Complete Genome Sequence of Vibrio coralliilyticus Strain OCN014, Isolated from a Diseased Coral at Palmyra Atoll

Vibrio coralliilyticus is a marine gammaproteobacterium that has been implicated as an etiological agent of disease for multiple coral genera on reefs worldwide. We report the complete genome of V. coralliilyticus strain OCN014, isolated from a diseased Acropora cytherea colony off the western reef terrace of Palmyra Atoll

Respect is central: a critical review of implementation frameworks for continuous quality improvement in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary health care services

Background: Primary health care (PHC) services are complex systems, shaped by an interplay of factors at individual, organisational and broader system levels. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PHC services, closer relationships with the people they serve, local knowledge of community, and cultural awareness are critical. Continuous quality improvement (CQI) has proven to be an effective process for identification of priority issues in health care delivery and for instigating the design, implementation and evaluation of improvement interventions in these settings. However, wide-scale variation in care quality persists partly due to the mismatch between CQI interventions and context. Methods: This critical review of implementation frameworks for CQI in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary health care was conducted in two phases: (1) a review of primary published implementation frameworks used in PHC contexts, and (2) a comparison of key features of these frameworks with quality concepts identified by high-improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PHC services in remote Australia. Results: We found nine primary implementation frameworks previously used in PHC contexts guiding interventions within and between macro (broader contextual) level; meso (health service) level; and micro (community and inter-personal) level systems. There was commonality between these frameworks and key quality concepts in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PHC. However, none of the frameworks covered all concepts with rare consideration of communities driving health improvement, two-way learning (integrating cultural knowledge into healthcare provision), and caring staff—engendering trusting relationships with community enacted through respect. Conclusion: Respect, as a secret essence, privileges the importance of culture, and is an essential element of CQI implementation frameworks for positive change in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PHC services. It is essential to work with communities to design workforce models that grow a caring stable workforce to ensure improvements in quality of care that are effective for their context

A qualitative exploration of priorities for quality improvement amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary health care services

Background: Achieving quality improvement in primary care is a challenge worldwide, with substantial gaps between best practice and actual practice. Within the context of Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Primary Health Care (PHC) services have great variation across settings, structures and context. Research has highlighted how these contextual differences can critically influence the success of Quality Improvement (QI) interventions and outcomes. Less understood is the interaction between local context and other factors, which may impact the implementation of QI interventions. This paper aims to explore the strengths and challenges in QI for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PHC services and their priorities for improvement. Methods: A multiple case study design was adopted, working with eight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PHC services in Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia. Data were collected via a health service survey, semi-structured interviews with health service staff and service users and researcher observations, to explore QI and perceptions of care quality at the service level. Data reported here were analysed using an iterative thematic technique, within-case and across-case. Results: A total of 135 interviews were conducted with health service staff, service users and community members. Participants emphasised the centrality of resilient community, committed workforce and valued Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander team members in delivering care. A shared purpose around improving the health of community was a significant driver. Key challenges included staff turnover and shortages, a complex and overwhelming acute and chronic care workload, building relationships and trust between health services and the community. Service-suggested priority areas for improvement were categorised into five themes: i) cultural safety (community driving health and planning for culturally safe services); ii) community engagement (through clinical activities in the community); iii) shared ownership and a team approach around QI; iv) strengthening systems and consistent ways of doing things in the health service; and v) strengthening local workforce (and resources for a culturally safe workforce). Conclusions: These findings advance understandings of relational, community and cultural factors which are identified priorities for the delivery of quality care in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PHC services across varied contexts

A novel approach of homozygous haplotype sharing identifies candidate genes in autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a highly heritable disorder of complex and heterogeneous aetiology. It is primarily characterized by altered cognitive ability including impaired language and communication skills and fundamental deficits in social reciprocity. Despite some notable successes in neuropsychiatric genetics, overall, the high heritability of ASD (~90%) remains poorly explained by common genetic risk variants. However, recent studies suggest that rare genomic variation, in particular copy number variation, may account for a significant proportion of the genetic basis of ASD. We present a large scale analysis to identify candidate genes which may contain low-frequency recessive variation contributing to ASD while taking into account the potential contribution of population differences to the genetic heterogeneity of ASD. Our strategy, homozygous haplotype (HH) mapping, aims to detect homozygous segments of identical haplotype structure that are shared at a higher frequency amongst ASD patients compared to parental controls. The analysis was performed on 1,402 Autism Genome Project trios genotyped for 1 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We identified 25 known and 1,218 novel ASD candidate genes in the discovery analysis including CADM2, ABHD14A, CHRFAM7A, GRIK2, GRM3, EPHA3, FGF10, KCND2, PDZK1, IMMP2L and FOXP2. Furthermore, 10 of the previously reported ASD genes and 300 of the novel candidates identified in the discovery analysis were replicated in an independent sample of 1,182 trios. Our results demonstrate that regions of HH are significantly enriched for previously reported ASD candidate genes and the observed association is independent of gene size (odds ratio 2.10). Our findings highlight the applicability of HH mapping in complex disorders such as ASD and offer an alternative approach to the analysis of genome-wide association data

