Personal injuries sustained in the course of employment - claim against employer under Workcover Queensland Act 1996

In Devlin v South Mole Island Resort [2003] QSC 020 the Court concluded the applicant was entitled to pursue a concurrent claim he alleged he had against the respondent under the Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002 in respect of injuries sustained in the course of employment, and also that the Workcover Queensland Act 1996 did not abolish the applicant's right to proceed against the respondent.

Party to litigation insolvent company - costs order against non-party liquidator

In Kimtran Pty Ltd v Downie [2003] QDC 043 the court allowed in part an appeal from the refusal by the Queensland Building Tribunal to order the respondent liquidators pay the appellants' costs of proceedings in the Tribunal. The decision involved an examination of authorities which have considered the circumstances in which it is in the interests of justice to make an order for costs against a non-party.

Costs order against company in liquidation unlikely to be effective indemnity

In Kimtran v Downie [2003] QCA 424, the Queensland Court of Appeal allowed an appeal from the decision of a District Court judge who had ordered costs against a non-party liquidator. It held that the court's decision in relation to the awarding of costs against a liquidator was not constrained by the decision of the of the Court of Appeal in Mahaffey v Belar Pty Ltd [1999] QCA 2 in the manner stated in the District Court.

Cybercrime attribution : an Eastern European case study

Phishing and related cybercrime is responsible for billions of dollars in losses annually. Gartner reported more than 5 million U.S. consumers lost money to phishing attacks in the 12 months ending in September 2008 (Gartner 2009). This paper asks whether the majority of organised phishing and related cybercrime originates in Eastern Europe rather than elsewhere such as China or the USA. The Russian “Mafiya” in particular has been popularised by the media and entertainment industries to the point where it can be hard to separate fact from fiction but we have endeavoured to look critically at the information available on this area to produce a survey. We take a particular focus on cybercrime from an Australian perspective, as Australia was one of the first places where Phishing attacks against Internet banks were seen. It is suspected these attacks came from Ukrainian spammers. The survey is built from case studies both where individuals from Eastern Europe have been charged with related crimes or unsolved cases where there is some nexus to Eastern Europe. It also uses some earlier work done looking at those early Phishing attacks, archival analysis of Phishing attacks in July 2006 and new work looking at correlation between the Corruption Perception Index, Internet penetration and tertiary education in Russia and the Ukraine. The value of this work is to inform and educate those charged with responding to cybercrime where a large part of the problem originates and try to understand why.

Nonlinear secret sharing immune against cheating

The paper investigates the design of secret sharing that is immune against cheating (as defined by the Tompa-Woll attack). We examine secret sharing with binary shares and secrets. Bounds on the probability of successful cheating are given for two cases. The first case relates to secret sharing based on bent functions and results in a non-perfect scheme. The second case considers perfect secret sharing built on highly nonlinear balanced Boolean functions.

A non-malleable group key exchange protocol robust against active insiders

In this paper we make progress towards solving an open problem posed by Katz and Yung at CRYPTO 2003. We propose the first protocol for key exchange among n ≥2k+1 parties which simultaneously achieves all of the following properties: 1. Key Privacy (including forward security) against active attacks by group outsiders, 2. Non-malleability — meaning in particular that no subset of up to k corrupted group insiders can ‘fix’ the agreed key to a desired value, and 3. Robustness against denial of service attacks by up to k corrupted group insiders. Our insider security properties above are achieved assuming the availability of a reliable broadcast channel.

Effectiveness of policy against illegal disposal of waste

Our objective is to analyze the effectiveness, against the illegal disposal of waste, of a licensing system that has been introduced in a waste management policy. We theoretically find enforcement leverage in the licensing system, and then examine the theoretical result empirically. The results suggest that extending liability to disposers, which forms the basis of the enforcement leverage, deters illegal disposal more effectively than increasing penalties for illegal disposal. We also obtain evidence of transboundary movement of illegal disposal, and find how the court determines penalties for illegal disposal.

Innate transcriptional networks activated in bladder in response to uropathogenic Escherichia coli drive diverse biological pathways and rapid synthesis of IL-10 for defense against bacterial urinary tract infection

Early transcriptional activation events that occur in bladder immediately following bacterial urinary tract infection (UTI) are not well defined. In this study, we describe the whole bladder transcriptome of uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) cystitis in mice using genome-wide expression profiling to define the transcriptome of innate immune activation stemming from UPEC colonization of the bladder. Bladder RNA from female C57BL/6 mice, analyzed using 1.0 ST-Affymetrix microarrays, revealed extensive activation of diverse sets of innate immune response genes, including those that encode multiple IL-family members, receptors, metabolic regulators, MAPK activators, and lymphocyte signaling molecules. These were among 1564 genes differentially regulated at 2 h postinfection, highlighting a rapid and broad innate immune response to bladder colonization. Integrative systems-level analyses using InnateDB (http://www.innatedb.com) bioinformatics and ingenuity pathway analysis identified multiple distinct biological pathways in the bladder transcriptome with extensive involvement of lymphocyte signaling, cell cycle alterations, cytoskeletal, and metabolic changes. A key regulator of IL activity identified in the transcriptome was IL-10, which was analyzed functionally to reveal marked exacerbation of cystitis in IL-10–deficient mice. Studies of clinical UTI revealed significantly elevated urinary IL-10 in patients with UPEC cystitis, indicating a role for IL-10 in the innate response to human UTI. The whole bladder transcriptome presented in this work provides new insight into the diversity of innate factors that determine UTI on a genome-wide scale and will be valuable for further data mining. Identification of protective roles for other elements in the transcriptome will provide critical new insight into the complex cascade of events that underpin UTI.

Phage library screening for the rapid identification and in vivo testing of candidate genes for a DNA vaccine against Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides small colony biotype

A new strategy for rapidly selecting and testing genetic vaccines has been developed, in which a whole genome library is cloned into a bacteriophage λ ZAP Express vector which contains both prokaryotic (Plac) and eukaryotic (PCMV) promoters upstream of the insertion site. The phage library is plated on Escherichia coli cells, immunoblotted, and probed with hyperimmune and/or convalescent-phase antiserum to rapidly identify vaccine candidates. These are then plaque purified and grown as liquid lysates, and whole bacteriophage particles are then used directly to immunize the host, following which PCMV-driven expression of the candidate vaccine gene occurs. In the example given here, a semirandom genome library of the bovine pathogen Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides small colony (SC) biotype was cloned into λ ZAP Express, and two strongly immunodominant clones, λ-A8 and λ-B1, were identified and subsequently tested for vaccine potential against M. mycoides subsp. mycoides SC biotype-induced mycoplasmemia. Sequencing and immunoblotting indicated that clone λ-A8 expressed an isopropyl-β-d-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG)-inducible M. mycoides subsp. mycoides SC biotype protein with a 28-kDa apparent molecular mass, identified as a previously uncharacterized putative lipoprotein (MSC_0397). Clone λ-B1 contained several full-length genes from the M. mycoides subsp. mycoides SC biotype pyruvate dehydrogenase region, and two IPTG-independent polypeptides, of 29 kDa and 57 kDa, were identified on immunoblots. Following vaccination, significant anti-M. mycoides subsp. mycoides SC biotype responses were observed in mice vaccinated with clones λ-A8 and λ-B1. A significant stimulation index was observed following incubation of splenocytes from mice vaccinated with clone λ-A8 with whole live M. mycoides subsp. mycoides SC biotype cells, indicating cellular proliferation. After challenge, mice vaccinated with clone λ-A8 also exhibited a reduced level of mycoplasmemia compared to controls, suggesting that the MSC_0397 lipoprotein has a protective effect in the mouse model when delivered as a bacteriophage DNA vaccine. Bacteriophage-mediated immunoscreening using an appropriate vector system offers a rapid and simple technique for the identification and immediate testing of putative candidate vaccines from a variety of pathogens.

Bribery and corruption in Australian local councils

This paper explores concerns about corruptio and bribery in Australian local government and provides guidance for policy-makers on how to control bribery and corruption. Lack of regulation is a major reason why local councils are not taking appropriate anti-corruption or bribery measures. The author urgers regulators to impose radical and mandatory requirements, especially reporting requirements, on local councils. Australia should also look to other countries for successful measures to curb bribery and corruption.

Alliances in the shadow of conflict

Victorious alliances often fight about the spoils of war. This article presents an experiment on the determinants of whether alliances break up and fight internally after having defeated a joint enemy. First, if peaceful sharing yields an asymmetric rent distribution, this increases the likelihood of fighting. In turn, anticipation of the higher likelihood of internal fight reduces the alliance’s ability to succeed against the outside enemy. Second, the option to make nonbinding nonaggression declarations between alliance members does not make peaceful settlement within the alliance more likely. Third, higher differences in the alliance players’ contributions to alliance effort lead to more internal conflict and more intense fighting.

Methylproamine protects against ionizing radiation by preventing DNA double-strand breaks

Purpose The majority of cancer patients will receive radiotherapy (RT), therefore, investigations into advances of this modality are important. Conventional RT dose intensities are limited by adverse responses in normal tissues and a primary goal is to ameliorate adverse normal tissue effects. The aim of these experiments is to further our understanding regarding the mechanism of radioprotection by the DNA minor groove binder, methylproamine, in a cellular context at the DNA level. Materials and methods We used immunocytochemical methods to measure the accumulation of phosphorylated H2AX (γH2AX) foci following ionizing radiation (IR) in patient-derived lymphoblastoid cells exposed to methylproamine. Furthermore, we performed pulsed field gel electrophoresis DNA damage and repair assays to directly interrogate the action of methylproamine on DNA in irradiated cells. Results We found that methylproamine-treated cells had fewer γH2AX foci after IR compared to untreated cells. Also, the presence of methylproamine decreased the amount of lower molecular weight DNA entering the gel as shown by the pulsed field gel electrophoresis assay. Conclusions These results suggest that methylproamine acts by preventing the formation of DNA double-strand breaks (dsbs) and support the hypothesis that radioprotection by methylproamine is mediated, at least in part, by decreasing initial DNA damage.

Moderate physical activity level as a protective factor against metabolic syndrome in middle-aged and older women

Aims and objectives To investigate whether physical activity is a protective factor against metabolic syndrome in middle-aged and older women. Background Socio-demographic and lifestyle behaviour factors contribute to metabolic syndrome. To minimise the risk of metabolic syndrome, several global guidelines recommend increasing physical activity level. However, only limited research has investigated the relationship between physical activity levels and metabolic syndrome in middle-aged and older women after adjusting for socio-demographic and lifestyle behaviour factors. Design Cross-sectional design. Methods A convenience sample of 326 middle-aged and older women was recruited. Metabolic syndrome was confirmed according to the National Cholesterol Education Program, Adult Treatment Panel III guidelines, and physical activity levels were measured by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Results The sample had a mean age of 60•9 years, and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 43•3%. Postmenopausal women and women with low socioeconomic status (low-education background, without personal income and currently unemployed) had a significantly higher risk of developing metabolic syndrome. After adjusting for significant socio-demographic and lifestyle behaviour factors, the women with moderate or high physical activity levels had a significantly lower (OR = 0•10; OR = 0•11, p < 0•001) risk of metabolic syndrome and a lower risk for each specific component of metabolic syndrome, including elevated fasting plasma glucose (OR = 0•29; OR = 0•26, p = 0•009), elevated blood pressure (OR = 0•18; OR = 0•32, p = 0•029), elevated triglycerides (OR = 0•41; OR = 0•15, p = 0•001), reduced high-density lipoprotein (OR = 0•28; OR = 0•27, p = 0•004) and central obesity (OR = 0•31; OR = 0•22, p = 0•027). Conclusions After adjusting for socio-demographic and lifestyle behaviour factors, physical activity level was a significant protective factor against metabolic syndrome in middle-aged and older women. Higher physical activity levels (moderate or high physical activity level) reduced the risk of metabolic syndrome in middle-aged and older women. Relevance to clinical practice Appropriate strategies should be developed to encourage middle-aged and older women across different socio-demographic backgrounds to engage in moderate or high levels of physical activity to reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome.