Drivers constraints and the future of off-site manufacture in Australia.

Much has been written on Off-site Manufacture (OSM) in construction, particularly regarding the perceived benefits and barriers to implementation. However, very little understanding of the state of OSM in the Australian construction industry exists. A ‘scoping study' has recently been undertaken to determine the ‘state-of-the-art’ of OSM in Australia. This involved several industry workshops, interviews and case studies across four major states of Australia. The study surveyed a range of suppliers across the construction supply-chain, incorporating the civil, commercial and housing segments of the market. This revealed that skills shortages and lack of adequate OSM knowledge are generally the greatest issues facing OSM in Australia. The drivers and constraints that emerged from the research were, in large measure, consistent with those found in the US and UK, although some Australian anomalies are evident, such as the geographical disparity of markets. A comparative analysis with similar studies in the UK and US is reported, illustrating both the drivers and constraints confronting the industry in Australia. OSM uptake into the future is however dependent on many factors, not least of which is a better understanding of the construction process and its associated costs.

Biotribological assessment for artificial synovial joints : the role of boundary lubrication

Biotribology, the study of lubrication, wear and friction within the body, has become a topic of high importance in recent times as we continue to encounter debilitating diseases and trauma that destroy function of the joints. A highly successful surgical procedure to replace the joint with an artificial equivalent alleviates dysfunction and pain. However, the wear of the bearing surfaces in prosthetic joints is a significant clinical problem and more patients are surviving longer than the life expectancy of the joint replacement. Revision surgery is associated with increased morbidity and mortality and has a far less successful outcome than primary joint replacement. As such, it is essential to ensure that everything possible is done to limit the rate of revision surgery. Past experience indicates that the survival rate of the implant will be influenced by many parameters, of primary importance, the material properties of the implant, the composition of the synovial fluid and the method of lubrication. In prosthetic joints, effective boundary lubrication is known to take place. The interaction of the boundary lubricant and the bearing material is of utmost importance. The identity of the vital active ingredient within synovial fluid (SF) to which we owe the near frictionless performance of our articulating joints has been the quest of researchers for many years. Once identified, tribo tests can determine what materials and more importantly what surfaces this fraction of SF can function most optimally with. Surface-Active Phospholipids (SAPL) have been implicated as the body’s natural load bearing lubricant. Studies in this thesis are the first to fully characterise the adsorbed SAPL detected on the surface of retrieved prostheses and the first to verify the presence of SAPL on knee prostheses. Rinsings from the bearing surfaces of both hip and knee prostheses removed from revision operations were analysed using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) to determine the presence and profile of SAPL. Several common prosthetic materials along with a novel biomaterial were investigated to determine their tribological interaction with various SAPLs. A pin-on-flat tribometer was used to make comparative friction measurements between the various tribo-pairs. A novel material, Pyrolytic Carbon (PyC) was screened as a potential candidate as a load bearing prosthetic material. Friction measurements were also performed on explanted prostheses. SAPL was detected on all retrieved implant bearing surfaces. As a result of the study eight different species of phosphatidylcholines were identified. The relative concentrations of each species were also determined indicating that the unsaturated species are dominant. Initial tribo tests employed a saturated phosphatidylcholine (SPC) and the subsequent tests adopted the addition of the newly identified major constituents of SAPL, unsaturated phosphatidylcholine (USPC), as the test lubricant. All tribo tests showed a dramatic reduction in friction when synthetic SAPL was used as the lubricant under boundary lubrication conditions. Some tribopairs showed more of an affinity to SAPL than others. PyC performed superior to the other prosthetic materials. Friction measurements with explanted prostheses verified the presence and performance of SAPL. SAPL, in particular phosphatidylcholine, plays an essential role in the lubrication of prosthetic joints. Of particular interest was the ability of SAPLs to reduce friction and ultimately wear of the bearing materials. The identification and knowledge of the lubricating constituents of SF is invaluable for not only the future development of artificial joints but also in developing effective cures for several disease processes where lubrication may play a role. The tribological interaction of the various tribo-pairs and SAPL is extremely favourable in the context of reducing friction at the bearing interface. PyC is highly recommended as a future candidate material for use in load bearing prosthetic joints considering its impressive tribological performance.

