Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Research Articles

The effect of informal caring on mental health among adolescents and young adults in Australia: a population-based longitudinal study

Young carers are people aged up to 25 years who provide unpaid care to a relative or a friend living with a long-term condition or a disability. Providing informal care is associated with poor mental health. Longitudinal evidence on this relationship among young people is scarce. To address this gap, we assessed the mental health of people aged 15-25 years when providing informal care compared with when not providing informal care. We conducted a population-based longitudinal study using 20 years of data between 2001 and 2020 from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. We included observations of participants aged 15-25 years with at least two observations across 20 waves of HILDA. Informal care was categorised as 0 h per week, 1-19 h per week, and 20 or more h per week. Mental health was measured using the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5) from the 36-Item Short Form Survey (SF-36). Multivariate linear fixed-effects regression models were fitted to assess within-person changes in mental health when providing different levels of informal care. Of 44 663 people with 410 658 observations who participated in HILDA waves 1 to 20, 32 726 were excluded with 351 445 observations. 11 937 young people (with 59 213 observations) were deemed eligible for this study and, of these, 8996 participants with 43 231 observations were included in the complete case analytical sample. When caring for 1-19 h per week, young carers had an MHI-5 score of -1·98 points (95% CI -3·06 to -0·89) compared with when caring for 0 h per week. Mental health was worse when caring for 20 or more h per week, with participants displaying an MHI-5 score of -3·47 points (95% CI -6·02 to -0·92) compared with when caring for 0 h per week. Our findings were consistent across sensitivity tests. Our findings suggest potential mental health effects of informal care in young people, particularly when providing an intense amount of caregiving. Reducing young caring loads could be a possible avenue for intervention. Melbourne Disability Institute Scholarship, University of Melbourne Research Training Program Scholarship, Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia funded Centre of Research Excellence in Disability and Health.

The architecture of mental health: identifying the combination of apartment building design requirements for positive mental health outcomes

Housing quality is a crucial determinant of mental health. While the construction of high-rise buildings is a popular policy strategy for accommodating population growth in cities, there is considerable debate about the health consequences of living in poorly designed apartments. Drawing on three Australian state government apartment design policies introduced to improve apartment design quality, this study aimed to identify the combination of design requirements that were optimally supportive of positive mental health. K-means cluster analyses identified groups of buildings (n=172) that were homogenous in their implementation of a mix of n=80 measured design requirements. Positive mental health was measured using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS). Linear mixed-effects models controlling for demographic characteristics, self-selection factors and clustering of participants within buildings compared residents in the different clusters. Residents in the "high policy performance buildings", characterised by having a greater implementation of n=29 design requirements across nine design elements, had significantly higher (+1.96 points) WEMWBS scores compared with residents in the "low policy performance buildings". This study is the first to empirically identify a mix of policy-specific architecture design requirements that are associated with positive mental health in apartment residents. These findings provide vital empirical evidence to inform national and international apartment and high-rise housing policies, and design instruments and practices to protect people's health in apartment dwellings. The High Life project is funded by a Healthway Research Intervention Project grant (#31986) and an Australian Research Council (ARC), Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) (DE160100140). NE is supported by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project (LP190100558). SF is supported by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship (FT210100899).

Broad immunity to SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern mediated by a SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain protein vaccine.

The SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic has fuelled the generation of vaccines at an unprecedented pace and scale. However, many challenges remain, including: the emergence of vaccine-resistant mutant viruses, vaccine stability during storage and transport, waning vaccine-induced immunity, and concerns about infrequent adverse events associated with existing vaccines. We report on a protein subunit vaccine comprising the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, dimerised with an immunoglobulin IgG1 Fc domain. These were tested in conjunction with three different adjuvants: a TLR2 agonist R4-Pam2Cys, an NKT cell agonist glycolipid α-Galactosylceramide, or MF59® squalene oil-in-water adjuvant, using mice, rats and hamsters. We also developed an RBD-human IgG1 Fc vaccine with an RBD sequence of the immuno-evasive beta variant (N501Y, E484K, K417N). These vaccines were also tested as a heterologous third dose booster in mice, following priming with whole spike vaccine. Each formulation of the RBD-Fc vaccines drove strong neutralising antibody (nAb) responses and provided durable and highly protective immunity against lower and upper airway infection in mouse models of COVID-19. The 'beta variant' RBD vaccine, combined with MF59® adjuvant, induced strong protection in mice against the beta strain as well as the ancestral strain. Furthermore, when used as a heterologous third dose booster, the RBD-Fc vaccines combined with MF59® increased titres of nAb against other variants including alpha, delta, delta+, gamma, lambda, mu, and omicron BA.1, BA.2 and BA.5. These results demonstrated that an RBD-Fc protein subunit/MF59® adjuvanted vaccine can induce high levels of broadly reactive nAbs, including when used as a booster following prior immunisation of mice with whole ancestral-strain spike vaccines. This vaccine platform offers a potential approach to augment some of the currently approved vaccines in the face of emerging variants of concern, and it has now entered a phase I clinical trial. This work was supported by grants from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) (2005846), The Jack Ma Foundation, National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC; 1113293) and Singapore National Medical Research Council (MOH-COVID19RF-003). Individual researchers were supported by an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellowship (1117766), NHMRC Investigator Awards (2008913 and 1173871), Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award (ARC DECRA; DE210100705) and philanthropic awards from IFM investors and the A2 Milk Company.

