Publications

Barton, RW, Tatake, JG & Diwan, AR 2016, 'Nanoviricides: Targeted anti-viral nanomaterials' in Bawa, R, Audette, GF & Rubinstein, I (eds), Handbook of Clinical Nanomedicine: Nanoparticles, Imaging, Therapy and Clinical Applications, CRC Press, USA, pp. 1039-1052.
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Ben-Nissan, B, Choi, AH, Macha, IJ & Cazalbou, S 2016, 'Sol-gel Nanocoatings of Bioceramics' in Antoniac, IV (ed), Handbook of Bioceramics and Biocomposites, Springer International Publishing, Germany, pp. 735-756.
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© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.The ability to produce homogeneous high-purity materials is of great interest to industrial and medical applications. In addition, the chemical and physical changes observed at the nanoscale and their influence on properties have been an important academic interest. The gel-structure transition plays a critical role in the formation as well as the current production of various types of sol-gel-derived materials such as nanopowders, nanofibers, nanocoatings, nanocomposites, and solid monoliths. It is the area of thin film coatings produced by sol-gel technology that this chapter covers. In particular, this chapter focuses on the basic synthesis and application methods to produce nanocoatings for biomedical applications. This chapter also attempts to answer some of the pertinent questions related to sol-gel processing and production methods and issues related to the fundamental understanding of the sol-gel process.

Choi, AH, Ben-Nissan, B, Bendavid, A & Latella, B 2016, 'Mechanical behavior and properties of thin films for biomedical applications' in Thin Film Coatings for Biomaterials and Biomedical Applications, Elsevier, pp. 117-141.
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Choi, AH, Cazalbou, S & Ben-Nissan, B 2016, 'Biomimetics and Marine Materials in Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering' in Antoniac, IV (ed), Handbook of Bioceramics and Biocomposites, Springer International Publishing, Germany, pp. 521-544.
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© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016. During the last two decades, biomimetics has provided mankind new directions for the utilization of natural organic and inorganic skeletons for novel drug delivery systems and new medical treatment approaches with unique designs ranging from the macro- to the nanoscale. The use of ready-made organic and inorganic marine skeletons has potentially created an opportunity of presenting one of the simplest cures to fundamental issues hampering the future development of regenerative medicine, dentistry, and orthopedics such as providing a richness of framework designs and devices and abundant and available sources of osteopromotive analogues and biomineralization proteins. Organic matrix and inorganic marine skeletons possess a habitat ideal for the proliferation of added mesenchymal stem cell populations and promoting clinically acceptable bone formation. It has been proven that self-sustaining musculoskeletal tissues can be supported by coral and marine sponge skeletons, and bone mineralization can be promoted by the extracts of spongin collagen and nacre seashell organic matrices. This idea is reinforced by the fact that bone morphogenetic protein molecules are produced by endodermal cells into the developing skeleton. Furthermore, the regenerative signaling proteins in bone therapeutics such as TGF and Wnt are also present in early marine sponge development and instrumental to the activation of stem cells in cnidarians. This chapter aims to give a brief background into the nature, morphology, and application of some of these structures in bone grafts, drug delivery, tissue engineering, and specific extracts such as proteins for regenerative medicine.

Currow, DC & Phillips, JL 2016, 'Chronic Conditions and Cancer at the End of Life' in Koczwara, B (ed), Cancer and Chronic Conditions, Springer Singapore, Singapore, pp. 455-475.
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The majority of people diagnosed with cancer are older and therefore are likely to have co-morbidities at the time it is diagnosed and if the cancer progresses to advanced disease. Guidance in the process of managing long-term co-morbidities at the end of life requires clarity about the goals of care for the person’s cancer, and for each of his/her co-morbidities. Why was a particular therapy started in the first place? What risk is the therapy mitigating, and does it need to be continued? Very few studies help to inform the process of ceasing medications. For example, with cachexia and its associated weight loss, frequently encountered in advanced cancer, the management of two of the most frequent conditions—hypertension and diabetes —will change. The need for anti-hypertensives will decrease or the person will risk postural symptoms and the need for lower doses of hypoglycaemic agents and liberalised diets will be hallmarks of managing diabetes in order to avoid hypoglycaemia. Mostly, this care is in the setting of multiple co-morbidities, making review a complex and continuing process. Changes in co-morbidities can also directly influence the anti-cancer therapies that are available to patients, because of characteristics of the drug itself or changes in metabolism or elimination. Adjusting chemotherapy in advanced disease also requires careful evaluation of the goals of palliative treatment—are there symptoms that can best be addressed by disease modifying treatments or are there other more direct, better tolerated symptom control therapies available? Not only will there be a need for active management of long-term co-morbidities, but people will need to adjust psychologically to these changes. Modifying the goals of treatment is often the most overt signal to people that their disease is progressing and therefore can be particularly confronting. Such changes will often precipitate, or are an opportunity for, much wider conversations about life, dying and dea...

Gerace, D, Martiniello-Wilks, R & Simpson, AM 2016, 'Viral-Mediated Gene Therapy for the Generation of Artificial Insulin-Producing Cells as a Therapeutic Treatment for Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus' in Hardikar, AA (ed), Pancreatic Islet Biology, Springer International Publishing, Germany, pp. 241-255.
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Over the past decade, several approaches have been employed to develop cell and gene therapy strategies that generate artificial insulin-producing cells (IPCs) for potential therapeutic applications in the treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) . The genetic engineering of functional IPCs necessitates a broad understanding of the pancreatic developmental process and the β cell transcription factors that govern mature β cell differentiation and function. To successfully obtain functional IPCs, the type of vectors utilised for gene transfer and the selection of a suitable target cell for subsequent differentiation into IPCs is of fundamental importance. Techniques for manufacturing IPCs include the dedifferentiation and directed transdifferentiation of autologous or allogeneic cells ex vivo followed by transplantation and the in vivo transdifferentiation of target tissue via viral gene transfer. Ultimately, the goal is to construct IPCs that have the capacity to process, store and secrete insulin in response to fluctuating blood glucose levels, whilst avoiding the administration of immunosuppressants and recurrent autoimmune destruction, thereby indefinitely restoring normoglycaemia.

Kavanagh, D 2016, 'Preface.' in Majumder, P, Mitra, M, Mehta, P, Sankhavara, J & Ghosh, K (eds), Working notes of FIRE 2016 - Forum for Information Retrieval Evaluation, Kolkata, India, December 7-10, 2016., CEUR-WS.org, Sydney, pp. 202-222.
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The chapter presents the framework of the book, sets the thematic direction and outlines each of the chapters.

Li, J & Wong, L 2016, 'Overview and Analysis of Contrast Pattern Based Classifica- tion' in Dong, G & Bailey, J (eds), Contrast Data Mining, Chapman and Hall/CRC, USA, pp. 175-194.
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Phillips, JL & Agar, MR 2016, 'Symptom management at the end of life' in Palliative Care in Respiratory Disease, European Respiratory Society, pp. 221-232.
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Rana, MM, Li, L & Su, S 2016, 'Microgrid State Estimation Using the IoT with 5G Technology' in Mavromoustakis, CX, Mastorakis, G & Batalla, JM (eds), Internet of Things (IoT) in 5G Mobile Technologies, Springer International Publishing, Germany, pp. 175-195.
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Stratton-Powell, AA & Tipper, JL 2016, 'Characterization of UHMWPE Wear Particles' in UHMWPE Biomaterials Handbook, Elsevier, pp. 635-653.
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© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Although most total joint prostheses remain stable for many years, a significant proportion experience loosening, with about 10% requiring revision 10 years after primary arthroplasty. It is generally accepted that osteolysis, among other causes, is initiated by the biological response to wear particles, which are released from ultra high molecular weight polyethylene acetabular liners and tibial trays. Wear particles up to 10 μm in size are predicted to be phagocytosed by resident macrophages and cause the release of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, including tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-1beta (IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8. These cytokines stimulate the release of other mediators and the ensuing inflammatory cascade results in the formation of a periprosthetic granulomatous tissue reaction. Histopathological studies have revealed that these inflammatory cytokines facilitate osteoclastagenesis, which results in resorption of bone and a painfully loose implant. Revision surgery is currently the only option for the patient and surgeon.

., RMA 2016, 'A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW ON WHAT FEATURES SHOULD BE SUPPORTED BY FITNESS APPS AND WEARABLES TO HELP USERS OVERCOME OBESITY', International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology, vol. 05, no. 09, pp. 197-206.
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Obesity is a major global challenge. It increases the risk of developing health problems such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Its prevalence puts pressure on the healthcare systems and on individuals’ health and finances as well. The use of fitness technology, mobile apps and wearable devices in supporting health behaviour change is promising. Fitness technology not only expands opportunities for users to access health related information but also facilitate cueing behaviour change and collection of ongoing personal data. The objective of this paper is to identify the features that should be supported by health and fitness apps and fitness wearable devices to encourage obese individuals to be active, change their lifestyle and to keep them motivated to overcome obesity. Firstly, it investigates the effectiveness and the efficiency of prevalent fitness apps and fitness wearable devices design features used to encourage physical activity. It then provides a method to evaluate both fitness apps and fitness wearable devices as motivational tools. The results regarding mobile apps highlight that goal setting, monitoring/tracking and feedback are the best features for motivation and that Zombie Run is the best fitness app for the Australian market in 2015. The results in regards to wearable devices emphasise reminders, tracking / monitoring/ feedback and goals / rewards are the best features for motivation and that Garmin Vivofitis the best fitness wearable devices for the American market in 2015. These results are useful for the users; fitness apps’ and fitness wearable devices’ developers because they provide some understanding of the various features needed to motivate individuals.

Agar, MR, Quinn, SJ, Crawford, GB, Ritchie, CS, Phillips, JL, Collier, A & Currow, DC 2016, 'Predictors of Mortality for Delirium in Palliative Care', JOURNAL OF PALLIATIVE MEDICINE, vol. 19, no. 11, pp. 1205-1209.
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Ahadi, A, Brennan, S, Kennedy, PJ, Hutvagner, G & Tran, N 2016, 'Long non-coding RNAs harboring miRNA seed regions are enriched in prostate cancer exosomes', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1-14.
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AbstractLong non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) form the largest transcript class in the human transcriptome. These lncRNA are expressed not only in the cells, but they are also present in the cell-derived extracellular vesicles such as exosomes. The function of these lncRNAs in cancer biology is not entirely clear, but they appear to be modulators of gene expression. In this study, we characterize the expression of lncRNAs in several prostate cancer exosomes and their parental cell lines. We show that certain lncRNAs are enriched in cancer exosomes with the overall expression signatures varying across cell lines. These exosomal lncRNAs are themselves enriched for miRNA seeds with a preference for let-7 family members as well as miR-17, miR-18a, miR-20a, miR-93 and miR-106b. The enrichment of miRNA seed regions in exosomal lncRNAs is matched with a concomitant high expression of the same miRNA. In addition, the exosomal lncRNAs also showed an over representation of RNA binding protein binding motifs. The two most common motifs belonged to ELAVL1 and RBMX. Given the enrichment of miRNA and RBP sites on exosomal lncRNAs, their interplay may suggest a possible function in prostate cancer carcinogenesis.

Al Khamici, H, Hossain, K, Cornell, B & Valenzuela, S 2016, 'Investigating Sterol and Redox Regulation of the Ion Channel Activity of CLIC1 Using Tethered Bilayer Membranes', Membranes, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 51-51.
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The Chloride Intracellular Ion Channel (CLIC) family consists of six conserved proteins in humans. These are a group of enigmatic proteins, which adopt both a soluble and membrane bound form. CLIC1 was found to be a metamorphic protein, where under specific environmental triggers it adopts more than one stable reversible soluble structural conformation. CLIC1 was found to spontaneously insert into cell membranes and form chloride ion channels. However, factors that control the structural transition of CLIC1 from being an aqueous soluble protein into a membrane bound protein have yet to be adequately described. Using tethered bilayer lipid membranes and electrical impedance spectroscopy system, herein we demonstrate that CLIC1 ion channel activity is dependent on the type and concentration of sterols in bilayer membranes. These findings suggest that membrane sterols play an essential role in CLIC1's acrobatic switching from a globular soluble form to an integral membrane form, promoting greater ion channel conductance in membranes. What remains unclear is the precise nature of this regulation involving membrane sterols and ultimately determining CLIC1's membrane structure and function as an ion channel. Furthermore, our impedance spectroscopy results obtained using CLIC1 mutants, suggest that the residue Cys24 is not essential for CLIC1's ion channel function. However Cys24 does appear important for optimal ion channel activity. We also observe differences in conductance between CLIC1 reduced and oxidized forms when added to our tethered membranes. Therefore, we conclude that both membrane sterols and redox play a role in the ion channel activity of CLIC1.

Alarkawi, D, Bliuc, D, Nguyen, TV, Eisman, JA & Center, JR 2016, 'Contribution of Lumbar Spine BMD to Fracture Risk in Individuals With T-Score Discordance', Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 274-280.
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ABSTRACT   Fracture risk estimates are usually based on femoral neck (FN) BMD. It is unclear how to address T-score discordance, where lumbar spine (LS) T-score is lower than FN T-score. The objective of this work was to examine the impact of LS BMD on fracture risk, in individuals with lower LS T-score than FN T-score. Participants aged 60+ years from the Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study with LS and FN BMD measured at first visit, and were followed from 1989 to 2014. Five-hundred and seventy-three (573) of 2270 women and 131 of 1373 men had lower LS than FN T-score by ≥0.6 standard deviation (SD) (low-LS group based on least significant change). In low-LS women, each 1 SD lower LS T-score than FN was associated with a 30% increase in fracture risk (hazard ratio [HR] 1.30; 95% CI, 1.11 to 1.45). For low-LS men there was a 20% nonsignificant increase in fracture risk for each 1 SD lower LS than FN T-score (HR 1.20; 95% CI, 0.10 to 1.67). Low-LS women had greater absolute fracture risks than the rest of the women. This increased risk was more apparent for lower levels of FN T-score and in older age groups. At an FN T-score of –2, low-LS women had a 3%, 10%, and 23% higher 5-year absolute fracture risk than non-low LS women in the 60 to 69 year, 70 to 79 year, and 80+ years age-groups, respectively. Furthermore, an osteoporotic LS T-score increased 5-year absolute fracture risk for women with normal or osteopenic FN T-score by 10% to 13%. Men in the low-LS group had very few fractures; therefore, a meaningful analyses of fracture risk could not be conducted. This study shows the significant contribution of lower LS BMD to fracture risk over and above FN BMD in women. A LS BMD lower than FN BMD should be incorporated into fracture risk calculators at least for women in older age-groups. © 2015 American Society for Bone and Mineral Res...

Al-Jubouri, B & Gabrys, B 2016, 'Local Learning for Multi-layer, Multi-component Predictive System', Procedia Computer Science, vol. 96, pp. 723-732.
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This study introduces a new multi-layer multi-component ensemble. The components of this ensemble are trained locally on subsets of features for disjoint sets of data. The data instances are assigned to local regions using the similarity of their features pairwise squared correlation. Many ensemble methods encourage diversity among their base predictors by training them on different subsets of data or different subsets of features. In the proposed architecture the local regions contain disjoint sets of data and for this data only the most similar features are selected. The pairwise squared correlations of the features are used to weight the predictions of the ensemble's models. The proposed architecture has been tested on a number of data sets and its performance was compared to five benchmark algorithms. The results showed that the testing accuracy of the developed architecture is comparable to the rotation forest and is better than the other benchmark algorithms.

Anaissi, A, Goyal, M, Catchpoole, DR, Braytee, A & Kennedy, PJ 2016, 'Ensemble Feature Learning of Genomic Data Using Support Vector Machine', PLOS ONE, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. e0157330-e0157330.
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© 2016 Anaissi 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. The identification of a subset of genes having the ability to capture the necessary information to distinguish classes of patients is crucial in bioinformatics applications. Ensemble and bagging methods have been shown to work effectively in the process of gene selection and classification. Testament to that is random forest which combines random decision trees with bagging to improve overall feature selection and classification accuracy. Surprisingly, the adoption of these methods in support vector machines has only recently received attention but mostly on classification not gene selection. This paper introduces an ensemble SVM-Recursive Feature Elimination (ESVM-RFE) for gene selection that follows the concepts of ensemble and bagging used in random forest but adopts the backward elimination strategy which is the rationale of RFE algorithm. The rationale behind this is, building ensemble SVM models using randomly drawn bootstrap samples from the training set, will produce different feature rankings which will be subsequently aggregated as one feature ranking. As a result, the decision for elimination of features is based upon the ranking of multiple SVM models instead of choosing one particular model. Moreover, this approach will address the problem of imbalanced datasets by constructing a nearly balanced bootstrap sample. Our experiments show that ESVM-RFE for gene selection substantially increased the classification performance on five microarray datasets compared to state-of-the-art methods. Experiments on the childhood leukaemia dataset show that an average 9% better accuracy is achieved by ESVM-RFE over SVM-RFE, and 5% over random forest based approach. The selected genes by the ESVM-RFE algo...

Argha, A, Li, L, Su, S & Nguyen, H 2016, 'Stabilising the networked control systems involving actuation and measurement consecutive packet losses', IET Control Theory & Applications, vol. 10, no. 11, pp. 1269-1280.
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© 2016 The Institution of Engineering and Technology. This study is devoted to the problem of designing a robust output-feedback discrete-time sliding mode control (ODSMC) for the networked systems involving both measuring and actuating data packet losses. Packet losses in the networked control systems (NCSs) have been modelled by utilising the probability and the characteristics of the sources and the destinations. Here, the well-known Bernoulli random binary distribution is used to model consecutive packet losses in the NCSs. In this study, first, a robust observer-based discrete-time sliding mode control is proposed for the NCSs including random packet losses. The packet losses occur in the channels from the sensors to the controller and the channels from the controller to the actuators. Then, using the notion of exponential mean square stability, the boundedness of the obtained closed-loop system is analysed with a linear matrix inequality approach. Our proposed robust ODSMC can be applied to unstable NCSs, and there is no need to stabilise the underlying system in advance. Illustrative examples are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Argha, A, Li, L, Su, SW & Nguyen, H 2016, 'On LMI-based sliding mode control for uncertain discrete-time systems', Journal of the Franklin Institute, vol. 353, no. 15, pp. 3857-3875.
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© 2016 The Franklin Institute In this paper, a new approach to design a robust discrete-time sliding mode control (DSMC) is proposed for uncertain discrete-time systems. To this end, an LMI approach is used to develop a new framework to design the sliding function which is linear to the state. Our proposed robust DSMC can be applied to unstable systems, and also there is no need to stabilize the underlying system first. It has been argued in the literature that for the systems involving balanced external disturbances, using switching component is not needed. In this paper, it is shown that with the assumption of smoothness of the external disturbances, a different form of switching element in the controller can outperform the so-called linear controller in terms of the thickness of the boundary layer around the sliding function and the ultimate bound on the system state. Also, this paper extends the idea of disturbance estimation to the uncertain discrete-time systems. The disturbance estimator is exploited in the controller design and the boundedness of the obtained closed-loop system is analyzed. Also, two novel forms of variable structure DSMC are suggested in this paper.

Asadnia, M, Kottapalli, AGP, Karavitaki, KD, Warkiani, ME, Miao, J, Corey, DP & Triantafyllou, M 2016, 'From Biological Cilia to Artificial Flow Sensors: Biomimetic Soft Polymer Nanosensors with High Sensing Performance', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, p. 32955.
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AbstractWe report the development of a new class of miniature all-polymer flow sensors that closely mimic the intricate morphology of the mechanosensory ciliary bundles in biological hair cells. An artificial ciliary bundle is achieved by fabricating bundled polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) micro-pillars with graded heights and electrospinning polyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric nanofiber tip links. The piezoelectric nature of a single nanofiber tip link is confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Rheology and nanoindentation experiments are used to ensure that the viscous properties of the hyaluronic acid (HA)-based hydrogel are close to the biological cupula. A dome-shaped HA hydrogel cupula that encapsulates the artificial hair cell bundle is formed through precision drop-casting and swelling processes. Fluid drag force actuates the hydrogel cupula and deflects the micro-pillar bundle, stretching the nanofibers and generating electric charges. Functioning with principles analogous to the hair bundles, the sensors achieve a sensitivity and threshold detection limit of 300 mV/(m/s) and 8 μm/s, respectively. These self-powered, sensitive, flexible, biocompatibale and miniaturized sensors can find extensive applications in navigation and maneuvering of underwater robots, artificial hearing systems, biomedical and microfluidic devices.

Athari, F, Davidson, PM, Hillman, KM & Phillips, J 2016, 'Implementing a palliative approach in the intensive care unit: an oxymoron or a realistic possibility?', International Journal of Palliative Nursing, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 163-165.
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© 2016 MA Healthcare Ltd. Providing a palliative approach in an ICU is not an oxymoron and is within our reach today. Implementing a palliative approach will better ensure the needs of older patients and their families are met. Investing in developing the palliative care capabilities of ICUs and implementing appropriate policies that support the delivery of best evidence-based palliative care, will help ICU clinicians move seamlessly from implementing intensive therapies focusing on cure to palliation and relief of symptoms and care of families.

Badin, OO, Smith, MR, Conte, D & Coutts, AJ 2016, 'Mental Fatigue: Impairment of Technical Performance in Small-Sided Soccer Games', International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, vol. 11, no. 8, pp. 1100-1105.
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Purpose:To assess the effects of mental fatigue on physical and technical performance in small-sided soccer games.Methods:Twenty soccer players (age 17.8 ± 1.0 y, height 179 ± 5 cm, body mass 72.4 ± 6.8 kg, playing experience 8.3 ± 1.4 y) from an Australian National Premier League soccer club volunteered to participate in this randomized crossover investigation. Participants played 15-min 5-vs-5 small-sided games (SSGs) without goalkeepers on 2 occasions separated by 1 wk. Before the SSG, 1 team watched a 30-min emotionally neutral documentary (control), while the other performed 30 min of a computer-based Stroop task (mental fatigue). Subjective ratings of mental and physical fatigue were recorded before and after treatment and after the SSG. Motivation was assessed before treatment and SSG; mental effort was assessed after treatment and SSG. Player activity profiles and heart rate (HR) were measured throughout the SSG, whereas ratings of perceived exertion (RPEs) were recorded before the SSG and immediately after each half. Video recordings of the SSG allowed for notational analysis of technical variables.Results:Subjective ratings of mental fatigue and effort were higher after the Stroop task, whereas motivation for the upcoming SSG was similar between conditions. HR during the SSG was possibly higher in the control condition, whereas RPE was likely higher in the mental-fatigue condition. Mental fatigue had an unclear effect on most physical-performance variables but impaired most technical-performance variables.Conclusions:Mental fati...

Ben-Nissan, B, Macha, I, Cazalbou, S & Choi, AH 2016, 'Calcium phosphate nanocoatings and nanocomposites, part 2: thin films for slow drug delivery and osteomyelitis', Nanomedicine, vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 531-544.
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During the last two decades although many calcium phosphate based nanomaterials have been proposed for both drug delivery, and bone regeneration, their coating applications have been somehow slow due to the problems related to their complicated synthesis methods. In order to control the efficiency of local drug delivery of a biomaterial the critical pore sizes as well as good control of the chemical composition is pertinent. A variety of calcium phosphate based nanocoated composite drug delivery systems are currently being investigated. This review aims to give an update into the advancements of calcium phosphate nanocoatings and thin film nanolaminates. In particular recent research on PLA/hydroxyapatite composite thin films and coatings into the slow drug delivery for the possible treatment of osteomyelitis is covered.

Bhattarai, P, Hickman, L & Phillips, JL 2016, 'Pain among hospitalized older people with heart failure and their preparation to manage this symptom on discharge: a descriptive-observational study', CONTEMPORARY NURSE, vol. 52, no. 2-3, pp. 204-215.
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Bhimani, A, Silvola, H & Sivabalan, P 2016, 'Voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting: A Study of Early and Late Reporter Motivations and Outcomes', Journal of Management Accounting Research, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 77-101.
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ABSTRACTNeo-institutional logics for the early adoption of innovations are often argued as more authentic than for late adopters. To what extent might this be so in relation to corporate social responsibility reporting (CSRR)? We specifically focus on neo-institutionalist perspectives with an emphasis on isomorphism (DiMaggio and Powell 1983) to illustrate alternative motivations and verify our hypotheses using a mixed-methods approach (survey data and field evidence from five organizations). We find that the rationale for early reporters entails a financial pragmatism that is absent in current debates surrounding corporate social responsibility (CSR). We also show that normative and coercive isomorphism interplay among early adopters to drive their adoption decision over time, and these facilitate the generation of different strategic postures to placate key external stakeholders. This contrasts with prior studies that have mainly argued for mimetic and normative isomorphism to dominate the decision to implement CSRR among adopters. Finally, we argue that late reporters choose not to engage earlier as (ironically) their strategic proximity to the phenomena being reported is intrinsically close, meaning most internal and external stakeholders assume the proper functioning of the phenomena being reported, and therefore do not demand it. This rationale for mimetic isomorphism is unique and its narrative more positive than that normally ascribed to it in the prior literature. Firms are subsequently less inclined to opportunistically validate or signal their sustainability ethos using formal reporting systems, and only do so superficially to engage in practices similar to other organizations in their industry or the broader economy as a norm.

Bilsborough, JC, Greenway, K, Livingston, S, Cordy, J & Coutts, AJ 2016, 'Changes in Anthropometry, Upper-Body Strength, and Nutrient Intake in Professional Australian Football Players During a Season', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORTS PHYSIOLOGY AND PERFORMANCE, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 290-300.
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©2016 Human Kinetics,Inc. The purpose of this study was to examine the seasonal changes in body composition, nutrition, and upper-body (UB) strength in professional Australian Football (AF) players. The prospective longitudinal study examined changes in anthropometry (body mass, fat-free soft-tissue mass [FFSTM], and fat mass) via dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry 5 times during an AF season (start preseason, midpreseason, start season, midseason, end season) in 45 professional AF players. Dietary intakes and strength (bench press and bench pull) were also assessed at these time points. Players were categorized as experienced (>4 y experience, n = 23) or inexperienced (<4 y experience, n = 22). Fat mass decreased during the preseason but was stable through the in-season for both groups. %FFSTM was increased during the preseason and remained constant thereafter. UB strength increased during the preseason and was maintained during the in-season. Changes in UB FFSTM were related to changes in UB-strength performance (r = .37-.40). Total energy and carbohydrate intakes were similar between the experienced and inexperienced players during the season, but there was a greater ratio of dietary fat intake at the start-preseason point and an increased alcohol, reduced protein, and increased total energy intake at the end of the season. The inexperienced players consumed more fat at the start of season and less total protein during the season than the experienced players. Coaches should also be aware that it can take >1 y to develop the appropriate levels of FFSTM in young players and take a long-term view when developing the physical and performance abilities of inexperienced players.

Bliuc, D, Tran, T, Alarkawi, D, Nguyen, TV, Eisman, JA & Center, JR 2016, 'Secular Changes in Postfracture Outcomes Over 2 Decades in Australia: A Time-Trend Comparison of Excess Postfracture Mortality in Two Birth Controls Over Two Decades', The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, vol. 101, no. 6, pp. 2475-2483.
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Abstract Context: Hip fracture incidence has been declining and life expectancy improving. However, trends of postfracture outcomes are unknown. Objectives: The objective of the study was to compare the refracture risk and excess mortality after osteoporotic fracture between two birth cohorts, over 2 decades. Design: Prospective birth cohorts were followed up over 2 decades (1989–2004 and 2000–2014). Setting: The study was conducted in community-dwelling participants in Dubbo, Australia. Participants: Women and men aged 60–80 years, participating in Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study 1 (DOES 1; born before 1930) and Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study 2 (DOES 2; born after 1930) participated in the study. Main Outcome Measure: Age-standardized fracture and mortality over two time intervals: (1989–2004 [DOES 1] and 2000–2014 [DOES 2]) were measured. Results: The DOES 2 cohort had higher body mass index and bone mineral density and lower initial fracture rate than DOES 1, but similar refracture rates [age-standardized refracture rates per 1000 person-years: wome...

Bloem, LT, De Abreu Lourenço, R, Chin, M, Ly, B & Haas, M 2016, 'Factors Impacting Treatment Choice in the First-Line Treatment of Colorectal Cancer', Oncology and Therapy, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 103-116.
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Braun, M & Kirkup, L 2016, 'Non-physics peer demonstrators in undergraduate laboratories: a study of students' perceptions', EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICS, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 1-9.
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© 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd. Laboratory demonstrators play a crucial role in facilitating students' learning in physics subjects. Inspired by the success of peer-led activities, we introduced peer demonstrators to support student learning in first-year physics subjects that enrol students not intending to major in physics. Surveys were administered to 1700 students over 4 years in four subjects to examine student perceptions of how demonstrators assisted them in the laboratory. Scores awarded to peer demonstrators by students were no lower than those awarded to demonstrators traditionally employed in the first year physics laboratory. These latter demonstrators were drawn mainly from the ranks of physics research students. The findings validate the recruitment of peer demonstrators and will be used to inform the recruitment and support programmes for laboratory demonstrators.

Burston, A, Eley, R, Parker, D & Tuckett, A 2016, 'MORAL DISTRESS.', Aust Nurs Midwifery J, vol. 24, no. 6, p. 24.
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Australia has an ageing nursing workforce with many nurses due to retire (Health Workforce Australia, 2014). Coupled with increasing service demands, the need for workers will outstrip the supply (CEPAR - ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research, 2014).

Capistrano, S, Zakarya, R, Chen, H & Oliver, B 2016, 'Biomass Smoke Exposure Enhances Rhinovirus-Induced Inflammation in Primary Lung Fibroblasts', International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 17, no. 9, pp. 1403-1403.
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© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Biomass smoke is one of the majorair pollutants and contributors of household air pollution worldwide. More than 3 billion people use biomass fuels for cooking and heating, while other sources of exposure are from the occurrence of bushfires and occupational conditions. Persistent biomass smoke exposure has been associated with acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) as a major environmental risk factor. Children under the age of five years are the most susceptible in developing severe ALRI, which accounts for 940,000 deaths globally. Around 90% of cases are attributed to viral infections, such as influenza, adenovirus, and rhinovirus. Although several epidemiological studies have generated substantial evidence of the association of biomass smoke and respiratory infections, the underlying mechanism is still unknown. Using an in vitro model, primary human lung fibroblasts were stimulated with biomass smoke extract (BME), specifically investigating hardwood and softwood types, and human rhinovirus-16 for 24 h. Production of pro-inflammatory mediators, such as IL-6 and IL-8, were measured via ELISA. Firstly, we found that hardwood and softwood smoke extract (1%) up-regulate IL-6 and IL-8 release (p ≤ 0.05). In addition, human rhinovirus-16 further increased biomass smoke-induced IL-8 in fibroblasts, in comparison to the two stimulatory agents alone. We also investigated the effect of biomass smoke on viral susceptibility by measuring viral load, and found no significant changes between BME exposed and non-exposed infected fibroblasts. Activated signaling pathways for IL-6 and IL-8 production by BME stimulation were examined using signaling pathway inhibitors. p38 MAPK inhibitor SB239063 significantly attenuated IL-6 and IL-8 release the most (p ≤ 0.05). This study demonstrated that biomass smoke can modulate rhinovirus-induced inflammation during infection, which can alter the severity of the disea...

Carter, DR, Sutton, SK, Pajic, M, Murray, J, Sekyere, EO, Fletcher, J, Beckers, A, De Preter, K, Speleman, F, George, RE, Haber, M, Norris, MD, Cheung, BB & Marshall, GM 2016, 'Glutathione biosynthesis is upregulated at the initiation of MYCN‐driven neuroblastoma tumorigenesis', Molecular Oncology, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 866-878.
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The MYCN gene is amplified and overexpressed in a large proportion of high stage neuroblastoma patients and has been identified as a key driver of tumorigenesis. However, the mechanism by which MYCN promotes tumor initiation is poorly understood. Here we conducted metabolic profiling of pre‐malignant sympathetic ganglia and tumors derived from the TH‐MYCN mouse model of neuroblastoma, compared to non‐malignant ganglia from wildtype littermates. We found that metabolites involved in the biosynthesis of glutathione, the most abundant cellular antioxidant, were the most significantly upregulated metabolic pathway at tumor initiation, and progressively increased to meet the demands of tumorigenesis. A corresponding increase in the expression of genes involved in ribosomal biogenesis suggested that MYCN‐driven transactivation of the protein biosynthetic machinery generated the necessary substrates to drive glutathione biosynthesis. Pre‐malignant sympathetic ganglia from TH‐MYCN mice had higher antioxidant capacity and required glutathione upregulation for cell survival, when compared to wildtype ganglia. Moreover, in vivo administration of inhibitors of glutathione biosynthesis significantly delayed tumorigenesis when administered prophylactically and potentiated the anticancer activity of cytotoxic chemotherapy against established tumors. Together these results identify enhanced glutathione biosynthesis as a selective metabolic adaptation required for initiation of MYCN‐driven neuroblastoma, and suggest that glutathione‐targeted agents may be used as a potential preventative strategy, or as an adjuvant to existing chemotherapies in established disease.

Cawley, AT, Blakey, K, Waller, CC, McLeod, MD, Boyd, S, Heather, A, McGrath, KC, Handelsman, DJ & Willis, AC 2016, 'Detection and metabolic investigations of a novel designer steroid: 3‐chloro‐17α‐methyl‐5α‐androstan‐17β‐ol', Drug Testing and Analysis, vol. 8, no. 7, pp. 621-632.
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In 2012, seized capsules containing white powder were analyzed to show the presence of unknown steroid‐related compounds. Subsequent gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC‐MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) investigations identified a mixture of 3α‐ and 3β‐ isomers of the novel compound; 3‐chloro‐17α‐methyl‐5α‐androstan‐17β‐ol. Synthesis of authentic reference materials followed by comparison of NMR, GC‐MS and gas chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry (GC‐MS/MS) data confirmed the finding of a new ‘designer’ steroid. Furthermore, in vitro androgen bioassays showed potent activity highlighting the potential for doping using this steroid. Due to the potential toxicity of the halogenated steroid, in vitro metabolic investigations of 3α‐chloro‐17α‐methyl‐5α‐androstan‐17β‐ol using equine and human S9 liver fractions were performed. For equine, GC‐MS/MS analysis identified the diagnostic 3α‐chloro‐17α‐methyl‐5α‐androstane‐16α,17β‐diol metabolite. For human, the 17α‐methyl‐5α‐androstane‐3α,17β‐diol metabolite was found. Results from these studies were used to verify the ability of GC‐MS/MS precursor‐ion scanning techniques to support untargeted detection strategies for designer steroids in anti‐doping analyses. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Chan, KY & Ling, SH 2016, 'A forward selection based fuzzy regression for new product development that correlates engineering characteristics with consumer preferences', JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT & FUZZY SYSTEMS, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 1869-1880.
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© 2016 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved. Fuzzy regression models have commonly been used to correlate engineering characteristics with consumer preferences regarding a new product. Based on the models, product developers can determine optimal engineering characteristics of the new product in order to satisfy consumer preferences. However, they have a common limitation in that they cannot guarantee to include significant regressors with significant engineering characteristics or significant nonlinear terms. The generalization capability of the model can be reduced, when too few significant regressors are included and too many insignificant regressors are included. In this paper, a forward selection based fuzzy regression (FS-FR) is proposed based on the statistical forward selection to determine significant regressors. After the significant regressors are determined, the fuzzy regression is used to generate the fuzzy coefficients which address the uncertainties due to fuzziness and randomness caused by consumer preference evaluations. The developed model includes only significant regressors which attempt to improve the generalization capability. A case study of a tea maker design demonstrated that the FS-FR was able to generate consumer preference models with better generalization capabilities than the other tested fuzzy regressions. Also simpler consumer preference models can be provided for the new product development.

Chan, YL, Saad, S, Al‐Odat, I, Zaky, AA, Oliver, B, Pollock, C, Li, W, Jones, NM & Chen, H 2016, 'Impact of maternal cigarette smoke exposure on brain and kidney health outcomes in female offspring', Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology, vol. 43, no. 12, pp. 1168-1176.
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SummaryIncreased oxidative stress in the brain can lead to increased sympathetic tone that may further induce kidney dysfunction. Previously we have shown that maternal cigarette smoke exposure (SE) leads to significantly increased oxidative stress and inflammation in both brain and kidney, as well as reduced brain and kidney mitochondrial activity. This is closely associated with significant kidney underdevelopment and abnormal function in adulthood in the male offspring. This study aimed to investigate the impact of maternal SE on brain and kidney health in the female offspring. In this study, the mouse dams were exposed to two cigarettes, twice daily for 6 weeks prior to gestation, during pregnancy and lactation. Brains and kidneys from the female offspring were collected at 20 days (P20) and 13 weeks (W13) and were subject to further analysis. We found that mRNA expression of brain inflammatory markers interleukin‐1 receptor and Toll‐like receptor 4 were significantly increased in the SE offspring at both P20 and W13. Their brain mitochondrial activity markers were however increased at W13 with increased antioxidant activity. Kidney development and function in the female SE offspring were not different from the control offspring. We concluded that although brain inflammatory markers were upregulated in the SE female offspring, they were protected from some of the indicators of brain oxidative stress, such as endogenous antioxidant and mitochondrial dysfunction, as well as abnormal kidney development and function in adulthood.

Chan, YL, Saad, S, Pollock, C, Oliver, B, Al-Odat, I, Zaky, AA, Jones, N & Chen, H 2016, 'Impact of maternal cigarette smoke exposure on brain inflammation and oxidative stress in male mice offspring', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1.
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AbstractMaternal cigarette smoke exposure (SE) during gestation can cause lifelong adverse effects in the offspring’s brain. Several factors may contribute including inflammation, oxidative stress and hypoxia, whose changes in the developing brain are unknown. Female Balb/c mice were exposed to cigarette smoke prior to mating, during gestation and lactation. Male offspring were studied at postnatal day (P) 1, P20 and 13 weeks (W13). SE dams had reduced inflammatory mediators (IL-1β, IL-6 and toll like receptor (TLR)4 mRNA), antioxidant (manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD)) and increased mitochondrial activities (OXPHOS-I, III and V) and protein damage marker nitrotyrosine. Brain hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)1α and its upstream signalling molecule early growth response factor (EGR)1 were not changed in the SE dams. In the SE offspring, brain IL-1R, IL-6 and TLR4 mRNA were increased at W13. The translocase of outer mitochondrial membrane and MnSOD were reduced at W13 with higher nitrotyrosine staining. HIF-1α was also increased at W13, although EGR1 was only reduced at P1. In conclusion, maternal SE increased markers of hypoxia and oxidative stress with mitochondrial dysfunction and cell damage in both dams and offspring and upregulated inflammatory markers in offspring, which may render SE dams and their offspring vulnerable to additional brain insults.

Charoensuk, T, Sirisathitkul, C, Boonyang, U, Macha, IJ, Santos, J, Grossin, D & Ben-Nissan, B 2016, 'In vitro bioactivity and stem cells attachment of three-dimensionally ordered macroporous bioactive glass incorporating iron oxides', JOURNAL OF NON-CRYSTALLINE SOLIDS, vol. 452, pp. 62-73.
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Chaudhuri, PK, Ebrahimi Warkiani, M, Jing, T, Kenry, K & Lim, CT 2016, 'Microfluidics for research and applications in oncology', The Analyst, vol. 141, no. 2, pp. 504-524.
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Cancer is currently one of the top non-communicable human diseases, and continual research and developmental efforts, particularly in microfluidics technology, are being made to better understand and manage this disease.

Chen, H, Chan, YL, Nguyen, LT, Mao, Y, de Rosa, A, Beh, IT, Chee, C, Oliver, B, Herok, G, Saad, S & Gorrie, C 2016, 'Moderate traumatic brain injury is linked to acute behaviour deficits and long term mitochondrial alterations', Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology, vol. 43, no. 11, pp. 1107-1114.
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SummaryTraumatic brain injury (TBI) remains one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Mild TBI may lead to neuropsychiatric sequelae, including memory loss and motor impairment. Mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress have a contributory role in several neurological disorders; however, their association with mitophagy in mild TBI is unclear. TBI was induced in female Sprague Dawley (SD) rats using a New York University Impactor (10 g, impactor head 2.5 mm diameter, weight drop 50 mm) and compared to sham surgery controls. The novel object recognition and error ladder tests were performed at 24 hours and for 6 weeks post injury, and the brains were examined histologically to confirm the extent of injury. Mitochondria manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) and the oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) complexes I‐V (CI‐CV), as well as mitophagy markers, dynamin related protein 1 (DRP‐1), LC3A/B and PTEN‐induced putative kinase 1 (PINK‐1), were measured in the penumbra by western blot. At 24 hours sham rats performed as expected on a novel object recognition test while TB...

Chen, H, Kelly, M, Hayes, C, van Reyk, D & Herok, G 2016, 'The use of simulation as a novel experiential learning module in undergraduate science pathophysiology education', ADVANCES IN PHYSIOLOGY EDUCATION, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 335-341.
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© 2016 The American Physiological Society. Teaching of pathophysiology concepts is a core feature in health professional programs, but it can be challenging in undergraduate medical/biomedical science education, which is often highly theoretical when delivered by lectures and pen-and-paper tutorials. Authentic case studies allow students to apply their theoretical knowledge but still require good imagination on the part of the students. Lecture content can be reinforced through practical learning experiences in clinical environments. In this study, we report a new approach using clinical simulation within a Human Pathophysiology course to enable undergraduate science students to see 'pathophysiology in action' in a clinical setting. Students role played health professionals, and, in these roles, they were able to interact with each other and the manikin 'patient,' take a medical history, perform a physical examination and consider relevant treatments. Evaluation of students' experiences suggests that using clinical simulation to deliver case studies is more effective than traditional paper-based case studies by encouraging active learning and improving the understanding of physiological concepts.

