Strangers are calling! The experience of door to door sales in Melbourne's refugee communities

This report examines the impact of door-to-door sales practices on vulnerable consumers, including refugee communities, low-income families and public housing residents. By using the real life experiences of our clients at the Footscray Community Legal Centre ( Footscray CLC ), this report examines the social and legal impact of door-to-door sales. This report finds that disadvantaged consumers are disproportionately affected by damaging and often illegal sales practices. Such practices have social and financial consequences for communities and individuals. The research was inspired by the specialist “Bring your Bills” Clinics ( BYB Clinics ) run by Footscray CLC to meet the overwhelming demand for assistance with bills. Community members were invited to bring bills they were concerned about to obtain help from representatives from dispute resolution schemes, 1 financial counsellors, lawyers and other social service providers. A high proportion of people attending BYB Clinics experienced problems as a result of door-to-door sales practices by some energy companies. Problems the clients had as a result of a door-to-door energy sale included: confusion as to whether they had switched companies (and thus why they had received bills from a company that was not their own); debts incurred and legal action taken by energy companies trying to recover debts; and other disputes involving termination of contracts made through door-to-door sales. For many Australians and particularly those who have recently arrived in the country with a refugee background, the process of selecting energy retailers can be confusing and financially stressful. This report focuses primarily on the methods that some energy companies use to encourage consumers to “switch” companies through door-to-door sales practices, and the social implications of these practices

Putting social marketing into practice

Social marketing is acquiring a familiar ring to people in the health sector. The UK government's recent public health white paper talks of the "power of social marketing" and "marketing tools applied to social good [being] used to build public awareness and change behaviour." This has led to the formation of the National Social Marketing Centre for Excellence, a collaboration between the Department of Health and the National Consumer Council. The centre will develop the first social marketing strategy for health in England. Similarly, the Scottish Executive recently commissioned an investigation into how social marketing can be used to guide health improvement. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States all have social marketing facilities embedded high within their health services. Evans has outlined social marketing's basic precepts. We develop some of these ideas and suggest how social marketing can help doctors and other health professionals to do their jobs more effectively

The Shortening of MWNT-SPION Hybrids by Steam Treatment Improves Their Magnetic Resonance Imaging Properties In Vitro and In Vivo

Cabana, Laura et al.Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been advocated as promising nanocarriers in the biomedical field. Their high surface area and needle-like shape make these systems especially attractive for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Biocompatibility, cell internalization, biodistribution, and pharmacokinetic profile have all been reported to be length dependent. In this study, further insights are gotten on the role that the length of CNTs plays when developing novel contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Two samples of CNTs with different length distribution have been decorated with radio-labeled iron oxide nanoparticles. Despite characterization of the prepared hybrids reveals a similar degree of loading and size of the nanoparticles for both samples, the use of short CNTs is found to enhance the MRI properties of the developed contrast agents both in vitro and in vivo compared to their long counterparts. KeywordsL.C. and M.B. contributed equally to this work. The authors are grateful to Thomas Swan Co. & Ltd for supplying the Elicarb MWNT samples. L.C. acknowledges a CSIC JAE Predoc Fellowship. M.B. is a Marie Curie Fellow. Funding from FP7-ITN Marie-Curie Network programme RADDEL (290023), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/J008656/1), Worldwide Cancer Research (12-1054), and Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MAT2014-53500-R and MAT2014-56063-C2-1R) is acknowledged. R.T.M.D. acknowledges funding by The Centre of Excellence in Medical Engineering funded by the Wellcome Trust and EPSRC under Grant No. WT 088641/Z/09/Z. L.C., J.F., and G.T./ ICMAB acknowledge fi nancial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the “Severo Ochoa” Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (SEV-2015-0496). K.T.A., G.T, and R.T.M.D. thank the members of the EU COST actions TD1004 (Theranostics Imaging and Therapy: An Action to Develop Novel Nanosized Systems for Imaging-Guided Drug Delivery) and TD1007 (Bimodal PET-MRI molecular imaging technologies and applications for in vivo monitoring of disease and biological processes) for useful discussions. The XPS data were acquired at the Laboratorio de Microscopías Avanzadas (LMA) – Instituto de Nanociencia de Aragón (INA) (Spain).Peer reviewe

Living with Dying: Everyday Cultures of Dying within Family Life in Britain, c.1900s-1950s (Intern project)

Living with Dying: Everyday Cultures of Dying within Family Life in Britain, c.1900s-1950s' is a major AHRC funded project examining how death and dying were understood, discussed and experienced within everyday life. As part of the project were funded two internships, in collaboration with Special Collections at the University of Leeds, outputs include a report about the Leeds General Cemetery Burial Registers, held in Special Collections, as well as blog posts and other materials

The inhibitory effects of slow-releasing hydrogen sulfide donors in the mechanical allodynia, grip strength deficits, and depressive-like behaviors associated with chronic osteoarthritis pain

Osteoarthritis and its associated comorbidities are important clinical problems that have a negative impact on the quality of life, and its treatment remains unresolved. We investigated whether the systemic administration of slow-releasing hydrogen sulfide (H2S) donors, allyl isothiocyanate (A-ITC) and phenyl isothiocyanate (P-ITC), alleviates chronic osteoarthritis pain and the associated emotional disorders. In C57BL/6 female mice with osteoarthritis pain induced by the intra-articular injection of monosodium iodoacetate, we evaluated the effects of repeated administration of A-ITC and P-ITC on the (i) mechanical allodynia and grip strength deficits;(ii) emotional conducts; and (iii) glial activity and expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS2), phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt), and antioxidant enzymes (heme oxygenase 1, NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase-1, glutathione S-transferase mu 1 and alpha 1) in the hippocampus. The administration of A-ITC and P-ITC inhibited the mechanical allodynia, the grip strength deficits, and the depressive-like behaviors accompanying osteoarthritis. Both treatments inhibited microglial activation, normalized the upregulation of NOS2 and PI3K/p-Akt, and maintained high levels of antioxidant/detoxificant enzymes in the hippocampus. Data suggest that treatment with low doses of slow-releasing H2S donors might be an interesting strategy for the treatment of nociception, functional disability, and emotional disorders associated with osteoarthritis pain

Pharmaceutical “Pay-for-Delay” Reexamined: A Dwindling Practice or a Persistent Problem?

