GCNA interacts with spartan and topoisomerase II to regulate genome stability
- Authors: Dokshin, Gregoriy , Davis, Gregory , Sawle, Ashley , Eldridge, Matthew , Nicholls, Peter , Gourley, Taylin , Romer, Katherine , Molesworth, Luke , Tatnell, Hannah , Ozturk, Ahmet , de Rooij, Dirk , Hannon, Gregory , Page, David , Mello, Craig , Carmell, Michelle
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Developmental Cell Vol. 52, no. 1 (2020), p. 53-68.e6
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: GCNA proteins are expressed across eukarya in pluripotent cells and have conserved functions in fertility. GCNA homologs Spartan (DVC-1) and Wss1 resolve DNA-protein crosslinks (DPCs), including Topoisomerase-DNA adducts, during DNA replication. Here, we show that GCNA mutants in mouse and C. elegans display defects in genome maintenance including DNA damage, aberrant chromosome condensation, and crossover defects in mouse spermatocytes and spontaneous genomic rearrangements in C. elegans. We show that GCNA and topoisomerase II (TOP2) physically interact in both mice and worms and colocalize on condensed chromosomes during mitosis in C. elegans embryos. Moreover, C. elegans gcna-1 mutants are hypersensitive to TOP2 poison. Together, our findings support a model in which GCNA provides genome maintenance functions in the germline and may do so, in part, by promoting the resolution of TOP2 DPCs. DNA topoisomerases help unwind DNA but occasionally get trapped, resulting in DNA-protein crosslinks (DPCs). DPCs damage DNA and threaten genomic integrity. Dokshin et al. find that GCNA protein family complements standard DPC processing machinery in resolving topoisomerase II DPCs to ensure heritable genome stability and germline immortality. © 2019 Elsevier Inc.
- Description: We thank S. Cheloufi, D. Bellott, D. Durning, L. Okumura, L. Teitz, and members of the Page and Mello labs for advice and discussion. We thank E. Spooner for mass spectrometry and K. Igarashi for technical assistance. We thank P. Boag and R. Pocock for access to microscopes and technical advice. Some strains provided by the CGC were supported by NIH ( P40 OD010440 ) and the International C. elegans Gene Knockout Consortium . This work was supported by the Life Sciences Research Foundation to M.A.C.; American Cancer Society 129916-PF16-232-RMC to G.A.D.; and NIH grants (R37 GM058800 and P01 HD078253 ) to C.C.M. G.J.H. is supported by Cancer Research UK and by a Royal Society Wolfson Research Professorship. D.C.P. and C.C.M. are Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators.
Epidemiology of injury and illness in 153 Australian international-level rowers over eight international seasons
- Authors: Trease, Larissa , Wilkie, Kellie , Lovell, Greg , Drew, Michael , Hooper, Ivan
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 54, no. 21 (2020), p. 1288-1293
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Aim To report the epidemiology of injury and illness in elite rowers over eight seasons (two Olympiads). Methods All athletes selected to the Australian Rowing Team between 2009 and 2016 were monitored prospectively under surveillance for injury and illness. The incidence and burden of injury and illness were calculated per 1000 athlete days (ADs). The body area, mechanism and type of all injuries were recorded and followed until the resumption of full training. We used interrupted time series analyses to examine the association between fixed and dynamic ergometer testing on rowers' injury rates. Time lost from illness was also recorded. Results All 153 rowers selected over eight seasons were observed for 48 611 AD. 270 injuries occurred with an incidence of 4.1-6.4 injuries per 1000 AD. Training days lost totalled 4522 (9.2% AD). The most frequent area injured was the lumbar region (84 cases, 1.7% AD) but the greatest burden was from chest wall injuries (64 cases, 2.6% AD.) Overuse injuries (n=224, 83%) were more frequent than acute injuries (n=42, 15%). The most common activity at the time of injury was on-water rowing training (n=191, 68). Female rowers were at 1.4 times the relative risk of chest wall injuries than male rowers; they had half the relative risk of lumbar injuries of male rowers. The implementation of a dynamic ergometers testing policy (Concept II on sliders) was positively associated with a lower incidence and burden of low back injury compared with fixed ergometers (Concept II). Illness accounted for the greatest number of case presentations (128, 32.2% cases, 1.2% AD). Conclusions Chest wall and lumbar injuries caused training time loss. Policy decisions regarding ergometer testing modality were associated with lumbar injury rates. As in many sports, illness burden has been under-recognised in elite Australian rowers. ©
Predictors of psychosocial distress 12 months after diagnosis with early and advanced prostate cancer