Chen, P, Hu, S, Zhang, J, Gao, X, Li, J, Xia, J & Wang, B 2016, 'A Sequence-Based Dynamic Ensemble Learning System for Protein Ligand-Binding Site Prediction', IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 901-912.
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Chou, J, Ito, T, Otsuka, M, Ben-Nissan, B & Milthorpe, B 2016, 'The effectiveness of the controlled release of simvastatin from β-TCP macrosphere in the treatment of OVX mice', Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. E195-E203.
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Simvastatin, a cholesterol treatment drug, has been shown to stimulate bone regeneration. As such, there has been an increase interest in the development of suitable materials and systems for the delivery of simvastatin. Without the appropriate dosage of simvastatin, the therapeutic effects on bone growth will be significantly reduced. Furthermore, similar to many pharmaceutical compounds, at high concentration simvastatin can cause various adverse side-effects. Given the associated side-effects with the usage of simvastatin, the development of suitable controlled drug release system is pertinent. Calcium phosphate in particularly beta-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) has been extensively studied and used as a carrier material for drug delivery system. In this study, Foraminifera exoskeletons were used as calcium carbonate precursor materials, which were hydrothermally converted to β-TCP as a carrier material for simvastatin. Natural marine exoskeletons posses interconnected and uniformly porous network capable of improving drug loading and release rate. To prolong the release of simvastatin, an apatite coating was made around the β-TCP sample and in vitro release studies in simulated body fluid (SBF) showed a significant decrease in release rate. Osteoporotic mice were used to examine the compare therapeutic effectiveness of β-TCP, β-TCP with simvastatin, apatite-coated β-TCP with simvastatin and direct injection of simvastatin near the right femur of the mice. Localized and systemic effect were compared with the femur of the non-implanted side (left) and showed that β-TCP with or without simvastatin was able to induce significant bone formation over 6 weeks. Mechanical analysis showed that apatite-coated β-TCP with simvastatin produced significantly stronger bones compared with other experimental groups. This study shows that natural exoskeletons with the appropriate structure can be successfully used as a drug delivery system for simvastatin and can its release ca...

Chou, J, Komuro, M, Hao, J, Kuroda, S, Hattori, Y, Ben‐Nissan, B, Milthorpe, B & Otsuka, M 2016, 'Bioresorbable zinc hydroxyapatite guided bone regeneration membrane for bone regeneration', Clinical Oral Implants Research, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 354-360.
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AbstractObjectivesThe aim of this study was to investigate the bone regenerative properties of a heat treated cross‐linked GBR membrane with zinc hydroxyapatite powders in the rat calvarial defect model over a 6‐week period.Material and MethodsIn vitro physio‐chemical characterization involved X‐ray diffraction analysis, surface topology by scanning electron microscopy, and zinc release studies in physiological buffers. Bilateral rat calvarial defects were used to compare the Zn‐HAp membranes against the commercially available collagen membranes and the unfilled defect group through radiological and histological evaluation.ResultsThe synthesized Zn‐MEM (100 μm thick) showed no zinc ions released in the phosphate buffer solution (PBS) buffer, but zinc was observed under acidic conditions. At 6 weeks, both the micro‐CT and histological analyses revealed that the Zn‐MEM group yielded significantly greater bone formation with 80 ± 2% of bone filled, as compared with 60 ± 5% in the collagen membrane and 40 ± 2% in the unfilled control group.ConclusionThis study demonstrated the use of heat treatment as an alternative method to cross‐linking the Zn‐MEM to be applied as a GBR membrane. Its synth...

Cole, AJ, Dwight, T, Gill, AJ, Dickson, K-A, Zhu, Y, Clarkson, A, Gard, GB, Maidens, J, Valmadre, S, Clifton-Bligh, R & Marsh, DJ 2016, 'Assessing mutant p53 in primary high-grade serous ovarian cancer using immunohistochemistry and massively parallel sequencing', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1.
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AbstractThe tumour suppressor p53 is mutated in cancer, including over 96% of high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC). Mutations cause loss of wild-type p53 function due to either gain of abnormal function of mutant p53 (mutp53), or absent to low mutp53. Massively parallel sequencing (MPS) enables increased accuracy of detection of somatic variants in heterogeneous tumours. We used MPS and immunohistochemistry (IHC) to characterise HGSOCs for TP53 mutation and p53 expression. TP53 mutation was identified in 94% (68/72) of HGSOCs, 62% of which were missense. Missense mutations demonstrated high p53 by IHC, as did 35% (9/26) of non-missense mutations. Low p53 was seen by IHC in 62% of HGSOC associated with non-missense mutations. Most wild-type TP53 tumours (75%, 6/8) displayed intermediate p53 levels. The overall sensitivity of detecting a TP53 mutation based on classification as ‘Low’, ‘Intermediate’ or ‘High’ for p53 IHC was 99%, with a specificity of 75%. We suggest p53 IHC can be used as a surrogate marker of TP53 mutation in HGSOC; however, this will result in misclassification of a proportion of TP53 wild-type and mutant tumours. Therapeutic targeting of mutp53 will require knowledge of both TP53 mutations and mutp53 expression.

Connerty, P, Bajan, S, Remenyi, J, Fuller-Pace, FV & Hutvagner, G 2016, 'The miRNA biogenesis factors, p72/DDX17 and KHSRP regulate the protein level of Ago2 in human cells', Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Gene Regulatory Mechanisms, vol. 1859, no. 10, pp. 1299-1305.
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© 2016 Elsevier B.V. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short (21–23 nt long) RNAs that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression in plants and animals. They are key regulators in all biological processes. In mammalian cells miRNAs are loaded into one of the four members of the Argonaute (Ago) protein family to form the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). RISCs inhibit the translation of mRNAs that share sequence complementarity with their loaded miRNAs. miRNA processing and miRNA-mediated gene regulation are highly regulated processes and involve many RNA-binding proteins as auxiliary factors. Here we show that the two RNA-binding proteins, p72 and KHSRP, both with known roles in promoting miRNA biogenesis, regulate the protein level of human Ago2 in transformed human cells. We determined that p72 and KHSRP influence Ago2 stability by regulating miRNA levels in the cell and that loss of p72/KHSRP results in a decrease of unloaded Ago2.

Constantine, M, Liew, CK, Lo, V, Macmillan, A, Cranfield, CG, Sunde, M, Whan, R, Graham, RM & Martinac, B 2016, 'Heterologously-expressed and Liposome-reconstituted Human Transient Receptor Potential Melastatin 4 Channel (TRPM4) is a Functional Tetramer', SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, vol. 6.
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Coutts, AJ 2016, 'Fatigue in football: it's not a brainless task!', JOURNAL OF SPORTS SCIENCES, vol. 34, no. 14, pp. 1296-1296.
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Coutts, AJ 2016, 'Working Fast and Working Slow: The Benefits of Embedding Research in High-Performance Sport', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORTS PHYSIOLOGY AND PERFORMANCE, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 1-2.
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Cranfield, CG, Berry, T, Holt, SA, Hossain, KR, Le Brun, AP, Carne, S, Al Khamici, H, Coster, H, Valenzuela, SM & Cornell, B 2016, 'Evidence of the Key Role of H3O+ in Phospholipid Membrane Morphology', LANGMUIR, vol. 32, no. 41, pp. 10725-10734.
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© 2016 American Chemical Society. This study explains the importance of the phosphate moiety and H3O+ in controlling the ionic flux through phospholipid membranes. We show that despite an increase in the H3O+ concentration when the pH is decreased, the level of ionic conduction through phospholipid bilayers is reduced. By modifying the lipid structure, we show the dominant determinant of membrane conduction is the hydrogen bonding between the phosphate oxygens on adjacent phospholipids. The modulation of conduction with pH is proposed to arise from the varying H3O+ concentrations altering the molecular area per lipid and modifying the geometry of conductive defects already present in the membrane. Given the geometrical constraints that control the lipid phase structure of membranes, these area changes predict that organisms evolving in environments with different pHs will select for different phospholipid chain lengths, as is found for organisms near highly acidic volcanic vents (short chains) or in highly alkaline salt lakes (long chains). The stabilizing effect of the hydration shells around phosphate groups also accounts for the prevalence of phospholipids across biology. Measurement of ion permeation through lipid bilayers was made tractable using sparsely tethered bilayer lipid membranes with swept frequency electrical impedance spectroscopy and ramped dc amperometry. Additional evidence of the effect of a change in pH on lipid packing density is obtained from neutron reflectometry data of tethered membranes containing perdeuterated lipids.

Cropley, JE, Eaton, SA, Aiken, A, Young, PE, Giannoulatou, E, Ho, JWK, Buckland, ME, Keam, SP, Hutvagner, G, Humphreys, DT, Langley, KG, Henstridge, DC, Martin, DIK, Febbraio, MA & Suter, CM 2016, 'Male-lineage transmission of an acquired metabolic phenotype induced by grand-paternal obesity', Molecular Metabolism, vol. 5, no. 8, pp. 699-708.
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© 2016 The Author(s) Objective Parental obesity can induce metabolic phenotypes in offspring independent of the inherited DNA sequence. Here we asked whether such non-genetic acquired metabolic traits can be passed on to a second generation that has never been exposed to obesity, even as germ cells. Methods We examined the F1, F2, and F3 a/a offspring derived from F0 matings of obese prediabetic Avy/a sires and lean a/a dams. After F0, only lean a/a mice were used for breeding. Results We found that F1 sons of obese founder males exhibited defects in glucose and lipid metabolism, but only upon a post-weaning dietary challenge. F1 males transmitted these defects to their own male progeny (F2) in the absence of the dietary challenge, but the phenotype was largely attenuated by F3. The sperm of F1 males exhibited changes in the abundance of several small RNA species, including the recently reported diet-responsive tRNA-derived fragments. Conclusions These data indicate that induced metabolic phenotypes may be propagated for a generation beyond any direct exposure to an inducing factor. This non-genetic inheritance likely occurs via the actions of sperm noncoding RNA.

Currow, DC, Abernethy, AP, Allcroft, P, Banzett, RB, Bausewein, C, Booth, S, Carrieri-Kohlman, V, Davidson, P, Disler, R, Donesky, D, Dudgeon, D, Ekstrom, M, Farquhar, M, Higginson, I, Janssen, D, Jensen, D, Jolley, C, Krajnik, M, Laveneziana, P, McDonald, C, Maddocks, M, Morelot-Panzini, C, Moxham, J, Mularski, RA, Noble, S, O'Donnell, D, Parshall, MB, Pattinson, K, Phillips, J, Ross, J, Schwartzstein, RM, Similowski, T, Simon, ST, Smith, T, Wells, A, Yates, P, Yorke, J & Johnson, MJ 2016, 'The need to research refractory breathlessness', EUROPEAN RESPIRATORY JOURNAL, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 342-343.
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Currow, DC, Phillips, J & Clark, K 2016, 'Using opioids in general practice for chronic non‐cancer pain: an overview of current evidence', Medical Journal of Australia, vol. 204, no. 8, pp. 305-309.
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Currow, DC, Phillips, J & Clark, K 2016, 'Using opioids in general practice for chronic non‐cancer pain: an overview of current evidence', Medical Journal of Australia, vol. 205, no. 7, pp. 334-335.
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Darcy, S, Maxwell, H & Green, J 2016, 'Disability citizenship and independence through mobile technology? A study exploring adoption and use of a mobile technology platform', DISABILITY & SOCIETY, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 497-519.
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© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Abstract: This article explores the use of a mobile technology platform as experienced by people with disability, their significant other and service providers. An interpretive qualitative study design was adopted involving observations and interviews. The data were analysed using the combined lenses of the social approach to disability and the PHAATE model which represents the factors for consideration in service design for assistive technology. The findings suggest that the adoption of the technology by those in the study could be characterised by a typology of users. The implications of the typology are discussed together with the influencing factors that affected social participation and disability citizenship.

Darcy, S, Taylor, T & Green, J 2016, '‘But I can do the job’: examining disability employment practice through human rights complaint cases', Disability & Society, vol. 31, no. 9, pp. 1242-1274.
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© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Natural data on the Australian Human Rights Commission’s website outlining the complaint cases generated from Disability Discrimination Act, 1992 (DDA) were used to examine the social construction of disability employment discrimination. Using a social model and human rights citizenship lens, some 987 complaint cases were analysed to assess the prevalence of disability discrimination in employment, and its relationship to the types of disability, gender, entity undertaking the actions and organisational context. Of all complaint cases across the Australian Human Rights Commission’s operations, by far the largest proportion involves disability discrimination. Within the disability discrimination complaint cases, employment makes up the greatest proportion of these cases. In examining the patterns of discrimination seven major themes emerged involving: distinctive patterns across disability type; access to premises; human resource mismanagement; selection of new employees; integration of assistive technology; perception of cost of disability inclusions; and inflexible organisational workplace practices. The discussion examines the underlying reasons for the emergent themes where employers misunderstood key legal concepts that underpin the DDA including: unjustifiable hardship; inherent requirements; reasonable adjustment; direct; and indirect discrimination. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the findings as a way of understanding the social construction of disability discrimination in employment to signal ways to better develop inclusive organisational practice.

Darcy, SA 2016, 'Paralympic Legacy - learning from the Sydney 2000 to prepare for Tokyo 2020', Journal of the Nippon Foundation Paralympic Research, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 43-61.

Davidson, PM, Phillips, JL, Dennison-Himmelfarb, C, Thompson, SC, Luckett, T & Currow, DC 2016, 'Providing palliative care for cardiovascular disease from a perspective of sociocultural diversity: a global view', CURRENT OPINION IN SUPPORTIVE AND PALLIATIVE CARE, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 11-17.
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Copyright © 2016 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. Purpose of review This article discusses the available information on providing palliative care for cardiovascular disease (CVD) for individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse populations, and argues the need for cultural competence and awareness of healthcare providers. Recent findings The burden of CVD is increasing globally and access to palliative care for individuals and populations is inconsistent and largely driven by policy, funding models, center-based expertise and local resources. Culture is an important social determinant of health and moderates health outcomes across the life trajectory. Along with approachability, availability, accommodation, affordability and appropriateness, culture moderates access to services. Health disparities and inequity of access underscore the importance of ensuring services meet the needs of diverse populations and that care is provided by individuals who are culturally competent. In death and dying, the vulnerability of individuals, families and communities is most pronounced. Using a social-ecological model as an organising framework, we consider the evidence from the literature in regard to the interaction between the individual, interpersonal relationships, community and society in promoting access to individuals with cardiovascular disease. Summary This review highlights the need for considering individual, provider and system factors to tailor and target healthcare services to the needs of culturally diverse populations. Beyond translation of materials, there is a need to understand the cultural dimensions influencing health-seeking behaviors and acceptance of palliative care and ensuring the cultural competence of health professionals in both primary and specialist palliative care.

Dehbari, N, Tavakoli, J, Zhao, J & Tang, Y 2016, 'Enhancing water swelling ability and mechanical properties of water‐swellable rubber by PAA/SBS nanofiber mats', Journal of Applied Polymer Science, vol. 133, no. 47.
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ABSTRACTInvestigation of the potential use of nanofibers to reinforce composites has gained significance in many applications. In this article, the nanofiber mats of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and styrene–butadiene–styrene (SBS) triblock copolymer with composites structure were interweaved by double needle electrospinning process. The multiple nanofiber mats were added to conventional water‐swellable rubber (WSR). Improved mechanical and physical properties of WSR were obtained. Enhancement of the swellability of WSR + PAA/SBS nanofiber mats was derived from the PAA constituent absorbing water from the surface into the bulk and introducing random internal water channels between discontinuous superabsorbent polymers. The role of SBS nanofibers in the composite of WSR + PAA/SBS nanofiber mats was more related to the mechanical properties, where the breaking force of the composite increased to twice that of the conventional WSR. Interestingly, after immersion of the WSR + PAA/SBS nanofiber mats in water for 1 week, there was only a slight decrease in their mechanical properties of less than 5% compared to the dry state. The mechanisms and effects of the nanofiber mats in enhancing the mechanical and water swelling properties of WSR are also discussed. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 44213.

Dickson, TJ, Darcy, S, Johns, R & Pentifallo, C 2016, 'Inclusive by design: transformative services and sport-event accessibility', The Service Industries Journal, vol. 36, no. 11-12, pp. 532-555.
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© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This paper examines the service dimensions required to be inclusive of people with access needs within a major-sport event context. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities seeks to counter disability discrimination and enable citizenship rights of people with disabilities, including access to goods and services, across all dimensions of social participation including major-sport events (e.g. Olympic and Paralympic Games, world cups in football, cricket and rugby union). Providing for people with disability and access needs is also an emerging tourism focus with initiatives addressing accessible tourism included in the World Tourism Organizations mission and recent strategic destination plans. To enhance the understanding of service delivery for an accessible tourism market in a major-sport event context, a case study of the Vancouver Fan Zone for the FIFA Womens World Cup Canada, 2015 TM is analyzed through the lens of transformative services. From this analysis future research directions are identified to benefit those with access needs who wish to participate in major-sport events.

Eager, D, Pendrill, A-M & Reistad, N 2016, 'Beyond velocity and acceleration: jerk, snap and higher derivatives', European Journal of Physics, vol. 37, no. 6, pp. 065008-065008.
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© 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd. The higher derivatives of motion are rarely discussed in the teaching of classical mechanics of rigid bodies; nevertheless, we experience the effect not only of acceleration, but also of jerk and snap. In this paper we will discuss the third and higher order derivatives of displacement with respect to time, using the trampolines and theme park roller coasters to illustrate this concept. We will also discuss the effects on the human body of different types of acceleration, jerk, snap and higher derivatives, and how they can be used in physics education to further enhance the learning and thus the understanding of classical mechanics concepts.

Ekong, U, Lam, HK, Xiao, B, Ouyang, G, Liu, H, Chan, KY & Ling, SH 2016, 'Classification of epilepsy seizure phase using interval type-2 fuzzy support vector machines', NEUROCOMPUTING, vol. 199, pp. 66-76.
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An interval type-2 fuzzy support vector machine (IT2FSVM) is proposed to solve a classification problem which aims to classify three epileptic seizure phases (seizure-free, pre-seizure and seizure) from the electroencephalogram (EEG) captured from patients with neurological disorder symptoms. The effectiveness of the IT2FSVM classifier is evaluated based on a set of EEG samples which are collected from 10 patients at Peking university hospital. The EEG samples for the three seizure phases were captured by the 112 2-s 19 channel EEG epochs, where each patient was extracted for each sample. Feature extraction was used to reduce the feature vector of the EEG samples to 45 elements and the EEG samples with the reduced features are used for training the IT2FSVM classifier. The classification results obtained by the IT2FSVM are compared with three traditional classifiers namely Support Vector Machine, k-Nearest Neighbor and naive Bayes. The experimental results show that the IT2FSVM classifier is able to achieve superior learning capabilities with respect to the uncontaminated samples when compared with the three classifiers. In order to validate the level of robustness of the IT2FSVM, the original EEG samples are contaminated with Gaussian white noise at levels of 0.05, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.5. The simulation results show that the IT2FSVM classifier outperforms the traditional classifiers under the original dataset and also shows a high level of robustness when compared to the traditional classifiers with white Gaussian noise applied to it.

Ekren, N, Gunduz, O, Celik, S, Ayata, B, Sahin, YM, Chou, J, Ben-Nissan, B, Salman, S, Gökçe, H & Oktar, FN 2016, 'Production of Apatite from Snail Shells for Biomedical Engineering Applications', Key Engineering Materials, vol. 696, pp. 51-56.
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Bioceramics is very important application for dental and orthopedic procedures. Beside all these normal procedures traffic accidents are requiring increasing number of graft, prostheses and orthosis applications. Bioceramics can be produced from local and natural sources with various methods. Those can be produced from various bone structures through calcination (at high temperatures) or with diluted hydrochloric acid (HCl) application & freeze drying. Beside these methods calcite and aragonite structures like from sea shells and egg shells bioceramic production can be realized through mechanochemical processing via a simple hot-plate or ultrasonic equipment. A fresh water snail shell (Zebra Nerite Snail - Neritinanatalensis) was prepared as bioceramic production source. The resulting hydroxyapatite (HA) powders were obtained without any impurities. At two varying temperature of 865 and 885 °C the snail shells was transformed to HA bioceramics. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA) were evaluated.

Fabian, J, Opitz, D, Althoff, K, Lodrini, M, Hero, B, Volland, R, Beckers, A, de Preter, K, Decock, A, Patil, N, Abba, M, Kopp-Schneider, A, Astrahantseff, K, Wünschel, J, Pfeil, S, Ercu, M, Künkele, A, Hu, J, Thole, T, Schweizer, L, Mechtersheimer, G, Carter, D, Cheung, BB, Popanda, O, von Deimling, A, Koster, J, Versteeg, R, Schwab, M, Marshall, GM, Speleman, F, Erb, U, Zoeller, M, Allgayer, H, Simon, T, Fischer, M, Kulozik, AE, Eggert, A, Witt, O, Schulte, JH & Deubzer, HE 2016, 'MYCN and HDAC5 transcriptionally repress CD9 to trigger invasion and metastasis in neuroblastoma', Oncotarget, vol. 7, no. 41, pp. 66344-66359.
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The systemic and resistant nature of metastatic neuroblastoma renders it largely incurable with current multimodal treatment. Clinical progression stems mainly from the increasing burden of metastatic colonization. Therapeutically inhibiting the migration-invasion-metastasis cascade would be of great benefit, but the mechanisms driving this cycle are as yet poorly understood. In-depth transcriptome analyses and ChIP-qPCR identified the cell surface glycoprotein, CD9, as a major downstream player and direct target of the recently described GRHL1 tumor suppressor. CD9 is known to block or facilitate cancer cell motility and metastasis dependent upon entity. High-level CD9 expression in primary neuroblastomas correlated with patient survival and established markers for favorable disease. Low-level CD9 expression was an independent risk factor for adverse outcome. MYCN and HDAC5 colocalized to the CD9 promoter and repressed transcription. CD9 expression diminished with progressive tumor development in the TH-MYCN transgenic mouse model for neuroblastoma, and CD9 expression in neuroblastic tumors was far below that in ganglia from wildtype mice. Primary neuroblastomas lacking MYCN amplifications displayed differential CD9 promoter methylation in methyl-CpG-binding domain sequencing analyses, and high-level methylation was associated with advanced stage disease, supporting epigenetic regulation. Inducing CD9 expression in a SH-EP cell model inhibited migration and invasion in Boyden chamber assays. Enforced CD9 expression in neuroblastoma cells transplanted onto chicken chorioallantoic membranes strongly reduced metastasis to embryonic bone marrow. Combined treatment of neuroblastoma cells with HDAC/DNA methyltransferase inhibitors synergistically induced CD9 expression despite hypoxic, metabolic or cytotoxic stress. Our results show CD9 is a critical and indirectly druggable suppressor of the invasion-metastasis cycle in neuroblastoma.

Fanchini, M, Ferraresi, I, Modena, R, Schena, F, Coutts, AJ & Impellizzeri, FM 2016, 'Use of the CR100 Scale for Session Rating of Perceived Exertion in Soccer and Its Interchangeability With the CR10', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORTS PHYSIOLOGY AND PERFORMANCE, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 388-392.
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To examine the construct validity of the session rating perceived exertion (s-RPE) assessed with the Borg CR100® scale to measure training loads in elite soccer and to examine if the CR100® is interchangeable and can provide more accurate ratings compared to the CR10® scale.Two studies were conducted. The validity of the CR100® was determined in 19-elite soccer players (age 28 ± 6 y, height 180 ± 7 cm, body mass 77 ± 6 kg) during training sessions through correlations with Edwards heart rate method (study one). The interchangeability with CR10® was assessed in 78 soccer players (age 19.3 ± 4.1 y, height 178 ± 5.9 cm, body mass 71.4 ± 6.1 kg) through Bland-Altman method and correlations between change scores in different sessions. To examine whether the CR100® is more fine graded than the CR10®, the proportion of responses corresponding to the verbal expressions were calculated (study two).Individual correlations between Edwards' and s-RPE were large to very large (0.52 to 0.85). The mean difference between the two scales was -0.3 ± 0.33 AU (90% CI -0.41 to -0.29 AU) with 95% limits of agreements 0.31 to -0.96 AU. Correlations between scales and between changes scores were nearly perfect (0.95 and 0.91 to 0.98). Ratings corresponding to the verbal anchors were 49% in CR10® and 26% in CR100®.The CR100® is valid for assessing the training load in elite soccer players. It can be used interchangeably with the CR10® and may provide more precise measures of exercise intensity.

Ferguson, C, Hickman, LD, Lal, S, Newton, PJ, Kneebone, II, McGowan, S & Middleton, S 2016, 'Addressing the stroke evidence-treatment gap', Contemporary Nurse, vol. 52, no. 2-3, pp. 253-257.
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Forber, J, DiGiacomo, M, Carter, B, Davidson, P, Phillips, J & Jackson, D 2016, 'In pursuit of an optimal model of undergraduate nurse clinical education: An integrative review', Nurse Education in Practice, vol. 21, pp. 83-92.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd Clinical learning experiences are an essential part of nurse education programs. Numerous approaches to clinical education and student supervision exist. The aim of this integrative review was to explore how studies have compared or contrasted different models of undergraduate nurse clinical education. A search of eight databases was undertaken to identify peer-reviewed literature published between 2006 and 2015. Eighteen studies met the inclusion criteria. A diverse range of methodologies and data collection methods were represented, which primarily explored student experiences or perceptions. The main models of undergraduate nurse clinical education identified were: traditional or clinical facilitator model; the preceptorship or mentoring model; and the collaborative education unit model in addition to several novel alternatives. Various limitations and strengths were identified for each model with no single optimal model evident. Thematic synthesis identified four common elements across the models: the centrality of relationships; the need for consistency and continuity; the potential for variety of models; and the viability/sustainability of the model. The results indicate that effective implementation and key elements within a model may be more important than the overarching concept of any given model. Further research is warranted to achieve an agreed taxonomy and relate model elements to professional competence.

Frost, SA & Nguyen, TV 2016, 'Uncertain effects of calcium and vitamin D supplementation on fracture risk reduction', Osteoporosis International, vol. 27, no. 8, pp. 2647-2648.
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Gentile, C 2016, 'Filling the Gaps between the In Vivo and In Vitro Microenvironment: Engineering of Spheroids for Stem Cell Technology', Current Stem Cell Research & Therapy, vol. 11, no. 8, pp. 652-665.
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Engineering of in vitro three-dimensional cultures of stem cells and their progenies has offered promising alternatives to recapitulate the in vivo microenvironment, or stem cell niche, and has provided more specific cues for proper stem cell differentiation, maintenance and culture. In particular, tissue spheroids are cellular aggregates with defined cellular and extracellular features and have provided optimal conditions for stem cell technology, both in culture and for potential engraftment. Recent studies have focused on spheroid formation and the developmental roles played by cellular and extracellular signals necessary for cellular aggegation into spheroids. This review will provide insights into the factors that regulate in vitro spheroid formation by comparing them with their developmental counterparts in vivo. At the same time, we will identify cellular and extracellular signals that could be used to bioengineer spheroids with improved features according to their application. Finally, this review will provide an overview of the applications to date of spheroid cultures of stem cells and their progenies, providing insights for future studies.

Gerami, A, Mostaghimi, P, Armstrong, RT, Zamani, A & Warkiani, ME 2016, 'A microfluidic framework for studying relative permeability in coal', International Journal of Coal Geology, vol. 159, pp. 183-193.
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A significant unconventional energy resource is methane gas stored in shallow coal beds, known as coal seam gas. The flow and transport of fluid in coal beds occur in a well-developed system of natural fractures, called cleats. In this study, we developed an efficient workflow for the fabrication of microfluidic chips based on X-ray micro-Computed Tomography (micro-CT) images of coal. A dry and wet micro-CT imaging technique is utilized to image coal cleats that would be otherwise non-resolvable. The obtained image of the cleat network is then etched into silicon wafers and used to fabricate poly dimethyl siloxane (PDMS) microfluidic devices. Fluid transport and displacement efficiency are visualized and quantified in real time by injecting water with a flow rate of 1 μl min-1 into the fabricated cleat structure initially saturated with air. A microfluidic approach is used to measure the relative permeability of a realistic coal cleat system by monitoring the liquid recovery at recorded saturations after the breakthrough. Relative permeability curves show the cross and end point values for the water and gas flow, and predict a maximum relative permeability of 0.15 for the water phase. Understanding the relationship between coal cleat structure and the resulting relative permeability is crucial for the optimization of methane gas extraction and to reduce the environmental concerns of excess surface water production. Also, pore network modelling based on the Maximal Ball (MB) concept is applied to predict relative permeability curves numerically. Our experimental results are in good agreement with pore network modelling outcomes and provide consistent and smooth macro-scale relationships along with direct observation of the pore-scale physics. Therefore not only can the microfluidic approach be used as a validation tool for multiphase flow numerical models but it can also provide direct visualization of transport properties unique to coals. Overall, our d...

Geronimo, FRB, Barter, PJ, Rye, KA, Heather, AK, Shearston, KD & Rodgers, KJ 2016, 'Plaque stabilizing effects of apolipoprotein A-IV', Atherosclerosis, vol. 251, pp. 39-46.
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BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Apolipoprotein (apo) A-IV, the third most abundant HDL-associated protein, is atheroprotective and shares similar properties as apoA-I. We have reported previously that apoA-I, the most abundant apolipoprotein in HDL, inhibits plaque disruption in a mouse model. We aimed at examining the effects of apoA-IV on markers of plaque stability in vivo. METHODS: Plaques within brachiocephalic arteries of 16-week old apoE-knockout C57BL/6 mice were examined for changes in composition after 10 weeks on a high-fat diet (HFD). The animals received twice-weekly injections of human lipid-free apoA-IV (1 mg/kg, n = 31) or PBS (n = 32) during the 9th and 10th weeks of the HFD. RESULTS: In the apoA-IV treated mice, there were significantly fewer hemorrhagic plaque disruptions (9/31 vs. 18/32, p < 0.05), thicker fibrous caps, smaller lipid cores, a lower macrophage:SMC ratio, less MMP-9 protein, more collagen, and fewer proliferating cells. In the plaques of mice given apoA-IV, MCP-1, VCAM-1, and inducible NOS were also significantly lower. Based on the percentage of cleaved PARP-positive and TUNEL-positive plaque nuclei, apoA-IV reduced apoptosis. in HMDMs, apoA-IV reduced MMP-9 mRNA expression by half, doubled mRNA levels of TIMP1 and decreased MMP-9 activity. CONCLUSIONS: ApoA-IV treatment is associated with a more stable plaque phenotype and a reduced incidence of acute disruptions in this mouse model.

Ghosh, S, Feng, M, Nguyen, H & Li, J 2016, 'Hypotension Risk Prediction via Sequential Contrast Patterns of ICU Blood Pressure', IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 1416-1426.
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© 2013 IEEE. Acute hypotension is a significant risk factor for in-hospital mortality at intensive care units. Prolonged hypotension can cause tissue hypoperfusion, leading to cellular dysfunction and severe injuries to multiple organs. Prompt medical interventions are thus extremely important for dealing with acute hypotensive episodes (AHE). Population level prognostic scoring systems for risk stratification of patients are suboptimal in such scenarios. However, the design of an efficient risk prediction system can significantly help in the identification of critical care patients, who are at risk of developing an AHE within a future time span. Toward this objective, a pattern mining algorithm is employed to extract informative sequential contrast patterns from hemodynamic data, for the prediction of hypotensive episodes. The hypotensive and normotensive patient groups are extracted from the MIMIC-II critical care research database, following an appropriate clinical inclusion criteria. The proposed method consists of a data preprocessing step to convert the blood pressure time series into symbolic sequences, using a symbolic aggregate approximation algorithm. Then, distinguishing subsequences are identified using the sequential contrast mining algorithm. These subsequences are used to predict the occurrence of an AHE in a future time window separated by a user-defined gap interval. Results indicate that the method performs well in terms of the prediction performance as well as in the generation of sequential patterns of clinical significance. Hence, the novelty of sequential patterns is in their usefulness as potential physiological biomarkers for building optimal patient risk stratification systems and for further clinical investigation of interesting patterns in critical care patients.

Glastras, SJ, Chen, H, McGrath, RT, Zaky, AA, Gill, AJ, Pollock, CA & Saad, S 2016, 'Effect of GLP-1 Receptor Activation on Offspring Kidney Health in a Rat Model of Maternal Obesity', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1.
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AbstractMaternal obesity is associated with an increased risk of chronic disease in offspring, including type 2 diabetes (T2D). Exendin-4 (Exd-4) activates the glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor thereby decreasing serum glucose levels and body weight. In addition, Exd-4 has been shown to reduce renal and cardiac complications in experimental models of T2D. We hypothesized that treatment with Exd-4 would ameliorate the detrimental effects of maternal and diet-induced obesity on renal characteristics in offspring. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were fed either normal or high-fat diet (HFD) for 6 weeks prior to pregnancy, during pregnancy and lactation, and their offspring were weaned to normal or HFD. The offspring were randomized to Exd-4 or placebo from weaning and their kidneys harvested at Week 9. We found that the kidneys of offspring from obese mothers, regardless of postnatal diet, had significantly increased markers of inflammation, oxidative stress and fibrosis. Exd-4 ameliorated the negative renal effects of maternal obesity and in particular, reduced renal inflammation, oxidative stress and fibrosis. In conclusion, maternal obesity has persisting effects on renal structure in the offspring. GLP-1 analogues are potentially useful for protecting against the deleterious effects of maternal obesity on renal physiology in offspring.

Glastras, SJ, Chen, H, Teh, R, McGrath, RT, Chen, J, Pollock, CA, Wong, MG & Saad, S 2016, 'Mouse Models of Diabetes, Obesity and Related Kidney Disease', PLOS ONE, vol. 11, no. 8, pp. e0162131-e0162131.
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Multiple rodent models have been used to study diabetic kidney disease (DKD). The purpose of the present study was to compare models of diabetes and obesity-induced metabolic syndrome and determine differences in renal outcomes. C57BL/6 male mice were fed either normal chow or high fat diet (HFD). At postnatal week 8, chow-fed mice were randomly assigned to low-dose streptozotocin (STZ, 55 mg/kg/day, five consecutive days) or vehicle control, whereas HFD-fed mice were given either one high-dose of STZ (100 mg/kg) or vehicle control. Intraperitoneal glucose tolerance tests were performed at Week 14, 20 and 30. Urinary albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR) and serum creatinine were measured, and renal structure was assessed using Periodic Acid Schiff (PAS) staining at Week 32. Results showed that chow-fed mice exposed to five doses of STZ resembled type 1 diabetes mellitus with a lean phenotype, hyperglycaemia, microalbuminuria and increased serum creatinine levels. Their kidneys demonstrated moderate tubular injury with evidence of tubular dilatation and glycogenated nuclear inclusion bodies. HFD-fed mice resembled metabolic syndrome as they were obese with dyslipidaemia, insulin resistance, and significantly impaired glucose tolerance. One dose STZ, in addition to HFD, did not worsen metabolic features (including fasting glucose, non esterified fatty acid, and triglyceride levels). There were significant increases in urinary ACR and serum creatinine levels, and renal structural changes were predominantly related to interstitial vacuolation and tubular dilatation in HFD-fed mice.

Glastras, SJ, Tsang, M, Teh, R, Chen, H, McGrath, RT, Zaky, AA, Pollock, CA & Saad, S 2016, 'Maternal Obesity Promotes Diabetic Nephropathy in Rodent Offspring', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1.
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AbstractMaternal obesity is known to increase the risk of obesity and diabetes in offspring. Though diabetes is a key risk factor for the development of chronic kidney disease (CKD), the relationship between maternal obesity and CKD has not been clearly defined. In this study, a mouse model of maternal obesity was employed to determine the impact of maternal obesity on development of diabetic nephropathy in offspring. Female C57BL/6 mice were fed high-fat diet (HFD) for six weeks prior to mating, during gestation and lactation. Male offspring were weaned to normal chow diet. At postnatal Week 8, offspring were randomly administered low dose streptozotocin (STZ, 55 mg/kg/day for five days) to induce diabetes. Assessment of renal damage took place at postnatal Week 32. We found that offspring of obese mothers had increased renal fibrosis, inflammation and oxidative stress. Importantly, offspring exposed to maternal obesity had increased susceptibility to renal damage when an additional insult, such as STZ-induced diabetes, was imposed. Specifically, renal inflammation and oxidative stress induced by diabetes was augmented by maternal obesity. Our findings suggest that developmental programming induced by maternal obesity has implications for renal health in offspring. Maternal obesity should be considered a risk factor for CKD.

Gorrie, C, Mao, Y, Nguyen, T & Sutherland, T 2016, 'Endogenous neural progenitor cells in the repair of the injured spinal cord', Neural Regeneration Research, vol. 11, no. 7, pp. 1075-1075.
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Gourlay, ML, Overman, RA, Fine, JP, Filteau, G, Cawthon, PM, Schousboe, JT, Orwoll, ES, Wilt, TJ, Nguyen, TV, Lane, NE, Szulc, P, Taylor, BC, Dam, T-T, Nielson, CM, Cauley, JA, Barrett-Connor, E, Fink, HA, Lapidus, JA, Kado, DM, Diem, SJ & Ensrud, KE 2016, 'Time to Osteoporosis and Major Fracture in Older Men', American Journal of Preventive Medicine, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 727-736.
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© 2016 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Introduction For older men who undergo bone mineral density (BMD) testing, the optimal osteoporosis screening schedule is unknown. Time-to-disease estimates are necessary to inform screening intervals. Methods A prospective cohort study of 5,415 community-dwelling men aged ≥65 years without hip or clinical vertebral fracture or antifracture treatment at baseline was conducted. Participants had concurrent BMD and fracture follow-up between 2000 and 2009, and additional fracture follow-up through 2014. Data were analyzed in 2015. Time to incident osteoporosis (lowest T-score ≤ -2.50) for men without baseline osteoporosis, and time to hip or clinical vertebral fracture or major osteoporotic fracture for men without or with baseline osteoporosis, were estimated. Results Nine men (0.2%) with BMD T-scores >-1.50 at baseline developed osteoporosis during follow-up. The adjusted estimated time for 10% to develop osteoporosis was 8.5 (95% CI=6.7, 10.9) years for those with moderate osteopenia (lowest T-score, -1.50 to -1.99) and 2.7 (95% CI=2.1, 3.4) years for those with advanced osteopenia (lowest T-score, -2.00 to -2.49) at baseline. The adjusted times for 3% to develop a first hip or clinical vertebral fracture ranged from 7.1 (95% CI=6.0, 8.3) years in men with baseline T-scores > -1.50 to 1.7 (95% CI=1.0, 3.1) years in men with baseline osteoporosis. Conclusions Men aged 65 years and older with femoral neck, total hip, and lumbar spine BMD T-scores >-1.50 on a first BMD test were very unlikely to develop osteoporosis during follow-up. Additional BMD testing may be most informative in older men with T-scores ≤-1.50.

Green, DW, Ben-Nissan, B, Yoon, K-S, Milthorpe, B & Jung, H-S 2016, 'Bioinspired materials for regenerative medicine: going beyond the human archetypes', Journal of Materials Chemistry B, vol. 4, no. 14, pp. 2396-2406.
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Living organisms are skilful innovators and fabricators of materials, driven by the forces of evolution. We describe the translation process between natural material innovations and human tissue engineering.

Guo, Q, Zhang, Y, Celler, BG & Su, SW 2016, 'Backstepping Control of Electro-Hydraulic System Based on Extended-State-Observer With Plant Dynamics Largely Unknown', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 63, no. 11, pp. 6909-6920.
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Gupta, V, Gupta, VB, Chitranshi, N, Gangoda, S, Vander Wall, R, Abbasi, M, Golzan, M, Dheer, Y, Shah, T, Avolio, A, Chung, R, Martins, R & Graham, S 2016, 'One protein, multiple pathologies: multifaceted involvement of amyloid β in neurodegenerative disorders of the brain and retina', Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, vol. 73, no. 22, pp. 4279-4297.
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Accumulation of amyloid β (Aβ) and its aggregates in the ageing central nervous system is regarded synonymous to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology. Despite unquestionable advances in mechanistic and diagnostic aspects of the disease understanding, the primary cause of Aβ accumulation as well as its in vivo roles remains elusive; nonetheless, the majority of the efforts to address pathological mechanisms for therapeutic development are focused towards moderating Aβ accumulation in the brain. More recently, Aβ deposition has been identified in the eye and is linked with distinct age-related diseases including age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma as well as AD. Awareness of the Aβ accumulation in these markedly different degenerative disorders has led to an increasing body of work exploring overlapping mechanisms, a prospective biomarker role for Aβ and the potential to use retina as a model for brain related neurodegenerative disorders. Here, we present an integrated view of current understanding of the retinal Aβ deposition discussing the accumulation mechanisms, anticipated impacts and outlining ameliorative approaches that can be extrapolated to the retina for potential therapeutic benefits. Further longitudinal investigations in humans and animal models will determine retinal Aβ association as a potential pathognomonic, diagnostic or prognostic biomarker.

Gupta, VK, Chitranshi, N, Gupta, VB, Golzan, M, Dheer, Y, Wall, RV, Georgevsky, D, King, AE, Vickers, JC, Chung, R & Graham, S 2016, 'Amyloid β accumulation and inner retinal degenerative changes in Alzheimer’s disease transgenic mouse', Neuroscience Letters, vol. 623, pp. 52-56.
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Hassanzadeh-Barforoushi, A, Shemesh, J, Farbehi, N, Asadnia, M, Yeoh, GH, Harvey, RP, Nordon, RE & Warkiani, ME 2016, 'A rapid co-culture stamping device for studying intercellular communication', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, p. 35618.
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AbstractRegulation of tissue development and repair depends on communication between neighbouring cells. Recent advances in cell micro-contact printing and microfluidics have facilitated the in-vitro study of homotypic and heterotypic cell-cell interaction. Nonetheless, these techniques are still complicated to perform and as a result, are seldom used by biologists. We report here development of a temporarily sealed microfluidic stamping device which utilizes a novel valve design for patterning two adherent cell lines with well-defined interlacing configurations to study cell-cell interactions. We demonstrate post-stamping cell viability of >95%, the stamping of multiple adherent cell types, and the ability to control the seeded cell density. We also show viability, proliferation and migration of cultured cells, enabling analysis of co-culture boundary conditions on cell fate. We also developed an in-vitro model of endothelial and cardiac stem cell interactions, which are thought to regulate coronary repair after myocardial injury. The stamp is fabricated using microfabrication techniques, is operated with a lab pipettor and uses very low reagent volumes of 20 μl with cell injection efficiency of >70%. This easy-to-use device provides a general strategy for micro-patterning of multiple cell types and will be important for studying cell-cell interactions in a multitude of applications.

