Stations, trains and small-world networks

The clustering coefficient, path length and average vertex degree of two urban train line networks have been calculated. The results are compared with theoretical predictions for appropriate random bipartite graphs. They have also been compared with one another to investigate the effect of architecture on the small-world properties.Comment: 6 pages, prepared in RevTe

The Great Recession and the Pressure on Workplace Rights

This paper explores the impact of the Great Recession on the rights of workers in the U.S. and overseas. While secular trends in play before the economic downturn began had already eroded employment benefits and workers’ right, recent economic conditions have exacerbated conditions for workers. With the Great Recession have come record levels of long term unemployment, a rise in the number of involuntary part-time workers, and a growth in the already high rates of youth unemployment. All of these conditions, along with the decline of union representation, have placed downward pressure on wages and forced workers to give back hard won benefits, thereby increasing inequality within and between groups

The Great Recession and the Pressure on Workplace Rights

This paper explores the impact of the Great Recession on the rights of workers in the U.S. and overseas. While secular trends in play before the economic downturn began had already eroded employment benefits and workers’ right, recent economic conditions have exacerbated conditions for workers. With the Great Recession have come record levels of long term unemployment, a rise in the number of involuntary part-time workers, and a growth in the already high rates of youth unemployment. All of these conditions, along with the decline of union representation, have placed downward pressure on wages and forced workers to give back hard won benefits, thereby increasing inequality within and between groups

USDA School Meal Programs Face New Challenges

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Use of mobile phones as a vehicle to increase internet use to improve health and wellbeing in South Australia

A report on research conducted under the Health in All Policies Health Lens Initiative for the Department of Health South Australia and the Department of Further Education, Employment, Science & TechnologyThis report is written to help inform policy directions to achieve the Broadband Usage target in the South Australian Strategic Plan while supporting improved population health under the SA Government’s Health In All Policies program. This report details potential solutions to increase broadband use via mobile phones for lower-income and socioeconomically disadvantaged South Australians. Solutions were suggested in late 2009 by 30 Adelaide residents in three focus groups (age range 25 to 55). Additional solutions come from an associated project in late 2008 with 55 Adelaide residents on general digital technology use, and from a literature scan in late 2009 of solutions to increase mobile internet use elsewhere in the world, particularly for lower-income and socioeconomically disadvantaged groups

Mantle melting as a function of water content beneath back-arc basins

Subduction zone magmas are characterized by high concentrations of H_(2)O, presumably derived from the subducted plate and ultimately responsible for melting at this tectonic setting. Previous studies of the role of water during mantle melting beneath back-arc basins found positive correlations between the H_(2)O concentration of the mantle (H_(2)O_o ) and the extent of melting (F), in contrast to the negative correlations observed at mid-ocean ridges. Here we examine data compiled from six back-arc basins and three mid-ocean ridge regions. We use TiO_2 as a proxy for F, then use F to calculate H_(2)O_o from measured H_(2)O concentrations of submarine basalts. Back-arc basins record up to 0.5 wt % H_(2)O or more in their mantle sources and define positive, approximately linear correlations between H_(2)O_o and F that vary regionally in slope and intercept. Ridge-like mantle potential temperatures at back-arc basins, constrained from Na-Fe systematics (1350°–1500°C), correlate with variations in axial depth and wet melt productivity (∼30–80% F/wt % H_(2)O_o ). Water concentrations in back-arc mantle sources increase toward the trench, and back-arc spreading segments with the highest mean H_(2)O_o are at anomalously shallow water depths, consistent with increases in crustal thickness and total melt production resulting from high H_(2)O. These results contrast with those from ridges, which record low H_(2)O_o (<0.05 wt %) and broadly negative correlations between H_(2)O_o and F that result from purely passive melting and efficient melt focusing, where water and melt distribution are governed by the solid flow field. Back-arc basin spreading combines ridge-like adiabatic melting with nonadiabatic mantle melting paths that may be independent of the solid flow field and derive from the H_(2)O supply from the subducting plate. These factors combine significant quantitative and qualitative differences in the integrated influence of water on melting phenomena in back-arc basin and mid-ocean ridge settings

