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Issue addressed This preliminary study reviews the promotion of healthy body image to young Australian women, following the 2009 introduction of the voluntary Industry Code of Conduct on Body Image. The Code includes using diverse sized models in magazines. Method A qualitative content analysis of the 2010 annual ‘swimsuit issues’ was conducted on 10 Australian young women's magazines. Pictorial and/or textual editorial evidence of promoting diverse body shapes and sizes was regarded as indicative of the magazines' upholding aspects of the voluntary Code of Conduct for Body Image. Results Diverse sized models were incorporated in four of the seven magazines with swimsuit features sampled. Body size differentials were presented as part of the swimsuit features in three of the magazines sampled. Tips for diverse body type enhancement were included in four of the magazines. All magazines met at least one criterion. One magazine displayed evidence of all three criteria. Conclusion Preliminary examination suggests that more than half of young women's magazines are upholding elements of the voluntary Code of Conduct for Body Image, through representation of diverse‐sized women in their swimsuit issues. So what? Body image remains a significant issue in regard to the promotion of healthy lifestyles for Australian women. The Industry Code of Conduct on Body Image warrants further research to track its adoption and evaluate its impact.

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The maritime industry is in a mind-set to save fuel and reduce emissions. How one achieves this end, however, can be a matter of some debate. Although substantial industry effort is being placed on things that can be optimized, to achieve real benefit and financial return one must first understand the details about how the vessel consumes propulsive energy during its mission. This article discusses a rational, simple, and effective systems engineering approach to identify power and fuel demands via computational propulsion analysis of the individual operating modes of a vessel's duty cycle. It explains sensible consumption metrics that can be used to evaluate and compare different physical systems, strategic plans, or helm decisions. A duty cycle operating mode analysis calculation for a tugboat in multirole service (as a harbor tug and in long haul ocean barge towing) is demonstrated using commercial off-the-shelf software, including examples of design-side and shipboard decision options and consequences.

After more than a decade as a feminist researcher and teaching women’s studies at tertiary level, I decided to investigate a new direction. Driven in part by the demise of women’s studies in universities – an international phenomenon – and looking for something completely different, I attended my first Romance Writers of Australia conference. To my surprise, the scene was all too familiar: predominantly female participants and presenters, a collaborative leadership model, a supportive atmosphere and lots of purple. In this article I muse upon arguments that romance is a form of feminism. Going back to its history in the Middle Ages and its invention by noblewomen who created the notion of courtly love, examining its contemporary popular explosion and the concurrent rise of popular romance studies in the academy that has emerged in the wake of women’s studies, and positing an empowering female future for the genre, I propose that reading and writing romantic fiction is not only personal escapism, but also political activism. Now also a published romance novelist, I chart my own Harlequin Escape from the ivory tower to the boudoir.