Constipation and diet in a community sample of older Australians

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of constipation and laxative use in a sample of people 65 years and over and examine relationships between usual diet and constipation.
Design: A mailed survey using validated instruments to measure bowel habit and laxative use with follow-up interviews to collect dietary data.
Subjects and setting: Three hundred and thirty people aged 65 years and over living at home in Melbourne were randomly selected from the electoral roll of a federal electorate.
Statistical analysis: Descriptive statistics, frequencies and two sample t-tests were used.
Results: Seventy-nine people responded to the mailed bowel survey and 61 were interviewed to collect food intake data. The proportion of constipated people was approximately one quarter (n = 18). Laxative use in the previous 12 months was reported by a fifth of respondents and in these subjects one in four was not constipated. Analysis of the dietary data revealed that the average number of cereal and vegetable serves consumed per day was similar to the national average but less than recommended by nutrition bodies although fruit intake met these recommendations. Constipated subjects consumed fewer serves from the cereals food group than those who were not constipated (2.9 and 3.5 serves respectively, P = 0.03).
Conclusion: Constipation and laxative use appears to be as common in older Australians as in similar populations overseas. Low intake of cereal foods may be a contributing factor.

The unhallowed art : literature and literary fakes in Australia

The fiction of Peter Carey is peopled by the unhallowed; by ghosts and the ghostly. In Bliss (1981), Carey presents us with the Dantesque trials of an advertising executive after he has a heart attack on his front lawn. In The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith (1994), phantom nations are inhabited by simulacra. In True History of the Kelly Gang (2001), a dead bushranger talks. Carey's My Life as a Fake (2003), the subject of this essay, gives us an apotheosis of this literary habit of bringing the unliving to life. It presents us with the flesh-and-blood, machete-wielding, gladiatorial figure of Bob McCorkle, a poet created as a literary hoax.

Youth publications, generation Y and hopes for the future of newspapers

If readership projections are correct, newspapers in the United States will become niche players by 2010. That is, in about half a decade fewer than half of American adults will read a daily newspaper. This will produce major problems in attracting advertising, the lifeblood of the newspaper business. The biggest decline in readership has occurred among Generation Y - people born between 1977 and 1995. They do not read newspapers to the extent their parents did. They get their news elsewhere, mainly online. As part of a process to attract readers, many of America's major publishers launched a series of youth-focused newspapers in the 18 months to March 2004. The aim was to try to get the elusive 18-24-year-old demographic into the habit of daily reading, hoping that over time they would migrate to more traditional outlets. This paper explores the background to these youth-focused publications, describes the main players and issues involved, and provides a case study of a youth-focused pioneer, the Tribune Company s Red Eye, which is published in Chicago.

Post-migration food habits of sub-Saharan migrants in Victoria: a cross-sectional study

Objective: (i) To describe sub-Saharan African (SSA) post-migration food habits and eating patterns; and (ii) to examine how the food habits of SSA households in Victoria reflect post-migration acculturation.
Design: A cross-sectional survey using a snowball sampling technique. Data on food habits and eating patterns were obtained using semi-structured, face-to-face interviews from November 2001 to April 2002.
Subjects: A total of 139 households of demographically diverse recent migrants from across sub-Saharan Africa.
Setting: Melbourne metropolitan and Melbourne fringes.
Analysis: Data were summarised using descriptive statistics.
Results: SSA migrants and refugees indicated dietary acculturation characterised by three processes: substitution, supplementation and modification of recipes. They experienced difficulty locating their traditional foods, in particular, African vegetables (34.2%), unprocessed maize meal (29.1%), camel milk (23.1%) and maize grain (13.7%). The new foods adopted since arrival were pizza, breakfast cereals and fast foods, but also included new fruits and vegetables. Takeaway food such as Pizza Hut or McDonalds featured prominently in the SSA post-migration diet. Reasons for eating out were favourite food (48.3%), routine family outing (38.3%), special occasion (33.3%) and no time to cook (25%). A significant change in meal pattern was the inclusion of breakfast, although 21% reported skipping breakfast.
Conclusion: Many of the observed dietary changes were not consistent with good health and may predispose this population to rapid weight gain and chronic disease. Rapid modernisation and the Anglo-Australian culture interact in a complex way with traditional eating and socialisation practices of SSA migrants. Understanding these forces can allow effective health promotion and community development strategies to be developed for the future health of SSA migrants and their communities.

