Ethical Values and the Integrity of the Climate Change Regime

This book investigates the ethical values that inform the global carbon integrity system, and reflects on alternative norms that could or should do so. The global carbon integrity system comprises the emerging international architecture being built to respond to the climate change. This architecture can be understood as an 'integrity system'- an inter-related set of institutions, governance arrangements, regulations and practices that work to ensure the system performs its role faithfully and effectively. This volume investigates the ways ethical values impact on where and how the integrity system works, where it fails, and how it can be improved. With a wide array of perspectives across many disciplines, including ethicists, philosophers, lawyers, governance experts and political theorists, the chapters seek to explore the positive values driving the global climate change processes, to offer an understanding of the motivations justifying the creation of the regime and the way that social norms impact upon the operation of the integrity system. The collection focuses on the nexus between ideal ethics and real-world implementation through institutions and laws. The book will be of interest to policy makers, climate change experts, carbon taxation regulators, academics, legal practitioners and researchers.

Whole-exome re-sequencing in a family quartet identifies POP1 mutations as the cause of a novel skeletal dysplasia

Recent advances in DNA sequencing have enabled mapping of genes for monogenic traits in families with small pedigrees and even in unrelated cases. We report the identification of disease-causing mutations in a rare, severe, skeletal dysplasia, studying a family of two healthy unrelated parents and two affected children using whole-exome sequencing. The two affected daughters have clinical and radiographic features suggestive of anauxetic dysplasia (OMIM 607095), a rare form of dwarfism caused by mutations of RMRP. However, mutations of RMRP were excluded in this family by direct sequencing. Our studies identified two novel compound heterozygous loss-of-function mutations in POP1, which encodes a core component of the RNase mitochondrial RNA processing (RNase MRP) complex that directly interacts with the RMRP RNA domains that are affected in anauxetic dysplasia. We demonstrate that these mutations impair the integrity and activity of this complex and that they impair cell proliferation, providing likely molecular and cellular mechanisms by which POP1 mutations cause this severe skeletal dysplasia. © 2011 Glazov et al.

Translink Public Art Installation

This project is a public art work commissioned by Harbinger Consultants and installed at Translink's North Lakes bus station. It comprises 4 reflective stainless steel spheres of various sizes, and 2 screens covering the bus drivers' tea room.

Re-imagining public journalism for community radio news-gathering

This paper explores the use of public journalism within a community radio news context. It argues that, the central tenets of the public journalism movement can help to frame, more adequately, a news gathering and production approach Tailored to the needs of community media. . Community radio stations generally enjoy strong relationships with their listeners and play an important role in the formation of the community itself (Lowrey et al., 2008). This paper argues that such strong community ties, in conjunction with public journalism news gathering approaches give community radio stations a strong opportunity to produce relevant, local news sourced driven by their listeners. In this regard ,this paper examines a particular case of public journalism used within the The Wire, a national, daily current affairs program broadcast on community radio. In the case study examined here ,public journalism informed story production that were designed to better meet the needs of community radio stations and their audiences.

Deploying speaker verification techniques to vision-based RPA detect and avoid

Detect and Avoid (DAA) technology is widely acknowledged as a critical enabler for unsegregated Remote Piloted Aircraft (RPA) operations, particularly Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS). Image-based DAA, in the visible spectrum, is a promising technological option for addressing the challenges DAA presents. Two impediments to progress for this approach are the scarcity of available video footage to train and test algorithms, in conjunction with testing regimes and specifications which facilitate repeatable, statistically valid, performance assessment. This paper includes three key contributions undertaken to address these impediments. In the first instance, we detail our progress towards the creation of a large hybrid collision and near-collision encounter database. Second, we explore the suitability of techniques employed by the biometric research community (Speaker Verification and Language Identification), for DAA performance optimisation and assessment. These techniques include Detection Error Trade-off (DET) curves, Equal Error Rates (EER), and the Detection Cost Function (DCF). Finally, the hybrid database and the speech-based techniques are combined and employed in the assessment of a contemporary, image based DAA system. This system includes stabilisation, morphological filtering and a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) temporal filter.

