Parliamentary committee reviews of police oversight agencies : a Queensland case study

The suggested model of an ideal public sector corruption commission includes oversight by a parliamentary committee with an attached parliamentary inspector (Prenzler, 2009). However, little research has been conducted on parliamentary oversight of corruption commissions. In Queensland, a role of the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee, which has the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Commissioner attached, is to review the Crime and Misconduct Commission every three years. This paper considers the public written and oral submissions made to the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee in the four reviews of the Crime and Misconduct Committee conducted to date (2004, 2006, 2009 and 2012). By doing this, the paper will begin to identify the gaps in our understanding of the relationship between parliamentary committees and public sector corruption commissions and the processes used by parliamentary committees to provide oversight of corruption commissions.

Quality of life, fatigue and activity in Australians with chronic kidney disease : a longitudinal study

Aims and objectives This study sought to determine the relationship between health related quality of life (HRQoL), fatigue and activity levels of people with anaemia secondary to chronic kidney disease (CKD) over a 12 month period following the introduction of an erythropoietin stimulating agent (ESA). Background CKD occurs in five stages and it is a complex chronic illness which severely impacts on an individual’s HRQoL, and ability to perform everyday activities. Fatigue is also a common symptom experienced by people with CKD. Design and methods Using a longitudinal repeated measures design, 28 people with CKD completed the SF-36, human activity profile and fatigue severity scale at the commencement of an ESA and then at 3, 6 and 12 months. Results Over a 12 month period, people reported a significant change in HRQoL in relation to role physical, vitality, mental health/emotional well-being and overall mental health. However activity levels did not significantly improve during that time. Both the amount of breathlessness and level of fatigue were highest at baseline and declined over time. Both fatigue and breathlessness were correlated with less reported general health over time. Conclusion Renal nurses, in dialysis units and CKD outpatient clinics, have repeated and frequent contact with people with CKD over long periods of time, and are in an ideal position to routinely assess fatigue and activity levels and to institute timely interventions. Early detection would enable timely nursing interventions to optimise HRQoL and independent activity. Relevance to Clinical Practice Drawing on rehabilitation nursing interventions could assist renal nurses to minimize the burden of fatigue and its impact on simple everyday activities and a person’s quality of life. These interventions are important for people who are living at home and could assist in lowering the burden on home support services.

Agent-based model of passenger flows in airport terminals

Passenger flow studies in airport terminals have shown consistent statistical relationships between airport spatial layout and pedestrian movement, facilitating prediction of movement from terminal designs. However, these studies are done at an aggregate level and do not incorporate how individual passengers make decisions at a microscopic level. Therefore, they do not explain the formation of complex movement flows. In addition, existing models mostly focus on standard airport processing procedures such as immigration and security, but seldom consider discretionary activities of passengers, and thus are not able to truly describe the full range of passenger flows within airport terminals. As the route-choice decision-making of passengers involves many uncertain factors within the airport terminals, the mechanisms to fulfill the capacity of managing the route-choice have proven difficult to acquire and quantify. Could the study of cognitive factors of passengers (i.e. human mental preferences of deciding which on-airport facility to use) be useful to tackle these issues? Assuming the movement in virtual simulated environments can be analogous to movement in real environments, passenger behaviour dynamics can be similar to those generated in virtual experiments. Three levels of dynamics have been devised for motion control: the localised field, tactical level, and strategic level. A localised field refers to basic motion capabilities, such as walking speed, direction and avoidance of obstacles. The other two fields represent cognitive route-choice decision-making. This research views passenger flow problems via a "bottom-up approach", regarding individual passengers as independent intelligent agents who can behave autonomously and are able to interact with others and the ambient environment. In this regard, passenger flow formation becomes an emergent phenomenon of large numbers of passengers interacting with others. In the thesis, first, the passenger flow in airport terminals was investigated. Discretionary activities of passengers were integrated with standard processing procedures in the research. The localised field for passenger motion dynamics was constructed by a devised force-based model. Next, advanced traits of passengers (such as their desire to shop, their comfort with technology and their willingness to ask for assistance) were formulated to facilitate tactical route-choice decision-making. The traits consist of quantified measures of mental preferences of passengers when they travel through airport terminals. Each category of the traits indicates a decision which passengers may take. They were inferred through a Bayesian network model by analysing the probabilities based on currently available data. Route-choice decision-making was finalised by calculating corresponding utility results based on those probabilities observed. Three sorts of simulation outcomes were generated: namely, queuing length before checkpoints, average dwell time of passengers at service facilities, and instantaneous space utilisation. Queuing length reflects the number of passengers who are in a queue. Long queues no doubt cause significant delay in processing procedures. The dwell time of each passenger agent at the service facilities were recorded. The overall dwell time of passenger agents at typical facility areas were analysed so as to demonstrate portions of utilisation in the temporal aspect. For the spatial aspect, the number of passenger agents who were dwelling within specific terminal areas can be used to estimate service rates. All outcomes demonstrated specific results by typical simulated passenger flows. They directly reflect terminal capacity. The simulation results strongly suggest that integrating discretionary activities of passengers makes the passenger flows more intuitive, observing probabilities of mental preferences by inferring advanced traits make up an approach capable of carrying out tactical route-choice decision-making. On the whole, the research studied passenger flows in airport terminals by an agent-based model, which investigated individual characteristics of passengers and their impact on psychological route-choice decisions of passengers. Finally, intuitive passenger flows in airport terminals were able to be realised in simulation.

