society.
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Tang, F, Hansbro, P, Burgess, J, Baines, K & Oliver, B 1970, 'LSC Abstract – A novel immune regulatory function of neutrophils in rhinovirus infections', 10.1 Respiratory Infections, Annual Congress 2015, European Respiratory Society.
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Tang, F, Hansbro, P, Burgess, J, Baines, K & Oliver, B 1970, 'Neutrophils are immuno-modulatory in rhinovirus infections', 10.1 Respiratory Infections, Annual Congress 2015, European Respiratory Society.
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Tang, F, Hansbro, P, Burgess, J, Baines, K & Oliver, B 1970, 'NEUTROPHILS DISPLAY IMMUNOREGULATORY ROLES IN RHINOVIRUS INFECTIONS', RESPIROLOGY, Thoracic Society Australia New Zealand Australian New Zealand Society Respiratory Science Annual Scientific Meeting 2015, WILEY-BLACKWELL, Queensland, AUSTRALIA, pp. 128-128.

Tang, FS, Hansbro, PM, Burgess, JK, Baines, KJ & Oliver, BG 1970, 'A Novel Immune-Modulatory Role Of Neutrophils In Viral Infections', AMERICAN JOURNAL OF RESPIRATORY AND CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE, International Conference of the American-Thoracic-Society (ATS), AMER THORACIC SOC, Denver, CO.

Ting, SS, Min, EH, Nguyen, HT, Stenzel, MH & Hutvagner, G 1970, 'Targeted delivery of siRNA using glycopolymer', 35th Australasian Polymer Symposium, 35th Australasian Polymer Symposium, Gold Coast, Australia.
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Liver is an essential part of the human biological system as it serves to detoxify, synthesize protein and produce biochemicals necessary for digestion. However, there have been common liver diseases namely, hepatitis (A, B, C, and E), fatty liver, cirrhosis and ultimately liver cancer. RNA interference (RNAi) mediated through double-stranded small interfering RNA (siRNA) pave the way to knockdown disease causing gene.1 Nevertheless, effective delivery of siRNA is an arduous task as they are very prone to degradation and are difficult to target specific cells. Glycopolymers are carbohydrates based polymers that recognise biological receptors on cells.2 This project focuses on the design of synthetic glycopolymer architectures using reversible addition-fragmentation transfer (RAFT) polymerization of sugar containing monomers for conjugations of siRNA. Galactose based monomer are selected here, as liver cancer cells over-expressed asialoglycoproteins, which are galactose recognising receptors. Moreover, synthetic delivery system has been reported to protect enzymatic degradation of therapeutics during delivery in the biological enviroment.3 Figure 1 shows the synthetic approach towards glycopolymers for the conjugation of siRNA by using a 4-Cyano-4-[(dodecylsulfanylthiocarbonyl)sulfanyl] pentanoic acid (CPDT) RAFT agent, 4,4′-Azobis(4-cyanovaleric acid) (ACVA) initiator polymerized in dioxane. Figure 2 display the increased in molecular weights of polymers with increasing monomer conversions.

Truong, BCQ, Tuan, HD, Fitzgerald, AJ, Wallace, VP, Nguyen, TN & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'Breast Cancer classification using extracted parameters from a terahertz dielectric model of human breast tissue', 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Milano, Italy, pp. 2804-2807.
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© 2015 IEEE. Our previous study proposed a dielectric model for human breast tissue and provided initial analysis of classification potential of the eight model parameters and their multiparameter combinations with the support vector machine (SVM). A combination of three model parameters could achieve a leave-one-out cross validation accuracy of 93.2%. However, the SVM approach fails to exploit the combinations of more than three model parameters for classification improvement. Thus, the Bayesian neural network (BNN) method is employed to overcome this problem based on its advantages of handling our small data and high complexity of the multiparamter combinations. The BNN successfully classifies the data using the combinations of four model parameters with an accuracy, estimated by leave-one-out cross validation, of 97.3%. Overall performance assessed by leaveone- out and repeated random-subsampling cross validations for all examined combinations is also remarkably improved by BNN. The results indicate the advance of BNN as compared to SVM in utilising the model parameters for detecting tumour from normal breast tissue.

