Work-related road risks and legal liabilities : report for the Redland City Council

Workplace serious injuries and deaths due to unsafe work practices are a substantial health and socioeconomic burden to the community, particularly in industries such as construction, agriculture and fishing, and transport and storage. Some 2000 individuals die each year from work-related causes and tens of thousands of individuals incur permanent disabling work-related injuries and the direct (e.g., medical & legal) and indirect (e.g., lost productivity) cost to the Australian economy has been estimated between $32 billion and $57 billion annually. A common cause of workplace injuries and deaths is occupational driving and work-related fatal road crashes comprise between 23 and 32% of work-related fatalities each year. A major safety concern across the various industry groups therefore involve deaths and injuries associated with work-related driving. However, while organisations emphasise safety practices in most spheres of the workplace they often neglect work-related driving and lack appropriate policies to enhance safe driving practices.

Thermal decomposition of hydrotalcite with hexacyanoferrite(II) and hexacyanoferrate(III) anions in the interlayer : a controlled rate thermal analysis study

The mechanism for the decomposition of hydrotalcite remains unsolved. Controlled rate thermal analysis enables this decomposition pathway to be explored. The thermal decomposition of hydrotalcites with hexacyanoferrite(II) and hexacyanoferrate(III) in the interlayer has been studied using controlled rate thermal analysis technology. X-ray diffraction shows the hydrotalcites studied have a d(003) spacing of 11.1 and 10.9 Å which compares with a d-spacing of 7.9 and 7.98 Å for the hydrotalcite with carbonate or sulphate in the interlayer. Calculations based upon CRTA measurements show that 7 moles of water is lost, proving the formula of hexacyanoferrite(II) intercalated hydrotalcite is Mg6Al2(OH)16[Fe(CN)6]0.5 .7 H2O and for the hexacyanoferrate(III) intercalated hydrotalcite is Mg6Al2(OH)16[Fe(CN)6]0.66 * 9 H2O. Dehydroxylation combined with CN unit loss occurs in three steps between a) 310 and 367°C b) 367 and 390°C and c) between 390 and 428°C for both the hexacyanoferrite(II) and hexacyanoferrate(III) intercalated hydrotalcite.

Researching the 'reception' of indigenous affairs in Australia

The Reporting and Reception of Indigenous Issues in the Australian Media was a three year project financed by the Australian government through its Australian Research Council Large Grants Scheme and run by Professor John Hartley (of Murdoch and then Edith Cowan University, Western Australia). The purpose of the research was to map the ways in which indigeneity was constructed and circulated in Australia's mediasphere. The analysis of the 'reporting' element of the project was almost straightforward: a mixture of content analysis of a large number of items in the media, and detailed textual analysis of a smaller number of key texts. The discoveries were interesting - that when analysis approaches the media as a whole, rather than focussing exclusively on news or serious drama genres, then representation of indigeneity is not nearly as homogenous as has previously been assumed. And if researchers do not explicitly set out to uncover racism in every text, it is by no means guaranteed they will find it1. The question of how to approach the 'reception' of these issues - and particularly reception by indigenous Australians - proved to be a far more challenging one. In attempting to research this area, Hartley and I (working as a research assistant on the project) often found ourselves hampered by the axioms that underlie much media research. Traditionally, the 'reception' of media by indigenous people in Australia has been researched in ethnographic ways. This research repeatedly discovers that indigenous people in Australia are powerless in the face of new forms of media. Indigenous populations are represented as victims of aggressive and powerful intrusions: ‘What happens when a remote community is suddenly inundated by broadcast TV?’; ‘Overnight they will go from having no radio and television to being bombarded by three TV channels’; ‘The influence of film in an isolated, traditionally oriented Aboriginal community’2. This language of ‘influence’, ‘bombarded’, and ‘inundated’, presents metaphors not just of war but of a war being lost. It tells of an unequal struggle, of a more powerful force impinging upon a weaker one. What else could be the relationship of an Aboriginal audience to something which is ‘bombarding’ them? Or by which they are ‘inundated’? This attitude might best be summed up by the title of an article by Elihu Katz: ‘Can authentic cultures survive new media?’3. In such writing, there is little sense that what is being addressed might be seen as a series of discursive encounters, negotiations and acts of meaning-making in which indigenous people — communities and audiences —might be productive. Certainly, the points of concern in this type of writing are important. The question of what happens when a new communication medium is summarily introduced to a culture is certainly an important one. But the language used to describe this interaction is a misleading one. And it is noticeable that such writing is fascinated with the relationship of only traditionally-oriented Aboriginal communities to the media of mass communication.