From the cathedral to the classroom : the emergence of new discourses on religious education

In 2009, Religious Education is a designated key learning area in Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Brisbane and, indeed, across Australia. Over the years, though, different conceptualisations of the nature and purpose of religious education have led to the construction of different approaches to the classroom teaching of religion. By investigating the development of religious education policy in the Archdiocese of Brisbane from 1984 to 2003, the study seeks to trace the emergence of new discourses on religious education. The study understands religious education to refer to a lifelong process that occurs through a variety of forms (Moran, 1989). In Catholic schools, it refers both to co-curricula activities, such as retreats and school liturgies, and the classroom teaching of religion. It is the policy framework for the classroom teaching of religion that this study explores. The research was undertaken using a policy case study approach to gain a detailed understanding of how new conceptualisations of religious education emerged at a particular site of policy production, in this case, the Archdiocese of Brisbane. The study draws upon Yeatman’s (1998) description of policy as occurring “when social actors think about what they are doing and why in relation to different and alternative possible futures” (p. 19) and views policy as consisting of more than texts themselves. Policy texts result from struggles over meaning (Taylor, 2004) in which specific discourses are mobilised to support particular views. The study has a particular interest in the analysis of Brisbane religious education policy texts, the discursive practices that surrounded them, and the contexts in which they arose. Policy texts are conceptualised in the study as representing “temporary settlements” (Gale, 1999). Such settlements are asymmetrical, temporary and dependent on context: asymmetrical in that dominant actors are favoured; temporary because dominant actors are always under challenge by other actors in the policy arena; and context - dependent because new situations require new settlements. To investigate the official policy documents, the study used Critical Discourse Analysis (hereafter referred to as CDA) as a research tool that affords the opportunity for researchers to map and chart the emergence of new discourses within the policy arena. As developed by Fairclough (2001), CDA is a three-dimensional application of critical analysis to language. In the Brisbane religious education arena, policy texts formed a genre chain (Fairclough, 2004; Taylor, 2004) which was a focus of the study. There are two features of texts that form genre chains: texts are systematically linked to one another; and, systematic relations of recontextualisation exist between the texts. Fairclough’s (2005) concepts of “imaginary space” and “frameworks for action” (p. 65) within the policy arena were applied to the Brisbane policy arena to investigate the relationship between policy statements and subsequent guidelines documents. Five key findings emerged from the study. First, application of CDA to policy documents revealed that a fundamental reconceptualisation of the nature and purpose of classroom religious education in Catholic schools occurred in the Brisbane policy arena over the last twenty-five years. Second, a disjuncture existed between catechetical discourses that continued to shape religious education policy statements, and educational discourses that increasingly shaped guidelines documents. Third, recontextualisation between policy documents was evident and dependent on the particular context in which religious education occurred. Fourth, at subsequent links in the chain, actors created their own “imaginary space”, thereby altering orders of discourse within the policy arena, with different actors being either foregrounded or marginalised. Fifth, intertextuality was more evident in the later links in the genre chain (i.e. 1994 policy statement and 1997 guidelines document) than in earlier documents. On the basis of the findings of the study, six recommendations are made. First, the institutional Church should carefully consider the contribution that the Catholic school can make to the overall pastoral mission of the diocese in twenty-first century Australia. Second, policymakers should articulate a nuanced understanding of the relationship between catechesis and education with regard to the religion classroom. Third, there should be greater awareness of the connections among policies relating to Catholic schools – especially the connection between enrolment policy and religious education policy. Fourth, there should be greater consistency between policy documents. Fifth, policy documents should be helpful for those to whom they are directed (i.e. Catholic schools, teachers). Sixth, “imaginary space” (Fairclough, 2005) in policy documents needs to be constructed in a way that allows for multiple “frameworks for action” (Fairclough, 2005) through recontextualisation. The findings of this study are significant in a number of ways. For religious educators, the study highlights the need to develop a shared understanding of the nature and purpose of classroom religious education. It argues that this understanding must take into account the multifaith nature of Australian society and the changing social composition of Catholic schools themselves. Greater recognition should be given to the contribution that religious studies courses such as Study of Religion make to the overall religious development of a person. In view of the social composition of Catholic schools, there is also an issue of ecclesiological significance concerning the conceptualisation of the relationship between the institutional Catholic Church and Catholic schools. Finally, the study is of significance because of its application of CDA to religious education policy documents. Use of CDA reveals the foregrounding, marginalising, or excluding of various actors in the policy arena.