Looking at the other side: Families, public health and anti-vaccination

The choice to vaccinate or not to vaccinate a child is usually an ‘informed decision’, however, it is how this decision is informed which is of most importance. More frequently, families are turning to the Internet, in particular social media, as a data source to support their decisions. However, much of the online information may be unscientific or biased. While issues such as vaccination will always see dissenting voices, engaging with that ‘other side’ is difficult in the public policy debate which is informed by evidence based science. This chapter investigates the other side in light of the growing adoption and reliance on social media as a source of anti-vaccine information. The study adopts a qualitative approach to data collection and is based on a critical discourse analysis of online social media discourse. The findings demonstrate the valuable contribution this approach can make to public policy work in vaccination.

Defining health and public health

What is health? How is it defined and described? What do you mean when you describe yourself as ‘healthy’? How is ‘public health’ defined? What are the fundamental principles of public health? How does public health interact with other disciplines? And how do we describe what public health workers do? These are many of the questions that will be considered in this chapter and other chapters, which are designed to help you become familiar with the principles and practices of public health. This book is about introductory principles and concepts of public health for students. It is also relevant for health workers from a range of disciplines whose focus ranges from clinical to population health, and who want to understand and incorporate public health principles into their work. We begin our journey by considering a fundamental issue that underpins the notion of public health—that is, the definition of ‘health’, and we consider the range and variety of definitions, including the general public and professional.

The impact of the public library as a creative place in the community: A contextual review

This review examines recent literature on the public library as a creative place and the ways in which socio-cultural impact is being measured in assessments of cultural value. Inputs such as funding and staffing are frequently measured against outputs such as visitor numbers and lending frequencies, but qualitative measures (outcomes and impacts) are minimal in the literature because of the lack of persuasive evaluative frameworks and the difficulty of designing and facilitating the evaluations at local and national levels. Nevertheless, when combined with data about outputs and outcomes, the impact on individuals and their communities can be measured effectively and reported persuasively (Poll 2012, p.124). This contextual review provides an overview of current thinking about public libraries and creative spaces with particular attention paid to the rise of so-called makerspaces and Fab Labs. This includes discussion on the types of creative activities that are occurring in the public library context, and an outline of the rhetoric and reality of the public library as a community space. These outlines are reconsidered in a discussion of the evaluative frameworks that have been employed by libraries in the past, followed by an account of some prominent creative spaces that have been formally evaluated. The existence of creative spaces in public libraries is in a state of constant flux, and the development and redevelopment of evaluative frameworks will ensure that published reports will continue to appear throughout 2015 and beyond. This review provides a brief snapshot of the state of the field as it is in the first quarter of 2015.

History and development of public health

This chapter and the others that follow have the study of population health as their focus, as opposed to a focus on individual care and treatment. Clearly, however, we are concerned with the way in which population health is influenced by biomedical theories and practices, and the way population health is funded, and is influenced by the importance placed on therapeutic medicine. The discussions that follow include a brief overview of the ancient history of public health, and the modern history of Western public health dating from 1850. This date signifies the beginnings of a more organised, collective effort to protect the public’s health. These discussions will help you further expand your definition of public health. You will have an entertaining journey through public health achievements, and less successful outcomes, by examining the historical developments that have led us to a modern understanding of public health. The ancient Greeks and Romans, for example, had public health measures to ensure the safety and health of their populations, for a range of social and economic reasons. Convicts arrived in Australia with many health problems, and were put to work to satisfy the needs of a fledgling colony. It is important to understand the historical journey of public health and the way it is critically analysed, as it provides a looking-glass onto the present and the future.

