The Carhart case and late-term abortions - What's next in Australia?

A recent case in the United States Supreme Court has indicated a change in course on the issue of abortion rights. In Gonzales v Carhart 127 S Ct 1610 (2007), the Supreme Court, in April 2007, upheld federal legislation banning a particular late-term abortion procedure with no exceptions (even to preserve the mother's life). This column examines the case in the context of recent Australian cases involving abortion issues. It extrapolates from Carhart to consider the potential for the Australian High Court to disrupt access to safe, medically supervised and performed abortion

Latitude and environmental pressure: their impact on carapace morphology in three species of fiddler crabs (genus Uca) across the Atlantic Ocean

Among semi-terrestrial fiddler crabs, three species from the subgenus Uca (sensu stricto) appear to be basal in the phylogeny of the genus: Uca major (Herbst 1782-1804), Uca maracoani (Latreille 1802-1803) and Uca tangeri (Eydoux 1835). These species evolved vicariantly as tectonic plates separated to form the Atlantic Ocean. Currently, the three species, found in Africa, South America, and the Caribbean, exhibit a high affinity for their respective tectonic plates. Inter- and intra-specific variation in carapace shape was assessed using geometric morphometrics to analyze 12 surface landmarks in the three species. In 314 female specimens, surficial coordinates were superimposed, standardized, and subjected to canonical variance (CVA) and principal component (PCA) analysis, after which the three species form distinct clusters. Within each species, there are clear differences among populations from northern to southern latitudes. In Uca maracoani, there is a significant correlation between carapace shape and certain environmental factors, such as biotope, salinity, and substrate. As it has not been demonstrated that there is extensive, structured geographic variation in the population genetics for Uca, this polymorphism is likely a result of environmental pressures, i.e., ecophenotypy

Carney v Newton: expert evidence about the standard of clinical notes

In Carney v Newton [2006] TASSC 4 the Tasmanian Supreme Court heard a claim that the defendant breached his duty of care by failing to properly diagnose and treat a node positive carcinoma in the plaintiff's breast tissue. At trial, argument turned on the actual dialogue that took place during the initial consultation, with significant reliance on the clinical notes of the defendant. The court gave considerable weight to "expert" witnesses in ascertaining the acceptability of the defendant's conduct concerning the maintenance and interpretation of his clinical notes. This raises important questions in relation to proof of quality of medical records as part of the current professional standard of care, as modified by recent legislation in most jurisdictions

Supervising junior doctors and on-call responsibilities: Brus v Australian Capital Territory; Greater Southern Area Health Service v Angus

The recent decisions of Brus v Australian Capital Territory [2007] ACTSC 83 and Greater Southern Area Health Service v Angus [2007] NSWSC 1211 highlight different aspects of the difficulties associated with supervision of junior doctors in the present public-funded Australian public hospital system. Their facts reveal how difficult it is for senior staff to achieve the fine balance required to assist trainees by according adequate experience and responsibility on the one hand, and to ensure patient safety, on the other. In addition, these cases highlight problems with the supervision process that are likely to be exacerbated in a privatised health care setting where senior staff may have less inclination to supervise struggling juniors unless adequately remunerated for such teaching, an issue of considerable controversy given the focus on profit of those institutions

The anatomy and palaeobiology of the early armoured dinosaur Scutellosaurus lawleri (Ornithischia: Thyreophora) from the Kayenta Formation (Lower Jurassic) of Arizona

The armoured dinosaurs, Thyreophora, were a diverse clade of ornithischians known from the Early Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous. During the Middle and Late Jurassic, the thyreophorans radiated to evolve large body size, quadrupedality, and complex chewing mechanisms, and members of the group include some of the most iconic dinosaurs, including the plated Stegosaurus and the club-tailed Ankylosaurus; however, the early stages of thyreophoran evolution are poorly understood due to a paucity of relatively complete remains from early diverging thyreophoran taxa. Scutellosaurus lawleri is generally reconstructed as the earliest-diverging thyreophoran and is known from over 70 specimens from the Lower Jurassic Kayenta Formation of Arizona, USA. Whereas Scutellosaurus lawleri is pivotal to our understanding of character-state changes at the base of Thyreophora that can shed light on the early evolution of the armoured dinosaurs, the taxon has received limited study. Herein, we provide a detailed account of the osteology of Scutellosaurus lawleri, figuring many elements for the first time. Scutellosaurus lawleri was the only definitive bipedal thyreophoran. Histological studies indicate that it grew slowly throughout its life, possessing lamellar-zonal tissue that was a consequence neither of its small size nor phylogenetic position, but may instead be autapomorphic, and supporting other studies that suggest thyreophorans had lower basal metabolic rates than other ornithischian dinosaurs. Faunal diversity of the Kayenta Formation in comparison with other well-known Early Jurassic-aged dinosaur-bearing formations indicates that there was considerable spatial and/or environmental variation in Early Jurassic dinosaur faunas