Parallel ABM for electricity distribution grids : a case study

This paper introduces a parallel implementation of an agent-based model applied to electricity distribution grids. A fine-grained shared memory parallel implementation is presented, detailing the way the agents are grouped and executed on a multi-threaded machine, as well as the way the model is built (in a composable manner) which is an aid to the parallelisation. Current results show a medium level speedup of 2.6, but improvements are expected by incor-porating newer distributed or parallel ABM schedulers into this implementa-tion. While domain-specific, this parallel algorithm can be applied to similarly structured ABMs (directed acyclic graphs).

Single-agent versus combination chemotherapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer and a performance status of 2 : prognostic factors and treatment selection based on two large randomized clinical trials

Purpose: Data from two randomized phase III trials were analyzed to evaluate prognostic factors and treatment selection in the first-line management of advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients with performance status (PS) 2. Patients and Methods: Patients randomized to combination chemotherapy (carboplatin and paclitaxel) in one trial and single-agent therapy (gemcitabine or vinorelbine) in the second were included in these analyses. Both studies had identical eligibility criteria and were conducted simultaneously. Comparison of efficacy and safety was performed between the two cohorts. A regression analysis identified prognostic factors and subgroups of patients that may benefit from combination or single-agent therapy. Results: Two hundred one patients were treated with combination and 190 with single-agent therapy. Objective responses were 37 and 15%, respectively. Median time to progression was 4.6 months in the combination arm and 3.5 months in the single-agent arm (p < 0.001). Median survival imes were 8.0 and 6.6 months, and 1-year survival rates were 31 and 26%, respectively. Albumin <3.5 g, extrathoracic metastases, lactate dehydrogenase ≥200 IU, and 2 comorbid conditions predicted outcome. Patients with 0-2 risk factors had similar outcomes independent of treatment, whereas patients with 3-4 factors had a nonsignificant improvement in median survival with combination chemotherapy. Conclusion: Our results show that PS2 non-small cell lung cancer patients are a heterogeneous group who have significantly different outcomes. Patients treated with first-line combination chemotherapy had a higher response and longer time to progression, whereas overall survival did not appear significantly different. A prognostic model may be helpful in selecting PS 2 patients for either treatment strategy. © 2009 by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.

Randomized phase II trial of the efficacy and safety of trastuzumab combined with docetaxel in patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive metastatic breast cancer administered as first-line treatment : the M77001 study group

