Flooding and human health: the dangers posed are not always obvious

Editorial on flooding and human health

The Smartphone as the "Weapon of the Weak": Assessing the Role of Communication Technologies in Malaysia's Regime Change

This paper examines the role of new communication technologies in the regime change of Malaysia’s 2018 elections. I argue that growing Internet penetration in semirural areas of Malaysia’s Peninsula "heartlands" allow for new forms of campaign message to be spread in unique and compelling ways. Facebook and instant-messenger platform WhatsApp are playing a prominent role in shaping political discourse in contemporary Malaysia, and this was evident in the election campaign that brought an end to Malaysia’s ruling coalition, the Barisan Nasional’s, 60-year hold on power. In this article I use James Scott’s (1987) Weapons of the Weak as the theoretical foundation for assessing the role of WhatsApp and other social media sites as tools of resistance, specifically in spreading information about the corruption and nepotism of Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife, Rosmah Mansour. Given the prominence of the smartphone for news and information in Southeast Asia, this article explains how the digital era is changing the avenues via which the region receives and shares political information - as well as outlines the consequences that it brings for elections campaigns and democracy

Negotiating Media 'Balance' in Malaysia's 2013 General Election

This article will discuss recent trends in Malaysia�s media surrounding the 2013 general election (GE13). It will argue that the GE13 produced two important trends in the media industry. First, there was increased political-party participation in social media, citizen journalism and blogging. In fact, it practically led to a �cyberwar� between political parties, making the realm of the online and social media increasingly polarised and partisan. Second, many mainstream media outlets in Malaysia successfully pursued a platform of more �balanced� coverage, suggesting an increased space of negotiation and contestation amongst the previously muzzled print, television and radio industry. This article will conclude with an assessment of the future trends in the media industry in Malaysia post GE13

Whakapapa: Stories through Time and Space

All my academic writings and publications have grown out of an emotional engagement with my field of study: the Arawa people. By capturing moments in prose – reflexive ethnography on first approach – I create a layer of narrative continuity that is galvanised through encoded memories. This ‘‘whakapapa” is like archaeological stratification: providing genealogically ordered layers of code transmitted through time and space. Decades after writing I can ‘‘relive” my embedded memories and recognise the repeating patterns, codes and algorithms that underpin humanity itself from my uniquely Te Arawa informed perspective of the universe

Models of Philosophical Thought Experimentation

The practice of thought experimentation plays a central role in contemporary philosophical methodology. Many philosophers rely on thought experimentation as their primary and even sole procedure for testing theories about the natures of properties and relations. This test procedure involves entertaining hypothetical cases in imaginative thought and then undergoing intuitions about the distribution of properties and relations in them. A theory’s comporting with an intuition is treated as evidence in favour of it; but a clash is treated as evidence against the theory and may even be regarded as falsifying it. The epistemic power of thought experimentation is mysterious. How can experiments carried out within the mind enable us to discover truths about the natures of properties and relations like knowledge, causation, personal identity, reference, meaning, consciousness, beauty, justice, morality, and free will? This epistemological challenge is urgent, but a model of philosophical thought experimentation would seem to be a necessary propaedeutic to any serious discussion of it. An adequate model would make the relevant test procedure explicit, thereby assisting in the identification of points of potential epistemic vulnerability. In this monograph I advance the propaedeutical model-building work already done by Timothy Williamson, Anna-Sara Malmgren, and Jonathan Ichikawa and Benjamin Jarvis. Following the lead of these philosophers, I focus on a single Gettier-style thought experiment and the problem of identifying the real content of the Gettier intuition. My first contribution is to establish the inadequacy of all of the existing models. Each of them, I argue, fails to solve the content problem. It emerges from my discussion, however, that Ichikawa and Jarvis’s truth in fiction approach holds out the prospect of a solution. My second contribution is to develop and defend a new way of implementing the general idea behind the truth in fiction approach. The model I put forward does a better overall job of modelling Gettier-style thought experiments than any of the existing models. It has none of the defects which render those models inadequate and Iam unable to find any major defects peculiar to it. This should make us feel confident that my model is adequate. Moreover, since the Gettier-style thought experiment I focus on is paradigmatic, we should also feel confident that my model will generalise naturally to other philosophical thought experiments

