The contribution of workplace characteristics to the risk of Type 2 Diabetes

Diabetes has a significant economic impact on individuals, families, health systems, and countries [1]. In 2010 it was estimated that the global health expenditure on diabetes was US376 billion (€292 billion), equating to 12% of health expenditure and US1330 (€1031) per person [2]. A separate estimate in 2010 reported that diabetes cost the US US174 billion (€135 billion), with US58 billion (€45 billion) in indirect costs equating to over US2000 (€1551) on average per person with diabetes [3]. The World Health Organization estimates that between 2005 and 2030 the proportion of deaths caused by diabetes will double and global health expenditures associated with diabetes are expected to reach US490 billion (€380 billion) [1,2]. In 2003, it was estimated that diabetes cost Australia AUS6 billion (US6 billion, €5 billion), with AUS21 million (US22 million, €17 million) in indirect costs such as lost workdays and lost productivity equating to approximately AUS35 (US35, €28) per person with diabetes [4].

Lifetime risk and projected population prevalence of diabetes

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: With incidence rates for diabetes increasing rapidly worldwide, estimates of the magnitude of the impact on population health are required. We aimed to estimate the lifetime risk of diabetes, the number of years lived free of, and the number of years lived with diabetes for the Australian adult population from the year 2000, and to project prevalence of diabetes to the year 2025. METHODS: Multi-state life-tables were constructed to simulate the progress of a cohort of 25-year-old Australians. National mortality rates were combined with incidence rates of diabetes and the RR of mortality in people with diabetes derived from the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle study (a national, population-based study of 11,247 adults aged >or=25 years). RESULTS: If the rates of mortality and diabetes incidence observed over the period 2000-2005 continue, 38.0% (95% uncertainty interval 36.6-38.9) of 25-year-olds would be expected to develop diabetes at some time throughout their life. On average, a 25-year-old Australian will live a further 56 years, 48 of these free of diabetes. On average, a 45-year-old person with diabetes can expect to live 6 years less than a person free of diabetes. The prevalence of diabetes is projected to rise from 7.6% in 2000 to 11.4% by 2025. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: If we maintain current diabetes incidence rates, more than a third of individuals will develop diabetes within their lifetime and in Australia there will an additional 1 million cases of diabetes by the year 2025.

‘Cemented in their cells’: a human rights analysis of Blessington, Elliott and the life imprisonment of children in New South Wales

In 2010, two Australians, convicted in childhood of rape and murder, lodged a joint submission with the United Nations Human Rights Committee, claiming that successive changes to sentencing legislation in New South Wales breached their human rights by denying them any meaningful prospect of release. In this article, we examine the political, legislative and procedural moves that have resulted in Australian children being sentenced to life without parole or release. We argue that successive legislative changes in various Australian jurisdictions have resulted in a framework for sentencing decisions that is considerably out of step with international legal standards for criminal justice. These increasingly punitive legislative changes exacerbate Australia’s already declining record of cooperation with UN processes, and reveal Australia’s reluctance to respect the legitimacy and authority of international law. Against this troubling context, the views of the Human Rights Committee serve as a much-needed reminder about the importance of a principled approach to child sentencing that forecloses neither the goal of rehabilitation nor the prospect of release and reintegration.

Assuaging death anxiety in older overseas-born Australians of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds hospitalised for end-of-life care

BACKGROUND: Death anxiety is a known phenomenon in older people of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (CALD) hospitalised for end-of-life (EOL) care . Little is known about how nurses assuage death anxiety in this population. AIMS: To investigate strategies used by nurses to assuage death anxiety and facilitate a good death in older CALD Australians hospitalised for EOL care.

METHODS: Advanced as a qualitative descriptive inquiry, a purposeful sample of 22 nurses was recruited from four Victorian healthcare services. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis processes.

FINDINGS: Nurses used three key strategies: recognising death anxiety; delineating its dimensions; and initiating conventional nursingcaring behaviours to help contain it. Contrary to expectations, cultural similarities rather than differences were found in the strategies used.

CONCLUSIONS: Nursing strategies for recognising, delineating, and managing death anxiety in older CALD people hospitalised at the EOL is an important component of quality EOL care.

Medical-legal partnerships: the role of mental health providers and legal authorities in the development of a coordinated approach to supporting mental health clients' legal needs in regional and rural settings

INTRODUCTION: Medical-legal partnerships (MLP) are a model in which medical and legal practitioners are co-located and work together to support the health and wellbeing of individuals by identifying and resolving legal issues that impact patients' health and wellbeing. The aim of this article is to analyse the benefits of this model, which has proliferated in the USA, and its applicability in the context of rural and remote Australia.

METHODS: This review was undertaken with three research questions in mind: What is an MLP? Is service provision for individuals with mental health concerns being adequately addressed by current service models particularly in the rural context? Are MLPs a service delivery channel that would benefit individuals experiencing mental health issues?

RESULTS: The combined searches from all EBSCO Host databases resulted in 462 citations. This search aggregated academic journals, newspapers, book reviews, magazines and trade publications. After several reviews 38 papers were selected for the final review based on their relevance to this review question: How do MLPs support mental health providers and legal service providers in the development of a coordinated approach to supporting mental health clients' legal needs in regional and rural Australia?

