Portrayals of Child Abuse Scandals in the Media in Australia and England: Impacts on Practice, Policy, and Systems

This article describes how the media have played a key role in placing the issue of child maltreatment and the problems associated with child protection high on public and political agendas over the last 50 years. It also describes how the influence of the media is far from unambiguous. Although the media has been crucial in bringing the problems into the open, it often does so in particular ways. In being so concerned with scandals and tragedies ∗ Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Bob Lonne, School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology, Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove, Queensland 4059, Australia. Electronic mail may be sent to [email protected]. in a variety of institutionalized and community settings, the media have portrayed the nature of child maltreatment in ways which deflect attention from many of its core characteristics and causes. A focus on the media is important because of the power the media have to help transform the private into the public, but at the same time, to undermine trust, reputation, and legitimacy of the professionals working in the field. This concern is key for those working in the child protection field and has been a source of tension in public policy in both Australia and England for many years

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Investigation of intermetallics in die-casting sludge

A study into the intermetallic sludge found at the bottom of an AZ91D, an AM60B and an AM50A die-casting furnace was undertaken using an SEM and an electron microprobe. The results indicate that the composition of intermetallics is consistent with Al(Mn,Fe) although the range of Al and Mn tends to vary depending on the alloy. The particles are Mn rich as opposed to Fe rich. The majority of the particles are less than 50μm in size though they appear to group in clusters and coarsen. Mechanisms for the formation of the sludge are discussed including the coarsening and settling behavior of the particles. Recommendations for reducing the quantity of sludge are made

Intermetallic morphology development in AM60 alloy

It has been well established that entrapped Al-Mn-Fe intermetallics can act as micro-galvanic cathodes in magnesium alloys. Many of these studies present evidence suggesting that these particles are Al(Mn,Fe) or at least Al-Mn rich. However the morphology development characteristics of these particles in a magnesium alloy have not been documented before. This study investigates the morphology development of these Al-Mn-Fe phases and presents evidence to suggest that there are two types of intermetallic particles which develop in a AM60 melt. There are nearly spherical/elliptical Al (Mn,Fe) particles which fall to the bottom of the melt and collect as sludge, and there is an Al-Mn rich phase which could also be Al(Mn,Fe), but which grows over long holding times into floating intermetallic particles. These floating or suspended particles are quite different in appearance to, and have much lower Fe contents than, those seen in the sludge. They initially form as faceted particles just after alloying, and grow into complex "floral" structures after ten hours holding time. These floral structures tend to develop with more branching when the holding temperature is higher

The DNA sequence of the human X chromosome

The human X chromosome has a unique biology that was shaped by its evolution as the sex chromosome shared by males and females. We have determined 99.3% of the euchromatic sequence of the X chromosome. Our analysis illustrates the autosomal origin of the mammalian sex chromosomes, the stepwise process that led to the progressive loss of recombination between X and Y, and the extent of subsequent degradation of the Y chromosome. LINE1 repeat elements cover one-third of the X chromosome, with a distribution that is consistent with their proposed role as way stations in the process of X-chromosome inactivation. We found 1,098 genes in the sequence, of which 99 encode proteins expressed in testis and in various tumour types. A disproportionately high number of mendelian diseases are documented for the X chromosome. Of this number, 168 have been explained by mutations in 113 X-linked genes, which in many cases were characterized with the aid of the DNA sequence