Heneka, N, Shaw, T, Rowett, D & Phillips, JL 2016, 'Quantifying the burden of opioid medication errors in adult oncology and palliative care settings: A systematic review', PALLIATIVE MEDICINE, vol. 30, no. 6, pp. 520-532.
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© The Author(s) 2015. Background: Opioids are the primary pharmacological treatment for cancer pain and, in the palliative care setting, are routinely used to manage symptoms at the end of life. Opioids are one of the most frequently reported drug classes in medication errors causing patient harm. Despite their widespread use, little is known about the incidence and impact of opioid medication errors in oncology and palliative care settings. Aim: To determine the incidence, types and impact of reported opioid medication errors in adult oncology and palliative care patient settings. Design: A systematic review. Data sources: Five electronic databases and the grey literature were searched from 1980 to August 2014. Empirical studies published in English, reporting data on opioid medication error incidence, types or patient impact, within adult oncology and/or palliative care services, were included. Popay's narrative synthesis approach was used to analyse data. Results: Five empirical studies were included in this review. Opioid error incidence rate was difficult to ascertain as each study focussed on a single narrow area of error. The predominant error type related to deviation from opioid prescribing guidelines, such as incorrect dosing intervals. None of the included studies reported the degree of patient harm resulting from opioid errors. Conclusion: This review has highlighted the paucity of the literature examining opioid error incidence, types and patient impact in adult oncology and palliative care settings. Defining, identifying and quantifying error reporting practices for these populations should be an essential component of future oncology and palliative care quality and safety initiatives.

Hesari, Z, Soleimani, M, Atyabi, F, Sharifdini, M, Nadri, S, Warkiani, ME, Zare, M & Dinarvand, R 2016, 'A hybrid microfluidic system for regulation of neural differentiation in induced pluripotent stem cells', Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, vol. 104, no. 6, pp. 1534-1543.
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AbstractControlling cellular orientation, proliferation, and differentiation is valuable in designing organ replacements and directing tissue regeneration. In the present study, we developed a hybrid microfluidic system to produce a dynamic microenvironment by placing aligned PDMS microgrooves on surface of biodegradable polymers as physical guidance cues for controlling the neural differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). The neuronal differentiation capacity of cultured hiPSCs in the microfluidic system and other control groups was investigated using quantitative real time PCR (qPCR) and immunocytochemistry. The functionally of differentiated hiPSCs inside hybrid system's scaffolds was also evaluated on the rat hemisected spinal cord in acute phase. Implanted cell's fate was examined using tissue freeze section and the functional recovery was evaluated according to the Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan (BBB) locomotor rating scale. Our results confirmed the differentiation of hiPSCs to neuronal cells on the microfluidic device where the expression of neuronal‐specific genes was significantly higher compared to those cultured on the other systems such as plain tissue culture dishes and scaffolds without fluidic channels. Although survival and integration of implanted hiPSCs did not lead to a significant functional recovery, we believe that combination of fluidic channels with nanofiber scaffolds provides a great microenvironment for neural tissue engineering, and can be used as a powerful tool for in situ monitoring of differentiation potential of various kinds of stem cells. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 104A: 1534–1543, 2016.

Hickman, LD, Neville, S, Fischer, T, Davidson, PM & Phillips, JL 2016, 'Call to action: greater investment in the registered nurse role is required to improve care outcomes for dementia patients living in residential aged care and their families', CONTEMPORARY NURSE, vol. 52, no. 2-3, pp. 137-139.
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The number of people living with dementia will triple by 2050 (World Health Organization, 2012). Dementia is a complex terminal illness and international global public health priority (World Health Organization, 2012). Whilst enormous efforts focus on dementia treatments, there is an equally urgent need to address workforce issues and invest in increasing the registered nurse role and ratios in residential aged care to meet the projections. In most high-income countries residential aged care facilities have evolved over the past two to three decades from homes for the aged into slow-stream hospices, caring for our most vulnerable community members (Allen, Chapman, O’Connor, & Francis, 2008). This population has complex care needs requiring the input of a range of health professionals, such as geriatricians, general practitioners, registered nurses and care assistants (Hickman, Rolley, & Davidson, 2010; Phillips, Heneka, Hickman, Lam, & Shaw, 2014). Over this same time period the number of registered or enrolled nurses working in residential aged care facilities has fallen and those that remain have been largely relegated to managerial responsibilities. As a result the bulk of nursing care in residential aged care is now provided by a largely unskilled and unregulated workforce. Without the prerequisite dementia knowledge, skills or training, these staff are supervised by a small number of registered nurses (Hullick et al., 2016). This is in contrast to emerging evidence from long-term care and acute care setting, that nurse qualifications impact outcome. It also differs significantly from standards in countries like Germany, where a minimum RN ratio of 50% is mandatory (Aiken et al., 2010)

Hoiles, W, Gupta, R, Cornell, B, Cranfield, C & Krishnamurthy, V 2016, 'The Effect of Tethers on Artificial Cell Membranes: A Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics Study', PLOS ONE, vol. 11, no. 10.
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Ho-Pham, LT, Hans, D, Doan, MC, Mai, LD & Nguyen, TV 2016, 'Genetic determinant of trabecular bone score (TBS) and bone mineral density: A bivariate analysis', Bone, vol. 92, pp. 79-84.
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Ho-Pham, LT, Lai, TQ, Mai, LD, Doan, MC & Nguyen, TV 2016, 'Body Composition in Individuals with Asymptomatic Osteoarthritis of the Knee', Calcified Tissue International, vol. 98, no. 2, pp. 165-171.
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© 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York. Greater body mass index (BMI) is associated with a greater risk of osteoarthritis (OA). This study sought to investigate whether the association is mediated by fat mass or lean mass. The study involved 170 men and 488 women aged between 20 and 90 (average age: 55) who were randomly recruited from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The presence of knee OA was radiographically diagnosed based on the Kellgren–Lawrence criteria. Lean mass (LM) and fat mass (FM) were obtained from the DXA whole body scan (Hologic QDR-4500). The relationship between OA, LM, and FM was analyzed by a series of multiple linear regression models which take into account the effects of gender and age. As expected, men and women with knee OA were older than those without OA (65 vs 51 year in men, and 64 vs 52 year in women). After adjusting for age, OA was associated with greater FM and percent body fat (PBF), but the association was only observed in women, not in men. There was no statistically significant difference in LM between OA and non-OA individuals. Moreover, after adjusting for age and BMI or PBF, bone density in OA patients was not significantly different from non-OA individuals. Women with OA of the knee have greater fat mass than non-OA individuals, and that there is no significant difference in bone density between OA and non-OA individuals. Thus, the association between body mass index and OA is mainly mediated by fat mass.

Hosie, A, Agar, M & Phillips, J 2016, 'Re-thinking our approach to care of the dying person with delirium: time for a new care paradigm', International Journal of Palliative Nursing, vol. 22, no. 10, pp. 472-473.
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Hosie, A, Lobb, E, Agar, M, Davidson, P, Chye, R, Lam, L & Phillips, J 2016, 'Measuring delirium point-prevalence in two Australian palliative care inpatient units', International Journal of Palliative Nursing, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 13-21.
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Background: Internationally, delirium prevalence in palliative care is reported to range between 26–88%, yet little is known about the occurrence of delirium in Australian palliative care inpatient populations. Aims: To: 1) ascertain 24-hour delirium point-prevalence in an Australian palliative care inpatient population; 2) test the feasibility and acceptability of the delirium measurement methodology. Methods: This was a prospective cross-sectional study. Delirium was measured in patients of two palliative care units using the Nursing Delirium Screening Scale, Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale and DSM-5 diagnostic criteria. Descriptive statistics were used to report patient demographics, palliative care phase, function, delirium measure completion, and proportion of patients with a positive screen and diagnosis. Results: Patients (n=47) had a mean age of 74 years (SD+10) and mostly malignant diagnoses (96%). All patients were screened for delirium, but few were capable of completing the Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale (n=2). One-third of patients (34%) screened positive for delirium and 19% were diagnosed as delirious according to the DSM-5. Conclusion: The Nursing Delirium Screening Scale and physician application of DSM-5 proved feasible and acceptable, while the Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale did not. Patients' advanced age and proportions screening positive for delirium and diagnosed as delirious attest to the need to rapidly recognise, assess and respond to patients experiencing this distressing disorder while being cared for in palliative care inpatient settings.

Hossain, K, Al Khamici, H, Holt, S & Valenzuela, S 2016, 'Cholesterol Promotes Interaction of the Protein CLIC1 with Phospholipid Monolayers at the Air–Water Interface', Membranes, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 15-15.
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© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. CLIC1 is a Chloride Intracellular Ion Channel protein that exists either in a soluble state in the cytoplasm or as a membrane bound protein. Members of the CLIC family are largely soluble proteins that possess the intriguing property of spontaneous insertion into phospholipid bilayers to form integral membrane ion channels. The regulatory role of cholesterol in the ion‐channel activity of CLIC1 in tethered lipid bilayers was previously assessed using impedance spectroscopy. Here we extend this investigation by evaluating the influence of cholesterol on the spontaneous membrane insertion of CLIC1 into Langmuir film monolayers prepared using 1‐palmitoyl‐2‐oleoylphosphatidylcholine, 1‐palmitoyl‐2‐oleoyl‐sn‐glycero‐3‐phospho‐ethanolamine and 1‐palmitoyl‐2‐oleoyl‐sn‐glycero‐3‐phospho‐L‐serine alone or in combination with cholesterol. The spontaneous membrane insertion of CLIC1 was shown to be dependent on the presence of cholesterol in the membrane. Furthermore, pre‐incubation of CLIC1 with cholesterol prior to its addition to the Langmuir film, showed no membrane insertion even in monolayers containing cholesterol, suggesting the formation of a CLIC1‐cholesterol pre‐complex. Our results therefore suggest that CLIC1 membrane interaction involves CLIC1 binding to cholesterol located in the membrane for its initial docking followed by insertion. Subsequent structural rearrangements of the protein would likely also be required along with oligomerisation to form functional ion channels.

Iezzi, VL, Büttner, TFS, Tehranchi, A, Loranger, S, Kabakova, IV, Eggleton, BJ & Kashyap, R 2016, 'Temporal characterization of a multi-wavelength Brillouin–erbium fiber laser', New Journal of Physics, vol. 18, no. 5, pp. 055003-055003.
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This paper provides the first detailed temporal characterization of a multi-wavelength-Brillouin-erbium fiber laser (MWBEFL) by measuring the optical intensity of the individual frequency channels with high temporal resolution. It is found that the power in each channel is highly unstable due to the excitation of several cavity modes for typical conditions of operation. Also provided is the real-time measurements of the MWBEFL output power for two configurations that were previously reported to emit phase-locked picosecond pulse trains, concluded from their autocorrelation measurements. Real-time measurements reveal a high degree of instability without the formation of a stable pulse train. Finally, we model the MWBEFL using coupled wave equations describing the evolution of the Brillouin pump, Stokes and acoustic waves in the presence of stimulated Brillouin scattering, and the optical Kerr effect. A good qualitative consistency between the simulation and experimental results is evident, in which the interference signal at the output shows strong instability as well as the chaotic behavior due to the dynamics of participating pump and Stokes waves.

Inan, AT, Gunduz, O, Sahin, YM, Ekren, N, Salman, S, Chou, J, Ben-Nissan, B, Gökçe, H & Oktar, FN 2016, 'Novel Bioceramic Production via Mechanochemical Conversion from Plate Limpet (<i>Tectura</i> <i>scutum</i>) - Shells', Key Engineering Materials, vol. 696, pp. 45-50.
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Calcium phosphates are very important biomaterials for orthopaedic and dental applications. Hydroxyapatite (HA) is one of the important phases used for grafting. Those are produced from synthetic and natural sources with various methods. Especially nano-bioceramics can be produced through calcitic and aragonitic structures (i.e. mussel shells, sea snail shells, land snail shells and sea urchin shells). The plate limpet shells were used. The plate limpet is a gastropod, a soft-bodied invertebrate (an animal without a backbone) that is protected by a very hard, flattened conical shell. In this study the Plate Limpet (Tectura scutum) shells were obtained from a local gift store in Istanbul. The habitation of these limpets broadens from south Alaska down to California - Mexico. First the exact CaCO3 content was measured with thermal analysis (DTA/TGA). Here in this study agitation was carried out on a hot-plate (i.e. mechano-chemical processing). First the temperature was set at 80 °C for 15 min. Then equivalent amount to CaO H3PO4 was added dropwise for HA phase formation and the reaction was set on a hotplate for 8 hours. The dried sediments HA part was divided into 2 groups. One group was sintered to 835 °C and second group to 855 °C. Here x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope (SEM) studies were performed. From the study various HA phases and TCP phases were obtained. A previous study done with Atlantic Deer Cowrie encourages nanobioceramic production from natural sources. This study proposes that mechanochemical agitation with very simple way for producing nano-sized calcium phosphates for future bioengineering scaffold applications.

Ing, M, Oliver, RA, Oliver, BGG, Walsh, WR & Williamson, JP 2016, 'Evaluation of Transbronchial Lung Cryobiopsy Size and Freezing Time: A Prognostic Animal Study', Respiration, vol. 92, no. 1, pp. 34-39.
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<b><i>Background:</i></b> Transbronchial lung biopsy using a cryoprobe is a novel way of sampling lung parenchyma. Correlation of freezing time with biopsy size and complications has not been evaluated in vivo. <b><i>Objectives:</i></b> The primary aim of the study is to evaluate the correlation between transbronchial cryobiopsy freezing time and size. The secondary aims are to evaluate histological quality of the biopsy and evaluate procedure-associated complications. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Transbronchial lung cryobiopsies were obtained from two anaesthetised sheep using a 1.9-mm cryoprobe inserted into a flexible bronchoscope under fluoroscopic guidance. Freezing times ranged from 1 to 6 s (n = 49). The cryobiopsies were evaluated histologically with respect to their size and quality. Complications of bleeding and pneumothorax were recorded. <b><i>Results:</i></b> The mean cross-sectional area of the cryobiopsy ranged from 4.7 ± 2.1 to 15.7 ± 15.3 mm². There was a significant positive correlation between increasing freezing time and cryobiopsy cross-sectional area (p = 0.028). All biopsies contained lung tissue with preserved parenchyma. Crush and freeze artefacts were not observed and tissue architecture was intact in all specimens. Small blood vessels and terminal bronchioles were observed in 88% of specimens. All cryobiopsies caused nil or mild haemorrhage with the exception of only 1 episode of severe haemorrhage at 6 s freezing time. Pneumothoraces occurred at 2, 5 and 6 s freezing time and required chest tube insertion. The most significant haemorrhage and pneumothoraces occurred at 5 and 6 s. Our results suggest an initial freezing time of 3 s can provide the maximal biopsy size while minimising major complications. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> The optimal transbronchial cryobiopsy freezing time is ...

Janssen, A, Shaw, T, Nagrial, A, Pene, C, Rabbets, M, Carlino, M, Zachulski, C, Phillips, J, Birnbaum, R, Gandhi, T & Harnett, P 2016, 'An Online Learning Module to Increase Self-Efficacy and Involvement in Care for Patients With Advanced Lung Cancer: Research Protocol', JMIR Research Protocols, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. e147-e147.
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Background: Improving patient care for individuals with lung cancer is a priority due to the increasing burden of the disease globally. One way this can be done is by improving patient self-management capabilities through increasing their self-efficacy. This can improve positive outcomes for patients with chronic conditions and increase their ability to manage the challenges of such illnesses. Unfortunately, patients with chronic conditions often struggle to travel far from home to engage with patient education events, a common means of improving self-efficacy. The development of more accessible tools for improving patient self-efficacy is required to increase quality of life for patients with chronic conditions. Objective: To evaluate the feasibility of delivering symptom identification and management information to patients with advanced lung cancer using an online program. Methods: This article describes a pre-post test study to evaluate a Qstream online learning platform to improve patient self-efficacy for managing advanced lung cancer symptoms. Undertaking this program should increase participant knowledge about the side-effects they may experience as a result of their treatment and in turn increase help-seeking behavior and self-efficacy for the participant cohort. Quantitative data collected by the Qstream platform on the completion rates of participants will be used as a tool to evaluate the intervention. Additionally, validated scales will be used to collect data on patient self-efficacy. Qualitative data will also be collected via an exit survey and thematic content analysis of semi-structured interviews. Results: The research is in the preliminary stages but thus far a protocol has been approved in support of the project. Additionally, advisory committee members have been identified and initial meetings have been undertaken. Conclusions: Development of new approaches for increasing patient understanding of their care is important to ensure high qualit...

Johnson, MJ, Booth, S, Currow, DC, Lam, LT & Phillips, JL 2016, 'A Mixed-Methods, Randomized, Controlled Feasibility Trial to Inform the Design of a Phase III Trial to Test the Effect of the Handheld Fan on Physical Activity and Carer Anxiety in Patients With Refractory Breathlessness', JOURNAL OF PAIN AND SYMPTOM MANAGEMENT, vol. 51, no. 5, pp. 807-815.
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© 2016 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Context The handheld fan is an inexpensive and safe way to provide facial airflow, which may reduce the sensation of chronic refractory breathlessness, a frequently encountered symptom. Objectives To test the feasibility of developing an adequately powered, multicenter, multinational randomized controlled trial comparing the efficacy of a handheld fan and exercise advice with advice alone in increasing activity in people with chronic refractory breathlessness from a variety of medical conditions, measuring recruitment rates; data quality; and potential primary outcome measures. Methods This was a Phase II, multisite, international, parallel, nonblinded, mixed-methods randomized controlled trial. Participants were centrally randomized to fan or control. All received breathlessness self-management/exercise advice and were followed up weekly for four weeks. Participants/carers were invited to participate in a semistructured interview at the study's conclusion. Results Ninety-seven people were screened, 49 randomized (mean age 68 years; 49% men), and 43 completed the study. Site recruitment varied from 0.25 to 3.3/month and screening:randomization from 1.1:1 to 8.5:1. There were few missing data except for the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Self-Efficacy Scale (two-thirds of data missing). No harms were observed. Three interview themes included 1) a fan is a helpful self-management strategy, 2) a fan aids recovery, and 3) a symptom control trial was welcome. Conclusion A definitive, multisite trial to study the use of the handheld fan as part of self-management of chronic refractory breathlessness is feasible. Participants found the fan useful. However, the value of information for changing practice or policy is unlikely to justify the expense of such a trial, given perceived benefits, the minimal costs, and an absence of harms demonstrated in this study.

Jones, PM & George, AM 2016, 'Computational analysis of the MCoTI-II plant defence knottin reveals a novel intermediate conformation that facilitates trypsin binding', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1-10.
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AbstractMCoTI-I and II are plant defence proteins, potent trypsin inhibitors from the bitter gourd Momordica cochinchinensis. They are members of the Knottin Family, which display exceptional stability due to unique topology comprising three interlocked disulfide bridges. Knottins show promise as scaffolds for new drug development. A crystal structure of trypsin-bound MCoTI-II suggested that loop 1, which engages the trypsin active site, would show decreased dynamics in the bound state, an inference at odds with an NMR analysis of MCoTI-I, which revealed increased dynamics of loop 1 in the presence of trypsin. To investigate this question, we performed unrestrained MD simulations of trypsin-bound and free MCoTI-II. This analysis found that loop 1 of MCoTI-II is not more dynamic in the trypsin-bound state than in the free state. However, it revealed an intermediate conformation, transitional between the free and bound MCoTI-II states. The data suggest that MCoTI-II binding involves a process in which initial interaction with trypsin induces transitions between the free and intermediate conformations and fluctuations between these states account for the increase in dynamics of loop 1 observed for trypsin-bound MCoTI-I. The MD analysis thus revealed new aspects of the inhibitors’ dynamics that may be of utility in drug design.

Kaasalainen, S, Sussman, T, Bui, M, Parker, D, Venturato, L, Sinclair, S, Thompson, G, Strachan, P, Bonifas, R, Young, L & SPA-LTC Team 2016, 'P232 Tailored Education Required Across the Long Term Care Workforce to Ensure Quality Palliative Care', Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, vol. 52, no. 6, pp. e127-e127.
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Kabakova, IV, de Hoogh, A, van der Wel, REC, Wulf, M, le Feber, B & Kuipers, L 2016, 'Imaging of electric and magnetic fields near plasmonic nanowires', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, p. 22665.
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AbstractNear-field imaging is a powerful tool to investigate the complex structure of light at the nanoscale. Recent advances in near-field imaging have indicated the possibility for the complete reconstruction of both electric and magnetic components of the evanescent field. Here we study the electro-magnetic field structure of surface plasmon polariton waves propagating along subwavelength gold nanowires by performing phase- and polarization-resolved near-field microscopy in collection mode. By applying the optical reciprocity theorem, we describe the signal collected by the probe as an overlap integral of the nanowire’s evanescent field and the probe’s response function. As a result, we find that the probe’s sensitivity to the magnetic field is approximately equal to its sensitivity to the electric field. Through rigorous modeling of the nanowire mode as well as the aperture probe response function, we obtain a good agreement between experimentally measured signals and a numerical model. Our findings provide a better understanding of aperture-based near-field imaging of the nanoscopic plasmonic and photonic structures and are helpful for the interpretation of future near-field experiments.

Karimi Galougahi, K, Liu, C, Garcia, A, Gentile, C, Fry, NA, Hamilton, EJ, Hawkins, CL & Figtree, GA 2016, 'β3 Adrenergic Stimulation Restores Nitric Oxide/Redox Balance and Enhances Endothelial Function in Hyperglycemia', Journal of the American Heart Association, vol. 5, no. 2.
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Background Perturbed balance between NO and O 2 •− . (ie, NO/redox imbalance) is central in the pathobiology of diabetes‐induced vascular dysfunction. We examined whether stimulation of β 3 adrenergic receptors (β 3 ARs), coupled to endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) activation, would re‐establish NO/redox balance, relieve oxidative inhibition of the membrane proteins eNOS and Na + ‐K + (NK) pump, and improve vascular function in a new animal model of hyperglycemia. Methods and Results We established hyperglycemia in male White New Zealand rabbits by infusion of S961, a competitive high‐affinity peptide inhibitor of the insulin receptor. Hyperglycemia impaired endothelium‐dependent vasorelaxation by “uncoupling” of eNOS via glutathionylation (eNOS‐GSS) that was dependent on NADPH oxidase activity. Accordingly, NO levels were lower while O 2 •− levels were higher in hyperglycemic rabbits. Infusion of the β 3 AR agonist CL316243 (CL) decreased eNOS‐GSS, reduced O 2 •− , restored NO levels, and improved endothelium‐dependent relaxation. CL decreased hyperglycemia‐induced NADPH oxidase activation as suggested by co‐immunoprecipitation experiments, and it increased eNOS co‐immunoprecipitation w...

Kempton, T & Coutts, AJ 2016, 'Factors affecting exercise intensity in professional rugby league match-play', JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND MEDICINE IN SPORT, vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 504-508.
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© 2015 Sports Medicine Australia. Objectives: To examine the effects of match-related and individual player characteristics on running performance in professional rugby league matches. Design: Longitudinal observational study. Methods: Global positioning system (GPS) and technical performance measures (attacking involvements and tackles made) were collected from 23 players competing in the National Rugby League (NRL) over 24 matches during a season. The GPS data were categorised into relative total distance (m min-1) and relative high-speed running distance (HSR m min-1, >14.4 km h-1). Each match was classified according to season phase, location, recovery length, opposition strength and result. Individual player fitness status was obtained from a 1.2-km shuttle run test conducted prior to the start of the season. Two separate linear mixed models were constructed to examine the influence of match-related and individual player characteristics on relative total and HSR distances. Results: Matches played away from home, early in the season and following short recovery cycles were associated with reduced relative total and HSR distances. Matches won contained less relative total and HSR distance; whereas only HSR distance was higher against weaker opposition. The total time the ball was out of play reduced relative total but not HSR distances. The number of defensive but not attacking involvements influenced both physical performance measures. Finally, player fitness was positively related to both relative total and HSR distances. Conclusions: There appears to be a complex interplay of factors affecting match-running performance in rugby league. The results underline the importance of considering contextual factors when analysing rugby league match-activity profiles.

Kempton, T, Kennedy, N & Coutts, AJ 2016, 'The expected value of possession in professional rugby league match-play', JOURNAL OF SPORTS SCIENCES, vol. 34, no. 7, pp. 645-650.
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© 2015 Taylor & Francis. This study estimated the expected point value for starting possessions in different field locations during rugby league match-play and calculated the mean expected points for each subsequent play during the possession. It also examined the origin of tries scored according to the method of gaining possession. Play-by-play data were taken from all 768 regular-season National Rugby League (NRL) matches during 2010–2013. A probabilistic model estimated the expected point outcome based on the net difference in points scored by a team in possession in a given situation. An iterative method was used to approximate the value of each situation based on actual scoring outcomes. Possessions commencing close to the opposition’s goal-line had the highest expected point equity, which decreased as the location of the possession moved towards the team’s own goal-line. Possessions following an opposition error, penalty or goal-line dropout had the highest likelihood of a try being scored on the set subsequent to their occurrence. In contrast, possessions that follow an opposition completed set or a restart were least likely to result in a try. The expected point values framework from our model has applications for informing playing strategy and assessing individual and team performance in professional rugby league.

Kenny, P, De Abreu Lourenco, R, Wong, CY, Haas, M & Goodall, S 2016, 'Community preferences in general practice: important factors for choosing a general practitioner', Health Expectations, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 26-38.
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AbstractBackgroundUnderstanding the important factors for choosing a general practitioner (GP) can inform the provision of consumer information and contribute to the design of primary care services.ObjectiveTo identify the factors considered important when choosing a GP and to explore subgroup differences.DesignAn online survey asked about the respondent's experience of GP care and included 36 questions on characteristics important to the choice of GP.ParticipantsAn Australian population sample (n = 2481) of adults aged 16 or more.MethodsPrincipal components analysis identified dimensions for the creation of summated scales, and regression analysis was used to identify patient characteristics associated with each scale.ResultsThe 36 questions were combined into five scales (score range 1–5) labelled: care quality, types of services, availability, cost and practice characteristics. Care quality was the most important factor (mean = 4.4, SD = 0.6) which included questions about technical care, interpersonal care and continuity. Cost (including financial and time cost) was also important (mean = 4.1, SD = 0.6). The least importa...

Khalil, H, Peters, M, Godfrey, CM, McInerney, P, Soares, CB & Parker, D 2016, 'An Evidence‐Based Approach to Scoping Reviews', Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 118-123.
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ABSTRACTObjectiveScoping reviews are used to assess the extent of a body of literature on a particular topic, and often to ensure that further research in that area is a beneficial addition to world knowledge. The aim of this paper reports upon the development of a methodology for scoping reviews based upon the Arksey and O'Malley framework, the Levac, Colquhoun, and O'Brien, and the Joanna Briggs Institute methods of evidence synthesis.MethodsA working group consisting of members of the Joanna Briggs collaborating organizations met to discuss the proposed framework for the methodology and develop a draft for the scoping review methodology based on the Arksey and O'Malley framework and the work of Levac et al. This was followed by a workshop attended by other members of the organizations consisting of 30 international researchers to discuss the proposed methodology. Further refinement of the methodology was undertaken as a result of the feedback received from the workshop.ResultsThe development of the methodology focused on five stages of the protocol and review development. These were identifying the research question by clarifying and linking the purpose and research question, identifying the relevant studies using a three‐step literature search in order to balance feasibility with breadth and comprehensiveness, careful selection of the studies to using a team approach, charting the data and collating the results to identify the implications of the study findings for policy, practice, or research.Linking Evidence to ActionThe current methodology recommends including both quantitative and qualitative research, as well as evidence from economic and expert opinion sources to answer questions of effecti...

Khoo, BL, Chaudhuri, PK, Ramalingam, N, Tan, DSW, Lim, CT & Warkiani, ME 2016, 'Single‐cell profiling approaches to probing tumor heterogeneity', International Journal of Cancer, vol. 139, no. 2, pp. 243-255.
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Tumor heterogeneity is a major hindrance in cancer classification, diagnosis and treatment. Recent technological advances have begun to reveal the true extent of its heterogeneity. Single‐cell analysis (SCA) is emerging as an important approach to detect variations in morphology, genetic or proteomic expression. In this review, we revisit the issue of inter‐ and intra‐tumor heterogeneity, and list various modes of SCA techniques (cell‐based, nucleic acid‐based, protein‐based, metabolite‐based and lipid‐based) presently used for cancer characterization. We further discuss the advantages of SCA over pooled cell analysis, as well as the limitations of conventional techniques. Emerging trends, such as high‐throughput sequencing, are also mentioned as improved means for cancer profiling. Collectively, these applications have the potential for breakthroughs in cancer treatment.

Kim, M-S 2016, 'Optimal management for alcoholic liver disease: Conventional medications, natural therapy or combination?', World Journal of Gastroenterology, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 8-8.
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© The Author(s) 2016. Alcohol consumption is the principal factor in the pathogenesis of chronic liver diseases. Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is defined by histological lesions on the liver that can range from simple hepatic steatosis to more advanced stages such as alcoholic steatohepatitis, cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and liver failure. As one of the oldest forms of liver injury known to humans, ALD is still a leading cause of liver-related morbidity and mortality and the burden is exerting on medical systems with hospitalization and management costs rising constantly worldwide. Although the biological mechanisms, including increasing of acetaldehyde, oxidative stress with induction of cytochrome p450 2E1, inflammatory cytokine release, abnormal lipid metabolism and induction of hepatocyte apoptosis, by which chronic alcohol consumption triggers serious complex progression of ALD is well established, there is no universally accepted therapy to prevent or reverse. In this article, we have briefly reviewed the pathogenesis of ALD and the molecular targets for development of novel therapies. This review is focused on current therapeutic strategies for ALD, including lifestyle modification with nutrition supplements, available pharmacological drugs and new agents that are under development, liver transplantation, application of complementary medicines, and their combination. The relevant molecular mechanisms of each conventional medication and natural agent have been reviewed according to current available knowledge in the literature. We also summarized efficacy vs safety on conventional and herbal medicines which are specifically used for the prevention and treatment of ALD. Through a system review, this article highlighted that the combination of pharmaceutical drugs with naturally occurring agents may offer an optimal management for ALD and its complications. It is worthwhile to conduct large-scale, multiple centre clinical trials to further p...

Kirkup, L, Varadharajan, M & Braun, M 2016, 'A comparison of student and demonstrator perceptions of laboratory-based, inquiry-oriented learning experiences', International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 1-13.
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Effective student-demonstrator interactions attend successful laboratory programs which engage students with the processes and products of science. We report a study on student and demonstrator experiences and perceptions of a physics laboratory program delivered to first year students in a large-enrolment subject for non-physics majors at the University of Technology Sydney. The program comprises experiments promoting learning through inquiry. Neither students nor demonstrators were completely comfortable with the open-ended nature of such experiments. Students expected instructions from demonstrators on how the experiments should be performed, and both students and demonstrators presumed the laboratory manual to offer more detailed instructions on each experiment than it provided. There was a significant and discouraging difference between student and demonstrator perceptions of a) the extent to which the skills developed in the laboratory assisted students in their future career, and b) the contribution that the experiments made to students' understanding of physics. Implications for practice emerging from this study include the need for academics to better communicate the reasons for an inquiry-oriented approach being adopted and clearer articulation of the expectations of student and demonstrators. Careful scaffolding of activities is necessary if students are to transition from recipe-type experiments to inquiry-oriented experiments. Aligning demonstrator professional training with the underlying philosophy of an inquiry-oriented laboratory program is not sufficient to ensure demonstrators are comfortable with that philosophy, suggesting a deeper consideration of the epistemologies influencing their actions is warranted. It is evident that the materials developed to support both students and demonstrators must undergo regular and critical review.

Kodikara, J, Valls Miro, J & Melchers, R 2016, 'Failure Prediction of Critical Cast Iron Pipes', Advances in Water Research, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 6-11.
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In 2011, a consortium of Australian water utilities led by Sydney Water (SW) joined forces with WRF and UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) to initiate a five-year research program, Advanced Condition Assessment and Pipe Failure Prediction Project (ACAPFP).

Kulasinghe, A, Perry, C, Warkiani, ME, Blick, T, Davies, A, O'Byrne, K, Thompson, EW, Nelson, CC, Vela, I & Punyadeera, C 2016, 'Short term ex-vivo expansion of circulating head and neck tumour cells', Oncotarget, vol. 7, no. 37, pp. 60101-60109.
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Minimally invasive techniques are required for the identification of head and neck cancer (HNC) patients who are at an increased risk of metastasis, or are not responding to therapy. An approach utilised in other solid cancers is the identification and enumeration of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in the peripheral blood of patients. Low numbers of CTCs has been a limiting factor in the HNC field to date. Here we present a methodology to expand HNC patient derived CTCs ex-vivo. As a proof of principle study, 25 advanced stage HNC patient bloods were enriched for circulating tumour cells through negative selection and cultured in 2D and 3D culture environments under hypoxic conditions (2% O2, 5% CO2). CTCs were detected in 14/25 (56%) of patients (ranging from 1-15 CTCs/5 mL blood). Short term CTC cultures were successfully generated in 7/25 advanced stage HNC patients (5/7 of these cultures were from HPV+ patients). Blood samples from which CTC culture was successful had higher CTC counts (p = 0.0002), and were predominantly from HPV+ patients (p = 0.007). This is, to our knowledge, the first pilot study to culture HNC CTCs ex-vivo. Further studies are warranted to determine the use of short term expansion in HNC and the role of HPV in promoting culture success.

Lal, S, Hall, RM & Tipper, JL 2016, 'A novel method for isolation and recovery of ceramic nanoparticles and metal wear debris from serum lubricants at ultra-low wear rates', Acta Biomaterialia, vol. 42, pp. 420-428.
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Lan, C, Chen, Q & Li, J 2016, 'Grouping miRNAs of similar functions via weighted information content of gene ontology', BMC Bioinformatics, vol. 17, no. S19, pp. 159-295.
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BACKGROUND: Regulation mechanisms between miRNAs and genes are complicated. To accomplish a biological function, a miRNA may regulate multiple target genes, and similarly a target gene may be regulated by multiple miRNAs. Wet-lab knowledge of co-regulating miRNAs is limited. This work introduces a computational method to group miRNAs of similar functions to identify co-regulating miRNAsfrom a similarity matrix of miRNAs. RESULTS: We define a novel information content of gene ontology (GO) to measure similarity between two sets of GO graphs corresponding to the two sets of target genes of two miRNAs. This between-graph similarity is then transferred as a functional similarity between the two miRNAs. Our definition of the information content is based on the size of a GO term's descendants, but adjusted by a weight derived from its depth level and the GO relationships at its path to the root node or to the most informative common ancestor (MICA). Further, a self-tuning technique and the eigenvalues of the normalized Laplacian matrix are applied to determine the optimal parameters for the spectral clustering of the similarity matrix of the miRNAs. CONCLUSIONS: Experimental results demonstrate that our method has better clustering performance than the existing edge-based, node-based or hybrid methods. Our method has also demonstrated a novel usefulness for the function annotation of new miRNAs, as reported in the detailed case studies.

Lao, W, Jin, X, Tan, Y, Xiao, L, Padula, M, Bishop, D, Reedy, B, Ong, M, Kamal, M & Qu, X 2016, 'Characterisation of Bone Beneficial Components from Australian Wallaby Bone', Medicines, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 23-23.
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Background: Osteoporosis is a condition in which the bones become brittle, increasing the risk of fractures. Complementary medicines have traditionally used animal bones for managing bone disorders, such as osteoporosis. This study aimed to discover new natural products for these types of conditions by determining mineral and protein content of bone extracts derived from the Australian wallaby. Methods: Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic analysis were used for mineral tests, proteome analysis was using LC/MS/MS and the effects of wallaby bone extracts (WBE)s on calcium deposition and alkaline phosphatase activity were evaluated in osteogenic cells derived from adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ADSCs). Results: Concentrations of calcium and phosphorus were 26.21% and 14.72% in WBE respectively. Additionally, minerals found were wide in variety and high in concentration, while heavy metal concentrations of aluminium, iron, zinc and other elements were at safe levels for human consumption. Proteome analysis showed that extracts contained high amounts of bone remodelling proteins, such as osteomodulin, osteopontin and osteoglycin. Furthermore, in vitro evaluation of WBEs showed increased deposition of calcium in osteoblasts with enhanced alkaline phosphatase activity in differentiated adipose-derived stem cells. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that wallaby bone extracts possess proteins and minerals beneficial for bone metabolism. WBEs may therefore be used for developing natural products for conditions such as osteoporosis and further investigation to understand biomolecular mechanism by which WBEs prevent osteoporosis is warranted.

Li, J, Fong, S, Siu, S, Mohammed, S, Fiaidhi, J & Wong, KKL 2016, 'WITHDRAWN: Improving classification of protein binders for virtual drug screening by novel swarm-based feature selection techniques', Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. Drug design involves classification of protein binding which is usually done in a computer simulation prior to extensive actual tests. Accurate classification of protein binding is essential but it is obstructed with a very challenging task of feature selection (FS) because there are too many potential features. Dorothea as a case of virtual screening in drug design, has 100,000 features that inflate to a very huge (of size 2100,000 possible candidate feature subsets to be selected) but very sparse search space. In this paper, this computational challenge is tackled by a new model of feature selection called Two-stage Swarm Search-FS (TSS-FS). The novelty of TSS-FS is the use of adaptive search space shrinking mechanism which is the first stage of the TSS-FS to reduce computing cost and increase classification accuracy. Reducing the very huge and sparse search space enables the swarm feature selection operate more efficiently. Results demonstrated in the paper confirms the efficacy of the new algorithms.

Lin, C-Y, Chen, H & Pakpour, AH 2016, 'Correlation between adherence to antiepileptic drugs and quality of life in patients with epilepsy: A longitudinal study', Epilepsy & Behavior, vol. 63, pp. 103-108.
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Ling, SH, Chan, KY, Leung, FHF, Jiang, F & Nguyen, H 2016, 'Quality and robustness improvement for real world industrial systems using a fuzzy particle swarm optimization', ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, vol. 47, pp. 68-80.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. This paper presents a novel fuzzy particle swarm optimization with cross-mutated (FPSOCM) operation, where a fuzzy logic system developed based on the knowledge of swarm intelligence is proposed to determine the inertia weight for the swarm movement of particle swarm optimization (PSO) and the control parameter of a newly introduced cross-mutated operation. Hence, the inertia weight of the PSO can be adaptive with respect to the search progress. The new cross-mutated operation intends to drive the solution to escape from local optima. A suite of benchmark test functions are employed to evaluate the performance of the proposed FPSOCM. Experimental results show empirically that the FPSOCM performs better than the existing hybrid PSO methods in terms of solution quality, robustness, and convergence rate. The proposed FPSOCM is evaluated by improving the quality and robustness of two real world industrial systems namely economic load dispatch system and self-provisioning systems for communication network services. These two systems are employed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed FPSOCM as they are multi-optima and non-convex problems. The performance of FPSOCM is found to be significantly better than that of the existing hybrid PSO methods in a statistical sense. These results demonstrate that the proposed FPSOCM is a good candidate for solving product or service engineering problems which have multi-optima or non-convex natures.

Ling, SH, San, PP & Nguyen, HT 2016, 'Non-invasive hypoglycemia monitoring system using extreme learning machine for Type 1 diabetes', ISA TRANSACTIONS, vol. 64, pp. 440-446.
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© 2016 ISA Hypoglycemia is a very common in type 1 diabetic persons and can occur at any age. It is always threatening to the well-being of patients with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) since hypoglycemia leads to seizures or loss of consciousness and the possible development of permanent brain dysfunction under certain circumstances. Because of that, an accurate continuing hypoglycemia monitoring system is a very important medical device for diabetic patients. In this paper, we proposed a non-invasive hypoglycemia monitoring system using the physiological parameters of electrocardiography (ECG) signal. To enhance the detection accuracy, extreme learning machine (ELM) is developed to recognize the presence of hypoglycemia. A clinical study of 16 children with T1DM is given to illustrate the good performance of ELM.

Liu, G, Cooley, MA, Jarnicki, AG, Hsu, AC-Y, Nair, PM, Haw, TJ, Fricker, M, Gellatly, SL, Kim, RY, Inman, MD, Tjin, G, Wark, PAB, Walker, MM, Horvat, JC, Oliver, BG, Argraves, WS, Knight, DA, Burgess, JK & Hansbro, PM 2016, 'Fibulin-1 regulates the pathogenesis of tissue remodeling in respiratory diseases', JCI Insight, vol. 1, no. 9.
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Liu, Q, Song, J & Li, J 2016, 'Using contrast patterns between true complexes and random subgraphs in PPI networks to predict unknown protein complexes', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1-15.
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AbstractMost protein complex detection methods utilize unsupervised techniques to cluster densely connected nodes in a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, in spite of the fact that many true complexes are not dense subgraphs. Supervised methods have been proposed recently, but they do not answer why a group of proteins are predicted as a complex, and they have not investigated how to detect new complexes of one species by training the model on the PPI data of another species. We propose a novel supervised method to address these issues. The key idea is to discover emerging patterns (EPs), a type of contrast pattern, which can clearly distinguish true complexes from random subgraphs in a PPI network. An integrative score of EPs is defined to measure how likely a subgraph of proteins can form a complex. New complexes thus can grow from our seed proteins by iteratively updating this score. The performance of our method is tested on eight benchmark PPI datasets and compared with seven unsupervised methods, two supervised and one semi-supervised methods under five standards to assess the quality of the predicted complexes. The results show that in most cases our method achieved a better performance, sometimes significantly.

