Air evacuation in war : the role of RAAF nurses undertaking air evacuation of casualties between 1943-1953

Air transportation of Australian casualties in World War II was initially carried out in air ambulances with an accompanying male medical orderly. By late 1943 with the war effort concentrated in the Pacific, Allied military authorities realised that air transport was needed to move the increasing numbers of casualties over longer distances. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) became responsible for air evacuation of Australian casualties and established a formal medical air evacuation system with trained flight teams early in 1944. Specialised Medical Air Evacuation Transport Units (MAETUs) were established whose sole responsibility was undertaking air evacuations of Australian casualties from the forward operational areas back to definitive medical care. Flight teams consisting of a RAAF nursing sister (registered nurse) and a medical orderly carried out the escort duties. These personnel had been specially trained in Australia for their role. Post-WWII, the RAAF Nursing Service was demobilised with a limited number of nurses being retained for the Interim Air Force. Subsequently, those nurses were offered commissions in the Permanent Air Force. Some of the nurses who remained were air evacuation trained and carried out air evacuations both in Australia and as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan. With the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, Australia became responsible for the air evacuation of British Commonwealth casualties from Korea to Japan. With a re-organisation of the Australian forces as part of the British Commonwealth forces, RAAF nurses were posted to undertake air evacuation from Korea and back to Australia from Iwakuni, Japan. By 1952, a specialised casualty staging section was established in Seoul and staffed by RAAF nurses from Iwakuni on a rotation basis. The development of the Australian air evacuation system and the role of the flight nurses are not well documented for the period 1943-1953. The aims of this research are three fold and include documenting the origins and development of the air evacuation system from 1943-1953; analysing and documenting the RAAF nurse’s role and exploring whether any influences or lessons remain valid today. A traditional historical methodology of narrative and then analysis was used to inform the flight nurse’s role within the totality of the social system. Evidence was based on primary data sources mainly held in Defence files, the Australian War Memorial or the National Archives of Australia. Interviews with 12 ex-RAAF nurses from both WWII and the Korean War were conducted to provide information where there were gaps in the primary data and to enable exploration of the flight nurses’ role and their contributions in war of the air evacuation of casualties. Finally, this thesis highlights two lessons that remain valid today. The first is that interoperability of air evacuation systems with other nations is a force multiplier when resources are scarce or limited. Second, the pre-flight assessment of patients was essential and ensured that there were no deaths in-flight.

The city, self, and connections : transyouth and urban social networking in Seoul

The end of the Korean War in 1953 marked the beginning of Seoul’s transformation from the shattered capital city of South Korea to one of the most connected, populous, and fast-changing hubs of global economy. Seoul’s technosocial development has been celebrated nationally and internationally. To the outside, young Koreans’ swift and extensive adoption and adaptation to digital technologies has been a subject of exotification; to adults in Korea, it has been a subject of criticism (see Yoon in this volume). With the understanding that ‘the city is connections,’ it is crucial to study not only the macro-level design of the city as a network (through policy, for example), but also its micro-level construction at the intersection of people, place, and technology. Accordingly, this chapter explores this exact intersection to comprehensively portray the constant renewal of the city as imagined and experienced by young Koreans. The chapter is based on fieldwork conducted in Seoul, South Korea, from 2007 to 2008 as part of a research project on the mobile play culture of Seoul transyouth, the transitional demographic situated between youth and adulthood, and the pioneers of the Korean ‘broadband miracle’ (Hazlett, 2004). The study draws upon transdisciplinary research data including interviews, questionnaires, diaries, and Shared Visual Ethnography (SVE) to render the everyday urban social networking of young Seoulites with and through which they interact to constantly (re)create the city and the self.

Developing capabilities for ongoing learning and change in intermediary programs

In dynamic environments, firms seek to build capabilities which will permit them to become innovation and change ready. Programs offered by intermediaries, while varying greatly in content and format, are designed to support those firms wishing to enhance their competitiveness. Firms which participate in intermediary programs have displayed their willingness to overcome deficiencies or barriers to competitiveness through acquiring knowledge which is external to the firm. This paper reports on interviews with 24 firms who were involved in a MAP or TAP program offered by QMI Solutions. The findings of the research suggest that knowledge intermediaries serve to disrupt organisational paths and in so doing establish mechanisms for ongoing learning and change. They do this first by disrupting the firm with a positive learning experience and also by establishing processes for developing new relationships and access to knowledge which are critical for learning and change. It is the experience of learning through knowledge exchange which can trigger the pursuit of new paths and it is the processes involving new relations and knowledge processing that provides the micro-foundations for ongoing learning and change. This suggests that the role of intermediaries goes well beyond merely knowledge transfer to include longer term effects on the capability of organisations to innovate, which is critical to economic competitiveness and the survival rate of firms.

