Explore the vast range of titles available.

Siddhartha Gautama (aka The Buddha) was a 6th century BCE Indian sage whose spiritual teachings led to the founding of Buddhism, the fourth-largest religion in the world.

Background Therapeutic options for early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in individual patients can be limited by tumor and location, liver dysfunction and comorbidities. Many patients with early-stage HCC do not receive curative-intent therapies. Stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) has emerged as an effective, non-invasive HCC treatment option, however, randomized evidence for SABR in the first line setting is lacking. Methods Trans-Tasman Radiation Oncology Group (TROG) 21.07 SOCRATES-HCC is a phase II, prospective, randomised trial comparing SABR to other current standard of care therapies for patients with a solitary HCC ≤ 8 cm, ineligible for surgical resection or transplantation. The study is divided into 2 cohorts. Cohort 1 will compromise 118 patients with tumors ≤ 3 cm eligible for thermal ablation randomly assigned (1:1 ratio) to thermal ablation or SABR. Cohort 2 will comprise 100 patients with tumors > 3 cm up to 8 cm in size, or tumors ≤ 3 cm ineligible for thermal ablation, randomly assigned (1:1 ratio) to SABR or best other standard of care therapy including transarterial therapies. The primary objective is to determine whether SABR results in superior freedom from local progression (FFLP) at 2 years compared to thermal ablation in cohort 1 and compared to best standard of care therapy in cohort 2. Secondary endpoints include progression free survival, overall survival, adverse events, patient reported outcomes and health economic analyses. Discussion The SOCRATES-HCC study will provide the first randomized, multicentre evaluation of the efficacy, safety and cost effectiveness of SABR versus other standard of care therapies in the first line treatment of unresectable, early-stage HCC. It is a broad, multicentre collaboration between hepatology, interventional radiology and radiation oncology groups around Australia, coordinated by TROG Cancer Research. Trial registration anzctr.org.au, ACTRN12621001444875, registered 21 October 2021.

Although there are several established international guidelines on the management of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), there is limited information detailing specific indicators of good quality care. The aim of this study was to develop a core set of quality indicators (QIs) to underpin the management of HCC. We undertook a modified, two‐round, Delphi consensus study comprising a working group and experts involved in the management of HCC as well as consumer representatives. QIs were derived from an extensive review of the literature. The role of the participants was to identify the most important and measurable QIs for inclusion in an HCC clinical quality registry. From an initial 94 QIs, 40 were proposed to the participants. Of these, 23 QIs ultimately met the inclusion criteria and were included in the final set. This included (a) nine related to the initial diagnosis and staging, including timing to diagnosis, required baseline clinical and laboratory assessments, prior surveillance for HCC, diagnostic imaging and pathology, tumor staging, and multidisciplinary care; (b) thirteen related to treatment and management, including role of antiviral therapy, timing to treatment, localized ablation and locoregional therapy, surgery, transplantation, systemic therapy, method of response assessment, and supportive care; and (c) one outcome assessment related to surgical mortality. Conclusion: We identified a core set of nationally agreed measurable QIs for the diagnosis, staging, and management of HCC. The adherence to these best practice QIs may lead to system‐level improvement in quality of care and, ultimately, improvement in patient outcomes, including survival.