Luckett, T, Disler, R, Hosie, A, Johnson, M, Davidson, P, Currow, D, Sumah, A & Phillips, J 2016, 'Content and quality of websites supporting self-management of chronic breathlessness in advanced illness: a systematic review', npj Primary Care Respiratory Medicine, vol. 26, no. 1.
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AbstractChronic breathlessness is a common, burdensome and distressing symptom in many advanced chronic illnesses. Self-management strategies are essential to optimise treatment, daily functioning and emotional coping. People with chronic illness commonly search the internet for advice on self-management. A review was undertaken in June 2015 to describe the content and quality of online advice on breathlessness self-management, to highlight under-served areas and to identify any unsafe content. Google was searched from Sydney, Australia, using the five most common search terms for breathlessness identified by Google Trends. We also hand-searched the websites of national associations. Websites were included if they were freely available in English and provided practical advice on self-management. Website quality was assessed using the American Medical Association Benchmarks. Readability was assessed using the Flesch–Kincaid grades, with grade 8 considered the maximum acceptable for enabling access. Ninety-one web pages from 44 websites met the inclusion criteria, including 14 national association websites not returned by Google searches. Most websites were generated in the USA (n=28, 64%) and focused on breathing techniques (n=38, 86%) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (n=27, 61%). No websites were found to offer unsafe advice. Adherence to quality benchmarks ranged from 9% for disclosure to 77% for currency. Fifteen (54%) of 28 written websites required grade ⩾9 reading level. Future development should focus on advice and tools to support goal setting, problem solving and monitoring of breathlessness. National associations are encouraged to improve website visibility and comply with standards for quality and readability.

Luckett, T, Phillips, J, Lintzeris, N, Allsop, D, Lee, J, Solowij, N, Martin, J, Lam, L, Aggarwal, R, McCaffrey, N, Currow, D, Chye, R, Lovell, M, McGregor, I & Agar, M 2016, 'Clinical trials of medicinal cannabis for appetite-related symptoms from advanced cancer: a survey of preferences, attitudes and beliefs among patients willing to consider participation', INTERNAL MEDICINE JOURNAL, vol. 46, no. 11, pp. 1269-1275.
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Lund, ME, Greer, J, Dixit, A, Alvarado, R, McCauley-Winter, P, To, J, Tanaka, A, Hutchinson, AT, Robinson, MW, Simpson, AM, O’Brien, BA, Dalton, JP & Donnelly, S 2016, 'A parasite-derived 68-mer peptide ameliorates autoimmune disease in murine models of Type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1-11.
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AbstractHelminth parasites secrete molecules that potently modulate the immune responses of their hosts and, therefore, have potential for the treatment of immune-mediated human diseases. FhHDM-1, a 68-mer peptide secreted by the helminth parasite Fasciola hepatica, ameliorated disease in two different murine models of autoimmunity, type 1 diabetes and relapsing-remitting immune-mediated demyelination. Unexpectedly, FhHDM-1 treatment did not affect the proliferation of auto-antigen specific T cells or their production of cytokines. However, in both conditions, the reduction in clinical symptoms was associated with the absence of immune cell infiltrates in the target organ (islets and the brain tissue). Furthermore, after parenteral administration, the FhHDM-1 peptide interacted with macrophages and reduced their capacity to secrete pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as TNF and IL-6. We propose this inhibition of innate pro-inflammatory immune responses, which are central to the initiation of autoimmunity in both diseases, prevented the trafficking of autoreactive lymphocytes from the periphery to the site of autoimmunity (as opposed to directly modulating their function per se), and thus prevented tissue destruction. The ability of FhHDM-1 to modulate macrophage function, combined with its efficacy in disease prevention in multiple models, suggests that FhHDM-1 has considerable potential as a treatment for autoimmune diseases.

Lund, ME, To, J, O'Brien, BA & Donnelly, S 2016, 'The choice of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate differentiation protocol influences the response of THP-1 macrophages to a pro-inflammatory stimulus', JOURNAL OF IMMUNOLOGICAL METHODS, vol. 430, pp. 64-70.
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© 2016. The human monocytic cell line, THP-1, is the most widely used model for primary human monocytes/macrophages. This is because, following differentiation using phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), THP-1 cells acquire a macrophage-like phenotype, which mimics, in many respects, primary human macrophages. Despite the widespread use of THP-1 cells in studies elucidating macrophage responses to inflammatory stimuli, as well as the development and screening of potential therapeutics, there is currently no standardised protocol for the reliable differentiation of THP-1 monocytes to a macrophage phenotype using PMA. Consequently, reports using THP-1 cells have demonstrated significant phenotypic and functional differences between resultant THP-1 macrophage populations, which are largely attributable to the varying PMA differentiation methods used. Thus, to guarantee consistency and reproducibility between studies, and to ensure the relevance of THP-1 cells as an appropriate model for primary human macrophages, it is crucial to develop a standardised protocol for the differentiation of THP-1 macrophages. Accordingly, we compared the function and phenotype of THP-1 macrophages generated using the range of published PMA differentiation protocols, specifically in response to the pro-inflammatory stimulus, lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Our results demonstrated that the function of the resultant THP-1 macrophage populations, as determined by tumour necrosis factor (TNF) secretion in response to LPS stimulation, varied significantly, and was dependent upon the concentration of PMA used to stimulate the differentiation of monocytes, and the period of rest following PMA exposure. These data indicate that exposure of monocytic THP-1 cells to 25 nM PMA over 48 h, followed by a recovery period of 24 h in culture in the absence of PMA, was the optimal protocol for the differentiation of THP-1 cells.

Macha, IJ, Ben-Nissan, B, Santos, J, Cazalbou, S & Milthorpe, B 2016, 'Hydroxyapatite/PLA Biocomposite Thin Films for Slow Drug Delivery of Antibiotics for the Treatment of Bone and Implant-Related Infections', Key Engineering Materials, vol. 696, pp. 271-276.
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Drug delivery systems were developed from coralline hydroxyapatite (HAp) and biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA). Gentamicin (GM) was loaded in either directly to PLA (PLAGM) or in HAp microspheres. Drug loaded HAp was used to make thin film composites (PLAHApGM). Dissolution studies were carried out in phosphate buffered saline (PBS. The release profiles suggested that HAp particles improved drug stabilization and availability as well control the release rate. The release also displays a steady state release. In vitro studies in human Adipose Derived Stem Cells (hADSCs) showed substantial quantities of cells adhering to hydroxyapatite containing composites. The results suggested that the systems could be tailored to release different clinical active substances for a wide range of biomedical applications.

Macha, IJ, Grossin, D & Ben-Nissan, B 2016, 'Conversion of Marine Structures to Calcium Phosphate Materials: Mechanisms of Conversion Using Two Different Phosphate Solutions', Key Engineering Materials, vol. 696, pp. 36-39.
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Marine structure, coralline materials were converted to calcium phosphate using two different phosphate solutions. The aim was to study the conversion mechanisms under acidic and basic environment at moderate conditions of temperature. Crystal growth and morphology of converted corals were characterized by XRD and SEM respectively. The results suggested that under acidic conditions (H3PO4), dissolution and precipitation control and direct the crystal formation and morphology in which transition from plate like to rod like hydroxyapatite structure was favoured. Metastable phase such as monetite formed and transformed to HAp during reaction. During the first hour of the dissolution a monetite and hydroxyapatite mixture precipitates and then the full conversion to hydroxyapatite is observed. On the other hand, under basic conditions (NH4)2HPO4, just diffusional surface conversion of the calcium carbonate structure of coralline materials to hydroxyapatite and a very small amount of tri-calcium phosphate is observed. The mechanism can be classified as the solid-state topotactic ion-exchange reaction mechanism.

Main, BJ, Dunlop, RA & Rodgers, KJ 2016, 'The use of l-serine to prevent β-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA)-induced proteotoxic stress in vitro', Toxicon, vol. 109, pp. 7-12.
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© 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd. β-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA), a non-protein amino acid synthesised by cyanobacteria, has been linked to a complex neurological disorder on Guam and more recently to other cases of sporadic ALS (sALS), however the mechanisms of BMAA toxicity are not completely understood. We have previously demonstrated that BMAA is misincorporated into newly synthesised proteins by human neuroblastoma cells and fibroblasts, resulting in the formation of autofluorescent material and the induction of apoptotic cell death. In the present study we show that BMAA at low levels does not cause an acute toxicity in neuroblastoma cells but increases the expression of the ER stress marker, C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP) and increases the activity of the pro-apoptotic enzyme caspase-3. We also observed an increase in the activity of the lysosomal cysteine proteases cathepsin B and L, characteristic of the accumulation of proteins in the lysosomal system. We were able to prevent these proteotoxic effects in neuroblastoma cells through co-treatment with l-serine suggesting that they resulted from incorporation of BMAA into proteins. Misincorporation provides a possible mechanism whereby BMAA could initiate misfolding, and the accumulation of aggregate-prone proteins in neurons. This build-up of misfolded proteins could explain the long latency period of the disease previously reported on Guam.

Maltby, K, Sanderson, C, Lobb, E & Phillips, J 2016, 'A PROTOCOL EXPLORING CAREGIVER SEMI-STRUCTURED CAREGIVER TELEPHONE INTERVIEWS AND QUESTIONNAIRES', JOURNAL OF SLEEP RESEARCH, vol. 25, pp. 91-91.

Mao, Y, Mathews, K & Gorrie, CA 2016, 'Temporal Response of Endogenous Neural Progenitor Cells Following Injury to the Adult Rat Spinal Cord', Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, vol. 10, no. MAR2016.
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© 2016 Mao, Mathews and Gorrie. A pool of endogenous neural progenitor cells (NPCs) found in the ependymal layer and the sub-ependymal area of the spinal cord are reported to upregulate Nestin in response to traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI). These cells could potentially be manipulated within a critical time period offering an innovative approach to the repair of SCI. However, little is known about the temporal response of endogenous NPCs following SCI. This study used a mild contusion injury in rat spinal cord and immunehistochemistry to determine the temporal response of ependymal NPCs following injury and their correlation to astrocyte activation at the lesion edge. The results from the study demonstrated that Nestin staining intensity at the central canal peaked at 24 h post-injury and then gradually declined over time. Reactive astrocytes double labeled by Nestin and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were found at the lesion edge and commenced to form the glial scar from 1 week after injury. We conclude that the critical time period for manipulating endogenous NPCs following a spinal cod injury in rats is between 24 h when Nestin expression in ependymal cells is increased and 1 week when astrocytes are activated in large numbers.

McCall, A, Davison, M, Carling, C, Buckthorpe, M, Coutts, AJ & Dupont, G 2016, 'Can off-field 'brains' provide a competitive advantage in professional football?', BRITISH JOURNAL OF SPORTS MEDICINE, vol. 50, no. 12, pp. 710-+.
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Mendham, AE, Duffield, R, Coutts, AJ, Marino, FE, Boyko, A, McAinch, AJ & Bishop, DJ 2016, 'Similar mitochondrial signaling responses to a single bout of continuous or small-sided-games-based exercise in sedentary men', Journal of Applied Physiology, vol. 121, no. 6, pp. 1326-1334.
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This study assessed the mitochondrial related signaling responses to a single bout of noncontact, modified football (touch rugby), played as small-sided games (SSG), or cycling (CYC) exercise in sedentary, obese, middle-aged men. In a randomized, crossover design, nine middle-aged, sedentary, obese men completed two, 40-min exercise conditions (CYC and SSG) separated by a 21-day recovery period. Heart rate (HR) and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were collected during each bout. Needle biopsies from the vastus lateralis muscle were collected at rest and 30 and 240 min postexercise for analysis of protein content and phosphorylation (PGC-1α, SIRT1, p53, p53Ser15, AMPK, AMPKThr172, CAMKII, CAMKIIThr286, p38MAPK, and p38MAPKThr180/Tyr182) and mRNA expression (PGC-1α, p53, NRF1, NRF2, Tfam, and cytochrome c). A main effect of time effect for both conditions was evident for HR, RPE, and blood lactate ( P < 0.05), with no condition by time interaction ( P > 0.05). Both conditions increased PGC1-α protein and mRNA expression at 240 min ( P < 0.05). AMPKThr172 increased 30 min post CYC ( P < 0.05), with no change in SSG ( P > 0.05). CYC increased p53 protein content at 240 min to a greater extent than SSG ( P < 0.05). mRNA expression of NRF2 decreased in both conditions ( P < 0.05). No condition by time interactions were evident for mRNA expression of Tfam, NRF1, cytochrome c, and p53. The similar PGC-1α response between intensity-matched conditions suggests both conditions are of similar benefit for stimulating mitochondrial biogenesis. Differences between conditions regarding fluctuation in exercise intensity and type of muscle contraction may explain the increase of p53 and AMPK within CYC and not SSG (noncontact, modified football).

Merklein, M, Casas-Bedoya, A, Marpaung, D, Buttner, TFS, Pagani, M, Morrison, B, Kabakova, IV & Eggleton, BJ 2016, 'Stimulated Brillouin Scattering in Photonic Integrated Circuits: Novel Applications and Devices', IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 336-346.
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The last few years have seen major progress in harnessing on-chip photon-phonon interactions, leading to a wide range of demonstrations of new functionalities. Utilizing not only the optical response of a nonlinear waveguide - but also acoustic resonances - enables the realization of microwave devices with unprecedented performance, otherwise hard to achieve in all-optical processing schemes or electronically. Here, we overview on-chip stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) with special emphasis on microwave sources and microwave signal processing schemes. We review the different material platforms and structures for on-chip SBS, ranging from chalcogenide rib waveguides to hybrid silicon/silicon-nitride structures, high-Q photonic-phononic silica microresonators, and suspended silicon nanowires. We show that the paradigm shift in SBS research - from long length of fibers to chip-scale devices - is now moving toward fully integrated photonic-phononic CMOS chips.

Merklein, M, Stiller, B, Kabakova, IV, Mutugala, US, Vu, K, Madden, SJ, Eggleton, BJ & Slavík, R 2016, 'Widely tunable, low phase noise microwave source based on a photonic chip', Optics Letters, vol. 41, no. 20, pp. 4633-4633.
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Spectrally pure microwave sources are highly desired for several applications, ranging from wireless communication to next generation radar technology and metrology. Additionally, to generate very pure signals at even higher frequencies, these advanced microwave sources have to be compact, low in weight, and low energy consumption to comply with in-field applications. A hybrid optical and electronic cavity, known as an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO), has the potential to leverage the high bandwidth of optics to generate ultrapure high-frequency microwave signals. Here we present a widely tunable, low phase noise microwave source based on a photonic chip. Using on-chip stimulated Brillouin scattering as a narrowband active filter allows single-mode OEO operation and ultrawide frequency tunability with no signal degeneration. Furthermore, we show very low close-to-carrier phase noise. This Letter paves the way to a compact, fully integrated pure microwave source.

Mitchell, AB, Mourad, B, Tovey, E, Buddle, L, Peters, M, Morgan, L & Oliver, BG 2016, 'Spirometry filters can be used to detect exhaled respiratory viruses', Journal of Breath Research, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 046002-046002.
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© 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd. Respiratory viruses are very common in the community and contribute to the burden of illness for patients with chronic respiratory diseases, including acute exacerbations. Traditional sampling methods are invasive and problematic to repeat. Accordingly, we explored whether respiratory viruses could be isolated from disposable spirometry filters and whether detection of viruses in this context represented presence in the upper or lower respiratory tract. Discovery (n = 53) and validation (n = 49) cohorts were recruited from a hospital outpatient department during two different time periods. Spirometry mouthpiece filters were collected from all participants. Respiratory secretions were sampled from the upper and lower respiratory tract by nasal washing (NW), sputum, and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). All samples were examined using RT-PCR to identify a panel of respiratory viruses (rhinovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, influenza A, influenza B, parainfluenza virus 1, 2 & 3, and human metapneumovirus). Rhinovirus was quantified using qPCR. Paired filter-NW samples (n = 29), filter-sputum samples (n = 24), filter-BAL samples (n = 39) and filter-NW-BAL samples (n = 10) provided a range of comparisons. At least one virus was detected in any sample in 85% of participants in the discovery cohort versus 45% in the validation cohort. Overall, 72% of viruses identified in the paired comparator method matched those detected in spirometry filters. There was a high correlation between viruses identified in spirometry filters compared with viruses identified in both the upper and lower respiratory tract using traditional sampling methods. Our results suggest that examination of spirometry filters may be a novel and inexpensive sampling method for the presence of respiratory viruses in exhaled breath.

Mitchell, AB, Oliver, BGG & Glanville, AR 2016, 'Translational Aspects of the Human Respiratory Virome', American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, vol. 194, no. 12, pp. 1458-1464.
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© 2016 by the American Thoracic Society. Despite the dominant role of community-acquired respiratory viruses as etiological agents of disease, there has been little focus to date on the translation of rapidly developing diagnostic modalities, such as next-generation sequencing techniques in the examination of lower respiratory tract samples. When applied, these techniques should inform strategies to both understand the nexus between health and disease states of the respiratory virome, and drive a paradigm shift in how the practicing pulmonologist views the conceptual framework of respiratory infections. The lower respiratory tract was once thought to be a sanctuary site from microbiological colonization owing to the efficacy of upper airway-protective mechanisms and the host mucosal barrier function of the lower airways, combined with both innate and adaptive immune responses.As a small number of recent studies confirm, this is a naive vision of the lung, the viral component of which parallels recent revelations from respiratory microbiome studies. Hence, it is now timely to revise our thinking regarding the constituents, diversity, and changing nature of the respiratory virome in health and disease. One area worthy of focus is the interface between community-acquired respiratory viruses and the respiratory virome to better understand the dynamics in acute infection, as well as the factors that may lead to viral persistence and chronic disease. Given recent advances in metagenomics, the tools are now at hand to accomplish these goals.

Naik, GR, Al-Timemy, AH & Nguyen, HT 2016, 'Transradial Amputee Gesture Classification Using an Optimal Number of sEMG Sensors: An Approach Using ICA Clustering', IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, vol. 24, no. 8, pp. 837-846.
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© 2001-2011 IEEE. Surface electromyography (sEMG)-based pattern recognition studies have been widely used to improve the classification accuracy of upper limb gestures. Information extracted from multiple sensors of the sEMG recording sites can be used as inputs to control powered upper limb prostheses. However, usage of multiple EMG sensors on the prosthetic hand is not practical and makes it difficult for amputees due to electrode shift/movement, and often amputees feel discomfort in wearing sEMG sensor array. Instead, using fewer numbers of sensors would greatly improve the controllability of prosthetic devices and it would add dexterity and flexibility in their operation. In this paper, we propose a novel myoelectric control technique for identification of various gestures using the minimum number of sensors based on independent component analysis (ICA) and Icasso clustering. The proposed method is a model-based approach where a combination of source separation and Icasso clustering was utilized to improve the classification performance of independent finger movements for transradial amputee subjects. Two sEMG sensor combinations were investigated based on the muscle morphology and Icasso clustering and compared to Sequential Forward Selection (SFS) and greedy search algorithm. The performance of the proposed method has been validated with five transradial amputees, which reports a higher classification accuracy (> 95%). The outcome of this study encourages possible extension of the proposed approach to real time prosthetic applications.

Naik, GR, Selvan, SE & Nguyen, HT 2016, 'Single-Channel EMG Classification With Ensemble-Empirical-Mode-Decomposition-Based ICA for Diagnosing Neuromuscular Disorders', IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, vol. 24, no. 7, pp. 734-743.
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© 2001-2011 IEEE. An accurate and computationally efficient quantitative analysis of electromyography (EMG) signals plays an inevitable role in the diagnosis of neuromuscular disorders, prosthesis, and several related applications. Since it is often the case that the measured signals are the mixtures of electric potentials that emanate from surrounding muscles (sources), many EMG signal processing approaches rely on linear source separation techniques such as the independent component analysis (ICA). Nevertheless, naive implementations of ICA algorithms do not comply with the task of extracting the underlying sources from a single-channel EMG measurement. In this respect, the present work focuses on a classification method for neuromuscular disorders that deals with the data recorded using a single-channel EMG sensor. The ensemble empirical mode decomposition algorithm decomposes the single-channel EMG signal into a set of noise-canceled intrinsic mode functions, which in turn are separated by the FastICA algorithm. A reduced set of five time domain features extracted from the separated components are classified using the linear discriminant analysis, and the classification results are fine-tuned with a majority voting scheme. The performance of the proposed method has been validated with a clinical EMG database, which reports a higher classification accuracy (98%). The outcome of this study encourages possible extension of this approach to real settings to assist the clinicians in making correct diagnosis of neuromuscular disorders.

Naik, GR, Selvan, SE, Gobbo, M, Acharyya, A & Nguyen, HT 2016, 'Principal Component Analysis Applied to Surface Electromyography: A Comprehensive Review', IEEE Access, vol. 4, pp. 4025-4037.
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© 2016 IEEE. Surface electromyography (sEMG) records muscle activities from the surface of muscles, which offers a wealth of information concerning muscle activation patterns in both research and clinical settings. A key principle underlying sEMG analyses is the decomposition of the signal into a number of motor unit action potentials (MUAPs) that capture most of the relevant features embedded in a low-dimensional space. Toward this, the principal component analysis (PCA) has extensively been sought after, whereby the original sEMG data are translated into low-dimensional MUAP components with a reduced level of redundancy. The objective of this paper is to disseminate the role of PCA in conjunction with the quantitative sEMG analyses. Following the preliminaries on the sEMG methodology and a statement of PCA algorithm, an exhaustive collection of PCA applications related to sEMG data is in order. Alongside the technical challenges associated with the PCA-based sEMG processing, the envisaged research trend is also discussed.

Nguyen, BT, Nguyen, DH, Nguyen, TT & Hoang, DB 2016, 'Design of a Workflow-Based Grid Framework', International Journal of Computer Theory and Engineering, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 14-23.
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This paper aims to present the design of the Grid Collaborative Framework which has been proposed in one of our previous work. Grid infrastructure for resources sharing is somewhat stable with the wide acceptance of the Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA) and Web Services Resource Framework (WSRF), but Grid framework for collaboration is far from desired. Current Grid Collaborative Frameworks (GCFs) are domain specific and lack of plan-supported capability. These limitations make them less useful and narrow in scope of application. Our grid collaborative framework aims to improve these limitations. With the theoretical foundation based on the activity theory, workflow languages, and designed on top of existing OGSA infrastructure, our proposed framework aims at accelerating the development of grid collaborative systems that consider work plans as central role.

Nguyen, LT, Chen, H, Pollock, CA & Saad, S 2016, 'Sirtuins—mediators of maternal obesity‐induced complications in offspring?', The FASEB Journal, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 1383-1390.
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Obesity is a complex metabolic disease, attributed to diverse and interactive genetic and environmental factors. The associated health consequences of obesity are pleiotropic, with individuals being more susceptible to chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and lipotoxicity-related chronic diseases. The contribution of maternal obesity to the offspring's predisposition to both obesity and its complications is increasingly recognized. Understanding the mechanisms underlying these "transmissible" effects is critical to develop therapeutic interventions to reduce the risk for "programmed" obesity. Sirtuins (SIRTs), particularly SIRT1 and SIRT3, are NAD(+)-dependent deacetylases that regulate metabolic balance and stress responses in both central and peripheral tissues, of which dysregulation is a well-established mediator for the development and effects of obesity. Nevertheless, their implication in the transmissible effects of maternal obesity across generations remains largely elusive. In this review, we examine multiple pathways and systems that are likely to mediate such effects, with particular emphasis on the role of SIRTs.-Nguyen, L. T., Chen, H., Pollock, C. A., Saad, S. Sirtuins-mediators of maternal obesity-induced complications in offspring?

Nguyen, Q, Khalifa, N, Alzamora, P, Gleeson, A, Catchpoole, D, Kennedy, P & Simoff, S 2016, 'Visual Analytics of Complex Genomics Data to Guide Effective Treatment Decisions', Journal of Imaging, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 29-29.
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© 2016 by the authors. In cancer biology, genomics represents a big data problem that needs accurate visual data processing and analytics. The human genome is very complex with thousands of genes that contain the information about the individual patients and the biological mechanisms of their disease. Therefore, when building a framework for personalised treatment, the complexity of the genome must be captured in meaningful and actionable ways. This paper presents a novel visual analytics framework that enables effective analysis of large and complex genomics data. By providing interactive visualisations from the overview of the entire patient cohort to the detail view of individual genes, our work potentially guides effective treatment decisions for childhood cancer patients. The framework consists of multiple components enabling the complete analytics supporting personalised medicines, including similarity space construction, automated analysis, visualisation, gene-to-gene comparison and user-centric interaction and exploration based on feature selection. In addition to the traditional way to visualise data, we utilise the Unity3D platform for developing a smooth and interactive visual presentation of the information. This aims to provide better rendering, image quality, ergonomics and user experience to non-specialists or young users who are familiar with 3D gaming environments and interfaces. We illustrate the effectiveness of our approach through case studies with datasets from childhood cancers, B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) and Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) patients, on how to guide the effective treatment decision in the cohort.

Nizalapur, S, Ho, KKK, Kimyon, O, Yee, E, Berry, T, Manefield, M, Cranfield, CG, Willcox, M, Black, DS & Kumar, N 2016, 'Synthesis and biological evaluation of N-naphthoyl-phenylglyoxamide-based small molecular antimicrobial peptide mimics as novel antimicrobial agents and biofilm inhibitors', ORGANIC & BIOMOLECULAR CHEMISTRY, vol. 14, no. 14, pp. 3623-3637.
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© The Royal Society of Chemistry 2016. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a key component of the human immune system. Synthetic AMP mimics represent a novel strategy to counteract the increasing incidence of antimicrobial resistance. Here, we describe the synthesis of novel glyoxamide derivatives via ring-opening reactions of N-hexanoyl, N-benzoyl and N-naphthoylisatins with N,N-dimethylethane-1,2-diamine and N,N-dimethylpropane-1,3-diamine. These were converted to both the hydrochloric acid (HCl) or quaternary ammonium iodide (MeI) salts and their antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus was investigated by their zone-of-inhibition and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). The HCl salt 22b exhibited the lowest MIC of 16 μg mL-1, whereas the corresponding MeI salt 22c had a MIC of 39 μg mL-1. We also investigated the in vitro toxicity of active compounds against the MRC-5 normal human lung fibroblasts and their activity against established biofilm in S. aureus.

Norouzi, M, Valls Miro, J & Dissanayake, G 2016, 'Probabilistic stable motion planning with stability uncertainty for articulated vehicles on challenging terrains', Autonomous Robots, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 361-381.
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© 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York. A probabilistic stable motion planning strategy applicable to reconfigurable robots is presented in this paper. The methodology derives a novel statistical stability criterion from the cumulative distribution of a tip-over metric. The measure is dynamically updated with imprecise terrain information, localization and robot kinematics to plan safety-constrained paths which simultaneously allow the widest possible visibility of the surroundings by simultaneously assuming highest feasible vantage robot configurations. The proposed probabilistic stability metric allows more conservative poses through areas with higher levels of uncertainty, while avoiding unnecessary caution in poses assumed at well-known terrain sections. The implementation with the well known grid based A* algorithm and also a sampling based RRT planner are presented. The validity of the proposed approach is evaluated with a multi-tracked robot fitted with a manipulator arm and a range camera using two challenging elevation terrains data sets: one obtained whilst operating the robot in a mock-up urban search and rescue arena, and the other from a publicly available dataset of a quasi-outdoor rover testing facility.

Oliver, BGG & Black, J 2016, 'Asthma: Airways That Are Hyperactive by Design', American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, vol. 193, no. 6, pp. 596-598.
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Parker, D & Clifton, K 2016, 'Knowledge into Practice', International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 203-203.
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Parker, D, Clifton, K, Tuckett, A, Walker, H, Reymond, E, Prior, T, McAnelly, K, Jenkin, P, Israel, F, Greeve, K & Glaetzer, K 2016, 'Palliative care case conferences in long‐term care: views of family members', International Journal of Older People Nursing, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 140-148.
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Aims and objectivesThis paper examines the use of structured Palliative Care Case Conferences in long‐term care. The issues families bring to the Palliative Care Case Conference, their level of distress prior to the conference, the extent to which these issues are addressed by staff and family satisfaction with this process are described.BackgroundIn most developed countries, up to 30% of older people die in long‐term care. A palliative approach generally refers to the resident and family as the ‘unit of care’. Interventions, which include family in palliative care, are required in this setting.DesignDescriptive and thematic results from the intervention arm of a pre–post, sequential mixed method study.MethodsExamination of documents of 32 resident/family dyads participating in a Palliative Care Case Conference, and interviews with the residents’ family postintervention.ResultsMain concerns raised by family members prior to a Palliative Care Case Conference were physical and medical needs, pain, end‐of‐life care planning and nutrition and hydration. Families rated a high level of concern, 7.5 on a 10‐point rating scale, prior to the Palliative Care Case Conference. A formalised Palliative Care Case Conference process ensured issues relating to end‐of‐life care planning, pastoral care, pain and comfort and physical and medical needs were well documented by staff. Issues relating to care processes and the family role in care were less well documented. All families, interviewed postintervention, recommended Palliative Care Case Conferences; and over 90% of families felt their issues were addressed to their satisfaction. Families also reported an increased understandi...

Parker, D, Maresco-Pennisi, D, Clifton, K, Shams, R & Young, J 2016, 'Practice nurse involvement in the management of adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus attending a general practice', International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 41-52.
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Patel, BS, Rahman, MM, Rumzhum, NN, Oliver, BG, Verrills, NM & Ammit, AJ 2016, 'Theophylline Represses IL-8 Secretion from Airway Smooth Muscle Cells Independently of Phosphodiesterase Inhibition. Novel Role as a Protein Phosphatase 2A Activator', American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, vol. 54, no. 6, pp. 792-801.
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Copyright © 2016 by the American Thoracic Society. Theophylline is an old drug experiencing a renaissance owing to its beneficial antiinflammatory effects in chronic respiratory diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Multiple modes of antiinflammatory action have been reported, including inhibition of the enzymes that degrade cAMP-phosphodiesterase (PDE).Using primary cultures of airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells, we recently revealed that PDE4 inhibitors can potentiate the antiinflammatory action of β2-agonists by augmenting cAMP-dependent expression of the phosphatase that deactivates mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)-MAPK phosphatase (MKP)-1. Therefore, the aim of this study was to address whether theophylline repressed cytokine production in a similar, PDE-dependent, MKP-1-mediated manner. Notably, theophylline did not potentiate cAMP release from ASM cells treated with the long-acting β2-agonist formoterol. Moreover, theophylline (0.1-10 mM) did not increase formoterol-induced MKP-1 messenger RNA expression nor protein up-regulation, consistent with the lack of cAMP generation. However, theophylline (at 10 mM) was antiinflammatory and repressed secretion of the neutrophil chemoattractant cytokine IL-8, which is produced in response to TNF-α. Because theophylline's effectswere independent of PDE4 inhibition or antiinflammatory MKP-1, we then wished to elucidate the novel mechanisms responsible. We investigated the impact of theophylline on protein phosphatase (PP) 2A, a master controller of multiple inflammatory signaling pathways, and show that theophylline increases TNF-α-induced PP2A activity in ASM cells. Confirmatory results were obtained in A549 lung epithelial cells. PP2A activators have beneficial effects in ex vivo and in vivo models of respiratory disease. Thus, our study is the first to link theophylline with PP2A activation as a novel mechanism to control respiratory inflammation.

Pavesi, A, Adriani, G, Tay, A, Warkiani, ME, Yeap, WH, Wong, SC & Kamm, RD 2016, 'Engineering a 3D microfluidic culture platform for tumor-treating field application', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, p. 26584.
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AbstractThe limitations of current cancer therapies highlight the urgent need for a more effective therapeutic strategy. One promising approach uses an alternating electric field; however, the mechanisms involved in the disruption of the cancer cell cycle as well as the potential adverse effects on non-cancerous cells must be clarified. In this study, we present a novel microfluidic device with embedded electrodes that enables the application of an alternating electric field therapy to cancer cells in a 3D extracellular matrix. To demonstrate the potential of our system to aid in designing and testing new therapeutic approaches, cancer cells and cancer cell aggregates were cultured individually or co-cultured with endothelial cells. The metastatic potential of the cancer cells was reduced after electric field treatment. Moreover, the proliferation rate of the treated cancer cells was lower compared with that of the untreated cells, whereas the morphologies and proliferative capacities of the endothelial cells were not significantly affected. These results demonstrate that our novel system can be used to rapidly screen the effect of an alternating electric field on cancer and normal cells within an in vivo-like microenvironment with the potential to optimize treatment protocols and evaluate synergies between tumor-treating field treatment and chemotherapy.

Perera, D, Poulos, RC, Shah, A, Beck, D, Pimanda, JE & Wong, JWH 2016, 'Differential DNA repair underlies mutation hotspots at active promoters in cancer genomes', NATURE, vol. 532, no. 7598, pp. 259-+.
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© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited. Promoters are DNA sequences that have an essential role in controlling gene expression. While recent whole cancer genome analyses have identified numerous hotspots of somatic point mutations within promoters, many have not yet been shown to perturb gene expression or drive cancer development. As such, positive selection alone may not adequately explain the frequency of promoter point mutations in cancer genomes. Here we show that increased mutation density at gene promoters can be linked to promoter activity and differential nucleotide excision repair (NER). By analysing 1,161 human cancer genomes across 14 cancer types, we find evidence for increased local density of somatic point mutations within the centres of DNase I-hypersensitive sites (DHSs) in gene promoters. Mutated DHSs were strongly associated with transcription initiation activity, in which active promoters but not enhancers of equal DNase I hypersensitivity were most mutated relative to their flanking regions. Notably, analysis of genome-wide maps of NER shows that NER is impaired within the DHS centre of active gene promoters, while XPC-deficient skin cancers do not show increased promoter mutation density, pinpointing differential NER as the underlying cause of these mutation hotspots. Consistent with this finding, we observe that melanomas with an ultraviolet-induced DNA damage mutation signature show greatest enrichment of promoter mutations, whereas cancers that are not highly dependent on NER, such as colon cancer, show no sign of such enrichment. Taken together, our analysis has uncovered the presence of a previously unknown mechanism linking transcription initiation and NER as a major contributor of somatic point mutation hotspots at active gene promoters in cancer genomes.

Périard, JD, Jay, O, Alonso, J-M, Coutts, AJ, Flouris, AD, González-Alonso, J, Hausswirth, C, Lee, JKW, Nassis, GP, Nybo, L, Pluim, BM, Roelands, B, Sawka, MN, Wingo, J & Racinais, S 2016, 'Erratum to: Author’s Reply to Brocherie and Millet: ‘Is the Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature (WGBT) Index Relevant for Exercise in the Heat?’', Sports Medicine, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 139-141.
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Petriwskyj, A, Parker, D, Brown Wilson, C & Gibson, A 2016, 'Evaluation of Subscription-based Culture Change Models in Care Settings: Findings From a Systematic Review', The Gerontologist, vol. 56, no. 4, pp. e46-e62.
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Petriwskyj, A, Parker, D, Brown Wilson, C & Gibson, A 2016, 'What Health and Aged Care Culture Change Models Mean for Residents and Their Families: A Systematic Review', The Gerontologist, vol. 56, no. 2, pp. e12-e20.
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Petriwskyj, A, Parker, D, O’Dwyer, S, Moyle, W & Nucifora, N 2016, 'Interventions to build resilience in family caregivers of people living with dementia', JBI Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 238-273.
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BACKGROUND: Recent studies have indicated that family caregivers of people with dementia have higher rates of depression, anxiety and hopelessness, as well as higher levels of burden, stress and distress. Not all caregivers, however, succumb to the negative effects of caring. Caregivers who are able to recover from, resist or adapt to the physical and psychological demands of caring can be considered 'resilient'. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this review was to examine the existing evidence regarding interventions for building resilience in family caregivers of people living with dementia. INCLUSION CRITERIA TYPES OF PARTICIPANTS: This review considered studies that included family caregivers of people with dementia. TYPES OF INTERVENTION(S)/PHENOMENA OF INTEREST: Studies investigating interventions to build resilience in family caregivers were considered by the review. For qualitative studies, the phenomena of interest were family caregivers' experiences of the interventions including factors affecting implementation and their subjective experience of outcomes. CONTEXT: Studies conducted in any cultural or geographical context and any settings including participants' homes in the community, residential aged care or hospital, medical or allied health practice were considered for inclusion. TYPES OF STUDIES: Quantitative studies incorporating experimental and descriptive study designs and qualitative studies, including, but not limited to, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, action research and feminist research were considered for inclusion. OUTCOMES: Quantitative studies were included that contained either objective or subjective outcome measures (or a combination of both). In cases in which proxy measures of resilience were used, only those papers that explicitly related the aims of the intervention and the measurement of outcomes to resilience itself were considered for inclusion. Proxies could include, but were not limited to, self-efficacy,...

Pham, HM, Nguyen, ND, Center, JR, Eisman, JA & Nguyen, TV 2016, 'Contribution of Quadriceps Weakness to Fragility Fracture: A Prospective Study', Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 208-214.
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ABSTRACT   The association between muscle weakness and fracture is not well understood. This study sought to examine the contribution of muscle strength at baseline and change in muscle strength to the observed risk of fragility fracture in older people. The study involved 595 men and 1066 women aged 60+ years (median 69 years) who had been followed for a median of 11 years (range, 4 to 22 years). Quadriceps isometric muscle strength (MS) measured at baseline and biennially was adjusted for height. Femoral neck bone mineral density (FNBMD) was measured by DXA. Low-trauma fracture was ascertained from X-ray reports and interview. The relationship between baseline MS and serial MS and fracture assessed by time-invariant and time-variant Cox's regression models was expressed as hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). During the follow-up period, 282 (26%) women and 89 (15%) men sustained a fragility fracture. From age 60 years, women lost 0.28 kg/m (1.6%) of MS per year, whereas men lost 0.39 kg/m (1.5%) of MS per year. In the time-variant model, using serial MS, each 1 SD (4.7 kg/m) lower MS was associated with a 27% increase in the risk of fracture in women (HR 1.27; 95% CI, 1.11 to 1.43); and 46% increase in men (HR 1.46; 95% CI, 1.22 to 1.75). After adjusting for FNBMD, age and prior fracture, history of fall and smoking, HR per SD of lower MS was 1.13 (95% CI, 0.99 to 1.28) for women and 1.35 (95% CI, 1.18 to 1.64) for men. These data indicate that muscle weakness is an independent determinant of fracture risk in men, but not in women. This sex difference suggests that apart from mechanical load effect of muscle on bone, there are other muscle-bone interactions that need to be investigated in future studies. The accuracy of fracture risk prediction for men may be improved by incorporating muscle strength. © 2015 American ...

Phillips, JL & Agar, MR 2016, 'Exemplary nursing leadership is central to improving care of the dying', JOURNAL OF NURSING MANAGEMENT, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1-3.
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Phillips, JL & Ferguson, C 2016, 'New approaches to care for acute stroke patients with uncertain prognoses', International Journal of Palliative Nursing, vol. 22, no. 10, pp. 471-471.
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Polonchuk, L, Chabria, M, Davies, MJ & Gentile, C 2016, 'Doxorubicin-Mediated Toxic Effects Are Mediated Via NO/eNOS in a Novel 3D in Vitro Model of the Human Heart', Free Radical Biology and Medicine, vol. 100, pp. S142-S142.
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Powell, KL, Stevens, V, Upton, DH, McCracken, SA, Simpson, AM, Cheng, Y, Tasevski, V, Morris, JM & Ashton, AW 2016, 'Role for the thromboxane A2 receptor β-isoform in the pathogenesis of intrauterine growth restriction', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1-15.
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AbstractIntrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is a pathology of pregnancy that results in failure of the fetus to reach its genetically determined growth potential. In developed nations the most common cause of IUGR is impaired placentation resulting from poor trophoblast function, which reduces blood flow to the fetoplacental unit, promotes hypoxia and enhances production of bioactive lipids (TXA2 and isoprostanes) which act through the thromboxane receptor (TP). TP activation has been implicated as a pathogenic factor in pregnancy complications, including IUGR; however, the role of TP isoforms during pregnancy is poorly defined. We have determined that expression of the human-specific isoform of TP (TPβ) is increased in placentae from IUGR pregnancies, compared to healthy pregnancies. Overexpression of TPα enhanced trophoblast proliferation and syncytialisation. Conversely, TPβ attenuated these functions and inhibited migration. Expression of the TPβ transgene in mice resulted in growth restricted pups and placentae with poor syncytialisation and diminished growth characteristics. Together our data indicate that expression of TPα mediates normal placentation; however, TPβ impairs placentation and promotes the development of IUGR and represents an underappreciated pathogenic factor in humans.