An Invited Reply to: A Comment on: The exploitation of sexual signals by predators: a meta-analysis (2022) White et al.

An Invited Reply to: A Comment on: The exploitation of sexual signals by predators: a meta-analysis (2022) White et al.

No evidence for HPAI H5N1 2.3.4.4b incursion into Australia in 2022.

No evidence for HPAI H5N1 2.3.4.4b incursion into Australia in 2022.

Defining performance thresholds for effective management of biodiversity within protected areas.

Performance thresholds are an important tool for determining successful conservation outcomes. They provide an objective means of defining good ecological condition and have been endorsed as an essential part of best practice in protected area (PA) management within the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas Standard. With a growing number of PAs attaining Green List status globally, thresholds developed by PAs on the Green List present an excellent resource with which to identify the attributes of well-defined performance thresholds. We examined 349 thresholds associated with PAs on the Green List to determine whether they were specific and measurable (i.e., factors recognized as essential for setting well-defined targets). We assessed whether thresholds were defined quantitatively and whether definitions included ambiguous terms (e.g., stable numbers). We identified six different ways thresholds were expressed and found that many thresholds were expressed as management objectives, rather than ecological condition thresholds, although this trend improved over time. Approximately one-half of the performance thresholds lacked the necessary specificity to delineate successful outcomes. Our results enabled us to develop a checklist of information required to set robust performance thresholds. Recommendations include that thresholds should be quantitatively defined, including quantitative estimates of the limits of acceptable change (LAC) around the target condition. To ensure transparency, a rationale and associated evidence should be provided to support the threshold and the LAC. When accompanied by a rationale and quantitative estimate of the current condition of the value, unambiguously defined thresholds with a quantitative LAC provide an objective means of demonstrating that successful conservation outcomes have been achieved. These recommendations will help conservation managers apply the Green List Standard and improve the measurement of conservation outcomes more broadly.

Communicating with patients and the public about COVID-19 vaccine safety: recommendations from the Collaboration on Social Science and Immunisation.

Communicating with patients and the public about COVID-19 vaccine safety: recommendations from the Collaboration on Social Science and Immunisation.

The biomechanical role of the chondrocranium and the material properties of cartilage

Acknowledgements We thank Ingmar Werneburg for organising the symposium, Casey Holliday, Matt Friedman, Alice Clement, and Kyle Armstrong for discussion, and Hendrik Muller and Juan Daza for constructive comments during peer review. We thank the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) who provided funding for this research (BB/H011854/1; BB/H011668/1; BB/H011390/1; BB/M010287/1; BB/M008525/1; BB/M008061/1) and a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award DE130101567 (Australian Research Council) which supported MEHJ.

Everyday Practices and Activities to Improve Pre-school Self-Regulation: Cluster RCT Evaluation of the PRSIST Program.