This thesis assesses whether current auxetic foams can improve the performance of sporting protective equipment, and lays out steps to realise their commercial potential. A wide range of conversion temperatures (120 °C to 200 °C) and times (20 to 180 minutes) for ~3 x 3 x 9 cm conversions of polyurethane foam with volumetric compression ratios (VCRs) of 2 or 3 changed polymeric bonding, fixed imposed compression, and changed their mechanical properties. Effects of conversion time and temperature were approximately interchangeable, and are summarised as heat exposure. As predominantly hydrogen bonding between urea segments increased with heat exposure, shape fixing (final volume ratio, FVR) also increased. Shape fixing of imposed compression (i.e. to an FVR of ~2 in samples with a VCR of 3) caused anisotropic foams to become re-entrant and isotropic, initially reducing Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio from ~50 kPa to ~30 kPa and ~0.3 to ~-0.2, respectively. Further heating increased hydrogen bonding, did not change isotropy, continuously increased Young's modulus to ~120 kPa and Poisson's ratio increased to an approximate plateau at zero. The foams described above, and the conventional parent foam, were indented by two cylinders (10 and 50 mm diameters) and a stud (12 mm diameter). A value (x) connecting elastic properties to indentation resistance in Hertzian indentation theory was calculated for each indenter. Integrating force vs displacement, giving energy absorption, mitigated non-linearity. During cylindrical indentations, x was higher (0.6 to 0.8) than the expected 0.33. During studded indentations x was 0.91, close to its expected value of 1 after outlying unconverted samples were excluded. Digital image correlation showed densification was significantly higher for auxetic samples (α > 0.95), which deformed with a flatter surface for the 10 mm cylinder and stud (α > 0.95). Densification and flatter deformation could have increased x during cylindrical indentations and caused unconverted samples to be outliers in studded indentations. To utilise improvements in often large area PPE, sheets (30 x 30 x 2 cm) of auxetic foam were produced with internal compression controlled and varied using through thickness rods. The sheets fabricated with graded compression levels displayed clearly defined quadrants of differing cell structure and mechanical properties, shown through analytical modelling to be fully consistent with expectations from honeycomb theory. Isotropic sheets and quadrants had a maximum magnitude of NPR of ~-0.1, and Young's modulus of ~50 kPa. Anisotropic quadrants had direction dependant Poisson's ratios as low as ~-0.4 and yet Young's moduli similar to open cell foam (~30 kPa in tension and up to ~5% compression, ~0 kPa beyond ~10% compression). Finally, steam processing produced closed cell foams with a Poisson's ratio of ~-0.1 and Young's modulus (~1 MPa) similar to closed cell foam in sporting PPE.

Global agriculture loses over $100 billion of produce annually to crop pests such as insects. Many of these crop pests either have no current means of control or have developed resistance against chemical pesticides. Long dsRNAs are capable of inducing RNA interference (RNAi) in insects and are emerging as novel highly selective alternatives for sustainable insect management strategies. However, there are significant challenges associated with RNAi efficacy in insects. In this study, we synthesised a range of chemically modified long dsRNA in an approach to improve nuclease resistance and RNAi efficacy in insects. The results showed that dsRNA containing phosphorothioate modifications demonstrated increased resistance to southern green stink bug saliva nucleases. Phosphorothioate and 2'-fluoro modified dsRNA also demonstrated increased resistance to degradation by soil nucleases and increased RNAi efficacy in Drosophila melanogaster cell cultures. In live insects, chemically modified long dsRNA successfully resulted in mortality in both stink bug and corn rootworm. The results provide further mechanistic insight of RNAi efficacy dependence on modifications in the sense or antisense strand of the dsRNA in insects and demonstrate for the first time that RNAi can successfully be triggered by chemically modified long dsRNA in insect cells or live insects. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

Sequence analysis of a 1.4 kb clone from a cDNA library of senescing Zea mays leaves reveals an open reading frame for a 360 amino acid protein. Both the DNA and deduced amino acid sequences are highly homologous to the cysteine proteinases oryzain gamma and aleurain. Northern analysis demonstrates that the corresponding RNA level increases during natural leaf senescence, seedling germination and in chilling of tolerant maize lines, but decreases in a sensitive line. The mRNA level also decreases in regreening leaves, in dark-induced senescence and in nutrient or water stress. Southern and RFLP analysis provide evidence that the gene has two copies, on chromosomes 2 and 7.

Sequence analysis of a 1.4 kb clone from a cDNA library of senescing Zea mays leaves reveals an open reading frame for a 360 amino acid protein. Both the DNA and deduced amino acid sequences are highly homologous to the cysteine proteinases oryzain γ and aleurain. Northern analysis demonstrates that the corresponding RNA level increases during natural leaf senescence, seedling germination and in chilling of tolerant maize lines, but decreases in a sensitive line. The mRNA level also decreases in regreening leaves, in dark-induced senescence and in nutrient or water stress. Southern and RFLP analysis provide evidence that the gene has two copies, on chromosomes 2 and 7.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]