Family Law 1971 Survey of New York Law: Part Five--Miscellaneous

Review of recent cases (1970-1972) concerning divorce proceedings, family support, paternity proceedings, child custody, adoptions, juvenile delinqueny (PINS), and child protective proceedings

Dynamic responses of freight operators to government policies: a latent curve modelling approach

Using a unique dataset collected from Australian (urban) freight operators using an adaptive-dynamic simulation method, firms’ dynamic responses are modelled using latent curve models to investigate firms’ adaptation strategies in response to new government policies. Latent curve models are used to identify the magnitude and timing of the responses as well as what factors influence the changes. The results show that firms adapt gradually to the policies with some decisions changing quicker than others. Furthermore, the drivers of responses changes during the adaptation process and that not all incremental decisions are made solely on the basis of cost

Commodity interaction in Freight movement models for Greater Sydney

Central to freight movement models is an understanding of where the freight commodities are produced and consumed. An important driver in the production and/or consumption of each commodity is the production and consumption of other commodities. In this paper, these important interactions between commodities are captured in a path based freight model which incorporates models of commodity production and consumption. We identify the key factors driving the consumption and production of each commodity together with their elasticities. To be suitable for forecasting and policy testing, the estimated models are transformed into linked logit models that allow for important policy measures such as accessibility and commodity generation powers to be estimated. The proposed model has been implemented to generate the amount of commodity of each type produced and consumed in each state of Australia with illustrations of how the production and/or consumption of one commodity triggers the production and/or consumption of others commodities. When built into an integrated transport and land use model system, this capability adds a richness to the way in which freight movements influence and hence impact on the performance of the entire transport network, for both passenger and freight

Dual and opposing roles of primary cilia in medulloblastoma development.

Recent work has shown that primary cilia are essential for Hedgehog (Hh) signaling during mammalian development. It is also known that aberrant Hh signaling can lead to cancer, but the role of primary cilia in oncogenesis is not known. Cerebellar granule neuron precursors (GNPs) can give rise to medulloblastomas, the most common malignant brain tumor in children. The primary cilium and Hh signaling are required for GNP proliferation. We asked whether primary cilia in GNPs have a role in medulloblastoma growth in mice. Genetic ablation of primary cilia blocked medulloblastoma formation when this tumor was driven by a constitutively active Smoothened protein (Smo), an upstream activator of Hh signaling. In contrast, removal of cilia was required for medulloblastoma growth by a constitutively active glioma-associated oncogene family zinc finger-2 (GLI2), a downstream transcription factor. Thus, primary cilia are either required for or inhibit medulloblastoma formation, depending on the initiating oncogenic event. Remarkably, the presence or absence of cilia was associated with specific variants of human medulloblastomas; primary cilia were found in medulloblastomas with activation in HH or WNT signaling but not in most medulloblastomas in other distinct molecular subgroups. Primary cilia could serve as a diagnostic tool and provide new insights into the mechanism of tumorigenesis

Getting off the greenhouse gas: Public transport’s potential contribution in Australian cities

Australians are one of the world’s highest per capita emitters of greenhouse gases, yet the country’s target for emissions reductions by 2030 remains modest. This paper looks at policy options for Australian cities to deliver faster transport emissions reductions than the national commitment level. The main focus is on an accelerated reduction in emissions from urban road transport, through technological improvements and behaviour changes. Targets are proposed for improved emissions intensities, to bring Australia much closer to US and EU performance expectations. A range of behaviour change measures is then tested on Melbourne and Sydney, the Sydney analysis using MetroScan-TI, an integrated evaluation framework, to explore how behaviour changes might enhance emissions outcomes. The potential contribution of public transport is a particular focus. The paper concludes that, with sufficient political will, Australia could reduce its 2030 road transport emissions to 40% below 2005 levels. This is a much larger reduction than the current 26-28% Australian emissions but is more consistent with longer-term pathways to acceptable carbon budgets

Collecting longitudinal data from freight operators: survey design and implementation

Freight transport research has generally been limited by a lack of data of the breadth and quality available for passenger transport, particularly in terms of behavioural data. Although there are a number of reasons for this lack of data, the challenges of collecting freight data including the expense, participant burden and confidentiality issues are amongst the most significant. Although some improvements in technology and survey design have allowed for the collection of more behavioural freight data more improvements would be beneficial. This paper discusses the survey design and implementation of a survey intended to collect longitudinal behavioural data on the responses of freight transport firms to the introduction of environmental policies. The design of the survey is centred around a hypothetical scenario where respondents are asked how they would complete a given freight task within common constraints including time windows and delivery requirements. One of the key components of the survey design is a dynamic component that is intended to simulate the changing business environment to which firms are required to adapt. This paper also looks at the participant burden involved in completing the survey and compares how this differs depending on how respondents completed the survey

Getting off the greenhouse gas: Public transport’s potential contribution in Australian cities.

