Provisional supervision in Hong Kong : third time lucky?

Provisional supervision (PS) is Hong Kong’s proposed new corporate rescue procedure. In essence, it is a procedure for the preparation by a professional, usually an accountant or a solicitor, of a proposal for a voluntary arrangement, supported by a moratorium. There should be little court involvement in the process and it is anticipated that the costs and delays of the process would be less than alternate, currently available procedures. This article will retrace some of the key events and issues arising from the numerous policy and legislative debates about PS in Hong Kong. At present the Hong Kong government is in the midst of drafting a new Bill on corporate rescue procedure to be introduced to the HKSAR Legislative Council. This will be the third attempt. Setting aside the controversies and the content of this new effort by the Hong Kong administration, the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 has signalled to the international policy and business community, free markets alone cannot be an effective regulatory mechanism. Having legal safeguards and clear rules to regulate procedures and conduct of market participants are imperative to avoid future financial meltdowns.

The low-affinity site of the β1-adrenoceptor and its relevance to cardiovascular pharmacology

β-Adrenoceptor blocking agents (β-blockers) that at low concentrations antagonize cardiostimulant effects of catecholamines, but at high concentrations also cause cardiostimulation, have been appearing since the late 1960s. These cardiostimulant β-blockers, coined non-conventional partial agonists, antagonize the effects of catecholamines through a high-affinity site (β1HAR), but cause cardiostimulation mainly through a low-affinity site (β1LAR) of the myocardial β1-adrenoceptor. The experimental non-conventional partial agonist (−)-CGP12177 increases cardiac L-type Ca2+ current density and Ca2+ transients, shortens action potential duration but augments action potential plateau, increases heart rate and force, as well as causes arrhythmic Ca2+ transients and arrhythmic cardiocyte contractions. Other β-blockers, which do not cause cardiostimulation, consistently have lower affinity for β1LAR than β1HAR. These sites were verified and the cardiac pharmacology of non-conventional partial agonists confirmed on recombinant β1-adrenoceptors and on β1-adrenoceptors overexpressed into the heart. A targeted mutation of Asp138 to Glu138 virtually abolished the pharmacology of β1HAR but left intact the pharmacology of β1LAR. Non-conventional partial agonists may be beneficial for the treatment of peripheral autonomic neuropathy but probably due to their arrhythmic propensities, may be harmful for the treatment of chronic heart failure.

Indoor and outdoor nitrogen dioxide concentration in residential houses in Australia

As part of a larger indoor environmental study, residential indoor and outdoor levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) were measured for 14 houses in a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Passive samplers were used for 48-h sampling periods during the winter of 1999. The average indoor and outdoor NO2 levels were 13.8 ± 6.3 and 16.7 ± 4.2 ppb, respectively. The indoor/outdoor NO2 concentration ratio ranged from 0.4 to 2.3, with a median value of 0.82. The results of statistic analyses indicated that there was no significant correlation between indoor and outdoor NO2 concentrations, or between indoor and fixed site NO2 monitoring station concentrations. However, there was a significant correlation between outdoor and fixed site NO2 monitoring station concentrations. There was also a significant correlation between indoor NO2 concentration and indoor submicrometre (0.007–0.808 μm) aerosol particle number concentrations. The results in this study indicated indoor NO2 levels are significantly affected by indoor NO2 sources, such as a gas stove and cigarette smoking. It implies that the outdoor or fixed site monitoring concentration alone is a poor predictor of indoor NO2 concentration.

Development of an online condition monitoring system for slow speed machinery

One of the main challenges of slow speed machinery condition monitoring is that the energy generated from an incipient defect is too weak to be detected by traditional vibration measurements due to its low impact energy. Acoustic emission (AE) measurement is an alternative for this as it has the ability to detect crack initiations or rubbing between moving surfaces. However, AE measurement requires high sampling frequency and consequently huge amount of data are obtained to be processed. It also requires expensive hardware to capture those data, storage and involves signal processing techniques to retrieve valuable information on the state of the machine. AE signal has been utilised for early detection of defects in bearings and gears. This paper presents an online condition monitoring (CM) system for slow speed machinery, which attempts to overcome those challenges. The system incorporates relevant signal processing techniques for slow speed CM which include noise removal techniques to enhance the signal-to-noise and peak-holding down sampling to reduce the burden of massive data handling. The analysis software works under Labview environment, which enables online remote control of data acquisition, real-time analysis, offline analysis and diagnostic trending. The system has been fully implemented on a site machine and contributing significantly to improve the maintenance efficiency and provide a safer and reliable operation.

Social network market : storytelling on a Web 2.0 original literature site

This article looks at a Chinese Web 2.0 original literature site, Qidian, in order to show the coevolution of market and non-market initiatives. The analytic framework of social network markets (Potts et al., 2008) is employed to analyse the motivations of publishing original literature works online and to understand the support mechanisms of the site, which encourage readers’ willingness to pay for user-generated content. The co-existence of socio-cultural and commercial economies and their impact on the successful business model of the site are illustrated in this case. This article extends the concept of social network markets by proposing the existence of a ripple effect of social network markets through convergence between PC and mobile internet, traditional and internet publishing, and between publishing and other cultural industries. It also examines the side effects of social network markets, and the role of market and non-market strategies in addressing the issues.

The Australian Nonprofit Sector Legal Almanac 2010, ACPNS Working Paper 53

This is the third year that we have summarised annual developments in the law for nonprofit staff, boards and volunteers. We were encouraged by the interest shown in last year’s publication and the use made of the digital copy on our web site, so here is the almanac for the Jan 2010–Dec 2010 period. We are delighted that the Australian Charity Law Association and PilchConnect (Victoria) have again agreed to contribute and promote the publication as well. These two organisations are beginning to fill the void of professional legal development and assistance to small nonprofit organisations that has characterised Australia for too many years. The first conference of the Australian Charity Law Association in Sydney was a significant event and one of the addresses is included in the Almanac. Other materials from the conference can be accessed at the Centre’s website.

