The cost-of-living crisis continues to pressure Aussie households, and consumers are feeling the crunch. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment reported a pessimist-favoured score of 79.7 in September, a vast departure from a neutral 100, and has been recording near recession lows for more than a year. It's no surprise consumers are re-evaluating their budgets in anticipation of ongoing financial pressures. The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS] Monthly Household Spending Indicator reported a marginal 0.

https://lens.monash.edu/@business-economy/2023/09/25/1386156/cost-of-living-shoplifting-surge-aussies-pushed-to-the-limit

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Have you noticed your levels of attention may slightly change during your menstrual cycle? This may be particularly noticeable for women and people assigned female at birth with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). They have differences in their ability to easily focus and sustain their attention. There may be times during their menstrual cycle when it seems harder to plan, organise and focus their attention. And they may find their ADHD medication doesn't seem to work as well. Very little research has explored the interaction between female hormones and symptoms of ADHD .

https://lens.monash.edu/@medicine-health/2023/09/24/1386049/how-hormones-and-the-menstrual-cycle-can-affect-women-with-adhd-5-common-questions

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Three years ago, cardiologist and Monash PhD student Jessica O'Brien began an important heart research project looking at ways to understand a potentially fatal but preventable disease affecting mainly young Indigenous Australians – rheumatic heart disease. Then, two-thirds of the way into it, everything changed. After all her clinical and research training in a biomedical system, O'Brien underwent a kind of academic and cultural awakening in terms of Indigenous health and the problems with what the researchers describe as an overwhelmingly 'colonial'  health system.

https://lens.monash.edu/@medicine-health/2023/09/11/1386072/applying-an-indigenous-paradigm-to-tackle-rheumatic-heart-disease

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‘Fake news' is a global issue. Disinformation, the dissemination of deliberately misleading or false information, is damaging. Our public and democratic institutions scramble to respond with fact checkers , registers and legislation . Politicians decry it , schools have launched programs to educate against it, and even religious leaders from the Pope to the Indonesian Ulema Council are lending their weight to stop its spread. Yet disinformation persists, and it's gathering momentum.

https://lens.monash.edu/@politics-society/2023/09/06/1386111/disinformation-in-the-city-the-challenges-facing-australian-and-indonesian-local-governments

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The language and spectacle of public cancellation has a long history, but in recent years movements such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter have prompted what's been described as a 'cancellation' or ' cultural boycott ' of celebrities, brands and companies . From its beginnings in African-American subcultures – and following a long tradition of the appropriation of black language by white people – the term 'cancel' and its meanings have been appropriated by predominantly white mainstream media since the mid-to-late 2010s.

https://lens.monash.edu/@politics-society/2023/09/04/1386105/cancelled-beyond-reductive-approaches-to-cancel-culture-as-bad-or-good

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It's not easy to claim being an old woman. To start with, how can I be 75 when I feel about 40? And isn't it shameful to be old when youth is valued? People proudly parrot statements such as, 'I'm growing older but not getting old' (meaning, 'How terrible to be old!'). I even heard that line quoted approvingly by one of the middle-aged hosts of the recent Australia Day Award ceremony. Then there are shop assistants who serve an old person by asking, 'What can I do for you, young lady/man?' (that is, 'I see that you're old and will mock it by calling you young').

https://lens.monash.edu/@medicine-health/2023/03/07/1385521/older-women-are-doing-remarkable-things-its-time-for-the-putdowns-to-end-maggie-kirkman-senior-research-fellow-global-and-womens-health-school-of-public-health-and-preventive-medicine-monash-university

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Mai Sato grew up in Japan, where the death penalty has mainly been applied for murder, and where it's long signified 'justice' for the victims' families. She never doubted the existence or the necessity of the death penalty as a form of criminal punishment, but having spent the past two decades in countries without the death penalty, her sensibilities about what constitutes justice have changed, as well as her understanding of the social and political functions that the death penalty serves. Now, she takes the view –  together with more than half of the countries in the world  – that the death penalty is unnecessary for all crimes, including intentional killing.

https://lens.monash.edu/@politics-society/2023/03/13/1385536/human-rights-violations-the-death-penalty-and-flaunting-international-law

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The Higher Education Review being led by Professor Mary O'Kane, to propose a new Accord for higher education to Minister Jason Clare, is carrying the weight of heavy expectations.  O'Kane, who is experienced in the ways of academe, has thrown out a grand challenge to the sector.   In her article on 6 January, 2023, she acknowledges the evidence of success and the significance and impact of higher education for the future of Australia.   This is a year for big ideas in education.Check out this important OpEd by Mary O'Kane AO.