- Authors: Couper, Jeremy , Love, Anthony , Duchesne, Gillian , Bloch, Sidney , MacVean, Michelle , Dunai, Judy , Scealy, Marita , Costello, Anthony , Kissane, David
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Medical Journal of Australia Vol. 193, no. 5 (2010), p. S58-S61
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Objective: To assess psychosocial distress in patients with early (localised) and advanced (metastatic) prostate cancer (PCA) at diagnosis (Time 1) and 12 months later (Time 2), and identify psychosocial factors predictive of later distress. Design, participants and setting: Observational, prospective study of 367 men with early (211) or advanced (156) PCA recruited as consecutive attendees at clinics at seven public hospitals and practices in metropolitan Melbourne between 1 April 2001 and 30 December 2005. Both groups completed questionnaires at Time 1 and Time 2. Main outcome measures: Health-related quality of life as assessed by the Short Form 36-item Health Survey; psychological distress, including depression and anxiety as assessed by the Brief Symptom Inventory; and coping patterns as assessed by the Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer scale. Results: Over the 12 months, both the early and advanced RCA group showed reduced vitality and increased depression and anxiety; this effect was greater in the advanced PCA group. Mental health, social functioning and role-emotional functioning also deteriorated in the advanced group. Predictors of depression at Time 2 for the early PCA group were depression, vitality and a fatalistic coping pattern at Time 1; anxiety at Time 2 was predicted by anxiety and vitality at Time 1. In the advanced PCA group, depression at Time 2 was predicted by depression and mental health at Time 1; anxiety at Time 2 was predicted by anxiety, mental health, cognitive avoidance and lower anxious preoccupation at Time 1. Conclusions: Men with early PCA experience decreasing vitality and increasing psychological distress over the 12 months following diagnosis; this trend is accelerated after diagnosis with advanced RCA. A fatalistic coping pattern at diagnosis of early PCA predicts later depression while cognitive avoidance and lower anxious preoccupation at diagnosis of advanced PCA predict later anxiety.
Trends in hospitalisation rates for road traffic injuries in child motor vehicle passengers in New South Wales, July 1998 June 2005
- Authors: Du, Wei , Finch, Caroline , Hayen, Andrew , Hatfield, Julie
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Medical Journal of Australia Vol. 187, no. 9 (Nov 2007), p. 515-518
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Objective: To analyse changes in the incidence of injuries requiring hospitalisation for child passengers in motor vehicle crashes. Design, setting and participants: Population-based study of children (aged 0-15 years) residing in New South Wales and admitted to hospital for injuries resulting from a traffic crash in the period 1 July 1998 - 30 June 2005, identified from the NSW Inpatient Statistics Collection. Main outcome measures: Age-standardised rates of hospitalisation for injuries, and trends by inpatient demographics, severity of injuries, and injury sites and types. Results: 2297 children were hospitalised for injuries sustained in a motor vehicle crash over the study period. The overall hospitalisation rate for injuries was relatively constant, with a non-significant decline of -0.4% (95% Cl, -3.1% to 2.3%). The rate of hospitalisation for serious injuries also declined non-significantly (-5.5% [95% Cl, -11.8% to 1.1%]). Only hospitalisation rates for traumatic brain injuries declined significantly (-11.1% [95% Cl, -19.0% to -2.8%]) over the study period. Conclusion: The rate of hospitalisation for injuries to NSW-resident child motor vehicle passengers due to traffic crashes has not significantly decreased. High hospitalisation rates and the subsequent burden to the community and public health system make further injury prevention efforts for child motor vehicle passengers a priority.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003005874
Lack of caregiver supervision : A contributing factor in Australian unintentional child drowning deaths, 2000-2009
- Authors: Petrass, Lauren , Blitvich, Jennifer , Finch, Caroline
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Medical Journal of Australia Vol. 194, no. 5 (2011), p. 228-231
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565904
