The influence of age and gender on triclosan concentrations in Australian human blood serum

The bactericide triclosan has found wide-spread use in e.g. soaps, deodorants and toothpastes. Recent in vitro and in vivo studies indicate that triclosan might exert adverse effects in humans. Triclosan has previously been shown to be present in human plasma and milk at concentrations that are well correlated to the use of personal care products containing triclosan. In this study we investigated the influence of age, gender, and the region of residence on triclosan concentrations in pooled samples of Australian human blood serum. The results showed no influence of region of residence on the concentrations of triclosan. There was a small but significant influence of age and gender on the serum triclosan concentrations, which were higher in males than in females, and highest in the group of 31–45 year old males and females. However, overall there was a lack of pronounced differences in the triclosan concentrations within the dataset, which suggests that the exposure to triclosan among different groups of the Australian population is relatively homogenous. A selection of the dataset was compared with previous measurements of triclosan concentrations in human plasma from Sweden, where the use of triclosan is expected to be low due to consumer advisories. The triclosan concentrations were a factor of 2 higher in Australian serum than in Swedish plasma.

Required hours of practice for learner drivers : a comparison between two Australian jurisdictions

Problem: This study considers whether requiring learner drivers to complete a set number of hours while on a learner licence affects the amount of hours of supervised practice that they undertake. It compares the amount of practice that learners in Queensland and New South Wales report undertaking. At the time the study was conducted, learner drivers in New South Wales were required to complete 50 hours of supervised practice while those from Queensland were not. Method: Participants were approached outside driver licensing centres after they had just completed their practical driving test to obtain their provisional (intermediate) licence. Those agreeing to participate were interviewed over the phone later and asked a range of questions to obtain information including socio-demographic details and amount of supervised practice completed. Results: There was a significant difference in the amount of practice that learners reported undertaking. Participants from New South Wales reported completing a significantly greater amount of practice (M = 73.3 hours, sd = 29.12 hours) on their learner licence than those from Queensland (M = 64.1 hours, sd = 51.05 hours). However, the distribution of hours of practice among the Queensland participants was bimodal in nature. Participants from Queensland reported either completing much less or much more practice than the New South Wales average. Summary: While it appears that the requirement that learner drivers complete a set number of hours may increase the average amount of hours of practice obtained, it may also serve to discourage drivers from obtaining additional practice, over and above the required hours. Impact on Industry: The results of this study suggest that the implications of requiring learner drivers to complete a set number of hours of supervised practice are complex. In some cases, policy makers may inadvertently limit the amount of hours learners obtain to the mandated amount rather than encouraging them to obtain as much practice as possible.

Land use at privatized Australian airports : classification and analyses

In recent years the air transport industry has experienced unprecedented growth, driven by strong local and global economies. Whether this growth can continue in the face of anticipated oil crises; international economic forecasts and recent influenza outbreaks is yet to be seen. One thing is certain, airport owners and operators will continue to be faced with challenging environments in which to do business. In response, many airports recognize the value in diversifying their revenue streams through a variety of landside property developments within the airport boundary. In Australia it is the type and intended market of this development that is a point of contention between private airport corporations and their surrounding municipalities. The aim of this preliminary research is to identify and categorize on-airport development occurring at the twenty-two privatized Australian airports which are administered under the Airports Act [1996]. This new knowledge will assist airport and municipal planners in understanding the current extent and category of on-airport land use, allowing them to make better decisions when proposing development both within airport master plans and beyond the airport boundary in local town and municipal plans.

Australian media ethics regime and ethical risk management

Media organizations are simultaneously key elements of an effective democracy and, for the most part, commercial entities seeking success in the market. They play an essential role in the formation of public opinion and the influence on personal choices. Yet most of them are commercial enterprises seeking readers or viewers, advertising, favorable regulatory decisions for their media, and other assets. This creates some intrinsic difficulties and produces some sharp tensions within media ethics. In this article, we examine such tensions—in theory and practice. We then consider the feasibility of introducing an ethics regime to the media industry—a regime that would be effective in a deregulated environment in protecting public interest and social responsibility. In the article, we also outline a rationale and a methodology for the institutionalization of an acceptable and workable media ethics regime that aims to protect the integrity of the industry in a future of undoubtedly increasing commercial pressure.

Population aging in a globalizing labour market: implications for older workers

Against a background of population aging, and with it, warnings about the sustainability of social welfare systems and problems associated with declining labour supply, there is an increasing policy emphasis on extending working lives of older workers among the industrialised nations (Hirsch, 2003; Keese, 2005; Taylor, 2006). However, recent commentaries have tended to focus on the relationship between population aging and the labour market, largely ignoring other critical factors that are affecting older workers’ relationship with the labour market. This contrasts with extensive research undertaken in the 1980s and 1990s when the forces acting upon older workers at that time were thoroughly elucidated (e.g. Kohli et al., 1991). The focus of this paper is on the labour supply challenges for employers and nations arising from demographic trends, in combination with social and technological changes and the wider forces of globalisation, how each is responding, and how these trends are affecting older workers’ trying to secure or maintain footholds in a labour market but facing, as Richard Sennett (2006) puts it, the ‘spectre of uselessness’ as jobs they could do have either migrated to other parts of the world or have been destroyed in the wake of industry failure.

