The Safe System approach to road safety has been adopted in many countries, but it has been adopt... more The Safe System approach to road safety has been adopted in many countries, but it has been adopted pervasively to a substantially constrained extent. This paper argues that effective adoption is hampered by two weaknesses in strategies for the implementation of Safe System: (1) interpretations of the shared responsibility principle and (2) Safe System adoption presented as simply requiring the use of multiple pillars of action. The typical description of shared responsibility includes responsibility by road users to obey the rules. This absolves accountability for road safety by the system owners and operators, facilitating victim blaming and reliance on road users who are acknowledged to be fallible. Thus, the system cannot be fully safe, and the vision of zero road trauma cannot be achieved. The extent to which road users are responsible for road safety via their actions is precisely the extent to which those responsible for the system have failed to deliver a safe road system. T...
Due to the global SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic, in‐person laboratory medicine clerkships were converted to... more Due to the global SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic, in‐person laboratory medicine clerkships were converted to distance learning. The remote clerkship format provided advantages of allowing participation of students from more locations and greater scheduling flexibility but provided new challenges of maintaining learner engagement and providing experiential content of the laboratory environment. Gamification of educational content is one educational modality that has shown effectiveness in a multitude of different contexts to increase learner engagement and retention. Therefore, we created an interactive, educational 360° virtual reality walkthrough tour using off‐the‐shelf commercially available 360° cameras and software of the Transfusion service and Microbiology Laboratories. The process consists of taking multiple 360° still‐images within the space, color‐correction, blurring the faces of staff or sensitive information, adding navigation buttons, and other interactive elements. The virtual tours were used for both recruitment and education with further plans to integrate the learning modality into the curriculum. The clerkship is likely to remain as partially or fully as remote learning so such walkthrough tours will continue to remain relevant. This technology can be applied globally to other departments and institutions for education or recruitment.
Excessive speed is estimated to account for 36% of crashes in which the driver of a heavy vehicle... more Excessive speed is estimated to account for 36% of crashes in which the driver of a heavy vehicle was killed. In 2013, the Transport Accident Commission undertook, with assistance from the Victorian Transport Association and several heavy vehicle operators, a trial of reduced speed limits for trucks traveling along a 43.5 km stretch of the Geelong Freeway to evaluate the effects of speed reduction on speed behaviour, fuel consumption, travel times, and driver acceptance and attitudes. Six drivers of five trucks participated in the study. During the first 11 weeks, all trucks travelled up to the legal speed limit of 100km/h. In the following 10 weeks, three trucks reduced their maximum travel speed: two to 90 km/h, and one to 95 km/h. Two control trucks maintained the legal speed limit of 100 km/h for the entire trial. Evaluation methods included face-to-face interviews with drivers and operations managers, an on-line survey of community attitudes, on-board video surveillance as well...
In 2006, having developed a successful brand and on-going campaign on which to create demand for ... more In 2006, having developed a successful brand and on-going campaign on which to create demand for more crashworthy cars, (www.howsafeisyourcar.com.au), the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) in Victoria, Australia looked at what opportunities were available to it, to further increase the safety of the Victorian vehicle fleet. The TAC is a government owned and operated, third party injury insurer that invests heavily in road safety initiatives to help meet its legislative responsibility to reduce the incidence and severity of transport injury on Victorian roads. In 2006, evidence around the effectiveness of Electronic Stability Control (ESC) and Curtain Airbags (CA) in reducing crashes and injuries respectively, had firmed, yet compared with European and US vehicles the uptake of these lifesaving features in Australia was very poor. The TAC built a business case to extend its howsafeisyourcar.com.au campaign, to specifically create awareness of and develop demand for ESC and CA. A ma...
Ecrit par Patricia McCarthy, Jon’s Tricky Journey est un livre de 68 pages destine aux enfants in... more Ecrit par Patricia McCarthy, Jon’s Tricky Journey est un livre de 68 pages destine aux enfants inuits atteints de cancer et a leurs familles. Plus d’une quarantaine de ces pages contiennent de magnifiques illustrations colorees representant un jeune garcon, Jon, qui est appele a voyager depuis le Nunavut pour etre soigne dans un centre de cancerologie.