The role and impact of digital and traditional information and communication pathways in health service access and equity

This review of the literature was conducted by Flinders University (SA Community Health Research Unit and Southgate Institute for Health Society & Equity) to provide an overview of changing communications in health promotion to inform the Falls Prevention Project of Country Health SA’s Local Health Network. The context is that falls health literacy information is being increasingly made available via digital formats, including the Internet. This is in line with healthcare around the world increasingly moving to e-health (the delivery or enhancement of health services through the Internet and related technologies). There are particular expectations that for rural Australians making health services and information available through digital formats will overcome existing problems with access and availability. Despite a large amount of activity in the area of e-health, there is a scarce evidence base on the equity impacts of e-health promotion

The National School Lunch Program: Background, Trends, and Issues

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is the Nation’s second largest food and nutrition assistance program. In 2006, it operated in over 101,000 public and nonprofit private schools and provided over 28 million low-cost or free lunches to children on a typical school day at a Federal cost of $8 billion for the year. This report provides background information on the NSLP, including historical trends and participant characteristics. It also addresses steps being taken to meet challenges facing administrators of the program, including tradeoffs between nutritional quality of foods served, costs, and participation, as well as between program access and program integrity.National School Lunch Program, child nutrition, obesity, food assistance, Agricultural and Food Policy, Health Economics and Policy, Public Economics,

Vicious cycles: digital technologies and determinants of health in Australia

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Health promotion International following peer review. The version of record [Baum F, Newman L, Biedrzycki K (2014), ‘Vicious cycles: digital technologies and determinants of health’. Health Promotion International, 29 (2), 349-360.] is available online at: http://heapro.oxfordjournals.org/The use of digital technologies continues to bring rapid changes to personal and institutional forms of communication and information. Digital technologies are becoming increasingly important as ways to gain access to most of the important social determinants of health including employment, housing, education and social networks. However, little is known about the impact of the new technologies on opportunities for health and well-being. This paper reports on a focus group study of their impact on people from low socio-economic backgrounds. It uses Bourdieu’s theories of social inequities and the ways in which social, cultural and economic capitals interact to reinforce and reproduce inequities to examine the ways in which digital technologies are contributing to these processes. Six focus group discussions with 55 people were held to examine their access to and views about using digital technologies. These data are analysed to determine what factors facilitate access to digital technologies and what the implications of exclusion from the technologies is likely to be for the social determinants of health. The paper concludes that some people are being caught in a vicious cycle whereby lack of digital access or the inability to make beneficial use reinforces and amplifies existing disadvantage. The paper concludes with a consideration of actions health promoters could take to interrupt this cycle and so contribute to reducing health inequities

Southgate digital equity tool

Made available with permission from author and publisher.The Southgate Digital Equity Tool has been developed to assist policy makers and practitioners in making informed decisions about the way they engage consumers in services and programs in the digital era. Initially developed for use by health organisations, the tool can be adapted for use by any organisation to guide thinking around the impact of traditional and digital communication on different client/consumer/population groups, with a focus on the impact of shifting to, or increasing, digital engagement with them. The basis for the tool is the assumption that digital engagement strategies will impact on client/consumer groups differently, with a differential impact on intended outcomes, especially on accessibililty of services, information and participation. The tool can be used to examine one strategy or a set of communication strategies which address a particular issue, a geographic area, a group or a population. Part 1 is a Workbook and Part 2 is a Guide to assist in completing the Workbook, including descriptions and examples. The digital equity tool can help you and your organisation to examine: (1) The current mix of communication and engagement modes across a certain service or issue; (2) A proposed change in this mix; (3) The impact of a change in mix retrospectively; (4) Mitigation strategies to limit negative impacts