DRD2/ANKK1 Taq1A (rs 1800497 C>T) genotypes are associated with susceptibility to second generation antipsychotic-induced akathisia

Rationale Although the advent of atypical, second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) has resulted in reduced likelihood of akathisia, this adverse effect remains a problem. Extrapyramidal adverse effects are associated with increased drug occupancy of dopamine 2 receptors (DRD2). The A1 allele of the DRD2/ANKK1,rs1800497, is associated with decreased striatal DRD2 density. Objectives The aim of this study was to identify whether the A1(T) allele of the DRD2/ANKK1 was associated with akathisia (measured with the Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale) in a clinical sample of 234 patients treated with antipsychotics. Results Definite akathisia (a score≥ 2 for the global clinical assessment of akathisia) was significantly less common in subjects prescribed SGAs (16.8 %) than those prescribed FGAs (47.6%), p<0.0001. Overall, 24.1% of A1+ (A1A2/A1A1) patients treated with SGAs had akathisia compared to 10.8% of A1- (A2A2) patients. A1+ (A1A2/A1A1) patients administered SGAs also had higher global clinical assessment of akathisia scores than A1- subjects (p=0.01). SGAs maintained their advantage over FGAs regarding akathisia even in A1+ patients treated with SGAs. Conclusions These results strongly suggest that A1+ variants of the DRD2/ANKK1 Taq1A allele confer risk for akathisia in patients treated with SGAs and may explain inconsistencies across prior studies comparing FGAs and SGAs.

What are the implications of peri-urban agriculture on food security in Australian cities?

Background: Periurban agriculture refers to agricultural practice occurring in areas with mixed rural and urban features. It is responsible 25% of the total gross value of economic production in Australia, despite only comprising 3% of the land used for agriculture. As populations grows and cities expand, they are constantly absorbing surrounding fringe areas, thus creating a new fringe, further from the city causing the periurban region to constantly shift outwards. Periurban regions are fundamental in the provision of fresh food to city populations and residential (and industrial) expansion taking over agricultural land has been noted as a major worldwide concern. Another major concern around the increase in urbanisation and resultant decrease in periurban agriculture is its potential effect on food security. Food security is the availability or access to nutritionally-adequate, culturally-relevant and safe foods in culturally-appropriate ways. Thus food insecurity occurs when access to or availability of these foods is compromised. There is an important level of connectedness between food security and food production and a decrease in periurban agriculture may have adverse effects on food security. A decrease in local, seasonal produce may result in a decrease in the availability of products and an increase in cost, as food must travel greater distances, incurring extra costs present at the consumer level. Currently, few Australian studies exist examining the change in periurban agriculture over time. Such information may prove useful for future health policy and interventions as well as infrastructure planning. The aim of this study is to investigate changes in periurban agriculture among capital cities of Australia. Methods: We compared data pertaining to selected commodities from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2000-01 and 2005 -2006 Agricultural Census. This survey is distributed online or via mail on a five-yearly basis to approximately 175,000 Agricultural business to ascertain information on a range of factors, such as types of crops, livestock and land preparation practices. For the purpose of this study we compared the land being used for total crops, and cereal , oil seed, legume, fruit and vegetable crops separately. Data was analysed using repeated measures anova in spss. Results: Overall, total area available for crops in urbanised areas of Australia increased slightly by 1.8%. However, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth experienced decreases in the area available for fruit crops by 11%, 5%,and 4% respectively. Furthermore, Brisbane and Perth experienced decreases in land available for vegetable crops by 28% and 14% respectively. Finally, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth experienced decreases in land available for cereal crops by 10 – 79%. Conclusions: These findings suggest that population increases and consequent urban sprawl may be resulting in a decrease in peri-urban agriculture, specifically for several core food groups including fruit, breads and grain based foods. In doing so, access to or availability of these foods may be limited, and the cost of these foods is likely to increase, which may compromise food insecurity for certain sub-groups of the population.

Extreme sports are good for your health : a phenomenological understanding of fear and anxiety in extreme sport

Extreme sports are traditionally explored from a risk-taking perspective which often assumes that participants do not experience fear. In this paper we explore participants’ experience of fear associated with participation in extreme sports. An interpretive phenomenological method was used with 15 participants. Four themes emerged: experience of fear, relationship to fear, management of fear, and fear and self transformation. Participant’s experience of extreme sports was revealed in terms of intense fear but this fear was integrated and experienced as a potentially meaningful and constructive event in their lives. The findings have implications for understanding fear as a potentially transformative process.

