New laws for off the plan contracts in Queensland

The Land Sales Act 1984 regulates “off the plan” sales in Queensland in conjunction with several provisions in the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997. Together the Acts regulate sales in both unit developments and housing estates. From 2010 to 2013 the Queensland Government undertook a comprehensive review of the Land Sales Act 1984 to identify opportunities to modernise and improve the legislation. Significant changes were recommended by the Review to align the Land Sales Act 1984 (LSA) with current surveying and conveyancing practice and to overcome a number of practical issues faced by developers under the current legislation. A significant outcome of the review is the removal of provisions related to off the plan community title sales from the LSA to the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (BCCMA) and the Building Units and Group Titles Act 1980 (BUGTA). This article examines the Land Sales and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2014 due to commence in November 2014.

A national satellite-based land-use regression model for air pollution exposure assessment in Australia

Land-use regression (LUR) is a technique that can improve the accuracy of air pollution exposure assessment in epidemiological studies. Most LUR models are developed for single cities, which places limitations on their applicability to other locations. We sought to develop a model to predict nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations with national coverage of Australia by using satellite observations of tropospheric NO2 columns combined with other predictor variables. We used a generalised estimating equation (GEE) model to predict annual and monthly average ambient NO2 concentrations measured by a national monitoring network from 2006 through 2011. The best annual model explained 81% of spatial variation in NO2 (absolute RMS error=1.4 ppb), while the best monthly model explained 76% (absolute RMS error=1.9 ppb). We applied our models to predict NO2 concentrations at the ~350,000 census mesh blocks across the country (a mesh block is the smallest spatial unit in the Australian census). National population-weighted average concentrations ranged from 7.3 ppb (2006) to 6.3 ppb (2011). We found that a simple approach using tropospheric NO2 column data yielded models with slightly better predictive ability than those produced using a more involved approach that required simulation of surface-to-column ratios. The models were capable of capturing within-urban variability in NO2, and offer the ability to estimate ambient NO2 concentrations at monthly and annual time scales across Australia from 2006–2011. We are making our model predictions freely available for research.

Coffee for morning hunger pangs. An examination of coffee and caffeine on appetite, gastric emptying, and energy intake

Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world and has a number of potential health benefits. Coffee may influence energy expenditure and energy intake, which in turn may affect body weight. However, the influence of coffee and its constituents – particularly caffeine – on appetite remains largely unexplored. The objective of this study was to examine the impact of coffee consumption (with and without caffeine) on appetite sensations, energy intake, gastric emptying, and plasma glucose between breakfast and lunch meals. In a double-blind, randomised crossover design. Participants (n = 12, 9 women; Mean ± SD age and BMI: 26.3 ± 6.3 y and 22.7 ± 2.2 kg•m−2) completed 4 trials: placebo (PLA), decaffeinated coffee (DECAF), caffeine (CAF), and caffeine with decaffeinated coffee (COF). Participants were given a standardised breakfast labelled with 13C-octanoic acid and 225 mL of treatment beverage and a capsule containing either caffeine or placebo. Two hours later, another 225 mL of the treatment beverage and capsule was administered. Four and a half hours after breakfast, participants were given access to an ad libitum meal for determination of energy intake. Between meals, participants provided exhaled breath samples for determination of gastric emptying; venous blood and appetite sensations. Energy intake was not significantly different between the trials (Means ± SD, p > 0.05; Placebo: 2118 ± 663 kJ; Decaf: 2128 ± 739 kJ; Caffeine: 2287 ± 649 kJ; Coffee: 2016 ± 750 kJ); Other than main effects of time (p < 0.05), no significant differences were detected for appetite sensations or plasma glucose between treatments (p > 0.05). Gastric emptying was not significantly different across trials (p > 0.05). No significant effects of decaffeinated coffee, caffeine or their combination were detected. However, the consumption of caffeine and/or coffee for regulation of energy balance over longer periods of time warrant further investigation.

Stop-signal task difficulty and the right inferior frontal gyrus

The stop-signal paradigm is increasingly being used as a probe of response inhibition in basic and clinical neuroimaging research. The critical feature of this task is that a cued response is countermanded by a secondary ‘stop-signal’ stimulus offset from the first by a ‘stop-signal delay’. Here we explored the role of task difficulty in the stop-signal task with the hypothesis that what is critical for successful inhibition is the time available for stopping, that we define as the difference between stop-signal onset and the expected response time (approximated by reaction time from previous trial). We also used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine how the time available for stopping affects activity in the putative right inferior frontal gyrus and presupplementary motor area (right IFG-preSMA) network that is known to support stopping. While undergoing fMRI scanning, participants performed a stop-signal variant where the time available for stopping was kept approximately constant across participants, which enabled us to compare how the time available for stopping affected stop-signal task difficulty both within and between subjects. Importantly, all behavioural and neuroimaging data were consistent with previous findings. We found that the time available for stopping distinguished successful from unsuccessful inhibition trials, was independent of stop-signal delay, and affected successful inhibition depending upon individual SSRT. We also found that right IFG and adjacent anterior insula were more strongly activated during more difficult stopping. These findings may have critical implications for stop-signal studies that compare different patient or other groups using fixed stop-signal delays.