Criminal histories of crash and non-crash involved Queensland speeding offenders: Evidence supporting the idea that we drive as we live

Evidence increasingly suggests that our behaviour on the road mirrors our behaviour across other aspects of our life. The idea that we drive as we live, described by Tillman and Hobbs more than 65 years ago when examining off-road behaviours of taxi drivers (1949), is the focus of the current paper. As part of a larger study examining the impact of penalty changes on a large cohort of Queensland speeding offenders, criminal (lifetime) and crash history (10 year period) data for a sub-sample of 1000 offenders were obtained. Based on the ‘drive as we live’ maxim, it was hypothesised that crash-involved speeding offenders would be more likely to have a criminal history than non-crash involved offenders. Overall, only 30% of speeding offenders had a criminal history. However, crash-involved offenders were significantly more likely to have a criminal history (49.4%) than non-crash involved offenders (28.6%), supporting the hypothesis. Furthermore, those deemed ‘most at fault’ in a crash were the group most likely to have at least one criminal offence (52.2%). When compared to the non-crash involved offenders, those deemed ‘not most at fault’ in a crash were also more likely to have had at least one criminal offence (46.5%). Therefore, when compared to non-crash involved speeding offenders, those offenders involved in a crash were more likely to have been convicted of at least one criminal offence, irrespective of whether they were deemed ‘most at fault’ in that crash. Implications for traffic offender management and policing are discussed.

A comparison of road traffic crashes along mountainous and non-mountainous roads in Sabah, Malaysia

Constrained topography and complex road geometry along rural mountainous roads often represent a demanding driving situation. As a result, traffic crashes along mountainous roads are likely to have different characteristics to crashes on roads in flatter areas; however, there is little research on this topic. The objective of this study is to examine the characteristics of road traffic crashes on rural mountainous roads and to compare these with the characteristics of crashes on non-mountainous roads. This paper explores and compares general crash characteristics including crash type, crash severity, roadway geometric features and environmental factors, and road user/vehicle characteristics. Five years of road traffic crash data (2008-2012) for Sabah were obtained from the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research. During this period, a total of 25,439 crashes occurred along federal roads in Sabah, of which 4,875 crashes occurred in mountainous areas. Categorical data analysis techniques were used to examine the differences between mountainous and non-mountainous crashes. Results show that the odds ratio of ‘out-of-control’ crashes and the crash involvement due to speeding are respectively about 4.2 times and 2.8 times higher on mountainous than non-mountainous roads. Other factors and crash characteristics that increase the odds of crashes along mountainous roads compared with non-mountainous roads include horizontal curved sections compared with straight sections, single-vehicle crashes compared with multi-vehicle crashes and weekend crashes compared with weekday crashes. This paper identifies some of the basic characteristics of crashes along rural mountainous roads to aid future research on traffic safety along mountainous roads.

Giant Magnetoresistance and Related Properties of Rare Earth Manganates and Other Oxide Systems

Giant magnetoresistance (GMR), which was until recently confined to magnetic layered and granular materials, as well as doped magnetic semiconductors, occurs in manganate perovskites of the general formula Ln(1-x)A(x)MnO(3) (Ln = rare earth; A = divalent ion). These manganates are ferromagnetic at or above a certain value of x (or Mn4+ content) and become metallic at temperatures below the curie temperature, T-c. GMR is generally a maximum close to T-c or the insulator-metal (I-M) transition temperature, T-im. The T-c and %MR are markedly affected by the size of the A site cation, [r(A)], thereby affording a useful electronic phase diagram when T-c or T-im is plotted against [r(A)]. We discuss GMR and related properties of manganates in polycrystalline, thin-film, and single-crystal forms and point out certain commonalities and correlations. We also examine some unusual features in the electron-transport properties of manganates, in particular charge-ordering effects. Charge ordering is crucially dependent on [r(A)] or the e(g) band width, and the charge-ordered insulating state transforms to a metallic ferromagnetic state on the application of a magnetic field.