CIDB: Chlamydia Interactive Database for cross-querying genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics data

Chlamydiae are important pathogens of humans, birds and a wide range of animals. They are a unique group of bacteria, characterized by their developmental cycle. Chlamydia has been difficult to study because of their obligate intracellular growth habit and lack of a genetic transformation system. However, the past 5 years has seen the full genome sequencing of seven strains of Chlamydia and a rapid expansion of genomic, transcriptomic (RT-PCR, microarray) and proteomic analysis of these pathogens. The Chlamydia Interactive Database (CIDB) described here is the first database of its type that holds genomic, RT-PCR, microarray and proteomics data sets that can be cross-queried by researchers for patterns in the data. Combining the data of many research groups into a single database and cross-querying from different perspectives should enhance our understanding of the complex cell biology of these pathogens. The database is available at: http://www3.it.deakin.edu.au:8080/CIDB/.

Post-extinction brachiopod faunas from the late Permian Wuchiapingian coal series of South China

This paper describes fourteen brachiopod species in eleven genera from the Late Permian Wuchiapingian Coal Series (Lungtan Formation) of South China. Of these, the shell bed fauna from the basal Lungtan Formation is interpreted to represent the onset of the recovery of shelly faunas in the aftermath of the Guadalupian/Lopingian (G/L) mass extinction in South China. The post-extinction brachiopod faunas in the Wuchiapingian are characterized by the presence of numerous Lazarus taxa, survivors, and newly originating taxa. These elements capable of adapting their life habits were relatively more resistant to the G/L crisis. The post-extinction faunas, including survivors and the elements originating in the recovery period, have no life habit preference, but they were all adapted to a variety of newly vacated niches in the Late Permian oceans. Two new species, Meekella beipeiensis and Niutoushania chongqingensis, are described, and two Chinese genera, Niutoushania and Chengxianoproductus, are emended based on re-examination of the type specimens and new topotype materials from the Lungtan Formation.

Association between obesity and diabetes using nested linear models

A data source with 7260 cases from the prospective observational study was used. Cases included both sexes and age ranging between 20yr and 7Oyr. Chi-squared tests and linear models were used to examine the effects of age (linear and quadratic), sex, smoking habit (currently a smoker or non-smoker), presence or absence of type 2 diabetes on obesity as measured by body mass index (BMI) and waist to hip ratio (WHR). Both these measures of
obesity were significantly affected by age, sex and the presence of diabetes. Cases with diabetes were significantly more obese (10%) between the ages 40yr to 59yr compared to patients without diabetes. These results accentuate the need to further examine the association between age, diabetes and obesity and other risk factors with cardiovascular diseases.

Banding and radio-tracking juvenile powerful owls in Melbourne, Victoria : trials and tribulations

The Powerful Owl (Ninox strenua) is Australia's largest owl. Considering their large size they are a very cryptic species, with limited sexual dimorphism, silent fight and a highly camouflaged presence amongst secluded canopy vegetation. These features enable Powerful Owl presence to often go unnoticed and even for the trained eye, extremely difficult to study. Our research has focused on monitoring the behaviour of individual Powerful Owls in urban Melbourne, Australia.
The leg banding of Powerful Owls is a somewhat contentious issue in Australia and here we report on the suitability of different types of legs bands placed on the tarsus of juvenile Powerful Owls. There has been some debate over the band size that should be used and the consequent effects bands may pose for the owls as they mature. We also investigate the usefulness of bands as a technique to identify Powerful Owls once they have dispersed from the natal territory.
Radio-tracking juvenile Powerful Owls was also undertaken during this study, primarily to determine individual behaviour from post fledging until dispersal. This is the first study in Australia to attempt radio-tracking juvenile Powerful Owls and the results from this research highlight behavioural characteristics, mortality rates post fledging and dispersal movements for the twelve months post fledging.
Overall we found that aluminium legs bands are a useful tool for individual identification of juvenile Powerful Owls post fledgling, however, their presence is somewhat difficult to determine on mature adults as the tarsus feathers tend to cover the band and make vision from the ground difficult. Aluminium leg bands are also useful as an identification tool for deceased birds. Leather leg bands are more suitable than aluminium bands when attaching radio-transmitters as these provide more flexibility and can be removed by the owl if they become irritating.
Radio-tracking juvenile Powerful Owls provided invaluable information relating to juvenile behaviour and movements, showing that juveniles actually remain in territories adjacent to their natal territory for the twelve months post fledging. This information is vital for the successful conservation of this species, particularly in relation to habitat conservation and home-range modelling.