Synthesis and Raman spectroscopic study of Mg/Al,Fe hydrotalcites with variable cationic ratios

Hydrotalcites of formula Mg6 (Fe,Al)2(OH)16(CO3).4H2O formed by intercalation with the carbonate anion as a function of divalent/trivalent cationic ratio have been successfully synthesised. The XRD patterns show variation in the d-spacing attributed to the size of the cation. Raman and infrared bands in the OH stretching region are assigned to (a) brucite layer OH stretching vibrations (b) water stretching bands and (c) water strongly hydrogen bonded to the carbonate anion. Multiple (CO3)2- symmetric stretching bands suggest that different types of (CO3)2- exist in the hydrotalcite interlayer. Increasing the cation ratio (Mg/Al,Fe) resulted in an increase in the combined intensity of the 2 Raman bands at around 3600 cm-1, attributed to Mg-OH stretching modes, and a shift of the overall band profile to higher wavenumbers. These observations are believed to be a result of the increase in magnesium in the structure. Raman spectroscopy shows a reduction in the symmetry of the carbonate, leading to the conclusion that the anions are bonded to the brucite-like hydroxyl surface and to the water in the interlayer. Water bending modes are identified in the infrared spectra at positions greater than 1630 cm-1, indicating the water is strongly hydrogen bonded to both the interlayer anions and the brucite-like surface.

Cues to starting CPAP in obstructive sleep apnoea : development and validation of the cues to CPAP Use Questionnaire (CCUQ)

Background: The reasons that a patient has to start treatment, their “Cues to Action”, are important for determining subsequent health behaviours. Cues to action are an explicit component of the Health Belief Model of CPAP acceptance adherence. At present there is no scale available to measure this construct for individuals with Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA). This paper aims to develop, validate and describe responding patterns within an OSA patient sample to the Cues to CPAP Use Questionnaire (CCUQ).----- Method: Participants were 63 adult patients diagnosed with OSA who had never tried CPAP when initially recruited. The CCUQ was completed at one month after being prescribed CPAP.----- Results: Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) showed a three factor structure of the 9-item CCUQ, with “Health Cues”, “Partner Cues” and “Health Professional Cues” subscales accounting for 59.91% of the total variance. The CCUQ demonstrated modest internal consistency and split-half reliability. The questionnaire is brief and user-friendly, with readability at a 7th grade level. The most frequently endorsed cues for starting CPAP were Health Professional Cues (prompting by the sleep physician) and Health Cues such as tiredness and concern about health outcomes.----- Conclusions: This study validates a measure of an important motivational component of the Health Belief Model. Health Professional Cues and internal Health Cues were reported to be the most important prompts to commence CPAP by this patient sample.

Impact of simulated visual impairment on the cognitive test performance of young adults

Aims: This study investigated the effect of simulated visual impairment on the speed and accuracy of performance on a series of commonly used cognitive tests. ----- Methods: Cognitive performance was assessed for 30 young, visually normal subjects (M=22.0yrs ± 3.1 yrs) using the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST), Trail Making Test (TMT) A and B and the Stroop Colour Word Test under three visual conditions: normal vision and two levels of visually degrading filters (VistechTM) administered in a random order. Distance visual acuity and contrast sensitivity were also assessed for each filter condition. ----- Results: The visual filters, which degraded contrast sensitivity to a greater extent than visual acuity, significantly increased the time to complete (p<0.05), but not the number of errors made, on the DSST and the TMT A and B and affected only some components of the Stroop test.----- Conclusions: Reduced contrast sensitivity had a marked effect on the speed but not the accuracy of performance on commonly used cognitive tests, even in young individuals; the implications of these findings are discussed.

Realistic yet humanitarian? The comprehensive plan of action and refugee policy in Southeast Asia

The 1989 Comprehensive Plan of Action (CPA) has recently been described as a successful example of how to manage large protracted refugee flows. However, this article revisits the circumstances surrounding the CPA used to resolve the prolonged Indo-Chinese refugee crisis to highlight that part of its development was linked to the fact that Southeast Asian states refused to engage with proposed solutions, which did not include repatriation for the majority of the Indo-Chinese asylum seekers who were deemed to be ‘non-genuine’1 ( UNGA, 1989a) refugees. This resulted in the CPA often forcibly repatriating ‘non-genuine’ refugees, particularly near the end of its program. This article reviews the CPA in order to assess whether its practices and results should be repeated.

Thermally activated seawater neutralised red mud used for the removal of arsenate, vanadate and molybdate from aqueous solutions.

