Anthony Davies: Apocalypse Now

1000-word text to accompany an exhibition of Anthony Davies' "Apocalypse Now" woodcut prints, Aratoi: Wairarapa Museum of Art and History, December 2013

Reuben Paterson

Essay commissioned but not used for exhibition at Calder & Lawson Gallery, Academy of Performing Arts, University of Waikato

Equipment, Supplies and Pharmaceuticals: How Much Might it Cost to Achieve Basic Surge Capacity?

The ability to deliver optimal medical care in the setting of a disaster event, regardless of its cause, will in large part be contingent on an immediately available supply of key medical equipment, supplies, and pharmaceuticals. Although the Department of Health and Human Services Strategic National Stockpile program makes these available through its 12-hour “push packs” and vendor-managed inventory, every local community should be funded to create a local cache for these items. This report explores the funding requirements for this suggested approach. Furthermore, the response to a surge in demand for care will be contingent on keeping available staff close to the hospitals for a sustained period. A proposal for accomplishing this, with associated costs, is discussed as well

Role of Regional Healthcare Coalitions in Managing and Coordinating Disaster Response

A white paper prepared for the January 23-24, 2013 workshop on Nationwide Response to an Improvised Nuclear Device Attack, hosted by the Institute of Medicine’s Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Catastrophic Events together with the National Association of County and City Health Officials

Broadening access to medical care during a severe influenza pandemic: The CDC Nurse Triage Line Project.

The impact of a severe influenza pandemic could be overwhelming to hospital emergency departments, clinics, and medical offices if large numbers of ill people were to simultaneously seek care. While current planning guidance to reduce surge on hospitals and other medical facilities during a pandemic largely focuses on improving the “supply” of medical care services, attention on reducing “demand” for such services is needed by better matching patient needs with alternative types and sites of care. Based on lessons learned during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its partners are currently exploring the acceptability and feasibility of using a coordinated network of nurse triage telephone lines during a pandemic to assess the health status of callers, help callers determine the most appropriate site for care (eg, hospital ED, outpatient center, home), disseminate information, provide clinical advice, and provide access to antiviral medications for ill people, if appropriate. As part of this effort, the integration and coordination of poison control centers, existing nurse advice lines, 2-1-1 information lines, and other hotlines are being investigated

Trust and trustworthiness

What is it to trust someone? What is it for someone to be trustworthy? These are the two main questions that this paper addresses. There are various situations that can be described as ones of trust, but this paper considers the issue of trust between individuals. In it, I suggest that trust is distinct from reliance or cases where someone asks for something on the expectation that it will be done due to the different attitude taken by the trustor. I argue that the trustor takes Holton's 'participant stance' and this distinguishes trust from reliance. I argue that trustworthiness is different from reliability and that an account of trustworthiness cannot be successful whilst ignoring the point that aligning trustworthiness with reliability removes the virtue from being trustworthy. On the question of what it is distinguishes trustworthiness from reliability, I argue that the distinction is in the opportunity for the trustee to act against the wishes of the trustor and the trustee's consideration of the value of the trust that has been placed in them by the trustor