Public relations, sophistry and the rhetoric of democracy

The intention of this paper is to explain the activities of public relations in terms of rhetorical theory and the history of sophistry. There is a burgeoning field of study in the US which is incorporating much cultural and communication theory into both historical and contemporary perspectives on these two ancient arts. Consequently, an examination of the purposive communication activities of public relations offers an opportunity to involve semiotics as a central concept for analysing the creation and maintenance of democratic thought and institutions. This paper highlights Peircean semiotics in this respect and suggests the relevance of Peirce's notion of the 'Pragmatic Maxim' and his use of the concept of 'habit' in terms of how public relations might be said to 'cast' the quality of the democracy which we experience.

The role of wild birds in the transmission of avian influenza for Australia : an ecological perspective

Waterbirds, particularly Anatidae, are natural reservoirs for low-pathogenic avian influenza and have been implicated as the primary source of infection in outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza. An understanding of the movements of birds and the ecology of avian influenza viruses within the wild bird population is essential in assessing the risks to human health and production industries. Marked differences in the movements of Australian birds from those of the Northern Hemisphere emphasises the danger of generalising trends of disease prevalence to Australian conditions. Populations of Anatidae in Australia are not migratory, as they are in the Northern Hemisphere, but rather display typical nomadic traits, sometimes moving large distances across continental Australia in response to flooding or drought. There is little known regular interchange of anatids between Australia and Asia. In contrast, species such as shorebirds and some seabirds are annual migrants to Australia along recognised flyways from breeding grounds in the Northern Hemisphere. Movement into Australia by these species mainly occurs into the north-west and along the east coast over the Pacific Ocean. These species primarily arrive during the Australian spring and form large aggregations along the coastline and on inland wetlands. Other Australian migratory species (passerines, bee-eaters, dollar-birds, cuckoos, doves) regularly move to and from Asia through the Torres Strait Islands. The disease status of these birds is unknown. The movements of some species, particularly anatids and ardeids, which have ranges including Australia and regions where the virus is known to occur, have been poorly studied and there is potential for introduction of avian influenza subtypes via this route. Avian influenza viruses are highly unpredictable and can undergo reassortment to more pathogenic forms. There is insufficient knowledge of the epidemiology and transmission of these viruses in Australia and broad-scale surveillance of wild birds is logistically difficult. Long-term studies of anatids that co-habit with Charadriiformes are recommended. This would provide an indication of the spatial and temporal patterns of subtypes entering Australia and improve our understanding of the ecology of endemic viruses. Until such time as these data become available, Australia's preparedness for avian influenza must focus on biosecurity at the wild bird–poultry interface.

Ultraviolet cues affect the foraging behaviour of blue tits

The function of avian ultraviolet (UV) vision is only just beginning to be understood. One plausible hypothesis is that UV vision enhances the foraging ability of birds. To test this, we carried out behavioural experiments using wild-caught blue tits foraging for cabbage moth and winter moth caterpillars on natural and artificial backgrounds. The light environment in our experiments was manipulated using either UV-blocking or UV-transmitting filters. We found that the blue tits tended to find the first prey item (out of four) more quickly when UV cues were present. This suggests that UV vision offers benefits to birds when searching for cryptic prey despite the prey and backgrounds reflecting relatively little UV Although there was no direct effect of UV on the time taken to find all four prey items in a trial, search performance in the absence of UV wavelengths tended to increase over the course of an experiment. This may reflect changes in the search tactics of the birds. To our knowledge, these are the first data to suggest that birds use UV cues to detect cryptic insect prey and have implications for our understanding of protective coloration.

