Deterrence of drug driving : the impact of the ACT drug driving legislation and detection techniques

Overarching Research Questions Are ACT motorists aware of roadside saliva based drug testing operations? What is the perceived deterrent impact of the operations? What factors are predictive of future intentions to drug drive? What are the differences between key subgroups

Understanding the new context of the male sex work industry

The article reviews past and recent research on male sex work to offer a context to understand violence in the industry. It provides a critical review of research to show, first, the assumptions made about male sex workers and violence and, second, how such discourses have shaped thinking on the topic. The article presents a case study and original findings from two studies conducted by the authors in Australia and Argentina on violence in the male sex industry. Finally, the article reviews examples of legislative reforms to show how the sex industry is being regulated.

Tissue-engineered 3D tumor angiogenesis models : potential technologies for anti-cancer drug discovery

Angiogenesis is indispensable for solid tumor expansion, and thus it has become a major target of cancer research and anti-cancer therapies. Deciphering the arcane actions of various cell populations during tumor angiogenesis requires sophisticated research models, which could capture the dynamics and complexity of the process. There is a continuous need for improvement of existing research models, which engages interdisciplinary approaches of tissue engineering with life sciences. Tireless efforts to develop a new model to study tumor angiogenesis result in innovative solutions, which bring us one step closer to decipher the dubious nature of cancer. This review aims to overview the recent developments, current limitations and future challenges in three-dimensional tissue-engineered models for the study of tumor angiogenesis and for the purpose of elucidating novel targets aimed at anti-cancer drug discovery.

Collaborative learning in the rural Indonesian craft industry

The research explores the potential for participatory and collaborative approaches in working with the Indonesian glass-bead rural craft industry, which currently struggles to sustain its business. Contextual inquiry and participatory action research were used to understand the local context, including motivations, barriers and opportunities and to collaboratively develop strategies for advancement and innovation. The study documents participatory design projects undertaken to make, sell and promote hedonic products. It identifies the importance of understanding local context and individual craftsperson aspirations in designing collaborative support programs. It also provides an in depth insight into the Indonesian rural craft industry.

Delivering crushed tablets using thickened fluids : is drug diffusion into gastric fluids restricted?

Solid medications are often crushed and mixed with food or thickened water to aid drug delivery for those who cannot or prefer not to swallow whole tablets or capsules. Dysphagic patients have the added problem of being unable to safely swallow thin fluids so water thickened with polysaccharides is used to deliver crushed medications and ensure safe swallowing. It is postulated that these polysaccharide systems may restrict drug release by reducing the diffusion of the drug into gastric fluids. METHODS By using a vertical diffusion cell separated with a synthetic membrane, the diffusion of a model drug (atenolol) was studied from a donor system containing the drug dispersed into thickened water with xanthan gum (concentration range from 0.005%-2.2%) into a receptor system containing simulated gastric fluid (SGF) at 37°C. The amount of drug transferred was measured over 8 hours and diffusion coefficients estimated using the Higuchi model approach. RESULTS Atenolol diffusion decreased with increasing xanthan gum concentration up to 1.0%, above which diffusion remained around 300 μ2s-1. The rheological measurements captured the influence of the structure and conformation of the polysaccharide in water on the movement and availability of the drug in SGF. DISCUSSION Dose form administration for dysphagic patients’ needs special attention from general practitioners, pharmacist and patients. Improving drug release of crushed tablets from thickening agents requires a reduction in the diffusion pathway (e.g. by decreasing drop size radius). This approach could make the drug available in SGF in a short time without compromising the mechanical aspects of thickening agents that guarantee safe swallowing.

Spinning a sustainable yarn : environmental sustainability and brand story in the Australian fashion industry

In the Australian fashion industry, few fashion brands have intervened in the design of their products or the systems around their product to tackle environmental pollution and waste. Instead, support of charities (whether social or environmental) has become conflated with sustainability in the eyes of the public. Thus it is difficult to assess with any accuracy fashion brands’ response to sustainability. This article aims to address this through proposing a categorization system to structure the various interventions that a company may make. This system is applied to two case studies, analysing campaigns that respond to environmental sustainability by two established Australian brands, Country Road and Billabong. The case studies demonstrate how the interventions employed by a company, at least in the Australian context, are carefully developed to align with their brand story, revealing the interplay between the intangible aspects of a brand’s positioning and the tangible, measurable impacts of their garments.

