Incidental sun exposure in North Queensland: an application of the prototype willingness (PW) model

Objective: The prevalence of skin cancer in North Queensland is among the highest in the world (Buettner & Rasch, 1998), yet comparably few individuals report deliberately sunbathing to get a tan. This might suggest that skin damage in this region is due to incidental exposure that is not planned or deliberate. While the theoretical frameworks which have been adopted in past research can account for planned behaviours such as deliberate tanning, such models may not be suited to predicting unplanned behaviour such as incidental sun exposure. Therefore, alternative frameworks need to be explored. The prototype willingness (PW) model is a dual-process model which has been useful in the prediction of behaviours that are considered unplanned or spontaneous such as binge drinking and drug abuse. The current study aims to explore whether the dual pathways of the PW model differentially predict deliberate and incidental sun exposing behaviours. Methods: Community participants (n=218) from the North Queensland region completed a survey about their sun-related behaviours. Participants also responded to items that assessed standing on the PW model variables. Predictive modelling techniques were used to determine which of the model's proximal antecedents in each pathway was a better predictor of each type of exposure behaviour. Results: When controlling for age, skin sensitivity and gender; behavioural intention was the sole predictor of deliberate sun exposure (p<.05). Incidental sun exposure was predicted by both behavioural intention and behavioural willingness (p's<.05). This indicates that while engaging in deliberate sun exposure may be a deliberative process, there may be a number of cognitive mechanisms influencing incidental sun exposure. Conclusions: The current research provides support for the use of the PW model to explain variance across a range of sun-related behaviours, particularly incidental sun exposure. To date, skin cancer prevention efforts have focused on decreasing deliberate sun exposure. In North Queensland though, where the ambient ultra-violet radiation is high to extreme all year, incidental sun exposure may need to be targeted in order to reduce the prevalence of skin cancer. The current findings suggest that the PW model may be able to provide possible avenues for future health promotion activities to reduce incidental sun exposure in high risk regions

Watched over or over-watched? Open street CCTV in Australia

Most developed countries, Australia included, are witnessing increased government and public concerns about crime and security. Amid these anxieties, closed circuit television (CCTV) systems to monitor public spaces are increasingly being touted as a solution to problems of crime and disorder. The city of Perth established Australia’s first open street closed circuit television system in July 1991. Subsequently, there has been significant expansion. At the end of 2002 Australia had 33 “open street” CCTV schemes. Based on site inspections, extensive reviews of documentation and interviews with 22 Australian administrators, this article discusses issues relating to system implementation, management and accountability.We also suggest ways relevant authorities might ensure that current and future schemes are appropriately audited and evaluated. We argue that rigorous independent assessment of both the intended and unintended consequences of open street CCTV is essential to ensure this measure is not deployed inappropriately. Finally, this article suggests any potential crime prevention benefits must be carefully weighed against the potential of CCTV to exacerbate social division and exclusion

Thinking about Eating Food Activates Visual Cortex with Reduced Bilateral Cerebellar Activation in Females with Anorexia Nervosa: An fMRI Study

Background: Women with anorexia nervosa (AN) have aberrant cognitions about food and altered activity in prefrontal cortical and somatosensory regions to food images. However, differential effects on the brain when thinking about eating food between healthy women and those with AN is unknown. Methods: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) examined neural activation when 42 women thought about eating the food shown in images: 18 with AN (11 RAN, 7 BPAN) and 24 age-matched controls (HC). Results: Group contrasts between HC and AN revealed reduced activation in AN in the bilateral cerebellar vermis, and increased activation in the right visual cortex. Preliminary comparisons between AN subtypes and healthy controls suggest differences in cortical and limbic regions. Conclusions: These preliminary data suggest that thinking about eating food shown in images increases visual and prefrontal cortical neural responses in females with AN, which may underlie cognitive biases towards food stimuli and ruminations about controlling food intake. Future studies are needed to explicitly test how thinking about eating activates restraint cognitions, specifically in those with restricting vs. binge-purging AN subtypes

