Agentive motility meets structural viscosity: Australian families relocating in educational markets

This paper will develop and illustrate a concept of institutional viscosity to balance the more agentive concept of motility with a theoretical account of structural conditions. The argument articulates with two bodies of work: Archer’s (2007, 2012) broad social theory of reflexivity as negotiating agency and social structures; and Urry’s (2007) sociology of mobility and mobility systems. It then illustrates the concept of viscosity as a variable (low to high viscosity) through two empirical studies conducted in the sociology of education that help demonstrate how degrees of viscosity interact with degrees of motility, and how this interaction can impact on motility over time. The first study explored how Australian Defence Force families cope with their children’s disrupted education given frequent forced relocations. The other study explored how middle class professionals relate to career and educational opportunities in rural and remote Queensland. These two life conditions have produced very different institutional practices to make relocations thinkable and doable, by variously constraining or enabling mobility. In turn, the degrees of viscosity mobile individuals meet with over time can erode or elevate their motility.

Long-term azithromycin for Indigenous children with non-cystic-fibrosis bronchiectasis or chronic suppurative lung disease (Bronchiectasis Intervention Study) : a multicentre, double-blind, randomised controlled trial

Background Indigenous children in high-income countries have a heavy burden of bronchiectasis unrelated to cystic fibrosis. We aimed to establish whether long-term azithromycin reduced pulmonary exacerbations in Indigenous children with non-cystic-fibrosis bronchiectasis or chronic suppurative lung disease. Methods Between Nov 12, 2008, and Dec 23, 2010, we enrolled Indigenous Australian, Maori, and Pacific Island children aged 1—8 years with either bronchiectasis or chronic suppurative lung disease into a multicentre, double-blind, randomised, parallel-group, placebo-controlled trial. Eligible children had had at least one pulmonary exacerbation in the previous 12 months. Children were randomised (1:1 ratio, by computer-generated sequence with permuted block design, stratified by study site and exacerbation frequency [1—2 vs ≥3 episodes in the preceding 12 months]) to receive either azithromycin (30 mg/kg) or placebo once a week for up to 24 months. Allocation concealment was achieved by double-sealed, opaque envelopes; participants, caregivers, and study personnel were masked to assignment until after data analysis. The primary outcome was exacerbation (respiratory episodes treated with antibiotics) rate. Analysis of the primary endpoint was by intention to treat. At enrolment and at their final clinic visits, children had deep nasal swabs collected, which we analysed for antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This study is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry; ACTRN12610000383066. Findings 45 children were assigned to azithromycin and 44 to placebo. The study was stopped early for feasibility reasons on Dec 31, 2011, thus children received the intervention for 12—24 months. The mean treatment duration was 20·7 months (SD 5·7), with a total of 902 child-months in the azithromycin group and 875 child-months in the placebo group. Compared with the placebo group, children receiving azithromycin had significantly lower exacerbation rates (incidence rate ratio 0·50; 95% CI 0·35—0·71; p<0·0001). However, children in the azithromycin group developed significantly higher carriage of azithromycin-resistant bacteria (19 of 41, 46%) than those receiving placebo (four of 37, 11%; p=0·002). The most common adverse events were non-pulmonary infections (71 of 112 events in the azithromycin group vs 132 of 209 events in the placebo group) and bronchiectasis-related events (episodes or investigations; 22 of 112 events in the azithromycin group vs 48 of 209 events in the placebo group); however, study drugs were well tolerated with no serious adverse events being attributed to the intervention. Interpretation Once-weekly azithromycin for up to 24 months decreased pulmonary exacerbations in Indigenous children with non-cystic-fibrosis bronchiectasis or chronic suppurative lung disease. However, this strategy was also accompanied by increased carriage of azithromycin-resistant bacteria, the clinical consequences of which are uncertain, and will need careful monitoring and further study.

Genuine community engagement in remote dryland regions : natural resource management in Lake Eyre Basin

Remote dryland regions are characterised by sparse populations and socially marginalised voices which pose particular challenges to natural resource management. This paper considers the issue of how to achieve community engagement in regions with these characteristics. In doing so, the paper contributes to an expanding international research agenda focusing on the distinct characteristics of arid and semi-arid regions under the heading of 'dryland syndrome'. The paper draws on government liaison officer and local community perspectives of successful engagement in the case-study region of Lake Eyre Basin, Australia. The results demonstrate that widely recognised characteristics of successful engagement are required but insufficient for genuine engagement in remote dryland regions. In addition to building trust through community ownership, being inclusive, effective communication, and adequate resources, genuine community engagement in drylands also requires respecting the extreme conditions and extraordinary variability of these areas. Residents of dryland regions seek genuine engagement yet engage opportunistically when seasons are conducive and when tangible outcomes are visible. © 2011 The Authors. Geographical Research © 2011 Institute of Australian Geographers.