Verification of the applicability of lattice model to concrete fracture by AE study

Notched three-point bend specimens (TPB) were tested under crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) control at a rate of 0.0004 mm/s and the entire fracture process was simulated using a regular triangular two-dimensional lattice network only over the expected fracture proces zone width. The rest of the beam specimen was discretised by a coarse triangular finite element mesh. The discrete grain structure of the concrete was generated assuming the grains to be spherical. The load versus CMOD plots thus simulated agreed reasonably well with the experimental results. Moreover, acoustic emission (AE) hits were recorded during the test and compared with the number of fractured lattice elements. It was found that the cumulative AE hits correlated well with the cumulative fractured lattice elements at all load levels thus providing a useful means for predicting when the micro-cracks form during the fracturing process, both in the pre-peak and in the post-peak regimes.

Grand challenges for public health

What is the future for public health in the twenty-first century? Can we glean an idea about the future of public health from its past? As Winston Churchill once said: ‘[T]he further backward you look, the further forward you can see.’ What can we see in the history of public health that gives us an idea of where public health might be headed in the future? (Gruszin et al. 2012). In the twentieth century there was substantial progress in public health in Australia. These improvements were brought about through a number of factors. In part, improvements were due to increasing knowledge about the natural history of disease and its treatment. Added to this knowledge was a shifting focus from legislative measures to protect health, to the emergence of improved promotion and prevention strategies, and a general improvement in social and economic conditions for people living in countries such as Australia. Gruszin et al. (2012) consider the range of social and economic reforms of the twentieth century as the most important determinants of the public’s health at the start of the twenty-first century (Gruszin et al. 2012 p 201). The same could not, however, be said for second or third world countries, many of whom have the most fundamental of sanitary and health protection issues still to deal with. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa and in Russia the decline in life expectancy can be said to be related to a range of interconnected factors. In Russia, issues such as alcoholism, violence, suicide, accidents and cardiovascular disease could be contributing to the falling life expectancy (McMichael & Butler 2007). In sub-Saharan Africa, a range of factors, such as HIV/AIDS, poverty, malaria, tuberculosis, undernutrition, totally inadequate infrastructure, gender inequality, conflict and violence, political taboos and a complete lack of political will, have all contributed to a dramatic drop in life expectancy (McMichael & Butler 2007).

Introduction to Public Health [3rd Ed.]

Why is public health important? An Introduction to Public Health is about the discipline of public health, the nature and scope of public health activity, and the challenges that face public health in the twenty-first century. The book is designed as an introductory text to the principles and practice of public health. This is a complex and multifaceted area. What we have tried to do in this book is make public health easy to understand without making it simplistic. As many authors have stated, public health is essentially about the organised efforts of society to promote, protect and restore the public’s health (Brownson 2011, Last 2001, Schneider 2011, Turnock 2012, Winslow 1920). It is multidisciplinary in nature, and it is influenced by genetic, physical, social, cultural, economic and political determinants of health. How do we define public health, and what are the disciplines that contribute to public health? How has the area changed over time? Are there health issues in the twenty-first century that change the focus and activity of public health? Yes, there are! There are many challenges facing public health now and in the future, just as there have been over the course of the history of organised public health efforts, dating from around 1850 in the Western world. Of what relevance is public health to the many health disciplines that contribute to it? How might an understanding of public health contribute to a range of health professionals who use the principles and practices of public health in their professional activities? These are the questions that this book addresses. Introduction to Public Health leads the reader on a journey of discovery that concludes with an understanding of the nature and scope of public health and the challenges facing the field into the future. In this edition we have included one new chapter, ‘Public health and social policy’, in order to broaden our understanding of the policy influences on public health. The book is designed for a range of students undertaking health courses where there is a focus on advancing the health of the population. While it is imperative that people wanting to be public health professionals understand the theory and practice of public health, many other health workers contribute to effective public health practice. The book would also be relevant to a range of undergraduate students who want an introductory understanding of public health and its practice.