Ecology of meiofauna in a temperate mangrove ecosystem in south-eastern Australia

The meiofauna of a mangrove forest in the River Barwon estuary was studied by means of surveys and field experiments. Distinctive assemblages of meiofauna were described from the sediment and pneumatophores of the ecosystem. Fine resolution of phytal habitats was demonstrated, and particular assemblages of meiofauna were characteristic within habitat provided by dominant epibionts. Distribution of the meiofauna within leaf litter revealed high turnover rates of nematodes, and some factors controlling detrital assemblages were assessed. The vertical profile of sedimentary meiofauna was examined, and changes in abundance were related to the tychopelagic habit of many taxa at high tide. Dispersal within the water column was confirmed by pelagic trapping, and colonisation of mimic pneumatophores was investigated. The amount of algal cover, effects of grazing by gastropods, and rugosity of the colonised surface were shown to influence meiofauna colonisation of mimic pneumatophores. Establishment and persistence of patchy distributions of meiofauna at scales of less than 10 m in an intertidal environment was demonstrated, and it was concluded that this was due to the dynamic nature of assemblages rather than their integrity.

Unusual corrugated nanowires of zinc oxide

We report an previous termunusualnext term morphology of ZnO previous termnanowiresnext term with a hexagonal cross-section and previous termcorrugatednext term side walls. previous termNanowiresnext term grow along the [0 0 0 1] direction and possess side walls built predominantly with facets of {1 0 1¯ 1} and {1 0 1¯ 1¯} families. Such a morphology deviates dramatically from the well-known growth habit of ZnO previous termnanowiresnext term that involves smooth side walls represented by {1 0 1¯ 0} or {1 1 2¯ 0} facets with the lowest surface energy. The formation of previous termcorrugated nanowiresnext term is attributed to the lateral growth activated by the high vapor supersaturation and the presence of stacking faults.

Molecular systematics of the Australian freshwater shrimp, Paratya australiensis

Molecular genetic date was used to test the taxonomic hypothesis of a single species of the freshwater shrimp, Paratya australiensis. While the results identified significant cryptic diversity, clear species boundaries could not be defined. The results of this study defy a simple taxonomic conclusion but are suggestive of incipient speciation.

Parental and home influences on adolescents' TV viewing : a mediation analysis

Objective. To explore the association between home environmental variables and television (TV) time, and the mediating pathways underlying this association.

Methods. The current study used data from the longitudinal ENDORSE study. Self-reported data was available for 1 265 adolescents (mean age of 12–15 years at baseline) on home environment (availability of a TV in the bedroom, perceived parental modelling, family rules), potential mediators (intention, attitude, perceived behavioural control, subjective norm towards TV viewing) and TV viewing time. Mediation analyses were conducted using General Estimating Equations and mediation effects were calculated as the product-of-coefficients.

Results. Significant overall positive associations were found for the presence of a TV in the bedroom and parental modelling with self-reported TV viewing. Controlling family rules showed an inverse association with reported TV time. Similarly, parental modelling and a TV in the bedroom were significantly positively associated with the Theory of Planned Behaviour variables and habit strength, while family rules showed an inverse association with these potential mediators. In turn, most potential mediators were positively associated with TV viewing. Intention, attitude and habit strength were the strongest mediators in all three associations explaining more than 55% of the overall association. Habit strength alone explained 38.2%–58.0% of the overall associations.

Conclusions. Home and family environmental predictors of TV time among adolescents may be strongly mediated by habit strength and other personal factors. Future intervention studies should explore if changes in home and family environments indeed lead to reductions in TV time through these mediators.