147 research outputs found
A genetic variation map for chicken with 2.8 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms
No full textWe describe a genetic variation map for the chicken genome containing 2.8 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). This map is based on a comparison of the sequences of three domestic chicken breeds (a broiler, a layer and a Chinese silkie) with that of their wild ancestor, red jungle fowl. Subsequent experiments indicate that at least 90% of the variant sites are true SNPs, and at least 70% are common SNPs that segregate in many domestic breeds. Mean nucleotide diversity is about five SNPs per kilobase for almost every possible comparison between red jungle fowl and domestic lines, between two different domestic lines, and within domestic lines--in contrast to the notion that domestic animals are highly inbred relative to their wild ancestors. In fact, most of the SNPs originated before domestication, and there is little evidence of selective sweeps for adaptive alleles on length scales greater than 100 kilobases
A rational approximation to the evolution of a free surface during fluid withdrawal through a point sink
No full textThe time varying flow in which fluid is withdrawn from a reservoir through a point sink of variable strength beneath a free surface is considered. Asymptotic techniques are used to derive an approximate solution to the flow that is valid at intermediate times, giving a simple rational approximation to track changes in the free surface for any temporal variations in the sink strength. Comparisons with numerical simulations are given, showing that the approximation has wide applicability
Reflections on a renaissance of occupation
No full textAt the close of the 20th century, there is a renaissance of occupation in occupational therapy and occupational science. Kielhofner (1992) offers an intraprofessional explanation that the growing interest in occupation recaptures occupational therapy's lost identity. An extraprofessional explanation is that postmodern ideas and social practices have helped to create a societal context in which a renaissance of occupation is welcome. Postmodernism raises questions and awareness of power, diversity, temporality, and situatedness in which normative ideas of occupation as paid work can be challenged. Since occupation is of primary concern to occupational therapy and occupational science, the authors reflect on postmodernism and its influence on a renaissance of occupation in these two fields. These reflections consider what such a renaissance means for occupational therapists and occupational scientists in the 21st century.Source type: Electronic(1
W. F. Mitchell
No full textEarlier this year, an article was published in the News Bulletin
(February 2012) on the background of Captain Boyns Hedley
Hocking, a dentist who became one of the first casualties in the
bombing of Darwin in 1942. The author, W F Mitchell, has kindly
provided a summary of the 70th anniversary activities held in
Darwin in February 2012 to commemorate this significant event in
the Northern Territory?s historyDate:2012-09News Bulletin no. 413, p. 36 - 37
Royal Commission on Human Relationships
No full textThis controversial Royal Commission from the 1970s found that many Australian families were failing to protect their most valuable members, and helped change the shape of public discussion around families, gender and sexuality.
This is the first time a digitised version of the Royal Commission on Human Relationships\u27 five-volume final report has been made publically available.
The Royal Commission was initiated in 1974, following a failed attempt by the Whitlam government to reform abortion law. The terms of reference were:
To inquire into and report upon the family, social, educational, legal and sexual aspects of male and female relationships, so far as those matters are relevant to the powers and functions of the Australian Parliament and Government, including powers and functions in relation to the Territories:
To give particular emphasis to the concept of responsible parenthood, to have regard to experience in other countries and to include in your inquiry the following aspects of the said matters:
(a) the extent of relevant existing education programs, including sex education programs, and their effectiveness in promoting responsible sexual behaviour and providing a sound basis in the fundamentals of male and female relationships in the Australian social environment;
(b) the extent of relevant existing programs in medical schools and their adequacy to provide comprehensive medical training in contraceptive techniques, in the physical, psychological and sexual problems experienced by women in adapting to marriage and before, during and after menstruation and in matters relating to pregnancy, fertility control, spontaneous and induced abortions and childbirth and to encourage acceptance by the medical profession of its responsibilities in the field of contraceptive counselling;
(c) the provision, adequacy and effectiveness of existing family planning facilities, educational and activational information on family planning and methods of evaluation of all family planning techniques;
(d) the social, economic, psychological and medical pressures on women in determining whether to proceed with unplanned or unwanted pregnancies, having regard to:
(i) the adequacy of housing, child-minding centres, pre-school centres, domestic assistance for families and working mothers, assistance to single parent families, other forms of assistance for mothers employed in industry, and adoption procedures;
(ii) the disabilities of families with handicapped children; and
(iii) the social status of women in the community; the social, psychological and medical results of termination of, or and failure to terminate such pregnancies;
(e) the adequacy and effectiveness of existing medico-legal determinations in relation to termination of pregnancy, the incidence of such terminations, the factors influencing their occurrence, the adequacy of medical training in an evaluation of methods of termination, consultative rights of the family or other persons concerned and the adequacy and effectiveness of pregnancy support services; and
(f) any other matters in relation to the family, social, educational, legal and sexual aspects of male and female relationships to which the attention of the Commission is directed by the Prime Minister in the course of the inquiry.
To make recommendations as to measures that are desirable with respect to the foregoing matters under existing or future laws of the Australian Parliament or of the Territories (including laws providing for grants to the States) and to indicate whether these measures should be implemented through existing bodies or through government instrumentalities to be created.
The final report, presented to Governor-General John Kerr in 1977, contained over 500 recommendations relating to "contraception (access and use), unwanted pregnancies, childbirth, attitudes to sexuality, sexual knowledge, sex education, domestic violence, rape and the police and courts’ treatment of rape victims, the changing roles of women, child care, child abuse, and homosexuality – especially discrimination faced by gays and lesbians."
The report was highly controversial when released and many of its recommendations were not acted on. However, the Royal Commission had a lasting influence. It was said to have brought taboo topics like abortion, rape and child abuse into public discussion, and to have opened up conversations about private life to this day.
