A ‘Big Data’ Approach to Mapping the Australian Twittersphere

This chapter discusses the methodological aspects and empirical findings of a large-scale, funded project investigating public communication through social media in Australia. The project concentrates on Twitter, but we approach it as representative of broader current trends toward the integration of large datasets and computational methods into media and communication studies in general, and social media scholarship in particular. The research discussed in this chapter aims to empirically describe networks of affiliation and interest in the Australian Twittersphere, while reflecting on the methodological implications and imperatives of ‘big data’ in the humanities. Using custom network crawling technology, we have conducted a snowball crawl of Twitter accounts operated by Australian users to identify more than one million users and their follower/followee relationships, and have mapped their interconnections. In itself, the map provides an overview of the major clusters of densely interlinked users, largely centred on shared topics of interest (from politics through arts to sport) and/or sociodemographic factors (geographic origins, age groups). Our map of the Twittersphere is the first of its kind for the Australian part of the global Twitter network, and also provides a first independent and scholarly estimation of the size of the total Australian Twitter population. In combination with our investigation of participation patterns in specific thematic hashtags, the map also enables us to examine which areas of the underlying follower/followee network are activated in the discussion of specific current topics – allowing new insights into the extent to which particular topics and issues are of interest to specialised niches or to the Australian public more broadly. Specifically, we examine the Twittersphere footprint of dedicated political discussion, under the #auspol hashtag, and compare it with the heightened, broader interest in Australian politics during election campaigns, using #ausvotes; we explore the different patterns of Twitter activity across the map for major television events (the popular competitive cooking show #masterchef, the British #royalwedding, and the annual #stateoforigin Rugby League sporting contest); and we investigate the circulation of links to the articles published by a number of major Australian news organisations across the network. Such analysis, which combines the ‘big data’-informed map and a close reading of individual communicative phenomena, makes it possible to trace the dynamic formation and dissolution of issue publics against the backdrop of longer-term network connections, and the circulation of information across these follower/followee links. Such research sheds light on the communicative dynamics of Twitter as a space for mediated social interaction. Our work demonstrates the possibilities inherent in the current ‘computational turn’ (Berry, 2010) in the digital humanities, as well as adding to the development and critical examination of methodologies for dealing with ‘big data’ (boyd and Crawford, 2011). Out tools and methods for doing Twitter research, released under Creative Commons licences through our project Website, provide the basis for replicable and verifiable digital humanities research on the processes of public communication which take place through this important new social network.

Wearable technology: The next frontier?

The ways in which technology mediates daily activities is shifting rapidly. Global trends point toward the uptake of ambient and interactive media to create radical new ways of working, interacting and socialising. Tech giants such as Google and Apple are banking on the success of this emerging market by investing in new future focused consumer products such as Google Glass and the Apple Watch. The potential implications of ubiquitous technological interactions via tangible and ambient media have never been more real or more accessible.

Improving wound management for residents in Residential Aged Care Facilities: National dissemination and implementation of the evidence based Champions for Skin Integrity Program

