The role of resilience and mTBI as predictors of postconcussional disorder symptomatology

Objective Resilience is 1 of several factors that are thought to contribute to outcome following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). This study explored the predictors of the postconcussional syndrome (PCS) symptoms that can occur following mTBI. We hypothesized that a reported recent mTBI and lower psychological resilience would predict worse reported PCS symptomatology. Method 233 participants completed the Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory (NSI) and the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS). Three NSI scores were used to define PCS symptomatology. A total of 35 participants reported an mTBI (as operationally defined by the World Health Organization) that was sustained between 1 and 6 months prior to their participation (positive mTBI history); the remainder reported having never had an mTBI. Results Regression analyses revealed that a positive reported recent mTBI history and lower psychological resilience were significant independent predictors of reported PCS symptomatology. These results were found for the 3 PCS scores from the NSI, including using a stringent caseness criterion, p < .05. Demographic variables (age and gender) were not related to outcome, with the exception of education in some analyses. Conclusion The results demonstrate that: (a) both perceived psychological resilience and mTBI history play a role in whether or not PCS symptoms are experienced, even when demographic variables are considered, and; (b) of these 2 variables, lower perceived psychological resilience was the strongest predictor of PCS-like symptomatology.

History, status and future of Australia's native Sydney rock oyster industry

The Sydney rock oyster (Saccostrea glomerata) (SRO) is an oyster species that only occurs in estuaries along Australia's east coast. The SRO industry evolved from commercial gathering of oyster in the 1790s to a high production volume aquaculture industry in the 1970s. However, since the late 1970s the SRO industry has experienced a significant and continuous decline in production quantities and the industry's future commercial viably appears to be uncertain. The aim of this study was to review the history and the status of the SRO industry and to discuss the potential future prospects of this industry. This study summarised findings of the existing literature about the industry and defined development stages of the industry. Particular focus was put on the more recent development within the industry (1980s-present) which has not been covered adequately in the existing literature. The finding from this study revealed that major issues of the industry are linked to the management of prevailing diseases, the handling of water quality impairments from increasing coastal development, increasing competition from Australia's Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) industry and the current socio-economic profile of the industry. The study also found that policy makers are currently confronted by the dilemma of saving a "dying art". Findings from this industry review may be vital for current and future fisheries managers and stakeholders as a basis for reviewing industry management and development strategies. This review may also be of interest for other aquaculture industries and fisheries who are dealing with similar challenges as the SRO industry.

Relationships between maternal overweight prior to pregnancy, feeding mode and infant feeding beliefs and practices

Aim To examine whether pre-pregnancy weight status was associated with maternal feeding beliefs and practices in the early post-partum period. Methods Secondary analysis of longitudinal data from Australian mothers. Participants (N=486) were divided into two weight status groups based on self-reported pre-pregnancy weight and measured height: healthy weight (BMI <25kg/m2; n=321) and overweight (BMI>25kg/m2; n=165). Feeding beliefs and practices were self-reported via an established questionnaire that assessed concerns about infant overeating and undereating, awareness of infant cues, feeding to a schedule, and using food to calm. Results Infants of overweight mothers were more likely to have been given solid foods in the previous 24hrs (29% vs 20%) and fewer were fully breastfed (50% vs 64%). Multivariable regression analyses (adjusted for maternal education, parity, average infant weekly weight gain, feeding mode and introduction of solids) revealed pre-pregnancy weight status was not associated with using food to calm, concern about undereating, awareness of infant cues or feeding to a schedule. However feeding mode was associated with feeding beliefs and practices. Conclusions Although no evidence for a relationship between maternal weight status and early maternal feeding beliefs and practices was observed, differences in feeding mode and early introduction of solids was observed. The emergence of a relationship between feeding practices and maternal weight status may occur when the children are older, solid feeding is established and they become more independent in feeding.

An external field prior for the hidden Potts model with application to cone-beam computed tomography

In images with low contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), the information gain from the observed pixel values can be insufficient to distinguish foreground objects. A Bayesian approach to this problem is to incorporate prior information about the objects into a statistical model. A method for representing spatial prior information as an external field in a hidden Potts model is introduced. This prior distribution over the latent pixel labels is a mixture of Gaussian fields, centred on the positions of the objects at a previous point in time. It is particularly applicable in longitudinal imaging studies, where the manual segmentation of one image can be used as a prior for automatic segmentation of subsequent images. The method is demonstrated by application to cone-beam computed tomography (CT), an imaging modality that exhibits distortions in pixel values due to X-ray scatter. The external field prior results in a substantial improvement in segmentation accuracy, reducing the mean pixel misclassification rate for an electron density phantom from 87% to 6%. The method is also applied to radiotherapy patient data, demonstrating how to derive the external field prior in a clinical context.

The National Curriculum and history school textbooks in Australia and the Russian Federation

This chapter analyses recent policy reforms in the national history curriculum in both Australia and the Russian Federation. It analyses those emphases in the national curriculum in history that depict new representations and historiography and the ways in which this is foregrounded in History school textbooks. In doing so, it considers the debates about what version of the nation’s past are deemed significant, and what should be transmitted to future generations of citizens. In this discussion of national history curricula, consideration is made of the curriculum’s officially defined status as an instrument in the process of ideological transformation, and nation-building. The chapter also examines how history textbooks are implicit in this process, in terms of reproducing and representing what content is selected and emphasised in a national history curriculum.

What does the review of the Australian Curriculum mean for Senior Modern History?

In this paper we briefly explore some of recommendations of the Review of the Australian Curriculum Final Report (Australian Government, 2014a), henceforth referred to as the Review, with reference to Modern History in the senior secondary Australian Curriculum. We also refer to the invited papers provided by history subject matter specialists, Professor Gregory Melleuish and Mr Clive Logan, published as the Review’s Supplementary Material (Australian Government, 2014b). In doing so, we note that both documents devote most of their attention to critiquing the Australian Curriculum: History in the compulsory years from Foundation (F) to Year 10.

Introduction to Point and Counterpoint: What does the Review of the Australian Curriculum mean for History?

The April 2015 edition of Curriculum Perspectives has a special focus and casts light on the continuing development of the Australian Curriculum. This paper provides an introduction to a series of papers in the Point and Counterpoint section of this edition on the Review of the Australian Curriculum with reference to History. It makes clear that History is one of the most contested areas of the curriculum and that whilst politicians and policy makers are concerned with the importance of history in relation to national identity and nation building, history serves other purposes. The paper reiterates the need to pay attention to the particularities of discipline–based knowledge for the study of history in schools and the central role of inquiry for student learning in history. In doing so, it establishes the context for the five papers which follow.

Mandatory Reporting Laws for Child Sexual Abuse in Australia : A Legislative History

This work conducts a comprehensive historical review and analysis of the legislative principles for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse in each State and Territory of Australia. The research traces and explains all the significant changes in the development of the laws in each jurisdiction since their inception in 1969 to the year 2013. The research also identifies why the legislation changed in each jurisdiction, covering research into publicly available records, focusing on significant government inquiries and law reform reports, and parliamentary debates. The research is situated within a treatment of the modern discovery of child sexual abuse as a widespread phenomenon of significant public health concern.

Hearing parties' voices in Coordinated Family Dispute Resolution (CFDR) : An Australian pilot of a family mediation model designed for matters involving a history of domestic violence

This paper discusses the Coordinated Family Dispute Resolution (family mediation) process piloted in Australia in 2010–2012. This process was evaluated by the Australian Institute of Family Studies as being ‘at the cutting edge of family law practice’ because it involves the conscious application of mediation where there has been a history of family violence, in a clinically collaborative multidisciplinary and multi-agency setting. The Australian government’s failure to invest resources in the ongoing funding of this model jeopardises the safety and efficacy of family dispute resolution practice in family violence contexts, and compromises the hearing of the voices of family violence victims and their children.

Slippage: Reclaiming personal family history through contemporary photomedia

This paper addresses the role of photography as a documentary medium and how this forms a basis for my practice-led studio investigations. In it, I will explore how photography is used to create histories and sustain specific notions of ‘legacy’ within the context of the family photo album. Family history is often based on stories to which the photo album provides a visual point of reference. Despite the ostensible ‘objectivity’ of the family photograph though it is nonetheless as subjective as the stories that surround it. In this way, the photo album perpetuates a hegemony of truth that obscures the fragmentary and highly selective nature of these documents and stories. The result is that every photo album implicitly documents the gaps or voids present in understandings of our own histories. Homi Bhabha refers to these kinds of voids as ‘disjunctive historical spaces’ – spaces of slippage that create the opportunity for new narratives and understandings to occur. Using Bhabha’s ideas as a chief point of reference, I will explore how these voids or gaps in information – and the opportunities for re-examination that they open up - can be explored through contemporary photomedia. Digital technologies such as camera phones and scanners generate a space in which photography’s own documentary conventions can be turned in on themselves to create a subterfuge. My current studio-based research involves using the scanner to navigate through my family’s sometimes-‘occulted’ history, in order to explore, document and recover my connection to this narrative. I am primarily interested in the scanner as a tool for capturing not simply surfaces, but objects, moments or movements in time. Objects or moments captured by the scanner can often be simultaneously distorted and consolidated, blurred and sharpened. This paper will propose that this ‘slippage’, literally expressed in the disruption of the pixelated field, can be used to create a space in which alternative readings or understandings of past events can be explored and new narratives produced.