Town Planning

From an accidental city without a plan, Sydney has become a city with many plans. Some would say too many, and there have been endless rounds of planning system reform since the 1980s. The central city and suburbs no longer grow âlike topsyâ but with the greater metropolitan area still being propelled by market forces towards a population of seven million by the mid twenty-first century, there are new sets of pressures around both old (development versus environment, local-state tensions, congestion) and new (affordability, social polarisation, impacts of climate change) problems which inescapably challenge the first Australian city and the one most connected to the global economy

From Rural Lands to Agribusiness Precincts: Agriculture in Metropolitan Sydney 1948–2018

Sydney is both the birthplace of the nation of Australia as well as its western agricultural tradition. Since its founding in 1788, Sydney has been a continually growing settlement whose significant metropolitan expansion has come at the expense of its immediate agricultural hinterland. While this phenomenon is not unique per se, Sydney's natural context presents a constrained and finite area of immediate and proximate land available for local production of fresh food. Official metropolitan planning commenced in Sydney from 1945 and the first scheme in 1948 provided genuine but only rudimentary strategic and statutory consideration for the preservation and continued use of its agricultural lands. Sydney's subsequent eight metropolitan plans have given agriculture lip service at best and complete disregard at worst, largely treating it as land awaiting ‘higher' economic development. Maximizing short-term financial windfalls through urban land development continues to undermine Sydney's local food supply security, while gearing food supply to an energy-intensive ‘just-in-time’ system sourcing from further afield. The latest (2018) metropolitan plan has evolved to high-tech indoor food production for lucrative overseas markets via a new ‘aerotropolis' precinct. Sydney’s metropolitan agriculture has thus been remade into a late fossil fuel era expression of corporate and neoliberal industrial agribusiness

Flying not flapping: a strategic framework for e‐learning and pedagogical innovation in higher education institutions

E‐learning is in a rather extraordinary position. It was born as a ‘tool’ and now finds itself in the guise of a somewhat wobbly arrow of change. In practice, changing the way thousands of teachers teach, learners learn, innovation is promoted and sustainable change in traditional institutions is achieved across hundreds of different disciplines is a demanding endeavour that will not be achieved by learning technologies alone. It involves art, craft and science as well as technology. This paper attempts to show how it might be possible to capture and model complex strategic processes that will help move the potential of e‐learning in universities to a new stage of development. It offers the example of a four‐quadrant model created as a framework for an e‐learning strategy

Triage, decision-making and follow-up of patients referred to a UK forensic service: validation of the DUNDRUM toolkit

BACKGROUND: Forensic medium secure services in the UK are a scarce but essential resource providing care for those in the criminal justice system with severe mental disorder. Appropriate allocation of beds to those most in need is essential to ensure efficient use of this resource. To improve decision-making processes in a UK forensic service, an admissions panel utilized the DUNDRUM 1&2 (D1 & D2) triage instruments. METHODS: Demographic, diagnostic and clinical information on a prospective sample of referrals to a UK adult forensic service was gathered (n = 195). D1 and D2 measures were scored by a panel of clinical managers considering referral information and clinician opinion in reaching their ratings; those not admitted were also followed up. RESULTS: Within the sample, D1 ratings were predictive of decisions to admit (AUC = .79) and also differentiated between levels of security (F(4) = 16.54, p < .001). Non-admission was not significantly associated with increased risk of offending at follow-up. Items relating to self-harm and institutional behaviour did not show a predictive relationship with the panel decision to admit. CONCLUSIONS: Use of a structured professional judgement tool showing good predictive validity has improved transparency of decisions and appears to be associated with more efficient use of resources, without increased risk to the public

Late Byzantine Mineral Soda High Alumina Glasses from Asia Minor: A New Primary Glass Production Group

The chemical characterisation of archaeological glass allows the discrimination between different glass groups and the identification of raw materials and technological traditions of their production. Several lines of evidence point towards the large-scale production of first millennium CE glass in a limited number of glass making factories from a mixture of Egyptian mineral soda and a locally available silica source. Fundamental changes in the manufacturing processes occurred from the eight/ninth century CE onwards, when Egyptian mineral soda was gradually replaced by soda-rich plant ash in Egypt as well as the Islamic Middle East. In order to elucidate the supply and consumption of glass during this transitional period, 31 glass samples from the assemblage found at Pergamon (Turkey) that date to the fourth to fourteenth centuries CE were analysed by electron microprobe analysis (EPMA) and by laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). The statistical evaluation of the data revealed that the Byzantine glasses from Pergamon represent at least three different glass production technologies, one of which had not previously been recognised in the glass making traditions of the Mediterranean. While the chemical characteristics of the late antique and early medieval fragments confirm the current model of glass production and distribution at the time, the elemental make-up of the majority of the eighth- to fourteenth-century glasses from Pergamon indicate the existence of a late Byzantine glass type that is characterised by high alumina levels. Judging from the trace element patterns and elevated boron and lithium concentrations, these glasses were produced with a mineral soda different to the Egyptian natron from the Wadi Natrun, suggesting a possible regional Byzantine primary glass production in Asia Minor