https://lens.monash.edu/@education/2023/04/11/1385663/responding-to-the-australian-universities-accord-challenge-margaret-gardner-ac-monash-university

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29 September 2022 This week (Tuesday), the Victorian Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy, the Hon Jaala Pulford visited the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health to meet its researchers and learn first hand about their groundbreaking work.The visit was an opportunity to showcase the Turner Institute's clinics where research findings are translated into clinical practice.Minister Pulford was welcomed by the Dean of the Monash Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Professor Christina Mitchell, who congratulated the Victorian State Government on its recently launched Health and Medical Research Strategy: 2022-2032.

https://www.monash.edu/turner-institute/news-and-events/latest-news/2022-articles/state-minister-for-medical-research-visits-the-turner-institute

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By Marla Sommer 29 September 2022 Dr Thomas Tapmeier has been awarded a combined $100K to develop new antagonists against the Neuropeptide S Receptor 1Congratulations to Dr Thomas Tapmeier of the Uterine Biology and Gynaecological Diseases group at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, who has been awarded a combined $100K from Therapeutic Innovation Australia (TIA) and the Monash Research Impact Fund (MRIF) to develop new antagonists against the Neuropeptide S Receptor 1 (NPSR1).'I am delighted! This is a wonderful opportunity to drive the search for new and better treatments for endometriosis — and other indications — forward.

https://www.monash.edu/medicine/news/latest/2022-articles/combating-endometriosis-related-pain-with-$100k

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When real patients have unprecedented positive outcomes to a new treatment, it's tempting to talk about it as 'breakthrough' for medical science. This describes the excitement around a new report from researchers in Germany of a radical new treatment for lupus. The patients in the study – five people with severe lupus – went into remission following pioneering CAR T-cell treatment, which uses genetically altered cells. So what is lupus, why is this such big news, and what could it mean for other patients and diseases? Lupus and the immune system About five million people are affected by some form of lupus worldwide.

https://lens.monash.edu/@medicine-health/2022/10/05/1385103?slug=treatment-offers-new-hope-for-lupus-and-maybe-for-other-autoimmune-diseases-too

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+61 3 9903 0026 28 October 2022 Prof Johannes Kern, new joint appointment for MonashUniversity and Alfred HealthFrom Professor Terry O'Brien and Associate Professor Douglas GinWe are delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Johannes Kern (MD, PhD, ICDP-UEMS (Dermpath), FEBDV, FACD) to the joint clinical academic appointment between Alfred Health and Monash University as Professor and Deputy Director, Dermatology. He is also Vice President and Board Director of the Skin Health Institute.

https://www.monash.edu/medicine/news/latest/2022-articles/welcome-to-professor-johannes-kern

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05 September 2022 Doctors from across Gippsland have been able to improve their teaching skills and confidence by participating in the Teaching on the Run program, delivered locally by Monash Rural Health. Administered by the TELL Centre, the Teaching on the Run program is a nationally recognised medical education program, designed to improve the practical skills, knowledge and confidence of doctors as clinical teachers, supervisors and assessors in the workplace.Associate Professor Cathy Haigh, Director of Monash Rural Health Gippsland co-delivered the training with Associate Professor Bruce Waxman, Clinical Dean at Monash Rural Health Wonthaggi and Clinical Lead of Accreditation at the Postgraduate Medical Council of Victoria.

https://www.monash.edu/medicine/news/latest/2022-articles/gippsland-doctors-take-part-in-teaching-on-the-run

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By Marla Sommer 15 December 2022 Congratulations to Molly Horne who has achieved the highest overall mark for the Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours) at Clayton or Malaysia. She received a prize of $1000 for her research that aimed to identify possible abnormalities within the microbiome of individuals who had been receiving extremely long courses of antibiotics.Antibiotics are occasionally prescribed for extended or indefinite courses to patients with chronic infections that are presumed to be incurable.

https://www.monash.edu/medicine/news/latest/2022-articles/investigations-into-antibiotic-prescriptions-awarded-the-highest-overall-mark

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'…when you're shooting a film like Magic Mike, and you're doing dance routines for two weeks at a time, you have to peak every day. So that became kind of crazy. We had a gym in the parking lot, and we'd all be lifting weights on set all day.'  –  actor Joe Manganiello , performing in the film Magic Mike . It's not unusual for actors to undergo drastic changes in preparation for a role, including gaining muscle and losing body fat for that shredded look. In fact, this is becoming the norm in Hollywood.

https://lens.monash.edu/@medicine-health/2023/08/09/1385989/extreme-hollywood-body-transformations-have-become-standard-preparations-for-film-actors-but-we-need-to-consider-the-consequences