Improving safety communication of ethnic minorities in the construction industry of Hong Kong

The construction workforce in Hong Kong is experiencing a severe ageing problem and labour shortage. One initiative to enhance the supply of manpower is to assist ethnic minorities joining the industry. It is foreseeable that the percentage of ethnic minorities in the construction workforce will keep increasing. Statistics show that ethnic minorities were nearly 30% more likely to have work-related injuries than local workers in some developed countries. However, official statistics on the safety of ethnic minorities are not available in Hong Kong. A search in newspaper archive revealed that ethnic minorities in the construction industry of Hong Kong are subjected to higher fatality rate than local workers, just as is the case in many developed countries. This reflects that the safety of ethnic minorities has not received the attention it rightly deserves. Safety communication has been one of the key factors leading to accidents. Safety communication barriers of ethnic minorities impede them from receiving safety training and acquiring safety information effectively. Research towards improving the safety communication of ethnic minorities in the construction industry of Hong Kong becomes more urgent. This paper will provides an initial report on a research project which focuses on improving the safety communication of ethnic minorities in the construction industry of Hong Kong. Quantitative and qualitative research methods including Social Network Analysis (SNA) applied in conducting the research are first discussed. Preliminary statistics of construction accidents related to ethnic minorities in Hong Kong are then presented.

Sortase A : an ideal target for anti-virulence drug development

Sortase A is a membrane enzyme responsible for the anchoring of surface-exposed proteins to the cell wall envelope of Gram-positive bacteria. As a well-studied member of the sortase subfamily catalysing the cell wall anchoring of important virulence factors to the surface of staphylococci, enterococci and streptococci, sortase A plays a critical role in Gram-positive bacterial pathogenesis. It is thus considered a promising target for the development of new anti-infective drugs that aim to interfere with important Gram-positive virulence mechanisms, such as adhesion to host tissues, evasion of host defences, and biofilm formation. The additional properties of sortase A as an enzyme that is not required for Gram-positive bacterial growth or viability and is conveniently located on the cell membrane making it more accessible to inhibitor targeting, constitute additional reasons reinforcing the view that sortase A is an ideal target for anti-virulence drug development. Many inhibitors of sortase A have been identified to date using high-throughput or in silico screening of compound libraries (synthetic or natural), and while many have proved useful tools for probing the action model of the enzyme, several are also promising candidates for the development into potent inhibitors. This review is focused on the most promising sortase A inhibitor compounds that are currently in development as leads towards a new class of anti-infective drugs that are urgently needed to help combat the alarming increase in antimicrobial resistance.

The application of social network analysis in the construction industry of Hong Kong

The Hong Kong construction industry is currently facing ageing problem and labour shortage. There are opportunities for employing ethnic minority construction workers to join this hazardous industry. These ethnic minority workers are prone to accidents due to communication barriers. Safety communication is playing an important role for avoiding the accidents on construction sites. However, the ethnic minority workers are not very fluent in the local language and facing safety communication problems while working with local workers. Social network analysis (SNA), being an effective tool to identify the safety communication flow on the construction site, is used to attain the measures of safety communication like centrality, density and betweenness within the ethnic minorities and local workers, and to generate sociograms that visually represent communication pattern within the effective and ineffective safety networks. The aim of this paper is to present the application of SNA for improving the safety communication of ethnic minorities in the construction industry of Hong Kong. The paper provides the theoretical background of SNA approaches for the data collection and analysis using the software UCINET and NetDraw, to determine the predominant safety communication network structure and pattern of ethnic minorities on site.

Micro foundations of strategic capability development : a case study within the auto industry

The importance of firms’ adaptation processes is prominent in today’s business environment which is characterised by ever changing customers, technologies, and competition. Ever since Schumpeter’s (1942) classic work strategic renewal has been found crucial for firms’ adaptation to environmental change. The role of strategic renewal in firms’ adaptation processes includes development of capabilities for the purpose of sustainability of competitive advantage against environmental changes.

Dynamics of industry architecture and firm’s capability development : role of knowledge integration within product innovation

Aligned with the decline of Marshalian view of industry as constituting homogeneous set of firms, the new perspective is emerging by concentrating more on dynamics of sectors as the building block of industrial changes. Based on new assumptions, much of the action in terms of strategy, technology, and knowledge development does not happen either among firms within a stable industry, or through the growth or decline of certain sectors compared to others. Instead, the action happens in terms of the definition, redefinition, drawing, and redrawing of the very nature of these sectors. Technology does not progress and develop within a sector; rather it shapes (and is shaped by) the encompassing architecture of multiple sectors.