CONCLUSIONS: There is considerable merit in pursuing the development of MLPs in rural and remote Australia particularly as individuals living in rural and remote areas have far fewer opportunities to access support services than those people living in regional and metropolitan locations. MLPS are important channels of service delivery to assist in early invention of legal problems that can exacerbate mental health problems.

Managing reforestation to sequester carbon, increase biodiversity potential and minimize loss of agricultural land

Reforestation will have important consequences for the global challenges of mitigating climate change, arresting habitat decline and ensuring food security. We examined field-scale trade-offs between carbon sequestration of tree plantings and biodiversity potential and loss of agricultural land. Extensive surveys of reforestation across temperate and tropical Australia (N=1491 plantings) were used to determine how planting width and species mix affect carbon sequestration during early development (< 15 year). Carbon accumulation per area increased significantly with decreasing planting width and with increasing proportion of eucalypts (the predominant over-storey genus). Highest biodiversity potential was achieved through block plantings (width>40m) with about 25% of planted individuals being eucalypts. Carbon and biodiversity goals were balanced in mixed-species plantings by establishing narrow belts (width<20m) with a high proportion (>75%) of eucalypts, and in monocultures of mallee eucalypt plantings by using the widest belts (ca. 6-20m). Impacts on agriculture were minimized by planting narrow belts (ca. 4m) of mallee eucalypt monocultures, which had the highest carbon sequestering efficiency. A plausible scenario where only 5% of highly-cleared areas (<30% native vegetation cover remaining) of temperate Australia are reforested showed substantial mitigation potential. Total carbon sequestration after 15 years was up to 25Mt CO2-e year-1 when carbon and biodiversity goals were balanced and 13Mt CO2-e year-1 if block plantings of highest biodiversity potential were established. Even when reforestation was restricted to marginal agricultural land (<$2000ha-1 land value, 28% of the land under agriculture in Australia), total mitigation potential after 15 years was 17-26Mt CO2-e year-1 using narrow belts of mallee plantings. This work provides guidance on land use to governments and planners. We show that the multiple benefits of young tree plantings can be balanced by manipulating planting width and species choice at establishment. In highly-cleared areas, such plantings can sequester substantial biomass carbon while improving biodiversity and causing negligible loss of agricultural land.

Identifying an appropriate content management system to develop clinical practice guidelines: a perspective

Clinical Practice Guidelines are widely used to inform and improve the quality and consistency of clinical practice. Developing and publishing Clinical Practice Guidelines is a complex task involving multiple components. Electronic Content Management Systems are increasingly employed to make this task more manageable. The Content Management System market offers a variety of options for publishing content on the Internet. However, there are limited products that comprehensively address the requirements of publishing Clinical Practice Guidelines. The authors are involved in publishing guidelines for remote clinical practitioners in Australia and present their perspective about identifying an appropriate Content Management System. Several elements essential to addressing their unique editing needs are defined in this article. Unfortunately, customisation is very expensive and laborious: few Content Management System providers can comprehensively meet the needs of Clinical Practice Guidelines publishing. Being pragmatic about the level of functionality a product can offer to support publication is essential.

Implementation of innovative technologies in small-scale construction firms: five Australian case studies

Purpose - The users of construction technologies such as builders and trades people have been acknowledged as sources of potentially important innovations. These innovations may be in the form of safer, less labour intensive, or cheaper methods and processes. The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the Australian construction industry is providing an environment where user-based innovation is being supported and implemented. Design/methodology/approach - An explorative study was undertaken to provide an insight into actual experiences of the implementation of user-based innovation. The data were collected through faceto- face semi-structured interviews providing case studies on multiple aspects of the implementation of innovative construction technologies. The cases involved a cross section of advances, including product, tool, and system technologies. Findings - The main motivation behind developing the technologies was problem solving. The associated industries of manufacturing and retail, as well as consultants within the construction industry present the greatest barriers to implementation. Originality/value - This research provides a better understanding of the factors that are preventing the successful implementation of user-based innovative construction technologies in small firms.

The legal structure and regulation of securities lending (Pt 2)

connection with the collapse of Opes Prime in Australiaand the Australian Federal Court decision whichconsidered the legal characterisation of securities loans.The Opes Prime collapse provoked huge controversyregarding the role of securities lending and the ensuingcourt decision was the first judicial examination ofsecurities lending in Australia.1 The article also considersthe regulatory responses to securities lending and shortselling taken by the International Organisation ofSecurities Commissions (IOSCO) and in Australia, theUnited Kingdom, Europe and the United States duringthe global financial crisis.

