Land Contracts in Queensland [4th Edition]

"The authors analyse the substance of the transaction through the medium of the latest standard REIQ Residential, Commercial and Community Titles contracts, and draw on a comprehensive range of court decisions relating to the area. There are chapters covering contract formation including the role of the real estate agent, the disclosure regime for sellers and agents, subject matter, the inclusion of special conditions, risk, completion both through the paper based medium and electronic conveyancing and stamp duty and GST implications."--Publisher website

Intensive versus conventional glycaemic control for treating diabetic foot ulcers

Background The estimated likelihood of lower limb amputation is 10 to 30 times higher amongst people with diabetes compared to those without diabetes. Of all non-traumatic amputations in people with diabetes, 85% are preceded by a foot ulcer. Foot ulceration associated with diabetes (diabetic foot ulcers) is caused by the interplay of several factors, most notably diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and changes in foot structure. These factors have been linked to chronic hyperglycaemia (high levels of glucose in the blood) and the altered metabolic state of diabetes. Control of hyperglycaemia may be important in the healing of ulcers. Objectives To assess the effects of intensive glycaemic control compared to conventional control on the outcome of foot ulcers in people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Search methods In December 2015 we searched: The Cochrane Wounds Specialised Register; The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library); Ovid MEDLINE; Ovid MEDLINE (In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations); Ovid EMBASE; EBSCO CINAHL; Elsevier SCOPUS; ISI Web of Knowledge Web of Science; BioMed Central and LILACS. We also searched clinical trial databases, pharmaceutical trial databases and current international and national clinical guidelines on diabetes foot management for relevant published, non-published, ongoing and terminated clinical trials. There were no restrictions based on language or date of publication or study setting. Selection criteria Published, unpublished and ongoing randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were considered for inclusion where they investigated the effects of intensive glycaemic control on the outcome of active foot ulcers in people with diabetes. Non randomised and quasi-randomised trials were excluded. In order to be included the trial had to have: 1) attempted to maintain or control blood glucose levels and measured changes in markers of glycaemic control (HbA1c or fasting, random, mean, home capillary or urine glucose), and 2) documented the effect of these interventions on active foot ulcer outcomes. Glycaemic interventions included subcutaneous insulin administration, continuous insulin infusion, oral anti-diabetes agents, lifestyle interventions or a combination of these interventions. The definition of the interventional (intensive) group was that it should have a lower glycaemic target than the comparison (conventional) group. Data collection and analysis All review authors independently evaluated the papers identified by the search strategy against the inclusion criteria. Two review authors then independently reviewed all potential full-text articles and trials registry results for inclusion. Main results We only identified one trial that met the inclusion criteria but this trial did not have any results so we could not perform the planned subgroup and sensitivity analyses in the absence of data. Two ongoing trials were identified which may provide data for analyses in a later version of this review. The completion date of these trials is currently unknown. Authors' conclusions The current review failed to find any completed randomised clinical trials with results. Therefore we are unable to conclude whether intensive glycaemic control when compared to conventional glycaemic control has a positive or detrimental effect on the treatment of foot ulcers in people with diabetes. Previous evidence has however highlighted a reduction in risk of limb amputation (from various causes) in people with type 2 diabetes with intensive glycaemic control. Whether this applies to people with foot ulcers in particular is unknown. The exact role that intensive glycaemic control has in treating foot ulcers in multidisciplinary care (alongside other interventions targeted at treating foot ulcers) requires further investigation.

