Serum levels of soluble receptor for advanced glycation end products and of S100 proteins are associated with inflammatory, autoantibody, and classical risk markers of joint and vascular damage in rheumatoid arthritis

Introduction: The receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) is a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily of cell surface receptor molecules. High concentrations of three of its putative proinflammatory ligands, S100A8/A9 complex (calprotectin), S100A8, and S100A12, are found in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) serum and synovial fluid. In contrast, soluble RAGE (sRAGE) may prevent proinflammatory effects by acting as a decoy. This study evaluated the serum levels of S100A9, S100A8, S100A12 and sRAGE in RA patients, to determine their relationship to inflammation and joint and vascular damage. Methods: Serum sRAGE, S100A9, S100A8 and S100A12 levels from 138 patients with established RA and 44 healthy controls were measured by ELISA and compared by unpaired t test. In RA patients, associations with disease activity and severity variables were analyzed by simple and multiple linear regressions. Results: Serum S100A9, S100A8 and S100A12 levels were correlated in RA patients. S100A9 levels were associated with body mass index (BMI), and with serum levels of S100A8 and S100A12. S100A8 levels were associated with serum levels of S100A9, presence of anti-citrullinated peptide antibodies (ACPA), and rheumatoid factor (RF). S100A12 levels were associated with presence of ACPA, history of diabetes, and serum S100A9 levels. sRAGE levels were negatively associated with serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL), history of vasculitis, and the presence of the RAGE 82Ser polymorphism. Conclusions: sRAGE and S100 proteins were associated not just with RA inflammation and autoantibody production, but also with classical vascular risk factors for end-organ damage. Consistent with its role as a RAGE decoy molecule, sRAGE had the opposite effects to S100 proteins in that S100 proteins were associated with autoantibodies and vascular risk, whereas sRAGE was associated with protection against joint and vascular damage. These data suggest that RAGE activity influences co-development of joint and vascular disease in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Emotional food design: From designing food products to designing food systems

Contemporary food systems promote the consumption of highly processed foods of limited nutrition, contributing to overweight and obesity, diet-related disease and significant financial burden on healthcare systems. In part, this has resulted from highly successful design, development and marketing strategies for processed foods. The successful application of such strategies to healthy food options, and the services and business plans that accompany them, could assist in enhancing health and alleviating burden on health care systems. Product designers have long been aware of the importance of intertwining emotional experiences with new products. However, a lack of theoretical precision exists for applying emotional design beyond food products, to the food systems, services and business models that drive them. This article explores emotional design within the context of food and food systems and proposes a new concept – Emotional Food Design (EFD), through which emotional design is integrated across levels of a food system. EFD complements the dominating deductive view of food systems research with an abductive iterative design approach contextualized within the creation of new food products, services and business models and their associated emotional attachments. This paper concludes by outlining what EFD can offer to reorient food systems to successfully promote healthy eating.

Towards development of a rapid and effective non-destructive testing strategy to identify brominated flame retardants in the plastics of consumer products

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are a class of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) once extensively used in the plastics of a wide range of consumer products. The listing of certain congeners that are constituents of commercial PBDE mixtures (including c-octaBDE) in the Stockholm Convention and tightening regulation of many other BFRs in recent years have created the need for a rapid and effective method of identifying BFR-containing plastics. A three-tiered testing strategy comparing results from non-destructive testing (X-ray fluorescence (XRF)) (n = 1714), a surface wipe test (n = 137) and destructive chemical analysis (n = 48) was undertaken to systematically identify BFRs in a wide range of consumer products. XRF rapidly identified bromine in 92% of products later confirmed to contain BFRs. Surface wipes of products identified tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), c-octaBDE congeners and BDE-209 with relatively high accuracy (> 75%) when confirmed by destructive chemical analysis. A relationship between the amounts of BFRs detected in surface wipes and subsequent destructive testing shows promise in predicting not only the types of BFRs present but also estimating the concentrations present. Information about the types of products that may contain persistent BFRs will assist regulators in implementing policies to further reduce the occurrence of these chemicals in consumer products.

Open and closed-loop recycling of textile and apparel products

Textile waste is a significant contributor to landfill yet the majority of textiles can be recycled, allowing for the energy and fibre to be reclaimed. This chapter examines the open-loop and closed loop recycling of textile products with particular reference to the fashion and apparel context. It describes the fibres used within apparel, the current mechanical and chemical methods for textile recycling, LCA findings for each method, and applications within apparel for each. Barriers for more effective recycling include ease of integration into existing textile and apparel design methods as well as coordinated collection of post-consumer waste. The chapter concludes with a discussion of innovations that point to future trends in both open-loop and closed-loop recycling within the apparel industry.

