Australian coder workforce survey 2002 - managers’ responses

In 1994–5, the Health Information Management Association of Australia (HIMAA) Ltd conducted a nation-wide survey of clinical coders working in Australian hospitals. The survey (National Coder Workforce Issues Project (NCWIP) funded by the then Commonwealth Department of Human Services and Health) provided baseline data about the coder workforce in terms of its size, the educational backgrounds of coders, circumstances relating to their employment and their needs in terms of continuing support and training. Importantly, the survey was conducted before casemix-based classification and funding had been implemented by all states and territories. It has now been nearly eight years since the original survey was conducted and casemix is in use in some form in all states and territories

New insights into the FLS2 trafficking and signaling pathway revealing a role for late defense responses in Arabidopsis immunity

Pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) triggered immunity (PTI) enables plants to efficiently defend themselves against most pathogens. PTI is initiated by plasma membrane pattern recognition receptors like Flagellin Sensitive 2 (FLS2), which detects flg22 peptides derived from bacterial flagellin. Flg22 triggers cellular trafficking of FLS2 to endosomal compartments and several defense responses, including early responses such as closure of stomatal apertures or gene activation and late responses such as seedling growth arrest or callose deposition. Cellular trafficking is often regulated by ubiquitination. In order to find factors modulating FLS2 endosomal trafficking, we used the Pseudomonas syringe pv. tomato (Pto) DC3000 effector AvrPtoB to identify residues in FLS2, which are ubiquitinated by AvrPtoB. Using tandem mass-spectrometry we identified one ubiquitination site in the juxtamembrane domain of FLS2. FLS2 mutated in all juxtamembrane located lysines showed reduced ubiquitination in vitro, enhanced resistance to Pto DC3000 and increased FLS2 endosome numbers upon flg22 treatment. Ubiquitinated plasma membrane proteins are targeted to late endosomal compartments by the Endosomal Sorting Complex Required for Transport (ESCRT) in yeast and animals. Using confocal microscopy we observed flg22-dependent co-localization of FLS2 with ESCRT-1 positive vesicles. Furthermore, ESCRT-1 mutants vps28-2 and vps37-1 showed reduced flg22-triggered defense gene activation, loss of flg22-dependent stomatal closure and decreased numbers of FLS2 endosomes. Both mutants showed higher susceptibility to biotrophic pathogens, indicating a role of ESCRT-1 components in plant immunity. A second approach aimed to genetically dissect flg22 responses by analyzing a previously isolated flagellin insensitive 1 (fli1) mutant. Fli1 mutants were similar susceptible to Pto DC3000 than fls2-17 receptor mutants. Increased susceptibility of fli1 to Pto DC3000 correlated with higher expression of sugar starvation responsive genes during infections and reduced late flg22 responses. Early flg22 responses and transcriptional profiles three hours post infection resembled wild-type plants, suggesting a positive role of late PAMP responses in plant immunity. Genetic analysis showed that fli1 is recessive inherited and co-segregated with markers on the upper arm of chromosome 5. Sequence differences in fli1 predicted by whole genome sequence analysis were, however, shared with Ler wild-type plants, leaving the designation of fli1 to one gene open. In conclusion, these data provide good evidences for a role of late FLS2 endosomal trafficking and late flg22-repsonses as critical components of plant immunity against Pto DC3000

Use of Ek πι∑τεω∑ in Romans and Galatians: The Significance of Paul’s Choice of Prepositions with πι∑τει∑ as Object and Its Bearing upon Justification by Faith

In addressing the current debate concerning Paul\u27s explanation of justification by faith as it pertains to Jews and to gentiles, the present study will examine the meaning of ὲκ πίστεως in Paul and its bearing on justification by faith. The approach to this examination will be rather complex. In order to arrive at a precise meaning for ὲκ πίστεως, it is essential that the word πίστις be thoroughly examined, especially its connection to the Old Testament concept of faith (אכזד). In order to differentiate between ὲκ πίστεως and other prepositional phrases with πίστις it will be necessary to examine the differences in nuance among them by noting Paul\u27s choice of prepositions with πίστις and arriving at a determination as to whether such changes within the same context are meaningful or merely stylistic