Recent evolution of alternative reproductive modes in the 'living fossil' Triops cancriformis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Notostraca is a small but ancient crustacean order with a contrasting combination of a conservative morphology and a wide range of reproductive modes. The tadpole shrimp <it>Triops cancriformis</it>, includes bisexual – the putatively ancestral state -, androdioecious and hermaphrodite populations. As hermaphroditism and androdioecy confer a colonisation advantage, we expect the postglacial colonisation of northern Europe to have been effected by lineages with such reproductive modes. Therefore, N European populations should be composed of closely related lineages reflecting a recent range expansion. In contrast, glacial refugia in the south should contain bisexual populations with high haplotype diversity and more population structuring. To test these hypotheses, we analysed the geographic distribution of reproductive modes based on new and published sex ratio data. In addition, we investigated the European phylogeography of <it>T. cancriformis </it>by sequencing over a 1000 bp of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in individuals from a large sample of populations of the three recognised subspecies.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Bisexual populations were only found in the Iberian Peninsula, with the rest of European populations showing low male proportions or no males. Androdioecious populations were found in Central and Eastern Europe. Regarding mtDNA diversity, Spanish and Moroccan populations of <it>T. c. mauritanicus </it>were highly divergent, and showed strong population structure. In contrast, <it>Triops c. cancriformis </it>and <it>T. c. simplex </it>formed a single mtDNA lineage with low haplotype diversity. This diversity was structured into two phylogenetic clades (A, B), coexisting in E Germany. Basal haplotypes of both lineages were found in the Iberian Peninsula. Most of the populations in clade A and B are either hermaphroditic or androdioecious, with the only bisexual population in these clades found in the Iberian Peninsula. The genetic divergence between these two clades suggests a split in the Late Pleistocene and their geographic distribution reflects a complex evolutionary history of European <it>Triops </it>populations, with possibly two episodes of range expansions – one of them by clade A – involving androdioecious and hermaphroditic populations.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>As we predicted, N European populations of <it>T. cancriformis </it>are closely related, with few widely distributed haplotypes and indications of a recent range expansion involving hermaphroditic/androdioecious lineages. A possible second range expansion or long distance colonisation may have created the secondary contact zone between <it>T. c. cancriformis/simplex </it>clades A and B. The large haplotype diversity and strong genetic subdivision in the Iberian Peninsula, which is known to contain only bisexual populations, strongly suggest that this area was a Pleistocene refugium for <it>T. cancriformis</it>, although the occurrence of additional eastern refugia cannot be ruled out. Our data support the status of <it>T. c. mauritanicus </it>as a separate species and the colonisation of N Africa from the Iberian Peninsula. We suggest that hermaphroditism/androdioecy has evolved recently in <it>T. cancriformis </it>and has facilitated the postglacial colonisation of northern Europe.</p

Futile Definitions

Settling definitions is often seen as a central tool for clarifying concepts, and answering ‘What is X?’ questions. Examples might be ‘What is knowledge?’, ‘What is a work of art?’ or ‘What is a dog?’. A common way of answering such questions is by formulating necessary and sufficient conditions for a thing to be of a certain sort. It is this form of real definition that is of concern here

Sowing seeds in the digital garden

PARADISEC (Pacific And Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures), Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories, Ethnographic E-Research Project and Sydney Object Repositories for Research and Teaching

iResearch: information skills for life

The provision of information skills training and resources is a core service, which the University of Sydney Library has developed over many years. Annually, over 33,000 participants attend Library information skills training sessions to develop generic and specific information literacy skills. Although some clients enjoy visiting the Library, preferring face-to-face contact with a helpful staff member when they need assistance; the new generation of students is primarily made up of technologically literate individuals who use IT solutions regularly for functions such as social networking and learning. Students are increasingly using ‘Web 2.0’ applications such as blogs and wikis, and social networking services such as YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/), del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us) and MySpace (http://www.myspace.com) as part of their everyday activities. Research tells us that students expect to access information and resources online 24/7, and engage in absorbing learning experiences that mirror social use of technologies and allow learning at point-of-need. The challenge was to create a common quality framework for information literacy resources that meets best practice for content and presentation, allow materials to be easily adapted at point of need and over time; and most importantly, that offers an excellent student experience for range of learners from all Faculties. In Semester 1, 2008, the University of Sydney Library launched a series of short, interactive online learning objects, designed to address the challenges mentioned (http://elearning.library.usyd.edu.au/index.php). At present, the topics cover a range of core information skills, such as, plagiarism and academic honesty and how to reference, and includes ‘real experiences’ through scenario-based learning, humour and fun and interactive games and activities. Usability testing results and other feedback from students have indicated a positive response to the learning objects approach. Feedback from staff have also been encouraging. The poster presentation will discuss the development of the learning objects in detail and the feedback/responses that we have received so far