The solubility of gold in metallurgical slags

The solubility of gold in slags is of interest to researchers because gold/metal alloys are often used in distribution experiments as a way of correcting for metal entrainment in the slag. Gold is assumed to have negligible solubility in slags, on the basis that the Gibbs free energy of formation of gold oxides is very positive, so any gold found in the slag must be from entrained metal droplets. Toguri and Santander reported that gold solubility in iron silicate slag was up to 800 ppm. Altman & Kellogg used a Cu/Au alloy to determine the solubility of copper in iron silicate slag while Grimsey & Biswas determined the solubility of nickel in the same slag. They both erroneously quoted from Toguri & Santander that gold solubility was less than 80 ppm. Nagamori and Mackey made the same mistake and also claimed, without evidence that gold dissolves as neutral atoms in slag. Celmer and Toguri found the solubility of gold in an Al2O3-saturated iron silicate slag to be only 25-30ppm. They assumed gold was present as neutral atoms. Gold solubility in slag is also an issue in fire assaying which involves, at one stage, gold in contact with molten PbO. If gold solubility in molten PbO is not zero then the fire assay result would be understated. Strangely, nothing was found in the literature relating to the solubility of gold in PbO slag. In this work gold solubility in iron silicate and calcium ferrite was determined by equilibrating approx. 5 g of slag and 5 g of gold in a small alumina crucible with CO-CO2 gas mixtures at 1300 &#0176;C. Gold solubility in PbO-SiO2 slags was determined at 1100 &#0176;C using oxygen/nitrogen gas mixtures. After 8 hours the crucible was lowered into the cool part of the furnace. The slag, gold and crucible were separated and cleaned then the slag was analysed by neutron activation analysis. The minimum detection limit for gold was 0.005 ppm. The results for iron silicate and calcium ferrite have considerable scatter, but it is clear that there is no significant difference in gold solubility in the two slags

"It won't happen to me:" optimism, biases, and recall of road-risk information

Previous research has demonstrated that dispositional optimism is adaptive in terms of facilitating the processing of heath risk information (e.g. Aspinwall & Brunhart, 1996). In contrast, optimism bias appears to impede the processing of health risk information (Radcliffe & Klein, 2002). However, until now there has been no examination of whether both factors impact upon the processing of road risk information. The aim of the reported study was to address this gap. On the basis of past research findings it was hypothesised that participants high on dispositional optimism would have greatest recall for road risk information. It was further hypothesised that optimistically biased participants would have poorer recall for risk information. A community sample of 325 licensed drivers was recruited from the Townsville region. Results indicated the hypotheses were not supported. Participants high on optimism tended to remember more neutral information than risk information. In addition, there were no significant effects of optimism bias on recall. It seems that information about road risks is qualitatively different to information about health risks. That is, recall for road related risk information can not be predicted by optimism and optimism bias as it can be with health behaviours. Results are discussed in light of the differences in perceived controllability of health behaviours and road related behaviours. The implications of these results for road safety campaigns will be explored

Modelling of nickel laterite smelting to ferronickel

Most nickel is produced as the metal, but about a third of the world&#8217;s new nickel is ferronickel. World annual production of ferronickel is around 250,000 tonnes, with the two largest producers being BHP Billiton and Societe Le Nickel (Cartman, 2010). Most of the world&#8217;s accessible nickel reserves are oxidic ores called &#8220;laterite&#8221; (Sudol, 2005), and are the result of chemical weathering and supergene enrichment of mafic/ultramafic rocks. They vary greatly in depth, nickel grade and mineralogy (Dalvi et al., 2004). The lower layers are called &#8220;saprolite&#8221; and have nickel contents from 1.8 to 3 wt-%, relatively low iron contents but high magnesia and silica contents and are suited to pyrometallurgical processing (Cartman, 2010)

Attending to health risk information: is denial always maladaptive?