The vital role of vehicle safety, one of the main pillars of the Safe System approach, in combati... more The vital role of vehicle safety, one of the main pillars of the Safe System approach, in combating road trauma is well recognised. The Transport Accident Commission (TAC) has undertaken a number of campaigns and projects to increase public awareness and demand for safer vehicles and vehicle safety technologies. One project that the TAC is involved in, is the research, development and demonstration of new vehicle technologies via the SafeCar Project. This project is a demonstration of new and emerging technologies that have promising road safety potential. The technologies selected for demonstration target some of the key issues associated with road trauma such as speed and fatigue. The technologies currently installed include Driver Drowsiness Detection, Lane Departure Warning, Intelligent Speed Assist, Seatbelt Interlock, Top Speed Limiter and Daytime Running Lights. The aim of the project is to further develop, demonstrate and promote these technologies to the community and key d...
Young drivers constitute approximately 13% of all license holders, yet they represent around 25% ... more Young drivers constitute approximately 13% of all license holders, yet they represent around 25% of drivers killed each year. Although gains have been made in reducing the number of young people being killed and seriously injured on Australia's roads, they continue to be overrepresented in fatal and serious injury crashes each year. Research has demonstrated that young drivers are at greater risk because they are inexperienced and more likely to take risks on the road. Some of the factors that increase the risks of crashing among young drivers include: • Driving with peer aged passengers • Night time driving • Use of mobile phones • Drink/drug driving • Speeding • Driving older and less safe cars Research shows that young drivers tend to drive the least safe and oldest cars on Australia's roads. Research from the Monash University Accident Research Centre (2009) demonstrated that: • Both female and male young crash-involved drivers are driving older vehicles than their older...
The Journal of the Australasian College of Road Safety, 2016
The UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development have set the ambitious goal of reducing road fata... more The UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development have set the ambitious goal of reducing road fatalities and serious injuries by 50% by the end if the current UN Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020). Actions are recommended across five pillars of policy: road safety management; safer roads and mobility; safer vehicles; safer road users; post-crash response. UN member states are encouraged to adopt minimum safety standards and technologies for vehicles sold in their countries. A recent survey showed only 40 out of 193 UN member states fully applied seven priority vehicle safety standards recommended by Global NCAP.
Motorcyclists are amongst the most vulnerable road users, with riders 38 times more likely than c... more Motorcyclists are amongst the most vulnerable road users, with riders 38 times more likely than car drivers to be seriously injured on the roads. One of the most effective ways for riders to reduce their risk of injury is to wear appropriate protective gear. Currently in Australia, helmets are the only protective equipment which riders are required by law to wear. Australian/New Zealand Standard AS 1698 provides a minimum standard for the protective qualities of helmets, but no such standard applies to other protective garments for motorcycling. In the absence of information on the quality of protective gear, many riders are basing their decisions on cost, branding and retailer advice, none of which provide an independent indicator of the protective quality of the garment. In this regard, an independent protective clothing testing program may have an important role to play. The Transport Accident Commission (TAC) in partnership with VicRoads is currently investigating the feasibilit...
In the late 1990s, despite having an excellent new car assessment program (ANCAP) and a Used Car ... more In the late 1990s, despite having an excellent new car assessment program (ANCAP) and a Used Car Safety Rating program which assesses vehicles safety performance in the real world, very few car buyers in Australia were aware that information was available to help assess a vehicle’s safety performance. Even if consumers were aware of the information, compared with Europe and the US, choosing a vehicle with good safety performance usually meant buying an expensive import. In 2000, the Transport Accident Commission in Victoria, Australia, noting European estimates of reductions that could be expected in road trauma if the safety of the vehicle fleet could be substantially improved, made a decision to invest heavily in a public education (demand led) approach to improving vehicle safety. Off the back of the development of a searchable website on vehicle safety, the TAC launched the howsafeisyourcar.com.au public education campaign – which urged car buyers to consider safety as their num...
