Review of Australian higher education: discussion paper

The federal government\u27s review of Australia’s higher education system will examine and report on the future direction of the higher education sector, its fitness for purpose in meeting the needs of the Australian community and economy and the options for ongoing reform. This paper has been released to outline issues and invite input on the key issues identified in the review\u27s terms of reference. The paper has been structured around nine key challenges and issues for higher education in Australia over the coming decades

Device-Measured Change in Physical Activity in Primary School Children During the UK COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown:A Longitudinal Study

Background: Lockdown measures, including school closures, due to the COVID-19 pandemic have caused widespread disruption to children’s lives. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of a national lockdown on children’s physical activity using seasonally matched accelerometry data. Methods: Using a pre/post observational design, 179 children aged 8 to 11 years provided physical activity data measured using hip-worn triaxial accelerometers worn for 5 consecutive days prepandemic and during the January to March 2021 lockdown. Multilevel regression analyses adjusted for covariates were used to assess the impact of lockdown on time spent in sedentary and moderate to vigorous physical activity. Results: A 10.8-minute reduction in daily time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity (standard error: 2.3 min/d, P < .001) and a 33.2-minute increase in daily sedentary activity (standard error: 5.5 min/d, P < .001) were observed during lockdown. This reflected a reduction in daily moderate to vigorous physical activity for those unable to attend school (−13.1 [2.3] min/d, P < .001) during lockdown, with no significant change for those who continued to attend school (0.4 [4.0] min/d, P < .925). Conclusion: These findings suggest that the loss of in-person schooling was the single largest impact on physical activity in this cohort of primary school children in London, Luton, and Dunstable, United Kingdom

Children's Health in London and Luton (CHILL) cohort:a 12-month natural experimental study of the effects of the Ultra Low Emission Zone on children's travel to school

BACKGROUND: The Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), introduced in Central London in April 2019, aims to enhance air quality and improve public health. The Children's Health in London and Luton (CHILL) study evaluates the impact of the ULEZ on children's health. This analysis focuses on the one-year impacts on the shift towards active travel to school.METHODS: CHILL is a prospective parallel cohort study of ethnically diverse children, aged 6-9 years attending 84 primary schools within or with catchment areas encompassing London's ULEZ (intervention) and Luton (non-intervention area). Baseline (2018/19) and one-year follow-up (2019/20) data were collected at school visits from 1992 (58%) children who reported their mode of travel to school 'today' (day of assessment). Multilevel logistic regressions were performed to analyse associations between the introduction of the ULEZ and the likelihood of switching from inactive to active travel modes, and vice-versa. Interactions between intervention group status and pre-specified effect modifiers were also explored.RESULTS: Among children who took inactive modes at baseline, 42% of children in London and 20% of children in Luton switched to active modes. For children taking active modes at baseline, 5% of children in London and 21% of children in Luton switched to inactive modes. Relative to the children in Luton, children in London were more likely to have switched from inactive to active modes (OR 3.64, 95% CI 1.21-10.92). Children in the intervention group were also less likely to switch from active to inactive modes (OR 0.11, 0.05-0.24). Moderator analyses showed that children living further from school were more likely to switch from inactive to active modes (OR 6.06,1.87-19.68) compared to those living closer (OR 1.43, 0.27-7.54).CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of clean air zones can increase uptake of active travel to school and was particularly associated with more sustainable and active travel in children living further from school.</p

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Chancellor Bill Scales' speech at the Centenary Gala Dinner

Chancellor Bill Scales talks about the history that has framed Swinburne's evolution from a technical college to a university

Accelerating and Broadening Australia's Microeconomic Reform Agenda

Australia is undoubtably a nation rich with opportunities, with extensive social and economic infrastructure, stable and responsible government, and abundant natural and developed resources. But Australia also faces some significant challenges, including reducing unacceptably high levels of unemployment, managing environmental concerns, and responding effectively to global competition and structural and regional change. To meet these challenges and make the most of our opportunities, we need to gain further leverage on our resources by improving our nation’s productivity and, importantly, flexibility. Microeconomic reform plays an important role in this regard by improving the incentives, which govern the way we use our resources. While Australia has certainly implemented some significant microeconomic reforms in the last decade or so ¾ the benefits of which are beginning to show ¾ the task is far from complete. For example, further reform is needed in transport, particularly rail and the waterfront; utilities; the labour market; resource access; and our tax system ¾ areas which impact on various sectors of our economy, not least of all our agricultural and resource sectors. But setting the right incentives for the productive use of our resources needs to extend beyond these traditional areas of reform. We also need to be sure we provide efficient and effective education, health care and community services. The management of our environment is also of critical importance, particularly our waterways. How we manage these resources, in both rural and urban areas, needs to be subject to rigorous scrutiny and, where appropriate, reform ¾ in many of these areas the reform process has only just begun

Abbott must explain backflip on education

The Gonski panel gave 18 months of serious consideration to a funding model that has been widely accepted. So why tear it up now

Competition Policy, Industry Policy and Deregulation of the Australian Economy

The Australian economy has experienced two major waves of reform in recent years. The first was characterized by reform of the traded goods sector and deregulation of financial markets. This wave of reform provided the impetus for reform of the non-traded sector, particularly GBEs, transport, labor markets, and other services. These reforms are continuing, indeed they must continue if Australia is to maintain or improve its economic conditions, but those reforms are now driving reform in a third area: reform of the framework within which economic activity occurs. Among the most important aspects of this third wave will be reform of Commonwealth/State relations, competition policy, and regulation. Such reforms will facilitate increasing competition throughout the Australian economy which is the key to higher productivity and growth.Competition; Deregulation

End of the road for Ford Falcon

From 2016, Ford Australia will shut down its operations at Broadmeadows in Melbourne and its plant in Geelong, and the name "Falcon" will be retired. About 1,200 workers will lose their jobs. But Ford will keep it's Australian Research and development division, employing 1500 people. And Australia will still have two other car manufacturers, Holden and Toyota, but the question is for how long