The Preschool Situational Self-Regulation Toolkit (PRSIST) Program was developed as a low-cost and embedded approach for educators to foster pre-schoolers’ self-regulation and related abilities (e.g., executive function, school readiness). This study reports on a cluster RCT study with 50 Australian pre-school services to evaluate the effectiveness of the PRSIST Program for improving children’s self-regulation, executive function and school readiness, compared to current routine practice. Pre-school centers were recruited to reflect the breadth of geography, pedagogical quality, and socio-economic catchment areas across the early childhood education and care sector. All children identified as in their final year of pre-school education at these centers were invited to participate, resulting in a sample of 473 3-5-year-old children at baseline. Centers were randomly assigned to groups after baseline data collection, and data collectors were blinded to group assignment throughout the study. It was hypothesized that engagement in the PRSIST Program would improve children’s self-regulation, executive function and school readiness, over and above normal age-related rates of development. Results indicated small but significant improvements in executive functioning for the intervention group, after adjusting for cluster, baseline results and key covariates. All other outcomes were descriptively in favor of the intervention group but failed to reach significance. Levels of use of the program remained high by most educators throughout the intervention period, suggesting its acceptability and sustainability within these contexts. Together, results show promise for this approach to self-regulation development. Opportunities that might further strengthen this approach are discussed. This study was registered with the Australia and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12617001568303) and study protocols published in advance of commencement. Funding for this study was provided by the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Early Career Researcher Award research grant scheme.

Generalized Hybrid Nanofluid Model with the Application of Fully Developed Mixed Convection Flow in a Vertical Microchannel**Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 1187224, 11432009, and the Australian Research Council through a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award DE150100169

The fully developed mixed convection hybrid nanofluid flow in a vertical microchannel is examined in detail. The simplified hybrid model that omits the nonlinear terms due to the interaction of different nanoparticle volumetric fractions is derived and compared with the existing one. The generalized model describing hybrid nanofluid suspended with multiple kinds of solid particles is suggested. The argument that the corresponding nanofluid solutions obtained by the homogenous model can be recovered from the results of the regular problems through simple arithmetic operations is checked. Solutions in similarity form for this flow problem are formulated by means of a set of similarity variables. The effects of various parameters on important physical quantities are analyzed and discussed.

Consumer Perspectives of a Multi-Venue Gambling Self-Exclusion Program: A Qualitative Process Analysis

Self-exclusion is an important harm minimization strategy implemented by gambling operators to restrict a problem gambler’s access to gambling opportunities. Aspects of self-exclusion, including low uptake and non-compliance, limit the effectiveness of programs. Research that considers the consumer perspective is needed to enhance the perceived utility of self-exclusion in the target audience. Twenty interviews were conducted with current (n = 13) and former (n = 7) participants of a multi-venue self-exclusion program for land-based gaming machine venues in New South Wales, Australia. Participants were asked open-ended questions about their experiences and opinions of the program, including its strengths and weaknesses, and suggested improvements for future consumers. Overall, participants found self-exclusion beneficial. However, several shortcomings of the program were expressed, including lack of available public information and overly complicated registration processes. Participants lacked confidence in venues’ willingness and ability to identify non-compliant gamblers and highlighted the need for vastly improved detection systems. The quality of interactions with venue staff in relation to self-exclusion were mixed; counsellor support, however, was perceived as important from beginning to end of a self-exclusion period. Results suggest that gambling operators should increase marketing efforts to promote the availability and benefits of self-exclusion. Investigation of strategies to streamline registration processes and to augment detection systems with new technologies was supported. Venue staff may benefit from training in appropriate self-exclusion facilitation procedures. Gambling operators should aim to foster strong links between self-exclusion programs and professional gambling counselling services.Résumé L’auto-exclusion est une importante stratégie de minimisation des méfaits mise en œuvre par les exploitants de jeux d’argent afin de limiter l’accès des joueurs pathologiques aux occasions de jeu. Certains aspects de l’auto-exclusion, notamment la faible participation et la non-conformité, limitent toutefois l’efficacité des programmes. Des recherches tenant compte de la perspective du joueur sont nécessaires pour renforcer l’utilité perçue de l’auto-exclusion auprès du public cible. Vingt entretiens ont été menés auprès de participants actuels (n = 13) et anciens (n = 7) d’un programme d’auto-exclusion multi-sites pour les salles de jeux de hasard en Nouvelle-Galles-du-Sud, en Australie. On a posé aux participants des questions ouvertes sur leurs expériences et leurs opinions sur le programme, y compris ses forces et ses faiblesses, et sur des améliorations à apporter pour les futurs participants. Dans l’ensemble, les participants ont trouvé le programme d’auto-exclusion bénéfique. Toutefois, plusieurs lacunes du programme ont été signalées, notamment le manque d’informations disponibles dans le public et des processus d’inscription excessivement compliqués. Les participants manquaient de confiance en la volonté et la capacité des propriétaires de sites d’identifier les joueurs non conformes, et ils ont souligné la nécessité d’améliorer considérablement les systèmes de détection. La qualité des interactions avec le personnel des lieux concernant l’auto-exclusion était mitigée; le soutien des conseillers a toutefois été perçu comme important du début à la fin de la période d’auto-exclusion. Les résultats laissent croire que les exploitants de jeux d’argent devraient intensifier leurs efforts de publicité pour promouvoir la disponibilité et les avantages de programmes d’auto-exclusion. La recherche de stratégies visant à rationaliser les processus d’inscription et à améliorer les systèmes de détection par de nouvelles technologies a été encouragée. Les membres du personnel des sites peuvent bénéficier d’une formation sur les procédures appropriées de facilitation pour l’auto-exclusion. Les exploitants de jeux devraient s’efforcer d’établir des liens étroits entre les programmes d’auto-exclusion et les services de conseillers professionnels en matière de jeu.