Adhesion of perichondrial cells to a polylactic acid scaffold

The number of chondrogenic cells available locally is an, important factor in the repair process for cartilage defects. Previous studies demonstrated that the number of transplanted rabbit perichondrial cells (PC) remaining in a cartilage defect in vivo, after being carried into the site in a polylactic acid (PLA) scaffold, declined markedly within two days. This study examined the ability of in vitro culture of PC/PLA constructs to enhance subsequent biomechanical stability of the cells and the matrix content in an in vitro screening assay. PC/PLA constructs were analyzed after 1 h, 1 and 2 weeks of culture. The biomechanical adherence of PC to the PLA scaffold was tested by subjecting the PC/PLA constructs to a range of flow velocities (0.25-25 mm/s), spanning the range estimated to occur under conditions of construct insertion in vivo. The adhesion of PC to the PLA carrier was increased significantly by 1 and 2 weeks of incubation, with 25 mm/s flow causing a 57% detachment of cells after 1 h of seeding, but only 7% and 16% after I and 2 weeks of culture, respectively (p < 0.001). This adherence was associated with marked deposition of glycosaminoglycan and collagen. These findings suggest that pre-incubation of PC-laden PLA scaffolds markedly enhances the stability of the indwelling cells. (C) 2003 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using a social networking site such as Facebook, to enhance the feeling of belonging, within a first year nursing cohort of a large university

Recently I asked a first year student how he was coping with the transition from high school to university. The young fellow looked at me and said, “Man, everything is so different!” I smiled and said “like what?” with which he seriously replied, “Well for one thing, no one tells you that you have to wear a hat at lunch time.” I have to admit I was a little amused and surprised by this student’s response, as so often the focus, is placed on getting first year students to engage academically, when it is obvious at times, that even the mere transition in to university life and the culture itself, can be a hurdle. While teaching, within a large first year unit for over 10 years, it has become apparent that students want more connection with not only the peers that they study with, but also with the University as a whole. Dr Krause pointed out in her keynote paper, On Being Strategic about the First Year (2006), that this “sense of belonging is conducive to enhancing engagement, satisfaction with learning and commitment to study”. It has also become evident, that the way in which students want to be able to communicate has changed, with the advent of capabilities such as Instant Messaging via a network and Short Message Service SMS texting via their hand held mobile phones. To be able to chat and feel connected on social networking sites such as Bebo, Facebook and Twitter is not only a way of the future, it is here now and it is here to stay.

Social Impact of Mining Survey : Aggregate Results Queensland Communities

This is the final report from a study into the social impact of mining in Queensland.

Spatial population genetic structure reveals strong natal site fidelity in Echinocladius martini (Diptera: Chironomidae) in northeast Queensland, Australia

1. A diverse array of patterns has been reported regarding the spatial extent of population genetic structure and effective dispersal in freshwater macroinvertebrates. In river systems, the movements of many taxa can be restricted to varying degrees by the natural stream channel hierarchy. 2. In this study, we sampled populations of the non-biting freshwater midge Echinocladius martini in the Paluma bioregion of tropical northeast Queensland to investigate fine scale patterns of within- and among-stream dispersal and gene flow within a purported historical refuge. We amplified a 639 bp fragment of mitochondrial COI and analysed genetic structure using pairwise ΦST, hierarchical AMOVA, Mantel tests and a parsimony network. Genetic variation was partitioned among stream sections using Streamtree to investigate the effect of potential instream dispersal barriers. 3. The data revealed strong natal site fidelity and significant differentiation among neighbouring, geographically proximate streams. We found evidence for only episodic adult flight among sites on separate stream reaches. Overall, however, our data suggested that both larval and adult dispersal was largely limited to within a stream channel. 4. This may arise from a combination of the high density of riparian vegetation physically restricting dispersal and from the joint effects of habitat stability and large population sizes. Together these may mitigate the requirement for movement among streams to avoid inbreeding and local extinction due to habitat change and may thus enable persistence of upstream populations in the absence of regular compensatory upstream flight. Taken together, these data suggest that dispersal of E. martini is highly restricted, to the scale of only a few kilometres, and hence occurs predominantly within the natal stream.

Body-site distribution of skin cancer, pre-malignant and common benign pigmented lesions excised in general practice

Background Concern about skin cancer is a common reason for people from predominantly fair-skinned populations to present to primary care doctors. Objectives To examine the frequency and body-site distribution of malignant, pre-malignant and benign pigmented skin lesions excised in primary care. Methods This prospective study conducted in Queensland, Australia, included 154 primary care doctors. For all excised or biopsied lesions, doctors recorded the patient's age and sex, body site, level of patient pressure to excise, and the clinical diagnosis. Histological confirmation was obtained through pathology laboratories. Results Of 9650 skin lesions, 57·7% were excised in males and 75·0% excised in patients ≥50years. The most common diagnoses were basal cell carcinoma (BCC) (35·1%) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) (19·7%). Compared with the whole body, the highest densities for SCC, BCC and actinic keratoses were observed on chronically sun-exposed areas of the body including the face in males and females, the scalp and ears in males, and the hands in females. The density of BCC was also high on intermittently or rarely exposed body sites. Females, younger patients and patients with melanocytic naevi were significantly more likely to exert moderate/high levels of pressure on the doctor to excise. Conclusions More than half the excised lesions were skin cancer, which mostly occurred on the more chronically sun-exposed areas of the body. Information on the type and body-site distribution of skin lesions can aid in the diagnosis and planned management of skin cancer and other skin lesions commonly presented in primary care.