Overview The incidence of skin tears, pressure injuries and chronic wounds increases with age [1-4] and therefore is a serious issue for staff and residents in Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACFs). A pilot project funded in Round 2 of the Encouraging Best Practice in Residential Aged Care (EBPRAC) program by the then Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing found that a substantial proportion of residents in aged care facilities experienced pressure injuries, skin tears or chronic wounds. It also found the implementation of the evidence based Champions for Skin Integrity (CSI) model of wound care was successful in significantly decreasing the prevalence and severity of wounds in residents, improving staff skills and knowledge of evidence based wound management, increasing staff confidence with wound management, increasing implementation of evidence based wound management and prevention strategies, and increasing staff awareness of their roles in evidence based wound care at all levels [5]. Importantly, during the project, the project team developed a resource kit on evidence based wound management. Two critical recommendations resulting from the project were that: - The CSI model or a similar strategic approach should be implemented in RACFs to facilitate the uptake of evidence based wound management and prevention - The resource kit on evidence based wound management should be made available to all Residential Aged Care Facilities and interested parties A proposal to disseminate or rollout the CSI model of wound care to all RACFs across Australia was submitted to the department in 2012. The department approved funding from the Aged Care Services Improvement Healthy Ageing Grant (ACSIHAG) at the same time as the Round 3 of the Encouraging Better Practice in Aged Care (EBPAC) program. The dissemination involved two crucial elements: 1. The updating, refining and distribution of a Champions for Skin Integrity Resource Kit, more commonly known as a CSI Resource Kit and 2. The presentation of intensive one day Promoting Healthy Skin “Train the Trainer” workshops in all capital cities and major regional towns across Australia Due to demand, the department agreed to fund a second round of workshops focussing on regional centres and the completion date was extended to accommodate the workshops. Later, the department also decided to host a departmental website for a number of clinical domains, including wound management, so that staff from the residential aged care sector had easy access to a central repository of helpful clinical resource material that could be used for improving the health and wellbeing of their older adults, consumers and carers. CSI Resource Kit Upgrade and Distribution: At the start of the project, a full evidence review was carried out on the material produced during the EBPRAC-CSI Stage 1 project and the relevant evidence based changes were made to the documentation. At the same time participants in the EBPRAC-CSI Stage 1 project were interviewed for advice on how to improve the resource material. Following this the documentation, included in the kit, was sent to independent experts for peer review. When this process was finalised, a learning designer and QUT’s Visual Communications Services were engaged to completely refine and update the design of the resources, and combined resource kit with the goal of keeping the overall size of the kit suitable for bookshelf mounting and the cost at reasonable levels. Both goals were achieved in that the kit is about the same size as a 25 mm A4 binder and costs between $19.00 and $28.00 per kit depending on the size of the print run. The dissemination of the updated CSI resource kit was an outstanding success. Demand for the kits was so great that a second print run of 2,000 kits was arranged on top of the initial print run of 4,000 kits. All RACFs across Australia were issued with a kit, some 2,740 in total. Since the initial distribution another 1,100 requests for kits has been fulfilled as well as 1,619 kits being distributed to participants at the Promoting Healthy Skin workshops. As the project was winding up a final request email was sent to all workshop participants asking if they required additional kits or resources to distribute the remaining kits and resources. This has resulted in requests for 200 additional kits and resources. Feedback from the residential aged care sector and other clinical providers who have interest in wound care has been very positive regarding the utility of the kit, (see Appendix 4). Promoting Healthy Skin Workshops The workshops also exceeded the project team’s initial objective. Our goal of providing workshop training for staff from one in four facilities and 450 participants was exceeded, with overwhelming demand for workshop places resulting in the need to provide a second round of workshops across Australia. At the completion of the second round, 37 workshops had been given, with 1286 participants, representing 835 facilities. A number of strategies were used to promote the workshops ranging from invitations included in the kit, to postcard mail-outs, broadcast emailing to all facilities and aged care networks and to articles and paid advertising in aged care journals. The most effective method, by far, was directly phoning the facilities. This enabled the caller to contact the relevant staff member and enlist their support for the workshop. As this is a labour intensive exercise, it was only used where numbers needed bolstering, with one venue rising from 3 registrants before the calls to 53 registrants after. The workshops were aimed at staff who had the interest and the capability of implementing evidence-based wound management within their facility or organisation. This targeting was successful in that a large proportion (68%) of participants were Registered Nurses, Nurse Managers, Educators or Consultants. Twenty percent were Endorsed Enrolled Nurses with the remaining 12% being made up of Personal Care Workers or Allied Health Professionals. To facilitate long term sustainability, the workshop employed train-the-trainer strategies. Feedback from the EBPRAC-CSI Stage 1 interviews was used in the development of workshop content. In addition, feedback from the workshop conducted at the end of the EBPRAC-CSI Stage 1 project suggested that change management and leadership training should be included in the workshops. The program was trialled in the first workshop conducted in Brisbane and then rolled out across Australia. Participants were asked to complete pre and post workshop surveys at the beginning and end of the workshop to determine how knowledge and confidence improved over the day. Results from the pre and post surveys showed significant improvements in the level of confidence in attendees’ ability to implement evidence based wound management. The results also indicated a significant increase in the level of confidence in ability to implement change within their facility or organisation. This is an important indication that the inclusion of change management/leadership training with clinical instruction can increase staff capacity and confidence in translating evidence into practice. To encourage the transfer of the evidence based content of the workshop into practice, participants were asked to prepare an Action Plan to be followed by a simple one page progress report three months after the workshop. These reports ranged from simple (e.g. skin moisturising to prevent skin tears), to complex implementation plans for introducing the CSI model across the whole organisation. Outcomes described in the project reports included decreased prevalence of skin tears, pressure injuries and chronic wounds, along with increased staff and resident knowledge and resident comfort. As stated above, some organisations prepared large, complex plans to roll out the CSI model across their organisation. These plans included a review of the organisation’s wound care system, policies and procedures, the creation of new processes, the education of staff and clients, uploading education and resource material onto internal electronic platforms and setting up formal review and evaluation processes. The CSI Resources have been enthusiastically sought and incorporated into multiple health care settings, including aged care, acute care, Medicare Local intranets (e.g. Map of Medicine e-pathways), primary health care, community and home care organisations, education providers and New Zealand aged and community health providers. Recommendations: Recommendations for RACFs, aged care and health service providers and government  Skin integrity and the evidence-practice gap in this area should be recognised as a major health issue for health service providers for older adults, with wounds experienced by up to 50% of residents in aged care settings (Edwards et al. 2010). Implementation of evidence based wound care through the Champions for Skin Integrity model in this and the pilot project has demonstrated the prevalence of wounds, wound healing times and wound infections can be halved.  A national program and Centre for Evidence Based Wound Management should be established to: - expand the reach of the model to other aged care facilities and health service providers for older adults - sustain the uptake of models such as the Champions for Skin Integrity (CSI) model - ensure current resources, expertise and training are available for consumers and health care professionals to promote skin integrity for all older adults  Evidence based resources for the CSI program and similar projects should be reviewed and updated every 3 – 4 years as per NH&MRC recommendations  Leadership and change management training is fundamental to increasing staff capacity, at all levels, to promote within-organisation dissemination of skills and knowledge gained from projects providing evidence based training Recommendations for future national dissemination projects  A formal program of opportunities for small groups of like projects to share information and resources, coordinate activities and synergise education programs interactively would benefit future national dissemination projects - Future workshop programs could explore an incentive program to optimise attendance and reduce ‘no shows’ - Future projects should build in the capacity and funding for increased follow-up with workshop attendees, to explore the reasons behind those who are unable to translate workshop learnings into the workplace and identify factors to address these barriers.