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Objectives: To establish how frequently supervision was explicitly identified as a factor in coroner-certified unintentional drowning deaths of children in Australia, and to determine the percentage of cases where failure of supervision may have been a contributing factor; also, to identify the proportion of cases with coroners' recommendations relating to supervision and unintentional child drownings. Design and setting: Retrospective case-series analysis of unintentional drowning deaths of children (aged 0-14 years) in Australia from 1 July 2000 to 30 June 2009, based on data from the National Coroners Information System (NCIS). Main outcome measures: Number of unintentional child drownings and the extent to which supervisory factors were formally reported by coroners as a contributing factor; proportion of cases with coroners' findings that also had coroners' recommendations. Results: 339 relevant child drownings were identified within the 9-year period. Supervision (or lack thereof) was identified as a contributing factor in 71.7%. However, specific detail about the nature and extent of supervision varied across these cases. The availability of text documents describing the findings (police reports, coroners' findings, autopsy reports, toxicology reports), and the level of detail within these documents, also varied considerably across jurisdictions. Despite almost half (47.2%) of the closed cases having coroners' findings attached, only 15% of these also included specific coroners' recommendations. Conclusion: Lack of adequate supervision, or lack thereof, is a significant problem associated with fatal drownings of children in Australia. There is a need to improve the standard and consistency of information contained in text documents within the NCIS to provide more useful information for preventing child drowning deaths.
Categorising sports injuries in epidemiological studies : the subsequent injury categorisation (SIC) model to address multiple, recurrent and exacerbation of injuries
- Authors: Finch, Caroline , Cook, Jill
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 48, no.17, p. 1-6
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
- Full Text:
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- Description: Objective: Sports injuries are often recurrent and there is wide recognition that a subsequent injury (of either the same or a different type) can be strongly influenced by a previous injury. Correctly categorising subsequent injuries (multiple, recurrent, exacerbation or new) requires substantial clinical expertise, but there is also considerable value in combining this expertise with more objective statistical criteria. This paper presents a new model, the subsequent injury categorisation (SIC) model, for categorising subsequent sports injuries that takes into account the need to include both acute and overuse injuries and ten different dependency structures between injury types. Methods: The suitability of the SIC model was demonstrated with date ordered sports injury data from a large injury database from community Australian football players over one playing season. A subsequent injury was defined to have occurred in the subset of players with two or more reported injuries. Results: 282 players sustained 469 subsequent injuries of which 15.6% were coded to categories representing injuries that were directly related to previous index injuries. This demonstrates that players can sustain a number of injuries over one playing season. Many of these will be unrelated to previous injuries but subsequent injuries that are related to previous injury occurrences are not uncommon. Conclusion: The handling of subsequent sports injuries is a substantial challenge for the sports medicine field—both in terms of injury treatment and in epidemiological research to quantify them. Application of the SIC model allows for multiple different injury types and relationships within players, as well as different index injuries.
Sport as a setting for promoting health
- Authors: Donaldson, Alex , Finch, Caroline
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 46, no. 1 (January 2012 2012), p. 4-5
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
Setting our minds to implementation
- Authors: Verhagen, Evert , Finch, Caroline
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Editorial , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 45, no. 13 (2011), p.1015-1016
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: It is now well accepted that to prevent sports injuries we need more intervention studies. Therefore, it is somewhat alarming that most sports injury studies still only focus on the fi rst two steps of the four-step prevention sequence of van Mechelen et al: only counting injuries and describing causal factors. This has clearly been shown by Klügl et al, who reviewed approximately 5274 original sports injury publications, of which only 492 studies intended to establish the preventive value of a measure or programme. This review showed that although the number of efficacy/effectiveness studies has slowly increased over the years, this is still lagging behind the approximately 4000 descriptive and aetiological studies.
