Survey of Employers in two LGAs in Southwestern Sydney 2013-2014

This is a report on the responses of 82 employers in Campbelltown, Fairfield, Narellan, Camden and Smeaton Grange, to a 2013-2014 survey designed to gather employers’ views of their skilled labour needs, in order to remain competitive and grow through innovation. Overall recommendation A lighthouse Regional Manufacturing Innovation and Workforce Development Partnership be piloted, to pioneer a regional program of information exchange and shared workforce development accessible to small and medium businesses. This Government-funded model would be supported by creating seconded or earmarked cross-organisational staff positions and roles, with the brief of working across employer groups, key training organisations and the three tiers of government. Their brief would be to provide a focus for gathering, exchanging and disseminating information that is timely, targeted, well- integrated and readily digestible. This information would cover: - Case study approaches to setting up local innovation initiatives - Environmental scanning of technological developments and locally-relevant market opportunities in Australian and global markets - Best- practice tools such as strategies and resources for induction and advice about accessing customised delivery of accredited workplace, online and off-site learning to building workplace expertise - Regional Manufacturing occupational labour market data, and a regional job-matching website specifically for use by local employers and jobseekers. The Partnership would also provide funding and practical support for the creation of recognized workplace development programs and resource materials supporting small manufacturing businesses in training novices and in upskilling staff. The Partnership would have initial funding for five years, and be tasked with the specific mission of embedding into ongoing practice the structures and approaches it develops. Development of the Badgerys Creek Precinct provides a unique catalyst, with significant multiplier effects, for the creation of such a South Western Sydney Advanced Manufacturing Initiative, one of whose focal points might be an Advanced Manufacturing and Aircraft Maintenance hub

Patterns of tobacco smoking among illicit drug users in Australia 2001-2010

Introduction and AimsThis study aimed to investigate whether there were changes from 2001 to 2010 in the characteristics of young adults who used party drugs or other illicit drugs and to determine if the prevalence of tobacco smoking differed depending on the type of drugs used

Monitoring HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake in Australia. Issue #6, May 2022

Description This report uses data extracted from every PrEP prescription supplied in Australia through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) between 1 April 2018 and 31 December 2021. Data are presented on the total number of people who have ever initiated PBS-subsidised PrEP, as well as the number of people dispensed PrEP within the past 12 months. These data are disaggregated by age, and by state or territory of patient residence. This report also includes a section investigating the effect of COVID-19-related lockdowns on presents monthly dispensing data by jurisdiction since COVID-19-related lockdowns began

Monitoring HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake in Australia: Issue #8, May 2023

HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) was listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) on 1 April 2018. The PBS subsidises the cost of PrEP for people eligible for Medicare in Australia. The cost to the patient for 30 pills as of May 2023 was $30.00 for general patients and$7.30 for concession card holders. This report uses data from every PBS-subsidised PrEP prescription that was dispensed in Australia between 1 April 2018 and 31 December 2022. The de-identified data incorporate unique codes for linking individuals. Variables include patient details (age, sex, postcode of residence, concession status), information about dispensing (date of dispensing, quantity dispensed), and prescriber details (postcode, specialty). Data are presented on the total number of people who have ever initiated PBS-subsidised PrEP, as well as the number of people dispensed PrEP within each quarter, and within the past 12 months. These data are disaggregated by age, and by state or territory of patient residence, and presented as population rates. This report also includes a section investigating the effect of COVID-19-related lockdowns on monthly dispensing data by jurisdiction

Thermal Remote Sensing and the Thermodynamics of Ecosystem Development

Ecosystems develop structure and function that degrades the quality of the incoming energy more effectively. The ecosystem T and Rn/K* and TRN are excellent candidates for indicators of ecological integrity. The potential for these methods to be used for remote sensed ecosystem classification and ecosystem health/integrity evaluation is apparen

Sustaining sexual and reproductive health through COVID-19 pandemic restrictions: qualitative interviews with Australian clinicians

Background. The sexual and reproductive health care of people with HIV and those at risk of HIV has largely been delivered face-to-face in Australia. These services adapted to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with a commitment to continued care despite major impacts on existing models and processes. Limited attention has been paid to understanding the perspectives of the sexual and reproductive health care workforce in the research on COVID-19 adaptations. Methods. Semi-structured interviews were conducted between June and September 2021 with 15 key informants representing a diverse range of service settings and professional roles in the Australian sexual and reproductive health sector. Inductive themes were generated through a process of reflexive thematic analysis, informed by our deductive interest in clinical adaptations. Results. The major adaptations were: triage (rapidly adapting service models to protect the most essential forms of care); teamwork (working together to overcome ongoing threats to service quality and staff wellbeing), and the intwined themes of telehealth and trust (remaining connected to marginalised communities through remote care). Despite impacts on care models and client relationships, there were sustained benefits from the scaleup of remote care, and attention to service safety, teamwork and communication. Conclusions. Attending to the experiences of those who worked at the frontline of the COVID-19 response provides essential insights to inform sustained, meaningful system reform over time. The coming years will provide important evidence of longer-term impacts of COVID-19 interruptions on both the users and providers of sexual and reproductive health services

Penguin biogeography along the West Antarctic Peninsula: Testing the canyon hypothesis with Palmer LTER observations

The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is home to large breeding colonies of the ice-dependent Antarctic Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae). Although the entire inner continental shelf is highly productive, with abundant phytoplankton and krill populations, penguin colonies are distributed heterogeneously along the WAP (Ducklow et al., 2013, in this issue). This ecological conundrum targets a long-standing question of interest: what environmental factors structure the locations of Adélie penguin "hot spots" throughout the WAP

Thermal Remote Sensing and the Thermodynamics of Ecosystem Development

Thermal remote sensing can provide environmental measuring tools with capabilities for measuring ecosystem development and integrity. Recent advances in applying principles of nonequilibrium thermodynamics to ecology provide fundamental insights into energy partitioning in ecosystems. Ecosystems are nonequilibrium systems, open to material and energy flows, which grow and develop structures and processes to increase energy degradation. More developed terrestrial ecosystems will be more effective at dissipating the solar gradient (degrading its exergy content) and can be measured by the effective surface temperature of the ecosystem on a landscape scale. Ecosystems are viewed as open thermodynamic systems with a large gradient impressed on them by the exergy flux from the sun. Ecosystems, according to the restated second law, develop in ways that systematically increases their ability to degrade the incoming solar exergy, hence negating it's ability to set up even larger gradients. Thus it should be expected that more mature ecosystems degrade the exergy they capture more completely than a less developed ecosystem. The degree to which incoming solar exergy is degraded is a function of the surface temperature of the ecosystem. If a group of ecosystems receives the same amount of incoming radiation, we would expect that the most mature ecosystem would reradiate its energy at the lowest quality level and thus would have the lowest surface temperature (coldest black body temperature). Initial development work was done using NASA's airborne Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS) followed by the use of a multispectral visible and thermal scanner-Airborne Thermal and Land Applications Sensor (ATLAS). Luvall and his coworkers have documented ecosystem energy budgets, including tropical forests, midlatitude varied ecosystems, and semiarid ecosystems. These data show that under similar environmental conditions (air temperature, relative humidity, winds, and solar irradiance) and within a given biome type, the more developed the ecosystem, the cooler it's surface temperature and the more degraded the quality of it's reradiated energy. HyspIRI is a hyperspectral visible/Near IR and multispectral thermal future global satellite mission that will collect data to study the world's ecosystems and will provide a benchmark on the state of the worlds ecosystems against which future changes can be assessed. HyspIRI will provide global data sets that will provide a means for measuring ecosystem development and integrity