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COVID-19 vaccine Mandates: An Australian attitudinal studyThe rollout of vaccines against COVID-19 is prompting governments and the private sector to adopt mandates. However, there has been little conceptual analysis of the types of mandates available, nor empirical analysis of how the public thinks about different mandates and why. Our conceptual study examines available instruments, how they have been implemented pre-COVID, and their use for COVID-19 globally.
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A simulation study of disaggregation regression for spatial disease mappingDisaggregation regression has become an important tool in spatial disease mapping for making fine-scale predictions of disease risk from aggregated response data.
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Risks and Benefits of UV RadiationWhile UV radiation is a skin carcinogen, this should not obscure the growing evidence that sunlight has significant health benefits, including impacts on cardiovascular and metabolic health.
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A community-based program to reduce acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease in northern AustraliaIn Australia’s north, Aboriginal peoples live with world-high rates of rheumatic heart disease (RHD) and its precursor, acute rheumatic fever (ARF); driven by social and environmental determinants of health. We undertook a program of work to strengthen RHD primordial and primary prevention using a model addressing six domains: housing and environmental support, community awareness and empowerment, health literacy, health and education service integration, health navigation and health provider education.
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Vision, future, cycle and effect: A community life course approach to prevent prenatal alcohol exposure in central AustraliaPrevention approaches specific to prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) have been identified as urgently needed in Australia, including in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. However, very little work has aimed to describe and evaluate health promotion initiatives, especially those developed in rural and remote areas.
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Immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy for malignant pleural mesotheliomaMesothelioma is a rare and universally fatal cancer linked to exposure to asbestos. Until recently, standard of care treatment was chemotherapy; a treatment resulting in a minimal survival extension, and not improved upon for almost twenty years. However, the advent of cancer immunotherapy – and in particular the immune checkpoint inhibitor class of drugs - has resulted in recently approved new treatment options, with more currently under investigation.
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Modelling evolutionary pathways for commensalism and hypervirulence in neisseria meningitidisNeisseria meningitidis, the meningococcus, resides exclusively in humans and causes invasive meningococcal disease (IMD). The population of N. meningitidis is structured into stable clonal complexes by limited horizontal recombination in this naturally transformable species.
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Host-dependent resistance of Group A Streptococcus to sulfamethoxazole mediated by a horizontally-acquired reduced folate transporterDescribed antimicrobial resistance mechanisms enable bacteria to avoid the direct effects of antibiotics and can be monitored by in vitro susceptibility testing and genetic methods. Here we describe a mechanism of sulfamethoxazole resistance that requires a host metabolite for activity.
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The burden of bacterial skin infection, scabies and atopic dermatitis among urban-living Indigenous children in high-income countries: a protocol for a systematic reviewBacterial skin infections and scabies disproportionately affect children in resource-poor countries as well as underprivileged children in high-income countries. Atopic dermatitis is a common childhood dermatosis that predisposes to bacterial skin infection.
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A longitudinal examination of perinatal testosterone, estradiol and vitamin D as predictors of handedness outcomes in childhood and adolescenceThe developmental origins of handedness remain elusive, though very early emergence suggests individual differences manifesting in utero could play an important role. Prenatal testosterone and Vitamin D exposure are considered, yet findings and interpretations remain equivocal.