Purpose: This randomized, multicenter trial compared first-line trastuzumab plus docetaxel versus docetaxel alone in patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Patients and Methods: Patients were randomly assigned to six cycles of docetaxel 100 mg/m 2 every 3 weeks, with or without trastuzumab 4 mg/kg loading dose followed by 2 mg/kg weekly until disease progression. Results: A total of 186 patients received at least one dose of the study drug. Trastuzumab plus docetaxel was significantly superior to docetaxel alone in terms of overall response rate (61% v 34%; P = .0002), overall survival (median, 31.2 v 22.7 months; P = .0325), time to disease progression (median, 11.7 v 6.1 months; P = .0001), time to treatment failure (median, 9.8 v 5.3 months; P = .0001), and duration of response (median, 11.7 v 5.7 months; P = .009). There was little difference in the number and severity of adverse events between the arms. Grade 3 to 4 neutropenia was seen more commonly with the combination (32%) than with docetaxel alone (22%), and there was a slightly higher incidence of febrile neutropenia in the combination arm (23% v 17%). One patient in the combination arm experienced symptomatic heart failure (1%). Another patient experienced symptomatic heart failure 5 months after discontinuation of trastuzumab because of disease progression, while being treated with an investigational anthracycline for 4 months. Conclusion: Trastuzumab combined with docetaxel is superior to docetaxel alone as first-line treatment of patients with HER2-positive MBC in terms of overall survival, response rate, response duration, time to progression, and time to treatment failure, with little additional toxicity. © 2005 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Phase II study of liarozole in advanced non-small cell lung cancer

The aim of this phase II study was to investigate the efficacy and tolerability of liarozole, a novel benzimidazole derivative, in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Liarozole 300 mg twice daily orally was evaluated in 14 patients with stage IIIB and IV NSCLC. 8 patients had received prior treatment with chemotherapy and/or radiotheraphy. WHO toxocity grading and response criteria were used. Liarozole was well tolerated. Grade 2 toxicities included alopecia (1 patient), dermatological toxicity (5 patients), dry mouth (2 patients) and nausea and vomiting (2 patients). Leukocytosis was seen in 5 patients, including 2 cases with an elevated white cell count pretreatment. Liarozole was discontinued in 1 patient who developed intolerable progressive pruritis associated with an erythematous rash. No objective tumour response was seen, all 14 patients developing progressive disease with 4 months of commencing treatment. Liarozole was well tolerated but was ineffective as single as single agent therapy in the management of NSCLC. The side-effect profile was compatible with inhibition of retinoic acid degradation.

A phase I dose-escalating study of DaunoXome, liposomal daunorubicin, in metastatic breast cancer

The aims of this phase I study were to establish the maximum tolerated dose, safety profile and activity of liposomal daunorubicin, DaunoXome (NeXstar Pharmaceuticals), in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. DaunoXome was administered intravenously over 2 h in 21 day cycles and doses were increased from 80 to 100, 120 and 150 mg m 2. Sixteen patients were enrolled. A total of 70 cycles of DaunoXome were administered. The maximum tolerated dose was 120 mg m 2, the dose-limiting toxicity being prolonged grade 4 neutropenia or neutropenic pyrexia necessitating dose reductions at 120 and 150 mg m 2. Asymptomatic cardiotoxicity was observed in three patients: grade 1 in one treated with a cumulative dose of 800 mg m 2 and grade 2 in two, one who received a cumulative dose of 960 mg m 2 and the other a cumulative dose of 600 mg m 2 with a previous neoadjuvant doxorubicin chemotherapy of 300 mg m 2. Tumour response was evaluable in 15 patients, of whom two had objective responses, six had stable disease and seven had progressive disease. In conclusion, DaunoXome is associated with mild, manageable toxicities and has anti-tumour activity in metastatic breast cancer. The findings support further phase II evaluation of DaunoXome alone and in combination with other standard non-anthracycline cytotoxic or novel targeted agents. Although the dose-limiting toxicity for DaunoXome was febrile neutropenia at 120 mg m 2, we would recommend this dose for further evaluation, as the febrile neutropenia occurred after four or more cycles in three of the four episodes seen, was short lived and uncomplicated. © 2002 Cancer Research UK.

Randomized phase II study of cetuximab plus cisplatin/vinorelbine compared with cisplatin/vinorelbine alone as first-line therapy in EGFR-expressing advanced non-small-cell lung cancer

