Indigenous Participation in Regional Labour Markets, 2001-06

This paper examines the extent to which Indigenous Australians have shared in the large expansion of the Australian workforce that is revealed by a comparison of 2001 and 2006 census results. It considers whether this is reflected in changes to regional patterns of Indigenous labour force status, income, occupation and industry of employment. As such, it provides the first comprehensive assessment of possible impacts of federal Indigenous employment policies introduced just prior to the 2001 Census and it contributes to the policy discourse on 'closing the gap' between Indigenous and other Australians. Conventional census measures of labour force status are established for each of 37 Indigenous Regions and administrative data are also deployed to produce a more accurate picture of the spread of CDEP program employment and the effect of this on labour force outcomes. Changes in occupational and industry segregation are established as is the effect of employment change on the gap in median incomes. In line with previous gap analyses conducted by CAEPR an attempt is made to estimate future job requirements using a projection of the Indigenous working-age population to 2016. This reveals a need for more than 70,000 additional jobs to meet current government target

Patient preferences for adjuvant radiotherapy in early breast cancer are strongly influenced by treatment received through random assignment

Objective: TARGIT‐A randomised women with early breast cancer to receive external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) or intraoperative radiotherapy (TARGIT‐IORT). This study aimed to identify what extra risk of recurrence patients would accept for per‐ ceived benefits and risks of different radiotherapy treatments. Methods: Patient preferences were determined by self‐rated trade‐off question‐ naires in two studies: Stage (1) 209 TARGIT‐A participants (TARGIT‐IORT n = 108, EBRT n = 101); Stage (2) 123 non‐trial patients yet to receive radiotherapy (pre‐treat‐ ment group), with 85 also surveyed post‐radiotherapy. Patients traded‐off risks of local recurrence in preference selection between TARGIT‐IORT and EBRT. Results: TARGIT‐IORT patients were more accepting of IORT than EBRT patients with 60% accepting the highest increased risk presented (4%–6%) compared to 12% of EBRT patients, and 2% not accepting IORT at all compared to 43% of EBRT pa‐ tients. Pre‐treatment patients were more accepting of IORT than post‐treatment pa‐ tients with 23% accepting the highest increased risk presented compared to 15% of post‐treatment patients, and 15% not accepting IORT at all compared to 41% of pre‐ treatment patients. Conclusions: Breast cancer patients yet to receive radiotherapy accept a higher recurrence risk than the actual risk found in TARGIT‐A. Measured patient preferences are highly influenced by experience of treatment received. This finding challenges the validity of post‐treatment preference studies

Modelling Decision-Making in Rural Communities at the Forest Margin

The FLORES simulation model aims to capture the interactions between rural communities living at the forest margin and the resources that they depend upon, in order to provide decision-makers with a tool that they can use to explore the consequences of alternative policy options. A key component of the model is simulating how decision-making agents within the system (individuals, households and the whole village) go about making their decisions. The model presented here is based on an anthropological description of the rules and relationships that people use, rather than on the assumption that people behave in an economically optimal fashion. The approach addresses both short-term decision-making (primarily the allocation of labour to various activities on a weekly basis), and long-term strategic land-use planning, taking into account the variety of tenure and inheritance patterns that operate in real communities. The decision-making sub-model has been implemented in the Rantau Pandan (Sumatra) version of FLORES, using the Simile modelling environment

Alternative approaches to capacity building – emerging practices abroad

This study was undertaken to identify alternative approaches to third sector capacity building in countries outside of the UK. Principally desk-based, it draws on the insight and recommendations of the research team’s contacts which span Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, and the International Development context. The research has been undertaken in two main stages. The first scoping phase involved an email request for information on third sector and civil society capacity building. Respondents were asked to identify examples of capacity building that met with a number of good practice principles. The second phase took a more in-depth look at some selected cases: a funding brokerage partnership model from Australia; a variety of methods from the US; a number of approaches used or promoted by Dutch third sector organisations (TSOs) working in international development; a thematic study of leadership programmes; and a review of some networking approaches to capacity building

Evidence-Based Educational Modules on the Safe Delivery of Anesthesia in MRI Suites

Few citations were located on the formal education on MRI patient safety for anesthesia providers administering anesthesia services in MRI suites. Consequently, patients and staff may be at risk for injury or death during MRI procedures and health care institutions can be threatened with financial loss secondary to legal exposure, equipment damage and resultant morbidity and mortality associated with MRI patient safety events. This doctoral project will create three evidence-based continuing education modules to educate anesthesia providers on the operation of the MRI unit, potential MRI associated risks and complications, and specific anesthesia considerations for providers assigned to the MRI suite for procedural care. Safety threats and injuries are confirmed in the literature and include the creation of projectiles within the MRI suite, patient burns, and death within the MRI unit itself. Integrating the three newly created evidence-based educational modules into health care quality improvement programs and required employee annual training events could improve provider preparedness and patient safety in the MRI suite