Bloodstream infection due to Acinetobacter spp: Epidemiology, risk factors and impact of multi-drug resistance
- Authors: Wareham, David , Bean, David , Khanna, Pooja , Hennessy, Enid , Krahe, Daniel , Ely, Andrew , Millar, Michael
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Vol. 27, no. 7 (2008), p. 607-612
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Acinetobacter spp. are increasingly reported as important causes of human infection. Many isolates exhibit multi-drug resistance, raising concerns over our ability to treat serious infections with these organisms. The impact of infection on clinical outcome as well as the importance of multi-drug resistance is poorly defined. A descriptive retrospective observational study was undertaken of all episodes of Acinetobacter bacteremia occurring in a UK tertiary care centre from 1998-2006. Demographics of infected patients, characteristics and antimicrobial susceptibility of infecting strains were recorded and the impact of antimicrobial therapy on all causes of 30-day mortality assessed. Three hundred ninety-nine episodes of Acinetobacter bacteremia were identified, with A. baumannii being the most frequently isolated species. Most episodes occurred in critical care and were associated with multidrug resistance, with carbapenem resistance rising from 0% in 1998 to 55% in 2006. Although bacteremia due to carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter and a requirement for critical care were associated with a higher mortality, mortality was not reduced by the administration of appropriate empirical antimicrobial therapy. A prospective study is required to identify both the most effective intervention and those most likely to benefit from treatment.
- Description: C1
The reach and adoption of a coach-led exercise training programme in community football
- Authors: Finch, Caroline , Diamantopoulou, Kathy , Twomey, Dara , Doyle, Tim , Lloyd, David , Young, Warren , Elliot, Bruce
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine. Vol. 48(8), p.718-723.
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
- Full Text:
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- Description: Objective: To determine the reach and adoption of a coach-led exercise training programme for lower limb injury prevention. Design: Secondary analysis of data from a group-clustered randomised controlled trial. Setting: A periodised exercise training warm-up programme was delivered to players during training sessions over an 8-week preseason (weeks 1–8) and 18-week playing season. Participants: 1564 community Australian football players. Main outcome measurements: Reach, measured weekly, was the number of players who attended training sessions. Adoption was the number of attending players who completed the programme in full, partially or not at all. Reasons for partial or non-participation were recorded. Results: In week 1, 599 players entered the programme; 55% attended 1 training session and 45% attended > 1 session. By week 12, 1540 players were recruited but training attendance (reach) decreased to <50%. When players attended training, the majority adopted the full programme—ranging from 96% (week 1) to above 80% until week 20. The most common reasons for low adoption were players being injured, too sore, being late for training or choosing their own warm-up. Conclusions: The training programme's reach was highest preseason and halved at the playing season's end. However, when players attended training sessions, their adoption was high and remained close to 70% by season end. For sports injury prevention programmes to be fully effective across a season, attention also needs to be given to (1) encouraging players to attend formal training sessions and (2) considering the possibility of some form of programme delivery outside of formal training.
Competing with injuries : Injuries prior to and during the 15th FINA World Championships 2013 (aquatics)
- Authors: Mountjoy, Margo , Junge, Astrid , Benjamen, Sarah , Boyd, Kevin , Diop, Mohamed , Gerrard, David , van den Hoogenband, Cees-Rein , Marks, Saul , Martinez-Ruiz, Enrique , Miller, Jim , Nanousis, Kyriakos , Shahpar, Farhad , Veloso, Jose , van Mechelen, Willem , Verhagen, Evert
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 49, no. 1 (2015), p. 37-43
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Background: Injury and illness surveillance is the foundation for the development of prevention strategies. Objective: To examine injuries among the aquatic disciplines in the 4 weeks prior to and during the 2013 FINA World Championships. Methods: The study was comprised of two components: (1) a retrospective athlete survey recording injuries in the 4 weeks prior to the Championships and (2) a prospective recording of injuries and illnesses by the medical teams of the participating countries and the local host medical team. Results: One-third of the 1116 responding athletes reported an injury/physical complaint in the 4 weeks prior to the Championships. Significantly more women (36.7%) than men (28.6%) reported injuries. Divers reported the highest rate of injury/physical complaints (55.7%). At the start of the Championships, 70% of injured respondents (n=258) were still symptomatic; however, full participation was expected by 76%. During the Championships, 186 new injuries were reported (8.3/100 registered athletes) with the highest injury incidence rate in water polo (15.3/100 registered athletes). The most common injured body part was the shoulder (21%). A total of 199 illnesses were reported during the Championships (9.0/100 registered athletes) with the most common diagnosis of illness being gastrointestinal infection. Environmental exposure (allergy, otitis and jellyfish stings) was responsible for 27% of all illnesses in open water swimming. Conclusions: Injuries pose a significant health risk for elite aquatic athletes. A prospective study would improve understanding of out-of-competition injuries. Future injury and illness surveillance at FINA World Championships is required to direct and measure the impact of prevention strategies.
