Psychotropic pharmacogenetics in adult populations: From basic science to clinical trials and health economics - An evidence-based overview for decision makers.

Psychotropic pharmacogenetics (PGx) offers significant potential advancements in psychiatric care by optimising medication selection and dosing based on genetic factors. This perspective article highlights the clinical utility, health economic implications and implementation challenges of psychotropic PGx, proposing that its broader implementation could enhance patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs. Landmark studies show that PGx-guided care results in fewer adverse drug reactions and improved medication efficacy, with substantial cost savings compared to traditional prescribing methods.

Socioeconomic differences in the cost-effectiveness of a telephone-based intervention for obesity prevention in early childhood.

Objectives: This study investigated the cost-effectiveness of an early childhood obesity prevention intervention providing telephone and short message service (SMS) support to mothers of children aged 2-4 years by socioeconomic position (SEP).

Methods: A model-based SEP-specific economic evaluation of the intervention was conducted. SEP-specific intervention costs and effects at age 5 years were derived from the trial data and applied to a cohort of 4- to 5-year-old Australian children.

Consortium profile: the methylation, imaging and NeuroDevelopment (MIND) consortium.

Epigenetic processes, such as DNA methylation, show potential as biological markers and mechanisms underlying gene-environment interplay in the prediction of mental health and other brain-based phenotypes. However, little is known about how peripheral epigenetic patterns relate to individual differences in the brain itself. An increasingly popular approach to address this is by combining epigenetic and neuroimaging data; yet, research in this area is almost entirely comprised of cross-sectional studies in adults.

Staff perceptions of their roles in infection prevention and control in residential aged care homes: A qualitative study.

Background: Older people who live in residential aged care homes (RACHs) are particularly vulnerable to infections. Without staff commitment and engagement, even the most well-designed policies and guidelines may fail to achieve infection prevention and control (IPAC) effectiveness. The aim of this study was to examine staff perceptions of their roles in IPAC in RACHs.

Language dysfunction as a primary feature of cognitive decline in neurological populations.

Cognitive decline is a common feature of neurologic conditions, with language functions often affected. Word finding difficulties are commonly reported to neurologists in clinic. Receptive language dysfunction (i.

Feasibility of an online nutrition intervention to improve adherence to healthy and sustainable diets in young Australian adults: protocol for a pilot pre-post intervention study.

Introduction: Current diets which are commonly high in meat and ultra-processed foods are unhealthy and unsustainable and contribute significantly to climate change, environmental degradation and poor health outcomes. Transitioning to healthy and sustainable diets that are rich in plant-based foods and low in animal products could reduce environmental impacts and improve population health. Young Australian adults are a critical target group for dietary intervention as they are motivated towards climate action and have the lowest diet quality out of all adult age groups.

Long-chain fatty acids promote ATP production in post-thaw boar sperm through mitochondrial β-oxidation.

Due to the current limitations of boar semen cryopreservation systems, the effective restoration of sperm quality following thawing remains a significant challenge. This study investigates whether post-thaw boar sperm can uptake exogenous long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs) and utilize them for ATP generation, thereby sustaining linear motility and enhancing sperm vitality. Boar semen was diluted in extender solutions supplemented with varying concentrations of a lipid mixture (0, 0.

A qualitative study exploring physician perspectives on a cardiac-based seizure prediction digital service for epilepsy management.

Objective: The unpredictability of epileptic seizures represents a significant challenge to people with epilepsy. To address this, research on seizure prediction has been evolving rapidly. However, insights from end-users that guide the development of this technology have been limited.

The Role of Selection for Function in Aging and Chronic Diseases: A Novel Evolutionary Perspective.

Aging, and by extension age-related diseases, has traditionally been understood through classical evolutionary genetic models, such as the mutation accumulation and antagonistic pleiotropy theories. However, these frameworks primarily focus on the declining efficacy of organismal-level selection against mutations with deleterious effects in late life. Here, we propose a novel hypothesis: many chronic diseases associated with aging may emerge, at least in part, as a result of selection acting at lower organizational levels, including non-replicative biological entities, enabled by the relaxation of selective pressures that constrained within-organism evolutionary processes in early life.

Working towards affordable healthy diets: a review on innovations in food price monitoring, policy and research in Australia and beyond.

Healthy diets are unaffordable for billions of people worldwide, with food prices rising in high-, middle- and low-income nations in recent times. Despite widespread attention to this issue, recent actions taken to inform policy prioritisation and government responses to high food inflation have not been comprehensively synthesised. Our review summarises (i) innovative efforts to monitor national food and healthy diet price, ii) new policy responses adopted by governments to address food inflation and (iii) future research directions to inform new evidence.

"We Don't Want You to Be Dismissed": Perspectives of Remediation From Surgical Education and Training Managers.

Background: While education and training managers are key personnel within surgical training programs regarding management of trainee performance including remediation, there is a lack of research concerning their perspectives. For improvements in remediation at a systems level, insight to their perspectives and experiences is essential.

Methods: This qualitative study explored the perspectives of 12 education and training managers of surgical societies/associations/colleges in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Efficacy of a personalised alcohol approach bias modification smartphone app in people accessing outpatient alcohol use disorder treatment: A randomised controlled trial.

Background And Aims: Several randomised controlled trials (RCTs) have demonstrated that delivering approach bias modification (ApBM) during residential alcohol use disorder (AUD) treatment helps prevent post-treatment relapse. However, few studies have examined ApBM's efficacy for AUD in outpatients. We trialled a personalised ApBM smartphone app in individuals receiving outpatient AUD treatment.

Current status and challenges in electroencephalography (EEG)-based driver fatigue detection: a comprehensive survey.

