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Biomedical subjects

David Moore

Publications and source records attributed to David Moore.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Enabling environments and the reduction of drug-related harm: re-framing Australian policy and practice.

In this paper Moore & Dietze use data from their study of street-based injecting drug users and sex workers in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda to challenge the dominant emphasis of drug policy in Australia. They remind us that while existing harm reduction strategies that encourage individual behaviour change should be continued, these measures need to be complemented and extended by further attention to the environmental aspects of drug-related harm. This is a timely call. Responses targeting individual behaviour change are relatively easy to implement and less politically challenging. However, if we are really serious about reducing drug-related harm in the Australian community, then broader systemic and structural barriers which undermine these efforts must be addressed.Simon LentonEditor, Harm Reduction Digest.

Adult↗

Alcohol policy and harm reduction in Australia.

With consultations having been held across Australia this year as part of the process of developing a new National Alcohol Strategy, it seemed timely to invite my colleagues from the National Drug Research Institute who are experts in the alcohol field to write this Harm Reduction Digest. The authors have canvassed a range of alcohol policy options and discussed their effectiveness in reducing harm for what is arguably Australia's number one drug problem. Australia's response to alcohol and other drug problems has, historically, been based on 'harm minimization--incorporating supply reduction, demand reduction and harm reduction'. At this time where the policy options for alcohol are being set for the next 5 years in a climate of 'small government', removing restrictions of 'fair competition' in business and a belief in the free market, what does the research have to say about recommended policies and strategies to reduce alcohol-related harm?

Alcohol-Related Disorders↗

Research gaps in protecting healthcare workers from SARS and other respiratory pathogens: an interdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder, evidence-based approach.

OBJECTIVE: To identify priorities for further research in protecting healthcare workers (HCWs) from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and other respiratory pathogens by summarizing the basic science of infectious bioaerosols and the efficacy of facial protective equipment; the organizational, environmental, and individual factors that influence the success of infection control and occupational health programs; and factors identified by HCWs as important. METHOD: An extensive literature review was conducted and 15 focus groups held, mostly with frontline HCWs in Toronto. Critical gaps in knowledge were identified and prioritized. RESULTS: Highest priority was given to organizational factors that create a climate of safety. Other priority areas included understanding aerosolization risks and practical measures to control bioaerosols at the source. CONCLUSIONS: Further research is warranted to improve safety climate in health care and, specifically, to provide greater protection against respiratory pathogens.

Canada↗

Assessing and managing contaminated sediments: part I, developing an effective investigation and risk evaluation strategy.

This is the first of a two-part review of the current state-of-the-science pertaining to the assessment and management of contaminated sediments. The goal of this review is to introduce some of the major technical and policy issues stemming from the assessment and management of contaminated sediments, highlight a number of aspects of contaminated sediment assessment and management found to be successful, and, when appropriate, address the barriers that still exist for improving contaminated sediment management. In this paper, Part I, the many key elements of an effective investigation and risk evaluation strategy are reviewed, beginning with the development of a conceptual site model (CSM) and including a discussion of some of the key factors influencing the design of sediment investigations and ecological risk assessment of sediment-bound chemicals on aquatic biota. In Part II of this paper (Apitz et al. 2005), various approaches are reviewed for evaluating sediment risk and monitoring sediment remedy effectiveness. While many of the technical and policy issues described in this review are relevant to dredged material management, the focus of this paper is on sediment assessment for environmental management.

