Social cognitive mediators of the effect of the MobileMums intervention on physical activity

Objective To explore whether improvements in physical activity following the MobileMums intervention were mediated by changes in Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) constructs targeted in the intervention (barrier self efficacy, goal setting skills, outcome expectancy, social support, and perceived environmental opportunity for exercise). This paper also examined if the mediating constructs differed between initial (baseline to 6 weeks) and overall (baseline to 13 weeks) changes in physical activity. Methods Secondary analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial involving 88 postnatal women (<12 months postpartum). Participants were randomized to receive either the 12-week MobileMums intervention or a minimal-contact control condition. Physical activity and proposed mediators were assessed by self-report at baseline, 6 weeks, and 13 weeks. Walking for Exercise frequency was assessed using the Australian Women's Activity Survey and frequency of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was assessed using a single-item question. Results Initial improvements in goal-setting skills mediated the relationship between experimental condition and initial changes in MVPA, αβ (95% CI) = 0.23(0.01, 0.59), and Walking for Exercise, αβ (95% CI) = 0.34(0.06, 0.73). Initial improvements in barrier self efficacy mediated the relationship between experimental condition and initial change in MVPA, αβ (95% CI) = 0.36(0.12, 0.65), but not Walking for Exercise. None of the SCT outcomes significantly mediated the relationship between experimental condition and overall (baseline to 13 weeks) change in frequency of MVPA or Walking for Exercise. Conclusion Future interventions with postnatal women using SCT should target barrier self-efficacy and goal setting skills in order to increase physical activity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Curriculum design and higher order skills : challenging assumptions

This paper is based on an Australian Learning & Teaching Council (ALTC) funded evaluation in 13 universities across Australia and New Zealand of the use of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) projects in first-year engineering courses. All of the partner institutions have implemented this innovation differently and comparison of these implementations affords us the opportunity to assemble "a body of carefully gathered data that provides evidence of which approaches work for which students in which learning environments". This study used a mixed-methods data collection approach and a realist analysis. Data was collected by program logic analysis with course co-ordinators, observation of classes, focus groups with students, exit survey of students and interviews with staff as well as scrutiny of relevant course and curriculum documents. Course designers and co-ordinators gave us a range of reasons for using the projects, most of which alluded to their presumed capacity to deliver experience in and learning of higher order thinking skills in areas such as sustainability, ethics, teamwork and communication. For some students, however, the nature of the projects decreased their interest in issues such as ethical development, sustainability and how to work in teams. We also found that the projects provoked different responses from students depending on the nature of the courses in which they were embedded (general introduction, design, communication, or problem-solving courses) and their mode of delivery (lecture, workshop or online).

Reproductive health: findings from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. Chapter 5: fertility and infertility

Chapter 5: Fertility and infertility. p52-70. This section describes patterns of fertility across Surveys 1 to 4 among the cohort of women who were born in 1973-1978. This section includes the examination of pregnancy outcomes including both live births and pregnancy losses (stillbirths, miscarriages, terminations and ectopic pregnancies). This section also examines the prevalence of self-reported problems with fertility and whether these women sought advice and/or treatment. As women age they are more likely to experience infertility and, with little other data available, the ALSWH provides an important opportunity to examine this problem and the related use of health services. 1. Pregnancy losses are common. Half of the women who report a pregnancy outcome at Survey 4 have experienced a pregnancy loss. 2. More than one third (39%) of women who have experienced a live birth by Survey 4 have also experienced a pregnancy loss. 3. For every ten women aged 28-33 years in 2006: four women had not had been pregnant, five women had a live birth (with or without a recognised pregnancy loss), and one woman had a recognised pregnancy loss only. 4. Among women who had tried to conceive or had been pregnant, one-in-six had experienced infertility. (i.e. tried unsuccessfully to get pregnant for 12 months or more) 5. The most significant factors associated with having infertility, seeking advice and using treatment were: polycystic ovary syndrome, endometriosis and miscarriage. 6. Of the women who reported infertility, two-thirds sought advice but only half used treatment. 7. Most of the women who used fertility treatment had used low cost and non-invasive methods.