Driver fatigue is a major contributor to traffic accidents, leading to increased fatality rates and severe damage compared to incidents involving alert drivers. Electroencephalography (EEG) has emerged as a widely used method for detecting driver fatigue due to its ability to capture brain activity patterns. This survey provides a thorough analysis of devices that detect driver fatigue using EEG, analyzing existing methodologies, challenges, and future research directions.

Evaluating the Nourish Network - a multi-sector collective initiative to progress healthy food retail in Australia.

Objectives: To evaluate the current state of the Nourish Network (NN) - a healthy food retail network, to inform future planning and improvement opportunities.

Design: A qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews conducted between January and April 2024, open-ended survey questions from six online surveys applied between 2019-2022, and a focus group with the NN Advisory Committee (NNAC) in June 2024. Thematic analysis was applied to interview and survey data.

Domain-specific physical activity and mental health: an updated systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis in a combined sample of 3.3 million people.

Objective: To update, synthesise and provide meta-analytical evidence of the associations between domain-specific physical activity (PA) and mental health and mental ill-health outcomes.

Design: Systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis.

Data Sources: In March 2024, we systematically searched five databases.

Longitudinal investigation of psychological outcomes associated with screen use in Danish preschool children: study protocol for The Digital Child.

Introduction: Despite an increasing use of screens among preschool children and evidence suggesting potential adverse effects, there is a paucity of longitudinal research that aims to disentangle the multifaceted components of screen use and their unique associations with development. We present a protocol for a large-scale national longitudinal study with repeated measurements in Danish preschool children, with the aim of investigating the cross-sectional and cross-lagged longitudinal associations between screen use and psychological outcomes.

Methods And Analysis: The Digital Child Study is a national prospective observational cohort of Danish preschool children.

Research burden in pediatric cancer: A mixed methods study from the PediQUEST Response Trial.

Context: Research burden in pediatric advanced cancer is understudied.

Objectives: To analyze study burden among parents and children participating in the PediQUEST Response Trial, and explore associated factors, including belonging to historically marginalized (HM) backgrounds or facing economic hardship (EH).

Methods: Mixed-methods secondary analysis of data collected for an RCT.

The use of discrete choice experiments in evaluating telehealth: a systematic review.

Background: There is a growing body of evidence from discrete choice experiments related to telehealth. Discrete choice experiments offer valuable insights in informing the design and evaluation of telehealth services and supporting the telehealth implementation and policy.

Objective: This review aims to examine studies assessing consumer preferences for telehealth using discrete choice experiments.

Are recessions bad for loneliness?

Loneliness is a pressing public health concern with significant economic, health and social consequences. This paper examines the impact of economic downturns, particularly unemployment and job loss perception, on loneliness in Australia. Using a fixed-effects panel regression applied to 19 waves of data, we find that unemployment is significantly linked to an increased likelihood of experiencing loneliness and other dimensions of social health, with the effects of unemployment on loneliness persisting for several years.

An integrated blockchain and IPFS-based solution for secure and efficient source code repository hosting using middleman approach.

Centralized version control systems (VCS) are vital for software development but pose risks of data loss and ownership disputes. While blockchain offers a decentralized alternative, existing solutions are often hindered by high latency, compromising the real-time collaboration essential for modern workflows. This study introduces a novel hybrid architecture combining the security of the Ethereum blockchain and the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) with two key contributions: 1) Shamir's Secret Sharing (SSS) to create a trust-minimized model for key distribution, and 2) an authoritative-first, optimistic-fallback retrieval protocol utilizing a temporary middleware to decouple the user experience from blockchain confirmation delays.

Innovative Strategies for Postharvest Disease Management in Fruits and Vegetables: A Comprehensive Treatise.

Postharvest diseases, driven by necrotrophic fungi such as , , and , pose a significant threat to global fruit and vegetable supply chains, resulting in annual losses of 20%-40% and economic impacts exceeding $10 billion. This review critically evaluates innovative, sustainable strategies for biological control, nanotechnology, edible coatings, and plant growth regulators (PGRs) to mitigate these losses, emphasizing their mechanisms and efficacy. Biological agents like and reduce disease incidence by 60%-85% through volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nutrient competition.

Consequences of Cancer on Zebrafish : Insights Into Sex Determination, Sex Ratio, and Offspring Survival.

Offspring sex ratio has been proposed as an indicator of the risk of developing certain cancers in humans, but offspring sex ratio may also be a consequence of the disease. In this study, we investigate this subject using the zebrafish, as a model system. First, we explore whether inducing skin cancer at an early stage of the host's life (embryonic stage) has the potential to influence sex determination and/or sex-specific mortality.

Use of Client-Side Machine Learning Models for Privacy-Preserving Healthcare Predictions - A Deployment Case Study.

Introduction: Machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) models in healthcare traditionally rely on server-centric architectures, where sensitive patient data is transmitted to external servers for processing via frameworks like Flask, raising significant privacy concerns. This work demonstrates a privacy-preserving approach by executing healthcare prediction models entirely within the web browser.

Methods: Our approach leverages existing browser-based machine learning and deep learning technologies such as TensorFlow.

Design Mapping: A Conceptual Framework for Co-Designing Evidence-Based Digital Mental Health Programs.

Introduction: There is currently limited guidance on how to codesign digital mental health programs in collaboration with end-users. As a result, common barriers often prevent codesign initiatives from achieving their full potential in enhancing the effectiveness of digital mental health supports. These barriers include the exclusion of end-users from the early stages of design, a lack of attention to diversity in user experiences and needs, failure to use tools that facilitate creative and egalitarian collaboration, and prioritisation of usability over robust research methods.