Geologic Sediments↗

Sentinel node biopsy for high-risk nonmelanoma cutaneous malignancy.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the feasibility of sentinel node staging for detection of occult regional lymph node metastasis in high-risk cutaneous nonmelanoma malignancies. DESIGN: Consecutive clinical case series. SETTING: Referral university medical center. PATIENTS: A consecutive sample of patients with a variety of high-risk nonmelanoma cutaneous malignancies without evidence of regional lymph node metastases. INTERVENTION: Sentinel node biopsies were performed using preoperative lymphoscintigraphy, blue dye, and intraoperative radiolocalization. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Sensitivity, determined by comparing the results of biopsy specimen evaluation with those of completion lymphadenectomy and/or clinical follow-up. RESULTS: Twenty-four patients underwent sentinel node biopsy for the staging of 29 nodal basins identified by lymphoscintigraphy. Primary diagnoses were squamous cell carcinoma (n = 17), Merkel cell carcinoma (n = 5), and adenocarcinoma (n = 2). Seven patients (29%) had a tumor-positive sentinel node. Sentinel node biopsy followed by complete lymphadenectomy was performed in 12 patients and sentinel node biopsy alone in 12 patients. Tumor-positive lymph nodes were noted in 8 patients, 7 of whom also had positive sentinel nodes. There was 1 false-positive result (1/8 [12%]), in a patient with recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the scalp. At a median follow-up of 10 months, no recurrences in a sentinel node-negative basin have been noted. Compared with all information, the sensitivity of sentinel node staging was 88% and the negative predictive value was 0.94. CONCLUSIONS: Sentinel node biopsy is a minimally invasive staging procedure useful in identifying occult regional lymph node disease in selected patients with nonmelanoma cutaneous malignancies. Further studies to verify these findings and develop formal guidelines are indicated.

Adenocarcinoma↗

Governing street-based injecting drug users: a critique of heroin overdose prevention in Australia.

This article provides a critical analysis of existing approaches to the prevention of heroin overdose in Australia. It draws on almost 2 years of ethnographic research with street-based injecting drug users (IDUs), street-based sex workers and service providers in Melbourne, Australia's second largest city, and on recent anthropological and sociological work on governmentality. The substantive sections of the article argue: (1) that heroin overdose prevention in Australia contains implicit or explicit assumptions of rationality and personal autonomy, continues to emphasise individual behaviour change and inscribes a self-disciplined, self-aware, self-regulating subject; and (2) that the social, cultural and economic realities--the 'lived experience'--of street-based IDUs and sex workers may undermine or hinder the successful adoption of overdose prevention strategies. The paper concludes by arguing that the 'chaotic' practices of street-based IDUs and sex workers arise in response to particular 'risk environments', and that individually focused overdose prevention strategies, while an important first step, need to be complemented by measures addressing the macro- and micro-aspects of risk environments.

Adult↗

Simulating colonial growth of fungi with the Neighbour-Sensing model of hyphal growth.

The Neighbour-Sensing model brings together the basic essentials of hyphal growth kinetics into a vector-based mathematical model in which the growth vector of each virtual hyphal tip is calculated by reference to the surrounding virtual mycelium. The model predicts the growth pattern of many hyphae into three spatial dimensions and has been used to simulate complex fungal fruit body shapes. In this paper we show how the Neighbour-Sensing model can simulate growth in semi-solid substrata like agar or soil, enabling realistic simulation of mycelial colonies of filamentous fungi grown in 'Petri-dish style' experimental conditions. Newly implemented capabilities in the model include: a measurement and logging system within the program that maintains basic statistics about the mycelium it is simulating, this facilitates kinetic experimentation; inclusion of 'substrates' in the data space causing positive or negative tropisms for the growing mycelium; a horizontal plane tropism that provides a way of simulating colonies growing in or on a substratum like agar or soil by imposing a horizontal constraint on the data space the cyberhyphal tips can explore; three categories of hypha--standard hyphae are those that start the simulation, leading hyphae can emerge from the colony peripheral growth zone to take on a leading role, and secondary hyphae are branches that can arise late, far behind the peripheral growth zone, when mature hyphal segments resume branching to in-fill the older parts of the colony. We show how the model can be used to investigate hyphal growth kinetics in silico in experimental scenarios that would be difficult or impracticable in vivo. We also show that the Neighbour-Sensing model can generate sufficiently realistic cord-like structures to encourage the belief that this model is now sufficiently advanced for parameters to be defined that simulate specific in silico cyberfungi. The potential utility of these cyberspecies is that they provide a means to model the morphogenetic effects of a variety of factors, from environmental and nutritional features to mutations, in experimentally realistic situations, offering a valuable addition to the experimental toolkit of all those interested in fungal growth and morphology.