Improving self care of patients with chronic disease using online personal health record

BACKGROUND: Effective management of chronic diseases such as prostate cancer is important. Research suggests a tendency to use self-care treatment options such as over-the-counter (OTC) complementary medications among prostate cancer patients. The current trend in patient-driven recording of health data in an online Personal Health Record (PHR) presents an opportunity to develop new data-driven approaches for improving prostate cancer patient care. However, the ability of current online solutions to share patients' data for better decision support is limited. An informatics approach may improve online sharing of self-care interventions among these patients. It can also provide better evidence to support decisions made during their self-managed care. AIMS: To identify requirements for an online system and describe a new case-based reasoning (CBR) method for improving self-care of advanced prostate cancer patients in an online PHR environment. METHOD: A non-identifying online survey was conducted to understand self-care patterns among prostate cancer patients and to identify requirements for an online information system. The pilot study was carried out between August 2010 and December 2010. A case-base of 52 patients was developed. RESULTS: The data analysis showed self-care patterns among the prostate cancer patients. Selenium (55%) was the common complementary supplement used by the patients. Paracetamol (about 45%) was the commonly used OTC by the patients. CONCLUSION: The results of this study specified requirements for an online case-based reasoning information system. The outcomes of this study are being incorporated in design of the proposed Artificial Intelligence (Al) driven patient journey browser system. A basic version of the proposed system is currently being considered for implementation.

Mediating identity narratives : a case study in queer digital storytelling as everyday activism

Digital Stories are short autobiographical documentaries, often illustrated with personal photographs and narrated in the first person, and typically produced in group workshops. As a media form they offer ‘ordinary people’ the opportunity to represent themselves to audiences of their choosing; and this amplification of hitherto unheard voices has significant repercussions for their social participation. Many of the storytellers involved in the ‘Rainbow Family Tree’ case study that is the subject of this paper can be characterised as ‘everyday’ activists for their common desire to use their personal stories to increase social acceptance of marginalised identity categories. However, in conflict with their willingness to share their personal stories, many fear the risks and ramifications of distributing them in public spaces (especially online) to audiences both intimate and unknown. Additionally, while technologies for production and distribution of rich media products have become more accessible and user-friendly, many obstacles remain. For many people there are difficulties with technological access and aptitude, personal agency, cultural capital, and social isolation, not to mention availability of the time and energy requisite to Digital Storytelling. Additionally, workshop context, facilitation and distribution processes all influence the content of stories. This paper explores the many factors that make ‘authentic’ self-representation far from straight forward. I use qualitative data drawn from interviews, Digital Story texts and ethnographic observation of GLBTQIS participants in a Digital Storytelling initiative that combined face-to-face and online modes of participation. I consider mediating influences in practice and theory and draw on strategies put forth in cultural anthropology and narrative therapy to propose some practical tools for nuanced and sensitive facilitation of Digital Storytelling workshops and webspaces. Finally, I consider the implications of these facilitation strategies for voice, identity and social participation.

The role of the internet and digital technologies in the struggle for recognition of the forgotten Australians

Our contemporary public sphere has seen the 'emergence of new political rituals, which are concerned with the stains of the past, with self disclosure, and with ways of remembering once taboo and traumatic events' (Misztal, 2005). A recent case of this phenomenon occurred in Australia in 2009 with the apology to the 'Forgotten Australians': a group who suffered abuse and neglect after being removed from their parents – either in Australia or in the UK - and placed in Church and State run institutions in Australia between 1930 and 1970. This campaign for recognition by a profoundly marginalized group coincides with the decade in which the opportunities of Web 2.0 were seen to be diffusing throughout different social groups, and were considered a tool for social inclusion. This paper examines the case of the Forgotten Australians as an opportunity to investigate the role of the internet in cultural trauma and public apology. As such, it adds to recent scholarship on the role of digital web based technologies in commemoration and memorials (Arthur, 2009; Haskins, 2007; Cohen and Willis, 2004), and on digital storytelling in the context of trauma (Klaebe, 2011) by locating their role in a broader and emerging domain of social responsibility and political action (Alexander, 2004).