Preliminary characterisation of the surface of cartilage following exposure to saturated and unsaturated synthetic lipids

Articular cartilage is covered by a microscopic structure known as surface amorphous layer. This surface structure is often the first victim of attack during cartilage degeneration, thereby resulting in a gross impairment in cartilage function such as lubrication and load bearing. We hypothesize that incubation of degraded cartilage in solutions of different species of synthetic surface active phospholipids (saturated and unsaturated species) can remodel this lost surface structure. To test this hypothesis, the structural configuration of the surface of articular cartilage was studied and characterised with the lipid filled surface amorphous layer intact using the AFM. The results were then compared with those obtained following a systematic removal (delipidization) and replacement (relipidization) of this layer. Our results show that the unsaturated surfactant partially restored the lost surface amorphous layer while the saturated surfactant specie settled on the surface due to its poor solubility in aqueous solution.

Monitoring mesenchymal stem cell cultures using image processing and pattern recognition techniques

Stem cells have attracted tremendous interest in recent times due to their promise in providing innovative new treatments for a great range of currently debilitating diseases. This is due to their potential ability to regenerate and repair damaged tissue, and hence restore lost body function, in a manner beyond the body's usual healing process. Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells or bone marrow stromal cells are one type of adult stem cells that are of particular interest. Since they are derived from a living human adult donor, they do not have the ethical issues associated with the use of human embryonic stem cells. They are also able to be taken from a patient or other donors with relative ease and then grown readily in the laboratory for clinical application. Despite the attractive properties of bone marrow stromal cells, there is presently no quick and easy way to determine the quality of a sample of such cells. Presently, a sample must be grown for weeks and subject to various time-consuming assays, under the direction of an expert cell biologist, to determine whether it will be useful. Hence there is a great need for innovative new ways to assess the quality of cell cultures for research and potential clinical application. The research presented in this thesis investigates the use of computerised image processing and pattern recognition techniques to provide a quicker and simpler method for the quality assessment of bone marrow stromal cell cultures. In particular, aim of this work is to find out whether it is possible, through the use of image processing and pattern recognition techniques, to predict the growth potential of a culture of human bone marrow stromal cells at early stages, before it is readily apparent to a human observer. With the above aim in mind, a computerised system was developed to classify the quality of bone marrow stromal cell cultures based on phase contrast microscopy images. Our system was trained and tested on mixed images of both healthy and unhealthy bone marrow stromal cell samples taken from three different patients. This system, when presented with 44 previously unseen bone marrow stromal cell culture images, outperformed human experts in the ability to correctly classify healthy and unhealthy cultures. The system correctly classified the health status of an image 88% of the time compared to an average of 72% of the time for human experts. Extensive training and testing of the system on a set of 139 normal sized images and 567 smaller image tiles showed an average performance of 86% and 85% correct classifications, respectively. The contributions of this thesis include demonstrating the applicability and potential of computerised image processing and pattern recognition techniques to the task of quality assessment of bone marrow stromal cell cultures. As part of this system, an image normalisation method has been suggested and a new segmentation algorithm has been developed for locating cell regions of irregularly shaped cells in phase contrast images. Importantly, we have validated the efficacy of both the normalisation and segmentation method, by demonstrating that both methods quantitatively improve the classification performance of subsequent pattern recognition algorithms, in discriminating between cell cultures of differing health status. We have shown that the quality of a cell culture of bone marrow stromal cells may be assessed without the need to either segment individual cells or to use time-lapse imaging. Finally, we have proposed a set of features, that when extracted from the cell regions of segmented input images, can be used to train current state of the art pattern recognition systems to predict the quality of bone marrow stromal cell cultures earlier and more consistently than human experts.

