Traumatic brain injury: support for injured people and their carers

Provides a summary of the available evidence for assessing traumatic brain injury (TBI) and managing the common mental health, physical and cognitive/behavioural issues associated with TBI. Background Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of lifelong disability and death worldwide, but is considered a ‘silent epidemic’ as society is largely unaware of the magnitude of the problem. TBI is a complex injury with a broad spectrum of symptoms and disabilities. Pa-tients with a TBI may have a range of physical, mental, cognitive and social problems. Objective This article provides a summary of the available evidence for assessing TBI and managing the common mental health, physical and cognitive/behavioural issues associated with TBI. Discussion Translational and clinical research has revealed that TBI can no longer be regarded as a single clinical entity with a defined outcome. Each type of injury can lead to a distinct clinical condition that requires careful assessment and appropriate management to reduce long-term disability. In this article we discuss some of the more common health issues related to TBI. &nbsp

Crimson seedless promise WA table grape boon

Five years of research and development into growing Crimson Seedless table grapes in Western Australia has produced a product of international quality. Berry sizes are 20 per cent larger than those being exported by both California and other Australian States. Overall, Crimson Seedless is expected to provide enormous opportunities for Western Australia\u27s table grape industry

Development of Redglobe table grapes for export

Exports wereonce a major outlet for the Western Australian table grape industry. Over the last 20 years however, exports have fallen from 500 to 00 tonnes per year, despite an increase in the area planted to table grapes and an increase on overseas demand for our produce. By 1993 less than 3 per cent of the table grapes produced in the State were exported. The introduction of Redglobe, a new table grape varietyy from California, is expected to increase the export of table grapes from Western Australia to 1000t by 1997, when the variety will represent 90 per cent of all table grapes exported. (see Figure 1) Redglobe production will be a $5 million industry by 1997 if growth continues at its current rate and the management techniques being developed are fully adopted

The nature of constructional apraxia in senile dementia

1. The performance of a series of 13 visuo- constructive tasks by 40 patients with senile dementia (mean age 77.87 years) and 20 aged control subjects (mean age 77.55 years) is studied. The aim of the investigation is to define the nature of constructional defect within the patient group.2. The wide heterogeneity of problems posed by conventional testing of constructional ability is discussed.3. In the consideration of results an attempt has been made to isolate major common factors. Executive and gestalt failures are defined as occurring under three conditions of direct copying, spontaneous construction and reproduction from immediate memory, and the patient and control groups are contrasted.4. Other aspects of response not isolated as common features are described discursively.5. In the discussion of results it is concluded that the morbid group under study fail to construct diamond- orientated rather than square - orientated design. They fail to construct design which has no line of symmetry, rather than design which has, and they fail to construct design which has a diagonal line of symmetry rather than a vertical one.6. Patients in faulty response show a tendency to reduce design to symmetry and to the vertical, when it should properly be asymmetrical and non -vertical.7. Horizontal design poses more difficulty to the experimental group than vertical, but not so much as diagonal design.8. Where complexity as defined in this study is beyond perceptual capacity, those aspects of the design which are diamond -orientated are those which fail to be perceived and constructed; though they may be perceived and constructed in less complex designs.9. Failure of visual recognition of design can alone be a cause of faulty construction in seniles.10. In senile patients the need to consider a large number of variables, in a task, in itself may inhibit the best performance the patient is capable of in respect of any one of these variables.11. The identification of the class to which a design belongs, and the analysis of the dimensions of a particular design within that class, are perceptual tasks of a different order differentially affected in senile dementia.12. in spontaneous construction recall fails. In reproduction from imnediate memory retention fails when the task of construction is still in progress.13. Patient group is worse than control group performance in every test. There are 6 'superior' patients whose performance falls within the control range. Qualitative differences between control and patient groups are discussed.14. In more complex construction control subjects show defects similar to those described as occurring in constructional apraxia of focal origin.15. The patient group in this study shows evidence of a specific spatial defect which is similar to that described by authors considering constructional apraxia as an outcome of focal brain damage. In this study other general causes of constructional failure have also been defined. It is suggested that the specific spatial perceptual defect determines failure in the constructional act even before purely motor manipulation activity begins.16. It is tentatively suggested that the spatial defect outlined in this study may be a consequence of loss of awareness of body verticality, allowing the mainly square or vertical orientation of objects in the environment to exert an undue influence upon the patients' perceptual function

Consultancy to progress hospital in the home care provision: Final report, CHERE Project Report No 13

In July 1998, the Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services commissioned the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation (CHERE) to identify and document Hospital in the Home (HITH) care models nationally and internationally. The purpose of this consultancy was to examine the appropriateness of this form of care for acutely ill patients and to make recommendations about how to increase the utilisation and cost effectiveness of services. Hospital in the Home is emerging internationally and within Australia as a viable alternative form of provision of acute care. The benefits of HITH have generally been seen in terms of its capacity to provide a cost-effective and acceptable alternative to hospital inpatient care, which reduces pressure on hospital beds. However, so far there has only been limited evaluation to lend support to these claims. Over the past decade a wide range of hospital in the home programs have been introduced across the Australian health care system. These programs have often emerged in response to local factors and have a range of different purposes, funding and organisational arrangements, and varying levels of success. In some states hospital in the home has been formalised into a program, whereas in other parts of Australia the introduction of HITH has been left to local decision makers. Thus, the experience of HITH has been extremely variable. It is appropriate at this stage to draw together information about what services are available, how acceptable these services are and what they have achieved. This information is important for determining the future directions of HITH in Australia, as well as providing a valuable resource for service providers and policy makers.Hospital in the home, Australia

Development of a system to measure marine turbulence

Bibliography: leaves 109-113.Various transducers have been developed turbulent shear in the ocean. The airfoil probe with it's piezoceramic beam encapsulated in a rubber airfoil has the simplest electronic processing system. However, the beam is very fragile and displays unpredictable thermal effects. An airfoil probe with semiconductor strain gauges on an aluminium cantilever beam has been developed as an alternative to the piezoceramic beam. The probe was calibrated by exciting it with a known shear generated by the water flow from an oscillating nozzle. During the calibration the thermal sensitivity of the probe was established to be -1.7 % °C-1• The probe, along with it's high gain, low noise processing system, is fitted to a tethered free-fall vehicle. A solid state data logger situated in the vehicle is used to record the data generated by the turbulence probe and a pressure transducer. Field trials at St.Helena Bay and Hout Bay showed that the sensitivity of the system is 20 dB lower than that of similar systems using piezoceramic beams. The system is able to resolve turbulent dissipation levels above 10-8 W kg-1, making it useful in regions characterised by a typical mixed layer (dissipation level of 10-W kg-1); however, it's sensitivity is not adequate for deep sea measurements where dissipation levels may be as low as 10-10 W kg-1