Prabhala, P, Bunge, K, Ge, Q & Ammit, AJ 2016, 'Corticosteroid‐Induced MKP‐1 Represses Pro‐Inflammatory Cytokine Secretion by Enhancing Activity of Tristetraprolin (TTP) in ASM Cells', Journal of Cellular Physiology, vol. 231, no. 10, pp. 2153-2158.
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Exaggerated cytokine secretion drives pathogenesis of a number of chronic inflammatory diseases, including asthma. Anti‐inflammatory pharmacotherapies, including corticosteroids, are front‐line therapies and although they have proven clinical utility, the molecular mechanisms responsible for their actions are not fully understood. The corticosteroid‐inducible gene, mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) phosphatase 1 (MKP‐1, DUSP1) has emerged as a key molecule responsible for the repressive effects of steroids. MKP‐1 is known to deactivate p38 MAPK phosphorylation and can control the expression and activity of the mRNA destabilizing protein—tristetraprolin (TTP). But whether corticosteroid‐induced MKP‐1 acts via p38 MAPK‐mediated modulation of TTP function in a pivotal airway cell type, airway smooth muscle (ASM), was unknown. While pretreatment of ASM cells with the corticosteroid dexamethasone (preventative protocol) is known to reduce ASM synthetic function in vitro, the impact of adding dexamethasone after stimulation (therapeutic protocol) had not been explored. Whether dexamethasone modulates TTP in a p38 MAPK‐dependent manner in this cell type was also unknown. We address this herein and utilize an in vitro model of asthmatic inflammation where ASM cells were stimulated with the pro‐asthmatic cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and the impact of adding dexamethasone 1 h after stimulation assessed. IL‐6 mRNA expression and protein secretion was significantly repressed by dexamethasone acting in a temporally distinct manner to increase MKP‐1, deactivate p38 MAPK, and modulate TTP phosphorylation status. In this way, dexamethasone‐induced MKP‐1 acts via p38 MAPK to switch on the mRNA destabilizing function of TTP to repress pro‐inflammatory cytokine secretion from ASM cells. J. Cell. Physiol. 231: 2153–2158, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Rafeie, M, Zhang, J, Asadnia, M, Li, W & Warkiani, ME 2016, 'Multiplexing slanted spiral microchannels for ultra-fast blood plasma separation', Lab on a Chip, vol. 16, no. 15, pp. 2791-2802.
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Blood and blood products are critical components of health care.

Rahman, MM, Prabhala, P, Rumzhum, NN, Patel, BS, Wickop, T, Hansbro, PM, Verrills, NM & Ammit, AJ 2016, 'TLR2 ligation induces corticosteroid insensitivity in A549 lung epithelial cells: Anti-inflammatory impact of PP2A activators', The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology, vol. 78, pp. 279-287.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd Corticosteroids are effective anti-inflammatory therapies widely utilized in chronic respiratory diseases. But these medicines can lose their efficacy during respiratory infection resulting in disease exacerbation. Further in vitro research is required to understand how infection worsens lung function control in order to advance therapeutic options to treat infectious exacerbation in the future. In this study, we utilize a cellular model of bacterial exacerbation where we pretreat A549 lung epithelial cells with the synthetic bacterial lipoprotein Pam3CSK4 (a TLR2 ligand) to mimic bacterial infection and tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) to simulate inflammation. Under these conditions, Pam3CSK4 induces corticosteroid insensitivity; demonstrated by substantially reduced ability of the corticosteroid dexamethasone to repress TNFα-induced interleukin 6 secretion. We then explored the molecular mechanism responsible and found that corticosteroid insensitivity induced by bacterial mimics was not due to altered translocation of the glucocorticoid receptor into the nucleus, nor an impact on the NF-κB pathway. Moreover, Pam3CSK4 did not affect corticosteroid-induced upregulation of anti-inflammatory MAPK deactivating phosphatase—MKP-1. However, Pam3CSK4 can induce oxidative stress and we show that a proportion of the MKP-1 produced in response to corticosteroid in the context of TLR2 ligation was rendered inactive by oxidation. Thus to combat inflammation in the context of bacterial exacerbation we sought to discover effective strategies that bypassed this road-block. We show for the first time that known (FTY720) and novel (theophylline) activators of the phosphatase PP2A can serve as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory alternatives and/or corticosteroid-sparing approaches in respiratory inflammation where corticosteroid insensitivity exists.

Rahman, MM, Prünte, L, Lebender, LF, Patel, BS, Gelissen, I, Hansbro, PM, Morris, JC, Clark, AR, Verrills, NM & Ammit, AJ 2016, 'The phosphorylated form of FTY720 activates PP2A, represses inflammation and is devoid of S1P agonism in A549 lung epithelial cells', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1-8.
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AbstractProtein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) activity can be enhanced pharmacologically by PP2A-activating drugs (PADs). The sphingosine analog FTY720 is the best known PAD and we have shown that FTY720 represses production of pro-inflammatory cytokines responsible for respiratory disease pathogenesis. Whether its phosphorylated form, FTY720-P, also enhances PP2A activity independently of the sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) pathway was unknown. Herein, we show that FTY720-P enhances TNF-induced PP2A phosphatase activity and significantly represses TNF-induced interleukin 6 (IL-6) and IL-8 mRNA expression and protein secretion from A549 lung epithelial cells. Comparing FTY720 and FTY720-P with S1P, we show that unlike S1P, the sphingosine analogs do not induce cytokine production on their own. In fact, FTY720 and FTY720-P significantly repress S1P-induced IL-6 and IL-8 production. We then examined their impact on expression of cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) and resultant prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production. S1P did not increase production of this pro-inflammatory enzyme because COX-2 mRNA gene expression is NF-κB-dependent, and unlike TNF, S1P did not activate NF-κB. However, TNF-induced COX-2 mRNA expression and PGE2 secretion is repressed by FTY720 and FTY720-P. Hence, FTY720-P enhances PP2A activity and that PADs can repress production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and enzymes in A549 lung epithelial cells in a manner devoid of S1P agonism.

Rahman, MM, Rumzhum, NN, Hansbro, PM, Morris, JC, Clark, AR, Verrills, NM & Ammit, AJ 2016, 'Activating protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) enhances tristetraprolin (TTP) anti-inflammatory function in A549 lung epithelial cells', Cellular Signalling, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 325-334.
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© 2016. Chronic respiratory diseases are driven by inflammation, but some clinical conditions (severe asthma, COPD) are refractory to conventional anti-inflammatory therapies. Thus, novel anti-inflammatory strategies are necessary. The mRNA destabilizing protein, tristetraprolin (TTP), is an anti-inflammatory molecule that functions to induce mRNA decay of cytokines that drive pathogenesis of respiratory disorders. TTP is regulated by phosphorylation and protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) is responsible for dephosphorylating (and hence activating) TTP, amongst other targets. PP2A is activated by small molecules, FTY720 and AAL(S), and in this study we examine whether these compounds repress cytokine production in a cellular model of airway inflammation using A549 lung epithelial cells stimulated with tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) in vitro. PP2A activators significantly increase TNFα-induced PP2A activity and inhibit mRNA expression and protein secretion of interleukin 8 (IL-8) and IL-6; two key pro-inflammatory cytokines implicated in respiratory disease and TTP targets. The effect of PP2A activators is not via an increase in TNFα-induced TTP mRNA expression; instead we demonstrate a link between PP2A activation and TTP anti-inflammatory function by showing that specific knockdown of TTP with siRNA reversed the repression of TNFα-induced IL-8 and IL-6 mRNA expression and protein secretion by FTY720. Therefore we propose that PP2A activators affect the dynamic equilibrium regulating TTP; shifting the equilibrium from phosphorylated (inactive) towards unphosphorylated (active) but unstable TTP. PP2A activators boost the anti-inflammatory function of TTP and have implications for future pharmacotherapeutic strategies to combat inflammation in respiratory disease.

Ramalingam, N, Warkiani, ME, Ramalingam, N, Keshavarzi, G, Hao-Bing, L & Hai-Qing, TG 2016, 'Numerical and experimental study of capillary-driven flow of PCR solution in hybrid hydrophobic microfluidic networks', Biomedical Microdevices, vol. 18, no. 4, p. 68.
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Capillary-driven microfluidics is essential for development of point-of-care diagnostic micro-devices. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based micro-devices are widely developed and used in such point-of-care settings. It is imperative to characterize the fluid parameters of PCR solution for designing efficient capillary-driven microfluidic networks. Generally, for numeric modelling, the fluid parameters of PCR solution are approximated to that of water. This procedure leads to inaccurate results, which are discrepant to experimental data. This paper describes mathematical modeling and experimental validation of capillary-driven flow inside Poly-(dimethyl) siloxane (PDMS)-glass hybrid micro-channels. Using experimentally measured PCR fluid parameters, the capillary meniscus displacement in PDMS-glass microfluidic ladder network is simulated using computational fluid dynamic (CFD), and experimentally verified to match with the simulated data.

Ramke, S, Sharpe, L & Newton-John, T 2016, 'Adjunctive cognitive behavioural treatment for chronic pain couples improves marital satisfaction but not pain management outcomes', EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PAIN, vol. 20, no. 10, pp. 1667-1677.
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© 2016 European Pain Federation - EFIC® Background: Data have consistently shown that patient coping with chronic pain can be affected by various factors associated with the primary relationship, and hence efforts to include the patient's partner in the treatment process have merit. This study evaluated the benefit of adding an adjunctive, couples-based, cognitive behavioural treatment (CBT) for chronic pain to a standard cognitive behavioural pain management programme. Methods: Forty-five couples were randomly assigned to either an adjunctive couples intervention (n = 19) or the pain programme only (n = 26). All patient participants completed a 3-week multi-disciplinary pain management programme, to which their partners were invited to attend one full day. In addition, partners in the adjunctive condition received four, one hour treatment sessions focusing on pain education, patient–partner communication, operant behavioural principles and relapse prevention strategies. Partner sessions for the adjunctive intervention were provided over the telephone. Results: By the completion of the pain programme the adjunctive couples intervention demonstrated significant improvements in marital satisfaction for the spouses over and above attendance at the pain management programme alone (p = 0.003). However, spouse involvement did not facilitate any additional response to treatment for pain patients on marital satisfaction, pain, disability or any indices of distress. All treatment gains were maintained at 1 month follow-up. Conclusions: These data demonstrate that a brief CBT intervention can significantly improve marital satisfaction for spouses of chronic pain patients, but the treatment does not translate to improvements in function on any outcomes, including marital satisfaction, for patients of chronic pain. What does this study add?: A brief, telephone-based intervention for couples living with chronic pain is an acceptable format for intervention. This int...

Rana, MM, Li, L & Su, SW 2016, 'An Adaptive-Then-Combine Dynamic State Estimation Considering Renewable Generations in Smart Grids', IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 34, no. 12, pp. 3954-3961.
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© 1983-2012 IEEE. The penetration of renewable distributed energy resources, such as wind turbine, has been dramatically increased in distribution networks. Due to the intermittent property, the wind power generation patterns vary, which may risk distribution network operations. So, it is intrinsically necessary to monitor wind turbines in a distributed way. This paper presents an adaptive-Then-combine distributed dynamic approach for monitoring the grid under lossy communication links between the wind turbines and energy management system. First, the wind turbine is represented by a state-space linear model, with sensors deployed to obtain the system state information. Based on the mean squared error principle, an adaptive approach is proposed to estimate the local state information. The global estimation is designed by combining estimation results with weighting factors which are calculated by minimizing the estimation error covariance based on semidefinite programming. Finally, the convergence analysis indicates that the estimation error is gradually decreased, so the estimated state converges to the actual state. The efficacy of the developed approach is verified using the wind turbine and the IEEE 6-bus distribution system.

Rana, MM, Li, L & Su, SW 2016, 'Microgrid state estimation and control using Kalman filter and semidefinite programming technique', International Energy Journal, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 47-56.
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The design of environment-friendly microgrids at the smart distribution level requires a stable behaviour for multiple state operations. This paper develops a Kalman filter based optimal feedback control method for the microgrid state estimation and stabilization. First, the microgrid is modelled by a discrete-time state space equation. Then the cost-effective smart sensors are deployed in order to obtain the required system information. From the communication point of view, the recursive systematic convolution code is adopted to add the redundancy in the system. At the end, the soft output Viterbi decoder is used to recover the system information from the noisy measurements and transmission uncertainties. Thereafter, the Kalman filter is utilized to estimate the system states, which acts as a precursor for applying the control algorithm. Finally, this paper proposes an optimal feedback control method to stabilize the microgrid based on semidefinite programming. The performance of the proposed approach is demonstrated by extensive numerical simulations.

Rankin, NM, McGregor, D, Butow, PN, White, K, Phillips, JL, Young, JM, Pearson, SA, York, S & Shaw, T 2016, 'Adapting the nominal group technique for priority setting of evidence-practice gaps in implementation science', BMC MEDICAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY, vol. 16, no. 1.
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© 2016 The Author(s). Background: There are a variety of methods for priority setting in health research but few studies have addressed how to prioritise the gaps that exist between research evidence and clinical practice. This study aimed to build a suite of robust, evidence based techniques and tools for use in implementation science projects. We applied the priority setting methodology in lung cancer care as an example. Methods: We reviewed existing techniques and tools for priority setting in health research and the criteria used to prioritise items. An expert interdisciplinary consensus group comprised of health service, cancer and nursing researchers iteratively reviewed and adapted the techniques and tools. We tested these on evidence-practice gaps identified for lung cancer. The tools were pilot tested and finalised. A brief process evaluation was conducted. Results: We based our priority setting on the Nominal Group Technique (NGT). The adapted tools included a matrix for individuals to privately rate priority gaps; the same matrix was used for group discussion and reaching consensus. An investment exercise was used to validate allocation of priorities across the gaps. We describe the NGT process, criteria and tool adaptations and process evaluation results. Conclusions: The modified NGT process, criteria and tools contribute to building a suite of methods that can be applied in prioritising evidence-practice gaps. These methods could be adapted for other health settings within the broader context of implementation science projects.

Rao, A, Hickman, LD, Phillips, JL & Sibbritt, D 2016, 'Prevalence and characteristics of Australian women who use prayer or spiritual healing: A nationally representative cross-sectional study', COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES IN MEDICINE, vol. 27, pp. 35-42.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. Objectives: To determine the prevalence and characteristics of users of prayer or spiritual healing among Australian women aged 31-36 years. Design and setting: This cross-sectional study was conducted as a part of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH). The sample used in the current sub-study were participants from the 'young' cohort (1973-78) (n = 8180) aged between 31 and 36 years. Main outcome measure: Use of prayer or spiritual healing. Results: Prayer or spiritual healing was used on a regular basis by 20% of women aged between 31 and 36 years in 2009. Women who had symptoms of chronic illnesses (p = 0.001), women who had never smoked (p = 0.001) and women who used other forms of CAM (p < 0.001) were significantly more likely to use prayer or spiritual healing. Conclusion: A signifibasis. Further research is required to better understand their rationale for using prayer or spiritual healing and its perceived impact on health related outcomes and general well-being.cant proportion of women use prayer or spiritual healing on a regular basis. Further research is required to better understand their rationale for using prayer or spiritual healing and its perceived impact on health related outcomes and general well-being.

Rao, A, Hickman, LD, Sibbritt, D, Newton, PJ & Phillips, JL 2016, 'Is energy healing an effective non-pharmacological therapy for improving symptom management of chronic illnesses? A systematic review', Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, vol. 25, pp. 26-41.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd Background Emerging evidence suggests that some people living with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have integrated energy healing into their self-management strategy, however little is known about its efficacy. Purpose To identify energy healing interventions that impacted positively on the symptom management outcomes for patients living in the community with various NCDs. Methods A systematic review of energy healing interventions for the management of non-communicable disease related symptoms, conducted between 01 January 2000 and 21 April 2015, published in an English peer-reviewed journal. This review conforms to the PRISMA statement. Results Twenty seven studies were identified that evaluated various energy healing interventions involving 3159 participants. Thirteen of the energy healing trials generated statistically significant outcomes. Conclusions Energy healing has demonstrated some improvement in illness symptoms, however high level evidence consistently demonstrating efficacy is lacking. Further more robust trials are required to better understand which elements of energy healing interventions are associated with positive outcomes.

Remenyi, J, Bajan, S, Fuller-Pace, FV, Arthur, JSC & Hutvagner, G 2016, 'The loop structure and the RNA helicase p72/DDX17 influence the processing efficiency of the mice miR-132', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1.
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AbstractmiRNAs are small RNAs that are key regulators of gene expression in eukaryotic organisms. The processing of miRNAs is regulated by structural characteristics of the RNA and is also tightly controlled by auxiliary protein factors. Among them, RNA binding proteins play crucial roles to facilitate or inhibit miRNA maturation and can be controlled in a cell, tissue and species-specific manners or in response to environmental stimuli. In this study we dissect the molecular mechanism that promotes the overexpression of miR-132 in mice over its related, co-transcribed and co-regulated miRNA, miR-212. We have shown that the loop structure of miR-132 is a key determinant for its efficient processing in cells. We have also identified a range of RNA binding proteins that recognize the loop of miR-132 and influence both miR-132 and miR-212 processing. The DEAD box helicase p72/DDX17 was identified as a factor that facilitates the specific processing of miR-132.

Ren, B, Tao, C, Swan, MA, Joachim, N, Martiniello-Wilks, R, Nassif, NT, O'Brien, BA & Simpson, AM 2016, 'Pancreatic Transdifferentiation and Glucose-Regulated Production of Human Insulin in the H4IIE Rat Liver Cell Line', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES, vol. 17, no. 4.
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© 2016 by the authors. Due to the limitations of current treatment regimes, gene therapy is a promising strategy being explored to correct blood glucose concentrations in diabetic patients. In the current study, we used a retroviral vector to deliver either the human insulin gene alone, the rat NeuroD1 gene alone, or the human insulin gene and rat NeuroD1 genes together, to the rat liver cell line, H4IIE, to determine if storage of insulin and pancreatic transdifferentiation occurred. Stable clones were selected and expanded into cell lines: H4IIEins (insulin gene alone), H4IIE/ND (NeuroD1 gene alone), and H4IIEins/ND (insulin and NeuroD1 genes). The H4IIEins cells did not store insulin; however, H4IIE/ND and H4IIEins/ND cells stored 65.5 ± 5.6 and 1475.4 ± 171.8 pmol/insulin/ 5 × 106 cells, respectively. Additionally, several β cell transcription factors and pancreatic hormones were expressed in both H4IIE/ND and H4IIEins/ND cells. Electron microscopy revealed insulin storage vesicles in the H4IIE/ND and H4IIEins/ND cell lines. Regulated secretion of insulin to glucose (0–20 mmol/L) was seen in the H4IIEins/ND cell line. The H4IIEins/ND cells were transplanted into diabetic immunoincompetent mice, resulting in normalization of blood glucose. This data shows that the expression of NeuroD1 and insulin in liver cells may be a useful strategy for inducing islet neogenesis and reversing diabetes.

Reyna Zeballos, JL, Meier, P, Geronimo, F & Rodgers, K 2016, 'Implementing Digital Media Presentations as Assessment Tools for Pharmacology Students', American Journal of Educational Research, vol. 4, no. 14, pp. 983-991.
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At the Faculty of Science we introduced the use of digital presentations as assessment tools forthird-year pharmacology students. A cohort of 167 students self-allocated into groups of four and were assigned atopic related to the pharmacology lecture material. A one-hour lecture was delivered to discuss digital mediaprinciples (visual design, video composition, multimedia learning principles, etc.) and how to apply these to createdigital media projects. During practical classes, students developed a storyboard and received feedback and technicaladvice from tutors. Towards the end of the semester, students uploaded their preliminary presentations to a YouTubechannel and received feedback from lecturers, tutors, and peers before submitting the final version. A marking rubricwas developed and shared with students at the beginning of the semester. The study used a mixed-methods approachto evaluating the intervention. A comprehensive 35-step questionnaire was used, covering demographics, students’attitudes towards technology, digital media support, understanding of the assignment, and knowledge constructionand skills gained. It also contained five open-ended questions. A high response rate was achieved for the voluntarysurvey (97/167). Additionally, students reviewed contributions of group members using SPARKPlus, and the marksattained were used to triangulate the questionnaire responses. In summary, the data shows that students found theassignment was engaging, fostered learning and creativity, and that they gained additional skills relevant to theirfuture careers.

Ruan, J, Walker, PD, Watterson, PA & Zhang, N 2016, 'The dynamic performance and economic benefit of a blended braking system in a multi-speed battery electric vehicle', Applied Energy, vol. 183, pp. 1240-1258.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd As motor-supplied braking torque is applied to the wheels in an entirely different way to hydraulic friction braking systems and it is usually only connected to one axle complicated effects such as wheel slip and locking, vehicle body bounce and braking distance variation will inevitability impact on the performance and safety of braking. The potential for braking energy recovery in typical driving cycles is presented to show its benefit in this study. A general predictive model is designed to analysis the economic and dynamic performance of blended braking systems, satisfying the relevant regulations/laws and critical limitations. Braking strategies for different purposes are proposed to achieve a balance between braking performance, driving comfort and energy recovery rate. Special measures are taken to avoid any effects of motor failure. All strategies are analyzed in detail for various braking events. Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), such as ABS and EBD, are properly integrated to work with the regenerative braking system (RBS) harmoniously. Different switching plans during braking are discussed. The braking energy recovery rates and brake force distribution details for different driving cycles are simulated. Results for two of the cycles in an ‘Eco’ mode are measured on a drive train test rig and found to agree with the simulated results to within approximately 10%. Reliable conclusions can thus be gained on the economic benefit and dynamic braking performance. The strategies proposed in this paper are shown to not only achieve comfortable and safe braking during all driving conditions, but also to significantly reduce cost in both the short and long term.

Rumzhum, NN & Ammit, AJ 2016, 'Cyclooxygenase 2: its regulation, role and impact in airway inflammation', Clinical & Experimental Allergy, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 397-410.
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SummaryCyclooxygenase 2 (COX‐2: official gene symbol – PTGS2) has long been regarded as playing a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of airway inflammation in respiratory diseases including asthma. COX‐2 can be rapidly and robustly expressed in response to a diverse range of pro‐inflammatory cytokines and mediators. Thus, increased levels of COX‐2 protein and prostanoid metabolites serve as key contributors to pathobiology in respiratory diseases typified by dysregulated inflammation. But COX‐2 products may not be all bad: prostanoids can exert anti‐inflammatory/bronchoprotective functions in airways in addition to their pro‐inflammatory actions. Herein, we outline COX‐2 regulation and review the diverse stimuli known to induce COX‐2 in the context of airway inflammation. We discuss some of the positive and negative effects that COX‐2/prostanoids can exert in in vitro and in vivo models of airway inflammation, and suggest that inhibiting COX‐2 expression to repress airway inflammation may be too blunt an approach; because although it might reduce the unwanted effects of COX‐2 activation, it may also negate the positive effects. Evidence suggests that prostanoids produced via COX‐2 upregulation show diverse actions (and herein we focus on prostaglandin E2 as a key example); these can be either beneficial or deleterious and their impact on respiratory disease can be dictated by local concentration and specific interaction with individual receptors. We propose that understanding the regulation of COX‐2 expression and associated receptor‐mediated functional outcomes may reveal number of critical steps amenable to pharmacological intervention. These may prove invaluable in our quest towards future development of novel anti‐inflammatory pharmacotherapeutic strategies for the treatment of airway diseases.

Rumzhum, NN & Ammit, AJ 2016, 'Prostaglandin E2 induces expression of MAPK phosphatase 1 (MKP-1) in airway smooth muscle cells', European Journal of Pharmacology, vol. 782, pp. 1-5.
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©2016 Published by Elsevier B.V. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) is a prostanoid with diverse actions in health and disease. In chronic respiratory diseases driven by inflammation, PGE2 has both positive and negative effects. An enhanced understanding of the receptor-mediated cellular signalling pathways induced by PGE2 may help us separate the beneficial properties from unwanted actions of this important prostaglandin. PGE2 is known to exert anti-inflammatory and bronchoprotective actions in human airways. To date however, whether PGE2 increases production of the anti-inflammatory protein MAPK phosphatase 1 (MKP-1) was unknown. We address this herein and use primary cultures of human airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells to show that PGE2 increases MKP-1 mRNA and protein upregulation in a concentration-dependent manner. We explore the signalling pathways responsible and show that PGE2-induces CREB phosphorylation, not p38 MAPK activation, in ASM cells. Moreover, we utilize selective antagonists of EP2 (PF-04418948) and EP4 receptors (GW 627368X) to begin to identify EP-mediated functional outcomes in ASM cells in vitro. Taken together with earlier studies, our data suggest that PGE2 increases production of the anti-inflammatory protein MKP-1 via cAMP/CREB-mediated cellular signalling in ASM cells and demonstrates that EP2 may, in part, be involved.

Rumzhum, NN, Patel, BS, Prabhala, P, Gelissen, IC, Oliver, BG & Ammit, AJ 2016, 'IL‐17A increases TNF‐α‐induced COX‐2 protein stability and augments PGE₂ secretion from airway smooth muscle cells: impact on β₂‐adrenergic receptor desensitization', Allergy, vol. 71, no. 3, pp. 387-396.
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AbstractBackgroundIL‐17A plays an important role in respiratory disease and is a known regulator of pulmonary inflammation and immunity. Recent studies have linked IL‐17A with exacerbation in asthma and COPD. We have shown that the enzyme cyclooxygenase‐2 (COX‐2) and its prostanoid products, prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in particular, are key contributors in in vitro models of infectious exacerbation; however, the impact of IL‐17A was not known.Methods and ResultsWe address this herein and show that IL‐17A induces a robust and sustained upregulation of COX‐2 protein and PGE2 secretion from airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells. COX‐2 can be regulated at transcriptional, post‐transcriptional and/or post‐translational levels. We have elucidated the underlying molecular mechanisms responsible for the sustained upregulation of TNF‐α‐induced COX‐2 by IL‐17A in ASM cells and show that is not via increased COX‐2 gene expression. Instead, TNF‐α‐induced COX‐2 upregulation is subject to regulation by the proteasome, and IL‐17A acts to increase TNF‐α‐induced COX‐2 protein stability as confirmed by cycloheximide chase experiments. In this way, IL‐17A acts to amplify the COX‐2‐mediated effects of TNF‐α and greatly enhances PGE2 secretion from ASM cells.ConclusionAs PGE2 is a multifunctional prostanoid with diverse roles in respiratory disease, our studies demonstrate a novel function for IL‐17A in airway inflammation by showing for the first time that IL‐17A impacts on the COX‐2/PGE2 pathway, molecules known to contribute to disease exacerbation.

Rumzhum, NN, Rahman, MM, Oliver, BG & Ammit, AJ 2016, 'Effect of Sphingosine 1-Phosphate on Cyclo-Oxygenase-2 Expression, Prostaglandin E₂ Secretion, and β₂-Adrenergic Receptor Desensitization', American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 128-135.
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Copyright © 2016 by the American Thoracic Society. Tachyphylaxis of the β2-adrenergic receptor limits the efficacy of bronchodilatory β2-agonists in respiratory disease. Cellular studies in airway smooth muscle (ASM) have shown that inflammatory mediators and infectious stimuli reduce β2-adrenergic responsiveness in a cyclo-oxygenase (COX)-2-mediated, prostaglandin E2 (PGE2)-dependant manner. Herein, we show that sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P), abioactive sphingolipid thatplays an important role in pathophysiology of asthma, also induces β2-adrenergic receptor desensitization in bronchial ASM cells and exerts hyporesponsiveness to β2-agonists. We treated ASM cells with S1P (1 μM) for up to 24 hours and then examined the temporal kinetics of COX-2 mRNA expression, protein up-regulation, and PGE2 secretion. S1P significantly enhanced COX-2 expression and PGE2 secretion, and this was repressed by the selective COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib, the corticosteroid dexamethasone, or small interfering RNA (siRNA) knockdown of COX-2 expression. In combination with another proinflammatory mediator found elevated in asthmatic airways, the cytokine TNF-α, we observed that S1P-induced COX-2 mRNA expression and protein up-regulation and PGE2 secretion from ASM cells were significantly enhanced. Notably, S1P induced heterologous β2-adrenergic desensitization, as measured by inhibition of cyclic adenosine monophosphate production in response to the short-acting β2-agonist, salbutamol, and the long-acting β2-agonist, formoterol. Taken together, these data indicate that S1P represses β2-adrenergic activity in ASM cells by increasing COX-2-mediated PGE2 production, and suggest that this bioactive sphingolipid found elevated in asthma may contribute to β2-adrenergic desensitization.

Salvador, MM, Budka, M & Gabrys, B 2016, 'Effects of Change Propagation Resulting from Adaptive Preprocessing in Multicomponent Predictive Systems', Procedia Computer Science, vol. 96, pp. 713-722.
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Predictive modelling is a complex process that requires a number of steps to transform raw data into predictions. Preprocessing of the input data is a key step in such process, and the selection of proper preprocessing methods is often a labour intensive task. Such methods are usually trained offline and their parameters remain fixed during the whole model deployment lifetime. However, preprocessing of non-stationary data streams is more challenging since the lack of adaptation of such preprocessing methods may degrade system performance. In addition, dependencies between different predictive system components make the adaptation process more challenging. In this paper we discuss the effects of change propagation resulting from using adaptive preprocessing in a Multicomponent Predictive System (MCPS). To highlight various issues we present four scenarios with different levels of adaptation. A number of experiments have been performed with a range of datasets to compare the prediction error in all four scenarios. Results show that well managed adaptation considerably improves the prediction performance. However, the model can become inconsistent if adaptation in one component is not correctly propagated throughout the rest of system components. Sometimes, such inconsistency may not cause an obvious deterioration in the system performance, therefore being difficult to detect. In some other cases it may even lead to a system failure as was observed in our experiments.

Savkin, AV, Wang, C, Baranzadeh, A, Xi, Z & Nguyen, HT 2016, 'Distributed formation building algorithms for groups of wheeled mobile robots', Robotics and Autonomous Systems, vol. 75, pp. 463-474.
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© 2015. The paper presents a method for decentralized flocking and global formation building for a network of unicycle-like robots described by the standard kinematics equations with hard constraints on the robots linear and angular velocities. We propose decentralized motion coordination control algorithms for the robots so that they collectively move in a desired geometric pattern from any initial position. There are no predefined leaders in the group and only local information is required for the control. The effectiveness of the proposed control algorithms is illustrated via computer simulations and experiments with real robots.

Schmit, C, Duffield, R, Hausswirth, C, Coutts, AJ & Le Meur, Y 2016, 'Pacing Adjustments Associated With Familiarization: Heat Versus Temperate Environments', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORTS PHYSIOLOGY AND PERFORMANCE, vol. 11, no. 7, pp. 855-860.
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This study describes the effect of the initial perceptual experience from heat-familiarisation on the pacing profile during free-paced endurance time-trial (TT) compared to temperate conditions.Two groups of well-trained triathletes performed two 20-km TT's either in hot (35°C and 50% RH, N = 12) or temperate (21°C and 50% RH, N = 22) conditions, after standardisation of training for each group prior to both trials. To ensure no physiological acclimation differences between conditions, the TT's for both groups were separated by 11 ± 4 days.Performance improvement in the heat (11 ± 24 W) from the first to second trial appeared comparable to that in temperate conditions (8 ± 14 W, p = 0.67). However, the specific alteration in pacing profile in the heat was markedly different to temperate, with a change from 'positive' to an 'even' pacing strategy.Altered perceptions of heat during heat-familiarization, rather than physiological acclimatization per se, may mediate initial changes in pacing and TT performance in the heat. These results highlight the need for athletes without time for sufficient HA to familiarise themselves with hot conditions to reduce the uncertainty from behaviour-based outcomes that may impede performance.

Seeman, E & Nguyen, TV 2016, 'Bone remodeling markers: so easy to measure, so difficult to interpret', Osteoporosis International, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 33-35.
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Shah, JS, Soon, PS & Marsh, DJ 2016, 'Comparison of Methodologies to Detect Low Levels of Hemolysis in Serum for Accurate Assessment of Serum microRNAs', PLOS ONE, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. e0153200-e0153200.
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Shields, BJ, Jackson, JT, Metcalf, D, Shi, W, Huang, Q, Garnham, AL, Glaser, SP, Beck, D, Pimanda, JE, Bogue, CW, Smyth, GK, Alexander, WS & McCormack, MP 2016, 'Acute myeloid leukemia requires Hhex to enable PRC2-mediated epigenetic repression of Cdkn2a', Genes & Development, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 78-91.
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Unlike clustered HOX genes, the role of nonclustered homeobox gene family members in hematopoiesis and leukemogenesis has not been extensively studied. Here we found that the hematopoietically expressed homeobox gene Hhex is overexpressed in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and is essential for the initiation and propagation of MLL-ENL-induced AML but dispensable for normal myelopoiesis, indicating a specific requirement for Hhex for leukemic growth. Loss of Hhex leads to expression of the Cdkn2a-encoded tumor suppressors p16INK4a and p19ARF, which are required for growth arrest and myeloid differentiation following Hhex deletion. Mechanistically, we show that Hhex binds to the Cdkn2a locus and directly interacts with the Polycomb-repressive complex 2 (PRC2) to enable H3K27me3-mediated epigenetic repression. Thus, Hhex is a potential therapeutic target that is specifically required for AML stem cells to repress tumor suppressor pathways and enable continued self-renewal.

Smith, MR, Coutts, AJ, Merlini, M, Deprez, D, Lenoir, M & Marcora, SM 2016, 'Mental Fatigue Impairs Soccer-Specific Physical and Technical Performance', MEDICINE AND SCIENCE IN SPORTS AND EXERCISE, vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 267-276.
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© 2015 by the American College of Sports Medicine. Purpose To investigate the effects of mental fatigue on soccer-specific physical and technical performance. Methods This investigation consisted of two separate studies. Study 1 assessed the soccer-specific physical performance of 12 moderately trained soccer players using the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test, Level 1 (Yo-Yo IR1). Study 2 assessed the soccer-specific technical performance of 14 experienced soccer players using the Loughborough Soccer Passing and Shooting Tests (LSPT, LSST). Each test was performed on two occasions and preceded, in a randomized, counterbalanced order, by 30 min of the Stroop task (mentally fatiguing treatment) or 30 min of reading magazines (control treatment). Subjective ratings of mental fatigue were measured before and after treatment, and mental effort and motivation were measured after treatment. Distance run, heart rate, and ratings of perceived exertion were recorded during the Yo-Yo IR1. LSPT performance time was calculated as original time plus penalty time. LSST performance was assessed using shot speed, shot accuracy, and shot sequence time. Results Subjective ratings of mental fatigue and effort were higher after the Stroop task in both studies (P < 0.001), whereas motivation was similar between conditions. This mental fatigue significantly reduced running distance in the Yo-Yo IR1 (P < 0.001). No difference in heart rate existed between conditions, whereas ratings of perceived exertion were significantly higher at iso-time in the mental fatigue condition (P < 0.01). LSPT original time and performance time were not different between conditions; however, penalty time significantly increased in the mental fatigue condition (P = 0.015). Mental fatigue also impaired shot speed (P = 0.024) and accuracy (P < 0.01), whereas shot sequence time was similar between conditions. Conclusions Mental fatigue impairs soccer-specific running, passing, and shooting performance.

Smith, MR, Zeuwts, L, Lenoir, M, Hens, N, De Jong, LMS & Coutts, AJ 2016, 'Mental fatigue impairs soccer-specific decision-making skill', JOURNAL OF SPORTS SCIENCES, vol. 34, no. 14, pp. 1297-1304.
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This study aimed to investigate the impact of mental fatigue on soccer-specific decision-making. Twelve well-trained male soccer players performed a soccer-specific decision-making task on two occasions, separated by at least 72 h. The decision-making task was preceded in a randomised order by 30 min of the Stroop task (mental fatigue) or 30 min of reading from magazines (control). Subjective ratings of mental fatigue were measured before and after treatment, and mental effort (referring to treatment) and motivation (referring to the decision-making task) were measured after treatment. Performance on the soccer-specific decision-making task was assessed using response accuracy and time. Visual search behaviour was also assessed throughout the decision-making task. Subjective ratings of mental fatigue and effort were almost certainly higher following the Stroop task compared to the magazines. Motivation for the upcoming decision-making task was possibly higher following the Stroop task. Decision-making accuracy was very likely lower and response time likely higher in the mental fatigue condition. Mental fatigue had unclear effects on most visual search behaviour variables. The results suggest that mental fatigue impairs accuracy and speed of soccer-specific decision-making. These impairments are not likely related to changes in visual search behaviour.

Stelzer‐Braid, S, Tovey, ER, Willenborg, CM, Toelle, BG, Ampon, R, Garden, FL, Oliver, BG, Strachan, R, Belessis, Y, Jaffe, A, Reddel, HK, Crisafulli, D, Marks, GB & Rawlinson, WD 2016, 'Absence of back to school peaks in human rhinovirus detections and respiratory symptoms in a cohort of children with asthma', Journal of Medical Virology, vol. 88, no. 4, pp. 578-587.
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Much of what is known about the seasonality of human rhinovirus (hRV) infections has been learned from the study of acute asthma exacerbations presenting to emergency care, including those among children at the start of the school term. Much less is known about the patterns of hRVs in the community. In this study, viruses and day‐to‐day symptoms of asthma and colds were monitored twice weekly in 67 children with asthma aged 5–12 years, over a 15 month period in Sydney, Australia. Overall hRV was detected in 314/1232 (25.5%) of nasal wash samples and 142/1231 (11.5%) of exhaled breath samples; of these, 231 and 24 respectively were genotyped. HRVs were detected with similar prevalence rate throughout the year, including no peak in hRV prevalence following return to school. No peaks were seen in asthma and cold symptoms using twice‐weekly diary records. However, over the same period in the community, there were peaks in asthma emergency visits both at a large local hospital and in state‐wide hospitalizations, following both return to school (February) and in late autumn (May) in children of the same age. This study suggests that hRV infections are common throughout the year among children, and differences in virus prevalence alone may not account for peaks in asthma symptoms. J. Med. Virol. 88:578–587, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Stratton-Powell, AA, Pasko, KM, Brockett, CL & Tipper, JL 2016, 'The Biologic Response to Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) Wear Particles in Total Joint Replacement: A Systematic Review', Clinical Orthopaedics & Related Research, vol. 474, no. 11, pp. 2394-2404.
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Styrkarsdottir, U, Thorleifsson, G, Eiriksdottir, B, Gudjonsson, SA, Ingvarsson, T, Center, JR, Nguyen, TV, Eisman, JA, Christiansen, C, Thorsteinsdottir, U, Sigurdsson, G & Stefansson, K 2016, 'Two Rare Mutations in the COL1A2 Gene Associate With Low Bone Mineral Density and Fractures in Iceland', Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 173-179.
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ABSTRACT   We conducted a genome-wide association study of low bone mineral density (BMD) at the hip and spine utilizing sequence variants found through whole-genome sequencing of 2636 Icelanders. We found two rare missense mutations, p.Gly496Ala and p.Gly703Ser, in the COL1A2 gene that associate with measures of osteoporosis in Icelanders. Mutations in COL1A2 are known to cause the autosomal dominant disorder osteogenesis imperfecta. Both variants associate with low BMD and with osteoporotic fractures. p.Gly496Ala (frequency of 0.105%) shows the strongest association with low BMD at the spine (p = 1.8 × 10−7, odds ratio [OR] = 4.61 [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.59, 8.18]), whereas p.Gly703Ser (frequency of 0.050%) is most strongly associated with low BMD at the hip (p = 1.9 × 10−8, OR = 9.34 [95% CI 4.28, 20.3]). Association with fractures was p = 2.2 × 10−5, OR = 3.75 (95% CI 2.03, 6.93) and p = 0.0023, OR = 4.32 (95% CI 1.69, 11.1), respectively. The carriers of these variants do not have signs of osteogenesis imperfecta other than low BMD, demonstrating that similar mutations in COL1A2 can affect skeletal phenotypes in more than one way. © 2015 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

Styrkarsdottir, U, Thorleifsson, G, Gudjonsson, SA, Sigurdsson, A, Center, JR, Lee, SH, Nguyen, TV, Kwok, TCY, Lee, JSW, Ho, SC, Woo, J, Leung, P-C, Kim, B-J, Rafnar, T, Kiemeney, LA, Ingvarsson, T, Koh, J-M, Tang, NLS, Eisman, JA, Christiansen, C, Sigurdsson, G, Thorsteinsdottir, U & Stefansson, K 2016, 'Sequence variants in the PTCH1 gene associate with spine bone mineral density and osteoporotic fractures', Nature Communications, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 1-8.
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AbstractBone mineral density (BMD) is a measure of osteoporosis and is useful in evaluating the risk of fracture. In a genome-wide association study of BMD among 20,100 Icelanders, with follow-up in 10,091 subjects of European and East-Asian descent, we found a new BMD locus that harbours the PTCH1 gene, represented by rs28377268 (freq. 11.4–22.6%) that associates with reduced spine BMD (P=1.0 × 10−11, β=−0.09). We also identified a new spine BMD signal in RSPO3, rs577721086 (freq. 6.8%), that associates with increased spine BMD (P=6.6 × 10−10, β=0.14). Importantly, both variants associate with osteoporotic fractures and affect expression of the PTCH1 and RSPO3 genes that is in line with their influence on BMD and known biological function of these genes. Additional new BMD signals were also found at the AXIN1 and SOST loci and a new lead SNP at the EN1 locus.

Suen, H, Brown, R, Yang, S, Weatherburn, C, Ho, PJ, Woodland, N, Nassif, N, Barbaro, P, Bryant, C, Hart, D, Gibson, J & Joshua, D 2016, 'Multiple myeloma causes clonal T-cell immunosenescence: identification of potential novel targets for promoting tumour immunity and implications for checkpoint blockade', LEUKEMIA, vol. 30, no. 8, pp. 1716-1724.
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© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited. Tumour-induced dysfunction of cytotoxic T cells in patients with multiple myeloma (MM) may contribute to immune escape and be responsible for the lack of therapeutic efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade. We therefore investigated dysfunctional clonal T cells in MM and demonstrated immunosenescence but not exhaustion as a predominant feature. T-cell clones were detected in 75% of MM patients and their prognostic significance was revalidated in a new post-immunomodulatory drug cohort. The cells exhibited a senescent secretory effector phenotype: KLRG-1+/CD57+/CD160+/CD28-. Normal-for-age telomere lengths indicate that senescence is telomere independent and potentially reversible. p38-mitogen-activated protein kinase, p16 and p21 signalling pathways known to induce senescence were not elevated. Telomerase activity was found to be elevated and this may explain how normal telomere lengths are maintained in senescent cells. T-cell receptor signalling checkpoints were normal but elevated SMAD levels associated with T-cell inactivation were detected and may provide a potential target for the reversal of clonal T-cell dysfunction in MM. Low programmed death 1 and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 expression detected on T-cell clones infers that these cells are not exhausted but suggests that there would be a suboptimal response to immune checkpoint blockade in MM. Our data suggest that other immunostimulatory strategies are required in MM.