Anatomy of sand beach ridges : evidence from severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi and its predecessors, northeast Queensland, Australia

[1] Four well-identified tropical cyclones over the past century have been responsible for depositing distinct units of predominantly quartzose sand and gravel to form the most seaward beach ridge at several locations along the wet tropical coast of northeast Queensland, Australia. These units deposited by tropical cyclones display a key sedimentary signature characterized by a sharp basal erosional contact, a coarser grain size than the underlying facies and a coarse-skewed trend toward the base. Coarse-skewed distributions with minimal change in mean grain size also characterize the upper levels of the high-energy deposited units at locations within the zone of maximum onshore winds during the tropical cyclone. These same coarse skew distributions are not apparent in sediments deposited at locations where predominantly offshore winds occurred during the cyclone, which in the case of northeast Australia is north of the eye-crossing location. These sedimentary signatures, along with the geochemical indicators and the degraded nature of the microfossil assemblages, have proven to be useful proxies to identify storm-deposited units within the study site and can also provide useful proxies in older beach ridges where advanced pedogenesis has obscured visual stratigraphic markers. As a consequence, more detailed long-term histories of storms and tropical cyclones can now be developed.

Working knowledge for collaborative water planning in Australia’s Wet Tropics region

Cooperation between multiple environmental decision-makers and activities is necessary to address the impacts of diffuse sources of agricultural pollution on the water quality entering Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Water planning efforts requires available knowledge to inform this co-operative water program implementation and reform. This paper uses knowledge sharing, translation and feedback features of collaboration as a way to assess knowledge work practices during key phases of the water planning process. This enabled a systematic review of knowledge work practices in partnership with collaborative water planning groups established to inform water quality program investment decisions in the GBR’s Wet Tropics region. This research builds on the growing academic and policy interest in the conditions required to enable different types of knowledge to be successfully used for policy-making by focusing on when, how and why knowledge work to meet these conditions is required.

Medium and mode : relationships between visual experience and perception in an installation arts practice

Working primarily within the natural landscape, this practice-led research project explored connections between the artist's visual and perceptual experience of a journey or place while simultaneously emphasizing the capacity for digital media to create a perceptual dissonance. By exploring concepts of time, viewpoint, duration of sequences and the manipulation of traditional constructs of stop-frame animation, the practical work created a cognitive awareness of the elements of the journey through optical sensations. The work allowed an opportunity to reflect on the nature of visual experience and its mediation through images. The project recontextualized the selected mediums of still photography, animation and projection within contemporary display modes of multiple screen installations by analysing relationships between the experienced and the perceived. The resulting works added to current discourse on the interstices between still and moving imagery in a digital world.

Teaching fractions to adult learners enrolled in a civil construction course : knowledge, action and materials action in tandem

This paper investigates the teaching and learning of fractions to Indigenous adult learners in a Civil Construction Certificate Course. More specifically it explores why the use of materials is critical to building knowledge and understanding. This focus is important for two reasons. First, it allows for considerations of a trainer’s approach for teaching fractions and, second it provides insights into how adult learners can be supported with representing their practical experiences of fractions to make generalisation thus building on their knowledge and learning experiences. The paper draws on teaching episodes from an Australian Research Council funded Linkage project that investigates how mathematics is taught and learned in Certificate Courses, here, Certificate 11 in Civil Construction. Action research and decolonising methods (Smith, 1999) were used to conduct the research. Video excerpts which feature one trainer and three students are analysed and described. Findings from the data indicate that adult learners need to be supported with materials to assist with building their capacity to know and apply understandings of fractions in a range of contexts, besides construction. Without materials and where fractions are taught via pen and paper tasks, students are less likely to retain and apply fraction ideas to their Certificate Course. Further they are less likely to understand decimals because of limited understanding of fractions.

‘Redstone is like electricity’: Children's performative representations in and around Minecraft

In this article, we investigate eight and nine year old girls’ school and home use of the popular game Minecraft and the ways in which the girls ‘bring themselves into being’ through talk and digital production in the social spaces of the classroom and within the game’s multiplayer online world. This work was conducted as part of a broader digital games in education project involving primary and secondary school-aged students in Australia and focuses specifically on data collected from an all-girls primary school in Brisbane. We investigate the processes of identity construction that occur as the girls undertake practices of curatorship (Potter, 2012) to display their knowledge of Minecraft through discussion of the game, both ‘in world’ and in face-to-face interactions, and as they assemble resources within and around the game to design, build and display their creations and share stories about their game play. The article begins with a consideration of recent scholarship focussing on children, learning and digital culture and literacy practices before explaining how Minecraft is, in many ways, an exemplary instance of a digital game that promotes and enables complex practices of digital participation. We then introduce the concepts of performativity and recognition (Butler 1990, 2004, 2005) which, we argue, provide productive ways to theorise identity work within affinity groups. The article then outlines some background to the research project and our methodology before providing analysis of the data in the second half of the article. We conclude by outlining the implications of our investigation for the conceptualisation of learning spaces as affinity groups and for considering digital participation as curatorship.

