Public health over private wealth: rebalancing public and private interests in international trade and investment agreements

The emerging global trade and investment regime is a site of ongoing contestation between states, powerful industry actors and civil society organisations seeking to infuence the formation of legal rules, principles, practices and institutions. The inclusion of major transnational tobacco, alcohol and ultraprocessed food companies seeking to influence governments in these processes has resulted in the expanded distribution and consumption of unhealthy commodities across the globe, overshadowing many of the positive impacts for health hypothesised from liberalised trade. The growing number of pathways for market actors to exert undue influence over national and international regulatory environments provided by agreements, such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, has given many cause to be concerned. In the context of continued commitment by states to international trade and investment negotiations, we present several avenues for public health scholars, advocates and practitioners to explore to rebalance public and private interests in these deals

Invariant solutions of minimal large-scale structures in turbulent channel flow for Re_τ up to 1000

Understanding the origin of large-scale structures in high Reynolds number wall turbulence has been a central issue over a number of years. Recently, Rawat et al. (J. Fluid Mech., 2015, 782, p515) have computed invariant solutions for the large-scale structures in turbulent Couette flow at Reτ ≃ 128 using an over-damped LES with the Smagorinsky model to account for the effect of the surrounding small-scale motions. Here, we extend this approach to an order of magnitude higher Reynolds numbers in turbulent channel flow, towards the regime where the large-scale structures in the form of very-large-scale motions (long streaky motions) and large-scale motions (short vortical structures) energetically emerge. We demonstrate that a set of invariant solutions can be computed from simulations of the self-sustaining large-scale structures in the minimal unit (domain of size Lx = 3.0h streamwise and Lz = 1.5h spanwise) with midplane reflection symmetry at least up to Reτ ≃ 1000. By approximating the surrounding small scales with an artificially elevated Smagorinsky constant, a set of equilibrium states are found, labelled upper- and lower-branch according to their associated drag. It is shown that the upper-branch equilibrium state is a reasonable proxy for the spatial structure and the turbulent statistics of the self-sustaining large-scale structures

Shear stress-driven flow : the state space of near-wall turbulence as Reτ → ∞

An inner-scaled, shear stress-driven flow is considered as a model of independent near-wall turbulence as Re τ → ∞. In this limit, the model is applicable to the near-wall region and the lower part of the logarithmic layer of various parallel shear flows, including turbulent Couette flow, Poiseuille flow and Hagen-Poiseuille flow. The model is validated against damped Couette flow and there is excellent agreement between the velocity statistics and spectra for y + < 40. A near-wall flow domain of similar size to the minimal unit is analysed from a dynamical systems perspective. The edge and fifteen invariant solutions are computed, the first discovered for this flow configuration. Through continuation in the spanwise width L + z , the bifurcation behaviour of the solutions over the domain size is investigated. The physical properties of the solutions are explored through phase portraits, including the energy input and dissipation plane, and streak, roll and wave energy space. Finally, a Reynolds number is defined in outer units and the high-Re asymptotic behaviour of the equilibria is studied. Three lower branch solutions are found to scale consistently with vortex-wave interaction (VWI) theory, with wave forcing localising around the critical layer

Australian COVID-19 policy responses: Good for health equity or a missed opportunity?

COVID-19 shines a spotlight on social and health inequities: the already widening inequities in life expectancy, premature death, noncommunicable diseases and mental health issues in Australia will get worse as a consequence of COVID-19 if progressive, long-term multisectoral action is not taken. This report examines the health equity implications of 156 social and economic policy measures introduced by the Australian Federal and State/Territory Governments in response to the pandemic. The wide-ranging and rapid policy responses to COVID-19 risks and impacts is impressive, showing that if there is political will action can happen. A number of positive measures were introduced to address employment, household income, and standard of living. These could go a long way to keeping people well and reducing health inequities. They must however not return to conditions that will keep people in poverty. Policies must ensure a decent standard of living and fair working conditions as we move forward. To prevent an accumulation of disadvantage and health inequities throughout the life course, the temporary supports for childcare should continue and enable access to free childcare for, at the very least, socially disadvantaged households. None of the housing-related measures that were introduced addressed the medium and long term housing precariousness that is prevalent in Australia. Unless this is fixed, social and health inequities will continue to widen. Investment in social housing could help address the gap in housing, job creation and income growth, and reduce homelessness. Policy measures introduced to support aged care, disability services, the arts and family violence are very helpful in the short term. However, there is a need for sustained and adequate funding to these sectors and organisations, particularly going forward when it is likely that these organisations will play a more vital role than ever in helping to rebuild communities. COVID-19 has initiated an enormous intergenerational transfer of debt. The health consequences will be felt for decades, possibly generations. But austerity cannot be the policy response going forward. Long-term investment is vital across the conditions of daily living. Action on the structural drivers of health inequity is essential. Without action on climate change, health inequities will be exacerbated. Good social policy is good climate adaptation policy, and good for health. Climate change mitigation must focus on the consumptagenic system – the institutions, policies, processes, actors, and ideas that embed, facilitate, and normalise the dominance of a system addicted to growth and profits irrespective of the environmental, social, and health costs. ‘Bouncing back better’ from COVID-19 could see a healthier, more equitable and sustainable Australia if political leaders choose to use this unfortunate event to drive positive societal change. We cannot have deregulations in social, health and environment sectors in order to "kickstart the economy", nor the dominance of certain gender, economic and political lenses in the recovery governance processes. Governing going forward requires a new social compact, supported by a national whole of government health equity strategy