Virtues of marginally metallic oxides

Transition-metal oxides at the metal-insulator boundary, especially those belonging to the perovskite family, exhibit fascinating phenomena such as insulator-metal transitions controlled by composition, high-temperature superconductivity and giant magnetoresistance (GMR), Interestingly, many of these marginally metallic oxides obey the established criteria for metallicity and have a finite density of states at the Fermi;level. The perovskite manganates exhibiting GMR, on the other hand, are unusual in that they possess very high resistivities in the 'metallic' state and show no significant density of states at the Fermi level, Marginal metallicity in oxide systems is a problem of great complexity and contemporary interest and its understanding is of crucial significance to the diverse phenomena exhibited by these materials.

Destinations: 3 Large Cast Plays for Young People

This book is a collection of three large-cast plays written in response to a very specific problem. My work as a teacher of drama often required me to locate a script that would somehow miraculously work for a cast of unknown number and gender, and most likely uneven skills and enthusiasm, who I hadn’t even met yet. It’s a familiar dilemma for teachers and students of drama in education contexts, at whatever level you’re teaching. I’d first addressed this creative problem with scripts such as Gate 38 (2010). I had tried using scripts that already existed, but found they required such extensive editing to suit the parameters of cast and performance duration that I may as well have been writing them myself. Even in the setting of a closed studio, in altering these plays I felt I was bending the vision of the playwright, and certainly their narrative structure, out of shape. Everyone who’s attempted to stage a performance with a large cast of students in an educational setting knows it takes time to truly connect with a play, its social contexts, themes and characters. It also takes a lot of time to get on top of the practicalities of learning, rehearsing, directing and running a performance with young people. Often the curtain goes up on something unfinished and unstable. I was looking for ways to reduce the complexity of staging a script, while maintaining the potential of this process as a site of rich, enjoyable learning. Two of the plays (Duty Free and Please Be Seated) are comprised of multiple monologues, combined with music-driven ensemble sequences. The monologues enable individuals to develop and polish their own performances, work in small groups, and cut down on the laborious detail of directing naturalistic scenes based in character interaction. The third (Australian Drama) involves a lot of duologues, meaning that its rehearsal process can happily employ that mainstay of the drama classroom: small group work. There’s plenty of room to move in terms of gender-blind casting as well. Please be Seated is mainly young women. The scripts also contain ensemble-based interludes which are non-verbal, music driven, with a choreographic element. They have also springboarded further explorations in form. The ethical and aesthetic complexities of verbatim works; the interaction between music and theatre; and meta-concerns related to the performing of performance: ‘how can the act of acting ‘acted’. The narratives of all three of these plays are deliberately open, enabling the flexible casting and on-the hop editing that large-group, time-poor processes sometimes necessitate. Duty Free is about the overseas ‘adventures’ of young people. Please Be Seated is based in verbatim text about young people falling in and out of love. Australian Drama is about young people in a drama classroom trying to connect with each other and put their own shine on dull fragments of the theatrical canon. The plays were published as a collection in hardcopy and digital editions by Playlab Press in 2015. Please be Seated is a co-write with a large group. These co-author’s names are listed in the publication, and below in ‘additional information’.

Invasive and non-invasive modalities of imaging carotid stenosis

Despite recent therapeutic advances, acute ischemic complications of atherosclerosis remain the primary cause of morbidity and mortality in Western countries, with carotid atherosclerotic disease one of the major preventable causes of stroke. As the impact of this disease challenges our healthcare systems, we are becoming aware that factors influencing this disease are more complex than previously realized. In current clinical practice, risk stratification relies primarily on evaluation of the degree of luminal stenosis and patient symptomatology. Adequate investigation and optimal imaging are important factors that affect the quality of a carotid endarterectomy (CEA) service and are fundamental to patient selection. Digital subtraction angiography is still perceived as the most accurate imaging modality for carotid stenosis and historically has been the cornerstone of most of the major CEA trials but concerns regarding potential neurological complications have generated substantial interest in non-invasive modalities, such as contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography. The purpose of this review is to give an overview to the vascular specialist of the current imaging modalities in clinical practice to identify patients with carotid stenosis. Advantages and disadvantages of each technique are outlined. Finally, limitations of assessing luminal stenosis in general are discussed. This article will not cover imaging of carotid atheroma morphology, function and other emerging imaging modalities of assessing plaque risk, which look beyond simple luminal measurements.