Background: The Lung Cancer Cetuximab Study is an open-label, randomized phase II pilot study of cisplatin and vinorelbine combined with the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-targeted monoclonal antibody cetuximab versus cisplatin and vinorelbine alone, in patients with advanced EGFR-expressing, non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). End points of the study are activity, safety and pharmacokinetics. Patients and methods: Following randomization, for a maximum of eight cycles, patients received three-weekly cycles of cisplatin (80 mg/m2, day 1) and vinorelbine (25 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8) alone or following cetuximab treatment (initial dose 400 mg/m, followed by 250 mg/m2 weekly thereafter). Results: Eighty-six patients were randomly allocated to the study (43 per arm). Confirmed response rates were 28% in the cisplatin/vinorelbine arm (A) and 35% in the cetuximab plus cisplatin/vinorelbine arm (B). Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 4.6 months in arm A and 5.0 months in arm B, with PFS rates at 12 months of 0% and 15%, respectively. Median survival was 7.3 months in arm A and 8.3 months in arm B. The 24-month survival rates were 0% and 16%, respectively. The cetuximab combination was well tolerated. Conclusion: In the first-line treatment of advanced NSCLC, the combination of cetuximab plus cisplatin/vinorelbine demonstrated an acceptable safety profile and the potential to improve activity over cisplatin/vinorelbine alone. © 2007 European Society for Medical Oncology.

Creating a Sustainability Scorecard as a predictive tool for measuring the complex social, economic and environmental impacts of industries, a case study : assessing the viability and sustainability of the dairy industry

Sustainability is a key driver for decisions in the management and future development of industries. The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, 1987) outlined imperatives which need to be met for environmental, economic and social sustainability. Development of strategies for measuring and improving sustainability in and across these domains, however, has been hindered by intense debate between advocates for one approach fearing that efforts by those who advocate for another could have unintended adverse impacts. Studies attempting to compare the sustainability performance of countries and industries have also found ratings of performance quite variable depending on the sustainability indices used. Quantifying and comparing the sustainability of industries across the triple bottom line of economy, environment and social impact continues to be problematic. Using the Australian dairy industry as a case study, a Sustainability Scorecard, developed as a Bayesian network model, is proposed as an adaptable tool to enable informed assessment, dialogue and negotiation of strategies at a global level as well as being suitable for developing local solutions.

Comparative study of photocatalytic performance of titanium oxide spheres assembled by nanorods, nanoplates and nanosheets

TiO2 spheres assembled by nanorods, nanoplates and nanosheets were fabricated by facile hydrothermal/solvothermal methods. The three samples were thoroughly characterised by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method and UV spectroscopy. The surface area of spheres assembled by nanosheets was 83.9 m2g–1, which is larger than that obtained for nanorods (10.8 m2g–1) and nanoplates (6.31 m2g–1). Their photocatalytic performance was evaluated in terms of the decomposition rate of methyl orange in these three samples under UV irradiation. The best photoactivity was observed in the samples constructed from nanosheets.

Intermittent Fugu parathyroid hormone 1 (1–34) is an anabolic bone agent in young male rats and osteopenic ovariectomized rats

Human parathyroid hormone (hPTH) is currently the only treatment for osteoporosis that forms new bone. Previously we described a fish equivalent, Fugu parathyroid hormone 1 (fPth1) which has hPTH-like biological activity in vitro despite fPth1(1–34) sharing only 53% identity with hPTH(1–34). Here we demonstrate the in vivo actions of fPth1(1–34) on bone. In study 1, young male rats were injected intermittently for 30 days with fPth1 [30 μg–1000 μg/kg body weight (b.w.), (30fPth1–1000fPth1)] or hPTH [30 μg–100 μg/kg b.w. (30hPTH–100hPTH)]. In proximal tibiae at low doses, the fPth1 was positively correlated with trabecular bone volume/total volume (TbBV/TV) while hPTH increased TbBV/TV, trabecular thickness (TbTh) and trabecular number (TbN). 500fPth1 and 1000fPth1 increased TbBV/TV, TbTh, TbN, mineral apposition rate (MAR) and bone formation rate/bone surface (BFR/BS) with a concomitant decrease in osteoclast surface and number. In study 2 ovariectomized (OVX), osteopenic rats and sham operated (SHAM) rats were injected intermittently with 500 μg/kg b.w. of fPth1 (500fPth1) for 11 weeks. 500fPth1 treatment resulted in increased TbBV/TV (151%) and TbTh (96%) in the proximal tibiae due to increased bone formation as assessed by BFR/BS (490%) and MAR (131%). The effect was restoration of TbBV/TV to SHAM levels without any effect on bone resorption. 500fPth1 also increased TbBV/TV and TbTh in the vertebrae (L6) and cortical thickness in the mid-femora increasing bone strength at these sites. fPth1 was similarly effective in SHAM rats. Notwithstanding the low amino acid sequence homology with hPTH (1–34), we have clearly established the efficacy of fPth1 (1–34) as an anabolic bone agent.

