Social on the road: enabling secure and efficient social networking on highways

 This article presents SOR, a vehicular social network to enable social communications and interactions among users on the road during their highway travels. Motivated by the limited connection to Internet contents and services, the essential goal of SOR is to encourage distributed users on the road to spontaneously contribute as the information producer, assembler, and distributer in order to provide timely and localized infotainments to each other through low-cost inter-vehicle communications. To be specific, SOR enables individual users to maintain a personal blog, similar to one on Facebook and Twitter, over which users can create and share personal content information to the public such as travel blogs with pictures and videos. By accessing each other's SOR blogs and commenting on interesting topics, passengers can exchange messages and initiate social interactions. In the specific highway environment, SOR addresses two challenges in the context of vehicular social communications. First, vehicular social communications tend to be frequently interrupted by diverse vehicle mobility and intermittent intervehicle connections, which is annoying to users. To address this issue, SOR adopts a proactive mechanism by estimating the connection time between peer vehicles, and recommending vehicles with relatively long-lasting and stable intervehicle connections for social communications. Second, as users on the road are typically strangers to each other, they are reluctant to disclose personal information to others. This makes it challenging to identify users of shared interests and accordingly restricts the scale of users' social interactions. To remedy that, SOR provides a secured solution to protect sensitive user information during social communications. Lastly, we use simulations to verify the performance of SOR. © 2015 IEEE.

Fetal programming of schizophrenia: select mechanisms

Mounting evidence indicates that schizophrenia is associated with adverse intrauterine experiences. An adverse or suboptimal fetal environment can cause irreversible changes in brain that can subsequently exert long-lasting effects through resetting a diverse array of biological systems including endocrine, immune and nervous. It is evident from animal and imaging studies that subtle variations in the intrauterine environment can cause recognizable differences in brain structure and cognitive functions in the offspring. A wide variety of environmental factors may play a role in precipitating the emergent developmental dysregulation and the consequent evolution of psychiatric traits in early adulthood by inducing inflammatory, oxidative and nitrosative stress (IO&NS) pathways, mitochondrial dysfunction, apoptosis, and epigenetic dysregulation. However, the precise mechanisms behind such relationships and the specificity of the risk factors for schizophrenia remain exploratory. Considering the paucity of knowledge on fetal programming of schizophrenia, it is timely to consolidate the recent advances in the field and put forward an integrated overview of the mechanisms associated with fetal origin of schizophrenia.

Scholarships and Connections: Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, 1960-2010

For over fifty years Australia has welcomed students from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to study at our tertiary institutions on government scholarships. An important premise behind the scholarship program has been the hope that the connections with Australia developed by these students will be long-lasting and mutually beneficial to Australia and partner governments. The research project ‘Scholarships and Connections’ investigates the life stories and experiences of students from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea who were sponsored for Australian-based tertiary study from 1950s-2010. By recording the personal experiences of scholarship recipients and investigating their networks of influence, this research deepens our understanding of scholarship programs and whether or not they produce outcomes that are consistent with the objective of building mutually beneficial linkages between Australia and partner countries. It examines whether the outcomes are enduring or change over time. The project is especially interested in the experiences of former scholarship-holders in positions of leadership and any networks and ongoing connections they have with Australia. This research provides a better understanding of the personal and professional networks of scholarship alumni, and encourages the sharing of experiences. The interviews will be permanently retained in appropriate repositories and drawn on for use in biographies, radio and television programs, internet applications and educational curricula for schools and leadership programs. This research promotes the values of historical research and scholarship among Indonesians and Papua New Guineans and points to the value of oral testimony from past and recent generations of mobile students for current generations facing important challenges and choices.

