Occupational hazards and radiation safety in veterinary practice including zoo veterinary practice in Australia

This thesis contains reviews and research on the occupational hazards of zoo veterinary practitioners in Australia. Although occupational hazards have long been recognised in the veterinary profession, little information is available on the number and magnitude of injuries to veterinarians in Australia, the United Kingdom or the United States. Apart from anecdotal accounts and some limited data, most of the available information is on occupational zoonoses, generally well recognized by veterinarians. Other occupational hazards to which veterinarians are exposed have received scant attention. The veterinary practitioner in a zoo environment has to treat a range of captive wild species which are much more unpredictable and dangerous than domesticated animals. A comprehensive study on occupational hazards sustained by veterinarians in zoological gardens has not been undertaken in Australia. Only one study had been undertaken in the US amongst zoo veterinarians, while comprehensive may not be able to be transposed to zoos in Australia as the species held in Australian zoos differ from those in the US. Personal communication with some senior veterinarians in the zoological gardens in Australia, have elicited further information on the prevalence of occupational hazards sustained by the zoo and wildlife park veterinarians. The prevalence of physical hazards including radiation, chemical and biological hazards reported by veterinary practitioners and the author\u27s own experience as a veterinary practitioner, chairman of the safety committee, member of the animal ethics committee and manager, research In the zoological gardens in Perth, Western Australia have demonstrated a need for a comprehensive study on occupational hazards prevalent among zoo veterinarians. To investigate the occupational hazards including radiological hazards amongst zoo veterinarians in Australia, a self-administered 14-page comprehensive questionnaire comprising 58 questions was mailed to 27 practising zoo veterinarians in Australia. The questionnaire focused on physical injuries, chemical exposures, allergic and irritant reactions, biological exposures, radiological hazards including problems encountered with x-ray machines, use of protective gear and ancillary equipment for radiography, personnel involved in x-ray procedures and in restraining animals, compliance with the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Code of Practice (1982), Radiation Safety Regulations (1988) and National Standard for Limiting Occupational Exposure to Ionising Radiation (1995) The result of the study revealed that 60% of the participants sustained physical injuries such as crushes, bites and scratches inflicted by a range of species with some Injuries requiring medical treatment. Also, 50% of the participants suffered from back injuries while 15% reported fractures, kicks, bites necessitating hospitalization. Ninety percent of the participants sustained needlestick injuries ranging from one to 16+ times. Other significant findings include: necropsy injuries, animal allergies, formaldehyde exposure, musculoskeletal Injuries and zoonotic infections. The survey also identified that veterinary practitioners and their staff were exposed to radiation by not complying with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Australian Code of Practice for the Safe Use of Ionising Radiation (1982) which has been framed to minimize exposure to ionising radiation. The majority of the veterinarians in the study group indicated that radiation exposure Is a major occupational hazard to the veterinary profession. Subsequent to the review and research, discussions were held with few senior zoo veterinarians, the Registrar of the Veterinary Surgeons Board and a number of practising senior veterinarians In Australia to collect information on occupational hazards. Additional information was obtained on occupational injuries sustained by the zoo veterinarians through formal discussions with the Director and the two senior veterinarians In the zoological gardens in Sri Lanka. The discussions with the veterinary practitioners in government and private practice revealed that veterinarians experienced a range of occupational hazards including exposure to rabies. Discussions with the dean and the professor of the animal science department focused on the nature of injuries and preventive strategies. In order to obtain information on occupational hazards in the health care industry, the professor of anatomy of the faculty of medicine and a senior surgeon in Sri Lanka were interviewed. This study identified that the zoo veterinarians are routinely exposed to a wide range of occupational hazards. The literature review among veterinary practitioners In US, UK, Australia and Canada have also identified numerous occupational hazards sustained by the veterinarians. The discussions held in Sri Lanka with the professionals in veterinary and health care industry showed that occupational injuries have been common amongst them and they do not have appropriate preventive guidelines in place. This thesis has incorporated recommendations in the form of preventive strategies for minimizing occupational hazards among veterinary practitioners both in zoological gardens and veterinary practices In Australia and in the developed and developing countries