The non-literary Latin letters. A study of their syntax and pragmatics

This dissertation studies the language of Latin letters that were written in Egypt and Vindolanda (in northern Britain) during the period 1st century BC 3rd century AD on papyri, ostraca, and wooden tablets. The majority of the texts is, in one way or another, connected with the Roman army. The focus of the study is on syntax and pragmatics. Besides traditional philological methods, modern syntactic theory is used as well, especially in the pragmatic analysis. The study begins with a critical survey of certain concepts that are current in the research on the Latin language, most importantly the concept of vulgar Latin , which, it is argued, seems to be used as an abstract noun for variation and change in Latin . Further, it is necessary to treat even the non-literary material primarily as written texts and not as straightforward reflections of spoken language. An examination of letter phraseology shows that there is considerable variation between the two major geographical areas of provenance. Latin letter writing in Egypt was influenced by Greek. The study highlights the importance of seeing the letters as a text type, with recurring phraseological elements appearing in the body text as well. It is argued that recognising these elements is essential for the correct analysis of the syntax. Three areas of syntax are discussed in detail: sentence connection (mainly parataxis), syntactically incoherent structures and word order (the order of the object and the verb). For certain types of sentence connection we may plausibly posit an origin in spoken Latin, but for many other linguistic phenomena attested in this material the issue of spoken Latin is anything but simple. Concerning the study of historical syntax, the letters offer information about the changing status of the accusative case. Incoherent structures may reflect contaminations in spoken language but usually the reason for them is the inability of the writer to put his thoughts into writing, especially when there is something more complicated to be expressed. Many incoherent expressions reflect the need to start the predication with a thematic constituent. Latin word order is seen as resulting from an interaction of syntactic and pragmatic factors. The preference for an order where the topic is placed sentence-initially can be seen in word order more generally as well. Furthermore, there appears a difference between Egypt and Vindolanda. The letters from Vindolanda show the order O(bject) V(erb) clearly more often than the letters from Egypt. Interestingly, this difference correlates with another, namely the use of the anaphoric pronoun is. This is an interesting observation in view of the fact that both of these are traditional Latin features, as opposed to those that foreshadow the Romance development (VO order and use of the anaphoric ille). However, it is difficult to say whether this is an indication of social or regional variation.

"Do Not Celebrate Your Feast without Your Neighbours" : A Study of References to Feasts and Festivals in Non-Literary Documents from Ramesside Period Deir el-Medina

This dissertation is a study of the forms and functions of feasts and feasting in the ancient Egyptian village of Deir el-Medina in Thebes (modern Luxor). This particular village, during the New Kingdom (c. 1550 1069 BC), was inhabited by the men (and their families) who constructed the Royal Tombs in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. The royal artisans were probably more literate than the average Egyptians and the numerous Ramesside Period (c. 1295 1069 BC) non-literary texts found in the excavations of the village and its surroundings form the source material for this study. In this study, the methods used are mainly Egyptological and the references to feasts and feasting are considered in view of what is known of New Kingdom Egypt, Thebes, and Deir el-Medina. Nevertheless, it is the use of the methodological concept local vernacular religion that has resulted in the division of the research findings into two sections, i.e., references to feasts celebrated both in and outside the community and other references to feasts and feasting in the village. When considering the function of the feasts celebrated at Deir el-Medina, a functional approach to feasts introduced by anthropologists and archaeologists is utilized. The Deir el-Medina feasts which were associated with the official religion form a festival calendar of feasts celebrated annually on the same civil calendar day. The reconstructed festival calendar of Deir el-Medina reflects the feasts celebrated around Thebes or, at least, in Western Thebes. The function of the nationally and regionally observed feasts (which, at least at Deir el-Medina, resulted in a work-free day) may have been to keep people content so that they would continue to work which was to the advantage of the king and the elite surrounding him. Local feasts appear to have been observed more irregularly at Deir el-Medina or perhaps according to the lunar calendar. Feasts celebrated by the community as a whole served to maintain the unity of the group. In addition to feasts celebrated by the entire community, the inhabitants of Deir el-Medina could mark their own personal feasts and organize small gatherings during public feasts. Through such feasts, an individual man might form alliances and advance his chances of a favourable marriage or of acquiring a position on the work crew.