4-π-Photocyclization of 1,2-Dihydropyridazines: An Approach to Bicyclic 1,2-Diazetidines with Rich Synthetic Potential.

The 4-π-photocyclization of a range of 1,2-dihydropyridazines is described, generating bicyclic 1,2-diazetidines in high yields on multigram scale. The key bicyclic 1,2-diazetidines are versatile synthetic intermediates and were easily converted into a range of novel derivatives, including functionalized 1,2-diazetidines, cyclobutenes, cyclobutanes, and 1,3-dienes

Short Communications: First tracking of individual American Robins (Turdus migratorius) across seasons

The American Robin (Turdus migratorius) is one of the most widespread, common bird species in North America; yet, very little is known about its migratory connectivity, migration timing, and migratory routes. Using archival GPS tags, we tracked the movements of 7 individual robins from 3 breeding populations in the United States. Four robins captured in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, overwintered in Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Montana, up to 4,500 km from the capture location. One robin captured in Amherst, Massachusetts, overwintered in South Carolina 1,210 km from the capture location, whereas 2 robins captured in Washington, D.C., spent the entire year within 6 km of their original capture location. Understanding the annual cycle and differences in migration strategies for a species that exhibits large regional variation in movement has the potential to provide novel insights into how conspecific populations respond to current and future heterogeneity in climate and habitat. The regionspecific patterns presented here suggest robins could serve as sentinels of environmental change at a continental scale

Awareness of Social Presence on Virtual Fitness Platforms and Relationship with Exercise Motivation and Physical Activity Levels

The health benefits of physical activity are well-known, however, only 20% of the U.S. population meets the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. This study aimed to explore the association of awareness of social presence in a virtual fitness platform with motivation and physical activity levels (PAL). Virtual fitness users (n = 590, 42 ± 12.7 years old) completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and Behavioral Regulation of Exercise Questionnaire. Relative autonomy was correlated with PAL (r = .21, p < .001, 95.00% CI = [.13, .29]) and predicted PAL (F(1,588) = 27.03, p < .001). Awareness of social presence was significantly related to motivation (U = 41864.5, z = –5.99, p < .001), and predictive of relative autonomy (F(1,588) = 27.03, p < .001). The results suggest that higher relative autonomy is associated with higher PAL in virtual fitness users. Awareness of social presence on virtual platform appears to correlate to higher levels of relative autonomy, which may influence exercise adherence

Two-step synthesis of Fe2O3 and Co3O4 nanoparticles: towards a general method for synthesizing nanocrystalline metal oxides with high surface area and thermal stability

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.A simple, two-step method using activated carbon (AC) as a support/scaffold was developed to synthesize metal oxide nanocrystalline materials (NCMs). In the first step, metal nitrate precursors were deposited by wet impregnation onto the AC, then heated in argon at 350 °C to immobilize the metal oxides. In the second step, the AC was removed by calcination in air at 500 °C, to obtain the unsupported metal oxide NCMs. Characterization by N2-sorption isotherms, TGA, XPS and EXAFS reveals that the metal oxide particles are crystalline and nanometre-sized, with surface areas up to 148 m2 g−1. Moreover, the TEM images show particle sizes in the range 5–10 nm, even after calcination at 500 °C for 2 h. Their thermal stability and high surface areas, together with the nanometre-sized structures, make them promising materials for catalytic applications (e.g., CO oxidation).DFG, EXC 314, Unifying Concepts in Catalysi