Organotypic culture of normal, dysplastic and squamous cell carcinoma-derived oral cell lines reveals loss of spatial regulation of CD44 and p75(NTR) in malignancy

Oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) often arise from dysplastic lesions. The role of cancer stem cells in tumour initiation is widely accepted, yet the potential existence of pre-cancerous stem cells in dysplastic tissue has received little attention. Cell lines from oral diseases ranging in severity from dysplasia to malignancy provide opportunity to investigate the involvement of stem cells in malignant progression from dysplasia. Stem cells are functionally defined by their ability to generate hierarchical tissue structures in consortium with spatial regulation. Organotypic cultures readily display tissue hierarchy in vitro; hence, in this study, we compared hierarchical expression of stem cell-associated markers in dermis-based organotypic cultures of oral epithelial cells from normal tissue (OKF6-TERT2), mild dysplasia (DOK), severe dysplasia (POE-9n) and OSCC (PE/CA P J15). Expression of CD44, p75NTR, CD24 and ALDH was studied in monolayers by flow cytometry and in organotypic cultures by immunohistochemistry. Spatial regulation of CD44 and p75NTR was evident for organotypic cultures of normal (OKF6-TERT2) and dysplasia (DOK and POE-9n) but was lacking for OSCC (PE/CA PJ15)-derived cells. Spatial regulation of CD24 was not evident. All monolayer cultures exhibited CD44, p75NTR, CD24 antigens and ALDH activity (ALDEFLUOR® assay), with a trend towards loss of population heterogeneity that mirrored disease severity. In monolayer, increased FOXA1 and decreased FOXA2 expression correlated with disease severity, but OCT3/4, Sox2 and NANOG did not. We conclude that dermis-based organotypic cultures give opportunity to investigate the mechanisms that underlie loss of spatial regulation of stem cell markers seen with OSCC-derived cells.

The predictors of active ageing of older Australians : the triple a study

The concept of older adults contributing to society in a meaningful way has been termed ‘active ageing’. Active ageing reflects changes in prevailing theories of social and psychological aspects of ageing, with a focus on individuals' strengths as opposed to their deficits or pathology. In order to explore predictors of active ageing, the Australian Active Ageing (Triple A) project group undertook a national postal survey of participants over the age of 50 years recruited randomly through their 2004 membership of a large Australia-wide senior's organisation. The survey comprised 178 items covering paid and voluntary work, learning, social, spiritual, emotional, health and home, life events and demographic items. A 45% response rate (2655 returned surveys) reflected an expected balance of gender, age and geographic representation of participants. The data were analysed using data mining techniques to represent generalizations on individual situations. Data mining identifies the valid, novel, potentially useful and understandable patterns and trends in data. The results based on the clustering mining technique indicate that physical and emotional health combined with the desire to learn were the most significant factors when considering active ageing. The findings suggest that remaining active in later life is not only directly related to the maintenance of emotional and physical health, but may be significantly intertwined with the opportunity to engage in on-going learning activities that are relevant to the individual. The findings of this study suggest that practitioners and policy makers need to incorporate older peoples' learning needs within service and policy framework developments.

‘My people right here…’ Indigenous young people, alienation and paint sniffing in inner Brisbane

This paper describes and explains the social worlds of a group of young Murris who are engaged in chroming (paint sniffing) and who sleep rough in inner Brisbane. In particular, the paper considers the ways young Indigenous drug users describe their marginalisation from wider society and its structures of opportunity, but it also includes some reflections from their youth worker and a young man who frequents the young people’s squat. The paper demonstrates the centrality of racism and material disadvantage to the experience of a group of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sniffers, a perspective largely unreflected in the literature on Indigenous volatile substance misuse. Further, the young people’s ways of interacting with the broader society are described to explain the ways their rejection of mainstream norms form a significant political response to their marginality and reflect, at least in part, the wider Indigenous historical experience. The work draws on theories of alienation and subculture to analyse the young people’s descriptions of their social estrangement and the formation of the ‘paint sniffer group’. It is concluded that paint sniffing among urban Indigenous youth is, at least in part, an obnoxious and encoded distillation of a wider Indigenous rebuttal of broader societal norms, and that the dominant — normalising — modes of treatment risk further alienating an already oppositional group of young people.

