From institutional care to living in South Australia: intercountry adoption

The adoptees' narratives have illustrated the difficulties that they were confronted with when transitioning to a new world. Their remarkable use of self-efficacy enabled them in overcoming deprivation and abuse and leading a better life in Australia. The quality of the post-institutional care was directly related to the adoption outcomes.

The man who mistook Marat for Sade: 'living' memory and the video archive

Digital video archives, which are growing at an exponential rate, will become increasingly important to Theatre History and Performance Studies, and questions of how scholars negotiate the relationships between memory, technology and performance events in theoretical and practical terms will become crucial. Indeed, there is already a considerable body of scholarly material on this topic. This article considers these questions with specific reference to the relationship between video records deposited in digital archives and human memory. First and foremost, this article raises questions about the authority of the archive and the ways in which archival technologies, in the words of Maaike Bleeker, 'transform how we remember, how our and others' memories are entangled in the here-and-now, and, in the end, even how we think and imagine'.

A longitudinal study of quality of life among people living with a progressive neurological illness

This study investigated predictors of quality of life (QOL) of people with progressive neurological illnesses. Participants were 257 people with motor neurone disease (MND), Huntington’s disease (HD), multiple sclerosis (MS), or Parkinson’s. Participants completed questionnaires on two occasions, 12 months apart. There was an increase in severity of symptoms for people withMND, negative mood for people with HD and Parkinson’s, and social support satisfaction for people with MS. Regression analyses were conducted to determine predictors of QOL for each group. Predictor variables were length of illness, symptoms (physical symptoms, control over body, cognitive symptoms and psychological symptoms), mood, relationship satisfaction and social support. Predictors of QOL were severity of symptoms for people withMND, HD and MS; negative mood for people withMNDand Parkinson’s; and social support satisfaction for people with MS. These results demonstrate the importance of illness severity and mood in predicting QOL, but also indicate differences between illness groups. The limited role played by social support and relationship is a surprising finding from the current study.

Isolation breeds naivety : island living robs Australian varanid lizards of toad-toxin immunity via four-base-pair mutation

Since their introduction to the toad-free Australian continent cane toads (Bufo marinus) have caused a dramatic increase in naïve varanid mortality when these large lizards attempt to feed on this toxic amphibian. In contrast Asian–African varanids, which have coevolved with toads, are resistant to toad toxin. Toad toxins, such as Bufalin target the H1-H2 domain of the α1 subunit of the sodium-potassium-ATPase enzyme. Sequencing of this domain revealed identical nucleotide sequences in four Asian as well as in three African varanids, and identical sequences in all 11 Australian varanids. However, compared to the Asian–African varanids, the Australian varanids showed four-base-pair substitutions, resulting in the alteration in three of the 12 amino acids representing the H1-H2 domain. The phenotypic effect of the substitutions was investigated in human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells stably transfected with the Australian and the Asian–African H1-H2 domains. The transfections resulted in an approximate 3000-fold reduction in resistance to Bufalin in the Australian HEK293 cells compared to the Asian–African HEK293 cells, demonstrating the critical role of this minor mutation in providing Bufalin resistance. Our study hence presents a clear link between genotype and phenotype, a critical step in understanding the evolution of phenotypic diversity.

Refractive errors in students from Middle Eastern backgrounds living and undertaking schooling in Australia

Background:  Environmental factors associated with schooling systems in various countries have been implicated in the rising prevalence of myopia, making the comparison of prevalence of refractive errors in migrant populations of interest. This study aims to determine the prevalence of refractive errors in children of Middle Eastern descent, raised and living in urban Australia but actively maintaining strong ties to their ethnic culture, and to compare them with those in the Middle East where myopia prevalence is generally low.Methods:  A total of 354 out of a possible 384 late primary/early secondary schoolchildren attending a private school attracting children of Middle Eastern background in Melbourne were assessed for refractive error and visual acuity. A Shin Nippon open-field NVision-K5001 autorefractor was used to carry out non-cycloplegic autorefraction while viewing a distant target. For statistical analyses students were divided into three age groups: 10–11 years (n = 93); 12–13 years (n = 158); and 14–15 years (n = 102).Results:  All children were bilingual and classified as of Middle Eastern (96.3 per cent) or Egyptian (3.7 per cent) origin. Ages ranged from 10 to 15 years, with a mean of 13.17 ± 0.8 (SEM) years. Mean spherical equivalent refraction (SER) for the right eye was +0.09 ± 0.07 D (SEM) with a range from -7.77 D to +5.85 D. The prevalence of myopia, defined as a spherical equivalent refraction 0.50 D or more of myopia, was 14.7 per cent. The prevalence of hyperopia, defined as a spherical equivalent refraction of +0.75 D or greater, was 16.4 per cent, while hyperopia of +1.50 D or greater was 5.4 per cent. A significant difference in SER was seen as a function of age; however, no significant gender difference was seen.Conclusions:  This is the first study to report the prevalence of refractive errors for second-generation Australian schoolchildren coming from a predominantly Lebanese Middle Eastern Arabic background, who endeavour to maintain their ethnic ties. The relatively low prevalence of myopia is similar to that found for other metropolitan Australian school children but higher than that reported in the Middle East. These results suggest that lifestyle and educational practices may be a significant influence in the progression of myopic refractive errors.