Establishing reference values for central blood pressure and its amplification in a general healthy population and according to cardiovascular risk factors

AIMS: Estimated central systolic blood pressure (cSBP) and amplification (Brachial SBP-cSBP) are non-invasive measures potentially prognostic of cardiovascular (CV) disease. No worldwide, multiple-device reference values are available. We aimed to establish reference values for a worldwide general population standardizing between the different available methods of measurement. How these values were significantly altered by cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs) was then investigated. METHODS AND RESULTS: Existing data from population surveys and clinical trials were combined, whether published or not. Reference values of cSBP and amplification were calculated as percentiles for 'Normal' (no CVRFs) and 'Reference' (any CVRFs) populations. We included 45,436 subjects out of 82,930 that were gathered from 77 studies of 53 centres. Included subjects were apparently healthy, not treated for hypertension or dyslipidaemia, and free from overt CV disease and diabetes. Values of cSBP and amplification were stratified by brachial blood pressure categories and age decade in turn, both being stratified by sex. Amplification decreased with age and more so in males than in females. Sex was the most powerful factor associated with amplification with 6.6 mmHg (5.8-7.4) higher amplification in males than in females. Amplification was marginally but significantly influenced by CVRFs, with smoking and dyslipidaemia decreasing amplification, but increased with increasing levels of blood glucose. CONCLUSION: Typical values of cSBP and amplification in a healthy population and a population free of traditional CVRFs are now available according to age, sex, and brachial BP, providing values included from different devices with a wide geographical representation. Amplification is significantly influenced by CVRFs, but differently in men and women.

A comparative analysis of personal values of international postgraduate students from Asia studying in Australian universities: a cross cultural study

The rising expectations of university students with regard to quality, service and value for money, and the growing diversity of student populations have challenged universities to become increasingly student focused. Marketing theory suggests that a clear understanding of customer needs and expectations is central to being customer focused and to facilitate targeting of products and services to appropriate segments. The process requires the marketer to have insights into the cultural backgrounds of customers where the study of personal values becomes a critical component in understanding consumer needs and preferences. The results of this study indicate that personal values are useful in explaining differences amongst the student cohorts with regard to age, gender and nationality. Recommendations are made with regard to developing the educational product for the international student, based on underlying value domains of Self-efficacy and Hedonism.

History of contact and change in the Goroka Valley, Central Highlands of New Guinea, 1934-1949

The thesis traces the interaction of the Goroka Valley people with European and coastal New Guinean intruders during the pacification stage of contact and change. In this 15 year period the people moved from a traditional subsistence culture to the threshold of a modern, European-influenced technological society. The contact experiences of the inhabitants of the Valley and the outsiders who influenced them are examined, using both oral and documentary sources. A central theme of this study is the attempts by Europeans and their coastal New Guinean collaborators to achieve the pacification of a people for whom warfare has been described as 'the dominant orientation'. The newcomers saw pacification as being inextricably linked with social, economic and religious transformation, and consequently it was pursued by patrol officers, missionaries and soldiers alike. Following an introductory chapter outlining the pre-contact and early-contact history of the Goroka Valley people, there is a discussion of the causes of tribal fighting in Highlands communities and two case studies of violent events which, although occurring beyond the Goroka Valley, had important consequences for those who lived within its bounds. The focus then shifts to the first permanent settlement of the agents of change -initially these were coastal New Guinean evangelists and policemen - and their impact on the local people. A period of consolidation is then described, as both government and missions established a permanent 'European presence in the Valley'. This period was characterised by vigorous pacification coupled with the introduction of innovations in health and education, agriculture, technology, law and religion. The gradual transformation of Goroka Valley society as a result of the people's interaction with the newcomers was abruptly accelerated in 1943, when many hundreds of Allied soldiers occupied the Valley in anticipation of a threatened Japanese invasion. Village life was disrupted as men were conscripted as carriers and labourers and whole communities were obliged to grow food to assist the Allied war effort. Those living close to military airfields-and camps were subject to Japanese aerial attacks and the entire population was exposed to an epidemic of bacillary dysentery introduced by the combatants. However the War also brought some positive effects, including paradoxically, the almost total cessation of tribal fighting, the construction of an ail-weather airstrip at Goroka which ensured its future as a town and administrative and commercial centre, and the compulsory growing of vegetables, coffee, etc, which laid the foundations for a cash economy and material prosperity. The final chapter examines the aftermath of military occupation, the return of civil administration and the implementation of social and economic policies which brought the Goroka Valley people into the rapid-development phase of contact. By 1949 Gorokans were ready to channel their aggressive energies into commercial competitiveness and adopt a cash-crop economy, to accept the European rule of law, to take advantage of Western innovations in medicine, education, transport and communications, to seek employment opportunities at home and in other parts of the country and to modify their primal world view with European religious and secular values. A Stone Age people was in process of being transformed into a modern society.

