Needle and syringe provision and disposal in an Australian regional centre

The aim of this study was to investigate the provision and disposal of needles and syringes in Geelong, Victoria, supplying a comparison of needles provided to needles returned through needle and syringe programmes (NSPs), needles disposed of in 'Sharpsafe' bins and needles discarded. This study combined quantitative data obtained from a number of sources and qualitative data obtained from 60 interviews. An average of 18,337 (SD = 2796) per month were dispensed from NSPs and an average of 5576 needles are returned to NSP sites in Geelong per month. For the current year, 450 needles and syringes per month were placed in publicly located disposal bins. On average there were 19 callouts to discarded needles per month in the Geelong region and these needles constituted 0.38% of the monthly average of needles provided through NSPs. It was concluded that, while discarded needles are of major community concern, the vast majority of needles and syringes provided in this regional centre are not discarded. Findings are discussed in relation to the current laws surrounding the possession of injecting equipment.

Copper-transporting P-Type ATPase, ATP7A, confers multidrug resistance and its expression is related to resistance to SN-38 in clinical colon cancer

We and others have shown that the copper transporters ATP7A and ATP7B play a role in cellular resistance to cisdiaminedichloroplatinum (II) (CDDP).  In this study, we found that ATP7A transfection of Chinese hamster ovary  cells (CHOK1) and fibroblasts isolated from Menkes disease patients  enhanced resistance not only to CDDP but also to various anticancer drugs, such as vincristine, paclitaxel, 7-ethyl-10- hydroxy-camptothecin (SN-38),  etoposide, doxorubicin, mitoxantron, and 7-ethyl-10-[4-(1-piperidino)-1-piperidino] carbonyloxycamptothecin (CPT-11). ATP7A preferentially localized
doxorubicin fluorescence to the Golgi apparatus in contrast to the more intense nuclear staining of doxorubicin in the parental cells. Brefeldin A   partially and monensin completely altered the distribution of doxorubicin to the nuclei in the ATP7A-expressing cells. ATP7A expression also enhanced the efflux rates of doxorubicin and SN-38 from cells and increased the uptake of SN-38 in membrane vesicles. These findings strongly suggested that   ATP7A confers multidrug resistance to the cells by compartmentalizing drugs in the Golgi apparatus and by enhancing efflux of these drugs, and the trans-Golgi network has an important role of ATP7A-related drug resistance. ATP7A was expressed in 8 of 34 (23.5%) clinical colon cancer specimens but not in the adjacent normal epithelium. Using the histoculture drug response assay that is useful for the prediction of drug sensitivity of clinical cancers, ATP7A-expressing colon cancer cells were significantly more  resistant to SN-38 than ATP7Anegative cells. Thus, ATP7A confers  resistance to various anticancer agents on cancer cells and might be a good index of drug resistance in clinical colon cancers.

Simultaneous determination of irinotecan (CPT-11) and SN-38 in tissue culture media and cancer cells by high performance liquid chromatography: Application to cellular metabolism and accumulation studies

A simple and sensitive HPLC method was developed to simultaneously determine CPT-11 and its major metabolite SN-38 in culture media and cell lysates. Camptothecin (CPT) was used as internal standard (I.S.). Compounds were eluted with acetonitrile–50 mM disodium hydrogen phosphate buffer containing 10 mM sodium 1-heptane-sulfonate, with the pH adjusted to 3.0 using 85% (w/v) orthophosphoric acid (27/73, v/v) by a Hyperclon ODS (C18) column (200 mm × 4.6 mm i.d.), with detection at excitation and emission wavelengths of 380 and 540 nm, respectively. The average extraction efficiencies were 96.9–108.3% for CPT-11 in culture media and 94.3–107.2% for CPT-11 in cell lysates; and 87.7–106.8% for SN-38 in culture media and 90.1–105.6% for SN-38 in cell lysates. Within- and between-day precision and accuracy varied from 0.1 to 10.3%. The limit of quantitation (precision and accuracy <20%) was 5.0 and 2.0 ng/ml for CPT-11 and 1.0 and 0.5 ng/ml for SN-38 in culture media and cell lysates, respectively. This method was successfully applied to quantitate the cellular accumulation and metabolism of CPT-11 and SN-38 in H4-II-E, a rat hepatoma cell line.

Simultaneous determination of the lactone and carboxylate forms of irintecan (CPT-11) and its actie metabolite SN-38 by high-performance liquid chromatography: Application to plasma pharmacokinetic studies in the rat.