Housing type and depressive symptoms among older adults: a test of sense of belonging as a mediating and moderating variable
- Authors: McLaren, Suzanne , Turner, Jayne , Gomez, Rapson , McLachlan, Angus , Gibbs, Petah
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Aging & Mental Health Vol. 17, no. 8 (November 2013), p. 1023-1029
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Objectives: Higher levels of depression have been documented among older adults who reside in an assisted living facility, compared with those who remain in their own homes. The aims of the current study were to test whether the relationship between housing type and depressive symptoms was mediated by a sense of belonging and whether housing type and sense of belonging interact to influence the depressive symptoms among older adults (moderation model).Method: A sample of 257 older adults who lived in their own homes and 166 older adults who lived in an assisted living facility completed the psychological subscale of the Sense of Belonging Instrument and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale.Results: Results showed that a sense of belonging partially mediated the relationship between housing type and depressive symptoms, such that living in a nursing home was associated with lower levels of belonging, and lower levels of belonging were, in turn, associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms. Residing in an assisted living facility was associated with depressive symptoms at low and average levels of belonging.Conclusion: Results highlight the need for more research on the role of sense of belonging as an influencing factor on depressive symptoms among institutionalised older adults for both theoretical and treatment goals.
- Description: C1
Predicting cardiac autonomic neuropathy category for diabetic data with missing values
- Authors: Abawajy, Jemal , Kelarev, Andrei , Chowdhury, Morshed , Stranieri, Andrew , Jelinek, Herbert
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Computers in Biology and Medicine Vol. 43, no. 10 (2013), p. 1328-1333
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy (CAN) is a serious and well known complication of diabetes. Previous articles circumvented the problem of missing values in CAN data by deleting all records and fields with missing values and applying classifiers trained on different sets of features that were complete. Most of them also added alternative features to compensate for the deleted ones. Here we introduce and investigate a new method for classifying CAN data with missing values. In contrast to all previous papers, our new method does not delete attributes with missing values, does not use classifiers, and does not add features. Instead it is based on regression and meta-regression combined with the Ewing formula for identifying the classes of CAN. This is the first article using the Ewing formula and regression to classify CAN. We carried out extensive experiments to determine the best combination of regression and meta-regression techniques for classifying CAN data with missing values. The best outcomes have been obtained by the additive regression meta-learner based on M5Rules and combined with the Ewing formula. It has achieved the best accuracy of 99.78% for two classes of CAN, and 98.98% for three classes of CAN. These outcomes are substantially better than previous results obtained in the literature by deleting all missing attributes and applying traditional classifiers to different sets of features without regression. Another advantage of our method is that it does not require practitioners to perform more tests collecting additional alternative features. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.
- Description: C1
Mild traumatic brain injury among a cohort of rugby union players: predictors of time to injury
- Authors: Hollis, Stephanie , Stevenson, Mark , McIntosh, Andrew , Li, Ling , Heritier, Stephane , Shores, E Arthur , Collins, Michael , Finch, Caroline
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 45, no. 12 (2011), p. 997-999
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: This study reports the time to sustain a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) among a cohort of community rugby union players. Demographic and player characteristics were collected and players followed up for between one and three playing seasons. 7% of the cohort sustained an mTBI within 10 h of game time, increasing twofold to 14% within 20 h. The mean time to first mTBI was 8 h with an SD of 6.2 (median 6.8 h; IQR: 2.9–11.7 h). Players reporting a recent history of concussion were 20% more likely to sustain an mTBI after 20 h of game time compared with those with no recent history of concussion. Players were likely to sustain an mTBI in shorter time if they trained for <3 h/week (HR=1.48, p=0.03) or had a body mass index <27 (HR=1.77, p=0.007). The findings highlight modifiable characteristics to reduce the likelihood of shortened time to mTBI.