The research capacity and culture of Australian podiatrists

Background Best practice clinical health care is widely recognised to be founded on evidence based practice. Enhancing evidence based practice via the rapid translation of new evidence into every day clinical practice is fundamental to the success of health care and in turn health care professions. There is little known about the collective research capacity and culture of the podiatry profession across Australia. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the research capacity and culture of the podiatry profession within Australia and determine if there were any differences between podiatrists working in different health sectors and workplaces. Method All registered podiatrists were eligible to participate in a cross-sectional online survey. The Australian Podiatry Associations disseminated the survey and all podiatrists were encouraged to distribute it to colleagues. The Research Capacity and Culture (RCC) tool was used to collect all research capacity and culture item variables using a 10-point scale (1 = lowest; 10 = highest). Additional demographic, workplace and health sector data variables were also collected. Mann–Whitney-U, Kruskal–Wallis and logistic regression analyses were used to determine any difference between health sectors and workplaces. Word cloud analysis was used for qualitative responses of individual motivators and barriers to research culture. Results There were 232 fully completed surveys (6% of Australian registered podiatrists). Overall respondents reported low success or skills (Median rating < 4) on the majority of individual success or skill items. Podiatrists working in multi-practitioner workplaces reported higher individual success or skills in the majority of items compared with sole practitioners (p < 0.05). Non-clinical and public health sector podiatrists reported significantly higher post-graduate study enrolment or completion, research activity participation, provisions to undertake research and individual success or skill than those working privately. Conclusions This study suggests that podiatrists in Australia report similar low levels of research success or skill to those reported in other allied health professions. The workplace setting and health sector seem to play key roles in self reported research success and skills. This is important knowledge for podiatrists and researchers aiming to translate research evidence into clinical practice.

Human mesenchymal stem cells retain multilineage differentiation capacity including neural marker expression after extended in vitro expansion

The suitability of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) in regenerative medicine relies on retention of their proliferative expansion potential in conjunction with the ability to differentiate toward multiple lineages. Successful utilisation of these cells in clinical applications linked to tissue regeneration requires consideration of biomarker expression, time in culture and donor age, as well as their ability to differentiate towards mesenchymal (bone, cartilage, fat) or non-mesenchymal (e.g., neural) lineages. To identify potential therapeutic suitability we examined hMSCs after extended expansion including morphological changes, potency (stemness) and multilineage potential. Commercially available hMSC populations were expanded in vitro for > 20 passages, equating to > 60 days and > 50 population doublings. Distinct growth phases (A-C) were observed during serial passaging and cells were characterised for stemness and lineage markers at representative stages (Phase A: P+5, approximately 13 days in culture; Phase B: P+7, approximately 20 days in culture; and Phase C: P+13, approximately 43 days in culture). Cell surface markers, stem cell markers and lineage-specific markers were characterised by FACS, ICC and Q-PCR revealing MSCs maintained their multilineage potential, including neural lineages throughout expansion. Co-expression of multiple lineage markers along with continued CD45 expression in MSCs did not affect completion of osteogenic and adipogenic specification or the formation of neurospheres. Improved standardised isolation and characterisation of MSCs may facilitate the identification of biomarkers to improve therapeutic efficacy to ensure increased reproducibility and routine production of MSCs for therapeutic applications including neural repair.

The impact of service failure on brand credibility

Recent studies have examined the consequences of brand credibility, with the majority of works embedded in physical goods. Despite the growing attention service branding receives, little is known about how service failure and recovery efforts impact on brand credibility in service organisations. The purpose of this study is to examine how brand credibility is affected by service failure and an organisations recovery efforts. An online self-completion survey of airline consumers (n=875) was employed to test the relationships between the focal constructs. The results show that a service firm’s effective complaint handling positively impacts satisfaction with complaining, overall satisfaction and service brand credibility. The study also finds that the higher the perceived magnitude of failure, the more difficult it is to satisfy a customer. These results demonstrate that it is possible to maintain service brand credibility during a service failure, provided brand managers develop and implement effective complain handling procedures.