It has been widely reported that individuals high in optimism tend to have better health outcomes than individuals who are less optimistic. One explanation for this finding is that optimism is adaptive in confronting threats to health as such an outlook facilitates the processing of information about risks to well being. This processing allows effective planning of behavioural responses which in turn decreases the risk and alleviates anxiety. However, Pedruzzi & Swinbourne have reported opposite effects, whereby optimism is associated with greater levels of denial or disengagement with risk information. One explanation for this contradiction is that in past health research the risk information presented tends to be concerned with modifiable risk factors. Thus optimists may attend to such information as it is useful for planning coping behaviours and eventually alleviating anxiety. The risk information in Pedruzzi & Swinbourne described factors that were largely out of the participants’ control. Thus the best anxiety reduction strategy would be to ignore the information as there is no appropriate course of action that would modify the risk. It may well be that optimists are more flexible in their selection of coping strategies than individuals lower on optimism and therefore are more likely to switch strategy depending upon the nature of the risk. The aim of the current study is to further explore this inconsistency in findings. It is hypothesised that participants high on optimism will have greatest attention and recall of risk information only when the health risk is potentially controllable. This effect will be void when the health risk is not controllable. Specifically, optimists will be more likely to employ a strategy such as denial when they perceive the outcome of the situation cannot be controlled than when the risk is perceived as controllable. The results will be discussed in light of current theories of best practice population health promotion and intervention

One size fits all: communicating the unknown in health promotion

Recently, there has been a call for an integrated conceptual model to better understand the communication of health information to patients and consumers (Longo, 2005). Of particular interest to the current research project is the identification of factors that influence attention to health information in order to develop innovative methods for communicating such information. In practise, health promotion campaigns tend to exist under a one size fits all framework. That is, most public health campaigns highlight the negative effects of engaging in risky behaviours. An examination of this method with 303 community participants revealed attention to health risk information differed across two health threats. Participants were randomly assigned to receive information about heart health or road behaviours. Participants in the heart health condition remembered significantly more risk information than participants in the road behaviours condition (t (292)= -4.35, p= .00). In interpreting these findings it is hypothesised that there is an unknown component inherent to some health threats that impacts on attention to risk information. These unknown components are perceived to be outside of personal control hence attention to information may be redundant. For example, risk on the road is also a function of other people’s behaviour which an individual cannot control. Research is now exploring this idea by examining perceptions of controllability across a number of health threats. It appears that health promotion campaigns should not operate on a one size fits all approach if increased attention to preventative information is the desired outcome.\u

Nickel, lead and antimony distributions between ferrous calcium silicate slag and copper at 1300ºC

Ferrous calcium silicate (FCS) slag has been proposed as a suitable slag system for continuous copper converting. However, there is little information on the important properties of FCS slag and this must be addressed before such a slag can be properly evaluated for implementation. In this work the slag/metal distribution ratios of lead, antimony and nickel between FCS slag and copper were measured at 1300ºC and an oxygen partial pressure of 10-6 atmosphere. They were found to have values of 0-93, 0-54 and 0-98 respectively. These distribution ratios were compared to reported values for calcium ferrite slag and iron silicate slags, both currently used for continuous copper converting, and predicted values for FCS slag under the same conditions. Ferrous calcium silicate slag was found to be a little more than twice as good as calcium ferrite slag at absorbing lead oxide but very similar in its ability to absorb antimony and nickel oxides. However, it was almost five times poorer than iron silicate slag for absorbing lead oxide, a little poorer for nickel oxide but almost four times better for antimony oxide. The activity coefficients of NiO, PbO and SbO1.5 in FCS slag were also calculated and found to be 4-5, 1-4 and 0-6 respectively. In terms of minor element distribution behaviour only, it is concluded that FCS slag warrants closer examination as a replacement for calcium ferrite and iron silicate slags in continuous copper converting