Scientific Analysis of Glazed Tile from the Seljuq Palace of Kubad-Âbâd, Lake Beyşehir, Turkey

The palace of Kubad-Âbâd was built on the instructions of the Seljuq Sultan Alâeddin Keykubad I. Excavations have recovered large quantities of decorated glazed wall tile, typically in the familiar “star and cross” pattern. We have analyzed fifty tiles, using inductively coupled plasma–atomic emission spectrometry for major elements and inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry for trace elements. Selected tiles were subjected to petrographic thin-section analysis and to scanning electron microscopy–energy-dispersive x-ray spectrometry for technological analysis of glazes and pigments. All the tiles are stonepaste bodies coated with an alkali-silica glaze. Black underglaze decoration is typically executed in crushed chromite. Turquoise is due to copper, and deep blue colors are due to cobalt; in some cases the cobalt pigment was mixed with fine-grained quartz to minimize bleeding into the glaze. Luster-decorated star-shaped tiles have tin-opacified glazes, but most glazes are translucent. The tiles were subdivided into visual types based upon shape, technique, motif, and color. Typically four–six tiles of each type were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry. Each type of star tile can be matched compositionally to a single cross type in terms of major and trace elements. Each star-cross pair forms a compositional group, which can be distinguished from other star-cross groups and from the monochrome tiles. Each group is distinguished in terms of decorative style, decorative technique, body recipe (clay:glass:quartz), and the elemental composition of the clay used. The compositional groups represent individual commissions, as tiles were ordered for different rooms in the palace. The differences in style, technique, and technology among the groups suggest that they were produced by more than one group of tile makers. Archaeological evidence suggests that some, perhaps all, of the tiles were made in the vicinity of Kubad-Âbâd. However, at least one tile group has a very different body composition and was made using a calcareous clay, whereas the others were made using kaolinitic clays. This group may have been imported

The pharmacokinetic behaviour of hypoxoside taken orally by patients with lung cancer in a phase I trial

No Abstract

Uncomplicated obesity is associated with abnormal aortic function assessed by cardiovascular magnetic resonance

AIMS: Obese subjects with insulin resistance and hypertension have abnormal aortic elastic function, which may predispose them to the development of left ventricular dysfunction. We hypothesised that obesity, uncomplicated by other cardiovascular risk factors, is independently associated with aortic function. METHODS AND RESULTS: We used magnetic resonance imaging to measure aortic compliance, distensibility and stiffness index in 27 obese subjects (BMI 33 kg/m2) without insulin resistance and with normal cholesterol and blood pressure, and 12 controls (BMI 23 kg/m2). Obesity was associated with reduced aortic compliance (0.9 +/- 0.1 vs. 1.5 +/- 0.2 mm2/mmHg in controls, p &lt; 0.02) and distensibility (3.3 +/- 0.01 vs. 5.6 +/- 0.01 mmHg-1 x 10-3, p &lt; 0.02), as well as higher stiffness index (3.4 +/- 0.3 vs. 2.1 +/- 0.1, p &lt; 0.02). Body mass index and fat mass were negatively correlated with aortic function. Leptin was higher in obesity (8.9 +/- 0.6 vs. 4.7 +/- 0.6 ng/ml, p &lt; 0.001) and also correlated with aortic measures. In multiple regression models, fat mass, leptin and body mass index were independent predictors of aortic function. CONCLUSION: Aortic elastic function is abnormal in obese subjects without other cardiovascular risk factors. These findings highlight the independent importance of obesity in the development of cardiovascular disease

Bifurcation analysis of two coupled Jansen-Rit neural mass models

We investigate how changes in network structure can lead to pathological oscillations similar to those observed in epileptic brain. Specifically, we conduct a bifurcation analysis of a network of two Jansen-Rit neural mass models, representing two cortical regions, to investigate different aspects of its behavior with respect to changes in the input and interconnection gains. The bifurcation diagrams, along with simulated EEG time series, exhibit diverse behaviors when varying the input, coupling strength, and network structure. We show that this simple network of neural mass models can generate various oscillatory activities, including delta wave activity, which has not been previously reported through analysis of a single Jansen-Rit neural mass model. Our analysis shows that spike-wave discharges can occur in a cortical region as a result of input changes in the other region, which may have important implications for epilepsy treatment. The bifurcation analysis is related to clinical data in two case studies