Learning to take charge : women's experiences of living with endometriosis

This paper describes aspects of a study that was conducted to determine women's needs for information related to laparoscopy for endometriosis. Sixty-one women attended focus groups, during which they described endometriosis as a disease of multiple losses: of relationships, of career and of a sense of self-worth. The women indicated that the pathway to diagnosis and treatment had been long and unnecessarily difficult. Many women said that they had reached a point where they decided enough was enough: the medical merry-go-round had to finish. They had to become assertive, take control and decide for themselves how they were going to manage their disease and their quality of life. For all but one woman in the study, complementary therapies were vital. For some women, alternative therapies had replaced allopathic medicine completely. Complementary/alternative therapies were a mechanism for regaining control.

The charge effect of cationic surfactants on the elimination of fibre beads in the electrospinning of polystyrene

Polystyrene nanofibres were electrospun with the inclusion of cationic surfactants, dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB) or tetrabutylammonium chloride (TBAC), in the polymer solution. A small amount of cationic surfactant effectively stopped the formation of beaded fibres during the electrospinning. The cationic surfactants were also found to improve the solution conductivity, but had no effect on the viscosity. Only DTAB had an effect on the surface tension of the polymer solution, the surface tension decreasing slightly with an increase in the concentration of DTAB.

The formation of beaded fibres was attributed to an insufficient stretch of the filaments during the whipping of the jet, due to a low charge density. Adding the cationic surfactants improved the net charge density that enhanced the whipping instability. The jet was stretched under stronger charge repulsion and at a higher speed, resulting in an exhaustion of the bead structure. In addition, a polymer/surfactant interaction was found in the polystyrene–DTAB solution system, while this interaction was not found in the polystyrene–TBAC system. The polymer/surfactant interaction led to the formation of thinner fibres than those formed in the absence of the interaction.

The effects of a non-ionic surfactant, Triton X-405, on the electrospun fibres were also studied. The addition of Triton X-405 did not eliminate the fibre beads, but reduced the bead numbers and changed the morphology. Triton X-405 slightly improved the solution conductivity, and had a minor effect on the surface tension, but no effect on the viscosity.

Steric and electronic factors influencing recognition by a simple, charge neutral norbornene based anion receptor

Based on 1H NMR studies, subtle electronic factors rather than pre-organisation dictate the binding stoichiometry of the new, norbornene based, anion hosts 1 and 2 with acetate, however, the binding of dihydrogenphosphate appears to be based solely on steric constraints.

New social orders: reconceptualising family and community in utopian fiction

A study focusing on family and community as they are represented in seven utopian/dystopian fictions written for children and young adults by Australian, American, Canadian, and British writers is illustrated. These novels depict reflections of how various notions of new social orders have impacted on children's literature and how this affects the utopian/dystopian strain, present in children's literature.

Use of medical orders in acute care oxygen therapy

The life of every living organism is sustained by the presence of oxygen and the acute deprivation of oxygen will, therefore, result in hypoxia and ultimately death. Although oxygen is normally present in the air, higher concentrations are required to treat many disease processes. Oxygen is therefore considered to be a drug requiring a medical prescription and is subject to any law that covers its use and prescription. Administration is typically authorized by a physician following legal written instructions to a qualified nurse. This standard procedure helps prevent incidence of misuse or oxygen deprivation which could worsen the patients hypoxia and ultimate outcome. Delaying the administration of oxygen until a written medical prescription is obtained could also have the same effect. Clearly, defined protocols should exist to allow for the legal administration of oxygen by nurses without a physicians order because any delay in administering oxygen to patients can very well lead to their death.

New world orders in contemporary children's literature : utopian transformations

"New World Orders shows how texts for children and young people have responded to the cultural, economic, and political movements of the last 15 years. With a focus on international children's text produced between 1988 and 2006, the authors discuss how utopian and dystopian tropes are pressed into service to project possible futures to child readers. The book considers what these texts have to say about globalisation, neocolonialism, environmental issues, pressures on families and communities, and the idea of the posthuman."--BOOK JACKET.

New world orders and the dystopian turn : transforming visions of territoriality and belonging in recent Australian children's fiction

Through the 1990s and into the new millennium, Australian children's literature responded to a conservative turn epitomised by the Howard government and to new world order imperatives of democracy, the market economy, globalisation, and the IT revolution. These responses are evidenced in the ways that children's fiction speaks to the problematics of representation and cultural identity and to possible outcomes of devastating historical and recent catastrophes. Consequently, Australian children's fiction in recent years has been marked by a dystopian turn. Through an examination of a selection of Australian children's fiction published between 1995 and 2003, this paper interrogates the ways in which hope and warning are reworked in narratives that address notions of memory and forgetting, place and belonging. We argue that these tales serve cautionary purposes, opening the way for social critique, and that they incorporate utopian traces of a transformed vision for a future Australia. The focus texts for this discussion are: Secrets of Walden Rising (Allan Baillie, 1996), Red Heart (Victor Kelleher, 2001), Deucalian (Brian Caswell, 1995), and Boys of Blood and BOlle (David Metzenthen, 2003).

Risk assessment of sexual offenders for extended supervision orders in New Zealand : basic principles and current practice

A growing number of jurisdictions in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australasia have enacted legislation allowing for special sentencing, civil commitment, and community supervision options for high risk sexual offenders. In New Zealand, one example of this concern for public protection is the Parole (Extended Supervision) Amendment Act 2004, which provides for additional supervision of sexual offenders with child victims for up to 10 years after their release from prison. Recent experience with expert evidence and judicial decision making in such cases suggests that those involved in the process might benefit from a more thorough understanding of the current state of sexual offender risk assessment that can be provided by mental health professionals.

Assuming responsibility : teachers taking charge of their professional development

The paper reports on some of the findings of an extensive study undertaken in Victoria as part of a national Science, ICT and Mathematics Education in Rural and Regional Australia (SiMERR) project. One of the significant findings of the study was the extent to which teachers in the schools where the study data were collected took responsibility for many aspects of their own professional development. This was not at the expense of, but rather was in addition to, their involvement in school- and region-based professional development activity. The study also identifies some of the challenges faced, mostly related to the location of their schools in a rural or regional setting.