Strata titles are a critically important Australian legal export. New South Wales’ (NSW) strata legislation has been particularly influential, having been adopted in numerous jurisdictions, including Singapore in 1967. As a statutory framework, strata law solves the problem of ‘floating freeholds’ by creating indefeasible ownership of individual units in a building, guides owners in managing the development, and sets out the dispute resolution process when disagreements occur.

In an increasing number of jurisdictions (including Singapore and three states in Australia), strata legislation also enables the strata scheme to be terminated and sold for redevelopment where the requisite majority, as opposed to an unanimity of subsidiary proprietors’ consent to the sale. Strata law imposes compensation thresholds that must minimally be paid to dissenting owners. In Singapore, the rule is that no minority owner should suffer a ‘financial loss,’ while in NSW and Western Australia (WA), this amount is pegged to what the owner would theoretically have obtained had the unit been acquired compulsorily by the state. In this article, I compare strata law in Singapore, NSW, and WA in relation to compensation thresholds and explain why the Australian market value standard should also be adequate to compensate unit owners in Singapore.

A number of governmental and nongovernmental organizations have made significant efforts to encourage the development of artificial intelligence in line with a series of aspirational concepts such as transparency, interpretability, explainability, and accountability. The difficulty at present, however, is that these concepts exist at a fairly abstract level, whereas in order for them to have the tangible effects desired they need to become more concrete and specific. This article undertakes precisely this process of concretisation, mapping how the different concepts interrelate and what in particular they each require in order to move from being high-level aspirations to detailed and enforceable requirements. We argue that the key concept in this process is accountability, since unless an entity can be held accountable for compliance with the other concepts, and indeed more generally, those concepts cannot do the work required of them. There is a variety of taxonomies of accountability in the literature. However, at the core of each account appears to be a sense of “answerability”; a need to explain or to give an account. It is this ability to call an entity to account which provides the impetus for each of the other concepts and helps us to understand what they must each require.

The Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access (SALSA) Project accessed Mercer Subglacial Lake using environmentally clean hot-water drilling to examine interactions among ice, water, sediment, rock, microbes and carbon reservoirs within the lake water column and underlying sediments. A ~0.4 m diameter borehole was melted through 1087 m of ice and maintained over ~10 days, allowing observation of ice properties and collection of water and sediment with various tools. Over this period, SALSA collected: 60 L of lake water and 10 L of deep borehole water; microbes >0.2 μm in diameter from in situ filtration of ~100 L of lake water; 10 multicores 0.32–0.49 m long; 1.0 and 1.76 m long gravity cores; three conductivity–temperature–depth profiles of borehole and lake water; five discrete depth current meter measurements in the lake and images of ice, the lake water–ice interface and lake sediments. Temperature and conductivity data showed the hydrodynamic character of water mixing between the borehole and lake after entry. Models simulating melting of the ~6 m thick basal accreted ice layer imply that debris fall-out through the ~15 m water column to the lake sediments from borehole melting had little effect on the stratigraphy of surficial sediment cores.

The upsurge in the number of people affected by the COVID-19 is likely to lead to increased rates of emotional trauma and mental illnesses. This article systematically reviewed the available data on the benefits of interventions to reduce adverse mental health sequelae of infectious disease outbreaks, and to offer guidance for mental health service responses to infectious disease pandemic. PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, PsycINFO, WHO Global Research Database on infectious disease, and the preprint server medRxiv were searched. Of 4278 reports identified, 32 were included in this review. Most articles of psychological interventions were implemented to address the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, followed by Ebola, SARS, and MERS for multiple vulnerable populations. Increasing mental health literacy of the public is vital to prevent the mental health crisis under the COVID-19 pandemic. Group-based cognitive behavioral therapy, psychological first aid, community-based psychosocial arts program, and other culturally adapted interventions were reported as being effective against the mental health impacts of COVID-19, Ebola, and SARS. Culturally-adapted, cost-effective, and accessible strategies integrated into the public health emergency response and established medical systems at the local and national levels are likely to be an effective option to enhance mental health response capacity for the current and for future infectious disease outbreaks. Tele-mental healthcare services were key central components of stepped care for both infectious disease outbreak management and routine support; however, the usefulness and limitations of remote health delivery should also be recognized.