Editorial for Journal of Learning Design, 6(3) - "Special issue: Legal education and curriculum renewal"

Welcome to this special edition of the Journal of Learning Design which focuses on legal education and curriculum renewal in law. At the outset ,we would like to thank the editors of the Journal, Margaret Lloyd and Nan Bahr for agreeing to host this special edition. The special edition is timely as legal education in Australia is enjoying a lively period of renewal.

Using the evolution of consumer products to inform design

The development of a new consumer product and its release to market is typically an expensive and risky process. It is estimated that up to 80% of all new products fail in the marketplace (Savoia, 2014). The consequences of failure can be ruinous for a manufacturer both financially and in terms of brand reputation. So even small improvements in success prediction have the potential to save money, effort and brand reputation. This paper proposes an approach where the history and evolution of a product is mapped and analyzed. The results of the analysis can then be used to inform design decisions. This paper will also demonstrate the similarities between biological evolution and the evolution of consumer products. Using the existing structure and terminology of biological evolution allows us to focus on the aspects of innovations that have led to success and those that have led to failure. This paper uses the case study of the wristwatch and its development over 100 years. The analysis of this leads to recommendations for contemporary “smartwatches.”

Caught between a rock and a hard place: Disruptive boys’ views on mainstream and special schools in New South Wales, Australia

Students with disruptive behaviour in the Australian state of New South Wales are increasingly being educated in separate “behaviour” schools. There is however surprisingly little research on how students view these settings, or indeed the mainstream schools from which they were excluded. To better understand excluded students’ current and past educational experiences, we interviewed 33 boys, aged between 9 and 16 years of age, who were enrolled in separate special schools for students with disruptive behaviour. Analyses reveal that the majority of participants began disliking school in the early years due to difficulties with school work and teacher conflict. Interestingly, while most indicated that they preferred the behaviour school, more than half still wanted to return to their old school. It is therefore clear that separate special educational settings are not a solution to disruptive behaviour in mainstream schools. Whilst these settings do fulfil a function for some students, the preferences of the majority of boys suggest that “mainstream” school reform is of first order importance.

Specialisation versus special interest: The Australian podiatry experience

Background Ensuring efficient and effective delivery of health care to an ageing population has been a major driver for a review of the health workforce in Australia. As part of this process a National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (NRAS) has evolved with one goal being to improve workforce flexibility within a nationally consistent model of governance. In addition to increased flexibility, there have been discussions about maintaining standards and the role of specialisation. This study aims to explore the association between practitioners’ self-perceptions about their special interest in musculoskeletal, diabetes related and podopaediatric foot care and the actual podiatry services they deliver in Australia. Methods A cross sectional on-line survey was administered on behalf of the Australasian Podiatry Council and its’ state based member associations. Self-reported data were collected over a 3-week interval and captured information about the practitioners by gender, years of clinical experience, area of work by state, work setting, and location. For those participants that identified with an area of special interest or specialty, further questions were asked regarding support for the area of special interest through education, and activities performed in treating patients in the week prior to survey completion. Queensland University of Technology Human Research Ethics approval was sought and confirmed exemption from review. Results 218 podiatrists participated in the survey. Participants were predominately female and worked in private practices. The largest area of personal interest by the podiatrists was related to the field of musculoskeletal podiatry (n = 65), followed closely by diabetes foot care (n = 61), and a third area identified was in the management of podopaediatric conditions (n = 26). Conclusions Health workforce reform in Australia is in part being managed by the federal government with a goal to meet the health care needs of Australians into the future. The recognition of a specialty registration of podiatric surgery and endorsement for scheduled medicines was established with this workforce reform in mind. Addition of new subspecialties may be indicated based on professional development, to maintain high standards and meet community expectations.

The politics of race, class and special education: The selected works of Sally Tomlinson

Upon reading this esteemed collection of Sally Tomlinson’s works, published in Routledge’s prestigious World Library of Educationalists series, I was struck by three things. First, Sally is one of only three women among the 26 scholars whose collections have been published in this series to date, and the only scholar researching questions relating to disability and special education. Second, her early work on the sociology of special education Tomlinson, 1982) is just as pertinent today as her most recent research on the political scapegoating of low-attainers in a global knowledge economy (Tomlinson, 2012). Third, I was reminded of the extent to which her research has both inspired and guided me as I now grapple with the same research problems, albeit in a different country and at a different time, but always from a similar sociological standpoint (Graham & Jahnukainen, 2011; Graham & Sweller, 2011; Graham, 2012; Graham, 2014; Graham, Van Bergen & Sweller, 2014). Not surprisingly, the phrase that kept echoing through my head as I read through the 11 chapters chronicling a rich and immensely productive academic career was: ‘history repeats’. And, throughout the book are numerous examples and observations as to why it does. To paraphrase, the answer is power, status and politics.