Sutton, SK, Carter, DR, Kim, P, Tan, O, Arndt, GM, Zhang, XD, Baell, J, Noll, BD, Wang, S, Kumar, N, McArthur, GA, Cheung, BB & Marshall, GM 2016, 'A novel compound which sensitizes BRAF wild-type melanoma cells to vemurafenib in a TRIM16-dependent manner', Oncotarget, vol. 7, no. 32, pp. 52166-52178.
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There is an urgent need for better therapeutic options for advanced melanoma patients, particularly those without the BRAFV600E/K mutation. In melanoma cells, loss of TRIM16 expression is a marker of cell migration and metastasis, while the BRAF inhibitor, vemurafenib, induces melanoma cell growth arrest in a TRIM16-dependent manner. Here we identify a novel small molecule compound which sensitized BRAF wild-type melanoma cells to vemurafenib. High throughput, cell-based, chemical library screening identified a compound (C012) which significantly reduced melanoma cell viability, with limited toxicity for normal human fibroblasts. When combined with the BRAFV600E/K inhibitor, vemurafenib, C012 synergistically increased vemurafenib potency in 5 BRAFWT and 4 out of 5 BRAFV600E human melanoma cell lines (Combination Index: CI < 1), and, dramatically reduced colony forming ability. In addition, this drug combination was significantly anti-tumorigenic in vivo in a melanoma xenograft mouse model. The combination of vemurafenib and C012 markedly increased expression of TRIM16 protein, and knockdown of TRIM16 significantly reduced the growth inhibitory effects of the vemurafenib and C012 combination. These findings suggest that the combination of C012 and vemurafenib may have therapeutic potential for the treatment of melanoma, and, that reactivation of TRIM16 may be an effective strategy for patients with this disease.

Tang, FSM, Hansbro, PM, Burgess, JK, Ammit, AJ, Baines, KJ & Oliver, BG 2016, 'A novel immunomodulatory function of neutrophils on rhinovirus-activated monocytes in vitro', Thorax, vol. 71, no. 11, pp. 1039-1049.
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© 2016 Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. Background Rhinovirus (RV) infections are the major precipitant of asthma exacerbations. While neutrophilic lung inflammation occurs during such infections, its role remains unclear. Neutrophilic inflammation is associated with increased asthma severity and steroid refractory disease. Neutrophils are vital for controlling infections but also have immunomodulatory functions. Previously, we found that neutrophils respond to viral mimetics but not replication competent RV. We aimed to investigate if neutrophils are activated and/or modulate immune responses of monocytes during RV16 infection. Methods Primary human monocytes and autologous neutrophils were cocultured with or without RV16, in direct contact or separated by transwells. RV16-stimulated monocytes were also exposed to lysed neutrophils, neutrophil membrane components or soluble neutrophil intracellular components. Interleukin 6 (IL-6) and C-X-C motif (CXC)L8 mRNA and proteins were measured by quantitative PCR and ELISA at 24â €..hours. Results RV16 induced IL-6 and CXCL8 in monocytes, but not neutrophils. RV16-induced IL-6 and CXCL8 from monocytes was reduced in the presence of live neutrophils. Transwell separation abolished the inhibitory effects. Lysed neutrophils inhibited RV16-induced IL-6 and CXCL8 from monocytes. Neutrophil intracellular components alone effectively inhibited RV16-induced monocyte-derived IL-6 and CXCL8. Neutrophil intracellular components reduced RV16-induced IL-6 and CXCL8 mRNA in monocytes. Conclusions Cell contact between monocytes and neutrophils is required, and preformed neutrophil mediator(s) are likely to be involved in the suppression of cytokine mRNA and protein production. This study demonstrates a novel regulatory function of neutrophils on RV-Activated monocytes in vitro, challenging the paradigm that neutrophils are predominantly proinflammatory.

Tang, FSM, Van Ly, D, Spann, K, Reading, PC, Burgess, JK, Hartl, D, Baines, KJ & Oliver, BG 2016, 'Differential neutrophil activation in viral infections: Enhanced TLR‐7/8‐mediated CXCL8 release in asthma', Respirology, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 172-179.
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AbstractBackground and objectiveRespiratory viral infections are a major cause of asthma exacerbations. Neutrophils accumulate in the airways and the mechanisms that link neutrophilic inflammation, viral infections and exacerbations are unclear. This study aims to investigate anti‐viral responses in neutrophils from patients with and without asthma and to investigate if neutrophils can be directly activated by respiratory viruses.MethodsNeutrophils from peripheral blood from asthmatic and non‐asthmatic individuals were isolated and stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (1 μg/mL), f‐met‐leu‐phe (fMLP) (100 nM), imiquimod (3 μg/mL), R848 (1.5 μg/mL), poly I:C (10 μg/mL), RV16 (multiplicity of infection (MOI)1), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) (MOI1) or influenza virus (MOI1). Cell‐free supernatants were collected after 1 h of neutrophil elastase (NE) and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)‐9 release, or after 24 h for CXCL8 release.ResultsJournal of Orthopaedic Research, vol. 34, no. 8, pp. 1307-1315.
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ABSTRACTThe inter‐lamellar matrix (ILM) has an average thickness of less than 30 µm and lies between adjacent lamellae in the annulus fibrosus (AF). The microstructure and composition of the ILM have been studied in various anatomic regions of the disc; however, their contribution to AF mechanical properties and structural integrity is unknown. It was suggested that the ILM components, mainly elastic fibers and cross‐bridges, play a role in providing mechanical integrity of the AF. Therefore, the manner in which they respond to different loadings and stabilize adjacent lamellae structure will influence AF tear formation and subsequent herniation. This review paper summarizes the composition, microstructure, and potential role of the ILM in the progression of disc herniation, clarifies the micromechanical properties of the ILM, and proposes critical areas for future studies. There are a number of unknown characteristics of the ILM, such as its mechanical role, impact on AF integrity, and ultrastructure of elastic fibers at the ILM‐lamella boundary. Determining these characteristics will provide important information for tissue engineering, repair strategies, and the development of more‐physiological computational models to study the initiation and propagation of AF tears that lead to herniation and degeneration. © 2016 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 34:1307–1315, 2016.

Tay, A, Pavesi, A, Yazdi, SR, Lim, CT & Warkiani, ME 2016, 'Advances in microfluidics in combating infectious diseases', Biotechnology Advances, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 404-421.
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One of the important pursuits in science and engineering research today is to develop low-cost and user-friendly technologies to improve the health of people. Over the past decade, research efforts in microfluidics have been made to develop methods that can facilitate low-cost diagnosis of infectious diseases, especially in resource-poor settings. Here, we provide an overview of the recent advances in microfluidic devices for point-of-care (POC) diagnostics for infectious diseases and emphasis is placed on malaria, sepsis and AIDS/HIV. Other infectious diseases such as SARS, tuberculosis, and dengue are also briefly discussed. These infectious diseases are chosen as they contribute the most to disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) lost according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The current state of research in this area is evaluated and projection toward future applications and accompanying challenges are also discussed.

Tee, AE, Liu, B, Song, R, Li, J, Pasquier, E, Cheung, BB, Jiang, C, Marshall, GM, Haber, M, Norris, MD, Fletcher, JI, Dinger, ME & Liu, T 2016, 'The long noncoding RNA MALAT1 promotes tumor-driven angiogenesis by up-regulating pro-angiogenic gene expression', Oncotarget, vol. 7, no. 8, pp. 8663-8675.
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Neuroblastoma is the most common solid tumor during early childhood. One of the key features of neuroblastoma is extensive tumor-driven angiogenesis due to hypoxia. However, the mechanism through which neuroblastoma cells drive angiogenesis is poorly understood. Here we show that the long noncoding RNA MALAT1 was upregulated in human neuroblastoma cell lines under hypoxic conditions. Conditioned media from neuroblastoma cells transfected with small interfering RNAs (siRNA) targeting MALAT1, compared with conditioned media from neuroblastoma cells transfected with control siRNAs, induced significantly less endothelial cell migration, invasion and vasculature formation. Microarray-based differential gene expression analysis showed that one of the genes most significantly down-regulated following MALAT1 suppression in human neuroblastoma cells under hypoxic conditions was fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2). RT-PCR and immunoblot analyses confirmed that MALAT1 suppression reduced FGF2 expression, and Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays revealed that transfection with MALAT1 siRNAs reduced FGF2 protein secretion from neuroblastoma cells. Importantly, addition of recombinant FGF2 protein to the cell culture media reversed the effects of MALAT1 siRNA on vasculature formation. Taken together, our data suggest that up-regulation of MALAT1 expression in human neuroblastoma cells under hypoxic conditions increases FGF2 expression and promotes vasculature formation, and therefore plays an important role in tumor-driven angiogenesis.

Torreño, N, Munguía-Izquierdo, D, Coutts, A, de Villarreal, ES, Asian-Clemente, J & Suarez-Arrones, L 2016, 'Relationship Between External and Internal Loads of Professional Soccer Players During Full Matches in Official Games Using Global Positioning Systems and Heart-Rate Technology', International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, vol. 11, no. 7, pp. 940-946.
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Purpose:To analyze the match running profile, distance traveled over successive 15 min of match play, heart rates (HRs), and index of performance efficiency (effindex) of professional soccer players with a global positioning system (GPS) and HR in official competition.Methods:Twenty-six professional players were investigated during full matches in competitive club-level matches (N = 223). Time–motion data and HR were collected using GPS and HR technology.Results:The relative total distance was 113 ± 11 m/min, with substantial differences between halves. For all playing positions, a substantial decrease in total distance and distance covered at >13.0 km/h was observed in the second half in comparison with the first. The decrease during the second half in distance covered at >13.0 km/h was substantially higher than in total distance. The average HR recorded was 86.0% maximal HR, and the relationship between external and internal load (effindex) was 1.3, with substantial differences between halves in all playing positions, except strikers for effindex. Wide midfielders reflected substantially the lowest mean HR and highest effindex, whereas center backs showed substantially the lowest effindex of all playing positions.Conclusions:The current study confirmed the decrement in a player’s performance toward the end of a match in all playing positions. Wide midfielders displayed the highest and fittest levels of physical and physiological demands, respectively, whereas center backs had the lowest and least-fit levels of physical and physiological...

Tovey, ER, Liu-Brennan, D, Garden, FL, Oliver, BG, Perzanowski, MS & Marks, GB 2016, 'Time-Based Measurement of Personal Mite Allergen Bioaerosol Exposure over 24 Hour Periods', PLOS ONE, vol. 11, no. 5, pp. e0153414-e0153414.
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© 2016 Tovey 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. Allergic diseases such as asthma and rhinitis are common in many countries. Globally the most common allergen associated with symptoms is produced by house dust mites. Although the bed has often been cited as the main site of exposure to mite allergens, surprisingly this has not yet been directly established by measurement due to a lack of suitable methods. Here we report on the development of novel methods to determine the pattern of personal exposure to mite allergen bioaerosols over 24-hour periods and applied this in a small field study using 10 normal adults. Air was sampled using a miniature time-based air-sampler of in-house design located close to the breathing zone of the participants, colocated with a miniature time-lapse camera. Airborne particles, drawn into the sampler at 2L/min via a narrow slot, were impacted onto the peripheral surface of a disk mounted on the hour-hand of either a 12 or 24 hour clock motor. The impaction surface was either an electret cloth, or an adhesive film; both novel for these purposes. Following a review of the time-lapse images, disks were post-hoc cut into subsamples corresponding to eight predetermined categories of indoor or outdoor location, extracted and analysed for mite allergen Der p 1 by an amplified ELISA. Allergen was detected in 57.2% of the total of 353 subsamples collected during 20 days of sampling. Exposure patterns varied over time. Higher concentrations of airborne mite allergen were typically measured in samples collected from domestic locations in the day and evening. Indoor domestic Der p 1 exposures accounted for 59.5% of total exposure, whereas total in-bed-asleep exposure, which varied 80 fold between individuals, accounted overall for 9...

Valls Miro, J & Shi, L 2016, 'Aiming for the Holy Grail: Pipe Condition Assessment Along Critical Mains from Limited Inspections', Utility Magazine, vol. 10, pp. 90-92.
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The Advanced Condition Assessment and Pipe Failure Prediction Project is coming up with a novel condition assessment research concept: exploiting data-driven research to improve large critical water mains condition prediction, over extended sections of pipeline, from limitedcondition assessment inspection data.

Vaughan, N & Gabrys, B 2016, 'Comparing and Combining Time Series Trajectories Using Dynamic Time Warping', Procedia Computer Science, vol. 96, pp. 465-474.
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This research proposes the application of dynamic time warping (DTW) algorithm to analyse multivariate data from virtual reality training simulators, to assess the skill level of trainees. We present results of DTW algorithm applied to trajectory data from a virtual reality haptic training simulator for epidural needle insertion. The proposed application of DTW algorithm serves two purposes, to enable (i) two trajectories to be compared as a similarity measure and also enables (ii) two or more trajectories to be combined together to produce a typical or representative average trajectory using a novel hierarchical DTW process. Our experiments included 100 expert and 100 novice simulator recordings. The data consists of multivariate time series data-streams including multi-dimensional trajectories combined with force and pressure measurements. Our results show that our proposed application of DTW provides a useful time-independent method for (i) comparing two trajectories by providing a similarity measure and (ii) combining two or more trajectories into one, showing higher performance compared to conventional methods such as linear mean. These results demonstrate that DTW can be useful within virtual reality training simulators to provide a component in an automated scoring and assessment feedback system.

Vaughan, N, Gabrys, B & Dubey, VN 2016, 'An overview of self-adaptive technologies within virtual reality training', Computer Science Review, vol. 22, pp. 65-87.
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This overview presents the current state-of-the-art of self-adaptive technologies within virtual reality (VR) training. Virtual reality training and assessment is increasingly used for five key areas: medical, industrial & commercial training, serious games, rehabilitation and remote training such as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Adaptation can be applied to five core technologies of VR including haptic devices, stereo graphics, adaptive content, assessment and autonomous agents. Automation of VR training can contribute to automation of actual procedures including remote and robotic assisted surgery which reduces injury and improves accuracy of the procedure. Automated haptic interaction can enable tele-presence and virtual artefact tactile interaction from either remote or simulated environments. Automation, machine learning and data driven features play an important role in providing trainee-specific individual adaptive training content. Data from trainee assessment can form an input to autonomous systems for customised training and automated difficulty levels to match individual requirements. Self-adaptive technology has been developed previously within individual technologies of VR training. One of the conclusions of this research is that while it does not exist, an enhanced portable framework is needed and it would be beneficial to combine automation of core technologies, producing a reusable automation framework for VR training.

Vongmany, J, Hickman, LD, Lewis, J, Newton, PJ & Phillips, JL 2016, 'Anxiety in chronic heart failure and the risk of increased hospitalisations and mortality: A systematic review', EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CARDIOVASCULAR NURSING, vol. 15, no. 7, pp. 478-485.
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Anxiety is a serious affective mood disorder that affects many chronic heart failure patients. While there is ample evidence that depression increases hospitalisations and mortality in chronic heart failure patients, it is unclear whether this association also exists for anxiety.The purpose of this study was to report on prospective cohort studies investigating anxiety in chronic heart failure patients and its association with hospitalisations and mortality rates. This systematic review aims to improve the current knowledge of anxiety as a potential prognostic predictor in chronic heart failure populations.This systematic review adheres to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. Studies were identified by accessing electronic databases Embase, Medline, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature and PsycINFO. Studies were included if they: employed a prospective cohort study design, included chronic heart failure participants with a confirmed clinical diagnosis plus anxiety confirmed by a validated anxiety assessment tool and/or clinical diagnosis and reported longitudinal hospitalisation rates and mortality data in chronic heart failure.Six studies were identified for inclusion. A study investigating hospitalisations and mortality rates found a significant (p<0.05) association solely between hospitalisation and anxiety. Of four studies reporting on hospitalisations alone, only two reported significant associations with anxiety. One study reported rates of mortality alone and identified no significant associations between mortality and anxiety. There was some variation in quality of the studies in regards to their methodology, analysis and reported measures/outcomes, which may have affected the results reported.It is possible that anxiety does predict hospitalisations in chronic heart failure populations, however further research is required to confirm this observation.

Wang, C, Dong, X, Han, L, Su, X-D, Zhang, Z, Li, J & Song, J 2016, 'Identification of WD40 repeats by secondary structure-aided profile–profile alignment', Journal of Theoretical Biology, vol. 398, pp. 122-129.
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A WD40 protein typically contains four or more repeats of ~40 residues ended with the Trp-Asp dipeptide, which folds into β-propellers with four β strands in each repeat. They often function as scaffolds for protein-protein interactions and are involved in numerous fundamental biological processes. Despite their important functional role, the "velcro" closure of WD40 propellers and the diversity of WD40 repeats make their identification a difficult task. Here we develop a new WD40 Repeat Recognition method (WDRR), which uses predicted secondary structure information to generate candidate repeat segments, and further employs a profile-profile alignment to identify the correct WD40 repeats from candidate segments. In particular, we design a novel alignment scoring function that combines dot product and BLOSUM62, thereby achieving a great balance of sensitivity and accuracy. Taking advantage of these strategies, WDRR could effectively reduce the false positive rate and accurately identify more remote homologous WD40 repeats with precise repeat boundaries. We further use WDRR to re-annotate the Pfam families in the β-propeller clan (CL0186) and identify a number of WD40 repeat proteins with high confidence across nine model organisms. The WDRR web server and the datasets are available at http://protein.cau.edu.cn/wdrr/.

Wang, C, Fang, Y & Li, J-Y 2016, 'stimation of NON-WSSUS Channel for OFDM System: Exploiting Support Correlations through a Novel Adaptive Weighted Predict-Re-Estimate L1 Minimization', Journal of Communications, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 149-156.
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© 2016 Journal of Communications. It is challenging to estimate the wireless channel of the Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) broadband system under a changing communication environment. The difficulty is mainly attributed to this wireless channel’s Non Wide Sense Stationary Uncorrelated Scattering (Non-WSSUS) which has an implication that the delay and Doppler shift of such a channel are non-stationary and correlated. A Non-WSSUS channel is very different from the classical time-varying channel with constant delay and Doppler shift. In this paper, we propose an estimation method for the Non-WSSUS Channel Impulse Response (CIR) of the OFDM system. Based on the sparsity property of the delay-Doppler spread function, the delay and Doppler shift of Non-WSSUS channel can be extracted through a Compressive Sensing (CS) approach. Then a novel CS algorithm referred as Pre-Re L1 is proposed. The proposed CS algorithm exploits the correlations of the sparse supports to obtain adaptive weights for L1minimization. Numerical Simulation results show that the proposed CS method improves the performance of the Non-WSSUS wireless channel estimation.

Wang, C, Matveev, AS, Savkin, AV, Clout, R & Nguyen, HT 2016, 'A semi-autonomous motorized mobile hospital bed for safe transportation of head injury patients in dynamic hospital environments without bed switching', Robotica, vol. 34, no. 8, pp. 1880-1897.
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SUMMARYWe present a novel motorized semi-autonomous mobile hospital bed guided by a human operator and a reactive navigation algorithm. The proposed reactive navigation algorithm is launched when the sensory device detects that the hospital bed is in the potential danger of collision. The semi-autonomous hospital bed is able to safely and quickly deliver critical neurosurgery (head trauma) patients to target locations in dynamic uncertain hospital environments such as crowded hospital corridors while avoiding en-route steady and moving obstacles. We do not restrict the nature or the motion of the obstacles, meaning that the shapes of the obstacles may be time-varying or deforming and they may undergo arbitrary motions. The only information available to the navigation system is the current distance to the nearest obstacle. Performance of the proposed navigation algorithm is verified via theoretical studies. Simulation and experimental results also confirm the performance of the reactive navigation algorithm in real world scenarios.

Wang, W, Jiao, P, He, D, Jin, D, Pan, L & Gabrys, B 2016, 'Autonomous overlapping community detection in temporal networks: A dynamic Bayesian nonnegative matrix factorization approach', Knowledge-Based Systems, vol. 110, pp. 121-134.
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A wide variety of natural or artificial systems can be modeled as time-varying or temporal networks. To understand the structural and functional properties of these time-varying networked systems, it is desirable to detect and analyze the evolving community structure. In temporal networks, the identified communities should reflect the current snapshot network, and at the same time be similar to the communities identified in history or say the previous snapshot networks. Most of the existing approaches assume that the number of communities is known or can be obtained by some heuristic methods. This is unsuitable and complicated for most real world networks, especially temporal networks. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian probabilistic model, named Dynamic Bayesian Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (DBNMF), for automatic detection of overlapping communities in temporal networks. Our model can not only give the overlapping community structure based on the probabilistic memberships of nodes in each snapshot network but also automatically determines the number of communities in each snapshot network based on automatic relevance determination. Thereafter, a gradient descent algorithm is proposed to optimize the objective function of our DBNMF model. The experimental results using both synthetic datasets and real-world temporal networks demonstrate that the DBNMF model has superior performance compared with two widely used methods, especially when the number of communities is unknown and when the network is highly sparse.

Wang, X, Yan, R, Li, J & Song, J 2016, 'SOHPRED: a new bioinformatics tool for the characterization and prediction of human S-sulfenylation sites', Molecular BioSystems, vol. 12, no. 9, pp. 2849-2858.
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SOHPRED is a new and competitive bioinformatics tool for characterizing and predicting human S-sulfenylation sites.

Warkiani, ME, Khoo, BL, Wu, L, Tay, AKP, Bhagat, AAS, Han, J & Lim, CT 2016, 'Ultra-fast, label-free isolation of circulating tumor cells from blood using spiral microfluidics', Nature Protocols, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 134-148.
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Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are rare cancer cells that are shed from primary or metastatic tumors into the peripheral blood circulation. Phenotypic and genetic characterization of these rare cells can provide important information to guide cancer staging and treatment, and thus further research into their characteristics and properties is an area of considerable interest. In this protocol, we describe detailed procedures for the production and use of a label-free spiral microfluidic device to allow size-based isolation of viable CTCs using hydrodynamic forces that are present in curvilinear microchannels. This spiral system enables us to achieve ≥ 85% recovery of spiked cells across multiple cancer cell lines and 99.99% depletion of white blood cells in whole blood. The described spiral microfluidic devices can be produced at an extremely low cost using standard microfabrication and soft lithography techniques (2-3 d), and they can be operated using two syringe pumps for lysed blood samples (7.5 ml in 12.5 min for a three-layered multiplexed chip). The fast processing time and the ability to collect CTCs from a large patient blood volume allows this technique to be used experimentally in a broad range of potential genomic and transcriptomic applications.

Watterson, PA & Nicholson, GM 2016, 'Untitled Reply', JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY-LONDON, vol. 594, no. 13, pp. 3843-3844.
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Drs Kordi´candDeletis(Kordi´c&Deletis,2016) have raised important issues aboutthe focality and controllability of theexcitation method described in our recentpaper entitled ‘Nerve–muscle activation byrotating permanent magnet configurations’(Watterson & Nicholson, 2016), which weare pleased to discuss.

Whitty, AG, Murphy, AJ, Coutts, AJ & Watsford, ML 2016, 'The effect of low- vs high-cadence interval training on the freely chosen cadence and performance in endurance-trained cyclists', APPLIED PHYSIOLOGY NUTRITION AND METABOLISM, vol. 41, no. 6, pp. 666-673.
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The aim of this study was to determine the effects of high- and low-cadence interval training on the freely chosen cadence (FCC) and performance in endurance-trained cyclists. Sixteen male endurance-trained cyclists completed a series of submaximal rides at 60% maximal power (Wmax) at cadences of 50, 70, 90, and 110 r·min−1, and their FCC to determine their preferred cadence, gross efficiency (GE), rating of perceived exertion, and crank torque profile. Performance was measured via a 15-min time trial, which was preloaded with a cycle at 60% Wmax. Following the testing, the participants were randomly assigned to a high-cadence (HC) (20% above FCC) or a low-cadence (LC) (20% below FCC) group for 18 interval-based training sessions over 6 weeks. The HC group increased their FCC from 92 to 101 r·min−1 after the intervention (p = 0.01), whereas the LC group remained unchanged (93 r·min−1). GE increased from 22.7% to 23.6% in the HC group at 90 r·min−1 (p = 0.05), from 20.0% to 20.9% at 110 r·min−1 (p = 0.05), and from 22.8% to 23.2% at their FCC. Both groups significantly increased their total distance and average power output following training, with the LC group recording a superior performance measure. There were minimal changes to the crank torque profile in both groups following training. This study demonstrated that the FCC can be altered with HC interval training and that the determinants of the optimal cycling cadence are multifactorial and not completely understood. Furthermore, LC interval training may significantly improve time-trial results of short duration as a result of an increase in strength development or possible neuromuscular adaptations.

Whyte, T, Gibson, T, Anderson, R, Eager, D & Milthorpe, B 2016, 'Mechanisms of Head and Neck Injuries Sustained by Helmeted Motorcyclists in Fatal Real-World Crashes: Analysis of 47 In-Depth Cases', Journal of Neurotrauma, vol. 33, no. 19, pp. 1802-1807.
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Copyright © 2016, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Despite an improved understanding of traumatic head and neck injury mechanisms, the impact tests required by major motorcycle helmet standards have remained unchanged for decades. Development of new test methods must reflect the specific impact loads causing injury in real crashes as well as test criteria appropriate for the observed injury profiles. This study analysed a collection of in-depth crash investigations of fatally injured helmeted riders in the Adelaide metropolitan region between 1983 and 1994 inclusive to review the head and neck injury patterns that resulted from specific types of impact. Inertial brain injury was sustained in 49% of examined cases, most often resulting from facial impacts but also in a large proportion of tangential, run over, and occipital impact cases. Focal brain and brainstem injury was also common (53%) and regularly associated with skull vault (11/12) and skull base fractures (22/31). Prevention of these fractures in impacts outside the area of required protection and in impacts with a straight edge would provide a significant increase in helmeted rider protection. Cervical spinal cord injury was sustained in facial, straight edge, and tangential impacts on the head. Motorcycle helmets are effective for preventing local skull fractures in impacts for which they are designed, whereas other serious injuries such as basilar skull fracture (BSF) and inertial brain injury persist despite helmet protection. Further impact test procedures should be developed for injurious impact types not currently assessed by major helmet standards, in particular facial impacts, and using test criteria based on commonly observed injuries. This study provides the necessary link, from impact load to injury, for guiding impact test development.

Whyte, T, Gibson, T, Eager, D & Milthorpe, B 2016, 'Response of a full-face motorcycle helmet FE model to the UNECE 22.05 chin bar impact test', International Journal of Crashworthiness, vol. 21, no. 6, pp. 555-565.
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© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This study investigates the role of full-face motorcycle helmet components in reducing the severity of chin bar impacts to a motorcyclist. A finite element helmet model was created for chin bar impacts by carrying out component tests on the chin bar padding, helmet shell and the chinstrap. Addition of two composite layers to the chin bar, stiffening the shell, reduced the peak headform centre of gravity acceleration from 168.3 g to 122.6 g in the UNECE 22.05 chin bar impact test configuration. The presence of chin bar foam was necessary to avoid excessive headform responses but optimal foam stiffness was dependent on shell stiffness. The lowest peak headform acceleration of 113.1 g was achieved by stiffening the helmet shell and softening the chin bar foam padding in comparison to the validated helmet model. The chinstrap was also critical, causing peak acceleration increases of 27.3 g and 118 g when slightly loose and absent, respectively. The significance of the shell and chinstrap in chin bar impacts is in contrast to cranial helmet impacts which are predominantly controlled by the crushable foam liner. The fact that chinstrap pre-test tightness influences the headform acceleration response is important for the helmet test technician.

Wijesinghe, P, K. Shankar, S, T. Chickabasaviah, Y, Gorrie, C, Amaratunga, D, Hulathduwa, S, Sunil Kumara, K, Samarasinghe, K, Hun Suh, Y, W. Steinbusch, H & Ranil D. De Silva, K 2016, 'Cytoskeletal Pathologies of Age-Related Diseases between Elderly Sri Lankan (Colombo) and Indian (Bangalore) Brain Samples', Current Alzheimer Research, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 268-280.
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© 2016 Bentham Science Publishers. Within South Asia, Sri Lanka represents fastest aging with 13% of the population was aged over 60’s in 2011, whereas in India it was 8%. Majority of the Sri Lankan population based genetic studies have confirmed their origin on Indian mainland. As there were inadequate data on aging cytoskeletal pathologies of these two nations with their close genetic affiliations, we performed a comparison on their elderly. Autopsy brain samples of 50 individuals from Colombo, Sri Lanka (mean age 72.1yrs ± 7.8, mean ± S.D.) and 42 individuals from Bangalore, India (mean age 65.9yrs ± 9.3) were screened for neurodegenerative pathologies using immunohistochemical techniques. A total of 79 cases with incomplete clinical history (Colombo- 47 and Bangalore- 32) were subjected to statistical analysis and 13 cases, clinically diagnosed with dementia and/or Parkinsonism disorders were excluded. As per National Institute on Aging Alzheimer’s Association guidelines, between Colombo and Bangalore samples, Alzheimer’s disease neuropathologic change for intermediate/ high level was 4.25% vs. 3.12% and low level was 19.15% vs. 15.62% respectively. Pathologies associated with Parkinsonism including brainstem predominant Lewy bodies-6.4% and probable progressive supra nuclear palsy2.13% were found solely in Colombo samples. Alzheimer related pathologies were not different among elders, however, in Colombo males, neurofibrillary tangle grade was significantly higher in the region of hippocampus (odds ratio = 1.46, 95% confidence interval = 0.07-0.7) and at risk in midbrain substantia nigra (p = 0.075). Other age-related pathologies including spongiform changes (p < 0.05) and hippocampus cell loss in dentate gyrus region (p < 0.05) were also identified prominently in Colombo samples. Taken together, aging cytoskeletal pathologies are comparatively higher in elderly Sri Lankans and this might be due to their genetic, dietary and/ or environmental variations.

Wijesinghe, P, Shankar, SK, Yasha, TC, Gorrie, C, Amaratunga, D, Hulathduwa, S, Kumara, KS, Samarasinghe, K, Suh, Y-H, Steinbusch, HWM & De Silva, KRD 2016, 'Vascular Contributions in Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Neuropathological Changes: First Autopsy Evidence from a South Asian Aging Population', Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 1607-1618.
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BACKGROUND: Evidence from various consortia on vascular contributions has been inconsistent in determining the etiology of sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD). OBJECTIVE: To investigate vascular risk factors and cerebrovascular pathologies associated in manifestation of AD-related neuropathological changes of an elderly population. METHODS: Postmortem brain samples from 76 elderly subjects (≥50 years) were used to study genetic polymorphisms, intracranial atherosclerosis of the circle of Willis (IASCW), and microscopic infarcts in deep white matters. From this cohort, 50 brains (≥60 years) were subjected to neuropathological diagnosis using immunohistopathological techniques. RESULTS: Besides the association with age, the apolipoproteinE ɛ4 allele was significantly and strongly associated with Thal amyloid-β phases ≥1 [odds ratio (OR) = 6.76, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.37-33.45] and inversely with Braak neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) stages ≥III (0.02, 0.0-0.47). Illiterates showed a significant positive association for Braak NFT stages ≥IV (14.62, 1.21-176.73) and a significant negative association for microscopic infarcts (0.15, 0.03-0.71) in deep white matters. With respect to cerebrovascular pathologies, cerebral small vessel lesions (white matter hyperintensities and cerebral amyloid angiopathy) showed a higher degree of associations among them and with AD-related neuropathological changes (p < 0.05) compared to large vessel pathology (IASCW), which showed a significant association only with Braak NFT stages ≥I (p = 0.050). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that besides age, education, and genetic factors, other vascular risk factors were not associated with AD-related neuropathological changes and urge prompt actions be taken against cerebral small vessel diseases since evidence for effective prevention is still lacking.

Wyllie, A, DiGiacomo, M, Jackson, D, Davidson, P & Phillips, J 2016, 'Acknowleding attributes that enable the career academic nurse to thrive in the tertiary education sector: A qualitative systematic review', NURSE EDUCATION TODAY, vol. 45, pp. 212-218.
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© 2016 Objective To optimise the career development in early career academic nurses by providing an overview of the attributes necessary for success. Background Evidence of early prospective career planning is necessary to optimise success in the tertiary sector. This is particularly important for nurse academics given the profession's later entry into academia, the ageing nursing workforce and the continuing global shortage of nurses. Design A qualitative systematic review. Methods Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, Medline, ERIC, Professional Development Collection and Google Scholar databases were searched; resulting in the inclusion of nine qualitative nurse-only focussed studies published between 2004 and 2014. The studies were critically appraised and the data thematically analysed. Results Three abilities were identified as important to the early career academic nurse: a willingness to adapt to change, an intention to pursue support and embodying resilience. These abilities give rise to attributes that are recommended as key to successful academic career development for those employed on a continuing academic basis. Conclusions The capacity to rely on one's own capabilities is becoming seen as increasingly important. It is proposed that recognition of these attributes, their skilful application and monitoring outlined in the review are recommended for a successful career in academia.

Yuwono, M, Qin, Y, Zhou, J, Guo, Y, Celler, BG & Su, SW 2016, 'Automatic bearing fault diagnosis using particle swarm clustering and Hidden Markov Model', Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, vol. 47, pp. 88-100.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Ball bearings are integral elements in most rotating manufacturing machineries. While detecting defective bearing is relatively straightforward, discovering the source of defect requires advanced signal processing techniques. This paper proposes an automatic bearing defect diagnosis method based on Swarm Rapid Centroid Estimation (SRCE) and Hidden Markov Model (HMM). Using the defect frequency signatures extracted with Wavelet Kurtogram and Cepstral Liftering, SRCE+HMM achieved on average the sensitivity, specificity, and error rate of 98.02%, 96.03%, and 2.65%, respectively, on the bearing fault vibration data provided by Case School of Engineering of the Case Western Reserve University (CSE) which warrants further investigation.

Zarepour, E, Hassan, M, Chou, CT & Ebrahimi Warkiani, M 2016, 'Characterizing terahertz channels for monitoring human lungs with wireless nanosensor networks', Nano Communication Networks, vol. 9, pp. 43-57.
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We characterize terahertz wireless channels for extracting data from nanoscale sensors deployed within human lungs. We discover that the inhalation and exhalation of oxygen and carbon dioxide causes periodic variation of the absorption coefficient of the terahertz channel. Channel absorption drops to its minimum near the end of inhalation, providing a window of opportunity to extract data with minimum transmission power. We propose an algorithm for nanosensors to estimate the periodic channel by observing signal-to-noise ratio of the beacons transmitted from the data sink. Using real respiration data from multiple subjects, we demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can estimate the minimum absorption interval of the periodic channel with 98.5% accuracy. Our analysis shows that by confining all data collections during the estimated low-absorption window of the periodic channel, nanosensors can reduce power consumption by six orders of magnitude. Finally, we demonstrate that for wireless communications within human lungs, 0.1–0.12 THz is the least absorbing spectrum within the terahertz band.

Zhang, J, Yan, S, Yuan, D, Alici, G, Nguyen, N-T, Ebrahimi Warkiani, M & Li, W 2016, 'Fundamentals and applications of inertial microfluidics: a review', Lab on a Chip, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 10-34.
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We provide a comprehensive review describing the fundamental mechanisms of inertial microfluidics, structure design and applications in biology, medicine and industry.

Zheng, Y, Ji, B, Song, R, Wang, S, Li, T, Zhang, X, Chen, K, Li, T & Li, J 2016, 'Accurate detection for a wide range of mutation and editing sites of microRNAs from small RNA high-throughput sequencing profiles', Nucleic Acids Research, vol. 44, no. 14, pp. e123-e123.
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© 2016 The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research. Various types of mutation and editing (M/E) events in microRNAs (miRNAs) can change the stabilities of pre-miRNAs and/or complementarities between miRNAs and their targets. Small RNA (sRNA) high-throughput sequencing (HTS) profiles can contain many mutated and edited miRNAs. Systematic detection of miRNA mutation and editing sites from the huge volume of sRNA HTS profiles is computationally difficult, as high sensitivity and low false positive rate (FPR) are both required. We propose a novel method (named MiRME) for an accurate and fast detection of miRNA M/E sites using a progressive sequence alignment approach which refines sensitivity and improves FPR step-by-step. From 70 sRNA HTS profiles with over 1.3 billion reads, MiRME has detected thousands of statistically significant M/E sites, including 3′-editing sites, 57 A-to-I editing sites (of which 32 are novel), as well as some putative non-canonical editing sites. We demonstrated that a few non-canonical editing sites were not resulted from mutations in genome by integrating the analysis of genome HTS profiles of two human cell lines, suggesting the existence of new editing types to further diversify the functions of miRNAs. Compared with six existing studies or methods, MiRME has shown much superior performance for the identification and visualization of the M/E sites of miRNAs from the ever-increasing sRNA HTS profiles.

Al-Fatlawi, AH, Jabardi, MH & Ling, SH 1970, 'Efficient diagnosis system for Parkinson's disease using deep belief network', 2016 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), 2016 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), IEEE, Piscataway, USA, pp. 1324-1330.
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In this paper, a deep belief network (DBN) has been adopted as an efficient technique to diagnosis the Parkinson's disease (PD). This diagnosis has been established based on the speech signal of the patients. Through the distinguishing and analyzing of the speech signal, the DBN has the ability to diagnose Parkinson's disease. To realize the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease by using DBN, the proposed system has been trained and tested with voices from a number of patients and healthy people. A feature extraction process has been prepared to be inputted to the deep belief network (DBN) which is used to create a template matching of the voices. In this paper, DBN is used to classify the Parkinson's disease which composes two stacked Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBMs) and one output layer. Two stages of learning need to be applied to optimize the networks' parameters. The first stage is unsupervised learning which uses RBMs to overcome the problem that can cause because of the random value of the initial weights. Secondly, backpropagation algorithm is used as a supervised learning for the fine tuning. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed system, the experimental results are compared with different approaches and related works. The overall testing accuracy of the proposed system is 94% which is better than all of the compared methods. In short, the DBN is an effective method to diagnosis Parkinson's disease by using the speech signal.

Alqudah, H, Cao, K, Zhang, T, Haddad, A, Su, S, Celler, B & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'Cardiovascular fitness strengthening using portable device', 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, USA, pp. 2692-2695.
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The paper describes a reliable and valid Portable Exercise Monitoring system developed using TI eZ430-Chronos watch, which can control the exercise intensity through audio stimulation in order to increase the Cardiovascular fitness strengthening.

Argha, A, Li, L, Su, SW & Nguyen, H 1970, 'ℋ<inf>2</inf>-based optimal sparse sliding mode control for networked control systems', 2016 IEEE 55th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), 2016 IEEE 55th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), IEEE, Las Vegas, NV, pp. 6826-6831.
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This paper is devoted to the problem of designing a sparsely distributed sliding mode control for networked systems. Indeed, this note employs a distributed sliding mode control framework by exploiting (some of) other subsystems' information to improve the performance of each local controller so that it can widen the applicability region of the given scheme. To do so, different from the traditional schemes in the literature, a novel approach is proposed to design the sliding surface, in which the level of required control effort is taken into account during the sliding surface design based on the ℋ2 control. We then use this novel scheme to provide an innovative less-complex procedure that explores sparse control networks to satisfy the underlying control objective.

Argha, A, Su, SW & Savkin, A 1970, 'Optimal actuator/sensor selection through dynamic output feedback', 2016 IEEE 55th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), 2016 IEEE 55th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), IEEE, Las Vegas, USA, pp. 3624-3629.
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© 2016 IEEE.This paper is devoted to the problem of optimal selection of a subset of available actuators/sensors through a multi-channel H22 dynamic output feedback controller for continuous linear time invariant systems. Incorporating two extra terms for penalizing the number of actuators and sensors into the optimization objective function, we develop an iterative process to identify the favorable row/column-wise sparse DOF gains. Employing the identified structure, we solve the constructed row/column structured multi-channel H22 DOF problem in order to derive a gain that exploits optimum number of sensors/actuators by which the closed-loop stability is maintained and the performance degradation of the closed-loop system is restricted. Through an example we demonstrate the remarkable performance and broad applicability of the proposed approach.

Argha, A, Su, SW, Savkin, A & Celler, B 1970, '”<inf>2</inf>/H<inf>∞</inf> based sliding mode control: A partial eigenstructure assignment method', 2016 IEEE 55th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), 2016 IEEE 55th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), IEEE, Las Vegas, NV, pp. 5354-5359.
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This paper is devoted to the problem of designing a sliding surface for an underlying system, while ”2/H∞ performance specifications of the closed-loop system are under control. This scheme is different from a large number of the existing methods in the literature for the sliding surface design, in the sense that it will penalize the required level of control effort to maintain sliding. This novel scheme consists of two stages. First, exploiting a certain partial eigenstructure assignment method, a state feedback gain is selected that ensures precise locations for some of the closed-loop system poles while minimizing the H∞-norm (”2-norm) of a specific closed-loop transfer function and satisfying an ”2-norm (H∞-norm) constraint on the same or another closed-loop transfer function. Following this, the second stage derives the sliding surface and thereby the control law associated with the particular state feedback designed in the first stage by using one of an approach developed for this purpose. We present a numerical example to demonstrate the remarkable performance of the proposed scheme.

Argha, A, Ye, L, Su, SW, Nguyen, H & Celler, BG 1970, 'Heart rate regulation during cycle-ergometer exercise using damped parameter estimation method', 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Orlando, Florida, United States, pp. 2676-2679.
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© 2016 IEEE.This paper is devoted to the problem of heart rate regulation using a model-based control strategy and a realtime damped parameter estimation scheme. The controller is a time-varying integral sliding mode controller. A recursive damped parameter estimation method is also developed, by incorporation of a weighting upon the one-step parameter variation, which in contrast to the conventional parameter estimation schemes (e.g. recursive least squares (RLS) method) can avoid the occurrence of the so-called blowup phenomena. The calculated control signals are transmitted to the subjects employing a synchronized biofeedback mechanism. The proposed control and estimation scheme were experimentally verified using twelve healthy male subjects and the results demonstrated that the designed scheme is able to regulate the HR of the exercising subjects to a predetermined HR profile preventing overshooting in the HR responses.

