Australian National University

About: Australian National University is a education organization based out in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Galaxy. The organization has 34419 authors who have published 109261 publications receiving 4315448 citations. The organization is also known as: The Australian National University & ANU.

Understanding associations among race, socioeconomic status, and health: Patterns and prospects.

Abstract: Race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) are social categories that capture differential exposure to conditions of life that have health consequences. Race/ethnicity and SES are linked to each other, but race matters for health even after SES is considered. This commentary considers the complex ways in which race combines with SES to affect health. There is a need for greater attention to understanding how risks and resources in the social environment are systematically patterned by race, ethnicity and SES, and how they combine to influence cardiovascular disease and other health outcomes. Future research needs to examine how the levels, timing and accumulation of institutional and interpersonal racism combine with other toxic exposures, over the life-course, to influence the onset and course of illness. There is also an urgent need for research that seeks to build the science base that will identify the multilevel interventions that are likely to enhance the health of all, even while they improve the health of disadvantaged groups more rapidly than the rest of the population so that inequities in health can be reduced and ultimately eliminated. We also need sustained research attention to identifying how to build the political support to reduce the large shortfalls in health. (PsycINFO Database Record

Increase in patient mortality at 10 days associated with emergency department overcrowding.

Abstract: Objective: To quantify any relationship between emergency department (ED) overcrowding and 10-day patient mortality. Design and setting: Retrospective stratified cohort analysis of three 48-week periods in a tertiary mixed ED in 2002–2004. Mean “occupancy” (a measure of overcrowding based on number of patients receiving treatment) was calculated for 8-hour shifts and for 12week periods. The shifts of each type in the highest quartile of occupancy were classified as overcrowded. Participants: All presentations of patients (except those arriving by interstate ambulance) during “overcrowded” (OC) shifts and during an equivalent number of “not overcrowded” (NOC) shifts (same shift, weekday and period). Main outcome measure: In-hospital death of a patient recorded within 10 days of the most recent ED presentation. Results: There were 34 377 OC and 32 231 NOC presentations (736 shifts each); the presenting patients were well matched for age and sex. Mean occupancy was 21.6 on OC shifts and 16.4 on NOC shifts. There were 144 deaths in the OC cohort and 101 in the NOC cohort (0.42% and 0.31%, respectively; P = 0.025). The relative risk of death at 10 days was 1.34 (95% CI, 1.04–1.72). Subgroup analysis showed that, in the OC cohort, there were more presentations in more urgent triage categories, decreased treatment performance by standard measures, and a higher mortality rate by triage category. Conclusions: In this hospital, presentation during high ED occupancy was associated with increased in-hospital mortality at 10 days, after controlling for seasonal, shift, and day of the week effects. The magnitude of the effect is about 13 deaths per year. Further

Menarche, menopause, and breast cancer risk: Individual participant meta-analysis, including 118 964 women with breast cancer from 117 epidemiological studies

Abstract: BACKGROUND:Menarche and menopause mark the onset and cessation, respectively, of ovarian activity associated with reproduction, and affect breast cancer risk. Our aim was to assess the strengths of their effects and determine whether they depend on characteristics of the tumours or the affected women.METHODS:Individual data from 117 epidemiological studies, including 118 964 women with invasive breast cancer and 306 091 without the disease, none of whom had used menopausal hormone therapy, were included in the analyses. We calculated adjusted relative risks (RRs) associated with menarche and menopause for breast cancer overall, and by tumour histology and by oestrogen receptor expression.FINDINGS:Breast cancer risk increased by a factor of 1·050 (95% CI 1·044-1·057; p<0·0001) for every year younger at menarche, and independently by a smaller amount (1·029, 1·025-1·032; p<0·0001), for every year older at menopause. Premenopausal women had a greater risk of breast cancer than postmenopausal women of an identical age (RR at age 45-54 years 1·43, 1·33-1·52, p<0·001). All three of these associations were attenuated by increasing adiposity among postmenopausal women, but did not vary materially by women's year of birth, ethnic origin, childbearing history, smoking, alcohol consumption, or hormonal contraceptive use. All three associations were stronger for lobular than for ductal tumours (p<0·006 for each comparison). The effect of menopause in women of an identical age and trends by age at menopause were stronger for oestrogen receptor-positive disease than for oestrogen receptor-negative disease (p<0·01 for both comparisons).INTERPRETATION:The effects of menarche and menopause on breast cancer risk might not be acting merely by lengthening women's total number of reproductive years. Endogenous ovarian hormones are more relevant for oestrogen receptor-positive disease than for oestrogen receptor-negative disease and for lobular than for ductal tumours.

A tool for filtering information in complex systems

Abstract: We introduce a technique to filter out complex data sets by extracting a subgraph of representative links. Such a filtering can be tuned up to any desired level by controlling the genus of the resulting graph. We show that this technique is especially suitable for correlation-based graphs, giving filtered graphs that preserve the hierarchical organization of the minimum spanning tree but containing a larger amount of information in their internal structure. In particular in the case of planar filtered graphs (genus equal to 0), triangular loops and four-element cliques are formed. The application of this filtering procedure to 100 stocks in the U.S. equity markets shows that such loops and cliques have important and significant relationships with the market structure and properties.