An assessment of the potential of family day care as a nutrition promotion setting in South Australia

Articles > Journals > Health journals > Nutrition & Dietetics: The Journal of the Dieticians Association of Australia articles > March 2003 Article: An assessment of the potential of Family Day Care as a nutrition promotion setting in South Australia. (Original Research). Article from:Nutrition & Dietetics: The Journal of the Dieticians Association of Australia Article date:March 1, 2003 Author:Daniels, Lynne A.; Franco, Bunny; McWhinnie, Julie-Anne CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Dietitians Association of Australia. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights or concerns about this content should be directed to customer service. (Hide copyright information) Related articles Ads by Google TAFE Child Care Courses Government accredited courses. Study anytime, anywhere. www.seeklearning.com.au Get Work in Child Care Certificate III Children's Services 4 Day Course + Take Home Assessment HBAconsult.com.au Abstract Objective: To assess the potential role of Family Day Care in nutrition promotion for preschool children. Design and setting: A questionnaire to examine nutrition-related issues and practices was mailed to care providers registered in the southern region of Adelaide, South Australia. Care providers also supplied a descriptive, qualitative recall of the food provided by parents or themselves to each child less than five years of age in their care on the day closest to completion of the questionnaire. Subjects: 255 care providers. The response rate was 63% and covered 643 preschool children, mean 4.6 (SD 2.8) children per carer. Results: There was clear agreement that nutrition promotion was a relevant issue for Family Day Care providers. Nutrition and food hygiene knowledge was good but only 54% of respondents felt confident to address food quality issues with parents. Sixty-five percent of respondents reported non-neutral approaches to food refusal and dawdling (reward, punishment, cajoling) that overrode the child's control of the amount eaten. The food recalls indicated that most children (> 75%) were offered fruit at least once. Depending on the hours in care, (0 to 4, 5 to 8, greater than 8 hours), 20%, 32% and 55%, respectively, of children were offered milk and 65%, 82% and 87%, respectively, of children were offered high fat and sugar foods. Conclusions: Questionnaire responses suggest that many care providers are committed to and proactive in a range of nutrition promotion activities. There is scope for strengthening skills in the management of common problems, such as food refusal and dawdling, consistent with the current evidence for approaches to early feeding management that promote the development of healthy food preferences and eating patterns. Legitimising and empowering care providers in their nutrition promotion role requires clear policies, guide lines, adequate pre- and in-service training, suitable parent materials, and monitoring.

Nitrous oxide emissions from irrigated cotton soils of northern Australia

An automated gas sampling methodology has been used to estimate nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from heavy black clay soil in northern Australia where split applications of urea were applied to furrow irrigated cotton. Nitrous oxide emissions from the beds were 643 g N/ha over the 188 day measurement period (after planting), whilst the N2O emissions from the furrows were significantly higher at 967 g N/ha. The DNDC model was used to develop a full season simulation of N2O and N2 emissions. Seasonal N2O emissions were equivalent to 0.83% of applied N, with total gaseous N losses (excluding NH3) estimated to be 16% of the applied N.

