“The Only Thing they have to Bargain with is their own Self”: masculinity and protesting immigration detention

This paper explores questions around masculinity and immigration detention. It suggests that masculinity constitutes a dimension present in both the rationale for incarcerating unauthorised asylum seekers and in practices of resistance against their incarceration. In modern Australia, the enclosed spaces of immigration detention are sites of bitter struggle. Brutality permeates the detention space and all detainees are vulnerable to its permutations, but men are the principal targets of the detention regime and are typically the primary instigators of mass demonstrations. Group protests are a response to the constraining system of incarceration and seek particular resolution. In this masculine space a form of male resistance has publicised the devastation of detention

Heritability Estimates of Turf-type Characteristics in Buffalograss

Buffalograss [Buchloë dactyloides (Nutt.) Engelm] is a drought-resistant, dioecious species, native to the Central Great Plains, which shows excellent potential as a low maintenance turfgrass. Although buffalograss can be propagated vegetatively, there is a need for seeded turf-type cultivars. To assist in developing seeded cultivars, heritabilities of turf characteristics were estimated. Heritabilities from maternal half-sib analyses ranged from h2 = 0.04 ± 0.03 for the 1988 uniformity rating to h2 = 0.62 ± 0.26 for the 1989 spring color rating. Heritability estimates calculated from offspring-parent regression were also variable and generally lower than maternal half-sib analysis. The results suggest that some turf characteristics are highly heritable and that growing conditions markedly affect heritability estimates

Use of medical services by older Australian women with dementia : a longitudinal cohort study

Objective: To assess the use of Medicare-subsidised health services by women with and without dementia. Methods: Data from women of the 1921–26 birth cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health were linked to various administrative datasets to ascertain dementia diagnosis. The use of subsidised general practitioner (GP) services (75+ health assessments [HAs], chronic disease management meetings [CDMs], multidisciplinary case conferences [MCCs]) and specialist and allied health services between 2000 and 2013 for these women was analysed using longitudinal GEE models. Results: A total of 9,683 women were included with 1,444 (15%) women identified as having dementia. Compared to women with no dementia indication, women with dementia had more yearly non-emergency GP attendances (short [30 minutes] IRR=1.11 [1.04, 1.19]) and fewer specialist attendances (IRR=0.91 [0.85, 0.97]) and were more likely to have an emergency GP attendance (OR=2.29 [2.05, 2.57]). There were no significant differences in the odds of having either a HA or CDM or using allied health services for women with and without dementia indicators. Conclusions: The overall use of services designed to improve the prevention and coordination of the care of older people with chronic conditions was low. Women with dementia were no more likely to access these services. Implications for public health: There is underuse of some primary and allied healthcare services designed for people with complex chronic conditions. These could be better used by women with dementia to improve the management of complex comorbidities (e.g. CDMs), to prevent the onset of disability (e.g. physiotherapy), and enhance needs assessment and service access (e.g. HAs). © 2021 The Authors. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Colette Browning” is provided in this record*

Examination of the association between mental health, morbidity, and mortality in late life: findings from longitudinal community surveys

BACKGROUND Physical health has been demonstrated to mediate the mental health and mortality risk association. The current study examines an alternative hypothesis that mental health mediates the effect of physical health on mortality risk. METHODS Participants (N = 14,019; women = 91%), including eventual decedents (n = 3,752), were aged 70 years and older, and drawn from the Dynamic Analyses to Optimise Ageing (DYNOPTA) project. Participants were observed on two to four occasions, over a 10-year period. Mediation analysis compared the converse mediation of physical and mental health on mortality risk. RESULTS For men, neither physical nor mental health was associated with mortality risk. For women, poor mental health reported only a small effect on mortality risk (Hazard Risk (HR) = 1.01; p < 0.001); more substantive was the risk of low physical health (HR = 1.04; p < 0.001). No mediation effects were observed. CONCLUSIONS Mental health effects on mortality were fully attenuated by physical health in men, and partially so in women. Neither mental nor physical health mediated the effect of each other on mortality risk for either gender. We conclude that physical health is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than mental health.This work was supported by a National Health and Mental Medical Research Council grant (#410215); the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (project #CE110001029 to Richard A. Burns); and an NHMRC Fellowship (#1002560 to Kaarin J. Anstey)

Understanding Greenhouse Gases

Students will conduct hands-on experiments to see how greenhouse gases interact with the Earth’s atmosphere and how greenhouse gases affect temperature. This lesson introduces National Geographic’s Geo-Inquiry Process, where students will identify a Geo-inquiry question, collect data, and create a project around the answer to their question. Students will then present their findings to their peers and evaluate their Geo-Inquiry process

Effect of production system, supermarket and purchase date on the vitamin D content of eggs at retail

