The Entrepreneurial State Goes to Europe: State Economic Policies and Europe 1992

This article investigates state-level export programs in response to the emerging new economic and political regime of Europe 1992. Little related export promotion activity is found, even in states reputed to have the most active entrepreneurial policies. The authors conclude that states have few resources to invest in export promotion and are inappropriate jurisdictions around which to organize such policy, despite the much touted entrepreneurial state

Representing older people: towards meaningful images of the user in design scenarios

Designing for older people requires the consideration of a range of difficult and sometimes highly personal design problems. Issues such as fear, loneliness, dependency, and physical decline may be difficult to observe or discuss in interviews. Pastiche scenarios and pastiche personae are techniques that employ characters to create a space for the discussion of new technological developments and as a means to explore user experience. This paper argues that the use of such characters can help to overcome restrictive notions of older people by disrupting designers' prior assumptions. In this paper, we reflect on our experiences using pastiche techniques in two separate technology design projects that sought to address the needs of older people. In the first case pastiche scenarios were developed by the designers of the system and used as discussion documents with users. In the second case, pastiche personae were used by groups of users themselves to generate scenarios which were scribed for later use by the design team. We explore how the use of fictional characters and settings can generate new ideas and undermine rhetorical devices within scenarios that attempt to fit characters to the technology, rather than vice versa. To assist in future development of pastiche techniques in designing for older people, we provide an array of fictional older characters drawn from literary and popular culture.</p

Climatic and community sociodemographic factors associated with remote Indigenous Australian smoking rates:An ecological study of health audit data

Australian Indigenous smoking rates are highest in remote communities but likely vary between communities; few studies have assessed community features in relation to Indigenous smoking rates. DESIGN AND OBJECTIVE: This ecological study evaluated the associations between smoking rates, and community sociodemographic and climatic characteristics for a large sample of remote Indigenous communities. SETTING AND SAMPLE: Records (n=2689) from an audit of community health centres in the Northern Territory and Queensland were used to estimate smoking rates dichotomised at the median for 70 predominantly Indigenous remote communities. Community characteristics were similarly dichotomised. METHODS: Cross-tabulations were used to calculate the odds of a community classified as high for a sociodemographic or climatic factor also being high for smoking rate. Additional cross-tabulations, stratified by sociodemographic, region (coastal or central) and geographic connectivity levels, were performed to assess potential confounding. RESULTS: Community smoking rates ranged from 25% to 96% (median 60.2%). Moderately strong relationships were observed between community smoking rate and population size (OR 6.25,(95% CI 2.18 to 17.95)), education level (OR 3.67 (1.35-10.01)), income (2.86 (11.07-7.67)) and heat (2.86 (1.07-7.67)). CONCLUSIONS: Smoking rates in Australian remote Indigenous communities are universally high. Smoking rates are associated with greater community-level socioeconomic status and size, most likely reflecting greater means of accessing tobacco with mass of smokers sufficient to sustain a normative influence. Severe heat was also associated with high smoking rates suggesting such a stressor might support smoking as a coping mechanism. Community sociodemographic and climatic factors bear consideration as context-level correlates of community smoking rates

Effect of silver content on the structure and antibacterial activity of silver-doped phosphate-based glasses

Staphylococcus aureus can cause a range of diseases, such as osteomyelitis, as well as colonize implanted medical devices. In most instances the organism forms biofilms that not only are resistant to the body's defense mechanisms but also display decreased susceptibilities to antibiotics. In the present study, we have examined the effect of increasing silver contents in phosphate-based glasses to prevent the formation of S. aureus biofilms. Silver was found to be an effective bactericidal agent against S. aureus biofilms, and the rate of silver ion release (0.42 to 1.22 µg·mm–2·h–1) from phosphate-based glass was found to account for the variation in its bactericidal effect. Analysis of biofilms by confocal microscopy indicated that they consisted of an upper layer of viable bacteria together with a layer (20 µm) of nonviable cells on the glass surface. Our results showed that regardless of the silver contents in these glasses (10, 15, or 20 mol%) the silver exists in its +1 oxidation state, which is known to be a highly effective bactericidal agent compared to that of silver in other oxidation states (+2 or +3). Analysis of the glasses by 31P nuclear magnetic resonance imaging and high-energy X-ray diffraction showed that it is the structural rearrangement of the phosphate network that is responsible for the variation in silver ion release and the associated bactericidal effectiveness. Thus, an understanding of the glass structure is important in interpreting the in vitro data and also has important clinical implications for the potential use of the phosphate-based glasses in orthopedic applications to deliver silver ions to combat S. aureus biofilm infections

The utility of saliva for the assessment of anti-pneumococcal antibodies: investigation of saliva as a marker of antibody status in serum

