Achilles tendinopathy alters stretch shortening cycle behaviour during a sub-maximal hopping task

Objectives To describe stretch shortening cycle behaviour of the ankle and lower limb in patients with Achilles tendinopathy (AT) and establish differences with healthy volunteers. Design Between-subjects case-controlled. Methods Fifteen patients with AT (mean age 41.2 ± 12.7 years) and 11 healthy volunteers (CON) (mean age 23.2 ± 6.7 years) performed sub-maximal single-limb hopping on a custom built sledge-jump system. Using 3D motion analysis and surface EMG, temporal kinematic (lower limb stiffness, ankle angle at 80 ms pre-contact, ankle angle at contact, peak ankle angle, ankle stretch amplitude) and EMG measures (onset, offset and peak times relative to contact) were captured. Data between AT and CON were compared statistically using a linear mixed model. Results Patients with AT exhibited significantly increased lower limb stiffness when compared to healthy volunteers (p \u3c 0.001) and their hopping range was shifted towards a more dorsiflexed position (p \u3c 0.001). Furthermore, ankle stretch amplitude was greater in AT compared with healthy volunteers (p \u3c 0.001). A delay in muscle activity was also observed; soleus onset (p \u3c 0.001), tibialis anterior peak (p = 0.026) and tibialis anterior offset (p \u3c 0.001) were all delayed in AT compared with CON. Conclusions These findings indicate that patients with AT exhibit altered stretch-shortening cycle behaviour during sub-maximal hopping when compared with healthy volunteers. Patients with AT hop with greater lower limb stiffness, in a greater degree of ankle dorsiflexion and have a greater stretch amplitude. Likewise, delayed muscle activity is evident. These findings have implications in terms of informing the understanding of the pathoaetiology and management of AT

Supporting affordable housing supply: inclusionary planning in new and renewing communities, AHURI Final Report No. 297

This study examined recent Australian and international practice in planning for affordable housing within new and renewing communities, focusing on South Australia’s 15 per cent inclusionary housing target and voluntary incentives for affordable housing in NSW, as well as recent practice in the UK and the US. * Key data sources included policy documents, government reports, and development approval data as well as 23 interviews with planners and affordable housing developers and consultants

Ageing in a housing crisis: A gendered lens on housing insecurity and homelessness

Housing insecurity and homelessness are increasing amongst older people in Australia, and women are particularly affected. Our new report, Ageing in a housing crisis: Older people's housing insecurity and homelessness in Australia enumerates the scale of the problem and indicates a structural change in the housing experiences of older people in Australia.1 In this article, a gendered lens draws attention to how women's housing experiences are being adversely shaped and why understanding these experiences matters. We shift attention away from individual factors that drive housing and homelessness risk to focus on systemic challenges and changes within the housing system that underpin increasing life-long gender effects and housing insecurity in Australia

A novel retinoblastoma therapy from genomic and epigenetic analyses.

Retinoblastoma is an aggressive childhood cancer of the developing retina that is initiated by the biallelic loss of RB1. Tumours progress very quickly following RB1 inactivation but the underlying mechanism is not known. Here we show that the retinoblastoma genome is stable, but that multiple cancer pathways can be epigenetically deregulated. To identify the mutations that cooperate with RB1 loss, we performed whole-genome sequencing of retinoblastomas. The overall mutational rate was very low; RB1 was the only known cancer gene mutated. We then evaluated the role of RB1 in genome stability and considered non-genetic mechanisms of cancer pathway deregulation. For example, the proto-oncogene SYK is upregulated in retinoblastoma and is required for tumour cell survival. Targeting SYK with a small-molecule inhibitor induced retinoblastoma tumour cell death in vitro and in vivo. Thus, retinoblastomas may develop quickly as a result of the epigenetic deregulation of key cancer pathways as a direct or indirect result of RB1 loss

Growing old in non-metropolitan regions: intentions and realities from South Australia and Northern Ireland

Residential mobility trends have created patterns of accumulating and congregating retirement populations in non metropolitan regions. Despite the diversity of non metropolitan regions, many share challenges of service provision, transport and housing outcomes for specific cohorts – including older people. These challenges may be further exacerbated by changing expectations. Each generation enters retirement with expectations that differ from those who have retired before them. The cohort aged between 50 and 65 years is no different. Despite a track record of altering all significant social institutions as it has moved through the life course, little is known about the housing needs of this cohort in retirement. This thesis examines the housing needs of those in, or nearing, retirement in non metropolitan regions and questions how these vary for places of accumulating and congregating retirement populations in South Australia and Northern Ireland. In this research, housing has a number of dimensions including dwelling, locality, individual aspirations and social networks. Housing needs are shaped by changes, anticipated or actual, associated with new stages in the life course – including retirement. As residential needs are altered, households readjust their environment to accommodate these changes. This readjustment may result in changes to the current dwelling, a change in dwelling within the same locality or a move away from that locality. The residential decision making process at and near retirement is used to investigate the housing needs of the retiring cohort. Five aspects of housing were considered in the thesis, beginning with an exploration of the meanings that this cohort attach to residence and the lifestyle aspirations they have for retirement. The decision to move or stay put was the third, but equally important, dimension of housing needs that was examined. Spatially, it furthers the understanding of the residential mobility decisions being made in retirement. In addition, the decision to stay put is also associated with the most widely held understanding of this cohort, the desire to ‘age in place’. The discourse around ageing in place is confused by multiple definitions. A more functional definition was therefore created by separating the two major components – growing old in one’s own community and the ability to remain independent in one’s own home. The fourth aspect built upon participant intentions to either move or stay put in and for retirement. It examined the housing factors evaluated in this decision. The final aspect drew together the housing needs of this cohort and considered the implications that they might have for service providers and the experience of growing old in non metropolitan regions

Geographies of ageing: Social processes and the spatial unevenness of population ageing

This book examines the patterns and causes of uneven population ageing. It identifies those countries and localities most likely to experience population ageing and the reasons for this. Attention is also given to the role that youth migration, labour force migration, retirement migration and ageing in place have in influencing the spatial concentrations of older peopl