The 7pm Project

The Making Connections: Innovations in Learning and Teaching Forum, jointly hosted by the Division of Technology, Information and Learning Support (TILS) and the Learning and Teaching Unit (LTU), was held on 20 June. The forum provided a snapshot of innovative practice across QUT, as well as an overview of services supporting innovation. Past events have attracted sizeable audiences and informal feedback has been very positive and encouraging. The objective of the forum is to give an opportunity to academic teaching staff to share their innovative practice with their peers, and it is planned that more events will be held to allow for further sharing of ideas. The program for the June 2012 forum included the following presentations: Ms Lindy Osborne: The 7pm Project Dr Ana Pavasovic: A multifaceted approach to teaching a first year unit Mr Paul Willis: Out of our comfort zone: How can Collaborate engage students in inclusive teaching practices Dr Kelly Zuniga: Can you draw what I see? Recasting the ‘crit’ to engage a larger classroom audience Dr Peter Bell, Dr Mark Lauchs, Amy Henderson and Edward Robinson: Crime Club: Lightbulb moments Dr Deboarh Peach: Improving student engagement through the integration of blended delivery approaches in WIL. Lindy Osborne Biography: As an early career academic, Lindy Osborne draws upon professional experience as a registered architect to offer students pioneering curricula that are firmly grounded in real-world practice. Since commencing her academic career in 2008, she has purposefully reconceptualised the delivery of Architectural Design, Technology, Professional Practice and Research subjects, using innovative digital technology and empowering students to direct their own learning. Lindy is cognisant of the impact that the physical learning environment has on students, and seeks to actively modify it to support students by enabling powerful enactive learning. Using technology embedded flexible learning spaces and innovative simulated office practice pedagogy,students actively learn in an authentic environment, redressing the structural and cyclical factors that have resulted in a lack of workplace learning opportunities. Lindy’s creative integration of interdisciplinary opportunities, popular culture, social media and Web-2.0 technologies connects with students on their level, while they develop critical professional skills both inside and perhaps more importantly outside, the formal classroom environment.

Ian Weir Research Architect : website

Research background: Communicating the diverse nature of multimodal practice is inherently difficult for the design-led research academic. Websites are an effective means of displaying images and text, but for the user/viewer the act of viewing is often random and disorienting, due to the non-linear means of accessing the information. This characteristic of websites limits the medium’s efficacy in regard to presenting an overarching philosophical standpoint or theme - the key driver behind most academic research. Research Contribution: This website: http://www.ianweirarchitect.com, presents a means of reconciling this problem by presenting a deceptively simple graphic and temporal layout, which limits the opportunity for the user/viewer to become disoriented and miss the key themes and issues that binds, the otherwise divergent, research material together. Research significance: http://www.ianweirarchitect.com, is a creative work that supplements Dr Ian Weir’s exhibition “Enacted Cartography” held in August 2012 in Brisbane and in August/September 2012 in Venice, Italy for the 13th International Architecture Exhibition (Venice Architecture Biennale). Dr Weir was selected by the Australian Institute of Architects to represent innovation in architectural practice for the Institute’s Formations: New Practices in Australian Architecture, exhibition and catalogue (of the same name) held in the Australian Pavilion, The Giardini, Venice. This website is creative output that compliments Dr Weir’s other multimodal outputs including photographic artworks, cartographic maps and architectural designs.

ICT driven pedagogies and its impact on learning outcomes in high school mathematics

ICT (Information and Communication Technology) creates numerous opportunities for teachers to re-think their pedagogies. In subjects like mathematics which draws upon abstract concepts, ICT creates such an opportunity. Instead of a mimetic pedagogical approach, suitably designed activities with ICT can enable learners to engage more proactively with their learning. In this quasi-experimental designed study, ICT was used in teaching mathematics to a group of first year high school students (N=25) in Australia. The control group was taught predominantly through traditional pedagogies (N=22). Most of the variables that had previously impacted on the design of such studies were suitably controlled in this yearlong investigation. Quantitative and qualitative results showed that students who were taught by ICT driven pedagogies benefitted from the experience. Pre and post-test means showed that there was a difference between the treatment and control groups. Of greater significance was that the students (in the treatment group) believed that the technology enabled them to engage more with their learning.