Family support and ease of access link socio-economic status and sports club membership in adolescent girls : A mediation study
- Authors: Eime, Rochelle , Harvey, Jack , Craike, Melinda , Symons, Caroline , Payne, Warren
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity Vol. 10, no. (2013), p. 1-12
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Background: Much research has been conducted into the determinants of physical activity (PA) participation among adolescent girls. However, the more specific question of what are the determinants of particular forms of PA participation, such as the link between participation through a sports club, has not been investigated. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between participation in a sports club and socio-economic status (SES), access to facilities, and family and peer support, for female adolescents.Methods: A survey of 732 female adolescent school students (521 metropolitan, 211 non-metropolitan; 489 Year 7, 243 Year 11) was conducted. The survey included demographic information (living arrangements, ethnicity indicators, and indicators of SES such as parental education and employment status and locality); access to facilities; and family and peer support (travel, encouragement, watching, praise, joint participation). For each characteristic, sports club participants and non-participants were compared using chi-square tests. Multiple mediation analyses were used to investigate the role of access, family and peer support in the link between SES and sport participation.Results: There were significant associations (p<0.05) between sports club participation and: all demographic characteristics; all measures of family and peer support; and access to sport-related facilities. Highest levels of participation were associated with monolingual Australian-born families, with two parents, at least one of whom was well-educated, with both parents employed, and high levels of parental assistance, engagement and support. Participation in club sport among both younger and older adolescent girls was significantly positively associated with the SES of both their neighbourhoods and their households, particularly in metropolitan areas. These associations were most strongly mediated by family support and by access to facilities.Conclusions: To facilitate and promote greater participation in club sport among adolescent girls from low SES neighbourhoods and households, strategies should target modifiable determinants such as facility access and parental support. This will involve improving access to sports facilities and promoting, encouraging and assisting parents to provide support for their daughters' participation in sport clubs. © 2013 Eime et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
- Description: 2003011031
Working to rule or working safely? Part 2 : The management of safety rules and procedures
- Authors: Hale, Andrew , Borys, David
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Safety Science Vol.55, no. (2012), p.54-59
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Part 1, the companion paper to this paper () reviews the literature from 1986 on the management of those safety rules and procedures which relate to the workplace level in organisations. It contrasts two different paradigms of how work rules and their development and use are perceived and managed. The first is a top-down classical, rational approach in which rules are seen as static, comprehensive limits of freedom of choice, imposed on operators at the sharp end and violations are seen as negative behaviour to be suppressed. The second is a bottom-up constructivist view of rules as dynamic, local, situated constructions of operators as experts, where competence is seen to a great extent as the ability to adapt rules to the diversity of reality. That paper explores the research underlying and illustrating these two paradigms. In this second paper we draw on that literature study to propose a framework of rule management which attempts to draw the lessons from both paradigms. It places the monitoring and adaptation of rules central to its management process and emphasises the need for participation of the intended rule followers in the processes of rule-making, but more importantly in keeping those rules alive and up to date in a process of regular and explicit dialogue with first-line supervision, and through them with the technical, safety and legal experts on the system functioning. The framework is proposed for testing in the field as a benchmark for good practice. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Getting sports injury prevention on to public health agendas – addressing the shortfalls in current information sources
- Authors: Finch, Caroline
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 46, no. 1 (January 2012 2012), p. 70-74
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Public health policy is a successful population-level strategy for injury prevention but it is yet to be widely applied to the sports sector. Such policy is generally coordinated by government health departments concerned with the allocation of limited resources to health service delivery and preventive programs for addressing large community health issues. Prioritisation of sports injury prevention (SIP) requires high-quality evidence about the size of the problem and its public health burden; identification of at-risk vulnerable groups; confirmed effective prevention solutions; evidence of intervention cost-effectiveness; and quantifi cation of both financial and policy implications of inaction. This paper argues that the major reason for a lack of sports injury policy by government departments for health or sport to date is a lack of relevant information available for policy makers to make their decisions. Key information gaps evident in Australia are used to highlight this problem. SIP policy does not yet rank highly because, relative to other health/injury issues, there is very little hard evidence to support: claims for its priority ranking, the existence of solutions that can be implemented and which will work, and potential cost-savings to government agencies. Moreover, policy action needs to be integrated across government portfolios, including sport, health and others. Until sports medicine research generates high-quality population-level information of direct relevance and importance to policy makers, especially intervention costing and implementation cost-benefit estimates, and fully engage in policy-informing partnerships, SIP will continue to be left off the public health agenda.
