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Research

Vaccination to prevent infectious disease is one of the most successful public health interventions ever developed. And yet, variability in individual vaccine effectiveness suggests that a better mechanistic understanding of vaccine-induced immune responses could improve vaccine design and efficacy.

Research

Current strategies to reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in young adults are largely limited to those at extremes of risk. In cohort studies we have shown cluster analysis identified a large sub-group of adolescents with multiple risk factors.

Research

Neutrophils are key cells of the innate immune system. It is now understood that this leukocyte population is diverse in both the basal composition and functional plasticity. Underlying this plasticity is a post-translational framework for rapidly achieving early activation states, but also a transcriptional capacity that is becoming increasingly recognized by immunologists.

Research

We investigated whether a commonly used research assessment - the Autism Observation Scale for Infants (AOSI) - accurately measures autism behaviours among infants showing early signs of autism identified within the community. The AOSI is often included in studies tracking the development of infants at increased likelihood of autism, such as the infant siblings of diagnosed children. However, the suitability of this measure has not previously been tested with community-referred infants.

Research

The functional role of milk for the developing neonate is an area of great interest, and a significant amount of research has been done. However, a lot of work remains to fully understand the complexities of milk, and the variations imposed through genetics. It has previously been shown that both secretor (Se) and Lewis blood type (Le) status impacts the human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) content of human milk. While some studies have compared the non-HMO milk metabolome of Se+ and Se- women, none have reported on the non-HMO milk metabolome of Se- and Le- mothers.

Research

SPARX is a computerized cognitive behavioral therapy self-help program for adolescent depression that is freely available in New Zealand. At registration, users identify themselves as either male, female, intersex, or transgender. We aimed to describe the mental health of adolescent intersex users. A secondary analysis of SPARX usage data over 5 years.

Research

Risk-based recommendations are common for pneumococcal vaccines but little is known about their uptake. In Australia, pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) was funded only for Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) children and those with underlying medical conditions in 2001, and then there were different booster dose recommendations depending on risk after the introduction of universal PCV vaccination in 2005.

Research

School bullying is a public health concern affecting the physical and mental health of children and young people. While school-based interventions to prevent bullying have been developed internationally, the effectiveness of many interventions has been mixed and modest.

Research

Student bullying behaviours are a significant social issue in schools worldwide. Whilst school staff have access to quality bullying prevention interventions, schools can face significant challenges implementing the whole-school approach required to address the complexity of these behaviours.

Research

Natural Language Sampling (NLS) offers clear potential for communication and language assessment, where other data might be difficult to interpret. We leveraged existing primary data for 18-month-olds showing early signs of autism, to examine the reliability and concurrent construct validity of NLS-derived measures coded from video-of child language, parent linguistic input, and dyadic balance of communicative interaction-against standardised assessment scores. Using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software and coding conventions, masked coders achieved good-to-excellent inter-rater agreement across all measures.