Regional change in the Indigenous population: Early results from the 2006 Census

Illuminating some of the gaps in social and economic participation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians due, in part, to geography, this paper presents the preliminary findings of a regional analysis of recent change in Indigenous population and social indicators between 2001 and 2006.The new Federal Government has identified as one of its priorities a \u27closing of the gaps\u27 in social and economic outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians with specific reference made to health/life expectancy, education participation and attainment, housing and employment. Previous CAEPR research has shown that the structural circumstances facing Indigenous populations are increasingly diverse and locationally dispersed and that this leads to variable constraints and opportunities for social and economic participation. In light of the renewed emphasis on targets in Indigenous public policy there is a need to update this spatial analysis and explore the extent to which prospects for the achievement of parity continue to be influenced by location. As part of a new research project at CAEPR sponsored by the Ministerial Council on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs (MCATSIA) and aimed at maximising the use of recently-available 2006 Census data, this paper presents the preliminary findings of a regional analysis of recent change in Indigenous population and social indicators between 2001 and 2006. In doing so, three interrelated questions are addressed. First, how does the scale and nature of gaps in key social indicators vary spatially? Second, how do trends in these vary in an absolute and relative sense? Finally, given the methodological issues involved, how meaningful are measures of relative outcomes at a regional or national level and is it possible to accurately assess changes through time in these outcomes? Please note: This seminar and several others is available in both Streaming Audio and MP3 formats and can be found some way down the page of the following link

The prosequence of procaricain forms an α-helical domain that prevents access to the substrate-binding cleft

AbstractBackground Cysteine proteases are involved in a variety of cellular processes including cartilage degradation in arthritis, the progression of Alzheimer's disease and cancer invasion: these enzymes are therefore of immense biological importance. Caricain is the most basic of the cysteine proteases found in the latex of Carica papaya. It is a member of the papain superfamily and is homologous to other plant and animal cysteine proteases. Caricain is naturally expressed as an inactive zymogen called procaricain. The inactive form of the protease contains an inhibitory proregion which consists of an additional 106 N-terminal amino acids; the proregion is removed upon activation.Results The crystal structure of procaricain has been refined to 3.2 å resolution; the final model consists of three non-crystallographically related molecules. The proregion of caricain forms a separate globular domain which binds to the C-terminal domain of mature caricain. The proregion also contains an extended polypeptide chain which runs through the substrate-binding cleft, in the opposite direction to that of the substrate, and connects to the N terminus of the mature region. The mature region does not undergo any conformational change on activation.Conclusions We conclude that the rate-limiting step in the in vitro activation of procaricain is the dissociation of the prodomain, which is then followed by proteolytic cleavage of the extended polypeptide chain of the proregion. The prodomain provides a stable scaffold which may facilitate the folding of the C-terminal lobe of procaricain

Once a feminist: Lynne Segal on Grace Paley’s The Little Disturbances of Man

The following contributions came in response to a request, sent to a number of key figures in feminism today, to write on a text that had been formative for their thinking as feminists. The chosen text could be a theory, a novel, an artwork, a performance, a poem: one that had stimulated, or even revolutionised, their ideas. As we hoped, this project has created a selection of texts central to our many and different experiences as feminists. I used to say that Margaret Drabble's The Garrick Year was the story of my life, in my early twenties, as if I was just a creature of time and circumstance. I read The Garrick Year sometime between October 1965, when my first child was born, and the end of 1967, before my marriage disintegrated. Like the heroine Emma Evans, I married a successful actor, had a child, and followed his career—which in the novel led Emma to Hereford for a summer season of plays

Willow Creek, California Tourism Analysis

The primary objective of this study was to introduce and recommend different strategies for the city of Willow Creek, California to increase tourism post-Covid-19. After extensive research, the report outlines various opportunities that the Recreation 365 class, Tourism Industry Management, believe will help Willow Creek in their efforts to attract their target audience

Sequence verification of synthetic DNA by assembly of sequencing reads

Gene synthesis attempts to assemble user-defined DNA sequences with base-level precision. Verifying the sequences of construction intermediates and the final product of a gene synthesis project is a critical part of the workflow, yet one that has received the least attention. Sequence validation is equally important for other kinds of curated clone collections. Ensuring that the physical sequence of a clone matches its published sequence is a common quality control step performed at least once over the course of a research project. GenoREAD is a web-based application that breaks the sequence verification process into two steps: the assembly of sequencing reads and the alignment of the resulting contig with a reference sequence. GenoREAD can determine if a clone matches its reference sequence. Its sophisticated reporting features help identify and troubleshoot problems that arise during the sequence verification process. GenoREAD has been experimentally validated on thousands of gene-sized constructs from an ORFeome project, and on longer sequences including whole plasmids and synthetic chromosomes. Comparing GenoREAD results with those from manual analysis of the sequencing data demonstrates that GenoREAD tends to be conservative in its diagnostic. GenoREAD is available at www.genoread.or