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Do you know how old your brain is? This isn't a trick question – a brain might not be the same age as its host. Two Monash researchers are working on this question from different angles in an effort to find answers. Jo Wrigglesworth is a PhD candidate in Monash's School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine , specialising in brain age. While working alongside Associate Professor Joanne Ryan,  on research about epigenetics, she learned of a new (in 2017) method to predict ageing based on neuroimaging data and machine learning.

https://lens.monash.edu/@medicine-health/2023/04/19/1385564/sharpening-the-focus-on-brain-age

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Riyadh at the beginning of June to bargain with the Saudis over a package of concessions to be granted to the kingdom in exchange for normalisation of relations with Israel. Under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the Saudis reportedly asked the US to jointly create a 'nuclear Aramco', modelled after the kingdom's oil and gas giant that has played such a large role in building the country's substantial wealth. The people who've discussed the nuclear Aramco idea with the Saudis recently tell Semafor that the issue is further complicated by Riyadh's belief that it can simply turn toward China or Russia if the U.

https://lens.monash.edu/@politics-society/2023/06/16/1385882/explainer-why-does-saudi-arabia-want-a-nuclear-aramco

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In recent weeks, media coverage out of Australia's national Parliament has been dominated by the unedifying spectacle of political point-scoring over the leaked phone messages of former political staffer and victim of alleged rape, Brittany Higgins. Allegations of sexual harassment and assault by Liberal senator David Van from current and former senators Lidia Thorpe and Amanda Stoker quickly followed. These disturbing developments have led many to wonder whether the toxic workplace culture within Parliament House has improved at all, despite the groundbreaking Jenkins review and the implementation of a raft of the review's recommendations.

https://lens.monash.edu/@politics-society/2023/06/26/1385901/the-long-road-to-gender-equality-overcoming-institutional-resistance-to-change

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The Love of My Life is a short Australian documentary portraying the sweet, fierce, and uncompromising love story between the newly-married Gail and Lisette, a transgender lesbian couple in their 60s who live in suburban Adelaide/Kaurna Country. The documentary, directed by Francesca Rizzoli and produced by Trevor Graham, has been recently aired on ABC TV in Australia, and is since then available on ABC iview . This work is a strong example of artivism – namely, art plus activism – raising awareness of the LGBTQIA+ community in Australia, as well as making the viewers reflect on how genders are performed, portrayed and perceived in our society.

https://lens.monash.edu/@politics-society/2023/06/30/1385849/the-love-of-my-life-the-extraordinary-story-of-an-ordinary-couple

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07 September 2022 A simple audit and feedback mechanism can successfully reduce overuse of musculoskeletal imaging by General Practitioners (GPs) at a national scale, saving precious health system resources, and saving patients' time, money, potential for incidental findings, unnecessary treatment and risk of harm from cumulative exposure to ionising radiation. The findings, from a collaboration between musculoskeletal research experts at Monash Public Health and Preventive Medicine and the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care, were published in high-impact journal JAMA today.

https://www.monash.edu/medicine/news/latest/2022-articles/providing-feedback-to-gps-an-effective-solution-to-overuse-of-musculoskeletal-diagnostic-imaging

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22 August 2022 Young Australians can now access a free DNA saliva test to learn whether they face increased risk of some cancers and heart disease, which can be prevented or treated early if detected, in a world-first DNA screening study.The nationally collaborative project, led by A/Professor Paul Lacaze at Monash University's School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, is supported by researchers and clinicians across Australia. It will screen at least 10,000 people aged 18-40 for genes that increase risk of certain types of cancers and heart disease that often go undetected.

https://www.monash.edu/medicine/news/latest/2022-articles/world-first-preventative-dna-screening-for-cancer-and-heart-disease-risk

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A major international report says the 'disciplinary climate' in Australian schools is among the 'least favourable' in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). On Tuesday, the OECD released a profile on education in Australia. Its findings follow headlines about student behaviour and a federal parliamentary inquiry into 'increasing disruption in Australian school classrooms'. How severe is the problem and what can we do about it? What does the OECD report say The OECD report looks at many aspects of Australia's education system.

https://lens.monash.edu/@education/2023/04/13/1385664/australian-classrooms-are-among-the-least-favourable-for-discipline-in-the-oecd-heres-how-to-improve-student-behaviour

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In July 2022, the federal Labor government introduced a bill to repeal the Cashless Debit Card, one of the two forms of income management (IM) currently applied in multiple sites across Australia. That bill (known as the Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Repeal of Cashless Debit Card and Other Measures) Bill 2022) is currently subject to a Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee inquiry, which will report to the Parliament by end of August. The inquiry has to date received 77 written submissions and conducted four major public hearings, which suggests continued ideological division and polarisation regarding the merits or limitations of income management.

