Of hygiene and motivator factors : Views from “down under”

Comments on “Qualification Profile of University Professors in Business and Information Systems Engineering (BISE)”

Pain : the views of elderly people living in long term residential care settings

While an individual's beliefs and attitudes have long been considered important factors in how people respond to pain, few studies have attempted to provide in-depth descriptions of the nature of such pain beliefs and attitudes The aim of this research was to investigate the views of pain and pain management practices held by elderly people living in long-term residential care settings Ten 60–90 minute focus group interviews, each involving around five elderly people, were conducted in four large, long-term residential care settings in Brisbane, Australia Categories of beliefs and attitudes regarding pain were identified following analysis of the verbatim transcripts of these interviews Findings suggest that many elderly people living in long-term residential care settings may have become resigned to pain, that they are ambivalent about the benefit of any action for their pain and that they may be reluctant to express their pain Implications of these beliefs and attitudes are discussed

Children’s accommodation during reading of Chinese and English texts

Purpose: Inaccurate accommodation during nearwork and subsequent accommodative hysteresis may influence myopia development. Myopia is highly prevalent in Singapore; an untested theory is that Chinese children are prone to these accommodation characteristics. We measured the accuracy of accommodation responses during and nearwork-induced transient myopia (NITM) after periods spent reading Chinese and English texts. Methods: Refractions of 40 emmetropic and 43 myopic children were measured with a free-space autorefractor for four reading tasks of 10-minute durations: Chinese (SimSun, 10.5 points) and English (Times New Roman, 12 points) texts at 25 cm and 33 cm. Accuracy was obtained by subtracting accommodation response from accommodation demand. Nearwork-induced transient myopia was obtained by subtracting pretask distance refraction from posttask refraction, and regression was determined as the time for the posttask refraction to return to pretask levels. Results: There were significant, but small, effects of text type (Chinese, 0.97 ± 0.32 diopters [D] vs. English, 1.00 ± 0.37 D; F1,1230 = 7.24, p = 0.007) and reading distance (33 cm, 1.01 ± 0.30 D vs. 25 cm, 0.97 ± 0.39 D; F1,1230 = 7.74, p = 0.005) on accommodation accuracy across all participants. Accuracy was similar for emmetropic and myopic children across all reading tasks. Neither text type nor reading distance had significant effects on NITM or its regression. Myopes had greater NITM (by 0.07 D) (F1,81 = 5.05, p = 0.03) that took longer (by 50s) (F1,81 = 31.08, p < 0.01) to dissipate. Conclusions: Reading Chinese text caused smaller accommodative lags than reading English text, but the small differences were not clinically significant. Myopic children had significantly greater NITM and longer regression than emmetropic children for both texts. Whether differences in NITM are a cause or consequence of myopia cannot be answered from this study.

Saudi Arabia’s sustainable housing limitations : the experts’ views

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to attempt to bridge the gap between sustainable housing and the use of smart technologies to improve the level of sustainability in the housing construction in Saudi Arabia, by discussing the barriers and enablers concerned with applying sustainability to housing construction in Saudi Arabia, which utilises smart technologies. Design/methodology/approach A Delphi method survey was employed, for which 25 individuals from three key stakeholder groups of the Saudi housing sector participated. They were asked about their degree of agreement (or disagreement) about the various barriers and enablers of applying sustainability to housing construction in Saudi Arabia, which utilises smart technologies. This research paper must be considered as an indicative study of selected experts that do not represent in any way the total population of Saudi Arabia. Findings Lack of public awareness has been identified as the most significant barrier in implementing sustainable housing development in Saudi Arabia, which utilises smart technologies. Raising awareness of the public to the benefits of sustainable housing and enlightening key project stakeholders in the design of sustainable housing are both essential in order to overcome the barriers discussed in this paper. In addition, it is important to adopt smart sustainable construction methods, exemplified by but not limited to, appropriate water preservation and wastewater treatment systems that are simultaneously smart and sustainable. Research limitations/implications This particular research has dealt with only barriers and enablers in the application of sustainability to housing in Saudi Arabia, which utilises smart technologies. For a more complete understanding, there is a need for further analysis of supplementary factors. Practical implications A study such as this, which identifies and prioritises barriers and enablers, could prove useful in guiding or encouraging the relevant ministry in Saudi Arabia to develop policies founded in the implementation of sustainability to the housing sector. Originality/value This research is a preliminary investigation into the implementation of sustainable housing development as it relates to Saudi Arabia.

