Galah poisoning : kill the cocky

NO! Not the one that tills the land, but his enemy, the pink and grey galah (Kakatoe rosei-capilla). Farmers have usually found the destruction of galahs damaging standing crops and bagged, or stored grain, fairly difficult. Past methods of boiling grain and adding sweetened substances are rather laborious and require a lot of time. Now, a quick and relatively simple method is available to farmers, using paraffin oil to adhere poison to the grain

Virtual monitoring in CF – the importance of continuous monitoring in a multi-organ chronic condition

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a chronic life-limiting condition that affects multiple organs within the body. Patients must adhere to strict medication regimens, physiotherapy, diet, and attend regular clinic appointments to manage their condition effectively. This necessary but burdensome requirement has prompted investigations into how different digital health technologies can enhance current care by providing the opportunity to virtually monitor patients. This review explores how virtual monitoring has been harnessed for assessment or performance of physiotherapy/exercise, diet/nutrition, symptom monitoring, medication adherence, and wellbeing/mental-health in people with CF. This review will also briefly discuss the potential future of CF virtual monitoring and some common barriers to its current adoption and implementation within CF. Due to the multifaceted nature of CF, it is anticipated that this review will be relevant to not only the CF community, but also those investigating and developing digital health solutions for the management of other chronic diseases

Development and assessment of a 3D tooth morphology quiz for dental students

Tooth morphology has a pivotal role in the dental curriculum and provides one of the important foundations of clinical practice. To supplement tooth morphology teaching a three‐dimensional (3D) quiz application (app) was developed. The 3D resource enables students to study tooth morphology actively by selecting teeth from an interactive quiz, modify their viewpoint and level of zoom. Additionally, students are able to rotate the tooth to obtain a 3D spatial understanding of the different surfaces of the tooth. A cross‐over study was designed to allow comparison of students’ results after studying with the new application or traditionally with extracted/model teeth. Data show that the app provides an efficient learning tool and that students’ scores improve with usage (18% increase over three weeks, P < 0.001). Data also show that student assessment scores were correlated with scores obtained while using the app but were not influenced by the teaching modality initially accessed (r2 = 0.175, P < 0.01). Comparison of the 2016 and 2017 class performance shows that the class that had access to the app performed significantly better on their final tooth morphology assessment (68.0% ±15.0 vs. 75.3% ±13.4, P < 0.01). Furthermore, students reported that the 3D application was intuitive, provided useful feedback, presented the key features of the teeth, and assisted in learning tooth morphology. The 3D tooth morphology app thus provides students with a useful adjunct teaching tool for learning dental anatomy

Individualized approach to elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor dosing in cystic fibrosis, in response to self-reported anxiety and neurocognitive adverse events: A case series

The prevalence of mental health disorders is high among people with Cystic Fibrosis. The psychological symptoms in CF are associated with poor adherence, worse treatment outcomes, and greater health utilization/cost. Mental health and neurocognitive Adverse Events (AEs) have been reported with all available Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane conductance Regulator (CFTR) modulators in small groups of patients. We report our experience with a dose reduction strategy in 10 of our patients on elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor (7.9% of total number of patients) who self-reported developing intense anxiety, irritability, sleep disturbance and/or mental slowness after initiation of full dose treatment. Standard dose elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor resulted in 14.3 points improvement in mean Percent Predicted Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 s (ppFEV1), and a mean difference in sweat chloride of −39.3 mmol/L. We initially discontinued and/or reduced therapy according to the AEs severity, with a subsequent planned dose escalation every 4–6 weeks guided by sustainability of clinical effectiveness, absence of AEs recurrence, and patients’ preferences. Clinical parameters including lung function and sweat chloride were monitored for up to 12 weeks to assess ongoing clinical response to the reduced dose regimen. Dose reduction resulted in resolution of self-reported mental/psychological AEs, without loss of clinical effectiveness (ppFEV1 was 80.7% on standard dose, and 83.4% at 12 weeks on reduced dose; sweat chloride was 33.4 and 34 mmol/L on standard and reduced dose, respectively). Furthermore, in a subgroup of patients who completed 24 weeks of the reduced dose regimen, repeat low dose Computed Tomography imaging showed a significant response when compared to pre-initiation of elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor

Health behaviour modelling for prenatal diagnosis in Australia: a geodemographic framework for health service utilisation and policy development

BACKGROUND: Despite the wide availability of prenatal screening and diagnosis, a number of studies have reported no decrease in the rate of babies born with Down syndrome. The objective of this study was to investigate the geodemographic characteristics of women who have prenatal diagnosis in Victoria, Australia, by applying a novel consumer behaviour modelling technique in the analysis of health data. METHODS: A descriptive analysis of data on all prenatal diagnostic tests, births (1998 and 2002) and births of babies with Down syndrome (1998 to 2002) was undertaken using a Geographic Information System and socioeconomic lifestyle segmentation classifications. RESULTS: Most metropolitan women in Victoria have average or above State average levels of uptake of prenatal diagnosis. Inner city women residing in high socioeconomic lifestyle segments who have high rates of prenatal diagnosis spend 20% more on specialist physician's fees when compared to those whose rates are average. Rates of prenatal diagnosis are generally low amongst women in rural Victoria, with the lowest rates observed in farming districts. Reasons for this are likely to be a combination of lack of access to services (remoteness) and individual opportunity (lack of transportation, low levels of support and income). However, there are additional reasons for low uptake rates in farming areas that could not be explained by the behaviour modelling. These may relate to women's attitudes and choices. CONCLUSION: A lack of statewide geodemographic consistency in uptake of prenatal diagnosis implies that there is a need to target health professionals and pregnant women in specific areas to ensure there is increased equity of access to services and that all pregnant women can make informed choices that are best for them. Equally as important is appropriate health service provision for families of children with Down syndrome. Our findings show that these potential interventions are particularly relevant in rural areas. Classifying data to lifestyle segments allowed for practical comparisons of the geodemographic characteristics of women having prenatal diagnosis in Australia at a population level. This methodology may in future be a feasible and cost-effective tool for service planners and policy developers

Impact of medical specialists' locus of control on communication skills in oncological interviews

SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Stres u radu sveučilišnih nastavnika: rodne i pozicijske razlike

The aim of this study was to investigate exposure to stress at work in university teachers and see if there were differences between men and women as well as between positions. The study was carried out online and included a representative sample of 1,168 teachers employed at universities in Croatia. This included all teaching positions: assistants (50 %), assistant professors (18 %), associate professors (17 %), and full professors (15 %). Fifty-seven percent of the sample were women. The participants answered a questionnaire of our own design that measured six groups of stressors: workload, material and technical conditions at work, relationships with colleagues at work, work with students, work organisation, and social recognition and status. Women reported greater stress than men. Assistant professors, associate professors, and full professors reported greater stress related to material and technical conditions of work and work organisation than assistants, who, in turn, found relationships with colleagues a greater stressor. Full professors, reported lower exposure to stress at work than associate professors, assistant professors, and assistants.Cilj rada bio je istražiti izloženost sveučilišnih nastavnika stresu u radu i ispitati postoje li razlike između muškaraca i žena te zaposlenika na različitim pozicijama u stupnju izloženosti i prirodi radnih stresora. Istraživanje je metodom on-line ankete provedeno na reprezentativnom uzorku od 1168 nastavnika zaposlenih na sveučilištima u Hrvatskoj. Obuhvaćene su bile sve znanstveno-nastavne pozicije: asistenti (51 %), docenti (19 %), izvanredni profesori (15 %) i redoviti profesori (15 %). 57 % uzorka činile su žene. Primijenjen je Upitnik izloženosti stresu u radu za sveučilišne nastavnike (ISR-SN) koji sadržava 37 čestica i mjeri šest latentnih dimenzija izvora stresa: radno opterećenje, materijalne/tehničke uvjete rada, odnose na poslu, studente, organizaciju rada i društvene uvjete rada. Žene u odnosu prema muškarcima u prosjeku izvještavaju o većoj prisutnosti izvora stresa u svom poslu. Docenti, izvanredni i redoviti profesori u prosjeku procjenjuju veću prisutnost stresora vezanih uz materijalne/tehničke uvjete rada i organizaciju rada u odnosu na asistente koji, pak, u većoj mjeri procjenjuju prisutnost stresora vezanih uz međuljudske odnose. Redoviti profesori u prosjeku izvještavaju o manjoj izloženosti stresorima u svom poslu od izvanrednih profesora, docenata i asistenata