Sustainable development from rhetoric to practice? A New Zealand perspective

This article explores the changing conceptions of sustainable development with reference to planning policy and practice in New Zealand. In 1991, when New Zealand introduced its Resource Management Act 1991, the country was seen as being a leader internationally in promoting sustainable development planning approaches. Twelve years later the early optimism has waned and New Zealand is if anything now a laggard rather than a leader in this field. This article explores the ambivalent and uneven relationship with sustainable development that has been evident in central government and within local government planning practice in New Zealand. It goes on to examine the potential that the Long Term Council Community Plans, introduced in the new Local Government Act 2002, offer in delivering sustainable development and transcending the implementation gap between policy statements in support of sustainable development and practice. The example of the city of Dunedin, the first local authority in New Zealand to produce a Long Term Council Community Plan, is used to demonstrate some of the difficulties inherent in achieving sustainable development goals in practice.     

Ruptured pseudoaneurysm of the splenic artery. A complication of chronic pancreatitis

HISTORY AND FINDINGS: A pale looking 33-year-old man with a history of perforated gastric ulcer and pancreatitis with surgically drained pseudocyst was admitted because of painless anal bleeding. Heart rate was 100/min, blood pressure 90/60 mm Hg. INVESTIGATIONS: Haemoglobin concentration (6.3 g/dl) and RBC count (2.4 mill./microliters) indicated anaemia due to bleeding. Sonography and computed tomography demonstrated chronic calcifying pancreatitis and thrombosis of splenic and mesenteric veins. There were grade 1 oesophageal varices on endoscopy. The source of bleeding was found by coloscopy to be a submucous pulsating tumour in the region of the left flexure, which on angiography was an aneurysm of the splenic artery. TREATMENT AND COURSE: The pseudoaneurysm of the splenic artery, which had perforated into the colon, was resected together with a partial pancreas excision and splenectomy. There were no complications and the patient was discharged symptom-free after 15 days, and there had been no further bleeding 6 months later. CONCLUSION: Pseudoaneurysm of a visceral artery is a rare, but life-threatening, complication of pancreatitis. Treatment options are operation and/or interventional catheter embolisation.     

Standards of heart catheterization and interventional cardiology in pediatrics

BACKGROUND: Luminosity and brightness of the organs viewed on the screen are important for orientation during teleoperating. They can impair the precision of our orientation ability. METHODS: The way in which organs scatter light during laparoscopic operation was detected and analyzed by means of reflection spectrophotometry with the Photoshop program package (ADOBE). The arithmetical skill was measured during different illumination conditions of the screen created randomly, using values of the liver, gallbladder, and omental fat. RESULTS: Separate human tissues and organs could be divided on the basis of their luminosity into three basic groups: the luminous tissues such as fat, the stomach, and the bowel; medium-luminous organs such as diaphragm and gallbladder; and dark, mostly parenchymatous organs such as the liver and the spleen. The most luminous tissue illuminated the screen intensely. In experiments the hyperillumination impaired arithmetical skills of 15 volunteers. The errors appeared constantly and the time needed to count the generated points was significantly longer when 40% of intensively illuminated view was exceeded. CONCLUSIONS: A situation may occur wherein the imaging system lacks the capacity to transmit needed optical information. Intense brightness of the screen may suppress surgical skills during teleoperating. Critical limit was achieved in our experiment with 40% of the view illuminated by omentum fat. This limit can be important for robotic surgical systems such as automated robotic camera control.     

Kinetics of vanillin oxidation

Vanillin can be produced by oxidation of kraft lignin, with air, in alkaline medium. The optimal conditions for vanillin production strongly depend on pH and temperature. This paper addresses the effect of temperature and pH on vanillin degradation by oxidation. Experiments were carried out in a wide range of vanillin concentration, oxygen partial pressure, temperature and pH. Simple models are proposed to explain the observed rate of vanillin consumption under conditions of high alkalinity (pH>12) and lower alkalinity (pH<12). At pH>12,the reaction rate of vanillin oxidation is first order in dissolved oxygen concentration [O₂] and in vanillin concentration [C], i.e., (?r_C) ∝[O₂][C]; at pH<12, the rate is zero order in oxygen concentration and second order in vanillin concentration, i.e., (?r_C)∝f(pH)[C]².     