Australians are one of the world’s highest per capita emitters of greenhouse gases, yet the country’s target for emissions reductions by 2030 remains modest. This paper looks at policy options for Australian cities to deliver faster transport emissions reductions than the national commitment level. The main focus is on an accelerated reduction in emissions from urban road transport, through technological improvements and behaviour changes. Targets are proposed for improved emissions intensities, to bring Australia much closer to US and EU performance expectations. A range of behaviour change measures is then tested on Melbourne and Sydney, the Sydney analysis using MetroScan-TI, an integrated evaluation framework, to explore how behaviour changes might enhance emissions outcomes. The potential contribution of public transport is a particular focus. The paper concludes that, with sufficient political will, Australia could reduce its 2030 road transport emissions to 40% below 2005 levels. This is a much larger reduction than the current 26-28% Australian emissions but is more consistent with longer-term pathways to acceptable carbon budgets.Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. Faculty of Economics and Business. The University of Sydne

How well does BRT perform in contrast to LRT? An Australian case study using MetroScan_TI

BRT is typically a relatively more popular transport investment in developing countries in contrast to the bias observed increasingly in developed economies towards LRT. While there have been a number of comparative assessments of BRT and LRT (in all of its possible manifestations), with a focus on one or more elements of patronage demand, and costs of construction and operation, there has, with few exceptions, been a preference for LRT which some might describe as linked to emotional ideology rather than anything to do with factual evidence on the costs, benefits and economic impact of each modal investment. In this chapter, we present a new planning tool, MetroScan as a quick-scan tool that can be used to assess the merits of BRT and LRT. MetroScan is different to other planning systems in that it accounts for the demand implications on both passenger and freight-related activity (all in the one model system), endogenous residential and employment decisions, and associated benefit-cost outcomes, as well as the wider economic impacts of transport initiatives. We use a case study setting in the Northern Beaches of Sydney to illustrate the way in which MetroScan can assess a wider suite of benefits and costs of BRT and LRT, which encompasses not only accessibility and mobility opportunities but the contribution that can be made to the productivity and value added outcomes for the local economy. This broader set of considerations is important in suggesting other ways in which a comparison of BRT and LRT might be more informative than is typically presented

Assessing the wider economy impacts of transport infrastructure investment with an illustrative application to the north-west rail link project in Sydney, Australia

This paper identifies the employment agglomeration impact of transport investments through a measure of change in effective employment density, using new empirical estimates of the elasticity of productivity with respect to effective density in order to calculate the uplift in benefits (or impact) from this key wider economy impact. The approach combines the behavioural richness of an integrated transport and location choice modelling system (TRESIS) and its outputs to a spatial computable general equilibrium model (SGEM), which uses data at a more aggregate level to compute the additional impacts of transport infrastructure change on the wider economy. This has allowed the development of an integrated transport-location-economywide model system known as TRESIS-SGEM. The model system is applied to the introduction of the North-West Rail Link project in Sydney, Australia to illustrate the capability of TRESIS-SGEM, identifying a 17.6% markup over the conventional transport user benefit

PON1 status does not influence cholinesterase activity in Egyptian agricultural workers exposed to chlorpyrifos.

Animal studies have shown that paraoxonase 1 (PON1) genotype can influence susceptibility to the organophosphorus pesticide chlorpyrifos (CPF). However, Monte Carlo analysis suggests that PON1 genotype may not affect CPF-related toxicity at low exposure conditions in humans. The current study sought to determine the influence of PON1 genotype on the activity of blood cholinesterase as well as the effect of CPF exposure on serum PON1 in workers occupationally exposed to CPF. Saliva, blood and urine were collected from agricultural workers (n=120) from Egypt's Menoufia Governorate to determine PON1 genotype, blood cholinesterase activity, serum PON1 activity towards chlorpyrifos-oxon (CPOase) and paraoxon (POase), and urinary levels of the CPF metabolite 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCPy). The PON1 55 (P≤0.05) but not the PON1 192 genotype had a significant effect on CPOase activity. However, both the PON1 55 (P≤0.05) and PON1 192 (P≤0.001) genotypes had a significant effect on POase activity. Workers had significantly inhibited AChE and BuChE after CPF application; however, neither CPOase activity nor POase activity was associated with ChE depression when adjusted for CPF exposure (as determined by urinary TCPy levels) and stratified by PON1 genotype. CPOase and POase activity were also generally unaffected by CPF exposure although there were alterations in activity within specific genotype groups. Together, these results suggest that workers retained the capacity to detoxify chlorpyrifos-oxon under the exposure conditions experienced by this study population regardless of PON1 genotype and activity and that effects of CPF exposure on PON1 activity are minimal