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Pensions to increase on 20 March |
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Written by Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
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Tuesday, 09 March 2010 06:41 |
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Around four million Australians will receive an increase in their pensions and other income support payments from 20 March 2010, through indexation.
Pension payments will increase by $29.20 a fortnight for singles on the maximum rate, and $44.00 a fortnight for couples combined on the maximum rate.
Following these increases, total pension payments for those on the maximum rate, including the base rate and pension supplement, will be:
- $701.10 a fortnight for singles, and
- $1,057.00 a fortnight for couples combined.
These new rates represent an increase of around $100 per fortnight for singles and around $74 a fortnight for couples combined in pension payments, as a result of the Government's pension increases in September and indexation.
These pension rises deliver on the Rudd Government's commitment to improve support to older Australians.
After years of neglect, the Government has overhauled the pension system to make it adequate and sustainable for the millions of age and disability pensioners, carers and veterans who depend on it.
This March pension indexation increase is driven by wages growth in the six months to December 2009.
Pensions are indexed twice a year to the highest increase of three measures: the consumer price index (CPI), the pensioner living cost index, and growth in male total average weekly earnings (MTAWE).
The Government's Pension Reforms increased the effective benchmark for singles from 25 per cent to 27.7 per cent of MTAWE.
People eligible for the Age Pension, Disability Support Pension (adult rate), Carer Payment, veteran income support payments, Wife Pension, Widow B Pension and Bereavement Allowance will all benefit from the increases.
Parenting Payment will also increase on 20 March, by $26.80 a fortnight for singles.
Adult rates of allowances, such as Newstart, and supplementary payments are also indexed on 20 March each year to the CPI increase for the previous six months. Allowance rates for single people (21 or over, without children) will increase by $6.80 a fortnight.
Rent assistance will also increase.
These increases in payments will be accompanied by an increase in the income and assets cut out amounts. This will see an increase in the amount of income, from for example employment or investments, or the total value of assets, a person can have before their benefit is cancelled.
Deeming rate changes
As the economy recovers from the global economic crisis, rates of return on investments are also beginning to increase.
As a result, the deeming rates, which are used to assess income from a range of financial investments held by pensioners and other income support recipients, will also increase on 20 March from the record low levels during the global economic crisis.
The lower deeming rate will increase from two per cent to three per cent for financial investments up to $42,000 for single pensioners or $70,000 for a couple.
The deeming rate will increase from three per cent to four and a half per cent for balances over these amounts.
Age pensioners, on average, hold around $46,000 of deemed financial assets such as cash, term deposits, shares and managed funds.
The deeming system, introduced in the early 1990s, sets a rate of return that pensioners can reasonably be expected to achieve on their financial investments. The deemed income calculated from a pensioner's financial investments is used for the pension income test, rather than the actual income. This helps provide certainty to pensioners week to week.
Pensioners with financial investments that attract higher returns than the deeming rates will still only have their income assessed at the deeming rates. Any additional income from the financial investments are not assessed. Cash term deposit interest rates available at the major banks are now around six per cent per annum.
Deeming rates are set by the Australian Government to reflect returns on financial investments available to pensioners and other income support recipients. The new deeming rates remain lower than when the Government came to office.
A regular revaluation of all shares and managed investments held by pensioners will also be undertaken by Centrelink on 20 March 2010. This occurs automatically every six months, and pensioners can also request an individual revaluation at any time.
Payments affected by the deeming rates include means tested payments, such as the Age Pension, Disability Support Pension, Carer Payment, Parenting Payment and Newstart.
Full details of all rates and thresholds to be indexed on 20 March are available on Minister Macklin's website.
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An update on peptide drugs for voltage-gated calcium channels |
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Written by Gao L
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Monday, 08 March 2010 06:47 |
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Voltage-gated calcium channels are one of the major ion channels distributed in the human central nervous system,
and mediate an influx of extracellular Ca(2+) in response to membrane depolarization. Calcium channels are of particular
interest in a broad range of cellular functions including cell proliferation and differentiation, gene expression,
neurite outgrowth, transmitter and hormone release, and brain plasticity. The dysfunction of calcium channels is
related to a variety of clinical disorders such as migraine, hemiplegia, and epilepsy. Therefore, calcium channels
have gained great pharmaceutical interest as a privileged target class for the treatment of a wide range of human
diseases. This review will examine the known marketed peptide drugs for calcium channels and address the development
of some important patented peptide molecules targeting calcium channels |
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Organophosphates induce distal axonal damage, but not brain oedema, by inactivating neuropathy target esterase |
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Written by Read DJ, Li Y, Chao MV, Cavanagh JB, Glynn P
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Monday, 08 March 2010 06:40 |
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Single doses of organophosphorus compounds (OP) which covalently inhibit neuropathy target esterase (NTE) can
induce lower-limb paralysis and distal damage in long nerve axons. Clinical signs of neuropathy are evident three
weeks post-OP dose in humans, cats and chickens. By contrast, clinical neuropathy in mice following acute dosing
with OPs or any other toxic compound has never been reported. Moreover, dosing mice with ethyloctylphosphonofluoridate
(EOPF) - an extremely potent NTE inhibitor - causes a different (subacute) neurotoxicity with brain oedema.