Background: Socioeconomic factors are known to affect outcomes for both medical and surgical cond... more Background: Socioeconomic factors are known to affect outcomes for both medical and surgical conditions. The purpose of this systematic review was to assess the current evidence regarding the effect of socioeconomic factors such as income, geographic location, educational level, and occupation on clinical outcomes after distal radius fractures. Methods: A systematic search strategy was performed to identify studies commenting on the effect of socioeconomic factors on clinical outcomes following open or closed distal radius fracture repair. and full-text screening was performed by 2 independent reviewers, and articles were evaluated by Structured Effectiveness Quality Evaluation Scale (SEQES). Treatment outcomes of interest included, but were not limited to, pain, function, range of motion, and grip strength. Results: There were 1745 studies that met our inclusion and exclusion criteria for abstract screening. Of these, 48 studies met our inclusion criteria for full-text screening an...
Background: Radio-fibrosis of breast tissue compromises breast reconstruction by interfering with... more Background: Radio-fibrosis of breast tissue compromises breast reconstruction by interfering with tissue viability and healing. Autologous fat transfer may reduce radiotherapy-related tissue injury but graft survival is compromised by the fibrotic microenvironment. Elevated expression of Receptor for Hyaluronan-mediated motility (HMMR/RHAMM) in wounds decreases adipogenesis and increases fibrosis. We therefore developed RHAMM peptide mimetics to block RHAMM pro-fibrotic signaling following radiation. We propose that this blocking peptide will decrease radio-fibrosis and establish a microenvironment favoring adipose-derived stem cell survival using a rat mammary fat pad model. Methods: Rats mammary fat pads underwent a one-time radiation dose of 26 Gy. Radiated (n=10) and non-radiated (n=10) fat pads received a single intra-mammary injection of a sham injection or peptide NP-110. Skin changes were examined clinically. Mammary fat pad tissue was processed for fibrotic and adipogenic markers using QPCR and immunohistochemistry. Results: Clinical assessments and molecular analysis confirmed radiation-induced acute skin changes and radiation-induced fibrosis in rat mammary fat pads. Peptide treatment reduced fibrosis as detected by polarized microscopy of picrosirius red staining, increased collagen 3:1 ratio, reduced expression of collagen-1 crosslinking enzymes lysyl-oxidase, transglutaminase 2 and TGFβ1 protein m and increased adiponectin, an anti-fibrotic adipokine. RHAMM was expressed in stromal cell subsets and was down-regulated by the RHAMM peptide mimetic. Conclusions: Results from this study predict that blocking RHAMM function in stromal cell subsets can provide a post-radiotherapy micro-environment more suitable for fat grafting and breast reconstruction.
Elliptical Excision of the Skin This video demonstrates elliptical excision of the skin, a proced... more Elliptical Excision of the Skin This video demonstrates elliptical excision of the skin, a procedure that can be used in the diagnosis and management of skin and subcutaneous lesions, may be perfor...
treatment groups were compared across time, and at each time point and post hoc, pairwise compari... more treatment groups were compared across time, and at each time point and post hoc, pairwise comparisons were done with a Tukey adjustment. All tests were 2-sided with an α level of 0.05; and all tests were performed in Prism (GraphPad Software) or SAS version 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc.). A P value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Study approval. All animal procedures were approved by Stanford University's Administrative Panel on Laboratory Animal Care. Additional methods are provided in Supplemental Methods.
Citrullination of arginine residues is a post-translational modification (PTM) found on myelin ba... more Citrullination of arginine residues is a post-translational modification (PTM) found on myelin basic protein (MBP), which neutralizes MBPs positive charge, and is implicated in myelin damage and multiple sclerosis (MS). Here we identify lysine acetylation as another neutralizing PTM to MBP that may be involved in myelin damage. We quantify changes in lysine and arginine PTMs on MBP derived from mice induced with an experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) model of MS using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. The changes in PTMs are correlated to changes in neurological disability scoring (NDS), as a marker of myelin damage. We found that lysine acetylation increased by 2-fold on MBP during peak NDS post-EAE induction. We also found that mono- and dimethyl-lysine, as well as asymmetric dimethyl-arginine residues on MBP were elevated at peak EAE disability. These findings suggest that the acetylation and methylation of lysine on MBP are PTMs associated with the neur...
