“I want to see the Queen” : experiences of service use by ageing people with an intellectual disability

People with intellectual disability are a relatively new but growing minority group within Australia's ageing population. Disability policies point to the equal right of people with disabilities to a quality of life similar to that of other citizens. Disability services are increasingly required to provide individualised and responsive services, irrespective of age, for people with lifelong disabilities. The present study explored the everyday lives of older people with intellectual disability in Victoria and Queensland, examining their experiences of using disability services and the ways in which services responded to their ageing. The aim of the study was to inform practice and service development for older people with intellectual disability. The findings suggest that services facilitate important social relationships with other service users and staff. Most older people had a sense of belonging and led busy but directionless lives in two disconnected worlds. Their lives were subject to significant external present-focused control. Yet, despite this, neither services nor family members took responsibility for ensuring their sense of continuity or supporting the development of plans about their future. The experiences described suggest an urgent need for, but significant challenges in the implementation of, holistic indivdualised planning similar to the UK concept of person-centred planning.

How to tell the difference between a positive image and a stereotype: reading Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

This paper intervenes in critical discussions about the representation of homosexuality. Rejecting the ‘manifest content’ of films, it turns to cultural history to map those public discourses which close down the ways in which films can be discussed. With relation to The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, it examines discussions of the film in Australian newspapers (both queer and mainstream) and finds that while there is disagreement about the interpretation to be made of the film, the terms within which those interpretations can be made are quite rigid. A matrix based on similarity, difference and value provides a series of positions and a vocabulary (transgression, assimilation, positive images and stereotypes) through which to make sense of this film. The article suggests that this matrix, and the idea that similarity and difference provide a suitable axis for making sense of homosexual identity, are problematic in discussing homosexual representation.

Queen's Parks in Queensland

Queen's Park in Maryborough is one of many public gardens established in the nineteenth century in Queensland: in Brisbane, Ipswich, Toowoomba, Warwick, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville, Cairns and Cooktown. They were created primarily as places of horticultural experimentation, as well as for recreational purposes. They formed a local area network, with the Brisbane Botanic Garden and the Government Botanist, Walter Hill, at the centre – at least in the 1870s. From here, the links extended to other botanic gardens in Australia, and beyond Australia to the British colonial network managed through the Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG), Kew. It was an informal network, supplying a knowledge of basic economic botany that founded many tropical agricultural industries and also provided much-needed recreational, educational and inspirational opportunities for colonial newcomers and residents. The story of these parks, from the time when they were first set aside as public reserves by the government surveyors to the present day, is central to the history of urban planning in regional centres. This article provides a statewide overview together with a more in-depth examination of Maryborough's own historic Queen's Park.

Portrait of Elisabeth, Queen of Belgium Portraits Women

Autographed dedication: An Margot Einstein in innigem Gedenken an ihrem Vater, meinem grossen and teueren Freund Albert Einstein. Herzlichst Elisabeth April 1956

Urinary excretion of antioxidants in healthy humans following queen garnet plum juice ingestion: a new plum variety rich in antioxidant compounds

In recent years, there has been intense interest in the potential health benefits of dietary derived plant polyphenols and antioxidants. A new variety of Prunus salicina, Queen Garnet plum (QGP), was developed as a high anthocyanin, high antioxidant plum, in a Queensland Government breeding program. Following consumption of 400 mL QGP juice (QGPJ; 1,117 mg anthocyanins) by two healthy male subjects, QGP anthocyanins (cyanidin-3-glucoside and cyanidin-3-rutinoside) were excreted mainly as methylated and glucuronidated metabolites in urine (0.5% of the ingested dose within 24 h). Furthermore, QGPJ intake resulted in a threefold increase in hippuric acid excretion (potential biomarker for total polyphenols intake and metabolite), an increased urinary antioxidant capacity and a decreased malondialdehyde excretion (biomarker for oxidative stress) within 24 h as compared with the polyphenol-/antioxidant-free control. Results from this pilot study suggest that metabolites, and not the native QGP anthocyanins/polyphenols, are most likely the bioactive compounds in vivo.

