Nondiscretionary residential water use : the impact of habits and water-efficient technologies

Several studies published in the last few decades have demonstrated a low price-elasticity for residential water use. In particular, it has been shown that there is a quantity of water demanded that remains constant regardless of prices and other economic factors. In this research, we characterise residential water demand based on a Stone-Geary utility function. This specification is not only theory-compatible but can also explicitly model a minimum level of consumption not dependent on prices or income. This is described as minimum threshold or nondiscretionary water use. Additionally, the Stone-Geary framework is used to model the subsistence level of water consumption that is dependent on the temporal evolution of consumer habits and stock of physical capital. The main aim of this study is to analyse the impact of water-saving habits and water-efficient technologies on residential water demand, while additionally focusing attention on nondiscretionary uses. This is informed by an empirical application using data from a survey conducted among residents of Brisbane City Council, Australia. The results will be especially useful in the design of water tariffs and other water-saving policies.

Monitoring the health-related labelling of foods and non-alcoholic beverages in retail settings

Food labelling on food packaging has the potential to have both positive and negative effects on diets. Monitoring different aspects of food labelling would help to identify priority policy options to help people make healthier food choices. A taxonomy of the elements of health-related food labelling is proposed. A systematic review of studies that assessed the nature and extent of health-related food labelling has been conducted to identify approaches to monitoring food labelling. A step-wise approach has been developed for independently assessing the nature and extent of health-related food labelling in different countries and over time. Procedures for sampling the food supply, and collecting and analysing data are proposed, as well as quantifiable measurement indicators and benchmarks for health-related food labelling.

The influence of perpetrator and victim intoxication on perceivers' ratings of a sexual perpetrator's own awareness of wrongdoing for his sexually aggressive behaviour

Rape-perception studies have examined the influence of alcohol intoxication on perpetrator blame attributions: However, no studies have examined how intoxication affects perceptions of a sexual perpetrator’s awareness of the wrongfulness of his behaviour despite its relevance to the conceptualisation of responsibility and blame. This experiment investigated the impact of perpetrator and victim intoxication on perceptions of a perpetrator’s own awareness of wrongdoing for acquaintance rape. Undergraduate students (N = 314) read one of four rape-scenarios in which intoxication was manipulated and rated the perpetrator’s awareness of the consequences and wrongfulness of his sexual aggression. Findings supported the hypothesis that participants would assign less awareness of wrongdoing to an intoxicated, compared to sober, perpetrator. Further, males ascribed more awareness of wrongdoing to the perpetrator of an intoxicated, compared to sober, victim. Findings indicate that intoxicated sexual perpetrators are seen as not fully aware of the nature and consequences of their crime.

Co-production of actions and activities at airport security screening

In this paper we will examine passenger actions and activities at the security screening points of Australian domestic and international airports. Our findings and analysis provide a more complete understanding of the current airport passenger security screening experience. Data in this paper is comprised of field studies conducted at two Australian airports, one domestic and one international. Video data was collected by cameras situated either side of the security screening point. A total of one hundred and ninety-six passengers were observed. Two methods of analysis are used. First, the activities of passengers are coded and analysed to reveal the common activities at domestic and international security regimes and between quiet and busy periods. Second, observation of passenger activities is used to reveal uncommon aspects. The results show that passengers do more at security screening that being passively scanned. Passengers queue, unpack the required items from their bags and from their pockets, walk through the metal-detector, re-pack and occasionally return to be re-screened. For each of these activities, passengers must understand the procedures at the security screening point and must co-ordinate various actions and objects in time and space. Through this coordination passengers are active participants in making the security checkpoint function – they are co-producers of the security screening process.

Bioavailability study of oral and intravenous OGT 719, a novel nucleoside analogue with preferential activity in the liver

Purpose: Although oral fluoropyrimidine pro-drugs are increasingly being administered in preference to intravenous nucleoside analogues in cancer chemotherapy, their activation in malignant liver tissue may be insufficient. OGT 719 (1-galactopyranosyl-5-fluorouracil) is a novel nucleoside analogue, preferentially localized in hepatocytes and hepatoma cells via the asialoglycoprotein receptor. The aim of this study was to assess the systemic bioavailability of this rationally designed drug in 16 patients with advanced solid cancers. Method: Crossover pharmacokinetic study of oral (400 or 800 mg) and intravenous (250 mg/m 2) OGT 719. Results: Linear pharmacokinetics and oral bioavailability of approximately 25% were observed at the dose levels used in this study. Like other 5-FU prodrugs, considerable interpatient variability was observed in bioavailability following oral dosing. The mean half-life for oral doses was 4 h. OGT 719 was well tolerated. No objective tumour responses were demonstrated. Conclusion: The systemic bioavailability and half-life of oral OGT 719 are sufficient to merit dose escalation studies with frequent daily dosing. Subsequent efficacy studies should be performed in patients with primary and secondary liver malignancies.

Bioavailability study of oral and intravenous OGT 719, a novel nucleoside analogue with preferential activity in the liver

Purpose: Although oral fluoropyrimidine pro-drugs are increasingly being administered in preference to intravenous nucleoside analogues in cancer chemotherapy, their activation in malignant liver tissue may be insufficient. OGT 719 (1-galactopyranosyl-5-fluorouracil) is a novel nucleoside analogue, preferentially localized in hepatocytes and hepatoma cells via the asialoglycoprotein receptor. The aim of this study was to assess the systemic bioavailability of this rationally designed drug in 16 patients with advanced solid cancers. Method: Crossover pharmacokinetic study of oral (400 or 800 mg) and intravenous (250 mg/m 2) OGT 719. Results: Linear pharmacokinetics and oral bioavailability of approximately 25% were observed at the dose levels used in this study. Like other 5-FU prodrugs, considerable interpatient variability was observed in bioavailability following oral dosing. The mean half-life for oral doses was 4 h. OGT 719 was well tolerated. No objective tumour responses were demonstrated. Conclusion: The systemic bioavailability and half-life of oral OGT 719 are sufficient to merit dose escalation studies with frequent daily dosing. Subsequent efficacy studies should be performed in patients with primary and secondary liver malignancies.

Networked masculinities and social networking sites : a call for the analysis of men and contemporary digital media

It is of course recognised that technology can be gendered and implicated in gender relations. However, it continues to be the case that men’s experiences with technology are underexplored and the situation is even more problematic where digital media is concerned. Over the past 30 years we have witnessed a dramatic rise in the pervasiveness of digital media across many parts of the world and as associated with wide ranging aspects of our lives. This rise has been fuelled over the last decade by the emergence of Web 2.0 and particularly Social Networking Sites (SNS). Given this context, I believe it is necessary for us to undertake more work to understand men’s engagements with digital media, the implications this might have for masculinities and the analysis of gender relations more generally. To begin to unpack this area, I engage theorizations of the properties of digital media networks and integrate this with the masculinity studies field. Using this framework, I suggest we need to consider the rise in what I call networked masculinities – those masculinities (co)produced and reproduced with digitally networked publics. Through this analysis I discuss themes related to digital mediators, relationships, play and leisure, work and commerce, and ethics. I conclude that as masculinities can be, and are being, complicated and given agency by advancing notions and practices of connectivity, mobility, classification and convergence, those engaged with masculinity studies and digital media have much to contribute.

On the role of RNA silencing in the pathogenicity and evolution of viroids and viral satellites

Viroids and most viral satellites have small, noncoding, and highly structured RNA genomes. How they cause disease symptoms without encoding proteins and why they have characteristic secondary structures are two longstanding questions. Recent studies have shown that both viroids and satellites are capable of inducing RNA silencing, suggesting a possible role of this mechanism in the pathology and evolution of these subviral RNAs. Here we show that preventing RNA silencing in tobacco, using a silencing suppressor, greatly reduces the symptoms caused by the Y satellite of cucumber mosaic virus. Furthermore, tomato plants expressing hairpin RNA, derived from potato spindle tuber viroid, developed symptoms similar to those of potato spindle tuber viroid infection. These results provide evidence suggesting that viroids and satellites cause disease symptoms by directing RNA silencing against physiologically important host genes. We also show that viroid and satellite RNAs are significantly resistant to RNA silencing-mediated degradation, suggesting that RNA silencing is an important selection pressure shaping the evolution of the secondary structures of these pathogens.

A longitudinal study of the impact of chronic psychological stress on health-related quality of life and clinical biomarkers : protocol for the Australian Healthy Aging of Women Study

BACKGROUND: Despite advancements in our understanding of the importance of stress reduction in achieving good health, we still only have limited insight into the impact of stress on cellular function. Recent studies have suggested that exposure to prolonged psychological stress may alter an individual's physiological responses, and contribute to morbidity and mortality. This paper presents an overview of the study protocol we are using to examine the impact of life stressors on lifestyle factors, health-related quality of life and novel and established biomarkers of stress in midlife and older Australian women.The primary aim of this study is to explore the links between chronic psychological stress on both subjective and objective health markers in midlife and older Australian women. The study examines the extent to which exposure frightening, upsetting or stressful events such as natural disasters, illness or death of a relative, miscarriage and relationship conflict is correlated with a variety of objective and subjective health markers.Methods/design: This study is embedded within the longitudinal Healthy Aging of Women's study which has collected data from midlife and older Australian women at 5 yearly intervals since 2001, and uses the Allostastic model of women's health by Groer and colleagues in 2010. The current study expands the focus of the HOW study and will assess the impact of life stressors on quality of life and clinical biomarkers in midlife and older Australian women to explain the impact of chronic psychological stress in women. DISCUSSION: The proposed study hypothesizes that women are at increased risk of exposure to multiple or repeated stressors, some being unique to women, and the frequency and chronicity of stressors increases women's risk of adverse health outcomes. This study aims to further our understanding of the relationships between stressful life experiences, perceived quality of life, stress biomarkers, chronic illness, and health status in women.

Biobanking of blood and bone marrow : emerging challenges for custodians of public resources

The Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR) is a publicly funded company that is part of an international network that facilitates unrelated bone marrow transplantation. This role means that the ABMDR has access to a large biospecimen repository, therefore making it a highly valuable research resource. Recognising the potential value of these biospecimens for research purposes, the ABMDR is in the process of determining whether, and how, to share its biospecimens with other biobanks. While this would undoubtedly be of value to the scientific community, and ultimately to the wider community, it would also inevitably transform the role of an institution whose primary role is therapeutic, and would compromise the degree of control that a custodian has over donated material. This article describe the challenges confronting the ABMDR, and organisations like it, in balancing their duties to donors, patients, researchers and the general public. These problems have led inevitably to the use of "property" rights language in the discussion of these issues but notions of gift, ownership, trusteeship and transfer might also be considered.

Public Space and the Marginalisation of Children and Young People

Throughout much of the world, urban and rural public spaces may be said to be under attack by property developers, commercial interests and also attempts by civic authorities to regulate, restrict, reframe and rebrand these spaces. A consequence of the increasingly security driven, privatised, commercial and surveilled nature of public space is the exclusion and displacement of those considered ‘flawed’ and unwelcome in the ‘spectacular’ consumption spaces of many major urban centres. In the name of urban regeneration, processes of securitisation, ‘gentrification’ and creative cities initiatives can act to refashion public space as sites of selective inclusion and exclusion. The use of surveillance and other control technologies as deployed in and around the UK ‘Riots’ of 2011 may help to promote and encourage a passing sense of personal safety and confidence in using public space. Through systems of social sorting, the same surveillance assemblages can also further the physical, emotional and psychological exclusion of certain groups and individuals, deemed to be both ‘out of time and out of place’ in major zones of urban, conspicuous, consumption. In this harsh environment of monitoring and control procedures, children and young people’s use of public spaces and places in parks, neighbourhoods, shopping malls and streets is often viewed as a threat to social order, requiring various forms of punitive and/or remedial action. Much of this civic action actively excludes some children and young people from participation and as a consequence, their trust in local processes and communities is eroded. This paper discusses worldwide developments in the surveillance, governance and control of the public space environments used by children and young people in particular and the capacity for their displacement and marginality, diminishing their sense of belonging, wellbeing and rights to public space as an expression of their social, political and civil citizenship(s).

Shifting Powers : Protection of Refugees and Displaced Persons in the Asia Pacific Region

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) 2011 statistics on refugee populations residing by region are a stark reminder of the challenge facing states and civil society in the Asia Pacific. In 2011, Africa hosted 2,149,000 refugees; the Americas, Europe, and Middle East and North Africa hosted 513 ,500, 1,605,500 and 1,889,900 respectively, while the Asia Pacific hosted a staggering 3,793,900. The fact that 35 per cent of the world's refugees reside in the Asia Pacific, coupled with the fact that 84 per cent of refugees displaced in Asia remain in the region,raises the questions why so few countries in the region are signatories to the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees ('Refugee Convention') or cognate rights instruments and why no formally binding regional agreement exists for the equitable sharing of responsibilities for refugees...

Prognostic impact of vascular and lymphovascular invasion in early lung cancer

Background The prognostic significance of vascular and lymphatic invasion in non-small-cell lung cancer is under continuous debate. We analyzed the effect of tumor aggressiveness (lymphatic and/or vessel invasion) on survival and relapse in stage I and II non-small-cell lung cancer. Methods We retrospectively analyzed prospectively collected data of 457 patients with stage I and II non-small-cell lung cancer from 1998 to 2008. Specimens were analyzed for intratumoral vascular invasion and lymphovascular space invasion. Overall survival and disease-free survival were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and differences were determined by the logrank test. Cox regression analysis was performed to identify independent risk factors. Results: The incidence of intratumoral vascular invasion was 23.4%, and this correlated significantly with grade of differentiation, visceral pleural involvement, lymphovascular space invasion, and N status. The incidence of lymphovascular space invasion was 5.5%, and this correlated significantly with grade of differentiation, lymph nodes involved, and intratumoral vascular invasion. On multivariate analyses, intratumoral vascular invasion proved to be an significant independent risk factor for overall survival but not for disease-free survival. Lymphovascular space invasion was associated significantly with early tumor recurrence but not with overall survival. Conclusions: Vascular and lymphatic invasion can serve as independent prognostic factors in completely resected nonsmall- cell lung cancer. Intratumoral vascular invasion and lymphovascular space invasion in early stage non-small-cell lung cancer are important factors in overall survival and early tumor recurrence. Further large scale studies with more recent patient cohorts and refined histological techniques are warranted.

The Deleuze Spray, New York 1977 : an Interview with Sanford Kwinter, Professor of Architectural Theory and Criticism at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, on the Architectural Reception of Gilles Deleuze in America

So what do you want to know? I was in Paris between ‘75 and ‘78. But about half way through, Sylvère published the Anti-Oedipus issue of Semiotext(e) and, actually, that was for me one of the deciding events that made me decide to come to the United States, to come study at Columbia University. There appeared to be this little group working at Columbia working around these issues. In 1970, in Paris even, Deleuze was a cult – there was an incredibly small number of people following Deleuze... A transcript of my Interview with Kwinter about the Architectural Reception of Deleuze in America, which took place at Jerry’s,' Soho, New York, 15 January 2003. The transcript appeared as an Appendix at the back of my Masters Thesis undertaken at Yale School of Architecture, printed May 2003.