Victoria University

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as versatile materials for wastewater treatment owing to their high surface area, tunable porosity, and multifunctional active sites. However, the instability of pristine MOFs in aqueous environments and the leaching of metal or ligand species remain critical barriers to their practical application. This review focuses on advanced hybrid MOF composites designed for the removal of organic dyes and heavy metal ions, highlighting their structural features, removal mechanisms, and performance. The focus is made on the recent developments in composite design and functionalization approaches that improve water stability and reusability. The article also examines isotherm and kinetic models, as well as adsorption mechanisms, that govern MOF performance. Special focus is placed on the degradation processes of MOFs in water and the effects that can be reduced by hybridisation. Integrating the state-of-the-art results, this review presents a critical framework that connects synthesis, structure, performance, and reusability, providing guidelines for the rational construction of robust MOF-based adsorbents and photocatalysts to showcase an integrated approach to wastewater remediation. • Recent advances in MOF-based composites in wastewater treatment were reviewed. • MOFs and MOF-based composites design methods were summarized. • MOF-based composites are powerful adsorbents for dyes and metal ions removal. • Possible interaction mechanisms were summarized. • MOF-based composites are cost-effective with recycling and reuse potential. • The challenges and recommendations for future research hotspots were proposed.

Water pollution has become a serious environmental challenge, threatening aquatic environment and human health as a result of continuous pollutants discharged from untreated wastewater, particularly from textile industries which often contains cationic and anionic dyes. To solve the problem, there is a need to develop a sustainable and effective adsorbent material which has the capability to remove these dyes from wastewater before being discharge into water bodies. In this study, we employed a waste biomass material, Albizia lebbeck pod (ALP) to construct X-ZnO@ALP composites (where x = 0.05 and 0.1 M, loading concentration of ZnO) via in-situ co-precipitation method for effective methylene blue (MB) and congo red (CR) adsorption from aqueous environments in a single batch adsorption system. The composite’s structure was examined using FTIR, SEM/EDS, BET, and XRD techniques. The successful incorporation of ZnO enhanced the surface potential of ALP, providing additional adsorption sites for MB and CR and increasing the BET surface areas to 40.56 and 32.71 m²/g. The maximum adsorption capacities were 82.2 mg/g (MB) and 75.6 mg/g (CR) for 0.05 M-ZnO@ALP, and 61.8 mg/g (MB) and 56.2 mg/g (CR) for 0.1 M-ZnO@ALP, respectively. The performance of 0.05 M-ZnO@ALP surpass that of 0.1 M-ZnO@ALP because increasing the ZnO content led to larger particle sizes, which could limit the available adsorption active sites responsible for MB and CR adsorption due surface blockage or aggregation. The MB and CR adsorption process of UMALP, 0.05 M-ZnO@ALP, and for 0.1 M-ZnO@ALP conform to the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second order kinetic models. Thermodynamic measurement confirmed that the MB and CR adsorption reaction is spontaneous, feasible and exothermic in character. The recycling experiments revealed that the MB and CR adsorption by 0.05 M-ZnO@ALP, and for 0.1 M-ZnO@ALP still maintained > 90% efficiency after three cycles, making them a suitable adsorbent materials for practical applications. Overall, ZnO-loaded Albizia lebbeck pod biomass showed a good potential for dye treatment from wastewater, • A novel nanocomposite material of x-ZnO@ALP was synthesized via an in-situ co-precipitation method. • XRD, SEM/EDX, and FTIR confirmed the successful synthesis of x-ZnO@ALP. • The constructed composite materials exhibit good adsorption performance toward MB and CR. • The MB and CR adsorption follows the pseudo-second-order kinetic and Langmuir isotherm models. • x-ZnO@ALP, effective, sustainable, and still maintain more than > 90 efficiency for MB and CR removal after 3 cycles.

The Men's 2026 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup (Canada, Mexico and the USA) will expose teams to an unprecedented combination of environmental challenges (heat, altitude, air pollution, allergens and travel). Conditions will vary significantly between host cities, creating a significant threat to player health and performance. These unique stressors may require teams to adopt and adapt strategies to best protect player health and performance. A related open access Sports Medicine review outlines these environmental challenges and the evidence-based guidelines to prepare for and mitigate their effects. Motivation for the present review stems from the unique practical and logistical complexities of 'tournament football'-especially at the expanded 2026 FIFA World Cup-alongside the limitations of previous football-facing reviews, where 'evidence-informed practice' is often not underpinned by football-specific research and thus limits external/ecological validity. Building on the recommendations of the main review, this partner review focuses on integrating those guidelines into practice. It aims to provide teams with a practice-compatible framework to implement evidence-based strategies to protect player health and optimise performance at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Purpose The nature of work hotel staff perform is demanding and is likely to prompt high levels of work-related stress. Hotel support staff are an ideal population to inform about work-related stress in hotels. This study explored how hotel support staff perceive the leadership style of their managers their experiences while working under managers with different levels of mental health literacy. Design/methodology/approach This study was informed by the mental health and wellbeing ecological model as a theoretical framework and followed a rigorous methodological approach. This study aimed to gain insight into different types of leadership styles and mental health literacy among managers in hotels as perceived by staff. Using a qualitative research design, this study identified hotel support staff's perceived work-related stress under managers with different leadership styles. The study also explored how hotel support staff perceived the mental health and wellbeing literacy of their managers. Semi structured interviews from 18 participants were analysed through Atlas Ti using the framework method. Findings This study identified transformative leadership style to be supportive of hotel support staff's wellbeing and reduced work-related stress. The study recommends managers in hotels include enhancing their mental health and wellbeing awareness by upskilling. It is recommended that senior executives and hotel industry enable a working environment that supports staff's mental health and wellbeing. Originality/value This study aimed to explore how hotel support staff perceive the leadership style of their manager and to explore the experiences hotel support staff report working under managers with different levels of mental health literacy. The study's recommendations address a present research gap of practical suggestions that improve work culture in a post-pandemic time for hotels. The recommendations may be considered valuable in developing workplace policies and governance to improve workplace culture with lower levels of work-related stress.

Despite the growing adoption of virtual reality (VR) in education, health, and gaming, empirical research on users’ cybersecurity behaviors remains scarce, leaving a critical gap in understanding how threat perceptions and individual propensities shape protective actions in these immersive spaces. This study aims to address this void by extending the Technology Threat Avoidance Theory (TTAT) with privacy concerns and perceived awareness to examine the determinants of cybersecurity behavior among VR users. Data were collected from 297 VR users and analyzed using a hybrid partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN) approach. The PLS-SEM results confirmed the impact of perceived severity, perceived vulnerability, distrust propensity, and risk propensity on perceived threats. Privacy concerns, perceived awareness, and perceived threats were found to significantly affect cybersecurity behavior. The ANN analysis ranked perceived threats as the most influential factor affecting cybersecurity behavior, with a normalized importance of 100%. By refining TTAT for VR contexts, this research provides theoretical advancements and practical guidance for various stakeholders to enhance user trust, reduce vulnerabilities, and promote safer adoption of immersive technologies. • Extends TTAT with privacy concerns and awareness for VR cybersecurity. • Results link severity, vulnerability, distrust, and risk to perceived threats. • Privacy concerns hinder, but awareness boosts VR cybersecurity behavior. • ANN ranks perceived threats as the top driver of cybersecurity behavior.

Niemann-Pick disease type C (NP-C) is the fifth most prevalent lysosomal disorder in Australia. Diagnostic delay is common, impacted by disease heterogeneity, limited awareness within clinical gateway services and exclusion from state-based newborn screening programmes. A formal diagnosis, once established, places a substantial burden on the whole family, the negative impact of which is far-reaching. A clear understanding of diagnostic pathways and management objectives in NP-C is critical for optimal care. To develop an Australian standard of care for individuals diagnosed with NP-C and their families, reflecting international best practice and tailored to the Australian healthcare system. The Australian NPC Disease Foundation Inc. convened a national, multidisciplinary collaboration including NP-C treating clinicians, allied health professionals and a community advisory group. Using an iterative consensus approach, published international guidance statements were reviewed, ratified, excluded or modified to align with the Australian context. Consensus outputs included a diagnostic algorithm, a multidisciplinary care framework and management-centred management statements. The collaborative process resulted in a unified Australian standard of care for NP-C. This framework incorporates the carer perspective, emphasises shared decision-making and situates NP-C within the broader context of 'childhood dementias.' Consensus statements provide practical, evidence-aligned guidance on early recognition, diagnostic referral pathways and multidisciplinary management throughout disease progression. This initiative represents the first Australia-specific standard of care for NP-C. It is hoped that adoption of the framework will lead to improved experiences for Australians living with NP-C and their carers as they navigate the healthcare setting.

The unpredictability of seizures is one of the most challenging aspects of uncontrolled epilepsy for patients. Prior work forecasting seizure risk has measured changes in passive intracranial electroencephalographic (EEG) signals, but currently, there are no such clinical devices available. Based upon dynamical theory, we hypothesized that the response of the brain to perturbing stimulation provides a robust measurement of seizure risk that outperforms the results from passive EEG. To test the hypothesis, we performed more than 8 weeks of periodic electrical stimulation and continuous EEG recordings in epileptic rats induced by intrahippocampal injection of tetanus toxin, in which seizures started spontaneously. Using the perturbation-evoked responses as a predictive biomarker of seizure risk, we built a preictal detection system that had excellent accuracy (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve > .95) at distinguishing the preictal from the interictal states. In comparison, a similar preictal detection system that used only passive features from the same experimental animals was unable to identify the preictal state better than chance. Our results advocate for perturbation to be used for seizure prediction purposes, which could improve the efficacy of seizure forecasting when applied clinically.