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This article reports on the development of online assessment tools for disengaged youth in flexible learning environments. Sociocultural theories of learning and assessment and Bourdieu's sociological concepts of capital and exchange were used to design a purpose-built content management system. This design experiment engaged participants in assessment that led to the exchange of self, peer and teacher judgements for credentialing. This collaborative approach required students and teachers to adapt and amend social networking practices for students to submit and judge their own and others' work using comments, ratings, keywords and tags. Students and teachers refined their evaluative expertise across contexts, and negotiated meanings and values of digital works, which gave rise to revised versions and emergent assessment criteria. By combining social networking tools with sociological models of capital, assessment activities related to students' digital productions were understood as valuations and judgements within an emergent, negotiable social field of exchange.

We present the findings of a prospective cohort study in a single tertiary hospital to review the patient experience and economic benefit of ambulatory hysteroscopy (AH). Data were collected between May 2017 and February 2020. Patient satisfaction was measured with qualitative survey. Hospital level financial data were obtained over two financial years (2017/18 and 2018/19) to identify seasonal variation. The primary outcome was patient satisfaction and the secondary outcome was cost of AH compared to hysteroscopy under GA. Three hundred and twenty-nine patients underwent AH. Two hundred and ninety-eight responses (91%) were collected. Ninety-five percent of procedures were successful. Median pain score was five out of 10. Despite pain, 94% of patients would undergo AH again and 97% would recommend it. The average hospital cost for AH was $259 compared with $3098 for hysteroscopy under GA. These findings support AH as a safe, well-tolerated and economically viable alternative to hysteroscopy under GA. What is already known on this subject? Hysteroscopy is traditionally performed in an operating theatre under general anaesthesia (GA). Technological advancements allow for the procedure to be performed in an outpatient setting. Despite advantages of ambulatory hysteroscopy (AH), GA hysteroscopy is still the predominant intervention in Australia. What the results of this study add? Patient satisfaction in AH was assessed. The median pain score was five out of 10. Despite pain, 94% of patients would undergo AH again and 97% would recommend it. What the implications are of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? AH is a well-tolerated alternative to hysteroscopy under GA with significant cost benefits to the hospital and high patient satisfaction. Further research should focus on direct comparison of the two procedure approaches using randomised controlled trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Transabdominal cerclage can reduce the risk of preterm birth in women with cervical insufficiency. Aims: This study evaluated outcomes following insertion of a laparoscopic transabdominal cerclage in pregnant women. Materials and methods: A retrospective observational study. Patients: pregnant women who underwent laparoscopic transabdominal cerclage from 2011 to 2017. Eligible women had cervical insufficiency and were not suitable for a transvaginal cerclage. Intervention: the insertion of a laparoscopic transabdominal cerclage in the pregnancy. Measurements: neonatal survival, delivery of an infant at ≥34 weeks gestation and surgical morbidity were evaluated. Results: Of 19 women who underwent laparoscopic transabdominal cerclage in pregnancy, at 6–11 weeks gestation, the perinatal survival rate was 100%. There were no complications. The average gestational age at delivery was 37.1 weeks. Sixteen women delivered after 34 weeks. Conclusions: Laparoscopic transabdominal cerclage is a safe and effective procedure in women with poor obstetric histories. It requires the correct skill, expertise and patient selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cervical insufficiency is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. Cervical cerclage is one option in the management of cervical insufficiency. Aim: To evaluate obstetric outcomes following insertion of a pre‐pregnancy laparoscopic transabdominal cerclage in women at high risk for pre‐term labour and/or mid‐trimester pregnancy loss. Methods: A prospective observational study of consecutive women who underwent laparoscopic transabdominal cerclage from 2007 to 2017. Eligible women had a diagnosis of cervical insufficiency based on previous obstetric history and/or a short or absent cervix and were considered not suitable for a transvaginal cerclage. The primary outcome was neonatal survival and the secondary outcome was delivery of an infant at ≥34 weeks gestation. Surgical morbidity and complications were also evaluated. Results: During the study period, 225 women underwent laparoscopic transabdominal cerclage. We present the outcomes of 121 pregnancies resulting in 125 babies. The perinatal survival rate of viable pregnancies was 98.5% with a mean gestational age at delivery of 35.2 weeks; 79.7% of babies were delivered at ≥34.0 weeks gestation. Conclusion: Laparoscopic transabdominal cerclage is a safe and effective procedure resulting in favourable obstetric outcomes in women with a poor obstetric history. For optimal success the procedure requires the correct surgical expertise, equipment and appropriate patient selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With more and more political candidates using social media for campaigning, researchers are looking at measuring the effectiveness of this medium. Most research, however, concentrates on the bare count of likes (or twitter mentions) in an attempt to correlate social media presence and winning. In this paper, we propose a novel method, Interaction Strength Plot (IntS) to measure the passive interactions between a candidate’s posts on Facebook and the users (liking the posts). Using this method on original Malaysian General Election (MGE13) and Australian Federal Elections (AFE13) Facebook Pages (FP) campaign data, we label an FP as performing well if both the posting frequency and the likes gathered are above average. Our method shows that over 60% of the MGE13 candidates and 85% of the AFE13 candidates studied in this paper had under-performing FP. Some of these FP owners would have been identified as popular based on bare count. Thus our performance chart is a vital step forward in measuring the effectiveness of online campaigning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the research on the incidence of paediatric systemic lupus erythematosus (pSLE) in Australia. It states that the annual incidence rate was 0.32 per ten children aged between aged less than 16 years. It notes that the incidence rate was higher in Asian children and Australian aboriginal. It mentions that renal involvement is common but progression to end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) is rare.

This standards document outlines accepted standards of management for children, adolescents and young adults with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) in Australia. This document acknowledges that the chronic inflammatory arthritis conditions (JIA) in childhood are different diseases from inflammatory arthritis in adults and that specific expertise is required in the care of children with arthritis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-density arrays (LDA) have been designed based on the real-time RT-PCR (TaqMan) assays for the specific detection of 13 viruses that infect Grapevines in addition to the housekeeping gene 18S rRNA. The viruses included in the study are Grapevine leafroll associated viruses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 9, Grapevine leafroll associated virus-2 Redglobe (GLRaV-2RG) strain, Ruspestris stem pitting associated virus, Grapevine vitivirus A, Grapevine vitivirus B, Grapevine fanleaf virus, Tomato ringspot virus (ToRSV), and Grapevine fleck virus (GFkV). This study includes three new TaqMan RT-PCR assays that have been developed for GLRaV-2RG, GFkV and ToRSV and have been included in the TaqMan RT-PCR and LDA detection. The LDAs were evaluated against a wide range of isolates distributed geographically. Geographical locations included Africa, Europe, Australia, Asia, Latin America and the United States. High-throughput detection of these viruses using LDAs was compared to RT-PCR and real-time TaqMan RT-PCR. The efficiency of different RNA extraction methodologies and buffers were compared for use in low-density array detection. In addition improving the RNA extraction technique and testing the quality of the RNA using the 18S ribosomal RNA TaqMan assay as an RNA specific internal control proved to generate better diagnostic assays. This is the first report on the use of LDA for the detection of plant viruses.