New research from a phase 4 review by Griffith University of an in-market weight management program provides evidence that a pharmacy-based program can lead to long-term maintenance of weight loss.
Long-term maintenance of weight loss on the program runs counter to previous evidence that individuals re-gain weight even when on dietary interventions.
The program, developed in collaboration with the CSIRO, combines in-pharmacy support with the CSIRO diet book, meal replacements and a phone support service. Along with assessing weight loss the program takes measures of blood pressure, glucose and total cholesterol. Over 60,000 people have started the program since its inception five years ago.
Griffith University’s review covered data collected by pharmacies Australia-wide for the five-year period. In-market reviews are commonly undertaken by the pharmaceutical sector to continue assessing the effect and safety of new interventions.
For those compliant with the program there was an approximate loss of 5% of bodyweight along with reductions
Category: Griffith University Feed
National recognition for Griffith Design graduate
Queensland College of Art Design graduate Troy Baverstock has won the Design Institute of Australia‘s national prize for Industrial and Product Design.
The Australian Graduate of the Year Awards (AGOTYA) were held in Melbourne as part of the DENFAIR design fair.
The competition celebrates the best young design graduates in the country recognising Australia’s future designers.
Troy’s folio included a diverse range of cutting-edge designs, ranging from a 3D-printed customisable prosthetic limb to an ergonomic bike saddle and a sleek timber sound system.
The judges commented that Troy’s folio “addressed a broad range of issues and design problems”.
His music system offered “a magical solution to the disconnect between the digital and physical music experience”, the bike saddle was “innovative… may be part of addressing the concern around prostate cancer and cycling” and they noted that the prosthetic limb lent itself to rapid prototyping.
Troy won a cash prize and a mentorship program with a design
Keeping the past alive earns Griffith historian high honour
A commitment to research spanning four decades has seen a Griffith University history expert awarded a high honour by the Royal Historical Society and the Professional Historians Association (Qld) Inc.
Adjunct lecturer Dr Bill Metcalf of the School of Environment and Science has been been awarded the 2018 John Douglas Kerr Medal of Distinction in Researching and Writing of Australian History, by the Queensland Governor, Paul de Jersey.
Stephen Sheaffe (President of the Royal Historical Association), Professor Ruth Kerr (widow of the historian, John Kerr, after whom the award is named), Dr Bill Metcalf, Paul de Jersey (Queensland Governor) and Dr Tim Roberts (President of the Professional Historians Association).
Dr Metcalf was honoured for his impressive body of research and writing that has advanced the study of Queensland and Australian history most notably through his investigation of utopian communalism in Australia, a project he commenced in 1980.
“I came to Griffith in 1980 and
Sounds great as Griffith hosts International Ecoacoustics Congress
Researchers will explore ways that sound can deepen our understanding of the environment at the 2018 International Ecoacoustics Congress.
The four-day conference will feature research presentations, live performances, scientific workshops and immersive installations, attracting scientists and international artists.
The event is part of an exciting portfolio of collaborations across the creative arts and environmental sciences at Griffith University that are investigating the creative and scientific possibilities of acoustic ecology.
The keynote speakers include Italian composer and ecoacoustics researcher David Monacchi, who has conducted field research in the world’s remaining areas of undisturbed primary equatorial forest.
The creative program features Dr Ros Bandt, one of Australia’s leading experimental composers, who has forged a unique career as a designer, multi-instrumentalist and curator of acoustic spaces.
The congress is organised by the Australian chapter of the International Society of Ecoacoustics, and is co-hosted in collaboration with Griffith University and Queensland University of Technology.
The congress offers a highly interdisciplinary program
Ashley creates Topicthread for a safer social media experience
In the increasingly contentious world of social media, Griffith University graduate Dr Ashley M Berge has high hopes for her rising social network, Topicthread.
Dr Berge says Topicthread is the first social network developed in Australia and is also the first to be curated by a female. Her goal is to attract 10 million subscribers in the next five years.
Topicthread is being promoted as a safer, simpler and more secure network in which users enjoy far greater control over their personal data and social media activity. Mobile and web-based, Topicthread went live in January and was born in response to two events.
The first was the 2015-16 Cambridge Analytica data scandal that saw the private details of millions of Facebook users – including tens of thousands of Australians – sold and allegedly used to influence the 2016 US presidential election won by Donald Trump.