Questionnaire data for 'Scholarships and Connections: Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, 1960-2010'

For over fifty years Australia has welcomed students from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to study at our tertiary institutions on government scholarships. An important premise behind the scholarship program has been the hope that the connections with Australia developed by these students will be long-lasting and mutually beneficial to Australia and partner governments. The research project ‘Scholarships and Connections’ investigates the life stories and experiences of students from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea who were sponsored for Australian-based tertiary study from 1950s-2010. By recording the personal experiences of scholarship recipients and investigating their networks of influence, this research deepens our understanding of scholarship programs and whether or not they produce outcomes that are consistent with the objective of building mutually beneficial linkages between Australia and partner countries. It examines whether the outcomes are enduring or change over time. The project is especially interested in the experiences of former scholarship-holders in positions of leadership and any networks and ongoing connections they have with Australia. This research provides a better understanding of the personal and professional networks of scholarship alumni, and encourages the sharing of experiences. The interviews will be permanently retained in appropriate repositories and drawn on for use in biographies, radio and television programs, internet applications and educational curricula for schools and leadership programs. This research promotes the values of historical research and scholarship among Indonesians and Papua New Guineans and points to the value of oral testimony from past and recent generations of mobile students for current generations facing important challenges and choices.

Rethinking the employer's summary dismissal power in the employment contract

 The principal subject of this thesis is the employer’s summary dismissal power under Australian contract law. Summary dismissal is by far the most brutal way that an employment relationship may end. Its suddenness can have long-lasting economic and psychological impacts upon the dismissed employee. However, the area has been neglected in legal scholarship. The result of this is that issues arising from the jurisprudence have not been the subject of critique and scrutiny, until now. This thesis addresses this gap in the scholarship. The thesis also proposes a new approach to resolving these disputes based on the proportionality concept. An employer's decision to dismiss its employees in this way should be commensurate to the detriment caused by the employee's actions. Therefore, one 'should not use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.'

The effects of rehabilitation on the muscles of the trunk following prolonged bed rest

Microgravity and inactivity due to prolonged bed rest have been shown to result in atrophy of spinal extensor muscles such as the multifidus, and either no atrophy or hypertrophy of flexor muscles such as the abdominal group and psoas muscle. These effects are long-lasting after bed rest and the potential effects of rehabilitation are unknown. This two-group intervention study aimed to investigate the effects of two rehabilitation programs on the recovery of lumbo-pelvic musculature following prolonged bed rest. 24 subjects underwent 60 days of head down tilt bed rest as part of the 2nd Berlin BedRest Study (BBR2-2). After bed rest, they underwent one of two exercise programs, trunk flexor and general strength (TFS) training or specific motor control (SMC) training. Magnetic resonance imaging of the lumbo-pelvic region was conducted at the start and end of bed rest and during the recovery period (14 and 90 days after re-ambulation). Cross-sectional areas (CSAs) of the multifidus, psoas, lumbar erector spinae and quadratus lumborum muscles were measured from L1 to L5. Morphological changes including disc volume, spinal length, lordosis angle and disc height were also measured. Both exercise programs restored the multifidus muscle to pre-bed-rest size, but further increases in psoas muscle size were seen in the TFS group up to 14 days after bed rest. There was no significant difference in the number of low back pain reports for the two rehabilitation groups (p=.59). The TFS program resulted in greater decreases in disc volume and anterior disc height. The SMC training program may be preferable to TFS training after bed rest as it restored the CSA of the multifidus muscle without generating potentially harmful compressive forces through the spine.

Latency reduction and market quality: the case of the Australian Stock Exchange

This study investigates the role of latency in market quality in the Australia Securities Exchange following the introduction of the Integrated Trading Platform (ITS) and ASXTrade. We find that the reduction in system latency from 70. ms to 30. ms (ITS) improved liquidity. However, the lower latency has not had a long-lasting downward effect on spreads, as there was no discernible reduction in trading costs when institutional traders already had access to lower-latency co-locations. We contribute to the literature by reporting that low latency improves market liquidity, but privileged participants that have access to trading information prior to others may induce greater information asymmetry and adverse selection.