The vitamin D content of eggs from three retail outlets was measured over five months to examine the effects of production system (organic vs. free range vs. indoor), supermarket and purchase date on the concentration of vitamin D3 and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3. Results demonstrated a higher vitamin D3 concentration in free range (57.2 ± 3.1 μg/kg) and organic (57.2 ± 3.2 μg/kg) compared with indoor (40.2 ± 3.1 μg/kg) (P < 0.001), which was perhaps related to increased vitamin D synthesis by birds having more access to sunlight, while 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 concentration was higher (P < 0.05) only in organic eggs. The interaction (P < 0.05) between system and supermarket for both forms of vitamin D may relate to some incorrect labelling. Concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 was higher (P < 0.05) in July and September than in August. The results indicate variations in vitamin D concentrations in eggs from different sources, thus highlighting the importance of accurate labelling

Regulation of the phytoplankton heme b iron pool during the North Atlantic spring bloom

CITATION: Louropoulou, E., et al. 2019. Regulation of the phytoplankton heme b iron pool during the North Atlantic spring bloom. Frontiers in Microbiology, 10:1566, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2019.01566.The original publication is available at https://www.frontiersin.orgHeme b is an iron-containing co-factor in hemoproteins. Heme b concentrations are low (0.7 μm) from the North Atlantic Ocean (GEOVIDE cruise – GEOTRACES section GA01), which spanned several biogeochemical regimes. We examined the relationship between heme b abundance and the microbial community composition, and its utility for mapping iron limited phytoplankton. Heme b concentrations ranged from 0.16 to 5.1 pmol L⁻² (median = 2.0 pmol L⁻², n = 62) in the surface mixed layer (SML) along the cruise track, driven mainly by variability in biomass. However, in the Irminger Basin, the lowest heme b levels (SML: median = 0.53 pmol L⁻², n = 12) were observed, whilst the biomass was highest (particulate organic carbon, median = 14.2 μmol L⁻², n = 25; chlorophyll a: median = 2.0 nmol L⁻², n = 23) pointing to regulatory mechanisms of the heme b pool for growth conservation. Dissolved iron (DFe) was not depleted (SML: median = 0.38 nmol L⁻², n = 11) in the Irminger Basin, but large diatoms (Rhizosolenia sp.) dominated. Hence, heme b depletion and regulation is likely to occur during bloom progression when phytoplankton class-dependent absolute iron requirements exceed the available ambient concentration of DFe. Furthermore, high heme b concentrations found in the Iceland Basin and Labrador Sea (median = 3.4 pmol L⁻², n = 20), despite having similar DFe concentrations to the Irminger Basin, were attributed to an earlier growth phase of the extant phytoplankton populations. Thus, heme b provides a snapshot of the cellular activity in situ and could both be used as indicator of iron limitation and contribute to understanding phytoplankton adaptation mechanisms to changing iron supplies.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2019.01566/fullPublisher's versio

The Methodology of Modern Macroeconomics and the Descriptive Approach to Discounting

Critics of modern macroeconomics often raise concerns about unwarranted welfare conclusions and data mining. This paper illustrates these concerns with a thought experiment, based on the debate in environmental economics about the appropriate discount rate in climate change analyses: I set up an economy where a social evaluator wants to determine the optimal time path of emission levels, and seeks advice for this from an old-style neo-classical macroeconomist and a new neo-classical (modern) macroeconomist; I then describe how both economists analyze the economy, their policy advice, and their mistakes. I then use the insights from this thought experiment to point out some pitfalls of the modern macroeconomic methodology

High-Density SNP Screening of the Major Histocompatibility Complex in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Demonstrates Strong Evidence for Independent Susceptibility Regions

A substantial genetic contribution to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) risk is conferred by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) gene(s) on chromosome 6p21. Previous studies in SLE have lacked statistical power and genetic resolution to fully define MHC influences. We characterized 1,610 Caucasian SLE cases and 1,470 parents for 1,974 MHC SNPs, the highly polymorphic HLA-DRB1 locus, and a panel of ancestry informative markers. Single-marker analyses revealed strong signals for SNPs within several MHC regions, as well as with HLA-DRB1 (global p = 9.99×10−16). The most strongly associated DRB1 alleles were: *0301 (odds ratio, OR = 2.21, p = 2.53×10−12), *1401 (OR = 0.50, p = 0.0002), and *1501 (OR = 1.39, p = 0.0032). The MHC region SNP demonstrating the strongest evidence of association with SLE was rs3117103, with OR = 2.44 and p = 2.80×10−13. Conditional haplotype and stepwise logistic regression analyses identified strong evidence for association between SLE and the extended class I, class I, class III, class II, and the extended class II MHC regions. Sequential removal of SLE–associated DRB1 haplotypes revealed independent effects due to variation within OR2H2 (extended class I, rs362521, p = 0.006), CREBL1 (class III, rs8283, p = 0.01), and DQB2 (class II, rs7769979, p = 0.003, and rs10947345, p = 0.0004). Further, conditional haplotype analyses demonstrated that variation within MICB (class I, rs3828903, p = 0.006) also contributes to SLE risk independent of HLA-DRB1*0301. Our results for the first time delineate with high resolution several MHC regions with independent contributions to SLE risk. We provide a list of candidate variants based on biologic and functional considerations that may be causally related to SLE risk and warrant further investigation