Busway platform bus capacity analysis

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), because of its operational flexibility and simplicity, is rapidly gaining popularity with urban designers and transit planners. Earlier BRTs were bus shared lane or bus only lane, which share the roadway with general and other forms of traffic. In recent time, more sophisticated designs of BRT have emerged, such as busway, which has separate carriageway for buses and provides very high physical separation of buses from general traffic. Line capacities of a busway are predominately dependent on bus capacity of its stations. Despite new developments in BRT designs, the methodology of capacity analysis is still based on traditional principles of kerbside bus stop on bus only lane operations. Consequently, the tradition methodology lacks accounting for various dimensions of busway station operation, such as passenger crowd, passenger walking and bus lost time along the long busway station platform. This research has developed a purpose made bus capacity analysis methodology for busway station analysis. Extensive observations of kerbside bus stops and busway stations in Brisbane, Australia were made and differences in their operation were studied. A large scale data collection was conducted using the video recording technique at the Mater Hill Busway Station on the South East Busway in Brisbane. This research identified new parameters concerning busway station operation, and through intricate analysis identified the elements and processes which influence the bus dwell time at a busway station platform. A new variable, Bus lost time, was defined and its quantitative descriptions were established. Based on these finding and analysis, a busway station platform bus capacity methodology was developed, comprising of new models for busway station lost time, busway station dwell time, busway station loading area bus capacity, and busway station platform bus capacity. The new methodology not only accounts for passenger boarding and alighting, but also covers platform crowd and bus lost time in station platform bus capacity estimation. The applicability of this methodology was shown through demonstrative examples. Additionally, these examples illustrated the significance of the bus lost time variable in determining station capacities.

Comparison of intranasal and transcutaneous immunization for induction of protective immunity against chlamydia muridarum respiratory tract infection

Chlamydia pneumoniae causes a range of respiratory infections including bronchitis, pharyngitis and pneumonia. Infection has also been implicated in exacerbation/initiation of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and may play a role in atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's disease. We have used a mouse model of Chlamydia respiratory infection to determine the effectiveness of intranasal (IN) and transcutaneous immunization (TCI) to prevent Chlamydia lung infection. Female BALB/c mice were immunized with chlamydial major outer membrane protein (MOMP) mixed with cholera toxin and CpG oligodeoxynucleotide adjuvants by either the IN or TCI routes. Serum and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) were collected for antibody analysis. Mononuclear cells from lung-draining lymph nodes were stimulated in vitro with MOMP and cytokine mRNA production determined by real time PCR. Animals were challenged with live Chlamydia and weighed daily following challenge. At day 10 (the peak of infection) animals were sacrificed and the numbers of recoverable Chlamydia in lungs determined by real time PCR. MOMP-specific antibody-secreting cells in lung tissues were also determined at day 10 post-infection. Both IN and TCI protected animals against weight loss compared to non-immunized controls with both immunized groups gaining weight by day 10-post challenge while controls had lost 6% of body weight. Both immunization protocols induced MOMP-specific IgG in serum and BAL while only IN immunization induced MOMP-specific IgA in BAL. Both immunization routes resulted in high numbers of MOMP-specific antibody-secreting cells in lung tissues (IN > TCI). Following in vitro re-stimulation of lung-draining lymph node cells with MOMP; IFNγ mRNA increased 20-fold in cells from IN immunized animals (compared to non-immunized controls) while IFNγ levels increased 6- to 7-fold in TCI animals. Ten days post challenge non-immunized animals had >7000 IFU in their lungs, IN immunized animals <50 IFU and TCI immunized animals <1500 IFU. Thus, both intranasal and transcutaneous immunization protected mice against respiratory challenge with Chlamydia. The best protection was obtained following IN immunization and correlated with IFNγ production by mononuclear cells in lung-draining LN and MOMP-specific IgA in BAL.

