Use of routinely collected national data sets for reporting on induced abortion in Australia

Foreword The lack of national data on induced abortion in Australia represents a gap in health statistics. The AIHW’s Reproductive Health Indicators in Australia 2002 report included an indicator on induced abortions in Australia, but national data were not reported for it because data on induced abortion were not available on a routine basis Australia-wide. This report comprehensively assesses the extent to which different forms of routinely collected data can be used to quantify the incidence of induced abortion in Australia. The innovative use of data combined from hospital and non-hospital sources helps to provide a more complete picture of reproductive health in Australia, as well as providing a basis for regular reporting in the future. The compilation of the data contained in this document represents the best effort to date to provide a factual database on the incidence of induced abortion. The report does not include any analysis of the legal, social or moral issues often raised in discussion of abortion

Quadrisecants give new lower bounds for the ropelength of a knot

Using the existence of a special quadrisecant line, we show the ropelength of any nontrivial knot is at least 15.66. This improves the previously known lower bound of 12. Numerical experiments have found a trefoil with ropelength less than 16.372, so our new bounds are quite sharp.Comment: v3 is the version published by Geometry & Topology on 25 February 200

An investigation of synthetic body covering materials in soil burials for forensic application

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Science.During the forensic investigation of grave sites artefacts are often located and have the potential to provide valuable information about the victim or the perpetrator. Such artefacts may include body coverings used by the perpetrator to interfere with the crime scene. Polymer materials are now frequently encountered at crime scenes and given their use in bag and carpet manufacture, there was an increased likelihood that this class of materials will form part of a clandestine grave. Understanding the degradation of these materials in potential crime scene soils will provide insight into the age and nature of the burial. Previous forensic research on polymers at the crime scene has mostly focused on identifying polymer materials such as fibres and the studies that have investigated polymer degradation, examined the effect degradation had on identifying the polymer rather than the information the polymer can provide about the burial. This thesis provides a comprehensive examination of the degradation of five commonly encountered polymers with potential to be used as body coverings in a variety of soil t types. A comparison of the suitability of a range of analytical techniques to understand polymer degradation associated with burial has also been made in this thesis. The five polymers -polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), poly vinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and nylon- in the form of films and carpets were buried in a series of laboratory controlled environments that varied by soil type, moisture content, soil pH and temperature for a burial period of 24 months. Scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy were utilised for the examination of changes to the morphology of polymer surface. Spectroscopic analyses, including infrared, Raman and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopies, were applied to monitor changes to the chemical structure of the polymers and their additives. Thermal analysis was also investigated as an approach to monitoring the subtle changes associated with the degradation processes. This study determined that certain soil environments enhanced the degradation of the polymers in soil, while other environments were shown to preserve the polymers. The degradation of these polymers often included the interaction of polymer additives with the soil environment. The factors that were shown to enhance polymer degradation included the availability of water and the ability of the soil environment to encourage microbial growth. In this thesis, a combination of morphological changes determined by scanning electron microscopy and the microstructural changes determined using infrared spectroscopy, and to a lesser extent, thermal changes monitored using thermogravimetric analysis, were determined to be the most powerful methods for monitoring degradation processes in the polymer systems investigated. This thesis provides new knowledge about the impact different soil variations have on the degradation of polymers that are more and more likely to be found at clandestine grave sites

A Study Of The Impact Of The Family Volunteer As A Social Support Intervention With Mothers Of Newborns

The Family Volunteer Project was designed to address two general issues with regard to the area of maladaptive parenting. These were: (1) to contribute to the development of more effective screening procedures for identifying families at high risk for maladaptive parenting; and (2) to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of family volunteers as a promising preventive intervention strategy with respect to parenting problems.;This dissertation focuses upon the second of these objectives. The analyses reported concern the feasibility and effectiveness of volunteer intervention to effect positive change either directly or indirectly upon the psychological well-being, perceived social support and parenting attitudes and perceptions of mothers of newborns.;The design of the study was prospective incorporating features of a randomized trial, subjects (312 women who had recently given birth and who agreed to accept the intervention if so allocated) were randomly assigned to the intervention within four categories of potential risk for maladaptive parenting. The data considered in this dissertation was gathered at eight points in time (two to four weeks after the birth and six months after this baseline).;Female volunteers, recruited by mass media advertising, provided a low-intensity, non-directive social/emotional supportive intervention of six months duration to participants.;It was established that the recruitment and placement of volunteers within such a project is indeed feasible. A total of 143 volunteers were recruited and became involved in 156 placements. The mean level of contact accomplished by the volunteers was a total of 18 contacts (including 6.7 face-to-face contacts) over the six-month period. Given a highly motivated group of volunteers who functioned within a uniformly extensive supportive supervisory system, it was concluded that this level of contact is all that was feasible within the parameters of this project.;The one-way anlyses of variance and regression techniques used to examine the utility of the intervention yielded uniformly negative results. There is no compelling evidence that the particular intervention program mounted had any potency for effecting a positive impact, either directly or indirectly upon the psychological well-being, perceived social support or parenting attitudes and perceptions of participants. . . . (Author\u27s abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of author.) UM