Reading Australia Essay: "Romulus, My Father" by Raimond Gaita

This is an introductory essay about the memoir "Romulus, My Father" by Raimond Gaita. The essay was published as part of the Copyright Agency's "Reading Australia" initiative. "In a critical moment of reflection and pause, Romulus, My Father offers the reader a key to its interpretation. The author – philosopher Raimond Gaita – tells us that ‘Plato said that those who love and seek wisdom are clinging in recollection to things they once saw’. This reference to the Greek philosopher’s work Phaedrus occurs when the boy Raimond is about eight years old. He seems already to understand much about his father, in particular his father’s goodness, which he finds expressed in his workmanship, his honesty, and his commitment to friends. And yet, as Plato forewarns us, a search for the ultimate wisdom of such things must come later – several decades on, when Gaita is faced with the task of writing his father’s eulogy. It is then that a sense of his father’s character is joined to his own search for wisdom, a combination of biography and reflection that marks the memoir form at its best, and shapes the ultimate impact of Romulus, My Father...."--publisher website

A place carved out by time

A travel story about South Dakota. "Time travel is much easier in life than in the movies. Driving out of Rapid City in South Dakota, you cover 500,000 years in the first hour. That journey brings you to the Badlands, a vast natural excavation site that has been created by water and wind. At the same time, you’re deposited into the deep past..."--publisher website

In loving memory of Corfu

A travel story about a return journey to the Greek island of Corfu. "THEY say it doesn’t pay to go back. The more a place meant to you in the past, the more likely it is that you’ll be disappointed when you return. Recently I tested the theory, and endangered my memories of the Greek island of Corfu with a second visit..."--publisher website

Evolved gas analysis of coal-derived pyrite/marcasite

The products evolved during the thermal decomposition of the coal-derived pyrite/marcasite were studied using simultaneous thermogravimetry coupled with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and mass spectrometry (TG-FTIR–MS) technique. The main gases and volatile products released during the thermal decomposition of the coal-derived pyrite/marcasite are water (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), and sulfur dioxide (SO2). The results showed that the evolved products obtained were mainly divided into two processes: (1) the main evolved product H2O is mainly released at below 300 °C; (2) under the temperature of 450–650 °C, the main evolved products are SO2 and small amount of CO2. It is worth mentioning that SO3 was not observed as a product as no peak was observed in the m/z = 80 curve. The chemical substance SO2 is present as the main gaseous product in the thermal decomposition for the sample. The coal-derived pyrite/marcasite is different from mineral pyrite in thermal decomposition temperature. The mass spectrometric analysis results are in good agreement with the infrared spectroscopic analysis of the evolved gases. These results give the evidence on the thermal decomposition products and make all explanations have the sufficient evidence. Therefore, TG–MS–IR is a powerful tool for the investigation of gas evolution from the thermal decomposition of materials.

