Community Transport in Central Sydney Local Perspectives

1.What does community transport mean for people in central Sydney? 2.What are the benefits of community transport? 3.What models of community transport are used elsewhere? During the project we conducted a literature review, interviewed community transport clients and local stakeholders and administered a questionnaire for people involved in operating community transport services internationally. The research identified themes to explain what is meant by community transport for clients and service providers. It also documents benefits and examples of community transport models from overseas and locally. The findings highlight not only the benefits of community transport, but also express the difficulties and concerns relating to service provision and key issues for the sector in the future. Community transport tends to be conceptualised in comparison with conventional public transport, principally that it is necessary to fill the gaps left by other services. Community transport is a door-to-door service, which also provides client assistance, for example, to carry shopping, or help clients get on and off the bus. The services Sydney, Australia reflect available funding and existing Home and Community Care (HACC) funding conditions. The practical benefits include tailored transport focussed on meeting the needs of transport disadvantaged older people, those with limited mobility, and individuals with severe or mild disabilities. The ability to respond to local needs and the relationship with drivers were also practical benefits identified. Community transport also contributes to clientsâ independence and reduces reliance on institutional care. Socially, clients identified that the service helped them maintain friendships, and generate new ones

The practice of flexible practice: discussion paper

The term flexible practice describes a way of addressing the needs of GPs to spend time with family or on activities outside their time at work. It has been reported that GPs spend an average of 51.4 hours working per week (CDHFS, 1996) and other data suggest that rural general practitioners work in excess of this. However, it is not just an issue of total working hours. Flexible practice also relates to issues such as quality of life, ability to take leave at short notice, the option to work parttime, ways of dispersing on call duties between different practitioners and health services, easy entry and graceful exit from practices. Other terms used to describe flexible practice arrangements are sustainable practice or sustainable model of practice. Women rural GPs, in particular, have noted that their greatest stress was the conflict between their career and their personal life (Tolhurst et al., 1998, Kilmartin et al., 2002) as they most often carry the main responsibility for the care and rearing of children (Levitt and McEwin, 2001). The three issues contributing to this stress were described as total hours worked, time on call and not finding enough time to keep up their professional knowledge (Tolhurst et al., 1998). Women also commented that the least satisfying part of medical practice was lack of time for family and personal life. Childcare options are often very limited in rural areas, which further contributes to the problem (Tolhurst et al., 1998). In response to these issues, âflexibility was identified as the key to the development and construction of policies and programs to support female GPs in rural and remote practiceâ (Levitt and McEwin, 2001). Lippert (2002) reiterates this from her own research, noting the need for greater flexibility in practice and training arrangements and valuing varied working styles and practice arrangements

Bowen Basin Mining Communities Patrnership Project

There is a diverse range of social and economic research taking place within the Bowen Basin area of Central Queensland. This research may relate directly to mining, such as impact assessment for particular development proposals, or it may be focused on social issues or trends within mining communities

Local perspectives on weirs in the Upper Nepean

The Independent Expert Panel of the HawkesburyâNepean River Management Forum commissioned the Institute for Sustainable Futures to conduct research into the values held by river users and community members in relation to the weirs on the Upper Nepean River and concerns they would have with any change to the current situation. The weirs at the centre of this research are Bergins, Thurns, Sharpes and Brownlow Hill. The research questions guiding the project are: What is the nature of the social and economic relationship between people and weirs at a local level In what ways would people want to participate in decisions about the weirs and river management Local people were asked about how they use the weirs, what value they see the weirs having for their community, culture and industry and what concerns there may be about potential changes. The research aims to help the Expert Panel and the Forum make appropriate decisions about potential retention, modification or removal of the weirs and the fishways associated with them. A further aim is to facilitate public participation in the decision-making process. Within any community, there are different individuals and groups with diverse interests and experiences. These differences might result in multiple perspectives between and within groups. To differentiate some of these perspectives, the broader community was divided into four sectors: general public, community groups, identifiable water users such as irrigators and recreational users and Indigenous groups. The general public participants emphasised the aesthetic and leisure value of the river. They appear to identify very strongly with the river, with participants interpreting the existence of the weirs as integral to both the riverâs survival and the ongoing economic survival of the region. The findings indicate that this group view the weirs as an integral part of the river and the river as an integral part of the Camden community