Children, young people and their social and spatial citizenship rights

The use of public space by children and young people is a contentious issue in a number of developed and developing countries and a range of measures are frequently deployed to control the public space which usually deny the rights of children and young people to claim the space for their use. Child and youth curfews, oppressive camera surveillance and the unwarranted attentions of police and private security personnel as control measures in public space undermine attempts to secure greater participation by children and young people in constructing positive strategies to address concerns that impact on them and others in a local area. Evidence from research in Scotland undertaken by Article 12 (2000) suggests that young people felt strongly that they did not count in local community matters and decision making and the imposition on them of a curfew by the adult world of the local area created resentment both at the harshness of the measure and disappointment at an opportunity lost to be consulted and involved in dealing with perceived problems of the locality. This is an important cluster of linked issues as Brown (1998:116) argues that young people are ‘selectively constructed as “problem” and “other” with their concerns marginalised, their lifestyles problematised and their voices subdued’, and this flows into their use of public space as their claims to its use as an aspect of social citizenship are usually cast as inferior or rejected as they ‘stand outside the formal polity’ as ‘non persons’. This has major implications for the ways in which young people view their position in a community as many report a feeling of not being wanted, valued or tolerated. The ‘youth question’ according to Davis (1990) acts as a form of ‘screen’ on which observers and analysts project hopes and fears about the state of society, while in the view of Loader (1996:89) the ‘question of young people’ sits within a discourse comprising two elements, the one being youth, particularly young males, as the ‘harbinger of often unwelcome social change and threat’ and the other element ‘constructs young people as vulnerable’. This discourse of threat is further exemplified in the separation of children from teenagers as Valentine (1996) suggests, the treatment of younger children using public space is often dramatically different to that of older children and the most feared stage of all, 'youth'

Nutrient removal from wastewaters using high performance materials

Return side streams from anaerobic digesters and dewatering facilities at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) contribute a significant proportion of the total nitrogen load on a mainstream process. Similarly, significant phosphate loads are also recirculated in biological nutrient removal (BNR) wastewater treatment plants. Ion exchange using a new material, known by the name MesoLite, shows strong potential for the removal of ammonia from these side streams and an opportunity to concurrently reduce phosphate levels. A pilot plant was designed and operated for several months on an ammonia rich centrate from a dewatering centrifuge at the Oxley Creek WWTP, Brisbane, Australia. The system operated with a detention time in the order of one hour and was operated for between 12 and 24 hours prior to regeneration with a sodium rich solution. The same pilot plant was used to demonstrate removal of phosphate from an abattoir wastewater stream at similar flow rates. Using MesoLite materials, >90% reduction of ammonia was achieved in the centrate side stream. A full-scale process would reduce the total nitrogen load at the Oxley Creek WWTP by at least 18%. This reduction in nitrogen load consequently improves the TKN/COD ratio of the influent and enhances the nitrogen removal performance of the biological nutrient removal process.

"Please touch the plant on your way up the stairs..."

We are aware of global concerns of sustainability and are encouraged on many fronts to modify our behaviour to save the planet but sometimes this understanding is more intellectual than motivated. An opportunity was identified within the university environment to activate a pilot study to investigate the level of voluntary student engagement in saving energy if a plant/digital interface were introduced. We postulate that people may be more inclined to participate in a "green" activity if they are more directly aware of the benefits. This project also seeks to discover if the introduction of nature (green plants) as the interface would encourage users to increase participation in socially responsive activities. Using plants as the interface offers an immediate sensory connection between the participants and the outcome of their chosen actions. This may generate a deeper awareness of the environment by enabling the participant to realise that their one small action in an ordinary day can contribute positively to larger global issues.