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease, which involves the prog... more Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease, which involves the progressive degeneration of motor neurons. ALS has long been considered a disease of the grey matter; however, pathological alterations of the white matter (WM), including axonal loss, axonal demyelination and oligodendrocyte death, have been reported in patients with ALS. The present review examined motor neuron death as the primary cause of ALS and evaluated the associated WM damage that is guided by neuronal-glial interactions. Previous studies have suggested that WM damage may occur prior to the death of motor neurons, and thus may be considered an early indicator for the diagnosis and prognosis of ALS. However, the exact molecular mechanisms underlying early-onset WM damage in ALS have yet to be elucidated. The present review explored the detailed anatomy of WM and identified several pathological mechanisms that may be implicated in WM damage in ALS. In addition, it associated the pathophysiological alterations of WM, which may contribute to motor neuron death in ALS, with similar mechanisms of WM damage that are involved in multiple sclerosis (MS). Furthermore, the early detection of WM damage in ALS, using neuroimaging techniques, may lead to earlier therapeutic intervention, using immunomodulatory treatment strategies similar to those used in relapsing-remitting MS, aimed at delaying WM damage in ALS. Early therapeutic approaches may have the potential to delay motor neuron damage and thus prolong the survival of patients with ALS. The therapeutic interventions that are currently available for ALS are only marginally effective. However, early intervention with immunomodulatory drugs may slow the progression of WM damage in the early stages of ALS, thus delaying motor neuron death and increasing the life expectancy of patients with ALS. Contents 1. Introduction 2. WM anatomy 3. Molecular mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of WM damage in ALS 4. Therapeutic strategies aimed to attenuate or delay WM damage and disease progression 5. Conclusion
Consumer focussed product safety evaluation programs can complement safety standards regimes and ... more Consumer focussed product safety evaluation programs can complement safety standards regimes and provide comparative safety performance information that influences purchasing decisions as well as driving improvements in safety performance. A Consumer Rating and Assessment of Safety Helmets (CRASH) program was developed for the Australian motorcycle helmet market. The objective of this paper is to report on the assessment and rating program and results for 2011-12 helmets. The CRASH program provides motorcycle helmet performance and usability information that can assist motorcyclists in purchasing decisions. Further research and development is required to optimise the testing, scoring and rating system of the program, and the communication of results.
The Safe System approach to road safety has been adopted in many countries, but it has been adopt... more The Safe System approach to road safety has been adopted in many countries, but it has been adopted pervasively to a substantially constrained extent. This paper argues that effective adoption is hampered by two weaknesses in strategies for the implementation of Safe System: (1) interpretations of the shared responsibility principle and (2) Safe System adoption presented as simply requiring the use of multiple pillars of action. The typical description of shared responsibility includes responsibility by road users to obey the rules. This absolves accountability for road safety by the system owners and operators, facilitating victim blaming and reliance on road users who are acknowledged to be fallible. Thus, the system cannot be fully safe, and the vision of zero road trauma cannot be achieved. The extent to which road users are responsible for road safety via their actions is precisely the extent to which those responsible for the system have failed to deliver a safe road system. T...
Due to the global SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic, in‐person laboratory medicine clerkships were converted to... more Due to the global SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic, in‐person laboratory medicine clerkships were converted to distance learning. The remote clerkship format provided advantages of allowing participation of students from more locations and greater scheduling flexibility but provided new challenges of maintaining learner engagement and providing experiential content of the laboratory environment. Gamification of educational content is one educational modality that has shown effectiveness in a multitude of different contexts to increase learner engagement and retention. Therefore, we created an interactive, educational 360° virtual reality walkthrough tour using off‐the‐shelf commercially available 360° cameras and software of the Transfusion service and Microbiology Laboratories. The process consists of taking multiple 360° still‐images within the space, color‐correction, blurring the faces of staff or sensitive information, adding navigation buttons, and other interactive elements. The virtual tours were used for both recruitment and education with further plans to integrate the learning modality into the curriculum. The clerkship is likely to remain as partially or fully as remote learning so such walkthrough tours will continue to remain relevant. This technology can be applied globally to other departments and institutions for education or recruitment.