Website design features: Exploring how social cues present in the online environment may impact risk taking

This work was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award (DE1060100459) awarded to S.G.

Injured by Design: A Global Perspective on Urban Design and Road Transport Injury

Background: The design of cities has been heavily influenced by the needs of private motor vehicles, resulting in significant population and planetary health challenges. Death and injury due to motor vehicle crashes is now the world's 5th leading cause of mortality and morbidity and motor vehicle-related air pollution accounts for 4.2 million deaths per year. This study highlights the global importance of urban design as an approach to mitigating the challenges associated with rapid motorisation and road transport injury. Methods: Urban characteristics were obtained from sample maps for 1692 cities capturing one third of the world's population. Applying a combined convolutional neural network and graph-based approach, cities were classified into unique groupings based on selected urban design characteristics represented in sample maps. Associations between identified city types and the burden of road transport injury were estimated using data from the most recent Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. Findings: For the first time, 9 city types (urban designs) have been identified that capture the diversity of land transport and are associated with the burden of road transport injury. The burden of road transport injury was 2-fold higher (RR=2.13) for the poorest performing city types as opposed to the best performing city type. A total of 9 million DALYs lost per year to road transport injury can be attributed to urban design/city types. Interpretation: With more than a 2-fold difference observed in the total estimated burden of road transport injury between the best performing city type and the worst performing city types, prevention efforts need to be focused up-stream to deliver urban design that supports transport mode shift that places people within lower risk transport modes such as rail and advocates for increased safe active transport. Such an approach will reduce the considerable health burden associated with cities operating predominantly private motor vehicle-oriented transport systems. Funding Statement: JT is supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award [Grant No. DE180101411]. MS is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia) Fellowship [Grant No. APP1136250]. The work of JS was funded by a McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellowship from the University of Melbourne, Australia. CM is supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number K01AA026327. RS work is supported by the Australian Research Council discovery DP160101598 grant, centre of excellence CE170100023 scheme and the National Environment Science Program Clean Air and Urban Landscape hub. Declaration of Interests: Nothing to disclose. Ethics Approval Statement: No human or animal participants were involved in the study. The study did not require approval from the University of Melbourne’s Human Research Ethics Committee.

Class, Professional Work, and the History of Capitalism in Broken Hill, c. 1880–1910

Research Article| May 01 2018 Class, Professional Work, and the History of Capitalism in Broken Hill, c. 1880–1910 Hannah Forsyth Hannah Forsyth HANNAH FORSYTH is senior lecturer in history at the Australian Catholic University in Sydney and author of A History of the Modern Australian University. She currently holds an Australian Research Council three-year Discovery Early Career Researcher Award for her project “Are We All Middle Class Now? A History of Professions in Australia.” Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Labor (2018) 15 (2): 21–47. https://doi.org/10.1215/15476715-4353680 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter Email Permissions Search Site Citation Hannah Forsyth; Class, Professional Work, and the History of Capitalism in Broken Hill, c. 1880–1910. Labor 1 May 2018; 15 (2): 21–47. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/15476715-4353680 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter Books & JournalsAll JournalsLabor Search Advanced Search This article traces the history of the professions against their emergence in the Australian outback town of Broken Hill, where the structures of late nineteenth-century capitalism and class conflict are particularly obvious. It demonstrates the ways that capitalism fueled the professions: it needed and helped produce them, ensuring the interests of the professionals were aligned, structurally at least, with capital. But the professionals were drawn demographically from an older, British middle class. Practitioners brought a particular morality to their work, derived from religious persuasion (especially Evangelicalism) and established social norms. Such moral attributes as thrift, truthfulness, efficiency, and civic responsibility imbued the professional skills that were valued as each of the professions evolved, becoming embedded in hierarchies that organized each profession. Hierarchical systems were structured according to merit, which increasingly made it seem, to the professionals, that class was earned. This was key to the political compact that the professions implicitly made with society in ameliorating, with their moral character, some of the worst effects of capital, at this stage of industrialization. The professionals thus embodied and enabled the type of “progress” and “civilization” that were central justifications for the settler colonial project, which relied on a pairing of the economic with the moral in the colonial imagination. professions, Australia, moral middle class, history of capitalism Copyright © 2018 Labor and Working-Class History Association2018 You do not currently have access to this content.

Isolation rearing does not constrain social plasticity in a family-living lizard

Financial support for this research was provided by the Australian Research Council (ARC DP130102998, grant to MJW and RWB), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (scholarship to JLR), the Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behavior, the Australian Museum, Macquarie University (scholarship to JLR), and the Australian Government (Endeavour Postdoctoral Fellowship to JLR). DWAN was supported by an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award (DE150101774) and University of New South Wales Vice Chancellors Fellowship.

Historical biogeography of Florestina (Asteraceae: Bahieae) of dry environments in Mexico: evaluating models and uncertainty in low-diversity clades

F.S.-T. wishes to thank the Posgrado en Ciencias Biologicas and the Programa de Becas Posdoctorales both at UNAM for continuous support throughout this research. This work was also supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACYT) through a Doctoral Dissertation grant (171389). N.J.M. was supported by the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, an Institute sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Agriculture through NSF Award #EFJ0832858, with additional support from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. N.J.M. was also funded by the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Early Career Researcher Award #DE150101773, and by The Australian National University. F.S.T. was supported by two Short-Term Visitor grants from NIMBioS in 2014 and 2015. K.A.M. was supported by the National Institutes of Health Program for Excellence and Equity in Research Grant [R25 5R25GM086761-06] and the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Pollinator rarity limits reintroduction sites in an endangered sexually deceptive orchid (Caladenia hastata): implications for plants with specialized pollination systems

RDP was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award Fellowship (DE150101720).

Unequal Partners: U.S. Collaboration with China and India in Research and Development

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council under the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (grant number DE130100972)

PSer40 tyrosine hydroxylase immunohistochemistry identifies the anatomical location of C1 neurons in rat RVLM that are activated by hypotension

Identification of neurons, and their phenotype, that are activated in response to specific stimuli is a critical step in understanding how neural networks integrate inputs to produce specific outputs. Here, we developed novel mouse monoclonal antibodies of different IgG isotypes that are specific to tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), and to tyrosine hydroxylase activated at its serine 40 position (pSer40TH), in order to assess changes in the activity of phenotypically identified cardiovascular neurons using fluorescence immunohistochemistry. We find that the proportion of C1 pSer40TH-positive neurons in the central and medial region of the rat rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) increases dramatically following hydralazine treatment, whereas phenylephrine treatment does not significantly change the pSer40TH/TH ratio in these regions compared to control. This finding suggests that there is a mediolateral topology associated with the activation of C1 neurons following baroreceptor loading or unloading. Overall, we conclude first, that our newly characterized monoclonal antibodies are specific, and selective, against TH and pSer40TH. Secondly, that they can be used to label TH and pSer40TH immunoreactive neurons simultaneously, and thirdly that that they can be used to identify the activation state of catecholamine synthetizing neurons after physiological stimuli. Fourthly, we find that there is basal level of activation of TH neurons in the lateral, medial and central regions (~70%, 30% and 45%, respectively) of the C1 area, but that following unloading of the baroreceptors there is a marked increase in activation of central (~80%) and medial (~90%) C1 neurons in the RVLM. Support or Funding Information This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (Discovery Early Career Researcher Award DE120100992), the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (Grants 1065485 and 1082215 and Fellowship 1024489), Sydney University, Macquarie University and the Heart Research Institute. TH staining, pTH staining and merged staining in rat brainstem.

Accidental, Assisted, Automated: An Emerging Repertoire of Infant Mobile Media Techniques

Accidental, Assisted, Automated: An Emerging Repertoire of Infant Mobile Media Techniques