Values in science, environmental education and teacher education

The aim of this chapter is to establish values as a key component of science and environmental education, consistent with the troika framework, and to explore the implications of this for teacher education. In the chapter, we review research that has increasingly placed values at the centre of the process of learning science, and central also in framing students' responses to school science. We then present findings from three projects that explore the relationship of values to teaching and learning science: first, an exploration of the pedagogies of effective teachers of science; second,an environmental education project in which students explore science and sustainability ideas in the context of a community exchange program in Mexico and Alaska; and, third, a teachcr education initiative focused on place-based education. In the chapter, we argue that learning science and engaging with the environment entails pedagogies that link conceptual learning, values and community.

The role of personal values in enhancing student experience and satisfaction among international postgraduate students : an exploratory study

Problem Statement: Universities are faced with the challenging task of educating an increasingly diverse and mobile student community. An understanding of the backgrounds of students and their expectations is central to ensure effective delivery of educational and support services to enhance student experience and satisfaction. The study of student personal values is able to provide better understanding of student demands and aspirations and to assist universities to target educational and support services to meet the differential needs of students.

Purpose of Study: To examine the differences in personal values among Asian international postgraduate students studying in Australian universities and to discuss the strategic implications of these differences in relation to enhancing student experience and satisfaction.

Research Methods: Data collected from a sample of 371 postgraduate students from China, India, Indonesia and Thailand studying in five universities in Victoria, Australia. Personal values were measured using Kahle’s (1983) List Of Values (LOV). Factor analysis was undertaken to determine the underlying personal value domains and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to analyse the relationship of the value constructs to student satisfaction. ANOVA and MANOVA tests employed to examine the differences of personal values between the nationalities, gender and age.

Findings: Factor Analysis resulted in a two factor solution and labelled as Self-efficacy and Hedonism which explained 73.5 percent of the variance. MANOVA and ANOVA results indicated significant differences (.001) across the values constructs of Self-efficacy and Hedonism and the individual variables between nationalities, gender and age.

SEM results indicated a link between student satisfaction and the value domains of Self-efficacy and Hedonism.

Conclusions: The study highlighed the opportunities for universities to recognise that Asia is a differentiated market place and the development of segmented approach in designing educational programs as part of the strategy to enhance student experience and satisfaction. The inclusion of cultural aspects in educational programs, promotional material that fits in with different cultural backgrounds of students, self-paced learning approaches, promotion of cross cultural understanding among university staff are among the recommended strategies.

Marine protected areas of the central Victoria bioregion

Along Victoria’s coastline there are 30 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that have been established to protect the state’s significant marine environmental and cultural values. These MPAs include 13 Marine National Parks (MNPs), 11 Marine Sanctuaries (MSs), 3 Marine and Coastal Parks, 2 Marine Parks, and a Marine Reserve, and together these account for 11.7% of the Victorian marine environment. The highly protected Marine National Park System, which is made up of the MNPs and MSs, covers 5.3% of Victorian waters and was proclaimed in November 2002. This system has been designed to be representative of the diversity of Victoria’s marine environment and aims to conserve and protect ecological processes, habitats, and associated flora and fauna. The Marine National Park System is spread across Victoria’s five marine bioregions with multiple MNPs and MSs in each bioregion, with the exception of Flinders bioregion which has one MNP. All MNPs and MSs are “no-take” areas and are managed under the National Parks Act (1975) - Schedules 7 and 8 respectively.

This report updates the first Marine Natural Values Study (Plummer et al. 2003) for the MPAs in the Central Victoria bioregion on the central coast of Victoria and is one of a series of five reports covering Victoria’s Marine National Park System. It uses the numerous monitoring and research programs that have increased our knowledge since declaration and aims to give a comprehensive overview of the important natural values of each MNP and MS.