Increasing anthocyanin content in Queen Garnet plum and correlations with in-field measures

While plums are traditionally bred for fresh fruit traits such as size, sweetness, yield and disease resistance the Queensland Government breeding program for Japanese plum ( Prunus salicina Lindl.) also selected for anthocyanin content to develop a new plum selection named 'Queen Garnet'. When ripe or overripe, it has a near black skin and deep red flesh colour, which when combined, result in exceptionally high anthocyanin content, reaching up to 277 mg/100 g fruit. The skin fraction contributes 36-66% of the total anthocyanin content of fruit. The plum is now being commercially grown to be processed into a range of functional products from food colourants to premium health products. These are sold on the basis of anthocyanin and antioxidant content. Protocols for increasing anthocyanin content have therefore been researched to maximise the total anthocyanin yield rather than fresh fruit weight and taste. The principal approach is through selective harvest of overripe plums high in colour, although post-harvest storage at 21°C results in further anthocyanin synthesis. Modified processing is also required to ensure recovery of anthocyanins from the skin fraction. The plum products have entered testing for assessing health properties beginning with an initial proof of in vivo bioavailability of the anthocyanins.

Consumption of anthocyanin-rich Queen Garnet plum juice reduces platelet activation related thrombogenesis in healthy volunteers

The anti-thrombotic properties of an anthocyanin-rich Queen Garnet plum juice (QGPJ) and anthocyanin-free prune juice (PJ) were studied in this randomised, double-blind, crossover trial. Twenty-one healthy subjects (M = 10, F = 11) consumed QGPJ, PJ or placebo, 200 mL/day for 28-days followed by a 2-week wash-out period. Only QGPJ supplementation inhibited platelet aggregation induced by ADP (<5%, P = 0.02), collagen (<2.7%, P < 0.001) and arachidonic acid (<4%, P < 0.001); reduced platelet activation-dependent surface-marker P-selectin expression of activated de-granulated platelets (<17.2%, P = 0.04); prolonged activated-partial thromboplastin clotting time (>2.1 s, P = 0.03); reduced plasma-fibrinogen (<7.5%, P = 0.02) and malondialdehyde levels, a plasma biomarker of oxidative stress ( P = 0.016). PJ supplementation increased plasma hippuric acid content ( P = 0.018). QGPJ or PJ supplementation did not affect blood cell counts, lipid profile, or inflammation markers. Our findings suggest that QGPJ but not PJ has the potential to significantly attenuate thrombosis by reducing platelet activation/hyper-coagulability and oxidative stress.

The queen of rice

Beth Woods has been hailed the Queen of Rice by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). Beth’s decade-long relationship with the International Rice Research Institute driving research innovations that make large and measurable changes for rice farmers has received due recognition in a recent article published by ACIAR’s Partner’s Magazine. Her particular expertise relates to structures and strategies that help get ‘the most bang’ from the money invested in research.

Regulation of Reproduction in the Primitively Eusocial Wasp Ropalidia marginata: on the Trail of the Queen Pheromone

Queens and workers are not morphologically differentiated in the primitively eusocial wasp, Ropalidia marginata. Upon removal of the queen, one of the workers becomes extremely aggressive, but immediately drops her aggression if the queen is returned. If the queen is not returned, this hyper-aggressive individual, the potential queen (PQ), will develop her ovaries, lose her hyper-aggression, and become the next colony queen. Because of the non-aggressive nature of the queen, and because the PQ loses her aggression by the time she starts laying eggs, we hypothesized that regulation of worker reproduction in R marginata is mediated by pheromones rather than by physical aggression. Based on the immediate loss of aggression by the PQ upon return of the queen, we developed a bioassay to test whether the queen's Dufour's gland is, at least, one of the sources of the queen pheromone. Macerates of the queen's Dufour's gland, but not that of the worker's Dufour's gland, mimic the queen in making the PQ decrease her aggression. We also correctly distinguished queens and workers of R. marginata nests by a discriminant function analysis based on the chemical composition of their respective Dufour's glands.