An investigation of dose calculation accuracy in intensity-modulated radiotherapy of sites in the head & neck

Knowledge of the accuracy of dose calculations in intensity-modulated radiotherapy of the head and neck is essential for clinical confidence in these highly conformal treatments. High dose gradients are frequently placed very close to critical structures, such as the spinal cord, and good coverage of complex shaped nodal target volumes is important for long term-local control. A phantom study is presented comparing the performance of standard clinical pencil-beam and collapsed-cone dose algorithms to Monte Carlo calculation and three-dimensional gel dosimetry measurement. All calculations and measurements are normalized to the median dose in the primary planning target volume, making this a purely relative study. The phantom simulates tissue, air and bone for a typical neck section and is treated using an inverse-planned 5-field IMRT treatment, similar in character to clinically used class solutions. Results indicate that the pencil-beam algorithm fails to correctly model the relative dose distribution surrounding the air cavity, leading to an overestimate of the target coverage. The collapsed-cone and Monte Carlo results are very similar, indicating that the clinical collapsed-cone algorithm is perfectly sufficient for routine clinical use. The gel measurement shows generally good agreement with the collapsed-cone and Monte Carlo calculated dose, particularly in the spinal cord dose and nodal target coverage, thus giving greater confidence in the use of this class solution.

Intradialytic exercise : a feasibility study

Background: Exercise is known to improve mental and physical functioning and to improve quality of life. The obstacles faced by individuals with chronic kidney disease on maintenance haemodialysis include increased levels of fatigue, decreased motivation, and the inability to schedule exercise around daily activities and dialysis schedules. Aim: This pilot study was undertaken to determine the feasibility and potential efficacy of an individually-tailored exercise program for in-centre haemodialysis patients. Method: A 16 week program was designed and evaluated in relation to changes in physical capacity, the extent of exercise undertaken, and quality of life indicators. Results and Conclusion: The resultant recommendations regarding the level of motivational support, the time and physical requirements in implementing an exercise program will provide useful information for others embarking on similar studies.

Corneal confocal microscopy : a novel noninvasive test to diagnose and stratify the severity of human diabetic neuropathy

OBJECTIVE: The accurate quantification of human diabetic neuropathy is important to define at-risk patients, anticipate deterioration, and assess new therapies. ---------- RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A total of 101 diabetic patients and 17 age-matched control subjects underwent neurological evaluation, neurophysiology tests, quantitative sensory testing, and evaluation of corneal sensation and corneal nerve morphology using corneal confocal microscopy (CCM). ---------- RESULTS: Corneal sensation decreased significantly (P = 0.0001) with increasing neuropathic severity and correlated with the neuropathy disability score (NDS) (r = 0.441, P < 0.0001). Corneal nerve fiber density (NFD) (P < 0.0001), nerve fiber length (NFL), (P < 0.0001), and nerve branch density (NBD) (P < 0.0001) decreased significantly with increasing neuropathic severity and correlated with NDS (NFD r = −0.475, P < 0.0001; NBD r = −0.511, P < 0.0001; and NFL r = −0.581, P < 0.0001). NBD and NFL demonstrated a significant and progressive reduction with worsening heat pain thresholds (P = 0.01). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis for the diagnosis of neuropathy (NDS >3) defined an NFD of <27.8/mm2 with a sensitivity of 0.82 (95% CI 0.68–0.92) and specificity of 0.52 (0.40–0.64) and for detecting patients at risk of foot ulceration (NDS >6) defined a NFD cutoff of <20.8/mm2 with a sensitivity of 0.71 (0.42–0.92) and specificity of 0.64 (0.54–0.74). ---------- CONCLUSIONS: CCM is a noninvasive clinical technique that may be used to detect early nerve damage and stratify diabetic patients with increasing neuropathic severity. Established diabetic neuropathy leads to pain and foot ulceration. Detecting neuropathy early may allow intervention with treatments to slow or reverse this condition (1). Recent studies suggested that small unmyelinated C-fibers are damaged early in diabetic neuropathy (2–4) but can only be detected using invasive procedures such as sural nerve biopsy (4,5) or skin-punch biopsy (6–8). Our studies have shown that corneal confocal microscopy (CCM) can identify early small nerve fiber damage and accurately quantify the severity of diabetic neuropathy (9–11). We have also shown that CCM relates to intraepidermal nerve fiber loss (12) and a reduction in corneal sensitivity (13) and detects early nerve fiber regeneration after pancreas transplantation (14). Recently we have also shown that CCM detects nerve fiber damage in patients with Fabry disease (15) and idiopathic small fiber neuropathy (16) when results of electrophysiology tests and quantitative sensory testing (QST) are normal. In this study we assessed corneal sensitivity and corneal nerve morphology using CCM in diabetic patients stratified for the severity of diabetic neuropathy using neurological evaluation, electrophysiology tests, and QST. This enabled us to compare CCM and corneal esthesiometry with established tests of diabetic neuropathy and define their sensitivity and specificity to detect diabetic patients with early neuropathy and those at risk of foot ulceration.

Bioactive SrO–SiO2 glass with well-ordered mesopores : characterization, physiochemistry and biological properties

For a biomaterial to be considered suitable for bone repair it should ideally be both bioactive and have a capacity for controllable drug delivery; as such, mesoporous SiO2 glass has been proposed as a new class of bone regeneration material by virtue of its high drug-loading ability and generally good biocompatibility. It does, however, have less than optimum bioactivity and controllable drug delivery properties. In this study, we incorporated strontium (Sr) into mesoporous SiO2 in an effort to develop a bioactive mesoporous SrO–SiO2 (Sr–Si) glass with the capacity to deliver Sr2+ ions, as well as a drug, at a controlled rate, thereby producing a material better suited for bone repair. The effects of Sr2+ on the structure, physiochemistry, drug delivery and biological properties of mesoporous Sr–Si glass were investigated. The prepared mesoporous Sr–Si glass was found to have an excellent release profile of bioactive Sr2+ ions and dexamethasone, and the incorporation of Sr2+ improved structural properties, such as mesopore size, pore volume and specific surface area, as well as rate of dissolution and protein adsorption. The mesoporous Sr–Si glass had no cytotoxic effects and its release of Sr2+ and SiO44− ions enhanced alkaline phosphatase activity – a marker of osteogenic cell differentiation – in human bone mesenchymal stem cells. Mesoporous Sr–Si glasses can be prepared to porous scaffolds which show a more sustained drug release. This study suggests that incorporating Sr2+ into mesoporous SiO2 glass produces a material with a more optimal drug delivery profile coupled with improved bioactivity, making it an excellent material for bone repair applications. Keywords: Mesoporous Sr–Si glass; Drug delivery; Bioactivity; Bone repair; Scaffolds

Vibrational spectroscopic study of the mineral tsumebite Pb2Cu(PO4,SO4) (OH)

The mineral tsumebite Pb2Cu(PO4)(SO4)(OH), a copper phosphate-sulfate hydroxide of the brackebuschite group has been characterised by Raman and infrared spectroscopy. The brackebuschite mineral group are a series of monoclinic arsenates, phosphates and vanadates of the general formula A2B(XO4)(OH,H2O), where A may be Ba, Ca, Pb, Sr, while B may be Al, Cu2+,Fe2+, Fe3+, Mn2+, Mn3+, Zn and XO4 may be AsO4, PO4, SO4,VO4. Bands are assigned to the stretching and bending modes of PO43- and HOPO3 units. Hydrogen bond distances are calculated based upon the position of the OH stretching vibrations and range from 2.759 Å to 3.205 Å. This range of hydrogen bonding contributes to the stability of the mineral.