Gefährdungsbeurteilung bei Exposition gegenüber mehreren krebserzeugenden Arbeitsstoffen

We analyzed the validity of simple summation formulae with which a common effect of different occupational exposures could be mapped to the same cancer endpoint. Our paper published in this journal relied on the assumptions of a deterministic response and binary exposures. The German Federal Environmental Agency organized an external review of our paper. Although the reviewers agreed with our main conclusion that simple summation formulae cannot have a general validity, they raised questions that we would like to inform the scientific public about and are addressed in this addendum. We demonstrate that the main statements in Morfeld and Spallek 2015 remain valid even if the exposures are defined on an interval scale, the binary response is probabilistic or if the analyzed response types are restricted to adverse types. We clarify that excess risks and differences in excess risks are not probabilities according to the Kolmogorov axioms. Simple summation formulae are therefore not justified, not even to estimate the lower bounds for excess risks

Order and timing of home ownership and fertility decisions in Australia

The birth of a child and transition into home ownership are markers of progression along a life course. Research shows that pathways to home ownership have become more diverse and deviate from the traditional pathway which was characterised by marriage followed by the birth of a child before entering home ownership. This study investigates the timing and order of the two interrelated events of birth of a child and the transition to home ownership in Australia. Using the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia panel survey, we apply a multi-process event history analysis for describing the timing of each event following the formation of a cohabiting relationship. The results suggest that the likelihood of birth increases with prior home ownership attainment but as time passes following the purchase of a home, the likelihood of birth decreases, similarly, the likelihood of home ownership attainment decreased with time following birth

Use of remotely-derived bathymetry for modelling biomass in marine environments

The paper presents results on the influence of geometric attributes of satellite-derived raster bathymetric data, namely the General Bathymetric Charts of the Oceans, on spatial statistical modelling of marine biomass. In the initial experiment, both the resolution and projection of the raster dataset are taken into account. It was found that, independently of the equal-area projection chosen for the analysis, the calculated areas are very similar, and the differences between them are insignificant. Likewise, any variation in the raster resolution did not change the computed area. Although the differences were shown to be insignificant, for the subsequent analysis we selected the cylindrical equal area projection, as it implies rectangular spatial extent, along with the automatically derived resolution. Then, in the second experiment, we focused on demersal fish biomass data acquired from trawl samples taken from the western parts of ICES Sub-area VII, near the sea floor. The aforementioned investigation into processing bathymetric data allowed us to build various statistical models that account for a relationship between biomass, sea floor topography and geographic location. We fitted a set of generalised additive models and generalised additive mixed models to combinations of trawl data of the roundnose grenadier (Coryphaenoides rupestris) and bathymetry. Using standard statistical techniques—such as analysis of variance, Akaike information criterion, root mean squared error, mean absolute error and cross-validation—we compared the performance of the models and found that depth and latitude may serve as statistically significant explanatory variables for biomass of roundnose grenadier in the study area. However, the results should be interpreted with caution as sampling locations may have an impact on the biomass–depth relationship

Prevention among immigrants: the example of Germany

Spallek J, Zeeb H, Razum O. Prevention among immigrants: the example of Germany. BMC Public Health. 2010;10(1): 92.Background A large and increasing part of the European population has a history of migration. Germany, for example, is home to about 15 million people with migrant background, which amounts to 19% of its population. Migrants may have differences in their lifestyle, health beliefs and risk factors compared to the autochthonous populations. Discussion As for example studies on children's participation in routine prevention activities have shown, these differences can have a relevant impact on the access of migrants to the health care system and are likely to lower their participation in prevention programs compared to the autochthonous population. To increase the uptake of prevention programs, barriers to access must be identified and approaches to reduce them must be developed. Summary Taking the example of Germany, a need exists for prevention programs that include (migrant sensitive) and specifically address (migrant specific) migrants. These should be of sufficient scale, evidence-based, sustainable and evaluated at regular intervals