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Research
Costs of mass drug administration for scabies in FijiIn 2019, the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in partnership with the Fiji Ministry of Health and Medical Services carried out an integrated mass drug administration (MDA) for the treatment of scabies and lymphatic filariasis in the Northern Division of Fiji. We conducted a retrospective micro-costing exercise focused on the cost of scabies control in order to inform budgeting and policy decision making in an endemic setting.
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Genomic testing for children with interstitial and diffuse lung disease (chILD): parent satisfaction, understanding and health-related quality of lifeResearch is needed to determine best practice for genomic testing in the context of child interstitial or diffuse lung disease. We explored parent's and child's health-related quality of life, parents' perceived understanding of a genomic testing study, satisfaction with information and the study and decisional regret to undertake genomic testing.
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An expanded phenotype centric benchmark of variant prioritisation toolsIdentifying the causal variant for diagnosis of genetic diseases is challenging when using next-generation sequencing approaches and variant prioritization tools can assist in this task. These tools provide in silico predictions of variant pathogenicity, however they are agnostic to the disease under study. We previously performed a disease-specific benchmark of 24 such tools to assess how they perform in different disease contexts.
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In silico evolution of nucleic acid-binding proteins from a nonfunctional scaffoldDirected evolution emulates the process of natural selection to produce proteins with improved or altered functions. These approaches have proven to be very powerful but are technically challenging and particularly time and resource intensive. To bypass these limitations, we constructed a system to perform the entire process of directed evolution in silico.
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An Observational Study to Assess the Effectiveness of 4CMenB against Meningococcal Disease and Carriage and Gonorrhea in Adolescents in the Northern Territory, Australia—Study ProtocolInvasive meningococcal disease (IMD) causes significant morbidity and mortality worldwide with serogroup B being the predominant serogroup in Australia and other countries for the past few decades. The licensed 4CMenB vaccine is effective in preventing meningococcal B disease. Emerging evidence suggests that although 4CMenB impact on carriage is limited, it may be effective against gonorrhoea due to genetic similarities between Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
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Statistical analysis plan for the OPTIMUM study: optimising immunisation using mixed schedules, an adaptive randomised controlled trial of a mixed whole-cell/acellular pertussis vaccine scheduleThe purpose of this double-blind, randomised, controlled trial is to compare allergic outcomes in children following vaccination with acellular pertussis (aP) antigen (standard of care in Australia) given at 2 months of age versus whole cell pertussis (wP) in the infant vaccine schedule.
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‘There’s good and bad’: parent perspectives on the influence of mobile touch screen device use on prenatal attachmentThe potential for human-computer interaction to have a substantial impact on adults is well documented. However, its potential importance prior to birth has rarely been reported. Parental use of smartphones and tablet computers could influence the relationship between parent and baby during pregnancy (prenatal attachment) and thus child development.
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The Staphylococcus aureus Network Adaptive Platform Trial Protocol: New Tools for an Old FoeStaphylococcus aureus bloodstream (SAB) infection is a common and severe infectious disease, with a 90-day mortality of 15%-30%. Despite this, <3000 people have been randomized into clinical trials of treatments for SAB infection.
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Longitudinal effects of prenatal exposure to plastic-derived chemicals and their metabolites on asthma and lung function from childhood into adulthoodEnvironmental exposure to phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA), chemicals used in the production of plastics, may increase risk for asthma and allergies. However, little is known about the long-term effects of early life exposure to these compounds.
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The effect of oxytocin nasal spray on social interaction in young children with autism: a randomized clinical trialEarly supports to enhance social development in children with autism are widely promoted. While oxytocin has a crucial role in mammalian social development, its potential role as a medication to enhance social development in humans remains unclear.