Review of Indigenous Oral Health

Indigenous Australians1 have poorer oral health than other Australians [1, 2]. Indigenous people suffer from more caries, periodontal diseases, and tooth loss than non-Indigenous people [3]. Tooth decay among the Indigenous population more commonly goes untreated, leading to more extractions. This discrepancy is attributed in part to the fact that access to culturally appropriate and timely dental care is often not available to Indigenous people, especially in rural and remote areas. Other information on oral health such as culturally appropriate resources about maintaining healthy teeth and mouths, and nutritional guidance on how much sugar is contained in certain foods and drinks, is also less available for the Indigenous Australian population. If Indigenous oral health is to be ameliorated, access to dental care must be improved, and an integrated holistic approach to oral health, which includes preventative measures, needs to be established

Studies towards the synthesis of frog alkaloid 251F.

Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.No abstract availabl

P1: Effect of age, oestradiol levels and endometrial thickness on determining success of frozen embryo transfers

Introduction: Frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) is a widely used technique, with replacement of embryos during natural menstrual cycles or in cycles constructed by exogenous steroids having similar outcomes in many series. Multiple factors have been proposed to have a positive influence on the success rate of FET, including increased endometrial thickness, younger maternal age and lower circulating oestradiol. The impact of these variables in the context of constructed cycles, using GnRH agonists to facilitate suppression of ovarian function prior to exogenous steroid administration, is not known. The aim of this study was to determine the predictive ability of these indices on clinical outcomes

Design, synthesis and evaluation of E2-25K derived stapled peptides

Stabilised peptides are now established as potential drug candidates to probe previously intractable molecular targets, such as protein-protein interactions. Herein, we report the design and synthesis of eight short helical peptide analogues of the ubiquitin conjugating enzyme, E2-25K, as potential antagonists of the interaction between E2-25K and the Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) associated ubiquitin mutant Ubb+1. Biochemical evaluation revealed four putative antagonists of the Ubb+1 / E2-25K interaction that reduced incorporation of Ubb+1 into polyubiquitin chains in vitro, validating the potential of this approach as a therapeutic strategy

The Safer Prescription of Opioids Tool (SPOT):A Novel Clinical Decision Support Digital Health plat-form for opioid conversion in Palliative and End of Life care. A single-centre pilot study

Opioid errors are a leading cause of patient harm. Active failures in opioid dose conversion can contribute to error. Conversion is complex and is currently performed manually using tables of approximate equivalence. Apps that offer opioid dose double-checking are available but there are concerns about their accuracy and clinical validation. This study evaluated a novel opioid dose conversion app, The Safer Prescription of Opioids Tool (SPOT), a CE-marked Class I medical device, as a clinician decision support (CDS) platform. This single-centre prospective clinical utility pilot study followed a mixed methods design. Prescribers completed an initial survey exploring their current opioid prescribing practice. Thereafter prescribers used SPOT for opioid dosage conversions in parallel to their usual clinical practice, then evaluated SPOT through a survey and focus group. SPOT matched the Gold Standard result in 258 of 268 (96.3%) calculations. The 10 instances (3.7%) when SPOT did not match were due to a rounding error. Users had a statistically significant increase in confidence in prescribing opioids after using SPOT. Focus group feedback highlighted benefits in Quality Improvement and Safety when using SPOT. SPOT is a safe, reliable and validated CDS that has potential to reduce harms from opioid dosing errors

Thrombocytosis and abnormal liver enzymes:A trigger for investigation of underlying malignancy

BackgroundThrombocytosis is often an incidental finding in primary care with a range of causes. Despite evidence of a strong association between thrombocytosis and malignancy, guidelines for investigating thrombocytosis in the absence of red flag symptoms remain unclear. A novel automated system of laboratory analysis, intelligent Liver Function Testing (iLFT), launched in Tayside in 2018 and has identified a patient group with thrombocytosis and abnormal liver test (LFT) results. This study analysed the outcome of these patients and investigated the use of thrombocytosis combined with LFTs in predicting risk of cancer.Methods and findingsBetween August 2018 and August 2020, 6792 patients underwent iLFT, with 246 found to have both thrombocytosis and at least one abnormal LFT. A random case-matched control group of 492 iLFT patients with normal platelet count and at least one abnormal LFT was created. 7.7% (95% CI 4.7-11.8%) of patients with thrombocytosis had cancer compared to 2.0% (1.0-3.7%) of controls. Patients ConclusionsThese findings suggest a substantial increased risk of cancer in patients with thrombocytosis and raised ALP. This could be developed as an adjunct to current investigation algorithms, highlighting high-risk patients and prompting further investigation (such as computed tomography scans) where indicated

Human preferences for sexually dimorphic faces may be evolutionarily novel

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.A large literature proposes that preferences for exaggerated sex typicality in human faces (masculinity/femininity) reflect a long evolutionary history of sexual and social selection. This proposal implies that dimorphism was important to judgments of attractiveness and personality in ancestral environments. It is difficult to evaluate, however, because most available data come from largescale, industrialized, urban populations. Here, we report the results for 12 populations with very diverse levels of economic development. Surprisingly, preferences for exaggerated sex-specific traits are only found in the novel, highly developed environments. Similarly, perceptions that masculine males look aggressive increase strongly with development, specifically, urbanization. These data challenge the hypothesis that facial dimorphism was an important ancestral signal of heritable mate value. One possibility is that highly developed environments provide novel opportunities to discern relationships between facial traits and behavior by exposing individuals to large numbers of unfamiliar faces, revealing patterns too subtle to detect with smaller samples

Provisional report on diving-related fatalities in Australian waters 2009

INTRODUCTION: An individual case review of diving-related deaths reported as occurring in Australia in 2009 was conducted as part of the DAN Asia-Pacific Dive Fatality Reporting Project. METHOD: The case studies were compiled using reports from witnesses, the police and coroners. In each case, the particular circumstances of the accident and details from the post-mortem examination, where available, are provided. RESULTS: In total, there were 21 reported fatalities (two more than in 2008), including 18 males and three females. Twelve deaths occurred while snorkelling and/or breath-hold diving, eight while scuba diving and one while using surface-supply breathing apparatus. Apneic hypoxia continues to be a problem with breath-hold divers and appears to have caused the death of three victims in this series. Cardiac-related issues were thought to have been the disabling injury in the deaths of at least three snorkel divers and at least three scuba divers. One of the victims was a student who became separated from her instructor on an introductory scuba dive in poor visibility. CONCLUSIONS: Apneic hypoxia, pre-existing medical conditions, snorkelling or diving alone, separation and inadequate supervision were once again features in several deaths in this series