Chancellery Research - Research Publications

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    A preliminary investigation into the influence of archaeological material on the yellowing of polyethylene storage bags
    Thompson, K ; Nel, P (Routledge, 2021)
    Concerns around the degradation of plastics have been part of conservation discourse for decades. The spotlight is usually on art and objects, and conservation and display materials, however it could be argued that a significant volume of the plastics in museums is associated with storage bags. This study asked whether the condition of plastic storage bags might be influenced by what is stored inside them. If specific materials can be identified as more likely to affect plastic degradation, museums may have a lead-indicator for efficiently monitoring storage risks. This case study developed a methodology for applying multivariate analysis to collected data to answer this question. A subset of polyethylene self-seal bags used to pack archaeological material from the ‘Casselden Place’ assemblage at Museums Victoria was evaluated. Objective data were combined with subjective assessment of bag degradation features gathered during a collection survey and interrogated using multivariate statistical analysis. Results indicate (1) different levels of yellowing are associated with particular plastic bag stocks and (2) ceramic, slate and tile finds are more likely than other materials to be contained within yellower bags. The research points to future enquiry and demonstrates this methodology shows promise for extension to other large cultural datasets.
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    The Women’s Healthy Ageing Project: A pattern of cognitive decline after brain injury
    Bird, S ; Faux, NG ; Szoeke, C (Wiley, 2021-12)
    Abstract Background It is well recognised that damage sustained by traumatic brain injury (TBI) initiate injury mechanisms that continue to develop long after insult. Increasing evidence suggests TBI may lead to chronic cognitive decline and the development of dementia later in life. However, due to the low rate of TBI in the general community, there is a paucity of data on the impact of cognitive decline in community TBI. We examined longitudinal cognitive changes over a 12‐year period to determine if there was any relationship with community reported TBI. Method The Women’s Healthy Aging Project is an ongoing longitudinal cohort study of community‐dwelling Australian women. Assessments included an extensive range of measures, including neuropsychological testing of multiple cognitive domains and questions relating to head injury. In total, 110 women had complete neuropsychological testing at all three time points; from 2002, 2012 and 2014. Of these women, nine (aged 56‐65 in 2002) had a history of moderate to severe TBI. Composite cognitive scores were compared to 18 healthy controls randomly selected from the complete dataset individually matched for age, education, and APO4‐genotype. Analyses were conducted in five datasets drawn from the complete dataset and results were averaged. Result Median scores for executive function were similar for both the TBI group and healthy controls in 2002, lower in the TBI group by 2012 and this difference increased further in 2014. Median scores for verbal episodic memory were slightly lower in the TBI group than controls in 2002 and 2012, and this difference increased in 2014. Although this initial pilot study with small samples in mid‐aged healthy women did not show statistically significant results, the observed relationships were constant over the five datasets, warranting further exploration. Conclusion In our small pilot study, we observed greater rate of decline of both executive function and verbal episodic memory in women with a history of TBI. Findings warrant a need for larger studies to explore this relationship as it indicates that community‐based reported TBI may impact cognitive performance even in early ageing. Further work will continue to explore cognitive trajectories in women with a mean age 80 at next follow‐up.
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    A macro-element model for predicting the combined load behaviour of spudcan foundations in clay overlying sand
    Wang, Y ; Cassidy, MJ ; Bienen, B (Thomas Telford Ltd., 2021-10-26)
    A macro-element model for predicting the load–displacement behaviour of a spudcan foundation in clay overlying sand when subjected to combined vertical, horizontal and moment loading is introduced. Observations from detailed drum centrifuge tests that measured the effect of the underlying sand layer on the foundation behaviour are combined with finite-element results and theoretical developments to derive the components of the model. The yield surface defined by the centrifuge test results suggests that as the spudcan nears the underlying sand layer, the absolute horizontal capacity remains relatively constant, while the vertical and moment capacities increase at approximately the same normalised rate. The model is demonstrated to accurately predict foundation behaviour by retrospectively simulating the experimental results. This macro-element model has the advantage that it can be integrated into the structural analyses of jack-up platforms required for site-specific assessments.
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    Encountering a Pedagogy of the World in a University Setting
    Healy, S ; Coleman, K ; Sallis, RJ ; Belton, A ; Riddle, S ; Heffernan, A ; Bright, D (Taylor & Francis, 2021)
    Taking up Biesta’s (2019) notion of a pedagogy of the world, we ask: How might participating in an arts-based educational program with/in a university enable young people from schools with low Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) values to encounter the world of higher education differently and become different in that encounter? This chapter comes from our engagement with empirical material generated during a (post)qualitative inquiry into the pedagogy of The Art of Engagement-a multi-arts studio program involving relational pedagogy and a/r/tography as curriculum located in SPACE, 1 whereby secondary school students from schools in less socio-educationally advantaged communities came together with undergraduate university students for a five-day intensive within a University of Melbourne breadth subject. The program’s rationale was to connect with secondary school arts students completing their schooling in lower ICSEA value schools 2 through the design of authentic university encounters with/in site, practices and communities. It welcomed the secondary school students into the world of our university and enhanced their capacity to “be at home” in this world, creating the conditions for considering and potentially living different post-school futures.