Chemical communication in Ropalidia marginata: Dufour's gland contains queen signal that is perceived across colonies and does not contain colony signal

Queens of the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata appear to maintain reproductive monopoly through pheromone rather than through physical aggression. Upon queen removal, one of the workers (potential queen, PQ) becomes extremely aggressive but drops her aggression immediately upon returning the queen. If the queen is not returned, the PQ gradually drops her aggression and becomes the next queen of the colony. In a previous study, the Dufour's gland was found to be at least one source of the queen pheromone. Queen-worker classification could be done with 100% accuracy in a discriminant analysis, using the compositions of their respective Dufour's glands. In a bioassay, the PQ dropped her aggression in response to the queen's Dufour's gland macerate, suggesting that the queen's Dufour's gland contents mimicked the queen herself. In the present study, we found that the PQ also dropped her aggression in response to the macerate of a foreign queen's Dufour's gland. This suggests that the queen signal is perceived across colonies. This also suggests that the Dufour's gland in R. marginata does not contain information about nestmateship, because queens are attacked when introduced into foreign colonies, and hence PQ is not expected to reduce her aggression in response to a foreign queen's signal. The latter conclusion is especially significant because the Dufour's gland chemicals are adequate to classify individuals correctly not only on the basis of fertility status (queen versus worker) but also according to their colony membership, using discriminant analysis. This leads to the additional conclusion (and precaution) that the ability to statistically discriminate organisms using their chemical profiles does not necessarily imply that the organisms themselves can make such discrimination. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Queen signal should be honest to be involved in maintenance of eusociality: chemical correlates of fertility in Ropalidia marginata

Queens of many social insect species are known to maintain reproductive monopoly by pheromonal signalling of fecundity. Queens of the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata appear to do so using secretions from their Dufour's glands, whose hydrocarbon composition is correlated with fertility. Solitary nest foundresses of R. marginata are without nestmates; hence expressing a queen signal can be redundant, since there is no one to receive the signal. But if queen pheromone is an honest signal inextricably linked with fertility, it should correlate with fertility and be expressed irrespective of the presence or absence of receivers of the signal, by virtue of being a byproduct of the state of fertility. Hence we compared the Dufour's gland hydrocarbons and ovaries of solitary foundresses with queens and workers of post-emergence nests. Our results suggest that queen pheromone composition in R. marginata is a byproduct of fertility and hence can honestly signal fertility. This provides important new evidence for the honest signalling hypothesis.

Road to Royalty - Transition of Potential Queen to Queen in the Primitively Eusocial Wasp Ropalidia marginata

Ropalidia marginata, a primitively eusocial wasp, is different from typical primitively eusocial species in having docile queens who cannot be using dominance to maintain reproductive monopoly and instead appear to use a pheromone from the Dufour's gland to do so. When a docile queen is removed from her colony, one of the workers (potential queen, PQ) becomes highly aggressive, and if the queen is not returned, gradually loses her aggression and becomes the new docile queen within a few days. We hypothesized that the decrease in aggression of the PQ with time since queen removal should be correlated with her change in ovaries and pheromone profile. Because the Dufour's gland hydrocarbon composition in R.marginata can be correlated with fertility, this also gave us an opportunity to test whether PQ is different from workers in her Dufour's gland hydrocarbons. In this study, we therefore trace the road to royalty in R.marginata, that is, the transition of the PQ during queen establishment, in terms of her ovaries, aggression, and Dufour's gland hydrocarbons. Our study focuses on queen establishment, which is important for understanding how reproductive conflict can be manifested and resolved.