Fructose containing sugars modulate mRNA of lipogenic genes ACC and FAS and protein levels of transcription factors ChREBP and SREBPIc with no effect on body weight or liver fat

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of high-glucose, high-fructose and high-sucrose diets on weight gain, liver lipid metabolism and gene expression of proteins involved with hepatic fat metabolism. Rats were fed a diet containing either 60% glucose, 60% fructose, 60% sucrose, or a standard chow for 28 days. Results indicated that high-fructose and high-sucrose diets were associated with higher mRNA levels of gene transcripts involved with fat synthesis; ACC, FAS and ChREBP, with no change in SREBP-1C mRNA. The protein level of ChREBP and SREBP1c was similar in liver homogenates from all groups, but were higher in nuclear fractions from the liver of high-fructose and high-sucrose fed rats. The mRNA level of gene transcripts involved with fat oxidation was the same in all three diets, whilst a high-fructose diet was associated with greater amount of mRNA of the fat transporter CD36. Despite the changes in mRNA of lipogenic proteins, the body weight of animals from each group was the same and the livers from rats fed high-fructose and high-sucrose diets did not contain more fat than control diet livers. In conclusion, changing the composition of the principal monosaccharide in the diet to a fructose containing sugar elicits changes in the level of hepatic mRNA of lipogenic and fat transport proteins and protein levels of their transcriptional regulators; however this is not associated with any changes in body weight or liver fat content.

Internet administration of three commonly used questionnaires in panic research : equivalence to paper administration in Australian and Swedish samples of people with panic disorder

This study assessed the degree of equivalence between paper and Internet administration of three measures of panic and agoraphobia-related cognition and behavior: Body Sensations Questionnaire (BSQ), Agoraphobic Cognitions Questionnaire (ACQ), and Mobility Inventory (MI). Participants were 110 people with panic disorder who had registered for an Internet-based treatment program in Sweden (n = 54) or Australia (n = 56). Participants were randomly assigned to complete the questionnaires via the differing administration formats in a counterbalanced order. Results showed broadly equivalent psychometric properties across administrations, with strong significant intraclass correlations between them, and comparable Cronbach's alpha coefficients. A significant mean difference between administration formats was found for the BSQ only. In contrast to previous research, Internet administration did not generate higher scores than paper administration. No effect was found for order of administration. The findings suggest that each questionnaire can be validly administered via the Internet and used with confidence.

An algorithm to median shortest path problem (MSPP) in the design of urban transportation networks

This paper proposes an efficient solution algorithm for realistic multi-objective median shortest path problems in the design of urban transportation networks. The proposed problem formulation and solution algorithm to median shortest path problem is based on three realistic objectives via route cost or investment cost, overall travel time of the entire network and total toll revenue. The proposed solution approach to the problem is based on the heuristic labeling and exhaustive search technique in criteria space and solution space of the algorithm respectively. The first labels each node in terms of route cost and deletes cyclic and infeasible paths in criteria space imposing cyclic break and route cost constraint respectively. The latter deletes dominated paths in terms of objectives vector in solution space in order to identify a set of Pareto optimal paths. The approach, thus, proposes a non-inferior solution set of Pareto optimal paths based on non-dominated objective vector and leaves the ultimate decision to decision-makers for purpose specific final decision during applications. A numerical experiment is conducted to test the proposed algorithm using artificial transportation network. Sensitivity analyses have shown that the proposed algorithm is advantageous and efficient over existing algorithms to find a set of Pareto optimal paths to median shortest paths problems.

The relationship between body dysmorphic disorder symptoms and self-construals

Background:  Cognitive models of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) suggest that beliefs and evaluations related to self-concept are central to the maintenance of the disorder, but such beliefs have received little empirical attention. This study examined the relative importance of contingent self-worth and self-ambivalence to BDD symptoms in comparison to their importance to obsessive–compulsive disorder and social phobia symptoms.

Method:  The sample comprised 194 non-clinical participants (female, N = 148; males, N = 46) with a mean age of 24.70 years (standard deviation = 9.34). Participants were asked to complete a battery of self-report questionnaires. Results:  While significant relationships were found between the self-beliefs and symptoms of all three disorders, some specificity was found in the relationships.

Conclusions:  Self-worth based upon appearance was most important in BDD, while contingent self-worth based on the approval of others was important in social phobia. Self-ambivalence was associated with each disorder. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Reasons for using web-based counselling among family and friends impacted by problem gambling

Despite the range of free services available in Australia, few family and friends of people with problem gambling access them. Over recent years, the Australian gambling help service system has expanded to include web-based counselling. Family and friends make up approximately 15% of people accessing this new modality, however little is known of the reasons for choosing this form of assistance over other interventions. This research aimed to understand the reasons family and friends choose to use single-session web-based counselling over other modes (i.e., face-to-face and telephone), as well as why they would recommend it to other affected people.

The study involved 63 participants (70% intimate partners, 13% children, 6% friends, 5% parents, 6% other family members) who completed openended questions on reasons for using and recommending web-based counselling, with over three-quarters of the sample seeking help for the first time.

A descriptive content analysis revealed multiple overlapping themes, including ease of access (41.3% of reasons for choosing), privacy and anonymity (17.5%), and a preference for the characteristics inherent in the therapeutic medium (23.8%). We also found webbased counselling provided a pathway into services (11.1%) and that the intervention provided was viewed as helpful and a reason for recommendation (34.9% of reasons for recommending).

This research provides important new information on the help seeking preferences of family and friends. Future research is required to understand the relationship between reasons for use, help-seeking preferences and the effectiveness of single-session web-based counselling for people affected by problem gambling.

Associations between psychological stress, eating, physical activity, sedentary behaviours and body weight among women: a longitudinal study

Background: 

Problem-based learning curricula in engineering

This chapter explores Problem-Based Learning (PBL) curricula in engineering in Australasian universities, in particular its effects on student approaches to learning in PBL teams. Exploring from the three view points: curriculum design and implementation; institutional support structures assisting the transition to PBL for both students and academics; and student learning experiences in PBL teams this chapter intends to close the loop for institutions and academics using PBL to educate future engineers. In particular, this chapter examines the design of engineering PBL courses or subjects within programs and the ways in which learning experiences are designed for students, the support structures that institutions put in place for both academics and students to transition to PBL, teacher practices and student experiences of learning both individually and as a team in PBL. It is argued that many engineering programs still undermine the need for designing learning experiences to help students achieve the desired learning outcomes; seldom consider the learning cultures adopted by PBL teams and how students engage in learning as individuals and as a team. This chapter argues the need for approaches to PBL that enhance student learning and experiences in engineering and the need for support structures that assist both students and academics in the transition to problem-based learning.

The Black Side of the Sun: Camus, Theology, and the Problem of Evil

Albert Camus is typically categorized as an atheistic thinker, in the same breath as Sartre. Yet there is a sizable, often sympathetic, theological response to his works, which deal at great length with Christian themes, wrestle with the problem of evil, and are animated by his own avowed desire — in strong contrast with Sartre and other existentialists — to preserve a sense of the sacred without belief in human immortality. This essay reconstructs three components of Camus’s rapport and disagreement with Christian theology, which he approached pre-eminently through the figure of Augustine, central to his early Diplome thesis. First, we recount the young Camus’s neopagan ‘‘religiosity’’ — a sense of the inhuman majesty and beauty of the natural world at the heart of what he termed (and later regretted terming) the ‘‘absurd,’’ and rooted in Camus’s own unitive experiences growing up amidst the sea, sand, and blazing sun of North Africa. Second, we look at Camus’s engagement with the problem of evil, which for Camus — as for many early modern thinkers such as Bayle or Voltaire — represented the decisive immanent tension in later medieval theology, vindicating — in ethical terms — the modern rebellions against altar, pulpit, and throne. The essay closes by rebutting the charge, strongly argued recently by Ronald Srigley, that Camus was (both) anti-modern because anti-Christian. Camus’s aim, we propose, was instead to bring together a neopagan sense of the wonder of the natural world and our participation in it, with the egalitarian components of Christian ethics, severed from secularized eschatological content.

PhD crisis discourse: a critical approach to the framing of the problem and some Australian ‘solutions’

A feature of HE reform discourse is the tendency to construct the rationale for reform in terms of averting calamity and risk. We refer to this risk talk as ‘crisis discourse’. This study examines the formulation of PhD crisis discourse internationally and in Australia. We find that a key feature of PhD crisis discourse is that universities are producing too many graduates for too few academic jobs; and graduates lack skills that enable them to be productive in jobs outside academia. In Australia, the discourse has shifted from one dominated by efficiency concerns from the late 1990s to the present focus on graduate skills and employability. The policy solution to the efficiency crisis in the Australian PhD resulted in system-wide changes in research training funding focused on increased efficiency. The current unemployability discourse has as yet prompted isolated institutional responses, the introduction of new PhD programs or re-badging existing offerings as pro-skills development offerings. Following an examination of three Australian institutional responses, we conclude that the crisis discourse signals tensions surrounding the PhD: should achievement in doctoral education be measured by outcomes in intellectual excellence or the responsiveness of qualification to the current needs and priorities of society?