Functional Foods: definition and commercialisation

This paper outlines the framework for a working definition of functional foods utilised by the National Centre of Excellence in Functional Foods, considers trends in the areas of influence, and raises issues for the successful commercialisation of functional foods by the Australian food industry

Meeting recommended dietary intakes in meal plans with ≥4 servings of grain-based foods daily

Objective To develop meal plans using grain-based foods demonstrating how to incorporate wholegrain foods into a balanced diet for weight maintenance for different cuisines. The present study examines the ability of meal plans with ≥4 grain-based servings daily to meet nutrient recommendations using lacto-ovo vegetarian and rice-based cuisines. Design Eighteen plans from each cuisine for three age brackets for both genders were developed. Plans aimed for ≥4 servings of grain-based foods daily, with separate plans for all wholegrain, all refined-grain and half wholegrain–half refined-grain foods. Meal plans followed an isoenergetic approach and were designed to meet specific Australian nutrient reference values and serving sizes. Results All plans met the Recommended Dietary Intake or Adequate Intake for targeted nutrients except for Fe in the rice-based meal plan for females aged ≥19 years (17 mg). In the plans for 14–18 year and ≥19 year age groups, four servings of grain-based foods could be accommodated. In the plans for 9–13 years, increasing the number of grain-based food servings to four reduced micronutrients levels delivered by the total diet. Specific food choices were made to ensure nutrient targets were met across each category for wholegrain and refined-grain plans. The major difference in nutrients between wholegrain and refined-grain foods was found in the vegetarian cuisine, where the meal plans containing whole grains produced on average 30 % higher fibre (38–53 g) levels than those with refined grains (27–40 g). Conclusions With careful food selection, meal plans with ≥4 servings of grain-based foods daily can meet nutrient reference values for lacto-ovo vegetarian and rice-based cuisines

Nutrition in the prevention of chronic disease

Increasing prevalence rates of chronic disease requires a more sophisticated view of the effects of food on health. This review examines the evidence base for the effects of food on health and discusses food based health strategies

A Self-Administered Dietary Assessment Website for Use in Primary Health Care: Usability Testing and Evaluation

A dietary assessment website for use in the primary healthcare setting has been developed. The website allows patients, referred from their GP, to self-report their dietary intake. Data from the website feeds to a dietitian who develops individualised dietary advice for the patient. The aim of this paper is to describe the usability testing of the dietary assessment website with its potential users. Testing was broken into two phases. Forty-two free-living adults with metabolic syndrome volunteered, 17 completed phase one and 10 completed phase two, with a 64% rate of completion. Phase one participants spoke aloud as they progressed through the self-administered dietary assessment website under researcher observation. Observed difficulties in website use and need for assistance was recorded and the website underwent modifications between phases. Only four participants in phase 1 required large amounts of assistance. Phase two participants progressed through the website without observation or using the think-aloud protocol. This simulated the environment in the GP practice within which the website was to be implemented. All participants completed pre- and post-use questionnaires assessing feelings toward use, computer experience and problems encountered. Questionnaires were thematically analysed for relationships between website use and participant feelings. Time taken to use the website was recorded automatically. Website features were grouped into ‘action classes’ e.g. selecting food items, and times taken were calculated for each class. Comparisons (t-tests) were made between the action classes for the two phases. Average time taken to select the food items was 31mins and 24mins for phase one and two respectively. Total time taken was approximately 1 hour and varied by four minutes between phases. Time taken to complete the dietary assessment was comparable to a face-to-face diet history with a dietitian. The website was found to be highly user-friendly with little assistance being required for most levels of computer experience. Dietary management may be overlooked by GPs, yet by offering different methods of accessing dietitians, management may improve