Social norms and corruption

We explore theoretically and empirically whether corruption is contagious and whether conditional cooperation matters. We argue that the decision to bribe bureaucrats depends on the frequency of corruption within a society. We provide a behavioral model to explain this conduct: engaging in corruption results in a disutility of guilt. This disutility depends negatively on the number of people engaging in corruption. The empirical section presents evidence using two international panel data data sets, one at the micro and one at the macro level. Results indicate that corruption is influenced by the perceived activities of peers. Moreover, macro level data indicates that past levels of corruption impact current corruption levels.

Life Raft Australia?

In the helter skelter of people legally and illegally seeking refuge in Australia, often overlooked are the realities of how to obtain that hoped for better life. One of the avenues chosen to achieve their dream is higher education; however, once enrolled in higher education many such students [termed Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD)] find they are ill equipped to achieve academic success; they become overwhelmed by the pressures of study/family/work; and ultimately lose heart and their place at university. Life raft Australia has just become another disillusioning vehicle to a depressing future. This paper discusses how universities across Australia are now putting processes in place that will enable CALD students to confront and overcome academic and social barriers, and thus realise their dream of a better life. Exemplars from the University of Tasmania provide practical models of how higher education institutions, not only in Australia but globally can assist immigrant students to self actualize; to be empowered to become integral and successful members of the Australian community.

Impact of global warming on the design and performance of air-conditioned office buildings in Australia

As global warming entails new conditions for the built environment, the thermal behavior of existing air conditioned office buildings, which are typically designed based on current weather data, may also change. Through building computer simulations, this paper evaluates the impact of global warming on the design and performance of air-conditioned office buildings in Australia, including the increased cooling loads imposed by potential global warming and probable indoor temperature increases due to possible undersized air-conditioning system, as well as the possible change in energy use and CO2 emission of Australian office buildings. It is found that the existing office buildings would generally be able to adapt to the increasing warmth of 2030 year Low and High scenarios projections and 2070 year Low scenario projection. However, for the 2070 year High scenario, the study indicates that the existing office buildings, in all capital cities except for Hobart, will suffer from overheating problems. If the energy source is assumed to be the electricity, it is found that in comparison with current weather scenario, the increased energy uses would translate into the increase of CO2 emissions by 0 to 34.6 kg CO2 equivalent/m2, varying with different future weather scenarios and with different locations.

Analysis of ten years historical weather data in Australia

Typical reference year (TRY) weather data is often used to represent the long term weather pattern for building simulation and design. Through the analysis of ten year historical hourly weather data for seven Australian major capital cities using the frequencies procedure of descriptive statistics analysis (by SPSS software), this paper investigates: • the closeness of the typical reference year (TRY) weather data in representing the long term weather pattern; • the variations and common features that may exist between relatively hot and cold years. It is found that for the given set of input data, in comparison with the other weather elements, the discrepancy between TRY and multiple years is much smaller for the dry bulb temperature, relative humidity and global solar irradiance. The overall distribution patterns of key weather elements are also generally similar between the hot and cold years, but with some shift and/or small distortion. There is little common tendency of change between the hot and the cold years for different weather variables at different study locations.

“That you would post such a thing implies that you are a despicable human being”: spectatorship, social media, & the struggle for meaning in disability performance

Artists with disabilities working in Live Art paradigms often present performances which replay the social attitudes they are subject to in daily life as guerilla theatre in public spaces – including online spaces. In doing so, these artists draw spectators’ attention to the way their responses to disabled people contribute to the social construction of disability. They provide different theatrical, architectural or technological devices to encourage spectators to articulate their response to themselves and others. But – the use of exaggeration, comedy and confrontation in these practices notwithstanding – their blurry boundaries mean some spectators experience confusion as to whether they are responding to real life or a representation of it. This results in conflicted responses which reveal as much about the politics of disability as the performances themselves. In this paper, I examine how these conflicted responses play out in online forums. I discuss diverse examples, from blog comments on Liz Crow’s Resistance on the Plinth on YouTube, to Aaron Williamson and Katherine Araneillo’s Disabled Avant-Garde clips on YouTube, to Ju Gosling’s Letter Writing Project on her website, to segments of UK Channel 4’s mock reality show Cast Offs on YouTube. I demonstrate how online forums become a place not just for recording memories of an original performance (which posters may not have seen), but for a new performance, which goes well beyond re-membering/remediating the original. I identify trends in the way experience, memory and meaningmaking play out in these performative forums – moving from clarification of the original act’s parameters, to claims of disgust, insult or offense, to counter-claims confirming the comic or political efficacy of the act, often linked disclosure of personal memory or experience of disability. I examine the way these encounters at the interstices of live and/or online performance, memory, technology and public/private history negotiate ideas about disability, and what they tell us about the ethics and efficacy of the specific modes of performance and spectatorship these artists with disabilities are invoking.