What Generates Attention to Health in Trade Policy-Making?Lessons From Success in Tobacco Control and Access to Medicines: A Qualitative Study of Australia and the (Comprehensive and Progressive) Trans-Pacific Partnership

Background: Despite greater attention to the nexus between trade and investment agreements and their potential impacts on public health, less is known regarding the political and governance conditions that enable or constrain attention to health issues on government trade agendas. Drawing on interviews with key stakeholders in the Australian trade domain, this article provides novel insights from policy actors into the range of factors that can enable or constrain attention to health in trade negotiations. Methods: A qualitative case study was chosen focused on Australia's participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations and the domestic agenda-setting processes that shaped the government's negotiating mandate. Process tracing via document analysis of media reporting, parliamentary records and government inquiries identified key events during Australia's participation in the TPP negotiations. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 25 key government and non-government policy actors including Federal politicians, public servants, representatives from public interest nongovernment organisations and industry associations, and academic experts. Results: Interviews revealed that domestic concerns for protecting regulatory space for access to generic medicines and tobacco control emerged onto the Australian government's trade agenda. This contrasted with other health issues like alcohol control and nutrition and food systems that did not appear to receive attention. The analysis suggests sixteen key factors that shaped attention to these different health issues, including the strength of exporter interests; extent of political will of Trade and Health Ministers; framing of health issues; support within the major political parties; exogenous influencing events; public support; the strength of available evidence and the presence of existing domestic legislation and international treaties, among others. Conclusion: These findings aid understanding of the factors that can enable or constrain attention to health issues on government trade agendas, and offer insights for potential pathways to elevate greater attention to health in future. They provide a suite of conditions that appear to shape attention to health outside the biomedical health domain for further research in the commercial determinants of health.This work was supported by the Australian NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence on the Social Determinants of Health Equity: Policy research on the social determinants of health equity (APP1078046)

Exact coherent states of attached eddies in channel flow

A new set of exact coherent states in the form of a travelling wave is reported in plane channel flow. They are continued over a range in from approximately up to , an order of magnitude higher than those discovered in the transitional regime. This particular type of exact coherent states is found to be gradually more localised in the near-wall region on increasing the Reynolds number. As larger spanwise sizes are considered, these exact coherent states appear via a saddle-node bifurcation with a spanwise size of and their phase speed is found to be at all the Reynolds numbers considered. Computation of the eigenspectra shows that the time scale of the exact coherent states is given by in channel flow at all Reynolds numbers, and it becomes equivalent to the viscous inner time scale for the exact coherent states in the limit of . The exact coherent states at several different spanwise sizes are further continued to a higher Reynolds number, , using the eddy-viscosity approach (Hwang & Cossu, Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 105, 2010, 044505). It is found that the continued exact coherent states at different sizes are self-similar at the given Reynolds number. These observations suggest that, on increasing Reynolds number, new sets of self-sustaining coherent structures are born in the near-wall region. Near this onset, these structures scale in inner units, forming the near-wall self-sustaining structures. With further increase of Reynolds number, the structures that emerged at lower Reynolds numbers subsequently evolve into the self-sustaining structures in the logarithmic region at different length scales, forming a hierarchy of self-similar coherent structures as hypothesised by Townsend (i.e. attached eddy hypothesis). Finally, the energetics of turbulent flow is discussed for a consistent extension of these dynamical systems notions to high Reynolds numbers

Iron biogeochemistry in Antarctic pack ice during SIPEX-2

Our study quantified the spatial and temporal distribution of Fe and ancillary biogeochemical parameters at six stations visited during an interdisciplinary Australian Antarctic marine science voyage (SIPEX-2) within the East Antarctic first-year pack ice zone during September–October 2012. Unlike previous studies in the area, the sea ice Chlorophyll a, Particulate Organic Carbon and Nitrogen (POC and PON) maxima did not occur at the ice/water interface because of the snow loading and dynamic processes under which the sea ice formed. Iron in sea ice ranged from 0.9 to 17.4 nM for the dissolved (&lt;0.2 µm) fraction and 0.04 to 990 nM for the particulate (&gt;0.2 µm) fraction. Our results highlight that the concentration of particulate Fe in sea ice was highest when approaching the continent. The high POC concentration and high particulate iron to aluminium ratio in sea ice samples demonstrate that 71% of the particulate Fe was biogenic in composition. Our estimated Fe flux from melting pack ice to East Antarctic surface waters over a 30 day melting period was 0.2 µmol/m2/d of DFe, 2.7 µmol/m2/d of biogenic PFe and 1.3 µmol/m2/d of lithogenic PFe. These estimates suggest that the fertilization potential of the particulate fraction of Fe may have been previously underestimated due to the assumption that it is primarily lithogenic in composition. Our new measurements and calculated fluxes indicate that a large fraction of the total Fe pool within sea ice may be bioavailable and therefore, effective in promoting primary productivity in the marginal ice zone