The Supreme Court ruled in FTC v. Actavis that a delay in generic entry may be anticompetitive when part of a patent settlement includes a large and otherwise unjustified value transfer to the generic company, termed a reverse payment patent settlement, or “pay-for-delay.” Following Actavis, drug companies have limited the size of reverse payments and have fashioned settlement terms that include more discreet categories of compensation to generic companies. In light of the fact that such settlements retain the potential for anticompetitive effects, the apparent size of the reverse payment may no longer be a useful gauge of the legality of pay-for-delay deals. In this Article, we argue that convoluted settlements in the post-Actavis landscape that camouflage value transfers from brand-name to generic companies necessitate a shift in the focus of antitrust scrutiny to the existence of any restriction on generic entry, together with a category of patent less likely to survive a challenge. We conclude with a discussion of pay-for-delay bills in the 116th Congress and propose several reforms to deter pay-for-delay behavior

Estimating hybridization in the presence of coalescence using phylogenetic intraspecific sampling

Abstract Background A well-known characteristic of multi-locus data is that each locus has its own phylogenetic history which may differ substantially from the overall phylogenetic history of the species. Although the possibility that this arises through incomplete lineage sorting is often incorporated in models for the species-level phylogeny, it is much less common for hybridization to also be formally included in such models. Results We have modified the evolutionary model of Meng and Kubatko (2009) to incorporate intraspecific sampling of multiple individuals for estimation of speciation times and times of hybridization events for testing for hybridization in the presence of incomplete lineage sorting. We have also utilized a more efficient algorithm for obtaining our estimates. Using simulations, we demonstrate that our approach performs well under conditions motivated by an empirical data set for Sistrurus rattlesnakes where putative hybridization has occurred. We further demonstrate that the method is able to accurately detect the signature of hybridization in the data, while this signal may be obscured when other species-tree inference methods that ignore hybridization are used. Conclusions Our approach is shown to be powerful in detecting hybridization when it is present. When applied to the Sistrurus data, we find no evidence of hybridization; instead, it appears that putative hybrid snakes in Missouri are most likely pure S. catenatus tergeminus in origin, which has significant conservation implications.</p

Formative Research to Inform the Development of a Healthy Eating Social Marketing Campaign in Mississippi

Mississippi leads the nation in child obesity, chronic diseases, poverty, and food insecurity. Stemming the long-term consequences of high obesity rates will require a cultural attitude and behavioral shift towards healthy eating. This study explored the perceptions, beliefs, practices, and self-efficacy towards healthy eating among limited resource Mississippi parents to inform a SNAP-Ed social marketing campaign. A statewide telephone survey was conducted with income-eligible or current SNAP recipients who provided or prepared food for children in their household. Likert-type scale questions measured intrapersonal factors, self-efficacy, and practices regarding healthy eating, such as shopping and meal planning. A total of 206 surveys were analyzed. Seventy-nine percent (n=163) of participants were currently receiving SNAP benefits. Healthy eating was perceived as balanced meals and fruits and vegetables. Though 60% agreed that cost was a barrier to eating more fruits and vegetables, 90% of participants had positive attitudes and beliefs towards healthy eating. In summary, Mississippi parents with limited resources were interested in providing healthy balanced meals but faced cost as the major barrier. A social marketing message with this population can be effective in emphasizing affordable healthy meals

Mutations in the _SC4MOL_ gene encoding a novel methyl sterol oxidase cause autosomal recessive psoriasisiform dermatitis, microcephaly and developmental delay

Disorders of cholesterol biosynthesis have clinical manifestations involving skeleton, eyes, neurologic development, and skin. We describe a patient with congenital cataracts, developmental delay, microcephaly, and low serum cholesterol who developed severe psoriasiform dermatitis and arthralgias beginning at age 3. Her brain MRI indicatedminor gliosis. Quantitative sterol analysis of patient plasma and skin showed marked elevation of 4alpha-methyl- and 4, 4&#x27;-dimethylsterols, indicating a deficiency in the first step of sterol C4 demethylation in cholesterol biosynthesis. Molecular studies showed mutations in _SC4MOL_, a gene predicted to encode a sterol C4 methyl oxidase. Thus, our patient has a previously undescribed inborn error of cholesterol biosynthesis. Cellular studies with patient-derived fibroblasts showed higher mitotic rate than control cells in cholesterol-depleted medium, in which _de novo_ cholesterol biosynthesis was increased with the accumulation of methylsterol. Immunologic analyses showed dysregulation of immune-related receptors in the patient and her father. Inhibition of sterol C4 methyl oxidase in human transformed lymphoblasts or in fresh leukocytes induced activation of cell cycle, and immune receptor dysregulation. These findings suggest that methylsterols influence mitotic capacity and immune function. _SC4MOL_ is situated within the psoriasis susceptibility locus _PSORS9_, and is likely a genetic risk factor for common psoriasis