Tsakonas, A & Gabrys, B 1970, 'Application of Base Learners as Conditional Input for Fuzzy Rule-Based Combined System', Studies in Computational Intelligence, Springer International Publishing, pp. 19-32.
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© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014. The aim of this work is to examine the possibility of using the output of base learners as antecedents for fuzzy rule-based hybrid ensembles. We select a flexible, grammar-driven framework for generating ensembles that combines multilayer perceptrons and support vector machines by means of genetic programming. We assess the proposed model in three real-world regression problems and we test it against multi-level, hierarchical ensembles. Our first results show that for a given large size of the base learners pool, the outputs of some of them can be useful in the antecedent parts to produce accurate ensembles, while at the same time other more accurate members of the same pool contribute in the consequent part.

Wang, Z, Yang, Y, Chang, S, Li, J, Fong, S & Huang, TS 1970, 'A joint optimization framework of sparse coding and discriminative clustering', IJCAI International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 1st International Workshop on Social Influence Analysis / 24th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), IJCAI-INT JOINT CONF ARTIF INTELL, Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA, pp. 3932-3938.
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Many clustering methods highly depend on extracted features. In this paper, we propose a joint optimization framework in terms of both feature extraction and discriminative clustering. We utilize graph regularized sparse codes as the features, and formulate sparse coding as the constraint for clustering. Two cost functions are developed based on entropy-minimization and maximum-margin clustering principles, respectively, as the objectives to be minimized. Solving such a bi-level optimization mutually reinforces both sparse coding and clustering steps. Experiments on several benchmark datasets verify remarkable performance improvements led by the proposed joint optimization.

Whyte, T, Gibson, T, Milthorpe, B & Eager, D 1970, 'Full-face motorcycle helmet protection from facial impacts', AIPN 12th Injury Prevention & Safety Conference, AIPN Injury Prevention & Safety Conference, Sydney.

Wijerathna, B, Kodagoda, S, Miro, JV & Dissanayake, G 1970, 'Iterative coarse to fine approach for interpretation of defect profiles using MFL measurements', 2015 IEEE 10th Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ICIEA), 2015 IEEE 10th Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ICIEA), IEEE, Auckland, New Zealand, pp. 1099-1104.
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© 2015 IEEE. Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) is a commonly used technology for non destructive evaluation of ferromagnetic materials. MFL in general is used to estimate isolated defect geometry. In this study, a coarse to fine approach is proposed to interpret MFL measurements for continuous defect profiling. The coarse solution is implemented using a Gaussian Processes (GP) model and the fine approach is implemented using an unconstrained non-linear optimiser. This framework was tested on a 100 year old 600mm diameter cast iron pipe line. Some pipe sections were extracted, grit blasted and profiled using a sub millimetre accurate 3 - D laser scanner. The coarse to fine predictions were compared with the laser measured ground truth with just 1.2 mm RMS error.

Winata, P, McGowan, E, Nassif, N & Reid, G 1970, 'Detecting delivery of a microRNA drug', New Horizons Conference 2015, University of Technology Sydney (UTS).

Yee, J, Davis, GM, Hackett, D, Beith, JM, Wilcken, N, Currow, D, Emery, J, Phillips, J, Martin, A, Hui, R, Harrison, M, Segelov, E & Kilbreath, SL 1970, 'Physical Activity For Women With Metastatic Breast Cancer', Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health), pp. 464-464.
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Zarepour, E, Hassan, M, Chou, CT, Adesina, AA & Warkiani, ME 1970, 'Reliability analysis of time-varying wireless nanoscale sensor networks', 2015 IEEE 15th International Conference on Nanotechnology (IEEE-NANO), 2015 IEEE 15th International Conference on Nanotechnology (IEEE-NANO), IEEE, ROME, ITALY, pp. 63-68.
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Zarepour, E, Hassan, N, Hassan, M, Tung Chou, C & Ebrahimi Warkiani, M 1970, 'Design and Analysis of a Wireless Nanosensor Network for Monitoring Human Lung Cells', Proceedings of the 10th EAI International Conference on Body Area Networks, 10th EAI International Conference on Body Area Networks, ICST.
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© 2015 ICST. Thanks to nanotechnology, it is now possible to fabricate sensor nodes below 100 nanometers in size. Although wireless communication at this scale has not been successfully demonstrated yet, simulations confirm that these sensor nodes would be able to communicate in the terahertz band using graphene as a transmission antenna. These developments suggest that deployment of wireless nanoscale sensor networks (WNSNs) inside human body could be a reality one day. In this paper, we design and analyse a WNSN for monitoring human lung cells. We find that respiration, i.e., the periodic inhalation and exhalation of oxygen and carbon dioxide, is the major process that inuences the terahertz channel inside lung cells. The channel is characterised as a two-state channel, where it periodically switches between good and bad states. Using real human respiratory data, we -nd that the channel absorbs terahertz signal much faster when it is in bad state compared to good state. Our simulation experiments confirm that we could reduce transmission power of the nanosensors, and hence the electromagnetic radiation inside lungs due to deployment of WNSN, by a factor of 20 if we could schedule all communication only during good channel states. We propose two duty cycling protocols along with a simple channel estimation algorithm that enables nanosensors to achieve such scheduling.