Reduced expression of retinoblastoma gene product (pRB) and high expression of p53 are associated with poor prognosis in ovarian cancer

Paraffin sections (n = 168, 27 benign, 16 low malignant potential [LMP] and 125 malignant tumours) from epithelial ovarian tumours were evaluated immunohistochemically for expression of retinoblastoma gene product (pRB) and p53 protein, and the relationship among pRB, p53 and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2 (CDKN2) gene product p16INK4A (p16) was analysed, following our previous study of p16. Forty-one percent of the benign, 50% of the LMP and most (71%) of the malignant tumours showed high pRB expression. High expression of pRB (>50% pRB-positive cells) significantly correlated with non-mucinous histological subtypes. Reduced pRB expression, substage and residual disease were significant predictors for poor prognosis in stage I patients. All the benign and most of the LMP (81%) tumours were in either the p53-negative or low p53-positive category, but nearly half of the malignant tumours had high p53 expression. High p53 accumulation was found in non-mucinous, high grade and late stage tumours. For well-differentiated carcinomas, high p53 expression was a predictor of poor prognosis. However, even though high p53 expression was not associated with histological subtype, stage or the presence of residual disease, high p53 expression was not an independent predictor when all clinical parameters were combined. For all ovarian cancers, a close correlation was found between high p53 and high p16 expression. The relationship between the expression of pRB and p16 depended on tumour stage. In stage I tumours, high pRB was associated with low p16 reactivity. On the other hand, most advanced tumours showed both high pRB and high p16 reactivity. Int. J. Cancer 74:407–415, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

How do allied health professionals evaluate new models of care? What are we measuring and why?

The aim of this study was to identify what outcome measures or quality indicators are being used to evaluate advanced and new roles in nine allied health professions and whether the measures are evaluating outcomes of interest to the patient, the clinician, or the healthcare provider. A systematic search strategy was used. Medical and allied health databases were searched and relevant articles extracted. Relevant studies with at least 1 outcome measure were evaluated. A total of 106 articles were identified that described advanced roles, however, only 23 of these described an outcome measure in sufficient detail to be included for review. The majority of the reported measures fit into the economic and process categories. The most reported outcome related to patients was satisfaction surveys. Measures of patient health outcomes were infrequently reported. It is unclear from the studies evaluated whether new models of allied healthcare can be shown to be as safe and effective as traditional care for a given procedure. Outcome measures chosen to evaluate these services often reflect organizational need and not patient outcomes. Organizations need to ensure that high-quality performance measures are chosen to evaluate the success of new health service innovations. There needs to be a move away from in-house type surveys that add little or no valid evidence as to the effect of a new innovation. More importance needs to be placed on patient outcomes as a measure of the quality of allied health interventions.

"Are there any right or wrong answers in teaching philosophy": ethics, epistemology, and philosophy in the classroom

This article assesses undergraduate teaching students’ assertion that there are no right and wrong answers in teaching philosophy. When asked questions about their experiences of philosophy in the classroom for primary children, their unanimous declaration that teaching philosophy has ‘no right and wrong answers’ is critically examined across the three sub-disciplinary areas to which they were generally referring, namely, pedagogy, ethics, and epistemology. From a pedagogical point of view, it is argued that some teaching approaches may indeed be more effective than others, and some pupils’ opinions less defensible, but pedagogically, in terms of managing the power relations in the classroom, it is counter-productive to continually insist on notions of truth and falsity at every point. From an ethical point of view, it is contended that anti-realist approaches to meta-ethics may represent a viable intellectual position, but from the point of view of normative ethics, notions of right and wrong still retain significant currency. From an epistemological point of view, it is argued using Karl Poppers’ work that while it may be difficult to determine what constitutes a right answer, determining a wrong one is far more straightforward. In conclusion, it is clear that prospective teachers engaging in philosophy in the classroom, and also future teachers in general, require a far more nuanced philosophical understanding of the notions of right and wrong and truth and falsity. In view of this situation, it we wish to promote the effective teaching of philosophical thinking to children, or produce educators who can understand the conceptual limits of the claims they make and their very real and often serious practical and social consequences, it is recommended that philosophy be reinstated to a fundamental, foundational place within the pre-service teaching curriculum.

Intercultural competence in engineering education : who are we teaching?

BACKGROUND There is little doubt that our engineering graduates’ ability to identify cultural differences and their potential to impact on engineering projects, and to work effectively with these differences is of key importance in the modern engineering practice. Within engineering degree programs themselves there is also a significant need to recognise the impact of changing student and staff profiles on what happens in the classroom. The research described in this paper forms part of a larger project exploring issues of intercultural competence in engineering. PURPOSE This paper presents an observational and survey study of undergraduate and postgraduate engineering students from four institutions working in groups on tasks with a purely technical focus, or with a cultural and humanitarian element. The study sought to explore how students rate their own intercultural competence and team process and whether any differences exist depending on the nature of the task they are working on. We also investigated whether any differences were evident between groups of first year, second year and postgraduate students. DESIGN/METHOD The study used the miniCQS instrument (Ang & Van Dyne, 2008) and a Bales Interaction Process Analysis based scale (Bales, 1950; Carney, 1976) to collect students self ratings of group process, task management, and cultural experience and behaviour. The Bales IPA was also used for coding video observations of students working in groups. Survey data were used to form descriptive variables to compare outcomes across the different tasks and contexts. Observations analysed in Nvivo were used to provide commentary and additional detail on the quantitative data. RESULTS The results of the survey indicated consistent mean scores on each survey item for each group of students, despite vastly different tasks, student backgrounds and educational contexts. Some small, statistically significant mean differences existed, offering some basic insights into how task and student group composition could affect self ratings. Overall though, the results suggest minimal shift in how students view group function and their intercultural experience, irrespective of differing educational experience. CONCLUSIONS The survey results, contrasted with group observations, indicate that either students are not translating their experience (in the group tasks) into critical self assessment of their cultural competence and teamwork, or that they become more critical of team performance and cultural competence as their competence in these areas grows, so their ratings remain consistent. Both outcomes indicate that students need more intensive guidance to build their critical self and peer assessment skills in these areas irrespective of their year level of study.