Blogs, wikis and podcasts : collaborative knowledge building tools in a design and technology course

Design and Technology has become an important part of the school curriculum. In Queensland, Australia, Technology (which encompasses Design) is one of the Key Learning Areas (KLAs) for students in the first ten years of schooling. This KLA adopts a student-centred, hands-on constructivist approach to teaching and learning. The ability to conceptualise and implement appropriate learning experiences, however, has been a challenge for some early career teachers. This paper describes how Design and Technology is being taught to pre-service primary teachers at an Australian University through their involvement in a range of authentic problem-solving activities supported by social learning tools such as wikis and blogs. An interview with a sample from this group (N=5) provides an insight into how these social software tools enhanced their knowledge and learning. This paper will describe how these social learning tools impact on the agency of learning.

Romance and Reconciliation : The secret life of indigenous sexuality on Australian television drama

This article examines the representation of Indigenous sexuality on Australian television drama since the 1970s, suggesting the political importance of such representations. In 1976 Justine Saunders became the first regular Indigenous character on an Australian television drama series, as the hairdresser Rhonda Jackson in Number 96. She was presented as sexually attractive, but this was expressed through a rape scene after a party. Twenty five years later, Deborah Mailman starred in The Secret Life of Us, as Kelly, who is also presented as sexually attractive. But her character can be seen in many romantic relationships. The article explores changing representations that moved us from Number 96 to The Secret Life of Us, via The Flying Doctors and Heartland. It suggests that in representations of intimate and loving relationships on screen it has only recently become possible to see hopeful models for interaction between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

Just Relations : Indigenous families in Australian lifestyle media

This paper argues that the increasing visibility of Indigenous families in the mainstream Australian media over the past ten years has produced new opportunities for addressing national injustices of the Stolen Generations. It shows how, as certain celebrities like Ernie Dingo, Nova Peris and Cathy Freeman, have become popular household names, a concurrent public interest in their family backgrounds has grown. Descriptive accounts of relationships and shared histories – propelled by the expansion of the lifestyle television genre in this context – has enabled some stories of the ‘Stolen Generations’ to be seen as ‘ordinary’, and part of a broader sense of everyday Australian life for the first time. With the aid of recent sexual citizenship research, the article illustrates that such middle-class representations give voice to new embodiments of citizenship in the post-apology era, making Indigenous justice more subjectively interconnected with life in the white Australian public sphere.

'Black is beautiful', and Indigenous : Aboriginal authorship in Australian popular music

The ‘black is beautiful’ movement began in the United States in the early sixties, and changed mainstream attitudes towards the body, fashion and personal aesthetics, gaining African American people a new sense of pride in being – and being called – ‘black’. In Australia the movement also had implications for changing the political meanings of ‘black’ in white society. However, it is not until the last decade, through the global influence of Afro-American music, that a distinctly Indigenous sense of black sexiness has captured the attention of mainstream audiences. The article examines such recent developments, and suggests that, through the appropriation of Afro-American aesthetics and styles, Indigenous producers and performers have developed new forms of Indigenous public agency, demonstrating that black is beautiful, and Indigenous.

Identity and text : developing self-conscious readers

Globalisation and societal change suggest the language and literacy skills needed to make meaning in our lives are increasing and changing radically. Multiliteracies are influencing the future of literacy teaching. One aspect of the pedagogy of multiliteracies is recruiting learners’ previous and current experiences as an integral part of the learning experience. This paper examines the implications of results from a project that examined student responses to a postmodern picture book, in particular, ways teachers might develop students’ self-knowledge about reading. It draws on Freebody and Luke’s Four Resources Model of Reading and recently developed models for teaching multiliteracies.

"Men at play : masculinities in Australian theater since the 1950s" -- By Jonathan Bollen, Adrian Kiernander and Bruce Parr

Adopting a thematic rather than chronological arrangement, this co-authored book surveys representations of men and masculinity in post-war Australian theater. Its searching and sophisticated analyses draw upon playscripts, critical records and archival material, including screen versions of stage productions. The study is organized around two distinct periods of Australian theater history: the 1950s to 1970, during which time a national theatremovement flourished, and the mid-1980s onward.Whilst some attention is given to different genres, discussion centers primarily on realist works from the mainstream. Several plays usually omitted from orthodox theater histories, such as Barry Pree’s A Fox in the Night (1959), are given detailed treatments.