Sustainable Affordable Housing - Submission to Inquiry into First Home Ownership

The Institute welcomes this opportunity to submit comments to the Commissions Inquiry evaluating the affordability and availability of housing for first home buyers. The Institute for Sustainable Futures is a self-funded research and consulting institute of the University of Technology, Sydney. The Institutes mission is to support and create change towards sustainable futures by working with government, industry and the community. Social sustainability, sustainable housing and sustainable urban infrastructure for energy, water and transport are all key parts of this mission.1 This submission seeks to evaluate the affordability and availability of housing for first home buyers within the framework of ecologically sustainable development (ESD). It is in two parts. Part I: Submission provides the framework. Part II: Comments on the Commissions Issues Paper provides more details on this framework under the broad headings used in the Commissions Issues Paper

Fast shape reconstruction of perfectly conducting cracks by using a multi-frequency topological derivative strategy

This paper concerns a fast, one-step iterative technique of imaging extended perfectly conducting cracks with Dirichlet boundary condition. In order to reconstruct the shape of cracks from scattered field data measured at the boundary, we introduce a topological derivative-based electromagnetic imaging function operated at several nonzero frequencies. The properties of the imaging function are carefully analyzed for the configurations of both symmetric and non-symmetric incident field directions. This analysis explains why the application of incident fields with symmetric direction operated at multiple frequencies guarantees a successful reconstruction. Various numerical simulations with noise-corrupted data are conducted to assess the performance, effectiveness, robustness, and limitations of the proposed technique.Comment: 17 pages, 27 figure

Summation of Power Series by Self-Similar Factor Approximants

A novel method of summation for power series is developed. The method is based on the self-similar approximation theory. The trick employed is in transforming, first, a series expansion into a product expansion and in applying the self-similar renormalization to the latter rather to the former. This results in self-similar factor approximants extrapolating the sought functions from the region of asymptotically small variables to their whole domains. The method of constructing crossover formulas, interpolating between small and large values of variables is also analysed. The techniques are illustrated on different series which are typical of problems in statistical mechanics, condensed-matter physics, and, generally, in many-body theory.Comment: 30 pages + 5 ps figures, some misprints have been correcte

Magnetic interactions in iron superconductors: A review

High temperature superconductivity in iron pnictides and chalcogenides emerges when a magnetic phase is suppressed. The multi-orbital character and the strength of correlations underlie this complex phenomenology, involving magnetic softness and anisotropies, with Hund's coupling playing an important role. We review here the different theoretical approaches used to describe the magnetic interactions in these systems. We show that taking into account the orbital degree of freedom allows us to unify in a single phase diagram the main mechanisms proposed to explain the (\pi,0) order in iron pnictides: the nesting-driven, the exchange between localized spins, and the Hund induced magnetic state with orbital differentiation. Comparison of theoretical estimates and experimental results helps locate the Fe superconductors in the phase diagram. In addition, orbital physics is crucial to address the magnetic softness, the doping dependent properties, and the anisotropies.Comment: Invited review article for a focus issue of Comptes Rendus Physique: 26 pages, 10 figures. Revised version, as accepted. Small changes throughout the text plus new subsection (Sec. IIIE

Interferon-Alpha Mediates Restriction of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type-1 Replication in Primary Human Macrophages at an Early Stage of Replication

Type I interferons (IFNα and β) are induced directly in response to viral infection, resulting in an antiviral state for the cell. In vitro studies have shown that IFNα is a potent inhibitor of viral replication; however, its role in HIV-1 infection is incompletely understood. In this study we describe the ability of IFNα to restrict HIV-1 infection in primary human macrophages in contrast to peripheral blood mononuclear cells and monocyte-derived dendritic cells. Inhibition to HIV-1 replication in cells pretreated with IFNα occurred at an early stage in the virus life cycle. Late viral events such as budding and subsequent rounds of infection were not affected by IFNα treatment. Analysis of early and late HIV-1 reverse transcripts and integrated proviral DNA confirmed an early post entry role for IFNα. First strand cDNA synthesis was slightly reduced but late and integrated products were severely depleted, suggesting that initiation or the nucleic acid intermediates of reverse transcription are targeted. The depletion of integrated provirus is disproportionally greater than that of viral cDNA synthesis suggesting the possibility of a least an additional later target. A role for either cellular protein APOBEC3G or tetherin in this IFNα mediated restriction has been excluded. Vpu, previously shown by others to rescue a viral budding restriction by tetherin, could not overcome this IFNα induced effect. Determining both the viral determinants and cellular proteins involved may lead to novel therapeutic approaches. Our results add to the understanding of HIV-1 restriction by IFNα