The second event was more personal for Dr Berge, arising
Gold Coast research helps fight against oral cancer in India
Dr Bhawna Gupta left India to pursue a career in public health research, but her work is all in the name of fighting an epidemic back in her homeland.
According to the Griffith University PhD graduate, the Indian subcontinent accounts for a third of the global burden of cancers of the lip and oral cavity. Dr Gupta adds that in India the disease is the most common malignancy among men and the third most common among women.
“Cancers of the mouth and tongue, taken together, overshadow cancer of the lung in most of the Indian population-based cancer registries,” says Dr Gupta.
“I conducted a hospital-based case-control study in the city of Pune in western India. The data was collected by face-to-face interviews and by intra-oral examinations on 187 oral cancer cases and 240 controls.
“This study aimed to quantify the associations between oral hygiene habits, dietary factors, chewing/smoking tobacco and alcohol consumption on the
Simon says business the key to solving social inequity
For more than 25 years, Griffith University alumnus Simon Lockyer’s professional career has also been his calling.
Best known as a co-founder of the Everydayhero fundraising platform, Simon also co-founded Youngcare, a groundbreaking initiative that built Australia’s first nursing home for young people with high care needs.
Now comes Five Good Friends, a transformational approach to aged care and typical of Simon’s drive to enable better lives through opportunities, strategies, social enterprise and innovation.
A pioneering social enterprise that allows people to receive support and care while they age happily and proficiently at home, Five Good Friends works through app-based technology connecting members, authorised family and friends, and carers.
Among its features, the app:
displays a person’s fortnightly schedule of help;
provides pictures, names and contact details of helpers;
shows which helpers are in the home and when they checked in and out;
enables people to change schedules by directly contacting helpers and community
Environmental mission spreads from remote village to the world
The beautiful Nepali village of Sikles sits at an elevation of about 2000 metres and is backdropped by the spectacular Himalayan peaks of Annapurna II and Lamjung Himal. It’s also the birthplace of esteemed international environmentalist and Griffith University alumnus, Dr Hum Gurung.
Only the third person in this village of 4000 to receive a PhD, Dr Gurung has dedicated his professional life to environmental conservation and, in the process, has become a respected ambassador globally and for Griffith University.
For one who has achieved so much in his field, it’s difficult to imagine Dr Gurung may have pursued a career as a soldier.
“My childhood dream, like so many other ‘hill boys’ in Nepal, was to become a Gurkha soldier. The Gurkhas have such a formidable reputation at home and internationally. It would have been a great honour to serve,” he says.
“However, after high school I studied civil engineering in Kathmandu and
Griffith benefactor honoured at major philanthropic awards
Dr Soheil Abedian is a pioneer and not just in the prestige property industry. The Iranian-born developer has now been recognised as a leader in philanthropy and higher education.
With wife Anne, Dr Abedian created the Abedian Foundation Griffith Futures Scholarship which supports 60 individual student scholarships a year. The six year commitment is at an investment of nearly one million dollars.
An unshakeable passion for helping students and improving opportunities for those in higher education has led to Dr Abedian being awarded the Queensland Community Foundation (QCF) Higher Education Philanthropist of the Year.
His nomination was put forward by Griffith University.
“To be nominated was an honour but to be recognised in this way with the award was a tremendous bounty and I hope I can inspire others to invest in our future through philanthropy”, Dr Abedian said
He is indeed a man of action and also his word.
“I say be remarkable in love, be remarkable in
Brainiacs and ExSTEMinators crowned STEM Cup champions
The Brainiacs and the ExSTEMinators have taken out the top honour on the final day of the latest STEM Cup round, held at Griffith University.
After seven weeks of competition, the fourth year of the inter-school Science Technology Engineering and Maths tournament came to a close with the grand final in dramatic fashion – engineering and information communication technology challenges in which the Brainiacs from Clover Hill State School (Primary Division) and ExSTEMinators from Varsity College (Secondary Division) got the better of the other teams.
Primary Division winners the Brainiacs with Pro-Vice Chancellor (Science) Professor Andrew Smith.
The Griffith-run STEM Cup has seen 255 students in Years 5, 6, 7 and 8 from 31 South East Queensland schools compete in 87 teams across four different host locations, tackling tasks that included geography, environmental science, marine biology, engineering, botany and IT in return for points. The students competed in two divisions, Primary and Secondary.
Griffith Project Officer (STEM