Real Property Tax Relief for the Elderly

This article focuses on the elderly person\u27s problem of coping with real property taxation. Although property taxes vary in intensity from place to place, the elderly bear a particularly heavy burden. The property tax generally does not reflect a taxpayer\u27s ability to pay, since it is usually levied in proportion to the value of real property rather than in relation to a homeowner\u27s income. Thus people with low incomes may have to pay a greater percentage of their incomes as real property tax than people with higher incomes. The real property tax can be a formidable problem for an elderly person sentimentally attached to his home, but lacking the money to keep the tax collector at bay and simultaneously to provide for the necessities of life. This article examines governmental efforts to solve this problem, assuming that the elderly should be insulated from crippling real property taxation and that government action is desirable to accomplish this goal. The various options before- the federal government for providing relief will be discussed against the background of recent state action. The proposals are confined to those providing substantive relief specifically for the elderly

Literacy practitioners’ perspectives on adult learning needs and technology approaches in Indigenous communities

Current reports of literacy rates in Australia indicate an ongoing gap in literacy skills between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian adults, at a time when the literacy demands of work and life are increasing. There are many perspectives on what are the literacy needs of Indigenous adults,from the perspectives of community members themselves to the relatively under-researched perspective of literacy practitioners. This paper provides the insights, experiences and recommendations from adult literacy practitioners who work with adult Indigenous learners in communities across Australia. Focus group interviews, using an online synchronous platform, were used to elicit views about the literacy needs of Indigenous adults in communities and the successes in and barriers to meeting those needs. The practitioners also shared their views on the use of technology in literacy learning. Together, these views can informfuture directions in curriculum design and teaching approaches for community-based Indigenous adult literacy education

IL-17: A Key Player in the P. acnes Inflammatory Cascade?

Recent advances in our understanding of inflammatory skin diseases now afford an opportunity to delve deeper into microbial/host interactions in acne. Agak et al. report that Propionibacterium acnes induces IL-17 expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and present new evidence that IL-17+ cells are found in the perifollicular infiltrate of comedones. Additional studies are needed to assess the clinical relevance of IL-17 in acne

Re-positioning SoTL toward the T-shaped Community

Amongst a range of changes that have taken place within tertiary education, perhaps the most revolutionary has been a shift to student-centred approaches focused on life-long learning. Accompanying this approach to holistic higher education (HE) has been a growing interest in, and understanding of, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). SoTL has, at its core, a deep concern with student learning and is therefore well-aligned with higher education’s renewed focus on its students. In this conceptual paper, we examine the impact of the T-shaped person which many tertiary institutions are operationalizing to inform and connect the development of students’ deep disciplinary knowledge with non-academic and employment readiness skills (such as communication, problem-solving, teamwork, and critical thinking). Importantly, we argue for a re-positioning of SoTL to complement and support this model, with SoTL as both the fulcrum and the fluid, multiple threads of discourse that are intricately entwined around the structure of the T-shaped model. We encourage our colleagues to strive to be T-shaped practitioners and we cast a vision of a T-shaped community. Here, all stakeholders within HE connect both their academic knowledge and holistic skills in collaborative ways to produce learners who flourish in modern society. The SoTL community plays a pivotal role in achieving this vision and is well-positioned to expand the current notion of SoTL toward a more holistic, interconnected, central role in HE

A panel of human lung carcinoma lines: establishment, properties and common characteristics.

A panel of human lung carcinoma lines representing the four main histological types (squamous, small-cell, large-cell and adenocarcinoma), and derived from both primary and metastatic sites, has been established in xenograft and in tissue culture. The highest take rates were achieved when biopsy specimens were obtained from large tumour masses and cultured lines were most readily established after preliminary passages as xenografts. The established lines exhibited an overlapping spectrum of biochemical and morphological characteristics, and showed a tendency to change from one cell type to another, in keeping with the concept of a common endodermal cell of origin. Radiation resistance appeared to be related to the large-cell phenotype

Glutathione determination by the Tietze enzymatic recycling assay and its relationship to cellular radiation response.

Large fluctuations in glutathione content were observed on a daily basis using the Tietze enzyme recycling assay in a panel of six human cell lines of varying radiosensitivity. Glutathione content tended to increase to a maximum during exponential cell proliferation, and then decreased at different rates as the cells approached plateau phase. By reference to high-performance liquid chromatography and flow cytometry of the fluorescent bimane derivative we were able to verify that these changes were real. However, the Tietze assay was occasionally unable to detect glutathione in two of our cell lines (MGH-U1 and AT5BIVA), although the other methods indicated its presence. The existence of an inhibitory activity responsible for these anomalies was confirmed through spiking our samples with known amounts of glutathione. We were unable to detect a direct relationship between cellular glutathione concentration and aerobic radiosensitivity in our panel of cell lines

The management of acne vulgaris in primary care: a cohort study of consulting and prescribing patterns using CPRD

Background Effective management of acne vulgaris in primary care involves support (usually provided over a number of consultations) and prescribing effective treatments. However, consulting and prescribing patterns for acne in primary care are not well described. Objective To describe the rate of primary care consultations and follow-up consultations; prescribing patterns, including overall use of acne related medications (ARM) and initial and follow-up prescribing, for acne vulgaris in the UK. Methods UK primary care acne consultations and prescriptions for ARMs were identified in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD). Annual consultation rates (between 2004 and 2013) by age and gender, new consultations and consultations in the subsequent year; prescribing trends, prescribing during a new consultation and over the subsequent 90 days and year were calculated, using number of registered patients as the denominator. Results 65.9% of patients who had a new acne consultation had no further acne consultations in the subsequent year. 26.6%, 25.2%, 23.5% and 2.8% of patients were prescribed no ARM, an oral antibiotic, a topical antibiotic, or an oral plus topical antibiotic respectively during a new acne consultation. 59.9% and 38.5% of patients prescribed an ARM received no further ARM prescriptions in the following 90 days and one year respectively, despite most prescriptions being for 2 months or less. Prescribing rates for lymecycline and topical combined clindamycin/benzoyl peroxide increased substantially between 2004 and 2013. There were no important changes in consultation rates between 2004 and 2013. Conclusion These data suggest that patients with acne are receiving sub-optimal initial choice of ARMs, longitudinal care and prescribing

Rapid Prenatal Diagnosis and Exclusion of Epidermolysis Bullosa Using Novel Antibody Probes

Prenatal diagnosis of recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa was successfully achieved at 19 weeks' gestation by indirect immunofluorescence examination of a fetal skin biopsy sample using the monoclonal antibody LH 7:2. The abortus displayed marked blistering and the diagnosis was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In 3 further pregnancies at risk for lethal junctional epidermolysis bullosa the diagnosis was excluded using the polyclonal antibody AA3. In all these studies the results were available within 4h of receiving the samples. These new techniques offer a quick and simple alternative to TEM for midtrimester prenatal diagnosis of 2 severe recessive forms of epidermolysis bullosa

Negative phenotypic and genetic associations between copulation duration and longevity in male seed beetles

Reproduction can be costly and is predicted to trade-off against other characters. However, while these trade-offs are well documented for females, there has been less focus on aspects of male reproduction. Furthermore, those studies that have looked at males typically only investigate phenotypic associations, with the underlying genetics often ignored. Here, we report on phenotypic and genetic trade-offs in male reproductive effort in the seed beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus. We find that the duration of a male's first copulation is negatively associated with subsequent male survival, phenotypically and genetically. Our results are consistent with life-history theory and suggest that like females, males trade-off reproductive effort against longevity