Human carrying capacity and human health

The issue of human overpopulation has fallen out of favor among most contemporary demographers, economists, and epidemiologists. Discussing population control has become a taboo topic. Yet, this taboo has major implications for public health.

The silence around overpopulation prevents the global health community from making the necessary link between the planet's limited ability to support its people (its carrying capacity—see sidebar on following page) and health and development crises. In this article, I describe how popular thinking on population control has been shaped over the last 200 years, and how our failure to address the population explosion may be one cause of recent epidemics and social unrest.

Building capacity in an indigenous nonprofit artistic enterprise

Growth in Indigenous artistic enterprises has attracted government funding, cultural tourists, and arts managers with a strong interest in cultural democracy and, more recently, an interest in business models for these artists. This paper documents a case study of Arilla Paper, an artistic enterprise in Queensland, Australia, where a group of Aboriginal women, worked on making paper from natural materials, to create a sustainable non-profit arts business. Sections of the business manual developed for these women, together with primary and secondary data supporting the Indigenous creative industries, are presented. The paper concludes that success in such ventures requires a social entrepreneurship model of funding that recognises the challenges of Indigenous cultural ownership and capacity building in business practice.

Building capacity: strategic professional development for early childhood practitioners

An innovative framework for early childhood students and professionals using an interactive program titled SAM: A Self-Assessment Manual.

This provides a strategic and guided approach to enable practitioners to respond critically to activities and questions such as: 'Where have I come from?', 'Where am I now?' and 'Where do I want to go next?' The book and an accompanying CD-ROM allow readers to practically apply the framework to everyday practice, individually or as part of a group.

Addresses an identified need within the early childhood profession for targeted career development and professional support.

Comments from those who have used the program include: 'After reflection and discussion SAM has allowed me to set myself new goals for my future career, both in the workplace now and further down the track' and 'SAM has me thinking about current practice, how this relates to different theories and where my philosophy fits in'.

Promoting community capacity through university-community engagement: the Deakin University / Department of Human Services (Barwon South West) Partnership

The formal Partnership between Deakin University and the Victorian Department of Human Services (Barwon-South Western Region), based in Geelong, aims to bring together the knowledge, experience and resources of the Department and Deakin University for the benefit of the people living in that region, as well as for the mutual benefit of both organisations. A recent review process featured stakeholder interviews and focus groups. A special workshop on university-community engagement was also held for interested stakeholders in late 2006. This was facilitated by Prof. Judith Ramaley, President of Winona State University, during her visit to Deakin University as a Fulbright Visiting Senior Specialist. Visioning and strategic planing have continued throughout 2007.

This paper will describe the efforts and achievements of the Partnership through the complementary lenses of Healthy Cities, health-promoting universities and community capacity. This framework will be used to describe how the Partnership coordinators have used Prof Ramaley’s insights to establish a draft Business Plan that espouses a more mature form of collaboration and embraces shared, transformative goals. The paper will describe how the notion of community capacity is being used to evaluate the Partnership’s overall contribution to community engagement.

The effect of exercise and insulin on AS160 phosphorylation and 14-3-3 binding capacity in human skeletal muscle

AS160 is an Akt substrate of 160 kDa implicated in the regulation of both insulin- and contraction-mediated GLUT4 translocation and glucose uptake. The effects of aerobic exercise and subsequent insulin stimulation on AS160 phosphorylation and the binding capacity of 14-3-3, a novel protein involved in the dissociation of AS160 from GLUT4 vesicles, in human skeletal muscle are unknown. Hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamps were performed on seven men at rest and immediately and 3 h after a single bout of cycling exercise. Skeletal muscle biopsies were taken before and after the clamps. The insulin sensitivity index calculated during the final 30 min of the clamp was 8.0 ± 0.8, 9.1 ± 0.5, and 9.2 ± 0.8 for the rest, postexercise, and 3-h postexercise trials, respectively. AS160 phosphorylation increased immediately after exercise and remained elevated 3 h after exercise. In contrast, the 14-3-3 binding capacity of AS160 and phosphorylation of Akt and AMP-activated protein kinase were only increased immediately after exercise. Insulin increased AS160 phosphorylation and 14-3-3 binding capacity and insulin receptor substrate-1 and Akt phosphorylation, but the response to insulin was not enhanced by prior exercise. In conclusion, the 14-3-3 binding capacity of AS160 is increased immediately after acute exercise in human skeletal muscle, but this is not maintained 3 h after exercise completion despite sustained AS160 phosphorylation. Insulin increases AS160 phosphorylation and 14-3-3 binding capacity, but prior exercise does not appear to enhance the response to insulin.

Roman concept of mental capacity to make end-of-life decisions

When assessing decisional competence of patients, psychiatrists have to balance the patients' right to personal autonomy, their condition and wishes against principles of medical ethics and professional discretion. This article explores the age-old legal and ethical dilemmas posed by refusal of vital medical treatment by patients and their mental capacity to make end-of-life decisions against the background of philosophical, legal and medical approaches to these issues in the time of the Younger Pliny (c62–c113 CE). Classical Roman discourse regarding mental competency and "voluntary death" formed an important theme of the vast corpus of Greco-Roman writings, which was moulded not only by legal permissibility of suicide but also by philosophical (in modern terms, moral or ethical) considerations. Indeed, the legal and ethical issues of evaluating the acceptability of end of life decisions discussed in the Letters are as pertinent today as they were 2000 years ago. We may gain valuable insights about our own methodologies and frames of reference in this area of the law and psychiatry by examining Classical Roman approaches to evaluating acceptability of death-choices as described in Pliny's Letters and the writings of some of his peers.

Live high: train low increases muscle buffer capacity and submaximal cycling efficiency

This study investigated whether hypoxic exposure increased muscle buffer capacity (βm) and mechanical efficiency during exercise in male athletes. A control (CON, n=7) and a live high:train low group (LHTL, n=6) trained at near sea level (600 m), with the LHTL group sleeping for 23 nights in simulated moderate altitude (3000 m). Whole body oxygen consumption (V˙O₂) was measured under normoxia before, during and after 23 nights of sleeping in hypoxia, during cycle ergometry comprising 4×4-min submaximal stages, 2-min at 5.6 ± 0.4 W kg^–1, and 2-min 'all-out' to determine total work and V˙O_2peak. A vastus lateralis muscle biopsy was taken at rest and after a standardized 2-min 5.6 ± 0.4 W kg^–1 bout, before and after LHTL, and analysed for βm and metabolites. After LHTL, βm was increased (18%, P < 0.05). Although work was maintained, V˙O_2peak fell after LHTL (7%, P < 0.05). Submaximal V˙O₂ was reduced (4.4%, P < 0.05) and efficiency improved (0.8%, P < 0.05) after LHTL probably because of a shift in fuel utilization. This is the first study to show that hypoxic exposure, per se, increases muscle buffer capacity. Further, reduced V˙O₂ during normoxic exercise after LHTL suggests that improved exercise efficiency is a fundamental adaptation to LHTL.