Therapeutic pluralism in pregnancy, labour and birthing: Decision-making, communication and inter-professional dynamics. Women are frequent users of practices outside 'mainstream' medicine. Pregnancy, labour and birthing (PLB) is a key area of integration, but no research has examined how women perceive obstetrics, midwifery and complementary medicine, or the impact on their health and wellbeing. This study systematically document Australian women's experiences of PLB with a nationally-represe ....Therapeutic pluralism in pregnancy, labour and birthing: Decision-making, communication and inter-professional dynamics. Women are frequent users of practices outside 'mainstream' medicine. Pregnancy, labour and birthing (PLB) is a key area of integration, but no research has examined how women perceive obstetrics, midwifery and complementary medicine, or the impact on their health and wellbeing. This study systematically document Australian women's experiences of PLB with a nationally-representative sample of women of child-bearing age to document decision making, lay-professional communication, and inter-professional dynamics.Read moreRead less
Navigating back pain care: a sociological study of women's illness pathways within and between intersecting social worlds. Back pain affects most people at some point in their life. It is difficult to treat, choosing a provider can be confusing, and it is costly for the Government. This project will provide comprehensive data on women's journeys through back pain care, their experiences of different providers, and how they negotiate competing ideological perspectives.
Advanced biomass gasification process for distributed power generation with significant negative carbon emission in rural and regional Australia. The outcome of this project is fundamental knowledge essential to the development of advanced biomass gasification processes for distributed power generation with drastic reduction in carbon emissions and the recycling of inorganic nutrients to the land. It will contribute significantly to the future sustainability of rural and regional Australia.
External Therapeutic Device To Support Rehabilitation Of The Hand Following Trauma Or Surgery
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$175,000.00
Summary
The loss of hand function will affect every aspect of an individual’s life. This includes the ability to feed and care for themselves and the ability to work and participate in family life. For people recovering from problems such as trauma, burns or surgery affecting the hand, careful management of hand rehabilitation can influence the outcome for the patient significantly. In order to reduce the possibility of mobility difficulties occurring, including loss of joint range of motion, muscle and ....The loss of hand function will affect every aspect of an individual’s life. This includes the ability to feed and care for themselves and the ability to work and participate in family life. For people recovering from problems such as trauma, burns or surgery affecting the hand, careful management of hand rehabilitation can influence the outcome for the patient significantly. In order to reduce the possibility of mobility difficulties occurring, including loss of joint range of motion, muscle and tendon sheath adhesions or non-functional scar tissue formation, continuous passive motion (CPM) is often indicated. Additionally, for people with reduced mobility of the hand due to upper limb paralysis, such as those with cervical spinal cord injury, stroke, cerebral palsy or peripheral nerve injury, disregard for management of the maintenance of the joint range of motion of the effected hand will result in contracture and limited joint range of motion. Such syndromes will reduce hand function, which is already limited by paralysis, and will negatively affect potential outcomes for aggressive rehabilitation techniques, such as tendon transfer surgery and functional neuromuscular stimulation. Therefore, in such cases, CPM is also indicated. Current devices applying CPM have shown to be effective in minimising the syndromes indicated above and these results are summarised in the Background and Research Plan attached to this proposal. Unfortunately, the use of such devices is not always prescribed by clinicians. This is due, mainly, to the limitations of these devices that are in the marketplace. These limitations include lack of secure finger placement, lack of portability, the inability to provide specialised therapy to specific joints and inflexible programming. This proposal introduces an improved device to be developed and these improvements form the proposal aims below. Given such an improved device, which can overcome many of the problems with current CPM machines, it is likely that that the clinical application of CPM will achieve the greater degree of prescription and application in hand rehabilitation. These improvements should overcome the clinical reticence to use these devices and restore a balance by increasing their use to the level that the scientific literature indicates they should have. The overall aim of the proposal is to take the device to a stage where it is ready for clinical trial.Read moreRead less
Mechanism of synergy of ingredients in natural products and functional foods. Synergism is the interaction of two substances to produce an effect larger than the sum of the separate effects. This project aims to determine the basic biological mechanisms or molecular targets by which the synergy is occurring and to identify the bioactive compounds involved. Understanding how synergism works should help us to identify other synergistic compounds, allowing optimization of products for better effica ....Mechanism of synergy of ingredients in natural products and functional foods. Synergism is the interaction of two substances to produce an effect larger than the sum of the separate effects. This project aims to determine the basic biological mechanisms or molecular targets by which the synergy is occurring and to identify the bioactive compounds involved. Understanding how synergism works should help us to identify other synergistic compounds, allowing optimization of products for better efficacy and quality, and leading to new products that have a significant market advantage over currently available products. This project will help to develop improved natural products that could push this industry advantage further.Read moreRead less
Development of engine management systems for turbocharged gasoline direct-injection engines with optional natural gas port-injection. This project aims to develop universal and programmable engine management systems for gasoline direct-injection engines with lean-burn technology and optional natural gas port-injection. The new engine management system will enable higher fuel efficiency than its predecessors and the increased use of nationally-produced natural gas. The project aims to overcome th ....Development of engine management systems for turbocharged gasoline direct-injection engines with optional natural gas port-injection. This project aims to develop universal and programmable engine management systems for gasoline direct-injection engines with lean-burn technology and optional natural gas port-injection. The new engine management system will enable higher fuel efficiency than its predecessors and the increased use of nationally-produced natural gas. The project aims to overcome three main problems that limit efficiency improvement of direct-injection engines, namely: misfiring, unstable combustion, and soot emission. How these issues are impacted by additional natural gas port-injection will also be explored. This project aims to accomplish this by combining fundamental in-cylinder optical measurements and detailed modelling.Read moreRead less