Impacts of vessel capacity reduction programmes on efficiency in fisheries : the case of Australia’s multispecies northern prawn fishery

Capacity reduction programmes, in the form of buybacks or decommissioning, have had relatively widespread application in fisheries in the US, Europe and Australia. A common criticism of such programmes is that they remove the least efficient vessels first, resulting in an increase in average efficiency of the remaining fleet, which tends to increase the effective fishing power of the remaining fleet. In this paper, the effects of a buyback programme on average technical efficiency in Australia’s Northern Prawn Fishery are examined using a multi-output production function approach with an explicit inefficiency model. As expected, the results indicate that average efficiency of the remaining vessels was generally greater than that of the removed vessels. Further, there was some evidence of an increase in average scale efficiency in the fleet as the remaining vessels were closer, on average, to the optimal scale. Key factors affecting technical efficiency included company structure and the number of vessels fishing. In regard to fleet size, our model suggests positive externalities associated with more boats fishing at any point in time (due to information sharing and reduced search costs), but also negative externalities due to crowding, with the latter effect dominating the former. Hence, the buyback resulted in a net increase in the individual efficiency of the remaining vessels due to reduced crowding, as well as raising average efficiency through removal of less efficient vessels.

Google Glass as a technique of self and the revitalisation of the monad

As the boundaries between public and private, human and technology, digital and social, mediated and natural, online and offline become increasingly blurred in modern techno-social hybrid societies, sociology as a discipline needs to adapt and adopt new ways of accounting for these digital cultures. In this paper I use the social networking site Pinterest to demonstrate how people today are shaped by, and in turn shape, the digital tools they are assembled with. Digital sociology is emerging as a sociological subdiscipline that engages with the convergence of the digital and the social. However, there seems to be a focus on developing new methods for studying digital social life, yet a neglect of concrete explorations of its culture. I argue for the need for critical socio-cultural ‘thick description’ to account for the interrelations between humans and technologies in modern digitally mediated cultures.

Cough and exhaled nitric oxide levels : what happens with exercise?

Cough associated with exertion is often used as a surrogate marker of asthma. However, to date there are no studies that have objectively measured cough in association with exercise in children. Our primary aim was to examine whether children with a pre-existing cough have an increase in cough frequency during and post-exercise. We hypothesized that children with any coughing illness will have an increase in cough frequency post-exercise regardless of the presence of exercise-induced broncho-constriction (EIB) or atopy. In addition, we hypothesized that Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) levels decreases post-exercise regardless of the presence of EIB or atopy. Children with chronic cough and a control group without cough undertook an exercise challenge, FeNO measurements and a skin prick test, and wore a 24-h voice recorder to objectively measure cough frequency. The association between recorded cough frequency, exercise, atopy, and presence of EIB was tested. We also determined if the change in FeNO post exercise related to atopy or EIB. Of the 50 children recruited (35 with cough, 15 control), 7 had EIB. Children with cough had a significant increase in cough counts (median 7.0, inter-quartile ranges, 0.5, 24.5) compared to controls (2.0, IQR 0, 5.0, p = 0.028) post-exercise. Presence of atopy or EIB did not influence cough frequency. FeNO level was significantly lower post-exercise in both groups but the change was not influenced by atopy or EIB. Cough post-exertion is likely a generic response in children with a current cough. FeNO level decreases post-exercise irrespective of the presence of atopy or EIB. A larger study is necessary confirm or refute our findings.

The stress-buffering effects of control on task satisfaction and perceived goal attainment : an experimental study of the moderating influence of desire for control

The purpose of the present study was to examine the extent to which Desire for Control (DFC) interacts with experimental manipulations of demand and control, and the consequences of these interactions on task satisfaction and perceived goal attainment (i.e. task performance and task mastery). It was expected that the proposed stress-buffering effects of control would be evident only for individuals high in DFC. Moreover, it was anticipated that control may have a stress-exacerbating effect for those low in DFC. These hypotheses were tested on a sample of 137 first year psychology students who participated in an in-basket activity under low and high conditions of demand and control. Results revealed that the proposed stress-buffering effect of control was found only for those high in DFC and a stress-exacerbating effect of increased control was evident for those low in DFC on task performance and task mastery perceptions. Future research directions and the implications of these findings to applied settings are discussed.

Self-determination as a moderator of demands and control : implications for employee strain and engagement

Does job control act as a stress-buffer when employees' type and level of work self-determination is taken into account? It was anticipated that job control would only be stress-buffering for employees high in self-determined and low in non-self-determined work motivation. In contrast, job control would be stress-exacerbating for employees who were low in self-determined and high in non-self-determined work motivation. Employees of a health insurance organization (N = 123) completed a survey on perceptions of role overload, job control, work self-determination, and a range of strain and engagement indicators. Results revealed that, when individuals high in self-determination perceived high job control, they experienced greater engagement (in the form of dedication to their work). In addition, when individuals high in non-self-determination perceived high job demands, they experienced more health complaints. A significant 3-way interaction demonstrated that, for individuals low in non-self-determination, high job control had the anticipated stress-buffering effect on engagement (in the form of absorption in their work). In addition, low job control was stress-exacerbating. However, contrary to expectations, for those high in non-self-determination, high job control was just as useful as low job control as a stress-buffer. The practical applications of these findings to the organizational context are discussed.