Cane Toads and Underpants: A Pocket Guide for Writing for Boys

Panel: Teaching Writin

Deborah Tate and Kathy White in a Joint Junior Recital

This is the program for the joint junior recital of soprano Deborah Tate and contralto Kathy White. Cannon Lamont assisted Tate, and Martha Lancaster assisted White. This recital took on April 28, 1972

Developing effective housing management strategies to address problems of anti-social behaviour

“Copyright 2010 AHURI Limited. Published version of the paper reproduced here with permission from the publisher.” This is the publisher's copryight version of this article, the original can be found at: http://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/position-papers/135This Positioning Paper introduces research being undertaken by the AHURI Southern Research Centre to develop effective housing management strategies to address problems of anti-social behaviour (ASB). The research is premised on the assumption that public housing has, in recent years, become the tenure of the least well-off (a process known as residualisation). Residualisation has created a set of challenges for housing managers. In particular, deinstitutionalisation policies in health care have meant that many individuals, who would have been provided with institutional care, are now housed by public landlords. Housing managers are, as a consequence, increasingly expected to respond to complaints and resolve disputes between neighbours

Rethinking the 1999 Constitution within Recent Dynamics of Nigeria’s National Security: Indigene-Settler Crisis in Jos, Plateau State in Focus

This study examined the contradictions of indigeneity-based citizenship as provided in the Nigerian 1999 Constitution, through the lens of the dynamics of Jos indigene-settler crisis since 2001. While it is given that there is merit in the constitutional definition of membership of component states of the country in terms of indigeneity, this study contends that the definition is unjust and bedeviled with gaps and contradictions, thus, there is a need to rethink this Constitution for a possible normative alternative. This study proposed that a constitutional re-engineering that will foster and promote the entrenchment of shared national institutions and common bonds as possessing normative weight to mitigate the conflicts. Also, that co-nationals domicile in Jos ought not to be subjected to foreign treatment as provided for by the Constitution. Consequently, the study submits that residency in plateau state and any of the states in Nigeria should be sufficient to access and claim membership of the state. Thus, the dysfunctional structural template, which the 1999 Constitution represents in its provisions, as in this regard created the indigene-settler dichotomy stoking the crisis in Jos and it requires a re-think that will galvanise a re-engineering to accommodate residency rights and also specifically prevent the possible mariginalisation of the minorities. Keywords: The 1999 Constitution, National Security, Indigene-settle

Providing Nutrition Education at a Food Pantry Affects Food-Related Behavior of Participants

We investigated effects of nutrition education provided to food pantry clients by trained volunteers. Specifically, we assessed effects on food security, nutrition practices, and food safety by examining the food pantry clients\u27 intent to use beneficial kitchen practices and self-reported behavior following the education. Participants who engaged in at least one educational lesson completed an intent survey after the education. After the 4-month period during which the lessons were provided, participants and members of a comparison group completed retrospective questionnaires. Participants reported both high intent to use resources and behavior change (p ≤ .05). Offering nutrition education in food pantries is useful for participants and constitutes worthwhile Extension programming

Relaxing the independent censoring assumption in the Cox proportional hazards model using multiple imputation.

The Cox proportional hazards model is frequently used in medical statistics. The standard methods for fitting this model rely on the assumption of independent censoring. Although this is sometimes plausible, we often wish to explore how robust our inferences are as this untestable assumption is relaxed. We describe how this can be carried out in a way that makes the assumptions accessible to all those involved in a research project. Estimation proceeds via multiple imputation, where censored failure times are imputed under user-specified departures from independent censoring. A novel aspect of our method is the use of bootstrapping to generate proper imputations from the Cox model. We illustrate our approach using data from an HIV-prevention trial and discuss how it can be readily adapted and applied in other settings

Modulation of anabolic and catabolic responses via a porous polymer scaffold manufactured using thermally induced phase separation

We describe two studies encompassing the iterative refinement of a polymer-based rhBMP-2 delivery system for bone tissue engineering. Firstly, we compared the boneforming capacity of porous poly(D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) scaffolds produced by thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) with non-porous solvent cast poly(D,L-lactic acid) (PDLLA) used previously. Secondly, we examined the potential synergy between rhBMP-2 and local bisphosphonate in the PLGA scaffold system. In vivo ectopic bone formation studies were performed in C57BL6/J mice. Polymer scaffolds containing 0, 5, 10 or 20 μg rhBMP-2 were inserted into the dorsal musculature. At all rhBMP-2 doses, porous PLGA produced significantly higher bone volume (BV, mm) than the solid PDLLA scaffolds. Next, porous PLGA scaffolds containing 10μg rhBMP-2 ±0.2, or 2μg zoledronic acid (ZA) were inserted into the hind-limb musculature. Co-delivery of local 10μg rhBMP-2/2μg ZA significantly augmented bone formation compared with rhBMP-2 alone (400 % BV increase, p < 0.01). Hydroxyapatite microparticle (HAp) addition (2% w/w) to the 10μg rhBMP-2/0.2μg ZA group increased BV (200 %, p < 0.01). We propose that this was due to controlled ZA release of HAp-bound ZA. Consistent with this, elution analyses showed that HAp addition did not alter the rhBMP-2 elution, but delayed ZA release. Moreover, 2 % w/w HAp addition reduced the scaffold's compressive properties, but did not alter ease of surgical handling. In summary, our data show that refinement of the polymer selection and scaffold fabrication can enhance rhBMP-2 induced bone formation in our bone tissue engineering implant, and this can be further optimised by the local co-delivery of ZA/HAp

Development of guidelines to reduce, handle and report missing data in palliative care trials: A multi-stakeholder modified nominal group technique

Background: Missing data can introduce bias and reduce the power, precision and generalisability of study findings. Guidelines on how to address missing data are limited in scope and detail, and poorly implemented. Aim: To develop guidelines on how best to (i) reduce, (ii) handle and (iii) report missing data in palliative care clinical trials. Design: Modified nominal group technique. Setting/participants: Patient and public research partners, palliative care clinicians, trialists, methodologists and statisticians attended a 1-day workshop, following which a multi-stakeholder development group drafted the guidelines. Results: Seven main recommendations for reducing missing data, nine for handling missing data and twelve for reporting missing data were developed. The top five recommendations were: (i) train all research staff on missing data, (ii) prepare for missing data at the trial design stage, (iii) address missing data in the statistical analysis plan, (iv) collect the reasons for missing data and (v) report descriptive statistics comparing the baseline characteristics of those with missing and observed data. Reducing missing data, preparing for missing data and understanding the reasons for missing data were greater priorities for stakeholders than how to deal with missing data once they had occurred. Conclusion: Comprehensive guidelines on how to address missing data were developed by stakeholders involved in palliative care trials. Implementation of the guidelines will require endorsement of research funders and research journals