Other Side of This Life : Death, Value, and Social Being in Thomas Pynchon's Fiction

This dissertation analyzes the interrelationship between death, the conditions of (wo)man s social being, and the notion of value as it emerges in the fiction of the American novelist Thomas Pynchon (1937 ). Pynchon s present work includes six novels V. (1963), The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), Gravity s Rainbow (1973), Vineland (1990), Mason & Dixon (1997), Against the Day (2006) and several short stories. Death constitues a central thematic in Pynchon s work, and it emerges through recurrent questions of mortality, suicide, mass destruction, sacrifice, afterlife, entropy, the relationship between the animate and the inanimate, and the limits of representation. In Pynchon, death is never a mere biological given (or event); it is always determined within a certain historical, cultural, and ideological context. Throughout his work, Pynchon questions the strict ontological separation of life and death by showing the relationship between this separation and social power. Conceptual divisions also reflect the relationship between society and its others, and death becomes that through which lines of social demarcation are articulated. Determined as a conceptual and social "other side", death in Pynchon forms a challenge to modern culture, and makes an unexpected return: the dead return to haunt the living, the inanimate and the animate fuse, and technoscientific attempts at overcoming and controlling death result in its re-emergence in mass destruction and ecological damage. The questioning of the ontological line also affects the structuration of Pynchon's prose, where the recurrent narrated and narrative desire to reach the limits of representation is openly associated with death. Textualized, death appears in Pynchon's writing as a sudden rupture within the textual functioning, when the "other side", that is, the bare materiality of the signifier is foregrounded. In this study, Pynchon s cultural criticism and his poetics come together, and I analyze the subversive role of death in his fiction through Jean Baudrillard s genealogy of the modern notion of death from L échange symbolique et la mort (1976). Baudrillard sees an intrinsic bond between the social repression of death in modernity and the emergence of modern political economy, and in his analysis economy and language appear as parallel systems for generating value (exchange value/ sign-value). For Baudrillard, the modern notion of death as negativity in relation to the positivity of life, and the fact that death cannot be given a proper meaning, betray an antagonistic relation between death and the notion of value. As a mode of negativity (that is, non-value), death becomes a moment of rupture in relation to value-based thinking in short, rationalism. Through this rupture emerges a form of thinking Baudrillard labels the symbolic, characterized by ambivalence and the subversion of conceptual opposites.

