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Bacillus anthracis, a gram-positive, spore-forming bacterium, is the etiological agent of anthrax. It belongs to the Bacillus cereus group, which also contains Bacillus cereus and Bacillus thuringiensis. Most B. anthracis strains are sensitive to phage [gamma], but most B. cereus and B. thuringiensis strains are resistant to the lytic action of phage [gamma]. Here, we report the identification of a protein involved in the bacterial receptor for the lytic phage, which we term GamR (Gamma phage receptor). It is an LPXTG protein (BA3367, BAS3121) and is anchored by the sortase A. A B. anthracis sortase A mutant is not as sensitive as the parental strain nor as the sortase B and sortase C mutants, whereas the GamR mutant is resistant to the lytic action of the phage. Electron microscopy reveals the binding of the phage to the surface of the parental strain and its absence from the GamR mutant. Spontaneous B. anthracis mutants resistant to the phage harbor mutations in the gene encoding the GamR protein. A B. cereus strain that is sensitive to the phage possesses a protein similar (89% identity) to GamR. B. thuringiensis 97-27, a strain which, by sequence analysis, is predicted to harbor a GamR-like protein, is resistant to the phage but nevertheless displays phage binding.

Objective: Effective implementation of mobile applications into the mainstream of mental health care cannot be imposed without acknowledging consumers' perspectives. This study investigated the willingness of mental health consumers and clinical staff to adopt new technology in their treatment. Method: A total of 74 mental health consumers and 116 clinical staff were recruited for the study. Survey data for consumers were collected using hard copies and for staff using the REDCap data management platform. Results: Both consumers and clinical staff reported positive attitudes towards the use of mobile applications in mental health care, emphasising their validity, ease of use and cost. Consumers were more likely to use apps supporting relaxation and time management than those targeting complex problems (alcohol, smoking, hearing voices). However, about half of consumers expressed concerns regarding privacy, and about 40% of them felt uncomfortable about providing personal information to clinicians. There was no association between demographic and clinical factors with the readiness to use mobile apps. Discussion: Findings from this study provided valuable recommendations for the implementation of mobile applications into health care services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian surveys show that Aboriginal people are currently nearly three times more likely to report high levels of psychological distress than non-Aboriginal people, are twice as likely to be hospitalised for mental health problems, and are more likely to die as a result of a mental health-related condition. But has this always been the case? While mental health service use, in particular hospital admission, is not always indicative of the incidence and prevalence of mental illness in a population, very little is known about Aboriginal Australian involvement with mental health services since white contact. This paper seeks to create a historical profile of Aboriginal admissions to public mental health services in an Australian jurisdiction in the first half of the twentieth century, and to provide further insights into their lived experience from newspaper reports, government inquiries and oral histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ObjectiveThis study investigated immersive virtual reality (IVR), as a novel technique to test executive function of healthy younger and older adults. We predicted IVR tasks to have greater predictive power than traditional measures when assessing age-related cognitive functioning due to the real-world validity of the tasks.MethodsParticipants (n=40) completed the Stroop colour–word test and the trail-making test (TMT) as traditional and commonly used assessments of executive functioning. Participants then completed three IVR tasks; a seating arrangement task, an item location task (both set in a virtual chemistry lab), and a virtual parking simulator.ResultsYounger adults completed significantly more parking simulator levels (p<0.001), placed significantly more objects (p<0.001), and located significantly more items than older adults (p<0.01), demonstrating higher levels of performance. Significant correlations were found between performance on traditional neuropsychological measures and IVR measures. For example, Stroop CW performance significantly correlated with the number of parking simulator levels completed (τ=0.43, p<0.01). This suggests that IVR measures assess the same underlying cognitive constructs as traditional tasks. In addition, IVR measures contributed a significant percentage of the explained variance in age.ConclusionIVR measures (i.e. number of parking simulator levels completed and number of objects placed in the seating arrangement task) were found to be stronger contributors than existing traditional neuropsychological tasks in predicting age-related cognitive decline. Future research should investigate the implementation of these real-world-based tasks in clinical groups given this promising initial work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]