Special Issue on Spatial Moment Techniques for Modelling Biological Processes

Over the last two decades, there has been an increasing awareness of, and interest in, the use of spatial moment techniques to provide insight into a range of biological and ecological processes. Models that incorporate spatial moments can be viewed as extensions of mean-field models. These mean-field models often consist of systems of classical ordinary differential equations and partial differential equations, whose derivation, at some point, hinges on the simplifying assumption that individuals in the underlying stochastic process encounter each other at a rate that is proportional to the average abundance of individuals. This assumption has several implications, the most striking of which is that mean-field models essentially neglect any impact of the spatial structure of individuals in the system. Moment dynamics models extend traditional mean-field descriptions by accounting for the dynamics of pairs, triples and higher n-tuples of individuals. This means that moment dynamics models can, to some extent, account for how the spatial structure affects the dynamics of the system in question.

Biorefineries – creating economic opportunities from biofuels and bio-products

Biorefineries, producing fuels, green chemicals and bio-products, offer great potential for improving the profitability and sustainability of tropical agricultural industries. Biomass from tropical crops like sugarcane, sweet sorghum, palm and cassava offer great potential because of the high biomass growth potential under favourable climatic conditions. Biorefineries aim to convert waste residues through biochemical and enzymatic processes to low cost fermentable sugars which are a platform for value-adding. Through subsequent fermentation utilising microbial biotechnologies or chemical synthesis, the sugars can be converted to fuels including ethanol and butanol, oils, organic acids such as lactic and levulinic acid and polymer precursors. Other biorefinery products can include food and animal feeds, plastics, fibre products and resins. Pretreatment technologies are a key to unlocking this potential and new technologies are emerging. This paper will address the opportunities available for tropical biorefineries to contribute to the future profitability of tropical agricultural industries. The importance of pretreatment technologies will be discussed.

Mineralogical and metallurgical examination of fluorosilicate mineral floatation in the Ok Tedi circuit

The Ok Tedi copper orebody consists of porphyry and skarn orebodies. The skarn orebodies, identified by different mineralogy, are the source of high intermittent fluorine levels in the mill concentrates. This paper discusses the results of the work undertaken to characterize the various fluorine-bearing minerals in samples of final copper concentrates and the distribution of fluorine amongst the minerals. Quantification of each mineral in mill feed and various flotation streams at Ok Tedi enables an understanding of the quantitative response of fluorine-bearing minerals to flotation. The metallurgical behavior of fluorine in the flotation process is also discussed.

International Journal of Music Business Research. Special Issue on the Australasian Music Economy

The music business is one of the most international of all the cultural industries. Music, industry practices, and people travel easily across country borders and the major music companies are dominating national music markets across the globe. However, at the same time the music industries in different countries are very idiosyncratic. Music is an ingrained part of a country’s history, its culture and heritage. One aspect of this idiosyncrasy is related to how creatives, audiences and music organizations are affected by and is able to take advantage of the ongoing digitization of society.

Increasing attractiveness of high-end products

An important decision brand managers have to make when positioning their products in a retail setting is to whether price new line extensions at parity or let products vary in the price/quality spectrum. Despite the growing interest in vertical line extension issues, there has been little research investigating how product-line length affects extension favorability. Therefore, this paper investigates the framing effect that a product line price structure has on consumer judgments of vertical extensions and, in particular, of upscale extensions. A basic proposition of this research is that the parent brand price range affects the perceived or psychological distance between extension and parent brand, influencing extension favorability ratings. In two experiments, it is shown that positioning an upscale extension in the context of a wide product-line will lead to higher consistency perceptions between the parent brand and a new upscale extension than an equivalent upscale extension positioned in the context of a narrow parent brand product-line.

Work, aging, and retirement in Australia: Introduction to the special issue

Australia has an aging population and workforce, and policy makers and organizations increasingly encourage older workers to remain on the job longer and even beyond traditional retirement age. After a brief review of important demographic and political developments, we introduce the 8 articles included in this special issue on work, aging, and retirement in Australia. The articles include an overview of the Australian retirement income system, 6 articles reporting quantitative analyses of cross-sectional and longitudinal data provided by large samples of Australian workers and retirees, and a qualitative study which analyzes interviews with human resource managers. Overall, the articles demonstrate that research on work, aging, and retirement in Australia is flourishing, sophisticated, and diverse both in terms of content and methodologies. We close with a brief review of topics and research questions related to work, aging, and retirement that remain to be addressed in the Australian context in future research.