https://lens.monash.edu/@politics-society/2022/08/29/1385026?slug=why-its-right-to-abolish-the-cashless-debit-card-but-what-about-the-basicscard

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The death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, while in the custody of Iran's 'morality police' in Tehran sparked anger worldwide. Women marched in cities including Athens, Berlin, Brussels, Istanbul, Madrid, New York, Paris, London and Melbourne to express solidarity with Iranian women. Amini's tragic death on 13 September, 2022, tells the grim picture of how Iran's rule requiring women of all religions to wear headscarves has taken a toll on a woman's life. This rule, enforced since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, became stricter upon the enforcement of the new 'Hijab and Chastity' law signed on 15 August, 2022.

https://lens.monash.edu/@politics-society/2022/10/04/1385140?slug=mahsa-aminis-death-in-iran-and-womens-long-battle-for-freedom

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Rewind to October 2020, and both Melbourne and the wider state of Victoria are getting towards the end of two gruelling pandemic lockdowns. There would be five more (including in the regions) of varying lengths and restrictions to come. What does this mean for older people who already say they are lonely? October that year was when 32 Victorians aged 65 or older, who had previously told Monash University social scientists about loneliness, were given diaries to document how they managed a week in lockdown.

https://lens.monash.edu/@politics-society/2022/10/12/1385121?slug=pandemic-diaries-reveal-the-torrid-toll-of-lockdown-loneliness

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13 December 2022 Professor Eric Morand and Associate Professor Joshua Ooi.In recognition of their substantial contribution to research using targeted cell therapies to treat autoimmune diseases such as lupus and vasculitis, Professor Eric Morand and Associate Professor Joshua Ooi have been jointly awarded the Victoria Prize for Science and Innovation 2022, in the Life Science category.One of Victoria's most prestigious science and innovation awards, it is delivered by Veski on behalf of the Victorian Government for a scientific discovery or technological innovation, or a series of such achievements, that significantly advances knowledge.

https://www.monash.edu/medicine/news/latest/2022-articles/victoria-prize-for-science-and-innovation

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14 December 2022 An international research team has identified ‘born to be bad' colorectal tumours in people with early stage cancer, which could help medical experts pinpoint and better treat aggressive tumours.The team from Monash University, CRUK Beatson Institute in Glasgow and Queen's University in Belfast found a feature of early-stage colorectal tumours in mice and humans, known as TGFβ signalling, that is active in tumour cells and is profoundly tumour-promoting.In this group of patients, epithelial TGFβ signalling predicted how aggressive, treatment-resistant and lethal the cancer was/is.

https://www.monash.edu/discovery-institute/news-and-events/news/2022-articles/researchers-identify-born-to-be-bad-colorectal-cancer-tumours

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An unprecedented constitutional crisis is brewing in Israel. It is an emotionally charged arm-wrestle pitting the judicial system and its supporters against the executive branch of the government. In addition, because of Israel's political system, where the government is formed on the basis of a majority in the unicameral Knesset (parliament), the legislative branch in contemporary Israel is almost identical with the executive government. This conflict has potential long-range implications on Israel's international standing, economy and its very essence as a Jewish and democratic state.

https://lens.monash.edu/@politics-society/2023/01/23/1385403/israels-constitutional-crisis-explained

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Empowering women through entrepreneurship leads to sustainable development and lower poverty rates. 'If you want to change the world, help the women.' – Nelson Mandela. Entrepreneurs are an engine of economic growth that can drive post-pandemic recovery. But while women are as creative and innovative as men, far fewer are entrepreneurs. The average share of female business owners fluctuates at about 25%, and the average share of female sole proprietors is below 35%. Globally, 16 million more women than men live in poverty due to unequal access to, and control over, economic resources.

https://lens.monash.edu/@business-economy/2022/10/18/1385193?slug=more-women-entrepreneurs-mean-less-global-poverty

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14 November 2022 More than $4 million has been awarded to 13 collaborative research projects spearheaded by the National Centre for Healthy Ageing (NCHA) through its Living Labs program. The major grant portfolio marks round 3 of the Living Labs program and brings together a multidisciplinary team to tackle two broad thematic focus areas of:Optimising Health: Empowering/supporting people to optimise their functional ability, including intrinsic and extrinsic factors that enable healthy ageing.Health and Social Care: Understanding, developing and improving health and care environments & systems to support healthier ageing.

https://www.monash.edu/medicine/news/latest/2022-articles/healthy-ageing-research-gets-a-boost

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