Automatic generation of effective video summaries

As the popularity of video as an information medium rises, the amount of video content that we produce and archive keeps growing. This creates a demand for shorter representations of videos in order to assist the task of video retrieval. The traditional solution is to let humans watch these videos and write textual summaries based on what they saw. This summarisation process, however, is time-consuming. Moreover, a lot of useful audio-visual information contained in the original video can be lost. Video summarisation aims to turn a full-length video into a more concise version that preserves as much information as possible. The problem of video summarisation is to minimise the trade-off between how concise and how representative a summary is. There are also usability concerns that need to be addressed in a video summarisation scheme. To solve these problems, this research aims to create an automatic video summarisation framework that combines and improves on existing video summarisation techniques, with the focus on practicality and user satisfaction. We also investigate the need for different summarisation strategies in different kinds of videos, for example news, sports, or TV series. Finally, we develop a video summarisation system based on the framework, which is validated by subjective and objective evaluation. The evaluation results shows that the proposed framework is effective for creating video skims, producing high user satisfaction rate and having reasonably low computing requirement. We also demonstrate that the techniques presented in this research can be used for visualising video summaries in the form web pages showing various useful information, both from the video itself and from external sources.

CDKN2A/p16 is inactivated in most melanoma cell lines

The CDKN2A gene maps to chromosome 9p21-22 and is responsible for melanoma susceptibility in some families. Its product, p16, binds specifically to CDK4 and CDK6 in vitro and in vivo, inhibiting their kinase activity. CDKN2A is homozygously deleted or mutated in a large proportion of tumor cell lines and some primary tumors, including melanomas. The aim of this study was to investigate the involvement of CDKN2A and elucidate the mechanisms of p16 inactivation in a panel of 60 cell lines derived from sporadic melanomas. Twenty-six (43%) of the melanoma lines were homozygously deleted for CDKN2A, and an additional 15 (25%) lines carried missense, nonsense, or frameshift mutations. All but one of the latter group were shown by microsatellite analysis to be hemizygous for the region of 9p surrounding CDKN2A. p16 was detected by Western blotting in only five of the cell lines carrying mutations. Immunoprecipitation of p16 in these lines, followed by Western blotting to detect the coprecipitation of CDK4 and CDK6, revealed that p16 was functionally compromised in all cell lines but the one that carried a heterozygous CDKN2A mutation. In the remaining 19 lines that carried wild-type CDKN2A alleles, Western blot analysis and immunoprecipitation indicated that 11 cell lines expressed a wild-type protein. Northern blotting was performed on the remaining eight cell lines and revealed that one cell line carried an aberrantly sized RNA transcript, and two other cell lines failed to express RNA. The promoter was found to be methylated in five cell lines that expressed CDKN2A transcript but not p16. Presumably, the message seen by Northern blotting in these cell lines is the result of cross-hybridization of the total cDNA probe with the exon 1beta transcript. Microsatellite analysis revealed that the majority of these cell lines were hemi/homozygous for the region surrounding CDKN2A, indicating that the wild-type allele had been lost. In the 11 cell lines that expressed functional p16, microsatellite analysis revealed loss of heterozygosity at the markers immediately surrounding CDKN2A in five cases, and the previously characterized R24C mutation of CDK4 was identified in one of the remaining 6 lines. These data indicate that 55 of 60 (92%) melanoma cell lines demonstrated some aberration of CDKN2A or CDK4, thus suggesting that this pathway is a primary genetic target in melanoma development.