The effectiveness of using thermally activated hydrotalcite materials has been investigated for the removal of arsenate, vanadate, and molybdate in individual and mixed solutions. Results show that increasing the Mg,Al ratio to 4:1 causes an increase in the percentage of anions removed from solution. The order of affinity of the three anions analysed in this investigation is arsenate, vanadate, and molybdate. By comparisons with several synthetic hydrotalcite materials, the hydrotalcite structure in the seawater neutralised red mud (SWN-RM) has been determined to consist of magnesium and aluminium with a ratio between 3.5:1 and 4:1. Thermally activated seawater neutralised red mud removes at least twice the concentration of anionic species than thermally activated red mud alone, due to the formation of 40 to 60 % Bayer hydrotalcite during the neutralisation process.

Raman spectroscopic study of the uranyl carbonate mineral čejkaite and its comparison with synthetic trigonal Na4[UO2(CO3)3]

Raman and infrared spectroscopies were used to characterise two samples of triclinic ejkaite Na4[UO2(CO3)3] and its synthetic trigonal analogue. The v3 (UO2)2+ mode is not Raman active, whereas both the v3 and v1 (UO2)2+ modes are infrared active. U--O bond lengths in uranyls were calculated from the spectra obtained and compared with bond lengths derived from crystal structure analyses. From the higher number of bands related to the uranyl and carbonate vibrations, the presence of symmetrically distinct (UO2)2+ and (CO3)2- units in both structures is proposed.

Thermal decomposition of Bayer precipitates formed at varying temperatures

Bayer hydrotalcites prepared using the seawater neutralisation (SWN) process of Bayer liquors are characterised using X-ray diffraction and thermal analysis techniques. The Bayer hydrotalcites are synthesised at four different temperatures (0, 25, 55, 75 °C) to determine the effect on the thermal stability of the hydrotalcite structure, and to identify other precipitates that form at these temperatures. The interlayer distance increased with increasing synthesis temperature, up to 55 °C, and then decreased by 0.14 Å for Bayer hydrotalcites prepared at 75 °C. The three mineralogical phases identified in this investigation are; 1) Bayer hydrotalcite, 2), calcium carbonate species, and 3) hydromagnesite. The DTG curve can be separated into four decomposition steps; 1) the removal of adsorbed water and free interlayer water in hydrotalcite (30 – 230 °C), 2) the dehydroxylation of hydrotalcite and the decarbonation of hydrotalcite (250 – 400 °C), 3) the decarbonation of hydromagnesite (400 – 550 °C), and 4) the decarbonation of aragonite (550 – 650 °C).

Thermal analysis of synthetic reevesite and cobalt substituted reevesite (Ni,Co)6Fe2(OH)16(CO3)•4H2O

The mineral reevesite and the cobalt substituted reevesite have been synthesised. The d(003) spacings of the minerals ranged from 7.54 to 7.95 Å. The maximum d(003) value occurred at around Ni:Co 0.4:0.6. This maximum in interlayer distance is proposed to be due to a greater number of carbonate anions and water molecules intercalated into the structure. The stability of the reevesite and cobalt doped reevesite was determined by thermogravimetric analysis. The maximum temperature of the reevesite occurs for the unsubstituted reevesite and is around 220°C. The effect of cobalt substitution results in a decrease in thermal stability of the reevesites. Four thermal decomposition steps are observed and are attributed to dehydration, dehydroxylation and decarbonation, decomposition of the formed carbonate and oxygen loss at ~807 °C. A mechanism for the thermal decomposition of the reevesite and the cobalt substituted reevesite is proposed.

Synthesis and thermal stability of hydrotalcites containing manganese

The hydrotalcite based upon manganese known as charmarite Mn4Al2(OH)12CO3•3H2O has been synthesised with different Mn/Al ratios from 4:1 to 2:1. Impurities of manganese oxide, rhodochrosite and bayerite at low concentrations were also produced during the synthesis. The thermal stability of charmarite was investigated using thermogravimetry. The manganese hydrotalcite decomposed in stages with mass loss steps at 211, 305 and 793°C. The product of the thermal decomposition was amorphous material mixed with manganese oxide. A comparison is made with the thermal decomposition of the Mg/Al hydrotalcite. It is concluded that the synthetic charmarite is slightly less stable than hydrotalcite.

Thermoanalytical studies of natural potassium, sodium and ammonium alunites

Dynamic and controlled rate thermal analysis (CRTA) has been used to characterise alunites of formula [M(Al)3(SO4)2(OH)6 ] where M+ is the cations K+, Na+ or NH4+. Thermal decomposition occurs in a series of steps. (a) dehydration, (b) well defined dehydroxylation and (c) desulphation. CRTA offers a better resolution and a more detailed interpretation of water formation processes via approaching equilibrium conditions of decomposition through the elimination of the slow transfer of heat to the sample as a controlling parameter on the process of decomposition. Constant-rate decomposition processes of water formation reveal the subtle nature of dehydration and dehydroxylation.