Attwater, DJ, Stenzel, MH, Min, EH, Zhao, J, Hutvagner, GJ & Ting, SRSIMON 1970, 'Cationic Polymers based on Fructose and Galactose Moieties for Nucleic Acids Delivery', 36th Australasian Polymer Symposium, 36th Australasian Polymer Symposium, Lorne, Australia.
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Cationic polymers and glycopolymers were synthesised using the RAFT technique. Combining cationic polymers with glycopolymers has great potential in targeted nucleic acid delivery.1,2 However, many obstacles prevent the use of cationic glycopolymers as vectors including low success in nucleic acid delivery and high toxicity of the cationic polymer. This project aims to investigate RAFT synthesis of cationic glycopolymers with galactose or fructose carbohydrates, their binding ability with their specific lectins and with negatively charged nucleic acids.The cationic polymer poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) was synthesised using RAFT polymerisation. The galactose monomer, 2-(2’,3’,4’,6’-tetra-O-acetyl-β-D-galactosyloxy)ethyl methacrylate (AcGalEMA), and the fructose monomer, 1-O-methacryloyl-2,3:4,5-di-O-isopropylidene--D-fructopyranose (1-O-MAiPFru)3, were polymerised with PDMAEMA to form cationic glycopolymers. Chain extension was confirmed using proton nuclear magnetic spectroscopy (NMR) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). Gel permeation chromatography was also performed to determine the polydispersity index (uniformity) of the polymers. The protected glycopolymer blocks were modified by deacetylation of the galactose block and acid deprotection of the fructose block. Characterisation of the modified cationic glycopolymers was achieved using proton nuclear magnetic spectroscopy for confirmation of deacetylation/deprotection, and dynamic light scattering to determine the sizes of the diblock copolymers. The zeta potential (ionic charge) of the diblock copolymers was recorded.Aggregation assays between the cationic glycopolymers and plant lectins were assessed. The galactose-containing glycopolymers were conjugated with peanut agglutinin lectin and the fructose-containing glycopolymers were conjugated with lectin from Ulex europaeus. The assays were analysed using dynamic light spectroscopy and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy...

Bakirov, R, Gabrys, B & Fay, D 1970, 'Augmenting adaptation with retrospective model correction for non-stationary regression problems', 2016 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN), 2016 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN), IEEE, Vancouver, CANADA, pp. 771-779.
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Existing adaptive predictive methods often use multiple adaptive mechanisms as part of their coping strategy in non-stationary environments. We address a scenario when selective deployment of these adaptive mechanisms is possible. In this case, deploying each adaptive mechanism results in different candidate models, and only one of these candidates is chosen to make predictions on the subsequent data. After observing the error of each of candidate, it is possible to revert the current model to the one which had the least error. We call this strategy retrospective model correction. In this work we aim to investigate the benefits of such approach. As a vehicle for the investigation we use an adaptive ensemble method for regression in batch learning mode which employs several adaptive mechanisms to react to changes in the data. Using real world data from the process industry we show empirically that the retrospective model correction is indeed beneficial for the predictive accuracy, especially for the weaker adaptive mechanisms.

Barbetta, C, Maddocks, M, Ribeiro, C, Wilcock, A, Currow, D, Papi, A, Phillips, J, Allgar, V & Johnson, MJ 1970, 'Australia-modified Karnofsky performance scale in patients with COPD and lung cancer patients: A pooled data analysis', 1.2 Rehabilitation and Chronic Care, ERS International Congress 2016 abstracts, European Respiratory Society.
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Barforoushi, AH, Shemesh, J, Farbehi, N, Asadnia, M, Yeoh, GH, Nordon, RE & Warkiani, ME 1970, 'A rapid microfluidic stamping device for studying cardiac stem cells and endothelial cells co-culture', 20th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences, MicroTAS 2016, pp. 1069-1070.
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Many biological processes in the body are regulated by synchronized activity between two cell types. Recent advances in cell μcontact printing have facilitated the in-vitro study of homotypic and heterotypic cell-cell interaction. However, these techniques are still complicated to perform and are seldom used by biologists. We report here development of a novel microfluidic stamping device for patterning two adherent cell lines with well-defined interlacing configurations to study cell-cell spatial interactions. To demonstrate the stamp's capabilities, we developed an in-vitro model of endothelial and cardiac mesenchymal stem cell interactions, which are thought to regulate coronary repair after myocardial injury.

Bhimani, A, Sivabalan, P, Soonawalla, K & Wakefield, J 1970, 'Beyond Budgeting adoption challenges - an analysis of operating and strategic tensions through the rolling budget', Monforma Conference, Sofitel, Melbourne.

Braytee, A, Catchpoole, DR, Kennedy, PJ & Liu, W 1970, 'Balanced Supervised Non-Negative Matrix Factorization for Childhood Leukaemia Patients', Proceedings of the 25th ACM International on Conference on Information and Knowledge Management, CIKM'16: ACM Conference on Information and Knowledge Management, ACM, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, pp. 2405-2408.
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© 2016 ACM. Supervised feature extraction methods have received considerable attention in the data mining community due to their capability to improve the classification performance of the unsupervised dimensionality reduction methods. With increasing dimensionality, several methods based on supervised feature extraction are proposed to achieve a feature ranking especially on microarray gene expression data. This paper proposes a method with twofold objectives: it implements a balanced supervised non-negative matrix factorization (BSNMF) to handle the class imbalance problem in supervised non-negative matrix factorization techniques. Furthermore, it proposes an accurate gene ranking method based on our proposed BSNMF for microarray gene expression datasets. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to handle the class imbalance problem in supervised feature extraction methods. This work is part of a Human Genome project at The Children's Hospital at Westmead (TB-CHW), Australia. Our experiments indicate that the factorized components using supervised feature extraction approach have more classification capability than the unsu-pervised one, but it drastically fails at the presence of class imbalance problem. Our proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods and shows promise in overcoming this concern.

Braytee, A, Liu, W & Kennedy, P 1970, 'A Cost-Sensitive Learning Strategy for Feature Extraction from Imbalanced Data', Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), International Conference on Neural Information Processing, Springer International Publishing, Kyoto, Japan, pp. 78-86.
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© Springer International Publishing AG 2016. In this paper, novel cost-sensitive principal component analysis (CSPCA) and cost-sensitive non-negative matrix factorization (CSNMF) methods are proposed for handling the problem of feature extraction from imbalanced data. The presence of highly imbalanced data misleads existing feature extraction techniques to produce biased features, which results in poor classification performance especially for the minor class problem. To solve this problem, we propose a costsensitive learning strategy for feature extraction techniques that uses the imbalance ratio of classes to discount the majority samples. This strategy is adapted to the popular feature extraction methods such as PCA and NMF. The main advantage of the proposed methods is that they are able to lessen the inherent bias of the extracted features to the majority class in existing PCA and NMF algorithms. Experiments on twelve public datasets with different levels of imbalance ratios show that the proposed methods outperformed the state-of-the-art methods on multiple classifiers.

Butt, S, Gay, VC & Shorab, M 1970, 'Use of Multivariate Function to Identify Chronic Diabetic Patients of Type1 from Health Database in Australia', HISA, HIC, Melbourne.

Candra, H, Yuwono, M, Chai, R, Nguyen, HT & Su, S 1970, 'Classification of facial-emotion expression in the application of psychotherapy using Viola-Jones and Edge-Histogram of Oriented Gradient', 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, United States, pp. 423-426.
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Psychotherapy requires appropriate recognition of patient's facial-emotion expression to provide proper treatment in psychotherapy session. To address the needs this paper proposed a facial emotion recognition system using Combination of Viola-Jones detector together with a feature descriptor we term Edge-Histogram of Oriented Gradients (E-HOG). The performance of the proposed method is compared with various feature sources including the face, the eyes, the mouth, as well as both the eyes and the mouth. Seven classes of basic emotions have been successfully identified with 96.4% accuracy using Multi-class Support Vector Machine (SVM). The proposed descriptor E-HOG is much leaner to compute compared to traditional HOG as shown by a significant improvement in processing time as high as 1833.33% (p-value = 2.43E-17) with a slight reduction in accuracy of only 1.17% (p-value = 0.0016).

Cao, K, Ye, L, Alqudah, HM, Szymanski, J, Zhou, J & Su, SW 1970, 'Dynamical Estimation of Key Cardiac-respiratory Variables by using Commercialized Wearable Sensors', Telehealth and Assistive Technology / 847: Intelligent Systems and Robotics, Telehealth and Assistive Technology / 847: Intelligent Systems and Robotics, ACTAPRESS, Zurich, Switzerland, pp. 1-4.
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This paper investigates the estimation of key cardiacrespiratory variables (e.g.,V O2) by using commercialised wearable sensors such as SensorTag and iPhone. The main aim of this study is to use inexpensive and user-friendly wearable sensors rather than expensive and cumbersome equipment (e.g., metabolic analyser). This study also aims to explore the possibility of using only embedded sensors of smart-phone to dynamically estimate oxygen consumption during moderate exercises. The major focus of this research is the modelling of the linear dynamic component. In order to capture the variance of linear dynamic characteristics (e.g., the time constant and steady state gain), we proposed a least square estimation algorithm equipped with automated equilibrium detection function. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed approaches has been well demonstrated by experimental results.

Chai, R, Naik, GR, Nguyen, TN, Ling, SH, Tran, Y & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'Selecting optimal EEG channels for mental tasks classification: An approach using ICA', 2016 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), 2016 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), IEEE, Vancouver, Canada, pp. 1331-1335.
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© 2016 IEEE. This paper presents a systematic method to select optimal electroencephalography (EEG) channels for three mental tasks-based brain-computer interface (BCI) classification. A blind source separation (BSS) technique based on independent component analysis (ICA) with its back-projecting of the scalp map was used for selecting the optimal EEG channels. The three mental tasks included: mental letter composing, mental arithmetic and mental Rubik's cube rolling. Based on a power spectral density (PSD), the features of the two-channel EEG data were extracted, and then were classified by Bayesian neural network. The results of the ICA decomposition with the back-projected scalp map showed that the prominent channels could be selected for dominant features from original six EEG channels (C3, C4, P3, P4, O1, O2) to four dominant channels (P3, O1, C4, O2) with the best two EEG channels selection at O1&C4. Two channel combinations classification yielded to the best two EEG channels of O1&C4 with an accuracy of 76.4%, followed by P3&O2 with an accuracy of 74.5%; P3&C4 with an accuracy of 71.9% and O1&O2 with an accuracy of 70%.

Chai, R, Tran, Y, Naik, GR, Nguyen, TN, Ling, SH, Craig, A & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'Classification of EEG based-mental fatigue using principal component analysis and Bayesian neural network', 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Orlando, pp. 4654-4657.
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© 2016 IEEE. This paper presents an electroencephalography (EEG) based-classification of between pre- and post-mental load tasks for mental fatigue detection from 65 healthy participants. During the data collection, eye closed and eye open tasks were collected before and after conducting the mental load tasks. For the computational intelligence, the system uses the combination of principal component analysis (PCA) as the dimension reduction method of the original 26 channels of EEG data, power spectral density (PSD) as feature extractor and Bayesian neural network (BNN) as classifier. After applying the PCA, the dimension of the data is reduced from 26 EEG channels in 6 principal components (PCs) with above 90% of information retained. Based on this reduced dimension of 6 PCs of data, during eyes open, the classification pre-task (alert) vs. post-task (fatigue) using Bayesian neural network resulted in sensitivity of 76.8 %, specificity of 75.1% and accuracy of 76% Also based on data from the 6 PCs, during eye closed, the classification between pre- and post-task resulted in a sensitivity of 76.1%, specificity of 74.5% and accuracy of 75.3%. Further, the classification results of using only 6 PCs data are comparable to the result using the original 26 EEG channels. This finding will help in reducing the computational complexity of data analysis based on 26 channels of EEG for mental fatigue detection.

Chau Nguyen, TM, Hoang, DB & Chaczko, Z 1970, 'Can SDN Technology Be Transported to Software-Defined WSN/IoT?', 2016 IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things (iThings) and IEEE Green Computing and Communications (GreenCom) and IEEE Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom) and IEEE Smart Data (SmartData), 2016 IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things (iThings), IEEE Green Computing and Communications (GreenCom), IEEE Cyber-, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom), and IEEE Smart Data (SmartData), IEEE, Chengdu, China, pp. 234-239.
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© 2016 IEEE. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are essential elements of the Internet of Things ecosystem, as such, they encounter numerous IoT challenging architectural, management and application issues. These include inflexible control, manual configuration and management of sensor nodes, difficulty in an orchestration of resources, and virtualizing sensor network resources for on-demand applications and services. Addressing these issues presents a real challenge for WSNs and IoTs. By separating the network control plane from the data forwarding plane, Software-defined networking (SDN) has emerged as network technology that addresses similar problems of current switched-networks. Despite the differences between switched network and wireless sensor network domains, the SDN technology has a real potential to revolutionize WSNs/IoTs and address their challenging issues. However, very little has been attempted to bring the SDN paradigm to WSNs. This paper identifies weaknesses of existing research efforts that aims to bring the benefits of SDN to WSNs by mapping the control plane, the OpenFlow protocol, and the functionality between the two network domains. In particular, the paper investigates the difficulties and challenges in the development of software-defined wireless sensor networking (SDWSN). Finally, the paper proposes VSensor, SDIoT controller, SFlow components with specific and relevant functionality for an architecture of an SDWSN or SDIoT infrastructure.

Chen, Q, Lan, C, Li, J, Chen, B, Wang, L & Zhang, C 1970, 'Depth-First Search Encoding of RNA Substructures', Intelligent Computing Theories and Application, International Conference on Intelligent Computing (ICIC), Springer International Publishing, Lanzhou, China, pp. 328-334.
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© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.RNA structural motifs are important in RNA folding process. Traditional index-based and shape-based schemas are useful in modeling RNA secondary structures but ignore the structural discrepancy of individual RNA family member. Further, the in-depth analysis of underlying substructure pattern is underdeveloped owing to varied and unnormalized substructures. This prevents us from understanding RNAs functions. This article proposes a DFS (depth-first search) encoding for RNA substructures. The results show that our methods are useful in modelling complex RNA secondary structures.

Cui, Y, Poon, J, Matsubara, T, Miro, JV, Sugimoto, K & Yamazaki, K 1970, 'Environment-adaptive interaction primitives for human-robot motor skill learning', 2016 IEEE-RAS 16th International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), 2016 IEEE-RAS 16th International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), IEEE, Cancun, Mexico, pp. 711-717.
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© 2016 IEEE. In complex environments where robots are expected to co-operate with human partners, it is vital for the robot to consider properties of their collaborative activity in addition to the behavior of its partner. In this paper, we propose to learn such complex interactive skills by observing the demonstrations of a human-robot team with additional external attributes. We propose Environment-adaptive Interaction Primitives (EalPs) as an extension of Interaction Primitives. In cooperation tasks between human and robot with different environmental conditions, EalPs not only improve the predicted motor skills of robot within a brief observed human motion, but also obtain the generalization ability to adapt to new environmental conditions by learning the relationships between each condition and the corresponding motor skills from training samples. Our method is validated in the collaborative task of covering objects by plastic bag with a humanoid Baxter robot. To achieve the task successfully, the robot needs to coordinate itself to its partner while also considering information about the object to be covered.

Cui, Y, Poon, JT, Valls Miro, J, Matsubara, T & Sugimoto, K 1970, 'Optimal Control Approach for Active Local Driving Assistance in Mobility Aids', 34th annual conference of the Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ), 34th annual conference of the Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ), Japan.

Dang, TD & Hoang, D 1970, 'Data Mobility as a Service', 2016 IEEE 36th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshops (ICDCSW), 2016 IEEE 36th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshops (ICDCSW), IEEE, Nara, Japan, pp. 67-71.
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Cloud computing and cloud services provide an alternative IT infrastructure and service models for users. The users use cloud to store their data, delegate the management of the data, and deploy their services cost-effectively. This usage model, however, raised a number of concerns relating to data control, data protection and data mobility: 1) users may lose control of their resource; 2) data protection schemes are not adequate when data is moved to a new cloud; 3) tracking and tracing changes of data location as well as accountability of data operations are not well supported. To address these issues, this paper proposes a novel cloud service for data mobility from two aspects: data mobility and data protection. A data mobility service is designed and implemented to manage data mobility and data traceability. A Location Register Database (LRD) is also developed to support the service. Furthermore, data is protected by a data security service CPRBAC (Cloud-based Privacy-aware Role Based Access Control) and an Auditing service that are capable of verifying data operations and triggering alarms on data violations in the Cloud environment.

Dang, TD, Hoang, D & Nanda, P 1970, 'A novel hash-based file clustering scheme for efficient distributing, storing, and retrieving of large scale health records', Proceedings - 15th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications, 10th IEEE International Conference on Big Data Science and Engineering and 14th IEEE International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing with Applications, IEEE TrustCom/BigDataSE/ISPA 2016, International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications, 10th IEEE International Conference on Big Data Science and Engineering and 14th IEEE International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing with Applications, IEEE, Tianjin, China, pp. 1485-1491.
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Cloud computing has been adopted as an efficient computing infrastructure model for provisioning resources and providing services to users. Several distributed resource models such as Hadoop and parallel databases have been deployed in healthcare-related services to manage electronic health records (EHR). However, these models are inefficient for managing a large number of small files and hence they are not widely deployed in Healthcare Information Systems. This paper proposed a novel Hash-Based File Clustering Scheme (HBFC) to distribute, store and retrieve EHR efficiently in cloud environments. The HBFC possesses two distinctive features: it utilizes hashing to distribute files into clusters in a control way and it utilizes P2P structures for data management. HBFC scheme is demonstrated to be effective in handling big health data that comprises of a large number of small files in various formats. It allows users to retrieve and access data records efficiently. The initial implementation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme outperforms original P2P system in term of data lookup latency.

Darcy, S, Onyx, J, Faulkner, S, Green, J & Maxwell, H 1970, 'Quantifying and qualifying the individual and collective social impact of the arts: Disability arts partnership projects', Arts Activated, Arts Activated, Arts Activated, Sydney, pp. 1-2.
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This paper examines a study that investigated the social impact of creative participation in NSW Arts and Disability Partnership Projects (ADDP). The primary aim of the study was to research the social impact of creative participation in ADDP. The 12 projects each comprised different art mediums, organisational partnerships, levels of involvement, and types of artists with disability. Additionally, the research study sought to determine the broad social impact that funded projects have on: artists and/or other participants with disability; organisations within the funded programs; and audiences that attend such public programs. The overall conceptualisation of social impact in this project has been guided by the Conceptual Model of Social Impact as Active Citizenship framework(Darcy, Maxwell, Edwards, Onyx, & Sherker, 2014; Edwards, Onyx, Maxwell, & Darcy, 2012; Edwards et al., 2015; Onyx, 2014a, 2014b), which was used by the research team in a previous study. The research design adopted an abductive, mixed method, collective case study methodology, in order to allow for detailed analysis of the ADPP within their particular contexts and across various settings. The collective case study methodology provided the opportunity to engage in detail through a mixture of methodologies and data sources. These methodologies included: in-depth interviews with project managers, facilitators, participants, artists, audience members and participating organisations’ employees; focus groups with stakeholders; project observations, and content analyses of related audio-visual materials, media reports, Facebook pages, websites, internal organisational and project documents, and project acquittals. Developing the social impact instrument was an iterative process, that is, it was continuously modified as more data was gathered, and the instrument was (re)tested and refined. As a consequence, 10 resultant factors and 33 indicators were identified, and each was modified to r...

Darcy, SA 1970, 'Beyond the Front Gate - Keynote address: Universal Mobilities and the Travel Chain', Universal Design Conference, Sydney Town Hall.
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Mobility and mobilities are terms with multiple meanings across different disciplinary divides. This keynote presentation will examine the concepts of universal design and mobilities across the travel chain. The presentation will be founded in the articles of the United Nations (2006) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and examine the implications of “universal mobilities” across personal, local, regional, national and international travel, the intersections of disability, support needs, life-cycle and lifespan. In doing so, the presentation will draw on examples of considerations for independent, dignified and equitable approaches to designing local, regional, national and international movement of people encompassed by the UN Convention.

De Abreu Lourenco, R 1970, 'Incorporating Patient Values (Session Chair)', Room with a Patient View – Engaging patients in health care decision making, Sydney.

De Abreu Lourenco, R 1970, 'Using health economics in radiotherapy research (Invited during plenary session)', TROG Annual Scientific Meeting.

De Abreu Lourenco, R, Haas, M, Hall, J, Parish, K, Stuart, D & Viney, R 1970, 'Placing a value on avoiding cancer recurrence: women’s preferences for contralateral prophylactic mastectomy', 38th Annual Australian Health Economics Society Conference, Perth.

Emery, BM, Jadidi, MG, Nakamura, K & Miro, JV 1970, 'An audio-visual solution to sound source localization and tracking with applications to HRI', Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation, ACRA, Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation, ARAA, Brisbane, pp. 268-277.
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Robot audition is an emerging and growing branch in the robotic community and is necessary for a natural Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). In this paper, we propose a framework that integrates advances from Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM), bearing-only target tracking, and robot audition techniques into a unified system for sound source identification, localization, and tracking. In indoors, acoustic observations are often highly noisy and corrupted due to reverberations, the robot egomotion and background noise, and the possible discontinuous nature of them. Therefore, in everyday interaction scenarios, the system requires accommodating for outliers, robust data association, and appropriate management of the landmarks, i.e. sound sources. We solve the robot self-localization and environment representation problems using an RGB-D SLAM algorithm, and sound source localization and tracking using recursive Bayesian estimation in the form of the extended Kalman filter with unknown data associations and an unknown number of landmarks. The experimental results show that the proposed system performs well in the medium-sized cluttered indoor environment.

Falque, R, Vidal-Calleja, T, Dissanayake, G & Miro, JV 1970, 'From the Skin-Depth Equation to the Inverse RFEC Sensor Model', 2016 14th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision, ICARCV 2016, International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision, IEEE, Phuket, Thailand.
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In this paper, we tackle the direct and inverse problems for the Remote-FieldEddy-Current (RFEC) technology. The direct problem is the sensor model, wheregiven the geometry the measurements are obtained. Conversely, the inverseproblem is where the geometry needs to be estimated given the fieldmeasurements. These problems are particularly important in the field ofNon-Destructive Testing (NDT) because they allow assessing the quality of thestructure monitored. We solve the direct problem in a parametric fashion usingLeast Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operation (LASSO). The proposed inversemodel uses the parameters from the direct model to recover the thickness usingleast squares producing the optimal solution given the direct model. This studyis restricted to the 2D axisymmetric scenario. Both, direct and inverse models,are validated using a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) environment with realisticpipe profiles.

Gay, V, Leijdekkers, P & Pooley, A 1970, 'Building Social Awareness for Teens and Young Adults with Autism via Gamification', SERIOUS GAMES, JCSG 2016, Joint International Conference on Serious Games (JCSG), Springer International Publishing, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, pp. 116-127.
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Teens and young adults are in one of the most challenging phases of their life in terms of discovering new and complex emotions and situations. This is particularly the case for a demographic diagnosed with conditions commonly referred to as Autistic Spectrum Disorders, which is inclusive of Asperger’s Syndrome. Through a video game medium, it is possible to place the players in virtual situations that explore these the intricacies of social interaction and relationships. This could be powerful for communicating such concepts: players can be explained to, practice and given feedback in a comfortable, non-threatening, and perhaps even familiar environment. Our objective is to build such a game by modifying an already popular video game. Through modification, a game’s already existing mechanisms and resources may be repurposed for serious functions. In the case of our team, this is to allow the player to have conversations that dynamically change depending on their input. Characters in the game can be manipulated to communicate verbally and non-verbally, delivering emotive lines recorded by voice actors whilst projecting certain facial expressions and body language. We created a tangible video game learning resource that can be trialed to investigate its value to build social awareness.

GENTILE, C, Chuang, CY, Drake, CJ & Davies, MJ 1970, 'VEGF/eNOS‐mediated Cardiomyocyte Proliferation: a Novel Mechanism to Regulate Cardiovascular Regeneration in Mice and Humans', The FASEB Journal, Experimental Biology Meeting, Wiley, San Diego, CA.
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An absence of cardiomyocyte proliferation in adult hearts limits their regeneration potential following tissue damage arising from adverse cardiac events such as a myocardial infarction or heart failure. There is considerable interest, and therapeutic potential, in unveiling mechanisms that enhance heart regeneration using stem cells and progenitor cells. Our studies have previously demonstrated that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) regulates proliferation of cardiomyocyte progenitor cells via endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) in murine embryos. We have now investigated the role played by the VEGF/eNOS signalling pathway by evaluating cardiomyocyte proliferation in both WT and eNOS KO mouse embryos, and in human heart samples. Confocal analysis of WT and KO embryonic hearts showed no difference at embryonic stage E8.0 by using antibodies against markers of progenitor cells in the heart (VEGFR2/Flk1), cardiomyocytes (smooth muscle α‐actin), endothelial cells (CD31), and cell proliferation (phospho‐histone H3). In contrast, cardiomyocyte proliferation was reduced in E8.5 and E9.5 NOS3 KO embryos when compared to WT controls. Heart tube formation was also impaired. Consequently, E17 NOS3 KO embryos had smaller hearts (approximately 20% decrease of the volume) compared to WT controls. To translate our findings to humans, we analysed human heart biopsies from young and older donors using similar antibodies. Confocal analysis showed, for the first time, a correlation between eNOS expression and cardiomyocyte proliferation in a young human heart. To further investigate the role played by the VEGF/eNOS signaling pathway in human hearts, we developed an in vitro 3D co‐culture model of human endothelial cells, cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts, the human cardiac spheroid (hCS). A higher level of extracellular matrix (ECM) synthesis was observed in hCSs generated ...

Ghadiri, M, Young, P, Oliver, B, Jarolimek, W & Traini, D 1970, 'MODULATING TIGHT JUNCTIONS ON AIRWAY EPITHELIAL CELLS TO ENHANCE PARACELLULAR TRANSPORT OF ANTIFIBROTIC DRUGS', JOURNAL OF AEROSOL MEDICINE AND PULMONARY DRUG DELIVERY, MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC, pp. A11-A12.

Ghosh, S, Nguyen, H & Li, J 1970, 'Predicting short-term ICU outcomes using a sequential contrast motif based classification framework', 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Orlando, Florida, USA, pp. 5612-5615.
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© 2016 IEEE.Critical ICU events like acute hypotension and septic shock are dangerous complications, leading to multiple organ failures and eventual death. Previously, pattern mining algorithms have been employed for extracting interesting rules in various clinical domains. However, the extracted rules are directly investigated by clinicians for diagnosing a disease. Towards this purpose, there is a need to develop advanced prediction models which integrate dynamic patterns to learn a patient's physiological condition. In this study, a sequential contrast patterns-based classification framework is presented for detecting critical patient events, like hypotension and septic shock. Initially, a set of sequential patterns are obtained by using a contrast mining algorithm. Later, these patterns undergo post-processing, for conversion to two novel representations-(1) frequency-based feature space and (2) ordered sequences of patterns, which conserve positional information of a pattern in a time series sequence. Each of these representations are automatically used for developing classification models using SVM and HMM methods. Our results on hypotension and septic shock datasets from a large scale ICU database demonstrate better predictive capabilities, when sequential patterns are used as features.

Ghosh, S, Zheng, Y, Lammers, T, Chen, YY, Fitzmaurice, C, Johnston, S & Li, J 1970, 'Deriving Public Sector Workforce Insights: A Case Study Using Australian Public Sector Employment Profiles', Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), International Conference on Advanced Data Mining and Applications, Springer International Publishing, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, pp. 764-774.
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© Springer International Publishing AG 2016.Effective approaches for measurement of human capital in public sector and government agencies is essential for robust workforce planning against changing economic conditions. To this purpose, adopting innovative hypotheses driven workforce data analysis can help discover hidden patterns and trends about the workforce. These trends are useful for decision making and support the development of policies to reach desired employment outcomes. In this study, the data challenges and approaches to a real life workforce analytics scenario are described. Statistical results from numerous workforce data experiments are combined to derive three hypotheses that are useful to public sector organisations for human resources management and decision making.

Gillovic, B, Cockburn-Wootten, C, McIntosh, A & Darcy, S 1970, 'Exploring an ‘Ethic of Care’ in Accessible Tourism', Critical Tourism Studies Conference VI 2015, Critical Tourism Studies Conference VI 2015, Opatija, Croatia.
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Gilligan’s classic book, ‘In a Different Voice’ (1982), saw the establishment of an ‘ethic of care’ as an alternative approach to moral reasoning. In adopting this ethical stance: relational experiences between the ‘self’ and ‘other’ are humanized; cognizance of the giving and receipt of care is favoured; and, the embedded, interconnected and interdependent nature of individual lives is emphasized. This paper presents an argument in support of the preceding model, as a distinctive methodological approach to tourism scholarship, particularly in exploring relational constructions of travel in the moral domain.

Ha, VKL, Nguyen, TN & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'A telepresence wheelchair using cellular network infrastructure in outdoor environments', 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Orlando, Florida, USA, pp. 5352-5355.
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© 2016 IEEE. Mobile wireless network technology has grown rapidly over the past decade with emerging applications and services. Particularly, the fourth generation (4G) cellular network has acted as a bridge between telecommunication technology and daily life applications. In this paper, we present an investigation into a telepresence wheelchair in outdoor environments employing cellular network infrastructure instead of using local wireless networks in indoor environments. Experiments were carried out to demonstrate remote interaction and control from a long distance and across countries. A large amount of communication data based on real network measurements was collected and analyzed to evaluate the system performance. The experimental results show that a wheelchair system can be controlled remotely in real-time with the acceptable round trip time of less than 400 ms. The results reveal the feasibility of using the 4G network for a telepresence wheelchair in healthcare applications.

Haas, M & De Abreu Lourenco, R 1970, 'The development and implementation of Health Economics in the SAFRON II trial protocol – an interactive workshop', TROG Annual Scientific Meeting.

Han, Y, Li, J, Hoang, D, Yoo, J-H & Hong, JW-K 1970, 'An intent-based network virtualization platform for SDN', 2016 12th International Conference on Network and Service Management (CNSM), 2016 12th International Conference on Network and Service Management (CNSM), IEEE, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
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Hansbro, P, Nair, P, Starkey, M, Haw, T, Liu, G, Clark, A & Ammit, A 1970, 'TRISTETRAPROLIN PROTECTS MICE AGAINST CIGARETTE-SMOKE INDUCED EXPERIMENTAL COPD', RESPIROLOGY, WILEY-BLACKWELL, pp. 125-125.

Hansbro, PM, Liu, G, Cooley, MA, Jarnicki, AG, Hsu, AC, Nair, PM, Haw, T, Fricker, M, Gellatly, SL, Kim, RY, Inman, MD, Tjin, G, Wark, PA, Horvat, JC, Oliver, BG, Argraves, WS, Knight, DA & Burgess, JK 1970, 'Fibulin-1 Plays Critical Roles In The Pathogenesis Of Pulmonary Diseases', AMERICAN JOURNAL OF RESPIRATORY AND CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE, International Conference of the American-Thoracic-Society (ATS), AMER THORACIC SOC, San Francisco, CA.

He, H, Maple, C, Watson, T, Tiwari, A, Mehnen, J, Jin, Y & Gabrys, B 1970, 'The security challenges in the IoT enabled cyber-physical systems and opportunities for evolutionary computing & other computational intelligence', 2016 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), 2016 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), IEEE, Vancouver, CANADA, pp. 1015-1021.
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Internet of Things (IoT) has given rise to the fourth industrial revolution (Industrie 4.0), and it brings great benefits by connecting people, processes and data. However, cybersecurity has become a critical challenge in the IoT enabled cyber physical systems, from connected supply chain, Big Data produced by huge amount of IoT devices, to industry control systems. Evolutionary computation combining with other computational intelligence will play an important role for cybersecurity, such as artificial immune mechanism for IoT security architecture, data mining/fusion in IoT enabled cyber physical systems, and data driven cybersecurity. This paper provides an overview of security challenges in IoT enabled cyber-physical systems and what evolutionary computation and other computational intelligence technology could contribute for the challenges. The overview could provide clues and guidance for research in IoT security with computational intelligence.

He, H, Tiwari, A, Mehnen, J, Watson, T, Maple, C, Jin, Y & Gabrys, B 1970, 'Incremental information gain analysis of input attribute impact on RBF-kernel SVM spam detection', 2016 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), 2016 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), IEEE, Vancouver, CANADA, pp. 1022-1029.
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The massive increase of spam is posing a very serious threat to email and SMS, which have become an important means of communication. Not only do spams annoy users, but they also become a security threat. Machine learning techniques have been widely used for spam detection. Email spams can be detected through detecting senders' behaviour, the contents of an email, subject and source address, etc, while SMS spam detection usually is based on the tokens or features of messages due to short content. However, a comprehensive analysis of email/SMS content may provide cures for users to aware of email/SMS spams. We cannot completely depend on automatic tools to identify all spams. In this paper, we propose an analysis approach based on information entropy and incremental learning to see how various features affect the performance of an RBF-based SVM spam detector, so that to increase our awareness of a spam by sensing the features of a spam. The experiments were carried out on the spambase and SMSSpemCollection databases in UCI machine learning repository. The results show that some features have significant impacts on spam detection, of which users should be aware, and there exists a feature space that achieves Pareto efficiency in True Positive Rate and True Negative Rate.

Ho-Le, T, Center, J, Eisman, J, Nguyen, H & Nguyen, T 1970, 'Genetic profiling of 68 SNPs is associated with femoral neck bone loss', 2016 ESA-SRB-ANZBMS Annual Meeting, Gold Coast Convention Centre, QLD.

Hossain, KR, Khamici, HA, Holt, SA & Valenzuela, SM 1970, 'Elucidating the Mechanism for Sterol Regulation of Chloride Intracellular Ion Channel Protein Interactions with Lipid Membranes', Biophysical Journal, 60th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical-Society, Elsevier BV, Los Angeles, CA, pp. 204a-204a.
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Kalatzis, G, Lees, T, Nassif, N, Zaslawski, C & Lal, S 1970, 'Investigating cognitive function in diabetes and healthy samples using electroencephalography (EEG) and psychometric assessment: a comparative study.', Inter-University Neuroscience & Mental Health Conference.

Le, NT & Hoang, DB 1970, 'Can maturity models support cyber security?', 2016 IEEE 35th International Performance Computing and Communications Conference (IPCCC), 2016 IEEE 35th International Performance Computing and Communications Conference (IPCCC), IEEE, Las Vegas, USA, pp. 1-7.
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We are living in a cyber space with an unprecedented rapid expansion of the space and its elements. All interactive information is processed and exchanged via this space. Clearly a well-built cyber security is vital to ensure the security of the cyber space. However the definitions and scopes of both cyber space and cyber security are still not well-defined and this makes it difficult to establish sound security models and mechanisms for protecting this space. Out of existing models, maturity models offer a manageable approach for assessing the security level of a system or organization. The paper first provides a review of various definitions of cyber space and cyber security in order to ascertain a common understanding of the space and its security. The paper investigates existing security maturity models, focusing on their defining characteristics and identifying their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, the paper discusses and suggests measures for a sound and applicable cyber security model

Liu, Q, Li, J, Wong, L & Ramamohanarao, K 1970, 'Efficient Mining of Pan-Correlation Patterns from Time Course Data', Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), International Conference on Advanced Data Mining and Applications, Springer International Publishing, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, pp. 234-249.
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© Springer International Publishing AG 2016.There are different types of correlation patterns between the variables of a time course data set, such as positive correlations, negative correlations, time-lagged correlations, and those correlations containing small interrupted gaps. Usually, these correlations are maintained only on a subset of time points rather than on the whole span of the time points which are traditionally required for correlation definition. As these types of patterns underline different trends of data movement, mining all of them is an important step to gain a broad insight into the dependencies of the variables. In this work, we prove that these diverse types of correlation patterns can be all represented by a generalized form of positive correlation patterns. We also prove a correspondence between positive correlation patterns and sequential patterns. We then present an efficient single-scan algorithm for mining all of these types of correlations. This “pan-correlation” mining algorithm is evaluated on synthetic time course data sets, as well as on yeast cell cycle gene expression data sets. The results indicate that: (i) our mining algorithm has linear time increment in terms of increasing number of variables; (ii) negative correlation patterns are abundant in real-world data sets; and (iii) correlation patterns with time lags and gaps are also abundant. Existing methods have only discovered incomplete forms of many of these patterns, and have missed some important patterns completely.

Lourenco, RDA, Haas, M, Hall, J, Parish, K, Stuart, D & Viney, R 1970, 'WOMEN'S PREFERENCES FOR AVOIDING CANCER RECURRENCE: A FOCUS ON CONTRALATERAL PROPHYLACTIC MASTECTOMY', ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF CLINICAL ONCOLOGY, pp. 137-137.

Ly Ha, VK, Nguyen, TN & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'Real-time video streaming with multi-camera for a telepresence wheelchair', 2016 14th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (ICARCV), 2016 14th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (ICARCV), IEEE, Phuket, Thailand.
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© 2016 IEEE. This paper presents a new approach for telepresence wheelchairs equipped with multiple cameras. The aim of this system is to provide effective assistance for the elderly and people with disabilities. The work explores the integration of the Internet of Things, such as multimedia, wireless Internet communication, and automation control techniques into a powered wheelchair system. In particular, multiple videos are streamed in real-time from an array of cameras mounted on the wheelchair, allowing wide visualization surrounding the wheelchair. By using video communication and interaction, remote users can assist to navigate a wheelchair via the Internet through wireless connections in a distant location. The experimental results show that video streaming can achieve high-quality video with the streaming rate up to 30 frames per second (fps) in real-time. The average round-trip time is under 27 milliseconds (ms). The results confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed system for tele-monitoring and remote control to achieve safer navigation tasks for wheelchair users.

Ly, QT, Handojoseno, AMA, Gilat, M, Nguyen, N, Chai, R, Tran, Y, Lewis, SJG & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'Detection of Gait Initiation Failure in Parkinson's disease patients using EEG signals', 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Orlando, USA, pp. 1599-1602.
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© 2016 IEEE. Gait Initiation Failure (GIF) is one of the most disabling gait disturbances seen in advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). Gait Initiation is a complex motor task that requires motor and cognitive processing to enable the correct selection, timing and scaling of movement. Failure to initiate the first step often precipitates falls and leads to significant morbidity. However, the brain mechanisms underlying GIF remain unknown. This study utilized an ambulatory electroencephalography (EEG) technique to investigate the brain dynamic changes underlying GIF and aims to detect the occurrence of GIF in four PD patients. We sought to determine whether episodes of GIF might be associated with a characteristic brain signal that could be detected by surface EEG. This preliminary investigation analyzed the EEG signals through power spectra density (PSD) and centroid frequency (CF) to show that the GIF episodes were associated with significant increases in the high beta band (21-38Hz) across the central, frontal, occipital and parietal EEG sites. By implementing PSD and CF as input features with two-layer Back Propagation neural networks as a classifier, the proposed system was able to detect GIF events with a classification performance of 84.27% sensitivity and 84.80% accuracy. This is the first study to show cortical dynamic changes associated with GIF in Parkinson's disease, providing valuable information to enhance the performance of future GIF detection that could be translated into clinical practice.

Ly, QT, Handojoseno, AMA, Gilat, M, Nguyen, N, Chai, R, Tran, Y, Lewis, SJG & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'Identifying montages that best detect the electroencephalogram power spectrum alteration during freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease patients', 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Orlando, USA, pp. 6094-6097.
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© 2016 IEEE. Our research team has previously used four Electroencephalography (EEG) leads to successfully detect and predict Freezing of Gait (FOG) in Parkinson's disease (PD). However, it remained to be determined whether these four sensor locations that were arbitrarily chosen based on their role in motor control are indeed the most optimal for FOG detection. The aim of this study was therefore to determine the most optimal location and combination of sensors to detect FOG amongst a 32-channel EEG montage using our EEG classification system. EEG measures, including power spectral density, centroid frequency and power spectral entropy, were extracted from 7 patients with PD and FOG during a series of Timed up and Go tasks. By applying a feed-forward neural networks to classify EEG data, the obtained results showed that even a small number of electrodes suffice to construct a FOG detector with expected performance, which is comparable to the use of a full 32 channels montage. This finding therefore progresses the realization of a FOG detection system that can be effectively implemented on a daily basis for FOG prevention, improving the quality of life for many patients with PD.

Martin Salvador, M, Budka, M & Gabrys, B 1970, 'Towards Automatic Composition of Multicomponent Predictive Systems', Hybrid Artificial Intelligent Systems, International Conference on Hybrid Artificial Intelligence Systems, Springer International Publishing, Seville, Spain, pp. 27-39.
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Automatic composition and parametrisation of multicomponent predictive systems (MCPSs) consisting of chains of data transformation steps is a challenging task. In this paper we propose and describe an extension to the Auto-WEKA software which now allows to compose and optimise such flexible MCPSs by using a sequence of WEKA methods. In the experimental analysis we focus on examining the impact of significantly extending the search space by incorporating additional hyperparameters of the models, on the quality of the found solutions. In a range of extensive experiments three different optimisation strategies are used to automatically compose MCPSs on 21 publicly available datasets. A comparison with previous work indicates that extending the search space improves the classification accuracy in the majority of the cases. The diversity of the found MCPSs are also an indication that fully and automatically exploiting different combinations of data cleaning and preprocessing techniques is possible and highly beneficial for different predictive models. This can have a big impact on high quality predictive models development, maintenance and scalability aspects needed in modern application and deployment scenarios.

