A fragment of the LG3 peptide of endorepellin is present in the urine of physically active mining workers : a potential marker of physical activity

Biomarker analysis has been implemented in sports research in an attempt to monitor the effects of exertion and fatigue in athletes. This study proposed that while such biomarkers may be useful for monitoring injury risk in workers, proteomic approaches might also be utilised to identify novel exertion or injury markers. We found that urinary urea and cortisol levels were significantly elevated in mining workers following a 12 hour overnight shift. These levels failed to return to baseline over 24h in the more active maintenance crew compared to truck drivers (operators) suggesting a lack of recovery between shifts. Use of a SELDI-TOF MS approach to detect novel exertion or injury markers revealed a spectral feature which was associated with workers in both work categories who were engaged in higher levels of physical activity. This feature was identified as the LG3 peptide, a C-terminal fragment of the anti-angiogenic / anti-tumourigenic protein endorepellin. This finding suggests that urinary LG3 peptide may be a biomarker of physical activity. It is also possible that the activity mediated release of LG3 / endorepellin into the circulation may represent a biological mechanism for the known inverse association between physical activity and cancer risk / survival.

The development and implementation of the Promoting Resilient Officers (PRO) Program

This article describes the rationale, developmental process, and content of a resilience-building program that has been implemented with new recruits to a police academy. The process of extensive consultation with the police service (consistent with community-based participatory research principles) has helped to provide a sustainable and pragmatic program framework. The Promoting Resilient Officers (PRO) program is a seven-session strength-based program that integrates CBT and interpersonal perspectives within a salutogenic paradigm. PRO also includes two “refresher” sessions delivered online up to 18 months post the initial face-to-face sessions. PRO was delivered with high fidelity as an integral part of police recruit training and made sustainable by using psychologists within the police service to deliver the intervention. Implementation incorporated a Randomized Controlled design by which a rigorous evaluation of program effectiveness is being conducted. Initial data presented indicates a high level of engagement and acceptability of the PRO program.

Evolution of life drama program

Life Drama is a program of drama-based experiential learning activities involving groups of community leaders and members. The three-year project evolved from a theatre-in-education approach to an intercultural theatre approach incorporating Papua New Guinean performance traditions. It involved Australian, English and Papua New Guinean researchers at four key sites: Tari, Southern Highlands Province; Port Moresby, National Capital District; Madang, Madang Province; and Karkar Island, Madang Province. The project was innovative in a number of ways, including: a Participatory Action Research approach, involving community leaders at various levels as co-researchers; a participatory theatre approach as opposed to a performance approach; emphasis on sexual health promotion and HIV prevention through an experiential learning paradigm; addressing the norms and realities of the community rather than targeting only individual behaviour; an International Theatre Research Laboratory to explore the fusion of traditional cultural elements with contemporary health promotion aims; and an innovative method-assemblage approach to collecting and triangulating quantitative, qualitative, and performative data. The project attracted over $350,000 in funding and support from the Australian Research Council, National AIDS Secretariat in PNG, and private sector and non-government partners. Findings were presented at various conferences and symposia including the annual Medical Symposium in Wewak (2010), the triennial Research in Drama Education conference in Exeter (2011), and the International Research in Drama Education conference (Sydney 2009 and Limerick 2012). A number of peer-reviewed journal articles have been published. Elements of the program have been incorporated into the University of Goroka's compulsory HIV awareness program for undergraduate students. A national dissemination strategy for Life Drama in Papua New Guinea is now underway, with seed funding of AUD$74,000 from the National AIDS Council Secretariat, PNG.

Interfacing Jack and anybody : towards anthropometric musculoskeletal digital human modeling