Surrogacy and IVF

While in the past surrogacy was illegal in Queensland, since June 2010 the Surrogacy Act 2010 (Qld) (“the Act”) has made altruistic surrogacy arrangements lawful in Queensland. In addition, it provides a mechanism for transfer of legal parentage from the surrogate to the person(s) wishing to have a child (the intended parent(s)). Commercial surrogacy – where a payment, reward or other material benefit of advantage (other than the reimbursement of the “birth mother’s surrogacy costs” (s11 of the Act) is made for entering into a surrogacy arrangement – remains unlawful. The paramount guiding principle underpinning the Act is that of the wellbeing and best interests of a child born as a result of surrogacy. The Surrogacy Act 2010 (Qld) allows a single person or a couple (heterosexual or same sex couples) to enter into an agreement with a woman, and her partner (if she has one), to become pregnant with the intention that the child will be relinquished to the intended parent(s). The Act also provides a mechanism for the intended parent(s) to be legally recognised as the parent(s) of the child. In order for the intended parent(s) to be legally recognised (via a parentage order, discussed below) it must be shown that the surrogacy arrangement was entered into when all the parties were over 25 years of age and the intended parent(s) are male or, in a heterosexual or lesbian couple the female(s) are not likely to conceive or give birth to a healthy child due to medical reasons. The arrangement must be entered into before the surrogate becomes pregnant and all parties must have obtained independent legal advice and counselling about the proposed arrangement, and evidence of this is required at the time a parentage order is applied for. For the purposes of the Act it does not matter how the surrogate conceives the child or if the child is genetically related to the parties. During the period of the pregnancy, the surrogate has the right to manage her pregnancy in the way she wishes. Although she cannot profit from acting as a surrogate, section 11 states that she is entitled to surrogacy costs. These include, for example, reasonable medical costs related to pregnancy and the birth of the child; counselling and legal costs associated with the surrogacy arrangement; actual lost earnings because of leave taken during pregnancy or following birth and any reasonable travel expenses incurred. The surrogacy arrangement itself is not legally enforceable; however, obligations to pay a surrogate’s surrogacy costs are enforceable unless she chooses not to relinquish the child to the intending parents. While the Act does not specifically deal with the situation where the surrogate decides she is unprepared to relinquish the child to the intended parents, there have been examples where parties have entered into these kinds of arrangements, and the arrangements have become difficult. For example, the Family Court case of Re Evelyn (1998) FLC 92–807 involved a child born to a surrogate mother who decided not to surrender her. The child was the genetic child of the surrogate mother and the husband of the couple who had contracted with the surrogate mother. Both sets of parents brought proceedings in the court, seeking that the child live with them. In hearing the application, the court applied the paramount principle of the ‘best interests of the child’. The court made clear that there is no presumption in favour of the birth mother, although in this case the court found that the child may be better placed with the surrogate mother’s family.

Incremental entrepreneurship : best practice professionalization across generations

This chapter will introduce Australia’s Dennis family – a case of ‘incremental entrepreneurship’ in the business transition from the first to the second generation. Following the second generation’s formal involvement and ownership in the business, Dennis Family Corporation (DFC) undertook a major professionalization process to formalize the family business and ensure its continued success. The members of the second generation have successfully sustained the entrepreneurial spirit of their family business (albeit in a different style), adding value to the firm in an ‘incremental’ manner. Throughout the chapter there will be a strong emphasis on the family element of DFC and the roles that each family member has played. Bert Dennis, as the founder and incumbent leader of the firm, has witnessed major changes to the business he built from the ground up. His children, in particular his son Grant Dennis as the primary next generation issue champion, have seen the changes from another perspective – ensuring the business remains within the family into the second generation and beyond. The professionalization process was sparked by a commitment from the second generation to continue to ‘make a real go’ of the family business rather than simply liquidating and distributing the assets. The dedication of all the family members to this objective has ensured the success of this process, and ultimately, the longevity of the firm. Although DFC has become more ‘professional’, it has not lost its entrepreneurial character; rather, it has improved the ways in which entrepreneurialism is fostered and pursued in the company. In essence, this case outlines how the implementation of appropriate governance and management practices has allowed the Dennis family to overcome the challenges and maximize the opportunities associated with owning and operating a multigenerational family fi rm. From a theoretical perspective, this case uses the concepts of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) (Lumpkin and Dess 1996) and the resource- based view (RBV) (Habbershon and Williams 1999; Barney 1991; Wernerfelt 1984) to demonstrate how the fi rm has leveraged its familiness to foster an enduring spirit of entrepreneurship and to maintain a sustained competitive advantage.

Relationship to the bereaved and perceptions of severity of trauma differentiate elements of posttraumatic growth

The field of bereavement and grief has been expanding to recognise the potential for growth following the loss of a loved one. This study sought to examine the effect of the relationship to the deceased and perceptions of the severity of the trauma on dimensions of posttraumatic growth. Participants were 146 people who had lost either: a) a first degree relative, b) a second degree relative, or c) a non-related friend. Results demonstrated that both severity and the relationship to the bereaved differentiate posttraumatic growth outcomes. For example, participants who had lost a first degree relative reported higher levels of growth than those who had lost a second degree relative. Consistent with previous research in general trauma populations, the more severe the loss was rated, the higher the levels of growth. Implications for practice are discussed.

Digital reflections on learning : a monograph by students of Digital Pedagogies, Semester 2, 2011

Learning a digital tool is often a hidden process. We tend to learn new tools in a bewildering range of ways. Formal, informal, structured, random, conscious, unconscious, individual, group strategies, may all play a part, but are often lost to us in the complex and demanding processes of learning. But when we reflect carefully on the experience, some patterns and surprising techniques emerge. This monograph presents the thinking of four students in MDN642, Digital Pedagogies, where they have deliberately reflected on the mental processes at work as they learnt a digital technology of their choice.

Thermal stability of the ‘cave’ mineral ardealite Ca2(HPO4)(SO4)•4H2O

Thermogravimetry combined with evolved gas mass spectrometry has been used to characterise the mineral ardealite and to ascertain the thermal stability of this ‘cave’ mineral. The mineral ardealite Ca2(HPO4)(SO4)•4H2O is formed through the reaction of calcite with bat guano. The mineral shows disorder and the composition varies depending on the origin of the mineral. Thermal analysis shows that the mineral starts to decompose over the temperature range 100 to 150°C with some loss of water. The critical temperature for water loss is around 215°C and above this temperature the mineral structure is altered. It is concluded that the mineral starts to decompose at 125°C, with all waters of hydration being lost after 226°C. Some loss of sulphate occurs over a broad temperature range centred upon 565°C. The final decomposition temperature is 823°C with loss of the sulphate and phosphate anions.

Core-shell microspheres with surface grafted poly(vinyl alcohol) as drug carriers for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma

Core(polyvinyl neodecanoate-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate)-shell(polyvinyl alcohol) (core (P(VND-EGDMA))-shell(PVA)) microspheres were developed by seeded polymerization with the use of conventional free radical and RAFT/MADIX mediated polymerization. Poly(vinyl pivalate) PVPi was grafted onto microspheres prepared via suspension polymerization of vinylneodecanoate and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate. The amount of grafted polymer was found to be independent from the technique used with conventional free radical polymerization and MADIX polymerization resulting into similar shell thicknesses. Both systems—grafting via free radical polymerization or the MADIX process—were found to follow slightly different kinetics. While the free radical polymerization resulted in a weight gain linear with the monomer consumption in solution the growth in the MADIX controlled system experienced a delay. The core-shell microspheres were obtained by hydrolysis of the poly(vinyl pivalate) surface grafted brushes to form poly(vinyl alcohol). During hydrolysis the microspheres lost a significant amount of weight, consistent with the hydrolysis of 40–70% of all VPi units. Drug loading was found to be independent of the shell layer thickness, suggesting that the drug loading is governed by the amount of bulk material. The shell layer does not appear to represent an obstacle to the drug ingress. Cell testing using colorectal cancer cell lines HT 29 confirm the biocompatibility of the empty microspheres whereas the clofazimine loaded particles lead to 50% cell death, confirming the release of the drug.