Irinotecan (CPT-11) and its main metabolite SN-38 are potent anticancer derivatives of camptothecin (CPT), with active lactone and inactive carboxylate forms coexisting. A simple and sensitive HPLC method using the ion-pairing reagent tetrabutylammonium hydrogen sulfate (TBAHS) was developed to simultaneously determine all four analytes in rat plasma samples. Camptothecin (CPT) was used as internal standard. The mobile phase was 0.1 M potassium dihydrogen phosphate containing 0.01 M TBAHS (pH 6.4)–acetonitrile (75:25, v/v). Separation of the compounds was carried out on a Hypersil C18 column, monitored at 540 nm (excitation wavelength at 380 nm). All four compounds gave linear response as a function of concentration over 0.01–10 μM. The limit of quantitation in rat plasma was 0.01, 0.008, 0.005 and 0.005 μM for CPT-11 lactone, CPT-11 carboxylate, SN-38 lactone and SN-38 carboxylate, respectively. The method was successfully used in the study on the effect of coadministered thalidomide on the plasma pharmacokinetics of CPT-11 and SN-38 in rats. Coadministered thalidomide (100 mg/kg body weight by intraperitoneal injection) significantly increased the AUC_0–10h values of CPT-11 lactone and CPT-11 carboxylate by 32.6% and 30.3 %, respectively, (P < 0.01), but decreased the values by 19.2% and 32.4% for SN-38 lactone and carboxylate, respectively, (P < 0.05). Accordingly, the value of total body clearance (CL) of CPT-11 lactone was significantly lower in combination group compared to the control (1.329 versus 1.837 L/h/kg, P = 0.0002). Plasma t_1/2β values for SN-38 lactone and carboxylate were significantly (P < 0.01) smaller in rats with coadministered thalidomide, as compared to rats receiving CPT-11 alone. Further studies are needed to explore the underlying mechanisms for the observed kinetic interaction between CPT-11 and thalidomide.

Client identification and money laundering control : perspectives on the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001

The Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 (FICA) compels certain persons and institutions (defined as "accountable institutions'') to identify and verify the identity of a new client before any transaction may be concluded or any business relationship is established.1 Accountable institutions are listed in schedule ¹ to FICA and include banks, brokers, financial advisers, insurance companies, attorneys and estate agents. This duty to identify new clients came into effect on 30 June 2003. However, FICA also requires a similar procedure to be followed in respect of all current clients. Current clients are those with whom an accountable institution had business relationships on 30 June 2003.² After 30 June 2004 an institution may not conclude a transaction in the course of its business relationship with an unidentified current client, until it has established and verified that client's identity as prescribed. An institution that concludes any transaction in contravention of this prohibition, commits an offence and is liable to a fine not exceeding R10 million or to imprisonment of up to 15 years.³

The majority of accountable institutions and their clients failed to meet the June 2004 current client identification deadline.4 This failure posed serious economic and legal risks. With a few days to spare, the minister of finance granted a partial and temporary exemption in respect of these requirements. This article explores the statutory scheme for identification and re-identification of clients and some of the practical problems that were encountered. The June 2004 exemptions from these requirements are also considered and proposals for law reform are made.

The discussion of the FICA identification scheme necessitates the following brief overview of the international and South African money laundering control framework.

1 s 21(1) of FICA.
2 s 21(2) of FICA. See also s 82(2)(b).
3 s 46(2) of FICA read with s 68(1) of FICA.

Editorial : In Australian Journal of Communication, v.38 n.3

Edition of journal guest-edited by Martin Hirst (Deakin), Wayne Hope and Alan Cocker (AUT UNiversity). Papers collected from conference organised by Centre for Journalism, Media & Democracy (JMAD). Ten of the eleven articles here were originally presented to the Political Economy of Communication conference held at the Auckland University of Technology in September 2011. This international event was organised by Journalism, Media and Democracy (JMAD), a research centre co-founded by Martin Hirst and Wayne Hope in May 2010. The founding objectives were to foster individual research projects for members; develop opportunities for collaborative, funded research projects; and arrange interdisciplinary media conferences. In September 2010, JMAD launched an inaugural one-day conference: Media, Democracy and the Public Sphere. The success of this undertaking
encouraged the centre to plan for a second, two-day conference in 2011. The invited keynote speakers, Professors Graham Murdock, Dwayne Winseck, and Janet Wasko were, and are, distinguished scholars in the political economy of communication.
They have also given identity and purpose to their field within the annual International
Association of Communication Research (IAMCR) conference, which includes a longstanding political economy of communication section. Contributors to this section are featured in the book reviewed for this issue, Wasko, J., Murdock, G., & Sousa, H. (2011). The handbook of political economy of communications.

Corrigendum to “Least squares learning and the US treasury bill rate” [Econ. Syst. 38 (2014) 194–204]

Understanding how agents formulate their expectations about Fed behavior is important for market participants because they can potentially use this information to make more accurate estimates of stock and bond prices. Although it is commonly assumed that agents learn over time, there is scant empirical evidence in support of this assumption. Thus, in this paper we test if the forecast of the three month T-bill rate in the Survey of Professional Forecasters (SPF) is consistent with least squares learning when there are discrete shifts in monetary policy. We first derive the mean, variance and autocovariances of the forecast errors from a recursive least squares learning algorithm when there are breaks in the structure of the model. We then apply the Bai and Perron (1998) test for structural change to a forecasting model for the three month T-bill rate in order to identify changes in monetary policy. Having identified the policy regimes, we then estimate the implied biases in the interest rate forecasts within each regime. We find that when the forecast errors from the SPF are corrected for the biases due to shifts in policy, the forecasts are consistent with least squares learning.