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    Cognition in healthy older women is a predictor of 14‐year falls risk
    Faux, NG ; Bird, S ; Michalewicz, A ; Pasco, JA ; Sales, MPR ; Russo‐Batterham, D ; Vogrin, S ; Williams, LJ ; Duque, G ; Szoeke, C (Wiley, 2021-12)
    Background: Falls are a significant cause of injuries, loss of confidence, increased morbidity, and institutionalisation in all older people, with women at 50% greater risk than men. The relationship between dementia and falls is well established and 2/3 of all dementia occurs in women. In this study we explored risk factors associated with a 14 year falls risk in a community-based cohort of women, which included validated measures across a wide range of clinical domains including neuropsychological, mood, quality of life and biomarkers (including hormonal). Method: The Australian Women’s Healthy Aging Project is an longitudinal observation study, assessments every year (1991 –1999), followed by assessments in 2002, 2004, 2012 and 2014. The assessments included cognitive (as of 2002), blood, and cardiovascular disease risk assessment, and questions related to falls. After data cleaning, the remaining cohort consisted of 180 participants (Table 1). Missing data were imputed using mice random forest. To identify key risk factors associated with a 14 year falls risk, random survival (time to event) forest (RSF) machine learning was used. Result: The RSF model, using all 290+ possible predictive variables, performed well with an Out Of Bag (OOB, withheld data) prediction error (C-index) of 32.8%. The most predictive variables in the model were identified using the variable importance measure (VIM). The initial model was refined by taking the top 30 predictive variables and retraining the RSF. This refined model resulted in an improved OOB C-index of 5.8% (27%). The top 20 predictive variables, Figure 1, include those associated with cardiovascular disease risk, cognitive performance, and hormone levels (e.g., family history of heart attack, digit symbol coding, and estradiol levels). Conclusion: Ninety percent of the top 20 predictive risk variables for the 14 year fall risk in women, were from three key domains, cognition (40%), cardiovascular (25%) and hormone-related measurements (25%). Our data suggest that for long term prevention of falls these domains may be important reducing risk of falls in the senior female population.
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    Ocular and Systemic Factors Affecting Laser Speckle Flowgraphy Measurements in the Optic Nerve Head
    Turpin, A ; McKendrick, AM (ASSOC RESEARCH VISION OPHTHALMOLOGY INC, 2021-01)
    PURPOSE: To investigate the ocular and systemic factors related to glaucoma and to be adjusted for interindividual comparison of ocular blood flow measurement results by laser speckle flowgraphy (LSFG) obtained from the optic nerve head (ONH) in normal Japanese individuals. METHODS: A multicenter, prospective cross-sectional study was conducted. The ONH tissue-area and vessel-area mean blur rate (MT and MV) were evaluated using LSFG and ONH structural parameters using planimetric methods. Multivariate linear mixed-effects modeled regression analysis was used to identify the contributing factors to the MT and MV. The explanatory variables were age; gender; smoking history; body mass index; mean arterial pressure (MAP); heart rate; intraocular pressure; axial length (AL); disc, rim, cup, and β-peripapillary atrophy (β-PPA) areas; and central retinal artery and vein equivalents. RESULTS: In total, 195 eyes of 126 healthy individuals with an average age of 48.1 years were included. Multivariate analysis showed that MAP and disc area had a negative (P < 0.001) correlation, whereas β-PPA area had a positive correlation with MT (P = 0.010). Age and AL had a negative correlation (P = 0.001 and P = 0.011, respectively), whereas cup area had a positive correlation (P = 0.012) with MV. CONCLUSIONS: Interindividual comparison of MT or MV must be adjusted for both systemic factors (blood pressure or age) and local ocular factors (AL and disc, cup, or β-PPA area). TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: Our results provided reference data on the LSFG measurement and are important in comparing ocular blood flow between individuals using LSFG.
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    Do Additional Testing Locations Improve the Detection of Macular Perimetric Defects in Glaucoma?