These observations have raised the possibility that mice are intrinsically resistant to neuropathies induced by
acute toxic insult, but may incur brain oedema, rather than distal axonal damage, when NTE is inactivated. Here we
provide the first report that hind-limb dysfunction and extensive axonal damage can occur in mice three weeks after
acute dosing with a toxic compound, bromophenylacetylurea. Three weeks after acutely dosing mice with neuropathic
OPs no clinical signs were observed, but distal lesions were present in the longest spinal sensory axons.
Similar lesions were evident in undosed nestin-cre:NTEfl/fl mice in which NTE had been genetically-deleted from
neural tissue. The extent of OP-induced axonal damage in mice was related to the duration of NTE inactivation and,
as reported in chickens, was promoted by post-dosing with phenylmethanesulfonylfluoride. However, phenyldipentylphosphinate,
another promoting compound in chickens, itself induced in mice lesions different from the neuropathic
OP type. Finally, EOPF induced subacute neurotoxicity with brain oedema in both wild-type and nestincre:
NTEfl/fl mice indicating that the molecular target for this effect is not neural NTE |
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Effects of new Phoneutria spider toxins on glutamate release and [Ca2+]i in rat cortical synaptosomes |
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Written by Carneiro DS, Vieira LB, Cordeiro MN, Richardson M, Castro-Junior CJ, Gomez MV, Reis HJ
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Monday, 08 March 2010 06:43 |
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Studies revealed that the venom of the Brazilian "armed" spider Phoneutria nigriventer contains potent neurotoxins
that caused excitatory symptoms such as salivation, lachrymation, priapism, convulsions, flaccid and spastic paralysis.
It was also reported that the main mechanism of action of those neurotoxins are effects on ion channels such
as inhibition of the inactivation of Na+ channels, blockage of K+ channels and blockage of calcium channels. The
venom from Phoneutria keyserlingi, as might be expected, contains a series of polypeptides that are very similar,
but not identical, to the proteins previously obtained from the venom of P. nigriventer in terms of their amino acid
sequences and biological activities. We evaluated the effects of some of the toxins of P. nigriventer and P. keyserlingi
on glutamate release and the decrease in [Ca2+]i by using synaptosomes of rat brain cortices and fluorimetric
assays. Sequence comparisons between the Phoneutria toxins of both the species showed great similarity in the
location of cysteine residues. However, thus far, no pharmacological assays were performed to evaluate the extension
of those biochemical modifications. Our results showed that differences between the amino acid sequences of
Phoneutria toxins of both the species lead to the significant changes in the pharmacological properties of these toxins |
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Early prediction of cerebral palsy by computer-based video analysis of general movements: a feasibility study |
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Written by Adde L, Helbostad JL, Jensenius AR, Taraldsen G, Grunewaldt KH, Støen R
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Monday, 08 March 2010 06:37 |
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Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the predictive value of a computer-based video analysis of the development
of cerebral palsy (CP) in young infants. Method: A prospective study of general movements used re-
cordings from 30 high-risk infants (13 males, 17 females; mean gestational age 31wks, SD 6wks; range 23-42wks)
between 10 and 15 weeks post term when fidgety movements should be present. Recordings were analysed using
computer vision software. Movement variables, derived from differences between subsequent video frames, were
used for quantitative analyses. CP status was reported at 5 years. Results: Thirteen infants developed CP (eight
hemiparetic, four quadriparetic, one dyskinetic; seven ambulatory, three non-ambulatory, and three unknown function),
of whom one had fidgety movements. Variability of the centroid of motion had a sensitivity of 85% and a
specificity of 71% in identifying CP. By combining this with variables reflecting the amount of motion, specificity increased
to 88%. Nine out of 10 children with CP, and for whom information about functional level was available,
were correctly predicted with regard to ambulatory and non-ambulatory function. Interpretation: Prediction of CP
can be provided by computer-based video analysis in young infants. The method may serve as an objective and
feasible tool for early prediction of CP in high-risk infants |
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