Modernisation of foresight methodology: reflexivity and the social construction of knowledge. A note to authors in COSTA22

Following a very interesting discussion during and after the Final MC in Brussels this week, We offer you some thoughts of guidance on how you might take account of the Action in your publications that are COSTA22-inspired. We refer in particular to the planned books and special editions. The key idea from COSTA22 was a modernisation of methodology in support of the wider use of foresight methods amongst a diversity of contexts. The aphorism > underlies an overt recognition of the socially constructed nature of > and the reflexivity that operates in constructing meaning from this knowledge. The guidance note takes this discussion further

Understanding the local government role in crime prevention

This research offers one of the first detailed insights into the valuable contribution made by local government within the multi-layered crime prevention strategies and initiatives which keep Australian communities safe. Foreword In Australia, crime prevention is primarily the responsibility of state and territory governments. What is less well understood is the significant role of local government in developing and delivering crime prevention at the community level, although councils have long been involved in helping to create safer communities. This research offers one of the first detailed insights into the valuable contribution made by local government within the multi-layered crime prevention strategies and initiatives which keep Australian communities safe. The Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee of the Parliament of Victoria carried out this research as part of an investigation into locally-based approaches to community safety and crime prevention in 2011. The results of a comprehensive survey of the crime prevention activities of local government authorities across Victoria are examined. This study reveals the issues local government prioritises, the responses they deploy and the challenges that they face, such as gaps in capacity and the need to manage complex relationships between participants who work on local community safety. Findings reveal a system that, while highly variable in sophistication and reach, provides an important platform for improving local community safety. The study also identifies important gaps and opportunities to improve collaboration between government and the private and NGO sectors

A Psychology of the Ordinary: Humility, Grace, and Gratitude as Religious Inflections of the World

The Fuller Symposium on the Integration of Psychology and Theology was established to encourage the discovery of new relationships between the Christian faith and the discipline of psychology. For more information, email [email protected]

Validated model and study of a rammed earth wall building

A 2100 m2 (GFA) two-storey rammed earth building was built on the Thurgoona campus of Charles Sturt University in 1999. The building is novel both in the use of materials and equipment for heating and cooling. The climate at Wodonga can be characterised as hot and dry, so the challenge of providing comfortable working conditions with minimal energy consumption is considerable. This paper describes a thermal model of one of the second-storey offices on the west-end of the building. The simulation software, TRNSYS, has been used to predict office temperatures and comparisons are made between these and measurements made over a typical week in summer. Reasonable agreement has been achieved under most conditions. The model has been used to investigate key building parameters and strategies, including night flushing, to improve the thermal comfort in the office.<br /

Institutional Design and Regulatory Performance: Rethinking State Certificate of Need Programs

The success of state efforts to control rising health care costs depends on the incentives contained in the legislative design of regulatory policies and in the administrative capacity and autonomy of state agencies. States have regulated the construction and expansion of health care facilities and services for more that two decades through “certificate of need” (CON) programs designed to limit the diffusion of expensive new medical technologies and to avoid the duplication of health care facilities. Although the cost-control record of state certificate of need programs has been widely criticized, Rhode Island’s experience with a reformed CON process from 1985 to 1995 suggests that properly designed capital expenditure controls can impose order on the rapid diffusion of new medical technologies. Staunch political opposition from health providers, however, raises serious questions about the ability of state officials to implement such reforms. In the end, Rhode Island’s experience with capital expenditure regulation in the 1980s and 1990s underscores the importance of institutional design and policy making capacity on regulatory performance

Assessment of protected area coverage of threatened ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae): a new analysis for New Zealand

Gap analysis is a tool that allows conservationists to quantify the effectiveness of protected areas at representing species diversity, but the lack of distribution maps for invertebrates has precluded its application to the world&rsquo;s most diverse animal groups. Here, we overcome this limitation and conduct a gap analysis, using niche modelling, on the Pterostichini (Coleoptera: Carabidae) of New Zealand, one of the most diverse and most threatened tribes of ground beetles in the nation. Niche modelling uses data on abiotic parameters to model predicted species ranges based on records of their known distribution, and is a useful tool for conservation planning. This method is widely applicable where there is good taxonomical knowledge of the group in question and distribution records are available. We obtained sample localities from museum records for 67 species of Pterostichini, including 10 species listed as threatened, and modelled their spatial distributions based on climate, landforms and soil properties. Most species had small spatial distributions, with 48&ndash;75% of species having ranges of less than 100 000 ha. We found the areas with highest species richness fell largely outside of the protected area network, as did the distribution of most individual species, with just 20&ndash;25% of species having more than 30% of their range falling within a protected area. In terms of percent land area, New Zealand has one of the world&rsquo;s largest protected area networks, but the spatial distribution of that network affords little protection to this group of invertebrates. This analysis provides support for the creation of new reserves to increase the value and efficacy of the protected areas network

‘Walking ... just walking’: how children and young people’s everyday pedestrian practices matter

In this paper we consider the importance of ‘walking… just walking’ for many children and young people’s everyday lives. We will show how, in our research with 175 9-16-year-olds living in new urban developments in south-east England, some particular (daily, taken-for-granted, ostensibly aimless) forms of walking were central to the lives, experiences and friendships of most children and young people. The main body of the paper highlights key characteristics of these walking practices, and their constitutive role in these children and young people’s social and cultural geography. Over the course of the paper we will argue that ‘everyday pedestrian practices’ (after Middleton 2010, 2011) like these require us to think critically about two bodies of geographical and social scientific research. On one hand, we will argue that the large body of research on children’s spatial range and independent mobility could be conceptually enlivened and extended to acknowledge bodily, social, sociotechnical and habitual practices. On the other hand, we will suggest that the empirical details of such practices should prompt critical reflection upon the wonderfully rich, multidisciplinary vein of conceptualisation latterly termed ‘new walking studies’ (Lorimer 2011). Indeed, in conclusion we shall argue that the theoretical vivacity of walking studies, and the concerns of more applied empirical approaches such as work on children’s independent mobility, could productively be interrelated. In so doing we open out a wider challenge to social and cultural geographers, to expedite this kind of interrelation in other research contexts

Classical, novel and atypical isoforms of PKC stimulate ANF- and TRE/AP-1-regulated-promoter activity in ventricular cardiomyocytes

Cultured neonatal rat ventricular myocytes were co-transfected with expression plasmids encoding protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms from each of the PKC subfamilies (classical PKC-α, novel PKC-ε or atypical PKC-ξ) together with an atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) reporter plasmid. Each PKC had been rendered constitutively active by a single Ala→Glu mutation or a small deletion in the inhibitory pseudosubstrate site. cPKC-α, nPKC-ε or aPKC-ξ expression plasmids each stimulated ANF-promoter activity and expression of a reporter gene under the control of a 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate-response element (TRE). Upregulation of the ANF promoter is characteristic of the hypertrophic response in the heart ventricle and a TRE is present in the ANF promoter. Thus all subfamilies of PKC may have the potential to contribute to hypertrophic response in cardiomyocytes

Learning The Ropes: An Introductory Tax Return Case

In extant literature, there are few tax return cases appearing in journals.&nbsp; We present a complex case using a realistic scenario that is designed to be an introductory tax return assignment used in an individual federal income taxation course.&nbsp; The case is designed to teach students how to manually prepare a federal income tax return using the actual forms and schedules prepared by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).&nbsp; This case is timely for two reasons.&nbsp; 1) Often tax return assignments in textbooks involve concepts that a student has yet to learn.&nbsp; For example, a textbook assignment often includes itemized deductions and credits, even though these topics are typically taught towards the end of an individual tax course.&nbsp; 2) In addition, with the availability of information on the internet, students have greater access to solutions to textbook assignments.&nbsp; This case comprehensively examines concepts typically covered in the first three or four chapters of an individual tax text: various types of income, exclusions, personal and dependency exemptions, capital gains and losses, and the standard deduction.&nbsp

Glycogen synthase kinases 3α and 3β in cardiac myocytes: regulation and consequences of their inhibition

Inhibition of glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β) as a consequence of its phosphorylation by protein kinase B/Akt (PKB/Akt) has been implicated in cardiac myocyte hypertrophy in response to endothelin-1 or phenylephrine. We examined the regulation of GSK3α (which we show to constitute a significant proportion of the myocyte GSK3 pool) and GSK3β in cardiac myocytes. Although endothelin increases phosphorylation of GSK3 and decreases its activity, the response is less than that induced by insulin (which does not promote cardiac myocyte hypertrophy). GSK3 phosphorylation induced by endothelin requires signalling through the extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) cascade and not the PKB/Akt pathway, whereas the reverse is true for insulin. Cardiac myocyte hypertrophy involves changes in morphology, and in gene and protein expression. The potent GSK3 inhibitor 1-azakenpaullone increases myocyte area as a consequence of increased cell length whereas phenylephrine increases both length and width. Azakenpaullone or insulin promotes AP1 transcription factor binding to an AP1 consensus oligonucleotide, but this was significantly less than that induced by endothelin and derived principally from increased binding of JunB protein, the expression of which was increased. Azakenpaullone promotes significant changes in gene expression (assessed by Affymetrix microarrays), but the overall response is less than with endothelin and there is little overlap between the genes identified. Thus, although GSK3 may contribute to cardiac myocyte hypertrophy in some respects (and presumably plays an important role in myocyte metabolism), it does not appear to contribute as significantly to the response induced by endothelin as has been maintained