The Contract for College

Rising college costs, combined with major policy changes in financial aid, have made college less affordable for today's generation of young people. The Contract for College would unify the existing three strands of federal financial aid--grants, loans and work-study--into a coherent, guaranteed financial aid package for students

Investigating Initial Interactions Between Silver Nanoparticles and Wastewater

The use of nanoparticles (NPs) has increased exponentially in the last 15-20 years, especially in the consumer market. NPs are currently found in over 1800 commercial products, including cosmetics, clothing, packaging, and toys. As a result, NPs can enter the environment via wastewater (WW) streams, leading to new challenges in WW treatment. This study focuses on the initial fate of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in WW. The AgNP interaction including aggregation and dissolution in both synthetic and real WW were studied. Real WW was collected from the primary-clarifier, secondary-clarifier, and effluent WW streams at two local WW treatment plants (Westside and Noland) in Fayetteville, AR. In all cases, AgNPs had high rates of aggregation with salts and solids in real and synthetic WW (80.3%-99.8%). Of the non-aggregated AgNPs, there was no statistical difference in the concentration of Ag that passed through the nano (0.1 µm) and ionic (3 kDa) filters, indicating that either the AgNPs were small enough to pass through the ionic filter (\u3c27 Ag atoms), or most of the non-aggregated Ag was present as ionic species rather than NPs. This merits further research

"Neo-Liberalism?" Bullshit! Revolutionary Thought and Action Against Capital and Empire

editorialEducatio

Access to Medicines and the Right to (Cultural) Life

Published version available from: http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754677611This groundbreaking book is the first collection to investigate together the law, political science and ethical perspectives on the right and value of life

Evaluating a nutrition education component of the Ka Mau Te WEHI program : a thesis presented in the partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Background: New Zealand has high rates (32%) of obesity amongst the adult population; Māori (50.2%) and Pacific (68.7%) populations are most affected. Lifestyle interventions are effective in achieving weight loss, but are often expensive, whilst group and online lifestyle interventions are more cost effective. Objectives: To develop and assess a component of the nutrition education content for the Internet team-based, incentivised behaviour change Ka Mau Te WEHI weight loss intervention for Māori and Pacific adults BMI ≥30 kg/m2 at risk of or with T2DM and/or cardiovascular disease. Methods: Three Internet team-based competitions were conducted in New Zealand’s North Island, with seven teams of up to seven participants (n=146) per region. The nutrition education was developed to address key eating behaviours associated with increased risk of weight gain and improve nutrition literacy. The education delivered through daily tips on the website and weekly challenges. Eating behaviours and nutrition literacy were assessed at baseline and six-months. Results: Although 143 participants started the program; only 41.1% (n=60) completed it. Key eating behaviours changed; 18.3% decrease in drinking one or more sugar sweetened beverages/day, mean days eating fast food decreased by -1.7±2 days (p<0.001); mean days eating fruit +1±1.8 (p<0.001) and vegetables +0.8±2 (p=0.006) increased significantly. Weight loss was not significant between baseline and six months [-4.5±17.3kg (p=0.115)]. Conclusion: Although this program was attractive to the target population, a high dropout rate was evident and clinically significant weight loss was not achieved. Despite this, the innovative approach used for nutrition education led to significant dietary behaviour changes. Further research to improve retention and build on eating behaviour changes achieved in this at-risk population is warranted. Key words: Māori, Pacific Islanders, weight loss, lifestyle intervention, obese

The rising public sector pay premium in the New Zealand labour market

This note reports propensity score matching estimates of the public sector pay premium in New Zealand for each year from 2003 until 2007. Comparing with observably similar private sector workers shows that public sector workers have received a pay premium that has grown in each year, from almost zero in 2003 to 22 percent in 2007. Unless there have been unmeasured changes in the attributes of public sector jobs that give rise to compensating pay differentials, this rising public sector pay premium is most plausibly attributed to an increase in non-competitive rents