Third International Conference on plant-based vaccines and antibodies

This relatively new biennial meeting - the first was in Prague in 2005 - was chaired by Julian Ma (Guy's Hospital, London, UK), with Mario Pezzotti (University of Verona, Italy) as local organizer, and attracted approximately 180 delegates from 25 countries. The theme was 'Plant Expression Systems for Recombinant Pharmacologics': there were 46 talks gathered into two plenaries, 12 themed sessions and 72 posters. Topics covered included publicly funded and commercial developments, innovation, regulation and commercialization, competition with conventional technology, manufacture and new products. © 2009 Expert Reviews Ltd.

Ideal victims in human trafficking awareness campaigns

Amidst a proliferation of bestseller books, blockbuster films, television documentaries and sensational news reports, public awareness campaigns have claimed their place in a growing chorus of concern about the crime of human trafficking. These campaigns aim to capture the public’s support in efforts to eliminate a ‘modern slave trade’ in which individuals seeking a better life are transported across borders and forced into exploitative labour conditions. Constrained by the limitations of primary campaign materials (posters, print ads, billboards) typically allowing for only a single image and minimal text, it is unlikely that these awareness campaigns can accurately convey the complexity of the trafficking problem. This chapter explores how the depictions of trafficking victims in awareness campaigns can exclude those who do not fit a restrictive narrative mould. Nils Christie’s pivotal work on the construction of society’s ideal victim is the lens through which this paper examines the literal ‘poster child’ of the anti-trafficking movement.

Reducing alcohol-related driving on China's roads : Traffic police officers' perceptions and practice

Alcohol-related driving is a longstanding, serious problem in China (Li, Xie, Nie, & Zhang, 2012). On 1st May, 2011 a national law was introduced to criminalize drunk driving, and imposed serious penalties including jail for driving with a blood alcohol level of above 80mg/100ml. This pilot study, undertaken a year after introduction of the law, sought traffic police officers’ perceptions of drink driving and the practice of breath alcohol testing (BAT) in a large city in Guangdong Province, southern China. A questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews were used to gain an in-depth understanding of issues relevant to alcohol-related driving. Fifty-five traffic police officers were recruited for the survey and six traffic police officers with a variety of working experience including roadside alcohol breath testing, traffic crash investigation and police resourcing were interviewed individually. The officers were recruited by the first author with the assistance of the staff from Guangdong Institute of Public Health, Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Interview participants reported three primary reasons why people drink and drive: 1) being prepared to take the chance of not being apprehended by police; 2) the strong traditional Chinese drinking culture; and 3) insufficient public awareness about the harmfulness of drink driving. Problems associated with the process of breath alcohol testing (BAT) were described and fit broadly into two categories: resourcing and avoiding detection. It was reported that there were insufficient traffic police officers to conduct routine traffic policing, including alcohol testing. Police BAT equipment was considered sufficient for routine traffic situations but not highway traffic operations. Local media and posters are used by the Public Security Bureau which is responsible for education about safe driving but participants thought that the education campaigns are limited in scope. Participants also described detection avoidance strategies used by drivers including: changing route; ignoring a police instruction to stop; staying inside the vehicle with windows and doors locked to avoid being tested; intentionally not performing breath tests correctly; and arguing with officers. This pilot study provided important insights from traffic police in one Chinese city which suggest there may be potential unintended effects of introducing more severe penalties including a range of strategies reportedly used by drivers to avoid detection. Recommendations for future research include a larger study to confirm these findings and examine the training and education of drivers; the focus and reach of publicity; and possible resource needs to support police enforcement.

The role of, and key considerations for, advertising campaigns and educational awareness workshops within the work-related road safety context

Australian and international evidence suggests that, in the work-related driving context, road crashes account for a substantial number of occupational incidents. In the attempt to reduce injury and improve safety, organisations may implement an array of strategies and interventions ranging from policy development and implementation, vehicle selection and incident monitoring through to education and awareness-raising. This conceptual paper discusses aspects relating to the latter collection of interventions and, in particular, the role, and some key considerations with respect to the content and dissemination, of advertising campaigns and educational awareness workshops. In relation to advertising campaigns, this paper discusses how some of the overarching principles associated with advertising in the broader general community road safety strategy also apply within the work-related road safety context. Specifically, advertising campaigns/materials should be viewed as a key component within a dedicated organisational approach to road (driver) safety. This dedicated approach would need to comprise of a number, and varied array, of strategies. In addition, the content of, and medium/s (e.g., posters) by which to deliver such advertising campaigns, cannot be addressed by a one-size-fits all approach but, rather, requires careful consideration of the needs as well as characteristics of specific organisations and their driver fleet. The paper provides a summary of some key considerations when devising an advertising campaign, including the nature of campaign/message content as well as the processes by which to devise and refine such content. In relation to driver education awareness workshops, this paper outlines the key considerations for delivering a series of workshops specifically aimed at occupational driving within the organisational context. A case study approach will be utilised to demonstrate the manner in which educational awareness workshops can compliment successful advertising campaigns promoting safer work related driving through better risk management practice. Research underpinning the development of driver behaviour modification tools incorporated within the workshops will also be discussed along with the mechanisms utilised to encourage improvements in driver monitoring and behaviour. In an effort to assist organisations with their continual search for cost-effective approaches which may, ultimately, contribute to improvements in driver behaviour and safety, the current paper offers some clear and practical suggestions in relation to the development and dissemination of two types of interventions, advertising campaigns and education awareness workshops.

Patient Safety Law: From Silos to Systems

Patient safety has become a significant and pressing policy issue. Around the world, governments, the health care sector and the public are increasingly cognizant of the need to improve the safety of care delivered by their health systems. Pressure for change has been created by highly publicized incidents in a number of countries involving unsafe acts that were significant both in scale and consequence and a number of empirical studies that revealed the high rates of unsafe acts and their consequences. The costs of unsafe health care – both personal and fiscal – to individuals, their families and their communities and to the state are massive. In this research project we explored one particular avenue for change – that is, the use of legal instruments by governments to improve patient safety. We did this through a comparative review of the use of legal instruments or frameworks in other countries (specifically Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States) as well as two non-health care related sectors in Canada (transportation and occupational health and safety). We began this research by reviewing the legal instruments and undertaking extensive literature reviews. Further information was gathered through in-person interviews with policy-makers and academics in the countries studied, and from policy-makers and academics expert in the health, occupational health and safety, and transportation sectors in Canada. Once descriptions of the various countries and sectors were drafted, we held small-group meetings with local experts on particular aspects of patient safety. We then hosted a national consultation meeting. We subsequently drafted this final report and the appendices, which fully describe the results of the background research. Finally, we prepared a summary version of the report as well as posters and papers to be published and delivered at conferences and meetings with relevant groups.

Reflections on chemistry sessions at the 2012 Healthy Buildings Conference

Scores of well-researched individual papers and posters specifically or indirectly addressing the occurrence, measurement or exposure impacts of chemicals in buildings were presented at 2012 Healthy Buildings Conference. Many of these presentations offered advances in sampling and characterisation of chemical pollutants while others extended the frontiers of knowledge on the emission, adsorption, risk, fate and compositional levels of chemicals in indoor and outdoor microenvironments. Several modelled or monitored indoor chemistry, including processes that generated secondary pollutants. This article provides an overview of the state of knowledge on healthy buildings based on papers presented in chemistry sessions at Healthy Buildings 2012 (HB2012) Conference. It also suggests future directions in healthy buildings research.

Artful surfaces : an ethnographic study exploring the use of space in design studios

A largely overlooked aspect of creative design practices is how physical space in design studios plays a role in supporting designers' everyday work. In particular, studio surfaces such as designers' desks, office walls, notice boards, clipboards and drawing boards are full of informative, inspirational and creative artefacts such as, sketches, drawings, posters, story-boards and Post-it notes. Studio surfaces are not just the carriers of information but importantly they are sites of methodic design practices, i.e. they indicate, to an extent, how design is being carried out. This article describes the results of an ethnographic study on the use of workplace surfaces in design studios, from two academic design departments. Using the field study results, the article introduces an idea of ‘artful surfaces’. Artful surfaces emphasise how artfully designers integrate these surfaces into their everyday work and how the organisation of these surfaces comes about helping designers in accomplishing their creative and innovative design practices. Using examples from the field study, the article shows that artful surfaces have both functional and inspirational characteristics. From the field study, three types of artful surfaces are identified: personal; shared; and project-specific. The article suggests that a greater insight into how these artful surfaces are created and used could lead to better design of novel display technologies to support designers' everyday work.

Product 45

Contribution to a curated book of Australian 45rpm single covers. This contribution is a discussion about the possibilities afforded by available technologies in the late 70s in the production of music-related artwork: record covers, posters, handbills etc.

Gender, emotions and fly-in fly-out work

This paper explores the emotional life of fly‑in fly‑out (FIFO) workers and their families, through an analysis of more than 500 postings made on an online chat forum for mining families. Building on literature on fly‑in fly‑out workers and understandings of emotions as socially constructed, analysis shows how posters to the forum, typically women whose male partners are FIFO workers, construct gendered emotional identities for their partners (sometimes referred to as 'Mr Miner'), and for themselves, as 'mining women', 'mining widows' or the 'mining missus'. Inherent in the creation of gendered emotional subject positions is the process of women undertaking emotion work on and behalf of themselves, their male partners and their children. The findings demonstrate the overarching normative dimensions of women's emotional self‑transformations in the service of their mining partners' careers and the attendant reproduction of everyday patriarchal relations in the private lives of mining families.