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: Thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) is more effective in remodeling the dissected aorta in acute versus chronic type B aortic dissection (TBAD). It has been hypothesized that this is due to differences in dissection flap biomechanical and structural properties but has not been confirmed in explanted human aortic tissue. We aimed to characterize and compare differences in tissue biomechanics and microstructure between acute and chronic dissection flaps that may underlie these findings. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Dissection flaps were obtained at time of operative repair for patients presenting for open aortic replacement to treat acute type A (ACUTE, n=7) or chronic type B (CHRONIC, n=7) aortic dissection. Given that the current treatment modality for acute complicated TBAD is TEVAR, it was not feasible to acquire acute TBAD flaps for analysis. Tissues were cryopreserved and subjected to biaxial tensile testing in the circumferential and longitudinal directions. Stiffness was quantified by the tangent modulus (TM) in the low and high linear regions of the compiled equibiaxial response curves for each cohort. Extensibility was defined as the intersection of the fitted line from the high linear region with the x-axis, and the degree of anisotropy (DA) was defined as the mean absolute percentage error of the strains in both directions. Flap architecture and collagen fiber organization were also compared between groups using two-photon microscopy. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Average age of dissection flaps were 3.4±3.4 days in ACUTE and 1,868.7±1,354.0 days in CHRONIC (p=0.011). There were no differences in age, co-morbidities, maximum aortic diameter, and aortic wall thickness. ACUTE exhibited an anisotropic stress-strain response with increased extensibility longitudinally than circumferentially (0.18 vs. 0.09, p=0.022, DA=0.67) while CHRONIC demonstrated an isotropic response with similar extensibility in either direction (0.11 vs. 0.12, p=0.606, DA=0.26). CHRONIC and ACUTE had comparable stiffness in the circumferential direction (TMlow 439.92 vs. 541.08, p=0.729, and TMhigh 1585.19 kPa vs. 1869.35 kPa, p=0.817). In the longitudinal direction, CHRONIC was significantly stiffer than ACUTE (TMhigh 8347.61 kPa vs. 1201.34 kPa, p=0.049) (FIGURE). Microscopy corroborated these findings with greater collagen fiber organization circumferentially than longitudinally in ACUTE and increasing fibrosis, collagen predominance, and straightening of collagen fibers in CHRONIC. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Compared to ACUTE, CHRONIC exhibited loss of anisotropy with increased tissue stiffness in the longitudinal direction. Increased dissection flap fibrosis and decreased compliance may explain the worse outcomes for aortic remodeling after TEVAR in chronic TBAD. This study offers biomechanical support for early TEVAR in the acute phase of uncomplicated TBAD.

We present two isotopic (δ18O and δ13C) sequences of a twin-stalagmite from Zhuliuping Cave, southwestern China, with 230Th dates from 14.6 to 4.6 ka. The stalagmite δ18O record characterizes orbital- to decadal-scale variability of Asian summer monsoon (ASM) intensity, with the Holocene optimum period (HOP) between 9.8 and 6.8 ka BP which is reinforced by its co-varying δ13C data. The large multi-decadal scale amplitude of the cave δ18O indicates its high sensitivity to climate change. Four centennial-scale weak ASM events during the early Holocene are centered at 11.2, 10.8, 9.1 and 8.2 ka. They can be correlated to cold periods in the northern high latitudes, possibly resulting from rapid dynamics of atmospheric circulation associated with North Atlantic cooling. The 8.2 ka event has an amplitude more than two-thirds that of the Younger Dryas (YD), and is significantly stronger than other cave records in the Asia monsoon region, likely indicating a more severe dry climate condition at the cave site. At the end of the YD event, the δ13C record lags the δ18O record by 300–500 yr, suggesting a multi-centennial slow response of vegetation and soil processes to monsoon enhancement.

Although nanoparticles have been shown to have clear technological advantages, their use in some consumer products remains controversial, particularly where these products come in direct contact with our bodies. There has been much discussion about using metal oxide nanoparticles in sunscreens, and numerous technology assessments aimed at predicting the type, size and concentration of nanoparticles and surface treatments that will be best for consumers. Yet, the optimal configuration is ultimately the one that people actually want and are willing to pay for, but until now consumer preferences have not been included in model predictions. We describe and discuss a proof of concept study in which we design and implement a hypothetical sunscreen product configurator to predict how people tradeoff sun protection factor (SPF), product transparency and potential toxicity from reactive oxygen species (ROS) in configuring their most preferred sunscreen. We also show that preferred nanoparticle sizes and concentrations vary across demographic groups. Our results suggest that while consumers choose to reduce or eliminate potential toxicity when possible, they do not automatically sacrifice high SPF and product transparency to avoid the possibility of toxicity from ROS. We discuss some advantages of using product configurators to study potential product designs and suggest some future research possibilities.

Detailed descriptions of plant remains from a late Silurian (Pridoli) locality in Xinjiang Province, northwest China are presented. They include Junggaria spinosa Dou, interpreted as identical with Cooksonella sphaerica Senkevich, Salopella xingjiangensis Dou, and a number of sterile axes, including one with a leafy appearance superficially resembling a lycophyte, and others of probable algal affinity. Lack of anatomical and reproductive characteristics precludes a more precise assessment of relationships. A justification for the Pridoli rather than Lower Devonian age of the assemblage is based on graptolites. The composition of the assemblage is compared with coeval ones from Europe, North America, north Africa and Kazakhstan and has closest similarities with the latter. Palaeogeographic proximity on the Kazakhstan palaeocontinent is postulated, but the dearth of global Silurian occurrences of land plants make it premature to evaluate the significance of Kazakhstan and Chinese assemblages in terms of global provincialism in the late Silurian. The most distinctive element in these assemblages (Junggaria/Cooksonella) has sporangia with more complex, indeed more enigmatic organization, than seen in most Silurian and early Devonian rhyniophytoids.