Globalisation and public health: economic aspects

Globalisation is affecting all aspects of human society. There is increasing economic integration of the countries of the world through trade and investment flows. There is also the spread of socio-cultural influences through education, the mass media and population movements. Globalisation is also affecting healthcare institutions as well as the health of the public. This paper, will discuss certain economic effects of globalisation that impact upon the health of the public. These include the following: population movements, the pharmaceutical industry, foreign investment in healthcare services, the international drug trade (legal drugs such as tobacco as well as illegal drugs), cross-border pollution and the “export of hazard”, the mass media and its effect on health-related behaviour, worldwide weather changes, “structural adjustment programmes” (SAPs) implemented in response to economic crises, and the impact of multilateral organizations on national health policy

Studies of bacteriophages induced from Streptococcus cremoris strain R1 : is R1 a double Lysogen? : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Genetics at Massey University, New Zealand

Early studies on Streptococcus cremoris strain R₁ suggested that it was polylysogenic. Later, it was reported that its induced lysates contained bacteriophages (phages) of two types which were believed to differ in their morphology, buoyant densities, immune specificities and in their responses to heterologous antiphage sera. Further work on the strain did not reproduce the above observations, but did often give results which were consistent with it being a double lysogen. This project was an in-depth investigation of phages induced from R₁, in an attempt to establish the single or double lysogenic nature of the strain. Mid-log phase R₁ cells were harvested, washed with homologous antiphage serum and induced to lyse with ultraviolet light (UVL). The resulting phage lysates were analysed on caesium chloride (CsCl) density gradients. Though the OD₂₅₄ (optical density at 254 nm) scans of the gradients detected the presence of only one phage band, p.f.u. (plaque forming unit) profiles of the gradient fractions on indicator strains R₁C and 368 revealed, in addition to the main phage peak, several minor p.f.u. peaks (termed satellite and shoulder peaks) as possible manifestations of different phage types in the R₁ lysates. Further CsCl density gradient analyses of phage stocks and pooled phage fractions of these minor p.f.u. peaks showed that the latter phages were identical with those of the main phage peaks of mean buoyant density of 1.485 g/ml. Further characterization of the phages recovered from the CsCl gradients by neutralization tests with homologous antiphage serum confirmed the existence of only one serological phage type in the R₁ lysates. Final verification of the unity in phage type in R₁ lysates came from SDS-gel electrophoreses of the phages recovered from the different p.f.u. peaks and from lysates, which showed the largely identical gel patterns of their protein components. Host-specificity tests of the phages provided the last piece of evidence for the conclusion that R₁ is a single lysogen, harbouring only one prophage in its genome. Review of past electron-microscopic studies of R₁ lysates substantially support this conclusion. In fact, reconstruction of R₁ by lysogenization of a cured strain (R₁C) yielded a strain (R₁r) which closely resembled the original in lysogenic properties. From the data collected in the course of this work, it was inferred that 368 lysates possibly contained defective phages. An attempt was made to cure 368 of its supposedly defective prophage in the hope of providing a 'cleaner' strain for studying the host-induced variation observed in the R₁C-368 system. Though possible cured derivatives were obtained, they did not prove to be an improvement over the parental strain 368 with respect to their efficiency of plating for R₁ phages. Finally, phage mutant isolation and recombination experiments were attempted in the hope of gaining an insight into the lysogenic system operating in the R₁ cells. Using UVL and nitrous acid (HNO₂) mutagenesis on the temperate ϕr₁/R₁C induced from R₁, about 75 independently arising clear plaque-forming mutants were isolated for mapping experiments. Pairwise crosses between the UVL and HNO₂- induced mutants were performed by coinfecting R₁C cells. Though far from conclusive, the preliminary results obtained indicated a general low occurrence of turbid-plaqued (wild type) phage recombinants, and hence a low frequency of recombination

KOMBASE - a knowledge representation system with frames for an object-oriented knowledge base

Knowledge representation is an important area of research which is currently being done in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In order to manipulate the wealth of information available in a typical AI application, mechanisms must be provided to represent and to reason with knowledge at a high level of abstraction. Knowledge representation with frames is a structured and object-oriented approach to this problem. KOMBASE is a prototype to a frame-based system containing organizational information of companies and other corporate bodies. This paper describes the approach adopted in the development of KOMBASE and discusses its implementation, particularly from a knowledge representational perspective