China’s creative industries: Challenges matched by opportunities

Report for the German Chamber of Commerce in China. "China’s growing economic, political, and military capacity is the most geopolitically significant development of the 21st century, which is already being branded ‘the Asian Century.’ Certainly the economic decline of the US and Europe has played directly into the hands of China’s nationalists, who yearn for a return to past glory and who seek symbolic retribution for almost two centuries of foreign oppression and humiliation...."--publisher website

The Hazards

"The much-anticipated second collection from the 2007 winner of the Thomas Shapcott Prize. Charged with fierce imagination and swift lyricism, Holland-Batt’s cosmopolitan poems reflect a predatory world rife with hazards both real and imagined. Opening with a vision of a leveret’s agonising death by myxomatosis and closing with a lover disappearing into dangerous waters, this collection careens through diverse geographical territory – from haunted post-colonial landscapes in Australia to brutal animal hierarchies in the cloud forests of Nicaragua. Engaging everywhere with questions of violence and loss, erasure and extinction, The Hazards inhabits unsettling terrain, unafraid to veer straight into turbulence."--Publisher website

Current trends and management in head and neck cancers

Book description: "Over 50,000 new cases of head and neck cancer are diagnosed each year in the United States. The majority of these are squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), associated with human papillomavirus infection and carcinogenic behaviors such as tobacco use and alcohol consumption. Although these are more common, there are several other causes that this book addresses. This book examines the epidemiology of head and neck cancer. It discusses the management of head neck cancer as well as treatment outcomes."--publisher website

Wikis for women's health: Social constructivist analysis of the effectiveness of online collaborative spaces for reflective learning

Public Health undergraduate students studying the unit Women’s Health undertook a teaching and learning exercise which required them to learn to create and use a wiki website for reflective learning purposes. The Women’s Health wiki provided an online shared, collaborative, and creative space wherein the students’ perceptions of women's health issues could be discussed, reflected upon, and debated. We analysed the content developed on the Women’s Health wiki using a social constructivist theoretical framework and provided a theoretical model for how the wiki worked to aid reflective and critical thinking, as well as developing technological and communicative skills amongst students.

Projecting the new world city: The city as spectacle in an urban light festival

As a precursor to the 2014 G20 Leaders’ Summit held in Brisbane, Australia, the Queensland Government sponsored a program of G20 Cultural Celebrations, designed to showcase the Summit’s host city. The cultural program’s signature event was the Colour Me Brisbane festival, a two-week ‘citywide interactive light and projection installations’ festival that was originally slated to run from 24 October to 9 November, but which was extended due to popular demand to conclude with the G20 Summit itself on 16 November. The Colour Me Brisbane festival comprised a series projection displays that promoted visions of the city’s past, present, and future at landmark sites and iconic buildings throughout the city’s central business district and thus transformed key buildings into forms of media architecture. In some instances the media architecture installations were interactive, allowing the public to control aspects of the projections through a computer interface situated in front of the building; however, the majority of the installations were not interactive in this sense. The festival was supported by a website that included information regarding the different visual and interactive displays and links to social media to support public discussion regarding the festival (Queensland Government 2014). Festival-goers were also encouraged to follow a walking-tour map of the projection sites that would take them on a 2.5 kilometre walk from Brisbane’s cultural precinct, through the city centre, concluding at parliament house. In this paper, we investigate the Colour Me Brisbane festival and the broader G20 Cultural Celebrations as a form of strategic placemaking—designed, on the one hand, to promote Brisbane as a safe, open, and accessible city in line with the City Council’s plan to position Brisbane as a ‘New World City’ (Brisbane City Council 2014). On the other hand, it was deployed to counteract growing local concerns and tensions over the disruptive and politicised nature of the G20 Summit by engaging the public with the city prior to the heightened security and mobility restrictions of the Summit weekend. Harnessing perspectives from media architecture (Brynskov et al. 2013), urban imaginaries (Cinar & Bender 2007), and social media analysis, we take a critical approach to analysing the government-sponsored projections, which literally projected the city onto itself, and public responses to them via the official, and heavily promoted, social media hashtags (#colourmebrisbane and #g20cultural). Our critical framework extends the concepts of urban phantasmagoria and urban imaginaries into the emerging field of media architecture to scrutinise its potential for increased political and civic engagement. Walter Benjamin’s concept of phantasmagoria (Cohen 1989; Duarte, Firmino, & Crestani 2014) provides an understanding of urban space as spectacular projection, implicated in commodity and techno-culture. The concept of urban imaginaries (Cinar & Bender 2007; Kelley 2013)—that is, the ways in which citizens’ experiences of urban environments are transformed into symbolic representations through the use of imagination—similarly provides a useful framing device in thinking about the Colour Me Brisbane projections and their relation to the construction of place. Employing these critical frames enables us to examine the ways in which the installations open up the potential for multiple urban imaginaries—in the sense that they encourage civic engagement via a tangible and imaginative experience of urban space—while, at the same time, supporting a particular vision and way of experiencing the city, promoting a commodified, sanctioned form of urban imaginary. This paper aims to dissect the urban imaginaries intrinsic to the Colour Me Brisbane projections and to examine how those imaginaries were strategically deployed as place-making schemes that choreograph reflections about and engagement with the city.

