Immunisation for refugees in Australia: a policy review and analysis across all States and Territories.

OBJECTIVE: Although people of refugee background are likely to be under-immunised before and after resettlement, no study to date has evaluated refugee specific immunisation policies in Australia. We developed a framework to analyse immunisation policies across Australia to highlight the strengths and gaps so as to inform development of more effective refugee specific immunisation policies. METHODS: We sourced publicly available immunisation policy documents from state and territory government websites. Content analysis of seven policy documents was undertaken using a developed framework comprising crucial policy determinants. RESULTS: Immunisation policy differed substantially across the jurisdictions. While most policies did not highlight the importance of data collection on immunisation for refugees and the public funding of vaccines for refugees, policy determinants such as accessibility and obligations were fulfilled by most jurisdictions. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate stark differences in immunisation policy for people of refugee background across Australia. Highlighted gaps demonstrate the need to revise current policies so that they are aligned with their intended outcome of enhancing uptake of vaccines and improving immunisation coverage among resettled refugees in Australia. Implications for public health: Immunisation policy development for refugees needs to be robust enough to ensure equitable health services to this group

Make me think! Exploring library UX through the lens of (critical) information literacy

While (critical) information literacy (IL) acknowledges the political, economic, and social forces that shape complex information environments, library user experience (UX) typically centers efficiency and ‘seamlessness,’ ignoring the power structures and values that condition learning. In this paper, we explore the tensions between IL and UX values and practices, with the aim of starting a conversation about how these two related fields can become more closely aligned

Dust composition and mass-loss return from the luminous blue variable R71 in the LMC

We present an analysis of mid-and far-infrared (IR) spectrum and spectral energy distribution (SED) of the LBV R71 in the LMC.This work aims to understand the overall contribution of high-mass LBVs to the total dust-mass budget of the interstellar medium (ISM) of the LMC and compare this with the contribution from low-mass asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. As a case study, we analyze the SED of R71. We compiled all the available photometric and spectroscopic observational fluxes from various telescopes for a wide wavelength range (0.36 -- 250\,$\mu$m). We determined the dust composition from the spectroscopic data, and derived the ejected dust mass, dust mass-loss rate, and other dust shell properties by modeling the SED of R71. We noted nine spectral features in the dust shell of R71 by analyzing Spitzer spectroscopic data. Among these, we identified three new crystalline silicate features. We computed our model spectrum by using 3D radiative transfer code MCMax. Our model calculation shows that dust is dominated by amorphous silicates, with some crystalline silicates, metallic iron, and a very tiny amount of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules. The presence of both silicates and PAHs indicates that the dust has a mixed chemistry. We derived a dust mass of 0.01 M$_\odot$, from which we arrive at a total ejected mass of $\approx$ 5 M$_\odot$. This implies a time-averaged dust mass-loss rate of 2.5$\times$10$^{-6}$ M$_\odot$\,yr$^{-1}$ with an explosion about 4000 years ago. We assume that the other five confirmed dusty LBVs in the LMC loose mass at a similar rate, and estimate the total contribution to the mass budget of the LMC to be $\approx$ 10$^{-5}$ M$_\odot$\,yr$^{-1}$, which is comparable to the contribution by all the AGB stars in the LMC. Based on our analysis on R71, we speculate that LBVs as a class may be an important dust source in the ISM of the LMC.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 2 table

News media coverage of euthanasia: A content analysis of Dutch national newspapers

© 2013 Rietjens et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0),which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background: The Netherlands is one of the few countries where euthanasia is legal under strict conditions. This study investigates whether Dutch newspaper articles use the term ‘euthanasia’ according to the legal definition and determines what arguments for and against euthanasia they contain. Methods: We did an electronic search of seven Dutch national newspapers between January 2009 and May 2010 and conducted a content analysis. Results: Of the 284 articles containing the term ‘euthanasia’, 24% referred to practices outside the scope of the law, mostly relating to the forgoing of life-prolonging treatments and assistance in suicide by others than physicians. Of the articles with euthanasia as the main topic, 36% described euthanasia in the context of a terminally ill patient, 24% for older persons, 16% for persons with dementia, and 9% for persons with a psychiatric disorder. The most frequent arguments for euthanasia included the importance of self-determination and the fact that euthanasia contributes to a good death. The most frequent arguments opposing euthanasia were that suffering should instead be alleviated by better care, that providing euthanasia can be disturbing, and that society should protect the vulnerable. Conclusions: Of the newspaper articles, 24% uses the term ‘euthanasia’ for practices that are outside the scope of the euthanasia law. Typically, the more unusual cases are discussed. This might lead to misunderstandings between citizens and physicians. Despite the Dutch legalisation of euthanasia, the debate about its acceptability and boundaries is ongoing and both sides of the debate are clearly represented

Voting rules in sequential search by committees: theory and experiments

We propose a committee extension of the individual sequential search model called the “secretary problem,” where collective decisions on when to stop the search are reached via a pre-specified voting rule. We offer a game-theoretic analysis of our model, and then report two experiments on three-person committees with either uncorrelated or perfectly correlated preferences under three different voting rules, followed by a third experiment on single decision makers. Relative to equilibrium predictions, committees with uncorrelated preferences over-searched under minority and majority voting rules, but otherwise under-searched or approximated equilibrium play. Individually, committee members were often less strategic when their preferences were uncorrelated than when they were perfectly correlated. Collectively, committees’ decisions were more strategic than single decision makers’ only under the unanimity rule, though still not significantly better in terms of the decision makers’ welfare. Finally, across our experiments that involved committee search, the unanimity rule always optimized committee welfare