Excessive speed is estimated to account for 36% of crashes in which the driver of a heavy vehicle... more Excessive speed is estimated to account for 36% of crashes in which the driver of a heavy vehicle was killed. In 2013, the Transport Accident Commission undertook, with assistance from the Victorian Transport Association and several heavy vehicle operators, a trial of reduced speed limits for trucks traveling along a 43.5 km stretch of the Geelong Freeway to evaluate the effects of speed reduction on speed behaviour, fuel consumption, travel times, and driver acceptance and attitudes. Six drivers of five trucks participated in the study. During the first 11 weeks, all trucks travelled up to the legal speed limit of 100km/h. In the following 10 weeks, three trucks reduced their maximum travel speed: two to 90 km/h, and one to 95 km/h. Two control trucks maintained the legal speed limit of 100 km/h for the entire trial. Evaluation methods included face-to-face interviews with drivers and operations managers, an on-line survey of community attitudes, on-board video surveillance as well...
In 2006, having developed a successful brand and on-going campaign on which to create demand for ... more In 2006, having developed a successful brand and on-going campaign on which to create demand for more crashworthy cars, (www.howsafeisyourcar.com.au), the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) in Victoria, Australia looked at what opportunities were available to it, to further increase the safety of the Victorian vehicle fleet. The TAC is a government owned and operated, third party injury insurer that invests heavily in road safety initiatives to help meet its legislative responsibility to reduce the incidence and severity of transport injury on Victorian roads. In 2006, evidence around the effectiveness of Electronic Stability Control (ESC) and Curtain Airbags (CA) in reducing crashes and injuries respectively, had firmed, yet compared with European and US vehicles the uptake of these lifesaving features in Australia was very poor. The TAC built a business case to extend its howsafeisyourcar.com.au campaign, to specifically create awareness of and develop demand for ESC and CA. A ma...
Ecrit par Patricia McCarthy, Jon’s Tricky Journey est un livre de 68 pages destine aux enfants in... more Ecrit par Patricia McCarthy, Jon’s Tricky Journey est un livre de 68 pages destine aux enfants inuits atteints de cancer et a leurs familles. Plus d’une quarantaine de ces pages contiennent de magnifiques illustrations colorees representant un jeune garcon, Jon, qui est appele a voyager depuis le Nunavut pour etre soigne dans un centre de cancerologie.
The vital role of vehicle safety, one of the main pillars of the Safe System approach, in combati... more The vital role of vehicle safety, one of the main pillars of the Safe System approach, in combating road trauma is well recognised. The Transport Accident Commission (TAC) has undertaken a number of campaigns and projects to increase public awareness and demand for safer vehicles and vehicle safety technologies. One project that the TAC is involved in, is the research, development and demonstration of new vehicle technologies via the SafeCar Project. This project is a demonstration of new and emerging technologies that have promising road safety potential. The technologies selected for demonstration target some of the key issues associated with road trauma such as speed and fatigue. The technologies currently installed include Driver Drowsiness Detection, Lane Departure Warning, Intelligent Speed Assist, Seatbelt Interlock, Top Speed Limiter and Daytime Running Lights. The aim of the project is to further develop, demonstrate and promote these technologies to the community and key d...
Young drivers constitute approximately 13% of all license holders, yet they represent around 25% ... more Young drivers constitute approximately 13% of all license holders, yet they represent around 25% of drivers killed each year. Although gains have been made in reducing the number of young people being killed and seriously injured on Australia's roads, they continue to be overrepresented in fatal and serious injury crashes each year. Research has demonstrated that young drivers are at greater risk because they are inexperienced and more likely to take risks on the road. Some of the factors that increase the risks of crashing among young drivers include: • Driving with peer aged passengers • Night time driving • Use of mobile phones • Drink/drug driving • Speeding • Driving older and less safe cars Research shows that young drivers tend to drive the least safe and oldest cars on Australia's roads. Research from the Monash University Accident Research Centre (2009) demonstrated that: • Both female and male young crash-involved drivers are driving older vehicles than their older...
The Journal of the Australasian College of Road Safety, 2016
The UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development have set the ambitious goal of reducing road fata... more The UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development have set the ambitious goal of reducing road fatalities and serious injuries by 50% by the end if the current UN Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020). Actions are recommended across five pillars of policy: road safety management; safer roads and mobility; safer vehicles; safer road users; post-crash response. UN member states are encouraged to adopt minimum safety standards and technologies for vehicles sold in their countries. A recent survey showed only 40 out of 193 UN member states fully applied seven priority vehicle safety standards recommended by Global NCAP.