Context: Salivary antibodies may act as non-invasive marker of systemic immunity enabling assessment of vaccination and protection against bacterial infections. Objective: To assess if levels of anti-pneumococcal (Pn) antibodies in saliva reflect concentrations in serum and determine whether saliva can accurately identify protective concentrations in serum. Methods: IgG, IgA and IgM antibody levels in paired saliva and serum samples were measured against 12 Pn polysaccharide antigens in 72 healthy adults. Results: Antibody levels in saliva correlated positively with serum across immunoglobulin classes, most strongly for IgA. Individuals who had protective antibody levels in serum demonstrated significantly higher IgG and IgA salivary antibody concentrations/secretion rates. Salivary IgG and IgA Pn antibodies were able to distinguish between those with/without protective levels in serum for the majority of serotypes. Salivary IgM antibodies were not able to differentiate protective status. Median IgG and IgA Pn salivary parameters were able to identify individuals who had protective levels in serum on ≥8/12 serotypes with moderate accuracy: median IgA secretion rates provided the best sensitivity (73%) and specificity (71%). Conclusions: These findings suggest that IgG and IgA Pn specific antibodies in saliva may be useful surrogate markers of antibody status in serum

Associations between area socioeconomic status, individual mental health, physical activity, diet and change in cardiometabolic risk amongst a cohort of Australian adults: A longitudinal path analysis

Presumed pathways from environments to cardiometabolic risk largely implicate health behaviour although mental health may play a role. Few studies assess relationships between these factors. This study estimated associations between area socioeconomic status (SES), mental health, diet, physical activity, and 10-year change in glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c), comparing two proposed path structures: 1) mental health and behaviour functioning as parallel mediators between area SES and HbA1c; and 2) a sequential structure where mental health influences behaviour and consequently HbA1c. Three waves (10 years) of population-based biomedical cohort data were spatially linked to census data based on participant residential address. Area SES was expressed at baseline using an established index (SEIFA-IEO). Individual behavioural and mental health information (Wave 2) included diet (fruit and vegetable servings per day), physical activity (meets/does not meet recommendations), and the mental health component score of the 36-item Short Form Health Survey. HbA1c was measured at each wave. Latent variable growth models with a structural equation modelling approach estimated associations within both parallel and sequential path structures. Models were adjusted for age, sex, employment status, marital status, education, and smoking. The sequential path model best fit the data. HbA1c worsened over time. Greater area SES was statistically significantly associated with greater fruit intake, meeting physical activity recommendations, and had a protective effect against increasing HbA1c directly and indirectly through physical activity behaviour. Positive mental health was statistically significantly associated with greater fruit and vegetable intakes and was indirectly protective against increasing HbA1c through physical activity. Greater SES was protective against increasing HbA1c. This relationship was partially mediated by physical activity but not diet. A protective effect of mental health was exerted through physical activity. Public health interventions should ensure individuals residing in low SES areas, and those with poorer mental health are supported in meeting physical activity recommendations

Minimal Dynamical Triangulations of Random Surfaces

We introduce and investigate numerically a minimal class of dynamical triangulations of two-dimensional gravity on the sphere in which only vertices of order five, six or seven are permitted. We show firstly that this restriction of the local coordination number, or equivalently intrinsic scalar curvature, leaves intact the fractal structure characteristic of generic dynamically triangulated random surfaces. Furthermore the Ising model coupled to minimal two-dimensional gravity still possesses a continuous phase transition. The critical exponents of this transition correspond to the usual KPZ exponents associated with coupling a central charge c=1/2 model to two-dimensional gravity.Comment: Latex, 9 pages, 3 figures, Published versio

Greenland Subglacial Discharge as a Driver of Hotspots of Increasing Coastal Chlorophyll Since the Early 2000s

Subglacial discharge emerging from the base of Greenland\u27s marine-terminating glaciers drives upwelling of nutrient-rich bottom waters to the euphotic zone, which can fuel nitrate-limited phytoplankton growth. Here, we use buoyant plume theory to quantify this subglacial discharge-driven nutrient supply on a pan-Greenland scale. The modeled nitrate fluxes were concentrated in a few critical systems, with half of the total modeled nitrate flux anomaly occurring at just 14% of marine-terminating glaciers. Increasing subglacial discharge fluxes results in elevated nitrate fluxes, with the largest flux occurring at Jakobshavn Isbræ in Disko Bay, where subglacial discharge is largest. Subglacial discharge and nitrate flux anomaly also account for significant temporal variability in summer satellite chlorophyll a (Chl) within 50 km of Greenland\u27s coast, particularly in some regions in central west and northwest Greenland