Quantum scars and bulk coherence in a symmetry-protected topological phase

Formation of quantum scars in many-body systems provides a novel mechanism for enhancing coherence of weakly entangled states. At the same time, coherence of edge modes in certain symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases can persist away from the ground state. In this work we show the existence of many-body scars and their implications on bulk coherence in such an SPT phase. To this end, we study the eigenstate properties and the dynamics of an interacting spin-$1/2$ chain with three-site "cluster" terms hosting a $\mathbb{Z}_2 \times \mathbb{Z}_2$ SPT phase. Focusing on the weakly interacting regime, we find that eigenstates with volume-law entanglement coexist with area-law entangled eigenstates throughout the spectrum. We show that a subset of the latter can be constructed by virtue of repeated cluster excitations on the even or odd sublattice of the chain, resulting in an equidistant "tower" of states, analogous to the phenomenology of quantum many-body scars. We further demonstrate that these scarred eigenstates support nonthermal expectation values of local cluster operators in the bulk and exhibit signatures of topological order even at finite energy densities. Studying the dynamics for out-of-equilibrium states drawn from the noninteracting "cluster basis", we unveil that nonthermalizing bulk dynamics can be observed on long time scales if clusters on odd and even sites are energetically detuned. In this case, cluster excitations remain essentially confined to one of the two sublattices such that inhomogeneous cluster configurations cannot equilibrate and thermalization of the full system is impeded. Our work sheds light on the role of quantum many-body scars in preserving SPT order at finite temperature and the possibility of coherent bulk dynamics in models with SPT order beyond the existence of long-lived edge modes.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures + reference

Renormalization view on resonance proliferation between many-body localized phases

Topology and many-body localization (MBL) have opened new avenues for preserving quantum information at finite energy density. Resonant delocalization plays a crucial role in destabilizing these phenomena. In this work, we study the statistical properties of many-body resonances in a disordered interacting Ising model - which can host symmetry protected topological order - using a Clifford circuit encoding of the real space renormalization group which allows the resonant properties of the wave functions to be efficiently characterized. Our findings show that both the trivial and topologically ordered MBL phases remain stable to the resonances, but in the vicinity of the transition between them localization is destabilized by resonance proliferation. Diverging susceptibility towards the development of an avalanche instability suggests an intervening ergodic phase. We are also able to access the local integrals of motion in the MBL phases and identify the topological edge-mode operators in the ordered phase. Our results have important implications for the stability of MBL and phase transitions between distinct MBL phases with and without symmetries.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figure

Occupational stress, work-home interference and burnout among Belgian veterinary practitioners

There have been few formal studies on stress in veterinary surgeons and, in the rare studies available, stress is not examined jointly through the levels of job strain and job engagement, the sources of stress in the issue of work environment and the work-home interference. The authors' goal in this study was to analyse job engagement, job strain, burnout, work-home interference and job stress factors among 216 Belgian veterinary surgeons. Rural practice was compared to small animal and mixed activity. The mean job strain and job engagement level in veterinary surgeons was not higher than what we found in other working populations. However, 15.6% of the group were found to be suffering from high burnout. Rural practitioners had a lower level of job engagement than small animal veterinary surgeons. These small animal practitioners had a lower level of job strain than the mixed practitioners. The level of burnout did not differ significantly across the three types of activity. In comparison to other Belgian and Dutch workers, veterinary surgeons perceived more negative work-home interference. Bovine and mixed practitioners were the most concerned with this problem. The two most important sources of stress reported by bovine practitioners were relations to farmers and working time management (including emergencies and availability)

J.B. Jeyaretnam: Three Decades as Lee Kuan Yew's bete noir

J.B. Jeyaretnam was Singapore's most celebrated opposition leader when his career came to an abrupt end in 2001, but he is better known for the injustices he has suffered at the hands of the People's Action Party regime than for anything he has achieved or said. Bankrupted, imprisoned, deprived of his livelihood and expelled from Parliament twice, he has acquired the aura of martyrdom, yet little is known about his life, his ideas or his motivations. Drawing on interview and archival research, this article studies him with a view to better understanding both the man himself and — probably of greater significance — what his experience can tell us about the dynamics of the Singapore policy. Why did he enter opposition politics and keep coming back for more in the face of persecution? Why did the government set out to destroy him with such vehemence? What does this tell us about the limits of political tolerance in Singapore, both today and in the past? What lessons can other opposition figures learn from his experience? And why has Jeyaretnam been treated so harshly while the government nurtures some other opposition MPs as responsible and courteous players

Session 3 Youth As Agents of Change: Youth Dialogue with Industry and Government Leaders

Speakers: Brandon Jones, Program Director, Geosciences and Education Divisions, US National Science Foundation Jeanne Beacham, President and CEO of Delphon Industries Terence Jeyaretnam, Partner at EY, Climate Change and Sustainability Services Australia We engaged in dialogue with industry and government leaders on the following questions: How can we pull on levers to create change? What are key innovative approaches for making real world change? What do the outcomes of COP26 mean for industry and government, and how can youth get involved

Book Review Perspectives: Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Book Review of: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamon