National Institute

• So we’ll have more hot days and more extremely hot days, which result in an increased frequency, duration and intensity of environmental heat waves.
• Kenney: The primary means by which humans get rid of body heat that’s built up is by evaporation of sweat.
• Why are infants and older adults particularly vulnerable to heat and humidity?
• So individuals on both ends of the age spectrum tend to be particularly vulnerable to what we term classic heatstroke.
• Is the heat index a good measurement of how hot it feels and how people’s bodies are affected by heat?
• It doesn’t account for radiation from the Sun, for example‚ but it’s much better than the heat index because it’s much more physiological.
• Watch the full interview to hear more about how heat and humidity affect your health.

• In the same week across the Tasman, Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington announced savage cuts to its theatre and music programs.
• Whatever the rationale, they speak to a lack of imagination and creativity in the administration of the contemporary university.

An independent institution

• The board declared the aims of the proposal could not “be fulfilled by a course which conformed to indispensable university standards”.
• After this rejection, a similar proposal progressed at the University of New South Wales, with one critical difference.

Intellectual rigour

• Universities were sceptical of the intellectual rigour of artistic practice in the institution, both in prospective students and in staff.
• Universities were also concerned about the lack of funding or teaching space for the higher intensity and longer hours demanded over more traditional tertiary subjects.
• One exception stands out: the long-running actor training offered at Flinders University began in 1971, just five years after the university opened in 1966.

Merging with the universities

• These colleges sat between TAFE institutions and universities, focusing on more vocational disciplines and awarding certificates, diplomas, and eventually degrees.
• In the early 1990s, the Dawkins Reforms merged some technical and vocational providers with universities, and granted university status to others.
• This brought more arts training programs into universities.
• These new universities were beginning to articulate an academic identity.

The value of arts training

• This false binary discounts the ways in which knowledge is made by and held in the body, and the rigorous research-informed training cultures that have developed in university performing arts programs since the 1990s.
• Too often, the universities themselves aren’t able to take on the very acts of imagination that characterise the training offered to students.
• Far from being expensive follies incompatible with the institution, arts training programs act as the shopfront for the university.

• The order also includes two monetary judgments against Romero, who has done business under the names Trend Deploy and Uvenux.
• The first judgment is for $989,483.69, to be returned to consumers harmed by Romero’s violations of the FTC Act and the Commission’s Mail Order Rule.
• The court also entered a second civil penalty judgment of $2,562.21 for Romero’s violations of the FTC Act with regards to the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act.
• When Romero eventually did deliver the products, he often sent supplies that were inferior in quality to what consumers ordered.

• Obesity is associated with many health conditions including high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart attacks, stroke and cancer.
• Under the new pilot scheme, however, it’s hoped these drugs can also be prescribed by GPs and specialist pharmacies.
• This would remove the long wait for a clinical appointment, making the drug available to thousands more patients in England.

How does Wegovy work?

• Wegovy is the brand name of semaglutide – a drug that mimics a naturally-occurring hormone in the body which is released in the intestines after we eat.
• Semaglutide mimics it, reducing a person’s hunger levels and making it easier for them to lose weight.

Are there any downsides?

• Another pitfall of using semaglutide to manage obesity is whether and when to stop it.
• Another problem with taking semaglutide to manage obesity is that some weight regain, after stopping the drug, is nearly inevitable.
• The cost to the NHS (for lower doses to treat diabetes) is approximately £75 for a pack of four pens.
• But calculating this is complicated, since obesity affects so many areas of physical and mental health.

Will the pilot scheme be helpful?

• Tier 1 includes public health lifestyle messages - for example, health promotion from primary care such as your GP or local pharmacy.
• Tiers 3 and 4 are mostly hospital-based and include the provision of weight-loss drugs or bariatric surgery.
• The new pilot scheme would streamline access to weight-loss medications, making care more equal in all parts of the country.
• Without effective implementation of a range of lifestyle-related policies alongside roll-out of the pilot scheme, it’s likely that expanding access to Wegovy may not have as great an effect as hoped.