School children’s personal exposure to ultrafine particles in the urban environment

There has been considerable scientific interest in personal exposure to ultrafine particles (UFP). In this study, the inhaled particle surface area doses and dose relative intensities in the tracheobronchial and alveolar regions of lungs were calculated using the measured 24-hour UFP time series of school children personal exposures for each recorded activity. Bayesian hierarchical modelling was used to determine mean doses and dose intensities for the various microenvironments. Analysis of measured personal exposures for 137 participating children from 25 schools in the Brisbane Metropolitan Area showed similar trends for all the participating children. Bayesian regression modelling was performed to calculate the daily proportion of children's total doses at different microenvironments. The proportion of alveolar doses in the total daily dose for \emph{home}, \emph{school}, \emph{commuting} and \emph{other} were 55.3\%, 35.3\%, 4.5\% and 5.0\%, respectively, with the \emph{home} microenvironment contributing a majority of children's total daily dose. Children's mean indoor dose was never higher than the outdoor's at any of the schools, indicating there were no persistent indoor particle sources in the classrooms during the measurements. Outdoor activities, eating/cooking at home and commuting were the three activities with the highest dose intensities. Personal exposure was more influenced by the ambient particle levels than immediate traffic.

Parents’ perception about children’s academic stress and child care related issues

The present study intends to understand the parents' perception about children's academic stress and child care related issues. A group of 139 parents, 68 fathers and 71 mothers, participated in the study voluntarily and they were selected following convenience sampling technique. In order to achieve the objective of the study, a specially designed semi-structured questionnaire was used. Findings disclosed that about one-third of the fathers (29.4%) and one-tenth of the mothers (9.9%) frankly admitted that they could not provide quality care and guidance to their children and in this regard significant difference was observed between fathers and mothers (p<.05). More than four-fifth of the parents stated that they should be friendly with their children so that children feel comfortable to share their personal issues with them. More than one-fifth fathers (27.9%) and one-fourth mothers (16.9%) applied corporal punishment as they believed it is necessary to discipline them and/or for better academic performance.

Talk in activity during young children’s use of digital technologies at home

Internet-connected tablets and smart phones are being used increasingly by young children. Little is known, however, about their social interactions with family members when engaged with these technologies. This article examines video-recorded interactions between a father and his two young children, one aged 18 months using an iPhone and one aged three years accessing an iPad. Drawing on Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis, analysis establishes ways the family members engage and disengage in talk so as to manage their individual activity with mobile devices and accomplish interaction with each other. Findings are relevant for understanding children’s everyday practices with mobile technologies.

Eight weeks of episodic visual navigation inside a non-stationary environment using adaptive spherical views

This paper presents a long-term experiment where a mobile robot uses adaptive spherical views to localize itself and navigate inside a non-stationary office environment. The office contains seven members of staff and experiences a continuous change in its appearance over time due to their daily activities. The experiment runs as an episodic navigation task in the office over a period of eight weeks. The spherical views are stored in the nodes of a pose graph and they are updated in response to the changes in the environment. The updating mechanism is inspired by the concepts of long- and short-term memories. The experimental evaluation is done using three performance metrics which evaluate the quality of both the adaptive spherical views and the navigation over time.

‘We need to know what’s going on’: views of family members toward the sexual expression of people with dementia in residential aged care

This paper reports on a study which explored the views and attitudes of family members towards the sexual expression of residents with dementia in residential aged care facilities in two states in Australia. Recruitment was challenging and only seven family members agreed to an interview on this topic. Data were analysed using a constant comparative method. Family were generally supportive of residents’ rights to sexual expression, but only some types of behaviours were approved of. There was an acknowledgement that responding to residents’ sexuality was difficult for staff and many families believed that they should be kept informed of their relative’s sexual behaviours and moreover be involved in decision making about it. Findings suggest the need for family education and a larger study to better understand the views and motivations of family carers and how these might impact on the sexual expression of the older person with dementia living in residential aged care.

The construction of parents as learners about pre-school children’s development

The concept of the lifelong learner—the idea that people should be active learners throughout the lifespan—has since the 1990s gained importance in public policy. Governments in relatively wealthy countries have made the argument that the economic future of nations is tied to the ongoing participation of citizens in learning opportunities that will assist them to participate fully in society and increase their chances of employment in changing workforce conditions. More recently, policy attention has focused on the other end of the lifespan, the first years of life. With the early years now recognised as crucial for later educational success, policy attention has also focused on the importance of parenting in the early years. In the UK and Australia, for example, the effects of state interventions to facilitate ‘good parenting’ and pre-school children’s ‘readiness’ for formal schooling have been felt in a range of settings including community health services, the home and the pre-school (Gillies, 2005; Nichols & Jurvansuu, 2008; Millei & Lee, 2007; Vincent, Ball & Braun, 2010). In Australia, government policy has explicitly proposed a model of parenting as a learning process, and has urged people to cultivate their identities as learners in order to carry out their responsibilities as parents. In part the policy objectives have been to support parents to ensure that all children get a healthy and successful start to life...

