The National Mental Health Strategy and Geographical Access to Mental Health Services: Some empirical results

In 1992 the Australian Government adopted the National Mental Health Strategy in an attempt to improve the provision of mental health services. A component was to improve geographical access to hospital-based mental health services. This paper is concerned with determining if this objective has been achieved. Time-series data on patients (at a regional level) with mental illness in the State of Queensland are available for the years from 1968-69 to 2002-03. A change in regional classification by the Australian Bureau of Statistics complicates the analysis by precluding certain empirical tests such as converging utilisation rates by region. To overcome this problem, it was decided to apply concepts of concentration and equality that are commonly employed in industrial economics to the regional data. The empirical results show no evidence of improving regional access following the National Mental Health Strategy: in fact the statistical results show the opposite, i.e. declining regional access.

Stochastic modelling and simulations for solute transport in porous media

A stochastic model for solute transport in aquifers is studied based on the concepts of stochastic velocity and stochastic diffusivity. By applying finite difference techniques to the spatial variables of the stochastic governing equation, a system of stiff stochastic ordinary differential equations is obtained. Both the semi-implicit Euler method and the balanced implicit method are used for solving this stochastic system. Based on the Karhunen-Loeve expansion, stochastic processes in time and space are calculated by means of a spatial correlation matrix. Four types of spatial correlation matrices are presented based on the hydraulic properties of physical parameters. Simulations with two types of correlation matrices are presented.

Chronic illness in non-heterosexual contexts: towards a critical LGBTQ health psychology

In this thesis, I contribute to the expansion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) psychology by examining chronic illness within non-heterosexual contexts. Chronic illness, beyond the confines of HIV/AIDS, has been a neglected topic in LGBTQ psychology and sexual identity is often overlooked within health psychology. When the health of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people has been considered there has been an over-reliance on quantitative methods and comparative approaches which seek to compare LGB people?s health to their heterosexual counterparts. In contrast, I adopt a critical perspective and qualitative methods to explore LGBTQ health. My research brings together ideas from LGBTQ psychology and critical health psychology to explore non-heterosexuals? experiences of chronic illness and the discursive contexts within which LGB people live with chronic health conditions. I also highlight the heteronormativity which pervades academic health psychology as well as the „lay? health literature. The research presented in this thesis draws on three different sources of qualitative data: a qualitative online questionnaire (n=190), an online discussion within a newsgroup for people with diabetes, and semi-structured interviews with 20 LGB people with diabetes. These data are analysed using critical realist forms of thematic analysis and discourse analysis. In the first analytic chapter (Chapter 3), I report the perspectives of LGB people living with many different chronic illnesses and how they felt their sexuality shapes their experiences of illness. In Chapter 4, I examine heterosexism within an online discussion and consider the ways in which sexuality is constructed as (ir)relevant to a diabetes support forum. In Chapter 5, I analyse LGB people?s talk about the support family and partners provide in relation to their diabetes and how they negotiate wider discourses of gender, sexuality and individualism. In Chapter 6 I explore how diabetes intersects with gay and bisexual men?s sex lives. In the concluding chapter, I discuss the contributions of my research for a critical LGBTQ health psychology and identify some possible areas for future research.

Chronic illness in non-heterosexual contexts: an online survey of experiences

In this article we contribute to the expansion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) health psychology beyond the confines of sexual health by examining the experiences of lesbian, gay and bisexual people living with non-HIV related chronic illness. Using a (predominantly) qualitative online survey, the perspectives of 190 LGB people with 52 different chronic illnesses from eight countries were collected. The five most commonly reported physical conditions were arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, asthma and chronic fatigue syndrome. Our analysis focuses on four themes within participants’ written comments: (1) ableism within LGBT communities; (2) isolation from LGBT communities and other LGB people living with chronic illness; (3)heteronormativity within sources of information and support and; (4) homophobia from healthcare professionals. We conclude by suggesting that LGBTQ psychology could usefully draw on critical health psychology principles and frameworks to explore non-heterosexual’s lived experiences of chronic illness, and also that there remains a need for specifically targeted support groups and services for LGB people with chronic illnesses.