Early life environmental and pharmacological stressors result in persistent dysregulations of the serotonergic system

Dysregulations in the brain serotonergic system and exposure to environmental stressors have been implicated in the development of major depressive disorder. Here, we investigate the interactions between the stress and serotonergic systems by characterizing the behavioral and biochemical effects of chronic stress applied during early-life or adulthood in wild type (WT) mice and mice with deficient tryptophan hydroxylase 2 (TPH2) function. We showed that chronic mild stress applied in adulthood did not affect the behaviors and serotonin levels of WT and TPH2 knock-in (KI) mice. Whereas, maternal separation (MS) stress increased anxiety-and depressive-like behaviors of WT mice, with no detectable behavioral changes in TPH2, KI mice. Biochemically, we found that MS WT mice had reduced brain serotonin levels, which was attributed to increased expression of monoamine oxidase A (MAO A). The increased MAO A expression was detected in MS WT mice at 4 weeks old and adulthood. No change in TPH2 expression was detected. To determine whether a pharmacological stressor, dexamethasone (Dex), will result in similar biochemical results obtained from MS, we used an in vitro system, SH-SY5Y cells, and found that Dex treatment resulted in increased MAO A expression levels. We then treated WT mice with Dex for 5 days, either during postnatal days 7-11 or adulthood. Both groups of Dex treated WT mice had reduced basal corticosterone and glucocorticoid receptors expression levels. However, only Dex treatment during PND7-11 resulted in reduced serotonin levels and increased MAO A expression. Just as with MS WT mice, TPH2 expression in PND7-11, Dex-treated WT mice was unaffected. Taken together, our findings suggest that both environmental and pharmacological stressors affect the expression of MAO A, and not TPH2, when applied during the critical postnatal period. This leads to long-lasting perturbations in the serotonergic system, and results in anxiety-and depressive-like behaviors.

Medical textiles as vascular implants and their success to mimic natural arteries

Vascular implants belong to a specialised class of medical textiles. The basic purpose of a vascular implant (graft and stent) is to act as an artificial conduit or substitute for a diseased artery. However, the long-term healing function depends on its ability to mimic the mechanical and biological behaviour of the artery. This requires a thorough understanding of the structure and function of an artery, which can then be translated into a synthetic structure based on the capabilities of the manufacturing method utilised. Common textile manufacturing techniques, such as weaving, knitting, braiding, and electrospinning, are frequently used to design vascular implants for research and commercial purposes for the past decades. However, the ability to match attributes of a vascular substitute to those of a native artery still remains a challenge. The synthetic implants have been found to cause disturbance in biological, biomechanical, and hemodynamic parameters at the implant site, which has been widely attributed to their structural design. In this work, we reviewed the design aspect of textile vascular implants and compared them to the structure of a natural artery as a basis for assessing the level of success as an implant. The outcome of this work is expected to encourage future design strategies for developing improved long lasting vascular implants.

Does school health and home economics education influence adults' food knowledge?

Home economics and health teachers are to be found in many parts of the world. They teach students about food in relation to its nutritional, safety and environmental properties. The effects of such teaching might be expected to be reflected in the food knowledge of adults who have undertaken school education in these areas. This study examined the food knowledge associations of school home economics and health education among Australian adults. Two separate online surveys were conducted nationwide among 2022 (November 2011) and 2146 Australian adults (November-December 2012). True/false and multiple choice questions in both surveys were used to assess nutrition, food safety and environmental knowledge. Knowledge scores were constructed and compared against respondents' experience of school health or home economics education via multiple regression analyses. The results from both studies showed that home economics (and similar) education was associated with higher levels of food knowledge among several age groups. The associations of home economics education with food knowledge differed across several Australian states and recall of home economics themes differed across the age groups. These findings suggest that home economics education may bring about long-lasting learning of food knowledge. Further research is required, however, to confirm the findings and to test the causal influence of home economics education on adults' food knowledge.