Is Ageism Alive in Date Selection Among Men? Age Requests Among Gay and Straight Men in Internet Personal Ads

We examine 2,400 personal ads from male advertisers collected from the Internet, focusing on age preference by race and sexual orientation. We look at whether advertisers display any age preference in personal ads and whether the preference varies by race and sexual orientation. We find that gay men are more likely than straight men to state an age preference. Also, the preference for younger partners intensified among the older advertisers regardless of race and sexual orientation. Youth is still a treasured commodity in date selection for men. However, some men, especially gay men, prefer more mature partners. At least 20 percent of gay Asian men in all three age groups prefer older partners. Further research is recommended to explore this exception among gay Asian men

Gazing at Haw Par villa: Cultural Tourism in Singapore

Tourism is an important and growing industry in Singapore. Studies on Singapore cultural tourism have generally focused on three major sites: Chinatown, Little India and the Malay Village. The Haw Par Villa tourist site has not been examined in recent years. The case study of Haw Par Villa offered here demonstrates how changing times in Singapore have affected the popularity of tourist sites in an island nation. This article discusses the decline and potential rebirth of Singapore’s Haw Par Villa theme park in the context of cultural tourism, placing a special emphasis on Urry’s concept of the ‘tourist gaze’. Multiple methods were used in gathering data for this study: a survey conducted in Singapore of both local residents and foreign tourists; participant observations of Haw Par Villa; and a thematic content analysis of tour guide books and online documents pertaining to the site. Our analyses suggest that Haw Par Villa represents a treasured past of Singapore, although one in danger of fading away with the changing interests of newer generations of tourists

Regional health governance: a comparative perspective on EU and ASEAN. EU Centre in Singapore Policy Brief No. 4, June 2012

Globalisation has led to new health challenges for the 21st Century. These challenges have transnational implications and involve a large range of actors and stakeholders. National governments no longer hold the sole responsibility for the health of their people. These changes in health trends have led to the rise of Global Health Governance as a theoretical notion for health policy-making. The Southeast Asian region is particularly prone to public health threats and it is for this reason that this brief looks at the potential of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a regional organisation to take a lead in health cooperation. Through a comparative study between the regional mechanisms for health cooperation of the European Union (EU) and ASEAN, we look at how ASEAN could maximise its potential as a global health actor. Regional institutions and a network of civil society organisations are crucial in relaying global initiatives for health, and ensuring their effective implementation at the national level. While the EU benefits from higher degrees of integration and involvement in the sector of health policy making, ASEAN’s role as a regional body for health governance will depend both on greater horizontal and vertical regional integration through enhanced regional mechanisms and a wider matrix of cooperation

Advertising Health Status in Male Sex Workers\u27 Online Ads

This brief report examines whether male sex workers mentioned any health concerns in their online ads. The analysis uses 203 male escorts\u27 online ads collected from America Online chat rooms in 2001/2002. The results indicate that only 25 percent of male escorts explicitly mentioned any health-related words or phrases in their ads. The results also show that whether a male escort mentioned health in their ad is correlated with the type of images they would like to portray and with the type of sex services they offer

Simple Coherent Polarization Manipulation Scheme for Generating High Power Radially Polarized Beam

We present a simple novel scheme that converts a Gaussian beam into an approximated radially polarized beam using coherent polarization manipulation together with Poynting walk-off in birefringent crystals. Our scheme alleviates the interferometric stability required by previous schemes that implemented this coherent mode summation using Mach-Zehnder-like interferometers. A symmetrical arrangement of two walk-off crystals with a half-wave plate, allows coherence control even when the laser has short temporal coherence length. We generated 14 watts of radially polarized beam from an Ytterbium fiber laser, only limited by the available fiber laser power.Comment: Submitting for publicatio

Gendered Synthetic Love: Real Dolls and the Construction of Intimacy

Real Dolls are life-size, anatomically correct figures. Except for their lifelessness, they are made to look and feel like humans. The availability of Real Dolls allows us to examine the social significance of relationships and gender expectations in a new light. In this paper, we are interested in how the Real Dolls are being offered and accepted as alternative partners. Specifically, we examine the relationship between the commodification of the body and the agency individuals have to create intimacy and connection. We conducted an exploratory content analysis of the customer testimonials on the Real Doll website. Results suggest that the Dolls fit into the stereotypical ideal beauty and promote the commodification of bodies. Buyers use these Dolls not just for sexual gratification but are also used for emotional support. The consequences of these attachments are discussed