Non-target impacts of poison baiting for predator control in Australia

1. Mammalian predators are controlled by poison baiting in many parts of the world, often to alleviate their impacts on agriculture or the environment. Although predator control can have substantial benefits, the poisons used may also be potentially harmful to other wildlife. 2. Impacts on non-target species must be minimized, but can be difficult to predict or quantify. Species and individuals vary in their sensitivity to toxins and their propensity to consume poison baits, while populations vary in their resilience. Wildlife populations can accrue benefits from predator control, which outweigh the occasional deaths of non-target animals. We review recent advances in Australia, providing a framework for assessing non-target effects of poisoning operations and for developing techniques to minimize such effects. We also emphasize that weak or circumstantial evidence of non-target effects can be misleading. 3. Weak evidence that poison baiting presents a potential risk to non-target species comes from measuring the sensitivity of species to the toxin in the laboratory. More convincing evidence may be obtained by quantifying susceptibility in the field. This requires detailed information on the propensity of animals to locate and consume poison baits, as well as the likelihood of mortality if baits are consumed. Still stronger evidence may be obtained if predator baiting causes non-target mortality in the field (with toxin detected by post-mortem examination). Conclusive proof of a negative impact on populations of non-target species can be obtained only if any observed non-target mortality is followed by sustained reductions in population density. 4. Such proof is difficult to obtain and the possibility of a population-level impact cannot be reliably confirmed or dismissed without rigorous trials. In the absence of conclusive evidence, wildlife managers should adopt a precautionary approach which seeks to minimize potential risk to non-target individuals, while clarifying population-level effects through continued research.

Fusion transcript loci share many genomic features with non-fusion loci

Background Fusion transcripts are found in many tissues and have the potential to create novel functional products. Here, we investigate the genomic sequences around fusion junctions to better understand the transcriptional mechanisms mediating fusion transcription/splicing. We analyzed data from prostate (cancer) cells as previous studies have shown extensively that these cells readily undergo fusion transcription. Results We used the FusionMap program to identify high-confidence fusion transcripts from RNAseq data. The RNAseq datasets were from our (N = 8) and other (N = 14) clinical prostate tumors with adjacent non-cancer cells, and from the LNCaP prostate cancer cell line that were mock-, androgen- (DHT), and anti-androgen- (bicalutamide, enzalutamide) treated. In total, 185 fusion transcripts were identified from all RNAseq datasets. The majority (76 %) of these fusion transcripts were ‘read-through chimeras’ derived from adjacent genes in the genome. Characterization of sequences at fusion loci were carried out using a combination of the FusionMap program, custom Perl scripts, and the RNAfold program. Our computational analysis indicated that most fusion junctions (76 %) use the consensus GT-AG intron donor-acceptor splice site, and most fusion transcripts (85 %) maintained the open reading frame. We assessed whether parental genes of fusion transcripts have the potential to form complementary base pairing between parental genes which might bring them into physical proximity. Our computational analysis of sequences flanking fusion junctions at parental loci indicate that these loci have a similar propensity as non-fusion loci to hybridize. The abundance of repetitive sequences at fusion and non-fusion loci was also investigated given that SINE repeats are involved in aberrant gene transcription. We found few instances of repetitive sequences at both fusion and non-fusion junctions. Finally, RT-qPCR was performed on RNA from both clinical prostate tumors and adjacent non-cancer cells (N = 7), and LNCaP cells treated as above to validate the expression of seven fusion transcripts and their respective parental genes. We reveal that fusion transcript expression is similar to the expression of parental genes. Conclusions Fusion transcripts maintain the open reading frame, and likely use the same transcriptional machinery as non-fusion transcripts as they share many genomic features at splice/fusion junctions.

Affective sensing + wearable imaging: Vision impairment and implications for spatial enquiry

Recent interest in affect and the body have mobilized a contemporary review of aesthetics and phenomenology within architecture to unpack how environments affect spatial experience. Emerging spatial studies within the neuro-sciences, and their implications for architectural research as raised by architectural theorists Juhani Pallasmaa (2014) and Harry Mallgrave (2013) has been well supported by a raft of scientists and institutions including the prestigious Salk Institute. Although there has been some headway in spatial studies of the vision impaired (Cattaneo et al, 2011) to understand the role of their non-visual systems in assisting navigation and location, little is discussed in terms of their other abilities in sensing particular qualities of space which impinge upon emotion. This paper reviews a collection of studies exploring face vision and echo-location, amongst others, which provide insight into what might be termed affective perception of the vision impaired, and how further interplay between this research and the architectural field can contribute new knowledge regarding space and affect. By engaging with themes from the Aesthetics, Phenomenology and indeed Neuro-science fields, the paper provides background of current and potential cross disciplinary research, and highlights the role wearable technologies can play in enhancing knowledge of affective spatial experience.