Nocturnal Hemodialysis in Australia

Background: Because home hemodialysis has long been a common Australian support modality, the advent of home‐based nocturnal hemodialysis (NHD) in Canada stimulated the extension of our existing home‐ and satellite‐based conventional hemodialysis (CHD) programs to NHD. As a result, the first government‐funded, home‐based, 6‐nights‐per‐week NHD program in Australia began in July 2001. Methods: Sixteen patients have been trained for NHD; 13 dialyzed at home 8 to 9 hr per night for 6 nights per week, whereas 3 preferred to train for NHD at home using an 8‐ to 9‐hr alternate‐night regime. Results: The program experience to March 1, 2003, was 655 patient‐weeks. Two patients had withdrawn for transplantation and 2 for social reasons, although 1 continues on alternate‐night NHD. There hade been no deaths. Ten patients had dialyzed without partners. All patients ceased phosphate binders at entry. Thirteen of 16 discontinued all antihypertensive drugs. There were no fluid or dietary restrictions. Phosphate was added to the dialysate to prevent hypophosphatemia. Pre‐ and postdialysis urea and phosphate levels were broadly within the normal ranges. All patients reported restorative sleep; similarly partners reported stable sleep patterns and noted improved mood, cognitive function, and marital relationships in their NHD partners. Preliminary cost analyses show that whereas consumables had doubled, and epoetin and iron expenditures had risen by 28.9%, other pharmaceutical costs had fallen by 47%, and nursing wage costs were 48% of the notional cost had these patients remained on CHD. Three patients on NHD were retired, 7 worked full‐time, 3 worked part‐time, and 3 drew disability support, whereas previously on CHD, 3 were retired, 3 had worked full‐time, 3 had worked part‐time, and 7 had drawn disability support. Conclusion: We believe that NHD is viable, safe, effective, and well accepted with significant lifestyle benefits and reemployment outcomes. Although initial setup costs are significant, NHD cost advantage over CHD progressively accrues as program numbers exceed 12 to 15 patients.     

In vitro activity of guinea pig transfer factor released into plasma

Plasma fractions and plasma dialysate from 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene- and tuberculin-sensitive guinea pigs that had been treated with either antilymphocytic serum or normal control serum were analyzed for their ability to transfer lymphocyte transformation, passive cutaneous anaphylaxis, and macrophage migration inhibition, as well as delayed hypersensitivity in vivo. Antilymphocytic serum caused rapid release of material, which has characteristics of transfer factor, into the plasma. It was dialyzable, migrated electrophoretically with the alpha globulins and albumin, possessed a 280/260 (nm) optical density ratio of 0.7, and caused in vitro lymphocyte transformation in the presence of the specific antigen. Passive cutaneous anaphylaxis antibodies were also present in the plasma of sensitive animals, but they were isolated in electrophoretic or dialysis fractions separate from those containing transfer activity.     

Biological evaluation of the toxicity of products of pyrolysis and combustion of materials

This paper present observations on the toxicity of gases produced by materials under three different combustion conditions. The difficulty of the general problem of toxicity is emphasized and the impossibility—at the present stage in the research—of satisfying the increasing pressure to establish toxicity safety regulations is stated.     

Finance and the technology-trade nexus

This paper sketches the contours of the evolving international/monetary system and examines the various roles of the intemediation mechanisms. Then it examines the extent to which the financial system is independent from the “real economy” and the various ways in which it impacts it. The paper discusses some views in good currency on the dynamics of the technology-trade-finance nexus and shows how the financial system influences organization, location and technology choices in meso-innovation systems. The final section of the paper looks at the policy implications that might be derived from the analysis and suggests some directions for the future research.