Computer Graphics↗

Concerted regulation of all hyphal tips generates fungal fruit body structures: experiments with computer visualizations produced by a new mathematical model of hyphal growth.

Filamentous hyphal growth is inherently suited to kinetic analysis, and in many respects the fungal mycelium can be viewed as a very mechanical biological system, which lends itself to mathematical modelling. The mathematics of hyphal tip extension growth are well-established. However, even though a hyphal growth equation can be written with confidence, and we have a good understanding of the effects of tropisms on growth, it is not easy to form a mental picture of the behaviour of large populations of hyphal tips. What is required, and what we believe we have produced, is a mathematical model that is sufficiently sophisticated to produce a realistic visualization of fungal hyphal growth. This provides us with a cyberfungus that can be used for experimentation on the theoretical rules that might govern hyphal patterning, hyphal interactions, and tissue formation and organ development by actually visualizing the virtual hyphal growth patterns that result from different regulatory scenarios. From a series of model experiments the most significant observation is that complex fungal fruit body shapes can be simulated by applying the same regulatory functions to all of the growth points active in a structure at any specific time. No global control of fruit body geometry is necessary. No localized regulation is necessary. The shape of the fruit body emerges from the concerted response of the entire population of hyphal tips, in the same way, to the same signals.

Computer Graphics↗

Otitis media, hearing loss, and language learning: controversies and current research.

This article reviews research on the possible linkage of otitis media with effusion (OME) to children's hearing and development, identifies gaps, and directions for research, and discusses implications for healthcare practices. About half of children with an episode of OME experience a mild hearing loss while about 5-10% of children have moderate hearing loss. Recent prospective and randomized clinical trials suggest none to very small negative associations of OME to children's later language development. Based on both retrospective and prospective longitudinal studies, associations between OME and perceiving speech in noise and tasks that require equal binaural hearing have been reported but have not been adequately studied with regard to functional outcomes. Thus, on average, for typically developing children, OME may not be a substantial risk factor for later speech and language development or academic achievement. However, these conclusions should be interpreted cautiously, since most of these studies used OME rather than hearing loss as the independent variable (although hearing loss rather than OME is hypothesized to affect language development) and many studies did not control for important confounding variables such as socioeconomic status (SES).

Attention↗

The use of amplified fragment length polymorphism for molecular analysis of Beauveria bassiana isolates from Kenya and other countries, and their correlation with host and geographical origin.

Beauveria spp. (one Beauveria sp., two B. brongniartii, and 47 B. bassiana) isolated from insects and soil from Kenya and other 16 different countries, were obtained from the CABI Bioscience Genetic Resource Collection. DNA was extracted from the 50 isolates and their genetic variability was investigated using restriction analysis of the internal-transcribed-spacer ribosomal region restriction fragment length polymorphism (ITS-RFLP), ITS sequencing, and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). The B. bassiana isolates could not be distinguished by ITS-RFLP as all of them showed the same banding pattern. However, the AFLP technique provided more information on polymorphism between the isolates, allowing them to be clustered by relative similarity using band matching and unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean analysis. Although no significant correlation between the isolates and host and geographical origins were observed, the technique revealed clonal populations of B. bassiana within Kenya.

Acrylic Resins↗

The transition to parenthood among young African American and Latino couples: relational predictors of risk for parental dysfunction.