Between-tree variation in fruit quality and fruit mineral concentrations of Hass avocados

Inconsistent internal fruit quality in Hass avocados affects consumer confidence. To determine the influence of individual trees on fruit quality, Hass avocado fruit were harvested from adjacent trees of similar external appearance in 3 commercial orchards in 1998 and 1 orchard in 1999. The trees in each orchard were grown with similar commercial practices and in similar soil types. Within each location, there were significant (P<0.05) differences in the mean ripe fruit quality between trees with respect to fruit body rot severity (mainly anthracnose) with and without cold storage, internal disorders severity due to diffuse discolouration and vascular browning (after cold storage), days to ripen, percentage dry matter, and the percentage of the skin area with purple-black colour when ripe. These effects were also noted in the same orchard in 1999. There were significant (P<0.05) differences in fruit flesh calcium, magnesium, potassium, boron and zinc concentrations between trees. Significant (P<0.05) correlations were observed between average fruit mineral concentrations in each tree (particularly calcium, magnesium and potassium) and body rot severity, percentage dry matter and fruit mass. There was little conclusive evidence that characteristics such as the growth of the non-suberised roots or the degree of scion under- or overgrowth was involved in these tree effects; however, differences between trees with respect to other rootstock characteristics may be involved. The inconsistency of the correlations across sites and years suggested that other factors apart from tree influences could also affect the relationship between fruit minerals and fruit quality.

Topochemical dimerization of non-parallel double bonds: 7-methoxycoumarin

X-ray crystal structure analysis of 7-methoxycoumarin reveals that the reactive double bonds are rotated by about 65° with respect to each other, the centre-to-centre distance between the double bonds being 3.83 Å. In spite of this unfavourable arrangement, photodimerization occurs in the crystalline state yielding the syn-head-tail dimer as the only product. Lattice energy calculations on ground-state molecules in crystals throw light on the mechanism of the reaction.

Metabolite mobilization in the stem galls of Parthenium hysterophorus induced by Epiblema strenuana inferred from the signatures of isotopic carbon and nitrogen and concentrations of total non-structural carbohydrates

Parthenium hysterophorus L. (Asteraceae) is a weed of national significance in Australia. Among the several arthropod agents introduced into Australia to control populations of P. hysterophorus biologically, Epiblema strenuana Walker (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) is the most widespread and abundant agent. By intercepting the normal transport mechanisms of P. hysterophorus, the larvae of E. strenuana drain nutrients, other metabolic products, and energy, and place the host plant under intense metabolic stress. In this study, determinations of total non-structural carbohydrates (TNC) levels and carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of fixed products in different parts of the plant tissue, including the gall, have been made to establish the function of gall as a sink for the nutrients. Values of δ13C and δ15N in galls were significantly different than those in proximal and distal stems, whereas the TNC levels were insignificant, when measured in the total population of P. hysterophorus, regardless of plant age. However, carbon, nitrogen, and TNC signatures presented significant results, when assayed in different developmental stages of P. hysterophorus. Carbon isotope ratios in galls were consistently more negative than those from the compared plant organs. Nitrogen isotope ratios in galls, on the contrary, were either similar to or less negative than the compared plant organs, especially within a single host-plant stage population (i.e., either rosette, preflowering, or flowering stage). TNC levels varied within compared plant populations. The stem distal to the gall functioned more efficiently as a nodal channel than the stem proximal to the gall, especially in the translocation of nitrogenous nutrients. Our findings indicate that the gall induced by E. strenuana functions as a sink for the assayed nutrients, although some variations have been observed in the patterns of nutrient mobilization. By creating a sink for the nutrients in the gall, E. strenuana is able to place the overall plant metabolism under stress, and this ability indicates E. strenuana has the necessary potential for use as a biological-control agent.