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Part of the Policy History Collection. Digitisation of this report has been supported by the National Library of Australia.
Reproduced with permission of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet
Participation of Boys With Developmental Coordination Disorder in Gymnastics
No full textGymnastics has been identified as an accessible occupation for children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). The goal of this qualitative study was to classify the features that make it accessible to children with DCD. Three boys with DCD, their parents and two coaches participated. The first author also acted as a coach. Data collection included videotaping each session, field notes, and interviews. The findings show that gymnastics has an individualised, graded approach to skill attainment that enables successful progression for gymnasts with wide ranging abilities. Successful participation was facilitated by aspects of the specific club, and the particular gymnastics group
A Water Accounting System for Strategic Water Management
No full textThis paper describes a water accounting system (WAS) that has been developed as an innovative new tool for strategic long-term water management. The WAS incorporates both disaggregated water use and availability, provides a comprehensive and consistent historical database, and can integrate climate and hydrological model outputs for the exploration of scenarios. It has been established and tested for the state of Victoria in Australia, and can be extended to cover other or all regions of Australia. The WAS is implemented using stock-and-flow dynamics, currently employing major river basins as the spatial units and a yearly time step. While this system shares features with system dynamics, learning is enhanced and strategic management of water resources is improved by application of a Design Approach and the structure of the WAS. We compare the WAS with other relevant accounting systems and outline its benefits, particularly the potential for resolving tensions between water supply and demand. Integrated management is facilitated by combination with other stocks and flows frameworks that provide data on key drivers such as demography, land-use and electricity production.water accounts, stocks and flows, water budgets, decision support systems, strategic management
Intelligent information mining from veterinary clinical records and open source repository
No full textThis paper reports an implementation of an intelligent mining approach from veterinary clinical records and an external source of information. The system retrieves information from a local veterinary clinical database and then complements this information with related records from an external source, OAIster. It utilizes text-mining, web service technologies and domain knowledge, in order to extract keywords, to retrieve related records from an external source, and to filter the extracted keywords list. This study meets a practical challenge encountered at the School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences at Murdoch University. The results indicate that the system can be used to increase the limited knowledge within a local source by complementing it with related records from an external source. Moreover, the system also reduces information overload by only retrieving a set of related information from an external source. Finally, domain knowledge can be used to filter the extracted keywords, in this case, selected medical keywords from the extracted keyword list
The Christian Message in a Postmodern World: a critical re-appropriation of Hendrik Kraemer's theology of religions
No full textThis thesis is a critical re-appropriation of Hendrik Kraemer's theology of religions. Part I introduces theology of religions through the now familiar threefold typology: Kari Earth represents 'exclusivism,' Kari Rahner, 'inclusivism,' and John Hick, 'pluralism' (Chapter 1). It then argues that the typology implicitly represents non-pluralist approaches as theologically deficient and ethically insensitive while masking problems in pluralist positions (Chapter 2). It thus releases Kraemer from the typology and from the more emotive charges directed against 'exclusivism.' Part II chronologically and thematically surveys Kraemer's theology of religions, describing his missiological and theological contexts (Chapter 3) and summarising his major works (Chapter 4). The crux of the argument comes in Part III. First, a survey of the contemporary philosophical climate is offered through a summary and critique of Jean-Frangois Lyotard's interpretation of the postmodern condition Subsequently, three theological responses are assessed with Mark C. Taylor's a/theology and John Milbank's theology presented as avoidable extremes while the work of Hans Frei and George Lindbeck is offered as a mediating position which is dubbed 'postmodern orthodoxy' (Chapter 5). Second, after reviewing key themes in Kraemer's position, theological and phenomenological criticisms are outlined and evaluated. Though they do not seriously threaten the position, these criticisms prohibit extreme interpretations of, and lead to slight modifications in, Kraemer's work (Chapter 6). Finally, when re-read through the lenses of postmodern orthodoxy, Kraemer's thought is shown to offer to contemporary theology of religions avenues of theological creativity which are nevertheless faithful to the Christian tradition (Chapter 7). The thesis concludes that Hendrik Kraemer's theology of religions is worthy of critical re- appropriation
An evaluation of the infection control potential of a UV clinical podiatry unit
No full textBackground: Infection control is a key issue in podiatry as it is in all forms of clinical practice. Airborne
contamination may be particularly important in podiatry due to the generation of particulates during treatment.
Consequently, technologies that prevent contamination in podiatry settings may have a useful role. The aims of this
investigation were twofold, firstly to determine the ability of a UV cabinet to protect instruments from airborne
contamination and secondly to determine its ability to remove microbes from contaminated surfaces and
instruments.
Method: A UV instrument cabinet was installed in a University podiatry suite. Impact samplers and standard
microbiological techniques were used to determine the nature and extent of microbial airborne contamination.
Sterile filters were used to determine the ability of the UV cabinet to protect exposed surfaces. Artificially
contaminated instruments were used to determine the ability of the cabinet to remove microbial contamination.
Results: Airborne bacterial contamination was dominated by Gram positive cocci including Staphylococcus aureus.
Airborne fungal levels were much lower than those observed for bacteria. The UV cabinet significantly reduced
(p < 0.05) the observed levels of airborne contamination. When challenged with contaminated instruments the
cabinet was able to reduce microbial levels by between 60% to 100% with more complex instruments e.g. clippers,
remaining contaminated.
Conclusions: Bacterial airborne contamination is a potential infection risk in podiatry settings due to the presence
of S. aureus. The use of a UV instrument cabinet can reduce the risk of contamination by airborne microbes. The UV
cabinet tested was unable to decontaminate instruments and as such could pose an infection risk if misused.
Keywords: Infection control, UV, Bacteria, Fungi, Dermatophytes, Contaminatio
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