This study examined relationship factors associated with parental dysfunction among young African American and Latino couples. Parent dysfunction was defined in terms of parenting stress, child abuse potential, physically punitive behavior, and paternal disengagement. Fathers who reported positive relations with their own parents and partners before childbirth reported more positive adjustments to parenthood at follow-up. The quality of the prebirth partner relationship buffered the impact of a relationship breakup on a young father's adjustment to parenthood. The quality of a mother's relationship with her parents was the best predictor of her adjustment to parenthood. However, mothers who reported large declines in the quality of the partner relationship also reported high levels of parenting stress. Clinical and policy implications of findings are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Substrate dependent inhibition profiles of fourteen drugs on CYP3A4 activity measured by a high throughput LCMS/MS method with four probe drugs, midazolam, testosterone, nifedipine and terfenadine.

The CYP3A4 enzyme is known for its atypical inhibition kinetics; ligand inhibition can differ depending upon the probe drug used. A high throughput-LCMS/MS CYP3A4 inhibition assay with four substrate drugs was developed to minimize the potential oversight of CYP3A4 inhibition. The assay uses a 96-well format, human liver microsomes, and four CYP3A4 substrate drugs, midazolam, testosterone, nifedipine and terfenadine. After incubation of the individual substrate with human liver microsomes, the reaction is stopped by solid phase extraction and the four probe metabolites produced are pooled and measured by LCMS/MS with multiple-ion-monitoring mode. Using this assay, the IC(50) values of fourteen compounds recognized as substrates/inhibitors of CYP3A4, were measured for the CYP3A4 catalyzed-metabolism of probe drugs. IC(50) values were also obtained for the common set of compounds by the microtiter plate fluorescent assays with cDNA-expressed CYP3A4. Comparison of the results from the two methods suggests that decision making should be cautiously executed to predict drug interaction potential caused by inhibition of CYP3A4 considering the gap between the two assays and various other factors.

Journal Article↗

Highly enantioselective phenylacetylene additions to both aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes.

The readily available and inexpensive BINOL in combination with Ti(O(i)Pr)(4) is found to catalyze the reaction of an alkynylzinc reagent with various types of aldehydes including aliphatic aldehydes, aromatic aldehydes, and other alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehydes to generate chiral propargyl alcohols with 91-99% ee at room temperature. No previous chiral catalysts have exhibited such a broad scope of enantioselectivity with respect to the type of aldehydes for this reaction. [reaction: see text]

Acetylene↗

BINOL-catalyzed highly enantioselective terminal alkyne additions to aromatic aldehydes.

[reaction: see text] The readily available BINOL ligand in combination with Ti(O(i)Pr)(4) was found to catalyze the highly enantioselective reaction (92-98% ee) of terminal alkynes with aromatic aldehydes that contain a variety of substituents and substitution patterns. After the preparation of the zinc acetylide reagent, the catalytic asymmetric addition to aldehydes proceeded at room temperature with excellent stereocontrol. This simple catalyst system is practical for the asymmetric synthesis of chiral propargylic alcohols.

Azetidines↗

Determinants of health status and the influence of primary health care services in Latin America, 1990-98.

Primary health care (PHC) services have been advocated as a means by which less developed countries may improve the health of their populations even in the face of poverty, low levels of literacy, poor nutrition and other factors that negatively influence health status. Using aggregated data from the World Bank and UNICEF this study examined which factors, both within the health care system and outside of it, are associated with under-5 mortality rates in 22 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean during the 1990s. In a multivariate analysis using generalized estimating equations for repeated measures, five factors were found to be independent predictors of lower under-5 mortality rates (U5MRs). These were vaccination levels, female literacy, the use of oral rehydration therapy, access to safe water and GNP per capita. When the magnitude of these associations were assessed, higher levels of GNP per capita was found to be very weakly associated with lower U5MRs, compared with female literacy and vaccination rates. These findings suggest that government policies which focus only on promoting economic growth, while not making important investments in PHC services, female education and access to safe water are unlikely to see large improvements in health status.

Adolescent↗