Virtual prototyping emerges as a new technology to replace existing physical prototypes for product evaluation, which are costly and time consuming to manufacture. Virtualization technology allows engineers and ergonomists to perform virtual builds and different ergonomic analyses on a product. Digital Human Modelling (DHM) software packages such as Siemens Jack, often integrate with CAD systems to provide a virtual environment which allows investigation of operator and product compatibility. Although the integration between DHM and CAD systems allows for the ergonomic analysis of anthropometric design, human musculoskeletal, multi-body modelling software packages such as the AnyBody Modelling System (AMS) are required to support physiologic design. They provide muscular force analysis, estimate human musculoskeletal strain and help address human comfort assessment. However, the independent characteristics of the modelling systems Jack and AMS constrain engineers and ergonomists in conducting a complete ergonomic analysis. AMS is a stand alone programming system without a capability to integrate into CAD environments. Jack is providing CAD integrated human-in-the-loop capability, but without considering musculoskeletal activity. Consequently, engineers and ergonomists need to perform many redundant tasks during product and process design. Besides, the existing biomechanical model in AMS uses a simplified estimation of body proportions, based on a segment mass ratio derived scaling approach. This is insufficient to represent user populations anthropometrically correct in AMS. In addition, sub-models are derived from different sources of morphologic data and are therefore anthropometrically inconsistent. Therefore, an interface between the biomechanical AMS and the virtual human model Jack was developed to integrate a musculoskeletal simulation with Jack posture modeling. This interface provides direct data exchange between the two man-models, based on a consistent data structure and common body model. The study assesses kinematic and biomechanical model characteristics of Jack and AMS, and defines an appropriate biomechanical model. The information content for interfacing the two systems is defined and a protocol is identified. The interface program is developed and implemented through Tcl and Jack-script(Python), and interacts with the AMS console application to operate AMS procedures.

The effect of lumbar support on the trunk muscle activity and pelvic tilt in a passenger vehicle car seat

In order to gain a competitive edge in the market, automotive manufacturers and automotive seat suppliers have identified seat ergonomics for further development to improve overall vehicle comfort. Adjustable lumbar support devices have been offered since long as comfort systems in either a 2-way or 4-way adjustable configuration, although their effect on lumbar strain is not well documented. The effect of a lumbar support on posture and muscular strain, and therefore the relationship between discomfort and comfort device parameter settings, requires clarification. The aim of this paper is to study the effect of a 4-way lumbar support on lower trunk and pelvis muscle activity, pelvic tilt and spine curvature during a car seating activity. 10 healthy subjects (5 m/f; age 19-39) performed a seating activity in a passenger vehicle with seven different static lumbar support positions. The lumbar support was tested in 3 different height positions in relation to the seatback surface centreline (high, centre, low), each having 2 depths positions (lumbar prominence). An extra depth position was added for the centre position. Posture data were collected using a VICON MX motion capture system and NORAXON DTS goniometers and inclinometer. A rigid-body model of an adjustable car seat with four-way adjustable lumbar support was constructed in UGS Siemens NX and connected to a musculoskeletal model of a seated-human, modelled in AnyBody. Wireless electromyography (EMG) was used to calibrate the musculoskeletal model and assess the relationship between (a) muscular strain and lumbar prominence (normal to seatback surface) respective to the lumbar height (alongside seatback surface), (b) hip joint moment and lumbar prominence (normal to seatback surface) respective to lumbar height (alongside seatback surface) and (c) pelvic tilt and lumbar prominence (normal to seatback surface) respective to the lumbar height (alongside seatback surface). This study was based on the assumption that the musculoskeletal human model was seated at the correct R-Point (SgRP), determined via the occupant packaging toolkit in the JACK digital human model. The effect of the interaction between the driver/car-seat has been investigated for factors resulting from the presence and adjustment of a 4-way lumbar support. The results obtained show that various seat adjustments, and driver’s lumbar supports can have complex influence on the muscle activation, joint forces and moments, all of which can affect the comfort perception of the driver. This study enables the automotive industry to optimise passenger vehicle seat development and design. It further more supports the evaluation of static postural and dynamic seat comfort in normal everyday driving tasks and can be applied for future car design to reduce investment and improve comfort.

The SurfAid International Schools Program : opportunities for HPE and senior health education

SurfAid International is a humanitarian organisation that has been delivering a range of evidence based health promotion initiatives, primarily for people living on Nias and the Mentawai Islands off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia since 2000. The SurfAid Schools Program launched in 2007, providing opportunities for the development of global awareness, cultural knowledge, empathy and active citizenship among students living in Australia, New Zealand, North America and the United Kingdom. This session will commence with an overview of the work of SurfAid International and resources provided by the SurfAid International Schools Program. The social justice orientation of the Queensland Health Education Senior Syllabus and the HPE Essential Learnings will be reviewed along with a consideration for affective learning through attitudes and values. Participants will be given time to consider how units with a health of specific populations focus could be conceptualised, developed and managed. Opportunities for co-curricular applications will also be discussed.