Effect of indium doping on the electrical switching behaviour of Ge-Te glasses

Bulk Ge15Te85-xInx (1 <= x <= 11) series of glasses have been found to exhibit a threshold switching behaviour for an input current of 2 mA. An initial decrease is seen in the switching voltages (V-T) with the addition of indium, which is due to the higher metallicity of indium. An increase is seen in V-T above 3 at.% of indium, which proceeds until 8 at.%, with a change in slope (lower to higher) seen around 7 at.%. Beyond x = 8, a reversal in trend is exhibited in the variation of V-T, with a well-defined minimum around x = 9 at.%. Based on the composition dependence of V-T, it is proposed that Ge15Te85-xInx glasses exhibit an extended rigidity percolation threshold. The composition, x = 3, at which the V-T starts to increase and the composition, x = 7, at which a slope change is exhibited correspond to the onset and completion, respectively, of the extended stiffness transition. Thermal studies and photoconductivity e85-xInx glasses. In addition, the minimum seen in V-T at x = 9 is associated with the chemical threshold (CT) of this glassy system.

Line removal and restoration of handwritten strokes

In document images, we often find printed lines over-lapping with hand written elements especially in case of signatures. Typical examples of such images are bank cheques and payment slips. Although the detection and removal of the horizontal lines has been addressed, the restoration of the handwritten area after removal of lines, persists to be a problem of interest. lit this paper, we propose a method for line removal and restoration of the erased areas of the handwritten elements. Subjective evaluation of the results have been conducted to analyze the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results are promising with an accuracy of 86.33%. The entire Process takes less than half a second for completion on a 2.4 GHz 512 MB RAM Pentium IV PC for a document image.

Illuminating the glass box: The lighting designs of Richard Kelly

A promotional brochure celebrating the completion of the Seagram Building in spring 1957 features on its cover intense portraits of seven men bisected by a single line of bold text that asks, “Who are these Men?” The answer appears on the next page: “They Dreamed of a Tower of Light” (Figures 1, 2). Each photograph is reproduced with the respective man’s name and project credit: architects, Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson; associate architect, Eli Jacques Kahn; electrical contractor, Harry F. Fischbach; lighting consultant, Richard Kelly; and electrical engineer, Clifton E. Smith. To the right, a rendering of the new Seagram Tower anchors the composition, standing luminous against a star-speckled night sky; its glass walls and bronze mullions are transformed into a gossamer skin that reveals the tower’s structural skeleton. Lightolier, the contract lighting manufacturer, produced the brochure to promote its role in the lighting of the Seagram Building, but Lightolier’s promotional copy was not far from the truth.

Women’s Wellness after Cancer Program Study (WWACP)– A multi centre randomised controlled trial examining the benefits and cost effectiveness of an Evidenced Based, e-health intervention

Background Advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment have significantly improved survival rates, through their subsequent health needs are often not adequately addressed by current health services. National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Partnerships Project awarded a national collaborative project to develop, trial and evaluate clinical benefits and cost effectiveness of an e-health enabled structured health promotion intervention - The Women’s Wellness after Cancer Program (WWACP). The aim of this e-health enabled multimodal intervention is to improve health related quality of life in women previously treated for target cancers. Aim The WWACP is a 12-week web based, interactive, holistic program. Primary outcomes for this project are to promote a positive change in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and reduction in Body Mass Index (BMI) in the women undertaking WWACP compared to women who receive usual care. Secondary outcomes include managing other side effects of cancer treatment through evidence-based nutrition and exercise practices, dealing with stress, sleep, menopause and sexuality issues. Methods The single-blinded multi-center randomized controlled trial recruited a toatl of 330 women within 24 months of completion of chemotherapy and /or radiotherapy. Women were randomly assigned to either a usual care or intervention group. Women provided with the intervention were provided with an interactive iBook and journal, web interface, and three virtual consultations by experienced cancer nurses. A variety of methods were utilized, to enable positive self- efficacy and lifestyle changes. These include online coaching with a registered nurse trained in the intervention, plus written educational and health promotional information. The program has been delivered through the e-health enabled interfaces, which enables virtual delivery via desktop and mobile computing devices. Importantly this enables accessibility for rural and regional women in Australia who are frequently geographically disadvantaged in terms of health care provision. Results Research focusing on alternative methods of delivering post treatment / or survivorship care in cancer utilizing web based interfaces is limited, but emerging evidence suggests that Internet interventions can increase psychological and physical wellbeing in cancer patients. The WWACP trial aims to establish the effectiveness of delivery of the program in terms of positive patient outcomes and cost effective, flexibility. The trial will be completed in September and results will be presented at the conference. Conclusions Women after acute hematological, breast and gynecological cancer treatments demonstrate good cancer survival rates and face residual health problems which are amenable to behavioral interventions. The conclusion of active treatment is a key 'teachable moment' in which sustainable positive lifestyle change can be achieved if patients receive education and psychological support which targets key treatment related health problems and known chronic disease risk factors.

Frechet distance based approach for searching online handwritten documents

We propose a novel, language-neutral approach for searching online handwritten text using Frechet distance. Online handwritten data, which is available as a time series (x,y,t), is treated as representing a parameterized curve in two-dimensions and the problem of searching online handwritten text is posed as a problem of matching two curves in a two-dimensional Euclidean space. Frechet distance is a natural measure for matching curves. The main contribution of this paper is the formulation of a variant of Frechet distance that can be used for retrieving words even when only a prefix of the word is given as query. Extensive experiments on UNIPEN dataset(1) consisting of over 16,000 words written by 7 users show that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art DTW method. Experiments were also conducted on a Multilingual dataset, generated on a PDA, with encouraging results. Our approach can be used to implement useful, exciting features like auto-completion of handwriting in PDAs.

High pressure studies on the electrical resistivity of As-Te-bond Si glasses and the effect of network topological thresholds

The variation of resistivity in an amorphous As30Te70-xSix system of glasses with high pressure has been studied for pressures up to 8 GPa. It is found that the electrical resistivity and the conduction activation energy decrease continuously with increase in pressure, and samples become metallic in the pressure range 1.0-2.0 GPa. Temperature variation studies carried out at a pressure of 0.92 GPa show that the activation energies lie in the range 0.16-0.18eV. Studies on the composition/average co-ordination number (r) dependence of normalized electrical resistivity at different pressures indicate that rigidity percolation is extended, the onset of the intermediate phase is around (r) = 2.44, and completion at (r) = 2.56, respectively, while the chemical threshold is at (r) = 2.67. These results compare favorably with those obtained from electrical switching and differential scanning calorimetric studies.

Highlight: Yale University Art Gallery

Modern architecture, with its exposed concrete, glass, and steel expanses, does not age gracefully. The Yale University Art Gallery, designed by architecture great Louis Kahn, is no exception. As Yale's first modernist building, completed in 1953, and Kahn's first major commission and collaboration with pioneering lighting designer, Richard Kelly, the gallery is an important part of American architecture. Yet, despite its iconic status, the building suffered numerous architectural indignities in the years following its completion, including the insertion of permanent gallery partitions, which divided Kahn's open plan, and the enclosure of an exterior court, which blocked daylight to the lower galleries.

Consequences of Supersymmetry in the Early Universe

Currently, we live in an era characterized by the completion and first runs of the LHC accelerator at CERN, which is hoped to provide the first experimental hints of what lies beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. In addition, the last decade has witnessed a new dawn of cosmology, where it has truly emerged as a precision science. Largely due to the WMAP measurements of the cosmic microwave background, we now believe to have quantitative control of much of the history of our universe. These two experimental windows offer us not only an unprecedented view of the smallest and largest structures of the universe, but also a glimpse at the very first moments in its history. At the same time, they require the theorists to focus on the fundamental challenges awaiting at the boundary of high energy particle physics and cosmology. What were the contents and properties of matter in the early universe? How is one to describe its interactions? What kind of implications do the various models of physics beyond the Standard Model have on the subsequent evolution of the universe? In this thesis, we explore the connection between in particular supersymmetric theories and the evolution of the early universe. First, we provide the reader with a general introduction to modern day particle cosmology from two angles: on one hand by reviewing our current knowledge of the history of the early universe, and on the other hand by introducing the basics of supersymmetry and its derivatives. Subsequently, with the help of the developed tools, we direct the attention to the specific questions addressed in the three original articles that form the main scientific contents of the thesis. Each of these papers concerns a distinct cosmological problem, ranging from the generation of the matter-antimatter asymmetry to inflation, and finally to the origin or very early stage of the universe. They nevertheless share a common factor in their use of the machinery of supersymmetric theories to address open questions in the corresponding cosmological models.