Zhang, L, Hu, X, Su, S, Dorrell, DG & IEEE 1970, 'Robust State-of-Charge Estimation of Ultracapacitors for Electric Vehicles', PROCEEDINGS 2015 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INDUSTRIAL INFORMATICS (INDIN), IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics (INDIN), IEEE, Cambridge, UK, pp. 1296-1301.
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© 2015 IEEE. Ultracapacitors (UCs) are an important energy storage technology in automotive and grid applications. They have several advantages, including high power density and extraordinarily long lifespan. Accurate State-of-Charge (SOC) tracking of UCs is critical for the reliability, resilience, and safety in system operation. This paper presents a novel robust H infinity observer in order to realize the SOC estimation of a UC in real time. It is computationally efficient because the observer gain involved in the real-time computation can be readily synthesized offline. In comparison to state-of-the-art Kalman filtering (KF), the developed robust scheme can ensure high estimation accuracy even without prior knowledge of the process and noise measurement statistical properties. More significantly, the H infinity observer proves to be more robust and tolerant to modeling uncertainties arising from the change of operating conditions and/or cell health status. These benefits are experimentally verified.

Zhang, T, Zhou, C & Su, S 1970, 'Design and development of bio-inspired flapping wing aerial vehicles', 2015 International Conference on Advanced Robotics and Intelligent Systems (ARIS), 2015 International Conference on Advanced Robotics and Intelligent Systems (ARIS), IEEE, Taipei, Taiwan, pp. 1-6.
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This paper introduces the design and development process of a flapping wing air vehicle (FWAV) and the modified Silver-Gull inspired flapping wing air vehicle (SGFWAV). The selection of the flapping mechanism, power source, material and the associated manufacturing methods are discussed. Free flight test showed that the flapping of the wings were unstable due to the configuration of the flapping mechanism. A modified flapping mechanism is applied on the SGFWAV. The mathematical model of the SGFWAV is established and initial flight simulation indicates that the tail's motion generate additional aerodynamic lift and propulsive forces for the SGFWAV.

De Abreu Lourenco, R, Haywood, P, Parkinson, B, van Gool, K & Viney, R CHERE 2015, The economic implications of a genomically guided approach to cancer: A report by the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation for the Cancer Council, Sydney.
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This report examines how genomically based approaches may also alter the way that new technologies are funded and adopted in the health care system. In particular, how they challenge the routine pathways by which technologies are diffused into routine practice. The report also focuses on how genomically guided technologies challenge current coverage decisions. It examines the economic evidence-base for assessing the cost and benefits of such technologies. In doing so, the report highlights the current limitations in this field of research as identified through a systematic review of recommendations made by Australian policy-makers, as well as through a review of the literature. This analysis is then used to develop a framework for economic evaluations with special reference to genomically based technologies. Finally, the report also identifies a number of key policy challenges for the efficient diffusion of genomically guided cancer care into the Australian health care system.

Darcy, SA 2015, 'Stop, go back, the NDIS board shake-up is going the wrong way'.
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The article examines the underlying charter of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the current board structure and the proposed changes to the board. It is suggested that by 'corporatizing' the board structure with people of high-level business experience without an understanding of disability that a fundamental principle of the establishment of the NDIS has been compromised. People with disability and those with an understanding of the disability sector should be core

Leijdekkers, P & Gay, V 2015, 'Combining Health and Fitness Data for a Better User-centred Digital Healthcare: There is an App for That!'.

Phillips, JL, Newton, P & Davidson, P 2015, 'Palliative Care Service Provision for People with Heart Failure, The view from Australia', Heart failure, From Advanced Disease to Bereavement.

Ventura, AD, Newton-John, T, Mosely, K, Browne, JL & Speight, J 2015, 'Social Support and Social Control in Type 2 Diabetes: An Interview Study', AMER DIABETES ASSOC, pp. A229-A229.