Book review: The Postwar Legacy of Appeasement: British Foreign Policy since 1945. By R. Gerald Hughes (London: Bloomsbury, 2014), pp. xii +331pp, AU$40.99 (pb).

“Appeaser”; since the Second World War there is perhaps no other label that prime ministers and presidents in the English-speaking world have strived so hard to avoid. It is extraordinary how powerful and long-lasting the term appeasement, the name Neville Chamberlain and the place Munich have been in the discourse of post-war international relations. It is a reflection of the all-powerful historical legacy of the Second World War that these terms still resonate with policy makers and their publics well into the twenty-first century. Such a phenomenon deserves scholarly attention and R. Gerald Hughes has done justice to this topic in his very fine book The Postwar Legacy of Appeasement: British Foreign Policy Since 1945.

Finding a unified understanding of nature

A letter to the editor of EcoHealth regarding the 2014 International Union for the Conservation of Nature's World Parks Congress and how the event failed to address a long-lasting vision of protecting the earth's ecosystems.

Is momentum trading profitable from Shari'ah compliant stocks?

This research offers fresh evidence supporting the pervasiveness of the momentum effect. Two decades after the momentum profitability firstly documented by Jegadeesh and Titman (1993), yet little research has been specifically devised for the momentum profitability on Shari'ah compliant stocks. We assess the momentum profitability over the Shari'ah compliant stocks in a Malaysian setting. We find evidence of strong return persistence as far as toward four-year holding period. Interestingly, no significant momentum returns are found among the conventional stocks. Upon further exploration we find neither an industry-driven momentum effect nor the small size firms can account for the momentum returns. Using return persistency formation criteria, we further find that underreaction seems to well fit in explaining this unique long lasting momentum profitability.

Restoration of self-awareness of hypoglycemia in adults with long-standing type 1 diabetes: hyperinsulinemic-hypoglycemic clamp substudy results from the HypoCOMPaSS trial.

OBJECTIVE: Impaired awareness of hypoglycemia (IAH) and defective counterregulation significantly increase severe hypoglycemia risk in type 1 diabetes (T1D). We evaluated restoration of IAH/defective counterregulation by a treatment strategy targeted at hypoglycemia avoidance in adults with T1D with IAH (Gold score ≥4) participating in the U.K.-based multicenter HypoCOMPaSS randomized controlled trial. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Eighteen subjects with T1D and IAH (mean ± SD age 50 ± 9 years, T1D duration 35 ± 10 years, HbA1c 8.1 ± 1.0% [65 ± 10.9 mmol/mol]) underwent stepped hyperinsulinemic-hypoglycemic clamp studies before and after a 6-month intervention. The intervention comprised the HypoCOMPaSS education tool in all and randomized allocation, in a 2 × 2 factorial study design, to multiple daily insulin analog injections or continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion therapy and conventional glucose monitoring or real-time continuous glucose monitoring. Symptoms, cognitive function, and counterregulatory hormones were measured at each glucose plateau (5.0, 3.8, 3.4, 2.8, and 2.4 mmol/L), with each step lasting 40 min with subjects kept blinded to their actual glucose value throughout clamp studies. RESULTS: After intervention, glucose concentrations at which subjects first felt hypoglycemic increased (mean ± SE from 2.6 ± 0.1 to 3.1 ± 0.2 mmol/L, P = 0.02), and symptom and plasma metanephrine responses to hypoglycemia were higher (median area under curve for symptoms, 580 [interquartile range {IQR} 420-780] vs. 710 [460-1,260], P = 0.02; metanephrine, 2,412 [-3,026 to 7,279] vs. 5,180 [-771 to 11,513], P = 0.01). Glycemic threshold for deterioration of cognitive function measured by four-choice reaction time was unchanged, while the color-word Stroop test showed a degree of adaptation. CONCLUSIONS: Even in long-standing T1D, IAH and defective counterregulation may be improved by a clinical strategy aimed at hypoglycemia avoidance.