General Practitioner Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme Study (GAPS): protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial

Background There is a strong link between antibiotic consumption and the rate of antibiotic resistance. In Australia, the vast majority of antibiotics are prescribed by general practitioners, and the most common indication is for acute respiratory infections. The aim of this study is to assess if implementing a package of integrated, multifaceted interventions reduces antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory infections in general practice. Methods/design This is a cluster randomised trial comparing two parallel groups of general practitioners in 28 urban general practices in Queensland, Australia: 14 intervention and 14 control practices. The protocol was peer-reviewed by content experts who were nominated by the funding organization. This study evaluates an integrated, multifaceted evidence-based package of interventions implemented over a six month period. The included interventions, which have previously been demonstrated to be effective at reducing antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory infections, are: delayed prescribing; patient decision aids; communication training; commitment to a practice prescribing policy for antibiotics; patient information leaflet; and near patient testing with C-reactive protein. In addition, two sub-studies are nested in the main study: (1) point prevalence estimation carriage of bacterial upper respiratory pathogens in practice staff and asymptomatic patients; (2) feasibility of direct measures of antibiotic resistance by nose/throat swabbing. The main outcome data are from Australia’s national health insurance scheme, Medicare, which will be accessed after the completion of the intervention phase. They include the number of antibiotic prescriptions and the number of patient visits per general practitioner for periods before and during the intervention. The incidence of antibiotic prescriptions will be modelled using the numbers of patients as the denominator and seasonal and other factors as explanatory variables. Results will compare the change in prescription rates before and during the intervention in the two groups of practices. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with the general practitioners and practice staff (practice nurse and/or practice manager) from the intervention practices on conclusion of the intervention phase to assess the feasibility and uptake of the interventions. An economic evaluation will be conducted to estimate the costs of implementing the package, and its cost-effectiveness in terms of cost per unit reduction in prescribing. Discussion The results on the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, acceptability and feasibility of this package of interventions will inform the policy for any national implementation.

Efficacy of family mediation and the role of family violence: Study protocol

Background Family law reforms in Australia require separated parents in dispute to attempt mandatory family dispute resolution (FDR) in community-based family services before court attendance. However, there are concerns about such services when clients present with a history of high conflict and family violence. This study protocol describes a longitudinal study of couples presenting for family mediation services. The study aims to describe the profile of family mediation clients, including type of family violence, and determine the impact of violence profiles on FDR processes and outcomes, such as the type and durability of shared parenting arrangements and clients’ satisfaction with mediated agreements. Methods A mixed method, naturalistic longitudinal design is used. The sampling frame is clients presenting at nine family mediation centres across metropolitan, outer suburban, and regional/rural sites in Victoria, Australia. Data are collected at pre-test, completion of mediation, and six months later. Self-administered surveys are administered at the three time points, and a telephone interview at the final post-test. The key study variable is family violence. Key outcome measures are changes in the type and level of acrimony and violent behaviours, the relationship between violence and mediated agreements, the durability of agreements over six months, and client satisfaction with mediation. Discussion Family violence is a major risk to the physical and mental health of women and children. This study will inform debates about the role of family violence and how to manage it in the family mediation context. It will also inform decision-making about mediation practices by better understanding how mediation impacts on parenting agreements, and the implications for children, especially in the context of family violence.