Visual sensitivity loss in the central 30° of visual field is associated with diabetic peripheral neuropathy

Aims/hypothesis
Impaired central vision has been shown to predict diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). Several studies have demonstrated diffuse retinal neurodegenerative changes in diabetic patients prior to retinopathy development, raising the prospect that non-central vision may also be compromised by primary neural damage. We hypothesise that type 2 diabetic patients with DPN exhibit visual sensitivity loss in a distinctive pattern across the visual field, compared with a control group of type 2 diabetic patients without DPN.

Methods
Increment light sensitivity was measured by standard perimetry in the central 30° of visual field for two age-matched groups of type 2 diabetic patients, with and without neuropathy (n = 40/30). Neuropathy status was assigned using the neuropathy disability score. Mean visual sensitivity values were calculated globally, for each quadrant and for three eccentricities (0–10°, 11–20° and 21–30°). Data were analysed using a generalised additive mixed model (GAMM).

Results
Global and quadrant between-group visual sensitivity mean differences were marginally but consistently lower (by about 1 dB) in the neuropathy cohort compared with controls. Between-group mean differences increased from 0.36 to 1.81 dB with increasing eccentricity. GAMM analysis, after adjustment for age, showed these differences to be significant beyond 15° eccentricity and monotonically increasing. Retinopathy levels and disease duration were not significant factors within the model (p = 0.90).

Conclusions/interpretation
Visual sensitivity reduces disproportionately with increasing eccentricity in type 2 diabetic patients with peripheral neuropathy. This sensitivity reduction within the central 30° of visual field may be indicative of more consequential loss in the far periphery.

Comparison of interpolation and central activation ratios as measures of muscle inactivation

The objective of this study was to investigate different methods of estimating muscle inactivation, derived from single and multiple voluntary contractions. Ten subjects performed maximal and submaximal leg extensor contractions to determine an interpolation (IT) or central activation ratio (CAR). A superimposed evoked force was compared with the force output of either a voluntary (CAR) or resting evoked contraction (IT ratio), or the ratios were inserted into regression equations (linear, polynomial, exponential). Linear-regression estimates of CAR using doublets and tetanus provided physiologically inaccurate values. Whereas IT ratios using doublets (IT-doublet) and tetanus (IT-tetanus) had a significant difference in only one interaction, IT-tetanus and CAR using a tetanus (CAR-tetanus) estimates provided the most extensive correlation within and between measures. Thus, tetanic stimulation superimposed upon single maximal or multiple contractions seems to provide the most valid measure of muscle inactivation when using the interpolated-twitch technique.

A non-fullerene electron acceptor based on central carbazole and terminal diketopyrrolopyrrole functionalities for efficient, reproducible and solution-processable bulk-heterojunction devices

A novel, solution-processable non-fullerene electron acceptor, 6,6′-((9-(heptadecan-9-yl)-9H-carbazole-2,7-diyl)bis(thiophene-5,2-diyl))bis(2,5-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-3-(thiophen-2-yl)-2,5-dihydropyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4-dione) (coded as N7), based on central carbazole and terminal diketopyrrolopyrrole building blocks was designed, synthesized and characterized. N7 displayed excellent solubility, thanks to its design allowing incorporation of numerous lipophilic chains, thermal stability, and afforded a 2.30% power conversion efficiency with a high open-circuit voltage (1.17 V) when tested with the conventional donor polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene) in solution-processable bulk-heterojunction devices. To our knowledge, not only is N7 the first reported chromophore based on carbazole and diketopyrrolopyrrole functionalities but the open-circuit voltage reported here is among the highest values for a single junction bulk-heterojunction device that has been fabricated using a simple device architecture, with reproducible outcomes and with no special treatment.

Whole school values and the socially transformative potential of philosophy education

The socially transformative potential of philosophy education (PhE) to support a broadening of students' horizons and a fostering of their ability to deal with difference and diversity is the focus of this article. This article explores this potential through its examination of whole school values and PhE at one primary school in Queensland, Australia. The central argument is that the school's prioritizing of social outcomes within its values framework can be supported by PhE at the classroom level. In making this case, this article draws on interview data from the school principal (“Ms A”), the school's Philosophy Mentor and Grade Four teacher (“Ms B”) and a Year 4 PhE student (“Jacob”). Given the transformative role schools are expected to play in the teaching of values, the centrality of school and teacher values in shaping student learning and the potential of PhE to enhance the social outcomes of schooling, this article provides a warrant for further interrogation of the agenda and values transmitted through this curriculum area.