Speech synthesis or text-to-speech (TTS) systems are currently available for a number of the world’s major languages, but for thousands of the world’s ‘minor’ languages no such technology is available. While awaiting the development of such technology, we would like to try the stop-gap solution of using an existing TTS system for a major language (the base language) to ‘fake’ TTS for a minor la...

Austronesian languages are spread across half the globe, from Easter Island to Madagascar. Evidence from linguistics and archaeology indicates that the 'Austronesian expansion,' which began 4,000-5,000 years ago, likely had roots in Taiwan, but the ancestry of present-day Austronesian-speaking populations remains controversial. Here, we analyse genome-wide data from 56 populations using new met...

OBJECTIVE To assess cost-effectiveness of stroke care for Aboriginal compared with non-Aboriginal patients in the Northern Territory (NT), Australia. DESIGN Cost-effectiveness analysis using data from a cohort-based follow-up study of stroke incidents. SETTING Public hospitals in the NT from 1992 to 2013. PARTICIPANTS Individual patient data were extracted and linked from the hospital inp...

OBJECTIVE To pilot informed consent materials developed for Aboriginal parents in a vaccine trial, and evaluate their design and the informed consent process. METHODS Cross sectional quantitative and qualitative survey of 20 Aboriginal and 20 non-Aboriginal women in Alice Springs. Information about the proposed research was presented to Aboriginal participants by an Aboriginal researcher, usi...

Few studies have specifically compared the prevalence of dental caries among contemporary Australian Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children. Historically, Aboriginal groups have had substantially fewer dental caries than non-Aboriginal peoples. More recently, however, this trend appears to have been reversed, with improvements in the oral health of non-Aboriginal children and a deterioration in...

BACKGROUND Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major respiratory disorder, largely caused by smoking that has been linked with large health inequalities worldwide. There are important gaps in our knowledge about how COPD affects Aboriginal peoples. This retrospective cohort study assessed the epidemiology of COPD in a cohort of Aboriginal peoples relative to a non-Aboriginal cohor...

OBJECTIVES Australian Aboriginal children experience earlier, more frequent and more severe otitis media, particularly in remote communities, than non-Aboriginal children. Insertion of ventilation tubes is the main surgical procedure for otitis media. Our aim was to quantify inequalities in ventilation tube insertion (VTI) procedures between Australian Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children, an...

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Little is known about trends in risk factors and mortality for Aboriginal Australians with heart failure (HF). This population-based study evaluated trends in prevalence of risk factors, 30-day and 1-year all-cause mortality following first HF hospitalization among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Western Australians in the decade 2000-2009. METHODS Linked-health data were ...

BACKGROUND. In 2001, Australia introduced a unique 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (7vPCV) 2-, 4-, and 6-month schedule with a 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (23vPPV) booster for Aboriginal children, and in 2005, 7vPCV alone in a 2-, 4-, and 6-month schedule for non-Aboriginal children. Aboriginal adults are offered 23vPPV but coverage is poor. We investigated trends in i...

BACKGROUND Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families experience markedly worse maternal and child health outcomes than non-Aboriginal families. The objective of this study was to investigate the experiences of women attending Aboriginal Family Birthing Program services in South Australia compared with women attending mainstream public antenatal care. METHOD Population-based survey of mot...