Emergency Funds in Australian Households: An Empirical Analysis of Capacity and Sources

This paper examines demographic and socioeconomic characteristics as predictors of emergency fund adequacy in Australian households. The results indicate that the presence of children, the number of dependents and income-earning units, the age and ethnicity of the household head, income dependency upon retirement plans and investments and government pensions and benefits, homeownership and disposable income are significant determinants of the capacity to raise emergency funds. They are also important predictors of the likely source of emergency funds. However, they are generally better at predicting mainstay sources of funds such as own savings and loans from deposit-taking institutions and credit card usage than loans from family or friends

Optimizing a Standard Fasting Time for 2-NBDG Uptake Studies in Murine Breast Cancers

Recently, there has been a larger use of 2-NBDG, a fluorescent glucose analog, to study glucose uptake in different cell types. These cell types have ranged anywhere from bacteria to human cancer cells. However, there has yet to be a standard procedure and practice for using 2-NBDG. In this study, our goal is to create a standard fasting time for the cells before introducing 2-NBDG to them. This study uses 4T07 cells, a murine breast cancer cell line, to help optimize this fasting time. These cells were fasted at different time points in order to find the ideal fasting time. This ideal fasting time ensures the highest uptake of 2-NBDG in the cells. Intensity measurements, resulting from 2-NBDG fluorescence, were calculated to determine the optimal fasting time. The following paper details the procedure used including cell culturing and passaging, microscope setup, fluorescent imaging, and image processing