Edge of Danger: electric light and the negotiation of public and private domestic space in Philip Johnson's Glass and Guest House

In the first half of the twentieth century the dematerializing of boundaries between enclosure and exposure problematized traditional expectations of the domestic environment. At the same time, as a space of escalating technological control, the modern domestic interior also offered new potential to redefine the meaning and means of habitation. The inherent tension between these opposing forces is particularly evident in the introduction of new electric lighting technology and applications into the modern domestic interior in the mid-twentieth century. Addressing this nexus of technology and domestic psychology, this article examines the critical role of electric lighting in regulating and framing both the public and private occupation of Philip Johnson's New Canaan estate. Exploring the dialectically paired transparent Glass House and opaque Guest House, this study illustrates how Johnson employed electric light to negotiate the visual environment of the estate as well as to help sustain a highly aestheticized domestic lifestyle. Contextualized within the existing literature, this analysis provides a more nuanced understanding of the New Canaan estate as an expression of Johnson's interests as a designer as well as a subversion of traditional suburban conventions.

Decentralised key management for delay tolerant networks

Public key authentication is the verification of the identity-public key binding, and is foundational to the security of any network. The contribution of this thesis has been to provide public key authentication for a decentralised and resource challenged network such as an autonomous Delay Tolerant Network (DTN). It has resulted in the development and evaluation of a combined co-localisation trust system and key distribution scheme evaluated on a realistic large geographic scale mobility model. The thesis also addresses the problem of unplanned key revocation and replacement without any central authority.

Reengaging, reenacting and reenvisaging discourses of disaster through public space performance: Austerity, art, and the art of protest

This paper offers a mediation on disaster, recovery, resilience, and restoration of balance, in both a material and a metaphorical sense, when ‘disaster’ befalls not the body politic of the nation but the body personal. In the past few decades, of course, artists, activists and scholars have deliberately tried to avoid describing personal, physical and phenomenological experiences of the disabled body in terms of difficulty and disaster. This has been part of a political move, from a medical model, in which disability, disease and illness are positioned as personal catastrophes, to a social model, in which disability is positioned as a social construct that comes from systems, institutions and infrastructure designed to exclude different bodies. It is a move that is responsible for a certain discomfort people with disabilities, and artists with disabilities, today feel towards performances that deploy disability as a metaphor for disaster, from Hijikata, to Theatre Hora. In the past five years, though, this particular discourse has begun rising again, particularly as people with disabilities fact their own anything but natural disasters as a result of the austerity measures now widespread across the US, UK, Europe and elsewhere. Measures that threaten people’s ability to live, and take part in social and institutional life, in any meaningful way. Measures that, as artist Katherine Araniello notes, also bring additional difficulty, danger, and potential for disaster as they ripple outwards across the tides of familial ties, threatening family, friends, and careers who become bound up in the struggle to do more with less. In this paper, I consider how people with disabilities use performance, particularly public space interventionalist performance, to reengage, renact and reenvisage the discourse of national, economic, environmental or other forms of disaster, the need for austerity, the need to avoid providing people with support for desires and interests as well as basic daily needs, particularly when fraud and corruption is so right, and other such ideas that have become an all too unpleasant reality for many people. Performances, for instance, like Liz Crow’s Bedding Out, where she invited people into her bed – for people with disabilities a symbolic space, which necessarily becomes more a public living room restaurant, office and so forth than a private space when poor mobility means they spend much time it in – to talk about their lives, their difficulties, and dealing with austerity. Or, for instance, like the Bolshy Divas, who mimic public and political policy, reports and advertising paranoia to undermine their discourses about austerity. I examine the effects, politics and ethics of such interventions, including examination of the comparative effect of highly bodied interventions (like Crow’s) and highly disembodied interventions (like the Bolshy Diva’s) in discourses of difficulty, disaster and austerity on a range of target spectator communities.