    Montesano, G ; McKendrick, AM ; Turpin, A ; Brusini, P ; Oddone, F ; Fogagnolo, P ; Perdicchi, A ; Johnson, CA ; Lanzetta, P ; Rossetti, LM ; Garway-Heath, DF ; Crabb, DP (ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC, 2021-12)
    PURPOSE: To evaluate the ability of additional central testing locations to improve detection of macular visual field (VF) defects in glaucoma. DESIGN: Prospective cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS: Four hundred forty healthy people and 499 patients with glaucomatous optic neuropathy (GON) were tested with a fundus tracked perimeter (CMP; CenterVue) using a 24-2 grid with 12 additional macular locations (24-2+). METHODS: Glaucomatous optic neuropathy was identified based on expert evaluation of optic nerve head photographs and OCT scans, independently of the VF. We defined macular defects as locations with measurements outside the 5% and 2% normative limits on total deviation (TD) and pattern deviation (PD) maps within the VF central 10°. Classification was based on the total number of affected macular locations (overall detection) or the largest number of affected macular locations connected in a contiguous cluster (cluster detection). Criteria based on the number of locations and cluster size were used to obtain equivalent specificity between the 24-2 grid and the 24-2+ grids, calculated using false detections in the healthy cohort. Partial areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (pAUCs) were also compared at specificities of 95% or more. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Matched specificity comparison of the ability to detect glaucomatous macular defects between the 24-2 and 24-2+ grids. RESULTS: At matched specificity, cluster detection identified more macular defects with the 24-2+ grid compared with the 24-2 grid. For example, the mean increase in percentage of detection was 8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 5%-11%) and 10% (95% CI, 7%-13%) for 5% TD and PD maps, respectively, and 5% (95% CI, 2%-7%) and 6% (95% CI, 4%-8%) for the 2% TD and PD maps, respectively. Good agreement was found between the 2 grids. The improvement measured by pAUCs was also significant but generally small. The percentage of eyes with macular defects ranged from about 30% to 50%. Test time for the 24-2+ grid was longer (21% increase) for both cohorts. Between 74% and 98% of defects missed by the 24-2 grid had at least 1 location with sensitivity of < 20 dB. CONCLUSIONS: Visual field examinations with additional macular locations can improve the detection of macular defects in GON modestly without loss of specificity when appropriate criteria are selected.
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    The Melbourne Safe Injecting Room Attracted People Most in Need of Its Service
    Van Den Boom, W ; Quiroga, MDM ; Fetene, DM ; Agius, PA ; Higgs, PG ; Maher, L ; Hickman, M ; Stoov, MA ; Dietze, PM (ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC, 2021-08)
    INTRODUCTION: In 2018, the first Medically Supervised Injecting Room in Melbourne, Australia was officially opened. This study assessed whether this facility attracted people who inject drugs, who were socially vulnerable, and who engaged in drug-related behaviors associated with increased morbidity and mortality risk. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional analysis of the frequency of Medically Supervised Injecting Room use during the first 18 months after opening (July 2018-December 2019) among 658 people who inject drugs participating in the Melbourne Injecting Drug User Cohort Study (SuperMIX). To examine the differences between no Medically Supervised Injecting Room use, infrequent use (<50% injections within the facility), and frequent use (≥50% of injections within the facility), RRRs were estimated using bivariate multinomial logistic regression analyses and postestimation Wald tests. Analyses were conducted in 2020. RESULTS: A total of 451 participants (68%) reported no Medically Supervised Injecting Room use, 142 (22%) reported infrequent use, and 65 (10%) reported frequent use. Participants who reported either infrequent or frequent use of the facility were more socially vulnerable (e.g., more often homeless) and more likely to report risky drug-related behaviors and poor health outcomes than those who reported no use. Participants who reported frequent use of the facility were also more likely to live close to the facility than those reporting infrequent use. CONCLUSIONS: The Melbourne Medically Supervised Injecting Room attracted socially marginalized people who inject drugs who are most at risk of harms related to injecting drug use and therefore who are most in need of the service. To determine the long-term impact use of this facility on key health outcomes such as overdose, future studies should consider the differences in vulnerability and risk behavior of people who inject drugs who use the Medically Supervised Injecting Room when examining the outcomes associated with the use of the facility.
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    Mouse models illuminate MAIT cell biology
    Wang, H ; Chen, Z ; McCluskey, J ; Corbett, AJ (PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2021-02)
    The field of mucosal-associated invariant T cell (MAIT) biology has grown rapidly since the identification of the vitamin-B-based antigens recognised by these specialised T cells. Over the past few years, our understanding of the complexities of MAIT cell function has developed, as they find their place among the other better known cells of the immune system. Key questions relate to understanding when MAIT cells help, when they hinder or cause harm, and when they do not matter. Exploiting mouse strains that differ in MAIT cell numbers, leveraged by specific detection of MAIT cells using MR1-tetramers, it has now been shown that MAIT cells play important immune roles in settings that include bacterial and viral infections, autoimmune diseases and cancer. We have also learnt much about their development, modes of activation and response to commensal microbiota, and begun to try ways to manipulate MAIT cells to improve disease outcomes. Here we review recent studies that have assessed MAIT cells in models of disease.
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    Subjective measurement of the Stiles-Crawford effect with different field sizes
    Nilagiri, VK ; Suheimat, M ; Lambert, AJ ; Turpin, A ; Vohnsen, B ; Atchison, DA (OPTICAL SOC AMER, 2021-08-01)
    The Stiles-Crawford effect of the first kind (SCE) is the phenomenon in which light entering the eye near the center of the pupil appears brighter than light entering near the edge. Previous investigations have found an increase in the directionality (steepness) of the effect as the testing location moves from the center of the visual field to parafoveal positions, but the effect of central field size has not been considered. The influence of field size on the SCE was investigated using a uniaxial Maxwellian system in which stimulus presentation was controlled by an active-matrix liquid crystal display. SCE directionality increased as field size increased from 0.5° to 4.7° diameter, although this was noted in four mild myopes and not in two emmetropes. The change with field size was supported by a geometric optics absorption model.