AROC Impairment Specific Report, Inpatient - Pathway 3 - Orthopaedic Replacements - Anywhere Hospital, January 2014 - December 2014

This is the third AROC Impairment Specific Report for Orthopaedic Replacements which compares YOUR FACILITY\u27s data to ALL AROC FACILITIES data (Australia and New Zealand). Each Impairment Specific Report is structured as a series of chapters. Each report will present an overall big picture chapter on the impairment followed by a chapter looking at FIM item scoring at YOUR FACILITY as compared to ALL AROC FACILITIES data by AN-SNAP class. An outcomes analysis chapter follows with an explanatory data chapter at the end

AROC Impairment Specific Report, Inpatient - Pathway 3 - Spinal Cord Dysfunction - Anywhere Hospital, January 2014 - December 2014

This is the first AROC Impairment S pecific Report for spinal cord dysfunction which compares YOUR FACILITY\u27s data to data from SPECIALIST spinal cord injury services and data from NON SPECIALIST spinal cord injuries services (Australia and New Zeal and). Each Impairment Specific Report is structured as a series of chapters. Each report will present an overall big picture chapter on the impairment followed by a chapter looking at FIM item scoring at YOUR FACILITY. An outcomes analysis chapter follows with an explanatory data chapter at the end

Integrating benchmarking into your rehabilitation processes: AROC data and your everyday decisions

Powerpoint presentation presented at the ANZCOS / AFRM Conference, Brisban

The AROC annual report: the state of rehabilitation in New Zealand in 2012

This is the first comprehensive annual report describing discharge episodes from subacute inpatient rehabilitation programs provided by New Zealand facilities that are members of the Australasian Rehabilitation Outcomes Centre (AROC)

AROC outcome benchmarks report inpatient - pathway 3 Anywhere Hospital January 2015 - December 2015

The Outcome Benchmarks Report is a biannual report that provides facilities with the opportunity to evaluate their performance against all other Australian and New Zealand rehabilitation facilities. This report provides impairment level 25th percentile targets which were set by the AROC Scientific and Clinical Advisory Committee as a stretch goal for continuous improvement. The performance measures presented in this report include Casemix Adjusted FIM Efficiency and Casemix Adjusted Length of Stay. The selection of these outcome measures is based on the advice provided by the AROC Scientific and Clinical Advisory Committee. Each facility is provided with a graphical representation of their casemix adjusted performance against all other facilities at the impairment level. A five year trend graph of the outcome measure (not casemix adjusted) is included in this report to demonstrate quality improvement over time

The AROC annual report: the state of rehabilitation in New Zealand in 2015

This is the fourth comprehensive annual report describing discharge episodes from subacute inpatient rehabilitation programs provided by New Zealand facilities that are members of the Australasian Rehabilitation Outcomes Centre (AROC). The inaugural report was published in 2013 and described the 2012 data; this fourth instalment describes the 2015 data. This report is the first to use the version 4 AN-SNAP classification (to be implemented in Australia in July 2016). For more information about AN-SNAP classification please refer to the AROC website: http://ahsri.uow.edu.au/aroc This report also introduces an extended times series analysis, looking at change in various rehabilitation measures over the most recent five years. The provision of rehabilitation in New Zealand continues to grow in volume, with 2015 seeing a 1.4% real increase in inpatient episodes of rehabilitation provided. The majority of that volume growth is coming from the reconditioning and orthopaedic fractures impairment groups

Parenteral Transmission of the Novel Human Parvovirus PARV4

Transmission routes of PARV4, a newly discovered human parvovirus, were investigated by determining frequencies of persistent infections using autopsy samples from different risk groups. Predominantly parenteral routes of transmission were demonstrated by infection restricted to injection drug users and persons with hemophilia and absence of infection in homosexual men with AIDS and low-risk controls

Comparative genomics of the emerging human pathogen Photorhabdus asymbiotica with the insect pathogen Photorhabdus luminescens

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Gram-negative bacterium <it>Photorhabdus asymbiotica </it>(Pa) has been recovered from human infections in both North America and Australia. Recently, Pa has been shown to have a nematode vector that can also infect insects, like its sister species the insect pathogen <it>P. luminescens </it>(Pl). To understand the relationship between pathogenicity to insects and humans in <it>Photorhabdus </it>we have sequenced the complete genome of Pa strain ATCC43949 from North America. This strain (formerly referred to as <it>Xenorhabdus luminescens </it>strain 2) was isolated in 1977 from the blood of an 80 year old female patient with endocarditis, in Maryland, USA. Here we compare the complete genome of Pa ATCC43949 with that of the previously sequenced insect pathogen <it>P. luminescens </it>strain TT01 which was isolated from its entomopathogenic nematode vector collected from soil in Trinidad and Tobago.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that the human pathogen Pa had a smaller genome (5,064,808 bp) than that of the insect pathogen Pl (5,688,987 bp) but that each pathogen carries approximately one megabase of DNA that is unique to each strain. The reduced size of the Pa genome is associated with a smaller diversity in insecticidal genes such as those encoding the Toxin complexes (Tc's), Makes caterpillars floppy (Mcf) toxins and the <it>Photorhabdus </it>Virulence Cassettes (PVCs). The Pa genome, however, also shows the addition of a plasmid related to pMT1 from <it>Yersinia pestis </it>and several novel pathogenicity islands including a novel Type Three Secretion System (TTSS) encoding island. Together these data suggest that Pa may show virulence against man via the acquisition of the <it>pMT1</it>-like plasmid and specific effectors, such as SopB, that promote its persistence inside human macrophages. Interestingly the loss of insecticidal genes in Pa is not reflected by a loss of pathogenicity towards insects.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results suggest that North American isolates of Pa have acquired virulence against man via the acquisition of a plasmid and specific virulence factors with similarity to those shown to play roles in pathogenicity against humans in other bacteria.</p

Peptide-Pulsed Dendritic Cells Induce the Hepatitis C Viral Epitope-Specific Responses of Naïve Human T Cells

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of liver disease. Spontaneous resolution of infection is associated with broad, MHC class I- (CD8+) and class II-restricted (CD4+) T cell responses to multiple viral epitopes. Only 20% of patients clear infection spontaneously, however, most develop chronic disease. The response to chemotherapy varies; therapeutic vaccination offers an additional treatment strategy. To date, therapeutic vaccines have demonstrated only limited success in clinical trials. Vector-mediated vaccination with multi-epitope-expressing DNA constructs provides an improved approach. Highly-conserved, HLA-A2-restricted HCV epitopes and HLA-DRB1-restricted immunogenic consensus sequences (ICS, each composed of multiple overlapping and highly conserved epitopes) were predicted using bioinformatics tools and synthesized as peptides. HLA binding activity was determined in competitive binding assays. Immunogenicity and the ability of each peptide to stimulate naïve human T cell recognition and IFN-γ production were assessed in cultures of total PBMCs and in co-cultures composed of peptide-pulsed dendritic cells (DCs) and purified T lymphocytes, cell populations derived from normal blood donors. Essentially all predicted HLA-A2-restricted epitopes and HLA-DRB1-restricted ICS exhibited HLA binding activity and the ability to elicit immune recognition and IFN-γ production by naïve human T cells. The ability of DCs pulsed with these highly-conserved HLA-A2- and -DRB1-restricted peptides to induce naïve human T cell reactivity and IFN-γ production ex vivo demonstrates the potential efficacy of a multi-epitope-based HCV vaccine targeted to dendritic cells