Motorcyclists are amongst the most vulnerable road users, with riders 38 times more likely than c... more Motorcyclists are amongst the most vulnerable road users, with riders 38 times more likely than car drivers to be seriously injured on the roads. One of the most effective ways for riders to reduce their risk of injury is to wear appropriate protective gear. Currently in Australia, helmets are the only protective equipment which riders are required by law to wear. Australian/New Zealand Standard AS 1698 provides a minimum standard for the protective qualities of helmets, but no such standard applies to other protective garments for motorcycling. In the absence of information on the quality of protective gear, many riders are basing their decisions on cost, branding and retailer advice, none of which provide an independent indicator of the protective quality of the garment. In this regard, an independent protective clothing testing program may have an important role to play. The Transport Accident Commission (TAC) in partnership with VicRoads is currently investigating the feasibilit...
In the late 1990s, despite having an excellent new car assessment program (ANCAP) and a Used Car ... more In the late 1990s, despite having an excellent new car assessment program (ANCAP) and a Used Car Safety Rating program which assesses vehicles safety performance in the real world, very few car buyers in Australia were aware that information was available to help assess a vehicle’s safety performance. Even if consumers were aware of the information, compared with Europe and the US, choosing a vehicle with good safety performance usually meant buying an expensive import. In 2000, the Transport Accident Commission in Victoria, Australia, noting European estimates of reductions that could be expected in road trauma if the safety of the vehicle fleet could be substantially improved, made a decision to invest heavily in a public education (demand led) approach to improving vehicle safety. Off the back of the development of a searchable website on vehicle safety, the TAC launched the howsafeisyourcar.com.au public education campaign – which urged car buyers to consider safety as their num...
Background: Socioeconomic factors are known to affect outcomes for both medical and surgical cond... more Background: Socioeconomic factors are known to affect outcomes for both medical and surgical conditions. The purpose of this systematic review was to assess the current evidence regarding the effect of socioeconomic factors such as income, geographic location, educational level, and occupation on clinical outcomes after distal radius fractures. Methods: A systematic search strategy was performed to identify studies commenting on the effect of socioeconomic factors on clinical outcomes following open or closed distal radius fracture repair. and full-text screening was performed by 2 independent reviewers, and articles were evaluated by Structured Effectiveness Quality Evaluation Scale (SEQES). Treatment outcomes of interest included, but were not limited to, pain, function, range of motion, and grip strength. Results: There were 1745 studies that met our inclusion and exclusion criteria for abstract screening. Of these, 48 studies met our inclusion criteria for full-text screening an...
Background: Radio-fibrosis of breast tissue compromises breast reconstruction by interfering with... more Background: Radio-fibrosis of breast tissue compromises breast reconstruction by interfering with tissue viability and healing. Autologous fat transfer may reduce radiotherapy-related tissue injury but graft survival is compromised by the fibrotic microenvironment. Elevated expression of Receptor for Hyaluronan-mediated motility (HMMR/RHAMM) in wounds decreases adipogenesis and increases fibrosis. We therefore developed RHAMM peptide mimetics to block RHAMM pro-fibrotic signaling following radiation. We propose that this blocking peptide will decrease radio-fibrosis and establish a microenvironment favoring adipose-derived stem cell survival using a rat mammary fat pad model. Methods: Rats mammary fat pads underwent a one-time radiation dose of 26 Gy. Radiated (n=10) and non-radiated (n=10) fat pads received a single intra-mammary injection of a sham injection or peptide NP-110. Skin changes were examined clinically. Mammary fat pad tissue was processed for fibrotic and adipogenic markers using QPCR and immunohistochemistry. Results: Clinical assessments and molecular analysis confirmed radiation-induced acute skin changes and radiation-induced fibrosis in rat mammary fat pads. Peptide treatment reduced fibrosis as detected by polarized microscopy of picrosirius red staining, increased collagen 3:1 ratio, reduced expression of collagen-1 crosslinking enzymes lysyl-oxidase, transglutaminase 2 and TGFβ1 protein m and increased adiponectin, an anti-fibrotic adipokine. RHAMM was expressed in stromal cell subsets and was down-regulated by the RHAMM peptide mimetic. Conclusions: Results from this study predict that blocking RHAMM function in stromal cell subsets can provide a post-radiotherapy micro-environment more suitable for fat grafting and breast reconstruction.