Removal of methyl orange from aqueous solutions through adsorption by calcium aluminate hydrates

Methyl orange (MO) is a kind of anionic dye and widely used in industry. In this study, tricalcium aluminate hydrates (Ca-Al-LDHs) are used as an adsorbent to remove methyl orange (MO) from aqueous solutions. The resulting products were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (MIR), thermal analysis (TG-DTA) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The XRD results indicated that the MO molecules were successfully intercalated into the tricalcium aluminate hydrates, with the basal spacing of Ca-Al-LDH expanding to 2.48 nm. The MIR spectrum for CaAl-MO-LDH shows obvious bands assigned to the N@N, N@H stretching vibrations and S@O, SO_ 3 group respectively, which are considered as marks to assess MO_ ion intercalation into the interlayers of LDH. The overall morphology of CaAl-MOLDH displayed a ‘‘honey-comb’’ like structure, with the adjacent layers expanded.

Treatment with the vascular disruptive agent OXi4503 induces an immediate and widespread epithelial to mesenchymal transition in the surviving tumor

Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is considered an important mechanism in tumor resistance to drug treatments; however, in vivo observation of this process has been limited. In this study we demonstrated an immediate and widespread EMT involving all surviving tumor cells following treatment of a mouse model of colorectal liver metastases with the vascular disruptive agent OXi4503. EMT was characterized by significant downregulation of E-cadherin, relocation and nuclear accumulation of b-catenin as well as significant upregulation of ZEB1 and vimentin. Concomitantly, significant temporal upregulation in hypoxia and the pro-angiogenic growth factors hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha, hepatocyte growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor and transforming growth factor-beta were seen within the surviving tumor. The process of EMT was transient and by 5 days after treatment tumor cell reversion to epithelial morphology was evident. This reversal, termed mesenchymal to epithelial transition (MET) is a process implicated in the development of new metastases but has not been observed in vivo histologically. Similar EMT changes were observed in response to other antitumor treatments including chemotherapy, thermal ablation, and antiangiogenic treatments in our mouse colorectal metastasis model and in a murine orthotopic breast cancer model after OXi4503 treatment. These results suggest that EMT may be an early mechanism adopted by tumors in response to injury and hypoxic stress, such that inhibition of EMT in combination with other therapies could play a significant role in future cancer therapy.

A comparative study of Sr-incorporated mesoporous bioactive glass scaffolds for regeneration of osteopenic bone defects

SUMMARY: Recently, the use of the pharmacological agent strontium ranelate has come to prominence for the treatment of osteoporosis. While much investigation is focused on preventing disease progression, here we fabricate strontium-containing scaffolds and show that they enhance bone defect healing in the femurs of rats induced by ovariectomy. INTRODUCTION: Recently, the use of the pharmacological agent strontium ranelate has come to prominence for the treatment of osteoporosis due to its ability to prevent bone loss in osteoporotic patients. Although much emphasis has been placed on using pharmacological agents for the prevention of disease, much less attention has been placed on the construction of biomaterials following osteoporotic-related fracture. The aim of the present study was to incorporate bioactive strontium (Sr) trace element into mesoporous bioactive glass (MBG) scaffolds and to investigate their in vivo efficacy for bone defect healing in the femurs of rats induced by ovariectomy. METHODS: In total, 30 animals were divided into five groups as follows: (1) empty defect (control), (2) empty defects with estrogen replacement therapy, (3) defects filled with MBG scaffolds alone, (4) defects filled with MBG + estrogen replacement therapy, and (5) defects filled with strontium-incorporated mesopore-bioglass (Sr-MBG) scaffolds. RESULTS: The two groups demonstrating the highest levels of new bone formation were the defects treated with MBG + estrogen replacement therapy and the defects receiving Sr-MBG scaffolds as assessed by μ-CT and histological analysis. Furthermore, Sr scaffolds had a reduced number of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase-positive cells when compared to other modalities. CONCLUSION: The results from the present study demonstrate that the local release of Sr from bone scaffolds may improve fracture repair. Future large animal models are necessary to investigate the future relationship of Sr incorporation into biomaterials.