The use of enzyme catalysts in organic media for the synthesis of biodegradable polyesters

The enzyme catalysed polytransesterification of diesters with diols was investigated under various conditions. The most consistent results were obtained using crude porcine pancreatic lipase (PPL) suspended in anhydrous diethyl ether. Addition of molecular sieve to the above system gave higher molecular weight products. The PPL catalysed reaction of bis(2,2,2-trichlorethyl) adipate and glutarate with butane-1,4-diol in anhydrous ether with and without molecular sieve was investigated over a range of times from 8 to 240 hours. The 72 hour adipate reaction with molecular sieve gave the highest molecular weight polymer (Mn 6,500 and Mw 9,400). The glutarate gave the maximum molecular weight polyester after 24 hours (Mn 5,700 and Mw 9,500). Occasionally the glutarate reaction produced very high molecular weight polyester-enzyme complexes. Toluene generally gave lower molecular weight products than diethyl ether. Dichloromethane and tetrahydrofuran gave mainly dimers and trimers. Alternative enzyme and diol systems were also investigated. These yielded no polymeric products. The molecular weights of the polyesters were determined by 1H NMR end-group analysis and by GPC. The molecular weights determined by NMR were on average about twice as great as those determined by GPC. The synthesis of the following diesters is described: i)Bis(2,2,2-trichloroethyl) succinate, glutarate, adipate, trans-3-hexenedioate, and trans-3,4-epoxyadipate. ii) Diphenyl glutarate and adipate.iii)Bis(2,2,2-fluoroethyl) glutarate and trans-3-hexendioate.iv) Divinyl glutarate. v) N,N'Glutaryl dicyclohexanone oxime.The polytransesterification of all the above esters with diols was investigated. The easily synthesised bis(2,2,2-trichloroethyl) glutarate and adipate gave the best results and the work was concentrated on these two esters.

Quality of life, stress and mental health in parents of children with parentally diagnosed food allergy compared to medically diagnosed and healthy controls

Background. Food allergy is related to poorer quality of life (QoL) and mental health of caregivers. Many parents diagnose food allergy in their child without seeking medical care and there is limited research on this group. This study investigated parental QoL and mental health in parents of children with parent-diagnosed food allergy (PA), medically diagnosed food allergy (MA), and a control group with no allergy (NA). Methods. One hundred and fifty parents from a general population completed validated measures of QoL, anxiety, depression, and stress. Results. Parents of children with food allergy (PA or MA) reported higher stress, anxiety, and depression than the control group (all ). Parents of children with MA reported poorer food allergy related QoL compared to parents of children with PA (); parents of children with PA reported poorer general QoL compared to parents of children with MA (). Conclusion. Parents of children with food allergy have significantly poorer mental health compared to healthy controls, irrespective of whether food allergy is medically diagnosed or not. It is important to encourage parents to have their child medically tested for food allergy and to recognise and refer for psychological support where needed.

Three-dimensional fluid pressure mapping in porous media using magnetic resonance imaging with gas-filled liposomes

This paper presents and demonstrates a method for using magnetic resonance imaging to measure local pressure of a fluid saturating a porous medium. The method is tested both in a static system of packed silica gel and in saturated sintered glass cylinders experiencing fluid flow. The fluid used contains 3% gas in the form of 3-μm average diameter gas filled 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (C18:0, MW: 790.16) liposomes suspended in 5% glycerol and 0.5% Methyl cellulose with water. Preliminary studies at 2.35 T demonstrate relative magnetic resonance signal changes of 20% per bar in bulk fluid for an echo time TE=40 ms, and 6-10% in consolidated porous media for TE=10 ms, over the range 0.8-1.8 bar for a spatial resolution of 0.1 mm3 and a temporal resolution of 30 s. The stability of this solution with relation to applied pressure and methods for improving sensitivity are discussed. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Unknown agents in translated political discourse

This article investigates the role of translation and interpreting in political discourse. It illustrates discursive events in the domain of politics and the resulting discourse types, such as jointly produced texts, press conferences and speeches. It shows that methods of Critical Discourse Analysis can be used effectively to reveal translation and interpreting strategies as well as transformations that occur in recontextualisation processes across languages, cultures, and discourse domains, in particular recontextualisation in mass media. It argues that the complexity of translational activities in the field of politics has not yet seen sufficient attention within Translation Studies. The article concludes by outlining a research programme for investigating political discourse in translation. ©2012 John Benjamins Publishing Company.

The representation of food in social media forum Twitter

Social Media is becoming an increasingly important part of people’s lives and is being used increasingly in the food and agriculture sector. This paper considers the extent to which each section of the food supply chain is represented in Twitter and use the hashtag #food. We looked at the 20 most popular words for each part of the supply chain by categorising 5000 randomly selected tweets to different sections of the food chain and then analysing each category. We sorted the users by those who tweeted most frequently and categorised their position in the food supply chain. Finally to consider the indegree of influence, we took the top 100 tweeters from the previous list and consider what following these users have. From this we found that consumers are the most represented area of the food chain, and logistics is the least represented. Consumers had 51.50% of the users and 87.42% of the top words tweeted from that part of the food chain. We found little evidence of logistics representation for either tweets or users (0.84% and 0.35% respectively). The top users were found to follow a high percentage of their own followers with most having over 70% the same. This research will bring greater understanding of how people perceive the food sector and how Twitter can be used within this sector.