Elliptical Excision of the Skin This video demonstrates elliptical excision of the skin, a proced... more Elliptical Excision of the Skin This video demonstrates elliptical excision of the skin, a procedure that can be used in the diagnosis and management of skin and subcutaneous lesions, may be perfor...
treatment groups were compared across time, and at each time point and post hoc, pairwise compari... more treatment groups were compared across time, and at each time point and post hoc, pairwise comparisons were done with a Tukey adjustment. All tests were 2-sided with an α level of 0.05; and all tests were performed in Prism (GraphPad Software) or SAS version 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc.). A P value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Study approval. All animal procedures were approved by Stanford University's Administrative Panel on Laboratory Animal Care. Additional methods are provided in Supplemental Methods.
Citrullination of arginine residues is a post-translational modification (PTM) found on myelin ba... more Citrullination of arginine residues is a post-translational modification (PTM) found on myelin basic protein (MBP), which neutralizes MBPs positive charge, and is implicated in myelin damage and multiple sclerosis (MS). Here we identify lysine acetylation as another neutralizing PTM to MBP that may be involved in myelin damage. We quantify changes in lysine and arginine PTMs on MBP derived from mice induced with an experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) model of MS using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. The changes in PTMs are correlated to changes in neurological disability scoring (NDS), as a marker of myelin damage. We found that lysine acetylation increased by 2-fold on MBP during peak NDS post-EAE induction. We also found that mono- and dimethyl-lysine, as well as asymmetric dimethyl-arginine residues on MBP were elevated at peak EAE disability. These findings suggest that the acetylation and methylation of lysine on MBP are PTMs associated with the neur...
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease, which involves the prog... more Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease, which involves the progressive degeneration of motor neurons. ALS has long been considered a disease of the grey matter; however, pathological alterations of the white matter (WM), including axonal loss, axonal demyelination and oligodendrocyte death, have been reported in patients with ALS. The present review examined motor neuron death as the primary cause of ALS and evaluated the associated WM damage that is guided by neuronal-glial interactions. Previous studies have suggested that WM damage may occur prior to the death of motor neurons, and thus may be considered an early indicator for the diagnosis and prognosis of ALS. However, the exact molecular mechanisms underlying early-onset WM damage in ALS have yet to be elucidated. The present review explored the detailed anatomy of WM and identified several pathological mechanisms that may be implicated in WM damage in ALS. In addition, it associated the pathophysiological alterations of WM, which may contribute to motor neuron death in ALS, with similar mechanisms of WM damage that are involved in multiple sclerosis (MS). Furthermore, the early detection of WM damage in ALS, using neuroimaging techniques, may lead to earlier therapeutic intervention, using immunomodulatory treatment strategies similar to those used in relapsing-remitting MS, aimed at delaying WM damage in ALS. Early therapeutic approaches may have the potential to delay motor neuron damage and thus prolong the survival of patients with ALS. The therapeutic interventions that are currently available for ALS are only marginally effective. However, early intervention with immunomodulatory drugs may slow the progression of WM damage in the early stages of ALS, thus delaying motor neuron death and increasing the life expectancy of patients with ALS. Contents 1. Introduction 2. WM anatomy 3. Molecular mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of WM damage in ALS 4. Therapeutic strategies aimed to attenuate or delay WM damage and disease progression 5. Conclusion
Consumer focussed product safety evaluation programs can complement safety standards regimes and ... more Consumer focussed product safety evaluation programs can complement safety standards regimes and provide comparative safety performance information that influences purchasing decisions as well as driving improvements in safety performance. A Consumer Rating and Assessment of Safety Helmets (CRASH) program was developed for the Australian motorcycle helmet market. The objective of this paper is to report on the assessment and rating program and results for 2011-12 helmets. The CRASH program provides motorcycle helmet performance and usability information that can assist motorcyclists in purchasing decisions. Further research and development is required to optimise the testing, scoring and rating system of the program, and the communication of results.
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Papers by Jessica Truong