Ensuring implementation success: how should coach injury prevention education be improved if we want coaches to deliver safety programmes during training sessions?
- Authors: White, Peta , Otago, Leonie , Saunders, Natalie , Romiti, Maria , Donaldson, Alex , Ullah, Shahid , Finch, Caroline
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 48, no. 5 (2014), p. 402-403
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Coaches play a major role in encouraging and ensuring that participants of their teams adopt appropriate safety practices. However, the extent to which the coaches undertake this role will depend upon their attitudes about injury prevention, their perceptions of what the other coaches usually do and their own beliefs about how much control they have in delivering such programmes. Fifty-one junior netball coaches were surveyed about incorporating the teaching of correct (safe) landing technique during their delivery of training sessions to junior players. Overall, >94% of coaches had strongly positive attitudes towards teaching correct landing technique and >80% had strongly positive perceptions of their own control over delivering such programmes. Coaches’ ratings of social norms relating to what others think about teaching safe landing were more positive (>94%) than those relating to what others actually do (63–74%). In conclusion, the junior coaches were generally receptive towards delivering safe landing training programmes in the training sessions they led. Future coach education could include role modelling by prominent coaches so that more community-level coaches are aware that this is a behaviour that many coaches can, and do, engage in.
A study of caregiver characteristics and carer burden when caring for people with cognitive impairment from a Cognitive Dementia and Memory Service (CDAMS) clinic in regional Australia
- Authors: Tyagi, Vaibhav , Yates, Mark , Muhi, Steve , Harvey, Jack , Dalziel, Alison
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australasian Journal on Ageing Vol. 32, no. (June 2013), p. 42-42
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
ADRA2A polymorphisms and ADHD in adults : Possible mediating effect of personality
- Authors: de Cerqueira, Caio , Polina, Evelise , Contini, Veronica , Marques, Francine , Grevet, Eugenio , Salgado, Carlos , da Silva, Paula , Picon, Felipe , Belmonte-De-Abreu, Paulo , Bau, Claiton
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Psychiatry Research Vol. 186, no. 2-3 (2011), p. 345-350
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Several studies have tested for the association between polymorphisms in the ADRA2A gene and childhood ADHD. A meta-analysis of these results, however, has pointed towards a significant heterogeneity, raising the need for explanatory studies. As the effect of other relevant clinical characteristics could be a possible source, we studied three polymorphisms in the ADRA2A gene (−1291 C>G–MspI or rs1800544; −262 G>A–HhaI or rs1800544; 1780 C>T–DraI or rs553668) in 403 adult patients with ADHD assessed in relation to comorbidity and personality characteristics, as well as in 232 controls. The diagnosis followed DSM-IV criteria, and personality dimensions were evaluated with the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). There were no significant differences in allele and genotype frequencies between cases and controls. Patients carrying the G allele of rs1800544 presented lower scores in harm avoidance, and carriers of the T allele of rs553668 had more novelty seeking and less harm avoidance and persistence. Additionally, the haplotype carrying the G-G-T alleles (rs1800544–rs1800545–rs553668) was associated with lower scores in harm avoidance and persistence, and higher scores in novelty seeking compared to other haplotypes. These findings suggest that the conflicting findings obtained in association studies between ADRA2A polymorphisms and ADHD might be related to temperament profiles, and support additional studies addressing these effects in larger samples.