Previous land use and climate influence differences in soil organic carbon following reforestation of agricultural land with mixed-species plantings

Reforestation of agricultural land with mixed-species environmental plantings (native trees and shrubs) can contribute to mitigation of climate change through sequestration of carbon. Although soil carbon sequestration following reforestation has been investigated at site- and regional-scales, there are few studies across regions where the impact of a broad range of site conditions and management practices can be assessed. We collated new and existing data on soil organic carbon (SOC, 0-30 cm depth, N = 117 sites) and litter (N = 106 sites) under mixed-species plantings and an agricultural pair or baseline across southern and eastern Australia. Sites covered a range of previous land uses, initial SOC stocks, climatic conditions and management types. Differences in total SOC stocks following reforestation were significant at 52% of sites, with a mean rate of increase of 0.57 ± 0.06 Mg C ha-1 y-1. Increases were largely in the particulate fraction, which increased significantly at 46% of sites compared with increases at 27% of sites for the humus fraction. Although relative increase was highest in the particulate fraction, the humus fraction was the largest proportion of total SOC and so absolute differences in both fractions were similar. Accumulation rates of carbon in litter were 0.39 ± 0.02 Mg C ha-1 y-1, increasing the total (soil + litter) annual rate of carbon sequestration by 68%. Previously-cropped sites accumulated more SOC than previously-grazed sites. The explained variance differed widely among empirical models of differences in SOC stocks following reforestation according to SOC fraction and depth for previously-grazed (R2 = 0.18-0.51) and previously-cropped (R2 = 0.14-0.60) sites. For previously-grazed sites, differences in SOC following reforestation were negatively related to total SOC in the pasture. By comparison, for previously-cropped sites, differences in SOC were positively related to mean annual rainfall. This improved broad-scale understanding of the magnitude and predictors of changes in stocks of soil and litter C following reforestation is valuable for the development of policy on carbon markets and the establishment of future mixed-species environmental plantings.

'Give back the human': poetic collaboration and hibakusha poems

Testimonies are viewed as essential for recording the experience of atomic warfare. However, hibakusha Keiko Ogura expresses the need for something more than recording and translating these testimonies. She highlights the need for an understanding of the hibakusha experience through a form of virtual collaboration with hibakusha and their stories. Ogura states that this is best achieved via ‘literature, art and poetry’ (Ogura 2015: n.pag.).This paper discusses why and how we speak about the atomic bomb and argues that virtual collaboration with hibakusha, by writing poetry based on their experiences and publishing it online, encourages empathy and keeps the experience alive for future generations. This paper uses Brandon Shimoda’s curated issue—entitled ‘Hiroshima/Nagasaki’—of Evening Will Come, a monthly online journal of poetics, as a case study.

Family networks and the Australian pastoral industry: a case study of the Port Phillip District and Victoria during the nineteenth century

This article highlights the important function of family and kinship networks in the pastoral industry of the Port Phillip District and Victoria, Australia, during the nineteenth century. Using the core case study of the extended Cameron family--or the Cameron “clan” from the Scottish Highlands--in the Western District of Victoria, it demonstrates how family networks assisted in the accumulation and consolidation of large pastoral properties and enterprises, and thus aided the agricultural entrepreneurialism of migrants who saw greater commercial opportunities throughout the Empire than at home.

Gathering for God : George Brown in Oceania

Combining 'the gathering of artefacts with the gathering of souls', George Brown was a key figure in the Christian, and especially the Wesleyan Methodist, history of nineteenth-century Oceania. Using his life as a case study, Helen Bethea Gardner examines the role of Christian missionaries in the Pacific Islands. Brown's career (1860-1908) spanned one of the most tumultuous political periods in the South Pacific, as one by one islands were colonised by imperial nations. He was one of the most politically engaged of all missionaries, encouraging colonial rule in the Pacific by America, Britain, Germany and, eventually, Australia and New Zealand. Originally from the north of England, he worked as a missionary in Samoa from 1860, moving to the Bismarck Archipelago (now Papua New Guinea) in 1875. From the 1880s until his retirement in 1907, he worked in Sydney as the general secretary of the Australasian Methodist Overseas Mission. Gathering for God examines Brown's missionary letters, journals and journalism, exploring how he attracted Pacific Islanders to Christian teachings, analysing his leadership during an armed attack on New Britain villages accused of cannibalism, and looking at his work in the new discipline of anthropology. He was a major collector of artefacts (his collection is now in the Osaka Museum) and photographer of Pacific peoples (his collection is in the Australian Museum).

A review of Australian Siphonicytara Busk (Bryozoa : Cheilostomatida)

Until recently, species of the deep-water ascophoran genus Siphonicytara have been recorded from only two areas, nearly 10,000 km apart. Three species were known from the East Indies and one from the southwest Indian Ocean. A hitherto unrecognized species is now known from the southern-most Philippine region, and six new species have recently been described from New Caledonia. A further new species from relatively shallow water, S. occidentalis, is described here from Western Australia. Examination of fossil specimens from the Tertiary of Victoria and South Australia has shown that specimens attributed to Parina clypeata Waters have a close relationship with Siphonicytara, and the species is referred here to this genus, as is Mucronella airensis Maplestone. Another Tertiary species with a similar distribution, 'Eschara elevata' Waters not Tenison Woods, is assigned to Siphonicytara irregularis (Maplestone). The stratigraphic range for the family extends from the Late Eocene to Recent. Eschara elevata Tenison Woods sensu stricto is the type species of the genus Tubitrabecularia Bassler, and a discussion of the nature and status of this genus is included. A key to the species described is given.