Are academics messy? Testing the broken windows theory with a field experiment in the work environment

We test the broken windows theory using a field experiment in a shared area of an academic workplace(the department common room). More specifically, we explore academics’ and postgraduate students’ behavior under an order condition (a clean environment) and a disorder condition (a messy environment). We find strong evidence that signs of disorderly behavior trigger littering: In 59% of the cases, subjects litter in the disorder treatment as compared to 18% in the order condition. These results remain robust in a multivariate analysis even when controlling for a large set of factors not directly examined by previous studies. Overall, when academic staff and postgraduate students observe that others have violated the social norm of keeping the common room clean, all else being equal, the probability of littering increases by around 40%.

Welfare-to-work and the experience of single mothers in Australia : where are the benefits?

In July 2006 ‘welfare-to-work’ policies were introduced for single parents in Australia. These policies require most single parents with school aged children to be employed or seeking employment of 15-25 hours per week in return for their income support payment. The changes represented a sharp increase in the obligations applying to single parents on income support. This paper is concerned with how the well-being of single mothers who are combining income support and paid employment is being influenced by these stepped up activity requirements. The paper draws on data from semi-structured interviews with 21 Brisbane single mothers. The analysis explores participants’ experiences in the new policy environment utilizing the theoretical framework of ‘relational autonomy’. Relational approaches to autonomy emphasize the importance of relations of dependency and interdependency to the development of autonomy and well-being. The findings indicate that in their dealings with the welfare bureaucracy participants experienced a lack of recognition of their identities as mothers, paid workers and competent decision makers. These experiences have negative consequences for self worth, relational autonomy and ultimately the well-being of single parent families.

'These are my photos of when I was little' : Locating Media Arts in the Primary School Curriculum

‘Media Arts’ has been included as a fifth area of the Arts for the Australian Curriculum which will become mandatory learning for all Australian children from pre-school to Year Six (Y6) from 2014. The current curriculum design is underpinned by an approach familiar to media educators who combine creative practice and critical response to develop students’ media literacies. Media Arts within the Australian Curriculum will place Australia at the forefront of international efforts to promote media education as an entitlement for all children. Even with this mandated endorsement, however, there remains ongoing debate about where to locate media education in school curricula. Historically, media education in Australia has been approached through diverse curriculum activities at the secondary school level. These include subject English’s critical literacy objectives; vocationally oriented media and technology education or ICTs education; and Arts courses using new media technologies for creativity. In this chapter we consider the possibilities and challenges for Media Arts, specifically for primary school student learning. We draw on empirical evidence from a research project that has trialled a Media Arts curriculum with students attending a primary school in a low socio-economic status and culturally diverse community on the outskirts of Brisbane, Queensland.

Ureaplasma speioces are associated with chorioamnionitiis in late preterm placentas

Background: Preterm birth is a major cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality, with 75% of preterm births occurring late preterm. Previous studies have investigated the microbial diversity within placentas delivered early preterm but there has been no investigation of the prevalence of bacteria, particularly Ureaplasma spp. in late preterm placentas. Method: Women giving birth late preterm (320 – 366 weeks of gestation) in Cincinnati were recruited for this study. Samples of chorioamnion were collected aseptically at the time of delivery, shipped to QUT and tested for Ureaplasma spp. and other bacteria by culture and/or PCR assays. The presence of bacteria was correlated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, including histological chorioamnionitis (tissue sections read by US pathologists). Results: To date, Ureaplasma spp. have been detected in 15/270 (5.5%) of placentas by culture and 19/270 (7%) by PCR. Ureaplasma presence correlated with histological chorioamnionitis (12/19%; 63%). However, the presence of other bacteria was not associated with chorioamnionitis (5%). Chorioamnionitis was unevenly distributed in ethnic groups, with a higher incidence in African-Americans’ (6/7; 86%), compared to Caucasians’ (6/12; 50%) who were colonised with ureaplasmas. Conclusion: This study is the first to report the prevalence of ureaplasmas in women (7%) who deliver late preterm. Ureaplasma spp. were associated with a higher incidence of chorioamnionitis (63% compared to 15% for non-infected women). This data strongly suggests that ureaplasmas are a cause of late preterm deliveries and African-American women are at greater risk of chorioamnionitis.