Lewis's medical-surgical nursing: Assessment and management of clinical problems [ANZ Edition, 4th Ed.]

"Using the nursing process as a framework for practice, the fourth edition has been extensively revised to reflect the rapid changing nature of nursing practice and the increasing focus on key nursing care priorities. Building on the strengths of the third Australian and New Zealand edition and incorporating relevant global nursing research and practice from the prominent US title Medical-Surgical Nursing, 9Th Edition, Lewis’s Medical-Surgical Nursing, 4th Edition is an essential resource for students seeking to understand the role of the professional nurse in the contemporary health environment."--Publisher website

An international comparison of the continuing professional development process (CPD) in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom

Background: The Pharmacy Board of Australia stipulated that for renewal of registration, pharmacists must have accrued a minimum of 20 CPD credits over the 2010-11 registration years (1). Mandatory CPD is not new in Pharmacy. The UK and New Zealand have both established systems of CPD in recent years. The purpose of this study is to investigate established CPD processes in the UK and New Zealand with the view to making recommendations for the implementation of the CPD process in Australia. Objectives: To compare the acquisition and guidance on documentation of CPD credit points in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Methodology: A comparative online search of the websites of each of the registering authorities was undertaken. Any practice standards or guidelines which relate to registration or continuing professional development were analysed and compared. Results: In New Zealand the Pharmacy Council require Pharmacists to have a minimum of 12 outcome credits over a 3-year period for recertification (2, 3). The outcome credit related to each CPD action and is based on relevance to the pharmacist and their practice. It is graded between one, for CPD which has occasional relevance to practice and three which have considerable relevance to practice. There are examples of completed CPD recording sheets on their website (8). In the UK, The General Pharmaceutical Council require Pharmacists to make a minimum of nine CPD entries per year (4) and detailed guidance on how to record CPD activities is provided (5,7). The Pharmacy Board of Australia divides CPD activities into three groups (6). Of the 20 credits required annually only 10 can be gained from group one activities, which is information accessed without assessment. There is only brief guidance on the recording of CPD. Discussion: The GPhC in the UK provided the most comprehensive guidance on acquisition of CPD credit points and documentation (5,7) The Pharmacy Council of New Zealand made CPD points relevant to practice.(2,8) The Pharmacy Board of Australia provided limited information for pharmacists on CPD activities, which may impede pharmacist participation. Information may assist in increasing pharmacists’ engagement in CPD activities. In conclusion, there is variation between the three countries in the amount and type of information provided about CPD requirements.

The Steering Clear First Offender Drink Driving Program

This program is a research based, guided intervention program, designed for first time drink driving offenders which provides them with information and strategies to avoid drink driving in the future. It is an innovative program with the ability to tailor specific information to different individuals based on their level of risk of reoffending and help them develop their own plan to prevent them from drink driving. It aims to teach offenders the skills to implement their own plan when they determine they are at risk of future drink driving. The program provides information about: What a standard drink is and how blood alcohol content (BAC) is determined; How alcohol affects the body, reaction time, and decision making; The consequences of drink driving and what happens after a second offence; How to deal with risky drink driving situations in the future; How to build a personalised plan to avoid drink driving in the future, and; Levels of alcohol consumption and its impact on daily life. It also includes access to a mobile friendly web app that can be used anytime after completing the program. This is tool that will aid offenders in tracking their drinks and build on plans to prevent future drink driving.