Merklein, M, Stiller, B, Kabakova, IV, Mutugala, US, Vu, K, Madden, SJ, Eggleton, BJ & Slavík, R 1970, 'Opto-electronic oscillator employing photonic-chip based stimulated Brillouin scattering', Photonics and Fiber Technology 2016 (ACOFT, BGPP, NP), Nonlinear Photonics, OSA.
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© 2016 OSA. We demonstrate an optoelectronic oscillator based on stimulated Brillouin scattering as an active filter on a photonic chip. An ultrahigh Brillouin gain chalcogenide rib waveguide is used to generate low-noise single-mode 10 GHz RF signals.

Merklein, M, Stiller, B, Kabakova, IV, Mutugala, US, Vu, K, Madden, SJ, Eggleton, BJ & Slavík, R 1970, 'Photonic-chip based widely tunable microwave source using a Brillouin opto-electronic oscillator', Frontiers in Optics 2016, Frontiers in Optics, OSA.
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© OSA 2016. We demonstrate the first widely tunable chip-based opto-electronic microwave source based on stimulated Brillouin scattering. The output frequency can be tuned over 40 GHz and the phase-noise performance is comparable to high-range laboratory RF sources.

Misener, L, Dickson, T & Darcy, S 1970, 'Disability Sport Event Research: Moving beyond the Emperor’s new clothes', Vista 2015 'Securing the future for young para-athletes', Vista 2015 'Securing the future for young para-athletes', Girona, Spain.
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Previous research has highlighted that within the sport and event management literature there is an underrepresentation of disability or parasport research. This has occurred both in the general sport and event management literature as well as the more specific Olympic legacy discourse. The framing of Paralympic legacy is driven by the IPC’s agenda to increase accessibility, develop sporting structures, improve perceptions of disability, and increase opportunities for participation in society. While there have been numerous scholars who have framed the evaluation of Olympic legacies, none have specifically addressed the evaluation of Paralympic legacies. While the IPC closely guard the agenda, other critical disability studies and sport sociology researchers have questioned the legitimacy of legacy beyond the short-term effects.

Mitchell, A, Lam, H, Peters, M, Morgan, L & Oliver, B 1970, 'EXHALED VIRUSES ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF LOWER RESPIRATORY TRACT INFECTION', RESPIROLOGY, WILEY-BLACKWELL, pp. 82-82.

Mitchell, A, Lam, H, Peters, M, Morgan, L & Oliver, BG 1970, 'Concordance Between Rhinovirus Found In Exhaled Breath And Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid', AMERICAN JOURNAL OF RESPIRATORY AND CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE, International Conference of the American-Thoracic-Society (ATS), AMER THORACIC SOC, San Francisco, CA.

Mitchell, A, Peters, M, Morgan, L & Oliver, B 1970, 'Baseline incidence of respiratory viruses in asymptomatic patients', 10.1 Respiratory Infections, ERS International Congress 2016 abstracts, European Respiratory Society.
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Mitchell, AB, Glanville, AR, Peters, M, Morgan, LC & Oliver, BG 1970, 'RESPIRATORY VIRUSES ARE COMMONLY DETECTED IN ASYMPTOMATIC ASTHMA AND COPD PATIENTS', RESPIROLOGY, WILEY-BLACKWELL, pp. 91-91.

Montgomery, J, Reid, M & Drake, BJ 1970, 'Protocols and Structures for Inference: A RESTful API for Machine Learning', Proceedings of The 2nd International Conference on Predictive APIs and Apps, 2nd International Conference on Predictive APIs and Apps, Journal of Machine Learning Research, Sydney, pp. 29-42.
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Diversity in machine learning APIs (in both software toolkits and web services), works against realising machine learning’s full potential, making it difficult to draw on individual algorithms from different products or to compose multiple algorithms to solve complex tasks. This paper introduces the Protocols and Structures for Inference (PSI) service architecture and specification, which presents inferential entities—relations, attributes, learners and predictors—as RESTful web resources that are accessible via a common but flexible and extensible interface. Resources describe the data they ingest or emit using a variant of the JSON schema language, and the API has mechanisms to support non-JSON data and future extension of service features.

Naik, GR, Pendharkar, G & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'Wavelet PCA for automatic identification of walking with and without an exoskeleton on a treadmill using pressure and accelerometer sensors', 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Orlando, USA, pp. 1999-2002.
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Nowadays portable devices with more number of sensors are used for gait assessment and monitoring for elderly and disabled. However, the problem with using multiple sensors is that if they are placed on the same platform or base, there could be cross talk between them, which could change the signal amplitude or add noise to the signal. Hence, this study uses wavelet PCA as a signal processing technique to separate the original sensor signal from the signal obtained from the sensors through the integrated unit to compare the two types of walking (with and without an exoskeleton). This comparison using wavelet PCA will enable the researchers to obtain accurate sensor data and compare and analyze the data in order to further improve the design of compact portable devices used to monitor and assess the gait in stroke or paralyzed subjects. The advantage of designing such systems is that they can also be used to assess and monitor the gait of the stroke subjects at home, which will save them time and efforts to visit the laboratory or clinic.

Nguyen, LTN, Eager, D & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'Effect of Wearing Whole Body Compression Garments on Cardiovascular Function using ECG Signals', Telehealth and Assistive Technology / 847: Intelligent Systems and Robotics, Telehealth and Assistive Technology / 847: Intelligent Systems and Robotics, ACTAPRESS, Zurich, Switzerland, pp. 24-29.
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The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of wearing whole body compression garments (WBCGs) on cardiovascular function of running trainers. Eight non-athletes (age: 25.1±3.8 years, height: 165.9±8.3 cm; weight: 61.4±13.7 kg) performed an incremental test followed by 30 minutes running on a treadmill, from 6 km.h-1 to 11 km.h-1 with correct size-compression garments (CCGs), undersize-compression garments (UCGs) and non-compression garments (NCGs). During the exercise, electrocardiogram (ECG) signals were collected between each completed speed by wearable sensors. There was a significant difference in heart rate (HR, p<0.05) between CCGs and NCGs from the velocity of 7km.h-1 onwards. Moreover, the group that wore UCGs has some significant effects on QT intervals and corrected QT at 10km.h-1 and 11km.h-1 (p<0.05). The utilization of WBCGs in a running test may influence the cardiovascular function of wearers. Based on the results of longer QTc, UCGs may cause an adverse effect on performance. Essentially, CCGs should be recommended for wearing during exercise due to the effects of lower HR.

Nguyen, T, Eager, D & Nguyen, H 1970, 'The effect of compression garments on wearers using biosensors', Barton, A.C.T. Engineers Australia, 2016, Australian Biomedical Engineering Conference, Australian Biomedical Engineering, Australia.
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Wearable sensors, especially biosensors, are playing an important role in healthcare, security, environmental monitoring domains and fitness [6]. Many researchers have demonstrated the benefit of compression garments in sports performance [1, 5]. However, there is insufficient evidence to support the reasons for this improved performance [4]. This paper aims to determine the effects of whole body compression garments (whole body-CGs) on cardiovascular function of human subjects using biosensors. Methods: Eight non-athletes (age: 25.1±3.8 years, height: 165.9±8.3 cm; weight: 61.4±13.7 kg), including five men and three women, volunteered for three random sessions. Undersize-compression garments (undersize-CGs), correct size compression garments (correct size-CGs) and a control garment (non-CGs) respectively were used in these sessions. A running test was conducted starting at 6-km.h-1 and increasing by 1-km.h-1 per two minutes on a treadmill. ECG signals were monitored using Lead II-position during the test. Subjects paused for 90 seconds after each designated speed for data collection. Each session was performed on a separate day. The trial has been approved by the University of Technology Sydney Human Ethics Committee. ECG signals were analyzed to determine the statistically significant difference using t-test in Matlab (p<0.05). Results: Compared to the non-CGs case, the correct size-CGs demonstrated a statistically significantly lower heart rate (HR) when reaching the speed of 7 km.h-1 and above until 11 km.h-1 (p<0.05). Compared with non-CG, in the group using undersize-CGs, there was significantly longer QTc at 10-km.h-1 and 11-km.h-1 (p<0.05). Conclusion: This study indicated that whole body-CGs had affected the cardiovascular function of non-athletes. As undersize-CGs may cause adverse effects due to longer QTc [3], correct size-CGs have a positive effect relating to lower HR [2]. Correct size compression garments should be recommended as a prac...

Nguyen, T, Hoang, D & Seneviratne, A 1970, 'Challenge-response trust assessment model for personal space IoT', 2016 IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communication Workshops (PerCom Workshops), 2016 IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communication Workshops (PerCom Workshops), IEEE, Australia.
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© 2016 IEEE. Internet of Things (IoT) embraces the interconnection of identifiable devices that are capable of providing services through their cooperation. The cooperation among devices in such an IoT environment often requires reliable and trusted participating members in order to provide useful services to the end user. Consequently, an IoT environment or space needs to evaluate the trust levels of all devices in contact before admitting them as members of the space. Existing trust evaluation models are based on resources such as historical observations or recommendations information to evaluate the trust level of a device. However, these methods fail if there is no existing trust resource. This paper introduces a specific IoT environment called personal space IoT and proposes a novel trust evaluation model that performs a challenge-response trust assessment to evaluate the trust level of a device before allowing it to participate in the space. This novel challenge-response trust assessment model does not require the historical observation or previous encounter with the device or any existing trusted recommendation. The proposed challenge-response trust assessment model provides a reliable trust resource that can be used along with other resources such as direct trust, recommendation trust to get a comprehensive trust opinion on a specific device. It can also be considered as a new method for evaluating the trust value on a device.

Nurhanim, K, Elamvazuthi, I, Izhar, LI, Ganesan, T & Su, SW 1970, 'Development of a model for sEMG based joint-torque estimation using Swarm techniques', 2016 2nd IEEE International Symposium on Robotics and Manufacturing Automation (ROMA), 2016 2nd IEEE International Symposium on Robotics and Manufacturing Automation (ROMA), IEEE, Ipoh, Malaysia, pp. 1-6.
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Over the years, numerous researchers have explored the relationship between surface electromyography (sEMG) signal with joint torque that would be useful to develop a suitable controller for rehabilitation robot. This research focuses on the transformation of sEMG signal by adopting a mathematical model to find the estimated joint torque of knee extension. Swarm techniques such as Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Improved Particle Swarm Optimization (IPSO) were adapted to optimize the mathematical model for estimated joint torque. The correlation between the estimated joint torque and actual joint torque were determined by Coefficient of Determination (R2) and fitness value of Sum Squared Error (SSE). The outcome of the research shows that both the PSO and IPSO have yielded promising results.

Patel, BS, Rahman, M, Rumzhum, N, Oliver, BG, Verrills, NM & Ammit, AJ 1970, 'Theophylline Represses Il-8 Secretion From Asm Cells Independently Of Pde Inhibition: Novel Role As A Pp2a Activator', AMERICAN JOURNAL OF RESPIRATORY AND CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE, International Conference of the American-Thoracic-Society (ATS), AMER THORACIC SOC, San Francisco, CA.

Pham, M & Hoang, DB 1970, 'SDN applications - The intent-based Northbound Interface realisation for extended applications', 2016 IEEE NetSoft Conference and Workshops (NetSoft), 2016 IEEE NetSoft Conference and Workshops (NetSoft), IEEE, Seoul, South Korea, pp. 372-377.
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© 2016 IEEE.The Northbound Interface (NBI) plays a crucial role in promoting the adoption of SDN as it allows developers the freedom of developing their revenue-generating applications without being affected and constrained by the complexities of the underlying networks. To do so the NBI has to allow applications to express their requirements and constraints in their own application specific language, and the SDN controller to translate those requirements into SDN network specific language for provisioning network resources and services to satisfy the application requirements. The intent-based NBI is born from this consideration and the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) provides principles and guidelines to build such an intent-based NBI. However, these principles do not lend themselves readily to the design and practical realization of an intent-based NBI for extended classes of business-like network applications. This paper introduces a solution and its initial implementation in the form of a novel architecture for realizing the intent-based NBI. The new solution exploits the modularized and reuse features of the micro services and service oriented architectures.

Pradhan, S, Gay, V & Nepal, S 1970, 'An innovative approach to derive trust from social networks and to improve the matching in dental care recommendation systems', Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, PACIS 2016 - Proceedings, Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, PACIS, Taiwan.
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Social trust has been gradually transitioned from face to face to online platforms due to the increasing engagement by the internet users in online social networks. This study looks at how this affects the way medical professionals, and dentists in particular, are recommended and chosen. Based on the literature, analysis of online dental reviews and a survey, it finds that subjective qualities of both dentists and patients are important aspects of the social trust. In order to analyse those qualities, this study introduces an innovative trust-based information model to evaluate those important subjective qualities. The model evaluates 4 trust components: context, relationship, reputation and personality analysis. Dentists and patients are profiled using this model and information extracted from social networks. Dentists are profiled using subjective qualities derived from online dental reviews and patients are profiled using subjective information such as level of dental fear and personality traits, collected from the survey with 580 participants. This paper provides an overview of dentists' profiles from online reviews and that of patients from the survey results, on a particular example as an illustration. The result of this study can be used to define a set of rules to improve the matching between patients and dentists in dental care recommendation systems.

Pradhan, S, Gay, V & Nepal, S 1970, 'Impact of subjective aspects in the matching of dentists and patients in dental care recommendation systems', 2016 International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2016, International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), AISEL, Dublin, pp. 1-19.
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The recent growth of social media has impacted the way users are searching and sharing health information. Online review and rating websites, in particular, provide a support for patients to share their opinions. Yet, finding the right information can be a challenge, particularly when there is no consistency in the evaluation criteria across various sources. The invasive nature of many dental treatments highlights the importance of selecting a suitable trustworthy provider for dental patients. This study proposes a new trust-enhanced information model in which dentists and patients are profiled based on subjective information. Subjective aspects of dentists are extracted from dental crowd sources such as DrOogle and Yelp. Two matching algorithms are presented. They are based on 580 responses to an online survey. The subjective aspects of both patients and dentists are important factors which are incorporated to improve the matching capability of dental care recommendation systems.

Rafeie, M, Zhang, J, Asadnia, M, Li, W & Warkiani, ME 1970, 'Multiplexing slanted spiral microchannels for ultra-fast blood plasma separation', 20th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences, MicroTAS 2016, pp. 906-907.
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The ability to efficiently fractionate blood into its individual components is crucial for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes. Here, we developed an inertial microfluidic system for cell focusing and blood plasma separation. First, polystyrene beads and blood cells were used to investigate the inertial focusing performance of a single slanted spiral microchannel as a function of particle size, flow rate, and the haematocrit (HCT) concentration. Next, we built a high-throughput system consisted of 16 interconnected spiral channels which can process diluted samples at 24 mL/min. The proposed multiplexed system surmounts shortcomings of previously-reported microfluidic systems concerning throughput, yield and operation efficiency.

Rana, MM, Li Li & Su, SW 1970, 'Cyber attack protection and control in microgrids using channel code and semidefinite programming', 2016 IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM), 2016 IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM), IEEE, USA.
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© 2016 IEEE. The smart grid has been considered as a nextgeneration power system to modernize the traditional grid to improve its security, connectivity and sustainability. Unfortunately, the grid is susceptible to malicious cyber attacks, which can create serious technical, economical and control problems in power network operations. In contrast to the traditional cyber attack minimization techniques, this paper proposes a recursive systematic convolutional (RSC) code and Kalman filter based method in the context of microgrids. Specifically, the proposed RSC code is used to add redundancy in the microgrid states, and the log maximum a posterior is used to recover the state information which is affected by random noises and cyber attacks. Once the estimated states are obtained, a semidefinite programming based optimal feedback controller is proposed to regulate the system states. Test results show that the proposed approach can accurately mitigate the cyber attacks and properly estimate and control the system states.

Rana, MM, Li, L & Su, SW 1970, 'Distributed condition monitoring of renewable microgrids using adaptive-then-combine algorithm', 2016 IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM), 2016 IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM), IEEE, USA.
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© 2016 IEEE. This paper explores the problem of distributed state estimation including packet losses for the environment-friendly renewable microgrid incorporating electricity generating circuits. The problem is becoming critical due to the global warming, increasing green house gas emissions, and practical infeasibility with computational burden of the large-scale centralized power system monitoring. To address the impending problem, a novel distributed microgrid state estimation algorithm is derived in the context of microgrids. Specifically, after modelling the microgrid, this paper proposes a local microgrid state estimation algorithm considering packet losses. Then a novel optimal weighting factor calculation method for the global state estimation is proposed. Particularly, it can automatically adjust the optimal weighting factors for different sensor measurements based on the observation quality, improving the estimation accuracy of the global estimation. Simulations show that the desired state estimation accuracy is achievable.

Rana, MM, Li, L & Su, SW 1970, 'Distributed dynamic state estimation considering renewable generation and packet losses', 2016 14th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (ICARCV), 2016 14th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (ICARCV), IEEE, Phuket, Thailand, pp. 1-6.
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© 2016 IEEE. The penetration of renewable distributed energy resources such as wind turbine has been dramatically integrated in distribution networks due to clean, sustainable, and economical green energy. Due to intermittent wind speed, the power generation patterns vary which can risk the distribution network operation. So, it is intrinsically required to monitor the wind turbines in a distributed way. This paper presents an adaptive-then-combine distributed dynamic approach for monitoring the grid under lossy communication link between the wind turbines and energy management system. Firstly, the wind turbine is represented by a state-space linear equation, with sensors deployed to obtain system state information. Based on the mean squared error principle, an adaptive approach is proposed to estimate the local state information. The global estimation is designed by combining estimation results with weighting factors which are calculated by minimizing estimation error covariance based on semi-definite programming. Finally, the convergence analysis indicates that estimation error is gradually decreased, so the estimated state converges to the actual state. The efficacy of the developed approach is verified using the turbine model. The research is valuable for green energy technologies, households and interconnected industrial information societies, and also provides the knowledge towards a smart and secure green energy future.

Rana, MM, Li, L & Su, SW 1970, 'Distributed dynamic state estimation over a lossy communication network with an application to smart grids', 2016 IEEE 55th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), 2016 IEEE 55th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), IEEE, Las Vegas, USA, pp. 6657-6662.
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© 2016 IEEE. In contrast to the traditional centralised power system state estimation methods, this paper investigates the interconnected optimal filtering problem for distributed dynamic state estimation considering packet losses. Specifically, the power system incorporating microgrids is modelled as a state-space linear equation where sensors are deployed to obtain measurements. Basically, the sensing information is transmitted to the energy management system through a lossy communication network where measurements are lost. As the system states are unavailable, so the estimation is essential to know the overall operating conditions of the electricity network. The proposed estimator is based on the mean squared error between the actual state and its estimate. To obtain the distributed estimation, the optimal local and neighbouring gains are computed to reach a consensus estimation after exchanging their information with the neighbouring estimators. Then the convergence of the developed algorithm is theoretically proved. Afterwards, a distributed controller is designed based on the semidefinite programming approach. Simulation results demonstrate the accuracy of the developed approaches under the condition of missing measurements.

Rana, MM, Li, L & Su, SW 1970, 'Microgrid protection and control through reliable smart grid communication systems', 2016 14th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (ICARCV), 2016 14th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (ICARCV), IEEE, Phuket, Thailand, pp. 1-6.
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© 2016 IEEE. Due to dramatically rising energy demand worldwide power system is often run near the operational and technical limits, where unexpected trivial disturbances can cause possibly massive blackouts. Cyber attacks on smart grid communication networks are one of the impending threats to cause large-scale cascading outage. In contrast to the traditional cyber attack protection techniques, this paper presents a recursive systematic convolutional code based defending technique from the signal processing perspective. This code introduces redundancy in the system for protecting the grid information. Furthermore, an optimal control law is designed to stabilize the power network. Specifically, the performance index for control is converted to a convex semidefinite programming problem. The proposed controller can work well for any initial values. The efficacy of the developed approach is verified through numerical simulations. Results show that the proposed strategy has stronger attack protection performance and the controller can stabilize the grid in a fairly short time. This approach provides a fundamental framework for the design of the smart grid energy management system and reliable communication infrastructure scheme with renewable integration applications.

Rao, A, Sibbritt, D, Phillips, J & Hickman, L 1970, '‘Prayer or spiritual healing as adjuncts to conventional care: A cross sectional analysis of the prevalence and characteristics of use among women.', Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health Scientific Meeting, Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health Scientific Meeting, Newcastle, Australia.

Rao, A, Sibbritt, D, Phillips, J & Hickman, LD 1970, 'Prayer or spiritual healing for the health and well-being of two generations of women: A nationally representative cross-sectional study.', 21st international Council on Women's Health Issues (ICOWHI) Congress. Scale and Sustainability: Moving Women’s Health Issues Forward., 21st international Council on Women's Health Issues (ICOWHI) Congress. Scale and Sustainability: Moving Women’s Health Issues Forward., Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Rezaeian, M, Georgevsky, D, Golzan, SM & Graham, SL 1970, 'High speed in-vivo imaging of retinal hemodynamics in a rodent model of hypertension', 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Orlando, FL, USA, pp. 3243-3246.
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The eye is the only organ through which microcirculation can be visualized non-invasively. This unique feature makes the eye and specifically retinal vasculature an excellent target area to monitor and study micro-vascular damage in systemic diseases. Dynamic (real-time) changes of retinal vessels have been shown to be more specific to the disease in comparison with static measurements. In this study we utilize high speed imaging (i.e. 125 fps) to study and derive dynamic changes of retinal vessels in a rat model of hypertension. A Eulerian video magnification algorithm was used to extract retinal arterial and venous pulse amplitude from five Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats (SHR) and five Wister Kyoto (WKY) rats were used as the control group. Results showed that retinal arterial diameter and pulse amplitude are significantly lower in the SHRs compared with WKYs. Dynamic biomarkers of retinal micro-vasculature may be used as a diagnostic tool for systemic diseases.

Roxby, DN, Tran, N, Yu, P-L & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'Effect of growth solution, membrane size and array connection on microbial fuel cell power supply for medical devices', 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Orlando, USA, pp. 1946-1949.
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© 2016 IEEE. Implanted biomedical devices typically last a number of years before their batteries are depleted and a surgery is required to replace them. A Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) is a device which by using bacteria, directly breaks down sugars to generate electricity. Conceptually there is potential to continually power implanted medical devices for the lifetime of a patient. To investigate the practical potential of this technology, H-Cell Dual Chamber MFCs were evaluated with two different growth solutions and measurements recorded for maximum power output both of individual MFCs and connected MFCs. Using Luria-Bertani media and connecting MFCs in a hybrid series and parallel arrangement with larger membrane sizes showed the highest power output and the greatest potential for replacing implanted batteries.

Rutting, S, Xenaki, D, Ge, Q, Wood, L, Hansbro, P & Oliver, B 1970, 'Interaction of dietary fatty acids with obesity induced cytokines in primary human pulmonary fibroblasts', 3.2 Airway Cell Biology and Immunopathology, ERS International Congress 2016 abstracts, European Respiratory Society.
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San, PP, Ling, SH & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'Deep learning framework for detection of hypoglycemic episodes in children with type 1 diabetes', 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Orlando, pp. 3503-3506.
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© 2016 IEEE. Most Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients have hypoglycemia problem. Low blood glucose, also known as hypoglycemia, can be a dangerous and can result in unconsciousness, seizures and even death. In recent studies, heart rate (HR) and correct QT interval (QTc) of the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal are found as the most common physiological parameters to be effected from hypoglycemic reaction. In this paper, a state-of-the-art intelligent technology namely deep belief network (DBN) is developed as an intelligent diagnostics system to recognize the onset of hypoglycemia. The proposed DBN provides a superior classification performance with feature transformation on either processed or un-processed data. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed hypoglycemia detection system, 15 children with Type 1 diabetes were volunteered overnight. Comparing with several existing methodologies, the experimental results showed that the proposed DBN outperformed and achieved better classification performance.

San, PP, Ling, SH, Chai, R, Tran, Y, Craig, A & Nguyen, H 1970, 'EEG-based driver fatigue detection using hybrid deep generic model', 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Orlando, USA, pp. 800-803.
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Classification of electroencephalography (EEG)- based application is one of the important process for biomedical engineering. Driver fatigue is a major case of traffic accidents worldwide and considered as a significant problem in recent decades. In this paper, a hybrid deep generic model (DGM)- based support vector machine is proposed for accurate detection of driver fatigue. Traditionally, a probabilistic DGM with deep architecture is quite good at learning invariant features, but it is not always optimal for classification due to its trainable parameters are in the middle layer. Alternatively, Support Vector Machine (SVM) itself is unable to learn complicated invariance, but produces good decision surface when applied to well-behaved features. Consolidating unsupervised high-level feature extraction techniques, DGM and SVM classification makes the integrated framework stronger and enhance mutually in feature extraction and classification. The experimental results showed that the proposed DBN-based driver fatigue monitoring system achieves better testing accuracy of 73.29 % with 91.10 % sensitivity and 55.48 % specificity. In short, the proposed hybrid DGM-based SVM is an effective method for the detection of driver fatigue in EEG.

Savitha, R, Chan, KY, San, PP, Ling, SH & Suresh, S 1970, 'A hybrid Deep Boltzmann Functional Link Network for classification problems', 2016 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (SSCI), 2016 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (SSCI), IEEE, Athens, GREECE.
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Shi, L, Miro, JV, Zhang, T, Vidal-Calleja, T, Sun, L & Dissanayake, G 1970, 'Constrained sampling of 2.5D probabilistic maps for augmented inference', 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), IEEE, Daejeon, Korea, pp. 3131-3136.
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© 2016 IEEE. This work exploits modeling spatial correlation in 2.5D data using Gaussian Processes (GPs), and produces constrained sampling realizations on these models to improve certainty in the predictions by means of integrating additional sparse information. Data organized in 2.5D such as elevation and thickness maps has been extensively studied in the fields of robotics and geostatistics. These maps are typically represented as a probabilistic 2D grid that stores an estimated value (height or thickness) for each cell. With the increasing popularity and deployment of robotic devices for infrastructure inspection, 2.5D data becomes a common interpretation of the condition of the target being inspected. Modeling the spatial dependencies and making inferences on new grid locations is a common task that has been addressed using GPs, but inference results on locations which are weakly correlated with the training data are generally not sufficiently informative and distinctly uncertain. The predictive capability of the proposed framework, which is applicable to any 2.5D data, is demonstrated with field inspection data from pipelines. Specifically, sparse and complementary measurements from alternative sensing modalities have been incorporated into the model to predict in more detail local thickness conditions where GP training data is limited. The output of this work aims to probabilistically present variations of the target in the case that both accuracy and reasonable diversity are of significant interest.

Shi, L, Valls Miro, J, Rajalingam, J, Wood, R & Vitanage, D 1970, 'High Precision GPS Aided In-pipe Distance Calibration For Satellite Image-based Pipeline Mapping', OZWATER’16 Australia’s International Water Conference & Exhibition, OZWATER’16 Australia’s International Water Conference & Exhibition, Australian Water Association, Melbourne, pp. 1-8.
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Asset management and pipe condition assessment (CA) activities in the water industry usually require locating buried pipes accurately to minimise inspection and maintenance costs. A typicalchallenge in practice is locating an anomaly detected by an in-pipe inspection tool from aboveground in order to dig up a pipe for replacement. Accumulated in-pipe errors over longer distances in particular can easily lead to selecting the wrong pipe section for further investigation or exhumation. In fact, some in-pipe CA providers suggest utility personnel dig up a number of sections of pipe around the suggested location so as to ensure finding the target section. In this paper we propose a mechanism to accurately correlate a 3D pipeline profile built from GPS surveying results of aboveground pipeline features with in-pipe chainage distances, so as to establish an accurate link between above-ground GPS coordinates and inpipe distance measurements. This approach naturally characterises and corrects for some of the most prominent in-pipe chainage measurement errors that can lead to uncertainties about the reported location of a buried pipeline from above-ground. The detailed pipeline information can then be projected onto satellite imagery as an accurate easy-to-understand reference for efficient decision making.

Shi, Y, Tuan, HD & Su, S 1970, 'Nonconvex spectral algorithm for solving BMI on the reduced order H<inf>∞</inf> control', 2016 6th IEEE International Conference on Control System, Computing and Engineering (ICCSCE), 2016 6th IEEE International Conference on Control System, Computing and Engineering (ICCSCE), IEEE, Batu Ferringhi, Malaysia, pp. 316-319.
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© 2016 IEEE. The design of reduced-order H∞ control can be transformed into an optimization problem with bilinear matrix inequality (BMI) constraints, which is an NP-hard problem. We propose a method to equivalently transfer the BMI constraint into a convex LMI constraint plus a matrix-rank constraint. The optimization with matrix-rank constraint is iteratively solved by a sequence of semidefinite programming (SDP) problems. Simulations on several benchmark systems show that our algorithm is practical and efficient.

Shi, Y, Tuan, HD, Su, SW & Savkin, AV 1970, 'Multiple Matrix Rank Constrained Optimization for Optimal Power Flow over Large Scale Transmission Networks', Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems, 5th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems, SCITEPRESS - Science and and Technology Publications, Rome, Italy, pp. 384-389.
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© Copyright 2016 by SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved.The optimal power flow (OPF) problem for power transmission networks is an NP-hard optimization problem with numerous quadratic equality and indefinite quadratic inequality constraints on bus voltages. The existing nonlinear solvers often fail in yielding a feasible solution. In this paper, we follow our previously developed nonsmooth optimization approach to address this difficult large-scale OPF problem, which is an iterative process to generate a sequence of improved solutions that converge to an optimal solution. Each iteration calls an SDP of a moderate dimension. Intensive simulations for OPF over networks with a large number of buses are provided to demonstrate the efficiency of our approach.

Su, D, Nakamura, K, Nakadai, K & Miro, JV 1970, 'Robust sound source mapping using three-layered selective audio rays for mobile robots', 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), IEEE, Daejeon, Korea, pp. 2771-2777.
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© 2016 IEEE. This paper investigates sound source mapping in a real environment using a mobile robot. Our approach is based on audio ray tracing which integrates occupancy grids and sound source localization using a laser range finder and a microphone array. Previous audio ray tracing approaches rely on all observed rays and grids. As such observation errors caused by sound reflection, sound occlusion, wall occlusion, sounds at misdetected grids, etc. can significantly degrade the ability to locate sound sources in a map. A three-layered selective audio ray tracing mechanism is proposed in this work. The first layer conducts frame-based unreliable ray rejection (sensory rejection) considering sound reflection and wall occlusion. The second layer introduces triangulation and audio tracing to detect falsely detected sound sources, rejecting audio rays associated to these misdetected sounds sources (short-term rejection). A third layer is tasked with rejecting rays using the whole history (long-term rejection) to disambiguate sound occlusion. Experimental results under various situations are presented, which proves the effectiveness of our method.

Su, D, Vidal-Calleja, T & Miro, JV 1970, 'Split conditional independent mapping for sound source localisation with Inverse-Depth Parametrisation', 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), IEEE, Daejeon, Korea, pp. 2000-2006.
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© 2016 IEEE. In this paper, we propose a framework to map stationary sound sources while simultaneously localise a moving robot. Conventional methods for localisation and sound source mapping rely on a microphone array and either, 1) a proprioceptive sensor only (such as wheel odometry) or 2) an additional exteroceptive sensor (such as cameras or lasers) to get accurately the robot locations. Since odometry drifts over time and sound observations are bearing-only, sparse and extremely noisy, the former can only deal with relatively short trajectories before the whole map drifts. In comparison, the latter can get more accurate trajectory estimation over long distances and a better estimation of the sound source map as a result. However, in most of the work in the literature, trajectory estimation and sound source mapping are treated as uncorrelated, which means an update on the robot trajectory does not propagate properly to the sound source map. In this paper, we proposed an efficient method to correlate robot trajectory with sound source mapping by exploiting the conditional independence property between two maps estimated by two different Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) algorithms running in parallel. In our approach, the first map has the flexibility that can be built with any SLAM algorithm (filtering or optimisation) to estimate robot poses with an exteroceptive sensor. The second map is built by using a filtering-based SLAM algorithm locating all stationary sound sources parametrised with Inverse Depth Parametrisation (IDP). Robot locations used during IDP initialisation are the common features shared between the two SLAM maps, which allow to propagate information accordingly. Comprehensive simulations and experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Sun, L, Vidal-Calleja, T & Miro, JV 1970, 'Gaussian Markov Random Fields for fusion in information form', 2016 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2016 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), IEEE, Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 1840-1845.
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© 2016 IEEE. 2.5D maps are preferable for representing the environment owing to their compactness. When noisy observations from multiple diverse sensors at different resolutions are available, the problem of 2.5D mapping turns to how to compound the information in an effective and efficient manner. This paper proposes a generic probabilistic framework for fusing efficiently multiple sources of sensor data to generate amendable, high-resolution 2.5D maps. The key idea is to exploit the sparse structure of the information matrix. Gaussian Markov Random Fields are employed to learn a prior map, which uses the conditional independence property between spatial location to obtain a representation of the state with a sparse information matrix. This prior map encoded in information form can then be updated with other sources of sensor data in constant time. Later, mean state vector and variances can be also efficiently recovered using sparse matrices techniques. The proposed approach allows accurate estimation of 2.5D maps at arbitrary resolution, while incorporating sensor noise and spatial dependency in a statistically sound way. We apply the proposed framework to pipe wall thickness mapping and fuse data from two diverse sensors that have different resolutions. Experimental results are compared with three other methods, showing that, while greatly reducing computation time, the proposed framework is able to capture in large extend the spatial correlation to generate equivalent results to the computationally expensive optimal fusion method in covariance form with a Gaussian Process prior.

Tang, F, Hansbro, P, Burgess, J, Baines, K & Oliver, B 1970, 'A NOVEL NEUTROPHIL SUPPRESSOR ROLE IN RHINOVIRUS INFECTIONS', RESPIROLOGY, WILEY-BLACKWELL, pp. 44-44.

Tong, J, Golzan, M, Georgevsky, D, Graham, S, Farah, C & Fraser, C 1970, 'RETINAL VASCULAR COMPLICATIONS IN OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA', RESPIROLOGY, WILEY-BLACKWELL, pp. 171-171.

Wang, S, Liu, W, Wu, J, Cao, L, Meng, Q & Kennedy, PJ 1970, 'Training deep neural networks on imbalanced data sets', 2016 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN), 2016 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN), IEEE, Vancouver, Canada, pp. 4368-4374.
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© 2016 IEEE. Deep learning has become increasingly popular in both academic and industrial areas in the past years. Various domains including pattern recognition, computer vision, and natural language processing have witnessed the great power of deep networks. However, current studies on deep learning mainly focus on data sets with balanced class labels, while its performance on imbalanced data is not well examined. Imbalanced data sets exist widely in real world and they have been providing great challenges for classification tasks. In this paper, we focus on the problem of classification using deep network on imbalanced data sets. Specifically, a novel loss function called mean false error together with its improved version mean squared false error are proposed for the training of deep networks on imbalanced data sets. The proposed method can effectively capture classification errors from both majority class and minority class equally. Experiments and comparisons demonstrate the superiority of the proposed approach compared with conventional methods in classifying imbalanced data sets on deep neural networks.

Xenaki, D, Deshpande, D, Oliver, B & Sharma, P 1970, 'Targeting ASK1 in preventing airway smooth muscle growth: Implications for airway remodeling in COPD', 3.2 Airway Cell Biology and Immunopathology, ERS International Congress 2016 abstracts, European Respiratory Society.
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Xie, J, Wang, M, Zhou, Y & Li, J 1970, 'Coordinating Discernibility and Independence Scores of Variables in a 2D Space for Efficient and Accurate Feature Selection', Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Intelligent Computing Methodologies (ICIC), Springer International Publishing, Lanzhou, China, pp. 116-127.
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© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016. Feature selection is to remove redundant and irrelevant features from original ones of exemplars, so that a sparse and representative feature subset can be detected for building a more efficient and accurate classifier. This paper presents a novel definition for the discernibility and independence scores of a feature, and then constructs a two dimensional (2D) space with the feature’s independence as y-axis and discernibility as x-axis to rank features’ importance. This new method is named FSDI (Feature Selection based on Discernibility and Independence of a feature). The discernibility score of a feature is to measure the distinguishability of the feature to detect instances from different classes. The independence score is to measure the redundancy of a feature. All features are plotted in the 2D space according to their discernibility and independence coordinates. The area of the rectangular corresponding to a feature’s discernibility and independence in the 2D space is used as a criterion to rank the importance of the features. Top-k features with much higher importance than the rest ones are selected to form the sparse and representative feature subset for building an efficient and accurate classifier. Experimental results on 5 classical gene expression datasets demonstrate that our proposed FSDI algorithm can select the gene subset efficiently and has the best performance in classification. Our method provides a good solution to the bottleneck issues related to the high time complexity of the existing gene subset selection algorithms.

Ye, L, Cao, K, Guo, YJ, Huang, X, Beadle, P, Argha, A, Piccardi, M, Zhang, G & Su, SW 1970, 'Inertial Sensor based Post Fall Analysis for False Alarming Reduction', Telehealth and Assistive Technology / 847: Intelligent Systems and Robotics, Telehealth and Assistive Technology / 847: Intelligent Systems and Robotics, ACTAPRESS, Zurich, Switzerland, pp. 36-43.
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One of the major public health problems among elderly people is falling injury. This study investigates fall detection and prevention by using inertial sensors for which the major existing challenging is how to significantly reduce false alarming in order to enhance the acceptance of elderly users during rehabilitation and daily exercises. Different from most existing approaches in the literature, the behavior after falling will be analyzed in details, which can not only greatly reduce false alarming, but also significantly improves the accuracy of the assessment of the severity of falling injuries.

Ye, L, Su, SW, Lei, D & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'An online recursive autocalibration of triaxial accelerometer', 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Orlando, Florida, USA, pp. 2038-2041.
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In this paper, we proposed a novel method for autocalibration of triaxial Micro-Electro-Mechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometer that does not require any sophisticated laboratory facilities. In particular, this method is an online calibration method which can be conveniently implemented with the accuracy of MEMS accelerometer being significantly improved. The procedure exploits the fact that the output vector of the accelerometer must match the local gravity in static state condition. To achieve online calibration, the model as well as the cost function are linearized at the beginning, and an online recursive method is then utilized to identify the unknown parameters and remove the bias caused by linearization. This online recursive method is based on damped recursive least square estimation (DRLS), which can significantly reduce the calculation complexity comparing to nonlinear optimization method. In addition, the unknown parameters can be solved in a short time and the estimated parameters can remain stable during calibration. Experimentally, this method was tested by comparing the output results before and after calibration in different condition. It showed that the output, after calibrated by the proposed method, is more accurate with respect to raw output using default factory parameters.

Zhang, T, Su, S & Nguyen, HT 1970, 'The hybrid bio-inspired aerial vehicle: Concept and SIMSCAPE flight simulation', 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, Orlando, Florida, USA, pp. 2107-2110.
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© 2016 IEEE. This paper introduces a Silver Gull-inspired hybrid aerial vehicle, the Super Sydney Silver Gull (SSSG), which is able to vary its structure, under different manoeuvre requirements, to implement three flight modes: the flapping wing flight, the fixed wing flight, and the quadcopter flight (the rotary wing flight of Unmanned Air Vehicle). Specifically, through proper mechanism design and flight mode transition, the SSSG can imitate the Silver Gull's flight gesture during flapping flight, save power consuming by switching to the fixed wing flight mode during long-range cruising, and hover at targeted area when transferring to quadcopter flight mode. Based on the aerodynamic models, the Simscape, a product of MathWorks, is used to simulate and analyse the performance of the SSSG's flight modes. The entity simulation results indicate that the created SSSG's 3D model is feasible and ready to be manufactured for further flight tests.

Zheng, Y, Lan, C, Peng, H & Li, J 1970, 'Using constrained information entropy to detect rare adverse drug reactions from medical forums', 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, IEEE, pp. 2460-2463.
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Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) detection is critical to avoid malpractices yet challenging due to its uncertainty in pre-marketing review and the underreporting in post-marketing surveillance. To conquer this predicament, social media based ADRs detection methods have been proposed recently. However, existing researches are mostly co-occurrence based methods and face several issues, in particularly, leaving out the rare ADRs and unable to distinguish irrelevant ADRs. In this work, we introduce a constrained information entropy (CIE) method to solve these problems. CIE first recognizes the drug-related adverse reactions using a predefined keyword dictionary and then captures high- and low-frequency (rare) ADRs by information entropy. Extensive experiments on medical forums dataset demonstrate that CIE outperforms the state-of-the-art co-occurrence based methods, especially in rare ADRs detection.

Haas, MR & de Abreu Lourenco, R Australian National University 2016, The REFinE-PHC Report on Patient Experiences of Primary Care, Canberra.

KIRKUP, L, BRAUN, M, Varadharajan, M & BUFFLER, A 2016, Matching the background of demonstrators with those of their students: does it make a difference?.

Darcy, SA & Jonson, P 2016, 'No other recourse but to sue? The implications of Alex McKinnon’s lawsuit against the NRL', The Conversation.
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The article examines the legal, insurance, compensation and impact of spinal cord injury perspectives on the Alex McKinnon case. Alex McKinnon had a spinal cord injury caused by a tackle in the National Rugby League in 2014. The cases brought into sharp focus in series of workplace, sport insurance and

Darcy, SA & Legg, D 2016, 'A brief history of the Paralympic Games: from post-WWII rehabilitation to mega sport event'.

Dickson, TJ, Knijnik, J & Darcy, SA 2016, '‘Grotesque spectacle’? Rio has a long way to go to become more accessible'.

Gorval, M, Lees, T, Elliott, J, Nassif, N, Simpson, A & Lal, S 2016, 'Investigation of the association between blood glucose levels, anxiety and depression'.

Jarman, L, Elliott, J, Lees, T, Nassif, N, Simpson, A, Clifton-Bligh, R & Lal, S 2016, 'Associations between heart rate variability and blood glucose levels'.

Salvador, MM, Budka, M & Gabrys, B 2016, 'Automatic Composition and Optimization of Multicomponent Predictive Systems With an Extended Auto-WEKA'.