Impact of the Corporate Law Economic Reform Program Act 1999 on initial public offering prospectus earnings forecasts

Commencing 13 March 2000, the Corporate Law Economic Reform Program Act 1999 (Cth) introduced changes to the regulation of corporate fundraising in Australia. In particular, it effected a reduction in the litigation risk associated with initial public offering prospectus disclosure.We find that the change is associated with a reduction in forecast frequency and an increase in forecast value relevance, but not with forecast error or bias. These results confirm previous findings that changes in litigation risk affect the level but not the quality of disclosure. They also suggest that the reforms’ objectives of reducing fundraising costs while improving investor protection, have been achieved.

The introduction of an interactive teaching and learning activity (TLA) in class and its relationship to students’ learning-outcomes

In the university education arena, it is becoming apparent that traditional methods of conducting classes are not the most effective ways to achieve desired learning outcomes. The traditional class/method involves the instructor verbalizing information for passive, note-taking students who are assumed to be empty receptacles waiting to be filled with knowledge. This method is limited in its effectiveness, as the flow of information is usually only in one direction. Furthermore, “It has been demonstrated that students in many cases can recite and apply formulas in numerical problems, but the actual meaning and understanding of the concept behind the formula is not acquired (Crouch & Mazur)”. It is apparent that memorization is the main technique present in this approach. A more effective method of teaching involves increasing the students’ level of activity during, and hence their involvement in the learning process. This technique stimulates self- learning and assists in keeping these students’ levels of concentration more uniform. In this work, I am therefore interested in studying the influence of a particular TLA on students’ learning-outcomes. I want to foster high-level understanding and critical thinking skills using active learning (Silberman, 1996) techniques. The TLA in question aims to promote self-study by students and to expose them to a situation where their learning-outcomes can be tested. The motivation behind this activity is based on studies which suggest that some sensory modalities are more effective than others. Using various instruments for data collection and by means of a thorough analysis I present evidence of the effectiveness of this action research project which aims to improve my own teaching practices, with the ultimate goal of enhancing student’s learning.

Program your city : designing an urban integrated open data API

Cities accumulate and distribute vast sets of digital information. Many decision-making and planning processes in councils, local governments and organisations are based on both real-time and historical data. Until recently, only a small, carefully selected subset of this information has been released to the public – usually for specific purposes (e.g. train timetables, release of planning application through websites to name just a few). This situation is however changing rapidly. Regulatory frameworks, such as the Freedom of Information Legislation in the US, the UK, the European Union and many other countries guarantee public access to data held by the state. One of the results of this legislation and changing attitudes towards open data has been the widespread release of public information as part of recent Government 2.0 initiatives. This includes the creation of public data catalogues such as data.gov.au (U.S.), data.gov.uk (U.K.), data.gov.au (Australia) at federal government levels, and datasf.org (San Francisco) and data.london.gov.uk (London) at municipal levels. The release of this data has opened up the possibility of a wide range of future applications and services which are now the subject of intensified research efforts. Previous research endeavours have explored the creation of specialised tools to aid decision-making by urban citizens, councils and other stakeholders (Calabrese, Kloeckl & Ratti, 2008; Paulos, Honicky & Hooker, 2009). While these initiatives represent an important step towards open data, they too often result in mere collections of data repositories. Proprietary database formats and the lack of an open application programming interface (API) limit the full potential achievable by allowing these data sets to be cross-queried. Our research, presented in this paper, looks beyond the pure release of data. It is concerned with three essential questions: First, how can data from different sources be integrated into a consistent framework and made accessible? Second, how can ordinary citizens be supported in easily composing data from different sources in order to address their specific problems? Third, what are interfaces that make it easy for citizens to interact with data in an urban environment? How can data be accessed and collected?

Resourceful Adolescent Program for Teachers (RAP-T) : a program for teachers to promote school connectedness in teenagers

Recent research has shown that school connectedness is one of the most important protective factors against teenage depression. RAP-T aims to increase teachers’ recognition of the importance of school connectedness and to develop strategies to promote four key elements of school connectedness.