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Culturally Informed Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Evaluations: A Scoping Review

Rigorous and effective evaluations inform policy and service delivery and create evidence of program impacts and outcomes for the communities they are designed to support. Genuine engagement of communities is a key feature of effective evaluation, building trust and enhancing relevancy for communities and providing meaningful outcomes and culturally relevant findings. This applies to Indigenous peoples\u27 leadership and perspectives when undertaking evaluations on programs that involve Indigenous communities. This systematic scoping review sought to explore the characteristics of culturally informed evaluations and the extent of their application in Australia, including the use of specific evaluation tools and types of community engagement. Academic and grey literature were searched between 2003 and 2023, with 57 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. Over time, there was an increase in the number of culturally informed evaluations undertaken, predominantly in the health and wellbeing sector. Around a quarter used a tool specifically developed for Indigenous evaluations. Half of the publications included Indigenous authorship; however, most studies lacked detail on how evaluations engaged with communities. This review highlights the need for further development of evaluation tools and standardised reporting to allow for shared learnings and improvement in culturally safe evaluation practices for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities

Justice, culture, and relationships: Australian Indigenous prescription for planetary health

Indigenous communities shoulder a disproportionate burden of ill health compounded by climate change. In Australia, the oldest surviving cultures have adapted their ecological knowledge over millennia and across climatic ages. However, European colonization has severely curtailed Indigenous peoples\u27 ability to adjust to climate change. An effective response to the climate crisis requires decolonizing processes to reform our relationship with the planet. From an Australian Indigenous perspective, precursors for a self-determined and healthier future are justice, culture, and relationships. We review existing studies on Indigenous-led contemporary climate and health initiatives to assess these precursors. There are examples that highlight the need to attend to issues of restorative justice as the basis for respectful valuing of culture and genuine collaboration to address the climate crisis

Maguari Virus Associated with Human Disease

Despite the lack of evidence for symptomatic human infection with Maguari virus (MAGV), its close relation to Cache Valley virus (CVV), which does infect humans, remains a concern. We sequenced the complete genome of a MAGV-like isolate (OBS6657) obtained from a febrile patient in Pucallpa, Ucayali, Peru, in 1998. To facilitate its classification, we generated additional full-length sequences for the MAGV prototype strain, 3 additional MAGV-like isolates, and the closely related CVV (7 strains), Tlacotalpan (1 strain), Playas (3 strains), and Fort Sherman (1 strain) viruses. The OBS6657 isolate is similar to the MAGV prototype, whereas 2 of the other MAGV-like isolates are located on a distinct branch and most likely warrant classification as a separate virus species and 1 is, in fact, a misclassified CVV strain. Our findings provide clear evidence that MAGV can cause human disease

Impacts of Climate Change on Health and Health Services in Northern New South Wales, Australia: A Rapid Review

Climate change is exposing populations to increasing temperatures and extreme weather events in many parts of Australia. To prepare for climate challenges, there is a growing need for Local Health Districts (LHDs) to identify potential health impacts in their region and strengthen the capacity of the health system to respond accordingly. This rapid review summarised existing evidence and research gaps on the impact of climate change on health and health services in Northern New South Wales (NSW)—a ‘hotspot’ for climate disaster declarations. We systematically searched online databases and selected 11 peer-reviewed studies published between 2012–2022 for the Northern NSW region. The most explored health outcome was mental health in the aftermath of floods and droughts, followed by increased healthcare utilisation due to respiratory, cardiovascular and mortality outcomes associated with bushfire smoke or heat waves. Future research directions were recommended to understand: the compounding impacts of extreme events on health and the health system, local data needs that can better inform models that predict future health risks and healthcare utilisation for the region, and the needs of vulnerable populations that require a whole-of-system response during the different phases of disasters. In conclusion, the review provided climate change and health research directions the LHD may undertake to inform future adaptation and mitigation policies and strategies relevant to their region