Hospital pharmacists' views on collaborative pharmacist prescribing

In 2008, Weeks et al. published the results of a postal survey, which explored the views of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia’s (SHPA) members on collaborative prescribing, and the extent of de facto prescribing in their institution. Since then, significant work has been undertaken on non-medical prescribing, such as pilots of pharmacist prescribing across Australia and a National Health Workforce report on developing a nationally consistent approach to prescribing by nonmedical health professionals. The first stage of the Health Workforce Australia Health Practitioner Prescribing Pathway project is complete and the recommendations for implementation have been approved by the Standing Council in November 2013. New Zealand pharmacists obtained prescribing rights in 2013, and the first cohort of 14 prescribers have completed the postgraduate pharmacist prescribing course (jointly run by the Otago and Auckland Universities).

Getting there, being there, staying and belonging: a case study of two indigenous Australian children’s transition to school

Indigenous Australians are among the most unhealthy populations in the world and yet they reside in a country where the non-Indigenous population enjoys high standards of well-being. Education has been identified as the key mechanism for closing this equity gap. At school commencement many Indigenous children are already at risk of disengagement. This four-year longitudinal study of two Indigenous boys from a socially marginalised community examined key factors affecting transitional trajectories into school. While child characteristics affected level of achievement the critical factors in sustaining positive educational engagement were social support, school practices, inclusion of family and positive expectation.

A shared reading intervention with parents to enhance young children’s early literacy skills

Parental reading to children from an early age has been shown to enhance children’s emergent literacy skills. A pragmatic randomized controlled trial (RCT) was used to investigate the effects of two forms of shared reading interventions on children’s language and literacy skills. Parents of 80 preparatory year children from outer suburban schools of an Australian metropolitan city were trained to use shared reading strategies in an eight-week home intervention. Families were assigned to one of three groups: Dialogic Reading (DR), Dialogic Reading with the addition of Print Referencing (DR + PR), or an attention-matched control group. The sample comprised 42 boys and 38 girls ranging in age from 4.9 years to 6.3 years (M = 5.5, SD = 0.3). Data were collected at pre, post, and at three months follow-up. Measures assessed children’s oral language (receptive and expressive vocabulary), phonological awareness (rhyme, word completion), alphabet knowledge, and concepts about print. Analyses of change from pre to post showed significant effects for the DR and DR + PR groups compared to the control group on three of the six measures: expressive language, rhyme, and concepts about print. At 3-month follow-up assessment, the two intervention groups maintained significantly better performance on the measure of concepts of print only. At both time points, there were no group differences between the DR and DR+PR conditions. These findings illustrate the potential of a brief home focused intervention on promoting children’s emergent literacy.

A profile of Australian travel journalists' professional views and ethical standards

Despite significant changes in mainstream journalism in recent decades, journalistic fields beyond the news have been little explored. In an attempt to contribute to a deeper understanding of such fields, this article examines the role perceptions of 85 Australian travel journalists. By viewing travel journalism as a distinct field of practice that is affected by a unique mix of influences, this study identifies five dimensions of practitioners’ role perceptions. These relate to travel journalists’ views of themselves as Cultural Mediators, Critics, Entertainers, Information Providers and Travellers. In addition, the study examines in some depth the ethical standards of travel journalists. Determinants of these views and standards are explored. The study argues that, in light of travel journalists’ increasingly important role in reporting about foreign places, more remains to be done to promote travel stories that show a deeper understanding of other cultures and which contain a more critical appraisal of destinations.

Does gender determine journalists' professional views? A reassessment based on cross-national evidence

Research into journalism and gender to date has found somewhat contradictory evidence as to the ways in which women and men practice journalism. While some scholars claim that women have inherently different concepts and practices of journalism and that this has led to a feminization of journalism, others have found little evidence to suggest that men and women differ significantly in terms of their role conceptions. While numerous studies have been conducted into this issue around the world, few have taken a truly comparative approach. This paper presents results from a large-scale comparative survey into gender differences in journalists’ professional views in 18 diverse countries around the world. Results suggest that women and men do not differ in any meaningful ways in their role conceptions on neither the individual level, in newsrooms dominated by women, nor in socio-cultural contexts where women have achieved a certain level of empowerment.